Video Transcript: Your Past, Present, and Future

One of the most common and sometimes effective ways of advertising, of getting people to consider something you are offering is to give a before and after picture. Before someone was very overweight. And then after the Wonder diet plan or exercise program, she can take her old pair of jeans and stand in one leg of them. Now, who wouldn't want a diet program that can produce results like that? So you have the before and the after? Or some of you may remember Charles Atlas. I remember Charles Atlas advertisements on the back of comic books when I was a kid, where you'd have the before where the bully would be kicking sand in the face of the little skinny wimp at the beach, and then afterward, the muscular he-man levels, the bully. This is Charles Atlas. What's my job? I manufacture weaklings into men and there's your before before a weak link after men. Here's the scrawny little wimps. There's those even after Charles Atlas gets done with them. The fine print says give me a skinny people a second rate body and I'll cram it so full of handsome bulging new muscles that your friends will grow bogeyed. I'll wake up that sleeping energy of yours and make it hum like a high powered motor man you will feel and look different. You will begin to live. Now if you can look like Charles Atlas by buying whatever he's offering, you'd be sorely tempted to do it because you have this tremendous before and after. 

Well, our passage today gives the before and after and it's not just a hokey advertisement. But it is God's way of communicating the power of the gospel. You have before alienated, hostile enemies in your mind, doing evil deeds. And then there's an after where your holy and blameless and above reproach and you can stand in God's presence. That's the before and after that the apostle is giving in our Scripture today. And he's doing this in a wider context. The book of Colossians is written for a number of reasons but one of the main reasons is to help its readers to continue as Christians. To keep on going. And even before Paul really gets to the statement got you got to keep on going and not abandon this and don't let all the demons and the lies deceive you, he's already preparing the way by just giving them extremely powerful reasons to keep on going. 

And one of the reasons that we've already looked at is just how stupendously amazing and great Jesus Christ is. He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For through him all things were created in heaven on earth, visible and invisible thrones, rulers, dominions, powers, all things created by Him and for Him. He’s  before all things, and in him all things hold together. He's the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. We've considered of that passage in past weeks just how tremendous and great and stupendous Jesus Christ is, and why would you give your loyalty to anybody else? There is nobody as great or as magnificent as Jesus. 

Now the next one I have is in bold print, but not because it's more important than that. But because it's what we're considering today. We've seen how great Jesus is. But another reason to consider to continue as Christians in addition to the fact that Jesus is worthy of you continuing to be loyal to him and to trust Him is the impact that he makes on lives. On your life in particular. Paul begins this passage by saying and you he has been talking about Jesus, and now he says, and you, you have benefited tremendously from what Jesus Christ has done and continues to do and will do for you. And so he says a little later when he's actually getting into the nuts and bolts of telling them not to abandon the faith but to stick with the faith. He summarizes that in chapter two verse nine. He says for in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. That's his summary of the greatness of Jesus Christ. And the second reason is and you have been filled in him. So you have those two reasons again. The cosmic great Christ and the personal benefits that you get from Christ. 

In our Bible reading plan this week, Psalm 34, is one of those A through Z psalms that goes through all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in praise of God. And one of the invitations in that Psalm is another advertising thing, the taste test. Taste, and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. And so in the wider context of the letter, you have this argument for sticking with Christ. First, because he's so great. And second, because you need him so much and because you have benefited and will continue to benefit from him so much. So let's look in a little closer as Paul talks about your past and your present and your future. 

Here's how the text goes. He talks about the past. You were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds. That's the past. The present, he has now reconciled in His body of flesh by his death. And the future is, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. So you've got Past, Present Future and then a big IF. If  indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and in which I Paul became a minister. So you've got the past, the present and a future and you've also got a connection from the present to the future. You continue. You've got a race to run, and so you stick with it. And that's basically the structure, the layout of the passage today and of the way we can think about what it is to belong to Christ and the benefits of belonging to him.

