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[hillsbororiver]

Repent: http://bible-truths.com/audio/Ray_Repent 1.mp3

Transcript of a talk by L. Ray Smith about Repentance


The reason that I want to talk about repentance is because repentance is a major door to understanding. I tried to understand many things before I truly repented.

Now, we repent in increments. You know, as children you repent. Your parents spank you, you repent! And you learn to do things, and you mature. If you want a good definition of maturity: Maturity is a way to act that is more beneficial to yourself and others than a child would act.

So when you are old enough to know about repentance as a teaching of the Church, most of us have gone through some kind of a repentance. I went through a repentance and a baptism when I was about 24 I think, I thought I had repented. I was baptized (immersed in water) and from that day on I tried to do better, because I knew I had done this public thing and I knew I hadn’t done it just for the heck of it. I probably made some progress in doing better and living better. You stop doing some bad things, you start doing some good things and I thought, this is what the Christian life is all about.

I’m on my way, I’m doing it... until one day. I didn’t know when it happened, but looking back, I left my first love. That does not necessarily mean your “first love” as in chronological order like first, second, third etc.  It means your “paramount” love, your main love, the FIRST.  What should be first in your life? Christ!  I left that love!

I went back into the world, BIG TIME, and then just floundered around. I never forgot there was a God, I never stopped praying. But I was carnal. You’d think that baptism and repentance was nothing... I mean, that wasn’t doing anything for me.  I was now in TOTAL carnality... wine, women and song.  

Now I tried to study the Bible off and on throughout those years. I never put it away completely. It was always there and I was reading it and so on, but nothing. I mean, maybe I could learn some verses, maybe I learned a little about historical settings, some facts and so on. But spiritually I wasn’t going ANYWHERE. I wasn’t going anywhere, but I made a concerted effort to have a good time, as best I knew how with what little money I had.  

There were a few times God even let me make a few dollars. I got into something once where I was making 40-50 thousand dollars a month and I thought, oh now I’m there!  No…He took that away.  

Anyway, I thought that was about the best you could do.  Boy, I was so thankful for one thing though. GRACE! Boy was I glad that this Bible talked about grace, because there was nobody who needed grace more than me! I thought that I sort of understood it. I was pretty convinced that there are no spiritually converted people, because number one. 1) I made a “jolly good” try at it. I made a good stab at it and I gave it the good college try. I wasn’t converted!

You know what? I didn’t know of anybody else who was converted either. I didn’t know of one human being on this earth that I could say, 'that person is spiritually converted.' I didn’t know of any and I knew I wasn’t... so I thought it didn’t exist.

I thought true spiritual conversion did not even exist and that's what Grace did. You did the best you could and where you didn’t do very good, it (grace) just filled in the gaps. That was about as spiritual as my mind would go for a long time.  

But God was working with me. I didn’t know it, I just thought I’m drifting through life. But God was working with me, for me, sometimes against me (which was also for me).

But I finally did come to the place where I started looking at this whole thing afresh That this is God doing it and now I’m thinking about this repentance business again. What good does it do to repent, if you can’t stop doing the things you repented of? I mean, that’s just hypocrisy isn’t it? You repent of all these sins and you keep doing them. But I felt a guilt. There was a guilt in doing this or that... thinking this and thinking that and the guilt would start to drive me away from it. I couldn’t handle the guilt. I just didn’t want to be guilty about this stuff, so I would stop doing it. Because I just wanted to get away from the guilty mind. So some things went by the wayside that way, that was the way it worked. You know, just out of sheer guilt I didn’t want to do them anymore and I didn’t do them anymore. I quit this and that and so on… I guess God was turning me towards Him.

But I was not learning anything new, there were no new revelations. Just something WAS happening in my life. Then I started to take an interest in the Scriptures again. I don’t know that my understanding was all that much better, but I was trying. I was reading and trying.  

I can’t even remember when I started to see things... where did that come from? I kept wanting to change, I just felt that, that was necessary, change. You know, be more like God wants me to be. I wanted to understand the scriptures and I clearly didn’t. I mean, I had a superficial understanding of them, I even knew about the reconciliation of ALL and I had come to understand that we don’t have a free will. I was that far along, but I was still not really changing my life.  

Then God started to make me feel convicted about my sins that I still had. But I was convinced you couldn’t overcome them! You know, when you are in your 50’s and still not able to conquer these sins… well when?   How will it ever happen? I was pretty convinced it wouldn’t happen.  

But I’m thinking about these things more and I’m studying. Then I started finding that some things I was doing I didn’t need to do anymore. It isn’t anything I did, God just took something away from me... took away a burden, a sin, a guilty conscience about something. Just took it away and it was no longer a struggle.

But I never stopped wanting to get rid of it ALL. That was always there. Get rid of it all. You all want to know what those things were… but it doesn’t matter, they’re all the same! You know, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. But you can’t take credit for it, in His time HE will do it!

If you are going to be one of the few that are actually chosen, then God is going to do it. So why am I up here telling you, if He’s going to do it, just go home and let Him do it. Right?   Because God uses the “foolishness of teaching”, that’s why. That’s the only reason I’m up here. He uses the foolishness of preaching.

Some of you will remember this day. It will be a turning point in your life! You’ll say, 'that Saturday afternoon Ray was preaching about Repentance, it changed my life forever!' That is, if God has decided that is what today will do for you.

So I was wanting to repent of everything. EVERYTHING! I didn’t want to hold on to anything. Give it all up and in my heart and mind and I was able to do it! I didn’t have to struggle. I mean, I struggled all my life against these sins and now I didn’t have to struggle anymore. The temptations would come up, but I would just put a stop on it. That was it, God put me in control and I didn’t have to fight it night and day. It just started to take care of itself. Because there was a power working in my mind that I didn’t have before. It was now God’s time to do that.  

When I had nothing more to repent of, that I knew of, then the scriptures started opening up and I started understanding the scriptures that I never understood before. I would learn something every month... every week... and then almost every day! New things, spiritual things, lofty things.  

So, if the spirit of God is going to be between your ears... you understand your heart is in your brain? Well when the spirit of God starts to motivate your mind then you have greater capacity. If you have a glass of water and you want to pour coke into it, you’ve got to pour the water out, you’ve got to make room. That’s what happens in your life when you make room for God.  

If you read my series on the Lake of Fire, you know I talk about the “man of sin” who sits on the throne claiming that he is god. That’s in you! That throne is in you. That man of perdition is you and he sits in there claiming to be god. You can’t serve two masters! So before Jesus Christ can sit on the throne of your heart, the man of perdition has got to get out! Of course, the presence of the Lord is what drives out the man of perdition. The presence of God coming into your life will drive out this beast (the carnal mind) and then you’ll begin to understand things that you never understood before.  

