Living Unto Death — Jamie Gordon

For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This message has been brought to you by Manna Christian Fellowship, Ellensburg, Washington, area code 509 -925 -1167. This morning we're going to begin to go in a direction in scripture that ties along and plays in with what we've been talking about being an ambassador for Christ.

The Centrality of the Cross and Living Unto Death

What we're going to do is look at the centrality of the cross of Jesus Christ. So these notes that I've given you, they'll be notes that we go through, things in scripture that you can meditate on. We're going to look at what it means to live unto death.

Dr. Andrew Murray, in some of his theology of the cross of Christ, one of the things that stuck out to me, and this would be the title of the message. Living unto death. Living unto death. We'll look at what that means.

We'll look at both sides of the cross, the dying side of the cross and the living side of the cross. And you say, well, why do we need to do this? Why do we need to go back over the old, old story again?

Well, it says in the Bible that narrow is the gate. The Greek New Testament says to us, narrow is the gate and constricted is the way. And few there be that are finding that way or discovering that way.

Very few are actually finding that way and very few are actually discovering it. So, it's very important for us to go through this and to have the centrality of our life, the centrality of our doctrine, the centrality of our theology at the cross and in the resurrected life, in the life of Christ.

And so, I want to go through many Scriptures. I want to go through the last words next week. We'll meditate on the last words on the cross of Jesus Christ. And you'll see that on that very first page of the cross.

You'll see the last things that He said. What is that speaking to us as Christians? What does that show us about Christ, about God, about the Holy Spirit? What is that telling us and teaching us of the cross?

Very important for us to understand these things. The efficacy of the blood. We've talked about that last week. The last sheet I gave you, it had some of the teaching of the efficacy of the blood. We need to meditate on that more.

What does the blood shed for our sins? The remission, the drawing in closer to God, the abiding in Him. What does that teach us? And then the resurrected life. You see, we need to understand the cross, the blood, the death, the sacrifice, the words, before we can understand what it means to live the resurrected life.

I'll say it this way, you must die before you can learn to live in Jesus Christ. You must die. And so, this is the path. This is not what's being taught today in the modern church, today in the modern theology.

It simply states, accept Jesus in your mind, profess Him, and you're automatically regenerated. You're automatically coming to a new life. And all these things are new, but they never address the nature of man.

Grafting Into the New Christian Life

And this second sheet of the grafting in. I want to speak to you today on this subject of being grafted or grafting in. Because there's some very important truths to the new life, the new Christian life.

There's evidences of the Christian life that evidence that narrow way, the constricted way. Broad is the way and wide is the gate that leadeth unto destruction. Many are those that are finding that way.

So you see, it's very important for us to understand the cross of Christ. It's very important for us to understand what Jesus came for. What He actually did for us and what He is doing for us today. Because the scripture is being taken very lightly.

Many people would say, I've come to Jesus. But they could never answer and they could never understand or help you to understand what it meant for Jesus Christ to die on the cross. So I want you to be able to, as you're witnessing, to tell people what Jesus Christ actually has done for you.

I want it to be a part of your life. And I know only by the power of the Holy Spirit can He make this real to you, so that you can make this real to them. Setting us free from our sins. Giving us new life.

What does that mean? And so we'll look at that today. Let's pray before we begin. Father, this morning, this subject is so huge. It's so great before us. And this mind of mine and this heart of mine just is seeing this in a little way.

But I pray, Father, that by the power of Your Spirit, You would be the great teacher this morning. That You would be the great counselor. The one who gives us wisdom. Help these words, Lord, that we couldn't understand in our old nature.

Help them to become so real to us, Father. That we might make them real to others. Father, we pray that You would bless this time. We pray that You would just continue to work in breaking our hearts and turning up the fallow ground.

We pray, Father, for mercy and grace. And we pray mostly that You would be glorified today. In Jesus' name, Amen. As you look at the cross, we'll look at this first diagram of the cross. Look inside the cross in these different Scriptures.

It says, And He that taketh not His cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. It says, Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Mark, And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples, also He said unto them, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. And in Luke, And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.

So these are four absolute statements from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself. And in Philippians 2 .8 we'll read that, And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus Christ our Lord. And He says, If you don't take up your own, bear up your own personal cross. He says, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his. Speaking of you. Take up his cross.

