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In heaven the things of death and hell with him alone are given our hurt parser. Glad we raise the voice the Lord has made us, who he goes and sweep that blessed hope, Jesus.
Where?
Play all the great.
00:05:08
What's in all?
All. Every time.
A.
Jesus, Far.
Where they fall.
Colossians Chapter 3 and verse 5.
Mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, and ordinate affection, evil, concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things fake The wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which he also walked, sometime when he lived in them. But now he also put off all these anger, wrath, malice.
Blasphemy, filthy communication. Out of your mouth lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man, was his deeds, and have put on the Newman, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, von Norfrey, but Christ is all and in all.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye, and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your heart to the which also ye are called in one body.
And be thankful, Let the word of Christ dwell on you richly in all wisdom.
Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, and whatsoever ye do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Servants, obeying all things, your masters according to the flesh.
Not with I service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. And there is no respect of persons.
I was thinking a little while ago, connection with these things were to put away how they grow. They have contests to grow big pumpkins. I think they get up to 700 lbs or maybe more. How do they do it?
Not sure of all the details, but at least one thing they do is to cut off all the other blossoms. They get one started and they cut off all the other blossoms. And what does that tell us? You know, if there's competition, if there's a lot of blossoms and a lot of little pumpkins on that vine, you're not going to grow a great big one. You cut off the others. What's the secret of our growth?
And and Divine Things is cutting off all those other things. I think we've already had some of our blossoms cut in this conference already.
And it's going to help us to grow.
But these things are.
That were listed here from the fifth verse on are things that need to go as we already had this morning.
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Not a question of ourselves picking up the shears and cutting them off. We have to take it to the Lord and He does the work. It's done properly and it's lasting.
He should explain that.
Fortify or put to death Mr. Darby's rendering. There's a footnote in Mr. Darby's Bible.
And explain what is involved or gives us a better understanding. It says be in the state of having done it. In other words, it isn't something that is yet to be done, be in the state of having done it.
And continue in that state. That's the thought, isn't it?
That's the thought is that we can't do it ourselves. If he does it, we're in that state and we go on in that state, don't we? We do have responsibility, but the Lord takes care of it. Remember one time the brother we were visiting someone that had recently been saved and this person had a trouble with giving up smoking. Brother said we'll stop trying.
What's going wrong here? What's he doing telling them to go ahead? No, he said. Stop trying. Just tell the Lord you can't do it yourself. Let him take it away. The Lord delivered me from it. I didn't quit. He delivered me some.
It's the difference here between state and standing, isn't it? In the third and fourth verse, three are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
This has actually taken place. As to our standing before God, we stand before God made the righteousness of God in Christ, we stand before him. That's the force of that expression, justification of life. Every believer. Not only people say justified mean just as if I'd never sinned, but that would only put us in the position of unfallen atom. He hadn't sinned, but he was capable of sinning and he did and he spoiled it all.
But isn't it lovely that you and I stand before God in a life that never sinned, never can sin the life of Christ? Christ is our life. And so he is in the fourth verse, then he's talking about what we have in Second Thessalonians, where it says that, well, perhaps we should turn to it in First Thessalonians. Pardon me, Second Thessalonians, chapter One.
And verse 10 When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day. The same thought is in first John chapter 3, where it tells us when Christ was all turned to the verse, just to say it correctly.
First John Chapter 3.
In the end of the well, I'll read the second verse. Beloved. Now are we the sons of God, And it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, or we shall see him as he is. So these second, third, and 4th verses bring before us our standing. It's perfect, It's in Christ. And every believer stands before God.
In all the perfection of Christ. But now he goes on in this fifth verse and brings in the thought of the practical side of it. Our state. We still have that old man within. We won't have when the Lord Jesus appears. When he comes and displays us to the world. He's not going to display a people like we are now With this old man within us that's capable of all these things, but he'll display us not only with bodies of glory like Christ.
But with no old nature within, only the life of Christ. And so if that is God, if that's our hope, we think that's a wonderful thing, and it is a wonderful thing that we're going to be displayed in that way. Then he says, well then in the practical sense of it. Mortify therefore, or as our brother has just commented, counted as being already our position before God, and we record ourselves dead, indeed under sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
00:15:00
So don't allow that old man, which before God came to its end in the death of Christ. Don't allow him to take control of our bodies. He's liable to as long as we're here, because it's still here and will be all. There's the practical side of it. I say again, I think it's the difference between state and standing. Our state is always perfect because it's bounded upon the work of Christ, our standing. I I should say our standing is perfect, but our state is not always solved.
Because as long as we're here, we need the practical side of it. Mortify, therefore, your members.
Every one of us have that old man within that's capable of all these things that are spoken of in their first.
Is that I'd like to read that verse you just quoted. I was thinking of it in Romans 6.
Well, from verse eight you pick up the context.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more death, hath no more dominion over him.
When that he died, he died under sin once.
But then he liveth, He liveth unto God likewise.
Reckon he also yourselves to be dead indeed under sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. Our Lord was thinking of any connection with the comment made this morning, That is, by the word of God our instructions come.
But every instruction that we get comes with everything I need to follow it.
And reckon is the work of the Spirit of God.
To give me to see my bottom of my soul, that what he says about me is true.
And as that is laid weight on my soul, that's true about me, I reckon it to be so I look off unto Jesus.
And I see him and his path, and I reckon that to be true to me, and the Spirit of God does that, but it is.
I'll say a byproduct of being occupied with him who died once. That's what I think for the Darby seeing be in the state of seeing that happen once. Reckon it to yourself, or I reckon it to me. There I find liberty in a negative sense.
In the sense of he died and I died. Now there's a positive he lives unto God, and so do I in the direction of my life. Now the Spirit of God is going to give me to the live unto God.
And with that before us everything, provided Christ is everything. Now what?
You know, in the Old Testament we've had before us, in time that passed, a person could say, I would like to go into the holiest of all, but I can't go. The door is shut. But in the New Testament, the door is open. Now I have to say I don't want to go in there.
That's the way it is with you and me. He weighs what we desire. The Lord Jesus has done everything. He stands before us now. He waves our hearts to see where our hearts.
And I was thinking of an expression in. I believe it's second first Peter, chapter 3.
In verse 21 toward the latter part of the verse.
The answer of a good conscience.
Toward God.
You know, we have what we need.
Walk with the Lord Jesus, but it's all in him.
And as the Spirit of God is going to occupy my thoughts and my affections, is going to set my mind on those things that are there. There I find my liberty and a good conscience. God says, a good conscience will say, Let me out of here. I want more of Christ.
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And we have the answer to a good conscience, that is Christ himself.
But again, if we take up this task of mortifying as something for us to do apart from him.
We will end up frustrated in defeat if we see that the Spirit of God is going to us, applying the truth about us as it appears in Jesus.
And give us to reckon that that is true of Maine. And there I find what I need.
But again, I say he's not given us another law.
He's given us a life.
And that life has its desires. It loves the Lord Jesus. And a good conscience will say, let me out here, get rid of everything out of my life that will hold me back for more enjoyment of Christ. That's the life that we have. Well, you and I might weigh our own.
Pathway to see how much of that we enjoy, but it's ours.
I was wondering if we turned to Galatians 2 and 20, we see something along those lines, the 20th verse.
Second chapter of Galatians I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
And you find in the 7th of Romans, he's going through that conflict in connection with the eye. He says, He says I find a law and my members that when I want to do what's right, I do what's wrong. But then he comes to the point and he says it's no more I but sin that dwelleth in me. May I put it very practically here for those who are younger and for all of us posing. Somebody asks me to do something that's very wrong.
And I say, well, I don't want to do that because I'm a Christian. After the person has gone away, the devil says you did want to do it. Why did you tell him you didn't want to do it? I have a right to say it's no more I. There is a tenant in my body that I don't call I any longer. It's sin which dwelleth in me. It's not it's no more I. But what about I? I identify myself in faith with the new man that God has given me.
Did my Newman did the life of Christ in me want to do that thing? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. It's very blessed when we lay hold of this, because I don't know whether others have had a conflict. I had a real conflict with the 7th of Romans, and proudly there are many others that do, because they confuse us like he did, he said. I delight in the law of God after the Sinner in with them.
But I find another law and my members that I want to do what's wrong? No, it's no more I it's sin that dwelleth in me. The very thing that we have been saying. God has put an end to it in the death of Christ. And in a practical sense, we're to reckon ourselves dead indeed on the sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I just mentioned this because I believe that the subject or theme of what we have before us in this chapter.
Someone has said, and we're entitled to let the Newman answer the door, right? So when someone comes with a suggestion, we can let the Newman answer and say no, I don't want to do that, even though the flesh would say sure you do.
Well, we have in Romans 7 a different conflict than what we have in Galatians.
And that is in Romans 7 we have the conflict of the new mind, the law of my mind, which is the new nature against the law of sin and is defeat. But in Galatians we have the conflict of the Spirit and the flesh, and they are The simple answer is walk in the Spirit and he will not commit the deeds of the flesh. The new nature gives us desires after God, but it doesn't give us any power.
And the problem of the man in Romans 7, he looks to himself to overcome that which manifests itself because he still has the old nature within him and that's why he is defeated, you know. But the power of the Spirit of God that indwells every believer is that which helps us to get the victory, walk in the Spirit, follow the desires of the divine nature, but empowered by the Spirit.
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Of God. Now for the young people, maybe that we can try to make this simple. You know, you probably have found out if you belong to the Lord Jesus that you still have bad thoughts springing up. Evil desires spring up. That only proves what the scripture says about you is true. That you still have a nature that is as bad as it always was, but you do not have to follow.
The desire of that nature.
You say by faith I have died to sin. You know it's not a question of dying to it, having died to it in the death of Christ, I so reckon myself dead unto sin. Hilarious. A story that has illustrated this of a brother in Brazil before he was saved. He was an astrologer, you know, and he was really well known and a lot of people came to him. He was very clever man.
But.
He got saved. And then he read the Bible quite extensively, you know, read in it for hours and hours and made progress very quickly. And then he started giving out gospel tracts, and it didn't take long. And he knew that their long hair that was down past the shoulder didn't fit for Christians. So he had that hair cut off. But then not long after he was saved, somebody came and wanted to get his.
Astrologers skill to play and to give him answers.
You know what he said? That astrologer died.
That astrologer died. That I think will help you understand when there's anything springing up in us that is part of that old nature or part of our old life, can say I have died to that, why should I any longer live in it? You know I'm no longer.
In the sight of God identified with that life, you know by faith I can disassociate myself.
From that former eye, you know, and I'm connected now with this Newman and I look at myself the way God looks at me. He looks at me as a new creature in Christ. And this is how we have to learn to look at ourselves. And that old nature is as bad as it ever was and it will not be better. And this young person that was saved and baptized.
Not long after he was baptized.
He came to the man that baptized him and he said he I'm a Christian. I accepted the Lord as my Savior. I was baptized.
How come I still have these evil thoughts?
And the man that baptized him, he said, if you want to get rid of those evil thoughts, we should have put you under the water for 10 minutes.
But it is making the point clear. Brethren and young people, as long as we're in this body, we will not be rid of the flesh, and that flesh will always manifest itself in wrong thoughts and desires. But you don't have to follow these desires. You have it given to you by the Lord what it takes.
To live a victorious Christian life for the Heinz, didn't the man in the 7th of Romans come to the end of himself in verse 24 When he said, oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He realized he couldn't deliver himself. And the following verse says I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And someone has likened it to the children of Israel on the Bank of the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army behind them and the wilderness around them.
And they were in a panic, O wretched man, that I am, who shall deliver me? And Moses said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And when they crossed the Red Sea, they looked back, and they saw their enemies dead on the seashore. That's what we have to do, get that viewed hopefully.
Perhaps we could just add one more thing. We need to realize that the old man came to an end, as you were saying, in the death of Christ, we are to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin. So the old nature still has the same desires. But the new nature, the new life we have received, is the very life of Christ.
Always has right desires, but now, as our brother was saying, we need power.
And the power is the Spirit of God, so we receive that new life at new birth.
00:30:00
But then the Spirit of God came in and stealed us and gave us the power because you say well.
All these things I lay hold of, but I don't seem to have the power. Yes, you do. You have the Spirit of God, and God does not give His Spirit by measure, because the Spirit of God is a person indwelling every believer. But what I wanted to say, the third thing is the new life needs direction, and that is the word of God. So how am I going to find out? I have the desire. When you have a friend and you want to please him, how are you going to find out what pleases him? Listen, and you'll hear him talking and saying things. You'll find out what pleases him.
Or her. And that's what happens. That's why God has given us His Word and the Spirit. And the Word cannot be separated, Mr. Darby said. The Spirit and the Word cannot be separated without falling into fanaticism on the one hand, or rationalism on the other. And that is people who say they have the Spirit but don't go by the Word, They get into fanaticism that those who have the Word without the Spirit fall into all kinds of bad doctrine. So we need those three things. We need the new life. We need the Holy Spirit of God.
But we need this blessed book He's got. He's given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Let's read it. We're going to find it at the revealed will of God. And the new life wants to do it. The Spirit is the power to do it.
That first word in verse 5 mortify put to death, is done by the power of the Spirit of God. You don't do that in our own strength. Therefore your members which are upon the earth, your members, your hands, your feet, your eyes, your ears, and other members that we have are to be put to death. And then he mentions those things which those members do fornication.
Uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience? Those things that are mentioned aren't the members, but they're the things that the members do.
Perhaps elaborate?
Little bit on that because you have these large words in this fifth verse.
Somebody asked.
Or at least mentioned before the meeting that.
The night that somebody could walk through the birds.
And help us to understand.
Go ahead well.
I.
Like to hear it?
Whatever the Darby translation would help, I have it copied in my Bible for inordinate affection. He has vile passions.
And for evil concupiscence, lust.
And we tend to think of lust as corrupt things, but lust as desire for something.
That's a little health maybe inordinate is in the wrong direction. So there may be affections and we see the world is full of that as it's affection, But it's inordinate, it's lost its compass. And so morality is relative because God determines what's right in a relationship. Man refuses that. He says I have affections, but he doesn't acknowledge the fact. Man does not acknowledge the fact today that God is the one who has the right to determine what's right in a relationship.
I have a mother, and I have a wife, and a man may have a daughter and a neighbor and so on. They're all women. And yet the word of God determines what's right in each relationship. And that's morality. And where you have inordinate affection, it's affections, it's feelings towards another. But it's lost its moral compass because, as our brother was saying, it's no longer subject to the word of God. Now. Evil concupiscence is particularly characteristic of our day-to-day.
Because it's lost or unsatisfied affections, and so it's an unsatisfied appetite. And so when a person gets outside, a person knows something, they see something, they want something, but they don't know how to give expression to that in a proper way, in a natural, proper way. And so the world is full of that, a man craving affections and feelings and all kind of confusion. And the kids who go to school know this, that that man's all kind of confused us, even whether he's a man or what he is, because it's he's inordinate. And then it's just.
There's no control over it.
And so the word of God is such a wonderful pathway because we find in the word of God, in the pathway of faith, that we have a way to express all that that man should be, and we have a way to control it too. And so Paul, he wasn't married. He could control those affections for Christ. And so that's a wonderful thing in the connection with the pathway of faith. I'd like to say one other thing, because I think sometimes in connection with this mortify and the old man in the place of death. And yet we speak of the old man as.
00:35:28
And and we get confused by it. But I think this confusion comes from an idea that death means annihilation and it doesn't. It means separation from God. And so then in Adam man does not really believe today that man and Adam he was he was dead. He doesn't believe that the soul of Senate that shall die. He sees Adam busy about and he says, what do you mean I'm a dead Sinner. I'm going on to my sins. I'm paying my mortgage. I'm raising my kids. I'm going to church.
He doesn't realize that he's dead until he gets saved. It's separation from God. And so we're to real when we get saved and we have a new life. Then we realize that all that was connected with that the good desires and the bad desires is all finished and now it's Christ.
Death is spoken of in three ways in Scripture, but never the end of existence. So an unsaved man, one who has never received Christ, is spoken of as dead in trespasses and sins. That doesn't mean he's not moving about in the world he is, but spiritually he's dead. No movement toward God. Then there is physical death. The body without the spirit is dead, but that doesn't mean the man has no existence.
The 16th of Luke makes it very clear that he still exists. And then.
There is the second death. That is the separation of the whole man from God forever. So death is always used in the way of separation. Separation spiritually from God. He's spiritually dead. Physical death, Physical death. The body without the spirit is dead.
The second death is the separation of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit from God.
For all eternity. I say that because people say when you're dead, you're dead. Death isn't used that way in Scripture, it's it's used just in the sense of separation, whether it's spiritual or physical or eternal separation. The second death, separation of the whole man from God for all eternity. I think as well to see that because we reckon it did hear the old man, but it's not actually dead.
Putting it in that place, isn't it?
It's accounting it by faith, really, seeing it as an accomplished thing. What is the difference between the old man and the flesh of days and he?
I think they're the same.
Well, we talk about a nature, but something has to have a nature. We talk about the nature of water. Water has to have a nature. You can't have a nature without the thing. And so we talk about the old nature. It's the old man that has the old nature. It's it's not a question of semantics. I have a block of steel and it's a thing, and it has a nature, magnetic, it has a certain density and so on. We have an old man, and that old man's got a nature. And so the two are inextricably linked. But.
We shouldn't struggle over it. I don't think we should struggle over that. Because I think what you were saying in connection with death and separation is that we reckon we see that the cross really passed sentence on that man does not really believe. Some say, well, I'm a better man, There's good in all men and so on. I have 10 glasses of water full of poison here, one with one drop and one with 30. They're all poisonous and they all have good water in them. But when we come to the gospel, we realize that they're all.
The cross is past sentence on all of them, so stop drinking out of the glass. But I'd like to suggest that the scripture seems to imply that we have put off the old man with his deeds, but we haven't put off the old nature. We still have that. You know. There seems to be a difference. Isn't that right, Chuck? Yes, the old man is only found three times in scripture. It's found in Romans 6 and it says our old man.
Is crucified with him that the body of sin should be destroyed or annulled, and henceforth we should not serve sin so there that the old man, whatever that represents, is crucified with him. And then in Colossians here and in Ephesians, if you read it in the New Translation, you're having put off the old man with his fees, and you're having put on the Newman, the best definition I've read of the old man.
00:40:08
Is I like give it in a couple ways. It's all that we are in Adam and in the flesh.
And one of the best is if you take all the sins that have been committed from Adam onwards today and congregate all those sins in one man. That's the old man, and there's no good in that. Man is absolutely abhorrent to God, but he has been judicially dealt with at the cross, and he no longer has existence before God. As such, our old man is crucified with him.
And when we came to Christ, we put off the old man and we put on the Newman.
So we're no longer viewed in the old man as such. That's been dealt with and set aside, and we're viewed now as being in the Newman, which is Christ. The new man is Christ. Isn't is enough.
Romans 6 There I was wondering about the expression the body of sin, knowing that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.
Now the body of sin has been destroyed. And now, you know, I was thinking of the members in our verse. I was running it. That wouldn't be the members of the body of sin, the expression of sin carried out in our human bodies. That's right. So if I were talking about having receivable thoughts, that's produced by the old nature.
And if we somebody mentioned that, I'm sure we're familiar with the expression we can't keep the birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep them from making their nests there.
Unless we set aside and judge these thoughts that come from the old man, we might get involved with what's described in the fifth word. These things are in our thoughts. We'll get our affection and then they'll get our body. The kin will be expressed in our life through action. We didn't mention. We tend to shy away from it. It must be defined and mentioned. Many of the new translations instead of fornication, read immorality.
That's unsatisfactory because immorality means, in the modern way of looking at it, on college campuses, and that what is not according to the normal moral standard and the normal moral standard on many of our colleges is sinful. It is not up, it's not righteous. It's not holiness. It's it's sin, so to say immorality.
Doesn't really define what fornication is. Fornication is the union between the male and the female outside of the marriage bond.
And the only sphere where that is holy and approved of God is within the marriage relationship. Outside of that, that sexual union is called fornication and it is sin.
An uncleanness might not go as far as intercourse, but it is still uncleanness, petting and how far many times?
Boyfriends and girlfriends go in their relationship in the petting without going all the way and have sexual intercourse. There is such a thing as uncleanness that has to be so looked at.
By the Christian.
That includes the sin of handling one's body disrespectfully also. That's right, Yeah.
Be thou holy as I am holy. Get a better thought when we get to the higher plane. There is that not right? These are holy. If I am holy, we are in Christ. And Christ is an awesome just for some young people here and others. I refer to three First John 3, verse 9.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him.
He cannot sin because he is born of God. That is an absolute.
That life we received when we were saved cannot sin. Let's never forget that. Does that mean we don't sin? No, it doesn't mean that. But it means we don't have to fear. That's what it means, That life can only do one thing. It can only please God. That's what we've got. That's the life I have. Same life I'm going to live forever in glory. Now I don't say I don't see it because first chapter John said I'd make him a liar because I do say it, but I don't have to. I ought not to do it.
00:45:17
We have that light, and as long as you let that light by the Spirit of God be in control, you won't sin.
Doesn't mean you don't. You won't. But we don't have to. Now, getting along this other thought, I do use the expression the old man once in a while. And you know, I know what they're saying and I agree with that point. The old man's dead, but we reckoned him dead also. You know, there was a native in Africa who was a servant to a Dutch man who had a plantation. And that Dutch man let him come into his readings and he got saved. This native wasn't too good before he got saved of a good worker.
Not as a person. He was a Sinner. He got saved and a visitor was at this Dutch man's house and sat with the family. And it was discovered at that time that this saved native had taken some things. I guess they were edibles for his family. And this, this guest sat there while the master told him you don't have to do those things anymore.
You've got a life that can't stand and explain that, he says. Why do I still do those things?
He said. That's the old man in you yet?
And maybe he was wrong in saying that, but it went across to him. You know the flesh is still in you.
But you don't have to let the flesh cover. Well, there was about six months later your visitor was again back, and there was that servant who was a Christian. And jokingly he said to that servant.
How's the old? How's the old man? Oh, I'm an old man in his bones. So when he came, he said, How's grandfather in thy bones now? He says he don't get around much anymore.
That's rather simple, you know.
Recently, you're letting him get around.
Covetousness is wanting something that God hasn't given me.
And so it's at the end of this list. And so that's the world is. And you know, I just say this to the young people and to all of our hearts. We're living in a world that talks about the economy and reordering the economy and free enterprise being the solution to everything. But really at the at the foundation of it is covetousness. It's wanting something that I don't have that God hasn't given me, and it's idolatry. It's creating a picture of God, a wrong picture of God in my mind and really going after that.
And that's the list of this, and the world is full of that.
Apostle Paul said that the commandment that flew him, Thou shalt not cover that smooth fall that will slave slay any of us. You know, really covet, I think Engulfing engulfs all sin. If you take something that doesn't belong to you, you covered it. That's stealing, but it's coveted. If you commit adultery, you covered another man's wife. You'd be right down the list. And everything seems to come under that. That's lust. That's the thought.
Wanting something you shouldn't have, want to do something you shouldn't do is coveting even their children. Their children are guilty of that many times. And listen, children, isn't it true that sometimes you see somebody have a beautiful doll and you would like to have that doll at the bottom of it? Is covetousness the same with any toys? Or then when boys get to be teenagers, you know some friend comes driving up with a nice motorcycle or with a nice car and you haven't gotten it.
And you desire it, you see? So it is not just that we older ones have that problem.
That is a problem that is part of human nature, and it begins in our childhood, and it is something that we have to guard against for the rest of our lives. But we can be thankful for that which the Lord does give us. Be thankful is one of the statements in this chapter.
But we must not desire something that God in his wisdom has withheld from us.
It's inbred by sin, and the baby doesn't first learn Mama and Dada. The baby first learns no, and the second thing is mine. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I've had nine of them.
I wonder sometimes, if it isn't that when it speaks of covetousness here, which is idolatry? If it isn't the fact though of the human mind being occupied with that thing.
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All the time. And what the onus here are instead of being occupied with Christ?
The human mind is continually.
Thinking these things, it's almost like that's what the way it was at the end of the Lubians. The thoughts, the intents, their hearts. That was only evil continually, because that's what they were thinking about all the time. And it takes the place of God. Instead of the heart being occupied with God, it's occupied with things.
That at once, that's idolatry. The opposite is our verse 17 in our chapter. Whatsoever you do in Word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him. That will help you, you know, it'll help you. Someone called me the other day, this day before we came and wanted to know what it says. The New Testament against gambling, because the nephew had to write a paper and he was a believer and didn't know what to say.
About gambling, because where he's living is coming in fast and you know, this is the first I started with.
That's the verse I started with. I end up about 50 verses, but that's the one I started with and that's the one that ought to govern everything. If you can go into the casino to the glory of God, that's enough. That's enough whatsoever things you do. But there's many verses, by the way that would come into that, but.
In whatsoever state I am therewith to be content that helps me on gambling and so on. There's many verses, Is this the first one?
Maybe we could say another thing to the children with their dolls, Brother Heinz, a child, once asked Mr. Darby. He said, Mr. Darby, will my pony be in heaven? And Mr. Darby answered the child, If your pony will make heaven a happier place, the Lord will make sure it's there. And we need to satisfy our hearts with the Lord and have confidence, even as children, that the Lord desires us to be happy. And He's given us all things that contribute to life and godliness in him. And that's really what you're speaking about. I think Brother Ed, is we get our eyes on something else.
But the Lord does want us to be happy. He wants us to have a job. He wants us to have the clothes that we need to go about. And He wants us to have cars to go about on the toys, if that's what's needed for us to have. And we can with confidence, ask the Lord for these things. But we need to set our heart first, our affection first on things above, and a desire to please the Lord. And he's going to give us all of those things that we need to carry on in life and we're never going to be able to say at the end of life. Well, you didn't give me what it took to do what?
I needed to do and to get through life in a happy way.
Psalm 37, verse four. It says, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. I think that that's really giving our priorities straight there, isn't it, that you know when we put our.
Trust in the Lord and we occupy our hearts and minds with himself. Sometimes we find that those things that that we thought we needed, whether it be a house or a car or whatever, whatever Coli you know, I believe that you kind of lose their luster.
It's really putting the Lord first, isn't it? I'm not saying that he wouldn't give us those things, but we need to be careful that they don't become an object.
I just want to mention one verse, and that is at the end of First Corinthians chapter 12. It says that covet earnestly the best gifts and yet joy unto you a more excellent way. Someone might wonder why it says that, but you know it's the God delights to have us have a desire.
For the blessing and good of his people, and if we can be a help to them.
We need to develop that way that we can be a help to them. I think covetousness, mostly in the scriptural sense, is wanting something God has not been pleased to give, but perhaps I could illustrate it this way to make it very simple.
My wife might be sick and I we say that the children are all at home and I say, well, I'm afraid I can't ever provide as nice a meal as your mother provided, but I'll do the best and if I really want to see the children happy.
I'm going to probably develop the ability to give them what they need, but it's love for them and the desire for their good that makes me want it. But covetousness in the wrong sense is wanting it to satisfy itself. I just mentioned that because some might have a difficulty over that verse covet earnestly the best gifts, and I'm sure in many small assemblies. If we had that desire well, I wish I could help my brethren that when they come together.
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They get some spiritual food. It might lead us to more diligence to be able to.
Help to encourage them in the things of God. In that sense, it's commanded of God.
But in the sense of selfishness, it's wrong. And of course in the sense of sin. I just mentioned that.
You wonder, then, why the scripture would use a word like covet. But we put a lot of energy into covetousness, don't we? If there's something we covet, we think about it, we work on it. And maybe that's the reason the spirit of God used the word like that. Because we understand, we put, we focus on it. We it's our thought, waking, thought. It's all on that. So maybe he used that word to indicate how much we should desire.
What you just spoke of the man who betrayed the Lord Jesus. Period.
He was motivated by covetousness. I just want to read a verse or two in John 12. When Mary takes this pound of ointment of Spikenard and pours, it anoints the Lord's feet.
Then saith cutest is scary. Why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and given to the poor?
This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag and bear what was put therein. The Lord had entrusted the funds to Judas, and he was a covetous man. And he goes to the priests, and he says, What will ye give me? And I will deliver him up to you. So it was covetousness that led him to betray the Lord.
And the first sin in Christianity, Ananias and Sapphira, they lied about how much they sold the land for. They wanted to keep back part of it for themselves. What motivated that covetousness? And they lied to the Holy Spirit. Both of them were struck, struck dead. Weren't they, immediately because of their sin? Well, that should speak to us that the sin of covetousness is very serious.
Remember a story about an assembly where they knew something was wrong, they didn't know what it was and they looked to the Lord in prayer that he would reveal it. And 1 Lords day morning as the bag was being passed, it went by this very, very wealthy man and he missed the bag and a coin fell on the floor and it rolled on the floor and he was the one that was withholding.
What was due to the Lord because of covetousness.
And he was dealt with for that sin and the cloud lifted, and they had a piece again in that assembly. But here was a man that was guilty of covetousness. He was a miser and hoarding it all to himself. So it's a very serious sin.
The Lord was betrayed because of a man that was motivated by that the first sin in the Church.
Was motivated by covetousness a very serious thing. With the seriousness of that, come out in the fact that before going on in the eighth verse with more of these things to put away, verse six comes in there with for which sake things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.
Of course it adds in the which he also sometimes walks sometimes when you lived in them.
As unsaved people, they walk in those things, but it shows the seriousness of these, of these things that brings it before us, before even going on to name some other things that might be milder. But it's for these things sake, that the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. It shows God's thought of it, what he values evaluates it.
Now one other thought. We've been talking about not letting the flesh have its way in all this. We're talking about our life here. Now there is 3 salvations, you know, there's the salvation of the soul. We're looking forward to the salvation of the body, but there's a salvation of our life here.
And in Philippians.
Chapter 2 at the end of verse 12.
We have this thought workout your own salvation with fear and trembling. And I've used to worry about that. Without him we can do nothing. We can do nothing ourselves. How are we going to work out our own salvation, our life here for Christ? We all the next verse, of course.
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For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure, because that's the only way. Look to God, look to the Lord himself, and then you can work out your own salvation, because he'll give you the desire. But if you have your thoughts on yourself trying to do it, you won't be able to. Your state will take over. It's worse to be occupied with what you're doing than just to confess it, and that be restored in your heart to the Lord.
Let him look to him and that's the only solution.
I'd like to read that 12Th verse that you were referring to, Philippians 212, because I think that gives the the the answer to the problem. Wherefore, my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Paul was not going to be with them, to to go to and to help them in their various problems. So he says I'm going to be absent.
Now workout your own salvation with fear and trembling. They'll have to rely entirely on the Lord.
For the working of it out, and not just on the Apostle Paul. Because he wouldn't be there.
That's the thought of Dimas Dimas.
Forsook Paul Really. His teachings. Paul's the truth of Paul the Doctor Having loved this present world, now he doesn't just love the present evil world. He didn't go out to see him, but he left the place where God could work out his salvation. He lost his life. You don't hear a demons again. He lost his life for the Lord. He didn't lose his soul.
We'll see Demas in glory, and there's a very solemn thought here for all of us. And that's the thought. We can lose our life for Christ, and whatever happens after that is nothing for the judgment seat except fire. That's all something to be burned up.
Or you can go on with him and there will be gold and silver and precious stones. Something's lasting, and that's really what we're talking about. What Chuck said is such an encouragement that we do not need somebody like the Apostle Paul to assist us in the path of preserving our life. We have him who will work in us to will and to do. We have that today.
We don't have an Apostle Paul, but we still have the one who is going to workout.
To Will and to do his good pleasure. And that's a comfort, isn't it? You know, we certainly would be happy if Paul would be with us today and could be such a help to us. And we might even to some extent say we're thankful for the help that some of our brethren can give to us. But what this verse teaches is we don't need the help of others. We have the help of the Lord and that we can with him.
Do that which is pleasing to him.
Were saved by his life. He's living in the presence of God for us to help us.
Thinking of what we have here in First Peter chapter 3, our brother, we're there, mentioned this earlier. But I just want to back up in that chapter and I want to read verse 15. You know, in connection with the fact that we, you know where to reckon the old man is dead and another sight. But we can't live in a spiritual vacuum, brother. And we've got to have him there as that special treasure and that object for our hearts. And I was thinking of the 15th verse. I just want to read the first part of it there, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
He's there as that, as that special treasure for where our treasure is, that's where our heart is. If we're occupied with things down here making money, whatever it is, that's where our hearts going to be. If it's with Christ and Lord, that's where our heart is going to be very, you know, it's very important. Then back in Philippians, I just want to take the liberty to read this out of the JND because I think it's so very, very clear. Verse 13 of chapter 2 of Philippians.
If you can get yourself up this verse because it's so beautiful, for it is God who works in you, both the willing and the working, according to his good pleasure.
That's the bar here.
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And was created in the image and likeness of God. Image, I believe, brings the thought of representation and likeness rather of the moral side of things. And he was placed as the head of the creation, and so he failed. And so he lost that place. It doesn't mean that He's still not the head of creation, but He's in the head of creation as a in a fallen state.
Just as a beautiful vase might fall on the floor, he might pick up some portions of it that are still quite beautiful.
But it's broken, it's spoiled. And that's really what happened in the fall. There's still something of the original creation that we see and man is still in that position. But not until we have been born again and have a new life can we properly represent God. And that is that the life of Jesus might be manifested in US. And so it's renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And that's very important. There's likeness, is perhaps the moral side and.
Images being representatives of God. So it's a very Solomon blessed position that replaced him. But as Christians we ought to be those who recognize this and people see in us God's order carried out in a practical way because we have the life of Christ and we have the direction and the word of God and they look on. Here's the people that can walk through this world following directions from God manifesting.
The likeness and immoral sense of Christ.
That is, that the life of Jesus might be seen in US. And two, that the man is in the place that he recognizes where God has placed them, the responsible head of creation. Very serious and solemn thing, isn't it? But I think it's nice to think that they they lost that in the fall, but it's restored in new creation and it's going to be seen in all its blessedness when we're going to be in glory. The old man gone. The results of sin in our body gone.
And we often sing like Jesus in that place of light and love supreme. Well, it's a it's a thought for us to think of. I heard of someone said that a Christian man died in one place and apparently he had been a man that sought to live Christ like in his life. And an unsaved man made the comment A man in the city has died and he's like Jesus. He was. He manifested that life and that even the world.
Noticed it and recognized it.
#2
of the old nature.
The old man, I would think, is like the Lord Jesus saying to Simon Barjona, thou art Peter.
5 minutes later somebody comes up and says I'm looking for Simon, Barjoni says I'm Peter.
Well, you look like Simon, he says. Yeah, I.
Yeah, the new man come. He comes up and he says I'm looking for Simon Bargain and he says, well, I'm Peter.
He says, Well, you look like Simon Says Yeah, I feel like Simon.
But I'm Peter says, well, what do you mean? Peter said he said, I'm Peter.
It's the word of gong it relies on.
Sad to say, there came a time when the Lord said Simon, Simon to Peter you see behind me and he begins His first official with first epistle with Peter, and the second one was Simon. But what you've got is the old nature we've sought to illustrate it.
Like a motor and an automobile.
And when God gave me, took away the old man, he took away the channel of expression of an old nature.
It's like you take an automobile with the motor in it and the motor is running.
Just take it out of gear.
And the motor can run all at once. It's running, it runs and runs runs. It has no channel. It has no way for all that power to get out the movement.
And God took us out of gear, so to speak, from that old nature. You didn't take the nature away, but he took it out of gear.
And when it comes to responsibility side, he puts the gear shift in my hand.
01:10:05
But then again, it's God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure, as it were. The Spirit of God rides with me, sits beside me, and He's got His hand on mine.
For me, you know, to be concerned about putting it back in here again.
So looking at her negative sense.
That's the way God has taken it out of gear though. It runs in me. The motor runs and runs and runs in it. I can see it. It pops up in me. All this kind of thing. I can see these thoughts pass by, but I just don't need to put it in here now.
To disobey.
In this illustration, and I believe it's good for us to remember that.
For me to put it back in here, I've got to tell the Lord, get your hand off mine.
Because it is God who works in you, both the willing and doing. And to disobey, I've got to tell him, get your hand off me.
To disobey.
Now, if you want to go, there's another motor in the car. That's the power of the spirit of God to go in another direction. But we're talking about liberty. We're talking about freedom. We have it. It's out of gear. Let the motor run. Call it what it is. It's sin.
Put it back in gear again and.
Just remember, whenever you have a desire for something, we distinguish between desire and covetousness. If there's a desire that passes your heart for something wrong, just look up and say, Lord, you know I want that.
He'll answer. Yeah, I know you do.
We'll give you what you need to change your desire. Not change what you get, but change your desire. That we can't do. He has to do that.
It says.
Eve saw.
A kind saw David saw. Terrible things happened with his just little look with physical eyesight. And if we're not feeding now, those are written for Saints.
Who have the Holy Spirit following in US?
So if we're not feeling the dayspring from on high.
Falling in us, We're really in trouble, aren't we? Because we're going to go the same way, those three people.
Even with the Holy Spirit in the speaking, dishonor the Lord.
#270.