In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of surrendering one's life to God. He highlights the realization that many Christians have had when they finally acknowledge their own shortcomings and unproductive lives. The preacher encourages listeners to let go of their self-pity and pride and to embrace the truth of Christ's sacrifice. He urges them to be willing to lose their own lives for the sake of following God, as this is where true life and purpose are found. The sermon concludes with a call to prayer and a reminder that salvation comes through accepting Christ's gift of grace.

Words of life that abolishes death and kills it dead. That's what happened when you were converted, if you'd been genuinely converted. God acquitted you for Jesus' sake. He recorded your name in the Lamb's Book of Life as one whose sins He would remember no more for His dear sake who died. And instantly God restored life, and life He switched yours. Christ in the person of His other self came to inhabit your humanity, and your body became the temple of the living God. You were added to that habitation of God through His Spirit which is called on earth His body, the church, of which Jesus Christ alone is the head, and every redeemed sinner, a living, pulsating member in particular. So the first thing you know about a man in Christ is what? He's alive. The first thing you know about a man in Adam is that he's dead. And the first thing you know about a man who's in Christ is that he's alive. How is he alive? Because God the Holy Spirit has come to indwell his human spirit, and re-impart to him the very resurrection life of Jesus Christ Himself. To what end? The Bible tells us that the righteousness demanded by the law might be fulfilled in us who now walk no longer after the flesh, dominated by the flesh, but walk now after the Spirit, dominated by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the coming of God the Holy Spirit into the human spirit is to the end that He the Holy Spirit might re-invade your soul, and re-capture your mind for Jesus Christ, and re-capture your emotions for Jesus Christ, and therefore re-capture your will for Jesus Christ. And whoever re-captures your will, captures your behavior, and your total humanity once more declares Jesus Christ. And you make Him the invisible, as once Christ as man made the Father invisible, visible. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. So, as you go around the world, it should be possible for you to say, if you've entered into the purpose for which you have been redeemed, He that sees me sees Christ. And if you want to know the measure in which you've entered into your redemption, it's precisely just the measure in which other people can see Christ. Not your imitation of Christ, not your fly language about Christ, but in your most unconscious moment, Christ expressed. Because a man in Christ is not only alive, a man in Christ walks after the Spirit, and a man in Christ lives in the power of His endless life. Said Jesus, John 6 and 57, As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me shall live by me. In Adam, dead, dominated by the flesh, dying of sin. In Christ, alive, dominated by the Holy Spirit, to live by Him as He once lived by the Father. The Father dwelleth in me, He doeth the work. John 14, Christ who lives in me, He doeth the work, to me to live is. And that's normal Christianity. That's what it means to be reconciled to God by His death, and say, Amen. Amen. I'd like to say for my part how deeply I have appreciated the opportunity of sharing with you in this convention, and I'm grateful to those whose hard work has made it possible. And I trust that God will continue to bless you in this way in days to come, and I shall certainly cherish very happy memories of the days spent together with you. I appreciate the hospitality that has been shown to me by so many very kind people. In our midday session, we thought that a man in Adam is born spiritually dead. Physically alive, soulishly active, that is to say, he can think, react emotionally, and exercise his will. He can behave spiritually dead. Not only is a man in Adam spiritually dead, but he is dominated by a principle that was introduced at the time that Adam fell into sin, a principle that the New Testament calls the flesh. Not a vague influence of evil, but what Paul describes in his epistle to the Ephesians as the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Spiritually dead, dominated by the flesh, and unless that miracle of spiritual regeneration takes place, called rebirth on the grounds of redemption through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, the man born dead and dominated by the flesh will die in history. Now, that was the unhappy side of the picture, but we saw, too, that as in this one man Adam's death came to the world, so by this other man, the Lord Jesus, the Lord from heaven, there came the resurrection from the dead. So that a man in Christ is alive, raised from the dead. Not he will be raised from the dead one day, but every man in Christ is already raised from the dead. For, you see, life abolishes death, and the moment you came to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Redeemer, as a forgiven sinner, there came to dwell within you the greatest presence of the Holy Spirit, healed as the blood-bought property of the Lord Jesus. The presence of the Holy Spirit himself crediting you with the very life of Christ, whose presence abolishes death, chases the gloom from your side, and turns darkness into light. So that a man in Adam is alive. Not only is he alive, but being indwelt now by the Holy Spirit, by whom he is alive, he walked after the spirit instead of after the flesh. A radical new principle governing his behavior. His mind now to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit. The very love of God to be shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5 and 5. So that his will now again will be exercised under the gracious influence of a God-taught mind, God-controlled emotions. So that increasingly there is born through him the image of Christ, and this image of Christ himself is the origin, the cause of his own effect. As electricity is the origin of its own immediate life. In Christ, the life. In Christ, walking after the spirit, and to live in the power of his indwelling, endless life. That's a man in Christ. Now, if you will remember, we commenced our discussion in the lunch hour in the second epistle to the Corinthians in chapter five, and I'd like you to turn back to that passage, because we saw that the seventeenth verse with which we commence was a conclusion sworn from an argument, an argument which we ourselves have been pursuing. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are but some years. So, having focused our thoughts upon what happens when a man, by faith, steps out of Adam into Christ, and with that in the background of our minds, would you turn with me now to the same chapter in the fortieth verse, for the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge that if one dies for all, this is the only good reason, then we're all dead. The one reason why the Lord Jesus, the second man, the Lord from heaven, died for all is that all were dead, and he died to kill dead and raise dead men from the dead. Delighted, he died because we're all dead. And that he died, verse fifteen, that they which live, which of course isn't everybody, but those who by the obedience of faith and repentance towards God put their trust in the Lord Jesus, raised from the dead, redeemed through his blood and spiritually regenerate by the coming of the Holy Spirit, that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again. That is why he died for you. First, because you were dead. And if you've realized the fact that you were spiritually dead and therefore needed his atoning death that you might be raised to life, it is to this end that being raised to life by the presence of Christ within you through the Holy Spirit, you might now henceforth not live yourself, but live with Christ generally, so that the Christ's rule has been re-established in the area of your mind, your emotions, and your will, and your total personality is now filled and flooded with God himself. That's the measure of your worth. That's the measure of your spirituality. Nothing more nor less. That is why, you see, in the fifteenth verse, Paul goes on to say this. I'll read it from the Authorized Version, though it's a little bit confusing as it is there translated, "...wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." That is to say, after the flesh. Now, what does the Apostle mean when he says that? Let me read it to you from the Amplified New Testament. I think it will help. Consequently, fifteenth verse of 2 Corinthians 5, "...from now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view in terms of natural standards of value." We've got a new standard of value. Not how clever a man is, not how rich a man is, not his social status, not even his age. There's only one real standard, says Paul, now as evaluating a man's worth. How far genuinely he lives to and for Jesus Christ, who died for him and who rose again to live in him. How far his humanity declares the nature of God. How far the regentive processes of God in his life have been able to restore him to the image of God his Maker. He says that is the only valid standard by which a man's worth may now be evaluated. I might ask you concerning somebody whom I see coming into a church looking somewhat affluent how much that person is worth. And if you were taken off your guard, and if I were naughty enough, you might say if he's worth a dollar, he's worth a million. And I would have to say to you, excuse me, but you have mistaken my question. I didn't ask you how much money he had in the bank. I asked you how much he was worth. Because a man isn't worth what he's got in the bank. So far as God is concerned, he's worth no more nor less than how far God can be seen in terms of his humanity. So the question that we should pose to our own hearts tonight is very simple. How much am I really worth? How far does the world see in me the image of Jesus Christ? But if he deserved the Father, how far do I deserve the Son? Has he lived by the living Father? How do I live by his? To what extent have I been restored genuinely to my true humanity? To what degree am I really allowing the Lord Jesus in me to be the origin of his own image and the cause of his own effect, so that my life as a Christian now is totally without explanation apart from Jesus Christ? Is your Christianity explainable apart from Jesus Christ? Don't you see that if your Christianity, the religion that you practice, can be explained other than in terms of Jesus Christ who lives within you, it's just a cheap, shabby imitation of the real thing? God washes his hands of it. You are to reckon yourself to be dead indeed in the sin that spells, that repudiates the basic principles of man's humanity, that is independent and self-sufficient, that throws out its chest and says, I have what it takes. You're to reckon yourself dead indeed now to this principle, and you're to reckon yourself alive now unto God solely and exclusively through Jesus Christ. That simply means that you recognize that there is only one person whom God actually recognizes as being legitimately alive in you. Who's that? Jesus Christ. Because he's the only person capable of living the Christian life. Any attempt on my part to imitate him will be a shabby imitation, nothing more. A hell out of him, yes. And it'll impress nobody. Of course, that's why the apostle went on. In the same 16th verse he said this, No, even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now we have such knowledge of him, we've come to such an understanding of his person and his mission and the principles that governed his life as a man. We have such knowledge of him that we know him no longer, in terms of the flesh. How did Paul once know Jesus Christ in terms of the flesh? When he was Saul of Tarsus. When he was Saul of Tarsus, he made a very reasonable and intelligent and legitimate estimate of the worth of Jesus Christ according to all normal, natural human standards in evaluating a man's worth. And of Saul of Tarsus, he would have said this, To the best of my knowledge and according to all the information that was accepted as legitimate by my own ecclesiastical colleagues, Jesus Christ was born, illegitimately, of a woman who was both a liar and unfaithful to the man to whom she was his father. That was the best knowledge that Saul of Tarsus had concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. It wasn't true, but that was what was popularly accepted. This is exactly what the Pharisees meant when the Lord Jesus said to them, Fear of your father the Jesus. For they had said to him, We weren't born of poor material. Like you. They couldn't. He was a sly, uncivil cat. We're the son of God. We're the children of Abraham. But as far as Saul of Tarsus was concerned, Jesus Christ was born, illegitimately, of a woman who was heathier. Any knowledge of a man? So she must have been a liar. And the one to whom she was espoused, Joseph, repudiated any responsibility for the birth of this world. So she must have been unfaithful. So, according to all reasonable, natural standards of worth, as far as Saul of Tarsus was concerned, Jesus Christ, totally, was worth precisely... He was just told up of him a liar. Educationally, how much was he worth? Had no more education than would allow him to stand as an apprentice at a carpenter's bench and finally take his place as a carpenter. This is faith. No more. In terms of scholastic education, college training, theological treaties, nothing. Educationally, he was worth nothing. He didn't have a word to say that could be compared with the weighty utterances of those who were the leading thinkers of his day, and of which Saul of Tarsus himself was one of the most pre-emptive. Promoted above many of the Jews in the Jews' religion. Ecclesiastically, Jesus Christ was almost unanimously repudiated by all the theological leaders of his day. All the ecclesiastical hierarchy, with one consent, condemned him as a fanatical salt preacher. He was a rabble rouser. He was a troublemaker. And a heretic of the heretics could be this ordinary old cop. Financially, how much was he worth? Born in a borrowed stable? He lived on other people. Had