"Christian Freedom Part 1" Kathryn Kuhlman 1 Corinthians Series Part 10

Each morning when I wake I say, I place my hand in God's today. I know he'll walk close by my side, my every wandering step to guide. He leads me with the tenderest care when paths are dark and I despair. No need for me to understand if I but hold fast. to his hand. My hand in his. No surer way to walk in safety through each day. And by his great bounty I am fed, warmed by his love and comforted. And when a day's end, I seek my rest and realize how much I'm blessed. My thanks pour out to him, and then I place my hand in God's again. This ministry is based upon the word of God. That's the reason we have no fanaticism. It's when one gets away from thus saith the Lord that we get into fanaticism. But you see, Power isn't noise, and noise isn't power. Oh, sure. I still remember those old Model T Fords. Somebody said, look out, Miss Coob, and you're going to give your age away. Well, now, confess yourself. You remember those. boards, how noisy they used to be. Papa had one. And I can tell you the very hill that we had to climb going to Aunt Belle's house. Oh, the thing went great. It almost purred when you were on level ground. But say that one hill that we had to climb before we got to Elma, Missouri. thing was the noisiest thing you ever heard in your life. Oh my goodness a life. If noise was power, that thing was the most powerful thing in the state of Missouri. But then there came the day when Papa bought a V -Lay. You say now, Miss Kuhlman, oh, well, I'll tell you exactly how old I was. I wasn't going to school yet, so I'm not as old as you think that I am. But any little girl would remember in those days when their papa bought a V -Lay. It was like a Rolls Royce today. Oh, but that thing was smooth. That thing really purred, let me tell ya. Why? Because it had power. Mm -hmm. Noise isn't necessarily power. You see, we get off into... that which is not of the Spirit, when we deviate from the Word of God. And as long as you and I will stay with the Word of God, turning neither to the right nor to the left, but staying right with God's Word, we'll never get off into fanaticism. No matter how great is the manifestation of God's power, we will never get off into fanaticism, and the enemy will never be able to make a religious fanatic, a religious nut, out of us. Remember, that's the truth. Well, sir, all right. Now, I want you to turn, if you will please, to the 6th chapter of 1 Corinthians. There's a verse there that I pray the Holy Spirit will make very clear to your understanding. It's something that is needed today. It's Paul speaking. That 12th verse. things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. He repeats, all things are lawful for me. It must be something most important because he repeats it twice, and this isn't like Paul at all. He continues, But I will not be brought under the power of any. Oh, there's dynamite in that twelfth verse. That's the twelfth verse of the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians. And before I get through with this little heart -to -heart talk, don't get angry with me. This is God's Word. I didn't say it. These are not my words. And not one of us dare take issue with the Word of God. Now, we must never take just one verse of Scripture out of its setting. Let's get the full continuity of the whole thing, that which precedes and then that which follows. Stay with me. If I don't get through today, stay with me for the next broadcast because we're going to see this thing through because you may need it. I need it. The church needs it. Paul is still dealing with immorality. Now remember something. These people to whom Paul is writing constituted the church of God. And you will find that the spirit of the city had gotten into the church. And that's exactly where all the trouble began. The church's business is not to catch the spirit of the age, but to correct it. We are never. As members of the body of Christ, as his church, try to capture the spirit of the age and bring it into the church. No, ma 'am. That's exactly where we are today. The night is dark. Men and women are hungry for the spiritual. They're hungry for reality. They're hungry for something that satisfies. Something that will give them peace of mind and peace of soul. They want a foundation. They want something that's tangible. Something that is practical. They're hungry for God. They're sick and tired of the sham and the tinsel, the veneer. And that's all that the spirit of the world is. It's nothing more or less than veneer. It's a sham. Let's face it. The ordinary man, the ordinary woman lives a very shallow life. and is a very shallow person. Take the average person. Take the person above average. Take the woman who's at the very peak of society. Talk with that woman for one full hour and you'll find out what an the life she really lives. You'll find out how dissatisfied, how cruelly unhappy she is on the inside. It's such a veneered thing. And it's stuff like that. They're hungry for God. They want something that's substantial. And so, in their hunger, they turn to the church. What does the average church have to offer? Very little. Why? Because they have tried to catch the