So God is asking us not only to come to this cross and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but now He's asking us to live what I call the resurrected life. He's asking us to take this cross, bear it literally, the Greek word means to bear this thing, to take possession of it, and begin to move with this thing in our life.

To bear up the cross. Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. So, as we think about this crucified life, Jesus is saying, and as we think about all the aspects of it, what it's saying to us, Jesus is saying, I want you to partake of this same thing.

Now, in our natural minds, we would think, Oh, well Jesus wants us to go do something to the extent where we make everybody upset at us, and we're out there driving them crazy, and finally they crucify us.

Well, that's not what I'm saying. Naturally, we can't try to work this thing out in circumstances to make it seem in the same picture as was the life of Christ. But, it might work out that when you bear up your cross and live the life of Christ, you will probably, Lord willing, according to Scripture, suffer some of the same sufferings, suffer some of the same misunderstandings, the unjust judgments against your character.

You will suffer in the same way for the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, when you bear up the cross of Jesus Christ. So, we'll be looking at that in a few weeks, and we'll be looking at that in a few weeks of the sufferings, the fellowship, as Paul said, of His sufferings, that I may know Him in the fellowship.

The Olive Tree, the Root, and the Grafted Branches

But, let's look at this graph here. This picture of the Christian, and as the Scripture says, there in Romans, the root and the branch. Let's read that Scripture together. Turn your Bibles to Romans 11.

And I'm not focusing necessarily on all the implications of this metaphor. I am simply drawing out our part in this of the resurrected life. So, we'll just read this. Chapter 11, and then we'll see it in its full context.

I say then, have God cast away His people? God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away His people, which He foreknew. What ye not that the Scripture saith of Elijah, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed Thy prophets and dig down Thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then, at this present time, also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

And if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them.

Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather, through their fall, salvation has come unto the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy.

Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you, Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office, if by any means I may provoke to immolation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are the branches.

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree was grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches.

But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. Well, because of unbelief, they were broken off. And thou standest by faith.

Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity, but toward thee goodness, if thou continue in His goodness.

Otherwise thou also shall be cut off. And they also, if they abide not, still in unbelief, shall be grafted in. For God is able to graft them again. For if thou wast cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and was grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted in their own olive tree?".

So, He speaks of this olive tree. And this olive tree, there are some branches, and He's speaking of His people, Israel, and they've been cut off. They've been broken off. These branches have been broken off because of disbelief, because of disobedience, because of turning away from the ways of God and believing lies, believing deception.

And then He says, these Gentiles were wild olive branches, and they have been grafted in. And there's something about this grafting in of the Gentile that we must understand. Because when we speak of this grafting of the Gentile into this true olive root, olive branch, olive tree, we're speaking of the Gentile, the heathen man, being grafted in, abiding in the vine, as John 17 speaks of.

This literally, as you see, when you graft a branch in, you first have to cut this thing off from something. And He says these were wild branches. These weren't branches that came from this one root of this one olive tree or olive bush or whatever you want to call it.

It's like a shrub almost. But it wasn't this root. And He's speaking of Himself. This root. And then these other wild branches have been grafted in. But He says, take heed, beware, because if you do the same thing and continue in the same way, and the writers to the Hebrews would say the same thing of entering into His rest.

If we rebel and turn from God and turn to deception and let the powers of the darkness and the rulers of this world deceive us, He said, take heed, beware. But then He gives His people Israel hope and He says that if they will repent, they will be able to be grafted back into this tree.

And how easy it will be for Him to do this. To bring them back and graft them in. But I want to concentrate because part of the life on the other side of the cross, part of the life after the dying, after becoming a Christian, after making the commitment to follow Christ and take up your cross, is this resurrected life.

And I want to speak about and just take this picture and apply it to our Christian life. Because many are saying, I am of the root of Christ, the Messiah, the Holy One. In the Greek New Testament, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as this.

He is the Spirit Holy. The Spirit Holy. And when we think about that and then we say, I am of this new source of life here in this picture that we've drawn. I am part of this root. But then the branch here, as the branch is getting its source of food and all its source of energy and strength from this new root, it becomes like the root.

