The Challenge of Every Christian - Part 6 — Alan Redpath

You will forgive the repetition and recapitulation, but many of you are just in today for the weekend. And may I just say that in these morning sessions we have been considering together the challenge to every Christian to communicate Christ as the answer, the ultimate answer, the only answer to meet the desperate need of this day in which we live.

The Miracle of New Birth and Life in Christ

We began by thinking about the means of communication from Isaiah chapter 44, revival of the power of the Spirit of God in and through all of us. Then we thought about the motive of communication, the love of Christ constrains us.

Then we thought about the message which we must communicate, the sovereignty of the Lord in our lives. On Wednesday evening we thought about the one thing that blocks communication, the demand that we make for our own way, the demand for our Ishmael, the preference we have for our own plan, our own idea, our own ambition, and all the time God wants to give us Jesus.

Then yesterday morning we thought about the maintenance of communication, God's law of supply and demand. And then finally, at least as far as I'm concerned in these morning sessions, we tend to think this morning of the miracle of communication from these opening chapters of Romans chapter 8.

The miracle, the amazing miracle of life in Christ. And that's what people want. I don't think people want more doctrine. I think they want more life. I think what we all need is not to know more, but it's obedience to what we already know.

And that's what we're concerned about in these days. God will never throw more light on his truth until we've obeyed what we already know. And the Christian life begins with a miracle, the miracle of the new birth.

You can't explain a Christian by psychology or psychiatry. If you do that, you unfrock him. You have a church member on your hands then, but you haven't got a Christian. A Christian can only be explained on the ground of miracles, no human explanation.

It's a wonderful thing. And through all the shattering events of these modern days, the words have never been more necessary and more vital to communicate, ye must be born again, born from above, the miracle of the new birth.

But having begun with a miracle, the Christian life is meant to continue from one series of miracles to another. It's a miracle all along how the Christian life is maintained. So I want to speak to you about what I think I would call a title which is not my own incidency.

I borrowed the title, but not the message. I borrowed the title from Dr. Culbertson actually of Moody Bible Institute, who once at English Keswick gave a series of messages on God's provision for holy living.

And that would be the title I think for the message this morning, the miracle of communication, God's provision for holy living. You know when anybody begins to speak on this subject of the Holy Spirit, many people sort of dig their heels in.

Many people say now we're in for it. And they're afraid of the Holy Spirit today. I wish that people were more afraid of sin than they are of holiness. I wonder why it is we're so afraid of the Holy Spirit.

It must grieve him tremendously. There's no substitute in the Christian life for the Holy Spirit. There's no substitute in the church for the Holy Spirit. But am I being sarcastic? I hope not. Am I only being realistic when I say there are hundreds of churches today from which you would never know if the Holy Spirit departed.

There's no evidence at all of his presence. In fact it's all so organized that we don't need him. And the Holy Spirit is the only one who could live the Christian life. And I want to speak to you about this, the miracle of the indwelling Christ, God's provision for Christian living, for holy living.

The miracle of the indwelling Lord. Now of course I recognize that there are strange manifestations of the Holy Spirit around today. And forgive me if I get onto very controversial territory. I knew I'd have to do it before this series was ended.

I deliberately left it to the last day. Then I can always run. But I must just cover this to be honest, and try and seek to bring this message that is right at the center of the Word of God, and is the only means of living.

Spiritual Gifts, Counterfeits, and the Fullness of the Spirit

And to say just a word to you about some of these manifestations. You see the danger is that we have exchanged the false fire of fanaticism for the no fire of orthodoxy. And that's left us bankrupt. We're so afraid of him that we've pushed him out.

And we say well we'd better not go in for this, because we'll start being extravagant and fanatical. Now look, if God has something for me which is in his Word, something more than I already have of him, and I know he has, I know he has.

Because that lovely message in song that we listen to is the desire of all our hearts. And God will answer that prayer today for us all, and go on answering it all the rest of our lives. Because there's no such thing as finality of experience until we reach glory.

So there's much more for us. The best is yet to be, hallelujah, and we're only starting. But the great thing is that we're proceeding and growing in the right way, in the right line, and in the right school.

