We're continuing our series today in exploring Bible doctrine. We're basically going over each one of our statements in our statement of faith. If you're interested in our entire statement of faith, you can pick one up called what We Believe. It's on the information board as you are leaving today. All of scripture, we're trying to just put it down into a very small segment here.
So there are many verses we won't cover, but there's a lot of things in the verses that we can't go into depth about. We're just trying to give an overview of why we believe, what we do. In regard to doctrine, we say that the meaning of doctrine, it's just a set of core beliefs that defines Christian faith and guide and practice. It's kind of like taking a set of encyclopedias, if any of you remember having those. Instead of sharing the whole thing, we're just talking about the Reader's Digest Convinced Version or just one dictionary.
The purpose of doctrine, it provides clarity in that it protects believers from misunderstanding errors. It's important that we all have a good understanding of what we believe so that when we hear things outside of church and even in this building, if it doesn't sound right, it's like, you know, that doesn't go along with our basic doctrinal statement. I need to look into that more. It may not be correct. A doctrinal statement also helps believers to join together in unity and for spiritual growth, as we have shared truths that we agree upon together.
But in all of this, our doctrinal statement, our statement of faith, is not our final authority. We always must go back to our Scripture to look at it for how we are supposed to believe and how we are to conduct our lives. Because the Bible itself, as the inspired and infallible word of God, speaks with final authority concerning truth, morality, and the proper conduct of humanity. It is the sole and the final source of all that we believe. Our statement of faith is just a concise summary of our core beliefs, but it does not exhaust the extent of our beliefs.
Will you read together with me the statement that we'll be going over today, entitled Christian Living? We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from his sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love him supremely and others sacrificially and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor, and justice for the oppressed. With God's word, the Spirit's power, and fervent prayer in Christ's name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ's commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the Gospel in word and deed.
We're going to start out talking about sanctification today and we're going to spend most of our time, time here, because that is the entire process of Christian living. We have the first statement here. We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from his sanctifying power and purpose. It doesn't say does there? It says it must not be separated.
When we talk about salvation, we have three words that we focus on. One is just justification, the second is sanctification, and the third is glorification. Just briefly, when we're talking about justification, that's what happens at the point that we come to faith in Jesus Christ and God makes us right in his sight. He wipes away all of our sin and he forgives us so that we can have a right relationship with Him. We read in Galatians chapter 216 about this.
We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, not by the works of the law. Because by the works of the law, no human being will be justified. We're comparing here working for one's salvation, the works of the law, and having faith, faith for our salvation.
When people talk about being justified by works, they mean like, if I pray enough, or if I give enough, or if I come to church enough, if I do enough good things, certainly that's going to make me right with the Lord. But Scripture tells us that is not sufficient. That will never save you. On the other hand, you have to have faith. And here it says that it's by faith, it's by believing, that we have what's called justification.
It's standing before God just as if I had never sinned, that our sins are forgiven, our sins are wiped away. They're to be remembered no more. And when we don't have sin in our body because it's been wiped away, it allows us to have a right relationship with the Lord. But I want to point out, works don't save you. And faith does not save you either.
It's what you have your faith in. It's in Jesus Christ. It's what he has done for us. Imagine you need to have surgery on your heart or you need to have brain surgery. You can either choose a qualified doctor or you can just pick Someone off the street.
Now, you can have faith in both of those, but your surgery's only going to be successful if you have faith in who, the one that is qualified to do it. And so it is that by placing our faith in Jesus Christ, it's what we have our faith in, it's who we have our faith in that makes us right with the Lord. But God doesn't just save us. We're looking forward to the day. It's called glorification, in the future, when we're going to be glorified, because everything is not made right in this world yet.
When we talk about the Gospel, we say that Jesus died so that we can be new creations, but he also died so that eventually all of the world will be made right. Things will be restored to the perfection that they were first created in. And at that time, sin, disease, evil, sadness, all of these things that make this world a sad place will be removed. First John, chapter three. Two.
We read, dear friends, we are God's children now, meaning we have been justified. What we will be has not yet been revealed. You might ask, well, if a baby dies when they go to heaven, are they going to be a baby and grow up, or are they going to be a grown person there? For those of us that don't have any hair, we may wonder, well, are we going to have hair in heaven, or is everybody going to be without hair? Scripture doesn't say these things to us, but what it does tell us we can know for certain that when he appears talking about Jesus, we will be what we're going to be like him, because we will see him as he is.
