And the 19th verse of this book
of Jude reads thus, "'These be they who separate themselves
sensual, having not the Spirit.'" Having not the Spirit. And my
subject is the missing dimension in religion. And of course the
word religion is to be considered this morning as we study as true
religion that James would speak of, not the religion of the hour.
So to me there is a missing dimension, and that missing dimension is
none other than what we find here in this 19th verse that
is, and that is having not the spirit. I frankly believe by
our observation and revelation as well, that there are among
the religious circles today people who deny that salvation is by
grace. They just stand up and say that
salvation is by works. If I work my way through, I'll
make it. Well, the reason for that is
they're minus of the Spirit of God. But there is a second camp
that we identify ourselves with. who I rather think that great
swelling words and pleasing personalities and great oration and a technical
account of what we definitely believe to be the way of salvation,
yet at the same time absolutely void of the Spirit of God, just
dead as last year's bird nest. got everything down. Now the
Pharisees, they crossed their T's and dotted their I's, and
they were clean as hound's teeth, but at the same time, they were
dead. They were dead in trespasses
and sin. So this thing that we are dealing
with this morning, just the missing dimension in and what we would
believe people call true religion, I think is none other than the
Spirit of God. I rather do. I think that, and I believe the
scripture substantiates my claim, that for a man to be saved and
be born of the Spirit of God is somebody who is happy. He
has a note of joy and thanksgiving in his heart because of the fact
that God has actually saved him out of the slave market, translated
him out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. It's not a matter of whether he's making a dent on this world
or not, it's a matter of what God has done for him and is doing
for him. The Spirit of God is our comforter,
our teacher, our guide. And along with these statements
that I'm making, feel like that many things are taking place
today that would make us at least believe that the coming of the
Lord could be nigh. I hope that be so. I do not know
when he'll come, but I do know that our redemption draws nearer
every day, and while our redemption is drawing nearer every day,
I further note that the apostasy that shall prevail at the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be dominated by one sin, the
only sin that's not forgivable, and that is a sin against the
Holy Ghost. Now, the Scriptures are clear
along this line. Somebody said that a man speaks Well, sometimes
speaking and conversation in the Word of God is your walk
of life, your way of life. But this sin is against the Holy
Ghost, and there is less said about that particular sin in
the scripture than any other sin. Many sins are mentioned
in the Word of God, but there is less said about this sin against
the Holy Ghost, yet it is the only sin that is unpardonable.
the generation who sees the Lord Jesus Christ, but sees him in
their state instead of he in their stead. Now, that's something
to think of when it takes place. We recognize they didn't know
the Spirit of God. Now, we have much today concerning This man of Adam's fallen race
we call a good man. This man has got a good head
on him, various things you know. He's got a free will and various
things we might attach to him you hear concerning this man.
And what he can do, so much about what he can do and what he has
done, but you hear a little about what he can't do and what he
actually is. And this man who comes forth
from the loins of Adam, that's all of us. We're absolutely dead
in trespasses and sin. The scripture in Ephesians chapter
2 there says that before we come to know of our awful condition,
that we were dead in trespasses and sin, and we were without
God and without Christ and without hope in this world. And most
people who make professional faith, when confronted with the
language of the new birth, of the birth of the Spirit, they
know nothing of that dimension whereby every human being at
one time come to know they were without hope. They were lost.
They just don't know about that. And I'm just here to tell you
this morning, just to pre-explain to you, that there is a question
whether the vast majority of people who profess to know the
Lord Jesus Christ are saved at all. The Scripture seems to teach
that profession at large is a false profession. And that's because
of the fact, again, not necessarily because a man can't give a good
dissertation concerning the crucifixion and all the details, but just
dead when it's all over with. The Spirit of God seems to be
acting in the capacity of the High Sheriff, who takes the things
of Christ and applies them in virtue of what Christ did, the
Spirit of God, moves upon a person who knows nothing at all about
his condition or the death of the Lord Jesus Christ or nothing
else. He's just dumb. He's just ignorant. People don't
like that. They say, for I come to know
I say, and I wouldn't want somebody to call me just somebody who
don't have any knowledge much, or who is against God, who hates
God, and cannot perform those things that are pleasing to God.
Well, I'll tell you what, the person who don't accept this,
this is Scripture, we'll come to the verses with you in a moment,
the person who doesn't accept that, I'll tell you what's wrong
with that person, I do not care whether they're in here or out
of here, they've just never been born again. They haven't experienced
the work of the Spirit of God. For one time the Holy Ghost gets
ahold of you and crowds you into a corner where He shows you that
only Jesus Christ is worthwhile and that we're absolutely nothing
and know nothing and can do nothing until we're vitally joined to
Him and it is His divine prerogative in virtue of the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ to do for us what we can't do for ourselves.
We'll quit complaining about what somebody said we were, especially
the verdict that God has against us. So that thought of mine turns
to 2 Corinthians 2, and verse 14 of that chapter. Most of us
are well aware of the passage, I guess. It speaks of the natural
man here not knowing anything. That's terrible, isn't it? We
seem to think that you can educate a person and get him to heaven.
