The Confession – part 2

May 31, 2026 • Rory Mosley

042 The Confession – part 2

Mark 8:27-38 (29)

May 31, 2026

We started this passage Sunday night.

It is the climax of the book of Mark.

Mark was clear out of the gate who Jesus is:

Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

But as we have seen for 8 chapters now,

The disciples did not fully grasp that for quite some time.

As we said, that DOESN’T MEAN that they never called Him the Messiah or even the Son of God, they did.

John 1:41 “He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ).”

John 1:49 “Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”

Matthew 14:33 “And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”

So it’s not like the disciples never made the claim.

John 6:69 “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

But even though they had at times attributed the title to Him,

What Mark has made increasing apparent to us is that

They still did not fully or accurately see Him.

· We saw them worried about bread.

· We saw them failing to understand defilement.

· We saw them failing to understand how set apart or unique He was.

They saw Him but didn’t see Him.

They heard Him but didn’t hear Him.

They were LIKE THAT BLIND MAN we saw last Sunday morning,

Who could see, but everything was blurry.

That was the disciples.

BUT on this day the Lord would open their eyes.

In fact, Matthew’s gospel attributes their confession

Purely to the sovereign revelation of God to them.

God would allow them to see.

And this time they would confess Him properly.

You might ask what makes this one different from all the others?

And we pointed out because this one was made in spite of the culture,

Not because of it.

Do you remember the man who was determined to follow Jesus, but only after he consulted with his friends?

Luke 9:61-62 “Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.”

· That man wanted to follow, but only if he could get the approval of his family and friends.

· His reputation was on the line and he didn’t want to look like a fool for following Jesus.

In many ways that was where the disciples had been.

It was easy to follow Jesus when the crowds were flocking to Him

And His popularity was rising.

But there was this ever-growing problem that

The chief priests and the Pharisees had not.

THE TIDE WAS TURNING ON HIS POPULARITY.

The disciples would have to decide if they would follow Jesus,

Even if they followed Him alone.

· What if the culture didn’t agree that He was the Messiah?

· What if the religious leaders never came around?

· What if Rome rejected this Man who claimed to be king?

Would you still follow even if everyone else thought you were wrong?

You would IF you truly believed Him to be God’s anointed King.

Well that is where we are with the 12.

Mark reminds of the public consensus on Jesus.

(27-28) “Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.”

The consensus on Jesus was that He could possibly be the forerunner to the Messiah, but He was not the Messiah.

· Elijah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist were all accepted as forerunners

· And the people, unable to deny Jesus’ power, were willing to concede that.

But NO ONE was willing to concede that He was the Christ

To whom they must bow and obey.

If the disciples confessed Jesus as the Christ,

They would be going against the very beliefs of the culture.

And this is what we discussed Sunday night.

We are talking about 5 realities of the Christian confession, and the first one we saw:

The True Christian Confession:

#1 RESISTS CULTURE

Mark 8:27-28

The disciples would have to hold to a belief that the culture rejected.

The disciples would have to have a commitment to Christ

That was deeper than the world’s commitment.

· There would be no assimilation.

· There would be no fence riding.

· They had to decide and take a stand.

And we talked about this and how important it is to understand.

The church cannot try to appease the culture

With her confession of Christ.

The world has many versions of Jesus

And every one of them is BLASPHEMOUS.

Even equating Jesus with John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah

Is blasphemous to Christ.

He is much higher, much greater, much more glorious.

Just read the next chapter when God the Father from heaven

Rebukes Peter for trying to make Moses and Elijah equal with Christ.

It is a slap in the face to God and to His Christ.

JESUS IS THE HIGHEST ONE.

And if that comparison is blasphemous, how much more those of our day?

· Like Islam who holds Jesus to be a prophet.

· Like Mormonism who holds Jesus to be the older brother of Satan, begotten, not eternal.

· Like Jehovah’s witnesses who hold that Jesus is not divine.

· Like Catholicism who holds that Jesus must continually be sacrificed because His one death was not enough.

· Or like your buddy at work or your friend at school who has some other hair-brained off-the-wall interpretation of Jesus.

The Christian confession categorically rejects them all.

We do not compromise on the person or work of Jesus.

We reject the cultural view of Jesus.

We are determined to go upstream, against the flow,

And to follow Jesus even when the world does not approve.