We're saved. At some point, eventually we're going to be glorified to be just like Jesus. But there's this whole span of time in between that we call sanctification. We're going now to Matthew, chapter 12, 33, 35, where Jesus gives a very practical example of what sanctification looks like. In verse 33, we read, Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.
Verse 35 then says that the good man, like the tree, brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in in him. I have tried to plant apple trees in my yard, and apple trees don't just grow by themselves. I have to plant the tree, I have to spray it for bugs. I have to put fertilizer on it. I've had to put a fence around the yard to keep the deer out.
I've had to put a screen around the apple trees to keep the rabbits out. I'm doing all that work because I'm expecting what I'm wanting some apples now. They're not going to come. They tell me in the year two or three. It's going to take time.
I'll finally get some apples. And eventually, as the tree grows, I will get more and more. What? More and more apples. When God justifies us, it's like he's planting us in his garden and then he fertilizes, he protects us, he prunes us, he gives us everything that we need because he's now expecting us to do what?
To produce good fruit in our life. And it's during this process of growing more and more mature, becoming sanctified, we become more like Jesus that we produce more and more fruit. Bearing good fruit is evidence that we've already been made good by God. And bearing good fruit is evidence that God has already stored up in us human his power and his plans for us that we might be more like Jesus. Let's go to Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10 says, we are God's workmanship already justified.
We're created in Christ. We've already been justified. We're created, we're made new. It talks about being born again. We're given new life that happens in Christ Jesus so that now we can do good works, future ongoing.
There's supposed to be this more and more becoming like Christ because God has prepared in advance for us to do all these things. Justification created once, sanctification is doing now and ongoing until we are glorified. Let's look at Second Corinthians, chapter 5:17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. When people truly place their faith in Jesus Christ, they are new.
They are different. You might even say that we are odd. Scripture talks about us being strangers in this world. We don't seem to fit in because we've been transformed. And that's because we have been made alive in our spirit.
And now we are to look like Jesus instead of looking like the world. When we experience the new creation, there's an old part of us that is gone. And we're filled with the Spirit. Something new has come. We are changed so that we can be different.
And without the transforming work of God in our lives, we would just be old creations, still dead in our sin, looking like the world and sadly being separated from a relationship with God. Let's go to Colossians, chapter three. I read from verse 17 and 23. And what we're emphasizing here is that God gives us the power to be different. He makes us new creations.
But we still, day by day and hour by hour, have to make choices, to be obedient to the Lord, to be desirous of doing his will. In verse 17, we read, and whatever. It doesn't say what God does, but whatever you do, you have a part in this. Whether it's in your words, what you say, or your deeds in what you do, you have to choose to do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. At the end of the day, you should be able to say, everything I said today, it was in the name of Jesus.
Everything that I did today, I could say, I'm doing this for the Lord Jesus. And if you can't say that for your actions and your words at the end of the day, then you haven't been choosing to live for Him. It goes on in verse 23, not just in some things that you do, but whatever you do, meaning everything that you do, you have to work at it with all your heart. It takes effort to live the Christian life. It's simple to follow Jesus Christ in faith, but it's not easy to obey him and resist the temptations of the world.
You have to work at it, not with just part of your heart, but it says all of your heart. And you do this as you're working for the Lord. God is the best boss in the world. He's going to reward us greatly. We should want to please Him.
We should want to do everything that he asks us to do. Opposed to that, if people aren't working for the Lord, they're working for other men, or they are working for their self. And the process of sanctification says, I am living my life for the Lord. The change that comes about in us compels us to live in the name of the Lord and as working for the Lord. Let's go to Romans, chapter 6, verse 11 and 14.
He says, in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The truth is that we are dead to sin. We're freed from it. We don't have to follow it, but we still have to make the decision to count, to recognize that we are dead to sin. Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
But the sad thing is that even though you're free from Bondage to sin. You can choose to go back and be a slave to it, but Jesus has freedom. So we can make that choice not to be that way. We are to recognize our new position and then live that way. But we do not automatically become perfected in this life.
Look at the person next to you. Are they perfect? Don't tell them, but look at yourself. And you're going to say, what? I'm not a perfect being either.
What about First John? First Chapter 1, verses 8 through 9? Do we still have sin in our life? Is it possible for me to do something wrong or say something wrong and still be a believer? Yes, we still struggle with that sin.