But you can't do that. There's nothing wrong with education,
but if a man's lost and he's out there in the world and don't
know God, without hope and without Christ, the more education he
gets, the worse he gets. The more education he gets, the
worse he gets. I'm not against education. I'm
just saying that men have got to have something else besides
academic standards and scholastic honors to make heaven their home.
And this thing of just saying, well, I think I can come to Christ
when I want to come, I think so too, but you'll never want
to come. That water is broke, broke all to pieces, if not just
has a dent or something in it. When man fell in Adam, he came
apart, and only God Himself can put him together in such a manner
that he will be in the image of that new man, the second Adam. So this thing of just saying,
well, I know that I can do certain things, I can believe, and I
can accept the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm just not ready yet. You
never will get ready. You cannot do those things. It's
utterly impossible for a person to do anything, think anything. There's nothing he can do. He
is nothing. He can do nothing. And we want
to look at that this morning as we study the Word of God.
The further I go in my ministry, the more serious this thing is
of who's going to heaven. It is so with me. I recognize
that unless God does for me what the brother was teaching this
morning, he's at the right hand of the Father, he's making intercession
for me, he is reconciling me to God, though I've already been
reconciled, if he lets up for one minute and leaves me, I'll
never make heaven my home. He must do for me what I can't
do for myself. Even come and get me, I don't
know where heaven is. The Chinaman says he's going
down, opposite way from the way we're going to get to heaven.
We say we're going the very opposite way. I don't know. I just know
one thing. Unless he comes to get us and takes us there, stay
with us all the way, we'll never make heaven our home. As well
as forgiving us of all our trespasses, not only refusing to impute sin
to us, but on the positive side, putting his righteousness and
his righteousness alone to our account. That's just it. That's
just it. And I'm not mad at anybody, I'm
just determined that in this hour of lukewarmness and indifference
and people running helter-skelter and confused and bewildered,
much of it comes from a logical conclusion that they arrived
at from what they heard behind this so-called desk. That's right. That's right. I'm not made of
different stuff than you are, and if we're on our way to heaven,
brother, we owe it all to God. I don't care what happens to
us or how we go, we're going his way. And thank God for his
way, there is no other way. He is the way and the only way. Righteously indignant, I guess,
and rejoicing, too, in preaching the truth that nobody much believes
in today. Even I say in the camp that we're
in, we've got a lot of dead letter, dead heads, one pulling the other
into this thing. Brother, that's just not it.
If a man ever comes to know that Christ is all in all in the Spirit
of God teaching him, he'll know something that this world can't
take from him for it didn't give it to him. Didn't give it to
him. 2 Corinthians 2, and it's basically
verse 14, as we look together again this morning. Now, some of you have heard me
preach a subject that's rather disturbing around over the country
when I ask a question, have you received the Spirit of God? I
got the text from the 19th chapter of the book of Acts where the
question was asked by the Apostle Paul to some disciples who were
actually indirectly disciples of John the Baptist, but had
come under the ministry of Apollos, and he asked them the question,
have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And somebody
said, that's not fair to ask a person that, that they were
making history. But I want to say in respect to verse 12 of
this chapter, that you must take into consideration again that
a person receives one spirit or the other, either the spirit
of the world, which is satanic, or the spirit of God, which is
the Holy Spirit. And we're not talking about after
you get saved, like the so-called holiness people speak. and say,
well, I've been saved, I'm saved, sanctified and filled with the
Holy Ghost and the evidence of such as speaking in tongue, that's
just error, that's ignorance, they haven't been taught if they're
saved at all, and jumping benches and screaming and so on and so
forth, that's not it. I'm teaching about the Spirit
of God as He comes into your being by surprise attack and
takes over and begins to renovate that house and you find out there's
something taking place and somebody comes along and tells you what
it is and you believe it. That's it. Strategy, you know,
is what's used in battle. And we're at war, brother. We're
at war with God. It's not just a matter that we're
passive. We're active. We're against God.
And He must conquer us, and He does so by surprise attack. You never expect to be a child
of God if you're in here this morning. The thing farthest from
me is where I stand this morning before I say. And you too, you
never expect it to happen, you know, when those embarrassing
moments begin to come and God begins to close in on you. He
closed in on you without warning. He didn't let you know He's coming.
He didn't ask you, could He come. He took you on, brother. I like
that. That's the Spirit of God's Word.
Somebody says, well, I hadn't read John 3.16. I don't guess
you had. And you wouldn't have known any
more about it if you had, until He did for you what you couldn't
do for yourself and cracked that old hard shell of yours and put
an understanding in you that when the Son of God was preached,
you said, that's it. That's it, brother. So I can't
explain that. I don't have to explain it. We're
not explaining the gospel. We're preaching the gospel and
the good news that Christ Jesus is our Lord. That's just it.
I'm glad I don't have to explain it. I don't have to explain it,
I can't explain it, but I'll just know it so. Now listen to
verse 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, I hope
you have it and follow it. Verse 11 says, "...for what man
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which
is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the
Spirit of God." Now listen, child of God, if that's so, and it
is so, if no man knoweth the things of God, save the Spirit
of God, and you don't have the Spirit of God in you, and the
Spirit of God comes by a gift, it is the Spirit of God that
sheds the love of God brought in your hearts. And that's a
gift, he says, by the Spirit of God which God has given you.
