Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Led By The Spirit Pt.2

Let's turn to Psalm 37, and we'll continue along in our study. While you're finding that, we'll just take the opportunity to say "Happy Father's Day" to all of you fathers. What a high calling that is. Amen? The responsibility of seeing to it that our children are raised up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, to realize that one of these days we're going to stand before Father. As stewards of this inheritance that He put into our hands, we're going to give an account for what He's invested into our lives. Hopefully, the years of preparation, the study, the iron that sharpens iron, here in our midst will prepare the lives of each of us to where we're going to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Praise God. We're excited about the work happening in our lives and just very thankful for the ministry that so many of you have shown forth into your children. We're seeing it in a godly seed that's being raised up, so we just want to say it's a job well done, praise God, and we're thankful for you this morning. And all the wives said: [ladies in congregation respond "Amen!" Amen! Praise God.]

Psalm 37--we want to deal with this aspect of the Scripture. We've been talking about spiritual guidance, walking in the supernatural and being able to hear the voice of God with all of the noise that's going on around us. We talked about the noise being the noise of the false prophets. In the last days, false prophets are going to rise, the Scripture says, and deceive many. There are going to be the doctrines of devils that are going to be propagated in our generation. It's coming from some of the most popular pulpits in America, with great influence, political influence, economic influence.

One of the greatest influences, probably, in our society today--they're coming from the position of fame, and people that have fame today have power. We want to get near the famous; we want to be identified with the famous. It's almost an epidemic. It's sickening, is what it is--the respect of persons. Because someone's a famous actor, we seem to think that they're experts on politics, or something else. They did a survey on the US Open yesterday: "How many of you, now that Tiger Woods has no chance of winning the US Open, are going to watch?" Fifty percent said they were no longer going to watch--you know, like this guy is golf or something; like he's Dad Morris, from Scotland, who started all of this off; like he's Al Geiberger, "Mr. 59." Tiger Woods has never shot a 59 in a tournament. Al Geiberger has. How many of you knew that? Fame--and we're influenced by that. If somehow there's no name attached to it, it doesn't seem to have worth anymore. The worth is the game of golf, in that illustration. The worth is the Word of God, the truth of the Word of God, not the vessel delivering it. Amen? We need to understand that. We're so influenced by these personalities and by positions of influence. If we don't know the voice of God, we're going to listen to the famous, we're going to listen to the powerful, and somehow think that because they've accomplished something in life they're representing the heart and the mind of God, and that's not necessarily the case. His sheep know His voice, and another they will not follow. Amen? That's the safety that every one of us here has this morning. If you're in right relationship with Father, nobody can ever deceive you. You'll never be led astray.

So it's very important that we cultivate our dependence on the Great Shepherd. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he [say it] leadeth me beside the still waters" (Psalm 23). We're talking about guidance and the leading of the Lord--"The Lord is my shepherd..." If we'll humble ourselves as sheep, if we'll just become as dumb as a sheep-- That's quite a statement: "You're just as dumb as a sheep!" "Thank you. I appreciate that compliment, praise God, because I want to tell you something. I don't need to be smart; only my Shepherd does. [Amen?] I just do what I'm told." "Come over here." I'll just come over there. "Lie down here!" I'll lie down. He leads us into the green pastures and beside the still waters. He restores our soul. We're living in a day when people are wanting us to take everything into our own hands, and independence is what's being propagated in our generation. In the guise of independence, we're really establishing anarchy. This is the generation that you and I are living in, so we need to be careful that we are able to come to a humility to where we can hear the voice of God, to where we can be as dumb as sheep and let the Shepherd guide us.

