Well, if you're still with us in this Part 4 of The Great Need of Our Time, I want to commend you and encourage you to listen to this final episode with the same level of attention and and focus that we have had so far in the first three episodes. This truly is a crucial issue for us in the church today and the life of the church. Now, I want to be clear. When I say the life of the church, I'm not talking about the institution. I'm not talking about the church model that is so popular in our world today, with the building, the facilities, the campus even, the pastoral staff, the central figure of a senior pastor, and the gathering of people who sit in pews all facing forward and watch the event unfold up on the stage, and then leave as if they just came to a concert or a movie theater. That is not at all what I mean when I say the life of the Church. What we're talking about when I refer to the life of the Church is the life of the Ecclesia, to use that Greek word, the gathering, the people of God and for the express purpose of edification, encouragement, and exhortation through the Scriptures by the Spirit, so that, and by the way, on a horizontal level, So there's no hierarchy in the kingdom of God. There are no lords in the kingdom of God. There is one Lord, and that is Jesus Christ. And in the church, we ought to gather, not so much to ensure that the institution is perpetuated, but so that we can gather together and encourage and edify and exhort one another to grow in the likeness of Christ. God has designed the Church to be the means, the vehicle, the environment, if you will, by which we come into greater spiritual maturity, we come into equipping the saints for the work of ministry, and that we grow into the full image of Christ in us. And as we have said before, though that will not be perfected in this lifetime, We nonetheless should pursue it as if that perfection were available, were possible. No one who loves Christ wants to be anything other than like him to the absolute greatest degree possible in this lifetime. So this is a matter of huge significance. What I'm saying to you in this preface before we get into part four is there is a great need for us to rethink how we do church. The model that we have today of having to have a building and kind of a retail outlet and the way we fellowship by coming in offering just a passing greeting perhaps, sitting in next to each other, facing forward, while all the event happens up on the stage, and sometimes in an illuminated stage, with professionals in music, and in prayer, and teaching, and in sermons, and then we all get up afterwards and leave having barely had contact of any meaningful connection. And that's not to say none of that happens. Of course there is. There's an element of that happens. But for the most part, the rule is not for us to gather together to edify and encourage and exhort one another. It's to watch the show. It's to watch the event going on up front. Your job as a Christian, it almost appears, and truly is, is to pay and pray. Show up, pay, and pray. And watch, observe, watch the event up front. Listen to a sermon, and then go home. Beloved, you will not grow in Christ with that kind of a model, but that's the model. And so what we're looking at is the need of our time is to grow in the image of Christ, that Christ be formed in the believer, and reconsider the model of which we do church in order to facilitate that forming of Christ in you. So, this is a big deal, but the fact that the average Christian doesn't understand that that's God's purpose for them, and the average Christian actually attends a traditional institutional model of a church, whether it's Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox, it really doesn't matter because they all follow pretty much the same model. Even the most independent Baptist church has a model of church in which there's a professional leading the church, there's a professional staff, there's professional musicians perhaps, and everything is geared towards the front of the church where the big event happens. So you don't have to be Catholic, you don't have to be Orthodox, you don't have to be Lutheran. You can be an independent Baptist and still have this very ineffective church model that actually inhibits the spiritual growth and maturity and the equipping of the believer. Now, I know that that's a big statement on my part. But beloved, we have to be willing to examine ourselves. We have to be willing to put the cards back on the table. We have to be willing, whatever metaphor you want to use, we have to be willing to take a look at who we are in Christ. Are we actually born again? And if we are, is the life of Jesus being worked out in our character, in our thinking, in our affections? And are we in the church? And if we are in the church, what does that mean? Is the church really something we go to or is that something that we are? These are powerful questions. These are powerful things to consider and they're transformative. So I'm suggesting you today that we really do need to rethink why it is and how it is we do church. So in this final episode of this series, I'm hoping to just continue now to walk you through some text of scripture to help you see that it is by far the theme of the New Testament. It's not just a specific doctrine within the Church. It's not a specific doctrine within one or two passages of Scripture that we're building a doctrine on. But the theme of the New Testament, indeed, the theme of Scripture itself, is that we are to be conformed into the image of Christ, the outcome of the gospel, and the end goal of all legitimate Christian ministry is the conforming of the believer into the image of Christ. So today I want to talk with you about learning to live and love as Christ did. That's the big part. Once we have Christ growing, we're working out Christ's life in us, and the life of Christ is growing within us, and we're expressing that in our character, in our daily conduct, in our affections, the end result of that, we'll know that that's working because we're learning to actually live and love as Christ did. What a powerful privilege, right? So let me begin by saying the great question of our day is not whether Jesus gets us, as the modern campaign on television, billboards, and media maintain. No, it's not whether Jesus gets us, but whether or not