If you have your Bibles open
to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 3, we want to read the first
10 verses. In those days came John the Baptist
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye,
turn ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Turn ye, because
you are on the wrong road. You are going the wrong way on
the wrong road. Turn around. If you were going
down the wrong road and somebody were to shout at you, turn ye,
turn ye, what would you do? Well, I believe if you had good
sense that you'd turn around and that you would head back
in the direction from which you came. And so John is saying,
repent ye, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven has come
down from heaven. And it's at hand, so repent. For this is he that was spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment
of camel's hair and eleven girdle about his loins, and his meat
was locust and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem,
and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were
baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he, John,
saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to his baptism,
he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits,
meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourself,
We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid
unto the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which bringeth
not forth good fruit is shewn down and cast into the fire. Let me read verse 12. Whose fan
is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his
wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire. About 30 years ago, on a Sunday evening, I preached
a sermon over on the southwest side of town here. The subject
of the sermon was The Fruit of the Fire. Now, a few days ago,
or a few weeks ago, I should say, Hank Bauman and I was having
a little conversation, and he brought up, he was in that service. 30 years ago, and he heard that
sermon, and he brought up the fact of that title, The Fruit
or the Fire. He'd never forgotten. He's forgotten
a whole lot of other things, but he's never forgot the title
to that message, The Fruit or the Fire. Now, he had some of
his kinfolk with him, and I don't know who all they were, but there
were several of them there that night, and this message is one
that I have felt led of the Lord by the Spirit of God to speak
to you this morning, and I trust that God will use it in your
lives. We've been very much moved inwardly by the Holy Spirit to
deal with some of the things that we feel that are in need
of being dealt with in the last few services. And especially
on Wednesday night of this last week, we had a good study And
there are some things that are pressing on my soul that I think
need to be said, and I think that we need this message at
this time. And I trust that those of you
that know the Lord, and those of you that are in Jesus Christ,
that you will be praying as the message goes out this day, that
the Lord will use it. Now we see that John the Baptist
has come on the scene, and he's been blessed of God, and he's
been given a message by God, And he's been telling the people
what they ought to do in light of the fact that the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. And while John was preaching,
the Bible says that they went out to him, Jerusalem and all
Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized
of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. that there was a
time of turning away from sin, time of confessing of sin, there
was a time of being baptized with a baptism that would speak
of one turning from their sin, one being changed, one becoming
a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you might ask, really
is this message that John preached, was it a a gospel message, or
was it what somebody might call a pre-gospel message? But my
friend, this was a gospel message. We know that the ministry of
John the Baptist, that this is the beginning of the gospel. The beginning of the gospel is
the ministry of John the Baptist. I read out of Mark chapter 1.
Bear with me while I prove this to you. In Mark chapter 1, in
verse 1, it says, The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. As it is written in the prophets,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And then
John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. So we see that the beginning
of the gospel of Jesus Christ was the ministry of John the
Baptist. So this is not a pre-gospel message,
this is a gospel message. And we need to be aware of this.
Now beloved, this theme that John carries on with here, we
see in verse 7, But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the
Sadducees come to his baptism, Here he looks up the road and
here comes many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming down
the road, coming down the road to be baptized. And he said unto
them, when they got near enough, he said unto them, O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? give evidence of the fact that
you have been warned by the Spirit of God and the Word of God that
you ought to turn from your sin. Who hath warned you? Is there
another preacher around that I don't know anything about,
John would say? Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come? bring forth, therefore fruits
meet for repentance." In other words, if you've come for this
baptism, I want to see some evidence of the fact that God's done a
work in your soul. I want to see some evidence of
the fact that you are truly turning in your heart away from being
a generation of vipers, away from being whited sepulchers. I want to know that you're really
and truly turning unto the Lord. Turning from your sin unto the
Lord. I want to know that. And then
he goes on to say in verse 10, And now also the axe is laid
unto the root of the trees. He said, I'm laying the axe to
the root of the tree. Therefore, every tree which brings
not forth good fruit, every tree that does not bring forth fruit
which bespeaks of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
everyone who brings forth fruit that does not testify to the
fact that they've had a genuine work of grace in their hearts,
he says, they bringeth forth not good fruit is shewing down
and cast into the fire. We lay the axe to the root of
the tree. And those of you that are here
this morning that have openly testified in years gone by that
you're a child of God, you've openly testified of faith, a
living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have said openly
that you belong to the Lord. You made it so public that you
come to the preacher and come to the church and ask for a home
in the church and ask the preacher to baptize you and to declare
that you had died with Christ and that you were being buried
to walk in newness of life, to come up out of the waters of
baptism to walk in newness of life. And so you begin to examine
yourself this morning, because if the tree does not bring forth
good fruit, then it shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. And then in verse 12 he said,
whose fan is in his hand, talking about the Holy Spirit coming,
And he will thoroughly purge his floor, gather his wheat,
his wheat is his people, it's his sheep, it's those that God
the Father chose in his Son before the foundation of the world and
in time brought to a saving, living relationship with him.
So he'll gather his wheat unto the garner. He'll gather them
on that day. We talked about this a couple
of weeks ago, about that great gathering in the sky when the
people of God would be gathered. And so he says, but he will burn
up the chaff. He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire. Now the chaff here is those that
have never had a genuine experience in the grace of God. It's those
who've never truly repented with such a repentance that would
enable them to bring forth fruit to the glory and praise and honor
of God. And so, my friend, this morning
we've opened up this text And we see here clearly that there's
a gospel message. Now, to show that this runs all
through the Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to the book
of Acts, chapter 26. The book of Acts, chapter 26. And I want to read here a verse
of Scripture to you, showing you that the Apostle Paul preached
the same thing. Verse 20 of Acts 26. But Paul
was preaching, and he showed first unto them of Damascus,
and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then
to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and turn to God, and
do works meet for repentance. This is the Apostle Paul. This
is his message. And he says that he preached
to the Gentiles. And that's people like you and
I. He preached to them and told them that they should repent.
They should repent. They should change their mind
about themselves. And they should change their
mind about God. And they should turn from their
sin to the living God. Turn to God, he said. Turn to
God. Make a direct move and turn to
God. And then he said, and do works
meet for repentance. Go out and live like you had
truly repented. Go out and live and conduct yourself
like there had been a change, a definite change in your life. When you repented, go out and
show the world that you are a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ
and that things are different in your life. And so this is
a message that was preached throughout the Word of God. Now beloved,
I want to look just a little bit this morning at this business
of repentance. and about the fruit that we should
bear to the glory of God, bringing forth works meet for repentance. Now, I wanted to say that sin
is more than an act. Sin is more than an act. It is
a condition of the soul. It is a condition. All men are
submerged in it. All men are sinners by nature. And when they come into this
world, they're born in sin, and they need to repent. They need
to turn. They need to turn to God. They're
followers of Satan, followers of rebellion and sinful ways,
and they need to turn to God. But true repentance, my friend,
is a disposition of the heart. It's a disposition of the heart.
You do not repent with your hands or your feet, your legs or your
arms, but the repentance of the heart affects the hands and the
feet and the legs and the arms. When one is truly repentant in
their soul and in their heart, it affects every part of their
life. Every part of their life. Repentance is a heart work. And
whatever is the condition of the heart, hear me out, Whatever
is the condition of a man's heart at any stage in his life will
be manifested in his life. Whatever is the state of his
heart, the condition of his heart will be manifest in his life. I want you to turn back with
me to the book of Proverbs, holding your finger here in Matthew.
Turn back to the book of Proverbs chapter 4, and I want you to
listen to some things here about the heart. And these things apply
to men and women in our day as much as they did in the days
of the preacher Solomon. But here in Proverbs chapter
4, beginning with verse 18, he says the path of the just is
as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect
day. Talking about the path that the
just man takes, he says it's a light that shineth more and
more unto that day of the Lord that's coming. The way of the
wicked is as darkness. You see the contrast? They know
not at what they stumble. My son, attend to my words. Incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine
eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine
heart. Keep them in the midst of your
heart. For their life unto those that find them, and health to
all their flesh. My friend, the blessing of God
be upon those who are alive in the Lord Jesus Christ and by
living and bringing forth works meet for repentance, your health
will be strengthened and held to all their flesh. Look at verse
23, keep thy heart with all diligence. Keep your heart with all diligence
for out of it are the issues of life. Why are you like you
are? It's because the way you are
in your heart. That's the reason. And what the
condition of your heart is, that will be manifest in your life. We'll see it. We'll all see it.
It'll be manifest in your life. Keep your heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a
forward mouth, perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine
eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before
thee. Keep your eyes on the path, keep your eyes on the way, keep
your eyes on the truth, keep your eyes on living for Christ,
living as you ought to live as a believer, and look right on.
