Living for God - 1 Peter 4:1..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.

Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ might be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." Pay attention to verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirit in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.

in which I feel that His eight persons were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to these, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery. But I am damn align you. and they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh, the way people are, they might live in the Spirit, the way God does. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God might be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him be glory. To Him belong glory and dominion. Forever and ever.

Amen. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings. that ye might also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God. in that name, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, What will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.

Amen. This is the words of God. And as I said, beloved brothers, and sisters and friends, we are going to be addressing the first three verses of chapter four, in which the Apostle Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is going to give this exhortation to these churches, in which he says, Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, with the same mind, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions. but for the will of God, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, beloved brothers and sisters and friends. The exhortation that the Apostle is presenting here to the saints, to those who by grace through faith have been saved and inserted into Christ, truly inserted into Christ, the exhortation given by the Apostle is to leave behind the ways of the flesh.

to leave behind what he calls here human passions, and to move actively towards the will of God. That is, those who, by the working of the Spirit, have been given a new heart of flesh, changed from stone to flesh. He's calling those people to leave behind darkness and the flesh and the things of the world that belong to this Adamic race, to human humanity that is falling, and to move towards the will of God, towards the things of the Spirit. That is the main exhortation, beloved brothers and sisters, beloved of Christ, that we are to leave the flesh and to go and walk in the Spirit. vital and important that we understand this.

Why? Because the text that we have in front of us can be easily misunderstood and confused by an exhortation given from the apostle to endure suffering as we live as Christians. It can be easily misunderstood. even some words that the apostle uses in the text might take our mind to make us believe that what apostle is trying to do is to exhort us to endure in the midst of suffering if you pay attention he uses the word as christ has suffered for whoever has suffered in the flesh so those words And the context of the letter, beloved brothers and sisters, might take us to believe that when the apostle is saying that we are to endure in the midst of trials and tribulations and sufferings, also that this is the main message of the letter, right? The apostle has said somewhere else that we are to endure suffering and tribulations and persecutions and difficulties.

This is the main message of the letter. But that is not what the apostle is addressing in these three verses. Actually, beloved of Christ, he is going deeper to a deeper reality of the life of the Christian. And that is not only to endure sufferings in the present time, but actually he's going to address this dichotomy that the Bible presents of the system of the flesh. and the system of the Spirit, that is, the ways of men and the ways of God, and darkness and light.

This is the main intention of the Apostle in these three verses that we have. He has the intention to present to these Christians, to us, by God's grace, the urgent need and necessity of our souls to depart from that which is of the flesh and to move actively towards the will of God, which is the will of God, which is the spirit, the will of the spirit and the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is in complete agreement with the scripture. When the Lord Jesus Christ says that unless someone is born again, that person cannot see the kingdom of God. Brothers and sisters, there are only two kingdoms in existence, that which is the kingdom of darkness and that which is the kingdom of God.

And the apostle, or better, the Lord Jesus Christ says that a person cannot be moved from the kingdom of darkness and of death into the kingdom of God unless that person is born again and he actually adds and says that we are supposed to be born again of the water and of the spirit that's how we enter in that kingdom of God somewhere else the apostle Paul in Colossians in chapter 1 verse 12 and 13 he says that that kingdom of God is compared with the kingdom of darkness And those who by grace through faith have been taken from darkness, they have been brought into the kingdom of the beloved Son, which is a kingdom of light. Changing kingdoms, brothers and sisters and friends, is changing the person that is having dominion over us. The apostle Paul in Acts chapter 26 verse 18 says that his ministry was to go and preach the gospel so that the eyes of the Gentiles will be open from the darkness in which they are so that they might be brought from the power of Satan to the power of God. You see, salvation, it is not a mental assessment. Salvation is not an agreement that happens in the mind.

Salvation is a glorious transformation, invasion of divine court into the heart of a person to take that person from that kingdom of darkness into which we are born. and to take us by His grace and His favor into the kingdom of the Son of God. These are the two kingdoms that exist in this world, and by nature we are slaves to the kingdom of darkness. This is what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 from verse 1 and 2, that we were dead in our trespasses, that we were going according to the curse following this world. the power of the prince of the earth that by nature we were children of disobedience that by nature we were children of wrath that we were going and doing the things of the passions that were within us of the mind there are only two kingdoms and two realities brothers and sisters and the apostle peter here is now exhorting to those who are in this kingdom of light to leave behind the influences of this kingdom of darkness and to appeal to God and to go actively and positively towards the will of God.