John even goes on to say, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you live what you think is a perfect hour and you say, I didn't have any evil thoughts, I didn't say anything evil, I didn't say anything wrong in the past hour. The truth is that if you're saying that, you're lying to yourself. Because sin is so much a part of us in this world that we sin when we don't even realize it. We can sin by not doing things that we should have done and that we're supposed to.
So yes, we do have sin in our life, and God recognizes that. But he's given us a vehicle to get past it. He says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. But he also cleanses us from all unrighteousness. So at the end of the day, if you got lots of marks on your chalkboard, know that God comes and he wipes it all clean.
And then he brings a wet mop or whatever and he wipes it away and he forgets it so that we can continue to have a right relationship with Him. Day by day, we will continue to struggle with sin. And God knowing this has provided a way for us to get back on track when we do sin. And we do that by confession. Hebrews chapter 12.
How much effort are we to put into the sanctification process? Paul refers it to running a race. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, you have to imagine the Olympic Games and all the people are watching. He says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles the athletes always dress appropriately for what they're doing. You don't wear a wedding gown and try to do a pole vault.
Can you picture that? What it would be like, you got to set aside everything in your life that would hinder you from running the race. That means if you have things in your home that are tempting you to sin, or if you have things in your office, if you have things in your mind, if you're watching things, if you're reading things that tempt you to sin, you. You need to throw all those things away because they're slowing you down in your sanctification. And then we're not to walk through life.
But he says we're supposed to run, and we're supposed to run with perseverance. This race that God has marked out for us, this life of sanctification and living for him. Verse 14 says, we not only throw off, we not only run, but. But we make just a little effort. Is that what it says there?
It says, make how much effort? Every effort. To live in peace with all men and to be holy, to be separated, living for the Lord, because without holiness no one will see the Lord. The next phrase said, God commands us to love him supremely and others sacrificially. Going back to the Old Testament, we read In Deuteronomy, chapter 6, Love the Lord your God.
What does it say there? Read with me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Many of the Jews were good about following the law, about concentrating on the things that you are supposed to do and the things that you aren't supposed to do. And that's difficult unless you do this first. That you love the Lord completely, that you love him supremely with the way you think, with your desires, with everything that you're able to accomplish with your body.
We love him supremely. And then when you do that, it makes it easy to serve him to do things his way. Matthew 22. Jesus said, Love the Lord your God again with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. He's saying 1, 2, 3, over and over again.
This is extremely important. That's the first and the greatest commandment. But he also says that you're supposed to love others sacrificially, meaning that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. How many of you like to eat? Okay.
If you're hungry, you want food. When you love somebody else sacrificially, if they're hungry, you're going to do what you would want. You're going to give them food. If somebody is without clothing, and we all like to wear clothes, okay? They're necessary.
Here in Wisconsin, if somebody else needs clothes, you need to love them. Like you love yourself, you need to do things for them. And sacrificially means that sometimes you have to do with less. And in a country where we have so much, we all have plenty to give away. And we need to be willing to do that.
Showing our love to others. God commands us to love him supremely and others sacrificially. It's important to our Christian testimony. It's important to people understanding the gospel and accepting it just. Jesus said so In John chapter 13, I give you a new command.
Love one another just as your mom loved you. Is that what it says? No, it's as I loved you. Our moms loved us a lot. But I don't think any of us have a mom in here today that went to the cross that was nailed to it and suffered and died.
Jesus did that because he loves us. And in the same way we're supposed to love one another. Because he says, by this your love for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples. Part of our testimony is loving the Lord and loving others. And when people see that, it attracts them to Jesus Christ.
Next statement says, live out our faith with care for one another. What does it look like to care? Let's just look at a few words here in some different verses. In Romans 12. It means to be devoted to one another.
In brotherly love. When you're devoted to someone, you give them your time. You want to be around them, you want to talk to them. You also honor other people above yourselves. That we don't put people down, we lift them up.
Ephesians 4 says that we are kind to one another, says that we are kind, compassionate to one another, we forgive one another. And we do this to the extent that Jesus Christ forgave us. Peter tells us that we're supposed to have hospitality to one another. We're supposed to get together for fellowship. We're supposed to share what we have, our activities and our meals together.
And all of this is how we show care and love for one another, that we're a loving body of Christ. So that when people come in, they sense that there's a difference here for us that they want to be part of. We're also supposed to be compassionate toward the poor. God is concerned about them. We're to be concerned about them also.
There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you be open handed toward your brothers, but also toward the poor and the needy in your land. James tells us that religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. If there has to be a hierarchy of who to look after, here, the top two are look out for the orphans, look out for the widows. They're very much in God's sight and care, but also to others that are in need, that we are to be compassionate toward them and helping them in whatever way we can.