spirit of the age. And in trying to catch the spirit of the age, they have lost their vision of the Holy Spirit. And they stand helpless. They stand without the power of God. While the world stands challenging the church, The church has very little to offer because they have compromised and compromised and compromised with the world. Until we've gotten to the place that the average church is nothing more or less than a wonderful sociable club. is a man delivered from liquor. Rarely does a sinner come walking down the aisle, kneeling at the place of prayer, and crying out, Lord, forgive me. I'm a sinner. I need salvation. I need that born -again experience. I need regeneration. We need to get back again where the church will find its original purpose. where men and women find God. Now, let's pause a minute. Just preceding this 12th verse, Paul is saying, sure, you will find that in the unregenerated man and woman. There's fornication. There's adultery. You'll find thievery. There's covetousness, drunkards, extortioners. He lists them all. But he says, these folk shall not inherit the kingdom of God. They've never been born again. They are the unregenerated. But he continues. You too committed these sins before you were regenerated. But now, he says, ye are washed. You're sanctified. You're justified in the name of Lord Jesus. and by the Spirit of our God. Therefore, you no longer do these things. You are a new creature in Christ Jesus. I want you to see something. This thing of regeneration, this thing of being born again, call it anything that you wish, it is a Definite experience. There's a definite time. It is a definite experience. When literally the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth you. The Bible says you are a new creature in Christ Jesus. You are a new person. The thing... that you once loved you now hate. A changed personality. It's like that. This is the word of God. All the things having passed away and behold all things having become new. The world doesn't change just because you have been regenerated. No. You go right back home. It's the same kitchen. It's the same old washer that has caused you so much trouble. Below these many years, it's the same house. You go back to the same husband. who is in the same condition he was before you were regenerated. The neighbors haven't moved out. You've got the same neighbors. Everything is the same. It's the same world. Only you are the person that has changed. But from that moment of your regeneration, being a new person in Christ Jesus, you are... In the world. But not of the world. You still have to pay your rent. You still have to pay your taxes. You still have to eat. But, beloved, you have a new nature. Something else happens. At that time of your regeneration, The power of sin is broken in that life of yours. This is that wonderful liberty that Paul is talking about. I am laying the groundwork now for one of the most important truths in the Word of God. This is the foundation. Therefore, you must get everything that I say or you will not be able to understand it when I go. deeper in giving you the explanation to this 12th verse, where Paul says, all things are lawful unto me. That has great and deep meaning. Before you were regenerated, you were under bondage to Satan, to sin. Every person in the world at this very moment, who has not had that experience of being born again, is under bondage. You're a slave to Satan. Oh, you say, Miss Cooman, I'm the most independent person in the whole world. I am absolutely independent. Not. If you are unregenerated, is the reason that a man, knowing that he's losing his family, is costing his home, is costing his business, and yet he cannot break that power of liquor, that desire for liquor, that craving that he has for liquor. He cannot. He is absolutely sincere. When he comes into the presence of his wife and he cries and he cries and he begs for her forgiveness, he's sincere when he says, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. I'll never do it again. If you'll just please forgive me this time. Oh, some of you women, you've heard it a thousand times until you're so sick of hearing it. Never doubt. his sincerity. But he's under bondage. He is a slave to the power of sin. And every man and every woman who is not a Christian is a slave to Satan. The things they do not want to do, they know are wrong yet. They are powerless in breaking from that bondage. Satan is your master. You can argue this thing from now to doomsday. Your own life proves it. And the only power that will set you free is the power of the Son of the Living God. That's the... Only power. You do not become a free person, a free man. You are never loosed from this bondage until you are loosed by the power of the Son of the Living God. There is only liberty in Christ Jesus. The only person in the whole universe. who has real liberty, complete freedom, who is set free from the bondage of Satan, the bondage of sin, and the master of Satan, is that one who has been set free through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Paul reminds them, I'm free. All things are lawful unto me. Did he stop there? No. I shall continue in our next heart -to -heart talk. God bless you.