Welcome to From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons for modern preachers
too.
This week we'll have Chuck Smith and his
message, The People Used by God.
Let's turn now to Acts chapter 3.
Now Peter and John went up together into
the temple at the hour of prayer, being
the ninth hour.
And a certain man laying from his mother's
womb was carried, whom they laid daily at
the gate of the temple, which is called
Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered
into the temple.
Who, when he saw Peter and John about
to go into the temple, asked for alms?
And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with
John, said, Look at us.
And he gave heed unto them, expecting to
receive something of them.
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I
none, but such as I have, give I
thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
rise up and walk.
And he took him by the right hand
and lifted him up, and immediately his feet
and his ankle bones received strength.
And he, leaping, stood and walked and entered
in with them into the temple, walking, leaping,
and praising God.
And all the people saw him walking and
praising God.
I am certain that the majority of us
here tonight seek to know God better.
That's why we're here.
And I believe that we have a desire
to be used of God in the accomplishing
of his purposes.
I believe that it is a common desire
in all of us to know what God's
will is for our lives, and to be
used of God as he desires to use
us.
God, for his own reason, has chosen and
ordained to use men and women in the
accomplishing of his eternal purposes.
God not only has chosen to use men
in the accomplishing of his purposes, but God
also prepares those that he uses for their
ministry or their use.
The very purpose of our existence is to
please God.
That's why we do exist.
And we are told in Hebrews, without faith
it's impossible to please God.
We know that God is pleased by our
obedience, complete obedience to his will.
So there is that desire within us as
the children of God, to know the will
of God and to do the will of
God, to be faithful in accomplishing all that
God has purposed for me.
God said to Jeremiah, before I formed you
in your mother's womb, I knew you.
And before you came forth from her womb,
I set you apart and I ordained you
as a prophet unto the nations.
And that could be said of each of
us.
While we were still in our mother's womb,
God knew us.
And God had a plan for each of
our lives.
The purposes that he created us for.
And God is working in us as we
are yielded to him, to prepare us to
accomplish those things that he desires that we
should accomplish for his kingdom's sake.
When Paul was writing to the Ephesians, he
said, God is working in you in order
to prepare you for the good works that
he has already ordained that you should accomplish
for his glory.
And so God prepares the instrument that he
has chosen to accomplish the work that he
has ordained that we should accomplish for him.
God must first work in us before he
can work through us.
The Bible tells us that the husbandman must
be first partaker of the fruits.
Sometimes we have great ambitions of things that
we would like to do for God.
And we feel like we need to go
out and start our own great crusades.
After all, Billy Graham is getting old and
he's not able to get out as he
once did.
He is not able to have as many
meetings as he did before.
And he has to be helped into the
pulpit and it's only a matter of time
until he's going to have to cease his
campaigns and someone's got to take over for
Billy Graham and I'm just waiting for the
opportunity to step into his shoes.
And so many people are just waiting for
God to place them into some great position
of prominence and ministry.
Chuck Smith, after all, is getting old.
He can't go on forever and someone's got
to step into the gap and be in
position to minister to his flock when he's
gone.
There have been people who have started ministries
in this very area with the expressed purpose
of being able to draw our congregation unto
them as soon as I die.
And they've already started their fellowships in hopes
of being able to pick up the slack
when I die.
But I'm going to fool them.
I'm going to live until the Lord comes.
And because some people are just waiting to
take over somebody else's ministry, they never get
out of the gate.
They despise and drop out of the days
of preparation.
They don't like that.
That's beneath them.
They have great ambitions for great things for
God.
But you know, God usually starts us off
in small things.
And when we are faithful in the small
things, then he gives us more.
If we continue to be faithful, he will
give us yet more.
Zechariah received a vision that he might encourage
Zerubbabel in the building of the temple that
Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.
It seemed like an insurmountable task because when
they returned from the Babylonian captivity for the
purpose of rebuilding the temple, they were really
not mentally prepared for what they found.
