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Quickened to a New
Life
Friend, I am grieved when I see the
pitiful state that people are in. We are called into funeral
services and other places where men and women are just sitting
in the shell of religion. You can talk about the Gospel all
you want to; but the enemy of souls has worked in such a
deceptive manner that when you so much as mention the Gospel,
people say, "Well, that is what we believe too, preacher," and
go right on their way in a lost condition to a devil's hell.
Friend, we are going to have to get down to finer points. We
are going to have to get down and define what the Gospel is.
When you boil it right down from the very days of Judaism
right on through to the production of Roman Catholicism,
Protestantism, and to all these evening-light sects and cults,
it all comes back to one thing of perverting the Gospel of
Christ.
You cannot preach the Gospel of God and produce
anything but the Church of God. To produce anything else, you
have to pervert the Gospel. You have to pervert the Gospel to
produce more than one body of believers anywhere around the
globe. Brother, when the Gospel is preached and lived, they
will have love and care one for another. There will be no
factions, divisions, divisive spirits, hatred, or malice
working whatsoever.
Smeone said, "That sounds like the
Gospel is powerful." Paul said in Romans 1:16, "For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of
God..." Do you know what you are thinking when you think that
it is the power of God? Let us get the power of God back into
the thing.
When Paul talked about his conversion, how
did he bring it up? You know what Paul was. He fought the
Church of God. He persecuted and wasted the Church of God, and
he made great gain in his religion. It was great to him.
However, Paul met God on the Damascus "pike". In the Galatian
letter, Paul talked about his conversion as "when God who
separated me from my mother's womb." Isn't that a good way to
put it? Those are the same terms which Nicodemus brought up
when Jesus told him that he must be born
again.
Brother, it was God who put life within you, the
God who separated you from your mother's womb and changed you
from one kind of life to another. Brother, when you were in
your mother's womb, you lived on a life there; and when the
cord was clipped, and you were cut off from your mother, it
was God who looked on you and gave you life. Thank God, that
same God will cut you off from your old life in sin and will
switch you over to a new life in Jesus Christ. When He makes
you a new creature, you live differently. It is not men
shaking holy water over you, not men shaking your hand, not
men writing your name down on a card and handing it to you,
and not men sitting in a confessional box listening to you
tell about the filth of your life. No, it is an act of God.
The same God who separated you from your mother's womb and
enabled you to live physically, that same God will quicken you
to a new life in Christ Jesus and give you power, thank God,
to say no to the devil and yes to God. Many know that it is so
by experience. Praise the Lord!
Defense Of The
Gospel
Grace be to you and peace from God
the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil
world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen. Galatians 1:3-5.
In
previous articles, we found that Paul made it plain that the
Gospel which he received was not received of men. After Paul
received it, he did not confer with flesh and blood or hold a
conference to see whether that which he had was right, but God
took him down in Arabia for three years. Then, God brought him
back to Damascus right where he first got saved. God brought
him right back there a finished product ready to go preach the
Gospel. Also, we learned that yet today the enemy of souls has
diverted the minds of millions in the religious world from the
truths of the Gospel of God to a perverted gospel and is
making them feel that it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ all the
time. We also studied how they have perverted the love of God
and made you feel that the love of God would cause you to just
put up with anything and never cry out against anything that
was wrong in any way.
However, Paul let us know that he
was in defense of the Gospel and that if he or an angel from
heaven came down here and preached any other gospel, they
should be accursed. He nailed it right down there. Someone
might say, "Why did Paul make such a strong statement? Why
wasn't Paul more loving or more able to
co-operate?"
Friend, there is a vital reason. Paul saw
this other gospel as perverting God's revealed mind. He saw
this other gospel as censoring or revising God. My friend,
that business of another gospel has never ceased. Ever since
the morning-time Church came forth in all of her glory, first
Jesus and then Paul and the other disciples continually warned
us to BEWARE OF MEN. When he warns us to beware of men, he is
talking of unregenerate men, men who have never been born
again but will come into the midst and try to tell you, as we
told you, what the love of God is and what the standard of God
should be.
Good News for Modern
Man?
They will even try to translate God's
Word. We are in a day and time when the presses are rolling
out new translations of God's Word as fast as they can. In too
many cases, my friend, a great part of those translators are
people who have never been born again. They do not believe
that there is a real hell and do not believe in the virgin
birth, and so the "other gospel" keeps right on rolling as the
translations come. Generally, the later the translation comes
out, the farther it gets from the basic truths of God's Word.
We have the revised versions today where the blood is removed,
and the vital truths of God's Word that can bring you to a
real spiritual experience with Christ are shaded and held in
the dark until man cannot get hold of them. The title of one
of them is GOOD NEWS FOR MODERN MAN. I do not have one of
them, but I have seen them in the bookstores. I just have this
much to say about it: The good news of God's Word is the same
for modern man as it was for antiquated man, and modern man
does not need any different Bible than anyone else
did.
