Latest / THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together / God at Work in You, Part 3 (Philippians 213) John MacArthur

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God at Work in You, Part 3 (Philippians 213) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Let's open our Bibles now to Philippians chapter 2. We're
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: looking for the last time at verses 12 and 13.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. It's part of
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  Speaker 1: our continuing study of this great epistle. As we approach
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  Speaker 1: the text, let me see if I can't give you
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  Speaker 1: some context in which to contain your thoughts this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Through the years, I have always been fascinated by the
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  Speaker 1: religions of the world. I can remember way back as
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  Speaker 1: a junior high student wanting to write a paper on
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  Speaker 1: the Buddhist world because I was so curious about false religion.
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  Speaker 1: Through the days of my college and seminary and ever
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  Speaker 1: since then, I've always had a fascination for false systems
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  Speaker 1: of religion. One of the things that has become apparent
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  Speaker 1: to me over the years is that it is characteristic
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  Speaker 1: of the false gods of this world to be remote, transcendent, distant,
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  Speaker 1: and impersonal. Most of those deities, frankly, are fabricated out
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  Speaker 1: of fear since they are not true gods and since
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  Speaker 1: they do not truly exist.
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  Speaker 2: They are the invention of men.
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  Speaker 1: And since men live all their life long in bondage
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  Speaker 1: to the fear of death, they tend to be deities
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  Speaker 1: that are designed by men in fear. The Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: tells us that when men then design their deities, demons
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  Speaker 1: impersonate the deities that men have designed and do enough
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  Speaker 1: supernatural activity to keep men captive.
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  Speaker 2: To the deities of their own design.
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  Speaker 1: But it is across the board common to the deities
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  Speaker 1: that men have invented in the great religions.
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  Speaker 2: Of the world that their deities are impersonal.
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  Speaker 1: And because their very invention is founded upon a fear factor,
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  Speaker 1: there is in no sense a longing on the part
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  Speaker 1: of the worshiper to have any kind of association with
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  Speaker 1: the deity. There is no cry in the heart to
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  Speaker 1: have fellowship with the deity. The deity is not portrayed
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  Speaker 1: as one who seeks any relationship with God.
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  Speaker 2: The creature.
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  Speaker 1: And so gods are invented who for the most part
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  Speaker 1: are only appealed to on the basis of appeasement so
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  Speaker 1: that someone could avoid the inevitable.
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  Speaker 2: Death which they so greatly fear.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps this is nowhere more clearly revealed than in the
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  Speaker 1: religion of Hinduism, which has locked up probably a billion
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  Speaker 1: people around the world. And in the teaching of Hinduism
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  Speaker 1: recorded in the Vedas, which is the earliest of all
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  Speaker 1: the Hindu scriptures, The absolute Creator God is given the
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  Speaker 1: name Brahman. That is the God that is the supreme deity,
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  Speaker 1: the deity from which everything flows in Hinduism. And maybe
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  Speaker 1: you'd like to know just a little bit about Brahman
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  Speaker 1: or Brahma, whichever you would choose.
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  Speaker 2: First of all, Brahman is not a person. Brahman is not.
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  Speaker 1: A personal spirit, but an abstract unknowable reality.
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  Speaker 2: Brahman is everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: At all times, but no one can see, touch, hear, taste, smell,
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  Speaker 1: or experience the presence of Brahman. The Hindu scriptures tell
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  Speaker 1: us also that Brahman is unknowable and thus is unknown,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore all paths to the deity are imperfect paths,
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  Speaker 1: and all attempts to describe the deity are useless and vain.
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  Speaker 1: He is neither describable or it is neither describable or knowable.
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  Speaker 2: Brahman has no moral qualities.
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  Speaker 1: As best I can tell, Brahman has no qualities at all,
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  Speaker 1: and how anything can exist that has no qualities is
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  Speaker 1: hard for me to understand. I will never forget as
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  Speaker 1: long as I live the sign I saw in the
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  Speaker 1: Hindu temple in Delhi which said, God is attributeless. Brahman
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  Speaker 1: is nothing. There are no characteristics, no qualities, and no attributes.
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  Speaker 1: The Hindu Scripture also teaches that Brahman is neither holy
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  Speaker 1: or unholy, loving or unloving, fair or unfair. And connected
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  Speaker 1: to that ephemeral and amoral entity called Brahman are two
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  Speaker 1: other sort of deities that are really the Hindu trinity.
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  Speaker 1: There is also Vishnu called the Preserver and Shiva called
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  Speaker 1: the Destroyer. And out of those deities flow approximately 330
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  Speaker 1: million other deities. The Creator, Brahman, who is really the
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  Speaker 1: source of all of this, is utterly impersonal, utterly non-personal,
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  Speaker 1: and flowing from him or it, all the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the deities are likewise impersonal, non-personal, indifferent, set apart from.
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  Speaker 2: The created world.
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  Speaker 1: Now what that means to a Hindu is that these
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  Speaker 1: deities which supposedly have some will or which supposedly have
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  Speaker 1: some control and some preferences for the behavior of humankind
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  Speaker 1: in no way are involved in assisting man to work
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  Speaker 1: out whatever it is that they're supposed to be doing.
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  Speaker 2: So the bottom.
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  Speaker 1: Line is that Hindus, like all the other people in
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  Speaker 1: the false religions of the world, are left to sort
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  Speaker 1: out and work out their own lives without any help
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  Speaker 1: from any deity. The best you can do is appease
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  Speaker 1: the deity with the hope that the deity will not
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  Speaker 1: debilitate you or kill you, but certainly you don't cultivate
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  Speaker 1: a relationship with the deity in which you expect that
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  Speaker 1: He would assist you in working out the difficulties of
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  Speaker 1: your life. Now that is quite the opposite of the
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  Speaker 1: God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is
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  Speaker 1: a person. The God of the Bible is a personal spirit.
