In this sermon, the speaker discusses the concept of deliverance from sin and the importance of recognizing the enemy in one's life. The speaker emphasizes that God reveals the enemy gradually, just as the Canaanites kept the land in trust until the Israelites were ready to conquer it. The speaker also highlights God's faithfulness and love, stating that He keeps His covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments. The sermon concludes with a reminder to not make alliances with sin and to show no mercy to it.

As we come unto you, it is with profound thanksgiving and praise, Lord, because you are so good to us, Lord, so good to us. We thank you, Lord, for the numerous deliverances, some we know and some we don't, but Lord, we appreciate each one. We pray, Lord, for those in Kosovo tonight, Lord, and in Yugoslavia. Lord, we know there are many fine people there, many, many fine people. We see their pictures in the paper, Lord. And our heart goes out to them, Lord, and we just ask that this will, that you will ease their suffering, Lord, and bring them to Jesus. Bring them to a knowledge of salvation. Somehow, Lord, all these people, oh God, have mercy on them and help, Lord, whether they're Mohammedans or whatever they are. Just help them and bring relief spiritually and physically to them, we pray, Lord. Pray for each family represented here, Lord, that your blessing will be there, your hand of protection and help for each family member, Lord. And as we continue, we ask for the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds and hearts and add to us that which we have need of, nose and tape land, in Jesus' name, amen. I'm a little hoarse, but no pain, no pain, just the aftermath of a cold. I want to call your attention, we've been over this before, but this is much on my mind, it's Romans chapter 6, verses 5, and I want you to give very careful thought to this. It kind of epitomizes what Romans 6 is into. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. Now, one thing that's very important to remember when reading the New Testament, and it's new to us, and we haven't been sensitized to it, is this idea where it says in Romans 6, in this passage here, verse 7, he who has died has been freed from sin. I want you to consider that. Now, exactly what that means is kind of difficult to nail down, but I'm going to take a shot at it. You can put in your two cents. But our problem when we read the New Testament, and we see the expression freed from sin, we think of guilt. And that's what confuses us. We think of freed from the guilt of sin. The reason is because for 2,000 years the gospel has been preached primarily that its purpose is the forgiveness of our sins. Christ came to forgive our sins. When it says, for example, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, we interpolate guilt, the guilt of the sin of the world. We're not really into the idea of the removal of sin itself. Of all the times you picked to leave. I should not have to explain all this to her. I'm laying the groundwork. Okay. Romans 6, 7, and we're talking about the expression freed from sin. And I pointed out that when we see that, because for 2,000 years the church has been taught that Christ came to forgive our sins, we interpolate this idea of freed from the guilt of sin. What is your take on that? It's a hard expression to understand. Very hard. Because we know we're bound with sin. What would be wrong with regarding it as just freed from the guilt of sin? What would be wrong with that? Larry? You would never reach a point in which you were absolutely free from guilt. I thought. Of course the teaching you know is that you're free from guilt regardless of how you behave. That is the prevailing doctrine. Yes, Chief. Bill? Okay, those are all good. Yes. The answer to the question is I can't be referring to the guilt of sin because of that term slavery. See, it wouldn't make sense. If you look at it, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. See, it makes no sense talking about guilt here. We're talking about the behavior, the bondage of the behavior. Also, the text, the sixth chapter of Romans, the idea of it is a, I can't remember the term now, but it's not a rebuttal, but it's put in there to cover the fact that in chapters three through five, Paul had talked about the forgiveness of our guilt through the righteousness of Christ rather than keeping the law of Moses. So, where is the disclaimer? Romans chapter six is a disclaimer because some people were already teaching that if, you know, if grace is doing so good a job, then let sin that grace may abound. See, that was already being said. And you can deduce that. So, when Paul in Romans six is issuing a disclaimer, he's issuing a disclaimer in terms of behavior. What then, shall we sin? See, that's how it starts off, that grace may abound in Romans six. So, it's not, in rational thinking, it's not talking about guilt, it's talking about behavior. So, Romans six, the statements in it must be regarded as behavior. Any comment, any question about that? Do you see that in Romans six one, and should we then sin, do you see that in Romans six one? God forbid. So, in the context, right down through to Romans six twenty three, the wages of sin is death. It's talking, one, to Christians, it's not addressed to the unsaved. Romans was written to the saints. Two, it's saying that if a Christian continues to sin, he will die. The wages of sin is death. It has nothing to do with the unsaved. I'm battling this thing for five days now. Alright. Now, I'm going to push a little harder here. When it says anyone who has died has been freed from sin, then, if we're not talking about guilt, what does it mean? The coercion of sin. But is that true? Isn't it true that, right now with Diane McIntosh, what we're doing is dealing with the fact that we still do have compulsions to sin, even though we have received Christ, we have not been freed from the compulsions to sin. I haven't actually been freed from them. Yes, Bill. Well, if I understand properly, you're actually saying that coercion means you don't really have a choice in the matter, whereas... I think that's very true, and very close to the meaning. Yes. Freed from the bondage of sin, in that we... Okay. Well, that's certainly all true. Sandra? Romans 6, verse 7, the meaning of the phrase, freed from sin. And the NIV says, freed from sin. I don't know what King James says. Yes? In a way, it frees you from sin, to that range of the other way, or not letting that be the other way. That may not be as widespread as we could wish. Let me make some suggestions. See what you want to do with them. But they don't really differ from what you've said. First of all, we know that in Romans 7, Paul says that when we die, and this is all predicated, this whole discussion in Romans chapters 6 and 7 and 8, is all predicated on the fact that we actually, our inwards Adamic nature, our first personality, has been crucified with Christ. Romans 6, 7 and 8 are based on this assumption. If you take that away, none of it is relevant. None of the argument is relevant. It's all based on, we're freed from sin because we have been crucified with Christ. First of all, we're free from the law of Moses. People still do not understand that today. Why are we free from the law of Moses? In Romans 2, that's true. And Romans 7 tells us why we're free from the law of Moses. Yes, we're permitted to be married to another because we are free from the law of Moses. But why