You can turn back in your Bibles
to Romans chapter 6, if you will, Romans chapter 6. And you can
also follow me in your pastor's commentary as well, Romans chapter
6. As I said last week, we are at
a high-water mark in the book of Romans. For those of you who
are serious about your walk with Jesus, if you are not serious
about your walk with Christ, you can take a nap. The word
of God is given to us that we might make our calling and election
sure. That we might know that we know
that we know that we have eternal life. And that that eternal life
was the consequence of the God that loved us and gave himself
for us. And the word of God is given for us to be able to experience
that grace that's promised in Jesus Christ to the level that
we can enjoy our walk with God while we're here on this earth.
This is the gospel to the Romans that we have been dealing with
for several months now, but by way of application, it is the
gospel to you and me, the good news of God in Jesus Christ. And we've been in Romans chapter
six for a number of weeks. This will be the last survey
of this portion of scripture, although it really justifies
several other sermons. Today's title is, You Were the
Slaves of Sin, But Now. You were the slaves of sin, but
now. Every believer in Christ has
a BC and an AD experience. Every child of the living God
knows life before Christ and before the cross. And they also
know life in Christ after the cross, which we call Anno Domino,
the year of our Lord. And the year of our Lord for
the believer is a year that is not literal, but it is the life
of the believer in Christ for all eternity after having been
risen from the dead with him by the grace of God through the
power of the gospel. We know a post-carnal life as
a child of God. We know what it means to be Born
again raised from the dead as romans chapter 6 alludes to it
as baptism is our model, right? We have died with him. We were
buried with him and we are now living together with him. That's
ad That's ad the year of our lord the life of our savior and
the life of our savior that exists within the life of the believer
in the The the truth that paul sets forth in romans chapter
6 verse 17 through 23 as you heard the reading Is summed up
for us as the basis of our reflection in verse 17, but god be thanked
That you used to be the servants of sin. That's our verb form
We thank god that you used to be the slaves of sin That's a
problem right there, isn't it? You used to be slaves of sin,
but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
was delivered unto you and that form of doctrine we call the
gospel that is represented in the analogy set forth in Romans
6 by virtue of baptism. Every believer has heard the
gospel and has been given a vivid, vivid picture of who Christ is
and what he did and why he did it and how he did it for them
and that because he lives, we also now live. Haven't we not
been pressing that home over the last several weeks? And what
Romans 6 is demanding that you and I do is affirm our confession
of faith. that we have a post-BC life that
we're dealing with. Affirm the reality of Christ
in you, the hope of glory, which again is challenging for us,
nevertheless it's necessary. For the first six chapters we
have been dealing with biblical theology, understanding worldviews,
God teaching us through Paul what the world is like without
God in darkness. Apostate, pagan, rejecting the
truth of God, some of which we heard this morning. The whole
basic set of assumptions upon which our culture now exists
is in opposition to biblical truth. They are constantly resisting
the truth or suppressing the truth, but not so for the believer.
The believer has been made to tell the truth as it is in Christ,
which sets us over against the world system. The believer has
been set over against the world system. That's what it means
to be in Christ. Remember what he says? The servant
is not greater than the master. If they did these things to him,
they'll do them to you. So how do I affirm whether or
not I have authentic Christianity? We've learned this. The only
way you can know who you are in Christ is to know who he is.
And so the Christian must give himself, herself, themselves
to an arduous study of the Word of God so that they can know
the gospel and know Jesus Christ, whom God the Father has sent,
because everything that He is, He was for us. And everything
that we are, we are in Him. And so I only know concretely
who I am and how I walk and how I function to the degree that
I what? Know Him. And so the assumption
that I want you to work with today as we get into the text
is this. Union with Jesus Christ, union
with Jesus Christ is my primary focus. What does it mean for
me to be united to Christ? What Paul said in Romans chapter
6 verse 5 is this. He said over in verse 5, for
if we have been planted together in the likeness of his what?
Death. We shall also be in the likeness of his what? So he's
arguing that if we were united to Christ in the death, and Christ
did die, being united to Christ in his death, when he rose again,
we also necessarily what? And in fact, I like that word
planted. It's actually the Greek word that should be translated
united. But planted actually has a much
more significant and optimistic connotation. Because when you
bury something, you mean for it to stay there. Right? And see, baptism is more than
burial. Baptism is an anticipation. It's an expectation of coming
up out of something and coming up out of it changed. And so
when he says we have been planted together with Christ, what it
means is that everything that Christ experienced by virtue
of the whole of his experience on the cross is our experience
as well. God never intended for you and
I to remain in the grave. This is why we don't preach a
grave religion. We don't even preach a cross
religion. We don't hold to crucifixion. We have a risen Lord who is seated
on his throne in glory, a post-res, wasn't he glorified last week?
