0:01 Yesterday evening, I began a series on the subject, the truth will set you free. Since this is the July 4th weekend, I thought that would be an appropriate subject, freedom in Christ. 0:19 And more so because my observation many believers have not experienced all the freedom that we have in Christ. We may have experienced a part of it but not all because we don't know the truth. 0:38 Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Amen. >> And I thought of an event that happened in American history that some of you may not know of. 0:57 And that was something that happened 141 years ago on the 19th of June. Now, that's significant for me because that's my wedding anniversary. But a lot of people I discovered in the United States celebrated because of some 1:12 other event that took place on the 19th of June when President Lincoln proclaimed the proclamation of emancipation on the 1st of January 1863 because there was no television, radio 1:31 and etc etc. A lot of the slaves down in the south never knew about it. And you can be pretty sure their slave masters didn't want them to know about it either. And so for two and a half years, many of those slaves continued to be in slavery 1:50 even though the proclamation of emancipation had been issued and put into effect. Two and a half years later on the 19th of June known today as Junth 1865 2:09 a general went down to read out this proclamation to the slaves. Then they knew they were free and they could enjoy their freedom. A far greater proclamation of emancipation was declared more than two 2:26 thou nearly 2,000 years ago on Golgadas Hill when Jesus said, "It is finished." That the reign of Satan over man was finished totally, not partially. But once again, you can be pretty sure 2:44 that the slave master doesn't want the slaves to know the truth. And that's where Junth has a significance for us. >> If you don't know the truth, you won't be free. >> If you know the truth, you can claim 3:01 your freedom. It's your right. Think of the matter of forgiveness of sins. Yesterday evening, I was speaking on freedom from guilt and from the curse. There are multitudes in the world today who are not free from guilt, from the 3:18 guilt of sin, which many of you are free from. You are sure that your past sins have been forgiven because you knew the truth. Some time ago, you heard and believed that Christ died for all your sins. Like we sang just now 3:38 that the blood that Christ shed on the cross was an atonement for every single sin we ever committed in our life if we hadn't heard it. Like many millions today have not known the truth. We would not have been free. And there are many 3:55 millions who are struggling with guilt trying to do all types of works and sacrifices and giving money and going to pilgrimage centers to get forgiveness when it's offered freely by Christ. Do you see the power of truth? If you did 4:11 not know that truth, you would have been doing the same thing. But the truth has set us free from doing any works to get forgiveness of our sins. But that's not all. our slavery. We're not just slaves to guilt and the curse of far greater 4:29 slavery. It's the slavery to sinful habits in our life. Now, is the gospel something that only promises us mercy and forgiveness for our past sins, but leaves us enslaved in sinful habits so that we have to keep on 4:48 falling and keep on asking for forgiveness and keep on falling again and asking for forgiveness. Is this a merrygoround that we can never get off from? That again depends on whether we know the truth or not. And it is at this 5:03 point that the devil keeps the minds of believers blinded from the truth if he did not succeed in preventing you from knowing the truth that your sins can be forgiven. And he says, "Oh, they got to know that 5:22 truth. They are free from guilt now." Well, the devil says, "Let me keep their minds blinded from the further truth that they can be freed from sin's power as well." And do you know how much he has succeeded? Around the world, we have believers who 5:41 are born again, whose who are absolutely sure their sins are forgiven, and it's true, but who are defeated day after day by the lust of the eyes, by internet pornography, by anger, bitterness, 6:00 jealousy, strife, quarreling, and yet their sins are forgiven. And every time they sin, they confess their sins are forgiven again. But they never seem to get out of this vicious cycle of sinning and asking for forgiveness and 6:17 sinning and asking for forgiveness. It's an endless cycle. I would say that's pathetic good news. If all that the Lord has to say to me is that your sins can be mopped up. I heard of a a story 6:37 that in a certain lunatic asylum where they put mad people or people were off their heads in some way, one of the tests they used to find out whether the person had come back to his senses was this. They would put him in a small room 6:56 where the tap was open and the water was flowing and they'd give him a mop and a bucket to dry the floor. And if he kept on mopping the floor without turning off the tap, you know that he's got to stay there a little 7:14 longer. It's a pretty good test. I'll tell you that. So that's my question. Does the Lord do something about this tap? 7:31 Or does he just