Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbur
Series Code: TKS
Program Code: TKS000022
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00:29 Hello, my name is Dwayne Lemon. And I'm Lance Wilbur.
00:32 And we like to welcome you to another program on TKS, 00:35 a True Knowledge of Self, 00:37 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective. 00:40 We have been going into the Word of God 00:42 from our last program, where we were looking 00:44 at some of the things 00:46 that individuals can read in the scripture. 00:48 And sometimes, it appears as if it may say 00:52 something different from the teachings 00:54 that has been shared on some of our programs. 00:56 Especially, since we've been focusing quite a bit 00:59 on the role of appetite and how it affects us, 01:02 not just physically, 01:03 but also mentally and spiritually. 01:06 And as a result of that, 01:07 this becomes a very serious subject 01:09 and it's a serious subject to God 01:11 and we've demonstrated that 01:12 through the scanning through of His Word 01:14 but we also want to share these things with you in a way 01:17 that by God's grace it can be clear. 01:19 Therefore, we wanted to consider 01:20 some of the questions 01:22 that typically come in people's minds, 01:23 when it comes to what does the Bible say 01:26 about the Book of Acts 10, 01:29 where there's a story about things 01:31 that were once known to be unclean 01:33 but now God cleaned them up. 01:35 So, okay. 01:36 It's okay to eat today, and it's all right 01:37 and you know, and we have this kind of verses 01:39 that can appear on the surface. 01:42 It can appear as if it's a contradiction. 01:45 It can appear as if something has been phased out, 01:47 where something new has come in. 01:49 But this is why the Bible never, 01:51 you know the Word of God has never encouraged us 01:53 to read the scriptures. 01:54 It says in 2 Timothy, 2:15, "Study to show thy self, 01:58 approved unto God that we can be workman 02:00 that need not be ashamed, 02:02 rightly dividing the word of truth." 02:06 And the method that God gives us to do that 02:09 is a method of line upon line, 02:11 preset upon preset, here a little, there a little. 02:14 Letting the Bible interpret itself 02:17 and therefore, we've been looking at 02:18 what the Bible has to say on these various subjects 02:21 as it relates to appetite, 02:22 how does it affect us, how does it affect us 02:24 in our urban communities? 02:25 How does it affect those of us who have been influenced 02:27 by the things that we call pleasure 02:29 in the name of hip-hop and R&B culture? 02:31 'Cause eating and drinking is definitely part of it. 02:33 We're going to be touching on eating today 02:35 but also drinking too, and we're going to look at that 02:37 and how it correlates to the experiences 02:39 that we have in our day-to-day lives 02:41 in urban society. 02:42 Lance, we were right there at Acts 10, I mean I could, 02:46 I can imagine our viewers like at the edge of their seat, 02:49 just getting ready to fall off because we really left them 02:51 on a cliffhanger. 02:52 We left them right there, where you were going through 02:54 the story of Acts 10 and you were, 02:57 we were addressing the question of 02:59 "Are there examples in the Bible 03:02 where God may have referred to a food item 03:06 as unclean in times past, 03:08 but then later on at some point in time 03:10 God suddenly cleaned it up?" 03:12 And Acts 10 is one of those pivotal chapters in the Bible 03:15 that individual say, "Yes, see here, 03:17 it's right here, God, 03:18 the things that were once unclean, 03:20 now they're clean." 03:21 Yeah. 03:22 And you were going through this passage of scripture 03:24 this chapter to kind of help us understand 03:27 what's going on in the Book of Acts 10? 03:29 What's the story drop behind it? 03:30 And then of course going through the verses carefully. 03:33 Now when you were doing it beforehand, 03:36 you were, you know, you were going through it 03:38 but we were moving a little quickly 03:39 'cause I know we were reaching towards the end of our program 03:41 and it might be worth it to just review 03:44 a little more slowly Acts 10, and we'll go through 03:47 some of those verses to carefully look 03:49 at what was happening in the experience of Cornelius 03:52 and Peter, the vision, the things that were unclean, 03:55 and what God called clean and, of course, what it means today? 