Faith - Not Failure.

 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)

Jesus Is Our Justification.

 

Jesus Is Our Justification.

(Excerpt) 

We sang tonight, "My Sin is Nailed to His Cross." He says that our old man was crucified with Him. That is true, but it is not raised with Him. Christ came to minister, and not to be ministered unto, but He came to minister to us and not to be the minister of sin. Therefore when we and the body of sin together are crucified with Christ and are buried together, we are raised up to walk in newness of life, but the body of sin remains buried, so we are free from it. Now what follows?

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For 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, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. 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.

In these verses we have that which, if we will hold it in our minds and believe that Jesus is able to save us by faith, will be to us a sure rock upon which we can build.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." In these words lies a practical thought and from it arises a question which troubles many. They say, "I believe all that in theory, I am fully in harmony with that and I know that Christ can cleanse from sin. I believe that if I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. But the question in my mind is, Have I confessed all my sins? That is what gives me trouble; if I was only sure that I had confessed all my sins, then I could claim that promise and believe that there was no condemnation for me."

Now this is something that troubles very many--How are we going to know that we are not under condemnation? We cannot charge God with having left the matter so indeterminate that it is impossible for us to know whether we are condemned or not, therefore it must be that we can find out. We may put it this way: "I have confessed all the sins that I know of, everything that the Lord has shown me; and when the Lord shows me something else, I will confess that." Of course confess everything the Lord shows you: but, brethren, don't stop half way. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Then when you have confessed a sin, believe that God forgives it, and take His peace into your hearts and if He shows you other sins, confess them, believe that they are forgiven, and have His peace still. But there are scores of honest souls who deprive themselves of a blessing and finally go into darkness because when they have confessed their sins, they do not take the forgiveness and thank God for the freedom that must follow.

Now the idea conveyed in that expression, that we have confessed all the sins we know of but still we dare not acknowledge freedom from condemnation, for fear that there are other sins that we do not know about and therefore have not confessed is really bringing a serious charge against God. It is making the Lord out to be the forgiver of the man who has the best memory. But was it your memory alone that enabled you to remember those sins that you did confess? Who quickened and spurred up your memory? It was the Spirit of God that showed those sins to you. Now are we going to charge God with doing a partial work? He sent His Holy Spirit to show you those sins. Shall we say then that He kept back a part of them, that He did not reveal to us? He showed us just what He wanted us to confess and when we have confessed them, we have met the mind of the Spirit of God and we are free.

Suppose that I have injured one of you; I may have been pursuing a systematic course of evil toward you--accusing you falsely, trying to injure you in your business, trying to provoke and irritate you in every way possible, doing everything I could against you day by day and week by week and month by month. By and by my eyes are opened, and I see the meanness of that course. I feel all broken down because I have lent myself to such a mean way of acting, and I come to you and acknowledge what I have been doing. You can see in a moment that I am all broken down over it and that I really feel that I have done wrong.

Some of us here have had occasion to forgive people who came to us in just that way. Now has it been our custom when they come in that contrite way to stand coolly back and let them tell the whole story from beginning to end and rack their minds to try to remember everything that they have done in detail, so that they may confess it? Then when they think they have told it all and ask for your forgiveness, do you stand back still and remind them that there was another little thing which they have missed and tell them that you would like them to confess that too? Then when they have told you everything that they can think of and that you can remind them of, do you say, "Well, I guess you have confessed it all, so I will forgive you"? There is not a person in this house that would do that.

When I settled that question for myself, I thought, I have no business to make myself out any better than God. When anyone comes to me or to you all broken down and confesses his wrong, we forgive him freely, and before he has told half what he might tell, we tell him that it is all right, that he is forgiven and to say no more about it.

That is just what God does. He has given us the parable of the Prodigal son, as an illustration of how He forgives. His father saw him a great way off and ran to meet him. I am so thankful that God does not require me, before I can be forgiven, to go back and take up every sin that I have ever committed and confess it. If He did, He would have to lengthen my probation longer than I believe He possibly can, for me to repeat the smallest part of them. Well may David say, "For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me." Psalm 40:12. Yes, our sins are "innumerable," but "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit"; a broken and contrite heart He will not despise. We take hold of the sacrifice of Christ, take it into our very selves, and thus we make a covenant with God by sacrifice.

The Lord forgives freely, and we can know it. God shows us the representative sins of our lives. Sins that stand out prominent--they stand for our whole sinful nature and we know that our whole life is of that same sinful character. We come and confess the sins. Shall we charge God with saying, "I have shown you those sins and you have confessed them; but there are some other sins, and I will not show you them, but you must find them out for yourself, and until you do I will not forgive you." God does not deal with us in that way. He is infinite in love and compassion. "Like as a father pitieth His children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."

