Sermon: God Never Disappoints

#1621
Martin G. Collins
Given 16-Oct-21; 68 minutes

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There is a great deal of disappointment in this life and everyone has experienced it. People know disappointment as children when they do not receive something they want. Young people know disappointment when they are left out by their friends. Business people struggling to be successful are often disappointed since only a few actually make it to the top. Some of us are disappointed in love and we all face disappointments with other people. Someone once said, "When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are."

Almost everything human is stained with disappointment. That is a fact of life. Yet there is no disappointment with God. And what the apostle Paul wrote in his epistle to the Philippians is a great expression of this truth. Paul had carried the gospel of Jesus Christ through much of the Roman empire and then he was in prisoned in Rome itself.

He wanted to preach the gospel in the western part of the Roman empire, but instead he was soon to be executed for his faith. From a human point of view, everything seemed to be going against him. What disappointment he could have felt at that point. But despite this, Paul remained confident that God's purpose for his life would not be shaken. He writes,

Philippians 1:19-21 For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

To understand this passage, we have to understand that word "ashamed" there. It did not have the meaning for the biblical writers that it does for us today. The primary biblical meaning is not even in most of our dictionaries. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines shame as "a painful emotion excited by a conscientiousness of guilt, disgrace, or dishonor." When you are at a party for example, and are humiliated, or if you make a fool of yourself publicly, you are ashamed, according to our dictionaries.

But this is not the biblical understanding of shame. The biblical understanding has to do with disappointment. According to Scripture, the person who is not ashamed is the person whose trust is not misplaced or who therefore is never disillusioned or disappointed. This meaning is unmistakable at several important places in the Bible. For example, in Romans 5:5, Paul writes about the Christian hope. In the King James Version it reads, "Hope maketh not ashamed." At this point, the New King Version and the NIV correctly say, "Hope does not disappoint." And Phillips correctly paraphrases this, '"A steady hope that will never disappoint us."

Another verse that requires this translation is Isaiah 49:23, which is quoted twice in Romans. Here God says, "Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed [that is, disappointed] who wait for Me." Have you ever thought of the ways that God does not disappoint? There are three verses in the Bible that more than any others tell of the great ways in which God does not disappoint us. All contain the word "ashamed" and all teach that there is no disappointment for Christians.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Paul says that he has never been disappointed in the gospel because whenever and wherever it is preached, the power of God accompanies it and produces supernatural results. What is the gospel? It is the message of the coming Kingdom of God and it is a message of salvation and eternal life. It is all positive, it does not disappoint.

In Mark 1 they are with Jesus when He begins His Galilean ministry.

Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel."

Now, the gospel of the Kingdom of God is the message of God's grace revealed in Jesus Christ and it is focused on His death, burial, and resurrection. Paul summarized it in these words here.

I Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believe in vain. For I delivered you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

It is interesting here that Paul speaks to the power of the gospel when writing to the church in Rome in Romans 1, verse 16. Paul was living among three conflicting cultures: the Jewish culture, the Greek culture, and the Roman culture, and he preached the gospel to each of these diverse groups of people. Each had its particular difficulty in accepting the gospel. I really find this fascinating.

The Jews came with centuries of religious training and tradition. They lived within a fixed spiritual system and Jesus Christ had no place within that system. Hence, for the Jews, Jesus was a stumbling block. It was necessary for Paul to show that Jesus, far from being a stumbling block, was actually God's foundation for the entire structure of revealed true religion, though the Jews could only see it from their narrow view of human tradition.

The Greeks, on the other hand, did not pride themselves on their religious traditions, but they were proud of their wisdom. And the Greeks traced their intellectual ancestry to Homer and Plato and Aristotle, the Cynics, the Epicureans, and the Neo-Platonists—all the competing systems of knowledge that preceded Paul's day. Most of these systems spoke of an unbridgeable gap between the infinite and the finite, between God and man. Therefore to the Greeks, the preaching of the birth, death, and resurrection of God's Son was foolishness. Paul found it necessary to show that the cross of Christ was actually the wisdom of God so that he could connect with their philosophical thinking, a wisdom that exposes the foolishness of human understanding and reasoning. And that is the approach Paul took to the Greeks.

