Welcome to from the pulpit and classic sermons
each week We bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers,
too This week we have Carter Conlon with
his message deal with sin Christ is coming
deal with sin Christ is coming Deal with
sin Christ is kind of folks the time
for fancy titles and fancy messages is over
It's deal with sin Christ is coming Romans
chapter 7, please if you'll turn there in
your Bibles Father I thank you Lord for
the anointing of the Holy Spirit Lord you
only ever speak to us for good and
never for evil God you you want us
to know peace You want us to know
freedom and security?
You said to Jerusalem how I long to
gather you as a hen would gather her
chickens under her wings But God the people
in that season wouldn't come Would you help
us Lord?
Do you help us to hear?
Do you help us to respond?
Would you help us to know that this
is love speaking to us?
Would you help us God?
Would you help us to get beyond seeing
your word as an infringement on our daily
activities Help us God to understand That you
want to cover us.
I Pray God that you just give me
your heart in this you give me the
power Lord to to go into every prison
place To make a declaration that this is
the hour.
This is the day.
This is the time of freedom Thank you
for this God with all my heart Lord
break every chain of sin in this house
break the power of evil Break bondages God.
I'm asking today that you give freedom to
some who have come into this house and
are living in despair Saying in their heart.
Will I ever get free?
Will I ever know the freedom that the
Word of God speaks about?
I pray that that cry be answered Today
and I ask it in Jesus name Deal
with sin Christ is coming Romans chapter 7
Beginning at verse 7 Paul says what shall
we say then is the law sin God
forbid Nay, I had not known sin, but
by the law for I had not known
lust except the law had said thou shalt
not covet But sin taking occasion by the
commandment wrought in me all manner of Concomitants
for without the law sin was dead For
I was alive without the law once but
when the commandment came Sin revived and I
died and the commandment which was ordained to
life.
I found to be unto death for sin
taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and
by it slew me Paul Says sin taking
occasion by the commandment wrought in me all
manner of Concomitants now, here's what Paul is
really saying There was a time in your
life and in mine.
Let's let's bring it home to where we
live now There was a time when you
could lie and not even bat an eye
about it I'm talking about now there might
still be some people here that feel that
way But I'm talking about for the sincere
Christian there was a time that you could
have an overnight stand you could lie you
could go out and get drunk You did
what you wanted to do.
You went where you wanted to go.
There were no pangs of conscience Because you
were outside of the Word of God.
You're outside of the boundaries as it is
that God has written down for acceptable human
behavior in his sight and then one day
you either Somebody quoted you the scriptures or
you you came into the house of God
Maybe you found a Bible in a hotel
room in a drawer somewhere and you began
to read and you began to understand that
there is a prescribed way of behavior for
those who belong to God and This is
God's writing and as Paul says it was
ordained to life.
It was it was to show me the
way and And many people many sitting here
today when you first saw the Word of
God when you first began to read the
Word of God You were so gladdened in
your heart and you knew in your heart
and you said this is what I've longed
for all my life I've I've longed for
truth I've wanted to know what the truth
is And now I've found the truth and
now I want to walk in the truth
and I want to live in the truth
I want to be a man or woman
of truth.
And so you set out to read your
Bible and This is exactly what Paul is
speaking about in Romans 7.
He's talking about The entire human condition.
It's not just his life.
It's the condition of all people born unto
this world He says when this law of
acceptable conduct and behavior given by God himself
came into my conscience I became aware of
my corrupt condition and When he says it
worked in me all men of concupiscence It
means an awareness of an inward and active
desires Which are the result of the diseased
condition of my soul In other words, I
I became aware that my thoughts are not
God's thoughts My heart is not God's heart
my I became aware when when I would
say something I shouldn't say do you ever
notice that after you became a Christian?
You've not gone four feet from your your
conversation and suddenly this voice in the back
of your mind is saying Why did you
say that?
You know how uncharitable that was or that
was not completely true Wasn't a lie.
It was an embellishment, which is really just
a lie in a tuxedo.
That's all it is It's a fancy lie
and So you're walking away and you're you're
if you are a sincere Christian if you
are sincerely come to Christ you are now
aware of there's an inner corruption and Paul
says it I Was alive without the law
once I felt I was alive.
I felt like I Like Peter I got
up in the morning.