And God is concerned constantly that our cups may be full, and constantly that our lives may be running over with ever-increasing fullness of his Spirit. And I'm quite sure that if you have a hungry heart, and I have this morning, then if I press in for all that God has for me in his Word, I can trust him to keep me from the counterfeit.

For be sure of this, that if God has a truth for us, Satan always has a counterfeit. He always has something that looks like the real thing, but isn't just quite. And the nearer he can get it to look like reality, the better he's pleased.

His motive with every Christian is always counterfeit. Now I want to speak with great charity, and with great love in my heart, and with not a bit of unkindness, but with deep, deep concern, when I say that one of Satan's masterpieces today of counterfeit is the charismatic movement, in which we are told that in order to be filled with the Spirit, you must speak in an unknown tongue.

Now don't come up to me, please will you, just a minute, hold it a minute. Don't just dig in your heels, but just wait a second. Don't deny that there is such a thing as a gift of tongues. And to say it's all of the devil would be fantastic.

It isn't. I'm sure there's a gift of tongues. I'm sure of that because it's in the Bible. And I think we would be very hard put to it if we as evangelicals said that this gift was finished at Pentecost, was put away then.

There's no need for it now. I think we would be hard put to it, to take that position and to prove it. So I wouldn't attempt to do that, and acknowledge gladly the gift. But if somebody comes and says to me, now look my brother, you must speak in an unknown tongue as an evidence that you are filled with the Spirit, I will say to him very lovingly, but kindly and firmly, that's not in my Bible.

Speaking in tongues was the answer to all our problems. And many people who practice the gift say it is. If this is really what we need, if this is really the evidence of really Spirit filled living, then I would suggest to you that it's only reasonable to expect that speaking in tongues would be the major emphasis in every one of Paul's New Testament letters.

Whereas the fact is that it's only referred to in one letter, the epistle to the Corinthians, which was the most carnal church of all, and yet it spoke in tongues. And Paul only refers to it there in two chapters, and always with a view to dampening it down, keeping it in control.

Another thing, one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. And when I've been in meetings where people have spoken in tongues, they've lost control of themselves altogether. So with the utmost charity and kindness, and recognizing the apocryphal of the attitude, blessed is the man who recognizes that he may be wrong, I want to say this to you, that this has become one of the most divisive, or divisive, depends if it's American Revised or the King James Version, whichever your translation may be, it's either the most divisive or divisive thing in the church today.

And I've seen it practiced on mission fields everywhere. And my query has always been, does this make people better missionaries? Does it make them more like Christ? Are they more Spirit-filled? And I find the answer in almost every case is no.

I spoke to the field director of one missionary society in Africa, who was being beset with this problem on his mission stations. And subsequently I spoke to the leader who was practicing this gift. And we sat down and talked around, around the subject for at least two hours, and the end of the conversation was this.

He said to me, well I don't care what the Bible says, I've had an experience and you can't argue me out of it. Now when a man talks like that, he's running into great danger. And you see the gifts of the Spirit are one thing, and the fullness of the Spirit is another.

A man may well have the gift of tongues, but if he uses it rightly, he'll never make an issue of it, and never insist that everybody else may come that way. The gifts of the Spirit are distributed in the sovereign purpose of God, in different ways to different people.

But his purpose for us all is that we may know what it is to be continually filled with the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are for service, the fullness of the Spirit is for character. And the major emphasis of the Word of God is always on character.

And it is this aspect that we are dealing with this morning, character. Now that's just a brief excursion into controversial territory, but we haven't altogether finished with it, because the whole subject is controversy this morning.

And I just want to minister the Word today as the Lord has revealed to my heart what this meaning, the meaning of a Spirit-filled life and His provision for holy living really is. And I want to do so by giving you three simple statements concerning God the Holy Spirit in His function in the life of a believer.

The New Nature and the Indwelling Holy Spirit

And the first one would be this, to say to you, that the Holy Spirit conveys a new nature to the Christian. Life in union with Christ is conveyed to the believer through the Holy Spirit. 2nd Peter 1 .4, ye are made partakers of the divine nature.

