"How Perfect Must a Christian Be?" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

gonna be dealing with a difficult subject but an important subject it's one that actually makes people a little bit nervous when you use the word perfect in Christian in the same sentence it can stir up a lot of misunderstandings but I thought I like to hit things head-on and just go ahead and ask the difficult questions and really we're gonna be talking about what does the Lord expect from us how perfect must a Christian be and to begin with we're going to go through some just some understanding of what the Bible says about you know how holy must we be what does this mean when we hear the word perfect in the Bible how do we apply that to our lives nobody feels perfect the very words perfect Christian in our minds it conjures up images of super humans some kind of sterilized stainless steel robots that have antennae and they receive remote control signals from God do we have our free will now there's so much flaw in sin in our world today and we sense it in ourselves the world is obviously played with plagued with a flawed perfection I remember a few years ago I was at a particular hotel that I had a tough night sleep for one thing I think there was a time change involved wouldn't involve which makes it difficult to sleep there's a lot of street noise that was coming up and there were smells in the room I didn't care much for and there was noise that was coming from the rooms around me and an elevator and and I forget it was too hot or cold and I just didn't sleep well and then you know during the night I kind of tossed and turned and you know they don't some hotels the sheets just aren't big enough they tuck them in it just barely tucked in and so by the time I woke up I had twisted the sheets up and just pulled them off the mattress which exposed the corner of the mattress and I read there in the morning when I first sat up I had been sleeping that night on a syrup errific sleeper Matros and even though it was early in the morning I couldn't help but chuckle I thought Perfect Sleeper huh I said that was not a perfect night sleep and it seems like it's that way with so much in the world that you know we want the ideal but it seems like we fall short but a Christian is a follower of Christ and Jesus certainly was perfect who did no sin he was holy and then Christ calls us to follow him and he says in Matthew 5:48 this is one of the most troubling commands be II therefore perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect not only to follow Christ but to be as perfect as our Father in heaven well you know one thing that I should mention right away is that verse or a form of that verse is found twice you find it in Matthew you also find it in Luke 636 in Matthew he's talking about don't be like the Pharisees and how they treat each other he said but be perfect in Luke he says be therefore merciful even as your father in heaven is merciful so the god is looking for a perfect love and mercy from us in Ephesians 5:1 therefore be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ has loved us how do we walk in love as Christ who do we imitate God who has loved us and given himself for us Christians are supposed to be followers of the example of Christ and let's face it that if more Christians really did try to live and act like Jesus for their neighbors Christianity would have a better rap in the world better reputation John 1315 thrive giving you an example Jesus said that you should do as I have done to you Christ has come to be an example for us we follow him we follow his teachings I'm gonna give you a lot of verses in this message so I I hope I don't rattle them too quickly another one and now second I'm sorry first Peter 2:21 for to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps that we should walk even as he walked which is my next verse first John two five and six but whoever keeps his word truly the love of God is perfected in him now what is that perfect perfection I mentioned it earlier perfect love perfect mercy whoever keeps his word truly the love of God is perfected in him by this we know that we are in him he who says he abides in him ought himself to walk just as he walked so before we go any farther let me just talk about the word perfect look at a definition if and that what I did as I sort of commingled some of the definitions you'd find in a couple of different dictionaries perfect conforming absolutely to the definition of an ideal type something that is excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose entirely without any flaws defects or shortcomings accurate exact or correct in every detail and then the Lord says be therefore perfect well that's gonna be a challenge because the Bible tells us that nobody's perfect at least we've all sinned let me give you some of those verses job 5 7 yet man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward we are naturally prone for trouble isaiah 53:6 all we like sheep how many all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned every one how many everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all you can look in psalm 119:172 stray like a lost sheep first kings 846 solomon in his dedication prayer he says and when they sin against you you know doesn't say if they sin against you he says when they sin against you for there is no one who does not sin and you become angry with him if they pray towards this place well you notice how he said that there's no one who does not sin Psalm 14 two and three the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understood who seek God they've all turned aside they have altogether become corrupt there is none who does good no not one you know that song no not one no not one Ecclesiastes 724 there is not a just man on the earth who does good and does not sin Romans 3:23 and Paul is quoting from the verse in Psalms we just read for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Jeremiah 13:23 can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then may you do good who are accustomed to do evil so when you look at this barrage of verses and it's not all I could quote to you the bible does give a pretty clear picture that we have a chronic problem we've got a problem with selfishness in our natures that left to ourselves we tend to sin we are selfish we are unloving and there are no exceptions well 1 Jesus otherwise all have sinned but you do