And first of all, look at the past. And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds. That's a pretty ugly summary of what life without Christ is, what the Gentile past is, what our individual past is, if we've lived apart from Christ. And so the first is alienated. Alienated is one of those words we sometimes use aliens as somebody from another planet or somebody from another country. They're just so far apart and so different, that they're spoken of as aliens. And he says, in relation to God, you were aliens, you were distant. You were far, far from him. You were hostile in mind. This problem in relationship is in part as we read in many other passages of Paul that God was angry at you. The wrath of God against sin was a big part of the alienation. But that wasn't even the whole problem. The other part was you hated him. You hated God as your enemy, your thoughts and your attitudes were opposed to God. You were hostile to him. And it's not just your attitude. Your actions stunk too. doing evil deeds, defying God, doing what God hates, engaging in disgusting behavior, destructive behavior, decisions that offend God, deeds that offend God. This is kind of unfolding something that Paul had briefly spoken of earlier of being in the domain of darkness before God delivered you from that domain. You were in the domain of darkness ruled by Satan, and it's characterized by being alienated, enemies in your mind, and doing evil deeds. 

In the passage that we read this week from Romans chapter five, Paul's uses different words but kind of the same picture. He says, You were helpless in your sins, you were sinners, you are enemies of God. And so it's he doesn't spend a lot of words on it. The ones he does spend on it, give a very bleak picture of what is life like without God. It’s  even worse than being a 97 pound weakling or being a little bit overweight. This is trouble. The kinds of things we worry about, those are not trouble. This is trouble. 

And the present is he has now reconciled in His body of flesh by his death. So you had people who were alienated from God, but now we're reconciled. What does that word “reconciled” mean? Well, it means that people who were very very far apart are brought together again. People who could not stand each other are able not only to stand each other and sort of put up with each other, but to love each other. That's what reconciled means. Take a few pictures just from human relationships, and we sometimes have an incomplete sort of Christianity which says God gives us a status where he's no longer angry at us, or fighting with us, and we're not going to bicker with him anymore either. But we kind of have the sort of peace where he declares us not guilty. Well, in the matter of marriage, if a spouse, if two spouses are bickering and fighting with each other. One way to deal with that and to bring peace is to have a kind of an amicable or friendly divorce. You say, Okay, let's stop the fighting. Let's agree to a way to divide up our assets. Let's just stay separate, and let's not fight anymore. Is that how God deals with us? Does he say okay, you hated me, and I was angry at you. Now I forgive you. You stay over there. I'll stay over here. And let's handle it that way. The word reconcile means that he doesn't just say okay, I'm not against you any more and you're not against me, but that we come together and love each other again. That's what reconciled means between God and us. 

Or think of another picture that the Bible often uses of God as God the Judge. And there's something wonderful about the word justify where God declares us not guilty. What a tremendous thing that is when you are guilty and when you deserve a sentence of death. And hell. And God says not guilty. But reconciled, goes beyond that. The judge just doesn't say, Okay, I declare you not guilty. Court is adjourned. I'm out of here, you're out of there. No punishment is coming. Sometimes that may be how some people's faith almost works where God let me off the hook and now he's not out to get me anymore or just throw the book at me. Phew that was a close one. This is not a case where the judge just declares you not guilty and then walks out of court and lets you walk out the other doorway. But the judge embraces you and makes you his friend. That's what reconciled means. Not just not guilty, though it's wonderful to be declared not guilty, but made friends again. 

Or think of a nation. You've got two nations that have been blasting away at each other. They've been at war, they've been hostile. Now, it's a great thing at one level, if those two nations will just stop fighting and sign a sort of treaty, a non aggression pact, that they're not gonna come after each other anymore. That would be a step forward, a big improvement, but it is not going as far as reconciled goes. Reconciled means that you are welcomed to live with God and in his nation as a citizen of his kingdom. Not just that he's not going to attack your kingdom anymore, but that he welcomes you into His and delights in having you as a member of his chosen nation. We read about that again in the Bible reading this week. Psalm 33 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. Now that's not just speaking about any particular geographic country in today's world. It's about us whom God chose in Christ. My word for saying that is first Peter to verse nine. You are a chosen race, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. He has not just said okay, I'm going to have my nation. You're going to have yours and we're not going to fight anymore. He has welcomed you into his nation as his prized possession. 

