Let me look around here. Well, I hope I see more smiles at the end than I have in the beginning.
All right. It’s a glorious day. I am talking to the ransomed ones this morning—those who have been ransomed by the blood of Christ. What a price. We can never forget this great price that was paid for our souls.
Our souls were in bondage and chains to an enemy. He had us. Some of us did not even know it. And yet the Lord paid that great price. He decided that He would redeem man, and we are the redeemed ones, the ransomed ones. He loved us enough to be willing to pay the ransom’s price.
I do not know if we need to hear any more today than that, to tell you the truth. It is an amazing thing to contemplate and think about.
That is why the Lord has called us. He said, “As often as you do this, as often as you take this table, remember Me. Remember My death until I come.”
So, thank the Lord, we still have that opportunity in the United States. Many have to do it underground, in hidden places. I pray for them and think of them on Sundays when we gather—the many who are being persecuted even for the name of Christ today.
They are paying a price, but nothing compared to the price that our Lord has paid. Well, may the Lord encourage us.
We have been sharing on this matter of overcoming. To return to the perspective from which I am working, I would read the Scriptures. We have been going through the book of Revelation, and I was in Revelation 7:9. It says—King James, as usual:
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.
The white robes are the righteousness, in our walk, in our daily walk in this life—the righteousness of Christ that is manifest in our lives. That is a white robe. And they had the palm of victory in their hands. They were the overcomers.
Down through the church age, up until the Lord’s imminent return, we are currently at that place in history, looking at the overcomers.
When you get to this point in the book of Revelation, there are really three major things being accomplished and brought to fruition—to God’s completion in Jesus Christ.
One is the church: the church coming into its completion and maturing into the bride of Christ, which we see in Revelation 21. This city comes down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband, for our Lord Jesus.
We also see the nation of Israel being restored as a holy nation and becoming the lead nation during the kingdom age. God is bringing that into fruition, as we see in the book of Revelation.
He is also dealing with the nations. In the end, there will be a judgment of goat nations and sheep nations. The sheep nations apparently are those favorable toward the Jews and favorable toward Christians. They will be allowed to continue into the kingdom age and populate this earth as an earthly people.
The church will be the heavenly people, but we see this earthly people as well. Of course, the Jews will be the lead nation. God is bringing all of this into fruition, and we see it in the book of Revelation.
So I have been concentrating first on this matter of the church. As we have looked into this matter, some writers properly say—and it is really right—that after Revelation 2 and 3, you do not see the church mentioned again until Revelation 19, when it speaks of the marriage feast of the Lamb.
However, brothers and sisters, we do see the church. We see it in the overcomers. We see the overcomers here in Revelation 7.
They had these white robes, and they had the palms of victory in their hands. They were the remnant from all the church ages who really stood, loved the Lord, and stood for God’s purpose and God’s will on this earth.
So the Lord gains through these overcomers what the church is supposed to have.
In my first message on this matter of the overcomer, I emphasized that Christ is the overcomer. Brothers and sisters, Christ is the only overcomer.
However, you too can become an overcomer because Christ is in you and you are in Christ. Therefore, because you have the Overcomer, you can be an overcomer. That is the great principle we shared in the first message.
Secondly, we looked at the importance of this remnant, this overcomer, in God’s plan: bringing the church into its fullness and also being responsible for the other activities that will be going on among the nations and the nation of Israel.
The reason I say that is, if you go back to Revelation 5:8, which we have already spoken about, right before the seals are opened, it says that the bowls of the prayers of the saints are poured out.
Now, brothers and sisters, these are not just ordinary prayers that are being poured out. These are not simply prayers where we go to the Lord asking for health, concerning a job, or things of that kind. These are prayers concerning His coming kingdom—prayers that concern opening these seals and bringing God’s kingdom to fruition on this earth.
It is the prayers of the overcomers. It is the prayers of those given to the Lord Jesus.
These prayers are of two kinds. One, we see from the martyrs in Revelation 6, I think, under the altar—those who have been martyred for the sake of Christ. Their prayer is, “Lord, how long are You going to wait before You avenge our blood?”