Who knows what the first word was that Jesus Christ said in his ministry? According to Matthew it was, “Repent.”  So if that’s the first word out of our Savior’s mouth, maybe we ought to look at it a little bit.


                                             REPENTANCE

Repent means to turn around, to go the other way. Whatever you are doing that’s wrong and sinful and evil and carnal and worldly and everything else, you turn around, you 'repent' and you go the other direction. The scriptures mention a couple of words:

Matthew 18:3     talks about being converted
Matthew 19:28   talks about being regenerated
1Peter 1:3         talks about being born again
John 3:3            talks about being born again

What are all those things? They’re all one and the same, there’s no difference. Being begotten anew, being born again, being regenerated, being converted. They are all the same and this is what we all want to do so that we can take on more knowledge and live more Godly, and reach this goal.

We all sin. Sin has to go through three things: cleansing, repentance, forgiveness. Does anybody know the order of these things?

This is the order of what happens to sin:

1.   Forgiveness
2.   Repentance
3.   Cleansing

God does not cleanse anybody of sins they haven’t repented of.

Forgiveness comes first! Isn’t that interesting. Jesus Christ was slain from the foundation of the world and why was He slain? Why did Christ die? The scriptures say Christ died for our sins. That’s the simplest statement, but there is a little bit more.

I want you to notice this, I’m going to give you what happened BEFORE the Cross... AT the Cross... and AFTER the Cross.

BEFORE the cross in Matthew 26 where Christ gave the symbols of the blood and the wine he says:

Matthew 26:28 for this is My blood that is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Remission just means forgiveness or pardon. Your sins are remitted, forgiven, pardoned.  

But this He told them at the Passover, 'before' he was crucified. That IF they partook of this symbol, “this is the blood of the covenant that is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Were the Apostles converted yet?  No, they weren’t even converted. But they are going to take these symbols, which show forgiveness! That’s 'before' the cross.

AT the cross. Christ is hanging on the cross dying and He looks down to those who put Him up there and he says “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Did they repent?  No.  Were they cleansed of their sins?  No.  But Jesus Christ forgave them. He forgave them!  

AFTER the cross Jesus met with the disciples in Luke 24 and he said this:

Luke 24:47  And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Now that doesn’t change the order, because He said repentance and remission. We know that the sins are; 1) first remitted and 2) then people repent and 3) then they are cleansed. So it was 'after' the cross that even the apostles and the disciples really repented. We know that they repented, because on the day of Pentecost. There were about 120 of them gathered together and they all received the gift of the Holy Spirit, which was proof that they were repentant and converted to God.  

Then right after Pentecost, Peter got up and preached a powerful sermon and they got a little upset. They were scared, and they said, well, what should we do, alright you got us, we are guilty, "what should we do?” (Acts 2:37)

Acts 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter said, “Repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Of course, all this is done in Jesus’ name, because there is only one name in heaven by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.


                                                 BAPTISM

Now, baptism is added here... I don’t want to circumvent this or say well, of course you all know this was just a ritual and we don’t do it anymore, it was commanded. For a while they did baptize people in water. Why did they do that? Well, quite frankly because they were spiritually immature. They were also still circumcising people and doing some of the things that the law required under the old covenant, even though now Jesus Christ had plainly told them that He was instituting the new covenant! They didn’t get it.  

Years and years later some came from Judea teaching. Now where Paul and Barnabas had taught and said, 'you’re not going to be saved if you don’t get circumcised,' (meaning the Gentiles who had not been circumcised at eight days old like the Jews). So there was no small disputation going on about this! Paul and Barnabas agreed that they would go up to Jerusalem, to the elders, to the church leaders (Peter, John and James) and see about this thing. Why? Didn’t they know? These are the apostles of Jesus Christ! Didn’t they know whether a person should be circumcised or not? No. Paul and Barnabas didn’t think so, but those who came out of Judea, they thought you absolutely should.  

Jesus Christ said after the resurrection, “I have many things to tell you yet, but you can’t handle it all now” (John 16:12). He couldn’t give it to them all at once. Little by little, they started to get this information. So how did they solve the problem? God didn’t supernaturally come down like with Moses and take the tablets of stone and say, 'alright now, here’s the new teaching on circumcision.' Paul and Barnabas went up together and prayed and asked for the Holy Spirit to guide them in what to do.

The Pharisees insisted that they had to keep the Law of Moses and be circumcised, but Peter right off was in the camp with Paul and Barnabas. 'It is needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the Law of Moses,' that’s what these Pharisees said.  

Acts 6:15  The apostles and elders came together to consider this matter and there was much disputing.

They didn’t just sit down and say, okay, this is the way we’re going to do it. No, there was MUCH disputing and arguing back and forth, maybe for hours and hours, it doesn’t say. This was a big deal. They didn’t know. They didn’t know what to teach the people. They were out preaching Jesus Christ, but what were they to do then, do they circumcise them? Baptize them? Do they have to keep the Sabbath day? They didn’t really know!  

I think Paul was mature enough and he was going to go up and fight for what he believed to be right. He didn’t want any authorization from Judea that these people were going to come out and try to teach heresy behind the people that he was converting.  

Acts 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
v. 8  And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
v. 9  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

See? Peter understood these spiritual things. He said, God PURIFIED their hearts. That’s conversion! That’s being born-again... begotten anew... regenerated... whatever word you want to use, that’s what THAT is. It was happening to the Gentiles.  

Acts 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
v. 11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
v. 12  Then all the multitude kept silence...

Then Barnabas and Paul got up and talked for a while, then James got up and talked.  And they said, look, we’re not going to ask these Gentiles to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. Remember, there were two issues. Circumcision was as big an issue as the entire Law of Moses, it was a big deal. I mean, the worst thing you could call somebody was an 'uncircumcised Gentile.' That was like spitting in his face twice.  

But they said, no, we’re not going to have that. There were some things among the Gentile like going to their temples and fornicating with temple prostitutes, drinking blood offered to idols and other rank idolatry that they had to tell them to stop doing.  

So the apostles are learning. And then it says...

Acts 15:28  For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us...
  
See? They were all in agreement then. They laid hands on Paul and Silas and they sent letters out and so on. That took care of the matter.  

