Q&A
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I guess we can begin our questions.
Again, anyone who umm speaks, please get one of the two mics at each side of the room.
And don't be afraid to go up and get the mic or have it passed to you. And when you speak you can take your mask off so we can hear clearly.
And the first question what would you tell a person who has been restored and feels forgiven by God?
But has a problem forgiving themselves. And what should they do about a future spouse?
I'll address the forgiveness first if we go to Ephesians chapter one.
We need more than feeling forgiveness. We need to know that we are forgiven.
If we're just dealing with feelings, our feelings will go up and down, our emotions go up and down, but we need to have our, our, uh, doctrine established on truth and something that does not move. And so our forgiveness comes from the Lord Jesus and he tells us you're forgiven.
You can know you're forgiven and if he's forgives you.
You can forgive yourself in Ephesians one, verse six, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, and so we have been accepted in the Beloved.
When you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you believe on the Lord Jesus.
Not just believing that there is a God, that there is Jesus, but putting your trust in Him and believing that He has the power to save you and that He has made a way for you and that He is the way.
Lord Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life and He wants to give you life, but you need to put your trust in Him and believe that what He's done has covered your sins and you are forgiven. When you're saved, you're forgiven.
And in whom we have redemption through his blood. He's paid the price for it. For you. It was with his blood. It took a lot for him to pay that price. He's not going to let you get away from him. And we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. And so if he says you're forgiven, you can you can believe that you don't have to go.
You can accept what Jesus says, because Jesus is God, and you can forgive yourself.
00:05:03
Is that it? The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.
We cannot underestimate.
I'll say it again, we cannot underestimate the value of the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed at Calvary's cross.
It's, umm, humbling.
To think that the creator of this universe.
Would, uh, give himself for us.
And since he's done that, though, he has done that and we've accepted him, then we can trust him completely.
He has made no mistake.
We make mistakes, but he's there to hold us up.
Purposely that is his design, because he loves us.
I was just looking at that verse. 2 Bruce in first John 1/7.
The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from every sin.
That's a one time sacrifice for sins. It doesn't have to be.
Shed again. There's not a known sacrifice needed after the Lord Jesus suffered once and died once and shed his blood once.
And that blood is good for all time, not just to get you into, not just to get you saved so you can go into heaven, but it keeps you saved. And so we don't need a second application of the blood. The Lord Jesus doesn't have to die again. That blood takes care of sins in the past and sins in the future and so.
When we confess our sins, that is so we can continue on in our relationship and a fellowship with God here on earth.
And so there's another another verse in, uh, Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21.
For he hath made him the Lord Jesus, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The Lord Jesus was the holy, spotless Lamb of God. He had no sin in him. He did no sin. He thought no sin.
There and but yet he was the one who went to the cross to take our sin upon himself, your sin upon himself and he and now he has made you the righteousness of God in him. And so God looks at you as righteous. Maybe you don't feel righteous, but we're again, we're not dealing with feelings we are dealing with absolute what God has said.
And he says you are righteous because you've been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, You've been accepted in the Beloved. And so now he says you are righteous. You are the righteousness of God in him.
30 seconds so.
I know that we've referenced this before, but I want to say it again.
I think we're all familiar with the tremendous fall that King David had with Bathsheba.
And in Psalm 51 we get.
00:10:01
Umm.
David expressing some of the exercise of soul and confessing and getting before the Lord and, uh, not hiding it and asking.
God to create a clean heart and immense and I believe some 32 maybe a sequel to that. Umm, blessed is he who's transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed it is the man whom the Lord imputeth, not iniquity, and in whose spirit is no God.
Basically after David added out before the Lord.
Umm, he got this sense of the word. Blessed is the man to whom the word and never counts in against him. And umm, I think it's important to read to get that a hold of that in your heart. You say I can't forgive myself.
Well.
I want to turn to the last one of the last verses of Mike after this.
Umm, I hope this is not taking too many liberties, but I want to share something here.
The Book of Micah.
When somebody says to turn to a book like Mike, I think the Books of the Bible song probably goes through most people's minds, at least mine.
Mike, it's Chapter 7.
Umm, second to last verse, verse 19. He will turn again. They will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities that will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
I remember listening to UH talk by Corey 10. Boom.
