If God's Will is So Important, Why Can't I Find it?: God's Will Is Not Secret & Making the Hard Decisions Easy

If God's Will is So Important, Why Can't I Find it?: God's Will Is Not Secret & Making the Hard Decisions Easy

By John MacArthur

God's Will Is Not Secret

Let's have a word of prayer as we begin our study tonight.

Father, with indeed a heart of anticipation I approach a needful subject. Thank You for the sensitivity of the staff who have asked me to speak to this particular theme because they're so many asking these questions. May Your word become clear, Father, may it not be the word of men or a man but the Word of God. Sharp and powerful, life transforming, in that anticipation we pray. Amen.

The subject we want to speak about tonight is knowing the will of God. This has been a favorite study of mine for many years and I have had the privilege of writing a little book on the subject that's been out for quite a number of years now, I think about six. But it's a question that comes up again and again so the staff felt that I should speak to the subject on this particular Sunday night, taking a break from our series of Daniel Studies. And I want to speak in a very practical vein so that we'll get a clear understanding of what it really means to know God's will for our lives. That is a major question in fact; I would dare say that in my life that's probably the most commonly asked question, How do I know what God wants me to do? In Psalm 143 and verse 10 David prayed a prayer that must be the desire of every Christian. David prayed this, "Lord, teach me to do Thy will." That's very basic, I think, to the life of a believer. Because being a Christian is the affirmation of the Lordship of Christ. Being a Christian is an act of initial submission to the control and leadership of Christ. And so doing His will certainly follows that kind of a submission. Our blessed Lord Himself set the example. No other but Christ has the perfect servant's heart. No greater pattern or model for obedience to the will of God could ever be pointed to than Christ Himself. For from the very beginning in His incarnation He made it clear that He has come to do the will of Him that sent Him. And even when that took Him to the agony of the anticipation of the cross as He in the garden poured out in prayer to the Father the feeling of His own soul even at that crisis moment He never wavered from the commitment for it was there that He said, "Not My will but Thine be done."

The early church had a similar kind of commitment. For again and again and again did they pray, "Thy will be done," it says in the book of Acts. This was the pattern of life, for Christ, for the early church. The Apostle Paul prayed that prayer in so many words, Thy will be done. Peter in so many words, Thy will be done. It is a way of life for a believer. And in case you have forgotten, think back a few weeks to Matthew 6 verse 10, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come," what? "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." That is one of the essential petitions in the life of every believer for that prayer is the model of all praying. We are to pray consistently, "Thy will be done." Doing the will of God from the heart, as Paul expresses in Ephesians 6:6 is basic then to the Christian's life.

In fact, I would dare say that unless there is a desire in you to do the will of God it is at least questionable whether you are a Christian at all. John 7 indicates that for one who is a believer there will be a desire to know the Father's will. Paul operated by the will of God. In Romans just to give you a couple of Scriptures, chapter 1 verse 10 he says, "Making requests if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you."

In other words, everything in his life was framed within the context of the will of God. At the end of Romans in the 15 chapter in the 32 verse he said, "In order that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God." It was a way of life to him. And then there is an expression, I think, that's so very special at the end of the book of Colossians in chapter 4 and verse 12 where Epaphras who is one of you, a servant of Christ, greeteth you always laboring fervently for you in prayers, and what is the objective of his prayer on behalf of the Colossians? "That you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." The great heart of the Apostle Paul expressed in the message of Romans chapter 12 was that, "We may know what is that good and perfect will of God." Peter states that the distinguishing mark of a Christian is a preoccupation and a centering of his life on the will of God. I Peter chapter 4 verse 2, "That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men but to the will of God." It is the distinguishing mark, then, of a believer. Modeled for him by Christ and if we say we abide in Christ, I John 2:6, we ought to walk as He walked. And He walked in submission to the will of God. Is that your desire? It should be if you call yourself a Christian.

Now at that point we interject a question, What is the will of God? Let's assume that we're committed to it. Let's assume that as believers we desire to do the will of God. The next question that arises is can we know the will of God? And there are people who question this. Some people think that the will of God is a very elusive thing; it's kind of like the brass ring on a merry-go-round. If you get it that's kind of neat but if you don't you still get a ride. And you can live your Christian life without it. Other people think the will of God is sort of a mystery, it's sort of a foggy, hidden, secretive thing, God is sort of like the universal Easter bunny who stashes it somewhere and runs around saying - You're getting warmer, as we frantically try to find it. Some people think the will of God is a trauma, it's something like running down the road and falling and your nose lands on a map of India and you say-Yes, Lord, India it is, or whatever. But people have strange ideas about the will of God. Some a rather mystical visionary dream orientation,others as if God needs to speak with them out of heaven, some feeling it's a traumatic event and most, I think, who believe those kind of things ultimately winding up with the sense of frustration and feeling that they never found God's will at all and they'll have to wait to get to heaven to know the fullness of the meaning of life. But I believe we can know God's will. Let me tell you why.

I don't think God wills things for us that he doesn't make available to us. That's to me a very basic thought. If God has a will for my life, then He will reveal it to me if I'm in the right place to receive it. God does not purposely frustrate Himself. And so people say - I don't know what school I should go to or I don't know what job I should take, I'm in the midst of making a major decision or I don't know what girl to marry I've got six that are in line and I'm cutting them down. I'm going to make a cut this week and we'll make another cut next week and see who's left, but I don't know which one, see. Or how do I know whether I ought to move to another house or how do I know what I ought to do with this problem person in my family or what I ought to do to harmonize myself better with my wife or my husband. How do I know what God's will is? The answer to that question is that God does have a will and if He does have a will that He wants you to know, He'll make it available to you. I really believe that God is in the business of openly, overtly and clearly manifesting His desires for us. You can know that. You go all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 14, you will read in that very, very primitive account, the very first chapter in the Bible, right at the very beginning of creation, this statement; "And God said, Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years."

Now the stars and the moon and the sun are not just for days and years, they're not just simply to identify calendars they are for signs and for seasons. And the Hebrew word seasons doesn't mean winter, summer, spring and fall. The Hebrew word for season there, the specific word means - an assembling of the people or a gathering of the congregation.

In other words the stellar bodies were literally to be used by God to establish certain gatherings of the people. And if you study the Old Testament you'll find out that all of the festivals and all of the feasts and all of the holidays of Israel were identified by where the heavenly bodies were at a certain time. They were all in relation, for example, of the vernal equinox or the full moon. That's why in Colossians it tells us that now that we are in Christ and we are in the new covenant there is no longer any need to keep a feast or a new moon. Our calendar for Easter and Christmas is established by the movement of the stellar bodies. God has established signs.

In Psalm 104:19 He appointed the moon for gatherings of the people. From the very beginning God was making manifest certain things. And encoupling the stellar body movement with His revelation to His people, religious festivals were established. God revealed His will in a very, very clear place where all could see it. We think about how God revealed His will throughout the Old Testament and we know so many, many cases where He revealed it externally.

For example, there was the miracle of the sign of the covenant with Abraham, the birth of Isaac, a very outward tangible indication that God was going to keep His promise. And then later on when it came time for Isaac to have a wife, the servant Eliezer was called. And Abraham said -I want you to go and find a wife of his own people. And Eliezer it says placed his hand inside his thigh; he put it near the procreative area and made a vow that he should find him a wife of his own people. And you remember what the sign was? Go to the well and wait there and as the maidens come at the close of the day the one that offers you water and water for your camels,she's the one to pick. A sign. Very outward. Very clear. Very specific. And then as the children of Israel were led through the wilderness it was a pillar of fire and a cloud. And then there was Gideon in Judges chapter 6 in the battle against the Midianites and there was a sign - the fleece was wet and the ground was dry and the ground was wet and the fleece was dry. And that was a sign and God was showing His will. And then there was fire on Mount Carmel. And then there were those acts of Isaiah and Jeremiah where they literally dramatized very visually what God was going to do. You see, God has always revealed Himself in a very clear way. And in the Old Testament commonly He did it through very visible outward, physical phenomena.

Now when you come to the New Testament you see this as well, don't you? We see signs in the New Testament. The gospel of John is a series of 8 great miracle signs. In fact, you might be interested to know that the word miracle is never mentioned in the gospel of John one time. Because they are signs pointing in a very physical way to Christ. And in John 20 verse 30 and 31 it says in that specific text; "The things that Jesus did were signs and He did many other signs in order that we might believe-that He is who He claimed to be." And then of course, with Peter, there was the sign of the sheet in Acts 10. And then there was Paul's conversion, an outward, dramatic, miraculous sign of blindness, the glory of God. And then in II Corinthians 12:12 the signs of an apostle.

You see, in times prior to the completing of the word of God, God demonstrated His will in a very outward, physical dramatic way so that no one could miss it. But as the miracle ages have passed how do we knowGod's will now? Well, we have in our hands the word of God. The whole purpose of the miracles was to point to the Word of God, to the prophet of God as he spoke the word of God. Once the compilation of the divine revelation was finished, it then becomes the source of God's will. So, today I don't believe we look for miracles, I don't believe we find in the New Testament injunctions for us to seek, to find God's will in the stars or to find God's will in some phenomena or to find God's will by some providential arrangement of circumstances which we ascertain as a divine act. I believe we go at this point to the Word of God. And I think substantially we can find the will of God in the Scripture.