Then the Romans took pride in their power. They are all about power. The power of Rome and the power of the Roman legions had conquered the civilized world and it was the strong arm of Rome that guaranteed Roman justice throughout the conquered dominions. That is what they worshipped—power. To the Romans this was power and the gospel of Jesus was weakness. Paul found it necessary to show that it was actually the power of God. The gospel possesses a power that does not disappoint the Christian.

Greek was the intellectual business language of the day. There are several words for power in the Greek language and each moves within a different sphere of thought. There is the word exousia in its transliteration. This word refers to the power that comes from authority.

There is also the word kratos from which we get the words democrat, autocrat, and plutocrat. It refers to the naked power of rule, a power one may exercise whether or not one has legitimate authority to do so. That is what we are looking at in our government today, ignoring the laws of the land, ignoring the Constitution of the United States, going from sheer power.

There is also the word dynamis, the third word in Greek that was used, from which we get the explosive words dynamite, dynamo, and dynamic. And this is where is the word "power" that occurs in Romans 1:16, "It is the power of God to salvation." The word by which Paul claims the gospel of Christ, to the power-conscious Romans. That is how he connected with them. Paul says that it is the effective, explosive power of God. He knew that the gospel always accomplished the purpose for which God sent it. It still does today.

It takes the immoral pleasure-seekers of society and gives them a purpose in life by which they can contribute to society instead of tearing it down. But do they recognize it? Do they notice it? Or do they want to do it? Absolutely not. It turns the weak of the world into witnesses for Christ and the gospel changes people. It transforms your life and satisfies your deepest spiritual longing. It does not disappoint.

The second place that tells of a way in which God will not disappoint is found here in II Timothy. Paul writes:

II Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed [that is, disappointed], for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

There is a hidden metaphor here, which is that of banking. The verse actually means God has the power to keep that which I have deposited with Him. Every now and then we read on the Internet or see on TV the news of some financial executive who has engaged in dishonest practices and whose financial enterprise has collapsed overnight. A man like this has often sold stock to unsuspecting people while pushing the price of the stock to unrealistic heights through dishonest dealings. The value is there on paper, but not in reality. And the warehouses turn out to be vacant lots and the storage tanks turn out to be empty. The tycoon or the power-driven person has no power to preserve what has been committed to him. All that the stockholders have invested is lost beyond recovery. There is no guarantee in our banking system and there is no guarantee in investing in the stock market. It is all a gamble today.

It is similar with everything of value. Men and women insist on placing their deposit with those who cannot guard it. With false religions, with schemes for world government, with dreams of human advancement, but all these devices fail the investor. Only God is able to guarantee our deposits.

Have you trusted in God through faith in Jesus Christ? If so, think of the capital investments you have placed on deposit with Him. You have placed your faith for salvation in the life to come, a permanent record, a safe deposit, a guaranteed deposit. Can God keep our deposits of faith for salvation?

Notice the next four passages that I am going to give you here.

John 10:27-28 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."

That is a divine guarantee.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Guaranteed!

You have also placed your faith in the fact that God can accomplish His purposes in you for this life. Can God keep those things, the character traits that you are growing in the fruit that you are producing?

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

It is God doing it. We have our responsibility, things that we must do. We have committed to Him our faith so that He can see us through temptation. Can God keep that? Can He keep us from temptation? You know the answer. Yes, that too, because we read in I Corinthians 10,

I Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful [He is the guarantee here], who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Certainly God is able to keep our capital assets. And think what spectacular dividends He pays on the investment! It is not only that we are secure for this life and for the future, but also that we participate so richly of God's present blessings: His love, joy, peace that surpasses understanding, and a thousand other things besides.