Colossians 1 .27, I labour striving according to the power of Him who worketh in me mightily, says Paul. That's Colossians 1 .29. It's now His power working in me. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Ephesians 4 .24, put off the old man, put on the new. Now that new man is not the old man improved, or made religious, or sanctified, or dry cleaned and pressed. It's not anything to do with the old man.

It's a new man, a new nature, whom God imparts to us at the moment when we are born again. It is then that the Holy Spirit comes to take up His permanent abode in the life of a believer. You cannot be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit.

You can be a Christian without, you can be a believer without having the Holy Spirit, but you can't be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12 .13, He has baptized us by one Spirit into the body of Christ.

We've all been made to drink of one Spirit. That's the church. That's why we're all together, we're all one. I, in visiting the Congo one day recently in the Congo, I went into a place where there were a tribe of Pygmies, and I was introduced to the leader of this tribe.

A missionary was interpreting for us of course, and we both shook hands with each other. That was quite difficult because I had to reach right down to him, he's about three feet high, and he had to reach right up here to me.

And we both said to one another exactly the same thing. I didn't know that, but the missionary told me. For both of us said, good morning brother. Brother, well he was black and I was white, he was three feet and I was six feet tall, he had on his birthday suit, I had on a suit of clothes, and you couldn't imagine two people more different.

But brother, what a wonderful thing, what a glorious truth, how thrilling, this man and I were united in union with Christ. He's my brother, that's the church. Doesn't matter if you're red or yellow, black or white.

If you know Jesus, well we're related in a deep, deep union that nothing can ever sever. Now the Holy Spirit came at my new birth, and yours, to take up his permanent abode in you. And so the Holy Spirit becomes our second nature.

And listen, and hear it, and watch out, and understand it. He cannot possibly sin. I just pause a moment to let things in. When he came into my heart at my new birth, he came as one who cannot possibly sin.

By the way, this is digression a minute. Have you ever had any real difficulty as I have with 1 John chapter 3 and verse 9? Have you? Let me read it to you. Here it is. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him.

And he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Now I've already exposed to you my limited knowledge of Greek. I have your Greek teacher on the platform listening to me very carefully at this point. But at least I know enough to know that when I hear people say from the platform, or if you pardon me to mention it, quite a number of commentaries saying what this verse really means is that when you're converted you don't continue in the practice of sin.

You don't continually practice it. Now that's a very good get out. That's a very nice way of letting me off the belt. A nice excuse. When I'm converted, when I'm born again, I just don't continue practice sinning.

But you know, the verse doesn't say that. And the Greek New Testament doesn't convey that meaning. It can't, in any case, be held to mean that. I think it just means what it says. And what does it say?

Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Now who is born of God in your heart? The Holy Spirit. He is born of God in you and he does not commit sin. His seed, the seed of God remaineth in him. And he cannot sin because he is born of God.

The one in me who cannot sin, who is born of God, is God's Holy Spirit, who cannot sin because he is born of God. Now if you don't agree with me, you just leave it and leave it till we get to heaven. And then perhaps you'll come up to me and say, well, after all you're right.

Excuse me, won't you? But anyway, what I want to get home and to emphasize and drive into my heart and yours is that you and I have received a second nature. And that second nature is God in me and God cannot possibly sin.

The Flesh and the Conflict Within the Believer

Now that's my first statement concerning the Holy Spirit. Now my second one is this. That the old self, the old nature continues to exist in the regenerate heart. And the Christian will keep right to the end of the journey, the old nature, which Romans 8 describes as the flesh.

And this great chapter of Christian victory, this charter of Christian liberty, as Romans 8 has been described, the underlying, the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. In the 13 verses that we read together this morning, there are 12 references to the flesh and 12 references to the Spirit.

Now we defined earlier this week what the Bible means by the flesh. Let me just repeat, the flesh is not what I think is bad about myself. The flesh is not simply my physical body. It is much more than that.

It is all that I am by nature apart from Jesus. Everything that I am apart from Christ. And Romans 7 18 tells me what I am. And living letters, translation of that as I've given you before is, I know that in my sinful nature I am rotten through and through.

I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Now the new man, the second nature, is Christ in me by the Holy Spirit. And he cannot possibly say, the old nature is self, all that I am apart from Christ.

