This evening's service with hymn
number 268 from your hardback hymnal. 268, How Firm a Foundation,
268. Let's all stand together. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to
you he To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. Strengthen thee, help thee, and
cause thee to stand, Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not be overcome. flow for I will be with thee
thy troubles to bless and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design thy draws to consume and thy goal to refine the soul
that on Jesus hath leaned for repose I will not I will not
desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Please be seated. Never. Never. Oh boy, I'm so
thankful for that, aren't you? Never forsake. Open your Bibles
with me please to John chapter 16. John 16. The conference in Crossville was
a real blessing and I was just thinking that we had eight different
preachers and every one of them when they got in the pulpit said,
open your Bibles. And really, that's the only introduction
that the people of God need. You mean we're going to go to
the Word of God and see what God has to say? Yeah. Yeah. It was a blessing. I'm
thankful for the opportunity to go, and I'm thankful for Robert
and Michael and the faithful messages they brought here. I
listened to them on the way home and was very encouraged, as I
know you were. Alright, if you have your Bibles
open to John 16, we'll begin reading from verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. Every time the Lord speaks, that's
all He speaks is the truth. Never a man spake like this man.
He spake with authority. It is expedient for you that
I go away. It's good, it's necessary. that
I go to my Father and intercede on your behalf. For if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will
reprove the world You know that John 3 16 for God so loved the
world. Has the whole world been reproved
of sin? No, no. Those outside of Israel,
those worldling Gentiles, God's elect, he will reprove the world
of sin. He's not trying to reprove the
world of sin. He, he's doing it. and of righteousness and
of judgment, of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness
because I go to my Father and you see me no more, and of judgment
because the Prince of this world is judged." That's what the Holy
Spirit does. When He brings a dead sinner
to life in Christ, He convicts them of the fact that they've
been an unbeliever. He shows them that all their
righteousness, is in Christ, in the heavenlies. And he shows
them that the warfare has been accomplished, Satan has been
defeated, the grave has been conquered, sin's been put away.
That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I have yet many things
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will
show you things to come. shall glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you all things that the
father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of
mine and show it unto you the father gave all things to Christ
and the Lord Jesus Christ has given them to the spirit to reveal
them to us a little while and you shall not see me Again a
little while and you shall see me Because I go to the father Then said some of his disciples
among themselves What is this that he saith unto us a little
while and you shall not see me and again a little while and
you shall See me because I go to my father They said therefore
what is this that he saith a little while? we cannot tell what he
saith they couldn't understand. Pray the Lord will fulfill this
promise in our midst this evening. Give us His Spirit and reveal
to us what it is He accomplished in those days that He had departed
and now as He intercedes on behalf of His people before the Father.
Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, We're thankful that once again,
you've allowed us, brought us to this place. We're thankful
for the blessing of being able to open your word and know how
we pray that you would do for us what you did for those disciples
on the way to Emmaus when you broke bread with them and opened
their eyes that they might see. Lord, we pray for the power of
your Holy Spirit to reveal to us those things concerning thyself
that provide for us our hope, our comfort, our salvation, our
rest, our joy. Lord, set our affections on Christ. Show us thy glory. Reveal to
us, Lord, the hope of our salvation. How needful we are for that.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 127. Let's all stand again. Man of sorrows, what a name! For the Son of God who came,
ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement can it be? Hallelujah! what a savior lifted
up was he to die it is finished was his cry now in heaven exalted
high hallelujah what a savior When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah, what a Savior! Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles again
with me? to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter
8. I am so very hopeful that the Lord
will reveal to us what it means to walk after the Spirit. To walk after the Spirit. On our trip up to Crossville,
I was talking with the fellow next to me. in the airplane and
had an opportunity to share the gospel with him when he seemed
to have great interest. And towards the end of our conversation,
he said, well, what do you think about spiritual gifts? And I
said, what do you mean? He said, well, like speaking
in tongues. And I said, well, why would you
need to speak in tongues? And he said, because it confirms
my faith. It confirms my faith. He believed
himself to be walking after the Spirit because there was some
manifestation of spiritual things taking place in his life that
confirmed to him that he was a child of God. That's what most
people think walking into the Spirit is. Some sort of higher
life, some sort of sinless experience, some sort of head in the clouds, Walking above normal folks That's
what most people think walking after the spirit is in short
Walking after the spirit is making spiritual judgments with spiritual
senses You have five senses in your
body You're able to see hear Speak feel and and smell Those are your five
senses God uses those same senses to identify the spiritual man
And walking after the Spirit is having the Spirit of God enabling
you to make spiritual judgments with spiritual senses in the
same way that you make physical judgments with the physical senses
that you have. You use your senses all the time,
don't you? In order to navigate through
this physical world. So it is when God gives you his
Holy Spirit He enables you to see he enables you to hear he
enables you to feel he enables you to smell Which one am I missing
Enables you to to taste, to taste. And the Lord uses all of those
things in His Word to define what it means to walk after the
Spirit. Let's read these verses together.
Chapter 8, we'll read down to verse 9, beginning at verse 1.
There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. The law's been satisfied. Sin's
been put away. Those who are in Christ have... the law has nothing to say to
them. There's no fear of condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. So this thing of And now, being
in Christ Jesus and walking after the Spirit are two and the same
thing. It's the same thing. It's not, well, you can be in
Christ Jesus and not walk after the Spirit. No. No, he's defining what it means
to be in Christ Jesus. Those who are in Christ Jesus
walk not after the flesh. They're not using fleshly senses
to make spiritual judgments. have been given spiritual senses
by the Holy Spirit to make spiritual judgments. They still walk in
the flesh. We're men of flesh. We walk in this world. We see
things we like to look at. We see other things we don't
like to look at. We taste things that we like to taste, and we
taste other things we spit out. We walk in this world, in this
fleshly body, with five fleshly senses that enable us to navigate
through this world. And in the same sense, the Lord
has given to us these spiritual senses to make spiritual judgments. And that's what it means to walk
after the Spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. There was a time when I didn't
have these spiritual senses. All I had was my physical senses. I was forced to make all my judgments
with the physical senses that I was born with. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through the flesh, nothing wrong with
the law. The law is holy, the law is just, the law is good.
The law can't make you holy, the law can't justify you before
God, and the law can't add an ounce of goodness to us. The
law had to be fulfilled, and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do. And so he says, because of the
weakness of the flesh, there wasn't anything wrong with the
law. The problem was our ability to keep the law. God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Aren't you glad
that word likeness is there? God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God. You looked at the Lord Jesus Christ, there was nothing about
him that made him stand out physically above any other person. He seemed
to be walking in the flesh, Navigating himself through this world with
fleshly senses just like we do But he had the Spirit of God
from his conception Conceived of the Holy Ghost. That's what
it means to be conceived of the Holy Ghost He he walked in the
Spirit before he walked Before he walked Before he took his
first step, at around one year old, or however old most children
take, before he did that, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit. And in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. He laid down
his body as an offering to the Father to put away the sins of
his people. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Now don't misunderstand this.
You know, sometimes you hear believers say, well, I was just
in the flesh. I was in the spirit. No, no being
in the spirit being in the flesh is not you know, we're not This
is not a that kind of life You're either walking in the flesh or
you're walking in the spirit It's one way or the other those
who are walking after the flesh all they have is flesh and as
a result, they're forced to make all their spiritual judgments
with physical senses and Those who walk after the Spirit have
been given the Spirit of God. That's what he's gonna get Look
what he says for they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh But they that are after the Spirit the things of
the Spirit Now we spend a lot of time minding things of the
flesh. No way We you you're gonna in a couple hours you're gonna
get tired and you're gonna mind your flesh aren't you you're
gonna go to bed and If you haven't eaten dinner yet, you're going
to mind your flesh. You're going to provide for food for your
flesh. That's not what he's talking
about here. He's talking about using fleshly senses to make
spiritual judgments. Those are people who are walking
after the flesh. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can
be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God for they who come to him must believe that he is
and that he's the reward of them that diligently seek after him,
feel after him, look for him, hear his voice, taste the goodness
of his grace, But you are not in the flesh. Do you do fleshly things? Yeah. You are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit, so that the spirit, so be that the spirit of God,
if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. And if any man
have not the spirit of Christ, he's not of his. So if we We
have the spirit if there is no condemnation If we're in Christ Jesus We have
the Spirit of God and by the Spirit of God We've been given
spiritual senses to make spiritual judgments about spiritual truth.