As we go on in the study, we're going to see it's not only the Chief Shepherd that guides us but also His undershepherds. So many of us seem to think that unless I've heard from God, the voice of God, I'm just not doing anything or I'm not obligated. We need to realize God has put shepherds in our lives (parents, overseers in the community) and that when they speak to us, God has spoken to us. The Bible says that He led Israel like a flock by the hand the Moses. God leads by the hands of men in our lives, and we need to hear, because ultimately, what is it that we're listening to? The Word of God. Amen? It doesn't matter what the vessel is. It can come out of the mouth of babes, the Scripture says. Guidance can come by the youngest, the nepios [Greek word meaning infant or child], in our midst. We can't be prideful and think that we have to hear from God. It can be a child that speaks the Word of God. Do you have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church? In this generation where there's so much noise, do you have an appetite to hear the still small voice of God? Are you ready to make the sacrifice to discipline yourself to get alone with God and hear that voice?

We also talked about the noise of this generation, of that spirit of independence. We shared with you that it's really humanism, the worship of man. It's really the fruition of the original sin--the culmination, in this last generation, of all that the knowledge of good and evil represents in that tree, the fruit that was partaken of by our father, Adam. Man's eyes have been opened, and man has become as a god. Man really believes today that nothing's impossible to him, as we're creating life, altering the very substance of our being--playing around. They think they've found the aging gene; they think they're this close to eternal life! I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd want to live forever under the power of sin.

Here we are in this generation, and what is it that we're hearing? What voice are we hearing? Everything that the world is talking to us about is self-worth and self-image--the "I" generation. And then there's a still small voice that's speaking the exact opposite, that's talking about becoming a servant and humbling ourselves. Which voice dominates your thoughts at this moment? Which kingdom are you most proficient in? The kingdom of the flesh (the kingdom of the natural mind) or the kingdom of the spiritual mind? There's no fellowship between light and darkness. You cannot serve two masters. You'll love the one and hate the other, the Scripture says. The things of the Spirit of God, the eternal things, are foolishness to the natural mind. The natural mind cannot receive them, the Scripture says.

We closed our study in our last session with that thought. If you can understand the course that you're on, if you fully know the end--you have this thing planned out; you know what's going to happen at the end of this thing--then God isn't the source. God has not originated it, because your mind will not be able to comprehend the things that God's doing in your life! God will not show you "beginning to end" in this walk of faith that you and I are on.

That's where we want to pick up in our study this morning. Turn back, if you would, to Isaiah for just a moment. In Isaiah's letter to us, these words that we're all so familiar with--Isaiah's close to Psalm 37. Isaiah 55:6, "Seek ye the Lord [that's not easy to say: 55:6, seek] while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." We're going to talk about how you and I, as the common man, can hear the voice of God. One of the mistakes that we make is that we study the Scriptures and we study Moses and we study Daniel and Joseph and David and Peter and Paul--and Mary [laughter at Pastor's play-on-words reference to singing group, Peter, Paul and Mary]. In the process of this, we study these lives--kids, your parents will tell you what that's all about later--and in the process of all of this, we start establishing a pattern for guidance, but you know what? We're not Moses, and we're not Paul.

As I was in prayer last night, I said, "Lord, how do you lead us, the common man? I study and I look at these men's lives, but I'm no Moses, I'm no Paul. How do you speak to me? You seemed to hunt these men down and arrest them, and the angelic visitations and the dreams and the visions and the audible voices--but how do you speak to us, the common man?" The Spirit of the Lord spoke to me and said, "I resist the proud, but I give grace to the humble." I said, "What are You saying?" He said, "Don't think you know what you're doing." You're going to have to develop that principle--that's why we're going to go over it some more today--of having no confidence in the flesh. You need to come to that realization, as we shared in Jeremiah 10, that the way of man is not within himself. You don't know what you're doing! So you must, then--listen, here's what the Spirit of the Lord was telling me last night--"You must initiate. You must draw nigh unto Me, and then I'll draw nigh unto you. Don't wait for Me to come and arrest you out of all of your messes, but you humble yourself and recognize that you are a mess going somewhere to happen. Seek Me early and seek Me consistently and draw nigh unto Me, and I will draw nigh unto you." Praise God. There's a difference between these great men of God. These are men that God sovereignly picked to preserve nations, to preserve His covenant, so He would seek them and He would arrest them, but, beloved, it's your responsibility, it's my responsibility, to seek God, to find His way and His will, without a presupposed end, without an agenda. As we're going to see here in just a moment, we're to seek Him in a true spirit of humility and meekness, because Psalm 25 says the meek will He guide with His eye.

