Union with Christ: Life-Transforming Implications - Sinclair Ferguson

it seems a longer walk to get here in the afternoon than it did in the morning actually I don't know whether that's nervousness about what you may have been eating but I'm sure in this light you will all look attentively are continuing our studies in union with Christ how to believe that we have actually I think now past the main central point of our time together we've had three sessions with three main sessions to go and we are we are basking in the joy of being united to Christ and I want us to continue to do that from Colossians chapter three which will certainly be the central passage in what I want to do this afternoon although I'm going to stray out of Colossians 3 from time to time for reasons that I hope will become clear so let me read Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4 and then pray and we'll turn our minds to the Word of God if then you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory our heavenly father we pray but as you have given your word to us by the power of the Holy Spirit he who searches the deep things of God and who knows all that you have revealed to us in your word that he will Salva with that beautiful modesty and humility that he has shown in all he has done in the work of Jesus Christ and in showing us the things of Christ you pray that he will lead us into the truth and that by his help through his illumination as he carries the bread of life to us we will find ourselves nourished and helped so be with us we pray give us clarity of mind and thinking and warmth of affection open our minds to the scriptures Lord we pray and cause our hearts to burn within us and this we pray in Jesus name Amen well Paul is writing to the Colossians certainly looks as though he has almost certainly never visited Colossae if he ever did there are many in colossi who have never met him and never heard his exposition the word has spread presumably from Ephesus when all Asia heard the word that Paul was preaching there and it spread down the valley to the Colossians through Epirus during Paul's three-year ministry in Ephesus and now he's writing to them either because dangers have already encroached upon their little church's life or because he recognizes that those dangers are coming whether the so-called colossi inheres he had arrived or whether paul was issuing for warning is in a sense irrelevant as far as our exposition of the passage is concerned and it's not possible I don't think to be absolutely dogmatic about what this false teaching was but it certainly looks as though the buzzword the rubric in which this teaching was brought together the way it was packaged the buzzword was the word fullness they have received the Apostolic Gospel through a palace and as quite often happens I suspect as one reads between the lines young Christians marvelously delivered from the reign of sin experiencing the joy of the Lord against the contrast of the pagan background of colossi and then as they go on a little they discover they're still sinners the reign of sin may be broken but the presence of sin has not been banished and as we know as pastors of the Sheep it's often just then that young Christians are prey to the wolves who will come along and say what you have had is all very well but if you want in this case fullness or in another case that kind of blessing that leads you into an order of experience that places you beyond what normal Christians will experience and so often as we find younger Christians or untaught Christians are surprised as they discover the not just lingering presence of sin but the fact that the nature of sin is unchanged and so they fall prey to the kind of false teaching but endangered these Colossians the kind of false teaching that has its simple principles questions of food and drink observations worshipping angels visions puffed up without reason and Paul says at the end of the day these indeed have an appearance of wisdom that's the point they have an appearance of wisdom to the untaught believer but actually as he says instead of setting us free they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh and his response his responses is so characteristic of Paul isn't it in these situations you you find it in his letters you have these massive exultation of Jesus Christ we used his exaltation of Christ and chapter 1 verses 15 to 20 as a kind of confession of faith the sheer greatness of Christ and especially as he wants to teach them that all fullness is found in Christ he is the one through whose cross work that aspect of the divine family in heaven and that fallen aspect of the divine family on earth have been reconciled together through the flesh of Jesus Christ he is brought together as a well the the the cousins in glory the creatures of unfathomable power and mystery and the Archangels and the angels and all the horse of glory the cherubim and the Seraphim and in his death and resurrection he has United that holy family with the new holy family that he has purchased with his blind there is such fullness in Jesus Christ and so to lower your eyes to these things would be to miss the glory it would be and what he wants to emphasize here it would be to miss the sense that if you are United to Jesus Christ in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily who is the center of the reconciled family in heaven and in earth if Christ is yours then you have all fullness in Jesus Christ and so as we heard Calvin say at the end of Institute's book to drink from nor other fountain than from Jesus Christ and understand