We need nothing ever as we are.
We need, we need, we need nothing ever as we are. We need, we need, we need nothing ever as we are. OK, let's turn in our Bibles. Is this on? Can you hear it?
Turn in our Bibles to Ephesians 6. Continue our study there. What I have decided to do, as
you know, we have been going through the book of Acts also,
and I've decided to, we've finished Ephesians now, Well, after we
get through this. But what we're going to do is
take the remainder of our studies in the book of Acts and do that
Sunday morning in the Bible study. And then after that, I'm not sure where
we'll go, but we have several more chapters in Acts. All right,
Ephesians 6, let's read the text again. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. having your loins girt about
with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet
shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all,
taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked, wicked one, and take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the which is the word of God,
praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints and for me, that utterance may be given unto me,
that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of
the gospel. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on this. tonight. Our Heavenly Father, we come to you as you have instructed us and
taught us and in the way that we are convinced in our own hearts
and mind. The only way that sinners like
we are can come to a holy God in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ, the representative substitute for sinners, the Lamb as it had
been slain. We come to you through His name,
that is, His person, His authorities, His Lordship, and all power given
unto Him. heaven and earth, all power over
all flesh. And that means us. We are in
his hands to do with as he pleases. And he promised that all that
come to the Father by him will be received of the Father. So
we come in and through our Lord, our Master, our Sovereign Ruler
and King, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. And we come to you
through his work. dear Lord, pleading by faith,
realizing, knowing, understanding, believing in the heart, knowing
in our heads, our desperate need for the righteousness and shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we come to you through him.
And Lord, we come praying always in this way, in the name of Christ,
according to the will of God, which is that we see the Son
and believe on Him. And you raise us up again at
that last day in Him, seated with Him. We come to you through
Christ, in the name of Christ, that we might do that one thing
needful. And we know we'll have these
things of you. This is the confidence we have, the things we ask. We
ask according to your will we have them. And this one thing
we know you delight to give to your children, that one thing
needful. And that is a better knowledge
of your Son. We might know Him a little better
as a result of studying your Word. Lord, teach us, lead us,
guide us, direct us in all things. We pray in all things that you
would make your will known to us in everything, no matter how
small it may seem to us. in everything with thanksgiving. We bring our petitions, we let
our requests be made known, praying always. We want to do that, Lord. We talk from your word. You have
instructed us personally, and Lord, we ask, like the disciples,
that you teach us to pray. You've taught us how. You've
told us what things to say. when we pray that thy will be
done for daily bread and forgiveness and so forth. But Lord, we need
your instruction, your leadership to make us pray. Teach us to
pray in all things. That this is how we're strong
in the Lord, calling upon thee, the power of his might. Call
upon thee. You said, you promised you'd
be a very present help in time of trouble, so we call upon You.
We want to. We're doing it now that You would
speak to us through the Word. And we want to do it in all things,
in every situation, so as not to run before Thee, but to wait,
but to wait on Thee. We get in trouble, Lord. We get
ourselves in trouble by not waiting on Thee. And this waiting has
something to do with prayer and seeking Your will. We ask, Lord,
that You would teach us to pray. in all things. So we ask tonight, if anything,
as a result of this message, that we might learn that and
learn where we can find comfort and answers in this time of need. We pray, Lord, for our sisters
who are ill. We continue to pray for them,
hold them up before you, and ask that you would Heal them
according to your will for your glory. Lord, get glory out of
this. Get glory to your name. We'll tell everybody that you
did it. You healed them. It's the Lord
that healeth. You wound and you heal. We know
that. Get glory to your name by raising
up those whom you love, just like Lazarus. And get glory through
us by raising us up to walk in the goodness of life. The hearing
is the Father glorified. We bear much fruit. We ask that,
Lord, for ourselves. Christ's likeness. It's in Christ's
name we pray and ask these things. Amen. Okay, last time we looked at
Ephesians 6. Together we saw what it meant,
or looked at it anyway, what it meant to be strong in the
Lord. And that is faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Be strong in faith. That's the
answer to what it means to be strong in the Lord. Paul says,
finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord. That is, look to
Him for everything, especially salvation, for all of your salvation. But look to Him for everything,
though. He is our strength. That's what
he says. His name, the Lord our strength,
the Lord that provided, the Lord that healeth, the Lord our, and
so forth, our peace. Look to Him for our help, our
strength in time of trial, trouble, tribulation, distress, decisions,
indecisions, calling upon Him. We saw that this thing of looking
to Him and even to have faith in Him It requires us to call
upon Him for faith, to ask Him. You remember, we concluded we
need to even ask Him that He'll make us ask, right? We need to ask Him to give us
the desire to desire. Without Him, the Scripture says,
we can't do anything. We're not even sufficient to
think. Can't even think on these things, right? And that's the
reason Paul says over and over again, pray for me, pray for
me, a preacher, pray for yourself. This is an important time. We've
got some vital things to look into here, necessary things,
eternal things, things that you can't do without. We can do without
everything we're thinking about or everything that we were thinking
about before we got here, right? We've all got food and rain.