Standing at the right hand of God, magnificent in the brilliance
of his glory, was he not? And for the child of God, we
know that that's the hope of glory for us, is it not? We look
forward one day when these vile bodies will be changed and made
like unto his glorious body, because that's the promise of
God for us. And the believer in this life
really needs to get a hold of the future promise of the resurrection
of the body, because at present, your battle, which we are about
to get into now, circumscribes how you negotiate living in this
world with a new nature in Christ. and a fallen sinful nature, which
demands that your body submit to it and drive you to do things
that are contrary to God's will. Our battle today is the battle
of bringing our bodies, our members, into subjection to the will of
God. This is fundamentally where the Apostle Paul, after he gives
us the instructions to liken ourselves to be dead indeed unto
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, he tells us, therefore,
because of that, do not yield your members to unrighteousness. And you won't when you understand
that that's how you used to live. But now you live a different
way. And so may I submit to you that what the Apostle Paul is
doing, if we were using a military analogy, is as a general, he
has taken us in helicopters flown us around the territory of the
kingdom and shown us all of the beautiful estates of the kingdom
of God and we have enjoyed a very objective and high view of what
Christ has accomplished for us by his death on Calvary we have
enjoyed justification we have enjoyed Union we have enjoyed
the forgiveness of sins we have enjoyed the the doctrine of propitiation
for our sins. We have enjoyed the impartation
of the Holy Spirit. We've enjoyed the gift of faith,
which lays hold of Christ. All these are wonderful truths,
but you know what he has done now? He's opened up the door
on these helicopters, and he's kicking you out. And you are
now falling from the sky with your parachutes on, and you gotta
pull the cord, because now you've got to land on the ground and
do battle. for the kingdom. You've got to
do battle now. You've been dispatched. You're
on your way down. You get to think about it because
you're on your way down. You're floating down. You get
to think about this. What is my mission when I hit
the ground? What's my mission when I hit
the ground? He saved me, brought me out of Egypt, showed me the
kingdom. Now he's dropping me down in
the enemy territory and calling me to a task. You too. What is
my mission? Our first mission is to make
sure that these bodies of ours wherein we worship God submit
to the will of God. That's the first mission. This
is the most important mission you have. This is the most important
mission you have. And in fact, without it, you
can't effectively tell anybody about Jesus. When your body is
wrapping you up and dragging you where it wants to go and
making you do what it wants to do, rather than being your servant,
your it's servant, You can't effectively tell people about
Jesus until you, by the Spirit of God, mortify the deeds of
the flesh. It won't happen. So we are now
dealing with some very, very important concepts around why
God liberated you from the bondage of sin. First point in our outline,
then as we work this through, you died in Christ to sin's authority,
sin's right, sin's power, and that in Adam, the old man. That's
my, that's my, there it is, you have it too. I want you to mark
this now as we work this through. Because a lot of you, a lot of
you don't really know your Bibles, and as you're listening to me
teach, much of what I'm saying goes over your head, because
you're not really that serious about your walk with God. So
a lot of these terms, vague and and ambiguous terms but I'm getting
ready to clarify a few things for those of you who are serious
about making your call-in election sure I'm gonna clarify some things
point number one I know it has a number a number of commas in
it and therefore some points to be considered you died past
tense right so we're not dying we're dead you believe that we
we've been talking about that for weeks it's important to understand
tenses in the scripture from God's vantage point if you're
in Christ you have died And that final one-time act was accomplished
in Jesus Christ. So I'm not dying. I have died.
The idea of dying daily is a whole nother doctrine. We'll deal with
that later. At present, my joy is this, that I've died. Are
you following me? Now, the benefit of knowing that
is that my death in Christ has purchased my freedom. We talked
about that last week. I'm not going over it again.
He who has died is free or justified from sin. Is that true? And so
the prison bars are open. The gates are open. I'm free
to go because the debt has been paid. You've died and you died
in Christ. And what you died to is sin's
authority, sin's right and sin's power, not sin's presence, or
the sinful nature itself. I'm getting ready to explain
that. But the old man's authority. I am making a distinction between
the term the old man and the sin nature. I'm making a distinction
between the source of sin and the presence of sin natures in
you and me. I want you guys to get this.
See, Paul has not left off explaining to us the difference between
the two federal heads of the whole human race. If you're still
in Romans 5, remember what Romans 5 says? In Adam all died, for
by one man sent it into the world, and death came upon the world
for all have sinned. That's in Adam. But in Christ all shall be made
alive. In Christ he has obtained for us a righteousness through
grace that brings about a justification unto life for those are in Christ.
You guys watch this now. So when we say that we have died,
we're not saying that we have died in such a sense that there
is no more impulses in our body, or impulses of sin, or drives
of sin in our nature. We would be lying, wouldn't we?
Would we be lying and saying, I'm free! There's no enemy working
in me. No lust, no passions, no inordinate
affections. I'm good. I'm not struggling.
We would be lying. So let's get this doctrine right
quickly. When we talk about having died in Christ, in that final
death that justifies us, we're talking about dying in our old
man that is our union with Adam. The Adamic nature was put to
death through Christ so that we are no longer under contract
to the Adamic nature. See this is important for you
to know in other words You have received now a new legal head
and that new legal head is Jesus Christ Okay, so this is very
important for you to get Romans 6 2 as well as Romans 6 6 and
7 is important for us to see with regards to that verse 2
God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer
in it? Well, here's how he explains
it over in verse 6 He says, knowing this, that our what? Old man
is what? Crucified with whom? Christ.
Mark that. So when you grasp that concept,
don't think that you actually died, but rather your federal
head, whose name is Adam, was killed together with your new
federal head, which is Christ. so that you are no longer on
the life support which was nothing but a death support in the old
Adam. You now live in the new Adam
and the new Adam is your life support. He is your identity.
He is your destiny. Are you following me? Now watch
this now. It's true that Adam won. gave
you your human nature, gave you your sinful nature. This is the
doctrine of traditionism. By one man sent into the world,
he passed to us the corruptible seed. Is that true? And we possess
that in our bodies right now. We possess that. But it's also
true that when the old man died with Christ at Calvary Street,
Christ, by virtue of his death, ripped up the contract. He ripped
up a contract where the power of the old Adamic nature ruled
you, and you were its slave, and all you could do was sin.
Stay with me now. See, all sinners can do, while
it's not, while it's yet not having a head over them that's
able to communicate life, is sin. See, so the power of sin,
the authority of sin, was rooted not only in your nature, but
the identity that you had with Adam 1. In Adam, all what? In Adam all die. In Adam all
die. In Adam all die. But in Christ
all shall be made what? Alive. That's 1 Corinthians chapter
15, 22. What I am pressing home right
now before I get into the flow of my message is that the life
that we live now, we live by the faithfulness of the Son of
God who loved us and gave himself for us. And the death that we
died in Christ was a death to our allegiance to Adam 1. to
our allegiance to Adam 1. What that does is create a situation
of disconnect from a source of life that was nothing but death.
But it sets you up also for a conflict. Because while you are no longer
identified with Adam 1, but rather Adam 2, you still have a body
that came from Adam 1. And this body that came from
Adam 1 has a code in it, it has a computer in it, it has a program
in it. And it's firing off all kind of signals. And these signals
that is firing off runs contrary to your new nature. And so your
new nature now has to be informed by the word of God and by the
presence of the spirit that you operate under a new head. And
because you operate under that new head, you now have to deal
with the most expedient and immediate enemy that you have. That's this
body you live in. Am I making some sense right
now? So when we say that we have died to sin, we're not talking
about the presence of sin or the nature of sin in our bodies. We're talking about having died
to the ultimate authority of sin and its damnation and its
capacity to curse us because we're no longer under the first
Adam, we're under the last Adam. And the last Adam has established
for us who are true believers a process by which having liberated
us We can now function according to his will so long as we understand
that he liberated us to fight. He liberated us to fight. You
think God saved you to just let you go and willy nilly and meander
the earth until he calls you home? You got another thing coming.
He called you to a fight. So we're going back to our power.
