If any man thirsts, let him come unto
me and drink.
And we pray that we might be able
to drink, drink deeply from the wells of
salvation, even in his last moment.
God be with us, in Jesus' name.
The book of Romans is the greatest theological
treatise in the New Testament.
Martin Luther said that every Christian ought to
read the book of Romans once a month.
He found his theology in the book of
Romans, of course.
But perhaps we should just go through it
a little bit, just to see what the
relationship is of the gospel to Romans 6
as well.
Romans 6 is one of the great chapters
in the Scripture, and I delight in its
truths.
In chapter 1, verse 1, we read that
Paul speaks about the gospel of God.
So there we have the source and purpose
of the gospel.
In verse 9 we have the gospel of
his Son.
There we have the sacrifice and passion of
the gospel.
Verse 16, we have the gospel of Christ.
There we have the salvation and power of
the gospel.
He says in verse 1 that he is
separated unto the gospel, undeserved in grace, unparalleled
in glory.
He says in verse 9, I serve God
in the gospel.
It's a great word for everybody who is
involved in the work of God.
We're not serving a pastor, we're not serving
a Sunday school class, we're not serving a
church, we're not serving a mission board in
the first instance, we're serving God in the
gospel.
And we're serving God with our spirit in
the gospel, for God is my witness and
my servant with my spirit in the gospel.
So he's serving God with his spirit.
He's not doing beautifully the things that he
has to do, but he's doing gladly the
things that he desires to do, serving God
in the gospel.
Verse 16, for the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation, so he's experiencing the
power of the gospel.
In verse 16, I am not ashamed of
the gospel.
In verse 14 and 15, I am ready
to preach the gospel.
So here's Paul's relationship to the gospel.
Separated unto the gospel, serving God in the
gospel, experiencing the power of the gospel, not
ashamed of the gospel, ready to preach the
gospel.
Great stuff.
The gospel is the good news.
The gospel is the glad tidings.
So he begins to preach the gospel.
Verse 17, the just shall live by faith.
He learned that from Habakkuk.
Martin Luther learned his theology from that verse.
So Habakkuk is sometimes called the grandfather of
the Reformation.
Then he begins the gospel, the glad news.
This is how he begins.
Verse 18, for the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold down the truth in
unrighteousness, and then follows one terrible list of
sin after another.
Why, there's a list of sin in Matthew
chapter 15.
There's a list of sin in Mark chapter
7.
There's a list of sin in Galatians chapter
5.
But nothing like this.
Here we have ingratitude leading to idolatry, leading
to impurity, leading to impiety.
And we have one terrible examination, one exposure
of the heart of man after another.
All the depravity, all the lasciviousness, all the
idolatry, all the forsaking of God, and the
defilement, the gross lust, and the atheism, and
the carnal mind, and the fornication, and the
covetousness, and malice, and envy, and deceit, and
evil whispering.
All there, that's the heart of man.
The wrath of God is upon this.
The wrath of God is real wrath.
It's wrath from heaven.
It's revealed from heaven.
It's revealed wrath.
And it's the wrath of retribution.
Here's the wrath of God upon the heart
of man.
It's like this.
Aren't you going to give them good news?
And it goes on to the second chapter,
Mark.
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou
art that judges.
For wherein thou judgest another thou canst condemnest
thyself.
And thou judgest, doest the same thing.
All external, you're pointing the finger at the
man who's doing all those things, but you're
doing them in your heart.
So he says, you're also under the judgment
of God, and you are going to be
judged according to truth, verse 2.
And you are going to be judged according
to your deeds, verse 6.
And you are going to be judged for
God is irrespective of persons, verse 11.
And you are going to be judged by
the conscience, which I've given you, verse 15.
And the secrets of your heart are going
to be judged, verse 16.
There's no hope for you.
You think that you're going to escape because
you don't enter into all the vile iniquities
of all these others.
You are under the same condemnation of God
as they are.
So we have the reckless man of chapter
1 and the self-righteous man of chapter
2, leading on to the religious man of
chapter 3.
What advantage then has the Jew?
Much of the way.
He's got the oracles of God.
But some did not believe.
What happens if somebody does not believe?
So there's objection number 1.
And objection number 5, is God unrighteous to
take his vengeance?
And then another objection, third objection, verse 7.
And so he deals with all these objections.
And he comes to the place where he
says, all are under sin.
And verse 10, as it is written, there
is none righteous, no not one.
There is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way,
they are together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no not
one.
Verse 19, every mouth may be stopped and
all the world become guilty before God.
What a terrible state of affairs.
Is this the good news?
May I just say friends, this is how
Paul began the gospel.
So often we have the positive aspect only
of the gospel.
Come to Jesus and you can have joy.
