3ABN On the Road

Break Out #3

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jay Gallimore

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000971


01:00 I want to ask a question, couple of
01:03 questions to start off with. First of all,
01:05 who controls the Will? The selfish man
01:13 or the spiritual man? The selfish carnal man
01:18 or the unselfish spiritual man?
01:21 Now, internally they were gonna go to
01:23 Romans, if you have your Bibles you know
01:25 turn to Romans chapter 8 you can follow
01:28 along there, at some of the texts that
01:31 we're gonna look at to start off.
01:33 Now, I'm going to start right off with,
01:35 with Romans chapter 8 and I'm looking at,
01:39 at the word, I'm sorry I don't have that verse,
01:44 it's right there, it's starting with verse 3,
01:47 starting verse 3, "For what the law
01:50 could not do, and that it was weak through
01:53 the flesh, God did by sending His own Son
01:57 in the likeness of sinful flesh."
01:59 And there is the good news, the bad news
02:01 and the good news. The bad news is that
02:03 the law, there are some things that law
02:05 could not do, but then it says, but God did.
02:09 So, what the law could not do God did it,
02:11 isn't that good news? Amen. And let's,
02:15 let's just watch this going down to,
02:18 to the next, to the, no, the same verse.
02:22 Lets stay right there on the same verse.
02:24 "God did by sending His own Son in the likeness
02:27 of sinful flesh, on account of sin;
02:29 He condemned sin in the flesh." Now, let's
02:32 understand the data of what we just read.
02:34 First of all, the law is weak because when it
02:37 commanded sinful man to do something,
02:42 sinful man cannot respond, because of our
02:46 sinfulness. So, the law says do not or do
02:49 and it doesn't get our response out of us.
02:53 The law had no power to change the sinful nature
02:59 of men. And all of us in this room are in the
03:01 same boat, we all have a sinful nature
03:03 and the law has no power to change it.
03:06 Therefore, it's power was limited to informing
03:11 and condemning sin in us, but it couldn't
03:15 change us, but the good news again is what
03:18 the law could not do God did.
03:22 And let me just go right now real, real quickly
03:24 because it's not the main thing,
03:25 I want to get to how the mind things
03:27 and how the carnal mind has to be conquered
03:30 and so forth. God gave His own son
03:33 to the human race. Number two,
03:36 by His living, Christ living he ruined
03:40 the rule of sin in our lives. The reason
03:42 we can't respond to God's laws
03:44 because sin is ruling in our lives
03:46 and Jesus came and he ruined the rule of sin
03:50 in human flesh. I think that's real good news
03:53 as well. Then he paid the penalty with his,
03:56 of sin with his life as our substitute
04:00 he played our game of life and he won where
04:03 we lost. Now, what is a substitute,
04:06 we use the word substitute quite a bit,
04:08 although we practice it quite a bit
04:11 in our culture, although we don't use the word
04:13 so much, but let me give a good example.
04:15 When I drive west sometimes on
04:18 Sabbath morning, which would be
04:20 Saturday morning and you are,
04:22 and I'm driving west towards out of Lansing
04:24 toward Grand Rapids, Michigan.
04:26 All of a sudden I'm met in the other line
04:29 streaming toward Lansing or streaming toward
04:33 Ann Arbor, I met with streams of cars
04:37 flying flags. Some of the flags are green
04:42 and some of them are blue. Now, if you're a
04:46 Michigander you know what I'm talking about?
04:49 Now, the people that are flying those flags
04:51 they're into this thing. Now, you may know
04:54 some of them at work. They'll say something
04:57 like this to you, they'll look at you
05:00 and they will say, you maybe for the green
05:03 and maybe therefore they're for the blue
05:04 or vice versa, they will say you know,
05:08 Saturday morning we're going to beat,
05:10 we're going to beat you good.
05:13 We're going to do it, we're, we're going to
05:16 win this, we're going to do this.
05:18 They will going to come back, no you're not,
05:20 you're weak, you just wait and you know
05:22 how this conversation goes.
05:25 Then on Monday morning, they show up to work
05:28 and they say, I told you, we're going to
05:30 beat you and we. We, we, we never touch the ball,
05:44 never. What, what was going on here?
05:51 This is called substitution. Whatever
05:55 their team did whether it was green or blue
05:58 whatever their team did, it was as though
06:01 it happened to them. When the team
06:06 made a touch down, they made a touch down.
06:09 We call that substitution. Now, let's
06:14 just play, but what I'm talking about
06:17 is very real. Amen. Not even in the same league.
06:24 The father of our race Adam lost,
06:29 and when he lost every one of us lost.
06:33 Real, we're born because of Adam's defeat,
06:37 we're born into his defeat. We wake up
06:41 from our momma's womb already messed up.
06:47 God send His only begotten son into
06:51 human flesh, He played the game all over
06:55 and won, amen, amen. That means,
07:01 that His victory can now become my victory,
07:05 that sin does not have to rule in my life,
07:11 that the rule of sin can be kick out
07:15 of by living, and I want to say praise God. Amen.
07:21 You, you've to understand that the
07:23 rule of sin is an awful thing, we talk
07:26 more about that as we go along here
07:28 just a little bit. Now, the other thing is that
07:31 by faith we can accept His life in place
07:34 of our life. Just as they accept the team
07:37 in place of them and the teams play,
07:39 we accept the life of Christ in place
07:42 of our life. In response when we put our faith
07:45 in Him to do that, He sets us free from sins
07:49 rule and sins penalty. Now, look at,
07:52 continuing looking verse 4, if you would.
