In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story of how he came to have faith in God. He emphasizes the importance of mixing the truth of God's word with faith in order to experience its transformative power. The speaker explains that teaching alone is not enough, but preaching is necessary to exhort individuals to apply their faith to the truths they have learned. Ultimately, the sermon encourages listeners to obey the truth of God's word and experience the abundant life that comes from a relationship with Him.

So good to see you folks again tonight We talked this morning about faith faith that lets Doesn't let God be God because God is God Of this we reminded ourself this morning Faith simply lets the God who is be God in your experience Faith doesn't let the Lord Jesus be the Redeemer He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world But faith lets him move redemptively into your experience and we saw this morning that Faith isn't evidenced by your activity for God Faith is evidenced if it's genuine faith by God's activity in you and me and our obedience to him Matching our faith toward him makes our humanity available to him to clothe his divine activity So faith and obedience are indivisible twins my faith allows God first to redeem me and then the Lord Jesus risen from the dead comes to invade me and by my continuing attitude of faith a disposition toward the Lord Jesus that allows him now as creator to inhabit me his creature and Become the one who motivates what I do and say and am in such a way that as I yield obedience to the instructions given by him Through his Holy Spirit My hands become the agency with which he works my feet become the agency with which he walks my lips become the agency with which he speaks and That's the Christian life the most exciting thing that you could possibly imagine It's a man a creature actually on earth sharing the life of his creator on the way to heaven say and without faith Without this disposition towards him without this attitude that lets God be God in you and me in action. It is impossible Impossible to please God and we thought the conclusion of our morning service that this quality of faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God and That's where we'll begin tonight in the 10th chapter of the epistle to the Romans and the 17th verse A verse that I'm sure is very familiar to you the one that I've just cited faith comes by hearing and Hearing by the Word of God. That's why of course If it were my ambition That there be developed in your heart That faith toward the Lord Jesus that actually allows him to clothe his divine activity with your humanity The one thing I would want to do more than another would be to expose you to this book Because it's only through this amazing book that has been offered of the Holy Spirit. Can you and I come increasingly to be more intimately acquainted with the Lord Jesus and It's only as we become more intimately acquainted with the Lord Jesus does our confidence in him grow in such a way That we become less and less and less conscious of the faith that we exercise in him We enter into the assumption of faith We learn because we've known him now so well and come to Trust him so implicitly to take him for granted It's an attitude now. It's a way of life. It's as natural as breathing and That's the rest of it So here's the first principle that derives from this verse in the seventh the 17th of the 10th chapter of this epistle of Paul to the Romans The Word of God itself This divine revelation God authored as holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit from Genesis to the last chapter and the last word of that last chapter of the revelation the Word of God itself Produces faith in the truth which the Word of God declares Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God In other words, we have to give God time enough to talk to us long enough Then we know enough if we don't give God time enough to talk to us long enough we don't know enough and If you don't know enough, what's the consequence of not knowing enough? ignorance That's why unbelief in the Bible we're told derives from ignorance That's why in the fourth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. He speaks of those whose understandings are darkened Through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts being alienated from the life of God Detached severed from him So you see to be an unbeliever isn't to be smart to be an unbeliever is to advertise your ignorance Ignorance because you've never given God time enough to talk to you long enough and so you don't know enough But as we give God time enough to talk to us long enough and the Holy Spirit graciously ministers Christ to us for said the Lord Jesus these scriptures are they which testifies me? This is the place where we become intimately acquainted with the Lord Jesus. This is where we get to know him Faith comes by hearing hearing by the Word of God So the Word of God itself produces faith in the truth, which the Word of God declares and that's the first principle But here's a second principle That is complimentary to the first principle at first sight it looks almost to be contradictory, but it isn't contradictory It's complimentary and this you'll find in the fourth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews Hebrews chapter 4 