Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bulletin here today.
And our verse of the week is Exodus 34 verse 30.
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shown, and they were afraid to come nigh him.
That will tie into the sermon. It will make more sense later on.
We are a family integrated church, meaning children and infants are welcome during the services.
We do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience, as well as the ladies comfort room.
The men's comfort room is up here in front.
Remember no eating during the service.
Maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service.
We have our service times listed at 10 a.m.
Short break in our 1130 service.
Wednesday evening Bible study is at 7 p.m.
So many times are listed there as well.
5 p.m. on Wednesdays.
Saturday 10 to 12 and also 2 to 4.
And then, of course, today we have so many around 2.15 p.m.
Salvations are listed there as well as baptisms, birthdays, and anniversaries.
On the next page, our Bible memorization challenge.
But I did want to take a couple minutes to explain the upcoming activities and a few things.
So we do have our prayer meeting here today.
And Mother's Day kind of quickly came up on us.
It's only like a few weeks away.
It's like really close to Easter this year.
So we do have ladies choir practice this week and next week.
And then we have choir performance in three weeks.
So as we did last year, we had the ladies sing for Mother's Day and the fathers for Father's Day.
So we're going to be doing that this year.
And so May 8th is actually Mother's Day.
And let's see.
The other thing is, so my family is actually going to be in Manila for the next month or so depending on when the baby is born.
So my wife is 35 weeks right now.
And so you're stuck with me on Wednesdays for the sermons.
Okay.
So I'm giving the guys a break from preaching on Wednesdays.
But I was born on a Sunday.
My wife was born on a Sunday.
Zeph was born on a Sunday.
Christabel was born on a Sunday.
I'm predicting May 8th, Mother's Day.
It just seems like the least appropriate, like the worst timing.
It's probably going to be May 8th.
So I've got two Mother's Day sermons to preach.
But probably neither one is going to be preached.
So you guys are going to have to preach about something about moms.
I don't know.
Okay.
But anyways, they'll get a break from preaching.
But obviously just be prepared just in case given, you know, you never know what's going to happen.
Because last time if you were at a church, I basically dropped off my wife.
I showed up to church to preach.
And all the guys like kicked me out of the church for the day and said, go be with your wife.
And then, you know, our daughter was born very quickly.
But anyways, so the other thing to announce is, you know, we've had our annual Ladies Tea Party.
We're not canceling the Ladies Tea Party, but we are delaying it.
So we're probably not going to have it in May.
It's probably going to be in June.
But, you know, we want to do it after our baby was born and my wife has time to recover.
So we're not canceling it this year.
We're just going to be kind of delaying that.
And so anyways, so that's the announcements for the upcoming activities and things going on.
Current and upcoming series, we are in the book of Daniel.
In terms of Genesis for Tuesday, so the Pampanga service, given everything that happened,
they're going to be doing live stream, just watching the Wednesday services for the next month.
So if you tune in on Tuesday, you're welcome to go to our Facebook, but there's going to be nothing popping up.
Right?
And so there's not going to be any sermons on Tuesday, but I'll be preaching here on Wednesdays, you know, as our normal midweek service.
Anyways, information on a group chat.
And then on the back, there is a place for the notes for the sermons here today.
So I believe that's it for announcements.
We'll have Brother Marlon lead us in another song.
In God's name, amen.
In your name, amen.
Amen.
And Exodus 34.
Exodus 34.
And as a
custom we will be reading the entire chapter.
Exodus 34,
please say Amen.
Amen.
Exodus 34.
Verse 1.
and can come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount,
neither let the plocks nor herds feed before the mount.
And he who tabled two tables of stone likened to the first,
and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai,
as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
and that will by no means clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children,
unto the third and to the fourth generation.
And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth in worship.
And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord,
let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people,
and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
And he said, Behold, I make a covenant, before all thy people I will do marvels,
such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation,
and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord,
for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
Observe thou that which I command thee to stay.
Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite,
the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee.
Why, ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves,
for thou shalt worship no other god, for the Lord his name is Jealous, as a jealous god.
Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land,
and they go ahoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods,
and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice.
And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons,
and their daughters go ahoring after their gods,
and make thy sons go ahoring after their gods.
Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
Feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep.
Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee,
in the time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
All that openeth the matrix is mine,
and every firstling among thy cattle whether ox or sheep that is male.
But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb,
and at thou redeemeth not, then shalt thou break his neck,
while the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem,
and none shalt appear before me empty.
Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest.
In earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
And thou shalt observe the feast of wheat,
so the first fruits of wheat harvest,
and the feast have been gathering at the year's end.
Thrice in the year ought shall all your men children
appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
For I will cast out the nations before thee,
and enlarge thy borders.
Neither shall any man desire thy land,
and may thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year.
Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.
Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left into the morning.
The first of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt not see the kid in his mother's milk.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Write thou these words, for after the tenor of these words
I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
And it was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.
He did neither eat bread nor drink water,
and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
And it came to pass,
when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand,
when he came down from the mount,
that Moses wished not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses,
behold, the skin of his face shone,
and they were afraid to come nigh him.
And Moses called unto them,
and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him,
and Moses talked with them.
And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh,
and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai.
And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him,
he took the veil off until he came out.
And he came out, and speaking to the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses,
that the skin of Moses' face shone,
and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Bless the word of God's word, let us pray.
Lord God, in heaven we take a look at what our states have given to us.
Our privilege would give us good weather, good health for our first day.
Please bless the preacher and the preaching of your word.
Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
And the name of the sermon is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Now, I'll explain what that means later on.
It's a pretty famous story in literature.
Maybe some of you are familiar with that story.
I've read that book before in the past.
Maybe a lot of you are not familiar.
First, I want to just explain this chapter
and show you how it ties together with this story and what I'm preaching about.
But notice what it says in Exodus 34, verse 1.
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first,
and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables,
which thou breakest.
Now, of course, Moses broke those tables in Exodus 32,
the very famous story of the golden calf.
He gets very angry.
And in the story, you know, God is very angry,
and Moses thinks maybe God is too angry,
but then when Moses sees what's going on,
he's like, man, and he smashes them.
And so that's what he's referencing there in verse 1.
Verse 2,
And be ready in the morning,
and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai,
and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
And no man shall come up with thee,
neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount,
neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first,
and Moses rose up early in the morning.
So Moses is given very basic and simple instructions by God,
but realize these are not easy to do
because he's climbing a mountain.
And symbolically speaking, if you want to get close to God,
it is an uphill climb.
It's a difficult thing.
It's not an easy little jog.
No, it's actually a hike.
It's actually very difficult to get close to God,
you know, spiritually speaking.
And he rises up early in the morning,
and went up unto Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him,
and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
Now, drop down to verse number 27, Exodus 34 verse 27.
