What We Do Today Echoes an Eternity, Part 2

Good morning, everyone. Last week I started a sermon that I overprepared for, and occasionally that happens in the time frame that we have and some of the thoughts that come up. But it is a sermon I want to finish here this morning dealing with the subject of conversion. And it's a follow-on to an earlier sermon that I gave some weeks back on the subject of salvation.

When I gave that sermon, I said, this is the topic I need to cover next. And sometimes in my mind, as I think what we need to go over in the congregations, these topics, one topic will spawn another topic and another idea. And while salvation and the subject of conversion are basic topics in terms of Bible subjects, they are something that I think that we need to be reminded of. And it helps to focus our mind on really the core issues of our calling and what we are doing in church. Why we come here every week, why we do what we do in being a part of God's church. And talking about salvation, talking about conversion, really gets to the heart and core of what God is doing with us and why we need to have that focus continually sharpened to make sure that we do get home into the kingdom of God, as Mr. Olbrey was bringing out in his sermonette. I started my sermon last week with you talking about the concept that what we do in this life does have eternal consequences. And it does, as the line from the movie that I was referring to last week, echo through eternity. And what we do in playing church, coming to church, being a part of the church, and I use those three to perhaps sometimes summarize where we all may be, representative members within the church. Some people play at church, some people come to church, some people are part of the church. And I'll let us kind of weigh ourselves into balance as to where we may be in that. But it does hit home as to what exactly we are doing here and what it is all about.

Conversion is that process by which we are in the process of developing character, being prepared for the kingdom of God, and working through the process of salvation. And as I showed you last week when we went through Luke chapter 19, we are really in the process of helping to determine exactly what we are going to be doing for eternity in the family of God after God grants us the fullness of salvation as spirit beings at the resurrection. Luke 19 shows us that there is a reward according to what we do with what we have been given now. We went through the parable of the minas in Luke 19, but it's also the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. The same concept there, that a nobleman went into a far country and he gave certain talents, minas, to his servants to, as Luke 19 puts it, do business till I come, he said. And the business that we are involved with is what I've been what I'm saying. It is church. It is salvation. It is conversion. It is living righteously. It is increasing that talent God has given us, which is a measure that can be defined as a measure of God's spirit. It can be defined as the talents, the human talents that we have, that are augmented and even magnified and developed by God's spirit for the work of the kingdom, the business of the kingdom of God. In a sense, we should get up every morning, imbued with a sense that we are our business. Our job is the kingdom of God, and it's preparing for the kingdom of God.

And that that's why we get out of bed. A number of years ago, I ran across some ads that were put out by Minolta, the computer, camera, electronics company, and they were very striking ads to get people to think about life and business. And one of them had an unmade bed on the picture.

Some of you may remember, I showed that some years back in another series of sermons. I still have it on my bank of photos and my computer, but it was an unmade bed. And the caption over that bed was, why do you get out of bed every morning? And it had several questions as to, you know, is it to make a living? Is it to make a difference? It ultimately came down to the point was, you know, do you get out of bed to make a difference in life, your life, someone else's life? And it really spoke to a larger dimension of purpose than just getting out and putting the dog out to do his thing or her thing or putting on a pot of coffee or checking the Today Show to see who the guests are going to be, or just, you know, trudging off to another day of drudgery at whatever little widget factory we happen to be a part of. The ad was speaking to the fact that, do you get up out of bed with a sense of mission in your life? And it speaks, for us, it should speak to the purpose of our life, the business of the kingdom of God, the calling of God to become ultimately part of that family. Luke 19 really summarizes that. And as we went through that, we saw that being very important. Now, we also turn last week over to the book of Daniel, and we went through a couple of scriptures. And if I can, I'll turn there and just briefly remind us what we went through, because I was doing some thinking about that in Daniel chapter 2 through the week. Thoughts generate through my mind over a period of time. And sometimes, I don't know if this is good or bad. I'll just share a little inside secret of me with you. Sometimes it seems more of late that I do a lot more thinking out loud and thinking through in some of my speaking than perhaps I should or whatever. But sometimes in my sermons, one thought generates another, and it helps me to solidify thinking that I've been rolling around in my head about another topic that I may not be directly speaking on at that time, but I've had thoughts or conversations about. And I realize sometimes I'm just kind of thinking out loud through the process of my sermons, and I don't want to spoil any inside secret. I'm not trying to do that, but just to illustrate how certain things work in your mind when you're thinking creatively and thinking to instruct and teach, and concepts that I've been working through and thinking about dealing with sermons, ideas to write about, ideas that I've been teaching about at the Ambassador Bible Center and other areas as well. But here in Daniel 2, we talked in verse 44 as to the fact that when this kingdom is set up, in the days of these kings, these other ten kings that are the part of this image of Nebuchadnezzar, verse 44, in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. This here is highlighting then that fifth kingdom, the kingdom of God. It will be a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. This kingdom will not be given to those that are highborn, those who buy their way into influence and power, those who by dynastic wealth or royal lineage have ridden the high places of history with nations for good or bad, who have trodden people under their feet, taken advantage, and in some cases even raised the living of their own subjects throughout history. It will not be left to that group of people. They will have had their time.