give us a mop and bucket and we live in this endless cycle of mopping up and mopping up and mopping up? When is it going to end? We need to stay there a little longer then. We haven't come to our senses. The 7:46 devil has blinded us to the truth. But you know what the truth is? Let me read it to you in Romans chapter 6 and verse 14. [Music] Sin shall not 8:04 be master over you or sin shall not rule over you or sin shall not have dominion over you. Whichever translation you take, it says the same thing. I got a little book at home called the New Testament in 26 translations and 8:23 they all say the same thing that sin shall not rule over you in one way or the other. It shall not rule over you. It shall not be master over you. And there's a reason because you're not under law but under grace. Or to put it in other words, you're not 8:41 under the old covenant. The law refers to the old covenant which God made with Israel. You're not under that. You're under the new covenant of grace. Grace was an unknown word in the Old Testament. Do you know that? A lot of 8:58 people think grace means God's unmmerited favor. It does not. Let me correct your opinion from all these unscriptural definitions that we have heard in Christendom. Unmmerited favor. people got from the time of Adam. You know when God clothed 9:17 Adam with skins of an animal, was that merited? No. Every single thing that every human being unbeliever or believer that's ever got any goodness from God and a lot of people have got plenty of goodness from God is unmmerited. 9:33 When God gives us health and he gives health to billions of people in the world, it's unmmerited. So unmmerited favor is not grace. Because if it were grace, then sin wouldn't have dominion over him. Nobody could receive grace in the old 9:48 covenant. When it says in Genesis 6 that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, it only means favor. It doesn't mean the type of grace that's described in John's gospel chapter 1 and verse 17 when it says, "The law came through Moses, but 10:07 grace came through Jesus Christ." There was no grace till Jesus came. And so under Moses, they could receive certain blessings. But we can receive more under Christ. You say, how much more? Well, as much 10:26 more as Christ is higher than Moses. And that's quite a bit. For example, David lived under the law. And 1,000 years before Christ, he could say, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, who 10:43 forgives all your iniquities." He had the joy of forgiveness of sins. And if we have only that, we haven't got any more than what people received before Christ came. 1,000 years before Christ came, David wrote that in 11:03 Psalm 103. Some people think healing is a great thing. They think that is the new covenant blessing. Read Psalm 103 again. David said, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, who heals all your diseases." 11:21 That was an old covenant blessing, too. What was it that David could not say in Psalm 103? He said a number of things. Who forgives all your sins. who heals all your diseases, who blesses your life with good things. Some people 11:39 think material prosperity is the mark of God's blessing. That was 1,000 years before Christ, who blesses your life with good things and salvation from hell, who saves your life from the pit. These are these are the four things 11:55 David said in Psalm 103. Who renews your youth like the eagles. Amazing things. If you read Psalm 103 and there you take some time to read it and you'll see the blessings people had before Jesus ever came and died on the 12:12 cross, before the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. And if that's all I'm going to get today, I say Christ may not there was no need for him to die. There was no need for the gift of the Holy Spirit in any case. 12:25 There is more. And the devil has blinded the eyes of perhaps many of you sitting here because he does not want you to be free in that other area. You're free from guilt. You're free from the curse. But he doesn't want you to be free from 12:40 the power of sin. He wants to rule you with the power of sin. Mess up your life. Mess up your married life. Mess up your mind. Mess up your sleep at night. That's what the devil's aim is. But I want to say to you, if you open your 12:56 minds to the truth, the truth can set you free. You can experience something that you've never experienced in all your life. When we come to the church to hear God's word, we must come with expectation. We mustn't come saying, "Oh, well, just 13:12 another routine meeting. We're going to hear some more, a little pep talk to pep us up, and then we go home and come back to the old level of life he always lived and come back next Sunday again for a pep talk." No, we got to come with 13:25 expectation that God is going to do something for us. God's going to say something to us. And if you come with that expectation, say, "Lord, you're going to speak something to me this morning that will change my life permanently, that will lift me up to a 13:37 new level of life that I've never experienced till now." Then God will speak the truth to you. You shall seek me, the Lord says, and find me when you search for me with all your heart. If we come to God half-heartedly and