And she was a older lady that had come through World War Two and.
Had been arrested by the Gestapo for hiding Jews in her home, sent the concentration camp and her sister Betsy was killed by the.
Nazis in that camp, and there are a lot of reasons that she would be angry and unable and unwilling to forgive.
And the Lord had to deal with that. I know you, whoever wrote this question is asking about forgiving yourself. And uh, one of the things that Corey said is she read this verse, all their sins and the depths of the sea. And she said, God had to make me realize, don't go fishing there.
And so when God says it's.
Paid Suppose that I owe Kyle $10,000.
And the debt gets paid.
It's not right to sit there and go, yeah, I, I, I owe Kyle 10,000 bucks. That's not good, that good.
It's paid the word Jesus paid the penalty, the cost for whatever this issue is.
And.
God does not count that against you if you're a believer. Now, in regards to what they do about a future spouse, I have a couple of thoughts on this. Number one.
If you're not old enough to have a spouse.
Get to know other young people.
On a friendly basis and don't try to get into a husband wife relationship too early.
Second thing I'd say is don't rush around and try every doorknob.
In a frantic effort to lock somebody down.
Uh, that's not God's way.
I would say what to do about a future spouse?
Realize your position in God's view.
As forgiven clean. I think about what the Lord said to Peter when, uh, he was on the roof at Simon the Tanner's house. There's that vision of all those unclean animals. And Peter said, oh, I've never eaten. I've never touched any of that stuff. And the Lord said, don't call, come. And what I said is clean. So the Lord says you're clean.
Don't sit there and say well I'm damaged goods, I'm broken, busted 30, whatever.
00:15:02
God says clean. That's what he that's what it is.
And so in looking for a husband or a wife.
Get on your knees.
Ask the Lord to provide the one that He has for you, and then wait.
I'm glad you turned to Micah, Bernie. I'd like to read two other verses in that same chapter. Micah Chapter 7, verse 8.
Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light into me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I ascend against him until he plead my cause.
And execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. I don't have much to add to that verse, but I think similar to what's been commenting already.
Don't measure your worth to God on the basis of what you've done in the past. That's not how he measures it.
Just want to read a couple verses and then give a little practical encouragement. Maybe the classic cases in Acts 3.
Acts 3. Reading from the middle of verse 13.
Person preaching here says preaching to a crowd of Jews.
Jesus.
Whom you delivered up and denied.
Him in the presence of Pilot, when he was determined to let him go, but he denied the Holy One and the just, and the preacher is.
Peter.
Everyone knows the story of Peter. This isn't 30 years later.
Just I don't know exactly after the day of Pentecost is probably less than two months later. And this is Peter preaching. I just encourage you. There are consequences in life when we sin, but pick up the word of God, take a notebook and go through we've had David, David the consequences in his life because of his sin.
Who is in the line of the Lord?
That she was mentioned there she that was the wife of Uriah and the son Solomon take up Jacob. Jacob had consequences in his life from his sin. It could be the end of his life leaning on a staff. How does God refer to Jacob in the New Testament? I'm the God of.
Alright, think about it. And he says Jacob.
There's the consequence, there's the result. Jonah was Jonah left on the shelf of damaged goods. Who wrote the book of Jonah? And you can go on, pick up, look at it. Are there consequences? Who in this room hasn't sinned that hasn't experienced consequences? Pick up the lives of just about anybody you can find in this book and look at what God did with it.
Or consequences. But look at what God does with what each one of us is.
And then you can have joy.
00:20:30
In Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5 and verse one.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Justified means the guilt has been taken away.
God sees faith.
I cannot see your faith, but God can see your faith, and you have peace with God. You might not have peace with me, but you have peace with God.
Because you've been justified through faith. But what does man see? Man sees. We see one another's failure. It's nice when we can see evidence of faith.
Looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart, and so from the heart God sees faith, and we're justified before God through faith. Now go to James.
James has a different presents a different view.
And in James chapter 2 and verse 24.
This is what man sees.
Verse 24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
Man.
Women, they see your works.
They don't see what's in your heart.
And so.
How can what can you do about a future spouse?
If your future spouse knows about your works, maybe you've had sin in your life. Maybe you've committed fornication.
That's what man sees.
