Wednesday Night Service 7PM -

In James 2, verse 10, it says, As soon as you mess up in just one area, you are no longer perfect. And once you're no longer perfect, you can't make yourself perfect. You're just done. There's no way you can right it. You're a sinner. In Romans 3, verse 19-20, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed,

and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in its sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Until you realize that you're a sinner, you will never see your need for Jesus Christ as your Savior. You've got to know that you're a sinner first. You've got to realize that you don't measure up.

The second thing God did with the scriptures is he promised a sinner a Redeemer who would deal with the sin of sin. He would deal with the sin issue so that man could once again have a right relationship with God. There are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus Christ fulfilled in his first coming. 300 prophecies that all pointed to who the Messiah would be so he wouldn't get confused and get the wrong one.

These prophecies that point to Jesus act like an address. It's like, for example, my address is Richard Lee Hawkins II. I live at 9 Autumn Road, Arkansady, Kansas, United States of America, Lake Great Planet Earth. Right? This separates this planet from all the other planets. United States of America separates this country from all the other countries on this earth.

Kansas separates this state from all the other states in this country. Ark City separates this town from all the areas, other towns in Kansas. Autumn Road separates the road that I live on that's associated with Ark City from all the other roads. And 9 Autumn Road separates my house from all the other houses that are on my street. And Richard Lee Hawkins II separates me

from anybody else who lives in my house. At least if you're a Christian, you're a Christian. That's better. But that's my address. And if you change any part of my address, I don't get my mail. And it's the same way with Jesus. There's a lot of false religions out there who are teaching another Jesus other than the ones that the scriptures proclaim. And people aren't, Jesus didn't get in his mail.

And that's why it's important that we stay close to God's word. And it's why when you hear somebody teaching, that you go to God's word and compare what they're saying to God's word because God's word has the final say. In Philippians, Chapter 2, verse 6 through 11, it says, Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above other names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee which should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is 100% God and he is 100% man.

Because Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, he did not inherit a sin nature like the rest of us did. So the moment we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, there are several things that happen. First of all, we are forgiven of all of our sin. Second, past, present, and future. In Colossians 2, verses 13 and 14, it says, All of our sins in this room were future when Christ died on the cross.

They were all future at the time. But all of the sins we've committed have been nailed to the cross. The second thing that happened when we accepted Christ is we have been saved from the penalty of sin. In Romans 5, verses 6-9, it says, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man,

though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrated his own love towards us, and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. Christ took the penalty on himself that we deserved. Not only have we been forgiven and saved from the penalty of sin,

but we have been declared righteous. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, it says, We don't have any righteousness in and of ourselves. Christ is our righteousness. That's the only righteousness we have.

In Romans 8, verse 16, it says, The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Not only are we spiritually born again, but we are adopted into God's family. So all these things that I've mentioned are having been forgiven of our sins, having been saved from the penalty of sin, having been declared righteous, having been spiritually born again, and adopted into God's family. All these things that I've mentioned all happen instantly when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

All the stuff that I just mentioned is what's referred to as justification. In Romans 5, verse 1, it says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And an easy way to remember what justified means is justified, never sinned. In other words, justified means justified, never sinned. And that's an easy way to remember it.

In Romans 3, verse 21-24, it says, But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. In Romans 5, verse 25, He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. That is why his resurrection is so important because he not only died on the cross for our sins, but he rose again so that we could have new life in him because he lives, we can live in him.

It doesn't end at the cross. The resurrection is important also. Now, once we've accepted Christ, we are justified. We've been saved from the penalty of sin. But now, now that we've been justified by faith in Christ, we have now entered the next phase of salvation known as sanctification. Sanctification is where we are set apart unto God and we're now being saved from the power of sin.

In 1 Corinthians 1.18, it says, For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. You see, when we accepted Christ, we were not made righteous. We were declared righteous. We still have a sin. We still have a sin in nature as long as we are in this fleshly body. In Galatians chapter 5, starting in verse 13, it says,

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters, but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. Down in verse 16 and 17, it says, So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.

And the Spirit gives us desires, that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. And down in verse 24 and 25, it says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to the cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

We are to die to self, pick up our cross daily, and follow Jesus. We are to surrender our will to God's will and live our lives in justice. We are to die to self, pick up our cross daily, and follow Jesus. We are to die to self, pick up our cross daily, and follow Jesus. Now, before you accepted Christ, you didn't have any battle going on because Satan already had you where he wanted you.

But once you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior in your life, all of a sudden, your sin nature and the Holy Spirit are battling with each other in your life. And every day, it's a battle in your life. And every day, you have to die to self and follow it. Every day. Because your natural inclination is to follow sin. But the Holy Spirit, now that the Holy Spirit is residing in you,

He won't put up with that. He won't put up with that. And He won't let you be comfortable in that. Jesus prayed in John 17, 17, Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. We, as believers, learn how to walk by faith in God's word and not be led by our emotions. And I've said this before. I believe that 90% of the decisions we make in our life, we make based on our emotions of the moment.