And don't be looking around, looking at what the world's doing,
men of the world, and so on and so forth. He said in verse 26,
ponder the path of thy feet. Think about the way you're going.
What direction are you going? Are you going the way of chaff?
Are you going the way of those that are a generation that's
never really truly been changed in their heart? Are you following
this wicked world? Walking in the ways of the world?
My friend, he said, ponder the path of your feet and let all
thy ways be established. And I believe he means by that,
be established through repentance, through faith, and through walking
after the Word of God. And now verse 27, turn not to
the right hand nor to the left. Don't turn to the right hand
or to the left to do evil. Don't turn, don't turn, stay
if you're on the path. And if you've truly repented,
if you've been born again, regenerated by the Spirit of God, if the
Holy Ghost is in you, my friend, then you're on the right path.
And so he said, turn not to the right hand or to the left. Stay,
look straight on, and keep going in the direction the Lord would
have you to go. Remove thy foot from evil. Remove thy foot from evil. Did you hear that? Does that
go out all over the building? Remove thy foot from evil. And I say that clearly. I said
it three or four times in order that all of you would get the
impact of the message. Remove thy foot from evil. And there are those in our midst
that are walking in such a manner that they need to be rebuked
by the Spirit of God. And the Bible says that we are
not to grieve that Holy Spirit of God with which we are sealed.
until the day of redemption. There needs to be a remembrance
of Him, of that third Person of the Holy Trinity that dwells
in our hearts, that we grieve Him not by living in sin and
rebellion against God. Well, repentance, that is heart
work, and the condition of the heart will be manifest. Now notice,
if you will, man's heart. Turn with me to the Gospel of
Mark, chapter 7. Man's heart. Do you know that
in this day and time there are so many around us who, and have
you ever wondered about it, why it is that those living around
us, our relatives, our friends, how it is that they have not
the same concern for the things of God, they have no concern
for the truth of God, no concern for the gospel that you and I
believe in and love, they have no concern for it. Have you ever
asked yourself why? Well, my friend, the reason is,
is because they do not know themselves to be sinners. They do not know
that. In their heart of hearts, they
do not know that they're sinners before God. They don't know it.
Now, I need for us to think a little bit about this. Now, if a man,
you know, religion, just as we find it, today, and you know
how religion is. If you were to go in most congregations
that are meeting in the city of Great Falls, you would see
it to be so. that there is no fondness for the Lord Jesus Christ. All them mention his name, once
in a while they got a song that's got his name in it, but there
is no real turning from what men are by nature unto the precious
Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason is, they don't
know themselves to be sinners. If you're here this morning,
you're unconverted. You are blind, my friend. You are blind. And
until the spirit of illumination comes on your heart and wakes
you up to what you really are in a state of nature, you're
not going to repent. But the churches are full of
people that really never, never had the spirit of illumination
given to their hearts. They do not know themselves to
be sinners before God. Let me describe here by the reading
of the scripture out of Mark chapter 7, man's heart. Now we
read beginning with verse 20. And he said, by which cometh
out of the man that defileth the man. For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil
things come from within and defile a man. Now my friend, because
you were born with a nature contrary to God, born in sin, then my
friend you have this kind of heart beating in your breast
this morning. And it is because man has this
kind of heart that he needs the spirit of illumination that he
might really discover what the truth is about his heart and
then that he might have the Holy Spirit of God to rebirth him
that he may have a new heart before God and that he might
hate sin and be able to turn from it and loathe it as he ought
to. But I tell you that men and women
lost do not know sin. They do not know that they're
sinners. You can tell them, but is that going to make them understand?
You tell a fellow, vinegar is sour, and he may believe you
or he may not believe you, but you take a big spoonful of it
and stick it in his mouth, and he's going to know that vinegar
is sour. And my friend, the same is true
about a man being a sinner. Tell them all week long that
they're sinners. It'll make no difference. But
until God gives them the spirit of illumination, man does not
know himself to be as these verses describes him. ISAB is one of
the first medicines which the Lord uses with the soul. He touches the eye of the understanding
and man becomes guilty in his own sight as he always was, you
know, guilty in the sight of God. Sins that were long forgotten
spring up in the mind and sins which he thought were really
not very bad at all suddenly rise up in their true character,
and he's smitten in his soul, and he knows he's lost, he knows
that he's a wicked sinner before God, and he knows that God's
going to burn him up with the chaff, and he knows that he's
never brought forth fruit, not five minutes in his life to the
glory and praise and honor of God, and he knows that that tree,
him, is going to be cut down and is going to be burned up
by the fire. My friend, when a man begins
to see his best needs that they're loathsome in the sight of God.