what it means but by the Holy Spirit as you have been brought to trust in him you have been united to this fullness as we saw last night you have been made a branch in this vine you have been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and everything that you are being offered as a substitute looks cheap and tawdry by comparison with what he has given you in his blessed son Jesus Christ and so he wants to help them to grasp this and as he does this he does this now not as it were as our Vista as I suggested in Romans 6 but now by an immense panoramic view of what it means to be united to Christ and so he reminds them here at the beginning of chapter 3 that in Jesus Christ they have been given a new identity and throughout this whole section and Colossians from chapter 2 into chapter 3 he's stretching beyond Christ crucified and raised he says you have been circumcised in the circumcision of Christ you have died in the death of Christ you have been bury in the burial of Christ you have been raised in the resurrection of Christ you have ascended in the Ascension of Christ so that he says your true life is hidden with Christ in God he understands that that we don't easily read this on one another's faces that the world does not know us because it did not know him but the truth of the matter is if I'm Christ's then I am already so secure in Christ that my life is hidden with Christ in God it's interesting isn't it how how many ideas that we find playing out in John's Gospel are played out in a different language in Paul's theology no one can pluck them out of my hand no one can pluck them out of the Father's hand I and my father are one and so he says dear colossi and believers see yourself hidden with Christ in God and then in a word that makes the the words of Calvin that we heard this morning so marvelously biblical and when he appears we shall appear with him in glory as though as as the son of a father the Lord Jesus would turn to his father and say I'm not going without them I do not consider myself to be complete without those whom I have United to myself and the power of the Spirit those father you gave to me from before the foundation of the world you notice how as Jesus gets nearer the cross in John's Gospel that expression begins to dominate it is clearly his deepest emotional feelings about these beloved disciples they are those the father gave to him in his love for him from before the creation of the world and he will not come back without them and Paul is doing this to say to these Colossians if you understand who you are in Christ you will see all these cheap imitations of spirituality for what they are they are not only drags they are false they cannot compare with the fullness the riches that are ours in Jesus Christ and so beloved he says you need to learn to see oh you not see yourself this way that this is who you really are and at that moment when you came through regeneration and faith to be united to the Lord Jesus instantaneously you didn't need to grow in sanctification for this to be true you don't need to become a pastor for this to be true you just need to come to Jesus and all of this becomes true of you and he gives you a wholly new identity actually so much of pastoral ministry it doesn't it boil down to this of sitting down patiently with people and saying to them let me tell you who you are in Christ let me show you the wonders of the grace of God in the Lord Jesus let me show you the massiveness of his love for you let me show you how your salvation is anchored in Christ from before the foundation of the world old guaranteed as your life is hidden with Christ in God and secured for that day when he will come again and he will come again with every single one of his blood-bought children it's a very striking thing I think in the New Testament but there is one aspect of the Ordo salutis that no one will experience as an individual you experience all the aspects of the application of redemption as an individual in different lives different places at different times but that is one aspect of that order of salvation that none of us will experience before any other and it's what Paul speaks about here that when he comes whether we be alive or dead in this world are already with him as the spirits of just men made perfect but not yet in the biblical sense glorified that moment will be simultaneous throughout all of Christ's blood but children as though the Lord Himself wanted to say I'm not only keeping the best to the last but I don't want any of you to experience it before the rest of you and so I'm going to glorify you together so that's who I am I mean what a difference that makes to how we view one another actually this doctrine of being United to Christ is not an isolated individualistic thing ultimately as something as I hope will see that has impact on the way we view one another and how we think about the church and how we think about the sheer wisdom of the Lord Jesus so it produces a new sense of identity and it produces a new mentality notice how he thinks about this if then you have been raised with Christ since then you have been raised with Christ is the force then seek the things that are above and in verse to set your minds on things that are above fill your heart with Christ is what he's saying if you're United to him fill your heart with Christ don't gaze on the Union gaze on the Christ you enjoy your wife not because you think about your marriage covenant of Union but because you enjoy her so he says fix your eyes on Christ and then he says set your minds on the things that are above set your minds