Life in Christ

What a beautiful, beautiful presence of the Lord in this place already today. And I just pray that it continues throughout the entirety of all of these uh events today, the services that we have, every classroom, every uh every word that's spoken by the word of God. I pray that that the spirit would just continue. Wasn't if you missed Wednesday night, you missed a great service again. And uh that that was just I told brother Willilifford it was just an unusual move of God that that night. It was just a beautiful beautiful presence of the Lord. I'm so glad that that he is with us that we don't even really uh have to ask that. He's already promised that he said I am with you always. Always. And and so I just rely upon that today. I thank thank God for the message that we heard last Sunday. Sand castles. Brother Peter Wright. What a I I I texted him a great course correction. A great course correction. We need that occasionally. We need to we need things to pull us back into alignment with the word of God and get our priorities right. And uh this lesson is kind of a segue uh from that from that message uh about about getting our our priorities straight. This lesson is about after all we've heard from uh second Peter, all the faith and virtue and and uh brotherly kindness and all of those things. It's about this life in Christ, the life that we have in Jesus Christ. And uh it it's it's a new life. It's a new life. If if you don't know Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Ghost, you're dead. That's what the Bible says. The Bible declares you to be dead spiritually. You may be living this natural life, but you're dead spiritually. There's new life. There's abundant life that Jesus spoke about, and there is also eternal life that he gives to us. from second Peter chapter 3. The the same author now he is going to put some things in perspective. Second Peter chapter 3:es 9-11. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Verse 11 emphasizes something that I want to talk about today. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation or behavior and godliness? The impetus for Christian living is found here. it. There was a phrase uh that we used to use us old-timers anyway, only one life, so soon it will pass and only what's done for Christ will last. And there there is an element of truth in that statement. The only thing, as brother Peter uh preached last week, I was reminded of this that wood, hay, stubble, our works can be burned up and only the things that we have done that have eternal value are going to last as we enter into eternity. And uh I I I want to ask a question this morning. How do we perceive the Lord's coming? When someone says Jesus is coming, does that sound to us like an impending threat or is it an inspiring promise? Does it sound to us like a threat? Do I live in the shadow of the threat of the coming of the Lord? Or do I live in the light of the glorious hope of the coming of the Lord? How do I live my life? I remember youth camps and over my lifetime, I've been in church a long time, all my life that I can remember. And uh I remember messages on the coming of the Lord, brother Willilifford. I I remember messages and some of them were punctuated with very dramatic very dramatic statements and and uh uh accompaniment. I remember going to youth camp and hearing messages about the coming of the Lord just it would scare the hair off a bald man. You know, preacher would be preaching about the coming of the Lord and somebody over in the shadows would blow on a trumpet and all of us kids would we'd we'd all run to the altar. Scared me out of several years growth. I was only 112 pounds when I graduated high school. And I directly attribute that to the fact that I went to youth camps and got scared out of my growth. preaching about the coming of the Lord. They scared us to death about the coming of the Lord. So, it's ingrained in us. But that was never the intention. It should be a promise of a glorious hope that we live with, not the impending threat of doom and gloom that, "Oh, the Lord," you know, I was thinking in context of a bride on her wedding day. You probably don't find her saying, "Oh, I hope he don't show up today. I got too many things to do. I I I got other things that I got to be involved in. And man, I know I'm supposed to get married, but I certainly hope he don't show up today. This is your wedding day. It should be a hope that we live with and not a threat that we fear. Amen. I want to I want to emphasize some things today about how we conduct ourselves and how we live our lives as Christians. And and the very first thing that Peter wanted to emphasize here was what manner of persons ought you to be in all your behavior and godliness. Seeing then that that he is coming back, that the Lord is not slack concerning his promises, and he that shall come will come, and he will not tarry. The Lord is coming back. That shouldn't strike fear into our hearts. That should be the hope of every child of God who walks around calling themselves Christian. Now I understand uh being human as we all are. I don't think there's any aliens in the place uh extraterrestrials or