Message 26 - By Leroy Surface

Transformed

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.   For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Romans 12:1-3

The apostle Paul, writing in Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”   His condition, which he describes in this verse, is that of a man who has been “transformed” by the “faith of Christ.”  What a far cry is this present condition from the condition he describes in Romans 7:20, “Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  In his previous condition, Paul, then known as “Saul of Tarsus,” was a very devout young Jew.  He had never been considered a “sinner” as he reminded Peter in Galatians 2:15, but was instead said to be “blameless” according to all the righteousness that is in the Law of Moses (Philippians 3:6).  In reality, Saul was not at all righteous, but held very strongly to the “self-righteousness” that was prescribed by the Law of Moses.  Jesus described this “self-righteousness” in Matthew 23:25-28, saying, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

So great was the self-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees that Jesus said of them in John 15:22, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke (no covering) for their sin.”  The lifestyles of the scribes and Pharisees were such that not even the Law of Moses could condemn them.  Jesus said they would not have had sin if He had not come and spoken to them.  It was the words and life of Jesus that exposed them for what they really were; and they hated Him for it.  The experience of Saul of Tarsus was no different than the Pharisees that went before him.  He was perfectly content with his life and righteousness under the Law of Moses until he met the young man Steven (Acts 6:8-8:1).  Stephen had been chosen by the congregation to be a deacon because he was “full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom” (Acts 6:3-5).  Verse eight says, “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people,” which brought him into conflict with the leaders of several synagogues and led to his being brought before the high priest and the Sanhedrin court to be tried for blasphemy.  It was at Stephen’s trial that Saul of Tarsus came in contact with him.  He saw Stephen’s face as it were an angel’s face during the testimony of the false witnesses who brought their lies against him.  Later, it was Saul of Tarsus who must have cast the first stone, because the scripture says it was he who “consented to the death of Stephen.”  He heard the prayer Stephen prayed with his dying breath; it was for Saul, and for all that took part in his murder that day; “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”  It was this contact with Stephen that stripped Saul of Tarsus of the self-righteous covering that he held so dear.  Even so, such hatred arose in his heart against Stephen that he determined to eradicate the name of Jesus and every follower of Christ from the face of the earth.  From that day, he began to make havoc of the churches throughout Judea.

You would think that one so filled with hatred and violence as Saul was against the Christians, would have no conscience whatsoever concerning their actions.  In fact, it was probably the hatred and violence in his heart and actions that finally awakened Saul of Tarsus to the fact that he was a sinner.  In Romans 7:18-23, Paul records the reasoning that went on in his heart and mind even while he was persecuting the church: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”  The internal warfare continued in Saul of Tarsus until the day he comes to the realization that he is, in fact, a sinner, lost, and on his way to hell.  It brings him to the unheard cry that begins screaming in his heart, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).  He is on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians and bring them in chains to Jerusalem to stand trial for heresy, when this cry arises in his heart.  That is when Jesus, who “knows the hearts,” stopped him on the Damascus road.  Notice the words of conversation between Jesus and Saul.  Jesus speaks from heaven, “Saul, Saul, why persecuteth thou me?”  Saul, fallen to the ground and blinded, says, “Who art thou, Lord?”  The answer ends all resistance in Saul of Tarsus; “I am Jesus whom thou persecuteth; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

The “pricks” of conscience had troubled Saul of Tarsus since the time he heard Stephen pray with his dying breath, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”  Now, the secret cry of his heart, “...who shall deliver me…” is answered.  It is Jesus Christ, whom he had persecuted, that is now His Lord, and he begins telling the answer for deliverance from sin to all who will hear; “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The “Sin Problem”

The apostle Paul did not have a sinning problem!  His “sin problem” was “the body of this death;” which Jesus delivered him from.  To the Romans, Paul reveals the manner of deliverance; “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him (Jesus), that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7).  To the Colossians, he says the same thing in another way; “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11).   The “body of this death,” which Saul of Tarsus carried about, was “the body of sin” that held him in its bondage.  In delivering Saul from the “body of this death,” Jesus nailed both Saul and his sin to the cross of Christ; “crucified with Him.”  In reality, this was accomplished at Calvary for every man, but it is effectual only to those who believe it and will receive it.  In Colossians 2:10-11, Jesus cut the “body of the sins of the flesh” out of Saul’s (and our) heart by the “circumcision of Christ.”  This is the “truth” of the gospel of Christ that Jesus said you shall know. “...ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

While the apostle Paul did not have a sin problem, he did retain the memory of his sin for the rest of his life.  Notice his words in I Corinthians 15:9; “…I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”  These words were not spoken in pretense; the apostle actually counted himself unworthy to be an apostle.  He accepted the place of the “least of the apostles… because I (he) persecuted the church of God.”  We dare not tarry long on this verse, however, because in the next verse Paul continues, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (I Corinthians 15:10).