no home of his own. Borrowed everything he used. Borrowed every bit of food he ate. Borrowed the homes he lived in. Borrowed a donkey to ride on. He was even crucified in a borrowed cross and buried in a borrowed tomb and illustrated one of his seminaries with a borrowed cross. Socially, educationally, theologically, financially, how much was Jesus Christ worth? By all normal, accepted, reasonable standards of evaluating a man. Stop! Don't be angry with the soul of God. He was behaving completely rationally on the basis of the only standard he knew. How many churches in San Francisco would have called Jesus Christ to be their pastor on the basis of that evaluation? On the basis of his educational background? His college training? His ecclesiastical acceptance in the area of modern theological thinking? How many colleges would have invited him to serve on their packages? How many mission boards would have asked him to serve on their boards? How many mission boards would ever have sent him to the field? In 1964, in San Francisco, don't be too hasty in your judgment to fall apart. Paul says, There came a day in my life when, weaving out threatens and slaughter on the road to Damascus, suddenly I was confronted with a bright light brighter than the sun at noon day. And in that one blinding encounter I was thrown to my face in confusion. For I looked into the face of a man and I saw God. And he said to me, Paul, why persecute us down there? I said, who are you? For I'd never seen that man before. He said, I'm Jesus. Send thou pestilence. And in that day, Saul's heart was dark and rose again. Until he called it out. Totally deflated. To reckon from then on all those things that he had accumulated and to which he had attached so much worth that made him constant. Now he considered them to be nothing. Down. Reckless? Reckless. For in that blinding encounter with Jesus Christ he discovered that a man's worth was no more nor less than the degree in which God can be seen by man. And when he looked into the face of Jesus Christ he could see a man in whom the Holy Spirit was. A man, Christ Jesus. God's own dear and incarnate Son. Who was in the beginning with God and was God and never less than God at any time. But who for your sake and for my sake of his own privileges though he was in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation. In the New English translation he made himself nothing. Deliberate. He made himself all that man is apart from what God is. Nothing. So that for the first time on earth since man fell into sin there might be a man functioning as man. And so the Lord Jesus could say he that has seen me has seen me pass. For for thirty-three years the Lord Jesus Christ lived on earth on the basis for which he as God had created you and me. What did it take to be a man? God. Then what did it take for Jesus Christ to live on earth as a man? I can imagine you might quite genuinely and sincerely say do you mean to tell me that Jesus Christ couldn't live his own life on earth as a man without the Father and God? Turn with me to the 6th chapter of John's Gospel. John chapter 5 and verse 19. Then answered Jesus and said unto them verily verily I say unto you the Son the Incarnate Word the One who was in the beginning with God and was God the One by whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made that ever was made and who at this moment now nearly two thousand years later restored to enjoy with the Father the glory that he had had with the Father before ever the world was upholds all things by the word of his power this Son the Eternal Son of God the Son can do. How much? Nothing. What would be God? God. Yes. In tote equality with the Father and the Holy Ghost and never less than God. But when Jesus Christ came into this world he didn't come to behave as God he came to behave as man. He came to be as man all that he as God had created man to be. He was simply giving you a demonstration of what he expects of you nothing less. In 1964 verse 30 I can of mine own self do how much? Nothing. As God he could create the universe as man he could 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 that sent me. And as I reminded you in the earlier session at midday said the Lord Jesus as the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father he that eateth me shall live by me. Just how clever are you just how gifted are you just how talented are you that you can do so much apart from Jesus Christ when he as God behaving as man can do nothing without his Father. Doesn't that reduce us to our own self? Doesn't that cripple us? That of course is why the Lord Jesus said in John 15 verse 5 I am divine and you are the bride. He that abides between me and I and him bringeth forth much fruit for without me how much can he do? Without me you can do precisely as much as I as man can do without my Father. How much is that? Everything that you do apart from Jesus Christ so far as God is concerned is nothing. Evaluate it as you will and have it evaluated by your fellow men and by your fellow believers as they will. It's worth so far as God is concerned nothing. And it's surprising how busy it can be doing nothing. You can spend a lifetime doing nothing and congratulate yourself on being so busy or pity yourself. The chances are that if you are very, very, very busy doing nothing you'll be advertising yourself and sweating into the bar. So did everything. But Jesus Christ did nothing. Does this mean that he was inactive and passive and lethargic and unmoved and unconcerned? No, no. He was just being man. Imperfection. In totality available to his father and because in totality available to his father his father in totality is available. For all that God is is available to the man who is available to all that God is. How available was Jesus Christ to the father? Totally. So how available was the father to the son? Totally. And that's why in the activity of the Lord Jesus Christ there was absolutely no margin of difference whatever between what he did as man and what the father did in and through him as God. There was no margin of difference because he never took one step and he never said one word and he never adopted one single attitude which wasn't a complete unblemished, untallied expression of the activity of his heart. And he says, as I live by the father you're going to live by me. This means that. John 14.10 Believe it shall not that I am in the father and the father in me. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself but the father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the work. The father that dwelleth in me. This was the secret of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as man. But I want you constantly to remind yourself that the Lord Jesus again and again emphasized this fact that as the father had sent him he now sends you. Repudiate that fact at your peril. As the father sent me I send you. And says the Lord Jesus the father that dwelleth in me he does the work. I credit my father with everything I do and I credit my father with everything I say and I credit my father with everything that I am. And he that seeth me seeth the father. And as I am sent by my father you are going to be sent by me. And if there is anything about what you are and anything about what you do that is not to be credited for what I am in you and do through you then you are repudiate. The basis upon which I am in this. That's why in the 12th chapter of John's Gospel in verse 44 you have this surprising statement made by the Lord Jesus. John 12, 44 Jesus cried and said he that believeth on me believeth not on me. Did you ever think that one through? He that believeth on me believeth not on me. Then if you believing on Jesus don't believe on Jesus who do you believe on? Well he tells you. The one of whom he gives complete and solid unblemished expression. Who's that? Him that sent me. That's why you can't compare Jesus Christ as one teacher with another teacher one philosopher amongst many philosophers. You don't compare his opinions with the opinions of anybody else. He says I am the truth. And I'll tell you why I am the truth because I'm wholly totality in totality available to my Father. Everything my Father is can be expressed unblemished in terms of my humanity. So that when you believe on me you do not believe on me you believe on the one who is completely expressed in terms of me. My Father. Verse 45 He that seeth me seeth in the same. And that's why if any man hear my word verse 47 and believe not I judge him not I came not to judge the world but to save the world I don't have to judge him for this good reason verse 48 He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my word hath won the judgment the word that I have spoken the saints will judge him in the last day. It'll still be true then as it is true now I don't have to judge because every word I speak is a word that I speak by commandment of my Father. I have not spoken verse 49 of myself but the Father which sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak and I know that his commandment is life everlasting whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak so that every word I speak as a man is a is a word that my Father speaks as God. And when you believe on my word as a man you believe on my Father's word as God. The Lord Jesus Christ never claimed your faith in him by virtue of who he was. Isn't that strange? He had the rights he was God. But he was behaving as man. The only authority that he claimed to be believed was that he was a pure expression of what the Father was in him working truth. And he says if there comes one single moment in my life when you can find any other activity in and through me other than the activity of my Father you do not have the right to believe me. John 10 verse 37 If I do not the works of my Father if I am not doing the truth if I am not doing what my Father says if my humanity does not authentically declare the nature of my Father and my Father's will and my Father's works if I do not the works of my Father be he, he not. You don't have the right to believe. But if I do though you believe not me believe the works that you may know then believe that the Father is in me and I in him. I want you to know this that the only authority that you have to claim the attention of your fellow men your own children at home to believe the things that you tell them concerning the word of God and Jesus Christ himself the only authority you have is the measure in which Jesus Christ is expressed in terms of your behavior. Don't expect your children at home to believe your doctrine if they don't see that doctrine being behaved in terms of your demands. I'll ask you to your face and as soon as they can they'll kick over the table and never come near your place of worship again. And you'll do this. That's why there are so many rebellious children of believing parents because they've heard from the lips of believing parents so much that the parents say and see so little of the speech that the parents give. Jesus Christ never claimed any authority for what he said other than by virtue of the fact of what should be seen of the fatherly. Your neighbors your fellow students your chums at school your family circle will be as convinced of the speech you speak as they are of the speech you live. Nor do they have the right to be convinced And so the Lord Jesus lived his life in an unrelenting attitude of total dependence upon the father. And whether it was preaching the sermon on the mount or raising Lazarus from the dead or whether it was feeding the five thousand or washing his disciples' feet there was never a moment at any time in the whole life of Jesus Christ for thirty-three years when he was not doing only always those things that seemed completely available to the father. And this he said is normal manhood which is the end product of God's redemptive purpose which is to be normal Christianity. Christ in you. The secret of his life the father dwelleth in me the indwelling Father. The secret of your life Christ dwelling in you the indwelling Father. But as he lived by the father you are to live by him. As the father expressed himself through the son so the son is to express himself through you. And the only valid estimate of your worth as a Christian is the measure in which Christ is expressed in terms of your denominator. That's all you will. It's for this reason that it's all the more surprising that there came a day if you'll turn to it in John's Gospel chapter twelve when the Lord Jesus spoke of a particular hour in his life which was to be of greater significance than any other because it's hard to conceive of any hour in the life of the Lord Jesus that could be of any particular significance greater than another if for every moment that he lived and for every step that he took and for every word that he spoke he was constantly and unrelentingly a declaration of the nature and will and purpose of his Father God. How could one hour be of any greater significance than another? And yet in the twenty-third verse of the twelfth chapter of John the Lord Jesus answered and said the hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. It's an hour that is referred to on more than one occasion. In the seventh chapter of John's gospel and the thirtieth verse then they sought to take him but no man laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come. In the eighth chapter and the twentieth verse these words speak Jesus in the treasurer as he taught in the temple and no man laid hands on him for his hour was not yet come. In the thirteenth chapter and the first verse before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour was come. In the seventeenth chapter of John and the first verse the Lord Jesus we're told spake these words lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour is come glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify Jesus. So, it's quite obvious that there was one specific hour in the matchless life of the Lord Jesus that was to be of a particular significance. Continuing in the twelfth chapter and the twenty-fourth verse the Lord Jesus said verily, verily I stand to you except a corner queen fall into the ground and die. But if it dies it brings forth much sin. By the impartation of that life to us and once the Lord Jesus Christ declares the purpose of his coming into the world Jesus said I am come that you might have life and if I the sinless grain of