Ron Dunn Podcast - The Christian Life

Episode Date: January 20, 2016

Pastor Ron Dunn preaches a message from Galatians chapter 3. In this message he helps us understand the basis of our faith and what the christian life looks like at its core.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. Out of chapter 3, let's see, we'll read the first five verses. Galatians chapter 3, verses 1 through 5. O you foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish after having begun with the Spirit? Are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much or experienced so much for nothing? All this experience that you've had, does it mean nothing to you? Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you

because you observe the law or because you believe what you've heard? Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Who has hypnotized you? Who has cast an evil eye upon you? I remember a number of years ago, I've always had a sleeping problem, a sleeping disorder, and still to this day. But I remember a number of years ago while I was pastor in Irving,

it got so bad that I wasn't getting any sleep at all. And so finally I went to the doctor. Somebody suggested there might be something physically wrong that was causing me to not be able to sleep. And so I went to the doctor. Somebody suggested there might be something physically wrong that was causing me to not be able to sleep. And so I went to the doctor, and he gave me all tests. And after he'd run those tests, he told me to come back the next week. And so I was back the next week, and I was sitting in his office, and he came in with a handful of charts. And he said, well, preacher, I don't find anything, anything organically, anything wrong with you that is causing your sleeplessness. And then, of course, he was a

jokester too. He said, and I have determined that you're not overweight. He said, you're just too short. By my statistics, you ought to be seven feet, three inches tall and which I was glad to know because it's easier to shrink than it is To reduce but anyway, he said I said I don't know what's causing you to be unable to sleep And he said I don't like to give sleeping pills I just don't like to do that what I would like to do is to teach you self hypnosis Where you could put yourself to sleep and you would wake up without any drug hangover. Well, I immediately had a reservation about this hypnosis business because when I think about hypnosis, I think about some nightclub magician making you look like a dog or meow

like a cat or something. And I said, I don't know about that. He said, oh, listen, he said, it's the most natural thing in all the world, and all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, and he said, it's the most natural thing in the world. So I said, okay, I'll give it a shot, and he said, well, it'll take about six weeks, and you come in once a week for six weeks, and I'm going to teach you self-hypnosis. So I did, and I was really disappointed. Not because it didn't work. It did work to a certain extent, but because it was so simple.

I thought I was going to be initiated into some deep, dark mystery where I could get people to do things I wanted them to do and everything. And it's so simple. I mean, self-hypnosis is just so simple. All you do really is, he would say, now you fashion your eyes on an object. You lay in bed and fashion your eyes on a grease spot on the wall or a dead fly caught in the screen. And you just start telling yourself, I'm sleepy. I'm sleepy. I am I am really sleepy oh I'm getting so

sleepy and you put your mind off of everything else you just focus on that dead fly and you keep saying to yourself I'm getting sleepy the longer I lay here my eyelids I just can't even I'm getting sleep as a matter of fact I just can't keep my eyelids I'm going to count to five, and when I get to five, I'll be in a deep sleep. And you know, what I discovered was that hypnosis is simply talking yourself into believing something. It's simply a matter of mind over mattress. That's all it is, you see. But key is that you have to get your eyes off of everything else and fasten them on some other object or you cannot be bewitched.

You cannot be hypnotized. And so Paul is writing to these Galatians and he's not speaking of them very kindly. Our translation reads, Oh, foolish Galatians. Well, that's putting it mild. I like the Phillips translation where it says, You dear idiots. Another translation said, you stupid Galatians. In other words, he's saying

to them, I cannot believe just how dense, how stupid you are. My dear idiots, who has cast an evil eye on you that you should believe a lie, you see. And so what he's saying is that somebody caught their eye. Something else caught their eye. They had to take their eyes off of something else in order to be hypnotized into this false belief. And he said, you've been bewitched. You've been hypnotized into believing a wrong truth.

Now, I think we need to understand what was the nature of this bewitching what was it that they had been bewitched into believing you'll find it in verse 3 he says are you so foolish after beginning with the spirit are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? That's where they've been bewitched. Believing that even though they had begun in the Spirit and had a genuine act of salvation, yet now they were to complete that salvation, they were to bring it to fulfillment and maturity

by human effort, by keeping the law and by keeping laws. Now, as I said this morning, more than likely these false teachers were Jewish Christians, Jews who had become Christians, and yet they were so bound to the old tradition of Moses that they just couldn't let go. And so they were saying it's Christ plus Moses.

