Transcript

Well, let’s go to Ephesians again, as we do the second installment on grace, life and glory. The hallmark doctrine of Baptist from time immemorial. Just uh, a like kind of a tongue in cheap, light moment. Uh, sometimes the funniest things are the true things. And some weeks ago I was talking about, um, uh, having some extra funds maybe around our house.

And we were going to think about doing some things. And I was illustrating how different people view things. And I said, you know, with some extra funds, I think I ought to buy a new tractor. I have a little compact tractor that I do a lot of meditating on.

I like to run over stuff and cut stuff up. Uh, and it’s just kind of therapy for me. And it’s got quite a few miles. And be honest, it’s bounced off a tree or two here and there. But I thought, I need a compact tractor. But Miss Pam didn’t see it that way.

She thought, no, if there’s some extra funds, we need to do this on the house and this on the house and this on the house. And she’s right, we do. But in that conversation, it seems the Lord moved upon some of our grade school boys and girls because several of them have started a fund for me to have a new tractor.

I get a quarter of week, and, uh, it’s kind of funny. They’ll call me from the financial office, say, you got another $1.50 on your tractor this week. And I think we’re up to about $8.29, something like that so far. It’s just funny. I just never dreamed that, you know, little smart Alex down there in the children’s department.

No, it’s precious and sweet and wonderful. But, uh, you don’t have to give anything toward the pastor tractor. It’s fine. And I think they’re just being funny, to be honest. But just, uh, thought you’d get a kick out of that, like I did. And I guarantee you I’ll get $0.25 or something this week.

They’ll do it again. Anyway, talking about what makes us what we are, what are the distinctions that mark us out among other aspects or areas of professing Christendom? You know, when we changed our church name years ago, we got a lot of comments from people that perhaps we were changing our name because it’s been a fad of recent few decades to leave, uh, the Baptist name off of your name and use clever, creative, relevant church, rock church.

I don’t know. There’s lots of them out there. I kind of don’t know why some are called what they are, but there’s some really interesting. When I go down the road, it’s interesting to see all the new names. But ours was not clever or creative or culturally relevant. Our name was specifically chosen because it is the hallmark doctrine of what we are and what we believe.

A little over 500 years ago, a young man, a hellion, a rebel, a vile young man, was gloriously converted. He lived in Zurich, Switzerland. Conrad Grebel was his name. He immediately attached himself to one of the protestant reformers.

Zwingli. And under Zwingli he began to learn the doctrines of grace and began to treasure them and hold to them. And then God used this converted young man to start meeting with some other believers. And thus the baptist wing, the most biblically authentic wing of the Protestant Reformation had begun.

Let’s explore the doctrine of Conrad Grebel, of the apostle Paul, of the early church, fathers of Jeff Noblet, John Macarthur, John Piper, and hordes of other faithful Bible believing Baptists. We started by using Ephesians one 5611 and twelve and 13 and 14. Let’s look at that real quick again.

Look how this comes together. First of all, in Ephesians one five six, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will. Verse six. To the praise of the glory of his grace, verses eleven and twelve. Also we, having obtained an inheritance, have been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory.

And then down in verses 13 and 14 in him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession.

Here it is again, to the praise of his glory, to the praise of the glory of his grace, to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory. That is, the glorious truce about our salvation is primarily intended to bring praise and glory to God. You’re not the end of salvation.

His glory is the end of your salvation. That’s what Ephesians spells out so clearly. And then Ephesians 321, something of a theme verse for our ministry here to him be glory in the church, the church being the premier work of the Son of God, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

Amen. So God says for time and then for all eternity, I am about my own glory, and primarily through the premier work of my son Jesus. And his premier work is building his church for us in time and space history. That’s his local churches, and that’s what early Baptists held to God in grace brings us to repentance in faith.

When we give evidence of repentance in faith, then and only then are we candidates for believer’s baptism, membership in his church, and obedience and service, which brings him praise and glory. That’s the core of what we are about now as we talked about grace, life and glory. I begin by giving you these three quick thoughts.

First of all, this is an unchangeable doctrine. To change it irreparably, irreparably, I should say damages it. It’s an essential doctrine. If you miss this doctrine, you miss Christianity. It’s a historical doctrine. If you disregard this doctrine you disregard our heritage, our forefathers. It’s a defining doctrine. Nothing defines Baptists more than this doctrine and it’s a hated doctrine.

