Heredity - Part 6 — G.W. North

Living Crucified With Christ

In the Galatian letter, chapter 2, verse 20, the same thing was as in the past tense. I, as well as old Adam, was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Now I live crucified. I'm crucified, but I'm not dead, I'm living crucified.

So now he's got himself all tied up, and me too. That's right. Jesus Christ is living crucified, he's not dead. Jesus Christ is living crucified. That's what Paul said, we preach Christ crucified, you see, but he wasn't preaching Christ dead, he was preaching Christ having died and risen again.

Preaching Christ Crucified Rather Than Jesus of Nazareth

So we're preaching Christ crucified. He wasn't preaching Christ uncrucified. He wasn't preaching Jesus of Nazareth. He wasn't preaching Jesus of Galilee and the Capernaum. He was preaching Jesus of glory.

This is going to be one of the ways we're going to lose out in this present, what's called charismatic movement, unless we are very careful, they're preaching Jesus of Nazareth. The miracles, the signs, the wonders, that's what they're preaching.

Let's have them, Lord, we can't have too many, but if we preach Christ crucified, that's the gospel of the grace of God, as being better than the gospel of the kingdom of God, we shall find we shall get all the benefits of the kingdom if we'll preach the gospel of the grace which preaches Christ crucified, that deals with everything.

Do you see it? God, open your eyes, as he opened mine. We preach Christ crucified, hallelujah. This is the one John saw on Patmos, he said, I turned to see what, hey, what, hallelujah, the glorious, crucified Christ, and he that liveth, he said, I was the head, the whole, I'm alive forevermore, and then, girls, all the seals, thunders, trumpets, plagues, Babylon's robes, harlots, whores, glory be to God, he showed you a crystal city there, all bright and pure and glorious, amen.

This, can you see it? Can't you see it? What's alive in you? The gospel of the grace of God, everything else lifted. Some people with no insight preach the grace, gospel of grace as something different, lower than the gospel of the kingdom.

That's because they can't see straight. They think the gospel of the kingdom is greater than the gospel of the grace of God. Poor men, good Lord, deliver us from them. Now then, with Christ, I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live no longer I.

The Crucified Life as the Secret of Christ's Indwelling

I'm now not pushing over my own ego, I'm not displaying my own self, I'm not displaying my own basic nature, I'm not displaying my own personality. But within and through my person, Jesus, nevertheless, I live no longer I.

This is the secret. And Christ can't come through unless you live crucified. Can't. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And it's this that is the whole basic secret. When you live crucified, and when God has gotten down to the basic rottenness of it, of us all, and has cleansed us, there, heart, and got right down and given us a clean heart, then your next step is to set about purification.

Cleansing and Purification

For purification and cleansing are not to be mistakenly confused, I think. Amen. You say, well, I always thought that cleansing and purification were the same. They carry the same thought, but they're not the same thing.

For instance, if I handed you the shirt that I wore last evening, which I commented on, that I don't know which was more limp, the shirt or me, after I got off, what would you do with it? You would cleanse it.

You would wash it. But if I handed, or what shall I say, if I handed, I don't know where I'd go really, I'm not, it shows you what a dunce I am, but the proper person, and some ore, and I gave him some gold, he wouldn't get a packet of dares.

He would put it in the fire to purify it from its impurities. But its impurities are dirt, in the sense that after about a hundred people have wiped their hands up and down my back, and I wipe my hands up and down the backs of a hundred people.

You see? Do you get the idea? We are cleansed. The blood of Jesus Christ goes on cleansing us from all sin, but he that hath this hope in him purifier himself. You got it in John's epistle? All right.

I still have to go about purifying myself. That's a marvellous thing. I've got to be living this crucified life. Amen. Now, you know, I do think sometimes that people get this idea of, I die daily, mixed up.

I think if you probably read 1 Corinthians 15, 15 times, thoughtfully, you might see that it has a different connotation than what you think along that line. I don't suggest this to you, having not done it myself.

It's only because you will apply yourself to the scriptures, and keep on applying yourself to the scriptures, that things that are obscure to you will become plain under the Spirit. And this sort of, oh, I die daily, and I've got to do this, and I've got to do that, and I've got to do the other.

The Sheep Accounted for Slaughter

My beloved, listen to me. You're accounted as a sheep for the slaughter. That's what it says in Romans 8. When God called you his sheep, you might think, oh, nobody can pluck me out of his hands. Oh, isn't that lovely?

I'm eternally secure. We all like eternal security. We like this. Preach to us. But you see, the same hand that holds you like that, accounts you as a sheep for the slaughter. And how about that? You're accounted.

There's another one here for the slaughter. Here she comes. Here's another one for the slaughter. You say, what, really? Yeah, that's right. Oh, I've got to die every day. Well, you'd better get out. You'd better get out.