I addressed myself I went where I wanted
to go and at the end of the
day felt quite satisfied about myself before I
knew the Word of God But when the
commandment came sin revived and I died In
the commandment, which I thought was ordained to
life I found to be unto death for
sin He says in verse 11 taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me and slew me
in other words sin found its strength in
my personal efforts to make its crooked ways
straight and The sinful nature in me deceived
me into thinking that on my own I
could win this battle a lot of Christians
get depressed and discouraged they go the End
up in this very place that Paul speaks
about I was deceived because of the sin
in me Into thinking I could change myself
into thinking I could just read the Bible.
Okay, and I can do this Only to
find out I can't do it Only to
find out that it's it's boundaries as Paul
says later Even though I delight after the
Word of God in the inner man.
There's a death that work inside of me
There's a corruption in me that I want
to do it, but I can't find the
strength Where do I get the strength to
do the Word of God?
How do I ever get the victory and
Many many people who sit in the house
of God never get beyond this point never
never get beyond this place where sin is
actually dealt with Send they make peace with
sin Remember Jesus said in one of his
parables.
He said You have to sit down and
count the cost of going to war with
10,000 soldiers against somebody that comes against
you with 20,000 and if you don't
fully Understand the battle you'll end up sending
ambassadors out and you'll make peace with your
enemy And there are many many people sitting
in the house of God who have sent
this Ambassadorship out as it is with sin
and have made peace with it Well, that's
just the way I am the devil comes
and says it's just the way you are
That's the way he still lies just as
he did in Eden That's the way it's
going to be you're never going to change
you're always going to be in this struggle
So why don't you just relax?
Why don't you just accept it and just
go to church and just raise your hands
and thank God anyway even though you're not
living in victory stay in the prison house
and Pretend that everything is okay shout hallelujah
sing songs But don't live in victory and
many many people have made peace with sin
Paul says eventually I lost heart and all
hope within me that I would ever change
Died that's what he's saying in verse 11
sin taking occasion by the commandment, which is
the Word of God Deceived me and then
slew me sin my own sin nature made
me think I could win the victory and
So I set out to do it and
couldn't do it Make all the promises you
want to God you can't keep them anymore
than all the New Year's resolutions You kept
before you came to church You can't keep
your promises to God neither can I but
the sin nature will come in and try
to say you What is the essence of
the sin nature that you can be as
God remember?
Satan come into the Garden of Eden And
he said to Adam and Eve if you
partake of what I'm presenting before you you'll
become just like God And that's the essence
of the sin nature No, I have the
power to get out of this.
I have the power to chart my own
course I can thank you very much.
I can set my own destiny and I'll
get through it and and I'm so thankful
for the Word of God that tells me
how I'm supposed to live this thing But
I'm gonna do it in my own strength
and that's sin and it's a there's a
deceptiveness of sin It's sewn in the fabric
of every person ever born into this world
And it's that inner nature that fallen nature
that says I can be as God I
can be powerful I can get out of
this I can do this if I just
try harder if I just read a little
more if I just pray a little longer
I Can't get out of this only to
find out You find it a lot I
used to travel as a revivalist and you
find Traveling in churches where some of the
oldest saints have been in bondage the longest
they know the scriptures They they've studied they've
gone to conference after conference listen to tapes.
They know the Hebrew they know the Greek
But they know everything but how to get
out of the prisons of a gossiping tongue
of a bitter heart the experiences that have
come and that I've taken up residence within
them and they can't get out and Eventually
just simply make peace with it And the
only way they can look holy from that
point onward is they have to destroy everything
around them that looks like it has life
Genesis chapter 3 tells us that sin finds
its power in this unsurrendered desire to be
as God leading us to believe that we're
free to determine our own course in actions
and Falsely believing that there'll be no adverse
consequences from it.
Remember Satan came to Adam and Eve and
he said you shall not surely die God
knows that in the day you eat this
of thereof your eyes will be open and
you shall be as God's knowing good and
evil Oh, you'll be just as God if
you partake of this fruit, you'll be able
to chart your own course determine your own
destiny You'll be able to get out of
your own prisons Everything that you're supposed to
be you're going to be Now we're going
to see the ugliness of sin in Genesis
chapter 4 verses 6 and 7 this ugliness
is almost immediately manifested First of all, it
produces a false covering.