I mean Satan hates it, the world hates it, the flesh hates it because it cuts the Achilles heel of man’s pride and gives all the credit to God. We talked about grace defined and we define grace by the meaning of the original greek word chorus. And the idea is God bestows favor or goodness toward one.

That’s a grace. A favor or goodness you can’t merit, you can’t earn, you can’t possibly deserve. And then God has common grace. God pours out favor and goodness on all mankind and always has. You woke up and you are breathing this morning. That’s a part of God’s common grace and he gives that to the just and the unjust, the saved and the unsaved.

An unsaved man can look at a sunset and glory in the beauty of it. That’s a blessing to him. And a saved man looks at a sunset and glories in the God who made it and it is a blessing to him. Common grace. And then there’s saving or redeeming grace where God looks down from heaven and he sees those which he predestined and chose and elected before the foundation of the world and says, I will proud a special favor and a special goodness on those and save them.

Now any and all under common grace who will repent and come to Christ. Christ will save them. Any and all under common grace who will repent and trust Christ. God will save them. Any and all who will repent under common grace and believe on Christ. God will save them but none will do.

So Christ stands with bloody hands outstretched and says, if you’ll just come. But none will come. And God said, I have my children. I’ve taken them unto myself. We’ll look at that a little more in a moment. To be my own. But the children need redemption so I’ll have a saving grace for them.

I’ll pour out a special goodness and favor on them bringing them to that place of repentance and faith where they become my own. Well, saving grace is eternal. It existed in the mind of God from eternity past. Saving grace is free. It’s a gift. If you add anything to it, it’s no longer free and it’s no longer grace.

It’s sovereign. God chooses who he wants to bestow saving grace upon. Because God is sovereign. He sits on a throne of grace, and a throne is always sovereignty. Then we talked about, um, how grace existed eternally in the heart and mind of God. That was actually roman one. Grace existed eternally in the heart and mind of God.

God didn’t just whip up this grace. Grace is what he is. It’s a part of his very essence. His essential being is to be a God of goodness and favor on, um, those who are most deplorable and wretched.

So grace is a part of the essence of who God is, is a part of God’s desire. He desires to save unworthy sinners. It’s a part of his wisdom. He has the wisdom through his son to save in a just and righteous way. He has the will to initiate the plan.

He has the power to execute and finish the plan to save the children. So that’s a review of where we’ve been so far. Now we come to roman numeral two. Roman numeral one was that grace existed eternally in the heart and mind of God. Roman numeral two is grace is manifested by the Son and applied by the Holy Spirit.

Grace is manifested by the Son and applied to us individually, you could say, by the holy spirit. So now we come out of eternity and the sovereign heart and essence of goddess who has grace into time and how God extends grace to us. Well, first of all, let’s talk about manifested by the Son.

This would be sub point a under roman numeral two. Roman numeral two, grace manifested by the Son and applied by the spirit a, manifested by the Son. In grace, Jesus, the son of God, becomes our savior. He has, uh, if you will, one way determined. He holds the office of messiah or the office of savior.

God had his people who he had taken as his own before time began. But they were corrupt and they were sinful and they could not dwell with him. So he had developed, if you will, the office of savior or messiah. But someone had to carry out the exercises of that office to procure and secure the children.

Jesus had the qualifications for the office, the service of messiah or savior, if you will. First of all, he qualifies because of his incarnation. Though never ceasing to be God, he becomes man. And becoming man, yet remaining sinless, he qualifies to become one of us and be the sacrifice for us.

Then, of course, that leads to his crucifixion on the cross. When Jesus died. And I used to tell you this a lot, I need to tell you more these days, that if someone were to stop you in the town square at 02:00 on Thursday afternoon and say, what did Jesus accomplish on the cross, you should say two things immediately.

Substitution and satisfaction. When Jesus died on the cross, he was substituting for me. He was standing in for me before the wrath of God. And then when the wrath of God came upon me. M God’s wrath was fully satisfied. There’s nothing left to be punished over. So Jesus qualifies as savior, the one who would bring the children into a right relationship to the father.

The children the father had known before time. And he does it through the office of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through his qualification of incarnation, the qualification of crucifixion, and the qualification of his resurrection. Romans 425 reminds us that he, Jesus, was delivered over. That’s the cross. Because of our transgressions.

