Back_To_BasicsEKELBOOKMOBI -=M]m}  -=M]m}  !"-#=$M%]&m'}()*+,-./0 12-3=4M5]6m7}89:;<=>?@ AB-C=DME]FmG}HIJKLMNOP QR-S=TMU]VmW}XYZ[\]^_` ab-c=dMe]fmg}hijklmnop qr-s=tMu]vmw}xyz{|}~ -=M[[ =  , XMMOBIuf4REXTH@,2 @@Back To Basics

Information. 2

Chapter 1: The Morning Watch. 3

Chapter 2: The Fullness Of The Holy Spirit 10

Chapter 3: Temptation. 18

Chapter 4: Obedience. 27

Chapter 5: Fruit 34

Chapter 6: Guidance. 42

Chapter 7: Love For The Lord. 50

Chapter 8: Love For Others. 58

Chapter 9: Love For The Lost 65

Chapter 10: The Church. 72

Chapter 11: Discernment 79

Chapter 12: Assurance. 86

Chapter 13: Worship. 94

Chapter 14: Warfare. 101

Appendix A: A note on The Morning Watch. 108


David Legge studied at the Irish Baptist College, Belfast, Northern Ireland. He served as Assistant Pastor at Portadown Baptist Church before receiving a call to the pastorate of the Iron Hall Assembly. He now serves as pastor-teacher of the Iron Hall, and resides in Belfast with his wife Barbara and their daughter Lydia.

The audio for this series is available free of charge either on our website (www.preachtheword.com) or by request from info@preachtheword.com

All material by Pastor Legge is copyrighted. However, these materials may be freely copied and distributed unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to others free of charge, and the copyright is included. These materials may not, in any manner, be sold or used to solicit "donations" from others, nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, or offer for a fee. This copyright is exercised to keep these materials freely available to all.

Back To Basics - Chapter 1

"The Morning Watch"

Copyright 2004

by Pastor David Legge

All Rights Reserved

I want you to turn with me to Psalm 5. We're beginning a new series this morning that I hope will be a help to us all in our Christian pilgrimage and pathway with the Lord Jesus. It's entitled 'Back to Basics', back to basics, and the subject this morning that I want to take up in the time that remains is 'The Morning Watch', the morning watch. One verse I want to read, we'll look at quite a number of verses from the Scriptures, but just one verse to be a springboard for our contemplations this morning, verse 3 of Psalm number 5: 'My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up'.

There is a great need, I believe, in this modern church age in which we live, an age of modern technology, an age of slick programmes, an age of emphasis on professionalism, to reassess what really matters in the life of the church and in the life of individual believers, Christians. We need to reassess what really brings blessing to the people of God, what we really need if we're going to know true success before God - and I use that phrase 'success' advisedly, because there is such a thing as 'true success' in the word of God, but it's not always as we quantify it today; as numbers, as professionalism, as excellence. If we ever, as the Iron Hall here, or as the church of Jesus Christ where He has called us to be a witness; and if we are ever, as individual Christians, going to succeed for God in a biblical sense, it is essential for us to go back to our roots and examine where we came from, and get back to basics.

I hope you understand what we're saying today. If we feel, perhaps, that in our own personal lives, and as the church - perish the thought - that we have lost our way, it is imperative for us to go back to basics, to examine our roots, to go back to the first principles of Christ - if you like, the ABCs of Christian discipleship - and ask ourselves: are we still practising these things, and is it the absence of these things that are the reasons for the absence of blessing in our lives?

Now this Sunday morning we're looking at 'The Morning Watch', but on other Sunday mornings we'll be looking at the Lord's table, we'll be looking at baptism, we'll be looking at witnessing and soul-winning, we'll be looking at various things that we ought to be doing as Christians in our lives, how we face temptation and so on. We'll hopefully get back to the basics of the Christian life, and if we've never learnt them - if you're newly saved - we'll learn them on these mornings; but if we've forgotten them, or left those old paths of blessing, that we'll get back onto them and know God's blessing in our life once again.

This morning's basic that we've got to get back to is what I've called 'The Morning Watch'. S.D. Gordon, who was a great devotional writer, wrote these words, I quote: 'A life of victory and power hinges upon three things: one, an act; two, a purpose; three, a habit. An initial act, a fixed purpose, a daily habit'. Now that initial act that Gordon was talking about was the act of personal surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, when you come to faith in the Saviour at that hour of salvation. But then that purpose that he's talking about, a fixed purpose, is to obey the Lord as a believer in whatever He tells us to do. So there is an initial act, there's a fixed purpose, and then he talked about a daily habit. If we're to know power, vitality and success in the Christian life, we not only have that initial act of salvation, and that purpose in our minds that is fixed to obey the Lord in whatever He says, but we need to have a daily habit. That daily habit is meeting with the Lord, day by day.

S.D. Gordon said, in summing all that he had just said up, 'After the initial act of surrender, the secret of a strong winsome Christian life is in spending time daily alone with God over His word'. Now here's the question: do you observe the morning watch? Early in the morning, are you found pouring over the word of God, praying to God and bringing your needs to Him in prayer? You might say: 'Well, that's elementary, every Christian should be engaged in such an act', and that is true - but my question to you this morning is: are you engaged in it? What an obvious mistake, you might think, for a Christian of all people to stop reading their Bible, to stop praying, to stop meeting with God in the morning - but the fact of the matter is: many of us are defeated as Christians because we do not observe this basic in the Christian life. We do not come daily before the Lord and meet with God.

The reason for many of us is that we are too busy to pray, but you know those great saints of God that we read of in the Scriptures and we read of in Christian history were not too busy to pray - in fact they were too busy not to pray! The morning watch was such an essential thing in their lives that Watchman Nee, for one example, said 'No Bible, no breakfast'. 'If I get up this morning and I don't have time to read my Bible, well then I don't have any breakfast until I get to that place where I'm pouring over my Bible before God and bringing my prayers to the throne of grace'. Martin Luther was a very busy man, in fact he was busy with the Reformation affairs in the whole of Europe, but he said these words: 'If I fail to spend' - and I'm not laying down a specific time for any of you, but this is just what he said - 'If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I've so much business I cannot get on without three hours, at times, daily in prayer'. He goes on to say: 'If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith'. That's what Luther said, a man who turned Europe upside down for Christ - but here's my question to you in the light of his testimony, and the testimony of Scripture: have any of us lost the fire of faith, the vitality of our Christian lives, the power, the victory? Could it be because the morning watch is neglected?

Now please note, I'm not talking this morning specifically about Bible reading. I'm not talking about praying - I've done plenty of talking about praying and Bible reading in the past. I'm not even talking about what has been commonly called today 'the quiet time', which is an expression that was used in a valid sense when it was first christened, but now I believe has got out of all control, and people think that 'the quiet time' is to just read a portion of Scripture and get through the Bible in a year or two years or whatever, and then pray through a list and bring your needs to God - that is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about meeting with God, specifically meeting with God in the morning.

The necessary ingredient of a life of victory and power in the Lord Jesus Christ is a life, not reading the Bible or praying, it is a life of communion with the Lord Jesus Christ that will bring you into the immediate presence of God. It is the morning watch, it is what saints of God in bygone eras called 'the trysting time'. You might think that's rather an archaic name, and I suppose it is, because it's an old word for a time and a place where lovers used to meet. You would arrange to meet under such-and-such a tree, or at the corner of such-and-such a street with the one that you were courting. There is to be a time, and there is to be a place in all our lives - and I believe the biblical time is the morning, and I'll show you this in a moment - but there is to be that time when we meet with Jesus, the Lover of our souls, and to His bosom we fly!

Is there that place? Others called it 'the still hour', 'the quiet hour', the title we take this morning is 'the morning watch'. The name is a historic one, 'the morning watch', in fact the name is a biblical one. It's directly suggested by David in the verse that we read, Psalm 5 verse 3: 'O Lord, in the morning shalt thou hear my voice; in the morning will I order my prayer unto thee'. It was held through the saints of all the ages that the morning was God's appointed time to meet Him. Murray M'Cheyne put it like this: 'I ought to pray before seeing anyone. I feel it is far better to begin with God, to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another'.

Now is this the modern day practice of the church of Jesus Christ, and individual Christians? The morning watch? To see the face of Jesus before we see any other face? We uphold men like David who said: 'Evening, and morning, and afternoon will I pray and cry aloud and seek Your face'; we uphold the apostles who went up to the synagogue early in the morning to pray; we uphold the Lord Jesus who was found early in the morning in the place of prayer; we uphold men like Murray M'Cheyne and Martin Luther - but as E.M. Bounds says on that very light: 'We build these men's tombs and write their epitaphs, but we are careful not to follow their examples!'. Do we follow their examples of the morning watch?

