The subject this evening is Man's Will.
Now, when we come to think about man's
will, and we come to think about God's
will, and we come to think about Satan's
will, you know, we're entering into one of
the deepest subjects that I know.
I know it's not a thing that's easily
handled, mind you, although I'm feeling off on
the shore just now.
I say this to this company, if you
can get a clear understanding of what I'm
about this evening, it will answer a thousand
questions for you that are always being answered
in this world, asked in this world.
You know, too many people come to me
and they say, why, why does God allow
war?
Why does God allow bombers to come over
and drop tons of TNT on cities where
there are harmless little children and blast them
to pieces?
Why?
Another one comes along the next day and
they say, why, why these different sufferings and
sorrows and tears?
Why all this?
Why do we have to go through this?
Could God not have made this world without
all this?
Why the pain?
Why the disease?
Why the suffering?
Why the tears?
Are these the questions that have been asked
down the ages by everyone?
And sooner or later you'll come into a
place and perhaps you'll look at me and
say, why, why?
Well, if you get this subject right this
evening, you'll get the answer to all these
questions.
Because if you would allow me now to
take you from this meeting, as it were,
into eternity past.
Just for a brief second, as it were.
Step out of time into eternity past.
Before the world was.
Before Satan's hell.
Right back down to where God made everything.
Where everything came from behind the bars.
When there was only one world.
God's world.
There were no fears.
There were no wars.
There was no death.
There was no pain.
And if I could lift this meeting now
and take it forward into eternity to come.
Into the new Jerusalem.
When the saints are gone home.
When there's just one world.
There'll be no more death.
And there'll be no more pain.
And there'll be no more tears.
And there'll be no more nights.
And no more toil.
The trouble with our universe is there are
more worlds at work than one.
If we could only get back in one
day, we will.
Till there's just the one world.
And the form of things that's puzzled some
of you will be wiped away forever.
Now I want to look first of all
at God's world.
I'm commencing at Romans chapter twelve.
The letter to the Romans.
Chapter twelve.
Verse one.
Romans twelve verse one.
I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is
your reasonable service.
Be not conformed to this world but be
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that ye may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Three things are said about the will of
God here that you'll need to note.
First of all it's said that the will
of God is good.
Good.
Then that word acceptable is put in there
and it's not the best word for the
Greek word that's used.
The word well-pleasing would be much better.
God's will is always good for man.
And God's will is always well-pleasing to
man when man knows exactly how to get
about it.
And then of course it goes without saying
that God's will is perfect.
And so here's God's will.
The will of God all the time for
all eternity is always good and well-pleasing
and perfect.
Perfect.
Now I want you to turn to the
book of Genesis chapter one Try to keep
that in your mind as we turn to
some scriptures.
Verse one.
Genesis one, verse one.
In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
Now I don't think that anybody in this
meeting could date exactly when that was.
I feel that all the young ones would
need to be brought to understand this that
between Genesis one and verse two there's a
great gap.
They just don't run concurrently like you think
they do.
You see it says in the first verse
In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.
And then in the second verse it says
And the earth was without form and voice.
God doesn't make things like that.
If God made anything it was perfect.
If God makes the thing it's good.
If God makes the thing it's well-pleasing.
Something has happened between verse one and verse
two.
The thing's without form now and it's void
and it's covered with darkness.
Something has happened.
And you want to be careful about these
verses because they've made them millions of years
between some of these verses.
And that's where I stand secure tonight and
say it doesn't make a matter what the
scientists find out about the rocks of this
world.
When they find out the rocks are millions
of years old I don't mind because God
made them in the beginning.
Nobody knows when that date is.
It can be as far back as they
like to go.
But betwixt the first verse and the second
one something happens.
You see when God created the heavens and
the earth He created Satan.
Not our Satan of course.
He created him as a wonderful, beautiful, shining
angel.
Good.
Well-pleasing.
Perfect.
Oh yes when we go through Ezekiel we
find he was perfect.
Thou wast perfect in all thy ways from
the day that thou wast created until sin
was found in thee.
Yet he was good and he was well
-pleasing to God and he was perfect.
And then when God had created the perfect
heavens and the earth and everything was good
and pleasing and perfect it was then that
Satan said I will be like God.
This is the second will coming into the
universe.
