119: Peter Knowles - Exhortation: Our Hope is Signed and Sealed

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. Thank you so much for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help each one of us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post at the start of each week for you to listen with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to hear.

2. 0:33

   And now, let's hear more about this week's talk. Today's talk is by Brother Peter Knowles from the Southern Vales Ecclesia in Australia. He gave it two months ago. It is titled, Our Hope is Signed and Sealed. I really enjoyed this talk. There's a point that he makes at the end when you get there.

3. 1:01

   It's about comparing a lottery ticket to a check. And that point has really stuck with me. I'm definitely going to use that again at some point in conversation or in my own talks. This whole exhortation was really helpful. There's a lot of interesting study points and logical reasonings that Brother Knowles shares. And I found it to be very, very encouraging and a great exhortation.

4. 1:29

   This talk was a recommendation. Thank you again for everyone who sends in recommendations to us. It's a huge help. And we really appreciate it. And most of them do make the show. So, yeah, reach out to us with any of those via email or any of our social media platforms. And I hope you have a great week.

5. 1:50

   Here is Peter Knowles. It's really nice to be with you all this morning. At the outset, I have a confession to make. And the confession is that I sin.

6. 2:08

   Sin is wrong. Sin is bad. I don't want to sin. Contrasted to that, where I sin, God is right. He does not sin. He cannot sin. He is right. He is righteous. And where sin is wrong and sin is bad, righteousness is good.

7. 2:40

   And righteousness is right. And where I don't want to sin, contrasted to that, I actually want to be right. As in righteous. I want to be good.

8. 2:58

   And for each of us, at some point in our life, we made that choice. Where we said, we acknowledge our sin. Sin is wrong. We don't want to sin anymore. And in the terms of Romans 6, we stepped aside from that as servants or slaves to sin to become. Servants or slaves to freedom.

9. 3:23

   In Christ. To righteousness. Think about it for you, personally. What was it that made you suddenly make that decision? Or perhaps gradually make that decision to one day wake up and say, I want to get baptised. I want to commit my life to God. I want to follow Christ. What was it that brought you to that point?

10. 3:49

    Because here you are. Here you are right now, having made that choice perhaps some time ago. You made that choice for Christ. And for whatever reason, it may have been driven by fear. It may have been driven by love. It may have been a coercion, a persuasion, whatever. However, it may have been a combination of factors.

11. 4:15

    But nevertheless, we all had a level of knowledge. We all had a level of commitment that brought us to that point where we desired to show our faith in action. And no matter how long ago or how recent our baptisms were, the choice has been made. How are you doing?

12. 4:43

    Because the choice hasn't particularly gone away. It's not we made it once and for all time. You see, because I still sin. And sin is still wrong. And I don't want to sin anymore. And I want to be like God because God is right. And right is good. And I want to be righteous.

13. 5:05

    I want to be good. But the challenge we've got is as Jeremiah chapter 17 tells us, it's all about our heart. And surrounding those two columns of where I'm at and where God's at and where we can be, where we want to be, we can put a love heart around it because it really is all about where is our heart.

14. 5:26

    And Jeremiah 17 says, Jeremiah 17 says, We've got a major problem because the heart of man, the heart of woman, the heart of each of us is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Wow. Wow. Actually, that verse is even harder hitting than it reads in the King James or other versions of the Bible.

15. 5:55

    It says, The heart of man is bent, twisted or crooked and is the head over the whole man. And the word desperately wicked is in there. We missed that bit. That word desperately wicked or the words desperately wicked literally mean incurably sick.

16. 6:20

    Who can understand it? And the next verse says, Well, I can, says God. I can. But if something's bent, twisted, crooked and it's the head of our whole person or our whole being, as that verse says, and it's incurably sick,

17. 6:42

    what's the medical treatment for something that's incurably sick? Yes, someone said a heart transplant. I heard it. I'm sure you did. There must be a heart transplant, right? As Psalm 51 says, the words of David, when gripped in sin and trying to find his way back to God through the forgiveness that God's offering, he says, Create within me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew within me a righteous disposition or spirit.

18. 7:19

    And in the terms of Hebrew poetry, those two phrases are synonymous. Giving us a new heart, a clean heart, a pure heart, is the same as renewing within us a righteous disposition or demeanour. And that is what each one of us surely desire. But you know, for each of us, and I'm sure it was the same, in ourselves, once we were baptised, we didn't particularly wake up the next morning feeling fundamentally different.

19. 7:53

    We still woke up the next morning with those duties and responsibilities of life lying ahead of us. With those things that, little things that annoy us, still annoying us. And with a big wide world with all its desires, with all its allurements and all that, still there to attract us. Because in reality, life for us was pretty much the same.

