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Text Sermons : ~Other Speakers S-Z : Victory Over Sin : Do Dead People Sin?

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When ever there is crime committed, no one ever thinks that a dead person committed the crime. The reason for this is obvious, dead people to not break the law. When you go past a cemetery all you see is grave stones. Not one single dead body can commit any crime against man or God.

If you are a Christian then you are dead to sin.

Romans 6:1-23 "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Don't you know, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into 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. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Do not yield 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. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Don't you know, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But thank God, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Romans 6:6-12, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be nullified, so that we no longer serve sin. For the one that died has been justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that also we shall live with Him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death no longer lords it over Him. For in that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in that He lives, He lives to God. So also you count yourselves to be truly dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then do not let sin reign in your mortal body, to obey it in its lusts." (LITV)

If you continue living in sin there are only two possibilities.

1. You are not dead because you are a not true Christian at all.

Romans 6:7 "For he that is dead is freed from sin."

Romans 6:14a "For sin shall not have dominion over you"

1 John 3:7-10 "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil has kept sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither is he that does not love his brother."

2. You are a Christian but do not know that you are dead. You must count and consider yourself to be truly dead to sin and a live to God because of the FACT that you were crucified with Christ.

Gal. 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

No Christian should ever rest satisfied until they are conscious that they are dead and buried into Christ's death, until they are planted in the likeness of His death; and so crucified with Him that the body of death is fully destroyed.

Look at the wording of Romans 6:6 "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him". The tense of the verb is most precious for it puts the event right back there in the past. It is final, once-for-all. The thing has been done and cannot be undone. Our old man has been crucified once and for ever, and he can never be uncrucified. This is what we need to know. It is an established fact and was done by Jesus Christ for us.

Then, after we know this, what follows? Look again at the passage. The next command is in verse 11, "Even so reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin". This, clearly, is the natural sequel to verse 6. Read them together: 'Knowing that our old man was crucified.... reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin'. That is the order. When we know that our old man has been crucified with Christ, then the next step is to reckon it so.

Many times to much emphasis has been placed on the matter of reckoning ourselves to be dead, as though that is where we should start. It really is impossible to reckon ourselves dead to sin without first knowing ourselves to be dead. God's Word makes it clear that 'knowing' must come before 'reckoning'. " Knowing this ... reckon." This sequence is extremely important. Our reckoning must be based on knowledge of divinely revealed fact, for otherwise faith has no foundation on which to rest. When we know, then we can reckon spontaneously.

It is important not to over emphasize 'reckoning' as the first step. Many people try to reckon without knowing that they are dead. They have not first had a Spirit-given and Spirit birthed revelation of the fact that they are dead. When they try to reckon they soon fail and end up defeated. When temptation comes they begin to confess, 'I am dead; I am dead; I am dead!' but in the very act of this confession they lose their temper. Then they think and say, 'It does not work, I am not dead after all.' It is true that verse 11 is no good without verse 6. Now it comes to this, that unless we know for a fact that we are dead with Christ, the more we reckon the more intense the struggle will become, and the issue will be sure end in defeat.

The more a person just confess that he is dead to sin, the more he will find out that he is clearly alive. No person produce their own death. The harder a person tries to reckon himself dead, the further away death is. The Christian's death to sin is ONLY accomplished by his oneness with Christ. You must see that you are in Him, and that when He died, you died. The fact of your death is a matter of the past and not of the future. You are just as truly dead as He was because you were in Him when He died. Ask the Lord to show the fact of your death and then after He does you can find true joy at this great discovery. You can then say 'Praise the Lord, I am dead!'

Do you not know that Christ has died? Do you not know that you died with Him? Do you not know that your death is no less truly a fact than His?' If not, seek the Lord until you KNOW the finality of the word: "I have been crucified with Christ".

Our confessing and reckoning does not establish our death at all. Christ Himself established this fact when He was crucified. You must realize that in HIM you have been crucified, it is an accomplished fact. Confessing and reckoning never makes anything that is untrue, true. God tells us to reckon ourselves dead, not that by the process of reckoning we may become dead, but because we are dead. He never told us to reckon what was not a fact.