And the moment that another will reached its
head up to that point that God was
ruling everything God's will was perfect and good
and the only will that was known now
a rebel stepped into the front and said
I will.
And the moment that happened God turned the
universe upside down and it became void and
without form and darkness.
God judged that will.
God judged.
That's a will that came in to be
the opposer of God.
A rebel will that Satan's will.
Now I needn't go into the details of
that because on the night long ago I
spent or not the night I think I
spent about ten weeks dealing with Satan and
I got into these questions in a way
then that I can't afford to take the
time to go into now.
And so the earth became without form and
void.
Wonderful if you were reading in the French
Bible that word without form and void would
read like this it became hu hu boo
hoo Any French scholars here?
You know what it means don't you?
It became topsy turvy.
That's what it means.
God just lifted it like that and turned
it upside down.
And he said to Satan alright you're like
me fix it.
Thank you.
Satan couldn't fix it.
It remained in darkness just as long as
God left it alone.
You're like God are you?
Go ahead and fix it.
And when it's upside down Satan couldn't put
it right side up.
And when darkness came on the face of
the deep he couldn't bring light.
Because only God is light.
And so Satan was beginning to find out
he wasn't a bit like God.
And then when God had given him a
real poke in the ribs as it were
God went on with his plan.
He said alright I'll fix it.
He brings light.
He begins to dress him.
He brings man on the scene.
A man after his own image.
Perfect man that's what we dealt with one
night.
Did you know when the perfect man came
on the scene Satan came around again.
And he thought well now if I couldn't
defeat God one day I'll defeat him another
way.
And what he did he came along and
he tempted the woman.
You know all about it.
Have a look at the temptation again just
for a moment.
Chapter 3.
Genesis 3 verse 1.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any
beast of the field which the Lord God
had made.
And he said unto the woman yea.
But God said ye shall not eat of
every tree of the garden.
Now he began by asking questions.
And asking that sometimes Satan does the same
yes.
Hence the last question.
And the woman said unto the serpent we
may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden but of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of
the garden God has said ye shall not
eat of it neither shall you touch it
lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman ye
shall not surely die.
Now that's flat, blunt, bold contradiction of God's
will.
God had said ye shall surely die.
Satan said ye shall not surely die.
And when you read something in that book
it matters not who stands before you.
If they say different to that book they're
on the devil's side.
Why you hear people who very bluntly and
boldly say the opposite to the word of
God.
Well they're emissaries of hell.
They're what this Bible talks about, they're the
angels of light.
The ministers of Satan.
Ministers of Satan.
They're not all dead yet you know.
Some of them have got claws on round
their neck.
Some of them have got a gesture of
reverent this and that and the other.
But they're saying things opposite to that book.
And when you find somebody who says anything
opposite to this book he's on the devil's
side.
That's why I've got to be very careful
that I'll always keep close to the book.
The devil said ye shall not ye shall
not act a bold, blunt contradiction of what
God says.
And then he went further than that you
know, he didn't stop there.
Verse 5 For God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof then your eyes
shall be opened and ye shall be as
God, knowing good and evil.
You know that's an implication that God was
keeping back something from him that was good.
That's an implication.
He says you know, God's a soft man.
He knows right well if you eat of
the fruit you know you'll be far better
than you are now.
Now that's the sort of language he's come
along with this supple talk.
He says God's keeping back.
That's an implication that God doesn't give him
that which was good to his own children.
And then he went further than that.
He says and when the woman saw that
the tree was good for good and that
it was pleasant to the eyes the words
good and pleasant are here.
And the devil implied if you do what
I want you to do you'll get what's
good and pleasant and perfect.
That's very subtle, isn't it?
Now the woman was deceased.
That's what the book says.
The woman was deceased.
But I want you to notice that Adam
wasn't deceased.
The devil never deceased Adam at all.
Here's a wonderful chapter back here in 1
Timothy chapter 2.
1 Timothy chapter 2.
1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 12.
But says Paul I suffer not a woman
to teach nor to usurp authority over the
man but to be in silence.
It's a tight one for you, isn't it?
Oh, I could nearly pick off the brethren
minded ones in the meeting.
You've got to be fair to God's word,
you know.
I wouldn't like to be on the devil's
side no matter what happens.
This group before me says but I suffer
not a woman to teach.
Does it mean exactly what it says, of
course it does.