The prayer of the others is, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Lord, You need to accomplish these things in order for You to come. We stand for that on this earth.”
So actually, we see that God uses these overcomers in bringing about His kingdom on this earth and preparing the church for its completion.
Though the church in general has failed, God puts out a call to overcome all the things that are against Christ and His purpose. Those are the ones to whom He will look and whom He will allow to reign and rule with Him during the kingdom age.
We saw the overcomer in the early church, in the first century, in Revelation 2 and 3. In every church there is a call to overcome.
Even in Philadelphia, where there was no issue, where there was simply brotherly love, the Lord says, “Overcome.” In other words, you are going to have to maintain it. You are going to have to keep it. You are going to have to overcome.
Then in Revelation 7, where we were just looking, we see the overcomers—the ones whose prayers have been poured out and whose seals have been opened. They are wearing these robes of righteousness, and they are standing in the victory of Christ. That is what those palm branches represent.
In Revelation 12, last time we looked at the overcomers as the man child. They are representative of the church as the Lord begins His return—the Parousia. These are the ones who are raptured to the throne, and their responsibility is basically to clear the air.
The enemy is in the atmosphere around this earth, and they clear the air for the Lord’s return. It is said of them that they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and because they loved not their lives unto death.
In Revelation 14, near the end of the tribulation period, right before the rapture of all the saints, we see 144,000 on Mount Zion. They are still there. They are still on the throne, preparing to come back to escort the Lord to the cloud.
It says they had a new song. I was touched by this, because that new song is a heart song. It comes out of their hearts through deep experiences with the Lord Jesus Himself.
In Revelation 17 and 19, you see the great war, the great battle. The Lord breaks through the clouds, comes, and stands on the Mount of Olives. There is a great earthquake, and it splits in two. He saves the nation of Israel at that point.
But there is an army with Him. The army has come from the cloud to the earth. That army is also riding on white horses—the sign of kings riding on white horses. Remember, the Word says that we will be kings and priests unto our God.
They are behind the King, and they are called the called, the chosen, and the faithful.
We also looked into the characteristics of the overcomers. I need to do a little review for those who may not have been here. I will read them quickly:
Today, I wanted to begin to look into this matter of experiencing the overcoming life—entering into the overcoming life. Based on the time, I am thinking that I will not finish it today, so we will see how far we get this morning.
First of all, how do we enter the life of overcoming, or become an overcomer?
As I said before, Christ is really your Overcomer. It can simply be put this way: you overcome when you allow Christ to overcome in your life.
He is the Overcomer. The only reason you can overcome is because you have Christ in your life. Why is Christ in your life? Because when you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, you were put into Christ. The Word says that Christ is in you.
A simple illustration might help. Illustrations have their limits, though, if you know what I mean.
When you are born in this world, born of your mom and dad, you are like a fishing line with a hook and a sinker on it, cast out into this world. With that sinker on there—that sin nature with which we are born—the tendency is always to sink, to go down to the bottom, if you have enough line.
But when you accept Jesus Christ, you receive resurrection life. You receive His life. He resurrected, and you have that resurrection life in you. You now have the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
You were under the law of sin and death—the hook and the sinker. You were always going to go down. But now you have Christ, His life in you, and it has that natural tendency to overcome.
It is like a cork. Now you have a cork in your life, and that cork keeps you from sinking. Of course, if a fish bites the hook, he will pull the cork under too. But you will tug on that line, and you will overcome, because you have the cork.
You have the Lord Jesus Christ, the overcoming life. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has overcome the law of sin and death. So that is the overcoming life.
The nature of the cork is to float. The nature of the life of Christ is to overcome.
Years ago, I shared on hummingbird life. It is amazing to me, being an aerospace engineer. The hummingbird is a marvelous creation of the Lord Jesus—how God created this unique little animal called a hummingbird.
What is so great, particularly to aeronautical engineers, is that we talk about lift and drag: the drag that pulls you down, and then a lift that can overcome the drag. You do it by shaping the wing so that the air travels over an arch, while underneath it is flat.
If you split a particle of air at the edge of a wing, those two particles—though the one on top takes a longer trip, so to speak—will meet at the same time. It means that it has to travel faster than the particle on the bottom.
