Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Crucified Pt.2

Amen! I just encourage you to continue to hold Richard up in prayer. Believe God to strengthen him. He's resting tonight here in the back. I was supposed to be back there resting. One of us is getting old. We won't mention any names. I knew when I came in; we came rolling in fairly late. As I was walking through the office, I heard Richard and looked at him a little bit. I said, "Are you feeling okay?" He said, "Yeah, I'm doing okay." I looked at him and I said, "Do you need me to teach tonight?" He said, "That'd be good." Richard has never said that before. He's always ready. He's ready now. He would have been up here, but he's preferring the older. Just continue to pray for his strength. The Lord is touching him, we believe, and we're looking for a complete healing in his body--great testimony! I think it would be Richard's testimony--and, Richard, you can correct me next time you teach if I'm misrepresenting you--I think it would be his testimony that he could stand here before you and say, "I really want to be completely free from this and I believe with all of my heart that by the stripes of Jesus, I'm healed, but what I think I have learned in these last months, the value of what God has shown me in the midst of this trial, far outweighs feeling good." In due time, He delivers us. Amen? What do you think is that close? Amen? He shared with me a couple of times, "I'm so tired in the trial, but God has shown me so much." There are times in our lives when that's how we hear, and there are times that we come just by revelation of the Word of God. There are times that God quickens our spirit, and that people speak into our lives. Sometimes it's through the furnace, it's through the fire, that we really learn and God is able to speak to us, but He is faithful to deliver us. Amen? We're excited about that and rejoice in the goodness of the Lord.

Let's turn back to Galatians; we want to continue on our study on the cross. I was teaching this morning up in Pittsburgh. Interesting thing, as we were up in Pittsburgh. We didn't have anything scheduled for the latter part of the week, so we went up fairly early. The main reason that I go early is so that we can get some prime spots for literature distribution and some of these things. One of the guys came over to me. In fact, the track that we were on is owned by three Italian brothers. These guys are a scream, man! What was their name? Michael, Carmen and Frankie Tedesco. One of them is the money behind the thing, the other one manages, and the other one's the cook. Carmen is the cook. We got there and we're just walking the grounds and we ran into this one guy working. He hollers out and we go to him and we start talking to him. He's part-owner of the track. He's the one that manages it; his brother is the money behind it. We talked and talked about some different things. It was interesting. He told us, "Let me tell you where you guys need to park. I'll give you the best parking place on the property." We said, "Where's that?" He said, "You need to go right over there." We went over to where this place was. I mean we were dead in the center of everything. We sat in our motor home and looked straight down the track and just watched people racing and different things. One guy came up and said--talking to one guy, he thought we were sponsoring the whole race or that we were celebrities or whatever. (We were, of course.) It was just primo and we were able to get our literature out. We were able to talk to people.

As we went to chapel this morning, we were going to teach. This was another one of those things where the guy didn't show up again. Now, they know who we are. "Would you do this?" We said, "Yeah, we'll take this and thank you." Whatever, and away we go to teach. Oh, prior to that, I was just walking the property and praying and just meditating on the Lord. This is the day before anybody was there. Nobody is on the property except the employees and they're working. I come up and I saw this one kid who had on the earrings and the piercing and all the stuff, the eyebrow things. He had on this black shirt and it said, "Jesus Weak." The week was spelled "weak" so I thought, "I've got to talk to this kid." I kept trying to hunt him down and I couldn't get an opportunity to really--I was walking back to the trailer and just walking away and I just felt I've got to go talk to that kid; so I turn around and go back up there and still didn't really get a chance to talk to him. I thought it was interesting and come to find out he was somehow involved with the Tedesco family.

We were sharing this morning (I don't want to spend too long, but it goes along a little bit with what we're going to be teaching). We were sharing this morning, and it's really neat, the lives that we're touching. Now the last service we were in, everybody got our literature. This service, everybody got our literature, our books, et cetera. The last service we were in, there were people from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. This service that we were in, there were people from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, and those were the primary. There's quite an area here that's starting to get covered, where literature and different contacts are being made and people are getting all of the website information.