Now please note, before I go on any further, what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that the morning is the only time to meet God, that is not what I'm saying. Some people, I'll not name anybody, are not morning people - the fact of the matter is, they're grumpy in the morning, it takes them a couple of hours to wake up and the morning is not so conducive to them. I'm not saying that your main 'quiet time' has to always, by some rule or regulation, be the morning. Some people work shifts, and it would be impossible almost for them to meet God, in some sense, in the morning. Some people are ill, and they're not feeling well in the morning, and it takes them a little time to get body and soul together before they can meet with the Lord. I'm not talking about those specific instances, but the principle that I'm espousing is this: we ought to begin the day with God. Whatever our day is, however it begins, as far as it is physically, emotionally and spiritually possible, and however short that time may be - if you take your main quiet time later on in the day, I'm not saying that you can't do that or you shouldn't, but I am saying that we should at least, as soon as the day dawns, have a time with God - because it makes the difference.

Men of God have testified that it makes the difference, and I'm not talking about legalism now - don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not putting myself or yourself into bondage, I'm not saying you must do this or you should do this, rather I'm saying - mark - you need this! You will perhaps even come to a place in your life, if you begin to practice this, where you will want this - there will not be a bondage, but it will be blessing; it won't be penance, it will be a privilege to get up and lift your voice to God in the morning. Let me give you this basic in two titles: one, the morning watch is the most biblical of practices; and two, the morning watch is the most beneficial of practices.

Let's take the first: it is the most biblical of practices. Now we don't have time to go into all this, let me just say that if you were to go to Genesis 19, Abraham rose early in the morning to meet with God. In Genesis 28 Jacob did the same; in Exodus 8, 9, 24 and 34 Moses did it; in Joshua 3, 6, 7 and 8 Joshua rose early in the morning; Gideon in Judges 6; Hannah in 1 Samuel 1; Samuel in 1 Samuel 15; David in 1 Samuel 17; Job in chapter 1 verse 5; the apostles in Acts 5:21; Mary in Luke 24, Mark 16, John 20 and our Lord Jesus Christ - who is our supreme example and gives us the power to live like Him, in Mark chapter 1 and verse 34.

Let's turn to that portion for a moment - Mark 1:34, and it says: 'He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee'. Now just imagine the scene please, the Lord Jesus has been busy all the day before healing the sick, making blind eyes to see, doing mighty miraculous works before men. The crowd is around about Him, everybody is thronging Him, everybody wants Him, they're pushing up against Him in the press; and the nightfall comes and He goes and retires to His bed - and almost like a voice to Samuel in the night, He hears the voice of His heavenly Father, and He arises. There is none other arisen in the house, no one else in the town is awake, and carefully He gets out of His bed and He walks on tiptoes to the door of that house. He lifts the latch and closes it gently, and He goes out into that same street, past the same houses where people were thronging after Him from. He goes into the countryside, and then into the fields; and He sees a crevice, perhaps, in a rock that is nearby - and there He gets upon his knees and He faces God in heaven, and He cries to Him for power! Not another soul around Him - no one sees it - but there He is, the Son of God in the morning watch.

Now this is biblical, the statement 'the morning watch' goes right back to ancient times, where city walls were guarded. The guards would stay up all night and take shifts in order to protect the city. In the earliest times the morning watch was divided into three watches. There was a watch from 6pm to 10, then there was a watch from 10 to 2, and then again there was the watch from 2 to 6am - those three watches. In Roman times, in the days of our Lord Jesus and the disciples, the division was into four watches of the night. The first watch was from 6, tea-time, 6pm through to 9pm, that was the evening watch; then there was the midnight watch which was from 9pm to 12 midnight; and then there was the cock-crowing watch from midnight to 3am; and then there is what is called the morning watch from 3am to 6am. Now it is interesting that in the Bible it's constantly repeated that the Lord keeps the nightly watch over His children - what am I talking about? When you're asleep and when I'm asleep, and when the children of Israel were asleep in the Old Testament, it was the Lord who would keep them during the night - He was watching over them, Psalm 121: 'The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night'. He watched over them, in fact Psalm 127 verse 1 that says: 'Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it', also says, 'except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain'. The word for 'keep', 'except the Lord keep the city', is the same word for 'watchmen'. So you could translate it like this: 'Except the Lord watches the city, what is the point in the watchmen watching it, if the Lord is not over it?'.

Why am I telling you all this? It's simply this: there was this idea in the Old Testament and, I believe, the New Testament that the Lord was watching over His people all through the night, the watches of the night, and then out of respect and reverence for Him and devotion, out of a heart of love - before, as it were, the final watch was over where the Lord was taking care of them, they would rise out of their bed and come to meet with God. Do you understand this? It's as if the Lord is saying: 'I've been watching over you all the night while you've slept, and I wish that you would give me the refreshment of a quiet bit of talk and fellowship with you before the day begins'.

Isaiah chapter 50 tells us about this, please turn with me, Isaiah chapter 50 verse 4: 'The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he' - speaking of God - 'wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned'. That is a morning appointment with God, and it is at His special request. Look who is waking us up! It is the Lord who is waking us up in the morning. It is daily: 'he wakeneth morning by morning'. Look at the results of it: a trained ear, a trained tongue, a life of helpfulness, a life of power, a life of victory - and it's early in the morning, because the Lord has to waken us up.

Let me show you another illustration of this in allegory, turn to the Song of Songs for a moment. Song of Songs 5, I believe Song of Songs not only is a typology of the church of Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ, but also an allegory of the Christian in communion with the person of the Lord Jesus - I think that is perhaps primarily what it is, the love relationship that we have with Him. Here you have the bride, as the church or as the individual Christian, and she says in verse 2: 'I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night'. So here is the Bridegroom knocking on the door, and He is damp because of the dew of the early morning, and He wants entrance into the bridal chamber. He says: 'I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up' - but notice, she waited for a while, and then she rose up - 'to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed...I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but there came back no answer'. It was her trysting time with her beloved, and the verses following tell us because of her reluctance in sleep to rise, the desired interview with her Beloved was missed. As we read on in this story we find that she suffered defeat in her contact with the world that day because she had not had that sweet communion with her Beloved.

This is the most biblical of practices, but let me show you in the moments that are left that it is the most beneficial of practices. Now mark this please, this statement: God has chosen the early morning hour for giving special blessings to men. I hope I've shown you that already from the word of God, but let me show you it more: Jacob at Jabok, crossing that ford of Jabok, and there he is a wicked twisted man, just what his name says. He needed to be changed, he needed to have a touch from God, and you remember what happened: there he was, and he was awakened at midnight, during the night, perhaps thinking that one of Esau's men had come and ambushed him, and he turns and he wrestles with this figure - and we know that it was an angelic figure. He wrestles, it says, into the early hours of the morning; and at that point of the morning that supernatural figure touched his thigh and he became weak, and Jacob is heard to utter these words: 'I will not let you go until you bless me' - and it was at that early hour of the dawning of the day that God blessed him. He was given the name 'Israel', a prince with God and with men, and that place was called 'Peniel', the face of God, because it was there in the early hour of the morning that he looked into the face of God.

What about Moses in Exodus chapter 33 and 34? He has the burden of the sin of the people, their idolatry and all their iniquity. He has had the awful experiences that we read about in that book, trying to lead the people of God. But as he prays to God, he asks this prayer: 'Lord, show me Thy glory' - is that not a prayer that all of us desire? 'Lord, that I would have more power, that I would have more consciousness of You in my life' - what does the Lord say to him? Exodus 34:2: 'Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount' - did Moses keep his morning appointment with God? Yes, he did, and it says: 'and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up', and he got such a glimpse of the glory of God, what happened? As he came down that mountain after spending much time with God in His presence, it says that his face shone and all the people could see it, though he was unconscious of it!

In John 20, and I want you to turn to it, we have Mary Magdalene, John 20, on resurrection morning: 'The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre'. Now please mark that in Mark's gospel 16 verse 1 it says that Mary, the other Mary, and Mary the mother of Jesus came at the rising of the sun - but it says here that Mary Magdalene came while it was yet dark. She had an arranged appointment to go with the other two Marys, but she couldn't wait until that, so she rose up early in the morning when it was still dark, and she went to anoint the body of our Lord Jesus Christ with those spices. We read on that when she got to the tomb there was no one there. She went back and told Peter and the disciples, and as they ran back to the other disciples we read that she stayed there, and she stood beside the empty tomb weeping, thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the angel came to her and said: 'Woman, why weepest thou?'. She said: 'They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him'. Verse 14: 'When she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him', this is beautiful, she doesn't even name Him because there's only one man in her life, 'Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master' - O my Master!

When did she meet the Master? Can I correct that - when did the Master choose to meet her? Early in the morning, she could go away and truly say: 'I have seen the face of Jesus, tell me not of aught beside; I have heard the voice of Jesus, all my soul is satisfied'. Will you allow me to go to the next chapter, chapter 21? We see seven disciples this time, verse 1: 'After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing'. Now do you know what that statement was? 'I've had it with this Christian lark. Christ is dead, our promises are buried, there is no hope. The fishing that I left to follow Christ to be fishers of men, I will retort to because there is no hope'. 'They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus'.

