The Law of the Spirit — George Warnock

The Conflict of Romans 7 and the Freedom of Romans 8

Nevertheless, Paul has introduced a couple of principles, a couple of laws that are functioning there because of the old Adam, and he describes the conflict that goes on between the two men in himself, where I want to do what's right and I can't, I try and I fail, O wretched man that I am, and he goes on, I think 27, 28 times, my troubles, I, I, I, we, that which I would I do not, the things that I hate that I do, I find the law that says this is right and I want to follow that law, but I, O woe is me, you know, and Romans 7 doesn't end up in total pessimism, however, it says thanks be unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Then coming into Romans 8 he starts to talk about the new life in Christ Jesus. I studied the book of Romans, memorized the book one time, I've taken Bible studies on it, and invariably I'd come up to Romans 8 and something would happen, either I had to go somewhere or something would come to pass, but I couldn't seem to get very far in Romans 8.

I think maybe that was in God's intention, but in the last year or two I found myself ministering from Romans 8 a lot, because I believe that God seemed to speak to me, oh a year or two ago, I have brought my people faithfully through Romans 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, and there's still struggling in Romans 7, but will I not bring them into the fullness of liberty in Romans 8?

Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility

I like to recognize God's sovereignty in all the beautiful works of his hands, without getting controversial about it or without getting doctrinal about it, because I cannot reconcile in my thinking the beautiful doctrines of election and predestination with the doctrines of man's responsibility.

I can't reconcile it in my thinking. That used to bother me and I tried to reconcile it and I gave up. I decided I can't reconcile it, but I know they're both right. A month ago a scientist visited us, a Christian friend of ours from New Mexico, and somehow he just felt the need to mention this, and he talked about how coming into the 20th century there was a tremendous advance in science.

He didn't say then the laws of Newton, he named another scientist, laws of gravity, and this other scientist seemed to have things pretty well put together for the scientific world, but coming into the 20th century there was this explosion of knowledge that left science, well, what they knew in the past was only partially true.

Anyway, he mentioned this, that science had, he said, been able to analyze the electrons of the atom and determine it as a particle that you could search out, you could say where it was, you could describe it and all that, and that became more or less established in the scientific world until another scientist came along and proved that the electron was a wave, something in motion.

But you couldn't discover that if you're discovering and analyzing the particle, and when he discovered this electron or I might have the wrong words for some of these things, he discovered it as a wave, he couldn't relate it at all to the fact that it was a particle.

Each one in their own category could be analyzed, but there was no way of crossing over from the one to the other. Well, I just thought that's a tremendous illustration of the wisdom of God, because God does tell us, Paul the Apostle tells us, that the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.

So even in the things that are made, God has revealed his own wisdom and knowledge, so much so that he says all mankind is without excuse. And we do not believe that God created all things out of nothing, because the Bible says we understand by faith that the things that are seen were made out of things that are not seen.

So somehow God in his wisdom, there were things in his own heart that he had in mind, things that existed in God, from which he brought forth all things. He didn't make them out of nothing. Therefore Paul says those invisible things in God from the beginning of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.

And so there is a wonderful truth in the fact that God is a sovereign God, and he's going to do what he's planned, and he'll finish the work in no manner the devil is going to prevent it. It's also true that God wants to use man to work in cooperation with him, and he wants the people to learn obedience unto him.

And when he works in that area, when the time comes for God to do this thing that he sovereignly planned, when the time comes, he requires responsibility from his creature to obey, to walk in obedience.

And perhaps the burden of Scripture emphasizes that aspect of our responsibility towards God more than he does God's sovereign election. The fact remains God has purpose and plan, and nothing is going to prevent him from doing what he said, to give us great hope and confidence.

And yet there's enough said and plenty said to warn us that if we do not move responsibly before God when he begins to work, and when he calls upon us for obedience, that we can fail to enter in to what God has determined.

But it doesn't abrogate his plan or purpose. It might delay it. It might delay it for many years, centuries. But it's in God's mind, it's in God's heart, and it will come forth in the fullness of time.