The temple had been so thoroughly destroyed that
there was just a huge mountain of huge
rocks.
The stones that Solomon had used in the
building of the temple were now just a
huge mound of stones, rubble.
So the first part of the project was
the clearing of the rubble, the mountain of
rubble.
And these stones weighed 500 to 1000 pounds
and thus it was not an easy task
to remove all of the rubble.
But it had to be done.
You really couldn't start the building project until,
first of all, the rubble was removed.
Now, removing rubble doesn't give you a lot
of excitement.
You know, in building there is, first of
all, the site preparation.
And sometimes that's not easy.
Of course, the hardest thing in building is
getting a permit.
If they would only make getting welfare as
difficult as getting a permit, I think we'd
be much better off in our society.
But then the site preparation, the soils test,
get an analysis of the soils in order
to know what kind of a footing is
going to be necessary.
I know that down there at Murrieta when
we built the sanctuary, the soils test showed
that there was a lot of tule mud
underneath, at least 12 feet.
And so we got our equipment in there
and we excavated down 12 feet into the
tule mud.
And we had the, well, we got our
equipment stuck a lot of times in that
tule mud.
I don't know why people like to cover
themselves with that and bake in the sun,
but that's what used to be at Murrieta.
People would take that black tule mud and
cover themselves and think they were getting healthy
as they would wash it off in the
hot pools.
But after we got down 12 feet, it
was still oozy.
So we then dumped in tons and tons
of rubble, concrete.
And we tried to compress the concrete to
make a strong base.
And still we couldn't get the compaction that
we needed.
We built our pad, but we couldn't get
the compaction necessary.
And so we then had to drive these
huge 38 foot long concrete pilings down into
the earth.
And then sort of build the building on
top of the pilings.
And it seemed like we were forever in
the project of just preparing the site.
People would go by and instead of seeing
something going up, they saw things going down.
They saw the hole getting deeper and deeper.
And then when we finally were able to
level the pad, they're expecting the building to
go up.
And the next thing, we have a pile
driver in there driving down.
And it seemed like forever getting the site
prepared.
Those could be called days of small things.
And we don't like them.
But they're necessary.
You've got to have a strong base to
build or to put your foundation on.
And so the Prophet Zechariah was talking to
Zerubbabel, giving him the word of the Lord.
This mountain will become a plain before Zerubbabel.
But he talked about the people despising the
days of small things.
And that's dangerous.
When we despise the days of small things.
Because those days are necessary as God prepares
us to accomplish the things that he has
purposed for us to accomplish for him.
Paul, with his strong biblical background, a student
of Gamaliel, years in school studying the Scriptures,
when he was converted, rather than beginning his
ministry immediately, he went away into the desert
to Arabia.
And there for three years, he was homeschooled
by the Lord, who taught Paul the glorious
gospel of grace.
When he came back to Jerusalem, there wasn't
really a warm reception for him in the
church.
There was a fear because they knew how
Paul had persecuted the church.
And they were reluctant to accept him.
Barnabas interceded, but they weren't really comfortable.
And so Paul took off and he headed
back to his home in Tarsus.
And he was there in Tarsus for seven
more years.
No doubt still studying the Scriptures and sort
of adjusting to the realization that Jesus is
the Messiah and seeing the Scriptures in a
whole new light.
But he was ten years from conversion to
the beginning of his ministry in Antioch of
Syria.
When Barnabas came to Antioch because they heard
that many Gentiles were coming to the faith.
And so Barnabas went up to check out
the church in Antioch and he saw the
believers, the Gentile believers.
And in his mind he thought, you know,
the perfect man for this would be Saul.
And so he went to Tarsus and he
searched for Saul.
And he encouraged him to come back to
Antioch.
And it was then that Saul began his
ministry, but it was ten years from his
conversion.
And remember, he already had a strong biblical
background.
And so it's important that God prepare the
vessel for the work that God has already
ordained that should be accomplished for him.
