Saved by His Life — Don Higgins

Thank you, Brother Ralph. I believe I must tell you that as I prepared for this day, this afternoon, every time I sat down to make notes, every time I endeavored to pray, the Lord just kept saying to me, trust me, I don't have one note to go from, and I am totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ to speak.

And if you will bear that dependence with me, let's bow our heads and confess our need. Heavenly Father, I confess that in and of myself I can do nothing, that it's only by the very power of the living life of Christ that we can communicate the words of God.

And so we just commit this time to you, we give this vessel over to you to speak as you would want to speak to our hearts. I would entrust every man in this room to you, that you would anoint his eyes with eye salve, and his ears may be opened, ears right to his heart.

And Father, communicate to our hearts the very truth of your word, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. We're going to start by turning to Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5, verses 8, 9, and 10.

Justified by Christ’s Blood and Saved by His Life

We'll use this for a launching pad and see where the Lord wants to take us this afternoon. My Bible says, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We probably all understand that concept and that principle in this room this afternoon.

Paul in the ninth verse goes on and he uses a phrase which he uses many times, and it's much more. And so he proceeds from a basic premise that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. In our rebellious state while we were rebels towards God, God in his mercy gave of himself and Jesus Christ died for us.

He could have snuffed us out like that. He could have stepped on us like we would step on an ant. But instead he gave his Son in our place to save us. And so Paul says much more that we are now justified by his blood.

Here's the progress. Now that we have received the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ and we have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Now God no longer can snuff us out because it's by his Son and we have received his Son and the provision of the Lord Jesus Christ that God no longer can be angry with us.

Paul bears this out in Romans chapter 8 and he says there's therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And then in the tenth verse he says this, for if when we were enemies, that's in our prior condition, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, he says again, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life, not his death.

Did you know that right now you are being saved by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is Jesus Christ living? He is saving you right now and it's by his life living in you that you are being saved. Well, saved from what?

Well, as the angel said to the father of Jesus and before Joseph knew of all of the events that were coming into his life, the angel said to him, you will call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins.

It didn't say hell, did it? He said from their sins. And I got sick and tired in my own life after living the Christian life for 40 years of all of this coming back to Jesus and coming back for more forgiveness and more forgiveness and more forgiveness and more forgiveness, I discovered I needed something else to stop me from sinning.

Is there anybody here like that? Are you tired of the routine of coming back to the blood of Jesus Christ to always be forgiven? Wouldn't you like to shut off the faucet of self and stop the water from flowing into the bathtub that's flowing over and stop mopping up the sins?

You understand what I'm saying? Wouldn't you like to get that faucet shut off so that it wasn't pouring out those sins all of the time and that you could enter into an experience whereby on a day-to-day, moment-by-moment, second-by-second, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, you were being saved by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Does Jesus Christ sin? Where does he live? Pardon me? Where does he live? Come on now, where does he live? All right, if Jesus is living in you, then why can't he keep you from sin? You understand what I'm saying?

How many would be interested in finding the secret in God's Word this afternoon how to shut off that faucet so that you don't have to come back here next year and go through another round of repentance?

How would you like to be able to know at the moment, at the very moment, that you by your own choice would walk out of the realm of living in the Spirit, that the Holy Spirit would so chastise you in the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ, it would be so vibrantly alive in you that you would know in a moment and you'd have no peace and you'd want to get back to the peace and the joy that would flow from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ on a moment-to-moment basis, just like that.

Would you like that? That's the way Jesus Christ intended us to live. Now, I came to the conclusion after 40 years of living the Christian life that it was very difficult to live the Christian life. And in fact, I finally came to the conclusion that it was impossible.

Does anybody agree with me? You know, there's only one person in all of the universe that can live the Christian life, and who is it? It's Jesus Christ, and He wants to live it through you. Now, why did you have children?

