Thursday, February 29th | Saved but Still Sinning?

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Remember, that promo code is today. T-O-D-A-Y. A healthier, happier you is just a click away. Holy cannoli! I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Leap years feel like an Easter egg. Did you say holy cannoli? I said holy cannoli.

Holy cannoli. Leap years feel like an Easter egg, like something you get. Well, you unlocked something that wasn't ever there. Yeah, it's like a secret level in a video game.

I only get to experience it once every four years. Achievement unlocked. You guys can help us keep the conversation going by supporting the show. You can share it online with your friends and your family. You can leave us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify.

Absolutely nothing less than five stars for any reason imaginable. We're going to leave a link in the description so you can do just that. Today's verse of the day is coming to us from John, chapter 14, verse 17. It says, let me find it, Even the spirit of truth, whom the world...

Okay, hang on, let me start over. I'm going to start in verse 15, because the whole thing is good. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. So many times we have a misunderstanding of who the Holy Spirit is. We think about it as almost like Star Wars, like the Force.

Yeah, He's like a mist. Disembodied, mysterious, almost magical element of the world. It's like a power that comes forth from God. But the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, is the third person of the Trinity. God the Spirit. So we have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. He's a member of the Godhead. He is God. And that is the presence of God that lives inside of us.

We misinterpret or misattribute that, and I think it's because of a lack of understanding and really a lack of a desire to understand. We have a song, an original song, Clearview Worship. It's called Spirit of God. And it has rapidly, I mean we've been playing it for like a year, year and a half now at Clearview, but it has become a congregational favorite. It is so deep in, and I'm not bragging, I'm just telling you guys, it is so deep in theology.

It is so rich. And there's a lot of lines in there that just talk about the Spirit of God, what the Spirit of God does for us. Spirit of God speak. Spirit of God move. Spirit of God intercede for me. Spirit of God breathe, groan, teach my heart to worship in the truth and in the Spirit of God.

That's the entire chorus. And those are all things that the Holy Spirit does. If you start looking at all the things that the Spirit does for us, you will be so amazed and you will keep seeing deep spiritual truths revealing about himself through the Holy Spirit.

We could spend an entire episode talking about the Holy Spirit. And maybe we should later. Yeah, we probably should, but right now I want to really zone in on February 29th.

This is a thing that we don't get to experience very often, and I don't know why. I have no right to be as excited about February 29th. There's nothing about it. But I remember as a kid, it was like a secret day. It was like, like I said, an Easter egg day.

If you don't know what an Easter egg is, like in a video game, you can like stumble into a secret area or just something that's kind of hidden that the developers put in there just for you. And not everybody will find it, but that's how February 29th has always felt. And I thought as I got older, it would just go away. It would become another day, but it never did. I don't know why. It feels like there should be some more pomp and circumstance about it. There should be some celebration to it. Like, I don't know, should we have a party today?

Should we wear special hats? Do you get like a discount on like 29 items? I don't know.

I don't know. But it feels like there should be something. Yeah, when the earth rotates around the sun, it's like it only goes a quarter of the way every year.

So you get a full extra day because of the way the earth spins. That's stinking cool. And people are like, I mean, it's fine. It's just another day. I don't know.

I like it. There should be something. Maybe there's people out there who have like leap year day celebrations.

Like they just hop everywhere. They get $29 off of a major purchase. I don't know. Bro, these are some good ideas.

We need to patent this. Write that down. Yeah. 29 extra episodes of the Clear V Today show. I don't know.

Oh, wow. Yeah, maybe like a 29. You get bonus content. A 29 minute extra episode. Yeah, that's kind of funny because our episodes are 29 minutes long.

Yeah. You know, maybe that's something we could do like some bonus content one year. If we weren't contractually obligated to provide five a week, this would be a bonus episode.

This would be behind a paywall. The first 29 people that write it into the show get a Clear V Today coffee mug. Yeah, let's do it. I don't know.

I want to figure something out. Oh, yeah. You all see these clean mugs right here?

Isn't that nice? Clear V Today. These aren't on the store yet, are they? No. Okay. They will be soon.

They will be. Right now, all you all can do is watch from afar. And if you're listening to the show. You can listen to a slurp from afar. Yeah, yeah. Here, I'm going to.

Oh. Just imagine the cleanest coffee mug you ever seen in your life. Matte, black, logo in white. I got the microphone on the back. This is a clean mug. That was almost a wrap. Huh? Matte, black, logo in white.

I got the microphone on the back. Somebody needs to put a beat to that. Let's do it.