We're not judging things by the natural senses of the flesh like
the natural man does and The natural man cannot receive the
things of the Spirit. They are spiritually discerned. He can't know them. So spiritual
discernment is what it means to walk in the Spirit. It's not
a higher life. It's not a sinless life. It's
not a life that's, you know, that that disregards all needs of
the flesh, a sacrificial life, a life of, you know, a monk's
life. Yeah, there are people over the
centuries, you know, well, if I could just lock myself up into
a monastery and pummel my flesh and, you know, then I can be
in the spirit and not in, that's not what this is about. Every
child of God walks after the flesh walked walks after the
Spirit If they have the Spirit of God, they have not Spirit
of God you none of his You're still under the condemnation
of the law And we just read in John chapter
16 if we have the Spirit of God We know something about the judgments
that he gave us that we didn't have before we have the Spirit
of God He he made us You know, listen,
somebody was talking about how lost they felt before they were
saved. And listening to them, I thought,
well, you know, I don't know if I, I started to evaluate my
own experience. And I thought, well, I don't
know if I felt that lost. And then I realized, you don't
know you're lost until you're saved. You know, it's not a matter of
going through some horrible conviction of sin. When the Spirit of God
comes, He will convict the world of sin because they believe not
on me. Lord, I wasn't trusting You.
I was trusting my will. I was trusting my works. I was
trusting my righteousness. I was an unbeliever. I was lost. Had you left me where I was,
I would have gone to hell. You see, it's not a matter of
being under some deep, horrible conviction where you, you know,
before you can be saved. And of righteousness, because
I go to my Father. I didn't know that my only righteousness
before God was bound completely, 100% up in the person of my substitute
who interceded on my behalf and presented himself to God for
all my righteousness. I thought, well surely there's
something I can do to prove that I've got some righteousness.
And of judgment, because the prince of this world has been
judged. The warfare is accomplished.
Sin's been put away. The grave no longer has a victory.
The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.
The law's been satisfied. We didn't know any of that before
we had the Spirit of God. Why? Because we were walking
after the flesh. We were making spiritual judgments
with fleshly senses. What is it to be in Christ Jesus,
to be in the Spirit, to possess the Holy Spirit, to have the
righteousness of the law fulfilled in us? How do I know if I'm walking
after the Spirit? What is it to be spiritually
minded? Do I have eyes to see, ears to
hear, a heart to feel? Do I smell the sweet aroma of
His grace? And do I taste? Let's look at
those things. Sometimes, now let me, sometimes
spiritual men who are walking after the Spirit can act carnally. Okay, turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. Verse 1, and I brethren, who's
Paul talking to? Who's God speaking to? He's speaking
to those who are in Christ Jesus. He's speaking to those who are
not under the condemnation of the law. He's speaking to saved
men and women who have the Spirit of God. And I brethren could not speak
unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes
in Christ. You're just acting like babies.
You, you, you, you're falling back on your physical senses
and you're making spiritual judgments with your senses of the flesh. I have fed you with milk and
not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither
yet are you able, for you are yet carnal." Now, he's not, you
know, I know that people, in religion, people say, well, you
know, there's carnal Christians, and then there's spiritual Christians.