This group before me says but to be
in silence.
Does it mean exactly what it says, of
course it does.
Now there's some of you wavering now, aren't
you?
I think I've changed my mind in the
last two weeks, not a bit of me.
Now watch down in the next chapter just
for a moment.
Chapter 3 verse 15.
But if I carry long verse 14 these
things write I unto thee but if I
carry long that thou mayest know how thy
office shall beheave thyself in the house of
God which is the church of the living
God.
You know, the teaching that he's teaching here,
it's for the church.
Now always please remember that when he talks
about the church he's not talking about four
walls and a roof.
That's a building.
This is the town hall.
And all the places ever I've preached are
halls.
Even the baptist hall, yes.
The church is composed of living members and
they rest upon again one too.
How could you be in the church of
Jesus Christ if you hadn't a new life?
There's no dead things in his church.
Now the great point is here.
When does the church meet?
And I live bold to say of course
that the church meets only on Lord's Day
morning around the table.
That's when the church meets.
And there's no woman to speak at the
morning meeting.
That's your teaching of your book.
Now some folks try to argue with me.
They say, is a prayer meeting not the
church meeting?
No.
And my plain answer is, come and argue
afterwards if you want to.
Did the church begin then?
Yes, chapter two, that's right.
Holy Ghost came down and formed the body,
the church.
There was a prayer meeting in chapter one.
The church.
It was informed.
Happened to be a prayer meeting.
Some people say, is the gospel meeting not
the church meeting?
Philip went down to Samaria and preached the
gospel one month.
Is that the church?
I'd love to have a word with some
of you, you know.
I would kill you, my dear.
Send one man preaching the gospel.
It's not the church.
Paul stood up at my first answer and
no man stood with me, all alone.
Is he the church?
No.
Gospel meeting is not the church meeting.
Prayer meeting is not the church meeting.
This is a Bible meeting.
This is not the church meeting.
We're met around the book tonight.
Look, on Thursday night we are meeting around
the truth.
On Sunday night we meet around the cross.
Tonight we meet around the Word.
On Sunday morning we meet around the Lord.
That's the church meeting.
And you know there's order in the church
meeting.
Because the Lord is the head of the
church.
That's why he's supreme on Sunday morning.
The man is the head of the woman.
That's why he's supreme.
And never any of you women ever be
caught guilty of getting up to pray on
a Sunday morning.
If you do, I'll get up and stop
you.
The teaching of this book is you're the
best man.
You should be in subjection.
You are not to usurp authority over the
man in the church.
But there's nobody keeping your back from praying
in the prayer meeting.
And there's nobody keeping your back from preaching
the gospel away or not.
In the church.
How thou oughtest to behave thyself in the
church.
That's what it was written for.
These things write I unto you that you
might know how you ought to behave yourself
in the church.
And that order comes for this reason.
Now watch your book now.
1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 12 is
where we were reading.
But I suffer not a woman to teach,
not to usurp authority over the man, but
to be in silence.
Now if the word silence there had meant
that a woman was to be silent right
through life as far as the things of
God were concerned.
Would you come up and tell me why
God gives some woman the gift of prophecy?
Well you could say nothing else and God
was a fool.
If he wanted to keep women silent why
did he give them the gift of prophecy?
Bless us all you couldn't keep them silent
even when the hob and dust began.
I'll get into trouble for this now.
Now look there was real wonderful order here.
God says there's to be silence in the
church.
And then comes in verse 13.
For having your thirst called, there need.
You know my dear sister the man thirst
and the same order prevails in the church.
Then she meets him Sunday morning.
Christ is the hand and then the man's
neck.
And to show that you're subject unto the
teaching of God's word you're asked to be
silent.
In the church.
Less than with silence in the church.
Then he goes on to say this.
And Adam in verse 14.
And Adam was not deceived.
But the woman being deceived was in the
transgression.
Now I want you to get that bit.
Adam was not deceived.
That's the bit I'm after.
You know when I come through this part
of the head.
I'll thrash out this woman business then with
a real vengeance.
I only have to explain the verses I
pass by in case some of you thought
I was afraid of it.
But what I'm really after is this.
That Adam was not deceived.
You know the devil came down and deceived
the woman.
But Adam's standing quietly in the shadow here
now and he knows all about it you
know.