You have probably noticed in your own life how God delights in paying dividends. How often He blesses you. Now, there have been times when you spent your time working for something you thought was worthwhile. You did not succeed in any exceptional way, but you did what you believed God wanted you to do and you did it the best possible way. Then God gave you a dividend. Sometimes it was small, sometimes large, but always something entirely expected. Your face brightened and you lifted your heart in gratitude. Such a loving and caring heavenly Father, who pours out the abundance of blessings from above.

Have you ever heard of serendipities? Serendipities are "happy and unexpected discoveries." There should be serendipities in the life of every Christian. For us, they are those spiritual discoveries which seem to come by accident. They are God's dividends, additional evidence that He is guarding our spiritual deposits.

Now the third place that tells how God will not disappoint us is in what we have already read in Philippians 1.

Philippians 1:20 According to my earnest expectation [Paul speaking of course] and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed [that is, disappointed], but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or death.

"So now also Christ will be magnified in my body." Here, Paul is on trial for his life, but only on a human level is he uncertain of the outcome. On the spiritual level, Paul knows that whatever happens will work to his salvation. He will not be disappointed because Christ will be exalted in his body, whether by life or by death.

Think of the scope of this statement. First, Paul knew that Christ would be magnified, that He would be exalted. He lived in an environment in which the pagan gods were worshipped and all power seemed to be on the side of pagan Rome. But he knew that Christ would ultimately be exalted and would rule in power until He had crushed all enemies beneath His feet. And this was the basis of Paul's confidence.

Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him [that is, Christ] and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Though He was humbled and appeared in the form of a servant, He is now raised up to the throne of glory and to universal dominion. The exaltation has spoken of the Savior as He was, sustaining a divine and human nature. No other name can be compared with His! It stands alone and only He is the Redeemer and Savior. Only He is the Christ, the anointed of God. Only He is the Son of God. His rank, His titles, and His dignity are above all others.

Second, Paul knew that God's determination to exalt His Son also extends to those who are united to Him by faith. Paul did not merely say that Christ would be magnified. He said that Christ would be magnified in him or in each member of the church. If you are a true Christian, God the Father is determined to exalt His Son in every last one of us.

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Paul affirms here that that work was begun by God. It was not by their own agency or will. And it was on the fact that it was begun by God that he based his firm conviction. That is, Paul based his firm conviction that it would be permanent. Had it been the agency of man, Paul would have had no such conviction because he would not have had anything to base it on that was permanent, because nothing that man does today can lay the foundation of a certain conviction that he will do the same thing tomorrow. If the perseverance of the Christian depended wholly on himself, there could be no sure evidence that he would ever enter the Kingdom of God.

Third, Paul recognized that Christ would be magnified in him whether he lived or died. As a Christian, we try to give an excellent witness and even in death, our witness can carry on. For example, in the funeral or memorial service the example is still there and carried on by the individual who has lived God's way of life. An example to those who remain after them.

This means Paul was so confident that God's will for him was perfect—that it was the best possible thing for him—that he was able to accept it willingly, even if it meant death at the hands of a Roman executioner.

When life is smooth, it is easy to say, as we often do, all things work together for good to those who love God. It is easy when we have everything we want, when God blesses us and our family. It is not so easy in the face of bitter disappointment and pain. If we are to have confidence in God at such times, we must learn to trust Him in both the small and great disappointments of life.

It is especially important at times of disappointment and failure that we see God's will in our lives. We are in God's church, if we are baptized members of God's church and have His Holy Spirit, Christ dwelling in us, then we must see God's will in our lives. Otherwise we are living a fruitless life. Even if we do not see the reason God is allowing us to go through a trial, especially a long, seemingly unending trial. We will look back from an advantage point in eternity, many years from now, and will confess that God knew what He was doing and that He accomplished the result He wanted in us. Christ is magnified through His saints.