And a gift is something you can't demand. If you demand a gift,
it ceases to be a gift. And you can't buy a gift, it
ceases to be a gift. There's no possible way. If you
can't work for it and get it, it ceases to be a gift. If it's
up to God to give you the Holy Ghost before you know anything,
and it's His divine prerogative to give or keep, pray, tell me,
what can you do? Now, we have received, and here's
the language of receiving the Spirit of God. Now, we have received
not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.
And by that I mean to tell you that the Spirit that we receive
is actually the incorporating into your being a person who
has come to know that God has a work going on in him, and receiving
the Spirit is incorporating the Spirit into your profession,
into your being, giving the Holy Spirit his rightful place in
the economy of God's redemptive purpose. The Spirit of God didn't
die for us. Christ died for us. But it is
the Spirit of God that takes the things of Christ and makes
them out. Apart from the work of the Spirit,
I say this reverendly, this work of the Son of God would have
meant nothing to us. And you hear little about the work of
the Spirit. Most of the writings that I have read over the years
are not worth reading. How to be filled with the Spirit by
R. A. Torrey. With all respect, I can
muster for R. A. Torrey. He missed it completely.
No man knows how to be filled with the Spirit of God. If there
ever was a man who could have given some good exegesis along
that line, it would have been a man like John the Baptist,
who was born filled with the Spirit of God. Or Jeremiah, somebody
like that, who was filled with the Spirit of God, sanctified
before he was ever born. They didn't touch on that. For
there are evidences of being filled with the Spirit of God,
but nobody can tell you how. Nobody can tell you how. This
work of the Spirit of God is mysterious. I'm coming to it in John 3, for
this character Nicodemus here shows his ignorance, brother.
He is a man who would attain when it comes to academic achievement,
but he's just ignorant. He didn't know what the Lord
Jesus Christ was talking about. And by the way, another thing
I've noticed in studying the Scriptures in the last few years,
that the New Testament apostles didn't teach on how to be born
again. They didn't go somewhere and
tell them, now if you'll do this, you can be born again. I'll tell
you why they preached like they did, and why they knew good and
well they'd go get a hearing. It didn't make any difference
to them what happened under their ministry or not, but they knew
one thing, that the new birth was prerequisite to their preaching,
brother. And they knew they wouldn't go
get a hearing, and they knew that all hell, if you'll pardon
this expression, would rile up against them when they met those
folk who were actually filled with the satanic spirit and knew
nothing about the Holy Ghost. But after all was said and done,
they weren't interested in those kind of people. They did what
they did for the elect's sake. For God would go put His Spirit
in those people if He wanted to. And they're going to know
about it. They're going to know about it. They're going to know about
it. I always like the way he does
business. He's my father, and I respect him because of the
fact that he is my father, and he just does things well. He
doesn't do a halfway job of anything. You don't have to ask somebody
else how he's going to get it done or whether he'll get it
done or not, you know, and I kind of like that. That's what you
call sovereignty. Sovereignty. Oh, he's sovereign.
Now, we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. Now, why, if Jesus Christ is
a gift of God, how am I going to know that God Almighty has
given his Son for me unless I first know something about the Spirit
of God? I must have the Spirit to interpret
the message in the person. Brother Graham said, I just don't
understand that, and neither do I understand it. I just know
it so. Now, if I could explain these
things, or you could explain such things as the mysteries
of the working of God or the mystery of iniquity after that
portion of it, you'd soon find out that you'd explain it away,
you'd ruin it all, it just wouldn't be so, there wouldn't be no meaning
there, so we must preach it then rather than explain it, just
proclaim it. which things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual things." Well, if the Holy Ghost
then teaches us by comparing spiritual things with spiritual
things, how about the carnal things and the natural things?
They're just not in the picture. We'll find that in just a few
moments. Now let's see what happens here. Here comes that arresting
link, that conjunction, but, not and, but. But the natural
man, or the carnal man, or the earthly man, before he has ever
made a new creature in Christ Jesus, listen to him, but the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
I wonder why? I wonder why. Well, we're going
to get the answer. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness
unto him. He gets that far. See, so many
times we say, well, if the man is just dead and trespasses and
sin, he can't hear anything, he can't see anything, only God
got to this to him. Well, why preach to him? Well,
because God said preach to him. Go ahead and preach. He can't
hear anything to the extent that he receiveth that. Now, what's
that? He doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God.
But if all men were absolute in their rebellion against God,
then not a person in here this morning would ever receive the
Spirit of God, were it not the fact that the grace of God, the
work of the Spirit, is absolutely irresistible, and God invades
that sinner's territory. They say, who won't do that and
take away his free will? Well, that's a myth. He didn't
have one in the house. Somebody said that the sinner is a free
moral agent, and I said there's three things wrong with it. He
wasn't free, he's not moral, he's not an agent. He's hung
out every way he can be, he's bound by sin, self, Satan, world,
everything you can think of. And he's not moral, he's the
most immoral thing, he's more immoral than any beast in the
field, and you can prove it by just comparing them. And he's
not an agent, he's not acting for somebody else, he's acting
for himself. That's just it. That just fixes
him. He don't like that. He's around. I'll tell you how
far he'll get. He can't get out of that natural
realm, but that natural realm will make him say, well, that
man's a fool, talking like that. And that's foolishness unto me.