Men of God who have committed atrocious sins at some time in their past, never forget those sins; but, neither do they seek to justify them.  They do, however, often seek to understand why they did what they did.  To come to the conclusion that “we are all sinners” is nothing more than a veiled attempt to justify ourselves in our failure.  The apostle Paul, while writing the message of “freedom from sin” (Romans, chapter 6), used the occasion of his “atrocious sin” (persecuting the church), to give us understanding.  If he uses any excuse for his actions (“...it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me...”), it is the same as David used in his repentance for adultery and conspiracy to murder.  David’s wonderful repentance before God is recorded in the fifty first Psalm; “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” (Psalms 51:1-4).  David makes no excuses for himself.  He lays no blame on any other, and acknowledges that his sin is against God, and God only.  People often justify their sins by placing them in a category.  They have a “category” for those sins which are against the wife or husband; sins against the church; sins against society, etc, but David had no such categories.  He was guilty of adultery, but if he categorizes his sin, he may use the actions of his wife as an excuse.  If he counted his “sin” to be against the nation, he could find plenty of reason to excuse himself.  David said, “Against thee, and thee only have I sinned.” He is not seeking to get “off the hook;” instead, he acknowledges that his sin is against God.   In so doing, he acknowledges that while his wife may have wronged him, the nation may have wronged him, maybe even the “church” had wronged him, yet God had never wronged him in any way.  His “guilt” was doubled in that his sin was against God.  He tells God, in effect, “Whatever your judgment is, you will be just.”  If you take the kingdom from me you will be right.  If you cast me down to hell, you will be righteous.”  What a wonderful repentance he made before God.

It is in the next verse that David tells God the “reason” for his sin; “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalms 51:5).  David understood that every person is born in sin, with sin in their heart and nature.  He pleads to God for a remedy for his sin, which could seem to set the terms of the atonement that Jesus made at Calvary; “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness” (Psalms 51:7-14).

The only “disclaimer” the apostle Paul gave for his sin is found in Romans 7:20; “Now if I do that (which) I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  This is not offered as an excuse; instead, this is the thought process that first convinced Saul of Tarsus he was a sinner.  For the first time in his life, as a devout Jew, he realized that he was “sold under sin,” because he was a “slave” to do things that he did not want to do.  He wasn’t saying, as so many do today, that, “we are all sinners.  We sin every day.  As long as we live in a ‘body’ we will always sin.”  Instead, Saul of Tarsus in his great hatred for the church, and his heart being “pricked” by the Holy Ghost, came to the horrible realization that “...I am a sinner... I am a slave to sin... I am sold under sin... O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me.”  This “cry” came out of despair.  For the first time in his life, Saul of Tarsus knew that he was lost; a sinner, and on his way to hell, but from the moment He heard the voice of Jesus speaking from heaven, he knew he had met the savior.

The Disclaimer

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

Every sinner has a legitimate reason why he commits sin; he is a sinner.  He can say with Saul of Tarsus, “…if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  Another way of expressing this is “…I sin, yet not I, but Sin that dwelleth in me.”  This is not the “disclaimer” of a child of God.  It can never be the disclaimer of a child of God.  After Saul of Tarsus surrendered to Jesus on the Damascus Road and was baptized with the Holy Ghost just three days later, he had a different disclaimer.  It began with “I am crucified with Christ... .”  These words express the complete purpose and work of the cross.  Some teach that the cross is the source of everything; but the truth is this, the cross is the “end” of the old, and the resurrection is the beginning (the birth) of the new.  The “old man” of Saul of Tarsus died, “crucified with Christ” on the Damascus Rd.  It is impossible for him to continue persecuting the church, because that man is dead.  That old persecutor died the moment Saul believed, and he could no longer do the things he had done in the past.  At the same time he could do nothing for God.  As surely as he had died with Christ to sin, he was still dead to service for God even though he had received Christ by faith.  Paul would explain this several years later in Romans 8:10 by saying, “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”  He entered Damascus and went to the house that Jesus had told him of.   There, he did not find a “Christian Counselor” to help him sort out his issues, but on the third day a man of God named Ananias came to lay hands on him in order that he might “receive his sight (for he had been blinded by the brightness of the light when Jesus appeared to him; but more importantly) and (that he might) be filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:17).

