Latest / Philosophy and Faith / 15 - Yeild Yourselves unto God - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray

Transcript

15 - Yeild Yourselves unto God - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray · Philosophy and Faith

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yield yourselves unto God. It is of great consequence that
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: we keep very clearly before our eyes what the object
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of our gathering is. We look at the state of
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: God's Church, at the great majority of Christians, and hear
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: them complain of their feebleness and continual failure, and we
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: want to ask the question, is there not in God's
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: word sufficient provision to enable a child of God to
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: live a spiritual, humble life of victory? All along the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: line we want to ask this question regarding ourselves. So
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: many of us have to say, I know that Christ
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: is an almighty savior, that I believe, but he does
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: not prove to be an almighty savior to me. Is
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: that not the position toward God many of us occupy.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: There are elementary truths that we think we can live by.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: What there is in God's Word for making so strong
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Christians has been too often regarded as applicable to the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: few who we think are called to a special service,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And so many want to get all the religion and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: happiness they can with as little of sacrifice as possible.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: They don't understand that just as a man who wants
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to come out first in an examination or take a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: good place in a profession or business must go at
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: it with his whole heart and give his time and
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: strength to it. So religion requires a man to give
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: up everything to know God. In Christ, your first business
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: is to be a man of God as God wants
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: you to be. You will never regret it. We cannot
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: be first rate, thoroughgoing Christians without giving a great deal
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of concentrated, intense attention to it and waiting on God
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to make us as Christ was. Christ did not become
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: what he was without giving up everything. Twelve apostles had
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to give up everything. Dear friends, if we give up
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: ourselves entirely to God's training, then we can become strong Christians.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: When I look upon the state of the church in
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: England and elsewhere, I feel sure that God will have
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: to call out a number of people to separate themselves
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: from everything, give themselves up entirely, just as Jesus did,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to getting the fullest possible experience of the love and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: will of God. Through such men, God will be able
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to bless his other children. God comes to this company
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: with the question, are you desirous to be and to
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: do and to have the very utmost that God can
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: give you? There are some hearts who say, yes, I
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: invite you to listen to a portion of God's Word
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: that you all know. You will find the words in Romans,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: chapter six, verse thirteen. Bible students know that this text
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: is found in the second of the four great divisions
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: of the Epistle to the Romans. The first division from
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: one sixteen to five eleven Righteousness by Faith. The second
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: division is from chapter five, verse twelve to the end
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: of chapter eight Life by faith. Third division chapters nine,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: ten and eleven, the mystery of faith, the deep mystery
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of God's purpose and counsel with mankind. And then from
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: chapter twelve to the end you have the walk of faith.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Now Here we have the life of faith. You know
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the words of Habakuk that Paul takes as the text
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: of his epistle. The just shall live by faith. Faith
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: gives two things. Faith gives righteousness and faith gives life.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: These two things have been separated in the first part
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: of the epistle. Paul begins by explaining the righteousness of faith,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: how we are justified. Then he points out what the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: ground is of that justification by faith, and that is
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: our living union with Christ. People often ask is it
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: right in God to take Christ and lay our sin
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: upon him, and to take me the guilty one, and
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: pardon for the sake of one who died. God does
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: not justify me for the righteousness of Christ as long
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: as I have no part in it. Christ is one
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: body with me. I am in Him. By faith he
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: becomes vitally connected with me. We don't count it strange
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: if we take a twig from a tree or seed
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and plant it, that the tree that springs from it
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: is of the same nature. So it is not strange
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: that when Adam fell and died, I should share his sin.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: It is most natural. And so if Christ and I
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: are one, it is not strange that God should justify
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: me in Christ. But the believer must not only know
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: that he is justified, but must know that he is
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: in Christ. Chapter five, verse twelve, Paul begins his great
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: argument to prove how we have not only righteousness but
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: life in Christ. Just as we died in Adam, so
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: we may live in Christ. Those who receive the gift
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: of righteousness may reign in life from Christ. They have
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: not only pardon and acceptance, but victory. They are not
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: only saved, but made kings unto God. After Having laid
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: this foundation in the second part of chapter five, he
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: goes on in chapter six to explain this further, to
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: tell us the only way to conquer sin is to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: know our union with Christ. Justification does not deal with
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the question how I can conquer sin, but deals with
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the question how can I be delivered from past sin
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and get right with God? It is quite another question
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: how am I to conquer sin? His answer is shall
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: we sin that grace may abound? God forbid? How shall
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: we who are dead to sin live any longer? Therein,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Paul says, know you not that when you were baptized
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: into Christ, you were baptized into his death. You were
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: made partakers of his death. You were united with him
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: in the likeness of his death. Therefore, reckon yourselves as
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: indeed dead to sin. You are dead to sin because
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: you are one with the Christ who died to sin.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: You say to an unconverted man, you are dead in sin.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: You are dead to God. How did he become dead?
