REVIEW
Last week, we picked back up this series we began over a month ago before this health crisis entitled “In the Mirror.” The purpose of this series of teachings is to behold who we are in Christ and learn our true spiritual identity. Church, I believe that this is one of those truths that we need to have as a regular part of our spiritual diet. And the reason why is because it keeps us from one of the enemy’s number one devices that he uses to both steal from us and destroy our lives with—identity theft. So, if we fail to see our true identity in Christ, the devil can deceive us into seeing ourselves different than the way God sees us, and then we are going to constantly be fighting an uphill battle. So, we have learned that the way we discover who we are in the spirit is by looking into the mirror of God’s Word and finding out. But what the world tries to get us to do to identify ourselves is look into a physical mirror. But how many of you know that these natural mirrors are “vanity mirrors”—the vanity of things like how we look, what we wear, what kind of car we drive, how big our home is, etc. This is vanity, church, and not where a Christian should find their identity. Our identity is found in Christ, not in our age, our weight, our financial status, etc., etc., etc. Yes, we are blessed, anointed, and highly favored, not because of how things look in our physical lives, but because of how things truly are in our spiritual lives. So, if you and I want to discover our true spiritual identity, we have to look into the mirror of God’s Word and let Him show us our “spiritual makeup.” In doing so, we will wash ourselves of that old identity and see ourselves in our new spiritual identity. Amen! However, while I certainly believe that God’s Word being like a mirror has different applications to our lives, how many of you know that in order to see what we now look like, we don’t necessarily need to be looking in Numbers, Ecclesiastes, etc.? Again, if I am teaching Levi to behold who he is in Christ, I am not going to tell him to look at Leviticus. Which led us to a passage of Scripture that is used to describe beholding the truth in a mirror--Second Corinthians 3:18. In fact, this is the particular passage of Scripture that I want us to refer to throughout this teaching because I believe it accurately “reflects” the truths the Lord wants us to see in this series. But of course, that is not how people use the law of the Old Covenant—back then and even still today, people try to use God’s law as a mirror. What I mean is they are looking into it to try and find their identity (i.e. as a means to attain salvation, saying things like— “If you just keep God’s law, He will accept you.”) But that’s not true! The truth is that through the New Covenant, Jesus has already made us acceptable, qualified and justified in the sight of God—us all. That is why the apostle Paul said what he did in verse 18. In it, he says, “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.” As we saw, the “we all” being referred to here is the Body of Christ, the Church of the living God. Therefore, every born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, believer is with “unveiled face”—meaning, we are not reading the truth of the glories of this new & better covenant with a veil over our face like those under the Old Covenant. That is why Paul goes on to say, “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord…” What glory are we beholding? Those truths of this new and better covenant of what Christ has done for us and who we are in Him! This is what we are to be beholding—the mystery of this New Covenant which is Christ in us, the hope of glory! Therefore, beholding the mirror of truths contained in the New Testament is us looking at who we are in Christ and who He is in us. And notice that he says that we are beholding “as in a mirror” these truths. So, the specific mirror that you and I need to be looking into in order to see who we now are is the far more exceedingly glorious New Testament where our new spiritual identity in on full display. Amen? Now, last week, we began looking into this mirror by looking at the filter everything is to be viewed in—love. Yes, I made the point that I believe the first thing you and I need to see when we look into this mirror is that WE ARE LOVED! The first and foundational thing our hearts need to be established in, is in the fact that we are greatly loved by our Creator. This is who we are, and this is what propels us into the other truths that we will look at in the coming weeks. In fact, I would call this Mirror that we call the Holy Bible our love letter from God—for all of it speaks of the great love that God has for His creation and the great lengths that He has gone to express that love towards us. So, when you and I read these Scriptures, we ought to see time and time again on these pages that we have a Heavenly Father who so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son so that He could have a spiritual family to both love and be loved by. Now I made the point last week that some things that we read in the Bible don’t seem to reflect the fact that we are loved—particularly when we read the Old Covenant and see God judging individuals and nations. But always remember this one truth—one cannot see God any more clearly than in the face of Jesus Christ. He came to declare God (See John 1:18). So, don’t try to see God’s true nature by all of these various examples that we have spread throughout the Scriptures. God did what He had to do under the Old Covenant; He did what wanted to do through Jesus in the New Covenant. And the truth is, everything in God’s Word points to this one thing—LOVE (See First Timothy 1:5). I said that this one truth is what I believe to be the single greatest revelation that we could ever receive. Why? Because knowing in our hearts God’s great love for us will produce in us several other virtues—and perhaps the most important is the ability to fulfill the Great Commandment to love God and to love one another. But so many of Christ’s followers have never had love modeled to them. And I made the point that it is for this reason that people do not love others well. It is because hurting people hurt people. So, we learned that if this is us, the way we change this negative identity that we might have is we must receive His love by faith—simply believing that He loves us unconditionally based on the fact that the Bible tells us so. And choosing to adopt this attitude— “God, I choose to believe that you love me. My parents might not have told me or showed me love. But I choose to believe that what you feel towards me is real and it is true whether I feel it or can relate to it or not.” When you make that heart adjustment to choose to believe it—you have taken the first step to experiencing His love in your life. And we also learned that the times that we sin and are being tempted to doubt God still loves us is when we have to receive His love by faith all the more. I will tell you, I have personally had to fight for this truth in my own life many times. You see, there have been many times when I had missed it in some area or simply was not doing the good things I knew I needed to be doing. So, when everything in my flesh and my soul was telling me that God’s love for me had diminished because of my shortcomings, I had to get before Him and take Scriptures that tell me how great His love is towards me and earnestly contend for the faith of His love. And sometimes it seemed like I was lying to myself because of the way I felt, but just as we must confess the truth of God’s Word concerning healing when we don’t feel well and just as we must stand on the Scriptures that say we are blessed when the opposite seems to be the case, we must also believe His love by faith. Amen? But I said last week—Houston, we have another problem: While there are those who have a hard time receiving God’s love for them, there are also those who think they already know that He loves them, but don’t. Yes, the other problem that comes with this particular truth is that many believers think they already got it. You can tell this group of Christians that God loves them and the response you will get is— “Yeah, I already know that.” But someone indicating that they don’t need to hear of God’s love for them anymore is like someone saying they already know what they look like so they don’t need a mirror. Well, you might have something stored in your memory bank that tells you what you look like, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to be reminded by looking in a mirror, does it? Imagine what our hair would look like if we combed it based on our memory of what it looks like. Or how about you ladies with your makeup? What if you put it on without a mirror in front of you? That would be a little scary, wouldn’t it? Likewise, we need to regularly see and hear the truths from God’s Word like He loves us just like we need the mirror even though we might have seen ourselves before. The reason for this is because we don’t just need these truths in our heads; we need them hidden in our hearts. You see, what these Christians mean when they say that they know God loves them is that they have just mentally accented to this truth. In other words, they have the head knowledge of Scriptures that say that God loves us such as John 3:16, but the truths of those Scriptures have not truly impacted their hearts! Again, this is what I am talking about—knowing something in your heart! This is when it impacts you—when it is both known and believed in our hearts. So, we do not have to have any “manifestations” of God’s love in our lives to know and believe it. As we learned last week, His love was manifested 2,000 years ago when Jesus came and died on the Cross. This is all the proof we need that God so loves you and I. Therefore, just as we believe by faith that we are healed, delivered, blessed, etc., without any physical evidence of it in our lives, but simply because God said it, likewise we must believe that God loves us because He already manifested it to us in the giving of His Son. But as we saw last week, many Christians base God’s love for them