The Undeniable Association

Happy Mother's Day everyone. Amen, let's open up in prayer.

Father God, thank you for this day, this Sabbath day.

Thank you for this special day that we're recognizing the mothers.

It's tomorrow. Just bless them, strengthen them, encourage them. Where

would we be without our mothers? Thank you for them,

and just bless all of our families because of them,

in Jesus' name. And may you bless this message in

Jesus' name. Amen. What happens to your faith when you're tested?

What happens to your faith when the Lord allows your

faith to be severely tested? The title of today's sermon

is The Undeniable Association. Now. It's the story of Peter

and his self confidence that he will never deny his

association with Christ. But Jesus tells Peter that he will

deny him three times before the rooster crows. And even

though Peter asserts his undeniable association with Jesus, his self

trust proves to be his ruin. When the time comes.

Peter denies the Lord with escalating intensity, Yet the bystanders

recognize the signs of a man who has been with Jesus.

Peter failed because he trusted in his own strength. And

the lesson is this, we are not to trust in

our own self sufficiency. We're to realize our weakness and

look to a higher power. And that's what I want

to talk to you about tonight today. For each of

us to have an undeniable association with Christ, our strength

must come from a power, from the power of Christ,

what he did for us, what He's doing for us,

not from any inner zeal or self confidence that we

may have. Now, in the next thirty minutes, I want

to reveal to you three unmistakable assurances through which God

makes your association with Christ unshakable and undeniable. These assurances

are rooted in God's mercy, his covenant promise, and his

living presence. Now, my goal is simply this, to strengthen

your faith that when you're tested, when you may be

severely tested, you will undeniably associate with Christ without fear

or reservation. Now, how are we going to do this?

We need to establish some background, because Peter's denial starts

before he denied Christ. Turn with me into your Bibles

Luke twenty two, verse thirty one. The twenty second chapter

of Luke, beginning in verse thirty one. This is where

Peter's denial originally arts. And notice this, We're going to

notice a cosmic conversation has already happened behind the scenes.

It's only norrable in this spiritual realm Luke twenty two

thirty one Simon Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to

sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you

that your faith may not fail, and that when once

you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. Now, if we

stop right there, Peter should pause before he speaks. He

should be saying something like this. You mean to tell

me there's an unseen, ongoing spiritual warfare that I can't see,

and that Satan has limits, and that he has to

go through you for authorization, and that you've already prayed

for me that my faith may fail not and then

after I'm to strengthen my brothers the other disciples. But

how does Peter respond Verse thirty four. But he said

to him, Lord, with you, I am ready to go

to both prison and to death. And he said, I

say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today

until you have denied three times that you know me. Now,

rather than reflect on Jesus's words, he misses the point

Peter doesn't even know he's in trouble and that Jesus

has already moved for his defense. Now let's review this conversation,

but in Matthew Matthew twenty six, beginning in verse thirty one,

Then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away

because of me this night, for it is written, I

will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the

flock shall be scattered. But after I've been raised, I

will go ahead of you to Galilee. But Peter said

to him, even though all may fall away because of you,

I will never fall away. Jesus said to him, truly,

I say to you that this very night, before or

the rooster crows, you will deny me. Three times Peter

said to him, even if I have to die with you,

I will not deny you. And all the disciples said

the same thing. Two Now, in the plainest language, Jesus

is telling the disciples that they will all fall away

because of him. But then he speaks of his resurrection

as an encouragement for them, because they would soon be

going through a bitter disappointment when they see him crucified. Now,

notice Peter, he's one of the most vocal spokesmen of

the disciples. He said the others might fall away, I'll

never fall away. And when Jesus foretells of Peter's triple denial,

Peter doesn't listen his last words. And even if I

have to die with you, I will not deny you.

I want to introduce assurance numbers. It has to do

with self awareness. It speaks of intellectual humility. It's an

early warning protection. Now, this first assurance is foundational to

ensure our association with Christ is unshakable and undeniable. Assurance

number one. God upholds you when you distrust yourself. God

upholds you when you distrust yourself. He takes hold of

you into his arms. When you're honest about your weakness,

when you recognize your own limits, when you let your

go of your self reliance. It's okay to have weaknesses,

because the moment you admit you can't, God pulls you closer.

