Thanks frames for joining us on the line of fire. Michael Brown here to equip you, empower you, help you to engage on the front lines where we all stand. Every one of us, like it or not, we are in the line of fire. Today I was preaching at a church this past Sunday. It made that comment.
We're all in the line of fire. And the large crowd there nodded. Yeah, it's the reality. And we want to help equip you to stand strong. It's a challenging day to live.
It's a challenging time to live a holy life with so much bombardment and sin so accessible in ways it's never been before in the history of the human race. But God's grace enough is more than enough. And by his grace, we have died to sin and can live in victory. And that's what we're here to do this whole month, to equip you in holiness, the beauty of holiness to help you live an overcoming godly life. One of the ways that we can equip you is with our frontline newsletter.
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That's at thelineoffire.org. Thelineoffire.org, right on the homepage. Every quote we're giving you this month, every scripture we're sharing, they're all taken from my book, Go and Sin No More, A Call to Holiness, which Bill Bright called one of those rare, life-changing books. I was so humbled when he shared that.
So We've been talking about legalism and the perils of legalism and people beating you over the head with the Bible. The other side of the coin, though, is that people run from it. And when they hear just preaching the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Or the words of Paul in one of his letters, they said, No, no, no one's gonna tie me up again. You're not gonna condemn me anymore.
Who are you to tell me what to do? And so while legalism, slays its thousands. Libertarianism licensed, may even say it's tens of thousands, where we just run from the preaching of holiness. What we need to say is, Lord, We want everything that you have for us. Lord, we want to walk in a way that's pleasing to you.
Ephesians 5, be imitators of God. as dearly beloved children. That's Lord. I want to do that. I want to be an imitator of your Son.
I want to be conformed to your Son. Romans 8. It tells us the in in Beginning in verse 29. that what God is doing As he is calling us and saving us, he is conforming us to the image of his son. conforming us to the image of his son.
That's something beautiful. And yes, it comes with conviction. But Conviction says you've sinned, come near me. That's what God says. You've sinned, you've blown it, come near me, be washed, be cleansed, let's renew our fellowship.
Condemnation says, you worthless, miserable sinner, you just get away from me. I don't ever want to see you again, and bad things are coming your way. That's the lie of condemnation versus the grace of conviction. Oswald Chambers said this The only liberty A saint has Is the liberty Not to use is liberty. As I've said, Jesus sets us free from sin.
Not too sin. Liberty means ability. Not to violate the law. License means personal insistence on doing what I like. To be free from the law means that I am the living law of God.
There is no independence of God in my makeup. License is rebellion against all law. If my heart does not become the centre of Divine Love, it may become the center of diabolical license. Did you get that? Oswald Chambers is always so rich.
So the liberty we have is the liberty not to sin. not the liberty to sin. And to be free from the law means free from the external commandments because they're now written on our heart, and we live to do the will of God.
So What's the solution? That we avoid legalism on one side and license and libertarianism on the other side. It is spirit. empowered holiness. not sin-driven license, that's the biblical option.
That's the biblical option to legalism. The Apostle Paul says this. He's the one who said the letter kills, right? When he wrote to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 3. What did he mean?
He was explaining to the Corinthians that their very lives served as a letter of commendation for his ministry, written, quote, not on tablets of stone. but on tablets of human hearts.
So he was referring to the effects that the law of Moses engraved on tables of stone had upon the Israelites. He called it the ministry that brought death. and the ministry that condemns men. 2 Corinthians 3, 7. 2 Corinthians 3.9.
Yet he still calls it in this passage a glorious ministry.
So this was God speaking at Sinai. This was the glory of God coming down. This was a revelation of the nature of God. The Ten Commandments are good commandments. If the whole world lived by the Ten Commandments, the world would look completely different.
I mean, we can't imagine how different it would look if the whole world lived by the Ten Commandments, and yet. It was a ministry that condemned. Why? Because it was written on tables of stone. Tablets of stone and not human hearts.
So. This is in keeping with the fact that Paul was always careful to state that the law itself is good. For example, Romans 7, 12. The problem is that the law does not give us the power to live for God. Paul writes about that in Romans 8, 1 through 4.
Right, so it's it's one thing to tell someone to do something that's right. But they can't break the habit. You just need to stop drinking. You just need to stop watching porn. You you just need to stop shooting heroin.
You just need to stop. Eating unhealthy food. You just need to stop lying. You just need to stop gambling. You're telling people what's right.
They need to stop. These things are destructive and wrong.
