SAVED ON PURPOSE

Have you ever asked why you exist or what is the purpose of life? Well, from among the many vile responses I’ve received from Sodomites lately from whom, as many of my brother pastors in ministry have also received expected hatred for preaching the truth, this humble question came from a young man I’ll refer to as Adam (out of respect for a question asked by private messenger).

Adam, like many today, has struggled not only with sexual sin, but also with purpose. When I was a young man like Adam, I too struggled to clearly see my purpose, or more importantly, the purpose God had for my life . . . until darkness turned into day, by God’s grace. Let me explain . . . On the night (which turned into day) that the Lord Jesus called me to repentance and faith, when I was born again of the Spirit into the kingdom of God as an “heir and joint heir with Christ,” I must testify that a group of friends, with me leading the charge, decided to meet up. Two of us had planned the purchase of an eight-ball (1/8^th of an ounce of crack), but had already satisfied our need to get high with what we had. So, we opted to forego the eight-ball and discussed among ourselves (4 guys/4 girls) where to go. It was already midnight, and there was just one club that stayed open beyond that locally and so, the suggestion came from one of the girls, “let’s go to the queer club and mess with their minds, hahaha!” to which we all agreed would be, in our depraved way of thinking at the time, hilarious. Our motive was cruel, calculated, and carnal.

To my knowledge, all eight of us were as straight as arrows, sexually speaking, but the idea of going to “mess with their minds,” from a group of reckless sinners like us, was not only hypocritical, but hellishly blind to the spiritual warfare that we were in bondage to. But . . . God Himself had a purpose, particularly for my life, in allowing us to follow the path of our own wicked hearts, particularly in this experience, not unlike how He allowed Joseph’s brothers to sell him into slavery – for an expected end – which neither Joseph or his brothers understood at the time. What was that end? It was an end, as I can testify today, that as Joseph would put it, “what was meant for evil, by the wicked hearts of others, but God, in His mercy and grace, meant it (or allowed to be experienced), for good” (Genesis 50:20).  Working though, not by participating in sin, God, in parallel purpose, exercised His will. His will is sovereign. His will is settled. His will rules, in a determinative way, for His purpose and glory. The Scriptures affirm this: “For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isaiah 14:27) & “Many are the plans of a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21)Thank God for His sovereign will to stretch out His hands, His nail-scarred holy hands, deep into the pit of sin and rescue me!

Prior to that night, the night that turned into day, my life was in ruins spiritually. Relationships ruined. Reputation ruined. Conscience ruined. Hope ruined. I had no restraints, no care or concern, and a certain fearlessness (the vain and foolish kind) that got me the nickname “Sarge” for reasons too shameful to detail. The ‘bigger and badder’ you may have been, let’s just say the worse it would be for you if you even looked at me the wrong way.

From off the beaten path bars, nightclubs, shady ‘friends,’ to country club golf/gambling, and everywhere in between; when people would start to come to me for their ‘fix’ (something totally unknown to family and those same shady friends even, as I hid it well) or for help with a problem; I even knew then, in the deepest part of my conscience, something was very wrong, but for vanity’s sake, I wouldn’t admit it. Like a little child whose parent says “don’t touch that,” but you touch it anyway, my will (the spiritual part of all men who make choices every day, was in bondage – in bondage to a sin nature). I’d been a member of church. I’d been catechized. I’d been baptized and even pronounced ‘a member of the church,’ and the whole time, in reality, I was nothing but a scoundrel, a servant of sin and Satan, and would’ve busted hell wide open if I’d died in my lost state.

I ran into a certain pastor, of the ELCA persuasion, right after I was saved, and his response was “yeah, but Casey, you were baptized,” to which I responded “yes, I’d of gone to hell soaking wet because baptism, the kind that saves, the kind that Jesus commands and that God the Father requires for His Son’s substitution to count for you is the baptism of the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of His dear Son! . . . “unless a man is born of water AND of the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God!” (John 3:5). He looked, as many religious/lost folks do, as I suppose Nicodemus must have looked . . . empty.

That experience is another reason I warn so many people not to put your trust in men – especially those who cover themselves in religious garb, wear big crosses, and love to be called “reverend, rabbi, etc.”  The bible gives warning: “cursed is the man who trusts in man…” (Jeremiah 17:5).

Being water-baptized, catechized, or declared a member of a church does NOT change one’s spiritual nature – the fallen nature one is born with as a sinner in this world!

Without the Holy Spirit’s supernatural change of one’s nature, there is no salvation!!! Just as it was with Mary’s womb, to receive the miracle of the Lord Jesus’ incarnation in human form, the overpowering grace of God, by the Holy Spirit, in supernatural new birth power is the only method of salvation for sinners in this world. “Not by strength, nor by might, by My Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6) & “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, which is to say to them who believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1: 12-13). That’s where so many people don’t understand the human will.