So in the past, we were aliens and enemies, part of a whole different nation and a very nasty one. And now we're reconciled and we're made citizens of the chosen and blessed nation. You see how the reconcile goes beyond being forgiven and justified. Now, it'd be impossible to be reconciled without being forgiven and justified. In any relationship, you can't be reconciled unless wrongs are recognized and are forgiven. That's the basis, the beginning of reconciliation. But it's not the whole deal. And so we're talking about being reconciled, being brought together again in love. And he does this how, in His body of flesh by his death. There's the price of bringing about forgiveness and what makes reconciliation possible. 

One of the great passages about reconciliation is in the end of Second Corinthians five. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation, the old has passed away, behold the new has come. There's your before and after. The old has passed away, and the new has come and all of this is from God and through Christ who was reconciling us to himself not counting our sins against us. It goes on to say in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And how that happened? For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. God makes that great exchange. He takes all of Jesus goodness and puts it on us. He takes all of our evil and rebellion and puts it on Jesus. He makes that huge trade. And in His body of flesh, Jesus hung on the cross in His body of flesh, he died. And in doing so, he took away all the barriers and all the distance between us and God. And that was the trigger. That's the thing that made it possible, to be his friends, to be reconciled to Him. 

In another parallel passage about being reconciled is the one that we read from Romans five that I mentioned earlier, we were weak. Another way that we translate is we were helpless. We couldn't do anything to fix our situation. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So you've got helpless sinners, enemies, you know, that's the before and then you have again and again he says, Christ died. Christ died. God by the death of his son, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. I was amazed that this passage was part of our plan while I was preaching on this paragraph in Colossians, because they are almost exact parallels of each other. It wasn't planned by me, but there are higher planners in these matters. 

Now, one way that salvation is sometimes pictured is in terms of a barcode. And a barcode is something that the scanner just reads. And if you've got the label on correctly, then it charges you the right amount and it knows what you're getting. Or if you're checking out a book from the library using the barcode scanner, it checks it out. Now there are some who will say, salvation is like a barcode. And God just takes a barcode for Jesus and slaps that baby on you. And when you go through God's scanner, it reads Jesus, and you're good to go. Now, there's quite a bit of truth in that sort of picture and it kind of runs this way. Even if you go to the garden store and you have a bag of steer manure, and it's gotten a barcode for roses on it, the scanner thinks it's roses. And in the same way, if you've got the Jesus barcode on you, then the scanner reads Jesus and that gets you in. Now, the truth of that kind of picture is that God credits Jesus goodness to us and can accept us now as if we never sinned because Jesus goodness does count for us. The shortcoming of that is that that can be kind of a partial picture of justification, of being legally declared right with God, but it is not a full picture of salvation. The big picture of all that God does. 

Justification is a step in salvation in giving you your standing but it's not the whole deal. In regeneration, that's being born again, a new birth, God gives you new life, a new heart, a new spirit. It's not just that he's slapping the barcode for roses on a bunch of steer manure, and you're just gonna be a bag of you know what, your whole life never changing, but God's just gonna think of you as roses anyway. That's not the whole truth. You do receive a new heart and a new spirit and something new starts happening in you. Christ does come into your life. The very next paragraph we're gonna go to in this sermon series is “Christ in You” not just Christ's barcode slapped on you to get you right with God but Christ in you. And that's regeneration. You receive a new heart and a new spirit and in fact, the Holy Spirit of Christ living in you. And then as I've already explained, reconciliation, not just the barcode thing again, but an actual relationship. A relationship of acceptance of love. And then another big word sanctification, being made holy, being transformed and changed and growing in character and in goodness to be more and more like Jesus Christ. So the barcode analogy does give a little bit of insight in how Jesus’ goodness is credited to you, or as old theologians would say, imputed to you or reckoned to you, or counted as yours. But don't stop there and think that's the sum total of salvation and everything that God does for you. 