How many of us pray and seek guidance with our minds already made up? We pray to ask God to bless what we've already determined to do. We pray and ask God for Scriptures to vindicate our own lusts and will and direction so that we could feel good about ourselves. We go out and accomplish things in the flesh and want to attach God's name to it and say it's the will of the Lord and look what the Lord led me to do. We're going to study about that in Ezekiel either this morning or tonight, where so much of what is accomplished in people's lives is done in their own strength and in the flesh, and God answers according to the idols of the heart. He lets us have what we want.

The thing that we need to realize is this: If we're going to hear the voice of God purely, He says, "Seek [Me] while [I] may be found, call [upon Me] while [I am] near. Let the wicked forsake his [own will], and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord..." (Isaiah 55:6-7). The way of man is not in himself, Jeremiah 10 told us. So many of us are so proud, so prideful, that we seem to think that anything that we imagine is the mind of God, that anything we desire is the heart of God, and we need to understand, beloved, that this heart is deceitful. It is desperately wicked! Who could know it? When we come to that understanding, then we'll have no confidence in the flesh. We're not going to be quick to suppose that anything that comes up in our thoughts is the mind and the will of God. We're going to realize, in humility, what the Spirit of God is saying to us here through the prophet. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Now, we all know that. We know that Scripture. It's one that we've read time and time again, but in practicality, we don't always live that out.

Go back to Jeremiah, that 10^th chapter, for just a second, and let's see what the prophet says there again concerning the mind of God and the thoughts of God and how there is that distinction. Jeremiah, chapter 10, verse 23, "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Do you believe that this morning? It's not in you to know what's best for you. "Amen! Yes." No, no, no. Listen. It's not in you! "Amen, I know that." No, listen to me. It's not in you! "I know!" Then what's that bleating of sheep in my ears? Why is it that you're content with doing part of the will of God? When the prophet came, the man that was chosen to be king was so deceived in his own heart that he thought he had done the will of God. He thought he had heard the voice; he thought he was obedient, and, yet, there were still some sheep bleating in the prophet's ears. We say, "Yes. I know. I understand. Yes. Don't say it again; you already said it three times." It's not in you (this is the fourth time)! We have so much confidence in ourselves. So many of us are so deceived that we think we're doing the will of God, and we're fulfilling our own plans. We're just constantly walking according to our own standards and our own ways.

Turn back to the 17^th chapter of Jeremiah, and let me show you something. A passage that we've quoted, that all of you are very aware of, the 17^th chapter of Jeremiah, verse 9, "The heart is deceitful..." The heart is deceitful! You see, the one thing--if we're ever going to hear the voice of God clearly, we're going to have to come to grips with our own heart. We're going to have to become so full of the Word of God that anytime these suggestions come that are contrary to the Word, we have to respond, "It is written." Amen? Just like the Master. You see, Satan, the deceiver, comes with things that are so close to biblical principles but have self-interest at the root, that we can be carried away. How many of you are aware that God said--it's His Word--that if we would seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, all of the other necessities will be added unto us, and we're not to take thought for what we're going to eat or what we're going to drink? Amen? How many of you believe that? We believe that, and it's the Word of God; it's the promise of God. Because of that, Satan will come and say--and this will be a little bit extreme--but Satan will come and say, "Well, you shouldn't fast. God wants you to eat." And Jeff said-- [Pastor Jeff responds] "Amen!" [Pastor humorously referring to Pastor Jeff's hearty appetite.]