That is the first characteristic of the Christian confession.

IT RESISTS CULTURE.

The True Christian Confession:

#2 RECOGNIZES CHRIST

Mark 8:29

That should be obvious to us.

But as we talked about Sunday night in our opening introduction,

The Christian confession must be an ACCURATE confession.

You must confess the Biblical Jesus

Or it is not an acceptable confession.

And to accurately confess Him, you must accurately recognize Him.

· That He is truly man and truly God.

· That He was born of a virgin.

· That He lived a sinless life.

· That He actually died on the cross.

· That He was literally raised from the dead.

· That He did ascend to heaven.

· That He will return.

Those are non-negotiables.

That is who Christ is, and if you miss that, you miss it all.

1 Timothy 3:16 “By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”

John taught us:

1 John 4:2-3 “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

1 John 4:15 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

· If you don’t confess Christ as having come in the flesh as an actual human your confession is flawed.

· If you don’t confess Christ as being fully divine your confession is flawed.

John would also say:

2 John 7-11 “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

We must rightly recognize who Christ is.

And then we must confess Him as the Christ.

Well, that is what we see here from Peter.

After reminding that the world only sees Jesus as some type of prophetic forerunner, Jesus pushes further.

(29) “And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”

Matthew’s gospel records even more detail:

Matthew 16:16 “Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

It was an accurate confession revealed to Peter by the Father

And then confessed publicly by him.

Mark doesn’t include the phrase “the Son of the living God.”

· That is not because Mark does not believe Jesus to be God’s Son.

· Certainly he does, he stated in the very first verse of his gospel account.

Mark chooses to focus on this one reality,

Namely that Jesus is in fact the Christ.

He’s not overlooking the other, he’s merely emphasizing this one fact.

JESUS IS THE CHRIST.

· This is the conviction of Peter and the rest of the disciples.

· This is the confession of Peter and the rest of the disciples.

Regardless of what the culture may think,

The disciples are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ.

But I suppose a good question for us at this point is:

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS?

It really starts at the very beginning after Adam and Eve fall in the garden and God is pronouncing the curse.

Genesis 3:14-15 “The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Sin had entered the world and a terrible curse with it.

· Satan would be consigned to his belly.

· Eve would be consigned to pain.

· Adam would be consigned to toil.

But the glorious hope even found in the curse

Is that one day this seed of the woman would crush that serpent

And rescue Eve from her pain and Adam from his toil.

And even though there is not much known about him at the time,

Humanity instantly began to look for this coming deliverer.

In the very next chapter Eve gives birth to Cain and says:

Genesis 4:1 “Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”

· No doubt there was a hope in her that the first appearance of her “seed” would

be the one who would reverse the curse.

· Unfortunately Cain was no Messiah. Instead of saving his brother, Cain would

murder his brother and the curse would endure.

Even several generations later when Lamech had a son:

Genesis 5:29 “Now he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed.”

· Lamech was also looking for the one who would deliver, but Noah was not the

deliverer.

· Noah needed deliverance and through him was only able to save his immediate

family.

And for several thousand years men continued to look for

The One who would come to deliver,

Knowing only that he would be a man born of woman.

No doubt many caused a bit of excitement.

· Isaac’s miraculous birth must have caused some excitement.

· God choosing Jacob over Esau must have garnered some attention.

· Joseph was clearly the best of the bunch from Jacob’s line.

And yet none of them proved to be the Messiah.

Israel would go to Egypt and a strapping young Hebrew would be providentially delivered by God and raised as a ruler in Egypt.

· This young man would even abandon his Egyptian privilege to take his place among the Hebrews.

· He would strike down a Hebrew and even Moses himself thought he might be the great deliverer.

But Stephen pointed out that it was NOT TO BE:

Acts 7:23-27 “But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. “And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. “And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. “On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?’ “But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?”

Moses would be a great leader and deliverer.

· God would use him to rescue His people from slavery in Egypt,

· But the curse would remain.

Over the years Judges would arise with power from God,

· But they would each demonstrate character flaws and human failures indicating that they also were not the chosen one.

Israel then determined to look for a king.

They wanted what the nations had.

They would speed this process along.

Saul became the obvious choice:

1 Samuel 9:2 “He had a son whose name was Saul, a choice and handsome man, and there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of Israel; from his shoulders and up he was taller than any of the people.”

