This is the Truth Network. Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. All right, this is If Not for God with Mike Zwick, and I've got a Dr.
Dwayne Carson in the house. He's got a book coming out, but we can't talk about it quite yet. Not quite yet. We're close. We're so close.
We're close. And I've got a Proverbs 24:16, and it says. For a just man falleth seven times and riseth again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. And I remember when I was growing up, my mom put something on my door when I was trying out for the high school basketball team, and I never forgot it. And it was called Mother to Son by Langston Hughes.
And it says, Well, son, I'll tell you, life for me ain't been no crystal stare. It's had tax in it and splinters. And boards torn up in places with no carpet on the floor bare. But all the time I've been climbing on and reaching landings and turning corners. And sometimes going in the dark where there ain't been no light So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you sit down on the steps, because you find it's kind of hard. Don't you fall now. For I still going, honey. I still climbing. And life for me.
Ain't been no crystal stare. And yes, we have we love to start well, we love a fast start, but Pastor Dwayne, you were talking about this morning, you said, I want to finish well. Is that right? That's exactly right. Um, it's not how you start, it is how you finish.
That's going to determine how you are truly known. I had an older evangelist speak in chapel one time down when I was at the Crystal Bible College, and he said, Guys, I just want to remind you: your salvation is secure. Your testimony is never secure. You Can do all the good for years and years and years, and then make a bad decision. And that's how you're going to be remembered.
So you've got to guard your heart till the day your heart stops.
Well, I'll give you an example. I was watching a television program one time, and I don't even know if it was a Christian show or whatever. But it was a man who ended up doing something really dumb. I think he killed somebody and he went to prison for the rest of his life. And he said he remembered his dad telling him when he was just a little kid.
He said, You can do so many right things in your life. And he said, Then you do one thing like that that's really bad and it can ruin the rest of your life. And so I was actually at my home yesterday, and I felt the Lord gave me sort of a little analogy. And I said, You know, when I'm driving down the road. I see these signs, and the sign might say: if I'm in Winston-Salem, Pastor Duane, like we are right now, the sign may say Greensboro is about 30 miles away.
Or, Durham is 68 miles away, or whatever it is. And I said, what that sign does is it is literally pointing me to something else, and that in our Christian lives. We are like that sign. We're not it. Jesus is what we're pointing to, but we're pointing people to something.
And we may be a Christian, like you said, we may be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, saved by grace alone, but we could really turn people in the wrong direction. Because what I learned a long time ago is people kind of watch everybody, but if you're a Christian, people are really watching you and what you're doing in your life. Is that right? Of course, and they should.
Now, no one's perfect. Uh if you follow me long enough, you're gonna see flaws. Yeah, um, uh, I'm gonna stumble. I don't bring perfection, but I do bring what's called an example. And we're called as Christians to be examples to other believers.
And so there shouldn't be a cop-out since I'm not perfect. Then I can live. Listen, you just got to forgive me. No, I need to realize that each day when I get up, yeah, people are going to be watching to see how I live. I teach the lesson that sometimes the greatest lesson a parent can give, a pastor can give, is their life.
How do you respond to the different situations that God puts you in.
Sometimes it just all of a sudden you have walked into temptation. How do you respond? What do you do with that moment? Yeah. And so one of the greatest things about God and the greatest things about Jesus, are you familiar with Mike Jeminsky?
Yes. He played basketball for Duke. He played in the NBA for 14 years. Yes. Is that I don't care what you've done in your past.
And how much you've messed up. And Mike Jeminsky is a great example of that. He was a severe alcoholic. And when I interviewed him last week, he said he thought that the alcohol, if he would have kept going the way he was, he said that the alcohol could have killed him. He said, but his son one day wrote a note and left it on the table and said, Dad, I love you and I don't want you to kill yourself with this alcohol.
And he said, that moment spoke to him and he quit the alcohol. And now, not only has he quit the alcohol, but he's helping other people who have dealt with addiction. And so it doesn't matter what you've done in your past, you can always do a U-turn. But kind of like you were talking about this morning, Dr. Carson, you can do a U-turn and go the other way as well.
Yeah. And that is the beauty of the Christian life. Mm. Jesus is the Master of taking Our mess and making a masterpiece out of it. I I Read Psalms twenty-three.