We'll start here. Notice what it says, going back
to the verse. I want to use that for a second. Notice what it says
in chapter six, verse six, knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him past tense, that the body of sin, see that phrase,
the body of sin. That's what I'm talking about. That the body
of sin might be what? Now this is absolutely important.
The term destroyed there is not a term to mean physically destroyed. It's a Greek word that is technical
in the area of annulling contracts. It's the word that is designed
to affirm the divorce of a relationship between two people. Paul uses
that terminology every time he talks about covenant in the scriptures.
That the covenant is made void when the contract is broken or
violated. Or that we did not disannul the
covenant of grace when we brought in the law system because the
law system in Galatians 3 simply aided and abetted by bringing
us to Christ by which the covenant of grace or redemption could
be effected. It's a technical term that means you are no longer
under contract. This is amazing. Now watch this. This is amazing because by faith
you must believe that sin has no more dominion over you. By
faith, you have to believe that when Christ died, he tore up
the Adamic contract that kept you bound to that old system
so that you no longer are under its authority, but you're under
the authority of Christ. And in the book of Romans, that's
described by the term grace, the reign of grace versus the
reign of sin. See, I'm talking about two federal
heads with their impact. Am I making some sense? Now that
I'm in Christ, He has provided for me a new life by which in
that new life it is to shape itself and form itself by an
expression of opposition to my sinful nature so that I can walk
in a way that pleases Him. In a word, you have been saved
to fight. Let me use an analogy to build
the argument. Israel was in bondage. Egypt for 430 years. Is that
true? They were slaves in Egypt. That's
how you and I are prior to God saving us. Is that true? I am
the Lord your God which brought you out of the land of Egypt.
You shall have no other gods before me. I redeemed you, brought
you out with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm. Is that
true? He redeemed Israel out of Egypt and then he brought
Israel into the wilderness. Remember that? I'm getting ready
to go there. When he brought them into the wilderness, what
was he doing in the wilderness? Teaching them two things to depend
on him and how to fight. Because when he brought them
out, he made them his army. Israel God's army that's the
book of Numbers set him up in four quarters three tribes on
one side three tribes on the other three on the other three
on the other and in the middle is the temple of the Living God
or tabernacle which is the center of worship and let them raise
their banners and be ready to go into the promised land and
make leagues with the pagan in the land is that what it says
go into the land and fight is that right you got a fight on
your hands Because whether you know it or not, you were slaves
of sin in Egypt, but God bought you and made you his slaves. Now you're slaves of righteousness
and your battle is a righteous battle. Am I making some sense?
It's a righteous battle that we're engaging. So I'm using
old new paradigms to lay a foundation for you to understand you don't
just get to do what you want. If Christ bought you, you've
got a purpose. You've got a goal in life. Going
back to our PowerPoint so I can run through this quickly. You
died in Christ, your sins authority, right? And power and Adam, the
old man, but you did not die to sin's presence. Isn't it amazing
the day or the week or the month shortly after you were aware
that you were born again, And you were shouting and hollering
and telling everybody how the Lord has set you free. Deliver from
smoking, drinking, cussing, and all the other crazy stuff. All
the external things. And then one day you discovered
you weren't as delivered as you thought you were delivered. You
weren't as liberated as you were talking about being liberated.
You weren't as free and unmolested from the trials as you were boasting. You looked up one morning and
you found out that you had an enemy real close to you. And
that's where the struggle began because you were wondering whether
or not you were saved Because you felt good in the honeymoon
phase while you were in the wilderness Because see being in the wilderness
is a time of intimacy I'll get to that in our last point where
god shows you who he is who you are and brings you into covenant
nuptials with him but shortly after that you got business to
do and you came to discover that you are in a hell of a fight
and That's what you came to discover. Now, if you are not careful to
understand that that fight is ordained by God, you are going
to live a miserable life if you're a Christian. Are you going to
discover that you're not saved at all? And if you don't understand
that you are in a fight, you're not going to be able to make
any kind of legitimate progress in the kingdom of God with regards
to God's will in your life. You and I are called to a fight.
And that's what Romans 6 is dealing with here. So point number A
says not to sense presence or to sense nature itself, but the
old man's authority. You and I have been called out
of that. Now Colossians 3, 1 through 10, I'm going to have you read
it on your own, as well as 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'll get to some of
that. Because what I'm teaching now is what Paul taught in virtually
every epistle. He helped you understand the
distinction between what you are in Christ, what you will
be in Christ, and where you are now in this present world. And
he helped us understand that there's a tension and a conflict
that you have to simply deal with. The tension and the conflict
will determine whether or not you really do know the Lord. Point number B, we live in a
regenerate state legally free by virtue of the forensic declaration
that we are the righteousness of God in Christ, Christ's righteousness
imputed to us so that I am justified. Am I making some sense? But I'm
justified based on what God has said I am, not how I feel. Justification
is never to be viewed as a feeling. It's a standing before God. And
it's embraced by faith because your new nature is able to say
yes to God's promises. God has justified us freely by
His grace through Jesus Christ. But justification is not a filling.
You will be tossed to and fro all your life if you don't understand
that justification is a work outside of you, inside of Christ,
in your behalf, and vouchsafed in heaven before the throne of
God. So that God always views you,
if you're a child of God, as righteous, no matter how funky
you feel. no matter how bad you feel. Are
you hearing me? You got to get this now. The
just shall live by what the judge shall walk by what and the just
better fight by faith because without faith is impossible to
please God. Faith is the substance of things.
Hope for the evidence of things. What? There's a whole bunch about
the promises of God. As our elder said this morning
about creation that we don't see, but we believe it. because
God declared it. And as it is in the natural,
so it is in the kingdom of God within the work of the new creation
that God is doing in our life. And this is why you have to drink
deeply of the Word of God, be taught soundly of the Word of
God so that you can rightly divide the Word and not lie on God or
on yourself. Don't tell people you're something
that you're not yet. You got that? Don't tell people
something that you are not yet. You will be, but you're not yet.
So yeah, when people look at you and see that you are a walking
contradiction, say, I can explain this. I can, I can explain why
I'm a walking contradiction. Sit down. I'll share with you
a gospel sinners, a sinner's gospel so that you can know that
I'm saved, but I'm a whip. Isn't that what we learned in
the Friday study? Let's help some of these folks who don't
know what a whip is. We use acrostics in the hood because, you know,
we got to redeem the time, right? I told you, one or two syllables,
not three and four and five syllables. W-I-P. I'm a work in progress. I'm a well. So see, you have
to actually understand all of the debris. You got to understand
all of the stuff that's falling down everywhere. You got to put
yellow tape around me and keep your distance because you might
get hit because God's working on me. Am I making some sense?