[Craig]

                                                                                    page 2/Repentance

But I am continually asked about these rituals, and the reason I am is that nobody understands repentance. They think, when you repent you have to be baptized and in some denominations you have to keep the Sabbath and in almost all denominations you have to start paying tithes. See? You have to keep the sacrament (communion), the Lord’s Supper and with some they still do the foot washing. You HAVE to do all these things? No, you don’t! If you have a spiritual mind you can see it. I want to cover that really quickly.

Colossians 2:10 You are complete in Him (in Christ) which is the head of all principality and power: 

Notice in verse 11.

v. 11  In whom you also are circumcised.... 

Wait a minute, Colossus is a Gentile nation. What does he mean by this? Well, lets read it:

v. 11  ...with the circumcision made without hands.

Wait a minute, you mean to tell me you can be circumcised without a knife? There’s another way to be circumcised? Duh! Yes, there is a circumcision made without hands, which involves putting off the body of sin of flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

See there’s only ONE, everything is ONE, God’s word is ONE. How many circumcisions are there? ONE! How many baptisms are there? ONE! How many faiths are there ONE!  How many Lords are there? ONE! How many Gods and Fathers are there? ONE! There is only ONE. Why do you, when you understand these things, want to be involved with two? When the ONE is the only one that counts! You see? Jesus Christ is the only ONE that counts!

So now, if somebody wants to come into the family of God you still have to be circumcised in the heart and in the spirit.

Col 2:11  ...putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
v. 12  Buried with him in baptism,

Did you catch that? In the Old Testament and coming into the new you had circumcision, this was the big thing. Now the church tells us the big thing in Christendom, in the new covenant, is baptism. Guess what? They are both the same. Show me the difference between circumcision and baptism! Is there a difference? Cutting off the flesh is the carnality of the heart... baptized into Jesus Christ. You mean baptized in water? No, it doesn’t say that. What kind of baptism then? A baptism “made without hands.” It’s the same as the circumcision. It doesn’t change in midstream here, it’s all the same thing. Circumcision without hands... baptism without water. This is spiritual! It’s ALL SPIRITUAL.

If you think it’s physical, you’ll never get the spiritual. If you think you have to be physically baptized, you will never be spiritually baptized. As long as you think that water baptism is necessary for you, you’ll never be baptized in spirit, because the two are contrary one to the other.

If you think cutting the foreskin of the penis off makes you a spiritual person, you’ll never be a spiritual person. Cutting the foreskin off REPRESENTS something... putting off the body of the sins of flesh. Does that happen at the end of your penis or in your heart? Well, you all know it takes place in your heart. We know where these things are. We just act stupid sometimes. 

Religion is still stupid, they want the ritual. You’ve GOT to take the communion. The Catholics, not to be outdone, they take it everyday! My dear little wife, her mother lives over in Germany and she goes to the Catholic Church everyday for 70 years… wouldn’t miss it for the world. But these things are spiritual.

Col 2:12  Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

Can’t you see it? It has nothing to do with the flesh. The flesh was just a symbol, that’s all.

Don’t you understand that killing lambs and goats never got rid of anybody’s sin? It just appeased God for the moment so He wouldn’t kill them. It didn’t get rid of anybody’s sin! Baptism or circumcision doesn’t get rid of anybody’s sin. But you say, 'Ray, you’re belittling it.' Yes I am! You bet I am.

Who taught baptism first in the New Testament? John the Baptist. Didn't a lot of people come out and get baptized? Didn’t he tell them to repent? Didn’t he even say “bring forth fruit meat for repentance? When the Pharisees came out he said, you generation of snakes, what are you doing here? 

Mat 3:7  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

                           
                            SPIRITUAL THINGS - PHYSICAL THINGS

So a lot of people repented and were baptized. Right? Were they baptized in the spirit? Did a lot of them follow Christ? Well yes, a lot of them did. In John 6 Jesus says “the flesh profits nothing, the words that I speak to you are spirit”

John 6:63  ...the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit...

Many said, 'this guy’s too spiritual for us' and it says they walked with him no more. 

Joh 6:66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Why? Because you can’t tell people that the physical isn’t important. We’re physical creatures and everything we do for God has got to be physical, this is what most think.

When they die they are going to be resurrected with a physical body.  They don’t give a hang what the Bible says. If they want a physical body then they are going to have a physical body. They are going to go to a physical heaven, on a physical rock, in physical outer space. They are going to walk on physical streets of gold and play physical harps on physical clouds, with physical music and physical food and they are going to stuff their face. They’re going to have a good time! They won’t listen to anything else. 

You can’t tell them that heaven is a REALM and it’s not some location on a rock. Their minds can’t think spiritual, that’s why they won’t go there. Who wants something you can’t see? If you can’t see it, it’s like it doesn’t even exist. I don’t want things that don’t exist, is what they think. Spiritual things do not exist in the church today. They talk about it, but they think spirits are like Casper the friendly ghost. You can see them anywhere. They’re not invisible.

so you have communion, baptism etc. some of these are more important than others in some churches, but they are ALL rituals.

They ALL point to JESUS CHRIST. Jesus Christ is the reality of what all these things pointed to. Notice, it doesn’t even specifically say, be circumcised in your heart, no, it says...

Col 2:11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

It doesn’t even say, 'well alright, so the water baptism isn’t that important as long as you in your mind, go through a water baptism that cleanses you of sin.'  No, that’s not even where it’s at. You are buried with HIM. You can’t be buried with Christ in water! 
This is spiritual!

[Craig]

                                                                                      page3/Repentance
Okay, let’s move on.                                                         

So there are four things that happen with sin:

1.   Committed
2.   Remitted
3.   Repented
4.   Removed

That’s the sequence. Repentance is where you accelerate this. All through your life you learn to mature... learn to operate in society... learn to obey the laws of the higher powers and so on... stopping at stop signs... staying under the speed limit etc... You do all these things, which are admirable, we should do them. But there comes a time when you have to just stop 'doing good things' and repent of who and what you are. Then you will start to make real progress.

We sin... God forgives it.
We repent... God removes it.

That’s the way it’s done and it will be done that way with every human being.

All have sinned... God has forgiven all.
All will repent... and all sin will be removed.


                                   HELL IS THE ULTIMATE BLASPHEMY

If you doubt that a 2,000 degree furnace can burn off ALL the dross of gold and silver, you just go to a furnace and watch it operate. That’s the analogy that God uses on us. 2,000 degrees of fire will burn you clean. There will be no dross left. It will burn you clean.

The church is so dumb, they think it’s talking about burning and torturing the flesh for all eternity. They don’t even have a purpose for it! What redeeming value is there in torturing all of humanity for all of eternity? No redeeming value. What kind of a monster would do that?

My older brother use to take caterpillars, stick them in a matchbox, set the matchbox on fire, and open the lid just far enough so they couldn’t crawl out. It would burn up and they’d desperately try to get out that crack. But he made it narrow enough so that they couldn’t crawl out. You’re shaking your heads. Yet, the whole church believes and teaches that. Will condemn anybody like me to hell, if I tell you or tell the world that God is love and that He wouldn’t do such a thing.

They worship this monster that they think will torture most of humanity in real fire for all eternity! They gloat in it and they glory in it. It’s sick! It’s total spiritual perversion of the mind and heart. It is the ultimate blasphemy. Trust me when I say that. 

If you could witness this actually happening... you’d be going through these chambers of hell and here you’d be looking at some teenagers that were rebellious and they’ve been burning in the fire for 79 trillion eons, screaming at the top of their lungs every second for trillions of eons. These people worship a God like that! WORSHIP! People get all huffy when I say, 'that’s garbage, that’s unscriptural heresy.' They don’t think about these things. These evils are unspeakable.

Let me tell you something, the scribes and the Pharisees never taught a doctrine this damnable. You listen to Jesus Christ. He called them everything but… I won’t say it. They never taught a doctrine half, a tenth, not a billionth as evil as what the church is teaching today. I’m telling you, this teaching of hell is the ultimate blasphemy. There is no greater sin that any human being can think or do, than to believe that the God that they worship will actually torture their mothers and fathers and some of their sisters and brothers and relatives in real fire for all eternity. It’s the ultimate sin. They think they are doing God a favor by teaching this.

No, they’re not going to be tortured for all eternity, because we are teaching against that. But wait until you find out what their punishment will be. It will blow you away.

John Hagee teaches that if a dove were to take a fine silk scarf, put it in its beak and fly over the Rocky Mountains. As it flies over the mountains it would just caress the top of the granite peak and then fly back the other way and just caress the peaks with this hanky and he would keep switching hankies. That by the time he would wear the whole Rocky chain of mountains from Mexico to Canada into a valley, your punishment in hell had not even yet started compared to eternity. So this man has thought about it. 

You won’t believe what his punishment is going to be. I could hardly believe it, but you’re going to learn that God is just. I mean He is so dead on, there’s nothing arbitrary about what and how God does things. You can’t say, well aren’t you punishing this person a little too much and this one not as much. I mean, I would think for what he did he should… etc.

I think I will finish up now.
Tomorrow I want to give you really strong reasons to want to repent. Because here’s a problem that many of us have and I had it too. But I’m seeing it clearer all the time. So I’m going to make up for lost time. You hear 'repent'... and you think 'I repent of my sins.'  Doesn’t that make sense?

You all have sins. Some of you lie a lot... you’ve stolen... and you’ve done this and that. You once fornicated with a married woman... you once beat your dog... you once burned a worm in a matchbox like my brother... and you repent of all these things, right?  Everything that you have ever done you repent of. Some of them maybe you feel pretty bad about, so there is some emotion to this repenting.

But you repent of all that and then you think, 'now I have a clean slate.'  Well, what I want to show you is what the scriptures actually have to say about ALL of us.

You know that when people want to bring up the worst sin that they can think of, they usually bring up child molestation or raping a little child and cutting her head off or something. That’s like the ultimate human sin, right? Actually, there are probably sins worse than that, because some of those things only last a matter of minutes or an hour.

I would think that professional torturers who torture people for years, scientifically torture them, with the maximum amount of fear and pain, like sensory deprivation. How many are familiar with sensory deprivation? It can take many forms, but you take a person out of his environment, you put him in the dark and upside down... you can do all kinds of things with him and he has no more recollection of where he is, whether it’s day or night. After a while he would go insane. It doesn’t get much worse than that. It’s pretty bad. They do that, they scientifically do that.

Now, here’s what I want to cover tomorrow. When you repent of all the wrong things you have done, you have not yet repented of all that needs to be repented of.

So I’m going to show you what we all need to repent of and that may blow you away to. I don’t want to scare you. I want to say it should have a really good effect on you, a really good spiritual effect, because;

1) You will take yourself down a notch or two, you’ll be humbled by it.

2) You will have a greater ability to love your enemies. Why would anybody want to love their enemies in the first place? But you will have a greater capacity to love your enemies, because you will have gone down a few notches in your own estimation. 

I want to do that to you, because I think it is a great spiritual experience. You will have a greater love for humanity and God and an understanding of what He’s doing and why he’s doing it and why the world is the way it is. You will stop pointing the finger and feeling so haughty and more self-righteous than you ought many times. Because I’m going to show you some things and you might be a little bit shocked, but it should be a good thing. I don’t want to scare you, but I want you to have a better understanding of just what a human being is. 

See, you’ve only experienced the human being from the feminine side, you from the masculine side and somebody else as being older, and somebody else as being younger. Somebody who is born in this country or that, somebody who has committed a lot of sins, few sins. A lot of sexual sins, but they haven’t stolen or robbed, you see. You’ve only experienced life from your perspective.

That’s not enough. Not if you’re going to be a king and rule the world under Christ. You’ve got to have a broader perspective of everything and everybody. I want to try and help you understand that tomorrow.
 
 
Transcribed by Skydreamers, edited by Kat

[Craig]

Bible Truths Conference Nashville TN 2005,                                  Guilty/page 1
By L. Ray Smith

                                         
                                                    GUILTY OF ALL

What I want you to see today is, that you are no better than this Hansan guy [when the audio began Ray was already talking about this guy] who killed and raped these little children. You're no better. Now I know you didn’t do it, but you are no better. That might be hard to believe, but I am going to try and show it to you.

You know the scripture.

1Cor 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Don’t you know we will judge the world and you can’t even judge little things. You sue at the law, you sue your brothers at the law and so on, don’t you know we will judge the world?
Well let me ask you if we are going to be judging the world one day, don’t you think we ought to be practicing? They say, practice makes perfect, if we are going to do something.   

We are the Lake of Fire, we will be judging man and the angels. Don’t you think we aught to have some practice at doing that then? Don’t you think we should be learning to judge now?

Well, we go to Matt. 7 and we read this, “judge not.” 

Mat 7:1  Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Is that a contradiction? “Know ye not that we shall judge the world and judge angels?”  “Judge not.”  Jesus Christ says.

John 8:15, I judge no man. 

