The Road To Freedom Pt. 2

Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don Noble with pure

Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today with exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy.

I don't know where you live, but here in Wheeling, West Virginia,

we have had hot, hot, hot weather going into I think this is

our fifth week without hardly a drop of rain. It has been brutal here,

so I'm praying for rain. Last week I mentioned that I am going

to continue through the month of July, this series called the Road to Freedom.

So today's question what is ultimate freedom? Or we could even say what

is extreme freedom? You know, today we have a thing called extreme sports.

But extreme spiritual freedom isn't something you can touch or feel, but it

is a relationship with a supernatural being by the name of Jesus Christ. So

the first step to having experiencing this extreme spiritual freedom. And by the way,

when you have spiritual freedom, you have the ultimate freedom. Amen.

But the first step is to be born again John three to three. Jesus

told Nicodemus that unless a person is born again anew from above, he cannot

ever see or be acquainted with, or experience the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus

was so perplexed, and he began to question Jesus as to how this could

come about, and Jesus explained that what's born of the flesh is flesh,

and what is born of the spirit is spirit. Jesus explained that a person

must be born of the spirit to enter the Kingdom of God. Then Jesus

said, in John three three sixteen in the amplified version, I'm going to

read that to you. This is what Jesus says. He says, for

God so greatly loved and dearly proprized the world that he even gave up his

only begotten, unique Son, so that whoever believes in trusts in clings to

relies on Him shall not perish, shall not come to destruction or be lost,

but have eternal, ever lasting life verse seventeen. For God did not

send the Son into the world to judge or to reject or condemn or pass

sentence on the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made

safe and sound through Him through Christ. Verse eighteen. Jesus went on,

he who believes in Him, in Christ, who clings to trusts in relies

on Him, is not judged. He who trusts in him never never comes

up for judgment. For him, there is no rejection, no condemnation,

and he incurs no damnation. But he who does not believe, cleave to,

or rely on, or trust in Him is judged already. He has

already been convicted and has already received his sentence because he has not believed in

and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He is

condemned for refusing to let us trust rest in Christ's name. So Jesus is

making a very distinct contrast here and so between verses seventeen and eighteen, he

makes it clear if you believe in Christ, if you cling to him and

trust in him and rely on him, the reward is that you will never

be judged, you will never be rejected, you will never be condemned,

and you will never incur damnation. That's a big deal. That's a gift.

I mean, that is wow. So being born again, entering into

the Kingdom of God, having your spirit renewed because you're willing to believe in,

cling to, trust in, and rely on Christ, this is the

reward you get. No judgment, no condemnation, no rejection, and no

damnation. Wow. On the other hand, if you are a person who

refuses, refuses to believe in Christ, and now, let me just say

this right now, if you are listening to me now and you have thought

for years, I don't believe in this, Jesus, I don't trust in

any of this. It's all hogwashed. Listen carefully to me, because if

you don't believe, if you don't cleave to Christ, if you don't rely

on and trust in Him, you, my friend, are judged already.

You have already been convicted, and you've already received your sentence. And because

you have not believed in or trusted in the name of the begotten Son of

God, you are condemned. And so ooh, this is serious, serious,

serious, Verse nineteen. I'll tell you how serious is serious it is.

Jesus goes on to say, says, the basis of the judgment or

the end dictment, the test by which men are judged. The ground for

the sentence lies in this. The light has come into the world, and

people have loved darkness rather than and more than the light, for their works

and deeds were evil. For every wrongdoer hates and loves and detests the light

and will not come out into the light, but shrinks from it, lest

his works, his deeds, his activities, and his conduct be exposed and

reproved. Oh in verse twenty one. Oh, but he who practices truth

or does what's right comes out into the light, so that his works may

be plainly shown to be what they are wrought with God, divinely prompted,

done with God's help and independence on him. So there's a stark contrast.

I mean, Jesus made it extremely clear. Now step two, that's you

know, that's step one. But as most of you know, the journey

the life of a Christian is a journey, and it's a journey of learning

to be a disciple of Christ. And as we progress in our Christian walk,

life happens. Right, Oh yeah, it does happen. So the

second step is really what I want to talk to you about today. And

the second step to this extreme freedom is repentance. So I know what you're

thinking. What is repentance? You know, it's a simple. It's like

doing a one to eighty. So you're going north and suddenly you turn around

and you start going south, or you were going east and you suddenly turned

around and you're going west. Repent means to change your mind and your purpose

and turn around and return to God. Now I like this scripture. This

is in Acts chapter three, verse nineteen. This is in the Amplified,

and I'm probably going to be reading mostly out of the Amplified and some out

of the New King James. But this is Acts three nineteen. So repent,

change your mind and purpose, turn around, and return to God,

that your sins may be erased, blotted out, wiped clean. That time

of refreshing, of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh

air, may come from the presence of the Lord. I distinctly remember I

had a man in my home from the country of Turkey, now ninety I

don't know the exact percentage, but I'd say it's pretty close to like ninety

eight percent of Turkish people practice Islam. Now they are if you were to

ask them what religion they follow, they'll tell you Islam, but and that

they're a Muslim. But the reality is they don't actually practice their faith at

all. They are the most secular of Muslims, probably in the world.

