Tape 2 - The Two-Fold Message of the Cross

Good. Now together. Good evening. Well, isn't that nice?

Help the young Jew feel at home. It's always a delight to be with Christian people.

You know, when you live in spiritual darkness, one really doesn't understand what Christian fellowship really is all about.

They just don't. And the interesting thing is that you cannot explain it to them. There is no way that you can explain to a lost person what you sense in your life as you walk with God.

They just cannot understand you. And try as you may. So I would suggest it would be far wiser if we talked to them about Jesus Christ and their relationship to Him rather than telling them all the time, all the time, all the time what

He's doing in our life. Now that's alright. But we need to get them away from ourselves and looking at Jesus because He's the only one that's going to solve their problem.

And I challenge you to do that. I was excited this morning when we had our morning session.

It was a little longer than we normally go. But I mean the great number of people who came. It was just a joy to see.

I thought maybe we'd have 10, 15 people at the most. Because, you know, who wants to come early in the morning, you know, and study the

Bible around a Jew? You know, but it just amazed me.

So let me ask you to do something. If you can be with us in the morning, come. Now we're going to do different studies. One morning, the pastor's wife was saying that you've been studying in your

Sunday school about Solomon. So one morning we'll just study how Solomon is a picture of the millennial reign of Christ.

Solomon is a picture, his whole life and reign is a picture of the reign of Christ upon the earth.

So we'll do that one morning. And then we'll talk about understanding numerics in the Bible. How do you understand all these numbers?

What does the number 490 and 153 and what do these numbers mean, if anything? And how do we work that in?

And so we'll look at that. And then one morning I think, if at all possible, that we're going to look at, you know everybody looks at the stars.

Today we know there's a falsity and it's called astrology. That is occult.

And Christians are forbidden to even read one of those things in the newspaper. We are not even, well

I don't really believe it, I just read it. That is an abomination to God. We are not even supposed to read it.

It may be a game to you, but it's serious with Satan. It's not a game with him. And it's a foothold, it's a toehold for him.

But there is a true valid science, isn't there, called astronomy. People study the stars. Well the track of the sun is 16 degrees wide and it's broken into 12 segments.

And those segments are called constellations. And it's quite interesting that whenever you go to the major stars of each of those constellations, you'll find that the meaning of that star reflects

Jesus Christ and speaks specifically about something in his life and his person and his work.

And so one morning, we'll put that on the overhead for you and we'll study that together. And it's biblical, it's scriptural, and we'll see what the scripture has to say concerning that.

Now if you have your Bible with you tonight, I want you to turn to Colossians 1 while I make a minor lighthearted correction.

All my corrections are lighthearted. You'll notice my brother, we had lunch together today, so he'll not mind me saying this.

My brother announced we're going to take an offering. Now, I don't know how you Gentiles take an offering, but whenever you take one for the

Jew, please don't say we're going to take a little offering. No, no, no, no.

If you want to take that for your church and you want to say we're going to take a little offering, then you live it up. But when you're going to take one for the

Jew, no, if you're going to use a qualifier, use it up. We're going to take a big offering. We're going to take a good offering.

Well, sure, it's all right to say that, isn't it? Well, yeah, we think it is, might as well say it.

I mean, sure, Paul talked about money all the time. Isn't it interesting? Talk about anything. I mean, people just get happy in the

Lord. We can talk about singing. We can talk about pizza parties. But boy, you start talking about money in the church, it just gets deathly silent.

You know what I have discovered? I've discovered that no matter what you say, no matter what you do, you cannot make a man give.

You cannot make him give. They say, I don't think you ought to manipulate people. You can't manipulate his billfold. You manipulate him in a lot of ways, but you will not ever manipulate his billfold.

He'll guard that with his life. That is the last thing God ever gets from a Christian, is their finances and to govern them.

You understand? Well, maybe you don't know what I'm talking about, but I have problems in that area, so if you'll pray for me, I'll get a little better at it.

And you probably got victory in that area, and so it doesn't even bother you. You just give all the time and all of that.

Are you happy today in the Lord? Are you glad? Anybody get lost last night? I mean, you're still saved today?

Good, I'm glad. Jesus didn't come today. He didn't come today, but perhaps

He shall come tonight. Perhaps He'll come. There's one thing for sure, He's coming. He's coming.

How do I know He's coming? One is because He said He would. That's true. But you can tell what God's going to do in the future by what

God's done in the past. And He's never broken a promise one time. Everything God has ever said has come exactly true.

And we're right on schedule. Seems like He's a little late, but we're right on schedule. It doesn't surprise God, you hear?

It doesn't surprise God that the Middle East is having problems. You think it shocks God, that Russia, unless God knows all that, nothing surprises

Him, nothing catches Him by surprise, nor shocks Him. God's got it all worked out, and we're right in His time schedule.

Right in His time schedule, and He has a reason for us being here tonight. What we want to do is put another block on that foundation.

And I want to talk to you tonight about the two -fold message of the cross. And in the Church of Jesus Christ, we have only emphasized one part of the two -fold message of the cross.

And because of that, Christians are not able to be as effective as God wants them to be, because they've missed the second part of the message of the cross.

In Colossians chapter 1, it is a familiar passage of Scripture. Now you do know that on Friday evening, we take a test.

You laugh. Ha, ha, ha, ha. We take a test in all of my conferences on Friday.

So I suggest you get the Scripture. You better get a pencil and paper and mark it down, because we lock the doors.

I have the men stand at the doors. I get the largest men I can find. And we take a test.

The test isn't very long. It'll take you about 15 minutes to go through it. And then I will take the test, and I will grade it very carefully.

I'm the only one that can grade it. And if you fail that test, then you have to pay $5 to me before you can be released from the church building.

And the test is in Hebrew. Ha, ha, ha. And Greek. It's in anything that you can read.

Ha, ha, ha. Oh, well. Colossians 1, verse 20. Beautiful, beautiful passage of Scripture.

Just relax. Take a deep breath. Just lean back on the pew and settle down. And God will bless us together as we look into his word.

This is the writing, of course, of the apostle Paul. Paul is writing to the Colossian Christians for a reason, a particular reason.

You see, Paul, it was written while he was in Rome, and Paul was in prison.

And Colossae was about 100 miles east of Ephesus, the people he wrote the Ephesian letters to.

And so Paul writes this letter to refute a teaching called

Gnosticism. And Gnosticism was basically this. You have information that's right, but we got some more information that you don't have.

And so you need to have this information. And Paul says, no, and the

Greek word gnosis means knowledge. Knowledge. You got knowledge there, and it's okay what you got, but we got a little added knowledge for you.

And Paul writes these people, and he said that is not true. It is not true.

