Thursday #2 Complete Commitment — J. Edwin Orr

Thank you so much. That was choice. Tonight I'm going to talk about another doctrine connected with the subject of renewal. That is summed up in the words of Romans 12 and 1, present your body a living sacrifice.

Complete Commitment and the Two Dogs

In other words, complete commitment. However, I want to teach it with a scriptural background, at the same time illustrating it so that you won't forget the points. There was a Hopi Indian giving his testimony in Arizona.

He said, before I get converted, I go to town on Saturday night, get drunk, and my big mean dog bite everybody. Then, said he, Jesus Christ come into my life. He give me a great big friendly dog, big friendly dog, love everybody, make friends.

But he said, now I have two dogs and they fight. There was a chief sitting in the front seat. He said, which dog winning? The brave thought it over. He said, whichever one I say sikkim to. When I first heard that story, I thought how true that was of my early Christian life.

I was converted when I was nine years of age, but as I grew up into my teens, I got to be quite compromising. Sometimes I got so pious, I went to church on Sunday, twice without being told, went to Bible school, Bible class on Sunday school, went to the midweek service on my own.

I even gave out hymn books at the door once. I was feeding the great big friendly dog. Other times I backslid, ran around with a gang of fellows on Saturday night, kept bad company. I was feeding the great big mean dog.

Now that's our problem. What are we going to do with the old mean dog? Now there are some Christians who teach you can shoot the old dog dead, but they admit that you can raise another pup, so we won't argue about the age of the dog.

We want to deal with that problem. Your main hindrance in living the Christian life is not the Communist Party or the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. I think it was Pogo who said, We has discovered the enemy, and they is us.

I am my biggest hindrance. That's the problem we want to talk about tonight. But we'll do it in an orderly way. I'm going to use the overhead projector. Now there are two theological terms. Don't be scared of them.

Justification as Acquittal and Imputed Innocence

What does it mean to be justified? Does anyone care to give me a definition? Raise your hand before you speak. Yes. To be declared innocent. That's fair. Any other suggestion? Just as if I'd never sinned.

That's as much a pun as a definition. But they stick in your mind puns, don't they? I remember when I was in Sunday school asking my Sunday school teacher, Who were the Sadducees? He said, The Sadducees were a Jewish sect who didn't believe in the resurrection of the body or the coming of the Lord, and that is why they were sad, you see.

I've never forgotten that. Never forgotten it. So justified means justified never sinned. Actually it means to be acquitted, pardoned. No, it's more than pardoned. How shall I illustrate that? I did talk the other night about forgiveness, didn't I?

I was driving along California Boulevard in Pasadena. I came to a stop sign at Allen Boulevard. I stopped. Now there's generally a motorcycle policeman hiding under the pepper trees at that corner, and as I turned around and went north on Allen Boulevard, I noticed in the reflection of my mirror this motorcycle policeman coming very rapidly in my direction.

I said to the Reverend Armand Guestwine, who was riding with me, Who is he chasing? He looked back and said, You're the only one in the street. But I hadn't done anything wrong. My car had an Illinois license plate on it.

I'd just moved from Glen Ellyn. But it's not wrong to drive a car with an Illinois license plate in California. I was beginning to feel indignant. Sure enough, the cop came alongside of me. He said, Pull over there, bud.

So I parked the car. He parked his cycle. He came back. He laid his elbow on the window frame and spoke to me ever so nonchalantly. You must agree, traffic cops have poise. He said, Mister, do you have stop signs back in Illinois?

I thought, What a dumb question. But I said, Yes. Mister, he said, When you see a stop sign back in Illinois, do you stop? I was going to say something smart. Then I thought, No. So I said, Yes, I do.

Then he said, Why didn't you stop back there? I said, I did. I mean, I think I did. I mean, I hope I did. I mean, did I? He said, You put your foot in the brake, but you didn't stop rolling. Show me your driver's license.

Mercifully, it was an issue in Chicago. So he looked at it. He says, Well, I see you are a bona fide visitor to our fair state, so we'll forgive you this time. You can drive on. Now, I was pardoned, but I wasn't justified.

You know how I know? Because the cop followed me. And when I got to the corner of San Pascual, I made quite sure he saw me stop. I was on probation. Now, when God forgives us, he not only forgives us, that's a wonderful thing, but he treats us as if we'd never sinned in the first place.

