Again, good morning, good to
see you here. Excuse me. Our text for today is taken from
2 Corinthians chapter 10. If you want to go turn there.
Tomorrow, as you know, is the first day of December, and as
typical this time of year, we're already beginning to hear the
traditional Christmas songs played over the airways, along with
the Christmas carols. We'll also hear the cheerful
songs about that jolly fellow that's said to come down chimneys
each year with lots of toys for all the good little girls and
boys. I remember one familiar song about this character that
you'll recognize that I particularly enjoyed as a child. It includes
these lyrics. He sees you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or
good, so be good for goodness sake. Well, that sounds kind
of like an all-knowing fellow, doesn't it? Because of stories
and songs such as this, ascribe some qualities of character to
Santa that truly only belong to the one omniscient or all-knowing
God, there are some who object to introducing to their children
to these stories about Santa Claus. And that objection is
typically derived from the definition of idolatry, which includes ascribing
or failing to ascribe to God qualities of character that belong
to him or ascribing characters of quality that only belong to
him to others, idols. qualities that only belong to
the one true and living God. And I have no intention of entering
into that debate this morning because I know that there is
a far more serious myth that many cling to throughout their
lives. See, unlike this childhood fantasy
that eventually gets dispelled for every child as they grow
older, the mythical figure that I'm referring to is one that
many consider to be their God. And I'm including in that the
popular God of much of so-called Christianity. And it's with those
thoughts in mind that I title today's message in the interest
of piquing some curiosity, I'll admit. is the title being, Is
Your God Like Santa Claus? And I don't say that just in
a kidding way because there is a sense where that is a question
that we all need to be confronted with. A question is confronted
with the scriptural truth that the quote God as we naturally
and initially all imagine him to be is in fact just as imaginary. and not at all like the one true
and living God of the Bible. Sadly, multitudes, they won't
grow out of that misperception so as to learn better. You can't
grow out of that misperception. The eternally vital confrontation
with reality that we all need, it requires a work of God. It
requires that we be taught of God through his preached gospel
of grace. and the gospel that I hope to
communicate this morning to you from 2 Corinthians 10 verses
3 through 5. So, first let me give you some
context for that passage. False apostles who sought to
undermine the apostle Paul's authority and discredit the gospel
that Paul had preached made charges against him and his ministry
to such an extent that Paul thought it necessary to vindicate both
his message and his authority before he went to visit Corinth,
and that's the reason for his writing this second letter to
them. And here in chapter 10, he's primarily refuting the false
and malicious accusations made by these false teachers against
him and his ministry. But in the process of doing so,
in addressing these accusations, he gives in these verses a detailed
description that distinguishes the nature of a true gospel ministry
from the false. And that's what we're going to
look at today in these three verses. Beginning verse three,
where Paul wrote, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not
war after the flesh. When Paul says that we walk in
the flesh, in this context, it's referring to in this physical
body, our physical existence in this world in which we walk. But he says our warfare is not
physical. So Paul's saying that even though
I'm in the flesh, a physical body in a physical world, with
all my many physical weaknesses and infirmities." If you read
the context both before and after this, you'll see that's what
weaknesses that his accusers had been quick to point out and
which Paul concedes as we'll see later. He says, even so though
I do not war accordingly, not after the flesh. He's asserting
here that his ministry, the ministry of the true gospel is a spiritual
warfare. And see, he's making that in
contrast with his accusers and the ministries that promote a
false gospel which stand in opposition in this war, in the battle vying
for the souls of men. And so now as we go forward into
verses four and five, Paul is going to describe first the nature
of the weapons that are to be employed in spiritual warfare. In other words, on God's side
of this battle. And then secondly, at what these
weapons are to be targeted. So verse four, for the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. So we see the contrast right
away. We have warring after the flesh versus a spiritual warfare. Using carnal weapons versus spiritual
weapons. So the language here presupposes
the idea that there's a war of sorts going on. And it's interesting
God calls it that. You know, we can relate to war
in the physical realm. People engage in war to defend
the rights of men and women, to defend property or territory
in defense of liberties, sometimes to weaken an enemy's power, and