Now another point: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." People say, "I have taken Christ and now I look back and trace my life history through the day or the week and I cannot see anything but imperfection in what I have done and then the feeling of condemnation comes over me and I can't stand free. How can I say, There is no condemnation for me, when I see these failures?" This is a subtle deception of Satan, to deprive us of acceptance and peace with God. Do we expect to be justified by those deeds? If we do, we make a grand mistake in the beginning. "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." To Jesus we must look for our justification and to Him 

alone.

Excerpts - 1891 GC Sermons - E.J. Waggoner Study # 12

Our Hope In Heaven, Right Now.

Slip there while still here- this then is the key.

You have a treasure house filled with your most precious items, how often do you think of that treasure house? 

You have a home that you treasure, a family you treasure, how often do you think of that home and your family?

You have an occupation you treasure, how often is that occupation on your mind?

There are entertainments you treasure- television, movies, video games, how often do you think of these entertainments?

You have friends you treasure- how often are they in your thoughts?

You have a hobby you work/play with that you treasure, how often do you think of that hobby?

Our lives often develop routines and the routines vary according to our lives and what we make priorities. We may spend all day at work yet during that time our thoughts may constantly jump forward to a time when we can -- insert your treasured pastime here.  You want to get home, put your feet up, turn on the television, or watch a podcast, stream a show. You may have to fix dinner and tend to children before you can get to your 'me time' your relaxation.  

The majority of people who value having a good work ethic will choose to forego pleasure in order to provide for their everyday needs and even their treasures. This doesn't stop them from thinking about the treasures. We don't completely shut off our minds from being drawn towards the things we look forward to - even at our busiest- when a single free moment arrives for our thoughts to turn away from the tasks at hand. If our jobs are very difficult we may be constantly reminding ourselves of the reasons we endure the difficulties - for the things we treasure whether they are people, pastimes, or something else.  

We live our lives in this manner of consistently allowing our minds to go towards better things or even just the hope of better things and when we have the better things we allow ourselves to enjoy them, cherishing the time we're allowed to have with our treasure. 

There are a lot of mundane moments in our lives as we endure perhaps health problems, age issues, a circumstantial forced sort of existence, and in that mundaneness we find only glimpses of treasured moments. Even then our seemingly boring, mundane lives can become things we treasure for what they are.

The point here? The point is that NO matter what kind of life we lead- from one of non-stop thrill seeking, to safe, secure routines we have things in our lives we hold dear- even to the point of not liking our routines interrupted, we treasure that routine every bit as much as the seeker of the unexpected non-routine life enjoys theirs.  

When we are told to put our treasures in heaven we are being told to put what we will old dear in heaven. We are told to find our desire in heaven. We are being instructed to train our go-to thoughts on Christ, not on our next moment of downtime. Christ is what we need to look forward to, Christ should be the thrill we are seeking or the safe routine we enjoy.  

How can this be? How can we put our treasures in heaven if they are completely earthly? Perhaps if our earthly treasures occupy us so much they shouldn't be our treasures. We should be will to sacrifice any earthly treasure, shouldn't we?  

Slipping there while still here- this then is the key.

We are still here and not in heaven. Heaven to us is a place of future existence, and it's hard for us to put our treasure in the future when we want so much to live with treasure upon earth right now.

In all we do we need to be able to slip into heaven thoughts. We are bound to this earth for as long as God deems it so, or until Christ returns. We are bound to live in this body of sinful flesh we can't escape it physically- it's impossible. How we live in this body we can determine in our thoughts if not in any other ways.

Heaven needs to be real to us right now. As real as our Savior is, must heaven be to us. We need to slip there even while we are still here. 

Having Christ in us, our hope, is us recognizing heaven- for Christ is in heaven right now. He is in us and if He can be in us, we can be with Him in heaven right now.  We must be heaven bound right now not as an afterthought to life. 

Slipping there - allowing our minds to be drawn heavenward to the Hope only found there - that is putting our treasure in heaven. We may live here, but our minds can live elsewhere. That question- "What are you thinking about you look like you're miles away?" - refers to coming upon someone who looks lost in their thoughts, contemplative.  The response to that question might just well be that the person was miles away in thought- thinking of something other than their current situation.  We need to be constantly miles away in thought, spiritual miles all the way to heaven. As we work, play, exist we must allow for the utmost priority in our lives to be heaven- Christ. Being there, while we are here, is holding fast to the promise given to all of mankind after the fall, that we would someday regain our home with the God of heaven. We are believing in this truth right now as we live, our treasures truly in heaven. 