That means on account of our transgressions. The children were transgressors, the children were sinners. The children were unrighteous. But God wanted the children as his own, to be intimate with him and know him and love him and have him find, uh, pleasures in him. But they could not come because of their sin and unrighteousness and wickedness.

And God said, I’ll fix that. On account of that, I’ll deliver my. Son over so the children can come. Romans 425, we continue on. He was delivered over for our transgressions, and he was raised for our justification. His resurrection is the divine assurance that he has removed all consequence of our sins.

Jesus was raised proving the children are now free from the barrier between them. And God, which was our sin. Romans 111 six reminds us, throw this out to some of your legalistic, works based salvation friends. When they come up and talk to you about, well, you got to do this and you got to do that.

Well, Paul wrote in romans eleven six, God is the God who justifies the ungodly. He justifies. Not those who try hard, not those. Who join the church, not those who. Take the sacraments and participate in the. Priestcraft of the roman system, not those who walk the aisle and jump through the hoops of some baptist gimmick.

Modern Baptist gimmick. Ancient Baptists didn’t do that stuff. No, nothing that you do can cause you to gain a right standing before this holy God. God is the God who justifies the ungodly, declares you, just on account of the son of God, Jesus, fully, adequately, completely and gloriously executing the office of savior.

This is good stuff.

Manifested by the Son means he has the qualifications. Through his incarnation, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and then his intercession. The Bible says he’s in heaven at the right hand of the Father, where. He ever intercedes for us, sealing afresh another layer of security of our secure. Salvation through the work of the Son.

And then lastly, he’s qualified because of his incarnation, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his intercession, and finally his coming revelation. Revelation. He’s coming again. He’s coming again. He’s coming again. And when he comes again, the reason the word revelation is used, it means unveiling. He’ll not come as a meek and lowly lamb.

He’ll come with the veil off, and the power of the lion, of the tribe of Judah will be seen by all. And he’s coming to punish evildoers and rescue his church. And there in those steps, he fulfills all the qualifications and all the exercises of the office of savior for his children.

What a contrast, John 117 points out, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. Well, grace is not only manifested by the son, grace is applied by the spirit. If Jesus had done all of that, yet did not commission the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, to come and make application to your individual life, you could not be saved.

We believe in experiential religion. We believe there is a work of God that God does in us, that we must give evidence that he’s done that work. That’s the baptist view. We don’t just sprinkle babies and say they’re in a covenant. No, the scripture gives no context of anything like that.

We look for the evidence of the spirit’s work, imparting the work of the Son to us and for us. Grace is manifested and exercised in the person and finished work of Christ. But grace is extended and applied to us by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Or you could summarize it in this way.

The Father is the fountain of grace, the Son is the channel of grace. The spirit is the bestower of grace. Some verses. Ephesians two five. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, I never read Ephesians two five, that first phrase. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, though don’t think of my systematic theological professor in graduate school, doctor Jimmy Milliken, who said, how dead were you?

Kinda dead. Sort of dead. Half dead? Pretty much dead? No, um, dead. You had no capacity to look to God, to come to God, to reach for God, to call to God nothing. You were dead

even while we were in that condition. Ephesians two five. Dead in our transgressions. He, the Holy Spirit, made us, uh, alive. Together with Christ, by grace, you’ve been saved. That’s the work of the spirit of God in bringing an individual to spiritual life and genuine conversion. Infant babies can’t experience that.

They don’t understand it. They can’t come under conviction. They can’t articulate it. They can’t have faith in Christ. That’s why Baptists don’t take in infant babies and sprinkle them and make them members of the church, because they can’t be members of the church until God the Holy Spirit, regenerates them and they give evidence of that regeneration.

Ephesians 113. In him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. When we sense the work of the Holy Spirit of God, that should speak to us, I am sealed by God as one of his.

The seal has two concepts here. I’m confident it means you’re locked in with God. You’re behind the iron bars of destruction, divine protection as God’s forever. He sent you the spirit to give you that seal. And also it’s like the insignia ring a king would put on a document when they’d put the wax droplet there, and the king would press his ring into that.

And that meant this was authentically the king’s. So this seal means you’re protected and secure, and this seal means you are authentically God’s. And that’s when the Holy Spirit comes in you and gives you evidence that you’re a sinner and that you need Christ, and you turn to Christ.

That’s the sealing work of the Holy Spirit of God. Then two Thessalonians 213. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you. Let me stop there for a moment. God has chosen you. This is not the typical word Paul would use for chosen.

