This sermon emphasizes the importance of finding victory over temptation by understanding the concept of being crucified with Christ and applying it to daily struggles. The speaker shares personal experiences and insights on how to overcome sinful tendencies and habits by reckoning oneself dead to sin and embracing the power of the resurrection life. The message encourages practical application of biblical truths to experience true victory in Christ.

It's the reminder again of the service tonight at 7.30 and the prayer meeting at ten minutes to seven. I encourage all who can to be there. And then if anyone is interested in a tour of the Fellowship, meet at two o'clock in the lobby by the switchboard. Now we're glad to call Pastor Reedhead to speak to us. Thank you. Just a few words before we begin the message of the morning. I'd like to just give a little word of explanation about one of the most unusual and remarkable things that ever happened to me. It was here at Bethany, somewhere back about 1963 or 4. I haven't been able to establish the exact time, but it was Tuesday. That I know because I have it from my notes. But I didn't put the year down. At any rate, I was here, went to breakfast, came back to where I was staying, and had no liberty to proceed with the message that I'd planned for that day. And 45 minutes before the service, the Lord is burdening me now to change the message. And the only thing where my mind dwelt was on a message I'd been preparing for the church in New York. I didn't have any notes. I hadn't worked on it for two or three weeks prior to coming, but the Spirit of God made it clear that that was what I was to give. I took an envelope, wrote down the text, which I had, of course, and a few thoughts that I recalled, and came to the pulpit. And I remember sitting here, waiting to speak, and praying, Lord, you know, there isn't anybody I can trust for this but you. I don't have, and it seemed to me, I heard him say, well, is that so bad already? You know? And the message that I brought was ten shekels and a shirt. Everything at that time was recorded, but no plans for it. In 1975, apparently, Bethany decided to go into cassette tape ministry, and some of the tapes and messages I brought were used. And I believe it was Duane Lovestrand, who was in Washington, who told me, you know, that message of yours, ten shekels and a shirt, was a blessing. And I thought, sure, he'd had somebody else's. You see, I'd never been led to give that message again. And then Harry Kahn was in Washington and invited me to dinner, and he said, you know, I buy that tape of yours, the one message you brought, by the dozen. I get a dozen, and as soon as I get one, I get another. And I said, you know, have you got one left? He said, yes. I said, send me one. I'd like to find out what in the world it was I said. And the tape came, and I had a little Sony dictating machine on the back of my credenza and it had a speaker in it, in the hand control. Now, that means you've got a microphone about the size of your little fingernail, somewhere in there. And I'm sitting there with this up against my ear. It doesn't sound like me at all. And anyway, so many years have gone by, the element of distance has separated, and your voice recorded never sounds like you, the way you think you are. And so I'm sitting there saying, boy, I wish I'd have said that. That's right. That fellow's right. And then all of a sudden it dawned on me that it was something God had done. I take no credit for it. I began to get letters from all over the world, from Japan, from South America, from Africa. And they've continued to come through the years. And God has used it. And Bethany, about a year ago, no, eight months ago, gave me the opportunity of having those tapes and of publishing them. And they're here. And because I would like to believe that God is continuing to use it, we're going to make it available to anybody who wants it, two copies for $5 so you can send one and have one. Because I believe that somehow or other, God had a kind of a sovereign purpose for this message. As I said, I take no credit for it. If anything was done in it that glorifies Christ, it had to be from him. I was just, went along for the joy and the pleasure of the trip. I realized that something happened, as I said, when I began, that was beyond me probably the most remarkable thing of its kind in my life. And I thank the Lord for having Bethany put it out. And I believe it was one of the reasons why he permitted me to do some other types of things in development overseas to try to help our impoverished missionary, our brethren, brethren on the mission field. And while I was doing that, then he was using this. You know, John Wesley had to ride horseback all over England in order to preach and give the message. How wonderful it is with the cassette recorder now. You can slip the speaker into your side pocket and go. And when you arrive, I always had someone say, you know, we had a Bible conference with you out in New Guinea. I said, how'd it go? He said, well, it went all right, fine. I said, did it work? Well, yeah. I said, if we didn't understand what you said, we could get you to repeat it and you never got irritated with us. Then if we got tired of it, we could shut it off and you never hurt your feelings. And the best part of it was we didn't have to listen to your stories or to feed you either. And I said, you also didn't have to give a love offering either, did you? He said, no, that was really the best part of it all. I said, if your conscience bothers you, we'll make that up right now. And he said, oh, no, we're very happy about the whole situation. But I think it's a marvelous ministry. Now we begin today with item number eight, line number eight, entitled Victory. And I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 6 through 13. 