Open—Phil Jennings
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Then together #139 #139.
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So.
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We ask the Lord's help.
Had a portion on my heart for some time.
I didn't really expect.
Or to come out here, the exercise that's been on my heart until the last meeting when a verse was read to and referred to. It wasn't referred to in the context that I feel the Lord has laid it on my heart, but it's not an easy subject to speak about.
But it's been a subject that's been on my heart for a long time, and it's really a deep desire in my heart that the Spirit of God would be able to open it up to us. I say open it up to us because I want Him to give clarity to my own soul and that which I'm not clear about. It's a difficult subject because it has to do with conscience.
And as you know.
Our consciences vary.
And so.
One of the.
Umm fears that I have in getting up and speaking on this subject is that there might be a fence.
And that is something that I want to lay to rest in your soul. I have no motives in speaking on this subject. I have no desire to change someone's course or someone's personal faith in their walk with the Lord. But what I have on my heart is a general subject.
And I'm going to use a verse that we had brought before us in the last meeting as a springboard.
So let's go to Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5 and verse seven. I do wanna make it clear that I haven't gotten up here on a whim. This is a subject that's been on my heart and I've been meditating on it. And it's my desire that if there's some area in which I'm not clear, even maybe the Spirit of God today as we bring these thoughts out and make it clear to my soul.
Verse seven again, you did run well.
Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? Let's go back and get a little bit of.
Uh, background into the subject that the Apostle Paul was addressing to the assembly at Galatia chapter Galatians chapter 3.
Verse 2.
This only would I learn of you. So he's asking them a question. He wants them.
To address this question in their own soul.
He says, Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith.
And so the question that Paul is addressing or the exhortation that he is giving them, he's saying you started out well because you started out on the principle of faith.
But someone hindered you.
Someone hindered you. The emphasis of the exercise of the brother that spoke in the last meeting wasn't the person that hindered these people, it was what was hindering them. And he used it in a general context. But I'm using this scripture in the exercise of my heart is more directly interpreted from the text.
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And that is who did hinder you.
Well, there was, you might say there was an enemy in their midst. I used that term not to address a person.
But I use that term to address a danger. There was danger in their midst. What was the danger that Paul recognized right away as he came into contact with what the Galatians were under the influence of? The apostle Paul knew the gospel because it had been committed to him.
And he knew.
That the basis for the blessing of God's people was founded upon the principle of grace and faith in the work of another.
He also knew that there had been at the cross, there had been death and there had been resurrection.
There had been.
Adam seeing his end at the cross of Christ, and there had been resurrection and newness of life.
And that life was the life of Christ.
And so.
The warning bells were sounding.
In Paul's conscience, in his heart, that the old principles.
Of trying to find righteousness in the first man. And I use that word. I use that word rather probably unscripturally. We we had, we had a more clear explanation of, of the the mention in First Corinthians 15 of the first man. It's not something I've completely grasped yet. I use that word in a more general way.
I use it in connection.
With fallen atom.
And Paul knew that the law was addressed to fallen Adam.
The law.
Was never brought in contact with the life.
That we have in Christ Jesus newness of life. I've used this. I've said this before and it may not be absolutely 100% correct, but after the test of man and the cross of Christ.
God has ceased.
To look for anything from the first man, that test is completely over.
And that first man has been set aside. But the law.
Addresses that man.
And so the apostle Paul was very, very concerned.
Because this assembly had been come under the influence.
Of L of Judaistic teaching, let's turn to 1St Corinthians chapter 15.
Because I want to emphasize.
No, I'm sorry, it's Second Corinthians chapter 3. I want to emphasize the character that the law has taken on now that God has set it aside.
It's it goes right along with Paul's concern.
That they had begun well.
Thought that they had been hindered.
1St Corinthians 3 and verse.
6.
Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter.
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But of the Spirit.
And I think.
There are those who are better taught than me in this room, and I don't mind to be corrected afterwards, but I think that if we were to link that phrase of that verse and I'll read it again.
But of the Spirit.
And we were to go to verse 17. Now the Lord is that spirit.
Or where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
I believe that God has taken the focus for the believer off of the letter.
Which was addressed to the first man.
And placed it on Christ.
I sometimes try to explain it this way. The law was a standard. Let me let me back up a little bit because I want to make a point regarding what we've already read in this verse.
It says.
The letter killer.
The letter killeth.
So I take that to mean that the application of the law in the believer's life.
Living under its principles will have the result.
Of that.
Why is that?
Because.
In order to take up the principles of law.
We must go back to the one it was addressed to.
That would be man in the flesh, fallen from his first condition.
And so any time we take up that man in the in the, in the realm of spiritual things.
