If any man confess his sin God is faithful to forgive him

John the Baptist said I baptize you with water but there is one coming after me who will baptize you with the Spirit and with fire

Transcript

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Good morning, loved ones. Welcome back to another episode of All Things God. This is your host, John. This morning I'd like to talk a little bit more about the discipline of the Lord. And you can't you can't know him without being disciplined. The Word of God says that every Sun that he draws close to himself, he disciplines. He'd been scourges. It's it's impossible to comprehend. It is psychologically daunting to stand in the presence of God. And because we have been there's two things that work against us. The first thing is that the men before us didn't know God at all. Like, not even at all. They read their Bible, they think they know God. Not true. They don't even know Him at all, not even a little bit. Not even an ounce, not even a splinter. They don't know God. And that's against us. And then the second thing is our flesh. Our flesh is an enemy against God. Our flesh is the Antichrist. So those two things are at work against us. When Paul says he's warring in the flesh, that's what he means. He's not talking about he's fighting against his neighbor, he's talking about his fighting against himself. That's in Romans and Corinthians, both. Anyway, so I was reading on Jeremiah the other day, and I ran across the Lord's always used Isaiah for me. I love all the prophets because I'm an apostle. And so God speaks to me the way he speaks to his prophets. Why? Because the foundation of the church is upon the apostles and prophets. Why? Because God gives us the revelation, not just of who he is, but of his nature, of his character. And those are things, those are nuanced. You can assume that you know it, but that fiery God from the Old Testament that everybody's afraid of, that's Jesus Christ. And so he's the one who actually hung on the cross for us. That fiery God from the Old Testament is Jesus Christ. And he's the one who died on the cross for us. And so everybody's afraid to draw close to him. Why? Because he'll crush me, he'll squish me like a bug. No, I when I met him, he could have squished me like a bug because he's God. But he didn't squish me like a bug, obviously. Here I'm still here. Instead, he transformed me. The greatest gift he gave me was his forgiveness. When he forgave me, all the guilt, shame, and condemnation fell off of me like a like a wet band-aid in a swimming pool. He forgave me and then he adopted me. So I became one of the sons of God. I went to the throne of God expecting to be crushed like a bug. I left there free from all of my sin and guilt and adopted. He gave me his name. He gave me my new name, which is his name. Anyway, let's talk about his judgment. In Jeremiah 23, 29, it says, The word of the Lord is like a fire and like a hammer. And we imagine these things from a perspective of brutality. But God is not brutal. He's not brutal. He's not that way. In the book of Jeremiah, that's Jeremiah 23. In Jeremiah 3, God sends the children of Israel away for their adulteries. That's Jeremiah 3, gives them a divorce decree. But then in Jeremiah 31, he brings them back out of captivity, out of Babylonian captivity, and they're whiter than snow. Repentant, they're virgins. God's judgment did that to them, did that in their heart. Every son that he seeks to draw close to himself, he disciplines, even scourges. That was his scourging on Israel. And he even cut off some branches. Notice that there are ten missing tribes. Why? He cut them off. But don't think that he couldn't re-graft them on. That's what Paul said. So you Gentiles are running around bragging like God did all this for you. You don't understand. God broke off branches to graft on wild shoots. And if he grafted a wild shoot onto the vine, don't think that he can't re-graft the broken branches back onto the vine, the natural vine, natural branches. He's talking about Israel. God's judgments are so refined. And so um thoroughly uh not brutal, not cruel. They feel cruel because it it's a hammer and a pyre, and your blush is like, hey man, go pick on somebody else. I remember one time I was driving back from South Florida and I was in my Toyota Sequoia. I had my grandson with me. And the Lord said to me, You're about to break down. I was like, look, man, why don't you pick somebody else to pick on today? I I've had enough of your discipline. And 15 minutes later I was walking down the side of the highway. I still haven't learned the lesson from that yet. I have no idea why you did that. But it's a, he got me out of that thing where I was that place where I was comfortable. I mean, he put me in a place where I was uncomfortable. And he used that, and he still uses it today. I live in a minivan. I could have lived in that sequoia, it would have been perfectly comfortable. It was the largest SUV you could buy at the time. But comfort isn't a part of this. Discipline. But like I said, it's not cruel. It's definitely unusual. It's definitely psychologically challenging. Definitely. Because we've been told, oh, God wants to bless you, God wants to bless you, God wants to give you, give, give, give, give, give, give, give. God wants to give you everything. He does, but you you don't understand the thing he wants to give you aren't from this world, aren't of this world. Anyway, um, so we're talking about the discipline. I just want you to understand that if you feel like you're under the discipline of God, don't get discouraged. That's Isaiah 41.10. Isaiah 41.10. Don't be afraid and don't be dismayed. Don't be afraid because I'm not doing this to hurt you. I'm not your enemy. I'm doing this to correct you. Don't be afraid and don't be dismayed. Dismay is discouraged, so don't be be don't be afraid and don't be dismayed. I am your God. For God to say that he's our God is a completely different statement than for me to say he's my God. If I tell everybody that Jesus Christ is my God, they're like, yeah, you and a hundred million other people. I'm like, no. You don't. I'm telling you that you ask him if he knows me, and he's gonna say yes. And if you ask me if I know him, I'm gonna say yes. Uh that's just how it works. I know him and he knows me. I and him, him and he, he and him, him and me. Anyway, that's Isaiah 41, 10. Isaiah 48, 10. I didn't call you out of as silver is refined. I didn't call you from that refining, from the refining of silver. I called you out of the furnace of affliction. Why? Because there's things I gotta beat out of you with my hammer and burn out of you with my fire. Remember John the Baptist and I don't know, what's Matthew 3? Matthew 3, I believe it is. He said, listen, I'm washing you with water, but there's a guy coming after me who's gonna baptize you with the spirit and with fire. You know, dunking you in the river, that ain't nothing. It's when you get dunked in the spirit and dunked in the fire, that's when you've achieved something. This is the real test of a true son of God. Have you been dipped in a fire? Have you been filled with the spirit? This is the real test of a child of God. I sat with a pastor yesterday from Methodist Church and I explained to him that just because you raised your hand at a church service, do you want to accept Jesus in your heart? That's not a born-again experience. When you have a born-again experience, you run into the wall. You have a born-again experience. There's no there's nothing, you know, you walk away, walk away from a born-again experience knowing God. John 3.3 says this. The glory of God is revealed in Christ. It's the grace of God. If you have not been forgiven of your sins, face to face and nose to nose with the guy who can forgive you, then you haven't been forgiven. This isn't some sort of mental ascension. I read the road to Romans right after the guy said repeat after me, and we read it together. Yeah, that's not a true conversion. A true conversion is when you run smack dab into the wall and you confess your sin. When I ran into the wall, I had two options. Confess or deny it. Every man has the same choice, confess or deny it. If any man confesses sins, God is faithful and just in forgiving him his sins. If any man denies he has sinned, he deceives himself and calls God a liar. See how clear the scripture becomes when you get to know him? Alrighty, I'm going to stop there because it's ten minutes. I love you. Have a good day. Keep tuning in if you're getting anything out of this. If you have any questions, just leave a comment below and I'll get to it. I'll ask the Lord. All right, this is John Bye.