After Saul of Tarsus received the Holy Ghost three days after his conversion, his “disclaimer” was complete; “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”  Oh, “What a wonderful change in my life hath been wrought, since Jesus came into my heart.”  His life must no longer be excused by saying, “it’s not I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  Instead, he must say, “…I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

“…the life which I now live…”  When Paul speaks of the “life” which I “now live,” he is drawing a comparison of his present life with the life he lived before he met Jesus.  The life he lived before surrendering to Jesus could only be explained by saying, “it’s not I, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  The life he lives after receiving Christ and being filled with the Holy Ghost can only be explained by saying, “…yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

The apostle was living a “supernatural” life, which is the reason he still needed a “disclaimer” for the life he lived.  A natural man cannot live a supernatural life.  Those who teach that Jesus Christ came into the world to give us an example of what a “natural man” can do through faith, fasting, and prayer, are greatly mistaken.  If such a doctrine were true, Jesus died in vain.  If His life was only an example of what a natural man can be, the entire world would be filled with His glory today.  In I Corinthians 2:14 Paul tells us something about the “natural man” we need to understand; “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

“…in the flesh…”  It should be noted that Paul speaks of the life he lives “in the flesh.”  It is obvious that the word “flesh” in this text does not speak of a “sin nature.”  Neither does it speak of the “human nature” as it does in most instances.  In this verse, Paul can only be speaking of his mortal, flesh and bone, body when he says “in the flesh.”  Even if this was the only place the scriptures speak of the human body in such a way, we would know that it is not the reason people continue in sin.  In fact, Paul tells us that our “body” is “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (I Corinthians 6:19).  In the next verse, he says, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”  Our body is His by purchase; our spirit is His through our new birth.

“…I live by the faith of the Son of God…”  We must keep in mind that our new life is supernatural, and cannot be sustained by natural means.  Most teachers today have reduced the “faith of the Son of God” into a set of “principles of life” which they believe a natural man can obey and thus live for God.  These teachers, who would deny that we are “under the law,” actually turn the “gospel of Christ” into a system of principles and ordinances that causes the “Law of Moses” to become as nothing by comparison.  To them, it is a “New Covenant” law that we must spend a lifetime learning to keep.  Oh, how wrong they are, and what damage they have done.  They have opened the way for the “human nature,” which is the most common definition for the word “flesh,” to reign in the lives of the believers.    The “human nature” forever desires to be “as gods;” just as it did in Adam and Eve before the entrance of sin (Genesis 3:5-6).  Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God, but to be “as gods” means that they would be gods unto themselves through the knowledge of good and evil.  They would no longer have a need for the God who created them, to keep them, because they could now “keep themselves” through the “principles” of the forbidden tree.

“The faith of the Son of God (The faith of Jesus Christ)” runs parallel to and in perfect harmony with “the gospel of Jesus Christ.”  The gospel says, “Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), while “the faith” says, “we died with Him” (Romans 6:6).  The gospel says He was “buried” in a tomb, while “the faith” says we are also “buried with Him” (Romans 6:4).  The gospel says he was “raised again the third day,” while “the faith” says “God…hath quickened us together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5).  Peter says, “God… hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).  We who are “born again” of God are born in “the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).

It is by what Christ has done for every person, at the cross, that Paul now lives his life.  Paul certainly was not a “special case” for a “special purpose.”  He was not given to us as an “example of what we should be,” but as a “pattern of what God will do” for everyone who trusts in Christ.  Listen to Paul’s words to Timothy; “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.  Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (I Timothy 1:15-16).