We don't know ourselves as well as God does. All right,

Peter was one hundred percent sincere when he said he

would die for Christ. That's a noble statement, but it

was founded on his own strength. He didn't realize that

he had defects of character that could only be revealed

under pressure. And despite Christ's warning, Peter feels that he

must speak. He must speak of his strength and loyalty

to Christ. Peter didn't realize that his bold and confident

assertion was refusing caution and reproof from the one who

could help him. You know, silence is sometimes better than speaking.

I mean, rather than argue with Jesus and defend your

reputation and your loyalty to him, Peter could have stayed

quiet and listened all right. Peter had a front row

seat with Christ for three and a half years. He learned.

He heard the words of Christ continually. He saw his

life giving words. They were uplifting, were encouraging, they were joyous,

they were insightful. And he never heard a man speak

like Jesus speaks. He witnessed Jesus' miracles. Demons are cast out,

the lame to walk, the blind, to see, the deaf

to hear. Yet at this moment, Peter can't hear, he

can't see, and he's ignorant of his own weakness, and

he uses his own voice to drown out the only

voice that can save him. You see, our weaknesses are

only dangerous when we're unaware of them. You don't shipwreck

your faith because you're weak. You shipwreck your faith when

you are blind and unaware to your weaknesses. And Peter

wasn't in danger when because he was weak. Jesus already

knew he was. He had defects of character. But Peter

was in danger because he was arrogant enough to think

he was strong. You know, do you have weaknesses? Do

you have defects of character? I know I do. We

all do. We don't like them, do we? You know

I've struggled with We all struggle with sin, we all

struggle with deficts of character. I struggle with perfectionism. It's

a plague. Everything I attempt to do should be structured

and ordered and flawless, both my inner and outer life.

And I would keep so much condemnation about myself when

I'd make a mistake and I'd mess up, and I

didn't want to accept my weakness. You know, I remember

my father who very gently and wisely pointed this out

to me when I was a young man. I could

have been twenty years old, and he waited till I

was of age that he I could really hear it,

and you know how I reacted. I didn't like it.

I got mad at him. I said, how can you

say that? I'm not like that. I said some unkind words.

I just refused to accept what he was saying to me.

But I needed to hear it, and that's helped me

over the years. You know, knowing a defect of character

is much better than not knowing it. Now, my children

actually helped me out with this. Yeah, they bring balance

to my perfectionism. They actually helped me every day. I mean,

before my children, my house was ordered, clean and simple.

Today my children proved to me the second law of thermodynamics.

Every hour, all right, order to disorder. Come on over

and see us sometime. But you know, I've learned to

accept my weakness and my challenges and defects of character,

manage my emotions and accept the realities of that, and

I look to Christ to balance me out. You know,

Peter should have been examining himself. He should have been

distrustful of himself. He should have invited further scrutiny into

his character and listened to the one who knew him

better than anyone else. You know self confidence can be

a trap. He was so enthusiastic to demonstrate his self

trust that he could not deny his Lord. And you know,

the world actually teaches the opposite of this, It says

to trust yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson told the world that

self trust is the first secret of success. Now, Emerson

was a man who grew up in church. He went

to Divinity School, He even stood in a pulpit as

a minister. But he eventually walked away from it all

because he decided that the voice of God in the

Bible wasn't as important as the voice in self of

self in his own heart. To Emerson's self trust isn't

just a good idea, it's the absolute requirement for winning

at life. And he believed if you trust in yourself enough,

you will be unstoppable. Now, from Ralph Waldo Emerson in

the eighteen hundreds to Oprah Winfrey, to Wane Dyer to

Tony Robbins, the postmodern world has always been selling us

the same idea. Trust yourself. You have everything you need

inside yourself. You are self sufficient and the architect of

your destiny. Now I can tell you this that philosophy

is the surest path to ruin and defeat if we

are to be true disciples of Christ. All right, when

Peter said that he would not deny Christ, notice this,

Jesus did not try harder to convince him. He knew

that the heart is more deceitful than all else Jeremiah

seventeen nine. The heart is more deceitful than all else,

and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? Isaiah, in

Isaiah's six verse five says, woe is me, for I

am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips,

and I live among a people of unclean lips. For

my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now,

Isaiah saw the Lord of host sitting on a throne,

and his roe filled the temple. And by beholding he

understood his true state, his true condition. See beholding as seeing.