That's the deceitfulness, and Satan will use the Word of God against us. He'll use biblical principles against us, and we've got to understand the heart, beloved, and what's in man. Now, we know there are Scriptures that tell us to fast, right? That one we can get around a little bit easier because the devil will come and say, "You shouldn't fast; it's not good for your body. Besides, God wants you to eat. He gives us richly all things to enjoy." Amen? But the Lord said, "And when you fast..." We have that Scripture, so we're able to get around that kind of a deceit, but that tendency is within us to always find the ease for the flesh, to find some way to inject our own will. We'll quote Scriptures. Satan comes, and he says, based upon all of those principles, "You've been fasting; you haven't eaten. If you're the Son of God, command that these stones be turned into bread. God said that He would provide. Look how weak you are." The Scripture talks about how weak the Lord was. Don't think that because God supernaturally sustained Him that meant there was no consequence to that fasting and to that trial that He was involved in. Listen to the response of the Lord. It wasn't just about specific incidents; it was about heart condition. It was about the eternal purposes of God, and Jesus' response was, "Of course I can command stones to become bread and eat them, but man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Amen?

Whenever you find yourself having to discern, Is it the voice of God or is it the flesh (is it Satan)?--which is receiving the primary interest? The spiritual, the natural--the eternal, the temporal? Is this about temporal things? You see, one of the problems we get into is we pray way too much--we're looking for guidance in way too many temporal, natural, nonessential aspects of life, and we're wanting to hear the voice of God. God doesn't speak to us about those things that often. The reason most of us don't hear the voice of God is we're asking the wrong questions. That's what we want to talk about in the next couple of sessions. What do we really have a right to ask God about? What are we to really be seeking God for? As we shared in the last session as we were closing, seek first the Kingdom of God and what happens? All of these other things, you don't have to pray about. God's going to add them to you. Amen?

I've shared it with you in my own life so many times. I've never sought God for anything in the natural, the temporal. I've never prayed, I've never asked God, for anything to do with jobs or cars or money or clothes or food or anything. I've never asked God for wisdom on how to obtain this, or "Lord, would you give us..." The blessings of the Lord overtake you, praise God, if you're seeking God with all of your heart and mind and strength! The voice of God is always going to be primarily addressing your relationship, your character, and not all of these temporal things: Who am I supposed to marry; what job am I supposed to have? There are some more essential issues like: What's the condition of your heart? Let me tell you what your heart's condition is: it's deceitful above all things. Whoa! That's a powerful statement.

That word "deceitful" is interesting. It means polluted. Your heart's polluted. You need a sniff test. You're causing way too much pollution. Wouldn't it be neat if we had one of those here in church? When you came in, you could just open this thing and say, "No, man, you need to come up and repent. You didn't pass the sniff test--too much pollution." Well, you know, we have a way to test don't we? "Wherefore by their fruits..." (Matthew 7:20). The fruit test. We've addressed this many times, and what do we do instead? We judge ourselves by our intentions and not by our fruit, not by our actions. Then somebody comes up and wants to point out the absence of fruit in our life, and what do we do? We immediately bring up what? What do we do? How do we defend ourselves? Somebody comes up and says, "You know, this doesn't look like very good fruit." You say, "Don't look at the fruit; my heart--look at my heart. I have a desire--my heart; I've got a good heart." You've got a wicked heart, and you've got ugly fruit, too--and your mama dresses you funny! Let's come to grips with where we are, if we're going to hear the voice of God. That's the voice of God to you! "No, the voice of God to me is that my heart's okay. I've got a good heart. The spirit is willing; the flesh is weak." You're polluted! You're deceived! What you are seeing yourself to be is in contrast with what the Word of God says you are through the fruit that's being evidenced in your life. You will never hear the voice of God if you can't first take this mirror and hold it up and see what manner of man you are.

