Will you turn please to Ephesians.
This morning we are in the second chapter.
We're dealing with Ephesians as we've seen it,
a manual of developing our full potential in
Christ.
We will not cover the ground that we've
been over other than to ask you to
notice again verses 5 and 6.
Yesterday we looked at the people who are
the partakers of God's grace, the kind of
people whom God draws to himself, such as
us.
But that fourth verse, God who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved us, even when we were dead hath
quickened us together with Christ, by grace you
are saved, and hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus.
We need to go back to Romans, the
sixth chapter, in order to adequately understand these
few verses.
In the sixth we find that the Apostle
is presenting for the first time, at least
in the canon, not in terms of time
necessarily, but in terms of the arrangement of
the epistle, for the first time he is
presenting the fact of our union with Christ.
We see it in the sixth verse.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with, when you see the hymn is interpolated,
but crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should
not serve sin.
Now it's important to understand the relationship between
the fifth chapter of Romans, the sixth and
seventh chapters, and the eighth chapter.
Romans 5 presents to us the testimony that
Christ died for us.
In verse 6 of the Roman fifth chapter,
when we were yet without strength in due
time, Christ died for the ungodly.
And in the eighth verse, God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us.
That's the key word.
The death of Christ for you.
He died for you.
Now the sixth chapter presents it in something,
just a little shade of difference.
In Romans 5, Christ for us.
In Romans 6, we are introduced to the
fact that Christ died as you.
Now there's a difference between the two.
He was your representative, your substitute.
He was there in your place, doing what
God's law required that you do.
And because he was the infinitely holy Son
of God, there's no limit to his character
and his righteousness.
He could not only die for me, but
he could die for you.
He could die for all men, because since
he is without limit in his character, there
would be no limit to the number of
people for which his death was adequate.
But if God saw him, and since God
saw him as you, saw him as me,
then in a sense, as he hung on
the cross, he was there not just as
the Son of God dying for sinners, but
he was there as the sinner for whom
he died.
He was there as me, as you.
This means that looking down at the cross,
in order to help us visualize it, we
could see, say, that there were in a
sense, just help us, two people on the
cross.
Christ was on the front of it, dying
for you.
But since he was not only there for
you, but as you.
To help you grasp this, can you visualize
yourself, as it were, on the back side
of the cross, bound by the same nails,
crucified with him.
The day Christ died, the Father saw you
die.
That was the day.
Now I want this, I want you to
come to grips with this, because it's the
argument of the Apostle, and it's the basis
of this life of victory that he has,
in developing our full potential for Christ, we're
not going to ever attain to that potential,
until we realize that not only did Christ
die for us, but he died as us.
We were there in him, and thus with
him, when he died.
And that that you, that you are by
nature the source of all your problems and
difficulties, that I, that I am, was crucified
with Christ.
Now that's the testimony.
The fourth verse of the sixth chapter tells
us that we are buried with him, by
baptism into death.
Crucified with him, buried with him.
Now this is the terminology that's selected by
the Holy Spirit, given to Paul.
Paul repeats this in Colossians, buried with him.
Here he says baptism is a picture of
that union with Christ in his burial.
Therefore he not only saw us on the
back side of the cross with Christ, he
saw us in the tomb with Christ, buried
with him.
He was for you.
From the Father's eyes you were there with
him.
You were in him, and there in a
sense with him.
He was crucified for us, that he might
deliver us from the penalty of what we
had done.
We were crucified with him, we are told,
that we might be released from the tyranny
of our own personalities, our own habits, and
attitudes, and dispositions, and traits, and so on.
Now you've got two items of this series.
Crucified with him, and buried with him.
Now go back to Ephesians chapter 2, and
we add to it.
God who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath what?
Quickened us together with Christ.
But where were we?
We're buried with him.
Christ was crucified, and he was buried, and
he was quickened.
But since he was doing all of this
for you, and as you, the Apostle tells
us that you were crucified with him, that
you might be released from the tyranny of
yourself, and you were buried with him, that
you might be released from the pull and
hold of the world.
And we have three enemies, you know, the
flesh, the world, and the devil.
And the flesh is what I am by
nature, and the world is that system that
the God of this world controls.
The lust of the eye, the lust of
the flesh, and the pride of life.
And of course then the devil is the
personality himself, who in so many ways would
seek to snare and entrap us, and keep
us from being effective for Christ.
So we are, we see that we were
quickened with Christ.
The day that life returned to that bruised
body, the body of our Lord Jesus, in
the Father's eyes, that was the day when
you were quickened.
You were quickened.
You were quickened with him.
Now maybe it was 2,000 years before
you experientially received that life.
But from the eyes of God, that's the
day you were quickened, because the life you
received was the life that began then.
We were quickened together with Christ.
Now he wasn't just made alive to remain
in the tomb.
But we are told he was raised from
the dead, and so you notice, we were
raised up together with him.
Raised up together.
In the Father's eyes, when he saw his
son raised from the dead, he saw you
raised from the dead.
Now apparently it's important that these believers at
Ephesus should know this.
This is no little right thing that they
can take, and just little clever tricky thing
that the evangelist or the Bible teacher gives
to fill out an hour of service.
This is something that's going to make a
tremendous difference in their prayer life, and in
their witnessing life, and in their walk for
the Lord.
And they jolly well better understand it, or
they're going to be just as crippled as
someone who decides that they're not going to
eat properly, or that they won't learn how
to read, or any other evidence of dereliction
of responsibility.
To know the truth and not to do
it is sin.
And to know from the Word of God
that you were crucified with Christ, and not
to care enough to find out what this
means to you in your day-by-day
walk with Christ, is to tread under our
feet the blood of the everlasting covenant, and
to count this benefit of his death as
having no meaning to us.
And it can't be lightly taken.
If God went to such great length as
to put it in Romans, and put it
in Colossians, and put it in Ephesians, he
wanted us to know about it.
And we'll never develop our full potential in
Christ until we understand our union with Christ,
and the purpose for that union.
He died for us, all that's clear, to
pay the penalty of our sin, and to
remove the way, the mountain of guilt, and
to give us a clear standing before God.
Justification by faith, on the basis of the
finished work of Christ at Calvary.
Everyone likes Romans 5, because that gives them
the assurance that if they get run over
by the truck, they're going to be end
up in heaven instead of in hell.
But I don't find nearly as much eagerness
to understand Romans 6 on the part of
the children of God, because the basic benefit
of that is not for us, but for
God.
And we're always much more eager, it seems,
for what's going to be, ensure our happiness,
than what's going to ensure his glory.
So we don't want to miss Romans 5,
but we can take or leave Romans 6
and Ephesians 2.
Those aren't really that important, you see, to
anybody but God, and to the developing of
our potential for Christ, and coming to that
measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ unto a mature man, a full person.
But if we're to ever become that mature
Christian, then we're going to have to understand
why, when God saw his Son on the
cross, he saw you there with him, and
you were crucified with him.
Well, we discover that's how we have victory.
That's the source of victory.
Some years ago, this auditorium was wired for
electric light.
They didn't have to rewire it this morning
or last night.
It was wired at a given point, and
then it was pronounced wired.
It was connected to the wires that took
it out to the high line that went
to the generator.
And all we had to do this morning
to get light to dispel the gloom was
to put a switch on.
You were wired for victory at Calvary.
But if you don't know where that switch
is, you're going to grope in shameful failure
and cry out to God and say, Oh
God, deliver me from my temper, deliver me
from my imagination, deliver me from my sarcasm,
deliver me from my criticism.
And you're going to beat heaven and storm
heaven, and God's given the way of deliverance,
and if you don't care enough to find
out what it is, you just aren't going
to be delivered from those things which are
delivered by understanding our union with Christ.
So it's extremely important for us to distinguish
between things that differ.
We eat with a knife, fork, and spoon,
don't we?
Those are the tools of our trade.
Those are the things we use in this
task of eating.
But you don't use the—you distinguish between things
that differ.
There are certain things you do with a
fork you don't do with a knife, and
certain things you do with a spoon that
you don't do with a fork or a
knife.
And if you can't tell the difference between—you
say, Well, I eat with a knife, fork,
and spoon, so I can do anything I
want to with any of them.
They're all the same.
You just haven't learned how to eat properly
yet in good company.
And so you say, Well, this is all
salvation.
Yes, but we must distinguish between things that
differ.
Romans 5 said Christ died for us.
Now that's not the same as Romans 6,
which says he died as us.
He died for us to deliver us from
the penalty of what we have done, and
he died as us to deliver us from
the power of our own disposition and our
habits and our traits and our attitudes, and
we can have victory—we can have deliverance from
the penalty of passings and not have deliverance
from the tyranny of our own disposition.
Because whereas it's all accomplished by the death
of Christ at Calvary, we must understand and
appropriate in terms of the particular intention of
God and the particular need of our heart
at the time.
So if we're to develop our full potential
in Christ, we must understand that at Calvary
we were wired for victory, and we must
know that when we are tempted that God
has made a way of escape, so that
we need not be victimized by that which
tempts us.
I remember years ago I was invited to
speak to a retreat of college students and
graduates out of the Boston area, a lot
of them from Harvard and Radcliffe and Lawrence
and other schools in the area at Boston
University.
There must have been 100, 115 young people
there, and a year later I was back
at the same occasion with some of the
same group, and one young fellow that was
there a little early when I arrived said,
I'm glad you're back, but I just hope
you're not going to give us any more
of this victory stuff.
Well, I said, what's in your mind?
Well, what do you say that?
Well, he said, you gave it last year,
and boy, I was excited about it, and
I just hope you don't pull any of
that off on us anymore.
You see, it doesn't work.
Well, I said, I'll tell you this, if
it doesn't work, I'm sure I'm not going
to give it any longer, but what tell
me your experience?
Well, he said, I listened to you, and
I tried to understand everything you said, and
I got back, and boy, I have some
areas of temptation, and so I did just
what you told me to do, and it
doesn't work.
Well, I said, what was it that you
recall I told you to do?
Well, you gave us that verse that says,
there is no temptation overtaking a man as
such as is common to man, and God
is faithful, who will not suffer you to
be tempted above what you are able, and
will with a way of temptation make a
way of escape that you may be able
to bear it.
I said, that's a great verse, yeah.
I said, what, how did you use it?
Well, he said, every time I was tempted,
I'd quote that verse and believe it and
quote it and believe it, but it didn't
work.
I didn't have any relief from temptation.
I failed just like I had before.
I said, let's go to it, and we
turned to it, and I said, now read
it for us very carefully, and I came
to that verse, that part that says, and
God is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above what you are about,
will with a temptation make a way of
escape.
I said, what's the way of escape?
His eyes opened, he said, well, this verse.
I said, no, this verse tells you that
there is a way of escape, but it
doesn't tell you what the way of escape
is.
This verse doesn't tell you what it is,
it just tells you that there is one.
And I, you misunderstood me, I signally failed.
I'll have to correct that, because maybe somebody
else misunderstood.
I didn't say the way of escape was
the verse that says there's a way of
escape.
I didn't say that you escape from temptation
by quoting the verse that says there's a
way of escape from temptation.
Boy, I did fail.
It didn't fail, I did.
I take all the blame.
Well, he says, what is the way of
escape?
I said, do you remember my talking to
you about the fact that the day Jesus
Christ died, you died, that there were two
people on the cross?
Yeah, I wonder how that applied.
Well, I said, let's go back to Romans
6, shall we?
So we turned to Romans 6, and I
took him through that portion.
Now I said, look at this verse, look
carefully at it, just take a good look
at it.
Verse 11, I said, it says, likewise reckon
you also yourself to be dead in deed
unto sin.
Now, I said, what's that mean?
What's reckon mean?
Well, he said, I'm a math major and
counting is one of my subjects, and he
said to reckon means to calculate.
Base your facts upon, based on, move ahead
on the basis of something that's happened.
I said, all right, this verse says that
the day Jesus Christ died, you died.
We went back to verse 6.
Now it says, when you're reckoned, or count,
or calculate, or consider, that the day Christ
died, you died.
Now I said, look, this building was wired
for electricity, and it's going to get dark
in a little while.
Do we have to rewire the building?
No, no, no.
He said, it's done.
I said, what do we do?
He said, all we got to do is
go over and put that switch on.
I said, but why would you put the
switch on?
You can't see electricity.
Why do you put it on?
Well, he said, past experience has shown that
if you put that switch on, it makes
a contact, and energy begins to flow.
Now I said, you're getting the message.
Now you're getting the message.
That when you, when you meet the temptation,
on the basis of the fact that you
died when Jesus Christ died, and therefore you
don't have to be victimized by your attitudes,
and by your habits, and by these temptations,
and you face that temptation something like this.
Father, the part of me that wants this,
and could do this, even though I know
it's not your will, that's the part that
died the day Christ died.
Just now I reckon myself to be dead.
You know what happens?
He says, what?
I said, it makes a contact, and it
releases the resurrection life of Christ to flow
into your heart at that moment, to give
you over that temptation.
He said, no wonder I missed it.
I thought it was just quoting a verse.
No, it's not just quoting a verse, and
it's not self-hypnosis, and it's not anything
of the kind.
It is the means by which we release
the flow of the resurrection life of Christ
into our personality at the moment of temptation.
Now we may, we've been singing it for
years, and I'm just not too sure that
we often really understand what we're singing.
It's like saying the blessing at supper, you
know.
You say it, and then a little later
it says, well, wait, Kent, you don't want
to eat without saying the blessing, do you?
Don't overstate it.
Oh, no, you didn't.
Well, they'd been there when it was said,
but they were thinking about something else that
happened at your house, you know.
Don't look so sour at me.
You, you know that.
You just weren't paying any attention.
And so it is we sing, dying with
Jesus by death, reckoned mine, living with Jesus,
a new life divine, looking to Jesus till
glory does shine.
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine.
Moment by moment, I'm kept in his love.
Moment by moment, I've life from above.
What are we talking about?
We're talking about the fact that the day
Christ died, we died with him.
But moment by moment, in the moment of
temptation, Father, the part of me that thinks
this, feels this, wants this, could do it,
that's the part that died the day Christ
died.
And just now I reckon myself dead.
And it's, well, some Christmases ago, some friend
gave one of my children one of these
iron filing things, you know, where they put
iron filings under a little plastic cover.
And then they had a pencil-like magnet.
And the idea was that you could draw
these filings out, and you could make a
Santa Claus, or make a fuzzy old burrow,
or you could make things with your imagination
with these filings that were in there.
And I was clever, and I was sitting
around pulling them, and somebody spoke to me,
and I flipped it.
