-
Let's open our Bibles one
last time to John 15.
-
Beginning in verse 1:
-
"I am the true vine and My
Father is the vine dresser.
-
Every branch in Me that
does not bear fruit,
-
He takes away;
-
and every branch that bears fruit,
-
He prunes it so that it
may bear more fruit.
-
You are already clean because of the word
-
which I have spoken to you.
-
Abide in Me, and I in you,
-
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
-
unless it abides in the vine,
-
so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
-
I am the vine, you are the branches.
-
He who abides in Me and I in him,
-
he bears much fruit,
-
for apart from Me you can do nothing.
-
If anyone does not abide in Me,
-
he is thrown away as a
branch and dries up
-
and they gather them
-
and cast them into the fire,
-
and they are burned.
-
If you abide in Me
-
and My words abide in you,
-
ask whatever you wish
-
and it will be done for you.
-
My Father is glorified by this,
-
that you bear much fruit
-
and so prove to be My disciples.
-
Just as the Father has loved Me,
-
I have also loved you.
-
Abide in My love.
-
If you keep My commandments,
-
you will abide in My love,
-
just as I have kept My
Father's commandments
-
and abide in His love.
-
These things I have spoken to you
-
so that My joy may be in you,
-
and that your joy may be made full.
-
This is My commandment,
that you love one another
-
just as I have loved you.
-
Greater love has no one than this,
-
that one lay down his
life for his friends.
-
You are My friends if you
do what I command you.
-
Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
-
Father, we come before You
-
in the name of Your Son
-
for this last meeting together.
-
Lord, we need Your help
-
that Your truth may go forward,
-
that Your people might be edified.
-
Lord, direct everything this last meeting.
-
Direct our words, our thoughts, Lord.
-
Lead us in the way You would have us go
-
that we would not only begin
to understand this passage,
-
but that it's application to
our life would be a reality -
-
a growing reality.
-
Lord, we know so many things
-
and so few of them are applied.
-
Lord, help us not to be
hearers of the Word,
-
but also doers of the Word
-
to be truly blessed.
-
Lord, for those who are here
-
that may not know You,
-
that even in this text,
-
they might see their
great need for a Savior.
-
Lord, I ask all of this in Jesus' name,
-
Amen.
-
In the last sermon before
I began to preach
-
I gave you a summary of all the things
-
that we had been studying.
-
I see little need to do that
-
in this evening session
-
because it should be
still warm in your mind,
-
the full summary of
what we've gone through.
-
Actually, the notes that I've
been preaching from
-
were the first sermon I was
supposed to preach on Friday night.
-
It's just that it's all
kind of been extended.
-
I have six more sermons,
-
but I don't think that we will
get to all of them this evening.
-
We've been talking about the
impossibility of the Christian life.
-
That is not a cliche.
It's not a hyperbole.
-
The Christian life is an
absolute impossibility
-
apart from abiding in Christ
-
and drawing spiritual life
and strength from Him.
-
In the Christian life,
Christ and the Gospel
-
are not one element,
-
they are the element.
-
Christ is everything.
-
When the Christian doctrine and the Gospel
-
is truly proclaimed as it
ought to be proclaimed
-
and men reject it,
-
what they need to know is
-
that they are not rejecting a religion,
-
they are not rejecting certain principles,
-
they are rejecting a Person.
-
If you're here today and you're
apathetic toward Christianity,
-
maybe you're here out of
coercion, manipulation,
-
maybe you have to because your parents
-
still have authority over you,
-
you're here, you abide by those rules,
-
but your heart is not here at all.
-
Know this:
-
You are not rejecting a religion.
-
You are not rejecting a set of principles.
-
Now to do that is very, very dangerous
-
because ones who set aside the Law of God,
-
the Law of Moses,
-
were to be put away.
-
But I want you to know what you're doing.
-
You are apathetic towards the one Person
-
that God loves more than
all of creation combined -
-
His Son.
-
When you reject Christianity,
-
know this, you are rejecting the One
-
for whom the entire world was created.
-
Know this also:
-
That God will deal harshly with you
-
for your arrogance against His Son.
-
Know this, that maybe in your humanism,
-
maybe in your youth,
-
maybe in your foolishness,
-
you've set your heart as stone against God
-
and none of what I'm saying
-
causes you to tremble.
-
Like a young man once said:
-
"I'm not afraid to stand before God.
-
I'll face Him and my fate."
-
And the old preacher told him:
-
"Young man, you will melt before God
-
like a tiny wax figurine
before a blast furnace."
-
Your proud heart demonstrates nothing more
-
than your own stupidity.
-
Creation testifies against you.
-
And you yourself know
-
that the very God you are rejecting
-
is the One before Whom you will stand.
-
So I want you to know
-
that when I deal with these texts,
-
there are two groups of
people here tonight.
-
There are people who are here
-
because they love Christ,
-
and in loving Christ,
-
they are seriously concerned
for pleasing Him
-
and for growing in holiness.
-
There are others here
-
who care not for holiness.
-
And the reason why they
do not care for holiness
-
is because the simply
do not care for Christ.
-
And that is a very, very
dangerous place to be.
-
Now, we're going to begin.
-
We've gone through several pages of notes.
-
And we've seen a lot of things,
-
but now we're going to turn our attention
-
to something that is extremely important.
-
As we look at our text, we see something.
-
That ten different times
in this short text,
-
there's a word that appears.
-
It's the word "abide."
-
And I have said over and over
-
that the only way that the Christian
-
can be fruitful in the Christian life
-
is to abide in Christ.
-
Now, if I tell you this,
it's very important
-
I explain to you what that means.
-
You know, preachers are famous
-
for telling people what to do
-
and then not telling them how to do it.
-
I remember one time as a young Christian,
-
this man, he preached for something
like an hour and a half
-
on the necessity to walk in the Spirit.
-
And it was a fabulous sermon.
-
And it proved to my young heart
-
that I needed to walk in the Spirit.
-
The only problem is he never
told us what that meant.
-
So I went up to him after the service,
-
not intending to wrangle.
-
I was happy with what I heard.
-
I thought it was very edifying.
-
I just thought I'm a very
immature Christian,
-
I don't have a clue what it
means to walk in the Spirit,
-
so I went before him and I said,
-
"Sir, wow, that was just wonderful!
-
I see that in the Scriptures.
-
I need to walk in the Spirit.
-
But sir, I don't know what that means."
-
That man became very put out with me.
-
He said every manner of thing,
-
but he never told me what it meant
-
to walk in the Spirit.
-
And I walked away as the young Christian
-
saying that man just
told us to do something
-
that he himself does not know how to do.
-
And therefore, he just
told us to do something
-
that he himself is not practicing.
-
And so we always want to be careful
-
whenever we're exhorting people
-
to do a certain thing,
-
to actually be able to explain
to them what it means.
-
And so I have told you that the only way
-
you can be fruitful in the Christian life
-
is to abide in Christ.
-
Now what does that mean?
-
First of all, the word abide is
not that complex in Greek.
-
It's "meno."
-
It's to remain, to abide, to stay.
-
Now when we bring in the
metaphor of a branch,
-
you can see that a branch
must be connected
-
vitally to a vine in order for that branch
-
to continue with life and even bear fruit.
-
So somehow you and I must be
-
vitally connected with Christ.
-
Now herein lies two sides of a coin,
-
and it's often the case in Christianity
-
to have two sides of a coin.
-
One is positional,
-
and the other is our actual experience.
-
Now I want to say
positionally first of all
-
what I was explaining in the last session.
-
If you are truly a Christian -
-
and I don't say that lightly
-
because most people in America
-
who call themselves Christian
-
are not Christian,
-
and some of you who call
yourselves Christians
-
are possibly not Christians.
-
It's very important to understand.
-
Let me put it this way,
-
if you consider yourself
a carnal Christian,
-
you're lost.
-
You're just lost.
-
Do Christians sin? Yes.
-
Can Christians fall into
grievous sin? Absolutely.
-
Can Christians live a
continuously carnal lifestyle
-
without fruit? Absolutely not.
-
And so if you are a true believer,
-
you are vitally connected to Christ.
-
He is the vine. You are a branch.
-
He is the Head. You are the body.
-
We have many metaphors like that
-
to indicate this unique position
-
we now have with Christ.
-
Another is the Bible talks oftentimes
-
in spheres locatively.
-
For example, you're in the sphere of Adam.
-
Or you're in the sphere of Christ.
-
You're in the sphere of condemnation.
-
You're in the sphere of justification.
-
You are in the sphere of the flesh.
-
You are in the sphere of the Spirit.
-
So if you're genuinely a Christian,
-
you are a branch
-
and you're vitally connected.
-
But here's what we need to understand:
-
this position that we have
-
does not lead us ever in the New Testament
-
to being passive.
-
But it always promotes
a zealous application
-
of this truth;
-
a desire for this truth to
be worked out in our life,
-
to become manifest.
-
And let me use a word that
many people are afraid of:
-
to be experienced.
-
That it's an actual reality.
-
One of the men that was so very key
-
in my discipleship until today
-
uses a word all the time
-
that always brings me back to center.
-
And he'll say this:
-
Yes, Paul, but is it a
reality in your life?
-
When he listens to a sermon,
-
he'll say: there was reality there.
-
And that's kind of what
we're talking about.
-
Not just a theological supposition
-
or a theological or propositional truth,
-
but is it a growing reality?
-
Is it the experience of your life?
-
Do you experience fruit-bearing?
-
Do you experience communion with Christ?
-
You can quote all my favorite creeds,
-
but that does not guarantee
-
that you experience the
truths that are found there.
-
Now, as a Christian, we
are united with Christ,
-
but in the Christian life,
sanctification is progressive.
-
I think you all would agree with that.
-
It's progressive.
-
Well, let me explain what that means.
-
When you think of
progressive sanctification,
-
you probably think that as
you grow in your Christian life,
-
you become more holy,
more holy, more holy -
-
that's true. That's true.
-
But a lot of times we leave
things out of that formula
-
that ought to be included.
-
For example, repentance.
-
Did you know repentance is
subject to sanctification?
-
There's a sense in which
I repented unto salvation,
-
but I am growing in repentance -
-
did you know that?
-
I'm growing in saving repentance.
-
I repent more now.
-
I see more sin now.
-
I'm growing in faith.
-
My faith is subject to sanctification.
-
There was a time when
I believed unto salvation,
-
but that faith has become
subject to sanctification
-
over the last thirty years. It's deeper.