The Promise of a Priestly People

Like we've been emphasizing, the word is put in the earth and God will not receive it back till it accomplishes the purpose for which he sent that word into the earth. God said through Moses, you shall be unto me a chosen, a holy nation, a chosen generation, a kingdom of priests.

God said that to Israel. They didn't enter into it. They failed God. They didn't enter into it. So God established a priesthood separate from the rest of the people, not to establish a hierarchy on the earth forever, but because if people failed, he chose a certain people to be that priesthood in the Old Testament.

But the promise was there. It was in the earth. It comes forth again hundreds of years later. And Peter, writing to the saints, says, you're a chosen generation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, that you should show forth the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

He brings it forth and God begins to establish a priesthood in the new covenant because of the death and resurrection of Christ, making us all to be kings and priests unto God. But how many are resting on these sovereign declarations of God without being stirred to press into what God has declared?

So almost like in the Old Testament, we're discovering that there are many who boast, oh, I'm a priest. The Bible says we're all priests unto God, with no thought of partaking of priestly ministry, priestly anointing, priestly cleansing, or wearing priestly garments.

Nevertheless, there is a people who are fulfilling God's intention. And he's raising up a holy priesthood in the earth, clothed upon with holy garments, with the holy miter upon their head, with the breastplate of righteousness, with the girdle of true shoes on our feet like the priests in the Old Testament had sandals so we are to have these shoes.

God's priests in the New Testament are also warriors. Let's not forget God's warriors are priestly warriors. They overcome through righteousness. They overcome through peace. They overcome through the Word of God.

We see them in the book of Revelation. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. But what I'm saying is that though this Romanization has been in the Bible from the beginning, and there has been a certain emphasis of it throughout church history, and a certain manifestation of it in the church throughout church history, we have not as a body entered into the fullness of Romans 8.

I believe God is going to lead a people into the fullness of Romans 8, just as he has led us all through the other seven chapters, a people who are going to walk in the Spirit. Therefore, there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, Paul says in Romans 8, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Free from the law of sin and death. That's our heritage, in the law of the Spirit. And I know I've read that, memorized it, meditated much upon it, and I'm satisfied in my mind that I've not seen the depths of the working of this law in my life or in the church that I know is there.

I know that there's a functioning of that law beyond which, beyond anything we have seen in this generation, in my life, as far as I know in the history of the church. But there is nevertheless that law that's there.

And we know it's there. And we know that God will cause it to be activated in a people who go all the way with Him. Science awaits. I mean, they come up with things that they know are there, but they can't discover it and they can't make it work.

The Spirit Reveals the Deep Things of God

When I went to school, they talked about landing on the moon. They had pictures in a paper that I remember cutting out in a science thing that we had to come up with. And pictures of a man walking on the moon, how he could carry several hundred pounds on his back without hurting him because of the weightlessness that's up there and the difficulties they would have there with the heat.

When I was going to school, 50 years ago, and here I lived to see a man walk on the moon, I mean on TV. And that was, what, I forget what it was, 20 years ago, more than that, 25 years ago. 1970, wasn't it?

Or 69. And here in the space of 30, 40 years, what seemed far out, and I remember one of our teachers saying, you know, how far out it was, but just talking about the possibility if man had the power to get out of this area of gravity we're in, it'd be possible for him to go to the moon, but they had no thought of how they'd bring him back.

And here in 30, 40 years, they do it. And we marvel at the acceleration of science. But of course, the old church, it just trudges along the same pace that's always been going for hundreds of years. Don't expect anything great in the church, you know.

Let science do mighty things day after day, year after year, but don't expect new things from God. God's always doing new things. There's things in God yet to be revealed that we know nothing about, that we haven't dreamt about, haven't even conceived of it in our minds, yet hidden in the heart of God to be revealed.

For I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him, but unto us God has revealed them by His Spirit. Doesn't say He's manifested them and caused them to come into existence.

He's revealed it by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. That's why God gave us His Spirit, you know that? Not just to make you feel good and happy and dance and jump and sing.

All that's a reaction to the blessed gospel that God made real to us. But He gave us His Spirit to lead us into all truth. He gave us His Spirit that His Spirit within would search out the depths of God, to search out the deep things of God.

