What Are You Doing With What God Gave You

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Good morning. Morning children. Morning children. I heard you, Mike. [00:00:39] Does anybody have a hallelujah this morning? Amen, somebody. Man, I'm telling you. Sometimes we get stuck sitting in our seats. At least I do. In a little bit, I'm going to ask you for your testimony. What is a testimony? What has God done for you? [00:01:09] What has He brought you from? Where have you come from? What is God doing in your life? What's He trying to teach you? How happy are you to be a Christian? How happy are you to be a follower of Jesus Christ? And what does that mean in today's world? We were, I should maybe make a confession first of all, but my dad and my sister Bernita and my wife and Brittany and Dave and Jeanette, [00:01:49] they'd come back from these choir programs and prison programs and just saying how this person and this testimony and Dave said how he prayed with this person and what he prayed for and I would sit there and yeah, yeah, yeah, to my shame. See, I was just stuck in my own little world. Until you've been there, until you see these guys with tattoos all over themselves [00:02:26] and they look, earrings and tattoos on their necks. Oh my word, you look at these guys. They come in there and you think every one of them needs the Lord. It's the worst way, you know. We were over at South Bend work release yesterday evening, these guys. And then Gary, for some reason, asked for testimonies. And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, who here is going to have a testimony? [00:03:02] And there were three men. I could tell you right now, I could bring tears to my eyes, what they had to say for the Lord. They weren't like me. They weren't even like you. Because you know what the difference is? You know more than they do. Who's the more obedient one? Who's doing with what they have? What are you doing with what you have? [00:03:33] That's Luke 12, 47, I think. You have been given much, and much will be required of you, of me. That goes for every child in here. Do I even know what I have? Do you realize what you have? Sitting in this church, being born into a family. Yeah, your mom and dad didn't do everything right. [00:04:05] We can fuss about mom and dad and all this stuff. But the blessing, this huge blessing, God decided to put you in a family that goes to church, that loves the Lord, is doing their best. And then we throw it out to the wind. Seems like sometimes, at least I did, do sometimes still. And we sing a song that says, I love that man in the middle. [00:04:42] And, you know, hearing the testimonies of these three guys, I was arrested this such and such a day, and I was saved this such and such a day, and it has delivered me from anger. About every one of them. How much anger is in my life yet? What have you been delivered from? Nothing? What is your testimony? I know what I've been delivered from. [00:05:17] And I think you do too. And maybe we all know what each other's been. But what is your testimony this morning? Does anybody have something to say for the Lord? If there were guns and rifles sticking in your face this morning, right now, they come in here, what would be your testimony? What would you have to say to those guys? What do we have to say to the world? We just go and maybe we live in this community. What does God require of us? [00:05:50] Does anybody have something to say? Psalm 34, 17 is a verse that's always been a very special verse to me because the righteous cry of the Lord here can literally come out of all their troubles. And that's always been a very special verse to me. You know, I'm not trying to get on your case. I'm trying to excite you a little bit and say, [00:06:24] Man, look at what God has done for me. Look at where I've been. Look at where I am today. And why? What makes me any different? What makes you any different than those guys sitting there with tattoos just riddled all over them? Foul smelling. Oy yi yi yi. What makes you any different? You young people. We went over to South Bend Juvenile. These boys come in here. We shake their hands as they come in. And they walk. You know, just so, some of them come in there, you know, big and tough, shake their, grab their hand, you know, and these guys are in there, they're under 18, and they're in jail. [00:07:12] And what makes you different than them? What is it? Something, good thing that you did? Us and the prisoners, what's the difference? It's Christ alone. It's only because of Christ. Nothing that I did. Oh yeah, I make choices. But it's Christ alone. That's the only reason. That's why I'm here. That's why they're there. They don't have Christ. So what has God done for you? [00:07:48] What do you have to say? I can't forget what he did for me until I recently had an employee that he got born again. He reminds me of what I had to say. The stress, the anger at the world, the ticket people, what I like to do. You know, um, last night, uh, I could kind of change my mind again for my brother, you know, and, uh, the opposite of what all of us, uh, that's what I want to be with my brother and my family. [00:08:41] The things that make me happy are just different than what I'm used to. And I don't think about that until I'm around people like I would. And I think that's why we tend to sometimes forget when we're around the same people, delivered people, we tend to forget what we're doing. Mm-hmm. I find