That's what sin will always do what did
Adam and Eve do they make coverings of
fig leaves and attempted to meet with God
covering their sin as it is and The
human effort will always cover its sin and
attempt to meet with God How many have
come in today with some besetting sin in
your life something?
You've got not gotten the victory over but
you're covering it covering it with a sense
of holiness You're covering it with a sense
of I'm worshiping God.
You're covering it just by a church attendance
thinking somehow that is sufficient For God But
it's really the ugliness of sin lies and
blame come into Nobody's willing to take responsibility
Adam blames Eve Eve blames the serpent everybody
now is blaming somebody and that's a sin
nature you ever notice in society Almost all
of the corridors now and in our present
world.
Everybody is blaming somebody for the mess that
we're in It's your fault, it's his fault.
It's her fault.
It's their fault Everybody's blaming somebody but that's
the sin nature folks.
That's what sin does.
That's how sin manifests itself lies and blame
And in the first child produced by Adam
and Eve is a murderer Don't have to
go very far to see the fruit of
sin the murderer John 844 Jesus said he
that means Satan was a murderer from the
beginning And he says you seek to kill
me a man which has told you the
truth and you do the deeds of your
father other people were so offended because they
were they were constant attenders at the synagogue
How dare you say to us that it
with all of our tradition and all of
our covering and all of our heritage That
we're not born of God That we have
an inner Problem and this problem is going
to lead us to try to actually kill
the Son of God himself The Messiah who's
come into our midst Cain when he had
his first encounter with God had a fallen
countenance.
He was dealing with a feeling of rejection
He had an inner hatred of his brother,
which was born of envy which would eventually
lead to murder in Verse 9 of Genesis
4 he had an arrogance even against God
God came to him and said where is
your brother?
And he said well, how do I know
my my brother's keeper?
You can just see the arrogance in the
heart of men If God were to even
come into this sanctuary today and say to
us, where's your brother?
What are you doing to help your brother?
What are you doing to alleviate human suffering
in the world?
What are you doing for the widow and
the orphan the oppressed and the addicted?
How is your life making a difference and
you'll find that sin will produce an arrogance
even against God.
Hey Listen, you're God.
I'm not You should if you don't know
where he is then don't ask me I
have no idea where he is If I
might have I been planted on this earth
to look after my brother That's a question
that you and I need to ask ourselves
because the answer obviously is yes That's why
as a church we've been left in the
world Then he says if you don't do
well sin is lying at the door if
it's not going well For people who've come
into this sanctuary today if it's not going
well for you right now If you're troubled
on the inside If you're dealing with envy
on the job if you're having a hard
time to be honest in your finances If
you're if you're if you're dealing with issues
in the heart God comes to Cain and
his mercy and he says if you're not
doing well sin is lying at the door
In other words sin is waiting to accompany
you through your day lying at the door
Waiting at your doorstep sleeping there.
Good morning You get up and let's go
the office let's hate everybody together Let's get
out the books and let's falsify the financial
records.
Let's do it together.
So sin goes with you Waiting at the
door if you're not doing well sin is
at the door folks Going in and the
conscience all day is bothered because you're in
Conversations you're doing things you're in relationships.
You're in places that you know are not
right and that you come home And there's
sin lying at the door when you get
home saying come on in come on in.
Let's sit down I've got some comfort for
you Some of its in the refrigerator put
in the glass and then let's go to
the internet and have a look there And
there's some things on the internet that are
going to comfort you Sin lies at the
door goes out with you in the morning
and is waiting for you to come home
again at night But then the Lord says
something very strange to Cain He says but
and it shall desire to be your master,
but you shall have the mastery over it
now He's not talking to Cain because Cain
from after that verse murders his brother, but
he's talking about to humanity itself Sin will
desire to master you but you shall have
the master over it You're not under the
dominion of sin any longer when you've come
to Jesus Christ Now again in Romans chapter
7 Paul Continues on to speak of this
power of sin in verse 14 He says
for for we know that the law is
spiritual, but I am carnal sold under sin
For that which I do I allow not
for that which I would that do I
not but what I hate that I do
If then I do that which I would
not I Consent to the law that it
is good Now then it's no more I
that do it But sin that dwells in
me for I know that in me that
is in my flesh dwells For to will
is present with me but how to perform
that which is good I find not now
if I were to ask for a show
of hands today I think this this this
is a verse that many here are familiar
with if you're willing to be honest with
God You say I know what to do,
but I don't know how to find the
power to do it I know I shouldn't
be doing what I'm doing and I know
I should be doing Paul says what I'm
not doing But where do I find the
power to do this for the good verse
19 that I would I do not but
the evil that I would Not that I
do Now if I do that which I
would not it's no more I that do
it But sin that dwells in me now
Paul is not abdicating himself of the blame
He's just saying basically it's if there's a
there's a power at work in me That
is stronger than my own will no matter
how hard I try I can't get out
of this struggle.