on the things that are above and clearly now he is speaking about the way in which the Spirit engages us in actual activity in the process of our transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ salvation is not something but flies over our heads salvation is something that draws us into being saved and being saved means that we set our minds on the things that are above and not on the things that are on earth I developed such a habit in church life in Colombia of asking the same question when candidates for staff positions were being interviewed that people began to expect that they would be asked the question the question was this what do you think about when you've nothing else to think about what do you think about when you have nothing else to think about that's what Paul wants here when I've nothing else to think of well obviously there's only one thing I think about I set my mind and the things that are above turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth while they grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace but then you begin to see them with 20/20 vision don't you and that's what he's after he's after men and women who are so consciousness conscious of their heavenly connectedness that they then begin to live the heavenly life here upon the earth and that's the great need of the church isn't it the great need of the church is not for new strategies it's for new people the need of the church is not to try to get the world to ask questions but the need of the world is to live such a heavenly life here for all our faults and failures to have heavenly kind of family life here that unbelievers asked as the question what is this atmosphere in which you live that is an aroma that comes from you and I can't understand it why are you like this and the answer is not that we keep flicking the switch so that we can be the light of the world but that we know that we are united to Christ and he will do his own work through us that we have been crucified with Christ and yet we live and yet it's not I that lives but Christ who lives in and through me so he's saying beloved and colossi let this blaugh rias Christology the fullness that is yours in Christ now spell that out in terms of all that he has done for and see yourself as someone who is in a massive sense United to everything that he has done and understand that for all you see in our very poor mirror your life is hidden with Christ in God and the day will dawn when you will see him face to face and be made like him Satan constantly engages in identity theft in the life of Christian believers and the Apostle Paul is dealing with that just here now he's going on to apply that but I want to want to just pause it's after lunch I know I want to just pause and before we deal with all that followers from verse 5 through verse 17 I want to take what he is saying here and begin to show how it actually impacts what he's already said about his engagement with them as a pastor because something very important for us I think to learn here not only this new sense of identity that we are given but I think there's a very important lesson for us to learn about how this impacts pastoral ministry we have been crucified with Christ buried with Christ raised with Christ those are markers on our being those are not just inner realities in our soul we are united to Christ as whole people and that's the reason why in the light of what he says in Colossians 3 which was true for Paul before he wrote Colossians 3 but when he writes to the Colossians earlier on in Chapter 1 he can see such things as verse 24 I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking and Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body the Church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you and then later on we proclaim Christ warning everyone teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ for this I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea that their hearts may be encouraged being met together in love to reach the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery and others our rhythm there and it's the rhythm of the minister who is united to Jesus Christ and sees that Union flow out from him not simply in the knowledge that he has died to the Dominion of sin and been raised into newness of life but there in the context of this union with Jesus Christ he is by the Spirit through the word and his sovereign activity in Providence's and his commitment to the Lord and to the Lord's people he is actually participating in the reality of being one who has died with Christ and been raised to newness of life or if I can put it quite simply he is participating in the reality of Union and communion with a resurrected crucified Savior and therefore he should and disappeared that his whole ministry is going to fall into this pattern of sharing in union with Christ in his sufferings and triumphs and these statements here have all the hallmarks of that although Paul actually speaks about it more clearly elsewhere it has the hallmarks of the fact that if I'm united to Jesus Christ I'm United to a crucified and risen Savior and that therefore my whole life is going to be shaped and molded by what it means to be united to such a savior so that it is going to be a reality for all through ttle Christians and Paul is speaking here as a fruitful Christian but there will be a filling up of what is lacking or behind in the sufferings of Christ in me not his atoning sufferings the lack is not in Christ the lack is in me it's as though Paul is saying there is still a ways to go in my