In the 12th message of our "Unveiling Yahweh" series, we will be looking at the Righteousness of God.

In Psalm 119, David wrote, “in Your righteousness give me life!” What did he see about God’s righteousness that caused this desperate cry? In today’s sermon, we not only learn about what God’s righteousness is, but take a special look at it in God’s law, learning about the effect it should have on us and the cry it should produce in our hearts.

"You’re a good person." This is one of Satan's deadliest lies, because if we believe that we're good, we will never see our need for repentance. In the 2nd episode of our series, "Rediscovering the Gift of Repentance," we'll talk about why there is no such thing as a good person, and why everyone needs to repent.

Resources

• The Walk of Repentance (Bible Study) By Steve Gallagher

In light of God’s unlimited power and glorious redemption, why are our churches filled with men trapped in pornography? Why are scandals erupting everywhere? Why are marriages breaking apart at record rates?

It’s because something crucial has been lost—something so essential that, without it, the power of God will be rendered useless in our lives.

In this episode, we’ll look at:

- Why repentance is what brings about true inward cleansing and transformation

- Why repentance is so necessary in the life of a believer

- Why repentance is demanded because of God’s holiness

- Why an inferior view of God leaves people feeling that they do not need repentance

True Christianity could be summed up in one phrase: Absolute surrender to the will of God for our lives. In Part 1 of our short series based on Andrew Murray's book "Absolute Surrender," we'll talk about what it looks like to fully yield our wills to God.

Host: Kathy, it's great to see you. Thanks for stopping by to talk with us.

Kathy: Thanks. It's good to be here.

Host: We want to begin a series of discussions in a little book called, Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. We won't go into a lot of depth about Andrew. He was well known as an evangelist, a writer and as a preacher in the late 1800s. But he just had a deep sense of the things of God and a wonderful way of communicating them. Absolute Surrender is not only the title of the book, but it's also the title of the first chapter in the book. So, let's just talk a little bit about how he starts things off. He actually did that with a story from the Old Testament.

Kathy: Yeah, he started off telling a story about Ben-hadad when he besieged Israel and took everything. He took the men, the women, the children—everything. And the king of Israel said, and I love these words that he's saying to an enemy invader, “My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have.” (1 Kings 20:4b, KJV) And Andrew Murray used that quote from 1 Kings to describe what our surrender to God should look like. I and all that I have are yours.

Host: He goes on to share a story about a time when he was in Scotland where he asked one individual who was a trainer of church workers what the greatest need of the church was and that individual said, “Absolute surrender to God is the one thing.” And that is so true. The most needful thing, above all is an absolutely surrendered heart to God.

Kathy: Yeah, I think it's overlooked a lot. In fact, I know it is ignored. Absolute surrender is a very difficult concept to wrap your mind around. I know when I was a young believer and I was reading books like this one I’d get so excited! I wanted to completely surrender, and I thought that I could do it, and yet I experienced continual failure to follow through.

Host: Yea. It's so contrary to how we operate by nature.

Kathy: Of course, and nothing in Christianity happens all at once. Everything happens by progress. It's such a journey. I used to try to ram down people's throats that they needed to surrender everything. And then when I started running up against the wall myself when it came to surrender, I saw that I needed to back off and be a little more gentle with people, because it doesn't just happen. Our will and our desire should be, “Yes Lord, I want to completely surrender to you, but I know I can't do this in the flesh.”

Host: Yeah. Well, we're going to look at some different aspects of surrender. Andrew Murray does really segment this very nicely. So, let's just go through some of the sections that he lays out here. He starts off by talking about the fact that God does expect our surrender.

Kathy: Absolutely. What we do know about Him commands and demands that we absolutely surrender to Him. He is the King. He doesn't allow for half-hearted surrender. He wants all or nothing.

Host: Yea. In this first section of the chapter, God expects our surrender, he talks about the gravity of who God is. All you have to do is go out on a clear cold night and look up into the heavens and stand in awe. And then you realize that as human beings, we are the only ones in the entire universe that would ever even think to question surrendering to God. That's an astounding thing.