You know, my favorite theologian pen this about beholding in

Christ Objects g Lessons, page one fifty nine. In one

way only can a true knowledge of self be obtained.

We must behold Christ. It is ignorance of Him that

makes men so uplifted in their own righteousness when we

contemplate His purity and excellence we shall see our own

weakness and poverty and defects as they really are. We

shall see ourselves lost and hopeless, clad in garments of

self righteousness like every other sinner. We shall see that

if we are ever saved, it will not be through

our own goodness, but through God's infinite grace. Now, Peter

should have remembered some words that he previously spoke when

he was with Jesus for those three and a half years.

He could have recalled them, and we would do well

to remember them, because Peter was in a real fix

in this situation. It was dangerous and life threatening. He's

on the boat with the disciples, the winds battering the boat,

and they see Jesus coming walking on the water. And

this is when Peter says to ge, if it's you,

call me out. And Jesus has come. And what does

Peter do. He gets out of the boat, he starts

walking toward Jesus, but then he sees the wind. He

becomes frightened and he begins to sink, and Peter creed

out these three words, Lord, save me. And what did

Jesus do? Immediately he stretched out his arm and took

hold of Peter. You know, Jesus could have done the

same for Peter on this night. If he had only asked,

Peter could have honored Jesus. He could have said to Jesus,

you know, I don't know how I could possibly deny you.

I love you, I'm loyal to you, but I really

don't know myself. Save me from denying you, and Jesus

would have saved him. Jesus would have strengthened him to

be ever vigilant over the assaults of the enemy. The

story would have ended entirely different had Peter put aside

his own self reliance and distrusted himself. See, you see,

to have an unshakable and undeniable association with Christ, we

need to distrust ourselves. God takes hold of you in

his arms. When you're honest about your weakness, you recognize

your own limits, and you let go of self reliance.

Now let's move on to assurance number two. Let's go

to Matthew twenty six, verse thirty one and thirty two.

Then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away

because of me this night, For it is written I

will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the

flock shall be scattered. But after I have been raised,

I will go ahead of you to Galilee. Now pay

a close attention to verse thirty two. But after I

have been raised. Now, right before this is he's saying this,

right before his mock trial, his betrayal, his mock trial,

and his crucifixion. The following day. He says, after I

have been raised, he speaks with confident assurance of his resurrection,

and he tells them that where he is going after

the resurrection to Galilee. See Jesus is telling them, after

I'm raised, I'm going back to where it all started. Right,

Galilee is where Jesus first met Peter James, John Andrew.

I'll make you fishers of men. He's going back to

the beginning. This is where Jesus started preaching. For the

Gospel of God is at hand. Repent and believe in

the Gospel. After I have been raised the assurance of

his resurrection. And Jesus would do this multiple times throughout

the Gospel. He's telling the disciples he's going to die,

He's going to raise up on the third day. They

can't hear it, they can't comprehend that. See he's trying.

He'd been trying all along to dissuade them of this idea,

of this notion of a conquering, mighty Messiah who would

overthrow the Romans. They couldn't make the connection with the

suffering servant. Would the disciples and Peter have listened to

those words after I have been raised? What an encouragement

that would have been during their bitter disappointment. Now we

know they couldn't make the connection, but Jesus was trying

to anchor them and reassure them that He would indeed

be resurrected. And this leads us to Assurance number two.

Because this assurance is legally binding, you contribute nothing to it.

When received in your heart, it is an indestructible guarantee,

all right. It cements you with an unshakable, an undeniable

association with Christ. And this is it Assurance number two.

God guarantees your association through the works of a crucified

and risen Savior. He secures you, He anchors your association

through the complete and finishing works of a crucified and

risen savior. You see, a crucified and risen Savior is

the Gospel one Corinthians fifteen one through four. Now I

make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached

to you, which you have received, in which you stand

if you hold fast the word which I preached to you,

unless you believed in vain, For I delivered to you

of first importance what I also received here. It is

the gospel that Christ died for our sins according to

the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he

was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. See,

the gospel is the death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ.

That's the gospel. Time you see the word gospel in

the Bible, which means good news, anytime you see the gospel,

you could substitute death, burial, resurrection. They're one and the same.

The good news is the death, burial, resurrection of Christ.

Now why is it good news? The Bible speaks of it.

The Bible speaks that the gospel is the power of

God for salvation to everyone who believes Romans one sixteen.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel. This is

Paul speaking. I am not ashamed of the death, burial,

resurrection of Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed of it, for

it is the power. It is the power of God

for salvation to everyone who believes, to the jew first

and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness

of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it

is written. But the righteous man shall live by faith.

You see, the Gospel is what God accomplishes for you,

and what He is presently doing for you by his power.

It's not based on your merits. We're helpless to save ourselves.

It's based solely on the finished work of a crucified

and risen savior. Now it's true we access this salvation

through faith by believing, but I want to underscore this point.

It's what God does for you. Look at Ephesians two

eight and nine, for by grace you have been saved

through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the

gift of God, not as a result of work, so

that no one may boast, For we are His workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus, for good works for which God

prepared beforehand, so that we would walk in them. You see,

your salvation is a gift from God. It's not a

result of anything you've done or achieved. You can't boast,

We cannot boast, We cannot take any credit for our salvation.

Notice this, you are his workmanship. He's working, He's molding you.

God is the one who recreates you spiritually in Christ Jesus.

We take no credit or part in that. It's his working.

It's his workmanship. Now the outcome is true, the outcome

the result of that, the result of his workmanship is

good works. All right, he works on you. You become obedient,

He works on you, you bear good fruit. He works

on you. You live a holy life. That's the outcome.

But he has to work on you. It's his workmanship.

Two Timothy one nine, who has saved us and called

us with a holy calling, not according to our works,

but according to his own purpose and grace, which was

granted us in Christ Jesus. When from all eternity, you see,

the basis and root of our salvation has nothing to

do with what we can do or offer God. When

did God save us call us grant us this grace?

My Bible says from all eternity, meaning before the world began,

before time began, before angels were created, before the first

star was born, which was well before we ever existed.

It was at that time that God decided to save you.

See Salvation was conceived before time began, and it comes

from God's will and purpose. It comes from God's power.

Salvation is a free gift from God. It comes from

outside of us, and it's provided to everyone who believes

access it by faith. And it's a binding legal covenant

that was realized at the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Because God did it for us, because we've all sinned.

All of us has sinned and were condemned to death.

And the Gospel is the solution Romans three twenty three

for all of sin and fall short of the glory

of God being justified as a gift by his grace

through redemption, which is in Christ Jesus being justified as

a gift. What does it mean to be justified? Being justified?

Romans four to twenty five gives us the answer, He

who was delivered over because of our transgression and was

raised because of our justification. He was delivered over, he

was betrayed, he was given over. He was first betrayed

by Judas, he was delivered over to the chief priests

and the scribes. He's then given over to Pilate and

the gentiles. That's the Romans to crucify him. He was

delivered over because of our transgressions, all the sins of

the world, and he was raised for our justification, meaning

he was raised for our legal acceptance. You are declared

not guilty based upon the resident direction of Christ. Amen,

you're declared not guilty. You are acquitted of your sins

because of what Christ did for you. His resurrection made

all the difference. He was raised. Remember, Jesus said to Peter,

after I am raised, I'll go ahead of you to Galley.

Hold on to that word raised. Put it, just put

it somewhere. Hold on to that. After I have been raised,

I will go with you to Galley. You have been

legally bound to Christ. It's a covenant. It's an indestructible,

everlasting covenant. God guarantees your association with Christ through the

works of a crucified and risen savior. My favorite theologian

says this, nothing can be more helpless and yet more

invincible than the soul that feels its nothingness and relies

wholly upon the merits of a crucified and risen savior.

