Six. I sure hope this message comes
out clearly, I just don't know. I appreciate so much our brother's
prayer back in the study. Prayed for me, it's always an
humbling thing, so I just don't know. But especially needed tonight,
I believe this is a A difficult subject, but I believe it's so
vital. So I think it'll be helpful if
you'll just try to pay attention. You might get something here
and there. I hope so. You might get something. Let's
read verse 11, Romans 6, verse 11. Well, let's read, let's read
10 and 11. In that Christ died, he died
unto sin once. 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 our Lord. Every true believer, every true
child of God struggles with sin. Every true child of God can identify
with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7. As I was reading that, everyone
in here, a true believer, could perfectly relate to what Paul
was saying when he said, the things I would, I do not. The
things I do not, that's what I would do, and so forth. What
am I going to do, the old wretched man that I am? And it's to these
people, it's to you who can identify with him, that I want to talk
to a little bit. There is a battle raging on within
us. Paul calls it a war in our members.
In another place, in Galatians, I believe it is, he talks about
the law of the spirit or the law of sin, wars against the
law of the spirit, war, lust against it, he called it, lusting
against the spirit, the flesh, lust against the spirit. Paul
said, there's a war in me and it seems to bring me into captivity. It seems to have me in its control. Do you feel that way? Do you
ever feel that way? Of course you do. You know what he's talking
about, I believe. There are times when you're engaged
in a continual inward struggle against sin, against self, times
when every thought you have is a wicked one, every desire an
unholy desire, and try what you may, do what you can, you just
can't seem to get rid of this inward struggle. You reach a
point of almost despairing of any hope of really being a believer,
don't you? Because of the depravity of your
own heart. You say to yourself, there can
be no way that I'm a child of God. I'm just too wicked. You
ever been there? Have you ever not been there?
Do you ever get out of that state? You say, I feel like I'm a slave
to sin. I feel as if sin has dominion
over me. I know it says it won't, but
I feel like it does. You ever been there? Sometimes
I feel like I stay there. Well, I want to show you in this
study tonight, I want to show you that far from being a reason
to despair, these thoughts are reason to rejoice. That's the
work of the Holy Spirit to make you sensitive to sin. It's the
work of the Holy Spirit. Well, you say, we say, but I
hate these thoughts. I want, I want, I want to know
how to get rid of them. I want to be done with them. Tell me how to get out of this
shape I'm in. That's what Paul seemed to be
saying in Romans 7, didn't he? I want to know the answer. I'm
tired of struggling with it. Well, I've got news for you.
You're going to be struggling with it from now on, as long
as you're never going to be delivered from the presence of sin. Why?
It's this body. It's this world, it's the flesh.
You're never going to be delivered from the presence of it, but
I'll tell you one way to fight the power of it. I won't tell
you that, I'm going to get ahead and I'm going to give you the
punchline. All right, so if you have these problems, I hope you
do. I hope you do. You know, the
psalmist said in one place, he said, because He said the people
out there in the world, they don't have any changes, therefore,
they don't fear God. Remember that? Because they have
no changes, therefore, they fear not God. In other words, they
don't seem to struggle with sin like you do. Do they? The wicked,
the religious, the pious, they don't seem to. Let me tell you
this again, I've told it to you so many times, but John Bunyan.
He said, he said, you know, the devil is so subtle. He's so crafty. He said he'll take a self-righteous
Pharisee, somebody who doesn't know Christ, doesn't care anything
about the righteousness of Christ, doesn't know the gospel, the
true gospel from a false one. But yet he's pious, he's self-righteous,
he's good. He said the devil will just leave
him alone. He's got him right where he wants
him, in a false refuge. Self-righteous, that'll send
you straight to hell, won't it? Self-righteous. Got him right
where he wants him. Rely on himself, and he's going
to get to heaven. Lord, Lord, depart from me. I never knew you. He says he'll leave that man
alone because that, and you'll leave him alone. He won't give
him any bad thoughts or anything like that. He'll withhold these
things from him so that that man thinks I'm too good not to
be saved. Well, I couldn't be this good
if I wasn't saved, could I? Quit my drinking and smoking.