-
It's stronger.
-
It's the same way -
-
a new believer immediately
starts bearing fruit.
-
Really.
-
And many times, the first
few months of our life,
-
we see abundant amount of fruit.
-
But, we ought to be growing
-
in our fruit-bearing.
-
A believer, the moment that they believe,
-
they enter into communion with Christ
-
and they experience that.
-
The love of God is shed
abroad in their heart.
-
But as they grow in Christ,
-
this initial experience
of the love of God,
-
of the indwelling of the Spirit,
-
it ought to increase.
-
It ought to become more mature.
-
And that doesn't mean that they go
-
from experience to experience,
-
or this greater manifestation
to greater manifestation.
-
But it's referring to reality.
-
Every one of these things that
happen to us at salvation,
-
they become a deeper reality.
-
And they begin to manifest themselves
-
in a greater way in our life.
-
Now, I'm going to take a definition
-
from D.A. Carson.
-
I'm going to quote him
a few different times
-
throughout the teaching that
we're going to do tonight
-
because he says some things
that are absolutely marvelous.
-
D.A. Carson is a well known
New Testament scholar
-
and he has been very
helpful to almost every minister
-
who cares about the Word of God.
-
But he defines "abiding" in this way:
-
He says, "the imagery of the vine
-
is stretched a little
-
when the branches are
given the responsibility
-
to remain in the vine."
-
Now if you notice, He says:
-
"I am the vine. You are the branches."
-
But then He goes outside of this metaphor
-
and He tells us that we
need to do something
-
to continue abiding.
-
You know, branches just
kind of sit there, don't they.
-
But there is something that we must do.
-
And basically, it's we must cultivate
-
this relationship which we have.
-
Now he says this, "The point is clear.
-
Continuous dependence upon the vine,
-
constant reliance upon Him,
-
persistent spiritual imbibing..."
-
What does imbibing mean?
-
It means to drink, to absorb.
-
"...Continuous persistent spiritual
-
imbibing of His life -
-
this is the indispensable
-
and essential action,
condition, or ingredient
-
of spiritual fruitfulness."
-
Now, up to this point, you
realize what I've been doing?
-
I've been building up to this moment.
-
I've been trying to show you
-
that you cannot do anything
-
apart from the life and power of Christ.
-
I've also talked a great deal
-
about the providence of God -
-
how God in His providence
-
will send trials our way,
-
difficulties, things we cannot overcome,
-
obstacles that we ourselves cannot endure.
-
Now why does He do this?
-
Is it because He hates us?
-
Absolutely not.
-
All these strong winds are designed
-
to convince you and me
-
that we simply cannot.
-
In the Christian Manifesto,
-
which is of course the
Sermon on the Mount,
-
the first virtue that is given us is this:
-
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
-
Blessed are those who live
-
in a profound dependence upon God.
-
What is the most God-honoring
thing that we can do?
-
To live in a profound dependence upon God.
-
What is the most dishonoring thing
-
that Israel ever did? Independence.
-
Is that not true?
-
The most dishonoring thing
-
that Israel did under the old covenant
-
was independence.
-
"We don't need You.
We can do this on our own."
-
Do you realize that almost every
-
saving activity of God
-
does not begin until first He empties men
-
of all hope of saving themselves?
-
Whether it's Israel in Egypt;
-
whether it's Joseph in the prison;
-
whether it's Gideon
against the Midianites -
-
what is He constantly doing?
-
He's constantly emptying us
-
of ourselves, of self-confidence,
-
of self-reliance.
-
Why?
-
So that we will live in absolute
-
or full dependence upon Him.
-
Can you see how vital this is?
-
Now you may be thinking to yourself,
-
"Brother Paul, just go on."
-
No, I can't.
-
Like I used the example two nights ago,
-
it was necessary that Peter fall.
-
Why?
-
He made that self-reliant, independent,
-
John Wayne type of declaration there
-
in the supper, in the Passover:
-
Though all deny You, I will not.
-
He had to fall.
-
It was necessary that Satan sift him
-
and that he fall. Why?
-
To rid him of that.
-
(unintelligible)
-
Look at this! The great Peter,
-
the rock, denies Christ
-
before a little servant girl.
-
It was necessary.
-
Some of the old preachers used to say
-
Christ spent three years
-
emptying the disciples so that He could
-
fill them in a second
on the day of Pentecost.
-
I mean, God can fill you like that.
-
The emptying part is problematic.
-
And so He's constantly doing this,
-
constantly sending things
our way to empty us.
-
But to cause us to cling to Him;
-
to cling to Him.
-
Now, there are three aspects of abiding
-
because I've just told you,
-
you need to cling to Christ.
-
You need to lay aside self-
reliance and independence,
-
and you need to cling to Christ.
-
But now you're probably saying
-
if you're a thinker,
-
okay, but again, how do you do that?
-
Well, there are three aspects to this.
-
And I'm going to take part
of D.A. Carson's definition
-
and use it within these three aspects.
-
First of all,
-
abiding in Christ is through
-
continuous dependence on His Word,
-
constant submission to His Word,
-
persistent spiritual imbibing of His Word.
-
Now look in verse 7.
-
Chapter 15:7, "If you abide in Me
-
and My words abide in you..."
-
Now look at verse 10,
-
"If you keep My commandments,
-
you will abide in My love,
-
just as I have kept My
Father's commandments
-
and abide in His love."
-
Now, you know the old song that says:
-
"Trust and obey, for there's no other way,
-
to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey"?
-
Well, that might sound kind of trite,
-
but let me just share with you something.
-
Trust and obey. There's no other way
-
to be happy in Jesus. I'm sorry.
-
I know that you live in a culture
-
where you can go into
every Christian bookstore
-
and find one thousand books
-
on ten steps to do this. I'm sorry.
-
Quick fixes here and there,
-
microwave Christianity,
-
instantaneous this and
that - no, my friend.
-
You have been given a book
-
which I dare say most of us despise.
-
You say, "I don't despise it."
-
Let me share with you something.
-
Have you ever been a street preacher?
-
You know there's something worse
-
than the crowd turning around
-
and all of them getting really mad at you?
-
You know what's worse than that?
-
They neglect you altogether.
-
You're standing there preaching
-
and they all walk by you for hours
-
like you're not even there.
-
There was a time in my life
-
when I actually thought I was invisible.
-
No, the worst thing you can do to me
-
to despise me is neglect;
-
that I'm not even worth arguing with.
-
Now do you see
-
the neglect of God's Word?
-
You see, we're always wondering,
-
where is the power?
-
Or you see a man or a woman
-
who seems to be fruit bearing
-
and full of power and zeal
-
and you want to find their secret.
-
The problem is there is no secret
-
and when they give you the answer
-
you're not going to like it.
-
What is it?
-
I have no wisdom or
understanding of my own.
-
I do not know how to walk
-
from the bedroom to the bathroom
-
apart from the Word of God.
-
This world is a minefield full of danger.
-
I have no telepathic ability to discern
-
where all the mines are hidden.
-
But I have a map.
-
I do not know how to
discern the things of God,
-
but I have been given truth in Scripture.
-
I'm sorry, my dear friend, if you were
-
waiting to find out something
-
that would really just be brand new to you
-
about how to abide in Jesus.
-
I'm sorry!
-
But it is this first and foremost,
-
He has given you His Word.
-
And again, I go back to old John Bunyan.
-
They said of him if you cut his veins
-
he would bleed the Bible.
-
The old story that's been told
in several different ways
-
about Stoneface;
-
about supposedly a man who would come
-
and visit a town and be
a blessing to the town,
-
and he would have a face
-
like the face that was carved
into a natural formation
-
on a stone.
-
And everyone waited for that person
-
and one time a little boy was born
-
and he kept hearing the story
-
about one day someone
would come to save the town,
-
and he kept looking at that stone
-
and looking at that stone
-
and looking at that stone,
-
until at the end of his life he realized
-
he had become that face
-
and he was the one
who had helped the town.
-
It is just us going into the Word,
-
going into the Word,
-
going into the Word,
-
going into the Word.
-
Not even seeking to be
transformed by the Word,
-
just recognizing the
importance of the Word
-
and living in the Word.
-
And eventually, without
us even knowing it,
-
we begin to take on its characteristics.
-
Do you see that?
-
Let me give you an example -
-
a rather, vulgar, trite, common example.
-
Let's say that you come to me
-
and you have a big spot on your forehead
-
that's just a bloody mass.
-
And you say to me, Brother Paul,
-
I've been to every doctor in the world.
-
No one can figure out why I have this.
-
Could you please try to pray to the Lord
-
that He would give you wisdom
-
with regard to why I have
this on my forehead?
-
And I say, well, I'm no doctor,
-
but sure, I'll pray about it.
-
But I decide one day to be even practical,
-
and I decide to follow
you around for 24 hours.
-
And I notice that at 1:00 in the morning -
-
the clock strikes 1,
-
and you get up out of bed
-
and you hit your forehead
against a brick wall one time
-
and go back to bed.
-
And then I watch, it's 2:00.
-
You get up precisely at 2:00
-
when the bell strikes,
-
and you hit your forehead twice
-
on a stone wall and go back to bed.
-
Now, I notice as you go through the day,
-
every turn of the hour,
-
you hit your head against a wall
-
that many times.
-
At the end of 24 hours, I come to you,
-
and I say this:
-
Look, I'm no doctor,
-
but I think I figured out your problem.
-
If you will stop banging your head
-
against a brick wall
-
every time the clock strikes the hour,
-
I think your head will heal.
-
You say, that's absurd.
-
I say the same thing to you.
-
You neglect the Scriptures.
-
I'm sorry.
-
And then, do you know what evangelicalism
-
has done in America?
-
It has conformed itself to your flesh.
-
If I have heard it one time,
-
I've heard it a thousand times,
-
people and teacher and pastors
-
and supposedly educators in Christianity
-
saying: we don't live in a culture anymore
-
where people can even
pay attention for five minutes,
-
so we've got to give
them little soundbites
-
with regard to Christianity.
-
You know what we've done?
-
We're the first group of Christians
-
who believe the Bible -
-
the first group in history
-
that no longer believe that our culture
-
is to conform itself to the book.
-
We're now trying to conform
Christianity to the culture.
