Open—S. Ludvicek, R. Thonney
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29 in the Bank of the book.
One OK.
I was.
Down.
I want to.
I have to get in my life once now.
#26.
Fixed on this ground we must remain, though heart may fail in flush decay.
This anchor shall our soul sustain, when earth and heaven shall pass away #26.
I usually don't feel afraid when I get up here, but I do right now. I have a sense in my soul that there's someone in this room that's in the midst of despair.
And I remember as a young person.
A teenager drifting from the Lord.
And I remember looking at those around me, especially my older brethren that I respected and looked up to.
And thinking, how in the world do they do it?
And to me, living the Christian life as I thought it should be lived, and as I saw it demonstrated around me. It seemed like a distant mountain range that I could see, but I had no clue how to get there.
When I read the Romans Chapter 7 and looked at the experience that's described there.
And the truth is the vast majority of Christians, true Christians.
In this country or anywhere in the world, the vast majority when they read that.
See, that's me.
00:10:02
Some have been taught even that that's a normal Christian experience.
That somehow we have to settle for what is described in Romans Chapter 7.
Turn with me to that.
Let's start at.
Verse 7.
What shall we say then is the law of sin? God forbid. May I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except the law said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion by commandment, brought in me all manner of concupiscences. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came soon revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me, and by it slew me.
Wherefore the law is holy in the commandment, holy and just and good Wasn't that which is good made death unto me? God forbid.
But sin that it might appear, sin working death in me by that which is good that sin by.
The commandment might become exceedingly sinful, for we know that the law is spiritual. But I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would that do I not.
But what I hate that do I If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good which I would do not I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that, I would not, It is no more either do it but sin that dwelleth in me. I fend in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh.
The law of sin.
How many people have felt?
For that which I do I allow not for what I would that do I not but that what I hate that do I?
How many have found, how many Christians have found that to be in their experience?
And even overwhelmed by the experience.
Finding things that they hate, having such power over them. I remember reading the scriptures.
And hearing the scriptures quoted like sin shall not have dominion over you.
That's what the word of God says, and I would say to myself, but it does.
What's wrong? Well, one of the things the devil likes to do with you, especially if you're a young believer, is to tell you, well, you must not be saved well.
If you weren't saved, you probably wouldn't be too concerned about this.
That's one of the things he would bring up. So what's the problem?
What is the problem?
Someone will say to you which is a good instruction. Keep your eyes on the Lord.
Yes, very important. Back when we read the story of Peter who walked on the water, when he took his eyes off the Lord, he began to sink. And there's a very real lesson in that for us in our Christian life, where our eyes are are set.
And I've said to people, I understand now that living the Christian life is very much like Peter walking on the water. You cannot do it of yourself. Nothing in Peter's experience, life, strength, willpower, had anything to do with the fact that he had his feet on top of water and was walking. It had everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our brother prayed that what takes place might draw our eyes back to him.
When Paul said he preached Christ and him crucified, the reason is.
Everything, every answer for everything is right there in what took place on the cross. We very readily know, and we talked about in the gospel, it's often talked about if you're saved, you know that the wonderful thing that took place on the cross was when the Lord Jesus shed his blood. He paid a price that paid for your sins, and you know you're forgiven having trusted in Christ as your Savior. You've got that far.
00:15:26
And you rejoice in that at times. But if you're in this condition, there are many times where you don't have joy because you see this kind of conflict and you're caught in it.
And you can't seem to get out. I remember being in such despair.
Saying I can't do this. Actually, that's kind of what the Lord wants you to get to.
Because it's true, you can't. But in my experience I can't do this. I see other people doing it seem to.
I don't know how to get from here to there.
And so in the discouragement of that kind of situation, the devil starts to draw you away.
And if I can't be joyful as a Christian, maybe I can have some fun and distraction.
And that's exactly what happens. So the the devil will draw you the way to seemingly innocuous things to have joy with or happiness with doing things and activities.
Because you come to the place where you feel like I cannot live the Christian life and I can't figure this out, and then you end up getting away from the Lord, which is not the answer.
But there are people who are in that condition.
And someone may come along and tell them, well, that's just the way it is. It's a struggle we all have to go through until we get home with the Lord. We're always gonna be like this. And they actually settle down in their sin. And I've had people say to me, well, this is my proclivity.
That you may have a different one and we're just all gonna sin anyway, so they just settle down in it.