Anyway, we begin to teach now. You've got to remember where we're in, there is a big Italian... (New Jersey, parts of Pennsylvania) We're up there and I was teaching this morning. One of the things I said, "As a young person, I didn't really go to church. I didn't know the Lord. (I've shared this testimony with you so I won't go into detail.) One of the things I used to do was take a friend of mine to church. I can't mention the denomination but he would go in and confess. (These are all Catholics up there. Right? I didn't want to say the Catholic church.) He would go in and confess and he'd come back out and we would go drinking." They're all looking at me where they give you one of those looks that looks like [Pastor makes a face that looks like "where are you going with this?"] I said, "I wasn't a Christian, but I knew if there was a God, that wasn't getting it, and you know that, too!" They're all [nodding yes]. Then we began to talk about the cross. I mentioned to them that the Scripture on the trailer is the gospel. Jesus died for our sins, raised again the third day. If Jesus isn't risen, then your faith is in vain and you're still in your sins, but if He is risen, He is Lord. Nobody else pulled that off! He's God! He's in charge of this operation and we need to begin to live lives of obedience, not token religion. That's what this teaching is that we're getting into--the sharing of that cross. Not to somehow merit our redemption, because our righteousness is as filthy rags. The sharing of that cross through obedience, the willingness to die to self-will on a daily basis, and every time we choose to die to self, we exalt the Lord. If nobody's around to see it, He's exalted anyway, because the warfare is in the heavenlies. Amen? Satan is tormented every time you obey. The demon's power is broken every time you obey. Every time you're willing to go to the cross and identify with Jesus, and reckon yourselves dead indeed to sin and raised with Jesus Christ, Satan and all of his cohorts are tormented by your obedience. Praise God! Doesn't that make you feel better about obeying? The Lord is honored, the devil is tormented.

As we finished our teaching this morning, this one brother, the one who has all the money... I was talking to some of the people and this little guy came up and he grabbed Greer and he said, "I need to tell you something." She said, "What's that?" "I was born again seventeen years ago and then I got married. My wife's been raising our children in the Catholic Church." He was a Catholic who'd gotten born again and let his children return to the vomit, his little piglets to the wallow. He hadn't heard a message like this for seventeen years. He said, "I've got to do something." Today was his day; God arrested him with His Word. There were a number of other testimonies, but this is one I'm looking to hear something back on. This is something that's exciting.

Periodically, as we get out from the cocoon that we lived in for thirty-five years and get out where you people work every day, the stories amaze me, the lives. It's amazing how many people have heard and rejected. How many people at one time knew, and have fallen away. I want to encourage you as you're out daily. We don't know where this seed is landing. It's not our job to do anything but sow the seed. The Lord brings in the increase. Part of this teaching that we're going to be talking about on the daily cross-bearing is going to be that identification with Him, to where His name is a byword, and it's becoming more so in our society. People don't want to hear. People are offended by the name of Jesus.

There's a whole international organization called Racers for Christ. They're in every area of racing and car shows, and everything that you can imagine. Recently, it's their decision (and I don't know how recently. It's been for a while now, not like in the last months), but they've told all of the ministers that work with them that they're no longer to pray publicly in the name of Jesus. Racers for Christ, don't pray in the name of Jesus! So what name do you pray in? There is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved. Amen? At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God our Father. In My name, you shall cast out devils! In My name, you shall lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover! If we don't move in the name of Jesus, then we're not moving in the power of God. A "Christian" organization afraid to use the name of Jesus! It's going to be against the law soon for you to share your faith at work. You can tell dirty jokes, but you can't mention the name of Jesus! You can marry two or three of the other boys there (and you're a boy), but you can't mention the name of Jesus! Do you understand the world that we're coming in to? Do you understand when Paul talks about bearing the reproach of the cross upon your own life? Do you know what it means to be identified with Him? We're coming out of a picnic where Christians were popular, where it was the "in" thing--whether you were a political individual or somebody in business--to be identified with religion and spirituality. I want you to understand something, beloved. This is what I'm teaching. The day of identifying with the cross, the reproach of the name of Jesus is at hand. Are you ready? Spiritually, we choose to be identified with Him. To be nailed up there on the cross with Him. Let's see what some of the literal identification can possibly mean in our lives. Ask yourselves, "Am I ready?" You say, "Well, man, if I'm not ready, what do I do to get ready?" Get crucified. Let's find some place where you can start. Let's find an area where you can experience death, then grow from there. "...By reason of use have [your] senses exercised [to be able] to discern both good and evil."