And it concerns.
The man or the woman?
If that's all the they know about you, they don't want to be a spouse.
And so when your works.
Are by their fruits. You shall know them when your works are such that people see your life has changed.
Your life is honoring God. Your works honor God when they see that.
They know that you've been justified by faith, so your works can work on your behalf if your works are the works of God, but when they only see your works.
The fruits of the flesh, then it's going to be difficult to get a spouse. But when the when your prospective spouse sees that there's been a change in your life, that you've been forgiven, that you've been justified and that you enjoy that justification, you enjoy that forgiveness and you're living in the good of the new man.
Then you'll be able to find a spouse so it it man is justified by works as far as other people's see you.
With God, maybe you've been forgiven, maybe you've been repented and you've been restored, and God see with God and God sees that, but that's on the inside. Now you manifest with your life what's going to be on the outside, and then man sees what you do, and then man makes judgment by what they see.
OK.
Our next question.
How can I truly be saved if I am addicted to a habitual sin?
Then Hebrews 10 verse 26 and 27.
For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth.
There remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.
So the con, the concern here is.
If I'm addicted to in habitual sin.
How can I see any evidence of life in of faith in my life?
Am I really saved?
These verses in Hebrews 10 are really speaking about apostasy.
Turning away from God. Rejecting God.
Specifically in Hebrews for the, the Jews who are, who were, uh, affiliated with Christianity and they had a knowledge of the truth, but there was never any acceptance of the truth. There was no faith. So this is, and then they turn away from Christianity and they, they deny God that that's, that's what's being addressed here.
But these verses can also be used and they convict umm.
Us when we sin willfully.
The sitting, again, the sitting willfully in this verse is apostasy. It's not a willful sin of some other immorality or or anything else, but we can apply it in that way.
So this, this verse is giving sometimes gives people umm, concern about whether or not they're saved because they are struggling in their sin.
00:30:11
Tim, could you explain that a little more, how we know this versus talking about apostasy?
Probably not very well, but uh, who's he writing to? He's writing to the Hebrews, he says. Specific letter to the Hebrews. All the ones who who came out of Judaism, some of them were saved, some of them were not. Some of them were just following and they received the knowledge of the truth.
And the sinning willfully here is rejecting.
God and, and the, and it's rejecting the truth that they had known. And that's, that can happen in a Christian family too. You're raised in Christianity and you, uh, have a knowledge of the truth. Maybe you know more than anybody else about the word of God.
But that knowledge?
Doesn't save there needs to be the faith Yes, we can believe intellectually, but we need to believe in our hearts. We need to put our trust in the Lord Jesus and if we have that knowledge and we turn away from.
From, uh, from God, I, I believe that's what it's Speaking of here. Uh, I'm sure someone else can really, uh, explain it better.
So 3 verse 29.
Of how much sore punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and done despite unto the spirit of grace? And so a Christian, a person raised in a Christian family, can also, umm, be like this. They're not rejecting.
As Christ, as the Messiah. But they're true, rejecting the Lord Jesus as they're.
Savior of how much sore punishments are he? He's talking, he talks about the ones in, uh, in Moses day, perhaps when somebody was going out picking up sticks, they knew the law. They knew they weren't supposed to do that, but they did it anyway. And they, but now he's talking about the Jews who had a knowledge, or maybe even you who has a knowledge of Christianity.
And you're re, you're rejecting that you haven't really taken the, uh, the step of faith to put your trust in the Lord Jesus. And if you don't take that step, eventually you'll get hardened. Your heart will become more hardened like Pharaoh and you won't be able to believe and you'll turn away from God. And so this whole section here is.
More more about the the apostasy.
Maybe someone else can explain more about the apostasy.
Maybe these these verses in Hebrews are this come at the end of a lot of context. Not to go through in detail, but the 1St 8 chapters present a person, present the person, the Lord Jesus, his character, who he is, and present him as far better than any of the types of figures.
And the whole Jewish system.
That led up to and pointed toward Him in chapters 9 and 10. It presents His work, and it presents how His work was far greater than the sacrificial system that preceded it. That looked ahead and forward to him. And then these verses come in. It's after that whole section, in fact, in this very chapter, at the beginning. I suspect many have heard the verses toward the beginning of this chapter often and breaking of bread.