Come to Jesus and you'll have peace.
Come to Jesus and you'll have happiness.
Well that's true.
And so they come, chewing their chewing gum,
walking down the aisle, thinking to do the
almighty a favor.
I'm going to accept Jesus.
I'm going to have joy and peace.
And so I come to accept Jesus and
to be part of the scene.
And they just add joy and peace, they
think, upon their life.
They've never come to the place like this.
Paul's first foundational truth are the sinfulness of
man.
The heart of man must be seen to
be sinful and must be repentant of the
sin.
That's the missing link in modern evangelism.
We can talk so nicely and biblically about
the positive aspects, but my dear friends, there's
a negative aspect.
I remember sitting at the back of a
church one day and a preacher got up
and he was preaching away and suddenly he
was talking about this sort of thing and
he said, The gospel is only positive.
I nudged my wife, I said, No!
I hope not.
I don't know how many people heard me,
but my word, I couldn't agree with that.
Unless you have the negative, you'll not get
the positive.
You've got to repent of your sin.
And Paul laid the good foundation and he
teaches us how to preach the gospel.
Take that home with you, brethren.
Chapter 4.
No, chapter 3, by the way.
Let's go on to chapter 3, verse 21.
You with me?
Verse 21.
But now, the righteousness of God is manifest.
Hallelujah.
Now we're coming to something.
See, that's a pivotal word, but.
Right through scripture, but, the turn, the whole
turn, the thing turns.
But now, when?
When I see my sin.
When I see my iniquity.
When I can repent of that.
But now, the righteousness of God is manifest.
See, the wrath of God is revealed upon
all these, the reckless man, the righteous man,
the religious man.
There's no hope, every mouth is stopped.
But now, now, the righteousness of God is
manifest.
Now the turn comes.
Now we can speak about justification.
Now we can speak about righteousness.
Look at what he says in verse 24.
Being justified freely by His grace.
I said the other night to some folk.
Mercy is God not giving us what we
deserve.
We deserve hell and God doesn't give us
that mercy.
Grace is God giving us what we don't
deserve.
We don't deserve heaven, He gives it to
us.
It's free, unmerited favour of God.
He gives us Himself.
And He gives us justifying grace.
So being justified freely by His grace.
Now look at these ten mighty words and
these words right here where the change comes.
Verse 23.
For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God.
Being justified freely by His grace, through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God
has set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins of the past
through the forbearance of God.
Fantastic.
There's an accumulation of mighty gospel words.
Because now the change is coming.
And here we go into this mighty fourth
chapter and fifth chapter.
The justifying grace.
So here we have the fourth chapter.
What shall we say then?
That Abram our father is pertaining to the
flesh.
He shows Abraham as the father of the
faithful.
He staggered not at the promise of God
through unbelief but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God and being fully persuaded that
what he had promised he was able also
to perform.
So we are children of Abraham who was
before the law.
Abram believed God and was counted unto Him
for righteousness.
What did he believe?
He believed God, that's all.
And when God comes to us and gives
us justifying grace, we have got nothing else
to believe but God.
So we are children of Abraham by faith.
So now we go on to the fifth
chapter.
And we find there, at the end of
the fourth chapter by the way, he was
raised for our justification.
So there is the resurrection connected to the
justification.
Notice chapter 5 verse 1.
Therefore being justified by faith.
Chapter 5 verse 9.
Much more than being justified by his blood.
So we were justified by grace and by
blood and by faith and the resurrection was
the proof of it all.
So we are justified by grace alone.
And we are justified by blood alone.
And we are justified by faith alone.
And we are justified by Christ alone.
Hallelujah.
And the resurrection is the guarantee of our
justification.
The faith is the principle of justification.
Blood is the ground of justification.
Grace is the spring of justification.
My word.
Give me a week.
And then we come to the blessings of
justification.
See, access by faith.
We have peace with God.
We have access by faith.
Chapter 5 verse 2.
We stand in this blessing.
Rejoice in the hope.
Glory in tribulations.
Notice verse 6.
The love of God is shed abroad in
our heart.
My.
What a wonderful thing has happened to us.
We've come into his joy and into his
fellowship.
So there in the sixth verse of the
fifth chapter.
For Christ, in due time Christ died for
the ungodly.
Verse 8.
Christ died for us.
So here we are.
He is our substitute.
He died in my place.
He died for me.
In chapter 6 verse 6 we have another
truth.
Knowing this that our old man is crucified
with him.
Chapter 5 for substitution.
Chapter 6 with identification.
Chapter 8.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus.
Who walked not after the flesh but after
the spirit.
In union.
So chapter 5 for substitution.
Chapter 6 with identification.
Chapter 8 in union.
Now we need a convention.