When did the Lord Jesus meet those bitterly disappointed and downcast disciples? When it was the breaking of the day, they noticed Him in the dim dawn light, someone standing on the beach. Now I have given you loads of examples here today of how the morning is the most biblical practice to wait upon God; how it is the most beneficial practice where God has chosen to meet us, and where God has promised to bless us before the world awakes, before our minds and our hearts are filled with all the distractions of a busy day - to give the best time to God, do not underestimate it! Please do not miss the difference that makes.

Several years ago Barbara give me a poem entitled 'The Difference', and you might have heard it or read it, you might have it. Listen to it - and I want to finish with two poems, this one first. It goes like this:

'I got up early one morning and

rushed right into the day;

I had so much to accomplish that

I didn't have time to pray

Problems just tumbled about me,

and the heavier came each task.

"Why doesn't God help Me?" I wondered.

He answered , "You didn't ask".

I wanted to see joy and beauty,

but the day toiled on, gray and bleak;

I wondered why God didn't show me.

He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God's presence;

I used all my keys at the lock.

God gently and lovingly chided,

"My child, you didn't knock."

I woke up early this morning,

and paused before entering the day;

I had so much to accomplish

that I had to take time to pray'.

Do you take time to pray in the morning? Do you hear the voice of the nail-pierced hand knocking, and saying to you: 'Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him and sup with him, and he with me'. Here's an individual who heard His voice, and from that hour hearing His voice wrote this prayer of the experience that she had in the presence of the Lord Jesus that was second to none. Listen to this poem carefully as I close with it, it's called 'The Grey Dawn':

'At the grey dawn, while yet the world is sleeping,

And the sweet matins of the birds begin,

One who hath held me in His holy keeping

Standeth at my threshold waiting to come in.

Oft had He knocked to give me gentle warning,

My heart seemed willing, but my flesh how weak!

Until one morning, O that blessed morning,

When my own name I heard Him speak.

Yes, t'was my name - no other voice could speak it

To stir my heart and melt my very soul.

And I rose so quickly to obey it:

Flung wide the door and gave Him full control.

O, then I feasted on divinest beauty,

The altogether lovely loving One,

While blessing me through radiance round each duty,

That in His name should on that day be done.

Peace fell upon, while to Him I listened,

And in that secret hour I talked with Christ

As ne'er before, and we together christened

With tears of joy, new joy, our sacred tryst.

Can I afford to miss such rare communion?

To let the health of my own soul decline?

May Christ forbid, His grace secured the union,

While I am truly His, as He is mine'.

Is your morning hour given to God? For if it is, I tell you as one who has practiced it, and one who has failed many times in it and missed out from it: it makes the world of difference to begin the day with God. Can I ask you before we pray: did you meet God this morning? Did you? It is that why there's an absence of power and vitality and joy in your Christian life? It's very easy to rectify - set the alarm tomorrow morning and meet with Him, and what a difference it will make!

Lord, let us hear the voice of the Saviour in the morning, getting us up to meet with Him in that appointed trysting place, where we will watch with Him and He with us. Bless us in it, we pray, and bless us today as we continue on in Thy presence, that we will see the wondrous face of beauty, and know the gentle touch of care. Amen.

See Appendix A A note from Pastor Legge on 'The Morning Watch'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word - September 2004

www.preachtheword.com

info@preachtheword.com

Back To Basics - Chapter 2

"The Fullness Of The Holy Spirit"

Copyright 2004

by Pastor David Legge

All Rights Reserved

To listen to some, being saved would appear to be all that really matters. Of course, being saved is the most important thing in life, the most important experience that any of us will encounter is the decision whether or not to trust Christ for salvation, and to know for sure that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus and we are on our way to heaven. There is no other more important essential thing than that. But to listen to many Christians who emphasise the evangelical gospel of the necessity to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved, there is a danger that we convey the message: 'Well, that's all that matters'. It is the most important thing, but it is certainly not the only thing. In fact, it is only the beginning of this great Christian life. It is, if you like, only the threshold experience that ought to introduce us to a lifetime adventure of many more spiritual experiences, and many more supernatural encounters with God.

I wonder do you believe that? Not just intellectually, but experientially, do you believe that conversion is only the start, and after conversion there will be many experiences, many encounters with the divine godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Now we are not those who call ourselves Pentecostals, we are not those who call ourselves charismatic, and I'm not making a critique of either of those two societies at all, that's not my purpose this morning. The danger is that because we reject, perhaps even a great deal of teaching that comes from those two camps, we almost categorically ignore the third person of the blessed Trinity, the Holy Ghost of God. We are ignorant, perhaps of His work within our lives, unto sanctification, unto power, and in fullness, that we all ought to know no matter what denomination we stand under.

So, it's so important that early believers, right at the beginning of their Christian lives, understand that there is more to life than just being saved, that there is an experience called the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Do you know that? Christian who has been on the road for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years - have you ever entered into what it is to be full of the Holy Spirit of God? There is more to the Christian life than being saved, as Faber, the poet whom I love so well, put it:

'Tis not enough to save our souls,

To shun eternal fires;

The thought of God will rouse the heart

To more sublime desires'.

The experience that is taught in the Bible, chiefly from Ephesians 5 verse 18 that we read from, is an experience called 'the fullness of the Spirit' which may be simultaneous with conversion. It could happen, theoretically, at the same time at which you're saved. I think there are instances of that within the Scriptures in the Acts of the Apostles, but this is also an experience - perhaps more commonly in our present age, whenever it does happen - that is subsequent to conversion. It happens after the moment of initial belief and confession of our Lord Jesus. This expression 'the fullness of the Spirit', or 'to be filled with the Spirit', or 'to be full of the Spirit' is found fourteen times in the New Testament. It's found four times in Luke's gospel, in one it refers to John the Baptist who was full of the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb - imagine that! Then it refers to Elizabeth, his mother, and Zacharias his father, who were both full of the Holy Spirit. Then finally it's mentioned of the Lord Jesus Himself, after His baptism, that there He was full of the Holy Spirit; and then later as He went on to be tempted, He was led of the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.

Those four occasions in Luke's gospel are the only four occasions prior to Pentecost. Pentecost is that event that we read of in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 2; the Lord Jesus has died, been buried, rose again, and has now ascended to heaven - but He promised His disciples that He would send to them another comforter, another strengthener that would be with them and would enable them to do greater things than He was able to do on the earth just Himself there and then in one body. He was sending His Spirit into each believer to do the works that the Lord Jesus Christ had done in the preaching of the gospel.

Let me show you this in John chapter 14, it's important that we understand the biblical foundation of this doctrine of the fullness of the Spirit. John 14, you know well the initial introductory verses about that great mansion and dwellingplace God is preparing for us. The latter verses are not so familiar from verse 16 on, the Lord Jesus said: 'I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you'.

Now at that moment in time the Holy Spirit dwelt with the disciples, in a certain sense the Spirit of God accompanied them - but the Lord was speaking of a day coming Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit would not just dwell with them, but would be - future tense - in them. He would come to dwell with His people. The Holy Spirit, inevitably, would be poured upon all flesh, and anyone - whatever they were, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female - who would meet God on His own terms, and put faith in Jesus Christ, could have the experience of being totally inhabited by the Holy Spirit.

Now it's important that we understand that in the truest sense the disciples were not 'complete Christians' until Acts chapter 2. What I mean by that is, you need to understand that the Gospels are a transitory period - but if we're wanting to understand what the new birth really is, and what the church of Jesus Christ comprises of, Acts chapter 2 is the birthday of the church of Jesus, it is Pentecost, it is the time when the Holy Spirit comes to reside among His people, the church of the living God, as His temple, His dwellingplace - and He empowers them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Never had God dwelt with men like He did at that moment and on from Pentecost.

Do you understand this? The disciples became, in their fullest sense, Christians in the upper room on that day. They became, collectively, the temple of the Holy Spirit; individually their bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit of God came to reside in them. Now, from Pentecost on, in the New Testament the fullness of the Spirit is mentioned ten times, nine times in the Acts of the Apostles alone, and this one occurrence in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. Now let me just say, and this is important, because this is a series primarily for those who are new in the faith, and trying to get some of you who are old in the faith back to basics - it's important for all of us to understand that the church, historically, in its most blessed times has always emphasised this truth of the fullness of the Holy Spirit; that we need the Spirit's help; that we cannot do anything without the Holy Ghost of God. Many well-known and mightily used servants of God, if you read Christian biographies you'll know this as well as I do, all of them testify to being filled with the Holy Spirit - or others call it 'anointed with the Holy Spirit' - some in a very dramatic way.