No. He's talking to people who are
walking in the Spirit, who are acting carnally. Why are they
acting carnally? Because they're making the most
important spiritual judgments using their physical senses. For you are yet carnal, for whereas
there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you
not carnal and walk as men? Are you not acting carnally? For while one saith, I am of
Paul, and another one of Apollos, are you not carnal? Don't you're looking at a man
and you're making a spiritual judgment about who's superior
to another based on what preacher you like And so the Lord rebukes them
and and reminds them reminds them that they have been given
spiritual senses and Encourages them to make these judgments
with the spiritual senses that they have and We need to be reminded
of that. Don't we? It's so easy for us
to fall back on our, on our carnal senses. It's so easy for us to
make judgments based on what we see and what we hear and what
we feel, what we taste, what we smell. Um, the Lord saying,
I I've given you my spirit. In the end, the natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually
discerned." That's why you hear people say,
I won't believe it until I can see it, I can hear it, I can
feel it, I can smell it, or I can taste it. I've got to be able
to experience it with my five physical senses." Well, of course
they do. That's all they've got. That's all they've got. You can't
experience something spiritual with physical senses. Unless
God gives you His Holy Spirit, if you have not the Spirit of
God, you're none of His, unless He gives you the Holy Spirit.
You can't make judgments on spiritual things with physical senses.
So an honest lost man will say, I'm not going to believe it until
I can see it, until I can touch it. At least he's admitting that
that's all he's got to work with. The only nature he has is his
flesh, and the only way the flesh can judge anything is with the
physical senses. That's why the Bible says, that
which is of the flesh is flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing. The flesh cannot make spiritual
judgments. These eyes cannot see Christ. These ears cannot hear the voice
of Christ. This nose cannot smell the sweet
aroma of his grace. These hands cannot feel after
him. We just, we just can't do it. This tongue cannot taste the
sweetness of his grace. The problem is that the physical
world only exists out of the spiritual. You see that word right there?
Exit. It's the same word exist. It comes from the same root word.
And it means out of. So we exist physically out of
the reality of what's spiritual. Now, what does that make more
real? The physical or the spiritual?
Paul said, in him, we live and move and have our being. So the physical man is just looking
at the physical world and he's using the senses that he has
to navigate himself in this physical world and he has no idea that
the physical world exists out of the spiritual. And he has
no spiritual senses to see beyond what's right before his nose. The real substance of all matter
The real substance of all matter is that which it stands out of. Oh Lord, enable me to walk by
the Spirit, to not walk by the flesh, to not make my judgments
in this world based on just what I can sense with my physical
body. Give me your spirit. Enable me
to see beyond the physical into the spiritual. Because that's
the only thing that's going to last. And that's the only thing
that's real. The rest of this stuff isn't
even real. It's just... It's real to us in the flesh,
but it's not going to last, is it? It's not going to last. Everything in this world stands
out of the one who created it, the one who controls it, and
the one who will consume it all when he's finished with it. Everything. And yet we're so bound up. We're
like those believers that Paul was talking about. You're just
being carnal. You're forgetting the Spirit
of God. Men by nature know that there
is a spiritual world. But he lacks the spiritual senses
to know anything about it, so he tries to make sense of the
spiritual world with his physical senses. He knows that there's a God.
