In Peter Allison's sermon 'Resistance is Futile,' he explores the narrative of Paul's conversion and commission as recounted in Acts 26. Paul, who initially persecuted Christians, encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. This encounter, marked by a blinding light and a voice from heaven, led to his conversion and subsequent commission as a minister and witness to both Jews and Gentiles. The sermon emphasizes the futility of resisting God's will, contrasting it with the necessity and efficacy of resisting evil. Through the metaphor of 'kicking against the goads,' the sermon illustrates the inevitability of God's purposes. It highlights the qualifications of an apostle, focusing on being an eyewitness to the resurrection and being sent by Christ. Paul’s mission included opening people's eyes, turning them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. The sermon underscores the importance of repentance, faith, and good works, portraying them as interlinked and essential for a Christian's life. It concludes by encouraging believers to embrace the confidence and boldness that come from being children of God, emphasizing the inheritance and promises received through faith in Christ.

Acts chapter 26, we'll begin reading at verse 12. Paul has been recounting his testimony to Agrippa. He's talked about his former life before he met Christ, persecuting the Jews, persecuting the Christians. We pick up at verse 12. While thus occupied as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O King, along the road, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun shining around me and those who journeyed with me.

And when we had fallen to the ground I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So I said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness, both of the things which you have seen and the things which I will yet reveal to you.

I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of saint into God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me. Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the holy vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. For these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand, witnessing both the small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come, that Christ would suffer and that he would be the first to rise from the dead and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles." May these commandments be our delight even when trouble and anguish overtake us. Heavenly Father, Sanctify us this morning by Your Word.

Set us apart as vessels for Your service. Equip us and fill us. And I ask also that You would sanctify and set apart My sinful lips, that through a vessel of clay the riches of Your grace and Your mighty Word might be brought to us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

Well, last week we began looking at Paul's presentation to Agrippa. Agrippa was a Jew. He was knowledgeable about Jewish matters. He was in charge of the temple. He had the authority to appoint high priests.

And Paul says that he was especially glad, happy, to be able to make this presentation to him to present his case, knowing that he would be able to understand the things that Paul was talking about. So he gives his testimony to this person who outwardly was a Jew, but who inwardly didn't know Christ, didn't know the power of God. And so Paul gives him his testimony, what he did to the Christians in his ignorance. And we pick up his account here in verse 12 with his conversion. Paul recounts his conversion.

But he doesn't, but this is not the focus. He gives it and we'll look at it, but he's really focused on not so much his conversion, but his commission, What He's called to do. But in His conversion, we see a few things. I just want to point them out. One, we see that Jesus did the seeking.

Jesus overtook Him on that road to Damascus. Saul wasn't seeking Christ. He wasn't a true seeker in any way, shape, or form. He wasn't interested until Christ subdued him to himself. And that's where Jesus told Zacchaeus that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Paul was lost and he didn't know it. Like all of us once were lost and didn't know it. What he was doing, he did it in ignorance and unbelief. And Jesus came seeking him. And Jesus found him.

And then Jesus overpowered him. He overpowered him with light, knocking him to the ground. Now in the past few years we've been able to develop very bright lights that are able to incapacitate and disorient people. But this light that Paul saw was far greater even. This light was brighter than the sun.

Paul says this happened at noon, Right when the sun was right overhead, right when it was its brightest, and yet this light was brighter. It left him blind and threw him to the ground. That's a very powerful light. It's no surprise then that this light, Jesus says that he is light, he is the light of the world. It's no surprise then that this powerful light knocked Paul and everyone with him down.

And Jesus then spoke to Paul, calling him to account for his actions. Why are you persecuting me? You see, Jesus is the judge of all the earth. He's the Lord of all, regardless of whether people believe it or not. Paul thought Jesus was dead.

Paul thought that Jesus was a person who had died, been crucified, and was in a tomb. Or maybe the disciples stole away the body. That's what they told everybody. That's what they paid the guards to tell everybody. If Paul thought that Jesus was alive or He was the Messiah, he wouldn't have been persecuting Him.

But Jesus is the judge of all the earth and he is alive and he is reigning. And he appears to Saul as he is lying prostrate on the ground, subdued before this bright light. And he asks Him, why? Why? Why are You persecuting me?

