In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of preaching the gospel in its pure and simple form, without using manipulative tactics or relying on religious exercises. He highlights the story of the Roman officer who had faith in Jesus' power to heal his servant without physically being present. The preacher also mentions the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 with only five loaves and two fishes, emphasizing the trust and expectation of a little boy who believed in Jesus' ability to provide. He concludes by explaining that just as Jesus relied on the Holy Spirit to live His life on earth, believers should also rely on the Holy Spirit to live out the life of Christ in them.

This is a Torchberry tape. Reproduction and distribution without permission is prohibited. Copies and further information may be obtained from Torchberry Tape, P.O. Box 2620 Estes Park, Colorado 80517. You men of Israel, said Peter on the day of Pentecost, hear these words. Remember Acts 2, verse 25. Jesus of Nazareth, a man. One might well have imagined that on the day of Pentecost, in the light of all the events of which there had been witnesses, they might well have worshipped and adored the Lord Jesus in his deity. But the strange thing is that when Peter stood up, what overwhelmed him was not his deity, for which long since he had settled. What overwhelmed him was the discovery of Christ's humanity. Because of the immense amount of comfort it was going to bring to him. Jesus, a man, approved of God by miracle signs and wonders which God did by him. And in that moment of revelation, Peter discovered the principle that governed the life of the Lord Jesus as man on earth. That his was a disposition that the Bible calls faith, that allowed the Father as God to be God in action in the man. And you remember then that the Lord Jesus had said, as my Father sent me, I'm going to send you. And that as I, as a man, have walked on earth for 33 years, enjoying all the illimitable resources of deity by virtue of the prophecy of God, in the presence of my Father as God in me, you as from now by virtue of my presence in you, by the gift of the Holy Ghost whom you have just received, will be able to walk and engage in every activity in the plenitude of that divine provision which will derive from my presence as God in you. That was Pentateuch. Little wonder that it revolutionized the lives of the disciples. And little wonder, little wonder that so, so many, the vast, vast majority of professing evangelical believers today live such dull, lusterless lives with so little consequence and so little to show for it. Why? Because they've never got beyond the Jesus who died for them 2,000 years ago to get them out of hell and into heaven. Because nobody by and large has told them that the purpose of his dying was that he risen from the dead might come in the person of the Holy Spirit and be as God for them, that by the same Holy Spirit the Father for 33 years had been to the Son. Have you been living in the power of Christ in dwelling? Has it been patently obvious to your children and your husband, your wife, your neighbors, your fellow citizens, your workmates, your church members, has it been patently obvious that there's a stamp of deity upon your life, that there's a quality about the way you live that is beyond any possible explanation but the fact that God, as you profess to believe, lives in you? Would that be true of you? I mean is your life, quite frankly, miraculous? God doesn't ask that it be sensational or spectacular because you can buy that with money or business acumen or showmanship or personality thrust. God doesn't ask that your life either be spectacular or sensational but he does demand, because it's the very nature of a man, as we as God made man, he does demand that your life be miraculous. That it actually be beyond any possible explanation but Jesus Christ. If your life as a Christian is beyond explanation only in terms of Jesus Christ then you're living the Christian life. But if your Christian life can be explained in terms of you, your dedication, your willpower, your enthusiasm, your endeavour, then you may have become a Christian but you have not yet begun to be the Christian you have become. Because the Lord Jesus, in his person, has given to us a magnificent demonstration that makes the mystery of godliness an open secret. God by him. So the image of the Lord Jesus as a man provided of his father as God derived from the presence of the father as God in the Lord Jesus as man. His was a derived life. Now we've seen this clearly enunciated by the Lord Jesus. Let me remind you, you don't need to turn to it, it's John chapter 14 and verse 10 said the Lord Jesus, don't you believe that I'm in my father and my father is in me The words that I speak, I speak not of myself, the father who dwells in me, he does the work. God by me. Where'd the Lord Jesus get his sermon? You know, the father. Look at John's gospel, chapter 8 and first the 26th verse. John 8, 26. Said the Lord Jesus, I have many things to say to you and to judge of you but he that sent me is true and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. So where did the Lord Jesus get his sermon from? He spoke to the world the things that he heard from his father. What about verse 28? Then said Jesus unto them, when you have lifted up the son of man, then shall you know that I am he and that I do, how much? Even when I'm being crucified, even when they nail my hands and my feet to the cross, you'll know that I am doing nothing of myself. Because you see the father who dwells in me, he does the work. I'm simply presenting my body to him now, as one day I will expect you to present your bodies to me. You will know that I am he and you will know that I do nothing of myself but as my father has taught me, I speak these things. What seminary do you think the Lord Jesus went to to get his doctrine from? Or as a brilliant theologian do you imagine that he himself laid the tenets of the Christian faith? That from his fertile imagination he came up with certain philosophical and theological propositions that have been perpetuated and are now called Christianity, a form of religion among