Why did you have children? Well, so one of them could take out the garbage, another one to make the beds, another one to mow the lawn, another one to do the chores. No, that isn't why you had children, but somehow we've gotten into this rut with God that God has children so that there's somebody to serve Him.

Look it, God doesn't need me to serve Him. I don't think God has any needs. If God has needs, then He's not God. Our service to Him should be from a loving, flowing, vibrant relationship of the Christ who lives within us.

And I believe that you had children so that you could give your expression of life through them. Every mother and father that comes together to have children want to express their life through their children.

That's the purpose. And God has children so that He can express His love, the vibrant life of the Lord Jesus Christ, through each and every one of us. Now, as a basis for what we'd like to share with you this afternoon, let's turn back to one of the first books of the Bible.

Job’s Righteousness and His Trials

It's Job. Actually, Job was a book that we're told was written by Moses. It could likely have been written before Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus, although we're not sure. And this man, Job, you all have heard about him.

And I'd like to glean some truths from the book of Job that will perhaps put some things into perspective so that we can see what the great restrictor is in our lives of letting the life of the Lord Jesus Christ flow through us, and what God's process is in order to bring us to a place where that vibrant life of the Lord Jesus Christ can live through us.

The book of Job opens with this statement. There was in the land of Uz a man whose name was Job, and that man was perfect. He was upright, and one that feared God, and he hated evil. You can move along to verse 8, and it says, The Lord said that, Have you considered my servant Job?

He said to Satan, There is none like him in the earth. He is a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and he hates evil, or he cheweth evil. Then in chapter 2, And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job?

There is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and he escheweth evil, and still he holdeth fast his integrity. Now if you were deciding on a scale of one to ten, that's one to ten, ten is perfect in the sight of God, perfect and upright, and on a scale, where would you put Job?

What would you give him? You'd give him a ten? Nine? I want you to understand, fellows, God said this about this man. What would you give him? You'd give him a ten, wouldn't you? Now while you got that number locked away in your head, give yourself a number.

Give yourself a number. Give yourself a number, and don't tell me. You just put it back there, write down on a piece of paper, do whatever you like, but don't tell anybody, because you're probably, like me, you'd be ashamed of it.

But somewhere, write it down, even if it's just in your memory, because we probably, if we have time this afternoon, we'll come back to that. Now here was this tremendous man of God. Let's look at some of the focus in his life, some of the things that he was.

It says, there were born unto him, second verse of chapter one, there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great household.

Now Brother Gordon out west, would that be a wealthy man? That sure would. And so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East. It goes on to say about the conduct of his sons and his daughters, and that he was very careful to offer sacrifices on behalf of them, because it appears that some of them were being involved in some questionable activity.

And he would constantly offer sacrifices in order that they would be right before God. He had a concern for his children. You could open up this book, and you would find that he was a wealthy, not only a wealthy man, but he was very benevolent.

He gave his goods to look after the poor. He gave of his counsel, and he sat in the town gates, and they would come to him for judgment in all kinds of matters. He was the elder of the elders. Do you know what I mean?

He was in his town, he was the most important man. He was accomplished, and today we might call him a successful businessman. We would also call him a successful church member, and we would also call him very benevolent.

Do you understand what I'm saying? He is perhaps the idol of what we might hold up a man in our economy, in our day, as being the ultimate as far as a church man was concerned. He was a church leader.

He was perhaps not a ruler in the synagogue, but he was well thought of, if there were synagogues at that time. I doubt that there were. This man was a compatriot of Abraham. And in Abraham, you know that in the book of Hebrews, it says that God counted unto Abraham for righteousness because of his, anybody know?

Because of his faith. In other words, he had a relationship with God, whereby God counted him to be righteous. And I believe that this is the case with Job. And that's why God is saying, this man is perfect and he's upright.

In God's sight, he was perfect and upright on the basis of what God had given and done in Job's heart because of Job's faith in God. Are you with me? Okay, so here's this very accomplished man, and I guess you all know what happened to Job, right?