07:54 And so, he condemned sinful, he condemns,
07:58 I'm usually the new international
07:59 at this point. So, we condemn sin
08:01 and sinful man, and order that the righteous
08:04 requirements of the law might be fully met
08:07 in us, who do not live according to the
08:09 sinful nature, but according to spirit.
08:11 So, he's simply saying that because of Christ
08:13 we can live a different life.
08:15 And it's going to, it's gonna deal into our
08:17 thinking here, we're going to see how that
08:19 works in thinking. The requirements of the law,
08:22 here are the results. The requirements
08:24 of the law can be fully met in our lives.
08:27 Now, that's amazing, because we've much
08:29 of the Christian world that says, you know,
08:32 it's over with, don't worry about
08:33 the God's law, etc, etc. The requirements
08:36 of the law however, according to this text
08:38 can be fully met on the following conditions.
08:41 One if we no longer trust our rule,
08:45 the rule of our life to our carnal nature.
08:47 Now, let me tell you this is where the rubber
08:49 really starts to meet the road.
08:52 We struggle with putting Christ in control
09:01 of our life and giving up control of our life.
09:07 Let me explain, so it's really serious.
09:12 Wouldn't you give your life to Christ,
09:14 your, that's a, that's a cliche, so easily,
09:17 what you're really saying is,
09:19 I'm, I'm actually putting you in control
09:23 of my living. So, if Jesus wants me to die
09:31 or wants you to die tomorrow, it's okay.
09:39 Because he is in control, if He want you
09:45 to live tomorrow, He wants me to live
09:47 tomorrow, it's okay because
09:51 he is in control. You following me?
09:58 In other words, am I willing to trust Christ
10:02 with all of my life? I'm giving some
10:12 Bible studies to very talented young man
10:15 and I'm enjoying that and his, his life,
10:19 he's making changes in his life and,
10:23 and he said to me just yesterday.
10:26 We were talking, he says you know, I,
10:28 I don't drink anymore. He says, when I,
10:30 when I go to this kind of event
10:32 and that kind of event, I just tell people no,
10:33 I, I don't drink and he says,
10:35 I really am enjoying that and he says, I'm
10:37 in full control of myself and he was
10:39 telling me the joys of that, but he says
10:43 I got an event coming up, but I'm going back
10:45 to my old fraternity, my college fraternity.
10:47 And he looked at me and he says it's going to be
10:49 awfully hard not to drink.
10:56 And I said, I talked to him about the moment,
11:00 about the issue of Christ being in control
11:04 of his life. And I said, you've come to that
11:07 moment where Christ is asking you to pick up
11:11 the Cross. I said, I don't know
11:15 what will happen in that, people may
11:16 make fun of you and they may laugh at you,
11:18 but I said somebody is going to be impressed
11:20 with you, you're sent there to be
11:22 Christ's ambassador. Amen. You sit there
11:27 to be his man, but sometimes in
11:30 Christianity we give our life to Christ,
11:32 but we don't really give Him our life.
11:34 We've got to make Christ back in charge
11:36 of our life in our living. And so,
11:41 we've got to trust our life to the rule
11:42 of Christ. Now, we got to understand
11:44 the struggle of sins, so if you're looking down
11:46 and there and we, I want to look again at,
11:48 at verse 5, understanding
11:54 the struggle with sin. Verse 5,
11:56 "For those who live according to the flesh
11:59 set their." According to the sinful nature,
12:03 I'm using the New International.
12:04 "Those who live according to the
12:05 sinful nature have their minds set on what that
12:10 nature desires; but those who live according
12:13 to the Spirit have their mind set on what the
12:16 Spirit desires." Notice the mind here is either
12:20 set on what the Spirit desires or what the
12:22 carnal nature desires. What, what does it mean
12:26 to have your mind set on something?
12:29 A question, what did Hitler have his mind set
12:34 on? Now, I, I got some German in me,
12:37 but I'm mostly Scot-Irish but,
12:38 and English, but we're all the hinds variety.
12:41 So, I got, I got enough German,
12:42 I can talk I think. What did Hitler
12:49 have his mind set on? What was he thinking?
12:56 What did he want? And why did,
13:00 why did enough not our German people,
13:02 but why did enough German people?
13:04 Why did they go along with that?
13:10 What Hitler wanted is he wanted,
13:13 he wanted them to become, and he wanted
13:17 to be remembered always as the great leader,
13:19 who made them the world dominant superior power.
13:26 It was all about self. And that's why
13:31 he was popular, became popular.
13:35 We kept the uno number one O for the world.
13:37 And we know that when you have the mind
13:40 set on the carnal, when, what happened to
13:44 Germany? We know the terrible reason,
13:47 there was euphoria, it's gonna be great,
13:49 it's gonna be wonderful, we will do whatever
13:51 it take to bring this great vision about,
13:53 but when it was all done and said,
13:56 Germany was in ruins. If you set your mind
14:02 on the carnal self, the carnal self will
14:08 eventually ruin you, no matter how nice
14:11 and good it sounds now. That's why we
14:18 have to have; we must have our mind set on
14:22 what the Spirit desires. What does the
14:23 Spirit desire? Well, let me illustrate
14:29 this again, what, what is it that you want
14:33 your children to have when they grow up.
14:35 Now, most Americans will say I want my children
14:38 to be healthy, I want them to be wealthy,
14:43 I want them to be famous,
14:44 I want them to be happy, I want them to be
14:46 whatever. We usually think in carnal terms
14:51 or earthly terms, I'll put it that way.