And he says in 119, For it pleased the Father that in him should dwell, or should all fullness dwell.

He goes right back in chapter 2, verse 9, and nails it again. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the

Godhead bodily. And Paul writes Colossians to tell these people, listen, anybody telling you that you don't have the knowledge, and you don't have all the knowledge you need is wrong.

He says you don't have gnosis, that's knowledge, you have, and Paul uses the word, epinosis.

You have full knowledge in Jesus Christ. He says when Jesus Christ is in your life, you have the truth.

You have all you need. Now I say that to say this, there are those today who want me to believe, well, yes, you have

God's revelation, and you have God's word, but we got an added word from God. God doesn't give you an added word from God.

Whatever added word He gives you is based upon this book. It's based upon this book.

He may give you discernment, and He may give you wisdom, but God does not give extra outside the

Bible revelation today. He just doesn't do it. And yet one of the leading figures in this country stood in Orlando, Florida, and said

God is giving revelation outside the Bible. Dear people, if that is true, then that is totally subjective, and the word of God is not complete, and your idea is just as good as my idea, and we can supersede, transcend, and everything else that the

Bible says, and nothing of it will ever hold to be objectively true because it just depends upon what you and I claim to be the word of God.

God's word comes from the book, and the living word reveals that in our hearts.

And God is going to give you understanding. God will give you discernment. God will give you wisdom, and God will help you understand it, but God does not communicate to people in visions and dreams any longer, my dear people.

God in times past and in sundry manners spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, and God has written down His revealed will for your life and mine.

It's just in the book. It's just in the book. Let me ask you a question. If you had a dream, how would you know it was from God?

You assume it is. How would you know that it is? How would you know a miracle is from God? You assume it is.

You ever read the book of Job? It says the lightning fell, killed the people. They called it the fire of God.

They didn't know. They said it was the fire of God, but it wasn't the fire of God. The Bible plainly says

Satan did it. You cannot know. There is no way you can know. May I ask you a question? Do you believe that your dear godly pastor was standing here proclaiming

God's word? And this leads me to the message because we need to emphasize the word of God. And do you believe that this pastor who is standing here preaching the word of God, and let's just say all of us here and we're not paying any attention to him at all.

And do you believe it would be possible for Satan to control a human being and send that human being right down here and comes here and just says excuse me pastor.

He says listen people. Now Satan's got control of an individual. He says listen people. Why don't you listen to this pastor because he's a godly man.

This pastor loves God. Why don't you listen to him because he's a man of God and he's trying to get you saved.

He's trying to preach to you salvation. Why don't you listen? What do you believe the possibility of Satan doing something like that is?

Would you say it's remote, near or true? It's true. It's true.

And I'll tell you why it's true because in Acts chapter 17 there was a little girl and the Jews were blaspheming

God and they were blaspheming Paul and Barnabas and she said you men of Israel listen to these men.

They be of God and they show you the way of salvation. And it said this she did many days but Paul being grieved in his spirit turned and said to her

I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and he came out that hour. It was a demon of hell that was telling these people they ought to get saved.

Now dear people just because something is good and works and makes you feel good doesn't make it of God.

You see it's the book and Paul wrote the book of Colossians to refute this idea that there's all kinds of people who have got all this and listen the same information is available to every

Christian. Every Christian has access to the same information about God and that's the blessed beloved book called the

Holy Scriptures. And no Christian has any more access to God than another Christian. Now Paul writes this and look what he says in verse 20.

You get quiet evidently I touched a nerve. You can always tell when you touch nerves.

Get quiet. Just relax. You still love me don't you? Say yes. Yes. Good. You learn quickly.

Alright. Verse 20 and having made peace he's going to explain why. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him

I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven and you that were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.

Now we read last night about the prophet Isaiah who told us that the suffering and the death of the man of sorrows in Isaiah 53 they were not for himself.

He did not die for himself but he died for those who'd gone astray. You remember Isaiah 53 6 for all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way and so this is why he died.

And he died in offering for sin by the express will of the Father. God's will was that Jesus Christ come and die and Isaiah prophesied that and it says that it pleased the

Father to bruise him and to put him to grief and he gave his life a ransom for many.

Now Paul the apostle takes up that same identical theme and he writes to the

Roman Christians hold your place in Colossians we'll come back to it and turn to the book of Romans. He picks up identically the same theme that Isaiah did.

In chapter 3 now we usually read Romans 3 23 but Romans 3 23 as important as it is is not necessarily the most important verse in chapter 3 of Romans.

Would you look at verse 25. Paul takes up the same theme and says that God himself purposed the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

Look at verse 25 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.

So that we get our past sins forgiven through the forbearance of God. And he just says that God gave

Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins so that he could pass over the world and show his righteousness unto the world.

He had to have some reason to pass over them and not just judge humanity and do as he did in the days of the flood with Noah and destroy all flesh upon the earth.

He had to have a way of doing that. And so we know back to Colossians that God spared not his own son and we know that he delivered him up for us all.

And it is written in the scripture is it not that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

God and Jesus are one. They are separate entities but they are one. And so therefore

God was in Christ and we read it twice here in Colossians in him dwells the fullness of the

Godhead bodily. Now Paul comes right back to these Colossians here in verse 20 to 22 and look what he says having made peace through the blood of his cross.

You who were separated from God you were enemies to God because of your evil doings.

Now has he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death.

Through the death of Jesus Christ in his physical body God is able to reconcile you and me because he was the

Lamb of God. And we saw that. Now notice the phrase having made peace through the blood of his cross.

That refers to the propitiation the propitiatory aspect of the death of Christ when he tried the winepress alone.

You see propitiation basically means that Jesus Christ satisfied God's outraged justice.

God was outraged because sin was in the world. And Jesus Christ satisfied that.

The burnt offering in the Old Testament was nothing for people. That burnt offering was a picture of what was going on between God the

Father and his Son and Jesus satisfied God's righteousness and God's justice thereby

Jesus made a covenant with his Father for you. He made a covenant and it's between God and Christ for you and for me.

Now the reconciliation of the sinner to God is occurring in that phrase in the body of his flesh through death.

It shows us that the Savior and the saved become one. And if the saved people and the

Savior become one and he has satisfied God and God is now able to consider righteousness in the world therefore if we're in him we are considered righteous in the world.

It just fits. And so this is what he's saying. Now what is happening? In this aspect we see Christ as the second

Adam. The first Adam the Bible says by one man sin came into the world. The first Adam brought sin into the world.

But the second Adam Jesus Christ is now our representative man. And in his death every person that is united to him in death suffered the penalty for sins.

We are in Christ. Did Christ suffer penalty for your sins? Didn't he? Yes. So in Christ you suffered penalty for sins also but in him.