Kathy: It is. And he uses the example of how flowers and nature bends itself to God and does what they were created to do. But the big divider in a sense is that we have a will and those other things are created. Also, we were all born with the knowledge of God, so the expectation for us is enormous in light of that.

Host: Alright. Now we are going to get to the aspect that it is God who accomplishes our surrender. Now, that seems like an oxymoron. How can someone else accomplish my surrender and it still be surrender?

Kathy: I think that for us who are sincere about the journey that we're on as Christians, we want the Lord. And I'm going to go on the assumption that the listeners really want Him. I have to go on that assumption, because I don’t have time to go off on rabbit trails. So, with that in mind, you have this desire in you, but you also have this failure right alongside the desire. You have the constant struggles of wanting to completely give over to God and completely lay down your will.

       God knows that's in us, and I believe the Lord puts that in us. He gives us that desire at our new birth. But He also knows that in our flesh dwells no good thing. We cannot accomplish this surrender on our own. God knows that. He's not blind. He's completely aware of how weak we are, how feeble we are and how incapable we are of doing this.

Host: Yea. Really what He's asking us to do is to surrender and yield to Him as He works the process of surrender in us. But He is still the one that does it.

Kathy: He is the one that does it. He’s working it out and He's putting the desire in us. We do our part by saying yes inside. And there are times when we have to actually say no to ourselves. There are times when we have to actually go against what's natural to us. But that's not how it gets accomplished.

       I know for myself that I spent a lot of time trying to be a good Christian and I don't believe the Lord is holding that or has held that against me. But I look back on it now and I realize that I can't be a Christian in the flesh. But if I walk in the Spirit, if I’m abiding in His presence and in His Spirit, then He's accomplishing those things that are making me a better Christian. And I have been baptized into the Holy Spirit and He lives in me. This God is living in me and this God is enabling me to live this miraculous life of surrender. So, it's just all a big journey. God is working it all out in us all.

Host: It is a journey. The Scripture also says that it is God that works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Kathy: Yeah, and that's wonderful news. I love that because it is His will. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. We just need to be yielded vessels, wanting and desiring Him to do that process.

Host: Yeah. And that is the requirement, that we be yielded. And that's the only requirement really that He asks of us. To be yielded to what He wants to do and what He’s promised to do.

In the 11th message of our "Unveiling Yahweh" series, we will learn about the benefits of having Yahweh as our Shepherd.

Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved psalms of the Bible. Yet many Christians who know it by heart live lives which refuse to treat God like He really is their shepherd. It’s no wonder then that addictions are common in churches, and worldliness abounds even among pastors and leaders. In today’s sermon, Nate Danser expounds on 3 lines from this beloved psalm to help us see what our life should look like when Yahweh is our Shepherd.

In light of God’s unlimited power and glorious redemption, why are our churches filled with men trapped in pornography? Why are marriages breaking apart at record rates? It’s because something crucial has been lost—something so vital that, without it, the power of God is rendered useless in our lives. In our latest series, "Rediscovering the Gift of Repentance," we’ll focus on the invaluable gift of repentance, the only vehicle we’ve been given to be saved from the power of sin and come back into God’s life-giving, life-changing presence.

Resources

• Recognizing Godly Sorrow vs Worldly Sorrow (Article) by Jim Lewis

Darlene Deibler went to Indonesia to preach the gospel to cannibalistic tribes. But when war broke out, she found herself plunged into the horrors of a WWII prisoner-of-war camp. And yet, Darlene would spend the rest of her life telling about a God whose comfort outshined her sufferings, whose presence was more precious than her losses, and whose loving provision was as faithful as the morning sun.

Resources

• Evidence Not Seen (Book) By Darlene Deibler Rose

In this Timeless Truths segment: As members of the church, we are called to be holy and set apart for God’s purposes. This will require a vigilance on our part, because the spirit of this world is always seeking to defile us and lead us away from the Lord.

Host: Steve, as we continue our discussions today on your book, “Intoxicated with Babylon,” in that book, one of the key messages was the need for God's people to separate themselves from the unbelieving world around them. Talk to us first about how that played itself out in the Old Testament times.