Now, as we come to the third chapter
of the book of Acts, we look at
the characteristics of these men that God used
in the accomplishing of his purposes.
And here in the third chapter we look
at two of the men, Peter and John.
Men that God had prepared because God had
a ministry that he desired that they should
fulfill.
And as we look at these two men,
we realize, first of all, that they were
men of prayer.
Now, should that surprise us?
They were going into the temple at the
hour of prayer, which was three o'clock
in the afternoon.
Prayer is having a conversation with God, and
it is the greatest outlet of spiritual power
that we have.
There are perhaps five outlets of spiritual power.
There is one inlet, that's the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes upon you.
One inlet.
But there are five outlets of power.
And the first of them is your life.
When you are walking in the Spirit, walking
with the Lord, as John said, as we
walk in the light, as he is in
the light, there is something that goes forth
from you, this outlet of spiritual power that
emanates from you, that affects people around you.
You may not even be conscious of it,
but people recognize that there is a difference
between you and the normal person.
That there is that influence that goes out
from you, that touches those where you go.
Conversations clean up, that people recognize and feel
the difference of your life when you are
walking close to the Lord.
The second outlet of spiritual power is found
in your words.
The Spirit of God can use your words
to minister comfort, to minister hope, to minister
encouragement, to minister healing, to minister love and
to minister strength.
And as our words, anointed by the Spirit,
go forth, there is a power, there is
a dynamic.
You've all experienced it.
When someone who is really walking in the
Lord and with the Lord and walking in
the Spirit, as they are speaking, there is
a dynamic, there is a power, there is
something that you can feel of God's Spirit
that comes forth and touches your heart.
It's an outlet of spiritual power, your words.
Then there is your service, what you do
for the Lord, anointed by the Holy Spirit.
And this has such a wide variety of
service for God.
Jesus said, if you'll just give a cup
of cold water in the name of the
Lord unto a prophet, you'll receive a prophet's
reward.
And thus, as we serve the Lord, it
becomes an outlet of spiritual power, ministering to
people.
There is your money, and it can become
an outlet of spiritual power.
Money is the closest thing to omnipotence that
you possess, but it is also the most
impotent thing that many people possess.
It isn't the money that you spend on
yourself, it's the money that you release for
the purposes of God that can become an
outlet of spiritual power.
When Paul wrote to the church in Philippi,
who had supported his ministry, wherever he would
go, they would send support.
He thanked them for that support, for the
gift that they sent.
He said, I'm not thanking you because of
the necessity that I had, but I am
grateful for your gift, that fruit might abound
to your account.
And so Paul saw their giving as investing
in the things of the kingdom, and from
their giving, fruit would abound to their account.
To the Romans, Paul wrote, how can they
hear, unless they have a preacher?
How can they preach, unless they have been
sent?
And so there is that whole line, those
that have gone out, but those who are
supporting those that have gone out.
And it becomes an outlet of spiritual power,
as we support those that have gone out.
I'm certain that when we get to heaven,
we're going to find that God has a
very interesting system of bookkeeping.
And I wouldn't be a bit surprised when
you get to heaven, that you'll have people
come up to you that you've never seen
before.
Total strangers to you.
And they'll be hugging you, and all excited
to see you, for they'll say, when we
got here, and we looked at the books,
we realized that you were the one that
supported the person that came and brought us
the gospel.
And it's because of your support for that
person that I'm here in heaven today.
It's going to be interesting when we see
God's total plan, how he operated things.
Several years ago, in Biola College, there was
a young girl who was in school training
to be a missionary.
That was her goal, she felt called of
God, to go to China as a medical
missionary.
So she was taking the nursing course to
prepare her to be a medical missionary in
China.
And after seven years of schooling, that is
in college level, having graduated, she then went
to the mission board and made her application.
And as a part of the process, she
had to have a physical examination, upon which
they discovered that she had a heart condition,
and the doctors recommended that she not try
to go to China.
