ONE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS - S:02 E:02

RECORDED IN THE STRONGHOLD STUDIO IN PALM BAY, FLORIDA

THEME SONG "STAY IN MY LANE" - WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY BURKS

AUDIO EDITED BY U-DIRECT VIDEO WORKS IN AUBREY, TEXAS

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JAMES EDWARD BURKS FOR ONE VOICE MINISTRIES

https://www.onevoiceministriesinc.org/

https://www.onevoiceministriesinc.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When you receive salvation from Christ Jesus, part of what he's doing goes beyond just forgiving you of your sin, but it becomes about transforming you into a new creation. That process we call sanctification. We're going to take a look at that today on One Voice in the Wilderness. Hey there, friends. Glad to have you back with us as we are, again, underway of getting season two up and going. This is our second episode of season two. And we're excited to have you with us. I'm James Burks. Glad to have you joining One Voice Ministries for our weekly podcast called One Voice in the Wilderness. And that is what God has charged us with, is to be that one voice that is speaking his truth and crying it out when all other voices go silent. And I'm I'm glad there are so many voices out there that love the Lord and are lifting his name, are exalting who he is and are speaking his truth. But we're just doing our portion of that. We're being in our lane to do what it is God called us to. So thank you for joining us this week. We started talking last week about the complete work of salvation, and we talked about it in three parts. We've talked about justification, sanctification, and glorification. So we're going to continue that discussion today. So we're glad you're with us. Let's open up in prayer and then we'll go from there, all right? Father, we love you and we thank you because again, the gift of salvation through your son Jesus is an amazing, amazing gift. It's beyond what we deserve. It's a it's more than we could possibly earn. It is your love on full display. It is your righteousness on full display. So thank you for that. Thank you for making that available. I I'm grateful that uh you want others to still come and receive that gift. That you are still being patient and long-suffering, so that none would be lost. So I pray, Father, that you would use this ministry, this vehicle, this podcast, to speak to a heart that then cries out to you, What must I do to be saved? And so, Lord, we love you. We want you to receive the glory, we want your name to be magnified, and we do all this in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. All right, glad to have you with us again. Um, again, we always try to give a shout out to those other people behind the scenes that make this happen and work for us. Um, my son Jesse in uh you direct video works. Um, if you have a video project need, um check him out, reach out to him and um and see what you can uh connect with him to be able to do uh when it comes to accomplishing that. He does a fabulous job on our podcast, and I'm so thankful for that. Uh also if you're into um Christian rap music, uh then our son Caleb is actively uh creating amazing, amazing stuff. And so look him up, and he goes by Burks in terms of his music handle, B-U-R-K-S, our last name, and uh he's got some wonderful stuff out there. His uh song Stay in My Lane is the theme opening to our podcast, and so we're grateful to his heart for allowing us to have that and use that. Alright, so let's keep going here. We were talking about salvation, and we were talking about it being this amazing package, not just the oftentimes when we think about someone being saved, we think about the fact that they're going to heaven, and that is a very limited, simplistic view of what salvation entails. It is much more than that, it is much broader than that. It really is about change and transformation and a whole lot of amazing things that God is doing as a part of the process of the sacrifice of his son Jesus. And he does it and makes it available for all of us. He loves every single one of us. John 3.16, uh, we read last week this talks about he did it because he loved the world. He loves everyone in the world, and he gave his son as a gift for us to be able to receive everlasting life. And so, because of that love, the sacrifice was made. And as a result of that sacrifice, a couple things happened. We mentioned um justification. That's where we are forgiven our sins, where we are pardoned from the charges of our crime. We get to be free from the penalty that should accompany uh our transgression against our Lord and Savior and King. Okay. Scripture tells us that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission for sin, there's no forgiveness for sin. And so Christ shed his blood, his body was broken, his you know, according to uh what he tells us when he gives the Last Supper, he says, My body is broken for you, my blood is shed for you. And uh all of these things happen, his suffering, his being beaten and whipped, uh, all of those things happen, nailed to the cross, pierced in the side, dies, buried in the grave, on the third day, rises again, with all power and all authority given to him by the Father. All of that happens because of God's love for you. And he wants you to know that, hear that, and receive that and believe that. Alright? So listen to Romans chapter 10. I'm reading from the King James here. Um Paul is writing this, and he's saying that his heart is desiring for Israel to get a hold of this and receive this. I think of it also in the context of not just Israel, but any person that does not know Christ. This is my prayer for them that they might be saved. Alright? So look at what he says here. Um I'll read the first, starting from the first verse. Brethren, my heart's desire in prayer for God, to God for Israel, is that they might be saved. Okay, so we're in the King James here. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Let's pause right there for a second, because what we were talking about last week is that part of justification in God's merciful grace to forgive us, to send his son while we were yet sinners, his son became sin who knew no sin, so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Notice it's us becoming his righteousness, not us seeking after and trying to portray our own righteousness. This prayer that Paul is praying is saying they're being ignorant of God's righteousness and they're going about to establish their own righteousness. They're making up their own standards, their own set of rules, their own parameters. Listen, folks, that is the world we live in today. The world is calling sin good and calling uh uh good sinful. They want to push back against the church, they want to push back against Christ, they want to push back against the Bible, against his word, while elevating and exalting all kinds of heinous and sinful behavior as something that's okay to do and it's just and it's moral and all that sort of thing. It's just craziness, absolute craziness. They were looking at that in biblical times too, where people were going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitting to the righteousness of God. Let's continue, verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again for the dead, from the dead. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That's what we are preaching here. That's what we are sharing, is that word of faith in Jesus Christ. Now listen to this, verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Okay. If we confess Jesus as Lord, if we say that believing it, and that comes out of our mouth, that becomes our testimony, that becomes our life, and we truly believe that in our heart, that he is God's Son, that God raised him from the dead. Scripture says that we will receive the gift of salvation, that we will be saved. So what Paul was writing here was that if we put our faith, he was explaining what happens at salvation. When we put our faith and trust in God, we are forgiven, we are set free, uh, we become the children of God. Okay, we are the creation of God, but it's when we connect ourselves through relationship in faith by God's grace in Christ Jesus that we become the children of God. Okay? And so we receive justification, and that is where we are forgiven, pardoned of our sins, we have victory over the penalty of death. Then what happens as we continue to live here and exist here, we go through what is called sanctification. Okay? Sanctification is that process by which God is changing and transforming us more into the likeness of his son. Okay, trans sanctification is that having been forgiven, we are declared holy and set apart. That's what that word holy means. Uh oftentimes when people uh hear passages from scriptures that say, be holy as I am holy, that God's saying that to us, we think be perfect as as God is perfect. That's not what that means. Okay? God knows that we in and of ourselves don't possess perfection. But he is perfecting us through the process of sanctification. And what he does is he's doing a work in us by the Holy Spirit, which was planted in us, that indwells us upon that moment of faith and belief. Okay? And so with that, we get the opportunity to change, to grow, to be transformed, to be set apart. Okay, I wanted to get back to that word holy. In the eyes of God, we are his righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5.21 talks about again Jesus becoming sin who knew no sin so that we could become, us who was full of sin, could become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, um, and be seen as that righteousness of God. And and so sanctification is this daily transforming work that is operating by the Holy Spirit. Okay? I need you to hear that. It's not about self-effort, it's not about I just need to try harder, I just need to work harder. That's not how you become sanctified. You become sanctified because of submitting and surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart and mind and in your life. Okay? As a result of that, we overcome the power of sin. Sin still surrounds us in this world. Sin is still prevalent. Sin is still, you know, uh very much on the attack, on the move. The enemy and his demons are very much trying to continue to just kill, steal, and destroy. Okay? But we have victory over that because we have victory in Christ Jesus. We have, because of the Holy Spirit, the power to defeat sin in our lives, the power to overcome, the power to not have to succumb to it and say we didn't have a choice, we there was no way. No. We have the power of the Holy Spirit that lets us walk victorious through the sin that is in our life. We get to grow spiritually, we get to mature and develop and display the virtues of Christ Jesus. And those virtues uh the Bible talks about as the fruit of the Spirit. All right? We did a lesson on that in season one. You can go back and check that out. But just as a quick recap, uh turn to Galatians chapter 5. I'm reading from the ESV. It says in verse 22, but the fruit of the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh and with it and with its passions and desires. Did you hear what happened there? You crucify the flesh. Your flesh is put to death because of the death of Christ on the cross. That is the part of the sanctification process. Okay? You are putting away those lusts, you are putting away those passions, and you're now starting to walk out your life in uh peace and in kindness and in love and in gentleness and in self-control. You you no longer can operate um free of charge, saying, Well, I couldn't help it. No, because of the Holy Spirit, you have the ability to have