The human will is like a puppy that follows around an adult dog – the dog of one’s nature - often across a busy highway to its death. Our wills are, in fact, captive to our nature while following our nature to either “life or death” (Matthew 7:13-14). Our nature; therefore, must be, as Jesus commands, “born again” (John 3:1-21). We must be changed from the outside, as in the context of Paul’s description, by God, being the “Potter” who molds “clay” (men, women and children) into “vessels of honor or dishonour” (Romans 9:21).  Those “vessels” refer to humanity, lost and saved, filled with all manner of evil or filled by the Holy Spirit, prepared and fashioned for eternal life or to be cast into hell. Which sort vessel are you? As for being “born again,” well, Brethren, that doesn’t mean that we cannot sin,  but it does mean that our new nature is opposed to sin, hates sin, and repents of sin all the days of our lives until the coming of Jesus, at which time, those sins after salvation are dealt with by His refining fire, but we remain saved and “enter into the joy of the Lord”  (Matthew 25:21). We don’t excuse sin, we don’t make a mock at sin, we don’t promote, support, legislate, or tolerate sin as being normal, no, but we are no longer slaves to sin when we are born again. We know the difference, and the world sees the difference, but refuses to acknowledge it while holding us in contempt – because, as the Lord said they would, they hate Him. Because they cannot crucify Him again, they crucify us with their mocking, lies, and lasciviousness. That’ll end soon, and it’ll be worse for the ‘religiously' lost among them – ‘religious’ in the sense of claiming the name of Christ while, in reality, blaspheming His Word.

Being religious, a member of a church, etc. is not the same as being born again! You can even say, "I'm a Christian," but if your nature does not affirm God's own Word, His hatred for sin, and instead you accept sin, promote sin, and fail to repent of sin, then you've not been born again!

Your nature, when born again, comes to loathe sin and Satan, to loathe everything that that would draw you away from Christ and His Word. You don’t make excuses for sin, but you, like Paul, “expose it” (Ephesians 5:11). You love what God loves and hate what God hates. You’re different in that regard; therefore, your will comes into play by the words and deeds (choices) seen in your life. Those choices, those acts of the will you might say, reflect your true nature. When that nature is exposed to the light of God’s Word, the response is either rebellion or repentance. In my case, looking back at that night, around 2am, as we entered the club, I can still hear the beating of the music, the rave-ish kind, the smokey atmosphere and the dark entrance, flashing lights, and people. I have friends who’ve done horrible things, one whose still on death row. I’ve seen things too shameful to repeat, and folks, I’m telling you, the literal and spiritual atmosphere of that place was more wicked, more vile, more grotesque than anything else!  I could literally feel the presence of demons to the point of looking at my sleeves with the feeling of claws tugging at them, pulling me in deeper into the club from the lobby entrance, and that’s where I was, like Joseph out of the dungeon, delivered! The Holy Spirit called unto me, “Repent! Run to Jesus! Run from this place!” and I heard the words “Come unto Me!”  When I looked at my so-called ‘friends,’ I said “I’ve gotta go!,” the look on their faces was as pale as death itself. One said, “say what???” I said, “you don’t understand, I HAVE to go, God’s calling me to leave this place, He’s calling me to leave this life, I HAVE to go!”

The response was “man, you’re crazy…did you sneak an eight-ball in without telling us? hahaha!”  No more words. No debate. I turned from them, I ran out, drove back to my apartment, hit the floor, and it was like the entire Catawba river damn broke, through my tears pouring out of me in repentance…"Oh God, oh God, please forgive me, I’m sorry for sinning against you, Jesus I know you died for my sins, and I know you are Lord, please be my Lord, my Saviour, have mercy on me!”  I’d place the time at around 3:30am when I arrived, but after so much pouring out of my sorrowful repentant heart, when I rose from the floor, I looked at the clock in the kitchen and it was around 8am. I then proceeded to find everything that was offensive and trashed it. Cabinets and secret drawers were opened and what was in them found their way to be flushed down the toilet and thrown out in the trash. Freedom!!!

And then this thought crossed my mind “aren’t you just having an emotional breakdown, you don’t really wanna give up all this fun do you, come on?!”  Back to the floor I went, praying, asking God, “Lord, is this real? Are you real? Am I forgiven? Can you help me understand?”  And then came, “Can you hear me?”  It wasn’t me asking God if He could hear me, but God asking me if I could hear Him!  As a child, my parents and grandparents always made it clear that the Bible is the “Word of God.”  Shoutout to the Gideons . . . (Isaiah 55:11) . . . That lesson was further emphasized by the Gideons who, on a cold rainy day at Catawba Middle School, in 1984, said “This is the Word of God,” during a bible distribution.  That same bible was the one I’d forgotten that I’d tossed into a duffle bag, deep in my bedroom closet. It was one of the things I’d take with me, after my parents, rightly so, had kicked me out a couple years earlier. Are you tracking with me here? The thought of “find a bible” immediately came to me. Maybe I’d get the answer to my questions. Maybe I’d find out whether I was having an emotional breakdown after all or if it was something much worse . . . or greater. I made my way, in a frenzy, to the closet, reaching to find the duffle bag under a mess, but grabbed it, opened it, and found the bible at the bottom. I stopped and said, “Lord, wherever I open this book, I will trust that it’s your message to me!” I have told many people, in sincerity, that I’m glad, knowing I meant every word, that I didn’t open it up to the verse where Judas “hung himself” because I believe I’d have done it!  Some laugh at that. Others cry at that. Others are indifferent, but in that state, all who have truly been born again, can relate and appreciate what it’s like when your nature has been changed, truly, spiritually, eternally changed being “called out of darkness into His marvellous light!” (1 Peter 2:9). And so, I opened that bible. I looked down into it and my eyes rested on John 15:16: “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.”

