If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves.
The truth is not in us.
If we say we have not sinned, we
make God a liar.
His word is not in us.
Here's the wonderful, awesome thing I want you
to consider.
First John 1-7.
If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
I have a question for you.
If you are walking in the light, why
do you need cleansing from sin?
If you are walking in the light, why
do you need to be washed?
Because your feet get dirty.
No matter how closely you walk to Jesus,
you will never be 100%, 24 hours of
every day, 7 days a week, 365 days
a year, totally, absolutely, completely sin-free.
And if you think you are, then you
have the sin of self-righteousness.
It's one thing when we talk in the
revival about being free from sin, we're talking
about not being under the slavery of sin,
not sinning habitually, free to do the will
of God, slaves of righteousness.
But has anybody here sinned so far in
1998?
Anybody sinned since you've been in Pensacola?
Before a revival meeting?
Understand the difference between being bathed and having
your feet washed.
You don't need to get saved again every
time you bow.
You don't need to get baptized again every
time you think a wrong thought.
You're saved, you're cleansed, you're washed, you're pronounced
righteous in the sight of God.
Now if you're truly saved, you're going to
live differently.
If six months later you're still sleeping around,
robbing banks and getting high, just do one
simple thing, quit calling yourself saved, because you're
not.
And the gates of heaven will be shut
against such a one.
Otherwise, heaven would not be heaven.
And the blood of Jesus wouldn't change anything.
But you've got to recognize in this world,
there's pollution.
It's not an excuse for sin.
If you're looking for an excuse for sin,
I question if you're saved.
If you're looking for an excuse for sin,
I question whether you really know Jesus.
If you're trying to see, how can I
find the way to sin and get away
with it, then how can you say Jesus
is your Lord?
God is your Father.
Heaven is your home.
The Holy Spirit dwells within you.
Something's wrong with that picture.
Amen?
But in this world, there's pollution.
In this world, you get your feet dirty.
I could ask men in here, how many
of you are living sexually pure lives?
Raise your hand.
Are you living in adultery with another woman?
No.
Are you living in sexual fantasy?
No.
Are you downloading pornography on the internet?
No.
Are you watching unclean movies, reading pornography?
No.
Have you had a lustful thought in the
last month?
Maybe.
Maybe that's how.
Maybe somebody glanced at something and looked away,
but maybe there was that split second.
A slight disobedience.
Your feet got dirty.
Lord, wash me.
Cleanse me.
And you keep going.
You don't go into the office and get
saved again.
God puts his finger on an area of
your life that's been habitual junk and unclean.
Yes, run to these offices and get right.
Probably the number one group of people coming
forward each night consists of believers that have
not been living close to the Lord.
And then the number two group would be
the backsliders, and the number three group, those
who are brand new first-time converts.
And they'll all be mixed here at the
altars every night.
But here and there, somebody will be coming
up, just because every time they think something
wrong, I've got to go to the altar
again, I've got to go through this process
again.
Lord, I'm sorry for that.
I turn, and you keep going.
Lord, I spoke evil.
I judged that person.
Those words I spoke were not kind.
Forgive me.
Cleanse me.
And you keep going.
You keep going.
In fact, you can have your feet washed
continually through the day.
Repentance and cleansing are continual processes through the
day, through our lives.
Number five.
Understand the difference between weakness and wickedness.
I want to be careful here.
I've only addressed this subject a few times
in settings like this.
So I want to be very careful when
I speak about this.
Understanding the difference between weakness and wickedness.
There are some people who simply do not
care.
If you find in your heart, so what?
What are you going to tell me I
can't watch pornography?
Oh, you're going to put your standards on
me.
That's wickedness.
Do what I want.
I'm a salesman.
If I want to tell a story to
make a sale, I'll tell a story to
make a sale.
You're not going to tell me how to
make a living.
That's wickedness.
The salesman says, you know, I'm trying to
be godly and do what's right.
Oh, exaggeration slipped out.
God, I'm going to call that person and
tell them I exaggerated and did it right
and live right.
That's wickedness.
Lord, I can't believe it.
I saw that joke on television.
All right, Lord, that's it.
I've got to get rid of the TV.
That's wickedness.
One thing is an attitude which is indifferent
to sin or embraces sin.
Another is an attitude that hates sin but
struggles.