His memory is working.
He remembers what God said.
And his imagination is working.
He knows what will take place.
He's never seen anybody dead yet but he
can imagine what it's like.
God said thou shalt truly die.
And he's looking at the truth of God
and he's understanding it.
That they know we can say thou shalt
truly die little Zolobot.
And with every faculty working.
He boldly.
Most despisedly.
Made a decision.
I disobey God.
And it was then he entered.
It was just then.
This book says not because of the woman
shall he die.
For I found man's disobedience.
Tremendous.
Poor woman was deceived.
Adam wasn't deceived.
That's what I'll show you now.
He just said I'll go my own way.
I'll just go my own way.
That's another world coming into the universe.
That's the third world.
We've seen God's world.
Good.
Pleasant.
Perfect.
We've seen Satan's world.
I will be like God.
Now comes in Adam's world.
That makes a triangle in the world tonight.
That's where all the trouble comes from.
You know friends.
God wants man to do his will.
And Satan wants man to do his will.
And the trouble is man wants to do
your will.
Satan wants to obey Satan.
Not that he wants to obey God.
He's got a way of his own.
All we, that sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to our own name.
We wear the robe.
You know friends.
Satan would love to get the world into
a place of false religion.
Where they would actually worship him.
He's bent all the time.
He said to Christ, I'll give you everything
if you fall down and worship me.
When the Antichrist comes he'll give him all
his power that the world will fall down
and worship him.
And I'll tell you this.
You're nearer to the devil's side when you're
a hypocrite playing about with religion and you
don't want Christ.
That's very severe, isn't it?
You see these poor drunkards that go drinking
every Saturday night that tumble out onto the
street.
They're not going the devil's way.
They're going their own way.
Their own way.
It's their choice.
The devil doesn't want them like that.
He would rather have them speak in a
form of religion without power.
And the bitterest thing said and not booked
by our Lord Jesus Christ was fed to
empty, dead, form of religion.
He said, you hypocrite.
Rolled up on religion.
It was to that very people.
Keep the religion, he said.
We are of the power of the devil.
He said that to the harlot woman, you
know.
It's not a difficult thing.
He said that to some of the old
hypocrites and he said, yes.
Some of you are stuck in churches.
You have no fame for Christ.
You know, you love to just be fiddling
about with religious toys, don't you?
Well, God puts it.
If you can't bow your knees and accept
Christ then God knows you're only playing about
with an old thing the devil wants you
to play about with.
But you know a man that goes drinking
and a man that goes running after women
and a man that only lives for pleasure
dancing and eating.
Remember him?
Couldn't must be.
That man is going his own way.
Going his own way.
Well, this brings a real jangle into the
world, doesn't it?
Some of us why we just live for
the lusts of the flesh.
Other folks are deceived by Satan.
And so very few of us ever consider
exactly getting to the place where God's will
is evident.
No wonder those tears and pain and wars
and trouble and sorrow and death down here.
There are three wills at work.
Now, let's have a look at the man
going his own way just for a moment.
Have a look at 1 Peter.
1 Peter chapter 4, verse
1.
1 Peter 4, verse 1 For as much
then as Christ has suffered for us in
the flesh and when he says us, he
means the believers all yourselves likewise with the
same mind for he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath faced some sin that he
no longer should live the rest of his
time the rest of his time that's before
him, as a believer in the flesh through
the lusts of men but through the will
of God.
He's an expert.
For the time past, the time before you
suffered the loss of all life may suffice
us to have lost the will of the
Gentiles.
You see, we walked then.
We walked in the lusts of the flesh.
See friends, there are people in this world
tonight and they're walking just in the lusts
of the flesh.
That's their own way.
We just have our own way.
We'd rather have the pictures.
We'd rather have the sport.
We'd rather have the drinks.
We'd rather have the woman.
That's our own way.
That's the will of mind.
You see, when Adam disobeyed God his understanding
became darkened.
Remember I showed you that last week?
Yet his imagination became clouded, fogged.
His memory, friend, it's prison fixed.
It doesn't want to remember him.
And he can just see one path.
That's the path for me.
That path.
That's the will of mind.
The lusts of the flesh.
And then some of them, you know, they
get into a deeper thing where the devil
has deceived them and they're playing about with
ecclesiastical toys and they have no time for
Christ.