If you know Bernoulli’s principle, it lowers the pressure. There is a lower pressure on top of the wing than there is underneath it, and it automatically lifts. It kind of pulls it up. The lower pressure on top and higher pressure on the bottom lift the plane.
Lift overcomes the forces of gravity and drag because it is greater.
But the fascinating thing about the hummingbird is that most birds gain lift when they sweep their wings downward. Then we see them soaring, and when they are soaring, it is just like an airplane.
With a hummingbird, what is so marvelous is that it does not matter whether its wings are going up or down: it can generate lift in both actions. It is able to twist its wings on the way up, and it creates lift. It is the only creature that can do that.
Not only that, but they can fly backward. They can fly straight up, straight down, or forward. They are so fast that they have no natural enemies. They are just fearless little birds.
That is why, if you put out a hummingbird feeder, eventually, if that feeder gets empty, they are going to come up to your window and tap on it. They are going to let you know that you have not kept up with their food, and they want it.
I have actually had them come this close to me, right up here, and just look at me, like, “What are you doing? Where is my food?” Then they just fly right off. They are not scared of you at all.
The whole thing is that they have hummingbird life. Wow, if I had hummingbird life—I do not know, as heavy as I am, whether I could get it to work.
But anyway, it is the life that they have that causes them to be so unique and, frankly, to overcome all obstacles in flight. They have to eat a tremendous amount of food, or drink it, because they expend so much energy flying around.
The point is this: when we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, we were actually born again. We entered into a new life, a different life.
We still have the old earthly life that we gained from our parents, but now we are born into new life—spiritual life. It is a spiritual birth. You have entered into a new realm now, a wholly different person.
Many, when they come to the Lord Jesus Christ and really accept Him as their Lord and Savior, are actually born again. For those of us who have been born again, you know it. You know in your heart that the Lord is real.
You say, “Abba, Father.” You know it is there. It is not just in your mind; it is in your being. You are the Lord’s, and He is real.
When that happens, probably the first thing you notice is that the great load of sin that you carried all your life has been lifted—the guilt, the guilt taken away in your life.
For the first time, you really know, “I am going to go to heaven.” What a marvelous thing that new birth is.
We are so grateful for these things. Yet many Christians are still unaware that they have come into a new life. They have a new life and a new way of sensing things in the spirit.
They are able to communicate with God for the first time. It is something new. You have entered into the spiritual realm because you now have spiritual life.
But mostly, what we are aware of is that we are the Lord’s, that we have been saved, and that we are going to heaven. Usually, we are not very aware of that new life within us, even though it is there.
In the beginning, it is all joy. We are joyful because of what Christ has done. But after a while, that joy seems to disappear because we begin to fail the Lord. We know that.
Some sins with which we had trouble, which went away for a while, return. You want to live this Christian life for the Lord because you love Him, but you are struggling. You are struggling to live that life, and you are failing. Those sins that so easily beset you seem to return.
Well, that is not uncommon. The apostle Paul went through this same period in his spiritual life. You can read about it in Romans 7.
He says, “The things that I want to do, I just cannot seem to do them. I want to do them for the Lord, but I do not seem to have the power to do it. What is even worse is that the things I do not want to do, it seems like I end up doing.”
He says, “It is a terrible situation I am in. This Christian life is such a struggle.”
Many give up. At that point, it seems that the victorious life is actually impossible, and all you can do the rest of your life is the best you can.
Well, what is the problem? The problem is that instead of living by that new life, that overcoming life we have in the Lord Jesus, we are still living by the old natural life that we had—and still have.
We are trying to live by that fleshly life, that natural life. The thing about our natural life is that it can perform good things and it can perform evil things.
When we become Christians, we often think, “Okay, I have got this now. What I need to do is just do the good things and not do the evil things.” But then you begin to see that this becomes impossible in the natural life.
You run through the same thing Paul shows us in Romans 7. The things I want to do, I struggle with, and I cannot do them. Sometimes I am successful, but often I am not. Then the very things I do not want to do, I end up doing. Paul even used the words, “The things I hate to do, I do.”