That's all we need. We need we need a better knowledge
of Christ and his work. So we pray we call upon him in
everything that's what he said a couple of books over a couple
of chapters over in Philippians. You know this well you can probably
quote it in Philippians chapter four he says this in verses six
and seven be careful for nothing but in everything In other words,
don't be overly concerned about anything. Don't worry. He knows
what things you have need of before you ask. Don't be overly
concerned about buts, he said, in everything. Everything? Why, I don't want to burden the
Lord with such a trivial matter. Everything. Everything. Don't go running around telling
everybody that you're praying about, you know. this and that. I get tired of that. Don't you?
Don't you hate to hear people say that all? I prayed that the
Lord would not let me have a flat tire, and I didn't. Yeah. You know, that's bragging on
your prayings, what that's doing. You're letting everybody know
what you've been praying. You know, you've heard them. People bragging
all the time. But in everything, though, we
are to take everything before the Lord by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving. Don't just go to Him asking,
asking, asking, asking. The true meaning of prayer is
thanking, thanking, thanking, thanking. Right? But you can
let your request be made known unto God because He's a merciful
Heavenly Father and you can come to Him much more than you can
come to your own parent. And He'll give good things to
them that ask Him. Right? The Holy Spirit and the peace
of God are in so forth. And this applies to everyday
life, doesn't it? Decisions, every endeavor we
undertake, we better ask Him. But we run the risk of running before Him and being out of His will. I
think you know what I'm saying when I say that. Everything's
His will, but sometimes it's His will for us to show us We
need to wait on, seek His will, and let us get in trouble. We
should seek His leadership, His guidance, His help in everything.
And He'll make it clear. He'll make it clear. And He says, Be strong in the
Lord. Believe on Him. Trust Him. Depend
upon Him. Call upon Him. He's a very present
help in time of trouble. All right, how is He a help in
time of trouble? How does He help us? We call
upon him and we want to be strong in faith, dependent upon him.
And it says he's a very present help in time of trouble. How? How does he help us? How does
he come to our aid? How does he answer us? Huh? Aside from his providential dealings. In other words, we seek the Lord's
will and so forth. And we find out it's his will
when doors open, when things are made clear in Providence,
right? But principally, how does God answer us? How does he speak
to us? That's it. Through the word.
The word is the power of his might. That's what he said there. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of his might. And that's our whole subject
tonight, the power of his mind. The Word of God is his power.
It is the power of God. God spoke things into existence
by his Word, right? He just merely spoke. Everything
Christ did when he was here, he spoke it, didn't he? He spoke
it. The Word of God is how God speaks
to his people. He upholds, the Scripture says,
he upholds all things by The Word of His power. And that means
us. Doesn't it? We are upheld instead
of going down under the waves, in the sinking sands, under the
trials and tribulations. Instead of going down into the
pit like the rest of the world. Deliver me from going down into
the pit. He upholds us by His Word. By His Word, which is His
power. And what does the Word speak
of? It's a twofold meaning, isn't it? When you talk about the Word,
you must talk about Christ, right? Christ is the Word. He's the
incarnate Word, and then you have the written Word. They're
one and the same. When they speak, they're synonymous. The Word of God. And this Word
of God teaches us about Christ. It leads us. It guides us. It protects us. Our comfort It
instructs us. It gives us peace. It encourages
us. It strengthens us. It's the Word
of His power. It's powerful, isn't it? Isn't
that what He said over in Hebrews? Sharper than a two-edged sword.