03:58 So why don't you go ahead and build with us on that? 04:00 Again we're looking at Acts 10 and I'm just going to, 04:04 you know, walk through and paint the picture, 04:06 you can follow along there. 04:08 I'm not going to read every single verse. 04:09 Right. 04:10 I'll just kind of highlight what's happening. 04:12 So this is post crucifixion, the apostles have received, 04:17 and the followers of Christ have received the Holy Spirit, 04:20 3,000 were baptized, 5,000 were baptized. 04:23 The message is going out to the world, 04:25 both to Jew and non-Jew. 04:28 All right, now, what had been entrenched 04:31 in the minds of the Israelites, not through the Bible 04:34 but through corrupt leadership and it's still through 04:38 the various alternative writings, 04:40 the Talmud, the Mishnah, 04:42 where they had kind of enacted these rigorous fanatical, 04:47 if you will laws and kind of made that elevated 04:51 that above the Bible to a certain extent. 04:53 That's where the Rabbis were trained through the Talmud, 04:56 and that became the law. 04:57 The Pharisees and you can consider the scribes 05:00 and the Pharisees. 05:01 They were of that group. 05:03 And it was clearly taught from a little child 05:07 that although in the Bible, God says that His people 05:09 were to be the lights to the gentiles. 05:12 They were to be His witnesses. 05:14 He called, He raised them up for His glory 05:17 and He designed them to give them the truth, 05:20 only so that they could live it and give it to the world. 05:24 That's right. 05:26 He chose to partner with humanity with this people 05:30 that he called from nowhere, 05:31 this obscure tribe of wandering individuals. 05:35 And He chose them and wanted to elevate them 05:36 above every nation on the earth, 05:38 not for their own prestige and pride, 05:41 but so they could carry the gospel to the world. 05:43 Right. 05:44 The message of salvation to the world, 05:46 even in Old Testament times, right? 05:50 They had taken this now 05:51 and twisted it to protect the truth. 05:55 And keep it from defilement and keep it from infection 05:59 from other tribes. 06:00 So they began to literally categorize 06:04 non-Jews as unclean. 06:08 And so they would be in the same category 06:10 as the pig, or as the camel, or as the dog, 06:15 that not only if I ate it, 06:16 it would make me unclean, it would defile me, 06:18 but if I even touched it 06:20 or even sat down and ate with it, 06:21 or I went into its house any, shook hands with it, 06:24 any interaction whatsoever, even walked the same path, 06:27 it got to that extent. 06:29 They were treated like dogs and like unclean animals. 06:33 And they even referred to them as such. 06:35 So they had gotten into this, this mindset 06:39 and institutionalized rebellion if you will and corruption, 06:43 and Peter is affected by this. 06:45 And some of the rest of the apostles are affected 06:47 by this idea that, well, 06:50 if a non-Jew wants to follow Christ, 06:54 don't they have to become circumcised? 06:56 Don't they have to follow the laws, 06:58 and all the laws like they had understood it, 07:00 as taught from the Pharisees? 07:02 Don't they have to follow all these things 07:03 in order to be part of our fellowship? 07:05 And it got to the point where Peter, 07:08 he as a faithful Jew of the time, 07:11 he would not share space with the Roman. 07:13 Romans were the apex of apostate 07:16 and wickedness, apostasy, and wickedness, 07:20 and evil in regards to humanity, 07:22 because they were the imperial force 07:23 that was occupying Israel. 07:25 They believed that they were the persecuting power 07:28 or the prophesied and that the Messiah 07:29 was going to come out and wipe out the Romans. 07:32 So at the same time as Peter is kind of harboring 07:36 and perpetuating this misconception 07:39 in his own life, 07:40 you have an individual Cornelius, 07:43 and Cornelius is a Roman officer, 07:45 a centurion, a highly ranking Roman officer in the military. 07:49 And he actually has a relationship with God. 07:52 He has accepted the teachings of the Bible 07:54 through the Israelites. 07:56 And he's taught his household to do the same. 07:59 And he's there praying, he is going to his worship 08:01 however that was. 08:02 An angel, God sends a messenger to him. 08:05 And tells him, "You need to go 08:08 and send for a man named Peter." 08:10 And by the way, this man named Peter 08:11 is in this particular city. 08:13 He's in this particular house. 