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  SPIRITUAL HEREDITY
  by Fred Tomlinson
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Summary: This sermon delves into the concept of spiritual heredity and
the need for a deeper transformation beyond just knowing biblical
truths. It emphasizes the importance of hearing the truth of God's Word,
embracing it with passion, and receiving the life-transforming power of
the Holy Spirit to break the bondage of sin and regenerate our spiritual
genetics, making us new creations in Christ.

Topics: "Spiritual Transformation", "New Creation in Christ"
Scripture References: Romans 10:17, Romans 6:17, Romans 8:2, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 1:18, John 3:16, Ephesians 2:10, Ephesians 3:20, 1 Peter 1:4, Ephesians 2:8

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the concept of spiritual heredity and the need
for a deeper transformation beyond just knowing biblical truths. It
emphasizes the importance of hearing the truth of God's Word, embracing
it with passion, and receiving the life-transforming power of the Holy
Spirit to break the bondage of sin and regenerate our spiritual
genetics, making us new creations in Christ.

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CONTENT
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Amen. Well if you would like to open your Bibles, will you do that
please to the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 16. We'll look there in
just a few minutes.

One of my favourite hymns, mind you I've got quite a few favourites, but
one of my favourite hymns and a hymn that we sing here quite frequently
is, Full Salvation, Full Salvation, Lo, the fountain opened wide,
Streams through every land and nation, From the Saviour's wounded side.
What wonderful words indeed. Full Salvation.

You know, I hardly want to admit to it, but it's probably five decades
now that I have been preaching this Gospel. That's been a privilege to
preach, I'm just talking about the length of time, how time goes by so
quickly. Can it be true? But over those years, I've had the privilege of
talking to many, many people and listening to many people as they've
chosen to talk to me or asked if they can share something with me.

In many, many cases looking for some kind of encouragement in their
Christian lives and so on. But one of the observations that I've made,
beyond any doubt, is that there are so very many people who are claiming
to be the Lord's people, who are living far, far beneath the
extravagance of that Full Salvation. And that's very sad.

And we could pause here and sort of talk about that in particular and
try to assess why that would be the case. But here's another observation
that I've made and that is that for many people, when they are actually
exposed to the fact that God has something deeper, something richer,
something more of what Paul calls the hope of his calling, so many
people become defensive and in many cases retreat to safer preaching. In
other words, to a situation that doesn't challenge them deeply in their
hearts and that also is very, very sad.

I can relate to that, mind you, because many years ago that was exactly
my own experience. I believed at the time I'm thinking about as a young
man that I had found forgiveness for my sins through the redeeming work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while that was true, I really knew nothing
about the rest that remains for the people of God as we read in the book
of Hebrews.

And I shall forever be thankful to God that he brought me into the
context of some people who were able to do what Priscilla and Aquila did
for that great preacher, Apollos. Do you remember? They expounded unto
him the way of God and showed him the way of God more perfectly. And I
thank God that there were those who were able to do that.

And clearly at that time, my heart was ready to receive what they were
able to demonstrate and show in their lives that was impressing me
profoundly and also with the teaching from Scripture as somehow the Holy
Spirit through them was able to throw new light on Scriptures that I had
known, some of which I had memorized in the early days of my Sunday
school experiences and in the young people's fellowship that we went to
because there was a lot of emphasis on learning and memorizing Scripture
at that time. And so these were familiar Scriptures in most cases. And
yet somehow they became quickened to me and God opened the eyes of my
heart.

You remember that was what Paul the Apostle was praying, Ephesians
chapter 1, for the church in Ephesus, praying that God would open their
eyes so that they could understand and so that they could see what God
actually had in his heart for them. And that's very, very wonderful. I'd
ask you to turn to chapter 16 of Ezekiel.

This is a most unusual chapter. And just for the record and for your
information, I was interested at one point to read some words of
Spurgeon in respect to this chapter. And he said, this is not a chapter
to be read publicly.

