The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: I want you to serve God. I want you to come to church. I want you to take care of your neighbor. You're called to do that; it's the godly thing to do. But look out when you begin to think that God's going to give me an A+ for this and give me a pat on the back, and pretty soon it's me, me, me, what a wonderful Jesus-person me is.

Guest (Male): Today on The Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris joins us once again and continues the series Living by Faith: Freedom Found in Christ. In today's message, "Because You Believe," we're reminded that God works powerfully in our lives, not because of what we do, but because of what we believe. Faith opens the door for God's grace, His promises, and His transforming work. Let's join Pastor Morris now for today's message.

Pastor Jack Morris: Because you believe. Every blessing that we have today is because we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe in Him, we believe in His promises, and we have received because we have believed. Now you have an outline in your bulletin, but you don't have to write down any words today. You just need to take some notes as I go along. Whatever strikes you that's important, that blesses you, make a little note of it, and it will continue to bless you in hours and in days to come.

We have received a great blessing from the Lord. I'm referring to the blessing of salvation, forgiveness of sins, all because of Jesus who provided this gift and blessed us so abundantly. The gift of salvation. Salvation meaning deliverance from sin and being brought into a right relationship with God. This gift is so awesome, so wonderful, so transcendent, and listen, so unexplainable. Who could explain this gift that God has given? I can experience it, but now to turn around and explain it to somebody's satisfaction, words are so inadequate.

How do I tell somebody how it feels to have sins forgiven? How can I tell somebody how it feels to know that you're right with God, that God's your Heavenly Father, you call Him Abba Father, Father, Father, have that wonderful relationship? How can I tell somebody how it feels to know that after this life, there's another life, a greater life, a more wonderful life, an eternal life in heaven? How can I explain that? How can I prove that? Words just don't come.

The Apostle Paul said, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." Do you love Him? Wow, does He have something prepared for you. And even the Apostle Paul could not go into the detail and explain it and talk about it because the words just aren't adequate to talk about this wonderful gift that God has brought to us. I read John chapter 3. Jesus was talking to a man named Nicodemus about the born-again experience.

Believe it or not, Jesus had a lot of difficulty, it seems to me, as I read that. Jesus had a lot of difficulty trying to explain and get that man to understand. Now when Jesus has difficulty explaining something, I wonder what I'm doing trying to preach this beautiful gospel. But Nicodemus had an awful time with it. Nicodemus was an intelligent man. Nicodemus himself was a teacher of the law, and he would ask Jesus about the born-again experience.

He sort of scratched his head when Jesus said, "Be born again." He said, "What do you mean? I can enter into my mother's womb and be born again and start all over again?" He just had a difficult time understanding what Jesus was trying to explain to him. See, what is happening is we are taking the language of earth to explain the experience of heaven. We're taking earthly language to explain something about way up there and trying to pull it together to make it relevant. That is a very difficult thing to do.

Only the Holy Spirit can help you understand, and the way He makes you to understand is to give you the experience. The way you receive the experience is to believe. Believe is the means of this wonderful experience coming to you. But there are so many things that are earthly that we cannot understand. Earthly things. We're trying to explain heavenly things in earthly language, but there are a lot of earthly things that cannot even be explained in earthly language. I'm going to name just a few very simple things.

How about pregnancy and the birth of a new human being into this world? Corinne and I would get these little announcements and they'll say a baby's been born with a little picture of that baby, and we'll stand there and look at it together. We'll open it up and we'll smile and we'll say, "Isn't that a beautiful baby? Isn't that precious?" The ugliest little thing in all the world. And every one of them, for the most part, without few exceptions, they almost all look alike in the beginning. In the very beginning, they almost all of them look alike.

We'll look at it and say, "Isn't that beautiful?" And we'll celebrate. But nobody has ever sent us an announcement and said, "Pastor, I want to explain what happened. I got pregnant, and then a little embryo developed in me, and then it became a fetus, and little tiny fingers started coming and little tiny toes, and somewhere along the way it was decided whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. We're not sure just what determined which sex it was going to be. And then it was born."

Nobody has ever gone into any detail. They only tell me a baby's been born, and I celebrate, Corinne celebrates, we all celebrate. When I talk to the physicians about it, they can tell me what happens. This happens and that swims north and this swims south, but they never tell me what makes it swim north and what makes it swim south. The why is never there. They can describe it because it happens the same way for hundreds of years all through the human race, but the why is never there.

How about trying to tell somebody about the Grand Canyon who's never seen the Grand Canyon? You say, "Well, it's so deep and it's so wide, and there's a river that's run through it for millions of years that cut away." You have to experience the Grand Canyon, don't you? See, I'm trying to describe earthly things in earthly language. I can't even do that. How about describing to somebody how a rollercoaster ride feels? You say the wind blows and this happens and that happens and the life is scared out of you. You have to get on it, don't you?