After we know the fact of our death in Christ we must take a definite attitude toward sin. God asks us to live and act like you are dead to sin. You can now say 'I have died' and then abide by it. Why? Because it is a fact. When the Lord Jesus was on the Cross, you were there in Him. Therefore you reckon it to be true. I reckon and declare that I have died in Him. Paul said, " Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God." How is this possible? "In Christ Jesus." Never forget that it is always and only true in Christ. If you look at yourself you will think death is not there, but it is a question of faith not in yourself but in Him. You look to the Lord, and know what He has done. 'Lord, I believe in You, I reckon upon the fact in You.' Stand there all the day.

Faith is extremely important because it is totally impossible to please God without faith. We are justified by faith in Him. Righteousness, the forgiveness of our sins, and peace with God are all ours by faith. What is faith? Faith is my acceptance of God's fact. It always has its foundations in the past. What relates to the future is hope rather than faith, although faith often has its object or goal in the future, as in Hebrews 11. Perhaps for this reason the word chosen here is 'reckon'. It is a word that relates only to the past-to what we look back to as settled, and not forward to as Yet to be. This is the kind of faith described in Mark 11:24: "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them." The statement there is that, if you believe that you already have received your requests (that is, of course, in Christ), then 'you shall have them'. To believe that you may get something, or that you can get it, or even that you will get it, is not faith in the sense meant here. This is faith -to believe that you have already got it. Only that which relates to the past is faith in this sense. Those who say 'God can' or 'God may' or 'God must' or 'God will' do not necessarily believe at all. Faith always says, 'God has done it'.

How do you express your faith in regard to your crucifixion? Not when you say God can, or will, or must crucify me, but when with joy you say, 'Praise God, in Christ I am crucified!' In Romans 3, we see the Lord Jesus bearing our sins and dying as our Substitute that we might be forgiven. In Romans 6, we see ourselves included in the death whereby He secured our deliverance. When the first fact was revealed to us we believed on Him for our justification. God tells us to reckon upon the second fact for our deliverance. The Christian life is lived progressively, as it is entered initially, by faith in Divine fact: in Christ and His Cross.

For us, then, the two greatest facts in history are these: that all our sins are dealt with by the Blood, and that we ourselves are dealt with by the Cross. But what now of the matter of temptation? What is to be our attitude when, after we have seen and believed these facts, we discover the old desires rising up again? Worse still, what if we fall once more into known sin? What if we lose our temper, or worse? Is the whole position set forth above proved thereby to be false?

Now remember, one of the Devil's main objects is always to make us doubt the Divine facts. After we have seen, by revelation of the Spirit of God, that we are indeed dead with Christ, and have reckoned it so, he will come and say: 'There is something wrong inside you. What about it? You are not dead after all.' When that happens, what will be your answer? The crucial test is just here. Are you going to believe the tangible facts of the natural realm which are clearly before your eyes, or the intangible facts of the spiritual realm which are neither seen nor scientifically proved?

Now we must be careful. It is important for us to recall again what are facts stated in God's Word for faith to lay hold of and what are not. God does not say that after we are born again, it is now impossible to sin. The possibility to sin will always exist. The Christian is not only delivered from the power of sin, but also delivered the desire and love of sin.

This deliverance from sin is so real that John can boldly write: Whosoever is begotten of God does not sin . . . he cannot sin " (1 John 3: 9) This verse is sometimes wrongly understood, it may easily mislead us. By it John is not telling us that sin is now no longer in our history and that we shall not again commit sin. He is saying that to sin is not in the nature of that which is born of God. The life of Christ has been planted in us by new birth and its nature is not to commit sin. The Christian has received a new nature in Christ. It is what is 'in Christ' that cannot sin.

So it is a question of our choice of which facts we will count upon and live by: the tangible facts of daily experience or the mightier fact that we are now 'in Christ'. The power of His resurrection is on our side, and the whole might of God is at work in our salvation, but the matter still rests upon our making real in history what is true in Divine fact.

Now we are considering here the things which, though they are not seen, are eternal and therefore real. Of course we cannot substantiate Divine things with any of our natural senses; but there is one faculty which can substantiate the "things hoped for", the things of Christ, and that is faith. Faith makes the real things to become real in my experience. Faith 'substantiates' to me the things of Christ. Hundreds of thousands of people are reading Romans 6:6, "Our old man was crucified with him". To faith it is true; to doubt, or to give mere mental assent apart from spiritual illumination, it is not true.