Now listen.
To the weak, God says, be strong.
There is a place of overcoming obedience and
victory in the war.
I don't know who said this before, Jerry
Bridges, but it was the author Jerry Bridges
who made the distinction between victory and defeat
and said, maybe instead of thinking just of
victory and defeat in the Christian's life, we
should think of obedience and disobedience.
You know, you make a whole lot of
excuses saying, I'm just defeated.
He said, maybe we should look at it
as, I'm disobedient.
Don't put it on somebody else.
Put it on yourself.
But in point of fact, God will look
at you differently if you are earnestly crying
out to change and in the process of
altering your whole lifestyle and along the way
you slip up.
You get saved at these altars.
You truly cry out to God.
You know, you throw your needles out.
December 17th of 1971, I took all the
drugs in my home.
I took the needles and I just threw
them over a bridge.
Got rid of it.
No more heroin.
No more cocaine.
Goodbye.
Maybe you do that.
Maybe you say, Lord, I'll never have to
have a cigarette again.
And I'll never do this again.
And one week later you come under stress
and you smoke a cigarette.
God, I can't believe it.
Hey, God also sees the fact that for
the last 20 years you've been a heroin
addict and you're not anymore.
And the last 20 years you've been smoking
three packs a day and you're not anymore.
And the last 20 years you've been sleeping
around with whoever you want and now you're
keeping your body pure.
He sees that.
You smoke that cigarette and you feel convicted
over it and he gives you grace and
helps you.
Hey, you never smoked another cigarette.
There was a little weakness there.
Before that time, before you were converted, there
was wickedness.
God sees the difference.
And the proof is, if you are growing
and moving forward and putting sin behind you,
then there's not wickedness.
If you are embracing sin and walking in
it and hardening yourself to the conviction of
God, that's a terrible danger sign.
To the weak, God says, be strong.
To the wicked, he says, repent.
Do you understand the difference?
It is not an excuse.
It has to do with understanding God's attitude
towards something.
Number six.
Now, up to now, these have been the
nice things.
The pleasant things.
Now that we have helped you not be
condemned, now I can get a little bit
more ruthless.
Is that okay?
Is everybody ready?
Everybody realize that if you're saved, you're not
condemned?
There's no condemnation in Jesus?
Amen?
Okay, good.
Number six.
A lifetime of problems just evaporated in an
hour.
Number six.
Be careful to please the Lord.
Be quick to respond to his voice.
Be quick to repent.
Be careful to please the Lord.
You want to overcome condemnation once you understand
what it is and what it is not.
And there are also things that you must
do in your own life so that you
can know the smile and favor of God.
Be quick to respond to his voice.
Be quick to repent.
Psalm 95 starts off with wonderful words.
You know, pray, sing to the Lord.
Joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Yes, hallelujah.
Oh, he's our God, he's our shepherd.
And it ends with judgment.
Right in the middle is the turning point.
Right in the middle of that psalm.
Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden
your heart.
You harden your heart once, it's easier to
harden it the next time.
You harden your heart once, you're not as
sensitive the next time around.
You don't hear as clearly.
Your perspective is skewed.
Today, if you hear his voice, you may
not hear his voice tomorrow.
Let me share something that may bring a
little sobriety to some of you.
I got saved in 71.
I started preaching in 73 when I was
18.
All I wanted to do was preach and
minister.
Started college that same year.
A few years into college, Nancy and I
got married.
A year and a half after that, a
little less than that, we had our first
child just as I was graduating from college.
A lot of things had happened, married, family
now.
I was getting more and more into studies.
And instead of studies being a tool by
which I could better serve God, they were,
little by little, becoming an idol in my
life.
And I remember so distinctly in the summer
of 1977, as I was getting out of
college, I felt the Lord challenge me, preach
the word.
And I knew what it meant.
I knew it meant resistance and rejection and
misunderstanding.
I knew it meant unpopular stance.
I knew what the Spirit was saying to
me.
And I knew that he was making it
clear to me what I had to do
with my life.
And I wrestled with it because I thought,
well, I'm supposed to go primarily into scholarship
and not into the ministry of this kind.
Because my heart had changed over the years
in college.
Less and less time intimate with God and
more and more time just filling my head
with things that should have been head and
heart together, but instead it would be a
separation.
