Normal Christian Life

The Final Proof – Easter

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Probably the worst thing almost in the world is the uncertainty. When you think back to times when
you wondered if you had the job or hadn’t, you remember often you felt, “Oh, I would even rather
know that I hadn’t the job and at least I’d know where I was,” as the weeks past and you still
weren’t sure whether you had got it or not. And if you think back to other situations, I think
you’ll agree you’ve often found that boy the uncertainty is worse than almost it seems than bad
news. I think mums and dads who have dear ones who are missing in Vietnam, I think they must often
feel, “I’d really rather know that he was dead, or I’d rather know that he was in prison, or I’d
rather know something for certain rather than be uncertain like this.”

And it is uncertainty is paralyzing isn’t it when you’re not sure of things? It almost makes it
impossible for you to do anything. And brothers and sisters, that’s why Easter Sunday is so good
for me personally because it is certain and sure. It has brought a certainty into my life that I
just could not get from anywhere else. You know, it runs right through the whole thing. Runs
through that lesson, you remember, that lesson that we read, that John 20. I was in difficulties
with a lot of the stuff that I read in university in Ireland. Oh, we did a lot of Latin, and Greek,
and ancient history and I remember reading old Cesar’s Gallic Wars, you know in Latin and this is
the old school book, it brings back horrible memories to me, but here it is.

But even Cesar’s Gallic Wars I used to think, “Ah, everybody thinks of Cesar as a reliable man, a
real historical figure, a real historian, undoubtedly this stuff is true (cid:9)that I’m reading.” And
then I discovered that Cesar had written about 58 BC and the first manuscript we had of his work was
900 years later and I suddenly realized what my Latin teachers were presenting to me as absolutely
reliable history was actually 900 years older than when it was originally written. And I realized
of course, anybody could have gotten a hold of Cesar’s original manuscript and over a period of 900
years could have changed it.

And it seemed loved ones that it didn’t matter what book we suffered old Livy to and Livy you know
is oh just an outstanding historian, Roman historian and he wrote about the same time really, as the
other historians of imperial Rome. And then I discovered that Livy’s manuscript depended on a mere
20 manuscripts that had been discovered and that there were only 20 manuscripts of Livy’s history
and many of them were only bits and pieces of manuscripts.

And it isn’t long brothers and sisters after you do some classical histories until you begin to
realize how tentative and how uncertain is the manuscript evidence upon which they’re based.
Plato’s Republic was written about 400 BC and the first manuscript we have of it is 900 years after
Jesus was born. And it’s so with all of the historians of those times. The earliest manuscript is
about 1300 years after the original history. That’s what troubled me about Mohammad, you look to
the Koran and you said, “Ah, this is what Mohammad actually wrote.” No, you find that the oldest
manuscript is a great deal later than when Mohammad wrote the Koran and many people, many, many
people have added to it since until you can’t tell what Mohammad originally wrote.

The Hindu scriptures are worse, and so I wondered, you know, where is there certainty even as far as
what has happened in the past? And do you know that behind John 20, there are five manuscripts, 10,
20, 30, 40, 100, 200, 400, 500? Even at 500 it would completely overwhelm any evidence we have for
classical authors. There are 4,000 Greek manuscripts backing up John 20. That was so good for me

to know because I had been taught to evaluate historical evidence and I was always skeptical of it
because of the lack of reinforcing manuscripts behind it. But John 20 dear ones, depends on 4,000
different Greek manuscripts. The earliest one for Plato was 1,300 years after he wrote the
Republic. The earliest one for John was 125 AD. There’s a scrap of the gospel of John dated 125 AD
in a manuscript in Manchester England. Just a matter of 30 or 40 years after John wrote the gospel.

So Easter Sunday has brought a lot of certainty to me about the person of Jesus as a historical
figure. It used to be I wondered “Well, maybe Mohammad, well maybe Zoroaster, well maybe Buddha,
and maybe Jesus.” Now brothers and sisters, purely on intellectual evidence of history none of them
in my opinion hold a candle to the historicity of the figure of Jesus. If you question the
existence of Jesus as he really was, you question the existence of every man that ever lived because
the evidence for him is so much better. And so Easter Sunday has meant certainty for me about
Jesus.

It used to be in the old days when I read about him only in the New Testament I thought, “Oh well,
maybe so. Maybe he really lived and maybe it was just a bunch of people who were interested in
forwarding the cause that made up the Bible.” And then you know, I discovered that really a man
like Pliny whom I read in college in Ireland had actually a letter that he wrote about the
Christians and he was actually asking the emperor how to deal with them because they met together to
eat bread and drink wine.

I discovered that another fella Tacitus who was really one of the most reliable historians of
imperial Roman. He wrote this about Jesus, “Actually the author of that name Christians was Christ
who in the name of Tiberius suffered punishment under his procurator Pontius Pilate. It was just
good, you know, to begin to realize that this man Jesus was sure historical, as sure and historical
as any figure that ever lived. And that was really good.

Another reason why Easter Sunday brings such certainty for me is that I did try to get peace, a
sense of oneness with the world around me, and with people through other methods other than Jesus.
I tried, probably like some of you have tried, the whole business of cosmic consciousness.
Wordsworth explains it in one of his poems. You remember he says, “And I have felt a presence that
disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts. A sense sublime of something far more deeply
interfused whose dwelling is the light of setting suns and the blue sky, and in the mind of man.”
And he talks about that sense of oneness that the spiritualist says you can get with nature and with
the world around you. And I tried that for a while.

One of the killers is it’s so periodic, it’s so uncertain. One moment you think you’ve got it but
it seems almost to depend on separation from the people around you rather than closeness to the
people around you. It never seemed to bring continual peace. The people would write about cosmic
consciousness but it never seemed to be a constant thing in the midst of trouble and difficulty. It
never seemed to be something that was independent of your emotions, it seemed to always be a very
tentative thing that you grasped at times when you were by a certain lake, or when you were reading
a certain poem. It was uncertain. It was something that came and went.

Jesus has just been so sure, you know. He’s just been able to bring a peace because he was alive.
And he was alive all the time whether you felt he was alive or not. It was an actual fact that he
had destroyed death and that he was alive. It was a continual kind of peace. I tried the old
business that a lot of us tried to get rid of guilt, try to work your way out of it, try to be good,
try to be as good as your parents want you to be, or as good as all your friends want you to be, or

as good as your peers expect you to be. You tried to eliminate the guilt and you know what happens,
you’re moral up to a point and then you fail and you just bring more guilt upon yourself. Far from
working away the guilt that you’ve already had, you bring more guilt upon yourself because you
failed to live up to your standards.

The business of eternity, I often wondered, “How could you be sure there was anything after this
life? How could you really be sure?” And fiddled around with that reincarnation business but when
will you ever stop being recycled? You’ll come back okay, the next time as a cow. If you’re a good
cow maybe you’ll come back as a bird next time, but when do you stop? Ah, terrible uncertainty you
know. Reincarnation sounds so good but it’s like an impersonal sea of loneliness that you out on,
isn’t it? It just seems to have so little certainty in it and so little personablness in it.

And that’s why Easter Sunday has been so good for me because it’s been so good to see that here was
a man who went through death and came back to tell us what it was like on the other side. Mohammad
didn’t do that, Zoroaster didn’t do that, none of them even claimed to have gone through death and
come back. They died and that was it. You could find their body, you could identify it, you could
say, “This is Mohammad’s body.” This man Jesus disappeared off the earth, they could never find his
body. He went through death and he came back and over a period of 40 days he appeared on 13
different occasions and explained, “Listen, it is as I said it was. You can trust me.”

It’s so good to have Jesus, who had gone through death and could assure us what was on the other
side. It was so good to have a man who wouldn’t be like Mohammad, who would say, “Now, if you obey
all these laws perhaps the Creator of the world will be gracious to you.” It was so good to have a
man who was saying, “Look, you deserve to die for all those things. You were put in me and my
Father crucified you in me and destroyed you in me, and so he has nothing against you. Now I’m
going to go through death to show you that and I’m going to come back to tell you how he feels about
you.” Oh, it was so good to have a man that had actually done that, that died and came back and
said, “Now, it happened as I said, didn’t it?”

I don’t know I probably did what you did, at least in high school or college days. I tried to
destroy the thing. I tried to destroy the whole fact of the resurrection because I couldn’t believe
that you could get this kind of certainty about life, and eternity, and peace, and freedom from
guilt and so I attacked the thing as probably most of you have done, and attacked those two main
facts, you know, the resurrection depends on the two main facts: the empty tomb; and the
appearances. And I ran through the usual arguments against the empty tomb. You know it, even when
we’re faced with this history we’re incredible people, aren’t we, even though we have better history
for this event than for any other in the world, we’ll be utterly unhistorical and we’ll say, “Well,
perhaps it could have happened some other way.”

Which is an utterly unhistorical and unscientific attitude to take but we try to do it and I did it.
“Well, maybe the Romans stole the body. Maybe they stole the body.” And then I thought, “Well,
they were stupid if they stole the body and didn’t then produce it and say, ‘Look, here he is. Your
supernatural Savior, here he is. He’s really dead.’” And then I thought, “Well, maybe the
disciples were conmen, maybe they were just pulling a trick on the whole of the universe so they
could become leaders of a great new religion. Maybe they stole the body.” And then I thought, you
know, of those followers, and those disciples walking into lion arenas with their children by their
hands and doing it not because they taught what Jesus taught but because they taught that Jesus was
alive. Can you imagine even one of them walking into a lion arena to be destroyed with his children
and his wife knowing all the time in this own mind that they had actually stolen the body and had

hidden it? It’s impossible, you just wouldn’t do it.

It’s an ethical impossibility, to die for something that you really know is alive. People have died
for things that they thought were true but they really did think they were true. Hitler ran himself
into that trouble because he thought those things were true. There are men who died for what they
think to be true but no man or woman will die for what they know to be untrue. They’ll eventually
be pushed to tell the truth when it comes to death.

And I tried the other things, he swooned. Jesus swooned, the idea that he was just fainting from
the wounds and he wasn’t really dead, and that he got up after he was put in the tomb. And it’s
just impossible when you begin to examine what would have had to happen. First of all, the Roman
soldiers who were experts at ensuring physical death, they didn’t even bother to break his legs they
were so sure he was dead. They simply put a spear through his side and out of it came water and
blood. And they decided, “We won’t even break his legs, that man is certainly dead.” Then they put
him in the tomb, and put the heavy stone across it, and bound him with those grave clothes, and with
the spices. And then he would be bleeding presumably, all of that time and then he would have to
spend the night, or two nights in the tomb, and he would have to get up the next day, take off the
grave clothes, and have the strength in his body to push back the stone, and then brothers and
sisters, to travel miles, miles over Palestine to appear on 13 different occasions to different
people at different times.

Oh, you know, without a 707, Jesus couldn’t have made some of those distances. I began to see that
the arguments I was using as a college skeptic were actually harder to believe than the resurrection
itself. I began to get myself involved in such tangled illogicalities that I began to see, look it
would be easier – history is easier to accept than the things you’re inventing. And that’s what
many of us come up with.

We did a lot of psychology in seminary and so I tried to apply the old laws of hallucinations to the
appearances. “Well, maybe he didn’t really appear. Maybe these people just thought he appeared.
Maybe they just imagined it.” And then began to apply the laws of hallucinations. There are
certain laws, you know, that govern hallucinations. One of them is you have to be of a very
imaginative and nervous kind of personality. And I looked at big Peter and thought, “Well, not
exactly,” or old cynical Paul, you know, “Not exactly imaginative nervous individuals,” or the rest
of the fishermen.

And another law is it has to be a subjective experience. A hallucination must be something that
just you experience you see like a mum whose son was killed in the war and she would want to see
him, and so she would see him herself. And of course I saw that Jesus appeared to all the disciples
in the upper room that he appeared to the women in the garden, that he appeared to two disciples in
the garden, then he appeared to about 500 people at one time. It wasn’t a subjective experience at
all.

Another law of hallucination is you must want to see the person. The mother must want to see the
son coming back. It’s a result of wishful thinking. And you read about the disciples and you
remember, there were two of them walking along the road that goes to Emmaus and Jesus came alongside
them, asked them why they were looking so sad, and they didn’t say, “Oh, we are expecting Jesus to
come back. We want him to come back.” They said, “Oh, we thought that this man from Nazareth was
the one who would redeem Israel. We thought he would arise from the dead but he hasn’t.” And the
whole attitude of the disciples was one of fear and disappointment. They bombarded themselves in

the upper room because they felt that they had believed a lie and that the thing was not true. They
were past hoping for Jesus to come back.

Another law of hallucinations is that the person – the hallucination will take place in a certain
place and will continue over a great period of time. And of course, Jesus’ appearances took place
in different places, different houses, on the seashore at one time and it took place over 40 days
and then ceased. And bit-by-bit I was kind of driven to see it didn’t matter how you argued on
this, the historical evidence was so strong for the resurrection and the illogical explanations of
it were so ridiculous that the only thing really was to accept that this was the most certain fact
in the whole of the universe.

And oh brothers and sisters, it’s so good to know that in the midst of all kinds of doubt and
uncertainties in our world and in our society, this thing is solid. This is solid empirical
evidence. And really loved ones, that’s it. This Jesus did rise from the dead and on historical
evidence or on philosophical evidence you cannot reject that. And really loved ones, to be honest
with you, what we’re all faced with in this theater is either acting on our belief or refusing to
act on our belief. That’s it, you know.

It’s just extremely hard for a brother and sister here in this theater to disprove Jesus’
resurrection. It really is loved ones. It’s a hard one to disprove and so what most of us are
faced with is we’re either living as if this man is alive or we’re living as if he isn’t alive.
That’s really it, you know. And honestly, most historians, even the dear fellas like Aldous Huxley
who refused to be Christian, most historians or philosophers will say, “The evidence is
overwhelming, this man did rise from the dead.” And they’ll say the only reason they’re living as
if he didn’t rise from the dead is they want to live that way.

Now brothers and sisters, that’s really with us you see, because you can have all the certainty in
the world externally but the only time certainty comes into your own life is when you align your
life with reality. So really I’d ask you, do you live as if this man Jesus really is the Son of the
person who made you, who made your hands, and made your arms? And do you live as if this Jesus is
right beside you not only when the bank account is low but also when you’re about to criticize
someone. Not only when the car payment is due and you can’t make it but also when you feel you want
to be angry with your wife or with your children. In other words, do you live according to the fact
that this Jesus is beside you ever moment of the day?

Really loved ones, that’s only living according to reality because the fact of Jesus’ presence here
in this theater this morning is as reliable as the scientific proof we have for air and for the
safety off breathing it. It really is. And just as you breathe this air in because you know it’s
safe, really I’m saying to you would you not live according to the other reality that this Jesus is
right beside you. That those words are really true, “Lo, I am with you always,” and that he is
right there.

Would you think a wee bit about it in regard to our own lives, those moments at home when you just
get utterly irritable with each other? Well this Jesus is right there seeing that. The other time
when you get all worried and anxious about the future, and about what kind of job you’re going to
get, this Jesus is right there. That’s a fact. If he destroyed death ones he can go and come
whenever he pleases and that means he’s with you all the time and with me and that’s a great
certainty, you know. And that’s why Easter is so good for me because it brings a certain certainty
about God and the creation of the world and about what’s going to happen to me and that’s really

good.

So we don’t need all the lilies really, all we need is that person and he’s the one that makes
Easter, makes every Sunday and Easter Sunday. You may say, “Well, I mean I agree with you.
Logically I can’t oppose you but it isn’t real in my life.” Then I only know one way brothers and
sisters, you start living that way. Don’t make a whole song about it, don’t think you have to make
all kinds of church membership decisions, just start living that way. Live remembering that Jesus
is right beside you and that he’s the son of the person who made you and that he’s alive with you in
every situation. Just begin living that way and you’ll be able to check at lunch time. Especially,
if someone drops the ketchup on your new dress, you’ll be able to tell at that point. But that’s
it, it’s a realistic thing loved ones, it’s not a philosophical religious thing, it’s a real thing.
You either live this way or you don’t and that shows whether you believe it or whether you don’t
really. Let us pray.

Dear Father, thank you for such a sure fact that stands philosophical and historical examination.
Thank you Father, for absolute certainty about yourself through this person Jesus. Thank you Jesus
that you are alive today. Thank you that you see each one of us at this moment. Thank you that you
know us. Thank you that you do never leave us. Whatever the circumstances we’re in you never do
leave us. You’re right there all the time. Thank you that you can take us through death and bring
us out alive. Thank you Lord Jesus, for being real, for being alive. Amen.

Victory of the Resurrection – Easter

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

About fifteen years ago a father lay dying in a Welsh mining town and his son, who was a Welsh poet,
wrote and spoke these words to him, “Do not go gentle into that goodnight. Old age should burn and
rave at close of day. Rage, rage against the dying of the night. And you my father, there on the
sad height, cursed, bless me now with your fearest tears I pray, do not go gentle into that
goodnight. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” And old Dylan Thomas is not the only one
among us human beings who have felt like that about death, because we really do feel that though
we’re very resourceful about almost every other difficulty we face, this experience we seem unable
to do anything about.

So even though we may not be in Thomas’ psychological condition, yet most of us feel a rage rising
up inside us when we think of death. And it seems, you know, we can make hydroelectric power from
the rivers, it seems we can turn the land into almost any shape we want, it seems we can go to any
planet almost that we want, but this thing death, we can do nothing with it but kind of adjust and
adapt to it. And really, the cosmetology that our morticians practice is just an expression of us
and our frustration about death. We try to make people look as if they’re still alive and that’s
about the best we can do and so we use the lipstick, and we use the powder, and the coloring to try
to make our loved ones look as if they are alive because all we seem able to do with death, is to
adjust to it or to adapt it in some way so that it doesn’t seem to be really there.

Those of you who have been at funerals know fine well that’s what we do. We’ll talk about anything
but the death. We’ll talk about football, talk about the twins, talk about the weather, and talk
about what the person did years ago but the death we will not talk about. We kind of walk around
that subject. Mohammad was one of the greatest and most influential prophets that the world has
seen. He described Allah so effectively that thousands of people followed him and were prepared
even to treat Mohammad as God. He gave millions of people in Asia strength to live by, and a sense
of national identity, and purpose in their lives. And yet when it came to the crucial moment, he
too had to humble himself before death and he ended his life as all the rest of us human beings will
do.

There are other people like him. The world is filled with people like the Guru Maharishi who have
claimed to free us from the bondages and limitations of this earthy life. And it doesn’t matter
which one you take Buddha, or Zoroaster, or Confucius, it doesn’t matter which one you examine, when
it comes to the matter of death they all are like us ourselves. They may appear to be superhuman
during their life time but when it comes to death they die like everybody else. And so death is
something that really we haven’t been able to do anything with and that’s why most religions and
most psychological techniques are so unsatisfying and so inadequate because when you think of it
isn’t it true that everything that spoils our life and frustrates it is really something that is
just a stage on the way to death? Isn’t that right?

I mean, when you think of the things that spoil our lives they’re all factors that come from the
certainty that we have that we’re going to end our life sometime. You know, sickness is just a step
on the way to death. Weariness is really a step on the way to death. Grey hairs are a step on the
way to death. The male menopause is a step on the way to death. A man wouldn’t be concerned about
40, or 45, or 50 except that he feels that that’s just maybe 20, 30, or at the most 40 years from
when he’ll end his life. Ladies would not be concerned about coming to a time when they cease to

bear children if they didn’t feel that really that’s a foretaste of their life ending. And that’s
why so many religious techniques and so many psychological techniques are so unsatisfying, because
they cannot deal with this one problem from which all other problems stem. And loved ones, that’s
really the reason why all psychology and all other religions are basically like cosmetology, they
really are. They’re just the attempt of the morticians among us to kind of ameliorate the more
offensive sides of the death experience.

Now dear ones, it’s because death has seemed so absolutely unchangeable to so many of us that we
need such good evidence when a man comes along who claims to destroy death because this we can see
is the thing we need, but nobody has ever been able to do it before. So when one person comes along
and claims to have victory over this death, we need to examine carefully and painstakingly the
evidence for this event. That’s why the resurrection has been subjected to more skeptical and
critical examination from literary critics, from theologians, from psychologists, from medical
people, from lawyers. It has received more examination than any other event in our history because
so much hangs on it and because death has seemed so unchangeable. And therefore, in a sense, all
the things that spoil our lives have seemed unchangeable because all of them are just a stage on the
way to death.

This is also the reason why Jesus’ own followers ignored his statements that he would rise on the
third day. They listened to him and thought, “Yeah, that’s very good we’d really like it,” but they
accepted the statements with a pinch of salt and thought, “Yeah, well if it ever happens that he
dies there’ll be no coming back.” That’s why they locked themselves in the upper room after his
crucifixion. Because, they didn’t really believe that this man could destroy the unchangeable enemy
that had frustrated people for centuries.

This is why, you remember, old Mary Magdalene went to the cemetery to do only one thing, to anoint
the body of Jesus. She didn’t expect him to be anywhere but lying in that tomb. That’s why she
took the stuff with her, so that she could anoint the body of Jesus. She had no expectation that he
would rise from the dead. That’s why also, brothers and sisters, no religious leader ever chooses
that as the fact on which to build his message. They just don’t. If you wanted to start a new
religion, the one fact you don’t chose is resurrection from the dead, because that hoax is too easy
to disprove. You don’t want to get yourself into that thing. You can maybe walk on nails, or you
can swallow fire, or that kind of thing because you can do that by illusion. But you don’t build
your religion on the fact that you have destroyed death, because that hoax is too easy to expose.

So it’s simple, on a hoax like that you would simply go to the city where the hoax was supposed to
have taken place and you’d simply ask those people what had happened. And of course, anybody who
starts a hoax like that always makes sure that you ask the people in some remote area far away from
the place where it was supposed to have taken place. But the amazing thing is, that though the
converts to a hoax like that ought to take place in some place remote from where the event had
occurred, the first 3,000 converts to Christianity, took place in the very city where the
resurrection had occurred.

And so if the hoax was untrue, really all you had to do was listen to Peter’s sermon in the morning
and go the tomb at lunchtime and check it out. And it was just not the way anybody that was
presenting a hoax would do it. Normally, a hoax like that is believed first of all by people who
live miles, and miles away from where it occurred. But in the case of this hoax, the first converts
occurred in the very city where it took place. If you wanted to expose a hoax like that all you had
to do was point out that despite all the protests the followers of this man Jesus still venerated

his tomb. They still made pilgrimages to his tomb.

But in fact, for the Jews, and for the Christians, and for the Romans, there’s never any mention of
the tomb of Jesus after we read about it in the New Testament. It does not appear in history.
Nobody ever talks about Jesus’ tomb. Everybody talks about other people’s tombs but nobody ever
talks about Jesus’ tomb. They just did not venerate that tomb. They seemed to be absolutely
certain that he was not there.

Another reason why no one would build a religion on the fact of resurrection is that to disprove the
hoax all you had to do was go to the cemetery and parade the body through the streets and everybody
would see that the thing wasn’t true. But in fact, the Romans never did it and the Jews never did
it and yet they knew that this was the one act that would undoubtedly rid them of this harassment
from these Christians and yet they never did it.

A hoax like that usually gains credence years after the event. In other words, it builds much like
Mohammad’s life. Mohammad’s life is filled with legend, it just built up over years, and years, and
years and centuries later they began to talk about the things that Mohammad supposedly did in his
life time. Now that’s normally the situation with any hoax like this. You would expect that the
legend would grow gradually over centuries and centuries. But within weeks they were talking about
this resurrection from the dead in the very city where it occurred. Within 15 years this event was
known throughout the first century world. Within 40 years it had taken over the place of Judaism in
the religion of the people of that area. Within 100 years it had become one of the main events that
contributed to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.

In other words, if this was a hoax, or a legend, it doesn’t follow any of the rules or laws that
govern legends. That’s why dear ones, if you’d like to look at what Paul said when he was being
examined once, that’s why he said this in Acts 26:25-26. Festus, an official, was examining Paul
about these things and he accused him of course, of being mad. He said, “Your great learning is
turning you mad.” In Acts 26:25, “But Paul said, ‘I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but I am
speaking the sober truth. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak freely; for I
am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner.”

And loved ones, this thing wasn’t done in a corner. Pliny wrote letters to the Roman Emperor about
this event. Tertullian wrote about this event, Josephus who was a Jew who didn’t accept Jesus as the
Messiah recorded this event in his antiquities. Porphyry and Celsus who opposed Christianity wrote
about this in official Roman documents. This thing wasn’t done in a corner and so it’s difficult to
believe it was a hoax.

The amazing thing is that throughout the history of the Christian church none of its critics have
ever seriously questioned the whole basis of the Christian church which is the resurrection. It’s
incredible, really. The attacks on the resurrection have come within, from the liberal theologians,
but no critic outside the church has ever seriously criticized or attacked the creditability of the
resurrection because the historical evidence for it, not only in the 4,000 manuscripts that
reinforce the New Testament, but also in the Roman and Greek manuscripts that refer to this
resurrection are so strong that it is almost impossible to break it. And so you remember, Morrison
in Britain who started out as a lawyer to prove beyond all doubt that the resurrection had not taken
place, ended up writing the book Who Moved the Stone and became a Christian in the process of his
examination. And just became utterly convinced from a legal standpoint that you could not break the
fact of the resurrection, the evidence was so strong.

Dear ones, it is so certain that you know even the wildest hypothesis that are based only on our own
imagination do not stand in the face of the historical facts of the resurrection appearances and the
empty tomb. You know, the way we used to sit at home when we were kids at school and think, “Now,
how could it have happened? How could it have happened? Yeah, yeah, maybe the Roman’s stole the
body. Maybe they stole the body.” And we used to sit there, we have no historical evidence for
this stuff but we just thought, “Maybe fairies fly, maybe elephants fly, maybe the Roman’s stole the
body.” And it’s just impossible and we’ve answered it before you know, because if they stole the
body all they had to do was present the body and show that this man has not risen from the dead.

The Jews and the disciples couldn’t have stolen the body because no man will commit himself and his
family to something that he knows to be a lie. Jesus couldn’t have swooned from his wounds and then
lain in the tomb for several days and nights and then had the strength to unbind the clothes that
were bound around his body, and move back the stone while he bled from his wounds and then appear at
superhuman speed in 12 different places over a period of 40 days and convince everybody that he was
more alive than ever before after swooning from his wounds.

It’s impossible. And the disciples and the woman couldn’t have gone to the wrong tomb because there
was only one tomb, it was a private cemetery and anyway all the Romans had to do was go to the right
tomb and present the body. And the resurrection appearances couldn’t be hallucinations because they
don’t fit into any of the psychological laws that govern hallucinations. Hallucinations have to be
subjective. Jesus appeared to about 500 people at one time. Hallucinations have to occur just over
a week or a short time and then cease. Jesus’ kept going for a long time. Hallucinations have to
be wished and desired by the people who see them. It has to be someone whose son has died in
Vietnam and who is wanting to see him walk through the door. The disciples and the woman who
followed Jesus had given up all hope that he would ever come through the door.

Hallucinations just don’t explain the resurrection appearances. They don’t explain an incredulous
man like old Thomas saying, “I will not believe until I have put my hands in the holes in his side,
and the holes in his hands. I will not believe.” And then he was able to do that and believed.
Ghosts don’t explain the person who came and ate fish by the seashore with the disciples.

Loved ones, it’s just impossible to do anything but accept that Jesus really did shatter death and
he destroyed it and therefore he has destroyed everything that leads up to death. And you must
agree with that. If Jesus destroyed death he must be alive now, mustn’t he? And if he destroyed
death he obviously destroyed cancer because it’s a lesser thing than death and leads to death. And
he obviously destroyed sicknesses, didn’t he? So Jesus at this moment as he is alive has absolute
power to destroy all those sicknesses and feelings of loneliness that are foreboding of what death
itself is. He obviously has destroyed that.

So Jesus has destroyed loneliness, and insecurity, and darkness. So wouldn’t you agree, that as far
as Jesus is concerned, none of those things that normally spoil our lives have any power at all
against his living life that can destroy even death and darkness, isn’t that true?

So Jesus at this moment is not touched by pain, or weariness, or sickness and those things have no
power over him. So he is not hindered from obeying God’s will by any headache because I think we
all agree apparently he seems dead. Isn’t that right, we can’t see him at this moment? And yet you
know he’s alive here in this place. So apparently death still exists but it has no power to prevent
him fulfilling the dream that God had for his life.

Now loved ones, that’s Jesus, those things cannot spoil his life. But do you see that that involves
you and me? I’ll show you how it does. Would you look at Romans 6:4-5, “We were buried therefore
with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united within him in a death like
his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” And you may say, “Well,
yeah but it is the future tense isn’t it? If we have been, that’s past enough but the future is we
shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Well we know that. We know that
sometime we’re going to be freed from these bondages and limitations that spoil our lives.

And loved ones, would you look at Ephesians 2:4-7. “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great
love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together
with Christ.” Now do you see the past tense, “Made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have
been saved), and raised,” and that’s the past tense, the aorist in Greek, “And raised us up with
him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

So I’ll show you one way of getting the first page of the sermon, not the last page, but getting the
first page of the sermon over to that mic. I put it in that book and then I throw the book over to
the microphone. And where the book goes the page goes. But we have been placed in Jesus by God.
Isn’t that what we believe? That we have been placed by God in Jesus. And so if he is raised this
morning and has power to prevent death stopping or frustrating God’s dream for his life, then aren’t
we in the same situation? If cancer has no ability to prevent him fulfilling God’s plan for his
life then aren’t we in Jesus where he is? If we’re in him aren’t we there too?

If you say to me, “Oh but brother, the cancer, there’s a lot of cancer and there are a lot of
Christians who have cancer.” Yeah, but loved ones the life of Jesus in us prevents the cancer
frustrating God’s dream for our lives. That’s what it means, “My strength is made perfect in your
weakness.” If God has a plan for your life and you are in Jesus there is nothing leading up to
death that can prevent that plan. So okay, you have migraine headaches, and the migraine headaches
may continue to appear to be there as really as it appears at this moment that Jesus is not here.
But if you are in him, then the life that is in him will prevent that headache spoiling your life,
or spoiling God’s plan for your life.

In other words, if Jesus is raised today, you and I have been raised. And the power that he has we
have at this moment. And loved ones, it applies to loneliness, the loneliness that grips us at
times, that loneliness that is a foretaste of darkness of death. That loneliness is under the
control of Jesus’ resurrection life and if you are in him then you have power over that loneliness.

Loved ones, the message today isn’t that Jesus has been raised from the dead. The message is that
all of us who are in him have similarly been raised from the dead, and we’ve been freed from all the
bondages that death symbolizes for us, the bondages of sickness, and weariness, and tiredness. And
it isn’t the power of positive thinking, it’s simply the faith in the historical fact that has been
demonstrated clearly by countless reliable witnesses. It’s faith in that fact that releases the
power of the Holy Spirit to actualize resurrection in you.

So the alarm goes off, and you’re about to get up but the back, it’s killing you and you can’t move,
and you wish you hadn’t done all that carpentry yesterday. Or the sister, the alarm goes off and
you just don’t feel you can do it, you just don’t. The body will not respond. Loved ones, you can

either look at the body as if it’s dead or you can look at it as placed in Jesus, buried with him,
that old body is not yours it’s worn, and wearied, and the only good thing you can do with it is
commit it a tomb with Jesus, and it’s finished with, and Lord Jesus the Father raised you from the
dead and I too have been raised with you. And I thank you Lord Jesus that I cannot do it by the
strength of my own body which is worn out, but I can receive the strength of your resurrection body
and I can get up out of this bed and go.

And loved ones, it is incredible. But if you take that stand it is not the power of the positive
thinking that raises you but that faith opens the way for God’s Holy Spirit to come down and give
you the health of our risen Jesus. And it really works, honestly it does. I’ve a back to prove it.
Like many of you, I did the same thing lifted something that I shouldn’t have lifted and God is
able to change it. But do you see that’s what Easter is about. Easter isn’t just about Jesus
raised from the dead and, “Oh, that’s great let us cheer Jesus because he was raised from the dead.”
You are in Jesus, and you have been raised from the dead, and he expects every day to be Easter in
your own life. And he expects you every time you come up against any adverse circumstance, every
time you come up against any problem in a human relationship, to be glad that it’s there and to
release the resurrection power of his life into it and to triumph over it.

Loved ones, for those of us who live on the right side of the resurrection there are no problems,
there are no difficulties, there are only opportunities for the resurrection life of Jesus to be
released and to solve difficulties and problems, and to set forth the power of his resurrection. So
I really do hope you do grip that because I really hate to think of so many of us being so happy on
Easter Sunday for all kinds of corny reasons, but being so happy and then living so many Sundays
overcome by the very things that Jesus destroyed. So loved ones, would you begin to live tomorrow,
Monday is a good morning to try it, how about Easter Monday? Let’s start living on the right side
of the resurrection.

How to Recognize a Christian

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I’d like to break, brothers and sisters, this morning from the normal study in Romans and we would
get back to it next Sunday. And so I’d just like to share something that Jesus told me I should
share this morning. You know that we’ve been talking about what a real Christian is and that a real
Christian is not one who simply believes that God is the Creator of the world and that Jesus died
for our sins because you remember, that in James it says that even the demons believe and shudder.

So obviously, a Christian is not just a believer and that’s where we go astray when we lay the
emphasis so much on intellectual belief in Jesus alone because there are many people who stand up in
church Sunday after Sunday and repeat the apostles’ creed and they really believe it. They really
believe it with all of their heart, with all of their mind and emotions. And some of them can
become very emotional about their beliefs but they’re not Christians because all they do is believe
and even the demons believe and shudder.

And being a Christian is not just believing. It is not just holding the right intellectual tenants
about Jesus and about God. And being a Christian is not just being a moral person. It seems clear
to us that there are many moral people who are not Christian. There are very good people who live
very unselfish lives and they aren’t Christian at all nor would they even dream of saying that they
were interested in Christianity. So being a Christian is not just being a moral person. And we
know clearly, I think without any difficulty, that being a Christian is not simply going to church,
or being baptized, or being a member of a church.

But being a Christian is receiving. It is receiving the Spirit of Jesus inside you. And you
remember, Jesus really states that through his servant in John there if you look at it for a moment.
John 1:12 is a verse that many of us know by heart. It reads like this, “But to all who received
him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” To all who received him
and becoming a Christian is receiving the Spirit of Jesus inside you. It’s a miraculous work that
God does in your spirit at a level deeper than your mind, and emotions, and will. It’s a work that
God does inside you and makes you alive inside so that there was a time when maybe you didn’t
appreciate old Bach and then you came into an understanding of Bach and you could sit at concerts
and enjoy him completely.

So it is, God brings a piece of you alive that had never been alive before and you see things that
you never saw before, and you come into a spiritual world that we’re all trying to hit at when we
attempt to raise psychic experience to the nth degree through heroine, or when we try to experience
some transcendence over this present pedestrian world in which we live. But it’s that spiritual
world that God miraculously brings you into life in through his Holy Spirit and that’s what it is to
be a Christian.

And it’s easy, you know, God does that when you’re willing to do what the man who owned the inn in
Bethlehem was not willing to do. Jesus can only come in if you make room, if you say there’s no
room he doesn’t come in. And that’s why very few people really are Christians. There are many
Christian believers. There are many who hold a Christian consensus worldview but there are
relatively few Christians who actually are prepared to get out of their lives what prevents Jesus
coming in. And there are many of us that have a great deal of intellectual pride and we’re not
willing to die to that pride to let Jesus come in so actually, we never experience Jesus.

We experience an intellectual kind of concept of Jesus but we never experience Jesus. Many of us
are holding so much onto our jobs and our futures that we will not get that out of our room and
Jesus will not come into our room to be a prisoner so we’re actually saying to him, “There is no
room at the inn.” It’s just that we’re more subtle being western sophisticates, we’re nicer about
it. We say, “Oh yeah, come in, come in.” But he knows that we’re only letting him into the porch
and so he doesn’t come in at all and we just hold him in that position and we keep calling ourselves
Christians.

Now how do you tell a real Christian from a pseudo Christian, or a Christian receiver from a
Christian believer? How do you tell one who has been born of the Spirit from one who simply goes to
church and agrees with Christianity because he lives in America? Well, 1 John 3:9, you remember,
makes it very clear. It’s a miserable verse but it does make it clear. 1 John 3:9, “No one born of
God commits sin; for God’s nature abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.” And
I demythologized that verse out when I was at seminary. I went to liberal seminary and so I have no
trouble demythologizing that bit out.

I hadn’t very good intellectual reason for it but had good moral reason so I demythologized it
anyway. And then I found that it was getting hard going because the fella had repeated it again in
verse 6, “No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” So I
demythologized that verse out and said it was sort of exceptional exaggeration in the fact of
Gnosticism. The boy kept repeating it. In verse 7 he hit it again, “Little children, let no one
deceive you. He who does right is righteous, as he is righteous.” And I argued, “Well now, it’s
alright to commit an odd sin,” and then he came right in in verse 8, “He who commits sin is of the
devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to
destroy the works of the devil.” And slowly it dawned on me that it might be true that one who is
born of God does not commit sin and I decided it would be better to agree with him and try to find
out what he meant than to try demythologizing the whole of John.

And then it gets hard work because you have to go onto the rest of the Bible because Jesus keeps
telling those silly little stories about the man who builds his house in sand and the man who builds
his house on rocks and says, the people who build their house on sand are people who hear his word
and do not do it. And so it is true brothers and sisters, that when the Spirit of Jesus comes into
us and we’re born of him, then he remains himself inside us. He does not change and he does not
begin to crucify his Father just because he’s inside us. He still obeys his Father. In fact, he
does not sin and we do not sin.

Not that we don’t make any mistakes. Of course, we make mistakes. Not, we conform absolutely to
some ideal form of perfection. No, but we do not sin in the sense that James 4:17 says, “Sin is
anybody who knows what is right and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” In that sense, we do not
sin. We walk in perfect obedience, we don’ walk in sinless perfection. We often make mistakes, we
often will find our emotions unbalanced and the old temper will go, we didn’t really mean to but it
will go. But when we know what is right to do we’ll always be able to do it and that’s what a
Christian is. A Christian is just one who is in control of himself through the Spirit of Jesus.
And he may make many mistakes, he may often fall and slip but when he knows what is right to do for
him, it is a sin if he doesn’t do that. And so a Christian is one who is in control, you see and
who can obey God.

That’s what it means a Christian doesn’t sin. A Christian obeys God. He offers God conscious

obedience. There may be many things that he does wrong that he doesn’t know about but that isn’t
sin. Sin is whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. Sin is known
conscious disobedience of God and a Christian is one who doesn’t involve himself in that.

Now, that’s where most of us come into our problems you see, because most of us, after we’ve
received the Spirit of Jesus into us, find we have troubles in two areas of our lives. Now here’s
one of the areas if you’d like to look at a verse in Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4:25, “Therefore,
putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor.” And we miss an
assignment, and we have to face the professor, and we know that we’ve to put away falsehood and
we’ve to speak the truth. And after a mighty struggle, we speak the truth. Or, we miss an
appointment with a friend and we really don’t like them to think that we just forgot the appointment
and so there’s a real struggle inside, but we do speak the truth.

But there’s a struggle. There seems to be something inside us that doesn’t want to speak the truth
in spite of the fact that the Spirit of Jesus inside us does want to speak the truth. And so even
though often we walk in outward obedience, yet often inside we have a spirit that is vying against
that desire to obey God and that we can’t deal with. And often it brings real strain into our
lives. I mean, we may be walking in obedience to God, but boy we are walking with a heavy weight on
our backs. There seems to be a spirit striving inside us against the Spirit of Jesus that came into
us when we were born of God. So many of us have that problem, we walk in obedience but we have
inside another force that is trying to pull us out of God’s way.

We have another problem. If you look at it, it is in Hebrews 12:1. Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since
we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin
which clings so closely.” And you remember the King James Version is the besetting sins, or a
besetting sin. And many of us have this trouble in our Christian lives. We can obey on number one
area, two area, three area, four area, and five area but sixth area there is a besetting sin that we
just cannot overcome. And so we have trouble at times obeying. But we manage to obey, yet there is
a strain inside us. But on this besetting sin we cannot obey. And we find every time we come up to
this particular sin we just cannot do it. And we fought it and fought it and we’ve confessed and
repented a thousand times until we’re tired of it. And we have no doubt in our minds that God will
forgive us until 70 times seven as long as our heart is penitent and soft enough to repent, God will
forgive us obviously.

But the tragedy is we have begun to see inside ourselves a tendency to rationalize the sin so that
our hearts are becoming harder about it and we find now that we don’t feel such a desire to repent
of it. We’ve almost come to a place where we say, “Ah, no this is part of my particular human
shortcoming. I’m an artistic, poetic type of person this is just kind the way my chemistry works.”
And we begin gradually to rationalize and justify this besetting sin.

Now brothers and sisters, that’s where the danger is because it’s there in Hebrews if you look at
it. Hebrews 6:4-6, “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been
enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and
have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit
apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.” Now,
it is not impossible for God to forgive us but do you see what the Bibles said, “It is impossible to
restore again to repentance.” And many of us have found in our own lives a growing tendency to
rationalize and justify these besetting sins.

Now that’s the danger point dear ones. See, that’s where it becomes dangerous. The danger actually
is not in falling and picking yourself up every day, and confessing the sin to God and really
repenting of it. God will forgive you as often as you can do that in honesty. But the danger is
when you stop picking yourself up and you stop repenting and you say, “No, no, it used to be a sin
for me but now it’s just part of my personality. I just have to walk with this on my back
throughout my life. I’m just a critical kind of person, I’m just a lustful kind of person, I’m just
a person that has a mind that wanders and it can’t be clean. That’s my type of person. I’m just
that. God I know accepts me as I am.”

Now loved ones, do you see that is an impenitent attitude and that is the attitude that cannot be
renewed again to repentance. And so really the first thing this morning if you’re in that position
is to get away from it. Say the thing is a sin. Stop arguing with God. Step back from it and say,
“No, I am not like this because my pet dog rebuffed me when I was a child.” Or, “I am not like this
because my mother was very domineering and she just made me paranoid and I just have to criticize
everybody else to avoid my paranoia.” No, don’t excuse it you see, get away from the
rationalization. Say, “Okay, it is a sin I grant you that. Now, what’s the answer?”

Brothers and sisters do you see that what God forgives you when you first come to him is your sins?
He forgives you the things that you’ve done against him, the words that you’ve spoken against him,
the thoughts that you’ve thought against him. But do you see that those sins in the plural come
from an attitude inside and there is a clear distinction in Romans between the word sins for which
Jesus shed is blood, in fact, Jesus died so that God could remain just and forgive us for our sins.
But those sins come from another word that you find in Romans that has no s on the end and it’s the
word sin. And sin is the attitude or the disease that produces the symptoms.

Now the problem with those of us who are walking in the way that I’ve described is that we allowed
God to deal with our sins but we never allowed him to touch the sin inside us. And inside us, even
though the Spirit of Jesus is there, there is still an attitude of s-i-n. There is still an
attitude of I and I still feel I am god of my own life and I have a right to my own way, and I ought
to insist on my own rights, and people ought not to walk over me. It’s that attitude that produces
the defeat and the strain in our Christian lives and God dealt with that attitude you see.

Some of us like to say, “Oh yeah, you mean that’s the old nature fighting against the new nature.”
No loved ones, if you say, “He has a lovely nature.” He either has a lovely nature or he hasn’t.
If you say he’s of a generous nature, he’s a generation nature or he’s a miserly nature but it’s one
or the other, you can’t have two natures inside you. The Bible never talks about us as if there are
two natures inside us. The Bible only says, “This is what the nature of Satan does and this is what
the nature of God does.” And do you see our problem is we’ve never really allowed God to deal with
that old nature?

We’ve never really allowed him to deal with that in a way that is once for all. Now, God dealt with
it in Jesus. See, when Jesus died, God took that attitude of yours and put it into Jesus and
destroyed it. That’s it. It’s a miracle, but that’s what God did. If you say: “Well, pastor if
it’s gone, if it’s dead, if God crucified it in Jesus why do I have such trouble with it here in my
own life?” Well, I ask you about your sins. Did you have trouble with your sins? Didn’t you have
trouble with the guilt of your sins until you let go of them? In spite of the fact that you knew it
was a historical fact that Jesus has born your sins on Calvary, yet you had no release from them or
from their guilt until you let go of them yourself from your own life.

Now, do you see it’s the same with this old self? God destroyed it on Calvary but you can have no
freedom from it unless you’re willing to let it go yourself and that’s the way into victory brothers
and that’s the way into victory brothers and sisters. Not to just struggle with this old attitude
inside, not to keep striving against it but to admit, “Look, this has been crucified with Christ.
This old self of mine has been crucified with Christ.” This Connie has been crucified with Christ.
This John has been crucified with Christ. This Ernest has been crucified with Christ. This Dan has
been crucified with Christ. We were destroyed with Jesus in Calvary. That means our futures were
destroyed, our own rights were destroyed, our possessions are no longer our own possessions. We’ve
been destroyed with Christ on Calvary. And then a willingness to let the Holy Spirit run our lives
once we’ve stopped running them ourselves. And that’s the way into victory.

It’s just accepting that your old self, that old attitude inside that strains and strives against
God was crucified with Jesus. Don’t argue about it you see. If you look at Romans 6:6, it says it
plainly so you shouldn’t try any masochism, or any monasticism. A lot of people try to drive it out
of them, you know, as if it’s a kind of demon. If you beat your body hard enough you’ll drive him
out. It’s not that you see. Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him.” So
that’s a fact.

The old attitude inside that causes you so much trouble was destroyed by God. Now, you should begin
to thank God for that. You should begin to say, “Father, I thank you that this old self that
produces this anger in my life was crucified by you on Calvary. I thank you that it died there with
Jesus.” And then look to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, will you show me any way in which I
am not willing to let it go out of my life.” And the Holy Spirit will probably come down to you and
say, “Well now, anger. You get angry because things are getting out of your control. Now, would
you be willing to let things get so out of control as much as the Holy Spirit wants them to be out
of control and would you allow him to call it when he wants to?” And you’d have to face that you
see.

If you’re a father or mother with children, or if you’re a brother or sister with a roommate that
really gets under your skin, slams the door every time she goes out, just doesn’t know how to close
it quietly then the Holy Spirit will say to you, “Will you be willing to have that door slammed for
a thousand years until the Holy Spirit wants to stop it being slammed?” In other words, the Holy
Spirit will start to apply to you what would be the consequences of your death with Christ, you see.
And usually that means if you’re dead you wouldn’t control your own life, isn’t that right? You
wouldn’t control your own future. You wouldn’t be able to stop people when they were hurting you.
You wouldn’t be able to get people to do just what you wanted when you wanted them to do it. Those
would be some of the consequences. You’d have to hand that all over to the Holy Spirit because
you’d be dead to Christ and there’d be nobody else to run your life, your physical, mental,
emotional life. And the Holy Spirit will take you through those things.

I don’t know what it is for you but it’ll be something that is the heart of yourself. It will be
some part of your life that you will not let go out of your grip and you’re saying to God, “I’ll
follow you as long as.” And the Holy Spirit takes that as long as and he says, “Now, would you be
willing to die to self there in that as long as?” And there’ll come a time in your life, there
certainly came a time in my life, when I got to the ground of my heart and the Holy Spirit showed me
that the trouble was not anger, or impatience, or jealousy, or lust, or envy, the trouble was me,
Ernest O’Neill. Just me myself. I was sin. I was rebellion against God. I was such a miserable,
rotten, wretch there was nothing for God to do but destroy me and start all over again. And then he
took me to the ground of my heart and showed me what my besetting sin was and asked me, “Would you

be willing?”