What was Paul’s answer? He said his freedom came in Christ. If you get to Romans 8, you find that he found his freedom in Christ. He discovered the Christ life in him.
He realized that he no longer had to live and operate out of his natural life, but he could live and operate out of the spiritual life that he had in Christ.
Just a little more explanation may help. Our natural life—who you are—is expressed through your soul. Your soul consists of your will, your mind, and your emotions. The natural life expresses itself through that.
Now, those with a strong will—strong-willed people—I have a grandson whom I would rank number one in strong will. Not that I do not have one myself. I do not put it all on him, but I guess you notice it more in others, do you not?
When strong-willed people run across these issues in their lives, they try to overcome with their strong will. “This is what I ought to do, and this is the way I am going to do it. I will it, and I am going to do it.”
They can be fairly successful at times, but not all the time. The strong-willed person exercising his will to try to live the Christian life simply becomes self-willed instead of living by the will of the Lord.
The Lord’s will does not become their will; they become self-willed. They follow their own will instead of the will of the Lord.
Then there are those more given to the mind, or rational thinking—the rational thinkers. I think you could probably put engineers into that category.
They figure it out. They figure out this overcoming life, they figure out the doctrine, and they get it up here. But they cannot live the life. They think they can because they have the knowledge of it: “If I just get knowledge of something, I can do it.”
They end up knowing a lot, but they lack the reality of it, because the natural life cannot really know the things of God.
Then we have those who live more from their emotions. The problem is that when things feel good to them, it is okay—it is the Lord. But if something does not feel right, it is not the Lord, even when the Word of God contradicts their feelings.
Their tendency is to live by that feeling instead of by the Spirit within them. Those who tend to live by their emotions have a real tough time with this matter of the cross in their lives, because the cross does not feel good at all, brothers and sisters, when it works.
Our problem is that when we become Christians, we find that we operate in this natural life so much. We have been doing it all our lives, and it is a tough transition to the other.
The natural life in itself is simply not able to know the things of God or really to live the life of God. You need to know that.
The problem is that we are still functioning with this natural life as our source of life. It is the source to which we look in order to overcome, and we cannot.
Now, I want to say very quickly that our mind, will, and emotions are not evil. God never intended to destroy those, and He does not. But the cross has to do its work to move out the natural tendencies and natural life so that His life may be manifest.
Actually, our mind, will, and emotions—our soul—were designed to express the life of Christ. When God made Adam and Eve, they were the only creatures able to contain the Spirit of God.
They were to eat of the tree of life in order that they might be quickened in their spirits, made alive, and brought into true fellowship. But they chose the way of knowledge of good and evil. That is the natural life.
The natural life took over what God did not intend to be the leader in your life. Your soul was meant to be subject to God and His Spirit. In other words, the spiritual life should be the source in your life to which you really look.
The natural life is always self-centered. The spiritual life of God in you—the life of Christ in you—is God-centered.
In Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ.” We have heard that a lot. What does it mean?
It means you have died to yourself as the source of your life. It means you have died to yourself being the point of reference in your life. I hope that helps. It helps me.
Most of the time in the natural, we view everything with ourselves at the center. I am always the point of reference. “I have salvation,” instead of, “I have a Savior.” “I am going to heaven,” instead of, “Heaven is in me.” It is always me, me, me.
So you have been delivered through the death of Christ on the cross from being the point of reference. His life in you is now your source of life. It is now your point of reference.
He does not just want to help you make it. He wants to be there making it for you. I hope that helps.
So how do we live such a life as this? What does the Word of God say concerning how Christians live? Absolutely: the just shall live by faith.
Not only are you born again by faith, but we must learn to live by faith. Brothers and sisters, that is a process.
When we accept Christ in our heart, it is instantaneous. He is there. We have been converted, so to speak, and our sins have been taken care of in Christ. Hallelujah. We have the promise of eternal life. We have it. It is guaranteed. It is by faith.
But then we need to learn to live by faith. In the beginning, we are justified. We realize that we have been justified.
Do you know what that means? It is a big word, but it means that you have been made just before God. Before, you were a sinner, but now you have been made just before God because when He looks at you, He sees the blood of Christ. He sees you in Christ, and therefore He sees Christ.