we're just coming to get some more 13:53 information, well, you'll go away disappointed. God doesn't want to give us information. He wants to give us truth that sets us free completely. That's the full gospel. That's what grace is supposed to do. 14:10 Grace is meant to set us free from the power of sin. There's an Old Testament word which is called mercy. Mercy is an Old Testament word and a New Testament word. Mercy relates to cleansing of our sin in the past. We 14:27 could say in a in a simplistic way. Mercy relates to the past. Grace relates to the future. Forgiveness of sins is only a small part of grace. You have forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. It says in 14:41 Ephesians 1. But those riches are far more than just forgiveness. Let me show you a word in Hebrews in chapter 4. In Hebrews chapter 4, this is such a precious theme for me because for 16 years of my own life 15:00 after I was born again and baptized in water and baptized in the Holy Spirit, I did not know what grace really was. And I was defeated for so many years as a preacher. I was defeated by sin. And I was ashamed to acknowledge it. 15:19 But it's different today. It's been different for a number of years in my life. It's become real. Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us draw near with boldness." Now, you'd never find a verse like this in the Old Testament. Nobody in the Old 15:37 Testament could do this. This is only after the veil was rent. Like we heard a little while ago, that veil in the temple was rent so that we can get into the most holy place where there is a throne where our father sits. And it's 15:53 called the throne of grace. No man in the Old Testament could ever come there. But here it says, "Let us come with boldness to this throne of grace. where our father sits. And when we come to this throne of grace, what do we get 16:11 there? First of all, what we all need? Mercy. Because we have sinned so much in our life. We made a mess of our life for so many years. We all need mercy. And I'll tell you something, we'll keep falling. 16:29 And we'll need mercy till the end of our life. But there's something more that we can have beyond mercy and that it says here that we may find grace. They got mercy in the Old Testament. They used to sing 16:48 about it in the Psalms. Bless the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. They experienced that in the Old Covenant. But they could not experience the second thing mentioned here, grace. And that's why in the Old Testament, 17:03 nobody could ever say, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul, who has given me power to overcome sin, to overcome the lust of my eyes, to overcome anger, to overcome bitterness so that I can forgive that person who hurt me so deeply." People 17:18 couldn't say that. David couldn't say it. David could only say, "Praise the Lord who forgave my sins." And that's how it was with so many people in the Old Testament. Even the great prophet Elijah could not overcome depression and discouragement 17:35 because he didn't get grace. He got mercy. He could ask God to forgive him. But he couldn't get grace. There was no grace till Jesus came. And even after Jesus came, the disciples could not receive that grace till the Holy Spirit came. 17:54 The Holy Spirit is called in Hebrews 10:29, the spirit of grace. Grace. The spirit of grace. It's a prophecy in Zechariah chapter 12 or chapter 14, one of those chapters where it says, "I will pour out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of 18:13 grace." That's what was poured out on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit of grace. We sing a lot about the blood. The blood. The blood. I praise God for that. We could never have our past dealt with except through the blood of Jesus 18:29 Christ. But do you know on the day of Pentecost when the apostle Paul stood up and preached the gospel for the first time, there were two gifts that he offered all the people and most Christians have received only one of 18:42 them. He said God is giving you if you repent forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now the power of the Holy Spirit is meant primarily to free us 19:01 from sin's power. Now there lot of other things the Holy Spirit also does but his primary reason why he came into man was to free us from the power of sin. There's no other way to be free. You can't be free by listening to a pep talk 19:17 and overcoming sin. You can't be free by determining and gritting your teeth and saying, "I'm going to do it better from now on." See, that's what a lot of heathen religions teach. Self-discipline and yoga and all that to control our tongue, 19:31 control our external actions, but it doesn't do anything for our heart. The heart can be full of anger and you can control your tongue. It's inside. Whereas the Holy Spirit comes inside and does what the law could 19:50 not do. Says in Romans 8:3, what the law could not do, God did. God's done something which nobody under the Old Testament could experience. And it's important, my dear brothers and sisters, that you know this not just as a fact or 20:06 some information or or notes or points for a sermon that you're going to preach somewhere, but Lord, I want to know it in my life. I want to know the power of grace in my life that can transform my life, that can transform my family life, 20:22 that can lift me up to a plane of Christianity that I've not even experienced so far. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians in chapter 3, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. That's a great great verse. In 2 Corinthians 3 is a chapter that's 20:39 contrasting the Old Testament blessing with the New Testament blessing. And a lot of Christians haven't known that there's a difference. And one of the great blessings of the New Testament is where the spirit of the Lord is, there 20:52 is liberty or freedom. The Holy Spirit came to bring freedom. Now there again when we hear the word freedom. A lot of people think of external freedom you know freedom from oppressive powers from colonial regimes that ruled us or 21:12 in the church sometimes people think freedom to praise and shout and dance. Yes I thank God for all those freedoms. We appreciate all of them. But here is a deeper freedom than all that. Sometimes we can fool ourselves that we are free 21:25 because we say in our church we don't sit like in some churches where they're sit as if they're having a funeral on Sunday morning. No, we are free. We are free to raise our hands and shout and dance and all that. But freedom is more 21:43 than that. I remember once I was invited to speak at a charismatic conference in India and I was sitting up on the platform and um I saw the time of praise and I saw one man in the third or fourth 21:59 fourth row. He was so happy. He was smiling and clapping in every song more than anybody else. And I said, "Boy, I got to go and meet this brother after the meeting. He is such a happy person. And when I went up to meet him, I could 22:17 smell alcohol about 6 ft away from him. He was certainly a spiritfilled, but some other spirit. [Applause] He wasn't even converted. But he was spiritfilled 22:36 or spirit possessed, whatever you call it. But I learned something that day. That was 30 years ago. That you can clap and shout and dance better than anybody else with some other spirits too. That's why the Bible says in the same 22:55 verse, "Be not drunk with alcohol, but with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18." Because yes, the spirit will also help me to clap and shout. It's made me happier than ever anything else in my life ever did when I got filled with the 23:12 Holy Spirit. But >> there was something more. >> He began to deliver me from the power of sin. Yes. >> He doesn't only give to some the gift of speaking in other tongues but also the gift of controlling their mother tongue which is a little more 23:32 difficult. A lot of people I'll tell you who speak in other tongues cannot control their mother tongue. [Applause] I I'm not against speaking in other tongues. I speak in other tongues myself. But one of the things that the 23:51 Lord did when he filled me with the Holy Spirit, he began to give me control over my mother tongue. >> I don't want to be like those people who praise the Lord in other tongues on Sunday morning and shout at their wives 24:01 in their mother tongue on Sunday afternoon. >> No. >> God gives us freedom >> from the power of sin. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Don't let the devil keep you in bondage. 24:19 Jesus said, you know that verse he quoted at the beginning, John chapter 8 and verse 32. Jesus spoke to not to unbelievers. I want you to notice this. Uh read scripture in its context. 24:38 John 8:31. Jesus said to the Jews who believed on him. Did you read that? He was speaking to believers. What does he say to believers? You believers shall know the truth 24:57 and the truth shall set you free. And what do these believers reply? Oh, we're not slaves. We're Abraham's offspring. Or today we say, "We're born again. We're not slaves. What do you mean become free? We're already free. The 25:15 devil doesn't have a hold on us. We're going to heaven." And then Jesus replied to believers, I say to you, everyone, it doesn't matter what title he calls himself by, who commits sin is the slave of sin. 25:33 Every unbeliever who commits sin is the slave of sin. Every believer who commits sin is a slave of sin. Every pastor who commits sin is a slave of sin. Every bishop who commits sin is a slave of sin. It it doesn't matter who it is. 25:49 Everyone who commits sin, who cannot overcome sin, is the slave of sin. And and the slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son does. And then he said if the son if Jesus the son of God shall make you free you 26:09 cannot be free yourself. Yoga and self-discipline and pep talks will not free you from the power of sin. Gritting your teeth and determining will not free you from the power of sin. But if Jesus the son of God sets you free, 26:24 you will be free indeed. You'll be free outwardly. You'll be free inwardly. That is God's will. Do you know how much of defilement there is among God's people? The strength of a church 26:41 unfortunately is measured in these days by its membership. The number of people who come to the Sunday services and different churches boast that their membership is so large. There are mega 26:58 churches today that boast of thousands who come to their Sunday services. Is that really the strength of a church? What is the strength of a church as far as the devil sees it? It's the strength of people who are holy there who've been 27:13 made holy by the power of God. The devil's not afraid of numbers. Oh no, he's got millions and millions of demons. His numbers are far greater. He's got a mega group there down there in hell, far greater than any mega 27:31 church. He's not impressed by numbers. But what the devil doesn't have among his host is holiness. >> He's afraid of a holy man or a holy woman. One holy man or woman can make the devil tremble. >> More than a 100,000 unholy believers. 