Supposing you get home tonight. I hope this illustration won't be fulfilled. The neighbors are out on the sidewalk waiting for you to say, Your house has been burgled. You say, Oh no. Well, we've called the police, but they haven't come yet.

So you go in. And then you find a comic tragic situation. The young burglar has accidentally locked himself in the bathroom. Can't get out. Now you've got him. However, he's so young, and he says he hasn't eaten, out of work, can't get a job.

You ask him to stay for supper. You think, Well, I won't. We won't turn him in. We won't lay charges. Next day, you go down time, you know somebody needs some help, you get him a job. He's grateful. He comes for Sunday dinner every Sunday.

Finally, he marries your sister. What treatment for a burglar? Well, that's the way God treats us. Rebels in arms against him, he not only forgives us. That's a wonderful thing. But he treats us as if we had never sinned in the first place.

We're declared innocent. Acquitted. That's the meaning of justification. Now let's take the second term. What does it mean to be sanctified? Could you give me a good pun on that? What does it mean to be sanctified?

Sanctification as Being Set Apart for God

Someone tell me. Raise your hand. Separated, yes. Doesn't mean cast out. It means set apart. That sense of separated. Set apart for God. Someone might say, Joseph Solomon said pardoned. Might say it means to be cleansed.

That's implicit, but it's more than cleansed. I'm a grandfather five times over, but I remember many years ago, thirty years ago or more, about thirty years ago I came home. My wife didn't know when to expect me.

She'd gone out shopping. I was too tired to wait for her return, too hungry to wait for her return, too tired to cook my own food. So I said to my eleven-year-old daughter, how would you like to make supper for your daddy?

She was pleased. First time she'd ever been invited officially to cook. Of course I knew what I would get. Meatballs. That's all she knew how to make. Meatballs. First lesson in domestic economy. But she was so pleased she started to sing to herself, put a pan on the stove.

She came and put a knife on the table, came and put a fork on the table. I was reading the paper, waiting for the food. She came and put a plate on the table. I stopped her there. I said, take that plate away.

She said, what's wrong with that plate, daddy? I said, that's the cat's plate. I'm not going to eat off a cat's plate. She said, but I washed it. I said, I don't care if you wash it a hundred times. That plate was sanctified unto the cat.

Now that's the meaning of the word sanctified. By the way, the word's used in a negative sense. The children of Israel did sanctify themselves to do evil. Just as we could say, hell's angels set themselves out to wreck the town of Hollister.

There's a negative sense. But when we speak of sanctification in this sense, we mean set apart for God. Well, now that we have some idea what we mean by these two terms, justified, sanctified, let me say they are equally part of our salvation.

We've been justified, sanctified, we shall be glorified. Now, I would like to direct your thoughts, if you have a New Testament with you, turn to the epistle to the Romans, and look at the salutation in chapter 1, verse 8.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. The church at Rome in those days was famous for its faith. Would you say they were above average, below average, or just average Christians?

I think you'd say they were above average. I had a phone call long distance today from California. I'm supposed to preach next week in the People's Church in Toronto, the biggest church in Canada. I used to be associate pastor with Oswald Smith.

Now, that is that great missionary church. They support more missionaries than any other congregation in the world, so far as I know. If I were to write to them and say, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you in Toronto, at the People's Church, because your missionary zeal is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Would that make them above average, below average, or just average? It would make them well above average. Now, the church at Rome was above average. Keep that in mind. Now, I'd like to ask this question.

You've read this epistle. What would you say, in a couple of words, was the subject of the first three chapters of the epistle to the Romans? Would you care to raise your hand to reply? Anyone? Just a suggestion.

What advice? The indictment of the whole human race for what? What kind of rebellion? Well, can you use the word sin? It's an indictment. The first chapter tells us how terrible sin is in the sight of God.

Then the apostle explains that all the Gentiles are sinners. Then he says the Jews are sinners too, even though they have the word of God. And it's summed up for us, Romans 3 .23. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Every last man born into this world faces the problem of the guilt of sin. I'll write it down for you. Here's the problem. The guilt of sin. Every last man born into this world faces the problem of sin.

Was there an exception? Oh yes, the Lord Jesus Christ. The only one. Even Mary, his blessed mother, said, My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. She needed a Savior too. So there we have the guilt of sin.