sharing in the sufferings of Christ in order that I may be fruitful in sharing in the resurrection power of Christ as he brings about new life and leads men and women and boys and girls to spiritual maturity there is a deep costliness in being United to Christ for Salvage and there is a profound blessedness in seeing his resurrection power released into the lives of others because it is as true of us as it was true of him that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it abides alone but if it dies it will rise and it will bear much fruit may I just pause on this because it's so it's so much part of what the Apostle Paul teacher so I think it really is what while just considering it for a few minutes longer there are many different ways in which we could do that let me let me do it by means of the way Paul works and two letters let me just for interest sake read second Corinthians backwards and you will see the point second Corinthians chapter 13 and verse four Christ was crucified in weakness but lives by the power of God for we also are weak in him but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God now you know the difficult situation Paul is speaking about here but notice what he says he does not say we are weakened ourselves but we are strong in Christ he says we are weak in Christ and we will be strong in dealing with you it isn't because he is outside of Christ that he tastes weakness it's because he is united to the crucified Christ and shares in his sufferings but he tastes weakness and that would have been understandable in the light of what he had said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 wouldn't it his amazing words in in verse 7 through 12 we have this treasure in Jars of Clay he says we're struck down but not destroyed and then these words which if we were true for him and granted written and large letters in his life must also be true for every believer and for all of us who are pastors of the flock of God we are always carrying in the body the dying of Jesus in order that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus sake so that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh so he says death is at work in us life is at work in you that's not unique to apostolic ministry in the first century that's characteristic of ministry in every century if we live out our ministry in the context of our Union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and that's why at the beginning and the words that we heard from John Piper last night and second Corinthians 1 he uses the same principle we share abundantly in Christ's suffering Center and is 1:5 so through Christ we share abundantly and comfort also so that as we taste that comfort we're able to comfort others with the comfort that we ourselves have received of God it's actually the principle that he expounds to the Philippians isn't it in what was surely one of the most personal passages he ever penned he wants to know Christ and the power of his resurrection share his sufferings become like him in his death and so attain to the resurrection the Spirit is constantly moulding the lives of Gospel servants into this kind of Christ's likeness but only because we are united to Christ and he wants to fill us up with Christ and he wants to fill others through us with Christ you know how Paul came to this don't you Paul rarely tells us about the inside of his conversion but he he does give us some I think pretty striking hints he tells us here in Philippians 3 that he had an outstanding pedigree and he was proud of it that he was a zealous man and he sought to persecute the church he tells us at the beginning of Galatians in a kind of post-conversion modesty that he had outstripped many of his generation I think you read between the lines and he's saying I was head and shoulders above them all why then is it that when he speaks in Romans chapter 7 about how the law of God found him out how is it that he says it was the commandment thou shalt not covet that came with power and sin revived and he died why that commandment why that commandment for a man who stood head and shoulders above all others I think part of the answer to that question is found in the context of Stephens life we're told about Stephen and Acts chapter 6 and verse 9 that he was full of grace and power he did great wonders and signs among the people and some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen as it was called and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking and gazing at him all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel now granted granted synagogue worship was present in Jerusalem why give us this boring list of the names of the people who were in the synagogue why does he do that because this was the synagogue saul of tarsus almost certainly attended he was from Tarsus in Silesia and here this young man arose in this context he had a Gentile name perhaps he came from one of these places and there was nobody who could better him in the use of Scripture there was no one else whose face showed such grace there was no one else who demonstrated the power and the wonder of the God of heaven and for the first time in his life Saul of Tarsus was looking up to someone who stood head and shoulders above him in everything he counted precious and you know what happens when that happens you either join it and secret or you destroy it and so on the Damascus Road after he had destroyed it a voice from heaven came and said to Saul why are you persecuting me he considers himself to be incomplete without his charm and so this theme that runs up and