The Deep Dealings of God Pt 29 - Let Us Go on Unto Perfection - Gods Love [Rejoices Not Iniquity] — Phil Beach Jr.

Thank You, Lord, freely and abundantly demonstrate to us, Lord, we're so thankful. We're so thankful, Lord. Oh, God, do what only You can do in our midst. Do what only You can do in our hearts, Lord. We just say, here we are, Lord.

Take us. Receive us, Lord. Change us. Give us hearts that are pliable in Your hands. Pliable in Your hands, Lord. Give us hearts that are pliable in Your hand, Lord. Father, we pray for all the young people in our midst right now.

All the young people. Father, we pray that You would lay Your hand upon their hearts and awaken them and draw them to You, Lord. Draw them to You. We recognize, Lord, that only Your Holy Spirit is able to awaken the heart of a child, a teenager, a young adult, and enable them to be able to say, Oh, God, oh, God, I love You.

I give You my all. And so, Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would move upon every child in this auditorium, soften their heart, awaken them, and claim each one, we ask, Lord, for Your glory and Your honor.

In Your mercy, God, in Your mercy. For Jesus' sake, Lord. For Jesus' sake. Every one, Lord. Oh, God. We just offer them to You, even as Hannah offered her son to You. We offer them to You. And the children that are not here, Lord, the ones that mom and dads are praying for all over, Lord, we pray as the Great Shepherd that You would lead them, Lord, and guide them and bring them close to Your heart.

Oh, God, we look to You. We know You're able, Lord. Thank You for the faith this morning by the power of the Holy Spirit enabling us to believe, enabling us to lay hold of Your promise. We are persuaded, even as Abraham was, that You who have promised is also able to perform.

And we just rest in that great promise this morning, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. He's here in a wonderful way, isn't He? He's here. It's Him. It's His presence working and drawing in our hearts.

And we thank Him for it. We thank Him for it. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. We just cast ourselves upon You, Lord. Speak to us, Lord. Speak to everyone here, Lord. Afresh. Speak afresh, Lord, into our hearts.

Thank You, Lord. Let's just sing this one chorus of this song and then we're going to look to God's Word to speak to us this morning and minister to us. When we sing, O Lord, I surrender all, we pray asking God by His grace to enable us, to strengthen us, to empower us.

It's impossible for a man to surrender himself to God except God Himself. God Himself take hold of that man. And so as we pray, I surrender all, we're saying, God, because of Your grace and because of Your power, because of Your Holy Spirit and trust in Him, we surrender our life to You.

The Holy Spirit’s Work in Believers

Take it, Lord. It's Yours. Everyone together. Thank You, Lord. Those who need to go to Children's Church, children, thank You, Lord. Beloved, the Holy Spirit of God as He comes and He works in our lives and in our hearts and in our midst is purposed to accomplish one essential thing.

The Holy Spirit of God is sent into our midst, into our hearts, into our lives in order to accomplish listen closely, in order to accomplish in us what Christ's death, burial, and resurrection secure for us.

Again, the Holy Spirit's essential purpose in living with us, coming into our life, is to accomplish or to work in us what the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ accomplished for us.

And so it is very important for us to recognize that one of these significant evidences of genuine fellowship with the Holy Spirit, genuine communion with the Holy Spirit, koinonia, sharing of hearts, a significant evidence that the Holy Spirit is truly working in our life is that we are continuously, continuously coming to see all that Christ has done on Calvary and all that it means to God the Father, and at the same time, experiencing through the Word of God and through the Holy Spirit's power a progressive change in our life producing in us the thing that Christ came to make us.

And we know what that is. The beauty of Jesus Christ shining ever through our life. I believe the Holy Spirit is grieved as He looks and beholds so much of what's going on in the house that's called by the name of God, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the church.

I believe the Holy Spirit is grieved or He is made sorry. The reason why is because He is not being given the place in our lives that our Father wants Him to have. And a sure sign that the Holy Spirit is not being given the place that He is deserving of in our lives is the preoccupation that we have in our minds, we have in our hearts' affections, we have in our desires with ourself.

There is an extremely unhealthy and dangerous preoccupation within the church today with self. Amazingly, Jesus said that if a man will follow Him, he is required to do what with self? Disown. The word deny can actually be translated I don't know the man.

You remember what Peter said when he was asked whether or not he knew Jesus when he was around the fire warming himself? He said, I don't know the man. He denied the Lord. Same word. I don't know the man.

