Morning, brothers and sisters.
We’re continuing a series after about a three- or four-month pause. I’m not sure how long, but we’ll do a little reviewing. The question before us, from Titus, is this: Why has the grace of God appeared to us?
Let’s read the verses we have been focusing on: Titus 2:11-14.
For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,
we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world;
looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are thankful for the very life that You have given to us. Our brothers shared this morning of the richness of that life which we were able to remember around the table. Lord, it is a life of such another nature.
We are thankful for Your willingness, Lord, to come and lay Your life down, that we might have life and have it abundantly. In the abundance of Your life, You have given us Your Word and Your Holy Spirit.
We want to return this morning and offer ourselves to You, that, as we declare that You are Lord and Head over this time, You would have great freedom to work amongst us—work in our hearts and work in our lives. Lord, that You would increase and we would decrease, that You could get what You are after in Your people in these last days. In Your wonderful, precious name. Amen.
As we look at these verses from Titus, we see their comprehensiveness. They capture the very essence of the fullness of the gospel and of how the Lord has redeemed us.
The very personification of grace, our Lord Jesus Christ, came bringing salvation—not merely to some, but to all men. He loved the world so much that He died for all mankind.
After He has saved us, it does not stop there. Praise God, He begins this instructing process, this discipling process, conforming us into His image. The ungodliness and worldly desires with which we are so innately born are dealt with through the transforming work of the cross and the Holy Spirit.
He desires not only a godly people in the future; He is after godly ones in this present age. That is what He is looking for. He has given us not only the Spirit who teaches and disciples us, but also a living hope. We are looking for that blessed hope of our Lord’s appearing.
It is a comprehensive salvation. In this brief little book of Titus, the very essence and heart of the whole gospel is captured in a few verses.
Verse 14 captures the essence of the preceding verses:
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.
Praise God. We see what He is doing. God always has an end in view: a people for His own possession. We are His special treasure.
We are thankful that, as the grace of God has appeared, it did not stop there. It continues to work in us. The first time we shared, we focused on the grace of God appearing. Then we shared on Christ in us—what a precious testimony that is. Today we are continuing with the salvation of the soul.
As many have shared, there are really three tenses to salvation.
First, there is the past tense: separation from the penalty of sin—justification. We have been saved. Praise God for that. What a wonderful thing.
Then there is the present tense: separation from the power of sin—sanctification. In the work God is doing today, we are being saved from the power of sin because He has defeated it. We are working out this process, and we will touch on that today.
Then there is the future tense: separation even from the presence of sin—glorification. It is a full, complete, tremendous transforming work that He has done.
Our brother shared last week on transformation, so there is a little overlap between last week and this week. We had no idea that we were both sharing on transformation, but the Lord has orchestrated these messages in such a way that we will simply yield to what He wants to do.
We have asked the question before: How are we transformed? There are what I am calling three keys: Christ in us, the cross, and the Holy Spirit.
Christ in us is that wonderful objective truth. As we look at the cross and the Holy Spirit today, even though I am separating them into three things, they are very much interrelated. They work together; they are not independent of one another.
There is one work being done: bringing us into the experiential knowledge of what we have in Christ. It is not merely the objective truth of Christ in us, but the experiential knowledge of His life actually being lived out and expressed through us, preparing us in this day and time for His glorious return.
When we considered Christ in us, we looked at Colossians 1:27:
To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
What a wonderful foundational truth: Christ in us. It is one of the secrets—the very foundation we have—in the Christian life. Praise God, we remember the price that was paid for Christ to be in us. It was free to us, but it cost Him His very life. What a precious gift we have received.
We also considered Colossians 3:3-4:
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.
Christ, who is our life. We began this morning remembering how the Lord has given us such an abundant life. We have this Zoe life, this abundant life, within us.
It is not merely that we are passive recipients of life. We are to allow that life to be actively lived out within us. His life is the life within us that prepares us and transforms us for His glorious return.
When we speak of this Zoe life, it is an altogether other life. It is divine life; it is not natural life. We were born with natural life, but this is something altogether different. It is uncreated life.