To start now.
Oh these things fill my soul.
So now we get to chapter 6.
Here we have a wonderful verse.
Verse 6.
Knowing this that our old man is crucified
with him.
That's what happened when Christ died 2000 years
ago.
That the body of sin might be destroyed.
Or put out of action or rendered inoperative.
As you may like to translate that.
That's what happened when the Holy Ghost applied
the blood of Jesus and the crucifixion of
Christ to my own soul.
That henceforth we should not serve sin.
That's the practical result.
So here we have crucifixion and destruction and
emancipation.
In that wonderful verse.
Giving you little tips along the way preachers.
Wonderful word.
Knowing this.
Now I want to speak about deliverance in
Romans chapter 6 today.
And sort of a formula for victorious reliving
if there is such a thing.
So you can go away from this place
with something tucked under your belt.
Knowing this.
That's the first word.
Know.
Knowing what does he know?
He knows that our old man is crucified
with him.
A.
W.
Tozer speaks in one of his books of
an old man who was asked what it
meant to be crucified.
He said.
First.
The man who is crucified is facing only
one direction.
He can't look behind him anymore.
He's looking in the direction of God.
And of Christ.
And of biblical revelation.
And of world evangelization.
And of a spiritual life.
And secondly he said.
He's not going back.
He finished with sin and with carnality.
With the world and with the lust of
the flesh.
He's crucified.
Thirdly.
He has no further plans of his own.
How busy we are with our own plans.
So vitally important to have these plans worked
out.
But now he plans for me.
Knowing this.
That our old man is crucified with him.
It's a difficult thing to die you know.
We'll do anything but die.
We'll make a great show of consecration.
If we can escape death.
We'll show how dedicated we are.
And we'll pray very nicely in the prayer
meeting.
So that everybody will realize how spiritual we
are.
If we can escape death.
I remember we were at a convention similar
to this.
There were about a thousand people on the
canvas for a week.
Some convention.
And I remember a lady.
It was a tremendous convention.
I mean God was mightily in it.
And a lady said to us.
One of the friends there.
She said.
You know what I feel like doing?
I feel like going amongst these people and
kicking them.
I said.
Suzie what on earth are you talking about?
Yes.
She said.
I feel like just going amongst them and
just kicking them.
I said.
What do you mean?
She said.
You know they talk so beautifully.
They're so pious.
They're so religious.
They're so spiritual.
But if I started kicking them.
I wonder what would come out then.
The hidden sinful egocentricity hinders the flowering of
the life of God within the soul.
And it spoils the beauty of the Lord
coming through.
And it defiles our own soul.
Your hidden sinful self is always finding secret
lines of supply.
From our own courage.
It's always discovering impenetrable retreats from our own
cleverness.
And it's subtle poison.
This selfishness weakens and sickens our whole life.
It lurks in the innermost recesses of the
soul.
Dr. Tozer calls it the hyphenated sins of
Christianity.
Self-hyphen-seeking.
Self-hyphen-righteousness.
Self-sufficiency.
Self-aggrandizement.
Self-love.
The hyphenated sins of Christianity.
And as long as self-love remains.
We're always dead scared that it will be
shown up.
It will be discovered by some unexpected incident.
And we will be laid bare before the
eyes of our fellow believers.
But God doesn't let us off.
He pursues it.
By some infinitely merciful blow he forces it
into the open.
And suddenly we see ourselves.
Self-love forced into the light sees itself
in its deformity.
And its despair.
And its disgrace.
And you despise yourself.
Have you ever had a time like that
with yourself?
And you look at the mirror and you
think, My word.
God.
Please.
Get rid of what's in there.
Francis Thompson wrote a marvelous poem.
The Hound of Heaven.
You know it?
The Hound of Heaven.
God following me.
My track.
He says, I fled him down the arches
of the years.
Isn't that a beautiful phrase?
Down the arches of those years.
From those strong feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase, And with unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, Majestic instancy, They beat.
And the voice beats.
More instant than the feet.
All things betray thee who betrays me.
You can't hide it.
It's going to be exposed.
We had an instance once in mission work.
And it was a very unsavory thing.
And I was so moved that I wrote
a poem.
And here it is.
I'll read it to you.
And do you writhe in outraged pride, O
soul crushed by remorse, To think that such
a thing could hide Within where blood had
been applied, And find not there recourse?
The deed is done.
The word is said.
And shame brings agony.
You have been seen of men and read.
And their appraisal is your dread.
The carnal self they see.
Beware lest you sidestep the cross In this
your crisis hour.
Excuse, so shut these selfish draughts.
And gain your life when death seems lost.
And miss his path, his power.
Pure freedom comes when that big eye Determinedly
is brought.