00:35:04
That referred to the work that he did is far greater than the all the Old Testament sacrificial system.
And then it tells us to draw an ear, tells us to come close, tells us to come to Him, and then comes the warning that we began with. And so the context is, in fact, the end of verse 26 might help a little bit. It says there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. That is, if this person, the Lord Jesus, and this work, the work he did on the cross to put away sins isn't enough for you.
There's nothing.
That's enough for you. It was enough for God. He sat down forever at the right hand of God. God was satisfied, but if you're not satisfied with him and his work, there's nothing more. You go out and say, well that's not enough for me. I have my own path. Then the back has been turned on. God's only, umm, the only thing he'll accept to put away sin and so.
Apostasy is having fully.
Been presented with and God knows who's been fully presented with is not just hearing words.
And God knows who's taking it in, understood it and rejected it because he knows the heart. But it's the one who's taken in, understood and rejected the work of Christ and willfully chosen their own way. That's referred to here. But I will add one thing because I made a very, I think serious mistake. And when quite a few years ago there was a.
A fellow teacher.
And, uh, they had a lot of interactions. I was in my second year of teaching, I think. And so I was just out of college and I, he's, somebody was touching him with the idea that he could be saved and lost. And so I came on pretty strongly about how he couldn't be saved and lost. And I believe it. I.
Couldn't take the slightest thing away from it because of this book, but sometimes.
The Lord puts verses like these ones in to touch our conscience. We look at the context, there's no doubt whatever that we couldn't be saved and lost, that we could be saved and lost. I'm sorry, there's absolutely no way that we could be saved and lost because it depends on the work of Christ. These verses are here to touch our conscience in that, umm, context.
And this man, I believe was truly saved. He broke off, uh, adulterous relationship he was in.
Umm, but it didn't fully bring it to the light, and he went back into it. And habitual sin is serious because of it. We don't truly let it come to the light, then let it come out before God and allow it to be out before others. And we often don't truly judge it. And so it's important to allow everything to be out in the light.
Where it can be judged and.
And put away in a practical sense.
One more comment, Umm.
If we're going to take this these verses in there context of what touches are in the the subject of touching the conscience.
Just I'm not sure what sin is being referred to.
The gossip, the gluttony, the pride. Is it unbelief? I doubt it, but those are things that many of us might fall into.
Does that need to be brought out in the light before God and the flesh kept in the place of death? So sometimes when we want to, umm, get a simple answer to a question such as this, I'll speak to myself, not for the person who asked the question. I want a simple answer. It's so that I can turn away from the sort of the spirit that touching the conscience on something umm, so that I can have a security that, umm, is really only in the Lord.
And found in closeness independent to him.
It was just very small comment. Umm, understanding the book of Hebrews.
It's addressed to three groups of people.
One is those that are true believers.
Another group of people, those that are professors, they're not real and there's a lot of warning with them. Like even the birds where it says receive the knowledge of the truth.
00:40:13
Those are professors not in this in another place in Hebrews that speaks about half days of the heavenly gift. It's struggling there. You might stay on the pin, but they're not real and there's a warning to get those unless they let them slip. And then there's those head apostle side. So the right they divide the furniture we have to realize.
Who are these persons referred to?
And, uh, the indication here, we can see from verse 29 that they're, they're not real, they're professors.
Well, I feel for the person that might be struggling with this. I know umm, in my life, umm, when I was around 1920, I, I had umm, umm, the same struggles that were getting worse and worse. I was looking at my mom and.
Umm, she was happy in the Lord singing and her life seemed like what a perfect Christian. I I want to be like that. I don't want to.
Umm, I'm going to go. You know, I made a commitment to go through at least one day without sinning, and of course I failed. Whether somebody took my spot, umm, at work or whatever it was, umm, I couldn't do it. And I tried harder and harder every day and I was getting more and more discouraged.
Extremely discouraged. Umm, after three months I could hardly even pray and umm.
I got invited off to a brother in Canada anyway, umm, brother Wayne Coleman. He realized there's something wrong and I'm like, nothing, no, I want to talk to you. And he pulled me aside. What's the problem? And I told him he's like.
What?
Umm.