And I preached a good message called Preach
the Word.
Instead of taking it to my own heart,
I preached it to others.
Be careful of that if you're in ministry.
God speaks to you about something, you just
get up and share it with others instead
of digesting it first.
And after I preached it, I kind of
lost sight of it, and then I went
on with my graduate studies.
I got my master's degree, had all these
grants from New York University.
I was finishing up my Ph.D. work,
taking my last classes.
I was working on beginning my doctoral dissertation
and so on, the top of my class
and all this.
Five years went by.
Five years.
And God spoke to me again.
Five years.
You say, well, during that five years, wasn't
the gentle voice of the Lord reminding you,
reminding you?
Nope.
If it was, I didn't hear it.
So there was a process of time in
my life where little by little by little
by little by little by little by little
I turned from some of the areas of
God's calling in my life, and little by
little by little by little by little I
gave myself to something else, and it spoke
to me.
And I knew what he was saying, and
I didn't hear it.
I believe God would have had me go
on with my studies because he's called me
to do certain things.
He's called me to work in scholarly circles.
He's called me to teach in certain levels.
He's called me to certain positions.
And the understanding I gained from my studies,
it's all valuable.
And my ministry to the Jewish people and
debating rabbis and so on.
But it became an idol.
And I had to die to that idol
so I could fulfill what God called me
to do.
And if it meant lecturing in a seminary
one week and then preaching to unreached people
in India the next week, wonderful.
And if it meant being rejected and spat
on for the gospel instead of being applauded
after delivering a scholarly paper, wonderful.
But it was five years before God began
to deal with me about that again.
Summer of 77 to early 1982.
And when he began to deal with me,
I could not believe it.
Five years seemed a lot longer then.
You know, a lot of years had gone
by since then, but it seemed like a
long stretch of life.
And I could not believe it.
I could not believe it.
Boy, how could it be that I was
not right in the center of your will
with my heart and soul and mind and
strength?
Five years as a believer, active in the
Lord, serving him, bearing fruit.
But five years not heeding his voice in
a specific area.
That puts the fear of God into you.
God may deal with you about a certain
sin.
Put that down.
You know, out of the blue, someone starts
to preach on it.
Out of the blue, someone comes to talk
to you about something.
Out of the blue, you put on the
radio, it's being dealt with.
God's saying, I'm telling you again, deal with
it.
Friend, be quick to respond.
Be quick to hear his voice.
Don't let hardness creep in.
Hardness in the heart of a believer is
one of the ugliest things.
There's a strength and a firmness in God
where we will not be moved.
But there's a sinful hardness, an insensitivity.
If you notice there are things in your
life now that God convicted you of in
the past, but there's no conviction anymore.
Danger, danger, danger.
If you know there are standards that you
once held when you were intimate with God,
and now that you're not as close to
them, you don't hold to those standards anymore,
don't think you've grown and matured and got
wiser.
Examine the distinct possibility that you've maxed with.
Be careful to please the Lord.
In every area of your life, strive to
please Him.
Is that bondage for a child of God?
Is that a negative thing to live to
please Jesus?
Is it a negative thing to live your
life so as to bear fruit for God?
Is it a negative thing to live your
life so that the Father is smiling on
you?
Is that negative, or is that the privilege
of all privileges?
And what better life to live than a
life that pleases Him?
How could you possibly be more personally blessed
long term than by pleasing Him?
Be careful.
Look for spots.
Look for blemishes.
And when they occur, be quick to deal
with them.
Be like a woman's got her wedding dress.
She knows she's getting married, but she's going
to make sure that thing is kept clean
and nice.
I can't believe the stain.
We've got to get the stain out.
Why?
Because it's wedding day.
Not because, oh no, if there's a stain,
I'll be condemned.
No, no, no.
That thought doesn't answer.
Oh no, there's a stain, but I'm getting
married.
That thought doesn't answer.
Because we're getting married, I can't believe there's
a stain.
Got to deal with it.
Got to fix it.
That's how you live before the Lord.
Be careful to please Him.
Paul writes at length that if you want
to do some devotional reading today, get on
your knees along with God.
Read the book of Ephesians.
If that's a big chunk to read in
one stretch, read chapters four and five.
Just on your knees before the Lord.