I Find in a law that when I
would do good evil is present with me
verse 22 says for I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but
I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind and Bringing
me to captivity to the law of sin,
which is in my members Oh wretched man
that I am who shall deliver me from
the body of this death Thank God for
verse 25 Because we've just gone through almost
a whole chapter of how do I do
this?
And he finally says I thank God through
Jesus Christ Our Lord, that's all we really
have to say even from that verse.
I Thank God now go to Job, please
chapter 41 And I know you're wondering how
in the world does Job have anything to
do with what we're talking about You'll see
that in a moment Now God in Job
41 is speaking directly to a man Going
through a terrible personal battle And he gives
him a description which I believe is a
veiled description of the the battle the ferocity
of the battle That all men face and
then he leads them to the only remedy
now I personally believe and this is my
belief you're free to acknowledge or reject it,
but I believe you're going to see You're
going to see sin Satan and the Savior
in these verses of Scripture There's a veiled
reference to what is really the center core
because you remember remember Job Doesn't understand why
the battle is going on all around him.
He doesn't understand why distress has come into
his life He he has tried in himself
to be righteous He's believed that he's walked
a holy walk, and he doesn't understand why
all of this is going on around him
now The Lord unveils to him as much
as his mind is able to comprehend Another
battle much greater than his own and folks
no matter what we're going through there is
another battle Fought in a whole different arena
much greater than our own and there has
been an incredible victory.
This is where we're going today Now verse
40 chapter 41.
He's talking about us a sea monster really
Leviathan and some say it's an elephant some
say it's a huge Prehistoric crocodile, let's just
say it's a sea monster for lack of
a better Understanding now.
Here's what he says to him Can you
draw out Leviathan with a hook or his
tongue with a cord which you let down
in other words?
Can you tame this beast?
Can you tame this thing that is unconquerable?
There's there's no man alive that has the
power in other words He's saying very clearly
do you have the power to subdue this
now?
We're talking still in the context of Romans
7 so try to draw the two together
if you can Can you put a hook
into his nose or bore his jaw through
with a thorn?
Will he make many supplications to you will
he speak soft words to you now think
about the contrast between sin Satan and The
Savior and Christ himself now Satan will not
speak softly to you except to deceive you
and will condemn you What's once you've come
to Christ his voice will rise against you
almost every day and condemn you he is
the condemner He will not come to you
with soft words.
He'll not come to you saying this is
the way out This is the path walk
in it.
He'll come and say give up hopeless.
You failed God God's angry with you Why
would God put up with you?
Why will God deal with you?
Why would God even endure you one more
day?
Look at your failings.
Look at your sin.
Look at your their struggle That's in your
life.
Why would God want any part of you?
And that's why he says will he make
supplications to you verse 3 will he speak
soft words to you?
Will he make a covenant with you?
First four or will you take him for
a servant forever?
Think of Christ.
He made a covenant With the Father and
we are in that covenant because because of
faith in his atoning work on Calvary Will
he make a covenant with you?
He's talking about this sea monster as it
is Will you take him for a servant?
Remember the Son of Man did not come
to be served but to serve the greatest
among you.
He said will be your servant Will you
play with him as with a bird?
Think about when Jesus Christ was brought into
the court of judgment and when people were
slapping his face and they were mocking him
and they were Put a robe on him
and ripped the robe off and they would
walk around them and say prophesy to us
without Christ Who is it that smote thee?
He says will you play with him as
with a bird or will you bind him
for your maidens?
remember as he was heading to Calvary the
women in Jerusalem weeping and crying and Will
you when he says will you bind him
for your maidens?