This is a construction zone. But now if you really want to
see what I'm going to look like, go look at the blueprint. He
got it laid out up there. You can see it if you want to.
It's a glorious edifice, but I'm not there yet. So if you
want to cross that yellow tape and come in, you come in at your
own danger. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? You come in at your own danger.
Things might fall on you. The foundation is laid in Christ,
but you might fall through some of this area around me. I just
want you to know we're in a battle. Point number B says we live in
a regenerate state if we're truly born again legally free, but
we are in a war-encompassed battle. So when God threw us out of the
helicopter, dispatched us to that first and critical engagement
theater of war, we landed in the territory called the flesh,
where we have to wage war against our own members and bring it
into captivity to the will of God. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? And that is what we will see in our second point
is a good warfare. Not just a war, a warfare that's
good. You and I are going to have to
engage that. So he says in verse 12 these words. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal bodies your mortal body See that your physical body
that you should obey it in the what lust thereof Do you see
it? So look at verse 12 with me for a moment because I want
you to grasp this just gonna help you He says you and I are
not gonna let sin reign in our bodies Since present sin reigns
over a whole lot of people sin harasses us sin provokes us Sin
tempts us and it would deceive us. I can talk about a whole
lot of adjectives around the way sin methodically works to
trap us. But the imperative, the command,
the obligation on the believer's part is to not let sin reign
in your bodies. Why is that? Because your body
has been bought by the Lord and your body is under the authority
of Christ to be used by you to express the will of God. You
only have one instrument by which we visibly demonstrate the glory
of God. It's your body. Are you with
me so far? Watch this. You can talk about
how you serve the Lord or you won't. But if you don't open
your mouth and talk about Christ, we won't know. If you don't use
your hands and your feet to serve Christ, we won't know. If your
heart is not given over to a knowledge of Christ, we won't know and
you can't know. If our minds are not committed
to a study of Christ, a devotion to Christ, I'm talking about
the body, am I not? This body then must become the slave of
righteousness by your prerogative being a new creature in Christ
to make it actually manifest the will of God in your life.
Are you going to be truly not only a walking contradiction,
but you're going to lack the credible evidence that you're
a believer. If you let sin reign in your mortal bodies, watch
this, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Now, I want
you to mark what the it is, because you think it's sin. But what
it is, is your body. Okay, the technical language
is clear. Sin is going to provoke you, but your body is going to
be pulling you in a direction to obey it. Are you hearing me? Your body is going to be craving
it. Oh, I want that chocolate cake. Your mind, which is part of your
body. Oh, I can't stop thinking about him. And then every every
organ in your body firing on all cylinders To do sins will
because that's all it ever has ever known Until some authority
is able to say to the body. No, you're not doing that brother
Brother, you're under a new authority. You are not thinking like that.
You're not feeling like that. You're not acting like that This
is the way we're going now when once you resolve to accept that
kind of condition you are resolving to accept the warfare Are you
hearing me? And it's the most critical one,
to be honest with you. We are not obeying our body that
has passions and drives and lust and ambitions, which are all
legitimate. You don't want to be around any Christian that
doesn't have passion. Do you hear me? Unless you're
ready to go to a funeral. Because see, people who don't
have passion are on the brink of dying. So we're ready to put
you in the grave. But if you call yourself a child
of the living God, you have been made vitally alive for Jesus
so that you are to manifest His glory with all your impulses,
your joys, your happiness, your zeal, your commitment to His
glory, your commitment to telling the truth, engaging in all those
things that bear record to the truth that's in Christ. Our bodies
are to be given over to that. That means we're called to live.
See, I don't want you to establish a false dichotomy here or false
bifurcation. I don't want you to think that
bringing your body under control means that you live in a monastery
or a mausoleum or stay locked in your room. That's not doing
the will of God. What we are talking about is
channeling your lusts so that they do the will of God. Again,
2 Corinthians 5, we'll be going there in a moment. Colossians
chapter 3 is very clear. Romans chapter 4, wherever Paul
lays down the indicatives of who we are in Christ, he also
lays down the imperatives of what we do because of who we
are in Christ. Am I making some sense? Going back then to our
PowerPoint so we can work through this, notice what it states in
point number 2. You've died in point number 2,
point number 2, point number, there we go. You've got to fight
a good fight to remain what? You've got to fight a good fight
to remain free. This is so critical. I'm sorry,
I left out one point. Going back to point one, my projector
analyst was smarter than me. I just want to touch on this
and go on. Point number one, sub-point D. Do you guys see
that? Life in the what? Waiting for our final what? Okay,
see, here's a truth that I want you to get. This is a caveat
that every believer rests in. Life in the spirit is a life
of waiting for our final redemption. And the final redemption is the
redemption of our what? Bodies! Okay, so now I want you
to watch this. Even while we are fighting to
bring our bodies into subjection, we are living with the promise
that the body will be glorified one day. Is that true? So there
are Christians who will hold to a neo-gnostic idea that the
body is no good and just let it go, let it do whatever it
wants to do, because the body of sin is going to perish one
day, brother. asked me a couple weeks ago on the internet, the
email, why do you guys talk about this flesh shall drop and we
shall rise to seize the everlasting prize? You guys know that little
line in the hymn Sweet Hour Prayer? This flesh will drop and we will
rise to seize the everlasting prize. And he says, I thought
that this body was under construction for redemption. I said, it is. That's a hymn. That's not the
scriptures. That's a hymn we sing. That's not the scriptures. We drop this flesh and rise to
glory one day We're coming back with Christ and this body is
going to rise up to be united with us And so we're going to
be one whole personality Body and soul are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? So the body has promised that's Romans chapter
8 You can read it in your own time the redemption to wit our
bodies. In fact, we'll touch that in
a little bit I say that to say this while you are wrestling
to bring your body in the subjection to do the will of God Remember
your body too is under promise You guys got that? So now watch
this. This is a caveat. Here's another one. Take care
of your body. Okay, so see I can run with that one. Because if
you don't take care of your body, he's gonna make a fool out of
you. If you don't take care of your
body, he's gonna make a fool out of you. Because if you think you can neglect
your body in order to control your body, you're wrong. Your
body will start having delusions. It will start having these deep
internal cravings. Your body will start
to complain at subconscious levels. And you will have a major war
on the inside because, see, even your body knows that the Lord
is good enough to have told you to take care of your body. But
your body is saying, oh, OK, so you want to dog me? You want
to fast every month, two times a month for seven days and starve
me to death? I'll start shutting down on you,
brother. And then I'll start having ailments and pains that
will make it hard for you to even sleep. And then if you start
really disregarding this precious body, This precious body that
God gave you, it will turn on you and you will neither be able
to fight against sin nor glorify God in your bodies. My point
is this, you need to take care of the body that you are bringing
into subjection. Am I making some sense? You've
got to take care of it. There are some people who don't
take care of their bodies and the negligence to do so is the
very battle that you're engaged in. May I submit to you, if that's
happening, you're already distracted by your body. He's already won.
