Sunday Evening Worship & Word

you can start making your way back to your seats i'm thankful he made a difference in my life and he made a difference in your life and when he does that you live differently if he's made a difference you can't stay the same way that you were before he made a difference we are called to be different i want to say this it's a great honor to be in the house of the lord tonight to give honor to all of our leadership our pastor our bishop all of our leadership we give honor to pastor anthony who's preaching out of town this weekend we give honor to him but we are so glad to have guests with us they pass us every day they say we're so glad to have kelsey and arthur korea here with us can we welcome them tonight we're so glad that you are here we hope that you feel welcome here at first apostolic church god bless you and all of our guests we welcome you just the same as pastor said this morning you're a guest one time then after that you're just home folk right here at first apostolic church you know this is the friendliest church in town this is the friendliest church in town bishop talked about that this morning from our tidbits from times past but i'm thankful that our church not only has a history of being friendly but we are presently a friendly church we are a loving church thankful for that this last week we were in chattanooga for our general ministry conference for the assemblies of the lord jesus christ last year we we did a we did a symposium on the oneness of the godhead they asked me to oversee some writings of essays some scholarly and pastoral essays on the oneness of god and it was a a great success at our conference last year and so they they had asked me to help oversee a symposium again this year that we would do during the day at our conference and this year's theme was was holiness and so we had several several pastors and ministers from the assemblies of the lord jesus christ over the last six months study and write on different topics of holiness and so they wrote those and hopefully by the by next week or so we're going to get those online so you can make a purchase to buy those uh they are they are fantastic even though i'm just a little bit biased as being the editor but they are fantastic essays on the topic of holiness and i heard a i read a quote from a puritan by the name of john flavel he said this if you neglect to instruct your children in the way of holiness will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness i don't think you heard me if you neglect to instruct your children in the way of holiness will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness the answer to that is no the world is teaching teaching all the time and so the purpose of our symposium and the one from last year and this year is to compile what we believe as an apostolic people and so i got the opportunity to write parts write an essay for it and really it's just a sermon and so i thought i'd share that with you can i do that tonight can i do that now i know we we gave our writers and presenters 20 minutes to present their paper and i had to tell preachers to not go more than 20 minutes and that's like trying to tell somebody you can only get one plate at a buffet that's just difficult it's just difficult to do especially if you go to the mandarin house or what used to be the mandarin house i'm sorry i'm so sorry that was just that's me it's closed down now it's probably why it's closed down and uh it's hard to tell a preacher just to go 20 minutes so but i want to share with you my my topic tonight and i'll try to preach it in less than 20 minutes can i do that uh we'll see we'll prom i can't promise you that but my topic for this year was um his part and ours a theology of sanctification his part in ours a theology of sanctification the word of god yields a clear and thoughtful outline on holiness both from the old and new testaments but if we're going to understand scriptural holiness we must begin with god's holiness and man's sinfulness because if we fail to grasp these two points god's holiness and men's sinfulness we could have a very shallow view of god's holiness and it weakens the measure of god's righteousness and his wrath against sin and if we don't have a strong understanding of man's sinfulness it can lead to the belief that humanity has no obligation to attain any measure of holiness and so both of those assumptions create very very strong theological dangerous theological errors scripture gives us a a robust view of god's holiness and man's sinfulness scripture demands that since god is holy man must be holy nevertheless how can a holy god and a sinful humanity be reconciled how can believers become more like the holy one who saved them i believe the answer is the same the gospel of jesus christ the call to holiness is a call to believe and obey the gospel of jesus to be made holy sinners must first be made right with god then it is through the same power of the gospel which enables believers to work hand in hand with god towards growth in holiness and christ's likeness someone say amen and so for us to begin to have a subject to talk about a subject like holiness we need to begin with god the old testament makes the the statement hear o israel the lord our god is one lord the one god of the old testament is the creator of all creation however god's oneness is just one of his many attributes some of god's attributes or characteristics are incommunicable as humans we cannot share these attributes such as uh god's self-existence sovereignty omnipotence omniscience omnipresence and immubility humans will never be self-existent sovereign all-powerful all-knowing everywhere at once though we might like to try that are actually all-knowing would like to try that too don't we or unchangeable and we really like to try that don't we we try but we can't we can't we can't be all we can't be all-knowing everywhere at once or unchangeable but there are some of god's attributes that are communicable for humans can share these attributes on a smaller scale such as god's truthfulness wisdom goodness love and holiness god is called holy throughout the old and new testaments perhaps the most well-known pronouncement