Let's turn to 1 John 3. Here in this chapter, John continues
to build an understanding for us regarding the conversation
of believers, our conversation, our walk, how we carry ourselves
here in this world. And it is a walk of faith. the children of God are a spiritual
people. We are given a spiritual birth
and our walk is not the walk of the flesh in the flesh, but
it is a walk of faith. And so I want to be very clear
with this so that if I sound like I'm misspeaking in any way
here, Our righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
That is the ground of our hope and acceptance with holy God. We must be as righteous as God
is righteous. We must be as holy as God is
holy. And that's not going to be done
or accomplished by your works or my works. It's accomplished
by Jesus Christ who said it is finished on the cross. He finished the work. He is righteous,
and we in him are made righteous by him. We are righteous. We're
accepted of God right now, right now in Christ for Christ's sake. So our justification, our sanctification,
our acceptance with God is because of and through the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. And so this is the undergirding
truth whereby we hear this word, this epistle that John has written
to the church. And what John is bringing out
here in this chapter as a result of Christ's righteous work, what
he's done and accomplished, is that God now bears witness He
gives testimony. He manifests the light and life
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his people. And his people are manifest
by his faith, his grace, his spirit that he gives. He manifests
life in his people. He gives you light and life,
making us partakers of the family of God. in that righteousness,
in that perfect righteousness. So this chapter is bringing out,
he's building a case and he's bringing out how that God manifests
this salvation in us. In the first verse of Jude, and
Jude's only one chapter, but in the first verse of Jude, he's
writing to them that are sanctified by the Father, sanctified by
God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. That's what he says, and called. And so God's manifestation in
us is that we are sanctified. God has set us apart. out of
the world for himself, for his own use, his own purposes. And
he tells us that our preservation is Jesus Christ. He's the one
keeping us. He's keeping us. He's providing
all that we need. And he tells us that the manifestation
is a calling. He calls his people out of darkness,
out of this world, through the preaching of the gospel, making
it effectual in your hearts. That's something that is not
done for the children of the devil, the seed of the serpent,
as we'll see more as we go through this. And so we're talking about
our conversation, our walk, which is a walk of faith. As ye have
received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him. How did you receive
Christ Jesus? By faith. walk in faith, walk
in that faith. And so we're talking about his
manifestation of his grace, his power in us by Jesus Christ. And just by way of a quick review,
In 1 John 2, 29, the last chapter there, John was telling us about
the will and purpose of God, that we be holy, that we be righteous
in him. And quoting from Colossians 1,
Colossians 1, verse 21 and 22, that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled,
and here's where it is, in the body of his flesh through death,
to present you holy. and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. And this is according to the
eternal purpose and will of God when he chose you in Christ before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. In love. This is God's purpose,
his will for us. And John, then turns us and brings
out that God loved us. He manifests his people, revealing
his love for his people. He's manifesting that. He's bringing
that to our knowledge, to our attention, to our understanding. And in 1 John 3, verse 1, look
at that there. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us. You that hear, you that hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches, you that walk by faith
in Christ, what love has God the Father show to us, us, that
we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world
knoweth us not." And so right there, he's talking about the
seed of the serpent. That's the world that knoweth
us not because it knew him not. This opens to our view that there's
a distinction, there's a distinction that God makes in his people
that is not made in the seed of the serpent. God makes that
distinction. God manifests his life and power
in you. That's what I want you to see.
This is what he said of the promise in Genesis 3.15, what he said
to the serpent in the hearing of Adam and Eve. He said this,
and I will put enmity between thee and the woman. and between
thy seed, the seed of the serpent, and her seed, that is the promised
seed that should come, Jesus Christ, and all in him, all that
are in him, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his
heel. So to you that are called by
God through the word of this gospel unto faith in Christ,
You believe that he is your righteousness through his death and that God
raised him from the dead for your justification. And John
says, behold, what manner of love the Father hath given unto
you, to you that believe. What love that God should think
on you and choose you and separate you out from the wrath which
is coming upon this world and the children of wrath and the
children of destruction. He plucked you out of that by
his grace and power in Christ and so that he separated you,
he sanctified you unto this. And Christ is preserving you.