This is one of those chapters in the Bible that you can read over
and not really get, you know, why it's so significant.
It's actually my favorite chapter in the book of Exodus.
It's actually a very interesting chapter.
And you can see that here at the end of this chapter.
Verse 27,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words,
for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
And he was with the Lord, and he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights.
He did neither eat bread nor drink water,
and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
So for forty days, in a physical, literal sense,
Moses is actually close to God, okay?
Now look, everything in the Old Testament is written for our understanding and our benefits.
There are certain things that maybe they don't directly apply to us,
but when you see these physical examples, it gives us a spiritual example.
For us personally, we're not going to spend forty days physically right beside God talking to him, okay?
But spiritually, we can draw close to God.
And here's what happens to Moses as he's physically close to God.
Verse number 29,
And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand,
when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not.
Now, wist not, that's a very, I don't know, makalumong, archaic sort of wording there,
but it means he was not aware.
He did not have knowledge.
He did not realize. He wist not.
He was not aware of what?
He wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
So when he is physically close to God, there is a physical change that takes place to Moses.
His face becomes very bright. It shines, okay?
But as we understand, God is light, right?
And in a physical sense here, he actually got a little bit of that light as he was close to God.
Now, for us personally, we're not Pentecostals, right?
I'm certainly not a Pentecostal, right?
If you draw close to God and you just physically change and your light is really bright,
your face is really shining bright, that's not going to happen, okay?
But this is written for us in a spiritual sense to teach us something.
Physically, Moses was physically close to God and physically he changed.
For us, when we spiritually draw close to God, what is going to take place?
We are spiritually going to change.
We're going to be different people, right?
I mean, if you've been saved for many years and serving God,
you're probably a lot different than you were many years ago.
The interests you have, the things you think about, the things you meditate upon, right?
The jokes that you find funny, your entertainment, things like that,
it's probably different, or at least it should be, right?
Because you're changing when you draw close to God.
And Moses, he wished not that the skin of his face shone.
Because look, as a guy, you don't bring a mirror up to the top of a mountain to see how you look.
Now, if this was a lady, I don't really know.
If this was Miriam, maybe, you know, she would have seen, hey, my face is shining.
As a guy, he is not aware that his face is shining.
Obviously, without a mirror, you can't see what your face is going to look like, right?
Then it says in verse 30,
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone,
and they were afraid to come nigh him.
So, look, obviously this makes sense because Moses was close to God,
and then they see Moses and they recognize him, but he's very different, right?
Physically, he's a lot different, and they're just wondering what's going on,
and they're afraid to actually come close to him, okay?
And I'll explain that later on during the sermon.
But verse 31,
And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him.
And Moses talked with them.
And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with them in Mount Sinai.
And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
And look, you know, this is a very famous and important story,
and the reason why we know this is this is quoted and referenced in the New Testament
when Paul is preaching to the church of Corinth.
This is an important story. It's teaching a very important spiritual truth, okay?
Verse 34,
But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out,
and he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
So basically, you know, he puts a veil over his face as he's talking to the children of Israel,
which is kind of hiding some of the light on his face.
Verse 35,
And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses that the skin of Moses' face shone,
and Moses put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with him.
Now, I'm going to reference this chapter a lot and explain what's going on here as we go through the sermon.
Turn in your Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
2 Corinthians chapter 5.
2 Corinthians 5.
When Moses physically drew close to God, there was a physical change that took place to him.
Now, once again, this is not going to take place to us physically having a change.
But things that are written are meant for our understanding and benefit,
and they usually teach a literal truth, but there's a spiritual application we can make.
And the Bible's saying that when you draw close to God, you are going to change, okay?
Now, you say, what's up with the sermon title, though?
What is Dr. Jekyll and what is Mr. Hyde?
Okay, so this is a pretty famous story in literature, and let me just say right off the bat,
I'm not recommending you read this story.
You know, I have read this story before, but I'm not saying I recommend it
because there are a lot of bad things in this story, but it teaches a very good spiritual truth.
In the story, you've got this guy named Dr. Jekyll, and he's very well respected.
I mean, he's a doctor.
I mean, he has a lot of money.
He's successful, very good-looking guy.
Everyone loves him, you know, thought of very high in the community,
one of the most respected people in the community.
Then you've got this other character named Mr. Hyde, which is basically the opposite of Dr. Jekyll.
Dr. Jekyll's very good-looking. Mr. Hyde is very ugly, right?
Dr. Jekyll's really successful and well respected.
Mr. Hyde is in and out of prison, right, getting into trouble.
And in the story, actually, neither one of these characters is the main character.
There's other people that are, like, looking in on their lives,
but these two people become very close friends.
And you've got Dr. Jekyll, and then you've got this other guy, Mr. Hyde,
and it's like, why would Dr. Jekyll be friends with Mr. Hyde?
Now, when you're reading the story, I think it's meant to be obvious, it was obvious to me,
these are the same person, because they're never around each other.
Everyone sees Mr. Hyde going into Dr. Jekyll's house,
and they assume they're really close friends.
They're actually the same person, though, and you find that out at the very end of the story,
they were actually the same person.
In the story, what takes place is that Dr. Jekyll has a bit of a dark side.
He has a bit of a bad side, and what he would do is take this magic potion,
and when he took this, he turned into this older ego, Mr. Hyde,
and all the sinful desires he had, he would actually start to do those things,
and then the potion wears off, and he becomes Dr. Jekyll,
and he's trying to hide the fact that this is actually him during the story,
but the bad side takes over.
Now, the same is true in a spiritual sense in the opposite way, okay?
Now, here's the thing about it, in our sense, in reality, we are all sinners.
Our natural state is like Mr. or Mrs. Hyde, so we can apply this to ladies as well, okay?
And so our natural state is we're sinners.
Our natural state is we're worldly, we're prideful, right?
We're full of envy and lust, we're full of these sins.
That is our natural state, but you know what?
We can take a magic potion, so to speak,
and become a new and a different person where people don't recognize us.
See, that is what takes place in Exodus 34,
where Moses physically changes.
For us, it's not going to be a physical change, but it's going to be a spiritual change.
And see, the old you has certain interests and sinful desires.
However, if you draw close to God, you literally become a new person.
Literally, you become a new man.
Now, you don't look different.
Physically, there's no change, but you become a different person, okay?
Point number one, and let me just say this, I'm using this example loosely.
I'm not recommending the story.
And also, in the story, it's pretty obvious the guy's a psychopath.
Before you're saved, you're not a child of the devil.
You are a sinner, though, okay?
So I'm not taking this story literally fact for fact, exactly like Bible Christianity,
but it does give us a good example of what takes place spiritually when we draw close to God.
Point number one, the change into a new person does not happen at salvation.