Not for yourself in him. And therefore it is taken care of and we are able to be reconciled unto

God but only through Jesus Christ. We are in him. Whatever he suffered we suffered.

And it's just as if it was almost I hate to use the word proxy. Almost by proxy. Alright? The apostle continues.

Look what he says. In the body of his flesh through death. In verse 22. To present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him.

The cross is a gateway through which a redeemed person a Christian you and me a child of God passes into a new sphere.

We move through the cross into a new sphere where we are presented in Jesus Christ to the

Father holy. We talked about it briefly this morning. So God accepts you as holy without blemish unblameable unreprovable

God just accepts you because you are in Christ and he always would accept his son. And so he accepts you and we are presented to him in such a manner and unreprovable that means nothing could ever be brought against you that could ever change you being accepted by God the

Father because you are in his son Jesus Christ. Now that's security of the believer. It just is secure because it only depends upon whether or not

God will honor what his son did or not. That's what it depends on. It doesn't depend on what you do or don't do. Do you really believe the feeble works you commit get you saved?

Do you really believe you work enough to get saved? Well, where in the Bible does it tell you if you don't do this many works you get lost again?

It doesn't tell us that. Not at all because it doesn't depend on what we do or don't do. It depends on whom you have believed.

Who you put your faith in because the covenant is between God and his son for you. It's not between God and you.

You put your trust in Christ. You put your trust in the son and God and his son got it worked out. They got it all worked out on your head and my head.

So you see, now some people just sit and say, well, man, if you do that you can do anything you want to them. No, because if you've ever experienced that you don't want to do all this other stuff.

And any person that wants to do all that stuff, I doubt if they've ever met the Jesus I know about. No, not at all.

So we know that isn't true. So what's the apostles say? In the body of his flesh, those who are so reconciled with Christ to their old sins, their evil works that made them alienated and enemies to God in our mind, didn't like to think about God, all those things are now left behind.

Now listen to me carefully. We are not reconciled unto God to go back and do as we will please.

We are not reconciled to God to live the same kind of life that we lived before. And yet it is strange to you and me, is it not?

How many Christian people do we know who claim to know the Lord and they say, yes, I'm saved, they've never been baptized, they've never made a testimony of their faith in Christ before people, they're ashamed of Him in the public, their homes are not

Christian, they're not Christians on their job, they're not Christians in school. In fact, they claim just the opposite of what you see in their life.

And yet they claim all of these things and they believe that they're saved in their mind and yet their life has not changed.

I say this, if you are saved, saved from what and to whom?

We are not only saved from all this other, but we are saved to a person, saved to a person.

And therefore we cannot go back. And I believe any person who is living out in the world and living the way of the world,

I don't believe I can find one verse of Scripture that will let that person be saved and continue to live out there.

Now, they may get out there, but God's going to get them back, He's not going to let them wander. And I believe it is spiritually impossible for a person to backslide for 30 and 40 years.

I cannot find anything like it in the New Testament. In fact, God killed one couple because they told him one lie in Acts chapter 5.

Now, when I read that, that scared me to death. Have you ever lied to God? Nod your head.

Yes. We didn't call them a lie because we worked it out. We got black ones. We would never tell a black one, but we got green ones, we got white ones.

They're not so bad. We even got it worked out. We never tell God what we did. We just tell him a fib. We tell him a story.

We tell him a tale. You see, we've got them, but they are lies and God says in Revelation 21, 8, all liars.

Now, that's interesting. It's best not to make a vow to God. It's best to go on and live for God and not worry about your vows because nine times out of ten, you're not going to keep that vow.

Now, make them if God lays them on your heart. But don't run around making too many vows. They'll get you in trouble because God will take you at your word.

God will take your word. You tell him something, he'll just take it. He'll say, okay, okay. And then all of a sudden, oh God, why did

I say that? Now, I'm the world's greatest and some of these visitors, they've heard me say this. I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma and some people came up to visit me in a meeting and there were three or four couples and they wanted to go over and they wanted to ride a rollercoaster.

Now, I love these things. I love rollercoasters. The only thing I won't get on is a Ferris wheel. I don't like Ferris wheels. They petrify me.

But rollercoasters and those things, I love them. And I got on this rollercoaster and it scared me to death.

I mean, I thought it was going. You know, I mean, that was it. I said, oh God, God, if you just, why would

I ever do anything like this? You know, I'm a minister of the word. God, I got all kinds of things to do for you. You want to use me?

And here I am. I'm on this thing and I'm going. You know, here I am. And I said, God, no. I got off it. I said, God, if you just get me off here and make this thing stop and don't let it fly off these tracks, you know, and that thing will be going.

I said, it's going. And I said, God, I'll never get back on this thing again. I'll never do anything this stupid. So we got off and we walked around and you know, and you know what we came back to in about 15 minutes?

Came right back to that stupid rollercoaster. And ignorant, I got right back on that rollercoaster again. After I hit about two of those,

I said, oh God. I rode that thing five times that day and I did identically the same thing.

I can no more explain that to you than the man in the moon. If there be one. But I'll promise you, even though it may be flippant and humorous, when we talk to God, he takes it very serious.

He takes it very serious. And I learned that wasn't the most holy thing to do.

And God overlooked my ignorance and said, get on. And I was flapping out in a breeze, petrified and scared to death.

But you see, this is what Paul is talking about here. The message of peace through the blood of the cross and reconciliation to God in the body of Christ through death.

Alright, here's the two -fold message of the cross. Your past sins are forgiven, but there is deliverance from the bondage of present sins.

The past sins are forgiven. two -fold message of the cross. Your past sins are forgiven, but there is victory, there is deliverance from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of sin.

And the church has preached and taught how God forgives you of your sins. God will forgive you.

God will forgive you. God will forgive you. And yet we have not preached and taught the word of God when it says there is victory from the bondage of sin today and God gives you power so that you don't have to keep committing the same sins every single day of your life.

We're just saying victory in Jesus. Well, where in the world is it in the body of Christ today? Christians are doing the same things they have done year in and year out, year in and year out.

And I see deacons and Sunday school teachers and fathers who have seen victory in Jesus and they can't even get victory over a stupid little pack of cigarettes.

And yet I, as you have seen people, God snatched me from using heroin in less than two seconds.

I've seen people that God snatched from the pits of hell itself. And yet a man, a man who knows the word of God, stays in the house of God, loves the

Lord in his heart, tells me that he can't quit smoking a cigarette. If you can't quit it and don't have the ability to quit it, then you need to understand something about demonic powers because they've got a hold on your life.

Some ladies tell me they sing victory in Jesus, they love the Lord and all these things, they know their sins have been forgiven, they're just as saved as they can be and yet the gossip runs rampant.