He lost everything. He lost his health, he lost his family, he lost his possessions, and by the time you get to chapter 3 in this book, you find that he's sitting on an ash heap, he's in sackcloth and ashes, he's got pieces of pottery, and he's picking away at the sores on his body that are oozing with pus.

And we might say, what on earth is going on? Is that right? Wouldn't you say that about this godly man? What on earth is going on? Now, we know the process that God had given Satan permission to do this to Job.

It said, you can't touch his life. You can't touch his life. But you can do anything to him that you want. And we know what happened to Job. Now, we won't go into those details, but I'd like to have you turn now to chapter 12 and 13, if you follow along in your Bible.

And we're going to get some pictures here of some attitudes of Job's heart, some attitudes of his way and his style of thinking. In the third verse of chapter 12, in the third verse of chapter 12, we hear him saying, I have understanding as well as you.

I am not inferior to you, yea, who knoweth not such things as these. Who knoweth not such things as these. Now, if a person isn't inferior to someone, what is he? He's equal or superior. Job's one of his greatest problems was that he was comparing himself to other people.

He was comparing himself to other people. And that's the nature of the flesh, brothers. And that's why we have the problem that dear brother Bill was talking about this morning. You see, if we feel superior to somebody or if we feel inferior, there's going to be all kinds of criticism and pride enter into our thinking.

Is that right? And so here's Job and he's got this idea that he's trying to match up with somebody else. He's just as smart as everybody else. Chapter 13, in the second verse, he says, I know also I am not inferior unto you.

Then in the third verse, he gets up on his high horse and he says, I desire to reason with God. Well, what does a person do when he wants to reason with someone? What's another word for reason? Argue.

I want to argue with God as to why all of this has happened to me. Now, perhaps you and I think that we know better than to argue with God, but how many times do we find ourselves in our lives asking God, why, why, why, why are you doing this to me?

Why are you allowing this to happen? What are all these things around me that are being allowed into my life? Is that right? Nod your head. Okay. In verse 6, he's saying, here now, who's reasoning? Okay.

What do we, what do we realize is happening here? Here's a man that thinks he's got it all put together and he's got all the reasoning figured out. And he figures he's on the right track. If you look at verse 15, or 13 rather, let me alone that I may speak and let come on me what will.

Now, what do we see? Arrogance. Let come on me what will. Arrogance. Another trait of the self-life, right? Another trait of the natural man. Moving to verse 17, he says, hear diligently my speech. Verse 18, he says, I have ordered my cause.

I know that I shall be justified. What's he saying? I've done everything right. I've done everything right. Now, what he's saying? And I know that everything's going to be okay. I know that I shall be justified.

Now, we don't have time, but if you looked at chapter 7, you would find, I think, 21 verses in that chapter. You'd find that 42 times he uses the letters I, me, and my. In 21 verses, 42 times. If you look at chapters 29, 30, 31, you will find that there's something like 92 verses, and 196 times in those 92 verses, he says, I, me, and my, and look at everything that I've done.

I would suggest to you that Job had an advanced case of perpendicular personal pronoun iatus. His life was focused entirely on what he could do. His life was entirely focused upon his accomplishments, and his efforts, and what he could do in life.

And it was at that point in time, in chapter 32, that the men who were counseling with him, these counselors, which turned out in this story to be something else to him, he says, these three men ceased to answer because he was righteous in his own eyes.

What does that mean? Pardon me? He thought he was alright. He was righteous in his own eyes. You could look at verse 2, and there it says, because he justified himself rather than God. In other words, he saw his sense of value, he saw his sense of who he was, he saw his sense of all his accomplishments all wrapped up in what he could do and what he owned.

But what does God do when we have an idol before us, before him, rather? He smashes it. And you see, God had smashed all of Job's idols. God has smashed all of Job's idols. You know that I came to realize in my life, when God had given me four precious children, I had been so interested in raising them so that they would be godly, and I feared the day that my daughter would come and hopefully she wouldn't be pregnant, you know, all that stuff, and boy, I hope I make it through this.

