Before we go further into the realm of
the identification truths, we must pause to consider
another very important subject, and that subject is
the self-life, the life that we receive
from the first Adam, the old nature, the
old man that lives within our hearts as
Christians.
We find that there is a life within
that is sinful and that would drag us
down, and there, of course, is a new
life within, which is holy and righteous, the
life of the Lord Jesus.
And there are these two elements.
And as a Christian is in a defeated
condition, he's aware of a war going on
within us, civil war, the worst type of
war, the worst of all types of war,
civil war, where he's torn apart.
He longs to do this, but he do
right, but he does wrong, and that which
he would not do, he does, and that
which he would do, he does not.
Constant frustration, the up-and-down experience of
the defeated Christian.
And this is caused by the life of
the two Adams within, the life of the
first Adam and the life of the last
Adam.
And the self-life is the Adamic life,
the fallen life.
And this, and God's progression in our development
usually, almost always is, that we really come,
as Christians, come to find out about self
before we come to find out really about
the Lord Jesus Christ and learn of Him.
God has us first learn about ourselves, and
this creates a need, the necessary need, for
us to really come to Him as Christians
and learn to abide in Him and learn
of Him and increase in our knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
There has to be that need, that hunger,
that thirst for Him, so that God has
a principle, that He puts first things first.
And in our growth, it's first self and
then Christ, that we learn how to get
off from under the dominion of self.
We learn God's answer to this before we
really find fulfillment in our development in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
The hindrance has to be dealt with first,
actually, and self is the hindrance.
Self is our greatest enemy.
We're our own worst enemies as Christians.
It isn't the other guy.
It's me.
It's me, oh Lord.
It isn't the other fellow.
It isn't circumstances.
It isn't, actually, when you come right down
to it, it's just me.
It's the old life.
It's the I-life, the self-life, that
is responsible for all the failure and all
the problems in the Christian life.
And yet God uses this as the very
thing to develop us and bring us on
and to teach us to abide in the
Lord Jesus and rest in Him and live
in His life.
So there's this principle, first things first, with
God.
First, it's not I, then but Christ.
And first, it is, except a grain of
wheat fall into the ground and die, it
abideth alone.
And then it is, but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit.
And it's first, all way delivered unto death.
And then it is, that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh.
And as for service, it's first, death worketh
in us.
And then it is, but life in you.
And there is this principle that the negative
is first, and the negative is a basis
for the positive.
Life springs out of death.
That principle that we must learn, we must
come to see, so that we realize how
God works.
And there is, here's an important area concerning
self that is vital for, a vital realm
for us to see and understand.
Having to do, for instance, with service, with
personal work as Christians, as we seek to
lead others to the Lord Jesus, that there
are so many, not only in personal work,
but in our, in the, so many of
the large so-called revival meetings, or crusades
and so forth, where people are brought to
make certain decisions and do certain things because,
so often, of the pressure or of the
influence about them.
Huge meetings and all, all these different things.
And then, of course, in the smaller church
meetings, where an outside speaker is brought in,
one who doesn't really know the true conditions
of the people in the church, where they
are spiritually and all, goes through his, usually
his set sequence of messages that he's been
preaching so often for years and years, that
type of thing.
And then coming to the end of the
series and applying the pressure to get people
to make a decision, or to consecrate themselves,
or re-consecrate themselves, or do this and
do that pressure.
This results in havoc in the life.
And so often people are brought to a
decision in this way.
And it's surprising that many of these decisions
seem very fine.
The individual is, starts off in a very
spectacular way.
And, of course, if there's any semblance of
a good beginning, these individuals are usually brought
forth and brought forward and pushed forward and
made a lot of, and actually used as
an advertisement.
And they're taken far beyond where they should
be taken at that time, and made much
of.
And they are given opportunities to speak and
all, as babes in Christ.
And this is very harmful for their development,
because it's very hard for them to realize
about self, because self is made so much
of in this, in these instances.
Hard for them to settle down for healthy,
plodding growth.
But they seem to be very, oh, the
dynamic personality type of thing.
They seem to be very fruitful.
And they go on and on often.
But this is very hard on them, because
it's very difficult for them to ever find
out what self is really like under these
conditions.
And these, this type of conversion, this type
of beginning should, will have to be put
down as a very poor beginning, very unhealthy.
And there's another way this is brought about,
and that is when, in these special meetings
and all, that the people are exhorted to
come to Christ so that they'll be happy,
and so they'll have peace, and so that
they'll be successful.