of god's holiness is found in isaiah chapter number six the prophet isaiah had a vision of the lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted above the lord stood seraphim and wings with wings these angelic beings were stationed above the throne of god and they cried out continually holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory god's holiness goes merely goes beyond just mere separation from other things god's holiness is not restricted to just moral purity though he is unequivocally pure instead god's holiness encompasses much more r.c sproul a bible commentator and theologian said this when the bible calls god holy it means primarily that god is transcendently separate he is so far above and beyond us that he seems almost totally foreign to us to be holy is to be other to be different in a special way end quote a thrice holy god is not just free from sin he is transcendently separate from anything unholy or unclean consequently god alone can declare or make something to be holy holiness is the very essence of god making all of god's other attributes and characteristics that we described earlier intrinsically connected to his holiness now it leads us to our next issue that is humans god created humans in his image adam and eve were created with a state of innocence and holiness in other words humanity was created free from sin adam and eve's innocence does not mean they were like children for they possessed a mature intelligence and the same communicable attributes as their creator furthermore god created humans with the capability of making decisions god created humans with a will god created humanity to give him glory and to enjoy fellowship with him willingly therefore they could make correct or incorrect decisions i think we all know something about that don't we adam and eve fell from their original state of innocence through their disobedience to god's command to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil adam and eve's sin was an act of their will and their choice sin infected humanity the moment humanity decided to disobey god's command this is what the apostle paul said wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for all have sinned now you're thinking this for a moment i wasn't there brother nade i wasn't there i didn't commit that act well if you know anything about basketball or football which are two of my favorite sports if one person commits a foul the whole team is penalized though we were not there we were in adam and adam committed a foul therefore all of us were penalized we were infected with sin adam and eve did not just abdicate their place in the garden in fellowship with god they forfeited their holiness in exchange for their holiness they received sinfulness rather than freedom they became enslaved that's what sin always does to us it promises us freedom but gives us chains it promises something that it will never give sin distorted the image of god in adam and eve and consequently all of us here tonight now let's talk about sin for a moment because of adam's sin the entire race has inherited the guilt and consequences of sin all of humanity is worthy of god's wrath due to sin the greek form of sin which paul employs in romans is a special kind of word in the greek it means to miss the mark meaning we've missed the mark of god's holiness paul is emphatic in the first three chapters of romans that all of humanity is under the power of sin if you look at chapter number one he goes right after the gentiles and you can just hear the hebrews going that's right get em that's right those filthy heathen pagans and then paul jumps over to chapter number two and says by the way hebrews you're just as guilty what us too yes you we're all guilty of sin and somebody goes one wait a second what about grandma what about uncle so and so and paul says no not one all of us are under the guilt of sin sin has enslaved all of us he says it's the problem of the flesh in paul's thought the flesh is not the same as the body it is instead paul's symbol for the universal power of sin that's why we can't walk in the flesh we are to walk in the spirit because what's in us is no good thing at all no good thing at all sin has turned the world upside down leaving humanity's understanding darkened the mind and the conscious defiled the spirit and the flesh corrupted and the heart wicked and deceitful sinful flesh persuades people to sin sin corrupts god's creation from the inside out arsenal whoever i quoted earlier made a statement powerful to me he says this you aren't a sinner because you sin you sin because you're a sinner isn't that good you aren't a sinner because you sin you sin because that's your nature you're a sinner and so just as god's holiness goes beyond merely being separate humanity's sin goes beyond just defilement it has eternal consequences god takes sin seriously again a low view of god's holiness and a shallow view of man's sinfulness can be dangerous theological errors to make this point clear paul wrote the wrath of god not the love of god the wrath of god is being revealed from heaven against what against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness god's wrath brothers and sisters is imminent sin has corrupted humanity and it lands us under god's judgment paul says this by thy hardness and impending heart treasure is up to thyself wrath let me ask you what kind of treasure are you treasuring up right now is your lifestyle treasuring up god's wrath or is it bringing god's blessings god will render to every man he goes on to say according to his deeds now when we talk about god's wrath we shouldn't think that god is irrational or has some irrational passion but rather his righteousness in holiness demands payment for sin sinners are condemned presently and await the ultimate condemnation of god's wrath now i know we're not shouting right now but this is in your bible and if we don't understand this if we don't understand how how grave sin is we'll continue down a path of destruction but humanity brothers and sisters is not without hope sin's corruption of man's nature did not leave him without the hope of a rescue though that hope would not come within himself instead he