It does not happen at salvation.
And this is where most people get mixed up, because people have this idea,
you know, I had these sinful desires, then I got saved, and I just want to do right,
and I'm always Dr. Jekyll.
That's not what the Bible teaches, though.
Notice what it says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, that's a reference to somebody being saved,
he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.
What takes place at salvation is a new creature is inside of you.
You get born again, you've got the new man, you are indwelled with the Holy Ghost, okay?
Old things are passed away, meaning your unsaved spiritual state is passed away, it's gone.
Just like the Bible says that, you know, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me,
you know, shall not come into combination, but is passed from death unto light.
And that old man, that unsaved spiritual state is passed away.
But here's the thing, your sinful flesh still exists.
You've got the new man indwelling you, but you still have the old man.
Your unsaved spiritual state has changed, but the flesh, the old man, still exists.
So what takes place at salvation is not that the old man is completely removed,
or that the old man changes, now you've got a good state and a bad state.
You've got the old man and the new man.
You've got the Mr. Hyde aspect and you've got the Dr. Jekyll aspect, so to speak, okay?
Turn your Bible to Romans 8, Romans 8, Romans 8.
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but Moses was already saved before Exodus 34, right?
I mean, he was saved obviously before the age of 40, because at the age of 40, by faith,
he had rejected the Egyptian religion and he knew he was of the Hebrews, right?
He had accepted the Hebrew God by the age of 40.
So he had already heard the gospel before the age of 40.
He's over 80 years old in Exodus 34, whatever the exact age.
He's older than 80 years old.
He's been saved for a long time, but you know what?
He didn't physically change immediately.
And see, here's the thing, when you get saved,
you're not going to spiritually change immediately right when you get saved.
It's not automatic.
Romans 8, verse 19.
We are expecting very excitedly or very earnestly the manifestation of the sons of God.
We are waiting for a physical manifestation to take place of our salvation.
That has not taken place yet, right?
It will take place at the rapture, whether we're dead or alive,
we're going to get the glorified body.
But until that time, we're not going to get that manifestation of the fact that we're sons of God.
I personally have changed a lot since I've been saved,
but you know, other than looking older than when I got saved,
I look pretty much the same.
My hair color's the same.
My height's the same.
My eye color's the same.
I mean, everything's the same because there's no physical change that takes place.
I can't hand you today my salvation and say, here it is.
Here's my proof of my salvation.
I can't do that.
But we are waiting for the manifestation because we do believe we'll get the resurrected body.
We believe we'll get the glorified body.
We know it's going to take place, but I don't have physical proof of that here today.
Verse number 20.
And see, the Bible's saying one day we're going to be delivered from this bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty.
You say, I thought that we had liberty when we get saved, but we still sin.
And the problem is, I don't want to sin.
You don't want to sin.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
And look, you can't really say you're free when you're doing things you don't want to do.
Right?
How's that freedom?
I mean, we're not completely free because of the fact we still sin.
We still do wrong.
We don't want to do it.
We know it's wrong.
And yet we find ourselves doing things every single day that we don't want to do.
Why?
We don't have 100% liberty yet.
We still have this bondage of corruption.
We still have the old man that is fighting us every single day.
And every single one of us, we sin every single day.
We do not have 100% liberty because we still sin.
Okay?
Verse number 22.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they referencing unsaved people, not only they, not only the whole world, but
ourselves also.
Us that are saved also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body.
Now, look, the difference between us and unsaved people is the fact we will get a glorified
body.
They have the bondage of corruption as well.
They do things they don't want to do.
They're under that sinful nature that they can't get rid of.
All of us, our bodies get older.
They decay.
Eventually this body will pass away and you get a glorified body.
It's not just saved people.
Unsaved people deal with it as well.
The difference is we're going to get a glorified body one day.
We are waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body.
Okay?
Verse 24, for we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.
For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
What the Bible's saying is that hope is basically a sure thing that you know is going to take
place, but you don't have the physical manifestation or the physical proof of it.
We are earnestly expecting it and waiting for it and we know it's going to take place.
But I have no physical proof of that.
Right?
This is why I don't try to get in debates to try to prove Christianity or prove what
I believe.
If people want to listen to the Gospel, praise the Lord.
We'll explain it.
If they want to get into an argument and look at all this logic, it's like it's a waste
of time.
They're not going to get saved anyway.
I cannot prove to you like a math problem that what I believe is correct.
But I do know that what I believe is correct about salvation.
There's no question about it.
But they have to take it by faith.
And look, as I said last week, our faith in what we believe is logical.
It makes sense.
But people still need to take it by faith.
And there's no physical proof.
There's no physical sign I can give you today to prove that.
Verse 25, but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
So look, this is what we are patiently waiting for.
We are waiting for the glorified body.
Now look, I personally want to live a long life.
You know, I dream about, you know, seeing, you know, spending time with my grandkids,
you know, being a lot older.
The whole family is together.
They're all soul winners, of course, at least in the dreams, right?
And then the whole family loves God and everything like that.
I personally would like to just die at a good old age from natural causes.
That's what I would hope for.
Of course, we don't know what's going to take place, whether the end times will take place
in our life.
But I still am looking forward to having a glorified body because, you know, it's frustrating
to do wrong and feel guilty about it.
And it's like, why do I keep making these mistakes?
You know, there's some people that are actually saved and they get confused by false teachers
and then they wonder if I'm saved, why am I still sinning?
Why am I still doing wrong?
Because they're being lied to by people that are preaching.
The Bible never says that when you get saved, you immediately get that glorified body
and you're not going to sin.
You're still going to sin.
You're still going to do wrong.
Paul said the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
If Paul the Apostle struggled with this, so do we.
You say, why?
Because when you get saved, Mr. Hyde does not turn into Dr. Jekyll.
You still have Mr. or Mrs. Hyde.
What you have is Dr. Jekyll as well, and now you've got a choice of what you're going to do.
Okay?
Turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15.
You say, what are you trying to say, Brother Stuckey?
Here's what I'm saying.
If a drunk gets saved today, he is still a drunk.
And he still wants to drink, and he still desires to drink just as much as he did before.
And honestly, it would be shocking if he never drank another drink of alcohol.
If a drunk gets saved today, he's still a drunk.
Because salvation is by faith.
It doesn't say your desires change when you get saved.
I mean, the Mr. Hyde aspect still exists when you get saved.
Someone who's addicted to cigarettes, they are still addicted to cigarettes
after they get saved.
Someone who's prideful, still prideful afterwards.
Someone who's bitter, still bitter afterwards.
Someone who's envious, they're still envious after they get saved.
I think a lot of people have this idea that when you get saved,
it's going to be very easy to serve God and to do right.
We explain to people the Gospel, and they believe on Jesus, and they get saved.