27:49 >> You got to know that. What the devil is scared of? He's scared of people who are humble, god-fearing, who live in over overcoming life. That's why once when someone you read in Acts 19 tried to cast out some demons, those 28:06 demons said, "Hey, Jesus, I know I'm scared of him. And Paul, I know I'm scared of him. But you fellas, I'm not scared of you people." >> Does the devil say that to some believers? Oh yes. >> Do you think the devil's scared of 28:25 believers who clap their hands and shout and praise the Lord and then watch out pornography on the side? >> Oh no. They're fooling only themselves and maybe other believers. They're certainly not fooling the devil. You think the 28:39 devil's scared of people who cheat and tell lies and unrighteous in money >> and shout and praise the Lord on Sunday morning? The devil's not scared of them. They don't accomplish anything for God's kingdom. >> So it's very important for us to 28:55 understand Jesus can set us free. >> But it's not entirely his work. If the work of holiness was entirely God's work, all of us would be holy today. That's the clearest proof that it's not entirely God's work because 29:11 Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Now in those days like we have in the villages in India where people don't have tractors they plow the fields with bulocks 29:30 and every person in Israel knew it and every person in any village in India knows what the meaning of a yoke is. A yoke is what you put upon two bulocks and they plow the fields together. And when a junior new bullock who 29:48 doesn't know how to plow the field has to be trained, it's put under a yoke along with a senior experienced bullock. And the senior experienced bulock as it were says to the junior bulock, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 30:07 If you follow me and stick with me under my yoke, I'll teach you how to plow an absolutely straight furrow. But you got to move at my pace and in my direction and I'll train you and in a little while you'll be as good as me. 30:25 That's the meaning of what Jesus said. Take my yoke upon you. You know, I can I can't do it on my own. That junior bullet can never learn how to plow that furrow straight. But it neither will it learn if it keeps on rebelling against every prompting of 30:44 the older bulock. So it's a joint operation. The Lord could do it all on his own, but he doesn't. He doesn't want to do anything on his own. You remember when he every miracle teaches us that when he was turning the water into wine and 31:02 there were those empty water pots. Do you think he could have produced wine in an empty water pot? Sure. What is there that the creator of the universe can't do? But if he made wine in those empty water pots all by himself, it would have 31:16 been his job 100%. But he doesn't do things like that. And that's what he wanted to teach us in his very first miracle. So he called the servants and says, "You do the easy job and I'll do the difficult one. You pour the water in 31:29 and I'll turn it into wine." And so when they poured the they did their part. If they had not poured the water in into those pots, there would have been no wine that day. But they poured the water in and Jesus turned it 31:42 into wine. And then he said, "Now there's something more you got to do. Take that out and serve it to people." And when they served it to people, they could say, "Jesus and I made this wine." It's true. They poured the water and 31:58 Jesus turned it into wine. That is how God does everything. It's a cooperation in your life. You cannot expect God to do everything and you can't do everything by yourself. to for you to try and live a life of victory over sin 32:16 by yourself is like you're trying to produce turn water into wine. It's impossible. But at the same time, Jesus won't do it unless you do your part. And that's very important for us to understand. There's certain things God 32:31 does. There's certain things we need to do. And it's because man has not understood this truth that many people say, "Oh, well, God's going to do everything and they're defeated by sin." And there are other people say, "I'm going to do 32:44 everything." They're defeated by sin, too. I want to show you an example in Romans chapter 6. You know, baptism, water baptism is one of the first things we testify to after we are born again. In the early church, they were baptized on the very day they 33:04 were converted. What does water baptism signify? It signifies something that's happened in our life. What has happened? It says in Romans chapter 6 and verse six, our old man was crucified with him. That's what 33:23 we testify to in baptism. When we are immersed in the water, we're saying that our old man, the subject is baptism, as you can read from verse four. You are immersed in the water, you're saying, "My old man is buried with Christ." And when I come up from 33:39 the water, I'm testifying that I am a new man in Christ. Now, what is this new man? Because, you know, you and I know that after we come up out of the water, we're still tempted every day just as much as before, perhaps more than before. 