So as he speaks and talks about the heart condition to where it's polluted, another rendering for this word "deceitful"--it's interesting. In addition to being polluted, the heart is conniving; it's deceitful. It presents itself as something that it's not, and not only to others but to you, to the mind. You see, the heart and mind are not the same thing. Now, only the Word of God can divide between the two (of soul and spirit), but the heart and mind are not exactly the same here. What happens is this heart, this deceitful heart, deceives your mind and makes you think about yourself differently than you really are. It can convince you, and you are absolutely incapable of being persuaded by argument! Have you ever sat down with somebody and, I mean, you had evidence. Bless God, you're holding the smoking gun, and they can't see it. "Can you see that?" "No, that's not me." "That's not you in this picture holding the smoking gun?" "No, that's not me. I would never do anything like that." Believing a lie--conniving, manipulative, con man. Another word is "crooked." You're a crook; the heart's a crook.

So we start coming to grips with what's in the natural man. Now, remember, I'm not talking about an individual who's walking in the Spirit, because if we walk in the Spirit, we're not fulfilling the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). I'm talking about when we're not walking in the Spirit and we need to hear the voice of God as to how to walk in the Spirit, how to get back on the course that God would have us to be on, how to stay on the course when we're being seduced into other areas of disobedience. Don't believe your own press clipping! Don't believe your self-propaganda. How many of you this morning are absolutely open to everybody in this room--they know everything about you, they know your heart, they know your intentions, they know the deepest secrets of your very being--or how many of you are putting out some kind of an image?

Now, it's one thing to try to con the rest of us, but when you con yourself you're in trouble, because what does the Scripture say? When it talks about that humility and drawing nigh unto God, the Scripture tells us very clearly that if we are hearers of the Word only and not doers, we have deceived ourselves (James 1:22). Now, let's do a little survey. How much of the Word do I hear and not do? Then how susceptible am I to self-deception? Then why do I think I know everything? Then why won't I receive counsel? Then why won't I humble myself and receive the admonition of overseers, of parents, of a great cloud of witnesses that have gone on, of people who have been tempted in the same ways as we have and have come forth now as gold and are able to comfort us with the same comfort wherewith they've been comforted? How teachable are you? No, I mean, really, how badly do you want to know the truth and hear, "This is the way"? Because the fact of the matter is, God's way is going to conflict with your way. He may disrupt your vacation, and as you go on vacation, He may send multitudes for you to minister to. See, Jesus and the guys slipped away for vacation and ended up in a revival, ended up working. How ready are you to have your steps ordered by God?

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" That word "desperately" is interesting. It really is talking about incurable. Your condition is incurable, is what this is saying. That's what that word in Hebrew means; "desperately"--it means incurably wicked. Incurably weak; it can't be fixed. The sin that's in your members--you can't be fixed; you can't get any better in the natural man. You will always have these same tendencies that you have today! Is that discouraging or what--if it wasn't for the promise of God! I mean, that would just absolutely be totally disheartening and discouraging, if it wasn't for Romans 8: that the law of spiritual living in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. Amen? Thank God for the law of spiritual living. What are we saying, then? What's Paul saying here? As long as I lean to the natural, I'm incurable, but in the law of spiritual life in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. See, some of us want to say there's no condemnation. I'm a Christian; there's no condemnation. If you're in the flesh, there is condemnation! "Don't bring condemnation on me! Don't bring judgment on me!" The law is for the lawless. Amen? It's only when we are walking in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh that there is no condemnation. There is no law to those who are in obedience.

So if we're going to hear the voice of God, we have to understand our condition. We are incurable, and the only hope we have of doing something right is to let the new law of spiritual living in Christ Jesus make us free from the law of sin and death. Another way of saying that is to submit to the lordship of Jesus in every way possible, because as it goes on and says in that 8th chapter of Romans, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Praise God! So if we abide in Him and He abides in us, then there's not going to be any dominance, if we acknowledge His lordship--"Not my will; Thy will be done."