So this fellow did not actually practice Islam. And so my friend and I

we were sharing the Gospel with him. We asked him if he would like

to receive Christ, and he said yes, So he prayed with us.

And after he prayed, it was astonishing. He sat there and he said,

he kept saying, I feel so light, I feel so light,

I feel so different. I feel like a feather. I just feel so

happy. And so the burden of sin is a heavy burden. It's a

heavy stone in your bag. And when sins are confessed and when a person

receives Christ, it's like a breath of fresh air. As Acts three nineteen

says. It says, you know, it's a time of refreshing that comes

from the presence of the Lord. Now, if you are already a Christian

and you commit sin, when you confess that sin, when you make your

relationship with Christ, when you repent, you restore your relationship with Christ,

you will feel that you will feel that refreshing and it's a great feeling.

Because sin is a heavy burden. It's like a sack of huge rocks in

a bag that you're lugging on your back. So repentance is simply a change

of mind and heart and purpose. And it is also a deep sorrow or

contrition for a past sin or wrongdoing. And the only way to truly repent

is to have true godly sorrow. So I've watched people who have repented and

cried these crocodile tears, I'm telling you, crocodile tears, and you would

just think they were so sorry for what they did. Nah, not sorry

at all. They know that they can cry and they can feel bad for

the moment, but they don't have true godly sorrow. They're not really sorry

for what they did. They just know that they should repent. But it's

a very lighthearted thing. And you know, some crocodile tears or shd and

yeah, so we want true godly sorrow. Second Corinthians, chapter seven,

verse ten. In The New King, James says this, for godly sorrow

produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of

the world produces death. So worldly sorrow, as I mentioned, is just

that it's just you know, I'm sorry I got caught, but I'm not

really sorry for what I did. They're sorry for the fact that they got

caught in the sin or someone found out about the sin, but they're not

truly sorry. So there is a difference between regret and repentance. Some people

they're sorry for being caught in the act of sin, as I said,

but not for the sin itself. Sin is not a weakness. Sin is

not an unfortunate happening or a mistake. It is a transgression of divine law,

a wilful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle, any reprehensible

or regrettable action, behavior, or lapse. And sin is missing the mark.

So when you sin, you're actually missing the mark. You could have

done better, but you didn't. You missed the mark, so you did

way less than what you should have done. And sin is a personal guilt.

Each person will give account to God for his or her own sin,

so it's a personal thing. You have to deal personally with your own sin.

No one can do that for you. Parents can't do that for their

children, Your priests can't do that for you. You have to take accountability

for the sin you commit. No sins of the heart, your attitude,

and your thoughts also require repentance. I may have mentioned this fall a long

time ago, but it's worth repeating. So I had an uncle that I

didn't like. I didn't like him at at all. He was very mean

to me, treated me terribly whenever I was in his presence. I kind

of had some hate, Like I just really didn't like this guy. Okay,

so he died. I've totally forgot all about it. Oh, but

the Lord didn't, and he reminded me, Hey, you have to deal

with that stuff in your heart towards your uncle. I'm like, really,

he's dead, uh huh, that thing is still working in you and you

need to address it and take care of it. So I had to repent

for having these ill feelings toward my uncle even though he was deceased. So

you may have issues with people who are deceased. You may have issues with

your mother, your father, your siblings, aunts, uncles, neighbors,

boss, they could be long gone. But ask Holy Spirit if there's anything

in your heart that needs taken care of, regardless of the fact if the

person is deceased, because it's still an issue that you haven't personally dealt with.

And these things have to be dealt with. So if you want to

walk in this extreme freedom, Oh and it's such freedom when you repent of

sin. It's such freedom when you come to Christ, I mean times of

refreshing Amen now Acts, chapter eleven, verse eighteen B. New King James

version says, then God has also granted to the gentile's repentance to life.

So you know, we know that the Jewish folks they they had to repent,

just like we have to repent, and so the Lord granted the same

thing to the gentile. We have to repent in order to enter the Kingdom

of God. And two Timothy two twenty five B. In the New King

James says, if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know

the truth as long. Let's let's clear up. Let's clear up something right

from the get go. Here, if you have sinned and you have not

repented of it, you're carrying it. And you might have multiple sins.