He is the righteous judge of the world, but “I judge no man.”  And in John 12;

John 12:46  I have come as a Light into the world, so that whoever believes on Me should not remain in darkness.
v. 47  And if any one hears My Words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I do not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

Well, how’s He going to judge the world if He says, I don’t judge any man? I didn’t come to judge the world... and you should judge not. How does that fit? Does anybody have any ideas, are these contradictions?  Actually they are not.

As you judge... as you condemn...  That sometimes, the same word can be used with two slightly different connotations. Though judgment can mean to do good and to set right, it can also mean to render a sentence. Whatever you think you're going to render, it could be bad, because there’s always two possible sentences to be rendered. Innocent and guilty, right? Judgment means to render a sentence. It has no bias as to which way it renders the sentence, it just means to render a sentence. It could be guilty and it could be innocent. But this verse does not stand alone.


                                THE BEAM THAT IS IN YOUR OWN EYE

Matt 7:1  Judge not, that you may not be judged.
v. 2  For with whatever judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with whatever measure you measure out, it shall be measured to you again.
v. 3  And why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye?

This is not a separate parable, this is a continuation of the first two verses. It’s not talking about judging and judging not, and now it’s talking about a beam or a speck in your eye. It’s the same parable!

Now I touched upon this a little bit in another bible study, but we’re going to take it in a little bit different direction today. Because it’s still necessary in the explaining of different parables, because parables explain many different aspects of God’s workings and dealings. 

So this next sentence in verse 3, "And why do you behold the mote…" that is a part of the first two verses there, that said "judge not."  Notice that there is a period, but verse 3 begins with "And."  "And" is a connector you know that connects back to the last sentence. "And" what? "And" in relationship to what I just said, "Judge not, unless you be judged."

Mat 7:3  And why do you behold the mote that is in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam that is in your own eye?
v. 4  Or how will you say to your brother, Let me pull the mote out of your eye; and, behold, a beam is in your own eye?
v. 5  Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the mote from your brother's eye.

Does anyone know what that means? [Comment: Judge yourself first.] That’s true, that’s absolutely true what you are saying, but that doesn’t hold perfectly true with this parable. I’ll tell you why. See sometimes you think a parable is right there on the surface.

Everybody knows what that means. This is not a difficult parable is it? Then why do you try to take the speck out of your brothers eye, when you got a big beam in your own eye? Right? I mean how hard of a parable is this to understand?

Let’s break it down a little bit. Notice what He didn’t say.

He didn’t say, why do you behold the speck in your brothers eye, when you’ve got a speck in your own eye. Why didn’t He say that? Isn’t that logical? Why are you trying to get the speck out of your brothers eye, when you got a speck in your own eye? Get the speck out of your own eye, then you can see to get the speck out of your brothers eye. 

Or why didn’t He say, why do you behold a beam, a big log in your brothers eye, when you have a speck in your own eye? First cast out the speck in your own eye, then you can see clearly to cast this big beam out of your brothers eye. 

Or why didn’t He say, why do you behold this big timber coming out of the eye of your brother, when you got one in your own eye. Why are you trying to get this big beam, this 2x4, out of your brothers eye when you got a 2x4 in your own eye. What do you think, it doesn’t matter? 'Oh, Christ doesn’t know what He’s saying sometimes?' He just says things. Do you think there is a reason why He said it the way He said it?

Why do you behold the speck that is in your brother's eye, when you have a 2x4, rafter sticking out of your own eye. Why is that the order? Why is that the chronological order? Why is the one who is looking to get the fault out of the one person? Why does he have a bigger fault in himself? Well exactly, he doesn’t know it.

But there’s even more than that. Actually you’re getting to it now. First let’s notice who He is addressing here. Let’s go back to the beginning, to chapter 5, where this whole sermon on the mount begins.

Matt. 5:1  And seeing the multitudes, He (Jesus) went up on a mountain...

He always went up into the mountains to get away from the crowds. I mean it isn’t like He didn’t like the valleys, the valleys are fine, He did it to get away from the crowds. You see it in every sense portrayed in the movies. Jesus Christ from the time He started His ministry was mobbed day and night for the rest of His life. Do you know that?

You see Him in the movies and you watch these TV shows about Christ, you see Him walking down the road with His twelve apostles, just talking. Walking through the village or down the street. No, that’s not the way it was. He was always mobbed! He couldn’t walk, He couldn’t get through the crowds sometimes. Why?  [Comment from attendee: Because He healed everybody.]  Exactly.

I mean if He were out there walking down the street... if someone told me, there was this guy healing people down in Nashville and before that He was healing people over in Montgomery or Birmingham. I would be, let me out of here. I’d say, Lord I’ve got these knees and ankles and You know all this stuff. He healed people by the thousands and thousands. All His ministry, all He did was heal people, and they just pressed Him.

The only way He could get away was to go up in the mountains or go out in a ship, to get away from the crowds. You know you can only take that for so many hours a day and you got to get away. Usually He Would sneak up in a mountain someplace. They would be, 'where did He go.' They would hang around because He would be back and then they would bring some more sick people, because that was the way it was.

"When His disciples came unto Him" (Matt 5:1). He was up there in the mountains with only His disciples. Now understand Christ only talked to the masses in parables. But that doesn’t mean He didn’t also talk to His disciples in parables. He certainly did and here is a case of it. There are numerous parables in this, what we call 'The Sermon On The Mount.' 

So what Jesus Christ is saying here, when He says...

Mat 7:3  And why do you behold the mote

Who is the you? His disciples, these are not Pharisees and Pagans or the masses of Jerusalem and Judea or Galilee or whatever. These are His disciples and He said, Why do you, you disciples of mine and maybe even at this point He was looking at one of His apostle’s when He said that. Because this is the very occasion where Jesus Christ picked his 12 apostles. It was at this time on this mountain, right here is where He hand picked 12.

Mat 7:3  And why do you (My disciples) look at the mote in your brother's eye, but do not consider the beam in your own eye?

Why would His disciples have more sin? I think we can see that this beam has to do with sin and character flaws and all of that. Why would they have a bigger problem than their brothers? Why would the people that were following Christ, loyally following Christ, learning to do good and to be good and to love God. Why would they have more sins than their brothers, who’s not up on the mountain?

He’s saying you're looking to get a mote out of your brother’s eye... and He didn’t say it 'appears' that you have it, you really do have a beam. It isn’t what appears to be a mote, He says to you, and this is all from the prospective of YOU. “Why do YOU” try to get what YOU think is a speck out of your brothers eye, when you have this beam in your own eye. You follow me?

Why doesn’t He reverse it? Why doesn’t He give the guy credit for at least making some improvement, to where the log is down to the size of a beam? But their brothers out there, who are not following Christ and learning and overcoming, you know they still got this 2x4 in their eye. Why doesn’t He give some credit for progress that was made?