Yeah, he asked me, “Would you be willing to be a failure for me?” And you know, when you’re a
pastor you sort of want to be successful and you want to do things and he said, “Would you be
willing to be a failure for me?” Would you be willing to be nothing for me? And there came a day
in my parsonage in North Minneapolis where I said, “Yes, I would be willing.” And there was just an
absolute confidence that I had come to the ground of my heart and that I was really willing to be
crucified with Christ. And then Jesus poured the Holy Spirit into me in fullness. And from that
day I walked in incredible victory with none of the old strain or the old defeat that I’d suffered
for 10 or 12 years of my Christian life. And brothers and sisters, that’s the way into victory.

God does not want you to walk with these besetting sins on your heart. He does not want you to walk
in strained obedience. He wants you to enter into this death with Christ. And that’s the truth of
it, you know. It’ll be as real as real death, it really will because you die to everything that is
dear to you, you know. You die to controlling your own future, you die to having your own way at
home, you die to having your own way in your room, you die to having your own way as far as your
money is concerned, and you die to having your own way as far as your relationships with others are
concerned. And so it is a real death and it’s more real I suppose than physical death and yet when
you’re willing to come into that and let what has taken place already in Jesus take place in you
today, then Jesus fills you completely with the Holy Spirit.

And then it seems that the real Christian life really begins and it just takes off and it’s an
effortless life of victory and it is really good. You know you should pray about it because this is
certainly at the heart of my life. This is the thing that changed my life and it’s the thing that
gets you really into that stratosphere of God’s love. So often we’re in the atmosphere and we’re
feeling the pull of the earth, and it’s pulling us down, pulling us down and the old friction is
going like mad and then you get into the stratosphere and it’s just effortless quiet flying through
the air. And that’s where the Father wants us. But it only comes through that death.

Now there are lots of ways to find out because you’ll be thinking about them. You’ll be thinking
about it increasingly these weeks and months. I’ve written a wee thing called “Free to live through
death to self”. There might be some of those on the bookshelves, but there are other men who have
written about it far, far better. Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray is good on it and The Normal
Christian Life by Watchman Nee is good. And really – you actually don’t need to read anymore, all
you need is Romans 6 and Romans 8:13, or Galatians 5:24-25 and then ask the Holy Spirit to begin to
make that real in your life.

And oh I pray, I know that God wanted me to speak it for someone today so there’s someone here today
that needs that otherwise I would have preached what I had slogged out last night to prepare. But
there’s someone obviously who needs it so you should move on it now. You shouldn’t hold back. That
controlled surrender brings strain in the eyes and eventually just nervous exhaustion in the body
and eventually falling out of any pretense at Christianity at all. There’s only one way to go with
Jesus and that’s the whole way. And this is really a good way to go and really the only way to fly,
really, if you want to. So I pray that God will show it to you.

Let us pray. Dear Father, we thank you for the completeness of your plans for us. We thank you
that you have not simply dealt with the superficial symptoms of the rebellion against you but you
have dealt with the inside attitude that no other religion can deal with. That attitude that says,
“The good that I would I cannot do and the evil that I want to avoid, that’s the very thing that I

do.” Father, we thank you that you dealt with all this in Jesus on Calvary and that we are in our
present trouble because we’re living a lie. We’re living as if we had never died with Christ.
We’re living as if this life is our own and we have to guard it and protect it.

Father, we thank you that that isn’t the case. That this life ended with Jesus on Calvary and now
the Holy Spirit is the one who controls these minds, and bodies, and emotions and he will do it for
your glory and we will be able to just enjoy the ride. Father, we thank you for that. Trust you
Father for whatever brother and sister needs to hear this this morning that you will deal directly
with them and that you will bring them right into this. I know Holy Spirit that you are a good
counselor and they need no other counselor but you. You will show them where the ground of their
heart is and where their own self is. I trust you to do it so that we will be a glorious body
without spot, or blemish, or wrinkle, or any such thing and that when the world sees us they will
see you. We ask this in your name, Amen.

Salvation is Trust

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Many of us believe there is a God somewhere but we ourselves have not been able to find him or to
maintain a consistent sense of his reality and his presence in our own life. What we’ve been saying
over the past few weeks is that the way to make contact with that God is really to stop trying just
to please him or to please everybody else and instead to start trusting him, just trusting him as
your Father.

I think a lot of us feel, “Well, what do you trust him for? Do you trust him for everything? Do
you trust him for your shoes being tied? Do you trust him for your money? Do you trust him for
your jobs? Do you trust him to get the assignment done tomorrow?” Then some of us say, “Well, I
just can’t trust him, I can’t. I’ve heard what you’ve said but I just cannot trust him. I’ve tried
trusting him.”

Now brothers and sisters the answer to both of those questions is in beginning to trust the things
he has said plainly about you and me. I’m with you, I don’t think you can suddenly just throw
yourself back in one of those famous ‘trust falls’ and say, “I trust you Lord. I trust you,”
because you don’t know what you’re trusting him for and you try and you can’t do it. Now the only
way to begin to know what to trust him for is to begin to trust what he says about you yourself.
Start there. Start at something concrete.

A lot of us, I think, go off into mysticism and all kinds of guru practices, and all kinds of
meditation trying to get in touch with the Supreme Being and we don’t need to go through all that
complicated deal. You remember, old Blaise Pascal, 17th century scientist philosopher, he said,
“God is a hidden God.” And he referred to Isaiah 45:15, it was in his Ponce, you remember, he said
this, his thoughts. Isaiah 45:15, “Truly, thou art a God who hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the
Savior.” And old Pascal said, “Look, God is a hidden God and you can only discover him if he wills
to reveal himself to you.” And brothers and sisters he will reveal himself to every one of us who
will trust this morning what he says about us. That’s it. You can’t, you see, climb up to him by
mystical meditation. You can only fulfill the conditions which enables him to reveal himself to
you. That’s all you can do. But you can express your initial trust in him by at least doing that,
by believing what he says about you.

Now, you know, it’s very simple. I just want to deal with four of the things he says about us just
this morning and it’s very, very simple. And the first one is one we just keep on rebelling against
and you know it, we’ve talked about it before, it’s Romans 3:23. Romans 3:23, and it just is the
truth that God has – that Satan has managed to complicate this verse in thousands of ways to all of
us so that there’s a lot of us here that just rebel against the whole idea, “All have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.” And that’s the first thing that God says about you.

And, I mean, we rebel against it. We rebel against it either because we think it’s too fanatical or
fundamentalist, or it’s too evangelical. Or we say, “You’re dead right, everybody has sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God. Oh, especially those winos who are outside the theater when we
come into it. They certainly have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You’re right, the
whole world has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and I am glad that I am not one of
those.”

And brothers and sisters, do you see in this old stupid intellectual sophistication that we have, we
think whenever you say ‘sin’ you’re talking about becoming an alcoholic, or you’re talking about
been a pimp, or being a prostitute, or murdering somebody. But we don’ see that really what God is
saying is, “Look, you have done this. You have sinned, very nicely in a very sophisticated manner,
but you have sinned.” And you and I have fallen short of his glory. And brothers and sisters, you
may think, “Oh, brother, that’s basic everybody knows that.”

Dear ones, that’s why half of us have trouble with our relationship with God, because we won’t
believe that; we won’t accept it. We won’t accept that when we get irritable with the roommate
we’ve sinned. We won’t. We say, “No, you see Pastor, my mother was an irritable kind of person.
Kept getting irritable with us children, and I’ve just inherited from her but it’s not sin. It’s a
psychological trait that I’ll work out with more basket work, just exercising more patience.” Or,
you know the other deal, “Brother, I feel if I express it more it will eventually go. I express the
irritability and somehow it will vaporize and go away.”

Dear ones, do you see that is our problem, many of us are in the difficulty, we can’t find God
because we won’t believe that first thing that he said: that we’ve sinned and we’ve fallen short of
his glory, that you were made to be like Jesus. That I was made to be like Jesus. You were made
never to lose your temper. You were made to be kind, and loving to lepers who didn’t have anything
for you, whom you didn’t need. You were made to be loving to them. You were made to have a clean
and absolutely pure mind like Jesus. You were made to walk in this world as princes and princesses
of God, giving delight and glory to him every time he looked at you, getting the same delight and
more delight from you than he gets when he looks at a flower, or a field, or a lake.

Now that was God’s plan for you. And every time you fall short of that plan at all, you’ve sinned.
And that’s what sin is. Sin is ‘not doing what God wants you to do,’ you see. So every time you do
something that you know is wrong that is sin. And what God says is, “Look, you’ve sinned; you’ve
fallen far short of my glory.” You see we keep looking along the line and saying, “Oh brother you
couldn’t mean that nice girl along the row, or that nice fellow along the row, that they’ve sinned.
They may be a little immoral but surely they haven’t sinned.”

Brothers and sisters do you see that sin is not a question of morality. Sin is a question of an
attitude to God. You may be the best person – you know, my people thought I was just a wonderful
son. Everybody in the church just thought I was one of those wonderful little church mice that were
just goodie goodie. Yeah! But I was a rotten, miserable type inside as far as God was concerned.
And you see it didn’t show outwardly. A lot of it doesn’t show outwardly. A lot of us have
inherited reasonable dispositions. We’ve inherited our father’s humor, or we’ve inherited our
mother’s gentleness, and it doesn’t show too much.

But do you see that sin is an attitude to God. It is not doing things that God wants you to do.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Well in fact, we are more preoccupied with our academic
future or our material success than we are with God. That’s our god and that’s what we think of day
after day. We don’t find ourselves riding along in the automobile thinking of God, we find
ourselves thinking of the exams, thinking about our future, worrying about what’s going to happen to
our money. We spend most of our time on other gods. That’s what sin is. Sin is an act, or a word,
or a thought that is disobedient to God.

Sin is also an inward thing because I mean, why do you tell a lie? Why do you tell a lie? Because
you think you have every right to tell a lie. You think you have the right to manipulate people in

the way that you want. That’s why you’re critical of people; that’s why you gossip about your
friends; you think you have every right to tear them down if need be in order to build yourself up.
Now do you see that comes from an inward attitude which thinks that you are God? Which takes it for
granted that you can do whatever you want in the universe; it doesn’t matter; you have every right
to do it.

That’s what sin is. It’s an attitude to God that says, “Look, this is my life I’m going to run it
the way I want to run it. Now you can help me a bit and I’ll consult you when I’m in difficulty but
I do the main running. You can help me, you can sit in the passenger seat and you can tell me from
time-to-time when I get lost, but you’re not getting into this driver’s seat.” Now that’s what sin
is. And it’s an inward attitude.

Now brothers and sisters, perhaps this will help you: If you say to me, “Brother I am not sure
whether I am in that category or not.” Dear ones, the Holy Spirit will be faithful to you this
morning. You know if some of those things are true of you. The Holy Spirit can witness in your
heart if that’s true of you today. If you’ve that attitude to any part of your life, then you have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And God says, “The wages of sin is death.” That’s it.
Romans 6:23 says that, “The wages of sin is death.”

Now loved ones, it’s not death if you’re just a prostitute that have worn out your body by continual
intercourse. It’s not that, you see. A lot of us keep thinking, “Oh, we know what you mean
brother. You mean if you murder somebody and go to the electric chair the wages of sin is death.”
No, loved ones. If you sin ordinary little sins, the wages of that sin is death, because God has
determined that to preserve his universe as he wants it, he will exterminate, destroy, drive from
his presence every one who will not trust him.

Now the reason for that is obvious, you know it. You get a drunk coming in among us at this moment.
Let’s imagine a drunk full of Irish whiskey coming down that aisle singing away. Now you know it
cuts the atmosphere like a knife, doesn’t it? It’s just impossible for us to continue to have any
fellowship together if he comes in. Now do you see that that’s the situation with the Father? It’s
not that he wants to send any of us to hell, or he wants to keep any of us out of his presence, but
do you see that one positive plan excludes its opposite. You can’t have a heaven unless you keep
out of it all the people who don’t want a heaven, and who don’t want to be like God.

[Someone in the audience asks something]

Well brother, it seems to me that that’s what you come to when Jesus talks about it. But do you see
that until we’ve come to Jesus, until we’ve dealt with Jesus and I’ll try to deal with that in a
moment or two, there’s no forgiveness. Do you see that we’re all under that condemnation unless God
has provided a way out? I think he has, but I think that many of us feel, “Oh, these things are not
true.” I think in other words brother, there is a great deal of what some brothers prayed about, a
‘sugarcoated gospel’ in these days, where you see we tend to say, “Oh well, God isn’t going to
really drive any of us away. He’ll take anybody that comes.” Well brother he won’t. It seems to
me in order to preserve his heaven, the wages of sin will always be death. And it seems to me those
are the only wages. It seems to me there are no other wages.

I think brothers and sisters we have a feeling, “Well maybe we can substitute some other wages.
Maybe we can substitute good works and God will be satisfied with the good work. Or, maybe we can
substitute a bit of mystical meditation and he’ll be satisfied with mystical meditation. Or, maybe

we can please him by going to church and that will sort of make up for these sins.” Brothers and
sisters do you see that God says, “The wages of sin is death.” And you have to take those wages if
nobody else will take them for you. And that’s our situation, you see. That’s our position.

That’s why all the angst is in the world, you know. That’s why old Jaspers [Karl Theodor Jaspers,
1883 – 1969, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher] in Switzerland says, “All you can do is seek
for the final experience.” And some poor soul says, “What about suicide?” And he says, “That may
not be the final experience.” That’s why we’re all foolishly, and philosophically, and
psychologically trying to deal with this sense of guilt and this sense of angst, because we really
are under condemnation of God. The wages of sin really ‘are’ death because all of us ‘are’ in that
position. Now brothers and sisters you either pay those wages yourself or somebody pays them for
you. You either receive those wages yourself or somebody receives them for you.

And do you see that this Sunday morning if you have trouble with your connection with God, it’s a
sign that that old death is beginning to work and operate in you. Do you see that? Death makes
itself manifest even when you’re 30. I can count grey hairs. With some older people you can count
wrinkles. You can see death beginning to work in a person long before they’re dead. Now, do you
see it’s the same with spiritual death? You can begin to sense an absence from God even before you
die at 70 or 80 years of age.

Now, if you’re having trouble with hearing God’s voice, if you’re having trouble with sensing God’s
favor, do you see it’s not that God isn’t there or that God isn’t showing us favor, it’s that this
death is working in you. Why? Because you won’t be ‘honest’ about the things that you’ve done in
your life that are wrong, and that you’ve sinned against God.

And then what does God say? Well, God says this and he asks you to trust this, its Romans 5:8. We
should look at it, especially in the light of the brother’s question. Romans 5:8, “But God shows
his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died ‘for’ us.”

Now loved ones, do you see that you have to die that death, or somebody has to die it for you. I
shared with you before the old experience I had. I wasn’t long in Minneapolis and was just preparing
to take the old driver’s test, and came up to one of those signs that said, “Do not turn right
between seven and nine PM.” And I turned right between seven and nine PM and one of those gallant
officers came up beside me and said, “Do you know what you did wrong?” I said, “No, I don’t know.”
He said, “You turned right.” And I said, “Well, I had to turn right.” And he said, “Yeah, but it’s
between seven and nine o’clock.” So I said, “Well, I’m sorry officer, I really am. I’m just about
a month in the country and I’m just getting used to driving on the right hand side of the road and
really I’ll be different next time.” And he said, “Yeah, well I hope you will be because it’ll save
you $10. Now could you give me your name?” And I said, “But officer, I’m studying the test. I’m
studying the driver’s test and I’m going to take it next week and really, I mean I’ll have no
trouble with this next week.” He said, ‘That’s good it’ll save you $10.” Now do you see that I had
to pay the $10 or somebody had to go up to that window and pay it for me?

Now it’s the same with the Father. You either have to pay with your own death for what you’ve done
wrong with God or somebody has to pay it for you. And do you see what God asks you to trust? God
asked you to believe that his Son Jesus has died that death for you, and therefore God has nothing
against you.

But brothers and sisters do you see God has something against you while you are unwilling to trust

him? See, if you won’t trust God then the wages of sin is death, that penalty stands. And that’s
why brother, I come back at you, there’s no use this ‘easy believism,’ you know, “Oh well, God loves
everybody.” He does love everybody. And he’s anxious to ‘forgive’ everybody, but he can only
forgive the people who trust him and believe what he said about them.

In other words loved ones, you can have no sense of the reality of God if you keep on saying, “Oh
well, my sins aren’t so bad I’m just going to try praying hard, try a few mystical meditations, and
I’ll sense his presence.” No loved ones, the only way to come into forgiveness of God is to face
honestly the things that you’ve done wrong in your life and to deal with them, and to see that only
then is God’s sacrifice in Jesus able to be made real in your life.

And how is it made real? Well, God asks you to trust this other thing, you remember, its John 1:12,
“To as many as received Jesus, to them he gives the right to become the children of God.” In other
words dear ones, it’s only if you receive Jesus that you have a right to be God’s children.
Otherwise you are his enemies. You are his condemned enemies. And only if you’re willing to
receive the Spirit of Jesus into yourself is God justified at all in forgiving you and in receiving
you as his own. Now that’s what it means.

Now you may say, “Oh well brother, how do you receive Jesus?” God made it plain. He said, “If you
confess your sins I’m faithful and just to forgive you your sins.” But do you see that’s the first
step? Loved ones, do you see that those of us who have become Christians and are having trouble
with a sense of God’s presence, those of us who are trying to be Christians and don’t know how to do
it, that’s where we’re failing. We’re not confessing our sins.

Do you know the Greek word for confess doesn’t mean a whole lot of speaking it with your voice, it’s
not that. God is not concerned with speaking the thing out. But the Greek word means, “I put up my
hand and I agree with God that what he says is a sin is a sin.”

Now loved ones, that’s where we on the campuses go astray. For years I brainwashed myself that
these things were not sins. I kept thinking sin was some terrible immoral action. It isn’t. It’s
being irritable with your roommate. It’s being unclean in your imagination. It’s being covetous of
something you see in Dayton’s [department store] and thinking about it again, and again, and again.
It’s putting yourself before God. That’s what sin is. And confession is agreeing with God that
that is wrong. And that’s the first step.

Brothers and sisters, if you would say to me, “Brother, you talk to a lot of us, where do you think
most of us have trouble?” Dear ones, that’s it. Honestly that’s it. It almost always gets back to
that deal that there’s something in your life or my life that we will not agree with God is wrong.
We hang onto the smoking, we hang onto the masturbation, we hang on to the petting, we hang onto the
covetousness, we hang onto the selfish ambition, we hang onto the pride in our grades, something we
hang onto in our own lives, and we will not admit that that is sin. So, we’re always putting
ourselves on Satan’s side against God’s side. And therefore we never come into a place where we can
know God. The first step is confession.

The second step is repentance. Repenting! And brothers and sisters do you see there’s so much
silly talk about repentance. We’re all making it out that repentance is a big emotional deal, where
you come up to the altar and you cry your eyes out for a solid hour and that’s your repentance.
Loved ones, repentance is sorrow to Jesus for sending him to the cross, and stopping doing the act.

You know, I’ve done this with you, you know it so it’s no mystery. Tim gives me this picture, says
to me, “That’s a picture of my mother and I want you to be careful of it.” And I say, “Boy, it’s a
lovely picture, it really is I’ll put it into my pocket – ah, I’ve torn it. Oh, I’m sorry. Oh Tim
I’m sorry I’ve torn this picture. I really am sorry Tim. I want you to know I’m really repenting.”
Well loved ones, you only repent when you stop doing it. Don’t you see it? I mean, there’s no
point putting on a whole theatrical show for God if you don’t stop doing the thing you haven’t
repented. And repenting you see, is stop doing the thing. Okay, so you’re thrusting a sword into
Jesus’ side every time you swear, every time you think a dirty thought, every time you’re unclean in
your actions you’re thrusting a sword into Jesus’ side. How do you stop doing that? You pull the
sword out.

Jesus and the Father are very honest, straight people. They know that if you’re continuing to kill
them then you aren’t repenting. And do you see that’s what it’s like. It is like that in the heart
of God. I know that Jesus has died once and for all, but do you see that he portrayed on Calvary
the agony in the Father’s heart every time we sin. And repentance is you just stop sinning.

And the last thing God asks you to do is to receive his Son. He says, “To as many as received him
to them gave he the right to become the children of God.” And the only way to come into any real
place where you begin to trust God is to receive the Spirit of Jesus into your own life. And that
just means that you make room for the Spirit of Jesus.

It means that you say to him, “Lord Jesus, you can run my life the way you ran your own, even if it
ends up in Calvary or ends up in some remote area of China destroyed, lonely, with nobody and with
nobody knowing that that’s happened to me. Even if that means I’m poverty stricken. Even if it
means I don’t become a PhD. Even if it means I don’t become famous. Lord Jesus, my future is yours
even if it means I don’t have lovely house with two car garage, I don’t have children, even if it
means I don’t get married. Lord Jesus, I want to receive you now and give you my life.”

Now brothers and sisters God deals with you as honestly as you deal with him. And if you will
honestly confess your sins, agree with him about the things that are wrong in your life, and if
you’ll honestly turn from those things as far as you’re able — he will give you the grace for what
you’re not able. And if you will honestly give your life to his Son and receive his Son by faith
into your spirit, then you’ll begin to come into a place where you find yourself trusting God day
after day. And there comes a sense of rightness in your own heart. And that inner turmoil goes.
And you just know you’re right with the Maker of the world.

But brothers and sisters that is it. And really you need to do it. You know, you need to do it
honestly. The mystical meditation won’t help, honestly it won’t. I was on that kick and many of us
have been. And the drugs certainly don’t help, and going to church doesn’t help. It has to be you
and your Creator dealing honestly about the things for which Jesus died. And if you’re honest about
that, God will be honest with you.

There’s a dear one — and she won’t mind me saying — there’s a dear one at the back, and her
husband Al was very enthusiastic, about the body here over the years and he died just this last
week. And it’s a great sense, he was 51, great joy to know he’s alive –and Jim is here, his son —
and great joy to know we have no doubt that he’s alive at this moment, absolutely no doubt he’s
alive. And they presumably, because Jesus allows the spirit to stay for a little while with the
dear ones, presumably they have some real sense of his aliveness as I had with my father.

Now do you see that’s what happens as a result of this? There is not only an imminent sense of God
but there is a transcendent certainty about where the person is after this life is over. Now that’s
really what it means to come into a right relationship with God. And that’s what it means to begin
trusting God.

So you see, don’t start off with, “Oh well, I’m going to trust him for my bank account, I’m going to
trust him for my exams.” Start off trusting him with those things that he said about you. Get
right with those. Get right with him over those and then you’ll find that he’ll guide you what to
trust him for and he’ll guide you when to work. He’ll guide you when to pray and he’ll guide you
when to act. He’ll guide you when to think and he’ll guide you when to listen to him. But first
you must establish that relationship with him.

Now, I don’t know how you all think about that and what you know of it and what you don’t. But if
you’re anxious at all to make any move towards it I’ll stay behind, I’m going to try to talk to
Puerto Rico people first, but I’ll stay behind and if you want to stay behind I’ll pray with you if
you want, and if you want to stay behind and pray in the theater nobody bothers you, or if you just
want to talk you should do it. But don’t go on endlessly coming to church hoping that sometime by
osmosis you’ll come into a sense of God’s reality. No, trusting God is a down to earth business. I
trust him by confessing, by repenting, and by receiving Jesus. That’s it. Trust is a down to earth
thing.

Then you can dig into and move into trusting him for your salary, and your finances, and your
business, and your future. So will you think about it and decide where you are and stop – dear ones
stop fiddling around, stop second guessing God. Just believe him, do what he says and let him do
the rest. It is his responsibility to make Jesus real in you; it’s not your responsibility. It’s
your responsibility to fulfill the conditions and show that you trust him. Let us pray.

His Belief was Counted as Righteousness

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Dear ones, would you turn and look at Romans 4:23. You see it reads like this, “But the words, ‘It
was reckoned to him,’ were written not for his sake alone,” and then the rest of the sentence at the
beginning of 24, “But for ours also.” And do you see that the words, “It was reckoned to him,” are
in quotes, so that obviously means that they were used before somewhere and that Paul is actually
quoting what was said elsewhere.

Now you’ll find the original moment when those words were used if you turn to Genesis 15:6. There
the words were spoken for the first time and that’s why they are in quotes back there in Romans.
Genesis 15:6, “And he believed the Lord,” that was a man called Abraham, “And he reckoned it to him
as righteousness.” Now that’s the original time that those words were used. “He reckoned it to him
as righteousness.”

Now why did he do that? Well, Abraham had no children and God gave him a promise in Genesis 15:5,
“And he,” God, “Brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are
able to number them.’ Then he said to them, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the
Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.” And so it was because Abraham believed what God
said that God regarded him as right with himself. And that was back in the year 2000 BC.

Now do you see that it was spoken at that time in the year 2000 BC and yet it was spoken also in the
year 57 AD? Romans 3:28 is another occasion when another man said the same thing is true. Really,
2,050 years later, Romans 3:28, “For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of
law.” So the whole world, even the religious world says, “You make yourself right with the deity
behind the universe by being good or by entering into a special kind of knowledge that this deity
will give you.” But for 2,050 years at least the God whom Jesus regarded as his Father has kept on
saying, “If you believe me, I’ll look upon that as righteousness. If you just trust me I’ll regard
that as righteousness; I’ll make you right with myself.”

Now do you see that that’s one of the greatest strengths of Christianity: that we’re not listening
to Jesus over a period of three years of ministry? But that the things that he has said, this God
who is his father has been saying for thousands of years to thousands of different people down
through the centuries, and that this God has remained consistent right down through the years. He
has kept on saying, however much we men and woman have tried to change the basis of our ‘getting
right with him’ to morality, or to some kind of special Gnostic knowledge, yet this God has kept on
saying, “No, I tell you if you believe what I say, and I’m saying that my Son has died for the
things you’ve done against me, then as far as I’m concerned you’re right with me.”

Now, do you see that for thousands of years, brothers and sisters, God has been saying the same
thing? This is one of the reasons why so many of us trust the revelation of the Creator that has
come through Jesus, because it’s a revelation that has remained consistent over thousands, and
thousands of years. Now, do you see that in the last 30 years of our century there will spring up
all kinds of antichrists? There will come all kinds of gurus, and all kinds of mystic prophets who
will try to tell you that their particular vision of the Creator of the universe is the right one.
And do you see that you have to weigh one man’s personal insight against the historical events of
thousands of years in order to say that this man is right and this Jesus is wrong?

It’s like me saying to you, “I had a vision last night, a dream, and I really believe that God will
treat you as being his child and as being right with him if you’ll only believe what he says. If
you’ll believe what he says, he’ll make you right with himself.” Now do you see that your immediate
response should be, “How do I know that you’re right? How do I know that your vision is right? How
do I know your dream is right? How do I know that you’re not having illusions? How do I know that
your personal experience is trust worthy?” And the answer is really, you don’t.

Any man who comes to you and says, “No, I supersede Christ. I am the new prophet. I am Christ
returned. I am the one who will bring the world to peace and to complete joy and love.” You can
tell one thing that that is one of the antichrists that Jesus said would come and would try to
disillusion us all and would try to deceive us all. But actually, all they’d ask us to do was
believe in their personal experience.

Brothers and sisters it’s so different when you bring thousands of years of historical events where
this Creator has dealt consistently over centuries and centuries with different people, you’re
dealing with a completely different situation. And that’s really what you deal with you see, in the
Bible. If you look at Genesis 15:5, you get the dealing that God did with Abraham and 2,000 years
later he’s still dealing the same way with a man like Paul. Genesis 15:5, “And he brought him
outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then
he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him
as righteousness.”

Now any one could say he was having a dream, it didn’t really happen. But then you look at Genesis
21:2-3. Genesis 21:2-3, “And Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of
which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah
bore him, Isaac.” And then look at the completion of Abraham’s life in Genesis 25:7-9. Genesis
25:7, “These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life, a hundred and seventy-five years. Abraham
breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his
people.” And it’s very difficult to say that Abraham really was having a hallucination when he
thought that God made that promise to him, because the historical events back up the promise. And
then you need to add to that thousands of years and thousands of other people’s experiences that
reinforce the same revelation that God is like this. That he treats any of us as right with himself
if we really believe him, if we just put our trust in him. If we believe that what he says is true,
if we believe that Jesus really died for us, then God regards that as right and righteousness. And
really that’s one of the biggest reasons why so many of us believe that the God revealed by Jesus is
the real God.

Now the amazing thing is brothers and sisters that you don’t only have to depend on historical
events to back it up. The Bible is not only invaluable to us because it tells us of actual
historical events that prove that what God said he would do he actually did. But the Bible is
invaluable to us because it actually tells us what God himself is thinking.

Now that’s right, if you look at Genesis 15:5, you’ll see that. Genesis 15:5, “And he,” that is
God, “Brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to
number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and
he reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Who? Well, God. So we read not only what God said to
Abraham, but what God was actually thinking. And the Bible is invaluable to us not only because
it’s a history book of what God did but it’s also a record of what God himself was thinking at
different moments in history.

Now how did he know it? Well, God told it to Abraham. God said that to Abraham, “Look, I regard
your belief in me as righteousness.” Then Abraham told it to his children, then they told it to
their children, and then they told it to Moses. And Moses decided, “I’ll try this out. I’ll act on
it myself. I’ll try to prove that this is true.” And so he tried it in his own life and you see it
in Exodus 3:10. Exodus 3:10, and God spoke you see, to Moses, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh
that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Now that was an incredible and really an impossible task if you think of the situation. Moses, a
shepherd on the backside of some mountain looking after sheep and the Egyptians, the most powerful
race in the world and God says, “Come, I’m going to use you to bring my people out of Egypt.” And
then look at Exodus 12:51, “And on that very day the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the
land of Egypt by their hosts.”

If I give you some personal visions that I’ve had all you have to do is get me into St. Peters
[Reference to the insane asylum in St. Peter, Minnesota, USA], or give me some basket work and you
only have to knock down one person to disprove my view of God. But you do see brothers and sisters,
to contradict the revelation of our Creator that we have received through Jesus, you have to rewrite
thousands of years of history. And not only of Israelite history but the Egyptian history makes no
sense if the Exodus did not take place. Moreover, the elements in the Jewish religion that
originated in that time make no sense. We have lots of effects without any cause if this is not
true.

Now this is why the revelation that we get of the Creator through Jesus is so hard to contradict,
because it does not depend on one man’s vision but the experiences of hundreds and thousands of men
over hundreds and thousands of years. And so it goes on, you know, right through the Bible. And in
the Bible you have not only an event you see, but you have really God’s thought about the event.
Down through the years many religious authorities have taken historical events like the Second World
War and have tried to make some religious significance out of them.

They’ve tried to tell us what the god was really thinking who allowed those things to come to past.
And all that has resulted from that kind of personal interpretation of events is a bundle of
contradictory gods such as we have in Hinduism, or a group of contradictory deities such as we have
among the Romans and Greeks. But we have nothing like a consistent God who is the same century
after century. Now this is why God has not only recorded the events in the Bible but he has
recorded his own thoughts about them. He tells us what he is actually thinking at the time. The
theologians say that the revelation is not only factual but propositional and tells us not only the
events but it tells us the significance of the events.

Now, why has all of this taken place? Well you get the answer in Romans 4:23. Romans 4:23, God had
gone to this kind of trouble for one purpose and it’s in 4:23, “But the words, ‘it was reckoned to
him,’ were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also.” And that’s the purpose of history.

God enabled a man like Abraham to experience that for your sake. He enabled a man like Paul to
experience it for your sake and mine. See, a lot of us I think, are under this deception that the
way to get right with the Creator of the world is to be as good as we can. And so you know, we wear
ourselves out. We wear ourselves out trying to please all our families, all our relatives, all the
authorities in our lives, our professors, our teachers, all of our peer group, and especially all
people connected with churches. And so we’ve come into the deception that Christianity is really

just being moral.

Now, do you see that God had a man who thought like that at one time and then he discovered that
that wasn’t true? That he could be made right with God just by believing that God’s Son Jesus had
made things right between himself and his Father. And this man’s experience was recorded for your
sake and mine.

Now you’ll find somebody like yourself who was concerned with grades if you look at Philippians 3.
And old Paul really was one of those conscientious people such as so many of us are. In Philippians
3:4 he describes his own attitude to things, “Though I myself have reason for confidence in the
flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason for the confidence in the flesh, I have more:
circumcised on the eight day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of
Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee.” You see A’s right across the board, “As to zeal a persecutor of
the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless.” And then he says, “But whatever gain I
had,” because none of these things made me sense that I was right with God, “I counted as loss for
the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord.” And Paul believed what we have said, that if he trusted what God said about
Jesus he would be right with God.

Is there any proof that he was right with God? Yeah, if you look at his experience in Acts 28
you’ll see it there. There’s incredible proof that he was not just involved in some kind of
deception in Acts 28:1, “After we had escaped, we then learned that the island was called Malta.
And the natives showed us unusual kindness…” and this was Luke writing this, you remember, he was
traveling with Paul, “For they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and
was cold. Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, when a viper came out
because of the heat and fastened on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his
hand, they said to one another, ‘No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the
sea, justice has not allowed him to live.’ He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and
suffered no harm. They waited, expecting him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead; but when they
had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he
was a god.” And Jesus said that that kind of thing would happen. He said, “Listen, you’ll be made
right with my Father if you believe in me and you’ll even walk on scorpions and they will not touch
you.” And that was written for your sake and mine.

I don’t know if you’re still lying under that business of trying to prove that you’re as good as
anybody else or if you’re still trying to make yourself right with God by being moral and being
successful. But do you see that here’s a historical experience that shows that God will treat you
as right with himself if you’ll just believe in his son Jesus.

Some of us, you know, are in the position where we think, “Yeah, well that’s okay, but I really
think I’m almost too low for God to have anything to do with me. All these people in this theater
must be at least a little better than me and in some way surely you have to prove yourself worthy of
Jesus dying for you? Surely you have to improve your life a little bit for God to make you right
with himself?” And I think many of us think this way. We listen Sunday after Sunday to this kind
of talk but really in our own hearts we think, “Yeah, but I have to improve a little better and a
little better and someday I’ll be able to believe in Jesus and God will be able to make me right
with himself.” But brothers and sisters, God can do it this very morning, you see, because he did
it with someone like you, someone at least as bad as you, and probably worse.

Now, would you look at that lady, her story really is in John 8:3-11? And you remember the RSV
Bible tries to indicate where some manuscripts do not contain some of the text and so that’s why
they put this into the small print at the bottom of the page there. John 8:3, it just indicates
really that the manuscript that they were following didn’t have it in it but that the other big ones
Spatacanous and Alexandrinus had, “The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught
in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in
the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?’
This they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down
and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to
them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he
bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by
one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.”

This was a woman you see, that presumably was even caught in bed I suppose, caught in the actual act
of adultery really. “Jesus looked up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned
you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you.’” And then he did say
the important part about repentance you see, “Go, and do not sin again.”

But loved ones that was written for our sakes, because Jesus will have the same attitude to you this
morning as he had to that woman. And do you see there’s none of us here this morning that are too
low that God is not willing to deal with us in his son Jesus? There is no one here this morning
that God will not show the same forgiveness to as he showed that lady. And so it is right through
the Bible. In the Bible we have a series of historical events that show beyond all doubt the kind
of God that we’re dealing with and that he is the Father of Jesus Christ. And the reason for all
that historical detail is so that we will in no way, in these last days, be led away by those who
have personal visions of their own, but that we will know what God is like and most of all that we
will be prepared to deal with him ourselves.

So dear ones if you ever feel, “Oh no, I’m too low, or I demand too much scientific detail for God
ever to deal with me.” All you have to do is look at that woman or look at the man Thomas who said,
“Unless I put my finger into the holes in his hands I will not believe.” And then you can be sure
that if God showed himself and came through in some way to a man as demanding and skeptical as
Thomas, then he’ll come through to you, too. He can deal with you and he can deal with me also.
And so it is with every difficulty we feel and many of us feel, “Oh no, I’ve listened to this Sunday
after Sunday and I’ve tried to get through to God. I’ve tried, and I’ve tried and I cannot, and I
cannot get through. There must be some reason for it.” There is.

There was a young man who came to Jesus and said, “Listen, I’ve done everything. I’ve obeyed all
the laws. I’m absolutely obedient and yet somehow I can’t find God real to me.” And then Jesus
picked the one thing that he had never looked at himself and said, “Listen, you’re very rich. Would
you give away all that you have? And then God will be real to you.” And so it is with us who claim
we’ve tried everything, we’ve done everything, we’ve obeyed every law we can, yet when you go to
Jesus and say, “Lord, will ‘you’ show me why God cannot be real to me?” Jesus will be faithful to
you as he was with that man. And he’ll pick out the one thing that is preventing God showing
himself to you.

And really the reason for all these things is for us. It was reckoned to him it was written not for
his sake but for ours this morning, because this God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and
he’ll deal with you in just the same way. And he’ll be as faithful to you this moment as he has

been with these people. And that’s why he recorded all this for us.

So when you begin the question could God possibly come through to you, will you have a look at what
he did in the past and ask yourself, “Well, is he the same today? If he is then he’ll deal with
me.” And he will really. He will.

Walking by Faith 1

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Would you imagine you’re on a flight across the Atlantic on a 747 and two men come down from the
flight deck with parachutes on and the stewardess opens the door and they bail out? And you say to
her, horrorstruck, “Is this a hijacking?” And she says, “No, no, that’s the pilot and the copilot,
they have trouble with heights and they’re dropping off in New York for hamburgers.” And you sit
back and you don’t know what to think and you’re just filled with fear and terror because you know
there’s no one flying that plane at all. And you’re insecurity is incredible, you just don’t know
what to do because you know there’s no one in the flight deck, and you know that thing is tearing
along at 500 or 600 miles per hour across the Atlantic.

Now, any security you have in that plane depends on your trusting that someone is flying it and
knows where it’s going. And do you see that you’re in the same situation if the pilot ever comes
down, leaves the copilot at the controls, comes down and starts talking to the passengers? And he
comes down your lane and you start bombarding him with questions and asking him where we’re going,
how fast we’re going, how high we’re flying, and you start bringing out your own navigation aids and
you start checking up and finding out how it’s going and where the wind is coming from and more and
more asking him. And he says, “No, no, you can trust the copilot.” And you say, “No, no, but I
don’t trust. I don’t trust the copilot. I want to know myself.” And you can imagine that there is
no relationship between you and the pilot. The pilot just says, “Listen, you aren’t trained to fly
this plane. You don’t know how to do it; you have to trust me to do it.” And any right
relationship between you and him depends on your trusting him.

Now loved ones, we’re flying far faster than 500 or 600 miles per hour and the spaceship is round,
and it’s tearing through space. And do you see the same thing is true? You can’t have a right
relationship with the pilot, or with the one who is guiding it unless at last you’re prepared to
trust that he is in control. And that’s really it. Honestly, that’s why so many of us have trouble
with any attitude at all towards God, because we just don’t trust that he’s in control.

We keep on trying to find out how high we’re flying, or where we’re going, or how the thing is run,
or what it’s going to end up as. We try to do all that ourselves. And as long as you continue to
treat God that way, do you see he’ll feel the same as that pilot? He’ll feel, “You’re just ignoring
me. You don’t trust me at all; you don’t think a think about me. Regard me as God? You don’t even
regard me as a competent pilot.” And brothers and sisters that’s why in these past weeks God seems
to have led us to emphasize that if you want a right relationship with your maker, you just have to
trust him.

You have to trust that he is the Creator, that he’s doing his job as a Creator and that he is in
control and moreover, that he put you here in the world with a certain plan for you and he didn’t
just scatter us as salt all over the surface of the world. He has put you in a special place. He
knows why he put you here and he knows where he wants you to go. And really, unless you have that
attitude of trust towards the maker, do you see there’ll always be a strain in your relationship
with him. He’ll always feel you’re ignoring him. He’ll always feel you’re never acknowledging him
for what he is.

Now, that’s why, if you’d like to look at the verse it’s in Romans 3:22, that truth is stated. It’s
stated there in Romans 3:22, “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who

believe.” And that we are justified by our faith, and we’re made right with God, you see we receive
rightness with God when we put our faith in him and trust him. And if you’re not trusting him
you’ll never be right with God. And you can try in that 747 to become a brilliant pilot by studying
while the flight is in process, but you’ll never get any relationship with the pilot unless you
trust the pilot and so it is with the Father.

Unless you trust God – that’s why you could begin a relationship with your maker this very moment in
the theater. Do you see that? You could change from an attitude of distrust and skepticism and a
desire to run your own life to an attitude where you at last say, “Well Lord, you are in control and
I’m going to start trusting you as the Maker and the Creator and the God of my life.” That’s why we
say you can become right with God this very moment, you see. You don’t have to go through a whole
long process of lots and lots of preparation classes or church membership classes, you can take an
attitude, adopt an attitude of trust towards your maker today, this very moment and say, “Father,
I’ve been worrying the whole thing through on my own. I’ve been living as if you aren’t there. I
am going to start trusting you from this moment.” And God counts your trust or your faith as
righteousness.

Now what we have been finding out is that it’s not just one act of the will but faith and continued
rightness with God is a continuous attitude all through our lives. It’s a daily attitude towards
God and that’s why I think many of us who have made one commitment of ourselves to Jesus at some
meeting or other, that’s why many of us have begun to lose out spiritually. We’ve begun to feel
insecure in our relationship with God. We’re not certain what he thinks of us now. We’re not
certain whether we’re right with God and we’ve fallen into all kinds of attempts to prove ourselves
to our parents, and our professors, and our teachers, and our pastors, and to anybody who will
listen to try to show that we are really good Christians, we are really children of God. And the
reason we’ve fallen into this is that we have not continued to walk daily trusting God.

That’s what it means, when it says the just or the justified people, the people who are right with
God live by faith. You just live by faith every day. And that’s why we were talking about this
these Sundays, some things about living by faith and how you live by faith. Now maybe I would be
good to see one more this morning. Faith isn’t self-deception. Faith isn’t self-deception. Faith
is not turning your eyes from reality. Faith is not autosuggestion. Faith is not the power of
positive thinking. That’s not living by faith, you see. There are certain groups of people who
say, “Now, our present predicament of war, and famine, and spite, and jealousy, and racial hatred,
and cancer, our present predicament is due to people not believing there’s a God in charge of the
universe.”

Then they take the next step and say, “Therefore those things themselves, since they are due to
believing a lie, they are lies.” And so there are some people who say, “Cancer doesn’t really
exist. Don’t believe it. War doesn’t exist. The pain in my head, it doesn’t exist, it’s not
real.” Now loved ones, that’s the power of positive thinking but it isn’t faith. And yet you see
that does achieve some results because there are psychic laws that govern our mental lives that
bring about some results.

My mother used to say, “Take an aspirin and if you don’t believe in it, it won’t do you any good.”
That’s right, it didn’t do any good but when she believed in it, it did her good. Yeah, yeah and it
is true that faith has a power in itself. If you believe a certain thing will do you good, probably
through psychic influences and affects it will affect your body in some way. So there is a power in
the power of faith, but that kind of faith is not the faith that makes us right with God. Faith

that makes us right with God is not an illusion. It’s not running away from reality. It’s not a
pretending that the things don’t really exist even though that kind of thing gets results.

That of course leads to a certain attitude if you believe that faith is that. It means that you’ll
have to keep your eyes off sickness. If you are sick and you’ve headaches, and you’ve high
temperature, and you ask God to heal you and the symptoms are still there, then if your faith
depends on looking away from reality you’ll have to keep looking away from that headache. You’ll
have to keep forgetting it all the time. You’ll have to keep avoiding the reality that is there.

That’s what I think gets many of us into trouble with very down to earth parents. There we are
without any money and we keep saying, “Oh we’re trusting God, we’re trusting God.” And they say,
“Yeah, but you haven’t any food on the table today to eat.” And we say, “Well, that doesn’t matter
we’re forgetting that. We’re looking away from reality.” No, faith looks at reality and sees it as
it really is; really believing faith.

The other kind of faith that is the power of positive thinking or auto suggestion is always weak in
the face of big problems. It’s strong in the face of little problems but it’s weak in the face of
big problems and it’s always struggling with facts. Somebody you remember, asked – Paul Little (an
author) says somebody asked what is faith, asked the little fella what is faith and the little fella
said, “It’s believing something you know isn’t true.” And you see you’re always in that kind of
struggle if faith for you is avoiding reality saying the facts aren’t real. If you’ve a broken arm
and you keep saying, “No, the arm isn’t really broken. It isn’t really broken.” It’s a result of
believing the lie that God is not in charge of the universe so it itself is a lie then you’re caught
in that business of faith as an illusion, as a self-deception.

Now loved ones, faith is not that. Real faith recognizes that believing the lie that God does not
exist can bring about real results in our world. Cancer is very real. You can see the old self,
somebody dying from an incurable disease that is very real. That’s not an illusion. Now I agree
with you that it results from believing the lie that God is not in charge, but it itself is very
real. So you know if you worry and you don’t trust God, okay the ulcer is very real, you can see it
on the x-ray, it’s there. If you don’t believe God is in charge of your home and you’re family life
and you’re always straining against each other and you create hyper tension in each other, that
blood pressure can be measured on instruments. Now faith always looks at the facts and sees, “Yeah,
they’re there.” Faith looks at those facts, real faith.

Now that’s what our verse says you see and it’s maybe good to see that plain that faith is not
afraid of facts. It isn’t involved in illusion. Now maybe we should look at the verse that states
this. Romans 4:19 and it’s the verse we’ve come into in the exposition of Romans. Romans 4:19, the
RSV translation reads – you remember Abraham had received a promise from God that he would have a
child. Abraham was 100 years old and his wife was way over 90. Romans 4:19, “He did not weaken in
faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred
years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.”

Now the Greek reads this way, “He did not weaken when with his faith he considered his own body.”
Now do you see that Abraham looked at his own body, which was about 100 years old, with faith, with
eyes of faith? Now it’s not faith, you see, to see the mess in your dormitory, and to see the
strain and tension with your roommate, and to look away from it and keep saying, “No, it doesn’t
exist. It doesn’t exist. It’s a lie, it’s a lie.” That isn’t faith. Faith is to look at that and
see it but to look at it with faith. And so real faith looks at the facts and looks at reality as

it is. Why? Because what it sees confirms the revelation that God has given us in Jesus.

The revelation that God has given us in Jesus says this, there’s a law of sin and death. You ran
your world independent of God, God withdrew his life from you. The result was disease, and
sickness, and strain. The same thing with the ulcer, you turned away from God, you did not depend
on him and trust in him so he couldn’t give you his Spirit of life any longer so you dwelt in worry
and you created disease inside your own body. Same thing with the hypertension, the same thing with
the promiscuity, you looked away from God because you thought, “No, I have to have this. I have to
have this satisfaction. God cannot give it to me himself.” So you involve yourself in promiscuity,
so you produce a child and the child has the results of that lack of faith. The child has the
results of that in the body.

Now do you see that faith looks at the facts and sees, “Yeah, these facts confirm the explanation of
reality that God has given us in Jesus. That the war is here because men have not trusted God.” So
faith actually feeds on the facts. It doesn’t turn from reality. It looks at reality and says,
“Yeah, this is the result of us not trusting God.” Now that’s one vital thing that faith does and
that’s why we read that story of Gideon. God actually rubbed their noses in it, didn’t he? I mean,
he rubbed their noses in the facts. They had several thousand men who might have won the battle
with a little help from God but God wanted to show them, “Look, these facts are a hopeless situation
you can do nothing with them.” I’m reducing you to 300 men, now what can you do with 300 men? And
God really said, “Look, I want you to look at the facts and see the reality so that you realize the
power of the miracle that changes this.” And so brothers and sisters, those of us who walk by faith
do not walk looking away from reality. We look at the facts.