Mat_6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Mar_10:21  Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

No, distraction by things.

Luk_12:33  Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

No, distractions to heaven's reality now.

God help us truly have our heaven treasure right now, our hearts in heaven with our Savior! 

 

Unwilling Slave to Sin.

 

By FAITH. Believing WITHOUT evidence. Choosing to believe. 

Believing CONTRARY to evidence. Seeing, touching, hearing, ONE thing but KNOWING-through faith something else. Presented with facts, yet HOPING beyond the facts. Faith there is MORE. Belief there is MORE. 

Faith- the SUBSTANCE of THINGS HOPED FOR.

Faith- the EVIDENCE of THINGS NOT SEEN.

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(Excerpts-) Continued from yesterday's study--

In Jeremiah 3:1 we read, "They say, If a man put away his wife and she go from him and become another man's shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the Lord." Paul in writing to the Corinthians says, "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."

Now we desire that loveliness of character which can be found only in Christ. We find that this union in which we are held--with the flesh--is not a pleasant union but the husband to whom we are wedded is a taskmaster, he is a tyrant who grinds us down so that we have no liberty. The flesh is tyrannical, and it holds us down and makes us do, not as we wish to do, but as it wishes us to do. When we by the aid of Christ come to feel that this union is a galling bondage, then we awake to the real state of our condition and realize that whereas it may have satisfied us for a time, now we hate it and desire to rid ourselves of it and become united to Christ.

But here is where the difficulty comes in. It is expressed in the words of James 4:4. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Do you think that it is vain that Christ hath said, "What communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?" Now while we still remain in the flesh we desire to take the name of Christ. of course it is impossible for us to really be joined to Christ and still cling to the body of sin, although to outward appearance we may be able to do it. We cannot actually be united to Christ and the world at the same time. We cannot have Christ for our husband and at the same time be living with the world.

But we can take the name of Christ and at the same time retain the sins of the flesh. But the law will not justify a person who does this--who takes the name of the one man and at the same time lives with another. The law of God does not justify us in taking the name of Christ and in living in union with the body of sin? No, certainly not.

Here again we find how the law is guarded at every step in this matter of justification by faith in Christ. Here every possibility is cut off for a person to say--I am Christ's and Christ is mine and no matter what I do, it is Christ that does it in me. No, that is not so. We cannot charge any sin to Christ: He is not responsible for any sin, for the law does not justify us in committing any sin. So we see that justification by faith is nothing else but bringing a person into perfect conformity to the law. Justification by faith does not make any provision for transgression of the law.

But we will proceed to consider the case of those who have been unconscious of the claims of the law, while professing it. Paul speaks to those who know the law and who make their boast in the law and profess to exalt the law and at the same time they are so blind to the requirements of the law that they have thought they could profess Christ and live in sin. 

It is not always those who profess to fear that the honor of the law will be lowered that realize its claims to the fullest extent. Some have even preached the law and have at the same time thought that they could live in the indulgence of the lusts of the flesh, while thinking that they were united with Christ.

Now Christ has been set before us and we see that we cannot be united to Christ and the body of sin at the same time. Then we say that we will give up that first husband--the body of sin and become united with Christ. But how can we get free from this body of sin--this first husband? We cannot cause it to die by simply saying that we wish it were dead. The woman who has a loathing in her heart for her husband, because he is a brutal tyrant, cannot cause herself to be separated from him by simply desiring it. It is a good thing to want to serve Christ, if we have counted the cost and know that we are sick and tired of the old life and want to begin a new life and live with Christ for when we come to that point we can easily find out how it can be done.

Christ comes to us and He proposes a union with us. That is lawful, because He is the only one who really has any claim upon us, and therefore while we are living in this base connection with the body of sin, He can lawfully come to us and beg us to be united with Him. But here we are united with this body of sin, and the law will not justify us in becoming united to Christ till that body of sin is dead.

For note again what is implied in the figure of the marriage. When two persons are united in marriage, they become one flesh. This is a mystery. Paul says that it is, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." 

This is the thought that is held before us in this figure of marriage. For we twain--ourselves and the flesh--are so completely joined together that we are no longer twain but one flesh, and our life is just one.

Look back over your life and see if there is any time in it where you can see that it has been separated from sin. It has been a life of sin. Sin has ever been a part of your life. We have only one life, and that has been sin. Therefore, so closely have we been united with sin, that there has been only one life between us--we twain have been one flesh. Then the only way by which we can get rid of this body of sin--which is one with us, is to die too. That is how it is that the apostle says--that we are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. 