on their situation and circumstances. The apostle Paul dealt with this issue in Romans 8:35 when he asked the question— “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” You see, life’s difficulties and hardships oftentimes tempt one to question whether God really loves them, but Paul said that none of these things can separate us from His love—and that is because they have nothing to do with God’s love for us. People who say otherwise have a misconception of how things work here on the earth. The fact is, God has already done everything through Christ to provide for us. So it is up to us to believe and enter into His provision, not expect God to sovereignly do it for us. But as we saw, the awesome truth is that this is not all that He did or does to prove to us He loves us. The truth is that if He loved us enough to give us Jesus; He loves us enough to freely give us all things (see Romans 8:31-32). In other words, if He gave us His very best—His only begotten Son—then why wouldn’t He give us the less? I used the example that this would be like you desperately needing a blood transfusion, and the only person’s blood that would save you was my son, Levi’s. Well, if I were to sacrifice his life, shedding his blood, so that you could live through his blood, then do you really think I would not give you something else much less valuable if you needed it? Of course, I would! Why? Because if I was willing to give you my best, why would I not give you the less? Therefore, we can be completely convinced that God will heal us, meet our financial needs, and do anything else we need in our lives because, through His love for us, He has given us His very best. This proves God’s love for us. So, what shall we say to these things? We are His Beloved! That means that when we look in the mirror of God’s Word, we can clearly see that we “Be-Loved” by Him. Again, church, I began with this one truth because this is where everything else we will be looking at in the coming weeks was derived from—We are saved because God so loved the world. We are redeemed because He loved us enough to pay the price to redeem us. We are blessed because of His love. We are chosen, elected, and adopted because He loved us and wanted us. All of these truths stem from the fact God loves us unconditionally and extravagantly. Look in the mirror and receive God’s love for you today! In fact, the next time you look in the mirror, point at yourself and boldly say, “You be loved by God!” Your flesh might cringe when you do it, but just know that because you see it in the mirror of God’s Word, you can declare it in the mirror of this world. You be loved and there is nothing you can do about it—save receive it in your heart and confess it with your mouth. Amen! So then, let’s move on this week into something else that we see in the mirror of this New and Better Covenant that we live in: SOMETHING SPECIAL Saints, because of His great love for us, God began something special in each one of us when we made Jesus the Lord and Savior of our life. And, church, I am of the persuasion that the majority of Body of Christ is grossly ignorant of what happened in each life that has been surrendered to Christ. You see, many do not see our salvation as anything more than a change in our ticket—from hell to heaven. They essentially see it like we have a ticket in hand, and when we receive Jesus, that ticket gets punched for heaven. So, now we can get in. There’s no change in that ticket. Things are basically the same. Our destination is now approved and for the rest of our time on this planet and in these bodies, we are just old sinners saved by grace and do the best we can until we “all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.” But for now, it’s “gloom, despair and agony on me.” But that is not what happened when we received Jesus and were born again. There is something beautiful that transpired in us that, to the naked eye, might not be seen. But it’s true nonetheless. And it is for this reason that many parts of the New Testament are foreign to us and the Bible seems hard to understand. So, let’s go in our Bibles over to Second Corinthians chapter 5 because I believe this passage of Scripture gives us some insight into what happened on that day that we made Jesus our personal Lord and Savior: Second Corinthians 5:16-18a says, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God…” In verse 16, the apostle Paul begins by saying, “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh…” From now on, when? From now on, since Jesus came and died in a physical flesh & blood body. From now on, we do not know Him like that anymore. Now we know Him based on the Gospel that says He was raised from the dead and lifted up to sit at the right hand of God—completely glorified and highly exalted. This is how we regard no one according to the flesh—by believing the Gospel when we cannot see it. This is an important point to understand under our new covenant—that because we all died with Christ and have been raised to a new life in Him, we are not to judge anyone according to the flesh anymore. This means that we are not to base judgments on people regarding anything external anymore. We are to look at the heart—where the real and most important transformation has taken place. And listen here, if they are good enough for Christ, then they ought to be good enough for us too! Amen? If they now belong to the Lord, we are not to be their judge. He is their Master, not us. So, we should not judge according to the flesh any longer—not looking at their works, their peculiarities, their education, their physical appearance, etc. Aren’t you glad Christ did not do that with us? You see this when He chose His disciples: He looked at their hearts and their potential. And this is what He does with you too! He looks at who you are in the spirit. He sees you’re washed in the blood—perfect, holy, clean, and righteous! Hallelujah! So, this is how we ought to treat one another—for we are called to be imitators of our Heavenly Father. We ought not to look at others as far as who they are in the flesh. For in Christ, there is no longer male and female, black and white, rich or poor, etc. We are all one in Christ and have all been made partakers of His divine nature. Therefore, from now on, we are not to regard anyone according to the flesh. And guess what? This includes ourselves too: Yes, the fact that this phrase says to regard NO ONE according to the flesh also implies that we shouldn’t look at ourselves according to the flesh either. You see, you have to see yourself as who you are in Christ and not who you are in yourself. This is so important to the Christian life! You have to understand that you truly are who you are in the spirit, not in the flesh. That is the part of you that has been changed as we will see shortly. SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY You see, most people do not realize what man is made up of: The world basically sees us one way—who we are physically. Most of them do not believe in the fact that we have a soul or spirit, an immaterial part of us that will exist after our body dies. Then there are others (and many Christians are in this group) who believe we are soul and body. But the Bible teaches us something different—that we are a three part being. First Thessalonians 5:23 describes this when it says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice that this verse begins by describing God as the God of peace: This means that His nature is one of reconciliation—for peace denotes an absence of enmity, wars and separation. He is not against us! He is for us! The enmity has been removed, so now our God is not in the separation business; He is in the sanctification business! His is not trying to separate us from Himself; He is trying to separate us from things that hurt us, harm us, and corrupt us. And this is His job—because notice that Paul said “may the God of peace HIMSELF sanctify you…” What this means is, He doesn’t need your help! Just draw near to Him and receive the reconciliation that He has offered you, and as you draw near to Him, you are by default being sanctified. As you are reconciled, you are by default sanctified. Amen! But then notice what Paul said— “…sanctify them COMPLETELY.” Now this is important here because He is describing who we are “completely.” Then he goes on to say, “and may your whole...” Again, he is describing the complete, whole person. Then, as any good teacher does, he goes on to describe what our complete, whole man is made up of—spirit, soul, and body. Now we are, of course, familiar with our “body”—that is the physical part of us that we can see, that we can touch, and that is apparent to our five physical senses. Our “soul” is what I describe as our “inner life”—that is, it includes who we are on the inside mentally and emotionally. You might say that our soul is what makes our personality. But what most people do not acknowledge is the first thing Paul mentioned here—spirit. And I believe the order that Paul used here is the order that we need to identify with—First, spirit. Second, soul. And Third, body. You see, this body that we are most aware of is just a glove. It is a case for the real you. I like to use the following analogy—a space suit. You know, in order for a man to exist on say, the moon, he has to be wearing a space suit. Likewise, for you to exist and operate here on the earth, you must have a body. This is what gives you legal grounds to operate here on the earth. The Scriptures teach us that Jesus had to be made like flesh and blood in order to become the salvation of mankind. God had to inhabit a human body to become that perfect sacrifice that could save us from our sins. And why do you think demons and evil spirits seek to possess people? It is because they are seeking the grounds by which they can affect mankind, and they have to do it physically. Likewise, this is why God—through the Holy Spirit—wants to possess your temple as well. So, we need this earth suit—this glove, if you would—that we might live here on the earth and do the will of God. But the body is just a part of us and not the real us. Actually, the most important part of