10, 6 through 13, 1 Corinthians. I'd like to read these verses, then just a brief word of review, and then to move quickly on into the study of the morning. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day, three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Last night we talked about temptation and sin, declaring on the word of God that at any time in our pilgrimage, as long as we live, we're going to be subject to temptation. Now everywhere I've gone I've found people wanting God to give them an experience with himself of such a nature that they'd never be tempted again. But may I assure you this, that if you ever come to the place that you are not subject to temptation, then you will be holier than your wonderful Lord, because he was tempted in all points like as you are, yet without sin. And therefore we have to recognize that as long as we live we're going to be subject to temptation, and as long as we live we're going to be capable of yielding to temptation. But that isn't the issue right now. The question is, is there victory over temptation? Is there victory over temptation? And if so, how should we have it? Now remember that the basic theme of these days together is Hebrews chapter 2, verse 3, wherein we read, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Not just from hell, not just from the penalty of sin, but save his people from their sin. And therefore we're going to have to expect that included in the cross work of our Lord was a means by which we could escape from temptation, overcome temptation, where we could have victory. Now I would think we should realize what this verse says. I want to read it again, this 13th verse. There had no temptation overtaken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Some years ago I was invited to speak at Lake Winnipesaukee up in New Hampshire to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship retreat. All the Boston universities and colleges came together for a weekend retreat, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, and I was asked to be the speaker. I'd been there the same retreat the year previously and I arrived at this lovely inn on Friday afternoon, as I recall, about 3.30 or 4. And there was a young man over at the piano trying to play and hammering away there without too great success but there weren't many people there to find fault with it either. When I came in he stopped and he looked over and says, Oh, hello there. I came up a little early so I'd get a chance to talk to you. Well, I said, Now here we are. What is it you'd like to say? I just dropped my bags and sat right down beside him. Well, he said, I wanted to get here just to warn you. If you're going to give any of that victory stuff that you gave last year, I'd just like to suggest that you don't do it. Why is that? Because it doesn't work. Well, I said, Now that's important and I'm glad you're here to warn me. Will you explain to me what you mean? Well, you remember last year you were here and you taught us that there was victory over temptation? Yes, as I recall that. And I was just afraid you might be going to give us some of the same stuff this year and I didn't want you to do it because it doesn't work. Well, explain. Well, there was one particular area in my life I was having problems with. When I listened to you, I was so excited about being able to get victory over it. And I went back home and I was tempted and I did just what you told us to do and it didn't work. Well, I said, What was it you recalled that I told you to do? Well, you remember that verse in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 13. I memorized that while you were giving it and then I forgot so I really knew it. And when I was tempted I'd just quote that verse and quote that verse and quote that verse but I went right ahead and it didn't help. And I said, Well, let's look, open your Bible. And I had him read it and I said, What's it say? And he read it and he said, There will be a way of escape. Well, I said, That's exactly what it says. But what's the way of escape? Well, he said, This verse. I said, No. This verse is not the way of escape. This verse tells you that there is a way of escape. But I also went ahead to explain to you what that way of escape is that apparently all you remembered was the verse that says there is a way of escape. Now, this verse isn't going to give you victory. This verse simply tells you that there is a way to escape from temptation. Now, you better sit. Yeah, he said, I guess I have. Are you going to give it again this year? I said, Don't you think I better? He said, Yeah, I think you better. So I realized that people sometimes only listen for what they want to hear. And I'm hoping that you will be more than that. Now, last night we saw what you carried into the Christian life with you. You carried appetites and drives and urges and propensities. All of these memories of how you'd gratified those appetites and drives in the past. All of those learned