It will be left to those who are the saints. You represent a very small portion of those with whom God has worked through the ages to develop people to do the business, to take over the business of the kingdom of God when this time happens. So this verse here defines a lot of things. It really defines our goal and our mission. It defines our purpose. It defines what salvation is all about. And as I said last week, this is really the most important of the scriptures in Daniel to focus on, not the heads of the beast of Daniel 7 or all the other things of Nebuchadnezzar.

And it's important to understand that. And again, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. Okay. Understand that. Ten resurrections from Rome. Understand that. Move on. And then what does that mean?

And why does that take place? What's the purpose for all of that? And where does that lead? Well, ultimately, it all leads down to what verse 44 is saying. And when you turn over to chapter 7 of Daniel and verse 18, it is mentioned again.

The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even, forever and ever. And again, this is what is important to focus on. And in verse 21, he writes and says, I was watching and the same horn was making war against the saints. And that's speaking of the papacy, the small horn that comes up there within this prophecy in Daniel 7, that makes war against the saints and prevails against them until the ancient of days came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. Just as an aside, just as I mentioned in verse 21, the papacy, some of you may have realized I wrote a blog about it a few days ago. We got an article coming up in the next issue of World News and Prophecy concerning the statement that the Vatican made here earlier this month, once again reiterating that they were the true church. You didn't know that the Catholic Church taught that, did you? That they were the one and only true church?

Well, they do, and they don't have any – they're not ashamed to come out and say it. And twice in the last seven years they have said that. In 2000, when this present pope was the head of their doctrine of faith – their college of the doctrine of faith, as they call it – he basically was what we call the doctrine Nazi of the Catholic Church back until he became pope.

In 2000, they came out with a document that basically said that they were the one and only true church. Well, earlier this month they answered some questions. And you wonder why they probably generated their own questions so that they could come out with another statement about it. And some of the questions, you know, got a little bit more fine-tuned them and fine-tuned them, and essentially said, yes, we are the only true church. And all other churches, Protestant churches and others, as the term was, they are deficient in faith. And they don't have any qualms in saying that. And this particular pope may put on a smile, but the doctrine doesn't change, the teaching doesn't change, and in time. We'll talk about more of that in a later article.

