Foundational Truth Part 1

Well, it's very nice to be back with you folks here in La Crosse, and we trust that our time together will be beneficial to all. Now, we were discussing the week of ministry on the local assembly or simple foundational truths, and I think I'm going to go with the latter, foundational truths. I often say foundational truths for young believers, but then I correct myself.

It's really foundational truths for all believers. It's good to be reminded of truths in the Word of God, and I know for some older, this might be, well, we've heard that, but we trust we'll be able to keep your interest. I think the devil is attacking us as to truths that are in the Word of God, and I'm going to show you in a few minutes just the way that we are built.

We are very emotional creatures, and we tend to allow what we know to be controlled by how we feel, and that's a recipe for destruction. So we want to try to reverse the order, and we want what we know to control how we feel, and that is really where a victorious Christian life will lie. So let's start in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. We're going to jump around to a number of verses.

We'll make no apologies for that, but we'll start in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. A few of these introductory points you might have heard me on before, but just bear with me, and we'll try to build it all together tonight. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 is a very important verse, verse 23, because it's actually going to give us God's order, and just before we read the verse, I should ask you, if I was to ask you, what are we? Could you name the three parts that we are? Every single person that I've ever met will say body, soul, and spirit. Body, soul is the emotional side of me.

Spirit is the mind, what I know. But God actually reverses that order, and you're going to notice why in just a few minutes. So let's look at it.

Paul by the Spirit of God, 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse number 23. He says the very God, and God himself is a thought, the very God of peace, sanctify you holy. And here's where this setting apart, sanctification, is to affect.

And I pray God your whole spirit, your entire spirit, mind, then he goes, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is God's order. The mind, then the soul, the heart, and then the body.

Now you just look at this world around us. Everything is geared for the body. That's why there's so many problems in the world.

And you're, we're going to discover in a minute that there is a tremendous link between the body and the emotional side of us. They are tethered together so closely. And you might have met people.

They are involved in something and years ago, they would never have been involved in it. And what has happened is what they once knew, what was once on the throne, so to speak, has now fallen. And it's now placed underneath what I want.

That emotional thing, right? You ever, you ever, you ever met somebody who, a Christian maybe, and they're involved in sin. And, and they know it's wrong. But because there's such a, a hook with the emotional side.

I want this so bad. It doesn't matter what I know. So this week of ministry is really, we're gonna try to reverse the whole order.

Sometimes I've heard this statement. I don't believe it for a minute. You know, a person that knows too much of the Bible would be no good for anything because head knowledge.

That is totally wrong, dear child of God. The reason that God gave us the Word of God is he gave it for our minds. And there's a reason for that.

Because once the mind is on the throne, that is the only thing controlled by the Word of God that we're able to control in reigning emotions. I always get the picture of the old-fashioned man on the, on the horse and buggy. And he's, he's got those reins pulled tight.

And there's that massive animal out front. That's like the body. Full of power.

But there he is. He's the mind. And the reins are like the emotions.

And he's pulling. The person, the mind, is controlling that powerful animal by what you know. So we can live a victorious Christian life in this world.

We're gonna touch on this in the nights to come. But we're gonna find out what happens when sin comes into our life. Because I think a lot of us, that old wicked heart that the work of Christ has never touched and will never touch, you and I will never be improving that old wicked heart.

It will always resist and struggle against you enjoying what God has for you. And that's really what I want you to get hold of. God wants you to so fully enter into what he has given you because of salvation.

But the devil doesn't want you to enjoy that. And the devil will do everything. And the heart, the old wicked heart, will do everything in its power for you not to enjoy what God has given you.

It's almost like, it's almost like this. Another brother, I used to preach a lot with, dear Peter Orszag, gone to heaven now. Cherishes his memory often.

I think it'd be great to sit down and have a cup of coffee with him now. But anyway, I have to wait for eternity. It's almost like God, he said, has given us a chair.

And on that chair, we have these words, which we'll touch on throughout the week. Son of God. You know what we do? We spend our life just walking around it.

Almost afraid to sit in it. But I'm a child of God. Listen, don't you ever let someone try to tell you that you are just a sinner.

Saved by grace. I don't believe that nonsense for a minute. I was a sinner.

I am no longer a sinner. You will only find one type of sinner in the Bible. They're outside of God's salvation.

They're in darkness. And they're on the road to hell. I was a sinner.

I have been saved by grace. I am a child of God. I stand before a holy God with a righteousness that has been given to me from Him.

And I think we spend so much of our Christian life living it out of guilt. You ever find yourself doing that? Guilt. Instead of living in the light of these tremendous truths.