As you get to the end of the
fourth chapter and through the fifth chapter, and
if you keep going to the sixth, you
really see what a consecrated life looks like.
There was something I did in my early
years in the Lord that I would love
to recover on a regular basis in my
life.
I'm not just going to put it on
myself in a way that's legalistic.
But I would love to recover this in
my life.
I memorized a lot of scripture.
Even early on in the Lord, I had
memorized thousands of verses.
When I would pray at night, I would
go over verses.
I'd be praying in tongues late at night,
and God gave me grace.
My mind was fried with drugs.
But when God saved me, my mind got
cleared up.
After I got the drugs out of my
system, it took about a month for my
head to get clear.
Then I started reading the Word seriously, because
I'd been very undisciplined before I was saved.
I was 16, 17, 18.
I had a six-month stretch where God
gave me the grace and discipline to memorize
20 verses every single day.
In six months, I'd memorized 3,600 verses
or something.
I was constantly just moving in the Word.
Of course, that's a good foundation to build
on for the rest of your life and
a wonderful blessing.
You continue to build on that through the
years.
But I'd go to sleep at night.
Before I'd go to sleep, the Word was
just running through my head, running through my
heart.
I would just pray through key passages.
I'd pray out loud from memory, but it's
just as good with the Bible open in
front of you.
It doesn't have to be memorized.
To do this, I'd pray through 1 Corinthians
13 and the qualities of love, that these
would be worked out in my life.
I'd pray through 2 Peter 1 and the
qualities that we would add to our own
lives and pray over each one that God
would work this more deeply in my heart
and my character.
Then I'd pray over myself from head to
toe, that the thoughts that I thought would
be pleasing to the Lord, the things I
heard would glorify Him.
There was this comprehensive bringing of my life
before God that I could just be a
pleasing sacrifice.
I seek to live like that through the
years, but that prayerful process of doing that,
I don't know how long I did it
for, but it was something that helped build
other foundations in my life.
If you struggle, just as an aside here,
if you struggle with getting deeper in the
Word, if you struggle with devotional life, try
reading the Word on your knees and praying
over what you read as you do it.
It'll be a great help to you.
Keep reading.
Do your rapid reading where you're just going
through the Word and reading a few chapters
at a time.
But also take some passages, maybe go back
over one of those, or something else you're
reading through.
Maybe it's just one book, and you read
it through.
You're in leadership, you're young, and you're just
reading through 1 and 2 Timothy, and through
Titus, and you're on your knees, and, Lord,
it seems impossible.
I don't understand what you mean there, Father.
Lord, it's been five years, and I keep
making those same mistakes in ministry.
You pray the thing through.
You talk to the Lord over it.
There's a depth, there's a richness that comes
out of it.
Look at your whole life like that.
Let it be fine-tuned.
Be careful to please Him.
Let your life be sweet-sounding in the
ears of God as opposed to being disharmonious
and disjointed, noise.
Number seven, take any recurrence of sinful habits
seriously.
Take any recurrence of sinful habits seriously.
Demonstrate your commitment to live right before God.
Make efforts to purge sin out of your
life.
You know, when you are maybe gaining a
little weight, you say, wait, wait a second.
You know, this outfit doesn't fit the way
it used to.
Boy, this thing used to be real loose
on me.
Now it's kind of snug.
That's a warning sign.
And you look at it, and you say,
okay, I've got to do something about that.
I'm going to have to cut this out
of my...
You know, this is clear.
Something's wrong.
You know, since I've been involved in revival,
I've found it very difficult to exercise regularly
like I would like to, and that's helped
me to put a little weight on.
I've taken just a little bit of it
off.
But this morning, when I was putting a
shirt on, I went and took an old
shirt that was kind of tight when I
first got down to revival and put it
on, and it was tighter, just to remind
myself I've got a long ways to go.
You know, to say, okay, be encouraged.
You're going in the right direction, but don't
be too encouraged.
You have to have warning signs in your
own life.
You say, man, you know, it's not just
one time that I lost my temper.
In a year, I've lost my temper four
times seriously in the last month.
Danger sign.
You say, well, I thought you said I'm
not condemned.
I'm telling you, because you are a child
of God, be careful to please Him.