And they go through the motions of going to church and maybe doing a few religious things. That's not what Christianity is. It's not. That's not what the Lord wants for any one of us. He wants us to be free. We often use the word deliverance.
And when the brethren wrote about these subjects in their writings, that's the word they often used as deliverance.
And it is deliverance being delivered from that kind of *******.
Turn with me to Galatians 220.
This has become and became years ago, one of my favorite versions.
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.
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.
I've had conversations with people where I've said, if you figure this verse out before the Lord, if you get with him and you're in that struggle, maybe nothing I'm saying to you really you get. But if you look at this verse and you study this verse and you trace out everything that's in this verse to the other portions of Scripture that relate to it, you will get free. The Lord will do it and help you to get there because he didn't intend it to be a secret only known by a few elite super Christians someplace.
That's not intended at all.
I don't know who first told the story, but I I enjoyed it and it was time during the time of Eric Smith in South America. Maybe Brother Bob could tell me who who told this story, but I remember it being repeated when I was a young child and it was on the subject of baptism. Someone in South America was taking a group of new Christians down to a place to be baptized and on the shore.
People were changing clothes and there were towels and this one brother went over to a stump and he pulled his wallet out of his pocket in the comb and whatever he had, and he pulled some tobacco out and he put it on the stump.
And the baptism went forth and several people were baptized, and when they came back on shore everybody was joiching having a nice time around this baptism.
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And this gentleman went over to this company, picked up his wallet and his comb and his ring, and he left the tobacco there and he walked away and someone ran over and said, Sir, you, you, you forgot this and picked it up and chased him down. He said, no, I didn't forget anything. He said that belongs to the old man that I was.
There's a secret in that.
Recognizing that when we get saved, when we're truly born again.
The act that the Spirit of God performs, that it is new birth, has nothing to do with anything that we can perform, but when we believe in trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, this work that the Spirit of God does in US.
We become Co crucified, Co dead, Co buried, Co raised with Christ. Scripture has these ideas and little bits and pieces here and there in some places directly.
That when we come to know Christ as Savior and we're placed in Christ, that what took place on the cross becomes the reality for us.
So when I heard things like.
Sin shall not have a dominion over you.
I remember one of the first light bulbs that came on was.
It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
So I knew about my sins being washed away, but that didn't wash away the sin nature. The thing that I inherited from my parents all the way back to Adam. That thing in me that does not please God, cannot please God, can never please God, doesn't know how to please. God can be religious. You can spackle it and paint it up and make it look to outward appearances like it's the right thing, but it's phony.
And it's a phony Christianity that comes out of that.
But when you see what really took place, God at the cross.
When he says you died with Christ, he's also saying I'm done.
With the old Sam.
I want Sam to be done with the old Sam. Don't pick it up.
That part of you and me that we inherited from Adam doesn't get to go to heaven.
It's going to be left behind, and every single Christian who's ever lived is going to be happy to leave behind that sin nature that we still have. It's still there.
Sin shall not have dominion over you. That's what that's talking about. And if that sin nature has dominion over you, something's wrong in your experience.
So how do I get free from that?
What will set me free? Well, it's the cross. It's what took place.
The finished work, everything that took place, if you go back and you read from Romans chapter 5, verse 12 Through the end of Romans 8 and you study that with all your heart and mind, you will get free.
But we don't know anything else but who we already are. So the moment you get saved, all you know is what you've done before. You know the person that you've been. You may begin to sense a relief from the sins that weighed you down. You may have a joy in your heart because now you know Christ is your Savior. You know the forgiveness. You begin to know this person. But very quickly, every Christian in this room can say the same thing.
That sin nature shows its ugly head.
And you wonder even if you're safe.
I don't think I've ever talked to anybody that has told me that they've had that experience when they first got saved, but then they understand from the word of God that no, no, if I trust in Christ, he says he forgave me, the blood's been applied, I'm forgiven, but there's something still wrong.
The light bulb that came on for me was one day when the Lord opened my eyes. It is no more I that do it.
But soon it dwelleth in me.
Do you know that God does not see you anymore like what you were? It's we who do that. It's the devil who does that. It's it may be even though they're Christians who pointed out.
The old you, the sin God sees me as in Christ.
I am in Christ. If you're born again, so are you.
00:25:01
We are supposed to think of ourselves in that way, not as the old person that you were.
But as the new creature in Christ Jesus, does it not say that we are new? That which is born again did not exist before that born again you?