we get Jesus. For too long, people have taken Jesus and tried to lower him down to some kind of a cultural icon, as opposed to us celebrating and rejoicing in the fact that in Christ, we have a redemption of our humanity. We don't take the humanity of Christ and bring it down to our level so that Jesus becomes kind of our buddy, the kind of guy we don't want to have a beer with. But instead, we bring our broken, sinful, spiritually dead self to Jesus by grace, drawn to Christ by grace, and we are converted, and then our humanity is being elevated restored, redeemed to the perfection of Jesus' own humanity, so that we are members, according to Ephesians chapter 2, of a new humanity. No longer Jew or Greek, no longer black or white, no longer Democrat or Republican, no matter, it's a new humanity that matters, a new creation that matters. and you are a new humanity. If you are in Christ, you are a member of a new humanity in Him. So, now it has been my experience and observation that most professing Christians really do not understand nor what it means to be a Christian. They believe in a Jesus of whom they have little intimate knowledge. That just breaks my heart. One of the great benefits to us in our New Testament is the plurality of apostolic writings, declaring the same message of new life in Christ. So, we do not preach the gospel of Paul, or John, or Peter, or Apollos. It's not an evangelical gospel, but the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel belongs to Jesus. It's His message. And the essence of this gospel is the forgiveness of sins and new life that comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And it's that second part that I've been insisting upon and contending in this series that we fail to take full benefit from. the forgiveness of sins and new life that comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as evidenced by our growing in his likeness. Many claim today to possess forgiveness of sins, but display no new life. They may have curbed their natural appetites, or worse yet, fallen prey to some kind of religious moralism, but that does not equate to the new life as set forth in the Apostles. Jesus did not come in order to model moral improvement for us and Adam, but to crucify Adam and bring a new creation by his resurrection from the dead. Christianity is a death sentence for Adam, not a program of self-improvement. Listen to what he says in Galatians. but Christ in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Do you consider your old self crucified with Christ? Is your current life energized by Christ in you? Or have you set aside the grace of God in favor of a religious self-improvement program you call Christian faith? How you answer this question carries eternal implications. Let's look now to the Apostle John. In 1 John 2.6 we read these words, whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. That's 1 John 2.6 out of the NIV. The goal of the Christian life is to live and love as Christ did. That's the purpose for which the Spirit imparts the new birth. Nowhere is being born again presented as the chief aim. I've said that and I've contended that throughout this series. Rather, it is the new life of Christ in you that is the chief aim. Quote, I am so glad I'm born again, end quote, is not the ground of your confidence on the day of judgment if your life is devoid of the righteousness of Christ. Listen again to John in 1 John 4, 17-19. Quote, Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love, We love him because he first loved us. 1 John 4, 17 through 19. We may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. So we have confidence even at judgment, says John, because as he is, so are we in this world. Let's read it in the NIV. This is how love is made complete among us, so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world, we are like Jesus." Please bear with me while I read that one more time. It's that significant for you. Quote, this is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world, we are like Jesus. What is our confidence? How is it that we have boldness on the day of judgment? It is because we participate in Christ's nature and so live and love as he did. Christ is our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And this is both imputed to us by grace, through faith, and infused in us when we are born of the Spirit. So I want to leave you now with a pastoral call to self-examination. My concern for you is pastoral. I want you to know the power of the Spirit in producing the practical righteousness of Christ in your way of thinking and feeling and in your conduct. I want for you to live and love as Christ did. and experience the joy of genuine union with him. As Peter puts it, joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls." That's 1 Peter 1, 8 through 9. I want you to look to the day of judgment with boldness not doubt or fear, but with boldness, for you have experienced ever-increasing conformity to Christ in this lifetime. On the other hand, I am also compelled by those same pastoral concerns to warn you that if you believe the imputation of Christ's righteousness means you may live a life devoid of Christ's imparted righteousness within you, then you are deceived and you will not enter the kingdom of God. No one, no one who has been justified by grace through faith can then go on to live a life devoid of Christ's practical righteousness being worked out in their character. This is not my opinion. It is the clear testimony of the New Testament. I will attach a PDF to this, depending which format you're on, and you can get that, and you can read these texts I have here. I've listed numerous texts to support my argument for you in this series. Therefore, in light of the promise of Christ in you, in the warnings to those who merely feign Christian faith, It is wise to examine yourself to see whether or not, in fact, you are in the faith. Preferably, you can do this with a spiritually mature, biblically informed person who can guide you in this examination. But even so, if you have no one like that, it is better to do it alone and in prayer than to not do it at all. I beg you to consider carefully, prayerfully, and continually what I have said in this brief exhortation and in this series. And may the love of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you as you do. Amen.