Whatever's going on at the moment, we make the decision based on how we feel, not based upon faith in God's word and what He's told us. We're more inclined to go by what our feelings tell us. And part of the problem is it's hard to follow by faith God's word if you don't know what God's word says. So if you don't have God's word planted in your heart, how are you going to be able to walk by faith in His word if you don't know what it says?

You're more inclined to just follow your emotions, go do whatever your emotions tell you to. Now, there's two main ways to study the Bible. And I'm going to give these out to you because they're both good ideas, ways to study. One is to understand it in context. Using the commentaries, concordances, word study dictionaries, so you can pull out the meanings in the Hebrew and the Greek.

Compare different translations so you can pull more out of what it's saying. But just getting the context of what it's saying, just studying the Bible. The other way of studying the scriptures is to just study it devotionally. And when you're studying it devotionally, you're studying it in context. What you're trying to do is just feed your spirit and you're trying to just grow

in your relationship with the Lord. It's all about application. And a good study Bible that provides footnotes focused on application and is easy to understand is a good one to use for devotional reading. The one that I like to use for devotional reading at home is the Life Application Study Bible. It's in the New Living Translation. It's easy to understand.

And it's got footnotes down it that talk about each verse. And most of those footnotes deal with application. How does this apply to your life? And I think it's a good one to use. But studying the Bible devotionally is a must for every believer. I mean, I know a lot of you don't like to read, but I know they make audio cassettes that you can listen to God's Word and stuff like that.

But somehow it's important that you've got to get into God's Word. You really do. And studying devotionally is a must, but don't neglect studying God's Word in its context either because both of them are helpful. Sanctification is a time of growing in Christ. We were born again when we accepted Christ. And now, until we go home to be with the Lord, we are to grow in Him.

And in 2 Peter 1, verse 3-11, it says, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, He has given us very great and precious promises so that through them, you may participate in the work of God. You may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fail and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As long as you're growing in the Lord, you're going to be effective and you're going to be productive. One of the things that I've emphasized for years is that God is more concerned with your fellowship with Him than He is your service for Him. Because if you're fellowshipping with Him, He's going to open up doors for you to serve Him. But you can get busy serving Him and forget about fellowshipping with Him and then you're just running on empty.

But if you're spending your time fellowshipping with Him, you don't have to look to go find doors. What can I do, Lord? If you're fellowshipping with Him and you're drawing close to Him, He's going to open doors and you don't have to worry about it. Just focus on Him and He takes care of everything else. It's also important to remember that the Lord disciplines those that He loves.

Hebrews 12, 5-6 says, There are times in our Christian walks where we get our eyes off of Jesus and onto ourselves. And if we're truthful, it happens every day. But there's some times that it gets worse than others and you get to where you just kind of drift away from the Lord. And sometimes He has to turn to you and turn your world upside down to get you to get your eyes off yourself and back onto Him.

And if you've been a Christian for very long, I'm hoping you've experienced this discipline because I have been disciplined a bunch in my life. And one thing I love about God is sometimes when He disciplines you, He has a little humor with it too. Even though He's correcting you, you can laugh at yourself at the same time. So that's kind of neat too. A lot of times when we look back on our Christian walk,

all we see are our failures and the times that we've let the Lord down. I mean, I do that all the time. When I look back on my Christian walk, all I can see is every time that I've blown it. That's all I see when I look back on my Christian walk. And I get to thinking, Lord, how could you love me? How can you care for me? But when I get to thinking like that,

I've forgotten the fact that I have been justified. That Christ has taken all of my sins on the cross and He's done it for me. And what I'm trying to do is somehow add to what He's done for me on the cross. I'm trying to think of something I can do to make things right with Him. When He's done everything for me at the cross, there's nothing I can do to make things right

except confess and repent and turn to Him and let Him do the work in my life.

Paul, when he was writing to the Corinthians, he said, I am not fit to be called an apostle. Six years later, in his letter to the Ephesians, he said, I am the least deserving of all God's people. Five years later after that, he's writing to Timothy and he says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. The longer you walk with the Lord, the more aware of how holy and gracious God is.

And at the same time, you begin to be more aware of how sinful your sin nature really is. Paul started out, I'm not worthy to be called an apostle, and then a few years later, I'm the least of the saints. And a few years later, I'm the worst of sinners. The longer he lived as a Christian on the earth, the more he realized what a sinner he was. And it was just by God's grace that he was saved.

But a lot of times, as I said, we try to put ourselves under condemnation and we try to beat ourselves up and we try to do something on our own to correct all our screw-ups. And, Galatians chapter 3, Paul says, How foolish can you be, having started your Christian lives in the Spirit? Why are you trying to become perfect by your own human efforts? Instead of attempting to make things right by trying to add to what Christ has already done for you, do what John says in 1 John chapter 1, verse 9.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's all we have to do. Is surrender our will to Him, and let Him do His work in our lives. Now, you may be asking, well, if all our sins, past, present, and future, were dealt with on the cross, why do we as believers still need to be confessing our sins?

