Words of life that abolishes death and kills
it dead.
That's what happened when you were converted, if
you'd been genuinely converted.
God acquitted you for Jesus' sake.
He recorded your name in the Lamb's Book
of Life as one whose sins He would
remember no more for His dear sake who
died.
And instantly God restored life, and life He
switched yours.
Christ in the person of His other self
came to inhabit your humanity, and your body
became the temple of the living God.
You were added to that habitation of God
through His Spirit which is called on earth
His body, the church, of which Jesus Christ
alone is the head, and every redeemed sinner,
a living, pulsating member in particular.
So the first thing you know about a
man in Christ is what?
He's alive.
The first thing you know about a man
in Adam is that he's dead.
And the first thing you know about a
man who's in Christ is that he's alive.
How is he alive?
Because God the Holy Spirit has come to
indwell his human spirit, and re-impart to
him the very resurrection life of Jesus Christ
Himself.
To what end?
The Bible tells us that the righteousness demanded
by the law might be fulfilled in us
who now walk no longer after the flesh,
dominated by the flesh, but walk now after
the Spirit, dominated by the Holy Spirit.
In other words, the coming of God the
Holy Spirit into the human spirit is to
the end that He the Holy Spirit might
re-invade your soul, and re-capture your
mind for Jesus Christ, and re-capture your
emotions for Jesus Christ, and therefore re-capture
your will for Jesus Christ.
And whoever re-captures your will, captures your
behavior, and your total humanity once more declares
Jesus Christ.
And you make Him the invisible, as once
Christ as man made the Father invisible, visible.
He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father.
So, as you go around the world, it
should be possible for you to say, if
you've entered into the purpose for which you
have been redeemed, He that sees me sees
Christ.
And if you want to know the measure
in which you've entered into your redemption, it's
precisely just the measure in which other people
can see Christ.
Not your imitation of Christ, not your fly
language about Christ, but in your most unconscious
moment, Christ expressed.
Because a man in Christ is not only
alive, a man in Christ walks after the
Spirit, and a man in Christ lives in
the power of His endless life.
Said Jesus, John 6 and 57, As the
living Father hath sent me, and I live
by the Father, so he that eateth me
shall live by me.
In Adam, dead, dominated by the flesh, dying
of sin.
In Christ, alive, dominated by the Holy Spirit,
to live by Him as He once lived
by the Father.
The Father dwelleth in me, He doeth the
work.
John 14, Christ who lives in me, He
doeth the work, to me to live is.
And that's normal Christianity.
That's what it means to be reconciled to
God by His death, and say, Amen.
Amen.
I'd like to say for my part how
deeply I have appreciated the opportunity of sharing
with you in this convention, and I'm grateful
to those whose hard work has made it
possible.
And I trust that God will continue to
bless you in this way in days to
come, and I shall certainly cherish very happy
memories of the days spent together with you.
I appreciate the hospitality that has been shown
to me by so many very kind people.
In our midday session, we thought that a
man in Adam is born spiritually dead.
Physically alive, soulishly active, that is to say,
he can think, react emotionally, and exercise his
will.
He can behave spiritually dead.
Not only is a man in Adam spiritually
dead, but he is dominated by a principle
that was introduced at the time that Adam
fell into sin, a principle that the New
Testament calls the flesh.
Not a vague influence of evil, but what
Paul describes in his epistle to the Ephesians
as the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience.
Spiritually dead, dominated by the flesh, and unless
that miracle of spiritual regeneration takes place, called
rebirth on the grounds of redemption through the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus, the man
born dead and dominated by the flesh will
die in history.
Now, that was the unhappy side of the
picture, but we saw, too, that as in
this one man Adam's death came to the
world, so by this other man, the Lord
Jesus, the Lord from heaven, there came the
resurrection from the dead.
So that a man in Christ is alive,
raised from the dead.
Not he will be raised from the dead
one day, but every man in Christ is
already raised from the dead.
For, you see, life abolishes death, and the
moment you came to receive the Lord Jesus
Christ as your Redeemer, as a forgiven sinner,
there came to dwell within you the greatest
presence of the Holy Spirit, healed as the
blood-bought property of the Lord Jesus.
The presence of the Holy Spirit himself crediting
you with the very life of Christ, whose
presence abolishes death, chases the gloom from your
side, and turns darkness into light.
So that a man in Adam is alive.
Not only is he alive, but being indwelt
now by the Holy Spirit, by whom he
is alive, he walked after the spirit instead
of after the flesh.
A radical new principle governing his behavior.
His mind now to be enlightened by the
Holy Spirit.
The very love of God to be shed
abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 5 and 5.
So that his will now again will be
exercised under the gracious influence of a God
-taught mind, God-controlled emotions.
So that increasingly there is born through him
the image of Christ, and this image of
Christ himself is the origin, the cause of
his own effect.
As electricity is the origin of its own
immediate life.
In Christ, the life.
In Christ, walking after the spirit, and to
live in the power of his indwelling, endless
life.
That's a man in Christ.
Now, if you will remember, we commenced our
discussion in the lunch hour in the second
epistle to the Corinthians in chapter five, and
I'd like you to turn back to that
passage, because we saw that the seventeenth verse
with which we commence was a conclusion sworn
from an argument, an argument which we ourselves
have been pursuing.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he
is a new creature.
All things are passed away.
Behold, all things are but some years.
So, having focused our thoughts upon what happens
when a man, by faith, steps out of
Adam into Christ, and with that in the
background of our minds, would you turn with
me now to the same chapter in the
fortieth verse, for the love of Christ constrains
us, because we thus judge that if one
dies for all, this is the only good
reason, then we're all dead.
The one reason why the Lord Jesus, the
second man, the Lord from heaven, died for
all is that all were dead, and he
died to kill dead and raise dead men
from the dead.
Delighted, he died because we're all dead.
