Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Coming up today on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: Most people who call themselves Christians struggle through their lives living a godly way simply because they don't understand the concept that we're talking about right now. They don't get the message of salvation. They forget the fact that God is the one who does all the work. It's the beautiful story of salvation. God does it all for you. And I like the idea of God doing it all for me. It's a lot easier of a life to live.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Light on the Hill. It's a privilege to study the word with you each day. Pastor James Kaddis is early in a new series entitled In Spirit and in Truth. Here in part one, we're observing how salvation works. Pastor James is going to transition to sanctification today, which has to do with our day-to-day living. Like salvation, this is a total work of God.

James Kaddis: I got to speak to a young man the other day who was given his family a hard time. And I look at the young man, and I never lied up to to people when I say this. I kind of have this unique ability to be to be able to see who people can be and who they will be as opposed to who they are at the current time. I think pastors have that gift, right? And I look at the young man, and I don't say, hey, you're being rude to your mom or you're being you're this, you're that.

I just look at them and I go, have you forgotten the fact that you're a winner? When was the last time somebody reminded you of the fact that you're a winner? That everything you do, you're going to be blown away. God is going to bless you. He's going to use you. Listen, winners always remind themselves that they're winners and they act like winners. So start acting like the winner that you are. Right? There's two phrases I always remind myself of. I always tell myself this phrase. These phrases are important. They're important phrases. Write them down.

I know they're embedded within my head. Right? The phrases are this. I am a saint. I'm in Christ. That's my identity. I am in Christ. I'm a saint. And I will not sin against God. I'm a saint and I will not sin against God. My identity helps me to do the second thing. The first thing helps with the second thing. It's very very important. Why? Because Christ has changed your identity now. Here's something very interesting that takes place here. When we get into end of Romans chapter seven, let me just preface a few things by saying we are not listening to a guy who doesn't know the Lord.

We are listening to a guy who is perhaps the greatest theologian that has ever lived on the face of this earth. We are talking about one of the most anointed men that has ever walked the face of this earth. We are talking about one of the most educated and highly articulate men. If you don't believe me, learn the Greek language and try to read through the book of Hebrews. You will understand how seriously seriously complicated his Greek is in that context. He's a brilliant man, the Apostle Paul. He is a godly man. He loves God with all of his heart.

And you know what he's actually saying here as we get to the end of Romans, he's going, man, the things that I want to do I don't do, and the things I don't want to do I do. It's a struggle. I hate this. And then he says this. We're going to read this. End of Romans chapter seven. Look what he says. He says, oh, wretched man that I am. Let me talk about what wretched means. When he says wretched, he says how horrible, how putrid, how stinky, how unbearable, how odious, how disgusting. I'm a disgusting man.

This is a guy who is the greatest theologian on the face of the earth, arguably the greatest apostle that has ever existed on the face of the earth. And he's saying I'm disgusting. You know what else he says? He takes it a step further. This is what he says. He says, who will deliver me? Who shall? Not what? Not yoga or this kind of food or eating this way or you know. It's funny the things that people think will make them better. If I eat grass, it's going to make me I'm going to be a better person.

No. Go ask Nebuchadnezzar. He ate grass for a while. Didn't make him a better person. He didn't say what. He says who. Who who shall deliver me from this? Notice what he says. Here's the term, body of death. By the way, the phrase body of death is not correctly translated. Even as it would be associatively valued with the Elizabethan English that it was translated at the time, it's not a correct translation. You know what the correct translation for this term is? Who will deliver me from this ready death trap? That's the word. Who will deliver me?

He's the This is the greatest apostle, the greatest theologian in the world. He's describing his body as a death trap. You know what a death trap is, right? You all have seen death traps, right? They exist. Going on a motorcycle at 200 mph, you're riding on a death trap. Right? You get on it, you're going to die. You know those little black boxes that you see that are outside the restaurants nowadays, you go through the drive through they're like these these big black boxes that say on the side of the building. They kind of look funny.

They look like there are some plumbing extension out there. Not. They got one hole on the end of it. They don't have a hole on the other end. You know what it is? It's for rats to go in there. The rats go in there. They eat something. They die right away. The poison they kill them. They heal over. They're called death traps. You're sure to die when you walk in there. The Apostle Paul says the body in which I live is a death trap. And he says who's going to deliver me? And he answers the question.

He says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself may serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Let me get into what he's talking about here. And this is a summary. This verse is a summary of things that he is already very articulately explained. So you've learned how salvation works. You guys get it, right? We all understand. Is it pretty understood? Yes? We understand how salvation works. We also understand what took place. We understand the whole picture. But here's something that you might not understand.