are we, on what basis are we free from the law of Moses? When you are alive. It only governs the living. Which tells us that even as a Christian, if you have not been crucified with Christ, you're still under the law of Moses. The law has dominion over a person as long as he is alive. And that's very clearly spelled out in Romans chapter 7. So the first dimension of the meaning of freed from sin is that we're free from that which always was in Paul's mind, such things as you can't eat pork, or you can't wear two kinds of clothing together, like linen and wool. That was against the law to wear clothing made of two different fabrics. And many such regulations and stipulations. And those laws govern living people. They do not govern dead people. And so when we have died, and this is all explained in chapter 7 of Romans, when we have died on the cross with Christ, that's the basis of Romans 6, we're crucified with Him, therefore, the law no longer has any dominion over us because it only has jurisdiction over the living. Is there any question about that? Okay, that's the first one dimension of the expression in Romans 6, 7 is freed from sin. Okay? Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. It's based on our having died. If we haven't died, we're not freed from sin. The second dimension that I would suggest, and it was really not different from what you're saying, is that Romans 6 is not a prescription for deliverance from sin. It's been used that way. There are people who have put out books, doctrines, denominations that have used various passages, some from Romans 6, to show that sin no longer can control a Christian. Some of it, I will say, kind of grossly, without much reference to the text, that was finished on Calvary, so I'm freed from sin. Meaning, kind of a combination of freed from guilt, and freed from his power, and freed from everything. That's all settled. That's all settled, I'm on my way to heaven. Then, back, I remember a man named Maxwell from Prairie Bible Institute in Canada wrote a book some years ago called Born Crucified. And the idea is that when we are born as a Christian, we are already born dead. And people were using, I don't know if Maxwell did, but people were using wrecking yourself dead as a formula for deliverance. As a prescription for deliverance. Wrecking yourself dead, what do I do about the sin in my life? I reckon myself dead. That is not intended to be a prescription for deliverance. God did not mean, Paul was not writing this as a prescription for deliverance, as far as I can see. What Paul was saying is because you have died to sin with Christ on the cross, you are no longer required to sin in terms of an expectation. Now, let me show you the same thing, if you look at Romans 8.12, someone read Romans 8.12, and you see exactly that stated. Very important, Romans 8.12, very important to our understanding of Romans 6.7. Does someone have Romans 8.12? Yes. It says you have no obligation whatsoever to do whatever your sinful nature urges you to. See, that is what I was saying, that is what he means by that. It is not a prescription for deliverance, it is merely a statement that in view of the fact that you have died with Christ, it is no longer necessary. Not that you won't sin, or that you don't have a compulsion to sin. You say, well, why is that so relevant? Because if you stop and think, the hewing cry of evangelicalism, and that is what we are as evangelicals, but I say that to differentiate from the many, many Christian movements that view things in all kinds of ways, covenant thinking and so on. But we are all evangelicals, and the Pentecost is an evangelical movement, like the Baptist movement, and that is what we are, the blood washed we believe in, the born again experience and so on. That is why I use the term, I am not downing evangelicals, I am just saying that our tradition needs to be modified. And the hewing cry of evangelicalism is, as long as we are in this world, we have to sin. Anybody ever hear that? As long as we are in this world, we have to sin. And there is a thought there, that there is an expectation, almost a requirement, that until we die, there is no use talking about perfection, because we have to sin. Has only two people ever heard that? Emily has heard it? Have you heard it Eddie? Sandra has heard it? You guys of course never heard that did you? As long as we are in the world, we have to sin. You see how there is an expectation, almost a requirement? Well that is what Romans 8.12 is saying, is that you don't owe that to your carnal nature, to sin. You don't owe your carnal nature that. He still has not given us a prescription. Merely an orientation. Now, in Romans 6.7, Paul is saying, you have died with Christ, sin is no longer appropriate, that you should live in it. But he is not telling us what to do about it. He is just saying, you don't owe your flesh, anything, that you should continue in sin. Probably the closest thing, that Paul gives us as a prescription, is in the next verse, in Romans 8.13. And I think you all have this memorized by now, you use it so much. For if you live after the flesh, you know, you don't owe your flesh anything, people, because if you live after the flesh, you are going to what? Die. And obviously this is not physically, because we all die physically. So, he is talking about spiritual death, as is also true in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. He is saying, now that you have been saved, you have eternal life, now it is up to you, to choose righteousness. It is up to you, to be a slave of righteousness. And if you do, it says in Romans 6.22, the result of the righteousness, is holiness, and the result of that, is eternal life. That is how you gain eternal life, is by choosing righteousness. But then when we try to do it, we find this immense battle. In Romans 8.13, as I said, it is the closest Paul comes to giving us a prescription. Now, he does allude to a kind of a prescription, in Romans 8, verses 5, 6, and 7, where he talks about the carnal mind, wars against God, and the mind of the spirit, follows God, there is life, and peace, and all, which is kind of prescriptive. And then again, in Galatians 5, and I believe it is verse 16, it is either 15 or 16, for sure, he said, live in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of your flesh. So he gives us this prescription. Live in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of your flesh. That is a prescription for deliverance. Then again, we have 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and again, we have a prescription for our deliverance. So in Romans 6, we have the thought that, based on your death, you are not obligated to sin. And to do so, is just contrary to everything you are professing by faith. And if you continue to do so, you are going to die spiritually. But he doesn't give it, we would wish Paul would, and you know, in many places, for example, in Galatians 5, around verse 24, he says, those are Christ's, put to death the carnal nature, and so on. But, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. How do you do it? Because we engineers like that. Boy, we like prescriptions. We don't like these vagaries, do we Bill? No, we don't like it. Alright. So, I've pondered that. Why God, do you give us the whole basis for it, in logic you might say, or in our stance, in Christ, but not tell us how to do it? And I'll tell you what I think the answer to that is, and I stand to be corrected, but I think the answer to