The deep things of God, literally it's the depths of God. He's put the Spirit of God in your heart and mind to search out those depths in God that He has for His people. Depths that we know nothing about, heights that we know nothing about, lengths and breadths that we know nothing about, that are only revealed by His Spirit.

He puts His Spirit within us. That's why we're restless. That's why we can't rest in present achievements, present attainments, present gifts, present blessings, because God's Spirit is there. And if we give way for the Spirit of the Lord to dominate our lives, there'll be more and more of a sense of restlessness concerning our present condition, because the Spirit is searching out the heart of God, and God's heart is in a state of restlessness until He finds the home that He has for Himself, totally satisfied with the Lord Jesus, but still longing for His other younger brethren to come into the same kind of rest that the Son has entered into.

God found total rest in His Son, but there's other sons that He hasn't found rest in yet. Therefore He says, for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. Isaiah said that, and I read that one time.

I know Isaiah said it, but he was writing only as the Spirit of God was moving through him. The Spirit of God saying, for Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof goes forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof is a lamp that burneth.

God says, I won't rest until the righteousness of my Son goes forth in my people as brightness. The salvation thereof is a burning lamp. The Gospel is more than a word. It is a word. It's a word from the heart of God, but it's a fire.

It's a burning light, which we are supposed to be. You're a light. The light of the world. You say, Jesus is the light of the world. He says, well, as long as I'm with you, I'm the light of the world.

He says, He's made us to be lights in this world of darkness. When we sense how dark we are in this dark world, God help us to come to that restlessness that God has in His own heart. He can't rest until His righteousness shines forth in His people.

So, therefore, I have hope that even if I'm seemingly dead and insensitive to what's going on, I sense that God says I'm in a state of unrest and I'll remain this way until my people begin to shine forth with the light and the glory of my presence and to help them out in their tasks.

Watchmen, Prophets, and the Burden of the Lord

God needs help? Well, God needs help in the sense He needs fellowship. And that's why He doesn't send angels to minister. He does send them as ministering servants to work along with His people. But He sends you and I to do the ministering, to do the preaching, to do the evangelizing, to show mercy, to show compassion, because God's intention was to have this light all over the earth.

Not just a few disciples who would go forth and evangelize, but wherever they went to light this light, light this fire and go on their way that the fire might continue to burn. Too often it's extinguished.

Too often it goes out. Too often it doesn't shine forth with that brilliance that God intended. And so God will not rest until it goes forth as a brilliant light. To help them in this task, He's going to say He sets up watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem.

I know Ezekiel talks about watchmen who are designated by God to go and warn the sinner of the error of his way. In Isaiah, Isaiah talks of a different type of watchman because watchmen have different tasks.

And the watchmen that Isaiah talks about are those that God says, I have set on thy walls of Jerusalem watchmen who shall not hold their peace day or night. Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent and give God no rest until He establishes, until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

God makes watchmen who will cry unto God, God, I'm not going to let you have any rest until you do what you said. Until you establish, until you make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. So God declares it Himself, that's the burden of His heart.

He says, I'm getting people who are going to share my burden. And actually, if we only recognize it, the true prophet is really that one whom God has chosen and gifted and disciplined and tried and tested to work in harmony with God.

And to share God's secrets as well as the burden of His heart. It's wonderful when the prophet comes out and bears one of God's secrets. We think, what a marvelous prophet. But the true prophet will not be satisfied with that.

Nor will God be satisfied until He draws him unto His heart where He shares the very feeling and burden of God's own heart. That's why so often we read in the scriptures about the burden of the Lord. The burden of the Lord that this prophet had upon him.

The burden of the Lord. The burden? Because the message God lays upon His prophet becomes a burden that they have to carry. And people like to hear the prophetic word, but they don't want to listen to it.

Jeremiah went forth of this prophetic word. God said to Jeremiah, finally you know, or was it Ezekiel? Perhaps it was Ezekiel. You know, He says, you're like one who can sing well. And you can play an instrument, you sing well.

My people like to listen to it because who doesn't enjoy singing? But He says, you're like that to my people. They like listening to the prophecy, but they hear my words and do it not. And so God raised up prophets who not only have a message, who have the burden of the Lord upon their hearts.