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  Speaker 1: The God of the Bible is personally involved with His creatures.
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  Speaker 1: The God of the Bible seeks a personal relationship with
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  Speaker 1: men and women.
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  Speaker 2: The God of the Bible comes to live.
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  Speaker 1: Inside Christians where He takes up residence and abides. The
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  Speaker 1: God of the Bible finds deep satisfaction and joy in
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  Speaker 1: assisting the believer to do that which is His own will.
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  Speaker 1: So Christianity really is separated from all of those other
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  Speaker 1: kinds of religions where the deities are utterly impersonal, detached,
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  Speaker 1: and where their assistance is neither required nor sought after.
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  Speaker 1: The God of the Bible is just the opposite.
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  Speaker 2: He loves, He cares.
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  Speaker 1: He takes up residence in the life of the believer
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  Speaker 1: to effect in that believer's life that which is the
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  Speaker 1: very expression of His will. The God of the Bible
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  Speaker 1: is not an overbearing force, not a God of pagan making,
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  Speaker 1: not a God who makes demands on impotent people who
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  Speaker 1: are unable to comply and then crushing them because of
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  Speaker 1: their noncompliance. The God of the Bible is a loving, caring,
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  Speaker 1: personal God who makes demands on men that they can't
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  Speaker 1: fulfill and thus comes to live in them to fulfill
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  Speaker 1: His own demands in the very men He demanded to
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  Speaker 1: fulfill them. We as Christians then, distinct from the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the world, the religious world, have the amazing privilege
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  Speaker 1: of not only serving our God but of having our
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  Speaker 1: God dwelling within us, of having an intimate relationship with
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  Speaker 1: the true God of the universe.
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  Speaker 2: He takes up residence with us and in us. We
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  Speaker 2: talk with Him. We hear Him speak.
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  Speaker 1: We experience the comforts and the encouragement and the guidance
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  Speaker 1: and the direction of His presence. The Old Testament declares
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  Speaker 1: that such a God is our God. When the Old
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  Speaker 1: Testament describes God, it describes Him in general as a person.
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  Speaker 1: And the best way that man knows to understand a
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  Speaker 1: person is to give to that person human-like qualities. We
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  Speaker 1: say that's anthropomorphic, that is to speak of God in
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  Speaker 1: human terms. As one writer said, if you read the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament, you might conclude that God is some kind
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  Speaker 1: of a quote-unquote magnificent human being because the celebration of
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  Speaker 1: His personhood is put into terms which relate Him to
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  Speaker 1: man because He is so much of a relating God.
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  Speaker 1: For example, the Old Testament writers speak of God as talking.
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  Speaker 1: God as hearing, God as seeing, God as smelling, God
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  Speaker 1: as breathing. Even Isaiah 5 verse 26 speaks of God
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  Speaker 1: as whistling. They speak of God as having a heart.
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  Speaker 1: They say He walks, He
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  Speaker 1: goes to war. They speak of His loving and hating
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  Speaker 1: and pleading and condemning and weeping and laughing and comforting
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  Speaker 1: and caring.
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  Speaker 2: And all of that is to wrap up.
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  Speaker 1: God in a package that is identified as personhood.
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  Speaker 2: God is a person.
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  Speaker 1: And so He is described almost as if He were
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  Speaker 1: some magnificent human being. It is said that Moses spoke
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  Speaker 1: to God face to face, that Moses.
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  Speaker 2: Spoke to God mouth to mouth.
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  Speaker 1: In Exodus 33, 11, it says Moses spoke to God
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  Speaker 1: as a man talks to his friend.
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  Speaker 2: Very personal, very intimate.
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  Speaker 1: In Psalm 18, I think we find one of the
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  Speaker 1: most magnificent, majestic, and thrilling indications of God's personal involvement
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  Speaker 1: in the life of one of His own. Look with
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  Speaker 1: me to Psalm 18 because I believe this is a
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  Speaker 1: rich truth that ought to be captured in your heart
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  Speaker 1: and mind. In Psalm 18, picking up the text in
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  Speaker 1: verse 6, we find the psalmist in great distress And
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  Speaker 1: in his distress, he says, I called upon the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: This is not a relationship of fear. This is a
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  Speaker 1: relationship of love and assistance. So he called upon the
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  Speaker 1: Lord and he cried to my God for help, he says.
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  Speaker 1: He heard my voice out of his temple and my
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  Speaker 1: cry for him before him came into his ears.
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  Speaker 2: My cry for help before him came into his ears.
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  Speaker 1: Now here is the psalmist in the midst of difficulty,
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  Speaker 1: trying to sort out and work out the vicissitudes of
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  Speaker 1: his own life, and he cries to God for help.
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  Speaker 1: And would you please notice the response? Then the earth
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  Speaker 1: shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains were
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  Speaker 1: trembling and were shaken because he was angry. Smoke went
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  Speaker 1: up out of his nostrils, and fire from his mouth devoured.
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  Speaker 2: Coals were kindled by it.
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  Speaker 1: He bowed to heavens also and came down with thick
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  Speaker 1: darkness under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub
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  Speaker 1: and flew and he sped upon the wings of the wind.
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  Speaker 1: He made darkness his hiding place, his canopy around him,
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  Speaker 1: darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. From the
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  Speaker 1: brightness before him passed his thick clouds, hailstones, and coals
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  Speaker 1: of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and
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  Speaker 1: the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.
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  Speaker 1: And he sent out his arrows and scattered them, and
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  Speaker 1: lightning flashes in abundance and routed them. Then the channels
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  Speaker 1: of water appeared, and the foundations of the world were
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  Speaker 1: laid bare. At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast
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  Speaker 1: of the breath of thy nostrils.
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  Speaker 2: He sent from on high. He took me.