Rumor bearing busy bodies from house to house, that phone, you can't ever get them on the phone, brother, they own the phone.

And you, they tell it all. They know it all. And how they know it, I don't know how they know it.

They know things going on that nobody could know except God, but they find it out. I suspect they have someone telling them, where is victory in Jesus?

I believe with all of my heart that God will give us victory over the sins in our life if we just go to him with them.

And if we'll walk according to his word, he'll do so. In still plainer language, would you turn to me plainly and turn to 1

Peter. Still plainer language, we have the deliverance from the bondage of sin, 1

Peter chapter 2, with the remission of past sins proclaimed by the apostle Peter.

When he wrote in his first epistle about the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, look at chapter 2, verse 24. Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree.

That's sin. Okay? That we being dead to sins should live in righteousness.

We can be dead to sins and live under righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed. He's talking about a spiritual healing.

He's not talking about a physical healing here. He's talking about a spiritual healing. Now, if you read that in the literal reading of the

Greek language, it's far more striking because the literal reading of the Greek language says he carried up our sins in his own body to the tree.

It's as if God just poured in him the sins of the world and he just carried them in his own body up to the tree.

That's what he drank that cup in the Garden of Gethsemane. Take this cup from me. It was the cup of sin that he was going to have to drink.

His holy soul shrank. He knew he was going to die. He wasn't afraid of death. His holy soul didn't want to become sin.

He didn't want sin in his life. He had never had sin in his life before. He didn't know anything about experiencing sin.

But God was going to pour into that holy being. God was going to pour into that holy son of God. God was going to take that precious savior and pour the sins of the world into his being.

And he was going to carry him up to the tree. And his holiness didn't want to be in that close of a proximity to the ungodliness of sin.

But yet it was necessary. He didn't take up there himself. He became sin for you the scripture says.

What a sacrifice from the son of the living God for you and me. You and me. And yet he says you can have deliverance.

The union of the believer with his savior in death is clearly expressed by the apostle in those words. Having made peace through the atoning work and sacrifice of his cross.

The Lord Jesus Christ carried our sins up to the tree. So that in him we have died to them.

But not only have we died to them. We have died to the power of those sins. And now we share his life from God.

Why? We may live on to righteousness. You can live a righteous life.

I didn't say a perfect life. But a righteous life. It just depends upon the desire of your heart and the attitude of your mind.

You can live a righteous life. He said so how? By the might of the holy and righteous one who comes to dwell within your heart.

He doesn't leave you alone. He comes to live in your life. He will help you do so.

By whose stripes you are healed. He said in this passage of scripture that we read in 1st

Peter. The prophet Isaiah is who he is quoting from. We read it. It was the

Lamb of God who had the actual bruising and suffering on our behalf. So that the healing power of his life might be imparted to those of us who believe that he carried our sins to the cross.

It is quite interesting about that phrase and we don't have time to get into the by whose stripes you are healed. But the man, the greatest

Christian I've ever known anything about was the apostle Paul. He asked God three times to heal him and God never did. And if there is healing within the atonement why in the world couldn't

Paul get healed? Timothy was sick all of his life and Paul said I can't heal you. All I can do is tell you to take a little wine for your stomach sake.

Timothy was sick all of his life. Paul had Trophimus who went with him and Paul said I had to leave Trophimus on Miletus.

God sent him with me but I had to leave him over on the Isle of Miletus because he was sick. In Philippians he says

I was going to bring Epaphroditus with me but I couldn't bring Epaphroditus because he almost died. But God was merciful and didn't take his life but I'll send him to you when he gets well.

Why didn't Paul heal him? If there is automatic healing in the Word of God and atonement why didn't it? Because it is not

God's will that every single person always and ever that there be no sickness. Sickness is in the world because sin is in the world.

But it doesn't mean because you got sickness that you got sin. And now they run around saying well you've been healed you just haven't been made whole.

God heals the sickness he doesn't heal the condition. You can't find that in the Word of God. Naaman got skinned like a baby from leprosy and the withered man had an arm strayed.

God not only healed his condition, God healed the sickness and forgave his sins. He did it all through the Son of God. And every one of these people and it doesn't matter to me if they're building a big new building down here what?

Every one of them has got a hospitalization program. Every one of them goes to a doctor when they get sick and their wives go to the doctors and get sick.

When they get sick they all do. They got hospitalization. Well brother if you listen have you ever asked yourself this question why would you want to build a multi -million dollar hospital if you got the gift of healing?

Why? Wouldn't you in your own heart? Wouldn't you just sit in your office and just say just bring the people to me?

Or wouldn't you go to the first place I'd want to go would be a crippled children's hospital. I mean the first place I'd want to go to a cancer ward.

I ask myself questions about those things. You may send your money up here to buy a $500 ,000 worth of gold tinted windows but not the

Jew. Not me. I'm going to be careful because God holds me accountable for what I do. That's why I send my money.

And you know something else I've discovered? I'd rather give my money to God's people than through my church. You know why I do that?

Because the world will listen they'll support all this other stuff. You don't have to worry about the world.

You don't have to worry about the Red Cross and United Fund. They'll never go broke because the world supports them. You say well you're kind of tight.

No I just give it to the Lord. I give it to the Lord. I don't give it to lost people. I let them play with it. You look at me like I'm going to die eating a cracker.

A nerve here and a nerve there. I understand. The message of Calvary as I understand it that was revealed to this wonderful apostle

Paul. It was revealed to him by his risen Lord. And isn't it interesting when

Paul went down to Jerusalem to meet the apostles. They had walked with Jesus and talked with Jesus. And Paul explained to them what

God had revealed to him. And Jesus Christ had taught him in Arabia that they couldn't add one thing to what Paul had said. God had so wonderfully revealed it to him.

And here he knew it. And the words that Simon Peter confirmed that the gospel as Paul preached it was the same gospel that was preached by all the apostles.

And it was a sermon that was preached on the day of Pentecost. And I believe that incalculable loss has come to the church of Jesus Christ because we have failed to emphasize to our people that they can have victory over their daily sins.

Too long we have preached to our people well you're always going to sin and everybody sins every day. And yet there's not one verse of Scripture that makes such a statement.

There is no verse of Scripture that says that you have to sin every day. And yet I believe that for so long in my life.

Now the greatest possibility is I will because I'm not available always to God. But if I get close to God you can go long periods of time without sinning.

As I said this morning temptation is not sin. It's what you do with that temptation. But it's a rationalization to allow us to continue to live in a selfish rebellion against a holy

God. When God says we can live unto righteousness and we don't have to keep committing these same sins all the time.