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: He died? How did he die? He died in Adam.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Every one of us died in Adam. And the life
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: that we get from Adam is dead to God. Just so,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: when I believe in Christ. I get a life in Christ,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: dead to sin, the very life of Christ, to die
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: on Calvary, that life, dead to sin, raised up by
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: the glory of God. That life is in me. And
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Paul says, you have got to believe that until your
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: whole heart becomes full of it and cries out praise God.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: I am dead to sin. The living Christ is in me.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I am alive unto God in Christ Jesus. After having
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: expounded this, Paul says, reckon, count yourselves dead, actually dead,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: dead to sin, for you are dead and alive unto
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: God in Christ. Jesus. Then follows, therefore, what must be
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the result. Let not sin, therefore reign in you. You
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: have done with sin. You are dead to sin. Let
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: not sin any more reign in your mortal body. You
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: are dead to sin, but your body is not dead yet,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: and sin can tempt you. And though you are dead
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: to sin, you can be tempted and Mars stood through
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the body. So yield your members to God and let
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit mortify the deeds of the body. Let
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: not sin reign in your mortal body. Why is it
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: believers let sin reign in their mortal bodies because they
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: do not understand or accept this truth in Romans six eleven.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: You are dead to sin and alive to God. Let
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: not sin reign in your mortal body, nor yield your members.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: You have got the power of Christ's life in you.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Don't yield your lives to unrighteousness or your members as
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, now comes my text. But
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: yield yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. If the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: believer wants to know what is the position he has
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to take before God to know whether he can conquer sin,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: he will find it in these words. Present yourselves unto
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: God as alive from the dead, and present your members
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: as instruments of righteousness unto God. Paul will show in
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the seventh chapter that even when I am dead to sin,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: I may be tempted to get into a legal state,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: and by self effort and self struggling, may begin trying
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: to fulfill the law, but it will be utter failure.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: He will then take us on to the eighth chapter
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and will show us that by the Holy Spirit all
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: that is taught in chapters six and seven can be
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: made a reality to us, and that the Holy Spirit
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: will make the death and life of Christ a living reality.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So our great need is to be freed by the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Spirit from the law of sin and death, and also
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: led by it to mortify the deeds of the body.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: But if we want it made clear to us how
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: we are to live that blessed life in the Spirit,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: we must first understand what it means yield yourselves unto God,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: present yourself as alive from the dead. In speaking on
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: these words, I wish to answer three questions, Who, how? Why? Firstly,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: who are to do this? To present themselves unto God
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: as alive from the dead. This is the lesson present
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: yourselves unto God as alive from the dead. A man
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: can truly present or yield himself to God only as
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: he knows he is alive from the dead. If a
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: man thinks he is a Christian, but that the larger
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: part of his nature is sin, that there is a
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: little spark of life amid a mass of what is sinful,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: he cannot make a proper presentation of himself to God.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: The secret and the strength of your yielding yourself to
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: God lies in this I am alive from the dead.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Many people trouble themselves greatly to apprehend intellectually the expression
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: dead to sin and alive unto God. In Christ Jesus,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: let us far rather accept it in the faith that
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: God knows its full meaning, and obey the injunction of
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: our text to present ourselves to God as alive from
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the dead. You can understand that if I am alive
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: from the dead, then it is no more than right,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and indeed the only right thing that I should say, Lord,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I have got this life from THEE. I cannot keep
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: it or maintain it. I come to THEE with it.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: However much of darkness or ignorance, dear believer, do come
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and say, Lord God, this is all thy life. Thou
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: hast given it me to Christ. It is thine own life.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I present it unto THEE. I yield myself unto THEE,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: as alive from the dead, present yourselves unto God. You
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: know what I said yesterday morning about Christ bringing us
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: unto God. That is the same thing in another form.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: The whole object of Christ's work is to bring us
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: near to God, and the first thing the Apostle gives
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: us to do when he has taught us how after
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: dying with Christ we have been raised with him. Is
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to come with this new life and bring it unto God.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: The object for which Christ died was to get us
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: very near to God and into fellowship with Him. Present
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: yourselves unto God. How often have I to do it?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: It must be every moment. It must become a habit
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: of my life. I have to do it every day
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: until the consciousness takes possession of me. I have a
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: divine life from God. I bring it to God. Because
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: God does not give me a life in myself that
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I can have as a possession that I have as
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: my own, but as His life working in me, only
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: so far as I yield to Him and abide in
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: communion with Him. Ye who are alive from the dead,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: present yourselves unto God. God, do it every day until
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: your whole soul is filled with the living faith of
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: your true position. The Everlasting God has begun a life