You can't do the will of God if you don't first bring him
into subjection and then take care of him so that he can actually
do what you know how you know how you really want to study
more the word of God you know how most of y'all I need to study
more but but but but your diet don't let you do it your diet
don't let you do it because once you open the Bible this is the
greatest sleep medicine you can get It's the greatest sleep medicine
you get because your diet doesn't allow for you to use your body
to think. Your mind is weary because you've
got more sugar in your brain than proteins. I'm just telling
you how to... Can I keep talking for a minute?
Because it's important for you to know. See, if you're going
to do the will of God in any successful way, you've got to
bring your body into subjection. You've got to feed it, you've
got to nurture it, take care of it. like Christ does the church
like good men do their wives hint hint so see we're gonna
we're gonna take care of you ladies next week we're taking
care of y'all mom we're taking care of y'all grandma great grandma
we're taking care of y'all next week Because we love you and
we're obligated to take care of our bodies. Is that right,
man? We're obligated to take care of our bodies. And so the
analogy falls out the same for you. You can't go to the extreme
of saying, in order for me to be able to bring my body into
subjection, I'm going to starve it to death. You're going to
die. That's what you're going to do. And dying does not allow
you to do the will of God. It does not allow you to do the
will of God. I can stay here for a long time showing you the
difference between the false asceticism of the Jews over against
the liberality of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose first miracle,
notable miracle he did was at a party. At a party. You know, he was already jacking
them up. I mean, already jacking them up. You understand? Six
big old water jugs. I'm not talking pints. I'm talking
big water jugs. messing them up. What we're talking
about is the liberty that's in Christ that gives you the freedom
to witness the gospel by being responsible with your bodies.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? I'm not taking away anybody's
liberty. We've been liberated to serve him. Liberated. So life
in the spirit is ultimately waiting for our final redemption. Point number two. Point number
two, you've got to fight the good fight of faith to remain
free. I'm going to work with this point
a little bit, even if I don't get to my last point. This is
the area where I want to work a little bit. Romans chapter
6, verse 12 and 13 says, let not sin reign in your mortal
body that you should obey it, and it's less thereof. Neither
yield ye, you, you all in the original, your members as instruments
of what? Unrighteousness unto what? Now
mark this now. He said it backwards. If sin
rules, You will yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness.
What he says is, do not yield your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin as if sin rules, because sin doesn't
rule. Notice what he says. But yield yourselves unto whom?
As those that are what? Alive from the dead. Now this
goes back to verse 11, which was the premise text of our message
last week. Reckon ye yourselves indeed dead
to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ And when we talked
about being alive unto God we were talking about God being
our life and us being consecrated to God and There being a union
between us and God through Christ so that the life of the believer
is a life devoted to God Are you hearing me? I'm gonna say
this quiet enough for you to get it when you're born again
God saved you for himself He saved you for himself. in the
same way Christ dwells in that exclusive, unmolested realm,
Coram Deo, that we talked about last week, you presently are
in the presence of God through the person of Christ so that
your life is committed to God. You are a sanctified person.
Are you hearing me? You are a sanctified person.
You don't get to just willy nilly do whatever you want. You are
committed unto God, having been raised from the dead and brought
into union with God through Christ. Therefore, your life is devoted
to service to King Jesus. He reigns in your life. And this
is going to advise your decisions every day. Are you hearing me?
Every day your decisions are going to be advised by whether
or not you are conscious of the rule of Christ in your life.
Do you know if you ask the question every day, does this choice that
I'm about to make actually honor Christ? You're going to be making
a whole bunch of different choices. Because those choices will be
based upon his authority over you, you being his servant and
not you being your own master free to do whatever you want
to do. And within the framework of those choices, you're going
to be able to determine whether or not there's the presence or
absence of the power of God in your life. Because the presence
or absence of the power of God in your life is really predicated
upon your conscious awareness of your total need of Christ
and your total dependence upon Christ and your desire and passion
to do the will of God. To the degree that you're not
thinking about God, you're disconnected from God and you have no power
source. You can't do the will of God by yourself. You can't
do the will of God by yourself. Without me, you can do nothing. And this is what Paul is driving
home in Romans chapter 6. Now that you have been liberated
from sin and bought by another, this other is viewed for us as
grace reigning in our life, by which we are then made qualified
to do the will of God. Neither yield yourselves, members,
as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead, and you're what? Members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. Do the work. You need some help? Romans 12
is a good launch from Romans 6 to help you understand what
it means to present your bodies, a living sacrifice unto the Lord.
present your bodies as a living sacrifice unto the Lord, which
is well pleasing unto God, which is your reasonable service, and
then gives the litany of things that we do as a people of God,
it'll lay it out for you. Pastor, what does it mean for
me to yield my members unto God? Go to Romans 12, you can read
it for yourself. You can go to Galatians 5, read it for yourself
too. Go back to our point. Go back to our point. Let me
continue to work through this for a moment. Point number two,
you've got to fight a good fight to remain free. This is 1 Timothy
chapter 6 verse 12. Before I deal with these last
three categories, let's go to 1 Timothy 6.12. I want you to
hear what Paul says to Timothy. Yes, this is a pastoral epistle. It's generally given to the leadership
of the church, but every believer can benefit from this. Listen
to what he says. Fight the good fight of faith. Do you see what
that says? Now here is how the good fight is shaped. It's shaped
by you and me, consistently aiming towards eternal life as the goal
for which we make our decisions. Look at the next line. Lay hold
onto eternal life. Do you see it? Isn't that radical?