have examples in the Bible of people who live godly lives now let's look at those for a second there are some examples of godliness Genesis 6:9 Noah was a just man perfect in his generations Noah walked with God now of course there was that episode where Nora Noah got drunk and he stumbled around in his tent but the general tenor of his life was he was a godly man he found grace in the eyes of the Lord not only does it say that Noah walked with God you can read in chapter 5 of Genesis 24 and Enoch walked with God and he was so close to God says God took him he was not he got beamed up before he ever died first person you could say Enoch really the oldest man who ever lived Methuselah would be the oldest man who ever died but Nina never died he's still alive right so he walked with God so whatever God is asking for us we know that Enoch did it and we want to be able to do it walking with God Exodus I'm sorry Genesis 17:1 God said to Abraham I am the Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect there you have it again Old Testament New Testament God says to Abraham walk before me and be thou perfect now I oughta pause here and just ask a practical question and once you think about your answer will God ever ask us to do or be something we cannot do or be what would you think of a parent that asks the impossible of their child and then punishes them for not doing it I mean do we all know that the lost are getting the pretty severe punishment and so if God is asking us to do something and we can't do it then he punishes us for not being able to do the impossible is that just so the very fact that there is a punishment for those who do not follow God means that it must be possible to do what he's asking us to do now if it's possible don't you want to be one of those that would experience what's possible so often it seems like the emphasis in the church is we read the verses to talk about the weakness of man and we don't read the verses that talk about what man can do through God's help but Abraham did it genesis 26:5 because abraham obeyed my voice kept my charge my commandments my statutes my laws and then I know some of you are thinking what about the time he lied said Sara was his wife well maybe white lies are okay because she was his half wife and half sister can't be half white can you we can't be half sister what about the time that he took one extra wife this is sort of a surrogate wife named Hagar get it a surrogate wife now you got it I can but it says Abraham walked before me Deuteronomy 1813 now al to be perfect with the LORD thy God it's not just Jesus in Matthew five God was calling people to follow him with a perfect heart job two three the Lord said to Satan that God is saying this God said to Satan have you considered my servant job that there is an unlike like him on the earth a blameless in an upright man one who fears God and shuns evil that word blameless there is the same word that you heard translated perfect in these other verses it's the same word now in Hebrew the word for perfect is Tamim and it means to be entire integrity no cracks without blemish complete full perfect undefiled the New Testament the word for perfect appears about 42 times and it comes from a word in Greek to Leo's meaning complete in labor growth mental and moral character a full age or something that is ripe perfect and God is calling us to be Tom IAM and helios he wants us to be complete in him now are there examples in the New Testament of people like Abraham and Enoch and Noah and Jobe you can read about Zacharias and Elizabeth Luke 1 they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly did Zechariah's have doubts when the angel said you're gonna have a son and he was struck love for that but yet God says he was a righteous man so what is the Lord talking about talking about people who are flawless are people who are consistent in following him Philippians 3:15 let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded James 3:2 If any man offends not in word the same as a perfect man because have the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and if your heart is transformed your words will be transformed and if you've got your words under control you are a perfect man that's what James is saying revelation 22:14 last chapter in the Bible blessed are those who do His commandments that they might have a right to the Tree of Life and enter through the gates of a city John 17 jesus said I in them and you in me that they may be perfect in 1 that there you have it Jesus talks about what it means to have that perfect relationship I into them father as you are in me as Jesus was a perfect representation of the father in the world Christ says I through the spirit will fill you and you will be a perfect representation of God to the world you remember after the disciples received the Holy Spirit and they were preaching and actually defending themselves before the Sanhedrin and they spoke boldly about Christ and it says her enemies looked at them and they marveled and said aren't these unlearned men they took knowledge that they had been with Jesus they were acting like Jesus and they could tell the early church exploded with phenomenal unprecedented growth because the members the believers filled with the holy spirit love Jesus so much they wanted to be like him and they reflected the life of Jesus in the world that ought to be the desire of every Christian because we love him we want to be like him Colossians 1:27 Christ in you the hope of glory you know that's what I think we all want is to have that experience now that's not the whole message that's being told to the church today and I got to be careful how I say this if we emphasize grace as simply a cover-up for sin and we don't understand that God gives us grace to be made perfect in Christ then we're misaligned with the grace of God is about I am thankful for God's graciousness to I am thankful for his amazing grace in His mercy that he forgives that whosoever comes to him that he's willing to forgive all manner of blasphemy and sin you know people always want to focus on the unpardonable sin they become very preoccupied with which sin is that they miss the wonderful part of that verse it says all manner of sin and blasphemy will be forgiven unto man all manner does the Lord forgive murder does he forgive lying and adultery and you can all think of some savory characters in the Bible that represent those things that