It’s a different word that has more emphasis on he has taken you for himself. The precious personal element in that you. He says, brethren, God’s taken you under himself personally as his precious own child,

because God has chosen you from the beginning. Uh, that’s even before you began. For salvation through sanctification by the spirit and faith in the truth. Sanctification here means two basic things, positional sanctification and progressive sanctification. When the Holy Spirit comes to work on you, he brings conviction in your heart.

You begin to see what you are and see how you failed and see how you need a savior. And, uh, you turn and say, I don’t deserve it. But, oh, Christ, I take you. I put my faith in you, and positionally, you are sanctified, set apart as God’s forever.

And then the spirit continues working in you. He got some of you out of bed this morning, got you to church. He keeps working on you to try to keep you walking with God. And that’s progressive sanctification. It’s all the work of the spirit of God. So the grace work God’s saying, I want to especially favor you is applied to you through the.

Ministry of the faithful, divine, third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.

Well, in grace, the gospel is preached, the spirit applies the gospel in saving power to our souls. He brings life to the spiritually dead. He conquers our rebellion, he melts our hard hearts, he opens our blind eyes, and he cleanses us from all defilement and sin.

GS Bishop said it this way. Grace is a provision for men who are so fallen they cannot reach the bar of justice, so corrupt they cannot change their own natures, so averse to God they cannot turn to him, so blind they cannot see him, so deaf that they cannot hear him, and so dead that he himself must open their graves and lift them into resurrection.

Are you a child of grace? Are you born again? Has the spirit done that in your life? If you’re just tacking on a little Christianity and you go hear Jeff Noblet, because he’s known as a hard preacher, so maybe that’ll get you into heaven, you’re going to hell. My question to you is, have you been born again?

You see, this thing of God’s working in the soul of causing us to be born again and causing us to manifest and experience the fruits of the new birth, repentance and faith. And then you become a baptized believer and part of a local church that brothers and sisters here’s got to understand.

That doctrine was not practiced for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. When the early Baptists began to teach and believe that there’s only a believer’s baptism, the only biblical baptism, is after you truly believed and shown evidence of the spirit’s work in your life. That was a radical, radical doctrine to every Christian of the age.

They went up against a thousand years of church history to teach it and believe it. Our baptist fathers had it right. The Roman catholic system missed it altogether. They concocted a manipulation control system that put you in the hands and put you under, uh, the lordship of the church and the priests and the cardinals and the bishops and the pope telling you if you didn’t walk in line with the edicts of the church, you couldn’t make it into heaven.

And then you wasn’t sure. You might go into purgatory, and your family have to give a lot of money to the roman catholic system in order to get you out of purgatory and get you into paradise. Unbiblical, foolish superstition. It was all about power and control. The Catholics missed it altogether, at least in their doctrine of their church.

We have catholic friends who probably know Christ, and I rejoice in that. Maybe they’ll come out of the system. But the catholic system missed it altogether. And by the way. Early presbyterian protestant reformers missed it as they held on to the catholic practice of infant baptism. Now I love and appreciate my presbyterian forefathers.

There are some great Bible scholars among them, but they missed conversion and baptism 100%. Doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate them and love them and use their books. I use their books every week, but they missed it on baptism.

Ephesians two five reminds us even we were dead in our transgressions. He made us alive together with Christ. While we are declared just in our relation to the law. The work of grace does far more than that. It radically transforms us by imparting new life. We’re functioning now into roman numeral three.

If I didn’t tell you, grace produces spiritual life. Grace produces spiritual life. Second Corinthians 517. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. God’s created something brand new. The spirit does this in our hearts. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Sometimes I thank those of us like myself, who had no church orientation, no church membership, no church affiliation.

And then God saved me in my car driving back to college, and all of a sudden the whole direction of my life has changed. What’s different about me? Did I just decide in. Jeff nodded. Strength. I was going to turn over a new leaf and become religious. No. God imparted to me new life.

A new life had new desires, new goals, new ambitions, new purpose.

Grace produces spiritual life. John, chapter three. Nicodemus comes to Jesus. Nicodemus is in the natural realm. Nicodemus is trying to figure out Jesus teaching through the mere intellect of fallen man. And Jesus said, nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus says, what do you mean? Do I go back into my mother’s womb?