The two aspects of the message of the cross. Our past sins are forgiven and we also can have victory over those sins that attempt to hold us in bondage to Satan himself.

Deliverance from the power of sin was not taught by the apostle Paul as an advanced experience.

He didn't say that you had to grow and grow and grow and live for 50 years as a Christian to understand how you could have victory and deliverance from the power of sin.

Because he didn't Romans, would you turn me to the book of Romans? When he wrote these Romans, this will be on the test.

When he wrote to the Romans and he spoke to them about their death with Christ, he spoke to them as if Romans chapter 6.

As if it was an elementary experience. And their ignorance of it amazed Paul. Paul was amazed that they were even ignorant that they had died with Christ.

Because he knew that their fellowship with the death of Jesus Christ and their understanding that they had died with Christ was the only basis for real fellowship and newness of life with him.

And yet they didn't understand it. Now I want you to think about with me please, the cross and the bondage of sin that Satan attempts to hold you and me in.

Look at Romans 6 verse 6. Knowing this. What does that mean?

In the Greek language it means know by your daily experience. Not just a mental fact.

But know by your daily experience that our own man is crucified with him.

That the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin.

That we should no longer be in bondage to sin. Would you look at Romans 5 please? Verse 10.

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

The actual reading is we shall be saved in his life. We shall be saved in his We shall be saved in his Paul goes on to show us how the wondrous plan of God that every person who is reconciled and who becomes a recipient of the gift of the righteousness of Jesus Christ should reign in life.

This is what he's talking about. That we are to reign in life. Look at verse 11. And not only so but we also join

God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the reconciliation. And we learn to reign in life with Jesus Christ.

As sinners we shall be over us. Now by the grace of God we can reign in our lives through Jesus Christ.

This is what he's saying. Now someone ask a question. Well, if God gives us all this grace to overcome all this sin, the more sin we commit, the more grace you get.

And if we sin a lot, then God's grace would just really abound and everybody could just see the grace of God.

And look what he says. Isn't that what it says in verse 1 of chapter 6? What shall we do? Didn't Paul know us like a book?

He knew them and he knew us. God knows us. He anticipates it. What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Look what he said. God forbid, bursts the apostle

Paul. God forbid you should even think such a thing as that. The death of Christ and the free grace of God abounding therefrom can never be meant to minister to sin.

Never should it ever be thought in such a manner. Now it is true that God abounding grace is given to us through the death of his son.

But with the son of God we died. We died with him. Then if we died with him, how shall we that died with him continue to live any longer in sin?

Look at verse 2. God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in it?

Now he didn't say you wouldn't commit it. He just says you can't live in it. You can't continue to stay there.

You can't continue to enjoy it. You can't continue to linger around sin. And if a Christian is more comfortable around lost people than they are children of God, something's wrong with that life.

You cannot be comfortable around lost people. Your close fellowship and friendship ought to be with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

How can two walk together except they be agreed? The word of God tells us. How can light mingle with darkness?

Wherever there is light there cannot be darkness. Whenever you turn a light on there's no darkness. It goes. And if you are comfortable and there are darknesses there, dear people, it's because your light isn't on and there darkness is overwhelming the situation.

And yet the apostle Paul says no, that's not the way. You see, when you study Romans 6 you'll find he's deeply moved.

And the language he uses here is deeper than he uses in other places. He's deeply moved within his heart because he had been shown the meaning of Calvary.

Christ had revealed to this man. And in the light of the cross he saw how deep the fall was in the garden of Eden.

He saw how far man fell. He knew the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Paul knew how sinful.

Sin was no light thing with Paul. It wasn't some little tribute. Well, everybody sins. It wasn't that.

He knew it put the God Son on the cross and he knew it required God to send the death of his son upon this world.

An unparalleled suffering and shame that he might rescue people. It was no little thing with Paul. It was a thing that he fought all of his life.

He knew what it was. He preached his heart out and he ministered. Continuing sin, when Christ died to deliver us from sin, he says,

God forbid that a Christian should ever have such a thought in their mind. Not at all. Sin has abounded but grace did abound exceedingly.

Why? To save us from our bondage. To release us from the bondage of sin. In the light shining upon Calvary, as was unveiled to him as I said by the

Lord Jesus Christ, he shows us the meaning of death. So that these Christians in Rome could never be ignorant again.

This is the meaning of what he was saying and what the purpose for which Christ died. He simply says, our old man is crucified with Christ.

This is what he's saying in verse 6. Look at it. Our old man is crucified. That old sin nature is crucified.

It's a spiritual fact but you must apply it day by day by day. And so he's saying to us, this is the message of Calvary to the fallen sinner and it's the secret of deliverance from the bondage of sin.

We have been buried into his grave for the express purpose like as Christ was raised from the dead in a new life so also we walk in newness of life.

Look at verse 4 please. Chapter 6 of Romans. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the

Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. You see, we should look upon the cross and the grave.

Now get this picture in your mind. It will help you. Look at the cross of Christ and the grave of Christ as a great gulf fix between you and your past.

Any time you want to turn around and go back to what you were, just look at the cross, look at the grave. You've got to go back through that empty grave.

You've got to go back into the darkness of death. You've got to go back past the cross again to get back into the world where you once were.

God's made it difficult for us to completely turn away from him and walk in such a way. No, we walk and we come out and emerge in the walk of the newness of life.

And you see, all this is only true if, hear me carefully, if you are really intimately united to Jesus Christ.

Only if there's really been a union. You see, mentally agreeing doesn't do it. A mental assent, yes,

I know that's true, will not make it true. It only becomes true when the Holy Spirit of God comes and you are born again and you are regenerated, you're saved.

And then the indwelling spirit comes to live in your life, the life of Christ. You are made one with him and when that intimate union begins to occur, then and only then will you and I ever understand what it means that that old man is crucified with Christ.

Then we are able to walk in the likeness of his death as we read in verse 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, you know it's planted, what do you plant?

So it grows. You plant it so it grows. We've been planted so we can grow. We've been planted spiritually into his death, what kind of a growth do we have?

Together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. We are planted into his death and we are exploding, verse 4, like a great glorious flower of God into the new life in Christ, the resurrection life.

That's why we've been planted spiritually into his death. This is what he's saying to us in this passage of scripture here.

And so if this union exists, you and I can understand the resurrection life and we can realize the power of the resurrection life because we've been crucified with Christ.

We'll no longer live in bondage to sin. It's tyranny over us has all forever ended.

It's power, it's claim to reign in our life has now been broken and you and I can claim victory and we can have victory.

And moreover, the death of Christ means more than this kind of a negative deliverance. You'll notice what it says.

We are free from the reign of sin, not only by death, but by life, by his life.

We have been freed from this. Look at chapter 10, I mean chapter 6, verse 10.