And I agree with that completely. And if you were more familiar with it,
you'd agree with me as well. But maybe you'll look at it after the
meeting sometime.

The fact is that the chapter actually finds God through the prophet
addressing the people of Jerusalem, which in a sense would include also
the people of Israel, but it was addressed to Jerusalem, this section
here. And God is addressing their unfaithfulness and their rebellion
toward him. And then as the chapter goes on, it goes through many sort
of fascinating twists and turns.

But ultimately, it becomes a section of scripture that testifies to the
amazing grace of God, notwithstanding everything that takes place in
between. Because clearly, God was speaking to his people through the
apostle, as I've mentioned. For myself this morning, I'm just going to
read two verses from the chapter.

The two verses themselves are certainly curious. But nevertheless, I'm
trusting that God will speak to us. I think I could just add this
comment.

In the light of what was the situation and the setting, and in the light
that God was wanting to address the people in that situation. And then
I'll look at the actual curious things that I find in this chapter,
which God says through the prophet. I have to come to the conclusion,
and I quickly come to the conclusion, that God could not really have
chosen a more graphic and shocking symbolism in which to frame his
message for those people.

And so let me read a couple of verses here. I'm right at the top of the
chapter. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, make
known to Jerusalem her abominations.

And say, thus saith the Lord God to Jerusalem, your origin and your
birth are from the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite,
and your mother a Hittite. As for your birth, on the day you were born,
your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for
cleansing.

You were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. No, I looked
with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion
on you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, and you were
abhorred on the day that you were born.

Amen. I'm certainly not going to speak on every part of this section
that I've read, even. But I want to do, I've just said I appreciate the
way God used this whole chapter to speak in this unusual way, and yet to
convey a very crucial message to his people.

I pray to God that with the couple of things that I'm going to draw from
this section, that God would have success to reach you in your heart.
Amen. Sometimes I think, for those of us who've grown up in a Christian
background, we've listened to countless preachers over the years, over
the decades.

There can be, and this is a very sad thing to have to say, but there can
be a sense in which familiarity does breed contempt. In other words, we
just become so familiar with the concepts, even although they are
concepts which God has chosen to use to proclaim the full salvation that
we were thinking about a few moments ago, which really is the message of
the entire Bible. But sometimes it's good to find a more unusual
setting, or for some element to be brought in which is not familiar to
us.

I think that's exactly what God was doing with his ancient people, and
I'm inclined to believe that God is wanting to do that for us here this
morning. And perhaps that's the way he will succeed in being able to
reach us in the depths of our hearts. You will notice that as God is
speaking here in these verses I've read to you, in the third verse, this
is the word of the Lord, your origin and your birth are from the land of
the Canaanites, and your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a
Hittite.

If you could just think about these Israeli people at this time, and if
in fact they were required to make some reference to their own
background and their own history, I am absolutely certain beyond a doubt
they would never, ever have said that about themselves. Most certainly
their story, if they were sharing the story of their background, they
would go back to Abraham, and they would want to say, as some others do,
we may think about them in a few minutes, that they were of their father
Abraham. So what is this that God is saying on this occasion? The only
conclusion that I can come to is that God at this time is choosing to
speak to these people about their background with a much broader vision.

We can only conclude that really it's as though he's gone back to
Abraham and beyond Abraham, he's gone to his background, because you
remember he was from the era of the Chaldeans, he was in a pagan
context, he was a pagan man, he was involved in false idolatry, worship,
and so on, as were all the people there apparently, and so on. And God
in making this statement through the prophets, he's gone back, he's gone
right back into their roots, way back into the past, into their ancient
roots. And you know I believe that's exactly what God is looking to do
today.