Philippians 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed [that is, disappointed], but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

Many professing Christians divide their lives into two compartments, although they do not come right out and say it. Nevertheless they do subconsciously. One compartment they label "sacred" or "holy" or something of that sort. And the other compartment they label "secular" or "worldly."

The sacred part of life consists of what they do on the Sabbath [Sunday] and when they are praying, witnessing, or reading their Bible during the other days of the week. The secular part of life involves nearly everything else: work, recreation, family life, sports, and so on. There is almost no connection between the two in their minds. Their lives are organized in the way the media divides the news, politics and business are in the front or first, books come last. Along the way they fit in lifestyles, entertainment, and religion.

It is easy to understand how this happens. To a large extent many Christians live in two worlds and divide them accordingly. I once had a boss in the world that said to me when I wanted the Sabbath off, "Well, I give God ten minutes every Sunday morning. The rest of the week is mine." as he said it, dead seriously. So that is probably the mentality of a very large number of people out there in mainstream Christianity, sadly. Someday God will turn that mind around.

We labor in one world and it is necessary to put much time into what is often mundane work just to make a living. At the same time, we are citizens of heaven. We who are no people have become God's people and there is God's work to do. Consequently, we begin to think that God's work is important and the other work is not. There are some who cherish the notion that God is honored only by their devotional life or by what they do on the Sabbath. These people are separating the two out—the holy and the secular.

This was not the belief or perspective of any of the biblical writers. David was a deeply spiritual person and wrote beautiful songs, but there is not a line in the Old Testament that suggests that he served God more as a poet than as the king of Israel and the one who fought God's battles. He always honored God and what God gave him to do, no matter what it was—24 hours a day, seven days a week. He did not separate them out.

Psalm 16:8 I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

Jesus Christ knew no division of His life because in everything He did He always did to please His heavenly Father. Notice what Jesus's perspective was while here on earth.

John 8:28-29 Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."

That takes every waking moment and even in our dreams. It was the same with the apostle Paul. Paul knew that he was called to live all of life under the eye of the heavenly Father and to do all things to His glory.

I Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Things are so succinct the way that the prophets, Jesus Christ, the writers of the New Testament, the apostles worded things.

Every aspect of every Christian's life has the potential to honor God. Paul knew that Christians are to present their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is their reasonable service. We should be doing no less than the reasonable service.

The phrase "the glory of God" is equivalent to the honor of God. And the direction is that we should act in such a way in all things as to honor Him as Lawgiver, our Creator, and our Redeemer, thereby leading others by our example to praise Him and to embrace His way of life.

A child acts in a way that honors his father when he always has respectful and loyal thoughts of him, when he is thankful for his help, when he keeps his laws, and when he assists in accomplishing his plans and his will. But he dishonors his father when he has no respect for his authority, when he breaks his laws, and when he leads others to treat him disrespectfully in a similar way.

We live to the glory of God when we honor Him, when we keep His laws, and when we accept and use His gifts with thankfulness, with a deep sense of our dependence on Him, when we pray to Him, and when we live our lives in such a way as to lead those around us to appreciate His goodness, His mercy, His faithfulness, and His holiness.

Now let us go on to see what doing all to the glory of God and Christ being magnified through you, means practically for the living of the faithful Christian life. Let us look at the practical application. I am going to give you five principles that we must apply to do all to the glory of God.

Number one: The rule is universal. It extends to everything. If we are to seek to honor God by doing this in the little things such as in eating and drinking, certainly we should in all other things.

Number two: It should be the constant rule of conduct and we should be often reminded of it. The acts of eating and drinking must be performed often, and the command is attached to those things that must occur often. We must remind ourselves of it.

Number three: We should honor God in our families and among our friends. We eat with them. We share together the abundance of what He provides, and so we should be openly thankful for it.