we know God forgave Peter who denied him and we're almost encouraged by looking at their fall in the Bible because it gives us hope if they made it but all of them repented of their sins and changed and the tendency is in the church today that we want to live in their fallen condition we look at Abraham's lie and we say this lines okay or we look at Peters denial or David's adultery and we say well they were saved so God's gonna give me grace to continue living this way that's not what the grace of God is about the grace of God is to forgive you from that and transform you by the renewing of your mind that we might be new creatures and not be held captive to the old the old sins and this is the big lie of the devil the devil is not threatened by our going to church if we never hear the truth if nominal Christians can be drugged with a false assurance of salvation they'll never Strine strive to find the truth and there are a lot of churches in the country and the devil is this tickled pink to have people going there because if they go there and they can at least get the illusion of being saved while they continue deliberately and known sin the devil is happier having them in church and asleep he wants them to go to church where they don't hear the truth and they will be hypnotized into this death sleep where they're lost in church but what the Lord really wants is for us to understand what sin is that wants us to recognize our sin and repent of our sin now that's uncomfortable because when that happens there's conviction involved let me give you a few more verses Matthew 7:21 not everyone who says unto me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven jesus said but he that hears the will of my father you sit in church once or twice a week and hear it he that does the will of my father in heaven jesus said I have come to do my father's will it means doing what Jesus did many will say to me in that day not for you many the majority Lord Lord they know his name how are we not prophesied in your name and in your name cast out devils and in your name done many wonderful works and I'll declare I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness the Lord wants us to be obedient not live lives of lawlessness first John 4:3 whoever commits sin commits lawlessness sin is lawlessness sin is the transgression of the law and we know that he was manifested to take away our sins and take away our lawlessness in him there is no sin whoever abides in him does not sin so it's talking about this abiding relationship where we're in Christ and Christ is in us now what did it say whoever abides in him does not sin do you want that relationship doesn't God say Matthew I'm sorry John chapter 15 that unless we abide in him we will not bring forth fruit and if we don't bring forth fruit we're good for nothing except to be cut pruned off cast and burned we need to have an abiding relationship where we have a living vital connection with Jesus every day revelation 3:5 he who overcomes is it possible to overcome otherwise why would Jesus say seven times in Revelation to him that overcomes I make these promises to him who overcomes he'll be clothed in white garments and I will not blot his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my father in his angels so he's saying if you overcome you'll be saved if you do not overcome and he's writing to the church your name is blot out of the book of life you mean a person could claim to follow Jesus have their name in the book of life but because they do not overcome their names are blotted out am i misinterpreting this or is that a clear understanding of what he's saying and if he does and if we do follow him he says I confess your name before my father and and his angels like he did with Jobe so is it possible to live without sinning you know Joe Cruz wrote a book by that and even the very title frightens people well when you understand what sin is what is sin in one word selfishness I know I just told you a definition lawlessness but in a word that's a little closer to home sin is selfishness if you were to define God in one word what word would you use love you got that right God is love God is light if we have Christ's spirit and if we have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts you do not have the love of God and selfishness they do not coexist you know on my phone I've got a feature where I can brighten the screen or dull the screen and it depends on how bright or dark it is outside the brighter it is the brighter outside the brighter I need my screen by contrast to be able to read it it's not that way with love and selfishness where you can kind of commingle them if you really have the love of grah the love of God dwelling in you it kills selfishness it's like turning on light expels the darkness and that's what we need we need a relationship where we really know most of us are trying to do the right things with selfish hearts and you know the beginning of the gospel actually appeals to the selfishness in us don't follow me you're gonna perish follow me golden streets live forever that's appealing to a selfish heart isn't it and that might be a starting point but somewhere along the way if you're gonna be a mature Christian you need to be motivated by love and not by selfishness where I want to do it not just because I won't be saved if I don't and I will be saved if I do I want to do it because I love God regardless of what's in it for me you know you can see examples of the real mature believers in the Bible when Moses says Lord take my name out of the book of life I love you so much I will willing to be lost that others might be saved that's perfect love when Paul says I would be willing to be lost that Israel might be saved he's not saying what's in it for me that's perfect love that's the kind of love I think the Lord wants us to have we don't get along a lot better if we have that kind of love in our lives where we said not i but christ loving the lord what does it mean love the Lord with all your heart isn't that the great command love your neighbor as yourself it's totally selflessness God is he asking us to sin no more now if your God and you needed to talk to your children about how much they could sin how much would you tell them I'd try and send a little less God is holy God is perfect how can he tell us anything other than no sin if sin is killing us then how much sin would God allow if on your wedding day for