The War of the Worlds
January 18, 2004 AM
Romans 7:14-25
[s1]
One of the buzz words we hear a lot of today in religious circles is "God told me"
I sort of cringe when I hear those words --
Not because I don’t believe God speaks to people today --
but because I am wary of both the perception of people and people’s perception.
Outside of church circles, people who hear God talking to them are considered nut cases,
And in the church we have become skeptical because God has been blamed for some pretty crazy stuff.
What I want to do this morning is for us to look at whether or not God speaks to people today,
[s2]
If so, what does He say, and How can we know it’s really him?
I think you’ll find that I seldom use the phrase "God told me" --
Do I believe God speaks to me? yes, most definetly.
But --- The lesson I’m going to teach this morning was a life lesson to me.
The things I will share today are the frame work, the infrastructure on which my spirit life is based.
Can I convey to you the seriousness of saying "God told me" by emphazing that when you use that phrase to say or do something which is not of God --
[s3]
You are taking God’s name in vain.
And I will assure you -- saying "God said" when "God didn’t say" is much worse than any cuss words you could ever verbalize.
[s4]
So the first question We need to settle is "does God still speak to people today"
[s5]
1 Cor. 2:9-10 (NKJV) But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
[s6]
[10] But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
So here Paul does teach that the Spirit of God does reveal things to us --
Acts chapter 9 -- we see Barnabus sharing Pauls testimony as he introduces him to the other apostles --
[s7]
And he says -- Acts 9:27 (NKJV) Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road,
[s8]
and that He ( thats Jesus) had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
As we read through the new testament we do find where people say "Says the Lord", or "God says" or the "word of the Lord is"
[s9]
However -- what you will find most often is that these times are quotes --
And people will quote what God has written in the old testament.
Does God still speak to people today?
[s10]
Yes -- a strong and powerful yes.
The Bible shows us that every generation has had people who hear from God.
From the prophetic to the routine --
We do not see a point in Bible history where God simply stopped communicating with His people.
In fact -- with the out pouring of the Holy Spirit at pentecost we see that at least the ability to hear from God actually increased.
[s11]
The second question then becomes -- "what does He say, "
That question depends on what is needed to be said.
For instance --
When you first train a child, you repeat the basic training over and over --
[s12]
Like -- every morning you say "brush your teeth"
And the kid goes and at least pretends to brush his teeth.
But after a routine is established -- you don’t say that every day.
You may on occasion remind the kid -- "did you brush your teeth?"
But the basic training has established the obedience routine.
Now when you first commmitt your life to Christ -- you may sense a prompting inside --
And that’s what God speaking is -- seldom does he boom out "Ric this is God"
But there is a promting that I have learned is the holy spirit -
[s13]
And that prompting may say "read your Bible"
And so, you read a few chapters.
Well after a few days or weeks, that prompting may stop --
does that mean God doesn’ want you to read the Bible anymore?
No -- He expects you have been trained to brush your spiritual teeth.
So he doesn’t remind you every day the rest of your life.
So what God says -- depends on where you are in your walk with Him.
But if we can learn to recognize that small prompting -- we will save ourselves a lot trouble,
We’ll know God’s will in certain situations,
All because we learn to listen.
[s14]
God seldom yells.
God speaks quietly.
(story of Ron Shepherd?)
[s15]
But that leaves us with the question "How can we know it’s really him?"
And that’s where I want to spend the bulk of our time this morning.
Let’s look at what the Word says;
Romans 7:14-25 (NKJV)
[s16]
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
[s17]
[15] For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
[s18]
[16] If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
[s19]
[17] But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
[s20]
[18] For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
[s21]
[19] For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
[s22]
[20] Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
[s23]
[21] I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
[s24]
[22] For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
[s25]
[23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
[s26]
[24] O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
[s27]
[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.
That is a mouth full of scripture stuff from Paul
We have to kind of back up and scratch our heads and go "Huh?"
[s28]
Paul says -- what I want to do I don’t do, and what I don’t want to do I do,
What I know is right I fail in, and what I know is wrong I succeed in.
Isn’t great to know that someone as great as the Apostle Paul sounds just like us?