How about going into the jungles of South America or Africa or India and trying to explain to a little child what it's like to lick an ice cream cone? Something so simple. They've never seen an ice cream cone, they've never even heard the word, they've never tasted it, and you try to explain. When we try to explain heavenly things with earthly language, we think we can't even explain earthly things with earthly language. Yet we believe them, don't we? We believe in rollercoasters and we believe in babies being born and we believe in ice cream cones.

Someone says, "Well, if it's not explained to me and I can't understand it, I can't believe it." Well, then just stop believing in almost everything because most of the things that we enjoy in life we don't really comprehend or understand; we just enjoy it. That's all the Lord will ask of any of us regarding salvation: to experience it. That's the joy. That's the reality. I can't explain what's happened, but I can certainly enjoy and celebrate and rejoice over this great and wonderful experience that has come into our lives.

The Galatians had received this wonderful gift of salvation. The Apostle Paul went to Galatia and preached the gospel there. Paul was so happy that Jesus saved him and forgave him, and he experienced this great experience and he wanted to share it. He wanted to tell everybody about it. Paul is an extremely eloquent, brilliant man, and he knew just how to present it. He knew just how to explain it. The scripture says in chapter three of Galatians, verse one, "Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified."

Before your very eyes. It was such a plain description that was given to you about Jesus and His crucifixion. In your imagination, Paul said to the Galatians. In your imagination, you saw the movement of the Roman soldiers. You saw Him being crucified. You heard the ring of the hammer. You heard His cries and His sobs. You saw His tears, you felt His pain, you saw His blood drop crimson to the ground. You saw it, you experienced it. It was right before your eyes. You believed it, and you received Him, and your sins were forgiven, and you were saved.

There's a tremendous power in believing. A tremendous power. And particularly when it comes to spiritual things. When we believe, there is something inside of us that changes. There's a response. It is a tremendous power. That tremendous power is the very power and presence of Jesus that comes to us. And by believing, that will happen. Jesus will come and we will experience the gift of eternal life. We may not be able to articulate it and put it in words and describe it in language, but we know when we have passed from death unto life.

We know when our sins are forgiven. It's an experience that we absolutely know, even though we may not be able to fully describe it to somebody else's satisfaction. But we truly know that that has happened. Now, the Galatians heard, and they believed what they heard, and by believing what they heard about Jesus, they experienced Jesus. That's how He comes. Not by anything that we can do, only by believing on Him and what He has already done. In verse two, Paul said to these Galatians, "Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard?"

Now either you did it or He did it. How did it happen? Paul was emphasizing that it was because they believed that they received. When a person is saved, when a person is born again into the kingdom of God, they become a citizen of that heavenly world. They become a participant in the kingdom of God. You're not only a person of this world; we still continue to function here, but we also begin to function in that heavenly world, for that's where our citizenship is. Faith has the ability to look out beyond what the natural eye can see.

We see things out there: another world, an eternity, a place where Jesus has gone to prepare for us. We see it, we can't explain it, we can't convince somebody else, but in our hearts we are convinced. This wonderful salvation that God brings to us is so real and so wonderful and so convincing to the person who believes and will receive. Faith will call it into existence. We will see it. Others can't see it, but we can see it. We can feel it. We're convinced of it.

I want to ask you something: do you know what I'm talking about today? Is it part of your experience? Not part of your intellect—you can't learn it. This is not theology; this is redemption through the blood of Jesus. This is believing on Him and receiving Him as one's personal Lord and Savior. You see, when a person becomes a Christian, they still function in this world, but they're also functioning in the other world, that heavenly world. Let me put it this way: when you become a Christian, you're an in-between person. You're part of this world and you're part of that world.

Paul said to the Philippians, "Your citizenship is in heaven." We have dual citizenship. We have citizenship here, we function here, but we also function there. The scripture tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 that Abraham—and I'm going to talk about Abraham in much more depth next week. Abraham is the father of three faiths. He's the father of those who believe: the Christians. He's also the father of the Jews, and he is also the father of the Muslims. All three religions came out of one man.

Next week I'm going to talk about that in as much detail as time will allow, and you need to be here and hear where you came from. Abraham, the scripture says, looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He was in this world, living in tents like Isaac and Jacob, meaning there was no permanent place here for him. He moved, he lived, he wondered. There was a restlessness within him for that other world. And the older he got and as time passed on, he became closer and closer and more connected with the eternal world.

There is no permanency here in this life at all. There is absolutely nothing permanent. And listen to me, your body, your body is temporal. Nothing is permanent in this world. Everything that is seen is temporal, but that which is not seen with the natural eye but is seen with the eye of faith, that is eternal, that is everlasting. And you have it in your heart through Jesus because you have believed in Him and received Him. And you say, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord" to Him.