Because you are a child of God, don't
play games with sin, because a child of
God, contrary to what some may teach, I
remain as convinced as ever through the Word,
a child of God can ultimately turn his
or her back on God and forfeit their
salvation and ultimately be condemned.
And that's why the Word is so full
of warnings to believers as to how to
live and the consequences of sin.
That's why Jesus said, if your right hand
causes you to sin, cut it off and
throw it away.
He's talking metaphorically there to tell us how
urgently important it is.
If your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It's better to go to heaven named than
to go to hell with both hands.
In other words, your sin could cost you
heaven.
Paul warns, I mentioned the passages before, 1
Corinthians 6, don't be deceived, the wicked do
not inherit the kingdom of God.
You live like this, like this, like this,
you're an adulterer, you're homosexual, you're greedy, you're
a drunkard, you're not getting in the kingdom
of God.
Period.
He says that's how some of you were.
But now you're washed, now you're justified, sanctified
by the blood of Jesus, by the Spirit
of God.
The work's been done.
You are not that person anymore.
But you need to flee sin.
You need to flee uncleanness because you are
a child of God.
If you see something recurring in your life,
danger.
Boy, I was flipping the channels, I had
no idea this thing came out of the
hotel.
It was like, and I shut it in
so I couldn't believe it.
That's one thing.
Be careful next time.
That's another thing to say, man, I can't
wait to get away on these business trips
so I can watch that stuff.
Danger.
You are just about to take a step
from which you may not return for a
long time.
Danger.
Take any pattern, any recurrence of sinful habits
seriously.
When you see warning signs, that may be
the time, man, I've got to separate myself
from fasting and prayer.
I need to seriously get help.
Something is wrong here.
Take it seriously, friend.
Hebrews warns us over and over that we
must continue steadfast in faith to the end.
It warns us, do not allow yourself to
have a sinful and unbelieving heart in departing
from the living God.
If hardness is set in, take that seriously
and repent before God and stay on your
knees until you're free.
And be ruthless with yourself.
I would rather go too far for the
sake of holiness than give sin a foothold
in my life.
Open the door because I'm too casual with
sin.
I would rather God says to me, when
you get to heaven, you're a little too
strict in these areas.
You know, it wouldn't have been a problem
if you had watched Bambi.
You know, it wasn't wrong, you know.
You didn't want to watch anything, you know,
because it was Hollywood.
You know, you didn't have to be quite
that strict.
You know, he looks at one of his
daughters and he says, you know what, you
didn't quite have to wear, you know, your
dress down touching the floor.
You know, those ankle length ones were really
fine.
You know, you didn't have to, you're a
little too strict.
I would rather that God said something like
that to me than he said, you fool.
Was it worth forfeiting heaven, you know, to
watch all those sexually unclean movies?
You know, looks at someone that used to
be his daughter but now is a seductress
walking around and, you know, the most ungodly
outfit possible so that men will lust after
her and go to bed with her.
Was it worth it?
The object of lust and to have a
little sexual pleasure, was it worth it?
I would rather God says you're a little
too strict.
If you're going to make a mistake, you
know, if there's an earthquake here and the
ground is breaking and people are falling in,
I'd rather run all the way to the
end of the building even if I was
perfectly safe over here.
You know, I'd rather run than stand and
say, I wonder if I'm going to get
sucked into the hole and there I go.
You know, for some believers, it's a strange
mentality.
How far out can I go without being
drowned?
How much poison can I drink without dying?
Well, that movie's not that bad.
You know, it's, you know, it's, the main
plot, the sexual scenes are not part of
the main plot and I, I can do
all I want.
What are you doing?
As a child of God, a blood-washed
saint.
If Jesus had to die for the sins
that you are watching, then you don't want
to watch that.
I'm talking about being entertained by it.
It's one thing if you're watching a war
documentary and yes, there was sin in the
war and you're watching a war documentary.
It's another thing if you're being entertained by
violence.
Watch your life and if there's any pattern
of recurring sinful habits, deal with it ruthlessly.
Let the alarms go off.
I remember back to my high school days
and see, when I got saved, we, I'll
just tell you the story.
Can I tell you a quick story?
Is that alright?
How many say I can't?
Tough.
When I got saved, it was, it was
the, you know, the scene in the late
60s, the early 70s, the Woodstock era, you
know, cast off authority, age of Aquarius, do
your own thing, you know, anti-establishment, riots
on the college campuses.
