Phil Beach Jr. introduces a series on the 'Seven Deadly Sins Every Christian Should Hate,' emphasizing the importance of recognizing and addressing sin in our lives. He highlights the necessity of listening to God's voice and being receptive to His guidance, as well as the need for humility and meekness in our hearts to truly receive His word. The sermon serves as a foundation for understanding how God's voice brings about transformation and judgment in our lives, urging believers to align themselves with God's will. Beach encourages the congregation to prepare their hearts for the upcoming messages on the deadly sins, reminding them that God desires a people who reflect the beauty of Christ.

Father, we're so thankful for your presence this morning. Our hearts are delighted because you have visited we, your people, who trust in you. Father, our hearts are delighted because of your kindness that you so freely and abundantly lavish upon our lives, completely unrelated to our performance, but wholly because of your incomprehensible love that you have for us. We thank you, Lord, for the presence of your son. Whoever lives to make intercession for us. Because of whose prayers we are sustained. And Father, we commit this into your hands. We thank you for the testimony of the Holy Spirit that so clearly ministered to us all through the members of the body, which is so pleasing to you. We pray, God, you'll give us hearts able to receive your word. We thank you, Lord, for forewarning us that you are leading us down a path that we are unfamiliar with, that we do not know the way, that you're taking us out of our comfort zone. You're releasing us, Lord, from those securities that we have leaned upon, that we might discover the all-sufficiency of your presence in our life. Teach us, Lord, to trust you more fully. We give you praise and honor. For Christ's sake, amen and amen. By the help of God's grace, I am beginning a series entitled Seven Deadly Sins Every Christian Should Hate. Now, let me assure you that the birth of this message did not come through perusing through the Bible and arbitrarily selecting seven sins that I thought would be interesting to preach on. But contrary wise, the birth of this has been in the process for many, many months, churning deeply within my own spirit, the working of God in my own spirit. And I believe that this is a prophetic word to each and every one of us who are set on attaining the highest intention that God has for us. Now, I don't think anybody here is really consciously wanting to fall short of anything that the Lord Jesus has intended for you. And I trust that this morning, as we begin the introduction, we're most likely not even going to get in to the actual seven deadly sins that every Christian should hate. We probably won't even get into the first one this morning because it is needful to lay a foundation that we can build upon so that it is not simply a nonsense kind of a message where it doesn't connect to anything. First of all, I would bring your attention to the book of Hebrews, chapter 12. Hebrews, chapter 12, as you are aware, we have been visited this morning by a marvelous visitation of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Lord was present. The power of God was present to reveal the centrality, the glory and the finality of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will know that the Lord has ministered faith into our hearts. The Lord has ministered encouragement into our hearts. How many would agree that somewhere during our gathering, since we gathered together, the Lord met a particular need in your heart this morning? He spoke and addressed to a very specific need in your heart this morning, albeit through exhortation, through song, through scripture reading. That is what the Lord Jesus wants to do. He wants to be ever present to speak into our lives. We ought never to gather together expecting to just hear a sermon or hear something or be a spectator. But the Lord wants to minister to each one of us every time we gather together. And as we come expecting to hear of the Lord, we will hear him now in Hebrews chapter 12. This is a very familiar portion of scripture that many of us have read many, many times. The Bible begins in verse number 25. Prior to that, the author of the of the book of Hebrews is talking about the incredible new covenant that we have come to. The covenant of grace, the covenant upon which the Lord Jesus Christ is the author, the foundation, the sustainer, the advocate, the atoning sacrifice. And he compares it with the old covenant and shows the superiority of the new covenant. Verse number 25 makes a very clear word to those reading this regarding the need to listen to what God is saying. There is an obsession in this country today regarding listening to things. Talk radio is perhaps one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the 90s. Everybody is into talk radio. Did you hear what so and so said on talk radio? Then we have the television. We have stand up comedians. Everybody wants to listen to something. May I ask you a very clear question this morning? Who are you listening to this morning? Who are your ears tuned into this morning? The Bible makes it very clear that when God speaks to his people, he admonishes them to listen to what he has to say. As God's people, we mustn't be tossed to and fro by many voices. Our ears must be delivered from the itchiness of wanting to hear many different things. Who are you listening to this morning? Who do you listen to when you get up in the morning? I know some people who, upon arising in the morning, immediately turn on the radio. Most of the time they have this kind of clock that you can set where the radio will come on at a certain time in the morning, and that will be their alarm clock, rather than the traditional ringing of the old fashioned alarm clock. You know, the kind that was so loud you almost had a coronary while you were waking up. It was so loud. Well, now you can have on your favorite radio station. You can listen to music. You can listen to a talk show. You might have it tuned in to where you wake up and you hear the weather report. But nevertheless, some people go from the bedroom where they're listening to the radio. They go down into the kitchen and they turn the TV on. And then while they're watching breakfast, they're listening to the TV. Then they get the morning paper and they start reading through the paper and they see what's happening in the world today. Then they go from the paper to a magazine. They're listening. They're reading. They're observing. They're contemplating. Beloved, may I say by the grace and spirit of God that you and I, as the redeemed of the Lord, must be careful that we don't become so involved in listening to what man is saying and listening to what's going on that we miss the voice of God. I would admonish you by the grace of God that you would pray and ask God to enable you to have a heart that is capable of hearing the voice of God, pursuing the voice of God, studying the word of God, speaking the word of God. It is only hearing God that is going to sustain us in the coming financial, economical and social and religious holocaust that is coming to this nation. It is only those who hear God's voice, who know their God, they shall know their God and do great exploits. Young people, please listen to me for a moment. This does not exclude you. God has an interest in young people. God loves young people. And I want to admonish the young persons here this morning who are gathered by the spirit of God that you would earnestly ask the Lord to give you a heart to know God. The most incredible thing, young people, that you can experience is to hear God speak to you. You know, God spoke to Samuel when he was a child. You remember, his parents brought him to the temple and he went to bed and as he was sleeping, God appeared and said, Samuel, Samuel. And he woke up and he ran in to Eli, the priest that he was being tutored by. And he said, Yes, Eli. And Eli said, I'm sorry, Samuel, go back to bed. I didn't call you. That happened twice. And then on the third time, Samuel went back to bed and he heard the voice and he ran to Eli and Eli said, Hmm, I think God is speaking to you. Next time you hear this voice, say, Yes, Lord, your servant is listening. You know what happened, young people? Eli or Samuel went back to bed and the Lord spoke to him again. But instead of running to Eli, he said, Yes, Lord, your servant is listening. And God began to speak to Samuel and Samuel became a great leader and prophet in the nation of Israel. And you know how it all started? You know how it's going to start in your life to know God in an intimate way and to become a leader among his people in order to demonstrate the beauty of his holiness. It all starts when you begin to recognize the voice of God and you begin to know the voice of God. Now, when God speaks to you, he's not going to be flattering you. He's not going to be telling you how great you are and how marvelous you are and how you're God's gift to the church. But when God speaks to you, he'll speak to you about the glories of his son. He'll speak to you about the beauty of his son. He'll speak to you about the righteousness of his son. He'll speak to you about the power that he gives you not to be some great person in the eyes of men, but to lay your life down, that you might be a servant to the people of God. When God speaks, he doesn't put visions of grandeur in your mind. He puts a vision of himself in your mind. This is what we need today. We need to hear the voice of God. We had a prayer meeting on Friday night, and God really bore witness to this truth about the voice of God. Now, Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 25. See that you refuse not. The word refuse there is a Greek word that means to decline. See that you decline not. Him that speaketh. That word speaketh is grammatically in the present tense. So it's not suggesting that you that you decline he who spoke necessarily, although God has spoken, but rather it's saying, see that you don't refuse him that is speaking now. God is speaking now to his church. He is speaking now to our heart and to my heart and to your heart. He is speaking at this very moment. See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escape not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. When God speaks, he speaks from heaven. When God speaks, he speaks out from his glory. Man speaks and it originates from his own heart. Man speaks and it originates from his own mind. When man speaks, it is the thoughts of his own contemplation. But when God speaks, when God reveals his word and when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, it is a heavenly thing. It is something that comes from heaven. And I'm telling you, it brings light and purity and it brings the very beauty of the Lord onto the scene. The voice of God is so lovely. Whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. One of the outstanding characteristics of hearing the voice of God is that it brings a shaking, it brings a shaking when God speaks, it shakes, it shakes the earth, it shakes the heaven, it shakes everything. And the nature of this shaking has to do with everything must become subject to God's word and whatever is not subject to God's word will shake. It'll shake. Let me just share a little bit for a few moments. I don't want to get on this, but I have to admit that it troubles me. It has troubled me over the years to speak with people who claim to hear God speak to them. It troubles me because when I go into the word of God and I see how God has spoken to men and women in the Bible and the effects that God's word has had on them, and then I hear when people talk about the Lord speaking to them and the apparent effects that it has had on them, I wonder if they're really hearing God. When God speaks, he shakes, even when he speaks in a gentle, loving way as a father to one of his loved children, it shakes, it gets into the depths of our being. Every word that comes from God is light. You