This is very important, beloved brothers and sisters, because this means that even though the Christian has been taken by the grace of God from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, that the kingdom of darkness still has certain power or influence in us. The existence of sin within your soul, within your heart is a testimony to that reality. And brothers, this is not a new exhortation that the Apostle Peter is given. In chapter 1, verse 14, he has called that as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. but you are to be holy as the one who has called you into this new kingdom is holy.

Chapter 2 verse 11 and 12 also calls us to make war with the passions that are within us, the passions of the flesh that are within us, that we are to make war. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to present to you the exhortation of the apostle as he presents it. Because this dichotomy, this controversy of these two kingdoms, the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of death and the kingdom of God, which is the kingdom of light, which is the kingdom of life. This exhortation given to us by the Spirit through the Apostle is presented with the expectation both for believers and the future expectation for unbelievers. And the truth of those expectations that we have here in the text are terrifying.

If you see in verse two, the expectation for those who are in Christ, The future expectation, the ongoing expectation for those who are of the kingdom of light, who are united to Christ, is that they are to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. That is, that those who are in the kingdom of God are to live the rest of the time, not 99%, not 90% of the time that is remaining in the flesh, but the rest of the time to live it for the will of God and not for the passions. of the flesh. But the most terrifying thing is that the future expectation for those who are not in Christ, for those who remain in the kingdom of darkness is given to us in verse five. It says, but they, those who are in the kingdom of darkness, those who are outside of Christ, they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

The Holy Spirit and power Christ bought exhortation that the triune God of heaven is given to us by the Apostle Peter to those who are in Christ is that we are to live the rest of the time in this world that is in the flesh, not for the passions of our former living, but for the will of God, and that ought to be the desire of the heart of the one who is truly united to Christ by grace through faith. So the question that we need to ask ourselves, brothers and sisters, is how are we going to do that? Peter, tell us, how is that reality a reality in the heart of the Christian? The apostle, by God's grace, has given us the structure of how that can be accomplished and how that is a reality in the heart of those who are truly in the person of Jesus Christ. So he starts, verse one, by saying something glorious.

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, and he's going to compare, beloved brothers and sisters, pay attention, he's going to compare the sufferings of Christ with the sufferings of those who are in Christ. He says, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking for whoever has suffered in the flesh. He takes the one who has suffered, the person of Christ, to whoever has suffered in the flesh. He's going to give us that comparison, and that's going to be the foundation, brothers and sisters, to leave behind the waste of the flesh and to move in the spirit towards the will of God. He also has a very important word that is going to use, that is going to help us to understand what he means by the sufferings of Christ, and that is the word therefore.

The word therefore is now connecting the reality that he has explained to what he has said before, because the definition of the sufferings of Christ in the flesh have been given to us in chapter three, verse 18. The apostle using the same language, if you put your eyes in verse 18. He's given us the definition of the sufferings of Christ, which are the foundation for understanding the sufferings of the Christians in the flesh. And bear with me here, please, because this is vital and important. In verse 18, he says, For Christ also suffered.

once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He may bring us to God, being put to death." Who? Christ being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit. Now, beloved brothers and sisters, what I'm going to tell you now is foundational for us to understand the purpose of the message that I have for you this evening. And that is, I want you to see, first of all, the comparison that the Apostle is giving us between the sufferings of Christ, saying that Christ suffered in the flesh, and taking that the Apostle says that whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased to sin.

However, if we take this only as being temporal sufferings or afflictions in time, that does not necessarily take us to the conclusion that because of sufferings, we have ceased to sin. So then, that means that the apostle is speaking of a deeper reality. Whatever Christ's suffering in the flesh means is what informs us of what the Christians' suffering in the flesh and ceasing to sin is. And as I explained to you a couple of sermons ago, or before this one, in verse 18, the apostle is teaching us the glorious truth. that Jesus Christ came to this world, brothers and sisters, in the likeness of human flesh, that He submitted Himself to the system of the flesh, and that He died in the flesh to the power that that system had above Him.

You see, God was God. Christ or Jesus was God, but he incarnated, he made himself in the likeness of flesh. Romans chapter 8 verse 3. Not only that, not only he made himself one of us, but he also put himself through similar temptations that we go through. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15.

But not only he put himself through the similar temptations that we in the flesh go through, He also died in the flesh, Romans chapter 5, verse 6 and 8, and perhaps the entire New Testament speaks, of course, of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, brothers and sisters, Christ died in the flesh, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, He was powerfully resurrected to a life that now cannot end. So when Christ suffered, when Christ died in the flesh, this speaks of the triumphant power of Christ over death. And in that, there's going to be a glorious truth, brothers and sisters. Because just as Christ died, we have died.

