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HopeLives365

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

Mark Finley

01 Persecuted but Not Forsaken

02 Reasons for Thanksgiving and Prayer

03 Life and Death

04 Unity Through Humility

05 Shining as Lights in the Night

06 Confidence Only in Christ

08 The Preeminence of Christ

09 Reconciliation and Hope

Thanks again for joining us for our Sabbath School Lessons.

If you have friends that haven't joined us yet, be sure to help them to know where to tune to Hope Lives 365 so that they too can enjoy the blessing of the Sabbath School lessons.

We're on lesson number 6, Confidence Only in Christ.

We are studying the books of Philippians and the book of Colossians, and God is moving through these books as we study them.

It's just really amazing to see the practical life-changing lessons in both the book of Philippians and the book of Colossians.

So let's pray as we study the lesson today, confidence only in Christ.

Thank you for his love, his grace, and his goodness.

Thank you that we can have confidence in Christ and we can be changed through his righteousness, saved by his righteousness, and we can enter heaven not because of who we are, but because of who he is.

We know salvation from the beginning to end is about Jesus.

So Lord, thank you for beginning a good work in us, and we know too you're going to finish it as we trust in your grace.

You know, there is something about each 1 of us that has a difficult time accepting the gift of salvation through Christ.

I think our author is right when he writes in that first paragraph in lesson 6, there's something about us that remains suspicious about salvation by faith alone, apart from the works of the law.

That is, for some reason, we all tend to lean on our works as if they could add to our salvation.

In a rather striking way, Paul deals with this point in a vigorous polemic against those who insist that circumcision is necessary for salvation.

When you think about it historically, the church comes out of the dark ages, the Christian church, the Apostle Paul in those early centuries preached that salvation came through grace by faith alone and that grace transformed our lives so that we could perform good works.

But during the darkness of the Middle Ages when church and state united, the traditions of men, the deeds of man, the church regulations and rules tended to supersede the simple faith of the gospel.

So God began to raise up people like the Waldenses, like John Hus, like Wycliffe, like Martin Luther, who began to share that the Word of God is the basis of our faith.

Sola Scriptura, the Word of God alone, that Latin expression, by God's Word alone and by faith alone.

A faith that grasps Christ's righteousness, a faith that accepts what Christ has done for me, a faith that opens its heart to receive God's grace and the gift of salvation.

The Reformation led the way in that and God is still revealing to us the majesty of his grace, still charming us with his love, still motivating us by the redemption of the Christ on the cross.

Our confidence is not in ourselves, but our confidence is in Jesus.

In Sunday's lesson, we read about rejoicing in the Lord.

In other words, when it's all said and done, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

We're rejoicing in his goodness, his grace, his mercy.

We're rejoicing the fact that he lived the perfect life.

He lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died.

He took upon himself what we deserve to take upon ourselves.

For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it's safe.

When you're walking down the street, look behind you?

No, well, it might be a good thing to do.

But in the New Testament, this idea of dogs was a term that was used for unbelievers.

So beware of unbelievers or false teachers is another way to put it.

It's beware of evil workers, beware of the Mutilation.

So the mutilation could have meant circumcision, that people were leading, false teachers were leading those saved by grace through Christ alone back to a works righteousness of circumcision.

These dogs are unbelievers, evil teachers.

They don't believe in righteousness by faith through Christ.

Evil workers, mutilation, those taking them back to the ceremonial law.

Because he says then in verse 3, we are of the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh.

Because the Holy Spirit has led us to a new understanding, an understanding that salvation is about Jesus.

We come to Jesus and his life was lived for us, his death was lived for us, he transforms us.

As in English, the 2 Greek words for these ideas are related.

And his word is a kind of instruction manual for true happiness.

The Bible is an instruction manual for true happiness and lasting joy.

These include receiving God's mercy, Psalm 31.7, placing our trust in Him, Psalm 511, receiving the blessings of salvation, Psalm 9, verse 14, adopting God's law as our way of life, Psalm 119, verse 14, including the Sabbath, Isaiah 58, verse 13 and 14, believing his words, Psalm 119, verse 162, and raising godly children, Proverbs 23, verse 24 and 25.

We rejoice in everything God has done for us.

Paul tells us why that rejoicing is so important and how we can rejoice.

He looks at his past life, he contrasts his past life, what he was to what he is now.

So when Paul looks at his past life, what does he really see?

We read this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 4 to 6.

So here's the things he could have boasted about, and he didn't boast about in his past life.

He says, Philippians 3, verse 4, though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so.

Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel.

So eighth day circumcision, very special in Judaism.

And he then he goes on to say in verse 5, circumcised the eighth day of the Chastok of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Benjamin's tribe of course had 1 of the prime locations in the promised land, 1 of the larger territories, a Hebrew of Hebrew.

And I'm not a Hebrew, I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

You know, there weren't a great deal, a number of Pharisees when it looked at the, when we look at the majority of the Jewish population.

So Paul says, look, I'm circumcised the eighth day.

Not only do I have this pedigree, not only do I have this inheritance, this heritage, but look at my actions concerning zeal.

I took care of those people that didn't believe like we believed.

Then he says, concerning righteousness, which is the law, I was blameless.

Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2026: Uniting Heaven and Earth: Christ in Philippians and Colossians

06 Confidence Only in Christ

Transcript

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