And to know that the burden of the Lord is for His people. To raise up on the earth a true testimony, a true witness in the earth. People are going to walk in the glory and the light of the Holy Spirit that not just comes to you to cause you to talk in tongues or to interpret or to give a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge or to prophesy.

And He does all that. And God's intention being that that ministration of truth would penetrate the hearts of His people. Imparting to them the Spirit that that Spirit in them would begin to search out the heart of God.

That the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. It's His intention to search out God. That's why He gave us His Spirit. We might come to know Him in a far greater reality than we have ever known.

So they came to Jeremiah and said, oh, you're a prophet. What's the burden of the Lord? Jeremiah turned and said, you're the burden and God's tired of carrying you. I don't have a word for you. I came to that.

I don't have a word for you. You've disobeyed the Lord. You've become a burden unto God. Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

The Law of Life and the Danger of Religious Cisterns

But there's a new law that God established in the church when the Holy Spirit came to abide in this temple. A law of life. That law has been hampered, been hindered. Once in a while we see a release of it and we're amazed at the simplicity of God's working, because He's working according to a law of life.

And the law of life functions very beautifully. It functions because it's a living reality in God's people. It just works because the law is functioning. But when it isn't functioning, oh, what drudgery, what carnality.

And we fail to realize that God's purpose is that that law should continue to be the law that dominates God's people. God said through Jeremiah, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they've hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that hold no water.

Two evils. They forsook the fountain. When the fountain is flowing, I mean, God just sweeps away and people are just swept along in the flow of the river. But when we forsake that, God give us grace when we realize the river isn't flowing to seek God and that He might show us the way back to the river.

Instead of doing that, when the fountain ceases to flow, Jeremiah says, we build for ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns that don't hold water. Two evils. Which is worse? One thing to forsake the fountain, but instead of coming back to the fountain, build a cistern.

The stream is just about dried up. Build this cistern and let's divert some of that water into the cistern here. Keep it pure. Because if we don't do that, there's going to come in all kinds of heresies and false doctrines.

We'll dig this little denominational pool here and we'll get some fresh charismatic water in there. Give it new life. New life. You see the sign all over America and Canada these days. New life church.

And so what they do in getting the charismatic blessing into the pool again? God says it won't last there in the pool. Might be fresh. There's a ministration of the Spirit there and you pour it into the pool.

Might be fresh a day or two, week or two, month or two. Won't last. Won't stay fresh. Except we come back to the fountain. Let the fountain determine its own course. It has its own law. When the river is flowing, I mean, especially when the waters are high.

Especially in springtime. And there's a springtime in God's purposes as well as there is in the natural. God causes the winter and God causes the frost and God causes the snow. He sends forth His Word to cause all those things, but in the time of spring, He sends forth His Word and melts them and causes the waters to flow.

And so God says He sends the rain from heaven and the snow. We need the snow too. Piles up there in our mountains, especially there in Canada. I stood one time on 2 ,000 feet of solid ice up in the Columbia Basin there, which feeds the Columbia River which flows through Canada up and down and around and down into the States and out near Portland.

They don't know perhaps that it comes from a mass of ice way up there north of where we live. Because the snow, God ordains that for what purpose? For the season of melting. A lot of frozen people in the church.

You feel like one of them? Don't worry about it. Springtime comes and you melt. You melt and you flow. You flow in the river of God. God's got a lot of frozen Christians around. He loves them. They wonder why we're so dead.

Well, you're frozen. You can't help it. He causes His wind to blow and the waters flow. There are treasures in the snow, do you not know? Treasures in the snow, and God knows that. The time of spring, it flows and the rivers flow and determine their own boundaries because it's regulated by its own law.

This spring we had highways washed out near us up there. Because the river became so torrential, it just formed a new channel for itself. Cut off highways. It just went on a rampage. We don't like that.

We want to keep things under control so we don't worry if the fountain dries up. We'll dig a well. If there's no water in it, we'll divert some water into the cistern. If it was a well spring, it'd be different.