It's the question that He will ask all of us as well. Because We will have to give an account for everything that we have done. Even every idle word, we will give an account to the Judge of all the earth. When Jesus appears to Paul here, calling him to account, He reveals himself as well to Paul. Hearing a voice from heaven, any Jew would recognize that God was speaking.

And when Jesus appears to Him and speaks to Him from heaven. Saul didn't know who He was, and he asked Him, who are You? You see, we wouldn't know Christ unless He reveals Himself to us. We wouldn't know God unless He reveals Himself to us. It's in His mercy that He has given us His Word and disclosed Himself to us.

So Jesus reveals himself to Saul saying, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Of course, as soon as Jesus says this, I am Jesus, that means that Jesus is alive and not dead, like He had believed and like They told everybody. And Jesus also says, adds this phrase, it's hard to kick against the goats. It's actually a common Greek proverb used by many different writers, ancient Greek writers. A goad is a stick with a point, a sharp point on the end, often metal.

And it's used to poke and prod a reluctant work animal that like a horse or an ox that doesn't want to keep working wants to stop take a break and a goat is used to poke them poke them in the rear and make them start going again. Today we might call it a cattle prod and instead of a sharp point it might deliver an electric zap. You ever see one of those big rods used to prods? It's a goad. So any ordinary person would easily understand what Jesus is saying.

It's hard to kick against the goads. But it's also used metaphorically by many ancient Greek writers, and they used it to express the futility of resisting the gods. Isn't that interesting? This is how Jesus describes himself to Saul in this Greek Proverb. And so everybody in Paul's learned Roman audience would surely not miss the significance of that statement either.

Jesus is saying it's hard to resist, God. Resistance is futile. So all resistance is futile. It was something that the superstitious Greeks and Romans already believed. They just didn't know the true God.

You see, it is utterly futile to keep kicking against God. And that's what that sense is, kicking against this prod. It's futile to be kicking and resisting God. It doesn't stop people from trying. It's futile to resist His reign.

It's futile to resist His laws, but again, that doesn't stop Christ's enemies from trying to resist. Psalm 2 talks about the nations, referring to those who are outside of the covenant, raging against Christ's just and righteous reign. They want to cast off that reign. They want to ignore His commandments. They want to be free to transgress His law with impunity.

Of course, the Bible says it's futile. It's vain. It doesn't succeed. And that's what Jesus tells Saul. It's hard.

It's futile to resist God. Now, evil on the other hand, or tyrannical governments, in their futile attempt to play God, want us to believe they work very hard to instill in people a fear that resistance to them is useless. It's futile. And that was the message, you remember, of George Orwell's book, 1984. It's futile to resist that all-seeing eye.

And that character in there tries for a while. But the story ends up, he realizes it's futile, and he gives up. And he goes back to complete submission to it. They want to play God. That's what tyrannical governments do.

And to play God, they want people to believe the lie that it is futile to resist them. It's how the mafia works, right? They can exist where people believe It is futile to resist them. But they don't succeed when people stop believing it is futile to resist. Because it's not.

Actually, I think it was, I remember this resistance is futile phrase. I thought it might be a saying in popular culture, so I googled it and it turns out Star Trek popularized this phrase, resistance is futile, in reference to the inevitability of the triumph of evil. But it's a false message. It's futile to resist God to cast off His reign. But because it's futile to resist God, it's therefore not at all futile to resist evil and to resist corruption.

The Bible says that the evil will bow before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous. You see, if it's futile to resist God and to resist His commandments and His purposes, then it's not futile at all to resist evil. And Lance Thomas was a successful watch dealer and had a repair shop in West Los Angeles for a number of years starting somewhere around the late 1970s through the 80s. But that stability was upended in the early 90s when organized violence erupted in West LA and he ended up being at ground zero as organized crime swept through local businesses in West LA. Many shop owners were killed, they closed shops, moved out, But he bought a gun and stuck it under his watch desk.

And two months later, two months later after he got this gun, two armed robber entered his store, beat one of the customers on the back of the head, and the other one pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him. At that point he made a pivotal decision that resistance was not futile against this evil. And with his gun leveled right at him, he managed to pull out his gun and placed one shot in the robber's head while his accomplice escaped. That guy didn't die, but he did go to jail for a few years. But that was a wake-up call and so he started training more seriously with his gun because you know He wasn't that good at it.