I want to suggest to you the things that are the will of God from Scripture. Simplifying and reducing it down. Number one - God's will is that you be saved. God's will is that you be saved, that's where God's will begins. In II Peter chapter 3 verse 9 it says this; "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise." Now the critics may say He is and that's the thrust of this chapter, the critics may sayOh, God isn't going to do anything, where is the sign of His coming? All things continue as they were from the beginning, everything's been going along the same way, all this stuff about judgment, all this stuff about doom that we've been hearing, all of this stuff that's going to supposedly come upon the false teachers, why we've never seen any of this. All things continue as they were from the beginning. Peter's reply is this, "It is not because the Lord is slack concerning His promise like men are, it is not because there is a gap between what He says and what He does, it is because He is long suffering toward us not willing that any should," what? "Perish but that all should come to repentance." It is the will of God that men be saved, redeemed not perish. I call your attention to Matthew chapter 18 and the words of our Lord there in verse 11, "For the Son of man has come to save that which was lost, how think ye? If a man have a hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray doeth he not leave the ninety and nine and go into the mountains and seek that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you he rejoiceth more over that sheep then over the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."

Now the reference in the passage primarily deals with children but it can be broadened because it is the heart of God who is not willing that any should perish. Peter broadens it for US. In I Timothy a word that speaks to the same matter in chapter 2, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." God wills that men be saved.

Now, that's where the will of God begins. I mean, if you're looking for the will of God apart from salvation you have no basis on which to look for it. For the natural man understand not the things of God. Salvation is basic to enter into the family, to acknowledgethe Lordship of Christ is when the will of God is first revealed.

In Mark chapter 3, 1 just want to show you an illustration of this same thing, in Mark chapter 3 and verse 31, Jesus was teaching in a particular house and it says; "There came then His brethren and His mother and standing outside they said unto Him, calling Him." Jesus was crowded and crushed in the house, as was often the case. "And His mother and His brothers wanted Him."

Now it doesn't tell us why, it doesn't tell us whether they had a need or whether they thought he was being overtaxed or whether there was some particular family problem or whether they were on the way to somewhere but the multitude sat around Him and they said to Him; "Behold, Your mother and Your brethren outside seek for You." And He gave amazing response. He said, "Who is My mother and My brethren?'' And they might have looked at Him like He was a little bit off His rocker if He didn't know who they were, "He looked round abouton those who sat about Him and said, Behold My mother and My brethren." He identified the people around Him as His mother and brethren because He says in verse 35, "Whosoever shall do the will of God the same is My brother, My sister, My mother." And there He is saying you really come into My family when you do the will of God. And, of course, that initial step is salvation. God wills that men be saved. And when they respond to that and enter His family then they become the brothers and sisters and mothers of Christ. This is God's will. So much is it God's will that He came into the world to die. We have things we will but we don't will them to the extent that we would die for them. But God did. The incarnation, the crucifixion revealed the commitment of God to the expression of His will. God's will is that men be saved, that's where it begins. And I don't make any assumption, really, in the church. I know that there are people who are not saved, I know there are people here tonight who have never opened their heart to Jesus Christ, I know that. And I say to you, the will of God for you is not that you perish, the will of God for you is not that you go astray forever, the will of God for you is not that you be cut off from eternal life. The will of God for you is not that you spend forever in hell; the will of God for you is that you be saved. God, says Paul, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sin has made us alive together with Christ. By grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. The will of God expressing His love and His mercy is that you be saved. That's where it begins. You say - I'm already saved and I still stumble. Let me take you to a second point.

Ephesians chapter 5, God's will is not only that you be saved but according to Ephesians chapter 5 it is that you be Spirit filled. Spirit filled. In Ephesians 5 we find in verse 16 the statement, "Redeeming the time because the days are evil." And the idea here is that we don't have much time. There's a pressure coming in these evil days even in the time when Paul penned this. And we must redeem the time. And on that basis, he says: "Wherefore, be ye not unwise."

Now unwise is just a nice word for stupid. Without information or knowledge, uninformed, ignorant - Be not stupid or uninformed but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Now, Paul - you say - how dare you. I'm searching. I'm banging on doors and putting out fleeces and I'm doing all kinds of stuff. But I don't know the will of the Lord. Well, you shouldn't be stupid; you should know the will of the Lord. And if you just read the next verse you'd find out what it is. "Be not drunk with wine in which is excess but be filled with the Spirit."

Now God's will is to be filled with the Spirit. Not drunk with wine which is excess. You remember when we went through Ephesians 5 we talked about the fact that those people got drunk because they believed it induced communion with the gods. The pagans in Ephesus believed that drunker they got the more they ascended to a high, open communion with the gods, much as drug addicts think they reach a higher level of spiritual consciousness, they believe the same thing. And the Apostle Paul says if you really want to commune with God don't get drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit.

Now what does it mean? You say - does this mean I've got to get the Spirit? I had a fellow come to me in Dallas and say - You know? I read your book on the Charismatic movement, I read the chapter on spirituality and he said You know, I chased around for so long trying to get the Holy Spirit, finally somebody told me I already had Him. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His, Romans 8:9. What - even thecruddy Corinthians who committed every conceivable sin are told by Paul - Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? We've all been made to drink of one Spirit, I Cor. 12:13. So, all believers possess the Spirit of God. That's not the issue. We don't need to seek what we already have. You say - Well, if we all have the Holy Spirit shouldn't we have power in our lives, shouldn't we really move out in our lives?That's right because Acts 1:8 says you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, the word power is dunamisor dynamite, you should be literal dynamite. Most of us look at our lives and say - I think I'm a dud. I keep lighting the fuse and nothing happens. Why, if I have the Holy Spirit, don't I go anywhere? Why, if I have all things that pertain to life and Godliness, II Peter 1:3, why, if I'm complete in Him, Col. 2:10, why, if I have this power does nothing happen? And the question is simply answered because you're not filled. It's one thing to have the Spirit resident; it's something else to have the Spirit dominant. Let me give you an illustration of it. The word filled is used in the gospels to speak of total control, for example, in John 16:6 it Says "Sorrow hath filled your heart."In Luke 6:11 it says, "They were filled with madness." In Luke 4:28 "They were filled with wrath." In Luke 5:26; "They were filled with fear."

You see, mostly in our lives we can balance those things off. Like, for example, sorrow, we have a little sorrow and a little joy, a little sorrow tipped this way and a little joy tipped this way and we try to balance it if something real bad happens we try to think happy thoughts and everybody tries to boost us up, when somethink horrible, total disaster a terrible injury, a death or whatever - voom goes the sorrow side and we're filled with sorrow, that's the meaning of the word. And in our lives basically, the Spirit of God is there and there's a little for the Spirit and a little for us and a little for the Spirit and a little for us and we kind of balance things off with the flesh but there comes a time when we yield all to the Spirit and we're filled with the Spirit and the scale topples on His side. According to Romans 6 it's a question of yielding yourself in obedience to the Spirit of God. We are to be yielded to the Spirit of God in order that He may fill us.

I want to illustrate it with an illustration I've used many times in teaching this but I think it will get it across to you. Peter is the classic illustration I want to use. Now Peter basically knew one thing, if he didn't know anything else he knew he wanted to be where Jesus was. One time Jesus tried to send him away and he said - Lord, to whom shall I go, You have the words of eternal life. The Lord could never get rid of Peter, I know there were days when he walked down the road and stopped and Peter ran into the back of Him. Peter followed Him. He was always around. He was one of the inner-three, I'm not sure he got elected; I just think maybe they couldn't get rid of him, whatever. But Peter wanted to be where Christ was and there is a very, very obvious reason why. Because when he was with Christ he found an incredible resource for his life.

For example, Matthew 14 the disciples are out on the water and a storm is kicking up in the sea of Galilee and they're getting a little panicky, all they're trying to do is just go a little ways from the hill where they had been in the little village, it shouldn't have been a problem but the storm came up and the swirling wind that gets inside that little valley there between those cliffs on the east and the hills on the north and the west, really got the thing swirling. And I've experienced that in some of my trips there and the boat was out in the middle and they were really in a state of panic and then all of a sudden as they looked off silhouetted against the moonlight here came someone walking onthe water.

Now that, if you weren't already pretty well done in that would tend to do it, to see someone walking on the water. And, of course, you remember what happened, they cried out - "Is it You, Lord?" That's the only possible explanation they could come up with. And He responded in the affirmative and immediately without a thought of anything, Peter jumped out of the boat and started walking on the water. Now he had been a fisherman all his life and had never done that. He knew he couldn't walk on water. Cognitively he knew that. You say - Well, why did he do something like that? Leap out of the boat, fire out across the white caps? Well, I believe it was because he had this consuming desire to be where Jesus was. He got out there a little ways and started feeling his oats, you know, like he was pretty good and started checking out what he was doing and then he began to sink. The Lord had to pick him up and then they walked back together to the boat.