14:54 There's nothing wrong with being happening,
14:55 we want them to be happy, but what is,
14:59 what is the spirit of God want for your
15:00 children? Let me tell you what he wants.
15:06 He wants them to have a noble Christ like
15:11 character because in that nobility of Christ
15:17 likeness and God likeness there is
15:21 eternal life. So, we, we need to have our minds
15:29 set on what the spirit desires.
15:31 Now, the mind is used a lot here on this text,
15:35 still in Romans 8 verses 5 to 8.
15:38 "The mind of sinful man is death,
15:40 but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life
15:42 and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God,
15:48 the sinful it, the sinful mind does not
15:50 submit to God's law." Now, if a sinful mind
15:53 does not submit to God's law,
15:56 what does the spiritual mind do?
15:59 Let me do that again. If the carnal mind,
16:04 the selfish mind does not submit to God's law.
16:09 What does the spiritual mind do?
16:14 Just the opposite, so it submits,
16:17 the spiritual mind submits to God's law.
16:22 Alright, let's, let's go on here.
16:24 Those controlled by the sinful nature
16:27 cannot please God, so two questions.
16:29 How is the sinful mind taken out of control
16:34 of our lives? And how do we bring our mind
16:38 under the control of Christ?
16:42 Well, first of all we've got to cooperate
16:45 with divine agencies. Now, you probably heard
16:47 this illustration before, but I'm going
16:49 to use it. There was once a farmer who had a
16:51 beautiful farm and somebody showed up
16:54 one day and, and he looked at the cornfield
16:57 and, and the beans and he says,
16:59 I've never seen such beautiful beans
17:01 and such, God has sure blessed you
17:03 with those beans and corn.
17:04 Then he looked at the cattle and he said, I've
17:05 never seen such slick cattle in my life,
17:07 God has so blessed you with such
17:09 beautiful cattle, I've just never seen
17:11 anything like it. And he looked at his garden,
17:13 he looked at this and everything he turned
17:14 around, he said, God has just been so good,
17:16 look what God has given you,
17:17 he's given you that beautiful barn,
17:18 you got a lovely home and God has been so,
17:21 and kept doing and then finally the man
17:22 looked at him. And I'm not saying this to be
17:25 fun because I think it's actually blasphemies.
17:28 The man looked at him, the farmer looked at him
17:30 and he said, well you should have seen what
17:32 it looked like when God had it by himself.
17:37 Now, lets just analyze that just a minute.
17:41 You could, the farmer would say, yeah,
17:45 he says I actually produced this,
17:46 I mean, I'm the guy that put the seed
17:49 in the ground, yes, that's true where did
17:51 you get the seed? Well, yeah,
17:55 God gave us the seed, I put it in the earth,
17:58 yeah, that's true, but where did the dirt
18:01 come from? Oh, yeah that's true.
18:05 Well, I hoed it, that's true,
18:07 but where did the wood for the hoe handle
18:09 come from, where did the metal for the hoe
18:11 come from? Listen, when you get down
18:13 at the end of it, he says, well I,
18:16 I put the energy into it. Yes,
18:19 but where did you get the energy?
18:23 Well, I have the mind to. Yeah,
18:24 who gave you the mind to do it?
18:27 Well, you get ride on to it, all you can say
18:29 is the farmer cooperated with God,
18:33 that's all he did. Let me tell you,
18:36 to develop a noble Christian character,
18:38 you give your life to Christ,
18:39 Christ has provided everything for us
18:42 including His own power to help us develop it,
18:46 but we must cooperate with Him
18:50 in the development of that character.
18:52 It's just like your child, he says daddy,
18:55 I want to build a nice model plane you know
18:58 one of those which you, you fly by radio
18:59 control, I want to do that daddy.
19:01 Fine son, you go out and you buy all the stuff,
19:04 you brought the radio control,
19:05 you brought the PC, you brought the wood,
19:06 you brought everything, get down,
19:07 so okay here's the plan son. And I'll help you,
19:10 I'll guide you and he looks at you,
19:12 and he says daddy you do it,
19:13 I don't want to do. Well, I thought son
19:15 you wanted to build this, I thought you
19:17 grew up, no I wanted. Now, listen,
19:18 if it's gonna be his plane, as a father,
19:21 you're going to insist that he cooperate
19:24 with you, you're not gonna sit there
19:25 and do it for him. It's the same way
19:28 with your character, you've got to cooperate
19:30 with the Savior, and He will help you
19:34 and power you to build a noble Christian
19:38 character. What does it mean when God says;
19:41 I will put a new spirit, a heart and this is an
19:43 Ellen White comment from Mind,
19:44 Character, Personality, page 95.
19:49 It means a new mind I will give you.
19:51 This change of heart is always attended,
19:55 attended by a clear conception of
20:01 Christian duty and an understanding of truth.
20:05 I've never seen a man converted that said
20:10 to me you know, I just given my heart
20:12 to Christ, I'm so happy I've given my heart
20:14 to Christ. Now, I'm, I, I've got a,
20:15 I got a go out here, when I'm here,
20:17 I got to do a little cruising tonight
20:18 till about midnight or 1 O'clock in the morning
20:20 at the local bar. I've never had that happen.
20:24 Because people when their life is changed,
20:27 people know basically, they may not know
20:30 everything, but they know that
20:31 there's got to be a change and that all of
20:34 that was not right, they know it.
20:38 God gives us a certain understanding.
20:42 Now, men are going to understand
20:44 this here at men's conference.