that is, in Exodus, chapter 13, verse 17. Exodus, chapter 13, verse 17. Anyone has that? Chief? When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not leave them on the road through the Philistine country. And I think that's been true for 2,000 years. I think the reason God has not brought his church into a direct confrontation with the enemy, is that we were not prepared. Now, you want to remember, Israel fought some very significant battles in the wilderness. Remember the one where they held up Moses' hand? That happened almost immediately, they were from Egypt, where that took place. They had other wars that had nothing to do with their land of promise. They were just battles in the wilderness. So, it wasn't that they had no conflict, they did. But when it came to entering the land of promise, see, God could have taken them off, they could have gotten from Egypt, if they followed the caravan route, which was just along the Mediterranean. And instead, when they left Egypt, they went south, down toward Mount Sinai, and then wandered around, fiddled around and everything. And God says, you're not ready yet to hit a really entrenched enemy. You're not ready for that yet. Skirmish is okay, but you're not ready for war yet. And I think that we have come, in 1999, to a step forward in the kingdom. And I think the Lord is going to take the scriptures that are already there, and direct us in warfare. I think the time has come to drive Satan out of God's creation. And it will begin with those who are closest to the Lord, out of their personalities. We have nothing to do yet dealing with anybody else. It's with ourselves where the problem is. Of course, we're doing that in one phase with Diane. But I think this is a turning point, and I think our eyes are being opened to the fact that no, the scripture teaches us we are not obligated to sin. We are not. We are freed from sin. And now I think the Lord is ready to take those verses and lead us. And I think the time has come. We've got a 2,000 years of church history. We know, you know, we had everything in the first century, and we lost it as God knew we would, because it had not been developed in us. It had all been given to the apostles. And God knew He can't give people stuff like that. It has to be built up in a lock and a bar at a time. That's taken 2,000 years to do. Now we're at Pentecost. After Pentecost comes trumpets. We're ready now. We have that background. And God has some things to say to us. But I want to go now to Deuteronomy, the seventh chapter. God has some things to say to us. And I can tell from the writings of the prophets on the internet and different people with prophetic ministries that God is speaking the same thing to His people. I mean, we are in a new day, people. And see, the whole Bible is a book of war. The whole Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. The difference is under the New Testament we're warring against spirits, not against people. But the whole Bible is a book of war. It's not a book of peace. It's a book of war. And the reason is because God has a war in His creation. And He has brought forth man and filled him with Christ so that man can drive sin from God's creation. I mean, lock, stock and barrel. I don't mean kinda, sorta. I mean all sin forever driven from the creation of God till even its memory is blotted out. Yeah. That's where we are, people. And we just read in Romans 6, verses 5 and 7 that this is entirely scriptural. He died with Christ so we're not under any obligation to sin. But, instead of giving us a prescription, He's giving us a living leader, the Lord Jesus. With a prescription, we blow it and become self-confident. Deuteronomy 7. Okay, so stay there and I'll just read you another verse and I'll tell you where it is so it'll be on the tape so you can check it out if you want to turn to it. It's Daniel 9, 24. Seventy sevens, that means weeks, seventy weeks, seventy, in quotes, sevens are decreed for your people in your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness. Scriptural. That, for your amazement, is Daniel 9, 24. Now, let's look at Deuteronomy 7, one of my very favorite. Deuteronomy 7 and the first three verses of 8 are my favorite of all favorites. When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess. He's not talking now about the skirmishes in the wilderness with Midian or anything. He's talking about the enemy in the land. We've had a lot of skirmishes in our Christian life, but now we're preparing to enter the kingdom. Think of it. What a day, what a day. Alright. And drives out before you many nations, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you. Now, first of all, notice in verse 1 the Lord is going to bring us into the land and the Lord is going to drive out the many nations. Okay? But we know that when Israel went in Israel had to fight. But we know also two things were true. First of all, the captain of the Lord's host was with them, fighting with them, pushing over the walls of Jericho and doing a few other neat things. And also God was helping by raining hailstones down from heaven. And he was guiding them city by city. But they had to do the fighting. Excuse me people on the table, sorry. I know Emily will be coming next week with boxes of herbs to cure my cold because that's the way she does. Alright, now. Now I want you to notice something very careful in verse 2 because I believe there is a prescription here. Or at least model. Let me put it that way. Now notice. There are three things here. When the Lord your God has delivered them over to you that's the first step in deliverance from sin is that God has to point out to you the enemy in your life. And he doesn't do them all at once. I mean if he did, this gives you one city. And in the meanwhile the Canaanites are keeping the farms going and keeping the animals at bay. In other words they're keeping your land in trust until you're ready to go in. And that's the way it is with your personality. My personality, all of us have things that ten years from now we'll look back and say oh Lord, was I like that. But you are, but you don't see it and God doesn't want you to see it. He only wants you to deal with the thing that he is delivering into your hand. There's a reason for that. Because otherwise if he delivered you all at once and all his demons come out of you and then they're going to look and there's a house all decorated but it's not occupied and they go again. So the idea is the evil goes out and Christ comes in. The evil goes out and Christ comes in. The evil goes out and Christ comes in. And that way you know the ratio keeps operating like that. Christ increases we decrease and then there's no way in which that which is driven from us can enter back into us. But if he took it all out at once before Christ was born in us we'd be a house empty and decorated. The Lord warned us about that. Yes Chief. What you just described is the process of salvation. Yes it is. That is the process of salvation. And it's not oriented particularly toward heaven or any place. It's oriented toward entrance into the kingdom of God and particularly on the earth. That's exactly right. That's what salvation is. We're not saved in order to do something. We're saved in order to be acceptable to God for his purposes. That fellowship with God and to be reconciled to him. Not to go somewhere. Yes? It's interesting the names of these nations the Hittites and so forth a friend of mine did a study of those and they actually have