And I used the other end.
And you know what happened?
Instead of pulling the filing, it pushed them.
It pushed them.
The polarity had changed in the conscious.
I guess that's what it is.
Charles Meisner will correct me on that.
That's his field a little later.
I get all my science from the Reader's
Digest.
I don't know what I'm talking about, you
know.
But anyway, I do know this, that when
I turned that over to the other end,
the filings didn't follow.
They went.
And I sat there, and tears warmed my
eyes.
And I thought, isn't that just like the
Lord to give me an illustration here of
something that's very real?
When you reckon yourself, you see, there's a
gravitational pull.
There's a magnetism.
We have appetites and urges and drives, and
we're tempted.
Temptation is the proposition presented to your intellect
to satisfy a good appetite in a bad
way.
And so there's a gravitational pull.
But when you say, Father, the part of
me that thinks this, feels this, wants this,
that's the part that died the day you
died.
And just now I reckon myself to be
dead.
What's it do?
It reverses it.
And it changes the polarity.
And the resurrection life comes in and pushes
it away.
Pushes it away.
Now, if you don't know that, you don't
know how to have victory when you're tempted.
Someone says, that's too easy.
No, it's not that all that easy.
Because, you know, maybe your problem is like
mine, sarcasm and biting speech and criticism, finding
fault with folks.
And you don't know how to have victory
over it, then you're victimized by your own
tongue.
That's not so good.
But there may come a time when you
know how to have victory, and deep within
you say, you know, he needs a good
telling off.
So then it's not a question of not
knowing how to have victory.
The question is, do you want to put
the switch on?
That's where the battle comes.
Do you want to put it on?
Oh, you can have some real things there.
Because you know that if you put it
on, you're going to be released, but so
you have a little bit of difficulty there.
I remember one time coming into the Stephen
Tavilla home up in Boston, or in Lexington,
Massachusetts, and I'd come in quite late.
The family had retired, and I didn't want
to put the hall light on, because if
I did, it might awaken them.
So I went into my room.
I'd come in in the afternoon, you know.
I put my case down, and I hung
my suit bag up.
I saw where the switch was, just saw.
And then I went out and came back,
and it was, oh, 12, 30 or so.
I'd come in, been with friends, and came
in.
I didn't want to wait, because I knew
that Mr. Tavilla had to get up at
3.30 or so, and so I didn't
want to disturb.
I wanted to be very quiet.
So when I came in, I put the
switch on, and nothing happened.
Now, I knew there was a light, because
I had seen the light, but that room,
it was as dark as the inside of
my pocket.
I couldn't see anything.
And I went around the wall, you know,
and tried to touch gently, so it didn't
fall on the floor, and I groped, and
finally I decided I could find the bed.
So I neatly hung my suit up on
the floor, and got into bed.
The next day when I got up, I
want you to know, I raised that shade,
and I, I found out.
I went out, and I shut my eyes,
and I walked in, and I put the
switch on, because I didn't know when I'd
be in the next night.
But I wasn't going to get caught like
that again.
Oh, how many of God's dear children there
are that are victor, victimized by their habits,
and their attitudes, and their disposition, and their
traits.
And they grow up in the Bible, trying
to find the switch.
Where's the power I hear about?
Where's the victory I know about?
Where is it?
Then they find out.
And just once, just once, dear friend, that
you're tempted to say something, think something, do
something, that you know grieves God.
And you use, find this switch.
Father, the part of me that would think
this, want this, say this, do this, that's
the part that died the day Christ died.
And you feel that anti-magnetism pushing it
away on the release.
Then remember where that switch was, because moment
by moment, you can go back to it
and put it on whenever you need.
Now that gives you an illustration of the
practical application.
And if you're to develop your full potential
in Christ, then we must know the truth,
and we must obey the truth.
Because if we know these things, happy are
we if we do them.
But if we just fill our, you know,
fill our minds with, with ideas, and we
never practice it, never becomes experientially real, then
what helps it going to be?
So he said, I want you to know
that you're crucified with Christ, that you're buried
with Christ.
And so he begins in Ephesians 2 by
saying, you have been quickened together with Christ,
and raised up together, and made to sit
together in the heavenlies.
Why?
Because he has talked to them about the
fact that that religion of which they've been
a part was satanically controlled.
It was the worship of Diana.
But in Ephesus, it was that Satan used
this demoniacal worship, this vile, immoral, drunken, debauched
worship, to hold the people.
And now they're coming in to stand for
Christ in the midst of this, and they
must develop their full potential.
And their full potential includes knowing that when
Christ was quickened, they were quickened.
When Christ was raised, they were raised.
When Christ was seated at the right hand
of the Father, they were seated at the
right hand of the Father in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Because, you see, we've talked about two of
these enemies.
The flesh, I, and the world.
But there's also the third one, the devil.
And so we found him saying that he
seated us above principalities and powers, and the
rulers of the darkness of this age.