It has to be the Lord, right? Miraculous. You remember the
blind man in John 9 who was healed? Yet he didn't know Christ, did
he? But he had a miraculous healing. He went out testifying and so
forth. O'Bunyan said, Satan in his subtlety,
well, let's leave that man alone to make him think, well, he's
so good, he's got to be saved. He'll take an old boy or an old
girl who's looking to Christ and Christ alone. crying out
for mercy, grace, help, and time of need, trusting Christ. Dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name."
And he said he'll bombard him with the wicked, vile thoughts
out of hell itself and make that man or that woman think, I'm
too sinful to be saved. Does that strike a chord with
you? He said sometimes the devil would whisper in his ear, and
he didn't know if it was him or the devil saying it. The old
man's no different. He's the son of the devil. He'd
whisper in his ear, blasphemy, just the wicked thing. You ever
have that happen? Sure you have. And you say, how can I do this? Well, that should have given you some
comfort there. But if you have these problems, if you hate these
thoughts and want to be rid of them, but yet you have this problem,
this war, hallelujah. Thank God for it. Thank God for
this war, because the self-righteous aren't warring. Why? The devil's
got them right where he wants them. They're in a false refuge. There's no war to be had. They're
fixed and sure for heaven as if they're already there. Right? But I want to show you, and I
hope to show you, how we can have some relief over these struggles
and how we may truly mortify our members, like Paul talks
about. We read through Romans 7. The Lord helps me here that we read
through Romans 7 and we saw how that it said the rule of life
became a curse of death. God said this do and live. None of us did. The self-righteous
man thinks he does. Well, all these things have I
kept for my youth. So the law is his rule of life,
right? He's basing his salvation upon
his adherence and conformity and obedience to God. Like some
woman I worked with said one time, she said, I don't know
much about the Bible, but I do know you better keep those Ten
Commandments. Oh, you just don't know much about the Bible, do
you, gal? Law is spiritual. You're a colonel. How are you
going to keep the Ten Commandments? Ten Commandments are spiritual,
aren't they, Rick? The law says this do and live. This do and
live. We can't, so what is the consequences? We didn't, so what's the consequences?
Death. Dead in trespasses and sin. Whatsoever the law saith, it
saith to them that are under the law that all, every mouth
may be stopped and all the world become guilty as charged. Subject
to death. condemnation under the wrath
of God. God is angry with the wicked
every day. God hates all workers of iniquity. The soul that sins
must surely die. This is the curse of the law.
The soul that sins must surely die, die, die. Death, death is
the curse for sin. Death, that's the curse. Well,
turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Look at this with me. First Corinthians 15. God gave
this law for man to live by. Adam. But he didn't, did he? So what did the law end up doing?
Killing him. Didn't it? It was meant for him
to live by. This dude lived. He didn't. So
then what did the law do to him? Killed him. Condemned him. Condemned him. And we're all
condemned in him, and Adam all die. Why? Because we've all sinned. We haven't sinned necessarily,
Paul said in one place, after the similitude, even those who
hadn't sinned at the similitude of Adam's transgression, nevertheless,
all have sinned and come short. All have sinned. All have sinned. God gave this law for man to
live by, but he didn't, so the law then became his executioner. Now, Paul says in Galatians,
throughout the book of Galatians, he said, no, wait a minute, you
that desire to be back under that law, to have it as your
rule, to have it as your standard, don't you hear, aren't you hearing
it? It's not saying, good job, buddy, is it? It's not saying,
hey, you're getting close now, is it? It's not saying, almost,
you're just about there, try a little harder. It's not saying
that, it's saying, what is it saying? On every hand to offend
in one point to be guilty of it all. Cursed is everyone to
continue not all things written. I mean to the spirit of the letter
even. The spirit, the thought. Not
just the thought. This is where they miss it, isn't
it? I think because they do it outwardly, they've got it. No,
it's in the thought. Not a man alive that can say
he's never looked on a woman. Not a woman alive can ever say
that. So they're guilty. Guilty. So
man didn't, and so he's under the curse. Well, look at this.
Look at what it says here in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 56. Verse 56. He says, The sting
of death is sin. The sting of death is sin. In other words, what causes death
is sin. We wouldn't die if we weren't
sinners. If we could be holy and righteous before God, we
wouldn't die. That's the sting. That's the punishment, the penalty.
For sin is death. And the strength of sin is the
law. The strength of sin is the law.
Now, if you don't hear another word that's said tonight, you
remember that verse very well. You remember it very well. 1
Corinthians 1556. The strength of sin is the law. Ain't one man in a million knows
what that's talking about, is it? The strength of sin is the
law. What's that talking about? Well,
it's human nature. It's human nature to want what
is forbidden, right? It's human nature. It's the strength
of the sinful flesh, our nature. To want what we can't have. You
try it. You have to use what you call
reverse psychology with your children, don't you? To get them
to do anything positive, you say, no, don't eat those green
beans. No, don't eat. Don't eat. Don't you dare now.
And they'll eat them. I think they're getting by with something. That's the way it is, isn't it?
God said to Adam one thing, didn't he? You can have anything but
that tree. What Adam go to? That tree. The law, God set down one forbidden,
one law. How many millions of trees were
there? How much beautiful fruit? How
much enjoyment, happiness, fleshly? Right? You can't have that. Well,
that's what I want then. You can't tell me what I can't
have and what I can't. I'll get it just to spite you.
The strength of sin is the law. That's what they say in there.
You desire to be under the law? I tell you, if you do, your sinful
flesh will rear its ugly head worse than ever. We find that
out, don't we? I'm going to quit that. I'm not
going to ever do it again. And you do it twofold worse the
second time. Don't you? Sure you do. A man
can have the most beautiful wife in the world. He can have the most beautiful
wife in the world, yet want his neighbors. A man can have one
hundred zillion dollars, but cheat on his taxes. Got to have
some more. Why? The law says give what is
due to Uncle Sam. I won't do it. I'll cheat. The
strength of sin is the law. So the law doesn't cause us to
sin, but because we're so sinful, When the law comes, it exposes
how sinful we really are. That's what the law was all about.
That's what the law is all about. That's what the law is for. That's
the only thing the law is for. That's the reason that the commandment
came. Why? Because of transgressions. No, wait a minute. There's a
sense in which the law does restrain some things. The law of God written
on the heart does restrain people from some manner of evil. But the law is spiritual, and
we're carnal. But the law, we're going to see
in a minute, is a schoolmaster, a teacher, to teach us what?
Well, thou shalt, thou shalt not, you must, you this and that.
Yeah, those are instructive things, but they're to teach us that
even though we shalt not, that's what we do. Even though we should,
that's what we don't do. It's a teacher to show us, hey,
the law is holy, just, righteous, strict. It's good. You're bad. You're unholy. You're unrighteous.
You're disobedient. And to point us, you better get
to Christ. That's what the law is, schoolmaster.
You failed and you're guilty, aren't you? You'd better look
to Christ then. Don't come to me, the law says.
You'd better look to Christ. Paul said, I hadn't known sin
if the law hadn't come. I hadn't known it. He said, you
see, before I saw the holy law of God and its requirements of
me, I had no consciousness of sin. You that once lived in the
gutters, Not call any names, but probably most of you or many
of you anyway. You got the marks in your body
to prove it, don't you? Lived in the gutter. Before, you didn't have any consciousness
of sin. It didn't give you a moment's
trouble, did it? Didn't give you a problem. Your
conscience never smoked, did it? Not really. You just went
on your merry way, not thinking a thing about it. But when the
law came, When the commandment came, when he heard the preaching
come, when God's Word spoke, then it convicted you. It convicted
you. Then you saw that sin was really
sin. Paul said in Romans 4, 14, where
there's no law, there's no transgression. No law, no sin, you know. What
you don't know won't hurt you, that sort of thing. But if you
have a conscience, and this is the reason I say rejoice, if
you have a consciousness over your sin and iniquity, if you've
got this struggle within you, rejoice. That's the work of God,
the Holy Spirit, the schoolmaster, God taking the law of God and
showing you, hey, you're an awful wicked sinner. You need help,
don't you? Yeah, I can't do it myself. I don't know what to
do. You better get to crying. Schoolmaster. The law is our
schoolmaster. The law shows us God's holiness. The law reveals to us our sinfulness. The law points us to our only
hope, Christ. The law never points us to itself
like the Holy Spirit. The law, like a creditor, shows
us our utter bankruptcy. A creditor comes to you and he
doesn't say, So you owe a million dollars,
but you've got five in the bank. Well, you're getting there. No,
the creditor comes and says, you're way short. Pay up. Pay up. It shows how far short
we've come with the glory of God, not how close we're coming. Right? That's what I was saying,
the difference in looking at yourself and looking to yourself.
