We've been talking the past two Sundays about
the biggest problem that each one of us
faces in our everyday life.
And I think you'll agree when I tell
you what it is.
It's the problem expressed by Paul in that
verse that we read.
I do not understand my own actions, for
I do not do what I want, but
I do the very thing I hate.
And I would bet that it doesn't matter
whether you are sitting beside your wife at
this moment, or whether you're sitting beside a
roommate, or whether you're sitting beside a friend,
or a stranger.
I would bet that every one of you
has felt that as I have felt it.
You've been in situations where you knew your
mother was desperately wanting your love, or you've
been with a friend and you knew what
that friend needed desperately was your understanding or
your kindly patience.
And you've had to say after the event
was over, I don't understand my own actions,
for I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate.
And many of us remember it when we
were little guys or girls at home.
We remember well enough throwing a tantrum because
somebody took our toy, or we didn't get
the cookie that we wanted.
But the tragedy for most of us is,
it hasn't changed one bit.
We just cover over the tantrum a little
better, or we express it a little differently
to our employees, or we express it as
criticism if it's about our employer because you
can't throw a tantrum with him, so you
criticize him underneath by kind of whispering stuff.
But you know in your heart, it's still
the same problem.
I do not understand my own actions because
I don't do what I want to do.
There's something in me that wants to do
the right thing.
I really don't want to hurt my mother
like that.
I really don't want to hurt my friend
like that.
Actually, even that professor, even though he isn't
particularly kind, I don't even want to do
him down the way I'm doing with this
criticism talk and this backbiting.
And I really don't want to even hurt
that woman in the office.
But I don't understand my actions because I
don't do what I want to do.
I do the very thing I hate.
And I have to admit that often these
are the very actions and attitudes that I'm
criticizing in other people.
And I find that I'm doing them myself.
And maybe I see the well-known figures
like Carter or Reagan or somebody else do
these things, and I take it out on
them, but I know that I'm doing the
same things, just in smaller ways.
So loved ones, that's the central problem, I
think, of mankind.
I don't think the central problem is knowing
what we ought to do.
I think we all have enough information on
that.
I think we know what we ought to
do.
The problem is we can't do it.
And then, of course, the tragedy we were
talking about is that though the whole world
feels that, many of us who think that
we've been born of God, many of us
who think we have received His Spirit, we
do know that Jesus has died for us.
Many of us are in that position.
That's it.
Many of us who say we believe in
God and who say we believe Jesus is
our Savior and who say we believe Jesus
died for us and the blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sins, many of us
are in that same spot.
You see, I don't know about you, if
you're not what they call a Christian or
whatever that word now means or whatever being
born again means.
If you're not that, well, in a way,
you can hope that there's something that will
help you.
But those of us who do claim to
be born of God and who do claim
to know Jesus as our Savior and believe
in God and all that stuff, we're in
a hideous position because we've kind of taken
the step that everybody says is the solution
and we find ourselves still in this spot.
And I'd just like to remind those of
you who were here last Sunday that it's
not a business of actions, actually, that is
the problem with most of us who are
so-called Christians.
Most of us who are so-called Christians
feel we ought to have at least the
outward control over our actions and words that
people like Socrates and Plato had, who were
just noble pagans.
So we believe that we ought to be
able to do that because of the Holy
Spirit that has made us alive to God.
But of course, what gets to us is
that even though on the outside we seem
to live by all the Christian virtues, inside
there is a seething, miserable, perverse strain of
irrationalism that makes us feel utterly different from
the way we're behaving outside.
And that's, I think, what gets to us.
On the outside, we're churchgoers.
On the outside, we're being patient like Jesus.
We're loving people.
We're being honest and generous.
But inside, often, often, often, we're smiling, sticking
out the old hand, saying, how are you?
And how's the family?
And oh, I thought about you.
And inside, we're thinking, what a creep you
are.
Or somebody sings and they sing beautifully and
we go up and say, oh, that was
a beautiful song.
You have a great voice.
And inside, but really, I have a better
voice.
It's just people don't know it.
And loved ones, that's the problem, you know.
That's the agony of it.
It's simple little things.
You're going out to shop and she is
not right there.
So you want to close the door, you
know, because you don't want the dog to
get into the car, but you close it
a little firmly.
Are you really there?
That's it.
And there isn't peace.
There isn't peace in your heart towards your
loved one.
There isn't real love.
There's kind of irritability seething underneath.
And we come home at night and you're
supposed to be nice to each other, but
you don't feel nice inside.
You feel irritable and impatient.
And of course, from time to time, that
breaks out into the life.
And so that's the problem, loved ones.
That's the central problem of mankind.
That even if some of us seem to
gain some control outwardly of our actions, whether
because we're involved in Christianity or because we're
involved in Zen Buddhism or because we're involved
in the positive thinking, though some of us
gain some control outwardly over our actions and
our words, yet most of us have incredible
problems with inward sin, this attitude of self
that we ought to get things our way
and we have a right to have them
our way.
And if they don't go our way, we're
impatient, we're irritable, we're resentful, we're critical, we're
angry, we're jealous, we're selfish, we're self-pitying,
we're resentful.
Even though we keep all that stuff under
wraps, it's inside us.
And that's of course what creates the ulcers,
the adrenaline.
That's what makes us old before our time.
You know that?
That's why at times we can't sleep at
night.
There's a strain in our life.
That's what disease is, you see.
It's a lack of ease.
We're meant, you know the way a swallow
soars into the sky on the wind, effortlessly?
That's the way we're meant to live.
But because so many of us are hiding
this garbage inside, we're always on guard, we're
always uptight, we're always afraid of things.
And of course what we shared last Sunday
was, so many of us who call ourselves
Christians are resorting to the same hopeless, pointless,
powerless techniques and weapons that the world resorts
to to try to overcome this.
That's the stupid part.
Loved ones, I say this lovingly, and knowing
there are some psychologists and psychiatrists in the
body, I think psychology and psychiatrists are primarily
of value for showing the person who doesn't
believe in God, who doesn't believe in Jesus,
what life is meant to be like.
And easing them along towards it, and in
their way, expressing to them what the whole
life is in Jesus.
On an odd occasion, they can help, if
they know the centrality of the cross, they
can help a Christian.
But loved ones, on the whole, Christians today
are resorting to psychiatrists and psychologists, to the
power of positive thinking, to how to improve
your temperament, to how to win by intimidation,
to sensitivity groups, to all kinds of methods
and techniques which are the world's poor substitute
for God's real answer to this perverted self
inside us.
That's true.
And loved ones, the dear ones in the
New Testament, they didn't have the power of
positive thinking, and they didn't have all the
psychiatrists, and they didn't have all this other
stuff that is primarily part of the common
grace of God to lead those who don't
believe in Him to Him.
But God has made provision in Christ for
the solution of this evil heart of darkness
within us.
He has made provision in Christ.
And the victory is by faith, and not
by this endless reading of books, or this
endless attendance at more and more conferences, or
more and more sensitivity groups, or more and
more counseling.
Loved ones, the victory is by what God
has done to us in Jesus.
Because there is a further work.
There is a further work.
See, so many of us think Jesus died
for our sins, so that God could forgive
us, so that if we sinned again we
would not go to hell, but we could
confess the sin, and God, of course, would
forgive us because of Jesus.
And that is, that's the first way we
enter into any relationship with God, and that's
real, that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures.
But each time you lose your temper, each
time you get angry, each time you feel
resentful, each time you feel irritable, each time
you feel unclean inside, each time you feel
proud, that's God, that's God tapping you on
the shoulder and saying that there's a further
reason why my son died.
I want you to know that.
There's a further reason why my son died,
and that's what's happening and God does not
want you to go off and try to
find some method of taming this lion inside
by yourself, because you actually don't want them
tamed.
Do you know that?
You don't realize it, but you don't actually
want them tamed.
At times you like self-pity, at times
you like to be irritable, at times it
gives you satisfaction to be angry, so actually
you don't want them tamed, and God knows
that.
And so it doesn't matter how many helps
you get for taming them, you'll never, you'll
never kill a little deer, you know, you
never will.