down through Paul's letters where did he learn it he learned it from the martyrdom of Stephen death what and Stephen life what and saw it Stephens life's fingerprints are all over Paul's theology the experience into which God brought him in the context of the martyrdom of Stephen it's everywhere one might almost say this is how he got union with Christ maybe that's what people are going to start saying after this conference on have you got union with Christ and he saw it and he began to expound it and he saw in Stephen the beautiful fruitfulness of a man who was United to Jesus Christ but he sigh especially what it meant to be United to Jesus Christ in his sufferings in order that we might share in his fruitfulness and in his glory that puts an entirely different perspective on so many areas of pastoral ministry doesn't it they don't seem to make sense Christians around us say why are things going wrong what's happening here why is there suffering why is there opposition why is there persecution what's happening here but you know the only thing that's ever happening here is he's making us like Jesus and he's making us like Jesus the way he made Jesus like Jesus that's the whole point and he's determined to do the same with us so that's moving backwards into how it is that on the basis of his thinking here Paul could write what he is written earlier on now let's move forwards to the way in which he then begins to apply our Union to Jesus Christ and the practical outworking of the life of the Christian believer and I don't have time to go into the details of all this but I do want you to notice the very obvious rhythm in which he speaks United to Jesus Christ that for put-off United to Jesus Christ therefore put on and it's marvelous the way he does this you can study these verses on your own and the way in which he he almost categorizes the character of sin and its various forums and the secret life of the individual and and the fellowship life of the individual and in these different ways in our Christian lives and but the interesting thing is less to me this is the interesting thing this is Paul the marginally irritating pastor I speak tongue-in-cheek he tells me what to do but he doesn't help me to do it now that's one of the things the good teacher does doesn't he or she doesn't just tell you what to do but enables you to transition and so when you're reading Paul here's the basic way you read Paul you read call to find out what you're supposed to do and you go to the local Christian bookshop to find out how you're supposed to do it now I speak tongue-in-cheek but that's rampant isn't it but you see we had an illustration a beautiful illustration of this last night but I'm sure was very inspiring for many probably all of us the message is this if you just keep your head down in the text the text itself will tell you how to do what to do and you see this here he's speaking about mortification he's not saying I'm you know I need to I need to write some other letters go and read oh and volume 6 on the modification of sin I mean that's a good thing to do but don't go and read oh and on the mortification of sin as a substitute for reading scripture on the mortification of sin and you'll notice what he does here and it really is very striking when he tells us to put these things off to put things to death actually the most obvious thing he does is what he names them Lord I'm struggling a wee bit no he says it's sexual immorality Lord he says you know you don't come to the Lord and say you know I know I'm not doing as well as I should Lord no he says name it and he does it the fascinating thing is he actually names here the things he says elsewhere shouldn't be named among us you understand those are two different things but you understand what he's doing you know there was a name it and claim at movement was that twenty years ago name it and claim it I want I when I heard about that I thought I'm going to start a movement called name it and slay it name it and slay it and it's so obvious isn't it but you see we never bring things out into the open to be exposed to the holiness of the Heavenly Father unless we're actually willing to articulate what they are and that's a huge huge step in real mortification and he says no he says you need to look at this from God's perspective on account of these the wrath of God is coming this is what this is what your your heavenly Father is what Calvin we had is say this is what your heavenly father hates and his holy wrath is going to be poured out upon what he hates because it damages and destroys what he loves and because we know the place where his holy wrath was most clearly poured out we we take these sins and tendencies that we hide and love and we bring them to that place where the wrath of God was poured out upon them and we say to ourselves can I live for this for which my Savior died under the wrath of a holy God and it's here it's it's actually in the warp and woof of what he says here and then he says remember who you are he says verse seven in these you once walked when you are living in number no put them all away they don't belong anymore and then as he moves through them he tells us not to be forced to one another seeing we've put off the old man in this one of the most beautiful things that happen to us when we became Christians we realized I don't need to be false with you any longer you have loved me even when I was under your wrath you loved me and sent your son for me Lord take away all the masks all the coping mechanisms I used to hide from you and defend myself against you you have United me to