We were looking in our last study about
the difference between being religious and spiritual.
When we consider the Pharisees, I think when
the Pharisees started out as a sect, probably
some generations earlier, they must have started with
some God-fearing people who really wanted to
pursue after a righteous life.
But somewhere along the way, they missed the
road, and instead of pursuing after God, they
began to pursue after the letter of Scripture.
That's why Jesus once said to them, in
John chapter 5, he said in verse 39,
you search the Scriptures, because you think that
in them you have eternal life, but you
are unwilling to come to me, that you
might have life.
You see the contrast there?
They were seeking for eternal life in the
letter of Scripture, but they were not coming
to Jesus.
We can be taken up with the letter
of Scripture and miss the road completely, because
the letter kills.
In the Old Testament, it was just the
law that God gave, the word.
The word was the word of the Lord.
The prophet said, hear the word of the
Lord.
But when Jesus came, he didn't just say,
hear the word of the Lord.
The word had become flesh.
In the Old Testament we read, thy word
is a lamp to my feet and a
light to my path.
The light was the word.
But in the New Testament we read, in
Jesus was life, and that life was the
light of men, not just the written word.
And that's where a lot of people have
gone astray even today.
We think we are all right because we
accept the word of God, the Bible as
God's word.
But you can spend all your life searching
the Scriptures and miss eternal life.
That's what he was saying to them.
You search the Scriptures because you think there
is eternal life in them, but you don't
come to me.
Yet all the Scriptures, he said, are pointing
to me, the Lord Jesus said.
And you don't allow the Scriptures to point
you to Jesus.
You get taken up with the Scripture itself.
Think of the multitudes of people today who
are studying Scriptures just to get a sermon.
And they study concordances to produce sermons.
And they spend hours perfecting their sermons, making
sure that it's a proper introduction and substance
and conclusion and that there are three points
and if you are preaching English then all
the points must begin with the same alphabet.
All these things, you know, which I am
not against them.
I say if it leads you to Jesus
and leads other people to Jesus, do it
as you like.
But the great danger is the person who
is preaching is taken up with the Scripture
itself and that's all, and the person who
is getting it is also getting just a
letter.
He is not being led to Jesus.
The Scriptures, he said, bear witness of me.
And the person who preaches the word correctly
is the one who leads you beyond Scripture
to Jesus.
I think you see that in the Mount
of Transfiguration where we read Moses and Elijah
stood there with Jesus and we can say
Moses represented the law and Elijah represented the
prophets.
And very often the Old Testament is referred
to as the law and the prophets.
So Moses and Elijah combined on the Mount
of Transfiguration represented the entire Old Testament and
Jesus represented the New Covenant.
And Peter was so taken up with this,
he said, let us make three tabernacles for
Moses, for the law, the prophets, Elijah and
for Jesus.
And as soon as he did that, there
was a cloud.
And then a voice from heaven which said,
this is my beloved son.
In other words, don't put him on the
same level as the law and the prophets.
This is a new age.
This is a new covenant.
Listen to him.
And that's why we read in Hebrews in
chapter 1 that in the Old Testament long
ago, God spoke through the prophets in many
ways, but now he has spoken to us
in his son.
So you can say that you've got something
out of scripture when you have gone beyond
the letter and you've seen the glory of
Jesus.
If the Holy Spirit has not been able
to show you the glory of Jesus in
scripture and you merely accumulate a lot of
Bible knowledge, the more you accumulate, the deader
you'll be.
It's true.
See, just like the food we eat.
When you eat food, if it just keeps
on getting accumulated in your stomach and never
gets digested, what's going to happen?
I think finally, if you don't vomit it
all out, you'll die.
But a lot of people, that's all they
do.
They fill their minds with a study of
scripture and they get up in the pulpit
and vomit it all out for people.
And people have to eat that vomit, what
we call this beautiful sermon.
It's not leading people to Jesus.
It is when that food I eat gets
digested and becomes part of me, then the
food has accomplished its purpose.
And when the word of God has come
into my heart and transformed me inwardly, convicted
me, made me repent and come to the
feet of the Lord and made me a
little more like Jesus, then the scripture has
been fulfilled.
And then I'm no longer religious.
I become spiritual.
But it's easy for us in the pursuit
of righteousness to be taken up with the
letter of the law.
And even in the pursuit of victory over
sin, you realize that a lot of Christians
are living substandard Christian lives.