Number four: We should devote the strength which we receive from the abundance of His blessings to His honor and in His service. He gives us food. He makes it nourishing. He invigorates our bodies and that strength should not be used to sin.

Number five: This rule is designed to be one of the essential directors of our lives. It is to guide all our conduct and to establish a "test" by which to try our actions. Whatever can be done to advance the honor of God is right. Whatever cannot be done with that end is wrong.

So the rule is universal. It extends to everything. It should be the constant rule over conduct. We should often be reminded of it. We should honor God in our families and among our friends. We should devote the strength which we receive from the abundance of His blessings to His honor and in His service. And this rule is designed to be one of the essential directors of our lives. It is to guide all our conduct and establish a "test" by which to try our actions.

In Philippians 1:20, Paul applies this to his own experience, noting that Christ will be exalted in his body whether by his life or death. This statement is an expression of Paul's confidence in God. Now in this life, Christ must be magnified in the bodies of those who believe in Him. This is because because God dwells only with His children, not in unbelievers, and if He is to be seen at all in this life, He must be seen in the lives of those who know Him.

Now throughout the history of the Christian church, this truth has been perverted over and over and over again. People have often made the mistake of identifying the hand of God with the physical construction of a church building or a church organization. But Christ is not magnified in buildings or organizations. God's hand is primarily seen in the lives of those who are spiritual members of His spiritual church, where people honor God in their bodies and minds. God prospers their work. For example, those who do not tithe on their increase are destined to have financial problems.

And when they cease to honor Him, they cease to be a vehicle in which His glory is seen. Is it any wonder that Paul stood on Mars Hill in Athens and reminded the Greeks of his day that God does not live in temples built by hands?

Acts 17:24-25 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

So God does not live in temples built by hands. He dwells in converted individuals through His Spirit.

When Jesus came to earth, He claimed that His body was God's temple.

John 2:18-21 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What sign do You show us, since You do these things?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." And then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

When Jesus departed into heaven, He promised that God would come to dwell within those who believed in Him. We are the temple of the Lord, as you well know.

John 14:16-17 "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth" [Jesus Christ], whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

So, it is on this basis that Paul later claims:

I Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? [We do not own ourselves, God owns us lock, stock, and barrel.] For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

On loan from God is what we all are in a sense. Well, I mean these bodies of ours—we are not our own. We are God's and our bodies and minds are for His use.

If Christ is to be magnified in our bodies, He must be magnified in each of its constituent parts. This means, first of all, that Jesus must be magnified in our eyes. In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7, the eyes are mentioned twice in chapter 5: once in a passage warning against sexual sins and once in a passage warning against materialism. Each of these sins is closely connected with the eyes. In Matthew 5, Jesus speaks of the eye, saying,

Matthew 5:28-30 "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell."

Of course that is metaphorically speaking; that anything that attracts your eye or anything your eye tends to look at, you want to avoid with all care.

It is quite evident that this is a warning against the snares of improper sexual desires because the verses that come just before refer to adultery and the verses that immediately follow deal with the problems of divorce.

Similarly, Matthew 6 deals with the role of the eyes in materialism. Jesus begins with a reference to human greed. He finishes with the truth that a person cannot serve both God and money, or material things. In the middle, He says,

Matthew 6:22-24 "The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." [worldly things]

Jesus recognized that the eyes are the primary means by which one is tempted to sexual sins and greed. John says in I John 2:16 that "the lust of the eyes" is of the world which is passing away. They are not a good place to invest in, not a good place put your deposit.

This is particularly true in American culture. Television, Internet, and phone apps bombard us with stimulants to covet the abundant life. The books and movies encourage adultery and invite our mental participation in sexual sins. America is preoccupied with sex and committed to materialism.

But this is contrary to God's way of life, as you well know. Christians are to serve God and we must use our eyes for that purpose. We must look at all that is wholesome and must direct our desires accordingly. And have you noticed how advertising generally appeals to the non-Christian elements in our character? Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 to think deeply about whatever is noble, just, pure, lovely, kind, gracious, virtuous, excellent, and praiseworthy things.

