to Romans 8. And you can follow
me in your pastor's commentary. We are embarking upon a subject,
a doctrine, that is not taught much today and is not believed
by many Christians as to be a signal mark of conversion. But you will hear it and you
will learn a number of things today. I'm going to warn you
now. But you're going to have to get the CD and listen to it
at least how many times? Because you're going to be hearing
things for some of you for the first time. Because we have been
so negligent in the church with teaching this truth, our culture,
the nation, the world, the condition and status of our society. Our
society is a mess, is it not? Could never tolerate Christians
who understood and walked in the truth that we are going to
discuss today. The doctrine under consideration
is the doctrine of mortification. You heard me raise that statement
last week, mortification, and I asked how many of you have
ever heard it before, and it was only a few of you. And I'm
sure that you don't hear it taught much in a thorough way, but today
I'm going to try to convince you that the concept of mortification,
the doctrine of mortification, permeates all of Scripture. It
dominates the total scope of Scripture. And though the word
is not used throughout the totality of Scripture, the concept is,
the application, mortification being one of the signal works
of the Spirit of God in the life of the people of God. An understanding
of biblical truth that falls in the category of sanctification.
and sanctification largely, but not exclusively, is that work
by which the Spirit of God enters into the heart of the people
of God and does a work of transformation. If you guys remember, we have
distinctly established our salvation under three categories. Justification,
Sanctification and what? glorification those three branches
are the foundation for all other Subcategories when you get them,
right those three you won't go far wrong in any of your understanding
of the Word of God Justification is what God did for us outside
of us having nothing to do with our experience or feelings The
man or the woman that is justified is justified freely by the grace
of God in Jesus Christ. It is an objective work that
you and I come to believe when the gospels preached to us. It
is on the outside of us. It was done for you by your substitute,
who is Jesus Christ, the Lord. Having justified us freely by
his grace, he then sends his spirit through the preaching
of the gospel to hunt you down and make Jesus a reality in your
life. And through the gospel, you see
the glory of God. You see the face of Christ. And
all that Christ is becomes lovely to your soul because the spirit
of God is working in your heart, conforming you to his image and
causing you by and by to love what God loves. That's the work
of sanctification and we call it a process Process, this is
why I say I'm a whip. I'm a work in what process and
this is the work of sanctification under the doctrine of sanctification
is a an exclusive and unique work we call mortification and
Mortification is something that you're going to learn today is
essential for you and I to practice and I'm hearing an echo. Is essential for you and I to
practice in order for us to experience our liberty and freedom in Jesus.
God has liberated us and he has freed us from the curse of the
law, from the bondage, the bondage of sin, not the presence of sin,
not the power of sin, not the influences of sin, but the bondage
of sin. He's liberated us from the curse
of the law. But he's also bringing us into
continual liberations as we learn how to walk in the spirit. And
as we talk about and work through the concept of sanctification,
here's what I really want you to grasp. And this will be in
our second point, only three points, but I'm going to take
a while to work towards it. Sanctification, while fundamentally
is God working in you, it is never God working apart from
you. Sanctification while fundamentally
is God working in you. It is never God doing it for
you and you not doing anything So do not assume that when God
gives you and I an imperative a command To do what he calls
us to do that. You can turn around to God and
say God now I need you to do that for me Because he's never
gonna do it for you He will help you to do it and Therefore with
God's help you and I will learn to do the will of God For it
is God who worketh in you the will and to do of his good pleasure
But the man or the woman that thinks that they're gonna sit
by and wait till God comes and does what God tells you to do
Hell will freeze over because when God saves you he gives you
his spirit having raised you from the dead to enter into communion
with God so that the very life of God is in your soul and with
you in the help of God you learn how to respond in obedience. Am I making some sense? So when
we read in Romans chapter 8 verse 13 pull Romans 8 13 up I want
to lay this foundation Romans 8 13 when we read in Romans 8
13 these words for if you live after the flesh You shall what?
But if you through the spirit do what? Mortify the deeds of
the body you shall what that verse there gives us the whole
scope of Christian experience from Genesis to Revelation I'm
about to demonstrate right now what this text looks like in
Illustratively all through the Bible. I'm gonna show you how
wherever there are people of God anywhere in the Word of God
God by his spirit works to remove his people from situations and
Circumstances that would kill them if possible that when we
talk about the concept of mortification I need one of my elders or Angelo
Can you go cut the AC on in that room before some of my sisters
fall out? I see it coming. I see it coming We need this
one on over there in the far room And actually, you can hit
this one in the main quarter, those two as well. If it gets
cold in here, that's all right. At least they won't die. When we talk about mortification,
when we talk about mortification, now we got some freezing and
we got some sweating. We can't win ever. I want you to mark this down
because you're going to school today. Some of this may be preaching.
It depends on what the spirit of God is pleased to do. But
you've got to learn this. You've got to learn this. This
is critical to your and my survival in this wicked Canaanite age
that we live in here in America. This is critical to your learning
what it means to be on the Lord's side. Who is on the Lord's side
in a day when they are coming? straight towards the church to
see whether or not we're real about Jesus. And you therefore
must understand that the way of the Spirit of God is this
way from the beginning of time to the end of time. The way of
the Holy Ghost is separation. The way of the Holy Ghost is
cutting off everything that's contrary to God. The way of the
Holy Ghost is separating the darkness from the light. and
calling the daylight in the dark this night. Separation is a process
by which the Spirit of God severs, severs that which is carnal and
fleshly from that which is spiritual and heavenly. And it's a process
that runs all the way through the Bible. Today you're going
to see this everywhere in your Bible. And it's very important
for you and I to comprehend the relevance of it. We read Matthew
chapter 18 around verses 1 through 11 or so as a premise text. And
if you guys remember Matthew chapter 18, 1 through 11, Jesus
said, the kingdom of God is like a little child who trusts me,
who implicitly depends upon me for everything. And that's how
people of God are to be. dependent upon Jesus with a childlike
faith that doesn't find itself struggling with sort of adult
mental properties that asks questions that can't be answered on a rational
level beyond dependence. And this is why some children
can be happy when they are under the auspices of good parents
without always asking, why are we doing this? Why are we doing
that? Why are we doing the other thing? Just enjoy the journey
because they're depending upon God. Now watch this now. Christ
died for such people. You and I if we're believers
in christ are such people, but there is a distinguishing category
among the people of god called babes in christ Then those who
are a little bit more mature in christ and then full-grown
adults in christ And in matthews 18 what jesus says to those of
us who are more mature than the babes is this? Do not live In
such a way as to cause the babes to stumble Whatever you do with
your life, you better not be so selfish with your own objectives
and ends that you say, I don't care what people think. I don't
care what they see. I'm doing me. The moment you
do that, you stand in jeopardy of being the enemy of Jesus because
every believer is called to understand their witness before God. Now,
if you love God, then you love God's people. And just like you
love your own family, you're going to be careful if you aren't
consumed by selfishness to live in such a way that the children
can look at you and say, you know what? I like the way my
mom and dad conduct themselves. If you're careful, you're going
to model before your children what it means to be adults. Now,
if you're not careful, your children are going to watch you do stupid
stuff and then they're going to emulate you. And when they
emulate you, they will have done what Jesus said, stumbled by
your bad conduct. And what Jesus says is if you
cause one of my little ones to stumble, it had been better for
you to have put a millstone around your neck and cast yourself into
the depths of the sea. Now watch this. This is how important
our witness is to babes in Christ. Let alone the lost world. Because
the last verse in Matthew 18 that we read was Jesus' ultimate
objective when he says, the Son of Man came to seek and save
that which is what? Now watch this now. Will you
hear me? Listen to me now. The goal of the church is to
remain in a faithful position before God to let the world know
it's lost. The goal of the church is to
remain in a faithful enough position before its God to let the world
know that the real problem that you have is not civil rights
or human rights. The problem that you have is
that you don't know God's right. Are you hearing me? The role
of the church then is to remain in a position where our conduct
does not cause men and women to stumble before God because
the objective is salvation. Now, if you and I are living
lives that are so compromised and so obscured in terms of God's
work in our life, the lost sinner will not know that they are lost.
