Blockades To Spiritual Victory
Malachi 3:6-18, "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. 12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. 13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? 15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. 16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not."
I. Selfishness Is A Blockade To The Victorious Christian Life.
A. Selfish people Think Only of Themselves.
Luke 12:17-20, "And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"
B. Selfish people Show A Lack of Love.
1 John 3:17, "But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"
C. Selfish people Reap What They Show.
Acts 5:2, "And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet." --- V. 5, "And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things." --- V, 10. "Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband."
II. Laziness Is A Blockade To The Victorious Christian Life.
A. Lazy people Beg In The Harvest.
Proverbs 20:4, "The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing."
(Five of The Ten Virgins Did This Same Thing)
B. Lazy people Come To Poverty.
Proverbs 6:9-11, "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? 10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man."
C. Lazy people will Not Work For Christ.
Luke 19:20-24, "And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: 21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. 22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: 23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? 24 And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds."
III. Prayerlessness Is A Blockade To The Victorious Christian Life.
A. Prayerless people are Troubled People.
Daniel 9:13, "As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth."
B. Prayerless people are Disobedient People.
Luke 18:1, "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;"
C. Prayerless people Shall Not Prosper.
Jeremiah 10:21, "For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered."
IV. Worldliness Is A Blockade To The Victorious Christian Life.
A. Worldliness Reveals The Inward Life.
1 John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."
B. Worldliness does Not Please God.
Romans 8:5-8, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
C. Worldliness Separates From God.
James 4:4, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
Isaiah 59:2, "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
V. Unfruitfulness Is A Blockade To The Victorious Christian Life.
A. Unfruitfulness comes from Not Abiding In Christ.
John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
B. Unfruitfulness results in Lost of Rewards.
1 Corinthians 3:14-15, "If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."
C. Unfruitfulness Brings Judgment.
Luke 19:26, "For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him."
VI. Unfaithfulness Is A Blockade To The Victorious Christian Life.
A. Unfaithfulness Is Sin.
Romans 14:23, "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."
B. Unfaithfulness Robs You of The Crown of Life.
Revelation 2:10, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
C. Unfaithfulness Cannot Please God.
Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
VII. Unfaithfulness Is A Blockade To Heaven.
A. You cannot be Saved Except By Faith
Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast."
B. The faith that leads to Heaven Leads To Works (Faithfulness).
Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
A Search For The Truth About Salvation