08:14 He's on this street, gives him the address 08:16 and to go find him. 08:17 This is whose house he's staying at 08:19 and this is the street it's on in the city. 08:21 So he immediately sends his servants 08:23 to go bring this man Peter because God has said, 08:26 you need to bring Peter here to deliver a certain message. 08:29 He has a message for you in your home. 08:31 So at this time as the messengers are on route 08:35 to find Peter and bring him back to Cornelius's home. 08:38 Peter is meditating and having worship, 08:42 if you will, and God sends a vision to Peter. 08:46 And this vision is a curtain or sheet comes and falls 08:51 and comes, descends out of heaven 08:53 and on the sheet are unclean animals. 08:55 You know the snakes, and the rodents, 08:57 and the bugs and creeping things, 08:58 all manner of unclean animals 09:01 like is described in Leviticus 11. 09:04 So all the unclean animals are coming down in this sheet 09:07 and a voice from heaven, 09:08 as Peter is looking at these things 09:09 and probably disgusted, right? 09:11 And afraid that he's going to be defiled. 09:13 A voice comes from heaven and says 09:15 "Arise, Peter, kill and eat." 09:18 And Peter immediately says 09:20 "Not so, I'm not going to do that, 09:21 I've never even eaten any of these things, 09:24 not even touched them." 09:25 And then the voice from heaven says 09:27 "What God has cleansed that call not thou common." 09:30 Don't call that common. 09:32 He says, "I've never eaten anything common or unclean." 09:34 He says, "What God has cleansed, 09:36 don't refer to as common or unclean." 09:38 And he said it three times, the Bible says. 09:41 And then he says 09:42 that at the tail end of this exchange, 09:44 the voice from heaven says, 09:46 "Listen, there's going to be men 09:47 coming to knock at the door, they're downstairs right now." 09:50 And they've come and they're going to ask you 09:52 to go with them. 09:53 I want you to go down and go with them, 09:55 nothing doubting. 09:57 Don't doubt it, for I've sent them. 09:59 So Peter now is just seeing this vision 10:01 and literally, you know the knocks at the door. 10:04 And he has to go down 10:06 and he has to go with these men. 10:07 You know potentially these non-Jewish men 10:09 to a Romans officer's house. 10:12 He gets to the house and as he shares 10:16 this exchange now with Cornelius. 10:18 He eventually tells him the story of the gospel. 10:21 Cornelius and his whole entire household are baptized 10:23 and filled with the Holy Spirit. 10:25 The same way that the Jewish apostles 10:27 and the Jewish followers of Christ, 10:28 the 120 in that upper room, about 120 in the upper room 10:33 in Acts 2 were filled with the Holy Ghost. 10:36 Now this Roman, this gentile is filled with the Holy Ghost 10:41 in all of his house. 10:42 And Peter summarizes this vision and the experience, 10:48 and the lesson that God was teaching him 10:50 through the vision with the unclean animals. 10:52 And he summarizes it in verse 28. 10:54 So I want to read from Acts 10:28 to show 10:58 what the Bible says, what Peter says of himself 11:00 was the meaning of the vision. 11:02 Okay. All Right? 11:03 So Acts 10:28, it says, "And he said unto them..." 11:10 Peter is speaking now 11:11 to the gentiles of Cornelius' home. 11:15 "And he said unto to them, he know how that it is unlaw 11:19 and unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, 11:23 or to come unto one of another nation. 11:27 But God hath showed me that I should not call 11:31 any man common or unclean." 11:36 I mean, it's mind-boggling. 11:37 When I first read this for the very first time, 11:39 my mind was astounded. 11:40 Oh, yeah. 11:41 So the vision of all the unclean animals 11:43 literally didn't represent unclean animals 11:46 and creepy things. 11:47 It literally represented non-Jews. 11:51 And Peter understood this. He got the lesson. 11:54 And he said, God has showed me in that vision 11:57 that I am not to call, you know, 11:59 it's, number one it's unlawful. 12:00 You know that is unlawful for a Jew to enter into a house 12:04 or to share space with a non-Jew, 12:06 but God has showed me that I should not call 12:08 any man common or unclean. 12:12 This is what Acts 10 is talking about. 12:15 It's not talking about, it's now God has cleansed 12:18 unclean animals, he was talking about Peter, 12:21 you need to let go of this bigotry. 12:23 You need to let go of your racism. 12:25 And you need to carry this message to the gentiles. 12:28 And I need to show you this vision to let you know 12:31 that I have blessed the gentiles. 12:34 I have cleansed the gentiles and it's now time for them 12:37 to receive the light of the gospel. 