And I want to live a victorious life.
You see, for example, in Romans, after it
speaks in the latter part of chapter 3
and chapter 4 and chapter 5, about justification
by faith, how our sins are forgiven, we
have peace with God, we are declared righteous
freely.
The next step after that, that means we
are born again.
What's the next step after that?
In Romans 6, victory over sin.
Shall we continue in sin, it says.
And here is a person who is trying
to understand Romans 6, how the old man
was crucified with Christ.
I'm talking about a sincere person, who really
wants to follow the Lord.
And in his pursuit of victory, he somehow
finds himself in bondage to the law.
And that is what is dealt with in
Romans 7, which comes after Romans 6.
And then it says in Romans 7, my
brethren, verse 4, you were made to die
to the law through the body of Christ,
so that you might be married to another,
even him who was risen from the dead.
The Christian life is pictured like a marriage.
And that's a very beautiful picture of true
Christianity.
The Bible speaks about Jesus being our husband,
and we are the wife.
That's why we take his name.
You know, when a woman gets married, she
takes the name of her husband.
And the word Christian is taking the name
of our husband, Jesus Christ.
And the only person who is really qualified
to take it, is one who is married
to him.
But when we use this illustration of marriage,
we can picture it like this.
Let me put it as three marriages that
we can go through.
First, we are married to this old man,
which is spoken of in Romans 6.
He's a wicked man.
He's like a husband who beats up his
wife, hammers her and treats her badly.
And that's a picture of our unconverted life,
where our life is miserable.
Some people enjoy it.
But I think those of us who are
converted, we never enjoyed those days, living with
this husband who was so evil.
And we long to be free.
And then we hear this wonderful news, that
God has killed the old man.
This husband that tortured you, is dead.
Aren't you happy?
That's what we read in Romans 6.
Your old man, to whom you were married
for so many years, which made you sin,
which ruined your life, God has killed the
old man on the cross.
And when that husband is dead, the marriage
is dissolved.
Finished.
You are no longer in bondage to that
old man.
You are free.
And then, now you want to be married
to another type of man.
And you see this man who is very
upright, and very righteous.
And you decide to be married to him.
Now he never hammers you.
His name is the law.
This is your second marriage.
And the law never hammers you, never makes
an unrighteous demand on you, never asks you
to do anything wrong, only asks you to
do what is right.
And in that way, it is much better
than the first marriage, where the other man
was always asking you to do things, wrong
things.
But, this law is so demanding.
He demands that everything in the house must
be tip-top, the shoes must be kept
in the proper place, the clothes must be
ironed perfectly, the breakfast must be ready at
8 o'clock in the morning, not 8
-0-1, 8-0-0.
At 8 a.m. it must be there.
And he is not asking for anything unlawful,
everything righteous, right, right, right, right.
You cannot find fault with anything that he
asks.
The only thing is, he doesn't help you
one bit.
You have to do everything on your own.
And you ask yourself, what did I get
myself into?
I got into a bigger soup here, married
to this man.
And a lot of Christians are struggling in
this, trying to keep the law, trying to
please this demanding husband, and never being able
to satisfy him.
And they are always coming short.
And they wish that this husband would die
also.
But he never dies.
He has no high blood pressure, no diabetes,
and no heart problem.
The law of God is perfectly healthy.
And it looks as if he lived forever.
And your whole life you say, am I
going to be married to this man forever?
It's a miserable future you look forward to.
But God sees you.
And you see this other man, that's Jesus.
He is so compassionate.
So you mistook the law for Christ.
You thought you were marrying Christ, but you
married the law.
You made a mistake.
And you wish you could be married to
that person, but you can't be married to
that person, because this man is your husband.
And he'll never die.
But God sees your longing.
That's what Romans 7 deals with.
And says, I will dissolve this marriage.
How does he do it?
God hates divorce.
There will be no divorce.
And the wonderful thing we read in Romans
7, the verse we read is, since the
law does not die, the Lord says, I'll
make you die.
And if the wife dies, then the marriage
is broken.
Right?
And so God puts us to death.
And says the marriage is broken.
And now, I have been legally separated from
my husband, because I have died.
Because it says here, verse 2, the married
woman is bound by law to her husband
while he is living.
But if her husband dies, she is released.
But if while her husband is living, verse
3, she is joined to another man, she'll
be an adulteress.
But the husband is never going to die.
So, the wife dies.