· But he too would be disobedient and corrupt and God would remove the throne from him.

And then we came to the most promising prospect

The world had seen since the Garden of Eden.

The prophet Samuel was sent to Jesse to anoint one of his sons as king.

When the youngest, a man named David was brought, we read:

1 Samuel 16:12 “So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.”

This young David certainly showed promise.

· A man after God’s own heart.

· A giant slayer.

· Putting down the enemies of Israel.

But David could not reverse the curse.

He, in fact, would succumb to it with his own moral failures.

David was a great king, but not Messiah.

BUT DURING HIS REIGN we did get a second and very important piece of the puzzle.

Though David would not be the Messiah,

One of his descendants would be.

2 Samuel 7:16 “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’”

We knew the Messiah would be a man born of woman,

And now we know what family to keep an eye on.

One of David’s sons would be the one creation had longed for.

Psalms 89:19-37 “Once You spoke in vision to Your godly ones, And said, “I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. “I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, With whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him. “The enemy will not deceive him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. “But I shall crush his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him. “My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn will be exalted. “I shall also set his hand on the sea And his right hand on the rivers. “He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ “I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. “So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven. “If his sons forsake My law And do not walk in My judgments, If they violate My statutes And do not keep My commandments, Then I will punish their transgression with the rod And their iniquity with stripes. “But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. “My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. “His descendants shall endure forever And his throne as the sun before Me. “It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful.” Selah.”

It is a passage that drips of Messianic promises and fulfillments.

We see statements like “I shall crush his adversaries”

· Our minds are instantly returned to the promise in the garden.

We statements like “I also shall make him My firstborn”

· Eve hoped for Cain, but God’s firstborn is on the way.

Statements like “My covenant shall be confirmed to him.”

And “My covenant I will not violate”

The Messiah is coming and He is coming from David’s line.

God started pouring out more prophecies about this coming King.

Isaiah really seemed to have the inside track.

We don’t have time to read them all, but some are certainly iconic and famous.

Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

Isaiah 11:1-10 “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea. Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious.”

Isaiah 35:1-7 “The wilderness and the desert will be glad, And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom; Like the crocus It will blossom profusely And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, The majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the Lord, The majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.” Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah. The scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes.”

Isaiah 61:1-3 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

And we could really go on and on and on there.

· Jeremiah called Him the righteous branch.

· Daniel saw the Son of Man, the ancient of days.

· Micah said He would be born in Bethlehem.

· Zechariah said He would enter on a donkey’s colt.

· Malachi told us Elijah would come before Him.

THE PICTURE WAS GETTING CLEARER AND CLEARER

A coming ruler who will reverse the curse

And give life to that which is dead.

Now, we also learn from Isaiah

That were also many prophecies about His suffering.

Prophets also saw His death, burial, and resurrection.

What is clear for us here in Mark’s gospel is that the disciples had failed to discern that.

They had missed the prophecies concerning His suffering,

But they were more than familiar with those concerning His reign.

So what that means here in Mark 8

Is that when Peter says, “You are the Christ.”

He was identifying Jesus as:

· God’s long-promised…

· Humanities long-awaited…

· Satan’s long-dreaded…

· REIGNING KING!

He comes with authority.

He comes with power.

He comes with hope.

Now the culture doesn’t think that Jesus is this long-awaited one,

· The culture thinks He’s from God.

· The culture thinks He’s powerful.

· The culture thinks He’s merciful.

But they stop short of calling Him the Messiah.

· They hesitate to say that He’s more righteous than Noah.

· They hesitate to see Him as more impressive than Isaac or Jacob or

Joseph.

· They hesitate to recognize Him as greater than Moses.

· They refuse to see Him as more glorious than David.

He’s impressive, but they are not willing to see Him as

More impressive than all of the O.T. saints who did not measure up.

But Peter and the 12 go against the culture and confess.

“You are the Christ”.

· YOU ARE more righteous than Noah.

· YOU ARE more chosen than Isaac.

· YOU ARE more qualified than Moses.

· YOU ARE more glorious than David.

You have what none of them had.

You are unique, You are greater, “You are the Christ.”

What they had failed to perceive as Jesus fed the 5,000,

They have now recognized.

And the facts must have flooded their minds.