I think inside a lot of their minds, they're thinking,
man, it's going to be so much easier to serve God and to do right.
And what they do not realize is Mr. Hyde did not change at all.
You still have that same sinful nature that desires the same exact things.
Now, what can take place is you can start feeling very guilty about some of the things you're doing
because you've got the Holy Spirit inside of you, but you still have those same desires.
For me personally, I watched a lot of movies and listened to a lot of bad music before I was saved,
and I didn't really feel guilty about it.
After I got saved, I started to feel very guilty about it,
but I still desired to listen to that same music.
And you say, well, what took place? Did you ever get rid of it?
Yeah, over time as I drew close to God, a change took place, but it didn't happen at salvation.
I still desired the exact same things after I got saved.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 31.
And the Bible says here in 1 Corinthians, and point number one is the change does not happen at salvation.
Point two, the change happens when you draw close to God.
When you walk in the Spirit, when you start to obey the Spirit as opposed to the flesh,
that is when a change is going to take place in your life.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 31.
This is Paul the Apostle saying on a daily basis, I die daily.
Now look, why does he have to die daily if he's already saved?
Because of the fact every single day you've got to kill off the Mr. Hyde.
You've got to kill off the old man.
You've got to kill off the sinful nature.
Every single day you make that choice.
It's not something that's automatic.
You've got these Calvinists that say, well, before you're saved, you desire all the wrong things,
you're a wicked child of the devil, then you got saved, and then boom,
all you want to do is read the Bible and go to church and do right.
Well, if that's the case, why do you still sin?
Because just about everybody in this world will admit that they still sin.
So if all you do is desire what's right, why are you still sinning?
Doesn't make sense.
Now what I'm saying makes sense.
Because when you get saved, you still have those sinful desires.
When you get saved, you know what?
Nothing changes with your flesh.
Those desires remain the same.
Okay?
Turn your Bible to Luke 9.
Luke 9.
Luke chapter 9.
Luke chapter 9, verse 23.
The Bible reads,
And he said to them all,
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
And the Bible speaks about denying yourself.
What it's saying is denying the wills of the flesh,
denying the desire of the Mr. Hyde, so to speak.
Basically, your sinful nature has certain desires,
and you've got to kill that off daily.
You've got to deny yourself.
See, the spiritual man wants to read the Bible.
The spiritual man wants to go to church.
The spiritual man wants to go soul winning today.
Right?
But the flesh does not.
The flesh said, let me just get a couple hours of sleep this morning.
Right?
The flesh wants to do wrong.
The flesh would rather watch the NBA playoffs today than be in church.
Right?
If you're a sports fan.
Okay?
But the spiritual man wants to be in church and serving God and going soul winning and doing right.
And you see, you've got to deny your desires of your flesh on a daily basis.
You say, why?
Because when you got saved, those desires didn't change.
You still have those same desires.
And look, you've got to do it every single day and deny them.
Now look, I don't want you to misunderstand me because it does get easier with time.
I have never smoked a cigarette before, but anyone who smokes cigarettes will say that,
you know what, when you quit, it's very hard at first, but the desire gets less as time goes by.
And if you've gone six months without smoking, your desire for it is less than if you've
gone a day without smoking.
Right?
Or if you quit drinking, if you've gone a year without it, your desire is going to be less.
Now, that desire is still going to be in there somewhere.
If you've ever struggled with something, you better make sure you watch that your whole
life because that could be a pitfall for you in the future.
But it does get better with time.
But the idea is you've got to choose to deny yourself.
And what you can do is starve off the flesh.
You can die daily, symbolically speaking, and starve off the desires of the flesh.
Okay?
Now look, be very careful not to take me too literally.
Right?
It's not like I'm going to take up my cross daily and follow me.
Right?
And then I die daily and they're literally like crucifying themselves.
Or like the ascetics in Hinduism that literally starve their bodies.
Right?
That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm saying is starving off sinful desires.
We're not saying don't eat bread.
Okay?
We're saying don't basically feed the sinful desires.
Make sure you kill off those sinful desires by starving those appetites out and choosing
to do what's right.
Turn to John 12.
John chapter 12.
John 12.
Look, I can say from personal experience, you know, I've made changes in the last, you
know, 18 years of my life being saved.
And you know what?
I have starved off certain desires I used to have that I don't desire them anymore.
I'm sure, like for example, you know, I used to listen to, you know, Aerosmith and rock
music and I really enjoyed that music.
I honestly have no interest in listening to Aerosmith today.
If I heard it on the radio, I really don't think that my heart would go down that road.
Now, if I started listening though day after day, those desires would probably come back
because my flesh likes the sound of that music.
Right?
So what I'm saying is this.
You can actually kill off sinful desires by not feeding it.
And if you've been saved for a while and serving God, there are probably things that
you used to really like and now your desire for it is kind of faded.
You say, why?
Because you're not feeding it.
Right?
It's like an addiction that you're feeding and you know what?
You're not feeding it and keeping it going.
You're actually starving it out when you don't.
What I've said before is this.
Your feelings follow your actions and that is what the Bible teaches.
You choose to do the right actions and your feelings follow down that road with it.
Okay?
John 12 verse 24.
Very, very, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it
abideth alone.
But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
What the Bible is saying is a corn of wheat, if it does not die, it's not going to reproduce
itself at all.
Same thing with us spiritually.
Unless we choose to die to sell and deny the desires of the flesh, we are going to abide
alone, meaning we're not going to bear fruits.
We're not going to get people saved.
Look, if you want to get a lot of people saved in your life, you got to deny your flesh.
You got to deny the desires of the flesh and starve it off and die daily.
And the more you die daily, the more fruit you're going to produce.
But if you say, well, brother Stuckey, I want to serve God.
I really do, but I still want to do everything else I used to do.
Well, you're going to abide alone.
That's what the Bible is teaching.
You got to make a choice.
Everybody wants to serve God.
They just don't want to go through the steps that are required to actually do it.
Right?
Everybody would say, yes, you know what?
I want to obey God in my life.
I want to do what's right.
I want God to be pleased with me.
Well, here's the requirements.
Don't listen to this.
Don't watch this.
Right?
Make sure you're reading your Bible every morning.
Oh, I don't want to do that.
Can't I just listen to like, you know, our God is an awesome God or something?
Right?
People don't want to go through the requirements necessary to actually serve God and do right.
Now, praise the Lord for us that salvation is just believe on Jesus.
We don't have to do anything.
But if you want to serve God, you got to make some real changes in your life.
Turn your Bible to Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
Ephesians chapter 4.
Look, I wish I could give you an easier solution.
I wish there was just like this magic potion, so to speak.
Right?
You just drink this and you immediately turn into Dr. Jacqueline.
You just serve God all day long.
