Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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The Lord's help tonight I'd like to look at some scriptures about the two natures in the believer. And let's begin with John chapter 3. John chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher, come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, He must be born again. The wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth? So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak, that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and you receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Well, as I said tonight, I would like to speak about the truth of the two natures and the believer. And here in the third chapter of John we have the Lord Jesus talking to a man, a master in Israel, and bringing before him the importance of new birth. Nicodemus thought that all it was necessary was good teaching, and so he said, Art thou?
We know that thou art a teacher. Come from God.
No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. But the Lord Jesus immediately, almost abruptly, says to him.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. And that is, it's very important for us to see that salvation is not the improvement of that fallen nature with which we were born. It's naturally as we have in Jeremiah. It says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
So that nature with which we are born is a Fulham nature.
It's one that is incapable of pleasing God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
It is so bad that it cannot be improved, and so the Lord is bringing before Nicodemus this master in Israel.
That it was necessary to be born again. You know, there's a wrong idea in the minds of many in the world today that new birth is really a sort of a change in their lives. But in the Scripture, it's an entirely new life that God gives to the one who believes. And that's why the Lord brings this soul so solemnly before Nicodemus.
And in the fifth verse he says, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
We know that in the Scripture, water is often used as a figure of the Word of God.
And so we find in Peter's epistle it says being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. James and his epistle says that we are.
Of His own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures, and we know that in Ephesians chapter 5.
Water is used as a figure of the word. It says that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word.
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So we can see this, and more than this, Nicodemus ought to have known from the Old Testament scriptures.
How the Lord had spoken of this in regard to his people Israel. In that future day when they will be brought into blessing, He'll put his law into their hearts and in their minds. He will write them, says he will sprinkle clean water upon them and they shall be clean, and a new heart he would put into them.
And so new birth is the action of the Spirit of God through the Word of God.
A spirit of God applying the Word and imparting new life. Nicodemus understood how a child was born into the world, but he couldn't understand new birth. And so the Lord says that it's an entirely new life that is given. So that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It never improves. And this is very important. And I believe as we look at other scriptures, we'll see that it's necessary for us.
Recognize this, that that fallen nature that we receive by our natural birth cannot be improved. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Now you know some people get occupied by whether they can with whether they can remember when they were born again. But what the Lord says in this eighth verse I believe is important. He said the wind.
Where it lists us, and I'll hear us the sound thereof. But canst not tell when, whence it cometh, and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. That is, you never heard, you never saw the wind in your life, but you've often seen the results of the wind. You've heard it, you've seen trees moving in the wind, you've seen dust flying. But you didn't see the wind, but you saw the result of it.
And when a person is born again, he has a new life, and it's not a question of remembering a special experience that you went through, But if you're a true child of God, there are certain things that will characterize your life. It says if any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. If I met a person who told me that he was born again.
But I didn't see any affection for the Lord Jesus. Why? I would have a very great reason to question whether he really was born again, because the character of the new life is affection for the Lord Jesus, a desire to please him. And so the Lord is really saying here that the way we know whether a person is born again is that we see the result of it.
Many have been very discouraged because.
They couldn't point to an actual experience in their life that they could remember.
But none of us can actually remember when we were born into this world. It's our parents that know that, and we don't actually remember. I remember a dear old sister down in the Maritimes and she had been brought up in a Christian home and in her childhood, in a simple way it opened her heart and received the Lord Jesus. And someone else who had been brought to the Lord later in life was asking her.
When she was born again, well, she said, I can't just recall. I know as a child in a simple way, I put my trust in the Lord Jesus and this person was quite concerned that she couldn't remember. And I thought her answer was very sweet. She said, but my father knows and isn't that a very blessed thing? God knows when he gave you new life and when you were born into the family, but the way.
That we know it is the result that is seen. Our hearts respond to the claims of the Lord Jesus and others can see too in the fruit that is produced. The man made a loud profession in the Gospel meeting and you saw no evidence in his life. It's not the profession, but it's rather the evidence in the life that would show that he possessed a new life.
And then the Lord Jesus goes on to put it before us in a very, very simple way.
And I believe what the Lord says here is very important in regard to salvation. First of all, in the 13th verse the Lord says, and no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. I believe this verse brings before us in a very striking way.
