Hi All
Notes are below. Click here to download the audio file to your computer!
You can also access the whole load of Friday Night Bible Study audio files.
You can also access the whole load of Friday Night Bible Study audio files.
Blessings!
Chris
Forget religiosity - Talk to Him
Believe His Word. Adopt an attitude of belief, not an attitude that believes in what your five senses tell you.
We walk by faith, not by sight.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (NKJV)
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (NKJV)
I John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (NKJV)
1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, (NKJV)
1 Timothy 4:10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. (NKJV)
God yearns for each and every one of us to be in fellowship with Him.
From the beginning of time, God has seen each of us as worthy to be saved. Not just barely worthy, but worthy of the very best. That is called GRACE.
If it wasn't for that, no amount of effort from any of us would have made a difference. Truly it has nothing to do with how good we are – we cannot earn righteousness.
I John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (NKJV)
Matthew 18:11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. 12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. (NKJV)
3. He Went to Great Lengths to Save You!
You must be worth it. He did not do it trivially.
We sometimes receive it trivially.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (NKJV)
Not when we started to show signs of repentance. Salvation was a blank cheque.
Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (NKJV)
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NKJV)
He didn't just die for your sins. It was a total exchange – he BECAME sin, in exchange, we who believe BECAME the righteousness of God in Him.
Hebrews 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. (NKJV)
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (NKJV)
4. New Creations, Redeemed as God’s Children
Your identity was changed the moment you came to know Him as your Lord and Saviour. We need to understand the change of identity.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (NKJV)
This New Creation is in the Spirit. It cannot be perceived by your 5 senses.
Old things have passed away, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (NKJV)
Galatians 3: 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (NKJV)
We have become children of God. It is not a change of behaviour but a change of state. I can dress like a prince, put on a crown even, but that doesn't make me one! However, many princes and princesses in the Kingdom haven’t realised this and are living on Skid Row.
Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (NKJV)
The change in our identity is marked by His Spirit in our hearts. As much as I cannot “unbecome” a son, the Spirit will never leave me.
I became an heir – this means that I have an inheritance in Christ!
God want us to grow up as sons, to become like Him, restored into His image
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. (NKJV)
5. He Wants to Make you Like Christ
God loves you so much that He saved you as you were.
He loves you so much that He won’t leave you as you are.
Matthew 9:36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. (NKJV)
Has given us His Glory, wants us to be transformed by it.
2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (NKJV)
As we behold His goodness in His Word, we are changed to become more and more like Him. We press on in this to lay hold of that which Christ laid hold of us for.
James 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (NKJV)
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (NKJV)
No comments:
Post a Comment