Be What You Are

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. I can't do it. I just can't do it. I still can't use the word good. I can't say good morning, I can't say good afternoon, I can't say good evening. Because there's nothing good. There is nothing good at all. Okay, there is no one that's good. There's nothing that's good. I know I'm doing a little paraphrasing there, but that's man. I have found myself in a situation where I am just so frustrated, so irritated, so just done. I just want to throw up my hands and say, forget it. You guys, go play fairy tale, you go play make believe, because somebody here has got to say enough is enough with this nonsense.

0:59 And that's I feel like I'm the one saying, stop the pretending, stop the make believe, stop the fairy tale. We need someone needs to face reality. And I know by doing that, all I'm doing is I'm placing myself further and further and further and further outside of well what most people would refer to as evangelical fundamental Christianity. I know I'm walking further and further away. But it's not that I'm attempting to do so or trying to do so. It's just I don't understand Christian's ability to be so delusional. And well, we're gonna talk about that, all right, We're gonna talk about that and just a minute.

1:42 But for now, I guess I will go ahead and say this. I'm not gonna say good afternoon. I'm not gonna say that. I'll just say it is Wednesday, October the second, twenty twenty four. It is currently twelve forty pm Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. And I have spent so much time in this studio just becoming more and more disillusioned, more and more frustrated, and the more sermons I listen to, the worse it gets. And I don't really know the solution, but here I am all I can do. Now. I feel like I feel like I'm so far into this. There's no backing out, there's no just throwing up my hands and walking away.

2:34 I know probably ninety percent of the listeners of the podcast won't really care. They'll be like, whatever, let's just move on to the next thing. That was his. He was all obsessed with that. But I'm glad. I'm glad that's over. Some of you won't care, but I care. I can't just walk away. We're so far into this, all right. So we're trying to figure out the Christian life at the same time acknowledging a reality that no one wants to acknowledge. And that reality is this, are you ready. We cannot keep the law of God. We cannot. And because we cannot keep the law of God, we are in a perpetual state of sin. And if we're in a perpetual state of sin, there is something keeping us from obeying the law and being perfect. What is it that's keeping us from being perfect? Those are some basic things that we have. That's the reality. Look, Christians can try to say all day, no, no, no, no, we can keep the law. Well, if I can keep it, then I can be perfect. If I can't be perfect, then I can't keep it. And I can just throw out a couple of scriptures. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Well, you can't do that. Be holy as he is as holy, you can't do that. You've never done that, meaning you're in a perpetual state of sin.

3:49 Why can you not be holy as God is holy? Why can you not be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect? Why can you not love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. What is it that it's keeping you from doing this? What is it? And on one hand, Christians talk about oh no, no, you can, you can do it, but then they even have to admit, well, I mean you can't do it perfectly. Well, then that means I'm perpetual in a state of sin. I mean We've talked about this reality over and over and over, We've listened to sermons. It is maddening right now. So remember there was a book, Six Secrets of the Christian Life. Six Secrets of the Christian Life. I told everyone to get a copy relatively cheap, like three dollars for a kendle, four dollars for a physical copy. It's only fifty five pages.

4:37 And we were going to be like, well, how do is what is their answer to these problems that have now outlined so many times that I'm tired of saying it right that we are all in a perpetual state of sin. We cannot keep the law. So something is holding us back, like these realities, what is the answer? So we decided to use this book to at least look at their answers at the same time listening to other people put forth their answers. And it's all becoming just maddening and confusing. And I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't know what to do anymore. All right, So let's go there. And if I said the time is being am, I don't know why it's PM? All right, I said twelve it's twelve something pm Central time? On my mind? Now?

5:26 Is thinking that I said? Am? If I said am, I apologize, all right. I can't even get that right. Okay, but the point is we can't get anything right. Here are some of the things that we have discussed and light of the book Six Secrets of the Christian Life. Are you ready? Here we go. According to this book, the Christian's body, the physical body, is dead spiritually. Now we'll explain what that means in a minute, but just go with the idea that, hey, the reason we still live in sin is because our bodies are dead. Right, that's kind of their basic concept that the physical body is dead right now, obviously not physical death, some kind of spiritual death, right what we'll explain in a minute.

6:14 So that's number one, the Christian body is dead. Number two, the nature and the heart is completely changed. And we're getting ready to see the book is going to double down on this argument that the nature and the heart is completely changed. So if you are a Christian, your heart is completely changed. You have a new heart, you have a new nature. Everything internally has been made perfect. So the body is dead, but everything inside is made perfect. Number three, the body, because it is dead, cannot respond to the new nature. So they say that explains the problem. See, on the inside, you're perfect, you're golden, you're good, you're everything is new, everything is transformed internally, you are a new creature. Things have passed away, all things that become new.

7:01 But it's your body. Your body can't respond to that new nature. So the new nature is like, go do it, and your body is just like they can't respond. Your body is dead to any spiritual impulse, all right, So this leads to number four. So number one, the body is dead. Number two, the nature has been changed. Number three, the body can't respond. Number four, A resurrection of the body is needed. Now, what you need? What I need? If we can get our bodies to experience a resurrection now, well, then our bodies would be able to respond to the nature. So with a new nature, a new heart, the empowering power, the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. So we would have a new heart, new nature, the Holy Spirit that empowers us, and then a resurrected body that can now respond to all of that spiritual inside. Then we should be able to be perfect. Now the issue is how do we get our bodies too to wake up? How do we get our bodies to to experience a resurrection.

