Session 5
Notes
Transcript
But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Have mercy on those who waver; save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
BUT YOU, Dear friends - I remember that this letter is a correction, a warning, encouragement, and guidance, given to the followers of Christ.
As you build yourselves up in your faith, reminds us that we are on a faith journey, we have not yet reached the destination.
We should be praying in the Holy Spirit, by the power of the spirit. In the knowledge of who Christ is and what God has done for us; by the power of the spirit we are able to boldly approach the Father.
keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
Keep yourselves in the love of God - that sounds a lot like “remain in the love of God”, which sounds like “hold fast to the truth that was given once and for all”.
Waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord for eternal life.
Waiting expectantly - i think about supper time. I can smell the sweet aroma of desert coming soon, and I know that I need to keep my fork because the best is yet to come! I am waiting, with a mindset - expectantly.
It would make no sense to be waiting expectantly for something that I have no idea is coming. That would make no sense. It would not be rational.
But we KNOW something is coming, that is even sweeter than our wildest dreams. It is promise, it is a guarantee, and it has been paid for in the blood of Jesus, and sealed with the Holy Spirit, a deposit of the things to come.
In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
We only have the down payment, but we are expecting the fullness to come through any day now! AMEN.
So we wait expectantly, with the sweet aroma of the sweet by and by tingling our noses as we wait for the Saviour to return and eternal life to come to be.
This eternal life that we get through MERCY.
Mercy - the gift of God’s undeserved kindness and compassion. This will be a theme that will pop up all over the body. We don’t deserve it, hence the words “undeserved kindness and compassion.
Have mercy on those who waver;
Mercy - the gift of God’s undeserved kindness and compassion.
Show leniency and compassion towards those who are of us, who are on the struggle bus.
We are reminded again that this Christian life is not a solo sport. We are on Team Jesus and part of the Body of Christ. So we will occasionally (more often than not) be around other parts of the body that somehow fall short.
We are not speaking of the Apostates that we were talking about previously, but about genuine followers of Christ who have simply lost their way.
Remember this is a journey, and sometimes the journey is hard. We must show mercy to those who waver.
Waver VS Waiver
Waver - (verb) hesitation to do something
Waiver - (noun) it means pretending that something does not exist.
Have mercy on those who Waver - those who doubt, those who pause or hold back in uncertainty
have you ever been in a situation where you were not certain? If you have not, there will come a day when you are.
Eventually there will come a time in your faith journey where you are hit with a hard decision, a hard realization, and it is very possible that it could make you PAUSE.
People are in this state and you may never know it, or you may know it.
Do not be a hammer and try to nail down people, but a reflection of Christ Jesus and show mercy. Walk with them. Be His voice and reassure them.
and in doing so:
save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
Save others - rescue others, free them from harm or evil, pull them from the imprisonment, from the bondage of sin.
We must snatch people from the fire - the fire represents punishment, hell, the cause to be ashamed.
It says we are to snatch them - to grab hastily, not missing an opportunity,
we are to live our life in the ready - the low ready, military term
have merch on others - another reminder that are to show mercy, because we have been shown mercy.
but with fear - phobos - an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger -
Also, we must fear the Lord - have a reverence for the power of the Lord, for the holiness of the Lord, for the justness of the Lord,
hating even the garment defiled by the flesh - dont bring anything from the old life! get rid of the junk.
Here is a sad statistic, according to the NAMB, 95% of Southern Baptist have never verbally shared the Gospel with a lost person.
Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,
to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.