I'm going to put everything I have into my children so that they'll be a righteous people of God. But you know what I discovered? I wanted that because I didn't want to be embarrassed. And you see, my interest in them was self-focused.

It was self-focused. And then God smashed my idols. I won't tell you how he did it, but he smashed my idols. He took my children from me. Thank God today they're restored. But he smashed my idols. He smashed my job.

He smashed all my involvement in church and what I could do. Because you see, I had my focus on me and what I could do. I had the same problem that Job had. Now, this was quite a punishment for this godly man, wasn't it?

I'd like you to go back to chapter 1, and we're going to look just for a minute at the four words that God said this man was. In the first verse of chapter 1, it says that he was perfect and he was upright.

I really believe, I haven't got scripture for this, but I believe that in God's sight, God had imputed righteousness to Job because his faith was in God, and God's viewpoint was that he was perfect and upright.

But as far as Job was concerned, his reaction to that was that he feared God. That is, he had a wholesome fear towards God, and he was doing God's work, okay? And he hated evil, and that was all right, but he was doing it in his own strength.

He didn't have his focus on what God had done in him, but he had his focus on what he could do. Now, turn to chapter 13 again, and verse 15, and I want to show you the culmination of this man's attitude in his depraved condition.

In verse 15 of chapter 13, this man says, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Sounds good, doesn't it? Is this man trusting God? Is he? Come on, shake your heads. Is he trusting God? Well, he said it.

This is what Job said, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Read it. Shout it. But I will maintain my own ways before him. What's he saying? Put it in common English. What might we say today? But I'll do it my way.

That's right. Let me reason with God. Well, who does this man think he is? Who do you think you are? You see, as long as you're evaluating yourself on the basis of what you can do, you're going to come up with something less than a 10.

And when you come up with something less than a 10, you're just going to work harder. And then you're going to tear somebody else apart. You understand what I'm saying? You see that? You're just going to work harder, because there's something in you that knows that you have to meet with God's approval.

Repentance from Self-Righteousness

Now, what happened to this godly man? What happened to this man who God had imputed righteousness to him, but he was off on his own track of doing things in his own resources? What happens to a man like that through this kind of pressure?

Turn to the last chapter. It takes 42 chapters for this guy to get into tune with God's doing. You know, sometimes God has to hit us over the head with a two-by-four just to get our attention. And then we might be willing to listen to Him.

In verse 3, we see that Job is saying, I uttered things that I did not understand. You understand? He came to realize that his whole philosophy, his whole sense of value, he did not understand God's way.

In verse 6, he says, wherefore I abhor myself. What's another word for abhor? Despise? Hate? Yeah, that's a pretty humble position. I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. You see, I had to come to realize in my life, just like Job did, that I had to stop repenting of the things that I was doing and I had to repent of who I was and what I was.

I had to come to hate myself. Turn to John chapter 12. I don't know where we're going, fellas. We're just going to follow what the Holy Spirit wants to say to us. Is that okay? John chapter 12 and verse 25, it says, he that loveth his life shall lose it.

And he that hateth, what? The things he does? What do we have to come to hate, fellas? Yeah, not the things I do. But we have to actually come to despise our very life. But how many times have we been walking around in our Christian life and our Christian commitment, and we think that we've given God so much by giving Him our life?

And man, we even distort it to say we put Christ on the center of my life, or on the throne of our life. Well, as long as my life is there, I'm going to do it my way. Understand? You can't put Christ on the throne of your life, because if you put Him there, guess who's going to knock Him off?

It's still your life. You can't put Christ at the center of your life, because if you put Him at the center of your life, you're going to soon spin Him out of there while you do your own thing. And isn't that what's happened?

So many times in your life, after you've gone home from a rally like this, or you've gone home from a Christian emphasis service of some kind, and you find that, yeah, I did put Jesus Christ at the center of my life, but it wasn't very many days.