can't hear God and not be confronted with your own personal sinfulness. You can't hear God and be confronted with a revelation of your need to constantly reaffirm that it is the righteousness of Christ that I'm trusting in. God's word will always reveal the loveliness of God. In Revelation chapter one, listen closely. John is on the island of Patmos, Revelation chapter one. Verse 10, And I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard him and heard behind me a great voice. John heard a voice behind him, verse number 12. Listen, this is a very important scripture. The Lord just so opened this up several months ago, verse number 12, and I turned to what? I turned to what? See the what? Since when do you turn to see a voice? You turn to hear a voice, not to see a voice. And the Holy Spirit so wonderfully warmed this portion of scripture and almost as if he said, no, listen, I didn't make a mistake. I wanted it just like that in order to emphasize something. Listen closely. When you hear the voice of God, you see God. You see God. Notice what John did. I turned to see the voice and being turned, I saw. When you turn to hear God's voice, you will see God. You will see something of his character, something of his nature, something of his heart, and it will radically affect you. When John turned to see the voice of God, he saw the church in Christ and he saw the head of the church standing in the midst of the church. And then he saw the kind of life that Christ is filled with, the righteousness of Christ, the holiness of Christ, the purity of Christ. And God was revealing to John in this portion of scripture the standard that the church must line up to. God accepts nothing in the church except that which comes from his son. Nothing. And so the voice of God is so important to hear. I just wanted to mention that Hebrews chapter 12. Remember, we're laying a foundation in order to delve into the seven deadly sins that every Christian should fear. All right, it says that he shook earth, he shook heaven, verse 27, and this word yet once more signifying the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. Now, the Bible makes it very clear that everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that only that which cannot be shaken will remain. Beloved, it is very clear the only thing that cannot be shaken is God and those whose lives are in agreement with God. Therefore, the nature of the shaking that will come to the world and to the church is in direct relation to God speaking and adjusting everything in our lives so that we are in agreement with all that God intends and everything out of agreement with God's will will shake, will shake, will shake, shake, shake. God is a loving God, he is a merciful God, he is a long suffering God, he is a patient God, but he is a God that will demand the standard of his son for the church. God is not asking us to produce of ourself any holiness or righteousness that we can offer to him, but he is asking us to behold the Lamb of God, who is the standard. All that Christ is, all of his beauty and righteousness and holiness must become the expression of what is in the church. And so therefore, be advised, God will work in your life and my life to this end, Jay, to this end. He's going to shake and shake everything. Not because he doesn't love us, but because he loves us. Not because he's being mean, but he's being kind. And the result will be a people who are in agreement with and in full cooperation with the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is through this foundation that we have come to see God is searching, the Bible says in Ezekiel, that God and in Jeremiah, that God will search Jerusalem with a candlestick. What that means prophetically is that the Lord will search us and search our lives and search our homes and search every nook and cranny in our life and heart and our families and our fellowship in order to bring everything into agreement with himself. First Peter, chapter four, verse number 17. First Peter four, chapter 17. For the time is come that judgment must begin where in the house of God. Judgment must begin in the house of God, the house of God is made up of people who know the Lord Jesus Christ. The judgment that God is bringing into the house of God is based upon his son. You see, the house of God is the place where the Lord Jesus is to find residence, but not only residence, but full expression of himself. And so therefore, the nature of judgment that God brings to the church is through his word and through his voice and through the Holy Spirit. He is shaking everything in our lives, in our families, in what we say, what we do, searching the very depths of our motives, the very depths of our intents in order to bring everything into the conformity to his lovely, perfect will. That's what he wants to do in your life. And my life. Now, I invite you to turn your Bibles to James, chapter one, this is all we're going to have time for today, only a few more minutes. We have looked at seven or we are going to look at seven deadly sins that every Christian should fear. We just laid a foundation from the word of God, which shows us that God and his voice and his word is going to come into our lives in order to bring divine judgment. The judgment is not necessarily against a particular willful sin, but it is God's action to bring us into conformity to the image of his son so that our lives are more and more and more an expression of the beauties of Jesus Christ. God is set on having a company of people who are able to say, it is no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me. That's true when you are betrayed, or we can say that positionally, can't we? We can say that as theology. But what about experientially? What about when you're called to love those who hate you? What about when you're called to bless those who curse you? What about when you're called to serve those who take advantage of your service? What about when you're called to love those who use you? Is it still