If you would ask them to come to
this platform on Sunday evening to give their
testimony, they'd die with Christ.
They haven't got any testimony.
They wouldn't know what you're talking about.
You'd ask some of the old dead ministers
how many were saved last year they would
drop dead at your feet.
They wouldn't know a thing about it.
Remember, friend, you can be deceived by the
devil.
So, take care of where you are tonight.
Are you walking in the devil's will?
Or are you walking in man's will?
Or are you getting into the temple of
God's will?
Mind you, you'll only get into God's will
through God's words.
You shall see that in a moment.
Now, here's something else that comes in with
the crash.
John chapter 6.
John's gospel.
Chapter 6.
Verse 35.
The Lord Jesus is speaking here and here's
what he said.
Jesus said unto them, I am the bread
of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger
and he that believeth on me shall never
thirst.
But I said unto you that ye also
have seen me and believe not.
All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me and him that cometh to me
I will in the white cross.
For I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will but the will of
him that faced me.
Say, the trouble between the Father and the
Son?
Did the Father want one thing and the
Son want another?
Totally yes, isn't it?
Jesus said, I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will but the will
of him that faced me.
Was his own will opposite from the will
of him that faced me?
Quite one, isn't it?
It almost looks like that on the page
of Scripture.
Let me tangle it up for you.
The Father's will is always good and well
-pleasing and perfect.
But when the Father looked down, he saw
the Son, he said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well-pleased.
So he's all right up to this.
And then, friend, this Son, you remember one
day he said to the rich young girl,
why callest thou me good?
There's none good but God.
And what he was teaching the young man
is this.
Just because I'm the absolute essence of goodness,
I'm God.
Or if you would like to point out
to me where our Lord Jesus quite wasn't
good, I'll be glad to meet you.
It's an open challenge to this.
Anybody here like to put their finger on
them, say Mr. Morley wasn't good?
Would you?
Because I defy you.
I just stand before this audience and I
defy every living being in this town to
show me one spot where Christ was not
good.
And then the Father took him out of
the grave, up through the clouds, and set
him at his own right hand.
And then he gave him a name that's
above every name, that's the name of Jesus.
Every knee shall bow.
Do you think he wasn't perfect?
And so friends, I wouldn't need to take
very long to prove that he was good
and well-behaving, until then we'd need to
get the meaning of this thing.
And the meaning of this thing is very
simple, but it's very wonderful.
You know, the Father and the Son dwelt
together in eternity past.
He was on the bosom of the Father.
That speaks of the very sweetest and deepest
fellowship they ever communed.
And you know, the Father could see all
that was going to happen down through the
ages.
The old devil of sin, he's deceived the
woman, and then the man will take her
on church, and then bring sorrow and shame
and sin to that world and fill it
with sinners.
But I want to save sinners, I want
to save sinners.
The cry of the Father.
And Son, Son, there's only one way I
can save sinners, and that is you go
into the darkness and go out of fellowship
with me.
Isn't that dreadful?
Seems as if the Father, in his love
for the world, is going to push the
Son down into the depths of darkness at
Calvary, where the Son will cry, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
No, the Son never willed to leave the
Father.
If it was never my will.
I never wanted to go out of fellowship
with you.
But if that's the plan, and if that's
the only way of salvation, then I'll come
not to do mine own, but thine.
No rebellion there.
He never came to rebel against God's will.
He came as a perfect son to submit
to God's will.
And he has become so.
By one man's disobedience, listen to it, penance.
Here's the other verse.
By one man's obedience.
Oh, praise Him.
Praise God for the Father and the Son.
You know the Father so loves sinners.
So loves the world.
Oh, that that would touch us this evening.
Oh, that we could see it in the
greatest, deepest reality, what it meant to God.
And God wanted to save you.
He sent his Son.
Gave his Son.
So loved.
Gave his Son.
Jesus, so loved.
But He gave Himself.
All right.
That's the Son's will.
That's another will.
But a blessed one, isn't it?
So that we have God's will.
We have Satan's will.
We have man's will.
We have Christ's will.
I tell you, friends, it gets deeper as
it goes on.
And the wonder of it all is this.
That because God gave His Son, and because
Christ gave Himself, that the Father can stand
tonight and say, Whosoever believeth in Jesus shall
have eternal life.