12:40 Well, you know, I see two lessons coming out of it. 12:42 Number one, I see the clarification on 12:45 what we were going to call the argument. 12:46 The argument is, well, you're showing me 12:49 from the Bible that there's all these unclean animals 12:52 that God says we're not supposed to eat. 12:54 So the first one is, well, 12:56 this pertains only to Jewish people. 12:57 Yeah. 12:59 Well, then we go ahead and say, "Well, how could that be?" 13:00 When we look at Genesis 7 and we see it very clearly, 13:03 that before there was ever a Jewish person 13:04 who walked on this earth, there animals were 13:06 still designated as clean and unclean. 13:08 Right. 13:10 So therefore, it is not a Jewish teaching. 13:12 It was a teaching for humanity 13:14 that there are animals that are clean, 13:15 there are animals that are unclean. 13:16 Why did they go into the ark? 13:18 Because there were no garbage can systems 13:20 or anything like that 13:21 and God knew that once this whole flood situation 13:23 was going to be over, eventually, 13:26 when mankind begins to populate or repopulate the earth, 13:29 there's going to be waste. 13:30 There's going to be, you know, 13:32 the natural things that make up life. 13:33 And therefore, they were the scavengers of the land, 13:35 the scavengers of the sea, 13:36 the scavengers that fly through the air. 13:38 And these were the instruments. These were the garbage cans. 13:40 And therefore, it was a necessity 13:43 for these animals to be preserved 13:45 and that's why God had them to go into the ark, 13:46 not for them to be eaten. 13:48 Right. 13:49 Well, here it is, now we fast forward 13:51 all the way down to the time of Acts 10. 13:52 And we see, yes, Peter did have a vision 13:54 and yes, God did definitely use 13:56 unclean animals to represent something. 13:59 And he says, "Go ahead and eat." 14:01 Peter says, "No, never eat anything common or unclean." 14:04 God says, "Don't call anything that I have cleansed." 14:08 Now see, that's key. Yeah. 14:10 In 1 John 1:7, it says that 14:14 "The blood of Christ cleanses us from our sins." 14:17 Yeah. 14:19 That is the story of redemption, 14:21 and that's why I mention in times past, 14:24 show me one verse in the Bible 14:25 where God came to redeem animals. 14:28 You don't see that in the scripture. 14:30 You see that God came to redeem people. 14:32 The blood of Christ was spilt, so that man may be 14:36 cleansed from his sins and be reunited with God. 14:39 And this is why it would be ludicrous to think 14:42 that in Acts 10 that God suddenly wanted 14:46 to clean up animals that were once unclean, 14:49 for what purpose? 14:50 So that our bellies that growl for it can be satisfied? 14:52 Right. 14:53 God forbid, that is not, 14:55 that is not faithful study of the scripture. 14:57 And that's why I said before, we have to go back 15:00 to a faithful study of the scripture. 15:02 How to study the Bible? 15:04 This is why I appreciate when you give the backdrop. 15:06 You give the story, 15:07 you're not making this stuff up. 15:08 It's in the Bible and when we understand that, 15:11 that's not... We can look at it sensibly. 15:13 You know God believes in that. 15:15 That's why He says in Isaiah 1:18, 15:16 "Let us reason together." 15:18 God says in Proverbs 23:1, He says, 15:21 "When you sit to eat with the king, 15:23 consider diligently what is set before you." 15:25 God believes in us using our brains, 15:27 that's why He gave it to us. 15:29 He wants us to think and to reason and to consider. 15:32 When we consider Acts 10, there is no way 15:36 that a faithful student of the scripture, 15:38 I believe can honestly look at that whole chapter, 15:43 follow the storyline and conclude 15:45 especially after reading verse 28, 15:48 where Peter literally is using the very words from the vision. 15:52 God hath shown me that I should not call any man, 15:56 not an animal, man common or unclean. 15:59 I mean, it's very, very clear. 16:01 Right, now is it possible 'cause I know in my experience, 16:03 I saw things from the Bible that even though 16:07 intellectually I said, "Well, yes this is what it, 16:10 yes, this is true. 16:11 This is what it is." 16:12 But I wasn't already to follow it. 16:14 Oh, yes. I wasn't ready to live it out. 16:15 And you know one of the great reasons for that 16:16 is because we have something that is called tradition. 16:20 And tradition is very, very strong. 