From the Chief of Sinners to the Greatest of Apostles

“…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief...”   Paul viewed himself as the chief of sinners.  In his past hatred against Jesus Christ, he was unrivaled.  None other had yet gave themselves to persecute the church as he had.  He began by consenting to the death of Stephen.  He continued on to “make havoc of the churches in Judea,”  which he did by entering into the private houses of believers, and according to the Greek text in Acts 6:3, he “dragged” them out of their houses and cast them into prison.  Months later, after the believers in Judea had fled to other nations, the scripture says, “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2).  Again, according to the Greek text, his every breath breathed out “menace” and “murder” against the Christians.  Saul of Tarsus was being driven to insanity by the hatred that possessed his heart, all of which, amazingly, was condoned by the Law of Moses, which also condemned Jesus (“...cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree;” Galatians 3:13).

There had never lived a greater sinner than Saul of Tarsus was, the day Jesus stopped him on the Damascus Road.  At the same time, he was so devout in his religion that the Law of Moses could find nothing to condemn him for.  In fact, while listing the things of the flesh he could trust in, Paul used his persecution of the churches as proof of his great “zeal” for Moses and his law.  He could say in one breath, “Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching (concerning) the righteousness which is in the law, (I was) blameless” (Philippians 3:6).

“...Nevertheless...”  This first word of verse sixteen is translated from a Greek word that is best understood as “contrariwise.”  It is obvious that the apostle Paul was not a sinner after his conversion.  It is just as obvious that he was the foremost among sinners before his conversion.  He was no longer a sinner because “sin” had been taken away at the cross with Christ.  The “presence” of sin was gone from him, even though the memory of sin continued.  The modern “Christian philosophy” says that we must learn to “forgive ourselves.”  To the contrary, in Romans 6:21-22, Paul asks a question of those who are now “free from sin.”  “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”   Paul understands that, when we were slaves to sin, we all did things we are now ashamed of.  We remember those things, and in remembering, we are ashamed.  Paul never forgave himself for his past.  It was enough that Christ had forgiven and pardoned his past, but consider the “monster” that must dwell in a person who can remember a life of murdering, raping, and pillaging, and say, “I forgive myself.”  Those who Christ has forgiven have peace with God, and are kept by the peace of God.  They rejoice in His abundant love and mercy which is beyond understanding, but they do not venture into “self-forgiveness.”  The fact that the memory of his great sin remained, is evident in that Paul says to the Ephesians, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8), and to the Corinthians, “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (I Corinthians 15:9-10).

Paul’s view of himself was as “the least of all saints.”  He viewed himself as “the least of the apostles,” who was “not worthy to be called an apostle, because... (he) persecuted the church.”  It follows that his view of himself was also as “the chief of sinners,” but it was only the memory of past sins, that had been pardoned by Christ, that caused him to see himself as such.  The reality of Paul was that he was the greatest among the saints, to which he says, “…not I, but Christ who liveth in me;” and the greatest among the apostles, to which he says, “…not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”  The man still has a “disclaimer;” as a sinner, he disclaimed his sin, but as a saint of God and apostle of Christ, he disclaims greatness.  All credit and glory belong to the “…Son of God, who loved... (him), and gave Himself for... (him).”

The Pattern

“…for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.”  If the apostle Paul is our example, we can never attain to his greatness.  If, on the other hand, the scriptures are true, and Paul is set forth as a “pattern” of the grace and mercy of God for us, then we are given great assurance and the hope of attaining every promise of God.  Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  In Saul of Tarsus, he saved the “chief” among sinners, and bestowed grace upon him to make him the greatest among the apostles, whom we know as “The Apostle Paul.”  Paul never felt that he was great; his goal was never for “greatness;” It was enough for Paul to “win Christ… to be found in Christ… to know Him… and the power of His resurrection… and the fellowship of His sufferings… being made conformable to His death… and to attain to the resurrection of the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).  To do so, he lost everything he had ever trusted in before he met Jesus, because he discovered that it was all nothing more than garbage (Philippians 3:8).  Through the “pattern” that was wrought upon Paul, we know that God will save the vilest of sinners.  In Hebrews 7:25 Paul says, “…He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”  He will take those“…from the guttermost” and save them “to the uttermost.”