You'll appear to kill them, you know, oh
you're a terrible self, I'll lash you with
the power of positive thinking, I'll kick you,
I'll hold you down, I'll suffocate you, oh
I'm so holy I don't want anything to
do with you.
Actually, that's you in there, that self is
you, and you haven't the heart to kill
that self, and actually you can't.
And the miracle that the Holy Spirit showed
me in the Bible was that the solution
to that personality of yours and mine that
is so intractable, and that we cannot control
with books or with discipline, the miracle is
that Jesus knows you intimately, and He knew
you actually before you were born, and I
know it baffles us, but through Einstein we
can get a glimpse of it.
Jesus was actually able to foresee what you
would be like today, He was.
And by a cosmic miracle, God, the Creator
who made you, was able to take your
present personality, that old self of yours, with
its sneaking desire to be jealous and proud,
and was able to put that self into
a son.
And on Calvary, He expressed the cosmic miracle
that He did in eternity.
That's all, you know, Calvary is just a
time, the expression and time and space of
the great miracle that God wrought upon each
one of us in His Son.
God put your old self into a son
and destroyed it.
And loved ones, that's the key to victory
in our life.
And the beginning of some hope of victory
in your life and mine is when we
see the solution to this problem inside me
is not other people helping me, other books,
my own discipline, thinking more positively about myself,
trying to build up my own esteem.
It's not that.
It is seeing that the solution to this
is what God did to you in His
Son on Calvary.
And then you start talking to the Holy
Spirit who is in you.
If you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit is
in you.
And you begin to ask Him to counsel
you and show you, Holy Spirit, I believe
this because God's Word says it, but I'll
tell you, I have no idea how to
bring it about in my own life.
And that's right, you can't bring it about.
So the first thing you say is, Holy
Spirit, will you show me what is down
here?
I must admit, I've seen a little anger,
little jealousy, little pride, but they're not very
much to bother about.
But I have a feeling I'm not seeing
things as my Father sees me.
So Holy Spirit, will you show me myself
as my God sees me?
That's the first step, loved ones.
And the Holy Spirit will show you.
And let Him sort you out, you know,
let Him go down to the depths.
Why are you angry?
Why do you get angry?
I mean, really, why do you get angry?
Think of places where you've been angry.
Think of people and situations that you've been
angry in or at.
Now, why do you get angry?
Now, you see, the amazing thing is you
can give your answers, but the Holy Spirit
will take you to the heart of yourself,
where He'll show you that really, it's because
you still live for yourself.
However much you think you live for Jesus,
you're living for yourself.
Really, you get angry because you still think
you are God.
And everything should go your way.
And that's why you have such a burden
in your life.
You're trying to be God and you're not
God.
You're trying to make things go the way
God would make them go and you can't.
And so it's frustrating.
And the first thing is for the Holy
Spirit to show you these things.
So, loved ones, first of all, speak to
the Holy Spirit.
Ask Him to show you these things.
Secondly, see that it is by faith that
that old self of yours that has been
crucified is actually negated in your life and
is replaced by the new self in Jesus.
That's it.
I mean, it's not killing your old self.
It's not with Luther beating your body and
trying to crucify yourself.
It's not.
The victory is it has been done.
Already it has been done.
God has destroyed you.
He has destroyed that old, selfish, evil heart
inside you.
It's destroyed in Jesus.
And this very moment it can be released
in you and delivered.
You can be delivered from it the moment
you see that and believe it.
That's why I say the victory is by
faith.
The victory is not by trying.
The victory is not by striving.
The victory is not by fighting or oppressing
or suppressing or believing or counseling.
The victory is by faith.
By faith.
And faith is twofold.
It's believing that it has been done in
Jesus.
That our old self was crucified with Christ.
And secondly, it is a willingness to obey
the Holy Spirit immediately and instantly.
That's it.
That's what the victory is.
And that's what faith is.
It's belief and obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Now loved ones, that's what's called the baptism
of the Holy Spirit.
And every time that Christians were baptized with
the Holy Spirit, they experienced a releasing of
their true selves.
They did.
You find if you read, if you read
the Acts of the Apostles, there are six
separate occasions when it's mentioned that people were
baptized with the Holy Spirit.
The first one was the day of Pentecost.