It literally becomes part of it in unison with it, in unity with it. Well, a Christian, a person who is professing to be a Christian and says, I am of the root of the Spirit Holy. I am of the root of Jesus Christ.

I have been saved to go to heaven and yet beareth forth bad fruit. What is bad fruit? It's the transgression of God's law. It's in a sense being in an institution of marriage and yet living as if divorce, living with bitterness, living with envy, living with strife, living with adultery, living with anger.

And so he's saying, and if you read in the parables of Christ, he says that you cannot, you cannot, 1 John would say the same thing, you cannot be a part of the root and be grafted in and beareth forth bad fruit.

You can't do it. It's an impossibility. I think of the parable where Jesus is speaking and the Pharisees are accusing Him and saying, you're doing this in the name of Beelzebub. He said, this is an impossibility.

The two don't add up. They don't go together. You can't put good and get bad out of it. You see what he's saying. So he says this here in Romans 2, and if some of the branches be broken off and thou being a wild olive tree was grafted in among them, let me see, I maybe missed that verse.

Oh, for if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are the branches. In verse 16. So are the branches. So we want to think about this. What is a grafting in? What does it tell us of the Christian's life?

It's a life of abiding in the root. It's a life of abiding. Once this branch has been grafted in, and there's many different ways, sometimes they'll split the root, which is the base, and then they'll split the scion, they call it, which is the top part, the branch, the vine.

And then they take those two and they split them at an angle and they put them together and they wrap them up until they've grown together, until they become one. This picture is the same way. They'll take and they'll sometimes divide the root.

They'll split the root. And the branch will then have a place to be put and be placed. This is speaking to us of the cross of Christ. He has been broken. He has been bruised for our iniquities. He has been, in a sense, divided.

From who? From the Father. He says, Father, Father, why hast Thou forsaken Me? The agony of the cross. And so, in the Christian's life, there is an abiding. Let's just look at some of these Scriptures.

New Creation and the Crucified Self

Therefore, in 2 Corinthians, He says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. So, is there any theological difficulty with that Scripture?

Is it very clear to us? Does anybody have any question about what he's saying? Behold, all things become new. So, when he says, if any man be in Christ, he's speaking again of this grafting in. Being in Christ.

Assuming that we've been broken off from something. That's the approach to the cross. That's the approach of the cross. We've been broken. Broken off from our old nature. Broken off from our old ways.

Behold, all things have become new. Have all things become new to you? Have all ways of thinking, have all those things become new? Paul says to the Galatian church, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision...

So here again, you remember, the Galatians were wrestling over going back to Judaism, back to the old Judaic law and getting under the law again. And he says this. He says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth.

It will not prevail anything nor uncircumcision. Neither of them. And so I'm sure that in their mind, they would have to say, well, what does avail? What does? And he says this, but a new creature. A new creature.

You see, God is the original root. Back there, when they came in the ark and they came over and God said, you know, take two of this and two of that and there's all the seeds and all these different things.

Well, way back when, Christ is the one who is the original root. The original, which would speak to us as the first or purity. If you go back and track lineage or whatever, you know, the very first, the most pure would be the one that would be of more reverence or more honor.

And then all these other fruits and all these other things come from this one root. And as scientists go tracking back things, they all come from this one root. Or as in the ark proved to us, they came from one dog and another dog or one cow and another cow.

And now we have all these varieties of cows. But Jesus Christ is that main, the number one, the very first root. And it's in Him only. In Him alone. No matter what any power of deception might try to avail over us, He says that He is the one.

I am the way. I am the resurrection. I am the life. And so it's in Him that we must be grafted. How does that take place? We must be broken of our old nature. We must be broken of our old ways. Our old way of thinking.

Some men, as the Bible says, cry, peace, peace, when there is no peace. Their nature has never changed. They're trying to make Scripture fit into the chaos, into the lack of peace, into the lack of joy.

And they try to make themselves fit into the Kingdom. The way is constricted. It's constricted to Christ. It's constricted to the work of the cross, the efficacy of the blood. It's constricted to death of self and faith in Jesus Christ.

It's constricted to that. He says, I am the door. I am that way. I am. I am. That is very narrow. That is very constricted. Just that statement. I am. And yet, as He says, I am the way, it also unfolds to our minds the vastness, the awesome power of the way of Jesus Christ, the way of the cross.