20:47 The mind and I don't want to be too rigid
20:49 with this, but just kind of give us an overview.
20:51 Think of the mind like a calculator,
20:54 think about it like the logic, the computer
20:57 if you please, it's where the reason
21:00 and the judgment and the calculations
21:01 take place. And then there's your heart,
21:05 your heart is where your affections are,
21:07 it's what you like. And then of course
21:10 there is the conscious, what is the conscious,
21:12 the conscious is, is that what measures
21:15 right and wrong and if it's awake it will
21:18 tell you that's not right you know,
21:20 that's not right, this is right, this is good,
21:23 this isn't right. And then there are
21:26 the motions, the feelings that come
21:30 and then there's the will power.
21:32 The will is the, the administrator,
21:36 the will is the executor, the will
21:38 carries out what the mind wants it to
21:41 carry out, but it makes it happen.
21:46 When God changes us, he takes the mind,
21:49 he takes the logic and the reasoning
21:51 and he enlightens it, because sin
21:54 has darken our intelligence.
21:57 And he changes our affections;
21:59 the things we used to love we now no longer
22:01 love, our things are, our mind is focused on
22:04 spiritual things. The conscious that's been
22:06 asleep, that just let you do all kinds of
22:08 bad things and you don't feel anything
22:10 about the conscious, now wakes up
22:13 and it's start to say, this is right,
22:15 this is wrong. The emotions that have been
22:19 directed toward carnal pursuits are now
22:21 directed towards care and love and sympathy
22:25 and goodness. And the will, that will power,
22:29 that will now serves not the old carnal self,
22:33 but it serves the new master, Christ Jesus.
22:41 Now, I'm going to share with you a quote from
22:44 Steps to Christ, again by Ellen White,
22:46 a powerful quote, you may hear yourself in it.
22:50 I certainly have heard myself in it.
22:54 "Many are inquiring how am I to make a surrender
22:57 of myself to God." Now, as a minister
22:59 I've called a lot of people to surrender,
23:01 surrender your life to Christ,
23:02 but what do we mean by that?
23:05 You desire to give yourself to Him,
23:08 but you're weak and moral power,
23:10 don't raise your hand. Ever felt that way?
23:16 In slavery today control, there is that
23:19 word again controlled by habits,
23:23 by the habits of your life of sin.
23:28 Doug Batchelor told a story this morning
23:31 but how he used to smoke and, and he felt
23:34 the power of that control to cry out
23:36 for God given victory over that.
23:41 Your promises and resolutions are like
23:46 ropes of sand. You cannot control
23:52 your thoughts, I'm gonna talk more about that,
23:54 you cannot control your thoughts
23:55 or your impulses or your affections.
24:02 Do you know why sometimes I, I'll tell
24:08 you an illustrates a story I had one time,
24:10 as a pastor I had, I had a couple coming to me
24:13 and they, and they said, look I,
24:16 we would like to get married. So,
24:17 that's nice, we would like for you to do
24:19 the wedding. Oh, I said, I'm honored.
24:20 Well, tell me a little bit about yourself.
24:22 I said, how did you meet? Oh,
24:24 we fell in love with each other
24:25 at her wedding. I, the red lights went on I,
24:33 you know, I, I think I better get to know
24:35 more about this. And I so began to probe
24:40 a little bit, that's what tell
24:41 you what's happens. As well you know,
24:43 she was bride; I was one of the groom.
24:45 We locked into each others eyes
24:47 and we just fell in love at our wedding.
24:49 And we believe because it was a religious
24:52 service that God ordained it that way.
24:55 And so, well I'm gonna have to help you out
24:57 a little bit. You, you could probably guess
25:01 the rest of that story. Could not control
25:07 neither of them, could control
25:11 their affections. They could not control
25:18 their impulses. The knowledge of your
25:26 broken promise is in, and don't raise
25:28 your hand. Maybe that's melancholy like I do,
25:30 I've got a little bit, let me at least you,
25:32 you ever feel down or melancholy
25:34 or discouraged, the devil likes to do that
25:36 to all of us. The knowledge of your
25:38 broken promises, forfeited pledges
25:40 weakens your confidence in your own sincerity
25:44 and causes you to feel that God cannot
25:47 accept you, but then I love these next
25:50 few words, but you need not despair. Amen. Amen,
25:55 that's right. What you need to understand
25:58 is a true force of the will,
26:00 the power of choice God has given to men
26:03 and it is there's to exercise.
26:07 Now, men will understand this next statement
26:08 a little better maybe then, then our,
26:11 our ladies, you cannot change your heart,
26:15 you cannot of yourself give God its affections,
26:19 that's very important to understand,
26:20 I cannot just as the law cannot change me,
26:24 I cannot change me. The only person
26:26 that can change me is the Lord Jesus Christ.
26:28 Amen. Yeah, we've to under, that's what
26:30 we call Jesus calling being born again.
26:33 You cannot change your heart,
26:35 you cannot change your affections,
26:36 you cannot change what you love,
26:38 but you, you can choose to serve Him.
26:46 Now, as men we're not always as emotionally
26:49 triggered. Now Jesus, a man of great emotions
26:54 he wept in prayer. There are times that
26:56 he wept, but, but sometimes we just
27:01 don't feel, so we, we may say,
27:04 well I'd like to surrender my life to
27:06 Christ, but I don't feel anything.
27:08 The religious thing in America today
27:09 it's all feeling. People say, well I felt
27:12 something that's, I felt this, I felt,
27:14 listen your choice for Christ, well certainly
27:18 there can be emotions involved,
27:20 but it doesn't have to have emotions.
