Cecil duCille
June 30, 2009
Internet Broadcast
(Published in Keeping in Touch, September 2009)
(For printable version click here.)
Praise God. We thank God for His goodness and His mercies which endureth forever (Psalms 106:1; 118:1). Thank God for all those who participate to make it possible for me to come to you with the Word of the Lord across the whole world. Thank You, Jesus.
We want to go into the Word on “the mystery of sin and the glory of righteousness.” Let’s turn to Romans 6:1, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 3Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
When we look at the word “sin,” we notice that is it always contrary, opposite to righteousness. If we define the nature of God as being that of righteousness, then it would follow that that which is unrighteousness (sin) is therefore the nature of the devil. So, we find that there is an opposite pole to every thought, every action, every desire, as well as every plan. What this means is that anything and everything outside of what is God/Righteousness must be sin. Now, thoughts, actions and circumstances, can be of man or of the Devil but we understand from the scriptures that anything that is not of God, that is of the flesh or of the Devil, is sin. Therefore, when we try to find out what sin is, we find that the very fact of our redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ means that we were redeemed from sin, we were redeemed from sinning and continuing in sin. So, whatever is not of God is sin. Now, this concept brings a very, very sharp distinction. That is to say that if I should say that I am a free moral agent – I am free to think my thoughts and to do my thing and to walk as I please and to help my family and everything like that – it would mean that I would be living in sin, because I am excluding God from my environment.
Living in sin is the opposite of living in Christ. If a man obeys Christ he is living in Christ, but how can we obey someone whom we cannot see? And how can we obey one whom we cannot hear? And how can we obey one in whom we don’t believe? First of all, to obey Christ we must believe Christ – not only to believe that there is a Christ, but to believe IN Christ so that we know that every thought, every action, every plan is motivated, delivered, sent and executed by the Christ in us and not by the selfish thoughts of our own imagination. So, when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit: there is no space for imagination; there is no space for human conjecture; there is no space for our reason. What this really means is that we become prisoners to truth and righteousness, if we can put it that way, because righteousness, therefore, is no longer just doing right things. Under the law, righteousness was doing right things. You gave to the poor, you gave your body to be burnt; basically, you sacrificed yourself for others. All that looks very good and it is, in a sense, righteousness, but in Christ it cannot be righteousness unless it is motivated by the Spirit of Christ. If, for instance, I give to the poor because I believe that the Lord said that he that giveth to the poor shall receive blessing, and I am motivated to give to the poor in order that I might receive a blessing – then it means that I am not serving God, I am serving a law of giving and receiving.
Over the radio or the television sometimes you hear the ministries that preach that “if you give you will be blessed” and how many people were blessed because they gave so and so and how when one gives so much, he receives back so much in return. I can well see Satan working with this law to capture people. It becomes a psychological trick to capture you. So, one can actually be in sin yet think that he is in righteousness. We can see, therefore, that we must walk in righteousness, obey Christ, in order to be righteous. What is righteousness? Righteousness under the law was one thing: a set of do’s and don’ts and the adherence to those rules that made you righteous. But under Christ, righteousness is obedience to the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, obedience to the Holy Spirit clashes with what was the righteousness of the law.
Now, let’s look at that thought. Jesus was walking through the corn field on the Sabbath day. He actually disobeyed the law of their time by picking corn and eating. David disobeyed the law by going in and eating, and giving to his men to eat, the shewbread, because they were hungry. That shewbread, according to the law, was only supposed to be eaten by the priests.
Let’s look at the difference between the righteousness that is of the law and the righteousness that is of Christ. The righteousness which is of Christ says that I must obey the Spirit of God. “I must walk in the Spirit and I will not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). We find, then, that there are two laws working one against another: the law of righteousness of the Spirit, and the righteousness that is of the law that was given to Moses. Now, it is all well and good to be a philanthropist, but it profits me exactly nothing if my motivation in giving is that I might be a great name as a philanthropist and be looked up to and respected by people. My motivation makes the very act of righteousness unrighteous. It cancels the righteousness that I would actually do. So, then, I have no redress from God for my righteousness, and because of this, sin, therefore, is no longer an abstract thing, but it becomes very personal. Sometimes sin will even reason with you because sin is the opposite of God and the opposite of God is Satan. So, Satan is the master of sin and he works in sin and in sinners.