Galatians 2:20. Let's start off over there, and then we're going to go over to Matthew for a minute. In Galatians, of course, the passage we're all very familiar with: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live..." The thing that's interesting here is that we all have personalities. We're individuals. We're crucified with Christ--in Him we live and move and have our being--but we're not robots. We have different gifts, different personalities; we all have different likes and dislikes, but we all have the same Lord. For there's one Lord, there's one baptism, there's one faith and there's one mutual cross that every one of us shares in. It enables us to be able to bear our individual crosses, the identification in Jesus and His death. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me..." Identifying and subordinating to the ownership of Christ, we are no longer our own; we are bought with a price. "For me to live is Christ..." Is that why you live? What are you living for? Heaven? Then you've really misunderstood what redemption is all about. We are not living for heaven. We're not just hanging out and waiting for eternity. We are in eternity. Amen? Time is in eternity. Eternity is not something that's going to start. Everlasting life is not something we will someday get--we're in it. The only thing that we're going to see tonight is that this life that you and I are in is a life of accountability. We're being called to account.

Keep your finger here in Galatians, and go over a couple of pages to Colossians 3. I want to show you something in Colossians 3 in just a moment. "...and the life which I now live in the flesh [Paul goes on to say] I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." If you can't endure the cross, you're not living in faith, because, Paul said, "I live this life by the faith in the Son of God. I can do what I do because I have faith." If you can't walk in the spirit, if you can't live daily crucified in Christ, then you've not partaken of the faith that saves. You might have religion, you might have a faith, you might have some faith, but you don't have the faith, the one that saves your soul, the one that frees you from Satan's lordship, the one that identifies you with Jesus Christ, the one that makes you a new creation, the one that's going to get you into heaven. Because you're living for yourself, you're still living under the bondage of the self-life which is still living under the lordship of Satan. "...the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Look over at Colossians 3 for just a second and let me show you what I'm talking about here, and then we'll come back to the Galatians passage. In Colossians 3:1, he said, "If ye then be risen with Christ..." You've got to be crucified with Him, as we saw on Wednesday night in Romans 6. If we've been crucified, we've been buried, and if we've been buried, then we're raised, raised in the newness of life. Old things pass away, all things become new. We put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, Paul says. "...Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." What a safe place to be! Amen? The only place you're safe is dead. As long as you're alive and roaming around, there's a lion out there seeking to devour you. The safest place you can find is one of personal death. Reckon yourself dead daily and your life will then be hid with Christ in God. If you're alive, you're becoming prey. If you're dead, you're in the solace of that secret hiding place of Christ in God. Christ in God. "When Christ, who is our life..." "For me to live is Christ..." When Christ, who is our life, is not only the source of life, [He is] the reason for life. The reason I live is Christ. Life is vanity without Him. There's no reason for us to go on. Either eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. Party yourself to death, take the easy way out. Go down and just pop a .357, because there's no reason to live. You say, "What do you mean, there's no reason to live? We can build a better world for other people." You mean, so they can go to hell in a better world? In the scope of things, our lives, which are but vapors--here one day, literally gone the next--is not what man was created for. Man wasn't created for eighty years. Man was created for eternity and everything we do in this transition period that we call life, is this time--and you need to start thinking about life in this way--this time of accountability, that's what it is. All life is, is a time span of accountability, the reckoning of which kingdom you're going to identify with and spend eternity in. It's an accounting. It's an accounting process. The Scriptures call it the separating from the sheep and the goats, wheat from tares, good fruit from bad fruit, fresh water from salty water, but it's an accounting.

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth..." Here's that death that He's talking about. "Mortify" just means to put to death. In light of the doctrine that we're studying: crucify yourself, deny yourself, know yourself, identify what's in your members. Now, in this whole accounting period of life, sin is going to be in our members. What makes you different from me? (Besides that I'm better looking.) Other than that, what makes us different? We're all eternal beings who have souls that live in bodies. We talked about our identity just a moment ago. Do you remember? "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me..." Who are these "I's"? The "I" of our members, the temporal "I," the natural "I," humanity, and the spiritual "I," the redeemed man, the blood-bought man who is identified with Christ, who is going to remain forever in His presence raised up and seated with Him in the heavenlies. Then there is the self "I" who will remain separated from God just as he is in his natural state. We became separated with Adam. We were born into sin, the enemies of God. Identify who you are.