Let us remember again that we are dealing here not with promises but with facts. The promises of God are revealed to us by His Spirit that we may lay hold of them; but facts are facts, and they remain facts whether we believe them or not. If we do not believe the facts of the Cross they still remain as real as ever, but they have absolutely no value or meaning to us. For example Christ died on the Cross for everyone. Even though this is a fact no matter what, they are many who never became Christian inside of this Divine truth. The Cross does not need any faith to make it real, but faith is required to make the Cross real in our own experience.

Col. 3:1-5 "You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you too will appear with Him and share His glory! You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry)."

1 John 2:1-5 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that you do not sin. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keeps His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him."

If you do sin, you must confess it at once. WARNING!!! The blood of Jesus Christ does NOT cleanse unconfessed sin. You can not continue to live in rebellion and be cleansed while refusing to repent from it and confess it. If you have no desire to repent and confess, then I do not see how you are a Christian at all.

1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

If a Christian sins, it does not change the fact that he is still dead with Christ at ALL. The Devil will test you in this. After you sin, he will say something like, 'See, now you have done it, your are not dead, you better just give on ever being free from sin.' If you listen to him and focus on your sin and failure you will find yourself depressed and a failure. The solution to sin is ONLY found in Christ, you will never find any deliverance from sin by examining your self or you sin. You sin has nothing to offer you but total failure and defeat.

You should also keep these Divine truths in mind. You are now a new creature in Christ, that God, Himself has qualified you to be God's son, that you are now seated with Christ in heavenly places, you have been delivered from the power, domain and kingdom of darkness into God's kingdom and that the righteousness of the law can be fulfilled in you. These are facts but only if you are a Christian do they apply to you.

2 Cor 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Col. 1:12-13, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us qualified to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

Eph. 2:4, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:2, "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."

Whatever contradicts the truth of God's Word we are to regard as the Devil's lie, not because it may not be in itself a very real fact to our senses but because God has stated a greater fact before which the other must eventually yield. WHEN the Devil comes to you to prove to you that you are not really dead, he may even show you sin. He then may will say something like, 'see these sins? You are not dead after all, your faith is no good.' You will be tempted to give up on ever being free from sin. You must realize that the Devil is a liar and these must all be lies! So you must declared to the enemy, 'You are lying", in view of what God has said to me, I am dead to sin, and God's Word to me is truth.' The fact of the Cross can never deceive anyone. We must believe God, no matter how convincing Satan's arguments appear.

A skillful liar, lies not only in word but in gesture and deed; he can as easily pass a bad coin as tell an untruth. The Devil is a skillful liar, and we cannot expect him to stop at words in his lying. He will resort to lying signs and feelings and experiences in his attempts to shake us from our faith in God's Word. I am speaking here of our being moved from a revealed position in Christ. As soon as we have accepted our death with Christ as a fact, Satan will do his best to show use very convincingly by the evidence of our day-to-day experience that we are not dead at all but very much alive. So we must choose. Will we believe Satan's lie or God's truth? Are we going to be governed by appearances or by what God says?

So if you are a Christian you are dead with Christ whether you feel it or not. How can you be sure? Because Christ has died; and since "one died for all, therefore all died". Whether your experience proves it or seems to disprove it, the fact remains unchanged. While you stand upon that fact Satan cannot prevail against you. Remember that his attack is always upon our assurance. If he can get us to doubt God's Word, then his object is secured and he has us in his power but if we rest unshaken in the assurance of God's stated fact, assured that He cannot do injustice to His work or His Word, then it does not matter what tactics Satan adopts, we can well afford to laugh at him.

"We walk by faith, not by sight". All temptation is primarily to look within; to take our eyes off the Lord and to take account of appearances. Faith is always meeting a mountain, a mountain of evidence that seems to contradict God's Word we always be faced with a mountain of apparent contradiction in the realm of tangible fact, failures in deed, as well as in the realm of feeling and suggestion. Now we have to choose, does mountain go, or does our faith go? They cannot both stand. The trouble is that many times the mountain stays and our faith goes. That must not be. If we resort to our senses to discover the truth, we shall find Satan's lies are often enough true to our experience; but if we refuse to accept as binding anything that contradicts God's Word and maintain an attitude of faith in Him alone, we shall find instead that Satan's lies begin to dissolve and that our experience is coming progressively to tally with that Word.