8:05 So at first, when they started explaining this, I'm like, okay, well this makes some sense. The body is dead, all right, the nature is changed, the body can't respond. Okay, this explains why we're still continuing sinning. So the solution is my body needs a resurrection, and my mind goes, okay, great, well that's never going to happen until glorification. When I get a new body, I get a resurrected body. Into the meantime, well, I'm I'm not going to be able to obey, but no, they took it a step further, like, no, you can experience a resurrection. Now it is possible. So then I'm like, okay, how do I get this resurrection? And remember their great answer, use a mirror. Take a mirror, put it in front of your face. And then now, and this is weird, this is where they abandon the resurrection metaphor, well, now you'll be slowly transformed. Well wait a minute, you said I need a resurrection, so it's almost now. They didn't are articulate it this way, but this is kind of the theory they went with. If you really I mean, they won't articulate it, but they created this problem. If I hold the mirror to my face, then a part and the mirror is the word of God, then a part of my body. Then can it allows at least a part of my body to respond. I don't know exactly what that looks like, but then I can partially respond, well, that's not really a resurrection, and that slowly I'm transformed. So then it really comes down to the solutions. Just read your Bible and study your Bible. Well, no matter how much I read my Bible, no matter

9:36 how much I study my Bible, Can I obey the law? Can I be perfect? Can I be holy as God is holy? Can I love God with all my heart, my body? And so well, we know no matter how much you read the Bible, no matter how much you study the Bible, you cannot get to perfection. So this really doesn't even appear to be an answer, and it seems to abandon their entire metaphor. So then I was like, well, wait a minute. I then threw in not the book, did not? I threw in, Well, let's get a knife. Let's open up Christians and see if we can really understand what's going on on the inside. Do we really have a new heart? Do we really have a new nature? And if we have a new heart and a new nature, then what's creating the problem? Is the problem the physical body?

10:18 And do we separate the nature from the physical body. And we tried to, you know, kind of do surgery, and we really nobody can really articulate exactly what the inside supposedly looks like, right, nobody really can. But we know this. It seems bizarre to me that Christianity at large is just sold on the fact that everything on the inside has been completely made new. Everything on the inside is perfect, but they can't seem to articulate, well, where is sin coming from? Where is sinful desires and sinful thoughts originating from? So then it seems what many Christians say is everything on the inside is perfect, and you basically can be perfect. The problem is external things.

11:04 If you listen to the wrong music, if you watch the wrong movies, that's where all the problems are. So if we'll just fix the movies we watch and the music we listen to, then will be perfect. Well, okay, that doesn't make any sense. It becomes all convoluted. So we have the Christian body is dead. The nature and the heart has supposedly changed. The body can't respond to the nature, so we need a resurrection of the body so it can respond to the nature. We don't really get a resurrection, though, but we can take our bibles, read the Bibles, and then that will somehow bring about some kind of transformation. But they can't really explain what's being transformed because it's not transforming the inside, because the inside is already transformed. So I guess it's transforming the physical body. It gets all confusing. I said, get a knife and open us up. And try to figure out what's going on in the inside. Christians can't seem to agree what's going on on the inside. So that brings us still today when we get to well, secret number three.

12:02 We go to the third chapter of the book, and are you ready? Secret number three is going to basically be, and I'm paraphrasing, be what you are. Just be what you are. That's the secret. Just be what you are. And I'm a little confused by how this even works, but we're going to work through this chapter, at least in part and see if we can come up with an answer. I don't think this is going to provide us an answer with that. Look, they've already the book has already fallen apart from its basic premise. It's not it's I don't know what the book is doing at this point. Now I'm just getting very frustrated. But here we go. Let's go through a little bit of this book.

12:53 Are you ready? If you have a copy of the book, you can open it up. I've got my hitch. Three is called seeing what we are, So the idea is be what you are. Now I'm gonna I'll be skipping parts of it. I'll just be reading through some I've got some notes here where I copied some of the book, and then I'm just gonna skip a lot, all right, So I'm just gonna try to give get us to the basic premise of the book. Are you ready? All right, here we go. The book begins by stating this or this chapter in the book. Again, the book is six Secrets of the Christian Life. Are you ready? Here we go. The richness of biblical illustration is always impressive. This is certainly true in the example of a mirror that we have just considered. In fact, it turns out that God's mirror offers us what many may call a double reflection.

13:54 All right, so remember their solution is, your body is dead. Everything on the inside his golden is good, but your body can't respond. But if we look into the mirror, it doesn't bring about the resurrection we need, but it gives us some kind of transformation. So remember, the body is dead, everything on the inside has changed. The body can't respond, and we need a resurrection. And so then they say we'll look into the mirror. Well, now they're going to return to the mirror concept. And now what they're going to say is this mirror gives us a double reflection. And this double reflection is somehow now the key the answer to all of our problems. They quote James chapter one, twenty two through twenty four James one twenty two through twenty four, where we read, but be doers of the word, and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves.