sometimes to dominate an enemy. Well, likewise, We can see in
the spiritual waging of this war, we see the defense of the
truth and the glorious liberty of the gospel for the weakening
of Satan's kingdom. And it takes place by liberating
captives from the bondage of sin and Satan and bringing them
into captivity as we read to Christ and God's way of salvation. Captive to him, to his obedience,
in a way, see, that makes us see how salvation is exclusively
in and by, through and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll
deal with that some more as we go forward. But first, look with
me at Romans chapter 6. Romans 6. Paul there is speaking
of this using different languages there. He expresses his thankfulness
for other believers who have been taken captive under the
spiritual warfare of the gospel. As he says to them this way,
beginning verse 17, but God bethink that ye were the servants of
sin. In other words, you were on the
other side of this battle. But ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine, he's speaking of the doctrine of Christ, the
gospel of God's grace itself. Ye obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered to you or literally to which
you were delivered, being then made free from sin, liberated
from its banyan or its dominion. Ye became the servants of righteousness. Your thoughts, see, having been
brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, His righteousness. That's His righteousness which
believers are brought to trust solely in as the ground of their
eternal salvation. Captive to it. Captive to the
simplicity of Christ, as we read elsewhere, or the singleness
of Christ. That singular hope of salvation
in and by Jesus Christ. Now, as we read in verse four
of our text, 2 Corinthians 10, the weapons employed by a true
gospel ministry are not carnal. That is, they're different from
that which carnal or worldly men, men lacking the spirit of
God, would fight with. And again, remember, this is
speaking of a battle, a religious battle over the souls of men. Paul's saying our weapons are
different. It's obvious that spiritual warfare doesn't involve
physical weapons, guns, knives, so forth. Christ's kingdom is
not of this world, so it's not to be defended and propagated
according to the ways of this world. But here in this passage,
he's making the distinction in the weapons in contrast to the
weapons that the false apostles used. Their fleshly wisdom, their
natural reasonings, their eloquence and their persuasiveness, which
they accuse Paul of lacking, and as I said, you'll see, he
concedes he lacked. And those carnal weapons are
consistent, if you'll think about it, with their false doctrine,
and the false refuges are strongholds they promote. There are only
two religions in the world. We think of all the many, many
different religions, but they all either fall under the religion
of grace, salvation, condition on Jesus Christ and Him alone,
or they have some condition Something that proceeds from the sinner
themselves that they imagine makes the real difference. One
religion may say, oh, it's baptism. Another may say it's your acceptance
of Jesus. Another may say it's just living
a good life and sincere good intentions. Whatever it is, if
it's not the true gospel, it involves imagining that salvation's
in some way conditioned on you. Well, if it is, on some response
by you, your decision for Jesus, whatever that might be, if it's
because you were better, you were willing to meet the condition
that was prescribed by the religion, and others wouldn't. You maybe
just weren't as stubborn, maybe you were just more easily persuaded,
whatever the reason, if that's the real difference maker, and
not the finished work of Christ alone. His righteousness freely
imputed, being the only ground of salvation as the Apostle Paul
preached. Well then, it stands to reason
that the persuasiveness of these false apostles would have its
effect. It would effectively win converts
in belief of a false gospel. And we see that. I mean, in most
of religion, you see that the more eloquent the speaker, the
better the orator, the more entertaining the service, The more beautiful
the choir sings, whatever those things that appeal to us, they
have a bigger following. And that oftentimes with not
a lot of regard to doctrine at all. We'll see that is all in
contrast to a true gospel ministry in which the weapons are only
said to be effectual toward achieving their end because as we read
there, they are mighty through God. Salvation, as we read in
Jonah, truly, completely is of the Lord. The weapons of a gospel
ministry, they're not powerful in and of themselves. They're
passive instruments, which are only effective or efficacious
when the ministering of the gospel is attended with what Paul calls
in 1 Corinthians 2, the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power.
Look at that with me, 1 Corinthians 2. There beginning in verse 1,
Paul wrote, and I brethren, when I came to you, came not with
excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony
of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save or accept Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
bringing every thought into the captivity to the obedience of
Jesus Christ, His obedience even unto the death of the cross.