God would send every angel in heaven to the aid

of the one who places his whole dependence on Christ

rather than allow him to be overcome. She continues. If

we accept Christ as our guide, he will lead us

safely along the narrow way. The road may be rough

and thorny, and the ascent steep and dangerous. There may

be pitfalls on the right hand and on the left.

When weary and longing for rest, we may have to

toil on. When faint, we may have to fight. But

with Christ as our gouid, notice this, we shall not

fail of reaching Heaven. Christ as our guide Christ, she continues,

Christ himself has trodden the rough path before us, smoothing

it for our feet. The weight is illuminated by Him,

who is the light of the world. As we follow

in his footsteps, the path grows brighter and brighter, until

the perfect day. You know, this is why baptism is

so important in our association with Christ. All Right, we

go into the waters of baptism. We're baptized into his death.

And just as Christ was raised, so we two are

raised in newness of life. Our old self was crucified

with him so that we would no longer be slaves

to sin. See, in baptism you make a public confession

of your association with Christ. With Jesus. If you haven't

made that association, I urge you make that association. Go

to the waters of baptism. Now I need to move

on to assurance number three, but I want to make

one final point here. Imagine standing at the very end

of human history. You're before the throne of God, clothed

in white robes. You're with a great multitude of others, multitude, nation,

tongues people. Right, you're all crying out with a loud voice.

Your declaration that you cry out reveals a shocking truth.

It mentions nothing of your achievements, right, but everything in

what God did for you. Notice Revelation seven, verses nine

to ten. After these things, I looked and behold a

great multitude which no one could count, from every nation

and all tribes and people in tongue, stand before the

throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and

palm branches were in their hands, and they cry out

with a loud voice, saying salvation to our God who

sits on the throne, and to the lamb. You see

that salvation to our God, better read salvation belongs to

our God who sits on the throne, and to the lamb.

You see the multitude here have the right theology of salvation.

They recognize that salvation is something that is in God,

of God and through God. It was not acquired by

their works. It was not achieved by their merits. They

simply place their faith in Christ to receive it. How

do we ensure we have an undeniable association with Christ

through the finished works of a crucified and risen Savior.

It's legally binding when we recognize what God has done

for us in us through us, it's the gift, it's

the free gift. It's his power, it's his workmanship for

his purpose. And when we exercise faith in Jesus as

our personal savior, God binds us to himself legally. Let's

review one. Assurance number one, God upholds you when you

distrust yourself. Assurance number two, God guarantees your association with

Him through a crucified and risen Savior. Let's move on

to certainty number three. To discover certainty number three, we

need to examine Peter's denial. Let's take a look at

Matthew twenty six, verse sixty nine. Now Peter was sitting

outside the courtyard and a servant girl came to him

and said, you tour with Jesus the Galilean, but he

denied it before them, saying, I do not know what

you're talking about. When he had gone out to the gateway,

another servant girl saw him and said to those who

were there, this man was with Jesus of Nazareth, and

again he denied it with an oath, I do not

know the man. A little later the bystanders came and

said to Peter, surely you too are one of them,

for even the way you talk gives you away. Then

he began to curse and swear I do not know

the man. And immediately a rooster crowed, and Peter remembered

the word what Jesus had said before a rooster crows,

you will deny me three times, and he went out

and wept bitterly. Do you notice the escalating intensity of

Peter's denial. It first starts off with a simple denial,

I don't know what you're talking about. Next it moves

to a legal lie. He takes an oath, and third

and last it ends in aggressive hostility, cursing and swearing.

This threefold denial is the result of self reliance and

not looking to Jesus as his source and strength. Notice this,

do you see? This is the tragic irony. As Peter

is trying to hide his identity and disassociate with Jesus,

the bystanders are making a growing and direct association that

he has been with Jesus tragic irony. First they associate

him with Jesus the Galilean broad region in Israel. Then

they associate him with Jesus of Nazrus, more specific city

within Galilee. And third they associate him by the way

he talks. For even the way you talk gives you away.