14:50 For if anyone is a hero of the word and not a doer, he has like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. All right, so we gotta be a doer of the word. And there's something about looking into the mirror, looking into the mirror that they're going to really focus on, right, I'm gonna read it though, and the translation that they provide. But be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face and a mirror, for he observe, observe, observes himself, if I can read correctly, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. So they're really going to focus on this. You're like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself and goes away immediately and forgets what kind of man he was. They're really going to double down on this part of the mirror concept, right, So we don't want to Well, we'll see what they're going to do with this. They're going to take it in an interesting direction.

15:58 Just we'll see where this. Goes, right. James' statement about observing one's natural face in a mirror is unique in the New Testament. The mirror, of course, is once again the word of God that James refers to in verse twenty two. But what does the reference to our natural face and verse twenty three mean? Now, this is where this is going to get interesting. So let me read this again. Be a doer of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror.

16:43 But he observed, absorbed, observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. All right, So what does it mean about observing seeing beholding our natural face. Now they're gonna do something with this. If I'm looking at this, Okay, well I'm gonna I'm not gonna right, there's already things I could say, but I'm just gonna try to let them work it through so that we can follow their reasoning before I really start trying to challenge it. All Right, So here we go.

17:26 We therefore propose the following translation. Now, what happens is they go through that. There's a lot of different ways of translating some of these phrases, and they go through all of the different translations, and they get into the Greek, and so they they propose their own translation. Here's how they propose it. He is like a man observing the face of his birth, the face he was born with, in a mirror. What does this mean spiritually? Now? Let me let's so if we go back and read it in the King James, it says he's a man observing his natural face in a mirror. They are translating it.

18:12 He is like a man observing the face of his birth, the face he was born with, in a mirror. What does this mean spiritually? It's extremely important to note that James one twenty three follows another important statement about birth, and they go to James one seventeen, where we see James one seventeen. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Light, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Right.

18:54 That's the verse that they tell us to go to, all right, This is how they read it. This is how they quote it. James declares that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lives. He immediately reminds his readers of the supremely perfect gift they had all received from their heavenly father in verse eighteen of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be the kind of first fruits of his creatures. He brought us fourth. Now they're going to translate this this way. You ready, if I can read it, let me go back here. Okay. So James declares that every good gift, he immediately reminds his readers of the supremely perfect gift that they had all received from their heavenly father verse eighteen. That was nothing less than the gift of spiritual birth. His words in James one eighteen are these of his own will. He brought us four by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. The Greek word translated here by brought forth basically means to give birth or to bear. James statement, of course, reminds us of the similar words of the apostle Peter. Peter likewise affirms that we are born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

20:26 Both Peter and James therefore declares that our new birth is by the means of God's word. All right, so try to follow this. According to their interpretation, James one twenty two says, when we observe our natural face, we observing the face of our birth. Then they go back to James one eighteen and following or it talks about being brought forth, and they're like, that's referring to being born again, our new birth. You see where they're getting ready to go? Here? Are are you catching on where they're going? Are just stay with me because they're getting ready to explain this. Here we go. Both Peter and James therefore declares that our new birth is by the means of God's Word. Let us note carefully, then, that God has brought us forth using as his instrument the Word of Truth. People are saved at the very moment that they believe any of the promises God makes in his Word about giving eternal life to the believer in Jesus.

21:31 Well known examples of such promises are in John three sixteen, when we know many of those right, and there's plenty of others. But as we have already seen, God's Word is also the instrument by which the Holy Spirit transforms us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Thus we may say two things. The Word of God must be received in faith in order for God to bring us forth, that is, to regenerate us. And two, the Word must be also received in faith for God to transform us. The last point was the thrust of the previous chapter. It is natural, therefore for James to proceed from a reference to our new birth to consideration of the role of God's Word in Christian living. This christian must receive it in a proper way. But this process of receiving biblical instruction must be followed by an obedient response.

22:23 We are to be doers of the word and not only hearers, only deceiving ourselves. All right. So their argument is the Word of God is what is the thing that brings about our new birth. It's the thing that supposedly transforms us. So what we are supposed to do is we respond to the word by being obedient to the word. All right, So let's just stop right here. Okay, I'm gonna throw in you know where I'm gonna go with this. Okay, that's simple, all right. So the Bible says, be holy as God is holy. Just do it. Just do it. Don't be hearers of the word, obey it. Be holy as God is holy.

23:03 Do it, do it? Come on, do it. You can't, you can't. You'll never be as holy as God as holy and practice. So immediately I know there's a problem. The Bible gives me all kinds of scriptures. Do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this. Be perfect, Heavenly Father is perfect. Don't do this, do this, don't do this, don't do that. Well, then immediately you're gonna be like, well, wait a minute, I'm just supposed to be obedient to it. If I can't be obedient to it. This is not an answer to the problem. This is simply saying, hey, your body. I mean, I don't even know how this even relates anymore to the first chapter. Your body is dead. Well, now I'm supposed to just read the Bible and just do it. I can't do it according to the first chapter, because you've already acknowledged my body is dead, So then how do I do it?

