In this sermon, the speaker begins by emphasizing the importance of understanding that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. He shares his personal experience of realizing his need for salvation and how he dedicated his life to becoming a missionary. However, upon reaching the mission field, he realizes that he is not as spiritually strong as he had hoped. The speaker then discusses the concept of temptation and the need to find a way of escape from the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. He encourages the audience to seek God's guidance and find victory over sin through being born again and having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Let's unite our hearts in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank and praise Thee for this privilege we have of sharing together in the things of Christ. We ask Thee, Lord, to take of the things of Thy Son and make them clear to us, help us to understand, and then to appropriate, and then to obey all that Thou hast shown to us, all that Thou hast given us. We would ask Thee, Father, to bless each person here. You know the needs of each one. You know the point of our spiritual progress. And we're asking that because we are here and because Thou art here, that there's going to be done in us that which will bring us to that glorious end that Thou hast purposed for us, to conform us to the image of Thy dear Son. To be like Jesus is the cry of our heart. Move on that end this day for His sake. Amen. Now, in our first session, I established, or sought to establish for you, that the answer to the question, why did God make man, is this. God made man to meet the need of his heart for a beloved, to have someone like himself, to whom he could reveal himself and with whom he could share all that he is and all that he wishes to do. The bridegroom finds great comfort and great joy and blessing and encouragement in being able to share with the bride those plans that are in his mind and in his heart. And those plans, in a sense, are fulfilled together. And so our heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, with this beloved whom he called his church, his body, desires to reveal all that he is and share all that he is doing. That was the reason why he made man. Now, we will understand, therefore, that in the work of redemption, it is going to be affected. This is going to be made possible. We spent a good deal of time yesterday considering what man is by nature and by choice, that he walks according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. But we are told that through the crosswork of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are translated from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of his dear son. And this means, therefore, that what he accomplished at Calvary has to be effective in doing this. Now, I left you yesterday with the fact that at Calvary, there were two worlds at war with God's dear son. The father saw his son as me or as you because of his identification with us. He was there in our place and in our stead. And there was done to him that which was necessary to vindicate God's holiness and satisfy his law and make it possible for God to be just and justifier of those who would come to him through Christ. So, in a sense, we were there as God's wrath against sin was revealed in the person of his son. But there was another world there at war. And that was the God of this world with the host of fallen angels, principalities and powers, all these beings that had revolted with Lucifer now recognize Jesus Christ to be God, God who's come in the flesh and God who has now become vulnerable because of his identification with us. Because he was made to be sin for us, he who knew no sin. He was and because he was willing to expose himself to the wrath of God that was justly poured out upon us, but on him because he is there in our place and stand. Because of this, he is vulnerable to everything that this foe that was cast out of heaven could do. Here, because of his love for the world, he has reached out to us and in being drawing us to himself, as it were, being made to be sin for us, he is now subject to what this defeated foe can do. So, against the Lord Jesus Christ, especially in those three hours of darkness, all of hell surrounds the cross. And everything that Satan and all the hosts that followed him have wanted to do to God, they are now able to do. This is their hour, their time. And they figure that they have been quite successful in destroying God. But what they failed to realize was that this was going to mean their ultimate defeat. They were cast out of heaven as the weight of God's glory and power overwhelmed them. But they hadn't been defeated in the final sense. And so now, since God the Son has identified with man and with sinful man, they have opportunity to come and do everything that they want to do. And so, in unusual darkness, in midday, from twelve until three, the sun is blotted out as all hell leaves nether regions and comes to focus around the Son of God. And darkness is there, and death is there, and hatred is there. And the Lord Jesus Christ now, because of his purpose to redeem us, has to expose himself to everything that this defeated foe could do. And when there's nothing left, no, not a drop left in the cup of God's wrath against sin, and he has totally vindicated his law and justified his government among men. Then, when there's nothing left that hell can do, not another blow can be struck. Not another spear lifted, not another club fought, not another arrow loosed. Everything, everything that hell could do against God was done. The Lord Jesus Christ, facing those two worlds, the justice and holiness of his Father, and the hatred and anger of Satan and all of his followers, says, It is finished. It's finished. And he gave up the ghost, he released his spirit, and he died. Died of a broken heart, we are told, because when the spear of the Roman soldier pierced his side, out came blood and water, indicating that there had been a tearing of the wall of his heart, and that there had been separation of the blood. And so he had died, not of the spear wound, not of the bruising that he took with the scourge, not of the nails through his hands, but he died because of a broken heart with the release of his spirit. But three days later, he was raised from the dead. Now that is the testimony that what he had accomplished was indeed accomplished. That's the receipt saying that the justice and holiness of God is totally vindicated, and that the power of hell is totally broken. Now we need to understand that. I've been tremendously encouraged by reading Aline's book on Christus Victor. He goes back to give us a very important view of the cross work of Christ. But one of the things that Aline did not understand, or makes no reference to it at least, is identification of Christ with his people, and his people with Christ. Similarly with Finney, I've been tremendously blessed and helped by reading and stimulated by reading Finney's theology. But one of the elements that he did not mention, I do not know what his perception was, I only know that he did not mention anything to do with the believer's identification with Christ, and Christ's identification with the believer. Oh, in the sense that he was there in the sinner's stead, yes of course. But I'm talking now about that identification that we find given to us so explicitly and so clearly in the New Testament. Now I pointed out that the Lord Jesus reached down to you where you were, and in a sense drew you through time to himself. You understand that when a repentant sinner comes to the foot of the cross, what the Spirit of God does is to enable that sinner, who now under conviction of sin and having truly repented of his sin, realizes that he deserves all of God's wrath against sin. That sinner is enabled to see Christ there in his place and in his stead. It's extremely important for us to realize that coming to Christ in a saving experience is more than just giving an intellectual assent to the historicity of the gospel and the life of Christ. I mean, I can read into a tape recorder the plan of salvation, and I can impose on a human mind or put into a human mind the plan of salvation, so that that person can give it back in the same way that a tape recorder gives it back. But that doesn't mean that that person who has memorized what's been put in front of them and can repeat back what they've heard has experienced what's in that word that they are able to repeat. Just because one knows the plan of salvation does not mean that they've experienced the plan of salvation at all. We have to distinguish between the difference between what the mind perceives and what the heart has received. And tragically, in that day when all men shall be judged, we are told that there are a considerable number that are going to hear him say, I never knew you. He gave us the illustration. He said two men build a house. Now the house has the same floor plan made out of the same material, the same elevations, and from the outside they look identical, except one has the foundation of a rock and the other is built on sand. And the one on sand will be swept away. Now someone can say the rock is Christ, and that is true, but I'm saying that in my understanding the house, the floor plan, the house, is the work of Christ and the truth concerning Christ. But the foundation is whether it's an intellectual perception or a heart experience. I've found in my peregrination here and there, there are several kinds of faith. I enumerate them quickly, won't take much time with them, but I've found that some people have what I call a head faith, an intellectual ascent to the plan of salvation. And others have a dead faith, an appropriation of ritual, taboo, rites, ceremonies. And some have a devil's faith, which is an emotional response to the horrors of hell and the wonders of heaven. And the Bible talks about heart faith, for with the heart, with the total being, one believes unto righteousness, unto salvation. For with the heart man believeth. And it's extremely important for us to understand that when one comes with heart faith, they see in a very real way that the Lord Jesus is on the cross, in their place and in their stead, dying their death, satisfying the law on their behalf. They see that, they understand that, and they so receive Christ. And I think that those that have a head faith or a dead faith or a devil's faith, an emotional response, are those that built their house on the sand. They may have the same floor plan, the same facade, look quite alike, but there's a great deal of difference. Now, if it is true then that when we come to Christ, we see him there in our place, in our stead, satisfying the law in our behalf. We're identifying ourselves with him. Now, this is essential for our being born of God. But multitudes of people, after they have been truly born of God, and I'm quite prepared to say have a genuine work of grace in their heart, and have truly the witness of the Spirit to the new birth, still find that as they move along, they have very great problems, difficulties. They have problems with their personality, problems with outside temptation. In