And that he died, verse fifteen, that they
which live, which of course isn't everybody, but
those who by the obedience of faith and
repentance towards God put their trust in the
Lord Jesus, raised from the dead, redeemed through
his blood and spiritually regenerate by the coming
of the Holy Spirit, that he died for
all that they which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto him who died
for them and rose again.
That is why he died for you.
First, because you were dead.
And if you've realized the fact that you
were spiritually dead and therefore needed his atoning
death that you might be raised to life,
it is to this end that being raised
to life by the presence of Christ within
you through the Holy Spirit, you might now
henceforth not live yourself, but live with Christ
generally, so that the Christ's rule has been
re-established in the area of your mind,
your emotions, and your will, and your total
personality is now filled and flooded with God
himself.
That's the measure of your worth.
That's the measure of your spirituality.
Nothing more nor less.
That is why, you see, in the fifteenth
verse, Paul goes on to say this.
I'll read it from the Authorized Version, though
it's a little bit confusing as it is
there translated, "...wherefore henceforth know we no man
after the flesh, yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know
we him no more."
That is to say, after the flesh.
Now, what does the Apostle mean when he
says that?
Let me read it to you from the
Amplified New Testament.
I think it will help.
Consequently, fifteenth verse of 2 Corinthians 5, "...from
now on we estimate and regard no one
from a purely human point of view in
terms of natural standards of value."
We've got a new standard of value.
Not how clever a man is, not how
rich a man is, not his social status,
not even his age.
There's only one real standard, says Paul, now
as evaluating a man's worth.
How far genuinely he lives to and for
Jesus Christ, who died for him and who
rose again to live in him.
How far his humanity declares the nature of
God.
How far the regentive processes of God in
his life have been able to restore him
to the image of God his Maker.
He says that is the only valid standard
by which a man's worth may now be
evaluated.
I might ask you concerning somebody whom I
see coming into a church looking somewhat affluent
how much that person is worth.
And if you were taken off your guard,
and if I were naughty enough, you might
say if he's worth a dollar, he's worth
a million.
And I would have to say to you,
excuse me, but you have mistaken my question.
I didn't ask you how much money he
had in the bank.
I asked you how much he was worth.
Because a man isn't worth what he's got
in the bank.
So far as God is concerned, he's worth
no more nor less than how far God
can be seen in terms of his humanity.
So the question that we should pose to
our own hearts tonight is very simple.
How much am I really worth?
How far does the world see in me
the image of Jesus Christ?
But if he deserved the Father, how far
do I deserve the Son?
Has he lived by the living Father?
How do I live by his?
To what extent have I been restored genuinely
to my true humanity?
To what degree am I really allowing the
Lord Jesus in me to be the origin
of his own image and the cause of
his own effect, so that my life as
a Christian now is totally without explanation apart
from Jesus Christ?
Is your Christianity explainable apart from Jesus Christ?
Don't you see that if your Christianity, the
religion that you practice, can be explained other
than in terms of Jesus Christ who lives
within you, it's just a cheap, shabby imitation
of the real thing?
God washes his hands of it.
You are to reckon yourself to be dead
indeed in the sin that spells, that repudiates
the basic principles of man's humanity, that is
independent and self-sufficient, that throws out its
chest and says, I have what it takes.
You're to reckon yourself dead indeed now to
this principle, and you're to reckon yourself alive
now unto God solely and exclusively through Jesus
Christ.
That simply means that you recognize that there
is only one person whom God actually recognizes
as being legitimately alive in you.
Who's that?
Jesus Christ.
Because he's the only person capable of living
the Christian life.
Any attempt on my part to imitate him
will be a shabby imitation, nothing more.
A hell out of him, yes.
And it'll impress nobody.
Of course, that's why the apostle went on.
In the same 16th verse he said this,
No, even though we once did estimate Christ
from a human viewpoint and as a man,
yet now we have such knowledge of him,
we've come to such an understanding of his
person and his mission and the principles that
governed his life as a man.
We have such knowledge of him that we
know him no longer, in terms of the
flesh.
How did Paul once know Jesus Christ in
terms of the flesh?
When he was Saul of Tarsus.
When he was Saul of Tarsus, he made
a very reasonable and intelligent and legitimate estimate
of the worth of Jesus Christ according to
all normal, natural human standards in evaluating a
man's worth.
And of Saul of Tarsus, he would have
said this, To the best of my knowledge
and according to all the information that was
accepted as legitimate by my own ecclesiastical colleagues,
Jesus Christ was born, illegitimately, of a woman
who was both a liar and unfaithful to
the man to whom she was his father.
That was the best knowledge that Saul of
Tarsus had concerning the birth of Jesus Christ.
It wasn't true, but that was what was
popularly accepted.
This is exactly what the Pharisees meant when
the Lord Jesus said to them, Fear of
your father the Jesus.
For they had said to him, We weren't
born of poor material.
Like you.
They couldn't.
He was a sly, uncivil cat.
We're the son of God.
We're the children of Abraham.
But as far as Saul of Tarsus was
concerned, Jesus Christ was born, illegitimately, of a
woman who was heathier.
Any knowledge of a man?
So she must have been a liar.
And the one to whom she was espoused,
Joseph, repudiated any responsibility for the birth of
this world.
So she must have been unfaithful.
So, according to all reasonable, natural standards of
worth, as far as Saul of Tarsus was
concerned, Jesus Christ, totally, was worth precisely...
He was just told up of him a
liar.
Educationally, how much was he worth?
Had no more education than would allow him
to stand as an apprentice at a carpenter's
bench and finally take his place as a
carpenter.
This is faith.
No more.
In terms of scholastic education, college training, theological
treaties, nothing.
Educationally, he was worth nothing.
He didn't have a word to say that
could be compared with the weighty utterances of
those who were the leading thinkers of his
day, and of which Saul of Tarsus himself
was one of the most pre-emptive.
Promoted above many of the Jews in the
Jews' religion.
Ecclesiastically, Jesus Christ was almost unanimously repudiated by
all the theological leaders of his day.
All the ecclesiastical hierarchy, with one consent, condemned
him as a fanatical salt preacher.
He was a rabble rouser.
He was a troublemaker.
And a heretic of the heretics could be
this ordinary old cop.
Financially, how much was he worth?
Born in a borrowed stable?
He lived on other people.
Had no home of his own.
Borrowed everything he used.
Borrowed every bit of food he ate.
Borrowed the homes he lived in.
Borrowed a donkey to ride on.
He was even crucified in a borrowed cross
and buried in a borrowed tomb and illustrated
one of his seminaries with a borrowed cross.
Socially, educationally, theologically, financially, how much was Jesus
Christ worth?
By all normal, accepted, reasonable standards of evaluating
a man.
Stop!
Don't be angry with the soul of God.
He was behaving completely rationally on the basis
of the only standard he knew.
How many churches in San Francisco would have
called Jesus Christ to be their pastor on
the basis of that evaluation?
On the basis of his educational background?
His college training?
His ecclesiastical acceptance in the area of modern
theological thinking?
How many colleges would have invited him to
serve on their packages?
How many mission boards would have asked him
to serve on their boards?
How many mission boards would ever have sent
him to the field?
In 1964, in San Francisco, don't be too
hasty in your judgment to fall apart.
Paul says, There came a day in my
life when, weaving out threatens and slaughter on
the road to Damascus, suddenly I was confronted
with a bright light brighter than the sun
at noon day.
And in that one blinding encounter I was
thrown to my face in confusion.
For I looked into the face of a
man and I saw God.
And he said to me, Paul, why persecute
us down there?
I said, who are you?
For I'd never seen that man before.
He said, I'm Jesus.
Send thou pestilence.
And in that day, Saul's heart was dark
and rose again.
Until he called it out.
Totally deflated.
To reckon from then on all those things
that he had accumulated and to which he
had attached so much worth that made him
constant.
Now he considered them to be nothing.
Down.
Reckless?
Reckless.
For in that blinding encounter with Jesus Christ
he discovered that a man's worth was no
more nor less than the degree in which
God can be seen by man.
And when he looked into the face of
Jesus Christ he could see a man in
whom the Holy Spirit was.
A man, Christ Jesus.
God's own dear and incarnate Son.
Who was in the beginning with God and
was God and never less than God at
any time.
But who for your sake and for my
sake of his own privileges though he was
in the form of God and thought it
not robbery to be equal with God made
himself of no reputation.
In the New English translation he made himself
nothing.
Deliberate.
He made himself all that man is apart
from what God is.
Nothing.
So that for the first time on earth
since man fell into sin there might be
a man functioning as man.
And so the Lord Jesus could say he
that has seen me has seen me pass.
For for thirty-three years the Lord Jesus
Christ lived on earth on the basis for
which he as God had created you and
me.
What did it take to be a man?
God.
Then what did it take for Jesus Christ
to live on earth as a man?
I can imagine you might quite genuinely and
sincerely say do you mean to tell me
that Jesus Christ couldn't live his own life
on earth as a man without the Father
and God?
Turn with me to the 6th chapter of
John's Gospel.
John chapter 5 and verse 19.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them verily
verily I say unto you the Son the
Incarnate Word the One who was in the
beginning with God and was God the One
by whom all things were made and without
whom nothing was made that ever was made
and who at this moment now nearly two
thousand years later restored to enjoy with the
Father the glory that he had had with
the Father before ever the world was upholds
all things by the word of his power
this Son the Eternal Son of God the
Son can do.
How much?
Nothing.
What would be God?
God.
Yes.
In tote equality with the Father and the
Holy Ghost and never less than God.
But when Jesus Christ came into this world
he didn't come to behave as God he
came to behave as man.
He came to be as man all that
he as God had created man to be.
He was simply giving you a demonstration of
what he expects of you nothing less.
In 1964 verse 30 I can of mine
own self do how much?
Nothing.
As God he could create the universe as
man he could do nothing.
As I hear I judge and my judgment
is just because I seek not mine own
will but the will of the Father that
sent me.
And as I reminded you in the earlier
session at midday said the Lord Jesus as
the living Father hath sent me and I
live by the Father he that eateth me
shall live by me.
Just how clever are you just how gifted
are you just how talented are you that
you can do so much apart from Jesus
Christ when he as God behaving as man
can do nothing without his Father.
Doesn't that reduce us to our own self?
Doesn't that cripple us?
That of course is why the Lord Jesus
said in John 15 verse 5 I am
divine and you are the bride.
He that abides between me and I and
him bringeth forth much fruit for without me
how much can he do?
Without me you can do precisely as much
as I as man can do without my
Father.
How much is that?
Everything that you do apart from Jesus Christ
so far as God is concerned is nothing.
Evaluate it as you will and have it
evaluated by your fellow men and by your
fellow believers as they will.
It's worth so far as God is concerned
nothing.
And it's surprising how busy it can be
doing nothing.
You can spend a lifetime doing nothing and
congratulate yourself on being so busy or pity
yourself.
The chances are that if you are very,
very, very busy doing nothing you'll be advertising
yourself and sweating into the bar.
So did everything.
But Jesus Christ did nothing.
Does this mean that he was inactive and
passive and lethargic and unmoved and unconcerned?
No, no.
He was just being man.
Imperfection.
In totality available to his father and because
in totality available to his father his father
in totality is available.
For all that God is is available to
the man who is available to all that
God is.
How available was Jesus Christ to the father?
Totally.
So how available was the father to the
son?
Totally.
And that's why in the activity of the
Lord Jesus Christ there was absolutely no margin
of difference whatever between what he did as
man and what the father did in and
through him as God.
There was no margin of difference because he
never took one step and he never said
one word and he never adopted one single
attitude which wasn't a complete unblemished, untallied expression
of the activity of his heart.
And he says, as I live by the
father you're going to live by me.