When you look at yourself in the law of God, you look at the
believer, looks at himself in the holy word of God and the
law and says, oh, look how far short I've come. The self-righteous
legalist and all, measuring himself by the ruler of the law and says,
hey, look how close I'm coming. There's a difference in looking
to himself. I'm measuring up right there.
Not looking at it to see how far short it comes. The law shows
us how wicked we are compared to the holy character of God's
Son. You see, God's Son is the standard.
Didn't he say that God will judge this world by that man which
he hath ordained? Didn't he? Men fail to realize
that. God's going to judge this world
by an absolutely perfect man. That's his standard. Not the
best we can do. It's the best he did. And what's
the best he did? Perfection. Thought word. Which of you convinces me of
sin? And Christ is going to stand beside the right hand of God?
And God's going to measure everybody? Now stand over here beside Christ.
Let's see how you measure up. We won't even get on a scale. Weighed into balances and found
wanted. Right? Christ is the balance. Christ
is the balance. And I tell you what, if you get
on the scales, this is grace. You get on the scales, Christ
is on one side, and what he does is heap grace on you. You're over here, you come far,
so you don't even register on the scales. You don't even register. He starts heaping up grace on
you. His robe puts all of his things on you. come up equal,
look like Christ, to God. The law, the Holy Spirit, brings
us to the point of crying out for mercy. The law shows us,
in the hands of the Holy Spirit, shows us the holy character of
God that we talked about this morning and how we must bow and
plead for mercy, fear this holy God. And then the Holy Spirit
brings us to the point of crying out for mercy to God to spare
us from wrath and condemnation to deliver us from our lost condition,
and it points us to Christ. It points us to Christ on the
cross, showing us that Christ bore that punishment for us,
showing us that Christ himself, in his own body on the tree,
bore our sins and our iniquities away. The divine justice of God
was spent on Christ, and Christ took our sin. He was made sin,
S-I-N, the principle of sin that's within every one of us. He was
made sin, and God saw our sin upon him and smote him. He was wounded for our transgressions,
right? The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. And the
gospel of God and the power of the Spirit shows us what he did. He fulfilled God's law perfectly.
He established that righteousness. and a right standing before God
as a man, and then gave it to us, just freely gave it to us.
Here, we get to credit Terry for what Christ did. That's grace,
isn't it? That's grace. We won't hardly
do that now. I mean, not for a smidgen of a thing, will we?
We want all the credit, don't we? Think of the unspeakable
gift of God's grace. Think of the unspeakable life
that Christ lived. Think of this unspeakable sacrifice
that He made. And after He made that, He said,
now Terry did that. Those that got tarried at that. My, my. And then we see where
he is now, making intercession for us. Now, turn over to Galatians
chapter 4 with me. Galatians chapter 4. True saving
faith. Now listen to me. True saving
faith is simply believing God, taking Him at His Word. Now,
listen to what God says. Listen to this. Galatians 4,
verse 1, Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs
nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all. But he's under
tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so, we, when we were children, ignorant of God, not seeking
God, going sinful way. We're in bondage under the elements
of this world, that is, the sin and so forth. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, redeem
them from the curse by being made a curse for them, that we
might receive the adoption of sons. Now, because you're sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Father, Dad, now you're no more a servant, but a son.
You see that positive, absolute tense? You are no more a servant,
but a son, an heir of God through Christ. Now listen, God said,
Dad, I didn't say that. I'm not trying to convince you
of anything. You read what I read, didn't you? Now, stay with me. It's going to be some help, I
believe. True saving faith is believing in the heart that Jesus
Christ truly came into the world to save sinners. You say you're
the chief? You say that, Roberta? Yeah,
you do. Surely you do. Say, that's me.
That's me. I'm the chief of sinners. This
is a faithful saying. And it's worthy of all acceptation.
In other words, that's kind of a, it's kind of like saying,
you know, you ought to believe this. I know it's too good to
be true. Like Psalm 126 said, when we
heard this, we were as those that dreamed. Well, it's faithful. Why? God said it. It's true.
Why? God said it. Christ came to save
sinners. You call yourself the chief?
And then he said, now you're no more a servant, that is, a
servant to sin and Satan and self and so forth, but a son
of God. And faith, listen, faith is this. Faith is just resting your soul
on Jesus Christ. Faith is merely resting your
soul on Jesus Christ to do it all for you. That's not presumption,
that's not laziness, that's faith. Faith is based upon God's promises,
right? What does it say about Abraham?