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The deity or the Godhead glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is, while I'm talking to you, I can't be in another place at the same time. Here I am standing here, but I can't be in two places at once. But while the Lord Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he could say that he was on earth. He said, No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. So while he was talking to Nicodemus.
He was in heaven at the same time. I asked a little child in the Sunday school.
How could that possibly be? And her answer was so blessed, so simple, she said.
Because Jesus is God now that's the answer. And if a person told me that he didn't believe.
That Jesus is God. I would have a very grave reason to question whether he was a true child of God. You know, there's a very solemn verse in Isaiah. It says I am God and beside me there is no savior. If the Lord Jesus is not God, he couldn't be your savior. There's another verse in the Psalms that says.
None can by any means redeem his brother and give to God a ransom for him.
No man can redeem another man. So the Lord Jesus speaks of this blessed and important fact of his deity, who he is. And Jesus is really God, God the Son. And then he brings before us in the next verse the work of salvation. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of man be lifted up.
When the children of Israel had been bitten by those serpents.
Then the ones who look to that serpent lifted up upon the pole.
They were healed and so at Calvary we see the Lord Jesus lifted up, and it says in 2nd Corinthians 5 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I see the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross made sin for me, bearing the judgment as we sang in our little hymn. God who knew them, that is our sins, laid them on Him.
And believing thou art free, so we have his person, and we have his work, and then we have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So new birth is founded upon what the Lord Jesus has done upon the cross.
It is true that there were those who lived in the Old Testament who were born again, but it was always in view of the Cross.
And when the Lord Jesus did that work, he made remission for the sins that were passed, and those that had been committed by David and Moses were laid on Jesus at the cross. And so we see here then the simple and yet blessed truth of new birth. And I'd like to say, just to make it very simple, that before I was saved I only had one tenant in my body, and that was the fallen nature with which I was born.
A nature that loved sin.
A nature that was incapable of pleasing God had that foam nature which God tells me.
In it in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But when I was born to the family of God, then I received a new life. And we look at a couple of scriptures that show us the character of that new life. But from the very day that I was born into the family of God, my body became like a house with two tenants before I was saved. Just had that one.
Fallen sinful nature. But now God has communicated to me a new life.
I've been born into his family and one of his children by new birth.
Let's turn over to what God tells us about this in Ephesians chapter.
3-4 I believe it is Ephesians chapter 4 verse 21. If so be that she have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that she put off concerning the former conversation. The old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
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That you put on the Newman.
Which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The turnover to Colossians, chapter 3. Colossians, chapter 3.
And verse four, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear.
Then shall ye also appear with him in glory. And then one more passage in First Epistle of John.
First Epistle of John and the third chapter.
And the ninth verse, Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.
For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
I might say that in Ephesians chapter 4 in the other translation it is having put off concerning the former conversation the old man, and also in the 24th verse having put on the new man. It is something that takes place when we are saved. God brings us into an entirely new position.
Standing before him and he sees us in that new position.
But I wanted to mention what God has to say about the character of that old fallen nature. The old man, it's called. He says it's corrupt according to the deceitful lusts we read in John 3.
We read that which is born of the flesh is flesh. It also tells us in Romans they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Again the Lord Jesus said it is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing. Another verse in Philippians 3 says and having no confidence in the flesh. So what I want to bring out is what God has to say about this.
Nature, he doesn't have one good thing to say about it. He says it's corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. It's totally ruined and ruined by the fall. And So what has God done? Why he's given us a new man, and the new man is created in righteousness and true holiness. A righteousness is as to our position before God.
Holiness. The word holiness means delight in good and abhorrence of evil.
That's the character of the new life. And then it tells us in that passage you read in Colossians that it's the very life of Christ. It also mentions in 2nd Corinthians 4 that the life of Jesus might be seen in our bodies. And then it goes even farther in 2nd and 1St Epistle of John and the third chapter to tell us.
That when we are born of God that we have this life.
That cannot sin. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, and his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin. So I have within me two natures, one called the old man. That's corrupt, that's bad. Everything that God has to say about it is that it's totally ruined and that it's evil. And then he tells me that he gave to me a new nature, a new life.
The very life of Christ.
The Lord Jesus could not sin and we possess His life. Christ himself is the believers life and it's that new life is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And so God is telling us the character of this new life that he has given to us. And so the shall I put it this way, The old man can't do anything but sin, and the new man can't do anything but please God. And you and I, when we get to heaven, will not have a different new life than that that which we already possess right now, if you are a true child of God.
