Bro Bob Wednesday 2/1/12

Bro Bob Wednesday 2/1/12

Paul said, “I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.” 

Choose life

We have to make right choices.  We are what we are by choice.  To choose life, we choose God’s way; we choose to believe the Gospel of Christ.  By our obedience to the Word of God we make the right choice.

The Word brings out that God will not make us choose to serve Him.  He is not a bully.  It is our choice.  We have the opportunity to choose to serve God.  If we are not serving God then it is very plain in the Word that we are serving the devil.  There is no middle ground.  Serving self is serving the devil.

We can be delivered from sin by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mar 1:15  And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

We can choose to believe the Gospel.  Repent and believe.  There is a price that we must pay to get saved.   

We must choose to keep God first place. 

We must be sick of the old sin-life to get saved.  Jesus is so good and merciful to save the lost sinner, to save even the devil possessed. 

Legion was a man possessed of so many devils that they called themselves Legion.  He came to Jesus and Jesus did not turn him away.  Jesus delivered him of all of them.  Jesus had no limitation there.  He is not willing that any be lost.  Any that come to him He is able to save to the uttermost.

There is more to it than just saying, “I believe.”

Jas 2:19  Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

I don’t believe that any of the devils are getting saved by believing so there is more to it than that.  This chapter speaks of works, “Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 

When we believe we repent and we are forgiven and turn from all known sin.  We believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are forgiven and choose to serve God.  Jesus came to save His people from their sin.  He didn’t’ come to save them in their sin. 

Before I got saved, I was sick of being a sinner and living a life in vain.  Thank God that we don’t have to.

When we get saved we are born into the kingdom of God and He writes our name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Rom 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

This part of the kingdom is ours to enjoy today.  Jesus finished the work and when He comes again we will all gather in the sky and the angels will gather with the saints.  That shoots down the millennium.  We can have the kingdom now.

We must choose to guard with all diligence our peace, joy, and righteousness.  There is an enemy out there that is very sly and wily.  If we stay close to God he cannot get us.  If we keep God in the right place, treasure His Word and Spirit, and keep things in the right perspective then the enemy cannot get us.

Because we are poor and needy we need Jesus all the time.  We need to stay close to Him. 

If we get sick or tired then it is easy to not keep good care of our peace and joy.  It is necessary that we do.  Whenever we say something too sharp or anything on that order, whenever the devil is trying to snare us, if we come to Jesus as quick as we can and tell God that we are sorry, (repent), then Jesus is our mediator. 

If we take care of things right away then we can go from victory to victory like Jesus wants us to do.  “Make no provision for the flesh.”  The flesh is self.  Jesus made it clear, “Take up your cross.”  The old man, the flesh, is to die on the cross.

The Gospel is complete.  It will not only start us for heaven but it will lead us every step of the way.

It is very important for us to stay in the Spirit.  Even when the flesh is tired and it is hard to do, it is necessary.  When things don’t go the way that we think they should, we need grace.  He has all the grace that we need so that we need have no lack but may serve Him acceptably.  He paid the full price.

We need to guard the fruit of the Spirit with all diligence.  Only God can give the kingdom: Peace, Joy and righteousness.  The sons and daughters of God reign in this kingdom.  The Gentiles that got saved were graft into the vine. 

We become Spiritual Jews.  Those that obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ are spiritual Jews.  I hope and pray that there are literal Jews that are also saved and are spiritual Jews.  It is our desire, even as Christ was not willing that any be lost but that all come to repentance.  This is our burden and desire as well.

We reign in God’s kingdom by diligent choices.  When we get out of bed every day we must choose to keep God first.  We must keep self in subjection.  A carnal fit is sin.  We will be held accountable for the choices we make.  It is our choice whether we’re going to obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ or not.