no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me, or do I then have the right to express me? It's only Christ living in me when everything's nice. Oh, it's easy to love my brother when he loves me back, isn't it? Oh, it's easy to love my sister when she loves me back. Oh, it's nice to be able to respect someone who has a high opinion of you, isn't it? But can you respect a person who doesn't have a high opinion of you? Can you respect somebody who you know has spoken evil about you? Judgment in the house of God, why? Because the Lord says, if you're going to call my name, if you're going to associate yourself with me, then it can only be when things are going good. But you have to know my grace and my maturity in your life so that you can serve the unservable and love the unlovable and bless those who curse you and revile not when you are reviled. That's what the Lord wants in his house. Who will be his bride for all eternity? Those who walk as he did in this world. That's who will be. Who is it that he will take in his arms and say, you are mine forever. You will sit with me on my throne. Those who overcame as he overcame. How did Jesus overcome? In every situation that he confronted, he demonstrated the divine way and refused to submit to the temptation of the devil. And listen now, listen, everything you're going through right now, every situation in your life, every circumstance in your life, every person in your life, every relationship in your life right now is a divine test. And God is desiring through his grace and his mercy to enable you to overcome every situation in your life that has the potential to get you to do something that's not godly. To get you to do something that's not Christ like. If you look at the offense and you look at the one who is right now pressuring you, if you look at the thing that's painful, you're going to fall. But if you look unto Jesus, you'll find the grace to overcome. OK. In order for us to be able to receive the word of God, we have to have a certain kind of a heart. Without this heart, we will not receive the word. Listen, we might hear the word, but we won't receive it. God's people heard his word in the Old Testament through many different ways, but they didn't receive it. Now, listen carefully. James chapter one. There are two essential elements. Two essential elements that must be present in the soil of our heart if we are to hear God's word and receive it. Now, I pray the Holy Spirit of God will take his word and make it life to us, because this is not a sermon. This is not a sermon. This is a word from the heart of our Lord. This is a word from the Lord to each and every one of us. The first essential element that must be present in our hearts, if we are to hear the word and in context, we're building up to seven deadly sins. If we want to be able to hear these sins and let God convict us and deliver us from every iota of these sins in our life, we must possess these two elements or else we will inevitably push it off because it gets to the very depths of our being. It goes to the very core of our heart. Number one, James chapter one, verse number, we'll start with 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Oh, those words already convict us, don't they? We're not even dealing with that. But oh, how those words convict us. We're too quick to talk. We're too quick to justify. We're too quick to talk ourself out of trouble. Huh? We're too quick to get wrathful, aren't we? Oh, we let wrath build up in us. We let it stew. We let it, we're too quick to get angry. But the Bible says, be slow to speak, slow to wrath. And listen to this, wherefore, lay apart for the verse 24, the wrath of man, worketh not the righteousness of God, wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. That that simply means an abundance of dirt. Abounding in evil, that is, lay aside all the eruptions and the abounding tendencies to be evil and to do that which is wrong. Lay it aside, listen, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. The first essential element that God must work in us is the divine quality of meekness. Now, before we define meekness, I want to remind you of the scripture in Matthew chapter 11. Jesus said, learn of me, for I am meek. Meekness is not a quality inherent within the human nature. You might have a pleasant personality. You might have a low key personality. Now, do you ever meet certain people with personality traits? Some are very outgoing and very boisterous and demonstrative and others are are quiet and laid back. Don't mistaken that quiet, laid back attitude as meekness. That's not meekness. That is a personality trait. It is inherent within Adam's genes. Those personality traits are inherent within Adam. But the meekness here is a divine thing. It is a divine quality. Don't be fooled by a milquetoast kind of a person. Oh, they're so meek. Usually those kind of people stew deep inside. Deep inside, there's the temptation. So don't misunderstand that as meekness. OK, the definition meekness, the attitude of spirit in which we accept God's dealing with us as good and do not dispute or resist it. I'll read that again. Meekness, the attitude of our spirit in which we accept God's dealing with us as good and do not dispute or resist. Beloved, if you have walked with the Lord any length of time, you will quickly realize that you do not have the capacity inherent in yourself not to resist God's discipline in your life. You don't have it. You can try as hard as you want. You can muster up all the power you want, but you will resist the heart searching dealings of God in your life unless you come to Jesus and learn of Him and let Him produce in you a meek spirit. This meekness that James chapter 1, verse 21 is talking about is a divine attribute produced by the Holy Spirit alone. So the first element we must pray for is meekness. And the second is found in verse number 25. But before we read that, let's just go on. Verse 22, be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving our own selves. You see, the absence of meekness will