I apologize for the break in messages.  Between some travel required from work, and a full schedule it’s been difficult to find time to write.  That said, I take great encouragement that God is ever-present and at work every moment of every day.

I want to ask one question for us today.  What does your heart say about the gospel of Jesus?  Not your head, your heart.  Intellectually acknowledging the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is essential, but it alone will not save you.  (Jam 2:9)  Intellectually acknowledgment alone is not evidence of active faith, and will not produce in you the kind of freedom that God means to unleash in you, for you to joyously give up your life to love others towards Him.

In John 8 31-36, Jesus speaks of the freedom He offers – “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” 

I take great comfort in the type of people that Jesus delivered the gospel message to.  Traitors, prostitutes, murderers, thieves, adulterers – there is no category of sin/sinner that Jesus did not cover with His blood.  There is no unforgivable past, there is no unforgivable current sin struggle, and there is no future sin that can separate a person from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  His arms are open, His mercies are new each morning, and His love, patience, and grace far exceed whatever we can conceive of in our weak, fallen minds.

Are you a visitor in God’s house or are you a son or daughter of God through Jesus?  In dying, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God for every ounce of our sin, and every bit of the guilt and shame accompanying it.  The freedom of Christ is a new life in Him.  By faith, you are united with Him also in His resurrection, partakers of His glory – no longer wretched in God’s sight, but you are credited with, clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus.  You are image bearers of God, reflections of His glory, and precious in His sight.  Your place with Jesus in God’s house in not temporary, but permanent – He is with you and you are with Him forever.  He will never leave you or forsake you, He is ever for you.

What does your heart say about all of this?  The worst thing in the world is to hear these truths of God, to rejoice in a moment, and then move on.  You will never be free until these truths are fed daily to your heart, so that the overflow of your heart will be joy and freedom in the Truth.  This is why we seek to have our hearts made happy in God by His Word daily.  This is why we get together with other Bible believing Christians regularly to remind ourselves of the gospel, and it’s truths for us in our lives.  This is why we go to church to have God’s truth preached over us.  This is why we take the Lord’s supper together.  We could go on.

The freedom Christ offers in salvation through the gospel; the live, peace, and joy of a right relationship with a loving Father is not a past decision, but a present pursuit of heart-level trusting in the Truth of God.  My hope for myself and us all is that God would continue to be merciful to us – to draw us to Himself daily in repentance from sin, and joy in fellowship with Him – covered by His blood, rooted in our identity as sons and daughters of the Living God.  The road before us is long, but Jesus is with us every step of the way – keep going strong, and know that God is always for you.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

How does the gospel enter into our guilt and shame as people who fail?  If I stop and consider what is going on inside my own heart when I choose to allow myself to be defined by past mistakes, or failures, ultimately what I am saying is that the death of Christ on the cross was not sufficient for me.  My unbelief, is masked by prideful self-loathing, such that it may even seem righteous outwardly, but this not so and is not the will of God.

We are all sinners.  We fail every day.  We see this in Isaiah 64:6 – “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.  We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”   We see it again in Romans 3:11-12 – “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

This is the Word of God, exposing what is true of us, and inwardly our heart acknowledges the Truth of our iniquity and unrighteousness.  God did not leave us to wallow in guilt and shame though.  Romans 5:8 – “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  

My question for us all mid-stream here, is how has the gospel of Jesus dealt with your guilt for your sin, and the shame you may feel from being exposed or identified with your failures?  Romans 8:1 tells us – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  You are not the judge of your life, other people are not the judge of your life, Jesus is the judge of your life, and if He does not condemn you, why are you staying in unbelief judging yourself or allowing others to judge you?  I do not mean to increase anyone’s burden by adding something else to feel guilty for, but I do mean to challenge myself and us all to really believe the gospel.  Press the gospel into the spaces of your heart maybe it has not penetrated yet.  If there is unbelief, go to God in humble honesty and ask Him to help you believe and rest in His work on the cross for you.

This may be awkward in a reading format, but I’d encourage anyone if that resonates with you at all, don’t move on or keep reading, but stop here, close this out, and do business with God, asking Him to help give you freedom and peace through the gospel.

For those of you who have kept moving on, you need to repent of your hard heartedness, because we’re all in the bucket above!  Freedom in Christ comes through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Freedom comes from taking our eyes off ourselves and putting them on Jesus.  Freedom comes from seeing our sin, repenting of it, confessing it to our brothers, and quickly running back to the cross of Christ, where we see our perfect righteousness and identity in Christ crucified, our living hope.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

We’ve spent the past 7  messages looking at marks of Christian growth in a faith that is active.  At the end of that passage, Peter turns to encourage us as the hearers that if those qualities are at work in you by faith, God wants you to have peace in the assurance of your salvation.  Likewise, if those qualities are not at work in you by faith, he wants us to hear that you are in great danger of falling away from God (if indeed your faith is real) and into the devastation that comes with a life lived apart from God.  Likewise, if those qualities are not active in you, you should not have assurance of your salvation.  This should be a fearful thought for those who fear God, but is actually said in love in the hope that those who are far from God will awaken to see the goodness of God and root their hearts anew in the love of God towards us in Jesus.