us is our spirit. Now the soul is important too (that is a lesson for another day), but the spirit is the first thing Paul mentioned in this verse, and what I believe to be the first and most important part of who we are—because it is the part of us that immediately departs to be with the Lord when we die. Therefore, it is the first part of us that needed salvation and the first part that needed to be made new and recreated! Amen! A NEW CREATION And this is what Paul went on to explain in Second Corinthians chapter 5: Again, verse 17 goes on to say, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Notice that the apostle Paul states that “if anyone is in Christ”: To be “in Christ” is Paul’s way of referring to being born again, saved, and becoming a part Christ’s body. It is us being joined together with Him so that we are positionally hidden in Christ. Literally, it is us being “in the midst of” or “inside of” the Lord Jesus Christ. It is interesting to me how we emphasize certain terms to describe being Christians, but do not use the ones the Bible emphasizes. For example, the term “Christian” is probably the most popular, but did you know, it is only used two times in the Bible? And the time it was coined was by unbelievers. But from my studies, I have seen that the most popular phrase is the repeated reference to who we are “In Christ, in Him, through Him, by Him, etc.” Perhaps we should change our terminology. But, if you are go around witnessing to people, asking them, “Are you in Christ?” instead of “Are you a Christian?” you will get some strange looks. But be honest—if someone asked you what do you mean “Am I in Christ?” would you be able to answer them? We need to know what it means to be “in Christ” because it is in these phrases “in Him, through Him, and by Him” that we look into the mirror and see who are in Him. Sadly, most Christians live and die, never understanding what took place in them on the day they were born again and found in Christ. They receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and they see themselves no different than the way they were before they were saved. But, saints, being “in Christ” holds many tremendous promises that we would do well to both see and embrace. You see, when we were born again, something glorious took place in the spirit realm: Second Corinthians 5:17 goes on to say that at the moment we were placed in Christ, we became a new creation in Christ Jesus, where old things passed away and all things became new. So, contrary to popular opinion, we are not just sinners saved by grace; we are now saints because we have been given an abundance of grace. This is our truth. Now many believers will read verses like this and be puzzled saying, “When I was saved, I did not sense the kind of change described here. All things did not become new in my life!” So how do we reconcile this? What if a Christian, who received Jesus as their Lord and Savior, does not have the evidence of all things becoming new in their life? Well, first of all, we need to understand that just because we cannot touch things with our physical senses, does not mean they are not true. Let me elaborate on this point: We know that this could not be referring to our physical body becoming a new creation because nothing physically changed in us at that moment we were saved (expect maybe our countenance). This also could not be referring to our soul because we did not automatically become smarter when we were saved either, did we? No, our body will not be made new until that Glorious Day when all things are made new in the heavens and the earth. Likewise, our mind, will, and emotions are in a constant state of renewal while we are in this body on this earth. So, then the part of us that the Holy Spirit must have been referring to here is our spirit, which the Bible teaches us is the real, eternal part of us. Yes, saints, our spirit is the part of us that was completely transformed when we received our Lord and Savior and, therefore, we might not sense any of these changes physically or emotionally. It is the part of us where old things passed away, it is the part of us where all things became new, and it is the part of us that became “in Christ.” Notice again in Second Corinthians 5:17 that the Holy Spirit says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things became new.” So, we became a new creation as we became in Christ, for truly, He makes all things new. Now, in our situation, we were not created out of nothing. We had “old things” that “passed away”— namely, an old man that was crucified with Christ. We had an old sin nature that needed to be crucified on the cross of Christ. This was that old man that had death abiding in it. It was the part of us that could not love and serve God. It was the part of us that was incapable of living in obedience to Him. And, finally, it was the part of us that could not experience the life of God and experience salvation. This old man had to “pass away” and die. And this is what happens in that moment that we make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our life. The old man dies and, behold, all things become new! Glory to God! In other words, all things in our life begin afresh and anew! There is a new beginning in our life! Everything wrong and sinful that we had said or did before we came to know Jesus Christ was washed away in His blood! It doesn’t matter how big our sins were. It doesn’t matter how many sins we committed. They are all washed away in the blood of Christ and even the old sin nature that we had that inspired us to commit those sins was crucified. So, in essence, it is as if we were created out of nothing. Not that there was never a life we lived before we were born again, but the slate has been washed so clean by the blood of Christ that it is as if our world never existed before salvation. So, let me encourage you that it doesn’t matter what you did and it doesn’t matter how gross the sin. If you have been born again—all the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new in you! So, in Christ, we are not just renovated, renewed, or upgraded; no, our spirit is completely recreated with the life, nature, and characteristics of Christ Himself! Yes, friends, when you made Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life, your spirit was not just improved upon, renovated, or healed. No, when you became a Christian, your spirit was recreated! Now, I know that might be hard for some of us to swallow, but don’t take my word on it; take His Word on it! The original King James version says that we became “new creatures” but the literal translation is “creation.” One expositor said that this word translated “creation” describes a new species of being that has never existed before. So, this means that just as God created the original creation from nothing, likewise he made us a new creation out of nothing. He took our “nothing” and made us something—a new creation in Christ! Hallelujah! The New Testament Scriptures are explicit—particularly the epistles written by the Apostle Paul—as to the reality of what it means to be in Christ and therefore a new creation. There are actually over 60 references of who we are in Christ, in Him, in Whom, etc. and there are many others that don’t use that specific terminology but the “In Christ” principle is alluded to nonetheless. Now there are some extremely powerful promises found in these verses, such as in Christ we are righteous, redeemed, and sanctified, and that in Him we have grace, victory, and every spiritual blessing. These are just a sampling of those spiritual realities which many Christians have a hard time embracing. And do you know why so many believers have a hard time embracing them? It is because the majority of the church is unable to differentiate between who we are in Christ versus who we are in ourselves. Not to mention, the majority of Christians are also walking by sight and are insensitive to spiritual truth. In other words, they are looking in the mirror too much—only acknowledging and focusing on who they are in the natural. But how many of you know that there is a spiritual realm out there that we need to be acknowledging? The Apostle Paul tells us this when he says, “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (Second Corinthians 4:18). How do you look at things that are not seen? That seems like an impossible piece of instruction, doesn’t it? Well, Paul goes on to describe how, when he says just a few verses later, “For we walk by faith and not by sight” (5:7). In other words, the way that we can look at the things which are unseen is by looking through the eyes of faith. And the Scriptures are crystal clear that the way that this faith comes is by the Word of God itself. So, if we are going to walk by faith and not by sight, we are going to have to look into the Word of God where our faith is derived from. Amen? GOD’S MASTERPIECE So then, I want us to conclude today’s message by going over to Ephesians chapter 2 where this great salvation is beautifully described: In this awesome chapter, the apostle Paul lays out to us some wonderful truths that we would do good to become established in: In verses 1-3, he shows us what our situation was before coming to the knowledge of the Lord, and in verses 4-9, he shows us all that God did for us by His amazing grace. But I want us to notice how the Apostle Paul concludes this great doctrinal lesson: He ends it by saying in verse 10— “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” This word “For” at the beginning of verse 10 shows us that Paul is explaining the end result of the gift of salvation that God has given us through our faith in Jesus. So, what did He accomplish in us by His grace? The apostle Paul said that we have been made His “workmanship,” being created in Christ Jesus! Now like we said in Second Corinthians 5:17, when the Bible says that we are His workmanship and created in Christ Jesus, what part of us is it referring to? We know that Psalm 139:13-16 says, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.” I don’t know about you but these verses remind me of Ephesians 2:10 as they begin with the psalmist describing how his inward