your son you look upon me in him you love me in him and so I don't need to pretend anymore what uh what I think that is actually for us as gospel ministers as well isn't it but we don't need to pretend anymore and were able to put it all away and then he says so beautifully you're doing this because you've put off the old man with it's practices and you've put on the new man who is being renewed and knowledge after the image of its creator and here he says and now he's he's he's circling this principle of putting off within the context of our fellowship life he says here that is not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian Scythian slave free but Christ is all and in all and he's saying here's how you modify sin in your relationship to other members of the fellowship you look to Christ who is in all and then when you have seen this price this is the Christ of Colossians 1:15 2:20 when you have seen this Christ you think this and no other Christ is the one who dwells in the pure and meanest of my brothers and sisters in the Fellowship into which God has introduced me and if Christ is not ashamed to indwell them I will not be slow to embrace them and you see what he's doing he's saying before you know sometimes when we pastors get together a name pops up of a brother a brother minister somebody who's my beginning prominence and the first thing we say is to cut them down while we done that because we've lost sight of the great thing which is what we have in common I remember I was a teenager I read this article in one of the Scottish newspapers that so I just found it so intriguing and so insightful and in a way so kind of funny and what it said about British attitudes that I never forgot it remembered at now fifty years there was a muddler in a Chinese restaurant and one of the waiters was only a few feet away from the actual murder and saw the Chinese waiter was brought into court nor British Court the WAGs all the stuff and the prosecuting counsel has say got the man in the dark and he says to his number-one witness did you see the murder yes sir I saw the murder did you see the knife yes our solenoid is Exhibit B the knife yes sir that is the knife he says do you recognize the man who had the knife in this court and he said no well the guy who done it was standing there in the dark astonishment you don't recognize him you don't recognize him and the Chinese waiter said it was in the press I believe it he said no sir all you Englishmen look alike to me now why is that because when we look at people of a different ethnicity we tend to see the things that are similar but sadly in the church we sometimes look at one another and the first things we see are the things that we are against and not the person that Christ is for you know that think just think you know all our churches are the same and they in one way or another you know we've all got cranky people odd people some of us are those odd and kind keep me told but just think of the person that you this as me you see them and there is something in you that wants to make a beeline for the door not him again but beloved if they're true Christians Jesus is not ashamed to dwell in them and there aren't 5,000 Jesus's and there are 5,000 to all these spirits there's only one Holy Spirit there's not even two holy spirits the Holy Spirit who dwelt on the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit who comes to and dwell me the Holy Spirit who comes to indwell me is the spirit who dwelt on the Lord Jesus the union is that clause and so you see that a marvelous connectedness between union with Christ being and Christ Christ dwelling in ours that's another conference altogether the indwelling of Christ in us that so empowers us to put away what is offense to the Heavenly Father and leaves a a bad taste in the life of the fellowship and then of course this is this is so Christian isn't it because some of us love this stuff we love or on the mortification of sin but no one has ever made progress in the mortification of sin who hasn't simultaneously made progress in putting on the graces of the Lord Jesus Christ the mortification of sin is not the whole of sanctification albeit it is an essential ingredient so because we are in Christ who has died to sin we put off that for which he has died and then says pol we begin to clothe ourselves with all that he is in His grace and resurrection power and we begin to put on and he is this you know the way I like to put it as list if you look at verse 12 I kind of like to say in the context where people will not misunderstand me here is the Bible's definition of what it is like to be a Calvinist this is what a Calvinist looks like as God's elect holy and beloved put on compassion kindness humility meekness patience bearing with one another if one is a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you and above all these put on love put on love which binds everything together in harmony how we distort the graces the fruit of the Spirit that he may have begun to produce in us if we haven't bound everything together in law that hold some all together you know we become itchy and twitchy and unbalanced but where there is love binding them all together there is the that is the beauty of the risen Christ among his people and so he says and so let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts let the Peace of Christ act as the umpire in your fellowship because you were called to peace be thankful and now he says here here is what feeds that when you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly it's so John 15 isn't it I've cleanse