You really had. Wash your safe. Get out. The whole thing about it is, sheep are for nothing else but sacrifice. You and I have got to be sacrifice. Are you ready for that? Wouldn't it be wonderful if God said, well, I've got a big handful here for sacrifice.

Count your sheep for the slaughter. And you can't have a bigger honor than that. But to come off that idea back, I've got to live on the cross. I've got to live on the cross. And God's never devised a total salvation apart from that.

You see, we are suffering from the idea of, once saved, always saved. There you are. I don't know whether you were brought up under that, or whether you were brought up to the other one. You come out every Sunday night and get saved again.

You see, these are the sort of extremes. I don't know which idea you were brought up under. But you and I need to see, beloved, that God has not devised a salvation for you apart from the constant cross.

He's not done that. He couldn't. You and I have got to be there all the time. And then I live. But you see, the thought for you to see is this, and I think I mentioned this the other day, that in Romans 6, the old man is dead, he's crucified, he's dead, and he's bloody.

Galatians 2. You have to live crucified. I myself. Now, if I don't live crucified, I'm going to be in some serious trouble, spiritually. I should be in serious mental trouble, I should be in serious emotional trouble, I should be in serious spiritual trouble, if I don't live crucified.

And moreover, those that have to endure existing beside me will have a lot of trouble too. Please see this very clearly. This means, beloved, that I enjoy the cross, and love the cross, and I stay on the cross.

Glorying in the Cross of Christ

I see that the cross, like the apostle says in Galatians 6, it does this. It brings me to the place where I glory in it, because it crucifies everything to me, and it crucifies me to everything. God forbid that I should glory, he says.

Save in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom, or by which, I am crucified unto the world, and the world is crucified to me. And I must live there. I live crucified. Funny thing, isn't it? You say, well, I always thought about the resurrection.

Well, strangely enough, it was the resurrection who hung on the cross. What did you think? Before he went to the cross, he said, I'm the resurrection. So they nailed the resurrection on the cross. Isn't it stupid how we get our ideas mixed up?

Oh, you keep talking about the cross, talking about the resurrection, don't I? The resurrection was nailed on the cross, beloved. Praise God. The life was nailed on the cross. And when did the resurrection, the life, do its greatest duty to its Father, and its greatest work for the world?

On the cross. So the Lord has to teach us the real way. I think probably we're coming to an end. It's five o 'clock. We're at a moon in this lie. We're to purify ourselves, beloved, because we're told in 1 John 3 that we have a hope set on us that when he appears, we should be like him, that when everybody sees him and they see us, they'll say, well, they're the same, aren't they?

Becoming Like Christ in Present Character

That's what it's all about. We're the sons of God, and we're not worried about what we're going to be. That doesn't appear what we shall be. Amen. Well, does it appear what we should be now? Oh, yes, it appears what we should be now.

What is it that appears, or who is it that appears that we should be now? Why, it's Jesus. This is God's whole method for bringing the glorious person of Jesus right into us, right through us, to shine it right out under the world that men should see Jesus.

Yes. The Jesus disposition, the Jesus life, the Jesus attitude, the Jesus thoughts, the Jesus words, the Jesus works. This is what men are looking for, aren't they? That's what God's looking for too, beloved.

He wants to see it in me. Praise God. And I would like to turn you to the Ephesians later, and in the fourth chapter, to read these words. This I say in verse seventeen. And testify in the Lord. He's so strong in this.

Testifying Through a Transformed Walk

I say and testify. That's a blessed thing, beloved. Now, mark this, every preacher, please, note this very clearly. Indeed, let it come to every one of us. Every time you speak, you should be testifying.

In other words, you are not allowed to preach things that are not your personal testimony. You say, oh, here's a good sermon. I'll preach this. I say and testify. So what Paul was going to say to them, he's really saying, this is my testimony that I'm giving to you.

I don't know how many of our sermons will go into the waste paper basket if we had that kind of preaching. I say and testify in the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord, isn't it? Isn't it? And if he's testifying in the Lord, well, that's where we are.

He's been talking about the body. We're all members of his body. And he's in the Lord, and he's testifying in the body. So he's testifying in the church, and he's testifying in Jesus. It is a precious thing.

Lord, you know this is right. Glory be to God. It makes a man as bold as a lion. When he knows that God knows it's right, amen, and when he knows that the church knows it's right, what he's going to say, this is it.

It makes him as bold as a lion. I say and testify to you, he says, that you henceforth walk not, as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. You see there? It doesn't say in the death of their spirit.

Do you notice what he's saying? In the vanity of their mind. Oh, having the understanding darkened, the reason being that they are alienated from the light of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness or hardness of their heart.

Goes right back to the heart, you see. Amen. Who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to walk all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, it should be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus.

Lovely. The truth is in Jesus. Not the truth was in Jesus, it's the living Jesus, the truth is in him. Amen. And we are being taught as the truth is in Jesus. Isn't it lovely then, beloved, to have had our minds freed and they're down to the spirit.