Now I can just imagine how Peter, you know, must have approached the boat. Hi, guys, you know, just very cool and casual as he strolled across the water with the Lord. Peter learned a great lesson. He learned that when he was near Jesus Christ he could do the miraculous. Later on in Matthew chapter 16 the Lord was quizzing the disciples about who He was and He said; "Who do men say that I am?" And they said, "Some say You are Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets." And He said, "But who do you say that I am?" And all of a sudden Peter's mouth started moving independent of his brain and he said, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God." And the Lord said to him, and He must have been smiling, "Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, Peter, My Father in heaven did." And Peter learned a second great lesson, when he was in the presence of Jesus Christ he could not only do the miraculous he could say the miraculous too.

The next time we see him in our little analogy he is in the garden, Jesus has been taken captive andthat terrible thing that occurred in John 18 where the soldiers had taken Jesus to be tried in a mockery of a trial and to be executed. And he was down in that initial phase of that situation in the house of Annas, Peter was outside and he was standing by the fire a far off. And you know what happened? When he was a far off he was a coward. On three occasions what did he do? Denied Christ.

Now what's amazing about that is if you just back him up just a few hours when the soldiers came to take Christ he grabbed a sword and started wailing away at the first guy in line. The Bible says he chopped the ear of Malchus, but you know he didn't go up to Malchus and say -I'm going to get your ear and just do that, he wanted his head. Malchus reacted, ducked, he only got an ear. But in effect he was saying - I'll take the whole Roman army, there may have been as many as 500 soldiers from Fort Antonius and he was going to start with the first guy in line and work his way through the troops. You say -Well, he's got to be nuts. No, because he was standing next to Jesus Christ and I'm sure in the back of his mind was this - Lord, when these guys came marching in here and You said Your name, they all fell over, like dominoes. Crash.

Now, Lord, if I get into trouble, would You do that again? I mean, I know he felt that the Lord was there and he had a miraculous courage. He could do and say the miraculous and he had almost a sense of invincibility. But the next time you see him he's warming his hands by the fire and a little girl asks him if he knows Christ and he denies. Two other occasions he denies and he curses. You say, -It's inconceivable, Peter, this is inconceivable. You walked on water, controlling and overriding the nature of the elements of nature. You who opened your mouth and God speaks. Peter, you with the sword are going to fight the whole Roman army. What happened? What happened was he got separated from Jesus and no sooner did he get separated then he lost it all. Well, Jesus died and rose, appeared to the disciples three times and one extra time to Peter and after that ascended into heaven.

You say, Oh, man, with the Lord in heaven we might as well throw Peter under six feet of dirt. I mean, if he bailed out at 75 feet what good is he going to be when the Lord is in heaven. And you know what happens? The next time we see Peter after the Lord is in heaven the first thing he does is this, he stands up in front of the whole population of Jerusalem that are gathered for the feast of Pentecost and they had been attracted by the sound of a mighty rushing wind and the cloven tongues of fire and the speaking in languages, the languages of all those who were gathered. And this mass of humanity is gathered in Jerusalem and he stands up and he says - You men of Israel and all you that dwell in Jerusalem be this known unto you and hearken my words- and he preaches the Messiahship of Jesus Christ and indicts the whole group for executing the Messiah. And the whole speech was right out of the mouth of God. There he was doing and saying the miraculous. He and John went over to the temple, there was a lame man there, he said - "Silver and gold have I none but such as I have I give thee unto thee, rise up and walk." The guy jumped up and went leaping and dancing and shouting through the temple it was the only legitimate praise going on in there. He could say the miraculous, he could do the miraculous. And so the Sanhedrin got him and said - you keep quiet. We don't want to hear anymore out of you and he said to them eye to eye- Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And you judge whether I ought to obey God or man.

Listen, he could say the miraculous, do the miraculous and he had a miraculous boldness. But you say - How? If he's a coward when Christ is 75 or 100 feet away-and he's outside the house why has he got so much courage when the Lord is already gone to heaven? And the answer is very simple, before anything happened in the book of Acts regarding preaching or healing or being bold it says and they were all, chapter 2 verse 4, filled with the Spirit. Now let me tell you something, people, being filled with the Spirit had the same result in Peter's life as standing in the presence of Christ. Did you get that? Being filled with the Spirit had the same result as standing in the presence of Jesus Christ. Do you know what it means to be filled with the Spirit? It means to live as if you're in the presence of Jesus Christ. It is nothing different than a consuming and constant Christ consciousness.

The mind that is centered on Him, the mind that gazes continually atHis glory, II Cor. 3:18, will be changed into His image. That is why in Col. 3:16 it says - "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." You see? As the word about Christ dwells in you richly His presence becomes manifest in your conscious mind and as His presence dominates your mind the Spirit of God controls you. You say - Aren't you confusing the Spirit with Christ? No, because the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, Romans 8:9. And the Holy Spirit is another comforter, allosparakleetos, another of the same exact identical kind as myself. Being Spirit filled is no mystical strange, far out, ecstatic experience it is simply Christ consciousness and, people, it comes from imputing the word of God. It's not a mystery. It's not an emotion. It's not an ecstatic experience; it is the feeding of the word.

Let me give you an illustration of this. Turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 4 and I want to point out just a couple of Scriptures rather quickly and we'll draw through the other points and be done. But in Acts chapter 4 and verse 31, they were praying- "And when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the Word of God with boldness." Notice the filling of the Spirit of God is connected with the Word of God.

Look at chapter 6 verse 3; The apostles are desirous of continuing their engagement in prayer and the Word of God and so they want to appoint some men to care for meeting physical needs and it says; "Wherefore brethren look among you for seven men of honest report," now watch, "Full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom." On one end of the other being filled with the Spirit of God is connected with the word and the wisdom of God. The two are inseparable. Chapter 6 verse 5; and thesaying please the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. How did he get full of faith? He got full of faith by knowing the truth about God as revealed by God which gave substance to his faith and is the key to the filling of the Spirit. And then in verse 7, because of the powerof the Holy Spirit filling them the Word of God increased. Inseparable is the word and the wisdom and the faith revealed in that word from being filled with the Spirit. And so we find that when men are filled with the Spirit there is an amazing connection to the Word of God.

Now, beloved, let me say this to you. If you're looking for the will of God in your life, number one - make sure you're saved; number two - be sure you're Spirit filled. That means you're receiving the input of the Word of God, living in Christ-consciousness so the Spirit of God is controlling your life. Third - God's will is that you be saved, Spirit-filled and sanctified. Sanctified.

I Thess. chapter 4. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, I just want to touch it, so carefully watch. I Thess. chapter 4 verse 3: "For this is the will of God . . ." Now when anybody ever asks me, "Oh, how can I know the will of God?" I always think of this verse. "This is the will of God . . ." Why don't you start here? ". . . even your sanctification." That means being set apart, that means being pure, being holy, being righteous, being virtuous, being sinless. God's will is that we be pure, undefiled, unspotted, blameless -- that's God's will. That's pretty clear, isn't it? You say, "Well, what does He mean by that?"

Well, he gives four principles, number one - verse 3, abstain from sex sin. Stay away from sex sin. Stay away from it. Abstain from porneaany kind of pornography, any kind of sexual activity and the word is broad enough it encompasses all sexual activity except that which is permitted by God-in the confines of marriage between a husband and a wife and that's it. Stay away from it. That's the will of God. Every time a couple comes and they come in for counseling in the church and they say - We believe it's God's will for us to get married. We ask them a question. Are you engaged in sexual activity? If the answer is yes then we say - you don't know the will of God, you don't know whether God wants you to get married, you don't know the part He hasn't revealed because you haven't even obeyed the part that He has. You're not even in a position to know what God's will is. You have defied His will at the point of I Thess. chapter 4, unless there is a life of righteousness and holiness and virtue. Unless you're dealing with sin in your life and are abstaining from sexual sin, you are out of God's will to start with. Principle number two - that every one of you should know how to possess His vessel of sanctification and honor.

Now some believe the term vessel here refers to body, so that you are to control your body so it honors God. Some believe it refers to your wife; you are to make sure that you care for your wife in a way that is honoring to God. I guess I kind of lean toward the body concept because I think that fits the context better. In other words, handle your body so that it honors God. Have you beaten your body to bring it into submission or subjection as Paul says, are you dealing with the flesh? That's the will of God. Thirdly, - not in the lust of evil desire or concupiscence, or sensuality as the pagans who know notGod.

Principle number one - stay away from sex sin, number two - handle your body so it honors God and three - don't act like the godless pagans. And how do they act? They're guided by their glands, that's how they act!! They're guided by their impulses, their lusts, their baser drives, in other words, it's a very physical thing here with the will of God. Stay away from sex sin and that which leads to it. Your body should honor God and that means your body is always to be under control. All things are lawful says the apostle but all things are not expedient, all things are lawful but I will not be brought under the control of any. People say - Ah, well, I'm always in control. You get to a place where you're not...where you're not. I remember the first time I ever kissed a girl. Out of control, immediately, it's a whole new world. A whole new experience. And I realized that there were impulses in me that were beyond my ability to control, except by the power of God.