-
I say if our culture has become too dumb
-
to read for half an hour,
-
that in the church we
do not give in to that,
-
but we start teaching people how to think
-
and how to read
-
and how to meditate,
-
to turn off televisions,
-
to turn off vain conversations
-
and to get into the book.
-
Let me share with you
something about western culture.
-
I want to be very careful here,
-
but I just want to make a few observations
-
that may help you understand you.
-
You know everyone says western
culture this, western culture that.
-
We shouldn't try to take western culture
and apply it to other cultures.
-
Let me share with you something
about western culture.
-
Western culture has to
do with the Americas
-
and also Western Europe.
-
I guess you're all familiar
with that - Western culture.
-
Prior to the advent of Christianity,
-
western culture meant we were
a bunch of tribal people
-
living in Northern Europe
running around naked
-
painting ourselves blue
and eating one another.
-
That's western culture.
-
So what changed western culture?
-
The advent of Christianity.
-
Yeah.
-
And because of Christianity,
-
we stopped worshiping twigs
-
and streams and crickets
-
and hatchets and horns.
-
We came to understand the living God
-
and we came to understand creation
-
in light of that living God.
-
Our culture began to change.
-
The very height of literature and art
-
and music and everything in Europe
-
owes itself to the advent of Christianity
-
coming in and changing a group
-
of blue-painted barbarians.
-
That's what Christianity did.
-
But now, because we have
rejected Christianity,
-
we have rejected the God of Christianity,
-
we're becoming cannibalistic
barbarians once again.
-
Oh yes, we can do all kinds of things
-
with computers and technology.
-
We are fabulous in IT,
-
but we're becoming immoral beasts.
-
Now the point that I'm
trying to make is this:
-
You want some quick fix.
-
The quick fix is this:
-
spend your life renewing your mind
-
in the Word of God.
-
Cling to the Word of God
-
as though your very life depends on it
-
because, sir, I can assure you, it does!
-
I'll put it this way,
-
D.A. Carson writes this,
-
"'If you remain in Me'
-
is equivalent to doing
-
all that Jesus commands.
-
Such words must so (and I love this)
-
such words must so lodge
-
in the disciple's mind and heart,
-
that conformity to Christ,
-
obedience to Christ
-
is the most natural thing in the world."
-
Now, see, you can't get there
-
apart from the Word.
-
Let me read that again.
-
"Such words..."
-
That's the teachings of Christ.
-
"...Must so lodge
-
in the disciple's mind and heart
-
that conformity to Christ,
-
obedience to Christ
-
is the most natural thing in the world."
-
Now how is that going to happen?
-
Now, let's go back to
something I greatly love -
-
the Law of God.
-
The books of wisdom.
-
And what do we see over and over?
-
What should the king do in Deuteronomy?
-
He should write out all
the words of this Law.
-
Why?
-
To work on his penmanship? Absolutely not.
-
That those words might be firmly lodged
-
in his heart and mind.
-
It's an interesting thing when you go
-
to the Bible and you do
this kind of study:
-
How do you study the Bible
according to the Bible?
-
And you know you will actually find
-
only a few references to study?
-
Did you know that?
-
Do you know what the great portion is?
-
Memorization and meditation.
-
Lodging the Word of God in your heart.
-
As one old preacher I know
who I dearly love says:
-
"Folks, this isn't rocket surgery."
-
It means rocket science or brain surgery,
-
but he combines the two things.
-
He goes, "this isn't rocket surgery."
-
It's simple. You take the Word of God
-
and you read it and you read it
-
and you read it and you read it
-
and you study it,
-
and if you don't understand it,
-
you don't care, you keep working on it
-
because your life depends upon it.
-
As I said the other night,
-
some of you who would say,
-
"Well, I'm not a reader."
-
Yeah, but if your company
offered you a job
-
paying twice or three times
what you're now making,
-
but you have a 600 page
manual to memorize,
-
I guarantee you'd stay up night and day
-
to memorize that.
-
Your wife would be with you
-
pouring you coffee and encouraging you
-
because she wants a new bedroom set.
-
Your children would be going
-
"hip, hip, hooray dad! Go dad! Go dad!"
-
And we would do something like that
-
for something as pathetic as money.
-
To buy silly clothes
-
with important designers' names on them.
-
What a pathetic people.
-
And yet, we'll let eternity
-
escape right through our hands
-
and not even move a finger.
-
Now, what does this look like?
-
I want to read you some texts
-
that have been very helpful for me.
-
But now, I want you to
listen to these texts
-
as though you'd never heard them before.
-
That's often very helpful.
-
I knew of one old pastor
that every three years
-
he would change his Bible.
-
He would spend three years
-
going through his entire Bible
-
and writing notes, filling the pages
-
with notes and notes and notes,
-
and then he would take that Bible
-
and put it on the shelf
and get a new Bible
-
because he wanted to hear
the Word afresh again
-
without his notes.
-
He wanted God to speak to him afresh.
-
Now, listen to this as though
-
you've never heard it before.
-
Because right now you probably
-
treat it like a cliche -
-
a meaningless piece
-
of New Testament poetry.
-
But I want you to listen to it
-
as though you had to take it seriously.
-
Now this is the incarnate God speaking -
-
Jesus Christ.
-
"But He answered and said,
-
'It is written,
-
Man shall not live on bread alone,
-
but on every word that proceeds
-
out of the mouth of God.'"
-
There's a sense in which
I know you believe this.
-
There's a sense in which you
don't believe this at all.
-
He's saying every aspect of your life
-
is to be governed, fueled, conformed,
-
empowered by the Word of God.
-
Let me ask you a question,
-
those of you who are married.
-
How much time have you spent
-
studying marriage in the Scriptures?
-
I mean, it's the most
important relationship
-
you have on this earth.
-
Are you doing what it says here?
-
That your marriage, you're seeking
-
that it be conformed to every word
-
that proceeds out of the mouth of God?
-
Now marriage is tough
enough when you do know
-
what God's Word says.
-
How much more difficult is it
-
when you don't even know
what God's Word says?
-
Sometimes I'll ask music directors.
-
You know, I'll go to a church,
-
and it's got a big music
program and all this,
-
and I'll ask them this one question:
-
You're the worship leader? Yes.
-
Have you studied worship
-
beginning in the book of Genesis 1
-
all the way through the
book of Revelation?
-
Well, no.
-
Well, then how do you know
-
that what you're doing is pleasing to God?
-
How can you know?
-
The sad thing is now they say
-
well, it doesn't even matter.
-
It's just basically left up
to what you feel like.
-
No, it's not. No, it's not.
-
The way you dress -
-
I know I sound now like a 1950's
-
fundamentalist preacher, don't I?
-
But let me ask you a question:
-
the way you dress -
-
have you gone to Scripture to ask God:
-
what am I supposed to do?
-
The way you talk,
-
your relationships,
-
what you participate in
and don't participate in?
-
Look what He says:
-
You do not live on bread alone,
-
but you live on every word
-
that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
-
You know what the Puritan genius was?
-
Now, I don't agree with the Puritans
-
on absolutely everything.
-
They're men, but you know
what their genius was?
-
They honestly sought to conform
-
every aspect of their life
to the Word of God.
-
Now, like all of us men,
-
they failed in some areas.
-
They went too far or not
far enough in some areas.
-
But they are one of the few peoples
-
that ever walked on this planet
-
that said every aspect of life
-
must be conformed to the
written Word of God.
-
We don't believe that!
-
As a matter of fact, we
live in a culture now
-
where it's just sort of believe
-
in an undefined Jesus
-
and then do whatever is
right in your own eyes.
-
No, my dear friend, listen!
-
You see, you don't fear.
-
And you do trust in yourself.
-
You prove it every day
-
by just walking according to
-
what you think is right.
-
Don't do that!
-
Abiding in Christ is asking,
-
Lord, I am in a fallen world.
-
There is a sense in which even though
-
I have been regenerated,
-
I still have fallen members of my body -
-
even a fallen mind.
-
I live in a fallen world.
-
I'm behind enemy lines.
-
Wisdom was not born with me.
-
It will not die with me.
-
I must take this book.
-
Again, I go back to Pilgrim's Progress.
-
It's the book.
-
The book that guided him.
-
The book.
-
Listen to this text.
-
He tells Joshua, "Only be
strong and very courageous.
-
Be careful to do according to all the Law
-
which Moses My servant commanded you.
-
Do not turn from it
-
to the right or to the left."
-
Do you know the average evangelical
-
doesn't know enough of the Law
-
to determine whether he's
even turned from it or not.
-
Really. We talk about obedience,
-
but before obedience can come
-
there must be knowledge.
-
And there's such a neglect
of the Word of God
-
that we don't even know
-
when we're walking in disobedience.
-
That's why we can do horrendous things
-
within the context of
the so-called local church
-
and not even be convicted about it.
-
We don't even know
what the will of God is.
-
"So that you may have
success wherever you go.
-
This book of the Law..."
-
Now, let's just take this
literally for a moment.
-
Not absurdedly, but literally.
-
"This book of the Law shall
not depart from your mouth,
-
but you shall meditate
on it day and night."
-
Okay, let me ask you a question.
-
Does your ten minute quiet time
-
fulfill this command?
-
I mean, people boast because
-
"I had my quiet time."
-
Well, describe it to me.
-
"Well, you know, 15 minutes in the Word."
-
"15 minutes in prayer."
-
I applaud you for whatever
attempt you're making,
-
but don't pat yourself on the back.
-
He's saying this Word,
-
"it shall not depart from your mouth,
-
but you shall meditate on it day and night
-
so that you may be careful to do
-
according to all that is written in it.
-
For then you will make your way prosperous
-
and then you will succeed."
-
Now this is not to be interpreted
-
in the context of televangelists.
-
It's not talking about:
-
then you will prosper financially.
-
It means then you will prosper
-
in the will of your God
-
and be a useful servant to Him.
-
That's what being fruitful means.
-
So abiding in Christ is to take this gift
-
of His teaching
-
and learning to follow it.
-
Now as we see here in verse 12,
-
"This is My commandment
-
that you love one another
-
just as I have loved you."
-
Now let me say a few things,
-
I want to draw a balance here.
-
I don't want to throw the baby
out with the bathwater.
-
I want to explain this.
-
The end of everything that has to do
-
with God's commands is this:
-
To love the Lord your God
-
with all your heart, soul,
mind, and strength
-
and to love your neighbor as yourself.
-
That's the end of it all.
-
As I said awhile back,
-
Christianity is not primarily
-
an ethical or moralistic religion.
