Be A Disciple - Part 5 | Men's Bible Study by Rick Burgess - LIVE - July 21, 2021

three two welcome back to the wednesday bible study we are thankful that you are joining us today whether you are watching us live on the youtube channel or you're watching an archive here on the wrecking bubble youtube channel or you're listening to an archive on the podcast channel we are thankful that you are here or if you're the some of the men that are here in the room uh we come every wednesday to you from the ricky above broadcast plaza and teleport we are back uh with men uh being with us in the room you're welcome to join us if you're in the birmingham area or you are local to birmingham uh a lot of you guys that were in here before uh a lot of you haven't made it back and there may be uh reasons uh for that or maybe you don't know we're meeting together again in person but we are so we'd love to have you to join us uh most every wednesday we're here unless i'm on vacation and so always pay attention as we keep you updated all right let's talk about a few things that are happening all right so the there's there's man churches that are going on all across the country from the man church.com uh we have men and women that listen to and watch this uh bible study now if you come in the room it's men only because this is a foundationally men's bible study but women have joined us and the topics certainly have no gender to them most of the time but to let you know the manchurch.com is a hub for you to go for men's ministry if you're looking to implement a discipleship strategy for the men of your church or your community we can help you i think we're at 234 churches uh now that have implemented the men's discipleship strategy and so part of that includes services to either kick those off or to continue we have a system of high challenge and high equipping men meet together in gatherings just as instructed in deuteronomy 16 16 and also in exodus 34 23 when god said three times a year moses bring me the men i want to address them away from their women and children so i can speak to them because men and women are equal but they are distinctly different regardless of what society may tell you the bible says we are distinctly different certainly equal but not same uh so what we do is get the men together at least three times a year we prefer force and so we kind of work on a quarter system and then you have these gatherings and that's what a man church is called or you can use those at a wild game feast or your prayer breakfast or maybe you've got some things your church already does that gathers men but four times a year we want to meet and then every time we come out of a gathering that gathering features high challenge then we come out of that gathering into high equipping which is what we're doing here now uh in a small group format and we have a 40-week curriculum actually have two of those that you can implement in your small groups that feature me teaching for 12 to 15 minutes uh and then you have a facilitator in your small group that has our study guide if he can figure out how to download it and then of course we we they use that to walk through with the with the men in the room so if you need our help the manchurians.com here's some some churches that have us going already uh this week our our friend rich wingo who's a member of this class too and has helped write the devotional that we're going through right now wingo will be speaking thursday night july 22nd that's this week if you're watching this live he'll be at journey church in laurel mississippi they're doing our discipleship strategy i've had the honor to speak there mark garnett has already spoke there and this will be their third man church and now rich wingo will be speaking there which means they're three-quarters of the way through the curriculum uh so if you're in that area laura mississippi you want to join him be there if you've never heard rich speak it is worth your time this weekend i'm honored to be i'll represent the manchurch.com in decatur alabama i'll be there at first baptist church to cater uh with blake kersey the pastor a dear friend and i'll be speaking to the men of that church on saturday night the 24th i'll stay there and actually speak to the whole church on this sunday the 25th august the 6th mount zion baptist church in huntsville alabama i'll be there for their men's gathering look forward to addressing them and then on the 12th of august i'll be in athens alabama first baptist church athens uh they're doing our men's discipleship strategy this will be another man church i'll be there to speak to those men uh and then uh rich wingo will be in op alabama at westview baptist church they're doing the curriculum he'll be there on the 13th and then brian gunn will be kicking off the men's discipleship strategy on august 15th at enin baptist church in morris alabama and then august 16th scott dawson will be at first baptist church in troy alabama as they continue the strategy uh now for those of you that wanted to come to the marriage conference that sherry and i are doing on august 14th in pensacola that is sold out uh so there are no more spaces available for that but i look forward to seeing the couples that will be there so you're kind of updated on what's going on let's open up with prayer and then we'll jump into today's next session in our new curriculum called discovering what it means to be a disciple lord jesus we thank you be with us as now we step into today's a study of your holy word uh help today's topic is difficult uh it is something that we tend to shy away from not because you haven't called us to it or through your power enabled us to achieve holiness you've called us to hold this and you don't call us the standards that you can achieve we might be called to a standard that we can't achieve but we're never called to a standard that you can't achieve and may we look at it through that filter today in your holy name we pray amen so this is session five we're doing uh speaking of the manchuris.com we also have individual devotionals there these devotionals are kind of an individual look at a certain topic and then our 40-week curriculums flow from these 40-day devotionals on a much deeper dive this one will be a 40-week curriculum in the future coming up next year but now it's available in the 40-day uh you know the 40-day edition which is part of our trilogy of the how to be a man series one is the pursuit of christ-centered masculinity the second one is real men of the bible and this one is discovering what it means to be a disciple today we're going to need help because these five days inside the the devotional were written by someone called rick burgess so this is i'll have to see if i can't work this guy out so so we'll work through some of the things that all