Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Cross Pt.7

Let's take a look at Philippians, Chapter 3. We want to finish up on this aspect of reckoning this finished work of our life, our resurrected life in Jesus Christ, because that's what we're talking about. It's not about dying, it's about living--but you have to die to live. We're coming to that place of the presenting of our bodies living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God. There's an involvement that we have in it but not an ability. Those of you that took the Romans class remember the four key words of Romans, Chapter 6--know, what? Yep, we went over that so many times. The four steps of sanctification out of Romans, Chapter 6: know, reckon, yield, and obey. That's how we live the victorious life, this sanctified life, that we've been talking about. We're going to look at those aspects in Romans in just a second. But as Paul is saying here in Philippians, Chapter 3, "The way that we come, verse 10, to that knowledge, the experiential power of His resurrection, is by being made conformable to His death. So many people are wanting to do it by formulas, by study. "If I study the Scriptures enough, if I discipline myself and spend enough hours in prayer and fasting, somehow I'm going to tap the power of God." There's only one way that you can know this power of God, and that's to be able to be conformable to His death; the choice to conform to a life of obedience to the Spirit of God, to a selfless purpose, to eat the meat which is the will of Father, to finish the work of He that sent us. That's the cross that Jesus bore. That was the mission He was on, and to be crucified with Him is to live with Him. To know that resurrection power to where, as He yielded His will up to the will of the Father, we yield our will. We have no agenda. We assume no glory. Everything that Jesus did was to glorify the Father. Paul goes on and says, "This is my desire. This is why I count worthless the things that used to be gain to me." Then he said, "It causes me, verse 11, to attain unto the resurrection of the dead." "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended for Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind..."

Let me encourage you tonight to forget about all of your great accomplishments, all of those things that used to be gain; forget them. But let me encourage you also tonight to forget about all of your failures, amen? Forget about all of the sins that dominated your life. Forget about all of the failures. Forget about all the times that you cried and wept and said, "Lord, I'll never do it again," and you did it again. Forget about those things, because we're starting a new method now. We're moving into a new arena from the self-life into the dependent life, the life of reckoning the victory already won. The life that doesn't try and work but rests through the knowledge of what Jesus has already accomplished for us. "Forgetting those things which are behind I reach forth." There is still effort but it's no longer works, it's obedience. It's the Spirit working in us to will and to do. It's the ability to discern that voice as we reach forth to those things which are before us, pressing toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. "Let us therefore, as many as would be perfect, complete, mature--that word complete means having finished or having allowed this thing to finish itself in us--be thus minded." The mature man comes to realize the vanity of self-effort, the vanity of trusting in past accomplishments, in our own ability to endure hardship, to discipline our flesh, to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and pray, and study. Now we've learned to die to those things. The spiritual man is the one that reckons himself dead in Jesus Christ, and alive in resurrection power, and confident that the Spirit of God is ordering our steps leading us into all truth.

Turn back to Romans 6. Let me show you what we're talking about here from a doctrinal perspective. The four steps of sanctification--know, verses three through six. Reckon, verse 11. Yield, 13 through 16, and obey, that sixteenth verse--four keys words to victorious living. Chapter 6, verse 3, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him into [His] death: [by faith] that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Do you believe that? See, faith gives us the capacity to believe that. Believe means to trust or to rely upon. That faith is a gift of God by grace and planted into our hearts. It causes us to realize that Jesus did this and that when we say, "Yes, I believe He did that for me, we are baptized with Him, and we are crucified with Him at that moment." Then we need to understand, verse 5, that if we've been planted in the likeness of His death there's a natural consequence to that; if I've died with Him, if I'm abiding in Him and His death, I have then partaken of the resurrection. "If I died with Him I will be raised with Him. If I know the full ability of what His death accomplished"--this is what Paul was saying in Philippians 13. "If I come to the knowledge of His death, if I know Him in His death, I will partake of His resurrection power. Knowing that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin has been made ineffective. It's no longer dominant in power. It does not rule any longer. The old man, the body of sin is destroyed that henceforth we're no longer the slaves." Sin no longer lords it over us, it is in our members but it is no longer our treasure. That's where we are today. It's in me. The propensity is there, the tendency is there, but I don't like it. I don't love it, I don't seek it; it seeks me, but it doesn't dominate me anymore.

