Take your Bibles now and turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 2. I've been all over the Bible
with this message, including the text that Brother Winston
read to us a few moments ago. But I want to talk to you for
a little while this morning from 1 Corinthians 2 on this subject
of faith that stands in the power of God. I talked to you last week about
faith without works. James said it's dead because
it's alone. It's alone. It's memorizing doctrine. It's just dead letter theology.
It stands alone. It takes life, life to have faith. I don't care what it professes.
I don't care what it claims. I don't care what it's experienced.
It doesn't make any difference. It doesn't make a bit of difference.
If it does not produce godly works, it's dead. It's dead. Get rid of it, James said. Put
it down because you've missed true faith. You've missed true
faith. It's alone. It's alone in the
darkness of man's depraved ignorance. It's not something we learn in
a catechism. It's not something we memorize
for our confession. That's why these old catechisms
were written. Because they'd take the young
babies in the church and they'd catechize them. They'd teach
them these catechisms. And this is where the church
got this whole idea of the age of accountability. They decided
on an age when that young man would stand up This was his confession,
what he memorized in a catechism. Well, it's not true faith. It's
not something we learn in a catechism and memorize for our confession. Faith is a living, vital union
with Christ. That's what it is. A living,
vital union with Christ. It's being joined to Him. It's
being one with Him. It's drawing from Him all of
our strength and all of our wisdom, all of our activities, all of
our motivations, all of our affections comes by Him, through Him, in
Him. It's a union. It's a vital union. It's a new life. It's a new birth. It's a new principle of life
and a new course of direction. It's a turning from what we are
and what we know and what we do to what he is and what he
knows and what he did. It's a constant turning. It's
just a constant turning, turning to him. Now, a man comes up here,
like Brother Russell did a few weeks ago, in full understanding
of what this faith is, in full understanding of what salvation
is. Not just up here going through
the motions, not just up here observing another ceremony, but
in full knowledge of why he come up here and who it is that he
professes and what this salvation is all about. And like the bondservant
of old, he comes before the door and God bores him through the
ear. He marks him. This is a bond
servant. He marks him, puts his mark on
him. Baptism is putting on the uniform of Christ by identification
with Him. Just like when I joined the Navy,
I had to take an oath and they issued me a uniform. And I put
that uniform on and it identified me with this country. I don't
care where I went in this world, they knew what country I represented
because I wore the uniform. When you come up here, you put
on the uniform. You put on the uniform. "...identified
himself with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and
thereby confessed Christ to be his only hope." Now, let me tell
you something. God is going to prove that faith.
He is going to prove it. Write it down. He is going to
put it through the fire. He is going to put it through
the fire. This profession, because it involves
the name of God, and because it involves the reputation of
His Son, God is going to single it out by trial. Something you
can't do. I can stand up here and jump
up and down all day and tell you what I believe. I'll tell
you how you're going to know what I believe when I come through
the fire. You see what I'm saying? He's
going to try this faith. And I'm telling you, this faith
involves a new heart, a new life, a new direction, a new king.
Well, Paul said this. Listen to this. He said, The
day will declare it. He said that over in 1 Corinthians
3. The day will declare it because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall lay. It's going to try every man's
work of what kind it is, what sort it is. He's going to try
it. You're going to try. Don't make a false profession.
Don't ever try to just persuade somebody into a profession of
faith or get them to make a decision because it's not going to stand
a fire. It's not going to hold up. It's not going to hold up.
Now, look with me over here in 1 Corinthians 2. Seeing what
faith is. Seeing what it brings. Seeing
what it must withstand. Let me show you this morning
just a little bit of the importance of how it's brought to pass.