The life of Christ which triumphed over death in the grave, we are free in us. Look what it says, verse 10.

For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto

God. For if we have truly died to the old, we will live with Christ and we will share the life that he now lives.

What kind of a life do you and I now share? We share a life unto God. Every Christian does.

We share a life unto God. This is what he's saying. What kind of a life? It's an abundant life.

It is a reigning, life. As we said this morning, it's where your conditions and your environment and your circumstances do not govern your life.

What governs your life is your relationship to your Savior and to your Lord and to God the

Father. That governs your daily life. And this is what it's saying. He died once and for all and we are alive unto

God in Christ Jesus. But please remember, please remember, and you must never forget that this must be lived out in your daily experience of a practical walk.

It is a spiritual truth and it's in the book. But it's up to you individually to make it work in your life every single day.

It is not automatic. It is not automatic. And there's, the tragedy is, too many

Christians are content to wait until they get to heaven in order to be what God wants them to be. Well, I got my sins forgiven,

I'm saved, so I'll just wait until he comes and changes me. That's not why he saved you. That's not why he saved us.

He saved us. A Christian can never reckon themselves. They can never count upon. They can never rely upon the fact that they are dead with Christ and at the same time yield themselves to sin.

They cannot hand over their members of their body to unrighteousness else they will make void the grace of God, the scripture tells us, and make it of no effect in the life.

If you and I as Christians are going to realize the full deliverance of Calvary, we must not only gladly recognize our death with the crucified

Savior, but we must present ourselves unto God as people who are living after death and the newness of life yield our members of our body unto

God as weapons of righteousness and not unrighteousness. We must be willing to be his weapons unto righteousness and live a life unto

God. Does not the grace that God gives us give us a liberty and almost a license?

God forbid. You see, when you become one with Christ, a change happens. There's a revolution and that revolution is not outward.

That revolution is deep down in the heart of a person. It goes beyond where any person can see and a complete change takes place down in that person's being.

And in newness of life, a Christian gladly, gladly, a child of God, born again, will gladly become a servant of God.

They don't have any problem with it. They'll gladly become a servant of God rather than a servant of sin. And by their own free choice, they choose day by day to present themselves unto

God a living sacrifice. Moment by moment, they choose God's will in every matter. And as these things approach them, they will just choose the way

God wants and they become a bond servant in righteousness. That they swam the river and come to David and said,

God gave us to you, but by our wills, we want to be yours. God gave you to Jesus Christ, but God delights and so does his son.

For you and your own will say, God gave me to you, Lord Jesus, but by my will, I also want to surround yours.

That brings joy into the heart. And it brings victory into the life. In the book of Romans, time and again, you'll see the severing power of the cross.

It just severs you from all that's in your past. Picture in your mind as if God, by the

Holy Spirit, just takes a great cleaver and he just severs everything that's ever happened in your life and he just separates it.

And by the shield of faith, it is pushed away from you never to come back again. And at the same time, he comes to live in your heart.

He says, now, not only have I taken care of all the past, but now I'm taking care of the present and the future because you see,

I'm going to give you power over the past. You have a bondage of sin in your life. You don't have to keep going day by day frustrated and defeated in your life.

You don't have to do so. He says so. Someone says, well, wait a minute. I've reckoned that I was dead with Christ, but it doesn't seem to work.

I mean, I reckon all the time. I say every day, Lord, I just reckon that I'm dead with Christ. I just count on that I'm dead with Christ.

Lord, I'm relying upon the fact. You said it now in your word. And God, I'm relying on it. But it just seems for naught.

It just doesn't seem to work. Ah, maybe you're too concerned about your reckoning rather than your

Savior. You see, the reckoning means nothing without the object of the reckoning.

You look too much within yourself. Turn your eyes out from yourself and look to Him who is life.

Keep your eyes locked upon the Savior, and you don't have to worry much about your reckoning. You don't have to worry about what's going on in here.

Keep your eyes locked upon Him. You know, the problem is Simon Peter. Peter said,

Lord, everybody else will turn against you, but I never will. You know what Jesus told him, and I'm not going to go into the story.

He said, Oh, Peter, why before that rooster crows you going to do it? Now, what happened?

He did. But you know, there's a strange little passage in that. It says that the crowd came to get

Jesus, and they got Him. And Judas Iscariot betrayed Him with the hiss of the kiss. And they got

Him, and they marched Him away. And here's what the Scripture says. As they took Jesus away to try

Him and put Him on the cross, the Scripture tragically records, and Peter followed afar off.

Now, sweet people, listen to me. If you ever let your friends in the community get between you and your Lord, you're going to lose sight of Him.

And you'll start following Him afar off. You'll know He's there. You'll know all about Him.

You'll know about His wonderful works, His marvelous words, the miracles. You'll know all the stories about Jesus, because you've read them.

But if you let your friends, your family, yes, you can even let your church, you can let any number of things, personalities, get between you and your

Lord. You see, Peter let the crowd get between Him and His Savior, where before He walked beside Him. He was right there.

Nothing between me and my Savior. Nothing between. And you and I have to be very careful, lest we spiritually follow

Him afar off, and let all kinds of things get in between us and our Lord. So what would you do?

Look to Calvary. Look to Jesus Christ who died on your behalf. And as your representative,

He carried you with Him to the cross. Two questions, please. Three questions. Would you want to understand, and wouldn't you like, and couldn't

I say, wouldn't we all like tonight to have this kind of an experience in our life? I'm not talking about one experience. I'm talking about just daily walking, knowing that old man is crucified with Christ.

Each day we could do it. Now what you do today won't help you tomorrow. It will help you learn, but you've got to do it each day, don't you?

Yes. All right? Would there be? Well, I won't ask you to raise your hands. All right?

Let me ask you. If you really say in your heart right now that you want to do it, are you willing?

Are you willing? Listen to my words twofold. Are you willing, and are you determined?

Would you be willing, and will you determine to get every known sin out of your life?

Are you willing, and are you determined to get anything that is sinful out of your life?

Are you willing for the death of Christ to be wrought out in your life? Maybe it isn't sin, but are you willing and determined to get the weights that so easily beset us out of our lives?

There are many things that Christians do in their lives that are not sin, but they are not necessary for your

Christian life. I am amazed at how a Christian can be so a Christian man, woman, boy, or girl that can go and sit for three and a half to four hours and watch

Star Wars, and they can't spend three hours a week in the word of God, or three hours a month in prayer.

That amazes me. How anybody can sit down and let Hollywood feed their mind, and you've got to sit in darkness.