That was the, the backdrop.
So, in our high school, we had some
quote radicals.
We had one lady whose boyfriend was a
Black Panther.
He wasn't in the school, but she was.
She was a white girl.
He had a white mother and a black
father and he had this huge afro, even
though his skin was kind of light complexion,
you know, he was, he was one of
the cooler guys.
And, our school started to crack down because
kids were out in the hallways too much
and there was too much disruption.
So they said, to even go to the
bathroom in the hallway, you need a pass
now.
You know, if you're going to, if you're
going to get up during class and walk
down the hallway to go to the bathroom,
you need a pass from the teacher and,
you know, we've got to cut down.
So, some of the students really got upset
with it.
And this was my drug days and all
this and we were just living loose, sinful
lives, playing in my rock band with my
friends and this, the party life was it.
So we decided we were going to protest.
There are too many rules.
There are a bunch of others too, but
it was that, you know, passes for the
hallway thing that got to everybody.
So we decided to protest.
And, we all gathered.
The whole school, the whole student body, everybody
gathered in the, in the corner of the
school, you know, down the hallways.
We're not going to class today and I'm
looking around and there are a lot of
people that we called straight, you know, that
were just, you know, regular good students and
all that.
I'm thinking, man, they're joining in on this
too.
Wow.
So the assistant principal comes walking out.
He says, okay, that's what everybody in the
class, you know, the ballrooms, everybody in the
class.
And everybody just scatters.
What?
I couldn't believe it.
You know, they just, once the authority came
out, you know, they were, they were good
kids.
And we went to class.
So he knew who some of the ringleaders
were so he calls out one guy and
says, you, you, you, you, you, you, into
my office.
So I yell out, stupid me, if they
go to the office, we all go to
the office.
So next thing, you know, all the rowdies
and the radicals and the druggies and the,
we all start pouring into the, there are
too many for the assistant principal's office.
So they open up the auditorium.
And they're now having this big meeting in
the auditorium.
I don't know how many people there, but
it was a decent amount.
I remember the, the one guy whose boyfriend
was the Black Panther, she'd stand up and
make a point, you know, and hold a
fist up, you know, that was the symbol.
Like, yeah, this whole battle with the establishment,
with authority.
So the next day, the principal calls the
whole student body together in the gymnasium.
And he addresses us over these issues.
And he says, if you can put together
your demands, what you feel you should have
in a school setting here, because we want
it like our own wing, you know, we
want to do our own thing.
He said, if you can, if you can
put together your demands and lay them out
and circulate them through the school by the
end of the day, we'll work with you.
Knowing, of course, there's no way we're going
to be able to do that.
But we had some friends in the psychology
department, some of the counselors, and they were
a little radical too.
So they helped us.
They let us use their copy machine and
everything.
And we put, you know, we wrote out
these demands.
We want a school like this and a
school like this and a school like this.
And we had this art teacher who was,
who was really out there.
And he had some lawsuits that he threatened
the school and they always kind of had
to bend his way otherwise he was going
to, you know, take him to court on
some things.
So they had to treat him carefully.
So anyway, we get our demands out through
the whole school and they say, okay, you
can, beginning next year, you know, you can
have your own wing of the school and
your own experimental educational program.
It's the truth before dogs.
So I started 11th grade, 1970, and we
began what was called SAFE school.
How's the name of it?
SAFE.
It stood for Student and Faculty Education because
it would be a learning experience for all
of us together.
We had four of the most radical teachers
in the school.
In fact, we called them by first names.
That was part of the thing.
We were going to call them by first
names and the art teacher said, now look,
if your education is you go out in
the field and you get high and you
meditate out there in the field and that's
your education and you would like an A
for your classes, I'll give you an A.
I'm not exaggerating.
Truth before God.
We had classes, I remember, you know, existentialism.
We had a class in witchcraft and the
occult.
Whatever we wanted to have, we had it.
You know, we had some, you know, American
history class and, you know, logic class and
things like that.
But it was pretty, you know, you could,
any student could say, I'd just like to
pass fail grade, just pass it.
And my last two years of high school,
this is doctor, professor.
My last two years of high school, the
only numbered grade that I got was for
band and orchestra.
Everything else, I just passed.
I was just given passing grades and everything.
And we had graffiti on the walls.
You know, the rest of the school was
nice and clean and we had graffiti, psychedelic
graffiti on the windows.
We had four classrooms in the back of
the school and we had six, between 60
and 70 students, the most stupid sinful students
in the whole place.
That's who we were.
You know, the girls that slept around the
most, the guys that were the craziest, all
the druggies, and then a few who were
just, they didn't do any of those things
but they were very progressive.
They would like to go out in the
field and receive revelation from the energy coming
through the plants.
I remember that conversation well after I got
saved talking to this guy.
Everybody else would be in school from like
8.30 to, you know, the three, we'd
be there from 9 to 12 daily.
Honestly.
I'd go into school, you know, get in
there, we'd go get, you know, some pot,
we'd get high, we'd hang around.
Sometimes I'd go to a class.
We'd get home at 12, you know, sleep
in the afternoon and party with friends that
afternoon and night.
That's how we lived.
And then I got saved about two months
into the process.
That's how I could memorize so much scripture.
I had a lot of time on my
hands.
No, actually I could do it in an
hour a day.
I could do my memorization but, you know,
now I've got this schedule where everywhere I
look there's people to witness to.
We're just sitting around hanging out, witness.
Everybody wants to talk about spiritual things.
When I first started hearing about prophecy and
bottomless pits and beasts with seven heads, I
was like, wow, do I have something to
talk to these people about.
I got saved, you know, two of my
friends got saved right before me in that
school.
We all got saved together.
But you've got to understand, this was a
sinful environment.
You understand?
We just all did whatever we wanted to
do and, you know, the dress and the
behavior and there were no standards.
That's how we lived.
Now I'm saved.
Now I'm in the Lord.
My friends are saved.
We're living.
And I so distinctly remember that God had
changed me so deeply that during one, when
I had one sinful thought towards one young
woman in the school, I immediately went into
a fast because I so quickly wanted to
purge myself from it.
I told you that whole story just to
say, you know, that there was a sinful
and we're just doing our own thing.
If that story is not doing your own
thing, nothing is.
And I remember just the cleansing of God
and that sense of holiness so deep that
when that thought hit, you know, because, you
know, anyway, you just thought what you wanted
to think before.
You're just unclean.
When I saw this thing just jump up,
I said, no good.
Lord, I want to please you.
I want to be holy in your sight.
You see, there's got to be an attitude
like that in our lives towards sin.
Hating it, like it says in Jude, hating
even the garment stained by sinful flesh.
I don't mean that a thousand times a
day, oh, Lord, I repent.
I'm so sorry, Lord.
I repent.
Oh, Lord, I repent.
Lord, I repent.
I repent for bothering me.
You know, I don't mean to get hung
up on that and certainly not to be
rebuking Satan like 900 times a day.
But to be looking at your life and
you say, oh, there's an ugly stain.
Turn from it quickly.
The thing that really set me free, because
the big thing to me was the needle.
Heroin, speed, other drugs I would shoot.
I would shoot any drug I could.
Corrupt and foolish lifestyle.
And for me to say I will never
put a needle in my arm again, I
will never shoot heroin again.
It seems so silly.
I can't relate to thinking like this.
It's been so many years, but I could
not see ever saying those words.
To stop it for a little while was
one thing.
To say I'll never do it again, I
couldn't see it.
And when the love of God and joy
of God really touched me December 17th of
1971, I said, what in the world am
I doing?
Here God has cleansed me and washed me
and given me these white robes and I'm
going out playing in the mud and just
that easily.
And this has been a process of God
dealing with me for a few weeks to
get me to this point.
When that point hit, after the conviction for
weeks showing me how unclean my soul was,
when the love of God just flooded through,
I said, that's it, I'll never put a
needle in my arm again.
That's the end of the story.
That simple.
From that moment on.
Some of you need to so embrace the
love and the goodness and the kindness of
God that those things that you're up and
down in and out with, you just say,
Lord, never again.
In other words, my choice, my will before
you is to never do that again.
So look, look, look at that!
Your choice, your will.
That's what he's looking at right now.
Because many of us won't surrender to things.
We won't say, never again.
Deal with it before God.
I just feel the spirit prompting some of
you.
I wasn't going to use this last illustration
about my own life and drugs.