Christ is keeping you. You are the called out ones.
There's a distinction made in you by God. By God. And so he sent, then, having
loved you, having chosen you, he sent his well-beloved son
out of the veil of heaven to come to this place, this sinful,
putrid, vile, wretched, ruined, sinful place, in the flesh to
fulfill all righteousness for his people, to do for us what
we cannot do for ourselves and would not do it. We could not
do it. And so Christ came, for God so
loved the world. His people, Jew and Gentile,
scattered throughout the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. And God makes known who that
whosoever is by manifesting the power of His grace and salvation
in them. He manifests this, he makes it
known. And so John builds on this wonder
of the love of God for us by making us to see that when Christ
came, he came for the purpose of destroying, bruising the head,
crushing the head of the serpent, destroying his works, breaking
the works of the devil, It says in 1 John 3, 8, he that commiteth
sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
There's the problem. There's the problem for us. We,
the chosen children of God, came into bondage through the fall
in Adam. We came into bondage. We come
forth by nature, servants of sin, even as others, going the
way of this world under the sway and power of the prince of the
air, of the power of the air. And for this purpose, because
we fell and we were in bondage, for this purpose, the son of
God was manifested. God manifested him. He brought
him forth. that he might destroy the works
of the devil. And what that's saying there
is that, no, we are not going to save ourselves by the form
of religion. We're not going to save ourselves.
We're not going to do it. We need a savior. We need salvation by a surety,
by another, by the work of another whom God promised and spoke of
There in the beginning of the book, the volume of the book,
it's written of me to do thy will, oh God. The Lord Jesus
Christ, he's the one spoken of, who was promised and he's come,
even our righteousness, to destroy the works of the devil by the
washing of our sins, by his own blood, shed on the tree, when
he bore us in his own body and satisfied the justice of God
which was against us. And he died and was buried. And
God raised him from the dead, thus justifying all you who believe
the word of God, who trust him, who have heard and believe that
Christ is the Savior, and that he is the only way of salvation,
and that apart from him I cannot be saved. He is my righteousness. He is my hope. That is the word
of God, and I believe it. And that's what he manifests
in us. That's what he reveals in us. Now, John gets to what
arises out of Christ's accomplished redemption for his people. And
what we'll see tonight is that our Lord makes us new creatures. He manifests his love for us. He manifests his life given to
us by making us new creatures. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is the beginning of the manifestation of God's grace
for you. When he makes you, when he turns
your heart, even a religious heart, when he turns you from
dead things and the ministration of death and condemnation, serving
in that under the law, trying to make a righteousness for yourselves,
working in fear, laboring in fear, God's going to get me.
Well, he turned you from that to behold Christ my righteousness. He's salvation. He has undertaken
for me, making me his own, providing all that I need to present me
faultless before the throne of God. And he does this by making
us new creatures. He reveals it by making us new
creatures. So look at verse 9. Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. What is born of God? We have
to ask that question because I know what's born of Adam is
nothing but sin. This flesh is sin. This flesh
is defiled. This flesh is ruined. What is
born of God? What John is speaking of there
is the spiritual birth of our God in his people making us new
creatures. We're not worshiping God. According
to the old man of this flesh, the father seeketh such to worship
him who worship him in spirit and in truth, not the flesh. So he makes us new creatures. It's a spiritual birth which
is given to us in order that we might see the kingdom of God,
to behold, to hear what God is saying, to turn us from dead
works that cannot save, and to believe the word of God being
published through the gospel, that we might worship God in
spirit and in truth, not according to the old way, not according
to this flesh, when we thought we could do it, when we thought
we were supposed to do it, when we thought we were supposed to
come to God in the law, in the flesh, doing better, trying harder,
spending more, sacrificing more, doing more, only to find out
that all we saw from that is, I'm undone. I can't do it. I
can't work this righteousness. I cannot present myself perfect
unto a perfect and holy God. I need a perfect righteousness
to stand before a perfect God And it's Christ. Christ is the
perfection of God. He is the holiness of God. He
is Jesus Christ, the righteous, the righteous. And he makes his
people righteous in him. Our Lord, responding to Nicodemus,
when he heard, born again, what are you saying, Lord, that I
must, now as an old man, must go back into my mother's womb
and be born again? And the Lord said, no. He said,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the spirit. We come forth being born, and
then we're born again, born of Christ. He cannot, except that
happen, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. I think it
was verse three where he said he can't even see the kingdom
of God except he's born again. You can't hear these things.