You have the same life that you're going to possess in heaven. I believe that's why it says in Jude.
Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
That is, we possess the life that's suited to heaven. And I love to think that when the Lord gives the shout and calls us home that we're going to feel totally relaxed because we have a life that is suited to that scene. We'll never have to guard against an evil thought. We'll never have to say no to anything because everything in that whole scene is suited to God, and the nature within us responds to all those things.
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Because it's the very life of Christ. Oh, had a blessed thing to know that we already possess that, and that's why it tells us looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Let me illustrate it like this. Supposing we took a fish out of the water and we placed it on the dock, and there it is. It possesses a fish life. It's out of its element. While it's sitting there upon the dock, it still has a fish life.
But it's out of its element. And as the fish could talk, it would say, please put me into my element. I'd like to get back in the water. And you know you and I possess that life and that's why we long to see the Lord Jesus. If an unsaved man get into heaven, he wouldn't feel happy there at all any more than putting a cat into the water. Why it doesn't feel at all at home. That's out of its element totally feels very uncomfortable. It doesn't have.
Suited to that. But the fish does. That's home to it. And if a man who hasn't been born again got into heaven, he wouldn't be happy there at all. But you and I, who are children of God, we love the Lord Jesus. His presence is our home. But now I'd like to look at a few scriptures that show what God has done about that fallen nature with which we were born.
Because he tells us very carefully in his word.
That he has taken up that whole question, not only of our sins, the wrong things that we have done, but the very nature that produced those sins.
You know.
Perhaps some of you have read the book called Pilgrims Progress and perhaps you remember in the story how when Christian came to that cross with a bundle of sin upon his back by there, he looked at the cross and the bundle of sin rolled off his back into the sepulchre, and he was so happy that his bundle of sins were gone.
But if you read The Life of John Bunyan, you have perhaps discovered.
And that he really wasn't a happy delivered man because the rest of his life he was struggling with the fallen nature that produced those sins, and he didn't know what God had done about that. And I tell you what my father used to say, and I thought he put it very nicely, he said when John Bunyan looked at the cross there, if he himself had fallen into the sepulchre, sins and all, and come out a new man, he.
Been a delivered man, but he didn't know that the cross was the end of John Bunyan as well as the end of his sins. And this is true of many, many true Christians. And so they go about all kinds of ways of trying to improve themselves after they're saved because they don't know what God has done about that nature. Some try to strive to a point of holiness. Some seek a victorious life.
Kinds of things. Whereas if they would just sit down and listen, like the Lord said to the children of Israel as they stood on the banks of the Red Sea, He said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And the Lord wants us to know what He has done about this, because He has taken up the matter of that nature. Let's turn over to Romans now.
Romans chapter 6. He'll begin at the first verse. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?
Knowing not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into or unto His death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into 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. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death.
We shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. 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.
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Death has no more dominion over him. For him that he died, he died unto sin once.
But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that she should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the.
And your members, as instruments of righteousness unto God for sin, shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law, the law, but under grace.
In the first part of Romans, He brings us all in Jew and Gentile is guilty before God, and He tells us what God has done about our sins. It tells us in the end of the fourth chapter that the Lord Jesus was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. That is, our sins were laid upon the Lord Jesus. He bore the punishment for both sins, and there's not one sin.
Charged to the believer, but after settling this question about our sins, then he takes up the question of the nature that produced those sins. And that's very important. That is what is spoken of as the old man. And he's explaining to us in this chapter what God has done about that old man, he says.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And those brethren, has to do with what we might call our standing before God.
And our standing before God is, ye are dead, and your life is healed with Christ in God. The actual practice of it is working yourselves to be bred indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Perhaps I could illustrate it like this. I'm a Canadian solution and as a Canadian citizen, when I cross the border, we'll say into the United States, I have to declare.
That are a Canadian citizen by birth. But Buddhists suppose that I decide to become an American citizen, I'm accepted and I become one. Then I have a moose standing in the eyes of the government officials and when I enter the United States, I don't have to say I'm a Canadian citizen. I say I'm a naturalized American citizen. I'm in a new standing, a new.
Before them. And you know, that's what happens when you're born again, you're brought into a new position before God. And if the officer was to say to me, well, there used to be a person who crossed here named Gordon, and he was a Canadian citizen, what's happened to him? I could say, well, as far as the United States government is concerned, he's dead. There's no such person in their eyes anymore as a person named Gordon.
Canadian citizen. I died out of that position and I entered a new one. And this is what He's telling us here. And so I act differently because I'm in a different position and He's bringing before us the practical result. But I must know my demanding. If I didn't know that I'd been accepted, then I would be very uncertain as I try to answer the question. But I must know what my standing is. And brethren, God wants us to know where He has put us.
He has brought us into this new position. And what happened about that old man? Our old man was crucified with him. And why? We'll turn over to the 8th chapter and the.
3rd.
For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sent me his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.
If you have some rotten lumber, what do you do? You try and improve it. No, you condemn it. You say it's no good, it's rotten. And that's what God did. He condemned sin in the flesh. And so he tells us that that which he condemned was crucified. It was put to its end.
At the cross, and we recognize that in baptism. And so when a person is baptized and placed under the water, it's really the recognition and that God has put an end to that nature in which we were born, that fallen nature. It's condemned, it's been crucified, and in baptism it's buried. And so we're brought into a new position. Isn't it a blessed thing to know this?
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To enter into it and to enjoy it. And this is what God has done, and he wants us to know it. And then when we know it, he brings before us the practical result in our lives. A man said to me in connection with the law, he said, when did God set aside the law? I said, does the law have anything to say to dead men? And he said, no, I don't suppose it does. Well, he said it. I said it tells me in Romans Chapter 7.
That I'm dead to the law by the body of Christ, and married to another, even to him that is risen from the dead.
That's why a Christian is not under law, because he died to the law. That isn't that God set it aside. It's lawful to use it on unsaved people. But for the believer, there's a much higher standard and a much greater reason why he should please God.
A man who couldn't understand this. He thought that as Christians we should be under law. They were going along the street. Another Christian man who was rejoicing in his liberty in Christ.
And they were going to go into a still orange just before they went into the store.
This brother caught hold of the man who thought he should be under law. And he said, now listen, don't steal anything while they're in that store. And he said, what kind of a man do you think I am? And he said, well, the law said thou shalt not steal. I was just reminding you of what the law said. Well, you can see we're in a new position. Why didn't you steal in the store? Because you're under law? No, because you have a new life. You have a new object. You have a person whom you want to please and the life.
God has given you, is created in righteousness and true holiness, and now he's telling us that we have a right to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then he goes on to say that we once yielded our hands, our ears, our eyes, everything to what the old man wanted to do. That nature with which I was born, the whole world is set up on that process.
All the advertisement and everything is making an appeal to the fallen nature in man.
Because that's what man does. He yields himself to the desires of the old man, to the fallen nature.
But God said that old man was crucified at the cross, and I see you in a new position, and you act as if you were in that new position.
And so when a temptation is brought before a believer, why, instead of letting the old man deal with the situation, we're told now you've got a new tenant in your body, a new life, and it says, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And so this to put it simply again.
Why there are two tenants in my body, but I only recognize one as the lawful tenant?
The other one is no longer the lawful tenant of my body. The lawful tenant is the new life that God has given to me.
And so how blessed it is to enter into and enjoy this. And he's making it very simple. When he says yielding your members, he's just talking about the members of your body. And he said that we should let that new life, that new tenant be the one who directs the the movements of our body, not because we're under law, but because we're under grace.
We're saved by grace. We stand in grace.
But grace teaches us God, having saved us and brought us into his family, now says, I've given you a life that wants to please me. And I've often said this. And God will never ask you as a Christian to do anything that the new man that he has given you doesn't find delight in doing. That's why it tells us in John, his commandments are not grievous. That's why James calls it the law.
Because to please God is the desire of the new life.
Do you ask your boy to do something that he doesn't like to do? That's *******. But if you say here is a dollar, go to the store and get something that he's been asking for for a long time, why, That's liberty to him. He enjoys doing that because that was something he wanted. And God has given you a new man that's created in righteousness and true holiness.
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But he's telling us here in these verses what he has done.
In connection with that old man with which we were born, it was crucified with him.
And if we understood baptism, why that's what was placed under the water, it was that we recognized it. Just as when a person is sick while you do all you can to bring that person back to health, but once they've died, there is no other thing to do but burial. That's the end. And that's why it says once you've recognized the dead, then baptism is the figure of that. It's a figure of burial. It's the end and the recognition of it before God.