And how are they going to be able
to stand?
What is the, what is the effectiveness of
being part of his body, put all things
under his feet?
And they just know that one time they
were among that number that walked according to
the Prince and the power of the air.
Now what power, what effectiveness, how can they
stand against such forces as they've known existed,
and have been, they've been themselves victimized by?
Because they were quickened with Christ, and raised
with Christ, and seated with Christ in the
heavenly.
I said yesterday in closing, every home represented
in this auditorium has a tragedy in it
so enormous that only the risen Christ is
enough to meet it.
But the manner in which he will meet
it is when you discover the fact that
you have been raised up and made to
sit together in the heavenlies in Christ.
Because it's from that point that our ministry,
both in prayer and in witness, has its
strength and has its authority.
So it was imperative if they were to
ever full have to develop their full potential
in Christ, that they should know and understand
this relationship, this plan that God had for
them of their union with his Son.
But notice that he then begins to say
that the purpose for this, in the seventh
verse, is that in the ages to come,
he might show the exceeding riches of his
grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus.
We're going to see that in the fourth
chapter.
I'm not sure we'll get there.
But we're going to discover that his grace
was that he gave, led captivity captive, and
he gave gifts on demand.
We're not only joined with Christ in the
crucifixion to have victory over ourselves, in his
burial to have victory over the world, quickened
and raised and seated with him, to have
victory over principalities and powers.
But he has done this in order that
he might show the exceeding riches of his
grace, that we who were the victims of
satanic pressure and power, now should be brought
into the place that we're not only released
from that power, but we're also to enforce
Christ's victory.
Exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us.
Then you know that marvelous testimony, by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of
yourself, it is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast.
Don't for a moment say, said he to
these Ephesian believers, that you've earned your salvation,
that you've bought it, that you've merited it.
By the same token, do not limit by
saying, well that may be all right for
preachers and evangelists, but it won't work for
me.
If by grace you are saved through faith,
then God has the perfect right to give
you as much grace as he wants to
give you, and you have no right to
set an upper limit to what God will
do for you and through you.
And yet as I talk with God's dear
children, I find them saying something like this,
well what are you by the way?
What is your work?
Well I'm just a housewife.
Or I just work in a factory.
Or I'm the teacher.
I'm just the layman.
God help us from being, setting a limit
on the grace of God.
You are, you are his workmanship.
Do you see where it leads?
Created in Christ Jesus unto good work, which
God has before ordained that you should walk
in them.
What's he trying to do?
He's trying to release these dear people from
all the inhibitions that were placed upon them
because of their tendency to compare themselves with,
say the Jews or others.
The tendency to measure themselves by others.
I'm not as smart as others.
I can't sing like others.
I can't teach like others.
I can't do this.
I can't do that.
All of the limitations and inhibitions and restrictions
that we voluntarily impose upon ourselves.
And look what the Ephesians could have done.
What, how they could have been, had such
in deep inferiority feelings as they related to
the Jews.
Oh well, you know.
Look, we grovel before Diana.
Look at the horrible things we did.
No, God can't use us.
But that isn't what it's, he says it
all.
He says, listen, by grace you are saved
through faith.
That isn't of yourselves.
It's a gift of God.
Not of your works as you should boast.
Now God wants to bring you into that
place where his full plan for your life
is being realized in you.
Not, not your works, not your ideas, but
his.
For you are his workmanship.
Created in Christ Jesus under good work which
God has before ordained that we should walk
in them.
What a wonderful thing.
What a marvelous thing it is to realize
that God made a plan for your life
before he made the world.
You're important to God.
You are, yes, you are indeed important to
him.
You know, there's two things that are problems
to us.
One is we become terribly critical of others,
and the second is we become terribly critical
and censorious of ourselves.
And you don't have any right to be
critical of others.
But you don't have too much right to
be critical and censorious of yourself either, because
you're not your own.
You're bought with a price.
And you're to glorify God in your spirit
which are his.
How many times I've gone to people and
said, would you be willing to take this
Bible class, or teach this group, or have
this ministry, and have them say, oh I
couldn't do that.
I've, I've never done that.
Well you know everything you've learned since you
lay in your mother's arms and scald has
been learned.
It's all been acquired.
You, you've learned a lot of things since
then.
Don't you think it's very important that you
should stay alive all your life, and don't
die until you're dead?
That's one of the things that thrills me
about fellowship with our brother Jones.
He's, he's, he's alive in Christ, and he's
going to stay alive till the last breath
the Lord lets him have.
And oh how I covet that for you,
for each of us, that we're going to
just live in the victory of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and realize that God has a
plan, a plan for your life.
You say, well look you don't know how
what a sinner I was, and how late
in life I was saved.
Well that doesn't make any difference.
You know this God of the Bible is
not the great I might have been, or
I could have been.
He's the great I am, and we are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good
work, which God has before ordained we should
walk in them.
And that plan begins now.
You say well I've wasted so many years.
Sure you haven't, you may just jolly well
go on wasting them too.
