Well, good morning. We thank the Lord Jesus Christ that, in the mercy and grace of His great love, He has opened our eyes that we might see.
Two thieves. Two choices. Two men. Two ways.
One remained in darkness, and the other saw the light of life.
I’ve often thought about those two thieves, brothers and sisters. I’ve often wondered if I would have been the one who rebuked the Lord and said, “Look, if You are who You say You are, come down from the cross, save Yourself, and save us.”
I think that is the natural human reaction. But somehow, God’s grace touched this other thief, and he was able to see. He saw that Jesus was the true King.
Knowing that he was totally unworthy, he simply asked, “Just remember me.” And the Lord, in His faithfulness, did not give him a sermon on how to be saved. He simply said, “You will be with Me today in paradise.”
A man ready to be executed, a man with no hope left, absolutely hanging there with nails in his hands and his feet, in his last hours of life on this earth, cries out to the Lord. God’s grace touched him that he might have life.
May the Lord’s grace touch us as we share His Word this morning, brothers and sisters. The more I’m convinced that we are so carnal, we have difficulty receiving the things of God.
But praise God, He has mercy on us. And if we will ask, He will open our eyes. He’s the only One that can. You cannot see spiritual things unless He opens your eyes. It is impossible.
If there’s anyone here today that has never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, if He has in any way touched your heart, if you somehow know that deep down in your heart, “Yes, He’s the One, but I have been unwilling to accept Him,” you should accept Him today.
Because, brothers and sisters, and those that may not know Jesus, this is indeed the last hour. I hope you’ve been aware of what has been happening in the Middle East. We see it all leading up. All the prophecies in this Bible, written hundreds of years ago, are coming true in the very hour in which we live.
Is Jesus real? For those of us that know Him, we can say He’s real, because He, by the Spirit of God, has touched our spirit. We know that we’re alive in Him, and we have this thing within us that cries out for God our Father.
If there’s not that sense within you, may the day be today in which you simply say, “Lord, remember me.”
Well, we need to share what is on my heart this morning. And what is on my heart, frankly, is that the Lord would open our eyes. There are so many things in Scripture that are very simple, and we live our lives hearing these simple things, yet seem to be unable somehow really to receive them so that they become an experience in our living, spiritual Christian experience.
Our brother Stephen has been sharing on salvation of spirit, soul, and body: how the Lord, in redeeming us, has touched our spirit, and His very life has come into our spirit through the Holy Spirit.
That Holy Spirit is to be so active in our lives that it affects our soul—our mind, our will, and our emotions—and even that our body would finally come under the control of the will of God, doing the will of God and glorifying God in this life.
That we might come into a full salvation, not just an initial salvation in which our spirit has been redeemed. And praise God, we have received eternal life that can never be taken from us.
Oh, I thank God that He is a good God, and that He’s a giver who gives graciously. Once He gives, He never takes it back. Oh, what assurance we have that we will be with the Lord Jesus Christ, and soon. Thank God for that.
Brothers and sisters, we have been created in order that we might bring glory to God and glorify His name through our bodies—our spirit, soul, and body—to glorify Him fully, to express Him fully.
Not only as individuals, but we know that in the Lord, each one of us is connected in the life of Christ. It will be the church that is the fullness of Christ, who is the Head of the church and fills all in all, that His glory, as He fills us, might be expressed to the whole universe.
Much as He gives light to the stars at night and to the sun that fills the whole earth, it will be that way.
But, brothers and sisters, we find that in our lives as Christians, often though we have received the life of Christ, we have fallen far short of His glory and of being able to express something of His fullness.
And yet, we find in God’s Word—well, let me say it this way—often we come to the point in our Christian life where we think it’s really impossible.
“Lord, I’ve struggled with these things all my life. I know You as my Lord and Savior, and yet there’s sin in my life. There’s problems in my life. There’s issues in my life. I’m just all the time struggling with these things. And where is Your glory, Lord?”
Well, I want to say something that some of you may not agree with, and that’s okay. But I am totally convinced of this: that our Lord Jesus Christ and His work on Calvary’s cross is so complete.