-
We're not about just keeping rules.
-
We're not.
-
We're about an intimate
relationship with the living God,
-
loving Him with all our heart
-
and entering into intimate
relationships with people
-
and loving them with all our heart
-
and showing them the
mercy that God shows us.
-
That's the fulfillment of the Law.
-
But then again, we are a people
-
in a very distorted culture.
-
And wisdom was not born with you
-
at your physical birth,
-
and I want to tell you,
-
wisdom was not born with you
-
in your spiritual birth.
-
Wisdom is something that is acquired.
-
Now that you have become a Christian,
-
you have the capabilities
-
of acquiring wisdom.
-
But wisdom is necessary.
-
Now, every time I talk
-
in the last few years
-
about the Law of God,
-
the commands of God,
-
everyone screws up their face
-
and gets really mad.
-
They go, "We're free from the Law."
-
"We're free from the Law."
-
And I'm thinking, does anybody even know
-
what that means anymore?
-
Free from the Law.
-
"The Law has nothing to do with us.
-
Absolutely nothing! We're free!"
-
Free to what?
-
"Free to do whatever we want.
-
We believe in Jesus.
-
We're free to do whatever we want."
-
Well, hold on.
-
First of all, a person
who is unconverted -
-
which most people who call
themselves Christians are -
-
and they have that kind of teaching,
-
(I'm free to do whatever I want),
-
but their heart's not been changed
-
so their heart is filled with
worldly, carnal desires.
-
So they go to church every Sunday
-
and worship God in the praise service
-
and then they live like an abomination
-
throughout the week.
-
Let's figure out what we're saying here.
-
Now let me ask you a question,
-
when it says that we're free from the Law,
-
what do you think that means?
-
That we no longer have to obey God?
-
Or does it mean we're just
supposed to love one another?
-
But herein lies a big problem.
-
People have some really
distorted views on love.
-
So what are we talking about?
-
If we say that we don't even need the Law,
-
we don't need to think about it,
-
we don't need to read it or anything,
-
then you know what we have to do?
-
We have to literally cut
out the book of Psalms
-
and throw it away.
-
Do you realize that?
-
Because the book of Psalms - look at it.
-
"I delight in Your Law."
-
"Your precepts are true."
-
What are we going to do?
-
Or as one person said one time
-
in a meeting I was holding.
-
It was a meeting in a conference thing
-
and I was talking about the Law,
-
and this person raised
their hand and said,
-
"We're free from the Law
-
and you're trying to put us under
-
the bondage of the Law
-
that oppresses us..."
-
And I said,
-
"Wow."
-
I said, "Okay, let me ask you a question.
-
You just told me that the Law of God
-
is oppressive, it's restricting,
-
restrains you
-
and puts you in bondage.
-
Okay.
-
Let's just go over some of the laws
-
and you tell me which one of these
-
is restraining you from doing
-
what you want to do."
-
Let's see: You shall have
no other gods before Me.
-
Are you mad about that?
-
Because that's restraining
you from having other gods?
-
Let's try another one.
-
You're not to steal your neighbor's wife.
-
Is that oppressive to you?
-
You shall not lie.
-
And I just went down through
all the laws of God
-
that I could remember,
-
and in the end I'm sitting there
-
and the man starts to
kind of slump in his chair
-
because he knew what was happening.
-
I said if these beautiful laws
-
are oppressive to you
-
and restraining what
you really want to do,
-
what kind of evil person are you?
-
You see?
-
Now when He says we're free
from the bondage of the Law,
-
what it means is all those
detailed laws of sacrifice,
-
all those things have
been fulfilled in Christ.
-
That's part of it, but the
big part of it is just this:
-
The Law says do this and live.
-
Now, I want to tell you
something. That's not bad.
-
That's not sinful - that statement.
-
But you see, we're under bondage
-
because we can't do those things.
-
And therefore we can't live.
-
And therefore, we should die.
-
Because we have violated all the Law.
-
We're free from that curse of the Law.
-
That's not because the Law is bad,
-
it's because we were bad.
-
We're free from it because Christ
-
has fulfilled the Law
-
and died in our place.
-
So we're not justified by the Law.
-
And we shouldn't be legalistic people
-
or trying to kill other people
-
with all our rules.
-
But the fact of the matter is
-
I delight in the Law of God.
-
I love the book of Proverbs.
-
I get excited even about the commandment
-
in the Old Testament that says
-
you ought to build a fence
-
around the roof of your house.
-
And someone says, well, do you
-
have a fence around
the roof of your house?
-
No.
-
Well, are you disobeying that law? No.
-
See, you have to
understand what it's saying.
-
You build a fence around
the roof of your house
-
because in that time, most people -
-
especially in the summer -
-
lived on the roof of their house.
-
And you build a fence around
the roof of your house
-
because you love your neighbor
-
and you don't want
him to fall off your roof.
-
And actually, some of our common laws
-
in this country
-
with regard to property
-
and the welfare of others
-
are based upon that law.
-
I don't find anything in the law
-
that's displeasing.
-
I can delight in it.
-
The wisdom that's found
-
in Proverbs and in the Law itself
-
protects my marriage,
-
shows me how to raise my children.
-
So if you're telling me:
-
Washer, don't put me under
-
the bondage of the Law,
-
I'm going, just exactly
what do you want to do?
-
Do you see?
-
So how do we abide in Christ?
-
Abiding in Christ is not completed
-
by just our obedience
-
to the Word of God.
-
Because our relationship
is much more than that.
-
But abiding in Christ cannot be separated
-
from His Word, His commands,
-
and obedience to Him.
-
What is it? Romans 12:2?
-
Renewing our mind in the Word of God.
-
Isn't it amazing?
-
Some of you came here this week
-
and you probably have not
been in this church before
-
and you're going man,
-
they read the Bible too much
-
in their services.
-
It's kind of boring just sitting there
-
listening to them read a whole chapter.
-
What does that say about you?
-
What does it say about
contemporary Christianity?
-
That the Scriptures aren't even read
-
when exactly in 1 Timothy
it says they should be.
-
Publicly.
-
See? The reason why we're so weak
-
in Christianity today
-
is because we have a neglect of the Word.
-
Now listen to this. Psalm 1:2-3.
-
"But his delight - (the righteous man) -
-
his delight is in the Law of the Lord,
-
and in His Law he meditates day and night.
-
He will be like a tree firmly planted
-
by streams of water
-
which yields its fruit in its season,
-
and its leaf does not wither,
-
and whatever he does, he prospers."
-
Fruit-bearing - do you see this?
-
When Jesus is teaching,
please understand me,
-
it's not plagiarism, okay?
-
Because He wrote the Old Testament.
-
But most of His Gospel teaching
-
is drawn right out of what He said
-
in the Old Testament.
-
Do you understand that?
-
He's been talking about fruit-bearing
-
for a long time.
-
And every time He talks about it,
-
it has something to do with His Word,
-
with the Word of God.
-
Young people, you come to me,
-
and you say, you know, Brother Paul,
-
I've been listening to your sermons.
-
I want to grow. I want to be used of God.
-
What should I do?
-
I always tell them Robert Murray McCheyne.
-
They go, "Robert Murray
McCheyne. Who is that?"
-
He's a young man who died when he was 28.
-
Probably had progressed more in holiness
-
than just about anybody at that age.
-
And he has a reading list.
-
He read through the New
Testament twice a year
-
and the Old Testament once a year.
-
Do that.
-
Get his reading list. Do that.
-
Read through the Scriptures
-
over and over and over.
-
And if you are a brand new believer,
-
you know, I'm not going to tell you
-
you should read a little.
-
Man, if you're a new believer,
-
you're probably on fire.
-
Read the Bible hours a day.
-
Consume it.
-
You want to be used of God?
-
Prove it.
-
You want to be fruitful?
-
Prove it.
-
Oh, my dear friend, my only regret
-
in the last thirty years
-
is not that I studied the Bible too much,
-
as that I allowed myself to be
-
distracted from it so much.
-
So abiding in Christ is
abiding in His Word.
-
Saturating our lives in His Word
-
and seeking to obey Him.
-
Now, we come to a second thing.
-
Abiding in Christ is through continuous -
-
now get ready -
-
continuous dependence on prayer,
-
constant reliance upon prayer,
-
persistent spiritual imbibing
-
of the life and power of Jesus Christ
-
through prayer.
-
Now let me quote D.A. Carson.
-
"The text suggests (this is unbelievable -
-
this is powerful)
-
The text suggests
-
that the fruit in the vine imagery
-
represents everything that is the product
-
of effective prayer in Jesus' name."
-
Now, I want us to look at verse 7.
-
It's very interesting. He says,
-
"If you abide in Me,
-
and My words abide in you,
-
ask whatever you wish
-
and it will be done for you."
-
Look in verse 16.
-
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you
-
and appointed you that you
would go and bear fruit
-
and that your fruit would remain,
-
so that whatever you ask
of the Father in My name,
-
He may give to you."
-
Now, let's look at this.
-
This is extremely important.
-
There's a lot of mystery here
-
that I cannot explain to you.
-
No one can.
-
As a matter of fact, if you
meet someone who can,
-
run from them. They're a heretic.
-
There's some mystery in this passage.
-
This is one of those texts
-
where you're just going to
have to take God at His Word.
-
Because if you try to make this fit
-
into some system of thought,
-
you're going to explain the passage away.
-
And you don't want to do that.
-
Now, isn't it amazing
that in both passages
-
He's talking about prayer
-
and it's in the context of bearing fruit.
-
That to be a fruitful Christian,
-
prayer is absolutely essential -
-
prayer in the name of Jesus;
-
prayer believing that God
-
(unintelligible).
-
But I also want you to notice something.
-
In verse 7, He says, "Abide in Me
-
and My words abide in you."
-
So what are we seeing here?
-
(incomplete thought)
-
We're not seeing this -
-
we're not seeing a person
-
who neglects the Word of God,
-
whose mind is not renewed at all.
-
We're not talking about a person
-
who doesn't have the mind of Christ.
-
Okay? We're not talking about a person
-
who neglects the Word of God
-
and then just asks a whole bunch of stuff.
-
Because usually the stuff they ask for
-
are carnal and outside of God's will.
-
But what we're talking about
-
is a person who is abiding in Christ
-
and he is abiding in the Word of Christ,
-
and the Word of Christ is abiding in him.