Let me give you, perhaps, what is one of the most notable accounts from the life of D. L. Moody. I read his words, he says: 'The blessing came upon me suddenly like a flash of lightning. For months I had been hungering and thirsting for power in service, I had come to that point where I think I would have died if I had not got it. I remember I was walking the streets of New York, and I had no more heart in the business I was about than if I had not been in this world at all. Well, one day, O what a day, I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it, it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Right there in the streets the power of God seemed to come upon me so wonderfully that I had to ask God to stay His hand. I was filled with a sense of God goodness, and I felt as though I could take the whole world to my heart. I took the old sermons I had preached before without any power, and it was the same old truth, but there was new power. Many were impressed and converted, and this happened years after I was converted myself. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world. It would be as the small dust in the palace'.

He experienced an encounter with God that filled him full of the Holy Spirit and changed his life. We know the great work that D. L. Moody did for Christ, and there are others who testify to such dramatic experiences when they surrender everything to the Lord, and the Lord comes in in fullness of power. However, let me also say this cautiously: there are many other men of God, equally as great, and who have been equally as used of God as D. L. Moody, who do not testify to any great dramatic manifestations when they were filled with the Holy Spirit. R. A. Torrey, who was Moody's helper in his campaigns and then subsequently became his successor, and saw many many thousands of souls led to Christ, but he said that he was just filled with the Spirit when he came and asked the Lord to do it, and believed that the Lord would do it upon the authority of His word, and knew it was according to God's will. He just took God at His word, and He testifies that nothing felt different, nothing changed in that sense internally or emotionally with him. C. H. Spurgeon testifies to knowing the fullness of the Holy Spirit, but he never mentions an experience like D. L. Moody. Billy Sunday claimed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but he accounts no testimony like D. L. Moody.

So there are some who experience a dramatic filling, there are others I think that don't experience anything dramatic, yet testify to the power of God in their life. They may not experience the same phenomenon or drama in the event, but that's not the important thing, and that's the thing that many folk get hung up about - the important thing is this: that you know God's power throughout your life. That's why we should never define doctrine by the biographies of men's experience, because men's experience varies.

So we're asking the question: what is the fullness of the Holy Spirit? Do you have it? Let me first of all say what it is not. Now it would be good if you jot these down, or at least mentally note them. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is not for Christian workers alone. Because we read Christian biographies about great men like D. L. Moody, we think this is something for the special people - if you think they're special - on platforms, or on the mission field, or something like that. There's a sense in which it is for the work of God in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, the Lord Jesus told the disciples that when the Holy Spirit would come upon them they would receive power to be His witnesses. There is a necessity to have the Spirit's power to witness to others in the gospel. In Acts chapter 4 and verse 8, if you turn to it with me quickly, and I want you to turn to a few verses, Acts 4 and verse 8 we read: 'Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel...', and he goes to preach this great sermon, because it's necessary to be filled with the Holy Spirit to really preach God's word as you ought to preach God's word.

So there's no doubt about it that the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures is an anointing, an equipping, an unction and enduement of power for those who are doing God's work - but it is not just that. Because, let's face it, all of us ought to be doing God's work. All of us are to be witnesses, not just evangelists, or pastors, or teachers, or missionaries - it is for all Christians, it is for our living. That's why Paul in Ephesians 5:15 says: 'See that you walk circumspectly', other translations translate it more generally 'See that you live' - it's for life! It's for your life, believer, to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. It's not just for Christian workers, although it is that.

Secondly, it's not to impart the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is very important, I'm not splitting hairs here, I'm making distinctions that are biblical. In Romans chapter 8, if you turn with me to it, Romans 8 and verse 9, verse 8 says: 'So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his'. Could you paraphrase that? I think you could: 'If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is not a Christian', for that's what Christian means, one of Christ's ones, Christ's followers. So you cannot be a 'Christian' unless you have the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is given to you at conversion in the new birth, that's what the new birth is: the Holy Spirit opening your eyes, the impartation of life in your soul that has been dead in trespasses and sins.

So the fullness of the Holy Spirit is not this sort of idea that you confess Christ, and six months down the line you get the Holy Spirit for the first time - that is not found within the Scriptures. Thirdly, it's not just for Christian workers, it's not just the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is not more of the Holy Spirit. What I mean by this is, because Paul uses an illustration of being full or filled with the Holy Spirit, you've got this idea of a cup or some kind of receptacle filled with liquid, and you think that being full is being up to the brim, but some people aren't so full and so on. That is not, I believe, the illustration that the apostle is trying to get across to us, because we're not talking here about a liquid in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not some kind of cosmic force; the Holy Spirit is a person, and you can't have part of a person and not have the other part! You can have a person's confidence and less or more of their trust, which I'm sure is so with regards to our relationship to the Holy Spirit - but it cannot be that we have, in some way, got a little bit of the Holy Spirit, and other people have got more of the Holy Spirit. That is not the sense that we have here within the word of God.

Fourthly, the fullness of the Spirit is not the baptism of the Spirit. Many great writers and men of God have called the fullness of the Spirit the baptism of the Spirit, even up to this day. They understand the same theology that we have but they just put a different name upon it, but I believe it's erroneous because Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 and verses 12 and 13 says that 'We have all', emphasis on that word 'all', 'We have all, the members of the body, been baptised into one Spirit, and we have all drunk of that one Spirit'. The baptism into the body is the moment of conversion, so therefore we are baptised, we're identified, we're taken into Christ as His own at that moment of salvation. It doesn't come subsequent to it.

It's not for Christian workers only, it's not the gift of the Holy Spirit, it's not more of the Spirit, it's not the baptism of the Spirit, but also please note that it's not total sanctification. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is not all of a sudden being free of sin, as some would claim, and Wesley claimed was possible - yet he himself did not attribute it to himself, he didn't believe he'd got there. But many do believe that you can be free of all sin, now this is erroneous according to 1 John 1 and verse 8. John says: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us', ultimately we make God a liar. In fact in Galatians 5 and 17 we read there that the Christian life is an experience of a civil war within our hearts, that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh - the two are contrary to one another, and there is continual pulling. This is what many young believers don't understand, and I think I'll spend maybe a week alone on it in this series, explaining that when we are converted we still have two natures, we still have our old nature and we have our new nature in Christ - but it depends which one we feed that will overcome the other. You will never be totally sanctified until you're in heaven and you're like Jesus.

That is not what the fullness of the Spirit is, and let me say also - finally - that it is not a once and for all filling. There's no such a thing found within God's word. If you look at Ephesians 5 verse 18, literally it could be translated as this: 'Be being filled with the Holy Spirit'. 'Be being filled' - you say 'That doesn't make sense', well it's the present continuous tense, you could translate it: 'Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit'. It's not an idea of having been filled at some point in your life, although there will obviously be an initial experience that you will have with God by faith - but it is being full, present tense, at that moment in time, even now this morning being full of Holy Spirit. Now it may begin with a crisis experience, but what Paul is talking about here is that it must become a consistent characteristic of your life. It's not ticking a little box in spiritual criteria and qualification, where you say: 'Well I've been saved, and I've also been filled with the Holy Spirit' - how are you know? Is it a continuous characteristic in your life?

Look at what it says about those who, I believe, became deacons in Acts chapter 6. In Acts chapter 6 and verse 3 we read, because of the various rows that were going on, and the distributing of the resources did not seem to be done fairly, and so the apostles decided that they would labour in the word of God and in prayer, but the church was instructed in verse 3: 'Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full', not who have been filled, 'full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business' - they were full of the Holy Spirit. Look at Acts chapter 7, on a chapter, and verse 55: 'But he', Stephen, 'being full of the Holy Ghost' - he was full of the Holy Spirit. Now I want you to see the distinction here: you could be filled yesterday, but you may not be filled today. You may be grieving the Spirit today, but here in Ephesians 5:18 the command is: 'Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit'. Therefore, if you at this moment in time are not full of the Holy Spirit, you are disobedient to God's word!

Now it might surprise you that I have prefaced this message with the fact that this is elementary stuff, because it is in a biblical sense. There's nothing as elementary as the fact of the matter that the Christian should have God in complete and absolute control of his life. Let's look at this verse quickly, the two commands that are given in verse 18. There are two, one is 'Don't get drunk' - a lot of Christians would need to really look at that verse, because there's a lot of you that think there's nothing wrong with social drinking. But you've forgotten that after that one drink there comes two drinks, and more drinks, and you don't realise you're tipsy but everybody around you realises it. Don't get drunk! In other words, you keep control of your mind! Don't give your mind over to a spirit that you put in a bottle and put down into your stomach, and it takes control of your faculties, your brain and your heart.

The second command, which is like to it, is: 'Be filled with the Spirit'. It's in the imperative mood, not an option, you're not allowed to ignore it, you must be filled with the Spirit. It's in the plural, which means it applies to all Christians, not a select few. The verb is in the present continuous, it's constant, not on special occasions or for special events. The verb is in the passive mood, we do not fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit, although it's a command, but we have to get to the place where we are able to be filled by the Holy Spirit. In other words, you could translate it like this: 'Let the Holy Spirit fill you'. Do you understand?