Paul, speaking to us in Romans 7:22, he says that he sees another law. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Now, the law of sin is also the law of death (Romans 8:2). The law of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death become personal and active since the Spirit of God uses the law of life and the spirit of Satan uses the law of death.
Let’s go over that then. The law of life in Christ Jesus cancels out the power of the law of sin and death and it makes me free from the other law of sin and death. Now, what is the difference? If I am in the law of Christ and I make a mistake and do the wrong thing which normally is called sin – immediately the law of life chips in and says you need to do something immediately to cancel the wages that are coming to you from that death, from that mistake. So immediately I would repent and the law of life would come into focus and cancel the effect or the wages that would normally or naturally come upon me for the sin.
Now, let’s look a little deeper into the situation of these two laws. Why are the wages of sin death? The wages of sin is death because it is a transgression against God and God Himself has laid it down that every transgression against God must be paid for by life. In other words, death has a demand. It has a demand that “this person is mine because he did so and so and so and so. Because he fell, he belongs to me.” Jesus said, “No, I redeem him by life – I pay for it, I pay for the debt.” So, what we are doing is demanding from God a certain amount of payment for the things that we do.
Now, you ask yourself the question, “What kind of a thing is this? How is it that Jesus is going to pay?”
The scriptures say that Jesus Christ came and by His Blood He paid for every man that cometh into the world. My goodness. He pays for every man, every sin, every wickedness, and every error that comes into the world. Now, when He pays, the man himself has to accept the payment or else he is still in debt, so that some human beings have a preponderance of debt hanging over them. They have become bankrupt in the world of the spirit so that the wages that they owe are so great that they are in debt. They have become a slave to death and they no longer are free as human beings.
Let’s look at it. God made man. In the first two thousand years of man’s existence on the earth, man had turned away from God so viciously toward the devil that they had created a debt that would have destroyed the whole world. In other words the wages were so heavy that the whole world was under destruction, Satan claimed the world and the only thing God could do was to destroy all those people, kill them all. By killing them He killed them in a way that it would give them time to repent. I don’t know if you ever noticed that? I don’t know if you have ever seen someone drowning? Then you have realized how torturous and how much time it takes for a person to drown and it gives him enough time to call upon God.
I am looking at Romans 5:19, it says, For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 20Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: In other words, God so created it that a man could call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Verse 21, That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, we go back to it. The first two thousand years man had gotten so wicked, so vicious, so cruel, so godless that he had entirely rejected God. He had piled up so much sin that the debt was so great that it demanded the life of every living creature. There were only eight people: Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives who remained steadfast to God. Can you imagine, out of a whole world of people, only eight people, …Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (I Peter 3:20). God selected to let them die by water and in dying by water they got the opportunity of repentance. But remember now, no man can go to hell unless God gave him a square chance to go to heaven (John 1:9). The Bible says that He died to save every soul on the face of the earth. Now, Jesus had not yet come in the time of Noah, therefore, at that time there was a special way of salvation. They would go before God, offer a sacrifice and God would forgive their sins, but these people were not able to do that. They came against Noah. So, God built an ark and He was going to send water to drown them that they might be saved by water.
You say, “But Brother Cec, where did you get that doctrine?”
It is not a doctrine. It is just a truth laid down in the Bible. We go to I Peter 3:20 and there we see that they were saved. Let’s go up a bit and begin at verse 18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison… Remember, no one can go to hell unless God Almighty has given him a square chance of going to heaven and he refuses or accepts it. Now, these people when they were drowning, they must have called upon the name of the Lord or else Jesus would not have gone down into hell to save them. Verse 20, Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, (120 years) wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, [in other words, not taking a good bath,] but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Now, you can understand what this is saying. This is saying that people did not get the chance that you have now. They were not in a position to call upon the name of the Lord, and God allowed them to be drowned, to go into a compartment of hell where they could be saved. Jesus Christ died and the first thing He did was go down into hell. He couldn’t get into hell without sins, so He took our sins and He went down into hell with all this burden of sin and there He was resurrected in hell and preached unto the spirits in prison and he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men (Ephesians 4:8). He took them out of hell and brought them into heaven. That is a mighty rescue. You never heard of anything like that in your life. Jesus Christ went to hell and rescued the people who were in hell. In looking at II Peter 3:9, The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hallelujah.