Steve: One of the great expectations God had of His people in the Old Testament times was that they would remain separate from the pagan nations around them such as the Canaanites, the Amorites, and so on, because those nations were totally given over to devil worship. But not just that, it was also that their lifestyles were very ungodly and carnal. So, the nation of Israel was like an island. That's the way that Yahweh foresaw it, that His presence would prevail in that land and amongst that people and then from there, they would be able to export that godliness to the heathen nations around them.

Host: Okay. How did that change then as we move into the New Testament times?

Steve: When we come into the New Testament, everything changed at Calvary. Jesus Christ’s death was the sacrifice for man's sin. We no longer had to go through the sacrificial system, but that did not end God's expectation of His people to be separated unto His purposes. The difference now would be that instead of them being a people who were physically separated by national borders, now God's people were going to be living amongst the unsaved. And yet in their hearts, and this is the great change from the Old Testament to the New, instead of things being outward, now they were going to be inward. So, in the New Testament Times, God's people were expected to remain separate from the world in their hearts.

Host: But so often what we see amongst professing Christians today is that they have made some response to the call of God and yet they're still living with one foot in the Devil's kingdom and foot in God's kingdom. What does the Word of God tell us about that?

Steve: Well, actually the Greek is very clear on this and I'm not sure why it hasn't been brought out more by other Bible teachers. For instance, the word “hagios,” which is the word we see for “saints” throughout the New Testament, literally means separated ones. Set apart ones. Holy ones. That's what the word means, and that's what a believer is supposed to be. Someone separated from the unsaved world around them. And the same concept is transferred to the corporate body of these separated ones with the Greek word for “church,” which is “ecclesia”. And that comes from the combining of the two words “ek” which means out and “klétos,” which means called. So, in other words, the Church in the Greek literally means called out ones.

Host: Steve, in 2 Corinthians 6, Paul goes into some significant detail about what it really means to live as a separated Christian. And in your book, you brought out of that passage 3 commandments. Let's go through those. I think that'll help folks to understand really what it means to be a separated Christian. You started out with the first commandment, get out of unequal yokes.

Steve: Yeah, and this one is one of those things where people get themselves into relationships with unbelievers that really are only going to drain them spiritually and lead them astray. For instance, a young Christian girl marries an unbelieving boyfriend. Now we all know stories where God has used it for good and the boy ends up getting saved and they live happily ever after. But we should never take one of those exceptions and use it to dismiss the wisdom and even the commandment in God's Word. When He says do not be unequally yoked, we need to take that commandment seriously.

Host: Steve, how do we reconcile that command with our responsibility to be a witness? I mean we are after all, “in this world.”

Steve: That's a very good point. We are to be a light to an unbelieving world. It’s one thing to have a loose association with unbelievers, such as unbelieving family and coworkers where you can live out the Christian life before them and they can see Christ through your life. But to be in close intimate relationships with unbelievers, that's another matter. That's the difference between the two.

Host: Okay. The second command that you took out of that passage from Paul was that your lifestyle must change.

Steve: The implication there was that before they came to Christ, they were part of this ungodly world. In fact, Paul had written to the Ephesians, “you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.” (Ephesians 2:1-2a, NASB 1995) You see, we formerly walked according to the course of this world. But when we come to Christ, something must change. That's what repentance is all about. We repent of and turn away from the Devil's kingdom and we now join ourselves with God's Kingdom. And we take on a whole new value system and we identify ourselves with the purposes of God. Any part of our lifestyle that still reflects that old worldly mentality must change.

Host: OK. Then the third command was to decontaminate yourself.

Steve: Paul told the Corinthians in this passage, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1b, NASB 1995) Again, this is another direct reference to the contaminating influences of this fallen world around us. The picture of it comes from Old Testament times. When you got around a leper’s house, let's say you had to go in that house for some reason, the idea was not to touch anything because you're going to become terribly contaminated. That’s the same kind of mentality I believe that Paul had when he's telling these Greek believers that they need to separate themselves from the ungodly world around them and not become involved with it because you will be contaminated by it.

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Host: You know, as you're sharing that Steve, it should become real to many of us is that in the church today, we're not hearing this kind of preaching. We’re not hearing this kind of message that we have to take these things seriously.