That new nature is so closely entwined with the Person of Christ.
And the Spirit of God who dwells within.
There it is.
And then we have in Scripture, Paul in Galatians saying that we should walk in the Spirit.
When you see somebody who is walking in the spirit.
You know, you recognize it and no one always walks in the Spirit and that's on us because it's a walk of faith. So when you go back to Galatians 220 and you look at those words, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. Then there's there it is yet not I, but Christ who liveth in me and the life I now live in my flesh, in the body, not the fleshly nature, but in this body. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
And that's a wonderful thought. We sometimes connect it in the gospel, which is OK.
But the Lord Jesus wants us to understand that what he did on the cross wasn't just to take care of our sins. Our Father wants us to understand that what happened on the cross got rid of the old me.
Got rid of that nature that I have that I inherited from Adam. Put it to death.
A story that helped me understand a little bit about this is 1A brother who somebody had talked to him about this was in a Bible study and he's at home and he's struggling. Lord, what does this all mean? I, I believe there's something in this that I need to get my head around to grasp because I do feel this way. I'm stuck in Romans Chapter 7.
And in the morning he goes to bed at night, praying and asking the Lord to reveal to him, to show him what the truth is.
He wakes up in the morning to a terrible stench.
And what it was, he suddenly realized what it was. They had a horse that had died on the farm. They had taken it out behind the barn and they had buried it. And a few days had gone by and he knew right away that the dogs or some creators had dug it up. And sure enough, this beloved animal they loved and cherished, and it was a pet and it was a valuable animal in their farm, was ugly and decrepit, filled with maggots, since the stench was terrible.
So now they have to go back. He digs a deeper hole and he puts it in and buries it again.
Couple more days go by, same event takes place, wakes up in the morning, there's a terrible sting and he does it again.
And the Lord spoke to his heart, and he said.
That dead thing.
Leave it in the ground.
That dead thing You.
He was put in the grave. When the Lord Jesus was put in the grave, he was raised up unto a new life.
We've been raised up onto a new life. The old life has nothing to do with Christianity. It has everything to do with interfering with it. It has everything to do with what we left behind.
And he realized the thing that stinks in his life, this thing that stinks in my life.
Is with whatever digs that whole thing up in its spell and we have scripture tells us uses the word mortify.
Those things that have to do with the old, what does a mortician do? He has to do with putting things in the place of death, in a coffin, in the ground, and so forth.
So what happens? Well, I heard one brother say. He says when that old corpse throws an arm out of the coffin, I shove it back in and nail the lid pipe. There's a sense in which that is part of what true Christianity is, is that we have nothing to do with that, and we cannot take it up for a spacklet or change it or anything.
So I remember as those thoughts are going through my mind about it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
It changed how I began to perceive things.
I'm not that thing that the devil was telling me all the time. I am that.
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No, I'm not, Christ says. I'm in him and I'm not. That thing and that old thing that I was has been dead and buried with Christ.
Turn with me back to Romans.
Chapter 6.
It's verse 11. It's the idea of reckoning.
Says likewise, reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Remember the last time you saw somebody baptized in a river, a pond, or a horse tank or whatever it was?
Think of that person being buried as being a corpse that's being buried.
Down under the water they go, then they raise them up out of there. The water is streaming off.
There's a new life on the other side of that watery grave. There's a new life.
Peter says that baptism is a picture.
A figure.
Even says we're saved by baptism in this way, in the sense that it's a picture, a figure of it. What went down in the water and what came up or to be looked at is two different things.
So I learned that in my habits and my practice in my life to begin to say to myself.
And testify even to any demons or devil listening or whatever.
I reckon myself today, Lord Jesus.
To have died unto sin with you but all I've been raised up unto a new life.
In you and that life now that's the one I want to live. That's the one that I identify with that's the one that I am in Christ this new thing and when you quote Galatians 220 to yourself yet not I but Christ. That's the life that is true Christianity yet not I but Christ. Earlier in this conference we talked about our brothers were talking about how the will that submitted so the will of God and our will is.
In two, yet not I, but Christ.
Submitting to the will of another. The Lord Jesus did that with His Father.
But our will.
Yeah, not I, but Christ.
Yeah, not I, but Christ every day, alway, every hour, every moment, to think of that and to begin to adopt that kind of thinking that I am not that old thing, I am the new thing that Christ says I am, and I am in Christ, and Christ is in me. The Spirit of God dwells in me, and the power to live the Christian life has nothing to do with any power of will that I have or effort I can put forth any human strength I can muster. It has to do with faith.