I hope you don't.
But there's a possibility of it, unless you
do something about it.
You see today you're just as holy as
you want to be.
Did you know that?
You're just as spiritual as you want to
be.
You're just as effective for Christ as you
want to be.
You're just as useful to God and to
his church as you want to be.
You are the sum of all of your
desires up until today.
I'm so glad that we've got some new
psychology coming on, reality therapy from William Glasser,
transactional analysis, where we're coming back to responsibility
to what the teaching all the time.
But the fact of the matter is you
are what you want to be.
Now it's the function of preaching to show
you what you can be, to show you
what God wants you to be, and then
to show you what you're going to gain
if you are what God wants you to
be, and then to try to scare the
living daylights out of you if you're not
willing to pay the price to be what
God wants you to be.
You see the comfort, the scripture is quite
clear.
It says that our job is to comfort
the afflicted, and we do that, but it
also says it's to afflict the comfortable, and
we ought to do that.
And when you become comfortable in less than
what God wants you to be, somebody ought
to afflict you a little, and stir you
up, and that's what the Apostle is doing
for the church at Ephesus.
He's stirring them up, because they could have
sat right down there on the welcome mat
inside the house, you know, and said, praise
God we're saved.
Paul says that he's, he thanks God for
our faith and our love.
Isn't that wonderful?
We've arrived.
And the Apostle says, you haven't arrived, you've
just barely started.
You've got a long way to go.
And so he gets to this point now
where he says, look, before God made the
world, he made a plan for your life,
and that plan is today, now.
Now.
And if you're prepared to meet God today,
then God's prepared for that plan, plan A,
to come into operation now.
Maybe it is, oh for many of you
I know it is, but for all of
us it ought to be, it must be.
So well let's look at it for a
moment.
What did he say about it here?
We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
unto good works which God has before ordained.
That word ordained is a little bit frightening
when we see it there, but if you
realize what it really is, and where it
comes from, it won't scare you so much.
It comes from the marketplace.
And really what the word means, it's the
word the tailors use, and it means tailor
-made to fit, or cut to your size.
Now does that frighten you?
Into good works which God has before tailor
-made to fit you.
Some people think that if they're filled with
the Spirit of God, they're going to turn
about to be D.L. Moody, or Charles
Finney, or Billy Graham, or someone.
No, no, you know what you'll be?
You, filled with the Spirit, that's all.
You aren't going to be anybody else.
You're just going to be you, glorifying God,
using the unique characteristics that he's built into
you as an individual, never before, never to
come again.
So that you can bring out of your
life the greatest possible glory to the name
of the Lord Jesus.
So, here it is then.
His workmanship created in Christ Jesus, unto good
works which God has tailor-made to fit
you, so that you'll be comfortable and at
ease in doing them.
I had a pleasant time up at Houghton
College recently.
They had an alumni weekend, and they were
talking about international relations, and they asked me
to speak on the economic implications of our
international witness for Christ, or our activities.
And I was there, and one of the
men that was there was a man by
the name of Congressman John Conlon from Arizona,
a freshman congressman who was elected the president
of the group of freshman congressmen in the
Republican side of the aisle.
And John Conlon had been at Northeastern University
in Boston, and through InterVarsity Fellowship, some of
the witnesses of the students, he had come
to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was a committed socialist and totally prepared.
You know, he said, we love people so
much that if they don't take our love,
we'll stand them up against the wall and
make their brains rattle.
We're just going to make them take our
love.
And this was his opinion.
Well, then he came to know and love
Christ, and he went on in government service,
and then ended up in law practice out
in Arizona.
And recently there was a redistricting.
Arizona had grown so much it was entitled
to another congressman.
And he went to the Republican headquarters and
he said, look, I want to run for
this new seat.
And they said, get in line.
There's 40 ahead of you.
And so he said, well, I can't wait
that long in line.
So he went out and he found 25
people that shared his commitment to Christ and
believed that there was a place for congressmen,
for Christians in Congress.
And so he had a series of meetings
with these 25 and explained how the precinct
works and how you get nominated and how
you get elected.
And so he just took them through this
process.
None of them knew anything about the electoral
process in the United States, as I guess
very few here.
Is there anyone here that's active in their
local precinct, in their party?
Anyone in this room?
Anyone who knows any member of the local
precinct group?
Well, you see how unscriptural we are.
The scripture says obey them that have the
rule over you.
We don't have kings.
We have a constitution.
But most of us are utterly disdainful of
the electoral process.
The mafia in New York says we don't
care who they vote for as long as
you let us nominate them.
And because we don't know the nominating process,
then we deserve what we get, our indifference.
Well, Jack Conlon got 25 people committed to
Christ, not all one church, but just there
in the area.
And each one of those 25 went out
and got six more and passed on what
he'd learned.
And with a very small budget, they elected
him with a whopping big majority to Congress.
And when he got there, as I said,
he was elected president of the freshman Republican
congressman.