That's the life that they're going to live
right down yonder.
It doesn't begin away in heaven, you know.
It begins here.
The life that desires only the will of
God As a friend, that's new life.
That's not going my own way.
That's being born again so that I desire
the will of God.
That's wonderful, you know.
I'll show you how that happens, isn't it?
Watch it.
John's Gospel, chapter 1.
John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 10.
He was in the world, and the world
was made by Him, and the world knew
Him not.
He came unto His own, and His own
received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on His
name, which were born.
Now watch this.
Which were born.
Not.
This is the way you don't get born
again.
Not of blood.
Nor of the will of the flesh.
Nor of the will of man.
You can't get born then.
Three ways you can't get born again.
Have a look at the three ways you
can't get born again, folks.
You're looking at God's Word now.
You be careful with this.
You can't get born of blood.
It doesn't make a matter what blood runs
in your veins tonight.
I hear them talking about royal blood, and
blue blood.
I know nothing about it.
And I know the blood that's in a
negro's veins is the same blood that's in
mine.
You like to fetch, then go and get
the medical folk to fetch it, and they'll
tell you that they're just the same.
And if I didn't know anything about medicine,
I know this book behind me, that of
one blood, God has made all nations.
The color of a man's skin doesn't matter,
you know.
Well, it doesn't make a matter who your
father is.
Just because he's your father, doesn't mean to
say that you can be born again because
there's blood in your veins.
You're not born again of blood.
Then you can't get born again of the
will of the flesh.
You know, you can't walk down the street
one day and put your arms in your
pocket and say, well, I'll just get born
again.
No, you can't.
Oh, no.
Friends, the point is, if you won't accept
God comes and moves and convicts you and
breaks you down, you'll never want to get
saved.
You don't get saved by the will of
the flesh.
I hear the tape that's bit in the
meeting tonight.
You can't get born again by the will
of man.
You know, there's an old duke and he
was on the wireless last night.
Tell him I said that to him.
And he talked, you know, about baptismal regeneration,
didn't he?
Good for him.
Well, that just means that he thinks this,
that he can say to a woman, you
bring your baby on the second morning at
the second time to the second place, and
I'll drop, drop, drop to water and I'll
be born again.
That's the will of the flesh.
That's the will of man.
Does he think he can do it?
Does he think that he can just give
you new birth when he selects the date?
Cool joke, isn't it?
And there's the book, line open.
You can't be born again by the will
of man.
That's God's authority.
And when somebody says something that's opposite to
that book they're on the devil's side.
Have you got it?
Keep the hold of it.
You can't be born again by the will
of the flesh.
No, it's not.
No, it's by the will of man.
It doesn't make a matter what man he
is.
You could select the date and the time
and the place for your new birth.
Who could?
It'd be a joke, the topic.
This book before you says this.
Watch it now.
Then that we're born, verse 13, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of
God.
Ah, that's how you get born again.
You know, this thing's all of God.
Watch it.
You know, God loves the world.
Where's the God?
In his great big heart of love.
He loved it, he stole love.
It'll give you five.
And God sent his Son.
God sent his Son.
And God crushed his Son.
It pleased the Lord.
Mind you, it pleased the Lord.
That was God's will.
For it was good that it pleased the
Lord.
And it was perfect.
It was done.
God crushed him.
Then God brought him back from the dead.
Then God the Holy Ghost came to present
him.
And it's God that moves and uplifts and
touches and reveals Christ and drives you to
Christ.
For you can't come except the power of
God.
And when God has done all that, and
he shows you the whole thing in your
understanding of one thing, that God loves you,
and that God sent Christ to die for
you, and that the work done is a
good work, and it's a perfect work, and
it's well pleasing to God.
When you understand all that, and then you
hear the sweet training of the Gospel brought
to your heart by God, whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
You can make a decision.
And you could do it now.
You could look at the Saviour full in
the face, by faith.
And you could say, Christ only.
You could do it with your whole heart.
You could put your whole being into the
hand of the taker, and pass from death
to life.
That's what you think.
And be born again.
Born of God.
Oh, it's wonderful.
I was there when it happened.
Praise God, I'll never forget it.
It's amazing.
It's not something that happens that you don't
know about.
It's really wonderful.
Now, we've got on a bit now.