we need to care about in these five days uh which will all be crammed into this one hour we spend together today we need to care about what the bible says okay what the bible says there's there's some testimony in here and all that and i appreciate you taking time to look at that but what the scriptures say is really all we care about remember what we've said when we started this seven years ago in here guys the guys in the room always be leery of a bible study that does not feature the bible okay if if the bible's in the name then be sure the bible's part of it so that we will get into scripture today and we will go through many verses so here's the topic today uh we we've talked about these before if you weren't with us before you go back and get the archives disciples have been transformed by christ that was week one disciples surrendered to a gospel-centered life that was week two disciples hunger to know god that was week three disciples desire to worship god that was last week all of these are characteristics because what did jesus call us to be disciples what did he call us to make disciples and so if if we're going to be disciples of jesus and we're going to make disciples of jesus then what is a disciple what are the things that you should be looking for and today and this is one of these that we don't like to hear but we can't get around it in scriptures and that is disciples pursue personal holiness i know we don't we don't like to hear this uh we we we certainly love to hear about god's grace and man we're so thankful for that uh we we we even talk about you know things and and works that we can do and how can we be changed and have a desire to to be the hands and feet of jesus and and uh but but when it comes to holiness and you've heard me speak of this before but it's going to be all we're going to talk about today uh not just in passing because this pursuit of personal holiness is something that a disciple of jesus is called to uh you know we look at this very very convicting verse uh and it is in the writer of hebrews if you have your bible or something with your bible on it the writer of hebrews says in chapter 12 uh says these these things in 14 strive that's action right strive for peace with everyone strive for peace with everyone as much as it can is i'm concerned and you're concerned we should live at peace with other people as far as it is applied to our actions don't let it be us that is causing conflict sometimes people won't live at peace with you i acknowledge that but we look at ourselves and say as far as i'm living my life i i'm living in a way that we should be at peace so it's not going to be on me so strive for that and then here comes the next part for the holiness strive for the peace for peace with everyone and for the holiness so we're striving for that too strive for the holiness without which no one will see the lord strive for the holiness that with the the type of holiness that that the bible calls us to because it says if you're not striving for this holiness if you don't have this holiness you will not see the kingdom of god no one will see the lord who is not holy that's the writer of hebrews and and and that's a very convicting message uh but but now let's turn over to ephesians if you have your bible let's go to the book of ephesians let's look at ephesians chapter one and let's look at what paul says to ephesus in verses three and four blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in christ i would underline that with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places don't overlook three now we get to verse four where he's going to talk about this holiness but don't overlook three three's important blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ so who who who is paul saying that we want to thank the father for we want to thank god for we want to thank him for his son jesus we want we want to thank him for the for the second person of the trinity we want to thank you for jesus why are we thankful who has bleh he's blessed us in christ with some spiritual blessings every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places now here comes four even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him so he's saying that in jesus christ has been provided the son has been given to us that we because when he went to the cross and he said i now will pay for your sin i will now go into the tomb and walk out and i will now pay for your death and now i have forgiven i offer redemption for sin and offer victory over death and now what do we receive in acts chapter 2. now i will give you the third person of the trinity the holy spirit what's in the name how do we describe this spirit holy i give you the holy spirit which now takes your dead spirit and now my presence in you is makes you fully righteous and will make you fully blameless and will make you holy so the reason why we have to stop there is we have to ask our question after the question of ourselves who claim this redemption do we see that spirit that has overtaken our dead spirit do we see the spirit of god in our spirit in the evidence as we've talked about many times do you see yourself being made holy i'm not saying you're there or you've arrived but do you see yourself in the process of being made holy have your desires begun to change not because of legalism not because of new self-control but by the very presence of the sun in your life and paul says it should be happening and be thankful for that because he's providing the power that we need to then go back to what the writer of hebrews said to achieve the requirement of we can't see the lord if we're not made holy who makes us holy jesus so be careful especially with all the the males that are in here because males like to go to work well at one time they did uh you know a male who's worth anything likes to go to work so what do we start thinking what's the game plan so so what's the plan for me to be holy jesus you know remember what i said that god's been teaching me so i can teach others because i got to learn it first abide abide abide you you immerse yourself in me and then i produce the holiness i produce the obedience i produce the fruit the fruit of what fruit of the spirit and what's the name of the spirit holy you see how this works together and so paul's telling the church at ephesus be thankful for this you have the power to be holy because of jesus now let's go over to colossians same guy paul's still writing these same things now we're at another church and here's what paul says to the church the colossians here's what he says in chapter 1 again 21 and 22. this is colossians chapter 1 and then verses 21 and 22 write those down and you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds that certainly was me uh before jesus 