Shall the companions make a banquet of him?
Shall they part him among the merchants?
Think about Jesus on the cross and what
did they do with his last remaining earthly
possessions?
Did they not make merchandise of it that
the soldiers not gamble for it?
He's talking now about the contrast Can you
fill his skin with barbed irons or his
head with fish spears?
Think of the pointed thorns that were pressed
into the head of Christ and the barbed
irons that were put through his hands and
through His feet.
I don't have any doubt about what this
is speaking about He's talking about the power
of evil itself and where evil originated from
in the Garden of Eden You have to
keep in mind folks that God has never
changed his mind all the way through the
Scriptures He lost that which was created in
his image in Eden and it's been in
his heart all the way through the Scriptures
to get Mankind back again.
He's not he's not just randomly speaking for
the fun of it.
He's never lost sight of the goal He's
never lost sight of what this was about
That he was going to come as a
man into the earth walk among us for
33 years He was going to go to
a cross God was going to go to
a cross all-powerful.
God Was going to be crucified mocked among
men He was going to be made a
banquet of maidens were going to laugh and
dance As the God who created the universe
was taken to a cross Failing to understand
he was dying to break the power of
sin and the penalty of sin off of
those who had trusted him Can you fill
his skin with barbed irons verse 7 or
his head with fish spears?
Lay your hand upon him Remember the battle
and do no more.
That's verse 8 says remember the battle the
in other words the power There are the
possibility of conquering evil in your own strength
Cannot be done Look at the strength of
your adversary lay your hand upon him.
He says and do no more Behold the
hope of him or the hope of conquering
him is in vain Shall not one be
cast down even at the sight of him?
None is so fierce that dares stir him
up You know, we make a grievous error
when we misunderstand the power of our enemy
You remember Jude?
I believe it is He said there's there's
a perverse people in the last days even
they will they will rail against darkness But
they don't know what they're talking about.
They don't understand the power of what they're
railing against Then he gives the the key
right at the end of verse 10 who
then is able to stand before me He
said if this is the power that you've
been set out to defeat if this is
where the victory needs to be won The
only hope is me The only power greater
than this is me.
He's saying it very very clearly I am
the only one that no one else can
stand up against I'm the God who formed
the universe and put the stars into the
heavens I spoke everything to existence by the
word of my mouth I looked down at
some dust in the ground and formed it
together with my hands and breathed into it
and it became a living soul I Tell
the Sun to stand still and it stands
still I can I can stop the laws
of gravity for a man like Joshua in
The midst of a battle to prove that
I am God God could have folded the
universe as he will one day the scripture
tells us clearly one day He's going to
fold the whole universe and he's going to
remake the heavens and remake the earth And
so I've asked myself the question over the
years especially as the young Christian God if
you're going to do that one day Why
didn't you do it back then?
When Adam and Eve sinned and you knew
that the course of humankind was going to
walk in rebellion Against you when you knew
that men were going to create devices and
inventions and eventually just destroy themselves should you
not intervene when you knew that all creation
was going to suffer as Romans says because
of sin that would bear down and bring
the weight of evil as it is even
creation itself That's why nature's out of balance.
That's that's why animals are suffering.
That's why things in the sea are dying
the whole of creation Suffers because of the
weight of sin that's in the hearts of
men My question to the Lord has been
then God why didn't you just fold it
all just recreate it in the beginning?
Why allow all of this suffering and misery
and the Lord says because I saw you
through the corridors of time I saw you
that's what the Lord's saying to you today.
I saw you And to fold it then
would have meant I would have lost you
for all of eternity I Saw you you
were in the loins of Adam.
I saw you I knew you You're not
a happenstance in this world my brother my
sister You're I don't care if your parents
were married or not married You're not in
this world apart from the permission of God
God says I saw you God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten
son Not just the generic planet with its
seas and birds and fish.
That's not the world.
It was you he loved God so loved
the world you and me that he gave
his only begotten son that whoever believes in
him should not perish But have everlasting life
Every thorn that Satan pushed down into the
brow of Christ I can see him saying
is it worth it is it worth it
is it worth the suffering and Jesus in
his heart saying?
Oh, yes, it's worth it.
Oh, yes looking down the corridors of time.
Thank God.
