Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Pensacola, Florida, where it’s not quite as warm as you would imagine. We just finished our first night of the war last night. of the time of this recording, and God greatly blessed. There were eight young people that trusted Christ.

God’s been working in the services here this morning, and we’re looking forward to what he’s going to do tonight at night number two. And here on the podcast, we’re very pleased to bring someone to speak to you that many of you have heard before. Caleb Reed is a graduate of Baptist College of Ministry and Theological Seminary. He’s going to be joining Minutemen coming up here in not too long, leading an evangelistic team.

And I know God’s got a burden on his heart from the Lord for you here. So Caleb, share with us what God’s put in your

God: heart today. All right. Just recently in our Sunday school division, we were dealing with a topic from Joshua chapter three and chapter four, the preparation for the children of Israel to go into cross the Jordan and go into the land to conquer the land. And before they’re about to go in, Joshua challenges the people from the word of the Lord and challenges them to sanctify yourself. because God was going to do great works, mighty works amongst them.

In order to do great and mighty works, they had to sanctify themselves. Well, we began talking about that as a division, some of the teens talking about what does it mean to sanctify yourself. And it got me thinking, have you ever heard the term or the phrase that should say, you need to get clean or you need to confess your sins or you need to empty the truck? That’s one that Dr.

Jim talks about a lot. Those are great phrases or even idioms you might even say. But have you ever considered, do you really know the biblical basis for what that means to be clean, to get right, or to, as Dr. Jim would say, empty the truck?

And the reason I want to ask you that is this. I think some of us think we know what it is like to be right with the Lord, or we want to be right with the Lord, but we actually are not taking the proper biblical steps to be clean, to be sanctified, set apart, to be right with God, to empty the truck. And so here’s, I want to talk about two different things. First of all, who does the cleaning?

I heard on the radio, Dr. Adrian Rogers was preaching, and he made a statement, he was quoting someone else, people would say that if you would live a holy and righteous life, then God could use you or God could fill you. If you were to stay holy, stay clean, then the Holy Spirit would work in your life in powerful, wonderful ways. And Dr.

Rogers made the point that it is not the Holy Spirit who then is blessing after we are righteous. It is because of the Holy Spirit that keeps us righteous. In other words, if you could live a holy and righteous life apart from the filling of the Holy Spirit, you wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit. In getting right with God and getting clean, as the phrase would go, it is not my responsibility to get clean and then ask the Lord to use me and to help me.

It is my responsibility to recognize I have no ability to be clean unless the Holy Spirit helps me. In Psalms, we have, Search me, O God, and know my heart, and see if there will be any wicked thing in me. You know, young people, sometimes we think about the idea of searching the heart. We think, search me, oh me.

And the error in our thinking is this. I want to be clean. I want to be right with God. And so therefore, I’m going to self-analyze everything in me to try to determine, is there anything keeping me back from walking with the Lord?

And yet the issue is, I am not the one responsible to do the searching. God is the one that does all the searching. He is the one with the perfect spotlight. He is the only one that knows our heart.

The scripture says in Jeremiah that our heart is incredibly deceitful. Above all things, the scripture says, who can know it? God is the only one that knows and can search the heart of man. So he is the one that must do the searching.

So first of all, we have to understand that in order to be clean, in order to be right with God, it is God who must do the searching and must do the cleansing. I have to come to him and say, Father, I want to be right with you. I want to be clean with you. But would you do the searching?

There’s been a number of times, especially when I was a young man, where I would feel dirty or I would feel guilty, and I wasn’t really sure why, or I’d feel grumpy and irritable, and I just knew something wasn’t right. And I wanted to walk with the Lord, but I wasn’t sure why. And so I’d get down to pray, and I’d try to think of all the different things. There must be something wrong.

There must be something that I did. And I’d try to think through my day or through my weeks, and I could never get peace that way. But whenever I would ask the Holy Spirit to be the one that does the searching, he would bring light and life and liberty. And he would be the one that would bring things to my mind.

And as the Holy Spirit brings things to your mind, then you are able to confess those things. And then take the promise of 1 John 1, 9, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to leave it there. You know, young people, if you are going to walk with the Lord, if you’re going to have a clean relationship with the Lord, You have to allow the Holy Spirit to do the searching, not you. Your searching will lead to frustration.

The Holy Spirit’s searching leads to life. Your searching will lead to condemnation. The Holy Spirit’s searching will lead to liberty. Now, the first point is the Holy Spirit must do the searching.