We've got past and present of being reconciled and forgiven through the death of Christ, His Son, but we've also got a future. The future is he did all this for a purpose. In order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. And when he presents you on the Day of Judgement, he won't just be saying the correct barcode is on you. You really will smell like roses and not like sheer manure. You will be presented in God's presence, and he won't have to hold his nose, because he will have made you perfect. And so from now to the future, is a process of being made perfect, and it doesn't reach its completion until the time of death, but it is in process and it's happening. Jesus didn't die just to forgive your sins, but to put you on the path to perfect holiness. 

Again, understand God accepts and justifies and reconciles you right now, when you put your faith in Jesus. He accepts you completely and fully as soon as you trust in Christ crucified, even though you still have sins to fight. The gospel does say that. That you are accepted and have all Jesus goodness credited to you when you trust in him and count on him. But remember that your final future and the thing for which Jesus did purchase you is that you'll stand beside Jesus himself in the Father's presence with the zero to be ashamed of. Nothing that you wish to I wish I was somewhere else, because your life will have been completely purified. Your past will still be your past, but it'll be in the past completely. And you will have a character as pure as Jesus Christ Himself. That's the after. That's where we're headed. If we belong to Jesus by faith at all, if he's living in us. Sometimes that can seem very far away. But it is what you are destined for, if you belong to Jesus. That is your future. That's why God has worked in your life. 

Then we come to a big IF. And I'm going to try to emphasize as we go along, but the big IF does not mean that your salvation is iffy. Like it could just be here today and gone tomorrow. That doesn't make salvation iffy and that you should be wavering in your faith. But there is a big IF in being saved and in moving from the present to the future. And that is if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. If you ditch the gospel, if you trash Jesus, don't think that some decision you made once upon a time was a saving decision. It wasn't. because the very fact that you ditched it means that you weren't born again after all. And you didn't truly look to Jesus as your Savior, and as your Lord. And the Bible gives us this if to make us know that we've got a race to run. We've got a head start and God has given us the beginning. But you don't get to the finish line just by zapping from here to there. There's a race to run and the big IF is you get from now to the future by running that race. 

Now, some of us who are older or who have read a few stories might remember Rosie Louise. Rosie Louise crossed the finish line first in the 1980 Boston Marathon. She ran that marathon 26 miles faster than anybody in recorded history had, any woman in recorded history had won the marathon. And she crossed the finish line and she was excited and happy and the world was amazed because she had only run one previous marathon which was 25 minutes slower than she'd run this one. You know, and usually these world class runners you know, you see them for a while they kind of work their way up, but she just came out of nowhere and ran the Boston Marathon faster than anybody alive. And some people were really amazed. Because she wasn't even all that sweaty. And her hips looked just a little flabby for a marathon runner. And you were on how did this woman win? And the person who came in second and third had been leading most of the race and they didn't ever remember anybody passing them. And then there were a couple of spectators who said we remember this woman bursting from between us a half mile from the finish line, and she only ran the last half mile. What she did was she started the Boston Marathon. She caught the subway, and then she came out of the crowd with a half mile to go and cross the finish line faster than anybody had ever won a marathon. They didn't let Rosie  keep her title as the winner of the Boston Marathon. 

Now is the Christian life work this way? You show up the finish line, you make this decision for Christ. And then you catch the subway and show up at the end. That's not how it works. Now there are actually serious theologians who portray it almost that way. A couple of examples would be Zane Hodges and Charles Ryrie, who would say that if you make a decision and believe in Christ, then you will be saved, no matter what happens after that. You might reject Christ, you might forsake Christ, you might join up with another religion. But the fact that you made that decision once upon a time means that you will go to heaven. You might lose some of the rewards that would otherwise have been yours. But if you make it to the starting line, you're guaranteed a subway ride to the finish line. This is not true. If indeed you continue in the faith. 