We are created beings, but the Zoe life of God—of our Lord Jesus Christ—is uncreated. You cannot measure the extent of this life.
The focus of eternal life is not so much quantity as quality. We naturally think of eternity in terms of duration, but when Scripture speaks of eternal life, it speaks of the quality of life into which He brings us.
The more we touch the life of Christ, the more we see how little we know of it. We enter in and touch a little bit, and we say, “Wow, look at this part of Christ.” Then we see there is so much more. It is as though we are on the edges of His ways, touching the hem of His garment.
Praise God, as we follow Him daily and give ourselves to Him, He continually shows us more and more of Himself in very practical ways in our lives.
When we are born again, our body remains the same and our soul is basically the same. But our spirit, which was dead—or, as some say, asleep—is born again and quickened by the power of His life within us.
His life comes and dwells in our spirit. That spirit is made alive and alert. It begins to wake up and become active, because the spirit is the center of communion and fellowship with the Lord.
As a review, we have said that the spirit has three aspects: conscience, intuition, and communion. Before salvation, we were under the control of ourselves. Now the desire is that these faculties would come under the control of the Holy Spirit.
This is another way to look at the three phases of salvation:
As you get older, with aches, pains, surgeries, and various things, you begin looking more and more for that new body. Youngsters have no idea how much some of us are yearning for a new body—one where you do not have to worry about DVTs or these kinds of things. Praise God.
The Lord works in us through the cross and the Holy Spirit. We have Christ as our life, but does that truth really impact us?
I have always appreciated this quote from Tozer: “If truth—the truth of Christ in us—doesn’t impact our lives, what value is it? It simply puffs us up.”
It is vital that Christ in us becomes not merely objective truth, but spiritual reality in our lives. Spiritual reality is Christ in us being lived out.
Oswald Chambers said:
The one marvelous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus,
but in allowing the perfections of Jesus to manifest themselves in my mortal flesh.
Sanctification is Christ in you.
It is not merely a mental question: “What would Jesus do?” It is not imitating Him. It is allowing the life within us to come out and be expressed through us in our daily lives. Praise God.
Transformation is the process of transferring control or influence from our natural life—previously controlled by our soul and flesh—to its new Master: His life, the Zoe life, Christ, or the Holy Spirit within us.
Sometimes people ask, “Is it Christ in us, or is it the Holy Spirit in us working?” Don’t get hung up on that. Christ and the Holy Spirit share one life and one purpose. Whether you call it Christ in us or the Holy Spirit working in us, it is the same life working toward the same end.
Before we were saved, the self-life was in control. But as we yield to Him, our spirit begins to gain ascendancy.
The body relates to the external world through seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling, and all the senses. The soul is our personality, and before salvation it is controlled by the flesh: “I want this. I want that.”
The soul is a little like the book of Judges: everybody doing what was right in his own eyes. Sadly, even after becoming Christians, if we do not continually offer ourselves to Him by the mercies of God, our soul can continue doing what it wants to do.
But the Lord wants something else. We say no to the flesh—no to that “I want to”—and surrender ourselves to Him. This is where the great transforming work takes place.
The salvation of the soul is a lifelong process. When we are saved, we are justified immediately. But the soul is being saved throughout our time on earth.
As John the Baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Life has its ups and downs. Sometimes He is increasing, and sometimes we are increasing. There is a battle going on. But as we say no to self-life and the flesh, and yes to Him—which is the cross—His control over our soul increases.
This is a lifelong battle. We have a continual conflict between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit. It is a civil war within us: temptation on one side, and the grace and power of God on the other.
Sometimes we think, “When I become more mature, I will not have this struggle.” No. It is a lifelong battle. But as His life increases within us, we come more and more under His control.
Paul warns us in Galatians 5:17:
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;
for these are contrary the one to the other;
that ye may not do the things that ye would.
The flesh and the Spirit are never friends. They are opposed to one another. There is a constant civil war within.