The Spirit that is working in the world today continuously, relentlessly seeks to promote and stir up preoccupation with ourself. But the Holy Spirit who is sent from God is dedicated to promote the power, the dynamite power within the church to deny self.

To be able to increasingly live a life where we say, I don't know the man. The man being that part in us that pertains to the sinful passions, the sinful desires, the sinful impulses that are at enmity with God.

The corruption that resides in the flesh. The Holy Spirit is sent from God the Father to the church to empower us. To enable us to be able to live a life where we are able to deny ourself and our preoccupation.

The Spirit of Truth and the Ministry of Jesus Christ

The thing that has our thoughts, the thing that has our hearts' affections is the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 14, before we look into 1 Corinthians 13 for a few moments, John 14, beginning in verse 15, just let's read some words that were spoken by our Lord Jesus.

And let's become acquainted with the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because, beloved, it is our Father's will that not only do we experience when we gather together in a corporate setting, the effects of the Holy Spirit.

And isn't it true, continuously, week after week, month after month, when we gather together in a corporate way like this, the effects of the Holy Spirit's ministry is always the same thing, isn't it?

Our hearts are turned toward the Lord Jesus Christ. We become recipients of overflowing, overwhelming grace. We are enabled to experience the impartation of faith from the presence of Jesus. The joy that comes from the presence of Jesus.

Our thoughts are moved heavenward. Our affections are moved heavenward. The things of this earth become very, very insignificant, don't they, in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the distinct characteristic of the work of the Holy Spirit.

But brothers and sisters, did you know that God wants your home to be a sanctuary, a place where the same thing is happening that happens when we gather together here? He wants your home to be a place where the environment is charged with the presence of God.

He wants your home to be a place where the same Jesus that walks in our midst as we gather together here walks in your home, ministering grace and ministering love. Just imagine. Can you imagine hundreds of families in any given area converting their homes into sanctuaries, into little churches where the presence of God is dwelling?

Where the Word of God is honored? Where problems and struggles and difficulties are dealt with not like the world deals with them, yelling and screaming and arguing, but how God would want us to deal with them.

Where we take things to God in prayer. We go to His Word. We cry out to God. We pray. We sing. It is God's desire to recapture the home. It is God's desire to recapture the home for His glory. And in order for God to recapture the home, every single family that trusts in Christ must reaffirm the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit's presence in the home.

The enemy has taken the home captive and it becomes a place where we do our own thing. It's mine. It's my castle. Don't bother me. But the Lord would bid us this morning to consider making our homes a church.

John 14. If you love me, keep my commandments. The purpose of the new covenant is to produce in a people a God love, a divine love that enables them to obey God. That empowers them to obey God. The effects of the grace of God, the effects of the Word of God, the effects of the Holy Spirit in our life will in fact be the producing of an obedient heart toward the Lord.

That's the effects of grace. Obedience does not merit. God does not owe us anything. Obedience is not part of salvation. It is the fruit. It is the effects of a transformed heart. It's the effects. And we can never offer our obedience to God as if they are good works, as if we can glory in them, as if God is then obligated to do something for us.

Because the moment we begin to suppose that obedience to God obligates God, then we are no longer trusting in a salvation by grace through faith alone. But then we've come into debt and works. And that is another Gospel, Paul said.

Another Gospel. And so God must thoroughly purge us from the stench of self-righteousness. We're supposing that the keeping of God's commandments is somehow making us deserving of anything. Verse 16,.

And I will pray or ask the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth. Oh, brothers and sisters, another Comforter. Comforter means one that stands by our side as a defense attorney, as one who pleas our case before God on the merits of Jesus Christ as one of the precious ministries of the Holy Spirit.

Another is to comfort us and encourage us and strengthen us. But notice Jesus identifies Him as the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. As the Holy Spirit is more and more given a place in our life, as we are awakened more and more to sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, we will increasingly grow in a love for truth.

Truth. Sanctify them by Thy Word. Thy Word is truth. The spirit of this world is a spirit of error, a spirit of darkness, a spirit of deception. And so, we must pray, O God, please, take the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, and let Him once again come into our midst and into our lives.

Let Him reign supreme. Chapter 16, beginning in verse 13,. How be it? But when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. Jesus said in John 14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is one of guiding us, one of leading us into all truth. And all truth is comprehensively seen in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is all truth. I am the truth. And so, the Holy Spirit enables us to deny, I don't know the man, and empowers us to be preoccupied in our thoughts and in our hearts and in our meditations with the man in glory who is the embodiment of truth.