And this is the problem with American Christianity today.
And this is why our culture is going rotten, like a rotten piece
of meat, because we're neither salt nor light today. And while
as yet we are not salt, we can't preserve. And while as yet we're
not light, we can't clarify. and the meat just get more and
more rotten and they don't know that their problem is not politics,
it's sin. And while as yet the church is
not taking serious the doctrine of mortification where we are
coming to, then we will fail to be the influential means that
God calls us to. Now watch this. Jesus said, if
your eye offends you, pluck that thing out and keep yourself from
hell. If your right hand offends you,
cut that thing off and keep your soul from hell. If your feet
offend you, cut it off and keep your soul from hell. Jesus was
simply speaking about how radical you and I must be in making sure
that we don't yield our bodily members to unrighteousness. Are
you guys following me? The analogy that he uses is not
hyperbole without significance, And see, our master, quite frankly,
he wasn't like a lot of your Renaissance images of Jesus. He wasn't a quiet... preacher
who words came out like I'm talking now, where he was basically talking
to you, if your right hand offends you, cut it off. See, all of
that is a caricature of some Milk Tulsi type individual who
has no fire in his soul. When our Lord said these words,
he said them much like this, if your right eye offends you,
cut it off and keep your soul from hell. He was a Middle Eastern
preacher. And he was a fiery preacher like
John the Baptist. And if the God that knows something
about hell, who preached on hell more than anyone else did, if
he knows the danger of hell, wouldn't he warn you as if he
knows? If your house is on fire and
I come knock on the window and say, you know, I think you better,
I think you better think about leaving. I don't care about your
soul. I don't care about your soul. Are you hearing me? Sometimes
we get all bent out of shape about the manner in which people
warn you. You hell-bound sinner! You better
take heed to the urgency of the words because your soul is at
stake. Somebody better scream to me
when I am sleeping and my house is on fire. You better throw
a rock through my window. You better kick my door in. You
better drag me out the bed, pull me down the stairs out the house.
I don't care how many knots I got on my head. Save my soul from
death. The problem that you and I are
dealing with in our present culture is we don't believe the gospel.
So I'm getting ready to lay some foundational principles down
around the essential doctrine of mortification, which is one
of the evidences of the work of the Spirit of God. There are
many evidences of the work of the Spirit of God, but this is
one of them. This one will determine whether or not you're serious
about your allegiance to Jesus. This one will be one of them.
When it says, for you shall, if you live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds
of the body, you shall live. The term mortify literally means
to put to death. I'm giving it to you in the participle
form, and I'm going to share with you how this works, and
then I'm going to lay out before you a whole panorama of Old Testament
examples, and you're going to be amazed at how prolific this
doctrine works. And then I'm going to deal with
my three points. You've got to learn this today. Mortification
means to put to death. It means to cause to cease. The word is frequently translated
to subdue that which is opposing you. Mortification has to do
with the putting to death all that which would seek to destroy
your soul. Interestingly enough, the word
mortification that we have in the Romans text is only used
one more time as mortification in the New Testament. It is prominently
used in the gospel of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And guess how
it's used? It's used with reference to the
rulers Seeking to put to death Jesus More prominently in the
gospel of Matthew Mark and Luke. Do you read and they sought to
do what put him to death? remarkable because the only living
thing in the universe that actually has life is Jesus and the carnal
religious system of that day was trying to mortify Jesus and
trying to cut Jesus off rather than embrace the life that Jesus
is and was and provides for sinners, the fleshly carnal nation of
Israel was seeking to mortify the Spirit. There's a lesson
in this as I get ready to go into our examples, and that's
this. This is true. Now here it is.
You and I are either mortifying the deeds of the flesh or we
are mortifying the deeds of the Spirit. You and I are mortifying
either the deeds of the flesh that is putting to death those
tendencies and inclinations that would lead you in wrong paths,
or you and I are putting to death the unctions and promptings and
work of the Holy Ghost that's seeking to lead you to life.
Are you guys hearing me now? There is no two ways about it.
Either you are saying no to those sinful tendencies that would
hinder you and trap you and bring you into bondage, or you're saying
no to the Spirit of God. There's no vacuum. There's no
vacuum. There's no void here. It's one or the other. Are you
guys following me? And what that means technically is, if you
and I are living after the flesh, and we are operating out of carnal
principles, there is no room for the Holy Ghost to come in
and lead your life. You can't be led of the spirit
and led of the flesh at the same time. The two are at war. Haven't
we learned that? And so the spirit is cutting
down the flesh and the flesh is cutting down the what? Just
as they did to Jesus. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. He was in the world and the world
was made by him and the world knew him not. They put to death
the only living thing in this universe because they didn't
want to live. This is what mortification is. Now it's time to demonstrate
that largely what happens when God saves you. Largely what happens
when God saves you and the Spirit of God is operating in your life
and you are cooperating with Him, He is helping you cut off
multiple things to move you in a direction of obedience and
communion and fellowship with Him. Are you ready? In the beginning,
Genesis chapter 6, don't go there. You guys have it in your first
point. You can pull a first point up. In the beginning, there was
a massive mortification process that took place in Genesis 6. You guys remember what that was?
It was the day when God cut off all flesh and saved only a handful
of people. That was Noah and the eight souls
with him. In that day, God mortified the
whole world, put to death the whole world and saved only eight
souls. Do you know why God did that?
In order that we might live. Remember, if you do walk according
to the spirit, you will what? Live. But if you cut the spirit
off, everything is dead. God saved the world by cutting
off the masses and preserving Noah and his eight souls. I'm
going to demonstrate something as we go. The next time we see
this cutting off taking place, where God comes in and mortifies
by His Spirit that which is fleshly and carnal is Genesis chapter
19. Remember in Genesis chapter 19
where God's servant Lot had went down to Sodom and Gomorrah? And
in Sodom and Gomorrah, what Lot was supposed to do as a true
believer was be light and salt. He was supposed to influence
them and not them him. He was supposed to shed light
on the gospel of the grace of God in Jesus Christ and not conform
to the world. But you guys know what happened.