parts were formed and how marvelous His works are and then it ends with the statement that those good works that we are to walk in were prepared beforehand. And in Jeremiah 1:5, we are told— “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Isn’t this amazing how God knew, not only Jeremiah but all of us, before we were ever formed in our mother’s womb. Not only did He know us, but He chose to set us apart for salvation by His grace. Not only that, but He ordained us to be His vessels to the nations. And as it was with the apostle Paul in Galatians 1:15, it pleased God to separate him from his mother’s womb even when He knew what that rascal would do before he was converted on the Road to Damascus. Isn’t that amazing grace? So, do you reckon, He knew the mistakes you would make both before you received Jesus and after you became a Christian? I guarantee you He did, and He saved you anyways. That’s because God does not look at things the way we do. When our patience, mercy, and grace is running out, His is just getting started! But as beautiful and wonderful as God’s original creation was and is, and as amazing as His grace over His creation was and is, the part of us that became a new creation and a product of His workmanship had to have been that third and final part of our being (i.e. our spirit) right? Yes, it was our spirit that was recreated in Christ at the moment we were born again and is a product of God’s workmanship. So, what does this mean that we are His “workmanship”? This word comes from the Greek word poiema, which is where we get our words “poem” and “poetry” from. As a matter of fact, this word poiema came to describe something that was a product of an artist’s handiwork or artwork—like a sculpture or a painting. Therefore, this word describes something that is a product of one’s creativity and artistic abilities. Oh, hallelujah! Do you see where this is going? So, when the apostle Paul said that we are God’s “workmanship” here in Ephesians 2:10, you could translate this that we are God’s own work of art! Better yet, since God—who has to be considered the most creative and wonderful artist ever to exist—is the one who designed and sculptured our spirit, then you could say that we are His masterpiece! Hallelujah! Did you get that? You are God’s own handiwork, His work of art, and His masterpiece! You have been created in Christ—beautifully and ornately fashioned by the Creator, who is the epitome of creativity and artistry! And let me assure you in the worst English that I can: God don’t make no junk! 😉 If you are His workmanship, then you are perfect, complete, and beautiful! There are no flaws in your spirit man! In fact, do you know the reason why your spirit is flawless? It is because you have received the spirit of Christ Himself! That is why Paul said in this verse that you were created (i.e. recreated) in Christ Jesus. It is because it is in His image and in His likeness that you have been designed! This would obviously mean that we, as God’s masterpiece’s, are extremely precious and valuable. I like the way the apostle Paul words it in Second Corinthians 4:7 when he says that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Now the emphasis I usually hear placed on this passage of Scripture is on the earthen vessels themselves. People will say, “Yeah, we are just cracked and flawed jars of clay.” But what about the treasure that in these vessels? You know, I guarantee you that if you were to buy a piece of land, and started excavating it and came upon an earthen vessel that was buried out in it that was filled with precious treasures, you wouldn’t spend your time calling people, telling them about your dirty old cracked earthen vessel, would you? No! You probably wouldn’t even mention the thing that the buried treasure was hidden in! You would be rejoicing in the treasure that was in it! (That sounds like that would have been a good parable for Jesus to use, doesn’t it? 😉) Well, I’ll tell you, this “treasure” that is inside of these earthen vessels is so awesome that it should produce a joy that is inexpressible. In fact, the word that is used to translate this word is where we get our English word “thesaurus” from. A “thesaurus” is essentially a treasury of words. Well, I would add that this “treasure” that we possess in these earthen vessels is so priceless, precious and valuable that there are not enough words to describe it! Hallelujah! So, why don’t we look in this mirror and behold the treasure within us!?! As Isaiah 64:8 says, “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.” He is the potter who sculpted all that we are in the spirit—for we are His workmanship. So, let’s use this analogy of a painting or a sculpture to describe what happened in your spirit when you were born again: When God took your dead spirit, where no good thing dwelt and painted/sculpted you into a new creation in Christ, what He did was He painted on the canvas of your heart the likeness of Jesus Christ! What He did was He sculpted, as the potter sculpts the clay, a full image of Jesus Christ Himself in your inner man! So, He made you all that He is because you are in Him and He is in you! Praise be unto God! Understanding this is what will make truths in the Word of God such as we are the righteousness of God, we are saints, and we are beloved, easier to accept! It is because it is not our righteousness! It is not our holiness! It is not a matter of how lovely we are! You are accepted, forgiven, redeemed, saved, righteous, holy, and loved because of who He is in you! So, when the Father looks into a born again, child of God, He is not looking at our faults and shortcomings; He is looking at the beautiful image of Jesus Christ! Hallelujah! Jesus is what makes us God’s masterpiece! The reason the majority of the church has trouble accepting this is because most identify themselves by who they are in the flesh. But as we saw in Second Corinthians 5:16, we are no longer to judge anyone according to the flesh, and that includes ourselves! We are to form our opinion of our self by looking at the inward man, the hidden man of the heart. To not do so, is to look at an extremely valuable painting and to estimate its value solely by the frame that holds the painting itself. This, of course, is utter foolishness! I mean, who goes to the Musee du Louvre in Paris to see the original Mona Lisa painting and stands there admiring only the frame and not considering the portrait inside the frame? No one does that! So why do we only focus on our earthen vessel and not consider the treasure that has been placed within us? Friends, in the eternal part of you has been placed a beautiful and perfect masterpiece! So, let’s begin to focus on what is important and what is eternal! God placed a priceless treasure in our hearts the moment we were born again. Let’s esteem it! Let’s give attention to the new creation we have been made in Christ! So next time you look in the mirror, say, “You are God’s New Creation! He is the Potter and you are the clay! He made you just the way you are supposed to be! You are molded, shaped, and fashioned by the Master Craftsman, His own handiwork! And you are not a Van Goh, Picasso, or Da-Vinci either; you are God’s Masterpiece! You are His poem! You are Loved to Life!” Amen! Just like in God’s original creation when He made the sun, the moon, the stars, this earth and all that is within it, He rested on the seventh day and saying at the end of the sixth day, “It is very good” (See Genesis 1:31) Now He didn’t rest because it wore Him out and He needed a breather from all that “creating.” No, He rested in the sense that an artist will cease from his work, knowing that it is finished, and will sit on his or her stool with the brush in their mouth, admiring their work. I’m telling you saints, when Jesus hung on that Cross and said, “It is finished!” it really was. Sure, we are a work in progress when it comes to our physical self, but when it comes to our spirit, we are finished, and we are very good! Amen!
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When we began this series over a month ago (March 8th), I began by stating that there are certain Biblical topics that I believe we should include as a regular part of our diet, but one of those subjects that I believe we need to regularly feed on is our spiritual identity (i.e. who we are in Christ). And I said that the reason for this is because understanding what God has done for us in Christ Jesus and who we are in the spirit keeps us from one of the enemy’s number one devices that he uses to both steal from us and to destroy our lives with—identity theft. Now we have all have had someone steal from us before—maybe our home or vehicle was broken into and something was taken that was ours. Perhaps our wallet or purse was snatched by a thief. There are a lot of ways that we have experienced someone robbing us, but I made the point that arguably the most harmful and inconvenient way someone can steal from us is by stealing our identity. Some of us have experience with this, don’t we? There are those here today who have suffered from debit or credit card fraud, medical fraud, or other kinds of financial fraud. Others have had things like their driver’s license, social security, name, address, or birthdate stolen from them and have had a lot of issues to deal with as a result. And the fact is, all of these forms of identity theft create a tremendous amount of problems in one’s life—it can affect us not only financially, but emotionally, socially, and even physically. However, I said last time that I have found that there is something much more damaging than suffering from these various forms of identity theft that can happen to us in life; this is having our spiritual identity stolen from us. So, I said that this is why it is so imperative that you and I discover who we are in Christ and no longer allow him to steal our true identity from us—for if he can deceive us into seeing ourselves different than the way God sees us, we are going to constantly be fighting an uphill battle. So, what we are going to be doing through this series of teachings is look in the mirror and see who we are in Christ so that the thief’s attempts to steal from us and destroy our lives are no longer successful. Yes, I have entitled this series “In the Mirror” because in order for us to learn who we truly are, we are going to have to look in the mirror and find out. And as I said last time, I am not talking about that “vanity mirror” in our home that is essentially our personal grooming mirror used to check our appearance, do our hair, and apply our makeup. That kind of mirror is just that—vanity. But we learned last week that’s how the majority of the world identifies themselves—it’s by the vanity of things like how we look, what we wear, what kind of car we drive, how big our home is, etc. This is vanity, church, and not where a Christian should find their identity. Our identity is found in Christ, not in our age, our weight, our financial status, etc. etc. etc. Yes, we are blessed, anointed, and highly favored, not because of how things look in our physical lives, but because of how things truly are in our spiritual lives. Amen! Church, we live in a society that more now than ever shows forth this mistaken identity. Yes, we are engrossed with various forms of social media today such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. and in all of them, we see people proudly displaying their picture, their status on what they are doing, etc. and a lot of it wreaks of insecurity. People want acceptance. They seek approval and compliments. Now I’m not trying to be critical, but am simply pointing out the epidemic in our world of people’s insecurity. So, I’m here to tell you—if you want to find out who you truly are, then you are going to have to put your “face” in the “Book” and let that determine your true “profile.” Amen? So, yes, we have all of these ways in which our identity can be stolen—whether it is the identity theft that hurts us financially or the physical, mental or emotional abuse that steals our confidence or molds our personality in a negative way. Therefore, it is imperative that we protect our spiritual identity at all costs because there is a thief out there, an enemy of our soul, and he is seeking to steal our identity so that he can rob us of our inheritance in Christ Jesus. So, we answered the question last time--How can we see who we truly are in our spiritual lives? Is there a spiritual mirror? And we said that these vanity mirrors are also called “makeup mirrors.” So, if you want to see your “spiritual makeup,” then you are going to have to look into a spiritual makeup mirror. And if you don’t like your physical, financial, or spiritual makeup, then the process of changing it begins with washing your face! How do we do that? By the washing of water by the Word (see Ephesians 5:26)! Church, this is the mirror that you and I are to look into to discover our true spiritual identity. Yes, we have to look into the mirror of God’s Word and let Him show us our “spiritual makeup.” In doing so, we will wash ourselves of that old identity and see ourselves in our new spiritual identity. Amen! So, we looked over at the first chapter of James where Pastor James is exhorting this body of believers to not just be hearers of the Word, but to be doers of the Word they are hearing (see James 1:22-26). And we saw that he uses an interesting analogy in describing those who hear the Word. He says that when one is “a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror…” But do not be mistaken here; James is not using this analogy to just describe the hearers only, for he goes on to describe the doers of the Word to be those “looking into the perfect law of liberty” and continuing in it. In other words, those hearers who do what they hear are also those who are observing their face in the mirror of God’s Word. Either way, James is saying that when one hears the Word, it is like they are looking into a mirror, and when they do, they are seeing what they look like. His point was that the ones who wind up doing the Word are the ones who “continue” looking into the mirror of His Word—meaning, they keep their eyes and ears constantly beholding what He said so that they are living in those truths with the intention of applying them to their lives. That is the difference between the one who simply “audits” the Word and those who have it reflecting in their lives. Amen. However, while I certainly believe that God’s Word being like a mirror has different applications to our lives, how many of you know that in order to see what we now look like, we don’t necessarily need to be looking in Numbers, Ecclesiastes, etc.? No, if I am teaching Levi to behold who he is in Christ, I am not going to tell him to look at Leviticus. Which led us to the other passage of Scripture that is used to describe beholding the truth in a mirror--Second Corinthians 3:18. In fact, this is the particular passage of Scripture that I want us to camp on throughout this teaching because I believe it accurately “reflects” the truths the Lord wants us to see in this series. But of course, that is not how people use the law of the Old Covenant—back then and even still today, people try to use God’s law as a mirror. What I mean is they are looking into it to try and find their identity (i.e. as a means to attain salvation, saying things like— “If you just keep God’s law, He will accept you.”) But that’s not true! The truth is that through the New Covenant, Jesus has already made us acceptable, qualified and justified in the sight of God—all of us. That is why the apostle Paul said what he did in verse 18. In it, he says, 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.” As we saw, the “we all” being referred to here is the Body of Christ, the Church of the living God. Therefore, every born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, believer is with “unveiled face”—meaning, we are not reading the truth of the glories of this new & better covenant with a veil over our face like those under the Old Covenant. So, when Paul goes on to say, “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord…” what glory are we beholding? Those truths of this new and better covenant of what Christ has done for us and who we are in Him! This is what we are to be beholding—the mystery of this New Covenant which is Christ in us, the hope of glory! Therefore, beholding the mirror of truths contained in the New Testament is us looking at who we are in Christ and who He is in us. And notice that he says that we are beholding “as in a mirror” these truths. So, the specific mirror that you and I need to be looking into in order to see who we now are is the far more exceedingly glorious New Testament where our new spiritual identity in on full display. Amen? So, last time, we began by looking at the example of Jesus Christ and how He too had to learn to look into the mirror of God’s Word and discover who He was, is, and evermore shall be. Now I made the point that some do not believe this about Jesus, thinking that since He was the Son of God, that He automatically knew everything and operated in the omniscience of God. But that cannot be true—for even though He certainly was 100% God when He came to earth and inhabited a physical body, He was 100% man too. And his humanity was what He operated in. For example, Hebrews 4:15 teaches us that He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” How could He truly have been tempted in all the points that we are if He had an unfair advantage of being omniscient, omnipotent, etc.? No, the truth is, Jesus lived the way that He did as an example to us of how the Christian life is to be lived. So, don’t make the mistake in believing that Jesus had some unfair advantage over us because He is the Son of God. No, we saw last week that in His humanity, He had some seriously bad history in His lineage. We looked at how, yes, He was the Son of David, but His line came through the incident with Bathsheba. And if you trace it back far enough you will see all kinds of flaws and imperfections. But do you know what this should tell us? It should tell us that even if we have any of these things in our lineage or even our own personal history, we can still carry the Christ like Mary did! No, I am not referring to another immaculate conception; I am talking about how Christ can dwell within us spiritually. My point is that Jesus came through many imperfections—and I believe this illustrates to you and I how even though we can have a lot of problems in our past, if we are born from God, we can still identify with Jesus. Amen! So, we saw from Luke chapter 2 that on top of being born through some stuff, Jesus had to grow, He had to learn, and He had to look into the mirror Himself to discover who He was while in the flesh: We saw that He “became strong in spirit, was filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” (see Luke 2:40). We also saw that He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” So, we can clearly see that after Jesus’ birth, He even had to grow and increase. Likewise, just because we are born again, we still have to grow into who we've been born again as. And we learned how He increased in these virtues: The first thing we saw was that He was teachable. Luke 2:46-49 teaches us that when He hung out in the temple when He and His parents visited Jerusalem that He was listening to the teachers and asking them questions! And we saw that this is a necessary step in changing the way we see things, including our own selves—learning from the anointed Word of His grace that is proclaimed to us, but also by being taught by the Lord Himself. Which leads me to the next thing we saw in Jesus’ growth process: Then we saw that when Jesus’ time had come to fulfill all righteousness, that He was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when Jesus came out of that water, Luke 3:22 says that “the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, ‘You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.’” Now, again, if you were to ask most Christians what God the Father said in that audible voice when Jesus was both baptized in water and baptized in the Holy Spirit, they would say, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And they would not be entirely