-
What is it? We're talking about a person
-
who through their constant imbibing
-
upon the Word of God,
-
their constant feeding
upon the Word of God,
-
the Word of God constantly
renewing their mind,
-
they are beginning to develop what?
-
The mind of Christ.
-
They are beginning to know,
-
as Romans 12:1-2 says,
-
they are beginning to know
-
what the will of God is.
-
Isn't that amazing?
-
He says you may renew your mind
-
that you may know what the will of God is.
-
Okay?
-
Now...
-
What is prayer?
-
John Piper refers to it
-
as a warfare walkie-talkie.
-
And I agree with him.
-
As a matter of fact,
-
it's very difficult for me
to see prayer at all
-
apart from our place in
the Kingdom of Heaven.
-
Most people see prayer
-
in a completely wrong way.
-
You see prayer as:
-
I think I have a need and
I ask God to meet it.
-
That's not the context of prayer.
-
The context of prayer is
set forth for us where?
-
In Matthew 6.
-
Jesus says: pray this way.
-
Now listen very carefully.
-
Don't turn it into cliche.
-
Our Father, Who art in Heaven...
-
Now, let's just take a look at that.
-
You talk about the perfect
psychology of prayer?
-
Look at the way He's addressing God.
-
Our Father.
-
Wow!
-
It demonstrates the intimacy, doesn't it.
-
But then He goes: Who art in Heaven.
-
Your Father happens to be
the God of the universe
-
and you ought to treat Him as such.
-
Many of you young people were raised
-
with no respect whatsoever for age,
-
authority, or anything.
-
I was out at a school of a
very, very famous preacher.
-
(Incomplete thought)
-
I'm going to mention his name.
-
John MacArthur.
-
And I was out there and I was teaching
-
at Master's College for two days.
-
And I was walking around going:
-
Wow! John MacArthur's here.
-
I wonder if I'll get to see him.
-
I'm fifty years old!
-
And I'm going I hope I get to see him.
-
What a privilege!
-
And little 17 year old students
-
that walk up to me and go:
-
"Hey! Brother Paul! Have you met John?"
-
And I'd go, "What?"
-
"John!"
-
"John who?"
-
"Well, John! John MacArthur."
-
And I'd look at them and I'd go,
-
"I am fifty years old.
-
I have walked through hell with Christ.
-
I have suffered for the cause of Christ.
-
I bear so many wounds from battles,
-
and I would never call
him by his first name."
-
We have no sense of honor anymore.
-
And when we go to God, this whole idea
-
of Abba, Father meaning "Daddy,"
-
be very careful.
-
That interpretation's not really correct.
-
It does demonstrate intimacy,
-
but it doesn't demonstrate "daddy."
-
It doesn't. I'm sorry.
-
In the language, it doesn't work.
-
It may be really good for a
contemporary Christian song,
-
but it doesn't work.
-
It's not biblical
-
because it does not denote
-
the other aspects of that intimacy
-
which is reverence.
-
Now, He says, "Our Father,
Who art in Heaven..."
-
So this perfect balance
of intimacy and fear.
-
And then He says -
-
and this is the context of all praying -
-
"hallowed be Thy name."
-
What He's saying there is:
-
special be Your name.
-
Unique be Your name.
-
It's basically Malachi.
-
That His name be great among the nations
-
from the rising to the setting of the sun.
-
There you go again - Jesus drawing
-
from the Old Testament,
-
but it's okay, He wrote it.
-
And the whole idea is:
-
my whole prayer,
-
my whole prayer life,
-
everything I'm ever going to ask You
-
is going to be in the context
-
that my greatest desire
-
is that Your name be set apart
-
as supreme above all things;
-
that Your Kingdom come
-
and that Your will be done.
-
That's the context of all praying.
-
And if you don't have that context,
-
you're not praying.
-
So, when we talk about
asking the Father for things -
-
for many, many years, as some of you know,
-
I've had my hips replaced,
-
my wrist is made of metal,
-
I've lived in great deals of pain
-
and everything else
-
and I want to be honest with you.
-
I have prayed for God to heal me.
-
And to some degree, He has.
-
He has really helped me in this last year.
-
But here's what I want you to see.
-
The context of that praying: God heal me.
-
I hurt so bad.
-
Was this:
-
If through my healing
-
Your name will be held supreme
-
and Your kingdom will come
-
to a greater degree,
-
and the will of God will be advanced
-
and submitted to,
-
then heal my body.
-
But if not, then let me die in this pain
-
so long as Your kingdom come.
-
So all our asking from God
-
is in the context of our greatest desire
-
which is His glory
-
and the advancement of His kingdom.
-
Now you're praying.
-
It's not just: I have a want.
-
I have a need.
-
I have a desire.
-
But it's: whatever will bring You glory.
-
And it's in that context
-
with that mind of Christ
-
that we begin to pray.
-
And notice, this praying:
"Ask in My name."
-
What are you asking for?
-
You're asking to bear fruit.
-
You're asking for things
-
that are genuine fruit.
-
And what begins to happen
-
is you sort of start disappearing
-
in the whole equation.
-
Lord, I'm an instrument.
-
This is not about me.
-
This is about You.
-
Lord, if through this trial
-
Your kingdom will advance,
-
allow me to continue in it.
-
Take it away only until the work is done.
-
Lord, everything in my
life is about one thing:
-
the advancement of Your kingdom.
-
And so in that context, we pray.
-
You know, I've gone to
prayer meetings in churches,
-
and I'll be honest with you,
-
it's enough to break your heart.
-
It's enough to break your heart.
-
It sounds literally like
a medical convention.
-
It literally does.
-
Now, I know that we
need to pray for the sick.
-
I know that, but I have
sat in prayer meetings
-
in the United States of America
-
and watched while 45 minutes,
they didn't even pray.
-
Just people stood up and shared
-
about people who were sick.
-
And a big part of it was just gossip.
-
People wanted to talk about stuff.
-
And then I think, four billion people
-
have not heard a clear Gospel.
-
We have believers who are
being massacred in Iran.
-
We have all these things
going on in the kingdom.
-
And the only thing that we can
pray about are gallbladders.
-
I mean, there's something terribly wrong.
-
And we wonder why doesn't God
visit us in our prayer meetings?
-
You're not kingdom-praying.
-
If you'll seek first the kingdom,
-
He'll take care of all
these other little things
-
you're so preoccupied about.
-
And so if you're going to be fruitful,
-
you must pray.
-
You must read the Word and pray,
-
God, make me fruitful, make me fruitful.
-
And as you begin to understand
-
the will of God -
-
for example, it is God's will
-
that every creature under heaven
-
hear the Word of God,
-
hear the Gospel.
-
So you pray and you fast,
-
and one day you get a phone call
-
and you find that an entire country
-
has just opened unto you to
support their missionaries.
-
That's praying.
-
You pray for your family who's
hardened to the Gospel.
-
You pray and you fast and then one day
-
according to Colossians 4:1-4,
-
a magnificent door's been opened unto you.
-
The church has a need. It can't go.
-
It's got a problem.
-
Something has some kind of need.
-
You hit your face on the floor.
-
You cry out to God
-
and you look for a
magnificent deliverance.
-
You've got a sin in your life
-
that is a besetting sin
-
and you can't be set free from it.
-
You attack it head on with prayer,
-
with fasting, with reading the Word,
-
and you see victory come.
-
This is the kind of praying
that we're talking about.
-
Never diminishing needs,
-
but when you go in to
hear people pray today
-
it's all about them.
-
It's all about their needs.
-
It's like one old saint,
Ravenhill, used to say,
-
we spend more time
praying saints out of heaven
-
than praying sinners into heaven.
-
Now, I said that God answers our prayers
-
when we're praying in the
context of the kingdom
-
and when our mind is being renewed
-
so that we know what the will of God is,
-
but I want to be very cautious here
-
because you could misunderstand me.
-
There's a basic idea out there
-
especially among
reformed guys that's this:
-
God answers every prayer
according to His will,
-
but it's not the will of
God to do anything.
-
Now they wouldn't say that,
-
but that's basically what's practiced.
-
Everything is written off
to the providence of God.
-
It's the providence of God,
providence of God.
-
Oh, that nation is
entirely without Christ?
-
Providence of God, because if God
wanted something to happen,
-
He'd have done something.
-
That's not the language
of the New Testament.
-
Now that might be language
of a very precise camp
-
and system of theology,
-
but it is not the language
of the New Testament
-
nor is it the language of our forefathers
-
that we claim to be a part of.
-
That's not the language of Edwards.
-
That's not the language of Whitefield.
-
That's not the language of Spurgeon.
-
That's not the language of William Carey.
-
That's not the language of the Puritans.
-
I want to tell you something,
-
there is a mystery in prayer
-
and I don't care if by saying this
-
this becomes the last reformed meeting
-
I ever have in my life,
-
because if you reject this,
-
you're not reformed - you're deformed.
-
And it's this:
-
God has decreed everything
-
before the foundation of the world.
-
He knows the end of all things
-
and not because He looked
-
through the corridors of time
-
and saw how it was going to turn out.
-
I don't know who invented that -
-
I would like to see his corridors of time
-
because it's not in the Bible.
-
God knows the end of all things
-
exactly how everything
is going to come out
-
and it's not because He looked through
-
the corridors of time.
-
It's because He's the Author
-
of history.
-
It's going to come out
just like He decreed it.
-
Okay?
-
You say, wow, that's a
pretty strong statement.
-
Yes, it is, and I believe it's biblical.
-
But I also believe that
what James says is true.
-
"You have not because you ask not."
-
That king was given a set of arrows
-
to smash against the floor.
-
And if he had smashed
them against that floor
-
and shown some zeal for Yahweh,
-
something better would have
happened than what happened.
-
And I can't put those two things together
-
and guess what, it's not my job.
-
Nor is it yours.
-
I am called upon to live
-
whatever truth is given to me
-
realizing that if there is a God out there
-
and there is
-
and He is infinitely above
me in His way of thinking,
-
and He is,
-
then why should I think I should be able
-
to figure out everything He's told me?
-
I know this,
-
He is sovereign over all things.
-
And I know this,
-
we have not because we ask not.
-
And I can honestly tell you this
-
in good conscience,
-
there are many times when I'm dealing
-
with a country or a people group
-
that has no Gospel,
-
and I'm crying out to God:
-
God, what do You want to do?
-
What do You want to do?
-
What do You want me to do?