and In the second verse and what it says is this Hebrews chapter 4 verse 2 For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached Did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Did you notice what it said and to us was the gospel preached as well as unto them in other words? It was as intelligibly declared to them as it was to us They heard the word expounded the exegesis was given as lucidly and as intelligently to them as to us But the word preached The word preached the word which in itself produces faith in the truth Which that word declares the word preached did not profit them Why not? Not being mixed with faith in them that heard it So although the Word of God itself produces faith in the truth, which the Word of God declares The truth which the Word of God declares will not profit you unless you mix it with the faith with the Word of God produces Now those two principles are complementary let me say them again because I may have said it just a little bit too fast and I recognize that I have a strange accent And you'll have to sort of get accustomed to it. Maybe you will after a bit The Word of God itself produces faith in the truth Which the Word of God declares, but the truth which the Word of God declares will not profit you unless you mix it with the faith Which the Word of God produces Now, let me illustrate that very simply for you Because it's vital to any valid experience of the Lord Jesus My home is in England as all of you know, and it is at a place called Capon Ray Hall in the northwest of England And that is a conference ground that it was my joint privilege to establish some 26 years ago where the torchbearer operation began and Since then we've had tens of thousands of young people staying with us. I think about 80,000 from all over the world and many thousands of these came from Germany and still come and this was a particular ministry that God laid upon our hearts immediately after the war and So we would invite these young folks To come over to England and integrate them into our Bible camp And then it was my joy to visit them in their own homes in their own country And to this end I would travel thousands of miles by car across the continent of Europe from one town to another across unknown territory visiting this village or that town and then looking up the youngsters getting to know their parents visiting their schools their churches their youth groups and Proclaiming Christ and sharing him with their friends And this of course meant that on many occasions. I'd come to a city that I Had never visited before and all I had was the name and the address of the boy perhaps whom I wanted to visit and his family on a piece of paper and I wouldn't have a clue how to get there So what I would normally do is head for the center of the city and look on the sidewalk for the most intelligent looking face that I could find And when I saw that I'd stop wind the window around stick my neck out and say excuse me I wonder if you could help me. I'm trying to find this particular address, and I haven't any idea in which direction to go And I don't know what your experience has been but normally when you do that that very intelligent looking face suddenly becomes totally unintelligent And when you've done it about six times, and they've all said I'm sorry. I'm a stranger to you're almost in despair So finally you go to a gas station Anticipating maybe that the man there can help and so you drive up and say I'm sorry. I'm in trouble I've asked about six people the away to this particular dress nobody seems to know I'm beginning to wonder whether there is such a place I wonder if you could help me and I give him a piece of paper and as the man reads it his face lights up with obvious recognition And he said yeah, yes, I know exactly where that is as a matter of fact I only live about a hundred and fifty yards from that very place just around the corner well, that's encouraging and Then he takes me by the arm leads me to the edge of the sidewalk and points down the road He says you see the traffic lights. I said yes Well, he said don't take any notice of those traffic lights Go on to the next the second lot of traffic lights and when you get to the second lot of traffic lights turn right And when you turn right go as far as you can it's a t-junction. He said you can't make a mistake You've got to turn either right or left so turn right And you'll come to a multiple crossing about five roads all coming together can't miss that either and There's a big store on the on the corner with a big gold clock and there's usually a fat policeman in the middle Now he says you go all the way around Until you come to the fourth of those five crossings don't come to the fifth or you'll be coming back again So the fourth the last Before the one you came down now when you get to that fourth turning go to the second turning on the left And when you take the second turning on the left just about a hundred yards and right you'll find that house Well, you know the more he speaks the more I'm convinced that what he says is true he's speaking with such detail such accuracy confidence That every word he speaks produces in me faith in the truth of his word is declaring Now he can see that. I'm a little simple so he starts all over again and By the time he's been all over it again for the second time. I'm Absolutely