It is tragic when great men in prominent places use the apostle Paul as an excuse for their sin.  It is tragic when they accept the Romans seven experience as the Christian “norm.” It is tragic when they teach that every child of God must go through their own Romans seven experience on their way to victory.  I tell you, it is those who trust in their human abilities to please God that is the way of the self-righteous.  Self-righteousness is the way of all those who believe that sin doesn’t matter when they stand before God; after all, “…it is not I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  Self-righteousness is the way of all who believe they are still sinners after coming to Christ.  It is not the way, however, of any person who knows the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.  It is in the failure of philosophy, psychology, principles, laws, etc., to give righteousness to the people, that they are finally convinced that we are all sinners and must continue in sin as long as we live in a mortal body.  The term, “Even the great apostle Paul had a sin problem,” has become an invalid justification (excuse) among many; who have found no answer for the sin in their own hearts.

The realization must have come to Saul of Tarsus while he was persecuting the church, that “if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”  It was this realization that convinced the self-righteous Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus (who was “blameless” concerning all the righteousness that is in the law) that he was a sinner and needed a savior.  Is it not a shame when men who might be highly successful in their field of ministry, who may even pastor a “super-church” with thousands of people, when they realize they are “doing things they do not want to do,” things they know to be sin, and the only conclusion they can come to is, “…we are all sinners; after all, the great apostle Paul had a sin problem.”  Saul of Tarsus’ sin problem brought him to the cry of Romans 7:24, “O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body (the source) of this death.”  Only three verses later he is able to write, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” O wonderful day!

Seeking Company in the Pit of Defeat

A number of years ago I was listening to the “testimonies” in a service.  I remember one testimony that was very depressing just to hear.  The poor lady really needed help from the Lord, as was evident as she told of her depression, her fears, and her doubts, even to wondering if she was saved or not.  This lady was to be pitied, prayed for, and if possible lifted up out of her pit of despair.  It was the next testimony that really amazed me.  Another lady immediately stood up and said, “I am so glad to hear your testimony.  I thought I was the only one going through this,” and she went on to tell of her doubts, fears, and depression.  It seemed that her “pit” was even deeper than the first ladies, but she was glad for the company.   If we can successfully get everyone into the “pit” of defeat and failure, certainly all of us will feel better.

I hear a preacher who could be greatly used of God; to spread the truth of the gospel to the entire world.  Sadly, over twenty years after the fact, this man  is still trying to understand why he did the things he did.  He has been forced, by his own heart, to wallow in the shame of his sin for all these years; because he has never to this day, been able to say, “I was lost!,  I was backslidden!, I was on my way to hell; even during a time when I was preaching to millions!”  Instead, this man has developed a message that actually does the opposite of what he thinks.  His message gives permission to all who follow him to continue in sin, believing they can never be lost; because, “…after all, even the great apostle Paul had a sin problem.”  This man preaches a message of the cross; but it is a cross that does not crucify the “old man.”  He preaches a “blood” that does not sanctify.  The “cross” he preaches, is the “source of everything;” while the cross of Christ is the “end of everything.”  The cross of Christ is the “end of sin” (Daniel 9:24) and it is the end of the “old man” (Romans 6:6).  It is also the end of our struggle with sin (John 8:30-36).  He preaches that people can be saved, filled with the Holy Ghost, and “love God with all their hearts;” while still being drunkards, adulterers, pornographers, gamblers, etc.  He says they can do any, or all, of these thing, yet, they cannot miss heaven when they die.  They only need to “learn how to overcome through putting all their trust in the cross.”  The apostle Paul says, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom (by which) the world (and all that pertains to the world) is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14).

Renewed Day by Day

And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.  If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.

I Corinthians 15:30-32

I call your attention to three words of the apostle Paul which have caused much misunderstanding of the gospel of Christ among the people of God.  Those three words are, “I die daily.”  I have heard it said hundreds of times over the years that Paul had to “die to sin” every day of his life.  Of those who so adamantly promote this idea, there has not been a single one that could tell me where these words are located in the scripture.  They were all guilty of promoting a tradition rather than the truth.  Others have said, based upon these three words of the apostle, “I have to get up every morning and make the decision whether to serve God today.”  All such thinking is absurd in the light of the gospel and in the context of the words of Paul in this text.

Paul was speaking in defense of the resurrection.  Why would he place his life in jeopardy every day (he actually says, “every hour”), if there is no resurrection.  He did so to preach the gospel and finish the course that Jesus had given to him.  He probably suffered more than any other man to fulfill the calling Christ had placed upon his life.  At the city of Lystra they stoned him, and believing him to be dead, they dumped his body outside the city.  He had even “fought with beasts at Ephesus,” because of the gospel he preached.  Why would he put himself in such jeopardy?  It could only be that he desired the “better resurrection” that awaits those who trust in Christ.  “If the dead rise not,” Paul says, “let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.”  Instead, the apostle laid his life down, day by day, to preach the gospel to a lost and dying world.  This is what he meant when he said, “I die daily.”

