Keys to the Christian Life

[00:00:00] Return with me to two Corinthians. [00:00:03] The second letter to Corinth and chapter five. [00:00:11] The second letter to Corinth and chapter five, verse 14. [00:00:31] For the love of Christ, constraineth us, because we doth judge that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all. [00:00:52] That they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again. [00:01:08] And then in one Corinthians, chapter six, verse 19. [00:01:18] One Corinthians, chapter six, verse 19. [00:01:25] Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which ye have from God, and ye are not your own, for ye were bought with a price. [00:01:44] Glorify God, therefore, in your body. [00:01:50] And then lastly, in Matthew 16. [00:02:09] Matthew, 1624, Jesus said unto his disciples, if any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. [00:02:31] For whosoever would save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. [00:02:45] For what shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life? [00:02:53] Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life? [00:03:05] Now, I have this morning just a few thoughts upon the short passages or verses in the word, and I just want to pass on to you a very elementary. That elementary things are very, very necessary. [00:03:30] I want you, first of all to see that the christian life has a key. [00:03:43] I suppose, really, we would say that there are very, very, very few christians who really, in practice, possess the key to the christian life. [00:04:02] There are, I suppose, now thousands and thousands and thousands of christians who are born again. They're born again believers. They are children of God. [00:04:14] They know the law in certain measure, up to certain degrees, differing degrees. We are meeting all the time people who know the Lord. Some know the Lord better than others. Others know the Lord in a very, very simple way. Some know him in an almost superficial way. [00:04:35] But they are the Lord, and no one can question the fact that they have been born of God's spirit. They belong to the Lord. They're children of goddess. [00:04:47] Why is it that even amongst ourselves, when we look into our own lives, not looking at one another, but looking into our own lives, we do see this, perhaps, this difference. [00:05:03] Some seem to be as poor material as anyone else. [00:05:10] In some ways, they seem to be poorer material. [00:05:14] They don't seem to have a lot, naturally. [00:05:19] They seem to have, in many ways, a lot of failings and flaws, and yet they seem to have got grasp of something which has cleared the way for them. It's cleared the way for them, and they're growing all the time. They're just going on the ways being cleared. They're coming up against obstacles, but they're getting over the obstacles like hurdles. They're just as it were, getting over them one after another. They're meeting the difficulties, they're meeting antagonism, they're meeting the problems. But there's something that they have got hold of at the very beginning which has somehow or other cleared the way for them, basically, fundamentally. [00:06:09] Now, what is that and why is it that so many of us who perhaps are much better material naturally not got so many failings and flaws and are not quite such poor types, and yet we don't, we don't move in the same way. We don't seem to get on in the same way. [00:06:39] You see, there's a key to the christian life. It's a key that probably we all know mentally, but it's a key nevertheless. And it's found, first of all, in two corinthians, chapter five. [00:06:54] It is the criterion. [00:06:58] In other words, Paul says, now, look here, you corinthians, weve got a rule of judgment. [00:07:05] Weve got a rule of judgment. By this rule, we judge everything. [00:07:12] Weve got a criterion by this. We, as it were, see everything. This is the criterion of everything. [00:07:23] We can judge everything through this. We can see where everything stands through this. We can see where we stand through this. Every obstacle that comes up in our christian life, we judge it on this according to this rule. [00:07:37] We have got a simple basic rule to our christian life, and we apply that rule to everything, whether it be relationships, whether it be friendship, whether it be our life generally, whatever it be. He says, we've got a rule, and we're applying that rule to everything. So you see, the rule of the christian life is found simply here in verse 14. We thus judge. [00:08:15] We thus judge that one died for all. [00:08:22] Therefore all died. [00:08:27] Now, you know, if that were to get into our experience and were to become the rule of our christian life, it would, oh, it would clear the way. It would clear the way of all kinds of obstructions and difficulties and problems. If we were simply to bring this and ask the Holy Spirit to apply this rule to our lives in a practical way, one died for all, therefore all died. [00:08:58] Oh, we say this is just doctrine. How can this really be the rule of our life? But you see, our christian life is so constituted, is so built, that this is the elementary principle of the whole structure. [00:09:21] There is absolutely nothing in the christian life that is not built on this law. [00:09:30] One died for all, therefore all died. [00:09:35] You couldn't have even been born of God's spirit if you hadn't come in on that law, whether you knew it or whether you didn't. [00:09:44] That was the ground upon which God saved you and accepts you. [00:09:49] He doesn't save you so that he can refine you, so that you can help him in his cause, so that you can work for him, or so that you may have a jolly good time at his expense. [00:10:04] Lord hasn't saved him any. The Lord has saved you on a simple law. [00:10:13] His son died for all. Therefore, in God's