But dig a hole and call that the church and pour charismatic water into it. Hope to keep it fresh and you know very well that water, no matter how fresh it is, it's going to get stale if it isn't flowing.

And I'm not criticizing God's people. I'm just trusting that somehow God's people will know that though they call themselves charismatic and Pentecostal, we're far from what God intended in Pentecost.

Pentecost, Unity, and the Full Sway of the Spirit

You see, I talk in tongues. What about the winds of God that were there in the day of Pentecost? What about the fire of God that came down and rested upon them on the day of Pentecost? What about the fact that they were all with one accord in one place in the day of Pentecost?

Well, yeah, but they talked in tongues and I talk in tongues, so you got it. God baptizes afresh as a body with the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. I know He's going to do that. I know He's going to do it.

You say, what's terrifying? That's God's judgment. God, send Your righteous judgment upon us. Send Your righteous judgment to burn up all the debris, all the chaff, all the tears, all that is not of You, all that is carnal, that the righteousness of God might go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

The law of life is in the Spirit. But if we do not give the Spirit of God His full sway in our midst, that law is not able to function. And I know that God is preparing a people who are going to be willing in the day of His power, when in every gathering in His name, they look for the presence of the Holy Spirit to lead and direct as truly as they did when Jesus walked this earth.

When Jesus came into the room, though they might have been whispering beforehand and coming up with a lot of ideas and wondering who was going to be the greatest in this wonderful kingdom Jesus was establishing, Jesus would come into the room and there was a hush.

Let's hear what the Master has to say. And sure enough, He'd say, what were you talking about? Nobody said anything. There was a hush when Jesus came around. They knew that He the discernest of hearts was standing there before them.

They knew He was their Lord and Master. And Jesus never intended when He went away that our assemblies would be so free that we could just do anything we wanted in His name and get away with it. He desired that every gathering in His name should be unto Him, that we would seek earnestly for the Lord Jesus to speak in their midst as truly as they did when Jesus walked through the door and sat down.

That when Jesus went away, He promised that it would be better for Him to go away. Because when He went away, He would be able to send the same spirit of truth that was in Him to abide not just with His people, but to walk in them.

Not just the disciples in Jerusalem, but when the gospel spread throughout the earth, that same spirit would dwell in every believer throughout the earth so that there would be a temple over all the earth and that His temple would be filled with His glory.

Latter-Day Harvest and the Patience of God

We thank the Lord for every mighty visitation of the presence of God. But I'm encouraged to know and to believe that God keeps the best till the last. That the latter glory of this house is going to be greater than the former.

And the former started out in great glory. We look back to Pentecost as something we all missed and wishing we had been there, I don't any longer. Because I know God has something for the latter day church that's far more glorious than He had for the early day church.

For the simple reason it's harvest time. And I know that harvest time is more glorious than the time of the sowing of the seed. Each one important, very important. But the purpose of the sowing of the seed is that there might be a harvest time.

And the harvest is the thing that God's waiting for. Therefore, it ought to be that which we are cherishing and longing for. The harvest of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives and in the corporate body of Christ.

God's waiting for that. Be also patient, says James, if God's waiting for it, you be patient too. For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Be patient therefore. Let God work patience in your heart and lives.

You say, no time for patience, time for action. I know that's what the church says. God says, you and I be patient that we move under the cloud according to His timing. Because it's just as important to walk in the timing of God as it is to do the will of God.

Timing is very important. Especially when we come into this matter of walking and moving in the Spirit. Timing is very important. So those who walk in obedience to the Father, they're going to be up and about their father's business.

True enough. But they're going to know God's timing. And it'll be very important to them. And when others come suggesting a wonderful way to reach the crowds. Going down to the feast, that's where the crowds are.

You should be there, you're a miracle worker. Jesus says, you go down to the feast, my time hasn't come yet. A day or two later, his time came and he went down. His mother said at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, knowing that he was about to go forth in this tremendous ministry, no doubt, they have no wine.

He says, woman, what have I to do with you? My time has not yet come. Jesus' mother said to the rest, whatever he says, you do it. I don't know if it was a minute later, ten minutes later, he says, fill the water pots with wine.