Because our Lord Jesus said, “It is finished.” When He died on the cross, He said, “The work is finished.” It is so complete that I believe He has provided for deliverance from sin, this sin nature that is in us.
He has provided for deliverance from our addictions: smoking, drinking, alcohol, drugs. He has made that provision. He has made provision for release from all defilement in our life, whether we have committed sins or others have sinned against us in such ways that we sense that defilement in our life.
He has made provision in Himself and in the cross to overcome all the defilements, all the obsessions that we often find our mind obsessed with, and the strongholds in our minds, the strongholds in our emotions, and in our wills that will not allow us to do the will of God.
He has made provision in Himself and in His work on Calvary’s cross to overcome all these ailments, emotional problems, and spiritual issues.
He has completed the work. It has been done in Christ. And now it’s up to us, brothers and sisters. Our responsibility is to receive it through faith.
In 1 Peter 1:9, I think it says, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” And in 2 Peter 1:3, that we have been given divine power in Christ, that in all things He has given to us that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him.
He has given us exceeding great and precious promises that we might be partakers of the divine nature.
Paul also said, “Not that I have already obtained, or am perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me.”
In other words, we should be progressing in our spiritual life, in our expression of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives personally. But what I seem to be burdened with this week is the fact that many times in our lives, we find ourselves weak, overcome, unable really to live the life of Christ.
Now, our brother Kenny shared last week that Christ is really our life. He is the source of that life that God has been looking for, and He’s the only life. That life has been given to us, and He’s the strength of that life and the Spirit of that life.
Let’s read a few Scriptures, beginning with Acts 9:1-6. Follow me in these Scriptures, if you would. Sometimes it really helps just to see. The Lord can really touch our hearts. And these are on the life of Paul.
And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,
And asked for letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
In other words, “I’ve been speaking to you, Paul, and you’re having a hard time.” As you go on and read, you’ll find that Paul was totally blinded by his experience with the Lord. He was actually blinded for three days, and a brother had to come and touch him to open his eyes.
What a tremendous experience Paul had with the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road.
Now let’s go to Romans 7. This is again Paul speaking. In Romans 7:14:
For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Now go to Romans 7:17-20:
So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.
For the good which I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I practice.
But if what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me.
Now let’s go to Galatians 2:20. My brother shared on this last week.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
And that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
“I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Let’s go to Hebrews 12:1:
Wherefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
Lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
And let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
Wherefore, seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us.
Brothers and sisters, what I’ve just read is some of Paul’s experience in his life.
Paul’s spiritual, Christian life began gloriously. He met the Lord Jesus Christ—or should I say this? The Lord Jesus met him on the Damascus road. The glory of the Lord was there, because the light was so bright that it actually blinded Saul.
Interestingly enough, the others that were with him were not blinded, but only Saul was. Saul saw the light.
It was such a tremendous experience in Paul’s life that it blinded him, and he had to receive a touch from a brother through the Lord Jesus to have his eyes opened again. A glorious beginning with our Lord Jesus Christ.
But then in Romans 7, we find something different in the experience of his life. It was more the frustrated Christian life than the glorious life, for he says he was wanting to do the will of God, but he couldn’t. He didn’t seem to have the power.
He said the evil things that he wanted to stop doing, he didn’t find the power to be able to stop those things. Instead of victory in his life, there was defeat.
He was caught in this cycle that we often find ourselves in: sinning, asking forgiveness—which God will do—sinning again, the same sin, asking forgiveness.
For a while we’re able to overcome, suppress, and resist. But a day later, maybe an hour later, I don’t know, a month later, it comes back. And we find what I call the frustrating Christian life.
But then in Galatians 2:20, we find that something tremendous has happened in Paul’s life—something revolutionary.
Now, it was revolutionary for him to experience Christ in the first place, that Christ should come in such a glorious way to Paul and meet Paul. There was no doubt in Paul’s mind who Jesus Christ was. He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and he met Him.
You would think that was such a glorious beginning that Paul would go on to lead a glorious life: unhindered, uninterrupted communion with the Lord, a great prayer life, a life without sin, a life doing the will of God, not struggling with the evil in his life.
He had such a glorious beginning, but we find that it was not that way. We find what I call the frustrated Christian life that Paul points out to us.
And then we see that Paul discovered the secret that our brother Kenny shared on last week. And what was that secret? It’s in Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ.
Yet I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
He discovered that it wasn’t about him. It was about Christ in him. He discovered that he couldn’t change his life, so he exchanged his life.
What sort of life are you living? I had to consider that before the Lord.
Is it a life full of joy, peace, rest, and uninterrupted communion with the Lord? A life in which you always want to do the will of the Lord? The will of the Lord is the primary thing in your life. That’s what you live for.
Do you overcome the world and the world’s draw on you? You’re not really drawn by the things of the world anymore. Yes, money’s okay, but you don’t have to live for it. Your work is okay, but you don’t have to live for it.
In the difficult circumstances of life, do you find that you’re in ascendancy over these things? Think of Paul’s life. He said he was whipped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, pursued throughout his ministry, and imprisoned.
Yet we know that Paul lived a life of ascendancy over all of these issues. For most of us, we would determine after being whipped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and imprisoned that the Lord really wasn’t with us after all, and we might abandon the Lord. But Paul lived a life of ascendancy.
But what kind of life do we live, brothers and sisters? Is it weak? Do we find ourselves defeated and overcome instead of overcoming?
Do we live with this cycle of sin, asking forgiveness, sinning again, coming back to the Lord, and saying, “Lord, I promise You this time is the last time”?
Then after you do that four or five hundred times, you finally say, “Lord, I can’t promise You anymore, but I am going to try one more time. Please accept the fact that I’m going to try to do it.”
Sin has dominion. But the Word of God says sin shall not have dominion over us, yet we find it that way.
Now, younger Christians, I think you find that after you accept the Lord Jesus, you come into this experience where the Lord begins to touch a lot of things in your life. Things that maybe you didn’t even consider sin, the Lord will say you can’t do them. “It’s not good. It’s not a good testimony.”
And so the Lord begins to touch you. You find, “Okay, Lord, I agree. I shouldn’t be doing these things. I shouldn’t be smoking anymore,” whatever it may be.
You determine that you want to live your life for the Lord, and yet you find you just can’t overcome it. There may be some things that you find immediate deliverance from, and things that you are able to overcome, but there seems to be one or two or three or four or ten sins that you really are struggling with. No matter how much you try, you can’t overcome.
For older ones in the Lord, you may have overcome many things in your life. But let me ask you this: have you found in your life that there’s one sin that so easily besets you?
That after these thirty or forty years with the Lord, there’s a sin—maybe we don’t even know what it is, maybe others don’t know—but you know, that so easily besets you. It just keeps coming back.
You’ve resolved many times, in tears before the Lord, “I won’t do this again. Lord, I need Your help.” You’ve prayed for help, and yet you find yourself still trapped.
For both the young Christian and for older ones sometimes, it’s really the same problem. The root is the same, whether it’s one sin or many sins that seem to trap us.
Now, so nobody gets excluded, I’d like to name a few.
More along the lines of the spirit, there’s pride. Some people really struggle with this matter of pride, particularly after you learn some spiritual truth and become more and more knowledgeable in the things of the Lord.
There seems to be a pride about it. You sense that the other brothers and sisters may not be quite where you are. Now, we don’t say these things. It’s subtle, brothers and sisters, but it happens.
Jealousy. Jealousy is—the root of all evil is in jealousy. All wicked things are there and present when there’s jealousy. It might be another brother or sister. You might be jealous that they’re able to minister the Word, and for some reason, though you have a burden that way, it just hasn’t worked out.
You might be jealous about a lot of things, but there’s jealousy in your heart, and it just keeps getting you.
Unbelief: being unable to believe the Word of God. If you ask most Christians, “Do you believe the Word of God?” their first response is yes.
But if I were to ask you, “Does sin have dominion over you in any part of your life?” and you say to me, “Yes,” then I have to say, “Well, what about the Word of God? It says sin shall not have dominion over you.”