2 Peter 1:8-11 – “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.  Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.  For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

We all hear stories of pastors being caught up in situations they should not have been.  We all know Christians who are not living out their faith as maybe they once did.  I’ve definitely been there in my own life, and I do not feel like I am alone, or God would not have this word for us in scripture.  So what’s happened?  At some point, those people stopped stopped being diligent in their faith.  They coasted, or compartmentalized part of their life, believing such a thing was possible.  They neglected the ongoing renewal of our minds in the knowledge of God, in faith in the finished work of Christ, and pressing forward towards God in living out their faith.

Although God is faithful to redeem and restore those who are in Christ by faith, His desire is for us never to depart.  Although we know nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Rom 8:35), God’s best desire is for us to rest and find peace in Him daily.  The marks of Christian growth began with faith and ended in love.  Are those active in your life today?  Are you pursuing greater knowledge of who God is regularly?  How is your faith applied to the situations in your life?  What areas of your life/faith are you growing in/focusing on?  Today, how assured are you of your salvation?  Why or why not?  What evidence of your faith in Jesus do you see working itself out in your life?

Whatever the answer, the love of God towards you through Jesus Christ, desires your heart to find joy in your assurance your salvation.  Not in a false assurance, but in an assurance that is rooted in faith and love, being worked out in your life over time, as each of us presses on towards the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  Stay encouraged in the promises of God from His Word, stay surrounded by fellow brothers and sisters for mutual encouragement, and stay encouraged in the love of God towards you in Jesus.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

We started down this path in 2 peter 1 looking at how our faith is the foundation for all that God calls us to in this life.  What does your mind believe about Jesus?  Not just what you think you should believe – if your life depended on it (which is does) what do you believe about the nature of God, and your salvation in Jesus.  What does your heart say about Jesus and how do you desire His will instead of what the world could offer?  When we speak of faith, this is the depth and rootedness of faith we’re striving for.

The outworking of that faith is seen in our moral excellence, our pursuit of more knowledge of God, self-restraint, perseverance in the fight for faith, a pursuit of seeking and manifesting the glory of God in our lives, and an earnest desire to see growth of faith and good of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  The end of all of these things is love.  This is not a romantic kind of love, but it is the very love of God towards us in Christ, who gave His life for others, even those who mocked Him on the way to the cross.

As Christians, our behavior speaks to what we believe intellectually and what our heart desires.  Instead of focusing simply on outward behavior, which can be modified at least temporarily with sufficient incentive, what if we started asking ourselves different questions?  Is my behavior towards this person loving the person in a way that is gracious, merciful and reflect the will of God?   What if our goal wasn’t just to do or not do something, but to see the love of God manifested through us to the world and people around us?

Put another way, you can be a moral person, and yet have no faith in Jesus and no real love for others.  On the contrary, if you have faith in Jesus and love others, you may commit acts of immorality temporarily or during a period of backsliding, but when your faith is active and moving, the love you have for others will bear fruit far greater than mere moral obedience would ever muster.  People don’t need us, they need Christ in us.  Our loved ones don’t need us, they need the love of Christ in us.  This is what we strive for in our Christian walk.

I’m going to close with a passage from Romans 12 which is similar to this passage in 2 Peter, except it flips it around and starts with what true love looks like from faith, and breaks that down into how that overflows in our lives.

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. ¹³ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.  Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹ Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰ To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

My exhortation is the same – from a mind that believes God, and a heart that loves Him, let your love be genuine to others.  As we strive forward in this regard, failing at times, know that the love of God towards us in Christ has given us grace upon grace to cover all our sin.  He loves us, and so we are able to love others.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection (2 Peter 1:2-7)

Last time we looked at God’s desire for us to find our joy in Him, by allowing every aspect of our lives to have in view the glory of God.  Today’s message is short, because for anyone seriously pursuing God with their life, one thing will be apparent – it is hard.  There will be times when you fall, there will be trials and struggles, and there will be times when you do not feel joy in your relationship with God as you once did.  So our call to brotherly affection is an overflow of our own pursuit of God, knowing that we all are in need of help and encouragement.

We’re called to know others, and be known.  Nothing about following Christ is meant to be private.  Someone whose faith is private is a person whose faith is dying.  As God exists in community within the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) – we’re called to do the same with the Church.  Risk being vulnerable with other believers who can encouraged you in the grace of God through Jesus.  Help one another, knowing that no one is meant to endure the trials of this broken world alone, but God has given us His people as a means of grace.  I hope you have people in your life who are a help to you in your walk of faith.  More than that even, I hope that you are that person for others.  God has uniquely gifted each of us, that we can serve the body of believers in Christ, and no one is unimportant – we all need each other.

Grace and Peace,

Adam