And so the Lord allows us to die,
and then raises us up from the dead.
And says, now you can marry Christ.
That's the meaning of Romans 7.4. You
have died to that, so that now you
can be married to Jesus.
And when you get married to Jesus, you
find, He also wants breakfast at 8 o
'clock.
He also wants the shoes to be put
in the proper place, and the clothes to
be ironed, and His standards are even higher
than the law.
The law said, you shall not commit adultery,
I say to you, you shall not lust
with your eyes.
The law said, you shall not murder, I
say to you, you shall not be angry.
Is the standard higher or lower?
Higher.
But, with one big difference, that He comes
to help you.
He says, let's do it together.
And that's what makes the difference.
And that is the true Christian life.
It's when you understand that, that you become
spiritual.
The man who lives under the law is
only going to be religious.
And he's never going to make it.
Now, how does Jesus work with us?
I'm using an example when I say, breakfast
must be ready at eight o'clock.
I'm talking about the righteous demands that Jesus
has upon our life.
Now, let's say, I'm a terribly lazy wife,
who can, I get up from bed only
at about eleven o'clock in the morning,
and I'm so slow in the kitchen that
my breakfast is ready only by three o
'clock in the afternoon, or something like that.
And Jesus says, never mind, let's work together.
And after one week of working together, I
start getting up at ten o'clock in
the morning, and my breakfast is ready by
two o'clock.
It's better.
It's better than three o'clock last week.
And He doesn't condemn me.
He says, never mind, we'll make it.
One of these days, it'll become eight o
'clock.
Don't worry.
Let's work at it together.
Isn't it good to be married to a
husband?
And one day comes, when I'm up in
the morning, and breakfast is ready at eight
o'clock.
This is Christianity.
It's exciting to be married to such a
husband.
Who wants to be married to the law?
Who wants to be married to the old
man?
Once we see the beauty and the glory
of Jesus, we say, Lord, if this is
Christianity, I want it all my life.
You never ask me to do anything which
you don't ask me to do along with
you.
Do you know that?
Do you know the multitude of Christians?
I've only used the picture of three marriages.
Unbelievers are locked in the first marriage.
Most believers are locked in the second one.
They're trying, they're trying all their life to
please God and never succeed.
Something like the disciples who toiled all night
and got nothing.
And the Lord says, why don't you trust
me?
I can fill your boat in no time.
See, the Christian life is a partnership with
Jesus.
He never expects you to do a single
thing on your own.
He says in John 15, verse 5, without
me, what's the rest of the verse?
You can do?
Zero.
Without Jesus, whatever you do will be zero.
But what's the other side of the coin?
Philippians 4.13. Paul says, I can do
all things through Christ who strengthens me.
In other words, there is not a single
command in the Bible which I cannot keep
through Christ who strengthens me.
Without Christ, I can't even keep one of
them.
I may keep one or two of them,
but I won't keep them properly.
I won't keep them in the right spirit.
I may keep them, but keep them in
the wrong motive or the wrong attitude.
I can't do anything.
But when the Lord works with me, I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me.
And that's what makes me spiritual.
As long as I'm trying to do the
whole thing on my own, even if I
attain to a certain standard, I'm just a
religious Christian.
You know, there are many non-Christians who
don't smoke, who don't drink, who are very
upright, who don't tell lies in their office.
They are very upright.
They won't take bribes.
They are very righteous.
They are not Christians.
A Christian can be like that too.
He doesn't need Christ.
And there's a certain righteousness that comes.
In God's eyes, it's filthy rags.
In God's eyes, it's fig leaves, which He
curses.
But in the eyes of men, you get
an honor for being a godly type of
person.
Because vast majority of Christians don't have discernment.
And when you're living in the midst of
people who don't have discernment, they can think
you're a godly person.
But any spiritual man with discernment can see
through you that you're not spiritual.
You're just a religious person.
And I tell you, Christendom is full of
such religious people, frustrated inwardly, depressed.
There is a righteousness in their life.
But it is not a righteousness coupled with
joy and peace.
You know what it says in Romans 14
and verse 17?
The kingdom of God is not eating and
drinking.
It is righteousness, peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit.
A righteousness without joy, without peace, is a
righteousness of the law.
They did not have inward peace and joy
under the law.
But they had righteousness.
And that is how Phariseeism developed.
And that is how Phariseeism develops today.
Multitudes of people who are righteous externally.