Well, the question is obvious: how do you let the Holy Spirit fill you? Well, this word 'fill' in the New Testament is used several times. It's used of things, to fill the fishermen's nets with fish; that's the way it's used. You can fill a building with people, you can fill a city with populous, and you can fill someone's needs - Philippians chapter 4. It's also used of people, it's used of the Lord Jesus Christ that in Luke 2:40, as a child, He grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was filled with wisdom - the grace of God was upon Him. It's also used of believers in Acts 13, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. Now some of you know what it is to be filled with joy, and Romans 15 says: 'Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing'. You know what it is, or what it is not to be filled with joy or to be filled with peace - well, it's used in the same way here in Ephesians 5:18 of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and it's the same sense in which it's used.

Now what is that sense? Well, Charles Price helped me out with this one how he put it, he pointed out that these things - joy, and peace, and other emotions that are mentioned in the New Testament of us being filled with - they are things that one, dominate our personalities; and two, determine our behaviour. They dominate our personalities and they determine our behaviour. Incidentally, that is exactly what alcohol does, isn't it? Think about it - you've seen a drunk man, and his personality is changed to someone he's not. If he's a grumpy man he's all of a sudden a happy man when he's filled with that spirit. He comes out with things that he would never imagine himself saying when he's sober. It dominates his personality and it determines his behaviour. It makes him walk from one side of the street to the other. Paul's illustration is this, simply: 'Do not be drunk with wine, but, in regard to what drink and alcohol does to your personality and to your behaviour in a negative sense, allow the Holy Spirit to do to your behaviour and your personality in a positive sense'.

Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones was a Hardy Street specialist. This is what he said about alcohol: 'Drink is not a stimulus, it is a depressant. It depresses first and foremost the highest centres of all the brain. They are the very first to be influenced and affected by drink, they control everything that gives a man self-control, wisdom, understanding, discrimination, judgment, balance and the power to assess everything. In other words, everything that makes a man behave at his very best and his highest, the better a man is controlled the better he is - but drink is something which immediately gets rid of control, that is indeed is the first thing it does'. Drink controls you, drink takes your faculties and uses them to its own ends, which you are out of control of. It affects the highest centres of the brain, it controls everything that the man is in wisdom, understanding, discrimination, judgment, balance, power to assess everything - but if you let the Holy Ghost control your brain, He will control the best part of your whole life: your soul, your emotions, your intellect, your will - and it will make you your best for Christ!

Do you see what the apostle is saying? Let me leave you with three thoughts that Charles Price outlines, which I think are tremendous. There are three ways how you know a man is drunk. The first way you know he is drunk is how he walks, isn't it? He staggers from side to side. The second way you know how he's drunk is the way he talks, he talks gibberish. The third way you know he is drunk is the way he smells, you can smell the alcohol off his breath and maybe even his clothes. These are evidences that a man is filled with that type of spirit, he is controlled by the same spirit - but in the same way you can know if you, or others, are filled with the Holy Spirit by the same three characteristics: how you walk, how you talk, and believe it or not, how you smell!

Let's take first and foremost how you walk. Galatians 5:16 says: 'Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh', and the works of the flesh are mentioned, and also the fruit of the Spirit is mentioned, but it's actively asking us to walk in the Spirit - walk as He has taught us to walk. How you live your life: how are you living your life? I'm not talking about some kind of skip that you do from Sunday to Sunday, or Sunday to Monday night, and then to Thursday, and then to Sunday - I'm asking you how are you living your life in the home? How are you living your life in the workplace? How is your personality dominated? How do people see you as an individual? How is your behaviour determined? Is it determined by what God's Holy Spirit says within His word, and because your life is completely inhabited by Him?

Ephesians 5 tells us that our life is to be circumspect, 1 John 1:7 that we are to walk in the light as He is in the light, and once our sins are shown up to us we've to plunge them beneath the confession of the blood. Do we walk in the light, or are we Christian people that hide things from God or from others, or even in some ignorant way from ourselves? How are you walking this morning?

How are you talking? Here's an evidence whether you're full of the Holy Spirit or not, the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12 that out of the heart originates what comes out of your mouth: 'Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks'. If your heart's full of bitterness, if your heart's full of anger, that will come forth in fruition in the words that you speak about others, the words that you speak even about God, the things of God, the church of God! How do you speak to others? How do you speak about others? It's very interesting that in the Acts of the Apostles, when people were filled with the Spirit something happened to their mouths. At Pentecost they all began to speak in tongues, then we find that Peter, full of the Holy Spirit as we read, preached - he used his mouth for God. We read that the apostles preached boldly, without fear - look at chapter 5 of Ephesians, verse 19: 'Be full of the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord'. It affects your mouth, your talk!

I'll tell you, if there's one problem to blessing in the church of Jesus Christ in any age, it's people's tongues - how they use them. How is your walk? How is your talk? How is your smell? What am I getting at? Well, in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 we read these words, verse 14: 'Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place'. Do people know Christ because of you? 'For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?'. You are meant to bring with you in life, wherever you go, into the deepest hell-hole that God leads you any particular day, the savour and the fragrance of Jesus Christ. Do you bring a savour or do you bring a stench? Do people smell Christ about you?

The Lord said that when He, the Spirit of truth, would come, He would guide them into all truth, 'for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me', Jesus, 'for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you'. There are people running around and all they talk about is the Holy Spirit this, the Holy Spirit that - there's nothing wrong with talking about the Holy Spirit, but Jesus is saying that the mark of a man or a woman filled with the Holy Spirit is that he'll talk about the Christ of God, and glorify Him!

What dominates your personality? Is it Christlikeness? What determines your behaviour? Is it Christlikeness? It was John Owen, that great puritan theologian who said that the church is stuck somewhere between the cross and Pentecost, as if the Spirit hasn't come! My friend, have you realised your blessings in Christ? Watchmen Nee, that great Chinese Christian, said that we're like a man walking into a bookshop, and buying two books. One book is conversion, and the other book is the fullness of the Spirit. Both of them are ours, they've been purchased, but we walk out of that shop and we forget the second, the fullness of the Spirit. It's truly ours, but we've never really come and entered into the fullness of it all. It's ours by the blood of Christ, by His death and resurrection, but are we living in the good of it?

I know there's a debate about what to call it - do you know what Billy Graham said, and I think he said well? I don't care what you call it, just get it! There was once a school fire in Texas, and 263 children were killed. After the war they built a new school, and they installed within it the finest sprinkler system that man had ever made. It was so good that there were people who came for tours of the school to see it, to put it into their schools, the great mastery of technology that was in it. After seven years of post-war boom, they decided to expand the school again, and when they began to do that expansion work they found that that sprinkler system, second to none, had never ever been connected. They had it, it was purchased for them, but it wasn't doing the work that it was purchased for because they weren't hooked up to the source.

My friend, I'm asking you: have you ever known what is to be filled with the Holy Spirit? I'm not talking about bright lights, I'm talking about giving your whole life to Christ and knowing that He's got everything that you know about! Have you once been in that place, believer, but you're far from it today because you've grieved the Holy Spirit, you've hurt the Holy Spirit, you've caused Him pain? Like the dove-like personality that that He is, He has flown away! Does Christ dwell in your hearts by faith, that means does He feel at home in your heart this morning?

Our late brother, Rex Mathie, who preached in this place - he has gone to be with the Lord of course - but I remember having the opportunity of having him in my home one of those times. I asked the question that I was pondering at that particular time, what his thoughts were on the fullness of the Spirit. He had thought much about it, he said, and considered the matter over the years. He himself did not testify to any dramatic experience in his life, but he came to the conclusion that the fullness of the Spirit is the opposite side of the coin to the lordship of Jesus Christ. He put it like this to me: 'David, when you and Jesus aren't arguing about anything, you will be full of the Holy Spirit'.

D. L. Moody was being considered to come and take a great campaign, I think it was in England. Some of the spiritual pygmies who were organising that campaign, asked in a sort of sarcastic way: 'What? Does it have to be D. L. Moody? Has he a monopoly of the Holy Spirit?'. The answer came back: 'No, no man has a monopoly of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly of D. L. Moody'. Does He have a monopoly of you? For when He does, you will be full of Him.

Lord, forgive us if we have grieved, quenched, even resisted Thy Holy Spirit. But Lord, may we let Him fill us now with the fullness of Christ. In His name we pray, Amen.