For that union with the flesh was really unlawful, and the law had a claim against us for that union. It will put us to death for that union. We are dead in Christ, and the body of sin dies also.

In chapter six we read, "Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." 

Christ in His own flesh bare our sins in His body on the tree. He takes our sins that they may be crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed. We consent to die. We acknowledge that our life is forfeited to the law and that the law has a just claim upon us. Then we voluntarily give up our lives so that this hated body of sin may die. We loath the union with it so much that we are willing to die in order that it may die too.

"Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." 

Therefore as we die with Christ, we are raised also with Christ.

But Christ is not the minister of sin, so while he will crucify the body of sin, He will not raise it again, and the body of sin is destroyed. Thus we rise, the union between us and Christ complete, that henceforth we should bring forth fruit unto God.

"Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held." What is dead? The body of sin! It was because we were united to that body of sin that the law had somewhat against us. Notice: God does not have any hatred against us. God does not have any desire to punish us, but He cannot endure sin. His law must condemn sin, and since we have identified ourselves with sin, so that we were one with it, in condemning sin, he necessarily condemned us, and so long as we lived a life of sin, that condemnation necessarily rested upon us. But as we have already shown, we have a choice as to when we will die, and we have chosen to voluntarily give up our lives to Him, while we can have His life instead.

When our lives have been given up to the law, the claim that the law had against us is satisfied, because now, the body of sin being dead, we are delivered from the law, just as the woman whose husband is dead, is loosed from the law of her husband, so that she can be united to another. But the same law that held her to that first husband unites her to the second. So it is in this case. The same law that bound us to the body of sin now witnesses to our union with Christ. Romans 3:21. That perfect law witnesses to the union with Christ and justifies it. And so long as we remain in Christ, it justifies us in that union, showing that union with Christ is conformity to the law.

And the power of Christ is able to hold us in that union. "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." Romans 6:8. We became united to Christ in the act of death. By that death, the bond that united us with our first husband--the body of sin--was broken; the body of sin was destroyed, and now we rise with Christ.

We believe that we shall live with Him? Why do people get married? That they may live together. Then, because we have been united by death with Christ, we believe that now since we are risen with Him, we shall live with Him. Notice further--when two are united, they two are no longer twain but one flesh. Christ "makes in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace." Ephesians 2:15. We are His, Christ and we are one, and therefore together we make one new man. Now who is the one? Christ is the one.

Well might Paul say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Galatians 2:20. It is Christ now, not we. Thus we are the representatives of Christ on earth. This is why Christ in His prayer in the garden prayed that "they may be made perfect in one: and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me."

How may the world know this? From the Bible? No, for the world does not read the Bible, and therefore God hath put us in the world as the light of the world. The Bible is a light and a lamp, but not to those who do not take it. We take the word of Christ; we feed upon it in spirit and bring Christ into our hearts and thus effect the union, and then the light shines forth to the world, and the world knows that Christ has been sent as a divine Saviour.

We pass over a few verses. The apostle shows that while the motions of sins were by the law, it is not because the law is sinful but because the law is holy. 

By the law is the knowledge of sin. Paul was once alive in carnal security, serving God, he thought; but when the commandment came, then sin abounded, and he died; and this law which was ordained for life, because it justifies the obedient, he found had nothing but death for him, because he had not really been obeying it. That is why he says, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good."

But note: Before this time Paul had been one who honored the law; he had made his boast in the law, and therefore he writes to those who know the law--to those who have been striving with all their might to keep the law, and yet, they are the ones who have to be delivered from the law. Why? Because while making their boast in the law, through breaking it, they dishonored God.

Now we shall still serve, but how? Not the way we did before, in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit. That means that our very service to the law is something that we have got to be delivered from. Why? Because it has been simply a forced service; it has been simply the oldness of the letter; there has not been spirit and life in it. It has not been of Christ, therefore it has been sin. We boasted in the law, and we professed to keep the law, yet that very service was sin, and we must be delivered from that kind of service to the law, to serve in the right way. so now we serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

In the latter part of the chapter, the apostle shows what that oldness of the letter is from which we must be delivered. "I am carnal, sold under sin." We do great violence to the apostle Paul, that holy man, when we say that in this he is relating his own Christian experience. He is not writing his own experience now that he is united with Christ. He is writing the experience of those who serve, but in the oldness of the letter, and while professedly serving God, are carnal, and sold under sin.