It troubles me to see in the Christian world today such little preoccupation with the beauty and glory and majesty and worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is simply an evidence of the grieved Holy Spirit whose ministry is no longer welcome in the house that's called by His name.

The Holy Spirit is no man's personal servant. The Holy Spirit is not obligated to fulfill any man's desire. The Holy Spirit is commissioned and committed to the Father to reveal the Son and His glory and His majesty.

A Christianity that is preoccupied with the Creature rather than the Creator who alone is blessed is in danger of apostasy. It's in danger of being rejected by God. It's in danger of being infested with corruption and every manner of evil work.

The only element that preserves Christianity, that preserves a company of people, that preserves a home, is the element of God's truth and the Spirit of truth having preeminence in our life. He shall guide us.

For He shall not speak of Himself. Number one, He will guide us to Jesus. Number two, He will not speak of Himself. Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit of God does not speak of Himself. He speaks of Christ.

He doesn't promote flesh. He doesn't promote personalities. He doesn't promote Christian facts or Christian factions and Christian denominations or anything. He doesn't speak of Himself. The Holy Spirit's eternal passion is coming to the church and delighting her with revelation of the beauty and perfections of the blessed Son of God.

He doesn't speak of Himself. He doesn't inspire men to speak of themselves. He doesn't inspire men to make of their self a great name. He speaks of the worthy One, the deserving One. Have you come to hear His voice?

Have you come to learn the voice of the Spirit of Truth? He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear. The Holy Spirit only hears one voice and faithfully speaks of it, and that's the voice of the Savior.

The Holy Spirit hears what the Savior is saying and speaks that to us. And He will show you things to come. Not only does that mean that He will show us things to come that relate to future events, but that means that He will show us things that are yet to come in relation to a further unveiling of the glories of Jesus.

He will show us things yet to come. He will show us things not yet seen, not yet understood, that pertain to the depths and the height and the width and the length of God's love and God's majesty revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ.

He will show us the ocean, the bottomless ocean of the Person of Christ. Oh yes, the Holy Spirit will show us things to come. He shall glorify Me, Jesus. He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you.

The Holy Spirit shall glorify Christ and shall show it unto us. You see, beloved, He shall guide you. He shall not speak of Himself. He shall only speak what He hears the Son say. He shall show us yet more, more of Jesus yet to come, deeper things.

Beloved, beware of being preoccupied with end-time events. Beware, He will show us Christ. And so I'd like to ask this morning, is the ministry of the Holy Spirit working in your life? Are you finding power to deny and disown yourself?

I should use my new toy. Check this out. Forgive me. That's my new pointer. Is the Holy Spirit giving you power to deny yourself? Listen, beloved, listen. Is He guiding you into all truth? Making the eyes of your heart see more and more of Jesus?

Love’s Refusal to Keep a Record of Wrongs

Do you hear Him speaking? Not of you or others, but do you hear Him speaking those things that pertain to Christ and His kingdom? Do you see more and more of Jesus Christ? Thank You, Lord. I Corinthians 13, just for a few moments, we want to look at one point here.

Thank God for His presence. We have been for several months now looking together in I Corinthians 13. And we have been discovering the heavenly qualities that God desires to form in our life. And we've learned that love is long-suffering.

It's kind. It doesn't brag. It's not puffed up. It doesn't behave itself unseemly. It is not selfish. It doesn't seek its own. It's not easily provoked. It thinks no evil. We learned last week that to think no evil simply means that when...

Listen carefully. When it is wronged, it doesn't keep an account of the wrong deeds that are done against it. It forgives and forgets how well are you doing when you come to see this feature of love that Christ alone possesses.

How well are you doing regarding the hurts and offenses that have happened to you over the years? Are you keeping a record in the depths of your mind, in the depths of your heart? Do you have a running ledger?

And there you have meticulously marked very carefully, specifically the wrongs that have been done against you. Brother, sister, mom, dad. Well, God's Word tells us that love does not do such a thing.

And we are in need of the power of the Holy Spirit to release us from our natural tendency to record the wrongs that have been done against us. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 5b. Love is a forgetting love. It does not keep the record of wrongs.