repentance, they promise to please God in everything, made the firm purpose to do it, but when they get into the actual day-to-day reality of living in this world, still controlled by this defeated enemy, that they have difficulties in overcoming the world. And they need to know how, so you can well understand that when the Lord Jesus Christ died, his purpose was not just to provide an escape from hell and a certainty of eternity in heaven. If people were to have been translated to heaven at the moment of the new birth, then that's all that would need to have been included. But since he intended them to go back and live in that world still controlled by his ancient foe, because even though he defeated him at Calvary, for purposes of the divine plan, he permitted Satan to continue to reign and to rule for a season, for a time. We've now been, what is it, 1958 years since the ascension of Christ. Thereabouts, that he has conquered his ancient foe and has all authority in heaven and earth, but still Satan is the god of this world and the prince of this world. He still reigns, he still rules, and he's still there. Now, he intended you and me to go back into that world and to live effectively for his glory, to be able to resist all the blandishments and enticements of Satan and to demonstrate that God's grace is capable of making a new species, if you please, of redeemed persons who, unlike Adam and Eve, who succumbed to the enticement and blandishment, this new people, this new thing he's done, this new creation he's made, is able to go back into the world totally controlled by this ancient foe and live effectively. Now, in order to do that, he had to put into his cross work everything necessary to accomplish that. It was absolutely imperative that provision should be made, or otherwise the redeemed would be in the same state of vulnerability that Adam and Eve were. So he had to, in what he did at Calvary, make provision so his own could go back into that world totally controlled by the God of this world and live triumphantly and victoriously in the midst of that atmosphere. And with all of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, pride of life, seduction and blandishments and enticements that the enemy could bring, but that this new creation, this redeemed people, would be able to walk through that world and live in that world and not succumb to what the ancient foe had done and still wanted to do. Now, that has to be included in what he did at Calvary. And I'm afraid all too many people, as they preach what they assume to be the gospel, see only deliverance from the penalty of sin and ultimate deliverance from hell. And they fail to understand that God's purpose as the eternal bridegroom was to have a bride that could now go out into the world totally and openly controlled by his arch foe and could live to his glory in that world. And only as we understand what he accomplished at Calvary and only as we proclaim what he accomplished at Calvary and only as we instruct believers to appropriate what he accomplished at Calvary can that be realized. Now, I know of some preachers, among whom I was numbered at one time in my ignorance, that used to say, nobody's perfect, God knows you're not perfect, and everyone, everyone sins every day. Oh, I used to say, we probably sin a thousand times a day, in thought, word, and deed. And I kind of thought I was spiritual. I didn't see myself as the heretic, indeed I was when I said such nonsense as that. You see, the angel said about Christ, I shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Not in it, but from it. And here I was going around giving people a license. And one day I got to thinking about it. You know, if I've got to sin a thousand times a day in thought, word, and deed, maybe it would be all right if once in a while I worked into that something I enjoy. And the more I thought about that, the more I realized that what I had was full-blown, full-grown antinomianism. That God had condemned through Paul in Romans 6. What then shall we continue in sin? A grace may abound. That's what they taught. That's what the Gnostic dualists taught. That's what some of the believers drank and were poisoned by in Paul's day. And Paul writing to that church at Rome said, now listen, there's cookies coming around here claiming that they speak for us, and they're telling you that the more you sin, the more God forgives. And the more God forgives, the more glory he gets. So be sure God gets lots of glory by forgiving lots of sin. And that was a horrendous doctrine of devils that the arch foe had slipped in and which poisoned the church in Paul's day. I'm afraid it kind of poisons a lot of people in our day. Now, it's interesting, isn't it? That verse in 2 Timothy that says, For the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. And you find anyone who names the name of Christ that isn't departing from iniquity, and you can be pretty sure that God doesn't recognize such a person as his. Because the foundation of God stands sure. The Lord knows them that are his. I've had people say, Well, I know he's a Christian because I led him to the Lord myself. Nonsense. Most you could ever do was to stand outside. You didn't know what was going on in that person's heart. And to say that you know someone is saved is to put yourself on a par with God. Nobody knows the state of another person. And for anyone to say, I know, is to say, I'm equal to God. The word says, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And for you to say, Well, I know, means that you're pretty easily persuaded that you and God are one. No, no, you don't