those that are married or those that plan on getting married some days you stood at the altar and you're saying your vows and the pastor says do you John promise to forsake all others keeping Jane solely unto yourself as long as you both shall live and he said how many days in a year 365 how about 358 I'd like one week a year where I could see some of my old girlfriends just one week and she looks at him with indignation a gasp that he would suggest such a thing and he says to her now come on Jane let's not be extreme are you wanting percent of my love I can't have a girlfriend I mean if you've got me 358 days isn't that enough is there any woman that would say I don't think there's any man that would say it either well 99% so Kay you can give your love to someone else once a year do you understand how it works with love so when you say what does God want from me he wants all of your heart and that means he doesn't want any sin in your life because sin is a result of your not giving God all your heart are we still together that makes sense all right no more sin John 5 you remember when jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda later man hadn't walked in 38 years Jesus found him in the temple and says to him see you have been made well sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you now you know why this is a difficult subject because whenever you preach it I don't know if you thought it to yourself you thought it about me but he said pastor Doug if you're teaching sinlessness are you claiming that you're sinless are you no no none of us would dare do that matter of fact I think you need to watch out for people to claim it so how can you preach a message that you can't point to anybody that's experienced then well but I did point to some people I said Abraham is going to heaven Enoch is already there Moses is going and many others I could cite in spite of their failure we need to at least have the experience they had what do they have they love the Lord with all of their hearts when they did sin they repented now I'm getting ahead of myself so he says sin no more you know the story of Jesus with Mary Magdalene or the woman caught in adultery when he raised himself up John chapter 8 he saw nobody but the woman and to the woman he said where are your accusers has no man condemned you she said and Lord is that neither do i condemn you go you're free and sin no more what would you expect him to say to this woman try to cut back on your adultery I mean would you ever picture Jesus saying that of course he has to say sin no more and that's what the Lord is saying to each one of us sin hurts you sin is lethal it's dangerous you know I remember when I was young my grandparents are the first ones that taught me the prayer and they were Jewish now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep and if I die before I wake and so your spleen I pray the Lord my soul to take I think Tony Campolo and he prayed the Lord he'd prayed that pray said Lord wake me up before I die he said if you're gonna pray something if I die before I wake wake me up before I die but you know and the idea is that you you say your prayers you ask God to forgive you before you go to sleep because you're usually good at least while you're sleeping and if you die in your sleep you'll be saved because you repented of your sins before you went to sleep so you may sin all day long hope you die in your sleep as long as you've repented before you go to sleep at night and then you know people say well pastor Doug you know I follow the Lord but sometimes I fall on I'm so afraid that what if I drive off the road and I have a car wreck right after I was listening to the wrong song on the radio and I didn't have time to repent or you can fill in the blanks you you know what I mean people are saying what if I don't repent in time I think you're looking at it the wrong way first of all God is not up there in the sky trying to catch you while you're down so the idea that God is gonna try and find the rare moment when you fall and say AHA now I'm gonna take him out that doesn't mean you need to become presumptuous or reckless about obedience and holiness and say you know I'm gonna plan on sinning and I'll just repent before I have an accident or I'll Drive very careful until I repent that's not the way to think you want to try to do all you can to live for Jesus day by day because you love him not because of what's in it for you well yes God is calling this to lives of holiness 1st Corinthians 15 awake to write and this is verse 34 1st Corinthians 15:34 awake to righteousness and do not see him for some don't have a knowledge of God and I speak this to your shame so don't take this up someone's gonna listen to this message and say pastor dad is perfectionistic what do you do with the verses that I'm reading I'm trying to give you a balanced picture is I've studied this this theme for years because you start thinking one way you think there's no hope and you think the other way and it seems like it's making a concession for sin the key is in what is repentance all right have we established all sin all how let me see your hands all have you fall in that category all of won't gone astray like sheep we've all sinned right so we repent of our sins so we get a clean slate to fill up with sin for another day is that the right attitude or should we be praying when we repent of our sins that God will then change our hearts and keep us do you want to see victory and change let me let me word it to you this way is there any sin you can think of that God cannot deliver a person from you name a sin you think of any sin drinking do we all know people that sometimes struggle with alcohol how many of you know people that have gotten the victory over alcohol even though they were desperate alcoholics why do I can name many names for you smoking adultery impurity pornography all kind of in the same basket pride can the Lord does he know how to humble us and take a proud person and make him humble materialism workaholics maybe you you pick whatever it is and if you can name a sin I can point to somebody out there that by the grace of God they have gained the victory over sin when we start developing a mental attitude that God is going to just expect us to continue going on in sin without gaining victory and still get to heaven what you do really is you pave the way for defeat if you believe that God cannot keep you from a sin