And one mark of such people we read
in Mark chapter 3.
You know, it says about Jesus these words.
When Jesus entered a synagogue, there was a
man with a withered hand, Mark 3 verse
1.
Verse 2 it says, The Pharisees were watching
him closely.
Whenever you find, please listen to this carefully.
Whenever you find you are watching other believers
very closely to find some fault.
Please remember this verse.
You are a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
A godly man is not watching other people
closely to see whether they make a mistake
or to see whether they trip up.
He is watching his own life.
Not other people's lives.
He is seeing where he is unchristlike.
Not where other people are unchristlike.
The devil is called the accuser of the
brethren.
And one way he makes us accusers of
the brethren is by giving us sharp eyes
to look at the faults of other people.
Christian churches in this land are full of
such people.
They speak in tongues, they shout and praise
the Lord and they watch other people very
closely to find fault with them.
They are not spiritual.
They are ungodly.
They are Pharisees.
They are legalists.
They are religious.
Don't mistake that for spirituality.
There is no joy in their righteousness.
There is no peace with other people in
their righteousness.
It is just righteousness.
And they will particularly strain at mosquitoes and
swallow camels at the same time.
Just like Jesus said.
Small, small things they will pick out and
swallow mosquitoes at the same time.
I am not saying that we should swallow
mosquitoes, swallow camels, sorry.
I am not saying that we should avoid
camels and swallow mosquitoes.
No, we should avoid both.
But, very often the people who are looking
for small, small things do not realize bigger
things wrong in their own life.
I have seen for example certain denominations where
they are very particular that a sister should
not wear ornaments.
And if they see some sister wearing maybe
400 rupee earrings, they are going to hit
out at that from the pulpit.
But these people who hit out at these
400 rupee earrings have got 10,000 rupees
worth of fittings in their bathrooms of their
houses which they never feel convicted about.
This is what I mean.
They strain at mosquitoes and swallow camels.
They wear 5000 rupee sarees and judge a
poor girl for wearing a 300 rupee earring.
What is this?
It is all hypocrisy.
And the multitudes of religious people like this
in our country, I am sick and tired
of them.
Now, I am not preaching you should wear
earrings.
Don't misunderstand me.
I am just saying that it is very
easy to judge a person for a small
little thing and there can be something a
million times worse in your life.
And that's what Jesus was constantly hitting out
against.
He says, you people swallow, you squeeze rent
from poor widows who have rented your houses
and when they can't pay that rent, you
turn them out of the house and then
on Saturday you come to the synagogue and
pray a long prayer.
He says, you are just humbugs.
You are hypocrites.
True spirituality makes you compassionate.
If a widow cannot pay the rent for
the house, your house which she is living
in, you say, forget it, sister.
Never mind.
Stay free.
God has given me freely.
I am told to give freely.
That's the mark of a godly man.
He looks at Jesus.
He doesn't look at the letter of the
law.
He doesn't quote scripture to other people saying,
oh, no man anything, sister.
It says, oh, no man anything.
Pay up your rent.
No.
He looks at the word made flesh.
Jesus.
And he asks himself, can you imagine Jesus
squeezing money out of a poor widow?
Never.
He says, I am not going to do
it.
He is not looking at the letter of
the law.
He is looking at Jesus.
He is not thinking of what he can
get out of other people.
He is thinking of what he can give
to God.
And when he gives freely to a widow
in need, he is giving to God.
He is not calculating.
You know, people who are religious are very
calculating in what they give.
Everything.
I told you, like in the elder son
is very conscious of all that he has
done.
See, whenever I think of people who talk
about the sacrifices they have made and they
give a testimony, they try to give a
little impression of some of the sacrifices they
have made for the Lord.
Or try to show how they were nobodies,
but God has made them somebody now.
If you are a spiritual man, it is
the other way around.
You were a somebody and God made you
a nobody.
That is a spiritual man.
But very often what we see in Christian
circles is a boasting that I was a
nobody, but God has now made me a
somebody.
They haven't understood.
It is the spirit of Lucifer.
I was down there, but now I am
up here.
Now, the attitude of a spiritual man towards
sacrifice is very different.
He can honestly look back over his past
life and say, I can't think of one
sacrifice I have made for the Lord.
And he is not acting humble.
That is really what he feels.
It is not that he has not made
sacrifices, but they don't appear like sacrifices to
him.
Do some of you feel that you have
made some sacrifice for the Lord?