Do you know that? Do you believe that? Then the Scripture says we have something else that we have to do. Knowing that this is done once for all, "For he that is dead is freed from sin [verse 7]. "Now if we be dead with Christ [verse 8, this is the key. We know] we believe that we shall also live with Him: [in the power of His resurrection] Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him." Once for all this thing is a finished work, and you and I have one thing left to do, verse 11, "Reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Now let's talk about the word "reckon" for just a moment. To reckon means not only to realize or to be aware of, but reckoning is an accounting term, it means to put to your account the fact that sin is no longer dominant in your life. Ego does not rule, the old man is dead. I am a new creature. The things I used to love I now hate. Have you put that to your account once for all? Have you finally come to stop judging yourself by all of your failures, and realize, "I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ"? Are you living there? Are you confident in that? Or when sin does manifest in your life do you say, "Oh, I thought he was dead." He's dead, amen? "Yeah, but it appears as though... No. "I call things that are not as though they were, praise God. To my account is imputed, is reckoned absolute perfect righteousness." Do you know what? God sees me that way. Do you know how He sees me that way? Infinitely, eternally with full, absolute knowledge. God's total omniscience knows me to be righteous. Think about that. You see, when you understand who God is, when you understand what motivated Him to accomplish redemption through the cross--God's purpose is for your victory. We all know it doctrinally, but I have some good news for you tonight: God is for you, praise God. Amen? He's on your side. He wants you to win and He made provision for you to win. He has already declared your victory, praise God. The banquet table is prepared. There's a seat there; there's a nameplate, "Victor," praise God. More than a conqueror. Son of God, heir and joint-heir with Christ Jesus. Is that pretty good news tonight? All you have to do is reckon it. Are you a victor? I reckon. I see it. I proclaim it. I agree with God. I don't understand it. It doesn't always look like it. I see myself as a failure, I feel like a failure, but I acknowledge I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.

Now, when you really begin to see that, proclaim it and believe it. You'll carry yourself differently. When you see yourself as the spotless son of God, the righteousness of God, the innocent of God, the pure of God, you now are no longer going to condescend to those low, slimy, sinful traits. We don't hang out with those people anymore. Sin is beneath me. I'm too good for it. This is what God is calling us to, and as we reckon this in our lives we can begin to boast in the finished work, not in our ability, not in any of our efforts. The good news is God is not keeping score, you're not judged. You're not going to get into heaven because you did ten righteous things and nine bad ones. Phew, you just made it. There's no score being kept, we're the winners. There's no score; we won. So, am I living to build points, to prove a point, to appease God? No. Jesus is the propitiation. His blood is the propitiation. That's what appeased God. What are we living for? The glory of God, to honor Him. "Well, can I do this in excess and still go to heaven?" "Yeah." "Okay, good." Here's our favorite illustration--chocolate éclairs, there they are. Can I eat that and still be a Christian? Yeah, all things are lawful though not all necessary. That's one of our favorite Scriptures, right? "All things are lawful." "That's lawful? How about two?" "Yeah, because temperance--I'm under control." "I think I'm losing control. What's happening to my temperance? How many can I eat and still be right with God?" Now you're sitting there and the chocolate is all over your face and you're lying in the corner, and you're groaning, and you're calling out to God. "Oh, God." Now you're asking Him to heal you, but you know He's not because you sinned. Your life is out of control. "God is not going to heal me because I don't deserve it." You don't deserve it anyway.

Talking about healing--so many of us are involved right now with many physical needs and healing in our lives. Can I share something with you? You can't pray enough to get healed. You can't believe enough. There are not enough biblical verses to memorize. You can quote all the Scriptures you want on healing and that's not going to get you healed. What's going to get you healed is to reckon to your account that by the stripes of Jesus you are healed. It's a done deal. God wants you healed, you want you healed. You are healed. Rest. Just begin to worship God and just begin to thank God that it's a finished work. "Well, why am I not healed? Is there sin in my life? Maybe I haven't prayed enough. Maybe I didn't hold my tongue right when I prayed." What does that have to do with anything when the Word of God says, "By the stripes of Jesus we are healed," praise God. What does that have to do with anything when the Scripture says, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise them up," praise God. What does that have to do with anything when the Word of God says, "These signs shall follow them that believe in my name. They shall lay hands upon the sick, and they shall recover." That's what I reckon, praise God. That's what I have to say. "Yeah, but it seems that people aren't getting..." What does that have to do with anything? You see, beloved, we're talking about faith. We're talking about calling things that are not as though they were. The problem with so many of us is we're wanting to get healed to feel better and we should be wanting to get healed for the glory of God. We should be wanting to be healed because God has already accomplished it and deserves the worship and the praise that comes forth when it manifests, because we've given Him the worship and praise before it manifests. Everything we're talking about here is living for the glory of God, not for our gain, not for our personal reputation, but we're living to know Him. This is what Father is calling us to.

