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029 - Twenty-eighth Day Walking by the Spirit · Spirit of Christ

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  Speaker 1: Twenty eighth Day of the Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Twenty eighth Day,
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  Speaker 1: Walking by the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit, and ye
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  Speaker 1: shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. They that
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  Speaker 1: are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the
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  Speaker 1: passions and lusts thereof. If we live by the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: by the Spirit, let us also walk Galatians five sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: twenty four and twenty five. If we live by the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: by the Spirit, let us walk. These words suggest to
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  Speaker 1: us very clearly the difference between the sickly and the
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  Speaker 1: healthy Christian life. In the former, the Christian is content
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  Speaker 1: to live by the spirit. He is satisfied with knowing
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  Speaker 1: that he has the new life, but he does not
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  Speaker 1: walk by the spirit. The true believer, on the contrary,
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  Speaker 1: is not content without having his whole walk and conversation
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  Speaker 1: in the power of the Spirit. He walks by the spirit,
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  Speaker 1: and so does not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
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  Speaker 1: As the Christian strives thus to walk worthy of God
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  Speaker 1: and well pleasing to Him in all things, he is
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  Speaker 1: often sorely troubled at the power of sin and asks
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  Speaker 1: what the cause may be that he so often fails
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  Speaker 1: in conquering it. The answer to this question he ordinarily
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  Speaker 1: finds in his want of faith, or faithfulness in his
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  Speaker 1: natural feebleness, or the mighty power of Satan Alas. If
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  Speaker 1: he rests content with this solution, it is well for
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  Speaker 1: him if he press on to find the deeper reason
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  Speaker 1: why all these things from which Christ's secured deliverance for
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  Speaker 1: him still can overcome. One of the deepest secrets of
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  Speaker 1: the Christian life is the knowledge that the one great
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  Speaker 1: power that keeps the Spirit of God God from ruling,
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  Speaker 1: that the last enemy that must yield to him is
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  Speaker 1: the flesh. He that knows what the flesh is, how
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  Speaker 1: it works, and how it must be dealt with, will
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  Speaker 1: be conqueror. We know how it was on account of
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  Speaker 1: their ignorance of this that the Galatians so sadly failed.
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  Speaker 1: It was this led them to attempt to perfect in
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  Speaker 1: the flesh what was begun in the spirit. Chapter three,
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  Speaker 1: verse three. It was this made them a prey to
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  Speaker 1: those who desired to make a fair show in the flesh,
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  Speaker 1: that they might glory in the flesh. Chapter six, Verses
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  Speaker 1: twelve and thirteen. They knew not how incorrigibly corrupt the
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  Speaker 1: flesh was. They knew not that as sinful as our
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  Speaker 1: nature is when fulfilling its own lusts, as sinful as
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  Speaker 1: it is when making a fair show, in the flesh,
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  Speaker 1: it apparently yields itself to the service of God and
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  Speaker 1: undertakes to perfect what the Spirit had begun. Because they
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  Speaker 1: knew not this, they were unable to check the flesh
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  Speaker 1: in its passions and lusts. These obtained the victory over them,
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  Speaker 1: so that they did what they did not wish. They
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  Speaker 1: knew not that as long as the flesh, self effort,
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  Speaker 1: and self will had any influence in serving God, it
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  Speaker 1: would remain strong to serve sin, and that the only
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  Speaker 1: way to render it impotent to do evil was to
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  Speaker 1: render it impotent in its attempts to do good. It
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  Speaker 1: is to discover the truth of God concerning the flesh,
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  Speaker 1: both in its service of God and of sin, that
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  Speaker 1: this epistle was written. Paul wants to teach them how
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit and the Spirit alone is the power of
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  Speaker 1: the Christian life, and how this cannot be except as
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  Speaker 1: the flesh, with all that it means, is utterly and
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  Speaker 1: entirely set aside. And in answer to the question how
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  Speaker 1: this can be, He gives the wonderful answer, which is
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  Speaker 1: one of the central thoughts of God's revelation. The crucifixion
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  Speaker 1: and death of Christ is the revelation not only of
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  Speaker 1: an atonement for sin, but of a power which frees
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  Speaker 1: from the actual dominion of sin, as it is rooted
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  Speaker 1: in the flesh. When Paul, in the midst of his
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  Speaker 1: teaching about the Walk in the Spirit Verses sixteen to
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  Speaker 1: twenty six, tells us they that our Christs have crucified
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  Speaker 1: the flesh with its passions and lusts. He tells us