And that shepherd is a shepherd that restores our soul. Why does he need to restore our soul? Because as the old hymn said, we're prone to wonder. And when a sheep wanders outside of the pasture, Many times it's going to get itself into a briar patch. It's going to get around thistles and thorns, and it's going to have to be cleaned up.
And so, as we journey, we make those bad decisions, lose the temper, the tongue gets too loose. We do let our eyes stray. All kinds of different sins can take place. The goal is to keep striving. With the Lord.
With his help, Walk in the Spirit. You shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh to practice the spiritual disciplines with the eye on the goal of I am going to finish well. I'm going to have a testimony that I, as it was with Enoch, he walked with the Lord and he did that which was pleasing to him. Um And the moment you find yourself under those convictions of you're not doing what is pleasing, I found the people who have finished the best. or those who can tell of Uh they dealt with their sin issues quickly.
Dr. Falwell talked about don't let the conviction of God linger. Admit you're wrong. Admit your fault. To confess is to say the same thing.
It is to say to the Lord, I agree, I messed up. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. And then receive that restoration, that cleansing, and get back to that sweet fellowship. That's right.
And I was, when you were talking, I was looking at Ezekiel chapter 18. Yes. And I love this chapter. And in 18, verse 20, it says, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.
Neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.
So God has children, but I've heard people say he doesn't have grandchildren. Nope, no grandchildren. Just because your father or your mother was a Christian doesn't necessarily make you a Christian. Just because I drive Alexis doesn't make me Alexis.
Okay? And it says, the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. And it says, the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But it says, but if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statues, And do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgression how much of his transgression?
All his transgression that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him. We say that God has forgiven us of our sins. But it says that it shall not be mentioned. There's another place in the Old Testament, I believe it's in the book of Isaiah. It says, if you turn from your wicked ways, it says the Lord will not even remember your sins.
And in Micah, he'll talk about how he puts them in the deepest of seas, he drops them as if of a huge weight into the sea to the bottom. And I always heard he puts up a sign, no fishing. Don't go back to where you have been forgiven. He's forgiven you. Move forward.
One of my favorite quotes, and it's on my Facebook, because people, what's your favorite quote? Though you cannot go back and make a brand new start, you can start today with Jesus and make a brand new end. Amen. Amen. And as I go on here, and it's in verse 23, it says, He shall surely live.
He shall not die. All his transgressions shall be forgiven him. And this is the part that I love, Dr. Carson. In verse 23, this is the Lord speaking.
He says, Have I any pleasure? At all, that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should live. Sh not that he should return from his ways and live. But then it says, But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live. It says, All his righteousness that he hath done shall not even be mentioned.
And so What I basically hear the Lord saying is. Yes, he wants you to start well, do well in the middle, and finish well. But if you had to choose one or another, He wants you to finish well. Yeah, we have a picture in 2 Timothy chapter 4 of three guys. Uh you've got John Mark.
You have Luke and you have Deemas.
Now, Demas was a guy that started well.
Well, he's in several different books where Paul talks about his faithfulness and his service. He was a fellow soldier, fellow minister. And then he. Paul regretfully says, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. He started well, he finished bad.
Then there's Luke. Luke starts well, he finishes well.
Now, I wish everybody was like Luke. We just have a great beginning, we have a great ending. But then there's John Mark, and John Mark got started and he was doing some things, but all of a sudden, John Mark just was not totally committed to the point. Paul said, Hey, look, you're not going to keep traveling with me. I don't have time for a freeloader.
You're lazy. You're not really engaged like you should be. And so he has a bad start. But Barnabas is going to take John Mark and he's going to work with him. And Paul will then say in 2 Timothy 2 to Timothy, Hey, when you come, bring John Mark, for he is useful for me for ministry.
Wow, what a statement. Hey, John, Mark, John Mark, let's call him Mark because he's the writer of the book of Mark. He says, Paul wants to see you. He's got some things for you to do. He started bad.
He finished well. And that's the beauty. Again, the Christian life. And you may be listening right now going, I think I've messed up. I think I've gotten on the wrong road.
I was driving one night on 460. It split into 360. I needed to stay on 460.
Next thing I know, I'm looking at a sign that says Danville about 460. 50 miles. I go, Danville. I'm not going to Danville. I'm going to Lynchburg.
Well, I missed the turn as it split. I didn't go right. I went left. I'm on 360 now. And all of a sudden, I needed to do a 180.