And we are being taught in school. Amen. That you put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind, that you put on the new man, which after God, or down to God, you see, down to the spirit, is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Putting Off the Old Life and Putting On the New Man

Now you're born. You've got now to create, you've got to come down here and live this new man life. There's got to be a creation of righteousness and holiness in you, in character, in disposition. This is what's got to be created in you.

Hallelujah. You've got to give yourself to it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And concerning your former manner of life, your former conversation, that's what it is. The way you used to think, the way you used to speak, the places you used to go, the people with whom you used to associate, the things you used to do.

See? Now you've deliberately got to come up and put those all off. They don't automatically go because you're crucified with Christ. You still have the same circumstances. You still have the same family around you.

Don't be too quick to run away and live in a fellowship house, will you? Give them a chance, these are a poor people. Let them see, let them hear, let them know, give them a chance, let the light shine.

God loves them. With the same mum and the same dad or the same husband and the same wife and children and the same job and the same everything, you've got to go back into those circumstances and there you've got to put off.

As concerning the former manner of life, the way you used to live, you've got to deliberately put it all off. Now, this will test whether there's been a birth or not, whether there's any moral fibre. Off, put it off.

Everything, glory be to God. Hallelujah. And put on the new man. Marvellous, isn't it? Now, you've got to start creating a soul around your regenerate spirit, if I may put it this way. You've got to start putting on new things.

Obedience, Tidiness, and Daily Conduct

You've not got to go according to the old habits, new ones have to be formed. You've not got to go mixing amongst those old ungodly people, you've got to have new people. All right? You've got to have a new tone about your voice.

There's got to be a new submission, subjection in your spirit, you've got to put it on. No more cheeking your parents, no more of that. No more of your tantrums, no more of all that old stuff, none of that.

Glory be to the name of the Lord. You remember how you used to eat your food and used to be like an animal, now be like a human being, that's right. Don't grunt when you're spoken to, say yes and no. Yes, that's right.

That's right. If you were an untidy wretch before, get tidy. If you left your trousers at the foot of the bed and your socks slung across the other side of the room, I don't know what ladies do, I can't talk like that.

Stop your nonsense, your mother and father aren't your slaves. You're now their slave. Understand. It's the way you live, not the way you prophesy. I tell you that however you prophesy is affected by the way you live, and that decides the voice.

I turned to see the voice. I didn't listen to the words, primarily, I didn't listen to the words. I got the message from the voice. Amen. You can't mask that, although you go to Goethe if you're a young lady, or whether you go to Liverpool University if you're a man, I don't know.

The School of the Spirit Is Everyday Life

But the whole tremendous thing is that this is the discipline of life, you've got to put it on, you've got to set about it, you've got to get down to the spirit. For strangely enough, if you've got it in your head, beloved, that the Holy Ghost has only come to teach you heavenly things, you'll discover that he's come to teach you earthly things.

He's come to teach you earthly things. The school of the spirit isn't a Bible college that can go on in a Bible college. The school of the spirit is life. The school of the spirit is your home, your bedroom, your hospital ward, your office.

The school of the spirit, that's the school of the spirit. He takes twenty-four hours out of twenty-four hours to teach you. Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory be to the name of the Lord. He teaches you Jesus.

Everybody wants to be a Christ before they're a Jesus. They want all the power of the anointing of the Christ, they want all the gifts of the Christ before they learn to be a thirty-year-old Jesus. Call his name Jesus.

The truth is in Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. Isn't this a marvelous thing? And I'm going to learn him moment by moment, day by day. And you've got to put it on. And any talk about rebellion, beloved, means that you aren't on the cross.

Crucified Living as the Path to Freedom and Power

Amen. Now may the Lord lead us on. I know that there's still the greater part of the subject untouched. But what can you do in about three two-hour sessions? You can't do much. But at least we've begun to see, I trust, something of the greatness of what the Lord does in this marvelous crucifixion.

Amen. To bring us through vitally into the glory of the life of Christ. Now if it be, beloved, that you came unto these realizations on birth or anything in captivity, and you're bound, you have a right to be free.

Bondages on your mind, pressures on your soul, whatsoever it be, you can be set free. But this I'll tell you, you can be set free ten times in a day. If you won't live the crucified life, you'll be in bondage again.

You'll be in bondage again. Nobody saying adrochadabra over you, or speaking in a tongue over you, or in like there, can keep you clear of these things if you don't live the crucified life. And the crucified life is the life of power.

Amen. Now let's pray, shall we? We can go right on, beloved, in all this glory. Open yourself up, right up, I believe. With power. The power from on high is to enable you to do it. Go on, enter it with power.

It's enablement from on high. Enter in, go on. Live no longer yourself. Praise God, everybody will love you then. Daily Bible readings and daily QTs, daily crucifixion. That's better. The other's good as well, but this is better.

Yourself in Christ. It appears His ugliest and His worst, but it's Jesus at His best.