By faith to Calvary to die.
No more in hidden forms to lie.
Delivery then is wrought.
Then will you come and bring your load
Of sullen, wounded pride?
No other way, no other road To perfect
rest and joy in God Than with him
crucified.
Fenelon, that 17th century preacher Cried, you ask
for a remedy That your problem might be
cured.
You do not need to be cured, You
need to be slain.
Quit looking for a remedy, And let death
come.
Roy Hessian calls it, You know what he
calls it, The Calvary road.
How glibly we speak about going to Calvary.
One thing that happens at Calvary, Death, it's
a difficult thing.
And it's a drastic thing.
When Agag was spared by Saul After he'd
been commanded to destroy them all, It's a
very interesting word in the authorised version, It
says, Agag walked delicately And said, surely the
bitterness of death is past.
Samuel said, no, no, give me the sword,
And he killed him.
Surely the bitterness of death is past.
It's difficult, yes.
But, and it's drastic.
But, Paul speaks about this most clearly.
Knowing this, that our old man Is crucified
with him.
Paul speaks about crucifixion.
John speaks about cleansing.
John doesn't speak about crucifixion.
And Paul speaks very little about cleansing.
But it's the same truth From both different
sides, Seen from different angles.
John speaks about one aspect of it, And
Paul speaks about another.
So that the pure cleansed heart And the
crucified life Fit together as both sides, Either
side of the coin.
Here we have this word destroyed.
And it sometimes is translated rendered inoperative, Put
out of action.
But whatever the theological interpretation, The practical result
is emancipation.
That we should not serve sin.
So here is a death Where we are
identified with Jesus In the great illustration of
the corn of wheat Dying and bearing fruit.
We are identified with his death.
We die with him.
And he's speaking about knowing this, see.
He says we can know this.
And he's not speaking in the Greek sense
Of an intellectual understanding.
He's speaking of the Semitic sense, The Hebrew
sense of experientially knowing.
You remember we read, Adam knew his wife,
And she conceived and bore a son.
So there's an experiential knowledge With the Hebrews.
So he says, knowing this, There's a knowledge,
There's an understanding, Not merely with my mind,
But with my whole being.
I grasp this great truth.
It comes to be part of me.
I am to die with Christ As I
grasp this great truth.
He has died already for me.
I accept that for me now.
And so I can know it.
That's the first word, knowing.
And the next word here is in the
11th verse.
Reckon ye, likewise reckon ye also yourselves To
be dead indeed unto sin, But alive unto
God Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reckon is the next word.
Reckon here is an arithmetic term.
It's a mathematical term.
Two plus two, I reckon to be four.
I'm reckoning.
So I know what I'm reckoning upon.
If I have a thousand dollars in the
bank, I can reckon upon that And write
out a check for a hundred dollars Because
I know that I have a thousand dollars
in the bank.
I'm reckoning upon what I know.
What do I know?
I know that I have died with Christ.
I know that this has become real in
me.
Not only has He died for me, But
I sense now that I have died with
Him.
I die with Him.
I receive that great death of His And
it is applied to my heart.
I die with Christ.
Now I reckon upon it In the midst
of all kinds of temptation Every day.
When the thoughts of evil come, You remember
that Spurgeon said That I can't stop the
birds flying over my head But I can
stop the nesting in my hair.
Not that many of us have got lots
to nest in, But nevertheless.
The thoughts come And are cast upon the
screen of our minds.
They are thrown there.
But it is then to resist And to
say I have died to this thing Because
it is going to happen all through life.
Now the battle is on.
You are going out from this place And
you are going to meet the temptations back
there.
Now you need to know how to reckon
yourself To be dead indeed unto sin.
Do you remember that Jesus, When He was
in the temptation There in the wilderness, Satan
said to Him, Change these stones into bread
Because you are hungry.
And so Jesus said, It is written.
And He quoted from Deuteronomy.
And then Satan took Him up onto the
pinnacle of the temple And it is pretty
high.
It is about twice the height that it
is now.
If you have been there, It was twice
as much as that then.
And He was up on the height of
the temple And He said, Now just cast
yourself down.
And these angels, God will give you the
angels to protect you And care for you.
Jesus said, It is written.
And then Satan said the last thing.
He took Him up onto a high mountain.
He said, Look, just worship me.
Just fall down and worship me.
And I will give you all these cities.
All these cities.
You see, all the whole world is yours.
Just worship me.
It was to get Him away from the
cross So that He wouldn't have to go
to the cross.
Now, If I had such a temptation come
to me, And if I suddenly, This temptation
came to me And I was tempted to
fall down and worship the devil, I would
be horrified.
I would say, Oh God, please forgive me
this terrible, terrible sin To fall and worship
the devil.
