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Dr. Myron Golden
John chapter number 10, John chapter number 10. I am going to springboard from this passage to Romans and Galatians, and then I'll be done, kind of. John chapter 10 in verse 10, and it says, the thief cometh, I'm sorry, the thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
Destroyed, I am come, that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Did y 'all hear what that said? The thief cometh not, but for to steal, to steal, to kill, and to destroy. That means if the thief can't kill something, steal something, or destroy something, he ain't coming.
Okay, y 'all with me? So what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at that analogy, and I wanna talk to you about this subject today. Choose life, choose life. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the power and the truth of it.
In Jesus' name, amen. Ultimately, the enemy has an objective for us. Ourselves on a daily basis, unfortunately, we don't think of ourselves being at war. I mean like war in the Middle East, like war in Iraq, like war in Afghanistan, like war with somebody, an enemy who really, literally, not figuratively, but literally wants to kill us.
We don't think of that. And the interesting thing about this enemy is he has a unique ability that other enemies don't have, and that is he has the unique ability to solicit us to assist him in his objective.
Isn't that amazing? What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you an illustration, and my whole sermon will be an illustration. So, David, if you can come help me, and you can come help too, you can come help me.
And I want you to see something that's really amazing in Romans chapter, let's start with chapter six. Let's look at verse 14. It says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.
Now, most people don't understand what that means when the Bible says you are not under the law, but under grace. They don't understand what that means. It does not mean we are free as Christians to do anything we want to do.
Brother Otis covered that in Sunday school this morning. Tell me your name here, man. Ryan, let me hold your hand here. This is what I want to do. Hold your hand up just like that, just like that. Now, we're gonna pretend that Ryan's hand is a lost sinner, or Ryan's hand is a lost person.
You're lost. Now, my left hand is the law. My right hand is grace. Y 'all with me? And the reason my right hand is up here and grace is down here is because grace is always higher than the law. Say that with me, grace higher than the law.
Grace is higher than the law. Now, what the law does, the law shows us that we are lost. The law says, you are a sinner. And if the sinner says, I know I'm a sinner. And the law says, but you better get right.
And the sinner says, I can't get right. But if you don't get right, you're gonna pay. I can't help you. That's right, you can't help me. But guess what? When we receive Jesus Christ, grace comes down here and brings us up here.
And then we have this thing that Philippians chapter two calls, it is God that works in you both to will, that's the desire, and to do, that's the dynamic. Both to will, that's the passion, and to do, that's the power of his good pleasure.
So God gives us the passion and the power to please him after we are saved. Whereas when we are lost, we don't have either one. When I was lost, I didn't want to do right. What did you say about all this this morning?
We go in every direction that is away from God. That's what I did. That's what you did. When I was down there, I knew I was wrong. I knew I was going the wrong way. I just couldn't do anything about it.
But you know what? When I received Jesus, grace came down here and got me, and gave me the desire and the power to do something I didn't have the desire and the power to do when I was down there. Isn't that exciting?
So now, I've got a new dynamic and a new desire. Okay, put your hands down. Now, let's go over, and we're gonna progress here. Look at Romans chapter eight. Why did grace come get me? Why did God save me?
Look what it says here. Let's start with verse number two. It says, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. And I'm not gonna go into this, but I will describe it to you.
Romans chapter seven talks about three different laws. How many different laws? Three. There are three different laws mentioned in Romans chapter seven. First law mentioned in Romans chapter seven is the law of the scriptures, which is from my master.
This law, the word of God, is the first law mentioned in Romans chapter seven. The second law that's mentioned is the law of sin that is in my members. First law, law of the scriptures, from my master.
Second law, law of the law of sin, which is in my members, my hand, my feet. My hand wanted to knock somebody out. My feet wanted to go away from God. My mouth naturally wanted to say things it shouldn't say.
The law of sin was in my members. Y 'all understand? Y 'all with me? Now, and then the fourth law is the law of the spirit, which is in my mind. Those are the three laws that are covered in Romans chapter seven.
Now, notice what it says here in Romans chapter eight, verse number two. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Man, I wish I had time to go into that, but I'm not gonna.
Then I'll be chasing rabbits. Okay, here we go. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. The law could not make me do right because it was weak, and the only thing it could try to get to help it was the flesh, and the flesh already didn't want to do right.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Why? Verse number, amen. Verse number four tells us that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, but walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
So the reason Jesus came and saved us is so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who don't walk after the flesh, but we walk after the spirit. That's where we have the dynamic and the desire to do what God wants us to do.
Now, here's why these people are here. Tell me your name, young man. Mon. Mon? Yep. Okay. Sounds like a Jamaican name, Mon. Yes, Mon. Is that what it is? No? You can tell me. It's not always Mon. It's not?
Mon. Mon. He straightened me out. I won't make that mistake again. Okay, Mon. Now, here's the deal. David is? Death. Death, and his objective is to? Kill. Kill. Death has an ambassador. An ambassador is one who represents another to create good relations with that other.