And a couple months later, at 715 in the evening, four armed robbers moved into his store. Two watched the door and two entered the store itself. There were three customers and another employee in the shop. And so it wasn't just his life on the line. And those two that entered had automatic weapons.

So he told his customers to hit the floor. And with another gun pointed at him, he proceeded to defend his life at point-blank range. He was shot three times in the shoulder and once through the neck, but he killed both of the robbers. And the other two robbers fled when they saw that. He was taken to the hospital and recovered.

Now, some people would have said, well, this is futile and given up, closed shop. But he doubled down. And he committed to defending his shop. Now some people would think after two of these kind of robberies that the bad guys would realize this isn't a shop that you want to mess around with. But actually it was just the opposite.

They started taking it as a matter of, I guess, gang pride that they weren't going to let somebody resist them. They wanted to establish that resistance against them was futile. So the next, the third time happened a couple years after the second one. And The armed criminal pointed his pistol again at his face and told him if he reached for his gun, he would kill him. But he did reach for his gun.

He was shot once through the neck. He returned fire and killed the robber. When he went to the hospital, it turned out it didn't hit anything and all he needed was a bandaid and he was back to work the next day. Now at this point he was telling this story to the justice files and the host is now visibly shaken at this guy and he proceeds to ask him some questions. Why?

Why? And his answer is because I don't want to leave that decision up to him. He said, we're conditioned in our society to comply with violent criminals and hope for the best and we're told that if we just do what they bad men say will be alright. And their host said, but if you hadn't reached for your gun, maybe you wouldn't have been shot and he would have gotten a few of your watches, but it would have been over. And Lance replies, Yes, but it would have been up to him when he had his finger on the trigger and he intended to negotiate.

So what did he do? He said he put a double door in. And then the fourth time came, double door. The robbers knew exactly what to expect from him and The fourth incident involved four of them With a history of violence. They didn't even try to rob it.

They just ambushed him, but this time he shot and killed both of them. He was resisting evil because he realized resistance is not futile to evil. The evil will bow before the good and the wicked at the gates of the righteous, God says, because it is futile to resist Christ's reign. And because it is futile to resist Christ's reign, we can have confidence that The good will triumph over the evil. See, resistance to false gods and to idols is not futile.

But resistance to God is, and we call that irresistible grace. What God's purpose is to do cannot be resisted. And those whom God's purpose is to save will be saved, despite their resistance. Because it's hard to kick against the gods. When Paul is finished relating to Agrippa, what God had told him about learning the futility of resisting to God, This is the point that Paul returns to when he finishes his commission from God.

He comes right back to this in verse 19, and he says, Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient through the heavenly vision. He learned his lesson. Resistance to God is futile. You cannot kick. It's hard to kick against the goats.

So Paul testifies to Agrippa, I was not disobedient to what God called me to do. And so in verse 16, then, as Paul's conversion, as he relates his conversion, having subdued Saul to himself, then Jesus stood him back on His feet. Now Paul relates it here in a sentence, but we know this happened from Acts 9. We know this happened over several days. Paul was blind for three days and went without food or water.

And it was only when Ananias came to him after three days and laid his hands on him and prayed for him that he received the Holy Spirit and His sight. And then Acts says this, Acts 9, that he arose and was baptized. Now some have wondered why the Acts 9 account has this little statement about having received the sight and the Holy Spirit that He arose and was baptized. Why that little detail? After all, the passage doesn't tell us every time Paul stood up and sat down.

Why is his arising put on par, as it were, with his receiving the Holy Spirit and being baptized. Receiving the Holy Spirit, He arises and He's baptized. Well, I think the significance of that statement in Acts 9 is explained here. Jesus had humbled Saul, knocking him to the ground, unable to stand upon His feet, overcome, subdued. And now, in telling Saul to arise and stand on His feet, Jesus is restoring Saul and giving him boldness and confidence.

That's what that means. Saul arose. Jesus says, arise and stand on your feet, For I have appeared to you for this purpose." The book of Acts closes in Acts 21 that Paul was preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding Him." And that Greek word that's translated confidence means a state of boldness, courage, freedom of speech, literally a loose tongue. And this boldness characterized Paul's entire ministry. You see, as Christians, we too should have that confidence.