convinced that what he says is true. I'm a believer an absolute believer Have I arrived? No No, I'm still at the gas station and At that stage I took out a flask of coffee and put my feet on the steering wheel and and read the newspaper I've still bit the gas station. I've still be there now Because you see Although the word that he has spoken has created in me faith in the truth that his word is declared The truth that his word is declared will not profit me unless now I mix it with the faith that his word is Produced so I say well, thank you very much. That's been most kind. You've been extremely courteous I understand exactly what you said. I think I know exactly how to get there and having bid my farewell I get into the car gauge the engine and Not the first lot of traffic light second And when I'm sure enough There's the T junction and I turn right and I go as far as I can until I come to a multiple crossing And there's the fat police and I go all the way around very carefully until I come to the fourth turning Second turning on the left and sure enough as I look across to the house a hundred yards on the right the number matches the Number on my piece of paper. I get out I look at the name under the doorbell and sure enough. It's the name of that family knock on the door and Before long I'm being greeted by the youngster who spent his holiday with us in England And I'm sitting around the family table drinking their coffee. I've arrived Now do you see the principle The word that he spoke created in me faith in the truth of his word declared But the word that truth that his word declared didn't profit me until I mixed it with the faith that his word had produced Now that's the nature of faith From the Word of God you see we get intelligent instruction and the man who declares that from the Word of God is is teaching But teaching isn't adequate in itself Because you see we can teach folk the facts until they can memorize the facts and repeat the facts backwards and They may be absolutely convinced of the facts that you've taught never challenging one single thing about them But that wouldn't be adequate We have to do more than teach we have to preach and teach Teach and preach and preaching you see is an exhortation to mix the facts now with the faith that those facts are produced So that by the obedience of faith that does the truth we look into God's face and say I understand the fact and I understand that you are the only person who can Translate those facts into the experience of my life and clothe them with the flesh and blood of my humanity so now I obey the truth and I asked upon what I know and I trust you to move into my life and redeem and Having redeemed me now Lord Jesus knowing that you've risen again from the dead and you've come to indwell my humanity I trust you For every step I take and for every situation to go into which that step takes me by your Holy Spirit to instruct my mind Control my reactions direct my will and govern my behavior Now I've learned to exercise faith Not just the one crisis of faith whereby we're reconciled to God the day of our conversion So that crisis of faith you see is designed to introduce us to a process of faith The act of faith is designed to precipitate an attitude of faith It's designed to create in you and in me what I've described as this disposition that lets God be God in my experience By yielding now my obedience to his instructions instructions that I have invoked by my attitude that Brings him into action the word spoken The word spoken didn't profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Have you mixed the word with faith? Or he's took the gas station There are tens of thousands of boys and girls and men and women who've been brought up in an evangelical Context who go to Bible class every Sunday who listen to good sound Bible preaching from the pulpit and They wouldn't challenge any of the facts. They believe that Jesus Christ was born on that first Christmas Day They believe that he lived a sinless life that declared the perfection of his humanity They believe that he died on the cross to redeem sinners They believe that he rose again from the dead ascended to be with the Father. They believe that he promised the gift of the Holy Spirit They believe that he's able and willing to save any boy girl man a woman who will come and receive him and they remain unsafe and Yet they believe it all They believe it all because they never mixed with faith the fact That they have come to believe unsaved believers at the gas station Now what is the word preached? To what do we expose boys and girls and men and women that they might mix the truth that they've come to believe with the faith that allows the Holy Spirit to translated into the experience of their life and I thought by way of preface to the Explorations in which we shall engage during these coming mornings and evenings. It would be a good thing for us to take a quick panoramic look at those redemptive measures those Restorative measures that God has introduced in the person of his son the Lord Jesus And if you'll turn with me to the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians in the fifth chapter We find the first word of the gospel It's not the last word as I tried to indicate to you this morning. It's just the first word of the gospel It's no less important because it's just