Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers,
too.
This week we have Chuck Smith with his
message, Beware of Ambition.
Alright, let's turn now in our Bibles to
Acts chapter 3, and we want to begin
tonight at verse 12.
We've been looking at the characteristics of the
men that God used to accomplish His eternal
purposes here on earth.
We found that they were men of prayer,
and that they were men of faith.
And now we come to a vital and
extremely important characteristic as we get to verse
12.
We discover that they are men who have
come to the cross in their own lives.
They've reckoned the old nature to be dead,
crucified with Christ, and they are not thus
looking for glory for themselves.
Peter and John were going into the temple
at the hour of prayer.
The lame man sought alms from them.
Peter said, Look at us.
He turned, expecting to receive something.
Peter said, Silver and gold have I none,
but what I have I'll give to you
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Rise to your feet and walk.
And Peter, lifting the man to his feet,
immediately the man received strength.
He began to walk and leap and praise
God.
Went into the temple with Peter and John,
walking, leaping, praising God.
And all of the people gathered together on
Solomon's porch, greatly wondering.
And when Peter saw them, he answered the
people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye
at this?
Or why do you look so earnestly on
us as though by our own power or
holiness we have made this man to walk?
Peter, recognizing that the people are about to
worship him, look upon him as though he
was something special.
Immediately seeks to turn them away from himself
to the worship of God.
Many people cannot distinguish between God and the
instrument that God uses to accomplish his purposes.
Because I can see the individual and I
can't see God, I am often prone to
exalt the individual that God used rather than
exalting God who used that individual.
And this is just the way people are.
You can't stop people from being this way,
but you can, as Peter, be careful not
to try to stand on that pedestal that
they're trying to put you on.
You can be careful to turn the people
away from you and turn them unto the
Lord and let them get focused upon the
Lord who was using you.
I think that one of the greatest dangers
in the ministry is when God truly begins
to use you in a supernatural, marvelous way,
because the people then want to exalt the
instrument.
And that's not good.
The crowd began to look at Peter and
John as it was the result of their
great holiness or that they had some kind
of special powers that they were able to
make this lame man to walk.
And they were ready to worship them for
the miracle that was done for the lame
man.
If you want to be used of God
and continue to be used by God, you've
got to come to the death to the
self-life.
It's a very easy trap to fall into,
that is, to take the credit and the
glory for what God has done.
When people begin to elevate you, look up
to you, and begin to revere you, it
is so easy to then begin to accept
the praise, accept the adulation.
And our old flesh loves that.
Our old nature wants to be worshiped.
It wants to be admired.
We want people to look up to us,
and in fact, we want people to think
that we are very holy and we are
very righteous and we are very spiritual.
And so often we then put on spiritual
airs.
We begin to have certain affectations that appear
to be extremely spiritual.
You can even develop a spiritual voice.
Oh brother, God bless you, you know.
And you can begin to hold your hands
in a very spiritual posture and close your
eyes and you can give off the affectations
of being a deeply spiritual person.
But what that does is draw attention to
you, not to the Lord.
I was in a church recently as they
were having the worship service.
They were singing choruses, some new ones that
I didn't know, and so I had to
read the screen to worship with the words.
They had some beautiful choruses.
But as they were singing, some unthoughtful person
and persons started standing up in front of
me, hands raised, swinging back and forth, and
they were very effectively stopping me from worship
because I couldn't see the words anymore.
And I thought, would you please sit down?
If you want to stand and wave, then
sit in the back row where nobody notices
you.
Why is it they always want to sit
down front?
And so it draws attention to the individual.
Now, you might be completely sincere and you
might feel that you can worship better standing
with your hands raised and swinging back and
forth.
Fine, if that's so, then go outside where
you're not bothering anybody.
Or at least sit in the back row
where you're not drawing attention to yourself.
But you see, it is so subtle and
so easy to do things that draw attention
to ourself and to give off the aura
of being spiritual or more spiritual than the
rest.