result in hearing but not doing. If any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. Now, be very careful. Listen closely. The second element, you know, elements are in the soils, aren't they? All right. These are two spiritual elements that must be in our soil, the soil of our heart where the word, the seed is sown. The first element, meekness. The second one. The first three words of verse 25, actually two, but whoso looketh. Now, at first glance, you might say, well, what kind of a quality is that? Listen carefully. The Greek word for whoso looketh literally means to stoop down in order to look into something. In Luke chapter 24, verse 12, Luke 24, verse 12, the Bible says that one of the disciples ran to the tomb. And it says he stooped down and looked into it. The Greek word for that action that that disciple engaged in is the same Greek word that's used here. But whoso looketh. So in other words, the Holy Spirit is saying it's not just looking into the word of God, looking into the things of God. Well, let me see. I go from CNN to ABC to Wide World of Sports. I go to the sports magazine. Well, I think now I'll go to the word of God. No, beloved, that's not what God is saying. You just don't go from one thing to another, to another. Well, let me see. God's on my list. Number six, time to go to God. Seven minutes, four, three, two, one, time now to go to. That's the idea. And it's got to be broken. Whoso looketh. The idea there is that when we approach God, the word of God or the things of God, we've got to have a bowed down humility toward the things of God. We've got to have a heart that is bowed down before God. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. God is against this arrogant, self-boasting, inflated mentality that we have when we go to him. You don't go to God as though he owes you something. You don't go to God as though all heaven is going to stop now and say, oh, look, brother, so-and-so's in prayer. Look, sister, so-and-so's in prayer. We've got to pray that God delivers us from this spirit that is in the world. It is a hearty spirit. It is a self-inflated spirit. It is a lifted up spirit. You can't take that when you go to God. You've got to go to God in brokenness and humility. There's got to be a bowed down posture before our holy God and Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We must approach the Lord and His Word in the heart posture of bowed down humility, or we will fail to receive from His Word. This world is characterized by an attitude that is repugnant, detestable, and a stench in the eyes and nostrils of God. And we must pray that we, as those who name the name of the Lord, will be delivered from every visage. Is that the word? Vestige. I always get that word mixed up. Every vestige. Every iota of anything that would contradict meekness and contradict a bowed down humility in the presence of God. And not just God, but in the presence of each other. It is an awful thing to have an arrogant spirit toward one another. It is an awful thing to be lifted up against somebody, especially when we're members of the same body. Now, beloved, that is all that I'm going to share this morning. That's the first of several messages. But I'm asking the Lord, because I believe the foundation is the most important, isn't it? You might have a vision for a beautiful home, but if you don't have a good foundation, brothers and sisters, that home is not going to stand. And I'm praying that God will cause us to see the urgency of our need to pray for humility and pray for a humble, meek spirit. Listen, this is prophetic. The Holy Spirit desires to pour out His Spirit in the church today, not just in our gathering, but anywhere there are believers who are hanging their lives on the merits of Jesus Christ. But I'm telling you, He won't do it. Do you want a sure remedy to destroy your homes? Get arrogant. Get proud. Get cocky. Begin to disrespect one another. Begin to belittle one another. I give you one year and your home will be destroyed. One year and your home will be destroyed. You start disrespecting people. You start talking about one another. You start lowering the dignity of who we are as children of God. And you're just setting yourself up to be a vessel through whom the devil will talk. Because the devil loves to disrespect and to take the dignity of who we are as Christians and lowering it. God wants to pour out His Spirit. But it's needful that we pray as a company of believers, one with another. Give us meekness. Give us humility. Give us a bowed down spirit. Lord, no matter how much it hurts. Lord, no matter how much it hurts me. No matter how much my pride despises it. Lord, do whatever you have to do to produce in me those qualities. So that when I hear Your Word, either in my prayer closet, when I'm on my knees before God, or whether I'm in a gathering and somebody speaks the Word of God, Lord, I've got to be in the place where I always hear and receive the engrafted Word that I might grow in You. Amen and Amen. Now, God willing, next time we gather together and there is liberty and freedom, I will begin to delve into the seven sins that every Christian should hate. And I trust that you'll have notes. We're going to make this available on tape. I encourage you to listen to it as a family. Get in and read the Scriptures. Don't let it be a sermon, but let it be a word from the Lord. And our lives will be changed and we'll be that much closer to receiving the fullness of God's Spirit. Because God's going to bring a harvest. The Lord again spoke to me this morning as we were all here and the Spirit was moving. The Lord just so very gently and so very sweetly and so very quietly said, Son, be encouraged. I'm going to bring a harvest. I'm going to fill my house with my glory. Just keep praying and keep your eyes on me and keep encouraging one another. It's going to happen. God's going to do it. You know why? Because God has promised and God is not a liar. He's not a liar. So, let's bow our hearts together for a moment in a word of prayer.