Finally, the fourth point, verse 6, "Don't go beyond and defraud your brother in any matter." Don't take advantage of somebody else. Boy, you know, people... physically and sexually just take advantage of each other, horribly. I read the most shocking article in the latest issue of Psychology Today, I couldn't believe it. It presents an entire psychological survey which advocates incest as a positive, affirming relationship in a family, if you can conceive of such a thing. Talk about taking advantage, it's going to come. That's the first article I've seen on it in a public place, it's going to come and fathers will literally destroy their daughters, when that becomes permissible. Don't use somebody. Don't use people to get your gratification. God's will is that you be pure, set apart, undefiled, no longer do you live, I Peter 4:2, we read it earlier, in the flesh to the lust of man but in the will of God. I'm telling you, people, I get weary of the stuff that goes on in Christian circles. There's one Christian leader who's life ... well two of them I found about this week, whose lives are so debauched and yet they carry on, their ministry, flourishing in a very public place and some Christians are so disturbed they are thinking of writing major articles on their lives just to expose them. And churches are filled with people who are engaged in illicit relationships physically, this is the will of God for you, you say - Christ is my Lord, and I've come to Him and received at His hand the gracious salvation and I submit to Him and I love Him and I adore Him and then you go out and you flagrantly and violently and openly defy His will. God's will is that you be sanctified, set apart, pure.

Fourth, God's will is not only that you be saved, be Spirit Filled and sanctified but submissive. Just a moment's thought on this. I Peter 2:13; "Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be to the king, a supreme or governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God." And you can stop right there. He says - Wait a minute, submit yourselves to all the laws of man for the Lord's sake, not for the government's sake but for the Lord's sake. Why? Because people are evaluating the legitimacy of your faith on the basis of your citizenship. Amazing, amazing, what kind of a citizen are you? Do you obey the ordinances of man? The king? The Governors? Them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evil doers, that's the Police and sometimes the Army. The praise of them that do well.

Listen, people say - Oh, what should I do about the draft? What should I do about signing up? Well, same thing about being a policeman, as long as those parts of our government, the police, and the armed forces are protecting the innocent against godless humanistic atheistic, murderers whether they are individuals or nations, I don't see any problem in being engaged in holding up what is righteous.

Now if I was a Russian citizen I'd have a little trouble. I couldn't serve in the armed forces because they are the encroacher, the aggressor, the murderer but I could defend people. And I don't ever say anything very political but when we didn't defend people properly in Southeast Asia the result was millions have been slaughtered, millions. We are to be submissive. The spirit of good citizenship. We are to abide by the principles in our government. You say - Now, wait a minute. How far do you take that? Just to the point where the government violates a direct command of the word of God. Then you stand on the Acts 4, Acts 5 ground and you say - At this point we will obey God and not man. And I think that's where we have to draw the line. But we are to be good submitters. Do you realize that in Ephesians 6 that if you are an employee you are to submit to your employer as unto the Lord as if he were Christ? We have to learn to submit.

In Ephesians 5 it tells us in a marriage we learn to submit, in a family we learn to submit, in a job we learn to submit, in a government we learn to submit. And by our sweet, submissive spirits, the spirit of cooperation, this is not a dictatorship. And so we submit by cooperating, not by saying well, if that's what they want to do I'll roll over and let them do it to me. We have recourse in our government, we can vote, we can petition, we can lobby, we can go to court about things when we have a just, virtuous cause, and that's cooperating with the system. But when we violate it then we cease to be well spoken of and can't even qualify to be elders in the church. Except in those cases where the government violates a direct command of God, and then we must obey God and pay the consequences.

Can I give you a fifth thought? What is God's will? Saved, Spirit filled, sanctified, submissive, fifthly, suffering. And I just want to mention this because we've covered it in the past, I Peter chapter 3 verse 17; "For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well doing than for evil doing." God's will is that when we confront the world and they react to our message and our life that we may suffer. And he says - you shouldn't be so surprised for Christ also hath once suffered. He suffered. And over in chapter 4 and verse 19; he says; "Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing as unto a faithful creator."

And in chapter 5 verse 10 he says; "After you've suffered for awhile the Lord will make you perfect." You see, part of the growing of a mature believer is suffering. It's the purging of John 15 where the word of God and trials and circumstances strip off the succor branches that retard our growth and dissipate our energy. God has called us to suffering; all that will live godly in this present age will suffer persecution, II Timothy 3:12 says. So, we have to face that. We don't look for that, we don't relish it but we're willing to bear in our bodies the marks of Jesus Christ. We're willing to be bold and confrontive in the face of suffering. We're willing to say what has to be said no matter what happens. And sometimes that gets a little scary. I remember when I spoke at Valley College over here a few years ago, they asked me to speak on Christianity and culture. But I don't know anything about that. So I decided to speak on why Jesus is the Messiah. Some of you may remember that. Well, that's a pretty interesting place to do that because there are a lot of Jewish people there so I got up in the open forum for an hour and I spoke on why Jesus was the Messiah.

I remember one young man who was saved that day right there and went to seminary. I also remember that Christians were banned from the campus, all Christian book tables were closed down, and the JDL sent a letter to our church threatened to blow it up on a Sunday morning. We didn't tell the people because we wanted them to come. They didn't do that. We started getting obscene phone calls in the middle of the night; they harassed my wife, my family. We have had in our time here at Grace Church even a person at our door with a knife, threatening to kidnap our children. I have been put in jail for preaching the gospel in the United States of America, some years back. That isn't always the way it will be but that might be. I really believe that we must confront an evil age and, people, if I believe anything I believe it in the day in which we live if we really are confrontive there will be greater consequences then there were in the past. Do you know what? Paul said, I've suffered a lot but I want to know Him and the fellowship of His, what? Sufferings. When you enter into suffering for the cause of Christ you enter into an intimate identification with Him who suffered. You see? That the one who doesn't suffer never really understands. Oh, the intimacy of the suffering for Christ, understanding that merciful' high priest that He is. And a last 'S' point. God's will is that you be saved, Spirit filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, how about this? Saying thanks. God's will is that you say thanks. I Thess. 5:18; "In everything give," what? "Thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you."

Now, now just watch and listen for a minute. People say - Oh, I don't know God's will; I'm trying to figure out God's will, what is His will? All right, it is that you be saved. Have you given yourheart to Christ? That you be Spirit filled. Are you receiving the Word of God regularly so that it creates in you a consciousness of Christ's presence, His word dwelling in you richly, giving the Spirit of God that which is necessary to control your life so you're filled by Him? And the word filled is used of a wind in a sail that blows the ship along. Are you being blown along across the water by the energy of the Spirit of God that fills your life because you have Christ's conscious thoughts? Are you sanctified? Have you checked your life at that point? Are you living a virtuous and righteous life? And submissive, are you the kind of a model of submission that the word of God lays out? Are you one who submits to the authorities of the government, the authorities around you so that the people say of you that you are well spoken of? What about suffering? Are you confronting a society that is godless? And what about saying thanks? Is your heart filled with thanksgiving for every trial, every tribulation, every difficulty, every thing that goes wrong as well as right? Or are you gripey, grouchy, bitter, angry? What is God's will, do you know? It's these things, people. You say, Well MacArthur, you're a big help. I mean I drove down here in the rain to hear this stuff. All you're telling me is a bunch of Bible stuff. You don't tell me which one of those 6 girls I'm supposed to pick. You didn't tell me where I'm supposed to move, or go to school, or change my job. Or how I solve my problems. I feel cheated. I didn't get a straight answer. I got one for you. You're going to like this.

You know, if you're saved, Spirit filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering and saying thanks you know what God's will is for you? Whatever you want. You like that? Does that sound good? Do it. Whatever--you want. You say - what are you saying? That's self-will. I can't do what I want, I have to knock on a door and put out a fleece and... Wait a minute. If you're saved, Spirit filled, sanctified, submissive and suffering and saying thanks, who do you think is controlling your desires? Take a wild guess. God is. And that's why Psalm 37:4 says "Delight in the Lord," and that's the composite of all 6 of those and "He will give you," what? "The desires of your heart." And it doesn't mean He'll fulfill the ones that you've generated; it means He'll put them there. People say to me - Why did you go to Grace Church? And you know, for many years, I've said - I wanted to. And some people say-Oh, you wanted to? Don't you know the will of God? It's something we just do because we have to do it.

See. Wait a minute. I don't live in that kind of misery. I get letters every once in a while from a church or an organization, they'll say - You know, we feel that we have been led of the Lord to ask you to come be our pastor. And it's usually in Pearblossom, or Death Valley or somewhere. But anyway, sometimes it's better than that or sometimes it's, I don't know, lots of things like that happen and they say will you please pray about this. You know what my first thought is? I don't want to go there. And if I don't want to go there I have an awful hard time praying about it. Or I could just say - Dear Lord, I don't want to go there, I'm just checking in with You to let You know that I don't want to go there. I don't know a better way for God to lead my life than through my desires. But there's a trap there, and that is if your desires are not His desires, and they cannot be His desires unless they are on these terms.

There's a second thought here. Once you begin to follow that desire in your heart, and if it isn't clear yet wait it will be. I found that always true in my life. I came to Grace Church because I wanted to. And I still want to be here. And I don't want to go anywhere else. And I think God's running the "wannas" in me. See? But there's another thought. When we want to do something and we follow that desire then we have to allow God to apply circumstances to that desire that may alter it. But at least it gets us moving. You can't steer a truck that's standing still. Right? It's very difficult. Once it gets rolling, it's easy. And so we move out on the basis of the desire of our heart and let God shape that. The Apostle Paul, Acts 16, he gets going and he says, "Well, we decided we'd go into Asia Minor. And the Holy Spirit said, 'Nope.' So we said, 'Plan B, we're going to Bithynia.' And the Holy Spirit said, 'Nope.' That's south and north. We've just been east . . ." What is he going to do? He never stopped the desire, he kept moving and moving and moving. Finally got to the Helispont and stood on the edge of the water and said, "Well, Lord, what do You want me to do?" That night he went to sleep and had a vision to go to Macedonia. And the gospel went to Europe. And if he hadn't had done that and followed the desire of his heart to keep pursuing the will of God even though the Lord was directing him along the way by closing a few doors, if he hadn't had done that, just maybe the gospel would have gone the other way and the Chinese would be the Christians evangelizing us. But you see, to follow the desire of your heart you have to be open to thecircumstances.