Well, that's right. Until God cracks that area that you can't
crack, it'll be foolishness unto him. But when it comes through
to what we call the knowledge of God, brother, it'll go different.
That's why I preach. That's why I enjoy preaching.
I don't enjoy seeing people lost. I can't preach on hell without
some tears, inward or outward. And I know I'm escaping that
awful place because of God's goodness and kindness to me and
anybody else that he speaks to and comes to let them know that
he died and they're stead. But I'm going to tell you one
thing, that's where every human being is going unless he does
this for you. Just as sure as twice one's two, he's going right
straight to that awful lake of fire unless he invades our so-called
freedom that we don't have. He would be a despot if he didn't
do that. Rather, he does it. He sets out to do that for his
people. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
But he that is spiritual, do we not have two kinds of people
under the searchlight here? One man who's not spiritual,
another man who's spiritual. Now, we'll use that terminology
many times loosely and say, well, he's not too spiritual. Do you
understand what I mean? That's because he didn't shout
when somebody else thought they should shout or scream or something
of the kind. or didn't go through all the rituals of somebody else.
He's not too spiritual. That's not what Scripture is
teaching. Just two kinds of people in the Word of God. One is natural
and the other is spiritual. One is the Spirit of God has
embodied a man, and the other, he's nothing. He's an old natural,
carnal, beastly-like thing out there called a human being. That's
the difference with the two. Listen to that. But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for there
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually desired. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judge of no man." Now, we're
getting into some deep water here in respect to judgment.
He's not capable of judging himself to the extent that he's not without
the judgment of the Son of God, and neither is he capable of
judging a brother to the extent that the brother is not somebody
who stands or falls according to his master's judgment. criterion that is judged by.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, he may instruct him,
but we have the mind of Christ." Before we go while we are in
the book of Corinthians, turn if you will to the book of Romans
for just a moment for this passage there in the 8th chapter of the
book of Romans that I think we should look at before we go to
John. I'd like to go to the 3rd chapter of John, which is a familiar
chapter. But in the 8th chapter of the book of Romans we have
another scripture that sort of clenches what I've said. Do you not grant me, just by
observation, I don't care whether lost or saved, would you not
grant me today from the standpoint of observation, and I know observation
will not lead you through clear as revelation will, they work
together for so, but is it not a fact that this generation is
possessed and obsessed as well with some sort of a spirit? Have
you had any dealings with the generation to the extent you
walk up to one today and speak to them as never before? Are
they not possessed with some sort of a spirit? They dead sure
are, brother. They're possessed with a satanic
spirit, and you're a fool to walk into their presence and
try to say and do too much unless you know that on the shadow of
a doubt that true evangelism is God leading you to the draw.
Boy, you need to know something. Say, Lord God, unless you do
something for this person now, I'll never be able to get a hearing.
He does that. Time and time again he's been
guilty of leading old Phillip down to the eunuch. Why I'm sure
he does business like that. He's sent an anonymized apostle
Paul and he got a hearing, brother. That's what we don't know anything
at all about today. Say, well, I'll get him fixed
up. If he can't quote John 3.16, I'll tell him how to quote it,
and he can quote it behind me, and after it's all over with,
I'll just say, well, you're saved. And the man who quotes as well
as the man who has somebody else quote, unless God gets them out
of that ignorant state, they're both lost. Might as well just
face it, that's all there is to it. Now he does say, people,
in spite of what we do and don't do, I'm preaching that this morning,
I'm telling you that the Spirit of God doesn't come in by your
invitation. The Son of God doesn't come in by your invitation. Well, my goodness, you mean to
tell me that Zacchaeus had to climb that tree and shout all
over the country and tell the Son of God, I want you to go
down to my house today? Well, I know he took him by surprise.
He had come down when he hit the ground. He hit hard enough
for him to listen to God Almighty in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he said, Zacchaeus, today I must abide at your house.
That's not an invitation. That's the Son of God taking
initiative. He's the only one who can do that and still be
ethical and manly. We can't do that. He said, I'm
going home with you today so that don't suit me too well.
Your son of God told Zacchaeus he was going home and he went
home with him. And he told him today, today I must abide at
your house. I must and I'm going to abide.
I'm not just going down for the weekend. I'm going down to stay,
brother. I like that. Ask, you know. Well, we've got
to call up God and tell Him. Possibilities are there. Nobody
else left down here but a handful of people to be saved. If we
don't, He'll never come back. Second coming will never come
for what I'm preaching, if not so this morning. If Almighty
God don't know and doesn't move on the grounds of what He knows,
all His attributes are active, if He doesn't do that, He never
will come back. Well, He's got a number of people. When the last one comes, And
comes in and the rogue corresponds with the foe, he'll come, until
that time he won't come. Now, who's going to tell him
when the last one comes in? Isn't that silly? People preaching
around saying, I don't believe that. Well, I hope the Lord comes.