Unbelief is a great trap. It is sin, brothers and sisters. We see it as a weakness, but God sees unbelief as a sin. How many times in the life of our Lord did He upbraid people because of their lack of faith, or being unable to believe?
Belief, unbelief—we struggle with it.
Fault-finding. There are those who are so designed that they can size up a person immediately. It seems like, whether they want to or not, they can immediately discover the faults in anyone they meet.
Instead of looking for Christ in their brothers and sisters, they tend to find fault. They get trapped in that and are unable really to fellowship fully and freely because of that. All they can see is the fault.
Well, I’m glad the Lord doesn’t fellowship with us on that basis.
Lack of prayer in our lives, lack of communion with the Lord. Worry is another sin. It catches us, doesn’t it?
The Lord has told us not to be anxious about anything, but to lay all things before Him in prayer. I think it’s okay to be concerned about things, but worry is something that actually consumes you. You struggle and worry because you’re not really trusting the Lord.
Then there are the more obvious sins of the flesh, such as adultery, lustful eyes, brothers—just allowing our eyes to see whatever they want to, filling our minds with lust.
Unnatural relationships, homosexuality, lesbians, improper friendships. Has the Lord touched your life about an improper friendship in your life? I don’t know.
Addiction: smoking, alcohol, drugs. You can get addicted to most anything. It doesn’t have to be those. There are some things that just seem to be addictive in your life.
Unclean thoughts—you struggle with that. I mean, there’s something that just keeps hammering you, coming back again and again. You think you have been able to deal with it, but yet they keep returning.
Obsessions. You can get obsessed, brothers and sisters, with most anything, even good things. You can become obsessive about it. To me, an obsession is when you can’t lay it down. You try, but you just really can’t lay it aside, whatever it may be.
I remember, just for an example, there’s nothing wrong with knitting. But I remember a sister that the Lord had to tell her she needed to stop knitting because she was becoming obsessed with it.
It can be a simple thing, can’t it? I mean, the Lord just gets us.
A mind that cannot focus and concentrate, just scattered all the time. We find it out of kilter, so to speak.
Imaginations, vain imaginations. Do you find yourself at times imagining something about yourself, or a brother and sister, and it’s just based on a glimpse or look?
Let me see if I can give an example, because I’ve had this happen to me. Whenever I’ve got my mind on something, I zone out. I have to be careful when I drive, because if I get my mind on something else, I zone out.
Say I’m zoning out right now. You just get your mind on things and it zones out. But I’ve had some brothers and sisters through the years come up to me and say, “Jerry, are you mad at me?”
I say, “No.” “Are you sure?” Now, what’s happened? They say, “Well, a couple of days ago I passed you in the hallway, and I looked at you and said hi, and you didn’t do anything. You didn’t acknowledge me. You didn’t say anything.”
I was zoned out. But you see what we do? Then that little imagination, which was just the seed planted there, becomes something. I’m glad they came and asked me, frankly.
Otherwise, that thing could have grown to the fact that no telling what Jerry Amon would have turned into. But that’s vain imagination. Some people struggle with vain imaginations.
Eating can become a problem. Sleeping. Our body can end up controlling us instead of the spirit. Our brother Stephen spoke on this recently.
Even our personality is not perfect, is it, brothers and sisters? We find there are flaws and adjustments that need to be made because it doesn’t glorify the Lord.
Hardness. Some people are just kind of hard. You go and talk with them and want to receive something from them, and yet that hardness is like a wall.
Some have a righteous attitude. They have this righteous attitude about them, and they struggle with other brothers and sisters because they don’t seem to be as righteous as they are.
And I don’t mean that in a mean-spirited way, because we can also be mean-spirited. That’s a problem some have.
Others can be fearful, caught in the sin of fear and being fearful. Being overly timid and withdrawn, the Lord is not able really to use you, really work in your life, really bring out what He wants in you, because you’re so timid and withdrawn.
Timothy was timid, and Paul had to remind him. He said, “This is restricting your spiritual life.”
How about temper? Does anybody here have a quick temper? It seems like that seems to be a problem with most—this fiery temper. Some people are unusually fiery with their temper and quick-triggered.
An unrepentant heart. The Lord has touched you with something, but you just refuse. You just refuse. You will not repent before the Lord.