How does all this work? He said, well, it’s like the wind. You don’t control the spirit of God any more than you can control the wind. But when it blows upon you, you’ll know you must be all of you moms and dads here, you listen to me. You must be born again.

If not, you’re not God’s. You young people sitting here, you must be born again. And it is the spirit who produces this new life. Matter of fact, turn to your left, to the book of Ezekiel. Can you do that? And I cheated and put my Bible ribbon there ahead of time.

I didn’t grow up in church and I didn’t learn the books of the Bible. And I struggle sometimes with that. Does that encourage you?

Ezekiel 37.

Oh, if you find psalms and you go right through. Uh, ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, uh, Ezekiel. All right. Go right from the psalms. You’ll find it. Ezekiel 37. A powerful picture of God’s revival of Israel. But the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is the work of the spirit of God under the gospel in the church age.

Ezekiel 37 110. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full, full of bones. And he caused me to pass among them round about. And behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley.

And, lo, they were very dry, sun parched, dead, dry bones. That’s what you are spiritually before God does the spiritual work in you. Verse three. He said to me, son of man, can these bones live? And I said, oh, Lord God. You know, I think he’s saying, God, if you want them to live, they’ll live.

You can take the deadest of the dead and make it come to life. That’s what happens when you get saved. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you, that you may come to life. And I will put sinews on you and make flesh grow back on you and cover you with skin and put breath in you, that you may come alive.

And you will know that I am the Lord. You know that Jesus is lord. You know that he’s savior when the new life comes in verse seven. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and I prophesied, or as I prophesied. There was a noise. Behold, a rattling. And the bones came together, bone to its bone.

Could you imagine such a sight? And, uh, I looked, and behold, sinews were on them. And flesh grew and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. You see, that’s organized religion. That’s organized religion right there. Sinews, come on. You connect the bones, you put flesh on it.

You get all the pieces together, but you cannot give it life. That’s just joining a church. That’s just taking the sacrament. That’s just going through religious motions.

Verse nine. Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath. Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, o breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may come to life. So I prophesied as he commended me, and the breath came into them, and they stood to life and stood on their feet.

An exceedingly great army. That’s the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to spiritual life out of dead, dry, spiritual, lifeless bones. Now, if you would look at verse 14. He said, I will put my spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your land.

Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, declares the Lord, when God saves you and you grow in him. There is one resounding theme to your life. The Lord did it.

The Lord did it. It’s not our system. It’s not sprinkling infants. It’s not the sacraments of the church. Though the ordinances are important, God does it through his ordained means. Grace includes imparting spiritual life. John 521 reminds us, for just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so, the Son also gives life and that context, that spiritual life, to those whom he wishes.

Now, uh, let me give inward evidences of this new spiritual life, and then outward evidences, inward evidences of spiritual life. Number one, repentance. Repentance. Romans 816 says, the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God. Now, listen, one of the clear testimonies of the Holy Spirit’s work in your life is as he testifies to you of the depth of your depravity, sinfulness, and need of a savior.

That is, which brings you to repentance.

Now, you will not find this, as far as I know, in any theological textbook anywhere, what I’m about to do, and I’ve done it before, but I wish there was more said about it, because I think it clarifies the biblical truth about repentance very well. You need to think of repentance as two parts.

They always go together. The second one can go without the first one, but the first one always has the second one. All right, two parts of repentance. The second one can live without the first one, but the first one always has the second one. And you have to have the first one and the second one if you’re saved.

All right, the first one is primary repentance. Primary repentance is that foundational repentance all men must experience if they’re going to be saved. Primary repentance is that repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What it means is that you cease to look to, uh, any and all competing ideas of salvation except Jesus and him alone.

That’s your primary repentance. You’re going this way. You’re trying to figure life out. Well, I’m going to do better. I’m going to be more moral. I’m going to do some good works. I’m going to talk to the preacher. I’m going to join the church. I’m going to work in the church.

Church. And then all of a sudden, God convicts you and said, that’s the wrong road. All of those roads are dead end roads. And you become convicted. You turn from everything you’re looking to, everything you’re trusting, and you turn and say, christ, uh, alone is my only hope. That’s primary repentance.

And that’s. And that’s what I think a lot of people have missed. You can be convicted about individual sins all day long and never be a Christian unless you’ve turned from everything you’re hoping in to save you and turn to Christ. Well, I’m going to repent of my sin.