The scripture tells us of Joseph who went down into Egypt. He was sold into Egypt, he became a great leader in Egypt, and he saved Egypt and other countries from starvation. He was in a foreign land. He was not an Egyptian. He was part of the Abrahamic faith, but he was in Egypt. And somehow inside him, inside his soul, he intuitively knew that he was not going to be in Egypt forever. Egypt is a symbol of this present world system.

Joseph said to his brothers when he was an old man and he was dying, "I know something, and this is what I know: that God's going to take us out of Egypt someday. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I know we're going to come up out of Egypt. All of Israel is going to come up out of Egypt. And when you come up out of Egypt, when God delivers you from Egypt, I want you to take my bones on the caravan. You carry me out. Someday God's going to come and intervene and God's going to lead you out of Egypt."

Now, friend, I want you to know: someday God's going to call you out of this world. Right now He has called you out of the sin of this world, out of an association with this world. He's called you into redemption through the blood of Jesus to cleanse you and deliver you from this untoward world system. You once were of the world, you once were of sin, you once were a great participant in sin, but you have been saved and washed in the blood of Jesus and now you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior. You've been redeemed; your names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

This has been the first step, the first deliverance. It came because you believed what the scripture says about Jesus. Now there's going to be another step. Some of these days you're going to be taken out of this world. It may be that you'll die before that time comes. It may be that your body will turn back to dust and your bones in the grave, but someday the trump of God is going to sound and the dead in Christ will be raised, and we will be caught up and we will be taken to heaven.

Friend, do you know this? Do you know that you're going to heaven someday? Do you have the evidence within you? I can't explain it, I can't prove it. If you don't already have it, there's nothing I can do to cause you to have it but to encourage you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great deliverer. Your citizenship is in heaven. You're still on this earth, you're moving through the earth, you're living in tents; there's nothing permanent here. Some of these days you're going to be taken up completely out of Egypt.

This is what you must know in your heart and have the evidence within you; you must believe within. You're an in-between people. I want you to turn to your neighbor right now on either side of you and say, "You're an in-between people." Come on, say it to them. You're an in-between people. You're between heaven and earth. Your feet is still on terra firma, but your heart's in heaven and heaven is in your heart. Hallelujah. What a great and wonderful salvation that the Lord Jesus has brought to us.

Something very unimaginable happened to the Galatians. They had everything that I have told you and more: the grace of God. Who can explain the grace of God? Something terrible, something unimaginable happened: they turned back. They didn't go back in overt sin. They stayed very religious, but they added to their religion more religion, and it was a religion of their own works. This is what Paul said. Look at your Bible, open it to Galatians chapter three, verse one, and read those first three words: "You foolish Galatians."

I've never started a letter like that. When you get your quarterly letter, I don't say, "You foolish Largo Community Church." Did I ever do that? You'd be mad at me, wouldn't you? People could get mad at me over almost anything anyway. But Paul, the Apostle, he said, "You foolish Galatians! What have you done?" He said, "Who has bewitched you?" It is perplexing how anyone could know this wonderful salvation of God and then go back on it again. How could anybody do that? I don't know.

After having tasted of the heavenly, to go back to the elements that are carnal, I don't know how they did that. But this is what he said: "Who has bewitched you, you foolish Galatians?" Now Jesus said that to the disciples one time after His resurrection on the Emmaus Road. Jesus appeared and walked on the road with them and asked them questions about why they were so sad. And they were saying, "Oh, we had hoped that this would have been the Messiah, the King of Israel, but it's been three days now since he's been crucified." Jesus said to them, "You foolish and slow of heart to believe!"

What's wrong with you? How many times do you have to hear the gospel and you're still not saved? How many times have you come to this communion table, and we've talked about the blood of Jesus to cleanse you from all your sin? We've talked about the broken body. How long have you come to the Largo Community Church and you are yet unsaved, you are yet unconvinced? Who are you? What's wrong with you? Why do you come to a church like this?

We talk about the heavenly that you have yet to experience because you have not believed on the Lord. You've not confessed your sins to the Lord, you've not humbled yourself and repented of your sin. You say, "Well, I'm all right." No, you're not all right. If you were all right, He wouldn't have had to go through what He went through. That's what Paul said to the Galatians: "You foolish people!" I'm not calling you foolish; I'm only reading what Paul said, so don't get mad at me. I love you. Everybody that is born of God loves even as He loves.

If you're not loving one another as He loves, then you need to really seriously question, "Have I truly been born of God?" For God is love. But Paul in love spoke to these Galatians. In verses one through five, he asked six questions. He really was nonplussed by their behavior. He said, "I came down there to the region of Galatia and I shared my testimony and Christ was presented right before your eyes. What happened to you? You're bewitched." This is what he means: it's like a spell has been cast over you.