and you believe the devil can tempt you to sin you believe the devil is more powerful than God let me tell you about a story in the Bible we're not gonna look it up but I'll tell you where it is numbers chapter 13 and 14 children of Israel send 12 spies to go Scout the promised land and you know what happened 10 of them they just looked at all the problems and there were problems there were seven other nations there the Israel was one nation and they weren't even the biggest there were several other nations they had big walls their cities fortified to heaven they were well-armed they were trained in war the Israelites were not they saw all of these obstacles two of them saw all the promises they saw the beautiful country they saw the land flowing with milk and honey and the fruit and and the beautiful cut better than it is today in Israel that's changed over the years they come back they say tell us what's ahead of us ten of the spy said we're in trouble we're not gonna make it two of the spies what were their names Caleb and Joshua can you name any of the 10 spies for me name one of them anybody have you noticed that the names of the ten spies have gone down into history with obscurity and infamy because they didn't believe God was able but the ones who had faith their names have been immortalized as they will be immortalized now notice the difference Joshua and Caleb both said we can make it a matter of fact the words they said we are well able the ten spies that didn't believe they said the problems are too big we are not able the ones who did not believe they were able were not able do you know all of them were church members aren't weren't they they were all members of Israel matter of fact they were all leaders and here you've got I don't know what the exact percentages where you got two out of 12 someone will tell me later but the majority of them said you can't make it two of them said you can make it the two said you can make it almost got stoned to death if God had an intervene by the ones who said you can't make it so the ones who said you can't make it they were very aggressively pushing that you can't make it could that happen in a church in a denomination where people why were they so threatened because they didn't want the battle Josh when Caleb says yes we can make it there'll be battles but we believe God will give us the victory now even though they believed when Joshua and Caleb survive the wilderness wandering and they did make it to the promised land were there battles when they entered the promised land were the battles over in one day how long did it take them you know when Joshua was old and he was 9 and Joshua lived 110 and Joshua he said God's given us the land but there are still battles to fight even on his deathbed he said you still have territory to conquer you know I heard that stirring that encouraged me because they hadn't completely conquered but they were fighting and he Joshua said don't stop fighting you know what he was afraid of he said if you take the promised land and you become comfortable with some of these Paris sir ammonites argelia sites all the ice if you beat termites if you become comfortable with them and you begin to get used to them they're supposed to be completely expelled from the land says they're gonna start being thorns in your eyes and problems for you as soon as you become comfortable with sin in your life it'll start bringing you down and the countries that they did not overcome later enslaved them you hear that we're their battles yes did they overcome in one day no can you be victorious yes you can don't give the devil more credit than you give God don't make the mistake of those faithless spies and look at all the problems did they overcome by their power or did they overcome by the power of God it is a miracle to live a Christian life and that I think is a very important point but there needs to be real repentance the Bible says he that covers his sin will not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes doesn't say just forever confess the same thing now if you make the same mistake many times as I haven't I know you have so I can tell you about me because you're in the same boat if you make the same mistake again and again remember the Bible says a righteous man falls seven times and rises again Mary Magdalene out of whom God cast Seven Devils don't get discouraged keep pressing on it says in proverbs 28:13 he that covers his sin will not prosper but whoever confesses and forsakes them first John 1:9 if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness how much unrighteousness is God want to save you from all of it so how do you know if you're a real Christian is it the occasional misdeed or good deed you know it says in the book steps to Christ it's not the occasional misdeed or good deed that determines whose side were on it's what are the habitual words and acts the life so if you fall it doesn't mean you aren't a Christian repent confess it to God and get back up again don't become complacent about making that mistake and there's a struggle involved sometimes Bible talks about striving against sin unto blood so who's in charge that's the question who reigns in your life Romans 6:12 do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts you may struggle with it but does it rain Romans 6:14 sin shall not have dominion over you and again for and Thessalonians 1st Thessalonians 4 3 and 5 for this is the will of God your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God now we are all welded to these bodies and these bodies have physical needs and they get tired and we've got pride and we all have a carnal nature there's a fleshly side there's the old animal passions all of us have this and then there's the spiritual attraction some of you remember a man mark chapter 2 he's carried to the house where Jesus is preaching he's on a bed he's paralyzed they can't get him through the door and they can't get him through the window finally they get him up on the roof and they lower him and down into the presence of Jesus on his band his bed was just a little better than a makeshift hammock caught and there he is on his bed and jesus heals him he says your sins are forgiven take up your bed and walk and before everybody his body obeyed his limbs were straightened out he stood up in perfect health he picked up his bed and he walked out the door came through the window walked out the door I doubt he went