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: in me and is carrying it on every moment of
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the day, every moment I can count that God will
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: maintain it. Don't you see that we have been too
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: much guilty of breaking off the connection with God, and
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: our life is in broken communion. If I can learn
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: to walk all the day in God's presence, presenting myself
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: unto Him as alive from the dead. God will make
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the resurrection life of Christ to work in me day
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: and night, secretly, quietly, gently and effectively. You that are justified,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: you that know you have life in Christ, present yourselves
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: unto God. Everything must come from Him. We now know
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: who are those who have to do it, those that
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: are alive from the dead. What are the marks of
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: those that are alive? God's life is no mere imagination,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: thought conception. It is a great reality. Remember that this
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: life must bear two marks. It is a life that
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: has been dead and a life that is now alive
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: from the dead. These are the marks of Christ's life
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in heaven. In revelation, he says, I am he that
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: liveth and was dead, and am alive for evermore. The
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: life of Christ in glory is ever a life from
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the dead. In heaven, they ever sing the song of
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: the Lamb and the praise of His blood. If the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: death and the life are linked together there, it must
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: be so too in the believer. Here there must be
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the mark of death and the mark of life. What
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: are the marks of death? The death marks of Jesus,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: The disposition which took him to death. We know humility.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: He humbled himself and gave himself up to death. Humility
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: is one of the death marks in the believer. Death
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: to sin. Separation from all sin is another mark. Another
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: death mark is separation from the world. To be crucified
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to the world, then there is deep impotence, helplessness. When
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Christ went down into the grave, he was helpless, and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: this is perfect restfulness. He rested in the grave in hope.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: In the believer, who is really dead, in Christ, you
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: will find these marks. You will find very deep humility.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I am nothing but a redeemed sinner, nothing but a
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: creature in whom God can work his glory. It was
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: humility that led Christ to the death, and humility will
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: be the death mark in every one that has died
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. Separation from as all sin. Christ died
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to sin, died rather than yield to sin. An intense
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: desire to be free from every sin. The readiness to
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: give up life rather than sin, counting all things but
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: loss to be made conformable to his death are the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: marks of a life that roots in the death of Christ.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Separation from the world. A man feels I belong to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: another sphere. I am living in eternity, I am living
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: with God. I am separate from the world. I may
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: have to do my work because I am in the world,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: but I am not of the world, as Christ was
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: not of the world. Along with that, another mark is impotence,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: nothing of self effort. We ever try to do something
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: of ourselves, instead of taking our place at the foot
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: of the throne, so that God can work in us.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: The deeper the spirit of Christ's death enters us, the
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: more we shall be willing to be nothing that God
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: may be and may work all. The last mark is restfulness.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: In the grave, Jesus rested. He gave up his spirit
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and rested in the grave. The death mark of the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: believer is deep restfulness. Jesus knew God would fulfill his work.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: As the believer advances, he learns to rest perfectly in
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: his God. On the other side, let us look at
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the life marks. The first life mark is victory. Jesus
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: has conquered death and hell, and we are more than
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: conquerors through Him that loved us. Another life mark is joy.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: It was for the joy that was set before him
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: he endured the cross, deliverance gives joy. If we would
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: be filled with the resurrection joy, the joy of triumph
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: over sin and death, we have it in Christ. It
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: is ours because we are alive from the dead. Resurrection
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: life is in us. The living Christ is living in us.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: How little is the joy of the world compared to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the deep joy of redemption filling our souls. Another mark
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: is the power of blessing. The Lord Jesus rose from
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: the dead and began to bless the first night he
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: breathed his spirit upon the disciples. On the day of
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: his resurrection, there was blessing, and in the outpouring of
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: his spirit this dispensation became one of divine, infinite blessing.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: If you are living in Christ, your resurrection life will
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: be one of blessing to others. Present yourselves unto God,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: all that are alive from the dead. Present yourself by
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, and ask God to make the death
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: marks more clear and the life marks more beautiful. And
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: your whole life will be from God and before God.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: As of those alive from the dead, say I have died,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I have been crucified with Christ. God has raised me.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: And the more intensely you present yourselves to God in
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that life. The more intensely will it manifest itself in
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: your daily life, A life out of death, a life
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: of victory. The resurrection life in Christ will be yours.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: In truth, you will begin to walk before God as
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: one alive from the dead. With Christ. I go down
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: into the grave, give up myself as lost. God raises
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: me up in Christ and makes me alive from the dead.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Yield up yourselves, believers, to know Christ, you are alive
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: from the dead. Accept it in faith. Yield yourselves, present
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: yourselves unto God. Second question, how are we to do this?