Again, it's teleological. So my choices are going to be
consistent with the promise of eternal life that God gave me
in Christ. I'm going to be fighting a fight that says I'm laying
hold of eternal life. I'm going to be fighting a fight
that's going to allow me to dismiss, disregard, put away, reject,
oppose things that are contrary to the eternal life that I'm
called to. Am I making some sense, ladies and gentlemen? So when
I am fighting a good fight, I'm fighting a fight to realize the
promises of God that are already given to me. Where unto you are
called and have professed a good profession before many witnesses. May I also say before we go back
and deal with our point, that when a man or a woman is fighting
a good fight of faith, they are not missing the point. And they
are not beating at the air. And they are not shadowboxing.
Impressing people without impacting people. That's called shadowboxing. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So when you and I are fighting a good fight of faith, we are
legitimately landing blows on our adversary to push him back
so we can do the will of God. Legitimately landing blows. I
didn't watch the fight last night. So I just want you to know the
analogy is not coming from a derivative of the fight. Last night I laid
hold of eternal life. and came out with the brethren
and got into the word of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And one of my brothers told me, Pastor, they kept talking about
Pacquiao and Mayweather having been the greatest fight of all
times. But he says, I'm here to remind
you that there was one who fought a great fight, a fight of all
time, and he won that battle already. That show is over. I
agree with him. That show is over. That battle
is won. And for every believer, we've
seen by faith through the gospel, the greatest fight in the world.
I'm not interested in other fights. I'm sorry. They pale in comparison. And the price that he won was
the eternity of my soul, not a mere $180 million. which could never redeem one
soul from hell. Hallelujah, Lord Jesus Christ. He subdued our foes. He destroyed
our enemy. He vanquished the devil. He beat
him with three scriptures, wiped him out, and liberated all his
people by his work on the cross. Am I making some sense? Very
important for us to understand. Let's go back to our PowerPoint.
If you and I do do fighting the good fight of faith, right people
will see the gospel in our life If you do the good fight of faith,
right? They will be inclined to ask
you what's the hope of your calling if you mess up, which is where
we're going right now I'm gonna hold you guys for a 5 10 15 20
more minutes. I know you're starving But I
need to drive this point home. Can I do that? I need to draw
the points 1 2 & 3 sub points to you've got to fight a good
fight of faith to remain liberated free the analogy of the Kings
remember a couple weeks ago when we did the baptism study and
I was in 2nd Kings 13 5 through 7 and the king of Israel was
told by Elijah Elijah rather to shoot the arrows out the window
and when he only shot one or two or three times Elijah was
extremely upset with him remember he said you knucklehead Had you
shot all the arrows, you would have subdued all your enemies
forever. But now it is you will wage war
with him two or three times, and after that he will bring
you into captivity. This was the king of Israel.
And the king of Israel, Joel asked, was demonstrating that
he did not have an allegiance to King Jesus. Enough to wage
war with the devil until all the arrows in his quiver were
gone. See, now this is the problem with the evangelical church,
and I told you that the ten northern tribes represent the liberal
church, didn't I? The ten northern tribes. They represent the liberal
church, because they've got golden calf worship going on in Dan
and Beersheba. They've abandoned the gospel long ago, like many
of our churches. Liberal. And yet, in God's mercy,
He allowed the man of God to speak to him, to tell him what
to do, to subdue his foes. Because God still has a remnant
of his elect, even in the apostate church. You guys got that? But
it's the job of the leadership. The king represents the leadership.
His job is to fight fiercely against all the foes of God until
he has no more arrows in his quiver. That would indicate the
commitment and passion and faith in his heart towards the will
of God. This king demonstrated that he was half-hearted, that
he was lukewarm, that he was basically sympathetic even to
his foes. Now if you know you've got hostile
foes, that live for no reason but to kill you. You've only
got one thing to do with your foes. Kill them. And especially
if you are the servant of the Lord of hosts. Let David teach
you how to kill a giant. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Watch this now. My point is this. If you are not serious about
glorifying God, you'll be just like this king. You'll shoot
once. You'll shoot twice. You might even shoot three times.
But he's going to end up subduing you. How pathetic is that? Do
you understand that? How pathetic is that when you
and I allow ourselves to be, as it were, subdued by the other
dreadful thing that I want to call your attention to about
the strategy of fighting this warfare? Not only are you and
I, first and foremost, having to commit ourselves to bringing
our own bodies into subjection. And this is really a critical
truth. You got to watch out, because what is taking place
in the Book of Kings after chapter 10, the first Kings, is a breakup
of the kingdom. I want to use this larger political
analogy as an example of how you and I can be distracted in
the battle in the kingdom of God. You can take this home for
very practical purposes. This is really true. If you're
going to fight a good fight of faith, you've got to actually
know who your enemy is. who your enemy is not you got
to know when you are being distracted from what the real battle is
so the two kings in Israel were the ten northern tribe which
is called Israel the two southern tribe which is called Judah and
Benjamin the two southern tribes are supposedly the gospel tribes
because they're still worshiping in the temple in Jerusalem and
They're still worshipping at the altar and then at the mercy
seat. We still have the legitimate gospel in the two southern tribes. Are you guys following me? This
would represent churches that actually have the Bible, believe
the Bible, and as it were, preach the centrality of Jesus Christ.
But if you go through the kings, you will discover that even the
Judaic kings had their problems. Did they not? Even the Judaic
kings start messing up. So you can have a Bible, you
can actually believe in the doctrines of grace, but if you don't know
how to fight a good warfare, you can still be distracted and
made to be ineffective when it comes to the kingdom of God.
Let me see if I can help you. 2 Kings chapter 14. 2 Kings chapter
14, we're going to read verses 13 and 14, which brings me to
my second point. Don't go there yet. You can go
in your Bibles, but I want to read my second point in our outline
so you can see the context. Point number B in our second
point under, you have got to fight a good fight of faith.
That second point says that we are dealing with three foes,
right? The devil, carnal tendencies of the what? Woo. And then what? Let me go to work with you on
this one. Now, why would I use those three?
as an example of the necessity of fighting effective battles. The first one being the devil,
who comes after you and me through three means, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, the prod of life, right? We know
how he works. So the devil's coming. But brethren,
you can blame the devil all you want, but he ain't always the
one behind your mess. I just want you to get that.
Now, stay with me for a moment. We love to say, that devil made
me do it. I think Flip Wilson been dead a long time. That devil
made me do it. That ain't nothing but the devil,
child. The devil busy. You heard that one before? He
not that busy with you. Stay with me for a moment. The
devil has bigger fish to fry than you. You don't make enough
money. You don't influence enough people.
for the devil himself to be hanging outside your door or climbing
in your window. You understand? Stay with me.