With the witness of John 15:16 being the first affirmation my redeemed eyes beheld, I never had to read after John Calvin or Luther or any of the Reformers to understand the doctrine of divine election. That being said, God’s Word is sufficient for all who’ve been born again to understand the miracle of the new birth while understanding truly that “there is none that seeketh after God” – no seeker-sensitive nonsense, no ‘you take the first step and God will take the rest’ nonsense, no ‘your best life now’ garbage, and no ‘if you accept Him into your heart’ nonsense. Born again Christians are the only souls who know, who’ve experienced, who live it out every day, the fact that, if left to themselves, we’d have never chosen Christ, but that He, in His sovereign mercy and grace, chose us. Like a “Shepherd” Who chooses His sheep, He put us on His mighty shoulders, and brought safely to pasture (John 10:1-16).

Born again Christians know that salvation is a unilateral (one-sided) contract or “covenant” between holy God and sinful mankind – signed, sealed, and delivered by the blood of Jesus! 

Our King is Jesus! Our assurance is His Word! Our deposit on that assurance is His Holy Spirit!  Because I know this, I can testify to the world that my debt has been paid by His precious blood!  I am forgiven! I am free! I am saved! And folks, that is why, ever since that day, I have remained so focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And for my life’s calling, as God’ has confirmed by His own Word, that includes fighting against the “father of lies” Satan himself who works in/through the wicked who “make a mock at sin,” like I did. I always hold out hope that those who I speak to may be “chosen in Him,” and like me, shown mercy and grace which is one of the two reasons I continue to fight. God has commanded me to do so, and if the other reason wasn’t part of the equation, just knowing God has commanded me to do something is reason enough!

 I can point to Sodomites, for example, who I expose by God’s Word. They think I hate them, but I love them!  They think I’m judgmental, but I’m just mentally redeemed with the mind of Christ to refuse to justify their sin. They think I’m their enemy, but I’m the best friend they’ve got by telling them “the truth in love” and that “love does not rejoice in their iniquity, but rejoices in the truth!” (1 Corinthians 13:6). And the “Truth” is not just a thing, but a person – the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Who says of Himself: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No man comes unto the Father, but through Me!” (John 14:6). In light of all of what I’ve testified to, I want to say to all who have ears to hear, as I said to the young man, Adam, that purpose, your purpose, our purpose, should be to live in such a way as to glorify God, in Christ! Nothing else matters. Our lives, in our work and careers,among family,within relationships, and regarding all things and people we attach to our lives to, should be built and sustained on constant repentance, constant prayer, constant meditation and communication that is an extension of God’s Word, His Gospel, and His command to repent and obey. Our lives, like living billboards, should be a constant reminder to the world that Jesus is Lord, that sin is evil, and Satan is a real and ever-present slave master to those who mock at sin. They’ll hate us for reminding them, of course, but better to be reproached with the faithful than be found agreeable in the company of fools. A passage that has made all the difference in my life, is a passage that I hope will do the same for you all, as I hope it does the same for Adam: “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made” (Isaiah 43:6-7). The message, and answer to the questions of what’s the purpose of life is clear: don’t live to bring glory to yourself but to bring glory to God!

God created you for His glory! He created everything for His glory!

This truly is the overarching purpose for all of humanity. I don’t want to bring shame to His name or shame to myself, do you? I want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ with my life, don’t you? The Apostle Paul rightly preached that he did everything "for the glory of God," for magnifying Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:20), and that’s my desire, and so I’d ask, is it yours?

You must honestly look at your life, and if you find the answer is “no, I’m not living for the glory of God,” then repent, turn to Him, and follow Him. In following Him, that means you must turn your back to sin and Satan, to other people, and all that would drag you back into the darkness, and but oh…. the unspeakable joy of following Jesus when doing so!  It’s unspeakable joy that’s full of glory! This really is what I hope the Lord makes clear to you, by His Spirit, and that He would free you from sin and a wasted life - that He would turn your night into day, and show you how to live, truly live, for the purpose you were brought into this world - theh glory of God.

Amen.