"The Believer's Judgment For Sin: Part 2" Kathryn Kuhlman Fleshly Temptations

Well, we are now in a brand new series of Heart to Heart Talks regarding judgments. And as I told you in our last talk together, that it's the common opinion that the millennium is to be ushered in by the preaching of the gospel and that after the millennium, general resurrection followed by a general judgment. But, beloved, that is not Scripture. There will be no general resurrection, neither will there be a general judgment. In a previous series of messages, we saw that There will be a resurrection of the bodies of those who died in the Lord, separate and apart from the resurrection of the bodies of the wicked. In exactly the same way, there will not be a general judgment, but the Bible speaks of five judgments. judgments and they differ in five general aspects. They differ in subjects. They differ in time. They differ as to the place. They differ in the basis of the judgment and also in the result. Now then, I left you as we were talking regarding the first judgment. And I closed with that marvelous scripture given by the master himself when he said, Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Therefore, we see that that one who has been born again, that one who has accepted Christ as his Savior, has everlasting life at this hour. After death, to have life everlasting. Often I think that we think of life everlasting after the spirit and soul has left the body. We think of life everlasting after the heart has taken its last beat. After death has come. No, beloved. Now, this moment, you and I have life everlasting. And Jesus himself said, we shall not come into condemnation. Or in other words, we shall not come into judgment. For we have passed from death unto life. Therefore, we see from this scripture that the believer's judgment for sin is passed. It was settled at the cross. You and I will not have to come into judgment for our past sins. We will not come into judgment for the sins that are now covered with the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Oh, I wish somehow God would open our eyes of understanding to know what salvation really means. If only you as a Christian could fully... understand, could fully comprehend what it means to really accept Christ as one Savior, to know that your sins are forgiven. We speak of it so very lightly sometimes when we talk about our sins having been forgiven. Do you realize that when a sinner comes and accepts Jesus as his Savior, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth him from all sin and no matter what the past has been. He may have committed every sin in the catalog. He may have broken every commandment. Regardless of what his past has been, in that moment it blotted out. Buried in a sea of God's forgetfulness. To be remembered against that one no longer. That's what salvation means. That's what it means to be born again. That's what it means to be regenerated. Oh, doesn't that do something to you? Think of it. You're sitting there. You and I are talking this thing over. You're one of God's precious children. You're a Christian. a member of his body, one of the living stones of the temple. Born again, do you realize that no matter what your past has been, when you accept Christ, that past is covered with the blood? And none of those sins of your past will ever stand before you again in any judgment. They're forgiven. Absolutely forgiven. Oh, I know how often we do things in our life for which we're very ashamed of. And we... Go to the folk and we tell them we're sorry and we apologize. And yep, somebody is sure to bring up our past. That nagging wife is sure to bring up the husband's fault and say to him, you remember, I know. I know you're wonderful to me now, but oh, what I went through with you in the past. Sure. God doesn't do that. No, the Lord doesn't do that. When you confess your sins to him, he forgives. He doesn't keep holding your past over you and keep reminding you. It's the enemy of your soul who is the accuser of the brethren. Sure, when God forgives, He really forgives. He forgives to such an extent that he even blots that thing out of his memory. Therefore, the believer's judgment for sin is past. It was settled at the cross. But we must not forget that the judgment of the believer is threefold. First, as a sinner, second, as a son, and third, as a servant. Now then, as a sinner, we've already had that in our heart -to -heart talk yesterday. We've seen his judgment as a sinner is past. That's all in the past if you're a Christian. We'll just leave it right there in the past. Now let us look at the believer's judgment as a son. For remember, when we accept Christ as our personal Savior, automatically, God is no longer just our creator. But in that moment, something very marvelous happens. God becomes our heavenly father, literally adopts us as his son and makes us his heir and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. Literally, we become his son by adoption. As soon as the sinner accepts Christ as his personal Savior, that settles the sin question for him. For if our iniquities are laid on him, that's on Jesus, then they are not on us. But the sin, that awful sin question, And the sins, S -I -N -S question, are two different things. Christ died on the cross to atone for sin, to pay the penalty of Adam's disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Sin is that tendency in mankind to do wrong, which we call natural depravity. We do not get rid of this tendency by the new birth. Why? Because we are still in a body of flesh. Know that here's something that I want to take very slowly. I want to give it to you very distinctly and carefully because this is most important. There are those, you know, who feel after they have accepted Christ, after that glorious experience of having been born again, that they will never again know temptation. And then when a day or an hour or a week later, they come face to face with temptation and they are tempted, they are quick to believe that Maybe their experience wasn't real. Because they're tempted, they feel that maybe they were wrong in thinking that they had been born again. Beloved, watch. Even though you've had that experience of salvation, of regeneration, you are still in a body of flesh. The old flesh hasn't changed one iota. The seat of your affection has changed. The things you once loved, you now hate. The things you once hated, you now love. A new creature in Christ Jesus, so far as your affections are concerned. The old flesh remains the same. The old body remains the same. And as long as this body is still corruption, as long as this body is still mortal, as long as you are still in the flesh, you will have temptations. I don't care whether you're the greatest saint that ever lived. That's right. I don't care whether you have been filled with the Spirit. I don't care whether you've experienced everything that God has for his children. As long as you are still in the body of flesh, there will be temptation. That's right. You do not get rid of this tendency by the new birth. But we get a counteracting force called the new nature. That's it. That's exactly what Paul was talking about. This explains the warfare that Paul describes as his experience after his conversion. It's there in the 7th chapter of Romans. This warfare will continue until the old nature is eradicated at death. There will be this warfare until you and I leave this old body of flesh. I'm going to give you this portion of the Word of God. From the 7th chapter of Romans. Let's begin with about the 15th verse. Here's Paul. This is the strife. Of the two natures. Under law. And this was after his conversion. And Paul. Was going through this warfare. And was having this strife. With the old and the new. Then beloved. Don't be discouraged. If you too. or going through a warfare. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. For what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do, but the evil of which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. Haven't you experienced the same thing? Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Yeah. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God. but with the flesh, the law of sin. Now, watch something here that is so simple. I said to you a minute ago that no matter how deeply spiritual you may be, there will never come a time, as long as you still have an old body of flesh, but what there will be temptations. Now. I read from the first chapter of James. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. Watch, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. and that lust cometh from the flesh. And this explains the warfare that Paul describes as his experience. Temptation is not a sin. Know that. You can be tempted every hour on the hour, and yet... To be tempted is not a sin. It's when you yield to that temptation that it becomes a sin to you. Know that. And sins are the outward acts of wrongdoing that we commit as a result of our tendency to sin. And these sins must be put away daily. By confession. And in my next heart -to -heart talk, I'll talk about that confession in the light of judgment. Father, I thank you for the word and the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit in revealing the word and the truth to our hearts. Amen.