Unforgiveness. The Lord is pretty strong about unforgiveness. He said, “If you aren’t able to forgive others, I will not forgive you.”
I don’t know if I want to meet the Lord and say, “Lord, forgive me,” and He says, “I can’t. You have an unforgiving heart yourself.”
Thank God, I think He’ll allow us to get it straight with Him. But unforgiveness.
Well, I just say these things, brothers and sisters, because a lot of times as we live our Christian life, we fall into these things and we don’t even really consider them a great issue, or that they’re even a sinful issue.
Yet there are things that keep us trapped and keep us from living the Christian life. They have a power over us, and they shouldn’t. We’re saved, but sin seems to still have dominion.
Now, why is this? Why is there this sin that so easily besets us? We ask God to deliver us, and yet we still find there’s this sin in our life that so easily besets us. Why?
It’s the same reason God allows this, brothers and sisters—not because He agrees with the sin at all. He hates it. But He allows it.
He’s showing us the same thing today that He tried to show Israel many years ago.
What was the lesson to the nation of Israel? You remember when Moses went up to the mountain, he received the Ten Commandments. He received a lot of other laws and regulations that they had to live by.
He came down the mountain, shared it with the people, and they said, “All that You say we will do.” That was their first reaction: “All that You say we will do.” They honestly believed they could do it, and wanted to, and had a heart to.
Well, the Lord quickly showed them how fickle their heart was, because Moses went back up the mountain for forty days and actually received the tablets at that point.
What were they doing at the end of those forty days, brothers and sisters? They had built the golden calf and were worshiping a golden calf in rioting and drunkenness.
Forty days. Only forty days had expired between Moses coming down and giving them all this stuff, and they saying, “Yes, all You say we will do.”
You would think they would have learned after the discipline they went through. Some were swallowed by the earth. But they didn’t. Israel did not learn.
What they couldn’t understand was that they couldn’t do it. God knew that they couldn’t do it. But God also realized it wouldn’t do them any good for Him to tell them they couldn’t do it. They had to learn the lesson the hard way.
That’s why they spent thirty-nine, forty years walking around in the desert trying to learn this lesson: that they couldn’t do it.
But Israel seemed never to learn this lesson, because when Christ came, they were still trying to fulfill the law, and yet they missed Christ.
Now, what was the purpose of the law? I think we now know from Scripture, because it’s been revealed to us, that the purpose of the law was not that they would obtain righteousness and be righteous before God.
The purpose of the law was to show them that they could not do it and that they needed another life. They needed the life of Christ. They needed Christ.
In other words, the law was supposed to be used in order that their eyes would be opened to see that they couldn’t do it and that they needed Christ. They could not save themselves. With all their righteous works, they could not save themselves, and they needed Christ.
That was the lesson that they never learned—hundreds of years. Even today, Israel, with all that’s going on in that nation, has not learned that their only salvation is Christ. The Messiah has already come, and they rejected Him.
Why did they reject Him? Because they thought they could do it. They thought they could live up to the law, and they did not need Christ.
Nicodemus. We remember Nicodemus as the good Pharisee, right? But when he came to the Lord, he said, “Good Teacher.” He did recognize that Jesus at least was a good Teacher from God.
But Nicodemus, being a Pharisee, probably was a good teacher as well. He came to the Lord, and what was on his heart was—well, let me say it this way.
Once he said, “Good Teacher,” the Lord, who knew what was on his heart, said, “Nicodemus, you must be born again. If you want to see the kingdom of heaven, you must be born again.”
The Lord knew what was on Nicodemus’ heart. What was on Nicodemus’ heart was, “Look, I’ve been following the law all my life. I’ve been performing the law. I’ve been doing the law. I’ve been keeping the law.”
“But there may be something that I’m missing, something that I need to achieve that I haven’t yet achieved, that the Lord can show me, so that if I do it, I can enter the kingdom of God.”
And what was the Lord’s response? “You must be born again.” What was He saying to him?
He was saying, “You—your life, all your good works—will never qualify you to enter the kingdom. It’s the wrong life.”