He saw me He saw you thank God.
We'd be without hope.
Oh, yes, it's worth it.
Oh, yes, it's worth it I Say 53
tells us the Lord laid upon him the
iniquity of us all He was wounded and
bruised despised and rejected You see him tied
to a whipping post with a cat of
nine tails with a Roman guard probably getting
a lot of perverse pleasure out of what
he was doing to the Son of God
and when those Stones attached or pieces of
glass attached to the end of those whips
would hit his flesh It would tear it
out.
Literally when he pulled it back 39 times
and Satan be standing there saying is it
worth it?
Is it worth it?
Oh, yes, it's worth it.
Oh, yes, it's worth it for my bride
my church for you.
It's worth it And every time that cord
every time somebody slapped his face every thorn
that was pushed into his brow every nail
That went into his feet and into his
hands Everything was done for your name for
your punishment to pay for your healing and
for your future And when he came to
his final breath, he finally said it is
finished It's finished father.
I've done the work.
I've broken the curse of sin.
It's finished It's not something I have to
do it's something he did for me Jesus
died for my sin Jesus broke the power
of my sin And paid the penalty of
my sin won the total victory when he
was raised on the third day from the
dead I was raised with him.
You were raised with him.
We now sit at the right hand of
God in Jesus Christ And that full victory
that he won is now mine The good
news of this is I'm not called in
my own strength to win any victory anymore
I'm called to believe that the victory is
mine through Christ and then in that faith
Just put one foot in front of the
other and keep on walking Hallelujah to the
Lamb of God As I was preparing this
message I was thinking about the the first
coming of Christ John the Baptist was raised
up now.
John was a voice And I do believe
That that same voice is going to be
heard in the world and probably is being
heard throughout the world today John the Baptist
was a type of a ministry type of
a cry from the heart of God in
multiplicities of places although it was only in
one at that time would be all over
the world today and John was Sent to
prepare a way and he called to the
people.
What was his message turn from your sin?
Make your crooked ways straight Let every lofty
place all the pride of the human heart
let it be brought down but let every
man woman acknowledge that My ways are not
God's and I can't get through this in
my own strength And he said let every
valley be lifted up in other words Every
person who's come in and you've you're so
under the weight of what you're fighting that
you've lost heart God says let me lift
you up.
I am your glory and I'm the lifter
of your head.
Let me lift you up Let me give
you the victory that you need And then
he went to the religious and he said
who warned you to flee from the wrath
to come He said every tree that does
not bring forth fruit is going to be
hewn down and cast into the fire He
said I baptize with water, but there's coming
one after me Whose fan is in his
hand.
He's going to thoroughly purge his threshing floor
He's going to gather the wheat to himself,
but the the empty chaff that means those
that are empty There's nothing of God inside
of them are going to be pushed aside
and put into unquenchable fire He said but
he's going to come with his fan in
his hand He's going to baptize with the
Holy Ghost and with fire now fire to
burn out and it's God's fire.
It's not mine That fire of transformation and
that power to be a witness of the
living reality that Jesus Christ is alive in
my generation Many people were being baptized In
other words, they were putting off the old
way of living and trusting in the mercy
of God for their future They were coming
there was a there would be a stream
of people Coming being baptized and of course,
I don't have time to get into it
was it was John's baptism But it was
a baptism of repentance It was a baptism
of saying my ways are not right and
folks This came to the most religious people
in the world of that day This message
and many people and ironically they weren't the
most religious quite often They were the ones
that were the biggest strugglers in all of
that time And they came to John and
there's a stream of them being baptized There's
there's this this cry in the heart God.
I want to live for you.
I Want to live for God?
I want my life to represent God.
I Want the freedom of God that's available
to all men and women be No to
be known through me and it was in
the midst of these baptisms and there's just
a flood now that the religious were highly
offended at this because they had another sense
of righteousness through their own works and they
were offended at the simplicity of John's message
and The volumes of people that were responding
to it But in the midst of it
all Jesus appears What a day that must
have been when and John said behold the
Lamb of God And I believe With all
my heart.
I See it in the scriptures that there
will be a similar message in the last
days Malachi speaks of it in his last
chapter.
He said Elijah will come that's that's that
voice as it is Elias which Christ said
was John and Will turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children the children to
their fathers There will be this turning back
to God is turning back to truth in
our last days But I believe it culminates
with behold the bridegroom.