Galations 3:8 tells us, And the scripture,
foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith,
preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall
all nations be blessed. The Gospel is the same down
through all ages. Brother, modern man does not need any
different news than antiquated man needed. The good news of
the Gospel, the relevancy of the Gospel, is like Jesus: it is
the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The Psalmist
said that God fashioned men's hearts all alike, and the Gospel
is for the hearts. Abraham's heart was just like yours and
everyone else's that ever lived. By this I mean that it takes
the same thing to satisfy every heart. Away with this old
business that gets in the congregations: "Well, what satisfies
you does not satisfy me." If the Gospel does not satisfy you,
you are not fixed yet. You need to bring your heart down to
God's garage and let Him take the old one out and put a new
one in. Brother, when He puts in a new heart, the Gospel of
God just satisfies you. Do not tell me that the Gospel will
not cause you to give up stuff.
Abraham lived in Ur of
the Chaldees, one of the wealthiest cities in the then-known
world. Abraham was a wealthy man and had a fine home, a good
reputation, a good occupation, and much property. Go back and
study it. However, the Gospel fell on Abraham's ear; and God
said, "Abraham, I want you to get up out of your country,
leave your people, leave it all, and walk with me." In a few
days, Abraham was on his way. Why? There was something about
the Gospel that touched the heart of that man and caused
something down inside to be touched that could not be touched
by all the possessions of this world. Friend, this thing of
people talking about having salvation and hanging on to a
little finger ring or a short dress? Let me tell you, need to
come back and take another dip in the fountain. You do not
have the first work yet.
Brother, when you get the
first one, there is nothing too much to give up for the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. Why? It satisfies the soul. It satisfies the
heart. The same God who fashioned their hearts all alike
fashioned this Gospel; and when He fashioned this Gospel, He
fashioned it to satisfy the longing and the needs of the
heart. Glory be to God! Praise His Holy
Name!
Therefore, when we begin to talk about some good
news for modern man, one of the worst things the devil ever
did was get religious folks thinking that you have to have
something special for the young people, and something special
for the old people. My Bible still says that He fashioned
their hearts all alike. It makes no difference whether they
are young or old or what age you live in, the Gospel is
relevant. It meets the condition in every age whatever the
need may be.
The reason why more people are not healed
is that they begin to categorize divine healing: "I believe
God could do this, but I don't know if He could do that."
Brother, divine healing has been laid out. He healed all
manner of diseases. Thank God, it is a blanket coverage. The
same God who heals our bodies is the God who is going to speak
a new body into existence one of these days. Brother, if He
can speak a whole body into existence, He can make a new
member for one of these bodies now if we need it.
Away
with this stuff of good news for modern man, you see that it
is not very good news at all. Whether you realize it or not,
the devil is back of many of these moves; and he knows the
power of the Gospel when you leave the Gospel as it is. The
devil himself believes and trembles. Therefore, there is only
one hope of defeating this precious cause of the Church of
God. What is the hope? Get them to pervert that Gospel. Get
them to thinking in terms of men. Bring them down from the
great level of the greatness of God and get them down to man's
level.
They tell me this book is good news for modern
man, but I cannot see too much good news about it. Too much of
the preaching out of it is not good news. Somebody said, "What
do you mean by good news?" Is it good news to tell modern man
that he can stay in the ditch and in the horrible pit of sin
while it robs our nation of its vitals and disease takes its
toll with no physician for body or soul? Brother, there is no
good news in that. I thank God that 1 have better news than
that. Brother, when we get back to the straight, old-time
Gospel, it will teach you that God will not leave you in the
pit and feel sorry for you, but He will bring you out of the
pit and set your feet on a solid rock.
He will not just
comfort you when you are sick; but if you put your faith and
trust in Him, He will heal you and deliver you from your
sickness. Therefore, it is not such good news after all for
modern man until we get right back to the straight Word of
God. There, beyond a shadow of a doubt, we find where the good
news is.
Deliverance From This Present Evil
World
Now I want to get right to the essence
of the Gospel, which we find in Galatians 1:4. He gave Himself
for our sins. One person said, "He did not give Himself. He
was forced to take the cross." Read the Gospel. Brother, right
down at the very hour when they put the pressure on and made
Him feel that they were pushing Him around quite a bit. He
said that He could call for a legion of angels and clear that
whole thing off; but He did not do it. He refused any help. He
gave Himself. Don't you forget it. He gave Himself for our
sins, and that is a wonderful thing, but He went a little
deeper than that, that He might deliver us from this present
evil world according to the will of God and our
Father.
Here we begin to see in the Gospel that God's
will and plan through Jesus Christ is to deliver us from this
present evil world (from this present age, according to the
Greek). Now, I want you to study with me here. This Scripture,
as well as other Scriptures, would teach us that salvation is
NOT primarily to deliver us from a future evil world. Somebody
said, "Why do you even bring that up?" Brother, it is
wonderful to think about heaven. It is wonderful to think
about the hell that you are going to miss, but the primary
terms of salvation and the work that Jesus came to bring was a
deliverance right here and NOW.
Too much of this
preaching, my friend, is just to get you to serve God so you
will not go to hell. No, my friend, that is out in the end.
That is future; but there is a present work that He wants to
work on your soul right NOW. You know what false religion
teaches, without me spending a lot of time telling you. Using
a modern expression, everyone has their thing; and everybody
is pushing something in religion. Everyone of them has a
certain thing that they are pushing; and if you do not partake
of that, you do not have any thing. The truth is there are not
too many working to get a people living a life free from sin.
Most all of these religions have escape hatches and false
clauses in them that will make room for your sins. They let
you live right on in the life of sin, claim a great
experience, and cause you to believe that somewhere out in the
future you are going to make it all right.
Brother,
Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins; and He did it for one
purpose. He did not give Himself for your sins to let you go
on and live in sin. He gave Himself for your sins that He
might deliver you from this present evil world, just as the
Gospel says.
Unregenerated Man Follows the Spirit of
the Age
It is a most degrading view of
redemption to look at it as a fire escape with little effect
on your present life. Now we need to realize that this is the
truth, and we will give you Bible to prove it. All mankind
short of regeneration and becoming a new creature in Christ
Jesus will follow the spirit of the age to a certain degree.
Some will follow it in a greater way than others, but all will
follow it. If you look into history, you will find that one of
the greatest perplexities of history is that the spirit of the
age holds such a grip on mankind. The one thing that the
historians get so upset over is that even the enlightened and
the greatly educated men are affected by the spirit of the
age. I do not often quote anything except the Bible, but let
us bring in Shakespeare. Remember our text: "He gave himself
for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil
age." Mr. Shakespeare said, "Men are as the time is. They do
what is done. They fall into step with those around them and
are swept along by the currents of fashion and customs." Just
let the current of customs change, and you will see people who
are not living for God carried right along with it.
I
am going to stay right with the text, "He gave himself for our
sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age or
time." Brother, you know that it is true. I will make it a
little stronger. Not only are men and women affected who are
without an experience of salvation; but also those who have
not kept their experience up to date. This Gospel fit in
Paul's age, and this Gospel fits in our age. It fits in every
age. It is a relevant Gospel. It is always up to date. This is
the strange thing about it. The same old-time Gospel that Paul
preached and that fit his age fits our age when it is preached
in its fullness.
Somebody said, "I'm not affected by
the spirit of the age." Well, when worldly men began wearing
their hair long, how come yours crept down over your collar?
Now, I just mention that as one thing. The women are affected
by the spirit of the age too. Since the miniskirts came, the
Church of God pastors have to almost fight to keep the skirts
down to the knee. The ladies say, "Oh, we have to have them an
inch or two above the knee." However, all it would take is for
the spirit of the age to change and to put them halfway down
to the ankle, and down the skirts would go!
May God
deliver us from the spirit of the age! All it takes for the
Church of God to do a greater work in this world is to be a
little more separate. Therefore, as Shakespeare said, "Men are
as those around them. They are as the time is. They fall in
step with the current of the fashions and customs." I know
that any preacher would get himself in trouble preaching on
fashions and customs, but I just throw it in as I go along for
good measure. Brother and sister, we need to get our
fashioning fixed on something else. Somebody said, "I don't
take any stake in Shakespeare." Well let us get a Bible
definition of the same thing, that unregenerate man and men
who are not spiritual are affected by the spirit of the age.
Let us study what Jesus did for us when He died to deliver us.
Praise God for it! I am glad for that deliverance which Paul
wrote about in Ephesians Chapter 2.
In the first verse,
Paul was talking about people who had been quickened in the
first resurrection. Thank God, they have been lifted from that
dead condition in trespasses and sins where they sin more or
less every day. Ephesians 2:2 says, Wherein in time past ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. The "prince of the power of
the air" is the devil. Brother, if you are disobeying God,
right there is your pedigree; and that is the spirit that has
hold of you. You can join all the reformations and movements
that you want, you can turn over new leaves till you wear the
book out, you can be baptized in water, you can shake the
preacher's hand; but until you have been converted and born of
God's Spirit and have gotten rid of that disobedient spirit,
you are going to follow the course of the
world. |