The Bible also teaches that Christ must be magnified in the way we use our tongues. In fact, a whole chapter of the book of James is dedicated to that teaching. James comments on the power of the tongue for good and evil and he notes the difficulty people have in taming it. It is a difficulty even for Christians.

James 3:9-10 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. [we curse God's creation] Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.

So how are we to gain control of our tongues? Only by submitting our minds to Christ. It starts with the mind, we speak what we think. Therefore Jesus is to be magnified in the way we use our tongue. He must be magnified in the way we use our mind. That determines all the rest. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. Paul writes of Christians,

II Corinthians 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Paul knew that there can be no purity of speech apart from a genuine purification of our minds. Jesus also taught this truth when He said,

Matthew 12:33-37 "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Righteous words come from a righteous heart, one that has been surrendered to Christ, cleansed by Him, and filled with the thoughts He strives to place there. If Jesus Christ is to be honored in our thoughts and our words as He desires to be, there must be no preoccupation with idle thoughts, even less with anger and cursing. Instead, we must fill our minds with God's truth. In addition, we must participate in a constant and sympathetic encouragement of other believers, as spiritual truth and spiritual lessons are shared between us.

I want to shift gears at this time and focus on crucifying the flesh, which is one of Paul's ways of saying resisting temptation and repenting of and overcoming sin.

Galatians 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

It is interesting there that he says we have already done it. "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." The crucifixion of the flesh described here is something that is not done to us, but by us. We ourselves are said to have crucified the flesh.

It is important to understand that this verse does not refer to the same truth as Galatians 2, verse 20 or in Romans 6, verse 6.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Romans 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

In those verses we are told that by faith together with Christ, 'we have been crucified with Him.' But here in Galatians 5:24 Paul is not talking about our experiencing a dying through union with Christ as he does in Galatians 2:20 and Romans 6:6, but rather a deliberate putting to death of sin by us overcoming, resisting temptation, repenting. That is what that is talking about here.

In verse 24 the apostle Paul uses the image of crucifixion, obviously from its association with Christ Himself, who said in Mark 8:34, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." So there is another definition of crucifying the flesh, that is, denying oneself, taking up his cross, and following Him. To take up the cross was Christ's vivid figure of speech for self-denial.

Now, every follower of Christ must conduct himself like a condemned criminal and carry his cross to the place of execution. It was hard and torturous work to carry such a burden as this. In carrying our own cross we do our own work to destroy wrong passions and selfishness. Yes, we do get help from Christ, but we have a substantial responsibility for our own actions and we have our work to do.

Paul takes the metaphor to its logical conclusion. We must not only take up our cross and walk with it, but actually see that the execution takes place. We are actually to take the flesh, that is, our strong-willed and rebellious self, and metaphorically nail it to the cross. This is Paul's graphic description of repentance. It is his depiction of turning our back on the old life of selfishness and sin and washing our hands of it finally and completely. If sins persistently plague us, it is either because we have never truly repented or because having repented, we have not maintained our repentance by overcoming over and over again if we have to.

The fact that the fate of the flesh must be "crucifixion" is very significant as an analogy. Crucifying the flesh teaches us several things. First, our rejection of the old nature should be without pity. A rejection of our old nature, the old man, should be without pity.

Crucifixion in the Greco-Roman world was not a pleasant form of execution, nor was it administered to nice or refined people. It was reserved for the worst criminals, which is why it was such a shameful thing for Jesus Christ to be crucified. Crucifixion was designed to be humiliating.

So if we are to crucify our flesh (remember flesh in this analogy represents the self), it is plain that the flesh is not something respectable and should not be treated with courtesy and respect. It is something inclined to sin and intent on doing evil and therefore it does not deserve anything more than to be crucified.