All of these promises and things are held
before their eyes, and they are, they're brought
to a decision by this means.
It's a self-centered thing.
And they come in to the Christian life,
if they really do come in, they come
in on the wrong basis of what they
can get.
And then, of course, when the Lord Jesus,
if they're truly born again, and the Lord
Jesus seeks to develop them later on, where
it's for his glory and what he can
get, the one who owns them, their life,
then they're all upset because they didn't figure
on this.
They thought that they were going to be
on the receiving end continually.
They didn't have to give, they didn't have
to sacrifice, so that there's a frustration there,
and it's difficult for them to go on.
But there is another type of beginning, another
conversion, and that is where the heart is
prepared, given an opportunity to make up its
mind about whether or not to really rely
upon the Lord Jesus, an opportunity to see
him, something of him in the life of
believers, so that what is said is backed
up by a life where they can take
their time and watch that life, and make
up their own mind, and where they are
given time so that the Holy Spirit can
convict them of their sin and make them
realize that they're a lost sinner in need
of a Savior, that they really see this
and feel this and know this in their
hearts, that they're prepared for repentance, returning from
their way, and that turning unto his way
on his terms, not on their terms, but
really submission to him for their conversion, for
their justification, a broken-hearted repentance, and a
turning, that is salvation, of repentance toward God
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is conversion.
So when the sinner comes to the Lord
Jesus on his terms, realizing that he's lost
and that the Lord Jesus is truly the
Savior and Lord, then there is a good
beginning also, where the Christian is filled with
the love of the Lord, and he witnesses,
and he seeks to win others to him,
he wants to share.
A healthy birth will start out with a
good, strong beginning also.
But there's this difference.
After a while, there is a definite slacking
in this strong beginning, where the Christian slowly
becomes aware of self, aware of the old
life within, and he begins to experience defeat
in his life.
And he may go to some Christian or
Christian pastor, for instance, for help, and may
confess this to him and tell him that
things aren't as they might seem, that he's
having a struggle within.
And usually, this Christian is given an answer
such as, well, you just study your Bible
more faithfully and pray more, and get out
and get busy for the Lord, and you'll
be all right.
And so there's another round of struggle, another
round of seeking to be and to do,
but with the same results, because God would
have the believer find out about self.
He would have him fail.
He would put him in positions and conditions
where he will fail, fail in such a
way as to realize that he cannot in
his own strength live the Christian life, that
he cannot acceptably serve the Lord Jesus Christ,
that he cannot be fruitful in his own
strength, or even with the help of God.
But he has to learn that the Christian
life is not I, but Christ.
He has to learn to see that he
is a branch, to see it in the
Word, that he is a branch in the
true vine, and learn to take his place
as a branch, his attitude of reliance and
dependence and rest and acceptance and appropriation, allowing
the life of the Lord Jesus to flow
free in his heart, in his spirit.
So the difference in these two conversions is
that the the healthy conversion, there is failure,
whereas the other type of conversion, often there
doesn't seem to be any failure for years.
The Christian just becomes more and more dynamic
and more and more popular and more and
more seemingly fruitful in all types of claims
of any number of conversions and decisions and
all kinds of victories.
And it's hard for the Christian who is
finding out about self to understand this, and
he thinks there's something wrong with him, that
he's not making any progress like this other
fellow is.
And conversely, the other fellow who is seemingly
always victorious, he cannot understand what's wrong with
this Christian who is starting to struggle and
who's failing.
And he never can understand what he's going
through, and neither one can understand the other.
But the secret of all true healthy spiritual
development is finding out about self through failure.
Dr. Schofield wrote, Not everyone by any means
has had the experience of Romans 7, that
agony of conflict, of desire to do what
we cannot do, of longing to do the
right we find we cannot do.
It is a great blessing when a person
gets into the 7th of Romans, and here
most Christians seek to avoid it.
A great blessing when a person gets into
the 7th of Romans and begins to realize
the awful conflict of its struggle and defeat.
Because the first step toward getting out of
the struggle of the 7th chapter and into
the victory of the 8th is to get
into the 7th.
The way up is down.
Of all the needy classes of people, the
neediest of this earth are not those who
are having a heartbreaking, agonizing struggle for victory,
but those who are having no struggle at
all, and no victory, and who do not
know it, and who are satisfied in jogging
along in a pitiable absence of almost all
the possessions that belong to them in Christ.
And that's one reason that Christians seem to
be so static, most of them, and not
getting anywhere, mainly because they don't realize what
they have in the Lord Jesus.