It’s the wrong life. That Adamic life you have, Nicodemus, with all its desire to be good and righteous and follow the law to the letter, will never be good enough for God.
It’s the wrong life that you’re living, Nicodemus. You’re living a life trying to follow the law. The motive may be good, but your method is wrong. You need a new life. You need a life that comes from God, a spiritual life.
There’s only one life that can follow the law, and we all know it, brothers and sisters, to be Jesus Christ. When He came to this earth, it says He completely fulfilled the law.
It’s the wrong life. Think of the rich young ruler. What was his response? He said, “Lord, what must I do?” I can’t remember whether it was to enter the kingdom or inherit eternal life. Which was it?
Eternal life. Anyway, the Lord gave him the first five commandments.
The young man responded, “I have kept those.” That was his response: “I have kept those.”
You know, at that point, it said the Lord loved this man. I want you to get this: the Lord really loved him, and He really wanted him to come.
But there was that subtle pride in his heart: “I have kept these from my youth. I must be qualified.”
The Lord knew there was one thing. He told the young man, a rich man, “Sell all you have and then come follow Me.” The man went away sadly. He couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t do it because he didn’t have the life that he needed. He lacked the life.
What about us? What about us? I mean, brothers and sisters, some of us have been Christians thirty, forty, fifty years; some only a few.
But which life are you living? Which life am I living? Let me say it this way: is there that besetting sin in your life? If there is, maybe the Lord is trying to say something to us.
Maybe He’s trying to say, “You accepted Me as your Savior, but you’re trying to live the Christian life by the old man.”
“You have accepted Me as your Savior, but have you really accepted Me as your life? Because only I can live this life. Are you still struggling to live this life?”
Not only must you be born again, but you must walk in the Spirit. And basically, walking in the Spirit is living by the life of Christ that is in you.
But some of us go through our Christian life. We’ve accepted Christ as our Savior, and we struggle with things in our life, and we think that that is the Christian life. It is not.
Not that we don’t have struggles—don’t get me wrong—but I mean there are these besetting sins and the life that we can’t seem to live, that we know we should be living as Christians before the Lord.
And the whole thing is, the Lord has been trying to teach us the same lesson that He’s tried to teach the nation of Israel for these hundreds of years: you can’t do it. You never will be able to do it.
Go ahead and try some more if you want, but you will only be frustrated. You can never live this life. Only I can live this life.
And by My grace and love and mercy, I have given My life to you. Yes, My life is in you, but you’re not utilizing My life. You have not yet received Me as your life.
Where will victory over sin come? It says sin shall not have dominion over you. Do you believe God’s Word? After your thousands of failures, do you still believe that sin shall not have dominion over you?
Well, there probably should be a little bit of doubt at this time. It’s God’s Word, though.
Where does the victory come from? How is there to be victory in our lives? It will only come if you receive Jesus as your victory.
You’ll never have victory by struggling with it. You will only have victory by receiving the Lord Jesus as your victory in that situation and with that problem. “Lord, You’re my victory.”
Can you let go of your old life? Are we still clinging to it?
Brothers and sisters, I don’t know if we realize how much we cling to this old life, this old man. Somehow we see some good in us, and we want to present that to the Lord and say, “I think I can get a little bit better.”
Maybe we wouldn’t dare say that openly, but down inside it’s there, and you can’t shake it.
But the Lord Jesus was victorious over sin, death, the world, Satan, and self. Amen.
And you’ll only be able to say, “Hallelujah,” if you take Him as your victory over sin, Satan, death, and self.
How many of you would like your life to be changed? Okay, here’s the bad news: you can’t. It never will. It never will change.
I know what you were saying: “Yes, I want to change.” But you—that old life—will never change. No matter how good you make it, no matter how far you progress in goodness, it’ll never change. Basically, fundamentally, it never changes, and it’s unacceptable.
The Lord allows this, brothers and sisters, that we might totally become disgusted with the old way of living, totally become disgusted with struggling and trying to live the Christian life.
Because it’s unacceptable to God. He says, “I have crucified the old man.” That is God’s judgment on this old life. He has crucified it.
