God's moral will - who
Colossians 3:1-4; Galatians 2:20; John 10:28; John 14:6 · Vern Peterman · May 16, 2004
Will of God, No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826236246583

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, we've turned a bit of a corner here. We've been spending five weeks, I don't know if it seems like less or more, but we've been spending five weeks talking about the sovereign will of God, the aspects of God's will that are unchangeable, the aspects of God's will that He doesn't back off on, the aspects of God's will that has indeed to do with who you are in Christ and your position in Him, that is untouchable and irreversible and uncorruptible in the heavenlies. That's one thing.

People will sometimes talk as if this is something you've still got to work for, or as if you might lose it, but the Scripture says, nope, it's in the heavenlies, God's got it, He did it, and there's no reverse. It says we've been seated with Him in the heavenlies. I cannot find any verse that says anybody has been unseated. It says we've been crucified with Christ, I can't find any verse that says anybody's been uncrucified. Nowhere. So these positional truths where we've been identified with Christ, there's always a forward but no reverse. This is a transmission that's got no reverse. You want to back up? Sorry. It doesn't have that.

One time it was real interesting. There was a friend of mine who built a go-kart and he put a three-speed transmission in it. He had mistakenly put the thing together wrong. It had three speeds in reverse, okay? Our position in Christ is not like that, okay? I mean, this guy could really go in reverse.

Fortunately, he fixed it before he had me get in the go-kart. But I was to discover they had no brakes, however. Right in front of two logging trucks. Anyway, okay. That's a different story. I won't go into that. We'll get distracted. Let's look at Colossians 3, 1-4.

As we look at God's moral will, it is a key point to look at. We're going to ask three questions over the next three weeks. Who, what, and where? Who, what, and where? And we're going to look at the who. this morning. We're going to look at Colossians 3, 1-4. Would someone care to read that for us? Colossians 3, 1-4.

If we then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And Christ, who is our life, shall appear Then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Okay. Thank you. As we look at this verse, we're actually going to be looking at this again, okay? So, I hope you don't get bored with it. But, we're going to be looking at it again, and we want to ask this question. Remember, the first question here is the who. Who are the who's that you see in this passage we just read? Who are the personalities that you identified?

Christ. Okay. Us, okay? Eartha says us, and you say? Christ. Christ. Okay, good. Anybody else? God. God. Okay. Anybody else? Any presidential candidates? You know, neighbor next door? You know, Vanna White? Anybody else? Believers. Yeah. Bottom line is you look at the key personalities here, okay? And it's real interesting, you think about it, who is this talking about? It's some key personalities and that's focal. Those are not insignificant. Okay, first Bertha said us. Okay, why is us in there? Oh, okay. That's talking, pointing a finger at, as my son would say it, it's plural, y'all.

He spent several years in Texas, so you got to excuse him. He's pointing at the you believers that he's writing to, isn't he? In Colossae. All you believers there in the church in Colossae. So it's you who are involved. That's one key part here in this thing. The who includes you. So here is the first part of the who. What's the next part?

Bob, you said Christ. Why Christ? Why is He involved? Oh, we've been risen with Christ. Where does it say that? Well, pretty much in the first verse there. Oh, right off. Okay, alright, we just want to make it clear. The very first verse, we've been risen with Christ. Now this is amazing. This is amazing stuff. Of course, you learned that when you were in school, right? No? No? Any of you learned it in Sunday school when you were kids? Isn't that amazing? You were risen with Christ and here's the key things in the who's. The key parts of the who is you and Christ and you were risen, how come you were risen with Christ?

You did. Did you try real hard at that? Was that a lot of work? It wasn't. You don't remember it. I mean, you'd think you'd be real tired, at least. Says I was there, but I just... Okay, how do you know it? Says so. The Bible says so. Okay, alright, that's how we know it. It's not because we're tired. It's not because we look at our hands and say, boy, something must have happened. It's because the Bible is revealing facts that we could not know on our own.

I went through a bunch of courses in science and engineering going through school. And everything they teach you in there is all about things you can use the five senses for or extensions of those. Telescopes, oscilloscopes, transits, binoculars, whatever. Test equipment of different kinds.