20. 8:18

    But the greatest challenge we face as baptised, committed people that have made a choice for Christ, we have to ask ourselves the question, is it my whims? Is it my fancies? Is it my wants, my desires, my natural inclinations that I want to fulfil today? Is it me first that my life is centred around?

21. 8:56

    Because in a sense, what faces us every day, the challenges that we're faced with, are pretty much what faced Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Where in Genesis 3, verses 1 to 6, there was serpent thinking, attached to strong desire and a choice to be made. Will I stoop to the serpent's thinking and partake of forbidden fruit, although I rise my mind above it and make a choice for someone greater whom I love and obey his commands for all he's done for me?

22. 9:43

    You see, choice is the greatest power, I feel, or certainly one of the greatest powers that you and I possess. Choice. Because it's yours. It's your life. It's your choice to make. And what really faced Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was, do I love God and his desires more than I love myself and my own desires?

23. 10:23

    And the issue we want to ask ourselves this morning, brother and sister, is, do you love God more than you love yourself? Because pretty much when we fulfil our own lusts or our own strong desires for our own personal gratification, what we're saying is, I love me most. And I'm not taking into account the harm that I may be doing to others that I also claim to love.

24. 11:01

    I'm not taking into account the feeling of God himself and Jesus Christ who have both done so much for us. I'm dismissing that love as secondary to my own love for myself. And it's 1 John chapter 2 verse 16 and 17 says, for all that is in the world, everything that makes up the environment in which we live is driven by the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

25. 11:38

    It's not from God. It is of the world. God's love. At this point you're going, oh my goodness, are we going to have an exorc preoccupied with sin and how bad we are? By no means. Because the rest of that verse tells us in verse 17 that the world is to pass away with all those desires, but, and this is our challenge this morning, those that do the will of God, abide forever.

26. 12:18

    And so this is the challenge that we started with. Whom do I choose to love? Whom do I choose to serve? And I don't know about you, but every morning I get up, I find myself at around about 10.30 in the morning with my second or perhaps even third cup of coffee, wondering how I got there.

27. 12:44

    And then think, well that's right, now I've got the day to get on with. And for many of us we blend into the day without necessarily taking control of it. And I think the challenge for us is each morning that we get up and we look in the mirror at our greatest challenge, which is of course our self.

28. 13:07

    that at that point we need to say, I choose today to love God and his desires more than myself and my own desires. Sounds really easy, doesn't it? I wish it was. Because when we do fail, it is going to be for one or other or a combination of those three lusts that John speaks about, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

29. 13:41

    If they're such a big challenge to us, if they're such a big deal, if they really do drag us away and as the word lust means, a strong inclination and desire to be fulfilled, which they are, has God given us something to counteract those three challenges to our lives. I think he has.

30. 14:08

    I think he's given us three pillars upon which we can live our lives to address those three issues. And I think it's Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13 that says, now abides, and it's interesting he picks up the word abide, same word in 1 John 2, where those that do the will of God abide forever.

31. 14:27

    Paul says, now abides faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. And so what we're going to suggest is perhaps that to overcome the lust of our eyes, we would use faith. Faith which is the ability to see those things that are spiritual, which are unseen to the natural eye.

32. 14:53

    our natural eyes see the physical, faith sees the spiritual. Perhaps we could overcome the lust of the flesh by hope, confidently waiting for the future when God will provide all that he's promised us. Because the flesh, the lust of the flesh want now, instant gratification. I want it now, it makes me feel good.

33. 15:19

    Whereas hope waits for them, when God will provide. And perhaps overcoming the pride of life, just as love is the greatest, I would suggest that our human pride is perhaps the hardest. And so many of our failings are ego-driven. And certainly all of our failings are self-centred. The love we're speaking of is a denial of ourself for God and for others, willingly and voluntarily, without thought or account.

34. 15:56

    Pride desires its own glory and its own praise. Love desires humbly God's glory and the praise and benefit of others. And so I think these three great pillars are given to us by our loving God to help us overcome what daily we're challenged with. Faith, hope and love. Let's just tease those things out a little more as we go through the remainder of our exhort.

35. 16:26

    Faith. And yes, I hear you all saying, yes, we all know what faith is. It's the substance of things hoped for based on the evidence of things that we can't see. Hebrews 11 verse 1. Very good. Very good. We say we know what it is though. How often do we actually underestimate it in our lives or by our very actions indicate that what we give lip service to we don't really implement.

36. 16:55

    We don't truly take the necessary steps needed to strengthen our faith and to make our faith grow because faith is fluid. It ebbs and flows. It grows strong and goes weak. It's something that has to be worked on on a daily basis. And if we're serious about overcoming those things that our eyes desire, that draw us aside, we'd be serious about our faith.

37. 17:23

    Faith is the conviction or belief concerning the existence of God. And all of us would elevate our hands and say, well that's me, I don't doubt for a minute that God exists. And it's the firm assurance that Jesus is the Christ and again we all agree. And that God will accomplish what he said.