We need to bring that work of Calvary’s cross into our lives personally and say, “Yeah, it’s a dead thing.” You know, something dead cannot even struggle. If it’s dead, it can’t even struggle.
Let me give you an example. Maybe this will help. Some people do better with stories than they do with just preaching.
Let’s say you want to build a house, and you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot. I mean, I think everybody would be wise to get stock, because I have greatly expended my fortune—how little it was—at Home Depot and Lowe’s.
You go there and want to build your house. You look at the materials, and you go to the guy and say, “Look, I want to get some lumber to build my house with.”
He says, “Okay, fine. Over here we have the premium-grade lumber. It’s pretty good lumber, nice. But let me show you something. I’ve got something here that’s really marvelous. It’s called Hardie board.”
Now, some of you folks know what Hardie board is, and some of you say, “What in the world is that?” Hardie board is what’s on the back of this little shed back here, as a matter of fact.
What it is, it is made out of a concrete mixture, and yet it’s textured to look like wood. The great part about it is termites don’t like it. Bugs don’t like it. It won’t rot.
And if you don’t paint it, it’s totally maintenance-free. Of course, if you paint it, you’ll have to keep that up. But it’s almost impervious and will last as long as you will. It’s great stuff.
I said, “Man, that’s nice.” He said, “But let me tell you what, I’ve got a deal for you. I’ve got some lumber over here. Unfortunately, the termites got to it.”
“But you can take that. In fact, if you want to, you can come up, get a truck, and haul it away. I won’t charge you anything. I’d like to move it on.”
Now let me ask you something: what would you take? The regular wood? Looks good. You’re used to it. It might last a while. The Hardie board, which is marvelous? Or this termite-infested wood?
What kind of material do you think the Lord wants to build His house with? It’s not hard to figure out the analogy on this one.
Our life—the old Adamic life, that life that we were born with—is termite-infested. I want you to know that.
But here’s what we do. We say, “Look, you know, this might not be such a bad deal after all. I do want to build a house. I don’t want to spend a lot of money, but I want to build a house, and I know what I can do.”
“I can get some spray. I can get some termite spray, and I can spray the termites. This wood will be more acceptable to build my house with.”
Well, you might be able to get some of the termites. Doubt you’ll get them all. And if you do, forget about all those thousands of little eggs still in the wood that will probably make it through, even though it’s been sprayed.
But that’s what we do. We try to do these good things. We want to get rid of the bad stuff, so we just spray it with termite spray. That’ll do the trick.
Or we may really be industrious and say, “Okay, I don’t want the bad wood. So what I’m going to do is carefully inspect every piece. I’m just going to saw out the parts that are infected—or at least I don’t think are infected yet.”
But like I said, termites lay eggs, and you might not be able to see them all.
But brothers and sisters, as I thought about this, I said, “Lord, we are so insistent on using that termite-infested wood for the Christian life. We really are.”
That’s why we’re still struggling. That’s why we still have this sin that so easily besets us.
Let me ask you: don’t you think it’s time to accept the Hardie board? Really?
What we’ve really been trying to do is build a Christian life with termite-infested wood. It’s time to let go. It’s time to let go.
You know, a perfect example of this is Abraham. Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was the son of the slave woman, Hagar.
She represents the law in the Bible, and that life that tries to live by the law. But Isaac was the promised seed from God.
When he was born, it was impossible because they had already gotten past the age of being able to give birth and have children. But God touched them and He promised them.
And you know, when God came to Abraham and said, “You’re going to have the promised son,” Ishmael was thirteen years old.
I want to tell you something about Ishmael: he was a pretty good kid. He was a hunter. He was a man’s man. He really appealed to Abraham. Abraham had grown to love this son greatly, as he should have, as his son.
But remember, Ishmael represents the old life, the old way, the unacceptable way.
You know what Abraham’s response was to the Lord? Instead of saying, “Lord, praise the Lord, the promised seed is finally coming. Hallelujah,” he didn’t say that at all.
He said, “Lord, cannot Ishmael live before You? Cannot Ishmael be the promised one? Cannot he do it?”
We’re no different than Abraham. We still cling to that old life.