This means that.
John 14.10 Believe
it shall not that I am in the
father and the father in me.
The words that I speak unto you I
speak not of myself but the father that
dwelleth in me.
He doeth the work.
The father that dwelleth in me.
This was the secret of the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ as man.
But I want you constantly to remind yourself
that the Lord Jesus again and again emphasized
this fact that as the father had sent
him he now sends you.
Repudiate that fact at your peril.
As the father sent me I send you.
And says the Lord Jesus the father that
dwelleth in me he does the work.
I credit my father with everything I do
and I credit my father with everything I
say and I credit my father with everything
that I am.
And he that seeth me seeth the father.
And as I am sent by my father
you are going to be sent by me.
And if there is anything about what you
are and anything about what you do that
is not to be credited for what I
am in you and do through you then
you are repudiate.
The basis upon which I am in this.
That's why in the 12th chapter of John's
Gospel in verse 44 you have this surprising
statement made by the Lord Jesus.
John 12, 44 Jesus cried and said he
that believeth on me believeth not on me.
Did you ever think that one through?
He that believeth on me believeth not on
me.
Then if you believing on Jesus don't believe
on Jesus who do you believe on?
Well he tells you.
The one of whom he gives complete and
solid unblemished expression.
Who's that?
Him that sent me.
That's why you can't compare Jesus Christ as
one teacher with another teacher one philosopher amongst
many philosophers.
You don't compare his opinions with the opinions
of anybody else.
He says I am the truth.
And I'll tell you why I am the
truth because I'm wholly totality in totality available
to my Father.
Everything my Father is can be expressed unblemished
in terms of my humanity.
So that when you believe on me you
do not believe on me you believe on
the one who is completely expressed in terms
of me.
My Father.
Verse 45 He that seeth me seeth in
the same.
And that's why if any man hear my
word verse 47 and believe not I judge
him not I came not to judge the
world but to save the world I don't
have to judge him for this good reason
verse 48 He that rejecteth me and receiveth
not my word hath won the judgment the
word that I have spoken the saints will
judge him in the last day.
It'll still be true then as it is
true now I don't have to judge because
every word I speak is a word that
I speak by commandment of my Father.
I have not spoken verse 49 of myself
but the Father which sent me he gave
me a commandment what I should say and
what I should speak and I know that
his commandment is life everlasting whatsoever I speak
therefore even as the Father said unto me
so I speak so that every word I
speak as a man is a is a
word that my Father speaks as God.
And when you believe on my word as
a man you believe on my Father's word
as God.
The Lord Jesus Christ never claimed your faith
in him by virtue of who he was.
Isn't that strange?
He had the rights he was God.
But he was behaving as man.
The only authority that he claimed to be
believed was that he was a pure expression
of what the Father was in him working
truth.
And he says if there comes one single
moment in my life when you can find
any other activity in and through me other
than the activity of my Father you do
not have the right to believe me.
John 10 verse 37 If
I do not the works of my Father
if I am not doing the truth if
I am not doing what my Father says
if my humanity does not authentically declare the
nature of my Father and my Father's will
and my Father's works if I do not
the works of my Father be he, he
not.
You don't have the right to believe.
But if I do though you believe not
me believe the works that you may know
then believe that the Father is in me
and I in him.
I want you to know this that the
only authority that you have to claim the
attention of your fellow men your own children
at home to believe the things that you
tell them concerning the word of God and
Jesus Christ himself the only authority you have
is the measure in which Jesus Christ is
expressed in terms of your behavior.
Don't expect your children at home to believe
your doctrine if they don't see that doctrine
being behaved in terms of your demands.
I'll ask you to your face and as
soon as they can they'll kick over the
table and never come near your place of
worship again.
And you'll do this.
That's why there are so many rebellious children
of believing parents because they've heard from the
lips of believing parents so much that the
parents say and see so little of the
speech that the parents give.
Jesus Christ never claimed any authority for what
he said other than by virtue of the
fact of what should be seen of the
fatherly.
Your neighbors your fellow students your chums at
school your family circle will be as convinced
of the speech you speak as they are
of the speech you live.
Nor do they have the right to be
convinced And so the Lord Jesus lived his
life in an unrelenting attitude of total dependence
upon the father.
And whether it was preaching the sermon on
the mount or raising Lazarus from the dead
or whether it was feeding the five thousand
or washing his disciples' feet there was never
a moment at any time in the whole
life of Jesus Christ for thirty-three years
when he was not doing only always those
things that seemed completely available to the father.
And this he said is normal manhood which
is the end product of God's redemptive purpose
which is to be normal Christianity.
Christ in you.
The secret of his life the father dwelleth
in me the indwelling Father.
The secret of your life Christ dwelling in
you the indwelling Father.
But as he lived by the father you
are to live by him.
As the father expressed himself through the son
so the son is to express himself through
you.
And the only valid estimate of your worth
as a Christian is the measure in which
Christ is expressed in terms of your denominator.
That's all you will.
It's for this reason that it's all the
more surprising that there came a day if
you'll turn to it in John's Gospel chapter
twelve when the Lord Jesus spoke of a
particular hour in his life which was to
be of greater significance than any other because
it's hard to conceive of any hour in
the life of the Lord Jesus that could
be of any particular significance greater than another
if for every moment that he lived and
for every step that he took and for
every word that he spoke he was constantly
and unrelentingly a declaration of the nature and
will and purpose of his Father God.
How could one hour be of any greater
significance than another?
And yet in the twenty-third verse of
the twelfth chapter of John the Lord Jesus
answered and said the hour is come that
the Son of Man should be glorified.
It's an hour that is referred to on
more than one occasion.
In the seventh chapter of John's gospel and
the thirtieth verse then they sought to take
him but no man laid hands on him
because his hour was not yet come.
In the eighth chapter and the twentieth verse
these words speak Jesus in the treasurer as
he taught in the temple and no man
laid hands on him for his hour was
not yet come.