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  Speaker 1: He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me
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  Speaker 1: from my strong enemy and from those who hated me,
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  Speaker 1: for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me
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  Speaker 1: in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was
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  Speaker 1: my stay. He brought me forth also into a broad place.
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  Speaker 1: He rescued me, and here's the main thought, because He.
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  Speaker 2: Delighted in me. That's relationship.
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  Speaker 1: And here is a man who is related to God,
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  Speaker 1: and when that man cries out to God, the whole
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  Speaker 1: universe is in trauma as God acts in behalf of
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  Speaker 1: His one beloved child.
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  Speaker 2: That's the kind of God we have.
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  Speaker 1: Not an attributeless, indifferent, non-entity, but a God who loves
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  Speaker 1: and cares to the point where He moves heaven and earth,
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  Speaker 1: if need be, to lift up one of His own
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  Speaker 1: beloved children. In Psalm 56 and verse 8, it says
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  Speaker 1: the psalmist said that God put his tears in a bottle.
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  Speaker 2: The word for bottle there is the word for wineskin.
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  Speaker 1: A wineskin is a large container, and the psalmist was saying,
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  Speaker 1: God is so compassionate that He collects all my tears
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  Speaker 1: and keeps them in a wineskin. And it must have
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  Speaker 1: been a large one because the psalmist shed a lot
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  Speaker 1: of tears. What kind of God is it who collects
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  Speaker 1: the tears of His beloved children and keeps them as
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  Speaker 1: a memorial to their pain and their sadness and their sorrow?
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  Speaker 1: It is a compassionate God. It is a caring God,
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  Speaker 1: a loving God.
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  Speaker 2: A personal God.
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  Speaker 1: Who though not simply a magnificent human being can be
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  Speaker 1: spoken of in terms that convey His personal touch. God
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  Speaker 1: is personal and He has an abiding relationship with us
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  Speaker 1: and we experience the fullness of it every day of
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  Speaker 1: our lives and good that we do. For if He
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  Speaker 1: was not working in us, we would be unable to
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  Speaker 1: work at all to His glory and His praise. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: all of the effort of verse 12, if you're looking
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  Speaker 1: at Philippians 2, all of the effort of verse 12
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  Speaker 1: would be useless if it were not for verse 13.
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  Speaker 1: Remember what verse 12 says,' So then, my brethren or
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  Speaker 1: my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as
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  Speaker 1: in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
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  Speaker 1: work out your salvation with fear and trembling.' That working
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  Speaker 1: out would be impossible if it were not for the
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  Speaker 1: fact that verse 13 says,' For it is God who
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  Speaker 1: is at work in you both to will and to
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  Speaker 1: work for His good pleasure.' And the wondrous balance of
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  Speaker 1: spiritual life and spiritual growth and sanctification is that it
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  Speaker 1: is the Christian working out while God is working in.
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  Speaker 1: That is the perfect balance. It takes all of me
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  Speaker 1: as we have seen, but it demands all of Him.
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  Speaker 2: And all of us alone would accomplish absolutely nothing.
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  Speaker 1: But how wonderful that our God works in us to
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  Speaker 1: accomplish His own good pleasure.
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  Speaker 2: To effect that which He demands.
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  Speaker 1: That's the glory of Christian living, that God calls us
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  Speaker 1: to obey and then God effects that obedience in us.
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  Speaker 1: God calls us to holiness and then effects that holiness
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  Speaker 1: in us. God calls us to serve and then mobilizes
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  Speaker 1: that service.
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  Speaker 2: In us by His own power and presence.
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  Speaker 1: Your spiritual growth and your progress toward maturity and your
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  Speaker 1: sanctification and your moving toward Christlikeness demands all that you are,
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  Speaker 1: but it also demands all that God is in you.
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  Speaker 1: And that is the uniqueness of Christianity. Christ in you,
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  Speaker 1: the hope of glory. God taking up residence in the believer.
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  Speaker 1: And that is how we live our Christian life. Now
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  Speaker 1: remember verse 12 talked about the Christian working out, and
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  Speaker 1: now verse 13 we're going to talk about God working in.
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  Speaker 1: And as we look at verse 13, it seems like
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  Speaker 1: a simple statement, but it is loaded with profound truth.
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  Speaker 1: All it says is, for it is God who is
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  Speaker 1: at work in you, both to will and to work
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  Speaker 1: for His good pleasure. I looked at that over and
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  Speaker 1: over again, and it began to dawn on me that
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  Speaker 1: there are at least five key truths about God there
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  Speaker 1: that we must understand. that will make this statement really
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  Speaker 1: come alive. God works in you. What a statement. What
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  Speaker 1: an incredible reality. God says, without me you can do nothing.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely nothing. It is God who has to do it all.
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  Speaker 1: John 15, 4, Jesus said, if you try to produce something,
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  Speaker 1: you must be connected to the vine. Because if you
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  Speaker 1: don't abide in the vine, you have no life source
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  Speaker 1: to produce fruit.
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  Speaker 2: Without Me, you can do nothing.
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  Speaker 1: In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, as the Apostle Paul, under
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  Speaker 1: the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, outlines the matters of
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  Speaker 1: spiritual gifts and ministries, in verse 6 he says, there
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  Speaker 1: are varieties of effects, but the same God who works
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  Speaker 1: all things in all persons. Whatever is being produced in
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  Speaker 1: your life to His glory, He is producing.
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  Speaker 2: He is at work in you, in me, in all
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  Speaker 2: His children.
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  Speaker 1: That's why 2 Corinthians 3, 5 says, we're not adequate
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  Speaker 1: in ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.
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  Speaker 2: He is at work in us. What a thought. Now,
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  Speaker 2: I want you to concentrate on five elements of that thought.
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  Speaker 2: Very simple.
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  Speaker 1: And they all focus on the one who works in us.
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  Speaker 1: First of all, let's note His person. His person. It
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  Speaker 1: says in verse 13, it is God who is at work.