No, please God, please get it out of
my mind.
But Jesus had those thoughts in His mind.
He couldn't have been tempted any other way.
The temptations came to Him.
It came to His mind.
So He thought, I must worship the devil.
And it was a terrible temptation to Him.
I must worship the devil.
And if I worship the devil, All these
things are mine.
And I don't have to go to the
cross.
So the temptation was real.
And it was in His mind.
But Jesus never sinned.
It came to His mind.
But it didn't, It wasn't grasped.
It wasn't taken on board.
It was merely the temptation.
You see the devil sometimes brings the temptation
to us And he turns around and accuses
us of his own temptation.
And he makes us to believe that we
have sinned And we cast away our confidence
And we don't know where we are.
We don't know whether we've got victory or
not.
We say, Oh my world, it doesn't work.
I suppose, Oh I suppose I'll have to
start again.
And next time, Wait for next year and
I'll come out again And I'll pray again
Maybe it will work the next time.
But you've got to learn to do it
daily.
And you've got to learn to do it
Reckoning yourself to be dead in deed and
to sin.
So sin is coming.
Sin lies at the door, brethren.
It's going to come to us.
And temptations are going to come to us.
For instance, if you're walking down the street
And these scantily clad girls walking along It's
cast upon the screen of your mind.
It is then to say, Lord, I am
dead.
I am crucified with Christ.
I am dead to this temptation.
Right now, I'm reckoning upon what I know.
I know that I died with Christ.
I know that I'm reckoning That that was
a real knowledge.
I know that that happened to me.
And now I'm reckoning upon it Right here
and now in this terrible temptation.
And sometimes, And by the way, it's not
imagination.
It's faith.
This is the victory that overcometh the worst.
Even our faith, 1 John 5, 4 It's
the exercise of faith in the cross.
The cross is our deliverance.
The cross is the center of our being.
The cross is the center of our deliverance
right through life.
So now, as we come, The temptations come
to us.
It approaches us.
It is cast upon our minds.
It sometimes reaches our senses.
It comes through the ear gates at times.
It comes through the eye gates.
It comes through the senses.
It gets to the intellect.
It even touches the emotions at times.
But my will is the guardian of my
soul.
And as I say, No, my God, no.
I died with Jesus Christ.
I know that I died with Him.
I am dead to this thing now as
it comes to me.
This terrible temptation.
I'm dead to it.
I reckon myself to be dead indeed and
to sin.
I'm reckoning upon Calvary.
I'm identifying with Jesus now.
And I'm free now.
Lord, apply it now.
Now, in the American history, in the war,
in the internal war long ago, there was
a man called George Wyatt who was called
up to fight.
And in those days you could hire somebody
to fight in your place.
And George Wyatt hired a man by the
name of Pratt.
And Pratt went into the battle bearing the
name and number of George Wyatt.
And in due course, he was killed.
And later on, George Wyatt got a note
from the army to say, Come to a
report to the headquarters.
You will be drafted to such and such
a regiment.
So he sent back word.
He said, I am dead.
And they said, Dead men don't talk.
You'd better be here.
So he came.
And there he was.
And they were about to say you're drafted
to such and such a regiment.
He said, Wait a minute, gentlemen.
Consult your records, please.
So they pulled out the books.
And they saw George Wyatt, number so and
so, date, killed in action.
He said, Gentlemen, I'm claiming the documents of
death.
Yes, sir.
I'm claiming the documents of death.
And they could nothing, could do nothing to
him.
They had to let him go.
Because he was identified with that man.
And when Satan wants to draft us once
again into sin's fierce war, it is for
us to say, There was a man.
He died in my place and I died
in him.
And Satan, you have no...
I die in him.
I exercise faith in that death.
Now you can come with your temptations.
I died in Christ.
You have nothing in me.
Now this is exercising faith.
This is applying the death of Christ daily
to me as I go through this next
year.
Brethren, this is an open secret.
If you take this now, it can help
you right through the year.
Reckon.
Reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin.
But reckon yourself to be alive as well,
notice there.
Verse 11.
Reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Alive.
So we are reckoning not only upon his
death, but upon his life.
He lives.
Hallelujah.
And he who died and I died in
him, he now lives and he lives in
me.
So here we have a power which enables
us to continue.
Because I am reckoning upon his life.
Now in these moments.
Reckon upon his death.
I am dead to this temptation.
And I am reckoning upon your life.
Lord come to me now, even now.
And fill me with your presence.
And fill me with yourself.
Give me the sense of my presence even
as I am battling through now this very
day.
See sometimes the temptation comes with tremendous force.
And you reckon and you get through.
And you breathe clean air and it's gone.
You say praise God.
Suddenly it's back.
And sometimes you have to reckon again.