control over your choices. You can control what you look at, you can control what you watch, you can control what you read, you can control, um, you can take thoughts captive. Okay? Listen, I was sharing with a friend recently. If you're walking down the street and uh uh let's say a streaker runs past you, okay, you can't have prevented seeing that. Okay, that that's you're not on that's that's not on you that that person chose to do that and just throw that in front of you. There was there was no way to avoid that. Okay? I get that. It's what you do next where sin gets a chance to take hold. If you start, if you keep watching, if you start imagining, if you start fantasizing, if you start lusting, that's you now walking in the works of the flesh instead of the fruit of the spirit. Okay? I'm saying to you that what we have because of that fruit of the spirit is the ability to have the self-control to not have to go down that path, to not have to search for and seek after and chase after those works of the flesh, those those evil things that uh take us off course with the will of God. Okay, so part of sanctification, where we said justification was a one-time declaration by God that you are you are declared righteous before Him. Sanctification is an ongoing process. Okay, it's something that is happening uh daily, it is something that is transforming and changing us to become more and more like Christ. It is something that is putting to death the works of the flesh, the old man, and walking in the newness of life. Okay? Um, since we're in the King James, I just flipped over a page here to chapter 12 of Romans. Listen to this, verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Listen to verse 2. But be not conformed to this world. I need you to hear that. 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. We have the opportunity to live out, to be the living proof of the will of God as our mind is renewed and transformed. That's sanctification. That's that change that starts to happen when we are seeking God and walking with him and immersed in his spirit and believing and trusting in his word and not conforming to the world. When that passage says, don't be conformed to the world, it says that the world is going to have its way of doing things. It's going to set up its standard, it's going to say that this is okay and that's okay and all of those sort of things. You have to be so connected with God and so faithful and so consistent in your walk with God that you're able to say, no, I'm not going to conform and be molded in the shape of the world. I'm not going to do it just because the world is doing it. You remember hearing those stories where uh a parent would say uh to a kid, if your friends ran and jumped off a cliff, would you do it too? Okay? That's that little mini snapshot of conforming. Just because someone else does it, you don't have to do it. What does the word say? What does Christ say? How did Christ do it? What would Jesus do? How would Jesus have done it? How does he want us to live and demonstrate that he is a part of us, that he lives in us? Okay? That's the con that's the sanctification, that is the transformation that resists the conforming to the world. Okay? That is what we are called to. We are called to um being made new, being different than the rest of the world. I started to list a few things in in the last episode, looking at that picture of what righteousness looks like. Okay? And so let me let me review uh just a couple more of those, okay? What we were talking about last time is we were talking about being accepted by God versus being rejected, being selfless versus selfish, talking about our sins compared to his perfection. All of those things are part of what's ongoing as God is doing this work in you of changing the very nature of what's going on inside of you so that you are about honoring and following and exhibiting Christ Jesus to a dying world around you that does not know him and is not seeking after him. Okay? Um, and so we want to be mindful of what that looks like and how we're even able to do that. Okay? Listen to this. If you turn to Ephesians chapter 6, I'm in the ESV, verse 10 says, Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. It goes on to say, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you will be able to stand, be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, and in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one, and to take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Okay? You have at your disposal as a child of God God's armor, not your armor, God's armor, to help equip you in this battle against evil in the world and help you and assist you in your journey of sanctification. If I can block the fiery darts of the enemy with the shield of faith, then I get to walk in my faith and I get to live that out in a way where I'm not succumbing to those lies and deceits of the enemy. I have the armor of God to protect me. Okay? All the armor I named is front armor. Okay? Why don't I have any back armor? Because God's got my back. Okay, He's the one that's right there walking with me, protecting me, uh, encouraging me along through this journey. Okay, so I have the armor of God to help me fight against and fight off every attack of the enemy, every lying scheme, every way he wants to convince me to compromise on godly principles, godly morals. I have weapons at my disposal. Weapons that are not of this world but are for fighting a spiritual battle. I have those weapons at my disposal to be able to resist the enemy. And scripture says when we resist him, he has to flee from us. Okay? That's how you walk in sanctification. You submit to the process of God changing who you are. Okay? You don't cling to, well, I was always like this, and I this is how I was raised, and and this is just me. In and settling for that