With that heart condition, the missionary board summarily
rejected her application.
She was devastated.
She had spent seven years preparing to be
a medical missionary, and then find out that
this physical condition prevented her from fulfilling what
she felt was the call of God upon
her heart.
They used to have an annual missionary conference
at the Open Bible Church in Los Angeles.
And because she was so interested in missions,
she went to this missionary conference, and she
happened to be seated next to a young
lady, and as they got to talking, this
young lady expressed her call of God to
go to China as a medical missionary.
And she was saying, all I need is
the support to go.
So this girl said to her, she had
actually gone to work in one of the
major hospitals in Los Angeles, she said, I'll
tell you what, make a covenant with you.
You go, and I'll support you.
Because I felt the call of God to
go, and you can go for me, I'll
support you to go.
And so she lived in a very inexpensive
apartment, didn't spend much on herself in order
that she might take half of her wages,
and support this girl in China as a
medical missionary.
Because of her sacrifices, God blessed her, and
she received some great advancements there on her
job.
And by the next year, when she went
to the missionary conference again, again she was
seated next to a young girl who had
finished her graduate work and wanted to go
to China as a missionary, she said, all
I need is support.
She said, well, God has blessed me, tell
you what, you go, and I'll support you.
God continued to bless her, she finally had
a very excellent executive position.
And the last I heard of that, she
was supporting five girls in China as medical
missionaries.
Now when she gets to heaven, and the
books are opened, I'm certain that God will
put to her account missionary work in China.
And those people whose lives were affected by
those that she supported, she'll be rewarded along
with those that went.
As you remember, when David was pursuing after
the enemy, and the men, some of them
were so weary, they couldn't go on.
It was evening, and David wanted to pursue
them all night, so he could wipe them
out completely.
And some of the fellows said, oh, we're
too tired, we can't go.
And so David said, well, which guys will
go with me?
And some guys went with him, and they
went down, they caught the enemy, they caught
him by surprise, they wiped him out, and
they brought back all of the loot that
these marauders had taken.
And so, as these guys were coming back,
they said, those sissies didn't go with us,
they can't have the loot, you know, it's
all ours.
And David said, no, they that stay by
the stuff share equally with those that go
into battle.
He saw the necessity of people staying by
the stuff.
And so, we who sort of stay by
the stuff, but yet help those that go,
will receive, I'm certain, from the Lord, the
rewards as though we had gone ourselves.
Because how can they go except they be
sent?
And so, our money can be an outlet
of spiritual power.
But by far the greatest outlet of spiritual
power is prayer.
Many people emphasize service, and service is important.
But one of the problems with serving is
that it is limited to locality, I'm not
omnipresent.
And so, while I am here, I am
ministering here.
When I go down Friday to teach the
Bible school, I'll be ministering there, but I
can't be ministering to the Bible school students
tonight, while I'm here.
I might have a split personality, but I
have to be in one body, so you're
in the same place.
And so you're limited by locality.
A lot of people put the emphasis upon
witnessing, the importance to witness your words, the
power that can go forth from your words.
But we do recognize that your words, as
important as they are, can never be greater
than your life.
Many times what a person says is totally
negated because of what they are.
And thus, you dismiss what they say, because
their life doesn't back it up.
I've heard some of the smoothest talkers in
the world, some of the greatest orators.
They were very funny, and they were interesting
to listen to.
But I found that there was no lasting
impact by what they said.
I know that I laughed a lot, and
I know I enjoyed it, but if you'd
asked me later when I got out, well,
what did they say?
Well, it was sure funny.
Boy, we really laughed a lot.
One good joke, I do remember one of
the good jokes.
And yet, I've heard others.
I'll never forget.
Kay and I were on vacation up at
Bass Lake.
We went over to this little Assembly of
God church in North Fork on Sunday.
And they had a guest speaker that Sunday
morning from Kentucky.
She was a lady, a tall, lanky lady
from Kentucky, an older lady.