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  Speaker 2: It is God.
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  Speaker 1: Literally, the Greek says, God is the one at work.
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  Speaker 1: No one else but God. The emphasis is on God.
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  Speaker 1: The absolutely unbelievable truth that the One who is at
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  Speaker 1: work in us is God. The very God who created
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  Speaker 1: the universe. He is that personal, that intimate, that concerned,
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  Speaker 1: that He literally works in us. We are not dependent
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  Speaker 1: on our human resources. although God has given us much
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  Speaker 1: in terms of creation and much in terms of redeemed creation.
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  Speaker 2: To work with.
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  Speaker 1: We are still not dependent on our human resources. We
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  Speaker 1: are not even dependent on our brothers and sisters in Christ,
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  Speaker 1: though the body of Christ has a marvelous ministry to itself,
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  Speaker 1: and we are in great debt to those who serve
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  Speaker 1: us in the body by the use of their gifts
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  Speaker 1: and through the fellowship and ministry which stimulates us to
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  Speaker 1: love and good works. Nor are we dependent upon the
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  Speaker 1: holy angels who are sent forth as ministering spirits with
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  Speaker 1: the very purpose of ministering to the children of God,
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews 1.14. As wonderful as it is to have talents humanly,
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  Speaker 1: as great as it is to be a part of
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  Speaker 1: the body of Christ and to have angelic assistance, that's
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  Speaker 1: not going to do it. It isn't that we are
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  Speaker 1: dependent on human pastors and teachers who have taught us
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  Speaker 1: the Word of God and fed us like sheep and
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  Speaker 1: led us As shepherds, as wonderful as that is, as
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  Speaker 1: blessed as it is to have those kinds of people
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  Speaker 1: ministering to us, the key to our spiritual progress is
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  Speaker 1: that God is the one at work in us.
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  Speaker 2: I'm grateful that there are other believers working on us.
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  Speaker 1: I'm grateful that there are angels working for us. I
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  Speaker 1: am grateful for pastors and teachers who are working, as
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  Speaker 1: it were, to shape us. But the thrill of all
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  Speaker 1: thrills is that it is God who is the one
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  Speaker 1: at work in us. God Himself is working out our sanctification.
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  Speaker 1: That's why sanctification can't be deterred. The same God who justifies,
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  Speaker 1: who wrought justification will bring about sanctification. There is an
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  Speaker 1: undeniable inevitability there. It is God who is the one
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  Speaker 1: at work. The immutable, unchanging, glorious, sovereign, majestic, righteous, holy, gracious,
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  Speaker 1: merciful God.
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  Speaker 2: The God who rules all.
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  Speaker 1: Things and always accomplishes His will, is never frustrated, always
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  Speaker 1: does what He desires.
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  Speaker 2: The God who is never thwarted. He is at work
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  Speaker 2: in us.
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  Speaker 1: You see, that is what made the psalmist say in
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  Speaker 1: Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd. That's where the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: emphasis ought to be. Not the Lord is my shepherd,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: but the Lord is my shepherd. There are a lot
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: of shepherds in this world. The psalmist says the Lord
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: is mine. God works in me, and that's why I
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: shall not want, because He makes me lie down in
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: my soul. Every need is met because the Lord is
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: my shepherd.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: That's the great truth of Christianity.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Psalm 27, the psalmist says, the Lord is my light
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: and my salvation. And I love this, the Lord is
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the strength of my life. The Lord is the strength
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of my life.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: His person. That's where Paul starts. It is God. That
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: ought to be in bold type.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Underlined with three exclamation points. Unimaginable truth to a pagan world.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Unimaginable to say God works in you.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: God who loves us with an everlasting love.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: God who holds toward us an eternal kindness. God who
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: keeps us with an everlasting covenant based on everlasting promises.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: God.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: whose gifts and callings are without repentance, God who says
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: that whom He justifies, He glorifies, God who sees us
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: through to the end, God who unendingly, unswervingly commits Himself
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to us to supply all our needs in Christ Jesus,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: that God is the one in us. He is the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: strength of our life. The God who made the worlds.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: The God who upholds the world by the word of
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: His power. The God who is sovereign over everything for
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: all eternity.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: He lives in us.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: That's really an astounding realization.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: I love a little paragraph by W.H. Griffith Thomas.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: He says this, God is the answer to every question
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: of the mind. to every trembling fear of the heart,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: to every weakness of appetite, and to every strong hurricane
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: of temptation. The soul, the lonely individual soul, not knowing
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: whence it has come, knowing almost as little where it's going,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: confronting the question of weakness and sin and death and
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: eternity and the deep, deep problems of moral evil, can
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: only answer every complaint by the one, all-sufficient, all-comprehending, monosyllable God.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: This is our anchor. God made us. God knew our constitution.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: God knew our environment. God knew our temptation, the temptations
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: that would assail us, and yet God redeemed us to
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Himself and made us His own by the blood of Christ.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Now, if God.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: be a being of perfect benevolence, he cannot have done
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: so much without assuming to himself the responsibility of realizing
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: the object of the tears, longings, and prayers which he
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: has put by his own hand within our nature. And therefore,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: we must throw back on him the responsibility of making
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: us blameless, harmless, and unrebukable before him.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: End quote. What a person living in us.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: And as Thomas, Griffith Thomas rightly says, the God who
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: made us and the God who made us his own
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: must have assumed the responsibility of making us into what
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: he wanted us to be.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Who is it? God in us.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Secondly, Paul reflects on his power, not only his person.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: He says, it is God who is at work.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Energein, we get the word energy from it in the Greek.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: It means to put out power or to work effectively.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: To put it simply, it's the word the energizer. God
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: is the energizer. For it is God who is the energizer.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: He is the one whose power drives our sanctification.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: You see, in the flesh we can do absolutely nothing.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: But His power drives us toward Christlikeness. His power compels
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: righteousness and controverts sin. That's why we are sustained. That's
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: why we can say we are eternally secure in Christ.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Because His power continues to drive us to glorification. His
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: power expels sin and invites holiness. We persevere because we
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: are energized by Him. And how much power does he have?