It's powerful. It's quick, life-giving, and
powerful. And He tells us to be strong
in the Lord and the power of His might. Be strong in Him,
faith in Him, and strong in this Word. in this work. All right? Let's look at it a little bit.
He says here in Ephesians 6 verse 11, put on the whole armor of
God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
And then he goes and he says, we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against rulers
of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high
places. In other words, our foe is much
stronger than we are. Wherefore, for that reason, you
need an impenetrable armor, something that the fiery darts of the wicked
one cannot penetrate. And so he begins to describe
that armor, and he gives the several pieces of it. But I want
you to know that all of these pieces are found where? In the
Word. So it all speaks of the Word,
and it all speaks of Christ. Christ is that he is the truth. Verse fourteen. Christ is the
righteousness. Verse fourteen. Christ is the
gospel. Verse fifteen. Christ is our faith, the object
of our faith, right? Christ is the one who crowns
us. Verse seventeen. Christ is the word, the sword
of God's spirit and so forth. And so we're talking about Christ,
the incarnate and his word here. And his word is what we need
to wear in order to be wise to Satan's wiliness. That's what it said there in
verse, that you may be able to stand, verse thirteen, let's
see, which verse, eleven, verse eleven, against the wiles of
the devil. We need to be wise to his ways
or his wiliness. How? How are we? How are we going
to recognize His tactics and all? Right here. Right? Right here. The Word of
God is the power of His might, and it's the means, this is the
means that God Almighty has given us to avail ourselves of a very
present help in time of trouble. Very present. It's so close,
it's so present, He said He wrote it on your heart. How many times
have you been able to recall that the Lord has recalled something
to you that you've been taught from his book at various given
time? Huh? And it's been a very present
help to you. Huh? The Word of God written
on your heart. What isn't written on your heart
is laying on your coffee table. Very present, isn't it? It's
as near as reaching the Lord. Isn't it? For our protection
as well as You know this is the only suit armor that you can
wear and you can eat it too. You can eat it. It'll protect
you and it'll nourish you too. How many times have we seen this
and discussed this over the years that I've been here? The importance
of the word of God. How many times? And when will
we, when will I learn what we, this priceless treasure we have
in our possession? When am I going to learn? That
when I get down and get troubled and this and that and the other
and this decision and whatever to make it, there's no need in
getting all torn up, huh? When he's given us exceeding
precious promises, precious promises and answers. God has given us
everything we need in any given situation, any. Everything we need in any given
such situation is dealt with in this book. And it might not
be in exactly black and white but the principle is there. And
we'll find it. We'll find it. We say seek and
you'll find it. Need answers? Seek. Ask. Pray. Spurgeon said the key to
unlocking scriptures is prayer. That's the key. I don't understand
that. Well, who are you asking? Me? Ask the Lord. He's the one who wrote it. Right?
And that's the key to unlocking Scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, illuminate me. Illuminate
your Word. And teach me. Lead me and guide
me. And this is how he does it. The
important thing now, listen. We sing this sermon now. I'm
like Scott, I'm not just preaching now, I'm going to tell you something.
Telling you the truth. This is good. The important thing
to remember here, when we talk about reading the scriptures,
this is not some genie's lamp that when we get in trouble,
we'll go read it, you know, rub it, and magical thing. That's not, that's not, it's
not a rabbit's foot either. We read it in the morning and
every before we'll have good luck during the day. You know
some people do that. People trust their Bible reading.