The Bible says that works of righteousness which we have done
that there are filthy rugs in the sight of God. But you never
seen that, did you? No, you don't believe that. Religion
don't believe that. We'd have wholesale repentance.
We'd have men and women begging Christ to forgive them if they
knew they were sinners. If you ever really knew, if you
ever come to really know what you really are by nature, there's
going to be some weeping and wailing. There's going to be
some crying out to God. You're not going to want to face
a holy God, a thrice holy God in your sin. You're going to
want to flee, and the only place to flee is to the Ark of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, our sinful acts are 10,000 times
more wicked than ever we believed them to be. Ever more wicked
than we ever believed them to be. We do not, you know, we have
this, we think God's all together like we are. Sees out of one
eye most of the time. But my friend, God sees out of
both eyes. He made the hearing ear and the
seeing eye. And God knows you. And I'm telling you, your wickedness
and sin is great. And I'm telling you, God knows
about it. And I'll never believe you repent until you first receive
divine illumination. Until God opens your eyes and
you begin to be burdened about your sin. Now I don't know, I
try not to question people too much, but John the Baptist looked
that generation of vipers in the face and said, who warned
you to flee the wrath to come? You go out here and live to prove
that you're worthy of your baptism. And I say to you this morning,
brethren, there's a need for this illumination. We cannot
expect a blind eye to see filth upon a black hand, nor can we
ever believe that the understanding which has never been enlightened
can ever really, really detect sin and know what it is, how
bad a stain it is upon their daily life. The next word that
I want to talk about is humiliation, because I believe in this repentance,
there must be a time of humiliation. The soul, having seen itself,
bows before God, strips itself of all of its vain boasting,
and lays itself flat on its face before the throne of mercy. You
don't find anybody crying out on their face for mercy. That's
because they never really felt the humiliation of their sin. Once we could say, God, I thank
Thee that I'm not as other men are, but not now. Not anymore. Not after you've been illuminated.
Not after God's opened your eyes. Not after you begin to see what
you are. If God were to send us to hell,
the first thing that we would have to do is to justify God
for sending us there. We'd have to say, Lord, you're
right. Lord, you're right. We're sinners. We're dead dog
sinners and we are deserving of the judgment of God. We must
acknowledge the justice of the penalty as well as the guilt
of the sin or else it would be mock repentance which we pretend
to possess. So the sinner needs to come down. He needs to realize how shameful
is his sin. I was talking about last week
our Lord Jesus Christ, our Master, our glorious Redeemer, and how
when He became poor, it was because our shameful sin was laid upon
Him. Shameful sin. Was your sin, is
your sin shameful to you? Shameful. Do you ever feel ugly? I mean, do you ever really feel
downright ugly before God? Shameful, shameful is our sin. Now my friend, down on your face,
down on your face. Confess your iniquity with shame
and confusion of faith. Bow down before the God of mercy
and acknowledge that if he spares you, it'll be free grace mercy. Free grace mercy if he spares
you and don't send you to hell. That if he destroys you, you're
not going to have one word. that you can say in your defense
against the justice, the solemn justice of God, not one word. Now, beloved, near the heart
of repentance, right in the core of a man's soul, is the sense
of his meanness, the meanness of his conduct towards God. You
know, our sin is against God. It's against God. That's who
our sin is against. Are we aware of that, how mean
we are? by nature toward God. Our sin is against God. Most
people think nothing of offending God. They feel worse about offending
sinful man. Why, they would rather offend
God any day of the week than to offend their relatives. They wouldn't want to offend
their relatives. No, no, no. If their relatives come to visit
them, they don't want to come to church. They'd much rather
offend God by not going than offend their relatives by walking
off and leaving them for an hour or two while they go to church.