We've got God's will, and Satan's will, and
man's will, and Christ's will, and now we've
got the person who was lost, fallen creature,
born again.
Now, what about him?
Friends, there's something very deep about him that
we would need to really consider.
So, let's have a look at Philippians, chapter
2.
The letter to the Philippians, chapter
2.
But Paul's writing to those who have trusted
Christ, who were really born again, he says
in verse 12, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye
have always obeyed, not as in my present
only, but now much more in my absence,
work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling, for it is God who has it,
which worketh in you both to will and
to do of his See the two words
together, with pleasure.
You know, friends, that's the wonder of being
saved.
You become a child of God.
And now the God who sent his Son
and the Christ who left you and saved
you, the Holy Ghost takes up the work
now to work in you both to will
and to do of God's good pleasure, God's
good will.
God's good, pleasing, perfect will.
The Holy Ghost comes to work.
Now, it's not all as easy as that,
of course.
You see, you're born again, you've got a
nature that wants to go God's way and
God's Holy Ghost works in you to will
and to do, but you know, you've still
got an old nature that would love to
have its own way.
Now, watch Romans chapter 7 now.
Romans 7, verse 15, for the sake of
time.
For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me.
But how to perform that which is good,
I find not.
What's the next verse?
For the good that I would, I do
not.
But the evil that I would not, that
I do.
Ah, that's the problem with all us believers.
You know, we're born again through, we were
there when it happened, we've accepted Christ, we've
got new birth, new life.
We want to go God's way.
Do you know, we know what is good
and perfect and acceptable.
We know that good, pleasing will of God.
But friends, there's something in here that's really
going contrary to God.
And I have a will with me because
God has wrought that will in me to
will and to do.
But when I would do the good, well,
evil is present with me.
You know, there's an old nature there and
it wants to go its own way.
So many young believers stand in between the
two points and they're confused.
They really know they're saved.
They really know that they want to do
God's will.
But how to perform?
They find that they don't know how to
do it.
The trouble is that they try to make
the old man do God's will and he
won't do it, you know.
But there's a way out.
Paul went through this thing until he cried,
O wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me?
Here's the answer at the end of Romans.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
There's the answer.
That's always the answer.
The answer to everything.
Jesus Christ.
He didn't only come to die, to be
the sacrifice and the Savior.
He lived to be your life.
And when you know God's way is that
way, and the old flesh wants to go
that way, you'll never burn your head to
rise and go that way.
You'll need to come to Christ and say,
O Lord, give me grace, give me strength,
give me power.
Let the Savior let me conclude my words.
Only then you'll walk in the center of
the King's highway doing the will of God
from your heart.
God said to this, Heaven will begin down
here.
You know, there's no sorrow about it.
Bless God.
It brings a song into your very soul
within the center of the will of God.
And everything's good, and it's well pleasing, and
it's perfect.
One day, four and a half years ago,
God challenged me in a big church in
Belfast with a crowd as big as this
to leave it and go down to a
little place in America.
And all my best friends said, Don't go.
You've just got a wee bunch down there.
Don't go.
But I don't listen to my best friends.
I listen to God, what God wills.
And His will was to go, and I
can say honestly to the rest of my
heart, it has been good, and it has
been pleasing.
Get into the center and shall we pray?
Let's pray.
Let's be still just for a moment.
Just in these moments, try to claim that's
where you are.
Are you walking in the will of man?
You're just having your own way.
It doesn't make a matter what God will
bring you here.
Are you walking in the will of Satan?
Friend, are you coming to the place of
my protection and the spirit protection and the
will of God to take you and turn
you into the center of God's will?
Dear believers, get there.
And all you kids trained at this moment,
think how much God loves you.
He gave His Son.
Think how much Christ loves you.
He said, Father, I'll do it.
I'd rather be with you, but I'll do
it.
Think how much the Spirit loves you when
He's knocking at your door now.
And you can be born again if you'll
come and trust Christ with your whole heart.
We're saying that I believe God's working and
I know that Christ is waiting.
My saints get roused with God and my
sinners get saved.
Lord, blessed are you for Christ's glory.
Amen.
Just three verses.
616.
Just three verses.
Take my life.
Let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days.
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
The first and last two verses.
First and last two.
616.
Dear Lord,
part us in Thy fear and with Thy
blessing through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.