responses, those habitual responses. And you had, we found out what happened when we were tempted and we sinned and what we had to do about it. Now the question is, is there any way by which we can escape from temptation and overtake? We find in the, and be, not be overtaken by our appetites and our lusts and our drives. Now we found that there are three major enemies that we confront and that attack us. The first one is this one that is called flesh. It's also called self. It's called the old man. And Paul spoke of it as I. And you can do the same thing. You have his permission. Flesh, the old man, self, that's one enemy. And that's your worst enemy. The second is the world. The world system in which you live and move that's organized by its God and it has every effort put forth to make the gratifying of the appetites against the will of God so attractive, so, so desirable, so beautiful. And that world is totally arrayed against all the purposes you formed in your heart to please God and it's an enemy. And the third enemy is the God of this world. His ancient foe, the foe of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one whom he declared through the prophet he saw cast out of heaven down to earth, the one whom he called the prince of this world who was coming who had nothing in him. He's elsewhere described as the God of this world. We're talking about Satan. Now these are the three main enemies that we have that assault us and that give us problems. And we would expect, therefore, that if God is going to provide us victory it's going to be complete and it's going to address all of these enemies and he's going to give us a rather simple and practical and certainly most effective way of dealing with all that these could bring against us. So, first, we have to recognize that none of us are exempt. None of us. I went to Bible school here as I mentioned several times. Seven years after high school getting ready to be a missionary went to Africa to the Sudan and I had been preparing so long and anticipating it so keenly that in my own mind I think I was convinced that somehow when I put my feet down on the continent of Africa there would be a radical transformation of me. I hadn't been a great prayer but from that time on I was going to be a great intercessor. I hadn't been all that effective as a witness but when I hit African soil and drank African water that this was going to happen. I was going to out Dan Crawford and Mary Schlesser and I was going to make David Livingston wish that he had another chance to go another go at it but when I reached Africa and looked back on the travel all I discovered was that on that ocean voyage the best thing I got out of it was seasickness and the coldness that and when I got down to our station on the white Nile south of Khartoum at Malut and began to go into the actual work of missions we were assigned to work for the education department as doing linguistic survey work among some tribes that had no contact with the gospel I discovered that I wasn't nearly as spiritual as I planned on being I wasn't spending as much time in the word or as much time in prayer I wasn't seeking God the way I was certain previously I would and I was disappointed in me and about the only way that I could find to survive with this discovery that I wasn't as spiritual as I knew I ought to be and as I wanted to be and had planned on being was to prove that none of my colleagues were either now to prove that I had to be quite discerning I had to have a very critical mind I had to have a sensorious spirit and I found that with these two things it wasn't very difficult to develop a fourth or another rather third problem I learned to my grief that I had a very sarcastic tongue I hurt people with my sarcasm I cut them they'd put pressure on me for reasons that I didn't think were fair and they'd build up that pressure and then I would just say a few words and cut right through I guess I kind of thought I was God's little ice pick to break all the balloons and it were and I can recall when I'd said something sarcastic or hurt someone that I'd go to my room just so crushed I knew it was sin and I would get down on my knees and cry out to God forgive me forgive me I ask you to I promise you I'll never never do it again I can recall crushing my teeth together putting the fingernails in my hands oh God if you forgive me I'll never do it again and He forgave me and I did it again because victory doesn't come from grinding your teeth victory doesn't come from puncturing the heel of your hand with your fingernails and that's all I knew now I'd had a course taught by Maud F. Groom at the school on the Christian life and I'd gotten an A in it but you see it had all been up here because I thought where I thought truth went up here but my problem was down here and the truth that I'd studied had never migrated 18 inches and so here I am having had A in the course in the Christian life and in total failure in this area hurting my fellow missionaries and grieving the Lord well in due course we came home on furlough and I determined that I would never go back to Africa I would never go on in the ministry unless somewhere somehow I could find victory over my traits my tendencies the habits of my mind my disposition these attitudes I went to a pastor where my father family was living my parental family in Florida Palm Beach I talked to this pastor he said I think what