They don't realize most of them feel, well,
I'm saved.
I'm born again.
What more is there?
I'm going to heaven.
I'm going to die.
And they're not hungry to grow.
They're not hungry that the Lord Jesus might
be manifested in their life here and now,
that others might see him.
They don't realize this is possible.
And much of the reason for this is
that they don't see enough Christians around them
who are abiding in the Lord Jesus and
through whom the Lord Jesus is able to
manifest himself.
It isn't so much their fault.
It's that they never had a chance.
And many of them are in churches where
they're not being fed upon the Lord Jesus.
Most of what they get are gospel messages
or exhortational messages to do and to be
and to get busy.
And then there's a round of revival meetings
to seek to stir them up.
And they're constantly in a turmoil.
And all that is necessary is that they
be fed and that they have an opportunity
to see reality, the reality of the Lord
Jesus and other lives about them.
That is all that's needed for them to
become hungry to grow.
But there's not enough of that in the
average church at all.
There's too much pressure and not enough opportunity
for them to study and to see reality
and life.
And Metcalf writes, Many a young Christian who
has not been warned of this necessary voyage
of discovery upon which the Holy Spirit will
certainly embark him through Romans 7, many a
young Christian has been plunged into the almost
incurable despair at the sight of the sinfulness
which is his by nature.
As a Christian, we come to see the
sinfulness of self.
As a Christian twenty years in the Lord,
for instance.
As a Christian missionary, as a pastor, he
has in the first place rejoiced greatly in
the forgiveness of his sins and his acceptance
by God.
But sooner or later he begins to realize
that all is not well and that he
has failed and fallen from the high standard
which he set himself to reach in the
first flush of his conversion.
He begins to know something of the experience
which Paul so graphically describes, what I would
that I do not and what I hate
that do I, Romans 7 15.
And in consequence he feels that the bottom
has fallen out of his Christian life.
And then perhaps the devil whispers to him
that it is just no good his going
on because he will never be able to
make the grade.
Little does he know how healthy his condition
is and that this shattering discovery is but
the prelude to a magnificent series of further
discoveries of things which God has expressly designed
for his eternal enrichment.
It is all important for the Christian to
become aware of the self-life.
It isn't the end of everything.
It isn't the worst thing that could happen
to him.
It's the best thing.
And whether we're Christians just beginning to find
this out or whether we're Christian leaders and
we have Christians about us who are beginning
to find this out, it's important to see
that this must be gone through.
This must be experienced if there's going to
be healthy growth.
If there's going to be the need created
in the life where that Christian will press
on for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus.
Only the need will enable him and bring
him to the place where he is willing
to be a disciple, where he's willing to
take up his cross, where he's willing to
be a corn of wheat and fall into
the ground, where he's willing to be a
branch abiding in the vine.
Only need will bring him there.
And this further thought along this line, undoubtedly
the greatest need today is for some complacent
saints to get a personal sense of sinfulness.
It is just here that many well-meaning
Christian workers miss the mark in dealing with
young believers.
They try to keep them happy as justified
believers who have been declared righteous.
When God begins to awaken such persons to
see themselves, older believers hasten to cheer them
up, telling them not to look at themselves.
The fact remains that they will likely come
to see a great deal more of themselves
before they become truly happy, single-minded saints.
They must first become exceedingly sinful in their
own eyes as Christians before they will call
upon God for deliverance.
Well, certainly we're not going to become burdened
for deliverance until we find out that we're
slaves, are we?
God has to show us that we're abject
slaves to the old life.
He has to show us that we actually
love ourselves, that we love many of the
things of the world.
He shows us this and shows us the
results of it and what self does to
us, so that we begin to yearn and
to seek for rest in the Lord Jesus.
We begin to appreciate what He has for
us as over against what we thought we
had in ourselves.
And this is the path, this is the
means, this is the principle by which God
causes a Christian to grow.
This is what all things are working together
for, and it's for good, down with self,
up with the Lord Jesus.
He's using all things.
He's using our dearest ones in our homes.
He's using those with whom we work.
He's using those everywhere, things and people, circumstances.
He uses our help, not only poor health,
He uses good health.
Some Christians get into more trouble because they're
very healthy and have more trouble being healthy
than those who are ill.
God can use health to bring about His
end as easily as He can illness, and
He uses both.
But the thing is that God's primary aim
in the Christian's development, His basic and first
aim, is to reveal the self-life, and
He does it through everyday circumstances.