So you are the ambassador of death and your name is flesh. Mon is flesh, okay? Now, life has an ambassador. Life has an ambassador. Life's ambassador's name is spirit. The ambassador called flesh wants to lead me to death.
The ambassador called spirit wants to lead me to life. Y 'all with me? I'll show you that. It says right here, verse five. For they that are after the flesh.
Do mind the things of the flesh,.
But they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God or is not subject to the law of God, neither need it be.
Now, so what happens on an everyday basis when I wake up in the morning, I have an opportunity to choose to heed the ambassador of death called the flesh. I choose to heed the ambassador of life called the spirit.
So I'll wake up in the morning. Y 'all didn't have to know what that was. Wake up in the morning and the alarm, let's say the alarm clock goes off. And when the alarm clock goes off, the flesh says, hit the snooze button.
Talk to me, flesh. Okay, so flesh says, hit the snooze button.
Spirit says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Go pray.
And you know what? I do need to pray because if I don't pray today, I'm gonna be going in the wrong direction, but I'm so tired I need to ventilate so much I do. I'm like, stop. But the flesh says, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I'm going. Now watch this. Here's what happens. They talk to me. Here's what usually happens. The flesh talks louder than the spirit. Sometimes the flesh will holler at you. That flesh snooze button.
Very good, very good. When the flesh still speaks, that still goes. Watch this. As I, let's say today, because of whatever reason, I wake up in the morning and I don't feel like being a spiritual thing.
It's that spiritual stuff. Walking in that spirit sometimes, you know, chatting with me about it in my bed theater. So I say, I'm gonna listen to the flesh. The flesh starts leading me over here and I hit the snooze button.
Wait a minute. I hit the snooze button and I go back to sleep. I wake up now, I'm awake. And I start looking for my clothes and the flesh says, ask your wife where your clothes are. Ask your wife where your clothes are.
Where are my clothes? She says, I don't know. I don't wear your clothes. Don't get smart with me, woman. I mean, right? Right? That's what the flesh tells me to say. And the flesh says, why is it I can't ever have anything I need when I need it?
Right? And I'm having a bad day because I started recalling this joke and this joke is getting ready to get me in trouble. Right? That's what the flesh said. Now I'm late for work. I finally get my clothes.
I scarf down some food. I'm on my way to work and somebody pulls out in front of me and slows down. And the flesh says, honk your horn. Honk your horn. Me, me, me, me, right? And then I go to work and the flesh says, the boss says, you're late again, Golden?
And I said, who does he think, the flesh tells me to ask him who he thinks he's talking to. Who are you talking to? Who do you think you're talking to? I just work here, brother. This ain't the only job in town.
Right? Okay. And watch this. I'm listening to my flesh. I'm getting farther. Watch this. The farther I walk after the flesh, the farther I get away. See, with young folks, it doesn't exactly work like that.
Young folks, it's a, mom says, son, did you clean your room? Flesh says, no, no, no, you tell me to tell her. Oh no, why are you always on my back, man? Clean my room. My friends don't have to clean their room.
Right? No, you're flesh. You ain't supposed to be telling me to do right things. You're supposed to tell me to do the wrong things. This guy is not a good flesh, unless you're an architect. Okay. But that's good.
You're a good guy. You're not a good flesh. Okay. But that's okay. You're working on it. He doesn't even know how to be a flesh, man. You're in a church, isn't he? Young folks don't have a good flesh.
Okay. Now, so, and then, and then your brother has it on your shirt. So the flesh tells me that he didn't. I mean, he better take off my shirt. And take it off. Yeah, beat him up and take it from him.
Well, you know what? Hey, guess what, folks? As we walk after the flesh, and it doesn't matter if the flesh will tell us to get drunk, it doesn't matter if the flesh will tell us to do drugs, it doesn't matter if the flesh will tell us to commit adultery.
Guess what? All that stuff is over here. Adultery and fornication and lasciviousness and idolatry and witchcraft and hatred and barrens, emulation, and all the rest of it. And if I get over here close enough to death, but you know, jujitsu, right?
Hey! Put something on me that I can't get out of it. Yeah, put something on me that I can't get out of it. No, you ain't gonna hurt me. You can't hurt me, brother. Just hold me. No, don't put me down there.
Don't put me down there. Okay, you gonna put me, now watch this. What happens is folks get over here too close and death gets a grip on them. And sometimes it's the death, sometimes it's the death grip of cocaine.
Sometimes it's the death grip of adultery. Sometimes it's the death grip of fornication. And they start struggling and they can't get loose. You know why? Because they listen to the ambassador of death.
And the ambassador of death wants a man to think that some woman cares more about him than her husband. Or someone wants a man to think that some other woman cares more about him than his wife. Yeah, this is a crazy mix of the world we live in.
And we get over here and we don't wanna listen to our parents as young people. And we, man, you ain't doing a very good job, bro. Okay, and we wrestle, but death has a grip on us and we can't get loose.