know what goes on in another human heart. You stand outside. But you know this, that if they don't depart from iniquity, all the profession they make is but wind through the poplar leaves, cottonwood leaves. It doesn't have any meaning. The Lord knows them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Now you've got to understand, therefore, that what God has done at Calvary is not only to save people from the ultimate penalty of their sin, but also to save them from the power of sin. That's right. In the series, Ten Shekels and a Shirt, I mean, pardon me, and So Great Salvation, Dealing With This, I tell about that experience up at Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, when I went up one year to meet with all the university students, inter-varsity students from the Boston area colleges with IVCF. And I talked to them, because the leaders said, these are students, they've got to understand what it is to be born again, and they've got to understand how to have victory over sin. Please help us. So I felt the Lord leading me, and I talked to them about how to overcome sin, how to be able to have victory. And through their union, their identification with Christ. Well, the next year, almost the same weekend, I came back with the same group of students. When I got into this lodge where we were, there was a university student at the piano trying to play. He played about as well as I do, which is terrible. And I went over and greeted him, and he said, boy, you know, I came up early just so I'd get a chance to see you before the others. I'm glad you got here early. Well, I said, why, why? He said, well, I just wanted to tell you that that stuff you gave us last year doesn't work. I said, what do you mean? Well, you told us how to have victory over temptation. Yeah, that's right, I did. And it doesn't work. Well, I said, I'm awful glad you caught me, because I think I was planning to go over that again with these folks some way or another. But tell me, how about this, how didn't it work? Well, remember, you told us that when we were tempted, there was something we were to do, and I took the verse of Scripture you gave, and I quoted it, and I quoted it, and I quoted it, and I quoted it, and I still yielded to temptation. It just doesn't work. Well, I said, don't you think we better go back to that verse of Scripture and see why it didn't work? Yeah, we better. So we did. And the verse of Scripture was this, there's no temptation overtaking you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. He said, that's the verse, and I quoted it, and I quoted it, and I quoted it, and I believed it. Well, I said, that's fine. But just one question, what's the way of escape? Well, I said, this verse. No, I said, this verse isn't the way of escape. This verse says there is a way of escape. And you're a college student. You know that when it says there is and it doesn't tell you what it is, you better look elsewhere to find out what it is. I said, you should have been listening last year when I told that. Well, he said, I don't remember hearing that. I said, well, now, there is a way of escape. But this verse doesn't tell you what it is. It only tells you that it is. And you've got to find out what it is. Oh, I guess it's a good thing I came back again this year, isn't it? And then I took him to where I want you to go in your thinking, to the other part of Romans 6, where he has answered the question, what then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? No and no wise. We can't do that because we have been told and taught and instructed. How shall we that are dead? Oh, how shall we that are dead to sin? Now, do you understand why I emphasized identification? Read on. Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. That the body of sin might be destroyed and henceforth we should not serve sin. Now do you see why I emphasized a few moments ago identification with Christ? It was so complete, this identification of Christ with his own, that when the Father looked down from heaven and saw his Son, he not only saw his Son but he saw you. Because Christ had so totally identified with you that it was as though you were there in and with his Son. Put it this way, we have behind us this beautiful, plain and beautiful because of its simplicity, cross of wood. On the front of that, picture the Lord Jesus Christ nailed to the tree. Now you saw Christ dying for you, dying your death, satisfying the law in your behalf, vindicating the holiness of God, opening the door so that you could come to have life. And you received him. I received him. That's how I knew I was born of God, because he bore witness to my spirit, my heart that I pass from death to life. And I spent seven years after high school getting ready to go to the mission field. And when I got to the mission field, I found that I wasn't nearly as spiritual. As I'd planned on being. Somehow I'd had the feeling that two or three weeks on a vessel, on a boat, was going to make a big change in me. When I hit Africa's soil, something in the soil was going to seep up. And I was going to be out praying hide. And I was going to out-preach Dan Crawford. And I would be a more effective missionary than David Livings. I was going to be, but this had been my life. But when I got there, I discovered that I was just me. Oh, I had, there were results of two weeks on the vessel. I got seasick. But I've never been able to evaluate the spiritual blessing that comes from several days of seasickness. And it hadn't changed me significantly in those places that were important. And it wasn't long until having found out I wasn't as spiritual as I ought to be and wanted to be. The only way I could live with myself was to prove nobody else was either. And so I developed or had latent a very critical mind, a very censorious spirit, and a very sarcastic tongue. I hurt people because I told them what I saw they were. And they didn't want that told in public. I was like Zorro. You remember when he had that sword and he'd go zip, zip, zip, and leave a Z on the wall or on somebody's back or whatever? Well, I could just zip with a few words and cut and wound and hurt. And I didn't want to do that. I'd get alone with God and weep and cry and confess my sin and then go and ask the people to forgive me. And they did. And I promised God if he forgave me, I'd never do it again. And he did. He forgave me. And I did it again. And pressure built up. And I didn't know how to have victory. And when I came home, I felt such a failure. I went to a preacher. He said, you need seminary. So I matriculated in a seminary that I was told was good. Went up there, looked at the books I'd bought and was going to be studying. I'd read several of them and didn't think much of them when I read them. And now I had to study them. And I knew that wasn't what I needed. So I dematriculated the next day. I said, this is going to be a waste of time. I'm not going to do it. That wasn't what I, I needed more than that. And so on my way back to where my family was in Florida, over in Lake Worth, Florida, the mission asked me to stop at Clearwater, Florida and represent them and talk about the SIM. Well, I got in about 11 o'clock at night. They'd expected me. I'd called. They had a room for me. I went to bed, got up in time for breakfast. And then right after breakfast they had the first Bible hour. And I went to it. And I didn't know this fellow that was speaking. I don't know the world that I know, George Mundell. I didn't know who he was, where he was from, what it was. But as he spoke, I reached the conclusion that man knows the word. Then that night I went to the service. And he spoke again. And I said, hmm, that man knows the Lord. And the next morning I went to the service. And he spoke again. And I said, that man knows me, and I'm not comfortable with him because he was talking about me. Well, then I went to the evening service, second night. And, oh boy, that was unkind, that fellow. He told my biography right out in front of everybody. And he'd reach clear across the auditorium, wiggle his finger under my nose. There he is, you know. This is the guy I'm talking about. So it seemed to me. Oh, he just told me. And he said, finally, after he got the whole thing out, he said, you know what your trouble is? And I almost broke the silence of the meeting and said, well, you told everything else. Go ahead, tell me what my trouble is. But I had sense enough to keep my mouth shut because maybe there were two or three people there that didn't know who he was talking about. And he said to me, when you came to Jesus Christ, you knew what you needed and what you wanted. You wanted pardon. You wanted forgiveness. You wanted eternal life. And you asked God to pardon you and forgive you and give you eternal life, and he did. And you went into the Christian life through seeing Christ hanging on the cross for you. And ever since then, your way out in the distance, you've seen the gates of glory, and you've been running for them just as fast as you can, falling all over your big feet, falling over your appetites, falling over your urges, falling over habits of mind, falling over your disposition. And you don't like it, but you haven't known what to do about it. And here you are, all these years in service for the Lord, and look at the failure you are. Well, I could have cried. He's just telling it like it was. And he said, you know what your trouble is? No. I don't know what my trouble is. What is it? I didn't say it out loud. I just said it in my heart. He said, you have never seen the cross from the inside. If you'd have turned around and looked at the cross through which you came into the Christian life, you'd have found that there were two people on that cross. Christ was on the outside of it dying for you, but he had identified himself so totally with you that in the Father's eyes, looking down from heaven, you were there on the inside, crucified with Christ, and you've never seen it. And all these years, God has been waiting for you to turn around and see yourself there on the inside of the cross and come up and put your hands up there over those nails that go through the beam and let him push the hands of your heart onto the nails so that you can stay there as long as you live, crucified with Christ. Oh, boy. It made sense. It was like raising an absolute dark shade in a room that was pitch dark. But you raise the shade and the sunlight comes in and I'd add the shades down. Oh, of course I knew where Romans 6 was. Everybody does it. There's a Bible, reads it. But I didn't know what it meant to me till he raised the shade. Well, you know what I did? I went back to my room and they had some conference stationery in the little desk, their writing desk, and I took out an envelope and I addressed it to myself and I took out a sheet of paper and I put down, the place was already on the heading, and I put down the date and then I drew up a contract, a quick claim deed, it was. And it said this, I, Paris Rita, do from this day on consider that I, that I am by nature, and I went ahead and described it, the bad part and the good part, all of it, do consider that from this day on, as long as I shall live, that I am on the backside of the cross, crucified