C.A. Coates wrote, Many of us have
probably known what it was to rejoice in
the grace of God without having apprehended very
much of the true character of the flesh.
Of course, the flesh is a term used
for the self-life, the results of the
self-life, what self brings forth.
They call it fleshiness, fleshliness, the flesh.
It has often been noticed that where there
is the greatest exuberance of joy in young
converts, there is often a levity which fails
to take into account that the flesh is
unchanged.
Well, a young believer, he had a good
healthy conversion, and he is so taken up
with the Lord Jesus that he's not aware
of self any longer, and he doesn't even
think that self exists any longer.
That's only natural at first.
In such cases, the grace of God is
taken up in a self-confident way.
There is very little self-distrust or sense
of weakness and dependence.
And the Christian is, the young Christian is
often taken up with his Christian life and
his happiness and his joy and what the
Lord Jesus did for him, and he is
not yet taken up with the one who
did the work of the cross.
He's not really fully taken up with the
Lord Jesus yet.
That comes later.
And the inevitable consequence is a fall or
a series of falls that gradually bring home
to the consciences of believers their utter weakness
and the incapacity of self, the sinfulness of
self.
That is what God has to do to
turn the Christian's heart from self-centeredness to
Christ-centeredness.
The first law of life, the natural life,
is self-preservation.
And if we are carnal Christians and living
in self, it's going to be a self
-centered attitude continually.
We're after God for blessings and experiences that
will make us happy and make us effective
and all, and it's a self-centered thing.
The first law of the natural life is
self-preservation, whereas the first law of the
spiritual life is to give oneself, to put
others first.
Actually, it's death to self, the first law
of spiritual life, just the opposite, so that
that law really does not go into effect
in the Christian's life until the Christian is
abiding in the Lord Jesus, until he's free
from the law of the self-life.
And only the cross can free him from
the law of the self-life, the law
of the Spirit of Christ, hath made me
free from the law of sin and death,
Romans 8.2. He cannot get free from
the self-centered law until he knows the
work of the cross, that the Holy Spirit
applies and frees him from the domination of
the self-life and its self-centeredness and
its sinfulness.
And he learns to abide in the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his new life.
And then he is able to live for
others.
Then he's able to be a corn of
wheat, falling into the ground and dying, that
he might bring forth much fruit.
Then he's able to be a branch abiding
in the vine, so that the fruit of
the Spirit might be manifest in his life,
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
joy of the Lord Jesus Christ, the peace
of the Lord Jesus, the very life of
the Lord Jesus.
It might be there for others to see,
and consequently be drawn to him.
Evan Hopkins wrote, How infinite are the forms
in which self appears.
Some are occupied with good self.
They pride themselves in their excellencies.
I think this is so true in our
sound realms amongst fundamentalist believers, fundamental sound believers,
that we often pride ourselves with our doctrinal
correctness.
At least we're accused of that by liberals,
modernists, and the world.
There's a smugness there often.
We're proud of being right.
How infinite are the forms in which self
appears.
Some are occupied with good self.
They pride themselves in their excellencies.
Others are just as much occupied with bad
self.
They are forever groaning over their imperfections and
struggling with the flesh as if they hoped
in time to improve it.
But the Christian must find out that self
never changes.
And it's not a matter of struggling and
working to be a better Christian and to
get self in line so that self will
not sin anymore and all that.
Self never changes.
And God is not having anything to do
with self.
God is not using self.
God rejects self.
He has already rejected self at Calvary, the
old life, the Adamic life.
And it's not a matter of changing the
life at all.
It's not a matter of progressively becoming better
at all.
It's a matter of an exchange life that
we learn to allow the Holy Spirit to
apply the cross to the old life and
hold it in the place of death.
We count ourselves to be dead indeed in
the sin.
And then we count ourselves to be alive
unto God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we are branches abiding in the vine,
the true vine.
We abide in the Lord Jesus.
And we exchange the old life for the
new.
And then as we grow in grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
there's a development and a progression where it's
less of self and more of Christ.
And it's not an improvement.
It's a change, an exchange life.
It's not that the old life has changed
either.
It never changes.
And the Holy Spirit is not seeking to
change it.
He just simply holds it inoperative as we
learn to abide and rest in the facts
and believe the facts, the finished work of
the cross.
The self is utterly bad and it's far,
it's beyond recovery.
It is not subject to the law of
God and neither indeed can be.
There's no possibility of self becoming good, because
it is, it has come from the wrong
source.
It has come from the fallen Adam.