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  Speaker 1: what the only way is in which deliverance from the
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  Speaker 1: flesh is to be found. To understand this word, crucified
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  Speaker 1: the flesh and abide in it is the secret of
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  Speaker 1: walking not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Let
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  Speaker 1: each one who longs to walk by the spirit try
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  Speaker 1: to enter into its meaning the flesh. In Scripture, this
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  Speaker 1: expression means the whole of our human nature in its
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  Speaker 1: present condition under the power of sin. It includes our
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  Speaker 1: whole being, spirit, soul, and body. After the fall, God
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  Speaker 1: said man is flesh Genesis six, verse three. All his powers, intellect, emotions,
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  Speaker 1: will all are under the power of the flesh. Scripture
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  Speaker 1: speaks of the will of the flesh, of the mind
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  Speaker 1: of the flesh, fleshly mind, of the passions and lusts
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  Speaker 1: of the flesh. It tells us that in our flesh
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  Speaker 1: dwelleth no good. The mind of the flesh is at
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  Speaker 1: enmity against God. On this ground. It teaches that nothing
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  Speaker 1: that is of the flesh, that the fleshly mind or
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  Speaker 1: will thinks, or does, however fair the shaw it makes,
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  Speaker 1: and however much men may glory in it, can have
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  Speaker 1: any value in the sight of God. It warns us
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  Speaker 1: that our greatest danger in religion, the cause of our
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  Speaker 1: feebleness and failure, is our having confidence in the flesh,
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  Speaker 1: its wisdom, and its work. It tells us that to
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  Speaker 1: be pleasing to God, this flesh, with its self will
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  Speaker 1: and self effort, must entirely be dispossessed to make way
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  Speaker 1: for the willing and the working of another, even the
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  Speaker 1: Spirit of God. And that the only way to be
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  Speaker 1: made free from the power of the flesh and have
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  Speaker 1: it put out of the way, is to have it
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  Speaker 1: crucified and given over to the death. They that are
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  Speaker 1: of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh. Men often speak
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  Speaker 1: of crucifying the flesh as a thing that has to
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  Speaker 1: be done. Scripture always speaks of it as a thing
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  Speaker 1: that has been done, an accomplished fact. Knowing this that
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  Speaker 1: our old man was crucified with him, I have been
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  Speaker 1: crucified with Christ. They that are of Christ Jesus have
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  Speaker 1: crucified the flesh the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: through which the world hath been crucified. Unto me and
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  Speaker 1: I unto the world, what Christ, through the eternal Spirit
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  Speaker 1: did on the cross, he did not as an individual,
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  Speaker 1: but in the name of that human nature which as
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  Speaker 1: its head he had taken upon himself. Every One who
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  Speaker 1: accepts of Christ receives him as the crucified one, receives
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  Speaker 1: not only the merit but the power of his crucifixion,
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  Speaker 1: is united and identified with him, and is called on
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  Speaker 1: intelligently and voluntarily to realize and maintain that identification. They
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  Speaker 1: that are of Christ Jesus have, in virtue of their
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  Speaker 1: accepting the crucified Christ as their life, given up their
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  Speaker 1: flesh to that cross, which is of the very essence
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  Speaker 1: of the person and character of Christ as he now
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  Speaker 1: lives in heaven. They have crucified the flesh with its
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  Speaker 1: passions and lusts. Footnote. In the Law of Liberty in
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  Speaker 1: the Spiritual Life by Reverend E. H. Hopkins, will be
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  Speaker 1: found a singularly clear and scriptural exposition of the life
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  Speaker 1: of faith. The chapters on Conformity to the Death of
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  Speaker 1: Christ and on Conflict will be found most helpful to
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  Speaker 1: the right understanding of the relation of the believer to
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  Speaker 1: the flesh and the spirit. End a footnote. But what
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  Speaker 1: does this mean? They have crucified the flesh. Some are
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  Speaker 1: content with the general truth the cross takes away the
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  Speaker 1: curse which there was on the flesh. Others think of
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  Speaker 1: causing the flesh pain and suffering, of the duty of
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  Speaker 1: denying and mortifying it. Others again, of the moral influence
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  Speaker 1: the thought of the cross will exercise. In each of
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  Speaker 1: these views there is an element of truth. But if
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  Speaker 1: they are to be realized in power, we must go
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  Speaker 1: to the root thought. To crucify the flesh is to
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  Speaker 1: give it over to the curse. The cross and the
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  Speaker 1: curse are inseparable. Deuteronomy twenty one twenty three Galatians three
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  Speaker 1: thirteen to say, our old man has been crucified with him.
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  Speaker 1: I have been crucified with Christ means something very solemn
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  Speaker 1: and awful. It means this. I have seen that my
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  Speaker 1: old nature, myself deserves the curse, that there is no
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  Speaker 1: way of getting rid of it, but by death I
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  Speaker 1: voluntarily give it. To the death. I have accepted as
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  Speaker 1: my life the Christ who came to give himself his
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  Speaker 1: flesh to the cursed death of the Cross, who received
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  Speaker 1: his new life alone. Owing to that death, and in
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  Speaker 1: virtue of it, I give my old man, my flesh, self,
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  Speaker 1: with its will and work, as a sinful, accursed thing,
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  Speaker 1: to the Cross. It is nailed there in Christ. I
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  Speaker 1: am dead to it and free from it. It is
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  Speaker 1: not yet dead, but day by day, in union with Christ,
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  Speaker 1: will I keep it there, making dead as they still
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  Speaker 1: seek to rise up every one of its members and
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  Speaker 1: deeds in the power of the Holy Spirit. The power
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  Speaker 1: of this truth depends upon its being known, accepted, and
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  Speaker 1: act did on. If I only know the Cross in
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  Speaker 1: its substitution, but not as poor gloried in it in
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  Speaker 1: its fellowship Galatians six fourteen, I never can experience its
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  Speaker 1: power to sanctify. As the blessed truth of its fellowship
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  Speaker 1: dawns on me. I see how by faith I enter
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  Speaker 1: into and live in spiritual communion with that Jesus, who
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  Speaker 1: as my head and leader, made and proved the Cross
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  Speaker 1: the only ladder to the throne. This spiritual union, maintained
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  Speaker 1: by faith becomes a moral one. I have the same
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  Speaker 1: mind or disposition that was in Christ Jesus. I regard
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  Speaker 1: the flesh as sinful and only fit for the curse.
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  Speaker 1: I accept the Cross, with its death to what is flesh,
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  Speaker 1: secured to me in Jesus, as the only way to
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  Speaker 1: become free from the power of self and to walk
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  Speaker 1: in the new life by the Spirit of Christ. The
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  Speaker 1: way in which this faith in the power of the
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  Speaker 1: Cross as at once the revelation and the removal of
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  Speaker 1: the curse and the power of the flesh, is very
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  Speaker 1: simple and yet very solemn. I begin to understand that
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  Speaker 1: my one danger in living by the spirit is yielding
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  Speaker 1: to the flesh or self in its attempt to serve God.
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  Speaker 1: I see that it renders the Cross of Christ of
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  Speaker 1: none effect. First Corinthians one, seventeen, Galatians three, three, five,
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  Speaker 1: twelve and thirteen Philippians three, three and four Colossians two
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  Speaker 1: eighteen to twenty three. I see how all that was
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  Speaker 1: of man and nature of law and human effort was
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  Speaker 1: forever judged of God. On Calvary, there flesh proved that,
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  Speaker 1: with all its wisdom and all its religion, it hated
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  Speaker 1: and rejected the son of God. There God proved how
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  Speaker 1: the only way to deliver from the flesh was to
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  Speaker 1: give it to death as an accursed thing. I begin
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  Speaker 1: to understand that the one thing thing I need is
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  Speaker 1: to look upon the flesh as God does, to accept
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  Speaker 1: of the death warrants. The Cross brings to everything in
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  Speaker 1: me that is of the flesh, to look upon it
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  Speaker 1: and all that comes from it as an accursed thing.
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  Speaker 1: As this habit of soul grows on me, I learn
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  Speaker 1: to fear nothing so much as myself. I tremble at
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  Speaker 1: the thought of allowing the flesh my natural mind and
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  Speaker 1: will to us up the place of the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: My whole posture towards Christ is that of lowly fear,
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  Speaker 1: in the consciousness of having within me that accursed thing
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  Speaker 1: that is ever ready as an angel of light, to
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  Speaker 1: intrude itself in the holiest of all and lead me
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  Speaker 1: astray to serve God, not in the spirit of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: but in the power that is of Nature. It is
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  Speaker 1: in such lowly fear that the believer is taught to
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  Speaker 1: believe fully the need, but also the provision of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit to take entirely the place which the flesh
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  Speaker 1: once had, and day by day to glory in the
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  Speaker 1: cross of which he can say, by it, I have
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  Speaker 1: been crucified to the world. We often seek for the
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  Speaker 1: cause of failure in the Christian life. We often think
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  Speaker 1: that because we are sound on what the Galatians did
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  Speaker 1: not understand justification by faith alone, their danger was not ours. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: that we knew to what an extent we have allowed
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  Speaker 1: the flesh to work in our religion. Let us pray
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  Speaker 1: God for grace to know it as our bitterest enemy
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  Speaker 1: and the enemy of Christ. Free grace does not only
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  Speaker 1: mean the pardon of sin. It means the power of
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  Speaker 1: the new life through the Holy Spirit. Let us consent
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  Speaker 1: to what God says of the flesh and all that
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  Speaker 1: comes of it, that it is sinful, condemned, accursed. Let
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  Speaker 1: us fear nothing so much as the secret workings of
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  Speaker 1: our flesh. Let us accept the teaching of God's word
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  Speaker 1: in my flesh. Dwelleth no good thing. The carnal mind
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  Speaker 1: is enmity against God. Let us ask God to show
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  Speaker 1: us how entirely the Spirit must possess us if we
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  Speaker 1: are to be pleasing to Him in all things. Let
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  Speaker 1: us believe that as we daily glory in the Cross,
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  Speaker 1: and in prayer and obedience, yield the flesh to the
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  Speaker 1: death of the Cross, Christ will accept our surrender and will,
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  Speaker 1: by his divine power, maintain mightily in us the life
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  Speaker 1: of the Spirit. And we shall learn not only to
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  Speaker 1: live by the Spirit, but as those who are made
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  Speaker 1: free from the power of the flesh by its crucifixion,
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  Speaker 1: maintained by faith in very deed, to walk by the Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Blessed God, I beseech THEE to reveal to me the
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  Speaker 1: full meaning of what Thy word has been teaching me.