Let me use an illustration.
When do you see the stars in the
sky?
At night.
Are there stars in the sky right now?
Yes or no?
Yes.
But can you see even one of them?
No.
Think of those stars as the sacrifices you
have made in your life.
When do you see them?
When you are in the darkness.
When the sun of righteousness rises.
When you see the sacrifice Jesus made on
Calvary for you, that is the sun of
righteousness.
All your sacrifices disappear.
You can't even see one of them in
the sky.
And when you look up at the sky
today and say, I can't see a single
star, you are honest.
And when a godly man looks back over
his life and he says, I have never
made one sacrifice for the Lord, he is
absolutely honest because he is not in the
darkness.
He is living in the light.
And that's really the attitude of a godly
man.
He always feels other people have sacrificed perhaps,
but I haven't.
And everything I have given up, the Lord
has given me a hundred times back.
How can I call that a sacrifice?
How can you call it a sacrifice when
you gave one thing and you got a
hundred times back?
No.
Any idea of sacrifice and I have given
up this for the Lord is an indication
first of all that you are in darkness
and secondly that you are a religious person
and you mention it in your testimonies.
I think it is very very difficult for
a godly man to write an autobiography of
his own life because which autobiography will honestly
say the dirty thoughts he struggled with, the
filthy things he did in his life.
I have never read an autobiography like that.
I have never read a biography like that.
That is all hidden.
They talk about the sacrifices and what they
started as nothing and they became somebody.
To me it is all Lucifer, all the
way through.
Jesus never wrote a book about his life.
Do you think he made no sacrifices?
People talk about the thirty years of Jesus'
life.
They call it the hidden years.
Why were they hidden?
Because he never told anybody about what he
did in those years.
He never told anybody about what all secret
sufferings and sacrifices and self-denials and many
many many things that he went through.
He never told anyone.
Why should anybody know?
If you say it, it is only to
get honor that you are such a sacrificial
person that you have suffered so much for
the Lord's sake.
It is filthy honor-seeking.
And the sad thing is people who study
the scriptures never seem to get light on
it.
If you come to Jesus, you will get
light immediately.
That is what I mean.
There is a lot of difference between coming
to the scriptures and coming to Jesus.
A religious man comes to the scriptures and
he lives without light upon his life throughout.
A spiritual man comes into the Lord's presence
and immediately he is smitten.
And he says, Oh Lord, what a self
-seeking man I am, promoting myself, showing myself
off and advertising my sacrifices and advertising my
performances and what all you did through me
and all these types of stuff to gain
honor.
The whole thing was dead works.
And I have never revealed to other people
the filthiness there was in my life and
the corruption and the wickedness.
I leave all that out in my testimony.
Then it is better we keep quiet altogether.
Jesus said, Do everything in secret.
Whether you pray, or you do righteousness, or
you give, or you fast, do it all
in secret.
And your father, who sees in secret, will
reward you openly.
Let your father do it.
And your father is very faithful to reward
you openly exactly according to the measure of
what you have sacrificed and denied yourself and
suffered in secret.
Leave it to him.
And leave it to him to do it
at his own time.
These are simple truths.
And if you only read the Bible, you
would understand it straight away.
But our minds have been conditioned by the
level of Christianity that we have seen in
Christian leadership around us and the books we
have read.
And we think certain things are, Yeah, that's
all right.
Everybody does it.
I don't care if everybody does it.
If that's not in the Scripture, that's not
the right way.
If that's not the way Jesus would do
it, then I don't want to do it.
I don't care if every Christian leader in
the world does it that way.
Everybody can be wrong.
Let God be true.
And every man a liar.
So, you find that religious people are very
taken up with their sacrifices, with their activities,
and they are not happy until at least
some other people know what they are doing
for the Lord and what sacrifices they made
for the Lord.
A spiritual man is quite content if nobody
knows.
In fact, he hides a lot of things.
He doesn't want people to know.
He is happy if somebody else gets the
credit for what he has done.
Are you like that?
If not, we can begin to be like
that from now on and say, Lord, I
don't want to follow the other way.
I am not saying we shouldn't give a
testimony, but I think we should give a
testimony with fear and trembling and judge ourselves.
I remember the times when I have given
a testimony in my message and I have
gone back and really searched my heart.
Lord, show me, was there one thing there
which maybe I needed to say to encourage
some people?