Not in our flesh, but in Christ. In other words, we shouldn't be Casper milk toasts, or wimps, always bound by doubts and fears about whether we're doing the right thing or saying the correct words. We should have a freedom of speech so that we can speak boldly and confidently of Christ and His work. We should have that freedom and boldness before others. 2 Corinthians 3, 12, Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech.

Paul said. Or 7, 4, great is my boldness of speech to you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. For in Ephesians 6, he requests prayer from the Ephesian church for Himself, that utterance may be given to Him, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel." But we also can have that same boldness, that same confidence, that same freedom of expression when we come before the Lord. Ephesians 3.12 says that in Christ we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

In Hebrews 3, 6, we are part of Christ's house if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing and the hope firm to the end. This is the freedom, this is the confidence that comes with the Spirit of adoption. This is what Christ gave to Paul when He said, Arise, stand on your feet. Hebrews 4.16, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find help in time of need. There should be a freedom in prayer to come with confidence before the throne of grace, knowing that the Lord delights in His people, and He delights in those who hope in His mercy.

Hebrews 10, Therefore, bar the ring, and have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Or 10.35, Therefore, do not Cast away your confidence, your boldness, which has great reward." All these are the same word. The same thing that's speaking of freedom. And now little children abide in Him that when He appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed at His coming. Or 1 John 3, 21, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.

When Jesus told Paul to arise, stand on his feet, Or in Acts 9 describes Paul's conversion as receiving the Holy Spirit, arising and being baptized. This is the Lord giving Paul the confidence of an adopted child, the confidence and boldness of his messengers. Now as we said earlier, Paul doesn't focus on his conversion in his account to Agrippa. He jumps over a number of details that are in Acts 9 about what he went through. And he focuses instead on his commission from the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are two apostolic qualifications given to Paul here. That he recounts in giving his commission to Agrippa. The first qualification of an apostle is that they must be an eyewitness of the resurrection. An apostle is someone who can testify that Christ rose from the dead, who is a witness to that fact. When the apostles were choosing a replacement for Judas, they gave the qualifications in Acts 1 and 21.

Therefore, they said, of those men who have accompanied us all the time that Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of the John to the day when he was taken up from us. One of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So that was a requirement. There were eyewitnesses of the risen Christ who were sent to testify to that fact. And that's why there are no apostles today.

There are no eyewitnesses to the resurrection living anymore. And so for Paul, you see, to be an apostle, he needed to be an eyewitness of the risen Christ. And Jesus said here in this passage, it is for this purpose that I have appeared to you to make you a witness both to what you have seen and to the additional things that I will reveal to you." So that bright light that knocked Paul, it's all to the ground. And that voice that spoke from heaven, that was Jesus appearing and making Paul an eyewitness of the risen Christ. And that's why Paul says that Christ appeared to many people, and then he says, and lastly, He appeared to me as one born out of due time.

Because this was much, much later than anyone else. This is a couple years, two or three years after Christ had risen. But the second qualification of an apostle is to be sent by Christ as his witness. And so here Paul is sent in the second half of verse 17. He said, I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you.

And this is the word, This is where the word apostle comes from it's the word for sent in Greek Apostolo Apostle sent one so Paul Jesus Paul is now being sent by Christ, makes him an apostle. And he was given a duty to minister and witness to Jesus. Paul was made a minister. I've appeared to you for this purpose to make you a minister and a witness. Now a minister is someone who functions as a helper.

It's frequently used to refer to subordinates. And we sometimes get the wrong idea of a minister as an elevated position, but it's really a word for a servant. The minister, a prime minister is somebody who is the first servant, but he's a servant to someone else. The cabinet ministers are advisors and helpers to the president. They're helpers.

It's an assistant. God is saying, I'm making you my assistant, my minister. And to be a wit to testify to what he had seen there and what God would show him. So he's a helper and his mission is to testify. He's to go around the world telling people what he has seen.

He's seen Christ and telling people the things that God would reveal to him. Remember, he spent three years in Arabia, where he was instructed, and God revealed to him these things. He received special revelations that he wasn't even able to write about. He mentions that he received them in the end of Corinthians, his letter to the Corinthians. But he said he wasn't able to talk about them.

He's caught up into the third heaven. So he's a witness. That's where we get our martyr from, is a witness who is faithful even when it results in their death. And Paul ultimately, according to church history, is martyred for His witness to Christ. Now anytime we see authority and commissions being given to people, they're always assigned a specific place that that responsibility is to be exercised.