You know what? Okay, you know what? That is literally what happens. We got one over here called death that wants to kill us. But death doesn't send somebody with swords and knives and guns to come be our ambassador.
Send somebody nice and easy and smiling, has great big promises and looks like they can deliver and they get us going in the wrong direction. Watch this. When I wake up in the morning and the spirit tells me to go pray, I go pray.
And then the spirit tells me to read my Bible. No, tell me to read my Bible. Okay, I read my Bible. So I read my Bible and now I've got the joy of the Lord because I'm in the presence of the Lord and I've got a song in my heart.
And now I wake up, since I woke up early, I can't find my clothes. Tell me to ask the Lord before I go to bed. Honey, have you seen my outfit for today? And she says, well, no, I haven't seen it. That's okay, darling, I'll find something, right?
Because I'm walking in the spirit. That's the difference, right? But we know that the reason we're laughing when we go to the doggy lobby, the guy's got money, but we know what I'm talking about. So I go a little bit farther and now I'm not late for work, that person pulls out in front of me and instead of me, I wave at him, I say, have a nice day, you know, I'm just singing and enjoying the Lord.
And I get to the work and I say, boss, I am so excited to be here today. I'm so glad to be able to work for you. Or from a young person, I get up in the morning, I pray, I read my Bible, I say to my parents, dad, is there anything else you want me to do?
And after he gets over, it's hard to pass, right? Then we both seek to please our parents and it's an amazing life walking in the spirit because when we get over, keep believing in the spirit, the farther I walk after the spirit, the farther I get away from the flesh.
You know what I notice about folks who walk in sin that the longer they walk in sin, the easier it is for them to walk in sin. But the longer you walk in the spirit and the farther you walk in the spirit, the harder it is, you know what I found out?
Found out that it's hard to be tempted to get something to drink. If you're at your house, you don't have anything to drink then. It's hard to be tempted to do drugs if you're not around folks who do drugs.
There's nobody tempted to get farther and farther away from that lifestyle as you're walking in the spirit. Okay, appreciate that. Gentlemen, all y 'all can have a seat. Now watch this. This is the last thing I want to show you.
Y 'all can have a seat and then I'll be done. Turn to Galatians chapter five. A challenge in Christianity is, now I really wish it would have been wonderful if I had had somebody teach that to me when I first got saved.
But I was saved for more than 20 years before I realized what I just shared with you. More than 20 years of my life had gone by and here's what happened. With the first 20 some odd years of my Christianity, I just had a bunch of folks saying to me, well, don't the don'ts and do the do's and you will be a good Christian.
Oh, don't the don'ts and do the do's? You know what I found out? I started reading the Bible. I found out, man, there's a bunch of don'ts in there. Watch this, Galatians chapter five. In verse number 19.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, emulations, wrath, strife, I forgot variants, seditions, heresies, endings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.
Now did y 'all see that? He named 17 things. 17 things he named that you should not do. And then he said, and such like. So he said, don't do these 17 things or anything like it, because these are the manifestations of the works of the flesh.
Now how in the world am I supposed to remember 17 things? Let alone remember them long enough not to do them. Well, you know what? I don't not do the 17 things by trying not to do the 17 things. Well, then how do you do it?
Look at verse 16. This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Ain't God awesome? God said if you, what? Now if you can count that high, if you can do one thing, this one thing that you do will stop you from doing those other 17 things and such like.
So we don't have to focus on not committing adultery and not committing variance and emulation of strife and wrath and seditions and heresies. And we don't have to focus on those things. We need to focus on one thing, walk in the spirit.
How do you walk in the spirit? By that awareness, by listening for and then listening to the spirit of God, at least to your body's work. You know what I found out? I knew that. Nobody ever has to tell me when I'm wrong.
I already know. Nobody has to tell me when I'm wrong. Nobody has to, well, Myron, you have bitterness. No, no, no, no, nobody has to tell me that, I already know. Nobody has to tell me, you know, Myron, that was mean.
Nobody has to tell me that, I already know. God has put his spirit inside of me to talk to me when I do something wrong and to make it right and to tell me to do what's right in every given circumstance.
I always have the opportunity to choose life. How do I do it? By walking in the spirit, because to be spiritually minded is life and peace, but to be carnally minded is death. You know what that means?
That means when we focus on the carnal things, we're automatically walking towards death. Even when people who think, you know, I used to wonder, why do all these people, all these preachers who preach against all the sin, how do they end up doing the very sins they preach against?
Because that's where their focus is. Jesus wants our focus to be on walking in the spirit, and the Bible says we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Praise the Lord. Choose life, because the thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
But Jesus said, I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly. That's what God wants for each and every one of us, that abundant, spirit-filled life. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the power and the truth of it. Minister your words to our hearts, I pray, and help us to do that one thing, so we don't have to focus on those 17 other things and such like, in Jesus' name, amen.
Brother David. Brother David. Brother David. Good job, David. Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job. Good job.