He was way out there again. Hello? And you see, we've committed my life to Christ. Jesus Christ, in the verse preceding this, until a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. What we have to come to realize is that our life isn't worth two tidbits.

Our life isn't worth two tidbits. It really isn't. God isn't interested in me, my life, but He is interested in infusing the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ into this earthen vessel, so that this earthen vessel can be the carrier and the vehicle by which the life of the Lord Jesus Christ can be expressed in this world.

And we must come to so despise our life. And just as Job, he came to abhor, what? Himself, until he saw that he had to repent in dust and ashes. Not for the things he was doing, but for what he was. Now what happened when he did that?

Verse 9, the last five or six words says, when Job repented, the Lord accepted him. And then in verse 10, it says, the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

I don't know what happened, but he had ten more children. He had a multiplicity of children. He had double the flocks and double the animals and double the possessions they had ever had before. And brothers, that tells me that when we come to repentance of what we are in and of ourselves, and we accept Jesus Christ as our life, then the abundance of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ will begin to flow instead of the faucet of self.

Hello? And as long as I'm coming to any kind of a daily devotion that says, God, wash me all over again, and if we're saying, help me, help me, help me, what are we saying by help me? When we say, God, help me, what are we saying?

Let's do it together. God isn't interested. In fact, my Bible tells me in Galatians chapter 5 and verses 16 and 17 that there's a war going on between the spirit that's in me and my flesh. There's a war going on, but every time I say, God, help me, I'm asking God to help what?

Well, help me, and me is my flesh. You understand? Now, if God's going to win this battle that's going on between the spirit and the flesh, is he going to make flesh stronger or weaker? Weaker. What do we try to do when we get weaker?

Well, we try to fix it, right? We try to fix the problem. I don't know if you'll catch this or not, but God is fixing to fix you and you fix the fix that God is fixing to fix you, he'll fix you another fix to fix you.

Did you get that? Pardon me? Yeah, it's easy for me to say because I said it before. Okay. But you understand, there are three reasons why Christians don't come to victorious Christian living. There are three reasons.

Death with Christ and the Breaking Process

You want to write them down? There are three reasons. One of the reasons is that they don't know that they've died with Christ. One of the reasons is they do not know that they have died with Christ at Calvary.

We're going to explain that in just a few minutes. The second reason is that they know it, but they simply don't believe it. They know that they've died with Christ, but they can't accept it as true. And the third reason is they know it, they've embraced it or accepted it by faith, but then they resist God's breaking process in order for the flesh to die, to be rid of.

How many have ever made, let's be honest, fellas, let's be honest with ourselves. How many have ever made a commitment of your life to the Lord Jesus Christ? You committed your life to him and within six weeks things were worse than ever before.

How many? How many? Well, do you know what's happened? Anything that you give to God, he breaks. Anything that you give to God, he'll break it. The broken alabaster box, the broken lamps of Gideon, he'll break it.

And what happens is we, in not understanding what God is doing, we will resist the brokenness and we will try to overcome what God is showing in us that needs to change. Do you think Job was broken? Nod your head.

Do you think Job was broken? Do you think our Lord and Savior on the cross of Calvary was broken? Why do you think you should escape the process? Do you know that virtually every time that Jesus said to his disciples, come follow me, it was in the context of him walking to Calvary?

Not every time, but most times when Jesus said, come follow me, he was talking in the context of going to Calvary. And what he's saying is, are you willing to come with me and willing to be broken so that you will be released from that which binds you yourself?

If Jesus had to suffer, you know, Hebrews tells me that even though he were a son, he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. Why should it be any different for us? Fellas, we need to be broken.

And you know, for the North American man, that's the hardest thing to take, is to be broken. And what's brokenness for? What's God's brokenness for? Well, God's brokenness is to deliver us from the flesh, because unto the flesh there is a way that seemeth right, but the end thereof is destruction.