I don't want to go into that more detail. But as verse 21 says, this horn makes war against the saints. And so you see, once again, that the apparatus is all there. The teaching is still there. It's just waiting for the time when the, you know, in the sense the curtain will be pulled back and that whole system will be unveiled as the Bible shows it to be a very powerful system that will seek to change times and seasons and have quite an influence in that period just prior to the the coming of Christ. But verse 22 shows that there will be a time when the the saints will come to the kingdom and possess the kingdom. And that's then the ultimate goal that we are involved with. And that is what is so important to understand in terms of our relationship with God and what God is doing with us with all of mankind. God is in the process of adding to his family and bringing to salvation many saints to possess the kingdom ultimately. And the the gospel of the kingdom is defines and details that message which is a message of salvation. That message has been corrupted and has been corrupted by the machinery of a political religious system that grabbed hold of the reigns of of of salvation and truth very early in the whole picture in the whole story and basically said salvation is granted through us and we are the kingdom of God on the earth. And our head, the successor to Peter, is the one who stands in place of Christ. And through our ritual and sacraments and our saints whom we define as saints, you can gain salvation. But only through us. Only through us. And that system within 300 years of Christ's death had grabbed the reigns of power within the world system at that time and began to rigidly enforce that until it became the orthodox teaching about this matter of the kingdom of God. And you know when you as I referred to the recent statements of the Vatican, that that machinery, that teaching, is all still in place. It has never changed regardless of the times of the world around us. We've become very modern. Even the Catholic, you know, Pope John Paul the 23rd moved towards certain ecumenical moves toward other faiths and went probably further than I think Benedict the 16th wanted to see it go and feel others would feel it needs to go. And these are sort of little mid-course corrections to kind of tweak things back in and to make certain points. But at the heart of it all is who grants salvation and how is it done? It's not through the machinery of an organization.

It is through the Spirit of God working within His body, the body of Christ, to bring believers along in the process of salvation. This is what we've been going through and this is now the third sermon in that series to prepare us for the kingdom of God which is not something that is of this present time and age. So many other scriptures talk to that. We covered Revelation 2 verses 26 and 27 last time but I want you to turn over to John 18. John chapter 18 and verse 36.

As Jesus stood before Pilate at the end of his life, he spoke to this truth in verse 36. He answered to Pilate, he said, My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now My kingdom is not from here. Pilate answered and said, Are you the king then? Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king for this cause I was born and for this cause I've come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.