incorrect—for one Gospel writer (Matthew) records this event as God saying that. However, both Luke & Mark record it differently—they say that the Father said to Jesus, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” Now if I were to say about one of you today, “So and so is my beloved church member, in whom I am well pleased,” who am I talking to? I am talking to “all y’all.” But if I were to say to one of you today, “You are my beloved church member, and in you I am well pleased,” who am I talking to then? I’m saying this to them, and therefore, for their benefit. You see, I believe this what God was doing here with His Son: He was letting Jesus know that He was His beloved Son and He was well pleased with Him. Which, interestingly enough was before Jesus ever began His ministry—showing us that our identity is not to be found in what we do for God, but in who are in Him. Amen! And as I believe it was to Jesus at this point in His life, I believe we must hear directly from our Heavenly Father who He says we are. Yes, just as many of us developed our identity by what our earthly father prophesied over us, we can redevelop our identity by what our Heavenly Father prophesies over us. Amen. This is critical. And do you know why? It is because that identity thief is sure going to try and tempt us to doubt who God says that we are. We saw this in the very next event in Jesus’ life & ministry. In Luke 4:1-13, we have the instance where immediately after Jesus’ baptism in both water and the Holy Spirit, that He went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And essentially what Jesus had to do through the course of these three temptations was resist the tempter to doubt His identity. The reason for this is because in two out of the three temptations, the devil prefaced the temptation with “If you are the Son of God…” And most do not realize this, but this was the root of these temptations. The devil was not just trying to get Jesus to turn rocks into bread or throw Himself off of the pinnacle of the temple. His temptations were rooted in trying to get Him to do it to prove He was who His Father said He was. In other words, two out of the three temptations that Satan gave Jesus were based on identity. Likewise, I believe we could make a case that 2/3rds of the temptations you and I will have by Satan are directly rooted in our identity. In other words, most of the temptations we will face will be overcome or will overcome us based on whether we will subject ourselves to who God says we are and what He says we have. Amen! And finally, we saw that not too long after Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit, that He came back to His hometown of Nazareth (see Luke 4:16-22). And as His custom was (that’s important), He went to the Synagogue to stand up and read. And He was handed the Book of Isaiah and He found the place in it where it was written concerning Himself. Did you know that this is what you and I must do too? We need to make it our custom to get this mirror out on a daily basis and find in it, the places talking about our spiritual identity. Glory! And, glory to God, Jesus didn’t just find it in the Mirror, but we see that He stood up and boldly declared it before the rest of the assembly in the Synagogue. Likewise, a key to me renewing my mind to my true spiritual identity is my boldly declaring who the I Am says that I am. No, not necessarily before an audience, but before an audience of one. In other words, looking into the mirror and boldly declaring who the Lord says you are until you begin to believe it about yourself. Amen. Then I love what Jesus did after declaring what He did. We are told that He closed the Book, gave it back to the attendant, and then sat down. And this is what we need to do as well: We must see it as a done deal, “sit down,” and rest in who and what God’s mirror shows us that we are. Amen! THE SINGLE GREATEST REVELATION So, let’s begin looking into the mirror of God’s Word today ourselves and look at our true spiritual identity. Shall we? Now I wholeheartedly believe that the first thing you and I need to see when we look into this mirror is that WE ARE LOVED! Yes, the first and foundational thing our hearts need to be established in is in the fact that we are greatly loved by our Creator. This is our who we are, and this is what propels us into the other truths that we will look at in the coming weeks. For example, we are delivered in Christ because He loved us. We are blessed in Him because of His love. We are made holy in Christ through the love He poured out on us. Yes, everything that we have been made in Christ is because He first loved us. Amen? In fact, I would call this Mirror that we call the Holy Bible our love letter from God—for all of it speaks of the great love that God has for His creation and the great lengths that He has gone to in order to express that love towards us. So, when you and I read the Scriptures, we ought to see time and time again on these pages that we have a Heavenly Father who so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son so that He could have a spiritual family to both love and be loved by. Now some things that we read in the Bible don’t seem to reflect that—particularly when we read the Old Covenant and see God judging individuals and nations. But always remember this one truth—one cannot see God any more clearly than in the face of Jesus Christ. He came to declare God (See John 1:18). So, don’t try to see God’s true nature by all of these various examples that we have spread throughout the Scriptures. God did what He had to do under the Old Covenant; He did what wanted to do through Jesus in the New Covenant. And the truth is everything in God’s Word points to this one thing—LOVE (See First Timothy 1:5). You see, I have come to the conclusion that this one truth is the single greatest revelation that we could ever receive—the unconditional love that God has for us! The reason I can say this is because knowing in our hearts God’s great love for us will produce in us several other virtues—and perhaps the most important is the ability to fulfill the Great Commandment. Let me explain: You see, through understanding that God loves us, we will be drawn into a more intimate communion with Him—thus fulfilling God’s primary purpose for our lives. And what this does is it propels us into fulfilling the Great Commandment which is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. How does this work, you ask? Well, once we realize who He really is and that truth abides in our hearts, it will make us want to love Him all the more in return. On top of that, knowing His love will not only produce more of a love for Him, but it will also produce more of a love for others—thus fulfilling the second great commandment, which is to love our neighbor as ourselves. You see, we cannot give away what we have not first received, and this applies to love as well. If you have not first received love, then you will have no love to give—not to God nor to God’s children. So, we must be filled with His love in order to pour that love out on others. This is what First John 4:19 was saying when it said, “We love because He first loved us”: This means that we are enabled to love when we are loved first. In other words, we can love (God and our neighbor) more effectively because (or, when we know) He first loved us.” Jesus made a similar point in John 13:34 when He said that He was instituting a new commandment—that we love one another as He has loved us: Again, we see our ability to love one another tied to how He first has loved us. Jesus was telling His disciples that they were to use His example of how He loved them in how they were to love one another. But, again, what if they never had experienced that love? Then they would have only been able to emulate what they had experienced and therefore, would have only loved to the extent that they had received it. And so many do this today: Many followers of Christ had unloving parents. Some were even abused by those who were supposed to love & provide for them. Others were simply never told by their parents that they loved them. And there are many other negative experiences that we could mention here, but the point is that we usually carry into our relationship with God our own experiences. This is when we must first experience how Jesus first loved us. But like I alluded to earlier, this is another way that one can have their identity stolen from them: There are many who have had their true identity stripped from them by bad parenting, hurtful peers, and other outside influences who maybe spoke horrible things over them. And even though other people cannot steal our identity without our consent (for we must agree with and believe what they are saying in order for it to affect us), the fact is, most do let the opinion of others form who they are, particularly when it happens at a young age. Therefore, these bad things that happened to us early in life can have damaging effects on our identity—and as a result, affect how we relate to others. So, if this is us, what do we do about it? How do we change this negative identity that we might have? Well, I am going to get ahead of myself a bit, but we do this by receiving His love by faith—simply believing that He loves us unconditionally based on the fact that the Bible tells us so. When we choose to adopt the attitude that, “God, I choose to believe that you love me. My parents might not have told me or showed me love. But I choose to believe that what you feel towards me is real and it is true whether I feel it or can relate to it or not.” When you and I make that heart adjustment to choose to believe it—you have taken the first step to experiencing His love in your life. It is when we approach the love of God in unbelief that we are further away from experiencing His love than ever. For instance, if we have the mentality that— “Yeah, well I know that the Bible says that God loves me, but I just can’t relate to that. My momma this. My daddy that.” And on and on they go. That Christian is not creating an environment conducive to experiencing His love. No, first you must believe it by faith and then the feelings