23:58 So often Christians have deceived themselves into thinking that more mere exposure to God's Word will be effective for Christian living. They may think, for example, that hearing a good sermon of listening to edifying teaching will make them better. But this is a delusion. The effect of the Word is only truly realize when we put it into practice. We will have more to say about this in the following chapters. For now, however, we must note that a mere hero of the Word is like a person who forgets what he sees in his mirror. He forgets the face of his birth. So, hey, it doesn't matter how much you read, doesn't matter how much you study. It's about how much you obey. And if you don't obey it, you're like someone who observes his face in a mirror and just walks away. But remember they're translating it. You forget the face of your birth, all right? Just and please note they're connecting that to the new birth. Are you catching on to where this is headed? Are you now? Again?

25:00 I'm just going to state it for the billionth time. If you go to James one and you tell everyone, don't just be a hearer, be a doer of the word, then your solution to the Christian life is just do it. Well again, I can give you scripture, be holy as God is holy? Can you just do that? You can't be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. You can't. So just telling people be a doer of the word is already problematic. Now I know Christians, all these Christians are going to be listening telling me, no, you can do it. You're telling me you can be holy as God is holy. If you believe that, you're delusional, you cannot be because that would mean you're perfect in thought word. Indeed, by what you do and by what you leave undone that you're perfect in every area internally externally. You're never going to be that. So immediately we know we can't just simply say, well, just obey it. Well, this book has already said in secret number one that our bodies can't respond to even our new nature. We need a resurrection.

26:04 They're still told, I haven't told me how to get the resurrection. So here we go. Now, this is where they're gonna add an interesting twist to this. Are you ready? According to this book spiritually, what is the face of our birth? And light of the context in James one, it is natural to refer to this expression to the only reference to any birth of ours in this chapter, that is to our birth from above. Oh, now this is getting interesting. So they are reading it this way. But be doers of the word and not hearers, only deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing, observing in his his natural face in a mirror what they are saying. If you are, if you are, if anyone is a hear of the word and not a do or if you just hear the word and you don't obey it, you're like someone looking into the word of God, and you're beholding your natural face or your face of your birth. You are beholding the face of your new birth. That's how they're interpreting this. This is your You are looking into the face of your new birth, and you're walking away. If you just hear and don't obey, you're someone looking into the Bible, seeing the face of your new birth and walking away. You're observing the face of your new birth and you're just walking away. That

27:36 is their interpretation. Right here we go. In that case, the face of our birth represents what we are inwardly by virtue of having been born from above, a new person lives inside the same old physical house, and we can see this person in the mirror of God's word. So what they're saying is, hey, when you read your Bible and you look into that mirror, you're not only seeing God. You see who you are spiritually. You see your new all that new nature, everything that's supposedly changed and transformed. You are seeing that. That's their interpretation of this passage. Now I'm getting a little nervous because I think it's just making I don't think this illustration is doing what they're claiming. I think it's just a normal illustration. See, this is the problem when you go to an illustration in the Bible, and you start trying to make everything this represents this, This represents this, this represents that you almost inevitably are going to just you're going to turn the passage into something that was never intended. I think it's just pretty simple, pretty straightforward. Be a doer of the word and not a hear only deceiving yourselves. Hey, you're deceiving yourself if you just hear it and you're not doing because God calls for hearing and doing, so, don't deceive yourself. You are supposed to hear it, and you're supposed to do it, And immediately you should say

29:07 whoa is me? I'm a man, I'm an I'm unclean. I can now I can't pull this off and you can't. Right, That's why you need imputed righteousness. But okay, now, then James just goes on to say, if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. I think what it is saying is when you don't do it, it's just it's just the same thing as looking in a mirror and just like okay, and you don't do anything about it. You just see yourself and you just walk away and you forget what you saw. I don't think it's supposed to be. What they're saying is no, no, no, no no. What this passage is saying is you're looking into the mirror and you're seeing the spiritual transformation that God has done in you, and you're walking away and forgetting that.

30:00 That's the argument they're making. Let's read this again so that you can and get an idea of what they're trying to say. A new person lives inside the same old physical house, and we can see that person in the mirror of God's word. So that new person is what you're supposedly remember inside everything is supposedly perfect. The only way to see the perfection of what you are inside is supposedly to look at the Bible, and then you will see how perfect you are on the inside. To hear God's word correctly expounded, or to read it with spiritual inside and understanding, means that we have a contemp We have contemplated what we truly are by the grace of God. But as we have already seen, it also involves contemplating the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

30:46 Can both things be true at the same time. The answer is a definitive yes. In fact, to perceive and contemplate the moral and spiritual glory of the Lord Jesus Christ means to see what we truly are as a result of our birth from above. Of course, destiny is to be like Him in the totality of our being, but that that process begins with a radical inward transformation, which is the new birth. From the moment of our regeneration. We have a sinless inner nature. There we go, now the now the book is doubling down the moment of salvation. You have a sinless inner nature. So inside of you is completely sinless according to this theory, So I have a completely So if we're completely sinless on the inside, where does sin come from?

