Abiding in Christ (Session 5) — Joseph Carroll

When my own son Paul was about six years old, we were living in the house where John Morris lives, present. We're out on the lawn late one afternoon, and I was throwing him a football. He was at the other end, and he'd catch one and drop two and catch another one, drop a couple.

So I said, Paul, if you catch 20 of these passes without dropping one, I'll give you a quarter. You never saw such a transformation. He was darting, diving. He caught the 20. He didn't even look like dropping one.

I said, all right, Paul, if you catch 40, I'll give you 50 cents. 50 cents. He caught them. He didn't look like missing one. And I thought, the power of incentive. Here's the power of incentive. In this little fellow.

Needless to say, we didn't spoil Paul by giving him things. The quarter was a quarter to him. He's going to get it, and he's stretching every nerve. He's alert. Why? He wants the quarter. The power of incentive.

Love for Christ as the Strongest Incentive

The strongest incentive is the incentive of love. It's the strongest, most powerful. You know why people do not yield all to Christ? They simply love themselves. They don't love him. It's as simple as that.

Self-love, displacing love for Christ. So the incentive is what? Self-satisfaction. Self-realization, you name it. But self is at the end of it. The power of love. I was once in Paris, and I went with a friend to the big war museum they have there.

It's a massive place, probably the finest in the world. And here you have the likeness of a French soldier, a private soldier, and his arms are extended, rifle in one hand, and he's crying, and his eyes are bulging, Viva l 'Empereur!

Here he is. He's almost alive. Magnificent likeness. Viva l 'Empereur! The French soldiers loved their Emperor. And when the young French soldier was wounded, badly wounded, he had a bullet near his heart.

And the surgeon was operating, of course, no anesthesia. He was operating. And he said to the young fellow, he said, this is very close to your heart. He gave him an interesting answer. He said, dig a little deeper, and you will find the Emperor.

Dig a little deeper, he said, and you'll find the Emperor. The Emperor was in his heart. The pain, he could endure it. The Emperor was in his heart. You'd be surprised what you can endure when Christ is truly in your heart.

When he's truly in your heart. What you can endure. What you can give up. The lengths you can go to when he's truly in your heart. Feeling as Paul prayed, perfectly at home in your heart. Absolute control of your heart.

You can endure anything. There was a young student in Edinburgh University, and he was that far ahead of all the other students. It wasn't even a race. Academically, every way. Hadn't seen a boy like this in a long time in the medical school.

Brilliant. Gifted. Winning personality, he had it all. He was a Christian. So when he graduated, all the honors they could bestow upon him. There was a special meeting in which they gathered to speak about him, and talk to him about his future, and his professors were there, and a lot of his friends were there, and one of the professors said to him, well now, what are you going to do next?

He said, well, I'm I'm going out to China as a missionary. Silence. What? I'm going out to China. Going out for the China Inland Mission. I'm going to be a missionary doctor in China. Well, who are you going to minister to out there?

Well, the Chinese. What Chinese? Oh, well, peasants. What? You don't really mean that. Yes, that's all booked to go. Don't you realize with your gifts there's no height to which you cannot rise in your sphere?

And then one of their numbers said this, and this boy gave a classic answer to it. He said, besides, that's no way to get on in the world, and this is the answer he gave him. He said, which world? Which world are you talking about?

It was a good answer. Why was the boy going out? The incentive of love. A career in the world? Who cares about a career in the world? It's got the sentence of death upon it. And so he went to China. I'd like you to turn with me to Romans chapter 8.

Loving God Through Obedience

We all know that Romans 8 is one of the truly great chapters in the scriptures. Some would say the greatest. Most would say, I suppose, 1 Corinthians 13. But certainly Romans 8 is the greatest chapter in Paul's great epistle to the Romans.

In the beginning of the chapter he speaks a great deal about the Spirit. But I want you to notice from verse 28 he speaks about loving God, and the love of God, and the love of Christ. Now, in an exposition of the Romans, I've found that not all of the commentators see this.