Abraham's called the father of the faithful. How did God justify
Abraham? Why was Abraham accepted? What does it say? What sayeth
the scripture? It said Abraham was justified
by faith. Abraham what? Believed God. He accounted that God was faithful
who had promised. That what God had promised he
was able also to perform. Now John Davis, let me ask you
a very simple question. Does God mean it when he said
Christ came to save sinners, or does he not? Are you a sinner? Well, well, you ain't nothing
but a no-good low-down. Scott Richardson said, go ahead
and call me a sinner. He said, do your dead level best
to convince me how bad I am. Tell me I won't offend me. It
just gives me a greater right to the promise. He said, convince me, tell me,
get me down in the dust so bad I got no place to look but up.
Because you can't claim the promise unless you fit the character
described in the promise. That's profundity from an old
coal miner. Faith is simply believing God,
taking him at his word, believing what he truly says about himself.
You believe that? You believe God's God? You believe
you are a sinner? I mean, do you believe Christ
is your only hope? I know that's greatly simplified,
but that's the simplicity that's in Christ. that Paul talked about
over in 2 Corinthians 11. True faithness is in. Now, we're
going to get to here in a minute this thing of mortifying the
members, sin. It's directly connected to this
faith right here. It's directly connected. It's
not apart from it. You don't begin in the Spirit and then,
what Paul said, make perfect. Then you fight it by yourself.
You never do. Never do. True faith says, I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. And the life I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me.
We keep going back to that little word, don't we? not faith in,
but of His faithfulness who loved me and gave Himself for me and
promised Himself to be ever, to ever live to make intercession
for me and to be there for my strength and help and encouragement. His Word depends upon it. Now
back to Romans 6.11, let's look at it again. Now he says here,
I just described to you in brief what Christ did for his people. He was made sin for them that
they might be made the righteousness of God in him. Our standing is
all according to Christ. Now he says here in Romans 6.11,
now reckon yourselves. Reckon yourselves dead indeed
under sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reckon yourselves. Now God reckons us in Christ. It's an old country term. I like
it. I like that. Reckon he'll, reckon he and she'll
get hitched up? You know, you've heard reckon. He recollects, or that is, God
is recollecting whatever he thinks of us, whatever he thinks of
Christ, he thinks of us in Christ, and vice versa, like Jonathan
and Mephibosheth, you know. God reckons us in Christ. Why
don't we? Why don't we? This is what Paul
is saying here. This is what he's exhorting us
to. You ought to reckon yourself in Christ. You ought to reckon
yourselves in Christ. Reason we don't is because unbelief,
unbelief. As long as, now listen, we're
getting into the meat of this, as long as you have any question
about whether God counts you as being guilty or innocent,
if there's any question in your mind, you'll never have courage
to contend with sin. As long as you have any question
in your mind about whether God counts you as guilty or innocent,
you'll never have any courage to contend with sin. Now, look
at this paper I handed out to you. This is difficult to understand. It's difficult, hard things to
utter, like Paul said in Hebrews 11. But this is it. Listen to me. Listen to this paper. Let's read
this together. True spiritual mortification. Now, we are all
interested in this, I hope, as believers. We want to know how
to contend with this sin, this principle within us. It plagues
us. We want to be rid of it. We want
to know how to contend with it. How do we do this? Well, William
Romain here, one of the old divines, as they call him, He wrote about
as good article as ever read on Romans 6, 11. He says, true
spiritual mortification, that is putting down sin, that's what
mortification means, killing sin in the members, doesn't consist
in sin not being in you. John Wesley and others, they
insist upon spiritual or sinless perfection as a lie. It's not
possible. Not possible. Not possible. It's called a body of death.
Paul explained that very clearly in Romans 7. You'll never be
free from the presence of sin as long as you're in the body.