Here's the practical picture of how it works. Let me get into it descriptively. We've already described your position. We already know you're not going to hell because you're wearing the robe of righteousness of Jesus Christ. Nothing else is done. You receive it. You put on the robe. It 's all good. Nothing else. Great. But here's the other aspect. It's what we call the practical tide of things, right? We call it a practical sanctification, your day-to-day living. Okay. Before you knew the Lord, there were certain components of you. You have the mind and you have your flesh.

We'll call it your brain and your flesh, okay? Your mind and your flesh. The spirit inside of you is dead. It's dead. So let me tell you how the hierarchy of power works before you know the Lord. Your flesh says I want something, and your mind says yes, master. Let me give you the picture. I feel like having sex. Your mind says I'll achieve that for you any way I can get it for you. Some ways in some minds, they'll purchase a prostitute. In some minds, they go and they'll you know go to a bar and pick up somebody.

In some minds, they'll go and they'll they'll do whatever they can to participate in whatever activity necessary to be able to create that desire for sexual contact. Or the body says I want some comfort. And the mind says I'll do whatever I can to bring you that comfort. The body says I want alcohol. The mind says I'll get it for you. Talk about prison. You're in prison. Whatever your body wants, your mind has to do it because your body owns you. And your body is in essence has reduced you. Your condition has reduced you to the same as the animal kingdom.

I go through this with my wife all the time with the dog. She says, why is the dog why does he love you so much? And why is he more attached to you than me? And he listens to you and so on and so forth. I go baby, he's an animal. He's a dog. It's not like he's got some spiritual thing inside of him where he's got this mental attachment to me. It's not the case. The reason why he's so attached to me is because he's scared of the consequence of his disobedience. It's a survival thing.

And the reason why he really likes being seems to show affection is because I'm the guy that's going to give him his food. And I am the guy that's going to take him out to poop. That's the truth. If humans were like that, then raising kids would be easy. Right? Take your baby, let them go poop, pee, you clean them up, you feed them, and they love you. Could you imagine would could you imagine? There'd be no rebellion again. It would be wonderful. They'd be by your side all the time, but they're not dogs. They're humans.

But the flesh ruling your mind has reduced you to that that very thing. When you become a Christian and Jesus Christ comes into your heart, listen, a significant change takes place. Here's the deal. There's a new sheriff in town. The sheriff of the universe takes residency inside your body. And this is how it works. It used to be your body, your flesh would say I want this, and the brain says yes, master, I'll do it. Now the brain, the mind has a new master. You see the spirit of God has come in you. He's awakened you.

You are now alive. And now the spirit of God says I want you to do this. And the mind says yes, master. And then the mind tells the flesh you do what I say. Bow down. The Bible makes it very clear that's how it works. That's why in passages like 1 Corinthians it says that it doesn't say that God will never give you anything that you can't handle. He's going to fill your life with circumstances you can't handle. He is going to actually tell you this. He's going to say He says this to you. He says God will never put you in a position where you cannot say no to sin.

Now how does that look like? Because if the idea is that God enters into my body and he's the one that gives me victory over sin, many of you are asking the same question as the Apostle Paul. You're saying man, I don't get that because all I want to do is sin. We have people that are that are in this fellowship that are addicted to drugs and and they love the Lord. And they're like man, I love God, but I keep going back to my drugs. Or I love the Lord and I keep going back to alcohol.

Or I love the Lord but I keep going back to pornography. Or I love the Lord but I keep going back to these things. And why I feel like I'm in bondage to it? Well, it's because you're taking the wrong approach. You see, the reason why most people continue on in their sin when they're a believer is because they are the ones that revert back to wanting to fix the problem themselves. And they spend so much time suppressing the Holy Spirit in their life because they think they can take care of it and they resort to their own tactics that guess what?

The flesh begins to take control and the mind obeys the flesh. But the more you do things to allow the spirit of God to live freely and walk freely in your life, then the more on autopilot he begins to handle the situation. Right? Look. This is why you can walk with God for five or six months and all of a sudden go wow, that's crazy. I haven't cursed in like five or six months. Because the spirit of God has taken over. Now you might say okay, practically James, what does that look like? Okay, let's let me give you a picture.

We'll do like an illustration for my own life cuz this is a good one. Right? So you guys know that food for me tends to be my big thing at times. Right? Always has. You guys know that. It was much bigger than I am now. I was double my weight than I am now. At one point I was 700 lbs. Okay? Some guys come to me they go man, I look at a woman and I can't get the thought out of my head. I go look I look at a steak and I can't get the thought out of my head.

You know that's just me. It's just how it goes. Right? So let's say I tell myself I'll never have a cookie, an Oreo cookie. And I go I will not have an Oreo cookie. I'm not going to have one. I 'm not going to I tell myself that every day. And for about four days, that works great. In the name of Jesus, I will not touch that demon of cookies. It works great. I obey oh man, praise the Lord and no cookies for me. It's wonderful. Great. Then four days go by and my wife says hey baby, can you go over to the grocery store and go pick this up?