Like you've caught some kind of virus in your brain or some chemical has gone into your brain causing your brain to be dysfunctional. How can anybody believe on the Lord and experience the gift of salvation and be able to give testimony to it? You did great for a while. What happened? It's like somebody cast black magic over you. Who has bewitched you? Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by what you heard? After beginning with the Spirit, you are now trying to attain your own goal by your own human effort?

Have you suffered so much for nothing, if it really was for nothing? Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because of what you've heard? Six questions in five verses. Paul was trying to find out what went wrong with your thinking. These were rhetorical questions. These were teaching questions. He was trying to jerk them and say, "Think, think, think!" What's happened? What has gone wrong? There are some people who have heard the good news of Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior and for some reason, they're no longer serving the Lord.

They're not happy about Jesus anymore. They got caught up doing religious things. Now listen to me very closely. It is usually not overt sinful practices that causes Christians to go back. Usually Christians will go back, lose their joy, become cantankerous, start criticizing church and pastor. All of that starts out very imperceptibly and they don't even know it's growing. It's usually over something legitimate. Even good. But the good becomes evil when it causes you to stop loving God's people and stop worshipping God.

The good that you're doing becomes evil because it took you away from the Lord. And now you come back and say, "But Lord, have we not done these good things in Your name? I've helped my neighbor." And He's going to say, "Depart from me! Did you think I was going to save you and take you to heaven because you were a good neighbor? Because you were a good husband or a good citizen?" All of these things should be practiced, but when they cause you to refocus away from Jesus, it is evil.

I know you wouldn't go out and commit adultery, but your sin has taken you away from the Lord as much as the sin of the person who's committed adultery took him or her away from the Lord. We need Jesus and we need to keep our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. Legitimate things become evil. You start, "Look at me. If everybody did what I did, if everybody served like I served." Friend, in God's nostrils, you stink! You have turned from the Lord and you did it by just being a wonderful person.

The devil knows he's not going to get you to commit adultery or to get drunk or to get on drugs. He knows he can't do that. He knows you're too smart for that. But he'll get you doing good things, and as long as you do the good things and forget about Jesus. Now, I want you to come to church. I want you to read the scripture, but I want you to go beyond the verse that you read and see Jesus in that verse. I want you to come to the Largo Community Church and worship.

I think this is a great church. I'm talking about the people. But you have to look beyond the people and see Jesus. That's what faith is: it's reaching beyond and laying hold of the eternal. And that is Jesus. Every one of us have that capacity within us to believe on Him and to receive the gift of eternal life from Him. Every person has the capacity to believe. God designed you with a capacity to believe. There's something deep way down in your being that will bring you into the kingdom of God by believing.

People say, "I can't believe." Yes, you can believe. God made it so; you're made in His likeness and in His image. He made you with the ability to believe, because you do so many other things in this life out of sheer faith. He's wanting you to use that faith now to come to Jesus and to believe on Him and receive. The things that drive Christians away from God, as I've already said, are legitimate things. They are legitimate things that you think will make them happy. More happy than their devotion.

How many young men have I known through the years? They fell in love with a Christian girl. They both were Christians, but they got so caught up with their love affair that instead of going to church on Sundays, they were going to Skyline Drive or Ocean City. They had already started their honeymoon, and she hadn't even gotten a ring from him yet. How many times things that are legitimate, things that are good, the devil is going to use to get the joy of the Lord out of your heart.

How many times someone says, "Pastor, I'm going to work a little harder at my job and I'm going to go in on Sundays now." I call them, "Where have you been? I've missed you." "Well, I'm going to get a raise, and when I get a raise, I pay more tithes." They justify that behavior, and all the while the imps of hell are laughing. His tithing will send him to hell because he thinks his tithing is more important than his heart being given to following the Lord.

How many times people said, "Pastor, we're going to get another house. It's a little further from the church, but it's in a better school district." And then all of a sudden, "It's just so far. We watch you on television on Sunday morning." But they've lost contact with the fellowship of God's people. I've never served communion over television. Friend, there are things in this world that turn us away from God. Even those legitimate things cause us to be as a person bewitched.

I want you to get advanced. I want you to get better homes. But friend, be careful. Your reasoning is good, but your reasoning can cause you to lose out with the Lord. I want you to serve God. I want you to come to church. I want you to take care of your neighbor. You're called to do that; it's the godly thing to do. But look out when you begin to think that God's going to give me an A+ for this. Pretty soon it's me, me, me, what a wonderful Jesus-person me is. And the devil says, "I gotcha. I gotcha." And you never committed an ugly sin. But I gotcha.

Guest (Male): Faith is not about performing. It's about trust. Today's message reminds us that God's blessings flow into our lives because we believe Him and take Him at His word. Thank you for listening. Join us tomorrow for the next message in this series, "Faith is the Way".