Because they are following Him. Some of these disciples were baptized by John in the Jordan, so they did repent of their sins. Then John was killed and some of them started to follow Christ, because John pointed Christ out. He’s the Man, there’s the Man to follow. Not me, I’m not even worthy to tie His shoe strings.

So some of these people had already repented of their sins, but still Christ says, it’s your brother that has the little speck and it’s you that’s got the 2x4. It just doesn’t seem to make sense. It’s a PARABLE!

How many have watched Charley Brown? Charley Brown cartoons are very ingenious, because the writer would write the story on the level of little children. I mean you could follow it, if you just watched them with the mentality of a little child, then you can follow the story. But right in there was this other story, way up here, for the adults. 

Charley Brown was written for adults. Adults could follow the top story line that was going on, and at the same time the children’s story line was going on. So children and adults could watch it at the same time and they both have a lot of fun laughing at it. The children would laugh at something that you thought was just to simple, and you would laugh at something and they would say, ‘Dad what are you laughing at.’ You know it takes a certain maturity to understand at that level of humor.

Well some of these teachings are that way. There’s a level down here, low. But there’s also a level up here, high, if you have spiritual eyes to see it.


                                         THE FEW AND THE MANY                               

I said yesterday that Christ said once, “How is it you know not this parable, then how will you know all parables” (Mark 4:13). This is just another one of them, that’s all. He said this is the few and the many. Many called, few are chosen. We find that all through the parables, don’t we, just all the way through. Here’s another one.

The disciples who were following Christ, that had a beam in their eye, a 2x4, these are the few. The ones that had the speck in their eye, these are the many. But how can that be?That doesn’t make sense. It makes sense if you understand that this parable is part of the first two verses.
 
Why is He berating them here a little bit? I mean He’s not just casually talking, as He says.

Mat 7:5  You hypocrite (He‘s calling His own disciples hypocrites), first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shalt you see clearly to cast out the mote out of your brother's eye.

Now follow this. They’re JUDGING their brothers!

They’re saying I think I see a speck in your eye, I think I see a character flaw, I think I see a sin in you, that needs attention. Let me see if I can get that out of there for you, while I’ve got a beam in my own eye. But I want to make this judgment here you see, I see a problem with you, let me correct it.

Jesus Christ said.

Mat 7:1  JUDGE NOT...

That’s what’s wrong with all this. That’s what’s wrong with looking in your brother’s eye and saying I think I see some character flaw in there, let me help you get those out of there.

[Question asked about criticism] Criticizing is a negative thing. You have to know what the attitude of heart is, certainly.

But how far do you carry this, down to your own children? You see a problem with your own children, but you can’t tell it to them, because you will be judging them? No. This has to do with a negative judgment rather than positive. That’s why He said.

Mat 7:1  …that you be not judged.
v. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

You see. But if you are judging your child out of love... I would want that kind of judgment to be judged by on me. I would want to be judged with the same kindness of heart I would try to judge my children with. You see. 

But Christ is presenting this from more of a negative aspect, you see. So He says, “Don’t judge.” He says right behind that, why would you go and look at your brother and say let me get that mote out of your eye, when you have a big timber in your own eye. He said.

Matt 5:7  Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

The problem is with the disciple. He is not calling the brother who got a speck in his eye a hypocrite, is He? No. He’s calling one of His disciples that would try to get a speck out of a brother's eye, He’s calling him the hypocrite.

What is the problem here? The problem is this. We look at this as being literal. As I’m giving you this story, you're thinking of a person with a little speck in his eye. Are you not? Sure you are. But then you're thinking, but that means a sin or character flaw. But then I’m talking about this big beam and you're thinking, yea I know it’s like some big character flaw. But your still thinking pretty physical, because when it comes to "cast out the beam in your on eye," your thinking, 'yea, well whatever this character flaw or sin is, get rid of that.'

But it doesn’t work that way. You don’t get rid of a beam by just pulling it out and throwing it away, no. It’s going to take a long time to get that beam out, because it’s big. This represents big sins, big character flaws, huge shortcomings. It’s not like you can pull it out of your eye and it’s gone. It’s going to take time.

Well then, why does He use the analogy of the eye? Where does the real sin come from? The eye? The HEART! 

Why didn’t Jesus Christ say, why do you try to purify your brother’s heart, of some small sin, when you got a heart that is corrupt? Why didn’t He say that? That’s more in keeping with where the sin comes from, right, the heart?
 
There’s more to this 'parable' than meets the eye (pun intended). He could have said something like that, you know... 'why are you trying to purity your brother’s heart, of some sin and your heart is so corrupt. First clean up your own corrupt heart, and then you will have the proper disposition to correct your brother, that has a problem in his heart.' Doesn’t that make more sense, since that is where the problem initiates.

Mat 15:19  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

But out of the HEART. Isn’t that where we should go to clean it up? Isn’t that where you will have a splinter and the big log, is in the heart? Why the eye? Because there is more to these parables than you see initially on the surface. 

Because it is we, the carnal mind, that lives by SIGHT, right? Paul says if you live by faith, that you don’t live by sight or perception (actually the word in Gk. is perception).  He said, for we live by faith, not by perception (2 Cor 5:7). Perception is what you see, the King James translates it "sight," that’s good, that’s a good word.

2Co 5:7  (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Now, so people who are carnal look at things through sight of the eyes, physical appearances, rather than through faith and the spirit. If you are going to use physical eyes to look at physical things... if you put something big in your eye (like a beam), you won’t be able to see very clearly, will you. I mean you can have a speck in your eye and you can still drive a car. It may be blinking and watering a little, but you can still drive a car. But you can’t do anything if you have a beam in your eye. It hinders your eyesight, when you are looking through a beam in your eye, to your brother eye. It’s just a miracle that you can see a speck. 

But I’m telling you, why you’ll only see a speck. Because you’re not living by faith and your living by sight and the carnality of the mind, through sight and what you see. When that sight is impeded you don’t see very well, so you think your brother has a speck in his eye, he does not. He has a beam in his eye too. But you can’t see it with a beam in your eye. Are you following this? You can’t see it with a beam in your eye. If you get that beam out and you say, 'OH! I thought it was a speck, it’s a beam!'

Believe it or not this is going someplace.

[Craig]

                                                                                            Guilty/page 2

Now in Rom. 2 I had trouble understanding a couple of these verses for a long time.