But if you can't either directly use the senses or use some extension of our senses, you're not going to see it. These are truths. The Scripture only reveals. You're not going to tell it from your experience. You're not going to tell it because your body's got some sort of mystical scars. You're not going to tell it just because it's a rumor. You're going to tell it because God's Word says so. It's revealing truth otherwise unknown.

And it is about ourselves and it is about Christ. And so when you look at what is the moral will of God here, key thing is it's people. And it is people who believe, it is Christ with whom we've been identified, those who believe. And who did the identifying? Who did the job? Christ. But we were identified with Him, but who did the identifying? Who was the one who put it into action? God. It was God the Father's action. This is the action of God to identify us with Christ. And so there's the personalities involved. This is the who of God's moral will. Now, this is the key thing. We get down here and we're going to be asking some other questions here in a bit. But what do you see in verse 4? Whose life is it? Whose life do you see there? Christ's life.

Now that is major. That is major. I just had a birthday a few weeks back. I got older, believe it or not. Okay, even older than I was. Yeah, really? You haven't asked my kids. Alright. So here's this thing, you know, we look at it and say, okay, we've had a birthday, you know, and we keep track of people's birthdays.

That's our life. But look at what matters. Look at what matters here. Christ's life. Christ who is our life. Our human tendency when we look at the moral will of God is to do what? We tend to look at our life Good point. We tend to look at our life. How am I doing, God? We tend to say, God, how am I doing here? And we're asking that question. How is my life is the question we tend to ask. And how do we as humans, how are we inclined to measure that?

Yeah, we come up with a list of here's the things to do and not do. Some people have been identified as Christians because of the list of things they don't do. I can tell you a question, you don't do anything. I don't do that, and I don't do that, and I don't do that, and I don't do that, and I don't do that. Well, you must be a Christian, right? It is not a list of, here's the nice things to do. We take the lady across the street even if she doesn't want to go, right? It isn't a list of things that we do. It isn't a list of things that we don't do.

It's whose life. Christ's life. That is key. That is key. And that understanding, as simple and basic as it is, because frankly I don't find this hard to understand. I really don't. But as simple and basic as that is, I would say most of Christendom doesn't understand what's in the verses that Bob just read for us this morning. Isn't that something? Most of Christendom doesn't understand what's in those verses. God is not primarily interested in you having the right list of rules.

It's like the Jews, they went and clocked out 613 things that you're supposed to do or not do. 365 of them Same as we have number of days in the year where things not to do. Don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, make sure you do that. And then the Pharisees came along and they said, well, we have to make sure that you don't even get close to breaking those.

So they made a fence around each of the laws. They made extra laws to make sure you didn't possibly step over the line and break a law. So by the time of the New Testament, when these guys had really worked on this hard, I mean, you got to give them credit. whatever that's worth. And they'd come up with a whole bunch of laws.

And it was like, man, you had to be really good to keep on top of this stuff. And some of it was still, you know, people were debating it and had questions. I mean, it was really tough. And so they come up with, Jesus, all these kind of brain teasers, you know. Hey, see if you can get this one, you know. And there were all these kind of schools of debate.

That was the question, for example, most people skip out on it, the question on Moses has commanded us to give a divorce certificate, and so they asked him. Well that was actually, there were two different schools of thought. They were trying to get Jesus to go one way or the other on it. And the question, should I pay taxes to Caesar? There were various schools of thought on that.

So all these questions that they came up with them were where schools of, different schools of thought and they were trying to get him to pick a path among the different schools of thought because they had still trying to work out all the laws, all the different rules. How do I, you know, how do I do all the laws? You don't see that in here, do you? It's not a what, it's not a which list, it's who. That's what he sets as key, okay? to who? It's Christ's life. His life. His life.

Okay, let's turn to John 10, 28. We're going to do a little bit of passage hopping. I hope it doesn't make anybody dizzy. I'm not going to go crazy with gobs and gobs and gobs of it because I think it's more important that we get the point than we get a lot of verses, but we will hit a few. Yes, please. Oh, by all means.