Look here in 1 Corinthians. And I'm telling you, this is
the most important thing you've ever considered in your life,
what I'm preaching to you this morning. There isn't another
thing in this Bible any more important than this. I'm going
to prove that to you here in just a little bit. And it's my
prayer to God that His Spirit will be our teacher here this
morning. Now, let's read these first four verses here in 1 Corinthians
2. Now, Paul is talking to this people
that he had come and preached to that were converted under
his ministry. And trouble had arisen. And he
was here to counsel them. He was here to show them the
error of their ways. He was here to declare to them
the true gospel of Christ why he came, why he preached the
way he did, all these things. He is going to talk to them a
little bit about how this faith of God, the faith of God's elect,
is established in the heart. Now listen, And I, brethren,
when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness,
and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power." Now, what on earth does that
mean? I hear folks talk about it all
the time on TV, preaching and the power of the Spirit. You've
heard it. I've heard it. I've heard folks
tell me, down at the store, down at different places. Boy, you
should have been there last night. That man was preaching in the
power of the Spirit. And what they meant was that
folks had an experience. What they meant was this fellow
got all up and pumped himself up into some kind of a state
of excitement and got everybody else excited. And being excited
is what they call preaching in the power of God's Spirit. What
on earth is Paul talking about here when he says, My speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power? Well, let me just
give you a few things. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
1. Here is the first thing I want
you to think about. We are talking about Preaching
in the power of God's Spirit by demonstration, by demonstration. Now, what on earth is he talking
about? Here's the first thing. It means a demonstration of that
Spirit and that power in me. Now, that's the first thing it
means. That's what Paul is telling these folks. And in your own
time, you can read the entire first chapter of Galatians. I
don't have time to read it all. But down here in verse 15 is
where he gets to the kernel. He gets to the meat of what it
is he is saying. And he said, When it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me
by His grace to reveal His Son in me. Now, what's that next
word? That. In order of that. To make it possible. That. I
might preach him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood." This apostle stood before men
and angels, stood in the presence of God, and declared a gospel
that God taught him. You can't declare what man teaches
you. You can't do it. All you can
do is memorize a bunch of stuff. You can stand up here and you
can go down the old Roman road and you can go down the Pentecostal
trail and you can do all them things. You can preach what you
memorize and even Calvinism in its dead letter. You can stand
up and I can tell you what John Gill said and what John Owen
said and what this one said and what that one said, but I can't
tell you what God said until God says it to me. That's what
Paul is talking about. He said, I declare unto you what
God declared in me. That's what I preached. He said,
I know whom I believe. Didn't he? He didn't say I knew about him.
He said, I know him. I know him. And I'll tell you this, I believe
what I preach. I know whom I have believed.
And to preach and demonstration of the Spirit and of power means
that the Spirit and power has already been demonstrated in
me. That's where the message begins.
That's where it starts. It starts over at the house in
my study and in prayer. And God disturbs my heart, lays
something on my heart, and I know as soon as He does, it's going
to grab yours. I know it right then. How come? Because I know God tells me speaks
in my heart. And when God speaks in my heart,
it's to speak to yours. Now, if I sit over there and
scratch my head and nothing comes, He's not going to tell you anything.
He just ain't. We're just going to get up here
and rehearse the doctrines. That's all we're going to do.
And I don't want to do that. I stand up here every Sunday
morning and God demonstrates to you through me a revelation
of the glory of Christ in the gospel I preach." He sets it
before you just like a meal. He sets it before you. Here is the second thing it means.
It means that having preached this gospel, I stand up and I
give you what God gives me out of this book concerning his Son,
concerning his glory. glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ and I give it to you, that's where I quit. I just quit. I just folded my hands. I'm not
going to sing 59 verses of Just As I Am and try to get you down
the aisle. I'm not going to try to put a
mourner's bench up here and get you down here and all the elders
of the church are going to put their arms around you and I'm
going to Just keep adding a little and adding a little and adding
a little until I can get you down here, and then we're all
going to gather around you, and we're all going to start crying
and praying until they do what they call praying through. We're
not going to go into that kind of foolishness. I'm going to
preach the gospel to you, and then I'm going to get out of
the way. And the Spirit of God is going to determine the results.
That's what it means. That's what Paul said to us.
I didn't come to you with enticing words of man's wisdom trying
to sucker you down the aisle, trying to entice you down an
aisle, trying to sucker you into a decision, trying to get you
to make some kind of decision for Jesus. That's the most ungodly
thing I ever heard of. Make a decision for an omnipotent
God. How are you going to do that? Paul preached this gospel. He
laid it out before them in the simplest of terms, in the simplest
of illustrations. He laid it out before them, and
then he let God do the rest. He just got out of the way. He
just got out of the way. Don't ever try to pressure somebody
into a decision or profession of faith. That's what Israel
did. He said, You come from sea and earth to make one prophet
like unto yourself. And when you made him, he's twofold
more of a child of hell than you are. That's what our Lord
told them about that. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit of God. The miracle of the new birth
was demonstrated in Mary when they put the seed in her. And
nothing else happened. until a man was born. You see
what I'm saying? I stand up there and preach the
gospel. That's the seed of God. It comes from His book. It enters
into the heart. You just get out of the way.
Christ will be formed in that man when the seed is planted.
I'm telling you the truth. That's how this thing works.
That's preaching in the power of God's Spirit. Paul even feared
using enticing words. He wasn't even using an enticing
word in his message. Isn't that what he said? He said,
I purposed not to do it. I did it on purpose. You thought
I was just being hard. He said, I determine when I come
there not to do it. I determine not to use man's
wisdom. I determine not to use excellency
of speech and oratory. He said, I purposed that. I did that on purpose. It isn't
just because I'm ignorant. I did it on purpose, he said.
And then thirdly, it means this, that his message was demonstrated
in the hearts of his hearers. It's demonstrated in their hearts.
Now, I'm going to tell you something, there isn't anything more comforting
to me than when I stand up here on a Sunday morning, or whenever
it is I stand up here and I look back there and somebody is just
hanging on every word. Somebody back there with their
tears rolling down their cheeks are rejoicing in Christ. Ain't
anything more comforting than that to me, because you can't
rejoice until the Holy Spirit of God comes in you, reveals
that message, and just makes your heart bubble up. I can't
do that. I've got no power over men's
hearts. And then fourthly, it means this. It means a strong
declaration of the gospel preached dogmatically and without apology,
and Christ is the gospel. You know, I don't care how charismatic
the man is. I know a lot of men who are very
charismatic. Donnie Bell is charismatic. Henry
Mann is charismatic. But I don't care how charismatic
the man is, if he doesn't preach Christ, the Spirit of God wasn't
in the meeting. Just the Spirit of the man. I don't care how charismatic
I can be. I can't bring life in your soul. You see what I mean? I don't
want you to receive my spirit. I want you to receive His. His. That's why Paul preached the
way he preached. Now, why was this so important
to this apostle? Why was he so adamant? I mean,
you read through these first two chapters of 1 Corinthians,
this man is adamant. He said, I thank God I didn't
baptize none of you. He didn't even want to commend
them for their baptism. He said, I thank God I didn't
baptize none of you. The way you're acting, thank
God I didn't have anything to do with it. God didn't send me
to baptize. He sent me to preach. You see
what he's saying? To preach. There's where the emphasis is
on the gospel, on the gospel. A strong declaration of Christ,
a strong declaration. Why was this so important to
him? Why was he so adamant here in these chapters talking about
this? I mean, what's wrong with having
a drawing card? Why not have somebody famous
down here? We just take up a collection
and get somebody down here that's got a name. Man, everybody in
the country show up. Everybody around here show up.
Then we can preach to them. What's wrong with that? What's
wrong with that? Why not just change what we preach
a little bit? Why not just preach a little
less dogmatic? Just don't be so dogmatic. A
fellow told me, he said, He said, I've never got in a conversation
with anybody like you. He said, you don't leave any
room for argument. There isn't any room for argument. Preaching is a declaration. It's
not an argument. We're not in here to share. This
is not a sharing session. This is a declaration of Christ. Repent, he said. That's a commandment,
isn't it? All men everywhere now are commanded
to repent. That's what the Scripture said.
We're commanded to believe. No sharing. We don't stand up
and say, it's not a discussion. Why not? Why do I have to be
so dogmatic? Why not be just a little less
critical of other religions? Why do I stand up and Put this
one in the spotlight, and then put that one in the spotlight,
and then put this one in the spotlight, and then compare them
to Christ. Why not just be a little less
critical? Why not just stand up and just say what you've got
to say and leave religion out of it? Here's why. 1 Corinthians
2, verse 5, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. That's why. Now, brothers and sisters, I'm
telling you the truth. Your faith has to stand. That's
what I told you at the beginning of the message. It's going to
be tried. This faith has to stand. It's got to stand before judgment.
It's got to stand before opposition. It's got to stand before criticism. It's got to stand up under close
scrutiny. It's got to stand up under your
husband, your wife, your mother, your father, your friends. It's
got to stand up under the pressure of this world. It has to stand
up under the lies and deceit of Satan. It has to stand being justified
by faith, Paul said. We have access into this peace
of God, into this grace wherein we stand. Now we're standing
in a different spot than we used to stand. Nobody used to be upset
at me. Boy, everybody wants to throw
rocks at me now. Why? Why? Faith. Faith. That's why. Paul said to these Corinthians
over here in chapter 15, he said, let's read that over here in
1 Corinthians 15. I'll just take a second and read
it to you. 1 Corinthians 15, listen to this. He said in verse 1, Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospels which I preached
unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. This faith
has strength. I can't just go back 25 years
and start talking about the time and the place where I got saved. That's like running your hand
over something you've grayed up carrots with. It just eats
me alive to hear somebody say, let me tell you when I got saved.
Well, you ain't saved yet. That's what Paul said. He said, I haven't arrived. I'm
not there yet. That's the way we talk. I got
saved. Here's an apostle caught up to the third heaven, taught
by Christ himself, and he's saying, oh, he's saying, oh, if I might,
if I might win Christ and be found in him. Huh? Wow. That's a different language than
what we talk, ain't it? We got fixed up. That's what
happened to us. We went back there, went down the aisle, made
a decision, doing something, got all fixed up, memorized the
catechism, whatever it is. We got all fixed up. Made our
decision. Turned over a new leaf. Memorized
some doctrine. Now here we are. You ain't going
to make it. You're not going to stand because
God is going to try this outfit. It's going to get passed through
the fire. And everything that ain't Christ is going to get
burned up. Faith has to stand. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, and He stood as the head of the body, His
church, the pillar and ground of the truth. And He stood against
overwhelming opposition, and He stood against all lies and
deceit. And He stood in opposition to
long-established traditions and long-established ideas and universally
accepted opinions. And he stood against all the
false accusations and all the false criticisms of men. He stood. He stood. There is a criticism of the gospel,
and anybody who dares to preach it, they put a black mark on
his name. They identify him as a cult.
He is a cult leader. I was talking to somebody down
in the furniture store down in Spring Hill the other day, and
this lady said, What brings you to Taylor? I said, well, I'm
pastoring a little church up there. Oh, where at? I said,
well, it's over on 53. I didn't figure anybody knew
where this place was. I said, it's over on 53. I said,
it's just a little above, I don't really even know what you call
this community. I told her it was a little bit above Walker
Creek up there. Oh, and she named that church down the road. I
said, no. I said, it's a little further up on the left. The little
white church? I said, uh-huh. Oh. There is a criticism that goes
out when a man dares to preach the gospel. What of him who is
the gospel? He stood to criticism, didn't
he? He stood to criticism. They called
him a fraud and an imposter. He said he cast out devils by
the prince of Beelzebub. They called him everything they
could call him. They criticized him. They went out places where
they figured he might go and started talking about it. Don't
listen to him. I guarantee you every church
in this area that's heard about this church tells their people,
don't you go down there. You watch out for that man. Don't
you read nothing he publishes or hear nothing he speaks. Don't
go down there. They've got those people thinking
this place is the devil himself. I guarantee it, because there
is a criticism that goes out, and you have to stand. Your faith
has to stand against that criticism. Christ stood. There is a barrier
raised up, and none can overcome but God. He stood on the mountain,
and He stood in a ship, and He stood on the porch of the temple.
He stood in their synagogues despite what they said about
Him. He stood beside the sea. He stood in the wilderness of
temptation. He stood in the opposition of
their lies. And He stood opposed to evil
and ungodliness. And He stood before Pilate, stood
before the people, and stood before the priest. And He stood
before a holy God and a holy law. And He stood there in a
perfection of faithfulness that only God can measure. Think about
it. Let me read you something over
here in Romans 3. When he gets done describing
the condition of a fallen man, he gets down here in verse 19,
and he said, Now we know. And brother, if he ever takes
you down that road, That road of none good, none that understandeth,
none that seeketh after God. All gone out of the way. No profit. All together. Get them all at
one heap. Ain't no profit in them. If he ever takes you down
that road, here's the conclusion you're going to come to. Now,
we know that what thing soever the law saith, verse 19, it saith
to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now,
now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God which is by faith." Now listen to me, that's not talking
about your faith, that's talking about his. Let me read it to
you again, "...even the righteousness of God, which is by faith," that
is, the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, "...unto all, and upon
all them that believe." We take that faith that only God can
measure, that righteousness that only God can measure, that standing
that only God can measure, and we say, that's my standing. I
stand in Him. That's where faith stands. It
stands in Him. It don't ever move away from
Him. I tell you, that's when you get
in trouble. You see a man who's all down in the mouth and he's
not praying enough and he's not doing enough. He's trying to
stand in himself. He's trying to stand in his prayers
and in his faithfulness. Don't stand there. Stand in Him. Stand in Him. Somebody said one
time, you can take all the ifs in the New Testament and put
them on a chain and hang them around his neck. That was all
fulfilled in him. He takes care of all the ifs.