In the thirteenth chapter and the first verse
before the feast of the Passover when Jesus
knew that his hour was come.
In the seventeenth chapter of John and the
first verse the Lord Jesus we're told spake
these words lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said father the hour is come glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify
Jesus.
So, it's quite obvious that there was one
specific hour in the matchless life of the
Lord Jesus that was to be of a
particular significance.
Continuing in the twelfth chapter and the twenty
-fourth verse the Lord Jesus said verily, verily
I stand to you except a corner queen
fall into the ground and die.
But if it dies it brings forth much
sin.
By the impartation of that life to us
and once the Lord Jesus Christ declares the
purpose of his coming into the world Jesus
said I am come that you might have
life and if I the sinless grain of
wheat approved of my father this is my
beloved son whom I am well pleased if
this my hour is come in which I
am to be glorified is an hour in
which I may go into the ground and
die.
It is simply that you might have the
life that I have.
So we recognize at once that the coming
of Jesus Christ in this world was primarily
concerned with the imparting of divine life to
redeem sinners.
Not that sinners being forgiven might get out
of hell into heaven but that they might
become once more partakers of the divine nature
and becoming partakers of that divine nature have
once more all that pertains to life and
God's likeness.
The restoration of man to his true in
the likeness of God and that's what the
gospel is all about.
I'd never be so unfair to any boy
or girl or man or woman to say
come to Jesus and have your sins forgiven
to you.
I can't think of anything that would be
more calculated to mock them for the rest
of their days.
You don't come to Jesus to have your
sins forgiven you come to the Lord Jesus
to have life but in order that you
might have his life you must have your
sins forgiven and that's why he says behold
my hands and my feet for the divine
I pray.
See to the hallmarks of my saviourhood this
is the stamp of my mandate that enables
me not only to cleanse the temple by
cleansing you with my own precious blood but
to re-inhabit that temple and fill it
again with the glory of God I'm going
to give you life.
That's why you come to Jesus Christ and
if you want to know why there are
so many limp Christians on the way crippled
salacious because folks have invited them to come
to Jesus to get some truth to do
or heaven one day when the Lord Jesus
constantly said come to me for what I
am I am the way I am the
truth I am the life the hour has
come Jesus answered them the time has come
for the Son of Man to be glorified
and exalted I assure you most solemnly I
tell you amplified Jesus in John 12 24
unless the grain of wheat falls into the
earth and dies listen to this very carefully
it remains it remains just one grain never
becomes more but lives goes on living by
itself by itself I love it it remains
and lives but if it dies it produces
many others and yields a rich harvest don't
you see that if the Lord Jesus Christ
had come into this world and lived the
life that he lived even had he only
been man and never been God he would
have had the right to remain and live
for it is him that separates man from
God he was perfect man now we know
that he was also perfect God he was
never less than God but even as man
had he never been God he would have
had the right at the end of those
33 years to remain and live forever I
love you and I would never have become
partakers of his divine ministry there are some
that would have you believe and you know
the falsity of it and I know that
there's not one who doesn't really repudiate it
there are some who would have you believe
that Christianity simply consists in your attempt to
imitate and emulate the matchless example of a
beautiful man who lived 1900 years ago and
who died before his time as a noble
idealist and a great philosopher that if only
you will browse upon the sermon on the
mountain gaze at his example the
only legitimate cause of his own effect are
you absolutely certain that even within the boundless
evangelical Christendom your Christianity isn't the byproduct of
your conformity to certain patterns of behavior that
have been imposed upon you by the particular
Christian society to which you belong and that
your holiness does not derive from within your
holiness derives from without are you sure the
moment your brand of Christianity however genuinely you
pursue it and with whatever sincerity but the
moment it comes from a pattern imposed from
without you are repudiating the basic principle that
Christ is you enunciated that you can only
have his life by his death and you
can only have his likeness by his life
and that's why you need his life because
it takes God to be a man and
that's why it takes Christ to be a
Christian for as I have already reminded you
it is Christ in a Christian that puts
God back into the man supposing
Jesus Christ had only come into this world
and lived that wonderful life and gone back
to heaven what would that have done for
him stand with me to the tenth chapter
of the epistles of the Romans Romans 10
and I appreciate the way you listen because
in such a short space of time I
cannot spare you either in time or substance
and you make it easy for me to
talk to you and I know that it
isn't always easy to be followed to the
court rather quickly but I believe that the
Holy Spirit himself will bear witness to his
own dear son and honor honor the son
in your heart as he witnesses to the
truth to your own particular and personal needs
very quickly the truth to your own heart
in the tenth chapter of the epistles of
the Romans verse one brethren my heart's desire
and prayer to God to Israel is this
that they might be saved for I bear
them record that they have a zeal of
God they're zealous they're earnest they're not insincere
they're not hypocrites they really mean business they
practice religion but not according to knowledge Paul
doesn't challenge their sincerity he doesn't point the
finger of accusation at them he says they're
earnest men and women and there are countless
tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of earnest
men and women and boys and girls who
practice religion and go to church and they're
not hypocrites and they're not saved either they're
neither they simply practice religion not according to
knowledge in other words they're uninstructed in the
truth and if you do something not according
to knowledge you do it in ignorance what
then was the nature of the ignorance of
these people who with such zeal practiced religion
it tells you in the third verse for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness they didn't
know the mystery of God's likeness they didn't
know that righteousness stems from God that every
act of righteousness is a divine act in
man reproduced by God in and through man
that God is himself the origin of his
own image that righteousness is God in action
that righteousness is God's behaving they didn't know
it they thought that righteousness was man trying
to imitate God they thought that righteousness was
man trying to conform to certain rules and
regulations and they were trying with great zeal
and great earnestness and great endeavor to conform
to the patterns that were being imposed upon
them by the Pharisees but he these patterns
were hopelessly inadequate because of the hopelessly inadequate
nature of the man the law was weakened
through the flesh there was a hostile element
buried deep within their soul that is hostility
to God hostile to God subject to the
law of God and that's why the Lord
Jesus Christ said to them unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees who want to impose upon
you a pattern of God's likeness you will
in no wise enter the community of hell
that was the nature of their ignorance they
didn't know God's righteousness nor the origin of
it and the result was that they went
about it says in the third verse to
establish their own righteousness and when they did
that again it wasn't because they wanted to
be pig-headedly proud and swank about it
it was the best thing they knew and
therefore did not submit themselves unto the righteousness
of God they were not prepared to accept
the principle that only God in a man
can make a man God-like verse four
it was only one man who walked that
earth who was God-like as a man
on God's terms of residence and because he
was willing to place his total humanity body,
soul, spirit mind, emotion and will at the
disposal of the Father through the Eternal Spirit
he gives 9.14 there was a complete
expression of the nature of God or as
Paul puts it don't bother to turn to
it in the epistle to the Colossians in
him the whole fullness of deity the Godhead
continues to dwell in bodily form giving complete
expression of the divine nature the Lord Jesus
or in the same epistle the expression of
his person a visible declaration of his nature
and the law in its utter righteousness could
never condemn for Christ therefore is the end
of the law for righteousness no point to
the law of Jesus for the righteousness that
was demanded by the law that was claimed
by the finger of God was the righteousness
that was fulfilled by the life that was
born by the finger of God miraculously conceived
in the womb of Mary Jesus Christ incarnate
was an incarnation of the righteousness demanded by
the law he was the end of the
law for righteousness and of course as we
know though we're not going to dwell upon
it now as the last part of that
verse says this is the righteousness his righteousness
that is imputed or credited to all those
who believe who repudiate their own capacity to
imitate God or be righteous on their own
terms of reference they repudiate it in proud
and helplessness God I need the righteousness that
you alone can impute to me and credit
me with and close me with it is
the righteousness of Christ alright we know therefore
that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
as a man was the life that demonstrated
the righteousness that is demanded by the law
I want to ask you to follow me
very very clearly in this if the righteousness
displayed by the life of the Lord Jesus
was one which completely fulfilled the righteousness which
is demanded by the law then there was
absolutely nothing to choose between the righteousness displayed
by his life or the righteousness demanded by
the law is that right that the righteousness
declared by his life could be equated in
total equality with the righteousness demanded by the
law therefore we need to ask ourselves this
question what can the righteousness of the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he displayed
that he declared then as a man 1900
years ago do to you until now for
it is of inequality with the righteousness demanded
by the law quite obviously the righteousness declared
by his life can do nothing no more
for you and for me the day in
1964 than the righteousness demanded by the law
what can the righteousness demanded by the law
do for you and for me Romans chapter
3 Romans chapter 3 in verse 19 we
know that what things whoever the law saith
it saith to them who are under the
law that every mask may be stopped and
all the world may become duty before God
therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight
for by the law is the knowledge of
sin the only thing that the law can
do for you and for me because of
the weakness of our own flesh is to
cut our mouth to the beauty and expose
our sin let me be presumptuous enough to
demand of God that I be judged on
the basis of my performance and I say
God compare me with the demands of your
law I demand to be judged on that
basis God says right I'll do it and
I'll tell you what will happen your mouth
will be stopped it will expose your sin
and find you guilty is that right?
alright what happens if you compare your life
with the life of Jesus Christ the righteousness
of whose life was identical with the righteousness
demanded by the law I want to tell
you this that whether you compare your life
with the demands of the law or whether
you compare your life with the demands of
his life both can go both cut your
mouth both expose your sin and you can
no more as a Christian through the weakness
of the flesh you can no more as
a Christian imitate his life today than you
could fulfill the law how is it then
that you claim redemption through the death of
Christ because you couldn't fulfill the law but
somehow by some strange twist of argument you
want to live a holy life by copying
his life you can't you can't get to
heaven by keeping the law because you break
it then how can you be holy by
copying his life you'll break that too doesn't
the weakness of the flesh render the life
of Christ inopposite to make you holy the
life that he lived 1900 years ago and
the weakness of the flesh renders the law
inopposite to make you holy so the flesh
within you rebels at the righteousness of the
life of Christ as the flesh within you
rebels at the righteousness demanded by the law
the flesh is not subject to the law
whether written with the finger of God or
declared with the word of God in Christ
in Jesus Christ both can die then why
did Jesus Christ live a life 1900 years
ago that can only condemn you as soundly
as the law condemns you for both can
die very simple the life that he lived
was utter man and qualified him for the
death he died it was utter man because
the sinless saviour died my sin full soul
is counted being God the just is satisfied
to look on him and die and pardon
me God because
he died just as if I had never
died because he died just as if he
committed all my sins is that the gospel
that's just the beginning of the gospel it's
the very essential first part of the gospel
it's the threshold of our salvation it's the
door through which we go in and there
is no other only by the blood of
Jesus have we bought into access but it
is access that it is access into what
access into life for Jesus said except the
grain of root fallen to the ground and
die it abides alone but if it dies
it doesn't abide alone its life is shared
here's a very simple question that I want
to put to you as you look back
to the day when you received the Lord
Jesus Christ as your redeemer and as in
the goodness of God you've had the joy
of knowing that your sins have been forgiven
since then does the knowledge that your sins
are forgiven in itself impart to you any
new moral capacity to live a different kind
of life the mere knowledge that your sins
are forgiven the mere knowledge that your sins
were borne away upon the cross does that
in itself impart to you any new spiritual
moral capacity to be different no it may
create within you a holy appetite to be
different it may create within you a sense
of gratitude toward the Lord Jesus and a
sense of duty that would make you want
to live a holy life but the knowledge
that your sins are forgiven in itself does
not give you the power to live a
holy life it would leave you frustrated frustrated
baffled and bewildered I want to be different
I want to be God-like I want
to be Christ-like but I've got the
same wicked evil flesh within me that can
no more fulfill the law nor copy Him
oh wretched man that I am who shall
deliver me from the body of this death
I know I'm going to get to heaven
but what's going to happen to me on
the way to heaven that's the bewildering question
that baffles so many Christians who are genuinely
converted but who have been invited only to
come to a dead Christ Hippolytus 1900 years
ago whose atoning death made them hit for
heaven and have left them so far as
the gospel they've heard totally inadequate for earth
on the way to heaven and they've cried
the line as though the flesh was their
own private war they've got to wrestle with
it until it's re-educated and becomes thoroughly
evangelical and it never will listen the life
he lived qualified him for the death he
died but listen the death he died qualifies
us as redeemed sinners to receive the life
he lived did you get that?
the life he lived qualified him for the
death he died but this is the whole
purpose of God's redemption plan the death he
died qualifies you now to receive the life
he lived that's the meaning of Pentecost he
went into death bearing your sins away as
far as the east is from the west
there might be restored to you the very
dynamic that made him the man he was
God in a man and the third day
he rose again from the dead that in
the person of the Holy Spirit he might
come and re-inhabit your humanity and by
this Holy Spirit within your human spirit reinvade
your soul so that mind emotion and will
might once more come under the divine sovereignty
of the enthroned Christ in the sense of
your personality so you see that the life
that he lived 1900 years ago could only
condemn you but it is the life that
he lives now by his Holy Spirit in
you that saves you and the Christian life
is the life that he lived then 1900
years ago in his own humanity lives now
by him in you in your redeemed humanity
that's the Christian life that's the saving life
of Christ this is the dynamic of our
gospel this is the good news and the
better news and the best news of the
gospel so he not only died for what
I've done 1900 years ago but he rose
again from the dead and at this very
moment in the eternal present of an eternal
God who is the I am he is
at this moment in me now the only
hope of life he doesn't give me strength
he is my strength he doesn't give me
victory he is my victory he doesn't encourage
me to be like Jesus he is his
own likeness as I make myself available to
him the origin of his own image and
the cause of his own life to me
the limit is Christ and what happened on
that first day of Pentecost where at his
command 120 men and women gathered in one
place to be imbued with power of Solomon
Heights to become the recipients of the resurrection
life of Jesus Christ as he came to
take up residence within their humanity and the
father presented to the son a new body
a new body corporate of 120 members each
individual member cleansed in his blood to be
filled with his life so that the same
Lord Jesus Christ who walked and worked and
taught and preached on earth for 33 years
might continue to work and continue to teach
but now closed with the humanity of those
who shared his resurrection life because he the
sinless grain of wheat had gone to the
ground and died and that 120 men and
women on the first day of Pentecost was
the first golden ripen ear of corn that
shared his resurrection life and all down the
centuries that life has been reproduced until in
1964 you and I today share the life
of Jesus Christ in it and if any
man have not the spirit of Christ he's
none of this prove your own self whether
you be in the faith know you're not
that Christ is in you unless you're a
counterfeit unless you're a reprobate unless you're just
an imitation grain of wheat that's terrile from
the start because no German life was ever
imparted to you by God the Holy Spirit
present crediting you with the life of Jesus
Christ and we could make a thousand imitations
of a grain of wheat but if you
planted them what would happen nothing just terrile
and that's why you can never patronize people
into heaven that's why you can never educate
them into the kingdom of God every man
woman boy or girl that will ever share
the life of Jesus Christ is a by
-product of death and resurrection every man woman
boy or girl who will share eternity with
the Lord Jesus is one who has by
Christ himself been raised from the dead as
he Christ by his presence in life has
abolished death and brought life and immortality to
the life that's the gospel it's a word
of life but before a man is prepared
to receive life he's got to be convicted
of the fact that he's dead dead in
trespasses and sins alienated from the life of
God he's made dominated by the flesh and
on the way to hell but now he
receives the gift of God which is eternal
life through Jesus Christ well has this miracle
taken place in your heart you say thank
God indeed it has I can remember the
day when I claimed the name of Jesus
and my sins were forgiven and he came
by his Holy Spirit and his Holy Spirit
has been witnessing to my spirit that I
am a child of God is that the
end of the story why do you think
Jesus Christ has come to live in you
he came from heaven to Bethlehem is that
the end of the journey from Bethlehem to
33 years he went to the cross is
that the end of the journey from the
cross he went into the grave and into
paradise is that the end of the journey
that day he rose again from the dead
and ascended to be with the Father to
share with the Father again the glory that
he had with the Father before ever the
world was end of the journey no he
said to those disciples go to the upper
room and wait for me there you will
be endued with power from on high and
on the day of Pentecost Jesus Christ came
what do you do with it anyway and
this little cat root this little cat root
knows exactly what to do it begins to
burrow its way into the earth and suck
up the moisture and the little grain of
wheat has hardly got over the shop before
there's a tickly feeling up top it's in
the wrong place and it's a bit alarmed
needs surgery maybe I should twist it down
no because it's the shoot that must go
up controlled by a principle of life that
is laying dormant titled in dungeon within its
hard heart all those years that it insisted
on beating itself and refusing to die say
don't miss the point I'm talking to you
I'm talking to you maybe a clumsy farm
hand comes along treads on that little piece
of ground and turns the thing right upside
down till the roots going up and the
shoots going down and the little grain of
wheat might be tempted to sob and say
I knew it couldn't last when suddenly it
discovers that the root turns down and the
shoot turns up that there's a principle of
life that is gloriously competent even when its
little world appears to be turned upside down
that's what it means to live victorious nothing
can shake this the panic proof even when
your little world is turned upside down because
you know that there is the latent Lordship
of Christ being released in all that spontaneous
expression of his peace in terms of your
humanity making you not some cheap imitation some
shabby copy of somebody else aping their methods
and aping their pains and aping their ways
but Christ spontaneously expressed in terms of your
humanity making you a perfect original until at
last that little tender shoot breaks the surface
into the light of day and beneath blue
skies and the warm rays of the sun
it begins to grow and reach out to
the skies until at last swaying swaying in
the breeze beneath the golden sun the golden
hills of course thirty times sixty times a
hundred times a life that's been shared through
death that's the Christian life did you know
that?