27:22 Your chores for Christ ought to be because
27:25 you choose to surrender and to serve the
27:28 Lord Jesus Christ. Amen, amen.
27:30 And as men we can do that by His grace.
27:33 We don't have to have emotions,
27:34 but we can choose to serve Christ.
27:36 And we can say to Him Lord Jesus,
27:39 by your grace, I want to serve you.
27:42 You can give him your will, now you say,
27:44 is that hard? Let me tell you how hard it is,
27:48 if you work for one of the automotive,
27:50 Ford, or Chrysler, or GM. And you go to work
27:54 for them; I want to ask you who during that
27:58 eight hour period that you're working for them,
28:00 who owns your will, there as far as work is
28:04 concerned. Who owns it? Do you walk
28:07 and say, oh hello Ford motor company,
28:10 I'm so glad you've got me now,
28:11 you've, you've been wise enough to hire me.
28:13 Now, let me tell you what I like to do today,
28:15 is that the way it works?
28:21 Then work that. We, we practice giving our will
28:27 a lot in, in different circumstances,
28:30 if we can give our will to our employer for work
28:34 purposes, can we not give our will to Christ,
28:39 we can do this by His grace.
28:41 What it means is, Lord, I'm putting you
28:42 in charge, I'm gonna do even I may not
28:44 feel like it, I'm gonna do it anyway because
28:46 you told me to do it. You may not feel like
28:51 you know, putting that screw and that motor
28:54 a hundred times or wherever it does
28:56 or wherever it is, that do in car,
28:58 'cause I don't know they have robots,
29:00 all kinds of sophisticated marvelous
29:01 things, at least here in Michigan they do.
29:05 I, I don't know what all they do,
29:06 but you could get tired of doing
29:09 what all they ask you to do, you could,
29:10 am I right? You could feel like you'd like
29:13 not do that anymore, but you keep doing it
29:15 because you chosen to let them be in charge
29:18 of that that project, of the work.
29:23 Can you not do that with Christ Jesus?
29:27 Can we not give him my will?
29:30 He will then work in you to will and to do
29:32 His good according to his good pleasure.
29:35 The problem of sin is that we also have
29:39 satanic forces that we're up against.
29:40 And there are many, there are many
29:44 who are really troubled because of low
29:46 debasing thoughts that come into their mind
29:49 that are not easily banished, don't raise
29:51 your hand, if you have low debased evil
29:54 thoughts that come into your mind,
29:56 even as the Christian and that
29:58 they're not easily blandish,
29:59 if you never have any of that,
30:01 I want to talk to you later because
30:03 I'm not sure you're part of
30:04 the sinful human race.
30:12 There's the devil, by the way this quote
30:17 goes onto say that the devil studies us,
30:20 and studies our weaknesses and then
30:21 he makes evil, he makes evil suggestions,
30:25 he makes suggestions where our weakest areas
30:29 are, I don't know how he does that,
30:33 I know how he can you know, he can make
30:35 suggestions that that, that we hear or see
30:39 or whatever, but somehow he's able to do that.
30:47 How do we, how do we as a Christian,
30:50 how do we rid of that kind of thing?
30:52 It's how we think and I want to talk about
30:55 that let, let me say this, that Satan
30:59 not only knows your mommy and your daddy
31:01 and your grandma, and your grandpa,
31:02 he knows your ancestors all the way back
31:04 to Adam. And he studies you,
31:07 it's not like he goes in the park for a lark
31:09 and he says, oh there is X and there is Y,
31:11 let's see if we can get him today.
31:13 It's not that all. These guys are cold
31:15 and calculating. They know all of the
31:18 ancestors that they've already destroyed
31:20 of yours and mine because they've already
31:22 got secured for eternal destruction.
31:24 And they also know who Jesus has already
31:27 rescued out of their hand. They pretty,
31:29 they've got a pretty good knowledge
31:30 I think of that, that's my personal opinion.
31:33 I think they understand where Jesus has won
31:36 and where they've lost. And they're,
31:39 they're calculating to destroy you,
31:42 and to destroy me. And they say, oh yeah
31:45 this work on ancestor 25 and it's just,
31:50 he's just like that one, lets see
31:51 if it'll work on this one. That's what's
31:54 going on. Aren't you glad you have a savior?
31:58 Amen. And we have a mighty savior
32:02 who's counteracting all of that by His grace,
32:04 but we've got to cooperate with him.
32:06 Now, here's from Mind, Character,
32:08 and Personality Volume 2, Page 656.
32:10 Right thoughts pure and holy purposes,
32:14 do not come to us naturally,
32:17 we have to strive for them. What it means?
32:21 When you strive for something?
32:23 Have you ever had a car struck?
32:25 I got my lawn mower stuck in my swamp
32:28 this spring. And I, I could even pull it,
32:32 I got another old lawn mower that we inherited,
32:34 and I couldn't even pull it out with that,
32:36 I had to go get my wise jeep and pull it out.
32:40 I tell you, I was striving, I was pushing,
32:43 I was trying everything, when you strive for
32:45 something you're putting energy and thinking
32:47 and mind into it. And even the jeep was having
32:50 problem until I went and got some cat litter
32:53 and put it on the wheels to gets some traction.
32:55 Strive, now it goes onto say, the thoughts
33:06 must be trained. How do you train
33:09 your thoughts? The thoughts must be
33:11 controlled. How do you control your thoughts?