And that nature cannot do anything but sin. The flesh, says the Bible, is sold to sin. Romans 7 14, I am carnal, sold under sin. And that condition is incurable, unchangeable, and is unchanged in the life of a Christian.

Romans 8 7 says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And all through my Christian life carry within me a self which hates to pray, hates to read the Bible, hates to be good, hates rule, hates Bible training, hates institute, hates missionary service, hates doing anything for God.

And it's alive in me. I have within me another nature, a second nature, which never can do anything but good. And these two live in a heart side by side. Now God never seeks to improve the self. He doesn't want to sanctify it.

He doesn't want to make it religious. He doesn't want to make it better. He's got only one thing to do with self, and that is kill it, put it to death, crucify it. And that's what he does to free us from its power.

And in one moment I'll show you how. But let me say that it is possible for a Christian to live after the flesh. Look at Romans 8 verse 5. Let me read this verse as it appears in good news to modern men.

For those who live as their human nature tells them to live, have their minds controlled by what human nature wants. Those who live as the spirit tells them to live, have their minds controlled by what the spirit wants.

Verse 12. So then my brothers we have an obligation not to live as our human nature wants us to. For if you live according to your human nature you are going to die. But if by the spirit you kill your sinful actions, you will live.

Now then the Christian, listen, the Christian can live after the self, life, with disastrous consequences. I'm not concerned about your views of eternal security. I'm simply saying this, that if a man willingly and knowingly continues to live after the flesh, he is simply betraying the falsity of his profession of faith.

If he continues, I emphasize the word continues, if he continues to live, if he continues to be stubborn, to resist God, to defy his will, to demand his own way, to say I'm going my own way so fully, what, what, I'm leaving the institution, I'm quitting, I should never be here, I refuse to yield to its rules.

If a man continues to live like that it just proves he's never been born again. Oh he may do it for a while. I know too much about that. Ten years of my Christian life I did, ah yes, I began life with a brethren, had a good start you see, and I went every week to a brethren meeting.

And every time I went there, all that was being rammed into my mind, nobody need tell me, the Christian life was a way of discipleship, following the Lord. If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me.

And I knew at once that this Christian life was a denying of myself. Oh but on the other hand, I was playing football, I was trying to play for England, and with all that, drink, dancing, girlfriend, shows, nightclubs.

On the one hand, a life of discipleship, on the other hand, that. And after I'd been a Christian for three months, I told the fellow who led me to Christ, I said you can keep your religion, I said it's too tough, I don't like this discipline, this discipleship, I want this life, free, happy, gay, good fun.

All right he said, carry on, but you'll never be happy till you're right with God. I said no, I've been happy for 20 years before I was converted, why can't I be happy now. Oh I never will be. You can't live as a Christian, live like that and be happy.

So I remember I qualified as a CPA and went down to London, got a good job, penny money, wasn't married, and I whipped it up. Nightclubs, drinking, shows, dances, oh I just whipped it up in order to try and forget God.

Do you mean to say you can be a Christian and live like that? Yeah, you can for a while. How do you know you were saved? I'll tell you, I was miserable. And say my friend, if any of you are sticking out your neck against God, and sticking out your neck against the Holy Spirit, prodding and probing, and working over you this week, you are miserable.

Oh you may say I'm going to have my own way, you may say I'm going to make my own choice and believe my own right, you have the right to do it, you have the right to do it, but if you're born again, you're miserable.

Absolute hell, you're going through right now this week. And there was that chap whose accountant himself came down to London, and he saw me when I was living like that. And he didn't say anything about religion to me, or Christ, until we went parted.

And then he shook my hand and he said, nice to see you again after all these years. Don't forget, he said, don't forget, possible to have a saved soul and a wasted life. Saved soul and wasted life. I was going the next day to play an important county match, a rugger match in England, up at Liverpool against Lancashire.

And when I got there and started playing that game, every step I ran round that ground, saved soul and wasted life, saved soul and wasted life. When I went to the team dinner, and I heard the jazz orchestra playing it, they were playing the same thing, saved soul, wasted life, saved soul, wasted life.

And I wakened up the next morning wondering where on earth I'd been the night before, the word came to me with force, a saved soul and wasted life. Oh, you can live like that. But God broke my heart. For eight years I had him, but he didn't have me.