All right. Write in and let us know what your Leap Day celebrations are. I know there's got to be somebody out there who does something special on Leap Day. Write in and let us know. 252-582-5028. Maybe one of our listeners in Anaconda, Montana has something special going on.

Shout out to Anaconda. Or you can visit us online at ClearVTodayShow.com. Stay tuned.

We'll be back after this. Elizabeth, my darling bride, what would you say is the most beneficial thing you could do for yourself in the morning? Probably drink an entire pot of coffee when sitting.

I'd say that's a close second. No, the best thing you can do for yourself is to start every morning with a daily devotional. Only be one to talk about.

Well, as it turns out, we have two. Right now, you can unlock the power of daily inspiration, wisdom, and spiritual growth in our devotional series, 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning. Written by our pastor, Dr. Abaddon Shah, and his wife, Nicole, the 30 Days Devotional Series is designed to reveal new biblical truths every single day. That's right, and every day is a new revelation to guide you on your Christian journey toward a more meaningful and purposeful life. You can pick up your copy today from our website, that's ClearviewBC.org, or you can grab both books on Amazon, Apple Books, and Audible.

That's 30 Days Through a Crisis and 30 Days to a New Beginning by Abaddon and Nicole Shah. And don't forget, these are only the first two in an expanding devotional series, so keep your eyes peeled for future installments. Thanks for listening.

Now, let's get back to the show. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. That's right, and we are here once again in the Clear View Today studio for the first time in four years on a February 29th. We have never been in this studio on February the 29th. This is the first day that we've ever done this.

That's crazy. We're here with Dr. Abaddon Shah, who is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism. Dr. Shah, happy February the 29th. Happy leap year day. So if somebody is born on that day, what happens?

They age at a quarter of the pace. I had a friend in school, in elementary school. I had a friend, you can bleep it if you want to, but I had a friend, and he was born on February 29th, and everyone made fun of him and said, ha ha, you're like two years old.

And he was like eight. Wow. I remember that, yeah.

Yeah, I don't think I've met anybody who's actually born on the 29th. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.

That's crazy. It's fun. And you know, it's one of those things that you get to do every once in a while. Yeah.

You get to do it every four years. Yeah. But you know what's not once in a while?

You know what's every day is our Christian discipline. Good job, man. I'm trying, man. I'm trying. That was impressive. Segues are hard, especially when you don't write them out.

You just see that red light on the camera, you're like, I cannot think of something. No, that was smooth. Thank you, man. We do it every day. Yeah, we work out every day.

Every day. You can't take a year off. You certainly shouldn't take four years off.

Some people do treat their Christian life like you do. You should do it once every four years, man. Yes. True. Once every four years, I'll go to church.

I might go on Easter, unless I don't feel like it, and then I won't go. Yeah. But you know, we've been talking about our spiritual disciplines, and we especially have been talking about adding things to our faith. Yes. And we were talking these past couple of days about furnishing our house with, our spiritual house that is to speak, with the right things, not just taking this hodgepodge of stuff.

And yesterday, we talked about how it all stems from this sense of not wanting to relinquish sin, or really not letting God relinquish us from old masters. Right. Well, we have sort of taken, gotten off trail, as Nicole's dad used to say, yes, I know I'm off the trail, but I like the scent. That's right.

I'm chasing this, whatever this creature is, but I like the scent. That's right. I'm going to get off trail here. And we began it in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 4, talking about how we have escaped the corruption of this world through lust, having become partakers of the divine nature. And we're trying to understand what that means.

What does that mean, that we have escaped the corruption of this world? And what Peter puts in two verses, Paul in Galatians 5 and Romans 6 through 8, really fleshes out. So we have sort of left Peter aside for a moment, but then gone to Romans. Now, this is nothing out of the ordinary, as David pointed out one time when we were in this series, when I was preaching through it, he said, you know, Peter does that. In his letter, he says, look to Paul, because brother Paul says a lot of things that are hard to understand. So I'm not doing anything that Peter himself hasn't done.

That's a great point. And in 2 Peter itself, he says, look to Paul. So we're looking at Paul, it does not mean for all you taking expository preaching class people that go, oh, no, no, you need to stick to that one text. We're doing exactly what Peter did. That's right.

Exactly right. And anybody who is in Christian broadcasting knows that the Bible references itself constantly. And so it's kind of impossible to talk about these kind of things and then not go to other places in the Bible. Yes.