What makes you different from me are the things that we call besetting sins. We're all sinners, but some of us sin with more socially acceptable sins. Some of our sins are not as socially acceptable. For some of us who are bound by sin, our sin is not only permitted in churches, sometimes it's admired. We would call it sometimes, "These people are industrious; these are real workers in the church," and they're self-righteous and prideful. Proud of their own abilities, they are critical of others' weaknesses because they naturally excel. Their lives are more disciplined and so, many times, because of this critical spirit, they're gossips. They only thing I'm trying to point out is these things can remain camouflaged. They can be things that even sometimes are admired by others and it's a reproach. It's self. Then, there are those among us that are sloths. Just slothful, sloppy, lazy, like a door turning on its hinges. The guy who has to work to just roll over in bed, so lazy that they can hardly bring their hand to their mouth to eat. That's getting pretty lazy, man! We look at those people and we despise them and look down on them, and then there are the drunks. There are the fat people, and the smokers, and I put all those people in the same category, and you say, "Wait a minute how can you put a drunk, a smoker and a fat guy all in the same bag?" Because, again, it's the same thing. People can't control their flesh. They can't; they're controlled by something outside. We then are critical of these people. "They're weak and they're just so selfish," and we're just as selfish and we can look around and see everybody else's sin but our own. You're crucifying the wrong person. It's you that needs to be crucified. It's so easy to look out and see everybody else that needs to be crucified, everybody else's sin. You're the man. The reason most of us can't get crucified is because we can't find ourselves. We don't know who we are. We've lied to ourselves for so long, we look at the wanted poster and don't recognize ourselves. Are you able to identify?

"Mortify therefore your members [verse 5] which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake... [Remember, we said life is a life of accountability.] ...For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: [The children, those who are of the household of faith.] In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:" Paul talks about how we need to put on Christ. We need to forbear one another, verse 13, and forgive one another even as Christ also forgave you. He identifies all of these things that we need to deal with. What's different about us? Our besetting sins. What's common to all of us? We need to die so that Christ can be glorified. We need to begin to seek the things that are above. Personal death begins in redirecting your gaze. Stop looking for the things of the Earth, the things of the world, and start looking into the heavenlies. Change the direction of your eyes, change the direction of your heart. Set your affections on the things that are above.

Listen to what it says. To set your affections means that it's an act of choice. "Oh, if God would just do this, if God could just change my heart." God has changed your heart; you need to change your affections. I can choose to be mad at you or I can choose to like you. It's not what you do that causes our relationship to either be good or bad; it's what I do. You can sin against me, but do you know what? You can sin against me and that potentially could break our relationship, but I'm not going to let you get away with it. I'm going to forgive you. How do you like that? We still have a relationship. I'm going to forgive you. I'm right here to forgive you. You come up and again and say, "You know, I shouldn't have done that. Will you forgive me?" I say, "No, that's four hundred and ninety one today and the law says you only get seven times seventy. Four ninety, you're cut off, Jack!" That's not the Scriptures. Jesus doesn't hold us to the law. He didn't limit us to four hundred and ninety. He was giving us a reference. "...Till seven times?" They thought they were so righteous by saying, "I'd even be willing to forgive my brother seven times." Jesus said, "Really? Cool. How about seven times seventy?" (Now, you would have to be a busy little beaver to get me four hundred and ninety times in a day.) He was trying to put it out there and, of course, numbers meant something to the Jews at that time. The seven was perfection. He took the seventy and He put perfection with it and added infinity.