33:55 So something has died and something has not died. Temptation is still the same. But something has died which the Bible calls the old man. But there's something else which has not died which the Bible calls the lusts of 34:14 the flesh. And I want to try and explain this to you so that you won't be confused on this cuz I was confused on this for many years and nobody taught me. I had to go to the scriptures and find out myself what it meant. There is 34:27 a difference between the old man in the flesh to talk about victory over sin. Let's picture a house. My heart, your heart is like a house into which the thieves want to get in. The thieves want to get in to steal that which is valuable. 34:44 What do they want to steal? They want to steal my purity. That's what they want to steal. And those are the lusts of the flesh. The robbers, the thieves are the lusts in the flesh that tempt you to this and tempt you to that and tempt you to the 34:58 other thing to rob you of your purity, to rob you of your joy, to rob you of your peace, to rob you of everything that God wants you to have. Those are our enemies. The lust of the flesh, the devil, he's also our enemy who wants to rob us of these things. And 35:14 he's alive and hearty, hail and hearty even after we are baptized. But there's something else within that has died. Our heart is like a house in our unconverted days. We had an unfaithful servant living inside this 35:31 house called the old man. And whenever the robbers would come and knock at the door saying, "I want to come in and steal something." The old man said, "Sure, come right in." And he opened the door and said, "What do you 35:46 want? I want your purity. have it. I want to make you irritable. Sure. I want to make you angry. Go right ahead. That's what the old man, he always opened the door for sin. You know, we could never conquer that. But a day came in our life when we were 36:05 born again. God killed that old man. That old unfaithful servant who was always opening the door for the robbers to get in has been killed. That's what you testified to in baptism even if you didn't know it. 36:22 >> Romans chapter 6 is you'll never uh be in doubt about Romans 6 anymore. That's what it means. Something inside died. And that's why when we are born again, the next time the thieves come, we don't want to yield to sin. 36:42 We say, "Hey, I don't want to do that." Which I did in my unconverted days. Now, how is that? Because God's put a new servant inside called the new man. And that's what we testify to when we come up out of the waters. I'm a new 36:56 person in Christ. There's a new man inside who wants to keep the door shut against these thieves. The temptation comes even after the baptism. Jesus was tempted immediately after his baptism. And so will you and I. But Jesus 37:10 resisted it and drove the devil away. Why is it then when that believers fall into sin? Because the old the new man hasn't eaten properly. He's not strong enough. He tries to keep 37:28 the door shut. He's very sincere. He really wants to keep the door shut. He doesn't want to let the robbers in, but he hasn't eaten properly. He's not strong enough. His muscles haven't developed. And so the thieves come in. 37:43 Well, the thieves come in and take take away some purity from believers too. Take away the joy and peace of believers too. But there is a difference between the believer sinning and the unbeliever sinning. In the unbeliever's 37:57 case, they wanted to sin. The old man said, "Come right in." But you know, it's different in your case. After you were born again, you didn't want to sin and yet you fell. And that's why we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 38:13 See, the fullness of the Holy Spirit is what makes us strong, gives us spirit, gives the new man spiritual muscles to keep the door shut. then will be fulfilled in us that verse which says greater is he that is in you 38:32 than he who is in the world. The power of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ in us, strengthening the old man can keep that door shut so that the lust of the flesh can be overcome. This is real. This is not theory. This 38:51 is not some fancy story I'm cooking up. It's here in the Bible. It says in if you go from Romans 6 to chapter 8, you'll see that Romans chapter 8. Listen to this. And I want to paraphrase this verse. Romans 8:13. 