However, you're not giving them power to stop. Many of them would have stopped a long time ago if they had the power to stop, but they're bound.
So that is like the law. It's perfect, it's holy, just like God is perfect and holy, but it's written in stone. It's r it's written externally. It's written in books. And not written on hearts.
So the law itself is perfect and beautiful and wonderful, but it's written in stone, it's written in books, not on hearts. You say, well, isn't the Bible written in books? Yes, but it is God's living word. And as we open our hearts, those words that are written in our hearts, So the dead letter is not the Bible. The dead letter is not quoting scripture.
The dead letter is hitting people over the head with a command without the power of the gospel to transform.
So again, the old poem, To run and work the law commands, It gives us neither feet nor hands. But better news the gospel brings It bids us fly and gives us wings. Here's what Paul said, 2 Corinthians 3. 17 and 18. Second Corinthians 3.
17 and 18. Now The Lord is the Spirit. And what the Spirit of the Lord is, There's freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness. with ever increasing glory.
which comes from the Lord who is. The spirit.
So It is by encounter with Him. One of the great Things that I saw night in, night out for years in the midst of the Brownsborough revival. I'm an eyewitness for four and a half years to what God gloriously did there.
So Watching night in, night out, I was seeing people get radically and dramatically changed. Steve Hill preached an uncompromising repentance message, a message of get the sin out, but it was in the power of the Spirit, and Jesus was being exalted. And people were drawn, they'd weep at the altar under conviction and get up changed. To this day. We're talking in some cases over 25 years later, some cases 30 years later, as I've met people and they'll talk to me with glowing faces about how Jesus changed them in those meetings and they've never been the same because they were genuinely born from above.
They genuinely encountered God. And if you say, I've never really had a life-changing experience, I grew up in church, I believe it's true, but what you're talking about is foreign to me. then maybe you've never been born again. Maybe you've never had your sins forgiven. Maybe you heard about Jesus, but you don't know him.
If you don't know for sure if you died that you'd be with him forever, Now's the time to get right. He said, How do I do it right where you are? If you can pray out loud right where you are. You just say with say with me, Heavenly Father. God I've sinned.
I know it. I'm guilty. I deserve judgment. God I believe Jesus took my place. I believe Jesus died for my sins.
I believe he rose from the dead. I want to start a new life, God. Wash me clean. Take away the guilt. Take away the sin.
Give me a new horse Give me a new life. As Jesus died to sin, so and lived a new life in resurrection. Lord, I want to die to sin. I want to live a new life. Have mercy on me.
Wash me, cleanse me. I receive your grace. I confess Jesus as Lord. If she's truly done that. God's at work in your life.
If you've truly done that He will make himself known to you. that you are his child. If you've truly done that. Shoot us a note through the website. thelineoffire.org.
We'd love to pray with you. Or if you've got friends that talk to you about being born again and They talk about the Bible and knowing Jesus. Tell them you've prayed. Get hold of them so they can help you grow. in the Lord.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is. There's freedom. But it's freedom to become like Jesus, freedom to fulfill the law's demands, the moral requirements of the law are not written on our hearts, freedom to be holy. There's no room for license here. Rather through the power of the new covenant.
We are presently being transformed into the Lord's likeness. And this is a glorious spiritual operation.
So Think of this for a moment. Think of you meet the lover of your life. And and and you are talking about, hey, Would would you marry me? Yeah. Oh, we're going to spend the rest of our lives together.
Yeah. I would just like a week out of every month, though, to play around with old boyfriends or girlfriends or whatever. Who thinks like that? No, because you're in love. Because you're in love.
and you just want to spend the rest of your lives together. That's God's heart for us, and that's the heart he wants to help us have. And we can through communion with him, through drinking in his life, his truth. Again, the book, Go and Sin the More will really help you. We've got an important announcement: don't go anywhere.
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Another month teaching on the second coming and what the Bible has to say.
So we really want to be on the front lines with you, equipping you, helping you, strengthen you to run your race.
So if Paul was not coming against God's standards for holy living, What did he mean? And when he wrote that, the letter kills. He meant that externally imposed religion brings death.
Well, internally, birth religion brings life. One is written on stone. A covenant that condemns men. The other is written on the heart. A covenant that transforms men.
So How can you avoid falling into the trap of legalism. What are some principles you can live by? to help you avoid the trap of legalism. Again, they're all found in Gohan Sino Moore. But Write them down as I've given them if you can.
Number one. Make every effort to keep your first love. Make Every effort to keep your first love, a heart aflame with love for Jesus. will not quickly degenerate into legalism. That's the reality.