meanings of things like This is where we get snagged. Number two is you have defeated them. So here we have that the Lord has shown it to us and now we have attacked it and we've defeated it. Let's say for example we were cheating on our wife or cheating on our husband. So the Holy Spirit points this out to us. Many Christians do this. They're in delusion. They think they're really doing the Lord's will. And God one way or another brings it to their attention that that's wrong. It's sinful. They have done a sinful thing or are doing a sinful thing. So they get down. It's not easy. They get down and pray and they get the victory over this. It's goodbyes. It's, you know, you're gone. I'm going back to my honey. And that's the end of that. So they they defeat them. Okay? Now look at the third one. This is where we get messed up. Then you must destroy them totally. Now that's where Israel blew it. That's where Israel blew it. And they're suffering to this present hour because of it. They went in. They defeated Jericho. They defeated Ai. And then they went from city to city. Victory to victory under Joshua. But they did not finish the job. They did not finish the job. God told them you can make slaves of people outside of the land. But when it comes to the land where you are you are to utterly destroy everything that breathes young and old male and female when it's in your land you put it to death because otherwise you're going to be seduced into their God the worship of their gods. What happened was when the Jews went in they made some very good progress under Joshua. But after that it began to feeder out. And you say, why? When God told them so clearly and when they were winning every battle it's just human nature. It's just human nature. And we have to watch out for that. You see, there's social pressure. We don't realize. They let some of the Asherah Poles stand in worship of lust of the goddess the Greeks called Aphrodite. They burned their children in the fire at Amalek. They should know better than that. You remember a good example is when God told Saul to attack Agag because what was he, an Ammonite? Amalekite. Because Amalek had attacked Israel in the rear when they were going through the desert and cut off stragglers and killed them. And God said, I have war with Amalek from generation to generation. I want them wiped out. Take anything of theirs. I want Amalek finished. See, totally destroyed. I just finished a booklet, Mark called Total Destruction. Isn't that a wonderful title? Oh, thanks, Sandra. I'll probably finish both of them before I get through here. Alright. See, that's not in our sight. And Saul did what he thought was proper. I mean, he is a brave man. Saul was brave. He went out there and he wiped them off and he saved the king alive and he saved the best of the livestock. And see, God said, kill it all. Well, you know, you look at it and you think, that's a lot of money there. You know, there's no need to kill them. I mean, that's carnal reasoning. Carnal reasoning doesn't follow God's reasoning. God said, kill them all. God means kill them all. He doesn't mean any other thing. Well, Samuel comes. What means the bleeding of these sheep? You did what I said. Oh yes, I haven't paid the Lord your God yet. Well, what means the bleeding of these sheep? Well, I mean, Saul's kingdom was gone right at that point. I mean, that was it. God wants stern obedience. And nothing except that. And so, in our own... Now, what would you do? We talked about a man, we'll say, who had repented of his adultery. Okay? But then, it isn't enough that he's got the upper hand. That has got to be destroyed. And he's not to go back to his concubine and say, oh, I'm so sorry it didn't work out. You know? He's not to... If you think that would be wisdom, just have him ask his wife if he should do that. He'd find out in a hurry. You have done with office flirtations. You have done with telephone sex. You have done with pornography. You have done with every hair and claw that has to do with lust. You destroy it totally. So, you don't just gain the upper hand over it. You destroy it. And that harshness, that merciless attitude towards sin, is not pleasing to people in a culture such as ours. You want to remember, we read about, for 500 years, how they let the Asherah's poles stand, and how they worship the veils and so on. How could they do that? And not to... Isn't the phone ringing up there? It's because of social pressure. We think if I was there, I'd have done like Hezekiah. Oh, I'd have smashed down all the poles, and I'd have done this. You remember when Gideon knocked down Baal's altar there? The uproar there was the next morning. Bring out your son, they said to his father. We may kill him. He's knocked down Baal's altar. See, there's social pressure there. I mean, we can read it, you know, like armchair generals and say, Oh, if I was there, I'd do so and so. There's enormous social disapproval when you try to do what God says. Because human nature is, well, you get it started in the right way, well, you know, I'm okay, you're okay, let's live a little. You don't have to be that hard. That's what's wrong. God brings it up to us, we defeat it, but we don't totally destroy it. That's a very important thing about sin. It's not just enough to get the upper hand over something in your life. You've got to stay with the Lord and follow the Spirit until every aspect of that thing has been destroyed. And you say, Well, that's not an American attitude. We don't think like that. And that's what I'm telling you. We don't. In order to deal with sin, and I'm not talking about sin in other people. If we get rid of the sin in our own life, we'll be compassionate and patient toward other people, because the reason we're not is because we have sin in our life. I'm talking about the sin in our life. Not in other people, or in the government, or anything else. In our life, we are to be absolutely merciless. Give it no quarter of any kind. And see, that is going to take some change in the psyche of the church. I used to say, some of you have been here a long time, can't remember, I used to say, Do you want all sin driven out of the world? Oh yeah. Even all of your sin? You know, and then it makes a difference. Because we begin to think, all sin, now wait a minute, wait a minute, whoa, not so fast. See, not so fast. Yes? Is this what Jesus was referring to when he said, if you're right, or that statement, as you will, how utterly important it is that we obey the Lord in every respect. Now you want to stop and think, if you think I'm pushing it too far, we have had in our globe, the world, planet earth, six thousand years of insane, howling agony because of one sin. Think of it. Think of it. It wasn't that they sinned for four years and God finally, like in the time of Noah, one sin. And everybody died. That's how important it is. And you'll find over and over in this chapter, totally destroy, totally destroy, totally destroy. And when God says that, he doesn't mean almost. Now it must have been hard for them because they were dealing with human beings, children, elderly people. But we're dealing with spirits. But even so, we find in ourselves a reluctance to really attack sin that totally. But it has to be. And let me point out an ancillary factor here. And that is doing God's will. Now again, I wish Colleen was here. She's always our weather bane when it comes to evangelical thinking. But when I became a Christian, I learned, not while I was in the Marine