Justification by Faith and the Universal Guilt of Sin

The fourth and fifth chapters are the answer. They deal with justification. The key verse is Romans 5 .1. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now remember, what does justification mean?

Being set right with God, being acquitted of guilt, being declared innocent. That takes care of our problem. But notice, by faith. Now you've already heard me preach on repentance. And you heard me say that the word metanoia doesn't only mean a change of attitude, but it results in a change of lifestyle.

As the Apostle Paul said, and as John the Baptist said, Bring forth fruits, meet for such repentance. Some years ago, I went up to hold a week of meetings in First Baptist Church of Santa Clara. I called the pastor.

I said, If there's any college in the neighborhood, try and arrange meetings during the day for me. I love to speak to students. When I arrived, he said, You're going to speak in a series of meetings in the University of Santa Clara.

I said, That's a Roman Catholic university. He said, Yes. Jesuit. But they want me to speak? I studied for a while at Loyola in Chicago, but they never asked me to speak to the students there in those days.

It was long before John the 23rd. So I asked the priest in charge, What do you want me to speak on? Our common heritage? Well, he said, If you wish. But he said, We'd much rather if you speak on faith and works, scripture and tradition, a definition of the gospel, a definition of the church.

And then, knowing where I was holding the meetings, what we Baptists and Catholics may do that there may be one fold and one shepherd. So I said, All right, I'll begin with the last point first. Baptists, like other evangelicals, believe there is one fold and one shepherd.

The one shepherd, obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the one fold, all true believers in him. The priest had taken a seat among the 800 students. He said, We're not too far apart, then. We believe in one fold of all validly baptized.

Well, I knew of so many choice Roman Catholic friends, but funny, at that moment, I thought of Adolf Hitler. It didn't seem to be nice to mention him. So instead, I told them a Baptist story. When I was studying in Northern Baptist Seminary in Chicago, one of our students was robbed by a gangster in the alley behind the seminary, corner of Washington and Sacramento.

Robbed of five dollars. That's what Baptist students work their way through school, generally. And he said to this fellow, You're robbing the wrong sort of people, my friend. That's my last five bucks, and I'm only a student for the Baptist ministry.

If you're going to steal from somebody, why don't you steal from somebody who has some money? I said, What did you say? He said, Why don't you steal from somebody who has some money? He said, What did you say about the Baptists?

He said, I'm only a student for the Baptist ministry. The man says, Here, look, I'll give you back. I'm a Baptist myself. All my Catholic friends roared with laughter, and then they got the point. It's not that you say you're a Baptist or that you're a Catholic.

It's that you're a true believer. That's the point. And they got it all right. Well, then the first question was, Does your Bible say faith without works is dead? I don't say your Bible. There is one Bible.

There are many translations and versions. But yes, the scripture says faith without works is dead. Then aren't we really saved by two things, by faith and by works? I said, Well, let me put it this way.

James, the brother of the Lord, said, What does it profit though a man say he has faith and have not works? Can that kind of faith save him? I'd rather say we're saved by the faith that works. I believe in works.

I believe in good works. I said some further. My next door neighbor is a devout Irish Roman Catholic. He and his wife wanted to go to Mexico to a wedding, but couldn't go because of a tiny little baby.

My wife said, Now, leave the baby with us. We'll take care of the baby. Oh, no, Mrs. Orr, we wouldn't impose on you. Look, I've raised up my own. Wouldn't you trust me? Oh, it's not trust. We wouldn't impose on you.

She said, Leave the baby. Leave the formula. I'll take care of the baby. Go and enjoy yourselves at the wedding. Take the other children. So for a week we had a squalling little baby. Now I said to my friends at Santa Clara, Would you call that good works?

They all agreed. I said, Mrs. Orr didn't do that because she felt what Christ did on the cross was only ninety-two percent effective. She did it just because she wanted to please the Lord. The works follow the faith.

So I believe in works. I believe in faith. But faith comes first. Now we keep this in mind because I'm going to ask you a question. Remember I said, Do you think that the church at Rome was above average or below average?

You all agreed it's above average. Why did the Apostle Paul write to them about being justified by faith when he already had commended them that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world? Why discuss this?

I think it was to set up the main point of his letter. And you'll find this introduced in Romans chapter six. Look at the first verse. What shall we say then? King James Version says, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Sin’s Power and the Need for Sanctification

God forbid. I notice in the Revised Standard Version it says, Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. I knew J .B. Phillips, who made the Phillips translation, and his is a very English one.