So Christ in these two verses summed up the fact that His kingdom is not of this world at this time and were it so His servants the saints would fight but His servants the saints do not fight for the kingdoms of this world we have a higher responsibility to the kingdom of God and our lives today are to prepare for that now how do we prepare how do we prepare for that kingdom well we prepare by repenting and by living a life of faith and living by the terms of that kingdom today God brings us to repentance in Romans chapter 2 we see that that God grants us that repentance Romans chapter 2 in verse 4 he says do you despise the riches of His goodness forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance God grants us repentance it leads us to repentance whether it's the initial repentance that that brings us to baptism and the beginning this process of conversion where we begin where we realize we have sinned we have transgressed God's law and we need we need the forgiveness of of Christ's blood to cover our sins we need that grace and we come to that point or at any other point afterwards that we sin and go or get caught up in something and we stumble and we come to our senses and realize we've got to change at any time even in the future God still grants us repentance because He's moving and working in our life by the Holy Spirit and so we can't take credit for it I guess is the the point to come to it's not something that we can take credit for and all along through the process of conversion and salvation it is something that when we we realize what is taking place in our life we cannot take credit for it we have to give God the the credit for it and recognize that we we do it by His grace in Romans chapter 5 and verse 5 Romans 5 well in verse 1 it says having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that's the justification that brings us to to this point and through Him we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God and so it is by God's grace that we stand in this we stand and rejoice we stand in this life we stand in this calling and not only that but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation works produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us again it's a process of living and walking in faith the faith of God in our lives this is what we are brought to this is where we this is where we come in this life and that's that's how we we we walk we we glory in tribulations when was the last time you gloried or took pleasure or can I say you ever have any of you ever taken real great pleasure in a trial something that tests our faith something that challenges our our life probably not at that point in time did do you do you ever glory in it and by this he's saying do you you recognize you come to understand its purpose and you come to understand that something has been learned through the years-long process that you've been through and then at some point you realize that you learn some lessons and you talk to God about it and you give God credit for whatever you've learned whatever has been developed that's what he means by glorying in trial or tribulation it's not that we run around jumping up and down whoopee I'm having a trial today or things are running along so smooth in our life we suddenly we get up one morning we think boy God it's been six months by the time you gave me a test what are you going to do for me what are you going to do in my life but most of us don't think that way I don't and most of you probably don't either the glorying glorying in trial is is coming to a point months maybe even years later where we recognize that this has been something that God has been with us in this situation and even in the midst of it when we thought that he wasn't or we weren't with him we at some point come to recognize that because we understand that it produces perseverance verse three it produces perseverance we come to learn that we have to stay with something conversion is not an overnight process conversion it doesn't just happen with a sprinkling of a water over us or a baptism or taking a glass of or a bit of wine and bread one year three years or cumulative effect it it comes by process of time and that perseverance leads it says to character good old-fashioned character shall I say righteous godly character the type that is produced as a result of God's spirit shed abroad in our hearts as verse five says it produces character and when we see that character is something that stands when everything is blown away character is what resides when that you know when I a sculptor is this is taking a a big block of marble or granite and they chip away at it a piece at a time with all the other tools they use and they get it down to where they then can recognize there's a leg there's a foot you know someone I guess the apocryphal story of the one some famous sculptor was asked how do you how do you make something you know looks like a horse or look like a man or whatever said easy I just knock away all the pieces that don't look like a horse or a man and it's how it's done well I'm afraid if I tried that approach we just have a pile of rock when it was all done and there wouldn't be anything that looked like a you know anything recognizable but an expert sculptor can knock it you know knock the pieces away till eventually you'll see something emerge out of that and character is kind of like that the godly character that we build through the process of time and conversion is like that it is something that suddenly one you know on one morning one season maybe during the you know during a spring festival season or afterwards after we've gone through Passover and Unleavened Bread or maybe after the Feast of Tabernacles has come through and we pass through a season or and we look back and we look at ourselves we take that stock of our life and we see yes there's character we see that we have persevered through something and there we can we can discern tangible character it's like discerning a a foot in a statue that is emerging out of a block of marble or an arm or the beginning of a of a head and you see something beginning to emerge character development is like that and the the rock and the dust that's been chipped away and drilled away and blown away is laying around and that's the the you know the mess of life that that we've that finally we were able to remove to reveal character to reveal something that is there this is what this verse is talking about and then we see we have hope hope that god is working with us hope that we can and will be in the kingdom that what god has begun in us is going to to be brought to pass and we we have hope and we're not disappointed and we come to all of that verse five says because the love of god has been poured out in our hearts by god by the holy spirit given to us who who has been given to us it is god's spirit it is god's work that that does that all through the time of our life i keep saying the process is a matter of conversion