What are you? What are you doing? You're going to get just as dirty hugging the chimney sweeper as if you're fighting him. So if you're fighting him, you think you're going to try to change? You can't change it. The Lord doesn't do remodels. It all doesn't give us regulations and umm, you got to do this things to umm self help. No, there's nothing that that man, you are far worse than the worst thing you ever committed.
And umm, he picked up the word of God and he said, what do you, what do you think this book is about? Do you think this book is about you? I'm like, what?
I'm not sure it's like it's not about you, it's about the Son of God. We grow in his image as we are, as we have Christ before us. That's how we grow. It's not maybe it's for sure, but we cannot be self self occupation. You're not going to improve upon yourself.
And, uh, it kind of goes hand in hand a little bit with the question before I've forgiven myself really. Because that's why you really think you're that good. You're far worse. If possible says in in my place, well, there's no good thing. And apart from me, you can do nothing, nothing. In other words, if the Lord gave me the power to go through one day without sinning.
Then the next day I would walk in independence the day that you gave me. But no, it's he wants us to walk independent and the Lord Jesus Christ was the most dependent man.
Umm, we have to, I think for this case here. If this umm, for this young brother, I would say he's probably struggling more like umm, Romans 7.
Umm, or a girl? It's umm, so Roman 7.
I would say from 15 on.
14.
Umm, the thing, the thing which you want to do, you know, we, we don't have the power, we, we don't want to do what is bad. And, uh, but that's exactly what we're going to do. Why? Because apart from God, we can do nothing. And, and, and there's something else in that Christian circles that it's very troubling and it's creeping in really fast. Umm, I had a younger, umm, lady tell me that look, the Lord gave me a brain to make the right.
00:45:17
Noise, she said what? That's a horrible thing to say. Are you telling me that the flesh can make the right choice and that the flesh would think of God? If there's thoughts of God, they were put there by God. They did not come there from the flesh, from the old man. And as a matter of fact, it says he, he has not chosen me, but I have chosen. So it's all from his side. He has chosen us. We need to leave that with him and.
If we, uh, if we're self occupied, it's just going to bring us into despair.
You, you. We cannot, you know, Let's say this, brother.
Whatever, umm, the addictions you may have, you may go through two weeks without, uh, falling into it, and then you may think of himself, Oh, I'm doing pretty good and you'll fall right away. No, you can not. You got to give up the fight. Pick up the word of God. The flesh has to be put in the place of death. Make no provisions for the flesh.
And be occupied with Christ. You think as such a warm as I that God would give his only begotten Son?
For me and to bring me into that relationship when there's nothing good. And He gives us His spirit, the new nature that desires to be occupied with that, and we could be meditating on those things. And the Lord says He gives us something to do because I don't have the placing of the devil.
He gives us something to do, and He tells us forever more, Rejoice without ceasing. How can we do that when we're occupied with the flesh?
Trying to make it better. We can never improve upon it. And maybe, uh, a month later you check and see, oh, I'm doing pretty good. No, that did man.
Things just as bad as ever, and there's two things you're going to learn in your life is the richness that's in my own heart.
And the goodness that's in the heart of God.
So I'll read James chapter 2 and verse 20 to 24.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Was not Abraham our father, justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was made?
Faith was made perfect, and the Scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
So if my works.
Are not good.
Does that mean I'm not saved?
Maybe I struggle.
I try to do the good works like in Romans 7.
I try to do the good works but I do the bad. I try not to do the bad works but I do the good.
But I believe that if you are.
Trapped in an addiction?
It's going to be very difficult.
00:50:01
To pray, it's going to be very difficult to recognize the goodness of God.
We need to get out of that addiction, but how?
If I.
Maintain sin in my heart. The Lord will not hear me.
And we had much about spiritual warfare this week.
And we have the shield of faith.
To turn away the darts of the wicked.
The darts of the devil, Satan and Satan cast many doubts in our minds. I believe that's what the darts are. He's putting doubts in your mind to make you think you're not saved, to take away any power that you will have through Christ. He wants to put doubts in your mind, and as long as you have those doubts in your mind, you're not going to feel like you are saved. You're not going to feel like you have any power.
But uh.
We need to have that shield of faith and we need to be strengthened, but we need to remove what's hindering us and replace it with something else. The time you spend in your sin, if you replace that with time.