Right?
It's like your daily medicine that you get or whatever.
Doesn't work that way.
Right?
The actual answer, and we'll talk about this at the end of the sermon, is actually spending
time with God alone, one on one.
That takes real time.
It's a lot easier to drink a pill.
It takes like 10 seconds.
Right?
But if you want to actually get close to God, you got to spend real time with God.
It's not going to happen in 10 seconds.
Okay?
Or not Galatians, but Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4.
Ephesians 4 verse 22.
The Bible tells us that what we need to do is put off the old man and put on the new man.
You say, brother Sucky, isn't this what takes place at salvation?
No.
This is not talking about salvation.
You say, what is the proof?
Verse 23 is the proof.
It says be renewed.
Being renewed, it's something that you had knowledge about, but it kind of faded out.
And you have to bring it back to your memory.
And so here's the thing.
If you used to have this sort of knowledge, and it needs to be renewed, that means it
didn't just take place one time at salvation.
It's saying every time you read the Bible, you get renewed, and you got to keep putting
off the old man, every single day be renewed.
Put off the old man, put on the new man.
Every single day make that decision.
Put off Mr. and Mrs. Hyde.
Put on Dr. Jekyll.
Every single day you got to make that choice.
It's not automatic because you got to be renewed.
Why does it say renewed?
Here's why.
Because we read the Bible, we hear sermons, it makes sense, and we live out in the world
24-7, 168 hours during the week, and we get brainwashed by the world every single day.
And look, whether you realize it or not, you're getting brainwashed every day.
You just have to walk into a supermarket and see the way people are dressed and the music.
You get brainwashed.
And I'm not saying you got to avoid those things because we live in the world.
We got to be in the world.
What I'm saying though is most people aren't serving God.
And you see these things, it brainwashes you.
Look, it doesn't matter how bizarre it is that men dress as women all the time in this country.
You see it over and over again, starts to feel normal.
Right?
I mean, it seems a lot more normal to me now than it did three or four years ago when I lived in the U.S.
Because in the U.S., even in San Francisco, they don't dress like that.
Right?
Now, the difference is in San Francisco, they actually are more like touchy-feely, which is probably worse.
But I'm just saying, you don't see guys dressing as women in the United States very often.
Right?
Here, it's all the time.
What happens?
You get brainwashed.
If you see something, it starts to seem very normal, even though it's not normal.
Right?
Turn your Bible to Galatians 5.
Galatians 5.
And in Galatians 5, we see this comparison between basically the old man and the new man.
And the Bible also uses the terminology basically, you know, walking in the lust of the flesh and then walking in the spirit.
Okay?
There's different ways to express the same idea.
But Galatians 5, verse 16.
This I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Now, once again, in verse 16, he's commanding you to walk in the spirit.
And he's saying, if you walk in the spirit, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Once again, if it's automatic, why does he have to tell you walk in the spirit?
But it's not automatic, just because you're saved.
Verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary to one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
And here's the thing, if you walk in the flesh, you cannot do what's right.
Look, if you're living a very sinful life, it's kind of hard to pick up the Bible and spend time with God and read it.
You don't desire it, you don't feel like doing it, and when you do read, you just aren't paying attention.
If you're living a sinful life, it's kind of hard to go soul winning.
If you're living a sinful life, it's kind of hard to walk into church, you feel guilty about it, right?
And if you're fulfilling the lust of the flesh, you can't do what's right.
This is why you can't choose to serve God and your old sinful desires.
You've got to make a choice.
You cannot do both.
Then it says this in verse number 18,
But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variants, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.
Of the which I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now, look, verse 21 is just like Revelation 21a, where it's showing you that if you're guilty of any of these things,
you can't earn your way to heaven by your works, is what it's saying.
Just like the Bible says, all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.
That's not saying you've got to become perfect to get to heaven.
It's showing you that if you're trusting in your works, you're going to be guilty.
But these things are coming out of your flesh.
These sinful desires, they don't come from God.
They come from your sinful flesh.
That's where those desires come from, and these things are possible sins in your flesh.
That's the Mr. or Mrs. Hyde aspect of who you are.
And look, that side of you will be with you until the day you die.
It's kind of scary. I mean, you look at murders.
I mean, it's kind of scary that that's actually possible in our sinful flesh, killing somebody.
But you know what? Hatred is something that's very common for people.
You get angry without a cause, and if you don't get control of yourself, it can bubble over into major sins in your life.
And these things are possible in the Mr. Hyde aspect of who you are.
Then it says this in verse 22,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.
See, when you're walking in the new man, you're going to be filled with love.
You're going to be filled with joy.
You're going to be filled with peace.
These things are going to exist when you're walking in the new man.
This is why we say, you know, the number one thing that you could want for your spouse is to love God,
because the more they love God, the more they're going to love you.
They're going to have love if they're walking in the new man.
If they're not walking in the new man, then it's just not going to be the same, right?
You want them above anything to serve God, and that's going to cause them to love you more.
I mean, talk about joy. Talk about happiness.
Look, people that are serving God are happy people.
When you're doing right, you're happy. Is that not true?
When you're serving God and doing right, you're happy.
Look, we go out soul winning sometimes, and sometimes we're tired, we're exhausted,
and our flesh is fighting against us, but we do it anyway because we know we're supposed to,
and everybody's doing it, and we get done, and we're filled full of joy, filled full of happiness.
I can't really remember getting done with soul winning and just being in a bad mood, right?
Now, there was one time, all right, on a side point, one time after soul winning,
I had a really great soul winning story in the U.S., I got excited.
I kind of bumped another car when I was driving, and I wasn't so happy after that, right?
But usually when you get done with soul winning, you're in a good mood, right?
Regardless of whether you got somebody saved because somebody at our church is going to get somebody saved,
and you're going to be excited, okay?
By the way, I didn't cause any damage. It was like very, very light.
Nothing really happened, but I was very scared because it's like, oh man, you know,
your insurance rates can go up and everything, but anyways, that's a totally different topic.
Now turn to your Bible. Actually, I'm changing the order here.
So turn your Bible to 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1.
But look, those are the things that are going to be exhibiting in you when you're serving God.
Love, joy, peace, long suffering.
See, the person who's not serving God, they get angry really quickly.
No patience, not long suffering at all.
But you know, when you're serving God, you give people the benefit of the doubt.
You're long suffering toward people. You're not quick to be angry.
When you're serving God, you're gentle, you're good.
Meekness is essentially humbleness in action, and the contrary would be filled full of pride.
And when you're serving God, you're going to be meek, you're going to be humble,
you're going to have a good attitude.
When you're not serving God, you're going to act like Mr. Hyde, right?
You're going to be a completely different person.
And so look, if you're serving God, you're going to be one way.
If you're not serving God, you're going to be another way.