And it's almost like our Christianity becomes something that we have to do. No. I delight to do it.

I love to do it. See, that's what truth will do for a person. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

So really what we're going to do, it's going to be very difficult. Because we are so programmed to be always looking at the emotional first. The emotional response.

That's how we seem to judge everything. I've often said it. You might have heard me say it.

It's a terrible thing to do. We often judge a remembrance meeting. The Lord's Supper.

By what? I was almost moved to tears. I almost cried. Who cares if you cry or not? That's emotion.

I am taken up with this. I have the Lord in the midst. I have Him.

Whether a tear falls down my face or not, it doesn't matter. You see? But we reverse it. We want to somehow try to gauge the truth of it.

By how much it impacts us emotionally. That is a work of the devil. That's what it is.

And then when we don't get that emotional response. All of a sudden the high truth seems to go down. You know what? We had this dog at home when we were kids.

And we used to love to watch him chase his tail. And we'd laugh our heads off. And so what we would do.

He was a little poodle. We would take his tail. We were a terrible crew for that poor dog.

And we'd twist his head around. And we'd slap his nose with his tail. And just take our hands off.

And he would go just in a circle. Do you know how many Christians do that? They go in circles. And when it comes to truth and the Word of God, they're like little pygmies.

Because they're not taking time to let the Word of God just flow over the soul. And just pause in a busy world. And just meditate.

Just think upon it. That's what we're going to try to do. And just let this truth get a hold of our mind.

Do you know what that will do? It will rain in those awful emotions which can almost destroy us. And once you have those emotions rained in, then this body is under control. Okay? So you just think of this world.

Think of it. Think of how wicked this is. Everything is geared for the body.

And right away the emotions are right there. And once that gets running, oh man, everything in the mind just goes overboard. So here is God's order.

Mind first. Then the emotions. And then the body.

Now quickly turn over to 1 John 2. Just notice what we have in the Word of God. And I'll explain the order. You'll notice the order is completely reversed.

1 John 2. Now this is Satan's order. And linking us with the world. Look at verse number 16.

Always pay attention. I know you do. Read your Bible carefully.

And always pay attention to when orders are reversed. I was just noticing here just the other day. Flippings chapter 2. We know that lovely section.

Who being in the form of God, thou did not rob or keep. Do you know what you'll notice at the start of that section? You're introduced to Christ Jesus. And then as you come to the end of the section, right before God has exalted him.

Jesus Christ. Christ is the one that stepped down. Jesus.

Then he's humbled himself. Now it's Jesus. The one down here.

Jesus Christ. The one gone up. So just how carefully the Spirit of God puts almost like two bookends.

Right before that great stepping down. Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ gone back to glory.

So 1 John 2. And look at verse number 16. And this is all-inclusive. For all.

We could just keep on shouting that word all for a few minutes. So that we would get it. Everything that this world produces.

For all that is in the world. Notice. The lust of the flesh.

There's your body. And the lust of the eye. There's the emotions.

And the pride of life. There's the mind. Now you know what you're going to notice? When you go back into the book of Genesis.

You take time to read what the devil did when he tempted Eve. He started with the body. It's good for food.

Your mind should be going right away to the wilderness. When the devil tried to tempt the Lord Jesus. What was the first thing he said? Turn the stone into bread.

You're hungry. The body. Do you know why the devil tried the same thing on the Lord Jesus? That he started with Eve? Because for 4,000 years it worked.

Perfectly. The first attack with Eve. Body.

Then the next attack went to the emotional side of her. And the last attack went to her mind. He tried that on the Lord Jesus and it didn't work.

He's sinless. He's perfect. But you know what? He's been doing it for the last 6,000 years in humanity.

And it works. That's God's. There what we showed you is God's order versus Satan's order.

And he completely reverses everything that is of God. So you take a few minutes and just analyze your Christian life. Are you an emotional being? Does it control you? Am I speaking to someone here tonight and maybe your Christian life is full of doubts? Oh, I go through all these awful times of doubts.

Am I saved? Maybe someone here and your mind is full of, well, if I'm a Christian, why am I doing this? There's the emotion again. You see, if you ever want to get free of that, do you know what you need to do? You need to get the emotions from number one down. And what God tells us has to be number one.

What you know. That's got to be what controls how you feel. Sometimes you wake up in the morning, you don't feel good.

Oh, maybe I'm not saved today. What a load of nonsense that is. Do you understand, dear child of God, that God did not give us truth so that we could feel it? You know why I'm saying that? Go back to the moments before you got saved.