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Note hear very carefully how the apostle answers it. He
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: makes a difference between myself and my members. He says,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: What is that difference? We find in the sixth, seventh,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and eighth chapters the difference occurs continually between the new life,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the renewed self, and the body or the members. Sin
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: is continually represented as having power in the members of
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the believer after he himself has been made alive from
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the dead. So Paul says in Romans seven in me
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing if
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I do that which I would not. It is not
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I but sin that dwelleth in me. Paul speaks of
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the center of his life as the renewed eye. The
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: eye has been regenerated, the eye is alive now in Christ.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: It is that I of which he says, I have
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: died to sin. I am alive to God. It is
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: not I but sin that new eye dwells in the
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: body with its members. Sin is in my flesh. So
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: I find the law of sin in my members. That
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: leads me into captivity, to the law of sin and death.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: It is a saved man who says, I delight in
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the law of God. After the inward man. It is
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: not I who sins. My will utterly loathes the sin.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: But this body of death is full of sin. I
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: am impotent and am taken captive. And then Paul says,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: the reason is that he was trying to obey the
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: law in his own strength but failed. This leads me
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: on to chapter eight, where you get at once the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: deliverance of the Holy Spirit, who personally works in you
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: what Christ has done and sets you free. From the
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: law of sin and death in your members, and enables
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you through the spirit to mortify the deeds of the body.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: It is in this sense he says, yield yourself unto
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: God as alive from the dead, and your members as
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: instruments of righteousness unto God. He does not say, the
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: members are alive from the dead, You, as the living one,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: are to present them to God. You ask, how are
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: you to bring your members into subjection, to yield them
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: as instruments of righteousness unto God. I must not only try,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: as a spiritual man to say, Lord, here is myself,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: my inmost heart and love. But I must take my members,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: my flesh, my body, in which is the power of sin,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: and I must say, Lord, these members I give up
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: to thee as instruments of righteousness. Before Paul comes to
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the beautiful teaching of the first part of chapter seven,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: he wants you to take up this word from the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: sixteenth verse of the sixth chapter. He amplifies it in
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: a very practical passage of the utmost importance in it.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: The three words are found, righteousness, obey service. These words
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: occur repeatedly. The lesson is this, after you have accepted
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the first half of Roman six. There is a great
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: deal of spiritual teaching in Romans seven and eight, to
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: which you are to be led on. But in between
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: he introduces this practical parenthesis. If you are alive from
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the dead, if you have yielded yourself to God, begin
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: at once and take these three words and bring them
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: into practice. Righteousness. You have been declared righteous by God,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: that you may live in practical righteousness upon earth. Be
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: careful if you are going to live as alive from
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the dead. Do not sin. Do not ask the question
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: how far can I go and not sin? But take
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: simply what God says. Sin not say I am going
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to live for the highest righteousness. Righteousness is the very
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: foundation of God's throne. It must be so too in
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the Christian life. Do not seek beautiful spiritual thoughts and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: experiences when you speak of being dead and alive in Christ,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: but come at once and yield every member to be
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: nothing but an instrument of righteousness. There is the second word, serve.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: You are to be the servant of righteousness. A man
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: can sometimes be in the position of a servant and
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: yet act as if he were master. We need the
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: deep conviction I have been delivered from the service of
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: sin to become a servant of God and his righteousness.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: As we yield ourselves to God daily, it must be
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: with the one desire to keep the place of servants
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: before him. Our Jesus took the form of a servant
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that was his life, and made him the Father's delight.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: That must be our spirit. One word more, I have
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: sometimes got a favorite servant who works hard, but often
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: works in his own way instead of carefully obeying my will. Remember,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: you are not only to live as a servant, but
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: as one who obeys, who waits daily upon God to
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: find out his will, and who works righteousness not according
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to his own but according to God's thoughts. If you
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: walk in the path, you will understand the answer to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the question how am I to present myself? You will
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: yield yourselves, your inmost being, as renewed in Christ, as
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: alive from the dead, unto God, and bring your members
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: each time and present each one of them, each power