Now if we turn over to the 7th chapter of Romans, I believe we have the practical application of it. And this may be helpful to some here tonight, perhaps young believers, because.
I might hear a person say, well I understand what you're saying, but I still have a big conflict because I don't understand why I still find within me that I want to do those wrong things.
So it tells us here.
In 14th verse.
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 I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
You can see here that there's a conflict and sometimes if you read the chapter, it seems to me that.
The one who is going through all this exercise in the chapter, in one breath he is calling the old man I, and in another breath he's calling the new man I. He's really not reckoning the old man dead, but he's acting as if both of them had a right to say what he should do. And so he says, I do the things that I don't want to do, but he must learn.
That God has done something about that old nature, and I believe this chapter brings before us in a practical way.
Deliverance in our lives. Now there are three things that I'd like to point out.
First in the 18th verse. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for the will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good I find not. And this is the first thing, and I believe it's a very important thing for us to.
Get hold of in connection with the truth of Deliverance.
That is, that there is nothing good in the flesh. Perhaps after you were saved there was some bad thought come into your mind. And then you said to yourself, I never thought a Christian would think a thing like that. And well, that just shows that you didn't really believe what God said about the fallen nature, because if you didn't expect anything good from it, then you wouldn't be surprised at anything.
That was suggested by that fallen nature. Oh, you say I thought it would have improved after I was saved. No, God condemned it. He says it's corrupt according to the deceitful lust. He says that which is born of the flesh is flesh. There is nothing good in it, and it doesn't improve. After you're saved. You might tie up a dog for a year and then let him loose. You haven't changed his nature. He might bite somebody the day you let him loose.
He wasn't any better.
When he was tied up, he was just restrained, that was all. And you might restrain the old nature, but you don't change it.
It's corrupt. And so Paul had to learn this and.
I remember a brother illustrating it like this one time. He told about two railway men and they were comparing their watches. And in the days when I was a young man they were very, very anxious that they their watches were accurately correct and they were having a little discussion which one was correct. And there were only 20 seconds difference between the two men.
And they were having little discussion and another man walked up to them and he said, sirs, did you want to know the right time?
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And they said, yes, do you have the right time? And it pulled a very cheap watch out of his pocket and says yes. And he told him the time wasn't 10 seconds, it was 10 minutes out. And they looked at him and they looked at his watch and he said this watch has never disappointed me. And they were still more surprised, never disappointed me. He said it never disappoints me because I never trusted. And you know, you'll never, you'll be disappointed in the flesh if you trust it, but you'll.
Be disappointed in it unless you expect something good from it. If you expect something good, you'll be constantly disappointed. But God himself didn't find anything good in it. He condemned it. Our old man was crucified with him. And so this is the first point. Get hold of this. And this is, shall I say, almost like the first step to understanding in a practical way, deliverance in our lives.
Don't expect anything good from that fall nature.
And that's why we need to constantly say, preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust. We need to constantly remember that he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. And so this is the first thing. And then he says in the 19th, in the 20th verse rather.
Now if I do that, I would not, It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Well, here we find that He has come to the point now where He doesn't call both those natures within him. I He said it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. That is the fallen nature.
Is sin that dwells in you It's.
More I it's no more I, It's sin that dwelleth in me. Let me put it like this. Supposing before you were saved there was something that was a particular sin in your life. When you get saved, you're so happy and your newfound joy in the Lord.
You say I'll never want to do those things again because now I'm saved and I love the Lord Jesus and I want to please Him. But as time goes on, perhaps through the neglect of the Word or other things, why the heart gets a little bit cold and then someone comes along and makes a suggestion that you do those things that you did before.
And you say to that friend, no, I'm saved now. I don't want to do those things anymore.
After your friend has gone away, the devil comes along and says he didn't say the truth. You know that you wanted to go and do that, and you told him you didn't want to, and you didn't tell the truth. And you know you can come to the point of even doubting your salvation over things like that because you wonder why it is that you did want to do them when you didn't think you ever would again. But you didn't tell a lie. You told the truth. You just let the right tenant answer the door.
Did the Newman want to do those things? Did he want to? No. You could say no, I don't want to do them. It's true you have that old man within that still wants to do them, but you're told to reckon that dead. As it's been said, if a man was a drunkard and he just loved strong drink, when he's dead you can put all you like in front of him and it has no appeal Why he's dead. He's dead.