And so Paul is given a specific charge here. We can see this throughout the Old Testament. When somebody is given oversight, it's oversight for a specific thing. When Bezalel was given the gifts of an artisan, it was for a specific purpose to make the tabernacle and to make the furniture in the tabernacle. And so Paul is given a specific commission here.

He summarizes it here as Jews and Gentiles to whom he is sent. Earlier, there's more detail. Well, he actually goes into a little more detail a little bit later, when he says, I wasn't disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles. He's carrying out this commission that he's been given. And he has promised in this protection from the Jews and Gentiles.

He's promised protection. God says, I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles. And God did. He's been delivering Paul from the Jews who have been trying to kill him now for a couple years actually remember he escaped the plot in Macedonia when he was coming to Jerusalem He took a different ship and he went in different direction because he found out about the plot And there were many times in these cities where he escaped. Like at Ephesus, there was a huge riot and he escaped.

He escaped in Berea. He escaped the plot for his life when he was going to go to Jerusalem, he escaped being killed in the temple. He was rescued by the Romans. He escaped the plot when there were 40 people who vowed never to eat until they killed him. He escaped that.

They, I guess, either starved or broke their vow. But the Lord has preserved him and protected him from people who have been trying to kill him, both Jews and Gentiles, until the appointed time that God had ordained for the end of Paul's days. Now he also spells out exactly what his job was as a minister and witness, a servant and assistant to Jesus and a witness of His resurrection. He says the first thing he was to do was to open eyes. You see, we don't perceive correctly until Christ opens our eyes.

I'm sure we've all experienced having our perspective changed about something. Somebody that we misunderstood, misjudged, something we thought we didn't like or thought we liked and found out that we either liked it or didn't like it as the case might be. But you see, before Christ our eyes, our perspective is colored wrongly about everything. God's commandments are burdensome. Authority is oppressive and restrictive to our freedom.

We delight in the desires of our flesh. But when God opens our eyes, He changes our perspective and we see the truth. We see through clear glasses instead of colored, discolored glasses. And so our prayer is, open our eyes that we might behold wondrous things out of out of your law The this is the love of God that is commandments are not burdensome We are grateful for authority in our lives. And we no longer delight in the desires of the flesh.

You see, all these things come because our eyes have been open to see and understand the truth, And so we perceive everything differently in Christ. We perceive everything correctly. We live with this every day, right? No matter what area you go, evolution, creation, or just even politics, There's people that perceive the same thing in two opposite ways. Christ opens our eyes so we perceive correctly.

He turns us from darkness to light. Darkness is what results when there is no light. It's the absence of light. Darkness, you know, is always defeated by light. Darkness can never overcome light, right?

You can't shine a darkness and destroy the light. You shine a light and displace the darkness. So before Christ we are without light. Because Christ is the light of the world. And in Christ we are turned from darkness, from not seeing, from not understanding, from hopelessness to light.

In Christ, John says, there is no darkness at all. At all. We're turned also from the power of Satan. See, yes, as outside of Christ, we are completely under His control. We are helpless before Him.

We have no power to resist Him because He is very powerful, and His hosts are very powerful. But as believers, we are delivered from that power. It doesn't mean we don't battle those things. Jesus taught us to pray that we would be delivered from the evil one. That's part of what we call the Lord's Prayer.

There are many demons that attack Christians or that we battle. There's demons of resentment, spirits, unclean spirits, resentment, anger, Violence. Anger is a big one. There are many generational curses brought on by demonic anger. Rebellion.

Control. Always having to control things. Manipulation, having to compare ourselves with others, feelings of Worthiness, overwhelming shame or guilt, fear can be a demonic battle. Deceit, bitterness, discontentment, Sexual immorality. You know, when you see these things generation after generation in a family, sometimes that's because demonic power that had a legal foothold somewhere in that home, in that family.

And that legal foothold continues. Bitterness can be another, can be caused by demonic power. Discontentment, pride, definitely demonic power. Self-rejection, and so forth. It goes on and on.

There's even spirits of paralysis. But you see, in Christ we have been given power, delivered from the power of the evil one. We've been given power over the evil one. That was Christ's promise to his disciples. James tells us that when we resist the devil, he must flee.