Now I agree with you, we look at another set of facts because you remember, if you were in the 747
and you’re really finding difficulty believing that it will really stay up there, you eventually
have to get passed the point where you can’t afford to look down. If every time you look out the
window and you see nothing underneath it and you keep saying, “There’s nothing underneath it must be
falling.” If every time you do that you’ll never come to a place of security in that plane. You
have to look at the fact that there’s nothing underneath there and yet there’s a new law of
aerodynamics that supersedes the law of gravity.

Now that’s what a Christian does who walks by faith. He sees that as there is a law of sin and
death so there is a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and that’s mentioned in Romans 8:22 if
you look at it, so a person who walks by faith looks straight at the facts but then he sees that
there is another law. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the
law of sin and death.” So you come in to the headache that you have with the flu. You don’t
pretend the headache isn’t there. You don’t keep saying, “Yes, yes, in Jesus I’m whole and well.
In Jesus I’m whole and well. I have no headache. I have no headache.”

You look at the headache but you look at it with faith and you say, “Father, this headache is part
of the disease, the lack of ease that has come upon the whole world because of our lack of trust in
you. There would be no germs in this world if we had not rebelled against you. There would have
been no dirt in this world if we had not reacted against you and run our lives independent for our
own sakes. Now Father, I know that these things have come as a result of that but I know too that
Jesus has borne that death that ought to have followed my sin. I know he has already borne the death
and borne all the disease that leads to that death. Now Father, I know that there’s no reason for
me to bear this death. There’s no reason for me to bear this disease because Jesus has borne it for
me.” And you begin to see the other law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That because Jesus

has died in your place the Father is making available to you all the power of the Holy Spirit that
was available in the Garden of Eden and that new law is beginning to operate and is beginning to
work in your life.

Now you can see it, you know, in Isaiah 53, the translation we don’t often look at it but it’s in
the footnote there in the RSV. Isaiah 53:4, see how it reads, “Surely he has borne our griefs,” and
than do you see the X index there at griefs and look down to the translation of the Hebrew, “Or
sicknesses.” “Surely he has borne our griefs or our sicknesses.” And then the next line, “And
carried our sorrows.” And there’s a Y index there, do you see down in the footnotes, “Or pains.”
And, “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” And that is the deeper reality
that the Christian sees. He looks at the facts as they are but he looks at a stronger set of facts
that are true in Jesus. He does not keep his eyes blind to the facts that are here in the world, he
looks at them strongly but he looks at them with faith and he sees a stronger set of facts that are
present.

Now there’s an illustration of it in the Old Testament if you look at it, 2 Kings 6:15-17. Elisha
was the prophet and then this was the servant that God is talking about in 2 Kings 6:15, “When the
servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and
chariots was round about the city.” Now those were the facts that he could see in front of his
eyes. “And the servant said, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’” And then Elisha said, “He
said, ‘Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha
prayed, and said, ‘O Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round
about Elisha.”

Now walking by faith means seeing the facts as they are before us but seeing the other set of facts
that is able to reverse those facts. So a Christian who walks by faith doesn’t walk blind to facts,
but he sees a stronger set of facts that have already been made real in Jesus. Now brothers and
sisters, do you see that faith is no self-deception. It’s not looking away from difficulties. It’s
not looking away from the business that is failing, it’s not looking away from the bank account that
is low, it’s not looking away and pretending that the studies aren’t behind, it’s looking at those
but looking at them with faith. Seeing the age of Sarah’s body, seeing how old your own body is and
realizing, “Boy, this is going to take quite a miracle.” But seeing it in that light and do you
see, that doesn’t steal glory from God. The other steals glory from God.

If you can persuade yourself, “This isn’t really as bad as it appears. If I keep my eyes off it I
won’t really be aware of it.” Like a little fella who closes his eyes and says, “All I can see is
darkness there’s nobody here. There aren’t 600 people here. I can see nothing.” And that’s what
many of us are like in trying to exercise faith. But real faith sees the facts as they are, sees
that they are reality of a kind that have resulted from believing the lie that Satan is in charge of
the world and God is not. But then we see a higher set of facts, that in Jesus God has already
exercised the penalty of death against us all and he doesn’t need to do it all over again and his
only desire for us is perfect health, all the money we need, all the health we need, all the things
that he really believes we need.

Now there’s only one thing that’s important to add to that; in God’s time, in God’s time. Do you
see that? In God’s time, if you’re trying to walk free of that flu and the old headache is blasting
in there and you’ve gone through all the Excedrin and all the Distrin and the headache is still
there, and you’re walking, walking, believing that Jesus has borne this sickness for you, you ought

to hold to that but you ought to say, “Father, when it is your time to remove these symptoms I’ll
accept that. I’ll accept your removal of the symptoms when you please. But I thank you that in
Jesus this has already happened.”

But you don’t keep pretending you see that the headache isn’t there. Somebody says to you, “You
have a headache?” You don’t say, “No, no, I have no headache.” And they say, “Your nose is
running?” And you don’t throw away the box of Kleenex you see. No, no, you say, “You’re dead
right, it’s right there. But I know that the real fact is that this has been borne by Jesus on
Calvary and that in God’s good time he will lift these symptoms from me when he pleases.” And it’s
that way dear ones, with the studies, and with the bank account, and with the jobs, and the
businesses, and the home situations, and the family situations. You don’t look away from reality,
you look at them straight in the face but you look with faith as Abraham did.

With faith he considered his own body and Sarah’s body, both of them as good as dead and yet he
looked at them with faith knowing that God had promised that all that he needed would be given to
him and so he continued to trust that. So you know, when the old chariots are gathered round you,
then you have to look at the horses and chariots of fire that are gathered round you in spiritual
forces and believe those, and believe that set of facts over against the others.

So Christians are people who look at the facts but look at the stronger set of the facts that are in
Jesus. So I know it’s all tricky and difficult but I really pray that the Holy Spirit will lead
some of you into walking that way because it is possible brothers and sisters to change the world by
faith, really. And to change your personal world, and your family world, and your academic world,
and your social world by sheer faith, just by believing this set of facts that God has revealed to
us in Jesus. And it is possible for changes to come about.

So I said this one Sunday before and one brother came up afterwards and said, “You know, a week ago
I really did change my way and I saw changes coming about in my own life.” And so would you take
something in your own life, something that isn’t right, that isn’t the way God wants it and would
you begin to exercise faith about it? Don’t pretend it isn’t there say, “It’s there, right there.
I can feel the effects of it.” But take a position of faith that God has reconciled all things to
himself and therefore has reconciled that thing to himself. And therefore, as far as he is
concerned, that thing is already solved, and begin to thank him that he is now working on lifting
the symptoms off.

Would you begin to do that? I wish you would in the dormitories. Those of you who are really
struggling it out with some roommate, it really would be a lot better if you’d begin to believe that
roommate under the control of God’s Spirit instead of fighting them all the time, and really, in
regard to your material wellbeing for the summer time. If you’d take a stand in regard to it, say
it’s there, “Lord, you can look at the bank account there’s nothing in it that’s plain. I see that.
But Father, I know that you have different set of facts and that I am in Jesus, and that everything
is available to me in him.” And begin to believe that and I pray that he’ll give you the grace. I
know it’s rough at the beginning but really if you take even a little step on it, then the next step
is easy.

Let us pray. Dear Father, we thank you that only your Holy Spirit can make real to us what walking
by faith is. But we would trust you now, this morning, to bring before us something in our own
lives that we need to look at straight and plain and stop pretending it isn’t there. And we need to
see that it is real and that Satan’s lie has worked a real result in this world. But Father, we

know that all of this has been reversed in Jesus, that Satan’s whole claim to us is that you have to
destroy those who have sinned and we know our Father, that Jesus has died for us and you don’t need
to destroy us anymore and so Satan’s claim has been nailed to the cross.

The legal bond that stood against us has been destroyed and we know our Father that you’re our
loving Father. That you have nothing against us now because of Jesus and you will give us whatever
we need and we can trust you absolutely not only to fly this machine but to guide every part of our
lives. And so Father, we look to you now and we trust you to begin to work in these very real
difficulties that we see in our lives. And we trust you now our Father, to reveal the complete
reversal of them that you have already worked in Jesus in the eternal realm and make that real here
now so that we can see it too. And we will trust you Father, for your time.

We now just take an invisible stand against these things and trust you now Father to reconcile
everything to yourself in a way that people will be able to see it so that you will be glorified in
our lives and your power will be made clear to those who don’t believe in it. We ask this in Jesus’
name. Amen.

Walking by Faith 2

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

We’ve been studying the kind of life that pleases God and we’ve seen that it’s a life of trust —
just trusting God as our loving Father instead of looking at him as an alienated offended deity, and
just living in trust and living in faith that he would provide the things that are needed in our
life. We’ve begun to see that that’s what pleases him — that faith in him is what pleases him.
That’s what makes us right with God.

It’s been a great relief to a lot of us who have been brought up in very strong legalistic
backgrounds, or have been brought up in church backgrounds where we were convinced that we had to
please everybody — the pastor, the parents, the professors, all our peers, all our friends, and we
had to live up to the very best standards that we knew — before God would ever dream of dealing
with us at all. Of course we had enough trouble getting everybody else to accept us without ever
trying to get as far as God. It was a great relief to many of us when we discovered that if we just
trusted God as our loving Father, as someone who because of Jesus forgave us everything that we’d
done against him because of Jesus, then he would regard that trust or that faith as rightness, and
he’d just make us right with himself.

So we’ve been talking about this life of faith, because we’ve seen that it’s not just something that
you do on an evening in a certain evangelistic meeting. You don’t just say, “I trust you God to
forgive me my sins because of Jesus’ death.” It’s a continual life of trust. And it’s living
day-by-day trusting God that keeps you right with him.

We found that many of us have troubles — even after we’ve made our first arrangement with God —
many of us have troubles because we don’t continue to walk in trust and faith. That’s why at times
we have doubts about our rightness with God.

So that’s really the heart of it. If there’s somebody here this morning who doesn’t know anything
really about Christianity from the inside, that’s the heart of Christianity — that you don’t try to
beat yourself to death living up to God’s standards, but you trust that because of Jesus’ death for
your breaking of the standards, God accepts you as his own child, treats you as if you had never
broken a standard before.

Then, of course, he gives you the life of his Holy Spirit and his Holy Spirit begins to enable you
to live way beyond the standards, to live a life that is like Jesus’ life. That’s really the heart
of Christianity. It would be good if you haven’t met it before, if you’d just think about that.

It’s not standards. It’s trusting that Jesus has made things right with God by his death so that
God has nothing against you this morning. God has nothing against you. You may think he has, but
God has no reason to reject you this morning because Jesus has died for you. He has been rejected
in your place. So God is open, wide open, to receive you as his own child this morning. Of course
immediately when you believe that and begin to trust that God is like that to you, then God regards
that as righteousness, and treats you as being right with himself. Then you walk in that
day-by-day.

What we’ve been talking about is the walk. Maybe you would look at the verse that we’ll study today
so that we could all start on the same verse. This verse shows another factor in living in trust of

God as our loving Father. Romans 4:20: “No distrust made him waver.”

That’s Abraham, you remember. Abraham was pretty old — 100 years of age. God said, “You’re going
to have a son.” That required a miracle. So this is what God is talking about here. “No distrust
made him,” Abraham, “waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave
glory to God.” It’s important to see that walking, living, and trusting God day-by-day is not only
having faith in him that the thing has already been done — rather than hope that it’s going to be
done. It’s not only a freedom from the power of positive thinking, a really looking at the facts —
but it is also being prepared to walk in faith. So you pray a prayer, and then you walk in faith
that that prayer is being answered. That for many of us is where we really do not do what the
Father wants us to. We exercise an act of faith at some moment, but then on the long haul we’re not
too good. We don’t keep walking in faith.

Now maybe it’s good to see in the historical facts about Abraham’s case that he had to do that.
Let’s look at Genesis 12:1-4 where the original promise was given to him. It’s Genesis 12:1-4. At
that time Abraham was 75 years of age. This was when the original promise was given.

Genesis 12:1: “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s
house to the land that I will show you.’” Here’s the promise: “’And I will make of you a great
nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the
earth shall bless themselves.’ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

Now that was the original promise. He was 75 years of age.

Now, look at Genesis 17:1-2: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old” — that is, 24 years later —
“the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.
And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.’” It was when
Abraham was almost 100 years of age that he had his son. Do you see that he was required to walk
trusting God over a period of 24 years?

God understood Abraham’s mistake, when Sarah suggested that he should go into Hagar their maid and
try to have a baby that way. God understands when Abraham thinks that that is the way God is going
to fulfill his promise. God understands mistakes during that time, but God does not accept a
wavering of faith during that time. So I think what we need to see is that God expects us to walk
in absolute faith from the very time the promise is given to the time when he fulfills it — be that
30 years hence or 40 years hence.

George Mueller was the man that God used to build orphanages for thousands of children in England
just by prayer alone. Mueller was a massive prayer warrior for God. Yet he prayed for one man for
50 years and that man was converted the same day that Mueller died. He prayed for another man for
30 years and that man was converted two years after Muller died.

Do you see that walking in faith means that you keep on believing without any wavering? God is
concerned that we look at him during that time, that we do not look down and begin to collect
information from Gallup Polls, or begin to calculate the degree of probability of the miracle —
because if Abraham had done that he’d have been lost.

A woman is pretty good, isn’t she, if she has a baby at 50 years of age? That’s very good. When
Abraham first received the promise old Sarah was 66. That would have been quite a miracle! But
then when you get 24 years later and Sarah is about 90 years of age. Well, that’s a big miracle to
have a baby at 90. So Abraham couldn’t afford to go round and take Gallup Polls about when Hebrew
mothers were able to have children. Nor could he say, “Well now, it’s possible at 50, maybe at 66,
but 90? Impossible.” He couldn’t afford to calculate the degrees of probability of the miracle.
God wants us to walk in absolute faith.

That’s what that verse means, if you look back to Romans 4:20. The Greek, “ou diekrithae,” really
says, “He did not decide against the promise of God.” But the RSV translates it, “No distrust made
him waver concerning the promise of God.” The King James Version says, “He staggered not at the
promise of God.”

Walking in faith means walking in something absolute — because it is faith in an absolute person.
God does not make a promise on the condition that the woman is only 66: “66 — I can do it. 90 —
impossible.” God does not make the promise on the basis of the human possibilities. He makes the
promise absolute and he expects us to walk in unwavering, unstaggering faith.

I don’t know if you’ve seen “Fiddler on the Roof.” Some of you may have, or you may have listened
to the songs. Tevye is the leading character, and he at last gets an offer for his eldest daughter.
You remember, the old butcher wants to marry his daughter. Then Tevye sings a song.

Then he says, “It’s a good match for her. On the other hand, he’s very, very old. On the other
hand, he’s very, very rich. On the other hand, I want my daughter to be happy. On the other hand
she’ll maybe be happiest with somebody who can provide for her in the future. On the other hand,
maybe there are better suitors. On the other hand, no suitor has come forward until the butcher
came.” Now, there are no “on the other hands” with unwavering faith.

When you walk in faith that God is going to do something, you walk in faith that the absolute God is
going to perform what he said. You don’t have “on the other hand.” You don’t say, “On the other
hand, she’s 66. On the other hand, she’s 90. On the other hand, the conditions are difficult.”
When you walk in unwavering faith you walk in absolute faith that God is going to answer.

Now if you waver, or you have “on the other hands” like Tevye, then you may be walking in prudence,
you may be walking in hope, you may be walking in subtle human calculations — but you’re not
walking in faith. Faith is an absolute assurance that God is going to do the thing.

Now here’s where it applies. Some of us, in regard to our careers, see the promise that God has
given in Matthew 25:23. I think this verse is the real guidance for us in regard to our careers.
Sooner or later, after we’ve made all our mistakes we eventually come to this principle. Matthew
25:23: “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a
little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’”

Most of us eventually come to that point in our lives where we see, “That’s how God’s going to guide
us in our careers. He’s going to ask us to be faithful in what he’s given us to do. We’re faithful
in our studying today — he’ll take care of tomorrow. We’re faithful in the little miserly job he’s
given us today — he will make us master over many things tomorrow.”

And we set our minds to walk in that faith. We walk in that faith until our peers begin to buy big

cars. Then a friend that we had in school comes and tells us of the thousands that he’s making and
the great position he has in the firm. Then we come to be 26 or 27 years old, and we begin to
wonder, “Well, is God going to come through? Well, I ought to keep being faithful in what I’m
doing. I’m sure he’ll come through.”

Then we come to be 30 years old, and we begin to see our peers getting married, and having children,
and having lovely homes, and we begin to wonder. Then we come to 35 and still it doesn’t seem
anything has happened.

That’s where we need to walk in faith. Why? Because if you set a deadline for God, God will always
meet that deadline an hour later. That’s right. If you set 26, God will set 27. If you set 35,
he’ll set 36. God’s last minute is always a full 60 seconds after your last moment — at least 60
seconds. So walking in faith means walking without deadlines. It means walking in absolute faith
that God is going to come through in his time and in his way. But it means not wavering in the
least.

Now that’s the kind of faith that God wants to work in us, because that’s the kind of faith that
gets you out on God alone. You’re way out on a limb there with God only, with only his
trustworthiness and only his promise to lean on. Now that’s where God wants us.

God knows us well. We’ll go out on a limb, out that far, as long as I can have this leg back here.
I’ll get out a wee bit on that limb and say, “Yeah Lord, I’m really on that limb. Look! Half my
weight is on it.” That’s as far as we’ll go. God wants to get us way out there where we have no
foot on the ground at all, and we’re way out there on a limb walking on the water. So God always
will draw us out in that direction.

He will. He will let days pass, and months pass, and years pass until he is absolutely certain that
we have an unwavering trust in him only — not in the appearance of the circumstances.

You can see that in Moses’ life if you look at Exodus 3:10. God is gracious. He takes us out on a
little limb first and lets us feel what that’s like. God made this promise to Moses: “’Come, I will
send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.’”

Now of course, old Moses protested, saying, “I have a stammer and all kinds of things. I can’t
speak. They won’t listen to me.” You remember God met all those excuses. Eventually Moses went
out on the limb and spoke to Pharaoh on behalf of God’s people.

You can see the result in Exodus 5:20-21. This was after the Egyptians took the straw away for
making bricks from the Hebrews: “They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came
forth from Pharaoh; and they said to them, ‘The LORD look upon you and judge, because you have made
us offensive in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill
us.’” And Moses took a little move out on a limb: “Alright Lord. I’ll lead your people out of
Egypt.”

He makes the first move and the people come and say, “You have made the thing worse than before.”
Then the whole tendency is to think, “Well, maybe I shouldn’t trust God any further.”

Then God takes him a little further out in Exodus 14:10-13. At last God gets them out of Egypt:
“When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were

marching after them; and they were in great fear. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD;
and they said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to
die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we
said to you in Egypt, “Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better
for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’”

Moses finds himself with hordes of men, women, children, and cattle behind him way out on this limb
now, and here are all the Egyptians coming after him. Again and again, God gets you out onto a
limb. Now Moses finds, “There is no going back. I have this crowd behind me. When it was just my
wife and me — well, I could get myself out of it. But this lot behind me and the sea in front of
me! Now I’m absolutely dependent on the Father.” And it kept going like that.

In Exodus 15:22 it just intensifies. At last God guides them through the sea and out into the
wilderness. The same deal again: “Then Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went
into the wilderness of Shur; they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they
came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named
Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’”

It was the same thing again and again. Moses went out on a little limb for the sake of God and his
people and God kept pushing him out further, and further, and further — again and again driving him
into an absolute dependence on God’s trustworthiness. That’s it. I think some of us fail to walk
in faith because we think after we’ve taken one step that’s as much as God requires. It isn’t. God
requires you to get out on that limb and keep walking there — keep walking.

It’s a wee bit like John Bunyan. They were after him and determined to kill him. He said, “If God
does not intervene I will leap into eternity by blind faith come heaven come hell.” That’s the kind
of unwavering faith that God asks us to have. It’s absolute faith in an absolute God. That’s the
kind of faith that pleases our Father.

It’s the same deal that comes up everywhere. Our society is ridiculous and has made you feel you’re
an old maid if you get to 26 and you’re not married. It’s just ridiculous. It’s not the Father’s
will at all. Instead, you commit the marriage area into the Father’s hands and you say, “Father,
you will find a person for me if you want me to have a person. If you don’t want me to have a
husband or a wife, then I know you’ll give me the gift of celibacy — so that it will be as much an
adornment to me as someone else’s partner is to you.”

We walk in that — we can walk into it up to age 20 without too much trouble. Then 21 comes, and
some of them get the keys to the houses and then some of them marry. Then you’re a bridesmaid, or
you’re a best man. Then you become 23, 25, and 26. Then old Satan gets in and begins to question
— and the faith begins to waver.

Do you see that it’s believing God right up to 75? It’s believing God the whole way. It’s walking
in faith. It’s not just one little step, but it’s walking in faith. I walk believing in God the
whole way. I keep going and that’s the Father’s will. That’s the kind of trust and the kind of
faith that not only God answers, but that makes us pleasing to him, because he will come through.

God is not going to destroy his own character just to have the pleasure of letting you down. He
won’t. He just will not malign or contradict his own nature just to let you down — the first
person he ever let down in the whole of the history of the world. He just won’t do it.

God is faithful — but he is faithful to those who walk in unwavering trust — whose faith does not
stagger, whose faith sets itself on the promises of God and gives glory to God that he’s going to do
the thing — that he has done it already, and that it’s all settled.

Now loved ones, do you see it — that it’s that kind of faith that’s needed to get us into China and
Russia? Do you see that? It’s that kind of faith that’s needed to blast us out of our miserable
little self-centered Christianity. Some of us need to begin exercising that faith.

It’s wise to start now where he has given you to start. Don’t look and say, “Oh well, if I had
something great like that to believe him for!” Well, believe him for the assignment that’s to be in
on Tuesday or Wednesday. Believe him for the money that has to be in the bank by next Friday.
Begin to walk in unwavering trust and let God make you right with himself. Then, if you are
faithful in little things, he will make you master over greater things.

So I trust this coming week that you’ll do it. It’s something very practical. You get a hold of
something on the Father’s behalf, you hold on to it, and you don’t waver. You don’t waver. If
you’re 75 and unmarried I’ll keep you company. But do you see, it’s confidence that the Father will
provide? It’s confidence that the Father has a better answer than our answer. It’s a willingness
to take his answer and to take it in his time and not to set him deadlines.

Then there comes a real relaxation, a real ease, and most of all a real heavy leaning on God and on
his trustworthiness. That’s the only safe place after all. He’s only to move his little finger and
this whole place falls apart — isn’t that right? The whole earth falls out of its orbit if God
just makes a little adjustment in the center of gravity there. The whole thing falls out of orbit.
So really, we’re dependent on him anyway. So why not just acknowledge it and give him the joy of
being our Father?

Let us pray.

Created or Uncreated Life 1

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

It’s good to step back from time-to-time from the normal Sunday pattern and just see what it’s all
in aid of. So it’s good to step back and ask yourself really — why are you alive and why am I
alive? Have you answered that — why are you alive really?

I think a lot of us in these days have been taught to answer, “Oh well, I’m alive to live the best
life I can. That’s why I’m alive.” Or, “I’m alive to do the most good I can in this world.” Or,
some of us say or we’re taught to say, “I’m alive to leave the world a better place than I found
it.” Do you see that all those variations on “good, better, and best” come from one place that God
told us we shouldn’t eat? You can see it if you look at Genesis 2:17.

Genesis 2:17: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat of it you shall die.” That’s the very thing God told us not to be preoccupied with —
what was good and what was evil. Yet we’re so saturated with that whole attitude that we ought to
be good and we ought to avoid evil — that we tend to explain the purpose of our own lives in terms
of doing good, or living by the golden rule, or leaving the world a better place than we found it.

Of course, it brings us into a terrible slavery, into trying to live up to the good that we think we
ought to live up to. That is what men first thought in the very beginning: all they needed was a
knowledge of good and evil and that would take care of everything. So you and I have been
preoccupied with our understanding of good and evil for generations. Of course, it has done us no
good because we haven’t been able to do good and avoid evil.

But why are you alive? God told us it all very plainly in this book {pointing to a Bible}. It’s in
1 John 1:3: “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.” Then here’s the reason
we’re alive: “so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and
with his Son Jesus Christ.” Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And
that’s the reason God made you.

God didn’t make you to be a great doctor, or a great teacher. He didn’t make you to leave the world
a better place than you found it. He didn’t make you primarily to minister Jesus’ life to other
people. He made you to have fellowship with himself and with his Son. That’s it.

God didn’t make you so you could be saved, or have your sins forgiven. God didn’t plan the whole
business of hell just so he could save you from it. God didn’t make you even to take part in a
Christian Corps, or to be part of a Campus Church, or to be part of some other church. God didn’t
make you just to be a good Christian. God made you because he wanted your company.

Do you see that that’s really true? That God made you because he wants your company. Now it’s
nothing less than that. A lot of you are sitting there and saying, “Oh yeah. Well, okay. Big
deal. It sounds like a good theological fact, to base a doctrine on. But do you really think God
wants my company?” Loved ones, that’s it. God made you because he wants your company. He loves
you. He treasures you a lot. He thinks a lot of you. He wants you.

It’s no use you saying, “Oh yeah. You mean he wants all of us to sort of sing hymns to him in great
congregations with angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven?”

God wants you. If you had been the only person that he ever created, this is why he created you. He
loves you personally. He knows your name. He has the hairs of your head numbered. He wants you
for his own friend. Now that’s why he made you.

Every other purpose in life is less than that. Okay — make the money if you want. Get the social
security if you want. Get other friends. Get good jobs. But do you see that all those have
nothing to do with the reason for which you were created? God made you because he wants your
company. Not because he needs you. Don’t get him wrong. Not because he needs you. God had plenty
of good company at the beginning.

You can see that if you look at Genesis 1:2: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was
upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.”

The Holy Spirit was with God at the beginning. God wasn’t lonely. He didn’t make us because he
needed us. God had the friendship of the Holy Spirit. And if you look at John 1 you can see
someone else who was there with the Father. John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” Now Jesus was with the
Father at the beginning.

In other words, the Father had a trinity family that was self-sufficient in itself. He didn’t need
other people to talk to. The trinity family was a loving group of three people who understood each
other completely and loved each other completely and accepted each other completely. It was a group
of three people in whom there was complete harmony, complete peace, and complete understanding.
They had complete fulfillment in themselves. The trinity family existed like that at the beginning
before the world ever was made.

Now why did God make us? Out of sheer love. They enjoyed each other so much that they wanted
others to share that love. The way a husband and wife often have such a great time together that
it’s just natural that children result from the union — children to enjoy and share the same kind
of love and the same kind of life.

That’s why God made us. God made you and me to enjoy the friendship of the trinity family. That’s
it. That’s the real reason for our existence. Everything that happens here in this world is to
bring us into that place.

That’s why in Genesis, obviously God is talking to someone else when he says this. Genesis 1:26, at
the very beginning, he uses the plural, the first person plural when he says this: “Then God said,
‘Let us make man.’” “Let us.” So he said to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, “Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness.” God made us in his image because he wanted us to enjoy his company and
he wanted to enjoy our company.

I’ve often mentioned this miserable little dog that we have to you, but he’s a dear little soul.
But you’re very limited as to the amount of fellowship you can have with him. I mean, I can chase
him around the garden and he understands that. Then he can chase me.

But it’s hard to go too much deeper than that with a dog. And in order to have any kind of
fellowship with a person, that person must have the same faculties as you. My dog isn’t too good at
saying Amens or Hallelujahs — because he really doesn’t have the capacity for worship and he

doesn’t have a spirit. He just has a little bundle of instincts there in a body.

Now that’s why God decided to make us in his own image. Because he knew, “If I’m going to have any
kind of enjoyment from their company, or they’re going to in any way enjoy my company, we must have
the same faculties.” That’s why you read the way God made us, if you look just over the page there
at Genesis 2:7: “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground.” That is, a body. He gave
us a body, a physical body. The Son, Father and Holy Spirit have spiritual bodies.

“And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” He put in a capacity for spirit inside us.
There’s a spiritual part of us that is inside us.

“And man became a living being.” The Hebrew word is “nephesh” — a living soul. So as God breathed
in the spiritual capacity to us into the physical bodies, the result was a soul. That is, mind,
emotions, and a will — the psychological part of us.

So God made us really in a kind of trinity like himself. He gave us a body, he gave us a soul, or
mind and emotions, and he gave us a spirit. He made us in three parts like himself so that we could
enjoy and understand the kinds of things he enjoys. He understands things with his mind — he
wanted us to be able to understand what he was thinking. He senses things with his Spirit — he
wanted us to be able to sense things with our spirit. He does things in his spiritual body — he
wanted us to be able to do things in our bodies. That was why God made us in his own image.

Now you can see that there’s a flaw in that somewhere really. Because if I take one fellow from the
front row and a girl from the back row and I say, “Okay, you both have minds, and souls, and
emotions, and wills, and bodies. You’re both exactly right for each other. I pronounce you man and
wife.”

There’d be somewhat of a tremble and uncertainty in the whole deal. They probably wouldn’t come
back again. It’s not enough that you have the same faculties. That doesn’t make you fit for each
other’s company. It doesn’t make you able to bear each other’s company. It doesn’t make you able
to enjoy each other’s company. So it was with God. God gave us the faculties to be like himself.
But in order to be really like him we had to use our free wills.

God then made us more like himself in that he gave us free wills, and he said, “Now you’re not
really like me. You look like me. You have the same capacities as I have. But if you want to be
really part of my family, you must become like me by choice.”

Now do you see that? He did not make us all like himself in that he made us all with patience; that
he made us all with love; that he made us all perfectly like Jesus — because you can see what he
would have had — a bundle of robots who could not be unlike him — because they weren’t able to be
unlike him.

But God didn’t do that. He made us with capacities to become like him, and then he gave us free
wills, and he said, “Now, to become like me in quality, you must choose something for yourself.” He
gave us free will.

That explains the rather tricky problem that you get there in Genesis 2:7-9. I’ll just read the
whole three verses. “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in

Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God
made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in
the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Why put a tree of life in when he’d already breathed life into our nostrils? And do you see that
that explains it? When you go into the Hebrew it’s even clearer, because the Hebrew really reads:
“And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of ‘chayeem.’” Chayeem in Hebrew is the plural of
the word life and it means, “God breathed into our nostrils the breath of lives.” Mental life,
emotional life, intellectual life, physical life — but another kind of life: he asked us to choose
it for ourselves freely. That kind of life was the life that was available on the tree of life.

In other words, God said, “Okay, I give you created life. I give every one of you created life.
You all have mental life. You all have physical life. You all have emotional life. But that
doesn’t make you like us in the trinity family. It gives you the same capacities as we have. But
the uncreated spiritual life that will transmit to you my own genes and will make you like myself —
that you must choose for yourselves.”

That’s what God did at the very beginning. He made us with capacities to be like him. But the
actual essence of spiritual uncreated life that would enable us to be born into the trinity family
— that he made available to us. We had to choose it for ourselves.

In other words, God’s plan was that we should always need to be born again. A lot of us have used
that phrase so much that we tie it up with sin, and forgiveness, and salvation. Do you see it was
always God’s plan from even before men fell out of his fellowship that we would be born again?
Because God new that the only kind of life that we had when he made us was created, physical,
mental, intellectual life. He himself said through Paul, “This I tell you: flesh and blood will not
inherit the kingdom of God.”

Jesus would again point out, “Look, that life that you have is only created life. That’s why God
brought the great flood over the world. He was saying to men, ‘Look, that’s only created life that
you have. It’s not uncreated spiritual life. It’s only created life. It will not last beyond 70
years.’”

But of course, Satan kept trying to persuade man. You can see it there in Genesis 3:4: “But the
serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die.’” Satan came and suggested, “Listen, that life that
you’ve got is all you need. That physical, mental, intellectual, emotional life that you have —
that’s all you need to have a successful life in this world. You won’t die. Don’t believe God.
That stuff will go on forever and ever.”

Do you see that a lot of our attitude in our lives is built on that? We’re determined to kind of
prove to ourselves, “No, we won’t die. We won’t die. This created life is enough.”

You might disagree on this, but I think there’s nothing so ridiculous as the way we apply cosmetics
to a dear person who has just died. No, there is something so wrong about it. There is something
so wrong about how we’re trying to remember him as he was. Really in our own hearts we don’t want
to accept death.

We don’t want to face death and we’re continually saying, “No, no, he’s not really dead. He’s not
really dead.” You’ll go to a funeral. They’ll talk about anything but the person who has died.

They’ll talk about the Twins’ baseball games. They’ll talk about the summer and the weather.
They’ll talk about the poor spring.

They’ll talk about their jobs. They’ll check up on all their relatives and find out how everybody
is doing. But they won’t talk about the dear one who is lying in the casket.

Do you see? All along Satan has been involved in trying to persuade us all, “Look, this life is
enough. This life is enough.” God has all along been saying, “Look! The flood — it proves this
life isn’t enough. I wiped everybody out except Noah.” And God continually brought great judgments
on mankind.

He brought the judgment of the Tower of Babel. He brought the exile to the Israelites. He brought
persecution to the Christians continually to bring home to them, “Look, that life that you have is
only created life. It’s not uncreated spiritual life.” There is only one person who has only
begotten life — and that is Jesus. He’s the only person who has this uncreated, spiritual, only
begotten life that lasts forever. He was really the tree of life.

That’s why when he came he made not such a big deal of just sins and salvation, but he continually
said, “I’m come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” He said, “He
that has the Son has life,” and he was talking about this spiritual uncreated life of God. We call
it in these days: the life of the Holy Spirit. And when your life is not going right it’s because
of a lack of uncreated spiritual life.

You can see why it’s so stupid to fight each other over, “Well, I’m a good Christian,” or, “I’m not
a good Christian,” or, “I’m a good atheist,” or, “I’m not a good atheist,” or, “I’m a good
agnostic,” or, “I’m a good humanist.”

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a good Baptist, or a bad Lutheran, a good Methodist, or a bad
Salvation Army Member. It doesn’t matter what you are. The thing is that all of us need that only
begotten, uncreated, spiritual life. Otherwise — we die out after 70 years.

You can look at it — just count the wrinkles. Count the gray hairs and you’ll see, “You’re right.
This created life is not increasing too much. It’s not really improving me.” You can check it
another way. There are real marks of that created life. The marks of that created life you can
find there in Galatians 5:19. It actually does tie it up with the fact that it is just physical
created life.

Galatians 5:19, “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Because they’re not being good enough? No — because all they have is created life.

They have not the only begotten, uncreated, spiritual life that comes through the Holy Spirit. And
what are the marks of it? You can see them there in Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit,”
— and the Spirit is the one that brings the life — “is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.” That’s the kind of
life that is produced by this uncreated spiritual life.

There’s a lot more to share about it and I’ll try to share it these coming Sundays. But first of
all I’d ask you: would you face that issue? Don’t face the issue of becoming a Christian. That’s
silly. Don’t start fiddling around with whether you’re a Christian, or whether you’re a Baptist, or
whether you’re a Presbyterian, or whether you believe this doctrine, or whether you believe that
doctrine, or whether you’re a Jew.

The issue is –have you received the uncreated spiritual life from God? That is the only thing that
will make us fit to take part in the fellowship of his trinity family. That’s the real issue.

It’s not what name you go by. It’s not what denomination you belong to. It’s not even how you
believe. But it’s: have you received this spiritual uncreated life of the Holy Spirit — so that
you will never die, and so that you will be fit to take part in the trinity family? That’s really
God’s purpose for us.

So will you begin to think about that? Because the time is gone this morning, and we’ll need to
continue it the next few Sundays. But will you begin to think, “Okay, have I the marks of this
uncreated spiritual life in me? Or have I only physical created life? Am I living under Satan’s
lie?” I’ll try to talk a little more about his lies and his whole approach to us in detail in these
next weeks. But would you begin to think about it anyway? Just consider it — and the Bible makes
a lot more sense when you read it in the light of this. Let us pray.

Father, we can feel these hands and this body, and we know fine well that it doesn’t look as if it’s
going to last forever. And Father, we have sensed a lack of something inside ourselves. So Father,
if it is a lack of this uncreated spiritual life that was your plan for us right from the beginning
of the world, will you convince us that that is the situation in our life? And will you enable us
to go more and more to the source of this only begotten life –the only one who possesses it — even
to your Son Jesus?

Father, we trust you to lead each one of us this coming week to be clearer about our own lack or our
own possession of this life that enables us to live forever, and to become part of your trinity
family, and fulfill the purpose for which we were made — to have company and friendship with the
great Creator of the Universe.

Father, we thank you for such a privilege. We want to be fit for that. We know we cannot be on our
own. So we trust you to lead us into this, for your glory, and for reality and meaning in our
lives. Amen.

Created or Uncreated Life 2

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Something that has taught a lot of us during these years that we’ve been together has been the
reason why we were alive at all. That really was a great deliverance for many of us — that we
weren’t alive just to make money, in order to have children, so that they could get a good
education, so that they could make money, and they could have children, and they could get a good
education, and they could make money, and they could have children, and on, and on forever. It was
difficult in our society to escape from that viscous circle. So it was really a great deliverance
when we discovered that God had really made us because he wanted our company.

It delivered a lot of us from an old inferiority complex, because a lot of us felt that we were no
use at all to anybody and that nobody would ever want us because of our looks, or because of our
lack of ability, or because of our appearance, or because of the way we talked. It was just a great
deliverance when we realized that the Creator of the whole universe had made us just for one big
reason — and that was so that he could enjoy our company and our friendship.

Many of us really have become utterly convinced that that is true. We see it there in 1 John 1:3.
God just says it so plainly: “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.” Why? “So
that you may have fellowship with us.” What’s your fellowship about? “And our fellowship is with
the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

In other words, we were really made to have fellowship with God and to have fellowship with his Son
Jesus. Two Sundays ago we talked about the trinity family. We said that God didn’t make us because
he was lonely. He didn’t make us because he was in trouble for friends. God already had Jesus with
him and the Holy Spirit. Most of us know the verses: “In the beginning was the word, and the word
was with God.” And we know that Jesus was with God at the beginning. You only have to go to the
second verse of Genesis and you find that the Holy Spirit brooded upon the face of the waters.

So God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were already a trinity family of love before we ever entered
into the picture. But it was because they enjoyed the love and the life that they had with each
other so much that they made us so that we would enjoy it too. That’s why we were made.

As for all the other things — I’m with you — we have to make our living. We can’t live off
society. We have to make our way in life. But all that is subservient to the main purpose that God
created us for — to be with him and his trinity family forever.

I’d risk saying it again: you are an end in yourself. Do you see that? For God you are an end in
yourself. For God you aren’t a bread earner. You aren’t a provider for the family. For God you
aren’t somebody to keep him company. For God, you aren’t somebody who fulfills some ulterior
motive.

For God, you are an end in yourself. Your Creator loves you for yourself. It doesn’t matter
whether anybody thinks you’re worthwhile. It doesn’t matter if the whole world tramples over you.
God sees you as an end in yourself and that’s why he made you.

We discovered that God made us in a certain way because he wanted us for that purpose. He wanted
people who would be able to share with him the things that he was interested in. For that reason he

made us like himself.

He was a trinity, a Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit, and he made us a trinity. He gave us this body
here with these hands, and he has a spiritual body. He gave us a soul inside with mind, emotions,
and a will — the same as he has mind, emotions, and a will. And he gave us a spirit inside. You
remember that he made us look like himself. He made us with a capacity to be exactly like him —
except for one big thing that he didn’t give us. He didn’t give us exactly the kind of life that
runs through him, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

He gave us created life. He made us with a body that will last 70 years, or 80 if you look after
it, and maybe 90, but not much more. He gave us mind, emotions, and a will that will only last so
long.

But he also put inside us a spirit that is capable of receiving the special life that he shares with
the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now that life is different from the life he has given unconditionally
to all people. So everybody that lives in the world has created life. Everybody has a life that
will last 70 years and go out like that. {He snaps his fingers.} Every one of us has this kind of
life. But there’s a special life that enables us to be like God himself that he simply made
available to us but that we have to choose for ourselves.

Now why did he do that? So that we’d have to use our free wills. So that we’d have to opt in to
the trinity family. How many of us at times have said, “Oh, I had no control over my birth. I
couldn’t help being born in the family I was born in.” God didn’t want us ever to be able to say
that. He wanted us always to be able to say, “I chose to be born into this trinity family.” So we
were all created with just created life — and God made available this other life to us.

This is new to some of us, so maybe it would be good to look at it in the Bible itself. You see it
there in Genesis 2:7, — the created life. Genesis 2:7 is the record of God creating us and making
us with created life: “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground,” — physical body —
“and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;” — created life; the capacity of spirit — “and
man became a living being.” The Hebrew is “nephesh,” and it means “soul.” Man became a living
soul, as mind, emotions, and will were formed inside him.

Then it says in verse 9, “And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.” Now
that life was different from the life that he had made us with. Otherwise, there’s no sense in just
making available more and more created life to us. But this tree of life contained the supernatural
uncreated life that ran through God’s own veins. It was the Father’s desire that we would, by our
own free will, choose to receive that life. That life would come into us, would enable us to be
born again of his spirit, and enable us to be born into his family. In that way we’d become exactly
like the members of his family. Now that was God’s plan.

You know if you look at your sons and daughters, or if you look at your dads and mums, everybody has
the same bump on their nose. Everybody has the same kind of hair. The same kind of qualities that
your dad and mum have, you have to some extent. Really, the only way to be absolutely like another
person is to be born of the same father or the same mother. Now that was God’s plan for us. He
made us all with created life, with spirit, with mind, emotions, and a will, and a body. He also
made available the spirit of uncreated life to us, and he expected us to receive that life into
ourselves and to allow it to make us exactly like him.

You know the story. God presented it in the form of a tree to mankind in his childhood — because
mankind at that age would understand it better that way. I’m sure he would do it differently with
us today. Probably today he would just do what he did in the first century. He would let Jesus
walk among us, because the tree of life is really Jesus. And Jesus would walk among us with this
only begotten life inside him that contained the very genes of the Creator of the universe. We
would go to him and receive that life from him.

That’s why Jesus so often said, “I have come that you might have life. That’s the very reason I
came. I didn’t come here to show you how to live a good life. I know you can’t do it because you
have only created life. I came to give you uncreated life.”

You remember again and again God said, “He that has the Son has life.” It’s not such a big deal
that he has salvation, or that he has his sins forgiven, though that is great. But the big thing is
he has life. He has uncreated life that makes him like God the Creator and enables him to live
forever. That was the Father’s plan for us.

It was God’s will that man would work that way. It was God’s will that he would tell Adam in the
morning, “Adam, I want you to prune that tree,” and Adam would use his mind to decide, “Oh yeah, you
want me to prune it. Now, is this the way?” “Yeah, that’s the way.” “Okay.” So he’d prune the
tree.

Then God would say to Adam, “Alright, I want you to dam up that river there.” Adam would use his
mind and say, “Do you want me to dam it? Yeah, I’ll do it this way.” “Yeah, that’s right. Do it
that way.” And God would have absolute control of his universe through his children.

Then he would as a result make available the needs that his children had. He would make available
the physical supplies. He would say to Adam, “Okay Adam. That tree over there makes oranges. You
can get oranges for breakfast. Okay, now Adam, you can get more food over here.” And it was the
Father’s will that he would dominate and bring under submission to his will the whole universe
through his children, and in return he would let them know where they would fulfill their physical
needs. The children as a result would have found full enjoyment in using their faculties in this
way. They would get full satisfaction from bringing the world under submission to God’s will
according to God’s directions.

That was God’s plan. You know what happened. Man decided, “I’ll do it on my own. This created
life that I have is enough. I can get what I need using this created life. My arm is strong — I
can get food for myself in my own way. I don’t have to keep listening to this voice within me. I
can get enjoyment in my own way without him giving me enjoyment. I can decide what to do myself.
Okay, I’ll note he told me to prune that tree this time last year. Okay, I’ll decide when to prune
it myself.” That’s really the heart of what we call the fall of mankind.

It wasn’t that Adam and Eve were sexually promiscuous. It wasn’t that Adam and Eve did some sin —
got drunk or something like this. It was that Adam and Eve just decided to do without uncreated
life. That was it. They just decided to go it on their own, to live independent of God.

You see what resulted. Their lives began to be dominated by the needs that God would have fulfilled
for them. You can see it there in Genesis 3 why they went for knowledge at all — why they wanted
more knowledge. It wasn’t just to be able to bring the world under submission to God’s will. They

went to knowledge for one purpose — to fulfill their needs that they would have had fulfilled by
the Creator.

Genesis 3:6: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food.” Man began to realize that he
had to use his knowledge to get food, and his life began to be dominated by his physical needs. He
had to give all his time to getting food, shelter, and clothing.

Don’t you see that hundreds of us today are trying to get over the crest of the hill? Isn’t that
right? We’re always saying, “Ah, just one more week and I’ll be over the hill. Yeah. Just one
more deposit in the bank account and we’ll be over the crest of the hill. We’ll be able to forget
subsistence living.”

But it’s amazing how many of us in the richest country in the world are still preoccupied with going
for food, shelter, and clothing. It happens that way because we don’t have uncreated life. If the
Holy Spirit of uncreated life was flowing into us we would find that life would take on a right
balance, and God would begin to fulfill these things in us.

I don’t mean that we would live off society. God has taught us here in the body: if a person won’t
work let him not eat. But we do mean that if you receive the uncreated life of the Holy Spirit into
you, suddenly life begins to work smoothly and the right way. It’s not that life outside meets no
obstacles. But it’s that life inside suddenly begins to flow with a smoothness that is supernatural.

That was God’s plan — that we would receive that uncreated life of the Holy Spirit inside us and it
would make the mind, and emotions, and the will, and the body work in complete harmony. So your
life would begin to find its needs fulfilled.

You find the next reason: “And that it was a delight to the eyes.” From that moment on when man
decided to live with just created life, he began to be dominated by getting things that were a
delight to the eyes. He wanted to enjoy himself all the time. He lacked any emotional satisfaction
for his emotions. That’s what happens when you try to live life with simply created life. You
begin to be dominated by a desire to fulfill your physical needs, your emotional needs, and your
mental needs.

You see what happened to man’s mind: “And that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” It was
God’s desire that the Holy Spirit would flow through us and that the mind would be used to work out
his plans in deductive detail for the universe. Instead of that, man turned his mind round into
perversion, and he began to use his mind to get one up on everybody else. He lacked the approval of
God so he had to start using his mind to get everybody else’s approval. Isn’t it true that so often
our educational establishments are not involved much in a pursuit of truth?

You know that graduate schools and faculties are dominated by the old piece of advice: publish or
perish. You have to publish something new or you’ll perish. You’ll be off the faculty, or you’ll
lose any gain that you’ve made with your doctorate. It seems that the mind began to be perverted
after man refused the uncreated life of God and he began to use the mind not to discover truth, but
to get one up on everybody else.

And isn’t it true with ourselves? So often we use our shrewdness or our cleverness to get round
people, or to manipulate people, or to change circumstances so that they’ll go our way. That’s the

resulting situation that has come about by refusing God’s uncreated life.