You can't receive these things. Just like many in our day, Nicodemus
was so literal. He didn't have the spirit and
he didn't understand spiritual things. Everything was just,
nope, it's just literal words, literal words that does it. And
so he saved us from that. And he goes on to say, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. So we're not, by our flesh, going
to make and do spiritual things. We're not going to do it. We're
not going to do it. It requires the spirit of God. So the flesh doesn't give birth
to the spirit. It doesn't give birth to spiritual
things. What we see here is that faith
is a spiritual work. Our faith, our hope in Christ
is a spiritual work. God must give us His Spirit. He must make us new creatures.
He must give us a spiritual birth by His Spirit. And it's the Spirit
given to you that bears those spiritual fruits in you, such
as faith and love and hope, trust in this Word, which He's declared
to us of Christ. And the new man, when God has
done this, in the new man we believe Christ. And I want to
show you that more and more, how that it's the new man that
bears fruits of righteousness and it's not God waiting and
depending on your flesh to do something first. He brings it
forth. Otherwise, If we didn't do it,
we would die in our sins. So, first let me say this. Have no illusion that it is your
flesh that is producing faith. It's not. This flesh doesn't
produce faith. And that only if you believe,
then God can save you. Yes, you must believe. And because
Christ has undertaken to deliver you from death unto life, that
faith is also His work. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And so yes, you must believe.
And it's his faith which is given unto us in the grace of God,
by the grace of God, in order that we would be delivered, that
we would see and hear Christ. And so that's one of the manifestations
of God in us, that we are new creatures. We hear the word,
we hear the call, and we believe. we believe Christ. That's a manifestation
of his grace for you, and something that is separating you, not the
faith of the flesh, but the faith of his spirit. And so this is
why our Lord said in John 3, 7, marvel not that I said unto
you, ye must be born again, because this flesh will, has no problem
being religious, and it'll manufacture religion, and it'll strive and
spend in religion and make great sacrifices in religion, but except
God do the work, and he bring forth that hope in Christ, that
looks to Christ, rests in Christ, comes to Christ, as he said,
and I will give you rest. So long as you're looking to
what you're doing and not doing, you'll find no peace. Looking
to Christ is where we find peace, because he says, I give it, I
give it. I give peace to my people." And
so the Lord confirms it in Isaiah 44, verse 3. We see that it's
God's grace. He said, I will pour my spirit
upon thy seed, the seed of Christ, his people. I'll pour my spirit
on your seed. those that you give rise to,
and my blessing upon thine offspring. And so beginning when he chose
us in eternity and committed our salvation to the hand of
Christ to establish us in grace, he's doing all the work. in the
appointed time, He calls us in the appointed time, we hear it,
and we come forth in Him new creatures, new creatures. Before
we ever sought God, we were chosen first by Him. And so, our God
gives us a new birth, delivering us from dead letter religion.
And that's why so many of us spent so long for many years
in the dead form of religion under a ministration of death
and condemnation, failing and falling and crying and trying
but not succeeding because he wouldn't allow us to succeed
by our flesh. We're only going to come to an
understanding of the hope of God by Christ in his hour, in
his hour of saying, And so it won't be by a dead form of religion
such that the Pharisees rested in it. Now what did our Lord
say? Except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. And he's not saying you
better work harder. You better spend more. You better
do more than them or else you cannot come in." No, he's saying
that way is the way of death. Their works are wicked works.