They could be attitudes of the heart that aren't right. They could be actions

that you took that were not right. So you could have multiple things here.

But just know this, until repentance takes place, you have cut off

your relationship with the Lord because he cannot commune with you until you make things

right with your heart. David said this. I pray this often. David

said creating me a clean heart. O Lord, renew a right spirit in

me. And when you pray that prayer creating me a clean heart, obviously

you want to. You're saying, you know, I don't want sin operating

in my life. Renew a right spirit. So that means if there's any

issue that I have not addressed for the day, I've got to take care

of that right away. Because I want to be in fellowship with Christ.

I want him to hear my prayers. I want to hear what he's saying

to me. I he's my friend, he's my father, so I want

to talk to him and I want to hear what he has to say to

me. But when sin is there and it's not confessed, there's a block.

It's like damming up a river. The river isn't going to flow.

If a beaver builds a dam in the river, that river is going to

flow very slow. And until that dam is removed, that river is not

going to flow well. It's going to get stagnant. That's what will happen

to you if you don't repent for your sin. Best thing you can do,

best piece of advice I could give you today is that when you sin

repent immediately. Do not wait a day, a week, a month,

God forbid you would even go longer than that. So it's important because we

want the river of God in us right. The river of God in us

is the spirit of God in us. It's the life of God in us.

And we want that river to flow. We want life flowing through us.

Our spiritual life to be fruitful and multiply. That's our purpose. Our

mission to be fruitful will multiply. Well, you'll not be fruitful and you

will not multiply if the river is dammed up, and sin will damn up

that river mighty quick. So repent, be quick about it. Take,

you know, take every step that you need to take. Talk to the

Lord. One scripture I want to read to you. Let me find it

first John one nine. Uh, you should be familiar with this scripture.

First John one nine. This is in the King James. If we confess

our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse

us from all unrighteousness. So don't hesitate. Confess your sin, and Jesus

is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Turn to God. Acknowledge your sin, confess it with godly sorer, ask

the Lord to forgive you. You know, get things going, get the

river going again, get the river flowing again. It's vital. It's important

to your walk, to your Christian walk, because you're going to be dealing

with people, and you won't deal with people well. Spouse, child,

friends, you won't deal well when you have sin that is unconfessed because you're

the river is damned up. It's just not going to flow and you're not

going to feel the presence of the Lord. You will not feel that refreshing

without repenting. So it's good to repent. Trust me, I've done it

a lot. So that's what I'm encouraging you today. I want you to

walk in extreme freedom. If you don't know Christ, now's the time invite

him into your heart. Just say Jesus, I want to know you.

I want you, as Lord and Savior, forgive me of my sins,

all my sins, those that I've confessed and those that I even don't even

know of that I need to confess. Thank you for forgiving me of my

sins. Thank you for cleansing me with your blood. I want to live

for you come into my heart, save me, make me whole from my

head to my toes. I confess with my I confess with my mouth that

Jesus is Lord, and I believe in my heart God raised Jesus from the

dead. Therefore I shall be saved. So if you prayed that prayer,

you are saved. Hallelujah. Send me an email and let me know about

it. I'll be happy to send something to you in the mail. If

you're a Christian already, you're a believer of Christ already, and you have

things that you need to address with the Lord. Hey, this is the

now time to walk in this extreme freedom. I mean there could be there

could be a variety of things that need addressed in your life, or it

could just be one little thing. Whatever it is, my friend, take

care of it. Let the river flow so that you may have times of

refreshing. That your sins will be blotted out and wiped clean. The Bible

says that once they are Jesus does not remember your sins, and they are

as far as the east is from the west, and so he's never going

to bring up your sins. The devil will, but Jesus won't. Amen

well, I hope this helps someone today and I really really do want you

to walk in this extreme freedom. So this is down. No. Well,

you can go to www dot pureheart dot Today and listen to this podcast

again. You can download download the iHeartRadio app, go to Pure Heart Ministries

and you can listen twenty four to seven. You can email me Don Dawn

at pure Heart dot Today, all lowercase letters, all one word and hey,

you better be praying for this ministry cause I'm countin on you, amen,

and I would surely love for you to please consider supporting this ministry.

You can send a check two Pure Heart Ministries, p O. Box eighty

five, Valley Grove, West Virginia. That's Pure Heart Ministries, p O.

Box eighty five, Valley Grove, West Virginia, two six O six

O. Well, this is Don Noble. I look forward to being with

you next week as we continue the series on the Road to Freedom. Shaloam

shalom, Peace be unto you.