Look to him. It's in his faithfulness and
standing that we have ours. I preached a message one time,
I think it was in Revelation 7, where he's talking about the
multitude standing before the throne, and I told him, I said,
what on the world does this have to do with the revelation of
Christ? That's what that book is. The
revelation of Jesus Christ. What in the world does that have
to do with the revelation of Christ in my heart? Just this. My standing is because He sits. That's right. He already stood.
And now He sits. And I stand. I stand in Him. I stand in Him for eternity.
Now, turn over to Romans chapter 8, and just hold your place there. I'll
get there in just a second. The demonstration of the spirit
and power of the gospel is taking his faithfulness and making it
our own. That's what faith does. It receives
it. And the flesh can't perform this
work. It can't do it. Now, I'm telling
you. Folks sit around. I've seen it over the years.
I heard about it. Brother Mahan preached it a long
time ago, back in the 70's when I first started listening to
it. But I didn't understand it. And now, by example, I understand
it. I see these men who got up and preached, and preached, and
preached, and nothing happened. And so they said, We're going
to add a few things to the preaching. And so they started having some
special days. And they started having some
special this and some special that. And they built a little
gymnasium on the back of the church and started a little Christian
school there in the church. And first thing you know, it
wasn't a church. It wasn't a church. It was just
like everybody else. Just like everybody else. The flesh can't perform this
work. We don't have the will to desire it, the wisdom to understand
it, the strength to preserve it, or the holiness to perfect
it. We don't have what it takes.
And apart from the Holy Spirit of God, all we have is flesh.
And that's what Paul is talking about over here in Romans chapter
8. Listen to this. He begins here in verse 1, There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now, you're going to describe
them. What in the world is he talking about? In Christ Jesus,
who walked not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. My standing before God is no
longer based on my strength, on my obedience, on my holiness,
on my wisdom, but on His. It's on His. My standing is in
His. for what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh." Paul said, if there could
have been anything that could have made us holy, it would have
been the law. There wasn't anything wrong with the law, John. The
law was pure truth, pure truth, given by the hand of God. What
was the problem? The flesh. It's the flesh. That's what he's saying here.
It was weak through the flesh. God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. He exposed it. He hung it up
on the pole just like he did that fiery serpent, and he said,
Now you look and live. You look and live. And he did that, verse 4, that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. We walk like
Abraham walked. Abraham believed God. You'd be
hard-pressed if you go through the life of Abraham to really
settle down and write a doctrine, wouldn't you? Did you ever read
the life of Abraham? You'd be hard-pressed to just
sit down, knowing what you know about the doctrines of grace,
If you just read the life of Abraham, you wouldn't understand
any of them. You wouldn't understand any of
them. So I know that's not what he's talking about. We walk like
he walked. He believed God. God said, get
up and go. He got up and went. He told Abraham, he said, I'm
going to give you this land. And told him how far it went
and where it began and all that. All this land over here, he said,
I'm going to give it to you. But it said Abraham never had
so much as one square inch to put his foot. But he believed
God. He believed God. Told him he
was going to have a son him a hundred years old. How old was Sarah? Ninety-nine?
You're going to have a son. He believed God. He believed
God. It was the testimony of his life.
He walked in the Spirit of God, believing God, taking what light
God gave him and walking in that light, whatever it was. I tell
you, sometimes we give folks the opinion, if they're not intellectuals, they can't be
saved. Having faith is believing God. Whatever amount of light it is
He gives you, walk in that light. You don't have to walk in the
light God gave me. Walk in the light He gave you. We say, all I know is I'm supposed
to be down there. Then come down here. Walk in
that light. He'll give you some more light.