Shall we sin to our hearts' content and so exploit the grace of God? What a ghastly thought. Now my wife often asks very straight questions. She says, What is it that's translated, God forbid, by no means, and what a ghastly thought?

Well, actually it's an expletive. The word amen is not a Greek word. Neither is it Hebrew. It's Aramaic, carried into the Greek. It means, may it be so. So be it. Certainly. Yes, that's amen. There's an opposite word in Aramaic, chalila, and that's may it never be so.

When the Apostle Peter said to our Lord, when he said he was going to the cross, far be it from thee, Lord, that's our translation. He spoke Aramaic, no doubt, in his conversation at home. He would have said chalila, may it never be so.

Now this is the carryover of that expression. What shall we say then? Shall we just keep on sinning that God may forgive us some more? God forbid, by no means. What a thought. Chalila. Yet isn't that our problem?

Is there anyone here who would dare say, since my conversion I've committed no sins whatsoever? I had one man, by the way, I don't ask that anymore, I just mention it because one man came up to me and said, look at me.

He said, for seventeen years I haven't committed a single sin. What would you say to a man like that? I said, are you married? He said, that's not a sin. I said, didn't say it was, but are you married?

He said, yes. Is your wife here? That's my wife over there. I called her over, I said, madam, I don't want to be too personal, but would you agree with your husband that for seventeen years he hasn't committed a single sin?

She said, no sir. I left them arguing. Now let's face it, that's our problem. Remember I said, every last man born into this world faces the problem of the guilt of sin? Well our guilt is all gone. But every last man born again into the family of God faces the problem of the power of sin in his life.

Take that old Calvinist hymn, Rock of Ages. Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power. Remember I told you the other night about the bad temper I had when I was a boy? But I thought I was a Christian with a bad temper.

My father, James Orr, had a bad temper. My grandfather, James Wright, had a worse temper. They were both Irish. My first name is James. So I thought I was entitled to a certain amount. In fact, sometimes I rather enjoyed losing my temper, you know, making people feel that I can speak out like that and all the rest of it.

But it was an awful hindrance to my Christian testimony. Those unconverted girls in the office where I was working in that time used to say, ha ha, look at the Christian endeavor now. I attended Christian endeavor.

Look at the Christian now, temper, temper, temper, temper. I'd say it's not bad temper, it's righteous indignation. But it was bad temper, and it was my problem. Now, what can you do with the old mean dog that you have?

You find Romans chapter 6 raised this question. We're dealing with the power of sin. Let's write it in. And of course, you can see the answer is sanctification, but that needs some explanation. What we mean by this, most people are so scared of the word.

I was speaking at the Queensland Bible Institute in Brisbane, in Australia. I asked the students, what do we mean by sanctification? A girl got up and said, sanctification is moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, growth in grace.

I said, thank you. I said, any other definition? Up got another young student, a young man. I could see he was going to contradict her. He was a Methodist. He said, sanctification is the deeper blessing.

I said, thank you. Any other definition? Another young man got up with a big Schofield Bible under his arm, and thus fortified, he said, sanctification, every believer is sanctified. In one minute, I heard what appeared to be three contradictory definitions of sanctification.

Now, I'm not speaking of sainthood in the medieval sense. I have a great admiration for Mother Teresa. I'm sure you do too. When she goes to her reward, no doubt the Roman Catholic Church will first of all make her the Blessed Mother Teresa, and then she'll be Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

But I'm not speaking of that special sainthood. I'm using the word saint in the sense that the Apostle Paul uses it when he wrote to the Corinthians. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and so often is our brother to the church at Corinth, sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints.

All of us who are believers are saints, in that sense. That's biblical sense too. Now, in one minute, I heard three definitions that seem to contradict each other. If you want to keep these in your mind, I'll associate them with three great men of God, each of whom was called John.

Growth and grace, John Calvin. That's a Calvinist view. Crisis experience, deeper experience, John Wesley. That every believer is sanctified, John Darby. Some of you don't know that name. Who was John Darby?

Someone tell me. Yes, one of the founders of what are called the Plymouth Brethren. That's a nickname they prefer to call themselves, Christian Brethren. John Calvin, growth and grace. John Wesley, crisis of commitment.