· They had seen countless demons bowing to Him.

· They had heard Him speak with authority.

· He had offered forgiveness to sinners.

· He had opened blind eyes.

· He had opened deaf ears.

· He had loosened mute tongues.

· He had given life to the dead.

HE IS THE ONE!

Jesus is the One we have been waiting for.

· He is the One who will crush the serpent’s head.

· He is the One who will usher in David’s kingdom of eternal peace.

· He is the One who will reign in righteousness and justice.

But you certainly understand that

The confession is ABOUT MORE than recognition.

· A confession like this is about authority.

· A confession like this is about submission.

· A confession like this is about trust.

· A confession like this is about obedience.

IF JESUS IS REALLY THE KING THEN OBEYING HIM IS EXPECTED.

After walking with Jesus for a couple of years,

The disciples have now determined that

Jesus is the One they will obey.

HE IS THEIR KING.

HE IS THEIR LORD.

They have recognized Him and they have confessed Him.

And this is the SECOND unique aspect of the Christian confession.

First the Christian confession resists the culture.

Second the Christian confession recognizes Christ.

We DON’T see Him as a good man.

We DON’T see Him as a faithful prophet.

We DON’T see Him as a potential forerunner.

WE SEE JESUS AS GOD’S CHRIST.

We see Him as the Lord and King

Whom God has expected us to submit to and obey.

We actually and totally submit our lives

To the authority of the One whom God has crowned as King.

Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

We said it Sunday night, but we want to say it again here this morning.

While a man is justified in the sight of God based upon faith.

There is a second element mentioned by Paul

And that is confession which leads to salvation.

AND WHAT THAT MEANS TO US IS THAT

You can claim to believe in Jesus all day long,

But if you have not confessed Him as Lord you are not saved.

Matthew 10:32-33 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.”

There must be a confession of Christ.

You must recognize Him as the Christ and make a public confession of it.

A confession of submission to Him as the ruler of your life.

As we said, this must be AN ACCURATE CONFESSION.

· You can’t confess Him as anything less than He is.

· It must be the Biblical confession.

And it must be AN AUTHENTIC CONFESSION.

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

When we talk about a recognition and confession

This is NOT a lighthearted thing.

It is NOT a symbolic thing.

It is NOT some ceremonial thing.

It is to publicly bow the knee and yield the will

To the total authority and rule of Jesus as God’s King.

Consider Pentecost when Peter preached to the city that had murdered the Lord.

Acts 2:32-40 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” ’ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”

Peter’s sermon here is clear.

· Jesus is the Christ.

· God has anointed Him as the King.

· His enemies will soon be destroyed.

And when the people realize that Peter is correct they ask what to do?

And Peter tells them that they need to repent and be baptized.

What is that?

· That is their confession.

· That is their public declaration.

DON’T GET YOUR WIRES CROSSED.

Baptism DIDN’T save them.

They WEREN’T saved as a result of their baptism.

But their outward confession does validate their inward belief.

They believed and we know they believed because they confessed.

Abraham was justified in Gen. 15, but in Gen 22 when he offered his son, God said, “for now I know that you fear God”

But that outward confession was important.

He doesn’t just tell them to believe and go home,

He tells them to make a public declaration of Jesus as the Christ.

And as Peter continues, notice he says,

“Be saved from this perverse generation.”

That so closely follows what Jesus says here in this Mark passage.

(8:38) “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

That is the culmination of these first two points.

· This world is perverse.

· This world is adulterous and sinful.

· This world does not recognize Christ.

The calling to us is that

We go out and make a public confession of Jesus as the Christ

In the midst of this evil generation that rejects Him.

THAT IS THE CHRISTIAN CONFESSION.

· We confess Christ.

· We declare before men that we believe Him to be the Christ.

· We declare before men that we will follow and obey Him regardless of what they think or say.

Paul laid it out to the Philippians which the youth have recently studied:

Philippians 3:18-21 “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

The contrast could not be more distinct.

· There are those who live for this world.

· They follow the lusts of their flesh.

· They glory in shameful things.

· They are focused on the things of this world.

That is NOT a Christian.

That is NOT a follower of Christ.

That is someone loves the world and follows the world.

And Paul says that their end is destruction.

But the Christian is different.

· The Christian considers Jesus to be their King.

· They are waiting for Him to come.