31:47 Now? There? There there? Their argument is, is my body is dead, so my body cannot respond to this sinless nature. So then how does this going to get my body to respond to the sinless nature? So here here I'm gonna go find I'm going to go to the actual book. Now, all right, here we go, Christians, here we go. This is what they're gonna say. Christians are often not aware of this fact. They know only too well that they have a great deal of sin in their lives, so they're like, okay. The problem is Christians don't know this fact. They don't know they have a sinless inward nature.

32:30 They don't know it because they just know all of the sin in their life. So it acknowledges that Christians have sin in their life. But what it seems we have to do is just be shown how sinless we are. Internally. It does not seem likely to them that they have a basically sinless inner nature. They're painfully aware of the defilement of sin and their inward experience. Yet the simple fact remains that they can say with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. But if Christ lives in us, then then that life and so far as it has lived by him, can only be sinless. Oh boy, all right, okay, ladies and gentlemen. This this is see, this is where I've reached a point of just total exhaustion. I don't even know what to say about this stuff anymore. Let me read this again. So according to them, all right, so on the inside you're perfect, you're absolutely part. On the outside, there there's still all of the sin. However, here's a simple fact. I have been crucified with Christ.

33:47 It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Well, if I no longer live and Christ is living in me, well, even this book agrees. If Christ lives in us, then that life, in so far as it is lived by him, can only be sinless. Well, if I'm dead and He's now living in me, then the life he's living in me has to be sinless. Even the book acknowledges that. Well, if it's sinless, ladies and gentlemen, then where in the world is sin coming from? It says. The Truth agrees with numerous scriptures. For one thing.

34:29 If we have eternal life, we have Christ, because he who has the Son has life. In fact, he himself is the true God in eternal life. This is why to those who possess eternal life. John can also say, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin. But he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. Right, Well, everyone quotes first John. Well, if we do not sin, what they're saying is we don't sin on the inward nature. We may sin, but we don't sin with the inward nature. Well you see where the this is going to create kind of almost a gnostic idea. Oh see, I may sin with my body, but I don't sin with my inward nature. So I'm just sinning with my body doesn't impact my I'm sinless inner nature. Now you see this gets convoluted. Well, then why am I sinning with my body?

35:19 Wouldn't my inward nature control what my body does or doesn't do. Now they're arguing that body can't. Christ is living in me and everything in me is sinless, but somehow my body can still sin. Well, then what's controlling the body? In the same sense, Paul's personal struggle with his sinful physical body led him to a twofold understanding of himself. At the end of Roman seven, he is able to conclude, so with my mind, I myself, his true inward self serves the law of God. But with the flesh the law of sin. My true self Paul is saying, it is in servitude of God's law, So in and internally, what they're saying is, hey, we do everything right, but externally we don't. Now well, then this is the argument. So wait, if they're focusing that all of my sin is in external sin, well we know that's just not true. You know all the sin you commit internally, you know your thoughts, you know your desires.

36:31 Where are that? Where is that coming from? If everything on the inside is perfect, Paul is saying in this passage in Romans seven twenty five, Paul is telling us here that it is the inner man is a slave to the law of God, but the physical body is enslaved to the law of sin. From Paul's perspective, his inward nature could produce only obedience, but this was hindered and blocked by the dominance of the flesh and his physical body. So what they're saying is Paul saying, Hey, on the inside, I'm one hundred percent perfect, but my body, so the flesh dominates the flesh or it is hindered.

37:19 So this internal perfection is hindered and blocked by the dominance of the flesh and his physical body. So according to this, my body, my physical body, has dominance over the new nature has dominance over the Holy Spirit living in me. Well, that even becomes more confounding and confused. If God has moved in, he's living in me, everything is perfect on the inside. I mean, this would seem to indicate I do not I commit no sin internally, because there would be no place for me to commit sin internally. Right, if my nature is completely changed, my heart is completely changed, there would be no sin coming from inside the house. Their argument is just the body.

38:06 All the sin is coming from the body because it has dominance over the new nature. Well, that's our rate. There's so many problems with this. All right, let's see if we can if this will make any sense. All right, all right, So Paul teaches us that our body is dead and incapable of expressing the life of God that is within us. Only the resurrecting power of the en dwelling Holy Spirit can overcome this death or this deadness. Well wait a minute, Okay, so the spirit in me can actually overcome my dead body. Well, if the spirit in me can overcome my dead body, then I should be able to be perfect. Oh man, we must conclude, according to this book that when we are born again, God imparts to us a spiritual nature that responds only to His word and will. The inward nature is a moral likeness of God's sinless son. Inwardly, therefore, we have a spiritual face that is like the face of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. It follows that from contemplating the Lord Jesus in God's words shows us we ourselves are like At the deepest level of our being and God's word, we see both his face and our own.

39:30 So when I study the Bible and I see the perfection of God, and I see the perfection of Jesus, what I'm also seeing is the perfection that is inside me, because that is what I am on the inside. On the inside, I am perfect, just like Jesus. On the inside, I'm perfect, just like God is perfect. But my body, this man, it's like then what they have, the body operating completely independently of the perfection on the inside. Your nature, your heart, all of that's been transformed. But your body somehow is operating independently from what's going on in the inside.