16:23 The reason we know is strong is because 16:24 Jesus was killed because of it. 16:26 Jesus was breaking the traditions of 16:29 what was being done amidst the Jewish nation 16:31 and this infuriated the Pharisees to the point 16:34 that they literally said "We must kill him." 16:36 They killed the embodiment of truth in the name of truth. 16:39 Yeah. 16:40 That's how powerful tradition is. 16:41 So we find that because of tradition if I grew up 16:44 with a certain kind of religious influence 16:46 or if I grew up with certain kinds of habits. 16:49 When someone introduces something 16:51 that's literally going to cause a change 16:53 or a shift to take away that habit 16:55 or that religious tradition that I've been holding 16:57 all these years, it's very difficult for people 17:01 and they need the grace of God. 17:02 And this is why again, 17:03 I love the way we're approaching this 17:05 because this is not an issue of condemnation. 17:07 Yeah. This is an issue of education. 17:08 Yeah. 17:10 And we are educating people so that they may understand 17:13 that this is what God says, this is what He requires 17:17 but then of course there's always implementation, 17:19 you know, I have to apply this now. 17:20 Yeah. 17:21 And when I apply this teaching in my life, 17:25 I need power and I thank God that the Bible says, 17:28 "The gospel is God's power." 17:31 God can come in our hearts and through the power of choice 17:35 and the indwelling of the Spirit of God, 17:37 I can make a decision and choose to follow the path 17:41 of the Lord, even though it causes a change 17:44 in my tradition or my lifestyle. 17:46 Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 15, He said, 17:48 "In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines 17:52 the commandments of men." 17:54 Right. 17:55 We must cease to be reflectors of other men's thoughts, 17:57 now we must reflect the thoughts of Christ. 18:00 Right, and so and we have to understand, 18:01 we're not just talking about willpower here. 18:04 No. 18:05 And we'll be talking in future episodes 18:06 about righteousness by faith. 18:08 That's right. What that really means. 18:09 Yes, sir. 18:10 We're not talking about I, 18:12 there's plenty of individuals out there 18:13 with extreme discipline. 18:14 Oh, yeah. 18:16 Extreme discipline and they could say, you know, 18:17 Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler. 18:19 He says, "Listen, I've kept all the commandments 18:21 from my youth. 18:22 What else do I have to do?" 18:23 You know, in other words, what else I have to do 18:25 to be a part of your group or to inherit eternal life? 18:28 And Jesus said, "All right, sell everything that you have 18:32 and give to the poor," and the man walked away. 18:37 He wasn't prepared to do that. 18:39 So it's not about me... 18:41 My will power helping me to discipline myself 18:44 through this to obtain something. 18:46 That which we obtain the gift of God 18:48 is through Jesus Christ. 18:49 Yes. 18:50 We don't work ourselves up to receive these gifts, 18:53 but once we receive it and as we receive it, 18:56 God continually wants to bless us. 18:59 That's right. He wants to strengthen us. 19:00 He wants to increase our borders. 19:02 He wants to develop us and allow us to grow. 19:05 And this knowledge is progressive, 19:07 but as we continue to walk with God, 19:09 he's going to educate us, 19:11 educate us, teach us and teach us. 19:13 And then say, "By the way even though, 19:14 I'm introducing this new concept 19:16 and I do require you to follow this light 19:18 that I now have revealed to you, 19:20 I have done it already and I'm going to give you 19:23 the power to follow where you're not on your own." 19:24 That's right. 19:26 Now, you know, I like to express 19:28 what God wants to accomplish in us 19:30 to really give us a true knowledge of self, 19:32 help us understand the difference 19:33 between knowledge of self which is me. 19:35 I'm the God, I'm the one that can do it, 19:37 in comparison to true knowledge of self 19:38 which recognizes Lord, I see what You're calling me to do 19:41 but I can't do it without You. 19:43 I don't have that strength, I need You. 19:45 Now think about this. 19:46 I'm gonna throw a scenario at you. 19:47 Imagine this, there's a family, the family is made up 19:51 of a husband, wife and two children. 19:53 And they love each other. 19:54 They love each other, they have beautiful communion. 19:56 They've been married for years. 19:57 A time eventually comes 19:59 where one of the spouses commit adultery. 