If you keep that love relationship deep and beautiful. through daily serious communion with God. being in his presence. You're not going to fall into legalism.
So that's the first biggest thing. Keep your first love. Second, Live a life of thanksgiving and praise. and be a worshipper Not a murmur. or a complainer.
Say it again. Live a life of Thanksgiving. And praise. And be a worshipper? Not A murmur.
Or a complainer. You see, this will help you keep your focus in the right place. looking upward with gratitude? as opposed to outward with grumbling. In fact, a liberated believer will be overflowing with thanksgiving.
A legalist primarily thanks God that he's not like other people, sinful and unclean. We have the example of that in Luke chapter 18. Verses 9 through 14. Where Jesus spoke a parable to some who are confident of their own righteousness and look down on everybody else. It's one thing to be holy.
It's another thing to be a hypocrite. Number three. Waste to avoid legalism. Be very conscious of your own sins and shortcomings. Always looking to remove the beam from your own eye before you point out the speck in the eye of your brother and sister.
In other words, the legalist is, oh, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. If you're conscious of your own shortcomings, you're not going to negatively judge others as much. Number four. Give yourself to private prayer for those with whom you differ. and for those you don't particularly like.
The legalist is so judgmental. The legalist is always so negative in fault-finding. A way that you can overcome that is to pray regularly for the people that differ with you. that criticize you, that you have issues with it. It develops a heart of love for them.
and avoids legalistic thinking.
So this will produce in you a genuine desire to see them blessed and lifted up. as opposed to a fleshly immature desire to see them brought down or hurt. You won't become critical of them if you spend quality time interceding on their behalf. Number five. Ways to avoid legalism.
Learn to appreciate The beauty of holiness. Oh How beautiful you are, Lord. You are beautiful beyond description. And you're holy. and I want to be like you.
and thought and word and deed and conduct. Yeah Learn to appreciate the beauty of holiness, recognizing it as one of the most wonderful aspects of our eternal destiny and as something marked by the very character of Jesus. This way You won't be able to reduce holiness to a mere system of laws and regulations. You'll embrace holiness. as a wonderful, pure way of life.
Number six. Oh, it's it's not like 50 long. I think what, a few more after this. Number six. Be quick to recognize narrow judgmentalism.
arising in any area of your life. such as negatively judging other churches that don't worship exactly the way your church does. are becoming totally exclusive in what you're open to spiritually. Taking in teaching material only from those within your own small camp as if the rest of the body was somehow sub-par and had nothing to offer you. Don't fall into this trap.
Oh, it's only this little group that's pure enough and good enough. That's a legalistic tendency. Danger. No, we don't go for everything. But God has a big family and a big body out there.
Number seven. Never use the Bible as a weapon against other believers. Avoid bashing people with your scripture quotes, as I did a lot as a new believer, allegedly backing up your position in the name of my Bible says, my Bible says.
Now, not everyone who says that is a legalist, but a lot of legalists use that term. And it's my Bible as opposed to your Bible. My understanding as opposed to your understanding. I'm right and you're wrong. This is a common trait of legalists, since the Bible for them, get this carefully.
It's often more of a textbook to be used. than a living word to be imbibed and embraced. Got that?
So the Bible is not just a textbook of theology or law. It is a living word to be imbibed. You drink it in and you embrace it. And then Last way. To push away from legalism.
Stand firm for real holiness. In fact, the next time someone tries to reject the strong biblical call of holiness by telling you that the letter kills, you can tell them what the verse really means. Externally imposed religion kills, remind them of the dangers and horrors of sin. Sin kills even more than the letter kills. and then point them to the purpose of the cross of our Savior to save us from our sins.
And then Quote for them the rest of Paul's words. The spirit the letter kills, the letter kills, but the spirit. gives life. 2 Corinthians 3.16. and then read them the conclusion of his thoughts on the matter, which we did before, we'll do again, 2 Corinthians 3.18.
and we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory. are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Such lofty heights of holiness are foreign to the legalist. and forbidden to the libertarian. but they are familiar to those of us who have been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness.
The bottom line. It's that God Almighty. Is it working us? to make us like his son. And that.
is Not legalism. Let me tell you where we're going on tomorrow's broadcast. And this one is going to be so, so, so important. For so many. No condemnation.
Living Free from condemnation, living free from that weight hanging over us at all times. You're not good enough, you don't try hard enough, you don't work hard enough, you sin too much. How do we get rid of that weight? if we love the Lord and are trying to please him. That's where we're going on the next broadcast here on the line of fire.
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