Last part of Galatians 220.
And the life which I now live, I live by the faith.
It's that body of truth.
That we're talking about.
It's the preaching of the cross not just about sins, but the other part of the preaching in the cross that has to do with sin.
That God dealt with that too.
But he didn't forgive it. He put it away.
You and I can learn to put it away as well by faith through the exercise of Scripture.
That's briefly what I had on my heart and the sense that there was at least one in here that's in that condition and feeling the despair. You don't need to keep feeling the despair. Actually, your despair is part of God bringing it to the place where He can set you free.
Study Romans chapter 5, verse 12 to the end of chapter 8. Ask God to show you. It's the only way it happens. That's the only way we really get a hold of truth anyway. Even somebody can tell you something, you still need to receive it by the Spirit of God and take it in to that place where the witness of the Spirit of God is that this is the truth.
Become a Galatians 220 Christian is still by faith, yet not I, but Christ.
Very important thing our brother has spoken to us about and.
I have found it.
00:35:01
Something that verse Galatians 220 has been a real blessing to me as well. I'd like to point out the the few verses in Romans 6 that perhaps will compliment a little bit more what their brother has said. Because I have to say I went through some of the struggles as well. And I think those of us who have been brought up in Christian homes.
Tend to go through the struggle of Romans 6 after we perhaps have accepted the Lord as our Savior.
Because we don't distinguish, like you said, Brother Sam, between.
Sins and sin, the nature that is inside of us. But look at the first verses of chapter 6 just.
To take the context the end of chapter 5, notice it says verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin had reigned unto death, Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
So we're soon abounded. Grace did much more abound. Why, we might take that then? Why shouldn't we sin more than if grace abounds more? When sin abounds, why don't we continue to sin? And so we take up the first verses of chapter 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
He's using that as a launchpad for what's before us in these next verses. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Like our brother has mentioned, once we have accepted the Lord as our Savior, God sees us identified with the Lord Jesus. And that's what baptism does. It identifies this with the Lord Jesus.
In his death and in his resurrection. And so have you ever seen a dead man sinning? Here's a man lying dead on the floor. That man was a drunkard in his life. He did a lot of stuff that was bad. He was always fighting.
Let's offer him some alcohol now. Is there gonna be any response on the part of that man for that alcohol? Absolutely none. What happened?
He died. Let's go over and give him a catch. So you're gonna get mad?
No, there's not gonna be any response. Why he's dead now. That's what God says is our position. What do you do with dead people? Well, you take them out and bury them. And so he says in verse three, know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him.
By baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the Father.
Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Interesting. The life that we have from our parents is a life that ends in death. That's the way it is down here in this world. You might live 20 years, you might live 60 years, you might live 100 years, but there's always death at the end. But you know, the life we have in Christ begins with that.
We die with Christ.
Were buried and now we have a life that can never, ever die. It's an incorruptible life. It's called eternal life. That's the life that you and I possess in the Lord Jesus. And So what do you do with that old you bury it.
And like our brother was saying, that old horse every time came out to the air. It stunk.
Once you bury something, you leave it buried. You don't go out there once in a while and uncover the dead corpse that was there and see how it's getting along. You leave it right there buried. Because if you try to see how it's doing, it's going to get worse every single time. And so it is when you start being occupied with what you are as a man in the flesh, let me tell you.
00:40:14
This flash never gets any better. I used to think when I was a young brother and the meetings look around at the older brother sitting up in the front. Oh boy, it must be nice to get up to that point and have the flesh all taken care of.
Let me tell you, the flesh doesn't get any better. It's probably worse an older brother than it is and younger brother. And if we can say it, it's all bad. But it's probably worse. It doesn't get any better. No, we are.
To end baptism, we express it to recognize that we are dead with Christ, We are buried with him.
And we are risen again with him and that wonderful to think and I just like to encourage our young people to.
Concentrate on that life that we have now in the Lord Jesus, that life that begins with death and will never, ever die.
You know the challenge that comes to me and I'd like to go over to.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 to read a couple of verses that have really challenged my life.
As a believer in the Lord Jesus, notice.
It's speaking here.
In verse 10.
Just want you to notice it speaks of death and it speaks of life, but you'll notice that life comes after death, not before. Notice it in both verses, always bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. There's the dying that the life. See life comes after death. Also, Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, so that life comes after death.