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Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word - October 2004

www.preachtheword.com

info@preachtheword.com


Back To Basics - Chapter 3

"Temptation"

Copyright 2004

by Pastor David Legge

All Rights Reserved

Now we're turning in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 for our reading. As I said, we have now on these Lord's Day mornings begun a series entitled 'Back to Basics', looking at really the ABCs of the Christian faith, that if we are new to Christ and have only come to faith in recent days we need to learn as elementary truths right away if we're going to find our feet and get the most out of the Christian life. But also it's good for us as believers for perhaps 10, 20, 30 or more years, to read and remind ourselves of these important basics in the Christian life. So it's relevant to all of us. We looked in the first week at 'The Morning Watch', and how important it is to rise early in the morning before day and meet with God in both prayer and the reading of God's word - chiefly to have communion with God. Then the last week I was with you, that Sunday morning we looked at the subject of 'The Fullness of the Holy Spirit', which is a concept that has been largely lost to many in Conservative evangelicalism today.

This morning we're going to look at the subject of temptation. Let's bow in a word of prayer just before we come to a subject that affects all of us, if we're honest, a subject that is very prevalent today as a problem amongst those who are young in our gathering today. So let us pray that the Lord may help us and really speak to us all in our hearts:

Father, we thank You today for the words that we have been singing, 'Ask the Saviour to help you, comfort strengthen and keep you, He is willing to aid you, He will carry you through'. Lord, we thank You that we have a friend in the Lord Jesus, we have One who sticks closer than a brother, One who we can bring all our problems to, our temptations, our trials, our testings - because we know we have a High Priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, because He was tempted in all parts like we are, except sin. Lord, we pray that we would know today His sympathy, Lord we pray for those who are ill, we pray for those who have been bereaved in recent days, those who are going through problems in our marriages, with our families, in the workplace, those who are struggling with terrible temptations that will not be quenched, that will not be silenced. Lord we just pray at this moment for those who are in our gathering who really at this time are almost calling it quits with regard to their faith in Jesus Christ because they cannot overcome a certain sin in their lives. Lord, would You help them today, give them grace, and give us all grace to struggle and to overcome with sin in our lives. Lord, we pray for our missionary friends, those who are serving You afar off in fields where they are white unto harvest. We pray too that You will thrust forth further labourers into the harvest field. Lord, we pray for us all, that we will be more like Jesus, that in this world that is so sinful, so evil, that our God, we may know what it is to be victorious Christians in this life here on earth - that others may see our good works, not see our failures, and glorify our Father who is in heaven, to whose glory we pray these things. Amen.

Let's read this verse together, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13, Paul writes: 'There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it'. Let's read that verse again, please note every single word and phrase and sentence in it: 'There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it'.

Some years ago there was a girl in Colorado in the United States who was released from jail. She emerged with this exclamation: 'Fine, just as I expected, I am cured - no wedding bells for me!'. That might seem a little bit obscure to those who don't know the background to why she was locked up in prison, but what had happened was: she had sent herself to jail in order to prevent getting married. It was the holiday season, and this girl by the name of Margaret Carrow who was 17 years of age, appeared in a juvenile court and asked the judge to put her into jail until January the 20th, the date of her wedding. That, she explained, was the date that she didn't want to be married. Now you would be forgiven for thinking: 'Well, why did she agree to her fiance in being married at all?'. She related to the judge the fact that when she was engaged to be married, she was engaged to be married to a much older man who she didn't really want to marry, but the fact of the matter was he was so charming, so romantic, that when he turned it on she just couldn't resist him! She knew that if she turned up at the altar on her wedding day, she wouldn't be able to resist saying: 'I do', and she was afraid that she would get married. So she tried to break the spell, and got herself locked up in jail.

Now we laugh at that, but the fact of the matter is that many of us struggle with temptation in a similar way. We just don't know how to resist one, two, or more particular sins; and when they come along we wish almost that we could lock ourselves up. Of course, that's what the monks did, and the nuns, the reason why they secluded themselves away from the world and, they thought, the devil, was to overcome the temptations that are in the world, in the flesh, and posed to us by the devil. But we know, and they hopefully by now know, that it is impossible to resist temptation by locking yourself away. Because not only is there a problem with the world and a problem with the devil, but there is a problem with ourselves. Hopefully by the end of this morning's study you will recognise that.

There are three things first of all that I want you to recognise from this verse that we read together, if you'll look down at 1 Corinthians 10:13. There are three 'buts', this little conjunction 'but' is used three times, and significantly the first 'but' that you find there in verse 13 is: 'There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man'. Now here's the first elementary principle that you need to understand if you're ever going to overcome temptation in your life, it's this: all people, men and women, boys and girls, teenagers alike, are subject to temptation. Everybody is tempted!

Now I know, and you know, that when you're being tempted, particularly in some very very hot seemingly unbearable way, you feel you're the only one in the world who is being tempted in that particular manner. The fact of the matter is, as one paraphrase put that verse, Paul is saying: 'Remember that the temptations that have come into your life are no different from what others experience'. There are young women and young men who actually commit suicide because they feel that no one is suffering, no one is being tested or tempted like they are. They think they are unique, but they're not. None of us are; all of us have been tempted, are tempted, and will be tempted.

Look at the second 'but': 'but such as is common to man: but God is faithful'. All are tempted and will be tempted, but God promises faithfulness towards us in our temptations, no matter how wild they may be. Now that is a tremendous encouragement, we'll look at that in a little bit more detail later on, but that is the very truth of God that can break the very bondage of sin and temptation in anyone's life to know this: that God is able to deliver us!

The third 'but' is: 'but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it'. Victory is possible to everyone! Isn't that tremendous? First of all: all will be tempted - a sad fact, but a fact nonetheless. Secondly: God has promised faithfulness, and God is able to deliver us; and if we trust in God - thirdly - all can know victory in their lives over temptation. Now if that doesn't encourage you to study this subject further, I don't know what will. It is depressing to think that there is no immunity from temptation. All of us will face it one time or another, probably everyday if you're honest with yourself. As Josh Billings has said, the man who has never been tempted doesn't know how dishonest he is! All of us struggle with one temptation or another.

Now, before we go on any further in understanding temptation, I want you to understand a doctrine that is found in God's word that is misunderstood today. It causes many young Christians headaches, nightmares, struggles, because they feel: 'Well, I'm a Christian, I shouldn't have feelings like this, I shouldn't be struggling with sin like I am, because once you're a Christian everything changes - old things pass away and all things become new - maybe I'm not saved at all!'. What many overlook is the fact that when you're saved you receive the divine nature, that means God births His Holy Spirit in your heart to live the life of Christ in you, but what also happens is that the old nature of sin and flesh that you have stays there. It does not disappear, it is still with you.

I could show you many verses from the Scriptures to prove this, but one very particularly significant one is Romans 7:21-23 where the apostle Paul describes how externally keeping the law, as Philippians says, he was blameless, he kept all the rules and regulations of his religion - but internally, in his heart, there was a rule of sin, a law of sin that he couldn't overcome no matter how religious he was. He says this: the good things that he wanted to do, he couldn't do them; and the bad thing that he didn't want to do, those were the things that he found himself doing. In Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17 Paul says this, that the flesh strives against the Spirit, it fights and wars against the Spirit of God in us. That fleshly human old nature fights and tries to overcome the new nature, and the new nature fights and strives with the old nature. And as a Red Indian put it on one occasion: 'There's a black dog and a white dog in us as Christians, and they're both fighting one another, and it is the dog that you feed that will be the one that will overcome'. So Paul said: 'Do not walk in the flesh, but walk in the Spirit, that you may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh'.

Now hopefully that helps you to understand that the reason why we struggle against sin is because we still have an old nature, it is not eradicated at the moment of our conversion. That is why we need to pray, as the Lord taught us, 'Lead us not into temptation'. In other words, 'Lord, either spare me from temptation, or if I am to go through temptation deliver me from the evil governing me and taking control of my life'.

Now let me share with you four points that I believe will help you to overcome temptation, and they're necessary if you're ever going to have the victory. The first is to understand the purpose of temptation. Many do not understand the purpose of temptation in their lives. If you turn to James chapter 1 for a moment please, James explains the purpose of temptation and testing in the life of the believer. James chapter 1 verse 12: 'Blessed is the man' - blessed is the man! - 'that endures temptation'. Now we tend not to think that temptation is a blessing in our lives, it's a curse as far as we are concerned - but God's word says it is a blessing to be tempted. 'For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of victory', upon victory of course, 'which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death'.

What I want you to understand right away is that for the believer temptation is in the will of God for us all. Now until you understand that, you will have a real struggle not just with temptation, but understanding God's will for you in allowing you to go through such things. Now I'm not saying God tempts you, because that is wrong, it clearly says here that God cannot tempt any man with evil, because God is holy. But God says that He allows us to go through the trials of temptation, because it is for our good as believers - how is it for our good? Well, it is for our growth, that is very clear from God's word, that each temptation you overcome, you become stronger when facing that temptation again. But also it is for the testing of our faith: if it was to be rosy in the garden all our lives, and the sunshine was continually beating down upon us in our Christian testimony, when would we ever need to trust in God? It is through the hard times, it is through the times when we feel that the devil is facing us eyeball to eyeball, wanting us to sin; it is then that we really learn to cast ourselves completely by faith on the Lord. Temptation is for our growth and for our faith.