And she talked like she had a mouth
full of marbles.
And she butchered the English language.
I mean, she didn't know anything about grammar.
But you know, as she spoke, my heart
burned.
The Spirit of God was so powerful in
that lady's life that it touched my heart.
It ministered to my spirit.
It's not the eloquence.
Paul, when he wrote to the Corinthians, said
that when he came to them, it was
not with the enticing words of men's wisdom,
but his speech was the demonstration of the
power of the Spirit, because he didn't want
their faith to be established in the wisdom
of man, but in the power of God.
And our words can have great spiritual power,
but they can't be more than your life.
Money?
Well, as I said, it's probably the closest
thing to omnipotence that you have.
Money is power.
There are those who say, I believe in
the golden rule, whoever has the gold rules.
And they, money is their, mammon is their
God.
And money is power, there's no doubt about
that.
But money can also make you totally impotent.
It can bind you, it can make you
so cunnerious that you can't spend it.
But prayer, you know, the interesting thing about
prayer is that it isn't bound to locality,
like service.
You can go around the world tonight, when
you get home.
And you can strengthen the work of missionaries
in Hungary.
You can encourage the missionaries in the Ukraine.
You can open doors for the missionaries in
China.
And you can spend an hour of your
life tonight around the world as a missionary,
as you pray for those on the various
mission fields.
And your prayers become a power of force,
influencing, opening up the hearts of people to
stop and listen to the street witnessing.
Or to read the tract that's been handed
to them and touch their hearts.
Prayer is interesting in that it does take
on the nature of a spirit.
Now, there are spirit beings, there is the
spirit realm, the spirit world.
And those in the spirit world have a
decided advantage over us, in that they are
not limited by material obstacles, nor are they
limited by space.
Now, the Lord has told us that the
angels are ministering spirits who have been sent
forth to minister to those that are heirs
of salvation.
And it tells us that the angels desire
to look into those things, of God's grace
and all for his church.
They're sort of amazed that God would do
so much for you.
And we're told that he would give his
angels charge over us to keep us in
all of our ways, to bear us up
lest at any time we dash our foot
against his stone.
So there are angels here tonight, very curious
as to the work of God's spirit in
our midst.
Observing.
Now, the angels that are here tonight, when
they came in, they came in through the
ceiling or through the floor, perhaps coming from
China, they decided to take a shortcut and
just come straight through.
They're not limited by material obstacles.
You had to come in the doors, but
not the angels.
You had to get in your car and
drive here and park and so forth, but
they just, as quick as you can think
it, they're there.
They could have been in Hungary today and
decided, well, let's cruise over to Calvary Chapel,
see what's going on tonight.
Times, space, material obstacles are nothing to them.
But, you know, prayer, in a way, takes
on the nature of a spirit.
In that, as you pray, you can enter
into a spiritual conflict that's going on in,
say, China tonight.
And through your prayers, you can drive back
the forces of darkness.
Or perhaps a missionary in Russia is discouraged
this evening.
Maybe he's having sort of a restless early
morning over there as he's facing another difficult
day.
And your prayers can be as a spirit
force.
They can go over there immediately in the
house where they are and begin to minister
to them encouragement and strength, driving away the
powers of darkness, liberating them for a day
of serving the Lord.
Prayers take on the nature of a spirit
in that they become unlimited by time and
it is engaging in the spiritual warfare.
We can do more than pray after we
have prayed, but we can't do any more
than pray until we have prayed.
You cannot accomplish any worthwhile work for God
apart from prayer.
It's the greatest outlet of spiritual power we
have.
We're always trying to muster the forces for
service, but we need to muster them for
prayer first.
Jesus said you don't go into a strongman's
house and try and spoil his goods, but
you first of all bind the strongman of
the house and then you go in and
spoil his goods.
Prayer is binding the strongman of the house
and service is just spoiling the goods, taking
the spoil.
As Jesus said, men ought always to pray.