Well, let's look at marriage as an example. In a marriage relationship, there are going to be times in your marriage, those of you that have been married for long are going to be able to relate to this, but there are times in your marriage relationship where something happens between the two of you and you're not communicating anymore. You're both still married, but the closeness between you has been affected. Something has gotten in between you.

And that's the way it is with sin in our life as a believer. We still have a relationship with Christ, but that sin in our life is hindering our fellowship with Him. And we need to confess it and bring it before Him, get it out of the way, and get our walk with Him going again. And not let that sin just keep that separation there. Um, in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, it says,

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. This brings us to our glorification when we will be saved from the presence of sin. In Philippians 3, verse 20-21, it says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body, of our humble estate, into conformity with the body of His glory. We already have a citizenship in heaven right now.

We have that citizenship. But there's going to come a time when the Lord's going to take us home to be with Him, and He's going to transform that body of our humble estate into conformity with the body of His glory. That is exciting. In 1 John 3, verse 2-3, it says, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that,

but when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure. There should be that longing in our lives to want to be with Him and to look forward to that. Now, those of you that keep up with end times and stuff and are watching Israel and the United States attacking Iran right now, in Ezekiel 38 and 39, this is a little side note, getting off here just a little bit, but in Ezekiel 38 and 39, it talks about how, Russia and Iran and Turkey and Libya and Sudan and some other countries are all going to attack Israel.

And that war hasn't happened yet. And it says in Ezekiel 38, verse 4, that God is going to put hooks in the jaws of Russia and pull Russia into a war with Israel. Now, Russia's, there's a lot of countries in the world that have looked to Russia as like a protective umbrella over them, a military protection somehow. They look to Russia for protection. But in the last year and a half or so,

that appearance, that image of Russia has been falling away. Assad's regime, when Russia was in Syria, Assad's regime fell and Russia left. Russia didn't lift a finger to help Assad. It was over with. It was done. The United States took over Venezuela. Venezuela and Russia, we're close. Russia didn't lift a finger to help Venezuela. Israel's been in two wars with Iran now.

And Iran and Russia have a strategic partnership. Granted, they don't have a military defense cooperation thing in there. But those two countries are very close. And Russia hasn't lifted a finger to help Iran. And all these countries that have relationships with Russia that thought Russia was like a protective umbrella are beginning to realize the only one Russia really cares about is themselves.

But there's going to come a time, and I believe God is using this war right now between Israel and Iran and the U.S. being involved is putting hooks in Russia's jaw and realizing Russia's going to, at some point, get pulled into this fight. And we're going to see the war of Ezekiel 38 and 89 take place. But we're getting closer to going home. So it's exciting to watch these things.

In Revelations 21, verse 4, it says, when we get to be with the Lord, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone. All these things are gone forever. Right now, we can't picture that, but that's what heaven's going to be like. No more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, and no more pain.

All those things are gone for eternity. And that's hard to imagine. I've got one last scripture I want to read to you. This is one of my favorites that I like because our justification and our sanctification and glorification are all presented in Titus 2, verse 11 through 14. It says in verse 11, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

God's salvation is available to anybody. And those of us who have accepted God's offer of salvation, we have been justified. That's our justification. In verse 12, it says that the grace of God teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Grace is not a license to sin. Grace that is a God-ordained grace in our lives.

We'll teach us to deny ungodliness, worldly passions, to live upright and godly lives. That's what grace does. It teaches us. And that's what sanctification is. That's where we're at now. We're in the place where we're being saved from the power of sin. Sin still has a grip on us. But we're being saved from that grip by God's word, washing ourselves with God's word

and allowing the Holy Spirit to do a work in our lives. And then in verse 13 and 14, it says, While we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, when we go to be with him. That's our glorification. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

He is the one who does the purifying. All this that we're talking about, this justification, sanctification, glorification, it's all done by the grace of God. Justification. I have been saved from the penalty of sin. Sanctification. I am being saved from the power of sin right now. And glorification. I will be saved from the presence of sin. That's all I've got to share.

So let's go ahead and pray, and you guys can have a little fellowship.

God, I thank you that you've nailed all of our sins to the cross, our past sins, our present sins, our future sins. There's nothing we can do to add what you have done for us, Lord. You have done everything for us, and all you want us to do is to receive it and allow it to be. Allow you to do a work in our lives. All we have to do is surrender our will to you.

Get rid of that pride and allow you just to break our pride. Humble us that we can just be used by you and drawn into you. Strengthen our fellowship with you, Lord. Let us just draw close to you. And I pray that as we draw close to you, that you would use us to touch other people. That other people can see you in us. They won't see us, but they will see you living in us.

And we just thank you, Lord, for the work that you're doing. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that has taken up residence within our spirits. And we just pray that you would just guide us and lead us. And we just give you the glory. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, thank you, guys.