40:18 This is so confounding and confusing. So so somehow, as a Christian, your body is not being controlled in any way, shape, or form, by your nature, by your heart. It's operating independently. I don't know what's controlling the body. According to James, the person who beholds the face of his birth. Remember, so let me go back to James one twenty four, or of James one twenty two. But be doers of the word and not hear us only deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes, observes, observes himself. I don't know why I cannot say that word today. He observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. So when we observe our face, they are claiming in this book, you are observing that perfect one percent sinless nature. You are observing the face of your new birth. When you observe that perfect face, that's the key to I guess this is the secret of the Christian life. When you read your Bible, you see you observe the perfection of God, and you observe the perfection of God in you. Because the perfection of

41:50 God has now been placed inside of you. You are completely perfect on the inside. We ought to observe carefully what we are by the grace of God and our innermost self. We should carry that recollection with us in everyday life. So the key is for you as a Christian, this is their secret. You must observe what you really are. You have to see what you really are. And if you will see what you really are, you need to take that into everyday life. Hey go look in the mirror. Do you see the perfection of God? Great Now, look at how perfect you are in the inside. You are perfect on the inside. You are perfect on the inside.

42:34 You are perfect on the inside. Fundamentally, obedient hearing springs from the moral and spiritual beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, deeply impacting us. A Christian can rejoice at the realization that such inward beauty is his by new birth. He can be inspired to express this beauty through obedience. But of course, this captivation of the art by the beauty of Jesus and the work of God's Holy Spirit through his word. However, a moment of reflection will show that obedient hearing can cannot be the result of an enormous burden of guilt or an intolerable load of obligation. If such responsiveness does not arise from our intermost self as a deeply felt desire, it remains a work of the flesh.

43:22 The spirit of the legalist is far removed from what we are talking about here. So it's not about like, Okay, I'm gonna do better. I gotta do better because I feel bad, I feel guilt. No, no, no, they're saying, that's not the right way. That's a fleshly motivation. What it must come from is the perfection of what you are in the inside gives rise to the external obedience. It must flow from the end, because everything on the inside is perfect according to this view. So here's their conclusion.

44:08 So now we see that God's word offers us a double reflection. So as we observe the word, as we observe our face in this mirror, we're really seeing two things. We're seeing God and we see ourselves. And what do we see when we see ourselves? We don't see our corruption, we don't see our sin. We see our perfection that's supposedly inside of us. On the one hand, his word shows us the moral and spiritual glory of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But on the other hand, the Word shows us the face of our spiritual birth. And yet these two reflections are in harmony. Jesus Christ himself is the eternal life that we already have within us, and when that life has lived, it is Jesus Christ living in me. The Christian life, therefore, is God working in our experience what we already are by a new birth.

44:56 It is the mirror of God's word transforming us through the ministry of the God's Spirit, and the increasing expression and word and deed of what we have become by the miracle of the new birth. So what they're saying is the Christian life. The secret of the Christian life is we slowly become in practice what we are in nature. Now this doesn't, and this doesn't still explain why we continue to send and why we cannot get to perfection. But this is supposedly the way it works out. So this is how they describe the third secret. It is it is our coming to be an experience what we already are and our innermost being. So the Christian life is you are coming to be an experience what you already are. In your intermost being, and your intermost being deep inside of you is just perfection. It is perfection.

45:59 And when you look into the Bible, you will see all of that perfection inside of you. You look to God and you see him holy, and you're like, well, thank God, that holiness, that perfection, that holiness is inside of me because I'm now made perfect and holy inside. That's their argument. Uh, I don't know what. I don't know what. I don't know what to say. I don't even know how to process this. This would seem to indicate if there's I mean literally, you would have to acknowledge us if there is any sin inside, Like if you really took this view to its logical conclusion, if there's any sin on the inside of you and thought and desire and emotion, you're not saved because everything on the inside is supposed to be perfect. This would create, according to this theory, this hypothesis. I'm trying, I'm trying to process this.

47:18 Oh man, this this would create basically this this kind of scenario. Okay, So, no sin, any sin you commit, any sin you struggle with, is not coming from inside. There can be no sin arising from inside because you you're perfect on the inside, so sin can only be coming from either an external source outside of yourself. So you can blame the world or you can blame Satan, right, you see, then this becomes if I'm perfect on the inside, how can external sin? I guess their argument is that the body is suggest as vulnerable to the external sin or can the external body produce its own sinful desire?

48:20 But isn't desire coming from the inside. I don't. If everything's perfect on the inside, then that means there's no sinful desires arising from within you. Right, so you can't say you can't say there's any sin inside of you at all, right, other than they would try to say the physical body. But this is where it gets confusing. Then what is controlling the physical body? See there's a disconnect. So the body is operating independently of the nature. But at the same time it says that the Holy Spirit can overcome the body. Well, if the Holy Spirit can overcome the body, then you're saying something inside of me is what's controlling the body. Well, if the Holy Spirit's inside of me and I have a new nature and it can overcome the body, then why is the body so vulnerable to sin. If everything on the inside of me is perfect, this would have to include my will, This would have to include my desires, This would have to include my emotions, this would have to include my motivations, because they're saying everything inside me is completely perfect. It is sinless where in the world. I don't get how my body. Then I want to understand it, but it makes no sense. What moves what would the I don't understand.

