Basic Laws of Christian Life — Manley Beasley

It is good to see you, and I wish I could tell you what all I was going to do in these morning services. It's been a good while since I've had the opportunity to just settle down and spend a week teaching in a meeting.

Usually you're crowded in to such a short time that you just can't relax anymore. Everything's got to be rigid and you've got to be in a hurry and so on. And so this week somehow I feel like that I'm not hemmed in.

And so we're going to take the time. I'm not going to necessarily preach to you an hour every day, but I am going to spend the time it takes to say what I need to say that day. And this morning we may just lay some foundational material out and then again get into just a very little of what I'm going to say, what's on my heart.

But I'll just take it piece by piece. Every day I have to have an experience with the Lord. My opportunity of getting up and going, I just can't hop out of bed and go. Can you? The older I get, the shorter, the slower I get.

But anyway, back in 1970, I began to get ill. And by 71, I was completely done for and should have died really. But the Lord spared me, raised me up. And I'll be sharing some of that during the meeting because it's hard not to preach and tell about it.

It causes so much part of you. But ever since that time, I have had to discover that Jesus is my life. And I mean, I have to have Him every day. Now, I really have to have Him. You know, we say that as a form of speech.

You know, we have to have Jesus every day. But so do the dogs. But then we have to have Him. And I mean, we really have to have Him. And so I have been resting this body for the past week. And this morning, it didn't want to go.

And so I'm having to really depend on the Lord today to just be my strength and be my life to get through today. And He always does an abundant job, doesn't He? Amen? He doesn't do just a job. He does an abundant job.

The Seven Basic Laws of the Christian Life

And so I'm praising God today that He's going to do an abundant work in my own personal life as well as yours. Now, I see that in Faith Workbook 2. In this Faith Workbook 2, the first message outlines, and I'm not going to be going through this as such, so I'm not telling you this so you'll go and get it and follow me through these messages, although a great number of the messages I'll be bringing will be out of these books that I've written.

But the first chapter in this particular book is called The Seven Basic Laws to the Life of Faith. And those seven basic laws are laws that I have found to be necessary as far as you growing and establishing yourself as a Christian life, in the Christian life.

Now, when you say laws, you have a difficult time explaining this to people. Here we're talking about the demands of God. When I say the laws of God, I'm talking about the demands of God. And I feel that there are seven basic demands upon your life if you're going to live a vital, mature Christian life.

I've said the same thing over, seven basic laws that govern a Christian life. Now, the amazing thing about the demands of God, the demands of God are, and this is probably the most significant thing I'll say this morning, and I don't know where you could get it without having to write it down if you want it, but the demands or the laws of God are all fulfilled when a person is properly related to Jesus Christ by faith.

If we could get that across this morning, I mean, your life and my life would be just so different. Every one of us would be just so absolutely different. I'll go back to it. Every one of us would be so different.

All the laws, the demands of God are measured up to, met, when a person is properly related to Jesus Christ by faith. I changed it, didn't I? I have a habit of doing that. My memory is short. And this comes out of my heart, not out of my head.

But this makes it this way. Your major issue in life is to stay right with Jesus. And the demands of God are lived up to by you spontaneously. Now, most people do not live the Christian life that way.

They live the Christian life by trying to live up to the demands of God. And by trying to live up to the demands of God, they are legalistic. And they find themselves in the efforts of the flesh. When really, if you would just major on being right with Jesus, being right with Jesus, then the demands of God would be measured up to spontaneously.

Knowing the Lord and Relating Him to Others

I'm sure you're getting that. But I at least have a foundation to come back to and taste. Remember what I told you back on Monday morning, so on and so forth? When it comes to understanding and knowing, we know the Lord in our spirit.

But we understand the Lord and the things about the Lord and about ourselves with our mind. So I have given you these. I'm going to give you seven laws that govern the Christian life. They're called the seven basic laws that govern the Christian life.

I'm going to give you these for the purpose of giving you understanding about what I trust you know. Because it's only when you get understanding about what you know that you can relate it to other people.

You see, you can know the Lord and not know how to relate Him to other people. But when you get understanding of the Lord, then you are able to really relate to other people. So what we're doing here by these seven basic laws is we are getting some understanding about what you know.

And so we're going to break it down. Now, I'm going to give you these seven basic laws. You don't have to take them down unless you just want to. If you want to take them down, I can show you how to do it best.

Like the first law, listen to me, don't try to take anything down right now. The first law is that of a vital relationship. Now, all you have to do is just put down two words, vital relationship, and you have it.