Steve: I know, and I believe the reason for that is because so much of the church has already become so immersed in this world and the pagan culture in which we live. I think for most Christians, the culture is much bigger in their minds and in their hearts than the Kingdom of God. But nevertheless, these commandments are still there. For instance, not long ago I was in a hotel and I watched some television, something I rarely have the opportunity to do and rarely do. But I was just flipping through the channels trying to find a decent channel, something like the History Channel, and just in one go round through the channels I saw unbelievable things. And what occurred to me later is that this is what Christians are immersing themselves with every night practically. They are contaminating themselves with the immoral values of this world. And let's not forget that Satan is called the Prince of this World.

Host: I think one of the things that was very encouraging to me in reading this chapter and that I think will help folks to understand the long term goal of God wanting us to come out from this world, is that we really need to have an eternal perspective because we do have a home that we're going to. There is a reason God is wanting to prepare us in this way.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, it sounds like a totally negative message that we're talking about, but there is a purpose behind it. The purpose is to separate ourselves from the world. For what? For God. Because He is calling a people out unto Himself. Jesus is calling a bride out to Himself and He's not going to have a bride with other lovers. And the eternal ramifications of that love affair are just so astounding, they're beyond our comprehension.

In the 10th message of our "Unveiling Yahweh" series, we will learn how to truly claim Yahweh as our portion.

Everyone spends their lives trying to fulfill their perceived needs, whether it’s the need for security, intimacy, pleasure, or anything else. But Psalm 16 reveals something very important about our Creator: that He is the true fulfillment we all truly need. Unfortunately, most in the church still seek to fulfill their needs just like the world does: apart from God. In today’s message, Nate Danser looks at Psalm 16, and how it reveals how God is the ultimate portion for our souls.

Many people struggle to believe they can be free from sexual sin because even if they manage to avoid pornography, they’re still constantly being bombarded with sexual thoughts. In this episode, we’ll discuss why we should never use temptation as an excuse to stay in defeat, why the battle against lust is actually a positive thing, and the key to growing strong enough to stand firm when temptation arises.

Resources

• Don't Stop Fighting For Humility (Podcast Episode) By Pure Life Ministries Podcast

Many cynically believe that God created the universe, but now remains distant, aloof and uninvolved. But the truth is that God holds intimate knowledge of every person and is always working behind the scenes to draw them to Jesus. And when He wins a person's heart, He faithfully works to conform them into the image of His Son.

Host: Rose, as we continue our discussions on Steve Gallagher’s book, “Living in Victory,” we want to talk this week about Chapter 9: “The God Who Works.” And when you think of all the men and women who have ever existed, and ever will exist, God really is busy at work, isn't He?

Rose: It’s mind boggling. It’s impossible to even wrap your mind around it. He's huge.

Host: What a God we have. You know, there are different views on how God interacts with man. There are those who believe that God has created everything and then basically took His hands off His creation and is just kind of letting things wind along on their own. But I don't know how you can come to that conclusion reading Scripture, because Scripture certainly paints a different view of God's interaction with man.

Rose: If you look at Scripture or even our own lives you will see how involved God is in every detail in our lives. I think about Psalm 139 where it says, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13, NKJV) And then it goes on to say, “My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” (Psalm 139:15-16, NKJV)
       Every single person on this planet, God sees them and knows them from the minute they are conceived in their mother's womb. And everything about that person's life, God already knows about from the beginning to the end. To me that is just so amazing. Just think about all the ways God goes out of His way to work in our lives through different circumstances, or situations that go a certain way. And it’s all to bring us to a place where we see our need for God and cry out to Him so that we can turn to Him and come to know the One who created us.

Host: Right. It's pretty obvious when somebody is converted. They can say, as Paul said, “we were bought at a great price.” When you are born again, you can really see the work of Christ and what He did. But sometimes I think we forget about all the things that God did in our lives leading up to that point.

Rose: If you look back from there, you see that God has been involved in every single thing you’ve gone through. Whether it was good or not good, He’s been involved in it all. He’s been quietly behind the scenes working, and the whole thing He’s been working towards is to draw us to Himself.