Verse 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. All right? We have discovered that there is a certain person who loves God. Who is he? The one who keeps his commandments.

He is the person that loves God. That love is what? It is not a profession. It's a performance. Now, we all know that. Love is not a profession. Of course, you can profess, but the profession without the performance is hypocrisy.

So the person who loves God is what? The person who keeps his commandments. How do we know the Son loved the Father? The cross. That's how we know. How do I know the Son of God loved me? The cross. That's how I know.

And that's how you know. How do you know if a person loves you? They lay down their life for you. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. So, who is being spoken about here in Romans 8, 28?

People very often, very glibly quote this verse as if this applies to all Christians. It does not. It does not. It applies to them that love God. And we've seen very, very clearly. Now, I want to underline it that the only person who truly loves Christ, if a man loved me, said he keep my commandments.

He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Now, let's not be deceived about this, my friend. The fact that you may profess to belong to Christ is no evidence that you love him.

It's no evidence that you love him. The only evidence that you love him is your utter submission to his will for your life. That means you don't have any will of your own for your life. That's the evidence of love.

Nothing less than that. Let's be clear about that. Let's not go away from these meetings deceived as to what it means to love God. And after all, why not submit? Often counseled with young people, they get scared to death.

Well, I wonder what will happen if I really yield myself to Jesus Christ. I say, what do you think will happen if you don't? Is he going to take you by the scruff of the neck and shake you? He loves you.

The big problem is we love ourselves. It's the problem with young people and older people too. Here is one, the son of God, who died on a cross for you, and he's saying to you, I want to take over your life for your sake.

Will you let me? No, I can do a better job. That's the utter insanity of man, divorced from the will of God. It's utter insanity. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. In other words, God can make all things work together for good to them that love God.

What security is here? But only to them that love God. He's making all things work together for good. It doesn't matter what they are, or it doesn't matter whether we understand them or not. They are all working together for good.

Predestination as Conformity to Christ

To them who are the called, according to his purpose, for whom he did forego, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now, this is the will of God.

When people speak to me about predestination, well, what do you know about predestination? I say, well, why don't you say what the scripture says? You're predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

Why don't you leave it there? Well, I want to speak about theology. Well, I want to speak about Christ. You are predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. That's predestination. Isn't that interesting?

You don't have to be clever to understand that. But what a wonderful life to be conformed to the image of his son in this life, and then forever to be like him. Don't you feel like shouting, or jumping, or doing something?

I mean, that thrills me. But God's will for me in this life is to be conformed to the image of his son, and then to be with him and to be like him forever, to share his glory. Why? He is the firstborn among many brethren.

Brethren. His brethren. Tremendous. Well, I don't want that. I want my piddling little life here on earth. Ah, you worm, he could take that life today. Yes, he could. He could take it today. There's an old Puritan.

We know, or most of us are conscious of the fact that every time a heart beats, there's a little pause there. Another beat, and a little pause. Another beat, and a little pause. There's always a little pause there before the next beat, and the Puritan said, what the heart is saying is, Lord, shall I go on?

The Lord says, yes. Burn more beat. A little pause. Shall I go on? Yes. A little pause. Shall I go on? Shall I go on? Shall I go on? Every beat of your heart is dependent upon the Lord. You realize that?

He can take that life just like that. He has the right to do it, and he has the power to do it. He has the power to do it. We're not so clever after all. Conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Predestined, called, justified, glorified. All because of the grace of God, but the grace of God because of the cross of Christ.

And the cross of Christ because of the love of God. Only because of the love of God. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Well, there can be a lot of people against you if God's for you, but you'll be victorious in him.

He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? What a tremendous statement. What is he speaking about?

He's speaking about the love of God. He says, he that is God who spared not his own son, but delivered up his son for us all, how shall he not also with him freely, by grace, give us all things? What love?

That's the love of God. He's speaking about the love of God. He didn't spare his own son. God so loved the world. He didn't spare his son, delivered him up for us all. How shall he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who shall anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God. Who also maketh intercession for us.