In that verse 4, it says Christ who is our life. Is that the cause of the indwelling of Christ? Yes. We don't have a lot to do with that. Christ is living in us. We'll get there. We'll answer that question because you ask a very important question. It's one thing for me to just stand here and say it, see that's what it says, and then go on. But we will get there because he asks a key question. You know, what does that mean and how does that happen? Yes, very important.

Okay, John 10, 28. Somebody read that for us? I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. Yeah. That's it. Now this is in the middle of a conversation, not with believers, but with some kind of skeptical antagonistic scribes and Pharisee types. And basically they're asking him, look, we want you to really make it clear, that's a hint, we're trying to hang you, we want you to really make it clear, are you the Messiah? Just tell us plainly. And this is part of his answer. And he has talked through that whole chapter about the believers who are his sheep.

And what John 10.28 says is, I give them life. And the Greek there is a present active indicative. And the classical sense of that is, I am right now continuing to give them life.

I am right now. How about that? I am right now. It's not just I gave it to them and here it is and now you got it. But it is, I am right now continuing to give life. How about that? So right now, as we sit here this morning, if you're a believer, then that statement applies to you. He says, I am right now continuing to give them life.

You have spiritual life because, not because of some past act and God just kind of installed a a lifelong guarantee battery in you. But you are in fact continuing to receive life from Him. Continuing to receive life. And he goes on in the rest of that verse to speak of the permanence with which believers are saved.

And where it says they shall never perish, that is a very weak translation. It's middle voice, and it has a Greek word pair, two letter words in the Greek, ume, and it means not a chance. And the middle voice means not of yourself. So there is not the slightest chance that they will of themselves perish into eternity. How about that? Not the slightest chance that they will of themselves, of their own doing, perish into eternity. And, what's the next part say?

No one's going to snatch them out of my hand. And nobody, and he doesn't say most, but he says nobody will snatch them out of my hand. There is nothing that the believer will do that will take them out of that salvation, and there is nothing anybody else externally can do to take them out. The next verse, he says, my father gave them to me and nobody's going to take them out of his hand either.

So he's emphatic. But that whole verse and the next one starts off with that thought, my sheep are constantly receiving the life I give them. I am constantly giving them life. I am right now continuing to do so. When he was done with that statement, with what he said there, then the Jews picked up rocks.

What he said was so potent. He says, you are the one giving life? God's the source of life. And he says, and you call God your father. It is okay to say our father or the father. My father was too personal to them. And he says, by making that claim, you're claiming yourself to have a relationship with him that nobody on earth has. And he said, yep. So this is a potent statement, but central to it is that he is the continuing source of life for the believer. Okay, just flat out.

Isn't that in exact agreement with Colossians 3.4? Christ is our life. Well, boy, that's what we just heard him say. Christ is our life. Now he says personally, I am constantly giving them life. He is continuing to be the source of life for the believer. Now, let's take a look at 14.6, just a few chapters down.

John 14.6. This time the scene changes. It's just a few chapters later in the book of John. But the scene changes. And the scene change is that now he is deliberately and specifically talking just to his disciples. And so here's Thomas. This is the one that's doubting.

And he says, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus' response to him in verse 6 is what? I am the way and the truth and the life. Isn't it interesting? The Lord does not make a minor point of this, does He? He keeps coming back to it. He says, I'm going to tell those people who don't believe that I am the life of the sheep.

And I'm going to tell them directly, I am the life. It's real interesting. The Greek is more emphatic than the English comes across. And it comes across like this, I in contradistinction to all others, in the singular way, okay, there's a definite article, singular, the singular truth and the singular life. He is emphatic about the way he says it.

I am in contradistinction to all others, the singular way, the singular truth, the singular life. I was talking to someone recently who was asking about a question because they had a relative that was you know, apparently into some level of Buddhism. And I said, you know, hey, Buddha showed up on the scene, you know, about five or six centuries before Christ. He, you know, presented this eightfold path to enlightenment.

They asked him about God and he just shut his mouth. He had no answer. He had nothing to say. And so here's Jesus comes across When he gets asked these kinds of questions, what does he say? He doesn't shut his mouth, does he? I, okay? Buddha's tight-lipped.