I saw Marty Wolfe come in; I use the illustration of him in my book. Marty and I used to drive to school all the time when I was going to seminary and Marty said, You know I want to be a missionary to the Jews and he had the desire to go to Paris and speak to the French speaking Jews about Christ and so we talked a lot about that. We just checked out his life, saved, Spirit filled, went through the whole deal and said - Marty, good-bye, have a nice trip. You know, just take off, that's the desire of your heart. And so I remember we put up a plaque in our church, Marty Wolfe goes to France. And you know where he went? To Canada. That's where he went. But he went to Montreal to work with French speaking Jews. God fulfilled the desire of his heart he just didn't have the right town.

You see, that's how God works. Nothing mystical. Is you keep moving on the desire of your heart; God will open the right thing. I love this verse, Genesis 24:27, "1 being in the way, the Lord led me." Let's bow.

The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory and glory forever and ever. Amen

Making the Hard Decisions Easy

I told you this morning that I want to just share some things very practical from my own life, along the line of making the hard decisions easy. And I want to pull together a lot of things out of the Word of God. But before I do that, just a little bit of introduction.

The Bible is very explicit on matters of sin. There's no any reason to wonder what it is that God forbids. You can start with the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord lays out the things that He does not permit. There are other things which God commands us to do and not to do those is sin. We are not in the dark about sin. The things explicitly spelled out in the Scripture are very clear to us. We know what's wrong. We also know what is right in regard to many things, for God has given us very clear word on that.

Now we don't want to talk about what is explicitly right and what is explicitly wrong in the Scripture, we want to talk a little bit about what falls in the middle because that really poses the difficult problem when it comes to decision making. If somebody proposes to you the possibility of lying, cheating, stealing, killing somebody, committing adultery, coveting, that's pretty obviously not acceptable. If somebody proposes to you the idea of reading the Bible, praying, witnessing, sharing the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word with someone who needs to hear it, that's pretty obviously right.

But what about all that stuff in the middle to which the Bible doesn't explicitly speak? And this is a large category. For example, there are some people who say that there are certain foods we should eat and certain foods we should not eat. There are those today who would want to bind us to an Old Testament dietary law and tell us that true spirituality is really involved with what you eat. And, of course, if you eat pork, or any thing that's not kosher by Old Testament law, you've committed a sin.

Other people would tell us that you can drink certain things and not other things. And if you drink certain things, that's sinful. And certain other things are not. And there's a lot to be said about that in Scripture but no specific prohibition regarding what we may or may not drink.

Some people believe, and this might sound strange to you, but it's true, some people believe that sports are sinful. In fact, I know a man who feels that way very strongly and says he's writing a book on the sin of sports. Now some of you don't believe it's a sin, to you it is a god. And you bow down and you worship it...every opportunity you get.

There are some people who believe television is a sin. If you own a television, you're not spiritual. There are other people who are zombies. They stare at that box. Doesn't matter what's on, even a test pattern tickles their fancy and they'll watch it as long as the fuse lasts.

Some people would say that if you go to a movie you've committed a sin. If you enter into a theater, you're participating in ungodliness. If you plunk down your...I don't know whatever it costs to go to a theater...that you are paying money into the godless movie-producing industry. Other people say, "Well, you can go to a movie and it's a diversion, it's recreational, you can see the beauty of certain scenery," and so forth.

There are people who think that if you do anything on Sunday other than sit and read the Bible, you have entered into sin. You're not...when I was a little guy growing up, I can remember when we were back in...particularly on the east coast, in Philadelphia...you were not allowed to do anything on Sunday that even remotely resembled recreation. We came home in our little Lord Fauntleroy suits with the little stiff collar, and a little tie, and sat on the couch all day. Couldn't read the funny papers, couldn't read the sports page, couldn't look at television, couldn't go out in the yard and play catch, couldn't take a walk, we sat. The only sin we could commit and we could commit that sin all we wanted was the sin of gluttony. We could literally gorge ourselves on Sunday. And, of course, most of the women spent all morning cooking up this massive meal by which we sinned all afternoon, but couldn't...but couldn't run it off. And so we were stuck with the consequence of our evil. But that sin was tolerable. And in most evangelical circles it still is...as given evidence by the shape of most evangelicals. But anyway...we'll stay away from that one.

I remember as a little boy that you could play cards. You could play cards as long as the cards didn't have jokers, spades, clubs and those other things. If they had anything else but those, they were okay. But if they printed those on them, that was sinful and no self-respecting person would ever pick up a card and see one of those markings on it without dropping immediately lest he commits some evil. Now you could play "Pit" and scream and shout and throw things, and that was all right, but watch what's on the card.

There were people who believed that certain games were sinful. Certain games like "Monopoly" taught materialism and there should have been a game called "Humility and Poverty" for those who really wanted to pursue true spirituality in their recreational life.

And then there are people who believe that it's a sin to stick leaves in your mouth and set them on fire and blow smoke through your nose. I was just in North Carolina and I saw most of the deacons doing just that. And I asked somebody how it is that that's not a sin and they said they all raise tobacco back here so that's not a sin.

But anyway, there are other people who say that if your hair is too long, that's a sin. And if it's too short, that's not a sin unless it's really too short and that may mean you're gay so find a middle ground somewhere so you're not sinning on either end.

There are people who believe certain clothing styles are basically reflective of a sinful society. Now I don't understand the fashions today. I really don't. Personally, I believe God is symmetrical. You understand that? I believe God is symmetrical. He likes the same thing on both sides of you. But I see...see, I see clothes that go every which way. I mean, crazy things like exploding things and everything all around. But I think God is a God of symmetry. But anyway, that's just me. I like a pocket on both sides of my shirt, what can I say?

And there are some people who...some people who feel that certain musical styles are sinful. Rock music is sinful. And we might even agree with that. Country and western is definitely sanctified. They must not be listening to the words.

There are some people who think that it's okay to have boys and girls together swimming, and there are some, many in the south, for example, who believe that's a sin. They call that "mixed bathing" and that is forbidden.

But there are a lot of things like that that enter into the area where the Scripture really doesn't have anything to say and so we're left with having to make some decisions. Now the easy way is to make up a list of rules. That's very easy. We'll just decide. We'll get a committee and we'll say this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is right. We'll just live by those rules. And if you keep the rules, we'll call you spiritual. And if you don't keep the rules, we'll call you fleshly. That's the easy way out.

As Christians, we need to know how to make decisions about those kinds of things. There are these things that face us every single day in our life. How do we decide? Well, I'm going to give you two handfuls of principles, all right? We're just going to lay them before you. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them except to share them with you. These are the things that I use in my own personal life. I sat down one day and just wrote them down, just out of my own experience. I didn't have to go study to figure them out, these are the things that I ask myself periodically whenever I'm faced with making a decision that isn't black or white in Scripture. The sooner you learn to apply these things, the more you will enjoy your spiritual experience and understand what it means to be free in Christ and yet submissive to His perfect purpose.

Number one principle, and I'm going to give you ten, I think, if we have time. Number one, and you're saying already we won't, but I'll fool you...number one, I'm going to do this tonight, folks, in the next few minutes...number one, I ask this question: will it be spiritually profitable? Will it be spiritually profitable? Look with me at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 12. A familiar text, I just want to touch on that. We studied it in detail in our study of this wonderful epistle. But notice verse 12, watch it carefully. First Corinthians 6:12, "All things are lawful." Now let me qualify that by saying this, all things that are not unlawful are lawful. That's what he means. There are some things in Scripture that are already said to be unlawful or sinful. He's not talking about those things. What he's saying here is all things that are not unlawful are lawful. Okay? All things in that sort of middle ground, that non-moral area are lawful for me. All things not unlawful are lawful to me. "But all things are not...now this word literally means to my advantage, they are not to my spiritual advantage, they don't profit me."

So, I ask myself the question that Paul is posing right here, will my doing this enhance my spiritual life? Will it cultivate godliness? That's a fair question. That's a basic question. Will it cultivate godliness? Will it be profitable to me? Will it be to my advantage? Will it profit me?

There are some things that are not wrong. I think about sleep. Sleep is not wrong, sleep is good. I try to do that now and then. I'd like to do it more than I'm able. But there's nothing wrong with sleep. In fact, there's nothing wrong with sleeping in. Do you ever look forward to a morning when you can sleep in? Sure you do. Sometimes it's Sunday morning, but the Lord will punish you for that. But I mean, we all look to those times when we want to sleep in. I mean, that's a wonderful thing. But that good thing of sleeping in and collecting your physical strength if done too frequently will not be to your spiritual profit because it will cultivate what? Laziness. In and of itself, it is not wrong but it creates a habit of dullness. And overdone it is not to your benefit.