you through the word abide in me by letting my word abide in you let it dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another and all wisdom singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is it interesting for a parallel that is between this and Ephesians 5:18 he says exactly the same thing is the fruit of being filled with the spirit here he says it's the fruit of being filled with the word of Christ and dwelling you because of course the word uses the grace of preaching in the power of the Spirit to find deep in dwellings in our soul so that the Word of God may get down to the very heart of our being that's how the Spirit loves to do it that's why there is such a mystery to preaching isn't it but youth you don't always know where you're going but you have some idea of where you want to end but you have no idea what the Spirit is doing out there as he causes the word to dwell richly in one and another that's why you know you take in word lay sometimes because you feel as though you may have torn the consciences of the people too ESA's and you're embraced at the door by a brother or sister who says that was so encouraging to me why because it's the word of Christ and you know when people get a glimpse of Christ who is all-sufficient for all the needs of all of his people all of the time then of course no matter where you go with the word if it's the word of Christ they are brought to him and are found by him and hear him and are nourished by him and they say to him say anything you want to me Lord Jesus and as we do that we're singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making melody to the Lord in our hearts so that whatever we do in word or deed we do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him well I'm only beginning and the time is ending but there is no end to him dear brothers and sisters this is a fountain from which we may drink forever and discover in our union with Christ wonder upon wonder upon wonder until sometimes we will say Lord Jesus I'm not sure I can take anymore you will need to enlarge my capacity for the knowledge of your love for me and the intimacy of your union with me you know if you're a man and you love a woman there is a wrong way with a bad motivation to say I want absolutely all of you I will never be satisfied and isn't this the mystery of marriage you'll be married we've been married 43 years you know I think I'm just beginning to understand my wife find out who she really is and and she's just another human person and I want to know more I want to I want to know those details that as as man Murray brings them back I want because I love her I want to know want to know everything I want us to be I want us to be absolutely one together in that way it can be like love is the most demanding thing in the world actually doesn't hurt it's in a way in a way it's not so much the righteousness of God that frightens us it's a love of God because he wants all of us and all of us in that love and it's like this with Jesus you know when you see a young man and a young woman standing proudly before you and you're about to marry them and you know what's passing through the fellows mind he's standing there thinking that has never been a man in all history who has loved a woman the way I love this woman and you don't want to upset the proceedings by saying this young man knows absolutely nothing about anything but if he has given you a little indication that's true you you you want to make a 10-year appointment and for him to come back and see you know when I said that to you I had no idea what I was talking about I have a hundred thousand times more reason to love this woman now than I did then and sorters with the Lord Jesus and so we'll be throughout all eternity when he comes and that day dawns when as Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15 as the second man and the last Adam he will have undone everything Adam did badly he will have done everything Adam failed to do he will have paid the penalty for all of our guilt and our sin and brought about in the resurrection the restoration and recreation of all things and then Paul says so daringly he will come before his father and kneel before his father and present the kingdom back to his father and then the son will be subject to the father he doesn't mean my ontologically does he he means that Christo logically as the second man as the last Adam and then he will say to his father father here am i and all the children you have given me and we're coming to be with you in an everlasting communion because you gave us an eternal union what a privilege isn't it the greatest thing in all the world to be a Christian let's pray Heavenly Father thank you that you have you have given your son for us on the cross and you've given your son tours through the Holy Spirit and you've given us your Holy Spirit you've given us all that is precious to you your son and your spirit we thank you that the Lord Jesus sent His Spirit to unite us to himself we thank you that the Spirit comes to show us the things that belong to Jesus Christ and because we are his now belong to us O Lord enable us to live in this we pray that the very atmosphere of fellowship with the Lord Jesus may be the breath we breathe and the spirit of the life we live to the praise of his glorious grace we ask it amen

Channel: Truth Endures

Views: 28,376

Rating: 4.8479533 out of 5

Keywords: Union With Christ, Sinclair Ferguson, Desiring God Conference for Pastors, 2014

Id: riAP6Jsvy1A

Length: 61min 30sec (3690 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 05 2014