I know that some of you here will
never know you'll get to heaven because you're
sin-sufficient you'll get to heaven because you've
registered your decision to receive Christ as your
Redeemer and you are greedily clutching your inheritance
in Him but you're never going to let
Him have His inheritance in you oh no!
I'm going to be myself I've got my
plans I know the girl I'm going to
marry and we've already put a down payment
on the house and I intend to follow
my career no matter what God says I'm
not going to be expendable on the Amazon
oh no all right hold on to what
you are you wizard grain of wheat and
you'll remain and you'll live alone for eternity
to bewail the hardness of your heart that
endangers the Son of God within your soul
and never allows Him to become the artist
of His own to shape your future ends
and make you one with Jesus a
way up on a platform painting a magnificent
view on the underside of the cathedral dome
the artist paused in his work he stepped
back to gaze at his handiwork and it
had intoxicated him the sheer wonder the sheer
beauty of it the dazzlement splendor he was
intoxicated at the by-product of his own
genius and as he as he stepped still
farther back to see it at greater advantage
and still again and again one more step
backwards sent him plunging to his death upon
the stone flag floor beneath and it was
just precisely at that moment that his assistant
up on the platform with him looked up
and in one quick lightning glance appreciated the
situation could see that one more step would
plunge him to his death he was lost
to the world in which he was living
he was so completely caught up in his
own handiwork and picking up a bucket of
paint he threw it into the sea and
the artist leapt forward in a rage and
said you've spoiled my picture he said yes
I've spoiled your picture but I've saved your
life I don't know now how
much you've understood today I trust that God
in his goodness has revealed something of his
truth because there's nothing complicated now just Christ
in the hope of victory maybe I've spoiled
your picture but
God is good maybe I've saved your life
because if you will save your life you
will lose but if you are prepared for
his death you will lose but life of
God intended life his life expressed in terms
of your desire not a cheap copy his
perfect image is that what you want in
just a few seconds we're going to bow
our heads and we're going to pray as
we sing a hymn but in the singing
of that hymn I'm simply going to ask
those who need to leave us and there
will be some for very good legitimate reasons
though it may well be that you wouldn't
much wish to stay that's all right please
without any embarrassment without any hesitation whatever please
in the few remaining moments that I have
which will be no more than about six
or seven for I have to catch this
plane to get to San Diego I want
to say one last word to all of
you to those who would wish to remain
it's on the question of appropriation for somebody
will come and say this is wonderful I
can see it but just how do I
apply it that will be my last word
I'm going to suggest that we sing just
two verses of a hymn and in the
first verse of the hymn that our brother
here I believe is choosing I'm going to
ask you all to stand and all sing
without one single movement as you sing the
first word of the first line of the
second hymn of the second verse of that
hymn I'm going to ask you if you
must leave us and depart and God bless
you if you must to do so just
as quickly as you possibly can and quiet
but quiet the word of God says as
you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so
also you
found redemption soon
as you exposed your need of the guilty
sins of the adequacy of death give death
upon the cross and all you could do
from that moment was to step back and
say thank you isn't that what you've been
saying ever since I am redeemed I don't
deserve it it was his gift to me
he paid the price and his death is
at once and I've entered into the rest
of faith Christ is my redemption as you
received him walk with him you no more
deserve the life of the Lord Jesus in
you than you deserve the death of the
Lord Jesus for you the wonderful thing is
this that for every step you take and
for every situation into which that step takes
you the Lord Jesus himself is present never
less than Adam in overwhelming sufficient and he
wants you to reckon with him at that
moment in life as once at your conversion
you reckoned with him in death to step
back out of that situation be it threat
or promise temptation or perplexity and say Lord
Jesus I don't ask you for your strength
for this situation I'm reckoning now upon the
fact that you have come to take the
place of what I am I am drawing
out by faith your exchange life you're my
strength for this you're my peace for this
you're my victory for this you're my patience
for this I don't yet know the answer
I don't quite see how you're going to
sort it out but Lord I rest in
thee and all I can say is thank
you it's your move and you'll discover that
as you apply that principle of faith that
steps back and says thank you Lord for
what you are in me for this whether
or not you can see the solution he
will vindicate it adequately as you take he
undertakes and that is why the victorious Christian
is always saying thank you that's why the
word of God says rejoice evermore pray without
ceasing and in everything give thanks for this
is the will of God in Christ Jesus
concerning you because there's not a single situation
that can arise at any time for which
he in you is not adequate then apply
the principle and adopt the attitude and rest
in him for what he is in you
every step of the way when you get
up tomorrow morning say thank you Lord Jesus
you're going to be my life today all
that I could ever need for any situation
today that will arise I have because of
what you are I can't have more I
don't need that less thank you for the
blessing that you're going to be through me
to others thank you for those whom you're
going to quicken into life thank you for
the smile that unconscious to me you're going
to give through me to somebody else thank
you for your conviction that's how to walk
in for every situation he will say to
you I am anything else you need to
know stop being frantic and look him in
the face and say it's all I need
to know thank you and you will have
learned to live miraculously and to release that
divine quality of life that will make you
in his able hand his own peculiar image
one of his origin and his life will
be reproduced through you you know I'm going
to ask you in this last moment to
join with me in prayer you will otherwise
just remain silent sometimes it's helpless just like
a big family gathering with bowing heads and
I'll lead you sentence by sentence and let
this be our testimony our affirmation that we're
stepping out into a future that is to
be experienced in a way explainable only in
terms of Jesus Christ the saving life of
Christ let us pray I shall pray for
you