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

II Corinthians 4:16

Those who seek to die every day are left in a continual struggle.  They believe that Jesus saved them and left a sin nature in them, which would be no salvation at all.  Notice the words of Paul in Romans 5:12; “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have (sin, the nature, and therefore have) sinned.”  Now, hear the words of John the Baptist after he saw the Holy Ghost descend and remain on Jesus; “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  Jesus came into this world to “take away” the “sin” that entered through the disobedience of the one man, Adam.  Paul brings a conclusion in Romans 5:19, saying, “For as by one man’s (Adam’s) disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (Jesus Christ) shall many be made righteous.”  Jesus’ “obedience” was to the “death of the cross”  (Philippians 2:8). He died on the cross for the sin of the world.  Our “old man of sin,” which is what we call “the sin nature” was nailed to the cross with him (Romans 6:6).  We who believe are counted to be “dead indeed unto sin (Romans 6:11),” and thus, “freed from sin” (Romans 6:7).

Our deliverance from sin is through death.  We died with Christ, along with our old man of sin.  We who believe, however, are “quickened together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5); and “born again… through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3).  Look closely at the words of Paul in Romans 6:10; “For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.”  Notice that Jesus “…died unto sin once.”  Now look just as closely at the eleventh verse; “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Notice that verses ten and eleven are connected by the word “likewise” which means “in this way.”  This means, in the same way that Jesus died once unto sin, reckon that ye also died once unto sin; therefore, you are “dead” unto sin, and unto the world.  There is no need for those who “died once with Christ” to die every day.  Those who seek to die every day are also trying to live every day.  They fill their lives with religious activity, thinking by these things to “live unto God.”  Paul understands that our death is through union with Christ.  In Romans 6:3 he says, “Know ye not, that so (as) many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”  It is in His death that we are joined to Jesus.  We are crucified in union with Him, buried in union with Him, and raised again (in newness of life) in union with Him.  Paul says, Romans 6:8, “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”  Drop the “shall” in this verse (for it is not found in the Greek) and we see that those who are “dead with Christ,” also “live with Christ” presently.  They are “alive,” and it is Christ that “liveth” in them.

We know in the natural that life must be sustained by food, water, and breath.  Death needs nothing to sustain it.  It is the same in the spiritual.  While the believer dies once unto sin and needs never to die again, his “life,” which is Christ, must be sustained by daily renewal.  I cannot give you a “method” for daily renewal.  I cannot say that if you pray for an x amount of time, and read x number of verses and/or chapters every day that you will sustain the life of Christ in you; but, you will study the scriptures, and you will pray.  In praying, you will “seek” the “daily bread” from heaven, just as Jesus taught us in Luke 11:3.  If you follow Jesus’ teaching in the eleventh chapter of Luke, verses one through thirteen, you will see that the “bread” he speaks of is the Holy Spirit; “…how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).  It is the Holy Ghost that satisfies the necessities of spiritual bread, water, and breath; which sustains the life of Christ in us.  We need not die again, for we are dead; but we must be renewed “day by day” if we are to “live unto God.”

Have You Received the Holy Ghost Since you Believed?

This “heading” is the question Paul asked of some believers he found at Ephesus who had never heard of the Holy Ghost.  They had believed on Jesus and been baptized in water unto repentance, but they knew nothing of the greater baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Paul preached the gospel to them, laid hands on them, and they all received the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues and prophesy.  Today, most people are taught, and therefore believe, that they received the Holy Ghost “when” they believed, instead of “since” they believed.  When you believed, you received Jesus Christ into your heart by faith.  We will see what this means to us in Romans 8:10; “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”  The previous verse says, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”  If Christ is not in you, you do not belong to God; in short, you are not “born again” if Christ is not in you.  I recently heard a well known preacher say that the “Spirit of Christ” is the Holy Ghost.  How foolish!  In Galatians 4:6 Paul says, “…God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”  The “Spirit of His Son” is the Spirit of Christ.  The Holy Ghost does not cry “Abba, Father,” because the Holy Ghost is, according to Jesus, “the Spirit of your Father” (Matthew 10:20).  In the time of Jesus’ greatest need, He called upon God, crying “Abba, Father” (Mark 14:36).  It was a cry for the Spirit and presence of His Father to be with Him in the time of His passion.  When He comes into our hearts, He brings that same cry.  It is cry from within the child of God to be filled with the Spirit and presence of God, which is the Holy Ghost.  “Abba, Father!”