But was there any element of seeking some
honor for myself, some display of myself?
Because the more I display myself, the less
people will see Christ.
That's a law.
If you want to really lift up Christ,
you really have to be hidden.
But if you display yourself a little bit,
in that measure, Christ will be hidden.
That's why it's so serious.
One other thing I want to say is,
in a marriage relationship, you know, where our
relationship with Jesus is like that of a
wife to a husband, there is no question
of percentage.
You know, in the Old Testament law, there
were percentages.
You had to pay 10% of your
money to God.
It was something like paying income tax.
Now, nobody rejoices in paying more income tax.
Nobody goes and pays to the income tax
department more than they ask for.
Most people pay less and cheat and tell
lies.
I've never heard of anybody saying, well, I
love you folks in the income tax department
so much, I'd like to give you 5
% more than you have asked for.
And that's how people gave under the law.
Alright, okay, this God wants 10%, okay, here
God have it.
They gave it, but they were not happy.
It was righteousness, but there was no joy.
There was no peace.
And when you come into the New Testament,
God says, God loves a cheerful giver.
Not how much you give, but how you
give is more important than the New Covenant.
How you give.
Do you give cheerfully?
How is it in a marriage relationship?
You know, in a happy marriage relationship, where
a husband and wife trust one another, they
will have a joint bank account.
Where the husband will say, you are also
a signatory, you can draw anything you like,
even though a lot of the wealth may
have come from the husband, it doesn't matter.
He says, all that I have is yours.
We'll have a joint account.
But where the marriage is not very secure,
the wife may say, well, I think we
better keep separate accounts.
You keep yours, and I mean, I'll draw
once in a while from yours, but I
like to keep mine for myself.
And I've heard that nowadays, in some western
countries, where divorce has become so common, the
woman who gets married does not even change
her name, because she does not know how
long she'll be married to this man for.
So, it's not worth changing the name for
two or three years, because after two or
three years, she may be marrying somebody else.
So, she keeps her own name, and she
does not change her account or anything.
Her account is kept by herself, because you
never know how long you'll be with this
man.
A lot of people's Christian relationship with Jesus
Christ is something like that.
Lord, what's mine, I'd like to keep for
myself.
If you want a little bit, I'll give
you.
I don't think you'll ever have a happy
relationship with the Lord like that.
In a true marriage, you say, all that
I have is yours.
Not ten percent, Lord.
Everything, my time, my energy, my life, my
money, my ambitions, my future, everything is in
a joint account with you.
And when you give yourself to the Lord
like that, something wonderful happens.
We read in John chapter 17, that is
how Jesus lived with the Father.
See, Jesus' relationship with His Father was similar
to the relationship we are to have with
Christ.
And Jesus did not have a legal relationship
with the Father, where He told the Father,
I'll give you ten percent, or one day
in seven, the Sabbath day, the remaining days
are for me.
Nothing of that sort.
He says in John 17 and verse 10,
all things that are mine are thine.
That is a New Testament type of relationship.
That is a true marriage relationship.
All things that are mine are thine.
That is only one part of the story.
Here is the best part of that story,
that news.
And all things that are thine are mine.
What a wonderful relationship that is.
And I picture it like this.
Jesus came to marry me.
He is a multi-millionaire with millions and
millions of rupees in his account.
And I am a little beggar woman with
ten paise in my tin can, sitting in
the roadside.
And Jesus says, you give me everything that
is yours.
What is mine?
Ten paise.
And I'll give you everything that is mine.
And from now on, let's have a joint
account.
Isn't that wonderful?
It really is.
And that is what I did.
And that is what I want to encourage
you to do.
Don't hang on to your ten paise and
keep a separate account for that.
Put it in along with his millions and
be a joint signatory and have a joint
account with him and say, Lord, all that
is mine is yours.
I have no plans for the future.
Do you know what it means to say
to the Lord, all that is mine is
yours?
Think of a woman who gets married.
Maybe she had great plans in her single
days to go here and travel there and
get this degree and the other degree and
do this work and the other work.
And one day, all of a sudden, she
gets married.
What happens to all her ambitions and plans
and desires to travel here and to study
this and that?
It's all gone.
Now she has to go where her husband
goes and if she really loves him, she'll
be delighted.
She'll say, what's that?
I don't care if I don't travel, if
I can be with you.
And that is really what it means to
give ourselves to Christ.
Say, Lord, I have had many plans for
the future.