And you can literally become a completely new man because literally, there's an old man and a new man.
And when you're walking in the Spirit, it's the new man that's coming forth.
And people might look at you and say, you've changed.
You're different, right? You didn't get a haircut.
What's changed about you?
And it's because you're serving God, you're actually becoming different as you serve God, right?
Point number one, the change does not happen at salvation.
Point two, the change happens when you walk in the Spirit.
Point three, we have free will to choose every single day, are we going to be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?
We have free will.
Once again, you've got these churches who will preach that, well, when you get saved, it's just automatic to serve God.
It's not the case.
Look, Moses had a choice to walk up that mountain or not, right?
Moses had a choice, am I going to stay there for 40 days or not?
He could have walked down the mountain, right?
He had a free will choice.
And look, if you're going to draw close to God, it's a free will choice.
It's up to you whether you're going to serve the old man or the new man.
It says in 1 Peter 1 verse 13,
Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind.
Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought on you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children,
not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.
The Bible says in your former lusts in your ignorance.
And the truth is that before someone's saved, and even after they're saved, before they really know the Bible,
they do a lot of things in sin ignorantly.
They are not aware that what they're doing is even wrong, right?
Sometimes you show people things in the Bible and they're like,
I had no idea that this was wrong.
Had no idea what's up, right?
They do it in their ignorance.
They don't know.
And that's not a term to be insulting.
It just means without knowledge.
All of us had a lot of things we did not have knowledge about before.
Things we did, things that were wrong, and we just didn't even know.
And as you start serving God, you start learning these things.
You start learning, wow, this is wrong?
This is wrong?
I had no idea.
It's basically the light is shining very bright,
and you're seeing all the problems that exist that you had no idea about.
Now, here's the thing.
It's good to know when there's problems.
I get it.
Nobody wants to go to the doctors and get a bad report,
but isn't it good to know if your blood pressure's high or, you know, whatever?
I don't know a lot about medical stuff, so I'm going to sound stupid.
But isn't it good to know you got problems that you got to fix?
Now, of course, you want to go to the doctors and find out nothing's wrong.
But if there is something wrong, isn't it better to know it?
So, look, it's not a bad thing when you start realizing there's problems,
but I understand it can be frustrating because you didn't realize you had all these problems,
and sometimes you go to a church like this,
and there's all these problems that are showing themselves.
That's a good thing because if you don't fix that problem,
if you don't fix the high blood pressure, it's going to cause something bigger down the road.
So you need to get a hold of it, you know, at a low level first, right?
Verse 16, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.
And so, once again, God is commanding them, be ye holy.
Well, if it's automatic, why does he have to command it?
Right?
I mean, if it's automatic, why does God have to command be ye holy?
But you're going to be holy anyway.
It doesn't make any sense.
It's written in the command form.
He's in the imperative form, be ye holy, because it's something we have a free will choice.
It's not automatic, so he's commanding.
Look, if I know my son is going to do something, I don't have to command him to do it.
But if I doubt that he's going to do it, I command him.
Clean up the room.
Why did I say that?
Because I don't think he's going to do it on his own, right?
So I command him, hey, clean up the room before you go to sleep, right?
Now, turn your body to 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2, 1 Peter 2.
So you've got this free will choice every day.
Are you going to walk in the old man or are you going to walk in the new man?
It is completely up to you.
It's not a guarantee.
I will say that as time goes by, it gets easier to walk in the new man.
When you first develop a habit of reading the Bible, it's probably pretty hard.
But once you get into that habit, it's a lot easier.
It's just kind of part of your life, right?
But it's still a free will choice you make every single day.
1 Peter 2, verse 1.
Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.
Once again, God is commanding you to desire the word of God.
If it's automatic, he wouldn't have to command you to desire the sincere milk of the word,
but it's not automatic.
And look, there's thousands of verses that prove that, that we have free will to make these choices.
And when you get saved, it's not automatic that you're going to serve God.
You have that free will choice.
Now, go to Exodus 34. Exodus 34.
We'll look at a few more places. Exodus 34.
Exodus 34.
See, for Moses, he had been saved for a long time.
He didn't have this physical change.
You could be saved for 40 years.
There's not going to be a spiritual change just because you've been saved for 40 years.
You've got to actually draw close to God to make an actual change.
For Moses, the change took place when he actually drew close to God.
In a physical sense, he drew near to God.
For us, the Bible says, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you, right?
Spiritually speaking, okay?
For Moses, he had a free will choice to climb that mountain or not,
and he had a free will choice to stay there.
For you, you have a free will choice.
It is up to you whether you draw close to God or not.
And look, God said, draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
He wants you to draw close to him, right?
God's ready, but he's not going to force you.
You have to choose to draw nigh to God.
Now, I don't know how you reinterpret these things if you're a Calvinist.
It's just like, it doesn't make any sense.
But God says, draw nigh to God, draw nigh to me, and I will draw nigh to you.
But it's your choice if you're going to draw nigh or draw near to God.
It's up to you.
Point number four, when you do draw nigh to God,
people will be afraid or not know what to think of the new you
because there's going to be a change, okay?
Notice what it says in Exodus 34, verse 30.
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses,
behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him.
You see, when Moses physically actually changed in his face,
the children of Israel, even Aaron and his brother,
they were afraid to come close to Moses.
They were like, what is going on?
They didn't know what to think.
Isn't it true that many of you have experienced that
once you started serving God, some of your old friends and family
and co-workers are like kind of hesitant to be near you, right?
You start serving God, and then they just don't know what to think.
And you're talking about the Bible.
And here's the thing about this.
Moses didn't realize that he changed.
And when somebody starts serving God and doing right,
they don't realize they're changing, spiritually speaking.
What takes place is, although we believe in separation when necessary,
the reality is usually your old friends, they separate from you.
Usually you don't have to separate from them.
They usually separate from you.
Because when you first get saved and first start serving God,
you try to bring people to your level, very rarely works.
Now, I'm not saying it never works, but it usually does not work, right?
It's not the normal case.
Usually your friends that you were close friends with before you were saved,
they don't actually like the new you.
Look, I don't watch the same movies I watched before I was saved.
I don't watch, you know, The Godfather, Scarface, Pulp Fiction.
You know what?
That's what I watched before I was saved.
And here's the thing.
People that enjoy those movies, if I'm like, oh, we shouldn't watch that,
it's bad, right?
There's murder in it.
There's drugs and all this stuff.
They're just like, what's wrong with you, Mr. Bible Thumper,
holier than thou, right?
And all of a sudden they're mad at you because of the fact that you feel
guilty about that stuff, right?
You know, when I was a lot younger, you know,
my favorite TV show for a while was Family Guy.
I thought it was a really funny show,
and I even watched it some after I was saved,
but they blasphemed God quite a bit.