Only when Christ redeems us body, soul, and spirit will we be free
from the actual presence of it. But there is deliverance from
the power of it, the reigning influence of it, the governing
principle of it. Yes, there is. It's not a it,
it's a who. I'll give you that clue. All
right. True spiritual mortification
does not consist in sin not being in you. In other words, you can't
get rid of it completely. Nor in its being put upon the
cross daily, or that is you fighting it, trying to kill it. I'm going
to get rid of this thing once and for all. I'm going to quit
this. I'm going to quit it. Well, that's a good resolve,
but I just pretty much guarantee you won't. At least not on your own. Nor
yet, and it's being kept upon the cross. There's got to be
something more. There's got to be something more
to establish perfect peace. Now this is what we're talking
about. We're talking about sin bothering
you. Warring with you. Peace. You've
got a war going on. You want peace. You want to be
free from this sin. There's got to be something more
to establish perfect peace in your conscience. And that is
the testimony of God concerning this body of sin. He has provided
for your perfect deliverance from it in Christ. Nowhere else
but in Christ. Everything needful for this purpose
was finished by Christ upon the cross. Yes, finished. Put an
end to it. He was your surety. He suffered
for thee. Thy sins were crucified with
him, nailed to the cross. They were put to death when he
died. He was your covenant head. You were legally represented
by him, and you're indeed dead to sin by his dying to sin wants. That's what we read back there
in Romans 1 Corinthians. The law now has
no more right to condemn thee. You're a believer. No more right
to condemn you than it has to condemn him. Justice of God is
bound to deal with you like it did with Christ. Now, look at
this. I've got this underlined. If
you don't see your complete mortification in him, sin will reign in you. Remember what we said, the strength
of sin, what the Bible says, the strength of sin is the law,
1 Corinthians 15, verse 56? The strength of sin is the law.
But now, Terry Kinsley, grace reigns unto righteousness. Is that what it said? Grace reigns,
that's Christ reigns, unto righteousness, newness of the walk and the life. If you don't see your complete
deadness and mortification in him, sin is going to rear its
ugly head. No sin, read on. No sin can be crucified in heart
or life unless it first be pardoned in your conscience. If you don't
get this right now, if I'm not able to explain this to you right
now, you go back and read this until you do understand it. No
sin can be crucified, done away with, mortified in your heart
or in your life unless it first be pardoned in your conscience.
There will be one or that is a lack of faith to receive the
strength of Christ by whom he will be crucified. A very simple
scripture to explain this. Scripture says a lot of light
on his commentary when Christ said it in John fifteen five
he said without me. You can do nothing. That's what William Romaine is
going to great lengths to try to say. Without me, you can do
zero. In other words, you can't fight
one little flea of a sin without Christ. Can't do it. Not one little flea. By Christ
alone it's crucified. Now, if it be not mortified in
its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power. Look on down. If Christ be not all, if Christ
is not all in all, you're going to have to look to self, aren't
you? Huh? If Christ be not all, self must
still be looked upon as something that can help, something that
you can do. But going down, the more clearly and steadfastly
you believe this, like the apostle said, I'm crucified with Christ.
In proportion, will you cleave to Christ, look to Christ, receive
strength from him? Does that make sense? Does any
of that make sense to anybody? Anybody? I hope one person here
gets something. It makes sense in short. Let
me say this. Let me try to sum up in short
here. We've got to look to Christ and
Christ alone. We've got to call on him in the day of trouble,
he said, in the day of trouble, call on me. He said, I'll help
you. Don't try it on your own. You
won't fail. Don't try it on your own, kind
of like a little child. You know how your children, when
they were very young, how they like to, you know, they got a
little bit of independence or they thought. They learned a
little bit of something, how to do a little something. It
might have been something as simple as, well, something very
minute, something very, very simple. And then all of a sudden
they're experts at everything. I can do it myself. Don't they? Yeah, they learn just a little
bit, just get a little bit of a, you know, ability. I can do
it myself. And so the parent, the wise parent
at times says, OK, give it a try. And they fail miserably. Every
time, don't they? Miserably. Well, I tell you,
we're weak. You talk about children. We'll
never rise above anything but an infant lying in a pool of
blood in the field, helpless, hopeless, without strength in
our bodies, in our skin. Without me, Christ, you can't
do nothing. You can't walk, talk, think, speak, or anything. Without
me, you can do nothing. And the minute Christ gives us
a little bit of grace to say, hey, I've got this licked, OK,