A person sold under bondage is a slave. What is the evidence of this slavery? "For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. . . . For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." Have we ever had any such experience as that in our so-called Christian experience? Yes. We have fought, but with all our fighting, did we keep the law? No. We have made a failure and it is written upon every page of our lives. It is a constant service, but at the same time it is a constant failure.

I fail; I make a new resolution--I break it, and then I get discouraged, then make another resolution and break that again. We cannot make ourselves do the thing we want to do by making a resolution. We do not want to sin, but we do sin all the time. We make up our minds we will not fall under that temptation again, and we don't--till the next time it comes up, and then we fall as before.

When in this condition, can we say that we have hope and that we "rejoice in hope of the glory of God"? We do not hear such testimonies--it is solely of what we want to do and what we have failed to do but intend to do in the future. If a person has the law before him and acknowledges that it is good and yet does not keep its precepts, is his sin any less in the sight of God than the sin of the man who cares nothing for the law? No.

What is the difference between the would-be Christian, who knows the law, but does not keep it and the worldling who does not keep the law and does not acknowledge that it is good? Simply this: We are unwilling slaves and they are willing slaves.

We are all the time distracted and sorrowful and getting nothing out of life at all, while the worldling does not worry himself in the least.

If one is going to sin, is it not better to be the worldling who does not know that there is such a thing as liberty than to be the man who knows that there is liberty but cannot get it? If it has got to be slavery, if we must live in the sins of the world, then it is better to be in the world, partaking of its pleasures, than to be in a miserable bondage and have no hope of a life to come.

But thanks be unto God, we can have liberty. When life becomes unbearable because of the bondage of sin, then it is that we may hope, for that leads to the question, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Mark: There is deliverance. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Christ came that we might have life. In Him is life. He is full of life, and when we are so sick of this body of death that we are willing to die to get rid of it, then we can yield ourselves to Christ and die in Him, and with us dies the body of death. Then we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life, but Christ who is not the minister of sin will not raise up the body of sin; so it is destroyed, and we are free.

Let all your sinful passions go and believe that Christ will give you something so much better than they are that you will have an unspeakable joy. Not only will there be joy now, but there will be joy through all eternity, a song of joy for the precious gift that He has given.

 

Christ has condemned sin in the flesh and by faith we take Him and live with Him. That is a blessed life. Take hold of Christ by faith and live with Him.  

Excerpts - 1891 GC Sermons - E.J. Waggoner Study # 11

Law, Sin, Savior.

 The law reveals sin. Without a law there is no infraction. I cannot break a law that doesn't exist. If I rob someone it would mean nothing except there is a law against robbing someone. We even have law against damaging the reputation of someone. A law reveals a wrong. If we did away with the laws then robbery would no longer be wrong, hurting the reputation of someone would no longer be wrong, killing someone would no longer be wrong. The law is necessary and can never be done away with- what will be done away with is anyone breaking the laws and when there finally exists a world where none will ever break a law the law will no longer need to be enforced because there will be nothing to enforce.

The law tells us we are guilty and deserving of punishment.

Only Jesus tells us we are guilty and deserving of punishment but HE will save us from the punishment that would destroy our existence.

The law will never free us from guilt, it can't, only Christ can.

If we are under the law without Christ we are dead. It is only when we are under the law with Christ that we live.  The law's dominion is death, is guilt. When we are freed from the condemnation of the law through Christ there is life.

The law reveals our sins. The law reveals that we are sinners. The law tells us we are sinners deserving of death. The law tells us we sin. The law shows us the sinners we are. The law reveals the sin surrounding our lives and shows us our desperate need of a SAVIOR. 

(Excerpt--)

'Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For a woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed form the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our bodies to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.' (Romans 7:1-6).

 

The ground covered by this seventh chapter is really gone over twice. The first part lays the broad facts before us; the latter part goes into the details and particulars of what is given in the beginning.

In the six verses that have been read, there is given us an illustration and the application. The illustration is easily understood. The simple fact of marriage is taken. A woman having a husband is bound to that husband so long as he liveth. By what is she bound? By the law. It is contrary to the law for her to have two husbands at the same time; but if the first husband be dead, the same law will allow her to marry another man. This is but a plain illustration, and if it is kept in mind throughout the study of the chapter, it will be a great help to us in understanding it.

There is no need of any argument in this chapter for the perpetuity of the law. That is not the question under consideration. The apostle is not making a special argument to prove that the law is not abolished. His argument starts from that point as one already settled, and shows the practical working of the law in individual cases. 

He brings it right home to the hearts of men that they are under the law; and if they are under it, how can it be abolished? He urges its claims upon the hearts of men, and by the Spirit of God they feel its working power upon them, and therefore know that it is not abolished.