-
I'll do anything, just tell me
what You want me to do.
-
The thing that's most
impressed upon my heart
-
and more so as I grow older -
-
so I'm not talking about youthful zeal -
-
when I go: Lord, what do
You want me to do?
-
It seems like the answer is this:
-
Well, what can you believe Me for?
-
What do you want to do?
-
How far do you want to take this thing?
-
I told you, I'm a wild man.
-
It's almost like God says:
-
You want to get nuts?
-
You want to take this as far as it can go?
-
I'm with you. Let's go.
-
I think that a lot of reformed
people are thinking
-
God doesn't want to do anything
-
and if we get Him to do anything,
-
we've got to pull Him into it.
-
I'm going to tell you
something, my friend,
-
God is running so much
faster than the church.
-
It's not trying to get
Him to catch up to you,
-
it's trying to get you to catch up to Him.
-
But see, there's a sense of faith.
-
There's a sense of faith that comes
-
with reading the Scriptures.
-
There's a sense of faith
-
that comes with studying the old men
-
and their ways.
-
I remember one time I
was a young missionary.
-
I came back off the field.
I was very tired.
-
I was invited to a church.
They wanted me to speak.
-
They did a question and answer.
-
They had a microphone in the
different aisles of the church.
-
And I was answering questions.
-
A young red-headed boy -
I'll never forget this -
-
he couldn't have been
more than 10, 12, whatever.
-
He comes up to the microphone.
-
He'd been standing in line all night
-
and this is the question he asked.
-
He said, "Mr. Washer?"
-
I said, "Yes?"
-
He said, "After you win
everybody in Peru to Jesus,
-
then what are you going to do?"
-
And everybody laughed except me and him.
-
And I said, "Well, son, I suppose
-
when I win everybody to Christ in Peru
-
I'll just have to go find
me another country, won't I?"
-
I don't see anywhere in the Bible
-
where there can't be a worldwide revival.
-
Sorry, I don't.
-
I don't see anywhere in the Bible
-
where an entire people group
-
can't come to Jesus.
-
I don't see anywhere in the Bible
-
where I have to die
without seeing everybody
-
at least hear the Gospel one time.
-
Everything I have contrived -
-
and I know that behind that contriving
-
was the sovereignty of God;
-
I know the 1689 and the Westminster -
-
there is nothing I have ever contrived
-
and prayed for
-
that was turned down by God
-
because it was too big.
-
You can believe Him for anything
-
when in the context you're looking
-
at the advancement of the kingdom
-
and you're renewing your mind,
-
you can believe Him for anything.
-
Let me give you an example: HeartCry.
-
People ask me to give
presentations on HeartCry.
-
I want to make this real,
-
that this isn't some antiquated guy
-
who used to do these things in the past.
-
I can't tell you how many
times He's delivered us.
-
At HeartCry, our financial principles
-
are based upon George Mueller's princples
-
of his orphanage.
-
We do not raise funds.
-
We do not ask for money.
-
We do not make our needs known.
-
If a church asks us to come explain
-
what we do in the mission,
-
we will come and explain
what we are currently doing,
-
not what we would do if we had more money.
-
Not this Christmas, but last Christmas,
-
nobody knew it except me,
-
the financial guy,
-
and one board member.
-
It was December 31st.
-
We had a $150,000 deficit.
-
Now that doesn't mean
-
that we owed somebody $150,000.
-
It just meant we had spent
-
that much beyond our budget
-
and basically almost had nothing.
-
Okay? Nobody knew. Nobody knew.
-
But God had told us
-
just a few days before we felt
-
that we were supposed to do something
-
really wild in Asia, and we did it.
-
We took on something like,
-
I don't know what it was,
-
45 more missionaries
-
knowing this was the case.
-
But we knew, God wants to reach Asia.
-
God desires that everybody
in Asia hears the Gospel.
-
This has opened up. It's biblical.
-
These men are sound.
-
We're going to do it.
-
Nobody knew.
-
I'm in my study.
-
It's December 31st.
-
That's the last day of the year.
-
It's 10:00 in the morning.
-
I'm studying the Word of God
-
and lifting up my worries in prayer.
-
Kevin comes in (our financial guy).
-
He's kind of teary-eyed.
-
I said, "Kevin, what's wrong?"
-
He said, "Um, somebody just sent -
-
I don't know who this is - $60,000."
-
I said, "Really?" He said, "Yes."
-
He said, "One check. It's $60,000."
-
So we got down on our knees.
-
We thanked God.
-
I went back to my Bible study.
-
He went back to his computer.
-
Twelve o'clock he comes in.
-
I don't have the figures exactly right,
-
but (unintelligible) it's been awhile.
-
He comes in.
-
He's teary-eyed.
-
I said, "Kevin, what's wrong?"
-
Someone just sent $100,000.
-
I said, "You're kidding."
-
He said, "No, someone just sent..."
-
I said, "You mean, 60 and 40."
-
He goes, "No. 60 and 100 thousand.
-
Somebody just sent $100,000."
-
I said, "Who?" He goes, "I don't know."
-
Alright.
-
We go back. Two o'clock he comes in.
-
He's really looking pale.
-
I said, "Kevin, what's going on?"
-
He said, "Well, we
got a check for $60,000."
-
"I know." "No, we got
another check for $60,000."
-
I said, "You're kidding." "No."
-
At the end of the day,
-
$326,000 came in.
-
Nobody knew at all what was going on.
-
Now, I can tell you that
-
over and over and over.
-
This last year, a similar thing happened.
-
It didn't happen in one day,
-
but it happened in one month.
-
Now I want you to think about something.
-
God chose the last day of the year.
-
Why? Because He wanted to show everybody
-
He doesn't need 365 days.
-
He doesn't even need 24 hours.
-
What I'm saying is the more you
-
cut yourself off from
the arm of the flesh,
-
the more you desire the
advancement of His kingdom,
-
and the more you live
dependent on Him in prayer,
-
you will see more miracles
-
than you could ever imagine!
-
This is Caleb. There's just all
kinds of mountains to conquer.
-
Pick one out!
-
And go for it!
-
Knock down some walls.
-
Climb a mountain,
-
but don't do it in the arm of the flesh.
-
The more you cut yourself off
-
from the help of men,
-
the more you will have the help of God.
-
The more you make
pronouncements to men
-
so that you may gather
their strength for you,
-
the less you will seek God.
-
Oh my dear friend, there's no end
-
to what God will do.
-
As a dear man says,
-
God delights in vindicating
-
the confidence of His children.
-
(incomplete thought) Prayer.
-
Prayer.
-
But not just prayer for ministry,
-
prayer for your own life.
-
You've got besetting sin.
-
You wallow in it.
-
You go get all kinds of counsel.
-
You can never get any release.
-
But do you go to Him?
-
Have you spent all night tarrying
-
before Him in prayer?
-
Have you cried out to Him?
Have you fasted?
-
Have you sought Him?
-
Have you grabbed a hold
of the horns of the altar
-
saying I will not let You go
-
until you bless me?
-
How many of you have wrestled
-
with the Nazarene all night?
-
Saying I will not let You go
-
unless You bless me.
-
I always tell people,
-
Jacob was a better fighter than me.
-
They say why?
-
He only got touched in one hip.
-
I got both of mine replaced.
-
I'm no scholar.
-
I'm not up here telling you things
-
I read in a book.
-
But to kneel before your God, like I said,
-
kneeling before an F5
tornado three feet away.
-
That's what will leave
an imprint on a man.
-
To wrestle with the Nazarene -
-
just find out how strong
that Carpenter's arm
-
happens to be.
-
When He grabs you with it
-
and throws you to the ground,
-
you'll know His strength.
-
But in His blessing,
He turns that arm around
-
and fights for you.
-
You'll know His strength
to a greater degree.
-
I'm talking about experience,
-
not just reading the Puritans -
-
following them in their life.
-
So we must pray. We must pray.
-
We must pray.
-
What does it look like?
-
1 Thessalonians: Pray without ceasing.
-
Ephesians 6:18,
-
"With all prayers and petitions,
-
pray at all times in the Spirit,"
-
in the power of the Spirit.
-
That's not referring to tongues.
-
It's referring to being empowered
-
by the Spirit of God to pray.
-
"With this in view, be on the alert
-
with all perseverance and
petition for the saints."
-
Psalm 105:4,
-
"Seek the Lord in His strength;
-
seek His face continually."
-
I hear people today and I say do you pray?
-
They go, well, I kind of pray as I go.
-
I say, no, you don't.
-
No, you don't.
-
There's a lot of wisdom handed down
-
from the Tozers and the Ravenhills,
-
and here's what one of them is:
-
You learn to pray continuously
-
only by praying with Him alone.
-
The practicing of the presence of God
-
does not come by just walking around
-
thinking you're doing it.
-
I have found out that the men and women
-
who can most dwell with God
-
throughout their day
-
no matter how mundane it is
-
are people who spend
copious amount of time
-
alone with God in their prayer closet.
-
And from that, you begin to develop
-
a sense of the presence of God
-
and praying.
-
So that as you're walking
-
through the church after you preach
-
and you see a face that turns toward you
-
and you know that person
is seeking your counsel,
-
immediately you head towards them
-
lifting up prayers to God:
-
Give me wisdom to discern this need
-
and give an answer from Your Scriptures.
-
You wake up in the morning
-
and you know that your
wife is a bit distraught:
-
Lord, how to deal with this?
-
Or a wife to a husband.
-
Constantly crying out to Him,
this communion.
-
Frank Laubach. Frank Laubach.
-
Do you know who I'm talking about?
-
Have you ever heard the statement:
-
He's so heavenly minded,
he's no earthy good?
-
Well, most people are so earthly-minded,
-
they're no heavenly good.
-
Frank Laubach is a very unique individual.
-
You know what his goal was in his journal?
-
It comes out very clear.
-
His one goal in life was to spend
-
one entire day
-
with uninterrupted thoughts of Christ.
-
That was the great goal of his life.
-
You say, yeah, one of
those spiritual kooks
-
that's so heavenly-minded
-
that he's no earthly good.
-
Frank Laubach taught the
entire Philippines to read
-
so that they could read the Bible.
-
You can go to the Philippines right now
-
and talk to people about Frank Laubach.
-
They'll say, "Frank Laubach,
yeah, I know about him.
-
I studied about him in history."
-
He's a Christian man
-
who taught all the islands
of the Philippines to read
-
so that they could read the Bible.