I got to you know whatever. Hey, no problem. Hey, whatever you want. I go to the grocery store. Come on gyro, let's go. Go to the grocery store, go get whatever I need to get. I 'm going through the aisle and I still there's a cookie aisle. Let's go I'll take a shortcut over to where I need to go. I go through there. Oh man, I will not have a cookie. I will not have a cookie. I will not have a cookie in the name of Jesus. I will not have a cookie. Cookie going to destroy me.

I won't have it. I look around and I say they've got the little 99 cent tubes of Oreo. You don't know what I'm talking about? Those things are so dead. So little tube of Oreo cookies. It ain't like buying the big thing. I'm going to go get that. You go outside the store and you look like you're like Don't want Nicole to see me doing that. You know what I mean? Not because I'm scared of what you'll say, but I'm scared she'll take it. You know what I mean? So then I say well, it won't be a big deal if I buy a big box.

You know I didn't share with my wife there, so maybe I'll just bring a big box and we can share it together everything. And before you know it, I'm the cookie monster all over again. Right? Because I kept telling myself I will not, I will not, I will not, I will not, I will And then what do I do? I do. You want to know why? Because that's me trying to make an effort to overcome something when I have no power to overcome it. We do this all the time with sin. Right? Oh man, I am struggling with drugs.

I will not take a I will never I I hear this a lot. People tell me I will not ever have another drink. Few days later, what happens? Right? There's hundreds of people that go to this church that have gone through this struggle. Hundreds. How do you fix it? What does that look like practically? This is exactly how you fix it. Right? You don't. You don't try to fix it. You leave it alone. What you do is you occupy your time. Everything that is idle in your life you occupy with the work of God. Now some of you might say well, I can't go to church every time I am free.

Well, that works for some people. Well, I can't do this every time I am free. I can't sit down and every time I am free. Oh, open up the Bible. That's all I am saying. But you know the work of God comes out in many different forms. Some of you have neighbors that have a lot of work around the yard to be done. And the work of God might be exemplified in going to them and saying hey, let me take care of you. We have some brothers at this church that go to the homes of other people that are at this church that are elderly and can't take care of things themselves and they go and they do that.

The work of God is exemplified in lots of different ways on many different levels. And as long as you are keeping busy doing the work of God, God says you worry about that. That's what he calls walking in the spirit. You worry about that and I will worry about the rest. You take care of that. Now some of you might be looking at me and you might be saying oh man, that just seems so overwhelming. The thought of it is disgusting. I'm so busy and I don't have time and I just can't do it and it just seems like it That seems like it's harder then like actually trying to stop.

And I'll revert you back to a story that I often times tell. And we'll talk about this at length when we when we have our discussion on the subject of sin. And that's the story of when I was much heavier than I am. The guy who helped me lose the weight he said look James, you're going to be a dead man if the only thing you do is food modification. You need to exercise. Otherwise you'll never be able to walk again. Okay. I hated exercise so much that I actually lost sleep the night before because I couldn't stand the thought of going into the gym and exercising at the time was only five minutes.

I couldn't stand the thought of it. I hated it so much. Time goes by, weight gets dropped. And now pretty soon I am okay. It works. It's okay. And then as time goes on, you begin to get to the point where you feel like I don't feel normal if I don't do physical activity. Why? When I was sick, I could not stand the thought of doing anything that was healthy. As I got healthier, I began to grow dependent upon the things that were necessary for me to stay healthy. Think about it this way. My wife recently experienced an ugly ugly bout of this flu that's been going around.

She couldn't even swallow water. She drank water and she barfed right away. For a day, she could not stand the thought or the idea of drinking anything or eating anything. Now that's blatantly unhealthy. You have to eat. She was beginning to experience the symptoms of dehydration because she couldn't hydrate herself cuz every time she tried to drink she barfed. We actually had to get her medication that took away the nauseous feeling so that she could hydrate herself. Otherwise she was going to die. When she got healthy, her appetite came back right away. Let's go get some chicken.

Let's go eat. Come on. Why? Because she was healthy. And when she got healthy, her appetite became healthy. And her desire to consume that which was healthy for her great. Right now you might be looking at this and might be saying reading the Bible just uh listening to Bible study uh James uh whatever. Here's the thing. You feel that way right now. Forgive me for saying this. Please don't take this with offense. You you feel that way right now because you're sick. But if you force yourself to do what you know will make you healthy when you become healthy, not only will it be palatable to you, but you will love it.

And eventually you will grow dependent upon it. And in eight years or eight months, you look back and you'll go wow, I don't remember the last time I took a drink. Or I don't remember the last time I used drugs. Or I remember the last time I viewed pornography. Or I remember the last time I did these things. And eventually you know what you know what actually happens eventually? Although some of that there's a part of you that actually looks at some of that and says ah, it's kind of attractive. Right? It begins to be more and more disgusting to you.