Remember that golden robe of righteousness I talked about? That is what He sees. You are justified before God because Christ has paid the ransom for you.
God’s salvation at that point is real to you. But what we often have not quite seen yet is that we must not only gain salvation through faith, or gain the Savior through faith; we must learn to live by faith.
We are not used to that. It is a spiritual life, but it is a real life. It needs to become part of our daily experience.
Let us put it this way: unbelievers live in only one realm, what I call the temporary realm. It is a temporary life.
But a Christian lives both in the eternal and the temporal. We live in two realms. We have the privilege and honor not only to live in the temporal realm, which comes to an end, but also to live in the eternal realm because we are in Christ.
First Corinthians 1:30—you might want to look at that. Sometimes it is good to put your eyes on these verses rather than just hearing a voice.
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
“But of Him are ye in Christ.” In other words, when you accepted Christ as your Savior, God spiritually put you into Christ, and that is the way He sees you. You are in Christ.
You do not have to work your way in there. You do not have to earn your way. The way is made immediately when you accept Christ. God says, “I see you in Christ.”
Because He sees you in Christ, Christ is your wisdom, Christ is your righteousness, and Christ is your sanctification. That is the way God sees us. Amazing, brothers and sisters, what God has done.
Because of that, we live in two realms. In fact, Ephesians 2:6 says God has raised us up and made us sit with Christ in the heavenly places—the spiritual realm.
We have been made to sit together with Christ in the heavenly realm, the eternal realm.
In the eternal, in Christ, everything is invisible. You do not see it with your eyes. The eternal in Christ is changeless. The eternal in Christ is timeless.
In other words, in the eternal everything is present. There is no past or future. Everything is present. In the spiritual realm, there is spiritual reality, and that spiritual reality is God’s reality.
I must say that it is a higher reality than we experience in the temporal realm. It is the realm of completeness. In the eternal, everything is complete in Christ. Our wholeness is complete in Christ.
In the eternal is where things are initiated and things are finished. In the eternal, it is settled. It is done. Finished.
It is the realm of the “I AM.” God says, “I AM THAT I AM,” in Exodus 3:14. It is the realm of the “I AM.”
The temporal is visible. It is temporary. In the temporal realm, we have a past, a present, and a future. In the temporal realm, things are in process, but not yet complete.
In the eternal realm is the realm of the “I AM”; the temporal realm is the realm of “I am becoming.”
Let me repeat that. In the eternal realm, in Christ, I am. I am complete. I am perfect. But in the temporal realm, I am becoming. Both are real in your life, and both are necessary.
In the temporal realm, Hebrews 12:2 gives us a good word:
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
In the temporal realm where we are, we need to be looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. In other words, in the temporal realm, you are becoming.
Our focus, however, needs to be centered on the eternal—what is in Christ, what is spiritually real. What we are in Christ and what we have become as a result of the finished work of Calvary’s cross is real. That is what God sees.
That is real, and it is eternal. There, in the eternal, I am. I am not the great “I AM”—God is. I am not deity. But what I am saying is that there is where I find my completeness.
We cannot ignore what we are in the temporal, where we are becoming.
Christians seem to go to extremes. One group is what I call the mystical types. They see what we are in the eternal in Christ, and that is it. They have seen it, they have got it, and they know it.
But unfortunately, they also deny what they are in the temporal. They say the only way they can come into what they are in the eternal is to deny what they are in temporal life. So they never become, because they are in denial and cannot see what they really are in this temporal realm.
Then, on the other end of the spectrum, we have what I call the realists. They know the doctrines in Christ. They know what is going on, and they are always struggling to get there.
They see what they are in this temporal life. They know it does not match up, and they are just struggling. They do not really see what they are in Christ.
They focus on what they are in the temporal, and in doing so, they become very discouraged because they are always performing and never seeing what they are in the eternal, as completed in Christ.
Because of that, they never have the foundation in their lives to become. The foundation of your Christian life is what you are in Christ. You have to have that foundation. You need revelation of that.
Let me give you an example of where I am headed. I hope I get through this first one this morning.