wheat approved of my father this is my beloved son whom I am well pleased if this my hour is come in which I am to be glorified is an hour in which I may go into the ground and die. It is simply that you might have the life that I have. So we recognize at once that the coming of Jesus Christ in this world was primarily concerned with the imparting of divine life to redeem sinners. Not that sinners being forgiven might get out of hell into heaven but that they might become once more partakers of the divine nature and becoming partakers of that divine nature have once more all that pertains to life and God's likeness. The restoration of man to his true in the likeness of God and that's what the gospel is all about. I'd never be so unfair to any boy or girl or man or woman to say come to Jesus and have your sins forgiven to you. I can't think of anything that would be more calculated to mock them for the rest of their days. You don't come to Jesus to have your sins forgiven you come to the Lord Jesus to have life but in order that you might have his life you must have your sins forgiven and that's why he says behold my hands and my feet for the divine I pray. See to the hallmarks of my saviourhood this is the stamp of my mandate that enables me not only to cleanse the temple by cleansing you with my own precious blood but to re-inhabit that temple and fill it again with the glory of God I'm going to give you life. That's why you come to Jesus Christ and if you want to know why there are so many limp Christians on the way crippled salacious because folks have invited them to come to Jesus to get some truth to do or heaven one day when the Lord Jesus constantly said come to me for what I am I am the way I am the truth I am the life the hour has come Jesus answered them the time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified and exalted I assure you most solemnly I tell you amplified Jesus in John 12 24 unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies listen to this very carefully it remains it remains just one grain never becomes more but lives goes on living by itself by itself I love it it remains and lives but if it dies it produces many others and yields a rich harvest don't you see that if the Lord Jesus Christ had come into this world and lived the life that he lived even had he only been man and never been God he would have had the right to remain and live for it is him that separates man from God he was perfect man now we know that he was also perfect God he was never less than God but even as man had he never been God he would have had the right at the end of those 33 years to remain and live forever I love you and I would never have become partakers of his divine ministry there are some that would have you believe and you know the falsity of it and I know that there's not one who doesn't really repudiate it there are some who would have you believe that Christianity simply consists in your attempt to imitate and emulate the matchless example of a beautiful man who lived 1900 years ago and who died before his time as a noble idealist and a great philosopher that if only you will browse upon the sermon on the mountain gaze at his example the only legitimate cause of his own effect are you absolutely certain that even within the boundless evangelical Christendom your Christianity isn't the byproduct of your conformity to certain patterns of behavior that have been imposed upon you by the particular Christian society to which you belong and that your holiness does not derive from within your holiness derives from without are you sure the moment your brand of Christianity however genuinely you pursue it and with whatever sincerity but the moment it comes from a pattern imposed from without you are repudiating the basic principle that Christ is you enunciated that you can only have his life by his death and you can only have his likeness by his life and that's why you need his life because it takes God to be a man and that's why it takes Christ to be a Christian for as I have already reminded you it is Christ in a Christian that puts God back into the man supposing Jesus Christ had only come into this world and lived that wonderful life and gone back to heaven what would that have done for him stand with me to the tenth chapter of the epistles of the Romans Romans 10 and I appreciate the way you listen because in such a short space of time I cannot spare you either in time or substance and you make it easy for me to talk to you and I know that it isn't always easy to be followed to the court rather quickly but I believe that the Holy Spirit himself will bear witness to his own dear son and honor honor the son in your heart as he witnesses to the truth to your own particular and personal needs very quickly the truth to your own heart in the tenth chapter of the epistles of the Romans verse one brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God to Israel is this that they might be saved for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God they're zealous they're earnest they're not insincere they're not hypocrites they really mean business they practice religion but not according to knowledge Paul doesn't challenge their sincerity he doesn't point the finger of accusation at them he says they're earnest men and women and there are countless tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of earnest men and women and boys and girls who practice religion and go to church and they're not hypocrites and they're not saved either they're neither they simply practice religion not according to knowledge in other words they're uninstructed in the truth and if you do something not according to knowledge you do it in ignorance what then was the nature of the ignorance of these people who with such zeal practiced religion it tells you in the third verse for they being ignorant of God's righteousness they didn't know the mystery of God's likeness they didn't know that righteousness stems from God that every act of righteousness is a divine act in man reproduced by God in and through man that God is himself the origin of his own image that righteousness is God in action that righteousness is God's behaving they didn't know it they thought that righteousness was man trying to imitate God they thought that righteousness was man trying to conform to certain rules and regulations and they were trying with great zeal and great earnestness and great endeavor to conform to the patterns that were being imposed upon them by the Pharisees but he these patterns were hopelessly inadequate because of the hopelessly inadequate nature of the man the law was weakened through the flesh there was a hostile element buried deep within their soul that is hostility to God hostile to God subject to the law of God and that's why the Lord Jesus Christ said to them unless your righteousness exceeds that of the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees who want to impose upon you a pattern of God's likeness you will in no wise enter the community of hell that was the nature of their ignorance they didn't know God's righteousness nor the origin of it and the result was that they went about it says in the third verse to establish their own righteousness