It is our occupation with Christ that has this result, for it means that He becomes progressively real to us on concrete issues. In a given situation we see Him as real righteousness, real holiness, real resurrection life-for us. The Scriptures declare that we are "dead indeed", but nowhere do they say that we are dead in ourselves. We shall look in vain to find death within; that is just the place where it is not to be found. We are dead not in ourselves but in Christ. We were crucified with Him because we were in Him.

We are familiar with the words of the Lord Jesus, Abide in me, and I in you " (John 15. 4). First they remind us once again that we have never to struggle to get into Christ. We are not told to get there, for we are there; but we are told to stay there where we have been placed. It was God's own act that put us in Christ, and we are to abide in Him. We can have no real spiritual experience apart from Him. The Scriptures tell us that we were crucified "with Him", that we were quickened, raised, and set by God in the heaven lies "in Him", and that we are complete "in Him". It is not just something that is still to be effected in us (though it is that, of course). It is something that has already been effected, in association with Him.

Every true Christian is experience we may have is already to be found In Christ. We can not experience anything spiritual that is outside of Christ. Only as the Lord opens our eyes to see the Person of Christ do we have any true experience. Every true spiritual experience means that we have discovered a certain fact in Christ and have entered into that. Anything that is not from Him in this way is an experience that is false and will wade away. 'I have discovered that in Christ; then, Praise the Lord, it is mine! I possess it, Lord, because it is in You.' Oh it is a great thing to know the facts of Christ as the foundation for our experience!

Anything that we have spiritually experienced is only a result of have entering into what God has already done and what is in Christ. The history of Christ becomes our experience and our spiritual history; we do not have a separate history from His. The entire work regarding us is not done in us here but in Christ. He does no separate work in individuals apart from what He has done there. Even eternal life is not given to us as individuals: the life is in the Son, and "he that has the Son has the life". God has done all in His Son, and He has included us in Him; we are incorporated into Christ.

Now the point of all this is that there is a very real practical value in the stand of faith that says, 'God has put me in Christ, and therefore all that is true of Him is true of me. I will abide in Him.' Satan is always trying to get us out, to keep us out, to convince us that we are out, and by temptations, failures, suffering, trial, to make us feel acutely that we are outside of Christ. Our first thought is that, if we were in Christ, we should not be in this state, and therefore, judging by the feelings we now have, we must be out of Him; and so we begin to pray, 'Lord, put me into Christ'. No! God's injunction is to "abide" in Christ, and that is the way of deliverance. But how is it so? Because it opens the way for God to take a hand in our lives and to work the thing out in us. This makes room for the operation of His life and resurrection power so that the facts of Christ do progressively become the facts of our daily experience, and where once "sin reigned" we make now the joyful discovery that we are truly "no longer in bondage to sin."

As we stand steadfastly on the ground of what Christ is, we find that all that is true of Him is becoming experimentally true in us. If instead we come onto the ground of what we are in ourselves we will find that all that is true of the old nature remains true of us. If we get there in faith we have everything; if we return back here we find nothing. So often we go to the wrong place to find the death of self. It is only in Christ. We have only to look within to find we are very much alive to sin; but when we look to the Lord, God sees to it that death works here but that newness of life" is ours also. We are alive unto God.

"Abide in me, and I in you." This is a double sentence: a command coupled with a promise. That is to say, there is an objective and a subjective side to God's working, and the subjective side depends upon the objective; the "I in you" is the outcome of our abiding in Him. We need to guard against being over-anxious about the subjective side of things, and so becoming turned in upon ourselves. We need to dwell upon the objective "abide in me" and to let God take care of the subjective. And this He has undertaken to do.

In our walk with the Lord our attention must be fixed on Christ. "Abide in me, and I in you" is the Divine order. Faith in the objective facts make those facts true subjectively. As the apostle Paul puts it, "We all beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image". The same principle holds good in the matter of fruitfulness of life: "He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit". We do not try to produce fruit or concentrate upon the fruit produced. Our business is to look away to Him. As we do so He undertakes to fulfil His Word in us.

How do we abide? 'Of God are ye in Christ Jesus.' It was the work of God to put you there and He has done it. Now stay there! Do not be moved back onto your own ground. Never look at yourself as though you were not in Christ. Look at Christ and see yourself in Him. Abide in Him, Rest in the fact that God has Put you in His Son, and live in the expectation that He will complete His work in you. It is for Him to make good the glorious promise that "sin shall not have dominion over you.