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: He has all power. He is the omnipotent God. Is
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: there anything too hard for him to do? He has
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: all power. He committed that power to Christ. And Christ said,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I have all power in heaven and in earth. And
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: so we have the tremendous realization that we are energized
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: by God and that there is no limit to His
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: energy and that if He saved us in order to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: sanctify us, then that will take place. He will move
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: us along toward Christlikeness. His energy will accomplish that. That's
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: His promise. And there is so much power available that
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Paul can say in Ephesians 3.20, Now unto him that
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: or think according to the power that works in what?
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: Us. Maybe it would have been more.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Understandable if it had said, Now unto him that is
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: or think according to the power that works in heaven.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: or the power that works in Christ, or the power
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: that works in the Holy Spirit, but the power that
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: works in us. God can accomplish and does accomplish through
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: you that which is unimaginable, unthinkable, beyond your ability to plan.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Or reason or dream.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: He is effecting the sanctification process. There is a certain
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: sovereignty in that in that there are differing points along
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the path where we all find ourselves, and we don't
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: know all of God's reasons for some of the apparently
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: convoluted trips that some are taking in the process. But nonetheless,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: it is my firm conviction that God effects sanctification in
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the life, that there is a pattern of progress which
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: God is working to please Himself, as we shall.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Note, and He is the power behind it.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Paul says. Philippians chapter 4. Let me give you an
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: illustration of this. Go back to 2 Chronicles chapter 4.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: And I want to show you an interesting moment in
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the history of God's people, Judah, and just give you
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: a very good analogy to help you see this picture
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: of how God works. Hezekiah became king, verse 1 says
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: of 2 Chronicles 29.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: He was king of Judah.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: He was only 25 years old when he became king.
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: And he reigned for 29 years in Jerusalem.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Verse 2 characterizes his life, and it is a wonderful characterization.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: He did right in the sight of the Lord according
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to all that his father David had done. He was
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: a good king. He was a noble king. He was
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: a godly man. Now, when he ascended to rule among
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: the people of God, he deemed it essential that they
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: get their spiritual lives together. And so he started at
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: the top, and in the first year of his reign,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: verse 3, in the first month, he opened the doors
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: of the house of the Lord and repaired them. There
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: had been a real ignoring of the things of God
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and the whole of the people of God had fallen
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: into sin and idolatry, a tragic history. Here comes Hezekiah,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: a godly man. He opens the doors of the house
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: of the Lord. He repairs them. He is reinstituting worship
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and then he does this. He brought in the priests
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: and the Levites, gathered them into the square in the
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: east all of those who are responsible for the religious
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: leadership of the nation.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: He brought together.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: He said to them, listen to me, O Levites, consecrate
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: yourselves now and consecrate the house of the Lord, the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out from
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the holy place. Clean up this place and clean up
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: your lives. A very direct, straightforward approach. And he started
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: with a religious leadership. He says, our fathers have been
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Lord our God and have forsaken Him and turned their
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: have turned their backs. They have also shut the doors
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: of the porch and put out the lamps and have
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: Holy place to the God of Israel.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Therefore, the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: and He's made them an object of terror, of horror,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: our sons and our daughters and our wives are in
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: captivity for this. Now, it is in my heart to
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel that
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: His burning anger may turn away from us. So then
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: he says, my sons, don't be negligent now, for the
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to minister
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: to Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: So all the priests and.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: All the Levites are gathered and told it's time for
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: spiritual consecration.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: And they did it.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: They began it, verse 17 says, on the first day
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: of the first month.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: And if you'll flow down to verse 20, After.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: The consecration of the priests and the Levites, King Hezekiah
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: rose early and assembled the princes of the city and
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: went up to the house of the Lord. Now he
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: moves away from the religious leaders to the nationally recognized leaders,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: to the rest of the leaders. And he says, it's
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: time for you to get spiritually in tune with God.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And it's time for you to begin to make sacrifices
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: and sin offerings and And there was a tremendous slaughter.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: And if you want to know the extent of this consecration,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: you need only go to verse 32. And as the
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: Levites and the priests had been set apart to God,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: now all the rest of the leaders are. The number
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: of the burnt offerings which was brought was 70 bulls,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: 100 rams, 200 lambs, all these for a burnt offering.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: And the consecrated things were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: This is a real massacre of animals. And the priests
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: were too few, so that they were unable to skin
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: all the burnt offerings. Therefore their brothers, the Levites, helped
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: them until the work was complete, and until the other
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites were more conscientious
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: to consecrate themselves than the priests. And there were also
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: many burnt offerings with the fat of the peace offerings,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and with the libations for the burnt offering. Thus the
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: service of the house of the Lord was established again.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was an instant revival. Now we've got
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: the leadership taken care of. You come to chapter 30.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Follow this.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Hezekiah then sent to all Israel and Judah, now everybody,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh all so that
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: they should come to the house of the Lord at
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover to the Lord God of Israel.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: Now he really is calling for the Passover to be
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: reinstated in its fullness. It had been only minimally attended
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: to in past years, and he wants the whole nation
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: there as God has prescribed. And this is really the
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: work of God. God through Hezekiah is calling all the people.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Verse 6, the couriers were to say, O sons of Israel,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: This is calling for a spiritual revival. Verse 8, do
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: not stiffen your necks. Verse 9, if you return to
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: the Lord, your brothers and your sons will find compassion
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: before those who led them captive and return to this land.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate and
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: will not turn His face away from you if you.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Return to Him.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: So He's calling for revival. Now notice, here's the key.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: The couriers go out, verse 10, everywhere. And then you
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: come down to verse 12.