and when they did that again it wasn't because they wanted to be pig-headedly proud and swank about it it was the best thing they knew and therefore did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God they were not prepared to accept the principle that only God in a man can make a man God-like verse four it was only one man who walked that earth who was God-like as a man on God's terms of residence and because he was willing to place his total humanity body, soul, spirit mind, emotion and will at the disposal of the Father through the Eternal Spirit he gives 9.14 there was a complete expression of the nature of God or as Paul puts it don't bother to turn to it in the epistle to the Colossians in him the whole fullness of deity the Godhead continues to dwell in bodily form giving complete expression of the divine nature the Lord Jesus or in the same epistle the expression of his person a visible declaration of his nature and the law in its utter righteousness could never condemn for Christ therefore is the end of the law for righteousness no point to the law of Jesus for the righteousness that was demanded by the law that was claimed by the finger of God was the righteousness that was fulfilled by the life that was born by the finger of God miraculously conceived in the womb of Mary Jesus Christ incarnate was an incarnation of the righteousness demanded by the law he was the end of the law for righteousness and of course as we know though we're not going to dwell upon it now as the last part of that verse says this is the righteousness his righteousness that is imputed or credited to all those who believe who repudiate their own capacity to imitate God or be righteous on their own terms of reference they repudiate it in proud and helplessness God I need the righteousness that you alone can impute to me and credit me with and close me with it is the righteousness of Christ alright we know therefore that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ as a man was the life that demonstrated the righteousness that is demanded by the law I want to ask you to follow me very very clearly in this if the righteousness displayed by the life of the Lord Jesus was one which completely fulfilled the righteousness which is demanded by the law then there was absolutely nothing to choose between the righteousness displayed by his life or the righteousness demanded by the law is that right that the righteousness declared by his life could be equated in total equality with the righteousness demanded by the law therefore we need to ask ourselves this question what can the righteousness of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that he displayed that he declared then as a man 1900 years ago do to you until now for it is of inequality with the righteousness demanded by the law quite obviously the righteousness declared by his life can do nothing no more for you and for me the day in 1964 than the righteousness demanded by the law what can the righteousness demanded by the law do for you and for me Romans chapter 3 Romans chapter 3 in verse 19 we know that what things whoever the law saith it saith to them who are under the law that every mask may be stopped and all the world may become duty before God therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin the only thing that the law can do for you and for me because of the weakness of our own flesh is to cut our mouth to the beauty and expose our sin let me be presumptuous enough to demand of God that I be judged on the basis of my performance and I say God compare me with the demands of your law I demand to be judged on that basis God says right I'll do it and I'll tell you what will happen your mouth will be stopped it will expose your sin and find you guilty is that right? alright what happens if you compare your life with the life of Jesus Christ the righteousness of whose life was identical with the righteousness demanded by the law I want to tell you this that whether you compare your life with the demands of the law or whether you compare your life with the demands of his life both can go both cut your mouth both expose your sin and you can no more as a Christian through the weakness of the flesh you can no more as a Christian imitate his life today than you could fulfill the law how is it then that you claim redemption through the death of Christ because you couldn't fulfill the law but somehow by some strange twist of argument you want to live a holy life by copying his life you can't you can't get to heaven by keeping the law because you break it then how can you be holy by copying his life you'll break that too doesn't the weakness of the flesh render the life of Christ inopposite to make you holy the life that he lived 1900 years ago and the weakness of the flesh renders the law inopposite to make you holy so the flesh within you rebels at the righteousness of the life of Christ as the flesh within you rebels at the righteousness demanded by the law the flesh is not subject to the law whether written with the finger of God or declared with the word of God in Christ in Jesus Christ both can die then why did Jesus Christ live a life 1900 years ago that can only condemn you as soundly as the law condemns you for both can die very simple the life that he lived was utter man and qualified him for the death he died it was utter man because the sinless saviour died my sin full soul is counted being God the just is satisfied to look on him and die and pardon me God because he died just as if I had never died because he died just as if he committed all my sins is that the gospel that's just the beginning of the gospel it's the very essential first part of the gospel it's the threshold of our salvation it's the door through which we go in and there is no other only by the blood of Jesus have we bought into access but it is access that it is access into what access into life for Jesus said except the grain of root fallen to the ground and die it abides alone but if it dies it doesn't abide alone its life is shared here's a very simple question that I want to put to you as you look back to the day when you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your redeemer and as in the goodness of God you've had the joy of knowing that your sins have been forgiven since then does the knowledge that your sins are forgiven in itself impart to you any new moral capacity to live a different kind of life the mere knowledge that your sins are forgiven the mere knowledge that your sins were borne away upon the cross does that in itself impart to you any new spiritual moral capacity to be different no it may create within you a holy appetite to be different it may create within you a sense of gratitude toward the Lord Jesus and a sense of duty that would make you want to live a holy life but the knowledge that your sins are forgiven in itself does not give you the power to live a holy life it would leave you frustrated frustrated baffled and bewildered I want to be different I want to be God-like I want to be Christ-like but I've got the same wicked evil flesh within me that can no more fulfill the law nor copy Him oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I know I'm going to get to heaven