In John 8:58, Christ said, while He was on earth and living in temporal life, “Before Abraham was, I am.” He was living in the eternal. He knew what He was in the eternal, and He lived in the eternal.
But He also lived in the temporal because He came in flesh. He took on man’s flesh, and He walked this earth.
In the eternal, everything was present. But in the temporal realm, He had a past, a present, and a future. At that time, He had already been born, He was speaking the Word around the earth, and finally He would die on Calvary’s cross.
In the eternal, He is the Son of God. He has been the Son of God forever—the perfect Son of God, the complete Son of God. But on earth, He grew from a baby into manhood in the temporal.
In the eternal, everything obeyed Him. He did not have to obey anything. He was God. Everything was subject to Him.
But the Word says that when He came to earth, He had to learn obedience. Brothers and sisters, before He lived in this temporal life, obedience was not necessary.
But remember how obedient our Lord Jesus was. Though He knew He was of the Father, the Son of God, He submitted to His parents. He obeyed them.
He said, “I need to be about My Father’s business,” and they said, “You need to come home with us.” They did not say that He did not need to be about His Father’s business. All they said was, “You need to come home with us.” And He obeyed.
He learned obedience in the temporal. What of us?
Let us read some Scriptures. First Corinthians 1:30: Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. You have it. You have it in the eternal because you have Christ.
Now let us go to Hebrews 10:14:
For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
We are the sanctified ones. We are the set-apart ones. He does not say we are going to be perfected. He says He hath perfected us. In the eternal, you are perfect.
That is hard for this mind to grasp, but in the spiritual realm—the realm into which you have been born by that new birth—God sees you perfect because He sees you in Christ.
He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Colossians 2:10:
And ye are complete in Him.
Did you realize you were complete already? Boy, that is hard for us in this temporal realm to grasp. But we are complete in Him.
That is the foundation on which you can grow into that completeness: you are already complete in Christ. Remember, I always keep saying, “in Christ.”
Colossians 1:22:
In the body of His flesh, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.
Before God, we are presented as holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God’s sight—beyond reproach. Wow.
What you need to know is that this life is secured in Christ. He secured that in you. These things are true in Christ, in the eternal.
Now, if the Lord has opened your eyes a little bit to see what you are in Christ, does that mean you can live your life any way you want and one day, boom, you are going to be like this?
God uses the temporal to transform us into what we already are in the eternal. Let me repeat that: God uses this temporal life to transform us into what we already are in Christ.
In the temporal, I am being transformed into what I already am in Christ. In this temporal life, I am being transformed into what I already am in Christ.
Let us read some verses to back this up. Philippians 1:6:
Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
That means you are being transformed. He began a new work in you when you accepted Christ. You received His life. That is the great first work done in you. Now He is transforming you, and He says, “I will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
First Peter 5:10:
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.
In other words, something is in process, is it not?
Hebrews 13:21:
Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ.
Working in you. Work is being done.
In the eternal, in Christ, we are perfect. We are complete. That is your foundation. That is what you come into. But in this temporal life, we are being perfected. We are being transformed.
In the eternal, in Christ, you are. But in the temporal, you are becoming. In the temporal, we are being transformed into what we already are in Christ.
What is the key for the Christian to this transforming work needed in our temporal life? The key is faith.
We need God to give us revelation of what we are in Christ in the eternal, brothers and sisters. You need that foundation. You need the security of knowing that it is done in Him.
It is not only a possibility; it has been done in Christ.
Then, as you believe, as you begin to have faith in what Christ has done, it begins to become real in your temporal life. You will be transformed into the image of Christ in the end. It is faith.
God does not just say, “Okay, brothers and sisters, I have done this in Christ, and now you can do what you want, and then one day I will transform you.” The transforming work is done in the temporal life, and it is necessary.
I have said this before: I believe that thousand-year period, where it talks about outer darkness, gnashing of teeth, and the grief that will be there because we missed our opportunity to be in His presence in the kingdom, is the further transforming work that we do not get completed now but which will be completed then.
But those who overcome, who are willing to be transformed now, who are willing to put faith in what Christ has done and say, “I need my life to be transformed,” will overcome and be with Him, raptured to the throne.