That's it. And I made the 180, went back, got on 460. You can make that U-turn. That's it. That's it.
1 John 1:9, confess the sin, be honest with God, and watch Him cleanse you, watch Him restore you. Yeah, and when I read all of this and when I listen to all of this, especially everything, but Ezekiel 18, when I look at that, I think about the grace and the goodness of God. And so for me, it's like, you know, when I left my sin when I was younger, and I've still messed up, you know, we all mess up, all have sin and come short of the glory of God, okay? But I don't continually walk in that sin. And people may ask me, they say, Mike, do you miss your old life?
Do you miss the sin that you used to live in? And I say, no, I said, I took out the trash on Sunday night and I said, I don't miss the trash because it stinks. And the sin stinks too. Yeah. And the Bible says there is pleasure in sin, but for a season.
But for a season. Because when we look in the long run, it never leads to anything good. Yeah, James gives the analogy of when temptation is acted upon, it's as if it brings forth a baby. And we love a baby. Oh my goodness.
So when lust leads to temptation, temptation is acted on. You get sin, it conceives sin. Hey, a baby. Woo! I love the baby.
But it doesn't stop. It then says that sin brings forth a baby. And that baby is death. And it's a totally different word on the conception. Instead of the conception of a baby.
that we love is the birth of a monster. And I teach it this way, Mike. When this is happening, when you say yes to temptation, you now sin, yes, you brought something to life that for a moment is pleasurable, but you brought to life death. in your life and death always destroys. In my life, and I don't know if you've seen this, but I became a Christian in my early 20s, and I did have a couple of times where I backslid.
It was. Mid-20s, from about 25 to 27. I was still. I still love the Lord. But I just, I had that time, and one time in my mid-30s, early, early 30s, where I did fall into sin.
And what I saw in my life, Dr. Carson, because you look on TV and you see the beer commercials, and people are happy. You see the liquor commercials and people are having a great time. You see people, you know, you look on the TV and people are, you know, fornicating and they're committing adultery and they're doing all these things and they seem happy. But what I saw in my life was that sin led me into a deep depression.
Sin does not lead to long-term happiness. Yes, maybe for a season. But I remember in I was 26 or 27 years old, and I was living in Savannah, Georgia. And I woke up and it was on a Sunday morning. And it was after a night out.
I'm just gonna leave it at that. But it was after a night out. And I remember sitting in my bed. And I was talking to the Lord and I said, Lord, I said, I thought this was supposed to make me happy. And I felt like the Lord spoke back to me, and He says, I'm the only one who can make you happy.
This world has nothing to offer. There used to be an old song, and it said, This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through.
Well, we think of the things of the world that can bring to us satisfaction. More than happiness is satisfaction. I want to be able to look at life and say, I had a satisfying life.
Well, Solomon tried everything under the sun for satisfaction. And I say the book of Ecclesiastes should be titled, I can't get no satisfaction. And it's true: the wine, the women, the wealth, the work, all those things he tried. Everything that the world has to offer, Solomon tried them, and he kept coming back to, I just can't get any satisfaction here. It's just vain.
It's unfulfilling. And then he finds out at the very end, Ecclesiastes 12, he says, I've looked at all of it. Here's the deal, guys. Fear God and keep his commandments.
Well, then you go to Proverbs 19:23, and it says, The fear of the Lord is satisfaction. It brings satisfaction. And so, when I'm in a right relationship with God, following the Lord, doing what he says is right, all of a sudden life has meaning to it. And not only do I get satisfaction, I get something else. I get significance.
My life has meaning because it's connected to the one who gives me meaning. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it's like that trash. I don't want to go back to it. But.
People don't realize there is, you can be walking with the Lord, praying, reading your Bible, all of that. There is this pull from the world. Yeah. There is this pull. Can you explain that a little bit?
Because it's hard. Because it's almost like. We know how bad it is. We know where it leads, but there's still this attraction to the world. Where do you think that comes from?
Well, I believe in the two nature components. And I get saved. I get a new nature. But that old nature has got to be crucified. It's got to be dealt with.
And it's screaming. It wants to be fed. And the way I was discipled was, it's like now you got two dogs in your life. And which dog gets fed? It's going to be the dog that's the strongest.
And so each day there is a battle for my mind. And I've got to control my thoughts. And I got to feed my thoughts. That's why I love the concept that we've talked with with Stu Everson of Bible. Before breakfast, and then Bible at bed.