He's not coming, bud. If what you say is so, he's just
not coming. Now, isn't that terrible? He's coming. He's got them all
numbered. Look, Revelation says they're coming out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, race and everything. A number, I like what that said,
a number that no man could number. How'd you like that? A number
that what? That no man could number. It didn't say they wasn't
numbered. Oh, it said no man could number. No man. He got
them numbered. He knows them. Let's see now.
We can get back here to the beginning of the work of the Spirit of
God. Then in the 7th verse of the 8th chapter of the book of
Romans, then I'll carry you to the book of John and we'll look
at this. Ignoramus, called Nicodemus,
that's the best name I can give you, just ignorant as ignorant
could be. In the 7th verse of that chapter we read, because
the carnal mind, and of course you don't need to go to any other
rendering, the word carnal means natural, but because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. Nobody much believes that. They
say, well, the man just passed, you know, and if you can get
his attention for a little while and tell him how wonderful things
are over on the other side of the fence and how tall the grass
is over there, well, you'll possibly get him to come over. Well, how
do you go keep him when the grass is gone then? Sheep are not things
that eat tall grass. Scripture teaches that the residue
of the cattle tromp down the grass and wander over top of
the grass and foul the springs and the sheep go in and eat.
They'll eat the roots. So see, that's not a truth. You don't have anything that
makes any sense. The Spirit of God does work. When he gets older
man, and you begin to wonder, well, what is going on? Who is
that knocking at my heart's door? Who's that entering? Who's that
troubling my soul? I'm kind of, I'm in trouble here."
Well, somebody come along and say, I wasn't guilty of doing
that. Well, who did do it? You come find out, brother, it's
somebody outside of yourself. Cause the work of the Spirit
of God in virtue of the work of the Son of God on Calvary's
cross who absolutely has nobody when, how, or where he can go
or come. That's it. That's the salvation
that nobody much knows anything about. That's the only kind that
this book knows anything about. So then they that are in the
flesh, I better read that verse again, because the carnal mind
is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. And let me inject something here,
without doing any harm to the verse. There are three ways that
you learn in studying, and one is by revelation, and the other
is by implication. And the other is by application.
Without those three things, the verse of Scripture is not complete.
So many times you look at the Revelation, and it will reveal
the true meaning of the Scripture there, and it will be so close
to application, it's hard to separate the two. If you don't
believe that, read the Apostle Paul's letters and see when he's
praying and when he's preaching sometimes. Along with that, there's
implication. In this verse I read in your
hearing, there's implication. There's something implied here.
We hear so much today about one verse of Scripture that brought
to our attention this morning. The verse was, You're not under
law, you're under grace. And God knows that's so, the
child of God. He'd been translated out of one
kingdom of bondage, sin's bondage, into another kingdom. I understand
that. But by no means does that Scripture teach us that the child
of God is free from a regulated, Standard and rule is called the
law of God, for the fulfilling of God's law is done by love.
And law is the only thing that a child of God can have to go
by. You say, well, now don't put
him back under law. I'm not putting him anywhere. I'm just telling
him where you find yourself to be. For you to have what you
call liberty, for me to have liberty without any bounds is
licentious. Liberty without bounds is no
liberty whatsoever. The scripture tells you over
and over as a child of God, thou shalt and thou shalt not. You
say, well, I'm not under law, I'm not under disgrace. Somebody said, well, the opposite
of law is grace. No, the opposite of law is lawlessness. Certainly it is. For God, the
first order that God ever established was law and order. He spoke to
the sun, the moon, the stars. He began to establish a situation. He did so with man. He made him
a law, made man a living law. And this thing of just saying,
well, we're not under law, we're under grace, not qualifying the
statement, lets a generation go lawless. But the opposite
of law is lawlessness, and the opposite of grace is disgrace.
We're disgraced to God today. And the natural man is not subject
to the law of God. That doesn't mean, thank God,
that God doesn't bring him in subjection to that law. If the
natural man is not subject to the law of God, well, everybody
would be Hitlers and 10,000 times worse. But he is subject to the
law of God, but not in obedience to that law in a sense of the
Spirit's work within him making him a person who gladly obeys
God. Now you say, well, I don't gladly
obey God. You do when God gets done with
you. You do. Somebody said, well, it's like
a pastor that he don't willingly leave the pulpit They said that
when the congregation gets done with him, he is made willing. Well, that's all right. Sometimes
that's so and sometimes that isn't so. But when the Lord God
gets through with dealing with you as a child of God, now, don't
tell me you will not be willing in the day of his power. Sure,
a child of God is disobedient, and many times he's not subject
to the law of God in the sense of, well, I'm just flexible and
I won't do just what you say for me to do. But he's brought
to that place, or else God's not God, he's just not sovereign.