The message that we are dead in Christ is very exciting indeed but it is only part of the message. The other necessary truth we need to know and count on is the fact that Christ Himself lives in us and empowers us to fulfill all the commandments.

Romans 8:9-11, "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if it is true that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, then he does not belong to Christ at all. 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 (continually give you life) to your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you."

Col. 1:27 "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Philip. 2:13, "For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

2 Cor 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

1 Co 6:19, "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?

Col 2:9-10, "For in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And you are Complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power."

1 John 4:15-16, "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him."

1 John 5:11-12, "And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life."

I do not think I can ever over emphasize the fact that true Christianity is really Jesus Christ HIMSELF living within us! There is no true life outside of Christ!!! If Christ who is life. Here is the greatest truth. WITHOUT CHRIST YOU CAN DO NOTHING!!!!

John 15:4-6, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

So many Christians get the wrong idea about Christ, they get the idea that Christ is to help them, They pray and ask God to strengthen them. Christ is not interested in making you strong, He wants to be strong within you. Let make this clear, Christ is your ONLY source of strength, life, light, love and all true obedience!! Without Christ and the Holy Spirit you are NOTHING!!! No person can ever produce any true love, faith, or any obedience for a second with out Him as the source!! Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh and what ever is born of the Spirit is Spirit. It is impossible for a person to produce any faith that does not have Jesus Christ as the source! All faith, love, and obedience must first be birthed within you by the Christ and His Spirit.

Heb. 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Can a dead person love God correctly? Can a dead person produce faith? Can a dead person obey God? NO!!! We are dead in Christ. If you try to obey God without totally relying on HIM, you will fail.

When Christ lived on earth as a man, even though He was the son of God, He was dead to any strength, love obedience within Himself.

John 5:19, "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what He sees the Father do: for what things soever He does, these also the Son does likewise."

John 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me."

John 8:28, "Then said Jesus unto them, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you shall know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things."

Are you better than Christ? If Christ could not do anything spiritual without totally depending on His Father and the Spirit, what makes you think that you can? Here is the REAL GOOD NEWS, If you are a Christian then the same Spirit that lived in Jesus Christ and kept Him obedient and free from sin lives in you now! He can do the same work in you that He Did in Christ.

This is what the new birth is really all about. YOU CANNOT live in obedience even for one second without Him as your source.

Are you ready to declare your self dead to all human effort and take God at His word?

Here is the Divine truth concerning your new birth. (these have been personalized to you)

Jer. 32:39-40, "I will give you one heart and one way, that you may fear me always, for your own good and for the good of your children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, that I will not turn away from you, to do you good, and I will put the fear of me in your heart so that you will not turn away from me."

Ezek. 36:25-27, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. Moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances."

Deut. 30:6, "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with your thy soul, that you may live."

Jer. 24:7, "And I will give you a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and you shall be my child, and I will be your God: for you shall return unto me with your whole heart."

Jer. 31:31-34, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with you: Not according to the covenant that I made with Israel in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with you; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in your inward parts, and write it in your heart; and I will be your God, and you shall be my child. And you shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive your iniquity, and I will remember your sin no more."

Ezek. 11:19-20, "And I will give you one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh: That you may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and you shall be my child, and I will be your God."

Ezek. 37:23, "Neither shall you defile yourself any more with your idols, nor with your detestable things, nor with any of your transgressions: but I will save you out of all their dwelling places, wherein you have sinned, and will cleanse you."

Heb. 8:8b-12, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with you: Not according to the covenant that I made with Israel in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with you after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into your mind, and write them in your heart: and I will be to them a God, and you shall be my child: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more."

These scriptures and many other like these show that the fact that it is GOD and CHRIST HIMSELF, who actually brings about the required obedience. It must not depend at all on your faithfulness or even your faith. What good is the provision of God if it does not secure the true required obedience? The real good news of the Gospel is that God gives you a NEW heart that NEVER fails.

Examine these passages again and see for yourself that God's true provision actually gives you the required heart that meets every possible requirement and demand of the gospel.

The only real question is will you NOW believe God to do all everything HE swears that He will do?

Let us then, not rest satisfied until we are conscious that we are truly dead and buried, into Christ's death, until we are planted in the likeness of His death; and so crucified with Him that the body of death is fully destroyed. Seek God and Ask him to make this verse more then just head knowledge but a true reality to you.

Gal. 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, (Christ's faith) who loved me, and gave himself for me."






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