back out the roof came through the roof went out the door now he came to Jesus with a bed he left with a bed but there's a big difference when he came to Jesus the bed carried him when he left Jesus he carry the band that's the difference sin shall not have dominion over you there will be sin in the world you're gonna be facing temptation you may fall but doesn't have dominion over you do not let sin reign there might be a flare-up or a rebellion in a kingdom but the rebels aren't terrain and so if God is reigning in your heart and you love him then you're progressing in your growth if you can look and say I got a ways to go but praise the Lord as I look back I can see that there is progress that I'm becoming more like Christ that do not settle down like the Israelites did and become comfortable with the Canaanites living around you are they are gonna be a problem for you they will end up enslaving you in the end if you get to the place where you say well thank the Lord for the grace of God so I'm just gonna get used to the sin in my life and I'm destined forever to have these sins you're under estimating the power of God the devil will be happy to leave you right there because he's got you and you might think things are going on great it's just you've gotten used to being a captive and you're comfortable with it even the children of Israel they said let's go back to Egypt they'd forgotten what it was like you know they say if you're in prison for very long and then you get out you might start missing prison because you become institutionalized you become used to it that's why there's such a very high recidivism among prisoners think within two years the average prisoner is back in prison and some of them just started missing it because they just got used to there and being enslaved it's a lot easier to say we can't make it be like everyone else now I know a message like this can sometimes make people uncomfortable because and if that's good one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is it brings conviction jesus said that and it might hurt Titus 2:14 God who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed how many and purify to himself his own spellin his special people zealous of good works I don't know if you ever heard about the London Texas explosion back in 1937 there was a school and a little town called London Texas I know that sounds like a contradiction London and Texas seem like a pop oxymoron don't they but the school board trying to save some money they talked to a nearby petroleum station and asked if they could siphon some natural gas for the school to heat the building and the gas company was happy happy to oblige but whoever hooked it up in the basement of the building didn't realize they didn't get it sealed properly and there was a leak and one morning as school was going they realized it was cold in the building someone went down to light the furnace and all this gas had settled in the basement and it does blew the school sky-high 300 200 and 93 people were killed that was a major I mean right now there's 300 million people in North America back then there was not quite as many and that was devastating it basically took a generation out of a town because most of them were children the reason it happened is the custodian had no idea there was a natural gas leak but because before the London Texas accident natural gas did not have an odorant added to make it smell natural gas has no smell if you walk into a motor home or your house and you smell that sulfur it propane smell it's because it's added now and the only good thing that came out of this disaster is they decided to start adding an odor to make it stink so people would know when they were in danger of blowing up so if you walk in the door and you sniff and you smell that smell so you've got pilot lights that don't work on your stove and you light it with a match I know it's dangerous someone might turn that knob and fill the house but hopefully you'll smell it before a spark finds it well that's where the Holy Spirit is sometimes he has to make us realize that something that stinks in our life before it becomes fatal so that God can cleanse us from our sins there needs to be a sorrow from the sin and the turning away from it the Bible says Hebrews 12 for you have not resisted to bloodshed striving against sin we must not get to the place where we become complacent now here's the good news if we sin says we have an advocate with the father amen and Jesus in the Lord's Prayer you remember that part forgiving you says give us our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses why does he say daily bread because you need to eat every day why does he say forgive us our trespasses might be you need forgiveness every day but you shouldn't be committing the same thing every day Philippians 3:12 even Paul said not that I have already attained or I'm already perfected but I press on yes don't you find that encouraging Paul who wrote nearly half the New Testament not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected but I'm comfortable to stay where I'm at what was Paul's attitude I pressed on I press on are you comfortable with sin in your life have you gotten to the place where you say well I am so much better than others around me we compare ourselves among ourselves and by ourselves and that becomes the standard who is the one we're to compare to to Jesus I press on that I might lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me now this is what he says in Philippians you know what he says in 2nd Timothy I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith now I know I know whom I believed in I am persuaded he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that day I know there's a crown laid up for me Paul when he came to the place where he was going to face the execution he had complete confidence that God had cleansed him from all of his sins and that he had followed the Lord with his life now there is sanctification there's growth and we need to recognize it when you look at all the changes that you need to make in your life do you ever get discouraged you think Isis a pastor Doug you know it's not just one thing with me there's just a lot of areas again how can I be completely obedient it's not like there's one commandment there's several that I'm struggling with well you do it one moment at a time and you surrender yourself the more you love the Lord the more