09-10-80 7p Part Ii — Bertha Smith

Holiness and the Death of the Old Nature

That old woman hasn't even paled a little. Let's cover her up quickly. Just as black as she ever was. Just as black as she ever was. And if I could be able to be as old as Methuselah, I wouldn't be one week better.

Well, if these people are never going to be any better, their nature's never going to be any better, why would the Lord command you and me to be holy? To be holy. To be holy. Well, friends, the Lord's done something for you and me.

He's done something glorious for that sinful human nature. He didn't come down here in the world to improve anything that has the devil in it. He didn't come down here to make you and me get a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better.

What did He come to do? To do us to death. To do us to death. We're not fit to live. We've got this nature of the devil and the Lord came to put us to death. And we were put in the position of death in God's sight.

And He never could have placed us in His Son if He hadn't. And He never could have let His Son come inside of us if He hadn't put us in the position of death. You know, I'd been in China three years before I understood that.

And I was troubled more than a little about what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2 .20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. How could Paul be dead and I couldn't be dead?

Birth was always too much a lie. I had no idea what it meant. The sixth chapter of Romans just burdened me even more. And, lo, I found out that the Lord had had me in the position of death ever since the day I was saved.

And I don't have to be controlled by something that God counts a dead carcass. I can be controlled by the Lord. And I went to a summer conference and they took a Presbyterian layman and a Methodist missionary, Mrs. Ruth Paxson.

I wouldn't call her a Methodist missionary. She grew up Methodist. She was blessed. She was lost in college and was saved through the Young Women's Christian Association which at that time was a lie and got people saved and helped Christians.

And she went to China and she got out there. She found there's quite a few secretaries that had gone out as missionaries and didn't believe that Christ was the Savior. And, of course, she just didn't work with them and went independent and became a marvelous Bible teacher.

I guess she joined some church after she got out there. I don't know. But she was a power for the Lord and she just went independent. And the Lord supported her with gifts, some from America from friends and some from other missionaries.

And she was invited to Chinese churches and they gave her a little offering. And she just became a marvelous woman. How many of you have ever heard of Life on the Highest Plain by Mrs. Ruth Paxton? It used to be in three volumes, wonderful books.

And they've put it all in one now. It's a big, awkward thing, but you can get it for $9 or $10. But she and Mr. Trumbull led a summer conference for missionaries in North China. He was a Presbyterian layman from Philadelphia, editor of the Sunday School Times, which was a wonderful interdenominational Christian weekly paper.

Victorious Christian Living Through Christ's Triumph

And the subject of that conference was victorious Christian living. And from the Word of God, they told us that every Christian ought to be living victoriously all the time. And the first verse that Mr. Trumbull talked on was 2 Corinthians 5 .14.

Thanks be unto God who always causes us to... No, 2 Corinthians 2 .14. Thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ. Well, of course, if you're living in Christ, you can triumph. Christ is living in you.

He's the one who does the triumphing. And He triumphs through our personalities if He's living in us. And I'll tell you, I found out that I'd been a position of death. How live victoriously? Accept that position of death for yourself.

Accept that position as a stance in which to live. We didn't know the word stance then. That's a new word. Accept that position of death as the Lord sees you in by counting the death of His Son to you as a position in which you live by a definite act of your will.

Well, accept that as a position in which to live and count yourself dead. Well, I tell you, I had so wanted... I didn't always live gloriously before that. I had a glorious Lord inside of me. But I went to talk with Mr. Trumbull.

I talked a little with Mr. Paxton too about it. I made an appointment with him between conferences just to go talk about this glorious good news he was sharing that every Christian should be a victorious Christian all the time regardless of their circumstances.

That has nothing to do with what's outside of us. The only thing that matters is what's going on inside of us. Our victories are defeated from the inside out, not from the outside in, not controlled by the circumstances.

We just express what we are from the inside by the circumstances. That's our response to the circumstances. But it's the inside of us that comes out and expresses itself. But when I was through, it's purely through, when I was through with the fact.

And that man got through with me showing me from the Word of God that I'd been dead ever since the day I was saved. The Lord had had this old devil nature in a position of death by charging the death of his son to me.

I saw it. Now, I don't know what I thought baptism was when I was baptized. I knew it was following the Lord. And I was baptized with great joy. And I think anybody that obeys the Lord, if they're saved, gets a spiritual blessing from that obedience, being buried, following the Lord.