Satan has devised it so. You sit in darkness, and you turn your mind over to the manipulators of this planet, and they put all kinds of fanciful thoughts in your mind, and build that fantasy in your life, and you don't know how

Satan is going to use that in your life, and yet whenever the church says we need prayer, you are never heard from. Somebody says,

I need to know Jesus, you are never heard from. We say we want it, but we don't want to pay the price to get it, but my dear sweet people, there is a price to be paid to have

God's blessings on your life. He's not just going to bless disobedience. He will bless us when we are obedient.

God wants to. He desires to. He's made the way from the very crucial moment that you've got to your heart to this, and you say, yes,

I do. Just see yourself as nailed to the tree in your Lord. Picture yourself. There you are.

Just superimpose yourself over the Lord Jesus Christ, both of you nailed there together. That's where you are, and stay there.

Leave yourself there and go live your day in the resurrection thought, and God will begin to bless your life.

Sin will not and shall not have mastery over you, child of God. It shall not.

God's word says it shall not. It shall not. And it will not. You are hidden in Christ upon the cross.

You're joined Him in life, and all you have to do, child of God, young or old, grandmother or granddad, young, it doesn't matter.

All you have to do is to give Him the continual choice of your will. Just continually to choose that which pleases

God the Father and His Son, and for to whom you yield, Him you, your servants are.

If we yield unto sin, you know what sin is? Catholicism. Can I just inject this for a moment? Do you know what

I believe sin is? Now listen to me carefully. Sin is premeditated, predetermined rebellion against God.

Sin is predetermined. You've got to think about it. You've got to meditate upon it, and you've got to decide to do it before you ever do it.

You do not sin accidentally. Sin is nothing but Satan reproducing his character in me.

It may be for a moment, and I confess it, or it may lay there for a while, but sin is nothing but allowing him to produce his sinful character in me momentarily, or for whatever time it's there.

Now that changes things, if that be true, and I believe it is true. You see, sin is in light with God.

I believe in the church. The pastor mentioned speaking about holy things. I think that we've criticized or laughed and ridiculed holy matters.

Preachers are the worst. They sit around and talk about holy things. They sit around and talk and tell jokes about the Lord's Supper. They tell jokes about baptism, the two holiest things that God's given to the church, to His Son.

Baptism is a picture of our Lord's death, burial, and resurrection, and of believers coming into that, dying, and you know the whole story of the symbolism and all the depths of the truth, and yet people, it's such a trivial thing in the churches, and children run up and down the aisles at time of baptism, and people talk, they think, oh well, we ought to be rejoicing that a child of God has found peace with God, but we don't, and it allows sin to come into our life.

Well, what do you do when you are tempted? When temptation comes, just retire to the cross.

Run to the cross. Hide behind that cross, and refuse to come out. One little girl, about five or six years of age, they ask her in Sunday school, they said, well, what do you do if sin comes and knocks on your door?

That little girl said, I'll let Jesus go answer the door. The best answer in the world. You know, what

I'd have gone to that door and said, depart from me, said I stand in God.

Sin says, well, I'm not so bad. I said, well, I thought you was going to be a bad one. And before long,

I'm in a conversation with him. And before long, there you go, down the old road, down the chute. And it gets slicker as you hit the bottom.

It gets quicker. It gets quicker. But no, just hide behind the cross, and refuse to come out, and let your

Lord take care of the problem. Just lay the problem, and refuse to be drawn out of your place in him. Don't do that.

Don't struggle with that which comes to you, but hand it over to him who loves you. And just say, Lord, this is beyond me.

Oh, God, I can't handle this. And I depend upon you, Lord, to solve this for me. God, take care of this in my life for me.

Lord Jesus, I am yours, and I have to hide in thee. And I am hiding in thee, Lord. And it's amazing how your attitude changes.

It's amazing just the sensing of God's presence in your life when we do such a thing.

But freed from the bondage of sin, we then become enslaved again. You're free from sin, but you become a slave.

Free to become a slave to God. Have you ever met anybody that served God too much? I hear about these people in seminary.

They used to tell us, and pastors heard this, they used to tell us about being careful that you burn out from God. Don't go out and burn out.

You'll burn out. How in the world could anybody burn out for God? Now, I know that if you don't come apart, you come apart.

I mean, I know you've got to take some risks. But I don't know anybody that serves God too much. I just don't.

The apostles served them to death. Some of the greatest Christians who ever walked this earth, they served God to death.

You know, I suspect some older Christians have retired on Jesus. They just retired. Well, I served the

Lord for 30 years. Let the youngers do it now. Let the kids do it now. Let the young couples do it now. I've had my time. As long as you live and breathe, you serve your

Lord. You don't ever quit serving the Lord. You may not can go like you used to, but you got a telephone.

You can call five people in one minute and a half and invite them to worship with you. Provided you don't talk to them about everything on the sun.

But you can do it in a minute and a half very easily. Very easily. You see, there are things that we can do. And so, we need to call sin what it is, do we not?

Stop calling it being nervous. Just admit you got jealousy in your life.

Admit you got pride, envy, coveting, bitterness, gossip, criticism, deep roots.

I know husbands and wives that still have not forgiven each other for things in their life.

They live together and they hide it because they are afraid. If they go to one and say, you know,

I want you to forgive me for something and I want to tell you what it is. They are afraid that that other person will not have the ability to forgive them.

Isn't that a tragedy? Let me ask you a question if you are married. Do you have the freedom in your heart to go to your husband or your wife and say,

I want you to forgive me for something? And it may be bad or it may not be so, whatever human terms are, but that you have complete freedom in your heart to go to your wife or your husband and say,

I want you to forgive me. Do you know young people, I thank God for these young people who have been here every night, thank you.

You know, they, you say, well, they got to come to their parents. Listen, they got a thousand ways to get out of coming to church. They know how to do it.

They know, but I thank the Lord they come. I thank the Lord they come. But do these young people have the freedom, if they are yours, and I don't know who they are, do they have the freedom to come to you and say,

Mom, Dad, I want you to forgive me for something. It's going to hurt you, but I need to tell you about it. I want us to be free with one another.

Are they afraid you are going to push that panic button and you are going to scream and rant and rave and criticize them instead of saying,

I understand. God forgave me and I can forgive you. Now, let's work it out together.

Let's stand together. Do they have that freedom in your heart? The tragedy of tragedies is that they don't many times.

They don't. Because you see, we are still bound up in the habits of sin. We are still bound up.

Will you turn me please to our last verse of Scripture, 1 John. 1

John. 1 John. Chapter 2. Deal honestly with sin and just steadfastly determine that you are going to walk in obedience to your

Lord. Let every stress of trial, let every temptation that comes to your life drive you to the sunlight of His precious face so that you will see everything in the light of His presence.