39:11 If you live according to the flesh, you will die. That's what God told Adam. If you eat of this tree, you'll die. But if by the Holy Spirit's power you put to death the deeds of the body, you'll live. Here's a way of death and a 39:27 way of life. Let me paraphrase that. If you keep on opening the door of the your heart to these robbers, the lust of the flesh to come in and come in and take away your purity and take away your joy and take away your peace and take away 39:45 the riches God wants to give you. You will die finally. You will spiritually die. Your life will be useless to God and useless to man. And you'll sort of drift along. You may still come along to the services and clap and praise your 39:57 praise the Lord and all that, but you'll be living a life of spiritual death like a lot of believers. But you need not. Here's the better part of it. Here's the good news of the gospel. Not just the blood, which we're thankful for, but the 40:09 Holy Spirit. If by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can't do it on your own. That's why they couldn't do it in the Old Testament. They didn't have grace. The Holy Spirit brings grace. If by the power of grace that God gives you 40:23 through his Holy Spirit, you keep that door shut. Put to death the deeds of the body. What are the deeds of the body? Lusting with my eyes, death. Anger with my tongue, death. The sins I 40:41 commit with my hand, death to that. I'm not going to let you in, you old devil. I'm not going to let you in, you lust of the flesh, because now I'm filled with the power of the spirit to keep this door shut. [Applause] 41:00 >> You can be free. You can be free. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. So we now want to come to a a definition of sin. Now what is sin? When I first 41:18 got converted 47 years ago, I thought sin was drinking, smoking, gambling, ballroom dancing and few things like that. Well, that was easy to get rid of all that. We had plenty of that. I used to work in the Indian Navy and we had all 41:37 of that. We got rid of all that and so I thought I was saved. But salvation is much more than that. If our definition of sin is low, our understanding of salvation will be equally low. 41:53 I mean, if uh if you get grade F and that means pass, well then of course you you don't even have to study. But I sought and sought and sought in the scriptures to get the clearest definition of sin. And here's what I 42:11 found after many years. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 is the clearest definition of sin I found in the entire scripture. Once I know what sin is, I can be free from it. All have sinned 42:27 and come short of the glory of God. So sin is coming short of God's glory. It's not just giving up a few bad habits because there are a lot of people in the world who don't have these bad habits. It's coming short of God's glory. Now we 42:47 say what is God's glory? That's another word which sort of hazy in the minds of many believers. But the Bible says in John 1:14, the glory of God was manifested in Jesus Christ full of grace and truth in his earthly life. 43:06 So if you want to know what the glory of God is, look at the earthly life of Jesus Christ. The way he lived. That's where you see the glory of God. So now I get a definition of Christlike of sin. That is anything that is uncristlike 43:23 is sin. Anything that is contrary to the spirit of Christ is sin. And that is the highest definition of sin there is in scripture. anything that's contrary to Christ. 43:40 Now, what is God's goal for our life? In Romans chapter 8, we read in verse 29, a a word which a lot of Bible scholars and theologians spend their time arguing about. It's the 43:57 word predestination. People argue and argue and argue whether they're their human beings are predestined to go to hell or predestined to go to heaven etc. But this verse doesn't tell us anything about going to heaven or hell. 44:15 You know what predestination means? It means a destination determined beforehand. Pre- destination. It's like when you get an airline ticket. If you get an airline ticket from here to New York, your destination has been determined there. New York and 44:32 you get into the flight and you don't get off in Dallas or somewhere halfway through. You carry on till you reach your destination. And the Christian life, the Bible says God has given us has already determined our destination. And I want to tell you 44:50 that's not heaven. You know what our destination is? Read that verse. He predestined us to become like Jesus Christ. I mean, going to heaven is a byproduct, but to become like Christ, that's our destination. And just like when you get into a plane 45:07 to go to New York, you're getting closer and closer and closer every hour to your destination. When you become a Christian, God's will is that every year you should be getting closer and closer to your destination, which is 45:20 Christlikkeness, not heaven. Now, I hope we will see that so clearly. There's not a single verse in the Bible which says God predestined us to go to heaven. But there are verses to tell us that he was predestined us to become 45:33 like Christ when we see him. 1 John 3:2 says we will be like him. That's the most wonderful thing that's going to happen when he comes. Not just that I'll go to heaven. I'll tell you this. I don't want to walk the golden streets if 45:48 I'm bitter and sour and angry and lustful over there. No. No. I'd rather walk dirty streets and be Christlike. Which would you prefer? What is your destination you're looking for? A mansion up in glory or Christlikeness? 