If it didn't mean anything to you, I'm afraid you weren't saved. But if my soul was filled with abounding joy, even though the preacher dropped in the pool, the girl was baptized before me. I wasn't the least bit afraid of when I went down.

But no matter if they had dropped in the pool, my soul was bubbling over with joy in that obedience. But I didn't know that I died. God counted me dead when he charged the death of his son to me. And that's why I was buried in that grave of water.

Baptism as Union With Christ's Death and Resurrection

You bury dead people. Dead people are buried. And I was buried in that grave of water announcing to the world that I had died in Christ and I'd been placed into the resurrected Christ. And Christ arose that I'd arisen in him and I was in him arisen.

I didn't know that. But I learned it later. I learned what that meant, what baptism really means. And you're announcing to the world that I'm being publicly buried. And this is a grave up here. Least town in this church knows that's not a bathtub to wash away sin.

That's a grave and you bury dead people. You don't bury live people. You bury dead people, people that have united with Christ in his death and had his death charged to us. Well, I'll tell you, when I went home, I had a new transaction with the Lord and I got home from that conference, that summer conference with the missionaries.

Counting Ourselves Dead to Sin

And I said, Now Lord, I've learned from your words that you've had me in the position of death ever since the day I was saved. And I don't have to be overcome by the devil coming at me through my central nature or coming at me through anybody else's central nature around me.

I'm supposed to just lie still in the casket. I'm just supposed to count myself dead in that position of death that you have me in. And I knew the Lord was inside of me. I knew he was in my heart. I don't know how I reconciled this old, not knowing this old self was dead and still knew the Lord was living inside of me.

And from here on out, I thank you, I've learned I don't have to be overcome by this old devil nature. And from here on out, I am counting myself dead. And no matter how I may be acting, I'm still going to declare myself dead in Christ.

No matter how much alive I may be acting, I'm going to declare myself dead in Christ. No matter how much alive I may be feeling, I'm going to declare myself dead in Christ. Praise the Lord. You took not only my sins to the cross, you took me there.

You died my death. And the Lord placed me into you, the living Lord. And I am dead, and you are living inside of me, and I'm dwelling inside of you. And I began to act on the fact that the Lord was counting me dead and began to count myself dead.

And every morning of the world, I think for about the next, well, until I gave him a furlough, I guess, as long as I stayed in China, I lived an ordered life. I was surely living an erupted life over here, and I just accepted it.

The Lord gives me grace to live an erupted life. And then I got up at a certain time early in the morning and had my quiet time as long as I lived over there, and I went to bed at a certain time. And over here, if I don't get to bed, and I may get calls from way out somewhere west, people that may not know that my time is two, three hours ahead of theirs, and I'm asleep, and they wake me up, and then they wake me up and talk about the problems, and then I'm too awake to go back to sleep maybe for a while, and then I'm too late to wake in the morning.

And I live such a disordered life, I don't have, don't say to the same Lord or think the same thing to say as I was when I was out there. But for about 50, 40 or 50 years after that, my first waking thought, every morning when I came to consciousness, I declared myself dead in Christ.

I said, Lord, thank you you see me dead. I take that for myself today. And I haven't changed my attitude toward yesterday. I enthrone you to live in me today, and I refuse to live. I'm accepting death for this old self today, and I'm enthroned in Christ in my heart today instead of this big I.

And now, Holy Spirit, you're in my heart. Just fill me up for the day. Fill me up, and you make that real. You keep me in that place of death, and you keep Christ, and you magnify Christ through my personality today.

And the Lord knew I meant it, and he did just what I had faced him to do, asked him to do and faced him to do. And I want you to know that I have not been under the power of this old self since that day.

Now I have had some accidents, accidentally said things I didn't mean to say, maybe accidentally did things I didn't mean to do. But that was not my manner of life. That was an accident. And praise the Lord, he forgives and cleanses the sins of accidents.

But when we make them a manner of life, now that's just too bad. That's just too bad. I haven't said this to many congregations. Maybe I thought they wouldn't believe it. But I think I'll say it to you.

That was 1920 that I went to that conference. And from 1920 till this day, I've never been angry again. And I've gone through many things that would have formerly made me angry. But the Lord just so controlled me that they didn't.