His whole house got lost because he came near and then moved into
Sodom and Gomorrah. What did the Holy Ghost do? God
came in with his angels and cut off the whole flesh of that sodomite
culture, which is the culture of our present day, in order
to preserve Lot alive, because Lot was God's elect. Are you
guys following me? Another example of the mortification
process is in the life of Abraham and Sarah. In the life of Abraham
and Sarah, Sarah has a handmaiden, Hagar, and Hagar is used with
Abraham to produce the flesh, Ishmael. You guys remember that?
Ishmael lives until they have Isaac. And when once Isaac is
born, Isaac is a child of the promise. He represents those
who are spiritual. Remember the conflict that took
place between the two boys? How that the older boy, representing
the flesh, was always antagonizing Isaac, representing the spirit?
And how that Hagar, representing Ishmael's mother, was at war
with Sarah? What did God do? He said, separate
that woman from me. Cut her off! her and her child. The flesh will never have dominion
with the spirit. Are you guys following me? The
severing takes place continually. Here's another severing that
took place when the children of Israel as a whole nation are
in the land of Egypt. They are there for 430 years
and Egypt is the greatest power in the world. Egypt turns against
the children of Israel as the nations will always turn against
the church at some point. It's never possible for the spirit
to dwell in the midst of the flesh, where the flesh won't
ultimately turn and start attacking the spirit. It's not possible
for the church to truly be the church in an apostate age, in
a culture of neo-Canaanite barbarism, which is what we are advocating
and legislating today. Right now in this country, we
are affirming the life of the Canaanites, of which God says,
I cut them off. And that day God severed Israel
from Egypt, remember that? And destroyed Egypt, representing
what? The flesh. And led the children
of God into the wilderness where they had to learn how to walk
with God. But as we had learned in Sunday school, and I'm stepping
under Sunday school message, can't help it, that's the way
God works. Even in the church, there has to be a cutting off.
So what did God do in the wilderness? He killed everything that was
20 years old and up. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness
because they still would not own Jehovah as God. They still
loved the flesh, they were still idolaters, they still violated
God's law, and God finally had to sever them. Did he not? He
let their carcasses fall in the wilderness. And then he brought
in the little babies. Remember what Jesus said? 20
and younger. with the exception of Caleb and
Joshua into the promised land. Did he not? But lo and behold,
when we get into the promised land, is there not continual
severing and mortification of the flesh and the spirit all
through the judges, all through the kings? The whole concept
of mortification runs through the scripture where the Spirit
of God labors to do it. You guys remember what happened,
that massive judgment that God brought in Exodus 32, verses
26 through 29. Moses is on the mount receiving
the law of God, and the children of Israel are down at the bottom
of the hill committing fornication, offering things to idols, and
worshiping a false god. You know what God tells Moses
to do? Get out of the mountain. Go tell everyone who was on my
side to pull your sword and the levites representing every true
believer Every true believer is supposed to be a levi. You
know what that is those who are closest to god And called to
protect his glory And the levites pulled their sword and in one
day they had to kill 23 000 people Who had worshiped at the golden
calf? There was a severing of the flesh in the spirit. Are
you guys hearing me? Do you remember as they were moving toward the
promised land? And this is how the devil works. He'll see you
headed towards the promise. And then he starts working vociferously
again, hostilely again, and the enemy worked through Balaam.
Remember how Balaam came to trick the children of Israel, to curse
the children of Israel under Balak? And Balaam himself was
a false prophet. God cut him off, remember that?
But before he cut him off, Balaam taught Balak how to cause the
children of Israel to stumble in fornication and idolatry.
Numbers 25, remember that? Numbers 25. And during the time
in which God was bringing a plague on the nation because of their
sins, one arrogant leader in Israel, and I'm going to tell
a story at the end of my message, that will serve as a warning
to all of us, but particularly to leaders in the church. One
arrogant leader in Israel brought a Midiashite woman and established
a tent right next by the tabernacle and went in and committed fornication
in the presence of them all. Now, all of Israel saw this,
even the leadership. But as I have preached on this
text many times, where was the leadership at? when this other
prince of Israel was committing open fornication against the
Lord. You see what happens when you allow the spirit of the age
to cause you to compromise? All of the Israelite leaders
should have took that man and quickly mortified him. It was
only one man, his name was Phinehas, who took a dagger, ran into the
tent, and thrust both of them through. And God's plague stopped
only because of Phinehas. God told Moses see now. This
is the man. This is the spirit that I'm talking
about This is the heart that I'm talking about who will save
alive those who truly honor me by being willing to kill the
flesh Are you guys hearing me? This is very important what we're
talking about. We're talking about allegiance
to Jesus and Even to the point of putting to death your own
passions which would betray the glory of God There are many accounts
Joshua chapter 7 in the book of Joshua as he's in the promised
land Joshua succeeded Magnificently to accomplish the Lord's purpose,
but there was one area where he found himself in danger with
God This is where in AI Israel tried to take a small city and
But they routed Israel and almost destroyed them. And Joshua ran
crying to the Lord, Lord, what happened? And the Lord said,
you better get up, boy. Israel, all of Israel has sinned
against me. I told them, when you enter into
the promised land, your job is not to get rich and get wealthy
and get prosperous and build your own houses. You are not
to touch the cursed thing. And a man named Achan, as they
were fighting the war, found the Babylonian garment. and that
symbolizes love for this present world system. That Babylonian
garment was something that mesmerized him. And while the others are
fighting for the glory of God, he takes his Babylonian garment
and 200 shekels of gold, some money, and he takes it home and
hides them in his tent. He thinks no one sees him. This
is how it is when people walk in the flesh. They fail to realize
that God sees everything. And because that man was identified
with the whole body politic, he represented the hand or the
foot or the eye, and it had offended God. And God now tells Joshua,
you better find out who this was. And the man tried to hold
his peace and pretend like he didn't know what was going on
until Joshua brought a judgment on the whole of the tribes. And
they picked lots, remember? And they went from tribe to tribe
to tribe to tribe until the lot fell on Achan's tribe. And then
Joshua brought that tribe out and said, who is the man guilty
of this? And finally, at the last, Achan
comes up. See, he wasn't repentant. He
saw God's plague and judgment coming upon his brethren. He
knew in his conscience He was guilty of the plague but because
he thought he could hide from God God finally exposed him be
sure your sins will search you out Be sure your sins will search
you out God brought him out made him publicly known to the whole
of Israel and according to God's law You know what all of Israel
had to do the whole tribe the whole nation had to stone him
to death. I and they killed him on that day and they burned him
and they heaped him up with stones. Do you know Israel's heart was
broken that day? Do you know why? Because they
had to cut off their own flesh. The rulers representing the people
had to come do it in the presence of the people. Do you know why
this hurt Israel? Because every man in his own
heart knew that they had the same sinful tendencies that Achan
did. It was only the grace of God,
as we learned in Sunday school, that kept them back from sinning
like Achan. But can you imagine you having
to take the stone and stone the very man who actually committed
the act when in your heart you know if it wasn't for the grace
of God, there go I? This is what we mean by being
led by the Spirit to do that which is necessary by the Spirit
so that we could live. Because had Achan had his way,
the whole of Israel would have died The whole of it. I can give
you account after account after account. I'll give you one more
at the end of my message that's going to be relevant to our walk
with God. Go with me now in your Bible
to point number two. Let's work this through. We are
back in our text in Romans 3. Point number two. I want to pull
this up. Point number two is this. The principle of the new
nature. I want to drive this home because
as there are lots of people who listen to our ministry and this
subject that I am addressing is not treated and taught thoroughly
enough for people to be clear. When you are truly saved, when
God has saved you, he has placed within you a new nature. We all
believe that, don't we? The doctrine is called being
born what? Again, are being born anew, are being born from above,
those three categories. When you are a new creature in
Christ, you're born a second time, you're born anew, it's
a different birth than your physical birth, and you're born from above.