give her a shot. You know? You understand? The
minute you say, I've got this, you ain't got nothing. You didn't
do nothing. It's the grace of Christ. The
minute you stop looking to Christ, pleading to Christ, the minute
you start dealing with these things in the flesh on your own
strength and resolve, you're going to fail miserably. God's
going to turn you loose. Peter, here's an example. Peter
got all hooked up. Christ took that boy from a boat,
took him stinking, smelling of fish. An ignorant, illiterate
fisherman, a nobody, a nothing, a worthless, no good bum, never
would amount to nothing, took him and made him an apostle of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Gave him utterance and miracles
and this and that and the other. And a little ways on down the
road, Peter became Dr. Peter, you know. Pious Peter. And Christ was talking one day
and Peter was standing there listening to him. And Christ
said, I'm going to Jerusalem, and so forth, and told him, Peter
said, no, far be it from thee, my Lord. You can't do it. Get
behind me, Satan. And then on down the road, he
didn't learn his lesson there. He didn't just keep his mouth
shut and become a simple little child before Christ. Depended
on him totally. But he got puffed up again, you
know. And on down the road, Christ said, now all of you are going
to be ashamed of me this day. And I'm going to be crucified,
and all of you are going to run. Peter, not me." Isn't it? Though all these forsake you,
not me. I'm above that. Who did? Who did the worst? So Christ
said, OK, Peter, before the cock crows three times, you're going
to deny me. Before the cock crows, you're
going to deny me three times. You're not going to make it till
morning, Peter. Now, Peter, if you said, God, Lord Jesus Christ,
would you please give me the grace? Lord Jesus, help me. Would you please not let me forsake
you? By your mercy and your grace,
Lord, would you hold me up and not let me leave you? Christ
might have said, all right, Peter, I'll help you. But no, Peter
said, I won't. So Christ said, you ain't going
to make it till morning. Isn't it? Strength of the flesh.
The minute he stopped leaning on Christ, and from there on,
what did Peter write? 1 Peter 1, 5. He said, buddy,
you're kept by the power of God. Now don't you forget it. I forgot
it and got myself in a mess. Don't you forget it. You're kept
by the power of God through faith, ready to be revealed. You leave
that, you've left your hope. Don't leave your confidence,
he said, later on. Don't leave it. What's your confidence? Who's your confidence? Christ
Him alone. All right, now listen. Can you
believe the Word of God which promises full, free, complete
forgiveness to all who come to God for mercy and Christ? Can
you believe that? Vicki, can you believe that?
Can you believe the promise of God? God's faithful. He won't
lie. He means it. If by His Spirit you've come
to Christ, I know you don't ever come to Him like you want to,
like you feel like you ought to, but you do believe Christ.
And it's completely by His Spirit if you do, anything in you. How can we serve Him? How can we serve Him then? Here's
the big question. Here's the big question. How
can we serve Him? How can we do away with sin and
so forth? That's what I've been trying
to answer here. We can never, we never approach God on the
strength of our flesh, nor can we approach our sin on the strength
of our flesh. We can't deal with Satan. I was
talking to one of the men earlier. We can't deal with Satan on the
strength of our flesh. He's on our ground. That's his
territory. He's called the prince of the
power of the air. He's called the ruler, the God of this world,
he's called. The God of this world, he's called.
We can't deal with him on his own terms. This is where he dealt
with Adam and Eve, right? The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. We can't deal with him
on our own strength. Only can we deal with him in
Christ. The only way we can resist the
devil and he'll flee from us is by pleading Christ and Him
crucified. By pleading, I'm a son, a child
of God. You've got no claim over me.
Christ. You deal with Christ. Like Michael
the archangel. This is a perfect illustration.
Michael the archangel. Dare not fight with Satan. Even in a spiritual sense. Satan
is a powerful prince of power, ruler of the spirit of darkness
in high places and so forth. Michael the archangel, here's
how he dealt with him, and this is the only way a wiggling maggot
is going to deal with that powerful foe too. Michael, what did Michael
say? The Lord deal with you. Isn't
it? That's the only way we're ever
going to deal with the sin, with Satan, with any of these things.
The Lord deals with you. The Lord. Come to Christ. That is, plead for mercy with
Christ. Plead for strength with Christ. Plead to Him. Beg Him for mercy. Satan will assault us if we try
to fight him on the strength of our flesh. He will assault
us, but the scripture says sin won't have any dominion over
you. You're not under the law, you're not under sin, you're
under grace. Now listen, and I'll quit. You've
got, here's what I'm trying to say, trying hard to say, you've
got an all-powerful, good and merciful elder brother in Jesus
Christ. If you've come to God in Christ
simply as a little child, help. That's what faith says, help.