Making a Break With Self and Enthroning Christ

Now that's a miracle. That's a miracle. When we make a break with this big eye, and the name of the Lord refused to let it dominate us any longer, ascend to our death in Christ and take that position of death as a stance in which to live.

And live dead to ourselves. And then throw Christ in our hearts and let him do the living. Let him live his life through our personalities. I'll tell you friends, it's glorious. It's glorious. It's glorious.

Now I wonder if that's the life you want. Is that what you want for yourself? Is that what you're living? Is that what you're living? Well that's the Lord's plan. That's just being a Christian. That isn't anything special.

That isn't anything special. We all ought to be taught that even before we're saved. And we surely ought to be taught it after we are saved. We ought to be taught the position that we're in and how we should respond to that position that the Lord has placed us in.

And we ought to be taught that it breaks the heart of God when we sin and give expression to this devil nature. And we're not showing him and we're disgracing him. And we're keeping other people from coming to him when we express this old devil nature instead of expressing the Lord through our personalities.

And people are not seeing Christ in Christian people and they get all torn up and their nerves are all torn up as I said last night. They don't know to come to the church. They don't know to telephone Christians and say ask what's your secret.

And they just have to go off to the psychiatrist to get human help. It's a glorious victorious life that the Lord has for every child of his. That's just living saved. That's living out to save lives.

Not just getting ready to go to heaven. Now is that what you want for yourself? Now that's what I came here for. To begin with I call it getting lifted up on a higher plane. And I ask those who want to get lifted up on a higher plane of living these days to lift their sins.

Because I wanted you to face up to everything in your heart and life that's unholy. And I want you to make a break with this old self. The devil comes at you through that devil nature. And I want you to make a break with this old self.

The Holy Spirit and the Call to a Victorious Life

And then so in from Christ in your heart and that the Holy Spirit who came into your heart when you were saved and he certainly filled you up as you were saved. And the living Lord and the person of the Holy Spirit invaded your personality.

I'll tell you, you were filled up. But we don't know how to stay filled. We just grieve him back in a corner and grieve him back in a corner and don't know what to do. And pray and pray and pray for him to restore that joy we had.

And in a revival meeting we may get to pray again and confess a few sins and get a little of that joy back again. Oh, isn't it awful? Living a defeated life. And the Lord means this to live gloriously all the time.

And I gave you out the lessons that were here, those that were here, to help you to see what sin is and what the old self is. You're not all here. Sorry. But those that came got the lessons. And I was trying to get you ready for this hour and I hope you'll make a break with that big eye.

And in the name of the Lord, refuse to let that live under the power of that old self anymore. The Lord has something better for you. I'll ask our pastor to take over here. Would you bow your heads, please?

Repentance and Receiving God's Promised Life

The Bible says that we are to repent of our sins. Miss Bertha has described to us under the power of the Holy Spirit what it means to repent. The Bible also tells us that when we have repented, we then are in position to receive all that God has, everything He's promised, all the purpose of Jesus.

Jesus said, I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. And that means that you live on that plane where your circumstances do not interfere with your spiritual life and your relationship to God.

The Bible also teaches us that after the Holy Spirit has come upon us, we shall be witnesses. And then it tells us that we are not to be drunk with wine where it is excess, but we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

An Invitation to Commit Everything to Christ

And Miss Bertha has brought us to this place, to a time of decision, when you must decide now whether or not you're going to take your sins, meet God at the cross, place them on Christ, and accept the position that He's put you in.

It's going to cost you something. It's going to cost you everything you are to be able to receive everything He has. If you're saved and your problems are taking away the joy of your salvation, you don't have the abundant life.

Now clearly understand, God has got something special for you. And clearly understand that you receive it by the same faith that brought you to the place of salvation. Now if your sins are up to date, if you want to go on with God, and you really mean business, we're not going to use any music, if you really want to go on with God, I want you just to get up from where you are, just stand to your feet, quietly.

If you really want to go on now, this is a price you're paying. If you're willing to make this break with self, just stand to your feet. Now every head is bowed, every other head is bowed, yours is continuing to be bowed.

I tell you this afternoon, the power of God got on me so real, I just trembled. And I saw this old black nature, the fresh and the new. If you're willing to make this commitment, I want you just to follow Brother Ken out through this door to my left.

No conversation between here and the prayer room, please. He'll take you to the prayer room. And I want you to understand that this commitment you're making, it didn't come cheap. Just follow Brother Ken right out this door.