But now I'm married to you, I have
no plans.
You tell me what you want to do
day by day, I'm happy to do that.
Everything in life, you and I are going
to do together, Lord, from now on.
Jesus once said in Matthew 11, take my
yoke upon you.
And you've seen in the fields here bullocks
with a yoke on their neck.
In one sense, it's better to be free
of a yoke because the yoke rubs your
neck all the time.
And these bullocks that have had a yoke,
they've got marks on their neck.
And the other bullocks who've never had a
yoke, they are free, can run around wherever
they like, but they never know how to
plow a straight furrow.
They are useless.
Think of all the wild bulls in the
jungles, useless to God, useless to men.
But think of these bullocks that have been
under the yoke in the fields.
Because of them, you and I get rice
and wheat and many things.
How useful they are.
And so it is with a disciple who
has allowed the yoke to be on his
neck and be bound.
You know, when you are under a yoke,
you are bound to the other bullock.
And when Jesus says, take my yoke upon
you, it's a picture of marriage, it's a
picture of authority, but it's also a picture
of fellowship that you and I are going
to do everything together.
You don't know how to plow a straight
furrow?
Come, I'll teach you.
And as a junior bullock teams up with
a senior bullock, together they plow a straight
furrow.
And together I learn how to overcome sin.
Together with Jesus, I learn how to overcome
my passions.
I learn how to control my tongue.
I learn how to love my enemies.
I learn how to bless those who curse
me.
I learn how to speak the truth in
all circumstances.
I learn how to be free from the
love of money because I have found greater
riches in God's kingdom.
It's a wonderful life.
It's not a life of, oh, somehow or
the other trying to keep the law.
No.
It is righteousness with joy in the Holy
Spirit.
There is a lovely verse in the Old
Testament which is paraphrased in the Living Bible
like this.
Proverbs 14, 14.
In the Living Bible it says, The godly
man's life is exciting.
It's one of my favorite verses because I
have found the reality of it in my
life.
It doesn't say the godly man's life is
easy.
It doesn't say the godly man's life is
comfortable.
It doesn't say the godly man's life is
prosperous.
But it does say the godly man's life
is exciting.
New challenges.
New things to do along with Jesus.
New things to overcome.
Let anything face me in the future.
If I can face it with my husband,
I can handle it.
This is the Christian life.
This is the only way God wants us
to live on this earth.
Not married to the law where I try,
try, try, try, try to keep certain commandments
and I'm always unhappy because I'm never able
to make it.
But in fellowship with an understanding, compassionate husband
who understands my struggles, who knows that I'm
so lazy, I'm so indisciplined, I can't get
breakfast ready at the right time, but I'm
working on it.
And he's helping me.
And things get better.
And suddenly I discover one day I can
control my tongue.
This uncontrolled tongue that was let loose hurting
people for so many years.
Suddenly one day I found that with the
yoke of Jesus upon my neck, my tongue
has come under control.
These wandering thoughts that made me slave to
so many of my passions for years, I
found in working together with the yoke of
Jesus and a compassionate, merciful Lord who is
not there to jump on me every time
I fall, but who is merciful and says,
never mind, you fell that time, but get
up.
We're going to get victory over this lust
of the eyes.
We're going to get victory over these dirty
thoughts.
And little by little by little the thoughts
become pure.
And over a period of time we discover
even our dreams become pure.
Filthy dreams are replaced with dreams of serving
the Lord.
What a wonderful work it is.
It's not a burden.
It's righteousness with joy.
I'm not telling you fairy tales.
I'm telling you exactly the truth that you
can experience if you take the yoke of
Jesus upon your neck.
It won't happen overnight.
We have developed bad habits through so many
years.
And they're not going to disappear overnight.
But if you take the yoke of Jesus,
you're like, let's say, you're like a wild
bull that's never done anything under anybody's authority.
You've been wandering in the wilderness and done
whatever you like for so many years.
And now you've been teamed up with a
senior bullock who's trying to teach you to
plow a straight furrow.
And the first day it's all crooked.
Yeah, it will be.
And the senior bullock says, never mind.
We'll do it a little better tomorrow.
And tomorrow it's not so crooked, but it's
still crooked.
But over a period of time you're beginning
to learn.
And life is exciting.
That's how God wants us to live.
And we may face problems in the world
like the storms that the disciples faced on
the Sea of Galilee.
And together with Jesus, they could handle it.