many on this world. Do you think that's where he got his doctrine from? He tells you in the 16th verse where he got his doctrine from. John 7, 16, Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. So please don't credit me with anything that I say, I'm not the originator. Don't give me a PhD or an honorary DD, I don't deserve it. Because all I'm doing is making articulate what my father has taught me. I'm simply his mouthpiece. Because you see, though God I'm playing the role of man, though the creator I'm playing the role of creature. I've simply come here to communicate truth. And you'll discover as you read the teachings of the Lord Jesus throughout all the records of the gospel, he's saying the same thing again and again and again and again and again. He comes up, sneaks up from different directions, but you know he's saying the same thing. Why? Because there's nothing else to say. You see, if you want to preach sermons and earn a reputation for being a great preacher of sermons, you've got to spend all your time being original. Lord Jesus never had to be original. Because he never deviated from truth and truth doesn't change. And why so much of our preaching is so weak, is that we're always trying to please, you know, the congregation. Come up with something original, smart. Instead of introducing people relentlessly, again and again, to the truth that sets them free. But it pays off. Even though initially, of course, it looks a little discouraging. For three years, as we should discover, the Lord Jesus preached in vain, humanly speaking, at the end of his public ministry. How would some candidate's board today evaluate his usefulness? What church would call him to the ministry? How many stood by him as a result of his preaching? None. He died alone. Even the twelve apostles. One already having to trade him for thirty pieces still. And all his disciples, the women who wept over his feet and wiped them with their hair. They all fled like a bunch of frightened sheep. Even after his resurrection at Pentecost, how many were numbered amongst those who took part in that amazing event? A hundred and twenty? That's not too much to show for it, is it? Did it matter? No, because the Lord Jesus wasn't saying to the gathering, he wasn't building an empire, and he wasn't on the statistical rat race. He was introducing just a handful of people to the truth that he knew would make them free, and being reproduced through them, would liberate hundreds of thousands of men, women, boys and girls, as they evangelized in a then known world in one generation. In the measure in which those to whom they ministered grasped the same principles of truth. And the truth that he proclaimed came from his father. He said, my doctrine isn't mine, it's his that sent me. So when they listen to the Lord Jesus preaching, perhaps the sermon on the mount or on any other occasion, do you think he would appreciate it, people coming and saying, well thank you very much, you must have taken a long time thinking that up. You're most convincing. Honourable. You look what it says in John's gospel chapter twelve, this may surprise you. If I tell you the verse, I wonder how, if I were now to give you the opportunity in taking out a piece of paper, you would complete this sentence, something that the Lord Jesus said, the Lord Jesus cried and said, he that believeth on me. If you had a piece of paper right now, how would you complete the sentence? The Lord Jesus cried and said, he that believeth on me. I mean, in the light of all that you've heard, say in the preaching of the gospel, how would you complete the sentence? Well, in all probability, most of you would put, past everlasting life. Would you put that? It's true, but it isn't what he's saying. He that believeth on me shall not come into judgment, if past and rest of life, that would be equally true, but it isn't what he's saying. What does it say in John twelve forty-four? Said the Lord Jesus, we that believeth on me, believeth not on me. You've got that underlined in your Bible? We that believeth on me, believeth not on me. Don't credit, he says, me with anything that I'm saying, because you see, all I've told the world is what I learned from my father. My doctrine isn't mine, it's his that sent me. Though creator God, I'm playing the role of creature man. And we, my father, I, and the Holy Ghost, created man so that by what he does, says he is, in his physical, visible, and audible activity, he would give a valid expression of his divine content, God in the man. For man was created in such a way simply to be the means whereby the divine potential can be released. Because in man, as God made him, engineered beautifully and fabulously as he is, there's no inherent capacity either to produce truth or be like God. He's simply given a mind, emotion, will contained in a physical body that may be operated by the Holy Ghost, God himself from within the man indwelling the human spirit and having access from within the human spirit to the human soul. And only one man ever walked this earth since Adam fell, who was prepared as a man, body, soul, spirit, mind, emotion, and will to present himself without thought to God through the eternal Spirit. So that he could make the Father God articulate. So that he could make the Father God visible. So he says, he that believeth on me does not believe on me, but on him that sent me. Because everything I say, my Father says. Because everything I am, my Father is. Because everything I do, my Father does. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my word, verse 48, hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. That's why you'd better take very careful note of what I'm saying. Not because I'm saying it, but because my Father is saying it through me. For I have not spoken, he says, verse 49, of myself. But the truth that I make articulate now, that has its origin in my Father God, will be truth then, as it is true now. And that truth will judge you. You can shake it off. You can say, truth, forget it. You can say, that's a nice little philosophical concept. Yes, that's an emphasis that we ought to think about now and again, does the Lord Jesus do that in his appearance. Because the truth that I now make articulate is absolutely imperative to your humanity. It's absolutely imperative to your function. It's the only way that you could ever be the Christian that you say you have become. And my presence in you as the Father God's presence in me is the only possible hope that you will be restored to that glory in which we, my Father, I am the Holy Ghost, made you. That glory that I, by virtue of my total availability to my Father, now declare as truth, Lord. So you listen at your peril, unless you're prepared to obey the truth that I communicate. For I have not spoken of myself, the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that this commandment is life everlasting, whatsoever I speak. Therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. So when you listen to me, you hear him. So from where did there derive the authority of what he said? The fact that he happened to be this person or that person? No. His words carried authority only by virtue of their divine origin. Not in Christ the man, but in the Father as God. Of course, there's nothing that he said as man that he could not have said as God. But he didn't come into this world to behave as God. So God, and never ever less than God, he came to this world to behave as man. So that he might be the kind of man who for men, being the only one alive and therefore capable of dying, might pay the price of their redemption. But you see, if he had never come into this world to behave as man, when could he have died? When's God going to die? When are you going to be invited to God's funeral? You say, God can't die. 1 Timothy 6.16, 1 Timothy 6.16, don't turn to it, the apostle says God, who only hath immortality, is not subject to any form of death. So when can God as God die? Never. Only as man. That's why the Lord Jesus had to set aside the prerogatives that make God God and deliberately submitted himself to the limitations that make man man. And he derived his authority from the fact that as man, he closed in totality his father's activities. Let's check on that a moment, would you please, in John 10. This is a little frightening, but it's true. 37th verse of John 10. If I do not the works of my father, if it isn't demonstrably obvious that what I'm doing is what my father tells me to do, if it's not recognizable that the activity of my body represents the mind, will and purpose of my father God in heaven, what does he say? Believe me not. You do not have the right to believe me. You do not have the right to believe anything I say, simply because I'm Jesus of Nazareth. You don't have the right to believe anything I say, simply because I was born a Jew. You don't have the right to believe anything I say, simply because you respect me as a very pleasant neighbor. You have only the right to believe me when it is demonstrably obvious that what I do say and am is motivated by the one who sent me. If I do not the works of my father, believe me not, because you see his authority derived from his submission in a beast. Man's authority comes from what he knows and who he is, the office he holds and the training that he has received. Whatever a man deserves to exercise authority on the basis of who he was, it was Jesus Christ. He was God incarnate. Whatever a man had the right to exercise authority on the basis of what he knew, it was Jesus Christ who was the creator of all things, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge, and he never ever once exercised that authority. The only authority the Lord Jesus ever exercised and the only authority that you and I may ever exercise, derives from obedience. He says, if I do the works of my father, if I'm told by my father what to do and I'm doing what I'm told, though you believe not me, though you find it difficult to credit who I am as one whom you knew as a little baby in Mary's arms or an apprentice learning his trade, if you find it difficult to credit who I am, he said, if I do the works of God, though you believe not me, believe the works. Let them demonstrate and vindicate the fact that a unique spiritual relationship exists between myself and my father God in heaven, whereby I, through the Holy Ghost, present my humanity to him as God, and he, by the same Holy Ghost, presents himself as God to me. In other words, says he, if you do not believe, if you find it hard to believe me, believe the works that you may know, notice it, verse 38, and believe that the father is in me and I in him. Recognize by what I do and say and am that this unique relationship between me and my father allows my father as God in me to do the works. That's authority. In other words, the Bible teacher in the pulpit, the pastor, the Sunday school teacher, the chairman of the deacons board, the Christian mom or dad, seeking to communicate spiritual truth may only be least. May only be least. If the quality of their life demonstrates the validity of their relationship to Jesus Christ. And no matter how true what may be said may be. Nobody has the right to believe it. If the one who says it does not give demonstrable evidence that a relationship exists between him and Jesus Christ, that speaks of total submission to his authority. If the pastor wants to get up and preach with the authority that is his only by virtue of his office, I am the pastor or I went to seminary or I have some degrees after my name, forget it. The members of his church will have to leave that congregation and go somewhere else to hear authoritatively from the lips of another the truth that he has proclaimed but who has the right. If a mom or a dad is not prepared to give demonstrable evidence of their total submission to the authority of Jesus Christ in their lives, they can preach the gospel to their kids until the cows come home and everything they say will be true but they'll have a bunch of kids that'll grow up as rebels, they'll probably end on drugs and they have to go to the other side of the world to hear from the lips of somebody with the right to say it what they did not have the right to believe on their own terms. Let's not kid ourselves. The preaching of the gospel isn't mouthing a lot of evangelical jargon and then trying to muscle people into some kind of a decision or twist their arms so that you can enhance your reputation. Authority comes from proclaiming truth in a relationship to Jesus Christ that allows him to be the one who offers what you say and leaves him to take the consequence. A Roman officer whose servant whom he loved was dying sent for the Lord Jesus but on the way hearing that he was coming that Roman officer said I'm not worthy that you cross the threshold of my home you do not need to come all you need to do is to speak the word because I as a Roman officer say to this man go and he goes I say to this soldier come and he comes and you said that Roman officer are also a man under authority what did you recognize? A man under authority and said that Roman officer I know perfectly well that others obey me only because I am as an officer obeying my emperor and I recognize in you one who can exercise authority because it is fakingly obvious demonstrably obvious to me that you are a man who is walking under authority you know what the Lord Jesus said? I've not seen such great faith in Israel further a Roman Gentile doc whose draft that I've been trying to teach my disciples for three years and nothing has penetrated authority derives from obedience the superior authority this is the Lord Jesus so that for everything he did for every word he said for every activity in which he engaged he received instructions from his father indwelling his human spirit in the person of the Holy Spirit and who by his free consent had absolute access to his human soul mind emotion and will so that the father as God controlled the activity of the son as man so the Lord Jesus could say I do only those things that please him and even Christ could not please himself remember? Romans 15 through now turn to John 6 and it says that verse 28 they said unto him what shall we do that we might work the works of God? what shall we do that we might work the works of God? good question is there any man who can do God's work? who's the only person who can do God's work? I mean work that truly has the characteristics of deity about it who's the only person who can do it? God that's why faithfully he who calleth you who will also do it because he's the only one who can that's why remember Philippians 2 it is God who works in you both will and do of his own will why? well he's the only one who can do it this is the divine logic the hidden factor present in the divine logic absent in human reason that makes divinely possible what otherwise cannot but be humanly unreasonable it is God who works in you both who will and do of his good pleasure but then what's all this stuff about man doing a great job for God? how often you hear speaking of another he's doing such a big job for God such great work for God it's the impossibility defies the total revelation that God has given us in his words of the principles that are the government's relationship to God and God's relationship to man principles that the Lord Jesus enunciated totally that only God can do God's work you men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God by miracles signs and wonders by a miraculous quality of life that God did by him God by him so they said what shall we men do that we men might do the works of God there was no answer the Lord Jesus could give to that stupid question instead he redefined the work of God how did he redefine it? next verse said the Lord Jesus this is the work of God in other words this is God at work that you believe on him whom he has sent for the Lord Jesus said he that believeth on me the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to my father because when I'm crucified and risen again from the dead restored to thy rightful place with my father and the Holy Ghost in deity I will come by the Holy Spirit to work in them who believe on me as I now by my believing on my father allow him to work through me so the Lord Jesus said this is God at work this is when the world will see God is in action when you believe on him whom he has sent and that calls for another definition because by our popular connotation a believer is somebody who's made a decision for Jesus if I were to say is he a believer you'd immediately scratch your mind and wonder now did he ever put his trust in Christ you'd look back into the past to understand what it means to be a believer a believer as I indicated yesterday is one who is settled for the principle that must govern man's relationship to God if he is to function as a man of God intended man to function whose presence as God in the man is indispensable to his humanity as oil is to a lamp and gas is to a car how often does an oil lamp need oil if it's to produce light all the time how often does a car need gas if it's to keep going all the time is it enough for oil just to believe in oil once is it enough for a car just to believe in gas once no oil and gas in a lamp and car are imperative to their function and God in a man is imperative to his humanity and believing is to go on believing which to recognize that principle for every step you take for every word you speak for every decision that you make so you recognize at all times without God in me Christ in the Christian I am nothing have nothing and can do nothing so at all times in every situation I must go on believing and by my disposition my attitude the man that was in Christ Jesus so invokes his divine activity that it's Jesus Christ as God clothed in my flesh and blood who walks this earth who speaks who acts who decides that's the gospel that is the gospel turn back the page John 5 verse 19 then answered Jesus and said to them verily, verily, I say unto you this time in the incarnate words the creator God playing the role of man the Son can do what nothing of himself but what do you see if the Father do for what things do ever that he doeth these also doeth the Son likewise look at verse 30 I Jesus Christ creator God who through the universe is into space clothed with your flesh and blood it beholding me in all points to be like unto my brethren I can of mine own self do how much nothing as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which sent me so how much could the Lord Jesus as man do without his Father as God in the man nothing and he said as my Father sent me I'm going to send you so how much will you as men redeemed in his blood now indwelt by his Spirit be able to do without Christ as God living in you nothing did anybody ever tell you that when you were invited to come to Christ and receive him as your Saviour were you told honestly by the person who invited you that from that moment by claiming him as your Redeemer you would be capitulating every right as from then to make any decisions in your own life were you told that were you told when you were invited to accept salvation that it would involve the inhabitation of your humanity by Jesus Christ as God so that he would have as much monopoly of your being as he as man allowed his Father to have monopoly of his being did they tell you that if they didn't they sold you down the river they were out for quick results and they went too concerned about the end product because this is the gospel so the Lord Jesus said as I reminded you yesterday fifteen five of the same gospel without me you can do as much as I could do without my Father nothing my dear friends do we have the right to depart from this principle can we dare stand up on a pulpit or on a platform and motivate people into action follow God then God from Genesis to the Revelation tells us that apart from his presence as God in the man you and I can do nothing what's the name of the game who are we kidding that's a believer a believer is a boy, girl, man or woman who they never though they never ever deserved it has been reconciled to God by the death of his son and who on the basis of that redemption now live on the basis that apart from Jesus Christ as God in him he is nothing has nothing can do nothing and therefore with a glad heart he presents his body in totality to every decision that he ever makes the time of return to Jesus Christ that's a believer turn back to the second chapter of John verse 23 when the Lord Jesus was in the feast day at the Passover in Jerusalem many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did will they believe it I mean if you got that report back from Jerusalem that a great big crowd believed on his name when they saw the miracles that he did would you have been justified in calling them believers no they weren't believers they believed he could do miracles and they were very impressed by the spectacular they saw the blind see they saw the lame walk on occasions there were those who saw the dead live but they weren't believers they simply believed the fact that Jesus could do miracles they believed that he could feed the hungry heal the sick cast out devils and they believed if somebody was sick you know what they said quick go to Jesus he can heal you when somebody was hungry and hadn't got food they said go to Jesus he'll feed you in that sense they were believers but they weren't believers do you know why they weren't believers because they were not committed to Jesus for that to which Jesus Christ was committed in them and because they were not committed to the Lord Jesus for that to which he as creator and redeemer God was committed in them he did not reciprocate their commitment to him by his commitment to them next verse but Jesus did not commit himself to why not because he wasn't interested in numbers he wasn't interested in popular acclaim he wasn't interested in being successful he knew, what does it say, all men and he knew not that any man should testify of man he knew what was in man he knew that these people all getting excited about the great mass rally and people getting healed and devils being cast out people getting fed he knew that in a very short time they'd be shouting around the Roman gallows crucifying we will not have this man to reign over we don't mind him healing our aches and pains we don't mind him you know making the lame walk in the blind see we don't mind him filling our bellies but if he thinks he's going to call the shots if he thinks he's going to run our lives forget it away with him and if you were invited to come to Christ on the basis other than that Jesus Christ would call the shots then somebody was unfaithful in their discharge of their responsibility they were unfaithful servants they weren't gospel preachers they were deluded turn back to John 6 verse 26 Jesus answered them and said verily verily I say unto you you seek me not because you saw the miracles I mean you saw the miracles of course that's why you're here but that isn't really why you seek me because it's miraculous because it's the evidence of God at work but this is explicable only in terms of my relationship to my father as God nothing could impress you less than that you don't seek me because you saw the miracles but why because I could serve your selfish interest at first because you did eat of the loaves and were full your only interest in me is a full stomach relief from your aching pain so that somehow you can get rid of all your worries and use God and use Jesus Christ but in terms of the moral relationship that gives God his inheritance in you that's why people pray in an emergency that's the only time that so far as they estimate God should be useful that's why the vast bulk of those who attend church on Sunday would have absolutely no intention whatever of coming Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday, Friday or Saturday if that were to involve true discipleship that's why there are so many empty seats you see it's time we stop kidding ourselves and get back to first base as the Lord Jesus did you see I'm sure it must be very humanly speaking very discouraging for a pastor who goes through an immense amount of trouble and negotiates say for two, three years to get somebody to teach them about Jesus Christ and then know perfectly well that when Monday comes only a fraction of the folk who call themselves as church members are actually in attendance because they couldn't care less but although it may be humanly speaking discouraging it's never never surprising or even shocking to God except that you see the Lord Jesus clearly enunciated to the disciples what was involved in believing entering into this unique relationship we in him and he in us as he was in the Father and the Father in him but begins with the redemptive transaction that puts God back into the man and therefore life back into the lifeless look in the sixth chapter of John's gospel then said Jesus unto them verse 53 verily, verily, I say unto you except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you you're dead in other words until first you recognize the redemptive efficacy of my dying and that my blood alone can cleanse you from sin and reconcile you to God you are in the condition in which you were born and you were born dead and you stay dead now that's the redemptive message but he didn't leave it there he said if on the other hand you're prepared to obey the redemptive message eat my flesh and drink my blood that first initial baby active phase is designed on the basis of my redemptive transaction to reintroduce you through a living, working, permanent continuing relentless relationship with God your maker for he goes on then to say verse 54 whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood would claim redemption have eternal life and if you want to know what that involves he says I will tell you verse 56 he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood having received as God's gift to them in the Holy Ghost that life which alone is eternal my life dwelleth in me and I in him so what's the relationship as I'm in my father my father is in me and he does the work so you will be in me and I will be in you so that I may do the work because he continues verse 57 as the living father has sent me and I live through the father derive my life my authority everything from him as I have been sent by my father and live through my father he that eateth me and drinketh my blood will live through me you are to live through me as Christians as I live through my father as man has this been explained to you how could you ever live through Jesus Christ as he lived through the father until first you have come to grip with what was involved in his then living through the father if you don't know how Jesus as man lived through the father then as God how if you're going to be sent by him as the father sent the Lord Jesus how can you live through him this is baby this is elementary this isn't being polite this is the gospel this is the first baby truth that you must know if you're to be a Christian you've got to know that to live the Christian life as a sheer moral spiritual impossibility apart from the re-imparting to you that life by which alone you can be energized the life of God how did this go down with the disciples I'm not talking about the Jews those who crucified I mean those who said they were disciples those who then would have said had they lived now they were baptists how did it go down look at verse 30 didn't go down too well I don't think they would have asked the Lord Jesus back to another conference I think they would have written him off and said uh-uh not again not that stuff because involved you see the sovereignty of Jesus Christ lady came to me just a few weeks back and said I went when I was in college to the principal the president of that college and I asked him about the life of Christ within the believers he said forget it and never he said never ever read any books on deeper life it'll cripple you as a Christian it'll take away all your enthusiasm and your go-go and your bird never he said ever read any books on deeper life was that good advice he's no longer president of that Christian college he ran away with the secretary little wonder he didn't like people reading books on deeper life and yet the kids the poor kids in that college are sent out on the street every single day and if they don't come back with a whole list of people who've got saved on the street they're in the doghouse is that the Christian life look at verse 60 let me read it to you from the Amplified New Testament when his disciples heard this many of them said this is a hard and difficult and strange saying an offensive and unbearableness who can stand to hear it who can be expected to listen to such teaching at the 60th verse 6th chapter of John the response not of the enemies of Jesus Christ the Jews the response of the disciples to his teaching many therefore of his disciples King James when they had heard this said this is a hard saying who can hear it who can stand who can be expected to listen to such teaching who can stand to hear it it's offensive it's unbearable it's difficult and strange why only against the background of what they have been listening to in the past there's nothing new about it it's the truth from Genesis to the Revelation it's the truth that was defied and repudiated by Adam when he fell so why should we as professing Christians today perpetuate that which represented Adam's repudiation of the truth when man fell why are we in business to prove that Adam was right that we can be Christians without Christ in us just as surely as he believed the devil that he could be a man without God in him why should we as evangelical believers perpetuate the lie that Adam believed these disciples very offended and when the Lord Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples what they said were complaining protesting and grumbling about it he said to them is this a stumbling block is this an offence to you does this upset displease shock and scandalise you they said would you please tell me what it is that shocks scandalises upsets you as the creature when I suggest to you that as creator having made you that way his presence as the creator is indispensable to you the creature especially when as the creator I've come into this world I'm adopting that very attitude towards my father that I ask of you now would you please tell me what it is in you that repudiates that that is offended shocked and scandalised it awaits their answer verse 63 said the Lord Jesus it is the Holy Spirit who gives life the flesh that old Adam principle inherited from Adam who believed the devil's lie that a man's got what it takes without God that a Christian's got what it takes without Christ the flesh prophetess now and the words that I speak unto you they are spirits they're life verse 66 from that time from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more so do you think it surprises do you think it shocks the Lord Jesus when countless professing evangelicals presented with the true nature of discipleship are conspicuous by their absence do you think it was surprising or shocking so of course not the moment the Lord Jesus spelled it out loud and clear what would be involved in their putting their trust in him and being believers every moment and every day letting him and Saul be God in the man many not just a handful many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him and of course the Lord Jesus was immediately in a panic because he was losing his congregation so he rushed to the door and stood there and said excuse me I've obviously trodden your toes I didn't want to be you know sort of offensive to you and maybe we can have a little discussion perhaps a little dialogue and maybe we could sort of talk things over and come to some happy little compromise whereby you do a little bit and I do a little bit shall we do that is that what you think the Lord Jesus did do you think that's what the Lord Jesus would do here to get the crowds in say let's water it all down let's have a kind of gospel that means that a man can be saved get out of hell get to heaven and keep God on his back 24 hours a day six days a week except for one hour on Sundays let's have a kind of gospel like that to get the crowds in let's send buses here there and everywhere else and say now it's not going to involve anything except coming to church and getting baptised making a decision for Jesus and every now and again giving them a tip but after that that's your own we're going to reduce the gospel to that kind of a pantomime so the Lord Jesus didn't rush to the door he just pulled into his arms and waited for the dusk to set in and when he looked round what do you think was left the twelve none included Jesus said the Lord Jesus verse 67 to the twelve will you also go away do you want to go home do you prefer to quit too like the rest do you think Peter understood or any of them no they didn't understand but deep down in their heart there was a conviction that what the Lord Jesus was saying was true said Peter Lord to whom shall we go we have to confess we're as baffled as they are but if this were convinced I have the words of eternal life we believe somehow we're sure you are the Christ son of the living God there's so much of what you say goes right over our heads we can't get it we don't want the cross you keep telling us you're going to die and we're trying to prevent it and you keep telling us you're going to rise again from the dead and we don't believe that either and yet somehow somehow what you say must be true we know they didn't want the cross Peter said not so that's going to happen to you we know they didn't believe in the resurrection because when the women came and said the tomb was empty and they'd been rebuked by the angel for seeking the living among the dead they said idle tales forget it he's dead we buried what a bunch but don't get discouraged the Lord Jesus knew and they knew that deep down in their hearts there was a conviction that though they didn't understand what he was saying it's true and Peter said and so many others were going to hang around and they hung around until after the resurrection when the Lord Jesus appeared in the upper room showed them his hands and his feet and told them of that day so soon to dawn when on the grounds of his redemptive transaction which they now at last began to understand they would be endued with power from on high as he is God by the Holy Ghost would invade their humanity and then share his life on earth on the way to heaven as for 33 years he had shared the life of his father on earth on the way to heaven and it was then on the day of Pentecost that the light dawned and his soul was flooded Jesus a man a real man he was trying to tell us for three years what it takes to be a man God in the man I see now that everything that God did by him he now as God glorified at the Father's right hand is waiting to do by us if only we will be to him as men the mind that was in Christ Jesus that he was prepared to be to the Father as God and when our minds have been transformed into the mind of Christ we won't be conformed to this we will be transformed in the presenting of our bodies to him as once he presented his body to the Father well isn't that fantastic now that's the sublime sheer glorious simplicity of the gospel tell me this how did the Lord Jesus let the Father as you and I now are to let the Son live his life through us as the Father lives his life through him how did the Lord Jesus do it? don't make it complicated as you receive Christ he is the Lord as we saw last evening pure needed his feet so walking him pure needed his feet it took the Holy Ghost for the Lord Jesus to be born a man it took the Holy Ghost for the Lord Jesus to be the man he was born to become and we're told in John don't turn to it John 13 3 that by virtue of his disposition toward the Father the Father gave all things to the Son everything in the body was his as by virtue of who he is now in us everything in the body is ours so when there were 5,000 to be fed with 5 loaves and 2 fishes what did the Lord Jesus do? he said he gave thanks what does that mean? just said great a little religious exercise to make it respectable he said Father Father we've got 5,000 men here plus the women and the kids we've got 5 loaves and 2 fishes and a marvellous little boy Father a little boy here who nobody recognised but I knew him because I knew what I was going to do even though Philip didn't Andrew didn't they're a dead loss Father forget them but this little boy you know Father he looked to me the way I look to you he expects of me on his behalf Father to be all that I know that you will be on my behalf Father isn't that fantastic? isn't he a great little kid? Father we've got 5,000 men plus the women and the kids 5 loaves and 2 fishes and this little boy who stands alongside me and as he looks to me Father I look to you thank you we're in business Father and then he acted on the assumption that the Father by him would feed the 5,000 God by him and then there was a man stinking 4 days dead and the Lord said Jesus said roll away the stone and Moses said you can't do that he stinks stinking situation I wonder what kind of a stinking situation there is in your life in your home in your business because you never had the guts to roll away the stone but finally they were persuaded to roll away the stone what do you think the Lord Jesus did? did he wring his hands and try to twist God's arm? no no it says in John 11 read it for yourself he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father I thank you that you've heard me I know that you've heard me you may wonder why I'm saying this aloud I'm saying it aloud Father so that these people may know that you're going to raise this man from the dead by me because I don't want them to think Father I'm going to do it for you because if I do it for you they'll think they have to do things for me but I know that this is to be God at work therefore Father you as God have got to do it through me by man so that one day I as God can do the same kind of thing through them as men thank you Father you're in business Father he's been dead for 86 days thank you Father then he gave the commanding word Lazarus come forth and he that was dead came forth so how did the Lord Jesus draw upon the resources that were his in the Father he just said thank you thank you how are you and I to say thank you in every situation as it arises recognize that you only have an old Adamic nature that is what and through and through in the divine nature of Christ so then ask for strength because if you ask for strength you're either asking God to give you strength for the old nature and he won't or you're asking God to give you strength for the new nature and he doesn't need it then pray yourself out of faith into frustration and unbelief settle for the fact that the Lord Jesus God is in you as the Father of God within him how selfish can you be expose your knees and say thank you I'm at the receiving end of your instruction your hands your feet your lips your body so you can live your life it's going to be glorious to see how you handle it yes and that's what it means to say by his life now let's pray coming Lord we can't be thankful enough for such a marvellous salvation you as God by us as once the Father is God by you teach us the simplicity of it we pray that we may in every new situation lift our eyes and say thank you and let you God be God in us in your name say amen you were born to this world with an old tin Ford in the garage smooth flip tires battered body work jerky plugs broken spring tattered up holster there it is the old junk when you go out in that old tin Ford everybody knows you're around they can hear your springs rattling they tap it they can see the black smoke coming out of the exhaust but nobody's particularly shocked because that's all they've got because we were all by nature the children of rock when you and I are born of the world we're born only with that old tattered adamic nature that's hostile to God but then you accepted Christ as your Redeemer and a wonderful thing happened he risen from the dead came to live within you by the Holy Ghost and it's just as though God in the garage alongside the old tin Ford put a brand new Cadillac well make a choice make a choice you know what the foolish Galatians were doing given the brand new Cadillac they went out in the old tin Ford foolish Galatians who's bewitched you you received a brand new life by the gift of the Holy Ghost and you're trying to be made perfect in the flesh now you've got Jesus love me stickers all over your dirty old tin Ford now you've got are you prepared to meet your God on that awful old tin Ford trying to tell the world that you've somehow found God is that what you've been doing how will you know when you've been doing that well if you're out in the old tin Ford though God gave you at your new birth the brand new Cadillac Jesus God living in you this is what you'll be doing you'll spend all your time in prayer begging God for spare for the old tin Ford you say oh God my tyres you just don't know how dangerous my tyres are might burst any time God says I know exactly how dangerous your tyres are dump the thing throw it over the head stick it where I put it on the dump oh God my spring that's just that you know every time I go over a bump every time there's an emergency it really breaks my back my spring give me a new spring God says forget it throw the thing over the head drop in the cabin oh God oh God my plugs you don't know how dirty my plugs are God says I know exactly how dirty your plugs are that's why I gave you a brand new Cadillac dump the thing is that how you've been living oh give me this give me that give me the other please give me strength please give me victory please give me this how much has God given you with Christ living in your heart and if he doesn't you're not a Christian in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead father you're contained in him he can't give you strength he is your strength he can't give you victory he is your victory why don't you act on the assumption that it's true it's no less true that he lives in you than that one day he died for you why say thank you for one and please for the other is that honoring to God as from this morning jump the old thing forward and drive home with the Cadillac and say Lord Jesus thank you not only for what you did for me because of what I've done but of course who you are in me taking the place of what I am now for me to live is Cadillac for me to live is Christ have you ever practiced that principle what's bothering you right now what kept you awake last night why don't you think to say Lord Jesus you're big enough for that because you just happen to be God and as God I think you're big enough for the job and the amazing thing is this because you've redeemed me you've come to live in me how much more could I have it's fantastic it frightens me of course it frightens me but it doesn't frighten you because I thank you that though the problems are bigger than I am I've got a God who's bigger than my problems that's the Christian life why settle for less okay you better drive to lunch in your Cadillac