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: Follow this. The hand of God was also on Judah....
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: To give them one heart to do what the king
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: and the princes commanded by.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: The word of the Lord. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: a fascinating statement?
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: The king and the princes were commanding the people to
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: return to God because it was.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: The word of the Lord to them.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: God says, command the people to return to Me, and
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: then verse 12 says, then God gave them a heart
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: to do it.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: Marvelous, isn't it?
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: God therefore energizes the fulfillment of His own command.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: What a perfect model.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: God moves powerfully to produce what He demands. That is
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the incredible mystery of Christian living, that God is effecting
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: in the believer what He is commanding to the believer.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: And say, how do you understand that? I don't understand
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: it except that it's simply stated. I cannot understand it.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I cannot make a dividing line between what is God
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: and what is me and how much God can do
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: if I cooperate and how much He can't do if
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I don't. It is mystery, but it is clear in
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Scripture that whatever is to be done in my life
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: in response to God's command, He must energize.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: He is strong. He is powerful.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: And His power works to affect what He commands. Go
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: back then to Philippians chapter 2 and let's look at
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: a third very, very essential factor in understanding the One
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: working in us. We saw first of all His person
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: as God, His power, He is energizing all of our
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: spiritual development. We go from His power to thirdly His presence.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: And this will touch on what we already said in
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the introduction. Verse 13, for it is God who is
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: at work in you.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, what a great statement.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: God in you. He's not working on you. He's not
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: working for you. He is working in you. What a
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: profound reality. You remember in Acts 1.8, where Jesus said
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: to the apostles, you shall receive power after the Holy
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Spirit has come upon you. When the Spirit of God
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: took up residence, there was power. God lives in us
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: in His Spirit. That great truth, I think, was particularly
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: important for some reason to the Corinthian church because Paul
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: said it to them at least three times. In 1
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16, he says, if any
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: for the temple of God is holy, and that is
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: what you are.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: You're the temple of God. You're where God lives. What
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: a thought. And then he says in verse 17, the
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: temple of.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: God is holy, and that's what you are. Verse 16,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: you're the temple of God. That's what you are. God
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: lives in you. Verse 17 repeats the same thought. Over
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: in chapter 6 and verse 19, he says, your body
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: whom you have from God. Now, in 1 Corinthians 3,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: He's speaking collectively. The church as a whole is the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: temple of God. In 1 Corinthians 6, 19, He's speaking individually.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Every Christian as an individual believer is the temple of God.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: He lives in us as individuals, so He lives in
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: us collectively. And then in His second letter to the Corinthians,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: chapter 6 and verse 16, Paul says this, for we
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: are the temple of the living God. Just as God said,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: I will dwell in them and walk among them and
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I will be their God.
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: What a thought.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: God says, I will never leave you or forsake you.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: God says, lo, I am with you always, even to
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: the end of the age. Paul says, be anxious for nothing.
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: Why? The Lord is at hand. He's present, imminence.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Do you understand what the psalmist had in mind then
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: when he said of God, you compass my path and
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways?
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Psalm 139 verse 3.
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: God, you're always there. You're always there, present in me.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: There is never a moment of your existence from the
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: time you give your life to Christ until you meet
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Him face to face that God is not with you,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: that He is not there. You have His presence. That
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: has negative connotation in 1 Corinthians 6. Paul says, if
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: you join yourself to a harlot, you join Christ to
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: a harlot. You say, well, now it's Is Christ in
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: me or is God in me? And the answer is yes.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: The Spirit of Christ is God. Well, isn't the Holy
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Spirit in me? The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: The Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit who is
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: the Spirit of God who is God.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: It's the same. It's God in the form of His
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Spirit dwelling in you.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: And always present, always supporting, always sustaining, always upholding, always supplying,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: always strengthening, always shielding, Never out of His care. Always
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: producing sanctifying effects in your life.
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: That's why He gets all the credit. Because He's doing
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: all the work. Romans 11, 33.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: unfathomable His ways.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: For who has.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Known the mind of the Lord or who became His counselor?
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: God is working independently. God is working in ways that
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: are beyond our ability to understand. Ever and always consistently
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: in us, caring for every need. His presence is infinite.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: His understanding is infinite. His wisdom is infinite.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: And He lives in us.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: He is holy, so He always does what's right. He
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: is loving, so He's always concerned with our best. He
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: is gracious, so He always forgives. He is merciful, so
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: He always holds back the fullness of judgment. He is just,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: so He's always fair. He's generous, so He always.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Gives more than enough. He's there.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: God is not a far off. God is not a
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: long distance away. Like the gods of the pagans, God
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: is here living in us. And I'll tell you something, beloved,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: God would not go to the great extent to justify us,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: to then leave us alone. Having begun in the Spirit,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: we would not be perfected in the flesh, Galatians 3.3.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: So having begun in the Spirit, we are perfected in
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: the Spirit. Having begun with the power of God, we
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: are sustained with the power of God. Having been justified
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: by the power of God, we are sanctified by the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: power of God.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: And He lives in us.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: And that is why I believe that the process cannot be,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: cannot be halted. Sin in our lives somehow, someway slows
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: it down, but God effects the progressive work through blessing
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: or through chastening. Hebrews 12 says, sometimes He has to
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: discipline us, but that is for us to partake of
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: His holiness.
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: To produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness. So whether it's
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: through blessing or chastening, He sustains His sanctifying work by
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: His presence moving us toward.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: Greater spiritual maturity. So His person, His power, and His presence. Fourthly,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Paul speaks of His purpose, and this is the heart
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: of what I want you to grasp from the practical
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: standpoint this morning.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: His purpose. What is it? Well, He's trying to produce
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: something very specific in us. What is it? He is
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: working in us both to will and to work, or
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: to will and to do. Now, what does this mean?