Second, the analogy of crucifying the flesh teaches us that our rejection of the old nature is painful. Crucifixion was a form of execution, of intense pain, and in a sense, acute pain accompanies inner conflict. When the short-lived pleasures of sin are renounced, this successful renunciation of sin in the world is credited to faith.

Hebrews 11:24-25 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

When he became of age, that is, when he was grown up to mature manhood, he was 40 years old. This was not recorded in the Old Testament, but it is a constant tradition of the Jews that Moses was 40 years old when God began His work in him, and 40 years later he began to deliver Israel. He took this step when he was fully mature in his decision-making and judgment. At the age of 40 there was a lot less danger of being influenced by the zealous excitement of youth. The Bible considers age 20 as the age of accountability, at least that is what it suggests.

You have one accountability beginning at age 12. It may very well begin in a lesser sense before that. That is, full accountability. But age 40 is the age of full maturity. Biblically, 40 is the number of trial and testing.

Nevertheless, crucifying the flesh is painful at any age, but faith is the motivator for repentance.

Third, the analogy of crucifying the flesh teaches us that the rejection of our old nature must be decisive. Although death by crucifixion was a lingering death, it was a certain death. Criminals who were nailed to the cross did not survive. Death by crucifixion was not sudden, it came gradually. We do not succeed in completely destroying the flesh while here on earth, but we have to nail it to the cross and we must be determined to keep it there until it dies.

Once a criminal had been nailed to the cross, he was that left there to die. Soldiers were placed at the scene of the execution to guard the victim, and their duty was to prevent anyone from taking him down from the cross, at least until he was dead.

Paul says in Galatians 5:24 we "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." The Greek verb is in the aorist tense indicating that this is something we did decisively initially at our conversion. When we were called by the Father and came to Jesus Christ, we repented. We crucified everything we knew to be wrong. Was that not our attitude there at our baptism, when we said that we have repented of our sins which are the breaking of God's law, and we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior? At that point, what we were saying is, "I'm crucifying the flesh."

This repentance of ours was decisive as a crucifixion! So Paul says, if we crucified the flesh, we must leave it there to die. And we have to renew this attitude towards sin every day. As I quoted earlier in Mark 8, verse 35, Jesus said that every Christian must take up his cross daily.

Luke 9:23-26 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what prophet is it to a man if he gains the whole world [not a very good investment], and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy Angels."

In Mark 8:34 and here in Luke 9:23, Jesus lays down some conditions required for serving Him. Jesus speaks of three things we must do that He does not do for us. 1) deny ourselves, 2) take up our cross daily, and 3) follow Him. These are the actions required to serve Christ. Let us look at each of these.

First, we are to deny ourselves. If we are to follow Christ, we have to forget that self exists other than to be cautiously keeping it away. We have to place ourselves at the bottom of our priority list. Obviously this does not mean we are to neglect our own health, education, and spiritual growth, but it means we live to serve God and Christ first, then our families, then other members of the church, and then we help the world as we can. We have to spend our life, not hoard it. I am going to repeat that because it is so essentially important.

We have to spend the life God has given us, not try to protect it other than what is reasonable. We cannot live by questions like: how much can I get? But we have to live by the question, how much can I give? Not, what is the safe thing to do, but what is the right thing to do? Not, what is the least I can do to get the job done, but what can I do to do it with all my might? We have to realize that we are given life not to keep for ourselves, but to spend for others.

Second, we are to take up a cross daily. When Jesus taught this, He had not yet been crucified, but He knew well what crucifixion meant. When he was a boy of about 11 years old, Judas the Galilean had led a rebellion against Rome and he had raided the royal armory at the Sepphoris, which was only four miles from Nazareth where Jesus lived for almost 30 years. The Roman vengeance was swift and sudden, and Sepphoris was burned to the ground, its inhabitants were sold into slavery, and 2,000 of the rebels were crucified on crosses which were set in lines along the roadside as a terrifying warning to others who might attempt to rebel.