33:15 This sometimes you know, this is a surprise
33:17 to people, sometime people say, oh I,
33:19 where do I, I just think about wherever comes
33:21 in my mind. Hey, listen if you're just thinking
33:27 about wherever comes in your mind,
33:28 you're in big trouble. Your mind is a gift
33:33 from God and the marvelous thing about
33:36 it is that you have a choice to control
33:39 what you think about. The battle is over,
33:45 the mind Christ wants to control the mind
33:49 with his principles till they become in essence
33:54 our very own. Well, what does it mean to train?
33:57 It means you educate your mind.
33:59 How do you educate your mind?
34:00 That's why the Bible is so important.
34:01 Now, that's why we're so grateful for gifts
34:03 of like the spirit of prophecy for instance.
34:06 It, it, it educates our mind and,
34:09 and then we have to exercise and discipline
34:11 our mind. Listen, if, if you were to do forty
34:14 pushups and you can only do twenty pushups,
34:17 what are you gonna have to do to get to forty?
34:20 It's called discipline, it's called you push out
34:23 twenty and then you just make yourself push out
34:26 21, am I right? And when you get 21 mastered
34:30 you make yourself push out 22,
34:32 and then finally you get to forty.
34:33 I got the, you got the picture that's,
34:36 that's what it means. You've got to do
34:37 your mind that way. You said, you mind,
34:39 no you're not gonna think about that,
34:40 I don't choose for you to think about that.
34:42 I'll talk a little bit more about that
34:43 in a moment, but you choose what you think
34:45 about. And so you make your mind behave
34:48 the way you want it to behave,
34:49 you control it because you direct your mind,
34:51 and you manage your mind. And you organize
34:54 your mind. So, how do we train
34:57 and how do we control our mind?
34:59 First of all, you train your mind by choosing
35:02 what it thinks about, have you ever had,
35:04 have you ever had bad thoughts
35:06 coming to your mind? And they won't go away.
35:11 How, how do you handle that?
35:14 Well, first of all I like to say,
35:16 when, let me ask you this way.
35:19 Can you think of something in the
35:22 writings of the Apostle Paul that says,
35:23 this is how you should think?
35:25 Can you think of a text? Yes,
35:29 Philippians 4, what does it say?
35:33 "Whatsoever things are pure,
35:35 whatsoever things are lovely,
35:36 whatsoever things are of good report."
35:38 It goes on, and then he ends the text by saying,
35:40 think on these things. So, first of all
35:49 you choose that you're going to think
35:50 and know, if you want to be a noble man,
35:52 you got to think noble thoughts,
35:53 am I right? If you want to be a noble person,
35:56 you got to take the high road even
35:58 if other people take the low road.
36:04 So, what happens when you're, when,
36:05 when evil thoughts comes flashing in your mind,
36:08 and they won't go away, they're not easily
36:10 banished. You say I don't want to think
36:12 about. First of all, you got to make a
36:13 conscious decision when that happens to you,
36:15 and I'm a fellow traveler along with all
36:17 the rest of you. When that, when this kind of
36:19 thing starts jumping in my mind and this is what
36:22 goes on and, first of all I say,
36:23 I recognize it, and I say, okay.
36:25 I do not choose to think about that,
36:27 thought get out of here, enemy of souls,
36:31 leave me alone, I'm not thinking about that.
36:34 If it pops back I'll say, Lord Jesus
36:35 you and I have already decide that you and I
36:38 are not thinking about that,
36:39 and I've got help from divine power,
36:41 and I keep praying that prayer until that thing
36:44 goes and leaves me alone, and I have since
36:46 the power, the presence of Lord Jesus banishing
36:48 thoughts from my mind. And He will do that
36:52 for you, but you've got to cooperate
36:56 with divine power. Amen. Another way that you,
37:00 you control your mind is that you,
37:04 you choose ahead of the time what is not going
37:09 to think about. Let, let me, let me explain
37:18 what I mean by that. You know,
37:21 there is a place that and that Ellen White
37:25 says that we should spend, it would be a
37:27 wonderful thing to spend an hour a day
37:29 contemplating the life of Christ.
37:32 Why is that idea given to us?
37:36 Don't you already know the facts?
37:40 It's not so you can get more facts.
37:44 So, why would you need to spend an hour a day
37:46 contemplating the life of Christ?
37:50 Let, let me suggest to you that when you
37:53 contemplate the life of Christ, when you say
37:55 Lord Jesus, I want to think about your life.
37:57 You're beginning to understand your own
38:01 weaknesses. How did, how do you think
38:07 Jesus thought about Mary Magdalene,
38:15 I mean she had a history, now the
38:19 carnal man would go down one road,
38:22 but how would Jesus think about her?
38:28 When, when, when Mary pours the ointment
38:31 with weeping and wipes his feat with her hair.
38:39 Jesus is in a place of power and influence.
38:43 How will he think about her? You, you see
38:49 when you spend time with Jesus thinking about
38:51 his life. You begin to discover your own self.
38:59 And then you say to Lord Jesus you know,
39:02 Lord I, I've got a, I've got a problem over here
39:05 with green. I mean, how would Jesus handle
39:10 Judas, how did he? How, what did he think about
39:13 when Judas, he knew Judas was betraying
39:16 him was he vengeful was he, he just wanted
39:19 to get him? In thinking about the life of Christ
39:26 we begin to understand where our weaknesses
39:29 are, and then we say to the Lord Jesus,
39:31 Lord Jesus, you and I know now,
39:33 painful as it is that I've got a weakness
39:37 here. I, you know I've got a weakness here.