And just as Christ was resurrected, those who are in Christ have been also resurrected. This is the teaching of the Apostle Paul in Romans. that those who are in the person of Jesus Christ have been baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you have been baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been resurrected into the new life of Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life. So, therefore, sin, the sin that was in our flesh, does not have a dominating power anymore.

And this is glorious, brothers and sisters, because the reason why a Christian can fight sin and can overcome sin is not because he's smart enough or not because he has strength enough, Because he is united to the death and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is the glorious union. And I think that this is why the apostle has concluded in the previous chapter with the teaching of baptism. Because baptism, what we just have just read in the last two verses of chapter three, symbolized the glorious union of the Christian in the death. and in the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when the apostle speaks of the sufferings in the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sufferings in the flesh of the Christian, this speaks that those who are truly in Christ.

our death to the kingdom of Adam, our death to the kingdom of Satan, our death to sin and resurrected in the kingdom of the Savior to walk in newness of life. Now, brothers and sisters, this is foundational, and this is very important for your life as a believer, because the apostle is going to point us to things that we are supposed to do. And in your flesh and in my flesh, we love to be told things that we are supposed to do and things that we are not supposed to do. We love works. We love deeds.

We love the things that are supposed to be done. This is the nature of the person that is outside of Christ. We try to obtain our own righteousness. That is the nature of self-righteousness. But when it comes to the person of Christ, we must understand that for things that are to be done taking place, a spiritual reality has to be foundational or has to have happened before that.

Brothers and sisters, If you do not understand of your vital union with the person of Christ, not only for justification, but for your Christian living, your Christian life is going to be a burden to you. You're going to be following commandments, and they're going to be a burden to you. It's going to be a religion. It's going to be the traditions of men. But the yoke of the Lord is light.

His burden is easy. Why? Because that which takes us to do is what has taken place within us and has changed us and direct us towards the person of Jesus Christ. So that's why when the apostle has compared the sufferings of Christ in the flesh with the suffering of the Christian in the flesh, this speaking of a glorious spiritual reality within, He takes us to point us to the things that we are supposed to do. Pay attention to what the apostle says here.

He says, seems therefore Christ suffered in the flesh. Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. If you are in Christ, if you have died to sin, if you have suffered in the flesh just as Christ died to the system of the flesh and was resurrected by the Spirit to become a life-giving Spirit, 1 Corinthians 15, 45, if you are in Christ really and truly by the Spirit, then your heart and your soul have been transformed and united to Christ, and the mind of Christ is within you. That is what the Apostle Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 in the last verse, that the mind of Christ is in us. And if the mind of Christ is in you by the grace of the Spirit, then you can do what the Apostle says here.

that we are to arm ourselves with the same way of thinking. Whose way of thinking? Christ, the one who suffered. His way of thinking, that is, His mind. What He had in His mind while suffering in the flesh, while dying in the flesh, is what it is to be in the mind of those who have also suffered in union with Him in the flesh.

If you have been risen with Christ, seek the things that are above and not the things of the earth, because your life is hid with Christ in God. You have been united to Christ, so then you are to change and modify your thinking, renew your mind, as the brother read in Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2. That we are to have the mind of christ. What was the mind of christ philippians chapter 2? Let the mind of christ be in you who being like god did not count that something of great value or something to be grasped What did the lord jesus christ as god?

He humbled himself as a servant laying down his life going into an obedience and obedience unto That's the mind of Christ, a mind that is humble and willing to give and lay down his life. Brothers and sisters, this is the mind that is supposed to be in the Christian, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 15, that Christ did not please himself, but he took on himself the reproach so that we might be made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the mind Christ a humble mind. But more importantly than that, brothers and sisters, the mind of Christ is a mind that is willing. A mind that says, not my will, but your will be done.

A mind that when he's going through tribulations and difficulties and deep sorrow, is a mind that says, the will of God be done and not my will. This is the type of mind that the Christian is to have. But I want you to pay a very important attention to a very important word the apostle has used. He called having that mind, he defined that as arm yourselves. having the same mind of Christ in the vocabulary of the Apostle Peter is equal to arm yourself.

He says, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. And this word arm is the only time that happens in the New Testament. And it speaks of war. It speaks of conflict. It speaks of preparation for a conflict that we are to get ready for conflict and for war.

The way that the Christian does that, it is not by being might and strength in the flesh. It's not by being smart and by having read many books. It's not by knowing all of these things about theology and all of those things, but it's by having, believing, powerful mind of the Savior in Himself, as I said last week, so that the words that we might speak might not be our words, but the words of the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling richly within us. That the thoughts that we might have might not be the thoughts of the flesh that we still have, but maybe the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ, which are the thoughts of God. That the ways that we walk in might not be the ways that we desire according to our flesh, But maybe the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is to be strong in the Lord.