Note the class of people to whom Paul is writing. "I speak to them that know the law." 

This epistle is addressed to professed followers of Christ. We find that in the second chapter, commencing with the seventeenth verse: "Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God."

Now to the illustration: While the law will not allow the woman to be united to two husbands at the same time, it will allow her to be united to two in succession. 

It is the law that allows her, and it is the law that unites her. The same law that unites her to the first husband also allows her to be united to the second, after that the first is dead. This is easy to be understood and there is no need to consider it further.

Now to the application: "Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that ye should bring forth fruit unto God." 

We can determine who the two husbands are by beginning with the second one. The "another" to whom we are to be married, is the one who has been raised from the dead, and that is Christ. We are one of the parties in the second marriage, and Christ is the other. He is the second husband.

The question now arises, Who was the first husband that died, in order that we might be united to the second? The sixth chapter has answered that. Compare Romans 7:5 with Romans 6. 

"For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."

The law held us in the first union and now to what were we united? What were we in? We were in union with the flesh.

In the sixth chapter we found that the body of sin is destroyed by Christ. By what means is it that the body of sin becomes destroyed? By the man being crucified with Christ.

In the first place we are joined to sin--the sinful flesh. We cannot serve two masters. Here are two figures. We are servants to one master--united to one husband. We cannot serve two masters at the same time and we cannot be united to two husbands at the same time. 

But we can be united to two in succession. 

The first one of these, to whom we have all been united, is the body of sin; the second is Christ, who is raised from the dead.

The question arises, what is meant by our being dead to the law by the body of Christ? 

That brings us to the point where the illustration fails us. 

The illustration fails us--why? 

Because it is utterly impossible to find anything in life that will correctly represent in every particular divine things. 

There is no illustration that will serve in every particular. 

That is why we have so many types of Christ. 

No one person could serve as a complete type of Him.

We have Adam in one place as a type of Christ; we have Abel; we have Moses; we have Aaron; David; and Melchizedek, and many others who represent different phases of Christ, because there is no one of them who could represent Him in every particular.

So when the apostle would represent the union of all people with the house of Israel, he says, "I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery." 

It is a mystery; it is something unnatural. He says that it is a grafting process, but that is contrary to the natural method. Therefore this illustration of marriage cannot be considered as complete in every particular. And yet, after all, the illustration does not fail, if we choose to consider that the union with the first husband is a criminal connection. It is so in the application. Those who are united to the flesh are guilty of a capital crime. The law holds them in that connection; i.e., it will not allow them to lightly dissolve the union and pass it by as though nothing had taken place--but it demands their life. With this explanation we can understand what follows.

We find that we are united with sin and with the body of sin. Then Christ comes to us and He presents Himself as the one altogether lovely. And in reality He is the only one who has any real claim upon us.

"I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." The apostle is writing to those who know the law and who have left their first love, and what applies to them will also apply in larger measure to those of the world.

Christ comes to the door of our hearts and knocks and begs that we will come to Him. He has spread out His hands all the day unto a rebellious people, "which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts." How deep, how unfathomable is the love of God!

1891 G.C. Sermons #11  E.J. Waggoner 

To be continued…

Submit to Christ.

 There is power in Christ. What is that power? Notice. Grace is favor! In the favor of God there is life. Then what is the power of the grace of Christ? It is the power of an endless life. 

If men really believe that Christ is risen from the dead, they can believe that they are dead unto sin, but alive unto God and free from sin. 

Rom_6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Does the apostle mean free from sin? It is a solemn, but a glorious thought. How thankful ought men to be that they can have that confidence in the power of God through Christ that they can without any mental reservation take this chapter and believe it. Yes, believe these very words, "He that is dead is freed from sin . . . reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ."

Rom_6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Rom_6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But is it true that man can live without sin?

In the last part of the chapter we read, "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness." 

Rom_6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

We all know what that means. Our past experience is not so pleasant to look back over. In it we see no good. Now why was it that we were free from righteousness? Because we were the servants of Satan. "But now, being made free from sin, we are become the servants of righteousness." Christ is the author of righteousness. The service we render is His. Which are we, the servants of Christ or the servants of Satan? When we were the servants of Satan, we did not do any righteousness. But now we are the servants of God.

"Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." 

Rom_6:13  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.

Rom_6:16  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?

"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?

 

There are just two services. 

The service of Satan, which is of sin unto death, and the service of Christ, which is of obedience unto righteousness. 

A man cannot serve two masters. All believe that. Then it is impossible to serve sin and righteousness at the same time. 