My friend, listen. If I call you a sinner, you do
not repel the charge. But if I call you a criminal,
you will deny the accusation. But a criminal is one who has
offended his fellow man. A sinner is one who has wronged
his God. Wronged his God. There may be
those here this morning that have wronged their mother, wronged
their father. Maybe those here this morning
who feel it in their hearts that they are mean toward God, and
they blasphemed his name, took his name in vain. encursed him
and broken, the Lord's day will not come to the house of God,
and they're not concerned about that sin. My friend, you're a
sinner, that's what you are, and you've offended God. Without
this humiliation, there is no genuine repentance, unless you
feel humiliated. that you have sinned against
God, a thrice holy God. And somebody very well said,
to sin against God is to rape God. It's to violate God to sin
against Him. Now, the soul must go a step
further, I believe. Mere sorrow for sin is not enough. I think that a man must hate
sin, and that brings me to the word detestation. Detestation. A man must hate his sin. There
is no repentance where a man can talk lightly of his sin. When he can talk about it and
brag about his sin, there is no true repentance there. The
Word of God teaches, brethren, hear me out. The Word of God
teaches that where the heart is full, the mouth is shut. And we need to remember that.
And when the heart is full of God, full of grace, full of repentance,
then the mouth is shut. It's closed. We will not speak
and brag about our past life, about our sinful ways, and the
way we lived and conduct ourselves. We will not do it because it's
wrong before God. We're to detest. We're to hate. There are certain things that
happened in our past that we hate, and we would not talk about
it for a minute. The golden calf Thomas Matton
said, Yea, the golden calf itself must be ground in powder and
mingled in the bitter water of repentance, and ye must be made
to drink thereof. Well, you remember that golden
calf and how that when Moses came down they ground it up and
made the people drink the water, dumped it in the water and made
them drink it. We must be willing to hang our sins on Haman's gallows,
a hundred and twenty cubits high. or shake them off like Paul did
the viper into the fire. Shake it off, shake it off. My
hero, if you do not hate sin, your sin has to be ready to give
them all up, then you Know not the grace of God in truth. We
must be at war against our sin. We must be. And you need to love
God or yourself and have chosen your own damnation if you're
still in love with your old sin. You're in friendship with death
and in league with hell. May God deliver you from this
wretched state of heart and bring you to detest your sin, because
without it there is no true repentance. And then I think there needs
to be a thorough transformation. Somebody said that repentance
is to leave the sins that we loved before and show that we
in earnest grieve by doing so no more. Now, the only way a
man can know whether he is truly repentant or not is whether or
not his life shows it. whether it shows it. It is not
enough to say you have it in here. I've got it in my heart,
but let us see it in the life. Let us see it in the way you
live day by day. Fruit is the only living way
we can know whether the state of the heart is right. Such fruit is a normal thing
when God visits a man by his grace. Turn over with me to Matthew
chapter 12 and look at verse 33. Matthew 12 and verse 33.
I want you to see what this verse says. Either make the tree good and
his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit
corrupt, listen to the last phrase, for the tree is known by his
fruit. Have I lied to you? I told you
the tree is known by its fruit. The way we know whether a man
is truly repentant or not, whether his life shows it. Whether his
life shows it. Whether there is any fruit to
bear witness to the fact that you're truly a child of God.
An apple tree produces apples. Fruit is the normal expression
of the life of an apple tree, and the tree will bring forth
fruit. The Bible says in Revelation
20, verse 12 and 13, that men will be judged by their works.
Twice over it says it in those two verses, 12 and 13, that they'll
be judged by their works. Well, what? Does that have to
do with it, you say, their works? What does that have to do with
it? For what we do is the expression of what we are. Now, just listen
to me carefully. The reason why God judges men
by their works is because of what they do is an expression
of what they are. You want to know what a man is?