the same thing. Until we go out in the world and go to these prisons. [00:09:20] And it's what touched me the most is here these guys. It looked like the furthest thing from the one guy who was getting out of prison. He was in work release, been in prison 24 years. And he had a testimony, let me tell you what. Oh my goodness. He said, you know, it's nothing I have done. All I did was give myself up to Christ. Gave myself up to Christ and He did the rest. [00:09:55] He said it wasn't easy. It's still hard today. Oh, He went on and on. And that really inspired me because too often I sit in church and take it all in. and, you know, don't have a testimony, don't have a word. I'm very guilty of that. Well, anyways, just wanted to share a little bit of this choir thing. [00:10:28] Sometimes I would just want to quit a lot of work, a lot of practice, and a lot of, oh, man. But God stuck me there for a reason. and I think it's more for me. There was a young man at Goshen yesterday noon at the juvenile place there at the Goshen jail. And he gave his heart to the Lord from being Muslim. And he said, he said, you know, [00:10:59] when I was a Muslim, Muslim didn't do anything for me. That's how he said it. Muslim didn't do anything for me. But now that I read God's Word and pray to God, it makes me feel right. No kidding. I didn't tell him that. And I said, he said, so I'm not a Christian, but how can I be one? I said, hallelujah. I'll tell you how you can be one. [00:11:32] Just believe. Is that all it is? Maybe it was a little heavy for him at the time. But I said, okay, now look here, you have a Bible you can read? Oh yeah, we have lots of them around here. And I wonder if that's the difference between the Goshen Juvenile and the South Bend one. I don't know, maybe they didn't have Bibles over there. But he said, oh yeah, we have lots of them. I read it once in a while. And so he gave his heart to the Lord. I told him, hey look, it's a rough road. Now you need to obey everything. [00:12:04] Here I am saying this knowing that I don't always obey. Do we want to grow in Christ? Are we growing in Him? Are we obeying? But anyway, so I praise the Lord for that. That here's this young man. And you know, you can think of many things. Oh, he probably done it before. That's not going to last. You know, we can be all... Now, who does this young man have? You know, it's not Brady in there. This guy is away from his mom and dad. He's in jail. For what reason? I don't know where his mom and dad is. I don't know. There he is. Man, that just tears me apart. You think there's no hope for this guy. Anyways, okay. Just to spur your thoughts. Sorry. I got a little while yet. But I want to be on fire for Christ. I want to spread. [00:13:04] His name. And we want to build His kingdom. Lead people to Christ. We can't save them. We can only lead them to the One who can save. Okay. Wow. Really wasn't planning all that, but it kind of struck me. Okay, 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy, as I said before, is our manual for leadership. [00:13:49] And I hope that you can find one thing from today that you can take with you. I like Jim's, he hasn't said it for a long time, but I like his thought. Hey, try and take one thing, remember one thing from today. Has a lot to do with law keeping today and I'm not professing that I know everything about it. I think it'd be a great discussion topic, but I'll give you what I've been learning, I guess. [00:14:24] Let's read verses 5 to 11, 1 Timothy chapter 1. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for the sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is anything that is contrary to sound doctrine. [00:15:20] according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. The verse that I'd like to, maybe a couple of them to start out with, and that is verse 5 and verse 8. Now the purpose, I think KJV says end. Another word that we could stick in there is goal. Now the goal or the purpose of the commandment is love. [00:15:55] And you could almost stop there, but this love needs to come from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. And then we look at verse 8, but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So there is a way that the law can be used unlawfully. You're going to hear the word law, it's going to drive you nuts. I mean, as many times as I thought law, and as many times as I read the word law, my word, I'm getting tired of the word law. But, here we go. [00:16:26] Okay, first of all, we're going to turn to Romans chapter 8. I don't have a whole lot of notes this morning, so sorry. I hope it's not too confusing. Chapter 8, verses 2 and 3. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. [00:17:03] For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. Okay, I was thinking what is Paul trying to tell Timothy? Or what's he trying to warn him of? [00:17:38] And we know about the Judaizers. Does everybody know about the Judaizers? I think it's in Acts 15 where these men from Judea came down and they were saying that there's no way that you can be saved unless you're circumcised. That was law. That's the only way. You abide by this law, you can be saved. And so I think that this is what Paul had in mind. I think that in verse 5 where he says, now the purpose of the commandment is love. [00:18:09] I think that that commandment, I think, is what can just be any good, sound gospel teaching. I don't necessarily think he's talking about the law there. And, okay, before we get too far into this, what I would like us to see today is that there's a wrong use of the law. We're not saved by the law. And I think that we all know that already. And a question to ask ourselves is, are we using the law lawfully? I'm not going to try and prove that we are or prove that we're not. [00:18:55] But think about that. What is the law? Is there any way that we expect somebody, if you don't do this, you're not saved, but it's not really a salvation issue. Is that what he means by using, how can we use, obviously from verse 8, it says we can use the law unlawfully somehow. And what is that? How can we? [00:19:26] So in Romans chapter 8 here, he's telling us that the law could not do in that it was weak. So in other words, we're not saved by the law. There's no way that when we get to heaven, we get to the courtroom of heaven, that our verdict of guilty will be changed to not guilty just by us keeping the law. You know, if our hearts, if these guys in prison, if our hearts are changed from being rebellious, sinful, [00:20:09] it's not just because we kept the law. It's got to be a transformation of our hearts. The Spirit working in us. Okay, then going to Romans chapter 7, flipping over a page. Verse 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. [00:20:48] Okay, so we're to be dead to this law. So a question of mine came up, so we just throw the law out. No, we'll read about that later. We don't just throw the law out. We need the law. And there's neighbors of mine that say, no, we're free from the law. We can live how we want. They would never say that, but that's how they live their lives. We're dead to the law. We're free from the law. So I can live how I want to. Well, that's not true. Here in verse 4, the last phrase, that we should bear fruit to God. [00:21:27] And thinking of what Paul told Timothy about love, if we want to bear the fruit of love, if we want to have love in our lives, If we want to bear love in our lives, we're not going to pursue it by just doing the law, pulling the law. [00:22:04] It's got to come through a transformation. And as children of God, we will definitely pursue or we will bear fruit of God. It's Christ working in us, as I was saying before. It's not necessarily something that we do. Christ needs to do it in us. So, in thinking of being dead to the law, [00:22:37] you know, for me, I can't just throw the law out because there's a lot of verses that I'd like to turn to. You know, I'm thinking of David, how he said in Psalms 1, he said that his delight is in the law of the Lord and he also said we're supposed to meditate it on a day and night. Well, that's not really being dead to the law. Psalms 19 [00:23:08] Verse 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right. The commandment of the Lord is pure. The fear of the Lord is clean. On and on down to Verse 10 More to be desired than they are gold, yea, much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb So we know that we can't just take the law, God's word, and throw it out [00:23:42] We delight in it Psalms 119 says, Oh how I love your law, it is my meditation day and night And even Paul said in chapter 7 here What verses was it? I didn't write it down Oh, 22. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. I think he said it in 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. [00:24:30] In Romans chapter 3, I'm going to read three verses there. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Okay, so we have the law, we're to be dead to the law, but yet David and even Paul said that he's going to live by the law, they love the law, we meditate on it day and night, so how do we do all that, but yet we're supposed to be dead. What does that mean? [00:25:11] and here in verse 20 we see again that the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified so we can't be justified but if there was no law we wouldn't even know what sin is it's almost like I was telling Verba if there's a law in your house no running in the house then the children know but if you would never tell the children that they can't run in the house they wouldn't know that it's wrong So it's by the law that we know sin. [00:25:43] So we need the law. The law has got to lead us to Christ. That's the thing. Remembering that just because we obey the law will not change our verdict. And then in Romans 3 here in verse 21 and 22, [00:26:14] But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. The righteousness of God and Him giving His Son, loving us, dying for us. You know, I have to say, how am I worthy of that? [00:26:49] I don't know. For me, it's too easy to pass over that and take that for granted. But I praise God that we are reckoned righteous. But it's only because of Christ. And then verse 28 and 31, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. [00:27:22] Verse 31, Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. So the law itself was pointing to a goal or to an end. It had a purpose. And that law couldn't do in us what this purpose was. But when we finally got to the goal, when we finally got to the end, [00:27:56] which is that justification, sanctification through faith in Christ then the law was fulfilled. Boy, that's pretty heavy right there. You know, the law, we need the law so we know what's right and wrong. We notice our sin, we go to Christ. We say, Christ, we ask for forgiveness, We repent, we're justified because of Christ, not because