46:04 You can have my mansion. All of it. I'd rather be Christlike. That is the destination God has for me. It's not just freedom from suffering and tears and sorrows. It's not comfort and golden streets and a crown on my head. No, it's 46:21 Christlikkeness. I'm going to be free completely from this wretched nature I got from Adam completely. I praise God that's written on my ticket. That's my destination. I'm going to get there. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to move closer 46:39 and closer and closer to that destination as long as I live on this earth. I hope that's your goal, too. >> That's why we need the power of the Holy Spirit to become like Christ. You know when Jesus preached the gospel to the woman caught in adultery. 46:54 I love that story because there's something very beautiful which I never saw there for many years. You know the story in John chapter 8 where the Pharisees brought this woman caught in adultery and they quoted the verse in the law of Moses which said all 47:11 women who are caught in adultery must be stoned to death. And that was written in scripture. And they wanted to see whether Jesus would obey that scripture or you know they knew Jesus was a man of tremendous compassion. They wanted to 47:28 catch him and expose him. But you can't catch Christ. Oh no. You got to be a fool to think you can catch him like those people were. And then Jesus just waited a little and he said, "Sure, that's the law. Go right 47:46 ahead. But he who is without sin among you, you throw the first stone." And it says here they went out when they heard that beginning with the oldest because they had sinned the most. And it says that in John 8:9, if you haven't 48:04 noticed it, the eldest fellow started walking out first. And then finally there was nobody left. No, but there was one. There was one person left there who had not sinned, who had the right to stone her to death, 48:23 and that was Jesus. But Jesus doesn't love to throw stones. He doesn't throw stones at anybody. I mean, you may do that, but Jesus doesn't do it. The devil does it. Jesus would not pick up one stone and throw it at her. Even though he was 48:40 qualified by his own statement, he who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. That was the law in the Old Testament, but he wouldn't do it. And then he looked at that woman and said, has no one condemned you? 48:55 No one, Lord? Wonderful words. Here's the full gospel. Verse 11 of John 8. I also do not condemn you. And I want to say to everyone here who's made a mess of your life, whether it's adultery or murder or divorce or whatever way the devil's 49:15 messed up your life, if you turn to Christ and acknowledge your sin, his word to you is, "I don't condemn you." Men may condemn you. They may want to throw stones at you and get rid of you, but Jesus says, "I don't condemn 49:32 you." He says that to you this morning. I forgive you. I died for you. I shed my blood that you might never be condemned in time or in eternity. But that's only half the gospel. Then he said to her in the next part of that verse, "Now on, 49:51 don't sin anymore. You can overcome sin. You can overcome sin's power in your life. That's the second part of the gospel and that's what the Lord wants you to hear this morning. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you 50:08 free. The next time you're tempted to sin. The next time you find the robbers coming and knocking at the your heart's door and saying, "Let me come in." The next time you're tempted to be bitter against somebody. The next time you're 50:20 tempted to lose your temper and give a person a mouthful. The next time you're tempted when you're on your computer, the next time when you're tempted to write a letter, a stinking letter to someone, the next time you're tempted in 50:31 any way to make a little money by telling lies, and you find the pressure of temptation, the door is being pressed open. You know what you should do? come to the throne of grace and say, "God, give me grace to overcome this. 50:48 [Applause] I have done it." And he'll never say no. He'll never say no. You remember when Peter was sinking in the sea and he said, "Oh Lord, save me." The Lord didn't give him a lecture or a sermon. 51:06 >> He stretched out his hand and he'll stretch out his hand for you, too. He can keep you from falling. Jude 24 says he can keep you from falling and present you faultless >> before the throne of the father. 51:25 >> If you have never believed that in your life till today, I want to invite you to believe it today >> that he will not only not condemn you, he will also keep you from falling if you will believe him. Amen. >> Remember the years when you never 51:41 believed that his blood was enough for your sins. How wretched you were. What a change took place in your life. When you just believed his blood has cleansed my sin. What relief, what peace. Faith made the difference. It's the same 51:59 thing here. He has sent his spirit on the day of Pentecost. Spirit has never left this world. Open your being to the spirit. Why do we clean a cup? To fill it with something. Why did God cleanse your heart with the blood? To fill it 52:16 with the Holy Spirit. To fill it with grace so that you can be an overcomer all your days. Praise the Lord. [Applause]