Most of your problem is points number two and three under category
two. And I want you to see something
here. This is important. This is important. Most of your
problem is the weakness of your own flesh. You want to call it
the devil. No, it's not. It's the weakness of your own
flesh. I'm telling the truth. Am I telling the truth? So I
won't have to expand this much. But the second one becomes a
problem that you and I need to work on on a social level, on
a larger ecclesiastical level, and on a larger pragmatic level. The carnal tendencies of the
brethren. Pastor, what are you talking
about? I'm talking about because the children of God do not walk
in a priority of the gospel. We are frequently at war with
one another. Because the people of God do
not walk in a priority of the gospel, we frequently turn our
weapons of war on the brethren, and the brethren on us. Because
we don't have our priorities straight. Am I telling the truth?
Stay with me now. I can bear this out for a whole hour. I
can start with the prophets, I can go to the Lord Jesus, and
I can go to the apostles to show you that they all had to deal
with these brethren who had carnal tendencies. And if you're going
to be mature in Christ and be able to make your advancement
in what God has called you to do, you're going to have to learn
how to dodge all of the darts and arrows of the carnal tendencies
of your brother. And then, you know what they
call it in the military? Friendly fire. One of the most
scandalous statistics in the military is how frequently our
military men are killed by their own comrades. Sometimes it's a consequence
of negligence, at other times it's just pure mistakes, but
at other times it is the mischievous conduct of people who are on
the inside wearing the same uniform, but their hearts are hostile
toward their brethren. See, we're still dealing with
discrimination and racism and elitism and all kinds of divisive
components in the military. Are you guys hearing? And it's
so scandalous the government tries to cover it up. It goes
on in the church too. Now watch this. I want you to catch something
now. This is a point that I want to drive home so we can partake
of the table. It's a point I want to drive home. Your job is not
to go to war with your brethren. Your job is to go to war for
the glory of God, for the maintenance of the gospel. for the success
of the gospel, for the preaching of the gospel. Now watch this.
It is a major mistake to think that you are all right with God
because you know the errors of your brethren and you're pointing
them out and in fact you're taking the task on it and you're going
to war against them on it. It is a major fallacy to think
that that equates preaching the gospel and liberating sinners
and building up saints because you're at war with your brethren.
The king of Judah made this horrible mistake. He got raised to the
throne. He was a son of the previous
king. We call these successions. He got raised to the throne by
his father, Joash. His name is Amaziah. And as soon
as he got into the kingdom, the first thing he did was pick a
fight with the liberal church. This is 2 Kings chapter 14. Let's
go there for a second. I want you to see what it says
in 2 Kings chapter 14, how he thought that the best thing he
could do for the kingdom was to now start going on a tirade
against the liberal church. So in 2nd Kings chapter 14, here's
what we have stated in verse 5 and 6. Let's see here. I'm in 1st Kings chapter 14 here. Is it 1st Kings? 2nd Kings. I'm in 2nd Kings chapter
14. I'm at I'm at first I'm at verse 8 then Amaziah sent messengers
to Jehoash the son of Jehoash the son of Jehu king of Israel
now Amaziah is the king of Judah He sent messengers to the king
of Israel and he says come let us look one another in the face
Now ladies and gentlemen, this is the conservative church Going
to war against the liberal church. Are you guys hearing me? I this
young new pastor thinking that he's going to unite the people
of God and get the people of God going by him going to war
against the liberal church. Now I want you to watch how God's
thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not his ways.
I want you to watch it. Then Amozai sent messengers to Joash,
the son of Joash, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying,
come, let us look one another in the face. Verse nine, verse
nine. And Joab, the king of Israel,
sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, the thistle that was
in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying,
give thy daughter to my son, to wife. And there passed by
a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trod down the thistle. You
better get the parable. See, when the word of God speaks
in parables, it's warning you to be wise. Lebanon is the place
where the king of Israel dwells. The thistle is the king of Judah
who is provoking him to war. Do you hear that? And what the
king of Lebanon or the king of Israel is saying is, if you come
down here, boy, wanting to marry my daughter, a beast gonna tear
you apart. Look at verse 10. You have indeed
smitten Edom, this is the king of Judah, and your heart has
lifted you up. You got it? Glory in this and
tarry at home. He said, now rejoice, but you
better stay at home, brother. Rejoice, but you better stay
at home. Now watch this. For why should you meddle to
your own hurt? That you should fall and all
Judah with you. Now, ladies and gentlemen, when
your adversary tells you, you better think about this twice,
you better think about this twice. He don't even want to fight you.
Can I tell you why? Because even though apostate
liberal ten northern tribes is headed up by kings who worship
false gods. There's a few of them in there
that still remembers that Jehovah rules and that it is not appropriate
to fight your brother. even if your brethren don't call
you brethren, even if they don't like you, even if they want to
fight you. He has enough standard principle to know that he has
better things to do than let the world watch the liberal church
fight with the conservative church and vice versa. Are you guys
hearing me? Now, I'm going to bring this home in a minute.
I know you're clapping, but it's going to hurt in a minute, OK? So stay right
there. I know it feels good. But you
see, we start objectively, and then we end up subjectively.
And I know you're not going to like me next week, but that's
OK. Watch this. Verse 11. But Amaziah would not
hear. He would not hear. What the liberal
king was saying to him is, you need to fight a good fight of
faith. You don't need to just be fighting just to be fighting
because you're young and your testosterone is real high. Are
you hearing me? You need to fight a good fight.
Therefore, Joab, king of Israel, went up, he and Amaziah, and
Judah looked one another in the face at that meshes, which belongs
to Judah. Verse 12, because Amaziah, I
mean, the king of Israel came on up because Amaziah wanted
it. And Judah was put to the worst before Israel. Do you see
it? And they fled every man to their tent. What a day of humility. Didn't we talk about humility
last night, brethren? Did we close out our study on the idea
of humility being the state and mental condition of staying in
your lane? Making sure that you are content with the things that
God has given you? Not reaching beyond your capacity
to try to take something that's not yours because you're not
content? Godliness with contentment is what? Great gain? But see,
what Judah was doing was reaching out beyond his authority. He
had no right to go to war against Israel, no matter how apostate
they were. God did not tell him to make
that war. And as a consequence, not only
Judah is fleeing, the king is fleeing, but every man has been
run to their tent. Is that bad? But I'm not done, because I want
you to see the impact spiritually. Verse 13, watch it. Verse 13,
here we go. And Joah asked king of Israel,
see the word, took. I want you to get this now. When
you and I are not fighting a good fight of faith, when you and
I are wrapped up in wars that are essentially distractions
to the real warfare, you're going to go into the takeaway mode.