One of the first things he did was
to start a Bible class in his home,
met a woman who's a widow woman from
down in Virginia Beach who had a Bible
class ministry.
She'd begun this.
Her husband had died.
She was left until she said, Lord, what
would you have me to do?
And so she just began bringing in some
neighbors and teaching.
And God increased the gift and the ability
and the enabling.
And so Mr. Conlon met her and asked
her if she'd come and have a Bible
class in his home.
And this has already been publicized, so I
won't make any difference if I tell you.
It may encourage your heart a little bit.
But at Christmas time, Billy Graham was at
the White House for the church service, and
he was standing talking to the congressman, Mrs.
Conlon, and Julie Eisenhower, Nixon Eisenhower, was there.
And he said, you know, Julie, the Conlons
have a very important Bible class in their
home, and they just live a few blocks
from you.
I think it might be very helpful and
you might enjoy it if you just begin
going.
And so she did.
And a few months later, a terrific pressure
and burden upon her heart crowded her to
Christ, and she opened her heart to receive
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And is witnessing for him and is fellowshipping
with believers, and the whole focus of her
interest in life has changed as of several
months ago.
And what I'm saying is, here is a
man who had a vision and a burden
of something of what it meant to serve
the Lord as a Christian.
He didn't know anything about it, but he
learned.
He didn't know what it was, what, how
the Lord wanted to use him, but he
was available.
And I'm submitting to you this morning that
when we talk about his workmanship created in
Christ Jesus under good works, we're talking about
developing your full potential in Christ.
And I can't tell you what it is,
but he knows.
And he's asking you to realize that he
has provided everything necessary for you to become
everything God wants you to be.
Now I saw that.
I close with this.
Back in 1935, my father told me in
midsummer that he couldn't send me to high
school.
There weren't school busing in those days.
I had the board in town in Anoka,
Minnesota, and we had the fourth year of
drought on our sand farm in Anoka County.
And dad said, I can't send you to
school this year.
And he said, if you want to stay
and work, maybe I can next year.
But he said, you've been saying that.
And I was going into my junior year.
I just turned 16 in May 30th.
And he said, but maybe, maybe you could,
maybe you should start, see if you couldn't
go to Bible school.
He said, I know you're too young, but
you know, Dr. Riley.
So I wrote a letter to Dr. W
.B. Riley, who's founder of the Northwestern Bible
School in Minneapolis.
And he used to come to our farm
and hunt pheasants.
And I used to, he used to kid
me and say that I was his bird
dog and would go out and scare up
the pheasants for him.
And so he remembers, recognized the name.
And I wrote and reminded him of this
in a sentence.
And I told him that my father couldn't
afford to send me to high school.
And I wanted to train for the Lord's
work and for the ministry.
And I didn't have any money, but if
he'd let me come, I'd work hard and
I promised to pay my bills.
And he wrote a sweet letter back and
he said, son, we don't have much money
either.
Come on and join us.
You work hard and pray and, and we'll
just trust God together.
And so that's what I did.
I walked the streets of Minneapolis for six
weeks and finally got a job with Langford's
restaurants, working three hours a day for three
meals.
That's what they paid me.
And with sandwiches, it was a sandwich shop.
So if I don't go into ecstasy over
sandwiches, it may be I'm getting a little
hot, cold flash coming back, having to go
month after month, having sandwiches for breakfast and
sandwich for lunch and sandwich for supper.
It gets old, you know.
Even Elijah found it was getting a little
old, hamburger sandwiches twice a day, you know.
And God had to change the diet for
him.
But at any rate, it came and I
got another job later with the Loop Pharmacy
on 11th and Marquette.
And I worked six hours on Monday and
nine hours on Tuesday and six hours on
Wednesday and nine hours on Thursday and six
hours on Friday and nine hours on Saturday.
And I got three meals and six dollars
a week.
And I carried a full school load.
And I was rich, except that at the
end of that time, 17 years of age,
carrying a load like that, I, well, I
got sick.
That's what I did.
I got sick and I hadn't quit school.
And my friends were, you know, I've always
been blessed with friends.
I've had the kind of friends where I've
never needed enemies because my friends were so
faithful to me.
They did everything for me that enemies could
do and they did it in love, I
hope.
At any rate, my friend said to me,
if you quit school, you're finished.
Everybody that ever drops out of Bible school
is finished.
You never hear from them.
It's over.
It's done.
And so here I was.
I had to quit.
17 years old and totally washed up and
finished.
My life was over.
I was a castaway.
17.
Oh, I also worked at Mrs. C.J.
Martin's for my room.
I was night watchman.
When I went there, they had a big
45 in a belt of bullets hanging over
the edge of my bed.
Boy, I was scared of that.
I was afraid that might go off at
night.
One day, the man who was in charge
of the place said, let's go down and
see how good you are with this thing.
So we went down there and he put
up a barrel, filled it with sand.
Now he said, aim at that barrel.
Well, I did.
And that thing was going like this.