And you get through again and suddenly it's
back.
And you have to reckon again.
And slowly God brings the victory.
Now this is a constant thing right through
life.
It's constant.
That's what the present tense of reckoning.
Reckon yourself daily.
Every day you are going to reckon yourself
dead.
Reckon yourself alive every day.
This is the secret of victorious living right
here.
The reckoning.
Reckoning by faith.
Applying faith to Calvary.
Applying faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who
is alive in me now.
I am reckoning myself to be dead.
Reckoning myself to be alive in him.
And so we continue.
So we have knowing.
Know.
Reckon.
Next one.
Yield.
Verse 13.
Look at that wonderful word.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto
God.
Yield yourselves unto God as those that are
alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God.
So I have to yield.
It's a voluntary surrender.
I yield.
It's so beautiful because I'm bought at the
price.
And he's done so much.
He gave his life, I give my life.
He gave it all, I give my all.
I'm yielding.
So it's a voluntary surrender.
And then it's a total surrender.
Yield yourself.
It's everything.
It's my mind and it's thought.
See?
Whatsoever things are noble and pure and lovely
and of good report, think on these things.
Now that's a discipline.
So I cannot exercise that discipline if I
switch on that box in the corner day
after day after day and see all kinds
of rubbish on that thing.
It's not going to help my mind.
And if I pick up some rubbish in
a book that I'm reading and it's not
wholesome, it's not going to help my mind.
So it's got to go.
And that's what I've got to do.
And it's the mind and it's thought must
be yielded.
The will and it's choices.
For it is God who works it in
you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure.
Sometimes we know the will of God but
we can't do it.
But it's God working in me now to
will and to do of his good pleasure.
So I'm yielding myself to him to operate
in me.
And then the will and it's choices and
the body and it's instincts.
The Bible says keep thyself pure.
But the Bible also says we are kept
by the power of God.
So we have a responsibility and God has
a gracious responsibility to keep us.
He keeps us by the power of God
as we keep ourselves pure, as we keep
ourselves free from these other things.
Not that second look, you see.
Not that wrong attitude.
So I'm turning myself away from wrong things
because God says keep yourself pure.
And God says give your mind and it's
thoughts to me.
It must be a wholesome mind thinking good
things.
Whatsoever things are lovely and good reports, think
on these things.
Notice not only the mind and it's thoughts,
the will and it's choices, but the heart
and it's affections.
Set your affections on things above where Christ
sits on the right hand of God.
We can be so choked with things.
We can be so involved here with things
and get gripped and be absolutely involved so
much involved that we are attached to the
world.
We're bound by the world.
Outside of Johannesburg in South Africa, there's a
place called Uncle Charlie's where everybody used to
meet.
There's now flyovers and all.
But there was a big cafe there.
And just alongside of Uncle Charlie's there was
another cafe.
And I went past that many times.
There, outside of the cafe, and part of
the cafe, was an old aeroplane.
And they had built it into the cafe
so that the kids come along and play
at the controls and everything else.
They're enjoying it all.
And that's an attraction.
And the people used to go to the
cafe with the aeroplane so that the kids
can get into the controls and play with
the controls.
I've been past that many times and it
has challenged me every time.
That thing was not built to be worked
into a cafe.
That aeroplane was built to roar down the
runway and to soar into the ether and
to play in the sun.
That's its natural habitat.
But now it's bound to the earth.
God, help us not to be bound to
the earth so that we cannot fulfill that
for which we are born again.
Set your affections on things above, not on
things on the earth.
We can be so held back by that
which encumbers us and comes around us.
All the things, the cares of the earth.
So, not only the mind and its thoughts
and the will and its choices and the
heart and its affections, the body and its
instincts, the personality and its prejudices, life and
its relationships.
It's a total surrender.
I'm giving all of me, all that there
is of me, giving it away.
It's a total surrender.
And then, it's an intimate surrender.
Notice, he says there in the 13th verse,
This is
the joy of intimacy.
Yield yourselves to God.
He loves you.
You don't need to fear.
You don't need to fear what he will
do with you or where he will send
you.
You will be in his will whenever he
sends you.
Now, yield yourselves to the one who loves
you best of all.
You can do it easily, can't you?
It's so beautiful to do that.
I'm yielding myself to God.
An intimate surrender.
And it's a grateful surrender as those that
are alive from the dead.
See?
We heard a testimony, didn't we?
Alive from the dead.
Hallelujah.
Alive from the dead.
God has brought us from the dead.
We were condemned.
Every mouth was stopped and all the world
became guilty before God.
We were in a dark dungeon.
There was no light there.
There was just condemnation.
There was damnation.
We were doomed and damned.
Hopeless.