the first word. It's imperative, but it is only the first word and Of course just to settle for this would be pathetically abysmally inadequate imperative and essential as it is in the 19th verse of the fifth chapter of Paul's second epistle to Corinthians 2 Corinthians 5 19 and It's good to see so many Bibles and I'm sure that morning and evening You'll be bringing your Bibles with me because that's the only way of course to know God's mind and become intimately Acquainted with the Lord Jesus you see it's the Word of God. It's not what I have to tell you It's what he by his Holy Spirit has to communicate to you He witnesses to the person of the Lord Jesus and so we need to turn Over the pages and we shall do a whole lot of it Not just one little verse as a sort of excuse for preaching We shall take the Bible and open its pages and you'll have to keep your finger lit And if you don't have enough lip then bring a glass of water with you and dip it In the 19th verse of the fifth chapter of this epistle to wit that God was in Christ Reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us Here's the first word of the gospel the word of reconciliation. That's it the word of reconciliation That is the first word of the gospel not the last just the first word in a sense It's the baby word of the gospel because that's where we're that's where we begin. There is no other begin Now then we are ambassadors the Apostle goes on to say we're ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us We pray you in Christ's head as though he himself was standing here. And of course in point of fact he was It was the Lord Jesus Continued to do and to teach the things that he had begun to do and to teach clothed with his own humanity But now giving to Paul the Apostle as to the other apostles and the other disciples the fantastic privilege of being that flesh and blood With which he continued to make his word articulate. He continued to make his plans tangible and he continued to make himself visible This was his privilege. I'm an ambassador as Though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's dead. We need reconcile to God This was the reconciling word a word of reconciliation In other words, there is a basis upon which a holy God in spite of our guilt and in spite of our sin is Prepared to receive us back to himself Peace having been restored between the guilty and the innocent party Peace having been restored Between the offended God and the offending man now what is the basis upon which God is prepared to accept to himself a foreign creature Guilty dirty sinful. Well the answers I Know clear to you all it's in the 21st verse of This fifth chapter he God hath made him the Lord Jesus to be sin for us Who knew no sin for who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him The basis of reconciliation is that vicarious? substitutionary and atoning death that was accomplished by the Lord Jesus when he deliberately in the sinlessness of His humanity allowed the father to credit to him our guilt and Credit to us his righteousness And on the grounds of that atoning death you and I may enjoy Redemption the forgiveness of our sin and from redemption that demanded the death of Jesus Christ justification Justified and you know the definition you've heard this a thousand times. I'm sure when I am justified It is just as if I'd never seen Just as if I'd never seen God looks upon me as though. I've never seen Now he's not pretending. I haven't seen that would be stupid He simply looks upon me as though. I had never seen knowing perfectly well I have but having out of infinite compassion and mercy credited to another my gift Just as if I'd never seen and God the father can only look upon me Just as if I'd never seen because on the cross he then looked upon the Lord Jesus Just as if he committed all my sins he knew how wicked man had been he knew that God must punish sin So out of pity Jesus said I'll bear the punishment instead Now this we call the substitutionary vicarious and atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin That we might become the righteousness of God in him His righteousness becomes the wedding garment in which we are accepted at the wedding feast. That's all at the King's Invitation he suffered the just for the unjust to bring us to God He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and the cost of our peace as guilty sinners With a holy God was laid upon him and by his stripes we healed now. I'm sure this is clear to you This is the first word of the gospel. That's why the Lord Jesus said I am The way I am the way Behold my hands and my feet These are the hallmarks of my savior hood That it is I myself. I am the way Jesus the word of reconciliation For you see the written word found its consummation In the living word the Bible of gospel Was realized in the person of the Lord Jesus as gospel So the Lord Jesus the living word implements the written word. He is himself the word of Reconciliation and God for his dear sake Is prepared to say to you and to me I will remember your sins No more, isn't that a marvelous thing that God is prepared to remember all your sins I'm so glad God remembers all my sins I'm so glad that he's going to remember every sin that I ever committed or ever yet will commit I'm so God. I'm so glad that God remembers But that having remembered he's going to