or conversion is a matter of a process it is something that that takes place in first john chapter one there is a section here that we need to review in in light of this first john chapter one tells us about this process john writes here to the to the church and he he begins with as he did in the very first epistle john one verse one by talking about the beginning and the word that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon in our hands have handled concerning the word of life and it's referring to christ who was from the beginning he says we've seen this we've heard we have heard and we've seen with our eyes we've looked on it with our hands we have handled the word of life and he's talking about the fact that christ was the word manifested came into this life and that he and the others saw heard and handled they touched they were physically a part of the presence of the word and so again in his mind there was no question doubt concern as to what what had happened what he had seen what that meant he said the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested to us that which we've seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father with his son jesus christ these things we write to you that your joy may be full and so he says as we've seen that and understood that that eternal life from the beginning that was from the beginning has been manifested we've had fellowship with it and as and that fellowship continues john knew that it didn't end with the death and the ascension of jesus john knew that he still fellowshiped with the word who was from the beginning and it didn't end and he's explaining to us that we declare that that we you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and his son jesus christ this speaks to the the fellowship of minds who are being worked with by the holy spirit converted minds and it speaks to the importance of fellowship and of being together with those who share the same common goals and this is what john is saying we have fellow as i said he knew that that fellowship didn't end because jesus had ascended to heaven it was still possible and he said as we fellowship our fellowship is with not just among ourselves it is with the father and with his son jesus christ remember christ did say that where two or three are gathered together there i will be in the midst of them and he spoke to that truth as well and so we have to look at our times of sabbath fellowship and other times when we may be together with with brethren as direct fulfillment of what this is talking about but it gives us the time to renew our friendships to talk to encourage to see how we're doing to to have a service but it is also fellowship time with the father with jesus christ that's why in our prayers at the beginning of the service we do ask god's presence and we should believe that that prayer will always be answered that it will be that it will be given and he said these things we write to you that your joy may be full this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth and so the way of god is here presented as a way of light god is light what god teaches what god proclaims is light and it is not darkness if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus christ his son cleanses us from all sin this is another way of understanding that the grace wherein we stand that we read about back in romance 5 and living in and by the grace of god in that is through our fellowship through our continued desire to be a part of god's church fellowshiping with the body of christ coming together walking in the light then we as we do that the blood of christ his son cleanses us from all sin you know this is not a sermon necessarily just on grace but just think about that how does how does the blood if you read these verses as we've read it how does the blood of jesus his son cleans us from all sin well in a number of different ways when we repent when we're baptized when we confess our sins as we will see here but there's also this what we're being told here is that as we walk in the light as we as we endeavor to obey and to do what's right and leave behind the works of darkness as we fellowship and have that our faith strengthened through the physical contact with with the people of god as we keep the sabbath the holy days and again work and strive to have other additional times where we communicate with each other we that's part of that that process of of god working with us and the blood of that fellowship and the blood of christ cleansing us from all sin that's part of that if you will the grace that we live within that umbrella of grace that we stand under that kind of protects us that watches over us even at times when we you know we sin we don't even know we sin and we don't have to always be asking forgiveness for every thought that's that's necessarily there or things that we do that in our ignorance we may not understand that we are doing but then he goes on to be specific in verse eight he says if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us we should understand we're prone to sin and i think there's not one here who thinks otherwise and this verse here is really the very straightforward antidote to avoiding uncertainty avoiding concern avoiding worry about our eternal fate or about whether we'll make it into the kingdom or whether we are good enough or anything like that this is an antidote to all of that which can lead to depression in our minds a spiritual type of depression that woe is me i am not good enough and we beat ourselves down this this is an antidote to that because it very straightforwardly shows us in verse seven that we have we are cleansed by from all sin by the blood of christ if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us verse nine is the is the the key if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we confess we have to say i'm sorry god we have to say i have sinned we have to admit when and where we do let down and ask god's forgiveness that is pretty straightforward it's unequivocal there's no wiggle room and in this the confession is to god is not to another man it's not to the church other times you know if we sin against our brother the scripture says you know go to your brother there is a time and a place to do that so that's another topic and time for another sermon there but confession is to god confession of you know the the spiritual sins of life ultimately is is to god because he is the one who grants forgiveness we have to confess it and he will forgive and cleanse us if we say we have not sinned in verse 10 we make him a liar and his word is not in us so we cannot come to a point and say that we have not sinned we should be very careful that we are not deceiving ourselves thinking that at some point in our life we are we are not sinning then in chapter 2 and verse 1 the thought really continues in the first two verses of chapter 2 he said my little children these things i write to you so that