So, God Almighty is saying to us that if a man goes to hell he could never blame God, because God is going to do everything possible, sometimes even on his deathbed the last thing that will happen is that Jesus will appear to him and present Himself to him asking if he will accept Him. If he does not accept Jesus at that time, then he would never accept Jesus throughout the eternal ages, because at that time a man is brought to spiritual consciousness. No matter how dumb he was in the natural world, no matter how carnal, how natural, how brutal he was, at the end when he finally gets serious – he is about to enter into eternity – Jesus Christ presents Himself to him. If that man accepts Jesus at that time, he will be saved. This is the reason, brethren, why we should not forsake to “speak the Word of God in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2). I am saying that sometimes it is not convenient to talk about God. Sometimes you are in a place where people would look DOWN on you if you ever mentioned God – God says you should mention, because that is out of season. Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears…
Brethren, God is saying to us that we have to be different human beings from the normal human being. We have to be different from the human being that will say, “Well, you have to be wise as serpent and harmless as a dove. You can’t preach everywhere.” You cannot be “out of order” in preaching the Word of God. Believe you me, you might be looked down upon, you might be scoffed at and that is all good. If somebody scoffs at you or looks down on you for the preaching of the Word of God, then you should feel good that you are in good company. Ye (we) are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. That is found in Matthew 5:14. Verse 15, Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Now, beloved brethren, we are talking about sin and righteousness. Many of us do not know what righteousness is, because we fail to recognize righteousness. Let me tell you something, you have righteousness inside of you. Once you are born again of the Spirit of God, God is going to find ways and means to get His Word into your mind and into your heart. When you reject that Word you reject God. I don’t know if I can impress that hard enough because God is pressing that upon my soul at this very moment. YOU MUST HEAR GOD FROM INSIDE OF YOU. You must hear God so that when you do God’s will you feel blessed inside. Sometimes it is just the exact opposite of what you feel like doing. You don’t want to do it, it is not your cup of tea, but thus saith the Lord God Almighty, “I command it that you do what I am saying to you in your heart to do because that is God.” Not necessarily what the counselor tells you, not necessarily what the friends like about you, not necessarily what all your family might want you to do. God Almighty wants you to do something and that something is in your heart and there is no denying it.
You cannot say, “I have not heard God.” Because God says, “Conscience is the voice of God speaking in the soul of man.”
Let me repeat that. I used to learn that at Sunday School. “Conscience is the voice of God speaking in the soul of man.” God speaks to your soul. Beware of listening to other voices: for you can hear with your ears; you can hear with your heart; you can hear with your emotions; you can hear with your desires; you can hear with your will; you can hear with your own mind. But thus saith the Lord God, “I speak to you inside of your own being.” Your conscience will tell you, “This is right.” “I should not do this. This is wrong for me to do.”
I want to tell you something more, brethren. Whenever you reject God, you have committed a sin that is very, very hard to even repent from. Do you know that there are some decisions you can make in life on which you have no return? No return. God gives you an opportunity to choose and you make the wrong choice and you know it is wrong – in your heart you know you are making the wrong choice, but you are determined to make it. If you make it, it is going to stick with you for the rest of your life. This is what God showed me this morning. He showed me this morning that if you make the wrong choice, you make it for the rest of your life. You can’t reverse a choice that is made.