remember No more. I'd always have an uneasy feeling if God didn't remember all my sins that suddenly at the last moment He'd recall something that he hadn't known about you know Just as I was going to go through the pearly gates into the presence of my Lord and share heaven forever I'm sorry. There's something I forgot There's one of your sins. I didn't remember and I'm terribly sorry to disappoint you at the last moment Now wouldn't that be awful? That isn't the salvation that was accomplished for us by the Lord Jesus on the cross When the Lord Jesus died upon the cross there was sentenced in his person God's just and holy and righteous judgment upon all my sins every single sin that I ever have committed Every single sin that I ever will he says I will remember your sin No more And that's how God forgives because when God forgives you see he forgets We don't forgive that way we say we have forgiven, but we very seldom forget at least we find it terribly hard to forget Like two boys brothers. They've been fighting all day their mother had done everything in her power to reestablish peace between the two But all to no avail she'd threatened and bribed Persuaded and pleaded argued finally as the door that the day drew to an end and it was time for bed and Her her nerves almost shattered and the fight was still on She thought she'd make one last attempt and appeal to the sentiment of the older boy And she said son supposing your little brother would have died in the night How would you feel when you woke up in the morning and found him dead wouldn't you be sorry if you hadn't forgiven Well the boy thought about that for a little while and Then he said all right I'll forgive him. I'll forgive him But if he's alive in the morning Is that the way God forgives you and me no he never forgives that way when God forgives you forget now tell me this I'm not asking you whether you believe that Jesus Christ is God's son I'm not even asking you whether you believe that on the cross he died in your place What I'm asking is this do you ever mix that with faith or are you an Unbelieving an unsaved believer at the gas station. Have you ever entered into the good of it? I Don't mean have you tried to justify yourself before God so that he may redeem you you can't You're guilty and so am I we don't deserve a thing I mean have you adopted an attitude toward the Lord Jesus is your disposition now towards him such as Says I'm guilty. I'm lost, but what Jesus. Thank you. I'm one of the sinners you died the same I never deserve that you never said I did but in your infinite compassion you came precisely for this purpose to take my place there upon the cross and at your loving gracious kind invitation I come to you to let you now redeem and Through faith I trust you to move redemptively into my experience introducing you to the father who for your dear sake Will acquit me Bury my sins in the depths of the sea put them as far away as the Easter from the West put them behind his back And though they're red like crimson make them white as snow those scarlet whiter than wool blotting them out of beneath a thick cloud Have you ever done that? Then whatever you may know about the Lord Jesus whatever you may yet believe about the Lord Jesus if You've not mixed that truth with faith you remain unredeemed not necessarily insincere just unredeemed not maliciously or willfully or arrogantly Repudiating maybe what he did on the cross But you're neglecting so great salvation and so long as you continue to neglect your loss Nothing nothing can save you Save the Lord Jesus himself in response to your faith that let's him and he will not under any Circumstances the reasons for which I trust we shall discover adequately throughout the week he will not and he cannot under any circumstances Relieve you of the moral obligation of exercising that option which has been vested in man And which lifts man up and out of the animal kingdom and makes man man That option is your responsibility and there is no other way This isn't one way to get to heaven it is the way the Lord Jesus said I am the way No man cometh under the father But by me how easily we try to come another way to justify our acceptance We have only boldness of access through the blood of Jesus There was another boy, you know, I don't know what he had done, but he displeased his mother And a cold war existed Diplomatic relations had been severed finally the boy Felt under some pressure and thought he'd take certain steps in the direction of appeasement So he came to his mother slipped up to her side and said so I'm over shall I mow the yard No, thank you Not a smile of appreciation on his mother's face So went away for about 20 minutes and came back again. He said I shall wash the car No, thank you and Progress was not what you might describe as sensational So finally he came back in 20 minutes again, and he said should I sweep the kitchen? No, thank you It was half an hour before he tried again And this time there was just a tear in his eye slipped up to his mother's side and He said I'm sorry And for the first time for the first time there's a smile on his mother's face She said Bill, that's all I've been waiting for Now you can mow the yard. You can wash the car and sweep the kitchen You see we had to begin at the right place And you'll discover that you can come to God with your money a