will follow. It works this way in everything pertaining to God’s kingdom, and this includes God’s love. And the times that we sin and are being tempted to doubt God still loves us is when we have to receive His love by faith all the more. I will tell you, I have personally had to fight for this truth in my own life many times: You see, there have been many times when I had missed it in some area or simply was not doing the good things I knew I needed to be doing, and when everything in my flesh and my soul was telling me that God’s love for me had diminished because of my shortcomings, I had to get before Him and take Scriptures that tell me how great His love is towards me and earnestly contend for the faith of His love. And sometimes it seemed like I was lying to myself because of the way I felt, but just as we must confess the truth of God’s Word concerning healing when we don’t feel well and just as we must stand on the Scriptures that say we are blessed when the opposite seems to be the case, we must also believe His love by faith. Amen? So, it is for that reason that I believe understanding God’s love for us is so important because it empowers us to love God and to love others! Again, this is what the Bible is all about! EXPERIENCING GOD’S LOVE But, Houston, we have another problem: While there are those who have a hard time receiving God’s love for them, there are also those who think they already know that He loves them, but don’t. Yes, the other problem that comes with this particular truth is that many believers think they already got it. You can tell this group of Christians that God loves them and the response you will get is— “Yeah, I already know that.” And my response to this is—Do you now? Then how come you are not smiling? How come you have no joy? Why is it that you are not enjoying life? Friends, if we knew in our hearts that God loves us like we have the opportunity to, we would be consistently full of joy, peace, and faith. Period. End of discussion. But someone indicating that they don’t need to hear of God’s love for them anymore is like someone saying they already know what they look like so they don’t need a mirror. Well, you might have something stored in your memory bank that tells you what you look like, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to be reminded by looking in a mirror, does it? Imagine what our hair would look like if we combed it based on our memory of what it looks like. Or how about you ladies with your makeup? What if you put it on without a mirror in front of you? That would be a little scary, wouldn’t it? Likewise, we need to regularly see and hear the truths from God’s Word like He loves us just like we need the mirror even though we might have seen ourselves before. The reason for this is because we don’t just need these truths in our heads; we need them hidden in our hearts. And the truth is that none of us—this includes me and every other person listening to me today—understand and experience even a fraction of His love. It doesn’t matter if you have the greatest revelation of His love on the planet. There will always be more to be had because God, who is love, is just that big! This is why the apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter 3 that we would know the love of Christ which passes knowledge (See Ephesians 3:14-21). [Refer to Minton’s teaching from Wednesday evening] What He was saying here was that the love of Christ surpasses gnosis (i.e. knowledge)—that is, a complete understanding or a total knowing. In other words, you and I will never come to completely know or understand God’s love. It will take all of eternity plus some to come to be able to totally understand the love of God. But according to Paul here, we can still “know” it. What does that mean? How can we know something that passes knowledge? Well, the key is in understanding what this word “know” means. It is not the word for “knowledge” which we just defined; it is the word ginosko which describes an experiential knowledge. So, herein lies the difference between those who say they know God loves them and those who “ginosko” God loves them. One has just acquired knowledge in their head of the fact that God loves them while the other has actually experienced His love in their heart. This is a big difference. But the truth is that most born again, Spirit-filled believers do not truly know God loves them much at all. How can I say that? Again, look at their fruit! There is a lack of the fruit of the Spirit, which is essentially the fruit of love—love, joy, peace, faith, etc. What these Christians mean when they say that they know God loves them is that they have just mentally accented to this truth. In other words, they have the head knowledge of Scriptures that say that God loves us such as John 3:16, but the truths of those Scriptures have not truly impacted their hearts! Again, this is what I am talking about—knowing something in your heart! This is when it impacts you—when it is known and believed. Which leads me to my next point: In First John 4:16, the disciple whom Jesus loved says that we, all born again believers, have the opportunity to know and believe the love God has for them. Now notice how the apostle John says that we are to first know the love God has for us. And again, this is not just knowing something in our heads either. This word for “known” describes what we have just been discussing—knowing something experientially and intimately. We need to know God’s love for us from this level. But notice that the disciple whom Jesus loved did not stop there: He also said that we are to “believe” the love God has for us. Next to the “knowing” of God’s love, this is a huge issue with the majority of Christians. You see, most people do not truly believe that God loves them. Again, they might say they believe that He loves them, but look at their fruit. There is a big difference between believing that He loves us in our head and believing He loves us in our heart. Faith of the heart produces a change in our life. This is the place we all need to desire to get to concerning the love of God—knowing and believing the love God has for us. But again, this is just human nature to think we “know” something just because we have gathered the knowledge of that truth in our mental faculties. In fact, you will hear people moan and groan when you tell them to turn to a particular Scripture that they have heard many messages about. Why? It is because they think they understand all there is to know in that verse and because they want to hear something new and exciting. But if we ever get to the point where we are not excited or at least anticipating something that we maybe have heard before, then that is proof positive that in that moment we do not really “know” that Scripture the way the Bible speaks of knowing something. THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD’S LOVE But now let’s back up in First John chapter 4 to another couple of verses that he uses to describe God’s love to us: In First John 4:9-10, we are told— “In this the love of God was manifested towards us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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.” First of all, notice that John spoke of the manifestation of God’s love for us. Now this word “manifested or manifestation” is a popular word in our Charismatic circles because it’s a word we’ve tied together with faith to say things like— “I believe God has done it. I’m just waiting on the manifestation.” I’m not a huge fan of using this terminology because to me it still puts the focus on waiting to see it before it becomes real to us. Here John said that the love of God was manifested towards us, not will be. And the manifestation of His love was in the sending of His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him (Compare John 3:16). So, just as we believe by faith that we are healed, delivered, blessed, etc. without any physical evidence of it in our lives, but simply because God said it, likewise we must believe that God loves us because He already manifested it to us in the giving of His Son. It reminds of a comical story of one particular husband and wife, when the wife comes to her husband as he sits in the recliner reading the newspaper, and says to him, “Honey, you don’t ever tell me you love me. Why don’t you tell me you love me anymore?” And the husband slowly lowers the paper and makes eye contact with her saying, “Baby, I told you I loved on our wedding day and if anything changes, I’ll let you know.” Haha! Now I am not saying that the husband possessed the correct mentality there, but I am saying that the other end of that isn’t correct either. The person who always needs to be made to feel they are loved and falls apart like a two-dollar suitcase when they are not stroked on every turn, that’s wrong too. My point is there is a healthy balance between the two—and when it comes to God, we need not trust our fickle feelings that want to always feel, hear or see His love. We need to believe the love He has for us based on its manifestation 2,000 years ago. So, what I believe the apostle John meant is that if we want to see love, we should look no further than the way God loved us by sending Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins. That is the most perfect expression of love we will ever see! It is the manifestation of love. In other words, the giving of Jesus is the most perfect expression of love we could ever see and this is how God has purposed to manifest His love for us. Yes, it was in the giving of Jesus—from the manger to the Cross—that God has manifested His love towards us. But so many Christians want other manifestations of His love for them—like financial, emotional, or physical provision. But this is not the primary way that God has chosen to manifest His love. Sure, He has promised to provide for us and heal our bodies, etc. But these are not to be the manifestation of His love—the Cross is! We should never forget that. You see, the devil will always tempt us to doubt His love for us when circumstances are not favorable. And too many believers take the bait of Satan by basing God’s love for them on