The Love of God and the Love of Christ

So he's speaking to us about the love of God. Here's the great climax of the great chapter, the love of God. Then he's going to speak to us about the love of Christ. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword and Paul had experienced all of that. That's why he can write it. He's not theorizing here. He's speaking from experience.

As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. That's what it meant to be a true follower of Christ in that day. True believers were counted as the very scum, the offscouring of the earth.

Persecuted. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What a climax to the great chapter. And he looks at anything and he looks at everything and he says nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from what? The love of Christ? No, the love of God, the love of God.

The greatest message you can ever preach is the message on the love of God, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the great incentive. The love of God. Now we've been looking at Galatians 2 .20 quite a bit this week because it's a great verse.

It's one of the greatest in the scriptures. And how does Paul, when he speaks of his co-crucifixion with Christ, what does he say? The son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now that was the incentive in Paul's life.

You see, until you submit totally to Jesus Christ until you make up your mind it's your greatest privilege on this earth to be the bond slave or the love slave of Jesus Christ you are not going to experience his love.

You're not going to experience it. So you won't know what Paul's speaking about. Not the faintest idea. Because this is only for those that love him and the only person who loves him let's say it again, is the person who has come to him with total submission, no reserve to live for his sake and not their own.

That's love. Love gives without reserve, expecting nothing in return. That's love. And nothing less than that will introduce you to an experience of the love of Christ. Could Christ ask less? Could he ask less?

No. Love that gives all can only be satisfied with love that in response gives all. And you can tell a person who's in love, can't you? Oh, they've got a spring in their step. Smile on their face. Life is great.

What do you mean life is great? Well, he's in love. She's in love. Shining faith. You can always tell a person in love. Sort of crazy. You know the person who is in love with Christ, the world says he's crazy.

That was crazy. He does crazy things. Sure he does crazy things from the world's viewpoint. Because he said goodbye to that world. If he once loved it, now he said goodbye to it. When did you say goodbye to the world?

Baptism and Dying to the Old Life

Remember in Savannah many, many years ago I was driving along near a lake there, a big lake. And there were a lot of people out there and they were all dressed in white. All the ladies were dressed in white.

And it was a baptism service. So I stopped and I looked and underwent one person baptized. And as they came up out of the water, all of these people sang. There's only those people who can sing. Goodbye world.

And I just stood there and smiled and laughed at it big time. Goodbye world. Goodbye world. Amen. Hope they made it. When you were baptized into Jesus Christ, that's what it meant. Goodbye world. Goodbye world.

Goodbye Joe Carroll, I've had you. Now I'm Christ's. Don't belong to the world, I don't belong to me, I belong to you Lord. I'm your possession. That's what baptism means. That you die to an old life and in Christ you rise to a new life.

To walk in newness of life. Hallelujah. So Paul says I've been crucified with Christ. He took me to himself on the cross and I've been crucified with him. I died with him and now in him I've risen to newness of life.

And you say, is Paul living? No and yes. I live, he says, nevertheless not I, but Christ liveth in me because I was so identified with him in that cross that his death was my death. Now can you get hold of that?

Do you trust the Spirit of God to make it real to you? When he died, I died in him. My old man was crucified with him. A new man came up out of that grave. A new man. Totally new man, a new creation. And when you have a new creation, you have the evidence of a new creation.

No evidence, no new creation. This dear servant of the Lord, I waved a rule we have here. When she asked could she come to the school, study here for a couple of years, in her early fifties, maybe mid fifties.

So I prayed about it and the Lord said yes. So she came, stayed for two years. Her daughter and her daughter's husband worshipped in a very large Baptist church some miles from here. He was a deacon in the church.

Both lost and didn't know it. They weren't too happy about Mother coming to study. Well, we prayed for them. Mother prayed for them, of course, most of all. And they began to come to the Monday evening meeting.

They came for a long, long time. And then the Lord began to speak to the girl. Well, she's in her mid thirties. And she got saved. Now I want to read the testimony to you this morning. This is a testimony which she gave in front of a large class in a church.