It is the life of the first Adam,
utterly sinful, dead in trespasses and sins.
And our new life is the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ, utterly acceptable with God.
All that we need for our Christian life,
because He is our Christian life.
So it's a matter of the exchange life,
the very thing that Hudson Taylor found out,
probably 20 years after he had been out
in the mission field.
That lovely devoted man all his life, he
was wonderful as a young Christian, utterly devoted,
but yet it took that long for him
to find out that it was not to
be Hudson Taylor, but it was to be
the Lord Jesus.
And you could name any one of the
leaders, the great leaders whom God has used
and proved through the years, all the men
and the women, that most of them were
in their life's work and ministry for 10,
15 years at least.
Out of, thoroughly trained out of school and
in their ministry for 10, 15, sometimes 20
years before they even came to the place
where they sought to exchange the old life
for the new.
They had been constantly seeking to improve the
old life, all of them.
And they finally came to see the truth
of Galatians 2.20 and Romans 6, their
identification, where it was not I, but Christ.
After all those years, it took that long,
all the failure, all the experiences.
And that's the principle upon which God works
with every believer.
And there are no shortcuts, no matter what
testimonies you hear, no matter what claims you
hear.
There are no shortcuts.
There are no experiences that will do it
overnight.
None whatsoever, no matter what the claims are.
It takes time for reality.
But yet, before a Christian comes to this
place to see the exchange, the not I,
but Christ, he tries every way he can
think of to deal with self.
There's the matter of self-denial.
He'll seek to deny himself.
And he'll seek to crucify himself.
And he'll seek to emanate the old monks
who tried to get away from it all,
and get out into a cave somewhere, and
get into a condition, a position where they
wouldn't be sinful, that they thought that they
got away from influences.
And yet the only problem was that they
took self with them.
And they found out that self was right
there in the cave with them, or up
on the pedestal or pillar with them.
And there was no, you know, there was
no use, because they were their own worst
enemies.
It wasn't influences.
It wasn't others at all.
It was the self.
And so self-denial is not the answer.
And then there's the matter of seeking to
conquer self, and bring it into line.
So a Christian will seek to stop doing
this, and stop doing that, and he's constantly
trimming off branches as they spring out.
And even if he could, all he's doing
as he trims the branches off, he's simply
strengthening the root.
He's not gaining anything at all.
He's only making himself stronger.
So it's not by a matter of conquest.
And then there's the attempt through revivalism, to
going to meetings, and seeking to get revived,
and going forward, and falling upon one's face
down front, and making all kinds of vows,
and the tears, and pleading with God, and
praying, and promising God, and making vows, all
to no avail.
It's not the way to deal with self
whatsoever.
And then amongst hungry-hearted Christians, often there's
a matter of growth.
Well, I'll just concentrate upon the Lord Jesus,
and I'll grow.
And that way self will be out of
the picture, and I'll become a strong Christian.
And that's still not the way, because self
never changes.
Self is still there.
And the Christian doesn't really begin to grow
until self is more and more fully dealt
with, progressively, by the cross.
And then today, so often, there's the temptation
to enter into experiences that are held forth.
And there are Christians who come upon one
and accuse them of not growing, and not
having the blessing, not having the Spirit, so
to speak.
And they claim certain experiences that will solve
one's problems, and make one a victorious Christian
overnight.
But this path of experiences leads to a
self-centered, neurotic type of existence.
And there are no shortcuts, no shortcuts in
healthy Christian growth.
And there's still another effort that Christians so
often make to deal with self and to
be victorious.
And that is the cleansing.
That when a Christian sins, he applies 1
John 1.9. If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
And they feel that if they can keep
up their fellowship with God in this way,
and when they sin, to immediately confess their
sin and their cleanness, which is true, which
we are to do.
The Word says we're to do this.
But this is not the way of victory.
This is not the way of growth.
This is simply taking care of that which
has already been done.
This is simply taking care of the sins
which have already been committed.
The damage has already been done.
Whatever these sins have been, affected ourselves, or
this one, or that one, the damage has
been done.
And it's only something that is taken care
of after one sins.
The Word said if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
This does not get at the source.
This does not deal with self.
This is dealing with sins that self produces.
And what happens is that the Christian is
sinning, and then he's confessing and being cleansed,
but then he's sinning again.
And around and around he goes.
He's not making any progress.
He's not growing.
He's just standing still and seeking to keep
his head above water, so to speak.
And that might be existence, but it's not
development.
It's not growth.
Because it's not getting at the source, and
self continues to produce sin.