Rom 2:1  Therefore you have no excuse, O man…  

Do you know what Paul had in mind when he said “O man?”  He’s talking about the carnal of the carnal, he’s talking about humanity in the world, about total uncovering, total carnality.  O man, you know he uses that phrase again in Romans 9.

Rom. 9:20  But who are you, O man, that answers against God,

See? God can form man anyway He wants to "who are you O man."

Rom 2:1  Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself…

Is this beam and speck start clearing up a little bit now?  

Rom 2:1 …for you who judge practice the same things…

You know it only appears that you see a beam in your brother's eye, but if you could see clearly instead of that speck or mote, you would see that he too has a beam in his own eye. But you can’t judge him with a beam in your eye. You can’t even see what his faults are, for crying out loud, you have so many yourself. But this is what always got me.

Rom 2:1 …for you who judge practice the same things.


                                        CORRUPT MANKIND

Isn’t it easy to condemn this Hansan guy for killing and raping these little children. Isn’t it easy to almost want to spit in his face. Isn’t it easy.
 
This says, "for you to judge you do the same thing."  Oh come on, I never raped or killed any little children, has any body else here? None of you have done that. But it says...

Rom 2:1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; you judge another you do the same things.
v. 2  But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.
v. 3  And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Twice he mentions it, “You judge another you do the same things.” How can this be? I mean come on, I never raped a child, how can this be? Alright let’s go back to chapter 1.

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of MEN…

That word "men" means humans, human kind or mankind, you could almost put the human race there.

Rom 1:18 …who by their unrighteousness suppress (means hold back) the truth.
v. 19  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

There is a conscience among almost all humanity.

Uday and Qusay (2 sons of Saddam Hussein), they take this pretty girl off a college campus in Iraq. She was engaged to be married, he takes her home and he uses her like a whore. She fights back, because she’s angry that he would do this to her, because she’s engaged to marry another man. Finally he starves his Dobermans for 2 or so weeks, that they are just ravenous and crazy. He tortures her, not only does he rapes her over and over for days or weeks, than he tortures her. Than when she is so beaten down and frightened, he turns the dogs loose on her and they eat her.

Saddam Hussein, who is one of the most corrupt human beings to ever draw breath on this planet, said and I quote, “My son Uday is immoral.”

Now people do stuff like that and Paul says if you judge them, "you do the same things." I don’t know, let’s read a little more.

Rom 1:21  because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
v. 22  Professing to be wise, they became fools,
v. 23  and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
v. 24  Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
v. 25  who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…

Oh yes, the whole church is doing that. The church looks upon God as an old man. It says He has long gray hair... the arm of God... hand of God... and eye of God.  They say He has arms and hands, eyes and everything. They believe that is all literal, that God is an old man and even if they don’t put Him in the very physical image of a man they certainly do mentally and morally.

I mean they gave God a totally perverted and demented personality and character and then they turn it around and say that demented, evil, foul attitude of this God of theirs is to be worshipped. You don’t see how sick this is? You don’t see the utter sickness of Christianity? It is so sick!

Yet millions of them are doing wonderful works and good deeds and helping the poor and doing all these things. There’s got to be something there, you know Satan appears as an angel of light. The "woman" appears as an angel of light decked with gold and silver, riding on the beast. She looks pretty good, she’s wealthy, she’s not some slut off the street, not this whore. This whore is wealthy you know and all decked with silver and gold. You read that back in Rev. 11.  Continuing on.  

Rom 1:24  Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies between themselves,

Notice it said God gave them up, well you say that this is the work of God and it is, God gave them up to uncleanness. How did He do it though?
 
People accuse me day and night on my site; they say, 'you say God makes people rape little children, is that what you are saying Ray?' They know I’m not, but they like to gleam from my teachings and that’s the bottom line of what your saying. 

“God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts…” God doesn’t have to make people sin, they volunteer, they’re sinning machines. I’ve said so many times mankind is SINNING MACHINES!

I think it was Hosea Ballou, Pastor of the Universalist Church and society of Rockberry, and a writer back in 1700s or some time ago. But I think it was Hosea Ballou who came up with the analogy and it’s a very fine analogy. He said God is Like the rays of the sun and Jesus is, like I mentioned yesterday, that Jesus is the Son of God. But not only the S-o-n, but the S-u-n of God, the brightness of the sun, you see. So we liken God to the rays of the sun, this bright radiant warmth that gives light and heat and causes things to grow and all these wonderful things from the rays of the sun.
 
But ironically in the evening, when the sun goes down it gets colder and towards morning it gets damp. There’s often times dew on the grass, wet, damp and cold. Aha, I think I have God figured out now. When the sun is up, it’s not damp, it’s not wet, it’s not cold, it’s not dark. When the sun goes down it’s cold, damp and dark. Therefore the sun is the cause of dampness, cold and darkness. How do you like that?  Because when the sun’s up you don’t have those things, and when the sun goes down you have them. Therefore this darkness is caused by the sun. No, that’s wrong. That’s the way some people understand theology.  

It’s when the sun is gone the automatic results is, it’s dark, cold and damp. The sun didn’t cause it. It’s when the sun comes up that the sun takes it away. It’s not when the sun goes down it causes it to come. It always been there, it’s the sun that takes it away, it’s not the sun causes it to come and that’s the way God is.

When God removes His beams of light from mankind they become cold and damp and dark. Is that hard to understand? It's automatic, God does not have to supernaturally make it dark on one side of the earth when the sun is on the other side. God doesn’t have to do that it’s automatic.

God doesn’t have to force anybody to sin, it’s automatic. Yes God brings about the circumstances, “Wherefore God gave them up…” (Rom. 1:26). Yes He did, He’s behind it. But He did it through the lusts of their own hearts. He didn’t force anybody to do anything.

He did not have to force Hansan to torture these little children, to kill them or to rape them or whatever all he did with them. All He had to do was let him have the opportunity and he would do it. This man had that mentality, okay.

Rom 1:25  who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
v. 26  For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

You know what? Let me just tell you something. Do you know why there are more homosexuals now? I have so many homosexuals write to me and say, ‘Ray you are one of the few people on this earth that doesn’t understand that we’re not caused. We don’t choose this, we are ‘born’ with this.' You know I will say, you know how come there were a whole lot less homosexuals back at World War II, than there are today? What happened there, with this ‘born’ theory? Now don’t get me wrong, there were some back in the 40’s, but not many, not like today.  

SIN BEGETS SIN!
 
There certainly are a whole lot more lesbians, then there ever were back in the 40’s or 50’s. The more people who are doing it, the easier it is for those who have any inclinations, to just jump right in there.  Everybody’s doing it, it’s acceptable now, and why even the government can’t discriminate against you, so let’s do it. See, perversion begets perversion.