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: Well, that phrase, both to will and to work, is
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: best noted as a reference to us rather than to God.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: He is working in you to cause you to will
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: and to work for His good pleasure. In other words,
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: there are two things God wants to energize in us.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: Our will and our work.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Desire and deed. Those are very vital, very basic. First
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: of all, let's talk about that idea of working in us.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: To will.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: He wants us to will what is right, to want
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: what is right, to desire what is right, so He
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: works on our want, on our will, on our desires.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: You remember Psalm 110, 3, which says, we are made
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: willing in the day of His power. When His power
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: moves in us, it makes us willing. He is working
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: to cause us to will to do what is right. See,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: all behavior rises out of your will. It all rises
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: out of your desire, your longing, your wants, your intent.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: In fact, that verb to will is thelo. It is
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: the verb that means intent or inclination. One lexicon says
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: it is a will that is an unimpassioned operation. I
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: think that's the way he phrased it. In other words,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: it's not the desire of passion. It's not the desire
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: of lust. It's not the desire or the whimsical desire
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: of emotion. It is the unimpassioned will, that is the studied, designed,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: planned intent. God wants to produce in us the proper intention,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: the proper inclination, the proper desire for what is right.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: This is nothing new. You again can go back to
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: the Old Testament. You might remember Ezra 1 verse 5.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: It says, the heads of the fathers' households of Judah
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, even
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: everyone whose spirit God had stirred to go up and
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: rebuild the house of the Lord. God began by stirring
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: up their will, stirring up their desire.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: That is part of God's energizing work. Over in chapter.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: 7, that same idea is used in Ezra, verse 27,'
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: has put such a thing as this in the king's heart.'
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: God works in you on your will to produce the intent,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: the inclination, the will to.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: Do what He desires.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: That's where he begins his internal work, working on your desires,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: because what you do and what I do is a
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: product of what we desire. Remember Proverbs 21.1, the king's
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: heart is like channels of water in the hand of
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: the Lord.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: He turns it wherever he wishes.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: He takes your heart and he turns it to cause
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: you to will what is right, to will what is good,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: to will what is his desire.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: But how does he do it? How does He do that?
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: Let me give you two factors, okay? Very important.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: I believe that there are two things God produces in
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: you to move your will.
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: One is holy discontent. H-O-L-Y.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Holy discontent. What does that mean? It simply means you're
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: discontent with your unholiness. There is a righteous discontent, not
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: an unholy discontent.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: That's sin.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: But a holy discontent with the present spiritual state. In
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: other words, God makes you dislike your present spiritual weakness.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Have you ever experienced that? Paul put it this way,
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: O wretched man that I am, Romans 7, 24.
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: That's holy discontent.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: It's not being discontent with your circumstances in life or
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the conditions in which God has called you to live.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: It's being discontent with your sin. And I believe that
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: the convicting work of God in your.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: Life is to stir you up.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: Up a holy discontent about your sin. Do you ever
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: get exasperated about your sin? You ever get to the
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: place where you find tears in your eyes because you're
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: so sick and tired of the same sin? You're so
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: sick and tired of fighting the battles on the same front?
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: That's a holy discontent that God is producing as He
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: works on your will.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: He wants you to hate sin.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: The second thing that He produces in working on your
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: will is a holy aspiration. That's the flip side. A
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: longing for something better. A longing for something purer. A
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: longing for something holy. A longing for something righteous. A
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: longing for something true. A longing to be like Christ.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: A longing to be godly. A longing to be virtuous.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: A longing to be victorious. And sometimes you're reading about
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: a Bible character and your heart is filled with an
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: aspiration to be like Paul or be like Peter or
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: be like John. Or sometimes you're reading a missionary biography
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: and you feel so cheap and so shallow because the
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: level of your dedication seems so low when compared with
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: some of the great people that God has used. And
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: that becomes holy aspiration. Holy discontent and holy aspirations. And
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: that's where it all starts. And I believe that's the
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: work of God in you producing that. To put it simply,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: He produces a hatred of sin and a love of righteousness.
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: That's why if you want to get in touch with
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: whether a person's really a Christian or not, you can
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: look at those two things. Do they hate their sin
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: and love righteousness? Is there a holy discontent and a
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: longing for something far more pure than what they are experiencing?
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: That's the work of the indwelling God, the Holy Spirit.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Moving on your will.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: If you want to see a perfect illustration of it,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: look at Philippians chapter 3. And here you're going to
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: see holy discontent and holy aspiration come together. Verse 12,
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Paul says, not that I've already obtained it, that is
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: already obtained spiritual perfection, already reached Full knowledge of Christ,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: full expression of His power, complete fellowship in His sufferings,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: already conformed fully to His death, already having attained resurrection. No,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: not as though I have attained or have already become perfect. No,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: he says, that's holy discontent. I haven't become perfect. Verse 13, brethren,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: I do not regard myself as having.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: Laid hold of it yet. I'm not there. That's holy discontent.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: That's why He says in verse 10, I want to
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: know Him and the power of His resurrection and the
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death. I'm
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: not there yet. That's holy discontent. But look at holy
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: aspiration in verse 12. But I press on in order
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: that I may lay hold of that for which also
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Verse 13,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind what is
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: a part of that holy discontent and reaching forward to
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: Holy discontent. I'm not there. I haven't arrived. Holy aspiration.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: I press on. I press on.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Now that's what God wants to work in your will.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: So that you will that which is right by having
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: a revulsion toward what is wrong and an aspiration toward
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: what is right.
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: So the purpose of God is to work on your will.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: But secondly, He works in you, energizing you both to
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: will and then to work, or literally to do.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: And it's the word.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: Energain again, the same word translated work here. He energizes
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: you to be energetic. He energizes you. He works in
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: you so you will work. Not just to will, but
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: to work. Godly behavior. You start with a holy discontent,
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: and that leads to holy aspiration, and that leads to
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: holy resolve, which means I will now do what is right,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: and that leads to holy work.