We are thankful that He has won the victory. We have the victorious life living within us. Yet there is a danger: as we grow in the Lord, have some victories, and gain a little maturity, we can subtly begin to think we are becoming better persons.
We can think, “The flesh is not that strong. I can handle this.” We become dependent on ourselves. But we are kidding ourselves.
I am going to divert for a moment from the glorious hymns we normally sing and mention an old Johnny Cash song, “The Beast in Me.” Johnny Cash had a difficult life. He wrestled with drugs, alcohol, and many things, though he professed to be a Christian.
One line in the song says:
God help me with the beast in me.
Sometimes it tries to kid me that it’s just a teddy bear,
and even somehow manages to vanish in the air.
And that’s when I must be most beware of the beast in me.
That is the self within us. If it cannot win directly, it may calm down and let you feel as though you are winning. You start to feel pretty good about yourself. But that is the moment you need to be most aware of the beast in us.
Every one of us has seen it. Perhaps others have not seen the fullness of the beast in us, but in private life and married life, we know it is there. Praise God, He has the victory. We need simply to be alert.
This transforming process begins with desire. In Luke 9:23, the Lord says:
If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
That desire is a free-will response. By the mercies of God, we offer ourselves. We want to follow Him. It is a heartfelt response.
It is also a daily work: daily denying ourselves. It is progressive—the progressive work of the cross and the Holy Spirit.
There is one basic principle we need to keep in perspective: Calvary always precedes Pentecost. The cross comes before the anointing and enabling of the Holy Spirit.
If we focus only on the cross, it is death. Without knowing the empowering of the Holy Spirit—life out of death—we miss the fullness of why He came. Some focus so much on dying to self that they miss the fullness of the reality of the table.
On the other hand, if we look only at Pentecost—only at the Holy Spirit side—there is life, but if we have never denied ourselves, all we have is a manifestation of self.
Pentecost without the cross leads toward licentiousness and self-exaltation. It becomes like Judges again: everyone doing what is right in his own eyes.
We need to see the working together of the cross and the Holy Spirit. There is a great necessity for both. This is how the Lord has worked throughout the whole Testament and throughout the lives of His people.
How does this transforming work of the cross and the Holy Spirit begin? It is not complicated. It begins by yielding to Him.
As we yield, we grant permission for the cross and the Holy Spirit to begin transforming us. The Lord is the perfect gentleman. He never forces Himself upon us. He will go only as far in each of us as we allow Him to go.
When we say, “Lord, I want to fully surrender,” He begins working. But sometimes He begins dealing with areas where we are not quite ready for Him to work. He may convict us, but if we say, “I’m not ready for that yet, Lord—not ready for You to deal with my love of baseball, or this part of my work life”—He will back off.
We may not say those words so bluntly, but our hearts and actions often speak louder than words. Yet as we say no to ourselves and yes to Him, we give Him permission.
That is what Romans 12:1-2 is about. By the mercies of God, we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. In doing so, we give Him permission to do His marvelous transforming work within us.
When the Lord comes into our lives, our spirit is born again because the spirit is the center where God communicates with us. The Holy Spirit works within our spirit to quicken, awaken, and strengthen it.
The spirit had been dormant for much of our lives, but now He desires fellowship there. Through conscience, intuition, and communion, He brings us into unhindered fellowship with Himself.
When we are born again, we are brought into fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are not outside looking in. We are brought into fellowship with the Godhead. That is amazing.
At times, sin can hinder that fellowship. But as we confess our sins and receive forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb, the fellowship is restored. There is an open heaven—nothing between us.
If we are not conscious of fellowship with Him, perhaps there is sin in our lives or something hindering that fellowship. We can pray as David prayed: “Lord, search me. Try me. Show me what is hindering this.”
It may be that the enemy is at work, or the Lord may be teaching us not to depend so much upon feelings and sensations, but to believe by faith that we have fellowship with Him. He works in many ways.
Our intuition is quickened and awakened to hear His voice and His leading. Suddenly we sense, “I am supposed to do this,” or, “I am not supposed to do that.” Before, we may have loved doing certain things; suddenly, we do not want to do them anymore.