John Darby, a position that we all have. Which is right. I find to my amazement that you find scripture for all three. I've already quoted Paul's greeting to the Corinthians, called to be saints. Now, is there any difficulty to this?

Positional, Crisis, and Progressive Sanctification

Oh, yes. I heard Harry Ironside, pastor of the great Moody Church, who was a follower of John Darby in the School for the Bible, saying, every time the Bible speaks of our privilege in Christ, it adds a word about our responsibility.

Take the Ephesian letter, one of the greatest of all, to tell us of the privilege you have in Christ. Then Paul said, I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord, beg you to walk worthily with the calling over which you are called.

In Los Angeles, the police find a young fellow drunk in the gutter. They locked him up, went through his pockets, found he was the son of a multimillionaire from New York. They telegraphed the New York police, the boy's father put up the money and they flew him back to New York.

Now, while the young fellow was in the gutter and while he was in the cell, what was his position? He was the son of a millionaire, born to privilege, born, as we would say, with a silver spoon in his mouth.

But what was his condition? Just a drunken bum. The scripture says, we are privileged, but we must live up to that. So you have to balance one truth with the other. Now, is there any scripture for John Wesley's position?

Well, I'll give you one good, and I'm quite sure nobody can contradict me at this point. Romans 12 and 1 says, present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

You might say, well, couldn't that be bit by bit, moment by moment? Present, you know, that every morning you say, Lord, I'll give my heart to you again. No, no, it doesn't mean that. Ask any of the pastors or any of the laymen who have studied Greek.

That is written in a special Greek tense, the aorist infinitive. It's a point of action. Present all at once, as much as you know of, instantaneously. The best translation I know is the C. B. Williams translation.

You find it reflected in the amplified version, you know, the amplified version published by Zondervan. Make a decisive dedication of your whole personality to God. Actually, it's in the verb, not in an adjective.

It's dedicate decisively your whole personality to God. Now, I used to attend the meetings of the Christian Endeavor movement. That's where I learned to speak as a teenager. I thank God for Christian Endeavor.

Once a month we had a consecration service. Once a month I would get up and say, like the others, I've failed Christ many times, but he's never failed me, but tonight I want to consecrate my life afresh.

I was aware of things wrong in my life, but the following Monday of the next month, it is the same thing again. Up and down, up and down, up and down, getting nowhere. Why? I was holding on to the Lord with one hand, not to my sins with the other.

There was nothing decisive about it. Wouldn't you say that it's typical of our evangelistic campaigns that the committee reports? So many first-time decisions and so many rededications. Why, if a marriage had to be made up as many times as some Christians have to rededicate themselves, we wouldn't consider it a very successful marriage.

So, there's your difficulty. Romans 12, verse 1 says, present your body a living sacrifice. Dedicate your whole life. People in the charismatic movement talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit. Can your life be filled if it's full of garbage?

I remember in Brazil, a minister asked from the Spirit. I thought he was being facetious at first, but he was very sincere. He meant modestly, I do believe the Holy Spirit has blessed me, but I wouldn't like to claim to be filled.

So I said to him, well, if you take a gallon can and you put in half a gallon, it's half filled, but it's also half empty. Put in three quarters of a gallon, it's three quarters filled, quarter empty.

Put in a gallon, it's filled. But if you're not sure, put in a little more, it will overflow. The overflow is a test. If, for instance, in the vessel of a man's life, there are things that shouldn't be there, how can his life be filled?

It has to be decisive. Some of you might say, well, isn't that suspiciously like sinless perfection? Oh, no. I said at any given moment, when I knelt before God when I was 21, at a crisis of my Christian experience, I'd been converted more than 10 years, 12 years in fact, God spoke to me about my bad temper.

I had to say, well, Lord, I don't want to have a bad temper like this. Please deal with it. After a month, I found I'd kept my temper for a month. I started to brag about it, and the Lord said to me, now you're proud, and that's even worse.

It's progressive in that sense. So I can't think anyone gets to a place where he can't be improved, where he doesn't fall short. Whoever knows to do good, does it not, to him it is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

A committed Christian might say, well, I haven't robbed a bank, I haven't told an outright lie, I haven't done this, I haven't done that, but he still falls short. That brings us to the third definition.

Any scripture for Calvin's position? Oh, yes, Romans 12 and 2. Be not conformed to this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of your mind. By the way, it's continued tense there, not instantaneous, not aorist infinitive.