versus receiving and walking in the newness of life that God has for you upon salvation. He justifies you, and in doing that, he takes away the punishment of sin, but he sanctifies you to kill the power of sin. So it sin no longer reigns in your mortal body and is in charge or in control of you. Okay? We're going to talk next about glorification where we finally get the freedom from the presence of sin. Okay? But I love this. Submit to sanctification. Okay? Trust God and let Him do a work in your heart. Alright? Alright, let's have a Malawi moment. Alright, for our Malawi moment, oh my goodness, praise the Lord. Celebration time. We told you a while back in the first season that one of the things that God had given us to do is as we care for the widows and orphans in Malawi, we have orphans and we put them with widows. And in doing that, we fulfill the scripture in James that talks about ministering to both the widows and the orphans. We've kind of created a family, part of our one-voice family. And so we provide food and medicine and support them in every way we can. Well, one of our families, Esther Howard, her home collapsed during a horrific storm over there in Malawi. A lot of the houses are just basically mud huts, if you will. They're mud bricks, oftentimes that haven't been fired because they can't afford to do that. Their mortar is mud, it's not cement. So when you get torrential downpours, when you get uh uh typhoons, hurricanes, whatever stirs up in that region of the world, when those things happen, when you get hail storms, um it the houses just disintegrate, they just get destroyed. Well, that happened to her house. Roof uh collapsed in. It was just absolutely horrific. Uh well, we're part of she's part of our family, and we want to care for our family. And we thank you for caring for our family. You helped us raise the support we needed, and we were able, by the help of God, by the prayers of the saints to God, rebuild. No, we didn't rebuild the old house. We built her, God built her a brand new house. All right. So hopefully you're enjoying these pictures on the screen. She has a beautiful, beautiful home for her and the orphans to live in. And what God even allowed us to do, we had enough resources that we they didn't have furniture. We bought furniture for them. The kids have beds with mattresses and pillows and sheets to sleep. Stuff that we take for granted here because we have so much available to us that over them is just you know beyond compare in terms of a luxury and just a gift. And so we were able to bless them. And part of my thinking when it comes to my friends in Malawi is what God blesses me with to the degree I can, I want to bless them with. If I lay my head on a pillow at night, I want these children to be able to lay their head on a pillow. If I can enjoy the comfort of a blanket when it's chilly, I want them to be able to enjoy that as well. And so by God's grace, and again with your support, we were able to re rebuild her house, and they had a wonderful uh dedication uh for the house, and they they prayed over the house and dedicated it to the Lord. The family, Esther, just sends her thanks and her gratitude. She is so appreciative for how God worked through all of you, worked through One Voice Ministry to provide her with this amazing blessing. So we just wanted to report that out to you that we completed that. And again, we're gonna put the QR code on the screen because there's so much work similar to this that we're doing. Uh, whether it's just the monthly support for the orphans, whether it is getting Bibles into the hands of pastors and elders over in Malawi who have never had a Bible. Okay, they're trying to pastor and lead churches with one Bible in the church or borrowing one from someone. We want to provide uh Bibles for those those people in the church, for those new believers that come to the Lord and stuff like that. Helping us with equipment for our sports evangelism ministry, helping us with um medicine for people when they're sick and have to go into the hospital. A lot of our friends, even our pastors, uh, battle with malaria and it goes dormant and then it flares up and they get really sick. And again, so everything that you give and in every way you support helps us to further that ministry for the kingdom of God. Myself, I I take no uh support from One Voice Ministries. My wife, no, no one is on staff receiving any kind of salary or income from One Voice Ministries. All that money is poured into the ministry for this podcast as well as the work in Malawi, Africa. Uh there is support given to our pastors there because of the work that they're doing for transportation for them, uh, things that help with their needs. Okay. And so that's not even salary, that's a gift and a blessing that we want to do because it's just the right thing to do. A workman is worthy of his hire. And so we they do, they go above and beyond. And we love them so much that we want to support them and we want to help them have even more time for the work of the kingdom and uh to be a blessing to their family because they're they're taken away from their families when they're doing the work for One Voice Ministries, and so we bless them. But folks, thank you so much. It is such a beautiful home that she has. Again, we mentioned last week we're hoping to travel to Malawi uh maybe in August. We want to go buy that home, we want to go see it. Uh, we want to go and celebrate with them uh all that God is doing. So again, thank you, folks. Again, the complete work of salvation, justification, okay? We are freed from the penalty of sin. Sanctification, we are freed from the power of sin. And next episode, we're going to talk about glorification, that time when we are released and freed from the presence of sin. All right. God bless you, folks. Thank you. We'll see you next time.