I am the vine you are the branches says Jesus. If a man remains in me and I in him he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he just makes it anyway. No. if anyone does not remain in me he's like a branch that is thrown away and withers. such branches are cut down thrown into the fire and burned. Jesus says the same thing in His Sermon on the Mount. A good tree can't bear bad fruit, a bad tree can't bear good fruit and a tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Does this sound like a happy outcome? No. it be cut down and thrown in the fire. Jesus is clearly referring to the destiny of hell for those who do not remain in Him. And so if indeed you continue in the faith is a very big IF. You must continue in the faith and run to the finish line with your faith in Jesus the whole time. This does not mean you remain perfect from start to finish. Because as I've already explained, you're not. you're not made perfect completely till you reach the finish line. 

And so when we talk about falling away, we're not talking about falling into a particular sin that you commit now or a sin that you commit there. Paul is talking about the sin of apostasy, of abandoning Christ, of abandoning faith in Christ. And so as Jesus when He says, If you remain in me or don't remain in me, if you remain in me, you may still have sins, but you're always looking to Jesus for forgiveness for those sins, and you're always looking to Jesus for the life and strength to overcome those sins. A little later in this passage, Paul speaks of Christ in you the hope of glory, and he speaks of all Christ energy working in me struggling in me mightily. So he's not talking about doing it on your own or being perfect even, but of sticking with Christ and having Christ remaining in you. And so if indeed you continue in the faith, remain in the faith and then stable and steadfast. Now, those are two words that are badly underestimated in our time and culture. We like exciting. We like new and improved. That's another phrase in advertising that you always get is new and improved. Nobody ever says stable and steadfast. 

God likes stable and steadfast. Stable means you're well grounded. You're firmly established on solid foundations. You don't fluctuate with this emotional high or that low and they don't make you go all over the place. Steadfast means you're not blown around by winds of doctrine. Not every new idea that comes down the pike impresses you and you say, Ooh, I think they've got something there. And not every trouble that comes along just blows you away. You're not blown around. You're not blown away. You're steadfast. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. Psalm 112, about the man that who fears the Lord, or Psalm 34, again, from this week's Bible readings. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all. That's the attitude of a person who is stable and steadfast. I'm taking a big hit here. I'm under attack, it's hard, the afflictions are big. The Lord is going to deliver me from this too. 

Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. If the positive side is continuing in the faith stable and steadfast, then the negative or the opposite of that is shifting from the hope of the gospel and going for some other hope or some other gospel. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the path, I am the way, as well as the prize, the goal which we're running, the face that we want to see at the end of our life. And if you leave the path, you'll lose the prize. If you leave Jesus in this life, don't expect to see him in the one to come. 

Don't let go of your confidence in the Gospel. Now, you might think yourself but doesn't the Bible say that we're going to be saved if we put our faith in Jesus? How can that be undone? And how can a big IF sneak in all this in warnings against shifting? Well, let's just take a historical story from the Bible, which shows us something similar. God appoints the way something happens as well as the end to which it goes. And near the end, the book of Acts, you read about this big ship voyage that Paul was on as a prisoner, along with about 200 others. Some soldiers, some sailors and others who were traveling to Rome. And there was a stupendous wind and storm that lasted for about two weeks, and everybody thought they were lost. And then one night an angel came to Paul in a vision and told him that everybody on board would survive the shipwreck. That was the promise. Everybody is gonna make it but you're gonna run aground on some island. That was what Paul was told by the angel. 

However, a little later, a few days later, some of the sailors decided they were going to hop into the big boat that was attached to the ship and they were going to escape from the ship in that boat and take off. And Paul said, Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. Now, was he just undoing all that promise he just received and say, Oh, the other guy said well, but I thought you said we were gonna be saved. Oh, he says, Now I'm telling you how. You don't get saved by ditching all the knowledgeable sailors on a ship and just having them go off somewhere. You got to have the people on board who kind of know how to run aground and know how to navigate these things. And that's part of the deal. And if they're not gonna trust God's promise that we're gonna run aground, they're all gonna make it to safety. And if they're gonna go off in their own little ship, they're gonners. That's what he's saying. You have this promise that you're gonna make it but you have to play well, better listen to me when I tell you how you're gonna get there. And you are just a fool if you think that you can just claim God's promise and then ignore everything that God said about how to get there. You abide in Christ. You don't shift from the hope of the gospel and buy into some other gospel, or you're not going to receive the promise. 

It worked the other way negatively. Jonah came to Nineveh, his only message was 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. Does that mean God was lying? No. Implicit in that warning was if you repent, you won't. And it's even more sure that when God gives His promises of eternal life in Jesus Christ and you say I'm going to ditch Jesus Christ, but I still like that eternal life at the end. It just is not going to happen. You can't shift from the hope of the gospel that you heard 

Now, how does shifting occur? There's a couple of ways and we see that in the book of Numbers in our Bible reading from this past week, and then again, we'll see more of that next week. One way of shifting is to have a misguided appetite. God is providing generously with bread from heaven for your daily journey. And you say, I don't like it. Not good enough. The rabble had a strong craving. Oh, that we had meat to eat. We remember the fish, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic. Now our strength has dried up. There's nothing at all but there's manna to look at. What a raw deal. God is feeding us bread from heaven everyday. We can't stand it. And so they reject God's daily provision and they have a misguided appetite for all the stuff they think would be better for them. And that's a deadly way to shift away from the hope of the gospel. God's provision every day of Christ's favor and the work of his Holy Spirit just doesn't seem to cut it. And you know what you like, you know, what gives you energy and strength and so you're, that's what you want. That can be the first step in shifting away. 

Another way of shifting is misguided fear. That's why we're gonna read about this week. God had promised them the land of Canaan. He had given them these guarantees of the promised land. But when they got there, they found out there might be a fight. And the people they were fighting we're gonna be too big and too scary. Oh, that we have died in the land of Egypt. Or would we die in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to another, let's choose a leader to go back to Egypt. So they have a misguided fear. They're scared of what stands between them and God's promised inheritance. And so they end up preferring to fight God, rather than what stands between them and what God has promised. This is a bad strategic decision. To decide that you would rather fight God than Canaanites and all their bodies wound up dead in the wilderness. That's the outcome of fighting God. So a misguided fear which fears people or circumstances more than you fear the Lord can make you shift and wish you could go back to Egypt. But God never promised them a settled and joyful place in Egypt. In fact, they forgot, we got the food for nothing in Egypt. Yeah, for nothing if you don't count all the babies that Pharaoh killed and all the people that are beat up. But you have this misguided fear now of the future God has promised. And so you'd rather just go back to Egypt. 

We've got to remember what the Bible says, pick your enemies very carefully. Fear Him, who can destroy body and soul in hell. Don't be scared of the rest. Joshua and Caleb, they weren't scared of the rest. And Caleb was 85 years old, when finally it came time to enter. He said, You know what, I'd like that spot where those biggest giants are still living, because that's the best land. I mean, if it wasn't the best land, the toughest guys wouldn't be there. So he asked for the spot of the toughest guys because he knew it was going to be best land and at 85 years old he beat the toughest guys. 

Now, a couple more things Paul says about this gospel that you shouldn't shift from. One is that God has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. Now, a little earlier in the passage in Colossians 1 he said much the same thing. He said, This gospel has been in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, and now he makes the same point. It has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. Jesus has an ongoing mission of reconciling all things to himself and it's being carried out in the worldwide proclamation of the gospel. The Deffers will be sharing a little bit with of their work. That's one part of the world where the gospel is being proclaimed. It’s being proclaimed here, it is proclaimed all over the place. And that's another reason not to let go of the gospel. Hey, it's come to you. It's made a tremendous difference for you. Why would you want everybody under the sun to hear it and believe it and you miss out. 

Another thing about is going to keep mark of the true gospel is that it's catholic. With a small c. when we say we believe in the Holy Catholic Church and the Apostles Creed, we're not saying we believe in the Roman Catholic Church as the only true denomination or anything like that. The word catholic with a small c just means that in all places, and throughout all ages, this is the gospel. It's not just your local flavor, or some little sideshow, the same message, gospel is preached in all ages, and in all places among all peoples, and you should not abandon this one true gospel and of which I Paul became a minister. Every preacher is a servant, a deacon, a diaknos, a servant or a minister of God's gospel. We are not the inventor of a new product. We are not the boss of the corporation in our own authority. Paul is a servant of the gospel and delivering that gospel is his task and he doesn't get to make it up as it goes. And as I've emphasized before, in light of a lot of common attacks from more liberal quarters, there is not a difference between Paul's Gospel and Jesus’ Gospel, where you say, Well, I kind of like what Jesus represented, but I don't like what Paul represents. Paul represents Jesus, okay. He represents the gospel. If you don't like Paul, you’ve got a problem with Jesus. 

And then again, reminding you that that's the big IF. It's not iffy. It's not the God is saying, oh, there's a very small chance that you'll ever make it because I'm warning you about this big IF. Instead, he protects us by giving us that big IF. When you talk about God's preservation of the saints or about the perseverance of the saints and the fact that they keep going, God's preservation, his preserving and keeping of them is done by partly by the warnings that he gives, to keep us from falling away. You say to somebody, if you walk off the cliff, you will die. You're not saying you know what, any second now I'm really worried, you know, the fact that you continue to live it's very iffy. I just have no idea whether you could possibly go on living. No he's saying, Hey, that's a 400 foot drop. Stay away from the edge of the cliff. Don't walk off that thing. They're gonna listen. Obviously, you know, that bottle is full of deadly poison. You take one swallow that and you're a goner. You will die, it will kill you. You don't say, wonder if they're gonna make it, I wonder if they're gonna live. If they've been given that warning and they know it's deadly poison and take that warning to heart, they're not gonna touch their lips to that bottle, they're not gonna drink it. 

And if the Bible tells us how apostasy falling away from Christ is fatal. And if you do not continue in the faith, you will go to hell and be lost forever. It's not therefore say, Oh, I worry that anybody who has Christ living in him is not going to continue in the faith. It is just saying, hey, when you have Christ living within you're gonna hear these warnings and you're gonna continue walking in the faith. He's keeping you in salvation by warning that if you don't continue to believe the gospel and abide, then you'll perish. But that's one of the ways that He protects and preserves his own. 

And so this is your past your present your future. You who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, He is now reconciled in His body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I Paul became a minister. Take those words to heart brothers and sisters, for the if there are any for whom the past is the only thing on that list that's true of you, then certainly you want to be reconciled to God through the death of his Son by putting your faith in the crucified Jesus and doing it now. And for all of you who are believers in Christ realize that it doesn't stop with being forgiven. It doesn't stop with being declared not guilty. You are reconciled. You are friends of God, beloved of God, members of God's Kingdom. Citizens of his kingdom. And you're on track to being presented before God smelling like roses, made perfectly clean and pure in His presence. And now, keep on keeping on. Don't be tempted by the other stuff the devil throws in your way, whether it's the enemies that try to scare you, or the thoughts of the onions that make your mouth water once in a while. Just don't let that stuff distract you from Christ, your path and your goal. 

Father, we thank You for Your word. Thank you for making clear what is sometimes muddled and for helping us to understand what our past, present and future are in you. We pray, Lord, that as we live in the already and the not yet of salvation as we taste many of its benefits and as we look forward to those benefits in even greater measure that you will keep us faithful until the day of your coming or the day when we see you face to face upon our death. We pray, Father, that you will fix our hearts on you to rejoice in you always for Jesus sake. Amen.