It's grace plus the law. It's faith plus circumcision. And you need to worship certain days and honor certain feasts and it's by this way that you will bring to fulfillment all the salvation that God has purchased for you. And so here are these Galatians who started well. They started well, but somebody came in immediately, and what they said, of course, pandered to the flesh, because even though we're saved, there's something about human nature that

sort of likes to take credit for what we're doing. We sort of like to be able to say, I'm doing something. I'm doing something. I'm contributing something. And so they said, it's not enough just to have Christ. It's not enough just to believe in him and to believe that message. You've got to be like Abraham who was circumcised and you've got to follow the law of Moses. In other words, he's saying we grow in the maturity, we overcome the works of the flesh, we overcome the temptations of the world by our human endeavors, by trying. Now, it's interesting to trace the use of the word law in the book of Galatians. Sometimes the word law in the Greek will have a definite article before it,

and he's referring there to the law, the law of Moses. The Ten Commandments are the broader law of Moses. But many times when he refers to law, there is no definite article there. He's referring to any system of rules and regulations. And you think by keeping these rules and regulations or by keeping these practices, then you're going to become spiritual.

Now, I thank God for the church that I was brought up in. I thank God for my pastor who imparted to me more of what it meant to be a minister than anybody else. But my pastor was a legalist. I was brought up in a fundamentalist, legalistic background. And our spirituality was judged more on by what we did not do than what we did do. We were preached at more about going to movies

or watching television or dancing or playing cards or something like that than we were about the positive truths of the gospel. And so we had kind of a rule book religion and that if you follow these rules and so we had kind of a rule book religion, and that if you follow these rules, and you follow these regulations, and you follow this legalistic form,

that's what is going to fill out what is missing, you see, in your salvation. The truth of the matter is that when we're saved, it all hasn't happened to us yet, has it? We're just babes in Christ. And there's to be growth. There's to be maturity. And these old lives of the flesh are like cats. They have nine lives.

And the devil keeps trying to assert himself and assert himself. And we keep feeling the same temptations. Well, how are we going to overcome these temptations? How are we going to become the spiritual and mature person that we want to be? Somebody comes along and says, well, here it is.

Here are the ten things you need to do. And if you'll do these, and here are ten things you better not do. If you don't do these, and if you'll follow this rules and regulations, then, he said, you will mature, and you will become spiritual. That's legalism.

And I want to tell you something. Legalism has done more to hurt the cause of Christ than just about anything else. We are legalistic by nature. We like prohibitions, and we like boundaries. Give us something to do. Give us something to do so that we can enhance our growth. Now, don't get me wrong.

I'm not preaching a positive Christianity, passive Christianity. There are many things we do and there are things that we ought not to do. But I want to tell you something. You are not made spiritual by that. You know, it's interesting. I've seen a lot of churches split, and I've been involved in them. You know, it wasn't me. I was innocent bystander, but anyway. Have any of you ever been in that situation? Let me ask you something.

Who was it that, who were the instigators of the dissension and the disharmony that led to a split? Who was it? Well, it wasn't your Sunday morning glories that come only on Sunday morning. It wasn't your Easter lilies that bloom only one Sunday a year you know who it was it was the most faithful people in your church

deacons and Sunday school teachers and staff members and everything else who are busy busy busy doing this people who have become too spiritual for the present situation i have run into that you know i'm just too spiritual and long and sit under my pastor and they're used to all the trouble we had when i was growing up in the ministry just disgruntled cantankerous old backslidden deacons now we've got that but we now we've got these super saints who've been to the

seminars and had the experiences and got all the notebooks and the tapes and everything, and they suddenly become legalistic and say, well, we went to this seminar, and this is the way you're supposed to do it, and this is the way you're supposed to do it. And if I somehow can make some rules and regulations my practice and be devoted to those things, I'm going to grow. Listen, if working and

serving and being active and keeping rules and regulations makes you spiritual and mature, then why is it those people are always the instigators of church splits and disarmament? The fact of the matter is that won't make you spiritual. That won't make you mature. But many of us, like the Galatians, have been bewitched into believing that having begun in the Spirit, oh, Baptist man, we're saved by grace. There's no doubt about that.

Of course, we grow by works. That's the way we say it. I don't say it, but that's the way we live. And so Paul says this is the point of your bewitching. You who began with the Spirit are now trying to attain your goal by human effort. Now, I said a moment ago that in order to be hypnotized, in order to be bewitched you had to take

your eyes off something else and put them on this other object there are three things in this passage that Paul tells us the Galatians took their eyes off of and anytime you and I take our eyes off these things, we become subject to legalistic maneuvers, and we try to perfect ourselves by human effort. What's the first thing? The first thing is that Christians have a tendency to take their eyes off of the manifestation of the cross, off of the manifestation of the cross.