What he does is what he is. Now, that's what the Word of
God teaches. And we need to think about that a great deal. That's
why we need to remove our foot from evil. Now, then while we're
talking about this, fruit is necessary. It's not optional. It is not optional. Somebody
said, well, you just won't get as much reward. Fruit is necessary. If there's no fruit, the tree
is hewn down and burnt in the fire. It's the fruit or it's
the fire. Which is it going to be in your
life? Now then, I want us to look at
a few scriptures here. Turn with me quickly to the book
of Ephesians. The book of Ephesians chapter
4. Now, these verses are verses that we need to think a little
bit about. I'm not going to spend much time on them because I talked
a little bit about them the other night. But in verse 17, This
I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk." Now, this is a word to believers,
and this is the way we're to conduct ourselves if we've truly
repented of our sin. We're talking about a man's life
being an expression of what he is. Well, Paul said, I testify
in you, in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. Because their understanding
is darkened. They are alienated from the life
of God. They are not believers. And you
have been imitating them. And you have been living like
they live. You have been walking like they walk. And Paul said,
no, you can't do that. They are ignorant. He said, through
the ignorance that is in them. Because of the blindness of their
heart. Their hearts are blind. I told you that they hadn't had
any illumination. Didn't I tell you that? Their
hearts are blind. And their past feeling, he says
in verse 19, they have given themselves over into lasciviousness
to work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so
learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him,
and been taught by him, as the truth is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye put off concerning the former behavior, the old man,
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind. Be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. Stop thinking like this world thinks. Stop taking counsel
from this world. There's some of you that are
listening to ungodly people. And you're paying attention to
what ungodly people are telling you. And they're leading you
down a path that you will be sorry that you're going. And
you must turn away from that. Turn away from that. Remove your
foot and turn away from that. Get out of any relationship that's
going to drag you into a state of life that's going to declare
to everybody around you that you are not what you ought to
be. If you're a true believer in
Christ, Then walk like one. Put on. Be renewed in the spirit
of your mind. And start thinking like God's
people ought to think. And that you put on the new man.
The new man is Christ, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Verse 27, he says, Neither give
place to the devil. You want to live so as to tell
everybody you're a genuine believer? When the devil knocks on your
door, don't go and answer the door. Neither give place to the
devil. Don't give any place to it. Now
the devil is in league with hell. The devil would destroy you and
drag you down. And you need to be very careful
about giving place to the devil. The Bible says resist the devil
and he will flee from you. Resist him. And the true believer
must resist the devil. And then in verse 30, I wanted
to read this. There are so many good verses
here. I would exhort you to take your Bible when you get home
and read this whole chapter, at least from verse 17 down.
In verse 30 it says, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby
you are sealed until the day of redemption. The believer is
sealed by the Holy Spirit. When he believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in. The Holy Spirit is
a person. And the Holy Spirit lives in
the believer. And the Holy Spirit is cognizant of what's going
on in your life. He knows what's happening day
by day. He knows the decisions you're
making. And He's grieved when you live contrary to the Holy
Spirit, to His Spirit and His truth. Now then, would it not
grieve the Holy Spirit? I want you to turn with me to
the book of 1 Peter. The book of 1 Peter. I'll try to get these verses
in. I'm going to try my best to get done by 12 o'clock. But in 1 Peter 1, verses 14 through
16, I want you to look at this. As obedient children, as obedient
children, as what? As obedient children, having
the spirit of obedience. A mother, a father knows what
the spirit of obedience is. A school teacher knows what the
spirit of obedience is. An army sergeant drilling men,
a drill sergeant knows what the spirit of obedience is. God's people are to have the
spirit of obedience. They may not always be obedient,
but if they have the spirit of obedience, the Bible reckons
that to be what you ought to have. You have the spirit of
it. Now notice here, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves
according to the former desires in your ignorance. Don't fashion
yourself after the pattern of what you used to be. Get it out
of the way. Put on the new man. Now listen
to what he says. As obedient children, now fashion
yourself according to the former lust when you were in ignorance.
Just like them Gentiles Paul was talking about in Ephesians
4. You were an ignorant man. You're
not still an ignorant now, are you? You submitted yourself to
Christ, you confessed that you believed on the Lord Jesus, and
you submitted yourself for water baptism? Are you an ignorant
still? Have you not heard Him? Does
the Spirit of God not chide you in your heart? Oh, the Spirit
of God is so tender toward us, beloved. The Spirit of God will
not allow, tolerate us to go on like we used to live before
He came in. When He came into our lives,
He now chides us, and He will rebuke us. He will deal with
our hearts. He knows what rob we're fashioning
for our backs. And he's grieved. Listen to me.
Listen to me this morning. You're not in ignorance now.
But as he which hath called you, called you out of sin, called
you unto everlasting life, called you with the effectual call,
is holy. So be ye holy in all manner of
behavior. Would there be anything wrong
with us practicing? Would there be anything wrong
with us trying to be holy outwardly? We sing that song, take time
to be holy. Anything wrong with that? Nothing
wrong with that, beloved. Let us be holy, because He which
has called us is holy. We're to be holy in all manner
of behavior. in all of our behavior. Now listen,
verse 16, because it is written, be ye holy, God says, because
I'm holy. All right, now turn with me to
the fourth chapter. 1 Peter chapter 4. Bear with me, beloved. I said
the other night, somebody will accuse me of just being an old
foggy. Somebody will say, now you quit preaching and went to
meddling. Now you just, you're simply an old man now, and so
therefore you're getting all alarmed about this business and
trying to live right. Say whatever you want to say.