would come from the very one who was offended can you imagine we would like to i'm a fixture i like to fix things not things but like but there's something wrong i'm going to fix it i want to fix i'm a fixture by nature but listen you can't fix yourself you can't counsel sin out you can't pay your way out of sin there's only one way that you can get rid of sin and that is through jesus christ that's our hope tonight against sin but listen listen listen now listen listen i know this is gonna hurt some people's theology but listen we are not in a war against the devil's wrath the devil doesn't send anybody to hell you know why'd you do that well the devil may be oh really i don't think he did you have a will and you decided to disobey therefore your sin brings not the devil's wrath god's wrath you see the devil is already condemned he just wants to bring everybody with him but god took on flesh so he could redeem us from the consequences and the condemnation of sin we are not without hope tonight if you've come in here a sinner you can leave here a saint because jesus christ has come to save sinners i wish somebody would clap their hands right now before i go any further i think we should give him praise that he had mercy he had mercy and grace upon us when we didn't deserve it [Applause] the offspring of adam and eve having lost the favor of god live out the brokenness of this divine image trapped in despair shame pride and guilt but you're not without hope the only way that we could get out of this was god's holy love his holy love christianity is the only religion where god himself can atone for the sins of humanity every other religion every other faith people have to work for their salvation not us the word made flesh was god's plan to redeem humanity jesus the second adam i like second things i wrote this down in my notes today it's not in my notes right now i wrote in my little notebook to preach one of these days you might get a little teaser right now second best is god's best the second adam is a better atom the second birth is a better birth and the second coming is better than the first i want to tell somebody he's the god of second chances hey i wish somebody realized there's hope for you tonight hey hallelujah he came into the world to save sinners he didn't come into this world to save the whole he came to save those who were sick christ became a mediator of a new covenant the covenant not of condemnation and law but the covenant of grace whereas the old testament dealt with sin through the law and sacrifices christ's death dealt with sin once and for all furthermore christ took humanity's place and received the wrath of god for us this redemptive event is god's unmerited favor grace paul wrote for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him jesus bore humanity's sin and consequently bore the wrath of god in our place in order that we might gain the righteousness of god which brings us to our next part of the plan paul talks about justification and righteousness how can humanity that is broken and sinful receive god's holy attributes it is only through jesus christ he became that which he wasn't so we could become that which we weren't god have mercy so he who knew no sin became sin that we who were sin could become holy he left the confines of a glorious holy place and robed himself in carnal flesh so we who are endued with sin could be with him and reign with him that should give somebody some joy i don't know why you're walking around with a frown on your face when he came to redeem you and to give you new life old things are passed away and behold everything's been made new and you didn't have to do anything for it [Applause] now hold on that sounds interesting brother nate what do you mean you didn't have to do anything for it faith without works is dead and paul says we are to be justified by christ we can only be justified through faith now it sounds interesting to hear that there are people who believe that all you have to do is simply believe and if you're simply just just skimming through paul's letters you might think that but if you read all of paul's life from the acts in all of his letters you realize that you must have faith that you must repent of your sins and you must be buried with christ in baptism and you must receive his spirit because if you don't have his spirit you are none of his so it takes faith it takes repentance it takes baptism in the name of jesus and you must receive the gift of the holy ghost and how do you get all of that grace grace grace grace he enables you to believe he enables you to repent then he washes away your sins when you go down that water and then he by grace fills you with his spirit that's why it's for the rich and for the poor that's why it's for every person under the sun why because he does not it's not his will that any should perish but that all would come to repentance you don't have to have a large bank account you don't have to be popular you don't have to be in the in crowd all you've got to do is say lord here i am save me [Applause] and so we are justified the word justification means just as if i didn't do it i'm guilty because of my sin but christ comes and takes my sin and gives me his righteousness instead what a what a trade when i was a kid i used to love baseball cards man i had baseball cards i could be a millionaire today if my mom didn't throw them away i mean i had them i had so i mean i look at all these people making millions of dollars off baseball cards and i was like i had that i had that i had that i had that i don't have it no more and i remember trading with my friends i used to used to love trading baseball cards and you always try to sneak one in you know you try to sneak away like oh yeah yeah this is a great card yeah that's a great card can i have that rookie card he'd try to make a trade and so it doesn't look fair so you add a couple other no names to the trade so you can get something good in return but i want you to know christ looked at us and said give me your sinfulness and i'll give you my righteousness and it's as if you've never done it so he looks at your past and he looks at your mistakes and he looks at your sin and says give that to