I Believe with all my heart something that
God is speaking to me It's time folks
to deal with sin Christ is coming It's
time now that was what John had to
say deal with sin folks the Messiah is
coming and Malachi said that voice should be
raised again Now it's going to be it
was just one person and John better be
a multiplicity of persons in our generation But
it would be birth of the Spirit deal
with sin Christ is coming.
You don't need to play games when the
power of God is here for you to
live a new life But you have to
make this step we all do I'm saying
I'm not living this way anymore I'm not
doing this anymore you've got Get some gravel
in your gut for lack of a better
way of saying it and say My part
is to form the intent to not want
to live this way.
God's part is to give me the power
To make that a reality But I have
to form the intent Christ is coming.
Christ is coming.
Do you realize it folks?
Christ is coming You fully understand the hour
we're living in right now Do you know
why in five nations are on the verge
of failing in?
Europe and the whole of the European currency
is in jeopardy right now anybody who's been
following the The health debate recently you saw
the leaders of this country.
They could only agree on one thing we're
broke For real we're broke as a nation
That seemed to be the only and the
Bible speaks of a perplexities Men can analyze
the problem women can analyze the problem, but
they don't know what to do about it
They cannot agree on a course forward.
It's a perplexity of nations that we're living
in right now Iran has a dictator About
to take over the country They're on the
verge of a military coup.
It's not even it's not even new it's
been known for some time It's just that
our media is picking up on it since
the Secretary of State has made it public
Iran with a president who considers it his
messianic duty to create chaos in the world
and is pushing fiercely ahead to get nuclear
weaponry That's the hour we're living in right
now earthquakes Tidal waves as the scripture says
in Matthew chapter 24 if you're not aware
of where we're living now It's time now
to deal with sin Remember the foolish virgins.
They just didn't they had no oil they
had no life of God They had no
power that did nothing of God in them.
They had a religiousness, but their lamps were
out.
Oh Beloved Oh beloved.
Would you please hear me this morning Christ
is coming Christ is coming Christ is coming
In John's day in John's day it took
courage because to get up and do what
John was asking them to do meant to
Invoke the ire of the entire religious system,
but the people didn't care They there were
they just didn't care anymore They'd had enough
of the struggle and they just said we're
going with God.
I want to give you a promise today
If you have the courage to turn from
sin The very first thing that will have
you walk in obedience, that's what baptism speaks
about it's not my life It's the life
of God in me The next thing that
will happen is you will begin to see
Christ There be something that opens to you
you'll see him you'll no longer be distant
You'll hear that voice and it will be
God speaking to you behold the Lamb of
God You begin to see him in every
book of the Bible his promises begin to
be real and just like the people on
the road To a mess your heart will
begin to burn Oh God no longer be
just boring in the house of the Lord
no longer reading the Bible and condemned But
reading it reading the Bible with Oh Lord.
I can hardly wait for tomorrow what you're
gonna do in my life again I can
hardly wait for the The changes that are
going to come into my life the victories
that are going to be given to me
the giftings of God That Lord I just
invite you I've seen what you can do
Lord I just invite you to be God
in me take me farther than I could
ever go Lord Let your name be glorified
through this this frail human vessel.
That's that's all that we are any of
us We're just frail human vessels.
I don't really care if you have an
education or no education You're all on everyone's
on the same ground in Christ the ground
is totally level in Christ But it starts
with it turning to God it starts with
a willingness to repent which means turn from
sin The no repentance folks there is no
salvation I'm afraid for this generation of what
we've offered the church when I when I
say we I'm I'm not talking about myself
or this Church, I'm talking about just this
general church age.
We've offered forgiveness without repentance folks that's why
the divorce rate is as high or maybe
higher in the church and in Among those
that are not saved That's why there's such
problems The gospel is the same as it
always has been turn from sin Walk with
God Christ will be revealed to you and
you'll have the power that God has longed
to give you My altar call is that
today for every person in the annex and
here in the main sanctuary You've got to
get to the point where you don't care
what the people think around you The left
or the right of you if you came
with people It's just you just got to
get to the point where it doesn't matter.
I don't care.
I'm going with God.