Because Jesus taught so much on the subject
of prayer, no wonder the disciples said, Lord,
teach us to pray.
Notice they didn't say teach us how to
pray, just teach us to pray.
Teach us the importance of prayer.
Help us to grasp and understand the importance
of prayer.
These men that God used were men of
prayer.
They were going into the temple at the
hour of prayer.
No doubt it was a regular routine in
their life.
Prayer was a very important part.
In a couple of chapters, when pressure comes
on them to take charge of the distribution
of the welfare, they said it isn't right
that we should leave the word of God
and prayer to wait on tables.
We will appoint men for that task who
are filled with the Holy Spirit, have a
good reputation, that we might give ourselves continually
to the word and to prayer.
They were men of prayer.
Secondly, they were men of faith.
We read that Peter first of all spoke
a word of faith to the men.
He said, silver and gold have I none,
but such as I have, I will give
to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
rise up and walk.
He spoke to the man a word of
faith, but then he acted.
And it says, he took the man by
his right hand and lifted him to his
feet.
That was an act of faith.
And I would like to suggest that both
of these showed great faith.
To say to a lame man, look at
me, no I don't have any coins, but
what I have I'll give to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
rise to your feet and walk.
That took faith to say that.
But then it took faith to take hold
of the man and lift him onto his
feet.
Now it's important that we recognize that Peter
is no different from you or me.
He's just a man.
Not any different from us.
Whenever we read of Elijah, we sort of,
ooh, Elijah.
But James said, hey, he's a man of
like passions just like we are.
No different from you.
Peter, a man of like passions just like
we are.
In fact, I'm glad the Lord chose Peter
because he was a bumbler, just like I
am.
And it encourages me.
No great spiritual, he was just a common,
well he's a fisherman.
But he became a man of faith and
a man of prayer.
And God can use men of prayer and
God can use men of faith.
Now, because Peter was a man just like
we are, he was subject to the same
kind of thoughts that we would be subject
to in the same condition, in the same
situation.
That is, you speak the word of faith,
you act upon it and lift the man
to his feet, and Satan is whispering in
your ear and saying, what are you going
to do if he can't stand up?
What if he collapses?
And then all these people around here are
going to wonder what in the world you
were trying to do, lift that lame man
to his feet.
You're going to make a big fool out
of yourself.
I'm sure that Satan was saying that to
Peter, because we know from Peter's background that
he could hear the voice of the Lord,
but he could also hear the voice of
Satan, and he often didn't know the difference
between the two.
And yet he acted in faith.
Now he's going to tell us in a
moment why he did, and I think that's
an important thing to note.
Why Peter did what he did.
Peter tells us, or told the people when
they were standing there marveling at the miracle,
that in the name of Jesus, and through
faith in his name, this lame man has
been made strong, whom you see and you
know.
Yes, the faith which is by him, and
there is the key.
The faith which is by him.
That is, Peter is saying, it wasn't really
my faith, it was the faith that was
by him.
Now as we get into 1 Corinthians chapter
12, we will discover that one of the
gifts of the Spirit is faith.
Listed there in the first part of chapter
12.
The gift of faith.
And I believe that there are times and
situations where the Lord grants to you the
gift of faith for a specific issue.
And that there is just that moment that
God speaks to your heart, and you have
the faith to act upon it.
And that's where you see the mighty power
of God working.
It isn't really your faith, it is that
gift of faith that God gives on special
occasions to accomplish his work.
The third thing that I note about these
men, is they were men who were not
seeking glory for themselves.
But they were men who were only interested
in glorifying Jesus Christ.
When the people began to gather and they
began to look on Peter and John as
though they were some special kind of holy
people.
Peter immediately turned them away from looking at
him, and pointed them to Jesus Christ, to
look to the Lord.
Why do you look on us, Peter said,
as though our own power or holiness have
done this good deed to this lame man?
Why are you looking at us?
The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and
of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has
glorified his son Jesus, whom you delivered up
and denied in the presence of Pilate when
he was determined to let him go.