As God begins to use you and people
begin to look to you because God has
been using you as an instrument, Satan often
offers a subtle suggestion that it's all right
to let them really admire you because when
they really gain confidence in you, then you
can turn them to Jesus.
Look out for that one.
Many have fallen into that trap.
People that begin to take the glory to
themselves soon become unusable by God.
One of the main prayers that I have
for myself and I ask people to pray
for me is that God will keep me
usable.
I stand in amazement at what God has
done and what God is doing.
I marvel and I am so grateful for
what God has done.
But I realize that it is God who
has done it.
And I realize that if I begin to
take credit or glory for it, God can
set me aside in a hurry.
And so my prayer is, God, keep me
usable.
Keep me in that place where you can
continue to do through my life, Lord, what
you desire to do.
Keep me from ever trying to touch the
glory or take credit for what you have
done.
Paul the Apostle was concerned about this very
thing.
Writing to the Corinthians, he spoke about how
he beat himself to keep his body under,
lest having preached to others, he would be
set aside, he would be put on the
shelf.
He realized that that's a prevalent danger if
you don't keep the body under.
And that's not an easy thing.
To keep the body under, to keep the
spirit uppermost, because the body wants to rule
over your life, even as the spirit desires
to rule over your life.
And you will be ruled by one or
the other.
You'll be governed by your flesh or you'll
be governed by your spirit.
And unfortunately, sometimes we are governed by the
spirit.
We yield to the spirit.
And then, unfortunately, sometimes we yield to the
flesh and we respond and react after the
flesh.
And so there is this battle for supremacy.
What is going to rule over you, whether
you'll be ruled by the spirit or you'll
be ruled by the flesh.
We are told if we sow to the
flesh, then of the flesh we're going to
reap.
If we sow to the spirit, then of
the spirit we will reap.
And it is a mistake to think that
you can sow to the flesh and then
reap of the spirit.
It's important, if I am to be used
by God in a powerful way, that I
have no personal ambitions for greatness, no ambitions
to be famous, no ambitions to be known,
no ambitions to see my name in print.
As Paul said, God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ.
As the hymn that was taken from that
verse of Paul, forbid it, Lord, that I
should boast, save in the death of Christ
my God.
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
When Paul was in Lystra, he faced the
greatest peril of his ministry.
Not when they stoned him, thought he was
dead, and drug him out of the city.
That wasn't the greatest peril.
The greatest peril was when they thought he
was a god, Mercury, and the priest of
Jupiter was dragging an ox down the street
to sacrifice it to him, for the people
said the gods have come down.
That was the greatest peril in the ministry
of Paul.
When the people were ready to exalt him
as a god, the danger of receiving, accepting
that kind of praise and adulation, the self
-life desires worship.
This is what caused Satan to fall.
He wanted to be worshiped.
I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God.
I will be like the most I.
The flesh life manifests itself quite early, and
as long as we are living in this
body of flesh, we're going to be having
problems with the old nature and the flesh
life.
In fact, the flesh life is so universally
manifested that we just call it natural.
Well, God doesn't want you to live a
natural life.
He wants you to live a supernatural life.
But you cannot live a supernatural life without
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Very early in life, a child begins to
manifest the desire for worship, the desire for
praise and adulation.
As your child is standing on the wall
saying, watch, daddy, watch.
And you look at him as he leaps
from the wall and you pray that he
doesn't break a bone.
But he wants you to say, oh, big
boy.
Wow.
And and they're wanting the praise.
They're wanting.
It's just natural.
That's just a part of human nature.
That is the old nature.
Just like the little girl who dresses up
in those dress up clothes and comes out
and she's wanting you to say, oh, a
princess, you're gorgeous.
I mean, that's just natural.
We just that's just our nature.
We want people to admire us, to praise
us.
It's just a demonstration as the truth of
Paul's statement to the church in Ephesus when
he said we were all by nature.
The children of wrath, even as others.