The end result is going to be failure.
No matter how many times we try.
So the letter killer.
The letter? Kill it.
You know, I find is.
I I guess I can be honest with you and tell you that the meditations that are coming out right now have been years in the making.
And I don't need to go into my history.
But I can say in my life, as I look back, I can see quite a strong influence of the law.
From a very actually from a very young age.
The apostle Paul said first Romans seven was written to them that know the law.
And there's some possibly here and you don't probably don't know a whole lot of what I'm talking about. You don't know the effect of the law because you weren't brought up under its under its rule.
And so you don't know the struggle.
Umm, the believer trying to live under the principles set up for Adam in the flesh. But if you have had the influence of law, which I believe, if we're all honest, the children of Israel said, all that thou sayest unto us we will do. And they said with one voice.
They said it was one voice, so our tendency is to.
Almost invite the law until we understand what God has done with it.
And he's said you're dead to it. That's that's what he's done with the law is as a principle for production of righteousness in the believers life.
But I'm going to make a point here because.
As I have come into the realization of the what the effect of the law can have in the believer's life, and I have come into the realization of the answer to deliverance from this principle, which is can be so extremely binding, can be so extremely so hard to get out from the influence of.
As these truths have have permeated my heart and and I've come to realize there's liberty and Christianity and I can't tell you how much my soul is coming to that.
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But as I've sought to share the truth of deliverance from law, I found a resistance.
And I find that it's difficult for us to talk about the law and its effect on the believers life.
I find that when I speak of the law, there's a tendency.
For me to feel like people think that I'm attacking them, I'm not.
The cross of crisis has already taken place. The answer for deliverance from the law has already happened.
And by the grace of God, whatever light He's given is my desire to share.
I have found.
That we're slow in understanding.
What the law really applies to.
We're we're slow to understand.
How much my life might be affected by the law.
But this verse tells us that the letter kills.
The letter kills.
If I had a bottle of.
Pills in my hand.
And they were poison.
What I want to know that bottle was labeled correctly.
What I want to be able to recognize those pills outside of the bottle.
Would I be careful?
About anything.
That had the similarity to those pills that maybe I wasn't quite sure.
Are those those deadly pills or not? Is that that right? There is. If I take it, is it gonna work? Death.
And so.
I asked myself the question, do I clearly want to understand?
What law is?
Do I clearly want to be able to recognize what law is? You know what?
What I've just noticed.
As I've observed and as I've looked back in my own life when there was definitely an in a legal influence in my life.
And I've looked and I've observed there was those that fell away.
As I tried to help them, I tried to mold their consciences as to what was pleasing to the Lord or not. I used I used standards.
That I could only just connect with what I thought was Christianity.
But the result, I can say there was a time in my life when I tried the hardest and I did the most damage. I tried the hardest and I did the most damage.
And I wonder sometimes if those standards.
That we're very clear, clearly set. I felt certain that not only were they standards for me.
But they were also standards for others.
You know, the thing about standards is they don't change.
Standards don't change.
And so they're pretty good bet.
The Christian can have standards.
And you know what? That life as a Christian can become a faithless life.
It can become a life without faith.
They can become a life that has really very little contact with the immediate mind of the Lord.
Because of the law.
The laws. The law is a standard.
Standards don't change.
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Let's turn to Romans.
Chapter 14.
As we address the subject of faith in the believers life.
The Apostle Paul was very, very careful.
As he dealt with his children, spiritual children, he was very, very careful. If we were to read on in, in Chapter 5 of Galatians, we would find that we're not to use our liberty for an occasion to the flesh.
And the apostle Paul, he understood Christian liberty. And I UN, I don't know if I'm using that term properly or not. I've been told by some there is no such thing. I just, I've experienced it in my life to some degree and I know what it is to be in ******* and I know what it is to experience a measure of liberty. So I call it Christian liberty.
But the apostle Paul was very careful. He knew that the consciences of those children that he sought the blessing of were all in a different place before God.
And so his liberty.
Was expendable to the point that he sought the blessing of other people's Christian lives. So he never used the liberty that he had found in the cross to destroy anyone.
And I trust that would be my spirit as I speak on this subject, as I speak on the danger of us setting standards.
Which if they become faithless?
They will.
Become that which kills.
I'm gonna stop here for a minute and if there's someone that has a thought that.
I'm condemning.
The convictions that one receives if they go to the Lord and they ask questions of the Lord about certain CER certain situations in their life and how they should conduct themselves.
That is not something I'm condemning.
Because that's what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us to go to His word and He wants us. He wants us to ask him, Lord, how does what? What light does your word shine upon this certain thing that I'm seeking to address because I want to reflect the glory of Christ.