And he needs to show them this is where you really came from, this is
your background, this is your heritage, and this is your heredity. And I
believe that today God with us is wanting to address and highlight our
background, but he's not interested at this moment in talking about my
mother and my father and my grandparents or so on, but rather he's
talking about my spiritual roots and my spiritual heredity. And the
question is, perhaps, how should we think, how should we think about our
own spiritual heredity? Well when we think of the word heredity of
course we think quite naturally in terms of the physical world in which
we live and physical things of our background, and the word itself
really conveys the idea of something being passed on, a transmission of
certain characteristics, for example, from one generation to another.

You're very much like your father, you remind me of your father, so
she's very much like her mother, or maybe even like a grandmother, we
can think back that far. But that's the way we would think, we're
talking about something that's passed on from parents to children and to
grandchildren and so on and so on. That's how we would quite naturally
and readily think about heredity.

Now we're asking ourselves the question, how should we think about
spiritual heredity? Well that introduces this whole concept of
spirituality. What is spiritual? How should we think about that? And
we'd probably say, well we're thinking about something that is invisible
in that realm. And I think as people who are professing to be Christians
and have read the already many, many times, have our own personal
stories about our spiritual journey, we give, I think, a kind of lip
service to the spiritual realm.

We have no difficulty in claiming that we believe what the scripture
itself says, that God is a spirit. Remember, Jesus said that, God is a
spirit, they worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth. We
also know from reading the scriptures, as the text addresses Satan
himself, we understand that Satan himself is a spirit.

We're talking about God being a spirit being, we're talking about Satan
being a spirit being. And yet, of course, the two are polar opposites
from one another, but they have this in common, so far as our limited
understanding is concerned, that, well, they're both spiritual beings.
If I'm thinking about God, God is a spiritual being, Satan is a
spiritual being.

But that's where the similarities end, and we could go through a list or
make a list of categories that apply to each of them, which are
completely contrasting, so I'm not taking any further than that. The
spiritual realm. I was raised in a kind of a cocoon, really.

I'm very protected in my background in many ways, much of which I'm very
thankful for. I lived in a different time than which I live today and
which you live today. This was before TV, I was born during the Second
World War.

Some of you will not even have any knowledge of what that was, maybe.
But in any event, I was born back then, things were very, very
different, and of course my parents were Christians, so that isolated me
even further from the culture that I was raised in, or born into,
anyway. And the very first dead body that I saw was when I was required
of me to watch a post-mortem when I was involved in training for the
Liverpool City Police.

But I can remember, I'm sure I'll never ever forget, as long as I have
my memory, going into that room with some of the young students as well
and seeing a body of a person who was deceased. And I know my mind was
just swirling with questions as I stood there, as a group of us watching
the proceedings. But trying to cope mentally with what I was seeing, to
start with, to all intents and purposes, this was a perfectly normal
human body.

Of course, some things were being done to it before long that were
certainly anything but normal. But the fact of the matter is the
strangeness of seeing that from my first experience, many of you have
had many more experiences than I had at the age that I was then. But to
stand there and just trying to cope with the whole thing, sorting out
the mega-mystery of life and death.

What is life, really? And of course, I was familiar with the passages of
Scripture, I've just said a few minutes ago that no doubt I'd given only
lip service to them. I hadn't been as compelled to think about these
things as I was on that occasion. But this is the conclusion that we
must come to.

It is, and according to the Bible, the essence of, I'll speak
personally, the essence of my being, of my identity is invisible. You
see my body, but you cannot see the essence, the true inward identity of
who I am. I am, I am a spirit being with a body and so are you.

And there's someone going to maybe come in so you can watch out for him.
But in any event, this is the fact. And to believe this, to believe that
I am a spirit being or that you are a spirit being and to follow that
through, it causes me to think again about subjects such as abortion.

It causes me to think, of course, about physical death itself and to try
and process these things according to this great fact. But this is how
God sees each and every one of us. So we've talked about heredity, the
passing on from one generation to another.

We've thought about the word spiritual, which causes us to think about
this invisible realm, this invisible dimension of our makeup. And so
really now the conclusion we're coming to is that we're learning that in
the spirit realm we have a heredity which is passed on to other people.
There are things that have been passed on to each and every one of us in
this dimension.