And brethren, in a practical way, if we do not know what it means to bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, neither will we experience practically in our lives the wonderful reality of that life that we have in the Lord Jesus. Wonderful, wonderful thing, you know.
In the United States of America, so much.
Is concentrating on having a good time?
I just want to say, young people, life is not about having a good time in this world. That's not what it's about.
Life is like we had in Galatians 220. It's about Christ living in us now. It's not the concentration on me, it's him. And it's such a tremendous secret. And I think we get distracted in our country when there's so much emphasis made, and it can happen even in Christian circles.
Doing lots of interest, interesting stuff and having a good time. I don't have any problem with playing games and having a good time, don't get me wrong. The point is, it's not me, it's the Lord Jesus that has to be the object. And if I'm concentrating on myself then I'm not really looking at myself as God looks at me.
As dead, buried and risen again, it's.
Christ in me now, and that's on the other side of death. And so verse 10, I would say is what we ought to practice.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus died to deliver me from this question of sin.
00:45:03
Tremendous to think about that awful, awful death he experienced. And it's so important for us to go back to the cross and the breaking of breath. That's what we do to think about it. How can we once we have seen what the Lord Jesus suffered on that cross?
And the terrible agonies of those three hours of darkness when those waves and billows of divine judgment rolled over Him and all their fury. How can I be content them to get up from remembering the Lord and go out and just try to have a good rip roaring time? It just doesn't fit into the picture. No, sorry, I'm not interested.
So we'll talk to somebody else. That's not where I am. Oh, brother, And may the Lord help us.
To know what it means to always there about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies. And I would say that's proper normal Christian living.
But you know, we get distracted.
I have to say that for myself and I forget these things. And so we have verse 11.
You notice it's a little bit different. There's a lot similar between verses 10 and 11. But verse 11 I really believe is something that is outside of our control. It says we which live is our normal life to hear.
Are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in. And here it puts not our bodies that are mortal flesh. In other words, there are circumstances in life that we are given to.
Somebody gets cancer. Did he go looking for cancer? No. You know he didn't. He was delivered to that. Somebody has a bad accident. Did he go looking for that accident to happen? No.
He was delivered to it. Why does God allow these negative things to happen in our lives?
You know why?
So that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. I think it's such a beautiful thing to witness some of our dear brethren here in the States, in Canada.
That have gone through the experience of losing a loved one with cancer.
I must say I have been severely challenged in my own soul to see how.
The triumph with which they met it.
It's been a challenge to me, brother.
I don't think we realize how much our good old American life has robbed us of our real life in Christ. It's a life that is not with me as the center of attention. No, that's all gone now. That was dead and buried.
No, my life is completely on the other side.
I'm crucified with Christ. Is it nice to be crucified? Do you find that really nice and comfortable? I don't think anybody would.
Nevertheless, I live. What are you talking about? Crucified and living.
Yet not I.
But Christ liveth in me. Isn't that amazingly wonderful? It is a whole different focus.
Brethren, as we're living in a culture that is increasingly centered on man and his world, let's be challenged not to give away to those kind of thinking patterns that is not Christianity.
Christianity is.
To be crucified with Christ and that can be excruciating. To deny that old sin nature. You know what that old sin nature says? Come on, don't be so strict. Give way. A little bit of attention to the flesh is not going to hurt anybody. Come on, give away.
00:50:10
No, sorry, can't do it.
Can I nail yourself from the cross where you're crucified to have a good time for a while and then get back up there again? That's not the way it is.
But there's life there, and that life is.
Christ in US and to me. It is extremely beautiful to see it. You know a lot of our brethren.
In Arab countries, Muslim countries are undergoing severe persecution. I really believe that our brother and over there know what Christian living is a lot better than we Americans do.
We think we have our rights to our place, our.
Pleasures and everything that we want to have nice comfort.
God never meant this world to be a comfort zone.
You never met it.
Because He's preparing us for what's beyond. He's preparing us for the Father's house. He's preparing us for that coming Kingdom. May the Lord help us, brethren, to realize that our life, our real life, is beyond the tomb. It is beyond death, and it is Christ in US who lives. The Lord help us, brethren, I just.
Feel that we so often are robbed of our real life because the concentration on myself, me, myself and I Lord deliver us. That's a good word. Deliverance is what we need from that kind of thinking. Lord help us spread.