Keep on doing it. How? By the renewing of your mind. There's a cognate for repentance. It's not the word repent, which means change your mind. It's to renew your mind, to do it again. Say, Lord, I give myself completely to you again.

Anytime you fall short, you may come to the Lord and renew your vows. So when you ask me, do you believe in positional sanctification, critical sanctification, or progressive sanctification, I say quite cheerfully, all three.

And you'll find some of the answer here. We're dealing with this problem. We know we are Christians. Positionally, we're set apart for God. That's our privilege. But now you find Romans 6 and 7 deal with our problem.

Romans 7 and the Believer’s Struggle With Sin

How can we make it real? Romans chapter 7—now some people say this applies to the unconverted. I heard a Baptist pastor in Melbourne preach an excellent evangelistic sermon on the radio to the ungodly, using text from Romans chapter 7.

But I think if you were to test it, you'd find that Romans chapter 7 deals with a believer. Look at Romans 7 .15. I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Romans 7 .19. I do not do the good I want, but the evil I don't want to do is what I end up doing. Romans 7 .22. Yet in my heart of hearts I delight to do the will of God. Romans 7 .24. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?

Is this a believer or an unbeliever? Well, take the first point I quoted. I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. That could be an unbeliever. Verse 19. I don't do the good I want, but the evil I don't want is what I do.

That could also be an unbeliever. Some of them, anyway. But look at Romans 7 .22. I delight to do the will of God in my heart of hearts. The unbeliever cannot say that. If he really meant that, he would take the first step and be converted to God.

But he hasn't even done that. And look at Romans 7 .24. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this corpse? The Romans had a custom of chaining a murderer to the corpse of his victim. Let him drag around the corpse for a few days.

That's the figure of speech here. I hate my sins, and yet here I am tied to them. Is that a believer or an unbeliever? When I was in the service, I found that the unbelievers enjoyed their sin. It was believing men who were upset when they sinned.

So I think Romans 7 describes a believer. I remember in India once asking, I gave them points, a person who knows what's right but doesn't always do it, who knows what's wrong but sometimes does it, yet in his heart of hearts he wants to please God, and the struggle gets him down.

So I asked a crowd of about 5 ,000 people, does anyone here know anyone like that? A little Indian woman shouted, my husband! But I think if we're honest, we have to say me. It's our problem. Now what's the answer to the problem?

Romans 6 verse 14 gives us a promise. Sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not under law, you're under grace. Now the Lord Jesus said whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. We talk about a man being a slave to lust, a slave to drugs, a slave to drink, a slave to gambling, a slave to bad temper, and so on.

It says whatever overcomes a man to that, he is enslaved. But this says you don't need to be a slave to any bad habit. Why? You're not under law, you're under grace. What does it mean you're not under law?

Well the law doesn't do anything for you except to warn you. I've seen speed signs 55 miles an hour and people sailing through at 75. The law doesn't help you keep the law, it's only warning. But it says you're not under law, you're under grace.

I like the old-fashioned definition, grace is unmerited favor. There's enough grace in Jesus Christ to help you. I take it everyone here has flown in a plane some distance. You buy your ticket, and the stewardess comes to you and says, we're serving beef filet mignon or chicken southern style.

What would you like? You say, well I can't afford it, so I brought my own peanut butter sandwiches. It's in your ticket. You didn't need to bring peanut butter sandwiches. They feed you very well on board a plane.

The same thing is true, we're on board the ship for the heavenly country, and it's in our ticket. You say, well tell me how do I get it? Well look at Romans chapter 6 verse 11. You must also reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

Dead to sin? You've got a bad temper? Did you ever see a corpse sit up on a coffin and blow his top? No, he's dead. He lies dead. Reckon yourself dead, but when you have a chance to serve the Lord, count yourself alive.

You say, but I tried this and it doesn't work. I agree with you. You say, what did you say? I said I agree with you, it doesn't work. You say, then why are you telling us to try it? I didn't tell you to try it.

I'm trying to mystify you at this point, I want you to get the point. In India I have seen pilgrims lie on the ground, make a scratch with their fingernails, stand up, step forward, put their toes where their fingers were, lie down again, make another stretch, up and down, yard by yard, furlong by furlong, mile by mile, for a hundred miles.