-
So I guess being heavenly minded
-
is pretty earthly good, isn't it?
-
Just think of it, this man taught
-
all these islands to read,
-
and yet his greatest goal
-
was to have uninterrupted
thoughts of Christ
-
and communion with Christ.
-
You see, we're not a meditative people.
-
We're not a contemplative people.
-
We're not a people who sit quietly.
-
We are a people of noise.
-
We are a people that every 20 minutes
-
we have to have a commercial
-
or we can't even watch a TV program.
-
But in Christ, we can
regain what's been lost.
-
I had a professor, and I
know it sounds really funny,
-
but he told me one time, he said,
-
"Washer, I want to bring you to a point
-
where you can sit in the
middle of a hundred acre field
-
and be so quiet before God,
-
you can hear a caterpillar
crawling across a leaf.
-
Now, I know that sounds
a little mystic to you.
-
The fact of the matter is how many times
-
do you sit before the Lord in silence?
-
Just quiet.
-
People say, "I never hear from God."
-
Do you listen?
-
You know, you wouldn't walk in
front of the president talking.
-
You would keep your mouth
shut until he addressed you.
-
But you go before God, before
you even hit your knees,
-
you're already telling Him stuff.
-
Do you ever think about listening?
-
Meditating on the Word of God?
-
Listening?
-
An illustration I heard a long time ago:
-
A man worked in this big, noisy factory -
-
just wheels grinding and everything else -
-
and he lost his watch.
-
It was a very important watch
-
that his father gave him.
-
He lost it while he was working there
-
in the factory during the day.
-
I mean, how are you
going to find this thing?
-
The factory's full of men,
-
wheels are grinding,
-
everything's going on,
noise, smoke, steam -
-
there's no way to recover that watch.
-
The next day though he showed the workman
-
his watch - he had found it.
-
And they said how did you find the watch?
-
He said I waited till the
factory was shut down
-
and all the wheels stopped
-
and all the men were gone,
-
and I laid quietly on the floor
-
and I listened...
-
tick... tick... tick... tick...
-
and I found my watch.
-
Think about it. We're
not a people like that.
-
If you walked into a church
-
in which for 5 minutes,
everyone was silent,
-
you'd probably call it a cult.
-
You walk in a church
-
there's media blaring at you.
-
There's pictures on screens.
-
People talking, everything going on.
-
Think about it.
-
All the noise?
-
I don't know if I correctly
remember the poem.
-
What was it?
-
Weak from the journey,
-
the long passing days,
-
hungry to worship, to join in the praise.
-
Christ coming in from the wilderness
-
and He goes into the temple.
-
And instead of finding
silence in the temple,
-
it says, shock met with anger
-
that burned on His face
-
as He entered the wasteland
-
of that barren place.
-
That the temple had become
-
more like a wilderness
-
than the wilderness itself.
-
Then it talks about how He makes a cord,
-
a whip.
-
It says they'll flee from the harm
-
of the Carpenter's strong arm.
-
And then the poem says,
-
at last the noise and confusion
-
gave way to His Word,
-
at last sacred silence
-
so God could be heard.
-
Do you know anything of a night watch?
-
Do you know about a night watch?
-
Do you ever wake in the night
-
just to watch and pray?
-
Just to sit alone with God in the night?
-
In the dark?
-
We are not a very
spiritual people, are we.
-
We need to pray.
-
Now, the last thing that I want to say
-
and we'll quit here.
-
We must abide in His Word.
-
We must abide in prayer.
-
And this is one that is
most beautiful to me.
-
Abiding in Christ is synonymous
-
with abiding in Christ's love.
-
D.A. Carson writes,
-
"The imagery is now changed
-
because the agricultural metaphor
-
has its limitations.
-
It does not depict the unfathomable love
-
that sets the disciples
-
in this new intimacy."
-
You must abide in the love of Christ.
-
Now, I want us to look
at this in two ways:
-
positionally and actively.
-
The language here's really important.
-
It really is. I want you to listen.
-
He says, "Just as the
Father has loved Me,"
-
in verses 9 and 10,
-
"I have also loved you."
-
Now, Greek scholars tell us
-
that the aorist tense here
-
probably suggests completeness
-
or perfection.
-
So what He's saying is
-
as the Father has completely
-
and perfectly loved Me,
-
so I perfectly and completely love you.
-
Now, I've written here,
-
this is the first side of the coin
-
or the foundation of the building.
-
To be fruitful, we must
be utterly convinced
-
or persuaded of Christ's love for us.
-
Then we must live in continuous dependence
-
upon Christ's love,
-
constant reliance upon Christ's love,
-
constant, persistent imbibing
-
of Christ's love.
-
Now, what do I mean by all that?
-
Jude says this:
-
"Keep yourself in the love of God."
-
Now, Paul says this:
-
That he is constrained
-
by the love of Christ.
-
Keep yourself in the love of God.
-
Paul is constrained by the love of Christ.
-
Now many people think
wrongly about this.
-
When Paul says that he is
constrained by the love of Christ,
-
many think that Paul is saying
-
I'm constrained by the great love
-
that I have for Christ.
-
Let me share with you something.
-
You know the song - just any song
-
that says, "Oh, how I love Jesus..."
-
When everyone's singing that -
-
and it's true to sing that;
that's a good song -
-
but I kind of change the words
-
because I'm a terrible singer anyway.
-
I go: Oh, how Jesus loves me.
-
The reason why is I look
at my love for Christ
-
and I really don't see anything
worth singing about.
-
But I look at the love of Christ for me,
-
I see a whole lot worth singing about.
-
Now don't say it's unbiblical to sing
-
"Oh, How I Love Jesus."
-
The psalmist says that
he loves the Lord, okay?
-
We should love the Lord.
-
The point I'm trying to make is
-
the strength of Paul Washer's life
-
is not how much he loves Jesus;
-
it's how much Jesus loves him.
-
That little change there
will change everything.
-
Let me share with you
something that happened.
-
As I said in my testimony this morning,
-
I had a father that was very demanding.
-
If you scored a 98,
why didn't you score 100?
-
If you scored 20 points
in the basketball game,
-
you could have scored 30.
-
On and on...
-
I was kind of never in the
inner circle of anything.
-
You know, I wasn't one of the
cool guys when I was young.
-
I wasn't this. I wasn't that.
-
Here's what happened.
-
When I got saved, I thought
-
this is going to be my one chance.
-
I want to be in God's inner circle.
-
I want God to love me
-
like He loves His favorites.
-
I know that's wrong,
but that was my mentality.
-
And I know it was
fleshly and full of pride,
-
but I'm just telling you the facts.
-
And I decided this is the one place
-
where you can really go all out
-
even if you're not the smartest
-
and even if you're not the prettiest
-
and even if you don't
have the most muscles.
-
I mean, there's nothing to hinder you
-
in this endeavor except your own passion.
-
If you want to be one
of the top guys in this
-
and really be loved by
God and appreciated,
-
this is it.
-
All you have to do is have passion.
-
And buddy, I had it. I went to Peru.
-
Worked 18 hours a day.
-
Lived on nothing.
-
Just wild.
-
And every day became more of a grind.
-
Every day I would see more failure,
-
more failure, year after year,
-
until finally one day as a young man -
-
I'll never forget it -
-
it was in the town of Mia Flores
-
up on the third floor of this old building
-
that we were renting during the war
-
because we were using it for a church
-
and to help street kids.
-
I was on the third floor.
-
There was a few steps from the third floor
-
to the half other part of the
third floor where I slept.
-
And right there, I crashed.
-
Totally exhausted every possible way
-
after years of just full bore,
-
out of my mind serving Christ.
-
And I crashed.
-
And I crashed in all my failure
-
right on those steps
-
and I laid down there
-
and I cried and I cried and I cried.
-
I said I don't want to go to hell
-
because I know something of what is there.
-
I don't want to go to hell,
-
but I don't want to go to heaven.
-
I am so ashamed of my performance.
-
I've not been able to
do any of this right.
-
I know You have servants.
-
I know You have your Spurgeons.
-
I know You have all these kind of people
-
and they pleased You,
-
and I know when You look at my life,
-
it just must be a joke.
-
I just want to go somewhere when I die
-
where I don't have to suffer,
-
but I don't have to look at You
-
and be so disappointed
-
and see the disappointment in Your face.
-
I know that's insane.
-
I know theologically it's incorrect.
-
But it's where I was.
-
And it was there
-
that in one moment
-
the sin and vileness of
everything I was saying
-
was made known to me.
-
And you would think
that that would grind me
-
even more to powder. No.
-
God should have struck me down
-
for those kinds of attitudes.
-
But it was there, empty,
-
empty of any hope of ever pleasing God -
-
because not only had I failed
-
in what I intended to do,
-
what I intended to do was actually evil.
-
That in one moment, I began to understand
-
I am loved.
-
I do not have to move a
quarter of an inch this way,
-
a quarter of an inch that way.
-
I do not have to perform.
-
I do not have to do it.
I am loved in Christ.
-
The very moment when God
should have most judged me,
-
He most showed me His love.
-
What a God!
-
Brothers, you are so wrong
-
in what you think about men of God.
-
Now, hopefully, they are sincere
-
in that we do pray
-
and we do want to be following
-
hard after Christ,
-
but men of God in their best moment
-
are only worthy of hell.
-
And what you need to see
-
is the thing that can
really make you strong
-
is not that you look at your life
-
and you're able to see
-
all the things you're doing right.
-
No, you give up looking at your life
-
to find something that you're doing right
-
and worthy of being loved for,
-
and you look at the
finished work of Christ.
-
And you look at Christ.
-
Just Christ and all that He's done.
-
And you understand He loves you.
-
And you don't have to perform.
-
And no, you were not saved to serve.
-
You weren't even saved to love God.
-
You were saved so God could love you.
-
And then out of that great love for you
-
and His empowering Spirit,
-
you would be able to
give some return on that.
-
But that you are loved!
-
It's a magnificent thing!
-
Do you realize all that you can attempt
-
when you no longer fear failure?
-
When you no longer fear disappointment?
-
So many believers, after talking to them,
-
this is what I'll tell them:
-
So many believers - I'll go,
-
I have discerned your problem.
-
You honestly think that the first time
-
you look into the face of Christ,
-
you're going to see a scowl.
-
Think about it.
-
Yes, I know there's a judgment
throne for believers.
-
I know all these doctrines.