This is only God's means of taking care
of the Christian when he fails.
But God would have the source dealt with.
Not I, but Christ.
The self-life.
So that there is less and less sin
committed.
Less and less necessity for the Christian to
be confessing.
There's development.
There's progress.
And of course the cross is the only
element, the only answer for God's one answer
to the self-life, the sinful self-life,
the work of the cross.
And we will go into this subject more
fully in our next time together.
Our sins are dealt with by the blood,
but we ourselves are to be dealt with
by the cross.
The blood procures our pardon.
The blood cleanses.
But the cross procures deliverance from what we
are in Adam.
The blood can wash away my sins, but
it cannot wash away my old nature.
I need the cross to crucify me, the
sinner.
So there's a great difference between confessing and
reckoning.
If any man sin, then there is the
confessing and cleansing.
But the Word goes beyond that, goes deeper
than that, gets at the source, that we're
to count ourselves dead indeed unto sin and
alive unto God in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that reckoning, that resting in that realm
of truth brings progressive freedom from the influence
of self, from the dominion of sin.
And there's less and less sin to be
confessed, and the Christian is growing.
Not I, but Christ.
Less and less of Christ, and less and
less of self, and more and more of
Christ in his daily walk.
So actually the cross is God's one answer.
And the reason it is God's one answer
is because he's already done the work at
Calvary.
The work of the cross is completed.
God has already dealt with self.
And the only trouble is that most Christians
just don't realize that fact.
And when they come to realize it, they
begin to get the benefit of it.
And here we are again back to our
need for knowledge.
We must know the facts.
We must know what we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
We must know what happened to us at
Calvary.
Every Christian knows what happened to his sins
at Calvary, that they were paid for.
But every Christian doesn't know what happened to
the sinner, what happened to himself at Calvary.
The fact that he was taken down into
death, that he in God's eyes ended there.
His history, his history, his past history has
ended in God's eyes.
It was cut off at the cross.
And now God sees the Christian newly alive,
recreated in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For you are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God.
And what God sees, we are to see.
We are to let him show us that
we are now alive in the risen Lord
Jesus Christ.
He's now our life.
And it's all balanced upon what we see,
what we see in the word, the truth
that we hold, the truth that holds us
back to the knowledge.
We're to grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the basis for development, for growth.
So in our next time together, we're really
going to have to study, we're really entering
into the realm of the identification truths.
Hard, hard to see.
The heart must be prepared.
But we'll share them and see how God
will open them up to the heart.
And I think it might be good, friends,
to mention here that we have for over
20 years been in this ministry of sharing
and counseling, mainly by mail, amongst believers.
And we offer to you to feel free
to write us about these things that we're
studying together.
If you have questions at all or things
that you would like to share, feel free
to write us at any time.
So that we might, there might be a
more personal application, that we might share things
on a more personal basis, possibly something that
you might not understand or want to know
more thoroughly.
And of course, through the years, we have
accumulated quite a bit of literature for growth
in tracts and etc.
And we'd like to share these things with
you as you have need.
Possibly you are sharing some of these things
with others as you grow, and you might
need a certain type of literature for contact,
and you might not have it or know
where to get it.
Well, if you were to ask us about
that specific need, we might be able to
supply it by return mail.
And if we could, we'd certainly be glad
to.
So by all means, feel free at any
time to write us, that we might have
more fellowship together in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We intend to share some more things on
tapes, a different series, possibly, in the future.
And we'd like to keep in touch with
you in case there are more things to
share by tape.
And also, if you know of others who
might be interested in hearing these tapes, that
you might have them contact us, or you
might have us contact them, either way.
But the main thing is that we're a
burden for hungry hearts.
We have been for many years, and we
would seek to share with all who are
reaching out to Him, through one means or
another.
So we'd very much like to hear from
you at any time.
Our Father, we do thank Thee for fellowship
in the Lord Jesus.
We thank Thee for, we can also thank
Thee for all the agony that we have
known, and even know today, concerning the self
-life, that hateful Adamic life, that Thou art
so faithful in revealing to us, that we
might appreciate all the more fully and yearn
more definitely for the Lord Jesus Christ and
all of His wonderful life to be developed
in us, day by day.
The exchange life, that we learn to hate
the old life and to love the new
life.
So we thank Thee for Thy faithful processing
in our lives, and knowing full well that
Thou wilt bring us through into further and
deeper development as we grow, that others might
come to know Thee also.
We thank Thee for all of this, in
Jesus' name.
Amen.