It actually goes from attractive to destructive because you're healthy. That's what the Bible says walking in the spirit is is simply loving your God and letting God fix the sin instead of you trying to fix the sin. People come to me all the time and they say Pastor James, will you put a block on my computer for me to watch pornography? And I can tell them the same thing. I can say I can do it till you're blue in the face. I can make it to where you live in a digital prison and you don't touch it.

But what happens when you go to bed at night and close your eyes? Can't fix that, can I? There's a bigger issue that we have to address. I have guys right now that I'm ministering to, amazing men of God, spirit-filled brothers that are struggling with this very subject. And one of the ways that they remedy it when they feel the weakest is they reach out to brothers like they're supposed to. They be accountable. But you know what? They'll listen to a Bible study, fall asleep to the Bible study, or something that involves spiritual activity. Sometimes it's just simply play a video game to get your mind off of things.

Right? But either way, you're doing things that encourage godly action and you give way for God to fix it. That's how your salvation works, people. I'm going to read you this verse and it's so important because this is the the remarkably encouraging verse. This is the verse that changes your life. It is a good encapsulation of the description that I just gave you right now. And this is verse one of Romans chapter eight. It says there is therefore When he says therefore, what does he mean? He means keeping in mind everything that I just told you.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. In other words, the flesh is no longer their master, but the spirit is their master. There's no condemnation. Let me tell you what that means. It means this. It means that as you are making a concerted effort to be healthy and seek God and do the right things as you're making an effort to grow in God and to live your life for him, when you mess up, it's okay. God will pick up the pieces.

And God will help you get through it. Not that messing up is something you want to be doing on a regular basis. Right? But the idea here is this. The idea here is if you mess up, it's okay because you're busy about your father's business. Folks, that is the victorious description of what salvation is all about. Salvation is the greatest tool available to you as man. It's the greatest gift ever given to mankind. It not only keeps you from hell. Right? But it gives you a victorious life on the earth that you're living today. What a great tool.

And I can tell you this right now, most people who call themselves Christians struggle through their lives living a godly way simply because they don't understand the concept that we're talking about right now. They don't get the message of salvation. They forget the fact that God is the one who does all the work. It's the beautiful story of salvation. God does it all for you. And I like the idea of God doing it all for me. It's a lot easier of a life to live. Amen?

Guest (Male): Pastor James Kaddis on Light on the Hill. We'll be right back. Our present series is called In Spirit and in Truth with 17 messages in all. If you missed any portion of the series, it's not too late to catch up. Just visit lightonthehillradio.com or listen through our app. You'll also find us on oneplace.com and most major podcast platforms. God is our great provider here at Light on the Hill and we continually look to him for guidance and to really make all of this happen. If you'd like to stand with us through giving either a one-time gift or ongoing support, please visit lightonthehillradio.com.

Pastor James Kaddis is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Signal Hill. We study the word and worship together on Sundays at 8:00 a.m., 9:45 a.m., and 11:30 a.m. Then again in the evening at 5:00 p.m. We also have a Thursday evening service that begins at 7:00 p.m. Go to calvarychapelsignalhill.com for more information or to live stream. Before we close, let's go to the Lord in prayer with Pastor James.

James Kaddis: All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you Father for your word. We love you, God. And Lord, we do applaud for you, Lord. We do thank you, Lord. We do clap for you. We we praise you, Father, for what you've done for us. You're the one that does the work. You're the one that continues the work. You're the one that started the work. You're the one that promises you'll finish the work. That is your goodness. That is the story of our salvation. Lord, as we learn the message of what it is to worship in spirit and in truth and we go through these multiple parts of this series, may we grasp these amazing tools that are available to us, Lord.

That we would grow because of them and we would be transformed and then our lives would be changed. And with every head bowed, every eye closed, I I would be amiss to not give you an opportunity if you've never received Jesus Christ in your life to take advantage of so great a salvation. You can do it right now. Just raise your hand. Anybody here? All right. Listen, it's a simple prayer. If you raise your hand, it's easy. It's a easy prayer. You simply say this, Lord Jesus, forgive me my sins. Come into my life. That's it.

Lord Jesus, forgive me my sins. Come into my heart. And Father, that's our prayer that we would always keep our minds and our hearts on you, that we would yield to the new sheriff in the universe. Lord, that we would serve you with all of our hearts knowing the tools that you've made available to us. We love you, God. We thank you. We ask these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): Come back next time when we'll continue our series In Spirit and in Truth. That's right here on Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis.

Guest (Female): I have found that peace only comes from you. I have found that joy only comes from you. Cuz all I need is you.