with Christ. That I died the day he died. And then a second paragraph, and I further affirm that from this day on, as long as I shall live, I shall, except in those rare, trust to be rare occasions when I forget, or for other reasons cannot, I shall see myself as on the backside of the cross, crucified with Christ, buried with him, quickened with him, raised with him, seated with him, before I speak to another person in that day. And then I put in another, another paragraph saying that at any time during any day, when I shall find myself being tempted, I shall again return to the fact that the day Jesus Christ died for me, I died with him. I signed it, and I sealed it, and I have it, and I've kept it ever since that time in 1949. Oh, there have been some days when I've either forgotten, or the pressure of other responsibilities has kept me from doing that before I speak to another, but that is the practice of my life, because that truth became real to me. And I don't think any of us go very far with God till, like John Wesley, we become Methodists, and we establish certain methods of spiritual practice, habits of the heart, habits of the mind and of the spirit, certain truths that God makes real to us, that we continue to use. And so what we have is this, the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ died not only to save you from hell, but he died to save you from you, and you are your own worst enemy. And the only way that you can get victory over you is the way that he understood was necessary when it says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that we might, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not be the slaves of sin. Now, that's identification. How to have victory over me? How could the Lord Jesus take a chance on letting his bride go back into the world, ruled by his arch foe, unless he had made provision? As I explained to these students up there at Lake Winnipesaukee that year, that they had victory, but the way of victory, the way of escape, was to look at the cross, see ourselves crucified with him. Father, the part of me that would think this or feel this or want this or do this is the part that died. And that reckoning releases the resurrection life into our hearts at that moment to push back and reverse the power of temptation. Works. Absolutely works. Just as much as that guy who invented and took some iron filings and put them under a plastic cover and then he put a magnet in the form of a pencil. You know, you've had it. You've seen kids play with it. Or at least our kids played with it. And you take the... Everybody looked like Russian Bolsheviks because they all had big beards, you know. You couldn't... Iron filings, we couldn't get them any other way. That's what it was going to be. But we made cows and sheep and people and we'd take that magnet like a pencil and you could pull the filings around and put them together, turn it over and amazingly the other end pushed them away, pushed them together. One end pulled, the other pushed. Temptation is the pull to the world. And when you reckon yourself to be crucified with Christ it's the reverse of polarity and the resurrection life of Christ in your heart pushes it away and you have victory. A way of escape. Because you see his purpose was that he put his people back in the world and to do that he had to have some way by which they could live in that world without repeating the crimes of their first parents. And so at the cross he made it possible for us to have victory over our worst enemy. And that's you. Not me, you. You're your own worst enemy. But there's another enemy and that's the world. So we know what's in the world, don't we? The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. Well, now let me ask you. Here's a fella in town every year since he was had enough money to do it he bought a new car. It's economic folly now but let's say from my illustration he still does. And he buys a new car every year. And the salesman just counts on it. He's always got that sale. He's had it for 23 years. He's going to make 24. Except in the middle of the 23rd year the fella up and dies which is very unthoughtful of him. Inconsiderate. But this fella, this salesman he's hard to let go. He didn't become number one salesman because he gave up easy. And he said, my gracious he's bought cars for me every year. He loves the new designs. And so I'm going to go out in the cemetery there and I'll just talk to him for a little while. And see he stands over his grave earth still a little raw. And he says, Harry you should see these new cars. They're beautiful. And the color you love so much is back and they ride like a dream. You know, he doesn't get very far, does he? Because where Harry is this color of the car and how much horsepower it has and how smooth it rides doesn't mean much to him anymore. Lost his taste for it. And so what we have here is the Lord Jesus saying we're not only crucified with him but we are buried with him. So we might have victory over the world. Hey, if you've seen yourself on the back of the cross crucified two people there. Have you ever looked in the tomb? There were two people there. You and Christ. You were buried with him. As baptism is a picture you were buried with him. Now the world can come and offer all of its enticements all of its temptations and seductions but you're buried with Christ. And he said you abide in me. You abide in me crucified with me to have victory over you and you abide in me buried with me to have victory over the world. Hey, because you're seeing yourself on the back of the cross crucified with me and in the tomb