I'm telling you what the Word of God says. And I think it's
high time that we begin to listen to what God's Word says. In 1
Peter chapter 4, 1 through 4, notice this. For as much then
as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, Arm yourself likewise
with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath
seeth from sin." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered for us
on Calvary's cross. We were in him when he died.
He suffered for us, and his mind was that he would destroy the
works of the devil when he died on that cross, and the Son of
God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. And we're to arm ourselves with
the same mind that Jesus Christ was against sin, He died, and
the message of the cross says that God hates sin, and God will
punish sin. And so the same mind that we
have, we will go out and suffer whatever we've got to suffer
in regards to our own flesh. Because our mindset is that whatever
the cost, if we got to offend somebody by living right, we'll
offend them. If somebody says, well, I ain't
going to have nothing to do with you if you're going to live that way,
well, then let them go. Let them go! Let them go. It's time to let them go! If
they're holding you back, keeping you from being what you ought
to be, let them go. It's time just to wash your hands
of people that are going to drag you down. Make your mind set
like the mind set of the Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered against
sin. He suffered when he died on that
cross. that he no longer should live
the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the
will of God. You, as a believer, should not
live any longer the rest of your time. How much time have you
got? Nobody knows. But the rest of
your time, you're not to live any more like you used to live. You're to change. You've repented. You're to turn from. It's time
to turn, my friend, and to show that we're bringing forth fruit
to the glory and praise of God. Now then, he said, for the time
past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of
the Gentiles. The amount of time you lived in sin, you say, I
didn't get to live in sin as long as so-and-so did. Fully
on it. My friend, the time you spend
in sin is enough And you don't need to live any longer in it.
You say, well, I just didn't get the kind of education. I'm
not street smart like so and so and such and such. Forget
it! The time you've already spent in rebellion and sin against
God is enough. It's enough. You don't need any
more of it. Submit yourself to God. All right,
he says, to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we
walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, vanquishings,
and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that you
run not with them, to the same excess of right speaking evil
of you." Now people think, well boy, you've sure got religion.
I heard somebody tell me the other day, one of our young ladies
said, they say, I've got God, but the truth is God's got me. Now brother, That's exactly how
we're to deal with this generation. We're to tell people that the
Lord has hold of us, and that we belong to him, and the time
is sufficient that we've spent in rebellion and sin against
God, that we should live no longer to the will of the flesh, the
desires of the flesh, but to the will of God. Now, I invite
you to turn with me to the book of James, James chapter 4. I feel duty bound to, obligated
to share with you these scriptures. In James chapter 4, the adulterers
and adulteresses in verse 4, know ye not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. Loving this world? The Bible says, love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Demas,
Paul said, have forsaken me, having loved this present evil
world. I could read you over 22 verses
this morning, passages of Scripture, different ones, that will show
you the bad effect of the world upon your heart and upon your
life. And I'm sure there's many more than that. But we need to
wake up because friendship of the world is to declare that
one is the enemy of God. Do you want that to be your testimony?
I'm an enemy of God. I love the world. I love this
old world and the things of this world. Do you think the scripture
says in vain, the spirit that dwells in us desires to envy
and lust after this wicked world? He didn't say that in vain. It's
true, that old nature you've got. It lusts after the world
and the things of this world. That he giveth more grace, thank
God. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but he giveth
grace unto the humble. Now listen to this. Submit yourself
therefore to God. Submit yourself to God. Say,
I'm not interested in submitting myself to Dad and Mom anymore.