But from that day on, he got me, got my life. Oh, mind you, I'm no different a person than I was then, just as capable of sin as then. But I know this, I know this, that God, if you're a believer, if you're a Christian, I tell you, my friend, he'll, he's got you on the hook.

And he'll just let you go if you want to go, and prove what a hell it is and what misery it is, until you come to your senses and he'll break your heart, because before God can use anybody and make anybody, he breaks it.

And he'll bring you down to ashes and dust, and make you see how useless you are, till you agree with him that you're no good and a washout, and your only hope is Christ. Oh, you can live after the flesh.

And if you're trying to do that, the Lord have mercy on you. And before this week ends, bring you, bring you through to hell. My third and last proposition. My first one, the Christian has received a new nature that cannot possibly sin.

The Christian has within him, and continues to have within him, and always will have within him, an old nature which cannot do anything but sin. Now, my third one. The Holy Spirit within me, has power to overcome the flesh.

Romans 8 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ, have set me free from the law of sin and death. Now the basis of this victory in Christian living, was laid for us at the cross. And the Holy Spirit only comes to fulfill and make real in me, what Christ did for me at Calvary.

The Cross, Sin, and Victory Through the Spirit

And listen, at Calvary, he not only bore away my sins, s-i-n-s, plural, small letters, but he did something more than that. He dealt with my sin, three big letters, s-i-n, capital. He didn't only deal with the fruit, but he dealt with the root.

And of course, if we don't understand that, we just go on sinning. I remember when my daughter, elder daughter, who's now a missionary in Africa, was about eight years of age, when we were in London. I remember that her boyfriend, he was nine.

Oh don't worry, he's all off now, she married somebody else. But he used to come and see her every morning at 8 .30. And she was swinging one day on the garden gate, looking, I thought, quite attractive, maybe that was parental prejudice.

And the boyfriend came from next door. Now that morning, he arrived at 8 .40, ten minutes late. That was a very bad thing to do. And he got up on the gate beside her. And obviously, she was annoyed with him.

And she looked at him. I was looking through the window, didn't know that, but I was. And I saw her give her elbow, and push, and knock that fellow in the ribs. And he slipped and fell on his back, on the path.

Now no Englishman takes that from a girl lying down. And so he got up, and he got up beside her. And he slapped her face good and hard. And what was my amazement, to see my daughter, who I always thought was the most placid individual, suddenly see red.

And get hold of that fellow with her hands by the throat, and shake him like a rat. They both fell off the gate, and they were fighting it out to the nail. Well, I had to go out and rescue him, because poor fellow, what chance had he with nails, and teeth, and all that a girl can use in situations like that.

And when I got my breath, and got back to my room, I sat down and asked myself, what on earth started that? And I thought, well, it was only two young people, who were in a bad mood. And two young people who were jealous of each other.

And two young people who had a low boiling point that day. And neither of them were prepared to give way to the other. And both of them were determined to be on top. And neither was prepared to admit to a wrong.

And the only answer to it all was a stand-up fight. Now, don't call me childish. You can call me childlike if you like, but not childish. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, that that's the basic reason for the line of the divorce court.

For the breakdown in marriages. For unhappy homes. All the strife and tension in society today is that. What is that? I-S-I-N. Sin. My way, my right, my independence. God can only forgive me for the fruit of that, and can't deal with the root of it.

I'm telling you, I'll take my Bible, and tear the thing up, and go home, and never come to another meeting. The whole thing's a washout. If God can only forgive me, and leave me in the mess. But praise the Lord, He doesn't do that.

For He has made a present day experience possible, of a present day victory, in the power of a present day Christ. And He, calvarying, destroyed, crucified, put to death, not only my sins, but my sin, myself.

And by His obedience, and by His holy life, He triumphed over human nature. Let me read Romans 8, 3, as it is in modern good news. This is what it says. Listen. Listen with all your ears. What the law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did.

He condemned sin in human nature, by sending His own Son, who came with a nature like man's sinful nature, to do away with sin. God condemned sin in human nature. And Jesus, by His obedience, and by His submission, by His delight to do the will of God, took to calvary a perfect human nature, in which He had condemned sin in human nature.