In something profitable, something that honors God.
It will be helpful, but you need to replace that with with something that honors God.
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 12.
Sebastian, I think.
Spoke very.
Well, about this struggle and I think if we're honest with ourselves.
I think quite a few of us have struggled with overcoming sin is something that seems to perpetually.
Stumble or choke out wrote in Matthew 12. The Lord is speaking about trying to reform yourself.
Verse 43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, you walk it through dry places seeking rest, and find it none.
Then he said that I will return into my house from Wednesday came out when he has come he find if it's empty.
Swept and garnished.
Then go with thee, and take it with himself. Seven other spirits more wicked than himself and the inner end dwell there, and the last state of that man shall be worse than the 1St.
Well.
To try in your own.
Strength, your own intellect, your own self-control, your own thinking to overcome.
Uh, an eventual sin.
You will not be successful.
When?
Something is moved, the nature, of course, a vacuum. And when this, in this example here in Matthew, the, uh, evil spirit is driven out. There's a vacuum that hasn't been replaced with something else and it came back stronger.
That you need to fill up that space in your heart, in your mind, in your life.
With, as Tim was saying.
Umm the things of the Lord with umm.
Thoughts of Christ, communion with the Lord. If you just try to, I'll just give you a pro. I'll just tell you.
When I was a teenager, I had something I struggled with mightily.
And it was a terrible.
Umm.
Drain on my growth and I knew it was wrong and I just felt stuck back young people. I got to the .1 Time where I wrote out a pledge and put it in my wallet that I was never going to allow that to happen again and guess what happened?
00:55:04
It happened again and again and again and.
I wasn't able to get victory over that until I was got to the place where I think it's in Philippians 3. I had. I tried to have confidence in the flash. So Sebastian has rightly said the flush is rotten to the core.
Have no confidence in the flesh.
Uh, Philippians 3.
Verse 3.
At the end of the verse.
I'll read verse two as well. Beware of dogs, Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision which I believe means putting on the flesh.
For we are the circumcision which worship God and the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have.
Uh, skeptical confidence of the flesh because there's a little bit of good, but mostly bad. Is that what it says? Have no confidence? None. There's absolutely nothing.
Good. That's going to come out of the plus zero.
And I would just tell you practically I think it's Romans 13 says make no provision for the flesh and so.
Yes, I was going to speak for my own experience, but as a kid I had a paper route and on the way home from the paper route I would stop at this convenience store.
And umm, they had pinball machines in there and there was a picture on one of those pinball machines that got into my mind and it was taking me.
Down a road of impurity and I would stop at that store every day on the way home from my paper out.
And I was making provision for the flesh.
Don't do that.
Recognize it's that don't make provision for the plus. So I don't know what you're addicted to, but I I really sincerely empathize with your question because I was there.
Don't make any provision for the flesh. It's dead. It's rotten. Uh, earlier in the week we were talking about lessons from the farm. One of the things we didn't talk about was leads. You know, the word spoke about the parable of the sower and umm, the seed went in, fell on the ground, it started to come up, and then the weeds were choking out the growth.
And if you wanted to go to, uh, cornfield that's quite nearby here and see what organic corn looks like, it's got weeds that are over my head.
The production is really bad and it's a good example of allowing those weeds to choke things out. So what's the point? You got to get to the root.
Is sit there with a pair of scissors and snip that off every time it came up and you'd be sitting there for the rest of your life sniffing off the symptoms. But you never got to the root and pulled out the root and you continue to struggle because you think, oh, there's a little bit of good in this. I can overcome it myself, no.
When that thing is dealt with, fill up that vacuum, that space with Christ, communion with the Lord. Umm, I don't want to do all the talking and we're past time here. Read Ephesians 4 about putting on a new man, putting off the old man. Uh, if you think that, that you can get along together and you can somehow regulate it.
You're going to be terribly frustrated in your Christian life. There can be victory over this.
And I want to encourage you in that don't when you're self focused and it's you're thinking about, oh man, it happened again. You, you get, you begin to cycle down and depression comes in. You're filled with thoughts of yourself and how you blew it and you can't get it right. Walk in the spirit, fill up that empty place.
01:00:00
With.
Uh, Christ.