you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world and so john here opens up his message with a very positive directive to confess our sins but to understand that if we sin we have an advocate we have one who is looking out for us we have the ability to be forgiven christian conversion is a process it involves character it involves choosing making the choice to obey to want to go the way of god and building that character developing that character is a struggle and it is a challenge and it's not always easy but god did not design this life necessarily to be easy in that way life's not easy of and by itself but when we understand the the process and what we are working through and how god is working with us then we have the the armor we have the ability of the means to meet the challenges that we have you know our our life let's let's let's be honest the the challenges of developing this character and working through the times of tribulation as romans 5 talked about points up as do many other scriptures that our life has to be understood as a battle christianity the process of conversion is about we can't sugarcoat this part of it we can't just gloss over this and and walk away lottie doll like we are born again saved by the blood type christians that christianity and and this way of life is trouble free and problem free god never promises that life continues to be a a battle and that is the reality of things that we have to understand and remember we battle ourselves we battle this world and we battle an adversary we battle satan the devil each of us have our own innate pulls desires sometimes we we say their goals sometimes we say it's ambition and we have to be very honest and careful how we define those things and and what does drive and motivate us but we all have what what can be called human nature we you know this this the poles of of our own flesh and of this world ourselves to deal with and to a certain degree we're going to put we're going to to have a struggle to get those under control and to deal with but we also have this world to battle and we could we could live in a room without any windows and maybe by some really concerted almost superhuman effort get our desires under under control maybe even get a lot of our thoughts under control we could live almost like a hermit and not have people to to deal with that'd be a hard life to live almost impossible it would almost be like like some people think they're kind of like a henry david thorough life or thorough who went to the woods and lived a simple life i was listening to a little piece on the radio about henry david throw the other day and you know he he went out to walden pond in massachusetts and built this little cabin and lived for oh less than two years lived a simple life and and the reality is he he walked into town every day and his mom brought him food out so uh so much for living away from everything to live the simple life i've been to the place it's you know it's all built up now but you know it's still even in thorough's day it was it wasn't that far from town so we could we could go a long ways toward bringing ourselves into line but then we have to in reality we have to go to work we have to deal with somebody else in the family or the neighbors and we have to deal with the other poles that come into our lives from from this world and people can upset us people can challenge us people can threaten us and how we react to that can make for a very interesting and challenging life the world around us is a challenge and the people in the events that that come at us and then the bible talks of a third battle that we have to deal with and that is satan called the god of this world and a spiritual battle that that satan throws at us as well these are these are the hard reality this is the hard reality of our life things are not in this life what they seem in second corinthians chapter 10 and verse 3 he says for though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in god for pulling down the flesh and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in god for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god bringing itself bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled we walk in the flesh but he says we don't war according to the flesh things are not exactly as they seem in this world there is a spiritual battle going on and there is an ongoing battle which is another hard reality the first one is that things aren't what they seem and we see this world but the bible shows us that that there's another dimension beyond the physical and that other dimension results in what what can be described as a as an ongoing battle in afeasians chapter 6 efeasians 6 verse 12 he says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places these two verses tell us two very important truths that we cannot ignore and we must always keep in mind in our life things aren't what they seem the world into which we're born the life that we are involved with has another dimension and life is an ongoing battle it is a struggle the process of conversion is in that in this area it is a battle and paul gives us the the armor of god and shows how we are to work against that but just to focus on verse 12 he says we we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places we can never ever forget that again going back to the picture of the ad that i referred to asking the question why do we get up every morning well hopefully we develop our in our life the the motive that we get up every morning to do the business of the kingdom of god but when we put our feet on the floor and we throw the water in our face or we jump in the shower or we do whatever routine it is that we do to kind of wake up and to get our get the synapses all firing and flowing and moving to where we can get on with our day and begin to function physically we know we've got a challenge we've got a battle and that's not discouraging that's not depressing that's reality when we deal with reality and grab it by the arms we can move forward with confidence developing character and ultimately having the hope of god that we can move through the day because we do play a crucial role in the whole process we do have a part to play our life is part of the the script of of the god is writing in our lives of the kingdom of god and it's a struggle and it's a challenge but it is something that we have the help of god with in romans chapter seven paul really defines how he dealt with it and what what he saw and it teaches us this you know that we are involved in the same thing in romans chapter seven in verse 14 romans seven verse 14 paul writes we know that the law is spiritual but i'm carnal sold under sin we've been talking in this these sermons about god's law being spiritual we receive god's spirit but then again we know the salvation has not yet been fully brought to us it is a process leading our conversion is a process he says i'm carnal sold under sin for what i am doing i do not understand sometimes