Remember I told you God blesses and God takes away. When you
are not fighting a good warfare, He's going to take from you because
you are not using your resources appropriately. You're going to
see a diminishing of your effectiveness, a diminishing of your ministry,
a diminishing of your influence. God's going to be taken away
from you. He's going to shut you up. He's going to allow the
enemy to strip you because you have fallen prey to battles that
have nothing to do with the gospel. Are you hearing me? Now watch
this. Now watch this. And it goes on to say, not only
did Israel take Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, the
son of Uzziah, at Bethlehem, he came to Jerusalem. Broke down
the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the corner
gate 400 cubits. You know what that means now
Israel has no protection Because in his instigation to Judah rather
had no protection in his instigation to fight the king of Israel now
He has no one protecting the kingdom Watch the next thing
that happens verse 14 here it is and he took all the gold and
the silver and and the vessels that were found in the house
of the Lord. I want you to get that. This was an ignominious
day, an infamous day. The temple of the Lord is the
centerpiece of God's testimony of his dwelling place, his footstool.
It's where Jehovah dwells. He allowed Solomon to build this
gorgeous Ornate temple of gold and silver and precious stones.
You guys remember that it was prefigured in the wilderness
with the tabernacle, right? And the gold and the silver and
the precious stone were used for those articles that made
for the worship the golden altar the golden altar incense the
table of showbread the manure all gold the Ark of the Covenant
trimmed in gold laden in gold all gold gold represents the
presence and deity and purity and wealth of God and The silver,
the silver, that second level of commodity represents the fiery
trials, the purging work that Jesus Christ went through when
he atoned for our sin. The brass too, the brass represents
the purging work that Christ went through to atone for our
sin. Gold, silver, and precious stones speaks to the everlasting
work of God. to bring quality to our relationship
between us and Him as the people of God. Imagine the temple with
no gold. Imagine the temple with no silver. Imagine the temple with no brass,
nothing but wood. Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter
3, this kind of temple is good for nothing but combustion. It
will burn up in the judgment. The churches that are built on
nothing but wood, hay, and stubble, having no gold, having no silver,
having no brass to pass through the fires are churches without
God. Churches without Christ. Churches
without the gospel. Churches without the atoning
work of Christ. Churches without the security
of salvation that comes from God alone. Am I making some sense?
And look at what happened to them. In their distraction to
puff themselves up and make them look like something, they were
distracted to fight another enemy that they thought was their enemy.
And they were to simply do what Jesus said in Matthew chapter
15. Are you ready? Leave Him alone. That's what
He said. Leave Him alone. Your job is
to know God. And to know Him deeply and profoundly.
And not to be satisfied in your soul. Simply to win debates with
other people. but to walk with the living God
and to worship God and to be a living testimony of the glory
of God, so that lost sinners can come to Christ, including
your family member. Go back to our PowerPoint. I'm
going to close it right here. Ladies and gentlemen, am I making
some sense? Am I making some sense? Well, the text is. Not
me, the text is. Point number one, the analogy
of the king's arrows represent the weak, lukewarm heart of liberal
churches. Point number two, the three foes,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life,
the devil works through all that. But the carnal tendencies of
the brethren, where we end up going to war, distracted by stupid,
foolish things, engaged in apologetics that have no evangelical underpinning
under it, having no real understanding that the purpose that the Son
of Man came is to seek and save that which is lost. But somehow
we think that the real job is to just straighten everybody
out. And that's where the king of
Judah lost it. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you
do this in your home. Told you I was going to hurt
you. You do it with your husband.
You turn your arrows on your husband. Instead of turning your arrows
on your flesh. You turn your arrows on your
wife. Instead of turning your arrows on the flesh. You turn
your arrows on your children instead of turning the arrows
on your flesh. You turn your arrows on your
friends and relatives, your brothers and sisters in Christ. You're
always complaining to God about your brothers and sisters in
Christ. Am I making some sense? Are y'all hearing me today? Is
this good pastoral doctrine? You have missed the point altogether.
And you haven't asked the question, when was the last time God used
me to not only see someone get saved, but to edify someone and
raise them up in the church? You didn't went 20 years without
seeing God use you to save one person. And now you're fighting
with everybody in the church, fighting with your husband, fighting
with your brother, fighting with your sister. You've been distracted.
That's the wrong war. It is not the good fight of faith. It is not the way you lay hold
on eternal life. Ladies and gentlemen, can I stop
right here? Can I stop? We can take this up next week.
I want you to get it. If all you're doing all day long
is complaining about this, that, the other thing and not making
your call in election, she'll pull up that fourth point. I'll
just articulate it and I'm done. You have been distracted. The goal... No, no, no. Point
number four. I told you that map ain't got
nothing to do with today. I'm sorry. Point number three. Here.
The goal of freedom... That's for the Friday night study.
The goal of freedom is intimacy with God. Do you guys hear that? The goal
of freedom is intimacy with God. If you don't understand that,
you still haven't been liberated. You're still lost. You're still
a stranger to the purpose for which you were created. You were
created to know God in the depths of the bowels of His being as
one with Him in Christ. Your job is to be where Christ
is in the ineffable bliss, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto because you have been made to be partaker of the
divine nature. Am I making some sense? Every day 24 hours a day
seven days a week. Your job is to make sure you
make choices that lead you to God That's your job that you
might know him more fully. Don't be distracted by any other
thing If you have to help somebody out Help them Don't hurt him
Your job is to know God and to know him deep and by the way,
you ain't got to help me. I If you just get to know God like
you're supposed to, you'll be helping me. If you worship our
God and you enter into his presence, Coram Dale, when I see you, the
glow is going to be so full. The words are going to be so
eloquent. The impact of your walk with God will be so edifying
to me that you won't have to say a thing. I'll just be thankful
that if you, I'm talking about you, can draw that near to God,
that near to God, when you got the glow on you, I stand half
a chance, because I know if they let you get that close, the angels
can let me get that close. See, you give me all kind of
confidence in the world. If you show up and say, Pastor, I've
been with God, good, that gives me some hope, because sometimes
I wonder if they're going to let me back in. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? The goal of freedom is intimacy
with God, and then fruitfulness in his service, which we will
take up the week after next. Amen.