Off of the manifestation of the cross. They stop focusing on that cross. Now, notice how Paul puts it. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? And in the Greek text, the word you, Y-O-U, is in the emphatic position. In other words, he said, I can understand some people being bewitched, but I don't understand you in particularly being bewitched. Why? Why, he said, I can understand some people being bewitched, but I don't understand

you in particularly being bewitched. Why? Why did he say that? Because before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. In other words, he said, when I was with you, it was as though I erected a billboard and I painted Christ and His cross on that so nobody could miss it. That was my primary message. That was my primary theme. It was publicly displayed before you like a public billboard. It was manifested before you so you couldn't miss it.

I am surprised that you who have had this public display of the manifestation of the cross are so soon to forget about it, you see. They took their eyes off of the manifestation of the cross. Well, what does the cross say to us? Well, you see, the cross says that God did everything that was necessary for our whole spiritual health by the death of Jesus on the cross.

Do you believe that? Isn't that true? That the gospel is that Christ, by his death on the cross, did everything that was essential to not only save us, but to mature us and bring us into the heavenly realms. Now, when you take your eyes off of that complete,

totally finished work of the cross, then you're going to be looking for something else, you see, to patch out your life, something else to make your life seem powerful. It's hard for us just to sit back and say everything that needed to be done for my spiritual welfare was accomplished by Christ 2,000 years ago. You know, we use this phrase of winning the victory, and I'm not going to try to get people to stop that because, you know, they say, well, I've got to go out here and win the victory. I've got to go out here and win the victory over the world, flesh and the devil. Well, the reason you're having such a hard time doing

that is you're trying to win a war that's already been won. I want to tell you every temptation you face tomorrow will have been conquered by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago on the cross. It's all been done. When he said it's finished, he didn't say I'm finished. He said it is finished. What did he mean? He meant everything that is necessary to bring man back into the right relationship to God, it has been accomplished by my death on the cross.

So the first thing is that the cross tells me that everything that needs to be done for me spiritually has already been done by Christ's death on the cross. But it also tells me that not only is that a fact of history, but it is also a practice of life. For instance, go back to chapter 2 and look at verse 17. He says, if while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners. Does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I'm a lawbreaker. For through the law, I died to the law, so that I live with God. Folks, living with God and living according to some system of rules and laws are totally contrary one to the other. You cannot serve human effort, self-effort. You cannot serve

laws and rules and regulations and at the same time serve God. You just can't do it. They're totally opposite. So he says in verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me and the life that I live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God,

for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. My dear friends, if righteousness, if I could attain right standing and if I could obtain the favor of God through anything else other than what Christ did on the cross, then Christ died for nothing, and I make the grace of God of no effect. Now, not only did Christ die on the cross, and by dying on the cross supply everything we needed to make us spiritually right with God, but that cross is to become a pattern for our life. I have been crucified with Christ.

I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet it's not really me that's living. It's Christ who lives in me. He's the one who does the living. He's the one who lives the Christian life. He's the one who conquers the flesh. He's the one who overcomes the devil and the world. It is Christ living in me. I have been crucified with Christ. Now, I think a greater picture of what this means is found in chapter 6. Let's see. Look, verse 14. God forbid that I should boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, watch it. Through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. There's a double crucifixion there. You see, the cross gives us a new life, makes us a new creation. That's the only thing that's important, Paul says.

But it also gives us a new lifestyle. By whom the world has been crucified unto me and I unto the world. Now, what does he mean by that? He says, first of all, the world has been crucified unto me and I unto the world now what does he mean by that he says first of all the world has been crucified unto me as far as I'm concerned the world is dead when I identify myself with Christ in his death I take up my position and say Lord Jesus just as you died on the cross so I also die with you I died of this world just as you died to this world, and you became beyond this world in the grip of a holy and righteous Father. And just as I take my place in identifying myself with Christ,

being crucified, I am crucified, then, he says, the world for me no longer exists. He said, but it does exist. Yes, it does exist as a reality, but not as a force in our lives. How am I going to overcome the world? You know, I did a lot of useless preaching in my time. Some of you may think I'm still doing it,

but I've done a lot of useless preaching. You know, I was brought up, as as I said in a legalistic atmosphere and I believe that every sermon you ought to have to be it be against something I mean you're pussy putting if you're not against something I mean you had to be against something preach against something remember I used to have a sermon called getting your hair cut in the devil's barber shop that was you tonight and you know who I'm talking about about Samson and Delilah and I talk about the sins of youth as if they were any different from the sins of anybody else but I thought about the sins of you and here's the invitation I would give.

All of you tonight who will commit your life to a life of purity and you won't go out and park on the side of the road and get in the back seat and you won't dance and you won't drink and you won't smoke and you're going to live a life of purity. I want all you young people to come down here and take a stand at the front. Well, they're all going to come.

I mean, you know, if they stand back there, the moms and dads are going to say, what have you been doing out there? You know, I mean, they have no choice but to come. And boy, we'd go away with joy and say, man, we had 150 young people come to commit their lives, commit their lives to holy living. That lasted as long,

well, that lasted until the next invitation to go to a dance. That lasted until the next temptation period. Friends, you don't overcome those things and bring yourself to perfection and victory by taking a stand at an altar and saying, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do this, and I'm not going to do this, I'm not going to do this. Now, that comes later on as a byproduct.

What you do is you take your stand with the crucified Savior. I've been crucified with Christ, therefore I cannot live in this world any longer. But Paul said not only that, but I've been crucified to the world. He says as far as I'm concerned, the world no longer exists. As far as the world is concerned,

I no longer exist. And do you know something? One of the problems with manyians today is they're trying to make an impression on the world i have news for you friend you're not going to impress the world as far as the world is concerned when you take your stand with christ crucified you are no longer any importance to them i don't know if you've read stephen carter's book on culture of disbelief. It's a great book, and he talks about how the legal and political system in our country is doing away with the power of religion.

And he makes, I can't quote him exactly, but he makes a statement like this, who said it's all right to be against homosexuality unless you have biblical reasons for doing it. It's all right to be against abortion unless you have biblical reasons for doing it. It's all right to be against abortion unless you have biblical reasons for it. And you may say, I'm against abortion because the Bible says, at that moment they cut you off.

They say, you have nothing to say to us. You say, I'm against homosexuality because the Bible says, oh, the minute you quote the Bible, son, you're done for. They're not going to listen to you. As far as the world is concerned, this book is a book of folly and of ancient puritanical laws that no longer apply. And the minute you take your stand by this book

and say, I take my stand in the cross of Christ, the world just laughs at you. As far as the world is concerned, you're dead. And see what one of our problems is today is that that some of the old mainline denominations some of the old churches that grew up you know as a slaves religion actually and it was a poor man's religion and a country man's religion but we got to be wanting to be sophisticated and acknowledged by the world and so we

begin to shave off some of the truths of the gospel or just be silent about the wine, because we want to please the world. We want the world to recognize that we exist. Friend, I tell you, the minute you identify yourself with Christ and the cross, as far as the world is concerned, you don't have a thing to say to them. Just keep your Bible to yourself. Keep your faith to yourself. It's all right to have convictions

as long as they're not religious convictions. So the first thing that happens is a Christian takes his eyes off the manifestation of the cross. Secondly, we forget the ministry of the Spirit. We forget the ministry of the Spirit. Go back to chapter 3 again. And he says, now I like this,

he said, let me just ask you one question. Let me just ask you one question. How were you saved? You know, that's a good question to ask a person. How were you saved? Well, he says, I would like to learn just one thing from you. Did you receive the Spirit by observing laws, regulations, or by believing what you heard?

Well, the answer is obvious. We receive the Spirit, the ministry of the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit within us, not by keeping laws, not by keeping rules and regulations. The Spirit was not given to us as an award for reaching a certain spiritual landmark. It was given to us simply because we believed. That's it.

Just because you believed. That's it. Just because you believed. And it is the Holy Spirit who takes the work of the cross. You see, it's one thing for me to stand up in here and say, I am crucified with Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit, the minister of the Holy Spirit that makes that real in your life. You see. So we don Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, that makes that real in your life, you see.

So we don't trust the ministry of the Holy Spirit any longer, so we have to add our own efforts and our own legal system to make it feel like there's some power behind our affirmation of faith, our confession of faith. And we take our eyes off the ministry of the Spirit, not trusting the Holy Spirit to do that for us, which only Jesus could do, and that he's here to take the cross and all that it means

and make it applicable to our lives. Well, that leads me to the third thing, and it's just about time. When we take our eyes off the manifestation of the cross, when we forget the ministry of the Spirit, and when we ignore the message of faith. The message of faith. Now, I hope the Lord will help us understand. Does God give you his spirit and

work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard? Consider Abraham. Now, I like Paul here. He's not afraid. You see, what these false teachers have been throwing in Paul's face is Abraham. They say, well, Abraham was circumcised. Abraham kept the law. Abraham did all that stuff.

So you've got to do it too. And Paul says, you want to talk about Abraham? All right, let's talk about Abraham. Consider Abraham. He believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. That's what the Scripture says. God did not write down righteousness on his side of the letter because he was circumcised or because he did anything else,

but simply because he believed God. And that brought him into right standing. And so he says, understand then that those who believe are the children of Abraham. The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Now, listen to what he says in verse 11. Clearly, no one is justified before God by the law. And here he's not talking about the Mosaic law or the Ten Commandments. He's talking about any system of works and efforts. No man is justified by that. Rather, he says, the righteous, the just,

will live by faith. The law is not based on faith. The righteous shall live by faith. What is the message of faith? What is the message of faith? The message of faith is that those who have been made righteous, those who have been made just, have not only been made righteous by faith,

but they live their lives by faith. They live by faith. Now, God says that four times in the Scripture, Habakkuk, Romans, Hebrews, and Galatians. Now, I get the feeling if God tells me the same thing four times in the same book he's trying to tell me something and what he's trying to tell me is the just shall live by faith not just saved or brought into justification by faith but that our life ever after that is a life of faith is a life of faith the just shall live faith. If you go back to Habakkuk, of

course Habakkuk there is complaining because the Chaldeans are going to come and the country's going to be swept away. And Habakkuk said, what's going to happen to us? What's going to happen to us? And one translation reads like this, the just will survive by faith. He's saying, Habakkuk, you're going to survive all this. You'll survive all the judgments. You'll survive all of the terrors. You'll survive all this, but you'll do it by faith, not by raising up an army, not by arming yourself, but you'll do it by faith. By the way, the Qumran text that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was also a commentary, Qumran text that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls there was also a commentary Qumran commentary on the book of Habakkuk and in that commentary when it says the just shall live by his faith the word

his is capitalized they weren't they meant the just shall live by God's faith not my puny little efforts to believe, but by God's faith. Well, what did God have faith in? He had faith in his Son and the sacrifice of the cross. Now, now, you live by faith. You survive by faith. You survive by faith,

by believing God. I have a problem. I have a problem that is repeatedly defeating me. I desperately want to overcome that problem not a besetting maybe of a setting sin I definitely need to overcome that now I tell you my first inclination and I would imagine yours is always to figure out some way that I can overcome that temptation. Some way, maybe by the power of positive thinking, that some way how I can get victory over that. And you're doomed to defeat when you do that.

Do you know how you become victorious over that is by trust that God through Christ and His Holy Spirit will give you victory over that now you understand what I'm saying I don't even know if I fully understand I just know this that many of us really don't even know if I fully understand. I just know this, that many of us really don't understand what the gospel really means. The gospel means that everything that is necessary to our salvation and our spiritual welfare was accomplished by Christ when he died on the cross, and it is applied to us by the Holy Spirit,

and we appropriate it by faith, not by works, not by laws, not by rules and regulations. But we do it by believing God. And in believing God, it is counted to us as righteousness. Now, by the way, if you study carefully the book of Galatians,

you're going to find these three themes occurring again and again, the cross, the spirit, and faith. The cross, the spirit, and faith. Oh, foolish Galatians. Somebody has bewitched you into believing that if you try real

hard and do your best and be sincere and get the rules and regulations down right, you can become a victorious Christian. Oh, foolish Galatians. He said, no. The way of victory in the Christian life

is by recognizing that Jesus did everything that needed to be done. You don't need to add anything to it, friend. All you need to do is add your faith to it. That's all you need to do. Add your faith to it. Lord, I'm trusting you. I believe you will overcome this problem.

I'm trusting you for this besetting sin. I'm trusting you to overcome this temptation it is appropriating all the victory that Christ won for us by just and the minute we take our eyes off that. We're going to be running after this new doctrine, this new saying, this new teacher, this new way of... I have to admit I'm a traditionalist. I believe in the gospel of Christ, the cross, the work of the Holy Spirit,

and the appropriating power of faith. More than anything else, I do not need to learn how to do push-ups quoting Scripture. More than anything else, I need to learn how to trust God, to make real in my life what Christ has already paid for and made available to me. Would you bow your heads with me now for a moment? While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, let's ask God to speak deeply within our hearts.

Some are already coming to this altar. Father, I pray, trust Him that the simple clarity of this message will just break over the heart of every one of us here. Lord, I pray that there be people set free tonight, people who have struggled long and struggled hard, believing that by the works of the flesh they could please you. In fact, maybe please you so much that they would even go to heaven one day.

Father, I pray that you'd set us all free from believing that it's through any energy of the flesh that we're going to gain any kind of spiritual maturity or that we're going to gain salvation, that there's a work of your Spirit and it comes through faith. Father, open our hearts to this this evening, I pray in Jesus' name. While your head is bowed,

while your eyes are closed let me tell you unless I am sadly mistaken there are some people here this evening who are counting on something you have done to get you into heaven if somebody just stood you up against the wall and said I just tell the truth what is the ground of your confidence? You'd say, well, I was baptized, or I joined the church, or I did this, or I said these words, or I've tried to do good and tried to steer clear of doing bad,

and I just think that because I'm doing the best I know to do, God's just taken me to heaven. Scripture and the preacher tonight of the inspire inspiration the Holy Spirit explodes that idea says it's a myth it must be Jesus and Jesus alone and so the invitation tonight first and foremost is for any person here would say look I give up trying to get to heaven to gain God's favor by any energy this this flesh, I'm a sinner. I admit it.

I want to repent of it and just trust, just believe in Jesus alone this evening. And if that's the experience that has not been yours and you've been laboring, you have just, you just thought there's surely something I can do and God's just shown you. No, Jesus did it. And your heart's desire tonight is to receive Christ by faith as your Savior. You may be a member of this church or some other church. You may be a faithful, dedicated servant in church. But tonight you see it is not by any of these works

that I'm going to convince God I'm good enough, but I must trust in Jesus of Jesus alone and you want to make a decision of faith this evening I want to encourage you in a few moments when we stand together and when I praise singers lead us in this wonderful invitation to him softly tenderly Jesus is calling calling sinner come home and you'd say look tonight I want to come to the truth I want to come home I want to come right where, look, tonight I want to come to the truth. I want to come home. I want to come right where I ought to be. I want to come to Christ as my Savior and the Lord of my life.

I want to urge you to come to this altar. Counsellors will be down here at the front. Our prayer warriors will be coming. I'm going to ask those who've made decisions in other earlier service, perhaps this morning's worship service, and we have not introduced you yet, I'm going to ask you to come. You'll be seated over here to your right where it says seating for new members.

This is your invitation to say, yes, I want to trust in Jesus. And maybe that's what you just need to say to a counselor. Look, I want to trust Christ. I want to believe in Christ tonight. It's my decision. Well, I would urge you to make that decision tonight. The Lord's speaking to your heart about becoming a part of this church family.

What a wonderful, wonderful, loving expression on the part of the Lord that is. And I would encourage you to come. Find one of these counselors and say, look, we're coming. I'm coming to become a part of this church. Just love what God's speaking to my heart. I want to be a part of this. And so we're coming. I'm coming tonight to do that. And I would urge you to slip out to an aisle, make your way forward and find a counselor. Just tell them, look, I want to join the church. I want to join this church. Well, I would urge you to do that.

Could be God's calling you into some kind of ministry. Maybe you want to slip to the altar, as some already have, and just kneel and pray and say, Lord, you know the burden on my heart. It could be tonight at this altar you would want to repent of believing in your heart that Jesus and his work on the cross is just not quite enough,

that somehow, someway, it had to be mixed with your wonderful activity to make it sufficient to get to heaven. You just want to repent of that here at this altar and say yes to Jesus. I would urge you to make that decision for him tonight. So prayer warriors will be coming counselors will be coming those who've made decisions and other services will be coming those of you want to trust Christ tonight will be coming those who want to join this church

tonight will be coming those who have burdens in your heart you want to just release them to God at this altar you'll be coming to kneel at this altar your invitation to say yes to Jesus what a wonderful moment this will be as you come to open your heart to what God has for you your life will never be the same ever be the same heads are bowed, eyes are closed let's just stand together

Father in heaven how I praise your holy name for the beautiful simplicity of the gospel that makes it truly good news that what we cannot do you have done what we're unable to accomplish you have already accomplished on the cross of calvary and it is ours to receive by faith oh lord bring to this altar those who say yes to you tonight i pray in jesus wonderful matchless name amen let's sing together folks already coming you just make your way that's it

god bless you you just joined these Folks already coming, you just make your way. That's it. God bless you. You just join these who are coming. Dear God, good night. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.