We're incurable--who you are--we call it genetics, but who you are as the offspring of Adam. Now, every one of us has certain little idiosyncrasies and distinct markings as to our "clan" that we come from; we call it genetics. We've talked about it even in the natural. You look in the mirror--you start getting a little bit older like myself, and look in the mirror, and you see your dad. It's scary, man! You see all those traits about your parents that used to really just rub you the wrong way, and you're them, only worse, because the law of sin and the law of thermodynamics tells us that it's going to continually deteriorate. Every generation becomes worse and worse, and without the blood of Jesus there's no hope for us, and your kids will be worse than you. In the Kingdom, it's the opposite. Your kids will be better than you, praise God, if we'll train them up in the wisdom of God, in the nurture and the admonition, if we'll put this mind in them which was also in Christ Jesus--the mind of humility, praise God, of not trusting in our genes, in our heritage, but becoming the inheritance of Christ.

So we see, then, this condition of the heart: "...deceitful...desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." "I try your doings. I try your fruit." You are what you produce. Out of the abundance of the heart, what happens? The mouth speaks. You can know who you are by what you talk about, what excites you. "Where your treasure is," the Master said, "is where your heart is." Do you want to know what condition your heart's in? Look up on the mantle and see what your treasures are. Look in the display case and see what your treasures are. Look in the picture gallery and see what your treasures are, because that's the condition of your heart. That's what your heart is. "No, I've got a good heart." We know exactly what your heart is by your fruit, by your treasures. "No, you don't understand. That's just my job. That's my hobby. That's not what's really in my heart."

"...I try the reins." The word "reins" in Hebrew actually means kidneys. You know, "kidneys" is an interesting word as you look at it biblically. Kidneys, actually, is kind of the seat of strength and emotion. Really, if we were going to be accurate in the Scriptures and stuff, on Valentine's Day we would say, "I just love you with all my kidneys." That just doesn't sound right, does it? In antiquity, this is what they really felt, that this was the seat of all of our strength and our being. He said, "I try your kidneys. I try the very source of your strength, the origin of your essence. That's what I try, and I reward you according to your doings."

Now, with this as a little bit of foundation, we're talking about hearing the voice of God and getting God to speak in our lives, so stop and think now. What occupies the majority of your time, as you're thinking about wanting to know what God has for your life? Life's mate, vocation, food, raiment? Now, wait a minute. We've got a problem here. Jesus said, "Take no thought..." (Matthew 6:25). How much are you thinking? These are the things He said don't think about, and that's what we think about, and the things that He says take heed to, we don't have time for. They're not important to us--the unseen, the heart condition.

If we're going to hear the voice of God, we're going to have to redirect and reaffirm the spiritual treasures. We're going to have to return to our first love. We're going to have to go back and draw nigh unto God, and that will never happen without a spirit of meekness. Go over to James for just a second and let's look at that. We just really don't have an appetite for that. It's because we think we know what we're doing so many times. We're so deceived into thinking that the condition we're in is acceptable to God. Paul said in Romans 11, down in verse 33, he's speaking and he says, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." Can we say that--of Him, through Him, and to Him--or is it about me, about mine? Are we seeking God or using God? Do we want to be like Him or equal to Him?

So as James is speaking in his epistle to us, he says this--James, chapter 4; look at verse 6, "But he giveth more grace..." He gives more grace. When does that grace come? Look up one verse at verse 5, "Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?" Does the Scripture say that in vain? Does the Scripture say in vain that your heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked? Does the Scripture say in vain that in me, that is, in my flesh dwells no good thing? Does the Scripture say in vain that we have a tendency to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think? Does the Scripture say in vain that the spirit that's within man lusts to envy? "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud..." but the grace comes to who? "...the humble." You see, there's only one way we're going to get victory. There's only one way we're going to hear clearly the voice of God, and that's by the grace of God that will provide for us and sustain us in humility--for God resists the proud.