20:03 Now it's a bad thing. Yeah. 20:04 And when the spouse commits adultery, 20:06 they leave the home and they go ahead 20:07 and move with the other partner 20:09 and they live this adulterous life. 20:11 So the other spouse now is left home with the children, 20:14 broken home, sad situation. 20:16 Eventually, the spouse who went away 20:19 committing adultery realizes what I've done is wrong. 20:23 I've allowed my home to get broken. 20:25 I've ruined the hearts of my spouse and my children. 20:28 You know what? I need to get things right. 20:31 And they go back to the home now. 20:34 And they go back to the home and they ask that spouse 20:35 to say, "Listen, I realize what I did was wrong, 20:37 can you please forgive me and can we please try 20:40 to rebuild our marriage?" 20:41 Now, let's say the spouse who was faithful 20:47 is willing to rebuild the marriage 20:49 with the offending spouse, right? 20:52 Imagine this and I want you to imagine this, 20:54 let's do a little role play on this. 20:55 Let's say you're the offended spouse. 20:57 Yeah. 20:58 And let's say I'm the one 20:59 who committed this adultery, right? 21:01 Okay. Now watch this. 21:02 Let's say, I'm coming to you and I'm saying, 21:04 "Oh, please forgive me so and so forth," 21:06 and let's say you are willing to forgive, right? 21:08 Okay. 21:09 What if I said or the spouse says 21:11 something like this "Wonderful! 21:14 Thank you so much for being willing to forgive me. 21:16 Here's what we're going to do, 21:17 because we have a basement in our house. 21:19 I'm going to go ahead and take the person 21:21 that I was committing adultery with 21:22 and I'm going to let them live in our house with us, 21:24 and they're going to go ahead 21:25 and stay downstairs in the basement. 21:27 And what I'm going to do is, 21:28 I'm going to spend four days a week with you 21:30 but I'm going to spend three days a week 21:32 with the other person 21:33 because you know it would be devastating 21:35 if I just ended the relationship cold turkey. 21:37 So I just want to wean them off of the relationship." 21:39 Yeah. 21:40 Now, would you agree to an arrangement like that? 21:41 Absolutely not. Absolutely not! All right. 21:43 Scenario number two, I come to you again and I say, 21:46 okay, fine four days, 21:48 maybe I was being a little overzealous. 21:49 I'll tell you what? 21:51 I'll give you five days a week, five days a week. 21:54 Perfect marriage, happy marriage 21:55 and so on and so forth, 21:57 but then two days a week with the other party, 22:00 just so they can be weaned off of the relationship. 22:03 Would you accept that? 22:04 You're crazy. Okay. 22:05 How about this one? 22:07 Last scenario six days, 21 hours. 22:13 Total relationship. 22:14 Happiness joy and everything else, 22:17 but just three hours a week with the other party. 22:22 Would you agree to that? You're out of your mind. 22:23 Okay. So it's consistent. 22:26 Now would you agree that the only thing 22:28 that would be going on through your mind 22:29 is something to this effect. 22:31 If there is any hope of you 22:34 and your spouse having a reunion, 22:37 it has to be all or nothing, would you agree? 22:41 Yes. Okay, I would think so. 22:43 I would imagine our view is that you probably would be 22:44 saying the same thing. 22:46 You'd be saying, you know, what? 22:47 If there's any hope to rebuild this relationship, 22:49 it's going to have to be all or nothing. 22:53 Now watch this. 22:56 The problem is that God looks at things the same way 23:02 but people still have yet to understand that. 23:05 There are many individuals today who are trying 23:07 to build a relationship or walk with God. 23:10 But they're trying to negotiate it 23:11 on their own terms. 23:13 Some of them are saying to the Lord four days a week, 23:15 I'll be all about holiness and righteousness 23:17 and all sorts of good things, but three days a week 23:19 I want to indulge in my darling sins. 23:21 Right. 23:22 I want to go ahead and play with my sins, 23:23 and God says, "No way." 23:25 Then there are some who say, "Okay, Lord, 23:27 how about five days a week? 23:28 I'll go ahead and I'll do everything you want, 23:30 I'll pray, I'll study, I'll fast, 23:31 I'll do all these things 23:33 but two days a week my darling sin. 23:35 I must indulge and spend some time in it." 23:37 You know what God says, "Never work." 23:40 Some of us go back "Oh, Lord, six days, 21 hours, 23:42 come on, Lord, I'm giving you the majority of me, 23:44 just give me three hours 23:47 that I can just indulge in what I want to do." 23:50 And God says, "Dear child, you don't understand." 