And if God doesn't break us, we'll self-destruct. Did you get that? And so God in his love and his mercy, he wants to bring forth the work of Calvary in our lives by breaking us and showing us what the flesh is really like.

Let's look at a few verses of Scripture. You won't be able to fully accept the provisions of your death at Calvary until you see you need it. Let me say that again. You won't be prepared by faith to fully embrace your death with Jesus Christ at Calvary until you see the need for it.

Jeremiah 17 9 says that the hardest man, the heart of man is what? Deceitfully wicked and who can know it. Proverbs 14 and 12, Proverbs 16 and 25, they both say the same thing. Why does the Holy Spirit, within two chapters, repeat himself?

Emphasis. There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Was there a way that seemed right to Job? But he was trusting God and he was saying, I'll do it my way.

There's a way that seems right to Job, but he says, I'll do it my way. I'll trust God, but I'll do it my way. Is that why we get into trouble? Is that why the faucet of self keeps flowing with the water of sin?

Proverbs 16 and 2 says all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but they're the ways of death. Second Chronicles 7 14, Brother Bill McCloud mentioned it this morning, and my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and then what?

Turn from their wicked ways. Well, what are the wicked ways of God's people? Well, the wicked ways of God's people are nothing more than doing God's work in the ways of men. They're not going out and painting the town red and chasing women and drinking wine and all of that stuff.

That's not the wicked ways of God's people. The wicked ways of God's people are doing God's work in the ways of the flesh, and God sees those ways as wicked. And these ways of Job were wicked in God's sight until God brought him to the point to abhor himself and to repent in dust and ashes.

And God's Word tells us, God's Word tells us, even though we're children of God, there's a way that seems right to us, but they still may be the ways of the flesh, and they'll end up in destruction and death until we become totally dependent upon something else.

Crucified with Christ, Buried, and Raised

Now, what does God do with such a usurper? This thing we call self, this thing we call flesh, what does God do with such a usurper? Well, my Bible tells me in Galatians 2 and 20 that I have been crucified with Christ.

I have been crucified with Christ. Now, if this usurper stands in the way of letting God's way be manifest through us, can you agree with me that it's going to take something pretty phenomenal in order for that thing to be destroyed, if it's that bad?

It's going to take something pretty conclusive. It's going to take something with finality. It's going to take something that's a fact of history. And my Bible tells me, Galatians 2 and 20, I have been crucified with Christ.

And Romans 6 and 6 says we know that our old man was crucified with Christ. And that means that at the same time and the same place that Christ was crucified, it was there that this usurper was crucified with Christ.

There on the same cross. Now, it's not hard for us to understand that because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ that was shed 2 ,000 years ago, that our sins were washed away, our deeds were dealt with by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we've been cleansed, and we've been justified, and we've been given the assurity of eternal life in Christ Jesus.

That's not hard to understand, is it? And it's not hard to understand that we can come back there anytime we need it, that if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.

Let me ask you this question. At the time of Calvary, right back there on Good Friday on Calvary, were your sins, the sins you've committed in your life at that point in time, were they past, present, or future?

All. Well, you see, all of your sins were dealt with back there. Even the ones that I'll commit next Wednesday was dealt with at the cross of Calvary. The blood of Jesus Christ atones for all sin. I don't understand how God works, except that the Bible tells me it's so.

That the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sins. What do I have to do? I simply reach out by faith, and I receive it, and I accepted it, and then I reckon that it's so. Is that right? I reckon that it's so.

I reckon that the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, sometimes I think this word reckon confuses us in Romans. You all know the one I'm talking about, Romans 6 and verse 11. But on that time that you were initially saved, you came to your forgiveness of sins.

You had to reckon pretty heavily for the next three or four days, and maybe for six weeks. You had to reckon that your sins were forgiven. You just kept coming back to the truth until it became reality, and you realized that your sins were gone.