Corps, but when I got back into church land, into America and started going to church, I had never been a Christian before, before I had been in the Marine Corps. So this was all new to me. I didn't know what to expect. And I was hearing from people something that astonished me. And it was common. It wasn't an isolated statement. It was a common belief that no one does God's will perfectly. Now have any good evangelicals in here ever heard that? Four? Five? I don't know. It was like the whole church atmosphere was imbued with this concept. And I went around kind of like Diogenes with a lantern. Is this true? Is this true? Is this a fact? But it presumed a God who was inscrutable and whose laws were such that they never could possibly be obeyed. There always must be an area in our life that is not right. That's what I was taught by the dear old saints. Well, I rebelled against this because it kept me in a state of perpetual guilt. I thought, there's something I'm not doing. What is it I'm not doing, Lord? They say you can't do your will and the world is waiting to see someone who will do God's will perfectly and go all the way with God, blah, blah, blah. And I thought, you know, there's something wrong here. And I've told you this before because you're sick of hearing it, but it's germane to this. Went to the Lord one day and I said, I was in Bible school on the campus, I can still picture it, because God takes notes of things like that. And I said, Lord, whatever your perfect will is, I'll do it. Just give me the grace to do it. So I don't want to hear this anymore that the world is waiting to see a man who will do God's perfect will. I don't want to hear that anymore. The ball's in your court, Lord. So I didn't know, you know, what was going to happen. I just went into class. That was during recess and there was a prophecy immediately. If you mean what you have said, it will be a blessing to many people. And I knew the prophecy was directed toward me. So, I have felt that way from that day to this. I know my own weakness and foolishness. I'm well aware of it. More aware of it than most of you are except for my wife. But, nonetheless, I see no reason to change that. I see no reason. And you know, most of us, if we're not willing to make such a statement before God, are going around in needless guilt because it's more probable that we actually are doing what God wants than that we're not. But we don't have the freedom of knowing it. So we're in a state of guilt needlessly. Because when we go to God, I thought, oh, what is the Lord going to do now? I mean, what am I to expect? You know, this is like the unutterable words. It's not lawful for a man to utter. You know, like, crash! You know, you infinite word! You nothing! You grain of mud! You dare speak to do my Father's will. But nothing happened except the one prophecy. The days went on. You know, none of the teachers was resurrected and translated. You know, nothing happened. Because I was doing what God wanted. He had called me to preach when I was in the Marine Corps. And I had left. When I got out of the service, I went to Bible school to honor that call. It was a supernatural event in my life. And so I was already doing all that. I didn't have any time to waste to fool around and get in mischief. I'm going to tell you that right now. I used to, of course, I was not married, so I had to wash my own clothes. And there was a clothesline behind the school, and I had to wash them and hang them up there. I didn't have time to bring them in. When I was racing from the chapel up to the main part of the Bible school, I grabbed one thing off the line. I mean, I was too busy to get in mischief. So I was doing God's perfect will and just didn't have the fun of realizing it. So I felt that way from that day to this. Lord, if I'm not doing your perfect will, show me so I can and help me so I can do it. How else do you approach your Father? Now, I'm going to show you the flip side of that. To not do that is a heinous thing beyond comprehension. To live with the impression that you are not obeying your Father in heaven is unthinkable. Because what you are saying is I am willing to disobey God. Right or wrong? Well, that's what the devils did. You can't live like that. You say, yeah, but I've accepted Christ and I'm saved by grace. It's not the purpose of grace. To excuse disobedience, that's not the purpose of grace. Jesus isn't going to say well done good and faithful servant when you've been under the impression you're disobeying God. You were willing to disobey God? It's unthinkable. It's unthinkable. Yeah. Now, God has a program. And as we read in Daniel 9.27, it's to put an end to sin. Now, when you are and sin, if you'll stop to think of it, is disobedience to God. That's all it is. It's disobedience to God. And, if that is God's goal, and you are still sinning, then you are still part of the problem. God wants you to be part of the solution. Not part of the problem. You can't appear with Christ when He appears if you're willing to disobey your Father. It has to be destroyed totally. Not just where you got yourself into some decent situation like Israel and figured, oh, live and let live. So, they're up in the hill. We'll let them stay up in the hill. Nah, they didn't even drive the Jebusites out. You remember when David sinned by numbering the people and the Lord sent the plague and he went up on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. It was still in Jerusalem. They didn't finish the job. How could Ornan been evidently a very fine man? See, that's the problem. That's the problem. There's no need to destroy all this livestock. There's no need for me to go religious nuts and do away with all my Playboy magazines and not be able to call up my girlfriend and tell her I'm so sorry that I had to cut this off and, you know, and surely a little office flirtation isn't going to hurt anybody. That's the problem with God delivering it to you. You're defeating it and then not destroying it totally. Now, all of us in here want to attain to the first resurrection. Well, the first resurrection is for Christ's army. Now, how many believe there will be people in Christ's army who are still doubtful about the value of destroying sin utterly? And one thing is sure, you're not going to be destroyed in your external environment until you destroy it in your internal environment. So the only question that is left, if God in Romans told us it's not expected that we sin, it's no longer a requirement that we sin, we're under no obligation to sin, and if it's the Lord our God who's going to deliver them into our hands so that they're defeated, then the Lord our God is going to enable us to utterly destroy them. And you know, there's not one incident in the Old Testament where they did what God said that they were defeated by the enemy. Not one incident. Whenever they did what God said, the enemy was completely destroyed. Even when they were greatly outnumbered, the enemy was... When God told them, and they went and did what God said, the enemy was always defeated. And in your life and my life, I don't care how big a demon has got a hold of you, and if it's congenital, that is, been with you since your birth, or even inherited, when God speaks to you about that thing, He's ready to give you the upper hand over, and when He does, you don't make it a hewer of wood and a drawer of water. An example of that would be, let's say you have a raging anger, and so, you know, once a week you blast your wife