And last Sunday evening both she and her husband walked the aisle of the large church for deacon and were baptized. I'm sure it was a very quiet church. It's a large church. I don't know, three or four thousand members.

Prestigious church. So she wrote her testimony. This is it. The Lord has told me that I must say this. I have professed to be a Christian for ten years. In those ten years I have talked the talk, but I have not walked the walk.

I am a good example of fruit that was picked unripe. I was taught only believe and you will be saved. And so I believed and was baptized with salvation assured, but not by the Spirit, by men. Recently a message on true repentance opened my eyes to see that I was living in and for the world.

Repentance and Evidence of New Life

Now that's the point. That's the point. I was living in and I was living for the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now I prayed with a young fellow recently. I questioned him.

I was counseling with him. I don't know who he is. I haven't the fenced idea. So born again? Oh yes. Gave me his testimony. When we finished our little time of counseling, I wasn't happy about it. I didn't have any witness in my spirit he was saved and I suggested that maybe he wasn't.

Oh well, I'm fine, no problem. So the finish of our little counseling session he prayed. He prayed something like this. Oh dear Lord, you know I just love the world. I just love it. And I just can't be delivered from it.

I just love it. So when he finished praying, I said, do you know what you prayed? What did I pray? How did you pray about the world? He said, oh I know. He said, I just love the world and I want to be delivered from it.

I said, you're lost. And you know a great big look of amazement came over his face and he said, yes. He discovered his lost condition through his own prayer. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father isn't in him.

Doesn't matter what he says. He doesn't belong to God. What kind of a God do you think he is in this Bible? He's a sovereign Lord. And this girl, the Spirit of God showed her that. I was living in and for the world in the way of so many other professing Christians and that I had never turned from self-seeking to live only for God.

It's a beautiful testimony. Someone had said that the day would come when preaching would be heaven without hell and salvation without repentance. That was William Booth who said that. I had never repented.

I was deceived. In those ten years of empty profession, I often doubted my salvation. But today, I know that I am saved. I know what it means now to take up the cross daily. The sentence of death on my life in this world.

And live to know and to do the will of God. My will and only desire now is to obey the Lord in all His commands and to live only for Him. Isn't that beautiful? My will and only desire now is to obey the Lord in all His commands and to live only for Him.

I've got something to say to that young lady. All things are going to work together for good in your life. God will see to that. He's promised it and it will. He'll make everything in your life work together for good.

You'd think a preacher had written this for her. I know. A preacher doesn't have to write anything for anybody when the Spirit of God takes control. You'll be surprised what comes out of their mouth and from their pen.

No longer everything for me and something for him, but everything for him. No wonder a few weeks later a husband was saved. What a testimony. As a young person, believe, be baptised, join the church, you're in.

Oh, you're still out. Unless you've repented. And what is one of the evidences of repentance, a new life? Well, goodbye world. Hallelujah. Goodbye world. When did you say that? Goodbye world. Paul said, I have been crucified under the world.

And the world under me, he said, I'm crucified to that world and that world's crucified to me. That world doesn't want a thing to do with me. It's co-crucifixion. So Paul here is speaking about another crucifixion, speaking about being crucified with Christ.

Dying with him, raised to newness of life in him. He says, I live, he said, but it's not me. It's Christ in me. Now, we need to be very clear. We've said it again and again this week, we want to underline it.

Christ Living His Life Through the Believer

It wasn't Christ in him as a source that Paul could draw upon by faith and experience power or anything else. No, it was Christ himself, not a source, a person, who was going to live his life through Paul.

There's a very important difference there. It's not a matter of faith appropriating for a present need. In other words, for instance, if you have need of courage, facing a situation, need courage. Lord, give me courage.

Oh no. Dear Lord, manifest your courage through me. That's the difference. We saw in 1 Corinthians 1 .30 earlier in the week, what? Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom. People sometimes, believe it or not, come to me and they say, Mr. Carroll, you're a wise man.