Now there are many things like that in life. Whatever they might be, you ask yourself the question: will it be spiritually beneficial? Will it be to my profit? To my advantage? Will it cultivate godliness?

In other words, I'm not looking at life from the standpoint of--Boy, can I do this and get away with it? I'm looking at life--Can I do this and have it increase my godliness? Will it be spiritually profitable? Let's call this the principle, and you can write this one down, of expedience...the principle of expedience. Is it expedient for my spiritual benefit?

Principle number two, and I'm just touching lightly on these, principle number two, and it's a very close parallel, will it build me up? Will it build me up? The first one simply looks at it in isolation, will it profit me spiritually in itself? The second question, will it put me on the path to greater spiritual maturity? Will it build me up? First Corinthians 10:23, go over a few chapters, 1 Corinthians 10:23, he gives basically the same idea, "All things are lawful...that is all things that are not unlawful are lawful...all things that aren't right...that aren't wrong in themselves...all things that are not unlawful are lawful for me but all things are not profitable," same thought. Then this, "All things are lawful for me but all things do not...what?..build me up."

So, I ask the question: will it build me up? And the word is oikodomeo, it means to build a house. Will it add to my life things that increase my spiritual stability, strength and maturity? First Corinthians 14:26 says, "Let all things be done unto edification." Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:19, "We do all things, dearly beloved, to build you up." In 1 Corinthians 9, back a chapter, verse 24, Paul says, "You know that we run and we all run in a race but only one receives a prize so run that you may win the prize." Every man that competes in athletics is temperate, that is self-controlled in all things. Why? Because he wants to win. Verse 27, "I bring my body into subjection." Literally he says I keep under my body, means to give it a black eye, I punch my body in the eye, if you will, I buffet my body, not buffet my body, I buffet my body, I give my body a black eye for the purpose...for the purpose of keeping it under control in order that what I do may be self-edifying. I make my body my slave, would be another way to translate that.

Frankly, and this is an honest thing for us to admit, most of us are slaves to our bodily desires, right? I mean, we basically respond to whatever physical impulses are there. That's why I've always said in the matter of self-control and self-discipline, there are several key elements. You remember, we covered this some months ago. To be a self-disciplined person you have to train yourself in discipline. And I use a lot of little practical things like, for one thing, always do the most difficult task...what?...first. That helps you to learn self- discipline. Another one that helps me is always be on time. In order to do that you've got to order the diverse elements of your life all to converge to have you in the right spot at the right moment when you're supposed to be there. That's a control. That indicates you can pull the pieces together and manage. And another one that helps me is learn to say no when you have every right to say yes. In other words, when you have a right to go out and just have a great big huge meal and top it off with, you know, hot fudge sundae, or whatever, just say no so you can say to your body, "See, I'm still in charge." Cultivate self- control. When you control your desires with your mind, your spiritual mind, you exercise the right muscles in training yourself for godliness.

So, I ask myself the question, if I do this, will it build me up? Will it strengthen me? Will it move me toward Christ's likeness? Toward greater spiritual maturity? Let's call that the principle of edification. So the principle of expedience and then the principle of edification.

The third principle, and for this one turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12...Hebrews chapter 12. And let's ask a third question, are you ready for this? Will it...and this is the negative side of the two we just mentioned...will it slow me down in the race? If I'm running, as 1 Corinthians 9 says, if I'm running to win the prize, if I'm running to obtain, then I have to ask myself if this will slow me down. Notice verse 1 of Hebrews 12, we are in a race, the race of faith. We have seen in chapter 11 a host of people who lived by faith and they are living witnesses of the validity of living by faith. They are the cloud of witnesses who tell us to live by faith. You know, back there at the beginning, verse 4, "By faith Abel...by faith Enoch...by faith Noah...by faith Abraham...by faith Sarah...by faith Jacob...Isaac, Jacob...by faith Joseph...by faith Moses." And it goes on to talk about by faith the walls of Jericho fell down, by faith the harlot Rahab and then Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, on and on and on. Men and women all living by faith.

Now with so many people testifying to the significance of the life of faith, we are also to live by faith, to run the race of faith. Now in order to do it successfully, notice verse 1, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now the key that I want you to notice, "let us lay aside every weight and the sin." Now what do you conclude from that? That the weight is different than what? Sin. We are to lay aside sin and we're to lay aside the weight. Well, what's the difference? To run in this agon from which we get the word agony which is the word for race, this demanding grueling life of faith requires determination, perseverance, self-discipline. And in order to do that, we have to lay aside every weight as well as sin.

Now what is "every weight?" The word is onkos. It simply means "bulk...bulk." It isn't sin. It's just needless bulk, something that weighs us down, diverts our priorities, takes our attention, sucks our energy, dampens our enthusiasm for the things of God.

Now let's take an athlete who is going to compete in the 100 meters, and let's say that before he ran in the 100 meters, say in a world class event, he went out and got drunk and committed sins of dissipation and then came in and tried to run. He would be running without having set aside sin. He sinned against his own body and sucked out his strength. But let's assume that he trained perfectly, that he did everything he was supposed to do in the process of preparation, he was in top physical shape, everything was as it ought to be in his training, his moral life was clean, he didn't dissipate his body, but he came in and decided to compete in combat boots and a wool overcoat. That wouldn't be sinful but it would be pretty stupid. That would be unnecessary bulk.

Let me put it simply to you. Is it sinful to go out with your wife on a Saturday night and have a late dinner and just eat a nice big meal and then go for a drive and sit in front of the moon at the beach and tell your wife how much you love her and go home at two o'clock? Is that sinful? No. You say, "I wish my husband would do that." But, let's add one other dimension. You have a prayer meeting at 8 o'clock Sunday morning and you have to teach the Word of God at 8:30. Let me tell you, it's not sinful to do that but it is a lot of unnecessary bulk that will have an impact on what you're able to do the next morning.

So, there are some things in our lives that we restrict for no other reason than that they would slow us down in the race, right? That's why for me, for example, Saturday night is a very sacred time. It is a "do nothing" time. I can remember when my boys were playing football games, thankfully the last one is finished with his football career now, Mark. And I can remember Saturday night football games and I would go out, and when your son is playing football, you get into the thing. I get into it anyway, having played so much and loving the game. And you're watching your son and your emotions are running high at a fever pitch, and you come back and you're playing the game over and over, especially if your son breaks his leg and he's in the hospital, as it..as happened at homecoming last year and he severed his femur right at the growth plate, and we're there half the night...and we've got to get up the next day and preach the Word of God...and so forth. You get your emotions and your mental processes running down the wrong channel.

Now it's not sinful to go watch your son play baseball...eh, football unless you think football is a sin. And that's your privilege, I guess. But the point is, you add to your life unnecessary bulk. You don't need that. You don't need to encumber yourself with that.

There's lots of forms of bulk...legalism, ceremonialism, needless waste of time that sucks your energy and fouls up your priorities. So you ask yourself a simple question, will it slow me down in the spiritual race? Anything that impinges upon my effectiveness in serving Christ, I won't do that. It might be something in and of itself is not evil, but it becomes a needless weight for me to bear. Let's call this the principle of excess...of excess.

Number four...number four, will it bring me into bondage? Will it bring me into bondage? First Corinthians chapter 6, back to the verse we started with, 1 Corinthians 6:12, listen to this: "All things that are not unlawful are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient or profitable," then this, "All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of...what?...of any." I will not be brought under the power of any. I will not allow anything to master me...to master me.

We should never allow a non-moral thing to become our master. And yet there are people...think of it, man, the king of creation, we saw it in Psalm 8, we heard it sung, "What is man that thou art mindful of him, You've made him just a bit lower than the holy angels, You've crowned him with glory and honor, You've given him dominion over creation, he rules the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, he rules the land and all it produces, man, the king of the earth." But isn't it amazing how he yields up his sovereignty to the stupid little things? How many men have turned into absolute slobbering blithering idiots because they can't control what comes out of grapes? How many people have ended up dead because they can't deal with tobacco? How many people literally have their lives totally run by a television which is a bunch of wires that were invented by man, the king of the earth? All of a sudden television is king, television is sovereign, and man is nothing but a slave to that. Drugs, invented really and discovered by man for the benefit of those who have need of them, becomes the master of so many men, so many women.

There are many things that can enslave us that come from creation which God designed to be ruled by us. So I ask myself the question, will this put me into bondage? I remember a particular preacher who was preaching the circuit in evangelism and finally had to leave evangelism because he was so engulfed in losing money in golf that he literally bankrupted himself. Getting to the point where he was playing for three and four hundred dollars a hole...in a golf match. There are a lot of people in this world controlled by a little round ball like that, a lot.

There are those kinds of things that inherent in them take control of us...take control of us. I watch that happen with music. Young people who are dominated by that. I watch people who are literally paralyzed if they can't home and see the next edition of the soap opera. So many things can bring us into bondage. Let's call this the principle of enslavement.

So, we ask will it bring me into bondage? Does it have the potential to make me its slave? The principle of enslavement.

Number five, this is a very practical one, will it, number five, will it hypocritically cover my sin? Will it hypocritically cover my sin? You say, "What do you mean by that, John?" Well, I mean this, am I doing it in the name of freedom when the truth of the matter is I'm really pandering my own evil? Look at 1 Peter 2:16. You know that we want to say, "Boy, I'm free in Christ, I'm free to enjoy this, and I'm free to enjoy that and I can do this, and I can do that." The truth of the matter is, you are free but you are simply covering over your lust, or your evil desire.

The man who say, "Well, I'm free to do that. I'm free to go here and see that movie. Why, I'm certainly free to do that. I have that liberty. I'm very selective." But when he goes there, he goes with the purpose in his heart of having his own evil desire pandered to by what he sees. He merely speaks of freedom as a cloak over his evil.

Look at verse 16 of 1 Peter 2, "Don't use your freedom for a cloak to cover your evil." A veil over your evil intent, be honest with yourself. Ask yourself, is this really something that benefits me spiritually, is for my spiritual profit? Is this something that builds me up? Is this something that is not unnecessary bulk but something helpful? Is this something that will not lead me into bondage? Or am I really cloaking over my evil desire? Look at your motive...look at your motive.

People say, young people say, "Well, the Bible doesn't say you shouldn't dance. David danced before the Lord." Well, I can tell you one thing, he didn't dance the kind of dance people do today. But people say, "What's wrong with dancing?" Ask yourself the question. Am I advocating dancing because I know it will build me up spiritually? Because I know it's not unnecessary bulk, it's very important to my spiritual progress and there's no way it can enslave me? Or am I desiring to do that in the name of liberty, in the name of freedom but the real motive is because of my own lustful desire? You see, I've got to get down to the motive and ask myself the real question.

You see, Galatians 5:13 says that it's a very common thing to turn liberty into...what?...license. And you have to guard that...you have to guard that. Let's call this the principle of, so we can stick with our "E" here, equivocation...e-q-u-i-v-o-c- a-t-i-o-n. That means to lie or falsify. And there are people who literally falsify their motives. "Well, I'm free to do that. I certainly am." And they're equivocating their lying, they want to cover their evil intent. The guy who says, "Hey, God made horses, I'm free to go to Santa Anita. I go out there and enjoy God's creation. Those horses just run and I say, 'Praise You, Lord, look what You've made,' while I'm dropping money all day long." And what you have there is a cloak of liberty put over the top of an evil intent, which is to gamble, which, of course, is to take the stewardship that God has given and throw it into the air at the discretion of chance.

So, we ask ourselves, will it hypocritically cover my sin? That's the principle of equivocation. Am I falsifying a true motive? Number six, now this is a very important one, will it violate the Lordship of Christ in my life? Will it violate the Lordship of Christ in my life? And for this one I need you to turn to Romans chapter 14. We spent a long time there, but this will refresh you, I think, briefly. Will it violate the Lordship of Christ in my life?

Now listen to this basic thought, all right? Grab this one...every Christian should live in submission to the Lordship of Christ. Everybody agree on that? All of us are to live in submission to the Lordship of Christ...true? Do you understand that? Then do you understand this second point, that not all of us agree 100 percent on what the Lord would have us to do? Is that right? Some people think the Lord says no to this, and other people think the Lord says that's okay. Some people think the Lord says it's a sin to do this, some people think it's okay.

Now listen, not all of us, we would know the explicit things in Scripture sure, but not all of us agree the same about what the Lord would have us do? Some people think the Lord wants you to read your Bible every morning of your life and if you don't, you've sinned against God. Some people really believe that. Some people believe if you don't go to Sunday morning, Sunday night church and Wednesday night prayer meeting, you've slipped spiritually. Other people are not bound in their conscience to do that. They can go Sunday morning, they can go Sunday night. Whether they go Wednesday night may be a matter of convenience. There are some people who want to read the Word as often as they can, but they're not bound in their conscience to read it every morning of their entire life.

There are people, you see, who sense the Lordship of Christ in different ways. Now please notice in Romans 14 verse 1, well, let's start at verse 2, "One believes he may eat all things, another who is weak eats only vegetables." You've got people who are vegetarian. They think the Lord wants them to eat only herbs, and somebody else says, "Hey, you can eat anything you want." "The one who eats, don't let him despise the one who doesn't eat. The one who doesn't eat, don't let him judge the one that eats, for God has received (both implied), who are you to judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls and he'll be held up." God's able to make him stand. "One man esteems one day above another," that is he wants to keep the sabbath...make something special out of Sunday. He's what we call a sabbatarian, or one who sets the Sunday or the sabbath aside. "Another esteems every day the same. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regards the day, wants to keep that day sacred, he does it unto the Lord. He that doesn't regard it, he does it unto the Lord, too, cause he thinks the Lord is the Lord of every day. He that eats, eats unto the Lord. He gives God thanks. He that doesn't eat, to the Lord he doesn't eat and he gives God thanks that he doesn't eat."

"Nobody lives to himself and nobody dies to himself. We live, we live to the Lord. We die, we die to the Lord. Whether we live, therefore die, we are the Lord's." In other words, whatever may be the restrictions in a Christian's life, he does them because he believes that's what the Lord wants. You got that? He believes that's what the Lord wants.

Now listen to me. As long as you believe that, then do it or don't do it. And ask yourself the question, is this something I believe the Lord would want? Is this something I believe the Lord would not want? And that's a matter of...what?...conscience. You say, "Well, what if your conscience is wrong?" Don't violate your conscience. You'll never know if your conscience is wrong because if your conscience tells you that, it's because you think it's right. You've got...conscience only reacts to the mind. And in your mind if you believe a thing is right, your conscience will stop you, or your conscience will impel you. The conscience is only a flywheel, the mind is the engine. The engine produces the action, the flywheel only engages behavior. And the conscience only takes what's in the mind, engages the flywheel, as it were, and generates behavior. If you violate your conscience, you're going to train yourself to do a very bad thing because as your mind grows to understand better what is right, when your conscience then tells you if you've trained yourself to violate your conscience, your conscience isn't going to do you any good. So don't train yourself to violate your conscience. And that's exactly what he's saying. You ask yourself the question: will this violate my understanding of the Lordship of Christ?

Some brother might come to you, and this happens all the time, and say, "You can do that. Go ahead, you can do that. You're free...you're free...you're free. Why you can do that, that's not wrong, that's perfectly all right." If it violates your conscience...what?...don't do it. Don't train yourself to ignore conscience. Paul says, "I never do anything against my conscience. I don't want to sear my conscience with scar tissue so it's insensitive." The person who keeps the sabbath, if a person wants to sit on a couch and that's his way to keep the sabbath, don't bug him about that. Don't reprimand him about that. Don't push him.

I'll never forget the most classic illustration of that my father told me. He was in Michigan on a revival. And on a Sunday night he said to the pastor after the meeting, they started off for a week of revival meeting, the pastor said, "What are you going to do tomorrow?"

And he said, "Well, I thought we'd get up in the morning and play golf. And then in the afternoon we'll do some visitation."

The pastor said, "Golf? During a revival? Aren't you committed to the work of God? Did you come here to play or to minister?" He got very eloquent.

My dad said, "A little of both." He said, "In fact, I'd like you to come and we could have some fellowship in the morning and get acquainted."

He said, "Never...never, I commit myself all week long to prayer, all week long to the revival."

And my dad said to him, "No, I'd think it would be great if you'd come. And the song leader's going to go and it would be nice if you came along."

"No, I would never do that. I would never do that."

Well, Monday morning they were at the golf course and guess who showed up? The reluctant pastor. And he said, as the story was related to me, "I'm going to do this but I know I shouldn't do it, I'm doing it out of hospitality, I know it isn't right."

Now mark this, first hole, they teed off, half way down the fairway somebody yells, "Fore..." The pastor looks up and loses two teeth. My dad said he fell down beside a tree saying, "I knew it...I knew it..." And you want to know something? If he believed gold on Monday morning during a revival was wrong before that, you can be sure he believed it was wrong after that. So all you did for that man was push him deeper into his lack of freedom, his bondage. Don't do that...don't do that. He read that as the judgment of God. And you want to know something? It well may have been. God doesn't want any man to violate his conscience. So we don't want to do things that are going to lead people to ignore the Lordship of Christ which they perceive coming through their conscience. Let's call that the principle of encroachment. That means you're encroaching on the sovereignty of Christ in the life.

If I choose to do something...let me sum that one up...if I choose to do something, it must fit within what I believe is the will of Christ my Lord, right? I don't want to violate that. I don't want to violate that. To violate that in my mind would be to take the control of my life, wouldn't it? To usurp the Lordship of Christ. I don't want to do that. That's encroaching.

Number seven, this is basic, will it help other Christians by its example? Will it help other Christians by its example? Boy, that's so important. We really do have to govern our lives by how other Christians will feel. First Corinthians 8:9, you remember this one? "Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a...what?...stumbling block to them that are weak. Somebody sees you sitting in an idol temple, shall not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat the things which are offered to idols," and so forth and so on. And then he's going to be destroyed because he followed your example. He's going to violate his conscience, wound his weak conscience. And you've sinned against him and sinned against Christ. Don't do that.