He knows there's something beyond life. And so when he looks for God,
he looks at theology. He looks at what he can learn
about the history of the church. He looks at his own performance. his own presumed law-keeping. He looks at his own experiences
and he tells you about what happened to him back at such a time. You
see, because he's using his physical senses to try to make spiritual
discernments. When he hears And we have people come here
all the time. They hear us preach, they hear us talk. They're coming
from a religious background that has no interest whatsoever in
the gospel. And I can't tell you how many
of those people have come up to me and said, oh, that was a great
message. That was an anointed sermon. What are they hearing? They're hearing words. They hear
us talk about God and Jesus Christ and salvation and heaven and
hell and that's all they hear. Why? Because they have ears,
but they do not hear. Eyes they have, but they do not
see. They have the physical, but they
don't have the spiritual. They're walking after the flesh,
not after the spirit. When they feel, They make judgments
about spiritual things based on how it makes them feel. If
it makes them feel warm and fuzzy, if they can get an emotion from
it, then it must be of God. We all have emotions. We all
have, you know, people ask you, somebody asks you, are you happy? What are you going to say? Well,
sometimes. And sometimes I'm sad and sometimes
I'm angry and sometimes I'm, you know, we have different feelings
and different emotions. And we're not going to try to
make spiritual judgments based on those things. Feelings come
and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My only
warrant is the word of God, none else is worth believing. When
the natural man tries to taste of the things of the spirit. The prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 5 verse 20, he calls the bitter sweet and he calls
the sweet bitter. He calls good evil and evil good. He'll eat up a gospel of free
will and good works and lay back fat and happy. And you'll spit it out as soon
as somebody tries to put it in your mouth. And he'll come and listen to
a message that gives to the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory for
salvation and exalts Him as the successful Savior of sinners. And what does he do? He spits
it out. He calls the bitter sweet and
the sweet bitter. He's got no discernment. He's
making his spiritual judgments based on his physical senses
because that's all he's got. That's all he's got. When he
smells, he's like a vulture, attracted to the smell of rotting
flesh. And what do you say? Oh, wretched
man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death. So what is it to walk? after
the spirit. The Lord said in Psalm 115, they
have their false gods have mouths, but they speak not. They have
noses, but they smell not. Ears they have, but they hear
not. Eyes, but they see not. Hands, but they handle not. And
they that make them are like unto them. What have they done? They fashioned
a God that is altogether as themselves. And they're making all their
judgments with the senses that man has from birth. Now, let's look at these five
senses real quickly. C. To see. What did the Lord say to Nicodemus?
Nicodemus, he had, this was a ruler of the, I mean, this was a man
that had theology and history and doctrine and scripture memorization. I mean, he was highly esteemed
among the elders of the Jews. A Pharisee. Remember the Santa came to Christ
We know that you've been sent of God For no man can do the
things that you do unless God be with him You see Nicodemus
was basing his judgments on what he saw the Lord perform in the
miracles And what'd the Lord say to him? The Lord wasn't impressed. The Lord knew that Nicodemus
was making spiritual judgments based on his physical eyesight.
And so the Lord said to him, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, you're blind. The
seeing eye and the hearing ear, they're both from the Lord. Nicodemus,
you haven't seen anything. When God gives you eyes to see,
you see that you have no righteousness, none whatsoever. You see that
salvation is of the Lord, that God sovereignly elected a people
according to his own will and purpose before the world began.
that he entered into a covenant with our surety, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world and
secured the salvation of his people in that covenant of grace. You see that the Lord Jesus Christ
successfully satisfied all the demands of God's law and actually
redeemed his people. You see, believers don't talk
about when they got saved. Because they got saved back before
time ever began. What we do talk about is when
God called us. When he called us out of darkness
into his marvelous light. When he revealed to us the Lord
Jesus Christ. We know that you see, you see
that all your holiness before God. You're not, you see, when
you start, when we start looking at ourselves and Satan would
have you use physical senses. That's how he accomplishes his
accusations. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. What's he have you do? He has you look with your
physical eyes at your life. And what do you think? Oh, no. If I was a child of God, I wouldn't
be looking like this. When the Spirit of God reminds
you through the preaching of the gospel, set your eyes on
things above. Look and live. Look. Don't look at the snakes on the
ground. Look at the serpent on the pole. All your sanctification is in
Christ and all the heavenly blessings of God in your glorification
are in the heavenlies right now in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, you're able to do what John did when God opened the windows
of heaven and John peered into the glory of God and saw the
Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God. You're able
to see that. Yes, I can see that. I see that
Christ is seated at the right hand of God and that he ever
lives to make intercession for me. I see that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. He's the reigning sovereign Savior. Don't you love that story in
second Kings chapter six, when the Syrian king sent his army
down to get Elisha down in Dothan and the army surrounded Elisha's
little cabin. And the sermon went out first
thing in the morning, he came back in and he said, master,
master, what do we do? Look, the Syrian army has surrounded
us. What did the prophet say? They
that are with us are more than they that be with them. What
do you mean? Lord opened his eyes that he
might see. And he went back out and there
were flaming chariots between them and their army. Were they
there the first time? Yeah. They were there before. But he couldn't see them. Why?