you need brother is seminary and so I following this matriculated in a seminary in Louisville Kentucky and went there paid my money bought my books went to my room and sat there and looked at these books on my desk I read half of them and didn't like what I read and now I had to study them and the other half didn't and I knew I knew right then that my need was never going to be met in what was going to be offered at seminary not that there was anything bad with it but it wasn't the right medicine for my illness my problem so the next day I went back to the bursar's office and I dematriculated and got as much money back as I could and he said well we're going to have to charge you one month's rent for the room anyway I said fine and I'm going to stay here and live it out if I'm honorable enough to be a student there I'm honorable enough to stay here for a month and live here and I had spiritual inventory during that month I started to go back through the years I went back right back and you know everything I found in all those years was leaves off of other men's trees my heart was like a theological compost pit where you take all these leaves and you pile them in some of them were still there green because they were true but they were not attached to me they were just truth and I began to what's real what's real where is reality where is reality and I got back down there to that night at south st. paul at that red rock holiness camp meeting went in an altar in a straw I knelt there and I opened my heart to Jesus Christ and was born of God and had the witness of the spirit the last real thing that ever happened to me was the first real thing that ever happened to me with God and from that time on it had been just words piled in on my mind now I know how I got off in the wrong foot the next day I went to the one who was the children's worker there at the camp meeting Julia Hibbard from Chicago Evangelistic Institute a wonderful woman of God and I said miss Hibbard last night I was born again and you know what she said oh that's nice sonny now you need to be sanctified and so she said come let's go into the auditorium and we'll pray so we came back into the auditorium where I had been the night before where God had met me and now this dear one who's so concerned is trying to bring this one who's just been born again into something into sanctification so she put words in my mouth and I prayed them and I went from reality from the revelation of God to my heart that I'd been born again into presuming that if I knew the words and can quote the scripture it was mine and from that day on I had had religious unreality it had been in my intellect I assumed if my mind perceived it my heart had received it and now here I am in my own eyes a missionary failure back from Africa and I've had spiritual inventory and I've gotten down to the last real thing that ever happened to me was that day when I was born of God and I determined then that as long as I live in the flesh long as God lets me breathe and walk on top side of his green earth I'm going to make a distinction between what my mind perceives and what my heart has received and experienced and I'll never confuse the two you've got to know with your mind in order to have the basis of that appropriating experiential faith now here I am at a seminary having made an awesome discovery that the last real thing that ever happened to me was the day I was born of God oh I had a mind full of truth I could have given you chapter and verse for a lot of things well then I got it in with requests from the mission in New York to go back I was going back to Florida my family was still down at West Palm Beach and so they said will you go back Clearwater Florida there's a conference there and will you go and represent the mission at the conference so I headed back down to Florida driving the car I bought while we were in Louisville and got down there late at night got a room went to breakfast and went to the morning service I didn't know anybody and I sat there listening to this speaker I'd never heard of him his name meant nothing to me and I listened to him and I said that man knows the word he knows the word well I went through the day talking with people doing the things I was supposed to do went to the service that night and heard him speak and I said that man knows the Lord he not only knows the word but he knows the Lord the next morning to that morning service by this time I'm feeling very warm and open toward him and he did something that I considered at the time being a little bit cruel I found out that that man knew me and worst of it was he was telling those people about me about my failure and about my problem and about my difficulty now I didn't know who would squealed on me or who would have given him information but I'll tell you he quit preaching and went to meddling it wasn't very pleasant well that night it was terrible I went to the service I sat way back on the right and this speaker put his arm halfway out across the auditorium wiggled his finger under my nose and he told everybody about all the problems I'd been having and I sort of just dropped my head and let it hang on my chest there just let her go I wasn't going to find him he was right and I was wrong and I didn't know how he'd gotten there but finally he made his statement he said do you know what's the matter with you and I felt like breaking the silence of the