And when you start practicing living in the presence of the Lord, then we'll see things. You know it says in 1

John 1 .7 there, of course, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light. You know why people don't want to walk in the light?

Because light spreads away the darkness. And their deeds are made manifest so people know what they are doing.

He says we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. But now John wrote this letter to encourage

Christians. Now here John is an aged man. Here he is John getting up in the years.

But this great servant of God, look what he says in chapter 2 verse 1. My little children.

Isn't that beautiful? He just says my little children. That fatherly love he had for them.

You know what I think he's saying to us? I understand. I've been there. I know what it's about.

I've walked the same kind of life you have. I understand it. What's the big cry today? But you don't understand.

What makes you think we don't understand? What makes you think yeah we don't understand it. My little children these things write

I unto you. That you sin not. Don't sin. But if you do.

And if any man sin. Don't sin. Don't you do it. But if any man sin. We have an advocate with the father.

Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation. He is the satisfaction. He is the pleasure of the father.

For our sins. And not for ours only. But also for the sins of the whole world.

The beautiful and glorious facts. fact is for you tonight dear people. And for me. Is simply this.

That you and I understand. That all of our sins are forgiven. And we know that. We who are

Christians. But isn't it true. That we've not looked very seriously. At our present day sins.

We've not watched them. Isn't it true we get kind of careless. Don't sin. Don't sin.

Determine tonight. If you've already determined it. Redetermine it. Just seal your decision.

That from this moment on by the grace of God. When temptation comes your way. The stress of the trial comes your way.

Just turn to the Lord quickly. Turn to your precious Savior quickly. And say Lord I pray you'll show me the way to get out of this.

God put a wall between me and this. Lord I want your love and your grace to be operating in me.

I don't want this sin and degradation in my life. Turn it over to the Lord because he cares for you.

Determine it. But if you do, don't let Satan discourage you. Don't believe it for a moment.

If you confess that sin, your fellowship isn't even broken. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God's sweet grace puts you right back like you never ever committed that sin. God is a God of beginning again and again.

And that's so like humans isn't it? Well if he don't get it right, he ain't coming around here anymore.

I'll tell you what, if she don't get that out of her life, she's not going to have anything. No. God does.

He lets us come to him again and again. Why? Because his son made a covenant with him for you.

And God gave you to his son. You and I ought to live outside this church.

As if we belong to God's son. I want to ask you ladies,

I ask you with love in my heart, if you're a lady, young lady or older lady and you remember this church,

I don't want you to raise your hand, I just want you to be honest with yourself and your Lord. Do you have any criticism in your heart tonight towards another sister or another brother or another

Christian who's a member of your fellowship? Could it be that there's some criticism that you've not made right with the

Lord but you also have to make restitution. You have to go to that person and you have to ask for their forgiveness before God will accept any gift you bring to him.

It just is that way. Sir, do you have any criticism in your heart towards any brother or sister in this congregation tonight?

If you are married, is your relationship to that person at a point where you have freedom to share your hearts with each other without being afraid that the other one is not going to accept you and not going to love you.

One of the most horrible things that's in the life of the Christian is the fear of rejection. We are so afraid that if we really are like we are, then people won't accept us.

You know it? Let me share a truth in closing with you. Some visitors already know this.

My wife is here and she knows it well. For over 22 years, I've traveled all over.

I've been with the biggest names on the planet earth, religiously speaking. And I preached my heart out.

I preached 30 and 40 and sometimes 45 revivals a year. One year

I had 46 meetings in one year. I was gone constantly from my home.

But my wife and her graciousness hurt in our heart, but she never complained. She just trusted it all to God.

But you know, I didn't know. I didn't know what the roots of pride could do in your life.

And just a few years back, you see, I didn't know I was playing a role. And God began to do a work through some circumstances that had arisen in my life.

And I've not attained anything. All I'm telling you is that I can see now clear for the first time in over 25 years of serving

God. I can see pride when it starts coming. I can see resentment when it starts welling up.

But I was so afraid, and I told my Christian friends, I called pastors,

Shreveport, deacons all across this country. I, on up into the night, I would call them and ask them for forgiveness for being prideful and being resentful in their church.

Many of them didn't even know what I was talking about and some did. But I say all that to say this, that as God began to show me how awful pride and criticism and resentment and those things are in the life of a believer, that I did not know it was in my life.

And I said this to my Christian friends that I love and we're so close and they're so gracious to me.

And our friends that we're with, and I said, you know, I've never been comfortable in your home. I never one time have.

It isn't your fault. You've opened your home to me. But I always felt like I had to be the evangelist.

I always felt like I had to be the Bible conference speaker. I always felt like that your expectations and I live my

Christian life. Now hear these words carefully. I live my Christian life on what other people expected me to be.

And that brings defeat, discouragement, and frustration. And I shared with them,

I said, now God's teaching me a lot of things but he's taught me that lesson. And from now on what you see is what you get.

And now I can go into their home and I, you know, I'd say, y 'all come by and visit. And they'd say, well you do the same.

I'd say, okay. I wasn't planning on it. Wasn't going to go by there. I'd love for them to come by but I'm not going to just go to somebody's house and knock on the door and say, here we are.

But now I drive them nuts. I mean now, we just pick up the phone and call them and say, what are y 'all doing? They say nothing.

We say, we're on the way and we go. Now again, I said, you said it, now I'm like a little black cloud.

I'm going to plague you to death. But there is a freedom that comes to your heart in just being who you are.

God loves you for who you are. You don't have to be what other people expect you to be. They'll want you to be just like them.

No. You be yourself. And I don't care what your parents think, young people. I don't care what moms and dads think about this.

You are precious to God. Mom and dad, all of you tonight, you are precious to God and you are accepted in Jesus Christ.

And because a human being rejects you doesn't mean God does. God loves you and God accepts you.

Why? Because of Jesus Christ. And that brings victory over the sins that will hang you up and hold you in bondage day by day in your life.

Now let me ask you the closing question. Are you willing for Jesus to be

Lord of your life? For many, I know that you are. For some, you're thinking about it.

And perhaps maybe one or two, you feel like you've already reached so far up with God that there's no changes that could occur in your life.

And that is the worst blinding of all. That's the worst bondage to believe that you could never be any better in the

Lord. That you could never grow in the Lord. That is a deception from Satan himself. You never stop growing.

But the beautiful thing is today can be a glorious day. I love that song. He made something beautiful out of our lives.

He took that which was worthless and now he's given us joy in our hearts. Do you love the

Lord with all of your heart? Would you say amen? Could you say amen that you love every

Christian that's in this fellowship that you know? That you know. I know most of you do.

Let's stand together in a moment. I'm not going to, I'll turn it over immediately to the pastor. Every head bow and every eye close.