but what's going to happen to me on the way to heaven that's the bewildering question that baffles so many Christians who are genuinely converted but who have been invited only to come to a dead Christ Hippolytus 1900 years ago whose atoning death made them hit for heaven and have left them so far as the gospel they've heard totally inadequate for earth on the way to heaven and they've cried the line as though the flesh was their own private war they've got to wrestle with it until it's re-educated and becomes thoroughly evangelical and it never will listen the life he lived qualified him for the death he died but listen the death he died qualifies us as redeemed sinners to receive the life he lived did you get that? the life he lived qualified him for the death he died but this is the whole purpose of God's redemption plan the death he died qualifies you now to receive the life he lived that's the meaning of Pentecost he went into death bearing your sins away as far as the east is from the west there might be restored to you the very dynamic that made him the man he was God in a man and the third day he rose again from the dead that in the person of the Holy Spirit he might come and re-inhabit your humanity and by this Holy Spirit within your human spirit reinvade your soul so that mind emotion and will might once more come under the divine sovereignty of the enthroned Christ in the sense of your personality so you see that the life that he lived 1900 years ago could only condemn you but it is the life that he lives now by his Holy Spirit in you that saves you and the Christian life is the life that he lived then 1900 years ago in his own humanity lives now by him in you in your redeemed humanity that's the Christian life that's the saving life of Christ this is the dynamic of our gospel this is the good news and the better news and the best news of the gospel so he not only died for what I've done 1900 years ago but he rose again from the dead and at this very moment in the eternal present of an eternal God who is the I am he is at this moment in me now the only hope of life he doesn't give me strength he is my strength he doesn't give me victory he is my victory he doesn't encourage me to be like Jesus he is his own likeness as I make myself available to him the origin of his own image and the cause of his own life to me the limit is Christ and what happened on that first day of Pentecost where at his command 120 men and women gathered in one place to be imbued with power of Solomon Heights to become the recipients of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ as he came to take up residence within their humanity and the father presented to the son a new body a new body corporate of 120 members each individual member cleansed in his blood to be filled with his life so that the same Lord Jesus Christ who walked and worked and taught and preached on earth for 33 years might continue to work and continue to teach but now closed with the humanity of those who shared his resurrection life because he the sinless grain of wheat had gone to the ground and died and that 120 men and women on the first day of Pentecost was the first golden ripen ear of corn that shared his resurrection life and all down the centuries that life has been reproduced until in 1964 you and I today share the life of Jesus Christ in it and if any man have not the spirit of Christ he's none of this prove your own self whether you be in the faith know you're not that Christ is in you unless you're a counterfeit unless you're a reprobate unless you're just an imitation grain of wheat that's terrile from the start because no German life was ever imparted to you by God the Holy Spirit present crediting you with the life of Jesus Christ and we could make a thousand imitations of a grain of wheat but if you planted them what would happen nothing just terrile and that's why you can never patronize people into heaven that's why you can never educate them into the kingdom of God every man woman boy or girl that will ever share the life of Jesus Christ is a by-product of death and resurrection every man woman boy or girl who will share eternity with the Lord Jesus is one who has by Christ himself been raised from the dead as he Christ by his presence in life has abolished death and brought life and immortality to the life that's the gospel it's a word of life but before a man is prepared to receive life he's got to be convicted of the fact that he's dead dead in trespasses and sins alienated from the life of God he's made dominated by the flesh and on the way to hell but now he receives the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ well has this miracle taken place in your heart you say thank God indeed it has I can remember the day when I claimed the name of Jesus and my sins were forgiven and he came by his Holy Spirit and his Holy Spirit has been witnessing to my spirit that I am a child of God is that the end of the story why do you think Jesus Christ has come to live in you he came from heaven to Bethlehem is that the end of the journey from Bethlehem to 33 years he went to the cross is that the end of the journey from the cross he went into the grave and into paradise is that the end of the journey that day he rose again from the dead and ascended to be with the Father to share with the Father again the glory that he had with the Father before ever the world was end of the journey no he said to those disciples go to the upper room and wait for me there you will be endued with power from on high and on the day of Pentecost Jesus Christ came what do you do with it anyway and this little cat root this little cat root knows exactly what to do it begins to burrow its way into the earth and suck up the moisture and the little grain of wheat has hardly got over the shop before there's a tickly feeling up top it's in the wrong place and it's a bit alarmed needs surgery maybe I should twist it down no because it's the shoot that must go up controlled by a principle of life that is laying dormant titled in dungeon within its hard heart all those years that it insisted on beating itself and refusing to die say don't miss the point I'm talking to you I'm talking to you maybe a clumsy farm hand comes along treads on that little piece of ground and turns the thing right upside down till the roots going up and the shoots going down and the little grain of wheat might be tempted to sob and say I knew it couldn't last when suddenly it discovers that the root turns down and the shoot turns up that there's a principle of life that is gloriously competent even when its little world appears to be turned upside down that's what it means to live victorious nothing can shake this the panic proof even when your little world is turned upside down because you know that there is the latent Lordship of Christ being released in all that spontaneous expression of his peace in terms of your humanity making you not some cheap imitation some shabby copy of somebody else aping their methods and aping their pains and aping their ways but Christ spontaneously expressed in terms of your humanity making you a perfect original until at last that little tender shoot breaks the surface into the light of day and beneath