39:39 And, and I really, you and I've got to decide
39:43 ahead of time because you know
39:44 and I know the Satan knows that I
39:45 got a weakness there. And you know,
39:47 and I know that when he gets a chance,
39:48 he's gonna try to hit me there. So, you know,
39:51 and I know that we can make a choice right now
39:53 that when that happens that we're gonna yield.
39:57 Is that making sense, following me.
40:01 So, you actually think ahead of time
40:04 with Christ what you're not going to do
40:09 when the temptation comes because
40:10 you're fairly certain you're going to get in
40:11 temptation with that. If you know,
40:19 the Bible says about the Apostle John that
40:21 he was naturally vengeful, you remember
40:26 when they went to, by the village of Samaria
40:28 and they wouldn't let Jesus spend
40:29 the night there. You know, the story, Lord.
40:32 They made him mad, they made him mad.
40:37 And he said Lord, and he knew Jesus
40:39 had the power, don't just, just tell us
40:42 to call down fire from heaven,
40:43 we'll just turn these people to toast
40:45 that'll teach them something. Of course,
40:47 nobody in this room has ever felt themselves
40:49 feeling like that. He had a vengeful spirit.
40:58 Now, he became just the opposite,
41:01 isn't that good news? Jesus called him
41:04 the son of thunder, but he became
41:06 known as the Apostle of love, principle love,
41:11 just, just the opposite. So, you, you have to
41:16 anticipate ahead of time that there is,
41:20 there's that there might be a problem.
41:23 And it can be in lots of areas of life.
41:26 Now, and I want to say this, and I know
41:28 this is being broadcast and probably women
41:31 will be looking at this as well as men,
41:33 but I'm talking to men, so if you're a woman
41:35 listening to this you probably won't
41:37 understand it, but you might want to run
41:38 and get your husband. Although, a lot of
41:45 women could learn a lot from about
41:47 what I'm about to say. And so, the women
41:49 can add and subtract. You know,
41:55 God made women beautiful for a reason.
41:58 And, and I praise God for that. Women are,
42:01 are, women are wonderful. A wonderful
42:04 invention of God. God, God made women
42:07 and He made us to like women.
42:09 And He also created us visual as men
42:14 to appreciate the beauty. And,
42:18 and by the way this is a side trip,
42:20 ask in evolution where beauty came from.
42:23 They, they can't figure that one out.
42:28 I mean, you can evolve beauty, can you?
42:33 Like the gladiolus on my table. So, God,
42:38 God wants us to appreciate beauty.
42:41 Now, I'm gonna leave that for a moment
42:43 and I wanna go to the temptations of Christ.
42:46 And I, and I want to say that you know,
42:48 there, there are, there is the higher powers
42:51 and the, and the lower powers
42:54 or the lower nature, lower nature is not bad.
42:56 It's just that is got to be subject
42:58 to the higher powers. When Jesus was
43:02 in the temptation of the wilderness.
43:05 Let me ask you this way. Is appetite
43:09 a legitimate need, yes or no? Absolutely,
43:14 a legitimate needs. When Jesus was in the
43:18 wilderness temptation, however He made a
43:22 decision. Listen to this carefully;
43:24 He made a decision not to fulfill
43:31 a legitimate need. What kind of need?
43:35 Legitimate, with an illegitimate solution.
43:43 What kind of solution? He said,
43:49 I would rather die then fulfill
43:55 a legitimate need with an illegitimate
44:02 sinful solution. That is surrender to the
44:16 will of God. Now, feminine duty is a,
44:28 is a wonderful thing. We're designed to
44:31 appreciate that, but what is immodest
44:38 on the side walk can be perfectly acceptable
44:48 within the marriage covenant, am I right?
44:54 I had, I had a physician and he was handing
45:00 these cards out, I don't know where he got them
45:02 from, but I think that he actually put them
45:03 together and he was talking and he gave me
45:06 one of the cards and he was talking about
45:08 even when something is presented before you,
45:11 and he was talking about immodesty
45:14 or feminine beauty in the wrong context
45:17 when it's presented to you, even if it's
45:19 presented to you, you turn away,
45:21 you don't look. Now, as men we have to
45:26 discipline our mind to do that because
45:28 our society sells everything
45:31 with feminine beauty. Am I right?
45:37 Including tooth paste. Its perversion,
45:42 God never intended for women to be used
45:45 that way. No man wants his daughter
45:48 used that way, some of you should have
45:52 said amen. That's a perversion.
45:59 So your mind, my mind is constantly being
46:02 bombarded with these things and we have
46:05 choose ahead of time what we're gonna do
46:08 when it's presented in front of us.
46:13 And if we don't choose ahead of time
46:15 we find ourselves getting sucked
46:17 into the temptation. Am I making sense?
46:23 And we also have to make up our mind
46:26 that I will not fulfill a legitimate need
46:30 with an legitimate way. I don't have to say
46:35 that pornography is legitimate because
46:39 you know that. I see some billboards they are
46:43 illegitimate, there are some news sites
46:47 that I don't go to anymore because
46:48 they have a practice of putting stuff
46:50 they ought not put on there,
46:54 regular normal news sites.
46:58 We have to make up our mind ahead of time
47:01 with Christ Jesus. So, we say to Christ Jesus,
47:03 look you made feminine beauty.
47:06 You made me from the head of my,
47:07 from the top of my head to the sole of my feet,
47:09 everything you made about me is a wonderful
47:11 and good thing, sin has perverted everything,
47:13 I live in a perverted world, but by your grace
47:16 I'm choosing not to think about satisfying
47:21 a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.