Now do you see that the big thing Jesus came to give us was that uncreated life? That’s why Jesus
came to the world. He came not to die for our sins primarily. The only reason he died for our sins
was that God could not give his uncreated life to anyone that had sinned. So Jesus died for our
sins so that God would be free to give us this uncreated life. But the real reason Jesus came to
the world was to give us this uncreated life of the Holy Spirit that makes life run right. That’s
what Pentecost last Sunday was all about.

The life of the Holy Spirit is not all about tongues. Don’t you see that? It’s not all about
tongues, or about a whole lot of emotionalism. Sometimes it brings emotion. Sometimes the Holy
Spirit brings gifts. But the Holy Spirit is here to give us the uncreated life of God. That’s the
difference between Christianity and all the other religions. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ successor.
Jesus did not leave us alone.

That’s what he says plainly in John 16:7: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go,
I will send him to you.”

Now the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ successor. It’s as if Jesus made a will when he died leaving to us
all the power, and the life of God himself. But the Holy Spirit is the executor of that will, and
we cannot enter into any of the benefits of that will unless the Holy Spirit makes those benefits
real to us.

The Holy Spirit is Jesus’ successor. You can see the difficulty under which many of us who are
Christians have fallen. We have believed that Jesus died for our sins. We have really repented of
our sins and given our lives to Jesus. But we have thought that from this moment on we ought to try
to obey Jesus as best we can.

You cannot obey Jesus on your own. What Jesus wants us to do is to receive the person that he has
sent to us, and treat that Holy Spirit as the disciples treated Jesus himself, with the same
sensitivity, love, and respect. But you know that many of us who call ourselves Christians are just
miserably dead human beings. We have no sense of dynamic in us at all, because we have no sense of
a living person inside us — because we have not taken seriously what Jesus said: “Listen! If I go I
will send the Holy Spirit to you.” Do you see what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit? “The Holy
Spirit will take of the things that are mine and he will impart them to you.”

Now it’s the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus real to us. I used to sit in audiences in something like
this on campus in Ireland and listen to some boy describing all about the Christian life. And he’d
describe it in glowing terms and it sounded great. Then I went home and I tried to make it real and
it was just a miserable mess. I decided the guy is just exaggerating. He’s just full of a lot of
poetic illusions and exaggerations. It isn’t real or true. Because I never realized that there was
a real supernatural person who could make this stuff real to me in a deeper way than I could ever
perceive it with my intellect. Do you see — that’s what Jesus means about the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit will come and make the things of his life real to you. You may know nothing about
the love of Jesus, or the love of God, or the joy of God, or the peace of God. Even though you’ve
been a Christian for years, you can’t know it unless the Holy Spirit makes it real to you.

I’ve used the illustration before. You all go out, and while you’re out I put all the big
masterpieces of the art world round the walls of the theater. I put The Last Supper by Leonardo da
Vinci, The Crucifixion, Return of Marcus Sextus, St. John of the Cross — all the great masterpieces
around the walls. Then, I turn the lights out and I bring you all in and I say to you, “Aren’t
those beautiful paintings? Aren’t they beautiful art work?” And you say, “I can’t see a thing.
It’s dark.” Do you see it’s the same without the Holy Spirit?

People can talk about the beauties of God. They can talk about the greatness of the Christian life,
and you can be a poor old soul who has been a leader in the church for years, or you can be a young
person who did all the things that a young person is supposed to do in their church — and none of
it has become real to you. You’ve heard about it all but there is not light. Only the Holy Spirit
can take of the things of Jesus and make them real to you.

Do you see that it wouldn’t matter? The atmosphere covers the earth, about 125 miles thick I think
it is. It wouldn’t matter if there were 125 miles of atmosphere. Nothing would grow if there was
no sunshine. Now it is so with Jesus. You can build Bibles, and New Testaments, and gospels, and
ideologies of Christianity 125 miles thick over the whole earth — and if there was no Holy Spirit
none of it would ever become real to anybody.

We don’t need more knowledge. We’re up to here with knowledge. We hear it. We turn on the radio
and we hear knowledge about God. We read books and we read knowledge about God. We go to church
and we hear knowledge about God. What we need is revelation. We need someone who will please make
all this real to us. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit is the uncreated life of
God. He flows into you, and he makes all this real by revelation deeper than your intellect or your
emotions would ever understand it.

What does the Holy Spirit do? He takes Jesus himself and makes him real in your life. For
instance, he takes the love of Jesus, and he makes that real in your life by a miracle. Now a lot
of us misunderstand that. A lot of us think, “No — you have to practice love. You have to work up
love inside you. You have to govern your minds so that you begin to love.” You’ll produce “philia”
love like that — love of brothers for brothers, or you might produce “eros” love like that —
sexual love — — but you will not produce real divine love by working it up inside you.

The only way you can experience love is the way God said in Romans 5:5 — the Holy Spirit sheds
abroad in our hearts the love of God. One of the things the Holy Spirit does when he comes into us
fully is he fills us with the love of Jesus — with just a supernatural love. It’s described there
in 1 Corinthians 13:4. This is the kind of love that the Holy Spirit gives: “Love is patient and
kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own
way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Now do you see that you could put Jesus’ name in place of the word love? Jesus is patient and kind.
Jesus is not jealous or boastful. He is not arrogant or rude. He does not insist on his own way.
He is not irritable or resentful. He does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Jesus
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Now you can tell whether you have received created or uncreated life inside you by putting your name
in place of love. That will tell you whether the uncreated life of the Holy Spirit has come within.
So can you say it about your relationships with your brothers and sisters, with your dorm mate, with

your roommate, with your husband or wife or children? Can you say these things? “I am patient and
kind. I am not jealous or boastful. I am not arrogant or rude. I do not insist on my own way. I
am not irritable or resentful. I do not rejoice at wrong but rejoice in the right. I bear all
things. I believe all things. I hope all things. I endure all things.”

The Holy Spirit takes the love of Jesus and makes it real inside you by a miracle. So do you see if
you can’t put your name there you don’t start trying to imitate a child of God? You don’t try to
imitate one who is filled with the Holy Spirit. You simply go to God and say, “Lord God, I’m not
like that. I agree with those virtues but I myself am not like those. I am often impatient. I’m
often irritable. I’m often bad tempered. I’m often resentful and filled with grudges. I’m not
like that. Now, will you show me how I come into an experience of yourself?” But do you see that
is the approach?

If you wanted to talk like me you could imitate me for a while but it’d get sort of boring and
rather tiresome. The only way really to speak like me is to be born of an Irish mother. Maybe
you’re glad that you weren’t born of an Irish mother. But do you see it’s the same with God? The
only way to have those things in your life is to allow the Holy Spirit to fill you completely. The
answer is not to go back to a life of struggling.

See, it’s silly if you go out of the theater this morning and say, “Yeah, I want to be that — but
I’m not that. But I am a Christian. So I’m going to try harder.” No, the only reason you’ll try
harder is because you’re second, not because you’re first. And the only way to be first is really
to be born of the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit fills you with
himself, he imparts to you the love of Jesus. He imparts to you the purity of Jesus.

A lot of us brothers in this ridiculous unbalanced society have real trouble with our minds and with
controlling the minds and controlling the thought life. Brothers, do you see that that’s a miracle
that the Holy Spirit works within you? He imparts to you the purity of Jesus’ mind. It is a
miracle. He makes the purity of Jesus’ mind real inside you. The Holy Spirit takes the patience of
Jesus and makes it real inside us.

The Holy Spirit takes the forgiveness of Jesus and makes it real inside us. Many of us are
incapable of forgiveness. We think forgiveness is wiping out the memory of the face of the one who
offended us. That isn’t forgiveness — that’s a bad memory. But real forgiveness is receiving the
person back into a relationship with yourself as if he had never done anything against you at all.
Now that can only happen when the Holy Spirit makes the forgiveness of Jesus real in your life.

In other words, do you see what we need is the uncreated life of God? And if you don’t have that
uncreated life of God flowing through you freely, you’re like a person who is trying to run a high
compression engine on regular gas. It is hopeless. The thing is pinging like mad. You know it in
your own life. If you’re trying to run the mind, and emotions, and the body, and all the challenges
of life on uncreated life — you’re just making heavy weather of it. You’re just fighting it all
the time. Trying to control that old mind with the wrong thoughts; trying to control those emotions
from getting irritable at her; trying to control the feelings from losing the temper. You’re at it
all the time trying to get it to go because it doesn’t come naturally.

Do you see there’s only one way to make it natural? That is to allow this uncreated life of God to
flow into you and make you like Jesus. Now that’s what the Holy Spirit is all about and that is
what Pentecost is all about. There isn’t one of us who can do without this kind of life.

How do you enter into it? Well, it’s really easy. It was explained clearly by Peter on the day of
Pentecost. People came up after he had preached and said, “Now what must we do?” And then in Acts
2:38: “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” So that’s
the way. The Holy Spirit of uncreated life flows into you whenever you do what God, through Peter,
said.

Now you may say, “Ah, I’ve done that. I’ve done that. I’ve often repented. Indeed, I repent every
day of my bad temper. I repent continually — but this has not happened to me.” Do you see that
there is a repentance that you have never, ever dealt with at all in your life? If you’re having
trouble with bad temper, or with irritability, do you see that the repentance needed there is a
“metanoia” — a changing of your way of living for yourself?

You get bad tempered because you’re living for yourself. We get bad tempered because we think
things are getting out of our control and we think the bad temper will pull them back in, because we
believe we are in charge of our own lives and can do whatever we want with them. That’s the kind of
repentance that is needed if you’re having trouble with the old bad temper.

It’s a repentance that is deeper than just stopping the thing for a day and then doing it again the
next week. Repentance means that you stop doing the thing that you’ve been doing for years. That’s
real repentance. Not only feeling sorry, not only crying, not only resolving to do better next
time. It’s not remorse or regret. Repentance is you stop doing the thing.

In the case of a thing like bad temper it’s just not repenting of the bad temper. Do you see that?
Do you see there’s something very shallow in saying to God, “Oh, sorry I lost my temper again.” And
a week later, “Sorry I lost my temper again.” If you really feel that temper is putting a sword
into Jesus’ side you’ll want to find out what causes that bad temper. You know that the reason we
lose our temper is we feel we have a right to control things the way we want them. We lose our
temper to try to get them back under our control.

The reason we have grudges and cold wars with each other is to try to bring the other person back to
heel like a dog, because we feel we have the right to control our life, and to control every other
person that we come into contact with. Do you see that repentance means repenting of that desire to
be God in your life and in everybody else’s life?

Then it goes a bit further: “Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins.” Too many of us have got caught up in all kinds of self-righteousness.

I was a Methodist. I’m not for infant baptism, but we were taught it in seminary and I didn’t know
much better at that time. I agree with you that on the whole adult baptism is the practice in the
New Testament, but I think that many people allow their children to be baptized as infants not
because they believe they’re becoming Christians at all, but just because they feel they’re
receiving them into the company of the friends of Jesus. However, leave that aside. Do you see
that many of us get self-righteous about baptism? Many of us who are Baptist say, “Yeah, I’ve been
baptized. I’m baptized by immersion and so I’m a real child of God. Yeah, I lose my temper but I’m
a child of God because I’ve been baptized. Yeah, I do get irritable or resentful. But I’m glad
that I’ve experienced scriptural baptism.” Now do you see it’s not right to argue on that
superficial way about baptism? Nor is it right for us Lutherans and Methodists to argue the other

way.

Do you see that the heart of baptism is deeper than that? You remember Paul explained it in Romans
6:3: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

That’s what baptism really means. The reason many of us have not been filled with the Holy Spirit,
the reason many of us have entered into half a Christian experience, is we know our sins are
forgiven, but we have no experience of uncreated life flowing through us, and controlling us, and
imparting to us the qualities of Jesus — because we’ve never really been willing to be baptized
into Jesus’ death.

Do you remember what Jesus’ death meant for him? He was hanging on the cross. For one thing, he
was only facing one way. On a cross you can only face one way. In Jesus’ death he faced only
towards God. He cared nothing about himself, nothing about what people were thinking of him,
nothing about what they would do to him. He cared only for God. Being baptized into Jesus’ death
means that. It means dealing with the other things that we live for: the money, the success, the
happiness, the comfort, all those things.

I know they’re all necessary. We get round it by saying, “Oh, but those are necessary.” They are
necessary, but it’s not necessary to live for those above God himself. And to be baptized into
Jesus’ death is to face only one way, towards God — irrespective of what happens to all the other
things that would normally be added onto us.

On the cross Jesus had no future. Another hour at the most, but no future. Being baptized into
Jesus’ death means dying to our own futures.

Do you realize that you and I get irritable more often than not because we think someone is
destroying our plans for our future? Isn’t that right? Why do we get irritable over discussing the
vacation with her? Why do we get irritable when the parents or the children disagree with each
other about something in the future? Usually because we feel we have a right to control our future.
That’s why we get irritable. We’ve never really died to our future. We’ve never really handed it
over to God. We say, “Lord God, we’ll do anything for you as long as you give us a minimum level of
subsistence.” But being baptized into Jesus’ death means dying to the future.

Then on the cross, you remember, Jesus was between two criminals. Two men that were just ordinary
criminals — thieves. So he had no reputation. He was not the mighty Son of God on that cross.
Everybody looked at him and thought, “He’s just a criminal.” On the cross Jesus died to his
reputation. He died to what anybody thought of him.

Now that’s what it means to be baptized into Jesus’ death — to die to what our friends think of us,
to die to what our parents or our relatives think of us, to die to what anybody thinks of us. Then
when we’re really ready to die to self with Jesus in those areas, the Holy Spirit is able to flow
into us completely and fully and make real in us the uncreated life of God. That’s really the
miracle life of a Christian.

Why do I share it? Because I think a lot of us have put Pentecost into the church calendar, or into
emotional southern churches, and have failed to see that many of us, though we’re good believers and

believe the orthodox doctrine about Jesus dying for our sins and have even repented of our sins, and
have even been born of the Spirit – many of us have not gone the whole way and really taken part in
Jesus’ death and really identified ourselves with him in his death. Therefore we have no experience
of identification with him in his resurrection. Therefore, we have little experience of uncreated
life.

Uncreated life has a power in it that is beyond anything that we experience in psychology. It is
just a different supernatural kind of life, and it’s God’s plan that we should experience it.

So if you’re reading this and you’re saying, “Well, yeah. I’d really like that.” Do you see what
you need to do? Acts 2:38 — you need to really repent. Really repent of the real causes of the
things, not just the symptoms. Then really ask the Holy Spirit, “In what way have I not died to
self with Jesus? In what way have I used Jesus’ name continually, but not been prepared to die to
self?” As the Holy Spirit shows you — then enter into it yourself quietly, and allow the Holy
Spirit to fill you. He’ll fill you with the very life of Jesus. And it’s just a different kind of
Christian living.

It’s just an effortless, victorious life. It’s a freedom from that old, “The good that I would I
cannot do, and the evil I want to avoid — that’s the very thing that I do.” {Paraphrase of Romans
7:19} It’s just a deliverance from that kind of defeated Christian life and it is God’s plan for
us.

So will you think about it, and would you act on it as God guides you? Because really, there’s no
point in going half of the way with God. Half of the way is worse than no way. I think many of us
have felt that at times. But going the whole way with Jesus’ death brings his complete resurrection
life inside us.

Let us pray. Holy Spirit, if you see any of us here this morning who are making due with created
life and as a result are living an up and down kind of Christian life, Holy Spirit, if you can see
some of us here who are living for something other than God, then we would trust you to make that
clear to us now this morning. And Holy Spirit, we want to know exactly why you are not able to fill
us with yourself. Please show us where we are living for ourselves, and are not willing to die to
ourselves, as you died on the cross. Show us where we are unwilling to live only to God, and to die
to our own lives and our own futures. We ask you to do this, and to bring us the uncreated life –
the very life of Jesus – that you wish to bring us. Amen.

Four Freedoms 1

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

What I’d like to do tonight is just share some teachings with you about the victorious life. We’ll
spend all of our meeting times during October listening to reports from Amsterdam, France, Germany,
London, and Puerto Rico. We’ll be seeing slides and hearing the testimonies of the brothers and
sisters about the work God was doing through them during the summer. So this week and next week
will be the only two teachings that we’ll have before November. I think maybe it’s better not to
have a question time during these two evenings but to begin the question times during November.

What I’d like to share is the truth that you find in John 8:32. It really is a freeing statement
that God gives us here in this verse. God says this through Jesus: “’And you will know the truth,
and the truth will make you free.’”

Now there’s no reason at all for you at any time in your Christian life to be anything but totally
free. Really — there is no reason for you to ever be anything but free. And the truth always will
make you free. It is only the deception of Satan and the lies of Satan that will ever bring you
into bondage. Yet why I share this is because a number of us at different stages in our Christian
lives come into bondage and we don’t need to.

It is true that the truth makes you free. If you look down a few verses at verse 36, you see really
where the truth is and how it does make you free: “’So if the Son makes you free, you will be free
indeed.’” Every time you deal with the truth that is in Jesus, you live free. And every time you
miss that truth you come into bondage.

Now there are four great stages in our Christian life where you can come into bondage. Just four
great times, and they correspond really to four parts of Jesus’ life. The first one is that whole
element of conscience. Many of us can come into tremendous bondage over conscience. And the second
one is our wills — just our independent selfish wills. Many of us come into bondage over our
wills. The third one is the psychological part of us, our mind and emotions. Many of us can come
into bondage about our mind and emotions. Then the fourth one refers to the inner part of us, our
spirits. Many of us can come into bondage in regard to our spirits.

Now there is a truth that is in Jesus that delivers us from bondage in each area of our lives. It
corresponds really in a way, to the birth of Jesus, to the death of Jesus, to the resurrection of
Jesus, and to the ascension of Jesus. It is really God’s will that we would experience the birth,
the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus completely in regard to each of those areas
of our lives. And if we don’t, we come into bondage.

Now loved ones, there is only one way really to experience the birth, and death, and resurrection,
and ascension of Jesus in reality in our own lives — and that is through faith. And faith is very
simple — it consists of believing and obeying. Each time in regard to this area of our lives all
we really have to do is to believe certain things about Jesus and to obey certain things in Jesus —
and we come into freedom.

Now let’s just take the first one — the old business of conscience. Most of us start our Christian
lives by coming into a real sense of bondage over a verse like Matthew 5:22. We read a verse like
this and we immediately come into a tremendous bondage: “’But I say to you that every one who is

angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to
the council, and whoever says, “You fool!” shall be liable to the hell of fire.’”

Many of us come into great bondage in our consciences when we begin to realize that we are doing
things that God has told us deserve the penalty of external death and separation from him. And we
just come into a great bondage of guilt.

We know that the wages of sin is death and we know that we have sin in our own lives. Now the way
out of that bondage is very clearly stated in the Bible, and it refers to the whole business of the
new birth in the spirit. We are asked to believe a certain thing about Jesus.

It’s stated there plainly by God in Romans 4:24: “It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that
raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our
justification.” It’s stated plainly there that if you believe that Jesus has died for that sin in
your life, then that faith of yours will be reckoned as righteousness. You’re asked to believe.

The second thing you’re asked to do is that plain statement of Jesus which you are to believe. It’s
stated in Matthew 3:2: “’Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” And dear ones, that’s all
we’re called to do to be free from the bondage of guilt.

But many of us mess the whole thing up. We begin to realize, “No, we have to repent.” And we begin
to come under bondage about repentance. We have an incredible ability to turn God’s freedom into
salvation by works. Some of us will do that.

We’ll look at the believing and we’ll look at the obeying and the repenting and we’ll say, “Well,
the repenting. That means that I have to repent thoroughly.” And we get down to bringing about a
thorough repentance, and many of us begin to feel, “Unless we feel a desperate sorrow for our sins
we have not truly repented.” I know there’s a dear sister among us at this time who just feels she
doesn’t repent enough, and she feels, “No, I don’t feel repentance. I have to feel it. I have to
feel it.”

Loved ones, do you see that repentance is just what it says? You turn from your sin. And if you
keep sinning — you keep turning from your sinning. But repentance is a “metanoia.” {This is the
word in Greek found in the Bible meaning repentance.} It’s a change of mind. You turn from what
you’re doing and you turn to Jesus. It is not a matter of feeling repentance.

But many of us have turned from the truth that sets us free and have turned to the error of Satan
and we’ve begun to sense, “Oh, I must feel this repentance. I don’t feel it enough. God can’t
forgive me because I don’t feel it enough.” Do you see where that’s taking you? That’s taking you
into works. You’re saying, “If you don’t do this work thoroughly enough God cannot forgive you.”

Dear ones, you’ll never repent deeply enough to justify God forgiving you. God forgives you because
you are justified by the blood of Jesus. And it’s that truth that sets you free. It speaks about
this in Romans 5:9: “Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be
saved by him from the wrath of God.”

It isn’t the thoroughness of your repentance. Certainly God asks you to repent. He says, “If you
repent and believe, then the blood of my Son will justify you in my eyes.” But do you see? The
blood of Jesus justifies you in God’s eyes because you’ve repented and believed — not because of

the thoroughness of your feeling sorry at your sin.

Now loved ones, it’s very important to see it. Otherwise, you can begin to punish yourself, and
many of us have come into that. We’ve sinned and we’ve committed a sin 10 weeks ago and we know
it’s wrong. We begin to sense inside ourselves, “No, I deserve to have a period of real contrition
here before God can possibly accept me into his family again.” Therefore we impose upon ourselves a
certain time limit, and we say, “Unless we go through this period of contrition – really, God cannot
possibly forgive us.”

Now loved ones, do you see that’s just the doctrine of penance that brought so many dear ones in the
Catholic Church into bondage? That’s what penance is. It’s saying, “Unless I punish myself enough,
unless I sorrow enough, God will not forgive me.” Dear ones, repentance is turning from your sin
and believing that the blood of Jesus alone will make you right with God, not the thoroughness of
your repentance. Nevertheless, you have to be thorough. You have to go through all of the sins
that you have and repent of them. But you don’t have to squeeze yourself dry to get yourself
sorrowful enough.

Many of us have come into the same problem over confession which is part of repentance. Many of us
fall into the bondage of a sensitivity group. We feel, “Have I confessed everything? I must
confess. I must confess again. No, I didn’t make that right with that other brother correctly, so
I must make it right again.” Many of us come into a place where we think, “Oh now, have I confessed
everything? Have I confessed everything?” Dear ones have come to me, and said week after week
after week, “I have something else to confess. Something else to confess.”

Now loved ones, do you see that that is bondage? You confess all that you know is wrong in your
life. You make it straight before God. You make it straight with other people. You turn from it,
and that is your confession and repentance.

Now many of us come into bondage even over the believing. The believing is to believe that the
blood of Jesus justifies us before God — to believe simply that Jesus has died for our sins. But
many of us come into the old heresy of “a corner on truth.” We feel, “We believe in the
substitutionary death of Jesus in a subtly different way to all other churches. That’s what saves
us.” Loved ones, that just brings you into bondage. It brings you into a preoccupation with the
peccadilloes of the atonement.

Do you see that God expects you to believe that Jesus has died for you? Just to believe that. And
it’s the death of Jesus that makes you right with God. It’s not your exact precise statement of the
atonement, or of the way Jesus’ death saved you. It’s simply your believing that Jesus has died for
you.

There’s such a freedom that comes into your life when you reduce it all to simply repenting and
believing. Just repenting of your sins and believing that Jesus’ death satisfies your Father. Just
that. And suddenly there comes into your heart just a clear assurance of God’s acceptance with you.
But do you see that the truth makes you free? It’s the errors and lies of Satan that brings you
into bondage about that.

We won’t get through the four parts tonight — maybe we’ll just get as far as the second part. But
many of us after we’re born of the Spirit come into this problem of the will that will not obey
Jesus. We come into this area where we find that our wills do not want to submit to God’s law.

Indeed, they cannot submit. They just keep acting against God in rebellion. We try to send them in
God’s direction and we cannot do anything about them.

Now God has made provision for that too. It is madness for us to come into that hypocritical double
life and almost go insane thinking that God has not made provision for it. Loved ones, God has made
clear provision for it, and again here the truth makes you free. The truth really is very simple.
It’s stated in the Bible. Just as Romans 5:9 is the truth that sets you free there, the truth that
sets you free here is Romans 6:6 — that our old self was crucified with Christ. God has said that
this is made real in our lives, just as that other truth is made real in our lives, if –- again —
we believe and obey.

This time we believe Romans 6:11: you reckon you that you have been crucified with Christ. And you
submit, as it says in Romans 6:13. You submit your members to the Spirit of God. But again — it’s
believe and obey.

Really — it’s very simple. But many of us break away from the freedom that is in those words and we
come into bondage. We find this old will that we can do nothing about, and we start to rationalize
it. We say, “Well, I mean, masturbation isn’t too bad. It’s kind of a human trait that many of us
have to face through the early part of our lives, and marriage will clear it all up.” Or, if we
criticize people a bit we say, “Well, you need to use the old critical faculty – otherwise, where
would you be? You have to judge people to know who to agree with and who not to agree with.”

Or, we rationalize the not getting up in the morning. We say, “Well, we just happened to be people
who lay late and we work better late at night than we do early in the morning. And no doubt we’ll
be able to work into the deep prayer later on in the evenings.” Or, we say to ourselves, “Well,
witnessing, yeah. But I’m just a different kind of person. I’m not one of these people who can run
up with the four spiritual laws and witness like that. I have to go more slowly and subtly about it.
I believe in friendship evangelism.” And we believe in friendship evangelism — but it never gets
to evangelism. It just gets to friendship.

But many of us loved ones forget the truth that is in these verses. Instead we set about delivering
ourselves from this problem here again by works. We fall into a salvation by works. The only way
we can get rid of it is to rationalize the failings of this will. Many brothers and sisters walk in
bondage to that will, because they keep on rationalizing and rationalizing, or many of us just
repress it. We just keep repressing it. The old anger is coming up inside us and we just repress
it. We just press it down. And we try to love people on the outside despite the anger. Or, the
irritability comes up and we try to just repress it. We keep repressing these things.

Now loved ones, do you see that the truth sets you free? The truth doesn’t bring you into bondage
like that. It is not God’s will that you should walk in continual repression that shows like that
gray defeat in the back of your eyes. It is God’s will that you should walk free of this — not in
rationalizing and not in repression, but just in a real deliverance.

Some of us feel, “Oh well, yeah, yeah. I believe that. But I have to see it for myself,” and we
start introspecting and we start looking inside. We get all worked up with looking inside, and
looking at our motives, and our attitudes, and our reactions, and our desires, and again we come
into a tremendous bondage. Many of us who have come into an awareness of the problem of our selfish
independent will have not walked a way of freedom at all. We have walked rather the way of bondage.
We have walked either in continual introspection, or in continual repression, or in continual

rationalizing. Many of us just disagree with God. We come into a total despair.

Now loved ones, do you see that a total despair is a blanket rejection of what God has said is true
about us in the Bible? It’s in Romans 7:18: “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that
is, in my flesh.” Now, coming into despair is a rejection of that truth. Do you see that you
come into despair because you’re still hoping for something good from inside you? There’s a great
peace comes inside in your heart when you accept, “That’s right. There is nothing good inside me,
and God see’s that clearly and he expects me to accept that.”

But we come into bondage of despair when we’re still hoping for something good inside us. Or, the
other reason we come into despair is because we don’t really believe Romans 5:9. Romans 5:9 says,
“You’re justified by the blood of Jesus.” We come into despair because deep down we really believe
we’re going to be justified by our victorious life, or by our good works, or by our victory over
sin. That’s why we come into this despair.

But again, do you see? It’s the lie of Satan that brings us into bondage. The truth that is in the
Son sets us free, and the truth that is in the Son is there is no good in you at all. The reason
you’re having such trouble with yourself is you’re still expecting some good from inside you.

Actually, what God wants you to see is that there is no good in you, and to believe and reckon
yourself dead indeed with Jesus on the cross. The word “reckon” in Greek means to treat yourself as
really dead. But many of us keep on rationalizing and repressing. So when we come into a situation
where somebody attacks us or criticizes us in the office, we don’t act as a corpse. No, we’re very
much alive. We whip right back. The old corpse is lying flat on the ground. Suddenly the arm
lifts up and strikes the fellow back.

Do you see that that’s where we’re going astray? We’re rationalizing. We’re repressing. We’re
introspecting. We’re coming into despair. But we’re not reckoning ourselves dead indeed unto
Jesus. Dead indeed unto self and alive to Jesus.

Do you see that believing is an active thing? Loved ones, a number of us are coming into bondage
here because we’re thinking this is a game that you play in your thoughts. It isn’t. Believing is
a very active thing. “Beleafa” in Anglo-Saxon means that you be in accordance with what the truth
is. The truth is you were crucified with Christ.

So — let the other person tear you apart. What’s he tearing apart? An old dear corpse? What does
that matter? But do you see you? Be in accordance with what is the truth in Jesus. Belief is not
a juggling with thoughts. It’s not introspection. It’s not repression. It’s not rationalization.
It’s not despair. It’s simply acting as if you’ve been crucified with Christ and there’s no “you”
to respond.

Then obedience is the same thing. A lot of us are coming into this place where we say, “Well, I
believe that I am crucified with Christ. But I still don’t feel crucified.” It doesn’t matter
whether you feel it or not. It doesn’t matter whether other people see it or not. You believe that
you’ve been crucified with Christ, and you submit yourself to the Holy Spirit at each moment as he
tells you things.

But do you see? The truth is, in a way, a very external thing. And I think a number of us come
into bondage because we make it an internal judging with thought life. No, it isn’t. It’s a

(cid:9)
believing that you’ve been crucified with Christ, and an acting as if that’s true, and it’s a
submitting to the Holy Spirit the first time he tells you to do something.

But both of those are very external things. In fact, faith in the New Testament is a very external
thing. It’s a believing, a treating yourself as if this thing and that thing is true. And it’s an
obeying — an obeying God when he tells you to repent, and obeying his Spirit when he tells you to
do things. And loved ones, those truths set you free.

Now I’m sure a number of you are sitting there and you’re saying, “Oh but how does it all become
real?” That’s up to the Holy Spirit. It’s up to the Holy Spirit to make the truth of these two
facts real in you. It’s not up to you to look in and see, “Is my crucifixion with Christ real? Is
my new birth real?” It’s up to the Holy Spirit to make these things real in you as you take care of
those things that you can take care of.

That is the way of freedom, and the truth will always set you free. It will never bring you into
bondage. When you find a brother or sister coming into bondage over their crucifixion with Christ,
it’s not because they’re coming into the truth. It’s because they’re coming into one of these
subtle lies or errors of Satan. But the truth itself will always set you free.

Now loved ones, do you see, tonight really all I can do is present those truths briefly to you and
give you the scripture verses? You yourself need to go to the Holy Spirit and ask him, “Holy
Spirit, am I coming into bondage to some deception of Satan in these areas of my life? Is it
because I’ve accepted some of Satan’s lies that I’m in bondage about my forgiveness of my sins or
about my victory over sin? Am I really dwelling in the truth?” And loved ones, the truth is really
a joyful thing to live in, and the truth is those two things there, actually entering into those in
actuality. And that sets you free. It really does.

Next Sunday evening I’d like to do a little about these areas here that we’ve talked of before at
times, the mind and emotions and how they’re connected really with the resurrection of Jesus, and
the spirit and how it’s connected with the ascension of Jesus. Some of you may find that you’ve
come as far as the two things we talked about tonight, and you’re having victory there. Yet you’re
coming into bondage in these other areas.

But loved ones, do you see that it’s really a very simple thing? It really is, and we should see it
as that. And it’s an active thing. It’s not a feeling thing. It’s not an “internal juggling of
thoughts” thing. It’s an active believing and obeying. So will you just go to the Holy Spirit and
ask him, “Holy Spirit, have I come into unnecessary bondage in these areas?” And really get clear
and walk free. Walk free each day. It is the Father’s will.

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that your way is a way of freedom. Savior, we know that
Satan is in among us trying to internalize this whole business until it’s all a psychological game.
But Lord Jesus, we know it’s a very sure appropriation of what has happened to us in you on Calvary.
And Lord Jesus, we know that it is the Holy Spirit that makes these things real in us. It isn’t us
by all our emotions, and all our introspection — it is the Holy Spirit.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that if we do our part you will do yours. We thank you that our part is so
clear and so obvious. In order to come into a real forgiveness of our sins and a real freedom from
guilt in our consciences, we’ve simply to repent. Turn from our sins and to believe that you have
died for us. And in regard to that old, selfish, independent will inside us that is making a mess

of our Christian lives, we’ve simply to accept that we were crucified with you and to live as if
that is really true — by submitting to your Holy Spirit each time he speaks.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that it is such a joyous way. We thank you that it is such a way of
freedom and liberty. Now I trust you Savior, by your Holy Spirit, to apply this to each brother and
sister here tonight, so that if there is anyone here walking in bondage in regard to their
conscience and their wills, they will come into real freedom in you.

Lord, we thank you that you have told us that we are to rejoice, and again you said to us, to
rejoice. We thank you that we can walk in continual joy because all of this has been done already
in you, and we’ve simply to accept it into our own lives.

We commit ourselves to you for this purpose. And now Lord Jesus, in the coming week we trust you to
find it easy to live freely in us. Lord Jesus, we commit ourselves to living for you — to put you
first. We commit ourselves to turning from own selves and all our self-concern, wondering what
people are thinking of us, wondering how we’re doing. We commit ourselves to looking to you and
being concerned about you this week — and not us. Savior, we trust you to give us a
Christ-centered life as we do this — so that you will, in every way, be able to live your life
again through us wherever we go these next six days.

Now, we commit ourselves to you. We trust you to fill us with your Spirit for this purpose. Now
the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each
one of us now and evermore.

Four Freedoms 2

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

You remember that last Sunday evening I was sharing that verse in John 8:32: “And you will know the
truth, and the truth will make you free.” Then further down in verse 36 it says, “So if the Son
makes you free, you will be free indeed.” I shared that if you are really dwelling in truth, that
truth will make you free. That is effective right throughout every stage in the Christian life.
But if you’re not believing the truth or dwelling in the truth, then you will come into all kinds of
bondage.

I suggested that there seemed to be four different stages or areas of our Christian lives where many
of us managed to come into bondage. They really related to four different events in Christ’s life.
The answer to this bondage was allowing the Holy Spirit to apply each of the four stages of Christ’s
life to us. But if we didn’t do that we could come into real bondage.

I suggested that one of them was conscience. That at the very beginning of our Christian lives we
had trouble with a guilty conscience, and that many of us could come into bondage through trying to
work out the guilt. We could do this by trying to be good church-goers, or doing our best to work
out our own salvation.

The answer really was to come into the meaning of Romans 5:9 — that we’re justified by the blood of
Jesus. Whatever our lives are like, however miserable they are — God accepts us because Jesus’
blood has been shed for our rebellious lives. And the way to enter into that was through a birth —
experiencing the birth of Jesus inside us. The only way for that to come about is by the action of
the Holy Spirit.

Unless the Holy Spirit brings Jesus alive inside us, we will never come free from that guilty
conscience. The way to come into that is to believe and obey. And the way to come into all of
these freedoms — these four freedoms in these four areas of life — is really to come into belief
and obedience about certain facts in Jesus’ life and death. It’s stated in Romans 5:9, that we are
justified by the blood of Jesus — that because of Jesus’ death, God forgives us.

We’re called to believe that, and we’re called to obey. It says we’re called to repent. Unless you
repent you will in no way enter the kingdom of Heaven. Unless you repent you will perish. So in
coming into the new birth of Jesus, you’ve to believe that he died for you and that his blood
satisfies God, and you’ve to repent and turn from the wrong things that you’ve been doing.

Last Sunday I shared that many of us brought about a salvation by works. Many of us turned
repentance into, “I must feel the repentance. Unless I feel it, unless I work out this repentance
so that I feel pain and sorrow, God will not forgive me.” So, many of us wait days and days after
we’ve sinned against God trying to work up enough repentance. In fact, all we’re trying to do is
penance. We’re trying to punish ourselves to make us feel that God ought to forgive us now that we
have justified him by punishing ourselves.

We do the same with believing. Many of us say, “Oh, we know we have to believe. But you have to
believe a certain way. You have to believe a certain theory of the atonement, or you have to
believe a certain corner on truth about Jesus — and then God will forgive you.” We come into
bondage and salvation by works instead of doing two simple things: believing and obeying. Believing

that Jesus has died for us, and repenting of our sins and stop doing them. Really, becoming a
Christian is as easy as that.

Then you know many of us go along in the Christian life and we find we have trouble with this old
selfish will. It’s just a will that wants to go its own way. It wants to do its own thing at its
own time in its own way for its own glory. Many of us find that working inside us even after we’ve
been born of the spirit. The only answer to that is really coming into an experience of the fact
that we were crucified with Christ. Coming into a place where we’re ready to die to self and be
crucified with Jesus.

Many of us don’t tackle that answer. We work the old salvation by works business. We try to
repress the selfish will. We try to rationalize it away and say, “Well, all Christians get angry.
It’s normal to get angry.” Or, we try in some way to get rid of this stuff underneath. But we try
to get rid of it by works of all kinds.

Now the only answer is to allow the Holy Spirit to make this death of Christ real in us. And the
only way we can do it is by believing and obeying. By believing that we were crucified with Christ,
and then by submitting to his Holy Spirit each moment of the day so that the Holy Spirit is then
able to bring this about. What I’m really trying to say is the Holy Spirit works the miracle on the
left hand of that line {pointing to a diagram} if we do the things that are on the right hand of the
line. Now, that’s true.

The Holy Spirit miraculously makes the new birth real in us if we will simply believe that Jesus has
died for us and repent of our sins. The Holy Spirit makes the death of Jesus real in us and gives
us victory over anger, jealousy, pride, and lust — if we simply believe that we were crucified with
Christ. That we have no right to our own lives, or no right to our own way, and we yield
moment-by-moment instant obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Now it is true, loved ones, God works the miracle on the left hand side of that double line
{pointing to the diagram} if we do the things on the right hand side of the line. Every one of us
who are coming into bondage about our guilty consciences, or about our selfish wills, are coming
into bondage because we won’t do one of these three things. Either we won’t believe that Jesus’
blood really makes us right with God, or we won’t turn from all our sins, or we won’t believe that
we’ve been crucified with Christ. We keep on saying, “No, I’m not crucified. I get angry every
day. I’m obviously not crucified.” But God’s word says you were crucified.

Either you don’t believe that and you won’t accept it. You keep looking to your experience to
disprove what God’s word says is true. Or, you won’t submit to the Holy Spirit when he says, “Shut
up. Just don’t answer. Okay, they’ve cut you apart now. Shut up. Just keep quiet and leave it to
me.” Either we won’t believe that we’re crucified with Christ, or we won’t simply submit to the
Holy Spirit. That’s it, honestly.

Loved ones, if I could take each of you and say that if you’re having trouble with either a guilty
conscience or a selfish will — it’s because you’re not doing one of these two things. It’s not
because you alone have managed to defeat the infinite plan of the infinite Creator of the universe.
That is not true. It is not true that you’re so different from everybody else in the universe that
God has not made a plan that works with you. It works with you. All you really need to do is give
up the salvation by works and come into believing and obeying.

Now here’s something that we come into after maybe coming into some victory about a guilty
conscience and a selfish will. And I say “some victory,” because many of us find that we have to
walk in this daily in order to experience the victory. But many of us come into a different area
completely — and it’s this area to do with the mind and emotions. Here we find that the will is
selfish. Here we find that we have independent minds and emotions that go their own ways at times
— in spite of the fact that the Spirit of Jesus is within us.

Now here’s the kind of expression that took in Galatians 2:11-14. Peter and Paul had had a
discussion about the business of whether ordinary people – Gentiles — should become Jews before
they become Christians. You remember they decided – no, they shouldn’t. They shouldn’t have to
submit to all the regulations that the Jews had to submit to. They should be able to become
Christians right away. Jesus came and wiped out and superseded all those ritual laws of the Jews,
though not the moral laws.

Galatians 2:11 goes, “But when Cephas came to Antioch,” Paul says, “I opposed him to his face,
because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but
when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And with him the
rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity.
But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas
before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel
the Gentiles to live like Jews?’”

Now, do you see that you can’t accuse Peter here, who already fought the battle of reputation in the
courtyard with the little maid? For Peter, who already laid his life down on the day of Pentecost
by accusing the murderers of Jesus of that very murder — you can’t accuse Peter of sinful selfish
will that wanted to go his own way and protect himself. You can’t. You have to face the fact that
old Peter’s mind had been running like a Jew’s mind for years and years and years. When he came
into this situation he felt, “Well, no, I better do it. No, I better withdraw for the sake of my
Jewish friends.” And he made a mistake because his mind had been brought up as a Jew’s for years
and years.

That’s what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the fact that many of us have minds and
emotions that have been programmed by a selfish will week-in and week-out and month-in and
month-out. And whenever we’re filled with the Holy Spirit here and crucified with Christ, we often
find that our minds and emotions are still independent of our spirits. They still go in ways that
we don’t really want them to go.

Another example of it is Matthew 26. I know none of you will come into this problem with sleep that
the disciples came into. But let’s look at it to see how some poor souls have to suffer. Matthew
26:38: “Then,” Jesus, “said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and
watch with me.’” And then Verse 40, “And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping; and he
said to Peter, ‘So, could you not watch with me one hour?’”

Now do you see that the disciples wanted to watch with Jesus? But the old mind was used to sleeping
at midnight, and as soon as midnight came — off it went. Now, do you see that there are times when
we get up at six o’clock in the morning, and we’ve settled we start the day with the Father? We’re
willing to die to our own comfort and we’re willing to put Jesus first. So we get up, slam down on
the knees, and then ah, it’s beautiful. It’s just beautiful. That time of prayer went so fast.
It’s seven o’clock already? I didn’t know the time had gone.

Then somebody says, “Who did you intercede for this morning?” And you said, “Well, I was higher
than that. I was just up there in the heavenlies. I didn’t know a thing. It was a quick hour and
went like that {snaps his fingers}. I never knew a thing.” Now you know you didn’t do much praying
at all. You went to sleep, or you dosed, or you didn’t pray anyway. Now do you see that’s the
soul? That’s the old mind and emotions that still are not submissive servants to the Spirit.

Another example is one you can see here in the evenings here with all our singing. We all used to
be great singers. We’d get into that church, strum the old guitars, and clap the old hands and away
we’d go. We weren’t pretty clear whether it was emotion or spirit but we were going and we were
really up there.

Now you can see the problem: we come together again and again as a body and the old emotions are
used to going that way. As some fellow gets the old handclapping going, you’re not quite sure
whether you want a tambourine to tap or whether you want to get up and dance. You’re not quite sure
whether it’s Jesus you’re preoccupied with, or the beat of the music. But it’s really going.

In other words, it’s difficult at times to worship continually in the Spirit. It isn’t that the
spirit possesses no emotion. It’s that often our emotions run away independent of our spirits.

Another example is that you meet somebody new. They come in tonight to the church, and you really
want to be real with them. You really do want to love them. You don’t want to come over as one of
those gushy people who make a lot of small talk to make everybody feel comfortable. You really want
to be straight. You want to be Jesus to them, really love them honestly, and look into their eyes
and let them know that you’re not just turning the stuff on.

But the old mind and emotions have been programmed for years. Before you know it you’re into: what
do they do? What are they studying? And you never get beyond that. You just get lost in, “What
course are you studying? Oh yeah, I studied that last year. Yeah, well it’s quite good here.
Yeah, do you like the singing?” “Yeah, it’s good.” “Well, we meet at this particular time.”

And little spirit gets communicated. It’s the old emotion gushing out. You’re making a big
impression of friendliness on them but there’s no quietness of spirit coming in.

Or, it happens in the houses. It’s very hard to live in a Christian house with other Christians.
In fact, it’s very hard to live in any house with other people without really being dead to self.
It really is. Without being dead to self you’re always coming up against little strains and little
times of friction.

Now, many of us have found that we have really died to self. We’ve really been filled with the Holy
Spirit. But in our houses we come up against the problem that our mind has been programmed for
years to regard that piece of clothing as ours. This fellow comes in and picks it up. You know
that really the clothing doesn’t matter much. You’re dead to that. You know that God will give you
whatever clothing is needed. But the old mind is programmed and you think, “What’s he doing?”
Before you know it the mind is out with some comment.

I’m not backing the fact that he’s taking your clothing. No, I’m not for that. But it’s the
problem of the old response coming out. Not from the level of a selfish will so much as from an
independent mind and emotions that are just beginning to walk in the old selfish way. Many of us

have found that if we don’t deal with this independent mind and emotions, it begins to drag us back
into ourselves.

What many of us have found is we’ve committed our whole self to Jesus. We’ve decided to walk with
him. We’ve decided to die to our own careers, to the right to success, to financial security from
Social Security pensions and life insurance payouts when we’re retired. We walk that way. But we
don’t allow the mind and emotions to be dealt with by the cross. So they flip back onto the old way
of thinking. So we’re in a worse state than people who never started on the Calvary Road. We’re
half way out there.

Maybe we’re working at a job that we sense God has called us to. We’re making poor wages, and the
mind is going back to being at home with our family we grew up with. We’re listening to what our
parents want us to be. We’re listening to what we should be in our careers. And we begin to come
into a real conflict.

Now do you see that if you don’t deal with the independent mind and emotions, you can minster no
life? If we don’t come into a real freedom from the bondage of our minds and emotions, we will
minister no life in our meetings. We’ll minister just emotions. We’ll minister no life in our
witnessing. We’ll minister just a very persuasive convincing argument. Or, we’ll impress people
with our emotion of love. But unless we come into a place where we begin to allow the cross to deal
with these parts of us, and not wipe them out but discipline them and bring them under the control
of our spirits, we’ll really be useless for ministering life. We’ll eventually fall back into our
selfish will.

Here is the very problem. Many of us, when we see that, begin to realize we have to do something
about it. The verse that you’d find it in is 2 Corinthians 4:7: “But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.” Many of us
would come to that conclusion: “That’s right. The Spirit of Jesus is inside me. But my own earthly
mind and emotions are round it, and they’re not submissive to it. They’re not expressing it purely
and cleanly.” So we say, “Yeah, well, this old earthen vessel — I’ll have to do something about
it.”

Now here are the two approaches most people take to deliver themselves from this by works — and it
only brings them into more bondage. Some people say, “Well, Pastor, what you said tonight is true.
My old emotions whip away off at times when I shouldn’t be emotional at all. I know that I should
be ministering the quietness of Jesus in a quiet emotion of love. But I’m out gushing away. My
emotions are out of control and I know that. And I realize what you say is true, that a real
Christian who is walking in the Spirit is one who has his emotions controlled by his spirit. I am
going to control those miserable emotions.”

That’s the first wrong step we take. Many of us get into the business of annihilating the emotions.
We say to ourselves, “That’s right. A Christian is not an emotional person. He’s a spiritual
person. So I must annihilate these emotions. Nobody will get a smile out of me. Nope. Very
interesting, brother. I’m glad that your wife had a baby.” But he thinks, “I mustn’t get too
excited about it lest he think I’m not a spiritual Christian.”

You know that in many so-called “spirit-filled circles”, you meet those dear, dear souls. You must
be loving and kind to them because all of us have made the mistake – of thinking that a Christian is
one who has no emotions at all. Or there are some people that say, “That’s right — a Christian is

one who walks in the Spirit, not in his mind.” So they come into this problem of becoming passive
in their minds and they just give up the use of their minds.