I’m going to turn from my sin. That doesn’t save you turn from that. You don’t get saved by repenting from sin as much as you get saved from turning to Christ.

That’s primary repentance. Turning from any teaching, any religion, any philosophy, any idea, anything. Other than Christ alone. Some of you need to do that right now, this morning from your heart and say, oh, Christ. Right now I turn from any and everything, everything my mama taught me, my granddaddy taught me, my great grandmother taught me, if it’s not Jesus and Jesus alone, I turn from it and turn only to Christ.

That’s primary repentance. And then primary repentance always has sinned. Secondary repentance. Secondary repentance.

Secondary repentance is always incomplete and it’s always growing. Matter of fact, let me give you six quick characteristics of secondary repentance. In other words, it’s always incomplete. In other words, if you got on your knees and confessed every sin you could think of, I was short to my wife this morning.

I kicked the dog on the way out the door. I, uh, shouldn’t have thought that dirty word a while ago, da da da uh, and confessed every individual sin. You’re not done because you’re not omniscient. You don’t know all your sin. As you grow, you know, but you’ll never know all of it.

So it’s always incomplete. And so if we, if we teach as preachers and teachers that you’ve got to repent of all your sin to be saved, nobody gets saved because nobody knows all their sin.

Now you learn more. I mean, I remember, I mean, watershed moments in my christian pilgrimage where the light came on my soul and I saw ways of thinking and ways of doing things that were radically unbiblical and sinful, but I didn’t know them for the first 20 years I was a Christian.

But when I know them, I had to confess them and repent of them. Amen. So secondary repentance begins right after primary repentance, and it’s never complete because you always keep learning more and more things to repent of. By the way, when God saved you, you didn’t just repent, you became a repenter.

I said I was going to give you six quick characteristics and I’ve just been talking about the first one, so let me give the other five. Six quick characteristics of secondary repentance. Number one, it’s always incomplete and it’s always glowing. Number two, it causes us to be conscious of personal sin, to feel the corrupting presence of sin in all of our being, and we repent of it as we see it.

Then the indwelling spirit causes us to humbly and fully confess that our sin is against God and there’s no excuse for it. Then secondary sin includes the indwelling spirit, begins to teach us to hate sin and abhor the sin that’s in our old flesh, man, the old unredeemed humanity package we walk around in down here.

Which is why Paul said, wretch that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death. What am I going to get out of this sinful body and stop sinning?

The indwelling spirit, under the secondary repentance, produces a sorrow over sin. And there’s a part of us that walks around mourning because we know what we are before. Holy God and number six, as far as quick characteristics of secondary repentance, the indwelling spirit produces a purpose, rather, and a pattern to forsake sin.

That’s the pattern I want to be on. I get off of it, baby. Pattern I want to be on. So the first inward evidence of spiritual life is primary and secondary repentance. The second evidence, inward evidence, is an inward rejoicing in God, an inward rejoicing in God. We rejoice in God’s son.

Increasingly, as we think of his death, his resurrection, his love, his grace, his mercy, his beauty, we rejoice in God’s word. Well, I remember so distinctly how rich the word of God, how precious it was after my conversion. You rejoice in the word of God. You know why some people will not go to church where the word is preached?

Because they don’t rejoice over God’s word, which likely means they don’t have spiritual life. The third inward evidence is rejoicing in God’s people. God’s people. You want to be a part of a genuine church, a true church, glory of God focused, Christ honoring, Bible saturated church. You rejoice in that kind of a church.

That’s the inward evidence of spiritual life. Now be in our outline, some outward evidences, spiritual fruit. You just see an increasing in our lives of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Those fruits of the spirit that were minimal, actually, they were non existent. We may have mimicked them before our conversion, but you can only really model them after the spirit comes in and enables you to live them out.

Not only spiritual fruit, but a reforming life. The reformation of your outer life begins with the outward ordinance of believers. Baptism in a local church and then belonging. Uh, not just attending, belonging. Not just going. Belonging to a local church and serving there. You don’t join a Sunday service.

That’s what many of our churches have become, a Sunday event. And whoever has the most fun, entertaining, exciting event. We’re talking about an expensive Steinway piano to praise the Lord with. Do you know the great percentage of churches our size spend two to three times of what we would spend on this piano?

On smoke machines, special effects machines, multimedia machines to make their worship service more like a nightclub or a concert than a church.