Because he had spiritual eyes. The Lord has to open our eyes
for us to see. This physical world that we live
in, it's very fleshly and God's given us fleshly senses to navigate
ourselves through this world. But all if we have the spirit
of God, we have the sense of sight through faith, enabling
us to see that our God is in control. He's he he has succeeded in Saving
his people and we can we can see that there's a place of there's
a place of rest Mark chapter 10 blind Bartimaeus
son of David have mercy upon me the scripture says his name
was Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus and Now you can look it up. Timaeus
means unclean. And Bar, you know in the scriptures,
means son of. So he was the son of an unclean
man. He was unclean. Jesus, son of David, have mercy
upon me. Be of good cheer, Bartimaeus,
the master calleth thee. What would you have me to do,
Bartimaeus? Oh, Lord, that I might see. Open my eyes so that I can
see. I'm blind. I'm blind. Every day, cry out to God, Lord,
open my eyes. I need to see Christ seated at
the right hand of God. I need to see what you accomplished
in the covenant of grace before time even began. I need to see
what was done on Calvary's cross. I need to see my savior interceding
on my behalf. I need to see the kingdom of
God. It's called the kingdom of God because that's what it
is. It's God's kingdom. The Lord
Jesus Christ reigns sovereign over his kingdom. I need to see
that. What is it to hear? Seeing and hearing go together. You remember when John, Revelation
chapter one, John heard a voice that was like many thunders,
and then he turned to see the voice. He turned to see the voice. Hearing
and seeing, you see, what you hear is what you see. What you
see is what you hear. You hear from the word of God
that he's absolutely sovereign. He's sovereign in salvation.
He's sovereign in providence. He's sovereign in creation. I
mean, you hear that he has the sovereign right to do with you
whatsoever he wills and that whatever he does is right. And
what does that do? It makes you a mercy beggar,
doesn't it? Oh, Lord, have mercy upon me. Or it's all up to you. I can't do anything. You hear that you're a sinner,
dead in your trespasses and sins. You can't be saved by your will.
You can't be saved by your works. You can't look to yourself for
anything. You hear that Christ successfully
satisfied everything that God required of you. That he put away your sin. that
he's your righteousness before God. You hear that, and you believe
it. You just believe what you hear.
Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God. You just know
he's, and you hear his call to come. And you come. My sheep, hear
my voice. And they follow after me. They
look to me for their spiritual judgments. They're not looking
at what they can see with their physical eyes to get the hope
of their salvation. They're not looking to what they
hear in the voice of a man or in their own voice for the hope
of their salvation. They're not feeling after their
emotions. The scripture speaks of blind
men groping for the wall. You could just see it. They're
just walking around looking to try to find something of substance. Do you remember when Samson was
tied to those two pillars of the Philistine temple, the temple
of Dagon? And in his dying act, he pulled
those two pillars down. and destroyed the temple of Dagon
and the army of the Philistines and what a picture of Christ,
our strong man. But I want you to think about
those pillars because here's what Samson said, suffer me that
I may feel the pillars where of the house standeth that I
may lean upon them. He asked to be tied to these
pillars. because he knew the house stood on these pillars,
and he wanted to lean upon those pillars. Much is told in the
scriptures about the two pillars that hold up the front porch
of the Old Testament temple that Solomon built. They were of solid
brass, they had beautiful ornate caps to them, and Solomon named
them. He named one of them Jachin. He named the other one Boaz and
these two pillars Jachin Translated means he shall establish and
Boaz translated means in him is strength He shall establish
in him is strength God has sovereignly purposed and he has accomplished
that which is purposed election and redemption, Jacob and Boaz,
the two pillars. And like Samson, we say, oh,
that I might lean upon those pillars. There's my strength. There's my hope. I feel after
him what he has purposed. He is also able to perform. There's the two pillars of our
salvation. the purpose of God and the performance
of God. And we feel after that. Listen
to what Paul said in Acts chapter 17, that they might seek the
Lord if happily they may feel after him and find him though
he be not far from them. See, we're always feeling after
Christ. We're not groping like blind men in the dark. What are
we looking for? We're looking for those pillars
that we can lean upon. What about taste? Peter said,
we've tasted that the Lord is gracious. And then the writer
of Hebrews says, it is impossible. It is impossible for those who
have tasted the heavenly gift and made partakers of the Holy
Ghost and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the
world to come. It's impossible for them to fall
away. Not possible. Why? Because they've tasted.