There are many dear ones who have good minds and they come to making a decision and they just won’t
think about it at all. They won’t use their mind to gather the information that God wants them to
gather. They just say, “No, no, I’ll wait for the Spirit to tell me.” You meet these dear ones and
you ask them, “Do you know what you’re going to do tomorrow?” They say, “No, no, but I’m waiting
for the Lord to tell me.” They’re still waiting tomorrow, and they’re still waiting the next day,
and they’re just wandering around in a kind of blankness because they’ve started to annihilate their
minds.

They’re the people who read books and won’t judge the book or criticize the book. They’ll just read
the book and accept everything that comes in from the book. Anybody who appears to have a spiritual
smile on their faces they’ll say, “Ah, they’re spiritual people.” They give up using their minds
completely. Most people like that come into a tremendous passivity, where they just join a “bless
me” club. They just worship as they say “in the spirit” night and day, and they are not used by God
to transmit any life to anyone else.

That’s one of the problems where they come into bondage by trying to annihilate the mind and
emotions. Or there’s another answer that some find: they over-exercise their minds and emotions.
They read a verse like one in Romans 12:11: “Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the
Lord.” They say, “That’s right! The way to be a spiritual Christian is to be aglow with the
Spirit.” So they try to glow with the Spirit.

You can’t decide to glow with the Spirit. You know that. The Holy Spirit glows within you as he did
on the face of Moses — or he doesn’t.

If you’re disobedient — he doesn’t. If you’re obedient, he does. But you can’t say, “I’m going to
glow with the Spirit.” But many dear ones say, “Ah, that’s the way to be a spiritual Christian. I
must glow with the Spirit.”

You get fed up with their smiles. They just smile, and smile, and smile, and smile. You could cut
their arms off and they’d still be smiling. There’s something a wee bit unreal about it. Or, they
say, “I must be aglow with the Spirit. That means I must worship in a way that glorifies God. I
must abandon myself to him.” And they abandon themselves not spiritually because you can’t abandon
or touch your spirit at all. Only the Holy Spirit can touch your spirit. But they say, “I’ll
abandon myself in the Spirit.”

Of course they misunderstand the emotions — the strongest part that is inside them for the Spirit.
So they abandon themselves emotionally and they feel that they should praise God with great
expression in their voice. I was caught about four years ago in this same business.

They feel, “If you express to God with a strong emotion in your voice, then you’re being very
spiritual.” And you get them doing all kinds of things in their prayers. Then if they get into the
experience of tongues at all, they just lose themselves. They’re just content to pray in tongues
all the time, not realizing that really that is God’s gift for a person in his infancy. It’s just a
gift of God to people in their infancy in worship. But God wants you to come on through to the
place not where you stop speaking in tongues, but where you begin to be able to express yourself
through your mind and emotions to him.

It may be good to look at that because I know some of you will have questions. It’s talked about in
1 Corinthians 14:14-15. It would be good just to mention this for a moment or two because I think
there is great misunderstanding about the eighth gift of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 14:14-15: “For
if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful.”

God allows that to come about, because many of us have minds that are earth-bound. God is gracious
and fills us with the Holy Spirit and gives us the ability to speak in an unknown tongue where our
mind is not used. Our mind is just bypassed by the Holy Spirit and it lifts us up into the Father.

But do you see that isn’t God’s final will for us? It isn’t his will that we’ll spend all our time
in prayers doing that. There’s his final will in verse 15: “What am I to do? I will pray with the
spirit and I will pray with the mind also.” In other words, it is God’s will that we should come to
a place where our spirit can express joy and glory to Jesus, and we use our mind to put that into
ordinary words that others can understand.

Now don’t sit there and say, “Ah, we can’t use tongues.” Yes, yes you can use tongues. But don’t
remain in tongues alone for the rest of your life. See that the Father wants to bring your mind
under the control of your spirit so that you can speak that forth in beautiful words that others
will understand so that they will say, “Amen.” So that when a stranger comes in he’s not baffled as
if you’re speaking in a foreign language.

Now there are other uses for tongues, but I’m talking about the one where we glorify the Father.
You see it’s the same – many people go into meetings where they speak in tongues, and worship God in
tongues, and then the meeting closes. The strange thing is they’re not closer to each other than
when they first went into the meeting, because the Spirit has not brought their minds and emotions
into submission to their wills. So they are not able to express that love to each other after the
meeting is over. The only way they can really feel one with each other is to blot out all their
minds and bypass all their minds and go straight up in an unknown tongue to God. It shouldn’t be
that way.

Now it is the Father’s will that we should come to a place where we can really express love to each
other, not only in tongues but really using the words of our minds. These are some of the reasons
why God wants us to avoid this business of either annihilating the mind and emotions — or
over-exercising the mind and emotions, thinking that they’re the Spirit.

Alright, how do you come into freedom here? It’s the same truth. It’s through experiencing the
resurrection of Jesus. That resurrection is experienced particularly through the verse that you
read in 2 Corinthians 4:10. This is the progressive experience of Christ’s death in our own lives:
“Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in
our bodies.”

In other words, there is a daily experiencing of Jesus’ death that is specifically planned to deal
with these independent minds and emotions. There is a once-and-for-all experience of Christ’s death
to deal with our selfish wills. But there is a daily experience of Christ’s death to deal with
these independent minds and emotions, and that’s the experiencing that the Holy Spirit wants to make
real in us.

How does he do it? Through our believing and obeying two truths that are there in scripture.
First, the believing. Believe Hebrews 4:12. That will save us from all our attempts at annihilation
of our minds and emotions, or over-exercising of them. Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living
and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints
and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

In other words, the first step in dealing with these problems here is to believe God’s word:
“Father, I believe that you by your word will distinguish between my soul and my spirit. You will
gradually bring about through revelation a knowledge of when I’m using my soul and when I’m using my
spirit.” That’s the first step to take.

The second step is found there in 2 Corinthians 4:8. It’s the way God deals with this and makes
this real in us. It’s obedience to this truth that enables the Holy Spirit to separate our souls —
our minds and emotions — from our spirits, and to bring them under the control of the Spirit. It
isn’t an easy way but it is God’s way, using breaking experiences: “We are afflicted in every way,
but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down,
but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus.”

Then what happens when you do that? Verse 16: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature,”
our soul — our minds and emotions and their independent strength, “is wasting away, our inner
nature,” our spirit, “is being renewed every day.” God brings that about inside you.

What does it mean? I remember going home in the car one morning after service about three or four
years ago. It had been a good service. It was in Bethany Presbyterian Church and Jesus was just
really there. I was going down the River Road and was just singing away and I was really enjoying
it. I was just glad that Jesus had done such a work in the service. I got home, sat down at lunch,
and just went way down emotionally. I didn’t know what was wrong. Then I began to seek God. God
showed me, “You were high on emotion. What you’re now experiencing is just a breaking experience.
I have to break you from that kind of emotionalism, because if you will go high on sheer emotion,
Satan can bring you low in emotion the next moment.” Now that’s the kind of thing that God will
bring to you.

You’ll gush out at somebody who comes into service on a Sunday and they’ll just turn you off. In
fact, you’ll hear in a roundabout way from some friend that they were utterly put off the body and
utterly put off Christianity by the way you dealt with them. That’s a breaking experience. God
will bring you daily into breaking experiences that break the independent power of that mind and
emotions, until eventually the Holy Spirit brings them under his control.

Now if you say, “When does that finish?” Probably when we see Jesus face-to-face. That goes on
throughout this life. But you can tell by discernment of the spirit the people who are beginning to
come into this kind of experiencing. They’re people who seem to transmit a hidden quiet life to you
without dissipating you emotionally — whereas there are other people who wear you out. They talk
far too much. They tell you what they think, and then they tell you it over again. They tell it to
you five times more. The original truth was good and exciting but you’re worn out now with it. Now
people who have been broken in their soulish powers transmit just a pure life of Jesus to you and
you transmit it to them.

There is much more really in connection with that, but that at least introduces you to it. Those of
you who have been to the seminars know that we deal with that particularly in the seminar “Walking

in the Spirit.” Watchman Nee deals with it particularly in this book Release of the Spirit. So
maybe you’d just remember that what I’m trying to do is give you just the skeleton of the way God
deals with us in our life.

I’ll just deal very quickly with the last one. Many of us come into this problem where we find:
yes, we’re free from the emotionalism. But our spirits are often irresponsible. Often we get up in
the morning and our spirit will not rise up to God. It just will not rise up. It seems to have a
heaviness about it. We come into a meeting of some kind and our spirit just sinks down low. Or we
begin to find that after a while of walking in the Spirit our spirit begins to ebb. Or it begins to
be blocked inside as it can’t get out somehow. And we find that our spirit is irresponsible. Where
the Holy Spirit of Jesus is rising up to the Father and glorifying him, our spirit is sinking down
inside us.

Now really, many of us try to get over that by all kinds of exercises. We try to fight Satan by our
own exertions. We come into a situation in the home where Satan has just turned the atmosphere sour
and we get in there with our sleeves rolled up, and we set about analyzing everybody. Analyze dad.
Analyze mom. Analyze the brother and the sister. Put everyone right. Then it should be beautiful
— and the whole place falls apart.

Or, we come into a situation in the office. Satan has just got in there and he’s brought about an
impossible situation. Two people have talked about us and we know about it. We get in there and we
start tackling Satan on our own. We decide what we need here is a sensitivity group. We get
everybody to confess all that they said to everybody else and then we sort the whole thing out. And
it’s just agony. It’s just miserable.

In other words, we’re fighting Satan not with our spirits but we’re fighting him as if we’re
fighting flesh and blood. Now there is only one way to fight Satan and that is really on the basis
of Ephesians 2:6. It simply states that we who were dead in our trespasses and sins have been
raised up and made to sit with God in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And that position is
stated there in Ephesians 1:21: “Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above
every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” That’s the
position that we have to come into.

In order to fight Satan, in order to have a spirit that is responsible to the Holy Spirit, we need
to come into a position of Jesus’ ascension. That is a miracle that the Holy Spirit works in us.

Now I know that tonight maybe we’re already past where a lot of us are right now. But I just want
to share it so that you at least know where to go. It’s necessary not only to come into
resurrection as far as your mind and emotions are concerned. But it’s necessary to share with Jesus
his ascension. That is, to come into that place of revelation of the Holy Spirit where you sit with
Jesus at the right hand of the Father.

Now that’s a miracle. You can’t bring that about. You can’t bring it about by saying, “Oh yeah,
I’m raised with Jesus to the right hand of the Father. I’m with Jesus at the right hand of the
Father. Yeah, you can do what you like with me. I’m with Jesus at the right hand of the Father.”

That’s autosuggestion, deals with the mind, and gives you a soulish experience but not a spiritual
experience of ascension with Jesus. There is only really one way to come into it, and that is to
allow God to crucify you and bury you completely with Jesus. Then in his good time, as you set your

eyes on this fact of your resurrection with Jesus, you allow the Holy Spirit to make it real in you.

The way is just to really believe Colossians 3:2, and to believe that what God said is true — that
you’ve been raised with Jesus to the right hand of the Father: “Set your minds on things that are
above, not on things that are on earth.” And to begin to deal with life as if you really are at the
right hand of the Father there, and to allow the Holy Spirit to make that real in you. Then you’re
to obey him as he says in James 4:7, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

In other words, the way to experience real victory in spiritual warfare is to believe that position
that you’re in with Christ. You’re above all rule, and authority, and dominion, and power. Then,
you’re to resist Satan down here on this earth. That is the way God brings about spiritual victory
in situations such as I described in the office and the home.

Now that’s just a very skeleton outline. But I think it’s important for you to realize that God has
a liberty and a freedom for you to come into in each of those areas. The complete man or woman in
Jesus is one who is beginning to come into these things.

Now don’t set it up as one, two, three, and four. God will deal with you in his own way and his own
time, and he’ll continue to deal with all of us presumably on points three and four. We’ll
continually have to start the day on the cross with him for victory in regard to the selfish will.
Again, and again, as God reveals to us sins that we didn’t realize we had, we’ll have to come into a
real experience of Romans 5:9.

But do you see? There is a way of freedom to walk in. It is through experiencing fully the birth,
death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit making these things
real in our lives. It really comes through believing and obeying.

One of the reasons I shared these things with you at all tonight, is to emphasize that it is God’s
will for us to walk in liberty and victory. Whenever you’re in bondage or whenever you’re down
about something, it is not because you’re experiencing truth. It’s because you’re believing some
lie or some deception of Satan. The way into victory are these words that God has given us. So I
do pray that even though it’s just a skeleton introduction, that you will seek the Holy Spirit.

Forget now everything that has been said. Forget what we showed on the overhead projector. Forget
all the little illustrations that we used. Go to the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, only you
can keep me in liberty and freedom. I trust you to do it. I trust you to bring the right truth and
apply it to me, and show me what I’ve to believe and to obey at each stage of my life in Jesus.”

Then it is possible to walk really continually in victory. I’m 38 so I’ve been on it for maybe 21
years, and been in victory in the Holy Spirit for seven or eight years. It is not necessary to
spend hours or days in depression and despondency. It just is not. It is possible to walk in
continual victory. It really is. Certainly there’s warfare, but you have a peace inside that
passes all understanding. So I really do covet that for you and pray that you’ll experience it.

How to Be Saved

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I think we, as a group, are beginning slowly to be dear friends. I think we’re beginning to have
some concern about each other and some love for each other — at least, I hope that you feel that
way and I certainly feel it about all of you. One of the things that concerns me is if any of you
ever die this week, I want you to be in the right place with God. I think probably we feel that more
and more about each other — that’s what real love is. So I’m going to try to break from the study
this morning because I do want to be sure that you’re ready. I’d just like to explain as simply as
possible the gospel so that if there’s anybody here that has never made a decision for Jesus that
they’ll be able to make it at the end of this service.

God tells us all that there’s no distinction between any of us here in this room because every one
of us have sinned and we fall short of the glory of God. That’s what he says. There’s no
distinction for all of you, that’s you and me — we’ve all sinned and we even now, fall short of the
glory of God. That is all of us are less than what he meant us to be and every one of us have
sinned here. It doesn’t mean we have all committed crimes — we haven’t. It doesn’t mean we’re all
involved in vices — maybe we’re not. Sin is something different from crimes or vices. It’s not
that God looks down with his telescope and makes an empirical observation, “He sinned. She sinned.
He sinned.” No, no — he says that because he knows it’s true in himself. He states that as
absolute truth, that all of us here have sinned.

Now, what does sin mean? Well, James 4:17 says, “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do
it for him it is sin.” So that’s maybe the simplest definition of sin loved ones. Any of us who
know what is right to do and fail to do it, for us that is sin. You can see then sin is something
you know you shouldn’t do and you do it. God listed some of those things so that we would
understand it in the plainest terms. He said, “Look, if you really trust me and you love me then
you won’t have any other gods before me. If you do have any other gods before me then you’re
sinning. Look, if you trust me and you love me, you won’t covet. You won’t spend nights thinking,
‘I wish I had that thing,’ or, ‘Why can’t I have it?’ You won’t covet. If you do covet, that is
sin. You won’t commit adultery.” Then Jesus said, “Now committing adultery is not just doing an
outward act of adultery but anybody who looks on a woman to lust after her in his heart he has
already committed adultery.” So committing adultery either inside or outside, that’s a sin.

God said, “If you trust me for all that you need then you won’t steal. You won’t steal things from
people. You won’t steal little things from your employer. You won’t steal big things. You won’t
steal other people’s reputation by bearing false witness against them. You won’t do these things if
you trust me and if you do those things, you’re stealing. You won’t kill.” And you remember, Jesus
said, “Well it was said of old time, ‘Thou shall not kill,’ but I say unto you if you’re angry with
your brother, you’re guilty of the judgment. So killing a person or wishing they were dead, that’s
a sin, or wishing ill against them, or hoping that something bad will fall upon them — that’s sin.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. If you swear, that’s sin.” It’s not just
a silly little thing that our Sunday school teacher tells us we shouldn’t do. It’s not just a
little bit of bad manners that our mums and dads told us to stop. It’s not just a swinging thing to
do or a sophisticated thing. In God’s eyes it’s a sin. If you say, “My God”, or “Christ,” that’s a
sin. That’s mocking him. That’s pretending that he is not God in the universe. That is just a
thing like that, that’s sin.

So loved ones, when you do any of those things you’re sinning. If you disobey God in any way that
you know you’re disobeying him, that’s a sin. In fact, you remember, God outlined it in greater
detail. He said, actually there are inward things that other people don’t see at all and they are
sin. Envy is a sin. Jealous is a sin. Pride is a sin. Selfishness is a sin. That’s why God,
seems to me, is on pretty firm ground when he says all of us here, in this room at least, have
sinned at some time in our life and we probably, at present, in some way fall short of God’s glory.

Loved ones, the incredible thing is that we sin because we actually can’t help it. We sin, in a
way, because we can’t help it — that is, we sin because we are sinners. We’re not sinners because
we sin. We sin because we’re sinners. An apple tree bears apples because it’s an apple tree. It
isn’t an apple tree because you’ve observed it bears apples. It’s the STATE that comes first. God
says, “Yes, you’ve sinned in that you’ve disobeyed me outwardly in act, and thought and word — but
also, you have the attitude of a sinner inside in your heart.” Actually, if you think of it, it is
true isn’t it? It’s the reason we bear false witness against our neighbor, which after all if you
think of it, is a very simple little thing that probably most of us have done. We say about
somebody, “Oh yeah, you know, he’s like that.” And you say, “Oh well, it’s the truth.” But so often
we’re exaggerating it a bit because we want them to think a certain way about another person — so
we bear false witness against them, or we criticize them behind their back, which actually, all of
us have been brought up to know is wrong. We know it’s wrong but we say something about somebody
behind their back when they aren’t there to defend themselves.

Now, why do we do that? Well you know why we do it. We do it because we think if we can bring them
down a little we can raise ourselves up a little. We do it often to establish a confidence with the
other person, “Oh you know, I feel a way about that creature as you do.” It makes you feel together
on it. Really, you don’t tear anybody down for the sheer joy of tearing them down. You’re usually
tearing them down to show how clever, or insightful or how righteous you yourself are. Of course,
you’re doing that because you want other people to think well of you. You want them to respect you
and to look up to you.

Now why do you do that? Because you don’t really think anybody else looks up to you or thinks a lot
of you — especially, the One that matters. You have a feeling, “Yeah well, my God doesn’t think
much of me. He doesn’t think a lot of me and boy, I’m determined that somebody will think a lot of
me.” Why do we steal? I mean, very few of us here steal — we just steal time, or we steal an
eraser, or a pen, or something stupid or we steal money. We fiddle it so that the money comes into
our pocket or we get out of paying something that we should really pay. Nobody knows very much —
but WE know. Why do we do it? Because we have a desperate feeling that we have to gather in the
nuts somehow. We have to take care of ourselves. We have to look after ourselves. We have to
watch out for ourselves. We do that because we don’t really believe there’s a dear God who watches
out for us. We don’t really believe that stuff that Jesus said, “Look at the lilies of the field,
they toil not, neither do they root and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. Will he not much more clothe you, oh you of little faith?” We don’t really believe that.
We feel, “No, no — he probably won’t.” That’s why we steal or why we manipulate things.

Now do you see loved ones, that the outward acts of sin are unimportant? It’s the inward ATTITUDE
of sin that is the killer. That’s why we sin. We sin outwardly. We disobey God outwardly in act,
and thought and words because inside we really are running a kind of a little world of our own. We
are really gods ourselves. You remember, that’s what the serpent said to Eve at the beginning,
“Surely, when you eat of this tree you’ll be like God.” That’s our real problem, loved ones. It’s

not so much the outward sins. They’re just an outflow of this inward attitude we have that we are
really a god on our own and we want to do things our own way. We have to take care of ourselves
because he sure isn’t going to. That’s what this dear book says. It says that sin is lawlessness.
It’s not just doing things that are wrong. It’s not just saying things that are wrong. It’s a
lawless attitude inside us — we don’t care. We’ll kick over the traces. We’ll have our own way.
We’ll manipulate our own way somehow. We’ll appear to be pleasing him — but we’ll get our own way.
All the time we feel we’re laughing behind our hand at God and everybody else because we feel we’re
responsible for our own selves. We feel he won’t take of us and we better look after ourselves. It
doesn’t matter who we trample over to do it. So we have a whole attitude in our heart of sin.
That’s it.

“Sin” is “S”, and the big “I” in the middle, “N”. It is, I, I myself, I am my god, I have the right
to things the way I want them. Isn’t that why we get impatient with each other? It is. It’s
stupid getting impatient with each other. There’s no sense in it — but you know why we do it? We
do it because we feel we want things to go at our pace and we know the way they should go, and, “Why
can’t they do it our way?” It’s because we have this feeling that the whole world revolves around
us. Brothers and sisters, do you see we’re all like that?

I mean, there’s no shame in admitting it. We’re all like that. We’re like that in our attitude to
each other. We have an attitude of sin, of ME first: “I want my way. I want to defend my rights. I
want to assert myself over everybody else.” Loved ones, that has turned us into monsters, into
absolute perversions of the beautiful relaxed free unselfish princes and princesses that God made us
at the very beginning — really. I don’t know if you’ve looked in the mirror at times and seen old
wrinkles or seen worry, or seen anxiety in you, but do you realize we’ve fallen far short of those
liberated men and woman that God made at the beginning who rested in him in absolute trust, and
confidence, and peace and wouldn’t hurt a thing because they had everything they needed in him?

What God says of course, is that we have created something dangerous that he didn’t create. We have
created inside ourselves a hostile nature that not only hates him but that really, in a subtle way,
hates everybody else and sees everybody else as competing with us. So we have created inside
ourselves a kind of “parasite nature” that lives off everybody else and wants to use everybody else
for our benefit, He says that is built into us. We have not created that. We’ve passed it down
from generation to generation until you and I have what he calls “sinful natures”. We have
attitudes and natures and personalities that have become utterly perverted and that we cannot any
longer control. Actually, you must admit isn’t it what we feel? I mean, when Paul said those words
in Romans 7, that’s what we feel. He said, “I don’t understand my own actions anymore. I don’t do
the good that I want, I do the very thing that I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, then it
shows that I know that the law is good and I want to obey it but I find another law at work in my
personality that makes me obey the law of evil.” And isn’t that what we find?

All of us here want to do what is right — but we find that we have developed some other personality
that doesn’t want to do what is right, and in fact, works on the basis of self and of opposing
everybody else and trampling over everybody else. That’s what God says, “You loved ones have
created billions, and billions now of little evil personalities that are more dangerous to my
universe than any nuclear bomb could be because if you are allowed to go free with that forever,
you’ll fill the world with your own garbage and you’ll fill the world with your own hate. You’ll
make us all bow down and obey you.” Loved ones, I know you feel as I did, “Oh no, no, no! That’s
not what I’m like.” But honestly loved ones, it’s only lack of opportunity that has prevented you
making us all your slaves. We’re all the same. It’s only harmless looking because we don’t have

the opportunity, or the conventions of society to hold us back or the rest won’t let us. But
really, we have something inside us that is so evil that God said, “Look, there’s only one thing
that I can do with that.” And he put it this way, “The wages of sin is death. In other words, I’ve
built a self-destruct mechanism into your personalities that when you begin to develop them like
this, they will be destroyed. I had to do it. To protect my own universe, I had to do it.” And
actually, of course, that’s what you and I fear.

I mean death itself is not a fearful thing. Even those who have died in great pain say death itself
is not a fearful thing — but it’s what Hamlet said, you remember, “It’s the fear of that unknown
country beyond the grave.” It’s that fear that troubles us. You know, all of us have that fear in
us. That’s the testimony, that we are under sentence of death because we often wonder, “Now, what
is beyond the grave?” And of course, many of us also have a sense of a condemnation of death in our
consciences. When you do sin isn’t it true you come into a kind of darkness? You come into a kind
of depression? That’s the human witness that God has condemned everyone to death who has ever
sinned. I think all of us have that awareness –you realize, “Yeah, when I do something wrong I
feel something dark inside me. I feel somebody does not approve of me.” That’s proof that we are
under condemnation of death and that the wages of sin is death, that God has so created us all that
he will destroy automatically all of us that have lived for ourselves and have developed a
personality that would dictate to the world. That’s our present situation, loved ones. Do you see
that’s why it’s kind of stupid stuff where we kind of say, “Oh well, yes I’m not good so I’ll try to
be better and please God.” That isn’t the issue. That isn’t the issue at all.

The issue with God is you have now become such a dangerous, selfish and self-centered personality
that there’s nothing to do but destroy you for the sake of the rest of the universe. Being good,
trying to be good is simply a selfish personality bluffing the rest of us That’s why he says, “The
wages of sin is death.” That’s the only answer. Loved ones, that’s it you know. If we go on the
way we are, we’ll come to the end of this life, and then that evil nature will be destroyed
completely, and we will be cast into a nothingness kind of atmosphere where we’ll go on existing —
but existing in our own emptiness and our own frustration. The gospel is of course, that God took
your evil nature and he put it in his Son and he destroyed it there.

That’s why he says, “God commands his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.” That’s why John Donne, the English poet says, “Christ became the sewer for the world’s
sin” because the rottenest part of you, the most selfish part, the dirtiest part, the most proud
part, the most cruel part Jesus took into himself and allowed his Father to destroy it and burn it
out into nothingness with his wrath. And that’s why Jesus died. And God says, “Therefore repent
and believe the gospel.” Repent and believe that.

That’s what he asks us to do. “Repent” means that you turn from your sin — not only your outward
sins so that if you’re fornicating or you’re committing adultery, you stop it. That’s what “repent”
means. It means you stop doing that — but not only that, but your inward attitude of building
yourself up as the great important person among all the rest of us, putting yourself first all the
time, you repent of that — you turn from that and you put God first in your life. That’s what
“repent” means — you believe the gospel, you believe that your old miserable sinful personality,
with all its unmanageability and it’s incorrigibility, was crucified with Christ in time and space
on Calvary. But that’s really, only the outward show — in eternity from before the foundation of
the world, God destroyed what you and I have created by our sin. He says this morning to us,
“Repent and believe the gospel.”

That’s what a Christian is. A Christian is someone who believes that and then acts in accordance
with their belief. You believe that Christ’s death was brought about by your sin, and that he cried
out, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me,” when YOU should have cried that out. You believe
that he cried that out for every sin that you ever committed, for every cruel word that you ever
spoke to anybody — you should have cried that out when you met God at the end of his life — but he
cried it out for you. If you really believe that, you can see that you won’t want to have anything
to do with that stuff again. I mean, this Savior has gone to hell for those things, so if you
really believe that, you’ll turn from those things. That’s what repentance means. And that’s loved
ones, why it’s so stupid for us to say, “Oh, I believe it. I believe it. But I just can’t stop
doing these things.”

You know how I’ve suggested to you that it is as if your sin put Jesus on the cross, as if every
unclean thought that you have ever had was a nail in his hands? Do you see when you say, “I believe
that,” and you think another unclean thought, it’s another nail into his hands? You speak another
cruel word to somebody, it’s another nail in his hands. The whole cross shudders. The whole body
of the Savior falls apart as you pin him with the sins that you continue to commit in your life.
You see why to become a child of God or a Christian, you believe the gospel — but because you
believe it, you STOP crucifying the Savior. You repent. You turn from not only those things, you
stop doing them, but you also change your attitude inside and you put God first in your life instead
of yourself first. When you do that of course, a miraculous thing happens — God gives you a gift.

He gives you the gift of his Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit comes into your life and gives you the
strength and grace to live like that. To live above sin. As you struggle even with inward sin,
later on as the months pass, the Holy Spirit leads you into absolute deliverance even from that by
showing you exactly what Christ did on the cross for you. But at this stage loved ones, I would ask
you, do you believe that?

Now, you all have sat here for many weeks, and days and months. I have explained and justified and
you have read books. So I ask you, do you believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, and died, and
actually experienced the hell of separation from his own God and his own Father because he had your
sin, your whole attitude of sin, your whole personality inside himself, and that he who knew no sin
was made to be sin for you? Now, do you believe that?

Now do you see that if you DO see, you don’t have any alternative. I mean, if you believe that if
you’re not a monster you must stop doing those things in your life. You must because, you’re wise
enough to know that eternity is one great eternal moment and that Christ is still enduring the agony
and the pain each time you put a nail into his hands. So, if you believe it then you must change
today. I put it to you loved ones, if you don’t change you are more cruel than Hitler ever was —
aren’t you? I mean, you are more ruthless than the worse person we can think of — this fella that
we think killed all of the little guys in Atlanta. He killed little guys, but you’re killing again
the purist man that ever lived — but also the man that gave his life for you.

That’s why, loved ones, I urge you this morning, repent and believe the gospel. Turn from the
things that are wrong in your life, begin to turn even from the attitude that is wrong where you’re
treating yourself as if you’re just the great important person in the whole place and turn to God —
and put him first in your life. If you do that, this very morning God will give you the Holy
Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit. He will give you grace so that tomorrow morning, when you get
up to pray, the Spirit will be there and will give you a sense of God’s presence. When you open

your Bible on the gospel of John, the Spirit will make the words live for you.

That’s what happens when a person becomes a child of God, when a person becomes a Christian, or is
“born of God”. You know, if you say to me again, “What do I have to do?” You can do it right now
where you’re sitting. I would encourage you to make a stand somewhere. Don’t say, “Well, I will,”
or, “I’ll think about it.” There’s a power of evil that works in you at this moment that says, “I
will think of it in a more convenient season,” and you’ll never get back to it. No, make a stand.

Many of you have been coming for years here and you’ve been moving, as you know, nearer and nearer
— but loved ones, you’ll move nearer and nearer forever unless you QUIT your sin and you receive
Christ’s Spirit into your life and you commit yourself to listening to that Spirit. That’s it!

That’s why they talk about it as being “born”. There can be nine months there [in the womb] but
there’s a moment when the little child comes out, and he’s born into a new world and sees sights
that he could never see in his mother’s womb. So are you if you have not been born of God. You
have been dwelling here in what is a very dark world compared with the brightness of the world that
surrounds God’s own presence.

So loved ones, it does take a definite stand and a definite act of faith. I would encourage you to
do it, especially if you’ve never done it. In the Methodist church, they did encourage us. I made
a decision when I was 13, and then it became real when I was 17. So, a lot of us in the Methodist
church went through confirmation like you Lutherans, and we went through the form. In fact, some of
you who are Baptist say, “Oh I was immersed and yet, I didn’t know what it was about.”

So loved ones, again, we’re all kind of in the same boat. We’ve all gone through all kinds of hoops
— ecclesiastical and otherwise — and really, what we need to do this morning is we need to say,
“Have I ever made a decision for Jesus whatever you call it? Have I ever committed my life to him?
Have I ever repented and believed the gospel? Have I ever taken a stand and said, ‘I’m no longer a
spectator. I’m no longer observing. I’m no longer watching. I no longer go to campus, but I am a
child of God this morning. Lord God, I want to align myself with those who lifted your Son off the
cross — and I want to take myself out of the crowd who put him on that cross.” That’s it, loved
ones.

So really, it’s up to you. As a man, all you could do for me is what I’m trying to do for you. All
we can do for each other is explain it — but YOU have to act for yourself. What if you don’t act?
The killer is that it’s a “beautiful” situation we have: you can keep on coming Sunday after Sunday,
and who knows the difference — except that some week, you won’t be here. Some week you won’t be
here anymore. Maybe somebody will notice you’re not here. Wouldn’t it be tragic if you were to be
in hell and nobody knows, least of all you, that you should have done something about it?

So loved ones, will you think seriously where you stand? I would urge you, especially those who
have listened to this old voice for so long, be clear where you stand. Be clear where you stand
with God. Have you ever repented and believed the gospel and begun to read your Bible, and to pray
each day, and to get to know your maker? Have you? Have you ever quit your sin? I would encourage
you because I love you and think we’re beginning to take care and concern for each other. I’d
encourage you to do something now, today — I would.

You can do it as you sit there. We’re all different, do you realize that? I thought it would be
good to do it in an open way if some of us need that — mind you, it’s the cerebral ones often that

need it. I used to think, “Oh well, I’ll just change my way of thinking.” Often it’s those of us
who pride ourselves on our ability to think, we’re the ones who need to walk up and say we’ve done
it. Of course, the Bible does say, “You ought to confess before men.” In your “heart belief”, you
believe in your heart but you confess with your mouth onto salvation. Confessing with your mouth is
not just speaking it out to the people that you work with tomorrow, but it’s proclaiming before
others. It’s witnessing, “Yes, I have chosen Christ and I will give my life to him as he has given
his life for me.” So some of us need to do that.

Some of us can do it sitting in our seat, or we can do it while we’re standing — it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter at all which way you do it, but do it in a way that’s necessary for you. So, if
you need to come up here during the last hymn, then do that. If God says to you, “It’s time you
stopped sitting on the fence. It’s time you testified to some other human being, ‘Look I’m moving.
I’m changing my spot. I’m no longer going to sit in this maybe/maybe not situation’” — then you
should come up. If you have been a child of God before, and you’ve lost it all, or you’ve just
backslid, then you should make a stand.

I would encourage you to do it — either to come up during the last hymn or to do it quietly in your
own place and then to make a change tomorrow in your life, to begin to read the Bible, to begin to
pray and to testify to somebody tomorrow that you yourself became a Christian yesterday, or you
became a child of God. I’d avoid “born again” because everybody is “born again” — but something
definite that makes something real to you and means what you mean it to mean.

So loved ones, we’ll stand and sing this great hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”. If you
feel you should make a stand then loved ones, just come up. You can kneel here and we’ll pray at
the end. “When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died. My riches gain I
count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.” [Singing time on video is 36:08 – 39:07]

Let us pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for your death for us and we know we owe everything to you
Lord Jesus, this life and the next. And so Lord, we would in our own hearts, with the loved ones
who are kneeling here, we would give our hearts and our lives to you. Thank you, Lord, that
everything has depended on you all along and depends on you this day. Lord, we would give our lives
to you and trust you now to put your Holy Spirit into our hearts and into the hearts of those who
kneel here that you will live your life again through us from this day forward.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with
each one of us now and evermore. Amen.

What is the New Birth?

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I think there are many people that say, “Oh, I’m born again,” when what they’ve done is they’ve
started to believe that there is a God, or they’ve started to believe that there may be a real Jesus
Christ, or they’ve started to believe that maybe it is possible to have your sins forgiven, or it’s
maybe possible to change your way of life. They say, “Ah, that’s the way I think. I’m born again.”

Now loved ones, Jesus once said, you remember, in that chapter that we read — he referred to being
born again. In John 1, John said in interpretation of those words, “Who are born not of blood, or
of the will of man, or the will of flesh, but of God.” Many of us are just being born of the flesh
when we refer to the new birth as a change in the way we think about things.

Now others of us think we’re born again because we’re born once. That is we say, “Now wait a
minute. This is a Christian country. America is a Christian country. Look, ‘In God We Trust’ on
the coins and my parents were Christians. Really, our home was a good Christian home — no murders,
no fornication. We were a good Christian ethical bunch. I was born into that group and I approve
all the things you Christians approve. I approve of them. I think they’re good. I’m for all the
things you’re for. I believe that Christianity has done more for the world than any other religion.
I am for Christianity and I’ve always been Christian. I’ve never been anything else but Christian.
I’ve always thought this way. I’ve always approved the things that Christians approve of. I
always oppose abortion. I vote for the right politician and I read the right books. I’ve always
been Christian. I don’t know what you mean by being “born again”. I think I was born again the
first time I was born. I’m just a unique phenomenon in the world that happens always to have been
Christian.”

Do you not think that there are many of us that have really nice personalities? Isn’t that true? I
mean, there are many of us that have really pleasant personalities. We just had good dads or moms,
and we’ve just inherited a lot of their kindliness and their goodness. And we tend to identify
being born again with having a pleasant personality and on the whole, a loving attitude to other
people and we feel, “I’ve always been like that.” Now loved ones, that’s being born of blood and
it’s not what being born again is. Some of us say, “Born again? I’ve always been Lutheran.” Or,
“I’ve always been Baptist. In fact, not only have I always been Baptist, but I’ve been baptized.
Right, the whole deal, water over the top and everything.” “I’ve been Baptist,” or, “I’ve been
Lutheran,” or, “I’ve been Methodist. I’ve always gone to church. I’ve always belonged to the right
group and the right religious Lion’s Club. That’s me. If there’s a groupie, I’m a groupie. I’m in
the right bunch. And isn’t that being ‘born again’, being with the crowd that are going to get into
heaven? Well, I’m with them.” “I’ve always been a Lutheran. “I’ve always been a good Baptist.”
“I’ve always been a good Methodist. I’m born again.”

Loved ones, the tragedy with so many brothers and sisters who say that “I’m born again because I’ve
changed my intellectual approach to life,” or “I’m born again because I’ve always thought this way
— I was born in a good Christian family,” or “I’m born in a Christian country,” or “I’m born again
because I belong to the right church or the right group,” is that they share the same desperate
psychological disease that fills the lives of so many who don’t believe in God at all. That is,
they don’t think they’re worth anything. They have a great problem with self-esteem. They have a
great problem with self-worth. They have a great problem feeling that they’re worth anything. They

have a terrible inferiority complex and they feel, “Ah, I’m nothing and I’m going nowhere.”

Now loved ones, a person who is really born again does not have that problem. But I think many of
us who think we’re born again but aren’t really, have the same problem as all the other people in
this world. Almost everybody else in this world has a real problem with self-esteem, with
self-worth, with feeling that they’re of any value to anybody. It’s not hard to find out why they
think that. Most of the world really thinks that there is no God or, if there ever was a God, he’s
forgotten about us years ago. So you’re left with that neurotic conclusion that we must be on our
own here — and then after you determine that, you begin to think, “What am I doing?” You begin to
realize, “I’m sitting on a sphere.” And then you say, “Well, well the sphere must have a good solid
foundation,” and then the word comes back from the old satellite pictures. “No, it has no
foundation. There’s nothing underneath. This sphere is in space whirling around.” And you begin
to think, “Well, well, at least it’s staying in one spot!” And they tell you, “No, no! It’s
whirling hundreds of thousands of miles an hour spinning like that and then it’s whirling around
planets missing them every time, century after century — you hope.” And you begin to think, “Wait
a minute! I don’t even do this kind of thing in my car. I drive it. I steer it. I control it. I’m
not sitting on something that’s whirling around madly.” And you begin to realize, “This is a pretty
tentative situation I’m in.” And it’s not long loved ones, before you begin to have a little
trouble with angst.

No wonder they talk about angst in our days, that terrible anxiety that comes upon you when you
wonder, “Where am I and what am I doing? What is this world about? What am I about?” It’s easy to
understand why loved ones would feel that and I think most of the world feels that. That’s why we
begin to realize, “Wait a minute! I’m on a spaceship here in space and I don’t know where it’s
going!” And then somebody says to us, “Yeah, yeah, but you better eat while you’re here,” and so
you decide, “Yeah, I better eat. I better keep alive to see if I can find out where I’m going.”
So, we all begin to give ourselves to trying to get enough to eat, and enough to cloth us and enough
to keep us safe so that we can survive a little longer.

But it all has a dreadful sick and drunken feeling to it. It’s like being on a bus that is hurling
along a highway and at 100 miles an hour — and there’s a concrete wall and you know you’re going to
hit it! You know at the end of 70 years, or 80 years, or if you run a lot, 85 or 90 years, you’re
going to hit that brick wall and yet, here’s somebody coming along saying, “Chocolate? Cigarettes?
Would you like a biscuit?” And you are there, stuffing the old cookies in and drinking the Coke,
and all the while you realize, “This thing is going to hit sooner or later” — that is not a happy
situation to be in. Yet loved ones, that is the position with most of us who don’t really believe
there’s a God. We realize, “This is a terrifying situation I’m in.” Of course, all the world keeps
telling us is, “Yeah, but there’s nothing to do but keep yourself alive as long as you can any way.”
So we all do that. We run to keep ourselves alive as long as possible. We eat food to do the
same. Then gradually, we begin to give ourselves up to that absolutely nonsensical occupation of the
person giving out the chocolate, cigarettes and cookies. We begin to get into the same act. We
begin to find ourselves breaking our backs to get more food, and to get more cookies and to get more
clothing. We find that we devote most of our lives to that — all of us, eight hours a day at least
— many of us, much more than eight hours a day simply to keep ourselves alive. Underneath, from
time-to-time, in those moments near midnight, you think, “But why am I keeping myself alive?” John
Barryman — the poet who taught here at the University of Minnesota and had thrown himself off of
the bridge down at the river there — is only one of the many guys who have thought like this, who
eventually come to the conclusion, “There is no sense in this! This is hopeless!”

Many of us of course, play the game a little longer. We say, “Yeah, yeah, well there must be some
reason for it.” We think, “Well, I am different. There’s something different about me. None of
the rest seem to notice it, but I am different. Maybe if I somehow get them to notice that I’m
different, maybe that will give me a sense of stability.” So we begin to buy nicer clothes and we
begin to try to get bigger jobs, and better executive positions, and better houses, and nicer cars
so that maybe they’ll notice we are different, we are better, we’re unique and that we’re
significant. There’s something inside us that says, “You ARE different — but still, there are four
billion of us in this world and none of the rest seem to think we’re different.” So we get onto
this rat race of trying to get better houses, better jobs, better grades. It starts right from the
beginning.

It seems to start right from our mom — she gives us cookies when we eat our greens. (We say
“greens” in Ireland.) You eat your greens, you eat your vegetables. And your mom says, “I’ll give
you a cookie if you eat your vegetables.” So we eat the vegetables and we get a cookie. And then
when we go to school everybody seems to praise us if we get a letter for football, and so we see,
“Ah, if I get a letter everybody praises me!” And then we get to business and we see, “Ah, if I
sell more than everybody else I’ll get a key to the executive washroom. That’ll be the height of
significance.” And so we go on, and more and more, we’re becoming like little dogs, begging up,
“Give me attention! Give me attention! I’ll do anything! I’ll get a better degree. I’ll sell more
products. I’ll do anything to get attention.”

Of course, gradually as it goes on, we feel more and more lost because we sense, “This is unreal. I
don’t know what this whole thing is about, and I don’t know why I’m doing all these things and yet,
I feel more and more I’m like a little puppet on a string. The strings are attached to my boss at
times and I want to please him. At times, the strings are attached to the commercials that I see on
television and I want to be what they want me to be. The commercials and the educational posters
separate us up into introverts and extroverts, overachievers and underachievers. They tend to make
us more and more feel like little puppets on a string — almost like little robots. We’re doing
what they want us to do.”

We sense these things until we come to that place that Wordsworth described in his poem. He said,

“Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begins to close
Upon the growing Boy.
At length the Man perceives it die away,
and fade into the light of common day.”

Somehow the fun of living, and the fun of life, and the fun of being ourselves is all around us when
we’re children. More and more of us begin to feel that. We begin to lose the sense that there’s any
“me” inside at all.

It’s all intensified by the way our modern technology is going because this dumb computer keeps
sending our credit cards back to us and won’t listen to us. And here we are dumbly trying to talk
to a computer and we feel, “Am I not something better than a machine? I’m talking to a computer —
how mad can you get?” Then we begin to find that the moods, even those we thought were very
personal to us, can be influenced by taking certain pills: uppers when you’re depressed and downers
when you’re too uptight. When people like Skinner tells us we’re just machines, we begin to wonder,
“Yeah, are we? I seem to be just the product of my heredity plus my environment, and I seem to have

no ability to do anything myself or decide anything myself. I wonder is there any “me” inside at
all?”

Sometimes it comes to that place, doesn’t it? You perform THIS way for the coach. You perform THIS
way for your husband or your wife. You perform THIS way for your religious friends. From
time-to-time you wonder, “I wonder what I’m REALLY like? I wonder why I’m here? I wonder am I
really different? I feel I am — but it’s almost as if I’ve lost myself now. I feel as if there’s
no me inside here at all. I could be put along with all the other executives. I could be put along
with all the other ‘B students’, or all the other ‘A- students’. I could be put along with any of
the four billion others in this world and I don’t seem very different from any of them.” That loved
ones, is the terrible hopelessness that hits so many in our world — and certainly hit me at one
time — and I don’t know if it’s ever hit you. Often you come to the place where you think, “I must
try to find myself again. I must try to find out who I am. I must try to find out what I’m really
like. I must try to be myself.” Then you try to be yourself and that’s worse because what you’ve
become is a kind of principle-pleasing, people-pleasing, little self-indulgent animal. If you try
to be yourself now, it’s horrible — nobody wants anything to do with you.

All you’re doing is trying to use the things that you see around us and the people you see around
yourself to make yourself feel satisfied. It’s very easy to come to the place where you say, “Well,
that’s no good. I can’t be myself. Well, maybe I can be what they expect me to do in that
sensitivity group. Maybe I can be what they all expect me to be.” Loved ones, I think many of us
in our world are at the place where we haven’t a clue who we are and we don’t really know what we’re
like. We are like that movie that was produced years and years ago, “Georgy Girl” — that there’s
somebody beautiful inside — if it could only get out.

I think many of us are like that. I think many of you are like that. I think there is something
beautiful in there but nobody else seems to be interested enough in us to help us find it. The fact
is nobody IS because they’re all in the same trouble themselves. The truth is loved ones, you ARE
different. You are different. There is nobody like you — there isn’t. There’s nobody like you in
the whole world. There is nobody like you in the whole universe. Our Creator made you different
from all the rest of us. Even if you’re an identical twin, you know that you’re different from him
or her.

Do you realize there’s nobody in China like you — there’s nobody in Africa like you? But then do
you realize there never has been anybody like you? There hasn’t! There never has been anybody like
you in the whole of the world’s history. Do you realize there never will be anybody like you?
Nobody will ever be born who is exactly like you. You are different. The Creator who made us made
us all different from each other, You are different from everybody else and he knows that. He
knows that this would happen to you. He knew. He knew that we would forget him and start depending
on the world and everybody else for our own needs. He knew that we’d become what we have become,
the very opposite of what he wanted us to be.

Instead of being individuals that are different, people that are free and fresh and spontaneous,
we’ve become stereotyped reproductions of everybody else — and he knew that. He knew that there
would come a time when we would bury ourselves over a whole lot of automatic responses and
reflections just like Pavlov’s dogs until no longer was it possible for us to find ourselves at all.
He knew that. In a great miracle that I don’t even attempt this morning to explain philosophically
— though the heart of it is in Einstein’s theory of relativity and the whole fact that there is no
such thing as time — but in a mighty miracle in his Son Jesus in eternity, he foresaw the way you

would develop. He foresaw the things that would develop in your life. He foresaw the automatic
responses and reflections that now bury you under themselves. He saw the resentments, and the
greed, and the anger that would develop in you that you couldn’t control. He put you into his Son
Jesus and he destroyed you there in an eternity death that was shown in our era in 29 AD. He
recreated you and made you new. He set loose his own Spirit.

His Spirit is really himself and his Spirit is able to make you alive. That’s why Jesus would often
say, “There is a real you inside. There is a real you underneath. There’s a real spirit that is
you — but at the moment, you’re dead in your trespasses and sins. At the moment, you’re dead in
all the things you’re doing to try to make the world work without God. You’re dead. You’re asleep.
The real you is asleep inside and I alone, by my Spirit, can show you who you really are and can
make you alive inside.” Loved ones, that’s the truth.

There is a real person inside you. There is a unique you. Jesus often called it your “spirit”, but
it’s really the real you and it’s the real me. He wants that to come alive because he has put you
here to do something that none of the rest of us can do — now that’s true. It doesn’t matter
whether you’re a freshman at the Minnesota University. It doesn’t matter whether you’re old and
you’ve retired. Your Creator put you here to do something that none of the rest of us can do. He
can show you through his own Spirit coming into your life who you are and what he wants you to do.
That’s it. He can change you from the inside out. That’s what it means to be born again.