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death who's he talking about jesus in order to present you look at this holy and blameless and above reproach before him somebody say amen see here's god's it and we're we're looking at a holy god and and that holy god is saying nothing can enter into my presence remember we've talked about this because i am holy so nothing that is that that isn't completely holy can come into my presence or i will my holiness will kill your unholiness there's nothing i can do about it we can't enter into the presence of the father without being made holy by the son and then carry the holy spirit with us in there that that that raised jesus from the dead and makes us fully righteous so he's remind notice that these two times that paul's talking about this to a church he starts right out of the gate with it he doesn't wait to wait to get around to this because he you know he knows and this is important today everybody if we don't get this right then we can't get the rest of it right we got to understand the source of all this so that we don't take there's nothing worse remember the joke that i that i i've talked about with my daddy who i love and god bless him i'm so thankful that i had a daddy like him he had a lot of a lot of issues just like i did but but but but at the end of it all i was blessed to have a man like that in my life still blessed to have him in my life at least to some degree as he begins to age and and struggle but but i you remember making the funny joke when i gave him a gps for for father's day you remember this show and he did it he didn't want it and this is when you had them you put them in your car then you have on your phone all that now or they come with a car they didn't then you added them and you know he's got his truck and i said hey i've given you a gps he said you have to receive for this and i said well he said i don't want this and and i love when he said this now i don't want to hurt your feelings by the way if you just say that to somebody doesn't mean it happens just because we said it you know it still hurts your feelings sometimes even though you tell somebody i don't hurt your feelings well you did but anyway so so he said hey he's pushed it back in the bag i said do you know what that is he said he said no what is that it's a gps i said you can put that in your truck and go anywhere you want to go it tells you exactly how to get there and he says well what that's stupid and i said what do you mean he goes i don't go anywhere i don't know where i'm going you can't really argue against that you know who sets out not knowing where they're going so but but we do that spiritually don't we we set out all the time with no idea where we're going and so what paul is trying to tell these churches is let's get this right so that we understand what we're doing and what we have access to and what's taking place hallelujah so it says he has now reconciled in his body of flesh jesus by his death jesus in order to present you holy why are we so afraid this word holy when it's all throughout scripture and blameless and above reproach before him thank you jesus because that's not something i could do for myself and so how does this take place i know the guys in here can feel it he's going to talk about john 15 again i am john 15. we're in the the sonja student class that sherry and i are teaching we're walking through first john and we've quoted those verses many times this is john you're writing his first epistle uh and and then he starts talking about with the gnostics that are coming in claiming that jesus could not have been in the flesh because the flesh is full of sin no one could be in the flesh and never sin and and now that we're in the flesh don't make sin a big deal because we're in the flesh but they jesus wasn't and john's saying i was there i was an eyewitness i touched him and let me tell you something he starts talking about abiding in jesus but where did he learn that well he's reflecting back to what we call john 15. he didn't call it that when he was writing down jesus teaching them abide in me you abide in me and i abide in you and i will produce in you much fruit which brings glory to my father and proves you to be my disciple you know what he's saying if you're not living a life that is being sanctified that you're not becoming holy then you must not have me because if you have me at the center of your life if the power of the resurrection has come into your dead spirit i jesus can't help but make you holy so a disciple of mine would look holy or they'd be on the way to holy the process would be going they wouldn't still be bogging down back in things that are not holy and and this so this is the thing i want to touch on before we move on to the next part are we willing to do this are we willing to even do we care about this commandment that is in scripture this pursuit of personal holiness now apparently overall we're not because even in the church if you start talking about being holy people immediately go on defense well who do you think you are you're holier than now holy roller we even make fun of anybody who might be holy and i think what you need to watch out for now do sanctimonious people exist of course they do and we need to be sure we're not but i think a lot of times we're pretty quick to go to that when we see somebody that might just be devoted to jesus and we're not and and they take the things that they let in their life serious and we don't they take serious the things they watch the things they hear the things they eat the peop the places they go uh the the the way that they live their life the way they dress maybe they take those things serious because they love jesus and maybe we don't because we don't love jesus as much as they do maybe they're not sanctimonious maybe they're not holy they're now maybe they're not a holy roller maybe they're just a disciple and that's what we've got to be real careful of is this something is this even a goal in your life do you honestly have a goal to be holy do you does that is that even something you even talk about you even consider well scripture said we should and scripture says it's a marker of a disciple of jesus if you don't believe this now let's take let's go to first peter uh let's let's jump over to first peter i've i've been spending a lot of time in first peter too there's there's a lot here now we know in first peter you know we have the two the two letters here of peter first and second peter we've studied them both uh in our wednesday bible said if you miss that expository walk through first and second peter you can find it you can go to uh the archives at burgessministries.com and click on listen and all those archives are there uh a lot of these series you can also find on this youtube channel if you're watching that just