He must. We've been given also the forgiveness of sins, the release of our debts. Our debts are discharged completely. And this is something that ought to inform us every day. Every day.

To realize what we have been given in forgiveness. Paul was sent to open eyes to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, so that we can receive the forgiveness of sins." Now, what is forgiveness? It's a word we use a lot, but do we really think about what it is? What it is is payment of a debt. When there's a debt, it has to be paid.

The question is, who is going to pay that debt? See, if you loan $100, 000 to somebody to buy a house, then They owe you that debt. And it's their duty to pay it. To forgive that debt means that you, the one who made the loan, pay the debt. That's what forgiveness is.

You pay somebody else's debt. When we are forgiven by Christ, it's because He has paid our debt. And it's a debt that we could never pay. It's One of the hardest things that we are called as Christians to do, which is to forgive the sins that are committed against us. And it's impossible, apart from the grace of God, the power of God.

I mean, you can suppress it, you can push it out of your mind, but it's very hard to do for most people Until we realize what we have been forgiven. It's when we realize how much we have been forgiven and the magnitude of the debt that we've been forgiven and the sinfulness of our sin that Christ has paid, then we're able to look at the little things that other people have done to us, the wrongs that they've done, and from our heart, forgive them. That's what Christ does. Gives us the forgiveness of sins. Enables us to receive the forgiveness of sins.

And An inheritance. An inheritance. An inheritance is something that you receive, that you haven't earned. It's not the result of your labor. It's the result of somebody else's labor that is bequeathed to you.

I just saw a little video recently about ten families in Texas that had inherited wealth. In each case, somebody earned the wealth that was then passed on to the next generation. They inherited that wealth. They didn't earn it. And they could be a good steward of it or they could squander it.

That's an inheritance. We in Christ have received an inheritance. An inheritance among the saints. We are received as children of God and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. That if we ask anything of the Father, He will give it to us in Christ's name.

And He has given to us everlasting life. And that is an incredible inheritance that we receive. And Paul was sent to tell us, to tell the world about our inheritance in Christ. He then goes on a little on, just in the next verse, to talk about repentance and sanctification. Those are the last two things that are in this text regarding its summary of the Christian life.

Repentance is to turn away, preach repentance. Turning away is a change of heart, It's a change in direction. It's an inward decision. And it always accompanies saving faith. They always come together.

There isn't one without the other. Without saving faith, there's no repentance. Without repentance, there's no true saving faith. They are like, as one person said, opposite sides of the same coin. You can't separate them.

You can distinguish them, but you can't separate them. To repent is to turn away from something. And saving faith is putting our trust in Christ. Turning away from trusting in ourselves. Turning away from going our own way.

Change of heart and trusting in Christ. And doing works befitting repentance. That's sanctification. This is an area of confusion at times. We are not saved by our works, but we're not saved without them.

What we mean is they are not the basis of our justification. Christ's work is. But where Christ is working in us, then good works are there. And if they're not there, it's evidence that there was no saving faith. And that's what James means when he says we're not justified by works only.

You show me your faith without your works, he says I'll show you My faith by My works. The works are the outward demonstration of saving faith. And we're called to do works that are worthy of that. In Ephesians 4, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called." And see, these works are also grace. They're not done in our own power.

The works of sanctification, the works that we do in Christ, are God's working in us. So they are ours. They are 100% ours, but they are 100% Christ's work in us. They are His grace. They are the works that He has ordained beforehand that we should walk in them.

And if they are not there, then they are evidence that there is no faith. There is no such thing as a fruitless Christian. Jesus says those branches are cut out and burned. And so it is right at times to examine ourselves, that we be in the faith and that we are growing in these works that are fitting for our repentance. May it be so.

Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your power that seeks us. We thank you that it is irresistible and that all of our resistance against you, our enmity against you, our hatred of your law, Lord you overcome and you change us and you bring us to love you, to want to serve you, to know you, and the victory and the power of your resurrection. Father, May we possess that which we have in Christ. May we use all of the resources that you have given to us through Christ to walk worthy of the calling with which you have called us. Father teach us to love You more faithfully, to delight in knowing You.

Father, we so often are attracted by the cares and the pleasures and the passions of this age. Grant us eyes, open our eyes to see the beauty of holiness and the glories of our inheritance in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.