we might ask you know we might kind of be confronted with the same thought you know i don't understand why do we have to go through this why don't we just enter eternity or enter the kingdom when when we confess when we repent he said what i will to do that i do not practice how many times could that be our song what i want to do i don't practice but what i hate that i do what i the hole i fell into last week six months ago a year ago i keep falling into that hole what i hate and now that i've been in that hole and i know how much it hurts when i hit bottom in that hole and how hard it is to crawl out i hate it but i keep finding myself in that hole if then i do what i will not to do i agree with the law that isn't that it that it is good but now it is no longer i who do it but sin that dwells in me for i know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells now this is one of those statements you have to take within the whole context of of all the other scriptures that many of which we've covered what god is doing with us don't beat yourselves over the head with this one scripture out of context saying nothing good dwells in me i hope that some of you can say after x number of years of conversion and the process of god working in your life that some good dwells in you so again understand the context of such a statement and don't beat yourselves up with it don't beat anybody else with up with it he says i know and read it all through for the to will is present with me but how to perform what is good i do not find paul is really just speaking to the age-long struggle that we have and will have that doesn't mean we give into it that doesn't mean we are just completely overwhelmed by it every day of our life for the good that i will will to do i do not do but the evil i will not to do that i practice paul is human you're human i'm human now if i do what i will not to do it's no longer i who do it but sin that dwells in me and that's the sin that john says we have to confess and repent of i find then he says a law that is that evil is present with me the one that that wills to do good for i delight in the law of god according to the inward man that delight of the law of god comes by the spirit of god god's law spiritual and it that that love of god is shed abroad in our hearts we read it back in romans 5 so the the delight in the law of god according to the inward man is because of god's spirit he says 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 that's where he's speaking of this human nature that we have that that that we we struggle against oh wretched man that i am who will deliver me from this body of death i thank god through jesus christ our lord this is paul's answer this is the only place you'll read paul talking like this it's a discussion of the reality of the struggle that we have but it is it is couched within a very positive message so you again you have to be very careful don't take statements like this out of context and and talk about being a wretch and all of this i thank god through jesus christ our lord so then with the mind with the mind i myself serve the law of god but with the flesh the law of sin and so this passage just illustrates the struggle that life is especially when we have the spirit of god it's even magnified when you have god's spirit you're wanting to do what is right as we struggle against this world ourselves and the attacks and spiritual warfare that satan throws at us it's all magnified because of the work that god has begun within us because of the fact that god is beginning to work in us to bring us to the point where we will inherit the kingdom we will be part of that group of people called the saints who will inherit the kingdom and satan does not want that to happen and as we see in so many other scriptures as he even did against jesus himself satan works to prevent that and he will work until he cannot work any longer but we have the process to begin and to work in our lives how do you measure that conversion how do you measure that conversion you know a couple weeks ago as we were having the little kids camp down at camp you can do down at um in indianapolis the the model this year was in was philippians 4 and verse 8 if i could just turn there and we can note that philippians 4 and verse 8 maybe is something that we can use as a measure something to measure conversion philippians 4 verse 8 he says finally brethren whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are a good report if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy meditate on these things beautiful passage maybe this is what we could use at times to measure our conversion where are we how many how often how much more are we thinking on things that are noble or just and lovely and of good report and analyze our life and where we are according to these standards i was encouraged that kids are the kids some of the kids that were at our camp you could do actually got the point i was visiting with a with one family this week and they were talking about their their son who decided because of what he learned at camp he was going to stop reading certain books on the curriculum in his school that that i won't get into all the the the this particular book wasn't harry potter by the way which is another story but the the little boy you know he said i'm not going to read those books anymore so they don't match up with what i what camp the model camp you can do was all about so i thought one one kid listen i hope he remembers it and i'm sure his parents reinforce that use this this verse can be a standard of measurement for us as we look at our lives and as we measure where god is dealing with us and how much of god's spirit is coursing through our lives and how much of the business of the kingdom of god we are engaged in is in front of us in our life as we prepare ourselves for the places the roles the duties the responsibilities the reward that the scriptures teach awaits the saints who will possess the kingdom when christ the nobleman of the parable returns and takes account and we give account of our life and judgment is made and though salvation and eternal life is the gift of god what god is able to do with us and how he will work will give us to work will be up to us it is a it is a grand plan it is a glorious purpose but it is what lies ahead of us and so what we do today does make a difference how we live our lives how we teach our children how we spend our hours and our moments the character we build the sin we overcome the righteousness that is developed by god's spirit makes a difference it is all part of the process of conversion and when all of that is finished god will say to us well done good and faithful servant inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world and we will join with all the other saints from the time past who have understood what god wanted them to understand and how he worked with them in their time and place and together we will possess the kingdom so