38. 17:40

    And we all go, yes, we believe that but at times it doesn't really impact us. Faith refers to the doctrines and practices of God's truth and faith becomes a characteristic of all true believers because God himself is faithful. How important is it?

39. 18:01

    Well, it's so important that without it, it's impossible to please God. And it stands in juxtaposition. How bad is sin? Sin kills. Sin kills. What does faith do? Faith gives life. For by grace we're saved through faith. Not of ourselves, it's a gift of God. And so there's this very strong need for us to have faith.

40. 18:32

    And more and more as time goes on, we're challenged by what's going on around us. You see, so many times we make judgments based upon what we see rather than based upon what we know from God is right. Because faith allows us to see the unseen things that are eternal. eternal. Such that when I say the word God, you see something.

41. 19:07

    Or I say Jesus, you see something. Or I say the angels, you see something. Or the kingdom, you see something. Because your faith has made a reality of the unseen things of God, they are eternal. How different does that make our day as we've made that choice looking in the mirror to go forward in faith?

42. 19:30

    Not looking at the eye, at the world through the eye of our natural body, but looking around us through the eyes of faith. And it's a fatal mistake to overlook the care and nurturing of our faith. Faith comes from a message heard, that message heard is the word of God. And it doesn't have to be reading slabs and slabs of the Bible.

43. 19:58

    It may just be one verse for the day that strengthens you. Or a phone conversation with someone that lifts or elevates God and his message amongst us. We must continue to build our faith through the power of the word of God. What about hope? We're suggesting hope then is our pillar that stands against the lust of the flesh.

44. 20:23

    I want it now, hope. It makes me feel good. Hope says no, I'll wait till God supplies. The sad reality though of the word hope in our Bibles is we use it in an English sense. Because the Greek word elpis is nothing like our English word hope. Just look up a dictionary. The English word hope suggests a desire combined with expectations.

45. 20:55

    It is to desire with the belief in the possibility of obtaining. What's the word in there that's wrong? Yes, possibility. That's not Bible hope. The possibility of it happening is not Bible hope at all. And why do we use hope in English that way? Because next week I hope to have some holidays.

46. 21:18

    I don't actually but it would be nice. I hope to have holidays. And we use that term because why? We know that it's a possibility. We know we're going to do it. It's booked but it may not happen because something else may stand in its way. Someone may get sick. We may need to stay at work.

47. 21:32

    Whatever it might be. There's a possibility attached with our daily use of the word hope. Bible hope is something very different. Bible hope, elpis, describes the joyful and confident expectation of good. hope. It has the idea of waiting for salvation with joy and full of confidence. The word certainty must be there. The word certainty must be there.

48. 22:02

    And I think within our community, possibly the word hope is one of those words we don't place enough emphasis on. Yes, we talk about faith and yes, we talk about love but I don't think at times we've got a real handle on what's meant by hope. hope. I think we overlook it. And it's Vines Bible Dictionary that says, it's not going to be a grammar lesson or an English lesson but it helps us understand.

49. 22:27

    Vines tells us that there's an objective and a subjective application of the word hope. Okay, what's that mean? Well the objective aspect of hope is this. An objective aspect of hope is the real thing. An event that will occur such that we talk in the Bible of the hope of the resurrection, the hope of the promises, the hope of eternal life, the hope of the kingdom.

50. 23:00

    So the hope of the resurrection will occur, it's something that will occur. The hope of the promises will be fulfilled. The hope of eternal life is something that will be given. The hope of the kingdom is something that's coming. It's an object. So we talk about hope in an objective sense. They're all real things that are really going to happen.

51. 23:22

    But subjective hope is far more important in a sense because that is within you. It's where you confidently expect within your heart that those things will occur. you confidently anticipate and expect the resurrection, the promises fulfilled, eternal life and the kingdom because they are real to you in such a way as they alter your perspective of everything in your life because you live as if you're in the kingdom.

52. 23:59

    You live as if you are an immortal being. And just incidentally, immortal beings don't sin. you see the way it helps us. And so it changes our whole way of thinking. But I think all too often sadly in our community and even for us as individuals at times, our hope and our faith become an insurance policy because Christ is coming.

53. 24:30

    Yeah, we all know that. But I just, if I hang in there, I hope I might just be able to squeeze in to the kingdom. I might just be able to make it. That's not Bible hope. Bible hope is we confidently anticipate and it's not bravado and it's not taking the love of God for granted.

54. 24:45

    It's a confidence in God's love and a confidence in God's ability to provide. How might it look? How might it look? The Bible hope. You may have heard me use this analogy before.