That's what Paul says in Ephesians chapter six, right? Be strong in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord. Close yourself with the power, with the might. of the Lord, put on the armor of God.

You are supposed to be a strong, a valiant in the Lord to resist the evil schemes of this world. Why? Because we are not fighting against blood or flesh, but brothers and sisters, we are fighting against principalities and powers, the evil schemes, the spiritual evil schemes of this world, how are you going to find that in the flesh? How are you going to find that with the strength of your mind? How are you going to find that with the might of your body, or your mind, or your intellect, or the things that you know, the things that you do not know?

It is impossible to be accomplished in the flesh. So the apostle calls us, brothers and sisters, to arm with the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ, to leave your mind behind. to leave your thoughts behind, to leave the pride of your soul behind, and to change it for the glorious truth and the mind of the one who loved us and gave himself for us. And in that, there is strength. In that there is protection.

That is the stronghold that is built around us, not with the power and the might of men, but the wall that is built around us by the same God, because it is God the one that is actually putting that in us through His Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, It's only when we meditate upon that reality that we are united to Christ in his death, that we are united to Christ in his life, and that we are called to have his mind, that we are able to understand the external manifestation of that. Because the external manifestation of that reality, it is to leave behind what he calls here the passions or human passions, and then to go to the will of God. But I want you to notice the two sides of that commandment, brothers and sisters. It is both passive and it's also active.

If you understand what I mean by passive, I mean that you are to renounce yet to leave behind. the passions of the flesh, which are still making war within you, but it's also active and positive in the sense that it's not only leaving the passions of the flesh, but actually actively moving towards the will of God. If a person by grace through faith has been truly united to Jesus Christ, then the mind of that person has been taken captive in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's not him or her who lives, but Jesus Christ who lives in him or her by faith. So then that person can move, remove him or herself from the system of the flesh, the passions, human passions, and move towards the will of God. The apostle calls those things the things that the Gentiles want to do.

And actually, the word is the same. That is the will of the Gentiles, changing the will of those who are of the flesh for the will that it is of God. Now, brothers and sisters, This is vital and important because the Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew chapter 7 verse 21 when we quoted that this when we recorded this last week that not everyone who call me. Lord, Lord, we'll enter into the kingdom of God. But everyone who does the will of the Father or the will of God will enter into the kingdom of God.

In that day, many will call me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do mighty works in your name? Didn't we work miracles in your name? And the Lord will say, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.

Not everyone who calls or says, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But those who do the will of God, those who do the will of the Father, which is what the Apostle Peter is calling Christians here to do, to leave behind the human passions of the flesh. and to live the rest of the time in the flesh for or unto the will of God? How is a person going to accomplish that? How can a person do the will of God?

And the answer to that is that we can't. We cannot do the will of God in and of ourselves. Union, a spiritual union with the person of Jesus Christ is foundational for doing the will of the Father. And abiding and being in Christ is that which is necessary for a person to live according to the will of God. And a person might ask, then, what is the will of God?

What is the will of God for a person? The Apostle Paul answers that question, and many other times he answers that question. But specifically in Romans chapter 8 verse 29 and 30 that those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of the son who is the firstborn among many brothers the will of the father is that those whom he foreknew in eternity past might be he predestined them to be conformed to the image of the son jesus christ the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. The glory of Christ is given to those who are in the Father before the foundation of the world. So the purpose and the will of the Father for those who call themselves to be Christians It's not to have a perfect theology is not to have a beautiful and big church is not to have a powerful ministry is not to build their own empires, but to be like the person of Jesus Christ, to be Christ, to brothers and sisters, to be Christ, to the world, to be Christ, to the loss. Why? Because if someone has been saved, indeed, and really, then the seed of God is in that person."

1 John 3, verse 10. If a person has been born again of the Spirit, it is not that person who lives, but Christ who lives in him or her. Galatians 2, verse 20. It is Christ, the life of that person. Colossians 3 is not him or her anymore.

It is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. It is to be willing to decrease so that Christ may increase. It is to be willing to die to self so that Christ may be formed in us. It is willing to give up everything that is attached to me to attain and apprehend the goal of the supreme calling which is ahead, the excellency of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, Philippians chapter 3, and to set our mind on the things that are above, and that is Christ reigning in heaven at the right hand of the Father. Brothers and sisters, the life that we live in the flesh is a supernatural life that is lived by the Spirit.