Take up the cross means to be prepared to face things like that for the Lord, for loyalty for Christ. It means to be ready to endure the worst that others can do to us for the sake of being true to God.

Third, we are to follow Christ. To do this we have to learn what He teaches and walk in His ways. Love, faith, hope, and loyalty are essential motivators for following Him.

Now apparently the Ephesus era (we will call it that), the Ephesian church here which had direct teachings from and contact with the apostles, eventually slipped into taking Christ and His sacrifice for granted. Possibly their appreciation for the forgiveness of sins was not up to the level it needed to be to take the Passover in a worthy manner. We do not know specifically, for sure of that, but there are indications that this was the type of thing that was going on. So this first era of God's church after a while began to fall short of the ideal and the last surviving apostle, John, warned the church about this.

Revelation 2:1-5 "To the angel of the church of Ephesus, write, 'These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands; "I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. [What a fine list of qualities that first church had, but yet that one negative quality takes the wind out of the sails for the others, does it not?] Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."

So here the church received a glowing commendation from Jesus Christ through revelation to the apostle John. They had worked hard to proclaim the gospel. They patiently waited for Christ's return. They were appalled and sickened by those who flagrantly sin and their perseverance was outstanding through persecutions and trials. Neither had they become weary in well doing.

But when a church organization has lost the zeal of its first love, it suffers continuous spiritual decline and this condition deteriorates until either the organization becomes extinct, or until true devotion is totally gone and all that remains is a religion of forms. The Ephesians were in danger of this. In the case of the Ephesian church, this repentance was to be applied to the loss of their first love.

So Christ tells us to remember how our love for God and Christ was in the beginning, how appreciative we were, how excited and how devoted we were to live Their way of life. The solution to this problem is the three "R's" principle: Remember, repent, and regain that love.

Finally, it is important to realize the source of that love. In I John 4:19 the apostle John said, "We love Him because He first loved us." So we owe God and Jesus Christ everything. The least we can do is to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him because we should have already crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.

If Jesus Christ is to be magnified in our bodies, our bodies must be surrendered to Him.

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Two things are involved here. Our innermost selves give the offering and our bodies are what is offered. This means that the kind of life the Bible advocates is impossible for the non-Christian, it is impossible for anyone who has not submitted to God. Nothing in the nonbeliever can satisfy God in the slightest degree.

All acts of human sacrifice apart from Christ, all acts of self-denial apart from Christ, all acts of repentance apart from Christ, are all acts of human righteousness. It is only after we come to Christ and submitted to God's and Christ's authority that we are moved to make that sacrifice of our body, through which Jesus Christ is magnified!

Let us wrap this up with a few statements. We must surrender our bodies and our minds to Christ to use as He determines. Merely to see this truth is not sufficient. We must also actively yield our bodies to Christ. We must practice living to His glory as He gives grace to do so.

We must wake with God and Christ on our minds and commit the day to Them. We must surrender our thoughts to God at breakfast by asking His blessing on the meal and thanking Him for it at every meal. We must ask Him to take control of our eyes and our tongue so we will be ready for His service.

In such a way Jesus Christ will be truly magnified in you and you will be able to more and more say, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be disappointed but will have sufficient courage, so that now as always Christ will be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death."

We have to understand something that I think has been lost a little bit in the last few weeks, and that is that we as God's people are not evil and we are not wicked and so anything that God has allowed us to go through is for discipline, for character-building in us, to help us to understand the suffering of other people, and to warn us that this is part of the future.

We are going to see more of this and He is in every way preparing us. I just wanted to finish with that because we need to have a positive attitude going forward and we need to dedicate ourselves to God's work. Many are not, and if you are not dedicated to God's work, well, I would suggest you hurry up and get dedicated to God's work and serving Christ with your whole body, mind, and your life, if necessary.

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