What were you looking for? I want something more than the Word of God. I want the Word of God, yes, because I know that's what's right. But I want some feeling.

Come on, we all went through it. I want some light. I want something extra than the Word of God.

Do you remember the moment you got saved when you just, just what the Bible says? Sure, the feelings came later. I always tell people, which would you rather? Would you rather know you have a million dollars in the bank? Or would you rather feel you have a million dollars in the bank? I'll tell you what, you let me know and then I will feel it. Guaranteed.

But if I'm on this side trying to feel it and trying to feel it, when would I ever get to the point where all of a sudden now I know? So I'm emphasizing that for a minute because now we're going to start to look at just what the Word of God talks about in our salvation. I want you to turn quickly to 1 Corinthians 15. As I said, we're going to look at a number of passages because you might want to follow these up just a little bit later.

Look at 1 Corinthians 15. Once again, we're coming back to the Word of God to prove that we are a very emotional being. And this gives us a little ray of hope looking forward to what heaven will be like.

Verse number 44, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 44. You're going to notice these words, natural body versus spiritual body. And he's talking here in the first part of verse 44 about death.

It is sown a natural body. It is raised, thank God, a spiritual body. There is a natural body.

That's what you and I have right now. And there is a spiritual body. Now, salvation, we'll get into this a little deeper in the nights to come.

Remember the three parts that we have talked about. The Word of God says that we are mind, soul, and body. But God's salvation at this point has only affected your mind and your soul.

That's it. That's why you and I still sin. Because this body, this natural body, the word natural there is the idea of soul-ish, sensual, emotional.

That wicked old heart called the flesh, it's connected with the body. It's not connected with your mind. It's not connected with your heart.

Now, this is going to be important, night number three. Because I hear Christians say this so many times when they fall into sin. Why did I do it? Why am I thinking like this? Do you want to know something we're going to emphasize, night number three? When the Apostle Paul in Romans, chapter seven, tells us about the flesh, you know what he says? It's not I. It's not I. But sin, the sin that dwells in me.

He does it twice. Do you know what the Apostle Paul clearly saw? He saw and understood from the word of God, a clear distinction between me, the new man, the new person, and this thing called the flesh. Now, that will help you.

Because when you as a Christian, all of a sudden something evil goes across your mind, it's not you. It's not you. I remember as a young believer, I had a miserable... I had a great day that I got saved.

It didn't last too long. I had a miserable number of months. I was so full of doubts.

You can tell I'm an excitable person, so I'm naturally an emotional guy. Even though I'm not emotional, I don't cry, but anyway. I don't cry too often, I guess I should say.

But I'm excitable. I can easily get worked up, but I can remember just so in the depths of darkness because of doubt, trying to figure out how am I ever going to get away from this until I got a hold of what this Bible teaches. I can remember not understanding.

This is going to be night number three, the flesh and the spirit. I can remember not understanding where are these wrong thoughts coming from. I had an awful filthy mouth before God saved me.

And after I got saved, something would happen and just certain words would flash across my mind. And right away I thought I sinned. And right away I would confess it as sin.

I can remember times when I would bow my head for my food and I would say, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You swore again. You took the Lord's name in vain.

And you know what this foolish little boy would do? Oh God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take the Lord's name in vain. See, there's the dog chasing his tail.

And the devil was sitting back going, look at this fool. Until I understood from the word of God. It's almost like you got a black angel here and you got a white angel here.

This is the flesh and this is the spirit and I'm in the middle. Mr. Albert Ramsey, dear brother, he used to tell us, you got the black dog and you got the white dog. And then in the Bible study he'd say, which one is the strongest? And in my simple mind, I'd say, oh, the spirit of God.

He'd say, no, it's whichever one you feed. Whichever one you feed. Now that's gonna go further into nights four and five.

Just practical things in our Christian life that we don't realize when we start to lean toward the world and we don't know where to draw the line. Do you know what starts to happen? Starts to have an influence on us. And that old black dog starts to grow.

It's strong, it's powerful. So these are just kind of a little bit of preamble to get us into, hopefully you'll all come back throughout the week and you'll go away out of here and you're just victorious Christians just living wonderful lives. That will be the ultimate goal for all of us.

But the closer, here's something I could not understand and hopefully we'll try to show you this throughout the week. The closer you get to God, the more you'll feel this animal, the flesh. The more active it'll become.

I remember the first time I told my testimony and that was a Sunday night and I went to work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I was so defeated. I said to myself, I was so attacked in my mind.