meeting and saying well you've been telling everything else go ahead tell him I had sense enough to keep my big mouth shut he said you know what your problem is and I spat my mouth out go ahead tell me tell me your problem is that when you came to Christ you knew what you needed and what you wanted you wanted pardon you wanted forgiveness you wanted to be born again and again you knew what you wanted you weren't very interested in what you needed or what God wanted well that made sense and so I perked up a little and listened said you came there saying oh God forgive me pardon me give me give me eternal life and God forgave you and pardoned you and gave you eternal life and then you went in as it were through the cross the cross was behind you the gates of heaven in front of you and you started running and you were tripping all over your feet you just falling all over yourself you'd run and then you'd trip and get up and you'd have to go through your first works again and run a little and fall and run a little and trip and and you'd gotten a little bit tired of this up and down thing and do you know why it's been like that and I almost broke the silence again saying no you're right so far but why has it been like that but I didn't he said the problem with you is you never turned around to look at the cross from the inside he said if you had you would have found that there were two people on that cross you see Jesus Christ was there as your representative as your substitute dying your death in your place he had identified himself so completely with you that it fulfilled the word which says the soul that sinneth it must surely die and when the Lord Jesus was there he was there as you and in embracing you as it were made to be what you were and so that from the eyes of God on the throne looking down upon his son he saw his son on the front of the cross dying for you but it was as though you were on the back of the cross dying with him and you've never seen it now turn and look turn turn in your mind what do you see don't you see there the nails that went through the board were long enough for another pair of hands those were for your hands and all this look is like an empty person there just like a shell of a person that's you but you've never backed up to the cross you've never put your hands on those nails you've never taken your place there you've never said father from today on as long as I live I'm gonna stay here on the back of the cross crucified with Christ and so what's happened you've been leaving you haven't seen yourself there and you've been going ahead up and down stumbling and falling aren't you tired of it don't you want to stop that course of course I did you know what I did I went home went to my room rather I took a piece of paper I put the date on it the place was already on it those two things are required for a legal document and I started to write the best legal language I know I my name to hereby declare that from this day on as long as I shall live I shall stay here on the back side of the cross crucified with Christ that I that I am by nature and I described the good whatever it was and the bad and there was more and I put it all down I considered to have died the day the Lord Jesus Christ died and next paragraph furthermore I do affirm that every day before I see another human being I shall return again to the back of the cross for that day seeing myself crucified with Christ and then I signed it and I sealed it and I still have it and I wouldn't think of going to look into anybody else's face until I have gone back to see myself on the back side of the cross so I haven't always done it but that's been the purpose of my life to do it because well the next day I went down and during the night somebody came in from another mission society you know you gotta put the truth to work I knew him I'd met him the last time I met him he'd taken and gone to great pains to tell me how terrible that sedentary mission was and when I saw him after breakfast before the meeting he got me against I was at my back of the big tree and he put his arm up like this and he's right here in front of me and he's telling me what a terrible mission I'm a part of and then he says you're just as bad and he's after me well normally you see something would start down around my shoe tops and it would begin to worm its way up and it would get up here and it would go like Zorro zip zip and I'd cut him off with sarcasm or whatever it required a few well-chosen words leave a wound that never healed but this time I'm standing there and it's like looking at an opera through the wrong end of your opera glasses and way down there is a tree and somebody looks like me in front of it and he's there beside him I looked at him and smiled and I said brother a miracle has just happened you're gonna have to forgive me I've gotta go seek the Lord and I slipped out of his arms went back to my room cause it's the first time in my whole Christian life I've been in a situation where that type of thing had gone and I had had victory I'd had victory and now I was so elated so thrilled so delighted I had had victory for the first time over that criticism and censoriousness and sarcasm I'd had victory over it but about a week and a half two weeks later somebody came up behind me got a hold of my little prayer rug I was standing I gave it a jerk and I was sigh I'd I'd done it again and that's when I