Now we call ourselves Christians. That means what? Followers of Christ! But in all our Christian experience we have left little loopholes along here and there for sin. 

We have never dared to come to that place where we would believe that the Christian life should be a sinless life. We have not dared to believe it or preach it. But in that case we cannot preach the law of God fully. Why not? Because we do not understand the power of justification by faith. Then without justification by faith it is impossible to preach the law of God to the fullest extent. Then to preach justification by faith does not detract from or lower the law of God but is the only thing that exalts it.

Now can we be the servants of Christ while we are committing sins and making provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof? Is Christ the minister of sin? Whose servants are we while we are committing sin? We are the servants of sin, and sin is of Satan. Now if a Christian (?) is committing sin part of the time and doing righteousness the rest of the time, it must be that Satan and Christ are in partnership, so that he has only one master, for he cannot serve two masters.

But there is no consort between light and darkness--between Christ and Belial. They are in deadly antagonism. They are opposed to each other, and they have fought a fight even to the death. There is no quarter on either side. Then it is utterly impossible for man to serve these two masters. He must be on the one side or the other. "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?" We know enough about being servants of sin. We have yielded ourselves as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

Now the question comes: How am I going to become a servant of Christ so that I will be able to die to my old life?

 "To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey." The word rendered "servant" really means a "bond-servant." Just the moment that I yield myself to Christ to become His servant, that very moment I am His bond-servant. 

That very moment I belong to Him. How do I know that Christ will accept my service if I do give it Him? 

Because He has bought that service and paid the price for it. 

And in all those years that I yielded myself a servant to sin, I have been defrauding Him of His right. But all this time that I have been keeping back my service, He has been going about searching for me and seeking to draw me to Him. And when we say, "Here, Lord, here I am; I give myself to Thee," that very moment Christ has found us, for He has been seeking for us and we are His servants.

But how do we know that we are going to continue in His service? How do we know that we can live the life of Christ? Just in the same way that we know we have lived the life of sin. When we take this matter into account as to whose servants we will be, we want to take into account the power of the two masters. When we were the servants of sin, we were free from righteousness, because Satan swayed us and used us in whatever way he would, and we were at the mercy of his power.

Is sin stronger than righteousness? Is Satan stronger than Christ? No!

Then as Christ has proved Himself to be the stronger of the two and just as surely as when we were the bond-servants of sin it had power to keep us free from righteousness, so when we yield ourselves as bond-servants unto Christ, He has power to keep us from sin. The battle is not ours; it is God's. I said that Christ and Satan were not in partnership, but that there is the bitterest antagonism between them.

All are familiar with the words, "The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan." It is a household phrase among us. What is the controversy over? It is over the souls of men and the place of their abode. Who shall have your service and mine, is the question that they are fighting over. The controversy is between Christ and Satan. They are not only the principal ones in the controversy, but the whole controversy is between them and them alone.

We have this much to say--neither one of them can take our service against our will.

Of ourselves we have no power to stand against Satan; we have tried that. We have no power to meet him; we cannot face him and conquer him. We have no power at all, but at the same time we know that we do not want to be his servants. Yes, and we will not only say, I do not want to be his servant, but I will not be his servant. So instead of putting our strength against Satan, we yield ourselves to Christ and repeat over and over again, like David the psalmist, "O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid; thou hast loosed my bonds." Psalm 116:15.

What? I was a bond-servant of Satan's but just the moment I said to Christ, "I will be your servant," He loosed my bonds and took upon Himself the responsibility of defending me against Satan, who has no right to me. So when Satan comes to take me back and make me his bond-servant again, Christ meets him, even as He met him when He was here upon the earth. 

So simply tell your own heart, and Satan, that you are Christ's and that He has loosed your bonds.

Then you are loosed indeed. You have counted the cost and now you can take the words of David and repeat them over and over.

Your life is no longer your own, it is the life of Christ. His life, His very existence, is pitted against Satan. The battle goes over our heads, for we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. Says the psalmist, "Thou shalt keep them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues." The battle between Christ and Satan is being waged over our heads and we are hid in the secret pavilion. This is the victory that overcometh the world, for Christ has gained the victory over Satan and by grasping the promises of Christ by faith and laying hold upon the life of Christ, the victory over Satan is ours.

Does not Christ say that all power is given Him in heaven and in earth? Note the precious words in Ephesians 1:19-21: "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named."

That same power which placed Him in that exalted position which is far above all principality and power--what has it done for us? "Quickened us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Where is it that we are placed? "Far above all principality and power."