checkbook your activity your talents your gift your verb Your good works and God will be utterly unimpressed utterly unimpressed Not because those things are wrong in themselves They're not but simply because they are utterly pathetically abysmally inadequate to reconcile you to God Otherwise he'd have never sent his son to die in your place But I'll tell you something the moment like that small boy you've been intelligent enough to bow your head and say I'm sorry and Claim the forgiveness that may be yours alone through Jesus who died in your place. You'll find there are lots of yards to mow Lots of cars to wash and lots of kitchens to sweep But life will become the most fantastic adventure sharing that life on earth caught up into the timeless purpose of a timeless God now That's the first word of the gospel not the last just the first just the threshold of our salvation This is the baby language of the gospel And I'm so thankful to God for the day when as a boy of twelve quarter to nine Saturday night 13th of August 1927 I obeyed the first word of the gospel. I mixed it with faith. Nobody knew I didn't tell anybody There was no after meeting there was no instruction There was no invitation, but in the silence of my heart in a boy's camp hundred and fifty other kids. I Simply said thank you Lord Jesus. You're in business, and I've never had caused the doubt from that moment to this that my sins Were blotted out He remembers my sins now no more. I don't deserve that But the father has honored his son and written my name in the Lamb's Book of Life now the second word of the gospel and We'll only pause very briefly upon this it's in James in chapter 1 the first general gist of James and In the 17th verse every good gift and every perfect gift is from above Cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variable miss neither shadow of turn Now this is the nature and character of God. This is the immutability of truth That is totally timeless and changes truth never change You can never discover anything today that proves that something true wasn't true yesterday and If you know the truth today nothing under any circumstances can happen tomorrow That will just prove the truth as you know it today if it's the truth the truth if it's true is true That's the beautiful thing about truth. That's what I like about the truth. It's true And it's the truth God if it isn't timeless if it isn't immutable it isn't true The father of life in whom there is no variable miss neither any shadow of turn Timelessly true and of course the Lord Jesus is the one who came to this world to be that truth incarnate that's why in that verse that I've already cited from John 14 verse 6 the Lord Jesus went on to say I am the way I am the truth Truth he didn't just come to tell the truth. He didn't come just to preach the truth. He didn't come just to explain the truth Is that I am the truth I preach I? Am the truth I explain He is the truth Every good gift and every perfect Jesus from above and cometh down from the father of lights With whom there is no variable miss now the shadow of turning and verse 18 in that chapter of his own will be that he That's the second word of the gospel is a word of truth From the timeless ages of the past into the timeless ages of the future what God says stand He is the truth. It's a word of truth and By this word Peter tells us in the first chapter of his next epistle. It's only over a page turn right and you're there 1 Peter chapter 1 and in the 23rd verse being born again not a corruptible seed but of incorruptible By the word of God which liveth a living word and abideth forever and ever living and an everlasting word and Last half of verse 25. This is the word Which by gospel is preached unto Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever God never changed his theology God never dies. He doesn't have to It's only man has to change his theology. He does that about every three months That's why if I were you I'd never rest your timeless and eternal destiny upon the machinations of the human mind When the Lord Jesus as we shall see throughout the week came to this world. He didn't come to establish a new religion Jesus Christ didn't come into this world to lay the foundations of Christianity became incarnate To bring the eternal timeless redemptive and regenerative truth of God into effect He tells us in the seventh chapter of John's gospel on the 16th verse the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself. My doctrine is not mine but his that sent me Because you see when the Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as we saw this morning He came to be not man as man were but man as man was Man as man was as he as God created man so that God the creator inhabiting man the creature by the Holy Spirit from within the human spirit might invade that absolute and challenged monopoly of the human soul monopolizing every area of his personality his mind his emotion in his will so that all his Behavior might find its origin in the presence of God who made him and the Lord Jesus was the only man that ever walked this earth Who was prepared to submit himself to that? Divine sovereignty so that he could say the father that dwells in me He does the work everything I say my father says everything I do my father does everything I am my father is my humanity body soul spirit mind emotion