anything like that. I think we're all humans being in uh human we are all participants in life there. There is a reality and it's not stated this way. We we hear this quotation in the world but not of the world. That that exact quotation is not found in the Bible. It's not there. But the principle is we are in the world not of the world. This is a reality for the Christian, for the child of God. John 17, Jesus praying before he was going to be crucified, he said these things. Uh in verse 11 of 17, he said, "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world." So we got the in the world part. Jesus is praying. He said in verse 14, I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world. So in 11 he says they're in the world. In verse 14 he says, "But they are not of the world." And John 17:15 says,"I pray not that thou should us take them out of the world." So he leaves us here in this human condition. We all experience. I was talking to brother Bruce on the way in. It's like every day there's a new pain in places that I didn't even know I had. A new new human condition. And we we experience this as we get older and uh we go through life and we we just How many of you I hope you got your taxes done. It's tax time. And the thing that we look for at tax time is what? Exemptions. We want exemptions. We want to be exempted from having to pay the taxes, right? This is a time that we think about exemptions. But in the Christian life, you're not exempt from natural life. One of the first rules of business is this. Underpromise and overproduce. underpromise and overproduce because if you overpromise and underproduce, you'll lose customers and you'll go out of business pretty quickly. You have to give people more than what their expectations are or at least meet their expectations, right? And I'm just going to be very transparent. I have heard things over a life of living for the Lord and being in church. I've heard things over the pullpit that just strike me as very very uh overpromising. I've heard preachers preach a prosperity gospel. You come to the Lord and all your problems are going to disappear. You come to Jesus. I I've even heard men who believe that if you live for God that you were exempt from illnesses and sicknesses, that you'd never get sick. If you got faith, you'd never get sick. They have gone by the way of the grave. Life caught up with them. We have no exemption. Just because we are Christians does not exempt us from natural life. Life takes its toll on all of us. We we know this. All of us in here have lived long enough to know that that we are not exempt. We may get it in our head sometime and we pray the prayer sometimes, Lord, let this thing pass. Jesus even paid uh prayed that prayer. A and we want to be exempted from life sometimes from life's illnesses and ailments. But like it or not, we are trapped in this human condition. He said, "I'm not praying that you take them out of the world." I wish that he had sometimes, but life gets pretty good for us sometimes also, doesn't it? Life goes well for us at times. But that's a part of the human condition. The corresponding reality to that is that the world in which we live is a hostile culture to the Christian. It's gone downhill really quickly in the last few years. The the world culture is hostile to the Christian life. Uh, I got a book from my nephew, uh, Jim Jim Gregory by E. Stanley Jones, and I had a great quote in it. I had to pull this quote out. It says this, "Society demands conformity. If you fall beneath its standards, it will punish you. If you rise above its standards, it will persecute you. If your head is above the multitude, it will get whacked." So the peacemakers must get used to the sight of their own blood. I would say that Christians must get used to the sight of their own blood because you've heard the you've heard the the the the phrases and the the the sa statements that people make, oh holier than thou. You just think you're better than we are. And and because if you rise above the standards of culture, you're going to get your head whacked. That's just a statement of fact. The world doesn't like you. The world, as a matter of fact, Jesus says they're going to hate you. Reality check this morning. That's why we love each other. because you don't hate me. Hopefully. Amen. Cultures are guided by such standards as are deemed normal and acceptable. And I got to tell you, I reject most of what society deems normal and acceptable, especially in the culture in which we live today. The certainty of rejection of Christ followers by world arrangement and order the cosmos is scriptural. Jesus said in Matthew 5:11, "Blessed are you when men shall revile you, not if men shall revile you, but when men shall revile you." In John 15:19, he said, "If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore it hateth you." Are you getting the picture this morning of how God has already set the the uh standard for those who would be followers of Jesus Christ? Get used to the fact that the world will never accept you as a Christian. Everything else, if you've noticed this, everything else in society is perfectly acceptable. People wearing bull rings in their nose, getting piercings all over their body, nobody even blinks. The weirdest stuff can go on and it's perfectly acceptable. But when you declare yourself to be a Christian, uh uh you're a hater. You're one of those. Jesus said in John 16, "These things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. in the world. Oh my Lord. I This is not really a a downer message this morning. It's not a downer lesson, but it's a it's it's bringing us to a point of pragmatism. We've got to understand this, folks. Living the Christian life is not acceptable in the culture in which we live. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have tribulation, but fear not, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." And Paul picks up on this theme when writing to to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12. He said, "Yay, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." So, that being the case, you're still here. You haven't left yet. after years of this, after years of living as a Christian, you know these things. But we just need to be reminded of these things sometimes about what this life in Christ is all about and what characterizes this life in Jesus Christ. Let me let me go back to the book of Genesis and let's talk about life for a minute here. uh the the biblical definition of life. It's it's a it's a word that that is rich in meaning. There are more than one meanings of life according to the Bible. In Genesis chapter 2, God breathed haim, the breaths of life, but it's not a singular. Haya is the word for life in the Hebrew. Hahaim is plural. It's life's. So what Adam got when God breathed into him was not just natural life, it was also spiritual life. The plurality of lives lived in the body of Adam. There was the sooulish or the natural. Are you with me this morning? There was the natural man. The soloulish man and then there was the God inspired, God breathed, spiritual man. The sooulish connects us with this world in which we live. We breathe, we eat, we function as human beings in the natural world because we came from the dust of the earth, the natural world. But the spiritual connects us with God and the invisible realm. There's a lot of people in the world, I would say the majority of people in the world are unaware of this spiritual side uh that that God has placed in man. God put when he created Adam, he there was everything that he needed in the garden for sustaining natural life and health. Are you with me? Everything that Adam needed. God said, "I've given you every tree in this garden, every plant for the sustaining of your natural life." In and this is so unique as I begin to study this out in in many of the schools of health and and medicine, there are 12 major systems in the body. There were 12 kinds of fruit on the tree of life that would sustain, I believe, every major system in the human body. The tree of life, you go to Revelation, it says it bears 12 manner of fruit and the leaves of the tree are for the health or the the uh the healing means the health of the nation of the people. So God put everything that Adam needed in that garden to sustain his natural life. But for the spiritual sustenance, there was a presence that showed up and had communion with Adam and Eve and walked in the midst of the garden with them. For the spirit of man cannot be nourished by natural things. It just cannot be. The spirit of man has to be nourished by the spirit of God. And so, not only did God provide for Adam's natural life, he provided for his spiritual life. And that was the presence of God. That's why we so desire. David said, "As the heart panth for the waterbrook, so my soul thirsts for you." That's why we come into this place and we pray for the presence of God to manifest itself. Why? Because I need more than what the natural provides. I must have that which only God can provide for my spirit this morning. Amen. And then the catastrophic crippling encounter with the thief happened in the garden. Jesus said in John 10 verses 10 and 11, watch this. He said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life." That word there, everybody say, "Zoe." Zoe. That's life. And that they might have it what? Zoe. More abundantly. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life. Everybody says suk. So you've got Zoey, which is spiritual life, and you've got suk, which is natural life. He says, "I have come to grant you life, spiritual life, eternal life." But he said, "As the good shepherd, I am going to give my natural life for the sheep." Jesus provides here a delineation between spiritual life and natural life. The kind of life that he would give as a gift to humanity was spiritual life, Zoey. The kind of life that he would lay down as a gift for humanity was natural life, Suk. John 1 verse 4 says, "In him," this is a very familiar portion of scripture to us, "in him was life." In him was life and the life was the light of men. The word there is Zoe. In him was life. Life didn't begin with him in that body. That was suk. That was natural life that was born at Bethlehem. The life that was in Jesus Christ that he offers to all humanity is not just natural life. It is the life that existed from eternity. It was the life that was already present. He didn't get his life from his mama. His life, his spiritual life came from his father. The eternal life. Herod on the other hand thought he could take the child's life. In Matthew 2:20, it said that he sought the young child's life. He couldn't take the life that was in Jesus. Brother Richie, he couldn't take that eternal life. So he sought to kill off the suk, the natural life of the child. And we know how that failed. But this this natural life entails all the natural processes of earthly existence. All of the pain. This is why we suffer pain and we enjoy comfort. We have sorrow and we have happiness. We have youth and we have aging. We have gain and we have loss. We have life and we have death. All of that is a product of our suk, our soloulish natural life. Amen. Somebody say amen. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16 says, "For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, I am so thankful for this revelation that Paul gives to us. Though our outward man perish, you may be as some are in their 90s here today, some in their 80s today, some in their 70s today. Young people look at us and they go, "Uh, you're old." I read an epitap on a tombstone one time says, "What I am or what I am, what I was, you are. What I am, you shall be. What I was, you are. What I am, you shall be." You can tell young people that what I was, you are. But what I am, you shall be. We're all getting there. the outward man perished. There is no salvation for this outward man. There is no eternal life for the outward man. Paul said, "This old man is perishing daily. It's perishing, but the inward man is renewed day by day. Hey, I may not be able to jump and run and holler and like some of the young people can, but I can tell you that on the inside, the inward man is being renewed when I step full face into the presence of my God. I feel that spirit, that youthful spirit come into my spirit. And the inward man is renewed in the presence of God because the Zoey adds a different dimension of existence. I am here today naturally, but I also exist immortally. I have drunk from the fountain of eternal life. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:es 5 and 6, he said, "Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Why? Because that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Get this. Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. Folks, let the realization settle on us today. The most important date in your life was not the date that you were born naturally, but the date when you were born again of the water and the spirit because you were born of incorruptible seed at that point, a seed that will live on for eternal ages in the presence of the Lord. Marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. Among the paradoxes of the kingdom of heaven is this one that I'm about to present to you. The Christian life begins with a birth that springs from a death. Jesus compared it to a seed that has to fall into the ground and die and when it dies new life will spring from that. So this paradox of birth coming from death, it occurs in the natural but it occurs in the spiritual like the seed Jesus spoke of. The natural man has life in the flesh but he is spiritually dead. In order for the spiritual man to live, I'm not telling you anything new this morning. In order for the spiritual man to live, the old man has to die. Somebody said the problem with presenting a living sacrifice is it keeps crawling off the altar. We call ourselves dead, but the problem is we keep resurrecting that old man. That's our biggest That's our biggest issue is the resurrection of the old man. In order for me to live spiritually, this right here has to die out to the desires, to the world culture, to the things of this life. The Lord uh through the apostle spoke to us and and said, "If any man love the world, it's not hard." He said, "If any man loves the world, the love of the father is not in him." So, four times I'm going to take us somewhere this morning. I got a few minutes left. Four times it's recorded that Jesus spoke to his disciples about taking up the cross. Okay? in Matthew 16:24, in Mark 8:34, in Mark 10:21, and in Luke 9:23. In every one of these cases, Jesus is speaking to somebody, saying, "Take up your cross. If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross." This was way before Jesus cross was ever in sight. He hadn't spoken of his cross. And here he is talking to people who would follow him about taking up their cross. But every time he said, "Take up your cross," it was followed up with, "and follow me." And follow me. Not just take up the cross, but take up the cross and follow me. I'm going to ask another question here. What did you think that cross was for? What how did you view when Jesus says take up your cross? I've heard sermons across the years that we are to just bear this cross. It becomes a burdensome thing. Listen, the cross is not a decorative piece of jewelry that we hang around our necks to identify ourselves as Christians. The cross is not just a burden that we carry around that denies us entry into activities and places that we shouldn't go because it won't allow us to do that. It's not that kind of restrictive article. The cross is not just a resistance weight that if we carry it around, it makes us stronger by bearing the weight of the cross. What did you think that cross was for when Jesus says take up the cross? Don't forget the follow me part. Because the place where his cross would lead him was a place of death. Some people bear the cross as a mark of identification as a Christian. But the spectacle of the cross only ever had one purpose, one singular function. It was not decorative in the Roman times. It was a place of death. It was a place of suffering. It was a place where people were executed for Jesus. The crucifixion was an excruciatingly painful ordeal in the flesh. I think brother Randy and I were talking about this the other day. I can't read that account and be unmoved. I can't I can't stand before the cross that Jesus died on and look on that suffering and look on the price that he paid without being moved in my spirit. It was it was excruciatingly painful and it was an ordeal in his flesh and it would end his natural life. What did you think the cross was for? So it ended his natural life and then he was taken to a tomb and he was buried. And then get it, this same natural man, this body was resurrected after he was taken to the tomb and buried. This same body was resurrected by the spirit into that which was ultimately glorified. The pattern then is esta established for the Christian and that pattern is Calvary. What did you think the cross was for? Just a symbol. It's a place of death and execution. The old man has to pick up his cross and follow to that place of crucifixion and execution. This was frequently emphasized in Paul's letters. I'm going to read some scriptures here. Romans 8:13 says, "For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Romans 6:6 and 7. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. That word there means disengaged, unemployed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. That is what repentance. That is what it is all about. It's coming to an altar. Listen, I am of the opinion, don't get me wrong, I I love to see people baptized, but if you are not fully repented and you go into that water, it's like a taking a shower with a raincoat on. You're going to get wet, but you're not going to get clean. A person needs to be fully repented and persuaded that they are abandoning the old life. The old man, listen, this altar is a place of death. It becomes the place of the crucifixion for the old man. You got to lay it down at this altar and leave that carcass laying there if you're ever going to arise and walk in the newness of life. Amen. Preach it, brother Carton. That's good preaching. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Galatians 5:24 and 25. As they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. That's the Christian life right there. Walking in the spirit. Paul says, "For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed." This unlike as in Jesus case, Jesus, it was a oneand done. You know why? Because he was immediately caught up and glorified after he died and was buried and rose again. He was caught up and glorified. We are not. So we struggle with this old man. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? What did you think the cross was for? What did you think the cross was for? Listen, we use this scripture that Paul wrote out of context sometimes. 1 Corinthians 15:31. I got to hurry. I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. He was simply saying I you can read it in context. I face death daily on a daily basis. He was fa facing death. But this is not the Christian life. This is not the Christian focus. This this we are not glorified but we shouldn't focus on dying daily. Listen to me carefully. Our focus should not be on dying daily. It should be living daily. Living daily. Jesus said, "I'm come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly." Let's stand together. I got to quit. This life is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. This life, this Christian life, it's joy unspeakable and full of glory. This life is not perfect. Church is not perfect. Somebody well said, "If you find a perfect church, don't join. You'll mess it up." It's not perfect. We have problems. We have issues. The same issues that everybody else has in the flesh. Brother Nathaniel Ersen used to say, "I'd rather be in the stink than in the storm." Referring to Noah's ark. I'll take the stink inside the ark any day over the storm that rages in the world. this life that we live, this life that you now have, brother, we need to thank God every day that we arise, that it's not just this natural life, but we have that abundant life that Jesus Christ promised to us. Father, we thank you for your presence. I thank you, Lord God, for the life that you give to every one of us. We walk not after the flesh, we walk after the spirit. You sustain us. Your presence guides us and I thank you every day Lord God that you are very present that we enjoy this life in Jesus Christ. Amen. God bless you. Take a break.