And I remember seeing the last time I watched an episode of that show,
and they just made fun of God, and I was just like,
I'm never watching this again.
It's like, that's not funny.
And here's the thing.
Your jokes and your sense of humor change after you're saved.
So I gave this example recently.
I remember, you know, many years ago,
there's this guy, he had just gotten saved and just started serving God,
and, you know, he told this joke to a group of us at church,
and it's a joke that in the flesh would probably be pretty funny,
but we're all just kind of sitting there like,
oh, this is very inappropriate, right?
And we didn't say anything.
And he literally said, that joke was inappropriate, wasn't it?
We're like, yeah, just a little bit, right?
But the reality is that when you get saved and when you actually start
serving God, you know what, your sense of humor,
there's certain things that before you found funny,
now it's not so funny, right?
You just become different.
Your interests change.
Your desires change.
And whether you realize it or not,
the old Jew didn't talk about the Bible.
As you start serving God, the Bible just kind of comes out.
Why is that?
I cannot help but speak the things which I have seen and heard.
You're listening to preaching all the time.
You're reading the Bible.
What's going to come out of your mouth?
Stuff about the Bible.
Stuff about serving God.
If you're watching movies and listening to sinful music,
what's going to come out of your mouth?
Stuff out of that entertainment world.
You're a different person.
And what takes place is Aaron and the children of Israel,
they're afraid to come nigh him.
And look, we've all experienced that if you started serving God
where people you used to be friends with,
they actually kind of separate from you.
You're a little bit too spiritual for them.
They don't want to be around, even if they're saved.
This happens oftentimes with saved people.
There's other people that are just a little bit more zealous,
and they don't feel comfortable being around that group of people
because they don't want to talk about the Bible that much.
They want to kind of serve God and kind of not serve God,
and they feel uncomfortable.
This takes place.
All the more reason to be part of a good church
around fellow like-minded people.
Because in this room, here's the thing,
I'm glad if you change.
You start talking about the Bible more, great.
I'm not afraid of the new you.
Now, we'll notice the new you
if you start talking about the Bible more,
but that's a good thing to us.
But to unsaved people or to worldly people,
it's not a good thing because they still want to be worldly.
Turn your Bible to 1 Samuel 10, 1 Samuel 10, 1 Samuel 10.
We'll look at just a couple more places, 1 Samuel 10.
Look, when you start serving God,
you literally become a different person
because there's the old man, and there's the new man.
It's not just clever terminology or being poetic.
I mean, the Bible's telling you literally
that these are two different people.
You got the old man, and you got the new man.
And look, the Mr. Hyde aspect
or the Mrs. Hyde aspect of yourself,
it's always going to exist.
It's there.
But as you choose to do right, you're walking in the new man.
That is what is going to be coming out,
but these are two different people
that have different interests, right?
And when you're serving God and doing right,
that's the new man.
It's different than how you used to be.
Look, none of us really notice a major change in our lives
because day by day, it's a small change that takes place.
Over time, it adds up though.
Just think about just from a secular example,
think about if you're going on a diet
and trying to lose weight or something like that,
you're not going to notice a major change from day to day
because not much change is in one day, right?
But if you do that for months and months,
there's a major change.
It's the same thing with serving God.
You start reading the Bible for the first time now
if you've never read the Bible,
and you do it every day for 30 minutes.
After a couple months, you're going to be very different
than you were a couple months before
because over time of a couple months,
you're drawing close to God,
and you want that light is shining on you,
not physically, but spiritually speaking,
you draw to the light,
and you're going to start being more like Christ.
You're going to start being more like God
as you get close to God.
There's going to be a change.
Let me give you one other example of this.
1 Samuel 10, verse 10.
And when they came thither to the hill,
behold, a company of prophets met him,
referring to the story of King Saul,
and the Spirit of God came upon him,
came upon King Saul, and he prophesied among them.
And it came to pass when all that knew him before time,
notice that wording,
all that knew him before time
saw that behold he prophesied among the prophets.
Then the people said one to another,
what is this that has come unto the son of Kish?
Is Saul also among the prophets?
I mean, they're confused.
Everybody who knew him before like Saul's a preacher?
Since when?
He's the last guy we ever expected
to be up there preaching, right?
I had somebody tell me this
when I was a sophomore in college.
I had a friend of mine from high school come up
and he was hanging out with some friends
from our hometown that went to the college.
And I took the opportunity to preach the gospel to him,
and he's like,
yeah, I heard you went religious, Brother Stuckey.
And I was like, okay, was that an insult?
But he's like, you're the last person.
That's what he told me.
I was the last person he ever expected that from.
I was thinking, I've always believed in God.
I guess because I'm a math guy,
he thought I was an atheist or something.
I don't know.
But it's like, well, I've always believed in God.
I mean, I didn't think I was that bad of a person or whatever.
But he's like, you're the last person I expected.
But everyone knew me from my hometown.
It's just like, yeah, Brother Stuckey went to college,
started talking about the Bible all the time.
He became a different person.
It's like my friend was kind of apprehensive to visit
because he probably knew
I'm going to preach the gospel to him, right?
And you literally become a different person.
Your interests actually change.
And look, if you've been saved for a long time
and we've only known you for a short time,
you've been serving God for a while,
honestly, we don't know what your natural state was
before you started serving God.
We have no idea.
What's interesting about serving God as well
is that the number one most important thing
is that you're serving God.
And the reality is all of us,
we have a close bond with one another
just because that is the most important thing.
It's like the glue that holds this fabric together,
so to speak.
I often think about this,
that if all of us were unsaved,
just in our natural state,
you kind of wonder who would you be friends with?
Because probably a lot of people at this church
you probably would not be friends with
because there's nothing in common with them.
I mean, the reality is,
I mean, if you didn't play soccer or talk about soccer,
I would not have been friends with you, right?
In terms of who I...
Brother Herman and Brother Brian
are probably the only ones at the church
I'd be friends with, right?
Because soccer was,
as before I got into chess,
it was all soccer at the time, right?
So that's all I talked about.
So here's the thing.
I want to be around other people
that have the same interests
or talk about the same things, right?
You're going to be around people
that have similar interests.
But when you're serving God,
that's the number one thing that brings you together.
And they say to Saul,
is Saul also among the prophets?
And one of the same plays answered and said,
but who is their father?
Therefore became a proverb,
is Saul also among the prophets?
And when he made an end to prophesying,
he came to the high place.
Now go to Deuteronomy 17.
Deuteronomy 17.
Now let me say this,
that in general,
when you start serving God
and you become a different person,
you know, your old friends,
if they're worldly or unsaved,
they're not really going to like the new you.
Of course, try to get them saved.
Try to bring them to church.