Five or six centuries later, the question comes directly to Jesus. I, in contradistinction to all others, am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me. Boing. Period. You've got a definite answer. None of this tight-mouthed mysticism. No agnosticism, no ignorance. Pointed. He is exclusively and specifically THE life. The life. Yes, most definitely.

And their exclusivity was a problem. And isn't it interesting, here we are 19 some odd centuries later, Aren't we really faced with the same thing? The fact that believers will go out there and speak of and exercise their faith isn't by itself particularly offensive, but to claim that it's exclusive is. To people, that just sounds like profound arrogance or something worse. And they can't comprehend it. How could you possibly say such a thing? And yet, what do you see?

Jesus making the explicit statement. You say, hey, I didn't say it, he said it. The explicit statement. Ask Buddha the question and he closes his mouth. Ask Jesus the question and he gives you an explicit answer. And the finger points to him. It is either true or he is the most incredible egomaniac that ever walked the planet. And people need to reckon with that.

The difference between what Buddha claimed, and kept his mouth shut about, and what Christ claimed is day and night. You can talk about them both being religions or something of that sort, but it's absolute rubbish and nonsense to claim that they're the same thing. Day and night difference. Okay, let's take a look at one more thing here. And we'll get to Bob's question.

Galatians 2.20.

Galatians 2.20.

And this is a key verse, not just because of what it says, but because of the issue that Paul is addressing. The book of Galatians substantially and significantly addresses, and also with brevity, addresses the question of, am I as a Christian going to get somewhere by following the law? Isn't that a good deal of what the book addresses? And Paul uses various terms, analogies, means of saying it, and he does not mince any words.

The next chapter he's going to start off with, you foolish Galatians! Now how's that for a lesson in diplomacy? So he again is being very clear, abundantly clear in what he says. But let's look at Galatians 2.20. Somebody read that for us please.

I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live, and the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. There's a lot in this. I have been crucified with Christ.

Of course, we all remember that, right? Yeah, okay. Bertha was there. I was just a few years behind her, so I'll have to take her word for it. I have been crucified with Christ. You know, you see that. What does that mean? I was crucified with Christ. It means that all the people that were there saw us. Heaven's sakes, we just crucified one guy and now there's millions on that cross. Is that what he's talking about? Identity with Christ? Yes. It's this with Christ.

When we speak of the identification truths or having been identified, the truth is just about every single one of those identification truths are spelled out with a Greek either word or prefix, sun. It looks like S-U-N if you transliterate it. Sun. But it's pronounced sun and it means together with. Okay? Together with. And this is no exception.

Galatians 2.20, and I've been crucified with Christ. Okay? And is it a physical crucifixion on our part? What part of us got crucified with Him? Okay, yeah. It's a spiritual crucifixion of the old man. Okay? All of who we were before faith in Christ. Okay? That's the old man. And then, here's the statement, it is no longer I who live. Oh man! So, let's see, I got this. Here's this card.

It says, Vern and Nancy Peterman. Should I change that? Should I give everybody a card that says Christ and then give the address? What's it talking about here? I have been crucified to Christ. It's no longer I who live? Who's the I? Ah! Isn't that interesting? The I at the beginning of the sentence is the old man, the old person that I was in totality prior to that time of belief.

It is no longer I, that old person that I was, who lived, but Christ who, and here's this Christ is our life. Christ says, I am constantly giving them life. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And so it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Okay? His life again. Isn't that interesting? We go to different passages and we get the same message. Jesus is talking to people who don't believe. He's talking to people that believe. Paul's writing to people who are You know, wrapped up in the law, he's writing to other people that are, as we're seeing in Colossians, they had a concoction, a spiritual concoction. Everywhere we go, we get a consistent message, Christ our life.

Same thing here. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And then he goes and does some explaining to try to get the point across. No longer I live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live... Has the old man come back? No. The I is kind of different here, isn't it? The life that I now live, and did you notice that? I now live. The one now after this time of belief. I live because I try really hard. No? I don't? How do I live? What does it say?