Now understand the process of temptation here for a moment in its purpose. James says, verse 14: 'Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust'. Now that's the first step of temptation, the bait is dropped - Satan or the world drops a bait in front of you to tantalise you. Then the inner desire, James says, that inner lust is attracted to that bait like a magnetism - that's why we know that you've got a sinful nature, because you're still attracted to sin, the Greek word is 'enticed'. It's actually a word for fishing, to lure by a bait. You know exactly what I'm talking about, there are some things, visual images that suddenly come into your sight, and right away there's something in you that is drawn to that sin. James says that as you yield, sin occurs - not in the temptation, but as you mentally and volitionally yield and give in, and are tantalised and satisfied by that sin, then that is transgression in the eyes of God. And fourthly, the tragic consequences are this: that death is hatched in your heart spiritually. That sin brings forth death, and as a believer what it does for us is, is cut off momentarily our communion and fellowship with God in an experiential sense. Like the fish that get hooked, we get cooked when temptation is given into!

Now let me say in passing, because I know that this is a question that will be on many people's minds as we look at verses like this: the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ was actual temptation, there's no doubt about that. Otherwise He would not be able to succour those that are tempted. But what we must understand is that His temptation in Matthew chapter 4 was different in this regard, as James outlined, because our Lord Jesus had no inner principle of sin to be attracted by outward sin and temptation. He was tempted, but He had no inner lust and desire to come and mirror and magnetise that temptation externally. 'Well', you say, 'then how can it be called temptation at all?'. Well, although He had no sin principle in nature, He had human nature. He was 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, He was fasting so that when Satan tempted Him to change stones into bread, He was tempted - do you not think that His gastro-system started to grumble at the thought of bread? Of course it did! He was a human man and being that was actually in the flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh. But there was no sinful human nature in His heart that strived after those sins that the devil was tempting Him with; to fall down and worship him, to give way and to get salvation on an easy road as Messiah.

I hope you understand that. But if we are to overcome temptation, we need to understand that part of the strategy of overcoming: it is adopting the attitude that temptation in our Christian lives is not a curse, but it is the stepping stone to spiritual blessing and growth. I never cease to be amazed at how attitude has a great deal with how you get on as a Christian, your attitude to things. Your attitude to trials, and illness, and sickness, and backbiting - but this is one that is primary: your attitude to temptation. Do you go: 'Oh no, not again, what is God doing in my life? Does He not understand that this is something I could be doing without?'? God knows you need it! He knows it's for your betterment as a spiritual being.

Have you ever taken that step to understand the purpose of temptation? I've got a bit of bad news for you, because the more spiritual you get the more tempted you will be, the greater the testings and temptations that will come. As Vance Havner said: 'If you have not been through the devil's sifter, you're probably not worth sifting at all'. Do you understand that temptation is for your good?

Secondly, there is the promise for the tempted that we read - not just the purpose for the tempted, but the promise for the tempted in 1 Corinthians 10:13: there is a way of escape for everyone tempted! There is conquering and victory assured for everyone, why? Because God is faithful! Now there's some people here today who need to hear this: our God is El Shaddai, the Almighty God, the God who is all-sufficient, the God who has endless resources. Now if the first step to victory over temptation is your attitude towards it, not to fear it, but by faith to accept it; the second step is this: to realise that in God there are limitless resources and power to overcome. Now why is that so important? It is important because I know, as well as you do, that when the devil comes along with a tantalising titillating temptation that you always fall down in front of - it is these words that he uses: 'You didn't overcome in the past, you're not going to overcome today. This is the sin that you can't overcome. This is something that is more powerful than you, more powerful than your God'. He's got the evidence of all those past citations of when you did fall into that temptation, and you start to believe his lie, and you say 'Yes, he's right, I can't overcome!' - and that is the lie of the devil that many Christians, and sinners alike, are held in grips of because they really believe that they cannot overcome when God's word says 'This is my promise: you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free!'. The truth is this: that if you're in Christ, sin shall no longer have dominion over you.

We tend, in those experiences, not to listen to God's word, don't we? We tend to listen to the words of the devil. The purpose of temptation is not for a curse upon you, but for your blessing, but secondly you need to understand that God has promised, promised you, guaranteed you that if you do what He says you will overcome - no doubt about it! Thirdly, yes there's the purpose in temptation, there's the promise for the tempted, but thirdly there is the provision for the tempted. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 18, if you care to turn to it, reads like this: 'For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted'. The Saviour is able to sympathise and help us in our temptation because He was tempted in this world, and tested as a man. Turn to Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11, looking to a future day, and we see how these saints will overcome the temptation of antichrist and the devil, Revelation 12:11: 'And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death'.

Now I want to speak to you of the provision for the tempted. Around the Lord's Table this morning we were thinking of Calvary, as we ought to do every time we are there, but we were thinking specifically of how, yes, at Calvary we believe that our sins were purged, reconciliation between God and man was achieved, redemption, we were bought back from slavemarket of sin into the kingdom of God's marvellous light, all those things - and we could go on and on listing many other things that took place at Calvary - but do you realise today that at Calvary there was achieved once and for all, for every believer, complete deliverance over the power of sin? Do you know that? I think Sidney was touching on that this morning in his ministry, but you see we have three enemies in this world: we have the enemy of the world, externally, the public lights of temptation that are in the sins and pleasures of this world system; we have the devil, the accuser of the brethren who continually tempts us along with his minions of demons; but there is in us a principle called the flesh, the old nature, that still lives on after conversion. It is not eradicated, it does not disappear, but what God's word tells us is that all of these three enemies have been crucified with Christ at Calvary!

Let me show you this, turn with me to Galatians chapter 6 verse 14, this enemy, the world: 'But God forbid', Paul says, 'that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world'. Does that mean you'll never be tempted by the world again? No, but it means this: the power has been cut from off your life of the world, if you would only trust in Christ and what He did for you at the cross. The world has been crucified. Turn back to Galatians 5:24: 'And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof'. This old nature that is in you, it does not disappear, it can still cause you problems, but if by faith you reckon that it died with Christ 2000 years ago on the cross, it is dead and the power is gone. Then Satan, in Hebrews 2, if you turn back to it, Hebrews 2:14: 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, the Lord Jesus also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil'. Now is the devil destroyed today? Is he gone, if he eradicated? Of course he is not, he's still very much alive! But the fact of the matter is: he's as good as dead, because the Lord Jesus when He was crucified on the cross defeated him who has the power over death, the devil!

These three enemies are already defeated, they have already died in Christ - the victory, this is what I want you to see, this is the provision for the tempted, the victory has already been accomplished! This is why we need to understand this today, because there are many people who are struggling and striving, and when you talk to them they'll say: 'I'm trying to overcome this temptation, I'm doing my best!' - when they need to realise that His victory on the cross has, by faith, become our victory. We stand on His victory ground. Now we must claim this day by day in faith, it is not something that just happens at salvation, but it is something every day that we must stake our claim in and face the devil with: the cross victory of our Lord Jesus, just as he will face us every day, we must face him with Calvary's victory too.

So I ask you: what temptation is bothering you? Is it the allure of the world? The tantalising pictures? Is it the music? Is it the fashions and the fads? Is it their food and drink? Is it their way of life? Is it materialism? Is it hedonism? What is it that pulls you? Is it fleshly lusts from within your breast? Fornication? Adultery? All manner of immorality? Hatred? Greed? Strife? Malice? I could go on and on! What is it? Is it Satan attacking you? Is it demonic forces getting the better over you? Are you believing Satan's lies, rather than believing God's word? Maybe you're even, as a believer, God forbid, reading horoscopes, dabbling in the occult and alternative medicines that are from hell itself! Christ, by His death, has made you dead to these things - therefore why should you live as if you're alive to them? Why should you breathe life back into the old nature, when Christ has taken the power out of it?

That's why Paul said in Romans 6: 'How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?'. There is the potential to live on in sin, but why should we do it when it ought not to have dominion over us? The power has been cut from sin in our lives, why don't you realise that by Christ's death He has made you dead to these things? The pipeline has been severed, and the power to your worst imaginable temptation ceases when you realise that it has no life in it because Christ died for it!

That means practically - OK, that's the theology - but practically that means that when Satan comes to tempt you the next time, or when your flesh begins to attract some temptation externally, you remind the both of them that Christ has already defeated both sin and Satan at Calvary. That takes out of the equation you 'trying' to win the victory, or 'striving' to win the victory, when the victory has already been won and all you have to do is claim it! Now it doesn't come automatically, you have to actively by faith claim and believe, and stand in the promise of what Christ has done for you.