Well I read my Bible this morning and I feel real good. We do that
sometimes don't we? Feel real good because I read
my Bible this morning and therefore surely I might not sin today
or something. Huh? Come on. Don't tell me that
thought hasn't crossed your mind. Has mine. That's not what it
is. This Bible If we don't get anything
out of what we read, we read it in vain, hadn't we? We read
it in vain. Might as well read the Roanoke
Times. If we didn't get anything out of it, how are you going
to get anything out of it? Well, I just told you. Prayer is the
key. Keep reading the same verse if
necessary until the Lord illuminates it. Lord, I can't. I'm having
a hard time here reading this. I've got to go to work. I've
got to go. I'm not getting it. Lord, just give me a word. Just
a word. Look, it's good now. I can go
on that. Look, unto me. So you understand the principle
I'm saying there. But this word is designed, not like I said,
as a rabbit's foot or a genie's lamb or a magical power, but
it's designed to increase our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what this book is all about. As I've said so many times,
it's not to show us how to live, although it does, right? And I'm going to clarify that
a little bit. But it's to increase our faith
in Christ. That's what it's for. That's
what we need to get out of whatever we read. That's the reason I
say if we don't see Christ in what we're reading, we didn't
profit from it. Let me make good on that, OK?
When I say the words, the power of God, and so forth, and the
necessity of reading it, I'm not talking about that we're
living by the Bible, that this is what we're trying to do, live
by the Bible. A lot of people are trying to
live by the Bible. I'm not talking about the Bible
being our strength. That'd be works, wouldn't it?
Wouldn't it? That'd be law, wouldn't it? Well, this is what the Bible
says, it's the law, it's what the letter, it's the letter of
the law, the word, right? I'm going to live according to
that. That's duty, isn't it? That's duty. Scripture says we
work, faith works by love. That's the only way you will
work. That's the only way you will
work. That's the only way you will resist the devil. That's
the only way you will resist sin. It's by love, not duty. The strength of the sin is what,
John? The law. That means the Bible. Our nature is such that it wants
to do exactly the opposite of what we're told to do. Listen
very carefully to what I'm saying. When we talk about faith working
by love, are you with me? Deborah? OK. Mindy? It's all right if I call your
name. Margaret? All right. In other words, when we talk
about faith that works by love, I'm talking about the necessity
of growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ, growing in love with
Christ, growing in admiration of Christ, faith in Christ. That'll produce the character
of Christ. That's the only thing that will,
people. Look over at 2 Peter chapter
1. That's the only thing that will
reproduce the character of Christ in you. Love for Christ. Admiration of Christ. Not trying
to live by the Bible. You understand what I'm trying
to say? Is it making sense to you? Faith which works by love. I love the Bible, I love it because
it's a manifestation of Christ, of his person, of God. Look at
2 Peter 1. Peter says this, verse 2, and
peace be multiplied unto you through what? The knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord according as his divine power. What's that? That's his word. have given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and God-likeness, Christ-likeness,
through what? The knowledge of Him. Do you
see that? Through the knowledge of Him.
Read on. Whereby? Through the knowledge of Him
who hath called us to or by His own glory and virtue, verse whereby
or by this knowledge of him. This power is given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises still talk about the word in that by
these you might be partakers of the divine nature. That all
flow together for you did to me when I read it. That a knowledge
of Christ grace and peace comes through knowledge of Christ verse
two verse three says the same thing. His divine power that
is the word gives us all things are by the power of his spirit
through the means of the word gives us life and God likeness
through the knowledge of him who have called us by his glory
and virtue whereby are given unto us precious promises great
that by these promises you partakers of the divine nature escaping
the corruptions in the world through love. Thy word have I
hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Well, that's
a verse of scripture that you keep in there that tells you
not to sin. Christ in you is your strength. Huh? Do you see the key there? I've
tried those verses. I've tried to hurl verses of
scripture at the devil. It doesn't necessarily work.