estimation, everyone's dead. [00:10:21] You've all gone. I've gone. We're not here. [00:10:25] God just says, now, this is the law I received you upon, that you have all dead. [00:10:31] And if you want to have an argument with me, all right, then you can spend your whole christian life having an argument with me about whether you're dead or not. But the point is, I received you on the ground that Christ died for you, and you're dead. [00:10:44] That's the simple law upon which I have received you. Furthermore, he says everything to do with your growth and your going on stems out of that. [00:10:55] So then, if you want to have an argument with the Lord about this question of whether you're dead or not, you can spend 40, 50, 60, 70 years, so long as you live on this earth, and you won't get anywhere. Just be going around the wilderness 40 years all the time, backwards and forwards, around the same old spots again and again and again and again, all the time just getting older and older and wearing, until at last you die in the desert. Why? Because, you see, you're having an argument about the basic rule of everything. [00:11:28] See, the Lord said when he saved you, it's a new man or nothing. [00:11:35] It's a new man or nothing. It's a new creation or nothing. [00:11:40] It's a new life or nothing. [00:11:43] If you think that you can come over into this, onto this side, on any other ground, then you're going to sooner or later come up against that issue. You see, we can come over for a while. We can grow for a while up to a certain point, but then up comes this big issue, and we're stuck there for the rest of our lives just on one of these issues that all bound up with the beginning of our christian life. And you know how important beginnings are. Get the beginning. [00:12:14] Get absolutely clear at the very beginning. And whilst you may receive, Edward, may meet every kind of difficulty. You'll just go on and go on and go on. The trouble with most of us is we haven't got things clear at the beginning. And so we're having to relearn beginnings all the time. We're having to come up against things and come back to fundamental defects in our life, in our christian life. Now, the simple law is when Christ died, in God's estimation, everyone dies. [00:12:46] And as far as he's concerned, you and I are dead people. [00:12:51] He says, now then, if I receive you at all, I receive you on an on a totally different basis. And that's the next thing I want to come to. The rule of the christian life, if you can get it as simply as possible. And I reiterate it, the rule or the criterion of the christian life is this one died for all, therefore all died. You can't have an argument about that. If you're a christian, you've died because Christ died for you. God says, if Christ died for you, you died. Many people say to me, oh, but I didn't die. That's not the point. Did Christ die? Oh, you say, of course Christ died. Very well, then, you died. [00:13:32] That's how God argues. [00:13:34] God doesn't argue. Now then, each so and so or not, is Lance Lambert dead or not? Really? There seems to be an awful lot about him that's alive. [00:13:46] Is he really dead? Or God says, no. God says, did my son die? Did my son die? If my son has died? Lance Lambert says, as far as I'm concerned, he can argue with me about it, and he can bring over a lot of what he is into the new. But my point is, as far as I'm concerned, he died. That's the basis. That's the rule. Right? Let's get that clear. What is the result of this rule? [00:14:14] It is found here again, and he died for all that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who died and rose again for them. [00:14:27] So the result of this simple rule, that one die for all, therefore we've all died, is simply this, no longer living unto ourselves, but unto him. [00:14:41] In other words, the key to the christian life is simply this. You have left the ground of self government and self determination and self, whatever you like to call it, self centeredness. You've left that ground completely, and you are now on the ground of the government of the Lord Jesus. [00:15:11] You're centered in the Lord Jesus. [00:15:15] If you are a child of God, if you have any spiritual life at all, the very character of our life and the very meaning of our life is simply that we belong to Christ. [00:15:29] And the more we go on like that, the more we blossom and develop, the more we have arguments with the Lord, the more we turn in and die. [00:15:39] The simple, simple effect of this rule, that Christ died, therefore we've all died, is that we don't live unto ourselves any longer. [00:15:52] We've come off that ground. [00:15:55] God has said simply this. When my son died, you died. I will receive you on one basis only. [00:16:05] And that is that you are in an altogether new position. [00:16:11] You are an altogether new creation, and you are in an altogether new man. [00:16:17] And that man's constitution is totally different to the other. [00:16:24] Now, that's where we all have our trouble. [00:16:30] God has said, this is the only basis upon which I receive you. If you're going to try and go on determining your own course and life, what you're going to do and how much you're going to do and how far you're going to go and all the rest of it, well, I have to leave you to it. You are having an argument with me. [00:16:54] God's very good at this kind of thing. He teaches us a great lesson. The Lord will never enter into an argument. [00:17:01] He always lets us argue. He knows we tire ourselves out. And if we mean business with him, we'll come through in the end to answer his side. A lord just ask. All right, if you want to have an argument, you have an argument. But the whole of the Bible, my very word, can tell you this simple thing, that the only basis I receive you upon is by the altar. That is a whole living sacrifice. You're out. You're gone. And you know, if you've died, you're dead. [00:17:31] You now have no longer any claim. If God brings you back again, if God raises you again, if you are resurrected, then you belong to someone else. You're dead. You're gone to finish. If you go on living, then from henceforth, your life is not your own. You've got no business to lay claim to your life. You're on the ground of resurrection. You're on the other side of the grave, and someone has raised you back to life, says the scripture. You're now, as it were, someone who's gone through the grave. You've died. As far as God is concerned, now you're on the other side. God has raised you, therefore you're his property. You're belonging to him. [00:18:13] You're his completely. [00:18:21] So, you see, the argument of Paul is, this is how we judge everything. [00:18:26] This is how we judge everything. You see, he says, if we come up against a problem? We step back and say, now then. Now. Then we don't sort of say, now, what shall I do about this? I don't know. I don't think I'll do that. No, no, I don't think I. I'll take that course or that line, or I'll. [00:18:44] No, no portions. We don't judge like that. Our judgment is this, that one dies all, therefore. All die, and he dies all. That they that live, that live, should no longer live unto him, but unto him. It is a question now. Now, Lord, what would you heaven to do? [00:19:01] I am yours. I belong to you. Everything to do with me. I am on a new ground. I am alive from the dead. [00:19:11] I am on the other side of the grave. [00:19:14] It is if God has given me back my life again. But he has given it back in a way that I am totally in debt to him. I live by him from now on. So I want you to notice that the effect of this rule is that God receives us on a new basis altogether. And the effect of it is that if we live unto ourselves, we're living a contradiction. And that's often why we're so unhappy and miserable. We are living a contradiction to our christian life. [00:19:46] The christian life is something which is only found in purity on this basis that we're all dead, and that therefore we can't live unto ourselves any longer. We've left that kind of life. Died. It's finished with. It's in the grave. And now we've been raised again by the grace of God, and we belong holy to him, but dependent on him. [00:20:14] But there is another thing I wanted you to notice in one Corinthians six that we read together, and it is the totality of it. [00:20:25] The effect of it is that we now are living a new Life. But what about this Verse? [00:20:33] Ye are not your own, for ye were bought with a vice, therefore glorify God. [00:20:43] The Lord is simply saying, you are not your own. You have absolutely no Business whatsoever to determine what you're going to do yourself. [00:20:56] You have absolutely no BusinEss whatsoever to govern your life. [00:21:03] If you are a child of God, then you are not your own. [00:21:10] Now, you see, if we have an argument about this, or sometimes we do, the whole weight of scripture comes against us. Along this line. It says, you've been bought with a price. You know what that price is? The body and the blood of God's son. [00:21:26] That is the price that's been laid down for you. You are not your own. [00:21:32] God's son has given himself in his entirety to the most awful death that you might be brought. [00:21:41] If only the Holy Spirit could bring this to our conscience and mind. When we are tempted to take our own line upon different things here, we would be checked instantly, if we only remember there's a price has been paid. What a price. [00:22:05] I'm not my own spirit, soul and money. I am not my own. [00:22:14] I'm living on a new basis now. [00:22:17] I'm living on the ground that I belong wholly to the Lord. I'm a new creation with a new constitution. So I leave that with you. Lastly, in Matthew 16, what is the practice of this rule? What is the practical experience of this rule? Now here we come to the heart of the whole matter. We know that the Lord Jesus has died. We know therefore that because the Lord Jesus has died, we have all died. We know, therefore, that the ground upon which we live is a new one altogether. But what about the practice of the thing? What about the practice? How does it get into our experience? [00:23:01] Ah, says the Lord Jesus. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow the Lord has done it. As far as God is concerned, it's a final thing. But the practice of it depends very much upon us, doesn't it, as to whether we're going to deliberately take this position of denying ourselves and taking up the cross. [00:23:33] Now, the thing you'll note, that is the heart of this matter is simply in the world. [00:23:40] You've got to assert yourself. [00:23:43] You've got to grasp something, and you've got to hold on to it if you're going to have it. This world knows nothing that's gained by any other means than by assertion, grasping and holding onto it. [00:23:57] You can't hold on to any position. You can't get anywhere in this world without really asserting yourself, laying hold of things. And then you've got hold it. [00:24:08] You've got to preserve it. You see anything in this world, anything, you've got to preserve it. If you leave it for a while, it'll run away, it'll sink, and you're lost. You've got to hold on to it, establish yourself. You're only going to assert yourself then take whatever you want, but you've got to establish yourself in that and keep it, hold it. [00:24:30] But you see, this christian life, the principle is entirely different entirely. [00:24:39] It's letting go. [00:24:44] He that would save his life shall lose it, but he that would lose his life for my sake, the same shall find it. [00:24:53] We have in our old nature an inborn principle of and this principle says, you mustn't let anything go, otherwise you'll never get it back. [00:25:07] Hang on to it. [00:25:09] If you give it over to anyone else, especially to God, you're going to be damaged in the end. So we hang on to things, we hang on to things, won't let things go. We're afraid that if we anticipate the government of the Lord is going to injure our interests, the government of the Lord is going to somehow harm us. We're going to be miserable people if we abdicate. We feel that whilst we're in power, we should be all right, because we know our own interests best and we know how to govern ourselves. [00:25:47] Or as many christians try to, they try to form a kind of coalition, the Lord and themselves, a kind of little parliament where they can sort of govern themselves along the lines of a coalition. Well, Lord, all right, but you had the whole reins of the government completely. Otherwise I shall suffer. But no, the practice of this simple rule that one died for all, therefore all have died. How does it work out in practice? It means you come to a full recognition of the cost of the christian life and of the totality of the christian life of God's grace as being not our own. And then we let go. [00:26:43] Hang on to things and you'll lose them. [00:26:49] Let go of things and they'll come back to you in full. Isn't that so? [00:26:57] This week someone came to me very, very concerned about health. [00:27:03] I give this just a little illustration. Very, very concerned about the health. [00:27:09] If they took certain line of action, they were quite sure that the end would be a collapse completely and possibly an end of life, as they learned. [00:27:24] And some years ago, someone had given some advice when everything was looming up and the health seemed to be cracking up, someone had given advice and said, you take that course of action and the Lord will keep you. [00:27:41] And that person had got through on it, had taken that course of action in faithfulness to the Lord, and then had received a permanent illness which injured them for the rest of their lives. [00:27:58] And of course they went, now, what, what really, what really has happened here? [00:28:05] The answer to really is simply this. [00:28:09] We ought never to come to the Lord on that basis. I'll do that, Lord, if you keep me. Oh, no, that's a false basis. The ground we have to come upon is this, Lord, I'll do that if it costs me my health. [00:28:27] He would then undercut seeking completely. [00:28:32] You see, that's where these things come right down to basic issues, question about health. [00:28:41] If I take that line of action, as Mary Slessor said when she went to, if I go there, it's going to kill me. [00:28:49] All right, Lord, you kill me, she said, and I'll go. And she went, of course, she lived till she was an old lady. [00:28:57] I wonder what would have happened if she said, now, lord, I'll go, I'll go if you keep me. [00:29:03] I wonder what would have happened. [00:29:05] I wonder if the enemy would say, now, lord, you let me get at her health and she'll pack you up. [00:29:14] No, the Lord had got Mary's blessed to the place where she said, all right, lord, I'll let go my health. I let it go, Lord. [00:29:23] And she went to them. [00:29:25] It's the same with time, and it's the same with money. Hold on to things and we get more and more impoverished. Let go of things and things come back and forth. It's the same with time. Hold on to time, make time for ourselves. We lose time. Let go of time, let it go over to the Lord in its entirety, and we get it back from. So this is a simple law in the christian life. Where does the cross come in our. The cross demands us entirely for the law. It says, you've got no business whatsoever to have a coalition government. You have no business whatsoever to come over to me with conditions, a condition of christian life. [00:30:09] You are mine. [00:30:11] I have you on the ground that you're dead. I. [00:30:14] And that now you're alive in Christ as a member of his body. Is that the ground you're on? Well, says the Lord, if that's the ground you're on, all these issues are going to be settled just along that line. This is how we're going to judge everything that he died for. All, therefore all died. I'm out. What does the Lord want me to do? [00:30:37] What action does the Lord want to do? Is the Lord asking of me everything? [00:30:44] Do I have an argument with the Lord about the everything? Some of us will say something. Some of us will say more things. But can we say everything, Lord? Everything? The point is, we're doing the Lord no service, you know, to give him everything. [00:31:00] That is the basic rule of our christian life. Everything is the law. It's amazing, these consecration meetings when we come forward and think what a great service we're doing the Lord to give our lives to him, to give our help to him, to give our time to him, to give our money to him. We're being so good about it, really. We're coming to a Lord and we're giving him so much. We should be so painful for us. [00:31:22] The whole point is that is our christian life. That's the thing at the beginning that we should get clear at the very beginning. [00:31:31] Whatever it is, whatever realm it is, however it affects us. The point is, everything is the Lord and is legally by right, the Lord. [00:31:43] Let's settle that at the beginning. And I think then the rest will itself take shape as the Lord leads us on. There's the key. There's the rule. We thus judge that if one died for all of therefore, all time, dear Lord, we ask thee to apply this to our lives and to make us people, Lord, who live the christian life truly according to that rule which we have heard this morning. Lord, let it be like that, that there may be a clear way for thyself. [00:32:35] We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:32:39] Amen.