By faith! Aha! The life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God. And I do that because that's what my mom and dad always said to do. Why? What does he explain there? What's the reason that I live by faith? He loved me. Why does it say he loves me or loved me? It's past tense, isn't it? Why would it say past tense? Why does that make any sense? Isn't that interesting? Now how could that be? I don't remember that either. How'd that happen? Okay, alright. So we've got to set the Wayback Machine way back here, okay? We've got to go way back. Here's an interesting thing, because he loved me past tense.

It wasn't that Christ was born and God said, man, we've got to get doing something here. I'd better think of something. God didn't just suddenly think, oh heaven's sakes, there's burn down there on earth and he's in desperate need of help. I'd better do something. God didn't just suddenly dawn on him what was going to happen. Past tense. He even says in Revelation that he was slain before the foundation of the world. This wasn't God's plan B. This wasn't God's last minute, boy, I better do something. This wasn't God pacing the floor of heaven and thinking, man, what am I going to do? But instead, this was the intent from the outset.

Express his love. in the past. He loved me and gave, past tense, himself for me. The life that he lives through us is not just because he makes some sort of an exchange you put on your credit card. This isn't something you find advertised on television, at least not a whole lot.

But what it is in fact, it is personal, isn't it? This is an exchange that takes place personally. It matters personally because he cares for me. It is his life, not because it's a cold mechanical process. This isn't just putting batteries in the flashlight, okay? But it's personal. His life, I am constantly giving them life. His personal life, okay? And that giving is not just a matter of installing something, but it's personal. He loved me and gave himself for me. This is all personal. His life.

When we look at the moral will of God, and this is kind of the beginning of our next stage here in this, what is key is, first and foremost, it's His life. We see that when he talks to the unbelieving, skeptical scribes and Pharisees. We see it when he talks directly to the disciples at a more private and intimate moment. We see Paul writing when he's talking to people about legalism, about other false teachings that are spiritual concoctions.

It doesn't matter the context. You keep it in a consistent message. It is his life. It is personal. And it's because he cares Not just because he did something mechanical. He didn't just flip a switch. He didn't just pull out the starter and put in a new one. This is something that he did personally, and it is personal in us, and it is day by day. Richard.

You can say, too, that all through this study, it seems like there's, you know, I mentioned it earlier, too, in previous classes here about the immutability of God. And the immutability goes in with actually the predestination of everything that has actually been previously said. And the thing is that, like I said, it just seems like everything just seems like it just went in order. I mean, when you have predestination, it seems like there's There is so much that has been done.

So what can I do more? And the thing is that you don't have to do anything more. You just have to believe it. That's right. And I'm glad you brought that up because what it's really easy for us to do is to think, well, God did so much, I've got to do some more to pay Him back, or to do my part, or something of that sort.

And in fact, that's toxic. Because what it does is it says, okay, He loved me and gave Himself for me, and He is my life, and then I've got to inject some of my own. If I have to come and inject some of my own, what am I doing? What life am I trying to bring back into this? The old man, yeah, the one that got crucified. Now wait a minute, this thing was crucified, it's not in very good shape. I've got to bring that back?

Probably not. Probably not. It's not going to be very impressive. It might even stink. The truth is we have nothing to contribute to this. We can't add some of our own. One of the ways we brought it up before is, God is not here to help us. It's interesting, I'm going to pick an analogy out of Joshua's question. The angel comes before Joshua and Joshua says, are you on our side or their side? The angel says, no. Wrong question. I'm not here to pick a side. And it is easy, if we're not careful, to start trying to feather in some kind of action on our part, as if we've got to contribute. It's most definitely not what the Lord has in mind here. Now, we've got to start asking a question, though. It's nice that I go and pick on these verses. What about verses... Here, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus. And they've got a problem.

Here's this temple of Artemis. And the criminals, as we've mentioned before, if they're within a bow shot of the temple, they get to be free of criminal proceedings of any kind. So what do you do if you're a criminal? You just camp within a bow shot. So there's a ring of criminals around this temple.

So what's he going to do? He's going to write to this church and he's going to say, you who are stealing, stop it. Is he coming up with just a list of his own laws? What's he doing? How is that different from just coming up with a list of rules and saying, here, do it? How is it different?