If they had gone into that storm on
their own, they'd never have been able to
make it.
But when they faced it along with the
Lord, then there was no problem at all.
And that is the Christian life.
That's why God allows us to face all
types of difficulties.
I've thought of it like this.
How boring the Gospels would have been if
it was written there, well, Jesus went for
a marriage in Cana and there were no
problems.
They had plenty of wine and they had
plenty of food and they came home.
Not nothing exciting about that.
Or Jesus got into the boat and went
across the sea and it was a calm,
peaceful day and they crossed over to the
other side.
And there were two beggars who came to
Him in their need and Jesus gave them
some money and sent them home.
What a boring Gospels those would be.
I think even our Sunday school children will
say, we're not coming to listen to such
stories next Sunday.
But see how the Gospels are exciting.
There was need, no wine in Cana, storm
on the lake, blind people, all types of
problems and Jesus could solve it.
This child has been having fits from the
time it's born, demon possessed, cast here and
there.
Jesus says, bring him here.
Healed, handed back to the Father.
I see this wonderful truth which I mentioned
earlier.
There was never a problem that Jesus couldn't
handle.
I don't see a single case in the
Gospels of Jesus scratching His head and saying,
what shall I do about that one?
Never.
Not even one case.
People came to Him with all types of
complicated problems and He took care of that.
Except as I said, where somebody said, please
tell my brother to divide the property with
me and Jesus said, sorry, I didn't come
here to help you to make more money.
But if it's a problem in your life,
a storm in your life, come to the
Lord.
He doesn't expect you to face that alone.
He says, let's do it together.
The Christian life is a partnership.
It's a marriage.
Without that married relationship with Jesus Christ, all
your Christianity is going to be religiosity under
the law.
There will be no joy in your righteousness.
There will be no joy in your service.
Even after one year of serving the Lord
in a difficult field, you will say, boy,
this is hard.
But if you are doing everything with the
Lord, even after many, many years, you will
find the truth of that verse, the godly
man's life is exciting.
New challenges.
Everything.
We look forward and say, with Jesus' help,
I can handle that.
And your attitude towards the Lord will be
exactly like the attitude of a wife who
deeply loves her husband.
Not, what is the minimum I can do
for the Lord?
You know, religious people are like this.
This is how it is to be under
the law.
And lots of Christians are like this.
What is the minimum I have to do?
How many hours do I have to work
to get my pay?
That's the attitude of a servant.
That's the attitude of people under the law.
What's the minimum amount of money I have
to give?
What's the minimum amount of sacrifice I have
to make?
Anyone whose life operates on the principle of
what is the minimum is under law.
Ten percent of my money one day in
seven.
Okay, I'll give that.
The rest is mine.
But Jesus never came with that spirit.
When He served the Father, His whole attitude
was, What is the maximum I can give?
I have only thirty-three and a half
years on earth.
I have to give all of it, totally
the maximum possible.
And that's why His life was so happy.
And I want to say to all of
you, when you are young, if you can
offer yourself to the Lord like that, and
don't look at other people around you, because
they may not have that attitude.
And that's why their lives are so miserable.
That's why they are so depressed.
Have the attitude of Jesus who said, Lord,
whatever is the maximum I can give for
you, I want to give, because I love
you.
Like more than any wife loves her husband.
I love you with all of my heart.
And I want to give everything.
All my future plans and ambitions are on
the altar.
I want to get rid of them.
I want you.
All my money, all my time, all my
plans, all my interests, passions.
Maybe you are in love with somebody, you
want to marry.
You say, Lord, I give it up, because
I want you.
If that's not your will, I drop it
this moment.
Nothing.
You can have everything.
It's only such a person who is going
to enter into the fullness of life that
Jesus came to give.
Otherwise you'll be religious all your days.
What are we going to do?
Are we going to respond to what we've
heard?
Is it just another message that you've heard
this morning?
Or are you going to say, Lord, I
want to live like this.
And it doesn't matter if other people around
me are not living like this.
I want to live like this all my
days.
I don't want to be married to the
law anymore, to the letter.
I want to be married to you.
I want to walk all my days taking
your yoke upon me.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, there is so much more to
the Christian life than we have experienced.
And we want to enter into that.
All of it.
We want to experience it in our life.
We want to be delivered from empty religiosity
and walk in true spirituality.
For the glory of your name, we ask
in Jesus' name, Amen.