So I have a real problem when I
become born again.
When my spirit comes alive.
Because now my spirit wants to rule.
And my flesh is fighting against my spirit
because my flesh doesn't want the spirit to
rule.
It's been on the throne for a long
time and it is reluctant to cede the
throne to the spirit.
And if it has to cede the throne,
it's going to counterattack and try to get
back on the throne again.
And so as long as we live in
these bodies of flesh.
We're going to be subject to the choices
constantly of yielding to the spirit or yielding
to the flesh.
And that is why Paul tells us that
we and all of creation together grown and
travail until now, as we are waiting for
the manifestation of the sons of God to
wit the redemption of our bodies.
Our bodies are not redeemed.
Your soul is redeemed.
But a redeemed soul in a corrupt body
is a bad combination.
But that's the way it is.
My spirit is redeemed.
My soul is redeemed.
And in my heart, I long after God.
In my heart, I want to serve God.
But my flesh is fighting against that.
Now, if I want God to really use
me.
I've got to come to the cross.
I've got to reckon that old flesh life
to be dead, crucified with Christ.
In a few chapters, we'll see how severely
God dealt with this problem in the early
church.
People who were desiring glory.
People who were desiring the ooze and the
awes of the rest of the congregation.
And God dealt with it in a very
severe manner.
As Ananias and Sapphira sought to put on
a act for the people.
Pretending to give more than what they were
giving.
Pretending to give all when they were holding
back.
It wasn't wrong that they held back.
But the fact that they were acting and
declaring that they were giving everything when they
were holding back.
But why would you do that except that
you want people to praise and to say,
Oh, did you hear what they did?
Isn't that marvelous?
Isn't that wonderful?
And that desire for the adulation and praise
cost them their lives.
We look in the Old Testament.
And we see there in Leviticus where when
the tabernacle was complete.
And they were ready now to inaugurate the
worship of God in the tabernacle.
They had killed the animals for the burnt
offering sacrifice.
They were getting ready to offer the animals
on the altar.
Consecration to God.
Complete consecration.
When suddenly God kindled the fire.
Spontaneous combustion.
Fire leaped from the altar.
And the people seeing this manifestation of God's
power began to shout and praise the Lord.
And Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, grabbed
their little golden censers.
They put fire in it and poured incense
on it and went running in.
Because the people were all excited.
And now they are going to show that,
you know, that they have a part of
this whole thing.
They are priests.
They are to offer the incense.
And fire came from the altar and consumed
the two of them.
God would not have any flesh to glory
in His sight.
Or have them take away the glory that
was being given to God.
Because of God's miraculous work among the people.
God had to dwindle Gideon's army down to
just 300.
To give them the victory over the Midianites.
Because God said, There are too many for
me to give the Midianites into their hands,
lest Israel vaunt themselves over me, saying, My
own hand hath saved me.
God had to bring the odds down until
they were absolutely ludicrous.
Because God knew that if He gave the
victory to the 32,000, they would be
boasting of their prowess and their toughness and
so forth.
And so God brought it down to where
it was absolutely ridiculous.
300 going out against over 135,000.
But by giving the victory to the 300,
there is no way that they could boast
but could only glorify God who delivered the
enemy into their hands.
When we talk about the old man, the
old nature.
What do we mean?
We're talking about the natural man.
As you were born of the flesh.
Jesus said that which is born of the
flesh is flesh.
So you're talking about the unregenerate man or
the man who has not been born of
the spirit born again.
From the moment that you were born, you
began to let the desires of your flesh
known.
And if you were not catered to, then
you let everyone within your ears reach know
of your displeasure.
And it's fortunate that you weren't stronger at
that point, or you would have torn the
crib to pieces.
That same trait remains in a person until
they are born again.
Now with some people, it does become a
little more refined.
But with others, they haven't really advanced much
from the crib.
They're noisy, they're demanding, and they've got to
have their way or they're going to tear
things apart.
