How to live as a Christian

LftLD

But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Titus 2:1-5  #church #churchleadership #faith #jesus #jesuschrist #messiah #salvation #SignsOfTheTimes  https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/uncategorized/how-to-live-as-a-christian/

Transcript

00:00Now coming back to Titus, he tells us how we should live in the present.

00:05So he says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,

00:09we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age.

00:13So the consequence of believing in Jesus, that you turn away from the things which are ungodly,

00:19and you begin to live in the path which is godly.

00:21And I think a lot of reasons why people actually reject Jesus,

00:25is not because they've got all these intellectual doubts,

00:27because they know that if they accept Jesus, they're going to have to change their lives.

00:30They're going to have to change from living a life which is going their own way,

00:35breaking God's commandments, to now trying to keep God's commandments and walk in his ways.

00:42Verse 14, it says,

00:43He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed,

00:46and purify himself his own special people, sell us for good works.

00:51So Jesus came to redeem us from our sins,

00:54to take us away from the life which we lived before,

00:58and to enable us to be purified,

01:01and to be zealous for good works,

01:03to do what is right in his sight.

01:06And he talks about redeeming us and purifying us.

01:11So redemption is being bought out of the slave market of sin by believing in Jesus.

01:17Purifying us is what we call sanctification,

01:19which is the process which begins when you become a Christian,

01:22when you're born again,

01:23when you receive the Holy Spirit.

01:28It goes on to speak about being saved through the washing of regeneration

01:31and renewing of the Holy Spirit in the following chapter.

01:35So the experience which everybody can have,

01:37which is to be born again.

01:39And the Bible says you must be born again.

01:41I was born again when I sat in a room in West Hampstead

01:44and asked God to forgive my sins, which are many,

01:46and to come into my life and give me a new life and faith in Jesus.

01:50Happened over 50 years ago.

01:53Don't know when you were born again,

01:55but you must be born again.

01:56So you should have some experience in your life

01:58when you know that you became a follower of Jesus the Messiah.

02:02You may not actually know the day or the hour.

02:04I do know the day or the hour because it was the 1st of January 1970,

02:07so it's a kind of significant date, New Year's Day,

02:10so I couldn't really get away from that.

02:11And it was connected with a New Year's Eve party the previous night,

02:15which I knew that I'd sinned at.

02:17But I know that becoming a Christian was a real thing,

02:20and it changed my life.

02:22And we should have some experience of regeneration,

02:24which is the change from the person we were before we became a Christian

02:27to the person who God wants us to be.

02:30And this passage speaks about some of the things which are going to happen

02:32when you are redeemed.

02:33You're going to turn away from being foolish, disobedient, deceived,

02:38seeking various lusts and pleasures,

02:40living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.

02:44Now that shouldn't happen in the church, should it?

02:47Sometimes it does, but that's because we turn away from the Lord.

02:51We should live in newness of life,

02:53and we should love God and love one another.

02:55Very clear.

02:56So, he says here about having this past, the present,

03:03and he says that you must be born again, have a new life.

03:11By the way, what he's saying also is that your first birth is not good enough.

03:17I don't know if you realise that.

03:19I'm not saying anything against your parents,

03:20they might have been very nice people,

03:22but actually bringing you into the world,

03:25brought you into the world which is full of sin,

03:27and you inherited a sinful nature from your parents,

03:30from their parents, from their parents,

03:31from their parents,

03:32going right back to the beginning, to the fall.

03:36Described in Genesis chapter 3.

03:39It doesn't matter how bad or how good you've been in your life,

03:42it's not good enough to save you.

03:44Your own works can't save you.

03:46You have to be born again.

03:47It's also not bad enough to prevent you from being saved

03:52if you repent and believe the gospel.

03:55So, if you've done lots of bad stuff,

03:56it doesn't stop you from becoming a believer and being saved,

04:00because the moment you accept Jesus,

04:02all your sins are blotted out.

04:04And as far as God is concerned,

04:05they're removed as far as the west is from the east,

04:08and nothing can separate you from the love of God,

04:10which is in Jesus Christ, our saviour.

04:12Amen.

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