In which He had defied it, resisted it, refused to yield to it, and always obeyed the will of God. And that body, that self, that pure holy self, was nailed to the tree. And He took up from the tomb, a perfect human nature, a nature of submission, a nature of holiness.

And God's perfect man in heaven, created upon God a great demand, that God would give back to humanity, that was prepared to obey Jesus, the right to live. The right to live in a new nature, which the old nature has been condemned.

He died at the cross, not only to forgive me for what I've done in the old nature, but He's condemned it, and put it to death, and He's united me with Him. And just as I can get under the blood, to forgive me for all my sin, I can get into the Holy Spirit to deliver me from all myself.

Why do you settle for a half salvation? Why indeed do we get under the blood, and claim forgiveness, and we don't get into the Holy Spirit, life and power, and say deliverance from what I am. And therefore, it is through the Spirit, that the flesh is kept in subjection.

But let me say to you, that if you and I are not perpetually on our guard, that old nature, which is so alive in us, will seek to gain the upper hand, left to ourselves for a moment with us. Get out of abiding in Christ, and resting in Him, and trusting in Him, and start fighting the battle, and down we go.

But He deals with every attack of the old self, and keeps it in subjection, as I yield to Holy Spirit control. You notice this, again not to be childish, but like, I have in my hand a pen. Here it is.

It's a ballpoint. The advertisement or advertisement said about this pen, this pen will write on butter, or in your bath. Well that was very interesting, because I don't often write on butter, and never in my bath.

I'm just grateful for the times it writes on paper. Well here it is. Now I want to do something. You're watching. You're watching. See, I put that pen down on my hand, and I want to make that pen stand upright.

All right, let's start. Let's try again. Anything I can do with that hand to make that pen stand upright, no good. The more I try, the more frustrated I become. There's only one way to make it stand upright.

Another hand from above comes upon it, and just holds it steady in its stance. See? And that hand from above is holding it. What's this hand doing? Oh, it has to stay there. It's staying there, and the pen's resting on it.

And this hand is just resting, and trusting. It's not striving anymore, and this other hand from above is holding the pen steady. That's exactly your position and mine. We try, we strive, we go down, we fail.

Can't do anything about it. Until the new hand, the new life, the new nature comes in, and takes control, control of the old. And then we can stand. Let me repeat. When you yield to Christ, the old nature remains unchanged, and sin has the same hold on it.

And if left to myself, it will irresistibly attract me, and get me down. But the power of the Holy Spirit takes possession of your life, and he ensures that the old self is kept in subjection. But listen, the measure of his working is in proportion to the measure of my yielding.

Let me just borrow an illustration a minute, from my dear friend Dr. Alan Fleets, who for many years was President of Columbia Bible Institute, Bible College. And I want to assume, just for a moment, and want you to assume, that we're in a court of law, and we've been watching a trial, and a prisoner has been on trial for murder.

And the prisoner has been found guilty, and the jury have pronounced the verdict that he's guilty of murder. So what does the judge do at that moment? Let's assume that capital punishment is in vogue.

Does the judge shoot him? No. Because strange to say, if he shot him, he'd be guilty of murder himself. What the judge does is, he assents to the verdict, and pronounces the prisoner as guilty of death.

And then he hands over the prisoner to the executioner, who carries out the sentence. Now just a bit of experience, up to date. I woke up this morning so depressed that it wasn't funny. I felt so lonely and miserable, and I thought to myself, I cannot possibly go to that pulpit today like this, and face that crowd.

How on earth can the Lord ever take anybody like me? And then immediately my mind was flooded with all the sin of the past, and all the failure. And the first half hour of today, oh my, it was a grim experience.

But then, then, I said, now, this belongs to my old life. This is what God expects me to be. Why am I surprised that I'm like this? I'm only surprised because I'm proud. I'm only surprised because perhaps I'm beginning to think I'm getting better.

That's my pride. And this sort of thing is not of the spirit, it's of the flesh, it's the old life. Now Lord, Lord, I said to him, Lord, this, this is worthy of death. Lord, I can't deal with it, but it comes back at me over and over again, and it's not new but itself in me, and it's worthy of death.