The old nature is the nature that is
constantly insisting that things go my way or
I'm not going to cooperate.
It's manifested in the child who says if
I can't be the cops, then I'm going
to go home and I'm not going to
play with you anymore.
I want my way.
I want you to yield to my desires.
It is sort of like Johnny's mother as
she's watching the whole regiment of Marines marching
by in the parade and she said, look
at that.
The whole regiment is out of step but
my Johnny.
It's putting my opinion above everyone else's.
Everyone else is wrong.
I'm right.
It's talking about my rights.
Well, I have a right to be upset.
I have a right to be angry.
They offended me.
You see, we usually don't put the emphasis
where it belongs, but that's what it really
is all about.
It's the I, it's the me, the I
life, the me first life.
It's putting my needs above the needs of
others.
And if you don't like it, that's tough.
You know, it's that kind of an attitude.
Frank Sinatra surely expressed it in the song,
I did it my way.
And that's what so many people are today.
I'm going to do it my way.
Now, it's interesting that God has only one
remedy for your flesh life.
And it is not reformation.
God knows that your flesh is so rotten,
he doesn't even try to reform it.
This is the problem, of course, with our
man-developed programs that are dreamed up by
sociologists as they try to reform our society.
My mother's cousin used to be the head
over the state of California juvenile oh, whatever
they called it, they used to call them
reform schools.
And the program that they had in reforming
juveniles, he was the head over all of
the reformatories in the state of California.
He finally quit heartbroken, discouraged, depressed, because
he saw the inability of reforming these kids.
He saw that the whole program was a
failure.
God's remedy is not reformation.
He's not going to try to reform your
old flesh.
God's remedy is to kill it, not to
reform it.
Paul said, For if you live after the
flesh, you will die.
But if you through the spirit do put
to death the deeds of the body, you
will live.
So to live after the flesh is death.
But if by the spirit you will put
the flesh to death, then you'll have real
life.
Writing to the Colossians, he said, Mortifier, put
to death therefore your members which are upon
the earth, talking about your body, the parts
of your body, fornication, uncleanness, that is sexual
impurities, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, which is
idolatry.
And so God tells us to reckon the
old man to be dead, crucified with Christ.
And we are told to put on the
Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for
the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
Don't make any room for it.
Don't say, well, that's just my Irish temperament,
or I have a Latin temperament.
Make no excuses, no provision for the flesh.
That's the old flesh.
You're not an Irishman.
And you shouldn't trace your ancestry back to
the Irish.
Or any other.
You're a new person in Christ.
And you trace now your ancestry back to
Jesus.
And the old things are passed away.
The characteristics, the natural testament, the natural temperaments
and so forth have no place in the
Christian's life.
For I am a new creature in Christ
Jesus.
Walking in the Spirit.
Someone called this last week and wanted to
know, what does it mean to walk in
the Spirit?
Well, it means to walk in love.
Because love is the fruit of the Spirit.
It's to walk in love as it is
defined in 1 Corinthians 13.
To walk in the Spirit means that I
suffer long.
I put up with a lot of things
and I am kind.
It means that I'm not envious.
It means that I don't vaunt myself.
It means that I'm not puffed up.
It means that I do not behave myself
in an unbecoming manner.
It means that I do not seek my
own way.
Or will.
It means that I do not get provoked.
It means I do not harbor evil thoughts.
It means that I do not rejoice in
iniquity.
It does mean that I rejoice in the
truth.
And that I bear all things.
And I believe all things.
And I hope for the best.
And I endure all things.
Now, when I can live up to those
things, walking after the Spirit, I'm not looking
for glory for myself anymore.
I realize how rotten my flesh is.
And I desire not to give place to
my flesh, knowing how rotten and evil it
is.
And so, I am now in the place
where God can begin to use me because
I'm not seeking the glory or the honor
or the fame.
Only seeking to bring glory unto Jesus Christ.