You can see why it’s appropriate because it is like a new person being born — really that’s what it
is. It’s the old person who was originally made finding themselves again. If you say, “Well, yeah
I mean, a lot of that applies to me. What do I do?” First, believe it. Believe that that’s true.
Believe that your Creator has made you unique and different from the rest of us. Believe that deep
down you are different, and you’re here to do something that none of the rest of us can do and that
your Creator is able to tell you that. Then secondly, believe that he did change you completely in
his Son Jesus– he did.

You don’t understand all the details of that now, but you can believe that by faith, that he changed
you in his Son Jesus. He destroyed the old self that you were and made you completely new. Then,
ask his Spirit to come in and show you. That’s it. That’s the faith part of it, and I agree,
that’s pretty dumb if there is no Spirit — but there IS loved ones. God has set his Spirit loose
in this world and his Spirit is the power inside you that has often made you feel you should try to
find your way to God. It’s the part of you that has often stirred in your conscience and made you
feel you ought to do certain things. It’s the part of you that has made you feel, “I am different
— I am! I am! People can tell me what they like, but I am different. I know I’m different — not
just my name, but I am unique. I feel I’m unique. I’m not the best. I’m not the greatest but I am
different. Somebody up there knows that I’m here. Somebody up there will receive me at the end of
this life.” It’s the Spirit inside you that has made you feel that.

So what you need to do is turn to that dear Spirit, it’s the Spirit of Jesus, and say, “Lord Jesus,
would you help me to find who I am inside? Will you come in and begin to show me what my Maker
wants me to do for my 70 or 80 years here on earth?” Loved ones, it doesn’t matter how clumsily you
do it or how crudely you do it, God will answer you and his Spirit will begin to deal with you in
ways that will be different from all the rest of us here. He will begin to deal with you and begin
to show you why he put you here on earth. I pray especially for anybody who feels some of the
things that I’ve described — that you’ll do that today.

Let us pray. Dear God, we do thank you for your goodness in making us and confess that we do feel
lost at times in this world. At times we get exacerbated because we seem to be nothing but little
people-pleasers. So often, we seem to be living a half-life. So often, we are trying to do what
everybody expects us to do, and what we’ve been taught to do and not really doing what we believe we
are deep down.

So dear God, we do believe that you put us here and that you know that we’re here, and you actually
even know our names and that you’ve put us here to do something for you that is different.
Everything that you have made has a purpose in it. We believe that you have put us here for a
purpose. So dear God, we ask you now, will you send your Spirit into our minds, and into our
emotions and into our own spirits? Will you make us alive inside so that we can begin to talk to
you and to have some conversation with you? Dear God, we do believe that you did something in Jesus
that we can’t understand and that you knew all this would happen, and that not only our computers
can project into the future, but YOU can with your great infinite mind. You foresaw that we’d
become like this, and that you have changed us in Jesus and that we can have that change made real
in us through your Spirit.

So we ask you, dear Spirit of God, will you come and show us what games we have to stop playing in
our lives, and what people we have to stop pleasing and show us how to turn to God and start living
our life to please him? Lord, we ask this so that you will be satisfied and glad that you’ve made
us and so that our lives may begin to go in some direction that it’s worthwhile. We ask this in
Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen.

How Do You Know You’re Born Again?

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Imagine that you had some deadly disease and the doctor came to you and told you that if you took
these pink pills it would cure you — but they were the only cure for the disease. You went home
and you took the pills and yet, the disease continued to get worse. You came back to the doctor and
said, “I took those pills and yet, it doesn’t seem to be taking with me. It’s having no effect. I’m
just getting weaker and weaker!” Then he said to you, “Now, are you sure you took those pills? Are
you sure you took them? They were pink, you remember, did you take those? I mean, you didn’t have
any red pills in the medicine cabinet, too — and maybe you took them by mistake?”

You know what you would hope. You would hope, “Well, maybe I DID take the wrong ones.” You would
hope that when you went home, you’d found you HAD taken the wrong pills — because that gave you
some reason to believe the pink pills would work with you the way they worked with others. I think
most of us are in that situation, “I’d far rather discover that I hadn’t taken the right antidote
than that I’d taken this antidote and it hadn’t worked for me.” That’s why I thought it would be
good to talk about this “new birth” thing — because I think there are a lot of us very “thinking
people” who hear about the new birth, and hear about how it changes everything, and how it makes
sense out of life, and how it makes life satisfying, and how it makes life successful. A lot of us
think we’ve tried it and it doesn’t seem to have taken with us.

Loved ones, all I’m anxious is that you really have tried it. That you will really have tried the
new birth and not some of the counterfeits that you get today. You remember last Sunday morning, we
talked about how many people think they’re born again when they’ve adopted a new set of values, a
kind of “Christian set of values”, or they’ve changed their way of thinking, or they’ve adopted a
new set of ethical standards in their life. They say, “I’ve been born again.” All they mean is,
“My mind has come into some enlightenment. I’m seeing some things clearer than I did before.”
That’s what they mean.

A new birth is not just that. The tragedy is that many of us have come into that after we’ve been
struggling with alcoholism, or with immorality in our own life or with some drug addiction. So
often, that change in our way of thinking is connected with a real freedom of some kind that we’ve
come into in our own lives. Often we put the two together and say, “Ah, I must have been born again
because I’m thinking differently. I’m thinking now the way all those Christians think, and I have
come free of this drug addiction and so I’m born again.” Well, not necessarily.

Many of us can have changed our way of thinking and adopted a new set of values and even come into
new friends. Many of us have joined some church and we feel, “Ah, I’ve been born again because I’ve
changed all my friends. I’ve changed my whole social circle.” In fact, all that’s taken place is
we’ve become groupies, religious groupies — but really, a new birth has not taken place inside us.
You remember I suggested last day that one of the ways you can determine if you’re born again or not
is, do you suffer the same dreadful plague that everybody suffers in our day — or do you not? That
dreadful plague is this terrible sense of lack of self-worth that so many people in our society
have, a dreadful feeling that they’re not worth anything, a dreadful lack of self-esteem, a dreadful
lack of any value to their own lives. It seems that almost everybody you talk to, at least in
western civilization, is suffering that agony inside in their own hearts. Loved ones, you can’t be
born again and feel that. That’s a contradiction. The new birth, whatever it is, takes care of all
that.

If you’re sitting here this morning saying, “Boy, well that’s what I feel. I feel, ah, what am I?
I’m nothing. I’m nothing. I have no sense of value. I have no sense of self-esteem. I have no
sense of self-worth. That’s me. I feel I mean nothing to anybody. And in fact, my life is kind of
empty and pointless. I’m going here to the university. I chose a subject because you have to
choose a subject. I chose a major because you have to choose a major. Everybody says you do these
things. That’s why I’m doing them. But really, I don’t know where my life is going. This
recession has just delivered me for the moment because now I can concentrate on making money — at
least I have to make money to keep alive. But really, in my own heart, I don’t know why I’m here.
I don’t know what I’m doing here. I just bounce from one position to another and that’s the way my
life has been going for years. It seems every time I bounce from one occupation to another, from
one job to another, I felt less and less value to myself or to anybody else.”

Now loved ones, if you feel like that — and thousands of us do in these days — see that you
haven’t been born again: “Whoopee, you’ve taken the red pill — so there’s hope! There’s a chance
that you can take the pink pill.” There’s a chance that you can be delivered from that because, you
remember what we’ve shared, that when you feel like that, you feel that way because you feel you’re
“a nothing”. You feel you’re unimportant, You feel that way because you’ve been preoccupied with
pleasing everybody else from the moment you decided to please your mom, the moment you decided to
please your dad by going into a certain job, the moment you began to try to please the peers in your
high school by getting a letter on the football team right through to the time you began to please
your wife, or please your husband by cooking the right food. You’ve been pleasing, pleasing,
pleasing people, people, people. You’ve been concentrating on doing what this old society of ours
tells you you should do. You’ve been trying to treat it as if it were god and therefore have never
paid any attention to God, himself.

What we said last Sunday was, the new birth is you, saying, “Stop! I’m going to stop this game I’m
playing. What does it matter whether I please all the bosses? What does it matter whether I please
all the parents? What does it matter whether I please all the parents, or all the peers? If I’m
here and there’s no reason to my life, what’s the point of it all?” And then you turn around to
God, the Creator, and see that he has made you absolutely unique! He has put you here to do
something in his world that only you can do. And you say, “God, I noticed I am different. I AM
different and I’ve often thought I was different. Even as I sit and crouch like this, I keep
thinking, ‘But I am different. I think differently from them. I know they may be better than me,
they may be cleverer than me, they may be richer than me, they may look better than I do but I know
I’m different from them. I know I’m different than everybody else in this room.’” It’s amazing you
can say that. It’s amazing.

There isn’t one of us here, there isn’t one little person, not one of us little souls, but can say
that this morning. It’s a miracle. You can say, “That guy can be up there and he can look okay, and
the guy sitting beside me can look okay, and the girl down the row, but I am different from them.
I’m different from everybody in this room.” And the new birth is turning around to your Maker and
saying, “God, you have made me different, I can just assume you made me different and knew you made
me different. You have put me here different from everybody else to do something that none of the
rest can. So dear God, will you start telling me what I’m supposed to be doing here? Tell me why
I’m here. Tell me what you want me to do with my life because I am tired and worn out trying to
please everybody else and get a sense of value from everybody else’s approval. God I need you to
tell me why you’ve put me here.”

Loved ones, what we’ve said was, your Creator DID make you different from all the rest of us here.
He made you different for one purpose and that purpose you’ve to fulfill — none of the rest of us
can. If you don’t do it, that bit will be forever missing in this universe. Your God is able to
let you know — he can get through to you.

Now you say, “I don’t know how he’ll get through to me. Will he speak out loud? Will he speak
through an amplifying system? Will he speak through some other person?” Loved one, he’ll speak
deep down in your conscience. It’s just you’re so used to ignoring that, that you can’t imagine
he’ll speak. He has a person called his Spirit, it’s the real him. He is able to speak to you
deep, deep down to the part of you that has died — because, there is a part of you that has died.
There’s a little bit of you, yourself, that died years ago and has been buried under layers and
layers of trying to please other people. God’s own Spirit is able to speak to that part of you and
begin to make you alive again inside. That’s it.

I’ve quoted this poem before [Yonder See the Morning] written by an English poet, A.E. Housman, who
taught Greek in Oxford at Cambridge. I think it’s so good because it says what many of us feel:
(cid:160)
“Yonder see the morning blink:
(cid:160)(cid:160)(cid:160)(cid:160) The sun is up, and up must I,
To wash and dress and eat and drink
And look at things and talk and think
(cid:160)(cid:160)(cid:160)(cid:160) And work, and God knows why.
(cid:160)
Oh often have I washed and dressed
(cid:160)(cid:160)(cid:160)(cid:160) And what’s to show for all my pain?
Let me lie abed and rest:
Ten thousand times I’ve done my best
And all’s to do again.”
(cid:160)
If you’ve ever felt like that, loved ones, there’s a dear God who has made you, who is able to tell
you why he put you here. He’s able to bring that part of you that has died alive again inside.
That’s what the new birth is. It’s you coming alive inside. It’s the real you that’s buried
underneath all the people-pleasing, and the principle-practicing, and the regulation and
rule-obeying-self that has been created. It’s YOU deep down inside coming alive.

Now how do you know? How do you know you have come alive? How can you know that you are born
again? It’s interesting, there’s a piece in this Bible that says it. A man called Paul was writing
to people who lived in Rome and he said this [Romans 8:16], “The Spirit himself” — that is the
Spirit of God, God’s own eye, God himself, his own little self, the very heart of God, the Spirit
himself — “will bear witness with your spirit” — with your little eye, the little self that is in
deep down inside you, the real you. The Spirit himself, the Spirit of God, will bear witness with
your spirit that you’re a child of God. That’s how you’ll know. That’s how you’ll know.

In other words, if you ask God to put his Spirit into you this morning and to make you start living
again inside and being fresh again, and beginning to see things new again, and beginning to come
alive inside, and be you and not what everybody else wants you to be, but be you, yourself, as you
really are, you’ll have a sense of another person being inside you. That’s what it means, the
Spirit himself will bear witness with you.

You’ll have a sense of another Spirit being inside you. You’ll sense you’re not living by your own
judgment any longer. You’ll sense it’s not just YOU talking to yourself. It’s not just you and
yourself inside alone in your own head. You’ll sense there’s another person inside you who is
giving you directions and you’ll begin to sense that there is another person, the Spirit of God
inside, who is beginning to lead you. That’s what this Bible says. It says, “Those who are led by
the Spirit of God are Sons of God.” You then begin to sense you’re not just doing things by what
you think is right or what you think is best.

You’ll begin to get up in the morning and sense another little impression inside you that is saying,
“Now, why not do this today?” And it’s interesting, as you respond to that and do what this Spirit
inside you tells you, you’ll begin to hear him more and more loudly in your own mind — sometimes
through your thoughts, sometimes through your own spirit, sometimes through your conscience,
sometimes even through something that you read — but you’ll begin to be delivered from that prison
of introspection in which you’ve been encased in so many years. The Spirit himself will bear
witness with you. You’ll find you’re no longer being dominated by rules and regulations. I don’t
know if you’ve ever felt that.

Sometimes I think we’re the dumbest people alive. I don’t know that I’m for abortion any more than
anybody else is, and I don’t know that I’m for any of the other things any more than the rest of you
are, but do you not feel sometimes we’re all doing the same thing because we’re all supposed to do
the same thing? I mean, the things themselves are good but we are not alive inside. We’re just a
bundle of little principle-practicing, rule-obeying, regulation-observing animals. When the Spirit
of God comes inside you, suddenly you break into glorious individualism. You begin to sense that
you’re doing things because your God actually wants you to do them. The Spirit himself bears witness
with you. He gives you a sense that you’re doing these things because God wants you to do them.
It’s not because some preacher has told us to do them. It’s not because we’ve read some book and we
think it’s good for us to do them. It’s not because we’ve read some self-help book and we think
it’ll be good for our psychological makeup or emotional experience, or good for our marriage, or
good for our church or good for our job. We’ll do it because we feel GOD wants us to do it — it’s
a glorious feeling. He might not want anybody else in the world to do it — but he wants us to do
it. Suddenly you’ll begin to sense that there is Someone inside you who is giving you individual
directions. That’s part of what the witness of God’s Spirit is, loved ones.

Another part of the witness of God’s Spirit is that he bears what the Bible calls “fruit”. There’s
a verse in Galatians (5:22) which reads like this, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” You’ll begin to see that
there’s something like a stream of fresh water coming up from inside you. I don’t know how many of
you have felt, “There’s a stream of poison coming up from inside me.” I don’t know how many of you
have felt, “There’s a huge monstrous self-inside me that I can’t keep down or control?” But loved
ones, when you’re born of God there’s a new Spirit of love that begins to come up from inside you.
You begin to get up in the morning and feel joy. You begin to find yourself in difficult situations
at work, or in the class which are chaos and conflicting and yet, a peace rises up from inside you.

It’s no longer, “Let me get to the first counselor,” or, “Let me get to my friend,” or, “Let me get
to a tranquilizer. Let me get something that will steady me and steady my nerves” — but instead,
you find there’s a peace that begins to well up from inside that God’s own Spirit is creating inside
you. That’s another mark of a person who is born of God. There’s a verse in Romans 5:5 that says
that, “We experience the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” A
person who is born again, who is changed by God’s Spirit coming into them, begins to sense an

incomprehensible love for other people coming out from inside their hearts — really.

It’s not that love that just loves because you’re hoping they’ll love you back. It’s not that love
that loves just because you’re supposed to love, but it’s a love that is patient and kind, that is
gentle, that is not arrogant or rude. It’s a love that is not irritable or resentful, or a love
that does not insist on its own way. You begin to sense a love coming from inside your heart that
actually wants to put the other people first because you’ll have a clear sense yourself that your
Father is looking after you, and you can afford to live for other people and not for yourself.

So the Spirit that comes inside you makes you aware that there’s another person inside you. Have
you ever tried being yourself? Have you? It’s the most disgusting disappointing experiment that
you ever carry out. You know how you get — you feel, “Yeah, you’re right. You’re right, I’m just
a little animal doing what everybody else tells me. You’re right, I’m trying to please my parents
here. I’m trying to please my peers here. I’m trying to please the professor here and trying to
please my friends here. You’re right. I ought to be myself. I’m just going to be myself and let
it all hang out.” And the great ugly creature starts hanging out. It’s terrible! Nobody can stand
you. Eventually, you can’t stand yourself and you call the whole experiment off.

Now the truth is, that’s NOT your real self. That’s the miserable selfish monstrosity that has
become you since you were born. But the new self that is born again is a completely new being. And
loved ones, you find your own spirit bears witness, your own spirit begins to give you a sense that
your God really does know you. That’s it. You begin to sense, “He knows me.” You hear me saying
it — and I think you love me — and so you believe me, but that’s different from you sensing
inside, “My God DOES know me.” You walk under those stars at night and you look up, and you have a
sense inside your own breast that says, “God knows me. My Creator knows who I am. He knows me.”
You begin to feel you KNOW. You can tell the world, “He knows me. My Maker knows me.”

That’s part of it. You begin to sense that your Maker does know you. He knows Ronald Regan. He
knows Leonid Brezhnev — but amazing of all things, he knows YOU and he knows your name. You begin
to sense you know what to do with your life and he’s beginning to tell you what to do. Your own
spirit bears witness that you are an individual here on earth with a special thing to do that none
of the rest have to do.

Do you know loved ones, that it doesn’t matter if you spend your whole life washing floors? Do you
know that everyone of us here who has come into any kind of satisfaction in our own lives would say
the same thing. We’d say, “Actually, it doesn’t matter what you do? It doesn’t much matter what
you do?” Most jobs get down to doing the job, finally — however interesting the job might be — it
finally gets down to you have to do the job day after day and be faithful. The truth is it doesn’t
matter too much what you do. The fact is, God may want you to wash floors — but if he wants you to
wash floors, that will fulfill you completely and absolutely, and that’s the only thing that
matters, and it will prepare you for the job he has for you when the universe becomes ours. So,
there’s a sense in your own spirit, your own spirit bears witness, “Yeah, I don’t care what my
parents think of me. I don’t care what my peers think of me. I don’t care how I look like to other
people. I don’t care how important the job seems to be that I have, my God has given me this. He
knows that I know, and I know that he knows that I’m doing this because he put me here to do it.”

Boy, loved ones, no money pays you for that. Nothing makes up for that feeling that you’re doing
what your Maker put you here to do and he’s the only one whose opinion really counts. You get a
greater sense of that. The spirit too bears witness to Jesus and you’re place in Jesus. You know,

a lot of us have real trouble. We say, “Oh, I know what you say. I know what you say but I can’t
feel I’m forgiven. I can’t feel God’s forgiveness. Yeah, I know he’s forgiven me and I know Jesus
died for me. I know all that — but I don’t feel it. I don’t feel it.” Well, when you’re born of
God you have no trouble with that.

The Spirit bears witness to the fact that you were crucified with Christ, that your old miserable
self was destroyed with him, and that you’ve been made new, and that God has made him to be sin who
knew no sin so that you could be freed from yourself, and that he is no longer counting your
trespasses against you, and does not reward you according to your iniquities but he has forgiven
you, and you are his own child, and he is your Father, and he has forgiven all your sins. Loved
ones, the Spirit bears witness to that. A person who is born of God has no trouble trying to feel
that they’re forgiven of God. They KNOW they’re forgiven. They know that their God loves them and
has forgiven them and regards them as his own dear child.

Maybe one of the clearest indications that you’re born of God is one that’s put it like this in
John, “Hereby know we that we are the children of God by the spirit of obedience that he has given
us.” That’s it.

You find that, “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin”. (1 John 3:9) That is, when you allow
God’s Spirit to come into you, you find that the laws and the commandments don’t describe what you
“ought to do”, they describe “you”. You find that anyone who has allowed his old self to be
destroyed with Jesus and has allowed God’s Spirit to come into him, he doesn’t have any other gods
except God. He doesn’t commit adultery. He doesn’t steal. He doesn’t bear false witness. He
doesn’t take the name of the Lord his God in vain. He doesn’t have trouble with resentment, and
anger, and envy and jealousy. He finds that it’s more natural to do what his Father wants him to
do. The reason is that the Spirit of his Father’s Son has come into him and he finds he wants to
please him.

He’s like a little boy who has a dear Father that he loves with all his heart. It’s not hard to
please that Father. He WANTS to please him. You think back to teachers that you respected. Think
back to teachers or coaches that you looked up to. Did you have to beat yourself to bits to obey
them? You know you didn’t! You know you almost lived day-after-day to do something that would
please them. You wanted to impress them. You wanted them to think that you were good and that you
were doing what they wanted you to do. It’s the same when God’s own Spirit comes into you — you
find that it’s natural not to sin.

Now I know that’s bad talk in our day. Our society tells us continually, “Oh, everybody, every good
red-blooded American gets angry once a week — you must! Every good red-blooded American beats his
wife at least once a month. Everybody who is real, and healthy and normal expresses their anger and
is human — good human beings.” Really, the Bible says, “good carnal beings” –because so often our
psychology studies fallen man and describes what fallen man is like. Fallen man is pretty retched.
But real psychology studies the one Man who lived as we were all meant to live, the man called
Jesus. He’s the man that lived a truly human life. When we’re most like him we’re most human.
That’s why this dear Bible says, “Look, if you’re born of God, you don’t commit sin. Anybody born
of God doesn’t commit sin. He can’t sin because God’s nature abides in him.” Of course, it doesn’t
really mean he can’t sin. You CAN if you want to, but he finds that he’s acting against his nature
if he does.

You know the way before you’re born of God, it’s easy to lose your temper. I mean, you don’t have

to concentrate too much. You don’t have to do a couple of courses at the university on
“Temper-Losing” in order to, “I must try today to lose my temper. Let me concentrate.” It’s
natural to lose your temper, it seems. It’s just natural to get angry. It’s natural to get
irritable. It’s natural to get resentful and critical of other people. Well, do you see when God’s
nature comes into you when you’re born of God, it’s natural to do what Jesus does. It’s natural to
be like him.

So whosoever is born of God does not commit sin — commit sin in a sense of making a mistake? Oh no,
you make mistakes. You’ll make all kinds of errors because you can’t be saved from that. Your mind
is still a human mind and you’ll make all kinds of mistakes and errors. You’ll at times do things
even that you didn’t know were wrong. You’ll do them and suddenly, you’ll find out it’s wrong, and
you’ll feel, “Oh, I shouldn’t have done that.” But what it means is, whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. “Sin” in the sense in which it’s described in James 2, “Anybody who knows what is
right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” That’s it –not a high philosophical definition
of sin about avoiding the things that you don’t know. You can’t do that. You can’t be as perfect
as God himself — but sin in the sense of avoiding the things that you know are wrong. You know
those are the things that drive us crazy, aren’t they? I mean, you’re not concerned with all the
little fine mistakes you make over things that you don’t know anything about. That doesn’t bring
guilt to you. What brings guilt is those wretched things in our lives that we know are wrong, and
we try to overcome and we cannot stop them. That’s what drives you crazy.

Now anybody born of God doesn’t commit sin in that he finds it natural to avoid those things. If
you say to me, “Oh, does that mean if I have ever sinned that I’m not born of God?” The Bible says
if we do sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So obviously, if you
trip, you immediately go to God and you say, “Lord, I’m sorry I didn’t mean that.” And he says,
“Son, I know you didn’t mean it. I know you didn’t mean it.” There’s that immediate sense.

Whereas, have you not felt at times that there might not be that sense — that you go to God and you
say, “Lord, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it.” And he’d say, “Really? Did you not?” And we
wouldn’t be too sure. Now, when you’re born of God, when God puts his Spirit inside you, you find
it’s natural to obey. It’s natural to obey where it used to be natural to disobey. That’s one of
the clearest signs that you’re a child of God, loved ones.

I’d push you on it yourself — those of you who have children and those of you who would like to
have children. Isn’t it true we would really like our children to be like that? I mean, we’d
really like to think that we didn’t have to persuade them to obey us. We’d really like to think
that they loved us so much that they wanted to be like us. That’s what it is when you’re born of
God’s Spirit. You begin to find it’s natural to obey him and natural to avoid sin. Then loved
ones, could I just say this, the biggest reason for brothers and sisters in the university not
believing in Christianity is not what you think. Many of us think, “Oh well yes, it’s because of
evolution, you see,” or, “It’s because of intellectual difficulties that they’re having,” or, “It’s
because they really don’t believe in the historical veracity of the Bible.” It isn’t. It’s because
thousands, and thousands of people say they’re born of God but they don’t live like God. That’s
right. That’s right.

I’ve been on the campus now for 15 years and I know that’s it. I guarantee – I assure you, that’s
it. Students of all ages are skeptical of Christianity, not primarily because of intellectual
difficulties, but because those who say they’re born of God don’t live like people who are born of
God. Now if you sense this morning that some of these things speak to you, don’t cover up the

symptoms. Don’t! Don’t argue about them, don’t rationalize, don’t battle with them. That’s like
having cancer and trying to pretend you haven’t cancer. That’s why I started, loved ones, with the
illustration about the pink and red pills. Why not go to the medicine cabinet and get the pink
pills? Why not go before God this morning and say, “God, I thought I was born again and I thought I
was your child. But from that description given this morning, I’m not! So God, I ask you now, will
you show me what things I have to leave off in my life so that you can put the Spirit of your Son
inside me and make me new? Lord, I want to be myself as you intended me to be. I want to come
alive inside. I want to be real and alive with you. Will you show me what I have to put aside so
that your Spirit can come in and make me new?” And loved ones, God will do it with you as he did it
with me.

He’ll be faithful. He will come into you and you’ll sense a new spirit inside you, and you’ll be a
changed person this day. That can be for you if you are really serious about beginning to be a
real, alive person and no longer just a robot.

Let us pray.

Dear God, we would ask you to show us if there is any unreality in our lives that prevents you
making us what you wanted us to be in the first place. Dear God, if you see any sins in our lives
that we have simply been rationalizing, or pretending weren’t there, will you convict us now of
those sins so that we can deal with those habits that we’ve got used to, that make us so course that
your Spirit cannot dwell within us. Lord, we’ve felt great emptiness at times in our lives and a
terrible boredom at times with life itself, and we see that part of it is because we’re managing the
whole thing on our own and we really are boring without you.

So Lord God, will you reveal to us if there are any sins that we need to put away and stop doing so
that you can bring your Spirit into our lives and make us alive inside. Dear God, if we have done
that honestly, and have resolved never to touch those things again, will you now send the Spirit of
your Son into us, and will you make us alive inside, Holy Spirit, so that we are able to know God as
our own dear Father and to love him, and to love our friends, and our colleagues the way you dear
Father, love us. We ask this for your own satisfaction Father and for the sake of our own
salvation.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
each one of us now and ever more. Amen.

Can You Ever Be Free of Sin?

Romans 7:15

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

James Boswell wrote an almost word-by-word biography of Samuel Johnson. Boswell kept his own diary
as well and he writes this in it, “For Sunday, November 28, 1762, I went to St. James’ Church and
heard service and a good sermon on by what means shall a young man learn to order his ways in which
the advantages of early piety were well displayed. What a curious inconsistent thing is the mind of
man. In the midst of divine service I was laying plans for having a woman and yet I had the most
sincere feelings of religion.” That’s written in 1762 and it’s now about 220 years later, but I
wonder how many of us would say, “Well I’m embarrassed to hear that but I’m more embarrassed because
I myself have done the same thing. At moments in my life when I’ve wanted above all to do good I’ve
found something rising inside me that seems a monstrosity. It seems filled with all the evil that I
thought I left behind years ago and yet it does seem to be me.”

This was so real that Robert Louis Stevenson, another novelist, put it into a book called “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” He wrote to a friend called Low in America and said, “Well, I’m afraid it
could be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Low or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Stevenson just as easily.” Dr. Jekyll was the
generous, philanthropic, religious doctor who was always helping the down and out and helping the
prostitutes but he took a drug that sprang loose from him a mad beast of a man called Hyde who
actually used and murdered prostitutes. So Jekyll at times would find the desire to take the drug
and change into Hyde almost overwhelming. But he kept on saying, “The thing is; I feel that Hyde is
me also. I feel it’s not just Jekyll, I feel I am Hyde also.”

Then Dostoyevsky had Mitya in “The Brothers Karamazov” say, “God and the Devil are fighting inside
each of us. The battlefield is the heart of man.” He wrote “In every man a demon lies hidden: the
demon of rage, the demon of lustful hate and the screams of the tortured victim. The demon of
lawlessness let off the chain; the demon of diseases that follow on vice.” I don’t know if there’s
one man or woman here this morning who, though they may not paint the enemy within in as vivid
terms, knows that enemy. I don’t know if there’s one of us here who has not found that at the very
moment when we wanted to do what was right, we found that there was a lion within us that rose up
and seemed to tear off after the most savage things.

I don’t know if there’s one of us here who haven’t found at the most holy moments of our lives,
maybe when we were about to pronounce the wedding vows or when we were about to say something to our
own mother, have found rising up within us a savage creature that we find impossible to control at
different times. Joseph Conrad wrote his novel “The Heart of Darkness” and he said, “This seems
like the journey into a dense jungle where I find a man that is barely human. But it’s actually the
journey into my own heart, into a heart of darkness that I dare only look at from time-to-time but
whose influence I feel all the time in my life, virtually every day.”

Most of us say, “Well, yes I have found that; I’ve found a desire to criticize people and rip them
apart at the very moment when I was praising them and trying to be nice to them. I’ve found a
desire to say ugly and cruel things to a person when I’ve been trying to be the kindest I could
possibly be to them. I’ve gone home at times determined to be good and to be kind and I’ve ended up
making the evening a hell for my friends. I find there’s a Pandora’s Box of evils inside me that
wants to lash out of lust, and hate, and criticism, and selfishness that I know isn’t me. It isn’t

me. I can’t say it’s me, because I myself am desirous to be civilized and religious.” And yet
loved ones, it does seem to be you, doesn’t it?

We human beings get round it in a “religious way.” We say, “Well, it’s not me you see, it’s my
sinful nature, that’s what it is.” Even those of us who are children of God say, “We can have our
sins forgiven but we never get rid of our sinful nature, it’s there forever, you can’t overcome it.
It’s there all the time and forever. No religion, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, no religion can
touch it. That’s the struggle you see, that’s the strife, that’s the conflict, that’s the battle of
faith that you have to fight for the rest of your life. That’s your sinful nature. It’s not really
me and that’s, to tell you the truth, how I live with it. I know it may sound to you like
schizophrenia but that’s how I live with it. It’s my sinful nature it’s not me. If I once admitted
it was me I’d go bonkers completely. It’s not me, it’s my sinful nature. I myself am a good
Christian, or a good Buddhist, or a good Mohammadin, or a good Confucius. But that sinful nature,
everybody knows, can never be overcome in this present life.”

And most of us who say that go to this book [the Bible] for our justification. We do and these
verses we’ll look at are the basis on which Stevenson wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He was writing
to a friend, explaining what the book was about, and he said, “It’s that business of the war in our
members, that’s what it’s all about.” So it is from this book [the Bible] loved ones, that most of
us believe that. Romans 7:15, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate.” See, we say we want the right thing, “It’s not me — I want the
right thing.” “Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.” So, it’s not really
my fault, I myself want to be good and I want to be Godly, I want to be generous, I want to be kind,
and I want to be pure. Then verse 17, “So then it is no longer I that do it,” see, it’s not me,
“but sin which dwells within me.”

And this is the argument we get into, we say, “It’s some other power – sin — and I can’t control
it. I don’t know what to do with it but it’s not I that am doing it, you see, it is, ‘Sin which
dwells within me.’” Verse 18: “For I know that nothing good dwells within me” And we say, “I know
inside I seem to have a mass of hatred and evil but you see it is my flesh; “that is, in my flesh.”
It’s my sinful nature, its sin; it’s not me because you see in verse 18, “I can will what is right.”
So my will is actually pure in this matter, I will what is right it’s just I cannot do it. To
rephrase verse 17 again, “For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I
do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.”
And that’s the explanation we give.

We say, “That’s right. That’s exactly my spot. I respect all that you say. I respect the 10
commandments, even though I don’t believe in God. I want to be good. I want to live by the golden
rule. I want to do the best that the best philosophers and the ethical teachers in this world tell
me to do but I tell you, there’s something in me; my flesh, sin, sinful nature, that won’t let me do
it. So there you are you see. I’m just in the hands of something that is greater than me and I
can’t do anything about it and there it is.” And here’s Paul saying, “That’s right. That’s the
situation I was in.” We can go on and read verse 21 and say, “Boy those are the very words that I
would use.” The words that Paul uses are, “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right,
evil lies close at hand.” That’s right.

It seems at the very times that I want to do good evil is right there, verse 22, “For I delight in
the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my
mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.” So you see, there’s a law

in my members; a law, not in the sense of a law about the speed limit, but a law in the sense of the
law of gravity; it describes the way something happens. In the law of gravity you don’t have to
say, “Bible, fall,” if you let go of it, it falls; it finds it easy to fall.

So it’s the same, “I find a law in my members.” I don’t have to tell them to do evil they just do
evil; it just comes naturally to them. So often we go to Paul’s words and we say at the end of
verse 24 with him, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And most
of us say, “That’s it, there it is; there in the Bible is Paul’s outline of the Christian life. He
is one of the saints, one of the great teachers in our world, and that’s his conclusion, ‘Wretched
man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ That’s the same spot I’m in.” But
that’s not the last verse of that chapter. The chapter doesn’t end there with “Wretched man that I
am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Look at verse 25; it doesn’t end at verse 24
with the cry of despair, it ends at verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

In other words he says, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through
Jesus Christ our Lord!” God, through Jesus Christ our Lord will deliver you and deliver me. But
then, if you’re awake this morning and not just believing me because I say it, you’ll say, “Yeah,
but wait a minute the chapter doesn’t end there either. Look, after that exclamation mark, ‘Thanks
be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind,
but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.’ So there it is. So really what he [Paul] means by that,
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” is actually that we can never do anything else
than serve the law of God with our minds, and with our flesh serve the law of sin. We can never be
freed from it. We’ll always be in that position that we’ll have to believe with our minds that
God’s law is good but with our bodies and our flesh we’ll serve the law of sin. But ‘Thanks be to
God’ because despite that, Jesus’ blood will continually cover our sins and God therefore will look
upon us as people who have not sinned. So we can sin like mad because we can’t help it, but
nevertheless God will keep on saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, but because you believe in my Son Jesus I
ignore that.” And that’s, I think, what most people today will say.

Really loved ones, so that you may be sure about it; the greater part of Christendom will say that
and that’s why the world looks at Christendom and says, “You happy creatures with your bumper
stickers, ‘Christians are not perfect only forgiven.’ You happy souls, yeah that’s your out, but
we’re the people who have to live with you and you can be pretty miserable you Christians who say,
‘Oh you’re forgiven and you’re going to get into heaven because Jesus’ blood covers you and you
can’t overcome this sinful nature.’ But we’re the guys that have to put up with your sinful nature
and with all your high flown talk and your hypocritical ways.

Loved ones the world doesn’t like what it sees of religious people, and a lot of those religious
people call themselves Christians unfairly, but they call themselves Christians. So the world
doesn’t like what it sees in most people who call themselves Christians because it sees a crowd of
people who kind of think, “Oh you [Charles] Manson,” or, “You [Leonid}] Brezhnev you’re doing wrong
and at the end of this life you will go to hell and you’ll burn forever in fire and brimstone. I am
not unlike you; I hate the way you hate. I have critical desires inside, but I believe in Jesus, so
I’m going to go to heaven even though I’m no different from you.”

Loved ones, its tricky stuff; it’s a tricky pill to swallow. You may sit there today and you may
determine, “Brother, you’re wrong in attacking that because that’s the pill I’m swallowing.” Well
loved ones, all I’ll say to you is, it’s not too logical and it doesn’t make too much sense to the
world, and frankly, I don’t think it makes too much sense to this dear book [Bible] actually.

You see, there are several problems with this way of thinking if this is what this chapter is
saying, that we can do no better than always serve the law of sin with our flesh, then I would point
out that if you go on in the next chapter, Paul is then saying that all Christians will die
eternally. That’s right. If he’s saying, “With my mind I serve the law of God but with my flesh I
serve the law of sin and that’s a normal Christian life.” Then look what he says about such people
in Romans 8:13. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put
to death the deeds of the body you will live.”

So do you see what he’s saying? He says in Romans 7 that all we can do is live by the flesh and
then he says in Romans 8:13 that if you live by the flesh you’ll die. So it’s madness! Paul is
saying the best that the Christian life offers in Romans 7 is that you are overcome continually by
the sinful nature and you live in the flesh, and then he says in Romans 8 that all people who live
like that will die. There’s no sense to it loved ones and you should really write the guy off as an
idiot with a low IQ who can’t even remember what he wrote in the previous chapter. Except — that
you can’t buy that, can you? Because he was taught in the Pharisaical schools and he was a shrewd
and highly intelligent man, and a man that all the world looks to as one of those who has seen
deepest into life’s problems.

But you have other difficulties too loved ones; if you look at Romans 7:23 you see a picture of
defeat there, “But I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me
captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.” This is a picture of captivity. He’s
saying, “I see what is right to do but I’m captive to this law that works in my members.” Go to the
previous chapter, and he’s talking about freedom and liberty, and he contradicts himself completely.
In Romans 7 he’s saying, “Here I am under sin; I can’t get free of it.” Now look at the previous
chapter, Romans 6:15, “What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By
no means! Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are
slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads
to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient
from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free
from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

In other words, in Roman 6 he says, “We’re free from sin,” and in Romans 7 says, “We’re back under
sin, we’re captives of sin” now it does not make sense loved ones. A lot of people refer to this
sinful nature, or sin, or the flesh, as the “old self” and Paul, at the beginning of Romans 6, talks
about the end of that old self which is really our old perverted personality. Romans 6:1, “What
shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who
died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so
that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of
life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with
him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful
body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.”

So in Romans 6 he says, “There’s a miracle that took place in Jesus on Calvary that freed you so
that you didn’t have to be bound to sin, and you didn’t have to be enslaved to that sinful nature.”
And then in Romans 7 he says, “But nevertheless, the best you can ever hope for is to be enslaved to
that sinful nature for the rest of your life.” Now, how do you explain it? If the man himself is

not schizophrenic, or if he can’t remember what he wrote in the previous chapter – how do you
explain that in Romans 6 he says you can be freed from the sinful nature — that Jekyll and Hyde
inside you — and yet in Romans 7 he says you can’t be freed from it? Well loved ones, if Romans is
an autobiographical account of Paul’s own experience, particularly if it’s a chronological account
the thing doesn’t make sense; then if the guy’s writing it like some of those 18th century novelists
with flash backs; he goes forward here, “I’m free” and then he goes back and “I’m not free” there.
It makes no sense.

But the fact is that the book of Romans has never been thought of as an autobiographical account of
one man’s experience. It’s never been thought of as a chronological account of Paul’s own personal
experience. It’s always been thought of as the outstanding theological treatise that describes how
God redeems man. It’s always been thought of as the most carefully expounded outline of God’s
dealings with man that we have ever had. And in fact, that’s what it is.

It’s not an autobiographical account of Paul’s experience. It’s not a chronological account of a
man’s experience with Jesus and with sin; it’s a theological outline of what God saves us from and
the clue to it is in the first verse of Romans 6. We’ll compare it with the first verse of Romans
7. Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” In
Romans 6 he deals with that lion inside us, that sinful nature, that old self, that evil flesh that
always wants its own way, that wants to overwhelm anybody else to get its own way, that self that
produces hatred, and anger, and resentment, and dirt. That has been crucified with Christ, and we
are freed from it the moment we believe that. We can live free from this desire inside us to do
evil.

Then we say, “Oh good. I’m freed from that so now I can go and obey the law.” He says in Romans
7:1, “Do you not known, brethren – for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is
binding on a person only during his life?” He says, “No, stop, you don’t go to the law. When you
let your old self, your motivational center, your real being die with Jesus, God sends his Spirit
into you and then you obey that Spirit, you don’t obey the law. You don’t get back into that
business of trying to obey regulations. You have a voice from within you that from that moment on
guides you in things you don’t even think are right or wrong, that’s how subtle it is.

So he says, “In Romans 6 you’re freed from the desire and the power that makes you do evil and in
Romans 7 you’re freed from the law that was once the only way that the world had to help you to do
good; because now there is a higher way.” And you see what he says in Romans 7:6, “But now we are
discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old
written code but in the new life of the Spirit.” So he says there’s a new Spirit actually inside
you, and that Spirit has displaced your old self and that Spirit will give you directions. If you
obey that Spirit immediately, he will take you on. He will at times tell you to do things that are
even finer than you ever thought of. He’ll tell you at times not to laugh too loud — the law
doesn’t tell you about laughing. He’ll tell you at times to go over and speak to this person and
say something to them — the law doesn’t tell you to do that. This Spirit inside you will keep you
free, keep you living above self because part of the problem was not the evil things that you did
but also the good things you did. You thought you were doing these things, so you were delivered
not only from the evil that you did but you’re delivered from even the good that you did.

Then Paul turns around to his friends who were brought up the same way as he, and that’s who chapter
7 is addressed to; it’s addressed to his friends, his fellow Jews, because he says that in Romans
7:1, “Do you not know, brethren – for I am speaking to those who know the law.” Romans 7 is for the

benefit of those Jews who would be apt to say, “Good, we’re freed from the old self that made us do
evil and made us get angry, now we can obey the law.” He says, “Listen, that’s not it; you’re freed
from that too because there’s something better than the law within you. God has put his law in your
inward parts.” So he is saying, “No, I’m speaking to you who know the law. We’re discharged from
the law too.” And then he’s thinking of the Jews asking, “Do you mean the law is bad?” And then he
has a great parenthesis in his discussion. He’s about to go on from that and he’s about to say,
“No, you don’t look at the law, you go on into the Spirit,” and in Romans 8 he starts to talk about
this Spirit that is within them, that guides them to what to do. He’s imagining their comment,
“Well then, before you go on to the Spirit, was the law bad?” So he says, “No, wait, I’ll deal with
that. Before I get on to telling you about this glorious Spirit inside you that changes you
completely, I’ll tell you. I’ll put I’ll put parenthesis’ around this and explain.” So the
parenthesis begins in Romans 7:7 loved ones. Romans 7:7, “What then shall we say? That the law is
sin?” No fellow Jews, “By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known
sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’”

So the law was good, it exposed sin within me, “But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment,
wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.” So the law exposed
sin. “I was once alive,” in my ignorance, “apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died;” It showed me the cancerous disease inside me, “the very commandment which
promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived
me and by it killed me.” So no, fellow Jews, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and
just and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working
death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the
commandment might become sinful beyond measure.” And he then goes on to state the truth, “We know
that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

And he begins to state this general situation in terms of a present tense; “I do not understand my
own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do
not want, I agree that the law is good.” That was me as a Jew. “So then it is no longer I that do
it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my
flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” That was the problem before Romans 6. It was
I, I, I. “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the
evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want.” And so he rams it home, “The
problem was that in the old days when we were Jews, we couldn’t do anything with this great
burgeoning blossoming self-inside us, this massive ego that wanted its own way.”

Then he sums it all up and says in verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So
then,” and the first Greek word in this sentence is “autos” that’s “of myself” “So then, I of
myself,” left to myself, un-crucified, with Jesus doing nothing for me in regard to the old sinful
nature, “I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”
And then the parenthesis ends and he goes on to what he was continuing to say in Romans 7:6 so in
Romans 8:1 he says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.”

In other words loved ones, Paul says to us, “You can be freed from your sinful nature.” And that
might help those of you who are laboring under it. Do you see what he says? He says the same as
you; you’re willing the right thing, aren’t you? Those of you who are children of God have already
set your wills towards God and you’ve said, “I will what is right but I cannot do it.” Our problem
is not the will, and maybe it’s good to see that. I think a lot of you here this morning say, “Oh,

it’s my will Pastor, it’s my will.” It’s not.
Look at Romans 7:23, “But I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making
me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.” That’s the problem. Chapter 7:18, “For I
know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I
cannot do it.”

That’s the problem. You will what is right but the equipment that you have prevents you doing it
and that’s what the problem is. The problem is that you have a personality, an old self, a sinful
nature, that has been trying to get from people the love that it was meant to get from God. So you
go to the office on Monday morning and you say, “I am not going to care what they think about me. I
am going to do what is right even if they think I’m square, even if they think I’m stupid. I’m
going to do what is right.” But for years your little eyes have been looking out for the boss’
approval. For years your little ears have been listening for somebody to praise you so that you can
build up your self-esteem and your whole personality is built on receiving in from other people the
love that you need to get from God alone. So you want to do it, but the moment comes when they
crack the dirty joke and you know you need to say “Well, I don’t think that’s very funny.” Or, you
need to say, “Well, that certainly makes dirt of life, doesn’t it?”

But the little eyes and ears are so used to it that you laugh, or smirk, and walk away and so you
say, “I was able to will what is right but I wasn’t able to do it” because your personality has been
perverted and bent so strongly towards receiving that love from others instead of from God that you
cannot overcome it. Now loved ones that was crucified with Christ; God destroyed that old
personality of yours in Jesus. That’s what happened on Calvary. That old self of yours was
crucified with Christ and the moment you believe that and stop pleading and whining, “Oh you see, I
have my father’s personality,” or, “I have my mother’s personality,” or, “I’ve got this from my
environment,” or, “Oh all we poor human beings we’re all naturally critical,” or, “We’re all
naturally sarcastic,” or, “We’re all naturally dirty and lustful.” The sooner you stop saying that
lie and say, “Wait a minute, this book says that our old self was crucified with Christ. That means
it was crucified and its power to prevent me doing what is right has gone. I believe that and I
will do what is right from this day on and I will obey you Holy Spirit.”

Loved ones, the moment you do that, that moment you’ll enter into liberty and deliverance. You
will. It’s only possible because Jesus has done it, but it has been done. And the power over you is
not your will because you can will what is right. Before you’re a child of God you don’t even will
what is right, but you can will what is right (once you are a child of God). The power over you is
not your will, but it is the lie that that personality of yours will not work the right way. And
the moment you believe the truth that that old self was crucified with Christ and that right up to
this very moment all that you have been over the past years of your life has been destroyed by God,
the moment you believe that and you believe you’re starting with a clean slate this morning, and
that you can listen to the Holy Spirit within you and can do what he tells you, that moment that
Spirit will begin to take you into a new life. That’s true. It happened to me and it’s true.

Let us pray.

Dear Father, thank you for showing so plainly in your dear book here that it is a lie, this belief
that we cannot do what is right. That it is a lie, this belief that the sinful nature is too strong
for us. That it is a lie that men and women must live their lives continually in conflict with
themselves, continually unable to live above sin. Dear God, we see the world looks at us and says,
“Why don’t you live like you preach?” Lord, it’s as if your world even, who often claims not to

know you, testifies to the truth of what happened in Jesus on Calvary. So Father, thank you that
all that I have been over these past years, with all the ruts in my personality that have developed,
with all the constraints that have worked themselves out into my will, and my mind, and my emotions;
all that was crucified in Christ and that is finished with and I am no longer alive; I have died and
my life is hid with Christ in God. It is no longer I that live but Christ that lives within me.

Lord, thank you that I can believe that truth this morning and I can walk from this day forward as
Jesus walked. I can listen to the same Spirit as he listened to and you dear Holy Spirit, will
direct me into stronger and stronger paths that are more and more like Jesus himself. Thank you
Lord.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with
each one of us now and ever more.