But I feel the spirit prompting some of
you before you're out of here.
You're going to have to say, Lord, never
again.
Lord, I'll never watch a movie like that
again.
Lord, I'll never do something like that again
out of wedlock.
Lord, I'll never put this in my body
again.
Lord, you know what it is and he's
dealing with you.
Deal with it before God because there's grace
here and the love of God is here
to set you free.
Last point and we're done.
Number eight.
I told you earlier that you need to
take God as his word.
Here's the flip side to it.
Refuse to believe the devil's lies.
One of the first questions I remember one
of our daughters asking us about spiritual things.
Daddy, how do I know when it's the
Lord when it's my own mind?
How do I know when it's the devil?
Of course, the one answer is I've been
wondering about that for a long time too.
Then the other answer is no, here's how
you can distinguish and here's how to tell.
But it's not always totally easy.
You know, our minds can be active.
You know, and demonic spirits can influence our
thinking and trigger stuff and other suggestions coming
from the world can do it.
And then the word can be we can
be reminded that the Holy Spirit can speak.
But anything that is contrary to what the
word of God says is either your own
flesh or the devil.
It's not the Holy Spirit speaking.
No matter how it feels.
I have that witness here but it's contrary
to what's written in the word.
I have this deep sense but it's contrary
to the truth of the word.
Refuse to believe the devil's lies.
For years it was a regular thing right
before I would preach.
Moments before I would preach I'd hear the
voice of the enemy nothing's going to happen
tonight.
You're going to get up without you knowing
you're going to make a public fool of
yourself.
And I'm talking about you know, a major
meeting where people are coming with like a
night meeting and revival you know the setting
I'd normally be preaching in.
That kind of thing and nothing, God's not
going to move tonight.
And where that would hit and it would
hit with a sense of reality but I
became accustomed to it like alright, everything's right
on target there's that lie and God's about
to move.
You know, Steve always says when he got
saved the devil came to him and said,
you're not saved.
And then it struck him that before he
was saved the devil never told him you're
not saved.
So once he realized he said, say that
again.
Say that, that must mean I am saved.
Say that again.
Refuse to believe the devil's lies.
It doesn't matter how it feels when it
comes.
It doesn't matter if it seems to come
as an angel of light.
It doesn't matter if it comes through false
teaching.
If it's contrary to the word of God,
refuse to believe it.
When you walk out of here and the
devil says that teaching was for everybody but
you.
You are a reject.
You are the only one condemned in the
whole crowd.
Refuse to believe it.
But I can't get it out of my
mind.
Then just ignore it.
It's not going to kill you.
Just ignore it.
Soon enough it will go away.
In particular if you remind God of His
promises, get it in your heart and get
it in your mind.
I live a condemnation free life.
I often feel the pressure of the Holy
Spirit working in me to draw me in.
I often examine my life and feel miserable
about areas I wish would be much more
consecrated, much more much more devoted.
I look at the Word and I allow
the Spirit of God to preach it through
the written Word to rebuke me, to challenge
me.
I welcome that, that I live a condemnation
free life.
And every child of God should live a
condemnation free life.
You are not hell bound.
You are no longer guilty in His sight.
When you stand before Him He will not
say depart from me.
I never knew you.
If you are truly His child washed in
His blood living for Him.
Welcome the conviction.
Welcome the reproof.
Welcome the pruning.
Welcome the purging.
Welcome the refining.
It is only to make you more fruitful.
It is only to make you more beautiful.
It is only to make you more like
Him.
And resist with everything in you anything that
steals your relationship with God that chips away
at it.
Make it the number one priority to walk
in intimacy with Him, to enjoy Him, to
serve Him and to bring joy to Him.
And the devil is hell bound period.
Thankfully he is not going to take us
with him.
Amen?
So let's stand to our feet.
Ward could you come up?
Ward Simpson assists us in the ministry.
One of the students in our school will
be here to answer questions that you may
have about the school or things that you
want to get to our ministry.
I need to make a quick exit as
we often have to do on Saturdays.
But I want to pray with you for
the blessing of God to be on you.
Chew on these things.
Digest these things.
Could be out of the whole teaching there
is one little thing the Holy Spirit has
been trying to say to you.
Take hold of it.
Alright?
Let God make you shining jewels in His
crown.
Amen?
Father