click on the playlist and and the bible study will be available to you click that playlist and you can search too so we we walk through first and second peter so we know from that bible study that first peter is written to the persecuted church from the world nero coming after the church they they're they're getting killed they're getting scattered uh they're they they got problems with with with their attacks from outside the church then you get into second peter and his concern is watch out for attacks from within the church that's when he starts talking about false doctrine and heresy and false teachers so remember this is first t peter so he's been talking about suffering he's been talking about the persecution of the church and then he gets down to these very convicting verses of verses 13 through 16. and they're very convicting listen to this so he's already talked about salvation in verses 10 11 and 12. all of you that have learned from from good teachers and all i'm doing is passing along what i've learned from good teachers this is not something i knew it's something i was taught whenever you go to the english translation of the bible in in english if you see the word therefore and we've learned this look what it's there for okay you that means you've got to look back at what was said before that to see what's going on because it's a transition and so he's saying 10 concerning this salvation the prophets who prophesized about grace that was to be yours search and inquire carefully 11 inquiring what person or time the spirit of christ in them was indicated when they predicted the sufferings of christ and of course the the the glories that would follow 12 it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you and the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the holy spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look he's saying that that jesus is our living hope and we've been preaching to you about the living hope this is something that even angels look at this grace thing that's happened with us and god they they long think about the angels that went against god they weren't offered grace they're out and so it says this what we've been preaching to you about don't forget it then he says therefore meaning now you're not ignorant about what god has done through jesus you're not ignorant about that anymore therefore to all of us in this room and all of you watching and listening therefore preparing your minds for action there's that word again so he's not saying don't worry about preparing god's going to just work this out prepare your minds for action and and in the greek this actually means to gird up your loins of your mind you know anytime you got ready for battle well you do you gird your loins you you got to be ready to go and so peter's saying therefore prepare your minds gird your loins of your mind and be sober-minded that means be aware of the times you're living in don't just be going you know you don't don't be wandering along as easy prey for a predator be aware what's going on be sober minded uh don't be drunk don't be don't be on drugs don't be letting anything cloud your mind be sober minded be thinking clearly preparing for what's out there set your hope fully where should our hope be set on our actions or the world or our job or no set your hope fully on the grace that we will be brought to you at the revelation of jesus christ we who are redeemed we don't dread the return of christ we anticipate the return of christ now if you're not redeemed then you've got something to be very concerned about the book of revelation is not a book that should terrify the redeemed it's a revelation of the jesus that we've been redeemed by we're good with him if you've been redeemed so he said don't lose hope think about the grace that jesus has provided as and this is the words we don't like next 14 as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance you know what he's saying is don't don't behave the way you behave before the revelation of jesus you know better now there was a time when you didn't know jesus there was a time you didn't know the gospel there was a time you lived a different way now you can't keep living the way you lived before jesus after you've known jesus because you can't claim ignorance anymore right so he says you this the ignorance was former meaning it's not now y'all been told about jesus well you're part of the church now but as he who called you verse 15 but as he who called you who called us jesus as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all of your conduct oh no now see you probably i hope you're not like me i hope you don't have the struggles that i have but i really just been completely honest i would prefer for that verse in my language to say that you who those of you who the one who called you is holy you also be holy in some of your conduct i'd like that that that that's an attainable goal i'm gonna be holy sometimes and some of my not all of it but that's not what scripture says scripture says jesus has the power that you would be holy in all of your conduct not some of it all of it i would go ahead if you have your bible in front of you if you are bold enough to do it i would underline the word all i know we don't like it but but before you panic i think what you need to understand about that you know i don't have an underline in this particular one it is i want you to understand that's not something to panic over to be burdened by what i think i want you to take away from this today and i feel this in my spirit strongly i want you to look at that i want you to stare at it i don't want you to shy away from it and i want you to understand that what peter is saying is jesus really is that strong why we keep dumbing down jesus i get so sick and tired and i get frustrated with myself when i think to myself you know what i've just i'm just i'm he has changed me about all he can no any limits of me being radically changed i'm limiting he's not he he he can take like you remember reading that thing from c.s lewis did i read that in here i know i read the oswald chamber thing when c.s lewis said that mere christianity he says if you're shying away from being holy in all your conduct he didn't use this phrase but he said being radically changed if you're shrinking that was worthy if you're shrinking away from that and you're doing that because you think it makes you so humble you know you don't want to be conceited and say that you're holy he goes no if you're not shrinking away from that it's really not humility it's laziness it's laziness that's what it is he said because jesus can radically change you and if he hasn't it's because you're too lazy you haven't pursued him what do you what would people just say therefore prepare your minds for action jesus says seek me and