We sang Martin Luther's great hymn at the beginning of our service, and Luther often graphically described the activities of Satan in his own life. When asked on one occasion how he overcame the devil, he replied: 'Well, when he comes knocking upon the door of my heart and asks who lives here, the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says: 'Luther used to live here'. The devil, seeing the nailprints in His hands and the pierced side, takes flight immediately!'. That is what we're talking about: we can't face the devil alone, the archangel Michael couldn't face the devil alone! But in Christ, and in the power of His death, we stand on victory ground if we will only stand on it!

Here's three things to do the next time you're tempted: one, identify with Christ's victory. Remind yourself, and remind Satan and your flesh, that you are in Christ and your old nature has died in Him, and you need not live any longer to it. Secondly, recognise that victory of Christ is complete - He is able to give you all victory forever! And thirdly put your faith in it, nothing alone, not your own strength, or your own ability - and do you know something? If you do those three things you will no longer think of defeating the devil: 'How am I going to overcome this temptation?', but you will think of him as already defeated. That's the difference!

So we've seen the purpose of temptation, the promise for the tempted, and the provision for the tempted - can I just spend a couple of moments talking about the power for the tempted? In Romans 8 and verse 2 we get a tremendous thought on the power that is available to all of us. Paul says: 'The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death'. Frederick P. Wood was the director of the National Young Life Campaign years ago, and he summed this issue of temptation up - many of the things that I have spoken of - in one paragraph. He said this: 'All that the Father promised', that was 1 Corinthians 10, 'that the Son provided', what we've just been speaking of the cross, 'the Holy Spirit performs in us. What Jesus made possible, the Holy Spirit makes actual; what Jesus did for us, the Holy Spirit does in us'.

Let me explain it like this: if you were to get a poker and thrust it into a red hot furnace, and take it out after ten minutes or so, you would find that the nature of that poker had changed in that it was pulsating red - the fire had entered into the poker. Now you would find, after leaving it there for another ten minutes, that the old nature would begin to be seen again - because the old nature has not disappeared, it has not been eradicated, but a new overcoming nature has been inserted and infused. Now listen: victory over temptation cannot come by you in some way taking away your old nature and never being tempted to sin again, but what happens is this: moment by moment the Holy Spirit fills us, and counteracts all the sin in our being, and all the sin in the world, and all the devil can throw at us.

One put it like this: 'He has not brought us to a position where it is impossible to sin, but to a position where it is possible not to sin'. In other words, everything that is bad in us is to be replaced by what is good it in Christ. I talk to people who say: 'I can't help it, I'm just naturally badtempered. I naturally look like I've eaten a sour grape. I'm naturally in some way outspoken, my father was outspoken, and his father, and all the rest - I just can't help it!'. Listen: that's your problem, your problem is what you are naturally, and you're to replace what you are naturally by what Christ is supernaturally. You say: 'I can't do it!' - my friend, you can't do it, the reason why Jesus died and rose again three days later is that He wants to live His life through you, because the only life that God is pleased with is the life of Christ, and the only way you can live the Christian life is to let Christ live His life through you. That's what the Christian life is! It's not a ream of rules and regulations, it is to die to yourself and allow a greater power than any sin, temptation, the world or the devil to rule in your life.

Can I leave you with three things that you ought to do if you really want to overcome temptation? The first is: there is an action needed, there is an action needed. James 4 and verse 7: 'Submit yourselves unto God, resist the devil and he will flee from you' - but, listen, many people try to resist Satan but they have never in their lifetime submitted everything to God. You will not have victory over your temptation unless Christ has victory completely over you. You cannot have victory unless Christ has victory in you; unless, as Redpath says, He has every key to every room of your life. To have victory outside, Christ must have victory inside.

In the early days of Saint Augustine's struggle towards truth he made a prayer, this is his prayer: 'Lord, save me from my sins, but not quite yet'. Well, he grew from that prayer to another which went like this: 'Lord, save me from all my sins, except one'. Then finally he came to pray: 'Lord, save me from all my sins, and save me now' - and that was the only prayer that gave him victory, because he had submitted himself completely to God. Now listen, some of you are struggling with sin, maybe you're moaning about it: 'How can I be a Christian? God is meant to give me power over this, that and the other' - but there has never been a time in your life when you have made this action completely before God, and submitted everything to God, and been filled with the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, not only is there an action, but an attitude. First John 5 and verse 4 says, what is this victory that overcomes the world? The victory that overcomes the world is 'even our faith'. Hebrews 11, all those men that overcame this world, and the flesh and the devil, did it by faith. Do you view temptation as a stepping stone that will give you a stronger Christian experience? Erwin T. Lutzer put it like this: 'Each temptation leaves us better or worse, neutrality is impossible'. William Ward said: 'Temptation can cause us to succumb, to sink, to sin or to stand'. Do you just invite temptation? Do you just welcome it? What's your attitude? 'I can never overcome', or is your attitude 'God has given me the victory in Christ, and nothing ought to defeat it!'.

An action, an attitude, but all of that is useless unless you have an alertness. This is where many of us fall down. James 4 says: 'Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you' - you've got to resist. One way to resist is to recognise your enemy, I mean recognise where he is to be found. Now listen young people, the places your enemy is to be found, the people in whom your enemy is to be found; all of us: the programmes in which our enemy is to be found, the papers in which our enemy is to be found - I could go on and on. But bluntly, wherever the enemy lives, we ought to avoid it lest we be tempted! And second to recognising where he lives is to recognise our own weaknesses - don't all walk around like peacocks because we're able to resist something that we've never been tempted to. Stuart Anderson, preaching on the subject of temptation, reminded the congregation of a man called Bobby Leech, and English man who startled the world by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel without suffering serious harm, and yet years later walking down the street he slipped on an orange peel and was taken to hospital with a badly fractured leg. Dr Anderson put like this: 'Some great temptations which roar around us like Niagara may leave us unharmed, but a little insignificant incident may cause our downfall simply because we are not looking for it'.

You need to recognise your enemy, secondly you need to run from your enemy - Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22: 'Flee also youthful lusts'. There is a holy running, a time to run like Joseph did from Potiphar's wife and from Potiphar's house. But sadly, as E. C. Mackenzie says: 'Few speed records are broken when people run from temptation'. Do you run from temptation, or do you run to it? As someone has said: do you leave a forwarding address when you resist temptation, in order to be tantalised again? Or do you cut off that hand that offends you, or pluck out that eye that makes you sin? Do you run from it? And finally, do you resist it unto blood? Hebrews 12:4 says: 'Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin'. The victory will cost you, the Christian life will be hard - there's no doubt it is through the narrow gate, it is along the narrow road, and if it's not it costing you I would question whether you're truly saved or not! But whatever the cost, strive to win! You need to get to a place where you hate sin! Are you there are? It doesn't mean you'll never be tempted by it, but do you learn actively even over the feelings you may have and the impulses that you have, do you learn to hate sin and detest it?

Billy Sunday was a baseball evangelist and reformer, and he was never, in his preaching, soft on sin. During what was called the 'gay 90s', the 1890s, through the Great Depression, he preached against everything that smacked of sin. This is what he said: 'I'm against sin. I'll kick it as long as I've got a foot, I'll fight it as long as I've got a fist, I'll butt it as long as I've got a head, I'll bite it as long as I've got a tooth; and when I'm old and fistless, and footless, and toothless, I'll gum it till I go home to glory and it goes home to hell!'. Is that how we think of sin and resist it? We need to take God's word, as the Saviour did three times in His temptation, 'It is written, it is written, it is written'. We need to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, Ephesians 6, which is the only attacking weapon given in the armour of God in Ephesians 6, which is the spoken - the 'rema' is the Greek term - the spoken word of God: we need to face Satan and speak God's word to him!

'Can I conquer temptation?', you say this morning: yes! Philippians 4:13: 'I can do all things through Christ which strengtheth me'. No matter how many battles you may have lost up to this point, Christ has won the war, and you ought to be winning the battles too!

If there are those in our gathering who are not saved, then sin has to have the victory over you because Christ isn't even in your life and there's nothing to counteract that old nature that you were born with. You need Christ, you need exactly what we've been preaching this morning - that cross-work - to give you the victory. Believer, backslidden, far from God, struggling with sins and temptations that no one knows about: would you take Christ's victory for good today, and live in the good of it? It is possible. Some have done it, some here, will you do it? It's there for you have been bought by the blood of Christ, why not take it? If you want to speak to me or any of the folk in the hall, please do wait behind - but all of us: what a victory! What a Saviour we have in the Lord Jesus!

Father, we want to thank Thee for Thy Son, and for the complete and full salvation that He has given to us - but help ,us by faith, to live in the good of it; to reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, that the life of Christ may be manifest in our flesh, that others may see Him. Help those struggling today, we pray, and give them the victory through the blood. For Christ's sake, Amen.

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Transcribed by Andrew Watkins, Preach The Word - October 2004