They're not pleasing God. They're an offense to God because
they hate and despise and reject Him who is the very righteousness
of God, given by God freely to give life and salvation to his
people. And so he works his works in
us, manifesting that we are his by a new creation, a new creature. John's also speaking of God's
seed remaining in us, saying, for his seed remaineth in him,
this is from verse nine, his seed remaineth in him and he
cannot sin because he is born of God. just as we were born
of Adam's corrupt seed from our fathers, so we are born again
by the incorruptible seed of Christ. Peter said it this way,
1 Peter 1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. And so that new man, born in
you of Christ's seed, that new man cannot sin. It's born of God. That new man
doesn't sin. That new man doesn't not believe. That new man can't not not believe. All he can do is believe and
trust Christ. All he can do is look to Christ. And so that new man desires Christ
and desires His influences, His Spirit, His Word. We love Him
in the new man. We love our Savior. We rejoice
in His Word. We hear His Word. We confess
that it's all of His grace. That new man cannot think or
say for a minute, well, if I just do it this way and try a little
harder, I'll save myself. The new man doesn't talk like
that. The new man cries out, Abba, Father, save me. for Christ's sake, have mercy
on me. And so in that new man, we delight
in him, we desire him, we want his righteousness to shine forth
in us, not by the works of the flesh, bringing forth the fruit
of the spirit, but by his grace and power. And that new creature
hates sin, it hates the flesh, it hates the works of this flesh.
We see it, it burdens us, it troubles us, it tries us. We're
ashamed of the works of this flesh. We don't want to continue
in them. We don't want to look to them.
And so we seek the influences of God. He brings, he gathers
you together. He gives you a hunger and thirst
for his righteousness, to hear his word, to hear Christ exalted
and lifted up and for him to feed and nourish your souls,
to feed and nourish that inner man, which he's given unto us. We seek those influences and
we trust his promises which are made to us in Christ. Just as he's promised to separate
us, as he separated the seed of woman in the garden who would
come and reconcile all things by himself, he's our righteousness,
the righteousness of God revealed to us by the prophets. He's the
righteous branch and we're married to him. We're brought into Him. We're His body. He's the light
and truth of God that we hear and believe. Now, where John
speaks of the new man born of God, and in the new man is where
we see the influences and power of His grace being communicated
to us. Look at what it says now in 1
John 3, verse 10. In this, The children of God
are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. The righteousness of God is faith
in Christ, in hearing him, in following him, in staying upon
him in the grace of God, and not being moved to dead things,
not being moved away from him. One of the works of Christ and
his newborn child of God is to manifest his power in us, to
give us his spirit. to teach us, to turn us from
loving this world, and loving our sin, and just going on in
our wickedness. Now let me show you a few things,
a few verses here, and this will be the rest of the message here. I just wanna show you some verses
here on this. In John chapter 10, so in the Gospel of John
chapter 10, beginning in verse 24, down to verse 28, We're told that the Jews came
round about him and said unto him, how long dost thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Well, he was telling them, and
he was showing them the power of God. He was doing and saying
the things that testified that he was sent of God, that he is
the Christ. He was doing those things, and
they couldn't hear it. Jesus answered them, verse 25,
I told you, and ye believed not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. You see that? Just as he was
bearing witness there in their midst, he's bearing witness in
you, his child. He's bearing witness in his children. And because it's by his grace
and power that the children of God are manifest. Just as John's
saying in 1 John 3 10, they're manifest. God makes it known. But ye believe not, here it is,
but ye believe not because you're not of my sheep as I said unto
you. What he's saying there is God's
not manifesting that you're one of his sheep. You're not hearing.
He's manifesting that you're not his, that you are of the
seed of the serpent because he's leaving you to yourself. He's
leaving you to your own confidences in a vain fleshly confidence
in your works, in your righteousness, in your striving, in what you're
doing there under the law, which is whereby you're rejecting what
I'm saying. Here's the righteousness that
we do. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me. We're following Christ. We're
not indifferent to Christ and His gospel and how that His power
and glory adorns the gospel that we confess and profess to this
world. The testimony that we bear in
Him, we're well aware of that. But we're looking to Him to do
it in us, to work it in us. We're trusting His promise rather
than turning to the law. and the threatenings and beatings
of the law. And we're trusting him to make
us obedient in him. And our obedience is trusting
that Christ is our righteousness. Because just think of how your
flesh fights against that constantly. It can't be just that. It can't
be Christ is all my righteousness. I got to do something. Do you?