I have shared before that I used to play a lot of softball for company teams. There came a point when I began sensing within me, “Mac, you have to lay that down.”
I wrestled with the Lord for six or seven months, trying to outwit Him and outsmart Him. Of course, you know who won. But it began with a little intuition: “I want you to go this way, Mac.”
At first, we think it will be horrible to give something up. But after we lay it down, though we may miss it for a while, there comes freedom. Eventually, it is behind us—rearview mirror. We keep going ahead.
He also works in our conscience, bringing us into consciousness of the contrast between two kingdoms: what is of Him and what is not of Him. Things that did not bother us in the past begin to trouble us.
Even our language begins to change. I was in the Navy for six years, so you can imagine my language. But when the Lord begins working, you notice these changes. Praise God.
As we yield to Him, our spirit is strengthened. Our minds are renewed, our wills begin to desire His will, and our emotions are captured by His love and brought under the dominion of the Spirit.
This is one of the great contrasts between religion and Christianity. Religion tries to change us from the outside in. It tells us to change our outward actions, believing that then we will become better persons.
That is legalism. It starts on the outside and tries to work inward, but it does not work.
True Christianity starts on the inside. Then the actions of the body are manifested outwardly. Jesus is manifested in our mortal flesh. Praise God. That is what we desire: a transforming and strengthening work within us.
How do we come into the strengthening of our spirit? There are two overall basic ways.
First, we are strengthened by being in His Word. Everybody knows that and agrees with it, but few of us truly obey it and desire it.
I am talking about more than a morning devotional. I am talking about truly reading His Word, meditating on His Word, and listening: What is His Word saying to us?
It is fellowship with the Lord as we read His Word. Our spirit is engaged as we read. We have communion, we become conscious of things, and our intuition is exercised. This strengthens our spirit.
Second, we are strengthened through spending time with Him: daily walking with Him, worship, prayer, fellowship, and life.
Daily does not merely mean once a day. Morning devotions are good, but the spirit of daily life is continual fellowship.
I often mention Brother Lawrence’s book, The Practice of the Presence of God. Now, that book can drive you crazy too, so be careful if you pick it up. But there is a good principle behind it.
Do not try to imitate Brother Lawrence, or you will miss the point. The principle is to practice the Lord’s presence as you go to work, as you are at home, and as you are at the grocery store. It is a conscious awareness of His presence.
Our spirits are strengthened by the grace of God as we learn to say no to ourselves and yes to Him.
In consulting work, people often tell me, “This is a really complicated issue.” But most complicated issues are not really complicated; we simply make the solution complicated.
The same is true in the Christian life. We can make transformation complicated, but there is a simplicity in Christ. We yield to Him, say no to ourselves, and say yes to Him. He will present us with various circumstances and situations.
There is a no and there is a yes. That answers many situations in life. In finances, for example, it may mean saying no to the new car and yes to the used car, because that is what you can afford.
Do not make transformation complicated. There is a simplicity: we yield to Him, say no to self, and say yes to Him.
Do I have a strong spirit? Is my conscience strong or weak?
A strong conscience is a sensitive conscience. Usually, when we think of something sensitive, we think of weakness. But the stronger our conscience is in Him, the more sensitive it becomes to the things of God in contrast to the things of the world—to light and darkness, and to the two kingdoms.
The Lord gives us everyday situations in which to exercise this sensitivity. At work, perhaps there is a company policy against personal use of the phone or computer, except during lunchtime. Perhaps no one enforces the rule.
What does your conscience say? “Well, everyone else does it.” But a sensitive conscience says, “I agreed to these rules when I came to work here. This is what I need to do.”
One of my favorite phrases is also one of the most worldly phrases: “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission.” But when our conscience warns us and we go ahead anyway, planning to ask forgiveness afterward, we are abusing the grace of God.
The Lord wants our conscience to become sensitive, like the dove pictured in Scripture.