blue skies and the warm rays of the sun it begins to grow and reach out to the skies until at last swaying swaying in the breeze beneath the golden sun the golden hills of course thirty times sixty times a hundred times a life that's been shared through death that's the Christian life did you know that? I know that some of you here will never know you'll get to heaven because you're sin-sufficient you'll get to heaven because you've registered your decision to receive Christ as your Redeemer and you are greedily clutching your inheritance in Him but you're never going to let Him have His inheritance in you oh no! I'm going to be myself I've got my plans I know the girl I'm going to marry and we've already put a down payment on the house and I intend to follow my career no matter what God says I'm not going to be expendable on the Amazon oh no all right hold on to what you are you wizard grain of wheat and you'll remain and you'll live alone for eternity to bewail the hardness of your heart that endangers the Son of God within your soul and never allows Him to become the artist of His own to shape your future ends and make you one with Jesus a way up on a platform painting a magnificent view on the underside of the cathedral dome the artist paused in his work he stepped back to gaze at his handiwork and it had intoxicated him the sheer wonder the sheer beauty of it the dazzlement splendor he was intoxicated at the by-product of his own genius and as he as he stepped still farther back to see it at greater advantage and still again and again one more step backwards sent him plunging to his death upon the stone flag floor beneath and it was just precisely at that moment that his assistant up on the platform with him looked up and in one quick lightning glance appreciated the situation could see that one more step would plunge him to his death he was lost to the world in which he was living he was so completely caught up in his own handiwork and picking up a bucket of paint he threw it into the sea and the artist leapt forward in a rage and said you've spoiled my picture he said yes I've spoiled your picture but I've saved your life I don't know now how much you've understood today I trust that God in his goodness has revealed something of his truth because there's nothing complicated now just Christ in the hope of victory maybe I've spoiled your picture but God is good maybe I've saved your life because if you will save your life you will lose but if you are prepared for his death you will lose but life of God intended life his life expressed in terms of your desire not a cheap copy his perfect image is that what you want in just a few seconds we're going to bow our heads and we're going to pray as we sing a hymn but in the singing of that hymn I'm simply going to ask those who need to leave us and there will be some for very good legitimate reasons though it may well be that you wouldn't much wish to stay that's all right please without any embarrassment without any hesitation whatever please in the few remaining moments that I have which will be no more than about six or seven for I have to catch this plane to get to San Diego I want to say one last word to all of you to those who would wish to remain it's on the question of appropriation for somebody will come and say this is wonderful I can see it but just how do I apply it that will be my last word I'm going to suggest that we sing just two verses of a hymn and in the first verse of the hymn that our brother here I believe is choosing I'm going to ask you all to stand and all sing without one single movement as you sing the first word of the first line of the second hymn of the second verse of that hymn I'm going to ask you if you must leave us and depart and God bless you if you must to do so just as quickly as you possibly can and quiet but quiet the word of God says as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so also you found redemption soon as you exposed your need of the guilty sins of the adequacy of death give death upon the cross and all you could do from that moment was to step back and say thank you isn't that what you've been saying ever since I am redeemed I don't deserve it it was his gift to me he paid the price and his death is at once and I've entered into the rest of faith Christ is my redemption as you received him walk with him you no more deserve the life of the Lord Jesus in you than you deserve the death of the Lord Jesus for you the wonderful thing is this that for every step you take and for every situation into which that step takes you the Lord Jesus himself is present never less than Adam in overwhelming sufficient and he wants you to reckon with him at that moment in life as once at your conversion you reckoned with him in death to step back out of that situation be it threat or promise temptation or perplexity and say Lord Jesus I don't ask you for your strength for this situation I'm reckoning now upon the fact that you have come to take the place of what I am I am drawing out by faith your exchange life you're my strength for this you're my peace for this you're my victory for this you're my patience for this I don't yet know the answer I don't quite see how you're going to sort it out but Lord I rest in thee and all I can say is thank you it's your move and you'll discover that as you apply that principle of faith that steps back and says thank you Lord for what you are in me for this whether or not you can see the solution he will vindicate it adequately as you take he undertakes and that is why the victorious Christian is always saying thank you that's why the word of God says rejoice evermore pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you because there's not a single situation that can arise at any time for which he in you is not adequate then apply the principle and adopt the attitude and rest in him for what he is in you every step of the way when you get up tomorrow morning say thank you Lord Jesus you're going to be my life today all that I could ever need for any situation today that will arise I have because of what you are I can't have more I don't need that less thank you for the blessing that you're going to be through me to others thank you for those whom you're going to quicken into life thank you for the smile that unconscious to me you're going to give through me to somebody else thank you for your conviction that's how to walk in for every situation he will say to you I am anything else you need to know stop being frantic and look him in the face and say it's all I need to know thank you and you will have learned to live miraculously and to release that divine quality of life that will make you in his able hand his own peculiar image one of his origin and his life will be reproduced through you you know I'm going to ask you in this last moment to join with me in prayer you will otherwise just remain silent sometimes it's helpless just like a big family gathering with bowing heads and I'll lead you sentence by sentence and let this be our testimony our affirmation that we're stepping out into a future that is to be experienced in a way explainable only in terms of Jesus Christ the saving life of Christ let us pray I shall pray for you