23:53 God's will is that when He sent Jesus 23:56 to this earth, the Bible says that when Jesus came, 23:59 He wanted to save man from sin, and the blood of Christ 24:04 cleanses us from all sin, not most sin, 24:08 not a majority of sin but all sin. 24:11 This is what God wants to accomplish 24:13 in the life of mankind and this can only come 24:15 through the righteousness of Christ. 24:17 So individual will look at their lives and they say, 24:19 "Well, I do most things right. 24:20 I have certain disciplines 24:21 but they have those areas in their lives 24:23 where they're still indulging in things 24:25 that are antichrist, anti-bible 24:27 and in truth anti-eternal life." 24:30 And therefore, God is trying 24:31 to impress upon the heart to say, 24:33 "Listen, if you want to really understand 24:35 what it is to be like Me, you must give Me all of you. 24:39 My son, give me thine heart, 24:42 and let thine eyes observe my ways." 24:44 This is the message of God. 24:45 This is what He's trying to bring across to us 24:48 and this is why we cannot piecemeal the gospel. 24:51 We cannot piecemeal and we decide to say 24:54 what is bad, what is good, what is acceptable, 24:57 what is not acceptable. 24:59 We must come like how Jesus came to the Father. 25:01 Yes. 25:03 Jesus when He came to this earth, 25:04 even though He was God, veiled in flesh. 25:08 Jesus made a statement that is very powerful, 25:09 and it's found in the Book of John 5. 25:11 In John 5, I want you to notice what the Bible says 25:14 as we consider John 5:30. 25:17 The Bible says in John 5 and we're looking at verse 30, 25:22 here's what it says, Jesus, when he came to this earth... 25:25 It says in verse 30, 25:27 "I can of my own self do nothing, 25:31 as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, 25:36 because I seek not my own will, 25:39 but the will of the Father which hath sent me." 25:42 You know when a person calls himself a Christian, 25:45 that means that they are to be followers of Christ, 25:48 followers of Christ example. 25:50 The way Jesus walked on this earth, Jesus said, 25:53 "I can do nothing of My own self." 25:56 In and of myself, I can't do anything. 25:58 I have to go to My Father 26:00 and He's the one that empowers and enables. 26:02 And therefore, He said and therefore I'm not here 26:05 to do what I want, He says, 26:06 "I'm here to do what My Father wants." 26:08 And this is why this principle of Christianity 26:11 is always at variance 26:12 with the principles of knowledge of self, 26:14 and the principles of hip-hop culture 26:16 because hip-hop culture to a very large degree 26:18 is about what I want? 26:19 Yeah. How I want it? 26:20 When I wanted, and it's all good 26:22 because there is no absolute truth. 26:24 There's only truth depending on what I feel and what I say. 26:27 And God is trying to make plain to us 26:29 that when we follow the Word, stick to the Word, 26:32 do what the Word of God says, live by the Word. 26:35 This becomes not only a blessing, 26:37 it also is our safeguard. 26:38 Yes. 26:39 And it's designed to help us through these trials of life 26:42 where we find ourselves in realms of confusion. 26:44 So even though we're addressing this point here in Acts 10, 26:46 there's a larger lesson. 26:48 The lesson is, we must stick to the Word of God. 26:51 We must allow the Word of God to be that guide for us, 26:53 to help us know and understand what is truth, 26:56 and then we must walk in the light of that truth 26:58 as Christ is in that light and that truth. 27:00 I mean, this is absolutely... 27:01 Again, even though I know these things, 27:03 it's still elicit response is absolutely amazing. 27:07 Yeah. 27:09 And we'd like to let our viewers know 27:12 that we're going deeper into this subject. 27:15 We've talked a lot about appetite and eating, 27:18 it's because we do a lot of it. 27:19 And we also need to talk about drinking. 27:21 There's some things that we put into our bodies 27:23 outside of the explicit food around that are destroying 27:28 our communities and destroying us 27:30 from top to bottom. 27:32 I want to encourage you to join us again 27:34 and we thank you for viewing TKS, 27:37 a True Knowledge of Self, invite a friend, 27:40 send in your questions. 27:41 And we want to remind you of what the Bible says 27:44 in Proverbs 2:6, 27:47 "It is the Lord who gives wisdom 27:52 and out of His mouth comes knowledge 27:55 and understanding." 27:56 God bless you, and thank you for joining us. |
Revised 2017-09-05