Yes. In Romans, and in Romans, we learn something about how to defeat sin in your life. We don't believe in sinless perfection. The Bible doesn't claim that.

But we do believe that when you grow in the Christian life, God makes you aware of what has taken place. What has taken place is that you died to sin. You died to sin. You were slaves of sin, but now you died to sin, which means you are no use to master sin.

Right. You were a slave. He was the master. He's still around.

He still comes around. But you're dead. Now if you try to fight him in the power of the old flesh, it is awkward. It's weird.

It doesn't work. All it leads to is frustration. All it leads to is more bondage, because you're trying to somehow fight against master sin. Every time you see master sin, you immediately launch into this battle by digging up the old body, and then trying to fight with the old mind, the old heart, the old habits, and it does not work. The only way we can defeat master sin is by remembering, reckoning, that you are dead indeed to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It's done. You're not alive anymore. But if you try to live that life of reckoning yourself dead to sin by thinking about it, or reminding yourself of it, or trying to muster up the faith to walk in this new reckoning, you will go right back with a shovel and start digging. If you're listening on the radio and you feel like you just got like spiritual whiplash, like that was just like trying to drink out of all fire hydrant, you need to go back and listen to the other two episodes that we did on Wednesday and Thursday.

I'm sorry, Tuesday and Wednesday. That's going to really help, because that is a ton. That's a ton of information, but over the last couple days we've been expanding it. This is kind of a summary to help us go into the next phase of this message. This is a very important message.

I believe this is probably one of the top messages or truths, really, not message, truths about the Christian life, how to deal with sin after you're saved. But I just don't want to, Dr. Shah, I want to pretend that I don't have no problem with it. Or just kind of resign yourself to like, yeah, you know, I'm human, that's probably it, that's probably it. Yeah, we're all human. We're all sinners. Just kind of excuse that out of the way.

I'm trying, but I mean, you know me, that's the whole struggle of mine. Man. Yeah.

And that's not how God has left us, like saved you with all these powerful, deep truths of the Christian life and then like, okay, now go do your own thing. Yeah. Good luck. Yeah.

I'll see you on the other side. The only way you and I can really live the Christian life and understand this master slave coming around and you are dead, remember Romans 6, you died with Christ, you were buried with him, you have not risen to walk in the newness of life, all these things are going to work for you only and only if you keep your eyes on Christ. That's right. That's right. And if you start looking to yourself, the old self or the new self, again, I said it, the old self or the new self, it's not going to work. The only way this works is by keeping your eyes on Jesus Christ.

That's right. I mean, how interesting our church's motto is, making Christ visible because that's how you are saved. That's how you live the saved life. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Clearview Church, our logo is a lighthouse and that light is not just to light the way, but it's to light up Jesus Christ, is to make him visible. And that's, I think, over the last 10 years, that has radically transformed the way that I think about Christianity and especially our doctrine. Our doctrine is not boring technicalities that we just say out there to kind of put where we are in the Christian algorithm, so to speak. It's to make Christ visible to people.

That's right. Well, even our mission statement, our mission at Clearview is to lead all people into a life-changing, ever-growing relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ is the focus. It's not, you know, make improved marriages and it's not heal relationships.

All of those things should happen and we hope that they do happen, but Christ is the focus because without Christ being the focus, everything else is pointless. What if I would tell you that I'm not that diligent even in my eating habits or my workout? Same. Or how I love my family. I'm not that diligent as I need to be. But when it comes to the Christian life, you do not have the other option. And I think that's why a lot of people are dissatisfied with their Christian life, not just because they're putting the impetus on him, but maybe the place that they're at, the church they're at, the people they surround themselves with aren't requiring, like you said, that they live by diligence. One of the things I will give to Clearview Church every day of the week is that if you want to be a member of Clearview Church, it requires something of you. You don't come here and consume only, not that we don't allow it, but it's not the culture here.

No. Because it's not the biblical culture. It was up to me, I'd be like, whatever you want to do, just drop something in the offering plate on the way out. But Christian life cannot be lived that way. It has to be, as Peter says, giving all diligence and as Paul says, obey from the heart.

So the way Manly Beasley explains it is, you know, a person begins to obey from the heart or a person is diligent, per Apostle Peter, they begin to grow in grace. And as they begin to grow in grace, one by one, the Holy Spirit will set the person free and the place that he begins is, first, is a sin of stealing. Oh, but Dr. Shaw, I don't steal. I'm going to go skip this part because I don't steal.

I've never robbed anyone in my life, I've never stolen anything from a store. Yeah. Do you give people the shirt off your back? I give people the shirt off my back, man, and then I'll give them the skin, and I would. Do you have something underneath?

Hold on one second. You're wearing a shirt? Okay, then you can give a shirt off. We don't want you walking around naked.

Please. I've been lifting, dude, my pecs are looking good. But people don't understand, what do you mean by stealing? Now Manly Beasley explained it this way, he said, one day this new Christian is listening to a message like this and the Holy Spirit begins to convict their heart that they should be giving their money to the Lord. Hurts, don't it?

That's a rough conviction. Because we want to be set free from like cussing, lust, and drinking, and smoking, chewing dip if you're in the South, yeah, drugs, no, no, no, place where he will typically begin is by stealing. And once you're saved, everything is now his. We are his slaves.

No longer saved to master sin, but you are his slaves. And it's not 10%, it is 100% that belongs to God. Tell me all the slaves who gave their masters 10%. Right. That doesn't work like everything you have. That's not real slavery.

No, not at all. Because 10% is still living by the law. Slaves are not under the law, they're pretty much belong to the master. That's right. 100% is living by grace, and sadly, most people in church are barely tithing. Manly Beasley would say, God is gracious, and he still uses fragmented light to set us fragmented truth, and he still lets us be fragmented Christians.

Wow. So when people say it's like, well, you know, I just like that, you know, fragmented truth. Most will never understand beyond the 10%, and that's that, and you will hear a message like this where the pastor will say, if you give your 10% to the Lord, he will turn around and give you much more back.

You can get by farther or further on 90% than on 100%. Now, here's the problem with that, and I want to put this in a way that I think our listeners can understand. That don't make no sense.

You've been watching a brother while we're all down, right? That don't make no sense. That don't make no doggone sense. And the devil will argue with you, but that is the truth.

But you obey from the heart, and just the way you obey from the heart when you got saved, you trusted Jesus to save you, to forgive you of your sins and give you eternal life, so also now you trust God and you say, okay, God, if this is the truth, then I don't know how we're going to make it this month because I was planning on keeping that 10% part for this, that, and the other, but I'm going to give it to you. And the moment you do that, and trust God with it, you are set free from the sin of stealing. Of stealing.

Of stealing. Yeah. Yeah. Of the first one. That's true.

That's true. It might have seemed odd to start with stealing. I mean, when you first said it in the message, the first hang-up, stealing, I was like, stealing?

Really? Stealing? That seems odd that it would be first on the list, but when you explain it that way, we are all guilty of that.

And it's, some people are legalistic and they're tied, but they have no joy in it. And I tell people like, that's like, just keep it. Just keep, keep it.

Keep your money. Yeah. I mean, God loves a cheerful giver. Yeah.

God's not a waiter you have to tip. Like he doesn't need it. Right. You need it.

Yeah. You need to be giving. So what happened is verse 18, which is, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So now you are tithing and you are grace giving, which is above tithing. But now you're like a slave of righteousness. You want, you have to do this.

You have to do this. And most Christians don't even make it to that point. Right. They get saved and then it's like, okay, cool.

I'm good. No longer a slave of master sin, you're a slave of righteousness. Slave of righteousness.

Imagine that. Yeah. Cause a slave master does not sound good in any context, but here it is a slavery that is actually good. Yeah.

It benefits you. It's like, I have to, I mean, is he going to beat you up? No, but I have to.

He's my master. Yeah. Yeah.

I have to do this. Are you obligated to this? No.

It's like, what'll happen if you don't, it's like probably nothing immediately terrible, but I have to do it. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's a very different understanding. But many people's Christian life goes on and so far they get saved and they stop stealing, but Bible has more for you.

Oh yeah. But a lot of them are not interested in that Bible knowledge because I'll just trust my preacher or trust the Clearview Today show or trust whoever else. Because here comes the second hang up, which is things like smoking and chewing and dipping and all that stuff.

Yeah. All the good stuff that we think about when we think of sins, especially here in the South, we have a very, we have a very visual interpretation of what sin is. Now in a message like this, the pastor is talking against this and two people are convicted. One is convicted that he is abusing the temple of the Holy Spirit and he is convicted that he needs to stop.

God did not give it to him and I need to try my best to quit it. And so what this person does is he, he, he says, you know, I'm not going to go forward and get on my face before God or, or tell the pastor or anybody, because if I don't do it, then it's going to make God look bad. Oh bro, you know what? You just messed up. Yeah. You just messed up.