I’d rather put it in a hundred years worth of excellent music for the glory of God.

A reforming life,

beginning with baptism and local church belonging and service. All right, we’ve talked about grace existed in the heart of man, of God. That was roman one, roman two. We’ve talked about grace manifested by Christ and applied by the Holy Spirit. In Romans three, that grace produces spiritual life. Finally, Roman four, the glory of God in the Bible, my goodness, the word glory and glorifies.

Is a multifaceted gem. Uh, it can be described in many ways, but I think the primary way to view the glory of God, it means an opinion. And in the biblical context, it means a high and true opinion. When God works in your life and you begin to believe you’re a sinner, then you’re agreeing with God’s high and true opinion of you.

When God works in your life and you believe his son is the only way to be saved, then God also has a high and honorable and true view of the Son. So you’re glorifying him by coming to the right and honorable and high opinion and conclusions. That, uh, is the same opinions and conclusions that God the father has.

That’s a way of viewing us glorifying God. And the Bible tells us in Ephesians 321, again, to him be glory in the church. That’s each individual christian member treasuring Christ and then listen. Treasuring what? Christ treasures his church. His church. Why do you think I’ve led you in these 40 plus years of reforming this church to be more biblically healthy?

And by the way, we’re not done. We’re still repenting and learning and reforming. Amen. But God’s let us get a lot of traction and a lot of things accomplished. Why do you think we did that? Because the glory of God matters and he’s most glorified in the premier work of the Son and the premier work of the Son is building the local church, and the local churches are built in cooperation with his children.

I don’t know why he did it that way, but he did. So we’re kind of the preliminary workers of getting the church ready for when he comes unveiled revelation and gathers us all together and glorifies us all together with himself. In John 12 27 30, John’s account of the high priestly prayer of Jesus before his crucifixion.

John Twelve beginning in verse 27, Jesus said, my soul has become troubled and what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? Jesus continues and says, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Well, Jesus, what purpose? Verse 28. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came out of heaven.

This is the father speaking. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. I love this in an anthropomorphic image of a father and a son. Because we can’t think in a godly realm. It’s too high for us. But we can grasp something of what God means by thinking in a more human relation thing.

The son says to the Father, uh, Father, should I just pass by this hour and not go to this cruel cross? And then Jesus says, but no, no. That’s why I came. Because on that cross we’re going to secure our children. Whoo. If you won’t do it, I’m going to have to.

Jesus said, that’s why I came. To secure the children you chose before the foundation of the world. So, Father, in all the wonder and the marvel and the majesty and the power and the beauty and the wisdom of what we’re accomplishing, just glorify your. M and the father answers back, says, oh, son, don’t worry about that.

I’m all about glorifying my name. I have glorified it. I will glorify it again. Because God is the only being in the entire universe that can look in the mirror and say, perfect. I deserve all the honor, the glory and the praise. God would be sinning if he did not want all the glory because he’s the only being fitting to receive all the glory and he wants us to get in on that.

Verse M 26 people are hearing this going on. The father speaks. The son speaks to the father. The father speaks back. Verse 26 the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered. Others were saying, well, an angel has spoken to him. And Jesus answered and said, this voice has not come for my sake.

I knew what I was going to do. I knew what was going on. This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes. I’m trying to let you church get in on what God’s been up to, what me and God the Father have been up to in the end of grace.

Now let me say it this way. The end of God bestowing grace is that he might be known and glorified for the wonderland wisdom, power and beauty and the utter wholesome attractiveness of his person and his work.

The purpose of grace is not just that he might redeem for himself a people that love and enjoy him, but that he might redeem for himself a people that love and enjoy him. And in that love and enjoyment he receives the glory due his name. Name. Do you understand that when we get in the glorified state, as I’ve said many times, you will not have an infinite mind, but you’ll have a perfect mind and for all eternity.

With your perfect mind you will learn more and more and more of the wonders, beauty, power, wisdom of God. And you will praise him more and more and more and worship him more and more and more. And he’ll receive more and more glory for all eternity. He’ll be satisfied, and you’ll be satisfied.

The glory of God is everything. All of time is about the glory of God. All eternity is about the glory of God. And the agency, if you will, that will bring God the most glory is the premier work of the son of God, the church. And that for now, is these local churches that you and I are part of

coming full circle the Protestant Reformation began in the 16th century, the early 15 hundreds. Luther led the effort in Germany. Calvin led the effort in France. Bullinger led part of the effort in Switzerland. Knox led the effort in Scotland. Wycliffe led the effort in England.