the situations and circumstances that occur in their lives. For instance, if a tragedy or disaster occurs in certain Christian’s lives, they begin to question whether God really loves them or not. The apostle Paul dealt with this issue in Romans 8:35 when he asked the question— “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Why did he make reference to Christ’s love in the midst of all of these hardships? It is because life’s difficulties oftentimes tempt one to question whether God really loves them! In other words, these hardships are what make us feel like we are separated from His love. How many times have we heard when someone has suffered a tragedy or something that they needed did not come to pass in their life, that they do not feel God loves them? I see this as one of the devices Satan uses in our hardships: he brings into question God’s love. This should not be so. The reason why he has been so effective with this is because there is a misconception about God in general: Yes, the main reason for this doubt of God’s love is because many Christians believe wrong. They believe God is in control of everything that happens on the earth and this is simply untrue. They say things like— “If God really loved me, He would have stopped this from happening.” But what they need to understand is that God has bound Himself to His Word. Therefore, He cannot just stop things from happening. He can only intervene if He has a man or woman who invites Him to intervene through their faith and prayers—whether that be the person who needs the intervention or an outside intercessor. But the truth is that God has already done His part to show us how much He loves us—and He did that through the Cross. He provided everything for us that pertain to life and godliness through Jesus and now the ball is in our court. The Father sent Jesus to the earth as a man so that He could regain what we lost in the Fall. Then Jesus, in all of His perfection and righteousness, gave all of it up on the Cross so that we could be perfectly redeemed. Then, after He was raised from the dead on the third day, He delegated that authority that He has rightfully regained to us. So now we have the keys to the kingdom! We have the authority! And God is not sitting up in heaven deciding to intervene whenever He so desires. He has, in all of His sovereignty, limited Himself to His plan for the earth. But it is because so many fail to understand this very important truth that Christians blame God for the problems in their life and, therefore, question His love for them. But, no, God is not failing to manifest His love for us during the hardships of life; He has already manifested His love for us through the giving of His only begotten Son. Never forget: the Cross was God’s perfect expression of love! Church, God does not need to do anything more to prove to us that He loves us than the Cross of Christ! If this was all that He ever did for us, we should still be fully persuaded that He loves us because the giving of His only begotten Son is the greatest expression of love. HOW MUCH MORE? But the awesome truth is that this is not all that He did or does to prove to us He loves us. The truth is that if He loved us enough to give us Jesus; He loves us enough to freely give us all things! Let’s back up in Romans chapter 8 and see in the mirror another expression of His love: In Romans 8:31, the apostle Paul asks the question: “What shall we say to these things?” Like we saw Jesus asking last Sunday, what things? All the truths that He just declared of how God has freely justified us, how He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us in our infirmities, and how God is working all things together for our good and to bring His plan and purpose to pass in our lives. What was He asking here? It was that in light of all that God has done for us and freely given us to accomplish our expected end, what shall we say to all of this? And the answer is simple: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” In other words, if God has done all of this—proving He is on our side, helping us fulfill everything He has predestined for us to be, then who (or what) can be against us!?! And the answer to this is even easier: Nothing! Nothing and no one can oppose our justification, sanctification, and subsequent glorification! Nothing! Then Paul takes it a step further in verse 32 when he said, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” You see, we can be convinced that God is for us because He did not spare His own Son for us. In other words, because God sent His Son, Jesus, to the Cross for us, we can be completely convinced that the love that inspired Him to do this for us, will freely give us anything else we need. It would be like you desperately needing a blood transfusion, and the only person’s blood that would save you was my son, Levi’s. Well, if I were to sacrifice his life, shedding his blood, so that you could live through his blood, then do you really think I would not give you something else much less valuable if you needed it? Of course, I would! Why? Because if I was willing to give you my best, why would I not give you the less? Therefore, we can be completely convinced that God will heal us, meet our financial needs, and do anything else we need in our lives because, through His love for us, He has given us His very best. This proves God’s love for us. An interested parallel to this is found in Genesis 22:12: You see, in this chapter, we see Abraham obeying God’s command to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice for him. He willingly took Isaac up the mountain with the intention of doing exactly what God had asked him to do. But just before he followed through with it, the Angel of the Lord called out to him, saying, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Now one would think that God already knew that Abraham feared Him, right? He knows all things, doesn’t He? Well, of course He does. But this teaches us that God does pay attention to our works and us doing something with what we believe. Likewise, Jesus’ work on the Cross should mean something to us as well! You see, by Abraham not withholding His only begotten son proved to God that Abraham feared Him. Well, just as it was said that the Angel of the Lord knew that Abraham feared God because He did not withhold His son, His only son, from Him, likewise we should know that God loves us since He did not withhold His Son, His only begotten Son from us. Again, Jesus’ death on the Cross is the only proof you and I need that God loves us! Amen. So, what I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to understand is that the giving of Jesus is God’s manifestation of love. We need look no further than Jesus to know and believe that He loves us unconditionally. We need to not base God’s love for us on our circumstances. Just as we should not be moved by what we see, hear, or feel—only by what we believe—likewise, we should not let ourselves be moved off of our faith in God’s love by what we see, hear, or feel. We must simply believe He loves us because the Bible tells us so! Just like this simple childlike faith in the rest of God’s promises is what brings their manifestation to pass in our life, faith in His love is what yields a greater manifestation of that love in our lives. Amen? YOU BE LOVED! So, we must choose to believe what is written about God’s love for us. Again, His Word is like a love letter from our Creator to us. In fact, have you ever noticed how those inspired to write various Books of the Bible addressed their readers as “Beloved”? Well, don’t just read those verses as the man who penned those letters referring to his recipients. We know that all Scriptures are inspired by God and these men were moved by the Holy Spirit to utter those words. Therefore, we ought to read all of those titles/references as God talking to us. Therefore, God refers to you and I as His “Beloved.” I like to say it this way: this means that He is addressing those who (pardon the poor English) “be-loved!” In other words, since this verse is God speaking directly to us, by calling us His “beloved”, He is letting us know that we are greatly loved by Him. You see, this simple truth, if understood correctly, should help us to embrace the rest of God’s promises contained in the Bible like our Heavenly Father desires us to prosper in every area of our lives and live in perfect health. Why? Because how many of you parents out there who truly love your children want anything less than the best for them? No, you want them to prosper in every area of their life and you certainly don’t want them sick and suffering! Any parent that wills for their children to be sick and to suffer should be locked up with the key thrown away! Why? Because if any natural parent did the things to their children that God has been accused of doing to His, that parent would be incriminated in just about every culture or nation on the earth today. So how can we believe God is any different—especially when His love for us far outweighs any love that we have for our children? No, you “be-loved” and because God loves you so much, He will freely give you anything else you need in life—spirit, soul, and body! Thank you, Father! Again, church, I have begun with this one truth because this is where everything else we will be looking at in the coming weeks was derived from—We are saved because God so loved the world. We are redeemed because He loved us enough to pay the price to redeem us. We are blessed because of His love. We are chosen, elected, and adopted because He loved us and wanted us. All of these truths stem from the fact God loves us unconditionally and extravagantly. Look in the mirror and receive God’s love for you today! In fact, the next time you look in the mirror, point at yourself and boldly say, “You be loved by God!” Your flesh might cringe when you do it, but just know that because you see it in the mirror of God’s Word, you can declare it in the mirror of this world. You be loved and there is nothing you can do about it—save receive it in your heart and confess it with your mouth. Amen! |
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