There are two conditions the apostle spoke of concerning those who have received Christ by faith.  First, their body is “dead” and second, their spirit is “life” (Romans 8:10).  The next verse (Romans 8:11) describes the one who has been filled with the Holy Ghost; “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11).  The Holy Ghost comes to “quicken our mortal body,” which continues to be “dead” until the entrance of the Holy Ghost.  This gives real meaning to the words of Paul in I Corinthians 6:19, “…your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.”  The entrance of Christ quickens our spirit and the entrance of the Holy Ghost quickens our body.  It is out of our quickened spirit that we live, but it is through our quickened body that God works.  Both are equally the work of grace in us to make us to be all that Jesus purchased when He gave Himself for us.

A Flesh and Bone Image of Christ

In the beginning, when God created man, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26).  Adam was a “flesh and bone” image of God.  That doesn’t mean that Adam’s flesh and bone looked like God.  God is not “six feet tall with a nine inch hand span” as some have taught in the past.  Instead all that God is, was manifest in the flesh and bone of Adam.  According to Colossians 1:14, Jesus is the “image of the invisible God.”  Hebrews 1:3 calls Him the “express image of His (God’s) person.”  If you want to see what God is, look at Jesus.  He was “God manifest in the flesh;” a “flesh and bone image of the invisible God.”  When we understand the “mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:3-5),” and the “eternal purpose” of God, which He “purposed in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:11);” we are not at all surprised that God has chosen our flesh and bone, our mortal bodies to be the Temple of His Holy Spirit.

In I Corinthians 6:19, the flesh and bone body of every child of God is chosen to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost.  In I Corinthians 3:16, it is the church that is chosen to be the Temple of God.  It can be so only as each member in particular is full of the Holy Ghost with the Holy Ghost working in and through their flesh and bone body.  Jesus said of the believers in Mark 16:17-18, “…they shall speak with new tongues… they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”  These verses speak of a “quickened tongue” and “quickened hands” to do things that natural tongues and natural hands cannot do, yet, these things are done by the Holy Ghost through the flesh and bone of the believer.  Certainly this must explain why the apostle Paul pled with the Romans, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”  We will never know what God will do through us until the Holy Ghost is given full charge of His Temple.

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…

Galatians 4:19

This cry, which came out of the heart of the apostle Paul during the time believers at Galatia were moving away from Christ to trust in Moses and His law, was not for an individual, but for the church.  In Ephesians 1:23 Paul speaks of “the church” as “His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”  The “church” at Galatia was no longer the body of Christ, because the Holy Ghost had been grieved away, and Christ had become of no effect unto them (Galatians 5:4).  They had “begun in the Spirit,” but now they were “trusting in the flesh (their human ability to keep the law) to finish what God had begun (Galatians 3:3).  “O foolish Galatians!”  We must understand that a “dead church,” a “carnal church,” a “church built by man and operated like a business” cannot be “the body of Christ.”  Neither can a church that is “trusting in the law” or a church that is “continuing in sin” be “the body of Christ.”  When Paul speaks of “Christ formed in you” he is speaking of the “body of Christ” being formed once again in the church at Galatia, or, in “my church” or “your church.”