you're gonna hate sin fix your eyes on Jesus spend more time with Christ you're gonna find victories are gonna be more frequent I remember going to visit a young mother one time and she was so discouraged and she was so depressed she had three or four children and she hadn't been to church lately and I walked in the house and I am try and say this nicely she wasn't a hoarder so bad she would have made the television program but things were really piled up and she was embarrassed to let me in because she knew that the place was a disaster it wasn't like they were just a few dishes in the sink I mean just stuff was everywhere and it's hard young mother and she's trying to work and had all these kids and she just started crying and she said you know just my life so out of control in the house is such a mess and the kids are out of control I don't know how and just sees I get discouraged I don't even try it's gotten so far out of hand that I just I kind of do as little as possible I said what would you like to do things differently now you know some pastors would I said well let me pray for you but I'm a control freak I want to help fix everything so I said sister let me give you some advice I said if you want your life to get better sometimes you got to take control but don't worry about taking over the house I said pick a corner it doesn't have to be a big corner I said you need to ask God to give you grace to conquer a corner I said see that corner right there I said do you think that you could clean that corner in a day four feet by four feet oh yeah of course I said all right conquer that corner and then don't ever give it up again and then you find another three feet and another three feet and you will find you will be encouraged and if you get discouraged looking at the rest of the house you walk back in that room I said you look at that corner you conquered and then you go back and you take on another corner and you'll realize that you know how an ant eats an elephant one bite at a time you've heard that before right and sometimes it's that way when we first come to the Lord and we got all these problems and all this sin and you just got to do it moment by moment day by day trusting the Lord and you experience sanctification how did the children of Israel take the promised land one battle at a time one day at a time Aker by acre and that's what it's like in the Christian life do not become complacent though saying I'm so thankful for the grace of God I'm not gonna worry about overcoming there though there will be sanctification and growth isaiah 1:16 wash yourselves make yourselves clean put away evil from your doings cease to do evil learn to do good you know what that means living the holy life is a learning process if you learned how to sin you need to learn how to obey and you don't learn in one day at least molta mostly now some people are really gifted they can pick stuff up just like that I remember Karen I went to China and we bought a gourd flute it's a flute made out of a gourd or something like that for Nathan and we discovered Nathan had a gift for music he had never played a gourd flute before we gave it to him in a few minutes he was playing Amazing Grace and it was great because we were afraid we were gonna lose him in the crowd and the rest of the day we knew exactly where Nathan was because he just but some people you know they just have a knack but most of us it takes time to learn those things jesus said Lord John 17 I don't pray that you take him out of the world but you should keep them from the evil one sanctify them by your truth Your Word is truth so what sanctifies us his word it's through his word his holiness possible you know I heard that some years ago aviation engineers studied the bumblebee and they looked it over and they said with its weight in its little wings and the hair all over its body it is aerodynamically impossible for the bumblebee to fly and they drew it all up with charts and diagrams but fortunately the bumblebee can't read and so it kept flying and you're gonna find people that will say there are too many Canaanites in the land you cannot live a holy life you cannot be what God would call a perfect or complete blameless Christian you can also not walk on water but if Jesus tells you to come to him on the water he's gonna help you walk on water if you keep your eyes on him the only way they could conquer the promised land was through miracles and God fought many battles for them they went forward some battles they didn't even need to fight God made the Sun stand still he sent hail on the enemies in some cases he sent Hornets after them he fought for them and so if you are willing to follow the Lord and be courageous and say Lord I don't want the devil to have any possession in my life you know once you give the devil territory he according to many laws if somebody owns a square foot of land inside your acre of land they have access across your acre to get to their foot and if you give the devil a foothold in your heart then he ends up trampling over all of it to get to his territory you don't want to give him a foot hole you want the Lord to have complete possession of your life does that make sense you know I want to read just a few quotes to you that talk about this I said really all I want to say God wants us to have a consistent obedience and the experience of Daniel it says your God who you serve continually I want to have that kind of experience John beaver II in his book driven by eternity he wrote this we've taught that grace is God's blanket of protection for the disobedient life you can hear this mindset often by many in the church with common statements such as I know I'm not living the way I should that thank God for His grace this is a serious deception scripture doesn't teach that grace is a big band-aid but rather God's empowering presence within to do what the truth demands of us that's what grace is all about dr. AJ Gordon said we gravely fear that many Christians make the Apostles word if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves the unconscious justification for a low standard of Christian living it were almost better for one to overstate the possibilities of sanctification in his eager grasp or after holiness than to understate them in his complacent satisfaction with a traditional unholiness if we regard the doctrine of sinless perfection a heresy we regard the doctrine of contentment with sin sinful