we abide by the law. [00:28:33] And when that happens, when we are justified, we are being sanctified, that fulfills the law. It's like a little roundabout thing. And Romans 10 verse 4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Christ is the end. Christ is the goal. Christ is the purpose. And that all brings us back to what Paul was telling Timothy. [00:29:16] And if we use the law, if we think of the law that there's something, You know, we make ourselves feel better or something by upholding the law. Do we teach it to our children? I was telling Berber. Do we teach that to our children? No running in the house, so we see them walking through. Or they start running. No running, so they stop. Good boy. That's a good boy. [00:29:47] He stopped running. You know, so are we teaching? I'm not. Boy, I'm really getting myself in a hole here. It's good to have rules and it's good to praise your children when they do what is right. But I'm just thinking, does that help teach them that when they uphold the law, then they're right? I think it's a far cry. It was probably something I should have kept with my life. I think that we need to do all that. But for some reason, for us, we think that if we uphold the law, we got standards in the church. [00:30:22] I think we need standards in the church. We have rules, we have standards, we need to keep them, but it's not to make ourselves, it doesn't justify us, it's not what saves us. And I know for many, many, many, many years I lived that life of just doing the law, going to church. And when I say the law, I'm talking about just going to church, leading my songs, not cussing, not swearing, listening to good music, have a smile on my face, calling myself a Christian, doing all the good things. [00:31:05] And I was putting all of my assurance of salvation on that. And it didn't get me nowhere. It didn't bring me no peace. It didn't bring me no freedom. It's got to be a transformation of my heart. It's not just a list of behavioral things that I do. And I think that it's that what Paul is saying that we need to die to. [00:31:42] It's that behavioral list of commandments that we try to conform ourselves to. That's what he's saying we need to die to. Then in verses 10 and 11, maybe verse 11. [00:32:26] You know, since we're in Christ, we don't seek our power, our strength. You know, I personally, I, you know, when it comes to loving my enemies, when I was living for myself and living under just obeying the law, [00:33:02] that power or that strength to be nice to an enemy, When I was a law keeper, it came from just this self-will to be nice to my neighbor even though he really ticked me off. But now that power, it doesn't come just from the commandment to love. It actually comes from the gospel of Christ or this glorious gospel that he's talking about in verse 11. [00:33:37] So that behavior comes from not a self-will to do it, but it comes from Christ. And a couple of verses in closing, Romans chapter 3, I think. Love does no harm to a neighbor. [00:34:19] Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Now, Paul was telling this to the Romans. He turns right around and tells it to Timothy. Now the purpose of the commandment is love. And then the last verses I wanted to read is in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 16 to 18 and they're really familiar. [00:34:54] Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, or there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. When we are in the Spirit, when we are abiding in Christ, you tell me how freeing that is. [00:35:30] Not always hiding. Not always doing things in secret. Not always trying to keep the law to make ourselves look good because we feel like we're not right. but trusting in Christ alone and in what He has done, not necessarily what we are doing even though trusting in Him is going to change our behavior. And so, as we look at being leaders in our homes, you know, I really had to check myself and to see, it really helped me when I look at somebody, say in a prison, I really had to think of that. [00:36:24] Boy, I can judge that guy just like that. This guy. And even the first guy that gave a testimony last night. I, yeah, right, this guy sitting in a tank top and shorts and tattoos. You just automatically think, but that guy can be just as saved as me. Just as saved as me. and even though maybe he's not keeping the law as I would think. [00:36:58] So let's be challenged in ourselves and let's look at how we view the law, how we view Christ, how we view what we do and why we do it. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for today. Thank you Lord for being here with us and for speaking to us. Lord, I thank you so much for your Holy Spirit and how you work in our lives and how you speak to us. I just pray Lord that you would help us to be open and honest and humble and receive your truth as you give it to us. I pray Lord that your words can go deep into our hearts. I pray Lord that you can help us to examine ourselves and help us to be honest with ourselves. [00:37:45] and with you because, Lord, you know everything about us already. So change us, Lord, and help us to have a greater desire to serve you and a greater desire for your Word and give us a better understanding of how your Word fits into our lives and how you want us to change. I pray, Lord, that you would continue to prune us as we abide in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for watching!