Now the reason I bring all this in -- is that when we think we hear from God we have to judge that feeling or prompting by something --
There has to be a guildeline -- some absolute to evaluate what were hearing or feeling --
Because what Paul is saying here is;
Flesh is unreliable -- and I’ll show you why in a minute.
Now when I say we have to have an absolute to gage things by --
[s29]
That is almost a foreign concept today -- everyone is saying that there are no absolutes.
We are told that truth is relative, it’s based on the situation or circumstances were in.
I have to disagree --
[s30]
The law of gravity is an absolute --
If you jump off of a tall building holding a bowling ball --
No matter how hard you believe in the bowling ball’s ability to float --
Now matter how many people tell you that bowling balls will float like balloons,
No matter how many guests that Oprah has had espousing the joys of bowling balls that fly --
[s31]
You can believe all you want you to --
But the law of gravity is an absolute -
And what you believe, what others say, what current philosphies are -- will not prevent you from splattering on the ground and spending eternity with bowling ball splinters in your kidneys.
There are absolutes - and gravity is one of them.
[s32]
Measurements are absolutes.
In order for buildings to be constructed, for cars to be manufactored, airplanes to be built --
Everyone must use the same standard of measurment.
Just because you want a bigger inch doesn’t mean you can use a ruler with a bigger inch.
When they were drilling the tunnel -- or chunnel as the Brits call it --
They started on the English side and the French side at the same time.
And they expected to meet in the middle.
That could not have been accomplished if there had not been an absolute measurement.
In sending men to the moon -- there had to be a precise, accurate, absolute measurement used --
Or they would have missed the moon altogether.
If you’re flying in an airplane -- and that plane is to be pressurized for flying at 35,000 feet.
And the pressure for that altitude is supposed to be 14 pounds per square foot --
At 12 pounds psf the plane crushes at that altitude - at 16 pounds psf the plane explodes --
It needs to stay at exactly 14 pounds --
[s33]
Do you want the guy who is in charge of keeping that pressure to guess at it -- or to use a gauge that is precise?
The truth is we all like to think there are some absolutes we can depend on.
So there are absolutes -- things that do not depend on circumstances, situations, or what people think or feel.
When it comes to what we think God is saying to us --
[s34]
There is one absolute -- The Bible.
Everything God says will line up with what the Bible says or it isn’t God.
And not just a few individual verses -- but it will line up with what the Bible teaches as a whole.
[s35]
If it doesn’t line up with the written Word -- it isn’t God.
No matter how strong you feel it, or great you think it is --
There is an absolute measurement and it is the written Word of God -- the Bible.
I say it again -- If it doesn’t line up with the Word -- it isn’t God.
For instance -- no matter how strongly you feel it is God -- He will never ask you to rob a bank --
Not even for missions,
Or God will never tell you to commit adultery.
Not even if it gets them to come to Bible study.
God will never tell you to divorce your wife - with the exception of abuse and adultery -- God will never tell you to get a divorce.
Not even if you promise to become a missionary.
Why -- God’s written word -- the Bible -- clearly teaches that all those things are wrong --
Actually it teaches that all those things are sins.
And God will never, under any condition tell you to commit sin.
[s36]
So why is it that sometimes people say "God told me" when in reality it wasn’t God?
What happens that causes that?
Let me try to explain and show you examples -
First -- Paul explains in these verses that there are actually three parts to us --
[s37]
We have a mind, a body, and a spirit.
Now when we accept Christ, when we commit our lives to Jesus --
When we become born again --
[s38]
It is our Spirit that is made righteous instantly.
If you accept Christ one minute and walk out the door and a satelite falls on you and your dead --
You make heaven -- your Spirit was born again --
But you have two other parts;
The mind and the body.
How many of you know that even after you accept Christ your mind and body do not always behave like a christian should?
Why?
Even thought the spirit is born again instantly --
[s39]
The mind is born again progressively.
What do I mean by that --
You do not instantly begin to think like God thinks --
That takes time.
Your evaluation process changes over time so that you begin to process thoughts as Jesus processes thoughts.
We take on the mind of Christ.
But not instantly --
And to be honest -- you will have your mind in the process of reprogramming your whole life.
It’s the process of sanctification --
The longer you serve Christ the less you want to sin, and the more you want to be like Jesus.