And so when the enemy comes, remember where to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin. And so instead of being upset, doubting your salvation, why, you've realized there's nothing good in that flesh, in me that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And you've learned to associate the eye with the new man. And so whenever anything is presented, you can say, I want to please the Lord.
And it's the absolute truth because you still have within you the old man, and the old man still wants to do the wrong things. It isn't improved since you've been saved. And this is what God shows us that He has done. He's taken up this question for us so that we might know not just that our sins are gone, but that we might know deliverance from the power of sin.
Well then he goes on here.
And he says in the 21St verse, I find then 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.
00:45:23
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. He says I understand these things, but I still have a conflict. And he says I'm wretched because every time those things come, I don't know how to get rid of the temptation. Perhaps that's what someone is saying here tonight. It's very nice to know those.
Things. But I don't know how to get rid of that temptation when it comes. And that's what he's speaking about here. He says, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? You notice he doesn't say how shall I get deliverance, But who? He's now looking outside of himself. He's not going to get deliverance. Someone has said he'll get just as dirty fighting a chimney sweep as hugging him. Did you ever try to?
Bad thoughts? Well, I certainly have. I've sat at the Lord's table and tried to fight them away. And you didn't find yourself very successful. They just kept coming back. But what would you do if there was a chimney sweep that wanted to get hold of you? I don't think you'd fight with them. I think you'd get away from him. And he is showing us here that there is a deliverer. And that deliverer invites us to look to him and find that deliverance in him.
I use a little illustration here that.
I think may help to bring this home because you know, we can be so wretched because we find that old nature popping up.
Let's suppose now that I want to build a little garage for my car behind my home, and I've saved up a pile of lumber which I'd like to use to build this garage. And so I hire a Carpenter and I say I'd like to put up a garage and I'd like to use this lumber that I've been keeping here.
To put it up well, the Carpenter goes out to look over the pile of lumber and.
He comes back shortly and he says, well, I guess I have bad news for you. Your lumber is all rotten. I won't be able to use that lumber. I'll never be able to build a garage. You say, aren't you a good Carpenter? That has nothing to do with it. He said. I'm a good Carpenter and I've got good tools, but the lumber's rotten and I can't do anything with rotten lumber. Well, that is bad news, isn't it? But let's go a little further, he says. But I also brought.
For you, he said, I brought a pile of good sound lumber for you. We'll use that lumber and it's not going to cost you anything. Now wretchedness is turned into thankfulness. You were miserable when he he just thought, oh, I feel so badly because that lumber has been condemned. That's what God did. He condemned sin in the flesh. But now you change and thank him and you say, oh, thank you very much.
Thank you. The old lumber didn't improve, did it?
It's still as rotten as ever, but you're giving thanks because you have that new pile of lumber. Are you making yourself miserable because you have a fallen nature? Are you thanking God that he sees you dead, having died out of that position, and he sees you alive in a new position? I tell you, if you get hold of that, you'll be thankful. You'll be rejoicing. You'll be saying, oh.
I surely can understand that I have so much to be thankful for.
Well, that that old lumber doesn't improve. In fact, the longer you leave it there, why, the worse it's going to get. And perhaps you might say, well, I know Christians that seem to be happy. I don't think they have such a pile of rotten lumber inside of them as I do. We all have it there, brethren, every one of us. But some of us have learned what God has done about it, and we're just giving thanks that He's given us a new pile.
Let's suppose to carry on the story a little bit that the Carpenter goes away and.
You start talking it over, perhaps with your wife. And so the next morning you go out and say, I can't believe it. I think there's some sound lumber there. I'm going to look over the pile myself. And you start pulling the pile apart, looking for some good pieces in there and.
The Carpenter comes by and he sees what you're doing. He says, what are you doing? Well, I felt so badly when you went away because I couldn't believe it that there was no good pieces there. You know, I feel a lot better if I could just find a few good pieces there. He says, listen, it's all bad. I checked it all. And he said, you're just making yourself wretched for nothing. And he takes a tarpaulin and he throws it over the top. And he says, now give thanks for the new.
00:50:30
Is it going to improve under the tarpaulin? No, it's still as bad as ever. And brethren, that old fallen nature is going to be rotten to the very end of our journey.