It's that simple I don't care who points
their finger at me I Plead with you
in Christ's name This is an important time
for you, I'm not trying to pack an
altar.
It's not about that.
I Care that you move forward in God
everyone who's dealing with an area Where you've
you've not had the victory and you just
don't know how you're going to get out
It's it's just when you take that step
of faith and this altar call is basically
saying God I can't get free by myself
But I'm gonna trust you.
I've heard a word today that the victory
was won for me And I'm gonna just
start walking into that victory.
I'm gonna start believing you God, and I'm
gonna Ask you to help me not to
be condemned by the Word of God, but
to be encouraged by the Word of God
If that's you today, we're going to stand
and worship for a moment I'm gonna ask
you to come and meet me at this
altar Balcony would either exit main sanctuary just
slip out where you are.
Let's stand together.
Please come and just meet me And we're
gonna pray and we're gonna believe God for
freedom today You You'd be surprised where this
will take you to Just come no need
to be shy Everyone here is a sinner
saved by grace.
So don't you worry about what anybody else
here?
Just come young and old rich and poor
it makes no difference Praise God You're a
sinner who needs Christ as Savior you come
In your heart, you just give your heart
to God.
He'll receive you.
Let's take a moment to worship now Now
for those that have come to the altar,
let me take three minutes and explain something
to you To some the Word of God
is law as Paul says and to others
it's Liberty And where did we find the
transition?
How does it happen?
Remember that the inherent plan of sinful man
is that we can be as God and
so God says, okay If you think you
can be holy in your own strength Here's
a bunch of rules to obey Give it
your best try in the Jewish culture that
I think there was 606 of them.
Paul said it was a yoke We couldn't
bear it It couldn't be done.
It was and if you broke one you
broke them all so you're just constantly condemned
The whole Experience of the temple was sin
confessed sin confessed sin confessed and it would
be get so discouraging after a while That
people just gave up Covered themselves with false
garments and developed an extremely hypocritical system of
religion that ultimately hated God Because it saw
him as unjust and it set out then
to produce its own sense of being right
with God That's why the religion of that
day killed Christ Because his message was you
can't do it You know, you can't do
it You need something greater than yourselves and
for those who had thought they'd achieved some
measure of holiness were highly offended at this
That was the Old Testament It was a
law where you God says you do I
do You do this I do this and
we couldn't do our end of the bargain.
We just couldn't do it So God made
a new covenant this time not with you
and me with his son He sent his
son into the world.
He said son you're gonna walk among the
people for 33 years You're gonna give your
life and you're gonna pay the price for
all the sin.
You're gonna break its penalty You're gonna break
its power sin is gonna be broken by
you You're going to die in the place
of all people on the earth who will
ever trust in you on the third day
I'm going to raise you from the dead
And I'm gonna sit you at the right
hand of all authority and power Now it
was the father said that the son said
back to his father.
You can read it in John 15 16
17 Father, I'll go and I'll trust you.
You know, I'll commit my my my spirit
into your hands But your part of the
bargain is that everybody who believes in me
the total victory I win becomes theirs It's
that simple And you win it not by
doing something you win it by believing in
what was done you begin to walk in
faith So now the Word of God will
no longer condemn you the Word of God
will empower you You begin to see this
as your inheritance.
This is the last will and testament as
it is of God through his son and
every day you're going to the spiritual bank
say hey, I'd like to make a withdrawal
here I'm a little short on love you
mind.
I need a little more love than that
the hand of God comes says, okay It's
yours in Christ.
It's yours and it's it's that simple folks
Paul said don't be turned from the simplicity
that's in Christ Beware of those who try
to put you back again under the physical
labor trying to earn something with God when
it's all been done for you So now
you're waiting for me to lead you in
a prayer, but you see that's works in
itself, isn't it?
I Think best thing we can do is
just shout and give God glory today All
you can do better than that Hallelujah, hallelujah,
hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah Glory to God glory to
God glory to God I've got the victory.
I've got the victory I've got the victory
I've got the victory In Christ, in Christ
I've got the victory One more time give
God a shout of glory You've been listening
to the from the pulpit in classic sermons
series This week you heard Carter Conlon with
his message deal with sin Christ is coming
Tune in next week to hear Chuck Smith
speak about the danger of compromise on from
the pulpit in classic sermons