realized what Paul meant when he said I'm always being delivered unto death always being delivered unto death now we've sung it for years I don't know if we knew what we were singing but we've sung it what is it dying with Jesus by death reckoned mine living with Jesus a new life divine looking to Jesus till glory does shine moment by moment O Lord thou art mine moment by moment I'm kept in his love what was the song writer telling us he said moment by moment when we are under temptation we go back and see ourselves crucified with Christ you see at Calvary you were wired for victory just like this room was wired for electricity for light they didn't have to come in today and stretch wires back and forth and hang lamps on it all they did was find the switch and put it on and at Calvary you were wired for victory all you have to do is find the switch and put it on and the switch is this reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin and reckoning releases the flow of the resurrection life into your life to give you victory over your self your traits your tendencies your habits temptation of whatever kind it may be well George Mundell pastor of Maranatha Tabernacle Upper Darby Pennsylvania was the speaker there later shared several conferences with George Mundell and he's still living and still glorifying God still preaching Christ but here is one person that will be as long as he has breath so grateful that I found that the day Christ died for me I died with him there were two people on that cross Christ and you and you can have victory at the moment of temptation you can have victory by reckoning yourself to be dead indeed under sin just put the switch on I was down in First Presbyterian Church of Flushing Long Island New York and I was telling the people this and I said now if you're here and you'd like to have victory you go into the prayer room and I'll be in and I'll talk with you about it and there were probably 20 25 people that were there one of which was Ronnie Avalon a singer in the New York area God used made a blessing in his wife they were there and I said now between now and this time tomorrow night you're going to have a personal opportunity to test whether this truth of identification with Christ and victory through your reckoning really works now tomorrow night after the service I'll give an invitation I want all of you to come back plus those others who may respond but I'm telling you now that in the next 24 hours you are going to be tempted and you are going to have an opportunity to test whether this truth works or not now I said I don't want to fill your mind with theory I want you to be a walking sermon I want you to have the experience of victory and not just the theory of it well next evening people came and Ronnie Avalon and his wife were there and he looked smug he looked like just as though he'd had the greatest day in his life in fact he said he'd had the greatest day in his life when I talked to him it was just a word passing well he came in to the meeting after the service and we had another singer in the New York area a man by the name of Antho Marco now I looked at Ronnie Avalon and I said well brother Marco would you please tell us what happened to you now what I didn't know was that the one thing in the world that Ronnie Avalon didn't want was to be called Antho Marco now he had nothing against Antho Marco but he's not Antho Marco he's Ronnie Avalon see so he just would get angry when people called and I saw this red begin to rise up his neck and up his face and here he is and his eyes are flashing and then all of a sudden he looked at his watch and he said well you were right it's three minutes to go till 24 hours he said you said it would happen in 24 hours it happens three minutes before the time he said I had the greatest day I've had in my life and I just knew I could tell you you were wrong that I hadn't been tempted during the whole day and here he told me Antho Marco and he said there's something that just infuriates me and I was just about to tell you off when I put the switch on and he said it works it works friend in the next 24 hours you are going to have an opportunity to prove whether or not this truth works do you know where the switch is do you know when to put it on do you know how to release the resurrection life of Christ into your heart at the moment of temptation well I have news for you in the next 24 hours you're going to have an opportunity and I hope you heard what was said because I don't want to just give theory I want you to have something that works otherwise if it doesn't work maybe that boy back there at Winnipesaukee was right I don't want to peddle stuff that doesn't work but I got a lot of years telling me that it will work now sometimes you don't want to work it you know you can have victory you think somebody needs a good telling off well that's your problem that's your problem but God will give you victory if you have ever discovered that you're on the back side of the cross of in heaven grant to this people the experience proving the truth we've been talking about a part of so great salvation is victory over ourselves our tendencies our behavior our attitudes our disposition our traits our appetites grant father of Jesus that in these next 24 hours each person here will have at least one opportunity to prove that the word really works and we'll give thee all thanks for it in Jesus name amen