Lord, help save me or I'll perish. You've got an all-powerful, good
and merciful, I mean all-powerful, elder brother who promises, who
has devoted himself, given himself to be your sheriff. to make sure
you're saved, and I mean make sure of it, in every sense. Even make sure you have the victory
in this world. Jesus Christ is the absolute
Lord and Master of the hearts of His people. Is that not right? Has He left
us to ourselves? He said, I'll never leave you.
There's times when we think He does. He said, I'll never leave
you. And we leave him, but he ain't
far from us. He's still got us in his hand.
He lets us along for reasons known only to himself, lets us
get it probably when we get proud, like Peter. We keep looking to
him. Now this is what I'm trying to
say. We keep looking to him. As long as we're continually,
as a little child, looking to him, remaining in the dust, Mary
was the safest person on earth, as long as she sat at Christ's
feet, looking, trusting in Him. Anybody that gets puffed up with
self-righteousness and piousness and their own goodness and all,
they're going to fall. They're in for a miserable fall.
Get to knowing something, get to being somebody, get to be
able to do something, they're in for a miserable fall, if they're
at God's feet. The Scripture says the King's
heart is in the hands of the Lord. What about the heart of
His people? Barbara, is he not able to subdue the lust within
you? Is he or is he not? Is he king
or is he not? Is he not all-powerful? Well, you say, I ask him at times
to do it. I ask him. Well, somehow, in
proportion to the way you believe him, and I'm going to quit with
a few more remarks here. Somehow, in proportion to the
way you believe Christ, and reckon yourselves in Him." God honors
faith. God is pleased with faith. Yeah,
He is. He's pleased with it. He's pleased.
Take Him at His promise. He's pleased with it. I'm not
sure that this world of the claimers and all that, claim this, claim
that, I'm not sure that they haven't made us stare too far
away in the other direction. You understand what I'm saying?
There is a sense in which as children of God, sons of God,
we've got a right to the full protection and strength and the
power of God Almighty in Christ. Victory. Always gives us a victory. I know it gives us a legal victory
and justified us, but he said he's our sanctification too,
didn't he? Yeah, he did. Somehow, in proportion to the
way we believe Him and reckon ourselves in Him, He gives us
the strength to overcome these troubles and trials and temptations.
Ephesians 6.10 says this, Be strong in the Lord and in the
power of His might. And it goes on to list those
spiritual weapons and so forth. Don't make your own personal
resolves. That's exactly the way, what
Satan wants you to do. Exactly. It's exactly the strength
of the flesh, your resolves. Don't have faith in your faith,
but have true faith in him and his ability, his willingness.
Cling to Christ with the tenacity of Jacob. I won't let you go. You want, you know, that song
says temptations lose their power when thou art nigh. Jacob, by
the power of God's Holy Spirit, by God's mercy and grace, he
grabbed ahold. The angel had ahold of him, yes.
But he had ahold of him, too. And Jacob said, I'm just not
going to let you go until you bless me. We give up, don't we,
at times. We utter a little prayer, Lord,
help me. And then we go and do what we really wanted to do in
the first place. Huh? We hang on, Lord God. And it's
only by His Spirit we can hang on. Lord God, I won't let you
go until you get rid of this in me." I just kind of believe you will.
Just kind of believe you will. Cling to Christ. Cry to Christ. Do battle through Christ, because
grace reigns. It says where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. The times of our life, it once
sufficed. to live in those things. We lived
in it. We were steeped in it. Sin abounded
in it. We were altogether full of it. Scripture now says grace reigns.
Does it or does it not? Is that a lie? If that's not
true, let's close these Bibles. If there's no help, real help,
in time of need, God's a liar. That's what God is a liar. As sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, Jude 24 verse 5 says this,
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to
present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy, The only wise God, our Savior, be glory and
majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. That sums it all up, I guess.
He's able. He is able. The believer's reckoning
is, reckon yourselves to have been crucified in crime. The
minute that old sin starts rearing its ugly head, don't deal with
it on the flesh. Don't deal with it in the flesh.
Don't deal with it on any terms except Christ and Him crucified.
You've got no power over me. How can I sin? How can I, I'm
dead to sin. How can I live any longer therein?
Lord, if this evil thought or whatever comes over you and you
say, Lord, and don't quit crying until he gets rid of it. and
more. And it's a lot. It's a lot.