Not only is it to the poor, but also Scripture says that God is concerned about those that are oppressed. In Isaiah, chapter one, we read, learn to do right, seek just justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless. Again, it's here the orphans and plead the case again of the widows. If there is injustice out there, we are to be working to reverse that in whatever way that we can. And we should stand up for those that are not being treated right.
Jesus himself said in Luke, chapter four, the Spirit of the Lord is on me. He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and to release the oppressed. Now, we can't just spiritualize that and say, yes, we're all poor and we're blind and we're in prison and we're oppressed because of sin. And yes, Jesus does free us spiritually from those things, but he also gave sight to the blind.
He also went to those that were outcast and he spent time with them. There's both the spiritual aspect, but also that lives out in our sanctification process, that we are reaching out to those that are pressed and helping them in ways that we can. The last statement says, with God's word, the Spirit's power, and fervent prayer in Christ's name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. One of the difficulties of living the sanctified life is somebody irritates us or we have a hard job or something terrible happens to us, or we have sickness or disease, and we look at it all at this physical level of what's going on. But behind that person that's wronged you, behind that person that irritates you, behind that sickness, behind that disease, even behind death, there is this spiritual struggle that is going on.
And we need to recognize this as believers, that we can't fight it with a physical sword. But God has equipped us with spiritual things that we need to battle the forces of evil. We go to Ephesians, chapter six, and again, we're just going to read through it. We don't have time to look at a lot of time today, let's look at what God has equipped us with to fight the ongoing spiritual battle. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
We can't do it in our own strength. We have to depend on Him. But we do have to choose. You put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
The evil spiritual world is out there around us, just as the spiritual world of good, of the angels are there. And it doesn't picture it, it's just a few. But there are actually those that are rulers, there are those that are authorities, there are those that are powers, there are those that are spiritual forces. There are all different levels of these beings that are out working on us to attack us that we need to be aware of. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.
Don't wait till things bad start to happen. Be prepared in advance, because if after you have done everything you can stand. We go on to read in verse 14, stand firm then. And here are the things that God has given us. He's given us the belt of truth buckled around our waist.
He's given us the breastplace of righteousness in place. He's given us feet that are befitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, that we are willing as we go along to share the Gospel. But in addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish not some, but all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God or the Bible, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep praying, not just for yourself, but for everyone.
We are all in in this spiritual battle together. Matthew, chapter 28, Acts 1:8 verses in regard to an obedience to Christ's command, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the Gospel in word and deed. Jesus in his last words in Matthew, said, therefore go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then Jesus, before he ascended into heaven, said, you will receive power with the Holy Spirit comes On you. You don't have to do this in your own strength.
I'm going to equip you so that you can be my witnesses in Jerusalem, where you are in Judea and Samaria a little further out. But even carry my Gospel to all the ends of the earth. Matthew 5, 13, 16. Jesus compares us to salt. He says, you are the salt of the earth.
We bring flavor to it. We bring cleansing. We bring healing. Salt is a preservative. It does lots of wonderful things to help life continue to exist in this world.
You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? You have to choose to be salty. It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. But not only are we salt, but we are the light in this dark world.
And he says, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In other words, don't hide your faith. Don't hide the gospel.
It's not meant to just be a personal, private thing. It's meant to be shared with others. That's why Jesus says, in the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. In closing, let's read our statement one more time. We believe that God's justifying grace must not be separated from his sanctifying power and purpose.
God commands us to love him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor, and justice for the oppressed. With God's word, the Spirit's power, and fervent prayer in Christ's name. We are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ's commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed. We're going to have a prayer team stationed at the back as the worship team leads us today in a song here at the end.
If you just want someone to pray with you, maybe to encourage you about a sad happening in your life, maybe to pray for healing about something. Or even more importantly, if you want to know how to have a personal, vibrant, living, intimate relationship with God Almighty, they can share with you how you can come to know that today. So as we stand to sing, if you want to talk to someone, just make your way out the middle as you're standing. I'll close us in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for the exhortation that we need to work, we need to excel, we need to run. Father, we need to desire to live our lives and do all that we can so that we are doing everything for you, that we're doing everything to please you, that everything that we say, Father, is within your will. God, we want to do this because it glorifies you and it draws people to your son when they see in us something different that only comes about by the indwelling spirit that we have from you. In your son's name we pray. Amen.