Because in the narrowness and in all the power of deception in the world, in the principalities, and all these that are trying to deceive men from Christ and from believing on Jesus Christ, we see that the way is narrow in one sense, but it is broad as the universe is broad in another sense.

God is not one small little God. He cannot be fashioned or to make any image in His likeness because man cannot conceive. Man cannot do that. So God is as broad as the universe, as powerful as the most powerful earthquakes or the most powerful storms or hurricanes or anything that we see.

We see His power, His might. You see, so God is not limited. And the Christian life, the life of the cross is not a limited life in any way. But it's an absolutely dead life to sin. It's a dead life to self.

You know where prayer begins? Prayer begins when I have lost interest for myself. I've lost interest in myself. You see? Do you understand what I'm saying? I've lost interest in me. Ephesians says to us, "...and that ye put on the new man," which after God is created in what?

In righteousness and holiness. Put on this new man. This new man. He's available through the cross, through the power of the blood, through the cleansing of the blood. Put on this new man in righteousness and true holiness.

He says here in Romans 6, "...therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.".

It's a completely... some people would say it's a fanatical life. Some people would say it's a monistic life. Some people would say it's too narrow for me. I agree with some that say that error comes from taking truth and going too far with it.

Taking a fundamental, very clear truth and then going too far with the thing and making it something that it's not. I agree with that. But, you can never go too far, the Scripture says, in dedicating and devoting your life to number one, Jesus Christ.

To the great I Am. To the Scripture. To the knowledge of Him. You can clearly devote and you will not seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened up unto you. So, this is part of abiding. A branch is not going to do very good if it's cut off and then it has no root to place itself back in.

Spiritual Warfare and the Perilous Broad Way

And he says there, in the disobedience, the disbelief, I cut them off and they're cast. You know, in Matthew 24, it says that hell was made for Satan and his angels and the angels that fell. That's what the original intention and creation of hell was for.

It's not necessarily because he says, I would not have that any would perish, but that all would come to eternal life. Hell is made for the unrighteous, but for you, for you personally. God made hell.

His intention was for Satan and all his compatriots, all his angels, and all those powers of darkness and his heart and his longing was not that his creation, man, mankind was destined for that place.

But he says, broad is the way and wide is the gate, and many there be that are finding that way. They're going down that path. Do you see the two different paths have two different hearts? One is literally finding that way, discovering that way.

The other, the narrow way, the man is literally discovering that way. Seeking. Finding. It says in the last days, perilous times will come because as a storm comes over a nation and fills it up with snow or rain or whatever, also there is principalities.

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, against circumstantial things. We're wrestling against these powers of darkness. These realms of darkness. And they sweep over as a cloud over a nation, over America.

And they deceive many to follow that broad way. And men become lovers of themselves and they never take on that new nature, that new creature, that new creation in Christ. But you see, you can't add the two together.

You cannot be a wild branch that's never been transformed, that loves himself and loves his nature, and yet, professes to be of the root. And when you go to be a light in the world and you go to witness Jesus Christ, He says He has set us free from our sins.

He has given us joy unspeakable. He has given us power and authority. He says, the gates of hell shall not prevail. Do you know what that word prevail means? That means that the gates of hell, the powers of Satan do not have more strength than the church of Christ Jesus.

The gates of hell are not superior in their power. All the authorities, all the rulers of the darkness of the world, Satan himself, all that added up into one big side. He says the gates of hell will not prevail.

They will not avail. They will not supersede in power and authority over the church of Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ. The body of Christ. You see why? The waves of deception are coming. The winds of doctrine.

You know, it says four times in the New Testament, be of the same mind. Be of the same mind. Men love themselves. They are going and doing their own thing. They're acting under their own authority. They're going and loving themselves and pleasing themselves and doing all these things.

And then if you ask them, they say, oh, I'm a Christian. Yes, I'm a Christian. Are you of the root? Are you of the root? Because when you speak of the Spirit Holy, you're narrowing things down quite a bit.

I've had some people say, oh, well, Jesus would go to that movie with me. I only go to places where Jesus would go. And they imagine in their minds this Jesus who would go and look upon or listen upon or say things that are wicked and vile.