So that is our hope. It is through faith in the eternal that what we are in the eternal becomes real in our temporal life.
If we only see what we are in the temporal life—if all you can concentrate on is how badly you are doing, or whatever—you will always be trying to achieve, trying to perform this Christian life.
It is not that we do not do things, but it is the idea that I can get there by doing certain things. You get there because it has already been done in Christ, but you need to put your faith in what He has done.
In the temporal realm, we can become because in the eternal realm we are.
Let me say that again: in the temporal realm, we can become because in the eternal, we already are. That is your foundation. That is your faith.
Brothers and sisters, this may seem strange to us, and it is strange to our natural life. It always wants to achieve. In our natural life, we feel that we have to achieve it, that we have to perform in order to become.
But in God’s way, He says, “What you need to do is have faith in what Christ has achieved, and you will become.” Have faith in what Christ has achieved, and you will become.
This is grace, brothers and sisters. This is God’s way, and it is higher than man’s way.
In Galatians 2:20, it says you have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. In Romans 6, it says that the old man has been crucified with Christ, and you are risen with Christ in newness of life.
These are things done in Christ. Brothers and sisters, what you are in Christ—let me see if I can explain it a little better. Let us read Romans 6:11. Actually, let us go back to Romans 6:6. I am sorry. This is important.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him:
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.
For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.
Likewise, reckon. That word is a Southern word: reckon. You know, I reckon all the time. “I reckon I might do this.” But what does it mean in the Bible? It means you can count on it.
In other words, all of this has been done in Christ, and here He is saying that you need to count on it. Take it into account.
It is like God has put all of what you really are in Christ into a bank. He says, “I have done all of this. Now it is up to you to draw it out of the bank.”
You can count on it. It is there. Count on it. It has been done. You can count on it because it is real.
A lot of people get mixed up and say, “I have to count on it in order for it to get there in the bank.” You know: “I reckon, I reckon, I reckon.”
Some people have reckoned themselves into a trench, going around and around, thinking that by reckoning they can make it real. It is already real. That is why He says you can count on it.
“I have done it. I put it there. It is in your bank account. It is done. Now you need to write the check.” What is the check? It is faith.
Faith apprehends what has been done in Christ.
If you look inside yourself, you are dealing with the temporal realm. You will discover, “Boy, I am nothing like that. I am anything but dead. I am very alive.”
That is why our eyes have to be kept on Christ. That is your foundation for being transformed. You need to look at Christ.
There, you are dead in Christ. The old man is dead. But in Christ, you have arisen a new man in Him. This is so critical.
You have died to yourself as your point of reference. That is what being dead in Christ means. You are no longer your point of reference. You are no longer the source of life. Christ is.
Christ is now your point of reference in your life. Christ is your source, not you. You have changed the source.
I hope that God, by the Holy Spirit, has been able either to open our eyes or refresh our hearts concerning what Christ has done on Calvary’s cross for you and me, and what we are in Christ.
Brothers and sisters, it is secure. What hope we have.
So often our eyes are on ourselves and our lives, and Christ is distant, over there. Brothers and sisters, you will never have the transforming work done in your life as long as you are the center.
Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith—the transforming work can never be done with you as the center. It has got to be Christ.
What Christ has done: count on it. Count on it.
There are some other things that I want to share on, and we will do that maybe next week, or the next time I share.
Lord, we just look to You.
Today, it was on my heart, as we see the great work that has been done in Christ: Oh Lord, our salvation is so wonderful. But, Lord, how much more to find our souls complete in Christ, to see that we are perfected in Christ.
Lord, the reality. All You do is say, “Count on it. Just count on it.”
Lord, how we worship You for Your great mercy. We could never transform ourselves, Lord. It is impossible.
Lord, we could work and achieve. In fact, we may have been doing that all of our lives, and we have not gotten anywhere.
Lord, You open heaven and You say, “This is what you are.” It is real. Count on it.
Lord, we just thank You. I pray, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit will really open our eyes and ears to see Your great eternal work that You have done in Christ.
Lord, may it transform our lives. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.