through the patio door. Alright, so God gives you victory over this thing, but you think, well, I don't want it to utterly go because I can use this if I'm ever mugged at night. You know, I'll just turn this thing loose. I mean, I'll pulverize the guy, and when I come out of my coma, there he will be on his back, mutilated, you know. That's to make it a hewer of wood and a drawer of water. See, that's what they did with the Canaanites. They made them slaves. But, the Canaanites did what God said they would do. They seduced them into worshiping their gods. And when you leave something alive in you, let's say, you know, this rage, this violence, you're going to be attuned into all these Oriental martial arts and all the rest of it. And that's not, imagine Jesus going, like that. That's how I keep the congregation awake. Can you just imagine the Lord and street boxing and whatever they call it? All the rest of it. No, he had more power than that. I mean, he had the legions. One of them wiped out the whole camp of the Assyrians. Yeah. We don't need to do our, our, what they used to call jiu-jitsu many, many years ago. We're going far past jiu-jitsu. Karate and all the rest of it. Now that's, unless God really directed you into that for some reason, which is not inconceivable to me. He has all kinds of people. And he has Navy SEALs, I'm sure, as well as he does people that water the pansies out in front of the church. God's got them all. And they're all necessary. But you don't take something that's been a sin in your life and say, I can control it. Because it will lead to other things. God says, destroy it. That means get out of your mind, get out of your heart. Throw away all your books on the martial arts. Don't take them to your children. Get rid of it. Destroy it. That isn't how, our kingdom is not of this world. We are, Christ is our example. He was not, and he didn't go around punching everybody out. No way. He had a lot of enemies. Okay, any questions so far? Yes, Sandy? I have a comment, actually. I was looking in Hebrews and in chapter 3 it talks about um, those that followed, um, going... A false assumption on the side. And that is not God. Tell me. But the gospel says, be perfect as your Father. Heaven is perfect. Well, see, that teaches us we can't possibly do that. Well, when God says, be perfect, that's exactly what he means. Well, then we look to our Father and say, this is what you said, Father, now you know what a mess I am, so make me perfect. And guess what? God makes us perfect. It's like Abraham. It says he didn't consider his own body now dead. He didn't consider that. He said, well, God raised him from the dead. And you know, that's very important because Abraham was 100 years old. It said he considered his own body now dead. Sarah was past, this is in Hebrews, Sarah was past the years, she was 90, so she thought it was a big joke and laughed out loud. She was giggling in her tent when the angel said, you know, you're going to have a child. Well, I'm 90, you know. Sure, right, I'm going to have a child. And Abraham's 100. So they have the child. That's just the beginning of it. Then Sarah lives another, she lived, while Isaac was growing up, she lived about 38, 39 years and then she died. Okay, cool. She had a good chance to enjoy Isaac. Isaac then gets Rebecca, brings her into his mother's tent and he's kind of comforting. So what does this guy who 39 years before was dead, do? But he goes out and marries a woman of whom we know nothing by the name of Keterah. We don't know whether she was, you know, whether she was Arabian or whether she came from Africa or where she came from. We know nothing about her. Egypt, possibly. And then he has six kids. And didn't die until he was around 67, until he was 167 years old. And he was dead when he was 100. Give anybody hope for anything. You've got to remember these people in Apeland with coffee. So, when God says be perfect, you don't say look at yourself and say, well, I'm dead, you know. Amen! And then God does it. Are we to tell Almighty God you can't make us perfect? I mean, who are we to tell God you can't make us perfect? And the opposite is he's just telling us stuff to frustrate us or to show us how great he is. It's like telling your child do something that they cannot possibly do just to show how superior you are. I mean, I think Diane McIntyre should be dead set against that. I mean, to tell you that the poor child says, yeah, dad, yeah, sure. Right. I'm on my way. So the child, here, go on and solve this problem in different ways just to show his son how smart he is and how dumb the son is. Well, that's what we've been teaching all these years. That's our tradition. That's why God told us all these things was to show us how great he was and that he had to... So you do that to your son so that... So then you tell your son, I don't really expect you to obey me because I'm just... I'm just going to love you because I'm forgiving you and by grace. Now, what kind of a thing is that? Then the kid figures out I don't have to do anything, he says, because he's not telling me stuff to do. He just wants to show me that he has to save me by his grace. I mean, it's a cycle that goes... ends up in immorality in a morally feeble church as we have in America today, that kind of reasoning. God is our Father. He loves us. He has told us through Christ and the apostles what he wants us to do. And if we will do these things, he will do the rest. And he's drawing near to his church now because he's ready to lead us into warfare against the devil. It's as simple as that. He never tells us anything to frustrate us. What he tells us we are to do and like Sandy says, when we can't do it, we go to the throne of grace and we get help so we can obey God. Now, does that sound like a father to you? Well, that's what God is. He's our Father. He's not an equation up there. He's our Father. And he loves us. And he intends us to do what he said. Alright. Everyone seems suitably disposed to that. Alright. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. I like that part. See, that's what we tend to do. We tend to make a treaty with our sins. We tend to show them mercy. Well, I don't want to get too rabid about the thing. You know, a little, you know, like a, I'm sorry I don't drink a six pack every night, but a beer once in a while is going to hurt me. You know, you don't put it to death. God said don't do it. Alcohol is not for us until we are set aside to the Lord as holy and we don't drink because it interferes with our, you know what happens when you drink, I mean even one beer, even one beer, or a highball, or a glass of wine, you're just not at your best for Jesus. You're almost there. I'll be there in a minute now. But there's, but there's an impact on your nervous system that keeps you from the fine edge of discernment. And you say, well I'm alright, I'm home with my wife, we have a glass of wine, it's alright, the devil isn't here. Don't you think he isn't there. The next thing you know you'll be fighting with your wife, you'll have her knocked down and dragged out and you'll find the devil is there. Because you weren't at your best. And instead of letting the thing ride that you should have let ridden because you knew your wife was dog tired and had a cold and everything else was wrong and instead you picked her up on some little thing and hung her and you knew better than that but you see you had just enough alcohol to just dull that fine thing and there you went and blew the whole