No way out of that terrible dungeon.
But he lifted me up.
And he placed my feet upon a rock.
And he gave me a new song in
my lips.
And my heart is praising him.
Many shall see the song, by the way,
Psalm 40.
Many shall see the song and trust in
the Lord.
There is a song that is seen.
God places that within us.
He lifts us up.
It's a grateful surrender.
And because he has done that for us,
and because he has saved us, we can
give ourselves gladly to him.
A grateful surrender.
And notice it's a practical surrender.
Verse 13.
Yield yourselves unto God as those that are
alive from the dead and your members.
Your members.
So here it gets very practical.
It's my feet where I go.
And my hands what I do.
And my ears what I hear.
And my tongue what I say.
And my eyes what I see.
And my whole being how I react.
What's your reactions brethren?
Or my whole being?
My whole being I give.
It's a practical surrender.
You see, this is fingertip religion now.
It's coming out at the fingertips.
And it's coming out at the feet.
I'm being led by God.
And where the rubber touches the road.
That's where it's at now.
There where we're moving into communion with other
people.
And we're having to do with other people
outside of Christ and inside of Christ.
That's where it's counting now.
Because it's my members.
So my encounter alone with God affects my
communion with other people and relationships with other
people.
So this is not an isolated thing.
My encounter with God.
My dealings with God.
My relationship with Him.
Alone in a room.
Alone away there.
That's not detached from life.
It works it's way clear through to my
fingertips.
It's a practical thing see.
And then it's not only a practical surrender.
Your members yield yourselves unto God as those
that are alive from the dead.
And your members as instruments.
Instruments brethren.
Not ornaments.
Yes.
Not ornaments.
He wants us to be used.
And He wants to take us up and
use us.
Instruments having teeth.
Thou shalt thresh the mountains.
My word.
God wants to take us up and use
us as we go forth from this place.
Instruments.
Surrender for service.
Instruments of righteousness.
Notice.
So the kingdom of righteousness is being extended
and the righteousness of God is being extended
through us to others because of our encounter
with Him.
There behind the scenes.
It's now working right through.
And we are being used by God as
instruments of righteousness.
And righteousness is now being spread.
We're being sought in the community.
And then it's a decisive surrender.
Notice.
He says yield yourselves.
And that's in the Aorist Tense for those
of you who know Greek.
The Aorist Tense is an instantaneous thing.
It's untranslatable in English and most other languages.
It's an instantaneous thing.
I yield.
What a fantastic thing.
I give myself away.
Lord here I am.
I yield myself.
You're so wonderful.
Can't hold anything back now.
You relish my wrath.
You'll be bright and morning star.
You're the Lord of my life.
I yield my word.
Isn't that beautiful.
So I know I've been crucified with Christ.
I identify with that.
I reckon myself to be dead.
I am reckoning upon what I know.
And I'm reckoning upon His life.
And now I'm yielding myself.
Totally.
Every bit.
And this wonderful encounter flows now through my
fingertips.
Now there's one more.
You're still with me?
Verse 16 and 17.
Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey?
His servants ye are to whom ye obey,
whether of sin unto death, or of obedience
unto righteousness.
But God be thanked that ye were the
servants of sin.
But ye have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which was delivered to you.
So you have obeyed.
That's the will.
You've obeyed volitionally.
From the heart.
That's the emotion.
You have obeyed emotionally.
That form of doctrine.
That's the intellect.
You have obeyed intellectually.
So here is a total obedience.
I'm giving myself to Him and I want
to obey Him.
You see, it's trusting and obeying.
I'm having faith in the death, faith in
the life, reckoning upon it, and now I'm
obeying.
There's no other way to be but to
trust and obey.
Trust and obey.
That's how you walk.
That's how you walk right through the next
year.
Trust and obey.
I'm trusting in the death.
I'm trusting in His life.
I'm reckoning upon it.
And I'm obeying Him.
Obedience builds solid character.
Matthew 7, 24.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, said
Jesus, and doeth them, I will liken him
unto a wise man which built his house
upon a rock.
You see, Christ's likeness is not formed by
massive brain power, but by obedience.
It builds solid character when I obey Him.
Because I'm walking in righteousness and building upon
righteousness.
And then it's a key to spiritual knowledge.
If any man will do his will, John
7, 17, he will know of the doctrine.
So I'm willing to do his will.
He is leading me and guiding me into
the truth.
And it's a condition for divine manifestation.
Obedience.
John 14, 21.
Favorite verse of mine.
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me, said Jesus.
And he that loveth me shall be loved
of my Father.
And I will love him.
He that keepeth my commandments and doeth them.
I will love him.
And will manifest myself unto him.
And that's the wonder of the life in
Christ.
The manifestation.