And Zwingli led the effort in Switzerland, Conrad Grebel was gloriously saved. Conrad Grebel was a hellion. He was a rebel, he was an immoral man, a young man, and he was gloriously converted. And he wanted to learn the Bible. And he found Zwingli, the Protestant Reformer there in Zurich, Switzerland.

And he attached himself to Zwingli and became one of his students. And Conrad Graben began to learn and learn and learn about the doctrine of grace, uh, life and glory, that it wasn’t through the roman catholic system that you found God, it was through faith in Jesus Christ as God acted on you through the gospel and the power of the spirit.

And Conrad Grebel began to be disturbed because the Protestant Reformation had changed a number of things, but not everything.

They were still going to the, the church. And brothers and sisters, you gotta make your mind understand this. Every church in that age, in any country, was a state church. They were one. The state and the church were one. It would be like us having the Baptist Church of Alabama.

To be a citizen of Alabama, you have to be baptized in a baptist church. They just were not separable. So Conrad Grebel, the student of Zwingli, said, why are we still having those statues and images in the church? That’s idolatry. It’s superstition. Conrad Grebel said to Zwingli, why are we still having the catholic mass like the priests administering us, the body and the blood of Jesus through those sacraments?

More like a witchcraft service than Christianity. That’s not what the Bible teaches. Why are we still sprinkling babies when you’re teaching us from the Bible that the gospel is preached? And men have to understand their sinners and repent of sinners and place faith in Christ until evidence of that genuine faith.

And then they’re to be baptized.

And Conrad said, I demand to speak before the civil government. And there was a meeting time and he explained his position and he used scripture. We need to get rid of the images in the church. We need to get rid of the catholic mass. We need to get rid of infant baptism.

It’s not biblical. And the city magistrates said, no, no, no, you can go ahead with the protestant teaching, but let’s keep these old rituals because it caused too much trouble. I’ve heard this somewhere before. In essence they said, you’re right, but that won’t work. I’ve heard that before. Oh, you’re right, it’s biblical, but it won’t work.

There’s about 800 people in this room that says, yeah, it will work. Uh, the sheep will hear his voice.

Conrad Grebel was brokenhearted, and he started meeting with some other men who were of like conviction. And the city magistrates found out about it, and they decreed an order that his meetings be outlawed. He was imprisoned for it later on, but even under the threat of being considered a criminal before.

The laws of Switzerland. Conrad Grebel kept meeting. And in one of their meetings, they looked at each other and decided, you know, we all need believers. Baptism. We’ve all been sprinkled as babies. At the home of a man of the name of Felix Mance, they decided they would baptize one another.

Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock, then Blorock baptized all the others that were there. And in that moment, in Felix mant’s home, led by Conrad Grebel, the Baptist wing, the most authentic wing of the Reformation was established. All because their deep, undying conviction of the doctrine of grace, life and glory.

That his grace, somehow God bestowed a favor on us. And that favor includes us hearing the gospel, the spirit of God changing our hearts, uh, us coming to repentance and faith, showing evidence of repenting of faith. And only then can we be baptized.

Now there are haters. The state churches called them anabaptists. They didn’t start the name Baptist. They didn’t like the name. It was a derogatory, terminal anabaptist means again. Uh, Anna means again. So what they were saying was, you’ve been baptized in the true church, the state church, and now you’re baptizing again.

So it’s a real. A real cutting thing to say. You’re an anabaptist. They work with pride. Later, he was. Conrad Grebel was in prison, but he escaped prison and went and started other baptist churches around parts of Europe. And these early baptist reformers would not recant. They would not repent, they would not change, no matter the cost.

And one church historian says that more early Baptists were martyred at the hands of the catholic and protestant state churches in Europe than Christians were martyred by the Roman Empire. During the first three centuries of church life. Yes, Baptists were murdered by Presbyterians, and Baptists were murdered by Catholics because you said, show me in the book and we’ll do it if it’s not in the book.

On this we stand.

So when we call ourselves grace life Church, it’s not a light thing, it’s not a little thing, it’s not a neat name, it’s not a cliche or culturally relevant. Grace life is the core identifying doctrine of Bible believing Christians. And of all true Baptists and all God’s people said, let’s do excuse me, stand in prayer.