So this scripture is telling us something here. If the carnal
mind, listen to it now, by implication I teach this verse to mean, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be, then what mind is subject
to the law of God and can indeed be subject to the spiritual mind? I think we need to read 3 verses
in the first portion of that chapter. I'm sure that this is
overlooked in the hour, say, Christ died for me. And he fulfilled
the law's demands. Thank God he did and never jotted
and tittled. The law cannot demand of me what
the Son of God has already done for me, and it can't demand anything
but that in no way erases the fact of the Spirit's work within
me fulfilling the law. We've lost, left off the work
of the Spirit of God altogether. And say, well, just a one-time
happening, Christ died for me, and that's the end of it. He
just puts you in the uniform when you begin to see that, and
the Spirit of God embodies you and moves to obey God within
you. And you're aware of the fact
there's something going on. Just think of just saying, well, I'll
make heaven my home at the expense of Christ in me, the hope of
glory. Oh, it just don't go like that, child of God. You've got
to have some assurance that he's in you. It is God who is at work
in me, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's
it. And he don't work in you. I tell you what, brother, you'll
be like old, who was it, Sarah, Rebecca, or some of those Old
Testament saints back there, when they come to know that there
was a child within them, they went to the Lord to inquire what
was going on. And you will too, brother, or
anybody else. When the Son of God invades us
and sets up his temple within us, you'll say, What's going
on? What's this strange work that I'm acting so peculiar in
the things that I one time was head over heels in love with?
I'm being weaned from them!" That's the work I'm talking about.
That's just it, that's it. Then somebody begins to preach
the Word of God. Oh, I said, that's so, that's so, that's
so. I didn't know that. I guess you
didn't. So then the Spirit of God is within the believer, and
by implication there, he is subject to the law of God. He can indeed
be. he can indeed be. Verse 1, 2,
and 3 of the 8th chapter will help you here. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now, that's good.
I understand some of the original manuscript would tell us there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
period. The rest of the portion of that verse is not in there.
But the rest of the portion is the qualifying clause of the
entire chapter and other chapters as well, who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit. Now, walking there is a way of
life. That doesn't mean that you're not in the flesh, he didn't
say that. But you walk not after the flesh. You don't walk in
that direction. That's not the general trend of your way of
life, you understand. Thy path met as part of your
footsteps, I understand that. But you're not going that way.
It's not a way of life for you anymore. For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus," watch it closely, "...has set me free
from the law of sin and death." What? The law, you've got two
laws here. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh for what reason? Watch
it closely. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." And this is a dimension that's missing
in the preaching all over the land today and many of the writers
that is saying that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us,
a progressive walk, the Spirit of God walking in us. We're not
taking any credit, we're not taking any merit, but the Spirit
of God has come in and he continually fulfills God's commands. Walking
in us is the Spirit's walk of life. So you don't hear much
about this. Well, Christ just fulfilled the law. Now it's all
over. Wait just a moment. He so fixed it that the high
sheriff, the Spirit of God, the comforter, the teacher, the one
who comes into that temple continually fulfills God's demand and the
believer, just as clear as it can be as we study together.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that's principle. Now
look what verse 9 says here. But ye are not in the flesh,
that's not a way of life. It doesn't mean that you've been
transported out of the flesh. I'm not teaching the eradication
of the old nature, the scripture don't teach that. But it does
not teach the relegation of the old nature into the background
and excuse it. Now, we need to get that. Well,
I do not believe in the annihilation of the old man. I don't either.
Neither do I believe in relegating him into black background or
ignoring his actions and say it's not there. For the Spirit
of God is the one who takes command and dominates that human being,
the new man, and the old man shall not have dominion over
you. He'll never take the battlefield again. The flag will never fly
over his head again. But he's there. He's there. He's
the biggest fool, and I am, too, if you think he is. But watch
the spirit of work. But ye are not in the flesh,
that's not a way of life, but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you." He's there to study. Now, if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. That
just settles it. That's not saying that the Spirit
of Christ within us so dominates us that we never know a thing
about the flesh. We are victorious livers in the
sense that I've done all things that God commanded me to do.
If so, the scripture says, if you could do that and would do
all things that he has commanded you to do after you have done
that, you are still an unprofitable servant, and the unprofitable
servant is seen to be cast into outer darkness. That's not the
way through. I'm not saying that. I'm simply
saying that the Spirit has domination. The flesh will never take the
throne again. And while you recognize that
fact, you recognize the fact that the Spirit of God is the
Person of the Godhead who is walking and who is progressing
and who is moving you toward that goal of John, called the
image of God's dear Son. I want to look with you at John
3 for a moment, just for a nicodemus. I was just touching the hem of
the garment here this morning, if I were to follow through the scriptures
and look at the next few moments, if we can get on this tape right
here, but this character called a natural man, and when it comes
to a subject, he's not subjected by his own will to the will of
God. That's what the scripture means.
It means that he is this kind of a character when he comes
to know the Lord Jesus Christ in regeneration, he says, other
people I'm sure that you visited, our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done." That's it. Thy will be done, both in me
and in heaven, on earth as it is in heaven. Oh, child of God,
my will, my will, this will of mine. It's no good. When it does
rile up, I miss it every time. Thy will be done." That's what
you call willing subjection. That's a bond slave. That's the
man who had his ear punched with an awl. Nobody else could take
him as a slave. That's it, brother. That's slavery
without being a slave, thank God. Chapter 3 of the Gospel
according to John. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, or Master, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him." He missed the third. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born again?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except the man
be born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God, much less see it. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
Now, listen to this verse. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
where it pleaseth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the water and the Spirit, that is born
of the flesh and the Spirit." No, he says, born of the Spirit.
