"One thing you can know about the world out there, no matter what generation it is, is they know two things: there's a God and they're going to face Him in judgment. They hold that information in unrighteousness. They twist it. They don't want it because they want to be their own God.
Romans 1: [21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
"Every atheist that you meet, the ones who write books. Christopher Hutchins was probably one of the most honest ones in the 20th Century. Every one of them, they'll tell you, 'We had a point in our lives where we believed in God; we had a religious experience and we came to a point where we tried it out and it didn't work and we decided it's false and we said there's no God.'
"Why? Because their false religious system didn't work, but they started from a position that God puts everyone in. Philosopher Blaise Pascal said there's a 'God-shaped vacuum' in all of us. You have a spirit, a soul and a body and the unsaved man's spirit is dead; that is, he can't connect to God, but it's still there and it's still operative.
"Have you ever got your cell phone where it wouldn't connect and is looking for the signal somewhere? That's the way the unsaved man's spirit is. It knows there's got to be a connection out there somewhere but it can't get it. Why? Because they're cut off from God.
"When they knew there was a God, they didn't glorify Him as God. They didn't say, 'We want you to be God.' You know who you want to be God in your life? Let's just be honest about it. What's the middle letter of the word 'sin'? What's the middle letter of the word 'pride'?
" 'Only by pride comes contention.' The greatest enemy of God isn't Satan. By the way, what's the middle letter of the name Lucifer?
"It's interesting to find the words in English that have the middle letter of 'I.' By the way, what's the middle letter of the word 'believe'? You know whose responsibility it is for believing?
"The greatest enemy God has in His creation is pride. The only reason anybody argues with God at all is because they want to be God.
"Imaginations are what you dream. You dream of the potential to what you can be. They had some worthless dreams about, 'Who do I want to be?'
"The Lie Program is 'I'm going to make myself God.' The Lie is I take the truth of God and change it into a lie and I serve and worship the creature more than the Creator."
*****
He then emphasizes, [30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[31] That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
"Knowledge 'puffs up' if you don't let it edify you; it doesn't have to puff you up. One of the things you learn as you go through the Christian life is that you grow, and as you grow you gain confidence, and then you come to the place where you say, 'Uh oh, it's not me.' You have to have that 'Not I' moment.
"Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
"You have to keep having those 'Not I' moments so that you'll back up and say, 'Well, it's Christ.' If you're walking, you make progress: 'Not I, aghhh, it's got to be Christ. Okay, now I can take another step,' and then you go another step. That's how you grow; you learn more and more that it's not you. The moment you think you've arrived, that's the 'Not I' moment.
"Paul says, 'Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.' And old Southern preacher used to say, 'The closer you get to the light, the better you see the dirt.' Well, the closer you get to the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the more you see how inadequate you are in yourself and you see how wonderful that means He is for you.
"This lesson is the heart, the soul of the Christian life. It's not just that I'm going to die and go to heaven because my sins are forgiven. I have a fellowship with the Creator of heaven and earth through His Son. I have access unto the Father. The whole of the godhead I fellowship with.
"That's why you're transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's an internal thinking process. You replace the old human viewpoint with divine viewpoint and that Holy Spirit takes that doctrine, that divine viewpoint, and energizes.
"As Paul says in Romans 12, [2] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.
[3] For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
"It's the Word of God that works effectually in you that believe. It energizes your inner man and produces the activity. You do all that that you may prove; test and try something to demonstrate its value. When you prove something, you test it and you test it to see whether it works or not.
"You know how when you give a demonstration of something for someone, you say, 'Well, I hope it works this time.' God's Word ALWAYS works. That's why Paul says, 'I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.' He never questioned the fact that the gospel works. It will prove itself every time to somebody who trusts it."
(new article tomorrow)
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