In 1 Corinthians 1:30, it says:
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
Who was made unto us wisdom from God,
Both righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
How was it that you obtained the righteousness of God? You say, “Well, I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He gave me a robe of righteousness. He gave me His own life as a robe of righteousness so that I can appear before God as righteous.”
“I received it by faith. I accepted it.” That is how I received the righteous life.
That’s the way I received redemption. I didn’t just receive redemption; I received Christ, and He is my redemption.
We know this, brothers and sisters, but when it comes to the sanctified life, we struggle because we want to do it with the old life. And the Lord says, “Can’t you simply take Me as your sanctification?”
Can’t we just believe Him?
God says, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” How are you going to be holy, brothers and sisters?
Now, some brothers and sisters really sense that need in their life for holiness, which we all should—a holy life—because we have been exhorted that we should be holy.
But what do we do? We get out our checklist and say, “Now, these are the things that are needed to be holy. I can only wear this kind of clothes. I can only wear these color clothes. They have to be this long or this short.”
“I cannot do this. I can’t do that.” You’ve got a whole list of can’ts. Then you’ve got your do list, your to-do list. So you’ve got a list of don’ts and dos.
You wake up in the morning and say, “Lord, I’m going to be holy today,” and after about ten minutes, once the kids wake up, you become unholy.
Well, you’ll never obtain holiness that way. Never.
Once you see Christ as your holiness, then you will see that holiness begin to be worked out in your life.
But how are you going to have victory over this sin that so easily besets? It’ll never happen until Christ becomes your victory.
It’s not something that you need to feel. A lot of people, when they want to accept Christ, say, “Well, I don’t feel it yet.” Well, faith is not based on feeling. Faith is based on the Word of God.
The Word of God says sin shall not have dominion over you. Brothers and sisters, we need the life of Christ, and we need to accept Him as our life today.
Let’s look at Galatians. I’m looking at Galatians 2:20. I was in the wrong place. Let’s read it, and I’m going to do a little paraphrasing.
I have been crucified with Christ.
I have been crucified with Christ. Can you say that really in your heart? In your heart, can you say, “I’m crucified with Christ”?
In other words, “I agree with God. I agree with God that this old life is incapable. It’s flawed. It’s termite-infested. It will never be acceptable. I refuse to live by this life.”
Then you can say, “I am crucified with Christ.” I am crucified with Christ—a totally useless life.
We need to agree with God. The problem is we’re disagreeing with it. We’re saying, “Eh, there might be some good there.”
I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live.
There’s a new life in me, and I am alive.
Yet not I.
In other words, it’s not the old life. It’s the new life.
But Christ liveth in me.
And that life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
It’s not the old man trying to prove himself. It’s Christ living in me.
I haven’t changed. But today, Lord, I want to do a transaction with You and exchange my life for Your life. Can we do that transaction today?
You know, I’ve thought about this, and I know that this is a threshold for the Christian life—one of the thresholds after you’re saved—is coming to the realization that you can’t do it and finally accepting Christ as your life, as the One who can live this life.
It’s a threshold we have to cross. Some have crossed it, and then for some reason, years later, we find that sin besetting us again. What has happened?
It’s because we’ve turned back to the old life. We’ve turned back to the old life; the besetting sin has returned.
So today, may we cross that threshold. And if it has been crossed in the past, may we return to the Lord and ask forgiveness of the Lord, and say, “Lord, I’ve been living by the wrong life. I’ve been trying to do it. I confess, and it’s a sin.”
But I take Your victorious life as my life.
Brothers and sisters, the day you accepted Jesus Christ, you walked away saved, eternal life given to you. Today, you can walk away with Christ actually being your life.
Just exchange it. Say, “Lord, here’s my old one. You’ve crucified it. I don’t want it anymore. I agree with You. Now I take Your life.”
Lord, we just come to Thee today. You are life itself. Lord, You said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Lord, You are.
Oh, Lord Jesus, give us grace today to lay aside that old life that keeps wanting to do it, Lord. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us for living by the wrong life.
But today, Lord, we walk away. Our next breath, Lord Jesus, we take You as our life.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.