We can kid ourselves into thinking we are strong Christians and that things will not affect us. But in this world, it is challenging. You may be watching a movie, something on the internet, or something streaming, and suddenly they defame the Lord’s name.
What do you do? Do you say, “I am a strong Christian. That will not affect me”? No. That shows weakness. Your conscience is weak.
They have defamed the name of the One who loved us and died for us, and we are going to sit there and just take it? What if they said such things about your wife or your child? Would you do nothing?
I realize that if someone says something while you are walking down the street, you are not going to jump on everybody. I am speaking about situations where you have a choice: where you can get up and walk out, turn it off, or say no to a friend.
Do we just allow it to go by, or are we willing to say, “No, I am not going to put up with that”? Even if it costs us a friendship or a relationship, what is more important? Is our conscience quickened enough to say no?
It is tragic how much the Lord’s name is defamed, and we can become dull to it. When the Lord’s name is used in vain, we let it fly by and continue watching the movie. I do not want to pay for that.
That is personal conviction, but there are things to which our conscience needs to awaken.
The same is true with pornography in the world today. A person can become so used to it that he says, “I am a strong Christian. It will not affect me.” No, it impacts us. It impacts our spirit and our lives.
Do not think that you are such a strong Christian that these things will not impact you. This is where we exercise our spirit: no to self, no to the world, yes to Christ.
Young people, when you find yourselves at school, at parties, or in other situations, you may sense within, “I’m not sure I should go there.” But you may want to go because you will be accepted, because someone you like will be there, or because you want to be in with a certain crowd.
Are we willing to say no? We can kid ourselves: “There will be drugs and other things there, but I am a strong Christian. It will not affect me. I will be a testimony to them. I will go out drinking with them and share the gospel.”
Do you hear what you are saying?
In this evil age, there is a great contrast between the Spirit of the Lord within us and the spirit of this world. Yet we can allow a gray area to come in, rationalizing things and making them acceptable when they are not.
The believers in Crete had been worthless for any good deed, but they allowed Christ to work in them and make them zealous for good deeds. He did that through the awakening and exercise of their spirit.
Let us not think we stand, lest we fall. Praise God, His grace gives us the ability to say no and yes.
I would like to use the life of Paul as an example of how this works in a person’s life. Most of us have some general familiarity with Paul’s life, so I will not go into many details. I simply want to touch on a few areas of how the Lord worked for the salvation of Paul’s soul.
God did not merely save Paul; as Paul saw more of the Lord, he was transformed into His image.
At one point Paul said:
I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Later he said:
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
What a downward work God did in Paul’s life. Christ increased, and Paul decreased. The way of the flesh is self-exaltation, but Paul was captured by the Lord and surrendered to Him.
There are three things that stand out to me in Paul’s life:
As Paul came to know Christ in this way, transformation took place. His intimate relationship with the Lord transformed his emotions. His insatiable desire brought his will under God’s will. His confidence in the Lord’s infallibility brought his mind into peace and rest.
Whatever situation he faced, Paul knew God was infallible. He could rest in Him. He testified, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content.” He went through the training process of the cross and the Holy Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul testified that he was controlled—constrained—by the love of Christ.
For the love of Christ constraineth us.
The love of Christ controlled his heart and who he was. Paul was no longer living for himself, but for the One who loved him and died for him.
This is holy passion for the Lord. This is first love. When God captured Paul’s heart, he came into the spirit and essence of first love. He said, “I am not living for myself anymore. I am living for the One who loved me and died for me.”
In Philippians 3:7-8, Paul speaks of all he had been before knowing Christ. He had Greek education, Roman citizenship, Jewish heritage, and prominence as a Pharisee. He had the whole world before him.
Yet when he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, everything changed. His perspective changed.
What things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.
Paul had gained so much in his natural life—from Greek culture, Roman privilege, and Jewish standing—but he counted it as loss. More than that, he counted it as rubbish in comparison with the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord.
What a beautiful picture of first love. His emotions were no longer governed by himself, but by the One who first loved him. This was progressive throughout Paul’s life. It was not instantaneous.