Set your affections. One thing keeps us from walking in the spirit. We choose not to. We choose our flesh. We choose sin. We choose the devil, and we need to choose the cross. It's just as easy to say, "Yes, I'm going to die. I choose not to prefer myself. I choose to get up out of bed. I choose to love my wife. I choose to obey my parents. I choose to read my Bible." I choose to pray, but everything in my members is saying, "No, I'm first! Look at me. Take care of me. How come I'm not getting what everybody else is getting? Life isn't fair!" "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the Earth," verse 5 says. This cross that we're talking about is a choice. Tragically, most of us want to live our lives by making individual choices, momentary choices. Why don't you make a choice once for all? I choose the lordship of Jesus in my life. You say, "Well I've done that." Really? Where's the evidence? "Are you saying that I'm not saved?" No, you could be regenerated but where's the life that bears the image of Jesus? "For me to live is Christ, and the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." Where is the life that's lived by the faith of Jesus through us? That's what Paul is saying. This life now is lived, not by my faith. Paul had a faith; it was in himself. He was a big shot and everybody looked at him as the most spiritual guy around. He persecuted the church. He had Christians killed and he was going to became the high priest. He had faith in Paul. He had faith in God. He had faith in God who gave him a set of rules to follow and he followed them, but he needed faith in God to die and let Christ live through him. [God] emptied Paul out. Paul said, "Everything that I used to count as gain--strong will, intelligence, talent, knowledge--I now count loss that I might win Christ."

Do you still trust in your own abilities? How much are you being driven? Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not talking about not being good stewards. How much are you being driven with your investments? To get your house paid off so that nobody can get your stuff? "Don't mess with my stuff, man!" I've got a question for you: what's the motivation behind that? Fear, or liquidity so that when Jesus comes and says, "I have need of it," you can just give it all away? Some of you almost passed out, or at least got a big lump in your throat. Is it that hard to swallow? In just a moment, we're going to look at the rich young ruler. Do you know what one of the things is in the rich young ruler teaching? There's a cross mentioned there. As we're identifying the question, what we're asking is: who are we trusting? Who are we looking to as our source? "Oh, God's my source." Really? Then what's all that bleating of sheep that I hear? You think you've been obedient--but only partially. We think we trust, but how much are we really looking to the arm of the flesh, to the broken reed of Egypt? The cross just says, "God is my source. He's my source; I'm not taken up with the world's circumstances, what the world's economy is. I'm not taken up with the Jones's and their new house and their new car. I believe that God is my source and what I have is what God wants me to have. I'm content; I don't have to have more. This is what God has given me." Praise God! Are you there? If not, guess who needs to go to the cross? Guess who needs to go to the cross? You say, "Well wait a minute. Let me go to the second job and find him and see if I can crucify him. He's not here tonight."

Are you at peace? The man who has died is at perfect peace. "My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth..." What is the peace that Jesus gives you? You see it on all the little gravestones: R. I. P. What's that for? Rest in peace. Are you really at peace tonight? "Well, nope." Then you're not dead. You can't wake up one dead guy and say he had a bad night's sleep. (Now, I'm a person who doesn't sleep well. Do you want to know why? I can't shut my brain off all the time. Too much stuff is going around up there.) When I have trouble sleeping, do you know what it is? It's because I'm having trouble resting in Him. I have too much clutter in my mind with what I have to do. Do you know when I get some sleep? When I realize I can't do anything. I can't do it anyway; God's going to take care of it. "Lord, you never sleep or slumber, so I'm going to sleep." One of us had better get some rest. But we don't trust and we need to go to the cross.

We'd like to think that we're different than all of those other people. Let's look at a couple of passages here. We'll take just a couple more minutes. If you're risen with Christ, if you've been crucified with Him, then it's going to be known by the direction of your gaze, by the treasures being in the heavens and not on the Earth. "For all that is in the world [is what? John says,] the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life..." These things are not of the Father; they're of the world. What are you gazing at? What are you coveting after? That word "covetous" means to sigh. We told you about asking the kids, "Do you really have to have this?" "No, I don't have to have it. [Sighing heavily.] I don't have to have it. Nope, Mom, Dad, I'm content in the Lord. All of the other kids have it. I don't have it. I want you to know where my heart is; I'm content in the Lord." [Sighing heavily again.] Time for worship. [Pastor raises his hands up to worship and drops his head down to show he's praising the Lord but he's looking down in despair.] What are you looking at? If you be dead with Christ, seek the things that are above. We don't live like the world. Their treasures aren't our treasures. They're not our source of joy, our strength.