Now it's true that as a Galilean, yeah, Peter may

have had some sort of accent and pronounced his words differently,

and his voice and expressions would have been noticed. But

I want to apply this to us today. When you

spend time with Jesus, you cannot help but speak like him.

Your close association with him cannot be hidden from the world.

As you grow on the knowledge of Christ, as you

read and study his words, the words of God transform

your thinking, and your thinking transforms your words. I want

to give you the third assurance, so that you will

have an undeniable association with Christ. Now imagine a deep association,

one that reaches your innermost being. Your actions, your attitudes,

your thinking, and ultimately your very vocabulary is affected. You

have a spiritual accent that you cannot hide. Assurance Number three.

God transforms your association through his living and abiding presence.

God transforms your association through his living and abiding presence.

See when the Holy Spirit dwells in you, he changes

your whole nature. Right. You start to speak with an

accent of patience in trying situations. You start to have

an accent of love. When you overlook a wrong done

to you. You start to have an accent of peace

during a crisis. God's Holy Spirit is the sign in

your life that you abide in Christ and have an

undeniable association with Him. It's not only for you, but

it's also for others. To be a blessing. Now, Jesus

says this in John fifteen. Abide in Me and I

in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself

unless it abides in the vine, So neither can you.

Unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You

are the branches. He who abides in me and I

in him, he bears much fruit for a part from me,

you can do nothing. You see, a branch cannot live

unless it's connected to the vine. A branch cannot lay

on the ground and produce fruit. It can't live, it

will die. It's impossible for a branch to bear fruit

if it's not connected to a vine or a tree,

because the life is in the vine and the branch

needs to feed off the life of the vine. Christ

is the way, the truth and the life. His life

is eternal and indestructible. Right, his life is an everlasting

so of nourishment. All right, our humanity and sinful nature

connect and link up with the divinity and His holiness. Right,

this is how we're transformed. Our sinful natures are transformed

by His holiness, his righteousness, because we're connected to the branch.

Just as the branch lives while united with divine, so

too the Christian lives while united with Christ, and we

become partakers of the divine nature, bearing forth the fruit

of a holy life. Now, let's talk about Peter's transformation. Right,

he denies Jesus three times and weeps bitterly, and then

later he marvels at his resurrection, and even fifty days

later at the day of pentecosts at around nine am.

He's filled with the Holy He's filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now I'm not going to read all these scriptures to

you in Acts three and four, but I just want

to note the ark of what's going on here. He's

filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost,

and this is what it says in Acts three fourteen.

He raises his voice and speaks of Jesus, whom God

raised in verse twenty four and thirty two. He now

understands why Jesus had to die. He understands the Gospel.

He understands the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. And then

Peter calls his brethren to repent and be baptized in

the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, to

receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then around

three pm later that day, Peter and John meet a

man who's lame for forty years and declare to him

in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene walk and

seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up.

This is that echo what Christ did when Peter was sinking,

Lord save me and immediately Jesus took hold of him.

He continues to talk of Jesus in this passage and Acts.

He talks about the Prince of Life, who God raised

from the dead, and how God raised up Jesus his

servant in verse twenty six of chapter three of Acts.

Now he's put in jail until the next day. Now

this is the Peter who by his own power said

he would go to jail and die with Jesus. But

now he goes to jail because of the power of Jesus,

and he doesn't deny him. Now, after they bring Peter

out of the jail, he again speaks of Jesus, whom

God raised from the dead, and he declares this in

Acts four to twelve. He says, and there is salvation

in no one else, Salvation in no one else. It

only comes from Christ. For there's no other name under

Heaven that has been given among men by which we

must be saved. At this point, Peter is not hiding

his association with Jesus. He now has an undeniable association

with Jesus because of the power of what Christ did

for him and the power of the Holy Spirit living

in him. And here's what I want to focus on

verse thirteen, Acts four. Verse thirteen. Now, as they observed

the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they

were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began

to recognize them as having been with Jesus. Peter is confident.

The word actually means a freedom and readiness of speech.