And if they do come and get on board,
praise the Lord for that.
That takes place sometimes,
but it's an exception.
Usually when you start serving God,
you actually get new friends
because you're a new man
and you become friends with other people
that want to serve God also, okay?
Now us at church,
if you become a new person,
you know what?
We're happy for it.
People come to our church
and they're new to church
and sometimes you see major changes over time
and it's exciting.
It's great, right?
But you know the number one person
that cares the most about you being a new person
and wants you to be a new person?
It's the person you're married to, right?
Because the reality is
the Mr. Hyde or Mrs. Hyde aspect
is very ugly, like in the story, right?
The sinful side is bitter and envious
and prideful and lustful,
filled full of sin, right?
But the new man is filled full of love.
Get your spouse to love God
and they'll love you, right?
They love God,
they'll be filled full of joy and peace.
If they don't love God,
they're not serving God.
They're walking the old man,
complaining and bitterness
and murmuring and pride
and all of these things,
all these fights.
When you're both serving God,
things are going great.
But if you're not serving God,
it's like the song we sang,
you know,
Master, the tempest is raging, right?
I mean, that's reality
because you know what?
If husband and wife are serving God,
they're going to be happy,
they're going to get along
and everything's going to be great.
But you know what?
If you're walking in the old man,
not so much.
You say, why?
Because the Mr. Hyde aspect yourself
is not the prettiest thing.
Just giving you a secular example,
think of people that are famous actresses
or celebrities and obviously, you know,
most of them are probably naturally
very attractive people by the world standards.
But here's the thing,
if you hear one thing coming out of their mouth,
they go from looking attractive
to being very ugly very quickly.
Now, the side point,
we don't really know what celebrities
look like in real life
because it's makeup and all this CGI
or whatever, right?
But the reality is,
I mean, people that are famous actresses,
they might look beautiful
until you hear what's coming out of their mouth.
Right?
I mean, if there's a lady
who's using foul language and cursing
and it's just like,
it doesn't matter how naturally attractive they are,
they become very ugly immediately.
So if you're looking for somebody to marry,
what should you look for?
Well, you should look for that inner beauty
because that is going to actually shine out
above anything else.
Far more important than the exterior, right?
And of course,
I do believe that you should marry
someone you're attracted to,
but the inner beauty is a lot more important
because the outer beauty will fade.
If they don't love God,
it doesn't matter if they're physically
appealing to you,
their attitude is gonna bring their looks
down to this very quickly, right?
And look, somebody serving God
that is far more important.
And look, your spouse cares the most
about you serving God and doing right
because look, if you're serving God,
you're gonna be good to your spouse
and love them and filled full of joy
and peace and long suffering.
If you're not,
you're gonna be filled full of bitterness
and envious and pride.
I know for me personally
that when I'm reading the Bible,
I'm in a good mood.
I'm not in a bad attitude.
I'm not complaining.
I'm happy and things are going well,
but if I miss my morning time with God
or if I'm not focused or whatever,
I find myself just being in a bad mood
throughout the day,
short-tempered, just bad attitude.
And the difference is,
well, one is the new man
and one's the old man.
And look, the old man's not pretty.
The old man's not pungy, right?
The old man is very pungent, right?
The old man or the old woman's very pungent, right?
But if you walk in the new man,
you know what?
But it's actually a very beautiful thing
for a guy or for a girl.
It's a great thing
when somebody's walking in the new man.
Isn't it true when you see somebody
with just a good attitude?
You know, it just kind of rubs off on you.
When people have a good attitude,
they're happy, it makes you feel good, right?
It's very important.
And look, this is why I suggest to people
all the time, if it's possible
with your work schedule and your life,
get along with God first thing in the morning, right?
You say why?
Because of the fact, by default, you're Mr. Hyde.
By default, you're the sinful person.
Why not kill off that old man
right at the beginning of the day?
Right?
I mean, because just think, just for a second,
what if you could actually see
what people look like in a spiritual sense,
you know, based on if they're serving God, right?
You wake up in the morning,
you don't spend time with God,
your spouse wakes up, they see you,
they're like, oh, man, what happened, right?
All right, I'll read my Bible, okay?
Right?
First thing in the morning is the most important
because you want to change into that new person
and oftentimes that can take you through the day.
It's very important first thing in the morning
to get along with God to make that change.
How do we do this?
Deuteronomy 17.
Verse 19.
And it shall be with him,
and he shall read therein all the days of his life
that he may learn to fear the Lord his God,
to keep all the words of this law
and these statues to do them.
By reading God's Word,
you're going to learn to fear God.
Verse 20.
That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren.
So here's the thing.
If you're walking in the old man,
you might be prideful.
You're walking in the new man, you're meek, right?
Your heart is not lifted up above your brethren.
Look, you're seeing a change takes place
when you read the Word of God.
It causes you to be a good person.
It causes you to be a new man.
Look, what's the secret to drawing close to God?
Spending personal time with God,
reading God's Word, praying to God,
memorizing the Bible if you have the time,
just spending alone one-on-one time with God.
And look, I'm all for, you know,
families spending time together
and talking about the Bible and praying,
but you honestly need a one-on-one time
that you get alone with God yourself.
You get alone with God and read God's Word
and meditate on His Word and allow God to speak to you
symbolically speaking and you learn from the Scriptures
and you pray to God.
You need that one-on-one time for God
if you want to become the new man.
And here's the thing.
This is a choice every single day.
Maybe today you woke up and you read the Bible
and you're excited and you're serving God
and things are great.
Or maybe you didn't.
Maybe you woke up and said,
well, I'm going to be in church
and I'm sure Brother Stuckey
is going to blabber about something.
So there's my Bible, right?
But regardless, you're going to wake up tomorrow
and you've got that choice.
Are you going to be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde in the morning?
You've got that choice.
Are you going to be the new man
or are you going to be the old man?
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today
and I ask you to help us to apply this to our lives,
help all of us, including myself and my family,
help us to just have a personal time with you
where we set aside distractions
and just read your Word
and we allow you to speak to us, God.
Help us just to make changes in our life,
continually draw close to you.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
For our last song, let's turn to hymn number 118.
Hymn number 118, let's sing the song
near to the heart of God.
On the first ready, singing
There is a place of quiet rest
Near to the heart of God
Of days where sin cannot molest
Near to the heart of God
O Jesus, bless we be murdered
Stand from the heart of God
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God
There is a place of comfort sweet
Near to the heart of God
Of days where be our Savior be
Near to the heart of God
O Jesus, bless we be murdered
Stand from the heart of God
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God
There is a place of hope and peace
Near to the heart of God
A place for all in store in peace
Near to the heart of God
O Jesus, bless we be murdered
Stand from the heart of God
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God
Father Ronald, can you pray for us?
Can you pray for us?