Jos 24:14  Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

Jos 24:15  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

There is no such thing as saying, “I’m going to sin a little.”  We cannot be that way.  This was probably the way Legion was and he ended up living among the tombs.  With God’s help we can live holy.  We cannot do it in ourselves.  We need God’s help. 

There are many gods in this world that we live in that will try to draw us away.  The number one god of this world is self.  God wants us to put self on the old cross and crucify him with all the desires and lusts.  We can and if we really love God and want to serve Him then it is not that hard.  It is our choice and God will in no wise turn us away.

The love of money is a god of the world.  People in this day will murder for money and do underhanded robbery and unjust treatment of their fellowman for money.  It is easy to see that that is of the devil. 

There are many gods and we don’t want to fall under any of them.

My number one job is to keep self in line.  We want the words of our mouth to be sweet and kind.  “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”  Even if we don’t get our way we must stay sweet.  This is the only way to please God.  It is hypocritical to say something sweet out one corner of our mouth and have hatred or strife come out the other corner.

If you squeeze a rose it still smells like a rose.  There is no time for us to have a carnal fit.  When a saint gets squeezed then they will still smell sweet.

Deu 10:12  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

If we will do this then we have the battle won.  The perfect example is Jesus.  We need to walk in all His ways.  We need to measure ourselves to that perfect example and we’ll not be in error.

Deu 10:13  To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

It is not grievous to keep the Lord’s commandments.

Mic 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

I thought I could do justly most of the time before I got saved, but I wasn’t even scratching it.  I didn’t know even what it was to do justly.  The same thing with love, I thought I knew what love was before I got saved, but I didn’t. 

God wants us to show the same mercy to each other that we love in God and have received from God.  We are members one of another and really care for one another.  We want to protect each other and not hurt each other. 

I’ve smashed my fingers a few times.  When I do, my whole body jerks it away from the hammer that whacked it and it hurts.  My whole body hurts.  That is the way the Body of Christ is.  We want each member to be successful; we hurt when others are hurt. 

We must each member ‘press for the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.’  I used to wonder how we could all be in this race and all win.  The way this happens is we stay in the Body.  The Body of Christ is going to win.  If you cut your arm off and set it aside then it will die.  We need each other.  We need the body.

Zec 8:16  These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:

Zec 8:17  And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.

Our neighbor is whoever we see or meet.  God wants us to be truthful in all our ways and not deceitful.   

“Judgment must first begin at the house of God.”  Judgment must begin at me.  We must execute this judgment on ourselves 99.9% of the time. 

God wants us to be loving to the lost without fail.  What won me to salvation and the Gospel was love.  It overwhelmed me how much God loved me.  We want that same love to the body and to others, to our neighbors. 

How is our peace and joy?  We must have them in order to be in the kingdom.  It is not an option.  There are so many strifes taking place throughout the world that it is hard to not get caught up in them.  God doesn’t want us involved in any of them.

Imagination is the biggest nation that the devil will ever use.  Paranoia is the disease of the imagination.  We’ve seen it right in this church building.  Two that I know of have died of paranoia.  They are not here now.  They thought the pastor was preaching at them.  That is paranoia.  If what the pastor preaches fits you then put it on.  If the shoe fits then wear it.  You could say simple things to them and they would take offense.  We cannot let imaginations rule our lives. 

Mark 1:15 repent and believe the gospel.

Repent means three basic things: 

metanao: 3340: to think differently, reconsider, morally to feel compunction, repent

3341 metanoia: repentance, 2 Cor. 7:10
1.  A change of mind and purpose and life, to which remission, (forgiveness, pardon, the giving up of a punishment due to a crime), of sin is promised,
2.  evangelistical repentance, a true sense of guilt. 
3.  An apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ.  We must realize that we have a savior. 
4.  An actual hatred of sin and turning from it to God.  A persistent endeavor after a Holy life and a walking with God and in His commandments. 

When we really repent then this is what we do.

2Co 7:10  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

We must get serious with repentance.  When we repent we must mean business.