God Almighty is saying to all of us …Choose you this day whom ye will serve… (Joshua 24:15). Righteousness, therefore, is not just a condition, but it is just like a being living inside of you that tells you, “This is right and that is wrong.” You know, the scripture says, “I will send you another Comforter.” I think that was John 14:16 & 26, “I will send you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth. He will guide you into all truth and He will show you the difference between right and wrong.” Another scripture says, in speaking of Jesus Christ, “He would eat butter and honey for he would know to choose the good and refuse the evil” (Isaiah 7:15). Now we are looking at John 15:25, But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. 26But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Now, the Spirit of truth: if a man comes and he lies to me and I believe the lie, I submit myself to the spirit of lie, to the devil, the opposite to God. Once I believe a lie, I have become party to a concept that is contrary to God. So, then, God is always giving us an opportunity to see both the lie and the truth. He said that the Spirit of truth, who is the Holy Ghost, when He is come, He will cause you to believe the truth. The Comforter is come, yes. He said, “I will go away and I will come back to you and I will send you another Comforter, another Jesus Christ.” In other words, the Holy Spirit is part of Jesus and Jesus is part of the Holy Spirit. He said, “I will send you this Holy Spirit and He will teach you all things and He will lead you into all truth” (I John 2:27). Let’s read it from John 16:7, beginning at verse 7, Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. That means to say that you are going to have the righteousness planted inside of you. Verse 11, Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 12I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth… My God, have mercy on us. My God, forgive us for believing lies.
I have seen someone go and tell someone else a lie against someone else and the person believed the lie. What have you done with your Holy Spirit inside of you? Your Holy Spirit – from the moment the person approaches you, you should recognize that you are in the presence of someone who is speaking a lie. I have talked with some brethren and the brethren tell me of certain stupid lies that they believe. You know, they believe that our government is in some cahoots with terrorists and whatever else. I am telling you, brethren, we have got to understand that God has given us the spirit of discernment and that we need to discern between truth and lie! Because if we believe the lie, we make a block to the truth. …he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, (that he hears from the Father), that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
My God, be with us. Hear us, O Father God, that we will have ears to hear You and ears to block out the devil. John 16:15, All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Now, Jesus Christ, therefore, is trying to tell us that it is a new breed of righteousness that He is bringing forth in the earth. No longer righteousness because of the good things that you do, but righteousness because you obey the Spirit of the Living God. Very often you do not obey God because you want to, sometimes you don’t really want to, sometimes you don’t really feel to, you would rather go to your bed and lie down than to preach or to teach. But because God Almighty wants you to do something, you do it, and the Spirit of the Living God will quicken it. Yes, yes, yes. God said, He shall glorify me:…
We speak with someone and the person tells us some tales, some story and the whole thing does not glorify God in us. We are talking with someone and the person is telling us about this and telling us about that and there is no glory in it. No glory in it. Someone said he wanted to know something about somebody’s business and what the person was before he came to the Lord and so and so and so and so. There is no glory in it. What is that going to do to me to know that you were a thief or a robber before you came to the Lord? It doesn’t do me any good.
We look at Psalm 45:6, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. 7Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. He is speaking about Jesus Christ. Amen. Praise be to God.
We see, brethren, that the concept of being righteous because we are doing good things, the concept of righteousness because we are seemingly a blessing to so many people, is not what God is talking about. God wants you to be righteous because you obey Him. When He says “go” you go, when He says “stay” you stay.
You know, before going to the cross Jesus Christ said, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done (Luke 22:42). Nobody wanted to face the cross. The cross was the most horrible death that anyone could conceive. The pain and the suffering were beyond what human beings can stand, and His humanity called out. But righteousness was there – “Nevertheless, Father, what You will, that will I do.” So, even Christ Jesus Himself was a man. He felt the pangs of not wanting to go through the suffering that was before Him.
Let’s go back on this thing now. All right. Here we are, someone is not obeying God and God says, “Well, we should pray for him that he would obey God.” But the more you pray for the person, the more the person disobeys God and you are praying and you are asking God to forgive him of his sins. Now, God says that if there is anything you pray for He will do it (Matthew 7). So what happens when you pray for the person, “Lord, forgive the person of his sins,” but then they go on sinning more and they have no intention of turning to righteousness? What has happened right there is that now the payment is going to fall back on you. It is going to fall on your account. Your account has to be strong. You wonder sometimes when you pray why things don’t happen? Sometimes you pray and things don’t happen because the account is falling back on you and your account is not able to bear it.