buried with me. Well, now we got to go to Ephesians chapter 2. We were there yesterday. Won't hurt us to go back a little. And I want you to look there at verse 5. Ephesians 2, 5. Well, verse 4 says but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. So we are on the back of the cross crucified with him. We're in the tomb buried with him. And now we're told we're quickened with him. Two people were quickened. But that isn't where it stops. Look at verse 6. And he has raised us up together. Two people were raised up. Christ and you. Well, where did he go when he was raised up and ascended into heaven? Well, he sat down on the right hand of the Father in the throne on high. And now look at what we got in the last part of that sixth verse. And made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ. Now, do you follow? Crucified with him to have victory over ourselves. Buried with him to have victory over the world. Quickened and raised and seated with him to have victory over whom? Over principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age. Now, you know by all this time that I'm very conservative. I only read from the authorized version. All you folks that have unauthorized versions, why, it's all right with me, but I read from the authorized. Anybody else have an authorized King James Version? Well, thank you, both of you. I know I'm in the minority, but so be it. Because you can't do what I can do. That's why. Does how many of you have the first two words in the second chapter of Ephesians as they are in the authorized and you? How many? Well, that's a little better. We got some in there. That's not bad. Now, have you ever wondered why the second chapter of this has a conjunction and a personal pronoun? Kind of a funny way to start a chapter, isn't it? And you? I was taught in school that the function of a conjunction is to conjunct. And as you look at this, it's a hard time to realize what it conjuncts with, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all and you. Well, you know something? The New Testament wasn't written with punctuation nor with verses. That was put in by the King James translators. And we are told that the man who did the punctuation for the translation of Ephesians was called to France hurriedly from London and that on the coach ride from London down to Dover, he did some work on this epistle to the Ephesians. And I get the feeling that some of the verse breaks and some of the chapter breaks were when the wheels of the coach went over a stone or into a rut and the pen hit the paper. Well, I couldn't erase it, so that's where it stands. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of real good reason for some of the punctuation. But now this is what I do in all of my Bibles. I draw a little line circle around and you. And then I run a line up along the edge of the page and I take the point of that line up to the 20th verse and I tuck the point in right after that word that which says when he raised him. And this is how you read it. That we might know going back what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him and you from the dead. And set him and you at his own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all. And the and you belongs back there. Now you say well how in the world do you think you've got the right to go taking two words from chapter one of verse one of chapter two and putting them in to the 20th verse of chapter one. Well I'll tell you how I got the right. Because down there in verse five of the second chapter he knew you were going to challenge me and ask that question so he repeated it which he hath quickened us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together. Now do you want to fuss over it? I got the point. I got the point. What was it? The Lord Jesus in this great cross work wanted not only to deal with our past sins and prepare us for heaven he not only wanted to bring us to that place where we would be able to know that we had been born into his family but as members of his family he wanted us to have victory over ourselves he wanted us to be victorious over the world and he wanted us to share after all we're his bride and he's the bridegroom and the bridegroom shares with the bride all the privileges and honors and authority that that the bridegroom has and so he hath quickened us together with him and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come. Do you understand what his purpose is? Now if you go back there his purpose was to have a people that could be the objects of his love whom he could love with whom he could share all that he is and all that he has and all that he wants to do and so now he's showing us how he accomplished that. He went to the cross for us but he also went to the cross as us. Romans 5 tells us Christ died for us. Romans 6 tells us Christ died as us and Romans 8 tells us Christ wants to live in us and we have to understand that he died as us in order that he might make it possible for us to go back into the world still ruled by his arch foe totally defeated but permitted to continue for a time and he wanted us to demonstrate that he had wrought a victory that was going to be manifest in the lives of his people that that foe that had succeeded in seducing the first pair and plunging the world into ruin had been defeated and now a new creation has come that could go back into that satanically ruled world as living for Christ holy lives, godly lives, pure lives victorious lives, triumphant lives and the message that we preach to sinners has to have this as its understood goal if all you are preaching when you preach the gospel