So I smile. If only you knew what a donkey he is. I suppose about six times a week I call myself a donkey. It's my favourite term for myself. I'm serious. Might be walking along home somewhere, you donkey, I say to myself.

How do you do that? And I mean it. I mean it. You have wisdom, Mr. Carroll. How can a nothing have wisdom? I can't quite work that out. Listen, my friend, I have Christ, who is wisdom. He has been made unto me by God the Father, wisdom.

So if I'm confronted with a difficult situation, what do I say? Your wisdom, Lord, through me. And I just trust him. You see the point? You need faith to lay hold upon a situation. Lord, give me faith.

Oh no. Christ gave me his son. Lord, your faith through me at this point. Your faith. People come here and they say, this is a wonderful place. I could keep you here all day telling you how the Lord brought this place into being.

You know what I said? How he brought it into being. They say, isn't it wonderful? You don't take offerings. You don't ask for money. You don't make needs known. Isn't it wonderful? You must have some people of great faith.

No. We don't have anybody with great faith around here. But we do have a great saviour. We have a great saviour. And he's full of surprises. He's just full of surprises. Let me tell you how he made this property available.

Trusting God’s Providence in Providing the Ministry Center

Just one little instance of how he works. I won't go into the preliminaries. Suffice to say that my wife and I, after much prayer, I went to my wife and I said to her, who was living in Asheville at the time, Honey, I believe the Lord wants us to go to Greenville and commence a work there.

Well, my wife has known me long enough to say, All right, honey. So, the Lord had to provide land. We looked at a map of Greenville, this area, and I'd asked the Lord if he wanted a centre here to give us a centre approximately within ten minutes of the centre of the city.

But separated from the city, a quiet spot where people could come to hear the word of the Lord without having to be a member of anything or pay anything. Just a centre where the word could be preached.

Anybody could come. Nothing to join, nothing to pay. So I had a look at the map, and this was the first spot we came to. I said, All right, honey. Looks like there might be something in there. Let's go.

Let's go and have a look at that place. So we came along the highway. We came in here, right here. That's perfect. One who owns it. So we made some inquiries in the city and they said a certain man owns it.

He's an elderly man. He's about 82. Runs cattle on his property. He's a millionaire. A multimillionaire, in fact. All right. So I got a couple of men in the city. I said, Why don't you go and ask him if he'll sell the land?

And they came back very quickly. He said he has no intention of selling that land. So we began to look in other parts of the city, all over the city, but we kept coming back here. After about three weeks, I said, Why don't you go and ask that man again if he'll sell this land?

They went back, came back very quickly. He said, No good asking. It's finished. He's not going to sell it. He doesn't want to sell it. If he sold it, his income, he'd have to pay taxes on it. Besides, he runs horses up there, or cattle up there, and his children just love the little stone house on the hill.

They spend weekends up there. Money doesn't mean anything to him? No way. So we looked again, and we came back again. I said, Why don't you go and ask him again? They said, No way. We're not going to ask him.

That's it. It's settled. He's made up his mind. He doesn't need the money, and he's not going to sell it. Well, in 1955, the Southern Baptists on Formosa asked us to go to the island to minister for six or seven months.

We did. Well, this man was in the home of his Baptist pastor. He was chatting with his pastor, and he said, You know, it's strange. There's some people, they want to buy my land up there. I don't know what.

Well, they want to put a Bible center up there, Bible teaching something. I don't know what it is. And the fellow they're talking about, my teacher there, he's an Australian. He said, You're not even a Southerner.

Terrible thing. He wasn't one of the elect. But anyway, the pastor said, Well, where does he come from? He said, Well, he's from Australia. Where else? He said, Well, he was in Japan. He used to be in Japan.

The pastor said, Well, I don't know anybody or knows anybody from Japan. But he said, My wife's best friend is in the kitchen, and her best friend was a missionary in China for many, many years in Formosa.