thing. And you can do that and you can set yourself back five years, just one slip and that's what's wrong with drinking alcohol. It would be different if we weren't surrounded with the enemy and in a warfare constantly. That would be a different matter. We're not farmers somewhere in Italy that have just come in from reaping the grapes. We are victorious Christians that God has called out from the world to hear our marching orders and we're not to try to live like the rest of the people in the world. Down in the southern part of France they can eat their bread and cheese and drink their wine at noon in the sun when they're resting up from their labors. That's not us. That's not who we are. We're not farmers in the southern part of France drinking wine and eating bread and cheese. We are a terrible threat to Satan because we are seeking righteousness, we are seeking to obey the Father's will and as such we keep ourselves absolutely alert at all times. Can you imagine a critical point in war an officer sending out men to stand on watch and handing them a beer a cup of coffee maybe if it was on the prow of a ship and it was real cold at night but not beer and not wine. You want to be alert. Alert. Just one second, boy. You see one of these mines floating around in the water. I stood guard on a ship. I'm telling you you don't have a long time from the time you see it to do anything about it. I mean it has to be instantly. Instantly. You know, dead end. Mine. Bang. You know. Engines full of stern or whatever they do down there. You know. Starboard. Port. Whatever you do. Do something. But you don't have by the time you can see it it isn't very far away. And stormy. So you have to be instant. You have to be there reading your comic book and drinking a beer and that's what we are in. That's exactly what we are in. We are in an intense spiritual conflict. The drums of hell are beating to the attack and we have Christians are being slaughtered on every side. You should hear the calls that come into our house. The problems people are having. Not just in the church here. They call us from different places. Things are rough. And we've got to be we can't say, oh I'm sorry I'll talk to you in the morning. Oh boy, people need they need help and they need it right now and they need you ready to pray right now. Yeah. Yeah. That's the way it goes. Any problem with that? Any questions? No. Alright. Everyone seems salubrious whatever that means. No. And show them no mercy. Do not be merciful toward the sin in your life. Do not be soft, cute, silly and merciful toward it. Treat it as a deadly enemy. Treat it as you would a rattlesnake. Just treat it as you would a rattlesnake. It'll go fooling around petting its head. Be careful. Be careful when you're around a rattlesnake. Watch what you're doing. And that's the way you have to deal with sin. It'll get you. Man, I picked up it was a fortunately for me it was a couple months ago in our house a gopher snake got in the upstairs and I reached under the cupboard and I grabbed it by the neck and pulled it out and I thought I had it close enough to the head and that snake managed to come around and sunk his fangs in my finger. Whoa, I mean he had them all the way in there and it was just fortunate for me it was a gopher snake. And I had him about four inches behind his head and he was able to come back a strength in there right back and fastened on my hand. Carol was there and the kids were there and everybody was yelling Audrey called the poison control I went as a thing around there and they assured us it was a gopher snake we described it and I said well we've got gophers here so I took the miserable snake down there and tried to stuff him in a gopher hole I mean he wouldn't even go in there he started to attack me so I getcha. Alright. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters all of this which the Israelites did promptly for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you which happened and they lost their temple finally and it's been a mess this is what you are to do to them break down their altars smash their sacred stones cut down their asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire come down on it God says I want it destroyed I want sin destroyed out of your life that's what he's saying to the church today we've got the basis for it in Romans 6 you're freed from sin if you're dead with Christ you're freed from sin you're under no obligation to sin you sin, that's your choice God has made a way for you to overcome and he's ready now to lead his army in overcoming sin you see we've got to get into our consciousness because we've been taught so long this is not possible but the bible says it is not there is no obligation we are not obligated to sin Romans 8, 12 it's our choice it's a question of faith and so now the seals are taken off the bible we say oh yeah hallelujah we don't have to disobey God we don't have to sin while we're in the world it has nothing to do with see the idea was as long as we're in this world we have to sin but when we die it's taken care of but see that's not scriptural because sin began in the spirit realm it began around the throne of God so dying doesn't do anything it's got to be overcome now through Jesus Christ not overcome by dying death isn't our redeemer but see that was the assumption once I die I'll have no more problem with sin that's where sin comes from so why should you have no more problem with sin when you die that's where it comes from is the spirit realm demons of lust demons of lying demons of wretched all spiritual things who's to say you're going to be delivered from them on the basis of dying one verse in the Bible that even intimates that for the time you just took away my hope no you say what will happen when I go in the spirit realm I don't have the foggiest it is not clear in the scripture what happens we've got a million traditions but it's not at all clear what happens when we go in the spirit realm probably go to school would be my guess of some kind I'm sure it will be good if we serve the Lord I have no doubt about that smack it down burn them up for you are a people holy to the Lord your God now here we have in this verse verse 6 the definition of holiness the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people on the face of the earth to be his people his treasured possession that is the definition of holiness it doesn't mean that we're particularly this that or the other don't bite our fingernails or don't drink coffee or whatever it's not talking about that it's talking about that God has chosen us to be a treasured possession now that was true of the Jews and it's true of Christians and it is the meaning of the word church called out from the world that's the literal meaning of church and it means to belong to God in a peculiar and unusual way not true of the other people in the world and that's why we don't drink and that's why we take this attitude towards him God's not requiring that of our government or of the secular society here we're railing at them about abortion and drugs and homosexuality and everything else when God is not talking about that to his church he's talking about the problems within the believers because they are holy unto the Lord this is not true of our government it's not holy unto the Lord so naturally they're going to sin sinners sin because they're sinners dogs bark because they're dogs but we're God's treasured possession and God isn't going to tell us to do something