I could weigh out there at the end.
It was too heavy.
And I pulled the trigger and the bullet,
it went off because it just threw me.
And we could never find where that bullet
went.
It didn't go into the ceiling.
It didn't go into the wall.
It didn't go into the barrel.
It just, it was gone.
And he said, I don't think you're ready
for this yet.
Oh, I was sure of that.
So he got me a broomstick and he
said, if anybody comes around, hit him.
And I didn't figure that was going to
go off in the middle of the night.
So that was better.
But you see, this was a student's job.
So because I dropped out of school, I
had to give up my room.
So here I was, 17 years old, washed
up, finished, done.
And I lay down by, knelt on the
floor and I put myself across the bed
and I reached up and got a Bible
and I flipped it open.
It landed in First Timothy.
And I read and there wasn't a thing
in there for me.
It was just sawdust I was blowing.
And then I got to Second Timothy and
I came to verse 8.
And it looked to me like the verse
began to pulse with neon.
Go on and lights went on and bells
rang.
And this is what I read.
Be not ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me his prisoner.
But be thou partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God
who has saved us and called us, not
according to our works, but according to his
own purpose for which he provides grace.
His own purpose and grace for which he
provides grace.
For his own which was in Christ Jesus
before the world began.
And before God made the world, he made
a plan for my life.
And I'm so glad that I'm still on
that beam now.
And I don't know where he's going to
lead me from here on out, but I'm
committed to one thing that I made that
day.
I put my hands over that book and
I said, Oh Father, you don't even need
to tell me what your plan is.
Because I know enough about you to know
that I am not going to change it.
And all I would do would be initial
it.
Say okay.
And so Father, sight unseen, I want your
plan for my life.
I don't care what people think.
I don't care what others do.
I want your plan for my life.
And I commit you myself now to take
your plan and settle on your plan.
And as best I know how by your
grace to obey your plan.
I want it.
Now that wasn't anything unique with me.
It's something that's the birthright of every believer.
And today I want you to do just
that same thing.
To take God's plan for your life.
Your his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under
good work, which God is before all day.
If you're to ever develop your full potential
in Christ, then you must, you must make
an absolute unreserved commitment to all you are
and have to the plan of God, even
when you don't know what it is.
And in every decision that you face, in
every decision you have to make, you're one
frame of reference.
Oh God, I want this made in terms
of your plan for my life.
That plan that you made before you made
the world.
I'm yours.
And that can be yours today.
I don't care how old you are brother
Jones.
It's yours today for the balance of the
hours God gives you.
Forever the youngest one here.
It's yours.
And you can say, Father I want thy
will, thy plan.
This that you tailor made to fit me.
This for which you provided grace.
You see my dear, if you make the
plan, you've got to come up with the
grace to make it work.
That's right.
Because he's reserved his grace for his plan.
But if you take his plan, then he
provides grace.
Isn't that marvelous to be able to say
that to develop my full potential in Christ
means that I could take God's plan for
which God has provided grace.
Well that's pretty good.
That's great.
And that's what God wants and I wish
it were true of everybody here.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes
and just have a moment in which we
ask ourselves, is this true of me?
Have I really said, oh God I want
thy plan for my life.
Whatever it means, whatever it costs, whatever it
will take me.
Your plan.
I'm not going to tell you how or
what.
I'm just committed to thee Lord Jesus.
Have you done that?
If you haven't, will you?
And maybe you'd like to just feel it
by getting up and coming, kneeling here and
having a little time while others slip away
and get ready for their lunch.
You come and tell him that today on
you're going to take this plan for your
life.
We're not going to sing.
Just giving you now this word of exhortation
and invitation.
This isn't a settled matter.
Settle it before you eat, before you do
anything else.
Get up from where you are, your friends
will let you out.
Slip down and just stay until you're satisfied
that you've said, Lord I want thy plan,
thy will for my life.
Father of Jesus, how we thank thee that
you saved us and called us not according
to our works but your purpose for which
you provided grace in Christ Jesus before the
world began.
Were your workmanship created in Christ Jesus under
good works that you've before ordained, we should
walk in that.
And thou can take this company of people
and enlarge our hearts and enlarge our expectancy,
enlarge our faith and enlarge our ministry.
Even though it may not be in terms
of, of that which is going to be
written up in the journals and the digest.
But if it's going to mean that there's
greater glory coming to Christ than there was
before from our blood ransom lives.
That's the enlargement we seek.
And so Father to that end we ask
thee to bless these thy dear children.
And should there be some that haven't said
that full and complete and eternal yes to
thee, might they be discontent until they have.
Might it be therefore Father that every one
precious, numbered among that, that group that have
embraced your plan and your will and settled
on it and peace.
No further questions about it.
Thy will be done on earth and in
my life, even as it is in heaven.
Let this be the rule of our lives
to the glory and honor and praise of
the lamb that was slain.
In his name and for his sake we
ask.
Amen.
Let's stand for the benediction, shall we?
Now may the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus