Address—Nick Simon
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If we could begin this afternoon by singing number six.
Jesus, how much thy name unfolds to every opened ear the pardon sinner's memory holds. And on other half. So dear Jesus, the one who knew no sin made sin to make us just. Thou gave thyself. I'll love to win, thou fool confiding trust. If someone could stop that, please.
We just pray.
Our God and Father, we do look to Thee as we open up Thy word. Just cry to Thee for Thy help. We pray that it would speak to each one of us in the room. We thank Thee that Thou did send Thy Son into this world, the just One who was made sin for us.
That we might, we may, just in Him, we just thank Thee and praise Thee for this opportunity. We just pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, Lord willing, this afternoon I would like to begin with a word of exhortation.
And then I'd like to speak on some doctrine. And then I would like to end, Lord willing.
With some comments as to the practical application of that doctrine in our lives. If we don't get that far, it won't matter.
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But I'd like to begin in First Kings and the 21St chapter.
Just beginning at first verse one, and it came to pass after these things that neighbor off the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel.
Hard by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And Ahab spoken to Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs.
Because it is near unto my house, and I'll give thee for it a better vineyard than it, Or if it seemed good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money.
A neighbor said Ahab. The Lord forbid at me that I should give the inheritance of my father's.
Unto thee in Israel land wasn't bought and sold like we buy and sell land. In fact, selling a piece of land was far more like a lease and land was not to move from one tribe to another. If you look at the end of Numbers, the last chapter and read it, the story of the daughters of Zelophehad.
It was a family that had only daughters and if they married.
Someone from another tribe in the inheritance, their inheritance would move from one tribe to another and so it was determined.
By word of Jehovah that they were to marry, but only from their own tribe.
And so in Israel, land which was really Jehovah's land, they were the caretakers of it was carefully preserved. No tribe could grow larger the land that was allotted to them.
Their land couldn't move to another tribe, so the land for each tribe was preserved. There are also laws about moving landmarks. You couldn't take your like on my property. You stand in front of my property on the front right hand side. It's just a city block, half acre. There's a post in the ground, a survey mark.
Theoretically, I could take that, move it over to my neighbor's yard and gain 1/2 a foot.
You weren't allowed to move landmarks either.
Land was valued. Naboth had a vineyard, and I pictured it as a vineyard with nice walls around it. It doesn't say explicitly, but I believe from the word of God we can conclude that it almost certainly had a nice wall around it. But it was hard up against the palace of Ahab, and Ahab coveted that piece of land.
And he went to Naboth and he said, I would like your vineyard.
And he said, I'll give you something better. You pick whatever vineyard in Israel you like, and that is yours. And if that doesn't work out for you, I'll pay for it to you in money. Ahab was being very fair. You know, there's laws in this country that says the government can't just seize your land without giving you a fair compensation of whether or not they do is besides the point. But Ahab was being fair about it.
Why then didn't they both say no No?
Is because he valued the inheritance that he had received.
And you and I have received an inheritance. We have a heritage. And there are those saying to you, there is a better place over here come. The music is more entertaining, the people are more friendly.
There are many reasons why.
You should give up your heritage.
Name us valued the inheritance he received from his fathers.
And based on the word of God, he would not relinquish it and give it up. It cost him his life.
Do you and I value the heritage that we have received?
To that degree.
Are you ready to accept a better offer elsewhere because it's more attractive to you?
Am I?
You know, it just struck me recently that there are many precious truths that you and I have been taught that we just simply take for granted.
And it is my intent to take up one of those truths.
And spend a little time on it. I trust I can do it justice. That's kind of a pun because I didn't intend it to be.
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They just. You'll see why in a minute, but.
And and maybe some of you listening to the doctrine, we go, Oh well here we go again and your eyes will glaze over or whatever its doctrine.
I trust that won't be the case. I will admit I spoke on in Denver on this a week ago in a gospel meeting. It was an all day fellowship team. We have a.
Half an hour gospel meeting. Normally it's 45 minutes.
And I was pleasantly surprised that after the meeting a sister came up to me and I usually have notes to keep my mind in order.
I wish I didn't have to have that crutch.
But she asked me for the notes and I shrugged and said if you wish.
With every doctrine, there's an associated walk, and another thing that has occurred to me recently is these precious truths that we have.
That when you give up one, it affects the next, which affects the next, which affects the next, and so on.
So I would like to take some time.
And look at the subject of justification.
In fact, there isn't, I don't think there's hardly anything that I am going to say or reversing an attorney that hasn't actually already been covered in these meetings.
A lot of times we hear justification defined as well, at least the outcome of justification defined as just as if I had never sinned.
You know that falls woefully short of what justification is.
You see, the point is we have sinned, and worse than that, I'm not only a Sinner by practice, but also a Sinner by nature.
Justification stands in contrast to condemnation.
And we can read in Romans 8IN verse one.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
You know, I said we take these truths for granted. If you've ever had an opportunity to speak to another believer and you suddenly discovered that while you're certain that they're saved, the conversation is not exactly going the way that you thought it would.
They're seeing things from a very different viewpoint than what you are.
And justification, which is one of the most fundamental truths that we have, is probably by a majority in Christendom, misunderstood.
Misunderstood.
And yet you and I take it for granted, and as I said, I would like, I trust with the Lord's help, and I I admit I take the subject up in great weakness.
But with the Lord's help, that we look at some of the practical implications.
From understanding, justification, Justification according to the Word of God.
So how can God say to me who is a Sinner?
And not only by practice, but also by nature. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
You know, forgiveness addresses itself to the penalty of sin.
Justification addresses itself to the guilt. So what's the difference? So I could be a thief. All right, I stole something. And then I go and stand before a judge and he says, well, this is the first time you've ever stolen anything. You're a pardon. And I walk out that door. I walk out that door as a pardoned thief.
No one would say there goes a righteous man.
But as justified, God sees me as righteous.
In the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are two sides to justification.
The negative side, I am cleared of every charge that has been brought against me. On the positive side, God used me in an entirely new position in Christ.
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Just as if I had never sinned. Takes me back to the God of Eden, Innocency. But we are not innocent. Adam and Eve do not know good and evil. We cannot say that we cannot go back to there. In fact, we would not want.
To go back there, you say, why would you say that? Well.
You know, as we get older.
And your little children, as you get older, your little children that understand what I'm saying, you get more privileges. You can stay up later at night, but with privilege becomes responsibility.
A marriage relationship has privileges that go with it, and as a young man.
You look forward to the marriage, relationship and meeting the woman of your dreams.
But once you're in that relationship, you suddenly discover that there's a responsibility associated with it. But would we want to go back to be the babe in our mother's arms again?
No, we wouldn't.
And so we don't really want to go back to Adam and Eve innocency and we cannot, we cannot. Ours is a far, far more blessed portion the privileges that we enjoy.
How far beyond those that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden.
The position that we have.
Well, let's let's talk a little bit.
Trying to collect my thoughts here to see where.
So we've briefly defined what justification in and that we said that it stood in opposite to condemnation. But let's look at that word justification for just a little bit.
Clarify a little more. The words just justice, justification clearly all relate to each other. The word right and righteous righteousness all clearly relate to each other. But what's lost on us in English is the fact that the two are very closely related and in the original language of the New Testament, Greek, the close relationship between righteousness.
And justification is very evident.
Quite Simply put, justification means to declare righteous to declare righteous. So let's look at some verses beginning in Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3 verse 24 says being justified freely by.
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So justification is by grace, we cannot earn it. There's nothing we can do to earn justification. And then we turn down to verse 26 just says.
At the end of that verse that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, and then verse 28 goes along with it. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith.
Without the deeds of the law. But we're justified by faith, and we come into the good of it by faith. We are justified by grace. We cannot merit it.
It's a sovereign act of God on his part.
And we can add right now that He is just in doing so because of that work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and we come personally into the good of it through faith.
It said as we just read of him which believeth in Jesus.
So it's by grace received through faith. Then let's look at Romans chapter 5 and verse 9.
Much more than being now justified by his blood.
So the shed blood is the ground of it, it is by grace received through faith, and the blood is the ground of it. And then if we go back to the end of chapter 4 of Romans, it says who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. The resurrection is the assurance of it.
We're justified by grace received through faith. The blood is the ground of it, and the resurrection is the abiding proof of God's satisfaction in that work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That is the doctrine of justification.
I just read those verses from Scripture. They're clear, and I trust that they're clear to you. So then where does the confusion concerning justification lie?
Most of Christendom, I shouldn't say most because I really don't know the percentage, but certainly Reformed theology and anything that derives from it will teach you.
That Christ's death on the cross hardened me for sins that are past.
And it's the righteous life of Christ that has been.
Imputed to me that God can therefore justify me.
I don't really like to wander off into discussing doctrine which is false.
And perhaps some of you at this point are going This is too deep for me.
But bear with me. Please bear with me, because seriously.
What you and I?
We if you've grown up in the assembly, you've grown up in relative isolation, and I don't think you and I really value these simple truths that we have.
And you speak to someone, In fact, a younger brother was talking to me about where he works and.
Conversations he's had with other Christians there, and he immediately discovered that there's this.
You're not on the same page and justification the very thing that concerns our salvation.
Immediately there's a divergent in understanding.
You might say, ask the question, if these things are so evident from the word of God.
Why doesn't everyone believe them?
Why don't they believe what we believe?
You know, I think it's very important at this point to say that it's not a question of what we believe.
It's not our truth, and I am thankful that there are those in Christendom that are probably clear on justification.
These are not our truths. I read a book recently by about 2/3 of the way through it. Very interesting book.
It's written by a preacher in England.
Of a sizable church, I think of Baptist persuasion.
And probably half of the book is a defense of Mr. Dhabi.
And in particular, a defense.
Of his eschatology, in other words.
What he taught concerning the end times.
Now I object to the fact that it's called Mr. Darby's eschatology. It's not, it's not. It's the Word of God. And you know, much of not much a certain segment of evangelical Christianity took up with so-called Mr. Darby's eschatology concerning Israel and the church.
But they rejected his ecclesiology. That is to say, they rejected what he taught concerning the assembly. But that's another subject. But Christianity is not a smorgasbord of items where you get to pick Mr. Darby's eschatology and and this brothers that and someone else's that.
No, it's from. It's the word of God. And if it's not the word of God.
And we really don't want it. And we need to be careful about saying our truth or my truth or.
It's the Word of God. So back to my question. If these things are in the Word of God and they're so clear as those verses that I read concerning justification, why doesn't everyone believe them?
You have to go back to the Reformation and I liken it to a painting, a beautiful work of art.
And over the years, it gets covered in grime.
And dirt and the colors become faded and all become Browns and muted.
That's what centuries of theology have done to Christianity.
And a lot of times the material that's on the painting was added there deliberately to preserve the painting. Many of the paintings they're restoring today, they're removing material that was deliberately added to preserve that painting. But it's had exactly the opposite effect, much of what man has added to Christianity.
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I should say everything that man has added to Christianity has detracted from it.
And so if you've grown up in the Reformed Church and you've heard something over and over and over again.
The things of which we are speaking will seem foreign to you.
Now one thing I wanted to point out that.
You might ask the question.
Why do people interpret the scriptures differently? We are not called upon to interpret the scriptures. We are called upon to understand the scriptures. It's when we impose our interpretation on the scriptures that we run into danger.
Before I talk a little bit about.
The era.
Of and I want to be careful because.
It's not a question of being judgmental of others, but we can judge the things that we hear from the word of God.
And we need to judge the things we hear from the Word of God. And so I want to take up what I said about justification as much as Christendom understands it, and compare it with the Word of God to see whether it stands up.
But before we do that, we actually have to talk a little bit about salvation.
If we don't understand what salvation is.
Then again, all these things fall apart is salvation.
God.
Filling up those bits in us where we're deficient.
Is it?
Is salvation merely God fixing man? Let's look at John chapter 3.
In verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, verily, I send you, except a man be born again.
He cannot see the Kingdom of God.
And then in verse six, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. There is no reforming of the flesh. There is no reforming of what we are by nature. We have to be born anew.
And that word in you is literally from above.
But it has the sense of a new Oregon from the first. We talk about the top of the hour.
I think I'll use an expression correctly. It's a particularly American one.
But.
We have to be born and you, with a completely new source from above. That which is flesh is flesh.
In Romans 8.
Romans 8 and verse.
I know it's staring at me somewhere here.
It talks about not being able to please gods.
It's knowing that Christ being raised. Oh that would help if I was in the right chapter.
I could have sworn it was verse 8, but it wasn't.
OK, thank you. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You know, again, these scriptures that we've been reading, John three, what we have here, they seem so straightforward and they are straightforward. That's the point. They are straightforward. The centuries of theology have twisted these things. We're being born anew doesn't mean what you and I understand being born and you is.
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Or being born again, or being born above. But the flesh is flesh. You cannot get away from that.
We're not reformed. Reforming us does no good. The flesh is flesh.
In Two Corinthians chapter 5, this verse has been read at least twice. This meeting I think Second Corinthians chapter 5.
Verse 17, I'll read it from the new translation. So if anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Colossians, chapter 3.
Colossians chapter 3 and verse 3YE are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. That which we are by nature is seen by God as being dead and we are seen as now having a new life in Christ. It's not a reforming of that which we were that has to be completely set aside. We are seen as dead in Christ. Galatians 2.
Galatians 220 I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I.
But Christ liveth in me.
Again, I want you to understand that these are precious truths.
That are not widely understood.
Or at least not as widely understood as we would hope.
These are truths that you and I take for granted.
It's important to be clear on them, even if you cannot articulate them, and I'm not saying that I'm doing a very good job here.
I'm not saying you need to articulate them, but you need to understand some basic things. The flesh, what we are by nature, cannot be reformed. It's done with. It's seen as dead in Christ.
That we have a dead.
Crucified with Christ and we now have a new life in Christ, a new life which comes from a new source from above.
So with that, let's just examine three points.
Concerning what?
A large segment of Christianity understands.
By justification.
Again, let me just repeat what they believe. They believe that Christ died for the sins that have passed.
His righteous life has been imputed or put to our account.
And we can now stand. God can now justify us. He is righteous because we have been.
Clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Now what is?
Particularly sad is in Roman Catholicism. They have long believed that the merits of Christ and the merits of the Saints could be purchased.
You can pay literal dollars and cents.
And you can buy.
The merits of Christ, the merits of the Saints, to shorten your time.
Of suffering in purgatory.
Now Martin Luther, that was one of the that was the primary thing that he objected to when he nailed his 99 thesis to the church door. Was this so-called sale of indulgences?
And they may have said that.
We cannot buy the merits of Christ, but nevertheless they still believe that His merits have been put to my account.
Maybe by grace, but since when has righteousness been a commodity that we can buy and sell or trade?
What is equally?
More concerning.
Is that even if I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ?
It doesn't address what I am by nature. Even if I could be, it doesn't address what I am by nature.
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And every religion of man.
Seeks to dress him up.
To make him acceptable to God, Islam.
That's what it seeks to do, but none of them get to the core of the problem, that which I am by nature.
Now it came out in the meetings already someone.
From a Reformed background, perhaps might say to you, Does the obedience of Christ mean nothing to you? Oh, it means everything to me.
But as a basis for justification, I can say yes, but only in connection with what we find in Philippians 2.
Where it says in verse 8, and this verse has already been read. I said that every verse that I'm going to give you this afternoon has already been read in these meetings. It says in verse eight of Philippians 2. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
Christ's obedience, His perfection in his walk.
Did not make him who he was, it manifested who he was. So if we we had that with the Lamb, the Lamb was kept for four days and a brother suggested this interpretation that it was in a time when that Lamb could be viewed to see whether it had any blemish in it.
The Lord walked this earth.
And.
There was time for man to view him and.
All that ever showed up was his perfection.
His perfection. All that was ever manifest was His perfection. Is that of interest to me? Yes, it's of interest to me. But if He never went to the cross, I am as lost today as I ever have been.
In first Peter.
Chapter 3.
First Peter, chapter 3.
And verse 18.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Unless the corn of wheat fall in the ground and diet abideth alone, it's only in the cross that we're brought.
To God only in the cross that we brought to God.
The doctrine of imputed righteousness is called goes a little further than what I've already described. Generally it is explained that it's Christ's obedience to the law that is transferred to us and therefore God can justify us. Let's look at a verse. We can easily dismiss that from the word of God, not because.
We don't believe it, but because the word of God says it. Galatians 2 and verse 21 Says I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
And you might point out to me and say, but Nick, that's Speaking of my obedience to the law. We're talking about Christ's obedience to the law. And you'll say, and I will say in reply to that, no, that's not what this verse says. It says if righteousness come by the law, the principle of law, then Christ is dead in vain.
And we can go back in this chapter to verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. What could be more plain than that?
We cannot be justified by the works of the law. Whether it is Christ that keeps them or I that keeps them, We're not justified.
By the principle of law.
But by the faith of Jesus Christ now that expression will cause some.
Confusion. What does it mean by the faith of Jesus Christ? Many modern translations translate that as faith in Jesus Christ, and that really is the sense of it.
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If you want to get technical, it is something called the Objective Genitive and you can go to Wikipedia and look it up and it explains it.
But.
It's when the noun receives the action. It is faith that has Jesus Christ as its object. And if there is any confusion, it goes on to say even we who have believed in Jesus Christ. Many modern translations incidentally translated by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, which just confuses the issue. It's not a question of His faithfulness.
In this sense.
But our faith in that work, that's what justifies not by law. You see, the fundamental problem that people make is they see the law as being the full measure of God's glory.
The law was not the full measure of the glory of God. I will never be able to stand before a holy and righteous God in His Majesty on the ground of the law.
The law was given to a people chosen by God, separated to Himself, and the law was given to them in a relationship suited to that earthly people where God was very much behind a veil.
If the law is a full measure of the glory of God, then why does it permit divorce?
You see?
So many of these fundamental truths that you and I have received and justice take for granted and never really think too much about.
Our thoroughly confused and Christendom. I had an opportunity once of speaking to a bright young Christian.
Who came out of the Dutch? Who not came out? He was in the Dutch Reformed Church, and after about 20 minutes of talking, I realized that we were not talking the same language at all.
Everything Have you ever in art school? We were in The Art Room. The other.
Last night, praying I can remember when I was a child in Art Room at school. You know, it's fun to take all the colors and mix them together. What do you end up with?
Brown.
And you speak to someone that has been raised in this?
Background again, please understand young people, because I know you're very sensitive to being us, being judgmental. It's not my desire to judge individuals. This young man was a bright Christian.
And I will see him in glory, I have no doubt.
He had a desire to preach the gospel and to spread the gospel, and he went downtown and handed out gospel tracts. And he knew that salvation was through faith alone in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he did not understand justification.
So one more point.
Everything about the concept of imputed righteousness never addresses if I've already said of what I am.
By nature. And that's where I would like to move on to the practical side of things. You might say this has been way too technical and maybe your eyes are just already glazed over and you've tuned me out. And I don't blame you in one sense.
But the truth we hold effects our walk, it affects our lives. And I'll get to this in a minute, but many Christians in Christendom are living in the 7th chapter of Romans because they don't know they don't belong there.
They don't know, they don't belong there. That is not the normal Christian experience. It's an experience we have to pass through.
I grant you that, but it is not the normal Christian experience.
I just want to reemphasize again the only way that that old nature of mind can be addressed is if it is seen as completely done away with, unimproved, and that I now possess a new life in Christ.
And this, very much as I've already said, effects a walk our life.
Well, one thing.
One thing I just want to touch on.
As you might point to me to 2nd Corinthians 5 and the last verse of that chapter, the end of that verse is that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And you might say to me, well right there it says I made the righteousness of God in Christ.
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But it is not in connection with His life. It is not in connection with His obedience to the Law. It is when He was made sin for us who knew no sin. When was He made sin for us who knew no sin? When did He bear the wrath?
Of our righteous and holy God on the cross.
You might also say, well, we go back to Romans 4 and the word imputed appears there.
Let me get there.
And indeed, the word does. In fact, it's translated, reckoned, countered, imputed. It's all the same word.
And it occurs a number of times in Romans 4. There's only two places in Scripture where the Greek word meaning to put to the account of is used, and one of them is in Philemon. Paul wrote a letter to a man by the name of Philemon who had a slave called Anesthemus.
Had run away and he had probably stolen. And Paul says, you know, Philemon, if he's taken anything, just put that to my account.
The other use of the word to put to the account is in Romans 5.
Where it says in verse 13.
For until the Lord should just be until law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed or put to the account when there is no law.
So there's only two things ever put to the account of Indiana Scripture in the New Testament. One was concerned money or goods, and it was, as I've already explained, in connection with Paul and a runaway slave. The other is sin.
Righteousness is never spoken of as being put to my account. In that sense, the word that appears in Romans 4 and translated counted, reckoned, imputed is also translated thought.
God sees us as righteous because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's inseparable from Him. A woman may be independently wealthy.
But a poor woman?
And this.
Analogy is probably a very bad one in the world in which we Live Today.
If she marries a rich man.
He is considered wealthy, but her wealth.
Is intimately connected with that of her husband. It says here in Romans 4 verse three. But what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted or imputed unto him for righteousness. Do we not read of anything being transferred to him? It said he believed God and it was counted him for righteousness.
It wasn't Abraham's faith. Oh, there's a man with faith, so therefore he is righteous.
Because that would mean that there is some good in man. But it was the fact that Abraham laid hold of God and his word.
That God could account him righteous. But I wanted to move on to the practical side of this. What is the practical side of this? Well, in Romans 6 we begin to get the practical side of it.
If we understand that what we are by nature is seen as crucified with Christ.
And that we now have a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. A life.
The same life that he possesses.
And that outstanding before God is in fact.
In the same place that he stands before God.
We find here in Romans 6 and verse three, know ye not there's so many of us were baptized unto Jesus Christ, were baptized unto his death.
In baptism we are identified with Christ in his death. Baptism is burial, simple and straightforward. Baptism is buried. What do we bury? Do we bury the new life that we have? No, we buried that which we are by nature.
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We don't bury living people, we bury dead people.
Now, it is true that we don't leave the person underwater.
And it's also true that when we go to a funeral of the Saint of God, it is anticipating its anticipation of the resurrection. Nevertheless, what we have buried is a dead person. So in baptism we have identified with the death of Christ. Therefore, in verse four, therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead.
On the glory of the Father. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. This thought of being baptized, I mean being crucified with Christ and raised with him is one that we find elsewhere in Scripture. So the end of Ephesians, we won't go into it. We find there I will turn to don't, don't bother, but you'll find the same.
Thought that in the end beginning of end of the first chapter of Ephesians.
Paul prays that we might know the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, when He wrought, which he wrought in Christ, when He raised him from.
The dead. And when we get to the next chapter, we find that we were dead.
In trespasses and sins, but we are seen as quickened to get in verse 5 together with Christ.
We are seen as dead and raised again in newness of life.
But I mentioned Romans 7.
You know when we're saved.
Or hear the truth.
Of salvation, and the Lord begins that work in our hearts.
There is a period of struggle.
And for many, that struggle goes on for many years.
Even after they are truly saved and should know better.