Now, in the context of this, what are we saying? God resists those that think they know what they're doing. God resists those who already have their agenda set up. God resists those who have deceived themselves by being only hearers of the Word and not doers and yet think they're in right relationship with Him. God resists these people! Not speaks to them, not gives them guidance, but He gives what? Grace to the humble. "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." Praise God! The primary requisite for hearing the voice of God is humility, meekness of heart, not thinking you have it together, not approaching God to bless your already established agenda, not believing God to come and give credibility to your will. All of those things we know. I haven't told you one thing this morning you don't know.

If we know it, then, and we're not doing it, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." "Yeah, it is! 'To he that knows good and does it not, to him it's sin.' I know that, but my heart--I've got a good--my intention--I intend to do the will of God!" "When? When are you going to get around to it?" "Well, when it's convenient, when it doesn't conflict with my will." So it's important for us to understand what God is doing in our lives.

What we're looking at, then, is the opportunity to be obedient and to hear the voice of God, to be able to move in a way to where we can humble ourselves and not deceive ourselves, because if we're hearing the Word and not doing it and yet we're convincing ourselves that some day I'll get around to it and that my disobedience is not sin, then is that or is that not the dominance of the deceitful heart--and who can know it? So it's very important that each one of us is able to come to the place of being able to humble ourselves; have no agenda; and not seek, as we saw in the Romans passage, the temporal, natural, carnal things. Don't spend time praying about the things that Jesus said take no thought for, but come and begin to consider your own heart condition. Then we're candidates for the voice of God.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning, and as the truth of Your Word is reality to us, we will be doers and not hearers. For You've said the steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord--the victorious man. The steps of that man who has his flesh under, those steps are ordered by the Lord. You set us right; You constantly move us back on course. We're a people who finish--cast down but not forsaken; the righteous man falls seven times, but he rises up. Who's the man that can hear the voice of God? The man that doesn't justify his own sin; the man who doesn't defend his own unrighteousness. We ask, Father, that You would make that real to us, and we'll give You the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. As Gary plays for us, we'll take a moment and let the Lord speak to us. We covered a little bit of territory this morning. There are a few principles that were shared this morning that will change your life if you can get hold of them. Desperately wicked, deceitful, cunning, justifying its every move, convincing the mind to where it can't hear the truth about the fruit that is so evident. Speak to us, Lord. Let us hear that voice that rises up and says, "This is the way; walk in it." As we read that in context, the prophet was speaking of a generation, a people, who were rebelling against the voice of God, a people who would not hear, a people who had sought the gods of the other nations, and God said, "However, there's a remnant that I will not forsake, a people that will hear My voice, and that voice will rise up behind them and say, 'Do the Word! Do the Word! Love the Word!"

Let us hear that still small voice, that You might show Yourself mighty in our midst. Help us to stop praying about food and raiment, and let us start praying about "Why am I not fulfilling my place in the Kingdom of God? Why am I not serving in the Body of Christ? Why am I not moving in a meekness and humility?" It's those other things that the gentiles, the heathen, the pagans, seek, but our Father knows that we have need of those things. Father's Day--my Father knows. If you'll seek your Father and not the things that He possesses, you'll be taken care of. You want to alienate yourself from the heart of your Father? Just seek His possessions and not His heart, and He'll just have to resist you and chasten you, if He loves you. But if you'll seek His heart, the fatted calf will be slain. The ring will be put upon your finger, the sandals upon your feet. You want to hear the voice of God? It's not going to lead you to fatted calves, jewelry sales; it's going to lead you into His bosom. He's going to say, "Come and get to know me. For my ways are not your ways."

Let's sing this together and worship Him. Oh, thank You, Jesus. Oh, You're our delight, Lord. Sing it one more time, and let Him just draw you into His presence. Oh, we thank You, Lord, for Your goodness. Oh, hallelujah! It is our heart's desire, Father, and we just ask that You would finish that work in us and help us to honor You, Lord. Help us to honor You in our obedience, that men would see the works and glorify our Father in Heaven. For that, we'll give You the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Draw nigh unto God." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print