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and movement of your being to God as an instrument
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: of righteousness, and your inner life with God will be
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: manifested in your conversation among men. Last question, why ought
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: we thus to present ourselves to God? And are members
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: as instruments of righteousness. I can only very hastily say
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: a few words on this. Let it be a presentation
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: of thanksgiving, dear believer, every time you think of it.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: I am alive from the dead. Let your heart rise
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: up with wonderful thanksgiving. Present yourself unto God. Yield your body, soul,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: and spirit a living sacrifice. Is that not a privilege
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: an unspeakable honor. You may walk in the sunshine of
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: God's love with God, in the gladness that says I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: offer myself just out of deep gratitude for the life
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: of Christ. I am alive from the dead, Oh beloved,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: If you would have the joy of God's heaven in
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: your heart, praise Him for the wonderful mystery of the
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: resurrection of Christ in you, you dead with Christ and
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: alive with Christ. Present yourselves to God in praise, Present
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: yourself in surrender. I am not my own I have
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: been bought with the blood I have been paid for.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I present myself as belonging to God. Christ suffered that
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: he might bring us to God. Christ died, We died
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: with him. God made us alive with him that we
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: might serve God. Give yourself up in absolute surrender. Have
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: nothing in your members, your conduct, your temper that is
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: not entirely subjected to the life of God. Bring all
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: every day to God, that by His Holy Spirit, the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: death in Christ may be fully manifested in you. Bring
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: everything you have, dear friends, your mind, your power of thought,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: your heart, your love, your joy, Bring everything and lay
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: it before God. Have you ever thought of Jesus after
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: God had raised him from the day, if he had
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: turned away from heaven and gone to live in the world,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: what would have become of us? Shall we do it?
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Shall we dare to do it? To live worldly lives,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: to live sinful lives? Shall we do it after we
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: have been raised from the dead. Shall we not say
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I present myself to God, that He do with me
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: only what pleases him. Let it not only be a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: presentation of thanksgiving and surrender, but also one of holy
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: spiritual expectancy. I said at the beginning, in regard to
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: this life from the dead, that we do not know
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: how to keep it or maintain it. But if God
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: has begun the work, he will continue it. If He
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: has given it, he will maintain it. The life God
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: bestowed in resurrection, he will perfect He waits for you
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: every day to present yourself as alive from the dead,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: to bring every member as an instrument of righteousness, and
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: to have large expectations of what your God will do
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: for you. Do believe with your whole heart, my brother,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: that God is able and willing to lead you to
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: live upon earth as a living Lazarus raised from the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: dead by the mighty Power. And to the glory of God,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: he can enable you every day to live the resurrection life.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Do believe that only remember this, you must in Christ
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: present yourself every day to God in holy expectancy, waiting
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: for Him to work in you, waiting on Him in
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: faith to answer prayer in which you express your surrender
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: to God. This brings me back in closing to where
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: we were yesterday morning, Christ suffered that he might bring
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: us unto God. Let this be your one object as
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: you reckon yourselves as alive from the dead, dead to
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: self and alive with Jesus. Let it be your one
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: object to get near to God. We want more time
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: in secret prayer if the Resurrection life is to work
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: in power, more time alone with God for God to
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: perfect his work in me. Believer, yield yourself unto God.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Let your life bear the stamp. Ask God to write
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: it in your heart, a God yielded man, a God
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: devoted man, that God may perfect the life he began
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: in Christ. It will be a life of victory, of joy,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: of blessing. To live as a God yielded man, waiting
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: continually upon God to work his work perfectly in you.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Let us believe that all this is indeed for each
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: one here. Shall we not trust God by his Holy
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Spirit to make it true. He uses the words of
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the speaker. They may be feeble, but He uses even
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: these thoughts to make his own precious word true in
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: actual reality. In our souls. Shall we not trust God
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: for it? Shall we not trust God? That the Holy
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Spirit does set us free from the law of sin
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and death in our members. That the Holy Spirit does
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: give us strength to mortify the deeds of the body,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: so that our lives shall indeed be as those walking
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: in Christ and walking in the Spirit, monuments of the
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: power of God who quickened the dead and makes us
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: conformable to His blessed son