you'll find me abide in me and i will produce much fruit in you and so anybody who says well you know i just you know it it's not that they're they're really you remember what adrian rogers said that i love the only thing worse than arrogance is false humility that that's more disgusting than just straight arrogance when somebody pretends to be humble when they really aren't and so so what he's saying is if you look at being radically changed and you look at being holy in all your conduct c.s lewis says according to scriptures like this that is not ego man that's not being an egomaniac or a megalomania he says just obedience that's all it is and what we do if we see some somebody being obedient we claim that they're arrogant they're that they're trying to bring attention to themselves they're a holy roller they're holding them now they're sanctimonious when really they may just be obedient and that's what it looks like and we're shocked by it because we're not because it's a peter said do you think peter's going to write something in here that can't be attained why is he telling people to do something they can't do anybody ever does anybody think that's good leadership that's what we talked about before we tried to fix with with this this strategy with men's ministry is that we used to scream at men be the spiritual leader be the spiritual leader be the spiritual leader and never tell them how to do it we just had high challenge but we had no high equipping well you think peter operates that way i don't think so i think if peter tells these these fellow members of the church that are being killed by the day and they they see their brothers and sisters hanging in nero's garden and their bodies burning or illuminating his garden i think if peter if there was ever a time he wanted to pull back a little bit it would be right now but he doesn't say that he doubles down and said oh no no no no don't don't let this don't let this be used to draw you away you be holy in all your conduct and then he goes and he quotes from the old testament leviticus 11 44 he says this since it is written in the in leviticus rick how hard is leviticus buddy and leviticus and if you want to write that down he's quoting uh 1144 uh and he says this he says you as you are holy as you shall be holy for i am holy you shall be holy for i am holy that's what it says in leviticus that's god talking you shall be holy for i am holy so so it so what what peter's saying is if god said you shall be holy my people because i'm holy he doesn't mean that he says hey i'm holy so y'all better go work on it and you better come back in there holy now what he says is since i'm holy don't miss this point this is important since i'm holy you shall be holy who does it he doesn't it's he who makes us holy and so he says if you're one of mine then i make you holy so if you're not holy it then then there's something about the power that i am that you aren't accessing so something has to happen and here it is you must be willing to pursue holiness you must be willing to pursue it and i guess the question we have to ask ourselves is are we willing to pursue it you shall be holy for i am holy but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all of your conduct and give up the passions that were part of your former ignorance those are big words now the next part in our study uh we're talking about the uh what does it mean uh discover what it means to be a disciple and today we're working on uh it means we pursue personal holiness now for some of you what i'm gonna do next is gonna be a little repetitive so i probably won't land because we have spent a tremendous amount of time uh in the years in this bible study constantly going to matthew 7. but we have to now because it's going to set us up and i don't think that we frankly read this uh these convicted verses enough you know they're not a lot of fun to get around but we need to because i think you know if you're going to you know it's just like physical training at some point you got to stop start picking up heavier weight if if you want if you want to get stronger and so these are the kind of things that that the bible uses to to remind us of how important it is to abide in jesus because the standard is actually quite high but but only he can do it and how what's our part in it abiding in him we pursue him we seek him we we we immerse ourselves in him and in his word through prayer through the spiritual disciplines so here it is uh and you're familiar with this but it's important uh matthew 7 21-23 not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven okay let's land there for a minute but this next line is the key and it's going to shift us to what we need we need to see in scripture but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven okay on that day many will say to me lord lord do we not prophesy in your name cast out demons in your name do mighty works in your name and then i will declare to them i never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness so he says there in 21 be not everyone who says to me lord lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but and that's where you need to underline but the one who does the will of my father meaning that is who the real deal is so the ones that aren't the real deal are the ones that don't do the will of my father they may say all kinds of things about me even claim they're chasing demons around in my name but if you see something about them just like in first john john is saying the gnostics they're trying to teach you that jesus wasn't in the flesh uh we have we have versions of christianity today which is why i drew some backlash from someone who said well i just i think you're getting too carried away saying bible believing christian now i'm telling you today that's important because there's a lot of people who claim to be christians but they don't believe the bible so you do need to clarify that either you're a disciple of jesus or you're a bible believing christian because there are things that call themselves christian that say that jesus was not 100 man he was not 100 god they're saying that he is not god or he never was man and anybody that says any of those things they can say christian all day long that's not scripture so what does jesus say watch out for those people because they just said something you know is not true or they're doing something you know is in conflict with what my father said so we should examine to see not only our teachers teaching us right theology and and and to know right theology we have to if we're going to spot wrong theology the only way to know it is no right theology right remember what i said about secret service they don't show them counterfeit money they show them the general art the genuine article so they know the genuine