I will give you an example. Jesus Christ in the garden. We read from Luke 22:41, And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 42Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 43And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. Do you understand what that means? The cup that He is talking about is that He took on Himself the whole of humanity’s sins, one man taking onto Himself all the sins of humanity. He needed something from heaven to come down to even allow Him to be able to stand on His feet. Verse 44, And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. That means the man’s sweat glands were ruptured and He begin to bleed, to sweat blood. Amen. Verse 45, And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow… They could not stand the pressure of agony and sin that was upon Jesus, and they fell asleep or fell unconscious or whatever it was. Verse 46, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. 47And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas… In other words, Jesus Christ took unto Himself the burden of sin because humanity could not bear their own sin. I tell you the truth, the whole earth would be destroyed again if Jesus Christ did not come and arrest the advance of sin. The world would again be destroyed like in the time of Noah, because Satan was demanding payment. The only payment that Jesus Christ could give him was His life, or His Blood, or the Life of Almighty God. That is why Satan is still continuing now, because he has gotten life from us. The more man sins, the more life Satan receives in order to function. But guess what the outcome will be? When we are delivered from sin, Satan will play his last card and he will lose power and he will be arrested and taken into hell and he will be chained. He will have no more power to function. So, if you can understand what we are talking about, sin is a killer. We must stop sinning.
You say, “But we sin in words, thoughts, deeds and actions.”
We don’t have to. No. If from morning you keep your mind on the things of God, you keep singing the praises of the Lord, you keep allowing thoughts of peace and righteousness to flow, and you are praying for others who are in desperate conditions, then you don’t sin. You do God’s will all day so you don’t have to sin. Man does not have to sin anymore. In the past, yes. You don’t have to sin because you have the Spirit of life, the Holy Spirit is in you and He is in your spirit and He is quickening you every minute of the day. He is preventing you from falling into sin. He is not going to stand to one side and allow you to go into sin. He will prevent you from falling into sin, you only have to believe. Yes, the scriptures are right.
You are saying, “But Brother Cec, we sin and sin.”
No. We don’t have to sin. Look at I John 3:8, He that committeth sin is of the devil… WOW! Who then is of God? He that committeth… The word “committeth” there is an active verb of continuous tense. What does that mean? It means that you not only deliberately sin but you continue in it. He that committeth sin (means continue to commit sin) is of the devil… No Christian can willfully continue in sin. …for the devil sinneth (continues to sin) from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed (the Seed of God) remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. He cannot deliberately sin because he is born of God. Verse 10, In this the children of God are manifest (different), and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not (continues to be not) righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. I mean this thing is heavy. It is heavy right here.
Let’s go over verse 10, In this the children of God are manifest, [from] the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Now, if you notice the doeth, these words are old fashioned words, but you must understand that they have a specific meaning. The continuous tense in English is “doing”, “continually doing”, but the continuous tense in the Old English is doeth. Whosoever continues to do not righteousness, continues not to do righteousness, (in other words, continues to sin), he is not of God. Sin is not of God. No man can tell me sinning is of God. Neither he that loveth not his brother, the person who continues to show a lack of love for his brother, his brother in Christ, his brother in God, his natural brother, his other human being. So if you can understand, verse 11, For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Now, we understand that there is a different level of righteousness at this time. God is saying that at this time He is calling a righteous people and He is calling a people to come out of sinning and into righteousness. No man, no woman who continues to behave in a way of self-motivation is of God. Did you hear me? No one who continues to move in self-motivation is of God. The average American woman is a woman who loves to rule her husband. It’s unfortunate for me to say this in a world-wide sense and let the people in the world know that is how we Americans are. The average American woman is taught to have her own way, to have her own bank account, to have her own business going. She does not go in accordance with the scriptural description of a “Proverbs 31 woman.” But we are calling to the average “son of God” woman that you turn from the natural trait of your generation and you turn to God and you do God’s work rather than that of your generation or your nation. I mean, there are others all over the world who have the same kind of a concept, not just American women. Men and women, stop doing your own thing. If you want to do what you want to do, you must realize that you are not doing what God wants you to do.