Transcending Self

Romans 7:15

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I doubt if there was one of us last week who didn’t identify with what we were talking about; “I do
not understand my own actions because I don’t do what I want but I do the very thing I hate.” And
probably there isn’t one of us here that cannot say, “Yeah, that’s where I either am or have been”
and we’ve found that the great enemy of mankind is not knowing what is right. All of us know what’s
right, although we may differ on what we think is right, but we all have ideas on what is right.

But the great enemy of mankind is not that; the great enemy of mankind is this inability to do what
is right. There probably isn’t one of us here this morning that has not struggled with that either
with some big thing like marijuana or heroine, or some obvious thing like alcohol, or fornication,
or adultery, or some subtle and shrewd thing like depression, and worry, and anxiety. We know it’s
not right to worry and be anxious and fret but we do. We do; we waken up in the morning with knots
in our stomach about what’s going to happen that day. We know it’s wrong but we can’t control it.
So it isn’t only sexual things like masturbation, or adultery, or fornication but it’s very ordinary
things that a lot of us, who look like very respectable moral people, have trouble with. Even if
it’s just little hatreds, or little resentments against other people or little critical attitudes
that destroy good friendships that you have.

Many of us know that experience, “I can will what is right. I can will it and I want to do it. I
not only desire to do it, I try with all my will to do it. I can will what is right but I cannot do
it.” I think many of us have been in the same position that I was in, I really thought I was
becoming insane with the whole thing. I felt like I was becoming a schizophrenic. I could think
all kinds of good things about God, I could make all kinds of high and moral resolutions, but in my
own mind, where nobody else can see, I would have the most monstrous, evil, unclean thoughts rising
from the depths of my being that I could not control and I didn’t know what to do with them. Many
of us would say, “That’s it; everybody faces that. Romans 7 is what we’re all facing, that’s where
life is. That’s why Paul said, ‘Wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of
death?” That’s why there’s the cry of defeat not only in Buddhism and Islam, not only in
spiritualism and TM but there’s the cry of defeat here in Christianity. There’s no way out of that.
The only way out is to get your God to forgive it as often as you commit it. But there’s no way to
stop doing it.”

And last Sunday we pointed out that Chapter 7 doesn’t end there. Chapter 7 answers that cry of
despondence, “Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” By the
statement, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And then the summarizing statement,
“Left to myself,” that is on my own without Jesus Christ, without this miracle in my life, “I will
serve the law of God with my mind but with my flesh I’ll serve the law of sin.” Then Paul goes on
in Romans 8 to say, “Now I want to get on with what I was telling you about in Romans 6 because
Romans 7 is a parenthesis where I explain to the Jews that that’s the best that we could under the
law. That’s all we could do; we could know what was right but we weren’t able to do it. Now it
wasn’t because the law was bad, the law did many things for me but it brought me to this point of
despair at the end of Romans 7. Now Romans 6 is what is true. The fact is there was a miracle done
on Calvary that enables us to live above self.”

Because isn’t that what you and I have identified it as being: self? When you want to jump into bed
with somebody that isn’t your wife, it’s self that wants it. Self wants it own way. When somebody
criticizes you and you rise up in indignation, it’s self that’s rising up, isn’t it? Have you
worked out yet when you get depressed? It’s always the same time; thinking about yourself, thinking
about how you’re going to survive financially, thinking about how you’re going to succeed in your
career, thinking about what other people are thinking of you, thinking about whether you’re enjoying
yourself or not. And the moment you’re able to burst out of that cage of self you are able to burst
out of depression and anxiety and worry.

That’s really what all the great religious leaders have identified as being man’s problem: self.
And of course they’ve taken all kinds of ways to find an answer to it. Buddha said, “What makes
life unpleasant is suffering and what causes suffering is pain, and what registers and feels pain is
the self so if you can negate the self, if you can eliminate the self, you can eliminate pain, and
you can eliminate suffering, and eliminate unhappiness.” You remember it was Buddha that originated
the whole system of meditation whereby we always think of him sitting under the tree in that famous
yoga position of meditation and he simply annihilates or attempts to annihilate self.

The problem is of course that when you annihilate self and its feelings and its consciousness, it
seems that you annihilate everything that makes us human. Buddhists are remarkable for their lack
of compassion and empathy with other people, and that runs through all the systems of transcendental
meditation that attempt to get rid of self by annihilating it. You try to eliminate self itself and
you find that you’re ceasing to be a human being because you’re annihilating the personality.

That’s why we’re always so unhappy with the person who is a crusader for some cause. That’s why so
many parents are put off by their over enthusiastic offspring when they first discover the truth at
university; because they seem to bring the truth home as a crusade, as a principle, as a set of
techniques and the older person realizes you lose your humanity when you get preoccupied with an it.
You only find your humanity while you’re preoccupied with an I- thou relationship, not an I-it
relationship. Many of us have tried all kinds of eastern religions and even the occult and
spiritualism to eliminate the problem of self, but all we succeed in doing is annihilating self and
pretending it isn’t there and we find that we become less than human.

Indeed many of us find that that kind of self-managed annihilation of self is often the most
egotistical experience of all. Its popular today to suggest another solution “let it all hang out.
Don’t fight it. That’s you. You are really an ugly, angry, selfish, lustful monster; let it all
hang out express it and you’ll get rid of it. Be angry. If you feel angry be angry. If you lose
your temper, lose your temper. Do whatever you do. Be what you are.” The tragedy is, nobody else
wants to live with you, nobody else wants to have anything to do with you and sooner or later even
those of us who have passed through that kind of thing have had, sooner or later, to modify that
solution because actually it just tears everybody apart if you’re angry when you want to be angry.
It tears the whole place apart.

There’s no way in which you can have relationships if you act what you are because you’re rotten,
you’re miserable, you’re wretched, you’re the most antisocial monster, and you’re not a beautiful
wonderful person that has come straight from heaven. You are a miserable monster that has been
molded so often not by only your family and your hereditary, but your environment and by your own
wishes and your own will. And so many of us who have tried that self-expression stuff know that
it’s alright for the psychiatrist couch and it’s all right for an odd little experiment at school,
but it doesn’t make a marriage stick together and it doesn’t make businesses stick together because

they require some degree of restraining of the selfish impulse.

There is of course another popular answer and that is religion’s answer; hold the self-down, do your
best; will yourself to build up that which is good in you and to hold down that which is bad.
That’s what the guy said who played Eric Liddell in the movie Chariots of Fire. Because the actor
is somebody who has no respect for God or religion they asked him how he played the part. He said,
“Well, I read the Bible a lot, and then I suppressed all the bad parts of my nature, and I expressed
and encouraged the good parts.” Too many of us have sympathy with that because we realize that is
exactly what we do and think that’s the way to be a Christian. So there is an approach that is
based on will power that attempts to repress the selfish things and encourage the good things.
Except that you never seem to get rid of self that way, it always seems to be rising up.

Loved ones, the problem is not self. The problem is not your personality. We don’t need to
annihilate our personalities. We don’t need to destroy the self, that’s the very real part of you.
But the problem is that it’s working the wrong way. Our personalities are working the wrong way
round; a perversion has crept into us human beings down through the centuries that has been bred
into each generation as it passed and that personality, perverted though it is, has become the norm
for us. That’s why we find ourselves in the same position as Paul, “I can will what is right but I
can’t do it because there seems another law at work in my members.”

In other words he says, “I know its right and I can will what is right and I want to do it with all
my heart but it seems I have some monkey in here that is operating the other way. I want to do it
one way and this monster inside me wants to do it the other.” In other words, “I can will what is
right but the equipment is bad.” And despite all the attempts of the Buddhist’s, the TM’ers, and
the positive thinkers, all those are attempts to try and control, reroute, rerun and reprogram that
equipment. Loved ones the fact is human beings can’t reprogram it. That’s why all those solutions
are only partial.

There’s only one way to reprogram something that has gone badly off and that’s to send it back to
the manufacturer and have him do it, and that’s what happened. I’d like to share with you very
quickly what this dear book says about the solution. There’s a verse in here that outlines our
personality, our psychology. It runs like this, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you holy and
may he make your spirit and your soul and your body blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus.”
That’s what this book outlines as a working basis for understanding our personality.

Now, any of you who have studied psychology know you can’t open up a person in an operation and pop
out the soul, “Ah, there’s your soul.” You can’t whip in there, pop out your spirit and say,
“There’s your spirit.” And it is three levels on which our personality works. Spirit is the inner
most part of us, the real me, I, as I really am deep down; I myself, the thing that makes me unique
and different from all of you. That’s spirit that’s the inner most part. Then it wears like a coat
my soul, and then it wears like a coat my body. And then it so happens that if you go through this
book and look up all the times that the word spirit occurs, you find that it means the ability to
commune with a higher being than yourself and the ability to know from that higher being, by
intuition, what he wants you to do in this present life. And that ties up with what I suggested:
that each one of us here is unique — not just to make a very diverse world, but because you can do
something for your Maker that none of the rest of us here in this room can do. And it’s through
intuition that he can tell you what that is.

It’s through intuition that Einstein sensed, “I’m not supposed to be sitting on this stool of this

patent office year after year after year. I’ve to be doing something else.” It’s that that got
into a John Milton caused him to say, “I’ve to do something else.” It’s that that gets into
somebody ordinary like you or me and begins to indicate to us what the Maker put you here to do, and
then your conscience judges you and constrains your will on the basis of that. That’s your spirit.

The word “soul” comes from the Greek word “psuche” which becomes our word psyche and “psuche logos”
is the knowledge of the soul which is psychology. That refers to the mental part of us; our will,
our mind that is able to reason and to judge things, our emotions that are able to feel emotions.
Then the body has its own kind of trinity. So the way God intended that to work loved ones is he
intended to let you know, “I want you to paint certain kinds of paintings.” Or “I put you here to
write certain things.” Or “I’ve put you here to do a certain job in engineering or in plumbing.”
Or “I put you here to bring a certain order into the trees of this land.” Or “I’ve put you here to
do certain things with finances that only you can do.” Or “I’ve put you here to type in such a way
that you bring order into a certain business.”

In other words, he puts something into your mind that he wants you to do and then he wants to work
that out through your whole personality so that you live from within so you’d operate from within.
You’d do things because you knew the Maker wanted you to do them. Now if you say to me, “Oh, I’d
think the Maker was sitting on my shoulder,” no at times you wouldn’t be very conscious. Einstein
wasn’t very conscious that the Maker was putting thoughts into his mind, but when anybody asked him
to explain where he got his ideas he said, “All ideas come from God.” He was in no doubt that the
intuition that you have, your best thoughts, come from beyond and our Maker wanted us to operate
like, that so that we would not operate according to the Gallop Polls, we would not buy Alberto VO5
because “they” told us to do it, we would buy Tylenol or not buy Tylenol because “they” told us to
do it. We would live our own lives from within, being our own people and beginning to make the
world as infinitely diverse and exciting as the Maker intended it to be.

You can see in that way our will would obey our conscious and our mind would understand what our
will wanted done and would express it in thoughts. Our emotions would express the joy of our
relationship with our Maker and then that would begin to fill the world with order so that probably
we’d have discovered the oil field that Standard Oil proclaimed they’ve now discovered off the coast
of California, a giant oil field, we’d have discovered that without all the seagulls that have died
in the messes that we had on the Santa Barbara coast. And we would not have gotten into this wild
OPEC recession that we have been involved in these past years, but we would operate as the Maker
wanted us to operate.

Well the fact was, we decided, “Forget it; we’re going to do it our own way. We’re going to deal
with this world the way we want. We’re not going to be dependent on this Manager that has made the
world. We’re going to do what we want.” And we began to operate the other way; we began to look to
the world for the love that our Maker was ready to give us and when the Maker gives you love; you
have a great sense of security. You suddenly believe, “Boy, the Maker of the world is looking after
me, why do I need to worry about where the next meal is coming from because he’ll take care of it.
He’s put me here so he has a job for me to do. He’ll take care and provide for me.”

So you have a great sense of security and a great sense of significance because you know that
although, “All the other people may be brighter than me, they may be more intelligent, they may be
richer, they may be healthier, they may be older, they may be younger, but they’re not me. They’re
not me. Father, I thank you that you put me here. I’m unique in the world and I have something to
do that only I can do.” It’ll give you a great sense of meaning, a great sense of value and a great

sense of worth. A great sense that you were important to the one person with whom it matters. And
you’d have a great sense of happiness because you simply enjoyed walking through his world with him.

Loved ones, when we turned against him and decided to live our own way we had to get all those
things from somewhere, so we started to try to get it from each other and we started to try and get
security from the world. That’s why we end up spending so much of our time trying to earn a bit of
money to get more food, to get more shelter, to get more clothing. And that’s why we spend so much
time in this hunt for significance; we’re always looking for somebody to approve of us. Wouldn’t
you agree that so often the good grade is not so vital because it means we have a great knowledge of
our subject, but the grade puts us higher in everybody’s estimation and seems to make us feel
important.

How many things do we buy because other people will like them or because it’s supposed to be the in
thing to have one of these, because we desperately have to try to get this significance from
somebody else? It’s the same with the happiness thing; we so often hate bad circumstances because
it means unhappiness and we are so often preoccupied with trying to make circumstances good because
it makes us happy. So really, we’ve become slaves. Rather than depending on our Maker, we try to
take all of our security, significance and happiness from the world and in the process we’ve
perverted our own functions.

Our will no longer obeys our conscience; our will sometimes just obeys our minds or emotions and
sometimes there’s hardly any will there at all. The mind no longer understands; it spends its time
manipulating, “How do I manipulate these stocks to make myself secure? How do I manipulate this car
into a bigger car or a better car to make me more secure?” The emotions are preoccupied with
getting joy. It’s not so much, unfortunately, in marriage about what joy can I give the other
person, but how much joy can I get from the other person.

Do you see what we’re talking about when we talk about the perversion of the self? That’s what’s
wrong. That’s why I can will what is right because even though we’ve almost died, and that’s what
happens; the spirit dies completely when you stop dealing with God, so even though we’ve almost
died, yet the conscience is still in some sense alive and it still wriggles inside and says, “Yeah,
but you ought to do this.” And sometimes the will says, “Yeah, I want to do it. I want to do it”
but it’s impossible because the whole personality operates the other way. So you have built in ruts
that are absolutely invincible, and those are the ruts that we try to deal with when we deal with
TM, or we deal with the power of positive thinking, or we deal with those techniques for controlling
your personality or controlling your temperament.

It’s a foolish enterprise because it’s you with your perverted self and your perverted personality
trying to cure your perverted self and your perverted personality. The whole meaning of Jesus dying
on the cross is that God knew that that would happen and that in eternity, which is above time and
above space, and in some sense is taking place even at this very moment as it took place 2,000 years
ago, our old self was crucified with Christ. That’s what the death of Jesus means; that God
actually destroyed that perverted personality of yours. He destroyed that old self of yours and
that’s finally the only way to be liberated from it; to believe that and then to begin to submit
again to this Holy Spirit so that once more you begin to come alive from inside.

That’s it loved ones; you reckon yourself to be dead, indeed unto sin and alive to God in Christ
Jesus and you yield your members to the Holy Spirit, it’s the only way. I would speak especially to

those of you who are in agony as to how to get free from self and in agony as to how to transcend
self, there is only one way and that is through what God has done to your old self in Jesus on the
cross. And the only way for that to be real in you is to believe it first, and to be willing to
believe it. You have to be willing no longer to get security from things, no longer to get
significance from what other people think of you, but to be satisfied with one person only, and
that’s the One who made you. So loved ones, will you start today? Will you look to the only one
who’s opinion of you matters? And he will guide you into all the truth.

Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
us now and evermore. Amen.

Purified by Faith

Galatians 5:17-20

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Sometimes it’s good to break from the Romans’ series and I try to do that whenever God’s Spirit
seems to be guiding me to. So this morning I’d like to mention to you that some of us here this
morning are what we call “Christians” and some of us aren’t Christians. I know that word means a
lot of different things, but broadly speaking some of us here this morning have, at some time in our
lives, confessed our sins and repented of them and received Jesus’ Spirit into us. Then again some
of us here have heard about it, but we have never done that either privately or publically.

While many here who have done that, and who are Christians share one thing in common with those of
us who aren’t Christians; they have a dirty heart. As one man said; “I don’t know that you can help
the swallows flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.” In
the same way, you can’t prevent all kinds of thoughts coming into your mind from the world that is
around us, you can’t. For example you see a nice girl, or see a nice guy, or some thought occurs to
your mind, or some moment of worry about the car, or some moment of greed or covetousness about
something you saw in a window on the way to church this morning; you can’t help those half second
thoughts occurring. But many of us find that our hearts rise to those and our hearts act like
blotting paper; they absorb those things and they not only absorb them but they rise to them and
they carry on with them.

So we can’t help the half second thought that Satan or the powers of the world send into our minds,
but many of us here this morning that have received Jesus as our Savior find that our hearts are
still unclean in that when that half second temptation comes in we embrace it. There’s something in
our heart that is not really clean and we see it when the thought gets that iron grip on us, in the
way for instance that worry can. We don’t normally think of worry as a sin, but it is because God
said repeatedly, “Have no anxiety about anything. Do not be anxious for anything, what you’ll eat
or what you’ll put on.” Yet many of us find ourselves thinking, “Now what am I going to do about
the money? What am I going to do about the car? What am I going to do about the job? What am I
going to do about my children?”

Worry gets an iron grip on you and you know what I mean; it just grips you and keeps gripping you.
You try to break away from it but you can’t and that’s because your heart is not yet clean. You
worry because you don’t fully trust God and you don’t fully trust God because you still partially
trust yourself, and you still partially trust yourself because you still partially want your way.
So, many of us find that an unclean heart shows itself in worry and anxiety that grips us and will
not let go. Others of us find it in resentments; we have carnal fits at times; we either go all
cold and run a cold war with our husband, or our wife, or run a cold war with our friend, or our
colleague at work, or we just sink into ourselves in self-pity and cry ourselves to sleep. Those
are some of the ways that many of us find our unclean heart shows itself in the resentment that is
within us; resentment at what people are doing to us, at what the world is doing to us, at what God
is doing to us.

Many of us find it in covetousness and greed. It’s okay to look at a motor bike, its okay to look
at a car, it’s alright to look at a house, or a coat, but many of us not only look at those things
but we think about them and keep on thinking about them. Even when we’re trying not to think about

them, the heart is going back to coveting and being greedy for them.

Now loved ones, that’s what I mean by an unclean heart. It may not show itself outwardly at all,
you see. I think I could stand up here and look very holy and still have a very unclean heart
inside and that’s the case with many who have received Jesus as their Savior. They’ve turned away
from the outward things; for some of us it was smoking, for some it was drinking or swearing,
stealing or lying. We turned away from the outward things in our life; from the sins that had been
talked about that Jesus died for, and we received his Spirit into us, but we still find within us an
attitude that does not look like our outward lives at all.

In other words, we find we have a heart that keeps on sending up all kinds of dirt. Now, that’s
what Jesus said in Matthew 15:19. I suppose somebody was asking him,” Is it eating the right food,
or drinking the right liquids that make you holy?” And he said, “No, that isn’t what makes you holy
or unholy at all, those are outward things.” Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a
man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.” Many of us who have received Jesus into
our hearts find that those things still exist within us and that’s what this book [the Bible]
teaches. This book teaches that that’s the situation.

Then in Galatians 5:17, “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the
Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what
you would.” And many of us who call ourselves Christians found that; we found that the Spirit of
Jesus is within us and he makes us want to come to church, he makes us want to read the Bible, he
makes us want to pray and he gives us a lot of good desires. But alongside his Spirit there seems
another spirit that is working against that Spirit within us and that is the spirit that seems to
pull at our hearts.

Now most of us have taken the attitude, “Well, that’s life; it’s an eternal struggle between good
and evil. That’s what life is about and that’s the best that God can offer us. That’s what most
Christians do, they have received the Spirit of Jesus into them and then that Spirit has to fight
against the spirit of carnality or the spirit of self that is within them and that’s the battle,
that’s the battle of faith.” So most children of God have settled down to an eternal struggle to
overcome those things.

Now loved ones, that’s not the way or the answer and I think I can explain why to you. It’s in
Romans 7:15 that the problem is stated and for most of us even, who have received Jesus, this is
what we say. “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very
thing I hate.” In other words, the Spirit of Jesus within me wants to do certain things but I end
up doing the very thing that I hate. Verse 16, “Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the
law is good,” so there is a part of me that’s saying that is good, “So then it is no longer I that
do it, but sin which dwells within me.”

And loved ones, that’s the problem, its sin, now let me explain sin. Sin is living as if there’s no
God and its living depending on the world and on your ability with your mind to get from the world
what you need. So instead of depending on God and depending on faith in him, you depend on the
world and on your ability to manipulate the world to get what you want. That’s what sin is and all
the church statements of doctrine agree on this one fact. They disagree on all kinds of things, but
they all agree on this one fact; that even in the regenerate man or woman, that is, in the man or
woman who is born of God, there continues within them the power of sin in the form of the carnal

nature. They all differ about what you can do about it, but they all do agree about that; that even
in a person who is converted, who is born of God’s Spirit, who has received Jesus as their Savior,
they still find within them a heart that is unclean and that is dirty; a heart that is governed by
sin, which is an attitude of independence of God and dependence on the world.

In other words, here’s what it’s like; do you remember ever reading Gulliver’s Travels? He found
himself in a country of dwarfs in Lilliput. I remember a picture in that book where Gulliver had
lain down to sleep and the Lilliputians had tied all kinds of ropes to him. Do you remember that?
They tied ropes to his hair, and his ears, and all these little little people put stakes in the
ground so he couldn’t get up and when he wakened he was tied completely to the earth. That’s what
it’s like to have the power of sin governing your life. That’s it. It’s like being tied to the
earth. “I want to be generous but I am so dependent on money for my security that I can’t bear to
give it away.” Or, “I want to be free and easy whether I buy that car or not, whether I get that
house or not, but I’m so dependent on owning that car or that house for what other people will think
of me that I just must have it.”

We’re tied through our dependence to the world and to people so that we can’t do what we know is
right. And you know it; if you have the power of sin in your life even though you’re Christian,
you’re probably experiencing that. You’re thinking, “The good that I would I can’t do because I’m
tied in all kinds of ways. I try to move this way, I can’t. I try to move that way, I can’t. I
can’t get clear.” A man freed from the power of sin is Gulliver standing up free; no ties at all,
no ropes to him, they’re all broken and he’s able to move as he wants; he’s not tied to the earth at
all and he’s free to depend on God alone.

How do you get from here to there? What so many of us believe is, “Well, I get out my little knife
and I go to work one rope at a time. I cut this one and deal with greed then have a rest for a
couple of years. Then I move on to anger and I saw through the rope of anger. Then I need three
years rest because I sawed through greed and anger and got them under control. Then I work on
pride.” By this time we’re about sixty-seven years of age! And yet that is the attitude that most
of us who are children of God have and we call it growing in grace, but it’s not growing in grace at
all, we can’t even begin to grow in grace because we’re not free from the power of sin, but we’re
manfully trying to saw through these things. So that’s the way most of us go about it.

Loved ones, there is a “you” that has all those strings broken; that has had the power of sin
broken, and that can be made real in you in a moment by faith. That’s it. Actually, you can’t do
it by working at it, you can’t and that’s the tragedy; we’re told so often to pray more, to read the
Bible more. You can’t get rid of those things by working at it. Maybe after 50 years you’ll only
have 2,500 strings tying you to the earth instead of 2,600 but you’ll still be tied. The only way
to be free of them is by faith.

You remember Moses in the desert with the Israelites complaining, as always, about what they didn’t
have, what God hadn’t provided for them. They said he hadn’t provided water and you remember what
God said? He said to Moses, “Go to this rock that I’ll show you and strike it and water will gush
forth.” Now that’s what faith achieves. Faith believes what God has said and then does what he
tells you to do. That’s what faith is; it’s believing what he says and then doing what he tells you
to do whether it makes sense to you or not.

Many of us who are suffering as children of God under the power of sin would say, “Strike the rock?
That is dumb. No, I’ll screw a faucet into this rock and then maybe we’ll get some water and I’ll

lead some pipe from this spring.” Loved ones, that isn’t faith; that’s trying to use your own
ingenuity to bring about something, the same as those of us who are trying to cut through the ropes
all the while claiming we are growing in grace. We say, “I’m trying to overcome this power of sin
within me by my will power and by reading books on positive thinking and by trying harder.” You
might as well screw a faucet into the rock and start leading pipes to it. This is experienced by
faith not by works.

The power that is holding you is sin; that’s what prevents you doing what you know you ought. Sin
is the power and there’s only one kind of person who is freed from sin and you find out who that is
Romans 6:7. “For he who has died is freed from sin.” The person who has died no longer has the pull
of the things in the world or the things in the earth. They no longer experience the pull to be
liked by everybody because it doesn’t matter whether anybody likes them or not. A person who is
dead is freed from the power of sin. But there is a way to die without dying. Look at 2
Corinthians 5:14. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died
for all,” and that’s what so many of us who are children of God know, but we don’t know the next
clause, “therefore all have died.” When Christ died all of us died too. How does that become real
in your own life? Romans 6:11 loved ones. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

That’s what faith is; faith is believing that when Jesus died you died also. When he was crucified
to the world and the world was crucified to him, so were you, and then it’s doing what his Spirit
tells you to do and you’re freed in a moment from the power of sin. In other words, freedom from
the power of sin comes by the same means by which freedom from the guilt of sin came; it comes by
faith, not by trying, but by faith. In other words, holiness comes not by self-discipline and by
will power, though those all follow holiness, but holiness itself comes by faith. It comes by faith
in your death with Christ and your resurrection with him and then in your being filled with his Holy
Spirit. But it comes by faith loved ones.

I think a lot of us here in this room are still trying to bring it about ourselves and you can’t.
It comes by faith in a moment. Just as Moses heard God saying to him, “Water will come from this
rock.” So you hear God saying to you, “You’re unclean, impure heart was crucified with my son. I
destroyed it and there’s a clean heart for you, I have it here, on a shelf in the heavens and you
can have it now.” Faith is believing that. And then you remember, God said to Moses, “Strike the
rock,” and Moses didn’t say, “What has that to do with getting water?” He struck the rock.

God is saying to you all kinds of things that don’t seem to you connected with the reality of your
freedom from the power of sin. Do it. Whatever it is do it; it’s the Holy Spirit telling you; he’s
telling you to take certain attitudes, or he’s telling you to take certain views of things, do it.
Follow the Holy Spirit, do what he tells you, strike whatever rock he tells you and you’ll find
water coming forth that will wash you clean.

Now loved ones, it’s a miracle, and it doesn’t matter what man you look at whether it’s Moody, or
Wesley, or whether it’s Finney, or whether it’s Nee; all the men and women of God who have been used
powerfully by him have found that their inner impurity could only be dealt with by faith, not by
human effort. That’s the miracle of it and that’s the only way you’ll ever have a completely clean
heart. When you have don’t a clean heart then the opposite is happening to what Jesus said, “For
out of the heart comes anger, and strife, and guilt.” Now from out of the heart comes love, joy,
peace, and long suffering and then the Christian life becomes natural and not a heavy burden to
carry.

So will you think about it loved ones; that just as you entered into freedom from the guilt of your
sins by faith that Jesus had died for you, so you enter into freedom from the power of sin by faith
that you have died with Jesus. And if you say, “What are the conditions?” Just to be willing to
have a clean heart, that’s it. Would you be willing to renounce all sin in your life? Would you be
willing never to sin again? Would you?
See, I think a lot of us sigh and say, “Ah, thank goodness I don’t have to be willing for that, you
can never be free from sin.” Well actually, you can be free from sin and that’s what God wants.
But the real issue is — would you be willing to be free from sin? Would you? Would you be willing
never to cry yourself to sleep at night, to pity yourself, to be filled with resentment, to be
filled with greed, to get your own way whatever it cost, would you? Well that’s what’s entailed in
coming to a place where faith springs up in your heart to grasp Jesus.

Now, is there any way I can make that plainer? It’s so true and its life and I want you to know it
and I want you to have no excuse that will prevent you from entering into it, and the first step is
to believe it’s possible. That’s the first step, first believe it’s possible.

Does anybody want to ask anything? Don’t think that it will spoil the atmosphere if you ask. It’s
better to be sensible and this is practical and God wants us to be free from unclean hearts.

How do you get the faith?

People think you pump it up and so a lot of people say, “I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead,”
and they try auto suggestion and it’s not that, brother, you’re right. The first thing is to go to
the Holy Spirit and say, “Holy Spirit, I believe that this is possible and I believe that you can do
this for me. Will you show me if there’s any sin in my life that I’m really not willing to let go
of? Will you show me if there’s any way in which I’m not ready to be wholly purified in Jesus on
the cross? Will you show me any way in which I’m not ready to be completely recreated?” And then
brother, the Holy Spirit goes to work and at least with me, it was over a period of months that he
showed me more and more clearly my pride and ambition, and then it eventually gets to the self.
That’s what holds all the strings attached, it’s the self. And he eventually shows you how retched
and grotesque and monstrous that self is and how it appears in God’s eyes, how hateful it is and how
it sets itself up as God. Then when you come to the place where you say, “Lord, I’m willing, I’m
willing, there’s nothing to do with that but wipe it out, I’m willing for anything whatever it
costs.” Then it’s amazing, faith is the gift of God and faith springs up in your heart. That’s the
beauty of it.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit comes easily; faith springs up in the heart that is fully
consecrated. It’s not a matter of, “I must make myself believe.” We have been crucified with
Christ. The moment we say, “Lord, I accept that,” that moment faith comes down from God, the Holy
Spirit comes down in answer to faith. That’s it brother. I know it’s amazing but it does – faith
springs up in a fully consecrated heart. And if you loved ones says, “Oh, I have real trouble with
faith.” You don’t have trouble with faith, you have trouble with sin; you have trouble with
unconfessed sin. Unconfessed sin holds faith down. Faith is the gift of God to any man or woman
who is willing to enter into what God has done for us in Jesus.

One last thing, “Dear Jesus thou has bled and died for me.” Think about it, your old nature, your
carnal nature, your perverted personality, do you see if that had been the only perverted
personality in the whole world, do you see that the only way God could destroy it was by destroying

his Son? There’s a real way in which each of us has to say, “Dear Jesus, thou has bled and died for
me and me only.” And loved ones, Jesus has taken the dirtiest worst there is in you and me, taken
it into himself and allowed his Father to wipe it out there forever.

What right has any of us to continue to live under sin? What right have we? You wouldn’t treat a
dog like that, would you? You wouldn’t kick his bleeding body under the chair and say, “I’m going
to live this way anyway, whatever you’ve done for me. I don’t know what you’ve done that for. I
don’t know why you died. I don’t know what you bore all that for, but I’m going to live my own way
anyway.” Well, you wouldn’t treat a dog like that.

So there’s a deep way in which every one of us here has to say, “Dear Jesus, thou has bled and died
for me and me only and now what am I going to do with you?” Loved ones, there’s no need for any of
us tomorrow to have one unclean thought or feeling in our hearts, really.

What do you do because work is so different? The atmosphere in the workshop or in the office is so
different from home or church and it seems to influence you.

Loved ones, do you see it influences us, brother, because there’s something still of that self
inside us.

[Question inaudible 31:18]

What you find when you receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit is he gives you words to say that are
right. But the problem with so many of us is we’ve got Jesus’ Spirit inside us, but we also still
have this spirit of self, so Jesus gives us words but we can’t hear them for all the nose of the
spirit of self. But brother, when you get rid of that once and for all, then you find yourself with
Jesus’ Spirit and you find he has an immediate answer for everything. That’s so why so many of us
live powerless lives; because we’re not wholly dependent on Jesus. We’re partly dependent on self
so we become tongue tied when the opportunity comes to say something.

I think the first thing is that we have the courage not to laugh at dirty jokes. The second step is
we have the courage to say what Jesus is telling us to say, whatever the cost, even you see, if it
means crucifixion. That’s the beauty about dying; they can’t do anything worse to you than death,
and after you’ve gone through that it doesn’t matter and that’s what enables us to begin to obey.

But brother, it can’t be without the power of the Spirit within us, and that power of the fullness
of the Spirit loved ones, comes through you personally dealing with Jesus, “Lord Jesus, have you
really taken this power within me that keeps making me unable to obey and have you destroyed it?
Then Lord, that’s what I want.” And if you ever say, “Oh, did it really happen” look at Acts 15:9
“[God] cleansed their cleansed their hearts by faith.” It’s written in the Bible, Acts 15:9,
“Cleaned their hearts by faith,” not by endless effort but by faith.

Let us pray.

Dear Father, I thank you for my dear friends listening so long. Lord, we would pray for each other.
Father, we do know that this is exactly where many of us are living and we don’t want to live here
any longer; we do want to have clean hearts so Lord, we believe this is possible. Your word says,
“You shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and strength, and mind,” and Lord we
don’t believe you give us commandments that are impossible to fulfill. So Lord, we come to you

saying that we believe it is possible to have a clean heart and we ask you, Holy Spirit, to begin to
reveal to us any darkness there is in our own lives. Lord, we would hunt down sin wherever we can
find it and we would renounce it all until we can come to you Lord Jesus and say, “Lord, what you
did for me I’m willing to accept and receive.” And then Lord, we know faith will spring up in our
hearts to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Lord Jesus, we commit ourselves to you to do this as long as it takes us in these coming weeks and
months.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be
with each one of us now and evermore. Amen.

Jesus

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I felt I should speak on something a little different than what’s in the bulletin and that is that
many of us here are very anxious to have a relationship with God. Many of you may have tried to
have one and may have tried to go through the motions, and somehow nothing seems real and that’s
what I’d like to speak to on the basis of the words of Jesus in John 5:39. “You search the
scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness
to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” So Jesus was saying to the Jewish
scholars of that day, “You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life and
it is they that bear witness to me but you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

Now I’m saying to you, could it be that you read and search the books written by men like Francis
Schaeffer, and Andrew Murray, and Watchman Nee, and Oswald Chambers because you think that in them
you have eternal life? And yet it is they that bear witness to Jesus, but you will not come to
Jesus that you might have life. Each of us would need to answer that question ourselves, because
it’s obviously good to read books, we all know that, but you know what God is suggesting this
morning; could it be that some of the unreality that pervades your relationship with him comes
because you’re searching the books to try to find eternal life but you’re not coming to Jesus
himself? Or could it be that you’re going through the motions but you’re not coming to Jesus
himself?

I think a lot of us come under the conviction of sin. If we come to Sundays like this where God’s
word is being preached, you come under conviction of sin Many of us get annoyed with that and
think, “Why am I feeling so depressed and so terrible, and why am I feeling that I’m bad?” We deal
with the thing as if it’s some psychological problem that we’re having and we’re hoping that maybe
the next sermon will be an uplifting one that will overwhelm us with a sense of God’s love. But do
you know what conviction of sin is? It’s you saying, “My hand is so sore that I hope next day they
do something that will make my hand feel better.” But there’s a dear Savior who is saying, “Your
hand is sore because you’re beating me with it — that’s why it’s sore.”

So I wonder; could it be that we have a tendency to think of a thing like conviction of sin as if
it’s some wrong psychological experience through which we’re passing when it is simply your dear
Father witnessing to you in a way that you can understand that you’re killing his son and that the
soreness in your hand is nothing compared to the welts that you’re leaving on his heart. I think at
times we have a tendency to think of this as if it’s some reforming psychological experience that
we’re passing through, so we expect somebody should come along next week and smooth it over for us.

Well, it’s really the Son of God saying to you, “These things that are in your life are killing me.
They’re the things that destroyed me on Calvary and they’re killing me at this moment, this sin that
is in your life.” It isn’t just some irritating depression that you’re feeling, or some wrong
guilt, it isn’t. There is false guilt, but guilt about things that you know God does not want you
to do, that is the human reflection of the divine pain in God’s heart. And when you’re complaining
and crying about the pain in your hand, realize that there’s a Savior at the other end of things
that is not complaining but is bleeding from you striking him.

Some of us say, “The first step is confession. I ought to confess.” But loved ones confess to

whom? I think there’s a tendency in many of us to think, “As long as I confess it, that’s what
matters. So I confess it to my mother if I’ve been doing her harm, or I confess it to my wife if
I’ve been hurting her, or I confess it to my employer if I’ve been dishonest in our business, or I
confess it to the IRS people if I’ve been dishonest with them. But I confess.” That’s the first
thing you have to do, if you confess your sins he’s faithful and just to forgive you your sins. But
confess to whom?

I wonder if there are any of us here who make a big thing of confession and we feel, “Oh, if there’s
any problem in my relationship with God it’s because I haven’t confessed the sins that I’ve
committed against different people.” Well the Psalmist said it, “Against thee and thee only have I
sinned and done this wrong.” Confession loved ones, is going to our Savior, Jesus, and confessing
to him. It’s saying, “Lord Jesus, I didn’t know that this was destroying you. I didn’t know this
was crucifying you again. I didn’t know that every time I was sarcastic with my wife it was like a
whiplash across your face. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know Lord, that when I swore, that that
was like a sword in your side. I’m sorry. I confess this. I did not know it. I agree with you
Lord, I see that this is what makes it impossible for you to be real in me. Every time you rise up
inside me I crucify you again and destroy you. I confess to you.”

Loved ones, could it be that you search conviction because you think that in that you have eternal
life? Could it be that you search confession because you think that in that you have eternal life?
But you will not come to him that you might have life. Confessing sins is confessing personally to
Jesus, the son of God, the one by whom you were made. That’s who Jesus is; by him all things were
made and without him was not anything made that was made. It’s confessing to him that you have been
crucifying him again in your life. Then again, some of us talk about repentance and we say, “Oh
yes, you have to repent if you’re going to be saved, or you’re going to become a Christian, or
you’re going to know God — you have to repent.” So we get all caught up in this business of
repentance.

So you think, “Well repentance is making restitution. I have to give back everything that I’ve
taken from anybody dishonestly. I have to make apologies to people that I’ve hurt or offended. I
have to make things right with everybody.” That’s what repentance is. It isn’t just feeling sorry
or feeling remorse its making things right. But first of all it’s taking the sword out of the side
of the one who has borne it for you. That’s the first thing. Repentance is not, “Lord, I realize
that my unclean actions and my unclean thoughts were a sword thrust into your side and I’m going to
do my best to stop that from this time on.” That’s not repentance, that’s mockery. That’s saying,
“Lord, I’m going to try and stop doing this next week if I can, I’m going to try to stop doing it.”

Loved ones, repentance is saying to Jesus, “Lord Jesus, I realize that you have borne these sins in
your own body and I’m not going to make you bear this one any longer. I am stopping this. I am
laying my sword down today. Whatever the cost to me, it’s nothing compared with the cost to you of
not laying it down.” So it’s a personal thing, you see. It’s saying it to Jesus personally; it’s
you and him as persons. It’s a dear friend who has given his life for you. Repentance is telling
him that you’re not going to ever do it again by his grace and then it’s receiving Jesus. So often
we use some of the formula and we say, “Oh, we pray to receive Jesus” as if accepting Christ is
accepting a bunch of principles or a way of life or a philosophy.

But loved ones, receiving Jesus is receiving a dear person into your heart and into your life and
letting him live inside you as a whole real person that you can talk to at night and in the morning.

Receiving Jesus is receiving a dear person, a friend, a person who is alive. Do you realize – one
thing I realized, I should have known it long ago but I only realized it in a long discussion we had
in one class about five years ago, that Jesus is forever human. Have you ever thought of that? I
often thought he took our humanity upon him but as soon as he leaves the earth he becomes kind of
some effervescent massive spirit. But do you realize Jesus will always be recognizable?

When you and I see him, he’ll be recognizable; he’ll be a real person. And when you receive him you
don’t receive some vague effervescent spirit, you receive a person. He’s standing here this morning
asking you to let him come into your life and he comes in as a real person. And then how many of us
try to live like him after we’ve received him and we begin to come into that old, defeated life
where the good that we would we cannot do and the evil we hate is the very thing we do and we want
to come free of that. There’s a loved one who talked with me last weekend, I’m sure she’ll excuse
me if I tell you part of the conversation because many of us, at that point say when I ask you,
“Well, you’re not looking very happy” you say, “No I’m not.” I then ask, “Well, why aren’t you
happy?” And you reply “Oh well, I’m trying to die to self.”

Now do you know what that’s like? That’s like you’re walking along together with Jesus and he has
his arm around you, because you’re his friend and you’ve received him into your life, and as you
walk you trip an odd time and you pick yourself up, and you trip an odd time and then he looks at
you and you have this miserable sour face on and he says, “What’s wrong?” And you say, “I’m trying
to die to self.” And he says, “You’re what?” And you say, “I’m trying to die to self.” And he
says, “Really? I thought I did that?” And you say, “Yes, but I’m trying to do it.” And he says,
“Why do we both need to do it? I mean, I did it for you didn’t I?” And you say, “Yes, but to be
real in me I have to make it real myself.” And he says, “My son, my daughter, I died to self for
you. Now, come close to me, come close to me here on this cross. Just stay close to me and I’ll
show you all that that involves and I’ll reveal it to you bit-by-bit in a way that you’re able to
bear it. But stop trying to do it yourself. Stop trying to enter into some technique that will
deliver you from the power of self. Keep your arm around me. I have my arm around you. Come up
here on the cross, I’ll show you. Now, it doesn’t feel so bad does it?” “Well, it feels a wee bit
sore.” “Well, it was a wee bit sore for me too but just now – there, is that alright?” Then you
have a tendency to say, “Well, what about this other bit?” He says, “Forget that other bit, I’m
just giving you the bits that you can take at this moment.” And that’s the way it goes loved ones.

It’s not something you do or I do. The baptism — isn’t that a terrible name, “the baptism?”
That’s what we call it when our dear Savior, our dear friend lays his hands upon us and gives us his
own life and his feelings, we call that the baptism. It’s like “the marriage.” Are you enjoying
“the marriage?” If you’re like me you hate marriage but you love living with your loved one that
you love! But the marriage itself is pretty impersonal. It’s so with Jesus, the baptism, who could
enter the baptism? Who could enter death to self? But can you stay with your Savior; can you stay
close to him? Can you hug him to yourself in your prayer times and say, “Lord Jesus, I want to come
into everything that you’ve achieved for me.” And he’ll say, “My son, my daughter, that’s what I
want, so just trust me and I’ll show you bit-by-bit what it means. It will mean some little hard
things, but I’ll have my arm around you so let’s go together.” Then you look up and your old sour
face goes as you look into your Savior’s eyes and you walk along. He’ll show you the way, that’s it
loved ones.

It’s you and a dear person who has given his life for you and who loves you and knows your name, and
that’s what it is. And we pitiful souls here on earth try to tell each other what he’s doing but we

always mess it up. He alone really can make it all real to you and he’ll make it real as long as
you continue to regard him as a dear person and a dear friend — not as an “it” that has done
something for you, but as somebody who loves you, who loves each one of us here in this room.

Let us pray.

Dear Lord Jesus, we apologize to you for the difficulties that we create and the way we make things
hard for ourselves. Lord Jesus, we see that we were put somehow into you miraculously by our Father
and we’re part of you and we’re closer to you than our own breath. That has been done and that’s
real and we can’t change that; all we can do is ignore it and live in misery. But Lord Jesus, we
see how dumb that is. We see that if our great Creator has remade us by placing us in you, then if
anyone is in Christ he is a new creation so we are new, we’re new creations, each one of us in this
room this morning. We’re new because our Father has put us into you. Lord Jesus, thank you for
dying for us and for allowing us to rise up with you in your resurrection. Thank you Lord, that all
we need to do is draw closer to you day-by-day and talk to you as a real person and stop this silly
business of practicing some Buddhist or Christian technique.

Lord Jesus, we would turn from all our techniques and our systems, and we would thank you that after
everything is said and done, salvation is a person, the person of Jesus; you Lord Jesus, inside us
as our dear friend. Lord, we thank you that we each know you in a way that nobody else knows you
because you adapt yourself to each one of us and treat us all differently and individually. So Lord
Jesus, we thank you that we can each one approach you this morning as our own personal friend and
our own personal Savior and we can ask you to make us more like yourself day-by-day.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with each one of us now and ever more. Amen.

A Clean Heart

Matthew 15:17-20

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I’m going to swear so get ready, ok? It’s just a mild swear because I wasn’t good at swearing at
all. Ok, are you ready? Damn! All right? Now, that wasn’t hard, was it? It wasn’t hard for you, but
still, apart from an illustration, it’s still wrong. Doesn’t matter whether it was hard or not, it’s
just as wrong as committing adultery, because Jesus said you shouldn’t swear by anything in heaven
or anything on earth — and you shouldn’t commit adultery — so it’s still wrong, apart from using
it as an illustration.

But still why, even apart from that, did you feel “yeah, it wasn’t too bad!”? I mean why did all of
us feel “well, yes, it’s kind of a surprise for you to say ‘damn’, but it didn’t seem too evil,
really!” Now, why did it not seem too evil? Why? Why did it not, especially to you who didn’t even
say it, why did it not seem too evil? And would you not say, “well, I mean, your heart wasn’t in it,
your heart wasn’t in it! You were just saying it because you wanted to illustrate something to us,
and your heart really wasn’t in it!” And that is right, isn’t it? My heart wasn’t in it and your
heart wasn’t in it. Now that still doesn’t make it right, it’s still wrong, even if your heart isn’t
in it, apart from using it, as we did, as an illustration, it’s still wrong! It’s still something
that God has commanded us not to do! Still, it is helpful to make a distinction between temptation
and sin.

Because that is part of the distinction between temptation and sin. You see, just the way that word
that I spoke came to you and you weren’t worked up about it at all, it just came to you — it didn’t
find any response in your heart, you just heard it and you said “oh, that’s interesting! Surprising,
but interesting!” –but it just came to you — so all through the day you are in situations where
thoughts from the mental atmosphere around you insert themselves into your head. Where emotions,
from the emotional atmosphere around you, inject themselves at times into your feelings. And as long
as your response to them is as detached as your response to my ‘damn’ was, then there is no sin. You
see that? As long as those thoughts can come in, or those feelings come in from outside and you are
as utterly detached from them as you were to my swear this morning, then there is no sin. As long as
you can say “well, that’s interesting, I’ve no interest in it but yeah, well there it is. Well,
that’s a thought I know where it’s come from, but I don’t want to think it myself, I don’t want to
dwell on it another second; well that’s an interesting feeling that’s passing through our office.
I’m observing it academically, it has no answer in my own heart, no responsive chord in my own
heart, but that’s a feeling that obviously is present in our office or in our family.” Then as long
as that’s the attitude, you’re dealing with temptation and not with sin.

But if I tell you, “you know the vacation you are arranging? Well, your travel agent made the
reservation on the wrong date, so you can’t go on vacation”, or if I say to you, “You know your car?
Well, there’s a drunk driver just totaled it a moment ago.” Or if I say to you, “You’re fired! The
company is closing down” and then there’s a “damn!” rising out of your heart, then that’s sin! So,
do you see, there is a distinction in the two things? A sin is what comes from the heart of a
person, what comes from the very innermost being of a person, that’s what sin is. And whether we
like it or not, we live in a world that is full of sin and there are all kinds of sinful acts and

thoughts and words going on all around us and they may even pass for a moment through your head,
they may even pass for a moment through your emotions, as long as the moment you are aware of them,
you turn against them and you regard them as alien and you regard them as something that is separate
from you, then it’s not sin. But when your heart rises and embraces the picture or embraces the
thought or embraces the feeling, or your mind commits itself or your will commits its emotions to
thinking or feeling it a second second, then that’s sin. But sin is what comes out of the heart and
that’s what Jesus said. He said it isn’t actually the thoughts that come into your head from outside
that are sin, it isn’t even the feelings that come in from outside that are sin, it isn’t even the
food that comes in through your mouth, but it’s what comes from inside.