It's not our essence. We shouldn't be doing those things. If Christ lives in us, then we shouldn't be doing it. It is not a question of, here's the rules, do it, or don't do it. But it's a question of, the life of Christ doesn't look like this. If you're doing this, it's not a question of do this and don't do this out of your own efforts. It is a question of this is not what the life of Christ looks like. Depend upon His life, not your own.

Key difference. Key difference. And again, I would say most of Christendom doesn't understand that. Most of Christendom doesn't understand that. So it's important that we get the distinction here. And as the Lord provides opportunity, we can turn around and give people that piece of good news. You know, we've got a whole bunch of folks that are real eager to get the Ten Commandments into a bunch of, you know, courtrooms and parks and things of that sort.

And, you know, fine and well, I suppose, but the truth is that's not going to save anybody. And it will have some value in the sense of them recognizing they can't measure up, but it isn't going to save and it won't help any believer because it's Christ's life, not ours. We're not under law. That's not how we're going to be growing and living.

It's His life. Okay. Let's call it for this time. We looked at who, and we'll be looking at what next week, and then where. So those three aspects of the moral will of God. Okay, ask your questions to make sure we've addressed it. And can we kind of step out of that boundary? It's not us that's doing it, it's Christ that's living in it.

We've got to get the old man out of it. So do we have to keep pushing on the guy? Do we have to tie him down? How do we get the old man out of the picture? He's dead. Okay, yeah. And how does scripture have us deal with that? You get up in the morning and you look in the mirror and you tell yourself the old man's dead, the old man's dead, the old man's dead, the old man's dead. Is that how you do it? I couldn't do it. It doesn't deal. Okay, Bob's convinced it's not going to work. That's not going to do it. Okay, so if you stand in front of the mirror and say the old man's dead, the old man's dead, the old man's dead isn't going to do it.

What is? Ah! The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God. It is the place of belief, not my efforts, not drumming it into my head. This reveals it. Do I believe it? This reveals it. Do I believe it? It's not going to be because of our experience. It's not going to be because of a rumor that happens to travel around the church or the neighborhood. It's not going to be because it shows up on TV. And it's not going to come in the direct mail. Not even junk mail.

It'll be because it's been revealed by God and we believe it. The life I live, I now live, moment by moment, since that point of initial belief, the life I now live, moment by moment, I live right now, moment by moment, by faith, continuing faith in the Son of God. Richard. If you want to get a little personal on this, you can go to Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. Why don't you read that for us? For by grace are ye saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of worth, lest any man should boast.

I'm glad you read that. That is focal, the whole book of Galatians. addresses that issue. You see, he wrote to believers, didn't he? In the area of Galatia, roughly central what's now central Turkey. He wrote to believers and the question was not, are you saved by faith? But now that you are saved, how do you live?

That's the focal point of Galatians 2.20. How do I now live?

Is it by a list of rules? Is it by coming up with this list and saying, you know, Remember years ago there was a TV commercial that somehow stuck in my mind, you know, and it was some dog food commercial. And it was, my dog's better than your dog, you know. And they sang about this, my dog's better than your dog. And the bottom line, it isn't a matter of us saying, I've got a better list than you do. My list is better than your list, right?

But instead, it's a matter of, no, God indeed has his life, the life of Christ, Available to us by faith. Faith alone. Not because we just drop it into our head or psych ourselves into it or come back from a retreat and are extremely determined to do it. But by faith. By faith in Him. By faith in His life. By faith in His resources. And by faith in what He has done and who has made us. Who we are in Him. Not because of how I look in the morning when I first get up.

Yeah, and that's awfully good news, right? So did we answer your question? Did you answer your question? With your help. Okay, alright. Let's pray. Lord, this is good news, that it isn't a matter of saying, okay, you want to know God's will? Here's a list of rules. Or here's a how-to, but instead it is as simple as your life by faith. and us, the old person of who we were before faith, having been crucified. Lord, what marvelous, what profound yet simple truths with eternal import, we give you praise for it in Jesus' name. Amen.