Do you recognize the guy on the wanted posters yet? We think we are, but when we're put to the test, what's the fruit of our life? What decisions do we make when the pressure is on us? When the disciples come up and say about your little donkey, "...The Lord hath need of him..." You remember, we shared years ago (and it's ironic) that the little donkey was tied up. It's ironic. I've shared with you that many times, I've had rich men, wealthy men--some of the wealthiest men I've ever known--come up to me and say, "You know, Brother Scott, I really believe God wants me to help out some in the ministry. I really want to give toward this but it's all tied up right now." I used to respond to them scripturally. I said, "Well untie it. The Lord has need of it, praise God! Untie it!" "Well, it's in CDs and if I take them out there's a penalty." There is nothing about untying that talks about penalties! "Well, it's in a long term...." Untie it! (Don't worry; we're not taking any offerings tonight. I'm talking about the principle.) We could be talking about time, talents, whatever it is. Where are our treasures, really? "...Seek those things which are above..."

When I was out there in those Pennsylvania hills, I was alone out there just praying and meditating on this teaching, just saying, "Lord, what do we really need to hear as a people? What is it that You're trying to prepare us for? What's coming? Let me see. Give me a glimpse and let me understand where we are." We made a reference a few sessions back about the church of Sardis having the reputation of being alive, yet so many slowly dying by the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things that are entering in and choking the Word of God out. Who's dying? Well, maybe not you. What about your wife? What about your children? The letter was to a community. Who around us needs help? Who around us is being weighed in the balances and found wanting? What can we do to strengthen the hands of those that are in our midst? What can we do to stir people toward the eternal when we're living a world seduced by amusement, as we talked about? Now, when we talk about all these things, so often people would want to go to extremes. The extreme of these things is dying to self and walking in the spirit. It's not whether I partake or whether I don't partake; it's why, it's how. The "why" is obedience to God. If I eat, I eat to the glory of God. If I don't eat, I abstain to the glory of God. What I'm doing is about Him, it's for Him, it's by Him. It's a life that's governed--it won't always do the same thing. Over the years, people have always tried to figure out in what direction I am headed. What camp? I've had theologians say, "What camp are you in?" I'm not in any camp. This walk that I'm in, the camp keeps moving. Amen? The cloud moves, I move. I'm not bound in tradition. I'm not bound to limited revelation.

I shared the other night about somebody who was concerned about the doctrine of healing we were talking about. I want to tell you something: God's on the move! Our understanding is constantly progressing and being illuminated. It's getting greater, and we're growing closer to God and we're growing more Christlike. We're becoming less self-centered and less selfish even as it pertains to the healing of our bodies, as we talked about Richard earlier. He's finally growing up and letting God be God. Stop thinking we know and understand everything. I'm ready to move when the Spirit of God speaks.

We talked about the crucified man on Wednesday night and how his gaze is in one direction: it's into the heavenlies. Turn over to Matthew and let's just finish with this one for tonight. We'll pick it back up on Wednesday. No, Mark 10. (For your notes: Matthew 10, Matthew 16, Mark 10, Galatians 2:20, and Colossians 3:3, just get those few for tonight.) Verse 17, "And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." "Are you calling Me God? Why are you calling Me good? There's only one good, that's God. Are you calling Me God? If you are, then get ready, because I'm going to take your life over." Do you want to call Jesus Lord? Then He's going to take your life over. What's it going to cost me to follow Jesus? Everything. We hear that. "Oh, yes, praise God!" No, listen! Everything. "Oh, I surrendered everything to the Lord. I really believe that." Really? Then why do you still have that list for a spouse? "Well, I don't really have a list, I just have very strong preferences, and they're not written down, they're memorized." Can you trust God? Do you really believe that God knows better than you do? Do you want to know the problem? I'll tell you what the problem is with this whole thing of matching up. You think you're too good! Your momma lied to you because "you ain't all that!" (That's how the sisters talk, "You ain't all that!") That's what the problem is. Now, if He's Lord, are you going to trust Him? Do you believe that He knows better? "Well, I just want to marry somebody that's good looking." How about God just making you blind? You'll get this one way or another! I would go the easy way. Amen? You'd better submit! God can take care of it!