But you denied the Holy One and the
Just, and you desired a murderer to be
granted unto you.
You killed the Prince of Life, whom God
hath raised from the dead, whereof we are
witnesses.
And his name, through faith in his name,
has made this man strong, whom you see
and know.
Yea, the faith which is by him has
given him this perfect soundness in the presence
of you all.
One of the most dangerous times in a
person's life who is ministering for the Lord
is when God begins to use them through
the gifts and the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Because people who are uninitiated to spiritual things
have a tendency to look at what they
can see, the instrument that God is using,
and they have a tendency and they are
prone to glorify the instrument and to begin
to praise you and to lift you up
and magnify you.
And that is the most dangerous time in
your whole spiritual experience when God begins to
use you in a supernatural way.
You are in real danger.
Because people that don't know any better are
going to begin to elevate you, to exalt
you, and to lift you up.
And the old man, the old nature, the
flesh life, enjoys that, desires that.
But the moment you reach out and touch
the glory, you're in big danger.
Peter was now in great danger.
People were looking at him as though he
was very righteous and holy, as though he
had some great power within himself.
They were ready to magnify Peter.
But he said, wait a minute, wait a
minute.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has
glorified his son Jesus.
And he pointed them immediately away from himself
and unto Jesus.
He had come to the cross in his
own life.
And in order to be used effectively by
God, it is necessary to come to the
cross in your own life where you don't
have any ambitions for yourself or for self
-glory, but your only desire is to bring
glory unto our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because there will be those that will seek
to attribute the success to you, to attribute
the good work to you.
And that subtle danger of sort of intimating,
well, I sort of have a part in
this, you know.
It takes a lot of sacrifice to have
this kind of power, you know.
You have to give up a lot of
things and you're just sort of causing people
to think, oh, isn't it wonderful he made
all those sacrifices.
Oh, my glorious sacrifices that he made.
Oh, God bless him for his sacrifice.
Don't look at us, Peter said.
Look to Jesus.
Paul said, one plants, one waters, but it
is God who gives the increase so that
he that plants is nothing and he that
waters is nothing, but it is God who
gives the increase.
Paul the Apostle spoke about how that he
beat his own body to keep the body
under, lest having preached to others, I would
be put on the shelf.
He recognized the danger of having been used
of God in a mighty way.
There was still the danger of God setting
you on the shelf unless you kept the
body under.
The moment you began to seek the glory
or the credit or the praise, Paul realized
the Lord would put him on the shelf.
So it was necessary to keep the body
under, crucified with Christ.
He said, nevertheless, I live, not I, but
it is Christ who lives in me.
And it is so important, so important, that
if you're to be used of God and
doing the work of God, that you first
of all come to know what it is
to be crucified with Christ.
To reckon that old man to be dead,
crucify with Christ.
That the body of sin will no longer
rule over you.
You'll be ruled by the Spirit and your
one goal is not glory for yourself, but
bringing glory to God.
God can use those kind of people today.
God's looking for those kind of people today
that he might use in these days.
We'll look at the other characteristics in our
next lesson.
Father, we thank you for your grace, your
goodness, and Lord, that you do use the
likes of us in the accomplishing of your
eternal purposes.
You give us the privilege, Lord, of working
together with you.
Though we recognize, Lord, that it's your work,
not even our faith, the faith which is
by him.
And yet, Lord, here we are.
How blessed and how privileged we are that
you should use us, Lord, in the fulfilling
of your plans and your purposes.
Help us, Lord.
Help us to spend more time with you
in prayer.
Lord, increase our faith.
Lord, may we indeed reckon the old man
to be dead, that the body of sin
might not rule, but the Spirit of God
would rule in our lives.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
in Classic Sermons series.
This week, we had Chuck Smith with his
message, The People Used by God.
Tune in next week to hear Art Katz
speak about man's petty kingdom on From the
Pulpit in Classic Sermons.