I said, I will never get up and tell my testimony again. I remember the first time I prayed on a Sunday morning. Oh, it was terrible.

I said, that's it. I'm never gonna worship again publicly. And I remember spiritual men that came alongside and taught me, don't let the flesh keep you quiet.

We almost think we can barter with it. All right. You ever done this? All right, devil.

I'll take one step back from living for God if you just leave me alone. Do you know what you'll discover? He'll want you to take one more step back and then one more step back and then what until you are an absolute castaway. The devil will never leave us alone.

It's something that we as believers have got to condition our minds by the word of God. We have to learn to expect opposition from the flesh. Whatever we're gonna do for God, we shouldn't be surprised by it.

Like, where'd that come from? Listen, you heard the expression, a Kodak moment? Do you think for one second that the devil is looking at you as a child of God and he's enjoying it? Well, this is just marvelous now. There is a couple that want to live for God. It's a Kodak moment.

I'm gonna sit here and enjoy. No! He's gonna tear off with all of his might. Some people try to convince me, maybe Adam and Eve were in the garden walking in the cool of the day for hundreds of years.

I don't believe it for a minute. Not for a minute. God finished creation on Friday.

And at the end of Friday he said, it is very good. Saturday he rested. And I believe they fell on Sunday.

And the devil came roaring into that environment with all of his might. Here were two people in fellowship with their God, enjoying God and God enjoying them. And the devil had one thing in mind.

I'm gonna destroy that. That's why on nights to come, are you reading this Bible every day? Are you disciplined in your reading schedule? Are you praying to God every day and throughout the day? Listen, I know life gets busy. Do you wanna know the hardest time for me as a preacher? Conference weekend.

I'll be honest with you. Just came from Blue River. I'm gonna tell on myself now.

I didn't read Saturday. I didn't even read Sunday. Oh sure, there's scripture going through your mind and you're thinking about the Bible study and you're thinking about what you're gonna... But what I'm talking about is that private, separated, distractions away.

And I'm gonna give God an hour. And then I'm gonna pray. It just didn't happen.

Saturday and Sunday, I'm being honest with you. Now I caught up today. Well, so I think.

We all have things that come into our lives and busyness and stuff like that and everything else. But the thing is this, is the bent of our life. Are we aware that we're in a spiritual warfare? Are we aware of that? And are we doing everything in our power to structure our individual lives? Nothing will take place at this time with God.

The reason is, dear child of God, 1 Corinthians 15, 44, we are a soulish being. And the devil knows that and the heart knows that. And I thought of it today.

The old flesh, it's almost like he's got a direct connection to me through this physical body. But you know what I was enjoying even today thinking about it? Thank God for the day when it says there's a spiritual body. Do you know what that means? In eternity, the spiritual will dominate.

Now the body dominates. But in that coming day, the spiritual. So salvation has affected soul and mind and soul.

And that same spirit of God in me, which we'll touch maybe tomorrow night, that same spirit that has quickened that soul and spirit of me. He's just waiting, longing, Romans 8. He's waiting for the shout. Do you realize we all know that we're waiting for the Lord to come.

We all would like to think that. There is a person in me that will hear the shout of the Lord before I do. Spirit of God.

And you know what it says? He will quicken this mortal body, fashion flippings like onto his own. I'm looking forward to that day. I mean, I'll admit to you, I have been saved 27 years and I look back with God's help and it seems like salvation grows sweeter every day.

Thank God. And the blessed Lord gets sweeter every day. You just tend to love him just a little bit more.

I honestly can't wait for heaven. What will it be like when we'll be able to love him the way we should? With no distractions, no interruptions. I tell you, that is going to be tremendous.

Anyways, sorry for the little diversion there. But we wouldn't want to excite anybody too much, right? And it's sad, eh? We almost were so afraid to say hallelujah, amen. It's like, you know, I'm enjoying it but I don't want to say it.

You let her rip if you need to, okay? Don't worry. Leviticus 16. I always tell these people, I'm so sad and go to Leviticus 16 while I'm talking here.

I always see these people singing and you almost think they're half dead the way they sing, right? I feel like going over to them. Wish I had a bullhorn right beside their ear and I could roar right at them, right? I'll tell you, when you enter into heaven, you'll sing. You will have no trouble singing then, boy.

So I say, you may as well enjoy it now. You may as well enjoy it now, what God has given us. It'll just be like another extension when we get to heaven.

Now this is just a picture, time is going quick. This is just a picture of salvation. What I want to do in the next few minutes is I want to take us back to salvation's moment.

God always told the nation of Israel, he says, remember, you were bond slaves in Egypt. Don't forget that. I've been saved 27 years.

It can become such a distant memory. What always refreshes my soul, it happens to me every time I get into a gospel series. You know why? I sit and I preach to people and you can see them struggling in their sins, trying to figure it out.

And I'm reminded once again of the darkness I was in. And it just brings me right back to the glory, the glorious thing that happened that day. And we're going to touch on that in a minute, the day I got saved.

So Leviticus 16, just a quick little picture I want to show you. This is the day of atonement happened once in the year and the nation of Israel had to do with the national sins for that year that was passed. Verse 12, Leviticus 16, verse 12.

We're just going to pick up a picture here. That's a picture of salvation. And he shall take, that's Aaron, a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord.

The only time you'll read this, and his hands full of sweet incense. And this sweet incense, there's four ingredients. It speaks of the person of Christ.

And you've got a priest here and his both hands are full of this incense. Now all the other offerings, it always speaks of the hand, singular. There's something very unique about this.

The hands are full of this incense. And what he does is he takes this massive amount of incense and he puts it in this little golden thing with coals and he is to walk into the holies of holies where the tabernacle is or the Ark of the Covenant and there is God above that thing. And he's walking around this golden piece of furniture, right? And what he's doing is he's filling the holies of holies with this cloud of incense.

It speaks of the life of Christ, the person of Christ. Now I want you to notice this now. Look at what you have in verse number 14.

And he shall take the blood of a bullock. Now, not only does the incense speak of Christ, but the bullocks speak of Christ and different aspects and lambs and goats and so on and so forth. But notice this.

And he shall take the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger. We've gone from two hands down to just a finger. Notice what he does with that.

With his finger upon the mercy seat. The mercy seat is what was God word. And then you'll notice what is man word.

And before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. So it seems to me that there is, if I could say it this way, one drop or splatter or sprinkle, however he did it on the mercy seat. And then he comes to the front of it and seven times.

God word, man word. You'll notice that God got his portion first. Now that's what we're gonna get occupied with this week.

Sometimes we're always looking at this first. No, get occupied with what God thinks of his son. Thank God, thank God that your and my salvation is not based upon our comprehension or apprehension of Christ.

It's based upon what God thinks of him, period. That's it. See, we're gonna look at terms here.

We'll probably get a chance to touch it tonight. When you go through the word of God, you're gonna read this term in Adam, in Adam, in Adam, in the flesh. Then when salvation comes into a person's life, in Christ, in Christ.

But you'll never read of in the flesh. You read the opposite, the flesh in you. Totally different expression.

So prior to being in my sin, when I was in my sins, I was in Adam. And this will help you in preaching the gospel. That is why it doesn't matter what a sinner does.

They can't, they can't bring themselves up to God. Why? Because when God looks upon the sinner, the first thing he sees is Adam, fallen Adam. Adam and all of his failure.

And right in the center is the sinner. And they're surrounded. So it doesn't matter what the sinner is doing.

God is looking at in Adam. But thank God for the truth. By the spirit of God, I'm in Christ.

And when God looks at Scott McCloud, first person he sees is his son. And that's the only person he sees. What does that mean? My salvation is not based on my performance.

See where the guilt comes from. When I start to think it is. And I start to think that I got to be doing and doing.

And what do we say in the gut? It's done. It's done. You see, see how simple that is.

But for some reason, the flesh is able to get us looking at the wrong thing. Just the manward side of it. Seven.

Sure, seven. It's God's perfect number. It's complete.

Yes. But if that's as far as you get, you're going to lead a miserable Christian life. You got to get to the top of the mercy seat and find out just what Christ means to God.

Because I am now connected to him. I am now in him. I know you know this, but we're going to say it anyway.

I told you, I've been saved for 27 years. On April the 4th, 1990, when I put my faith in Christ, I was forgiven. I am no more forgiven tonight than I was 27 years ago.

God could not forgive me any more than he has. It was a full forgiveness. Isn't that tremendous? It was all done back there 27 years ago.

I was accepted back there. I am not in the process of being more accepted. No.

I'm not in the process of being more forgiven. No. I'm not in the process of getting deeper into Christ.

No. What God did, the moment of salvation, he couldn't do it any greater. He did it in all of his fullness, all of his greatness.

See, what we're talking about now is knowledge for the mind. Isn't that encouraging? Doesn't it just lift you? Now you're not even looking at yourself, are you? Now we're just thinking about him. We're just thinking about truth.

Why is it we spend so much time on our failures? Why, brethren? And I'm sure the same thing happens to sisters. You come to the Lord's Supper, and you're sitting in that seat, and there's a little thought you've been enjoying, and you're about to give it out, and all of a sudden that wicked old thing comes across your mind. Who are you to pray? Look what you did last week.

And then we start to go down that rabbit hole. And we start to go, yeah, look what I did. Yeah.

Listen, listen, listen, listen. The reason God saved you is not because of what you can do. Deeds.

He just wants you. You. Do we understand that? God is not interested.

Oh, I know this is good. I'm doing like an extreme here, so you get the point. But God is not.

It doesn't bring a smile on God's face greater if I'm out past no tracks up and down my street. But when he sees me, his child, just communion with him. Can't get any greater than that.

There's nothing greater than I can give him than a heart that is just occupied with him. Period. So you get a hold of this.

And when you are, if God preserves you to the age of 90. And you're in a wheelchair. And you can't walk for Christ.

You can't pass out tracks for Christ. And all you can do, you say is all I can do is just sort of sit here and think about God. Praise the Lord.

You're at the pinnacle of your Christian life. Even if you're laying flat on your back in a bed. And you can barely move a limb.

But your mind is taken up with his greatness. Taken up with his salvation. You can't rise any higher.

But we're always looking at what we're doing. Aren't we? And that's how we start to gauge our Christian life. Our performance based.

Not at all. Like I said, that old flesh. You ever handled a slippery eel? No matter how hard you squeeze him, he keeps on sliding.

Our greatest enemy is not the dear Christian sitting next to you. Sometimes we think that. I would be so much better if that person wasn't bothering me in the assembly.

You are your greatest enemy. That old heart. That's your greatest enemy.

And we deal with it. I go to bed with it every night. And it never goes to sleep.

Ever find yourself in the morning. First thing you got to do is confess defiling dreams. These are things.

You know, my father told me. He said, you know, Scott. He said, my father's been saved for 50 some years.

He says, Scott, I could probably count on one hand. The amount of ministry we hear on our wicked heart. Because.

I want you to think good of me. And for me to get up here and tell you. I think the same things you think.

Wicked. Simple. Defiling.

Yes, right in the middle of the Lord's supper. Yeah. I'm just as weak.

I'm no different. Preachers are not a cut above anyone else. At least, I'm not.

I think we're worse. Because we're so taken up with the outward. Honestly think.

If we could just. Cut out. All the introductions to our worship and the ending.

And just give God maybe the 15 seconds we were actually enjoying. I think that's what God gets from the sisters. Because they realize they don't have to open their mouths.

And they just simply sit there and just. Well, Lord, it's small. But here's just what I was enjoying.

Sometimes I wonder if God gets more of that. We're so taken up with the outward, aren't we? So here we learn. Here's another lesson we learned here.

You'll remember here that. The hands full of incense speaks of the person of Christ. Him.

The blood is a picture of his work. Do you notice two hands to a finger? Always remember that Christ is greater than anything he does. Christ, his person, is greater than his work.

We go the opposite. Do you know what we do today? Someone does a tremendous work. And we somehow put.

That must be great. Because of who Christ is. Because of his greatness.

Therefore, he gives tremendous worth to his work. Works the total opposite way. So you can see where we're starting tonight.

We're almost zeroing right in on just one person. The Lord Jesus. Now, you know what I was enjoying about this? Come down to the chapter here.

To verse number 21. Now, you'll never read this anywhere else in the Bible. Verse 21.

And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat. Now, there was two particular goats on that day. One goat was killed and the blood was taken in.

This other goat. Here's this priest. He's been into the holies of holies.

He's taken that incense around. And that cloud of incense. He's wearing these pure linen garments.

And that linen garment has just picked up the fragrance of that incense cloud. It often happens at PEI. It seems like where I come from, Tim Horton's Coffee Shop.

Everywhere there's a gas station, there's a Tim Horton's. So I go in to pay my gas and I come out and my wife says, Did you buy a coffee? I said, No. Boy, you sure smell like coffee.

Because they're brewing it right in there. And it just automatically, the fragrance just clings to your material. So here's this man.

He's been in the holies of holies. He's been moving around with this incense and the cloud. Now what is he doing? Now he's outside in front of the people.

And he's laying both hands upon this goat. And you know what he starts to do? He starts to enumerate all their sins. You know what I thought? The sweetness of it.

They're smelling this beautiful fragrance. Do you know what they're hearing? Figuratively. Figuratively, they're hearing their sins taken from them and put on this little animal.

Do you ever get tired reading about the crucifixion? Of course not. Next time you read it, just read it real slow. And take time to join some of those people at the foot of the cross.

And just enjoy the fragrance of it. Sweet. It was the greatest thing Christ ever did.

It was the pinnacle. It's hard for our minds to comprehend. He said this, I delight to do thy will, O my God.

I delight. That's why he could sing when he left the upper room with the eleven. You often link singing with joy, right? Do you realize that in the heart of Christ, I can't begin to fathom this.

Here's how I like to explain to myself. I make a fist out of this hand. And I put it against this hand.

And I push as hard as I can. And hold that pressure. As Christ took each step to the cross, the pressure never let up.

He never hesitated for half a second. There was actually a longing. A delight.

A joy. That's why I love that expression, John 19. He bearing his cross.

You'll never read that anywhere else. His cross. Do you know what I see there? How many of those people that were being crucified, how many of them struggled, fought, tried to go the opposite direction? Do you know what I see the Savior doing? As they brought that cross member, I just see a person just going, that's the very reason I came.

That's the very thing my Father wants me to do. These are things that we can't understand. There is tremendous sorrow and pain and agony.

And you and I know that what happens to this physical body, there's a natural reaction in this body. It's amazing. I do a little bit of carpentry work at home.

I'm not even conscious that something has splintered. And all of a sudden, this eye automatically blinks. It's a reflex.

The body wants to protect itself. But even the Lord Jesus had control over that. No hesitation.

Amazing to think of it, isn't it? That's our Savior. That's why we can rejoice in our salvation. That's why it has satisfied God.

That's why those words, it is finished, is still ringing through heaven. Do you understand? I know we know this. But it's good to stop and think about it.

God lives in the eternal now. And that work is as fresh to God as it was from my perspective that happened almost 2,000 years ago. I'm always looking back through time at it.

And God is presently just rejoicing. He's not looking at me. He's not looking at you.

He's just so taken up with His Son. That's why. Remember we're coming back.

That's why this chair that I have been given, a Son of God, I have been given a righteous standing from an almighty, holy God. That's why, dear child of God, I can sit in it with boldness, absolute confidence. This is really going to, this will bend your noodle, this comment now.

The only thing that God can do to you and I is bless us. Here's another load of nonsense I hear. God would be just in sending you and I to hell right now.

His entire person would fall apart if He did. Because once in Christ, in Christ forever. God could never undo what happened the moment we got saved.

We're going to discover that when the Spirit of God entered into this physical body, something that is miraculous took place in that soul and spirit of mine where I actually became one. A new creation in Christ Jesus. That could never be torn apart.

That could never be separated. And God now can only look at me one way. That is my child.

That is my son. You might think I'm pushing that too far. Son? Well, I understand child, but son? You know what's unique about the Gospel of John? You go through the Gospel, I know in our English Bible, we read the word son, son, son, son.

But the Greek word really is child. But that's due to the context. You're dealing with the unique Son of God.

Now you go over, John only uses the word son once for you and I in the book of Revelation. And he takes us off into the eternal state. Off into eternity.

We will be sons forever. That's tremendous. What I'm trying to get us to see tonight is this.

We have right now what will happen in eternity. We don't have to wait for anything. It's not like I'm going to step into heaven and all of a sudden it's going to be like, whew, finally made it.

I've made it now. I've got it now. And God couldn't bless me.

Couldn't bless me with anything more. He's not holding back anything. Aren't you glad you came to meeting tonight? You're sitting there going, hey man, keep on it.

And we're almost, you got to end, you say, oh, keep going. No, we can't keep going because I'm getting tired. But aren't these things tremendous? I mean, these are just simple things, aren't they? But isn't it nice just to kind of, kind of slow the thing down and just get your mind like the hamster on the wheel just kind of going over it.

Yeah. Wow, this is good. This has nothing to do with me at all.

You know, it just might put a whole level of whatever you want to call it into your Christian life. I'm going to look at my Christian life just a little bit. That's why the word of God would encourage us to live for him out of love, not guilt.

The flesh would actually encourage and help me to live out of guilt. Guilt. It'll do everything in its power.

Whatever you do, don't serve him out of love. That's why it says the love of Christ constrains me. That's why, dear child of God, I have an awful hard time with people that say they're saved.

There's no evidence. Be straight with them. Tell them they're not.

Just tell them they're not. Do you not love him? I know you do. You love him.

You love him. In moments like this when we're away from the world and maybe you had a rough day and your mind's been focused on the word of God, right at this moment, isn't there a sense of praise God for what I have? Isn't there? That same moment you can live all day tomorrow. God will never make you and I live for him.