Paul says in chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, "I have a right to be paid for my ministry. I choose not to be paid. I don't want anybody offended," right? "So I set that aside." In Romans chapter 14, where we have been, from verse 13 on that's the whole thing. Don't put a stumbling block or occasion to fall in your brother's way. If your brothers grieve with your food, change your food. That's what it says. Follow after the things, verse 19, that make for peace and build each other up and don't destroy the work of God in his life because of your food. Don't eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble, be offended or made weak.

It's so important. Flying home from Charlotte, North Carolina the other night, the stewardess comes down the aisle and they're serving, I don't know, champagne breakfast, or whatever, and she said, "Would you like some champagne with your breakfast?" And I like orange juice, personally, and I've never had champagne anyway, so but, you know, just, you just kind of thought kind of enters your mind, "Wonder what that stuff tastes like?" But, of course, I said, "No, I don't want any champagne." And so the thing went down the aisle and it was a simple little thing.

And I stood up a little while later, just to kind of stretch and I was standing in the aisle and a guy about two seats back walks up and says, "I know you, you're John MacArthur." I said, "Right." He said, "Oh, it's so wonderful to meet you." He said, "I'm studying for the ministry and I get the tapes," and he went on and on with this wonderful testimony. He's from Samoa, he came to the United States and he's going to take all of our tapes to Samoa. And, you know, here was this thing and I just...you know. It just reminded me of how you may know when you're being watched and you may not know when you're being watched. And the pattern of your life is setting an example. And it's so wonderful to be able to limit your liberty and know that it will strengthen someone else. In fact, he commented that he had been watching me through the whole flight and hoping for an opportunity to speak to me. So, that was a wonderful, wonderful reminder for me of the fact that people are always watching. And my visibility is certainly more severe than yours.

But nonetheless, we have to ask ourself the question, will it help other Christians by its example? Am I doing something that sets an example for them? You know, even just little things in life, the discipline of your life, the fact that you watch your diet or your weight or you have a certain discipline time of study says volumes of people who are checking in for patterns to follow. And those little things in life can be so important.

So, do I want weaker Christians to follow my pattern? Let's call this the principle of example...of example...the principle of example.

So, what have we got? The principle of expedience, edification. What's the next one? Excess, enslavement, equivocation, encroachment, example, let's go to number eight. I love this one, will it lead others to Christ? Will it lead others to Christ?

"Let not your good be evil spoken of," the Bible warns. Will what I do lead others to Christ? Boy, that's so important. Will they see a difference in my life? Will there be something unique about my life? Let me give you a classic illustration. Turn to 1 Corinthians 10, this is so practical...1 Corinthians 10. Now it's a little bit obscure in the text, the English text, but the background is so great. Here's the picture. Now just listen for a minute, here's the picture, right? Two Christians, two Christians, one is a very strong mature Christian, we're going to look at verse 27, 28, 29, right in there, 1 Corinthians 10. The first Christian's a very mature, very strong, very liberated Christian. He can eat meat offered to idols. He knows what 1 Corinthians 8 said is true, an idol is nothing, what's the difference?

Well, you know what the process was, right? You go to worship some idol, right? Let's say you go to some great temple and you'd bring your offering which is food. And you put your offering on the altar. Well, you know as well as I do that the god is a dead god, he's a dead idol and he doesn't eat it. It just sits there. So after it sits there for a while, and hundreds and hundreds of people keep bringing the food in, the priests take it away and they keep what they want to eat. Now they can't eat it all because there's less of them than there are of people making offerings. So they run the temple butcher shop out the back door. What they don't want, they take out, sell on the street at the best price because there's no mark up for them, they got it for nothing. So you want to buy cheap meat, you buy it from the temple butcher shop. That makes sense. Your wife would shop there, so would mine.

Now the problem is this, okay, you've got a guy who's a mature Christian. He says an idol is nothing. What's the difference? I'm a steward of my money, I'm buying it there. It's good. It's healthy. It's as good as anywhere else. And I'm not going to be concerned that it was once offered to a dead idol that was nothing anyway. But, he goes out for dinner with a brand new Christian just converted out of that same idolatry. And he has all in his mind the pagan idolatry, the cultic worship, the orgies, the temple prostitutes, the whole ugly gross immoral scene. And if he was told that something he was going to eat was meat offered to that idol, it would just gag him. He couldn't do it. He's a weaker brother who doesn't understand his freedom but we understand that. He's just come out of that.

So the two of them, the strong and the weak, they have a friend in common who's an unbeliever. They want to win him to the Lord. So the friend that's unbelieving invites the two of them to dinner and they go to dinner. That's the idea of verse 27. "If any of them that believe not bid you to a meal and you be disposed to go, whatever is set before you...what?" Don't say, "Sir, sir, sir, where did you buy this? Just eat it, don't ask questions for your conscience's sake. "But if the man voluntarily says, Hey, this is bargain meat offered in sacrifice to idols." Oh brother...the guy comes out and says, "How do you like this beautiful roast? Boy, is that good. Yeah, I got it down at the temple butcher shop...what a bargain. And the weak Christian goes, "Ohhh."

The guy goes back out to get the rest of the meal, what's going to happen in the conversation? The strong Christian is in a dilemma. The weak brother says to him, "I can't eat that...I can't eat that." The strong brother says, "But if you don't eat that we'll offend the guy we're trying to evangelize." But if they go ahead and eat it and don't offend the guy they're trying to evangelize, then he will have offended his brother, cause him to stumble. So the dilemma is this, do you offend another...do you offend another brother or do you offend an unbeliever? That's the question. Do I offend a weaker Christian or do I offend a non-believer? What does it say? "If any man say to you this is offered in sacrifice to idols...what? Don't eat it for his sake that showed it and for...what? The conscience of that weaker brother."

Wait a minute...you mean when you're trying to evangelize an unbeliever you're better off to offend the unbeliever than you are your Christian brother? Yes...isn't it obvious? If you offended your Christian brother, the unbeliever would say, "It's better to be an unbeliever than to be a brother. They offend each other. They don't offend me, I'll stay where I am." See the point?

Well, when you offend that unbeliever and say, "You know, this meat offered to idols would so offend my brother that I just can't eat for his sake." That unbeliever is going to say, "Now there is a brotherly love that I would like to experience." And the attraction of your love may be the greatest testimony that you have in evangelism.

So, I'm asking myself, and there's one illustration, the question: will it lead someone else to Christ? As I restrict my freedom, am I doing it with a view to winning someone to Christ, showing him a different life, showing him something that he doesn't see in his world, a purity and an honesty and a love and an integrity? In Romans 14 it tells us that we are to be approved, we are to live lives, at the end of verse 18, that are approved by men. They say, "Boy, that's a different life." That's the principle of, here's another one, evangelism...the principle of evangelism. In doing this, is this enhancing my opportunity for evangelism?

Number nine...number nine, here's another question you ask, will it be consistent with Christ's likeness? Put it another way, would Jesus do it? Boy, that's a heavy duty one, isn't it? I've used that since I was a kid. Would Jesus do this? Would Jesus say that? Most of the time in our lives we're saying, I know Jesus wouldn't have said what I just said, or Jesus wouldn't have done what I just did. I ask myself that before, not after and prevent things that otherwise might not be prevented. Simple, would Jesus do it? Boy, that will really help you with a lot of decisions. Would Jesus do this? Would Jesus say that? Let's call that the principle of emulation. We want to emulate Christ. We want to emulate Him. First John 2:6, 1 John 2:6 says, "He that saith he abides in Him," that is in Christ, "ought himself also to walk even as He walked." If you say you belong to Christ, you ought to live like Christ lived.

So, I ask myself the question, would Christ do this? Would Jesus do this? Is this consistent with Him? With Christ's likeness? That's such a provocative question. Would Jesus do this? The principle of emulation.

Number ten, the last one, very simple, will it glorify God? Will it glorify God? And you know as well as I do that these kind of overlap. You ask yourself: will this glorify God? And the reference is 1 Corinthians 10:31, 1 Corinthians 10:31, "Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do...what's the rest?...do all to the glory of God." That's the...that's the sort of total covering principle. Will it glorify God? And let's call this the principle of exaltation.

We've been singing praise all night and so we have to go beyond that and say: is my life going to give Him glory? Will this exalt God? Will this lift up His holy name? Will this honor Him? Will this adorn the doctrine of God in my life? Will He be glorified and honored and praised as a result of this? That's the principle of exaltation.

Now are you ready for the wrap up? Did you notice something? You couldn't have missed it, all ten begin with what? Now listen...I call these the "E's" (ease) of decision making." Not bad, right? This is the "E's" of decision making. This takes something very difficult and makes it...what?...easy. You got it, very good.

Now the point is, we can make the hard decisions easy if we use these principles. Will it be profitable to me spiritually? Will it build me up? Will it slow me down in the race? Will it bring me to bondage? Will it be simply a covering for my sin? Will it replace the Lordship of Christ in my life? Will it set a helpful example for others? Will it lead others to Christ? Will it be like Christ? And will it...what's the last one? Glorify God? Does that help? Let's bow together in prayer.

Father, we thank You for the principles that govern our behavior. And that You have not only given us the principles but You've given us the living Holy Spirit to activate these principles that we might do the things that please You. Lord, help us to have wisdom to make right decisions and to know that right decisions are based upon these principles. Let us experience the application of these truths in our own life. And we thank You for what You mean to us, for what You've provided us in Your Word and through Your Spirit, for Christ's sake...amen.