49:57 I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. And look, this is not the only this is not the only thing that would say something similar. Look, I can't really break it down for you. I don't understand how to make it work right. Somehow I'm just supposed to walk away going, hey, hey, don't forget what I am inside, and now I'm just gotta live out what I am on the inside. And then it's like, but don't don't do that being motivated by guilt, and it's and basically it's like, you, God's gonna do it for you. If God's gonna do it for you, I don't even understand.

50:38 But this is not the only look. Today I was looking at my feed on the sermon's two point oh app. Look, this is what I heard. This is the first thing I think it was in my feed on the sermon's two point Oh app Are you ready? The audio is not great, but you're gonna catch on. It's only like a couple of minutes long. You're gonna catch on. This is what almost every Christian teaches, almost something similar to this. Listen Geting's church family. This is Joe Calabresee and I wanted to share a little bit with you on this Wednesday in the word. The text that I like to speak about is from our sermon this past weekend. It's Romans six versus seventeen and eighteen. And hearing the scripture again this weekend couldn't help remind me of a time of my life where I was set free from sin.

51:25 I was a slave to sin, no doubt, But our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ set me free from the bondage of sin and gave me a new heart and a new life and caused me to walk in his ways. Now now, please, Now, I was in bondage des sin, but he's no longer in bondage to sin. He has a new life, He has a new heart, he's a new nature. I mean, this is just the standard Christianity. Okay, well, if you have a new life, new heart, you've been completely set free. Are you saying you don't sin? I'm gonna play this again.

52:10 Here we go, Reading's church family. This is Joe Calabresee, and I wanted to share a little bit with you on this Wednesday in the word. The text that I like to speak about is from our sermon this past weekend. It's Romans six Versus seventeen and eighteen. And hearing the scripture again this weekend couldn't help remind me of a time of my life where I was set free from sin. I was a slave to sin, no doubt, but our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ set me free from the bondage of sin. Now, let me just ask this question. If you've been set if you were a slave to sin, but you're no longer a slave to sin, that should mean you should be able to stop sinning.

52:54 Right. If you can't stop sinning, you're still a slave. Let's just play this out. I mean, it's only like about two minutes long. Here were you. And gave me a new heart and a new life and caused me to walk in his ways. Now Romans sixth seventeen and eighteen speaks about this. It says, but. And if God causes me to walk in his ways, well, God doesn't cause me to walk in his ways imperfectly. Because if God is the one causing me to walk in his ways, but he doesn't cause me to walk in them perfectly, then God is the cause of me not walking them in perfectly. So does God's cause me to walk in his ways perfectly? Or does God cause me to walk in them imperfectly? Like this just becomes so confounding. I don't even know how Christians say these things and nobody stops and go this makes literally no sense.

53:55 Thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, and have become slaves of righteousness. So there's a time where we are complete slaves to sin. Sin is our master. We can do no other. Even when we try to fight it on our own, we go back to the same sin, the same vices, and we're not able to free ourselves. We are bound and literally slaves the sin, as Scripture says, but we see a transition in the heart of a believer. You become a slave to righteousness. So when you put your.

54:43 So in the heart of a believer, you become a slave to righteousness, a slave to If you're a slave to righteousness, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a new heart, I don't you should not sin? Then now is he going to acknowledge that sin accurse? This is inevitably what's going to happen. I've been set free, I've been made perfect. But wait for the butt because at some point, I bet you there's going to be some acknowledgment of sin. Every time we listen to this it's the same. It gets so maddening. Here we go. Trust in faith, in Christ alone to save you, and you turn from your sin and repentance, and you fully trust in Christ alone. He sets you free. Not only does he save you from God's wrath and eternally secures you and justifies you by faith, he also sets you free from sin. You're no longer a slave to sin.

55:40 And it's working on the cross breaks those chains. And I experienced that in my life. There was a time like I said before, where sin was my master, and that's all I knew. And even when I would try to fight on my own, I could not break free. I would go back right and get discouraged, and go back and get discouraged. So when the Lord was really working on my heart and convicting me of my sin and drawing me to salvation, that was the experience. I had a constant slavery to sin. I wanted to try to clean myself up and do the right thing, but I couldn't. I couldn't on my own. But thanks be to God, and thanks by his grace, when He solemnly saved me and opened my eyes to the Gospel and his finished work on the Cross, I was set free from sin. Sin was no longer my master. Christ was, and his ways and his righteousness. In wanting to walk in his ways, became my master from that day on. Now, sure we have our setbacks, but we're quick to repent, quick to turn, quick to rush, rush to his grace and the cross and experience his forgiveness and get back up and walk in righteousness. So I wanted to share something.