And there's that which has been communicated to me and transmitted to me
from an earlier generation. Someone was talking about this earlier in
this meeting, speaking about Wesley standing on the grave of his father
and then the reference was made that we're all standing on someone's
shoulders and thankful to someone who's gone before who's passed on good
things to us, we trust. But in looking back to this text here, I'm
wanting to remind you that God in dealing with each and every one of us,
he has an objective, he has a purpose in his heart.

This is not a side issue, he's not sort of got a hobby that he dabbles
with from time to time. He is totally committed to a purpose which the
Bible calls an eternal purpose with each and every one of us. He's
seeking to bring us into the richness and the wonder and the glory of
the family of God and to include us and incorporate us into all that he
is and all that he has planned and ordained for his people.

But here we are at this point in time in the process and I believe this
is the message that God is looking at each one of you individually. He's
not merely looking on the surface of your life, he's looking into the
depths of your being and he knows where you've come from, he knows
everything that has been inherited and gained and we're going to focus
on that even more particularly now. But the point is today God by his
spirit is bringing us back to our roots, bringing us for a moment away
from all the even all the good things that we've learned which have been
important in life, even the wonderful messages that we've listened to
and benefited from over the passage of time.

But when we're in the presence of God, in his light we see light. In the
illumination of his radiance he penetrates us deeply because he knows
that in order to bring us into that which he has eternally purposed for
us he needs to get down to the deepest inward part of our inner being,
of our spiritual being and do something there with us. Not merely to
give us more information to think about as though that would be
satisfactory, but rather to get down and do something in us.

Believing facts of Scripture is very important and if you've learned or
been exposed to Scripture in the past that's of great benefit to us. But
in the final analysis it's not merely learning the information, but it's
having God by his spirit do something on the inside of us that's deeper
than we even understood was possible. And so God has gained a reputation
for this as we read through the Bible and we know for example as we move
on into the New Testament when we're reading the words of the Apostle
Paul, he takes this same concept, the way he approaches it, he says that
we've all come from Adam and of course he develops that theme to suit
the context in which he is speaking as he writes to the Romans or to the
Corinthians.

We remember with Jesus in talking to the crowd of people around him,
he'd said some things which offended the people that were gathered
around him and so much so, excuse me, struggling here, I shouldn't have
sung earlier before we started, in any event when he was talking to them
they were upset with him, they were offended by what he was saying and
they then made the claim I quoted earlier, we have Abraham for our
father, you know, and at that point Jesus corrected them, he said your
father isn't Abraham, your father is the devil. Now he'd taken things
back not merely just to even Abraham's background in the era of the
Goldies, he'd not even taken as far back as Adam but he went all the way
back beyond history, he said you're of your father, the devil and the
deeds of your father and the desires of your father you will do, he
said. In other words, the root problem, the root issue that is common to
men and women everywhere until we experience something of the redemptive
work of Christ is that our ancestry is corrupted, the issue is in our
hearts, Jesus said that, you remember as well, that the issue is the
issue of your heart.

Thank you very much, thank you. Have we really seen this? I hope that
the Spirit of God can really make this very, very clear to us because we
tend as good evangelical people in these days to just gather to listen
to more information, we may feel we need more information so we run
around and listen to lots of people giving us more information but the
universal need is not merely for information, I'm not diminishing in any
way the explained truth of Scripture but the greatest need is for God to
be able to do something at this root level of our beings and unless
that's happened we have not been transformed as God must transform us.
As we move into this area then, this that we have inherited from a long
time back in our background behind us is sin, here's the issue, we've
come to the core issue now and we perhaps commonly tend to think about
sin as being limited to an action or actions in which we participate or
don't participate when we ought or whatever the case may be but we think
of that in that particular way but when we understand the teaching of
the New Testament and in particular now what the Apostle is teaching,
the Apostle Paul, he speaks, he distinguishes between the singular word
sin and the plural word sins and by using the word in the singular when
he speaks about sin he's speaking of sin as an entity and sins that are
commissioned as a result of that but he says perhaps you'd like to turn
with me to just see this I'm looking into Romans if you want to turn
there and in chapter 7 of Romans the Apostle Paul says this in verse 17,
therefore I really need to read earlier but therefore did that which is
good become a cause of death to me may it never be he says rather it was
sin in order that it may be shown to be sin by affecting my death
through that which is good so that through the commandment sin would
become utterly sinful and he speaks in the a little lower down in the
chapter verse 19 for the good that I want to do I do not do but I
practice the very evil that I do not want but if I am doing the very
thing I do not want I am no longer the one doing it but sin which dwells
in me and in verse 23 he said I see a different law in my members or in
the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind making me a
prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members he's talking about
this entity of sin which he says is in him and of course this takes us
back in our thinking to to the garden of Eden and to what took place
there which we refer to as the fall which took place there where the
where the very devil himself succeeded in seducing Eve and Adam Adam and
Eve and as the result he poisoned the human race as the result of that
and it was all done by them believing a lie um they received the
deception of the enemy and as the direct result this was this was an act
in itself but something very unusual something remarkable took place
from that moment that which they had enacted the sin act became their
inward disposition from that point in time and they were then to go on
and reproduce after their kind according to the law which God had put
into place there are those who say that in fact one translation wants to
take the word flesh which is the greek word sarx and translate its
sinful nature but the the bible doesn't say we received or we receive a
sinful nature but what the bible does teach is that our human nature
became sinful as the result of what took place by one man's sin says
paul sin this entity entered into the human race so that paul is saying
sin which is in me as we saw from that passage and from that which took
place originally man's human nature became poisoned it became corrupted
it became warped it became utterly self-absorbed and they produced or
reproduced after their kind and one day i was conceived and born into
this world and so were you and we find that in this invisible realm of
my spiritual heredity that which was in my forebears which goes takes me
back all the way to eden uh so far as the this record is concerned and i
would have to say with paul that this was something i discovered in
myself in my own life the root problem that we have as men and women is
our heredity to sin sin that is in me this sin dictates my behavior this
sin places me men and women you all of us it places us under the
judgment of god this sin prohibits my ability to have fellowship with
the divine with god this sin leaves me hopeless because it's
irreconcilable there is nothing i can do about it that's both the
teaching of scripture and the discovery that we make in and of ourselves
that's exactly what paul is talking about when he says the good that i
want to do i can't do and the things i hate myself for doing i'm doing
over and over again and ultimately it drives us in the direction that
paul was going in that chapter chapter seven so to if we're conscious of
what's happening and we're concerned about it then we will we will stand
with him and we will cry with him oh wretched man that i am who shall
deliver me who shall deliver me from this body of death now the
wonderful thing that we find at that point is that paul continues by
saying by making a statement he answers the question i thank god through
jesus christ amen just to pause into a margin for a moment or a lay by
for a moment so far as this chapter in ezekiel is concerned if we were
to carry on reading it we would find that in the verses between verse 6
and verse 13 so that's seven verses in those seven verses on eight
occasions we find god referring to himself as i i will or i did the
point being this having spoken to him of his heredity and the people's
background and the hopelessness of their condition we find that god is
speaking to them and he's expressing his own desire to to to transform
their lives to transform the situation and he's saying over and over
again eight times which incidentally in as far as numerology in the
scripture is concerned is the number of new creation he's saying i'm
doing something about it or i did something about it and so on because
we're thinking about the situation which we find ourselves brought to in
the light of god and before his word about our deepest need and we're
admitting that there's nothing that we can do to change it or to rectify
it or alter it and thank god that the gospel isn't something about
behavioral modification we're just improving ourselves which we may be
able to do up to a certain point but we can't deal with the root we
can't even get to it although it's inside our own being only god can do
something about it and when paul said i thank god through jesus christ
at that point of course he was well aware that there was a solution
there was an answer to the problem and i think it's highlighted again in
this ezekiel passage where in that context only god could make the
change that needed to make and i can say to you only god by his holy
spirit and through the redeeming work of christ can anything be done to
change my spiritual heredity amen and and and the word that stands out
to me or at least it it arises not because it's on the page but it rises
out of the text of those eight verses i've referred to is the word grace
the fact that god should become involved and have a desire and a plan
and a purpose to make a transforming situation in anyone's life is his
grace and you know as we think about the fact of what the lord jesus
christ accomplished at the cross his redeeming work the whole body of
truth that we find explained in the epistles in particular that have to
do with with being justified by his grace and the sanctifying work that
takes place in our lives it's all a cause for rejoicing it's all a cause
it gives rise to us it reminds me of the hymn where we sing grace grace
god's grace grace that is greater than all my sin and so we rejoice in
that but here here's an important factor but so many sort of park their
lives i parked my life right there at that point in time we've
understood that god has acted in his grace he's paid a price that we
could not pay to deal with an issue that we were unaware of and were
called upon to to believe that and and rejoice in it and so we gather we
sing our great hymns about such grace and you know what could be more
wonderful uh than than this but the fact is i need stay with me for a
minute i need something more than that you say really uh we're on
dangerous ground because we've thought about the redeeming work of
christ we sing in a one a wonderful hymn of charles wesley's tis
finished the messiah dies cut off for sins and but not his own and he
accomplished everything that needed to be done he paid the full price am
i challenging that no a thousand times no i am not challenging that at
all uh but but the fact is i i believe that i believe it sincerely but i
have a problem i am a slave of sin this is this is the point and and and
and i need this god i've just been speaking about the to do what only
god can do i need god to somehow buy his gray in his grace and by his
power to do something in this area of my being is is this is this in
fact true i need the power of sin to be broken in my life and what i'm
saying is sadly so many people i have been one of them we park our lives
too quickly believing things that are absolutely biblical absolutely
true but we need then to allow god who is behind those words to act by
his holy spirit and impact me in my heart the big question is well how
does this happen how can this happen and i'd like to just simply mention
three things i need first to hear the truth i need i need to hear the
truth paul would say faith comes by hearing the word of god and it's not
i realize there'll be those who could challenge and misinterpret what
i'm saying here but yes i i need the scriptures i i can't say this
enough but but i can never get away from the fact that jesus said you
search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life but
you won't come to me he says to receive the life itself that's the way
i'm thinking here as i say these things i i need i need for the
scriptures and the word of scriptures to somehow be quickened by the
spirit of god somehow i need the logos of his word to become transformed
by his handling of them so that in order that it becomes the rhema of
god the personal word of god where god is reaching me in the depths of
my being and that's your greatest need to hear god speaking to you not a
preacher not just words but where something happens where god who is
living he's the quickening life-giving spirit of god to address you in
your own heart and wake you up to the reality that he is desiring to do
something in you which is greater deeper richer more dramatic more
dynamic than anything he has able has been able to do up until this
point i need to hear that and faith then is quickened in my heart when i
hear the rhema that's the word used in the text of god and his word his
word always brings light it illuminates you know where we say now i see
he causes that to be an inward reality the second thing we need to do is
to embrace that word i need i need to uh i'm thinking of paul again i
need to apprehend get hold of that for which he has gotten hold of me
he's gotten hold of me he's speaking to me his word is quickening
bringing life into me and light to my understanding i need i need to
receive it uh i need to uh in the words of paul again romans 6 and verse