Paul said, “I die daily.” He continually surrendered himself, allowing the Holy Spirit to work. He did not die only on Sunday and come to the meeting. He died daily in life.
He gave certain ones not only the Word of God, but his own life. They saw Christ being lived out in him. Paul was not led by his emotions; he was led by the love of Christ controlling him.
Paul’s will was transformed. In Philippians 1:21, he testified:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Out of an intimate relationship with Christ came an insatiable desire for Him. Paul did not care where he served or how he served. He did not rest in former success.
In Philippians 3:12-14, Paul says:
Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
What was Paul forgetting? He was forgetting his three missionary journeys, the churches that had been birthed, the epistles he had written under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and every success of ministry.
He did not rest on his pedigree or his laurels. He said, in effect, “I am not satisfied with merely what I have known of the Lord. I am pressing on to know Him more and more, to lay hold of that for which I was laid hold of.”
God has each one of us for a purpose. Paul urges us not to be content with what we have known, but to press on to know Him more and more.
Paul learned to be content in all circumstances, but he was never content with knowing the Lord. In Philippians 3, he says, “I press on.” He was content whether abounding or abased, hungry or full, in plenty or in need. But he always knew there was more of Christ.
Paul had an incredibly strong will before he was saved. He was driven in persecuting the church. But God came in and transformed that will.
Every one of us is strong-willed in some way. But God is stronger. He can transform the weakest emotions and the strongest will, bringing them under the dominion of His life. That is how we live godly in this present age.
Paul encouraged others in the same way. He encouraged those in Thessalonica to excel still more. He praised them for loving the Lord and loving one another, but urged them not to be content. Press on. Abound more and more.
Finally, we see how the Lord transformed Paul’s mind. Paul came to know the infallibility of Christ.
Second Corinthians is often called Paul’s autobiography. Throughout it, he speaks of the sufficiency of Christ. Some translations use the word “adequacy,” but “sufficiency” sounds stronger. Paul knew the all-sufficiency and infallibility of Christ in every situation.
Consider Acts 28. Paul was being taken to Rome when a great storm caused a shipwreck. The passengers ended up on Malta, soaking wet from the Mediterranean, and began building a fire.
A viper came out of the fire and fastened itself on Paul’s hand. The people said, “This man must be a murderer.” But Paul shook it off, and they waited for him to swell up and die.
When he did not die, they changed their minds and said, “He is a god.” Paul did not allow either their accusations or their praises to control him. He did not go up and down emotionally with the opinions of men.
The people of Malta eventually provided everything Paul needed. He was content in abundance and in lack. He knew the all-sufficiency of Christ.
Paul suffered physically through imprisonment, beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, hunger, cold, and many other hardships. But he learned the all-sufficiency and infallibility of Christ to carry him through.
He also faced emotional struggles. He speaks of having the sentence of death within himself, being perplexed, depressed, and concerned about the believers in Corinth. He had conflicts without and conflicts within.
Yet in the midst of every varied emotion and circumstance, Paul saw the all-sufficiency of Christ meeting him.
In his final testimony in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul said:
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day;
and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved his appearing.
Paul’s confidence was not in himself. We sang that little chorus, “It was not I, but Christ in me.” That was Paul’s testimony: not I, but Christ in me.
He was not boasting in himself; he was boasting in Christ within him.
Later in that letter, Paul says:
At my first defense no one took my part, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their account.
But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me.
What mercy and graciousness! “May it not be counted against them.” That is the grace of God working in a life. That is the life of Christ being seen in a person.
Everyone may desert us, but the Lord stood with Paul. Paul knew the infallibility of the Lord. We are going to need that in these last days.
It is vital that the Lord reveal Himself to each of us through intimate relationship, insatiable desire, and the knowledge of His infallibility and all-sufficiency. Through these things, we are strengthened in the power of His life.
These three build upon one another. Out of intimate relationship comes a deeper desire. The greater our desire for Him, the more we see His all-sufficiency and infallibility.