It does not bring up the past when angry or hurt at someone. Love does not bring up past failures in order to punish or hurt someone. Love does not hold grudges. Love blots out, to smear out, so as to completely remove, to obliterate, to erase, to wipe away the offenses that have been committed against it.

I want to encourage you today, brothers and sisters, as we mentioned weeks ago, buy a plot and bury all the offenses and all the hurts that have been against you. Bury them once and for all by the grace of God.

Beware of the snare that can come without this grace working in your life. Micah 7, verse 19 says that God casts our iniquities in the depths of the sea and remembers them no more. Have you done that with those who have hurt you, betrayed you, failed you, unjustly treated you?

Love Does Not Rejoice in Iniquity

You say, I can't help myself. You're right. You can't. But there is a God in heaven who can help you. Next, we see verse 6. Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

There are two times in the King James Version the word rejoice is used in that particular Scripture. Beginning in verse 6, rejoice is not in iniquity. So, it's rejoicing in relation to iniquity. But also, the word rejoice is used in relation to truth.

Now, listen carefully. These are two different words that are used. The word that's used in relation to iniquity is one word, and the word which, of course, they're both translated in the King James, rejoice, but they have different meanings.

And it's very important to understand this so that we can sense what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us about this perfect love. And so, there's two different words. Firstly, we'll look at rejoiceth in iniquity.

It does not rejoice in iniquity. In that particular usage of the word, it means to be happy, to be glad, even, listen carefully, to be entertained by. So the true nature of agape love is not happy with, it does not derive a sense of joy, nor is entertained by iniquity.

Now, the word iniquity there means lawlessness, made up of two words. One means no, and the other means law. So, no law. Lawlessness. God's love, working and growing in our heart, will free us from our natural tendency, which is to take joy in or be entertained by evil.

You might be saying right now, well, brother, I don't see where I am happy with or entertained by evil. Well, 99 maybe. Consider what society esteems and values. Lawlessness. Success through deceit.

Brothers and sisters, I simply ask you to pray and ask the Lord Himself to instruct your heart in these things. Lawlessness is simply seen by understanding the Ten Commandments. Lawlessness is stealing.

Lawlessness is murder. Lawlessness is immorality in every shape or form. Lawlessness is adultery. Lawlessness is swearing and cussing. Lawlessness is violence. Lawlessness is dishonoring mom, dishonoring dad.

Lawlessness is rebellion. Isn't it? Listen, love does not find joy in these things. Love does not rejoice. Listen, love doesn't laugh at these things. Love is not entertained by lawlessness. What has happened to us?

What has happened to us, O God? The 21st century church calls us heaven to weep. They look down and they say, O dear God, what is it that we hear within the borders of Your house? We hear joy. We hear rejoicing.

We hear laughing. But it's not over truth. It's over lawlessness. Lawlessness entertains us. Lawlessness makes us laugh. We stand at the place where the Corinthians stood, where within their own ranks there was a young man who was sleeping with his father's wife.

His father's wife. He was sleeping with her. He was committing fornication. And Paul said, how is it that you are not weeping? How is it that you are not mourning over this? How is it that you look at such a thing and casually blow it off?

Paul's saying, don't be deceived by the culture that you live in. You see, in the day when Paul walked the earth and he ministered to the Corinthians, they lived in a perverse culture where such an act was common.

But yet he even said that such an act wasn't too common. It was the epitome of lawlessness. And how did it affect the church? It didn't affect them. They were numb. Brothers and sisters, hear the heart cry of God this morning.

Hear the heart cry of His Word. Hear the heart cry of all of heaven. We must pray, oh God, restore back into our lives, into our homes, the capacity by Your love and by Your grace to stop being entertained by lawlessness.

This, when I went to buy my laser. Doesn't that work great? Look at that. Anywhere. That's really a great pointer. I like that. I'll start using it more once I feel comfortable. I'm not comfortable with it yet.

When I went to buy this, I went to a store in Rockaway Mall. I had never been in this store before. And so, having walked in, I talked to the young man at the counter. And he said, oh yeah, we have those laser pointers.

And you have this. And he had another one that was actually an inch and a half larger. But I figured this was adequate. And I looked around and I said, boy, I've never been in this store before. So I began to walk around.

And I was amazed at what I saw. It was a store full of gags. A gag store. Licentious humor. And there were a lot of people in there. And as I looked over the counters, I was watching reactions from people.

Most everybody was laughing. Listen, they were being entertained by the risque jokes and the gag comedy that these items that were for sale that were offering people. Ninety-nine percent, ninety-eight percent of the comedy was of immoral content.