And as it pertains to that sin factor, we're back to the chocolate éclair thing. You're lying in the corner groaning, overcome again. What do you have to say for yourself? "Well, I can't pray and ask God to heal me. I'm sick because I ate too many chocolate éclairs." Do you want to know something? Your Father is not like you. He wants to heal you anyway. He wants to pick your old fat, self up and wipe your face off, and tell you He loves you, and set you back on the course towards Gold's Gym, set you in the right direction. Now, how do we respond in that situation? With thanksgiving. How do I get victory over chocolate éclairs? Not by saying, "I resist you, you chocolate éclair, you foul devil. I rebuke you. I resist you. No, I think I'll eat you." We're spending so much time focusing on sin and on the things that we want out of our lives that we've missed the point. The point is to focus on God, to begin to say about yourself what God says about you, and begin to say, "Lord, I can eat those chocolate éclairs. I can be laying over there in the corner groaning, and you still love me, and I'm still the righteousness of God, and it doesn't make me accepted or rejected, and so I can eat that." You see, the thing in each one of us, and we all know it, is when we think we can't that we want to; but you can; but I choose not to. For don't you understand, verse 12, that, "Sin does not reign, it doesn't rule in your mortal body, that you should obey it in it's lust anymore, and neither are you to yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, no longer dominated?" Who are the dead? The people that think they have to control their lives, the people that are living by dos and don'ts, ordinances set forth by self. But those that are dead in Christ are no longer under the law we're no longer under ordinances. I'm free to eat chocolate éclairs but I choose not to because I used to serve that before. Now I realize that life isn't about me and my chocolate éclairs. It's about becoming more like Jesus. I have a new treasure, and I know, verse 16, that, "To whom I yield myself servant to obey, his servant I am whether it's sin to death, but of obedience to righteousness. God be thanked, that I was the slave of sin but now I have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine, death to self. I have acknowledged myself selfish, I have acknowledged myself powerless, I have acknowledged myself a demigod, and I've chosen to die. I'm no longer Adam's son. I am now, verse 18, made free from sin, and become the slave to righteousness. I'm now a slave to righteousness."

There's something in me that's drawing me to live beyond my selfishness. I'm no longer my own to choose self, and when I do I don't like it. It's foreign to me, I hate it. Only one thing can satisfy me. I'm only content at one time, and that's when I'm totally out of control, totally dependant upon Jesus, an innocent child with no agenda, with no strength, with no glory, but with a Dad that I can boast in and come to know and hear Him say, "Enter in, good and faithful servant."

Father is calling us into that realm. So now, verse 22, "Being made free from sin we've become the slaves to God, and our fruit is unto holiness, and the end is everlasting life." So what are we saying in the conclusion of this? It's not by works, it's by faith. It's by the acknowledging of a victory won. No scorekeeping, no longer judged by effort, by accomplishments or failures, but by reckoning of the declared righteousness that's been put to our account. "We have the gift of God, eternal life, (verse 23) through Jesus Christ." Are you dead to trying? Are you dead to self-righteousness, works of the flesh, and ordinances of man, and able to finally say, "God working in me to will and to do?" Our faith is the victory. That's the rest that we labor to. That's the walk in the spirit that we no longer fulfill these lusts of the flesh. Father, for that we say, "Thank You," in Jesus' name.

We are so thankful. So gracious are You toward us that we could be called the sons of God. Father, at this moment we no longer try to believe to be healed, we just reckon that we are. We no longer question why am I not healed, but we declare I am healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ. We no longer question, Lord, why can't I get victory over this area of my life, but we stand and say, "In all things I am more than a conquer," and I choose this very moment to yield myself and my members as instruments to Your righteousness that You alone would be glorified. I come before You, Lord, to taste the death. I acknowledge no self-worth. There is no self-righteousness. I am baptized into the profession of faith, "For me to live is Christ, to die to self my gain." And for that grace to say it, to believe it, I just say, "Thank You," Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. As Gary comes, we'll take just a moment in His presence. Grab a hold of these principles and stop trying so hard. The victory has already been won, praise God. Just acknowledge it. Just rejoice in it. Just be thankful and realize that sin doesn't have dominion over you. Forgetting those things that are behind, the victories, and the defeats, I press toward the mark, the mark of the crucifixion in my life the mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The high calling of death, the high calling of humbling ourselves that we might be exalted, that men would see the good works and glorify our Father. You're strong when you're weak, you live when you die, and you're great when you're a servant. You work to rest and you rest to work. You're brought low that He might raise you up. Why don't you choose to come to the end of yourself? If you don't choose it, He will bring you there through circumstances because He wants you for Himself. He doesn't need you, He wants you. Let's worship Him as we sing it together.

Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah! Oh, thank You, Jesus. That treasure of abiding in Christ, the peace of the bread of God, knowing that we're in the will of God, agenda-free, totally dependant. Without Him we can do nothing, and we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. For that we say, "Thank You," Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Turn to somebody next to you say, "I choose the cross," praise God. Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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