"Why do you call Me good? Why are you calling Me good? Why are you calling Me God? Why are you calling Me Lord? You know the commandments and you know what to do, don't you?" We're sitting here talking about all this and you already know what to do. I'm not telling you anything that you don't know. I'm here trying to reinforce that what you're hearing is the voice of God. "Surely, that's not God wanting me to die." Yes, it is. Now, watch! "Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. [I am a good rule follower. I can follow the rules, man. I mean, how hard can it be? There are only ten. I've observed all of these from my youth.] Then Jesus beholding him loved him, [Isn't that a great passage? He looked at this young man and He loved him, just like He loves you. God is not out to get you. It's His pleasure to give you the kingdom. His intention is to cause you to be raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenlies. He sees you as His inheritance, that's how precious you are. He loved him,] and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: [What was it? You lack one thing. You've not yet come to believe that God loves you. You can't trust Him. So let Me tell you what you need to do.] go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, [Some of you break into a sweat just thinking about this.] and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, [Say the next phrase with me.] take up the cross, and follow me." I don't know what your cross is, but for this young man, it was his wealth. Some of us, it's our pride (in what, I have no idea, but pride is that way). The proud person is the one that can't see it.

"And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions." Jesus goes on and teaches him that it's hard for a rich man to get into heaven. The disciples were astonished and then said, "Well then, who can be saved if it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle? Who can be saved?" "And they were astonished out of measure..." verse 26 says, at His saying. Here's the good news, beloved, and we'll end with this for tonight. Well then, who can be saved? If it's that hard for a rich man to get into heaven, who can be saved? If it's that hard for a prideful man to get into heaven, who can be saved? If it's that hard for an angry man to get into heaven, who can be saved? If it's that hard for a covetous man to get into heaven, who can be saved? If it's that hard for a fearful man to get into heaven, who can be saved? "With men it is impossible, but not with God [Say this phrase with me]: for with God all things are possible." Do you want good news tonight? You can die! It can be done! You say, "But man, I've had him down so many times and he just keeps rising up." It's possible with God!

In this study, we're going to deal with how to mortify these deeds. How to put the man down and keep him under, but your homework tonight is to find him. Spend some time and say, "What is in me that keeps springing back to life?" Why? Why? Many of us identify the problem, not the cause. There's a root, there's a reason. Oh, I can give you generic reasons and you can come up with them, too. "Well, it's because I'm not trusting God." "It's because I'm proud." "It's because I'm angry." Why? "Well, it's because I'm selfish." That's the basic root of sin: self and pride. Yes, it is, but weren't you born again? Didn't you put off the old man? Then what is it that causes you to continue to bring him to resurrection? That's what we want to talk about in the next session. Identify him; we'll help you kill him next service.

Father, we do thank You for the Word. Some of us are going to be in some warfare between now and Wednesday, the next service. "Cast your care upon Me, I care for you." You know what? We can make it through anything by just knowing He cares for us. "I will not leave you, I will not forsake you" is the promise to His children, His beloved. All anxiousness, all fear, all lust is fed and stimulated by outward looking. Look up! Don't look in at the members. Don't look out at the lusts and the cares and the deceits, but look up at the promises. Look up at the One Who loved you, Who died, and hear the promise. You want safety? Hear the promise: "...your life is [now] hid with Christ in God." Thank You for that, Father, in Jesus' name.

Let's stand before Him tonight. As Gary plays for us for just a moment, these are not new things to any of our ears. "Set your affections on things above..." They are not new things, but it's a choice right now. Where are you going to set your affections tonight? What are you going to choose to value tonight--the goodness of God, the will of God, the purposes of God, or my will, my way, my timing? "God, bless my agenda. God, honor me that I might glorify You." How about honoring God and glorifying God and you being nothing?

Thank You, Father, for Your goodness. We stand before You as unprofitable servants, beloved sons. Let's sing it together. "Oh, how He loves you and me..."

We do thank You for that love, Father. Hallelujah! Just thank Him for that love tonight. Lift your hands and just worship Him. He loves you tonight. You're His children. You're the apples of His eye. You're the inheritance of the most high God. You're precious in His sight. He will be honored and He will be glorified in you if you'll come to the cross. No longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me. Live through me, Lord, for Your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody and say, "Set your affections on the things that are above." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you!

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