and will in the total being With which my father provided me when he gave me that little body born at Bethlehem this I present to my father through the eternal spirit So that my doctrines are not mine. I simply make articulate In your hearing and make audible what my father has to say that's true and by this word of truth Peter says We have been begotten not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible the ever-living and the everlasting Word of God God speaks and a soul redeemed is Regenerate by the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell our human spirits and creditors with the resurrection life of our triumphant Lord and Jesus speaking Said to those Jews which believed on him in the 31st verse of John 8 if you continue in my word if you continue in my word if you listen to me long enough so that I can talk to you long enough and then act and Do the world that you hear if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth So make you free and If the Sun therefore shall make you free John 8 36, then you will be free indeed So you see the first word of the gospel Jesus the way is a word of reconciliation The second word of the gospel Jesus the truth Is a word of emancipation The truth will set you free You no longer have to grow up in the dark You no longer have to tread wearily to to discover at last in the sinking sands some solid rock upon which you may safely Know says the Lord Jesus If you're a guilty sinner looking to find your way back to God in the bliss of forgiveness come to me I'm the way behold my hands and my feet if you're still groping in the dark if you're still reading this philosopher and pouring over the pages of that book and trying to discover The meaning of this book if you're listening to the man over there Listening to the man over here. If you're trying to find out In the midst of all the confusion and the babel of time come to me. I am I am the truth and the truth will set you free a word of reconciliation Jesus the way a Word of emancipation Jesus the truth. What's the last and this of course is where we'll pick up the French tomorrow You'll find it in the epistle to the Philippians and the second chapter Philippians chapter 2 and Paul is speaking to new converts. All these letters, of course were written not to ecclesiastical or theological greybeards these were letters written to the young churches people just newly converted out of heathendom and idolatry immorality and Says Paul to them the twelfth verse of the second chapter of the epistle to the Philippians wherefore my beloved as You have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence Work out your own salvation with fear and tremble now. We know what he doesn't mean by that He doesn't mean work for your salvation. That would be diametrically opposed to everything else The Apostle ever said he does not have works this any man should boast He says in Titus 3 5 not by any works of righteousness, which we have done He tells us in the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans that by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified So we know what he doesn't mean by that. He doesn't mean work for your salvation What he's saying is this that everything that ever God gave me in the day that I was converted and my sins were forgiven and Jesus Christ came by his Holy Spirit to inhabit my humanity. God gave you So more in my absence Then in my presence work out your own salvation Paul recognized that the temptation to these people was that in his presence they'd lean on him That ate his gestures that repeat his phraseology they would try to imitate his activity Moses Paul that isn't the Christian life. The Christian life does not Does not derive as a consequence of your ability to imitate me any more than the Christian life derives from your ability to imitate God You can neither imitate God nor me The Christian life says Paul the Apostle derives from the fact that God our Creator having redeemed us through the shed blood of his beloved Son has come himself in the person of the Holy Spirit to Impart to what it takes all back in the lamp. Death back into the car and God back into the man And says Paul the Apostle the same Lord Jesus who came to inhabit my humanity in the day that I was born again Raised from the dead that same Lord Jesus has come to inhabit your humanity in the day that you were converted and you were raised from the dead. Live it up Draw upon your resources or in my absence then in my presence. I'm not your crutch All my Christian friends if only we could discover this The Lord Jesus himself is the one who imparts the dynamic of the Christian life Not your pastor, not your church, not your sacraments, not even the Bible, not some program the Lord Jesus He goes on to say for it is God It is God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Not Paul the Apostle It is God he goes on to say in the 13th verse It's God, God which works within you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Your humanity has become the flesh and blood with which he has created. God clothes now his activity with man his creature To the end verse 15 that you may be blameless To the end that you may be harmless To the end that you may be the sons of God without rebuke where? Carefully insulated and isolated In an evangelical context and protected from all the icy