articles so well when they see a counterfeit they go that's not real money they never see counterfeit because those things there's all kinds of versions of counterfeit money they don't waste their time on that they teach them the genuine articles so they can spot the counterfeit that's what we're supposed to do and jesus says do you know what the will of the father is do you know the things in scripture that says this is the will of god this is the will of the father this is my will do you know these things well i'm gonna take you to one and it ties in to the pursuit of personal holiness the will of the father now turn with me to first thessalonians first thessalonians 4 uh this is this is paul writing his first letter to thessalonica and you know what he's pretty pleased with him he's actually says you know you guys are doing a pretty good job he's kind of excited about the things he's seeing in this church and you may be thinking to yourself well you know what i'm kind of excited about the things i see in my life i see some change taking place you know what i say good for you but then paul says but now let me double down and be sure you don't you don't fade so look what he says finally brothers this is in chapter four we ask and urge you in the lord jesus first thessalonians 4 that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please god just as you were doing see there's the compliment you do a good job that you do so more and more for you know what instructions we gave you through who chapter two is it their instructions that they came up with no these are the things we told you through the lord jesus meaning they knew what jesus said what have we said here it's impossible a disciple says what jesus says to say and does what jesus says to do it is impossible to say what jesus says to say if you don't know what he said it's impossible to do what jesus said to do if you don't know what he did and you don't know what he told us to do that's impossible so he says this for this is the will of god underline that because jesus just said in matthew 7 21-23 only those that do the will of my father are the real deal everybody else makes a claim that's wrong what are and there are many things in scripture you'll find that says this is the will of god but for for this particular study we're talking about holiness so listen to this for this is the will of god your sanctification your sanctification is the will of god so jesus says one thing to look at look for is is this person changing do you see sanctification in their life they may claim to be with me but do you see the holiness that i provide do you see the power of the holy spirit it's the will of god that he's saying this to a church that's doing pretty good but don't forget it's the will of god your sanctification that you should be maturing you should be growing and then he says what what does that look like he says that you abstain from sexual immorality the each one of you know how to conduct control his own body in holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the gentiles or that really what that means the non-believing gentiles pagans is a better word there who do not know god so he says for this is the will of god your sanctification and first thessalonians 4 uh and and and in verse three chapter four verse three and then jesus just told us in matthew 7 that only those who do the will of the father are the real deal that everybody else is a fake and then paul says don't forget the will of god is your sanctification that you abstain from sexual morality that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness there it is again an honor you see this theme it's not silent is it it runs throughout scripture and it's a marker of being a disciple he really drives that point home let's turn to first john speaking of the first official epistle of john first john's going to take us in that same place so so another thing we have to look at in first john is kind of the point i've already made but i think we can drive it home even even stronger look at first john chapter 3 verses 4 through 8. now i've already told you that he is taking on a specific heresy the gnostics have come in and i told you they're teaching that if jesus was in the flesh then he sinned because the flesh uncontrollably sins and so don't take don't worry about your sin as long as you got flesh you'll never stop sinning until your flesh is dead which was a false gospel and paul i mean john's taking this on but we also apply it to our lives personally so in in chapter three in verses 4 through 8 he says this everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness sin is lawlessness you know that he who jesus appeared to take away sins and in him there is no sin no one who abides underlying that no one who abides in him keeps on sinning no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him little children this is a good teacher sherry and i are teaching this right now so i can reference this i just learned it you see that he's kind of being rough at the beginning but the good teacher is coming in as was he's saying now he's calling us little children this is john he's older now he's much older than when he wrote the gospel but he's saying to us little children meaning i'm telling you this not to be a jerk not to be mean i'm telling you this because i love you you are my children as a father would teach his children i'm just reminding you i'm teaching you don't let people teach you something that's in conflict with what i've already taught you and i love you enough to tell you this and so he says little children let no one deceive you whoever practices righteousness is righteous why because he is righteous and what did jesus say i make you fully righteous so what should flow from a disciple of jesus righteousness whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil now let's not talk about stumblings this is talking about perpetual deliberate continuous sin whoever makes a practice of sinning underline that is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the son of god jesus appeared was to destroy the works of the devil so he says here's two markers do i look more like a child of god meaning righteousness obedience and holiness flows from that which is a marker of god in my life or does sin flow from your life which frankly is a mark of the devil he's all he's been sinning since the fall of mankind he's been sinning since he tried to overthrow heaven so if all you do is practice sin you likely belong to the devil and if you practice holiness obedience and righteousness you belong to jesus the devil produces continuous sin jesus produces holiness righteousness and obedience fruit of the holy spirit i'm going to go on further look at verse 9 no one born of god makes a practice of sinning for god's seed