-
Don't think I don't. I do.
-
But I want to tell you, believer,
-
He didn't shed His own blood on that tree
-
so that the first time He sees you
-
He would be able to show
you His disappointment.
-
You see that?
-
I mean, it's the love of God.
-
It's what God did for us in Christ
-
that sets us free and empowers us
-
to know that you're loved,
-
to know that you're loved.
-
I remember when my son Ian,
-
he was just a little boy
-
and he's always been very confident.
-
He's always been like:
-
Okay, I'm here. The party can begin.
-
You know, he's just always
been very confident.
-
And I remember when he was a little boy
-
that he was laying on my bed asleep
-
and I walked in,
-
and he woke up when I walked in.
-
And this is what he did:
-
He woke up -
-
and I was always afraid of my father.
-
He woke up. He turned around
-
and he went:
-
There wasn't a doubt in his mind
-
what should happen here.
-
He is loved
-
and his dad's going to run over there
-
and give him the biggest hug in the world.
-
What a joy!
-
To know that you are loved.
-
You say, oh, but I failed.
-
Why do you think He died?
-
What is this death all about?
-
Just so He can say that He forgave you
-
and then show you constantly
-
all the reasons why He shouldn't?
-
He saved you to put that all away
-
so that He could have brothers
-
that He would not be ashamed
-
to announce them to the congregation;
-
to say that they are His brothers.
-
He has set you free to be loved.
-
It doesn't matter how big
your ministry is or isn't.
-
It doesn't matter what you do or don't.
-
You are loved if you are in Christ.
-
Now the unconverted
church person hears that
-
and goes, well, great,
I'll just keep sinning.
-
It doesn't matter what I do.
I'll just keep sinning.
-
But the person who's
been truly regenerated
-
by the Spirit of God,
-
what does he do?
-
If God loves me this way,
-
I so desire much more to be holy.
-
One of the most pathetic things
-
that a preacher has to do
-
is tell believers that
they're loved of God
-
because there's no way for us to describe
-
the greatness of that love for His people.
-
Sometimes when I'm preaching pastorally,
-
when I was a pastor
-
or when a few times
I've taken over a church
-
for a few months in order to help it
-
because it was struggling,
-
everybody hears me
preaching on YouTube.
-
The meanest man in the world.
-
And I've had those same people show up
-
because I've come into their area
-
to help a church.
-
And I've had young men show up
-
and listen to me preach to that church
-
and it be a very backward church -
-
a church with a lot of problems,
-
a lot of sin.
-
And some young men
kept showing up and coming,
-
and finally they went to one of my friends
-
after hearing me preach for several weeks,
-
they came to one of my friends
-
and they said this:
-
"We've got a question."
-
He said, "Yeah?"
-
They said, "We respect Brother Paul a lot,
-
but has he compromised?"
-
The guy says, "Well, what do you mean?"
-
He goes, "Well, everybody knows
-
this church has a lot of problems
-
and all he's done for weeks is taught
-
on the love of God.
-
We expected to get some
YouTube stuff, you know?
-
Sermon jam?
-
Having smoke coming out of his ears
-
preaching really hard?
-
You see, here's what
you need to understand.
-
If someone has been truly converted -
-
truly converted -
-
you do not have to
manipulate them with fear.
-
You do not have to coerce them.
-
If they've truly been regenerated
-
by the Holy Spirit.
-
the more they come to understand
-
the glories of God in the face of Christ,
-
the more they come to understand
-
the love of God on their behalf,
-
the more they'll be driven to holiness.
-
And if they're not, it's
because they're not sheep.
-
They're goats.
-
When I come to Christians -
-
and yes, sometimes Christians
-
need to be rebuked and warned
-
and all kinds of things,
-
but basically, when I'm
dealing with the Christian,
-
my greatest desire is to explain to them
-
how much they are loved by God in Christ.
-
And I find that when people
-
come to understand -
truly regenerate people -
-
how much they are loved,
-
they seem to blossom.
-
Keep yourselves, Jude said,
in the love of God.
-
That doesn't mean:
-
live in such a way so
that God will love you.
-
It means this:
-
Keep yourself basking in His love.
-
If you tell me to come to your house
-
because you've got a
plant that isn't growing,
-
and it's wilting and dying,
-
you say, Brother Paul,
-
what do you think the problem is?
-
I say, well, show me the plant.
-
You take me into a closet
-
where you've kept the
plant for six months.
-
Again, I'm going to go,
-
well, I'm not really an expert
-
at growing plants,
-
but I think if you put this thing
-
out in the sun,
-
it might do better.
-
The devil is constantly trying
-
to convince the believer
-
that God's love isn't as the Bible says.
-
And when we begin to believe that
-
we wilt, we die.
-
Keep yourself believing the truth
-
about the love of God
-
and it will cause you to prosper.
-
It will cause you to grow.
-
It will cause you to bear fruit.
-
The sunshine of God's love upon you.
-
Last night, a young man came to me
-
and was talking about
I feel bad sometimes.
-
You are so passionate
-
talking about Christ the way that you did
-
and sometimes my heart is dead.
-
And I said, "Young man,
-
sometimes my heart is dead."
-
Sometimes my zeal wanes.
-
Even last night, the tears I shed
-
were not: Oh, this man
loves Jesus so much.
-
The tears were: God, how
can You love me so much
-
and yet my heart be so cold?
-
You see, it's not our love for God
-
that keeps us on an even keel.
-
It is God's constant love for us.
-
I had a young man come to me one time
-
and he was a very godly man - young man -
-
pursuing Christ.
-
And he actually wrote me an email
-
and he said this.
-
He said, "Brother Paul,
-
I am so unrighteous
-
and so ungodly
-
and so ignorant of God."
-
So I wrote him back, I said,
-
"Dear brother, you are much more ungodly
-
and much more unrighteous
-
than you now know. Signed, Paul."
-
I have the gift of encouragement.
-
And he called me back up and he was like,
-
"Thank you?"
-
"Why did you write that?"
-
I said, "Because I want to
prove to you something, son."
-
I've watched your life.
-
You're following hard after Christ.
-
In many ways, when I look at you,
-
I seem to think of myself
-
that I lost my first love.
-
I said you're following
harder after Christ
-
than I appear to be,
-
but I'm much happier than you.
-
And he said how can that be?
-
I said, son, I've given up
-
on trying to earn my own keep
-
in the kingdom of heaven.
-
I said, son, when you
get up in the morning
-
and you have a five hour time of prayer
-
and you read the Word for 25 hours
-
just in that morning,
-
and you go out, you witness to everybody,
-
you're even nice to cats.
-
You're a testimony to Christ.
-
You're just walking in the Spirit.
-
I said, and you come home at night,
-
how do you feel?
-
He says I feel good.
-
I said what about the next morning
-
when you get up,
-
you slept in too late,
-
you missed your time with the Lord,
-
you kicked the cat,
-
you had an opportunity to witness,
-
you didn't do that,
and so on and so forth,
-
how do you feel?
-
He said horrible.
-
Now there's a sense,
-
and I want to be very careful
-
so someone doesn't pick me
apart on this sermon -
-
there's a sense in which
yes, there was sin,
-
(unintelligible).
-
But I rebuked him of idolatry.
-
And he said why idolatry?
-
I said your performance
-
is the source of your joy.
-
I said son, even when you got up
-
and had the 25 hour quiet time
-
and you did all the stuff you did,
-
you still only earned enough
-
to find maybe a cooler spot in hell.
-
I said a man at his best
-
does not deserve the love of God.
-
I said I've come to realize
that over the years.
-
I said your joy is based
on your performance.
-
I said son, my joy is based on
-
the finished work of Jesus Christ
-
and that's the difference
between me and you.
-
Do you see that?
-
What is the Christian life like?
-
It is like this:
-
It has to do with revelation,
-
brokenness, and joy.
-
You say, well, what do you mean?
-
A man is walking - he doesn't know Christ,
-
he's unconverted.
-
He hears a Gospel preacher one day
-
and the Spirit of God renews his heart.
-
For the first time in his life,
-
he sees a glimpse of how God truly is.
-
And in seeing that,
-
he sees a glimpse of how he truly is,
-
something of his sin.
-
And it breaks him and he repents,
-
but he's not left to despair. Why?
-
Because he also sees in that revelation
-
the grace of God in the face of Christ
-
and he's filled with joy as he believes.
-
You see that?
-
Then he gets up the next day,
-
and what happens?
-
As he's walking through his Christian life
-
he sees a greater
revelation of who God is,
-
a greater revelation of God's holiness.
-
And what does it do?
-
It breaks him deeper than the day before.
-
It causes his repentance to be deeper
-
because he sees himself
-
even in a greater light now,
-
and sees the need for
brokenness and repentance.
-
But he's not left to despair.
-
But he looks at the grace of
God in the face of Christ
-
and his joy is greater than
the joy he had the day before.
-
And you walk through your
entire Christian life that way
-
until you're 90 years old
-
and at 90 years old
-
you see more of the holiness of God
-
than you ever could have imagined.
-
You see more of the
darkness of your own soul
-
than you ever could have imagined.
-
You're more broken
-
than you could have ever imagined,
-
and yet your joy is greater
-
than you could have ever imagined.
-
But what happens is
-
there's been a holy transaction.
-
When you started, your joy was coming
-
from who you were and what you could do.
-
Now at 90, you're empty of that,
-
and your joy only comes from Christ.
-
And that's the way it's supposed to be.
-
All our joy, all our hope -
-
everything in Christ.
-
Well, now that I've summed
up the entire Christian life,
-
I guess we can close the conference.
-
Be blessed in what God has
done for you in Christ.
-
Be blessed.
-
Rejoice! Look unto Him!
-
Look unto Him.
-
Inward looks are necessary,
-
but to hold your gaze inwardly
-
only leads to death.
-
Look to Christ.
-
Because He is greater
-
than every one of your failures
-
and your weaknesses and your sins.
-
I sing because I'm happy.
-
I sing because I'm free.
-
It was all finished at Calvary.
-
It was all finished at Calvary.
-
Let's pray.
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Father, thank You for Your Word.
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I pray, Lord, that out of this,
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that Your people will be helped,
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in Jesus' name, Amen.
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Please visit our website at
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heartcrymissionnary.com.
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There you will find information
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about the ministry - our purpose,
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beliefs, and methodologies,
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and extensive information
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about the missionaries we
are privileged to serve.