But as soon as you're up in the morning, you're meditating on scripture. You're reading scripture so that you can meditate on scripture, and that's helping the thought life be better controlled. That's right. And then I think it was Martin Luther that said, again, temptation. Is like a bird flying around your head.
It's not sin. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But what you don't want to do is make a nest for that bird. That's right, that's right. Don't let it in.
And so when the temptation comes, there's got to be that, okay, God, how do I resist this? Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil, he'll flee you. Jesus quoted scripture. Satan tempted him.
Now, I go back. If Jesus himself was tempted, Yeah. Then, how am I to say, I'll never be tempted? Satan's after me, he's a roaring lion, he wants to destroy me.
So As a Christian, he is still going to tap into the three lusts, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And sometimes we focus more, Mike, on the lust of the flesh. Oh, the sins of the flesh.
Well, the pride of life is worse, in my opinion, than the other two because it's really the pride that's going to cause me to act on the lust of my eyes and the lust of my flesh. And so the person I have found that is finishing well stays humble, realizing... I can't do this. I've got to abide in Christ. Again, Galatians 5, 16 is one of the most dynamic verses a Christian will ever learn.
Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Well, walking in the Spirit takes work. That's an exercise that will bring about that ability so when temptation comes, you're able to navigate away from it. One of the verses that I love is James 1:13. And it says, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he tried He shall receive the crown of life. which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
And here it is, let no man say when he is tempted. I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempteth he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust. and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and it is And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Do not err, my beloved brethren. And those were the verses I was talking about that we have that inward desire, and then all of a sudden there's the enticement that the world brings, that the flesh brings, that the devil brings. That word enticement is a fishing word. It's to bait the hook. And I've laughed at so many fish this year.
I go, boy, did you take the bait. And when you got that worm, you thought you had something, but I had you. But that's how the devil works. He doesn't throw at me a hook. He doesn't throw at me the disaster.
He throws at me that which looks so appealing. I'm going to have a joy that I've never had before. I'm going to have a satisfaction I've never had before. And it's all a lie. It's deception.
But it's working with my old nature, stirring it up. And I should have crucified that old nature. You're dead. You don't get to have a say today. My new nature, I want to please the Lord.
I want to do what He wants me to do. And then I resist that temptation. I go, not. Taking the hook. Yeah.
And you know, we all get to the point where we do mess up. And Charles Spurgeon, I love what he said. He went up to somebody and they said, well, there's no way I'm not good enough to get into heaven. I've messed up too much. You know what Charles Spurgeon said?
He said, you're close. In other words, you understand that you're a sinner. The people who understand that they're sinful and in their sin nature, they can look up and say, they can receive God's grace because they realize that they've done something wrong. The tougher person to deal with is the person who says, well, I'm a good person because they don't even realize they're doing anything wrong. Yeah, we have to help people understand.
I had to understand I will never be good enough for God. That's not to put myself down. It's just being true to who I am. I will never be good enough for God. But God is good enough for me.
He sent His Son to die for me.
So I won't be good enough, but His Son is good enough. But here's the other side. No matter how bad I am, No matter how bad I am, He Can Change my life.
So you're sitting there going, I don't know if I could ever come back to God. I don't know if I could connect with God. Being bad.
Okay. That's who he died for. I'm not good enough. That's who he died for. That's it.
And anyone, I just love the message we get to share. Jesus Christ died for the ungodly, but God demonstrated His love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died. Died. Yeah. Us And if you're listening right now, because we've got to close out the show, but if you're listening right now, And if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, I want to share with you right now.
That God wants to forgive you. All you have to do is just say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. Lord, I give you my life. I surrender my life to you. I repent, which means I turn away from my sins.
And Lord, I thank you, Jesus, for that salvation. I thank you for saving me right now. And if you've prayed that prayer, I want you to go get in a good Bible-based church. Do you have a church you go to around here? Yeah.
Where do you go? We go to Calvary. Calvary Baptist. They have two campuses. Two campuses.
We go to the Willamette. And Peace Haven.
So that's where I grew up going with Mark Quartz.
Okay. But get into a good Bible-based church, and you can find one wherever you are. But, Dr. Carson, I want to thank you for coming on today. Oh, what a joy.
All right, for my YouTube channel. If not for God with mighty wick. Just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. Yeah. So you'll be alerted when we have our next video.
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