Second point is you have to be honest. When the Holy Spirit reveals it, be honest with what he’s showing you and just take it. and confess it. You know, there’s been times for me where the Holy Spirit has revealed an issue, say an interpersonal issue with somebody else, and the Holy Spirit says, you’re frustrated with him, and that’s flesh, and you’re wrong. And I’ve balked against it because I don’t want to be wrong, or I enjoy being upset with them, or I feel justified in my frustration with them.

And so therefore, even though the Holy Spirit revealed to me that this is the issue, and I am the one that’s wrong, I hesitate to deal with it because I don’t want to just be humble and honest and say, yes, Lord, you’re right. I am wrong. It’s my fault and I need to deal with it. Honesty.

And yet scripture tells us that God gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. You know, oftentimes the grace for full liberty and forgiveness does not come until we humble ourselves before the Lord and say, Holy Spirit, you’re right. I was wrong.

I did speak out in anger or I did think those critical thoughts or I am being a judge of them and that is only your place. I was the one that was wrong. I admit it. I’ll be honest.

And that is when the grace flows. So first of all, you’ve got to let the Holy Spirit do the searching. Second of all, you’ve got to be honest and humble when the Holy Spirit shows you to. And third, I want to just give you a quick illustration.

When I finished high school, I got a chance to go do some search and rescue training at an academy. Well, during that training, we were under strict regulations. And in the morning, you had an intense PT time. And, boy, you got dirty oftentimes just in the dirt, push-ups, sit-ups, all that kind of stuff.

And then they’d blow the whistle and send you back to the showers. And then you had eight guys in your squad, and you had to run eight guys through a shower in 10 minutes. Not too bad, but usually you ended up with about a minute and a half. So you’re trying to rush through the shower.

And, you know, going fast, sometimes you miss a few spots. And you don’t really realize the back of your elbow’s got a whole lot of dirt on it. Well, not a big deal, except for the days when the cadre would come in and hand you a white towel. And they would say, dry off with the white towel.

Well, once you dried off and you looked at your towel and it was covered in brown, it became very obvious that you missed a few spots. And why did I miss a few spots? Well, because I didn’t take the time to really get clean. I tried to quick because I wanted the result of having gone to the shower and being clean.

But the reality is I didn’t take the time that was necessary to be thoroughly clean. Here’s the last point. Young people, sometimes getting thoroughly clean takes time. You know, there’s a reason in Psalm 46.10 that the scripture says, Be still and know that I am God.

Because sometimes getting to know God just takes time. And being thoroughly clean and right with the Lord, where everything that He brings to your mind is confessed, where everything that the Holy Spirit brings to you that you must deal with has been taken care of, sometimes it takes a little time. And you can’t rush through it. You can’t just try to take a quick minute and a half time of getting clean And try to wipe off and go through your day and expect that’s going to be enough.

Because when the tests come, when the white towel test comes, it’s going to reveal that there’s some brown still left there. There’s some dirt still uncovered. There’s still some things that are keeping you unclean. And I want to challenge you, young people.

Would you access and allow the Holy Spirit to do the searching? And when he does the searching, would you be honest with what he shows you? And third of all, would you take the time that’s necessary take the time to just be quiet and allow the Holy Spirit to do all the searching he wants force yourself to just stay there and ask again okay Lord would you show me would you show me is there anything else Lord am I really clean and when the Holy Spirit writes you a bill of health clean bill of health you can go through your day knowing confident I’m clean I’m walking with the Lord, and I can hear him, and I can respond to him. So let me challenge you, young people, this week, take the time, be honest, access the Holy Spirit, and truly, biblically, be clean.

Amen, Caleb. Thank you so much for that. You know, young people, searching your heart’s not your own job, and yet it takes some time. And I would encourage each one of you to spend some time with God and just ask him, God, what’s wrong?

What’s going on in my heart? As you spend time with God, as you dig into his word, as you get close to him, he’ll show you. He will definitely show you. In fact, what you may want to consider doing is in a spirit of prayer, heading over to the battle plan page on thegeneration.org, maybe working through some of those audio talks about specific issues and just see what God says.

You know, God is good and he is faithful to reveal what’s in the way. And the good news is he’s already paid for whatever that sin is. He wants cleanse it as you come to him and agree with him for it. Thank you for that, Caleb.

That’s very important. And young people, don’t forget what we’re aiming to do and what we believe God has called us to do is to live lives of total surrender to him, to his will, to whatever he calls us to do. And as he reveals his will to depend upon the power of Jesus inside of us, to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening.