.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

DON’T TRANSGRESS

by Pastor Kevin Badgley,

 11/04/01 a.m.

            Galatians 2:18 says, “For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.”  That is like going back to being a slave after being delivered and made free!

            Most people have not gone on to perfection. You will never be satisfied aside from Jesus Christ.  When you attempt another route, you will be more miserable than the sinner, because you have known the way and turned from it.  James 4:17 says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

            After you are born again, you should cease from backbiting, strife, and gossip.  Because you love the Lord, you have the love of God for the sinner and you aren’t so worried about other people’s problems as much as seeing them redeemed from them.  We must be sanctified unto God and seek to have a holy witness.

            Jesus said that the birds are fed daily by the Heavenly Father.  Yet we lose faith in God and worry about such things.  When we came to the Lord, a great change was made.  Why do we go back to the beggarly elements of the world?  There is nothing more confusing than a backslid Christian!  We need the supernatural presence of God in our lives.  

            Why won’t a Christian who is saved and filled with the Holy Ghost go on unto perfection?  Don’t use what God has given you to rebuild what you were before.  The most able Luciferian deception is to look exactly like Christ, yet be totally against Him. 

            Humanity’s way and the carnal mind is already anti-Christ.  (See Romans 8:7.)  We had a corrupt and degenerate mind, but God placed His Son and His Spirit in our hearts, that our minds might be taken over by God.  Romans 12:2 , “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

            1 Corinthians 2:16 says, “. . . But we have the mind of Christ.”  The truth will make you free, but if while we are being justified by Christ we are found ministers of sin, God forbid.  We are called to become sons of God and make a difference in this world.  We should not be comfortable with status quo. 

            We want satisfaction.  We want a place where we can come in and sit down and have peace, and that is good.  God gives you a portion of that, but there are billions of people in this world that need saving!

            Turn your back on the devil and your own way, and take up Jesus.  In John 14:6 Jesus says, “. . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  Jesus is the new and living way, and to go back makes us transgressors.

            So subtly we go back to that which was comfortable.   We grab our pacifier, teddy bear, or security blanket and go back to that old nature and habitat.  However, that will increase our backsliding.

            The Israelites were about to go over Jordan to possess the land as God told them to do.  The children of Reuben and Gad told Moses they wanted to stay where they were.  In Numbers 32:6-7 Moses said,

“. . .  Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?  And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD hath given them?”

            When someone just sits, it discourages people around them.  When people see a lack of commitment it bothers them.  When people fight God, it perpetuates discouragement,  doubt, missed services, less commitment, and more fault finding.            

            Moses reminded them that Caleb and Joshua were the only two out of twelve that came back with a good report when they spied out the land.  They knew there were giants, but they knew they could whip them.  The others caused the people to murmur and turn away from God. 

            Numbers 32:9 says, “. . . they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.”  God did not let any of that generation except Caleb and Joshua go to the land He had promised. 

            Are you discouraged?  When people will not wholly follow the Lord, things drag out!  If you aren’t on the job, it won’t get done!  As you commit to the Lord He gives you greater anointing, strength, and ability.  As you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, you begin to grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ (see Ephesians 4:13)!  You have to grow spiritually.  You can’t sit, or you will die, and while you are dying you will take people down with you!

            Moses then found out the Gadites and the Reubenites did not intend to discourage their brethren, but through the admonition of Moses we see what happened to the first group, and what was possible with these if they didn’t listen to him!  They told Moses they would go and fight and (Verse 18), “We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.”  Would to God I could get a congregation like that!  Somebody loved you enough to pray for you before you even cared about God!  Jesus died on the cross before you were born.

            Moses told them if they did go to war, [for us that means prayer, fasting, and intercession] and drive out their enemies [for us this means pressing on into the Spirit] afterward they could return and possess the land they wanted.

            Do you have a lack of desire to go on?  Do you care if anyone else goes?  When people see someone sitting around loafing, they think it is time to loaf.  Don’t take your cues from man.  Take your leadership from the Lord. 

            Be humble and obedient.  If we don’t take heed, God will move on, and we will go no further.  We will wander around and die of old age without seeing what God has for us, like the faithless and disobedient children of Israel did.  I pray God delivers us from such a thing, and sparks something in our hearts, so we will go on for Him!