Maybe she knows about him. Well, you had 1 ,800 missionaries in Japan, and here's a woman been in China in Formosa. His wife's best friend was the lady I lived with in Formosa. You see that? And the lady I lived in with in Formosa is a most persuasive person.

Martha Franks. I lived with Martha Franks and Bertha Smith for seven months. By the time Martha finished with him, he had to make a quick decision. Otherwise, he'd have been giving us this land, not selling it.

You see how the Lord works? You see how he works? Split-second timing. Martha in the home, the owner in the home, pastor's wife in the home, split-second timing. Great faith? No. Great Lord. You have a great Lord.

You see, that kind of Lord to you, he's a wonderful Lord. Let me tell you another story. I've got lots of stories about a wonderful Lord. When we discovered Anna had a cancer and she had to have a kidney excised because the cancer had engulfed the kidney.

And when they put that tumor on the scales at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, the scale hit the bottom. It was a massive thing for a little four-year-old girl. So they radiated it, cobalt, and then they began chemotherapy.

And after about a month of chemotherapy, I was praying one morning and the Lord said, You tell them to stop the chemotherapy. Now they were very fine doctors and they had done a tremendous job for Anna.

In fact, the surgeon, when he came to speak to us about the surgery, there were tears rolling down his cheeks. So I went to these very fine men and I said, No more chemotherapy. Well, they looked at me as if I was a madman.

They said, Do you realize this is the only chance this little girl has to live? I said, The only one who's going to determine whether she lives or dies is the Lord. Appreciate all you're doing, but no more chemotherapy.

I was told about eight years later that the dosage of chemotherapy they gave at that time, which was just in the beginning of the treatment, would ultimately have killed the girl. I was told that by a doctor.

Later on, they gave one-fifth the amount they were giving her. That was just in the beginning of this. The Lord knew that. He knew it. And Anna's alive today. He's a wonderful Lord. Nobody could foresee that, but the Lord knew it, so he said, You stop it.

That chemotherapy really played havoc with her blood. Now, I used to take it two times a week to get it. And I saw that the doctor was looking rather solemn after a while. And so he said to me, The count, the blood count is really out bad.

We don't seem to be able to rectify it. He said, We're doing all we can, but it's getting very serious. So I asked him about the count and he told me about it. I didn't know much about blood counts, what was going on.

But I knew it was getting serious. He said, If it doesn't rectify itself within a week, we're going to have to take some rather drastic measures. See what we can do. It had been going down and down and down and down.

Whatever it was, should have been up here, it was down here. Whatever it was, the thing was totally, almost totally out of balance. And she was in trouble. So I remember taking Anna home. I put her on the bed and I asked the Lord to heal her.

I said, Lord, these doctors, they can go so far. Quite obviously, Anna's in trouble. I took her back three days later and they said her blood is normal. It's normal. Nothing wrong with the blood. He's a great Lord.

You know him like that. He can make all things work together for good. If her blood hadn't been so, such in bad shape, I couldn't have proved the Lord. He was making work together for good. The word of God is true.

He keeps his word. He watches over his word to perform it. If you believe it, it's about three years ago that I was in a certain southern city and I met a very dear man. I would have called him a Dickens character.

He's one of the few intellectuals I've met in recent years. I mean a true intellectual. You can tell a true intellectual when you meet one. You can almost see the computer clicking and out comes the answer.

This man was an intellectual. It's very stimulating to be able to converse with these people. He was a dear man. He had 1 ,000 questions. He came to the place where I was staying and sit down with him.

What about this, Mr. Carroll? You said that. What does that mean? You said this. What does that mean? Well, I went back to the city for another series of meetings sometime after that and here he was again.

I had lunch with him. Now, Mr. Carroll, I've been listening to your tapes. What do you mean by this? What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? Well, I was trusting the Lord, I can assure you, to speak to the man.

Then finally he had me to his very lovely home for lunch one day and everything was coming to a climax and in his quaint way he asked me a certain question and I gave him the answer and then I can still remember he looked at me and he said, well, I suppose it means that I'm out and he's in.