And so as I speak about standards.
I suggest the thought that there might be convictions in our lives that may appear as standards to others.
And.
Because they're held in faith and in communion and fellowship with the Lord. You go right ahead. Glorify Him by doing His will.
But there's instruction here. I believe in Romans.
Chapter 14.
This whole.
This whole chapter has to do with conscience.
And conscience towards God.
And it says in verse 22, ask thou faith.
Have it to thyself before God.
Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that which he alloweth.
Hasta faith.
Have it to thyself before God. You know, under the influence of the law. That's one of the most difficult things to do. It's one of the most difficult things for us if we're if, if we're under the influence of the law, to believe that God can reveal his mind to someone else without the intervention of me addressing my conscience to them.
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But safe.
Trust God.
And Faith says I don't need to be a part of the process of molding someone else's conscience.
Regarding matters.
That have to do really with the soul and God.
I don't have to be a part of that process.
We might ask the question are there princip principles in scripture that.
God is set forth in His Word. I believe there are.
Principals.
But we need to be careful.
With that which God has shown us to from principles of Scripture.
And automatically applying them in the circumstances of others because we don't know where that soul is in their growth with God. If you don't mind, I'm going to share a personal.
Umm.
Illustration of what I'm Speaking of.
As I was younger.
It was pretty well ingrained in me that the Christian.
If they had certain talents and abilities that might lead them, such as into sports.
Into the field of the arts, Music.
That.
It was pretty clear that that was a definite no.
Definite no.
As I look back.
On my own experience.
I see death.
As I applied that in the lives of others.
Alright, if you don't mind, I'll I'll give AI hope that I'm not getting too close to.
Two things that you may know, because it's not my desire to out anybody, but I feel that we need to clearly understand the principles of law.
Well, there was a young family that came into our assembly and I was, I was young, I was young in the Lord and I was zealous. I was reading a lot of ministry and I had read things and I was, I was ready to help others to address some of the things that would make their life closer to the Lord.
And so there was a young family that came into the assembly and the husband had been looking for the ground of gathering and he loved he'd, he'd been actually been in Bible school.
And he had asked the Lord, Lord, is there? Is there a path?
Really. According to Scripture? Well, the Lord LED them, came into our assembly and our fellowship and, umm.
They were young Christians. He had been saved for four or five years. His wife had been had been saved for about that long. And umm.
As.
We sought to be a help to them. I began to apply principles. I began to apply what I thought were principles that I had received from the word and.
And.
Umm, we, we kind of all did. And you know, we, we're, we're, we're, we, we, we speak of losing the, the grave flows and letting people go free. And so that was certainly my desire, but the end result of trying to correct something that really needed a lot of time.
It needed a lot of growth.
It needed a lot of just patience to let the truth of God.
That needed a lot of faith on the part of the individuals that.
One of them had been through university in the School of Medi in the School of Music.
And.
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Had extreme talents and was helping to provide with those.
But in in my zeal, I wanted to encourage them.
Uh, that really wasn't.
What, what the Christians should be involved with? Well, it was a hard thing. In fact, it was so hard that the end result was very, very sad. I won't go into it. I don't want, I don't want to out the store much anymore.
The unreal result was really, really sad. In fact, I guess you could say that that was one of the most difficult lessons that I learned, that the letter kills.
The letter kills.
It was a very difficult lesson to learn.
The result of that death, spiritually you might say, was there was a young family and the children ended up living part time with their mom, part time with their dad. Now, I'm not gonna say that the influence of the law in my life was the sole reason for all of this happening. In no way am I in intimating. All I have to do is examine myself.
And what influence did I have?
That caused.
Yeah.
I was zealous.
But I didn't recognize.
I hadn't labeled the law for what it really was.
And the result.
Was very, very sad.
The grace of God has come in in a lot of ways.
But it's those kinds of hurts.
That really caused people to run from the law. Have you ever been in a meeting where you felt like there was a desire of the the brother to that was speaking to to bring blessing, but the influence?
Was instead of setting price before the soul, it was to set a standard. You know when you've seen the horrible influence of law.
That scares you.
It scared the Apostle Paul and so much that he wrote a whole letter.
6.
Six chapter letter and he said don't mess with the law.
Because the result.
His death.
Well, I think maybe the Lord is exhausted pretty much what I had on my heart. But I I say these things, brethren, because.
I'm not sure that we really.
Have a very keen sense of being able to identify.
That which kills.
I've come to the point in my mind because of the influence of law that has been in my past. I've come to the point in my mind where I have basically decided if it looks like law.
I'm not gonna apply it.
Because the law will work. Death.
And.
We have so much in life.