And Paul says, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and
in much trembling. It's almost as if Paul's saying,
in other words, if I used carnal weapons in ministering the gospel,
it'd be like bringing a knife to a gunfight, given the weaknesses
he concedes concerning himself. He continues saying there in
verse four, in my speech and my preaching was not with enticing
words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and
of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men.
but in the power of God. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God. In Romans 1, we quote often
from Romans 1, 16 and 17, where we see that the gospel is said
to be the power of God unto salvation because therein is revealed the
righteousness of God. But that revelation, that revelation
of faith, that's a mighty work of God. So when the gospel ministry,
that is its teaching and its preaching, when it's attended
with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and listen,
and only then is it effectual to achieve its objective. Now
what is that? To the pulling down of strongholds,
as we read in verse 4. Now strongholds refer to fortresses. It's a reminder of the walled
cities of old, which was their refuge, their safety from their
enemies. Their cities would be built inside of a wall. They're
the fortresses. Here it's referring to the walls
of a man's heart, his mind, his affections, his will, We know
from the context, casting down imaginations, bringing thoughts
captive. We see that the battleground
then is indeed the heart of sinners and it begins with our minds,
our understanding of things. So then the preaching of the
gospel in a true gospel ministry is aimed at the understanding
and it calls on sinners to reason with God based on God's revealed
truth, his word. As God told us in Isaiah 118,
come let us reason together, saith the Lord. So a gospel ministry
involves the casting aside, the pulling down, the destruction
of strongholds of the mind. That's the preconceived notions
and imaginations that we naturally presume about God, about Christ. about his work, about his way
of salvation. In other words, it's our gospel,
the gospel we are naturally inclined to believe. The Bible teaches
us we all start out as spiritually dead sinners, says Romans 3,
we've all gone out of the way. Teaches that unless a mighty
work of God, a spiritual awakening, as Christ told Nicodemus, you
must be born again, a new birth must take place. And apart from
that, we will all remain allied with the enemies of God on the
wrong side of this battle, inside the fortresses of our natural
reasonings. Reasonings the Bible say seem
right to us, but lead to death. Reasonings that other men highly
esteem, but things contrary to God in the revelation of who
he is. As we read in Luke 16, 15, excuse me. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination unto God. The scripture tells us over
and over that things really are upside down from the way we would
naturally think them to be. Now these fortresses of our minds,
they're indeed, they're strong. It takes a mighty work of God
to pull them down, not because of our physical strength, but
because of who and what we are, depraved sinners. all initially
strangers to and at enmity with God. In other words, the Bible
says we all start out at enmity. That means hating God. Yet Paul's
dealing with people who are religious. Now they think they're approaching
God in a right way. They certainly don't think they're
hating God. So this is something that has
to be brought to our attention. We don't know that we hate God
by nature, but the scripture says so. Some commentators I read, they
think that this pulling down of strongholds is an allusion
to the falling of the walls of Jericho. Some of you may remember
that story where God instructed them to walk around the wall
city of Jericho, I think one time six days in a row, I believe,
and then on the seventh day to walk around it seven times. And
after that, to blow the ram's horns and to shout, and as the
story, many of you familiar with it, goes, the walls came tumbling
down. Well, they think that because,
you see, that feat must be ascribed not to those passive instruments
themselves, not to the horns, but to the power of God that
accompanied the horns, the means he instructed them to use. And
God is a God of means, and he uses means to save sinners. He tells us in the Bible that
he's pleased to save sinners by what the world calls foolishness,
but the preaching of the gospel. But God's still got to do the
work. And if it were any other way, who would get the glory?
And God's not going to share his glory. Now, how does this
truth that in contrast to the weapons being carnal, that instead
they're mining through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
how's that useful to religious minded people such as you and
me or others who will take the time to listen to a message such
as this? Well, it's useful as a viable
means of examining which side we're currently on in this warfare
over the souls of men. No one stays on the wrong side
of this battle knowingly. We don't worship idols knowingly. So from this passage, it should
cause us to consider that genuine believers ought to be able to
identify that such a transformation has taken place in their own
hearts, in their minds, affections, and wills. And it's a miraculous
transformation, a new birth, regeneration, and conversion. And I'm not trying to get you
to look to some highly emotional experience or a moment in time
or something mythical. Although emotions may be involved,
we just don't judge the validity based on emotions. We judge the
validity based on where we're brought captive. We're brought
captive to the righteousness of God in Christ, the obedience
of Christ. It's miraculous in that it causes
those who are saved to reverse courses, change sides in this
warfare, in this battleground of the understanding. So if you
consider yourself to truly have God-given faith, and yet the
knowledge and the understanding that you now have of God and
how he saves sinners, in other words, your gospel, if it's not
different from what you once imagined, a 180-degree reversal,
of what you formerly and naturally thought would find you in God's
favor, find you free of his wrath, then these verses should cause
us to ask ourselves, has God really visited me with his mighty
power so as to achieve the objectives that the weapons of a true gospel
ministry are aimed to achieve, and that is to pull down my strongholds? You see, you should be able to
personally identify with what Paul is describing here, to see
that you've come to see things radically different from what
you previously imagined, your former strongholds. And I'm not
trying to identify, like I say, a specific point in time, as
some like to talk about a spiritual birthday or whatever. I can't
identify that myself. But I know that we can know what
we believed at one point here and know what we, by God's grace,
have been brought to believe here. And I know everyone's experience
is not the same. Such a reversal. might seem,
for example, much more subtle for those who've been fortunate
enough to have been raised from their youth under a true gospel
ministry. I remember talking with my girls
about this as they were growing up. But even with someone growing
up hearing the gospel week in and week out, some of it may
be not penetrating quite yet the fortresses of our minds,
but at some point when they get serious about religion, they're
prone to ask the question that's just as natural as taking our
next breath to a fallen sinner. They ask the same question that
the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas. What do I need to
do, essentially, to be saved? And embodied in that question
is the heresy, the imagination that there is something that
you and me as sinners can do to make the real difference in
order to be saved. That's just natural to us. And
so even though that's far more subtle, perhaps, than it was
for someone like me who was brought up under the popular heresy of
our day of salvation by works, even though we called it grace,
as many still do. But you know, it was admittedly
by me and even by others now, that was a way that was based
upon the free will decision of man. But know this, even if it
is more subtle and that you weren't taught those untrue things as
a child, any idea that you can do something to be saved in order
to be saved is an imagination that is cast down by the mighty
work of God in true regeneration and conversion. So look with
me now a little further at verse five. Paul here, under the inspiration
of God the Holy Spirit, he's declared that a true gospel ministry,
when attended by the mighty power of God to those who are saved,
it effectively pulls down the strongholds or the refuges in
which they previously trusted. And in verse 5, he continues
describing this here as involving the casting down of imaginations
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. So here we see further where these weapons are targeted.
They're calling on men and women to faith and repentance. repenting of that which was false,
so as to turn by faith to the only thing that will find any
sinner acceptable before a holy God, the obedience of Christ
on our behalf, in our place, his righteousness imputed. This
spiritual warfare or ministry of the gospel, it's described
by Paul in the same letter to Corinth earlier back in chapter
five, if you want to be turning there. And there he describes
it as a ministry of reconciliation. Look with me in chapter 5, 2
Corinthians 5, 18, as he tells the believers there, and all
things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, or
namely that God was in Christ Reconciling the world unto himself,
look, not imputing their trespasses unto them. See, this ministry's
message liberated them from their bondage to sin as they learned
of not being charged with their sins. He goes on, he says, not
imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto
us the word of reconciliation. That's the engagement of God's
preachers and all of us who support a true gospel ministry. The engagement
in spiritual warfare in support of and through the preached gospel.
So he says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did
beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. How? On what basis? For he, that's
God the Father, hath made him, that's God the Son, to be sin
for us. Christ, who knew no sin. See,
not imputing their sins to them, but making Christ to be sin for
us, having imputed them instead, charged them to Christ, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. See, we can see
in the context, in keeping with verse 19, and the non-imputation
of sins to those who are saved, we know from that context that
then his being made sin for those he saves is the imputation of
their sins to Christ instead of to them, instead of their
being charged with their own sins. And not only they're not
charged with their sins, but they're charged to Christ. He's stating here that likewise,
in the same way, The merit of His work of righteousness, His
perfect obedience unto death on the cross is made to be theirs,
imputed or credited to their account. Now, this righteousness
that's accounted to those who are saved, it's no less than
the entire merit of the very sinless, impeccably perfect,
finished work of the God-man, His obedience. even unto the
death of the cross. That which he rendered to fully
and perfectly satisfy the just wrath of God in their place,
in the place of all who are saved, as their substitute and their
surety. A true gospel ministry directs sinners, as we've already
read, to look to Christ and Him crucified. That's Christ and
His work of righteousness. That's the same thing as bringing
every thought as it pertains to the ground of salvation into
captivity to the obedience of Christ, his righteousness. So look again at verse 5, 2 Corinthians
10. This bringing every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ. We know here he can't be speaking
of our every conscious thought, every waking moment, always being
continually focused on Christ's work of obedience. The scripture
talks of the servant-master relationship in regards to the employer-employee
relationship. It tells us we're to be a diligent
in our work to make a living. That requires our attention at
that particular moment to the task at hand. So what God is
conveying here through Paul is that when it comes to the subject
he's discussing, to the basis of our hope for salvation, that
the whole understanding is to be brought captive to this one
work of righteousness, the obedience Christ rendered, so as to embrace
it as the soul ground of our salvation, of how we, those sinners
in ourselves, are accounted righteous. And boy, I tell you, this doctrine
of imputation, it's blessed to understand and embrace. It's to find out how sinners,
like you and me, can be called, as Paul refers to them in Colossians
1.22, as holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the sight
of a holy God. That's good news. We must have
a righteousness, but we can't produce the very righteousness
of God in Christ. We must have it. The only way
we get it is by his free and gracious imputation of it to
us. Any other notion as to the ground of salvation is an imagination. We can see that from the context.
He's bringing captive to the obedience of Christ. To do so,
he has to cast down the imagination. That is an imagination or a high
thing that exalts itself against or in opposition to the knowledge
of God as He truly is. When I think of that exalting,
something being exalted against Christ or against the knowledge
of God or the knowledge of Christ, I'm reminded of that a quote
I think you've heard before from Augustus Toplady. He's the author
of the grand old hymn, Rock of Ages. And in describing those
who imagine that salvation is conditioned on the sinner, those
who like me in years past believe that Jesus died for everyone,
and so therefore by default I had to do something to make the difference.
If people go to hell for whom he died, obviously he didn't
get the job done. And he said of those like me
in years past, he said to think that way is to make Christ no
more than a pedestal upon which they can stand, exalted and boast
of their real difference maker, their free will decision or whatever
it might be. That's to exalt yourself against
the knowledge of God. This knowledge of God, knowing
God as he is, Listen, as he's uniquely revealed from false
gods. That's what you remember in Isaiah
45 when he says, there's no God like me. How did he describe
himself? As both a just God and a savior. That's how he is uniquely
revealed in the gospel of Christ and him crucified. And it's a
big deal, knowing God in that way. It's essential. It's vital
to our eternal welfare. You know, Christ said as much
in John 17, 3 when he prayed, and this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Anything in opposition to the
knowledge of God, as he truly is, that would be an idol. Listen,
whether idolatry is made evident by religious indifference, whereby
we neglect to even seek after the one true God, or just are
being consumed, which is similar to our indifference, consumed
with other worldly interests that would rival or displace
our interest in Christ, through whom we come to know the one
true God, or more specific to the context, to get to what Paul
is addressing here. He's referring to the sincere
religious imaginations concerning God and how he saves sinners. Certainly that indifference does
need to be cast down, pulled down, done away with. But Paul
is, you have to remember in the context here, he's talking about
thoughts of being accepted by God based on anything other than
or in addition to that obedience of Christ, to the imputed righteousness
of Christ. And we know that because remember
he's addressing, what he's addressing here is due to the accusations
that were made against him by these religious accusers, people
preaching and promoting a false gospel. The Greek word that's
translated there, imaginations, the imaginations that are to
be cast down. It's a word that simply means
reasonings or thoughts. In fact, it's only found in one
other place in the New Testament. I think it was Romans 2.15. And
there it's translated thoughts. Well, what's wrong with my thinking? Why do my thoughts need to be
cast down? Well, when it comes to this subject,
we should consider what God has to say about our thoughts, about
what we naturally think. And we often quoted, and I alluded
to it earlier from Proverbs, there's a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but in thereof are the ways of death. So, apart
from a mighty work of God, making effectual to us the preached
gospel of God's grace in such a way that it achieves its objectives
to pull down my former strongholds, cast down my former imaginations. Until that happens, we all remain
mistaken, tragically mistaken. So that's why it's eternally
vital, I should say, that our imaginations, our thoughts be
cast down because the Bible teaches that our natural thoughts or
imaginations will have us worshiping an imaginary God, not the true
and living God of the Bible. So we aim our weapons at casting
down that which is opposed to the knowledge of God, which is
opposed to the gospel that teaches salvation all of its requirements
being fully met by Jesus Christ and him alone. Because see, that
doctrine of Christ is what uniquely reveals to us the knowledge of
God. How all of God's attributes, they're not pitted against one
another, as is the case in much of so-called Christianity today. If Christ died for all, then
how can God justly send anyone to hell? Well, we make it conditioned
on the sinner, so Christ, there's no satisfaction to justice for
many of those for whom he died, so we basically have to say God
just doesn't deal with our sins. He looks over our sins if we'll
do our part. That means God has to dispense
with being what the Bible tells us is true of being a God, a
holy God, a strict and just God, in order to be a savior. No,
we see in the gospel how all of God's attributes are brought
together so that we can behold him in that redemptive character.
That's his character as both a just God and a Savior. Or as
Paul put it in Romans 3, how God can be just and justifier
of the ungodly. You see, we only see that in
the person and finished work of Christ. That's why Paul says,
I want you to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. That's
where we see God. That's where we come to a saving
knowledge of God in Christ and through his work and there alone.
We know a lot about God from creation. We know he's all powerful.
We see the sunrise every day. We know he's faithful. But we
can't know how he can be just and still justify a sinner. apart
from a right understanding of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Any thoughts, any reasonings, any imaginations, any high thing
that exalteth itself, that's placed in rivalry or in opposition
with, knowing God as He's uniquely revealed in the gospel, is targeted
to be discredited and proven vain by a true gospel ministry. You know, I know that I had some
of these thoughts when I first sat under the gospels. Why are
you always talking about what's wrong? Why don't you just tell
me what's right, you know? Well, the problem is we don't
know what is right apart from learning where we've been wrong
about God and how he saves sinners. And Paul tells us here a true
gospel ministry is aimed at tearing down strongholds and casting
down imaginations. If you think there's any merit
or saving contribution as I once did that's derived from anything
that proceeds from you, the sinner. That's exactly what you're doing.
You're placing that in rivalry with Christ and his righteousness.
And that needs to be cast down because that's exalting, that
thought exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And to
persist there is to remain on the carnal or worldly side of
this warfare. I hope you've seen today that
from 2 Corinthians 10, the nature of a true gospel ministry, the
ministry through which we see how truly reconciliation has
been made, peace between God and sinners, all those he saves
by his doing and dying, Jesus Christ and that alone. To summarize,
this ministry or spiritual warfare that God's people are to engage
in is identified here today. in these verses today by two
clear and vital truths. Listen, two truths that will
have been applied, and this is my emphasis today. Truths that
will have been applied to all who have been or will be blessed
by God so as to be saved under such a ministry. One, their natural
refuges or strongholds, how we naturally would presume to be
saved, that'll be pulled down. and their natural imaginations
cast aside so as to bring their thoughts captive to the obedience
of Christ. Neither of those things occur
apart from the other. So until both of these things
happen, our God, quote God, he is like Santa Claus in that he's
a mere figment of our spiritually dead imaginations. Just as we
cannot know what is right without knowing where we're wrong, the
reverse is likewise true. We don't come to know what is
wrong until we are apart from seeing what is right. Therefore,
faith, turning to what is right, is always accompanied by God-given
repentance, turning away from what was wrong. By faith, we
turn to the living and true God, which requires turning away in
repentance from the former idol of our imagination. We don't
perceive we're on the wrong side of this war until, by God's mighty
power and heartfelt belief of this preached gospel, we've shown
what is right. We've shown the righteousness
of God that we must possess. The absolute necessity of Christ
doing a work for us And thereby we come to understand and embrace
how God reconciles sinners to himself by having imputed my
sins to Christ and his righteousness to me. And until we're convinced
of the impossibility of being accepted before a holy God any
other way, we've not been brought captive, captive to the obedience
of Christ. Not captive so as to look to
Christ and his righteousness alone. You know, I don't know
any child of sound mind who ever grew up without eventually discovering
the truth about the bearded fellow in the red suit with the big
round belly. But tragically, many grow old
when they die, continuing to place their hope in a, quote,
God who is like Santa in this sense. He's a God who's a figment
of their natural born, spiritually dead imaginations. You know,
I once worshipped a God like Santa. like him in that sense. But I thank God for so ordering
the events of my life to bring me under the sound of this gospel
of God's sovereign grace, wherein the righteousness of God in Christ
was revealed to me, and listen, whereby Christ alone is exalted,
and where God receives all the glory. I pray that all who hear
this message, this gospel message, that by God's mighty power It'll
be made effectual to the pulling down of any remaining false refuges
or strongholds, to the casting down of imaginations, so as to
bring your every thought concerning the ground of salvation captive
to the obedience of Jesus Christ.