Now we heard the other day that you
just do it because it's right and you
pray because it's right.
But every now and again there's a manifestation
when you're open to God.
And there's that manifestation, the touch of God
and the openness of heaven.
Sometimes you get into prayer and you're right
there.
He is manifesting himself and you sense that
he is there and you draw upon his
strength and you are acquitted by and revived
by the strength and by the vision glorious.
But sometimes it takes five minutes to get
there.
Sometimes it takes ten minutes.
You're fighting with wandering thoughts.
Do you have any problems with wandering thoughts?
I do.
Wandering thoughts.
You fight and fight and fight and fight
and there you are.
You say Lord I'm coming to you now.
And I'm coming to seek your face this
very day.
And Lord I'm quietening my heart before you.
And you go and find yourself thinking about
what you did last week.
And what you're going to do next week.
And if there are pressures on at work,
those pressures come there all the time.
And you kneel for half an hour and
you get up and you think you've prayed
for half an hour and you haven't.
You've been daydreaming.
Any daydreamers here?
You've been daydreaming.
You haven't got anywhere near to God.
You see?
And you're fooling yourself.
But to pray through.
Sometimes it takes half an hour.
Sometimes it takes 40 minutes.
You're still battling and the day's begun.
You've got to get up and go.
But you haven't got through yet.
But the moment when you get through into
the presence of God.
Sometimes you get battling through not only a
wandering thought but a tired body.
My word I've found myself at two o
'clock, three o'clock in the morning.
Where am I?
I'm still kneeling.
I must have fallen asleep.
Get back into bed.
And that's also a battle.
But you get through.
And when you get through, he takes the
veil aside and you see Jesus.
And when you see Jesus, consecration is easy.
Because he is wonderful.
And it's easy to say, Lord I give
myself away.
And it keeps consecration fresh.
What?
The revelation of Christ.
The manifestation.
You see?
And when God manifests himself and shows himself
at the lattices, and shows himself and comes
nearer, then it's easy to give.
He dominates the scene.
He becomes so precious.
And the tears fall and the heart breaks.
And you rejoice in his presence.
And you give.
I used to get into this bondage when
I was a young lad.
Every now and again I'd give myself.
But I've already given myself to God.
What am I doing again?
But then I realized this is the language
of love.
Don't you like to give your wife something?
Give.
So I'm giving.
What can I give?
I can only give myself.
And so I give myself.
And Lord, here I am again.
I give myself to you.
And he takes what I give, friends.
He takes what I give.
But he also loves.
And he also gives.
And he gives, what can he give?
He gives himself.
And I take what he gives.
And I decrease because he's taking it away.
And he increases because I'm taking from him.
And I love to call it the heavenly
exchange bureau.
The heavenly exchange bureau.
It happens on my knees when I see
him.
Now brethren, this is the open secret of
spiritual vitality and growth.
Reckoning for victory, obeying for manifestation, and revelation,
and communion, and consecration.
Oh, are we going to do that this
next year?
We're going to live in these truths.
Get this paper and hear it over and
over and over again because this is necessary.
To hear, to respond to what he is
saying to my soul.
Now let me take you back to the
American history.
I'm an authority you know, oh yes.
There was a day when the slaves were
set free.
You remember that day?
You don't remember this, but you know it
in history.
The emancipation of the slaves.
That was what it was called.
The next day they were to be set
free.
They had wild parties.
My word, tomorrow we'll be free.
They had their drinking parties.
They had their wild parties.
Tomorrow we're going to be free.
The Christians got together and they prayed through
the night.
They sang through the night and drank through
the night.
But the Christians prayed through the night.
Tomorrow we're going to be free.
They sent their young men up onto the
hills to herald the first grey streaks of
dawn.
And yes, they waited till those grey streaks,
those white, the light began to shine in
the eastern sky.
And as it did, the young men on
top of the hills called down to those
in the valley.
The day has dawned.
We are free.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might
be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin, for he that is dead is freed
from sin.
We are free.
Has that day dawned for you?
You want to get back to that first
point and say, Lord, I want to know
it in my heart.
I'm coming to you now, right now at
this moment.
Please God, make it real in me and
enable me to discipline myself and enable me
to partake in all these great truths that
I've heard this morning so that my life
will go from strength to strength and I
will be caught up in the flow of
the Spirit as Jesus becomes more and more
precious to me throughout this year.
Brethren, I love you.
God needs men like this to take these
truths on board.
Take them.
Don't go away without absorbing them.
Get on your knees or get somewhere quiet
and say, Lord, please let me die.
If I'm still very much alive, please God,
apply that death now.
I want to go from this place a
new person and applying these principles.
God bless you.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you, my dear brethren, for the invitation.
God bless you.