And you will be able to get victory over this, but if you're going to continue to strive and fight, Sebastian said. You know, fighting with the chimney sweep, it is going to get covered in dirt.
Can we just get a quick explanation of what these verses in James?
Mean we explained the verses in Hebrews.
Uh, but I don't think we really covered exactly what these verses in James mean. I think it might help the person who was asking the question.
Faith expresses itself with works and so when other people are looking on, they can't see the see the faith in the heart very much. I've enjoyed and been helped by an analogy from another brother who UMM was talking about somebody who had a fireplace in their house and a chimney out the roof.
They had a fire burning in that fireplace. Umm, maybe it was just smoldering a little bit. Somebody was outside and they're looking toward the house. They might not see any smoke coming out the chimney. They wouldn't know there was a fire inside. There might be, it might be. It might be just smoldering there in the fireplace, but no one outside could see it.
And if it was a nice blazing fire in the fireplace, though, there would be smoke coming out the chimney, so somebody outside would look and say, oh, there's a fire inside.
Their ability to see that fire depended on the smoke that came out. And that's really a lot of what the book of James is about. That's why Martin Luther, who's so totally laid hold of the book of Romans, wasn't even sure James was in the Bible because it seemed like it was a it wasn't wasn't an inspired book, I should say, because he just couldn't get around.
This different perspective, perspective of the book, because somebody outside looking towards the one who has faith. And so in these verses it plays out this way. Wilt thou know vain man, that faith without works is dead? There's the principle. He's saying from the outside perspective, if there aren't works, well then there's not faith working on the inside. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
That is, Isaac's offering on the altar by Abraham was a full proof any that we're looking on that there was faith in Abraham's heart, umm, God. That faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It's a work of God even there not to get us looking inward on ourselves as we've been enjoying for the last little while.
See as thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect, that is, made mature.
Made something that, uh, could be seen to be growing in the soil as true, true work. Not false work coming from profession or from the flesh trying to make a show for man, uh, but a true work for God that's done in faith for God is evidence of a mature soul who's really laying hold of the power that's in God to do those works.
Scripture is fulfilled, saith Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.
As the faith was imputed for righteousness, uh, and he was called the friend of God, So he had the, the, that outward sense or more than the outward sense. There was a practical fellowship between Abraham and God based on his life of faith. You see then how that by works, a man is justified and not by faith only. So it's not talking about.
01:05:06
Works to be justified before a holy God due to umm being freed from sin. That's the work of Christ on the cross and his blood, but he's justified by works in the sense of.
Umm, man looking on will say there's somebody that's different. What makes him different? As they draw clothes, they'll find this work of Christ and the soul.
If I.
If I don't have the works.
Does that mean I'm not saved? Is that what this is saying?
Because if I'm struggling with the with the works of the flesh.
And I can't do the works of the Spirit.
I'm not displaying the fruit of the Spirit because I'm involved in the works of the flesh. Does that mean I don't have salvation?
So salvation is the gift of God was never based upon our performance.
And umm, we accept it by faith.
Now, when we're not in communion with Christ.
We're going to be as weak as any other man. Not as weak as the weakest Christian, but as weak as any other man. We can fall into this, uh, addictions of the world.
But there is a way for strength and, uh, we have to be.
Keep close uh track and uh in first John.
Let's see first John 19. It says if we confess our sins, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Here we can see that He is faithful.
It it's not us, we were unfaithful, but he is faithful and he has made a way for us to come back into this.
Communion. We can be back in communion and if we're not, there is absolutely no strength. There's no substitute for communion.
But through Christ, we can do all things we can overcome.
Good. Umm, we need to cherish it, We need to value. You know, I work in umm, I do services and I go into people's homes and it could be defiled very easily.
You walk into a room you don't know and then there it is on the walls, you know, pictures and.
I realize I need to judge it communion with Christ somebody. I think it was Lord and I don't know which one it was umm and said that we need to cherish it is like a there was a flower up in the mountains.
And if you just speak to it or whether very sensitive when we need to realize we're we're used to sin, we don't think much of it, but God is holy and the relationship is not broken.
But the communion is broken and we need to, umm, confess it and come back into it.
I guess our our time is up. Thank you for your questions and trust that some of them are answered.