Conquering Unbelief: Embracing Love, Holiness, and Victory

as you can see from the title battling and belief session 1 we're beginning a multiple session probably 12 multiple session series on this theme of battling and belief that's the name of a book that I wrote and you can get it and study these labs along with the chapters in the book if you want to but that's not necessary for their usefulness they'll be self standing and what I have in mind when I say battling unbelief is the unbelief that causes us to fail to love failed to be holy and failed to kill sin or to say it positively the belief or the the faith not battling belief in faith but battling everything that opposes belief in faith because belief in faith I'm gonna argue yield love yield holiness yield sin killing so that's the specific angle that we're going to approach belief from we want love holiness and sin killing or as I put it here our aims are to grow in love the greater joy to pursue holiness through a better treasure to kill sin with a superior pleasure and and this joy and this treasure and this pleasure our Jesus Christ knowing him having him as our Savior and Lord and treasure or we could say all that God is for us in Christ whenever I say Christ as my joy and Christ as my treasure and Christ as my pleasure I mean all that God is for us in Christ who is himself very god of very God there are pleasures and treasure and joys in Christ that are greater and better and superior in anything the world has to offer and that I'm arguing is the key to growing in love growing in holiness pursuing holiness and killing sin that's what this session I mean this series is all about [00:04:40]

why are we focusing on love then I'll say the same thing about holiness and sin killing you shall love the Lord your God this is Matthew 22:37 and 40 the great commandment you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind this is the the great and first commandment and the second is like it it's like great like first you shall love your neighbor that's what I'm specially interested in I want to do that better the neighbors in my house the neighbors in my neighborhood the neighbors in the city and the church in the nation around the world I want to love my neighbor as myself on these two Commandments depend all the law in the prophets the whole Bible is summed up in its expectation of our lives with these two Commandments so that's the first reason why love is so central in my thinking in this pursuit [00:29:59]

Romans 13:8 oh no one anything except this one thing to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law just like Jesus says so the only thing you need to be beholden to offer you know anyone the only thing you're always in debt to pay is love first Corinthians 13:13 so now faith hope and love abide these three these big but the greatest of these is love probably because faith and hope are the invisible affections of the heart which now in love become more god-glorifying ly visible so that hope is the greatest as the as the capstone of what these two produce therefore Paul says in first Corinthians 16:14 let all that you do all that you do everything you do be done in love so sweeping sweeping statements about love as central and crucial in the Christian life [00:37:15]

we know that we have passed out of death into life John says because we love the brothers whoever does not love abides in death in other words love loving people is a sign of our new nature we have a new spiritual DNA from God and God is love and therefore when we love we are acting out of our new nature and we are giving evidence we know that we have passed out of spiritual eternal death to eternal life because we love love is the sign or confirmation of our new birth through faith and if we do not love we have remained in death we're not born again we don't have the sign or confirmation so for the glory of God and for the good of our own Souls love is paramount [00:41:31]

as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for I am holy in all your conduct be holy just like Paul said in all your behavior let it be done in love holiness is one of the highest probably the highest things you can say about God he says I am holy I am high I am lifted up I am set apart from all that is common or unclean or sinful or impure I have a transcendent holiness and I'm calling you to share in my holiness how important is that well it's all bound up with love [00:47:11]

may the Lord make you increase and abound in love why so that what will happen love for one another and for all as we do for you love so that so here's what happens when you increase and abound in love so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness isn't that amazing so if you wonder what's the essence or heart of holiness in the Christian life wouldn't this text say right at the heart of holiness is love because when love is increasing and abounding it is establishing us in holiness so holy is not this impractical thing that you can't quite get your hand on it's it is at its heart loving like God loves so it shows God just like love shows God and just like love is the confirmation of our newness and our eternal life [00:54:06]

strive for peace Hebrews 12:14 strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord we will not be saved in the end without holiness no holiness no heaven it's that important just like love if you don't love you remain in death so holiness and love are both essential for signifying that we have eternal life [00:58:58]

if you live according to the flesh you will die eternally but if by the spirit you back to that later in another session if by the spirit you put to death that's what I mean by killing put to death the deeds of the body that's sin if you put if you kill sin you will live so if you love you show that you have been brought out of death into life if you're holy you will see the Lord if you kill sin you will live you see what's at stake eternal life is at stake and the glory of God is at stake in whether we love whether we're holy and whether we kill sin [01:01:31]

if our eternal salvation depends on love and holiness and sin killing our eternal salvation how do these relate to salvation by grace through faith it sounds to some people that when I stress or when the Bible stresses that love is essential to showing that we're born again and holiness is essential to seeing the Lord and sin killing is essential to living in first John 3:14 and Hebrews 12:14 and Romans 8:13 those are biblical words not mine love holiness and sin killing are essential for salvation what what does that mean for salvation salvation by grace through faith [01:04:52]

all-important glorious powerful reality called not unbelief which were battling against but faith which in fact will produce all these things [01:11:48]