me and i'm gonna give you my holiness my righteousness what a trade what a trade i'm getting away with this trade i'm getting all of this he gave it to i wish somebody get happy right now that you got away with one we got away with one we made a trade and i'm the winner i'm the winner he gave me his grace upon grace [Music] someone say amen so justification he justifies us he makes us right but here's the next part i'm going somewhere as we look through all of scripture and sometimes we get these two words justification and sanctification mixed up justification is how we are made righteous sanctification is now the application of redemption that continues throughout our earthly lives in other words we are starting this progressive work of god making us more like jesus that's essential to see the distinction between justification and sanctification hear me now justification describes our freedom from the guilt of sin justification is what christ has done for us sanctification is what he's doing in us [Applause] so what he's done in us he has justified us but what he's doing in us presently is sanctifying us now what does that mean by the name sanctifying us sanctification is the cleansing and the renewal of your life moreover sanctification is evidence or the proof that you've been justified that's why i don't believe that it's one saved always saved that's why i don't believe name it blab it grab it and go on your way because that's not sanctification sanctification or holiness is the evidence that something has taken place in your life in other words what they say before i came up here was he became the difference maker i don't walk like i used to walk i don't talk like i used to talk because he made a difference in other words i'm showing that something has taken place in my life that's why i don't live like the way i used to live why because he justified me and sanctification is the proof that he's he's still working on me right i'm not there yet now there's a there's a little couple of distinctions here okay now he makes us righteous he makes us holy at salvation but sanctification continues this work throughout our life in other words you never graduate from holiness [Applause] we don't have a certificate for you to say you made it look at you you're you're completely without sin good for you now i'm a liar because john said if he that he he that says he is without sin is a liar and now you're a sinner all over again so you constantly grow in christ's likeness so we are not the same but we grow and go in a different direction it's maturity it's a change of your lifestyle you can't live like the way you used to live you're no longer a sinner you're a son or a saint the apostle paul looks back at this initial moment of salvation and sanctification when he said and such were some of you but ye are washed ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the lord jesus but it's not over because paul says that there is a continued fight against the pollution we've been saved from the corruption of sin sanctification is the the removal of the pollution of sin have you ever gone somewhere and you cleaned something up now listen you can go i've seen it happen my my house my wife works so hard to to keep the house clean there's a little seven-year-old girl in here somewhere i think and we try to clean her room this little girl's room that lives with us and we clean the room and we put everything together we put everything back and voices are raised tempers are flared tears are shed it's clean it's clean and 10 minutes later the tasmanian devil shows up and it's back to how it was that's what sin is because as long as we live in this body there is the corruption or the pollution left over of what sin had in us it's the tar-like substance that you just can't constantly you got to constantly get rid of or like my favorite thing to do when i'm being facetious is weed eating it doesn't matter how many times you mow it if you mow it all the way i might get it down where the dirt is i don't want to see any green and you get it all the way down i don't understand these people who do a comb over in their yard they just comb it over and they comb it over this way i'm like get it down to the dirt so i don't have to do this for three weeks as soon as you do it some little thing pops up like five inches high like i know i know and i know i i know i clean that up that's like sin you have to constantly weed eat sin in your life that sanctification paul says this is a constant war he says let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body but i'm forgiven of my sin yes but the pollution remains and it will always be susceptible in your life someone said this john owen a great puritan he said be killing sin or sin will be killing you so we have been made holy and we are being made holy but there's not one person in this place who will ever be perfect from sin so sorry i didn't sin today liar there's one we can you say well i didn't i didn't behave badly what about that thought you had lust jealousy greed the things that you can't see the acceptable sins these are the things that remain in us that we have to kill every day so we have a past and present sanctification but then there is going to be a future glorification that one of these days whether through the grave or through the second coming of our lord jesus christ then we shall be made in his likeness but until then we grow grow grow we fail we fail we fail and we grow and we grow and we constantly move in the direction come on we've got to keep growing let not sin rain in your mortal body you got to put the death of deeds or the works of the flesh someone say amen but we work together with him now we can't save ourselves but we can cooperate with christ i'm almost done i actually want to get ready we work with him in cooperation hand in hand in this work toward sanctification now i know we can get into the minutia we can talk about details of can we do this and can we do that and can we go there can i tell you this holiness is not about rules and regulations hear me hear me holiness is if you start thinking holiness is about rules and regulations you missed it holiness is not about rules and regulations