I'm not interested in submitting myself to anybody. I'm 18. I'm
21. I'm 21 and white. I can do whatever
I please, whenever I want to. My friend, listen to me. Listen
to me. Submit yourself, therefore, to
God. If you have followed the Lord, supposedly, in water baptism
and declared to this church that you're a believer, then you submit
yourself to the Lord. You bow your knee to Him. You
bow your knee to his will and to his way. Because listen to
this, you draw an eye to God. He said resist the devil and
he'll flee from you. Submit yourself to God and resist
the devil. I said there's got to be a war
between us and sin. There's got to be. Brethren,
there's demons all around us. All around us. Demons in your
flesh, demons in the flesh of others. And if there is not a
resisting of the devil, you know the scripture over there in Ephesians
talked about let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Demons
are waiting to hear from the demons in your flesh. See whether
or not they're compatible. Demon activity is all around
us. We've got to wake up. Gotta wake
up. Resist the devil. He'll flee
from you. The demons in somebody else's
flesh hook up with the demons in your flesh, and the first
thing you know, you're so down the pike. You're in such deep
water, you don't know where to go. You think there's not communication
going on, even in this room this morning, back and forth between
demons of the flesh? I'm telling you, we need to wake
up. Submit yourself to God, and resist the devil. And James said,
he'll flee from you. He'll flee from you. Some of
you need to have some experience. I'd like to hear one of you get
up one of these days and said, I resisted the devil. And I stood
as the old southerner said, tobacco juice in his eye, and told him
to go on back to hell where he belongs. And he did. And he did. And he did! That'd be a wonderful
testimony. It would show that there's something
going on inside of you that's real. That's what it would mean.
Something that is real. Okay? He said, draw an eye to
God and He'll draw an eye to you. You got anything against
that? Just draw an eye to God. You say, well how does that figure
into all the scheme of theology this church believes? Never mind! Draw an eye to God and He'll
draw an eye to you! He'll draw an eye to you. That's
what it says. And this is talking about God's people. Cleanse your
hands, ye sinners. Cleanse your hands. Well, now
my time is gone. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.
Cleanse your hands. You say, well, really and truthfully,
that's getting down pretty serious. Yes, it is. Cleanse your hands. Purify your hearts. You say,
can a man do that? We better be working on it. Ye
double-minded, double-minded, double-minded. That fingers some
of you. Your mind's halfway this way
and halfway another way. And you're not just sure where
you are. But my friend, hear me. Ye double-minded,
ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn. You say,
well, I don't think we ought to get all alarmed about this.
Be afflicted and mourn, James says. Be afflicted. You were
in a worse shape than you thought you were. And, he says, weep,
be afflicted, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to heaviness. Ah, away from this frivolity,
away from all this carrying on, back to the solemn day when men
and women are conscious. of their weakness and their frailty
and their sinfulness and their pride. They're aware of it and
they loathe it and hate it. And they come back to submission
to God and drawing nigh to God and back to that admonition,
keep yourself in the love of God. Back to that admonition
of the Word of God that spells out plainly that there must be
fruit, there is no option. No option, it's not optional. There must be fruit in our lives
or it's the fire. Your life tells us what you are.
You might not have been aware that we've been watching. And
I don't ever listen. God didn't call me to be a watchdog,
but he called me to be a watchman on the wall and a watchman. If he make an uncertain sound
on the trumpet, who will prepare himself to battle? These are
serious, serious days. And we need to become more aware
of God's claim upon our lives. And we need to bow our knee in
submission to the Word of God, the plain teachings of the Word
of God, and quit ignoring them. Now, I believe that if there's
any grace, if the grace of God is in me, it's because God put
it there. If the grace of God is in any man, it's because God
put it there. Now, I haven't been able to finish my message.
I have not. And so I'll preach on it again
if God allows me to live until next week. I'll preach on this
again and finish it off. But there is a great need for
an examination right now in your heart, your life. May God turn
you about. Turn you about. We've got people
here that just simply needs to deal with their problems and
deal with their situation in the fear of God. And deal with
it now before it goes any further. I admonish you young people.
I admonish you. Take a good look at where you're
going. Watch your path. Watch your feet. Take a good
look. I said a while ago that sometimes
we We feel like we're ugly. Ugly
believers. Ugly. Just downright ugly. And we feel like sometimes like
old Abraham Lincoln did when he was a politician over in southern
Illinois as he was riding through the woods one day on horseback. And he came to an air place in
the road and here's a woman on horseback coming toward him.
And so he kind of steps his horse off the side and the woman got
up to him and she stopped. And she looked at old Abe and
said, Abe, you're the ugliest man I think I ever saw in my
life. And Abe said, madam, it's probably
true. But he said, I can't help it.
And she said, well, but you could have stayed at home. And I'm
telling you, sometimes you feel so ugly you just think you ought
to stay at home. As a Christian, ought to just
stay at home. Get out of this thing. And stop
going around acting like, pretending that we're something we're not.
May your life, may it ever show forth that you have genuine repentance. Genuine repentance. That you're
truly a child of God by the new birth. Truly in Christ. May God bless this message to
your heart, to all of our prophets.