And it's because we try to wrestle with that which we are by nature, the characteristics of which are called the old man.
Scripture speaks of the old man.
And it speaks of.
The new.
In connection with the Newman.
We can turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 24 says and that ye put on the Newman which after God is created in righteousness.
And true holiness. Again, this whole idea of imputed righteousness, of Christ righteousness imputed to us, is a clear misunderstanding of the character of the new man. The new man is created in righteousness. And true holiness. Do we need? Does it need fixing?
No in first John third chapter.
It says concerning that new nature, verse nine of chapter three of first John, whosoever born of God doth not commit sins.
Or his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.
Back to what I was saying earlier, we probably have all gone through this struggle in our lives and maybe still do struggle with it, of dealing with that which we are by nature.
And one of our first attempts to subdue that old nature is to put it under law.
But what we have to learn is that new nature is so incorrigible.
There is nothing that can subdue it. There is nothing that can reform it. It is to be done with altogether, as seen as dead in Christ. And I see how time is slipping by. I don't know if these two clocks are In Sync.
But in Romans 7 it says.
Verse 14 will begin. For we know that the Lord is spiritual, but I am carnal.
Sold under sin. That which I do, I allow not.
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For what I would that I do not, but what I hate that I do, that is what we are by nature.
The law can never subdue it.
There's no point in wrestling with it. That will come to no good. It is not until we reach the end of our souls.
Realize that we have to be done with that old nature altogether, and to see it in the place of death.
Do we have deliverance? We don't have time to go through these portions.
But in verse 18 he says, For I know that in me this is the lesson. This is the lesson we each have to learn. We each have to come to practically in our lives. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
When you see things on the computer screen that you should not be seeing, there is an attraction.
And when that attraction occurs, we should not be surprised because the old nature is attracted to those things, but we no longer have to live under the power of that new nature.
Sorry, we no longer have to live under the power of that old nature. We no longer have to live under the power of sin.
We have a new nature now that is created in holiness and righteousness.
We have a life now in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That we can live with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know the natural desires that we have.
Our God-given. Our God-given.
If you and I did not have hunger.
We would die.
God has also given us.
Desires.
That he intended only to be fulfilled in the marriage relationship. Those desires are not sin.
They are not sin how we fulfill them.
Is where we can sin.
And those desires are very real, as hunger is very real.
So how do we deal with them?
A man asked me that recently, How do you deal with those desires? And you can say, I know that the the wrong response is coming from that old nature and I recognize that and I want to be done with that. But those desires are still there.
Well, our response to many of those desires are going to depend on what we feed upon.
Which of those natures of ours we're feeding?
In Rome and Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 says wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways?
By taking heed thereto. According to thy word, you know if you're hungry.
And you stand outside of the pastry store, staring at the pastries inside. What's going to happen? You're going to be drooling.
If you have desires which you know can lead you into sin, and you sit there staring at things that you know you should not be staring at, or stand before a door that you know you should not be standing before.
What are you going to do?
Proverbs, chapter one.
Verse 10 My son, if sin is enticed, thee consent thou not. If they say, come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us look privily for the innocent without cause, and so on. In verse 15, my son, walk not with them, in the way with them.
My Son is sinners. Entice the consent, thou not.
On the positive side, so we're to flee those things and we can look at Timothy. I just close with one verse, the end of Philippians.
Last chapter clippings verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely.
What sort of things of good report, if there be any virtue, there be any praise, think on these things. So I know I've covered a lot of material. I know too that what I've covered will be considered.
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Deep. I don't know what word you might use. I don't consider myself a deep person.
But I want you just to undertake away from this meeting the fact that there are very, very fundamental truths.
That you have been raised with, that you have accepted.
That much of Christendom does not know.
Value them. The thing what I took up was just one. Like a building. Like one stone in a building.
And these truths do have very fundamental effects in our life and our walk and the way we outlook on things.
I tried to bring that out a little bit too.
Encourage you to look into these things yourself, to realize what you've been given and to value it yourself. It's just closing prayer.