we can't do it's ridiculous the Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other people for you were the fewest of all people now that's important because in our day there's something abroad in Christianity that you're not doing anything until you've got 10,000 people it's the truth we measure the work of God by the number of bodies present you know 10,000 people 50,000 people 100,000 people but if you read your bible God did most of his work with one person Elijah Elisha Moses that's where the revival was Elijah Elisha Elisha Elisha Elisha Elisha Elisha Elisha Elisha that's exactly what he told them he said you are disobedient and complaining and therefore God wouldn't let me into the land that's the occupational hazard of leading 600,000 footmen unbelieving grumbling footmen and their wives and children and grandmothers and grandfathers through the wilderness you end up saying some wrong thing and then blaming them for it God never commented on it and he figured well Moses I'll give you that one but I mean he was the revival and we think what a revival in the first century oh yeah read 1 Corinthians the 14th chapter you see how wonderful it was the churches were like an insane institution everybody talking and talking and prophesying everything and it's a mess the whole thing was based on 12 men that's where the revival was 12 men when they died that was it we went back to the college professors who wrote books on theology God doesn't deal he gets too many people going and God doesn't get the glory there's a problem now God can work with a small number of people like Jesus did with his disciples to work with them and then he established his church so our concept in America is a typical American concept it isn't true worldwide and has not been true historically that there's been mmmmm mmmmm I was going to say millions that's not true I was going to say numerous and I got caught between millions and numerous churches good solid God-fearing churches with 10 and 15 people for years on end for years on end God wouldn't find any fault with them but see in America that's a figured fool you know another couple years of that and we're replacing you you're not going anywhere that's our attitude you see God said you aren't the greatest number of people I picked you out because you're the biggest tribe on earth he said you're the smallest tribe on earth important to remember I'm almost through here I see several people looking at the clock it's up there they're looking for it I guess I'm almost through here all right the Lord did not but it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt know therefore that the Lord your God is God he is a faithful God keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments but and this next on behalf of unconditional love those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him that's where they got the expression unconditional love therefore take care to follow the commands decrees and laws I give you today everything hinges on obedience to God's that's why Satan has attacked that so hard with the grace message because until we keep his commands decrees and laws we get nowhere if you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you as he swore to your fathers now watch this he will love you bless you and increase your numbers he will bless the fruit of your womb the crops of your land your grain new wine and oil the calves of your herds and the lands of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give them you will be blessed more than any other people none of your men or women will be childless nor any of your livestock without young the Lord will keep you free from disease he will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew and hated but he will inflict them on all who hate you now these promises are of prosperity of fertility of material wealth and everything you know how we're trying to get them today? by magic believe and you'll be prosperous believe that isn't how you get them you get them the way God said there's a simple solution don't eat onions you don't need hands laid on you by the presbytery so that you can eat onions without or take toms you know but see but that isn't how you get healed and deliverance freedom from Egypt it's by obeying God not by trying to work magic Amen well you'll have to read the rest for yourself but when you go on you'll see destroy when you go on from here on to the end of the chapter verse 26 you're going to find destroy all of this was a prelude to God says I want them destroyed out of memory I don't want their memory their kings I will deliver them all to you I'll send the hornet after them so that the stuff that's hidden in your personality will come forth I'm going to do all of this but I want an end isn't it wonderful we're alive in 1999 and the world is as nuts as it's ever been and there's no solution in education and philosophy the military or politics at the same time Christ is doing the greatest thing that he has ever done he's saying to his church now I brought you to the wilderness for 2000 years now it's time we're going to drive the enemy I'll go seek you on a stand father father we love you we know you would never tell us anything that you weren't standing ready to give us you're more than willing to give us the kingdom hallelujah and you are going to put an end to sin and we do not stagger in unbelief but we say amen it's certainly scriptural and it's certainly possible by your almighty power lord if it was left up to us there's no way it was going to happen but you said it and we believe it so here we are lord we're not staggered in faith yes you have said you will give us joy hideous demons that drive us into all kinds of problems and pain no more no more and we'll be in the moral image of jesus and we'll walk hand in hand with our father and eventually we'll see your face oh god because we'll be holy with the holiness that oh god our hope and our confidence is in your word hallelujah you have said it father strengthen our faith hallelujah until we are fully prepared to accept a complete destruction of sin out of our lives all their kings and send the hornets do whatever it takes lord here we are lord we want your will to be done that's all we live for lord is that your will will be done and it will be done perfectly that's what we live for lord you put it in our hearts to feel that way lord and we appreciate it so lord tonight we say amen amen to your word amen amen to totally destroy the enemy totally destroy him lord because we're dead we're freed from him we have no requirement to serve him at all we're dead that part of us is dead it's over it's gone and a new life has nothing in common with satan we don't want it to have anything in common with satan he has ruined our beautiful world made of destroyed the earth and the animals the children everything decent in it he destroys with his touch we want nothing to do with our lord we want to love you and serve you you do everything well all things well now lord bless the dear folks lord i have assembled to hear your word and i thank you lord for your word and the message to us tonight and i pray lord you'll bless our families keep us safe on the highway wake us in the morning lord with a determination that we've never had before to walk perfectly before our god perfect for the day not perfected but perfect for the day lord for that day we have done your will lord grant that for us tomorrow each one of us and bless our families in jesus name amen