You just messed up. Honestly, they're really concerned about themselves and God is perfectly capable of taking care of his reputation. But this person thinks, oh, I'm saving God's reputation. No. So he goes home and he will put on a patch and he will get some gum or he will do whatever he can.

Sunflower seeds. Yeah. He'll do whatever he can just to stop smoking. And he may even quit, but it's not, he is still miserable. He has real willpower and, but that's only religion. The second person also has the same conviction and he feels like God did not give me this habit.

I cannot handle it. But instead of trying to quit in his own power, he says, God, unless you help me, I cannot do this. And even as I come in, I'm coming to you, I have the urge to take another, whatever I'm, I'm, I'm addicted to, but I'm coming to you sink or swim. I'm coming to you and he obeys from the heart. He obeys from the heart. He comes by the cross and by grace and falls before God.

And in that process, here's what happened. He gets around the same people who do those habits and he doesn't even have the desire. You don't want to no more. No. You see, Satan will still tempt him, but temptation is from the outside, not from the inside. That's right. And there's a world of difference.

There's a huge difference. That's right. So this man will, will grow in grace. The first one will not grow in grace. He just did it in his own strength.

That's right. He didn't obey from the heart. Now, here comes the third one very quickly.

Again, Manly Beasley has done an excellent job in teaching me this. We talked about stealing. Then we talked about these habits, bad habits. The third sin that, that you and I will be delivered from is uncontrollable temper. A lot of Christians are good at covering this one up. Yes. This is one area where people struggle with, but it's because they haven't obeyed from the heart. Now, how does this happen?

So he gives an illustration, which I think is so beautiful. Imagine if you own 40 acres of land, right? And you decide to sell 39 acres and keep one.

Now if I kept that one acre or, or, or I sold one acre to somebody and kept the 39, I have to give that one acre person, owner, the access, the right of way, the easement to the property. I have to give them that, that freedom. So also when it comes to temper, temper and things like that happen because there's somewhere we've allowed Satan to have a stronghold. And so what he does is he just sits back and he waits, he waits, he waits for the opportune time and then he comes demanding, hey, that right away is mine. He doesn't care if you have 39 acres dedicated to God, as long as he's got that one, he has a way to get back to you. And you have to let him in.

That's right. So how do you obey from the heart? You have to know that God allows afflictions, trials, failures to bring these, these acres to the surface, these sins to the surface so that God will deal with them and God deals with them. And one by one, he begins to set us free. Beautiful. You know, Robertson McQuilkin said this, and this is a powerful statement, I'm gonna close with this. He said, this is Jay Robertson McQuilkin, the dad, okay? Hunter gives many evidences of an unsurrendered heart.

Remember? Giving all diligence, obey from the heart. That's the same thing he's talking about here, the unsurrendered heart. Unreconciled personal relations, unforgiving spirit, a complaining attitude, unloving criticism, persisting in a wrong even after realizing one is sinning, grieving more over what hurts oneself than what hurts God, making decisions on the basis of personal benefit rather than promotion of God's purposes, and seeking the praise of other people. Even if one displays no conscious rebellion, behaviors such as these indicate that the individual must choose to surrender unconditionally to the will of God. You see, the only way we're gonna be set free from this uncontrollable temper or whatever else it is is unconditional surrender, diligence, giving all diligence add to your faith. And Paul says, when you obey from the heart, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, unconditional surrender.

It's non-negotiable if you're gonna grow in the Christian life. And I love the way you put it. You put it in one of your sermons, you said it's not that God does his part and then we do our part and then the two meet. It's because he did his part. We do our part. And he did it all for us. That's right.

That's it. If you guys enjoyed today's episode or if you have questions about anything we talked about, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028. You can visit us online at cleerviewtodayshow.com.

Don't forget you can partner with us financially on that same website. Also want to encourage you to head over to mightymuscadine.com, they're the sponsors of today's episode. Use the promo code today when you check out, T-O-D-A-Y.

It's gonna get you a great discount and a portion of that purchase comes right back here to the Clearview Today Show. Jon, what's coming up tomorrow? We are gonna be closing the loop, so to speak, so over the past couple episodes, we started in First Peter, I'm sorry, in Second Peter originally, then we sort of went on to Romans and we saw how all this stuff is fleshed out. Now we're circling back around to Second Peter and we're gonna actually start doing what Peter has told us to do, which is adding these things to our faith.

Very nice. Make sure you guys are here for it. Love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Clearview Today. We'll see you guys tomorrow on Clearview Today. We'll see you guys tomorrow.