And so, as the people gathered, because of
the miracle, seeing this lame man, who they
knew he had been there for years.
He had never been able to walk.
It was a thing that he had had
from birth.
And now seeing him walking and leaping, and
seeing him as he was hugging Peter and
John, they immediately related the fact that he's
walking to somehow Peter and John are responsible.
And so, they began to look steadfastly at
them.
They began to worship them.
Looking with adoration and worship.
And Peter said, wait a minute, wait a
minute.
You men of Israel, why marvel ye at
this?
That's a good question.
How big is your God?
You are the men of Israel.
Your God is the one that created the
universe.
Why should you marvel because a lame man
is walking?
Don't you know how big your God is?
Good question.
Why marvel ye at this?
But then the second question.
Why do you look upon us?
As though it was because of our power
or our holiness that this man is able
to walk.
And notice how immediately he turns them away
from their worship of him to God and
to the worship of God.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and 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.
So, he points them away from himself and
he points them to Jesus Christ.
And as long as you will be doing
that, God can continue to do through you
what he desires and longs to do.
But the moment you begin to take the
glory or the praise that the people are
wanting to heap upon you and you begin
to accept it for yourself, then before long,
you're going to be sitting on the shelf
wondering what happened to you, why God isn't
using you any longer.
The person that God uses is a person
who has come to the cross in his
own life, has reckoned the old nature, the
old life to be dead.
Now, the word reckon is a word of
faith.
If it were dead, I wouldn't have to
reckon it to be dead.
But it's something that I have to reckon.
I have to say that is a part
of the old life.
I'm not going to be subject to that.
I'm not going to live under the tyranny
of my flesh any longer.
I recognize that as a part of the
flesh life.
That was put to death on the cross.
I'm crucified with Christ and that is not
going to rule over me any longer.
And you've got to take that stand.
And whenever the flesh life manifests itself, you've
got to take that stand.
That's a part of the old nature.
That's a part of the old life.
I'm not going to be ruled by that.
I'm going to be ruled by the Spirit
of God.
And it's a fresh commitment of yourself to
be ruled by God's Spirit.
And in that position, God can use you
and continue to use you.
Father, we do desire that our lives count
for eternal things.
We desire, Lord, that you would use us
in the accomplishing of your eternal purposes.
And Lord, whatever might stand in the way,
we ask, Lord, that you would reveal it
to us and that you would help us,
Lord, to deal with it, to be freed
from it, in order, Lord, that we might
bring praise and glory and honor unto you.
And so, Lord, we just come tonight asking
for the help of your Holy Spirit as
we seek to reckon the old nature to
be dead, not to be governed and ruled
by it any longer, that we might manifest
the characteristics of Jesus Christ, that His love
might be manifested through us, the nature of
Christ within us.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Shall we stand?
The pastors are down here at the front
to minister to you.
It may be that there's an area of
that old nature that has sort of kept
you under, brought you into defeat, and tonight
you'd like to have God's victory and the
help of God in really being freed from
the power of the flesh.
It is a tremendous power.
You can't free yourself.
It isn't reformation.
It's transformation.
And that can only happen through the Spirit.
They're down here in the front to pray
for you tonight that you might experience God's
power in your life, setting you free.
It may be that you're desiring to be
used of God.
You want the power and the anointing of
the Spirit on your life.
They're here to pray for you.
There will be no afterglow tonight in the
fellowship hall, but right here in the front
these men are here to pray for you
this evening.
So we encourage you to come forward, you
that desire to receive prayer.
May the Lord be with you.
May the Lord watch over and keep you.
And may, by the grace of God, we
keep the body under, not let it rule,
not let it reign, but we'll be ruled
by the Spirit of God that we might
live and serve our Lord Jesus Christ.
You've been listening to the From the Pulpit
and Classic Sermon series.
This week you heard Chuck Smith with his
message, Beware of Ambition.
Tune in next week to hear John Piper
talk about Are You Wasting Your Life?
on From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.