So it's spiritual, it's a second time, and it's a brand new birth.
That means something is deposited into you that was not there before. You have a new nature. Prior
to that, you are dead in trespasses and sins. Are you following me?
And all you do is operate out of your soulish nature, your
fleshly nature, because you're not alive to God. When you are
born again, you are made alive to God. Do you know what that
means? When you're alive to God, you start thinking God's thoughts
after Him. When you're alive to God, God's Word begins to
matter to you. If God's Word doesn't matter
to you, you are still dead. When a man or woman is truly
born again, watch this, he quickens you and you become a new babe
in Christ. Is that true? As newborn babes,
one of the evidences that you're spiritually alive is you hunger
for the Word of God as the baby does the milk from the breast
of her mother, his mother. Are you hearing me? The man or
the woman that's not serious about God's Word is not born
again. I don't care how many churches you go to, how many
memberships you sign up to, you can go to the best churches and
still be dead because you have no interest in biblical truth.
Men and women who are truly born again got to commune with God
and they've got to do it through his word because they've been
born of the word. It's the word of God that has
begotten them again. It's the word of God that quickens
them and that our life is vitally connected to God through his
word. I've answered some questions
in some of your minds by that one. You wonder why is my life
empty? Why is my life not more fulfilled? Because you have no passion to
know God through his word. I mean, I go to church, but it
still seems like after church, nothing's happening. Nothing's
happening because church is not the ultimate place where you
meet God. The ultimate place where you
meet God is in his word. It's the Word of God. We're learning
how beautiful and important the Psalms is in the life of the
people of God. Well, David exalts the Word in
the Psalms. Thy word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against you. When a man or woman is born
of God, they love the best things. And they do the best things for
the best reason. One preacher put it like this
concerning Psalm 119, 111. He says, that man who stated
that understood that the best thing was God's Word. And David
was the one who said it. Remember that? Thy Word. Thy
Word. He says, and he took the best
thing, which is God's Word, and put it in the best place. Thy
Word have I hid, not on the shelf, not in the back seat of my car,
not on the mantel in my house, but in my heart. The best thing
is the Word of God. The best place is to hide it
in the heart. And here's the best reason that
I might not sin against you. You got it? I take the best thing
and I hide it in the best place so that I might do the best thing
with the best thing. That's what God calls us to.
And without it, you can't even begin to fight the battle that
I'm talking about. When you and I are born of God and God gives
us a new nature 1st John chapter 3 verse 9 He that is born of
God cannot continue in sin because his seed remains in him and he
cannot Continue the course that he was on prior to conversion.
I'm giving you the expanded version He that is born of God doth not
continually practice sin Why because he's born of God the
new nature in him won't let him live the way he did when he was
without Christ It's not possible Are you following me? But now
watch this, while your nature is new, your nature is not mature
right away. Just like a brand new baby, you've
got to what? Grow. Like a brand new baby,
you've got to grow. So under the first point, when
you and I are born again, what we come to discover is that we
need who? God. The new nature needs God. The new nature needs God. Watch
this now, I want you to get this. You experience this magnificent
illumination of the mind if the Holy Spirit is working in the
preaching like I'm doing now. Some of you may be being born
again right now. It's possible. We're praying
for it, aren't we? We're praying that God is opening the eyes
of your heart, not your intellect, the eyes of your heart right
now and causing you to see the importance of truly knowing God. If you are therefore then being
born again, what happens at the new birth is the soul cries out
like a baby for God. You need God, which brings me
to a critical point around the new nature. The new nature is
not so strong that it doesn't need to grow. The new nature
is not so wise that it doesn't need to be taught. The new nature
is not so mature that it doesn't need to attach itself to the
source of his life and feed on that source until it grows up.
So the Bible tells us very clearly that as the new nature needs
God, Ephesians 4.22-25 tells us. Watch what it says, Ephesians
4.22-25. In fact, if you have your Bibles,
I want you to use your eyes to look at your Bible so that you
can see it with your own Bible. Ephesians 4.22-25. Here it is. Here's what the Apostle Paul
says, that you and I are to put off concerning the former conversation
of the old man, the lifestyle under Adam, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lust, verse 23. Now watch this, here
it is, and be renewed in the what? Spirit of your mind. Do
you understand that the imperative here is that when you're born
again, you have to go through a new renewal process in your
mind? That your mind has to be constantly renewed in the knowledge
of God. In other words, the newborn babe
in Christ is not wise. This is why as brand new Christians,
we can make a lot of mistakes because we are not wise. We have
to be taught of God. And so the text says, be renewed
in the spirit of your mind. And this is talking about the
new nature. And to even drive the point home
more emphatically, Over in chapter 3, I want you to see this that
the Lord Jesus Christ uses here too. Notice what it says in chapter
3 verse 16. Chapter 3 verse 16. Paul speaking
to the church at Ephesus says that I am praying that the Father
would grant you according to the riches of his grace to be
what? Strengthened! The new man must
be strengthened. Watch this now. strengthened
with might by his what? Spirit. And that's the agency
that we are talking about in Romans. You and I don't have
strength in ourselves. No more than a little baby has
strength in itself. You and I don't have strength
to overcome sin, strength to even detect sin, strength to
even see sin in all of its horribleness if the Spirit of God doesn't
enter in and strengthen us. Now watch this, I'm praying that
you and I would be, I'm praying that the people of God would
be strengthened in the inner man by his spirit. Notice, in
the inner man. That means your new man doesn't
have might all by itself. Do you understand that when you
go back to our point, I use this little word called synergism.
Do you guys see that in your outline? Stay with me, this is
important. Synergism is the work of two entities. It's the work
of two powers. When a man or woman is truly
born again, the initial work of conversion is a monergistic
singular work of God where God actually brings life into you
apart from you doing anything. When you and I are born again,
they are all in the passive form. You must be born again. It's
not something you can do. God has to do it. Just like the
little baby does not bring himself into the world. This is why we
demolish and oppose the notion of free will. The child didn't
sit in some type of oblivious space and say, you know what?
I think I want to come into the world now. I think I'm going
to pick you to be my mom and I'm going to pick you to be my
daddy. And my will is that I would be born in this place at this
time on this day. And then when I come out, I'm
saved according to my will. Now that's the way people depict
salvation today. That because they have the will
and the power to choose Jesus, now they can be saved by their
efforts. Is that true? The problem is this. If Christ uses the analogy
of being born again, He takes the volitional part on you out
of the way. If in fact being born again is
analogous to the conception of a child, the one who is born
again has nothing to do with it. You are born again by a power
outside of you that brought you into existence. And now once
that you are alive, you cooperate with the power that saved you
to keep you alive. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying now? Synergism is the new soul living in communion
with the one who made him so that he grows in grace and in
the knowledge of the Lord. This goes back to our pointer
passage in Philippians chapter 2, 12 and 13. It is God who works
in you, what? The will and to do of his good
pleasure. Don't ever tell God to do for you what God is telling
you to do. Always say to God, help me to
do your will. You tell God no to an imperative
of God. He has a right to leave you in
your mess. All imperatives presume that
you are going to participate with God's help, help to do God's
will. Am I making some sense? This
is very important for you to get. So the new soul needs God
and it must grow in God. It must grow in God Hebrews chapter
5 13 and 14 pull that up quickly Israel are the Hebrews the Jewish
people who have become Christians Had made the mistake that our
present-day churches are making that it's okay as long as we
have the form and ceremony of religion for us to sort of Kind
of pass by in our walk with God so the Hebrew people presuming
upon their legacy and their history they go all the way back to Abraham
and By the time we get to Jesus, it's been 2,000 years of history
of Israel. In the New Testament church,
the book of Hebrews, the apostle writing to the Hebrews or the
leader writing to the Hebrews is telling the Hebrew Christians,
you guys are retarded. You guys are slow. Because by
now, you should be teaching other people the gospel. But you have
need to be taught all over again the first principles of the gospel
watch this He says go back to verse 12 verse 12 I want you
to get it in verse 12 for when the time you ought to be what?
See now a teacher is a person that's full-grown a teacher is
a mature individual who has learned over time That which is acceptable
to god and then is able to communicate acceptable truth as a representative
of god Are you guys following me here? It is For when the time
was that you should be teachers, you have need that one teach
you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of
God, and are become such as have need of what? Milk and not strong
meat. By the way, what I'm dealing
with today is strong meat. And I'm going to show you at
the end of my message that some people will stumble at what I'm
teaching. And the reason you will stumble at what I'm teaching
and those that are listening to me is because you haven't
walked with the Lord long enough to know that God means business
about our communion with Him. I'm going to show you at the
end of the message what I'm talking about. That the idea of him saving
you is for you to have communion with him and for you to grow
in him and for you to bear fruit for his glory. That for him and
his love towards you is that your love for him would grow
and that you and him would be an amazing miracle of grace to
the whole world. God did not make you to be ordinary. irrelevant, insignificant, set
on the sideline. Every true believer is a burning
bush. Every true believer is a miracle
of grace. Every true believer is an exotic
work of God uniquely to be set on the pedestal, to be seen by
the whole world and the world made to be caused to ask the
question, how did this happen? And every true believer would
say, by the grace of God. By the grace of God this happened
by the grace of God every true believer. There is no such thing
as ordinary For the extraordinary God who saves us miraculously
by his grace. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is critical then verse 13 says it like this For
everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness
because he is a what? Now something's wrong with you
when you're a babe ten years into the faith Something's wrong with you when
you're a babe 20 years into the faith I'm just I'm telling you
now somewhere down the line you missed the assignment and You
have been retarded in your growth You have been stunted in your
growth and you have been limited in your capacity to be used by
God Don't get don't trip off the word retard. It's just a
verb form. That means you are late in growth
and And the reason why I say that is because I deal with political
talk, right? And one of the things I know
about this present culture that I'm dealing with is they twist
words, they take very good words, and they will use them to push
back on you and cause you to retreat. When those words are
very fine words in their own right, those words are then filled
with notions and ideas on the part of this culture that wants
to then define things its own way. Are you guys hearing me?
Listen very carefully to me then when we talk about the word discrimination
Discrimination is a very good word You must discriminate between
that which is good and that which is evil You must discriminate
between that which is right and that which is wrong You must
discriminate between that which is holy and that which is unholy.
Our God is a god of discrimination Do you hear what I'm saying?
We're not gonna push back on discrimination Discrimination
means you got a little sense You're not going to sit there
with a plate full of strychnine and then have a bowl of oatmeal
and choose the strychnine. I'm going to use a little bit
of sense. And God uses sense when he chooses his elect and
leaves other people to perish under the wrath of God because
they did not see the glory of God. He chooses. Does God choose?
He chooses. And by the way, you do too. You
do too. So we're not going to get pushed
back. They use the term homophobia. How about homochristian now?
Homochristian. How about being afraid of Christians? Am I making some sense? How about
being afraid of the God of the Christian? How about fearing
the word of the God of the Christian? How about fearing the truth of
the Christian, the life of the Christian, the holiness of the
Christian, the love of the Christian, the passion of the Christian?
Be afraid of my love for you to tell you the truth. See, we
want to start playing word games. We don't fear homosexuals. We
fear God and we fear sin because of his conscience. Am I making
some sense? You better grow. You better grow. You better grow.
You better grow so you can go. You better grow so you can go
and let people know who the true and the living God is. You better
grow because their goal is to keep you retarded so that you
make no impact on the culture. This is critical for the Spirit
of God. It's critical for Him. So the principle of the new nature,
it's good, it's righteous, but it's not omnipotent. It has to
have God assisting it. And then we move to point number
three. The purpose of the new nature's protests against all
evil. So we're coming back now to the
fundamental premise. that mortification, that work
of mortification is an essential evidence that you're born of
God. See, when you're born of God, the one of the things that
you discover is sin is as God said sin is. Remember when you
weren't born again and you didn't even necessarily know what sin
was in its particulars, but you loved it and you practiced it. and left to yourself, you would
have identified yourself, as much of our culture does, with
sin. You would call yourself a homosexual.
You would call yourself a lesbian. You would call yourself a bisexual.
You would call yourself a porn addict. You would call yourself
an adulterer. Man, I'm just, I got to have my women, man,
I got to have my women. You are identifying yourself
with your sin. But that's because you don't
see it as sinful as God sees it until you're saved. When,
once you're saved, you stop going, I am that. And you start going,
I am a sinner saved by the grace of God. Am I making some sense?
Am I making some sense? Are you hearing me? Christians
do not identify themselves with sin. They identify themselves
with God. Do you have those propensities,
those tendencies, those inclinations? They may be in your members,
but they must not be in your new nature. So as Paul put it
in Romans 7, I find in my members a law. But it's not me! It's sin working in me. Am I
making some sense? And now that I know that I am
in Christ, and Christ is in me, and I am born of God, and there
are sinful propensities and bents in my nature, I must now mortify
the flesh in order that I might live the life that God has called
me to live. So first the battle is against myself. Now this is
critical as a strategy for dealing with our present culture. You
and I as a church will not see a pushback on the culture whose
agenda is to silence the church until you and I are ready to
deal with Agag in our own life. You see, so I don't blame folks
for getting tired of hearing us talk about the politicians
and the homosexuals and the crazy folks out there and the white
supremacists and all that old crazy stuff going on out there.
That's wrong. It is wrong. But the battle for
you on the front line is your fall in nature. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Now, hold on now. The two are
not mutually exclusive. Because I hear arguments like,
leave them alone. No, I ain't leaving them alone.
I care too much about them to leave them alone. I'm not going
to leave them alone because the Lord didn't leave them alone.
And the apostles didn't leave them alone. Sin is a horn to
God in the church and out of the church. Am I making some
sense? And so if the Christian doesn't
cut the lights on to let our culture know, hey, that's wrong. then they have no light on. But
now when they see the light that you cut on shining on them, they're
going to ask the question, are you shining it on yourself first?
And if you're not shining it on yourself first, you have no
right to shine it on them. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? That's why a lot of Christians don't have any compulsion to
want to debate these issues because they're living with a gag themselves.
You have no authority in yourself to address those matters because
you, you, you're giving over to, Idolatries yourself at that
point your witness is completely cut off Who is on the Lord's
side? That's the battle that we're
dealing with So under our third point the purpose of the new nets new
nature's protests against all evil in Romans chapter 6 11 and
12 Don't go there yet in Romans 6 11 and 12. I told you that
that was the first time that God Spoke to the church in the
book of Romans with instructions to obey that from Romans 1 Verse
1, all the way to Romans 6, verse 10, God only taught us the gospel. And then after having thoroughly
taught us the gospel in six chapters in the book of Romans, hundreds
of verses, then he gives us our first two instructions. Do you
guys remember what those instructions were? No, pastor. That was last
week. I got it. I got it. this is why
the Lord has me teach every week and three or four times a week
because we don't get it I'm glad I got your attention because
here the enemy knows this good they can go to church once a
week I got him every day good they can hear a passionate
committed Bible preacher expounding the Word of God with faithfulness
and Integrity and character and a leadership in the church that
is bold about proclaiming the truth As long as I got him for
the other six days I'm cool because I can delete everything that
they heard Sunday morning for a couple of hours by Sunday evenings
football game Our Sunday evenings movie so that that person is
no good by Monday morning because thy word You did not hide in
your heart. You juggled it around in your
head, and it ran out of your ears by the time you got home.
I'm telling you the truth. And this is why we're not transformed.
And this is why we're not as passionate as Phineas to take
up the dagger and thrust it through everything that would challenge
the glory of God. See, if we were really led by
the Spirit of God, we would be a church militant. Militant. instead of compromising and finding
ways to back up and let people be who people are going to be.
We would be like Jesus. We would be like John the Baptist.
We would be like the apostles. You know what we would do? We
would go and we wouldn't be afraid. We would go and everywhere we
go, we would be ready to open our mouths as soon as the Holy
Ghost gave us a door. See, that's when you're full of the Spirit
of God, and that's when you know you are operating out of mission
and purpose. Some of us, when we walk out
of the doors, we don't even know what to do now. Oh, what am I going
to do now? Because you are not mission-minded. You and I bump
into souls every day that need God, and our hearts are not prepared
to tell them about Christ. We don't even have the ability
to take a track out and say, can I give you a track? Come
here, man, who will tell you the truth of the gospel. You
understand? And therefore, we are not actually
doing what Jesus said in Matthew 16, busting the gates of hell
down. We're actually leaving them alone.
Some of us probably working up on the bars, painting the bars
so they can look good while we keep sinners in prison. What
you doing, man? I'm painting the bars of hell
so that it looks good while they're still trapped in their sins by
living irrelevant lives. that have nothing to do with
the glory of God or the deliverance of sinners. Am I making some
sense? I'll be done with you in a minute. It's very important
for you and I to understand that the purpose of the new nature
is protest. Protest against sin is two things. But in Romans
chapter 6 verse 11, remember what he said? The first instruction
he gave to you and me after he laid down this glorious truth
about how Christ had died for our sins. And how that when he
died, we what? We died. And how that when he
was buried, we were buried. And how that when he rose again,
what? We rose again. We received that
with joy, didn't we? We understood that there was
a God who loved us enough to take our place while we were
yet sinners. and to accomplish for us an eternal
redemption, and to justify us before the bar of justice, and
to represent us as if we were there so that God declares to
us, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are
in what? Christ Jesus. Oh, but don't stop there. Who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That's the
qualifying term. No condemnation to those who
are willing to go to battle for me. That's the term. Are you
guys hearing me? No condemnation because see when
you get ready to go to battle There are all sorts of forces
coming after you and they would love to condemn you But god will
never condemn those who stand for god Are you hearing me? I'm
gonna get into that more next week when I deal with sonship.
Can I do that? But but the point here is this
listen to the first imperative He says, likewise, you and I
are to reckon, are to put to our account, are to sum up and
realize that we are dead indeed unto what? Man, that's a big
problem. Because we act like we are fully
alive to sin versus dead to it. But what the scripture is teaching
is, if we actually see Jesus as having already died, we are
to believe that we died to sin with Jesus. Is that right? And
so I am to position myself mentally with this knowledge. Sin has
no dominion over me. Now it might live in my house,
but it doesn't run anything. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Sin no longer is the ruler in my house. Now he might climb
through the window sometime, but I've got something for him.
Sin is no longer the Lord of my life. Now he might tempt me
when I'm not right, but he's not taking over my life. Are
you guys hearing me? I'm going to show you a truth
here in a moment about that. Therefore likewise reckoning
yourselves did indeed understand but alive unto God. Do you see
that? I'm born again I am alive and my life is towards God through
whom Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the first Perspective
of the believer. This is your ego. This is who
you are Your identity is that you are alive to God through
Christ and because of that sin does not rule your life now when
it tries to I Am at liberty to go to war against my former lover
and my former master. Are you guys hearing me? That's
what mortification is all about. And this is how I know I'm born
again. I'm no longer a slave to it, but I'm a rebel against
it. I'm willing to fight it. Are
you willing to fight it for the glory of God? I'm willing to
fight it. That's what he's talking about.
And here's the reason why. Verse 12. Watch verse 12. Watch
this. Verse 12. Here it is. Let not sin, therefore
what? It didn't say let not sin exist. Sin dwells in our bodies. It
dwells in our world. God will remove it one day. He
just simply says don't let it rain. Don't let it dictate your
time. Don't let it dictate your mind.
Don't let it dictate your practices. Don't let it control where you
go, who you see, who you talk to. Don't let sin rule. Say no
to sin. because you're a child of the
living God. Now, when you and I get good at the practice of
submitting to God and walking in the Spirit, we can reckon
ourselves indeed dead to sin, right? Is that true? Now watch
this. You know what that means? When
sin shows up at my doorstep, because I'm dead, I don't have
to respond to it. Sin! Hey, sin! Dude, don't you
know I'm dead to you? Why are you trying to get me
to respond? I'm dead. I died in Christ to you. I have
no obligation to do what you say. I'm dead in Christ. I'm
dead in Christ. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Therefore, every deed of life
is towards God, not towards sin. You guys are hearing me, right?
You guys are hearing me. And so now going back to this
final point, because I want to wrap this up with something.
And I need you to hear what I got to say. This is important, because
we are going back to our PowerPoint. We are working through a doctrine
that is critical. The purpose of the New Nature's
protest against all evil is for the affirmation of our sonship.
One verse under that, and I'll come back here. When you and
I do the right thing, the Holy Ghost says, are you ready? You're
a son of God. That's right. Look at verse 17
in your Bibles. I'll come back and make this
good next week. But I'm going to use an example before I close,
and I've got to tell you a story you need to hear. Romans chapter
8, verse 17. Let me start at verse 16. Can
I do that? The Spirit itself bears record with our spirit
that we are the sons of God. Do you see that? Children of
God. That's what the Holy Ghost does. He tells you you're a child
of God. Oh, if I had time to talk to
you about how he does it. But if you're a child of God, you
know how he does it. You know how when you find yourself by
the grace of God doing the thing that God has called you to do.
And because you do it, all the world hates you. There is no
good deed that doesn't go unpunished. Say with me. You do the right
thing. And you know, you get ready to
take a hit for it. And the Holy Ghost comes and says, that's
OK. You're a child of God. And that's all we need. The Holy
Ghost says, that's OK. It happened to Jesus. Keep rolling.
You got that? There's more to it than that,
but I'll talk about that next week. But I'm so glad that when I find
myself, by the grace of God, doing something that I know I
need the supernatural strength to do, and I know I'm getting
ready to take hits for it, I've got to hear from God. I've got
to hear God say to me, it's OK. You're my son. You can handle
that hit. Because I'm human like everybody
else. Don't nobody want to get hit?
But we got to get hit for Jesus. I'm going to make this good next
week because the open public declaration of your sonship,
it means that you are open to war by the devil. That's what
happened to Jesus at his baptism. The father opened the heavens,
said, this is my son. Next chapter, what? The devil comes after him.
All right, we're going to see how much a son of God you are.
That's my point. The spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit that we are children of God. Now, verse 17. And if
children then heirs, ooh, that's good. That's what our brother
said this morning. He's reeking with pain because
his body is a mess. If I began to tell you his story,
you'd start crying. But you know what he said? I
got a new body on the way. Hallelujah. I got a new body
on the way. Do you know what that means?
That means he believes God. He believes God. I got a new
body on the way boy. You can your boat can float with
that. Can it not? I got a new body on the way.
That's good stuff Watch this if your children then your heirs
and heirs of God join heirs with Christ if so be that we party
with him Because in our present American
culture in our Western culture Christianity is all about partying
Suffering is an alien concept to you. It's an alien concept. And because it's counterintuitive,
when you are taught a doctrine like mortification, of which
I'm teaching, some will mistake me for teaching legalism because
you fail to understand that sonship means that you're going to be
conformed to the image of Jesus and Jesus suffered. But some
will say I'm teaching legalism because they don't understand
the doctrine. of mortification as being a central evidence that
you love God and that you're willing to do what it takes to
be with God and that God will give you grace for that. Are
you guys following me? I got one more thing I want to say
to you in that regard. So here's the promise. If you're children,
then you're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so,
be that we suffer with him in order that we may be also what?
Glorified together. See, we believe in the hope of
glory, don't we? The hope of glory. And therefore, you live
like it. Isn't that true? You live like it. So is that
my final point for today? Is that my final point? I got
another point to go? I got another point to go? Pull that point
up. All right. The grand picture. I'm gonna
say one thing about this grand picture, that everything that
I've taught today about mortification is seen in the life of Jesus.
The totality of his life was one of serving his father and
everywhere he went and did good, he took hits for it. Are you
guys following me? Okay, so if you think that Jesus
affirms this present sort of holiday culture you and I live
in, then you have failed to understand that he was a man of sorrows,
acquainted with griefs. He was a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. That he was constantly bearing the sufferings of people
who misunderstood him, who didn't like him, who were threatened
by his love for God. And what he says to you and me
is this, if they did it to me, they're going to what? Do it
to you. See, and we're not ready for that. We're not ready for
that. But that's what we call sonship. Are you guys following
me? And finally, in his ultimate agony, which we can also call
a mortification, He's in the garden of Gethsemane crying out
to God. If it's possible, if it's possible,
if it's possible, remove this cup from me. What is he talking
about? He's talking about his own death.
He's saying, God, if there's any other way for you to redeem
your people, I don't want to be separated. He didn't fear
death. He didn't want to be separated from his God. And he asked, and
God said, no. And then do you know what happened?
The angels came and strengthened him. And you know what they said?
You're a son of God. God sends His angels and strengthens
us when we're His children, even at the crux of suffering that
might even mean our death. Can you imagine our brothers
and sisters around the world who are dying for Jesus, who
would fully resonate with the message I'm preaching? See, we
don't resonate because we're not ready to suffer, let alone
die. But they would say, Pastor, preach
it. Pastor, preach it. Because this is how we live every
day. It's real Christianity. And let me finish with a story
that I need to tell you. I am actually talking to you
about a critical component to the grace message. And that critical
component to the grace message is this. That when God, by His
grace, saves you, He takes things away. But He not only takes things
away, He adds things. So grace is not just the fact
that he takes away your sin. We rejoice in that. But the gospel
is not summed up in God's removed my sin. He's also imparted to
you his righteousness, not just imputed it, imparted it. He's
made you a new creature. He's brought you into relationship
with him and giving you a whole grace package. Remember that
point? A whole grace package by which you are to walk with
him. There are things that are taken away and there are things
that are added. Watch this now. Grace addresses justification,
but it also addresses what we're dealing with today called what?
Sanctification. You're growing in Him, you're
knowing in Him, and you're going for Him. You guys understand
that? Grace addresses that. Now, when you get grace lopsided,
when you get grace lopsided, you set yourself up for a fall. And good men over the years have
been able to help us would sound theological teaching maintain
the tension between what Christ did for you and what the Spirit
of Christ is doing in you. Never make grace a lopsided justification
only message. Never make grace a lopsided Christ
died for me only message. Hallelujah. And not he has given
me grace to know him making me born again and me desiring to
not only know him but to serve him. That's called sanctification.
Otherwise, you are going to distort the grace of God. I'm gonna give
you a case in point. There's a prominent, prominent pastor.
Some of you will know him if I say his name, but some of you
won't. This individual had been recently,
over the last four or five years, preaching a grace message that
began to be disturbing to most of our Orthodox preachers who
had listened to him Because what he was doing in his grace message
was fundamentally separating himself from all of the other
solid theologians who also know the grace message. Now watch
this, whenever you teach in such a way or act in such a way that
you separate yourself from people, you are probably already in an
extreme. Whenever you teach in such a
way that you separate yourself from other people as if you are
smarter than them, are better than them, are wiser than them,
you probably are already in an extreme. Are you guys hearing
me? So then good men began to comment on his teaching. And
they began to say his teaching of grace is true in the area
of justification, but it is utterly deficient in the area of sanctification. He is diminishing to the fault
the need for believers to grow in God and mature in sanctification
and thus live a life that brings glory to God. And we began to
hear from theologian after theologian around this particular teaching
because this pastor was prominent. He was known worldwide and he
wanted people to know we're saved by grace. We're not under the
law. We're saved from worse. We don't have to worry about
obedience to God. God did all the obeying for us. Sounds good,
doesn't it? Doesn't it sound good? It's just
not biblical. I just taught you a little earlier.
Every imperative given to you is for you to do. God's not going
to believe for you. He'll help you believe. But God's
not going to believe for you. God's not going to preach for
you. He'll help you preach. But he's not gonna preach for
it. He'll help you witness. Will he help you witness? Have you
ever felt the Holy Spirit come up on you and give you grace?
Open your mouth and give you eloquence? Has the Holy Ghost
ever come and given you the kind of boldness that you know, man,
this ain't for me. I'm scared of spiders. Let alone preaching
to people. And that boldness just come up
on you? Have you ever had that to happen? And then the clarity
of mind, you preaching for 30 minutes, you're standing on the
outside of yourself. Go on with your bad self. You
know that's not you. You know it's not you, but it
is you. It is you. And when you're done, you say,
Lord, Lord, you just showed up. Now he works in you that way. But what this man had done was
preach the lopsided grace, and he was the pastor of a prominent
church that has been around for a long time. Some of you will
know it, Coral Reeves Presbyterian Church in Florida, where Dr.
James Kennedy was the pastor for many, many decades. Dr. James Kennedy was a theologian,
a very prominent pastor, very solid man, and he had built this
work for many years. And a young man, one of these
young preachers, shooting stars had come up, and I am sure that
he got the job after James Kennedy died because of who his grandfather
was. His grandfather was Billy Graham. And Billy Graham's grandson now
is the pastor of Coral Reefs Presbyterian Church. And he's
in there for about six or seven years. And then all of a sudden
here his doctrine is emerging. And the pastors who know how
to discern are saying, wait a minute, something's not right. Something's
not right. He's not teaching the tenor of
scripture. So you teach part and not the
whole, you're actually manipulating the word of God. Am I making
some sense? Just a week or two ago, he stepped
down from the pulpit. He resigned. Why did he resign? Moral failure. There was adultery that had taken
place in his life, both with him and his wife. Huge scandal
all over the nation. Huge scandal. Now, you ask the
question, that's not so bad. That's because your heart is
hard. That's because for us, we drink iniquity like water.
For God is horrible. Now, you guys know you hold leaders
to a higher accountability. I tremble in my boots every time
I see a leader fall. I tremble in my boots. I say,
Lord, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me, because to
whom much is given, much is required. Stay with me. I'm almost done.
I want you to get this. Can he be forgiven? Absolutely.
He can be forgiven. Can he be restored? Possibly.
He will never, ever preach in that church again. He will never
ever have the prestigious position that he did. He was placed in
a magnificent position. He will never reach that position
again. No one ever does. Not even King David. So when
these preachers and people say, God can use him again, he will
never use him at that level. Because to whom much is required,
much is given, much is what? Required. Now watch this now.
That's not even the issue. Here's the issue. For me, the
issue was, as I listened to him, emphasize a grace that almost
amounted to you can do whatever you want to and God will be cool
with it. Him teaching that simultaneously
to committing adultery against his wife and wife him tells me
as I have been warning you do not take your Bible and use it
as silly putty to shape your doctrine around your conduct.
Shape your conduct around the doctrine. Do you hear me? Shape your conduct around the
doctrine. Bring your life into conformity
to the word of God, the infallible, immutable, unchangeable word
of God. The word of God is forever settled in heaven. The word of
God is fixed. It will not change. God will
quickly send us to hell if we were to distort and twist his
word to accommodate our sinful tendencies. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? It's very important that you
and I are under sound teaching. And when it's sound, you know
what we discover? That the grace of God hath appeared
unto all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness, ungodliness,
which is what our culture is legislating, to deny ungodliness
and worldly lust and to live soberly and righteously in this
present age. Those are the marks of grace
people. Are you hearing me? Do we sin? Yes. Do we love sinning? No. Do we want to not sin? Yes. Do we need his grace? Every second of every day. Does he give us grace? Yes, he
does. Is he able to make all grace
abound? Is he able to strengthen you in the inner man with all
might? Is he able to work in you that which is well pleasing
in his sight to the glory of God? Yes, he can. And yes, he
will. When we ask him. All you have
to do is cry, Lord, help. Are you hearing me? All you have
to do is cry, Lord, help. There was a king I loved in the
Old Testament. You know what his name was? Jehoshaphat. We would have just dogged him
in the hood with a name like that. But we would have dogged
him, because you get dogged in the hood with names like that.
I'm going to let you out of here in a second. Y'all be gone for
seven days. But now, Jehoshaphat was a good
king. He was a godly king. But here's Jehoshaphat's problem.
Jehoshaphat didn't know how to mortify the flesh. He found himself
making affinities with notorious kings like Ahab because they
were cousins. And Ahab hated God and hated
everything about God, but Jehoshaphat didn't know how to cut himself
off from that. And so they made an affinity together and Ahab
deceived Jehoshaphat into going to war against Ahab's enemy.
Now Jehoshaphat didn't quite like it and he said to Ahab,
now we need to get a preacher in here to tell us whether this
is God's will. And Ahab says, oh I got about eight or nine
hundred of them that'll tell you God loves you, he has a wonderful
plan for your life, smile, everything's good. But Jehoshaphat said, nah,
I grew up under better teaching than that. Is there another cat
who will simply tell us what the Lord will say? Ahab says,
yeah, but I don't like him. His name is Micaiah. In fact,
I put him in prison because he's been preaching against me since
I've known him. But they dragged him out and Micaiah came and
told Jehoshaphat and Ahab, Jehoshaphat, Ahab's gonna die in that battle.
But you're not. But you don't have any business
here. Ahab turned to Jehoshaphat and said, see, I told you, every
time this guy opens his mouth, he's talking bad about me. Jehoshaphat
said, Cool, I ain't gonna die, cool, watch it. They went to
battle. I'm getting ready to show you
how sin is deceitful and will get you when you let it. Ahab
told Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, I need you to pretend to be me. Read it for yourself. The book
of Kings and Chronicles, 2 Kings chapter 22, it's probably in
your outline, but follow this. I need you to be me. See, this is what
happens when you don't know your identity. when you're a fickle
Christian and other people can lead you and bring you into their
own agendas. Jehoshaphat accepted the terms
of him being Ahab and Ahab being him and they went out to war.
and there was arrows flying everywhere, the enemy seeking to kill everybody,
and the enemy ran up on Jehoshaphat because they swore it was Ahab. Watch this now. And when they
came up to Jehoshaphat and they got ready to shoot him in the
chariot, guess what Jehoshaphat did? He said, Lord, help! Lord, help! He cried, Lord, help! Because he was born again. Because he was truly a child
of God, but in his foolishness and lack of maturity, he identified
with that which God hated, and it almost got him killed. When
you're truly God's, all it takes is a cry. Amen.