Host: Yes. And when we come to that point of salvation, that certainly isn't where His work stops. He doesn't stop working on us at that point. And the mistake I made was thinking, “OK, I'm saved. It's all over. I can go live my life the way I want to live it.” But no! He's very involved in our lives after that point.

Rose: He really is. It's amazing how He'll put people in our lives even. I can remember when before I began walking with the Lord. He had me working alongside a woman that was constantly sharing Jesus with me. And then even after I gave my heart to the Lord, He positioned other people in my life. In the workplace. At the college I was attending at night. I was seeking a church to get involved with and He put people in my pathway to help me find the right one. He constantly brought people into my life that were able to speak into my life and help me to grow in my relationship with the Lord, people who would give me godly counsel and wisdom.

Host: Amen. But sometimes He brings people into our lives to rub us the wrong way so that we can see what’s in our heart.

Rose: That too. And you know, many times we think it's the enemy coming against us, and we don't see that it's the hand of God that is all over things. There may be someone at work we're not getting along with. Or someone that we have a completely different personality than. Maybe our personalities rub against one another. And then we get all upset and blame the devil for what we are going through. And meanwhile the Lord is saying “no, I'm bringing this situation or this person into your life because I want you to see what's in your heart.”

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Host: Yes. And that's one of the wonderful things that we experience here at Pure Life Ministries, because we work together and we live in such close proximity to one another. We're together so often and it's wonderful to see how God uses different personalities in this little family of ours to do a work inside of each of us.

Rose: Yeah. He does. And I think about the verse that says iron sharpens iron. (Proverbs 27:17) There's a lot of sharpening happening here.

Host: Yeah. There's a lot of sharpening going on here for sure. But it's a wonderful mercy of God to allow that sharpening to happen.

Rose: It really is, because He's wanting to conform us into the image of Christ. But we often don't realize how much we're not like Christ until we're around other people. Especially other people that aren't like us.

Host: Yeah. And what we see through this is that God has tremendous care and concern for His people.

Rose: He does. Romans talks about how there's a groaning going on and that the Sons of God will be revealed on the earth in the last days. And the Lord is trying to work in our lives to bring that about so that when people look at us will see a living epistle not written with ink, but an epistle of the Holy Spirit flowing out of our lives.

Host: You know, Rose, we're talking about the God who works, and what you're talking about kind of reminds me of the Potter and the clay. And if you've ever watched a potter put the clay on the wheel, sometimes the clay gets all messed up and he has to kind of bring it back down and start over. And I think if we understand that, then it will help us to understand how God works in our life. There are going to be good times and bad times. There are going to be times where we feel close to the Lord and times where we feel far away from the Lord. But in the midst of it all, our Father's hands are still on that clay and He's still molding us.

Rose: Yeah. What's so amazing is that as He's molding us and shaping us, His imprint is being placed on us. And the finished product has His imprint all over it. Think about it. When someone's working on that piece of pottery, they beat it down and it looks ugly, but they keep working with it and working with it until it becomes something beautiful. But that beautiful piece of pottery now has the master’s imprints all over it and around it, inside of it and underneath it. And that's really what He's after in our lives.

Host: I was in high school when I tried putting clay on the wheel and it ended up flying off the wheel. But God doesn't do that. He is perfectly balanced. He knows just what we can take, just what we need.

Rose: Yeah. He's perfectly balanced in what He's creating, and we just have to cooperate with Him just like the clay does. It just lays there and basically says, “go ahead, do with me what you want to.”

Host: Yes. It’s a wonderful work that He's doing in us and wants to do in all of us.

Rose: Amen.

In the 9th message of our "Unveiling Yahweh" series, we will be looking at God as a giver.

Our fallen nature makes us quick to malign God’s character. When life doesn’t give us what we want, we call God a killjoy. If providence steals a cherished person or possession from us, we see Him a taker. But these lies couldn’t be further from the truth. God is full of goodness. He desires to lavish His children with blessing. God is always a good giver. 

In this message, Ed Buch helps us see the amazingly good gifts of God, and the many forms they can take in our lives.