it's about relationship and when you come into relationship with christ now listen when i married that beautiful girl on june the 11th 2010 when i said i do and she thanked the lord said i do as well. i didn't say hey what are my rules around here what are the rules what can i do and what can i not do now if i did that i mean that's a that's a that's a really bad way to start off a relationship or a marriage instead it's i love you i'll do anything for you you're awesome i'm not right and when you get into a relationship a love relationship you'll do anything to please the other you'll serve you'll love you'll apologize you'll forgive what you're doing is you are in a relationship that says whatever i got to do to stay with you i'll do it it's not rules and regulations it's relationship it's the same way with jesus he's not giving us a list of to do's and to don'ts he's saying hey please me serve me love me and i'll bless someone say amen [Music] i get excited about this because if we understand this and so many people let me just say this and i'm drawing too close please so many people get in oh i don't want to go to church because i'm going to be restricted restricted from what sin the thing that was killing you destroying your marriage destroying your kids destroying your health destroying your career he that's restrictive to you or as instead i'm free i'm free i'm liberated from sins bondage and i'm not going back if we only see holiness through the view of to do's and to don'ts you'll live under the constant pressure of condemnation it happens all the times people they fail they make a mistake and they go i just got i can't go back to church he doesn't love me let me tell you something god is not up in glory right now with a hammer waiting to bring down his judgment upon you because you had a bad day a bad day doesn't make a bad life what you do is come back and say lord i need your grace help me to kill this thing that could kill me come on don't live under the didn't save you by grace to keep you under condemnation that's not how this works if he saved you by his grace he will keep you by his grace and he will forgive you by his grace when you say we for we have an advocate with the father jesus christ all right stand to your feet [Applause] it's grace that saves and it's grace that sanctifies for the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldliness worldly lust we should live soberly righteously and godly where in glory in heaven no in this present world so the grace that saves you is the grace that will empower you to live righteously soberly godly and holy in this 2022 world we work with him we kill what could kill us and we do it through grace we walk in the spirit and not in the flesh because we want to please him the hope of sanctification brothers and sisters is not church membership and whether or not you're in the in crowd or the out crowd the hope of sanctification is eternal life paul said but now being made free from sin and become servants to god you have your fruit under holiness and the end everlasting life while sanctification initially begins at salvation its continued work progresses throughout the christian life god provided the means of defeating sin with the believer's justification and he also provided the means of growing in holiness and christ-likeness salvation brothers and sisters is not a one-time event instead is a joyful journey living out the gospel of jesus christ with the hope of reaching its final consummation in eternity why don't you lift up your hands right now lift up your hands right now lift up your hands right now come on he's not going to condemn you he's come to save you he didn't come in into this world to condemn the world but to save the world if you would recognize that he is for you he is for you the moment you have faith and repent and you get baptized and you receive his spirit he's for you then he's also for you five years from then and ten years from then when you made a bunch of mistakes and you can't do it and you feel like i'll never make it i'll never live up guess what the grace of god comes down and says let's keep going let's keep going let's keep growing you see where you made a mistake come on let's keep going let's keep going [Music] now there will always be people listen to me i'm closing they're going to sing there will always be people who love to turn the grace of god into what paul said lasciviousness or license to sin but paul says this he he knew those people would come he knew there would be people who would say ah we've got grace we could do whatever we want and paul said shall we continue in sin because grace abounds and he says god forbid grace didn't come to keep you in chains grace came to free you from the chains of sin so you don't go back to the bondage because of grace you go on to freedom because of grace and you say i don't walk like i used to walk i don't talk the way i used to talk i don't live the way i used to live i don't dress the way i used to dress i don't do i don't go to the same place i used to go why because he's made a difference and i'm growing almost done i'm preaching now listen there will always be people [Music] who now we're not plant people every year we this the first year we've not seen a plant and go oh we should get that if we finally figured it out plants die with us just die not for us but there will always be plants that grow faster than other plants and just as there are plants that grow faster than other plants there are people christians saints sons daughters brothers and sisters who grow in their holiness faster than others but just because you're a fast grower it mean somebody else doesn't have the same grace initiative dedication hey i might just be a little slower but i'm gonna get there i'm not perfect but he's not looking for perfection he's just looking for me to work with him as they begin to sing when you lift up your hands one more time i'm inviting you to the to the altar if you would like to spend a time in prayer and say lord i want to grow in holiness i want to grow in sanctification but you're not done with me you're not finished with me there's growth happening it might be fast i may not see it but god your words