Then, somebody, after he goes and does his own thing, gives a good tithe or a good offering to the church. God doesn’t care for your offering. God wants your soul. When He gets your soul He gets everything. I John 5:18, We know… We who? We who are in Christ and believe God. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not (does not continue in sin); but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. Don’t tell me you don’t understand Old English. Let me go back over it in some broader understanding. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not (cannot continue in sin); but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself (continues to keep himself), and that wicked one toucheth him not (cannot continue to touch him). 19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
Some of us take advice from worldly friends. Psalm 1:1, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; (his children) and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Praise be to God.
Brethren, we are talking about sin and righteousness. We are the children of God, bought and paid for by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ, the energy and life of God Almighty from heaven. We are admonished of God to live under the righteousness of God so that we are not caught up by the sin of the world and of the children of the devil. Please, brethren, I plead with you: Change course! Change course! For I know that some of the people I am talking to are people who have their own way.
Everything that you are going to do, ask God, “Lord God, is this my way or is it Yours? Do You want me to do it this way?”
In II Corinthians 6:14, it says, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers… You say, “We are not yoked together with unbelievers.” Yet unbelievers give us advice. Friends who are unbelievers will say that you cannot do so and so and so and give us advice contrary to God.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness… What fellowship hath the voice of God inside of the soul of man with unrighteousness?, or the voice of the devil coming from others? and what communion hath light with darkness? Light cannot have communion with darkness. Any time you, the children of light, accept the word of darkness from friends and others, because some Christians give the wrong advice. Some Christians give the wrong advice. They pick up advice from somewhere, a little piece of darkness from here and a little piece of darkness there and what communion hath light with darkness? 15And what concord (con with accord) hath Christ with Belial?… Baal, Baalism, which is worship of idols, worship of another god. Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (an infidel, an unbeliever).
Now, sometimes it is hard for us to believe that our own children are unbelievers, but sometimes our children are unbelievers. Their only deliverance is for us to walk in righteousness. Do you hear me? Anytime you turn to God and begin to walk according to that covenant that God has given you, walking it in righteousness – look at your children and you will see that it has an effect upon them. The devil cannot stand your righteousness and whenever you speak a word, it rebukes Satan from your own children if you are in righteousness. If you are not in righteousness and you speak a word, it does not rebuke Satan from your children. Therefore, your children are dependent upon you for life. If you think that you can save them by giving your time and your attention to them, you are making a very sad, sad mistake. Your time and attention to God will save them more than anything else. Verse 16, And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you…
My God! God is speaking to us as parents, He is speaking to us as brethren, He is speaking to us as sons of God, and He is speaking to us as daughters of light. Let us not walk in darkness, for behold the time is at hand when the darkness shall claim its own and the light shall claim its own.
I saw some beloved brother getting into a temper and I said, “Brother, you are getting into a condition where you are going to be one of the foolish virgins that had no oil in their lamps.”
If you think that because you can get a word from the Lord now and you can speak a word from the Lord or you can do something that is from the Lord now and that that is righteousness – you had better think again, beloved brethren. Because if you had oil in your lamp today and you give out oil and bless the people of God and everybody says, “Amen,” “What a wonderful brother this is!”, you had better make sure that you have some oil in your vessel; that means in your own soul. Make sure that you are bringing forth the light and the glory of God in your own soul because that is the vessel that God wants to fill.
Let me give you an idea. God made man for one purpose: that He might dwell in them; that He might walk in them; that He might talk in them; that He might be theirGod and that they might be His people and He wants you to be His temple [walking, talking, living temple]. He is not talking about dying and going to heaven now. He is talking about walking, talking, living temple of the Living God; Almighty God walking down the street. This is what God wants.
God is saying to His people, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). You know I was listening to Handel’s Messiah, when they sang the part, “He shall lead His flock like a Shepherd and He shall gather them in His arms” (Isaiah 40:11), the Lord said, “Ye are the arms of the Living God.”