Then the victory is ours in Christ and He has gained the victory already. He has conquered a peace for us. Just as surely as He gives His peace to us, just that surely has He gained the victory for us. So in the hour of trial we have a victory that is already gained. Well may we say that the battle goes over our heads, and great is our peace. There is peace all the time.

The strength of the Christian lies in submitting--the victory in yielding to Christ, so that He may keep us in His presence, and cover us up in His pavilion from the strife of tongues. Then it does not matter how great the trial may be, if we have Christ, there will be peace in our hearts.

O that every one in this house may be filled with a desire to have Christ and His righteousness, that this very night we may take His word and be inspired by its inspiration and then we shall have and shall be able to live the life of Christ. Then we can go about as missionaries for Christ and do good. When we take that power which we have by faith in Him, it will not be long till the work will be cut short in righteousness, and we shall see Him, who not having seen, we love.

Sin Shall Not Have Dominion Over You

 

'Christ's life is an eternal life. He voluntarily went under the dominion of death. By doing this He demonstrated His power over death. He went down into the grave to show that right there, while bound by the chains of the prison house of the grave itself, He had power to burst those fetters asunder and come forth free and a conqueror. 

Therefore since He dies no more and we take that sinless life of His, then we can reckon ourselves dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

As death can have no dominion over Him, so sin, which is the sting of death, can have no dominion over us.

A questioner may say, "You make it out that we ought never to sin any more--you leave no room for sin." But is not that what the Bible says? "For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." Rom_6:14 

We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. How? By death, we make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. There is such a thing as a complete surrender to Christ--when we give up everything and then trust to His power to keep us in that state. And I thank God that He is able to do it.

Men start out on dangerous expeditions--some to conquer a country and when they reach that land, they burn the boats they came in so they cannot go back if they desired to. It is right for us to count well the cost. There is no use to make a headlong plunge into the battle. Look over the whole ground. Here is this pleasure and that indulgence. Can I give them up? They have been very dear to me; they have become entwined around my very life itself. They are identified with me, so that they show themselves in my very countenance; they are imbedded in my very character and are a part of myself. I have clung to them as I have clung to life itself. But Christ was not in them; they do not savor of the life of Christ at all. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross. Can I, for the sake of sharing that joy, endure that cross? Can I give up the pleasures of sin for a season in order to share the riches of Christ and the joy of His salvation? These are the questions we must ask ourselves.

Look up and place your eyes on Christ and the joy of present salvation. They form the opposite side of the picture. There is the joy of having an infinite power working in us. For that joy which we can have now are we willing to give up everything and to become sharers of the sufferings of Christ and to be made partakers of His death and the power of His resurrection? This is a joy that will last forever, so let us burn the boats and the bridges behind us! Can we give up all these things that have been so dear to us; can we give them up forever? That is the hard part.

Says one, "I have tried to give up these things before, and I have fallen again; now how do I know but what I shall fall again?" Ah, no, you are not making a new resolution this time; you are not turning over a new leaf and saying that you are going to do better. You are merely letting the old life and all the resolutions go. Simply say, "I know that there is power in God. And that same power which spoke the world into existence, that same power which brought Christ forth from the tomb--into the hands of that power I will yield myself and let it sustain and keep me in the new life." And day by day as we do that, our hearts will go out in thankfulness to God for His wonderful power.

It is not ours to make provision for the flesh in the lusts thereof, but we must step out and take hold of the life of Christ and feel that the power of God is working in us. When we feel that power working--that miracle which is wrought in us--the temptations to which we have yielded so often, the sinful practices to which we have given way, will be overcome and we will rise superior to them. Then we can go out into the world, in the power of Christ and carry the message as we never have done before.

How is it that we will have more power? Because we know that if God can work that miracle for us, He can do it for anyone. 

Our work from a human standpoint is an impossible one; difficulties arise on every hand. But we have a knowledge of what the power of God can do, and therefore go forth in faith that He who can cast down imaginations 2Co_10:5  in our hearts and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and can bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ can do that same work for others, since He has done it for us. It was that same power which caused the walls of Jericho to fall down before the people of God. I am so thankful that the God who has called us to be His servants is a God of infinite power. Take hold of that power and prove it for yourselves.

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." "Likewise"--Like what? Like as Christ was raised from the dead to be dead no more, so likewise reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin to sin no more. Is that true? Note it carefully--that sin shall have no more dominion over you. That is what the Bible says. We are no longer under the law but under grace. We are no longer under condemnation, but the grace of God resteth upon us. The spirit of glory and of grace is present with us.'

1891 G.C. Sermons #10  E.J. Waggoner