See, that's what I'm saying. This is not a magical, you know,
hocus pocus dominoes. Lord, help me. Right? You see what I'm saying? It's
a person. It's not a book. It's a person. So it's not a
verse of Scripture you hide in your heart that you might not
see. And it's love to Him. Well, I think I'm getting across
what I'm trying to say. And this knowledge of Christ
and growing in love to Christ and admiration of Christ, that
will produce the character of Christ and work. It'll be the natural outflowing
of love to him. Right? The only way I'm going
to properly treat my wife is if I love her. Not because I'm
supposed to do it. That's law. But if I love her,
if I love her, it will naturally produce works of love toward
her. Do you see that? And so the more
you study, and that's what I told a young Reformed pastor not too
long ago, and he's mixed up on this thing of preaching Christ
and preaching responsibility and so forth, duty. I told him,
you want your people to fall out of love with sin? If they fall in love with Christ,
they will. Preach Christ. The more you preach
Christ and teach Christ, the more they fall in love with Him
and become enamored with Him and admire Him and want to walk
like Him. And they won't want to do it
just so they can live by the Bible. They'll see it in Him. I want to be like Him. Well,
how was He? Well, that's what it said. Yeah,
that's the way I want to be. That's right. That's good. That's
just it. Ephesians 5 now, or Ephesians
6. Now remember I told you this whole thing is about resisting
sin. That's what plagues us. If I could just get done with
this sin. Well, it's gone. Before God, it's gone. And that's what gives me soul
rest. Soul rest. Make me just rest,
be at peace. But I tell you, I've got another
law that's warring against my members. I see another law on
my members. And flesh lusts against the Spirit
so that I cannot do the things that I want to do. Then how,
Lord? I need some answers. I need some
help, don't you? My sins are gone. I don't worry about that. I don't
worry about that. I really don't. My acceptance
with God, do you? If you do, then you haven't settled
this thing. You need to settle it. I don't worry about that. God
Almighty and Christ put away my sin. They're gone. They're
gone. He said, I'll remember them. He couldn't lie either.
He said, your sins and iniquities, I'll remember no more. But I'll
tell you what I remember them. I can't help but remember them.
They're new every morning. That new one, how can you not
help remember something that you're doing right now? I need
help. I need some help. All right,
how? Well, it involves not only calling
upon Christ for your help, divine intervention. Remember, I stressed
that. Without me, you can do nothing,
right? The more we love Christ and admire
Christ and follow Christ and commune with Christ, the more
we'll be like Christ. And sin won't be the temptation
that it would be to somebody who could care less. You know
what I mean? If you be led of the Spirit,
the Scripture says, sin shall not have dominion over you. You
shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5 didn't
write it down. Galatians 5 says that. If you
be led of the Spirit, verse 18. If you be led of the Spirit. You're not under the law, and
you'll be led of the Spirit. In Romans it says, you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I'd like to know something about
that. Don't you? Well, I do. I'm like Spurgeon. I'm just not going to be satisfied.
I'm like David. I'll behold your face in righteousness,
yes. There's only one way I'm going
to behold your face, and that's in the righteousness of Christ.
No matter what I do, it's not righteous enough I'll behold
your face in righteousness, but I'm not going to be satisfied
until I awake with his light now. I'm not just going to throw
up my hands either and say, well, I'm going to make it to heaven.
Who cares? I'm not going to be satisfied until I bear some of
that resemblance now. Don't you want to grow up, John?
Wouldn't you like to be a mature man, not baby all the time? I'm
not saying you are. You know, you feel like that
about yourself. I do too. And there's some real answers
to be had here. Satan came to Christ to tempt Him and found
nothing in Him, didn't he? Remember that? Why? It's full
of the Spirit. Full of it. we be led by the Spirit, Satan
comes to us, what will he find in us? The Spirit of Christ. I know, and I know the world
out there saying, well, the Lord can deliver you. Well, I'm here
to tell you the Lord has delivered me from some definite problems
I've had. I still have a lot of problems
that I'm going to have, and I'll always have problems. I'm here
to tell you he's the deliverer. He is. There's some things that
used to have such a grit and dominion over me. Was it that
way with you? Anybody that no longer had dominion
over me? Why? Because I grit my teeth
and one day I decided to turn over a new leaf? He decided to
create a new creature in me, in His image. All right? And
Satan comes to us and finds Christ in us. And all of this comes
back to His Word. That's what I'm trying to say.
All of this comes back to the Word. The Word, preaching of it, the
necessity of hearing the preaching of it. Is this important, what
I'm saying tonight? You getting anything, you got
anything out of it yet? I am. I'm glad I studied this. It's been helpful to me already.