It's flowing off of his tongue, and this was not expected.

They're not educated men. They begin to realize that they

have been with Jesus. Peter was speaking like Jesus. He

healed like Jesus. He derived his power not from himself,

but from Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Peter is a

changed man. He now has an undeniable association with Christ.

You see, God chooses workers based on his own sovereign will,

rather than any education or collegiate degree or formal training

that they may have. Why because they have a teachable spirit,

they can receive instruction. They realize their dependence upon God,

and they are upheld by the Holy Spirit. My favorite

theologian says this in councils to parents and teachers. When

the laborer stands before the people to hold forth the

words of life, there is heard in his voice the

echo of the voice of Christ. It is evident that

he walks with God, that he has been with Jesus

and learned of him. He has brought the truth into

the inner sanctuary of the soul. It is to him

a living reality, and he presents the truth in demonstration

of the spirit and of power. The people hear a

joyful sound. God speaks to their hearts through the man

consecrated to his service. You know these people who have

a teachable spirit, except the Holy Spirit working in their lives.

They may have defects in their grammar, they may stumble

over their words, but they are earnest and they lift

up Jesus. Let's review. God upholds you when you distrust yourself.

Assurance number one. Assurance number two. God guarantees your association

through the works of a crucified and living savior. And

Assurance number three, God transforms your association through his living

and abiding presence. These three assurances give you an undeniable

association with Christ. Now let me just bring this to

a close. Jesus is coming. He's coming soon, and there's

going to be a test across the globe. It's called

the mark of the Beast. It's not a time to fear.

It's time to be ready. God wants us to proclaim

to the world the soon return of Jesus Christ, and

there's going to be Daniel twelve to one speaks of

a time of distress that has never occurred since there

was a nation until that time. And at that time,

your people, everyone who's found written in the book will

be rescued. Now this test to the mark of the beast.

It'll it's global, it'll compass. Everyone's a war on a

group of people who keep the commandments of God and

hold to the testimony of Jesus. All right, we need

to hold on to Jesus. We need to distrust ourselves.

We need to anchor ourselves. God anchors us in the Gospel,

in what He's done for us through a crucified and

risen savior, and his abiding Holy Spirit presence enables us

to live that holy life. That's what the world needs.

We're not going to win people over because of some

argument or maybe the historical references that we can make,

or our theology and our doctrine, of all the details

that we could We're going to win people over because

we've been with Jesus. That's what's going to make the difference.

We need the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can't

do it on our own self reliance, our own works.

That's the message that I'm trying to get to you

today is that when we can have an undeniable association

with Christ, when we fully surrender. I leave you with

these final words from my favorite theologian. It is Christ

dwelling in the soul that gives us spiritual power and

makes us channels of light. The more light we have,

the more we can impart to others around us. The

more closely we live to Jesus, the clearer views shall

we have of his loveliness. As we behold him in

his purity, we discern more clearly our own faults of character.

We yearn after him and for that fullness that is

in him and that shines out in the perfection of

his heavenly character. And by beholding we become changed into

his image. Amen. Before I pray, I just want to ask,

is there anyone out there who needs to be baptized,

who wants to make their association with Jesus? If anyone

you can see me afterwards, if you're thinking about it

and want to be baptized. How many out you out

there want to surrender your life's life to Jesus. Fully

surrender a man living by the power of the Holy

Spirit in you, anchoring yourself to Christ. Let's pray that,

Father God, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would

move upon everyone who hears these words, everyone in this building,

everyone watching, Lord, that You're you would move upon them,

convict them of their sin, help them to let go

of any self reliance or self confidence that they have

in themselves, and to rely one hundred percent totally on you,

That they would exercise a true faith, That they would

look to you and believe that what you've done finished

it all. They would look to a crucified and risen savior.

That they would recognize that their salvation comes from you,

and it was decided in time eternity. You knew each

and every one of us, and you decided to save

us by your power. Lord, bless everyone here. May they

be secure in their association with you, and that they

would go out in these final days of Earth's history

proclaiming your good news and your soon return. We pray

these things in Jesus name. Amen.