And they've made this Jesus up to be something that's not holy. It's corrupted. Well, the Bible says that He is not that. He is the Spirit Holy. He is purity. He is righteousness. He is truth. Why do we talk about giving our faith away?

Why do we talk about cultivating? Why do we talk about abiding in the vine? Abiding in prayer. Abiding in communion. Abiding in being a part of the body of Christ and going further. Why do we talk about those things?

Why are they a passion? Because they come. They are the heart of the root. They are the heart of God. And God knows that in that unity, in that faith, in that knowledge of Jesus Christ, in that pure, undefiled theology, in that doctrine.

Abiding in Christ and the Fruit of Holiness

You see, men don't understand doctrine until they get to the other side of the cross. They don't get it, you see, until they've died to self. We don't get it. When two men are crucified and they're resurrected to life and they stand together and they see Jesus and they see His words and they see His truth, their eyes don't go on themselves.

They stay on Jesus. And they're new men. I'm telling you, they're new creatures. Creatures in Christ. They're new creations. They see everything under the blood. I therefore, the prison of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye have been called, with all lowliness, that's speaking of the cross, with long-suffering, with patience, that's speaking of the cross.

Speaking of the cross. Jesus was very patient. He could have wiped out the whole world. And yet, He endured that suffering because He is the root. In Romans, at the bottom here, the Scripture, And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, you, Christian, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and the fatness of the olive tree.

So, when we're grafted in, we partake of the root and the fatness of the olive tree. In a sense, God is, as the Scripture says, fat. He owns everything. He has power over everything. He's unlimited. And He's all-knowing.

And that branch is able to partake of the root and the fatness of that olive tree. I'll just read that Scripture in Matthew to kind of draw our attention again. I'll just read the words of Jesus here.

Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. So He's speaking there. The Pharisees heard Him saying, basically He said, The fellow doth not cast out devils, but by this prince of the devils.

So He says, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. You know, a kingdom, as we think about some of the kingdoms in Israel, we think about when they got divided, literally the kingdom was brought to desolation when one of the sons or one of the servants or whatever was trying to overtake in power.

Well, the whole kingdom was just divided and desolated and was a mess. And so Jesus says, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.

And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand? So Satan is not casting out Satan. That's what He's saying. He uses that word very specifically. And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?

Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, the Spirit holy, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house?

He that is not with Me is against Me. He that is not in the vine, grafted in, part of the root, he is against Me. He's in the opposite kingdom. And he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad. Wherefore, I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

Either make the tree good and his fruit, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his fruit. And then he goes on to attack them. O generation of vipers! The tree is good and the fruit is good, or the tree is bad and the fruit is bad.

So that's a very easy multiplication message that you can take to the world. It's either bad or it's good. You see what I'm saying? You can't mix the two up. They don't mix is what he's saying. So, to have effectiveness, to have the perfect peace, to have the power of God, we need to be grafted in to Christ.

We need to be grafted in to the root and the fatness thereof in our life. What does it mean to be grafted in? Well, it means we have a new mind. New mind, completely new. You know what it means to be new?

It means it doesn't have anything to do with the old. It's new. It's a new way of thinking. It's a new power. It's a new vision. We have a new nature. That means that our thoughts, our emotions, the root that's in us, that's been making us this wild olive branch, we have literally a new nature, a new source.

We have new truths to live by, don't we? They're way better than the old truths. You know, you've got to do something for yourself in this life. You need to accomplish something for yourself. You need to get a good education.

You need to protect yourself. Get some good insurance. We have new truths, new foundations to live by. New counselor. A new king of kings. A new Lord. You see, a new nature. A new song. The song that I sing in my heart is not the song of self and pleasing self and loving self and lifting up self as maybe even Nebuchadnezzar did as he opened his mouth before the Lord.

What a wonderful thing I've done. What a wonderful thing I've created. He was brought to a new nature. He was broken, defeated in an instant. We have a new name. A new name. That name will be given to us when the completion of all things has come.

But we have a new name. You know, sometimes a young person maybe grows up under a name. And maybe it's a name that was a wicked, reputation of maybe a murderer or maybe somebody who was corrupt. I think of the mafia way back when in the 20's and 30's.