imperfection a greater heresy did you get all that that was good I hope you got it I'm gonna give you one more this is written by Adam Clarke and you've heard me quote him before I've got great respect for dr. Clarke he was the basically the right-hand man of John Wesley spoke several languages Hebrew Greek Italian are Latin and and just a dedicated Christian on Christian perfection here's what he wrote if men would spend as much time in fervently calling upon God to sanctify them as they spend decrying Christian perfection what a glorious state the church would soon witness this moment we would this moment we can be emptied of sin filled with holiness and become truly happy the perfection of the gospel system is not that it makes an allowance for sin but it makes an atonement for it not that it tolerates sin but that it destroys it let those who retain the apostille ik doctrine press every believer to go on to perfection and expect to be saved while here below in the fullness of blessing of the gospel of Jesus art thou weary of the carnal mind which is enmity to God can you be happy while you are unholy arise then be baptized with greater effusion of the holy ghost reader it is the birthright of every child of God to be cleansed from all sin to keep himself unspotted from the world and so to live as to never more offend his maker all things were possible to him that believes because all things are possible to the infinite limit aureus blood an energetic spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ well there is someone who believes so the question is are we able aren't we able you know friends that um I just think this is so important because I don't even need to tell you why I think you get it we're hearing different messages in the Christian Church in Christianity at large and even within our own church that we should become comfortable with lives of sin and just turn to the promises of God's grace and misunderstand thinking that grace is to empower us to sin or to permit us to sin it's to give us victory over sin it's the Transformus Christians are not just forgiven we are forgiven but you know that bumper sticker used to say Christians aren't perfect just forgiven any of you ever see that one no Christians are to be transformed were to be christ-like and it says if the thief stop stealing if the adulterer stops committing adultery if the sinner stops doing what is wrong and does what is right all of his sins will be forgiven and he will have life but if the righteous man turns from his righteousness and does according to all the abominations of the wicked all of his righteousness is forgetting it forget forgotten and in his sin which he has sinned he shall die I think that's Ezekiel 18 Jesus wants to save us from our sins sin is our problem don't be comfortable thinking that as Christians if we're a little better than the culture around us we can pat ourselves on the back aren't we being like Christ and when the church is really filled with the Holy Spirit and when we look at our lives let every man search and examine himself we'll strive to have that experience that we can all enjoy the joy of having a victorious life you know I'd like to just I'd like to have a benediction here and say a prayer for you before we sing our song our song is gonna be day by day and it's - I'm sorry five thirty - day by day but I just like to pray with you before we sing Father in heaven Lord we have we've talked about just the the basics of the gospel here today that you came into the world not to save us in our sin but to save us from our sin when we look at our lives we think whoa am i four I'm undone and we wonder how could we ever have that kind of experience but then we look at Jesus and we believe your word that if you ask us to follow you if you ask us to walk on the water all things are possible if we keep our eyes on you lord I pray that each person here will know how to apply these truths to their life that will start where we are coming to you and just point to whatever area in our life Lord you know needs attention and by your grace there might be striving and fighting and running and wrestling but help us Lord to gain the victory that we might represent you and be christ-like in this wicked world bless each person may your power of your spirit be you've fully realized in their lives and most of all Lord and help us to know you better so that we love you more and we serve you better we thank and we pray this in Jesus name Amen all right invite you to stand with me and we're gonna sing day by day five three two [Music] to me my child trusty my father's life I know [Music] No meaning [Music] Oh Oh [Music] you know I I think it would be appropriate today before we sing the next verse I don't know whether the next verse is the last verse or not that we we give people an opportunity to respond to the message today and some of you may have just really felt the Holy Spirit speak to your heart and it and feel a special need of Prayer you may have been struggling with something in your life for years and you just want the Lord to break the chains and help you to experience victory or you recognize you might be one of those people that have become comfortable letting the canaanites live in the land and you need to renew the battle to be more like Christ and you want special prayer as we sing the last verse or at least the next verse then I invite you to come forward we'll be having that prayer and a benediction at the end come as we sitting [Music] some teachers type not Betsey Johnson [Music] you know I'd like to close but just reading a benediction from the book of Jude the last two verses now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior who alone is wise me glory and Majesty Dominion and power both now and forget forever Amen father Lord we pray that we might experience these words we want to be all that you have called us to be all that Jesus paid for us to achieve and to accomplish to represented our lives please release that power in our hearts we yearn we pray as your children Lord to be what you have purchased for us your followers we thank you and as we go from this place I pray that we'll recognize you're with us and watch us always and watching over us always and we ask it all in Jesus name Amen god bless you maybe

Channel: Aaron

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Length: 63min 0sec (3780 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2018