How are we going to live? the things of the flesh and go towards the will of the Father. by living and abiding in the person of Jesus Christ, who lived a life fully for the will of the Father for Him. Brothers and sisters, that's the reality of the passage that we have in front of us. The expectation of the Spirit of God through the ministry of the Apostle is that we may live for the rest of the time in the flesh, No longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

Why? Because the time that was passed, that is the time of the former disobedience, is sufficient for doing the things of the flesh. Now we have been liberated in Christ. We can do the things unto him. And just think about this.

Think about the person who is writing this passage to the church. Think about the apostle that is giving this exhortation to the churches. This is Peter. Peter, the one when the Lord Jesus Christ said to him that he was going to endure suffering and that he was going to die, he said, no, Lord, don't do this. We are not going to allow that you go through these sufferings.

And the Lord Jesus Christ himself said to him, Depart from me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. You set your mind not on the things of God, but you set your mind on the things of men. The man that is telling us or that is exhorting us in this passage is a man who was exhorted by the same Savior and said to him or told him that his mind was not on the things of God but on the things of men.

He is the man that now has the authority to tell us something that he did not do, something that he did not live by. This is the same man that when he knew that the Lord was going to be taken, he said, no, no, Lord, I will go with you even until prison. And when the Lord Jesus Christ was taken to prison, he denied him three times. This is the man who said so many things with his mouth in the flesh, yet when it was required to him to act upon the things that he had said, he ended up doing things opposite. This is the man whose soul and whose life was demanded by Satan himself to be sifted like wheat.

But the Lord Jesus Christ said, I have prayed for you that your fate may not fail. And then when you're restored, go and strengthen your brethren. Brothers and sisters, we either have in Peter a hypocrite when he's writing these things, we even have in Peter a liar when he's writing these things that he did not do, or we have a transformed man by the power of the Spirit. We either have a man who is, in and of himself, is just a hypocrite who is telling things that are not reality in him, or we either have a man whose life has been empowered and visited so much by Christ and by His Spirit, who is able to leave those things behind and to move towards Christ in the power of the Spirit, to be able to exhort his brethren with these commandments that come from the mouth of the Savior. And as you know, and I know, this is not a hypocrite man.

This is not a liar. This is not a person that is not telling the truth. But this is a man who was indeed restored and strengthened by the Lord Jesus Christ. A man who received the teachings and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. A man who learned to connect love towards the Savior with love towards the sheep, a man who understood the important connection of loving God and loving others, a man who was asked, do you love me?

And the answer to that was, love or feed or take care of my sheep. This is the man that we have here, a man who has similar passions or human passions like us. but a man whose life has been affected, changed, transformed by the mighty powers of the Spirit of Christ in him. That's the life of the Christian. Now, brothers and sisters, don't think that I'm speaking about an abstract spiritual reality, that it is not attainable and is just so far away from the life of the Christian.

We have been saved to live in Christ, by Christ, and to abide in Christ, and to be conformed to the image of the person of Jesus Christ, and to be Christ to this world, not only individually, but also congregationally, as the light and the salt of this world. The seed of God is within those who have been saved by grace through faith. And the will of the Father, according to John chapter 15, is that we might abide in Christ and that we might give fruit. Remember what I said to you last week about saving faith? Saving faith is a faith that produces fruit and that endures until the end.

and the outcome of that endurance, and the outcome of that fruit. It is not that we're more intelligent. It's not that we have a good speech about any doctrinal theological topic. The truth of that is that we do know all of those things, but that we are Christ to those around us. That it is not us who live anymore, but Christ living in us.

That's the power that is needed for the soul of the person to depart from those passions of the flesh, to depart from those passions of our former ignorance, and to be able to set our mind on things above, not on things of the earth, not on things that are passing away, not on things that are going to be destroyed, things that are going to be consumed, brothers and sisters things that are in the heavenly places for christ this is when the soul of the christian of the true regenerate person then is willing to give our temporal lives for christ not expecting to receive something in this temporal life but as so as long as we have christ we have everything as long as we are in christ that's everything that our soul needs brothers and sisters Christ, your flesh and your heart will fail, but your portion, your mighty fortress is the Lord, the one that strengthens your heart. Nobody else we have in heaven. What else are you going to desire on earth? There's nothing in earth that can satisfy the desire of the soul of a true Christian, because that which is satisfying to the soul of the believer He's seated at the right hand of the father. He's reigning already.

It is establishing his kingdom. He's bringing his bride to perfection. He's bringing his people and his children onto conformity to him to come and to judge the living and the dead and to establish his kingdom so that people will say he's righteous and he's holy and he's pure and everything that comes from his mouth is worthy of praises. Amen.