there's the word again abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he's been born of god and here it comes just what i said by this it is evident who are the children of god and who are the children of the devil now that that's not that difficult to understand but it's hard to hear it i mean he he john's saying assess yourself first of all he's saying assess these gnostics you really think that people do all the garbage they're doing represents god they just told you that they that they keep on sinning because they say the flesh can't stop sinning is that what i taught you is that what jesus said no that's not what jesus said so you know they can't be true so then he says so then examine yourself just like you would examine these false teachers i can't let this heresy come into the church remember what i taught you and so if you're out there right now and there's some seeker-friendly church telling you that sin is no big deal john would be screaming from heaven there they go again there they go again and so he says to assess ourselves because from the disciple of jesus should flow righteousness holiness and obedience not because of who we are but because of who he is and i love what he says no one who abides who says who he said anyone who says they abide in him no one who abides in him keeps on sinning then the next i love it this is good teaching at first he says anyone who says that he abides in jesus can't keep on sinning then he comes back and he says no one who says god abides in them can keep on sinning god's too powerful for that if god's seed has made our spirits god the great i am who spoke creation into existence who raised himself from the dead is all-knowing and lives above time he can't change us well see that's heresy that's not that's not true and that's what john and peter and and and the bible is trying to remind us what did jesus say in john 14 15 if you love me then you obey my commandments and and and i've talked about this before and and some of you have heard this before i think it's real easy though especially if you're watching this and and you're married if you're a husband or a wife it doesn't matter if you're married the analogy still works and you've heard me do this before uh but maybe it's time to do it again because these verses kind of lend itself to it and that is if i made the claim that i loved my wife because jesus said if you love me then you obey me and you may be saying well rick i love jesus but but i mean i've still got you know some sin that's perpetual not a stumble but i mean i really think i love him okay well see that's where you got to be careful when we make a claim sometimes we might take the the the true definition of what we're saying and dumb it down so what does it look like to love someone so let's let's use this example because we do this to jesus a lot i say to my wife that i love her and some of you have heard this before but for those who haven't just just give me some patience and i go to my wife sherry and i say i love you and she go well thank you and i said but here's how it's going to work to show you that i love you i'm going to come here not every sunday but some sundays because i mean it may rain uh i may be at a ball game that i got back late from i might be on a hunting trip might be playing golf and so i don't expect me to be here every sunday but i'm gonna be here some sundays i'm not only sure i want to say most but but some sundays if it's not too inconvenient i'm going to come here and i'm going to tell you that i love you i'm even going to bring you flowers i might bring you a gift i might even sing i'm going to write some love songs about you and i'm going to come sing those to you in the morning not all day but in the morning on sunday sometimes okay now about lunchtime honey i want you to know now i do love you but about lunchtime i'm leaving and you will not see me again or we won't speak again for the next six days now during those six days i just want to prepare you for this you may hear of me being with other women or if you're a woman other men i won't be loyal to you but i want you to take that as i don't love you i'm going to go out and spend time with other people much more time than i spend with you and and i'm going to go out and i'm going to to spend quality time and and kind of there's going to be moments next week you're going to wonder if i even know you exist but don't take that personal don't mean i don't love you now next sunday if it doesn't rain i'm not playing golf i haven't been at the ball game or i'm not hunting or fishing i'm going to come back if none of those things happen and then i'm going to tell you that i love you again till about lunch do you think that my wife thinks i love her honestly do you think your husband would think you loved him if you're a woman just flip it the other way so here's a question we have to ask ourselves why do we think jesus buys that garbage i mean do we love you jesus really you don't act like it maybe that's why we're not holy probably maybe that's why i'm not righteous probably maybe that's why i don't obey you because you said if i loved you i'll obey you and then jesus says so what what rick just described is that love anybody ready to call that love anybody no it's not love so you we we may claim to love jesus and by the way here's the good news jesus has already made a he has proven that he loves us proven came off the throne didn't have to came to to to to earth to take on lower himself king of kings lord of lords lowered himself to be lowly and meek by the way that's over he's returned to his place of glory but he'd have to do that but he did then he was mocked and suffered and went to a cross and and was it was tortured and and in in gruesome fashion took on the wrath of god that we deserve and said it is finished and even told his father not to hold our blasphemy against us because we didn't fully understand yet wow and then he went into the tomb then he went and he stood before all the angels and and satan who tried to circumvent him paying the price for us and said hey you didn't do it i beat you first peter chapter three i beat you i i was i'm the god man i made it happen i redeemed him i beat you you didn't stop it and then he rose out of the tomb on the third day taught us for 40 more days gave us his word sent his disciples out to keep telling us who he was and said i'm coming to get you and i offer redemption to anybody who'll repent and submit to my lordship so he's on record for how much he loves us the real question is do we love him that's the big question and i don't know the answer to that i can tell you my own life there's been times i claim to love him that i didn't but i'll tell you what i i'm reading and learning his word and i'm realizing that that i want my life to look a lot more