So -- the spirit is born again instantly, the mind is saved progressively,
And the body ....... got some bad news, the body never gets changed.
[s40]
Actually at the rapture or resurrection of the dead you get a new body.
Personally I’m hoping the next one is skinnier and has hair.
[s41]
So your made of three parts -- spirit, mind and body.
Spirit is born again instantly, mind is born again progressively, body is born again at the rapture.
What does that have to do with hearing God speak?
When God speaks, or the Spirit prompts, or there is a feeling that we interpret as God saying something --
[s42]
We need to understand that it begins as a clear, pure Word in our Spirit.
But our spirit does not have access to the real world except through our minds and our bodies.
[s43]
Which means -- even though it starts out pure -- but it passes through our thought processes,
[s44]
and eventually comes out of our mouths --
It is no longer pure.
It is tainted by our thoughts, and our personalities, and our wants, and our desires.
So what begins as a pure word from God is colored or tainted by us.
Let me try to show what I mean --
You take a white sock -- clean and bright -- it is as white as white can be.
But if you run it through water that is colored -- or dirty -- even a little bit --
What happens to that sock --
Once it comes through the tainted water it is no longer pure and white -- it has taken on at least some of the coloring or flavor of us.
[s46]
When a word from God, or a prompting, or a feeling, comes --
It has to come through our mind --
And I don’t care how long you have been serving Christ --
Your mind is still your mind --
And it is not the completed, sinless, mind of Christ.
It never will be until you die.
Very few dead people sin much.
Primarily because their mind and their bodies are now perfected.
Paul said his mind ends up warring with God’s will.
[s47]
But even worse -- that perfect Word that began in our spirit, travels through our mind, but it has to come out through our bodies.
How many of you have ever said something you didn’t intend to say.
Your mouth seemingly took off on it’s own.
How many of you have ever planned on saying something --
And it came out something totally different?
That’s what Paul is teaching us.
[s48]
Our minds and our mouths taint and color every thing that begins in our spirit --
No matter how spiritual or how pure it may have been in the beginning.
I am sorry -- but if Paul struggles with this - so do you, and so do I.
In 1 Corinthians Pauls ia teaching about the gifts of the Spirit and their use in the church --
[s49]
Chapter 14, verse 29 says -- 1 Cor. 14:29 (NKJV) Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
Now He’s talking about speaking in tongues, and interptertations, and prophetic words --
And he says No more than 2 or 3 in a service --
And everyone else is to judge what is said.
What does he mean judge what is said?
[s50]
It means, we try to see what the true pure word of the spirit was,
While sorting through the color and taint that may have come a result of the speakers mind and body.
I’m not going to be able to finish this thought today --
We will study more on "God said" next week.
But let me close with this illustration of what I’m talking about.
Several years ago we had a member of our church who was dying of cancer.
Everyone loved him, he was a hard worker in our community.
No one wanted to see him suffer, or die.
Of course we all prayed for him, he was at the top of our prayer lists,
People even took special times in the week to pray for him --
We were all touched by his struggle.
I remember in one particular service there was a message in tongues,
Followed by an interpretation.
I don’t even remember who gave the message or the interpetation --
I do remember what was said -- I’ll use the name Billy Bob just to maintain privacy.
But the interpetation was "Billy bob is in my hands, I will take care of him, I will see him through this --
I will heal him says the lord, and raise him up."
Well, needless to say everyone clapped and cheered,
And was excited -- Billy bob was going to be healed.
A few days later -- Billy Bob died.
And people were stunned -- didn’t God say he was going to heal him and raise him up?
So I went back and thought on the interpetation shared --
And this is what I see --
The true, pure word from the Lord was "Billy bob is in my hands, I will take care of him"
But when that passed through the mind of a close friend who loved him --
It was tainted, affected by that love.
[s51]
So when God said "I will take care of him" -- the natural mind, because of love and human nature, defined that as "healing."
When in reality that was not what God intended to say.
God did take care of him, he didn’t suffer, he didn’t linger in pain.
But the natural man wanted him healed and lifted up.
That is why we "judge" the words of the Lord --
That’s why we must examine every prophecy comparitively with what the Word teaches.
Next week we will look at judging prophecies and prophets based on the Word.
This sermon may be used in part or in whole without consent, or credit, for ministry purposes