47:24 So, you and I are saying right now Lord Jesus,
47:27 that when I'm confronted with this,
47:29 where ever it's at. I'm going to turn away
47:31 and I am going to say Lord Jesus,
47:33 I choose not to look at that,
47:35 thank you for helping me take my mind
47:37 in a noble direction. Amen. Is that a
47:41 good thing for Christians? Is Jesus
47:43 able to do that with Christian men? Amen.
47:49 I, I believe that Jesus wants to do great
47:51 and mighty things by helping us.
47:53 So, we must anticipate temptation.
47:55 Now, I've used this illustration before,
47:56 but since, I'm going to use it since
47:57 we're on the air I'm gonna use it,
47:59 in Grayling, Michigan, last fall,
48:02 as I left Grayling, Michigan, they have a
48:04 changing sign board because they give you
48:06 weather information or driving tips
48:09 or whatever and the message said something
48:12 like this, it said you know, if you are,
48:15 if a deer runs across do not swerve.
48:19 Now, they didn't say that because
48:21 they hated deer. They said that because
48:25 they loved human life. If you're at
48:30 high speed and you're driving down the highway
48:34 and a deer jumps in front of you,
48:36 you are naturally, normally going
48:38 to swerve. If you're at high speed the chances
48:42 of you losing control of your car are very high.
48:45 I learned that the hard way didn't turn the car
48:48 over, but for a split second I thought I'd
48:52 totally lost control of my car at probably
48:55 about 70 miles an hour. One man told me that
48:59 he actually did and he just flipped
49:01 over and over, over again. We have to
49:04 understand ourselves and make up ourselves
49:06 ahead of time what we're going to choose to do
49:11 or not to do by the grace of God.
49:14 Are you following me? Does this make sense?
49:16 Listen, we want to come out,
49:18 is Jesus interested in your pleasure?
49:20 Is Jesus had, does Jesus want you happy?
49:23 Is He able to make us happy?
49:25 You think Jesus was happy even
49:27 if he was willing to die but not fulfilling
49:31 a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.
49:35 Do you think the three Hebrew worthies,
49:37 who faced Nebuchadnezzar,
49:38 say we don't need a second chance,
49:39 I don't think they felt real fussy,
49:40 warm about that, I think that took a lot of
49:42 grid in them, but they trusted God
49:44 with their happiness, they believe it
49:46 be better to be thrown in the fiery furnace,
49:48 they believe He would bring them out of that
49:49 one way or another either resurrection
49:50 of that moment, which He did.
49:52 Do you think they spend the rest of their lives
49:55 thinking about that marvelous moment,
49:56 I think they did? Let me, let me keep going,
50:01 I've got to tell a little something
50:03 right here, if you want, if you want to make
50:06 a big difference in your life practice
50:08 the spirit of gratitude, three minutes.
50:11 Okay, this I want to get through,
50:13 practice the spirit of gratitude
50:17 and practice it on your wife. Amen.
50:21 I bet you all that you could tell me
50:23 really quickly the flaws in your wife
50:25 because a sinful man, the sinful carnal nature
50:28 naturally thinks that way.
50:30 But do you spend time thinking about
50:32 the blessings of your wife and do you let her
50:35 know that, let's, now let me tell you
50:38 last night my wife made a homemade
50:40 spaghetti sauce that would,
50:43 that was just plain out marvelous.
50:46 And you know, I told her, I not only told her
50:49 then, I told her this morning.
50:51 I said that was, that was marvelous stuff.
50:54 What am I doing when I do that?
50:57 It's like a boomerang guys. You throw it out
51:00 there it's gonna come back, on top of that
51:03 it has an affect on you, you're happier.
51:05 Don't dwell negatively on the faults of
51:08 your wife, just like you don't want to her
51:09 dwelling negatively on your faults,
51:12 because she didn't marry a perfect man
51:14 and you didn't marry a perfect women
51:15 and any of you that says you married a
51:16 perfect women talk to me air I got,
51:18 you got other problems. But you choose
51:23 your attitude, what is it that you want to do?
51:25 Where is it that you want to go.
51:27 Well, I think Jesus looks down at your home
51:29 and he sees the man telling his wife
51:31 how wonderful she is and how much
51:33 he appreciates that and, and how much
51:35 he is grateful for Jesus giving her,
51:36 I tell you Jesus looks at that and He says,
51:39 the heavenly Father looks at it and says
51:41 that's what my son did on Calvary's cross.
51:44 He made that kind of happiness possible
51:46 and He looks over here to another were fighting
51:47 and fussing and caring on. And he looks
51:49 at the devil and says that's what you did.
51:52 We are Christian men, let us feel the
51:55 grace of God, put these carnal natures
51:57 down where they belong. And let Christ Jesus
51:59 rule our lives by His grace and power,
52:02 and let's turn homes into something
52:03 that's wonderful and marvelous.
52:05 I want to close with this wonderful promise.
52:08 I want you have it's a, it's a promise that
52:12 you just got to have, I want to say this
52:14 and then I'm gonna give you the promise,
52:15 you are what you choose and here's the promise,
52:20 mind, character, personality,
52:21 if you fight the fight of faith with all
52:27 your will power you will conquer
52:33 by the power of Christ Jesus. Amen, amen.
52:38 Let us pray, Father in Heaven, make us strong,
52:42 noble, powerful Christian men,
52:46 who are conquerors of self and the world
52:50 around us and the devil, by
52:52 your grace, in Jesus name, Amen.


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Revised 2014-12-17