17 i need i need to obey it paul says thank god he said you were the
slaves of sin but thank god he said you have obeyed from the heart that
form of teaching that form of doctrine which has been delivered to you
that's what we're talking about where something on the inside says yes i
hear you lord you you illuminating this great truth to me that you are
able to do something that will transform me inwardly and i i apprehend
you know i've said before one of the i can still remember the running
after someone's fresh on the streets it might have been my first day on
the streets after going through all my training and i was dropped off by
a group of detectives and i was in plain clothes at the time and they
said see that man down there there's a group of people he said that
particular man he said you walk down there and grab him and we'll be
there but they said he knows our vehicle it was an unmarked vehicle they
say he knows the vehicle and he'll they'll run and i walked down it was
a kind of it was a new experience for me and i was getting very close
and i guess i had my hair cut short and one thing and another and so on
and one of them looked around and said something to the others and they
all ran and i ran like i couldn't run today but i can still remember
apprehending that man getting hold of him and hoping that and then i
heard the screaming engine of a car pulling up alongside me and but i
was then congratulated by the chief superintendent or anyway but i got
hold of him like i must not let him go everything at that moment
depended on me you've got to get hold of the word of god like that with
a passion with every fiber of your being and thirdly you have to receive
his life receive he's the spirit of life my bible's open here already at
romans chapter 8 as he's moved through this thanks be unto god through
jesus christ our lord but then in verse chapter 1 therefore there is now
no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus hear this for the law
of the spirit of life in christ jesus has set you free from the law of
sin and death the law itself couldn't do it but god sent jesus jesus
came in as as the second person of the trinity and he condemned sin in
the flesh isn't that wonderful what the law couldn't do the law of the
spirit of life accomplishes in us and we sing sometimes he breaks the
power of canceled sin jesus canceled it on the cross by his death and
his bloodshed today the holy spirit comes to break the power of the
canceled sin in our lives and set those who are prisoners to their
spiritual heredity to sin in the deepest part of their hearts amen just
before i close there's there's a bonus that i must make some reference
to and it's this that when the spirit of life enters into our beings he
he actually changes our spiritual genetics this is what new birth is new
birth another word for it which is also used in scripture is
regeneration and we've played on it's only works in the english language
but we've played on the word a little bit just to make a point
regeneration that's exactly what the spirit of god does in our inward
beings as we allow his spirit to come in he he he transforms us
genetically do you believe this it's not he doesn't merely educate me in
my mind about john 3 16 and some other associated texts he comes to
accomplish something he breaks the power of canceled sin so that i
receive new life through the new birth and i am no longer the man i once
was he he imparts to me a new nature the apostle peter says that i
become a partaker of the divine nature how about that amen uh and
westley again we love the hymns he he scatters his life through every
part we sing one of his great lines his his spirit scatters the life of
god through every part of my life this is this is what god is up to with
us this is what sanctification is all about it's the holy spirit of god
being allowed to scatter his life through all the various parts and
sections of my life and of yours amen do you know these lines low my
heart the spirit shrine god and man in oneness blending oh what
fellowship is mine no wonder we read in 2 corinthians 5 17 if any man is
in christ jesus he is a new creation all things have passed away behold
all things have become new this is the gospel of our lord jesus we pray
that you may understand it and experience it and preach it amen with all
of our personal limitations but with a heart lord that burns with a
passion to know you in an ever deepening way and to be able to minister
you to minister you and your gospel in the power of the holy spirit we
simply back away and say lord as we seek to cast our feeble bread upon
the water we pray lord that you will take it and conduct it sovereignly
to wherever you will choose this day and bring forth fruit unto god we
pray lord please continue to minister in each and every one of our lives
here lord if necessary lord get us off the sideline get us out of the
backwater get us out of the cul-de-sac get us off the treadmill lord i
don't know what it'll take for some of us lord but we pray you'll do it
and have great success in this and bring us lord into that place where
we're exactly where you want us to be in order to first fulfill your
plan and purpose and work in us and possibly lord you may use us we
don't know that but lord we pray that we nevertheless shall be to the
praise of your glory so we commit ourselves to you this morning and
thank you lord for such a gospel for such a message and for our
friendship together in jesus name amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/kfr_MqggbU0.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/fred-tomlinson/spiritual-heredity/
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