Saints of God who have grown older have sometimes got away from the Lord and dishonored him. And why? Because that which is born of the flesh is flesh. But oh, how wonderful that we can give thanks that God has brought us into this new position. The new man is created in righteousness and true holiness.
And so he says, who shall deliver me, not how shall I get deliverance? So next time that temptation comes and Satan presents it to the fallen nature, he always does, why just look up and say, oh, I'm so thankful God's given me a new life that wants to please him and he sees me in Christ. And that's why the next chapter goes on and he says there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in.
Jesus, that's where God sees you. Have you been condemning yourself for having that fallen nature? God says I don't see you that way. I see you in Christ and there's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. This is the believer standing and now it tells us here in the second verse for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Perhaps I could use a little illustration in connection with that verse when it says the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
God has not only given you a new life, but He also has sent his Holy Spirit to indwell you, and the Holy Spirit is the power for that new life. And so the law of the Newman, that is the ruling principle at which the new man always delights to do, is to please God. And so he says, that is what has set us free.
You know, here's a book and if I let that book go.
The law of gravitation would take it to the ground, wouldn't it? Would it be possible for me to set that book free from that law? That would take it down without changing the weight of the book and without changing the law of gravitation? Well, supposing I attached to that book a balloon with helium gas in it. Then you'd see the book start to go up. I didn't change the weight of the book, and I didn't change the law of gravitation, but I set it free.
Because I brought in a new law, and that's what God is telling us here.
The way you get free from a bad thought is to allow the Spirit of God through the Newman to occupy you with Christ.
And so the next time that bad thought comes, instead of saying, I didn't think a Christian would ever think that because Christians are capable of anything if the Lord doesn't keep them. But well, I just think what God has done about that horrible old man and allow the Spirit of God through the Newman to occupy you with Christ. And then you're set free. Not by improving the old man or changing it, but you're set free.
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that made me free from the law of sin and death. Well, brethren, it's a very blessed thing to get hold of this. It's more than just knowing your sins are forgiven In the Scripture. When it speaks of our sins, those are the evil things we did. But when it speaks of sin, the old man and the flesh, it's talking about the nature that produced those sins. It's just the difference between an apple tree and the tree.
And the apples that grow on it, you could pull off all the apples, but it's still an apple tree. And you don't change the fallen nature, but God gives you a new one. He tells you what he's done about the old. He tells you how to get deliverance. And he points you on to the glorious day when we'll have glorified bodies and we won't have that old man within.
When we get to glory, we'll be able to relax because we won't have the old man within us.
And then what a deliverance that will be when we're forever with him, as it says, to hear see thy face and hear thy voice, and grieve thy heart no more. But just before I close, I just want to say this because we're talking about the believers standing. Perhaps someone might say, But what about when the believer sins after he's saved? Could I carry my illustration about the lumber a little bit farther?
00:55:25
Supposing after the carpenters starts to put up this.
Garage for me. I go out to that old pile and I pick out what I think is the very best piece in it. And I say, I'm going to nail a couple of these pieces into the building because I don't really believe they're as bad as he said they were. And then he comes along in the morning and he says, oh, what's happened here? And I said, well, I thought those pieces weren't so bad and that they would do. He said they've got to come out, they can't be in this building.
And so, you know, we sometimes do let the old nature act. We sometimes, as it were, lift the cover and let the old nature act. And God tells us then we have an advocate we need to get restored. I better tell the Carpenter I'm sorry because that was displeasing to him. And you know, when we let the old man act, we have an advocate with the Father. Let's keep short accounts, own it to the Lord and get restored.
But what a blessed thing to know that God has not only settled the question of our sins, but he himself took up the question how that fallen nature brought us into a new position. And he says now just give thanks for this new position. I brought you into living the good of it and allow the Spirit of God to occupy you with Christ. And that's the only way that you'll be set free from the actions of that.
Fall nature which never improves. Well May God bring our souls into the enjoyment.
Place into which He has brought us not only forgiven, but the righteousness of God in Christ justification of life. Let's thank Him more and more for what He has done. I think there's a little Him 289.
If I remember correctly, yes, 289 no condemnation, precious word. Consider it my soul. Thy sins were all on. Jesus laid his stripes.
Have made thee whole 289.
No condemnation.
Precious.
Word causes.
Her all of Jesus.
Name.
Is right, I've been home.
And glory.
By his name.