Why didn't he do it when his mother suggested it? Because he was moving according to a divine law. A divine law and he must not deviate from that. I remember when they sent this man to the moon on their return trip.

They said, any second now, they'll press the button to get them in the right orbit or bring them back to earth or they'll go off in orbit about the sun. How critical science has become in modern times.

Everything has to be exact. But with God, any time is good enough. If you feel like doing something for God, do it. God bring his people to a place where they're under such discipline of the Spirit and so filled with the Spirit that they'll know how to move in the Spirit.

And then we can see a work of God performed in the hearts of men and in the earth and in nations so quickly, you couldn't imagine how quickly it could happen. When God has everything coordinated in the body of Christ, that they'll move as one man with one mind.

Doesn't Paul speak about the body of Christ growing up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, onto a perfect man? Not onto a perfect man, but onto a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Too high a vision? You say, I know. We can never attain to it? I know. I'm not talking about what you and I are going to do about it. I'm talking about the creator of this new creation, the church, which is the fullness of him that filleth everything.

The church of the living God. The fullness, the completeness of the Christ who's enthroned in glory. The fullness of him, the very completeness of him. Nothing lacking in the church that was in Jesus.

No virtue, no attribute, no fruit, no characteristic that pertains to Jesus that's lacking in his body because we grew up into him. Because we grew up into him, we partake of his very life. He's put that life within us.

It's a law within us. It's the law of the spirit. Our cry is, O Lord, how long before somehow you will activate this law and cause it to work? God can do it very simply and very quickly. All he needs to get is a willing people.

Christ's Obedience and the Call to Holiness

And the reason this law functions so beautifully in Jesus was because his ear was so tuned to the voice of the heavenly father that he recognized the voice of the father distinct from all other voices.

He said, I do always those things that please him. I can do nothing of myself. Jesus took that position that he might be a pattern for you and I. He wasn't God the son coming down to walk amongst men as God the son, acting like the second person of the trinity, doing whatever he wanted to do.

He was the son of God. In other words, it was the manifestation of the father himself walking in human form, declaring the father, revealing the father, speaking forth the words of the father, manifesting the father.

That's what he came to do. Manifesting the father as a human being, as a son. As an example of that body of sons he's going to have. All he did was without sin. That's why he died on the cross, to make us without sin.

He said, I've received him as my saviour and I know I still have sin. Fine. But his full intention is not that you'd always have some sin. His full intention is to so purge, cleanse, purify us that we'll be as clean as Jesus is.

Holy as God is holy, the Bible says, be ye holy as God is holy. See, I can't come to that. He's not asking you to come to it. He's talking about walking in obedience and hearing that creative word, be ye holy, for I am holy.

When God says, be light, there was light, wasn't there? Yeah, but you say, I've got a rebellious heart. That's why God wants to take away that rebellious heart when he speaks to you. He says, be clean, you're clean.

Be holy, you're holy. The functioning of that law that he's placed within us, we're not seeing it functioning the way God intended and the way it will happen. Because he still has to bring forth that obedience in his people that we know only in part.

And as I say that, I almost have to apologize and say that partial obedience is really disobedience. For I'm reminded of what Paul said to Samuel, I've obeyed the word of the Lord. I've destroyed the Amalekites and I've got the king in chains and here he is.

What then is that bleeding of the oxen? The bleeding of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen that I hear. Oh well, of course, I brought that for the Lord. I'm telling you, when God brings a sinner to himself, he wants you and I to know that our pathway from then on is carrying a cross.

Taking Up the Cross and Dying to Self

Like A .W. Tozer said one time when the people in Jerusalem saw that poor fellow carrying a cross on his road through Jerusalem. He wasn't out looking for a new way of life. He wasn't out looking for a new direction.

He was carrying his cross outside the camp to be crucified upon it. We profess to be carrying our cross, but we're looking for a new direction. We're looking for God to do something that we can fit into.

We'll obey you, Lord, as long as I want this first, of course. I want to do this. I've got an education yet. I've got plans, but apart from that, Lord, I'll do your will. And the message of the Gospel is, if you're going to be my disciple, you take up your cross and follow me.