They were facing an international crowd who couldn't
speak Aramaic.
And the Holy Spirit gave them what they
needed.
He gave them an ability to speak in
different languages.
The next time, it was at the end
of Peter's sermon.
And there were 3,000 people who were
baptized with the Holy Spirit and they didn't
speak in tongues.
Their need was to enter into a close
fellowship with each other and to begin to
love each other.
And that's what happened.
On the third occasion, you remember Paul was
baptized with the Holy Spirit and he began
to receive power from God to explain the
faith to other people.
On another occasion, you remember Cornelius was baptized
with the Holy Spirit and he was at
that time a Gentile, as were the people
in his house.
And so God, in order to signify that
they had actually been baptized with the Holy
Spirit, enabled them to speak in tongues.
And so at the end, Peter and Paul
began to realize that the Holy Spirit was
being poured out upon Jews and Gentiles, whatever
they were.
And it's interesting, looking back on the two
occasions when people spoke in tongues, Peter didn't
say, oh, you remember God made no distinction
between them and us, but gave them the
Holy Spirit and gave them the ability to
speak in tongues.
He didn't.
He said God made no distinction between them
and us on the day of Pentecost or
on Cornelius's house.
He made no distinction between them and us,
but he cleansed their hearts by faith.
And that's what was precious to the people
who were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Not so much the outward thing that happened,
which at times was a great love, at
times was a power to preach, at times
was a power to speak in a foreign
language, but that the Holy Spirit cleansed their
hearts by faith.
Loved ones, that's the purpose of the baptism
of the Holy Spirit.
He can cleanse you inside.
He can make you clean inside.
He can make real in you the complete
destruction of you as you are and the
recreation of you as you truly are in
Jesus.
The Holy Spirit can make that real in
you this day, actually.
But many of us, it does take some
prayer and some searching because we have so
much down there that's dirty.
But really, as far as God is concerned,
it can happen this moment by faith.
If you really grasp the fact that not
only Ernest O'Neill was wiped out on
Calvary and no longer is alive, but that
you, John, Jim, Peter, Gene, you were wiped
out on Calvary and you were made new
in Jesus.
And loved ones, that's what I'm living on.
And boy, if I were you, I'd start
living on that too.
Because then the Holy Spirit brings power in
your life and replaces hatred with love and
replaces impatience with patience and replaces jealousy with
a love of people.
And that's the miracle, loved ones.
Baptism.
So, you know, over the rest of this
year, we'll talk about it at different times,
especially on Sunday evenings.
That's all we talk about on Sunday evenings.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit and the
life that follows that.
So from next Sunday evening, we'll have communion.
And then the following Sunday evenings will be
just that, right through the winter.
Here from time to time in morning service,
we'll come back to it.
But loved ones, that's the key.
That's the answer.
There are plenty of books in the bookstore.
If you want to read that, you can
just look up.
I think it must be under Victorious Life,
is it?
If Tom is here, Victorious Life, maybe.
But you can go down to the bookshop
and you'll see it, you know.
And begin to read and begin to enter
in.
Because that's the answer.
That's the key.
Any questions?
Really, men.
If you want to pray, you know, after
service, then there's a prayer room in there
and you can at least begin.
Or you can just sit where you are
and there are others of us who will
be here and we can talk, you know.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that there is
some answer.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lord.
Even if we don't understand it, at least
there's some answer.
Because the life that so many of us
are living with these feelings and passions within
us that we can't control is hardly life.
So, Lord, thank you that there is an
answer.
Thank you that there is some way in
which we can be made over again completely,
which we can receive a new heart from
you.
And, oh, dear God, don't think there's one
of us here that doesn't want it.
But we know, Lord, that there is a
price.
And the price is to be willing to
live our lives for you and not for
ourselves.
So, Lord, we know we need to count
the cost and see what it's going to
cost us.
But, Lord, we would pray for each other
and ask you to continue to bear in
on our hearts and to prevent us from
being satisfied with the life of hypocrisy and
to make us dissatisfied until we're clean inside
and out so that we can be what
you made us to be.
Now, in the grace of our Lord Jesus
and the love of God and the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit, be with each one
of us now and evermore.
Amen.