Rom 1:27  Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
v. 28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind (a mind void of judgment), to do those things which are not fitting;
v. 29  being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
v. 30  backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
v. 31  undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;

I mean what else can you add to this? There’s nothing else that you can add to this. Paul knew what he was doing when he went on and on and on, he knew what he was doing. He’s talking about you, "O man!"

Rom 1:32  who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things, are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Rom 2:1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

What "same things?" All of this filth! Well some might say I didn’t see child molesters in there, and it didn’t say how old these women and these men were. Don’t think they’re not in there, there in there.

Turn to Genesis 6.

Gen 6:5, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Wow that’s a mouthful isn’t it. Let’s read it again. “And God saw that the wickedness of man (mankind, humanity) was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Wow there’s a lot of badness there, that’s a lot of bad stuff. What did Christ say.

Luke 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noah, so it also shall be...

You know this whole thing has so crept up on us that many of us haven’t even seen it coming. Don’t even see it now. Don’t realize the extent of the perversion and evil in the world. But it’s here, it creeps up.

You know one generation fades into another and they just kinda accept what is here when they were born, right? Our great grand parents, most of them are pretty long gone now. But if they could see today, they would just be shocked. They were carnal too, but they would be shocked at today’s perversion. It’s pretty bad.

Rom 2:3 And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

He’s saying absolutely not. Now the whole council of God, "the sum of Thy Word is true" (Psa 119:160). Let’s get to it here. 

Now you are all familiar with the scripture, “for where there is no law there is no transgression (infraction of the law)," (Rom 4:15), right? It says the law was added, because of a lot of sin. Now God made codes that said, you're not going to get away with this any more, because this is bad and this is bad and this is really bad. So they won’t get away with things anymore. So they added the law to make sin really appear to be sinful. But notice what James says, and maybe we never got this before.

James 2:7  Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
v. 8  If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well;
v. 9  but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
v. 10  For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all (or it can read, liable to the punishment, the penalty).


                           IF YOU BREAK ONE, YOU'RE GUILTY OF ALL!

Now let’s just think about this a little bit. We always thought about this verse on a level about here. You know you break one, you’re guilty of them all. We thought like, 'well I guess if you committed adultery and God said you shouldn’t, so I guess you dishonor God and so you break the first commandment or something like that.'

But does this verse mean what it says, if you break one, you’re guilty of all? Are you ahead of me yet? Do you know where I’m going with this?  Some are figuring it out.

If you break one point of God’s royal Law, you are guilty of all!

I said yesterday I want us to see why we really need to repent, and see just how serious it is in God’s sight. I know God will eventually take everybody to be where they need to go, but sometimes God accelerates things, by the foolishness of preaching. That’s what I am doing.

Maybe you're going to see something here that you never conceived of before. That is if you break one point of His law... we’re not talking about the spiritual law here. You know how Christ made the law so much higher than Moses' law. One says don’t commit this sin, Christ said don’t even THINK it, okay. Much higher law. If you break one point, your GUILIY of all! Now back to Romans.

Rom. 2:1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

How can Paul say that everybody in here is a child molester and a murderer? How can he say that? Because if you break one point of the law you’re guilty of all!

Let me ask you, is it against the law of God to sexually molest and kill little children? It’s against the law isn’t it. If you offend and break this law, you are guilty of what? ALL! Which includes sexually molesting and killing little children or am I a heretic. Now I didn’t say that we did that. Because I know I didn’t and I know you didn’t. It doesn’t say, if you break one point you ‘commit’ breaking of all the law. It says you’re ‘guilty’ of all. You're guilty of all and here’s what we have to understand.

The only reason we haven’t literally molested little children and cut their head off, is because GOD PREVENTS IT! One scripture says God frames evil (Jer 18:11). You know what it is when you put a frame around something, you know frame it. He frames evil, so it won’t go totally out of control. What appears to be out of control today in the world, is actually framed. God knows how far it’s going. Nothing is out of control.

How many of you have ever come this close (thumb and index fingers together) to death and was just instantly spared? How many came really close to doing something really dumb and embarrassing, then something happened and spared you.

I went out on a Sat. night after I had about 3-4 shots of Scotch. In my new Cadillac Coupe DeVille and I was looking for trouble... didn’t find it. I’m serious. I was ready, had my best blazer on, had my Austrian Kangaroo boots on and went out cruising. You know to bars or whatever looking for trouble, you know what I mean. Didn’t find it. It was so frustrating to go home alone, what am I a social failure, you know. But thank God.  

Thank God, there was maybe many, many times when I was hell bent on destruction and God prevented me. Twice, not once but twice, I pulled up at a intersection and I looked to the left and I looked to the right and I pulled out. Swoosh... I mean we were so close the paint changed color, without hitting. I thought, well I just died. God except for Your grace, that’s when I died, right there. Twice I did that. One time I looked and I floored it, so I was coming on across there. Swoosh... I mean I was shaking. I just died. Except for the grace of God, I just died. How many times did that happen when we don’t even know that it is close, you see?

So don’t take credit for the fact that you didn’t molest children and kill them. You weren’t lead down that evil alley. You weren’t born into the family that would cause you to go down that alley. You weren’t always frustrated to the point where you were just hell bent on just doing some evil foul thing like that. God prevented it.

God makes vessels of honor and dishonor. He makes vessels of dishonor and then has mercy on the other vessels. Some He hardens and some He has mercy on. He has had mercy on everybody in this room. If you have never killed anybody or molested children or done any of these horrendous things. He has great mercy on your life. Now we need to be thankful for that and not assume we don’t have very much to repent of. We have to repent of what? "O man," that’s what we have to repent of.

Whatever "O man" is. That’s what we are, because "O man" is Adam. "O man" came out of Adam.  Where did you come from, some place else? We’re all out of Adam. What does Adam do? "Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters" and on and on (Rom 1:29-31). Wow! This is "O man" out of Adam. This is what he does and only by the grace of God, some of us didn’t have to go that route.

We can repent now and turn wholeheartedly to God. So be thankful we’re not this Hansan character, who killed and molested those children. Now he's looking to lethal injection and what comes after lethal injection? THE LAKE OF FIRE!

Do you know how blessed you are, to be able to sit here and hear about this stuff and we don’t have to be apart of it? But some of us are superficial. We only take this a little serious. It’s like when I started out. 

Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord, whosoever goes through that door, whosoever believes. Let’s take the first one, we found out what calling on the name of the Lord involves.
 
End of audio

[Kat]

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