I've tried it on, it fits, it works. God works through the
Word. He's spoken to me through The
preaching of it, the hearing of it, the reading of it, your
own personal reading of it. This cannot usurp your own usage
of this precious book. This is your manna. Rick, it's
your daily manna. You've got to feed upon it, right?
I can't do that. I can't spoon-feed you. I have
a hard enough time feeding myself. Right? Making myself go. Lead
a horse to the water and you can't make him drink. I need
to be made to drink. He maketh me to lie down. I need
to be made, don't you? And besides, I need to be made
to drink, this old dumb horse. And the necessity of the Word,
the things of God, these are the things of God here, the things
of Christ. When he said, set your affection
on things above, the things of Christ, where are you going to
find that? How is your affection going to
be set? It's all right here. It's all right here. Rick could
tell you. Ephesians 5, look over at the
page, across the page, verse 26. It says that this book has
cleansing power, doesn't it? The Word? Look at it, verse 26. Verse 25, Husband, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for
it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it. How does he do that? Read it out loud with me. with
the washing of water by the Word. Pretty important, isn't it? Isn't that right? Not only were
we washed in the blood of Christ from our sins, but evidently
it has a purifying effect upon us in this life also. Am I teaching progressive sanctification? that we can, we're going to finally,
sinless perfection? Am I preaching that? No. I'm
just telling you there's some help against some sin, some temptations,
right? And it's to be found in the pages
of God's book by the help of His Holy Spirit as we see Christ
in it. All right? And very quickly,
turn over to Galatians 5, and I'll quit with this. Galatians
5. Galatians 5. Look down through here, verse
16. Let's just read down through here and comment and quit. Galatians 5, 16. This I say then,
walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Boy, that sounds good. I like that. I want that. OK,
read on. Walk in the Spirit. The flesh
lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary to one another, and you cannot do the
things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit, what does the Spirit lead us?
How does the Spirit lead us? He leads us to Christ, doesn't
He? Isn't that what the Spirit does? Well, how does He do that? Through the preaching of the
Word. Preaching of the Word. The reading of the Word. It always
points us to Christ. If you be led of the Spirit,
you're not under the law, you're under grace. You're under a kind
master, not a hard taskmaster. And these things are not grievous.
His commandments are not grievous, they're life, and life more abundant. All right, read on. Now, the
works of the flesh are manifest, they're obvious, they're evident,
they're clearly seen. We see them, don't we? adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy, murderers,
drunkenness, revelings, and such like, of the which I tell you
before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which
do such things or practice or live in these things, they're
not going to inherit the kingdom of God. Do you live in these
things, Joe Park? You did at one time, didn't you?
I don't know. I'm sure you did. You are, by
nature, children of wrath, just like I was. Why don't you now,
Joe Parker? Christ, the Spirit of God, a
new creature, created an image of Christ is there now. But,
verse 22, the fruit of the Spirit, that's not to say you're not
tempted to do those things now, are you, Joe? And you might even
actually commit something. But you don't live in it, do
you? You sin, but you don't wallow
in it. Let me tell you this, even if
you're wallowing in it right now, you come to Christ and ask
Him, Lord, don't let me wallow in it anymore. All right, verse
22, but to prove the Spirit now, what the Spirit produces in a
child of God is love, joy, and I'm not telling you necessarily
what you ought to be. I'm telling you the way it is. This is just
the way it is. This is what a child of God is,
not to perfection, just the way he is. This is what the fruit
of the Spirit produces, love. Do you, do you not love Christ,
the gospel? Do you? Lord, thou knowest. Yeah, Lord, I love him. Not like
I want to, not like I ought to, but yeah, I do. That's the fruit
of the Spirit's name. You love him because he first
loved you. That's a promise. That's a sure
word. Joy? You get any joy out of this?