Do you not hear what he said, that it's his promise, it's his
word? He's doing it in you. He's turning you from just turning
away from him and trying to bring forth that which only God can
bring forth in you, which is a true faith. and a true hope
and a true rest in him, believing that he is doing what he promises
to do. My sheep hear my voice, I know
them and they follow me. Christ's power on display. And
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
I won't let them fall away. They're not gonna fall away.
I'm keeping them. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." And so the manifesting which John is speaking of here
reveals the life which God has given in his children that come
to Christ believing the word of God that he is the righteousness,
that he's my righteousness, that he's my hope, that he's my standing
before God and perfect righteousness. And then we see the evidence
of his grace by their fruit, which evidences that it's all
of his grace. When our Lord said, ye shall
know them by their fruit. And then he breaks that down
saying, do men gather figs from thistles or grapes from thorns?
Are you turning to bramble bushes to get fruit from it? And what's
he saying there? If the false prophet turns you
to the flesh, which is under the curse, right? And the curse
brought forth thistles and briars and thorns, right? If you're
turning to the flesh, this flesh is made of the dust under the
curse. If you're turning to your flesh and you're trying to get
figs and grapes, fruit unto God, that's false. You can't do it.
The only way we're going to bring forth fruit which is acceptable
unto God is by Christ. By Christ. He's the one that
brings forth the fruits of righteousness in his people. And so one of
the evidences here of what John speaks is the fruits of righteousness
are made evident in us. And Paul wrote those down for
us, many of those, in Galatians 5. In Galatians 5, 22 and 23,
love, joy, there's no joy in the law. There's thunderings
and beatings and frightenings and terrifyings under the law. But in Christ, there's love,
there's joy, there's peace. There's long-suffering with one
another. There's gentleness in how we
deal with one another. There's goodness. We mean well
for one another. I want the best for you. That's
why I feed you the best, Christ, the bread of heaven. Faith, meekness,
temperance. The Lord teaches us, and he keeps
us. And we walk in that hope that
God will establish his kingdom here on Earth. in this heart,
beginning right here, in this heart, and in your hearts. That's our hope, that he's doing
that. Paul then, in Galatians 5, among
many other scriptures, traces out the way the men deal with
things. They turn to the flesh, and he
shows us what that looks like. They turn to adultery. They turn
to fornication. They turn to uncleanness and
lasciviousness, which is outrageously shameful things that are just
shocking to see. And behold, lasciviousness that
goes on, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, which is causing fractions, and seditions, which
is sowing divisions in among the brethren,
heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. The witch I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things, that live in such things, that turn to such things, that
trust such things, that this is their hope in their life,
they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. We see the lust in this
flesh. We know it's there, it's present
in this flesh. The Philistines are yet in the
land of Canaan. We see that sin, but we, in the
new man of his grace, we don't desire that to be our manner
of conversation. We don't want to go out there
as hypocrites, and people see us just living like this. This
is right there in the flesh. It's right there, ready to break
forth. It's always there because we're
born dead in trespasses and sins. Paul said it this way, if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin. It is dead because of
sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. the Lord Jesus
Christ, our righteousness. We live because of him. But we
don't seek to justify ourselves to continue in it or make excuses
or look to live in it. Rather, we seek to be healed
by Christ. Lord, save me. Abba, Father,
have mercy on me. Deliver me from these lusts and
passions and fleshly things, that I may behold your son and
have peace and rest in him, and that I may walk in faith and
in kindness and goodness toward my brethren, doing what's good
for you, doing what's profitable for you, and trusting you, Lord,
to keep me and to keep my brethren and to protect them and provide
for them. as you say in your word, as you promise in your
word. And so that's how we do it. We
don't now turn to the law when we get scared and see those sins,
because we know the law just whips up enmity and fear and
wrath. And perfect love casteth out
fear, because we're trusting. We're trusting the grace of Christ. We're trusting his promise. Paul
also wrote something similar in Romans 8. Over in Romans 8,
verse 23 through 25, he said it this way, and not only they, but ourselves
also, which had the first fruits, the earnest of the spirit, the
down payment which has been given unto us, even we ourselves grown
within ourselves, We see it, we see this flesh and the sins
in this flesh, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption
of our body. For, he says, we're saved in
hope, by hope. We've been given a hope, right? But hope that is seen is not
hope. That's why you don't see yourselves
as you want to see yourselves. But we're saved in hope for what
a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for
that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. We wait for it with patience.