God wants us to be so strong in the Spirit of God that the glory of God comes out of us and takes a hold of the people around us and shepherds them, gathers them in the arms of God and gives them peace and deliverance. I am telling you that the torments of this present life are so great that no man can survive outside of Jesus Christ. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. God Almighty is speaking righteousness. Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34). That is what we read in the Proverbs, Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. It means that sin is exactly the opposite of righteousness and God is saying that those of us who say we are Christians and we are not walking in the Spirit, we are not being led by the Spirit of God, we are not righteous and if we are not righteous we are still in sin.
“How can I be a Christian and be in sin?”
Yes. Many Christians have back-slidden and God said that you can turn to a point where there is no return. Beware! Beware that when you hear, the actions that you do are motivated and given directly by God, for every time you disobey God and you make a turn, you are turning away from God. Every time you reject what God has given, you reject God, and if you continue to reject God, you are going to end up somewhere that you didn’t expect to end up. May God Almighty have mercy upon us, for we are all in the same boat. Don’t believe that I am preaching down at you. I am preaching the Word as it comes to my own soul.
The Lord warned me about accepting something that is not God. Do you know when you accept something that is not God what you have done? You have rejected God. Though God did not tell you “take this and don’t take that,” when you take anything of your own motivation or your motivation from the advice of others – you are taking unto yourself a blockage to what God wanted to give you. So let it be understood that righteousness is the very nature of God and righteousness comes out of love.
Let us pray to God and ask Him, “Lord God, give me love. Lord God, give me love. Let it be that I love Your children just like You love me and like You take care of me. Lord God, I want to take care of Your children, not so much in my natural handling of things but in the Spirit I take care of them, saying, ‘Lord Jesus, deliver this little one. Deliver them from the sin they commit. Deliver them from the faults of their nature. Deliver them, Lord God, from their ancestral spirits that seem to rule among the nations. Lord God, deliver Your people.’ Amen.” So I am taking care of God’s people by praying the proper prayer and by walking in truth and righteousness. Remember now, by walking in righteousness you are saving many people whom you don’t even know as well as your own family. Your family is waiting, depending on you.
I remember one day Mavis called to me and she said, “Did you see that young man that just came in here?”
I said, “No. I haven’t seen anybody.”
She said, “Well, a young man just came in here and it seems to be one of your family. He was asking if there are any in the family who were overcoming the spirits of darkness that they had to fight against.’” and she said, “Go to my husband. Ask him.”
Hallelujah. Praise be to God. So you can understand what I am talking about. The scriptures here say, that they without us should not (cannot) be made perfect (Hebrews 11:40). They without us should not (cannot) be made perfect.
The thought I was coming to was the woman hath an husband. I Corinthians 7:13, And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not (an unbeliever), and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. We are talking about righteous action. Verse 14, For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. 15But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. 16For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? In other words, God is talking about our righteous action having something to do with the deliverance of others. Because when you walk according to the Spirit of the Living God, devils can’t come around you as they like. They get hurt because the Spirit of God in you is a light that destroys the darkness in them.
So, God is saying to us that in the spirit we have a responsibility to our families. In the ancient times, the priest would go and he would put the twelve tribes of Israel on his two shoulders and he would kneel down before God. When he offered the sacrifice the whole of Israel was being blessed by his sacrifice, all his families. So then God is saying to us that we need to understand that “righteousness will exalt a nation.”
Now we look at Hebrews 11:39, And these all, having obtained a good report… We are talking about all the mighty men of faith. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. What are we talking about? It means that no man has yet destroyed the power of Satan. Therefore God has put us here for the destruction of the power of the devil. Therefore we the people of the end time are to face all the circumstances that humanity ever faced and we must overcome them. Hebrews 12:1,
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses… All our brethren who have passed on are witnessing what we are doing and the devils we are destroying and they are rejoicing with us. …let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience… With patience! With patience! …the race that is set before us… It seems we have to have some patience, brethren. Thank You, Jesus.
Praise be to God! We are looking at righteousness. I am going to ask you, dear brethren, please go down to God and ask Him:
“Lord God, please help me to be righteous.” “Help me to be righteous.”
For righteousness is only obeying the Spirit of the Living God. That is righteousness. Thank You, Jesus.
Thank You, Lord God, for this time that we were able to deliver the message and that it was indeed righteousness. Thank You, Jesus.
Sonlight Devotional 