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

I Corinthians 12:12

Paul uses our natural body to make a point about the body of Christ.  Our natural body is one body, but it is made up of many members, such as the hands, the feet, the mouth, the eyes, the ears, etc, which are the more prominent members of the body.  Then, there are the joints, the ligaments, the bones, the organs, etc, which are the more necessary members of the body.  “All the members of that one body, being many, are one body.”  At this point, he is still speaking about our natural body; but for some reason, when we think about the “body of Christ,” our attention seems to go to the hands, feet, mouth, eyes, ears, nose, etc, as if that is all there is to a body.  These are the more “comely” or “prominent” members, which we tend to honor so much, but the natural body could survive without the feet, the hands, the voice, the seeing, the hearing and the smelling, though it would be greatly impaired and totally handicapped.  Consider the “liver” for a moment.  It is never seen or heard, but if it is it is “sick” the entire body is sick, and if it “dies,” the entire body is “dead.”  It takes all the members of the body, healthy and functioning in their part, to make up one body.  Paul says, “…so also is Christ.”  The “body of Christ” can only be made up of many members, each of them full of the Holy Ghost, and functioning in the particular “manifestation of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12:7-11)” that is given to them by the effectual working of the Holy Ghost in them (Ephesians 3:7).  It is no wonder that Paul’s admonition to us in Ephesians 5:18, after revealing all the wonderful things the Holy Ghost is given to work in us by His mighty power, is to “be filled with the Spirit.”  This is not an exhortation to receive the Spirit, but, in the Greek word for “filled,” we see that we are to be “abundantly supplied,” day by day into the fullness of that with which God fills (Ephesians 3:19).

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Ephesians 5:30

Does this sound like that which Adam said, the first time he saw his wife Eve?  It is not!  These words are spoken of the children of God who have not only received the Holy Ghost, but have its mighty power working in their mortal bodies.  Paul says to those, “We are members of His body.”  This we are if by the one Spirit we are baptized into the one body (I Corinthians 12:13).  Remember that it is our “bodies,” that are the Temple of the Holy Ghost.  It is not a “mystical” body that we must offer up to Him, but our natural, physical body.  It is our “mortal body” that is quickened by the entrance of the Holy Ghost.  Every member of the body of Christ then is a “flesh and bone” member of the physical body of Christ on this earth; not an “invisible body” but a and/or the “visible body of Christ.”

When Adam first saw Eve he said, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.”  It was Adam’s bone (rib) and flesh that was fashioned into his wife.  The scripture does not say that we are “bone of His (Jesus’) bone” and “flesh of His  (Jesus’) flesh.” That would mean that the same flesh and bone that hung on the cross would be what our physical bodies are made up of, which would be ridiculous.  There is no physical connection between Jesus’ body on the cross and our natural body.  We DO NOT, as some teach, have his DNA.   Our connection with Christ is spiritual.  We are born again of the Spirit.  What Paul says in Ephesians 5:30 is this, “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.”  His body is His church.  Jesus is the head, and we are (“members in particular,” of) His body (His church).  As surely as we are His body, we are also His flesh and bones.  In I Timothy 3:16, Paul explains the “mystery of Godliness.”  He tells Timothy, “God was manifest in the flesh.”  We know that this speaks of Jesus Christ, who in the days of His flesh was a “flesh and bone” manifestation of His (spiritual) Father (John 4:24).  In John 14:8, Philip said to Jesus, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us (we’ll be satisfied).”  Jesus answered, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father (who is invisible to the natural eye); and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father (John 14:9)?”  Whether we know it or not, the world around us is still looking to the church, saying “We would see Jesus (John 12:21),” while the church is saying to the world, “Don’t look at us. We are all sinners just like you are.”  Where else can they look if they are to see Jesus?  The apostle Paul says in II Corinthians 4:1-3, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.”  Either the child of God will be a visible manifestation of truth in flesh and bone, or the lost will never see the truth.  Just as Adam was a “flesh and bone” image of his creator, God; and as Jesus was a “flesh and bone” image of His Father, God; so did He form His church to be the “flesh and bone” image of Christ in this present world.  That is the reason God has chosen the “flesh and bone” bodies of man to be His temple in this present world.

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

I Corinthians 12:13

It is by the “baptism with the Holy Ghost,” which is “the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4-5), that we are “baptized into the one body of Christ.”  If you are a child of God, but you have never received this precious “promise of the Father,” begin to ask for it; begin to seek it; begin to knock at the “door” until it is opened to you.  This is what Jesus tells us to do in Luke 11:9-13, assuring us that the heavenly Father will open the door to give the Holy Ghost unto those children of God who will “ask, seek, and knock.”  Christ will be formed in the church again, and we will see the heavens opened as God pours out of His Spirit upon all flesh.  This is the promise of the Father.

Message 26 - By Leroy Surface - Transformed

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

TOP of PAGE

NEXT MESSAGE

PREVIOUS MESSAGE

Leroy Surface MESSAGES

JDG  MESSAGES

Keith Surface MESSAGES