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: That's the process. That's the process.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: Holy discontent Holy aspiration, holy resolve where the commitment is
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: made produces holy work. And that's what God's doing in you.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: He's working on your will and He's working on your
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: work so that you will will and do.
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: What is right.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: What a great promise, beloved. God is at work in us.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: Remember that little Sign that you saw a few years ago,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: please be patient. God is not finished with me yet.
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: Great truth in it. The underlying truth is that God
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: is at work in us. And only God can energize
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: spiritual ends, spiritual results. So we see His person, His power,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: His presence, His purpose. Lastly, His pleasure.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: This is overwhelming.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: This is just mind-boggling. Why is God doing this? The
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: end of verse 13, for His good pleasure. Do you
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: understand that when you will and work what is right,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: it pleases God? Do you understand that there is so
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: much of a relationship between you and God that you can,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: in a sense, bring Him pleasure? The word eudakia means satisfaction.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: God works in us to will and to work for
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: His good pleasure. He wants to cause us to do
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: what pleases Him.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: That's what it means.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: He wants to cause us to do what satisfies Him.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: The underlying thing that strikes me is that anything that
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: I could do could satisfy Him. Isn't He ultimately and
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: infinitely and perfectly satisfied already? There's some way in which
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: He takes pleasure in me willing and working.
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: On His behalf. You remember Luke 12, 32?
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Jesus looked at that motley bunch of weak faith disciples
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: and said, it's your Father's good pleasure to give you
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: the kingdom.
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: Isn't that an astounding statement?
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: You would have understood it if He had said, well,
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: the Father has given in and decided He'll give you
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the kingdom anyway, but He's upset about it.
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: No.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: It's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: He is a God of love. He is a God
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: of compassion. He is a God of grace and mercy,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: and you are.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: Very dear to Him.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: And when you will and work what He wants, He
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: is pleased. And isn't that the essence of a relationship?
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: To give to one another so that there is pleasure?
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: He wants your best. Because your best is what pleases
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Him most. He takes pleasure in you. He takes pleasure
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: in me. And what He wants to produce in us
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: is for His own satisfaction. Isn't it a great thought
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: to think that.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: I can bring satisfaction to the heart of God? Think
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: about that. John MacArthur, you could do something. You could
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: will something.
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: You could be the kind of person who could bring
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: satisfaction to the heart of God. Listen, I couldn't do
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: that in my flesh. But God can work in me
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: to will and to work what will be to His pleasure.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I think the most
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: wonderful thing about any relationship is that you would bring
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: the other person pleasure, don't you?
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: What good is a relationship if all you bring is pain?
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: Who needs it? If all you bring is grief.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: But what everybody wants out of a relationship is satisfaction
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: and pleasure. And God says, you can bring me that.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: Wonderful thing that Paul is saying here. The Christian is
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: working out with maximum effort and God is working in.
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: To accomplish His pleasure. Listen. Listen.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: Let me bring it to a conclusion. We of all
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: the people on the face of this earth are so
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: uniquely blessed because God works in us.
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: What a thought. That's the distinctiveness of Christianity. And that's
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: the balance. It takes all of us and all of Him.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: A person who is being renewed by the Spirit of
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: God is not in a state of passive surrender, but
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: is actively engaged in serving and working and putting on
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: the new man and killing the flesh. The Christian life
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: is described as a race and as a warfare, as
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: a fight. We are called on to be careful to
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: apply ourselves to good deeds, Titus 3.8. It is said
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: that the devil is an enemy to be resisted, James 4.7.
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: We are to constantly beat our bodies into subjection, lest
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: we would be disqualified in spiritual service. And we are told,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: even when it comes to rest in Hebrews 4.11, that
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: we are to strive or agonize to enter into rest.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: It takes everything you are as a Christian, everything you are.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: You're not just a passive piece of clay. It is
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: not just let go and let God, it is look
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: carefully how you walk, Ephesians 5.15.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: T.C. Hammond could summarize it well in this brief statement.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: While the New Testament emphasizes most emphatically that the work
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: of grace is of God and not of our inherent capacity,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: and so far lends support to the quietest position, It
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: is equally emphatic on the fact that God works in
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: us or with us and thus does justice to the
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: truth resident in pietism. By combining both ideas, it corrects
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: the errors resident in both. Remember where we started all this?
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: The quietist says do nothing. The pietist says do everything.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: God says you do everything and I'll do everything and
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: we'll effect sanctification. As we close, let me ask you
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: a question, a real personal one, only you can answer.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: God is at work in you right now if you're
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: a Christian. What is He working to cause you to
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: will and to do?
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: Have you thought about it?
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: What does He want you to will? What does He
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: want you to do? What habit does He want you
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: to change? What relationship does He want you to make right?
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: What relationship does He want you to break? What relationship
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: does He want you to make? What attitude does He
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: want you to change? What desire does He want you
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: to ignore? What desire does He want you to have?
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: What ministry does He want you to do? What spiritual
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: duty does He desire that you will? What area does
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: He want you to be faithful? What wrong does He
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: want you to make right? He's working in you to
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: cause you to will and to work what will please Him.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: Do you know what it is that He wants you
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: to will and to work? Let's bow in prayer and
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: ask the Lord, Lord, what is it that you are
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: working in me to will and to do? What do
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: you want me to want? What do you want me
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: to desire? What do you want me to long for?
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: What do you want me to do?
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: What work do you want me to work? Show me. Father,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: hear that prayer of every praying heart. For Jesus' sake, amen.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: You've been listening to John MacArthur, Bible teacher with Grace
• 1:02:51
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• 1:02:54
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• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: visit Grace to You's website at gty.org. John MacArthur and
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: Grace to You reserve all copyright protection under applicable law.
• 1:03:08
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