like i love him and i will tell you that when you do love him you do start obeying him yeah you really do but not until you love him you want to you love him i'm speaking from experience that's not judgment on you it's it's a fact about me because i've seen it in my own life so let's let's close with this go to second timothy because this is important and it ties into what we just said second timothy on this pursuit of personal holiness ii timothy chapter 2 verses 20 and 21. now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay some for honorable use some for dishonorable 21. therefore if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable okay these things that are dishonorable he will be a vessel for honorable use set apart as holy useful to the master of the house ready for every good work what kind of vessel am i what kind of vessel are you i mean when if we were a vessel sitting in the house are we dirty and can only be used for dishonorable use or are we sitting there clean and holy ready to be used some of you may be saying and i went through this too some of you may be saying god really has never used me well maybe he can't maybe he's you remember calvary road we did calvary road by roy hessions that that remember that image of dirty cups you remember that the holy spirit doesn't feel dirty cups i mean he cut he takes us and he looks in there and goes too dirty i i i i can't i can't work with that that's not a vessel for good use that's too much garbage in there and this is what this is what paul is telling timothy i love this image of a house you you all know it right now if i if i were to walk um into the house and like you go out into an area of the house you haven't been in a while and you see a bunch of old nasty stuff laying around dust all over it you're not gonna use that would you serve that to your guests coming over wouldn't you go find the plates and the cups that were clean you wouldn't just go grab anything out of any pantry anywhere or any box and just pull it in there and make people drink and eat out of it would you well god didn't do that either he said so so we have to ask ourselves i have to ask myself today am i willing to cleanse myself from what is dishonorable so that i can be a vessel for honorable use and i and he says so so what happens to the vessel that is of honorable use it is set apart as holy and useful for the master ready for every good work i remember coaching one time and i had a kid who came to me and i appreciate his boldness i was a little disappointed on his inability to think this through but i helped him and he came to me and he said i don't know why i don't play more i said okay he said i said so you think you should play more he said yes i do i said okay i said so let's walk back i said do you remember the first half this was the halftime he said yes and this was when i was coaching a lacrosse that my son was playing i said do you remember the first half when i put you in he said yes sir i said do you remember when you came right down the middle of the defense wide open and your teammate passed the ball to you perfectly for a wide open shot on the goal yes i said and then what happened he said i dropped the ball i said you didn't catch it did you no sir and i said what happened after that he said well the other team picked it up went the other way and scored i said that's why you don't play i can't trust you now if you would work and get yourself ready to play and you go do reps in our case if you go abide in jesus you abide in the word you start getting yourself ready you start cleaning up your act and if i were to look over on the sideline and see you standing there ready to go and i knew if i put you in there i could trust you not to let us down and not to make us look bad then i'll play you more but i ain't gonna play until i trust you so if you want to play then you better get ready to play you don't just get to be thrown in there if i can't trust you and and god looks at us the same way and here's the beautiful thing talking about being humble i sit here and get the opportunity to do things like this stuff going on with the manchurch.com and you know what i'm always reminded of because i know it's true and i've heard other pastors refer to this and it's true is i know for a fact when i think of how about how inadequate and flawed that i am and god has reminded me this before hey rick you weren't my first choice you just said yes you just finally agreed to do it there's people much more talented than you people much more gifted than you but they're dirty cubs they won't say yes to me so anytime i start getting a little bit full of myself i'm reminded i'm probably fourth string but i was willing to say i will not let you down if you put me in people much more talented than me have said no to you i say yes and you know why i say yes it's because i know that anything that is good about me is because of your grace and if i try to do anything without you i'm not talented enough to do it do y'all realize my wife can we'll tell you this straight up i remember telling her i can never teach a class i'm not i'm not good enough i don't know how to teach i'm not a good teacher and i remember her saying that rick everything is difficult that you don't prepare for everything is difficult you don't prepare for i remember a woman coming up to me one time the first time i spoke anywhere and she said you don't know the bible well enough you may be able to get up and be funny but you don't know the bible well enough god told me to tell you that you know what she was saying is if you don't get ready he's not going to use you anymore because he doesn't use dirty vessels he doesn't use unprepared people so how do i prepare how do i become holy by totally dying to self and totally submitting to him and saying you make me something that you can use because i can't do it but i know you can and i know that you can make me holy because i certainly can't and i know that my holiness will reflect that i truly am your disciple let's pray lord thank you for today thank you for this opportunity to gather together thank you for the words and thank you for the grace and thank you for the hope that we find in you i pray lord if there's anyone here today maybe today somebody just needed to hear that you are ready to use them if they will simply clean their act up and abide completely in you and let you make them a vessel that is clean and for honorable use and ready for every good work help us lord in this pursuit of holiness that only you can accomplish in your name we pray amen thanks for being with us we'll talk to you lord willing next week

Channel: Rick & Bubba

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Id: T2UL6JP-TOU

Length: 59min 57sec (3597 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 21 2021