blots of a godless society By the presence of the Living God within your redeemed humanity that you may be blameless and harmless That you may be the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and a perverse nation That you may be harmless be blameless be the very sons of God in a nation of crooks and right in the middle of a nation of perverts among whom he says you will shine as light Holding for here's the third one 16 the word of life the word of life For that's the message of the gospel The message of the gospel is not that Jesus died historically 2,000 years ago so that you might have the convenience of what? Treading over him like a doormat and get into heaven That isn't the gospel The gospel tells us that the Lord Jesus gave himself for us Then only that he might give himself to us now that he is God in us might keep us blameless Harmless without rebuke being the children of God that we have become That we might demonstrate to the world that Jesus is alive and hold forth this word of life that God has put on offer to guilty sinful men The marvelous opportunity to be raised from the dead By sharing the life of God their creator on earth through the Holy Spirit every day They live this is the message of the gospel. That's why the Lord Jesus that I'm come that you might have forgiveness. No I'm come that you might have a place in heaven when you die. No the Lord Jesus that I'm come that you might have life to share the very life of our Redeemer So that Peter in the second of his epistle and the first chapter tells us According as his divine power Hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and God in us not earned not deserved not merited not worked up not educated into According as his divine power the power of Deity hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and God in us Through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue Where is the power come from that pertains to life? Where is the power come from that pertains to God in us? It's the divine power And it is ours by virtue of our knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue But faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it Because by the exceeding great and precious promises in the fourth verse there by these exceeding great and precious promises We are made partakers of the divine nature That's the gospel that on the grounds of redemption there is precipitated that regenerated purpose that actually by the gift to you and to me in That moment of our genuine conversion the Holy Spirit comes to enjoy our humanity We become by his presence partakers of the divine nature and Jesus Christ himself as God takes up residence within our Humanity and our flesh and blood is then made available to him by that disposition of faith that allows him to move as God into Action and all that we do and say and are and others in our presence know That we've come alive So the first word of the gospel is a word of reconciliation Jesus the way the second word of the gospel is a word of emancipation Jesus the truth, but the third word of the gospel and the most glorious word of the gospel is a word of participation Jesus the life I am the way the truth and the life reconciliation emancipation So that any boy girl man or woman who through faith enters into the good of all that God has provided in his son Jesus Christ crucified for us now risen to give himself to us Can say to me to live It's Christ. I'm crucified with Christ For all that I am apart from all that he is nevertheless. I live, but don't get me wrong Not I Not I Christ lives in me And the life that I'm now living in this body. I simply live through the faith that let Jesus Christ as God be God in me Who gave himself for me? Then and he was given himself to me and every day that dawn Invites me to the adventure of sharing the life of Christ on earth On the way to heaven My hands his hand my feet his to walk with my lips his to speak with my eyes his to see My mind his to think with My will his to decide with and my heart his to love For me to be alive and to stay and all that he is I've got To never have more Me ever enjoy less That's the gospel. That's the good news This is the invitation and that's something and we're going to discover as God enables us how this works What is the mechanics of it all how has God created this in such a way that a man on earth can actually? Enjoy the life of his creator in heaven and to discover that Is to discover the secret that lifts a man out from among the dead even while still in the body So that he may reign in life By one Christ Jesus and be more than conqueror through him that life Let's have a word of prayer We're thankful Lord Jesus because you're the way the truth and the life Thank you that we may as guilty sinners come by this word of reconciliation And be utterly assured in our hearts without a shadow of a doubt through this word of emancipation That sets us free and live day by day a life that books of no possible explanation but God himself through that word of Participation that gives to each one of us the fantastic privilege of sharing the life of God on earth Help us to settle for nothing less But in the simple look of faith to invoke your divine activity that allows the Holy Spirit To translate it into the day by day experience of our lives every step of The way we ask it through your name said