Any joy in hearing the gospel? It's through the Spirit. Isn't
this comforting? Peace? You got any peace? No matter how sinful you may
feel when you hear the gospel, you get peace again. Where's
that come from? Not Satan. He's the accuser of
the brethren. The Holy Spirit. He's the comforter
of the brethren. Peace. Long-suffering? Well, go on to the next. We're learning. That's going
to take a long time to learn long-suffering, right? Gentleness? I tell you, I'm just
not as ready to defy as I used to be. One thing, I'm getting
older. I'm getting a little smarter,
I hope. I never was too tough, but I thought I was. I'm getting
smarter. Well, hopefully the Lord is giving
me something of the Spirit of Christ to show that manliness
is not in a bicep. The manliness has something to
do with the heart. All right? Gentleness? I hope I'm learning something
of that. I've got a long way to go there. Goodness? Oh, my. Oh, my. Well, I can say this
by God's Spirit, by God's grace, there was never a badder dude,
and I don't mean that good in black terms. You know, bad's
good to some people. When I mean I was bad, I don't
mean I was good. I mean, I was bad. I'm bad enough right now, but
I was bad, bad. Old Donny Bell would say, heaps
I'm bad. Huh? And you know, so is you
too, but goodness, I hope he's doing something of that to me.
Faith? Oh, Lord, I believe. But I do believe. I do believe. Meekness, well, temperance against
such, there's no law. In other words, God Almighty
accepts these things in Christ. And they that are Christ have,
look at that, verse twenty-four, have crucified the flesh with
the affections and the lusts. How? I was crucified with Christ. That's how they have crucified,
principally speaking. That's how we have crucified
the flesh with the affection and the lust thereof. Old things
have passed away and old things have become new, brand new. That's
how in Christ, Christ in us. Verse 25, now he said, now if,
now he's just stating a fact here isn't he? He's stating a fact. If we live
in the Spirit, truly, if a true believer is. And then here's the exhortation.
And see, he's treating us not like dead dogs or rocks or stones. We're no longer that. We were
dead in trespass and sin. Now we're alive unto God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We're sons. We're daughters now.
So it's just only right that he instruct us, right? So now,
Nancy Parton, live like it. You do. But don't you need that
exhortation? Oh, my. You do. I see the spirit
of Christ in Nancy Parks, don't you? Everybody here would attest
to that fact. Nancy wouldn't. Nancy would say,
oh, if only you knew. Joe might say, no, Joe, you've
seen a change in her over the years, haven't you? Yes, sir.
It's very real. If it's not manifest, Works of
the flesh are manifest, so are the works of the Spirit. But
he comes to us as a child of his, a responsible child who
needs to be obedient and instructed. And he says, Now, you live like
it. Live like it. Walk in the Spirit. All right? Walk in the Spirit. Start walking
like Christ. Depend on Christ. Look to Christ.
call upon him, he'll help you, use the means he's taught. And
this is part of that obedience, isn't it? Obedience to the faith
and obedience to his divine commands, which are everything written
in here. Right? Lord, help us. Lord, help us to use the means
you've given us, prayer, his word, and always calling on Him
in everything, calling on Him. Prayer, praying always in the
Spirit, in the Spirit. All right, let's pray together.
Stand with me. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we see Your
wisdom in all this. It's all so divinely, miraculously
connected together. Christ, the incarnate Word. Christ,
the written Word. one and the same. And we see
that. We don't always see it. We see
it right now. We ask that you would imprint
this on our minds and hearts that this is your word, this
is you speaking to us as very really, as if you were actually
here with us in body. Just as you spoke to your disciples
when you were on this earth listened and learned from you and the
Word instructed and purified and led and guided them and strengthened
them and encouraged them. You speak through this Word,
this written Word to us. And now, Lord, we ask that you
would make us avail ourselves of this Book, that you would
cause us to use it and not avoid it. It's they that pursue lying
vanities, and anything other than truth is a lie, lying vanities. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy. That's what you said in this
very book. And this is our mercy. This is
the mercy of God, the grace of God, the peace of God. which
passes mere natural understanding, the wisdom of God, the power
of God. And we ask, Lord, that you would,
through tonight, that you would impress us with this one truth. It will set us free. Set us free. Christ, who is the Word. Christ, who speaks through his
Word. We pray these things in Christ's name. We pray that the
Word will not return void. accomplish something in us. In
Christ's name, amen.