55. 25:02

    Bible hope and English hope or worldly hope are two different things as we said. How might they look? Well, I might buy Peter a lottery ticket. It has his name on it and it's for a million dollars and in 12 months' time the million dollar lottery is going to be drawn. Now, I'm suggesting that Peter will say thanks very much for buying me a lottery ticket and he may well put it in his bedside drawer and life won't change much.

56. 25:34

    Correct? You may even forget you've put the lottery ticket in the drawer. But there's a possibility, right, that you may just win. You may just get lucky. There's a possibility. However, unbeknown to Peter during the week, a distant relative died. And what I now have in my hand is a check for a million dollars.

57. 26:01

    And on that check is Peter's name. The check will not be cleared or able to be cleared for 12 months like the lottery. But Peter's name is on it. It's been signed. The bank's seal is there. But it's yet to be delivered at a later time.

58. 26:28

    Will Peter's life change? You bet it will. Because for the next 12 months, he's a millionaire. In fact, he may well even make some investment decisions based upon the fact that he's a millionaire. Because he's there in prospect. He's got the proof. It's signed. It's sealed. It just hasn't been delivered. But he's a millionaire and he lives and makes decisions based upon the fact that he is now a millionaire.

59. 27:00

    Has his life changed? You bet it has. Absolutely. And that's Bible hope. Our lives change fundamentally when we have Bible hope. a certainty, a confident expectation that the things God has promised will occur and we live now as if we are there. Because in prospect we are. It's been signed. The seal we have, we are just waiting for it to be delivered.

60. 27:32

    that gets us through doesn't it? We look at the transient, sugar rush things that are around us that give us a good feeling for a short time and then leave us feeling empty and we go no. Why get that gratification now that's weak, insipid and unhealthy? Why not wait for God to provide the greatest satisfaction satisfaction that exists?

61. 28:02

    What of love? Well as we said perhaps as pride is the most insidious thing in our life, our self-centeredness, our own ego centricities, those are sometimes the biggest issues we face. I believe they are the hardest issues for us to face because we have to be honest with ourselves. We have to look in the mirror and actually say, you know, you are really hard work.

62. 28:26

    Be honest with ourselves. Don't dumb it down. In such a way I think love is perhaps the hardest thing for each of us to exhibit because it is about me last. It is about a denial of myself for the benefit of others. We do become last on the list of importance and God and others come first.

63. 28:52

    And the challenge for that is it starts in the little things. starts at home and it is shown on the largest scene at work and those around us and of course we bring it to the Ecclesia Sunday by Sunday and wherever during the week we can help because you know we choose. We choose what we love.

64. 29:16

    We choose how we love and we choose who we love. And our greatest example of love shown is of course the one we come to remember our Lord Jesus Christ whose love we have received when we were baptised and whose love we continue to receive day by day. Jesus Christ a man who put God and others first and who put himself last.

65. 29:54

    When we sin it's because we love ourselves most. I sin equals I love me. When we overcome and rise above those things that come naturally to us we're saying God we love you more. God we love others more that may be harmed or hurt by our actions.

66. 30:21

    But we come to remember one this morning who didn't just love God and God's desires more than himself and his own desires. He didn't just love us more than himself. He loved God and he loved us more than he loved life itself. His sacrifice was one of his whole life and he laid down his life not my will but yours be done.

67. 31:03

    He did the will of God in accordance with God and in accordance and response to God's love. Because he loved God and because he loved us more than his own life. Greater love has no man than this than that he should lay down his life for his friends. And so all that's in the world around us is made up of the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of human life.

68. 31:35

    It's of the world it's not of the father and it's going to pass away. And when the world passes away all that makes it up those desires that drive it and you don't have to look too far to see it whether it's politically even sadly religiously in an environmental in a work vocational context it's ego it's lust that drives it that's all going to pass away but if we do the will of God we abide

69. 32:10

    who loved God and us more than his own life let us daily through prayer and reading of God's word strengthen our faith let us have a vivid and real vision of God's kingdom and the glory that's coming that our hope may be certain and let's follow Christ in loving God and loving God's desires more than we love ourself and our own desires and let us make a choice every day for Christ not my will but yours be done because in continually and daily making a choice for Christ we need to ask ourselves the question each and every morning as you look in the mirror who do I love most well who do you thank you for listening to the good Christ Adelphine talks podcast please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review on apple podcasts or whichever service you are listening from to help people find the show when they search for it if you enjoyed this talk share it on social media so other people can find it too for show notes and links to the talk that you just listened to visit our show page at anchor.fm slash gct we want to encourage everyone to share their thoughts from the talk this week on facebook or instagram where we are at good Christadelphian talks or on twitter where we are at gct underscore podcast if you know of a great talk we want to know about it too send a suggestion to good Christadelphian talks at gmail.com or message us on any of our social media platforms thank you for listening god bless and talk to you next week you and be