Here is a verse that we overlook so many times, and somebody comes
along and says, Now, there is great comparative value in these
verses concerning the birth, the natural birth and the spiritual
birth. I see absolutely no comparative value. They have no likenesses
whatsoever. When somebody comes along and
says, well, a seed was planted, and then nine months after the
seed is planted, well, the child arrives on the scene. Brother,
we're begotten of God. The spirit's work is we being
children of God because he begets us. And we don't sow the word
of God, I hear some word, and then God makes us alive. The
scriptures teaching us is strictly a birth of the Spirit, and there's
no comparative value. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. He's contrasted value. When he
contrasts the work of the Spirit, he doesn't compare it with the
work of the natural birth, he compares it with the work of
the Spirit. Now, who can explain that? So I can explain the natural
birth to some extent as to the progressiveness of that conception,
and it's like the new birth. Oh, no, it's not. It's like the
wind blowing. Now, who can handle this? While he left Nicodemus,
though he was an academic giant, he left him in a tailspin. Wind. The wind, it blows. So I'll just
take my coat off, take it off, bud. You're not going to stop
the wind. It'll take it off of you, no doubt. Well, I'll just
do without the wind, you will. You won't get the next word said
then. See, the wind is something when
you think of it. The Spirit of God bloweth where
it listeth, and no man can tell whence it cometh or whither it
goeth. I'll tell you what you can tell.
You can tell some of the effects of it. He said, were you in that
windstorm? Yes, I was. What happened? He
said, it blew my house apart. He said, it's over yonder in
the junk heap. It is. Can you roll it to all the pieces?
A windstorm. Nothing more violent than a windstorm.
Now, you tell me that the new birth is something that you can
just take apart by dissecting and saying, well, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh and that's like this. No, sir,
they're contrasted. I frankly believe the scripture
is teaching us here something about the new birth, regeneration. It's teaching us that you can't
see the Kingdom of Heaven, whatever you want to call it, I don't
know what it is. It's progressive, it's here and it's there, and
it's in you, and it will be in you, and you will be in the Kingdom,
maybe are, but I just know one thing, you can't see that Kingdom
unless you're born again, much less entered. He first said you
can't enter the Kingdom of God. Well, Nicodemus is just dumb
here, he's just ignorant. This is what I wanted to say about him,
and he's a ruler in Israel. He knew all about what we're
talking about in respect to the water and word and things like
that. You go back to the washings, the labor, and things like that. He certainly was acquainted with
all this. But he sure was dumb as to what the Lord Jesus Christ
was talking about. Let's see if he was. Somebody said, well,
he came to Jesus by night because he was a secret disciple. Well, I think he came to Jesus
by night because he's in the dark. As far as I'm concerned, he left
in the dark. Somebody said, well, the Lord gave him the plan of
salvation, and later on he took the Lord's part. Who am I to
take the part of the Lord Jesus Christ and say he should be tried
legally? That's nothing but Phariseeism. He wasn't being tried, period.
It was Nicodemus who was on trial and the rest of those folk, and
they didn't know it. That's a bunch of junk, pardon that expression,
but that's what it is. The same came to Jesus by night,
listen to him, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that our
Teacher comes from God. You know, a Jew living doesn't
believe that. You ask one, do you believe Jesus?
Yeah, but he was a great teacher, come from God. He'd taken up
with his mission instead of a Messiah. You get it, don't you, brother?
That's his Messiah instead of a mission. Take it up with me.
He wants to compare notes, you know. The great teacher come
from God. But I said this before, for the
sake of you who are listening, maybe this is the first time.
He's not a great teacher come from God. He is God come to teach. That's a little different, brother.
He missed it, didn't he? Let's see how far he gets in,
for no man can do these miracles that I do, except God be with
him. Except he be God with man. That's
Christ, brother, that's a little different. Jesus answered and
said unto him, One thing about the Son of God, I'll deviate
from the subject here enough to jot in a few things that are
interesting to me, and you too. One thing about the Son of God,
I think it's interesting to us in following after him, his footstep,
it didn't make any difference where he was, where he was going,
what it was that he encountered, you never could get him off of
the subject. I like a fellow like that. So
you're not listening to me." I didn't come to listen to him.
You ever talk to somebody and about that time somebody comes
up and they want to jam in some old filthy, dirty tale or something
of the kind? The best thing to do is just
almost spit in the man's face if necessary and just keep taking
the conversation. After a while I've heard them
say to me, you're not listening to me! Well, you got the message,
didn't you? That's right, brother, they'll
get it after so long time, but you won't listen, can't tell
you anything. Keep on. Take the stone, brother. Well, the Son of God never could
be sidetracked. This sounds like we used to play
cross-questions and silly answers when we were young. That's been
50 years ago. You know how that was played?
Somebody whispered in your ear and said something, and somebody
else whispered in this ear and said something else, and they
didn't know what either. which either one of them had said,
and then after a while you blurted it out. It didn't fit anything.