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  Speaker 1: That it is as one who has crucified the flesh
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  Speaker 1: with its passions and lusts, that I can walk by
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit. O, my Father, teach me to see that
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  Speaker 1: all that is of nature and of self is of
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  Speaker 1: the flesh. That the flesh has been tested by THEE
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  Speaker 1: and found wanting worthy of nothing but the curse and death.
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  Speaker 1: Teach me that my Lord Jesus led the way and
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  Speaker 1: acknowledged the justice of thy curse, that I too might
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  Speaker 1: be willing and have the power to give it up
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  Speaker 1: to the cross as an accursed thing. Oh give me grace,
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  Speaker 1: stay by day greatly to fear before THEE, lest I
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  Speaker 1: allow the flesh to intrude into the work of the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: and to grieve him and teach me that the Holy
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  Speaker 1: Spirit has indeed been given to be the life of
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  Speaker 1: my life, and to fill my whole being with the
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  Speaker 1: power of the death and the life of my blessed
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  Speaker 1: Lord living in me. Blessed Lord Jesus, who did send
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  Speaker 1: thy Holy Spirit to secure the uninterrupted enjoyment of Thy
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  Speaker 1: presence and Thy saving power within us. I yield myself
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  Speaker 1: to be entirely Thine, to live holy and only on
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  Speaker 1: the His leading. I do with my whole heart desire
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  Speaker 1: to regard the flesh as crucified and accursed. I solemnly
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  Speaker 1: consent to live as a crucified one. Savior, Thou dost
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  Speaker 1: accept my surrender. I trust in THEE to keep me
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  Speaker 1: this day walking through the Spirit Amen One. The power
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  Speaker 1: of Christ's life cannot work in me apart from the
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  Speaker 1: power of his death. His death alone deals effectually with
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  Speaker 1: the flesh, with self, with the natural life to make
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  Speaker 1: way for the new life the Holy Spirit. Do pray
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  Speaker 1: to see how entirely the flesh must die, how really
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  Speaker 1: and entirely the Holy Spirit must cast out your self
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  Speaker 1: life if he is to reveal in you the Christ's life. Two.
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  Speaker 1: Many will say of our calling the flesh, the natural man,
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  Speaker 1: the life of self an accursed thing. This is a
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  Speaker 1: hard saying. Oh, it is easy to encircle the cross
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  Speaker 1: with flowers and say a thousand beautiful things about it.
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  Speaker 1: But what God says of it is this, The cross
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  Speaker 1: is a curse. The Son of God on the Cross
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  Speaker 1: was made a curse. If my flesh is crucified, it
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  Speaker 1: can only be because it is a cursed It is
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  Speaker 1: a blessed moment in a life. When a man gets
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  Speaker 1: a sight of what a cursed thing sin is, it
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  Speaker 1: is a still more blessed thing and may work a
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  Speaker 1: deeper humiliation when God shows a man what an accursed
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  Speaker 1: thing the flesh is, and how He has cherished it
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  Speaker 1: and for its sake grieved the Holy Spirit of God. Three.
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  Speaker 1: The flesh and the Spirit are the two powers. Under
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  Speaker 1: the rule of either, every act is done, let her
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  Speaker 1: every step be a walk after through the Spirit. Four.
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  Speaker 1: The death of Christ led to the glory where he
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  Speaker 1: re isies, received and gave the Holy Spirit. It is
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  Speaker 1: a life where death to the flesh is the ruling
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  Speaker 1: principle in which the power of the Spirit can be revealed. Five.
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  Speaker 1: And the Church walking in the fear of the Lord
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  Speaker 1: and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, was multiplied
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  Speaker 1: a deep, lowly fear of the Holy presence within a
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  Speaker 1: fear of listening to self instead of Him. Is one
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  Speaker 1: secret of walking in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
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  Speaker 1: Be then in the fear of the Lord all the
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  Speaker 1: day long end of twenty eighth day,