The first law is that of a vital relationship. Now, I have not preached on that at all. And I probably will not preach on that in the morning, but I probably will preach on that tonight. But I'm having to give you the whole pictures because I want you to harmonize the truth so you'll have some understanding.

That helps me out. Okay. That after a vital relationship, let me give you a verse of Scripture with that because some of you are visiting today and you won't be back. And we want to give you as much information we can give you as well as life and light.

Amen. So you never get to come back. And you go into the tribulation, you'll have something to feast on. I'm not counting on Christians going to the tribulation, by the way. But things keep happening.

Some of us may change our views. But Romans 8, 16. Now, after vital relationship comes what I call maintained fellowship, just two words. Now, your pastor has been dealing with maintained fellowship the last couple of Sundays.

And you've seen a real touch of the Lord. Now, this matter of a maintained fellowship is the number one issue with real Christians. How to maintain your fellowship is the big issue. The Scripture reference is 1 John 1.

1 John 1. Five through the rest of the verse, chapter. The rest of the verses there are nine, I think. After vital relationship comes what I call recognized lordship. Now, that's where we're going to spend our time these couple of days.

Recognized Lordship

Recognized lordship. Hebrews 12, 5 through 11. Recognized lordship. Recognized lordship. And after recognized lordship comes personalized revelation. Personalized revelation. Romans 10, 17. All right, after personalized revelation comes, I call this the technique of faith.

It's appropriating faith. It's a type of faith. It's a particular type of faith. The technique of faith. Mark 11, 24. All right, after Mark 11, 24, we have inevitable warfare. Inevitable warfare. Ephesians 6, 10 through 18.

Going too fast? Some say no and some say yes. If you had me writing that down, I'd be going too fast. Okay, after inevitable warfare, I call the law of abiding. The law of abiding. John 15, 1 through 10.

Okay. Now, here's what I want to get across to you about this. If you're going to have a real, genuine, vital, stable, fruitful Christian life, you're going to have to know these seven steps. Now, these seven steps, I'm going to repeat what I've already said, are fulfilled when a person is properly related to Jesus by faith.

All seven of these steps are handled. But that just happens naturally and you don't have understanding. But when you have understanding of it, then you can help not only me help, but you can help others to understand.

Personalized Revelation and the Word

Like, for instance, people will come up to me and say, Brother Manley, I am believing God for revival. Well, I know that that's normal to believe God for revival. But, I'd say, on what grounds are you believing God?

They say, well, I'm just believing God. Well, I know that before long, the first little battle, that child of God will go down the drain into defeat. You know why? That child of God does not have a personalized revelation from God.

That child of God is not anchored in the Word. Follow me? The child of God will come and say, Oh, Brother Manley, I'm saved, but I'm having a battle. I just don't see why the devil doesn't leave me alone.

I don't see, and the opposite side of that, I don't see why the Lord doesn't speak to me. All I'm getting is flack, trouble, difficulty. Well, see, I know that if that person knew Jesus as Lord, and recognized Him as Lord, then if that child of God understood that, they wouldn't be saying that at all.

Because every time Satan knocks at your door, that is God, your Lord. You ought to see some of those faces. Amen. Now, we're going to deal with that. Now, we're going to deal with that one first. Amen.

Adversity as Part of Following Jesus

One of the reasons we're going to deal with it first is because, and one of the things you're going to have to get used to me, is that you'll think I'm just being very casual, and just talking along and carrying you along.

And the first thing you know, I'll be through with the sermon, and you won't even know I preached it. It's because I carry you along like that. But let me share this illustration with you. For years, I prayed, Oh Lord, make me like Jesus.

I want to be a Christian. I mean, I'm saved, I'm saved. I want to be like Jesus. And Lord, just make me the Christian you want me to be. And I was expecting God to swoop down with some beautiful, positive, some kind of beautiful, positive thing, and escalate me into the portals of glory, where the beauties of glory were only seen, and you know, the rapturous experience of walking with God would be mine every moment of every day.

And instead of God doing that, you know what happened? He let me have adversity. Every way I turned, bam, bam, bam. And I said, God, you're dead. And one day, I just kept, I'll put it in these words, I kept saying, God, I've got to crawl to the top of that mountain where I know you are.

You are the God of the mountain. And one day, though, I discovered him in the valley. So I found that he was not only in those rapturous, beautiful, marvelous, glorious, heavenly experiences, but he was right in the middle of those bad ones.

So this brings us to the message today. Recognizing Jesus as Lord. Recognizing him as Lord. Now, it's not hard to see from a study of Hebrews 12, beginning at the fifth verse, that the Lord chastens those whom he loves.

If ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, wherefore all are protectors, then are ye bastards and not sons.

And he goes right on through, dealing with that right on through the eleventh verse. Now, what I want you to see here is to give you this picture. You see, we're talking about a father with a son. And we're talking about a word.

The word chastisement is a very, very significant word to me at this point. And for the next couple of days, it will mean something to us. The word chastisement, you know, just sort of put it in your mind and say, okay, this word, what does it mean?

We're going to see something of what it means. Now, let me, because I have given you a bunch of scriptures already today, I'll give you the scriptural foundation for this message, all of it tomorrow, just part of it today.

Let me give you one thought that really trips people up. And that is this. If you are going to live the Christian life, sooner or later, you're going to have to learn how to deal with adversity. And the first step in learning how to deal with adversity is you're going to have to see where it comes from and what it's for.

God’s Sovereignty Over Adversity

When you start dealing with adversity, you're going to say, where does adversity come from? Now, let me ask you something. Where do you think adversity comes from? Well, it's sort of confusing. You know why?

Because when you make a careful study of the Bible, you find that God is right in the middle of it. But when you look at the circumstances in which it's delivered at your door, you don't see God, you see the devil.

Right in the middle of it. So that confuses you, doesn't it? That really confuses you about adversity, trouble, difficulty. Because, you know, you say, well, now God can't tempt people to do evil. Well, the problem is that we have had a little difficulty with that verse, you know, and we think the word temptation is an enticement to sin.

Where, when you look in the Bible, the word temptation is not necessarily an enticement to sin. It's an exposure of wickedness. That's right. Now, I'll come back to that, and we're going to deal with that a little more after a while.

But let me give you a couple of verses. Look at Romans, the eleventh chapter, the thirty-sixth verse. Now, if you don't want to turn to it, at this time I'll turn to it and save you some time. And you just listen to me very carefully, and if you want to make notes on it, of course, write it down.

Romans, eleven, thirty-sixth. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. I mean good things of him and through him and to him. What about bad things of him and through him?

Good? Yeah. What about bad? I say it's hard. The most difficult pill I have ever had to take as a Christian is that I had to find out that there were no second causes that everything that touched my life passed from the hand of God.

Now, some of you are not listening to me. You think I'm just preaching. But I want you to know something, friend. When you get to the place that you can see God in everything that comes to your life, then you're going to find that about eighty-five percent of your Christian life you have victory.

And I want you to know, I'll put it down again, the most difficult pill I have ever had to take in my life was seeing, accepting and coming to the, you know, the fact where I could see it. That brother, that everything that came to my life came to my life as from the Lord.

That was so heavy. That was so heavy. I'll share with you an illustration about why it was so significant to me. Colossians. Colossians, the first chapter, sixteenth verse. By him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible.

Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. Isn't that something? Colossians 1 .16. All things, for by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible.

Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. Proverbs, let me give you one more. Proverbs 16 .3, 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the day of evil.

Isn't that something? My last struggle with this, my last struggle with this issue that I'm sharing with you this morning came back in 1971 when I had, after I had lost from 219 pounds down to 140. And I had also lost complete control of my body.

I could only move these arms six inches this way, like that. That's all. The head was flopping and I had to be carried around by someone like a sack of cabbage. And I had to be tied in a chair so my head would rest.

My wife would put a brace on my neck so it just wouldn't flop. My tongue was collapsed to where I could no longer talk. And I really had muscles to collapse that normally never collapse until after you die.

And there was a great preacher in the area, about 100 miles away from where we lived. And I asked my family to take me to see him. Got an appointment with him. And they took me to him and they laid me down on the couch.

And we talked and he did most of the talking, of course. And he said, Brother Manley, have you ever considered the story of Joseph? And I said, yes, sir. I've considered the story of Joseph to the point that it's lost its cutting edge, you know, in my heart.

Joseph, Job, and Seeing God in Suffering

You remember the story? You remember Joseph was sold into bondage, stayed in Egypt, became the governor over Egypt. His brothers came and found him. And when they discovered who he was, of course, they were afraid.

But remember what he said? He said, You did it for evil, but God was in it for me. He was with me. Remember that? In other words, Joseph's brothers did this thing as evil. But even that what they did as evil, Joseph looked right through and saw what?

He saw God. He saw God. He saw God. So, I said, yes, that's lost its cutting edge in my heart. So, he said, well, have you considered Job? And I had considered Job a great deal. But I knew he had some question because the way he asked me, you know, he had some thought he wanted to give me.