When you taste something that's really good, you want more of
it, don't you? You go back for seconds and thirds
and fourths. And when they tasted that manna
that came down from heaven, they said it was sweet like honey.
And when they made it into cakes, they said that it tasted like
fresh oil. Oh, that man is Christ. We've
tasted of his goodness. We've tasted of his grace. Oh,
taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that
trusts in him. And finally, We have the sense
of smell. You remember in Song of Solomon,
chapter five, when the Lord comes to his bride and he knocks upon
the door and she's slow in getting up. Did that ever happen to you?
You're slow in responding to the Lord's. And so he goes away. He removes the awareness of his
presence. And as soon as he's gone, she's
awake. And she goes to the door and
she smelt on the lock of the door, the smell of his presence. And she ran out the door and
she said, where's my beloved? Where's my beloved? If you find
him, tell him that I'm sick of love. I have smelt of his grace. And she went down to the spices,
to the garden of spices, and she smelt of him there, didn't
she? We have a spiritual smell, a spiritual sense. Some things just don't pass the
smell test, do they? Sunday afternoon, we were eating
lunch after the service in Crossville. On the buffet line there, there
was some pulled, some smoked chicken. And I got me a good
helping of it. And I was early in the line,
so I was already sitting down, I'd been eating that smoked chicken.
And all of a sudden, somebody hollered out and said, don't
eat the smoked chicken. Well, I wanted to spit it out.
It had a bad smell to it. Somebody had smelt it and it
was bad. Unfortunately, I didn't get sick from it. But all that
chicken went in the trash. You smell something. This is
rotting flesh. This is not right. And when you
smell a message of free will or a message that would cause
you to use your physical senses to make spiritual judgments,
it doesn't smell right, does it? It doesn't smell right. I
need the Holy Spirit. to give me good discernment.
And the scripture says in 1st, 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 that
the gospel is a savor, and that doesn't have to do with taste,
that has to do with smell, of life to some and a savor of death
to others. We break open the alabaster jar
and the whole room is filled with the aroma of His grace and
people come in, they smell it, they think it stinks. They can't
get out quick enough. What is it to walk by the Spirit?
It's to have the Holy Spirit, enabling you to make spiritual
judgments with spiritual senses. To be carnally minded is to attempt
to make spiritual judgment with physical senses. And that's what
the world does. That's all they can do. That's
all they can do. And what do we say? Lord, give
me your Spirit. Give me more of your Spirit.
If you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them who ask Him? Lord, I need more of your Spirit.
I can be so carnal. I can be so caught up with these
physical senses that I have. I need the Spirit of God. to
excite my soul, to make spiritual judgments. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and we ask, Lord, that you would bless it to the
hearts of your people. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number 169, let's stand together. Holy Spirit, faithful guide,
Ever near the Christian side, in a desert land. Weary souls for air rejoice,
while they hear that sweetest voice. Whisper softly, wanderer
come, follow me, I'll guide thee home. Ever present, truest friend,
Ever near thine aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear,
Groping on in darkness drear. When the storms are raging sore,
Hearts grow faint and hopes give o'er. Whisper softly, wanderer,
come. Follow me, I'll guide thee home. When our days of toil shall cease,
Waiting still for sweet release, Nothing left but heaven and prayer,
Knowing that our names are there, Wading deep the dismal flood,
pleading not but Jesus' blood. Whisper softly, wanderer, come,
follow me, I'll guide thee home. Thank you.