He'll give you some more. We walk like He walked. We hope
in his righteousness alone. Listen to this, verse 5. For
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
They that are after the Spirit do things of the Spirit. They
who still cling to their own understandings, their own obedience,
their own strength, their own faithfulness, that's where they
give their teaching. That's where they give their
sacrifices. That's where they put their money. That's where
they spend their efforts. For those who walk by the Spirit
do things of the Spirit. reading of God's Word, preaching
the gospel, public worship, fellowship, all those types of things. To
be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. And people who hope in this flesh,
they hope in an empty box. That's what they do. Because
they think there's something in here that's going to assist
them to be accepted of God and approved of God. And brother,
it's an empty box. It's empty. That's what he told
them. He said, it's empty inside. It's just empty. There ain't
nothing in there but dead men's bones. Dead men's bones. And I don't care how respectable
the religion is or how universally it's accepted, it cannot deliver
your soul or give you life or cause you to walk with God because
All of them, without exception, rely on the strength of the flesh
to plead God. And it can't be done. Our Lord
told His disciples when that rich young ruler walked away,
they turned around and looked at each other and they said,
Who then can be saved? He had it all. He had obedience
from his youth up. He's a successful man. He's loved
of everybody. Who's going to be? The Lord said,
With man it's impossible. I wish we could learn that. It's
impossible. It's not just not likely, it's
impossible. You can't do it. He has to do
it. With God, he said, all things
are possible. And carnally minded men are men
who depend on the flesh to give them a right standing before
God. That's what it means to be carnally minded. That's what
that means. Spiritually minded men rest in
Christ, hope in Christ, have life in Christ, enjoy his union
with him, rejoice in Christ. And the carnal mind, he said,
is death because it's enmity against God. That's the nature
of it. That's the natural condition
of it. He's not mad at his God. He's not upset at his God. But
when he's confronted with the true character of God and what
God demands from men, then he gets upset. That enmity shows. He didn't get mad. He's always
been mad. You just revealed danger. You
just revealed where it was. You just uncovered it. He had
no head. And you took the lid off. He said, It is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be it. It will not bow to
the perfections of God, submit to the claims of God, or judge
itself by his judgment. But he said, You are not in the
flesh, in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell
in you. And if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, then he
is none of his. He is none of his. But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his Spirit. You know, when God called Lazarus
out of the tomb, He didn't just call out his spirit, did he? He called the whole man. The
whole outfit come out of the tomb, John. And when he commanded
those death robes to unwind and unbound him, you know what happened?
They stood before him a resurrected man, body and spirit. Stood before
him. Walked with him. Followed him
in the way. That's right. That's what Paul
is talking about here. You see, the body is turned by
the mind. That's what happens. That's how
you walk with God. God, He first does the work in
your heart, in your mind, and He turns the body. He turns the
body. The body is turned by the mind.
The body is ruled by the mind. The body is instructed by the
mind. Spiritually minded bodies serve Christ. That's what Paul
says. And carnally minded bodies serve the flesh. For as many," verse 14, "'as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.'" They
are revealed by attitude and spirit, by conduct and allegiance,
by submission and humility. He said, "'For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption whereby you cry, Abba, Father.'" Then he
says, "'The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God.'" I brought a message here a while
back, and the title of it was, What Possesses the Man Becomes
the Man. That's what he's talking about
right here. Becoming one. When Christ becomes one with
you, when Christ enters you and bubbles up inside you with life
until you can't tell the difference, until you can't tell the difference,
that's faith. That's faith. And I could go on and on. I've
got a lot of things here, but I'm going to stop right there
and I'm just going to tell you a story. I started out this morning to
tell you how that gospel's planted in your heart. When I was a kid,
we had a magician come to town in the school. I guess a little
fella, probably second grade, third grade, something like that.
And he'd come over there in the auditorium of the high school
and my mother and father let me go with some friends and we
went down to see the magicians. And man, this guy came out. He
had this big black cape on and he'd come out and he was just
moving. He was moving across that stage
and across this way and throwing up birds out of a hat and doing
all this stuff. But what really got me as a kid,
I was sitting right up toward the front and I looked over there
And he caused this girl in our school to float. You ever seen
a magician do that? Made her float. And he took that
table out, he waved that wand over, and he said some words
like abracadabra or something like that. And then he took this
hoop, and they moved the table, and they did all this stuff.
Now, I'm going to tell you something. I was impressed. I went home,
and I got me an old robe and put it on, and went out and got
me a little pretend stick, and I played magician for a week.
And I didn't know all the whatabouts and the wherefores and all that
kind of stuff, but one thing I knew when I got home, if you
didn't say the right words, the magic didn't work. Did you hear
me? If I don't say the right words,
the magic won't work. And could be that's a problem
in some of y'all's hearts. Could be. You ain't heard the
right words. Oh, God be pleased, give me the
right words.