It wouldn't even make a crossword puzzle. Well, here's what happened
to the Son of God and the Lord Jesus, the Son of God and Nicodemus
right here. I tell you, brother Nicodemus,
and the Son of God's question and answer method, you and you
pardon the expression, is not fit to make a good crossword
puzzle for Nicodemus. He's confused. Why, he said,
listen to him. The same came to Jesus by night
again and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him." Now, Brother Nick, he's not here
today, is he? He said, Now, you just didn't
quite understand what I said. After all, you've got the wrong
set of notes with you, see. Oh, child of God, he didn't take
any pains in explaining to him, for he's absolutely sovereign. He did in the next chapter to
a fallen woman called a woman of Samaria. He didn't stop until
he got the lesson across to her, but that's because he's sovereign.
He moves as he pleases, with whom he pleases, when he pleases,
and how he pleases. And no man can lay any claim
to his work. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except the man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. the German and the Dutch writers
especially in respect to their interpretation of this verse
of Scripture, and some would have it to mean born from above.
And certainly I agree with that. Man must be born from above.
But I'm persuaded that a man must be born a second time again,
too. Nicodemus' problem wasn't being
born from above. Watch this closely. He didn't
understand that being born from above. You know why? He's a natural
man. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit. They foolishness unto him. What
he was talking about was foolishness unto the Son of God. But he's
down here in this realm where he can't get out. The natural
man can't rise no higher than that. So you need to take a back
seat when you're born again. I don't care whether you can
speak good English or not speak good English. The natural man
cannot get into that realm where you're just beginning to start.
He can't do it. I don't care what his titles
are, he can't do that. So Nicodemus can't get out of this thing of
being born again. He means born again. The Son of God didn't
correct him in that sense and say, you didn't get what I'm
speaking about. I mean born from above. He didn't understand that.
When he left him, he said, I spoke unto you of earthly things. He
didn't understand them. He said, how shall I speak unto you of
heavenly things? He didn't cast the pearls before swine. He don't
tell me not to do that and then do it himself. Let's see. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God." I believe it's again. And I frankly believe there are
two births in view here. And the reason that the imperative
mood is subject here is the fact that he is a must, and the first
point of the outline would be, if you want to preach it, why
must a man be born again, because he's born wrong the first time.
He's upside down. If a mother gives birth to a
child and gives natural birth to that child, and she has her
face pointed toward heaven, the child has their face pointed
the other way. They're born upside down, even
the natural birth. They're born in enmity toward
God. The sinner is not passive, he's active. And he's actively
against God. He hates everything that looks
like it's high and holy. And anything that God says and
does, he'll not have that, brother, if he can get by. Then we say
we're going to go preach it. God's ways are irresistible.
Well, he's just not God. He can't ever get anybody to
Heaven because everybody is born contrary to the way they get
to Heaven. They've got to go God's way. Now, let's go just
a little farther here. Nicodemus saith unto him, now, he got it. He got it, but it's in his foolishness.
It's just their foolishness unto him. Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter the
second time into his mother's womb and be born again? You might
as well say it. There it is. Well, I suppose
the Son of God sets out to explain to him. I don't know if anybody
could explain it any better than him. If there ever was a teacher,
if there ever was a person, God incarnate, if there ever was
somebody who could explain to Nicodemus how to be born again,
we'd have had it in John 3. Because here is the Son of God
himself. He didn't explain nothing. It can't be explained. In fact,
now you listen to me, brother, with all reverence that I can
possibly muster to God, God can't create in the natural and create
the spiritual. The Son of God was not created.
He is eternal. And Adam needed to be born again. He was in a condition where he
could fall and did fall, and all of his posterity fell, and
God could not create Adam that didn't need to be born again.
For this birth is the life of Christ, it's an eternal thing.
He can't create that, it's not created. Jesus wasn't sidetracked, he
didn't listen to a thing, except the subject I'm dealing with
here, born of the Spirit of God. Nicodemus says to him, how can
these things be? Now, you know what he said there? The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually He can't understand
them, is the word. He said, I can't understand this.
In essence, he said, I can't understand this. I don't know
that. I don't know how I could be born
again. Are you saying I could enter the second time in my mother's
womb and be born again the second time? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except the man be born of the water
and of the Spirit. I'll tell you what I believe
the scripture is teaching here. If you want to consult Lange's
commentary, some doctor, I mean medical doctor, you could possibly
get some light along this subject, or some doctor, just let him
say what he needs to say about this. I believe there are two
births here, and I think the first birth is spoken of as the
water birth, and the second is spoken of as the Spirit. I do
not believe the Spirit is the word here. I do not think the
word is used in this sense here. The Spirit of God is the Spirit
of God that moves on a man, verse 8, down here like the wind blowing.
Now, let's go just a little farther and see right here. And furthermore,
this word, born again, the Son of God used it, Nicodemus used
it, Nicodemus used it the second time, born the second time, and
the Lord Jesus Christ used it again down here, as born again.
So you're saying that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, two different verses.
Born again, born the second time, born the first time, born the
second time, and then suddenly born of the Spirit. I'm telling
you, it's like this. The wind is what he likens it
to. Jesus answered, "'Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except the man be born of the water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh.' And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,
and as best I can see they have absolutely nothing in common.