Just like he'll never make a sinner go to heaven against their will. But you show God a little desire to go in that direction, he'll be right there to help you. Right there to help you.

Spirit of God will be right there to help you. Here's another sentence. Oh, boy, we're on these sentences that are absolutely foolish.

But anyways, here comes another one. You ever heard this? Someone falls into sin. I'll touch this on a night to come.

And you know what I hear a lot of Christians say? Someone falls into sin and they'll stand back and go, well, if it wasn't for the grace of God, there would I go. Do you know what you're really saying? You're really saying, are you saying that God removed his grace and they fell? If it wasn't for the grace of God? Are you making the fact that you don't sin, it's all dependent on God's grace? The devil can't make us sin. All he can do is tempt me.

That's all he can do. When I sin, it's my will. 100%.

100%. So I can't blame, that's just another way of blaming God for my failures, my sin. You see, I hear this all the time.

It's almost like these sentences of mock humility. There's nothing, no humility about it whatsoever. I think we have got to take what this Bible teaches clearly.

And that is what that book, you know, I just come to my mind right now. We were in a gospel series this summer. There was actually two, but anyways, the earlier one and this, he's probably, I don't know, 14, 15 years of age.

And I was preaching that night on John 3 and 16. We all love that verse. One marvelous, marvelous truth in it.

So this young fella comes to the door and he wouldn't let go of my hand. Do you mean to tell me that I can be saved by believing that verse? Now, what was he looking for? I knew what he was looking for. I wasn't going to give it to him.

All I said to him was, what does the verse say? See, he wanted me to say, absolutely. Who am I to tell him he's saved? I can't do that. I said, what does the verse say? So he paused and he said, now let me get this straight.

You're telling me that if I accept what John 3 and 16 says, I'll be saved. Well, I wasn't dumb enough to fall. I'm not going to fall for it.

I said, what does the verse say? Oh, and then he walked away. I think as Christians, we need to get back to that. What does the verse say? Irregardless of how you feel.

Irregardless. Who cares how we feel? Truth is not dependent on feelings. It's not.

Truth is unaffected by feelings, unaffected by air, unaffected by unbelief, belief, disbelief. Belief doesn't even add to truth. That's the word of God.

That's what we have in our mother language that we can actually read. I'm coming back. I'm going to end.

I didn't even get halfway through what I wanted to. That's why I'm coming back to this. There is the source of a victorious Christian life right there in your lap.

Be it in paper form or digital form. Take time to fill your mind with the word of God. And we're going to get on this a little bit in the next couple of nights.

When doubts come, when your failures rise before you, whatever you do, don't even try to analyze it. Don't go down the rabbit hole. Sometimes I see a lot, and all I see is their feet.

They glide down the hole of doubts and depression and off they go. And they're trying, well if I'm doing this for God, why is this happening to me? Just hammer it with the word of God. Memorize the verses.

And if it comes again, word of God. And eventually, just what happened to the devil, the Lord quoted three times, the devil left. Because nothing can stand against the word of God.

So thank you very much for listening. You've been an excellent audience. Nobody fell asleep as I noticed.

So if you do have any questions, please let us know. We'll try to address it as we continue through. But I trust tomorrow night, we're going to get a little bit more into this in Adam, in Christ, and that's going to move us of course into the spirit of God indwelling us.

So thank you for listening. We'll pray. Father, we bless thee once again for thy son, the Lord Jesus.

We thank thee above all things for his death upon the cross, for our sins, his burial, and his resurrection. Marvelous to think, he died for us, but he lives for us as well. He was delivered for our offenses, raised for our justification.

We stand tonight before thee completely justified, accepted in the well-beloved. Marvelous. Help us to enjoy it, revel in it, think upon it, even allow it to bring a smile to our face and just to offer up a word of praise and thanks to thee forever, picking us up in the darkness of our sin and saving us.

Take us home safely, we pray. Help us to sing a final hymn in the savior's name. Amen.

Now in closing, let's just sing number 159, My Redeemer. Just take time to sing two verses of 159. Only two people in the Bible ever called the Lord Jesus God their Redeemer.

I'll leave that for homework. I should give you one, Job is one of them. And there's another Old Testament, I think Cal knows.

There's another Old Testament writer and that's amazing, just two times. But anyways, My Redeemer, oh what beauty, in that lovely name appear, none but Jesus in his glory shall the honor title wear. Just verses one and two of 159.

Thank you very much for coming.