They laughed. They were laughing. Love does not rejoice in iniquity. Brothers and sisters, we're going to go to the next point, but I'm just going to be as plain as I can. The church should not be entertained by evil.

Period. And the fact that we are, and I pray that God will deal with any self-righteous heart, mine first, I pray that God will awaken our hearts so that we can see how if we are not careful, we will depart from God's standard and accept what the culture says is okay.

Isn't that true? It's very easy to do it. And do you know what the effects will be? We will raise a generation who will call good evil and who will call evil good and who will no longer be able to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, the right and the wrong.

But everything will be okay. Whatever you want to do, brother, it's okay. We will fall into the lie of tolerance. Let's be tolerant. Let's not judge anything. And when that happens, the Lord sounds a warning.

He sounds it again and again and again. And if we don't repent, He will take His presence and His Holy Spirit somewhere else. Somewhere where He will find a people who will agree with Him. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

The second word that's used there is a different word. This word means to be happy, to be glad, or to be entertained by. But this word means, this is so incredible, it means to sympathize with and feel the joy of knowing and seeing the reality of something.

God's love is not entertained by lawlessness, but is able to sympathize and to share in the joy that comes whenever there is a display of truth, reality, genuineness, that which is wholesome, that which is pure, that which is honest, that which is right, that which is just, that which is virtuous, that which is worthy of praise.

God's love jumps inside of us when there's any kind of demonstration of truth. That word truth means reality. And so, the ever-increasing love of God in the church will enable them to do two things. Cease from being entertained by evil and lawlessness and seek after reality and truth and experience the ecstasy and joy of sympathizing and feeling the joy of that truth.

Thinking on What Is True and Pure

Philippians. We're closing. Chapter 4. Listen carefully. Verse 8. Philippians 4, verse 8. Listen to the words of the Holy Spirit here as we close. And consider this. Don't these words perfectly fit together with this admonition?

Love will not be entertained by, will not take joy or pleasure, will not laugh at lawlessness, but it will derive tremendous joy in sharing in the truth. Watch the words. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good rapport, if there's any virtue, if there's any praise, listen, think on these things.

The mind of the Christian should be thinking on these things. I ask this question, and I believe the Spirit of God is asking this question. Do you want the Spirit of truth in your life? Do I want the Spirit of truth in my life?

Do I want to see Jesus in His glory? May God deliver us from iniquity, from being entertained by lawlessness. And may the Holy Spirit begin to show us the joy that we will find in seeking out and thinking upon truth.

We live in a generation where there's a danger. There is a danger right now in this generation that we live in. None of us are exempt. The danger is we are forgetting what is holy, what is pure, what is right, what is just.

We're forgetting it. We are entertained by iniquity. You know what a gladiator was back in the days of Paul? A Roman gladiator? You know what they did? They went into an arena and what did they do? What did they do?

They fought until the death. Guess what one of the hottest forms of entertainment was back then? That. See, Paul knew what he was talking about. The Holy Spirit knew what He was talking about. He was saying to the church then and He's saying to us now, don't be entertained by lawlessness, but seek to see Jesus.

Repentance and Renewal in the Home

Let's bow our hearts. Father, we thank You for a clear Word that You give us every time we open up Your Word. Lord, it's a challenging Word. Lord, we all stand before You guilty of finding ourselves entertained by lawlessness.

We pray that You'll deliver us. You'll rescue us. You'll rescue our children. You'll rescue our homes from such a snare and that You will once again restore into our hearts a fresh vision of the purity and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ so that our minds can be stayed upon Him.

Lord, we lay these things before You. Do this, Lord. Uproot the world out of our homes, out of our hearts. Lord, we confess our sin. We've let the culture define for us what's right and wrong. We've let the culture tell us what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

Lord, if we continue on this path, we will in fact, if not in word, in deed, we will call that which is good evil and we will call evil good. But in Your mercy, Lord, You are coming to us weak, poor, and feeble.

And You're drawing us back to Yourself. I pray for a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit in every home, every hearer of this message that You would speak and perform Your Word and uproot, even as Gideon did, the altars that have been built to strange gods.

Uproot them and tear them down. Gideon began in his father's house. Do it, Lord, so that we can be able to receive the Spirit of truth and the things that You yet want to reveal to us, but You can't. We commit this Word into Your hands.

Amen and Amen.