I used the word “infallibility” because I wanted the alliteration of three “I” words. If you want to say “all-sufficiency,” that is fine too.
The more we know Him, the more this becomes a continual cycle. We learn His faithfulness in one area, our intimate relationship deepens, our desire increases, and then we discover more of His all-sufficiency. We continually grow in knowing Him in a fuller way.
We are thankful that, in the days in which we are living, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
Do we really know the fullness, greatness, majesty, and all-sufficient salvation into which we have been brought? Brothers and sisters, it is a great salvation.
Hebrews calls it “so great a salvation.” Even those words are limited. We try to find words to express its greatness, magnitude, fullness, absolute completeness, and everything involved in this salvation brought to us through what we remember each week at the table.
He has not only saved us; He has made us His special treasure because He has a purpose for us. He desires that we would be His testimony in this present age, in the midst of darkness.
May the light shine brighter and brighter, even though the darkness does not comprehend it. The light of Christ shone in the world, but the world did not comprehend it.
Let us not allow our lights to grow dull simply because people do not comprehend. We still need to allow the light of His life to shine out from us more brightly as this transforming work is worked out in each one of us.
Peter says that He has made every provision for life and godliness. Let us keep pressing on—not only in this age, but looking forward to the age to come.
In this present age, God is doing a preparatory work. He is transforming and preparing us for the great and glorious work ahead: ruling and reigning with Him.
We experience something of that now. We are thankful for the victory He gives us over things in our lives, for the comfort He gives us through tragedies, and for the fellowship we have with Him and with one another.
There are so many blessings in Him, but there is so much more. There is an inheritance in glory for us, and He desires for His life to be lived out through us.
We have Christ in us, the hope of glory.
May we, like Paul, continually offer ourselves to Him by the mercies of God—responding to His grace and His love—and come into a greater intimate relationship with Him, allowing Him to do a transforming work within us.
Out of that intimate relationship, may there come a greater, insatiable desire for Christ.
We were recently in Canada for a wedding, and there was a couple there who had an insatiable desire for food. They were foodies. They literally travel all over the world to try a particular dish. They had just returned from Turkey because they had heard about a certain dish that they wanted to try.
I am not going to talk about their Christian life, but it made me ask: Do we have an insatiable desire for Christ?
Some people have such an insatiable desire to know everything going on in the world and in politics. They spend hours digging into this and that, yet perhaps spend only half an hour with the Lord every day.
This is an adjustment of priorities, an adjustment of life, and an adjustment of perspective. What is important?
As we have intimate relationship with Him, it creates desire within us. In His wonderful faithfulness, as we hunger for Him, we learn of Him and His all-sufficiency.
There is such insecurity among many believers today because of the shaking, pressures, and things happening around us. May we come into a greater knowledge of the security, infallibility, and all-sufficiency of Christ Jesus our Lord.
He who began a good work in each one of us will complete it in that day.
May the Lord work in us so that we may be prepared vessels, fit for the Master’s use. May we allow the grace of God that has appeared to all men to do the great work He desires to do within us.
Thank the Lord for the treasure, Christ in us. Thank the Lord for all He did on the cross. Thank the Lord for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who has sealed us in Him.
May the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have great freedom to work in each of our lives, preparing us for whatever is ahead.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we do come. As we see how You worked in one like Paul, who was so against You, we offer ourselves to You.
Whether we are as strong as Paul was or not, we are still frail human vessels, in great need of You to do a work within us.
We are thankful, Lord, that You never give up on us. We are thankful for Your long-suffering love. Lord, we want our hearts and our lives to be willing.
We are thankful that You do not force us to do things. You do not want us to be robots, merely going about doing this and that. You want us to express Your life in living ways—Your life lived out through us.
Lord, we simply say that we are thankful that the grace of God has appeared to each of us in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We want to be those who allow You to disciple us, train us, and work within our hearts and lives in this day and time, that we would be prepared for the living hope set before us in You and for all that You desire to do throughout eternity.
In Your precious name. Amen.