We're trusting the promise of God that we are righteous as
he is righteous. And we shall be made like unto
him when he comes again and raises this body of death from the ground
in newness of life, it's sown in corruption and in shame, and
it's raised without shame, and raised without corruption. A
body made like unto our Lord, which shall be like his body,
for we shall see him as he is, John said. We'll see him, we'll
see him then. And so, Paul's there describing
the weakness and infirmity of our flesh, but we have a hope.
that it's not by this flesh. We're trusting the Word of God.
We're believing His promise. And we're walking by faith, and
it's a patient walk of faith. because we struggle and we feel
the burning in the flesh, but we're trusting him, and we're
turning from those things in faith to him. Now, let me show
you this in the Old Testament. We're almost through, but in
the Old Testament, turn to Psalm 37. I was talking to my brother
this week, Joe, and he brought up Psalm 37, so I was looking
at it and saw these verses and thought, these go wonderfully
with what Paul is saying. In Psalm 37, we're going to begin
in verse 3. It's a walk of faith. In verse 3 begins,
trust in the Lord and do good. Walk in the light that you have
of Christ. And Paul would say, use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
And that's from Galatians 5, 13. And do good, and so shalt
thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. And what a beautiful picture
there that we're seeking to walk upright now. in the land, in
this body of flesh, in this land, but we're trusting God to fulfill
his promise to us to feed us, to nourish us, to heal us at
the end, to give us the salve for our wounds and for our healing
and for our life and light, providing for us and helping us to provide
for our brethren as well. Verse four, delight thyself also
in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."
That's the new heart that he gives us that seeks not this
world's riches and ways, but Christ. The riches of heaven,
our riches. Commit thy way unto the Lord,
trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. There's the
promise. And he shall bring forth thy
righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, come unto me
and you shall find rest unto your souls, Christ said. Rest
in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Doesn't that sound a
lot like what Paul said in Romans 8 when he said, if we hope for
that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Fret not
thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man
who bringeth wicked devices to pass." Just look at the Pharisee
who can just turn to the flesh and in an instant make himself
appear righteous by wicked works. And he's getting away with it.
And he looks so good, and he's got it so easy. Man, that guy's
got it all together. everything's going great, why
can't I do that? Well, they're wicked works, and
God's not gonna allow you to walk in that, to find any confidence
in the flesh. As Paul said, we are the circumcision,
which are circumcised in the heart by his spirit, walking
by faith, and have no confidence in the flesh. God's not gonna
allow you to reconcile yourself, or save yourself, or provide
for yourself. He's gonna do it. And when he
lifts that burden, when he turns you from the lust of the flesh,
when he causes you to respond in patience rather than in wrath
and anger and shortness, and to be kind to another, you're
going to give him all the glory, because you know it ain't this
flesh. It's him. It's his power working it in
you. And so these scriptures. Help us to better understand
what Paul is describing here about the manifestation that
you're God's child. And one of those manifestations
is he's worked it in you, that it's his power, it's his grace.
He's not gonna let you fall into the fires of hell. He's providing
for you. And he'll use, he'll show you
that though you're weak, he is strong and able to provide for
you, able to turn you, able to keep you. Just as Jude 1.1 said
that we are preserved by Jesus Christ. We're preserved by him.
It's his power, brethren. So we're not what we would be,
but we love him and we're thankful and we're looking to him and
we're walking before him in faith, trusting him. So rather than
it be done by the law on us, we're looking, we're trusting
that it be done by him as he promises through his grace, through
faith in us. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts. Amen.