Faith- do we know who we believe in? A Savior that has the power to save us from all sin. Are we persuaded of this? Do we believe? Do we trust that Christ will save us? Have we committed our eternal life to our Savior? Whenever we falter and the feel the guilt of our failing overcomes us- this is the time we need to fall at the Savior's feet and seek forgiveness, NOT wallow in self-recriminations that only serve to reenforce the idea that we are somehow saving ourselves by being good. Our victory lies ONLY in our connection to Christ and allowing Him to live in us through the Holy Spirit, letting any and all victories we may ever experience all be to His glory, His victories in us. Forever His goodness, forever His power, forever His life saving us.
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(Excerpt) 1891 GC Sermon #12 E.J. Waggoner
'Says one, "I am afraid that I will fall." You need not be afraid. Paul says, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." 2 Tim. 1:12. What have I committed unto Him? My life, and He is able to keep it.
When we get over into the kingdom of God, we will not look to the best deeds that we have done and thank God that we are justified because we have done so well. But our song of joy will be, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." And so we know that when we yield ourselves to Him and die to Him constantly that He does those things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Let us look to Him continually! But when we take our eyes from Him and go into sin, He is not responsible for that.
Just as long as we keep looking at Him, there is no condemnation.
Try it, and you will know that it is a fact, for it is a fact that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Why? "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
In our sins the law is death to us; and not only is it death to that man who makes no profession of righteousness, but it is death to that man who acknowledges the claims of the law, that it is good, and yet says, "But how to perform that which is good I find not."
All will allow that a Christian must do what is good, some of the time at least. But this experience in Romans 7:21, "When I would do good, evil is present with me," shows that the man having that experience does not do good at all. Yet he wants to do good. This is service in the oldness of the letter. The man is serving the law, but is a slave. There is no freedom in the service; it is bond-service. But now having tried with all his might to do what he wants to do and having failed, he finds that in Christ is the perfection of the law, in Him there is life.
So the law as it is in the person of Christ is the law of the Spirit of Life. So he takes the life of Christ and gets the perfection of the law as it is in Christ and serves Him in Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. Thus he is delivered from bond-service to the law to freedom in it. There is a wonderful amount of rich truth in that--"The law of the Spirit of [life in] Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
"For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh." Is there any discouragement in that? Does it cast disparagement on the law? Not in the least. What could not the law do? It could not justify me because I was weak. It did not have any good material to work on. It was not the fault of the law; it was the fault of the material. The flesh was weak and the law could not justify it. But God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh that He might justify us.
Some have taken the position that this verse teaches that the law could not condemn sin unless Christ died. Brethren, that is a fearful charge to bring against God and Christ. That would be making Christ, not our Saviour, but our condemner. Christ Himself says, in John 3:17, "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." The law always condemned sin. He that believeth not is condemned already. Christ is the justifier. Since the law condemns man, it is evident that it cannot justify him, for it is impossible for it to condemn and justify at the same time. But what the law could not do, Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh to do. How did He do it? By keeping the law when He was in the flesh.
There are certain things which I used to do, which I always liked to excuse myself for. I knew that they were wrong, consequently, I made resolutions that I would not do them. But I did them just the same. Again and again I did them, until finally I made up my mind that they were inherited traits--that I was born with them and therefore I could not help doing them. But thinking that way did not free me from condemnation; I felt condemned just the same. For Christ has left us no excuse; He has condemned sin in the flesh; by His life He has shown that sin in the flesh is condemned and He has destroyed it, for in Him the body of sin is destroyed and we are new creatures in Christ. By His exceeding great and precious promises we are made partakers of the divine nature. He has taken away this sinful nature--taken it upon Himself that we might be delivered from it.
"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
But the carnal mind can acknowledge that the law is good. "I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good." We have fancied and have tried to comfort ourselves with the thought that we were subject to the law, because we loved it and regarded it as a beautiful thing and tried with all our might or as some put it, "in our weak way" to keep it. But the carnal mind is not subject to the law, neither indeed can be. And what is the evidence of the carnal mind? The inability to do that which is good and which we know we ought to do. "The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Galatians 5:17.
"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom_8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
There is a beautiful thought contained in these verses. First, we have the fact presented that we may have the Spirit of God. How do we get it? By asking.
Go back to the eleventh chapter of Luke. Christ says, "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? . . . If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" Make a personal application of that text. When you kneel down to pray for the Spirit of God, which is all powerful and will cleanse from all sin, quote that to the Lord.
If your children came to you, asking for some of the necessaries of life, you would study every way to know how you could give them the things that they desired. You are poor and weak and miserable, but God is infinite; therefore He is infinitely more willing to give you the thing that you need so much than you can be to give good things to your children. The Holy Spirit is His to give, and He is willing and anxious that we should have it.
Again Christ said, "He that believeth on Me . . . out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." And this He spake of the Spirit, that He would give. Said Christ again said to the woman at the well, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life." Why? "For if the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Here is the hope of the resurrection again. What remains to be done when the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you? Only to quicken, that is, to make alive, our mortal bodies.
(to be continued)
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