And I said, well, I don't understand what you mean, Job, about Job. He said, well, when the sons of God went before God to worship God, Satan went with them. He said, who brought Job's name up first? God.

So, who was really responsible for Job's adversity? I mean, the scales just fell from my eyes. And I saw that the Lord my God, my Father, beloved, for the first time I saw my Father in charge. And that everything that was affecting my life came from God.

Now, it was delivered by the delivery boy, the devil. And you know what had been happening? So, the Lord just let me see that he was in charge. Amen. And I'll tell you, from that time on, I began to praise God from my heart.

Because, see, everything that was affecting my life from then on was coming from my Father. And I could say, okay, Lord, if that's what you want, you can have it. You're in charge. See, Lordship became a reality.

Amen. Lordship at that point was a theory. But now, Lordship is real. For everything that comes to my life comes to me as from the Lord. And can't you see where the... Up to this point, let me just put it this way.

Up to this point, I knew that the Bible said, in all things give what? Thanks. So, I'd been doing that. In all things, I'd been giving thanks. You know why? Because the Bible said do it. But I could no longer do it just because the Bible said do it.

I knew that whatever affected my life came from God. So, brother, it was time to praise God. Amen. Now, what I'm saying to you is that the Lord doesn't allow any accidents. Everything that affects your life comes to you with a message from God.

Heavenly Sandpaper and Spiritual Formation

I think what I'm going to do this morning, I've already said more than you're living up to. I sort of sneaked up on you, didn't I? Huh? Amen? Yeah. I saw when you saw it, you realized that the Lord is...

He's already got me here. Amen? Amen. Let me share this. Back some years ago, I was in a meeting with a beautiful man and his wife. Beautiful lady. They just were beautiful people. And you can be assured that beautiful people have learned the secret.

Have learned the secret. I love to preach on this because it just gets me so out of conviction every time I preach. I'm just under conviction up here this morning. I was having lunch with this couple.

The pastor and his wife, they had no children. And she just passed by, headed to the kitchen through the living room. And he said, you know, he said, she is my heavenly sender. And she just stopped, turned around, looked at him and me.

She said, well, he's mine. You can see a little fire flying, you know. And so I said, well, I'm sure I didn't say anything at first. I looked dumbfounded. And he said, he said, don't you understand what heavenly sender is?

I said, no. No, I said, I don't understand what heavenly sender is. He said, well, if you're going to take a piece of wood, you go out and get your tree, cut it down. You saw it up. And you dry it out.

And then you saw it up some more. And then you, after a while, if you're going to make a beautiful vessel under honor, something beautiful out of it, you will eventually get down to using sandpaper. And you'll start out with a coarse piece, and then you'll get lighter and lighter and lighter.

And he said, you just keep using that sandpaper until you get that finished product, that vessel under honor. He said, God is up to making us like Jesus. He said, you get saved by the grace of God. God is immediately out to make you like Jesus.

And he said, he sets people and things in your life that will stand as sandpaper. And said, my wife is my heavenly sandpaper. He said, there's no one in this world that God uses like her to make me like, to show me how much I need to be like Jesus.

And to make me like Jesus. When he got that far, I said, well, I didn't understand it. I said, I didn't know Martha was called heavenly sandpaper. I said, sure, I know what heavenly sandpaper is. I said, I've been living with her for a number of years.

And up to that point, I never realized, you know, that God uses adversity. Psalms 4 .1 said, in distress, he enlarged me. I didn't realize that God used adversity as heavenly sandpaper. And so ever since then, I have, my wife has been a different person to me.

Because I knew that she was God's gift to me. To, for a thousand different things. But one thing that I've never seen about her. And that is to let me see how wicked I was. And to make me, you know, rub me the wrong way and just make me like Jesus.

Amen. Do you know any heavenly, do you know anyone like that? Isn't that amazing? That a man and wife that really loves each other. Isn't it amazing that they can irritate each other more than anybody in the world?

Amen. Thank you, brother. Getting honest here. And that's amazing to me. And I guess I can irritate her. But the Lord has given us this heavenly sandpaper. And I'm going to leave us right here with this thing.

Temptation, Testing, and Revealing Christ

The difference between heavenly, the difference between temptation and testing. Is that in temptation, you get saved. And in testing, others get saved. There is a difference. In temptation, you get saved.

You get redeemed. In testings, others get redeemed. And I want to leave you with what I mean. You see, when you are tempted, you get exposed for what you are. And thereby you get right with God. In testings, people get to see Jesus in you.

And they want Him. May the Lord bless you. You're dismissed.