56:50 At that time, when the Lord saved me and opened my eyes, I was reading rom in six and shortly after I started writing something down that became someone of a poem that reflects these verses in Romans six seventeen and eighteen. So I'd like to share that with you church family here on this Wednesday. In the word, I call it set free. So here's what I wrote. I was a slave to a horrible master. I would try to run, and he would pursue me faster. On my own, I could not escape his wrath. I would try to fight, but remained on a destructive path. It was a battle I could not win, for I was trapped as a slave to sin. I knew without a doubt there had to be a way out. I cried to the Lord above, and quickly he poured out his love. My Savior came and set me free. Mastered by sin, I will no longer be. I was once dead and had no purpose.

57:53 I'm now alive in Christ and owe him My service as a slave to righteousness is what I now give, And on a path towards holiness is how I now live. So thank you for taking the time to listen. Now what he said is we still have setbacks now, so now we're not gonna call it sin. We just have setbacks and then we immediately repent. Everything's been made perfect. I'm a slave to righteousness, but we have setbacks. We're on the path to holiness. Let me make it very clear for you. If you're on the path to holiness, that means you're not holy. And if you're not holy, you're in a perpetual state of sin. And if you're in a perpetual state of sin, by definition, you're still a slave to sin. Because unless you stop.

58:42 Sinning, you're still a slave to sin. I don't understand. It's like talking in circles. Hey, everything's perfect. We've been completely set free. I mean, we still have setbacks. Why do we have setbacks? And when did sin become called a setback? So now my sin is simply a setback. Before I was a Christian, my sin with sin, But now it's just a setback. It's just a setback. I'm no longer a slave to sin. Do you keep sinning? What is sin? Any lack of conformity to the perfect standard of God's word and God's law, which is Demand's perfection.

59:27 I'm not perfect in thought, I'm not perfect in word. I'm not perfect. Indeed, I fell in what I do. I fell in what I don't do. Therefore, I'm in a perpetual state of sin. If I'm in a perpetual state of sin, then I'm not free. And if I can't get to perfection, then I'm enslaved to the thing that's keeping me from perfection. What is keeping me from perfection? Well, it can't be any sin in me, because supposedly everything in me has been completely transformed. Then where is sin coming from? Can someone tell me? I have always thought the sin arises from the inside, because the inside is still corrupt. Look, I would prefer that all Christians would just say we can be perfect, and I am perfect, and I barely sin, and if I do sin, I don't really know why, but it's so infrequent that it doesn't really bother me. And the fact that you keep sinning and you keep acknowledging your sin, and you're so convinced that you're sinning all the time, well you're not safe.

1:00:33 Just say that, and then I can say, well, then I'm not a Christian because I can't accept your nonsense. But no, what they want is the best of both worlds. We are completely new, we're completely transformed. I mean we'll have setbacks. I mean we're still gonna sin. I mean inevitably. That's where they will talk a big game and then inevitably admit, well, I mean we're still going to sin. Well, if we're still sinning, why why would I still sin? If I've been completely set free from it? And not only been set free from it, I have a completely new nature, and I have the power of God supposedly moving me to obedience. Now, I don't understand the sixth Secret Book telling me that if I observe my natural face, which is my I guess, my new birth. If I observe the face of my new birth, then what I will see is that inside I am basically I am perfect.

1:01:41 I'm holy as God is holy inside of me. That's the nature I have. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that makes But somehow my body dominates that well, but the Holy Spirit can overcome that dominance. But the whole Holy Spirit doesn't just do It makes no sense. It makes literally no sense. Since look, I don't know about the rest of Christianity. The only thing I know is this most merciful God. We confess that we have sinned against You and thought word indeed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone, we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent for the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us. And I know I have to confess that in the morning, in the afternoon, and the evening, late at night, early in the morning, later in the morning, in the middle of the day, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, because I know I'm perpetually in sin. How do I know I'm perpetually in sin? Because I own the same Bible you do, and it says be holy as God is holy.

1:03:01 And I can't do that, never can do that, never will do That. Tells me to love God with my whole heart, my whole heart, my whole mind, my whole body, and whole soul. I never do. That. Tells me to love my neighbor as myself. It tells me to love my enemy. It tells me to turn the other cheek. It tells me and I go on and on and on and on and on. It tells me pride. God hates pride. God hates coveteousness. God hates And I can go on and on and on and on and on, and all I see is my sin and my sin, and my sin and my sin and my sin and my sin and my sin. I think when I open the Word of God, I do behold my natural face. It's the natural face of a sinner, because that natural sin, that nature is still inside of me. And I am perfect positionally, but practically I'm still a sinner and will sin until resurrection, until glorifications. That's the only that's the only way. I don't have any other answers.

1:04:00 All right, I'll stop there. I don't know what I don't know what else to say. I don't know what else to say. All right, thanks for listening. I'm not gonna say have a good day, because I don't know how there are anything good. I don't know how anything good comes from any of this. It's just maddening. It's just madness. And and I don't know. I don't I don't get it. I don't get it. But we had, we started the Six Secrets. We have to continue to look at it. So I just all I can do is just keep walking through this until we come up with something. All right, Thanks for listening, God bless