Now, maybe you’d look at that verse because it does put it very plainly. In Matthew 15:17, “Do you
not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on? But what comes
out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man;
but to eat with unwashed hands, does not defile a man.” Do you see in verse 18: “what comes out of
the mouth proceeds from the heart and this defiles a man.” That’s it, loved ones. It’s not what you
eat or even what you drink or even the thoughts that other people pass on to you that defiles you.
It’s what comes out of your heart and mind. That’s what dirties us. That’s what defiles us.

[Illustration: Holding up a bottle of sour milk and smelling it:]

It’s – ugh! Sour! Sour milk! And the whole life is filled with it, just filled with it. And you
meet Jesus and you know that it’s wrong and you repent and you pour it out in repentance and He puts
fresh milk in. Except that before he put the fresh milk in, after you’d poured it out, your heart
was like that (sour) – in other words you know what was still coating it: still some of that sour
milk. Still some of the old spoiled rotten stuff was still in your heart, so He came in and He
poured his Spirit in, in on top of that. But because that old sour milk was still there, of course
it isn’t long before the new fresh Spirit of Jesus is contaminated and your life is as full of sin
as it was before.

That’s the situation with so many of us. We’ve received the Spirit of Jesus. In a sense, He has made
us alive. He has made us aware of God. We actually even have great respect for Jesus and some
acquaintance with Him. But our heart was never cleared of the sour stuff that was still at the
bottom. And actually you know fine well there’s only one way to make that bottle fit to contain
fresh milk and to keep it fresh for a long period of time. There’s only one way in which fresh milk
can abide in that bottle without becoming contaminated and that is that I pour out the sour stuff
and then I put it under a faucet and I wash it right out, and I wash all the sour stuff out from the
bottom of the heart and then I bring in the fresh milk and then there is every possibility that the
fresh milk will remain sweet and fresh.

The tragedy with so many of us is we haven’t gone that far, you see. We received the Spirit of
Christ in some sense into our hearts, but He is not able to dwell there and abide there because
there is sour self spirit that has never been cleaned out of the heart, from the bottom of the
heart. And so, we find that our life is like that, up and down. Every time we get a new filling of
Jesus’ Spirit it kind of overwhelms the sour stuff at the bottom of the heart and we walk for a
while in victory — then we begin to take another dip as the sour stuff spreads all over His Spirit
and then it comes Easter time and we get another infusion of His Spirit and so we walk in victory
for another little while but really our life is like that, up and down, switch back.

And actually the truth is that our nature has never changed. Our nature has never really changed.
Our heart — deep, deep down — is still unclean. Our heart has never been cleansed by the Holy
Spirit, and we have a sense of aliveness to God and we have a sense of our sins being forgiven, but
our heart is still unclean and continues to contaminate Jesus’ Spirit every time He pours it in. And
so, in a way, our nature has not been changed, it’s been just overwhelmed from time to time, by
Jesus’ Spirit. Loved ones, that’s why we cry that cry of despair so often, even those of us who are
children of God. That cry in Roman 7:15: “I do not understand my own actions. I do not do what I
want, but I do the very thing I hate.” The only mistake is this! We are confusing the issue by
using “I” in both cases. In actual fact there is something deep down in your heart that DOES do what
it wants! And that’s what actually produces the evil in your life and mine. It’s the unclean heart
that still wants what Jesus doesn’t want and it would be better for us to say: “Well, I don’t
understand MY own actions because Jesus wants to do certain things in me when He comes in, but my
own heart doesn’t want to do those things.”

Loved ones, that’s the situation with many of us, I’m sure, here in this room this morning. That we
have in some sense been acted upon by God’s Spirit and in some sense we’re a little further on than
the Jew; we are at least regenerated and we are aware of God and alive to God and we know that He
has forgiven us our sins. But actually we are very like the Jew in that our nature — deep, deep
down — is still unchanged and our heart is still unclean and that heart continues to send up sin as
we try to walk progressively with Jesus. There is a verse, you know, in the Old Testament that I
think makes it very clear and will help you to understand it if you look at it. It’s Ezekiel, and
it’s a verse where God is describing the New Covenant to the Jewish people and it’s Ezekiel 36:26.
God is describing the New Covenant: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within
you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

So God will do two things, you see. He’ll give us a new heart and then He will give us a new spirit
and the new heart is explained a little more in the next verse, in verse 27: “And I will put my
spirit within you.” That’s how He’ll give us a new heart. He’ll make our own spirits new, He’ll put
a new spirit within us, He’ll renew our spirits, He’ll regenerate our spirits and make us aware of
God and aware of Jesus, so that we’ll have some acquaintance with Him. But then, He’ll put His own
Spirit in us, you see — “And I will put my spirit within you,” (my Holy Spirit, He will dwell with
you and stay inside you and He will create a new heart inside you) “and cause you to walk in my
statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”

So there are two parts to the New Covenant. One is a new spirit and many of us have entered into
that. Many of us have had our spirits renewed and regenerated and that’s why we come to church here.
We know that it’s true; we know that God is real, we know that Jesus died for us, we know that our
sins are forgiven and our spirit is renewed. But we know also an inconsistent Christian life, an up
and down life. It seems when that little renewed spirit gets its way we are in victory, but it seems
there are other times when that spirit isn’t getting its way and that’s because we haven’t entered
into the second part of the New Covenant, where God said: “I will put My Spirit in you, My Holy
Spirit in you, to dwell in you and abide in you and He will create a new heart in you and He will
enable you to walk in my statutes and observe my ordinances.” Loved ones, the fact is there are
many of us who call ourselves Christians, who have entered into only one part of the New Covenant
that God gave us in Jesus. And that’s the part that we find in I John 1:9, you remember, “If we
confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” We haven’t entered into the second
part: “and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Our hearts are still unclean, but we walk in the
first part of the New Covenant: “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins.”

So, it’ amazing — if you are a child of God, and you are in that situation, if you keep confessing
and repenting day after day, and you keep getting shots of God’s Spirit from Sunday services and you
keep getting encouragement from other people’s fellowship, you will be able to walk in a fair degree
of obedience for awhile, but soon you will begin to see a nose dive taking place in your own life
because the Holy Spirit does not dwell in you. He does not abide in you, He is not at home in your
heart, He acts upon you from outside and at times is able to speak within you, but He does not dwell
within you, because you have not allowed Him to prepare a dwelling place for Himself. And loved
ones, the fact is the Holy Spirit cannot dwell there, He cannot dwell there! That’s why He is called
the Holy Spirit. He is holy! And unless your heart becomes holy, it’s another crucifixion for Him,
do you see that? It’s crucifixion all over again. It’s not just that He chooses not to do that, it’s
either He lives or you live, it’s either He dies or you die. So he cannot come into a heart that is
not prepared, a heart that has not been cleansed. That’s why He has to, as it were, jump in and out
— act upon you, act upon you, act upon you — from outside. That’s why you are “up” when you are
at service on Sunday.

That’s it! Do you see that? That’s why you are up, when you are at service on Sunday, because the
Holy Spirit is all around you in all kinds of different people and He’s acting upon you and He’s
strengthening you and then you get away from the service and you get into the middle of the
afternoon or you get into the middle of the week and you begin to feel yourself weak in your
relationship to God, because the Holy Spirit is not dwelling in you and so you are not getting any
shots from outside. That’s why, loved ones, as long as you’re reading your Bible, as long as you are
praying, then you are in victory. But as soon as you are on your own in the middle of a workday,
then suddenly you sense a lack of God’s presence. It’s because the Holy Spirit is not dwelling in
your heart and that’s why, of course, so many of us are able to abstain from outward sin but not
inward sin.

You remember those things that Jesus spoke about that come out from the heart. Many of us are able
to abstain from fornication but our heart wants to fornicate. Many of us are able to abstain from
adultery, but our heart wants to commit adultery. Many of us are able to abstain from murder, but
our heart wants to murder. We find a rising from within us that would do damage to a person if we
possibly could. That’s why we’re often able to abstain from theft, but our heart wants to thieve. We
are often able to abstain from slander, but our heart wants to slander. Now of course, the last two
are what usually give away those Christians whose carnal nature is still alive inside them. That is,
slander and backbiting. And that explains also why so many of us who are really carnal Christians
with unclean hearts are so complacent about our state. Because most of the church is afraid of what
the law can do to us or what society thinks of us. So many of us, who have become aware of God,
don’t want to have a reputation spoiled by getting into trouble with the law, so we abstain from
murder and theft and adultery and fornication, but there are no legal penalties for gossip and
backbiting and slander. And that’s why so many of us in churches expose our unclean hearts not so
much through the fornication or the adultery, but through the slander and the backbiting and the
gossip — through the talking about other people behind their back. And loved ones, that’s how you
can tell if you have an unclean heart.

Have you ever found yourselves talking about somebody behind their back instead of going to them in
love and sharing with them what you can see or what you think? If you do that, if you talk about
people behind their back, then your heart is unclean and you’ll continue to allow that unclean heart
to take you in an up and down Christian experience for the rest of your life — if you can last
throughout the rest of your life — because increasingly that unclean heart clouds the voice of God,

just as that does. It clouds the voice of God and it clouds your sight of God and the more years you
walk with that unclean heart the more difficult it is to hear His voice and that’s why you’ll find
as you go on in your Christian life, without having your heart cleansed, you’ll find: “I don’t think
I hear Him as clearly as I used to, I see men, but as trees walking.” You haven’t been touched the
second time to be able to see them clearly as real men.

That’s why many of us find that we talk about people behind their back. We say things about other
people who seem to be different from us. We get into those little negative complaining groups, where
we point at the other people who are maybe stupid or who are not very wise, but are trying to serve
Jesus — and have you ever found yourselves in one of those little negative complaining groups where
everything you say it: “Oh, this is wrong, and that’s wrong and I’m complaining, because they should
do this, this way.” Loved ones, if you find yourself doing that kind of thing, it’s because your
heart is unclean, your heart is dirty and that heart of yours will continue to send up that kind of
motivation to you as long as it remains unclean.

Now, how do you get a clean heart? Loved ones, it is not by psychology and it is not by reading
those “improve yourself” books. An unclean heart is something that only God can deal with. No man
can deal with it and all you’re doing with these books is putting cosmetics on an old barn that
doesn’t look too good and trying to make it look better. Unless you go to the heart of the problem,
you’ll never be delivered from that unclean heart. How do you get a clean heart? Well, you’ll find
it, loved ones, it’s gloriously simple, it’s Acts 15:8. And Peter is explaining what happened at the
house of Cornelius. Acts 15:8: “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the
Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their
hearts by faith.” That’s how! You get your heart cleansed by the Holy Spirit through your faith.
That’s it! It’s not a long, long series of trying to train yourself. It’s not years and years of
trying to reroute the thoughts and feelings of your heart. It’s not years and years of
psychoanalysis trying to track back where you got these wrong feelings or these bad feelings. It’s
not trying to get a group who will treat you nice and will treat you right. It’s not that, loved
ones! It’s what the Bible says: you get your heart cleansed by faith, through the Holy Spirit. Faith
is belief plus obedience.

When you were born of God, when the Holy Spirit acted upon you and made you aware of Jesus, and made
you aware of God and of the realities of Heaven, you know what you did: obedience for you was
repentance, it was turning from the things that were wrong in your life, it was stopping them,
stopping them there. And then it was believing that Jesus had died for you and God was willing to
forgive you. Now, it’s exactly the same for a cleansed heart. It’s faith — belief plus obedience —
except that the obedience in this situation is consecration. Not repentance — not turning away from
the things that are wrong, but giving everything in your life to God, consecrating it wholly and
absolutely in complete and full surrender, right from the top of your head to your feet. Right the
whole way down to the deepest part of your heart.

It’s giving it all to God and saying: “Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to come in and to rule my heart
and to do what He wants. I want Him to make His wishes my wishes; I want His will to be my will. I
don’t want to even think a thought or turn an eye where He doesn’t want to do it. I want to give
myself wholly to you, Holy Spirit. You take over this whole being of mine and even the thoughts that
I think are harmless, if you say I have not to think them, I won’t think them.” It’s full
consecration, loved ones. That’s such a deep thing because you remember what the Bible said in
Genesis? It said that the heart of man is deceitfully wicked above all things. And so it is with
your heart. You know the garbage that comes out of there, you know the poison that it is capable of,

you know how it spews it up and you wonder “where did that come from?” Then we like to excuse
ourselves, you know: “oh well, like you said, Pastor, it’s just something coming in from outside”,
— except we know fine well this stuff is coming up like a fountain. This isn’t stuff that’s coming
in from outside, this stuff comes up repeatedly in our lives.

Loved ones, your heart is so deceitful that it is actually an enemy of God. That what’s Romans 8:7
says: “The flesh is enmity against God, it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.”
Loved ones, you keep thinking your heart is just a little astray. That’s it! That’s the error you
make! You keep thinking, “Oh well, Pastor, it’s just a little in the bottom.” Loved ones, that’s
bluff! While it has that little in the bottom to spread throughout the whole life anytime it cares
to. The heart is deceitfully wicked above all things! It will continue to deceive you and make you
think, “Put up with me, put up with me, it’s only a little bit of wrong, that won’t do you any real
harm.” Loved ones, it’s poison! The Bible says it’s enmity against God, it is not subject to God’s
law and indeed it cannot be. Wouldn’t you testify to that? Wouldn’t you testify that when you lose
your temper, you feel “there’s something insane inside me, I can’t control it, I can’t control it!
It’s like another person inside me.” And that’s what God’s Word says: It’s not subject to God’s law,
neither indeed can it be.

Loved ones, the first step in getting rid of it is consecrating your whole life absolutely to God
and giving Him the right to run every part of it, the innermost part of your being. Do you keep that
private spot for yourself? Do you? I mean, that’s what I did. I kept a private place right inside,
which none of you knew about and nobody else knew about and I kept that for myself. Even from God,
that was a place where I could do what I wanted to do. Have you a place like that? That’s your
unclean heart, and consecration is opening even that up to God and saying: “Lord, I give what seems
to be my very self. I give to you my very self, my deepest place, the place where I alone know, I
give that to you, Lord, I consecrate that to you, for you to rule as you please. Run it like a
cathedral if you want, run it like a nunnery if you want, run it like a monastery if you want, run
it like the purest thing in the whole universe if you want. Lord, I consecrate it to you.”

That’s the obedience. And then the belief is BELIEVE that all of that old heart of yours was
crucified with Christ as it was. The old heart was crucified with Christ and He has already given
you His clean and pure heart. In other words, faith — like that! — springs up in your heart, the
moment you’ve consecrated everything to Jesus. That’s how, loved ones! And then the Holy Spirit
comes in and cleanses your heart by your faith and keeps it cleansed as you continue to have faith
that you were crucified with Christ and as you continue to submit to the Holy Spirit — and it’s a
miracle, it’s a miracle! And it outdoes all the silly books — and all the psychological games we’re
going through — and it deals with the heart of things and instead of trying to excuse your anger or
justify it or justify your criticism, your sarcasm or your jealousy or trying to justify the things
that you know are sin, but you try to make them out to be personality traits — instead of
justifying them, you find they don’t even rise in your heart. That’s what a clean heart means.

And honestly, you know, you may want to push me on this, you may want to say “brother, don’t you
mean that those things still come up, but you have more power to suppress them?” No, no, no, no…
No! I don’t care if you get me down here and you kick me to death, I’ll still say “no, no!” It is
not suppression, it is not repression. That’s the old game that we all have been involved in. It is
cleaning, cleansing – that’s the word that the Bible uses. “He cleansed their hearts by faith” —
the Holy Spirit was given to them and God cleansed their hearts by faith. That means wash the stuff
right out, so that it’s clean, washed it right out! Didn’t hold it down corked so that it couldn’t

get out but cleansed it right out, washed it out, so that your heart is clean. So that at last,
there’s nothing coming up from inside, but beauty and love and purity. Can you then see it’s your
own fault then if you sin? I mean you’re just dumb if you sin then. It’s just your own fault! But
you know the situation before that. You feel “well, it’s hardly even my fault”, but it is still your
fault, but you feel “I can’t help it, I can’t help it, it’s coming up from inside.” But, loved ones,
the full New Covenant that we have available to us is that God will cleanse our hearts.

You’ve got a clean conscience? Do you want a clean heart? Because the New Covenant is a clean
conscience and a clean heart. Loved ones, will you begin to ask God to show you where you stand in
regard to this? And I’ll try as He gives me grace to explain it more, but would you begin to ask God
to show you where you stand? And is there something rising up inside you that doesn’t like this? Is
there? Is there something inside you that’s saying “Oh no, that’s not true, it’s not true, it can’t
be, nobody can be like that!” That’s your unclean heart! And that unclean heart can take you all the
way down to hell, if you don’t allow God to deal with it, as He promised. So, be prepared for it and
be prepared for opposition inside you. There will be plenty of opposition because the enemy is
within you, even though Jesus is also there — the enemy is within you — and deal with him and I
would say deal with him according to this dear Word. Read Acts 15:9 and say, “now, does it mean
that? Does it mean that God can cleanse my heart by faith? Does it mean that there is a miracle than
can happen inside me that can clean me out?” And that’s what it means, loved ones.

Let us pray. Dear Father, we realize that we’ve made all kinds of excuses for ourselves over the
years. What harm does a little bit of gossip do, little bit of criticism? Lord, we’ve always tried
to justify it, as somebody needs to put things right, but Lord, we see there is only one who’s
responsible for conviction of sins and that’s the Holy Spirit and the leaders that He appoints and
anoints to use for that. So Lord, we would stop excusing ourselves. Lord, we’ve often got used to
the low level of holiness and obedience that is present in so many of our churches and our society
and we’ve excused ourselves and said as long as we don’t sin to do something wrong on the outside,
we are alright. But Lord, we know that it’s this stuff in the inside that causes us the pain and the
shame in your presence and Lord it’s this stuff that rises from our unclean hearts that makes it so
difficult to obey you even outwardly at times.

So, Father, we ask now, that by your Holy Spirit, you will come, dear Holy Spirit and begin to
counsel us. We need your counseling. No other person knows us as you do. We ask you to be the
Counselor and to reveal to us the depths of our unclean heart and take us to the very bottom of that
heart. Take us down to the very end of all the sour spoiled stuff and then, Holy Spirit, enable us
to give that all over to you and allow you to take up your residence there permanently. We apologize
for so often expelling you, when we wanted to do something that we wanted to do. Holy Spirit, we
want to come to the place where this is your home and you never need to be expelled, because nothing
dirty is ever done there. So, dear Holy Spirit, we ask you to help each one of us these coming weeks
to come to a place of full and absolute consecration where we give not only our outward life, but we
give our inward heart to you, for your rule and for your leadership.

And now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with each one of us, now and evermore. Amen.

Living Without a Clean Heart

Galatians 5

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

It’s so easy to say casually, “Oh Stephanie” — and I apologize to all Stephanies but, “Stephanie is
all right, but she exaggerates a little.” It’s so easy to say that and you think, “Yeah, what’s
wrong with that?” But you really are stealing her reputation, aren’t you? Because actually the
person that you’re speaking to doesn’t know quite what you mean by “she does exaggerate a little”
and you may mean she exaggerates ‘that’ little and they may mean she exaggerates ‘that’ little and
actually it’s stealing Stephanie’s reputation, it is.

Because the other person from that moment on is looking out for Stephanie’s exaggeration and
actually doesn’t listen to Stephanie, if you’re honest – and ever after that remembers your comment.
So when you steal somebody’s reputation like that or if you steal from the IRS by fudging on the
medical expenses or the business expenses or you do something in real resentment against an
associate or an acquaintance and you find that the resentment is growing almost to a hatred. When
you do those things loved ones, all of those things, all of those sins, even though they may occur
in your head or in your emotions or in your words, they all come from your heart. They come from
your heart. That’s what Jesus said you remember. He said, “It’s out of the heart of man that come
the things that defile him, anger and hatred and fornication and murder and adultery and slander and
false witness, these are the things that come from the heart of the man and these are the things
that defile him.”

You may say, “No, no, no, those are just chance events in my life that are provoked by the
circumstances that I live in. They don’t really come from my heart”, but Jesus says, “Yes, they do,
and they indicate what you really are like deep down”, and you and I like to say, “No, no, they
don’t. We just flip them off. They’re flippant. We don’t really mean those things. Actually we’re
very very nice inside”, but Jesus says, “No, no. A good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears
bad fruit and fresh spring doesn’t produce sweet water and sour water at the same time. No, what is
in your outward life is an indication of what is in your heart because it all comes from your
heart.”

You may say, “Well, I mean what did He mean ‘by the heart’?” Well, not the blood pump obviously, not
the physical blood pump that we talk about in heart transplants today, but the same as what you and
I mean when we say, “Look, let’s get to the heart of the matter.” You know what we mean when we say
that, “let’s get to the heart of the matter”, we mean let’s get to the very essence of this matter.
Let’s get to the inner issue in this situation, let’s get to the very center of this situation,
that’s what the heart is loved ones, in the Bible.

Your heart is the very center of you, yourself. It’s the very essence of you. It’s the very inner
core of your being and that’s why Jesus wanted to make it so clear to us that the things we do
outwardly are not just chance responses to circumstances. They’re not just chance happenings, they
actually do express what we are inside. Somebody has said, “When you squeeze an orange, the juice
squirts out”, you squeeze it and what is inside comes out, that’s what happens. The circumstances
and events of our lives push us into different situations, we’re squeezed and what is really in our
hearts, comes out and shows itself in our responses and our reactions that we did not have time to

prepare beforehand.

Now the truth is of course, an out-and-out crook says, “Yeah, that’s right. That’s what my heart’s
like. I killed a guy because I hate him. I wanted rid of him”, or, “I steal because it’s the only
way to get money. Nobody else will take care of me and it’s the only way to survive in this place”,
so an out-and-out crook won’t argue with that at all. He’ll say, “That’s right. What I do on the
outside is what is in my heart.”

It’s very interesting but a respectable church-goer who hasn’t necessarily dealt with Jesus will
probably say the same kind of thing. He’ll say, “Well yeah, I may not be perfect but I live in a
dog-eat-dog world and the only way to survive is to stand up for yourself and that’s what I do.” So
it’s interesting that neither of those people will be too concerned about the problems they have
with their unclean heart — but any of you here this morning who believe Jesus is God’s Son and who
have confessed your sins to God and have repented of them and have some awareness of Jesus’ Spirit,
to you, an unclean heart within you will seem like a blatant contradiction of your claim to be borne
of God.

And so an unclean heart isn’t a trouble to anybody but a person who has started to be aware that God
is real and has started to try to obey Him and I think many of us are in that situation. We have
found that there is something inside us that doesn’t seem to want to do what we know we should be
doing and increasingly, as the years have passed, we found there has developed within us something
that is unclean inside, something that actually does not want God and we’ve come to the point in our
lives where we cry out a cry that wasn’t spoken by a child of God at all but that was spoken by a
Jew trying to live under the law and we find we’re crying out, “I don’t understand my own actions. I
do not do the good that I want but I do the very thing I hate.”

So, many of us who are born of God, who have received the Spirit of Jesus into us and who try to
read the Bible and who try to pray day-by-day, many of us have found that there is still within us,
an unclean heart. There’s something within us that has started to make our life with God a kind of
uphill struggle, that contrasts so clearly with our experience at the beginning because when we
first sensed Jesus’ Spirit, it seemed to be easy and natural to obey Him and we seem to just zoom
along, it was so easy. What was inside seemed to be all sweet and fragrant but gradually as the
years have passed, we have begun to find there’s something inside, like a kind of weight inside. A
kind of drag on us and we’ve begun to find, it’s more like climbing up a steep hill to obey God. You
know what you should do but you don’t seem able to do it because your heart is not going the same
way as your will wants to go.

For many of us it’s like a kind of computer inside that has kind of a bug in the memory system and
we’re going along and we meet suddenly a person who is very blunt and very argumentative and we know
we should be able to punch up the gentle, peaceful Spirit of Jesus from our hearts and we punch the
right button but there’s something wrong inside and the old memory storage seems to send up an
attitude of ‘Give him as good as you get’ and you can’t hold it back and it’s as if your storage of
feelings inside store different ones from the ones you used to experience. Or you’re passing by a
magazine stand and you see the magazine with the picture on it and you try to punch up the Spirit of
Jesus’ love for that dear person on the magazine cover but something goes wrong inside and that
storage sends up on the screen of your imagination all kinds of lustful thoughts and actions that
can’t possibly co-exist with the Spirit of Jesus.

Loved ones, that’s the key to the up and down life, that last sentence. That’s why many of us who

are Christians have an up and down, spirit and flesh, in and out Christian life because Jesus’
Spirit cannot co-exist with evil. His Spirit cannot co-exist with evil. In other words, His Spirit
cannot dwell in an unclean heart.

Now you may say to me, “But brother, I know that I have received the Spirit of Jesus. I know that
I’ve sensed at times, Jesus’ motivation and impulses within me. I know that. I know that I have done
some things according to His will. Now, is that not real?” Yes, yes, it is real. God’s Spirit did
regenerate your spirit, that’s why you’re aware of God, that’s why you can even understand the
things I am talking about this morning.

God’s Spirit regenerated your spirit, made it alive and made it aware of God and aware of Jesus and
His Spirit made your spirit new but your spirit still separates itself from God’s Holy Spirit when
it chooses. That’s it. Your spirit is alive to God but when it chooses, it resists God’s Holy Spirit
and while it has that attitude to God’s Holy Spirit, God’s own Holy Spirit is a guest in your heart
that is driven out and brought in, driven out and brought in.

No, you’re still born of God. Your own spirit is still alive. But the Holy Spirit is not able to
dwell in your heart because your heart is not clean and you have not allowed it to be made clean. So
there’s an inconstant Christian life, up and down, up and down, not a constant Christian life that
comes from the indwelling Spirit of God.

In other words, God’s Holy Spirit has to act upon you from outside. Here’s the way Andrew Murray
puts the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. Many of you have maybe wondered,
“Well now, what was the difference between the working of the Holy Spirit in the Old Covenant and
the working in the New Covenant?” Because that’s something of the difference between a constant
Christian life and an inconstant Christian life.

This book loved ones is just a good one called ‘The Spirit of Christ’ by Andrew Murray and I’ll just
read you two sentences, “In the Old Testament, we have the Spirit of God coming upon men and working
on them in special times and ways, working from above without and within. In the New, we have the
Holy Spirit entering them and dwelling with them” — you see, not working upon them from without as
He did on prophets and kings and priests at special times but the Holy Spirit in the New, coming and
dwelling within them, working from within, without and upwards. “In the former, we have the Spirit
of God as the almighty and holy one, in the latter we have the Spirit of the Father of Jesus
Christ.”

Now the fact is those of us with unclean hearts are somewhere between the Old Testament and the
New, that’s it. We’ve experienced the forgiveness of sins of the Old Testament and something of the
regeneration of the New but not the full indwelling that God planned for us.

You remember it’s what we said in that Ezekiel Chapter 36. You remember God gave the promise of the
New Covenant and He said, “I will put a new spirit within you”, that’s, “I’ll regenerate your
spirit. I’ll make it alive and new”, and then He says, “And I will put a new heart within you
because I will put My Spirit within you”, that is the Holy Spirit.

Now loved ones if your heart is not clean, your spirit is renewed and you have periodic experiences
of the Holy Spirit’s action upon your spirit but you do not have a constant indwelling of the Holy
Spirit within. He is not in fact at home in your heart. He is a guest and He cannot be at home until
your spirit has finally given up the right ever to resist Him and until you have been prepared to

make your heart absolutely what He wants it to be.

Now you may say to me, “Now, do you not think that in the first century, they experienced the whole
ball of wax at one moment? Do you not think that? Do you not think that in the first century, the
Holy Spirit came upon them, regenerated them, made them alive in their spirits, and cleansed their
heart and came and dwelt with them permanently from then on?” Yes, that undoubtedly happened.

If you want to look at one of the times loved ones, it’s that kind of anomaly in a way that took
place in Cornelius’s house, Acts 10:44. Cornelius was a centurion you remember, who certainly is
talked about as a God-fearing man but there isn’t clear evidence that he was a Christian though one
can’t be sure, but he invited you remember, Peter to speak at his house.

Acts 10:44, “While Peter was still saying this”, that’s while he was still preaching the Gospel,
“The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word and the believers from among the circumcised who
came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the
Gentiles for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God”, and so it all happened at once
there. I mean it’s strange but it seemed the first time they heard the Gospel, the Holy Spirit fell
upon them and they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and they were baptized into Jesus’ name and
everything took place at once.

But as you saw in that preview you got in Acts 9:17, it didn’t happen that way with Paul. Paul you
remember, met Jesus first on the Damascus road and then three days later this happened in Acts 9:17,
“So Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the
Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your
sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

So it happened both ways in the New Testament. So if you’re in the position where you believe you’re
a child of God and you’re born of God and you’re aware of Jesus and you regard Him as your Savior
and you know your sins are forgiven and yet you still are aware you have an unclean heart, see that
so were some people in the New Testament — and yet obviously some other people entered into the
whole thing at once because referring to the situation in Cornelius’s household, you remember Peter
said, “And God made no distinction between them and us but cleansed their hearts by faith.”

So some people have experienced it all at once but many of us, and I suspect many here this morning,
have not experienced the clean heart. But isn’t the truth this, not how should it happen or how did
it normally happen — because that isn’t going to give us any assurance anyway — but examine your
own heart. What is the state of your own heart? Does your heart immediately expel a thought or
feeling of pride or jealousy or anger when it occurs, does it? Or does it welcome it and entertain
it and relish it and nourish it?

Well, if it does, your heart isn’t clean. That’s simple, and you’re walking with a heaviness inside
you that you don’t need to walk with and that you can’t victoriously with. Do you find that your
heart automatically sends Jesus’ sentiments up to your will so that it is easy and natural to be
like Jesus? Or do you find that your heart is sending up to your will, all kinds of things that your
conscience is condemning and indeed, your will cannot handle these things and it’s constantly trying
to repress them and at times fails to repress them and they burst out into outward sin and stain
your conscience.

Well, if that’s the situation loved ones, you’re living the Christian life the hard way and your

heart is not clean and the truth is that the New Covenant is a message that God is able to cleanse
our hearts and in fact why many of us here walk with unclean hearts for so many years is because we
don’t understand what the real New Covenant, New Testament Gospel is, and that’s true loved ones.

I think many of us have had preached to us only the Old Covenant. Let me show you the Old Covenant
and you’ll know what I mean, it’s the one preached by John the Baptist. Mark 1:4, and I think this
will surprise you loved ones because this is the Old Covenant. This, don’t forget was John the
Baptist as a Jewish preacher preaching.

Mark 1:4, “John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins”, that was it. That was the Old Covenant. Preaching a baptism of repentance for
the forgiveness of sins. Now I wonder how many of us entered into that thinking that’s the New
Covenant. We repent to have our sins forgiven, that’s it and the joy of being in Jesus is constantly
thanking Him for forgiving us our sins. Well, the Jews knew that.

The people that were baptized by John the Baptist before Jesus ever died, they knew that. That’s the
Old Covenant. The New Covenant is a few verses down, Mark 1:8, John makes the distinction himself.
He says, “I have baptized you with water but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”, that’s the
New Covenant. If you want to know what baptized is, it’s ‘immerse’ — not the water, we’re not
arguing about immersing in water or sprinkling — the Greek word means ‘Immersed in the Holy
Spirit’. Immersed, totally immersed in the Holy Spirit — with the result that took place you
remember, in Cornelius’s household where Peter says, “God gave the Holy Spirit to them as He did to
us, made no distinction between them and us but cleansed their hearts by faith.” By immersing
completely in the Holy Spirit, the heart is cleansed by faith.

And yet you know that our society is full of all of us bleating away to each other that “your
problem is guilt, your problem if guilt. You can have your sins forgiven.” We know fine well this
permissive society doesn’t have a great guilt problem. This permissive society has one problem, “How
do I do what I know I should do?” “How do I do what I know I should do, how can I live the way I
know I should live?”, and loved ones, the guilt problem was what the Old Covenant took care of. The
New Covenant takes care of the clean heart. It cleanses your heart through the baptism of the Holy
Spirit so that you have a center of motivations and attitudes that are pure like Jesus.

But the problem with so many of us is we don’t realize that it’s received by faith. We believe we
receive our forgiveness of sins by faith and then you know what we do. You know what we do. We say,
“All right, I received the forgiveness of sins by faith. I know I am on my way to heaven, now I’ve
got to work on my unclean heart”, isn’t that right?

I mean how many of us believe that we can receive a clean heart by faith? We don’t. We believe we
work on an unclean heart by amateur psychology and group rationalization. That’s it, and because we
haven’t experienced the miraculous deliverance from the unclean heart, the only way we can align
ourselves with the Bible standards is by lowering those standards and so that’s what we do. You know
we fill each other’s heads with the thoughts, “Anger is okay. You can’t get over it. Let’s face it.
It’s just human. Gossip is okay. Let’s face it, you can’t get over it, an odd unclean thought, it’s
human. You can’t get over those things. A little slander, a little jealousy, you can’t help it.
Those are normal human feelings and you’ll always have them.” Isn’t that the way we talk? So we
excuse anger and we excuse gossip and we excuse sarcasm and we excuse slick asides to other people
and gradually the whole life in Christ lowers and lowers and lowers.

Loved ones, you may say, “I believe what you say. I believe Acts 15:9. I believe that God can give
the Holy Spirit to us and He can cleanse our hearts by faith. I believe that. I believe it’s
possible to live that way. Now, how am I going to move towards that? How am I going to move towards
the full consecration that enables God to do this miracle in me?”

Loved ones, first of all call sin, sin. Call sin, sin. Stop looking at things that you do wrong or
feelings that you have that are wrong and excusing them as shortcomings or as little weaknesses in
your humanity or as little characteristics that occur because of your background. Stop that. Stop
saying, “Oh well, I am a Swede you know and I am a bit incommunicative, not unloving, just
incommunicative”, stop saying that.

Stop saying, “Oh well, I have an artistic kind of temperament you know, and I am a little fiery, not
angry, I am a little fiery at times”, stop that. Say, “I am angry”, that’s sin. Unlovingness, that’s
sin. Stop saying, “Well, I am a student you know and I am a transient, not uncommitted. I am a
transient, I am just transient”, No, say you’re uncommitted. Call it sin. Old marrieds, “Well, no, I
am not ungenerous to God financially, I am just prudent at this time of my life.” No, no, just call
it sin.

Young marrieds, “I am not ungenerous but we just have to get the necessities you know, get ourselves
together”, no, no, call that sin. Call sin, sin. That’s the first thing. Call sin, sin. You can
afford to do it because there’s a cure for it and a remedy for it. You only have to pretend if
there’s no remedy. If there’s no remedy but the amateur psychology and the mutual reinforcement
groups then you have to avoid calling it sin, but call sin, sin, that’s the first thing. Be real
about the things in your life that are sin. And see secondly that sin cannot be justified. You can’t
justify sin.

Some of us you know, take First John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we lie and the truth is not in
us”, that is, we have never sinned and we have no unconscious sin. All of us have unconscious sin,
every one of us. So in that sense, none of us can say, “We have no sin.” All of us have unconscious
sin that we have not seen yet and we cannot deal with until it becomes conscious but see very
clearly loved ones that the normal Christian life is defined in two verses in scripture, one is in
James, “Whoever knows what is right to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.” So if you know
something is wrong and you don’t do it, that’s sin, conscious sin not unconscious sin, that’s still
sin but conscious sin is what God is concerned about. That’s what you have control of and First John
3:9, “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.” You don’t commit sin if you’re born of God.

Loved ones, hold to that, hold to that. Don’t justify sin. Keep calling it sin. Why? Because the
door to full consecration is continual repentance, that’s it. That’s why the Beattitude says,
“Blessed are they that mourn,” — mourn for their sin — “for they shall be comforted.” The door to
full consecration is continual repentance. In other words it’s not, “Well, I am the way you said I
am, I am in that situation and I know it’ll be a miracle so I’ll wait for the miracle”, no, no, the
way into the miracle, the way into the place of full consecration where the Holy Spirit can cleanse
your heart by faith is by continual honest repentance day-by-day-by-day.

I’ll read it to you because I thought it was important to put it as exactly as I could.
“Impenitence”, that is lack of penitence, Impenitence, un-repentance, “Impenitence is not due simply
to repeated sinning”, it isn’t. See, you may say, “Well, from what you’re saying if I am sinning all
the time, there’s no hope”, no, “impenitence is not due simply to repeated sinning but to the
growing tolerance of that sinning as a necessity,” see that?

It’s not just that you’re sinning repeatedly — but impenitence, the time when your conscience
become seared and when you get to the point where you can no longer come to a place of full
consecration — is when you regard that sinning as a necessity in your life and you begin to
tolerate it. “Impenitence is due not simply to repeated sinning but to the growing tolerance of
that sinning as a necessity — to the acceptance of the idea that we can’t stop, to the regarding of
sin as normal rather than abnormal, as natural rather than alien. However often we sin if we set our
hearts against it with all our being and regard it as something that we must get rid of, not only
will God forgive us until 70 times 7 but He will lead us to ask the all important question which is
the key to deliverance, ‘Why can I not stop?’ ”

That’s it loved ones. There’s no point you know in crying out this morning and saying, “Brother, by
what you’re saying, there’s no hope for any of us because I sin”, but loved ones, it isn’t the
sinning. It’s what the old Saint says, “It’s not the falling but it’s the refusal to get up and go
every time you fall and to believe that there comes a time when you do not need to fall”, that’s it.
That’s what repentance is.

Repentance is not never sinning at this point in your life, before your heart is cleansed — but it
is a refusal to accept sinning as normal in your life. It is a refusal to reject the word of God. It
is a constant belief that the normal Christian life is one that is free from unclean hearts and free
from unclean life and that is the way into the place of full consecration.

It is a desperate crying out to God, it isn’t the crying out to man. “Why? Why can I not stop
sinning?” While you’re crying out to man, while you’re having little counseling sessions, while
you’re reading the books, while you’re talking to other people saying, “Why can I not stop sinning
even though I am a Christian”, while you’re doing that, you’re just pretending, you’re just
pretending. While you’re trying to justify your situation, you’re not even serious. But when you’re
desperate enough to cry out to the Holy Spirit, “Holy Spirit, why can I not stop this? Why?” Then
you’re coming into the place of full consecration where the dear Holy Spirit Himself can begin to
deal with you and can explain to you in what ways your heart is not clean for Him to dwell and He
will explain it to you loved ones because He wants to dwell in your heart. Your heart was made for
His indwelling, that’s why your heart is there.

You were made for the Holy Spirit of God to stay and dwell and live within you day after day, night
after night, moment by moment and the Holy Spirit’s dearest desire is to come there and make that
His home. You remember, it was Judas — not Iscariot but the other Judas — that said to Jesus,
“Lord, how are You going to show Yourself to us and not to the rest of the world”, and Jesus said,
“I’ll tell you. If a man loves Me, he will keep My words and My Father will love him and We will
come and make Our home in his heart”, that’s it. The Holy Spirit will come and dwell constantly in
your heart and fill your heart with the fragrance and the beauty and the purity of Jesus, if you
will ask Him to come in and cleanse your heart of all that is self and all that is ungodly and all
that is other than Jesus. Loved ones, He will do it.

So I wanted to try you know, to help those of you who wondered, “Well, how do I live with an unclean
heart?” Well, the truth is, you can’t live too long that way loved ones, it eventually overcomes
anything that’s good in you at all but the way to live with an unclean heart until it becomes clean
is by constant repentance that is an attitude. It is not simply an action, it is an attitude. It is
an attitude of declared, relentless antagonism to sin, that’s it. That’s what repentance is. It’s a
declared, relentless antagonism and hostility to sin that will not accept sin as normal. “I won’t

accept it!” I don’t want to blaspheme but a bit like the guy in the movie. “I am mad as hell and I
won’t put up with it anymore. I won’t! This is Satan within me. I am not tolerating it. Lord, I know
I can be free from this and I confess this sin to You but I know Lord it goes deeper than this. This
came up from my unclean heart. This came with such a surge of power that my will could not control
it. Lord I ask You, Holy Spirit, will You reveal to me why I can’t stop this? Will You reveal what
uncleanness in my heart has to go because I know the moment I am willing to let it go, that moment
You take it away”, and that’s it.

But I’ll tell you it’s a different life. It’s a different life. Instead of poison coming up from
inside that you have to hold down with all your power, beauty and purity and love from Jesus’ own
heart comes up from inside. You can see why I said to you last Sunday, “It’s your own fault then if
you sin”, it is, because the will is receiving thoughts that are loving and kind and pure and
naturally, spontaneously Christ-like. So the will is dumb if it doesn’t say, “Oh, go through, go
through”, and that’s why such an effortless life when Jesus cleanses you through the baptism of the
Holy Spirit.

So loved ones, will you walk on and next Sunday I’ll try to talk a little more but it’s not talk you
know, it’s you and the Holy Spirit, He will do it. He will be faithful with you as He has been with
so many of us. Let us pray.

Dear Father, we thank You for the New Covenant, the New Testament. We thank You for the real Gospel.
We thank You Lord that our sins were forgiven in Your name because of Your death, just as the Jewish
sins were forgiven in Your name because of Your death, but Lord we thank You that since Your
resurrection, there is also available to us the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Lord that we do
not need simply to experience Him from a far-off as the Old Testament people did, but that He comes
and dwells within a cleansed heart.

So Lord, we want that. We want our hearts cleansed by faith so that You, Holy Spirit, can dwell
constantly and uninterruptedly within us. So we ask You dear Holy Spirit to start explaining to us
why there are certain things in our lives that we can’t stop. Will You show us our hearts, reveal to
us the uncleanness there, much of it we can’t even see yet, and take us to the very bottom of our
hearts until we yield it all to You and give up the right ever to resist You again. We ask this in
the name of our Savior Jesus.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
each one of us, now and evermore. Amen.

How To Receive A Clean Heart

Ezekiel 36:26

Sermon Transcript by Ernest O’Neill

I’d like to try to speak on how to get a clean heart this morning. There are Christians and then
there are Christians and then there are Christians. That’s right. And at different stages of my life
I was each of those. And this morning you are one or other of them. And it’s important to know which
you are. Why? Because the first kind of Christian has the following attitude. So examine your own
heart and your life to see if this is your attitude. The first kind of Christian says, “Sure, I’m as
good a Christian as anyone. I love my country, I pay my taxes, I believe in God and Jesus Christ, I
go to church, I try to live by the Golden Rule, I try to do as much for the next guy as I can. Yeah,
I’m a Christian, as much of a Christian as anybody is a Christian.” Now, what you’re really saying
there is “I’m Christian because I’m not Buddhist, I’m not Muslim, I’m not Hindu, I’m Christian. I’ve
been brought up in a Christian country, I’ve been brought up by Christian parents, I’ve gone to a
Christian church since I was born, I was baptized there, I was confirmed there, I was married there,
I hope to be buried there. I have been involved in a Christian society as long as I can remember.”

But if you examine your own attitude to Christianity you’ll admit that even though Christian
principles surround you in this society and surround you in your place of work, even though actually
Christian principles are impregnating your very mind so that you’re full of Christian ideas, yet
your heart, your inner heart, is just the same as the heart of anybody who isn’t a Christian. That
is, day by day, it’s preoccupied with the same things as everybody else is: making money, getting
enough food to keep yourself alive and getting by and getting what little bit of happiness you can.
And your heart is actually not preoccupied with God and it’s not preoccupied with bringing people to
Jesus. Your heart is actually just like the heart of any other person who doesn’t claim to be a
Christian.

Now the theologians call that being a “Natural Man.” That’s what a Natural Man is, loved ones, or a
Natural Woman. You can believe all the Christian principles, you can go to church like all the rest
of us, you can live in a Christian society, but the only thing inside you that is Christian is your
conscience, which bothers you with guilt every time you disobey God. But actually in your heart
there is no Christian spirit. In other words your life is primarily involved in observing external
practices and principles and customs that you with your intellect approve of. Now that’s what a
Natural Man is. Or we have another term, a “Nominal Christian.” Why I outline that to you this
morning is, I am hoping that sometime in your life you’ll look back on these messages and you’ll say
to yourself, you know, that’s where I was faced with reality repeatedly and I’ve never been faced
with reality as continuously as those days. These are unique and precious days, you know. They are.
We’re kind of a privileged bunch. Not at all because you have me to listen to. But because we’re
together, and God has for the moment opened your ears so that you can hear some of this stuff and
so that you can understand it. And loved ones, I want you to know where you are in relationship to
God yourself, you see. Not to kind of make you feel bad or a second-class citizen, but so that you
know, now, am I a Christian or am I a CHRISTIAN?

Now the second kind of Christian is one whose conscience has been enlivened by the Holy Spirit so
that they stop saying “Oh, I must try to cut down on my drinking. I just have to.” They stop saying
that. Or “I must clean up my sex life sometime” or “I just have to start reading that Bible that

Pastor talks about.” They stop that kind of easy-going attitude to what they know is right and what
they know is wrong. And their conscience is enlivened so that it doesn’t just bother them, it weighs
them down! The conscience, reinforced by the Bible and reinforced by the operation of the Holy
Spirit upon it, begins to convict that person deeply of the fact that they are not living the way
they were meant to live.

They, in fact, begin to see hell yawning before them. They begin to see that their life is full of
sins and that the wages of sin is death and that they are on the way to that death and they are on
the way to a hell of selfishness with all the other Nominal Christians. And they begin to sense that
and they begin to realize that God is utterly justified in excluding them from Heaven and utterly
justified in destroying them before they destroy him and all the other people within their reach.
And that Christian begins to come under deep conviction of sin and begins to treat God for the first
time with a real sense of fear — and it’s then that he normally hears the gospel that the Jews in
the Old Testament heard. I say that because I’m afraid so often in our society that’s the gospel
that such a person who comes under conviction of sin as a convicted sinner hears.

I’ll show you that gospel and I think you’ll agree with me. It’s in Mark 1:4. It’s the gospel that
the Jewish prophets preached and among them John the Baptist. “John the baptizer appeared in the
wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” And that’s the gospel
they hear. They hear that God is willing to forgive them their sins and First John 1:9 reinforces
it, which says, “if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” and such a
person goes to God and says “Lord, I confess my sins and I repent of them. I ask you now to forgive
me.” And because such a person lives in a world that has already seen Jesus and knows that it’s
because of Jesus that they can have their sins forgiven, they do what they’re told. They believe on
Jesus and they receive His Spirit. And God acts upon their spirit and makes their spirit alive. And
they become aware of God, but actually they’re still Old Testament Christians. They’re still Old
Testament Christians. God’s Spirit has acted upon their spirit and made it alive and enabled them to
be born again so that they’re aware of God. But they’re aware of Him VAGUELY. They don’t, for
instance, have that vivid awareness of Jesus and the Holy Spirit that the disciples had and they
know that.

And they don’t quite know what’s wrong. Moreover, the experience they testify to will be the one
that the Jews testified to, the forgiveness of their sins. That’s what such an Old Testament
Christian is preoccupied with: the forgiveness of their sins. That’s all they know to testify to.
That’s the primary experience they have. So they are strange hybrid creatures, because they are
really in the same position as the Old Testament Jews. They know the forgiveness of their sins and
yet they do know of Jesus, which the Old Testament people could only suspect, do you remember, “The
One that was to come”. But they haven’t actually got into the whole of the New Covenant.

And so you find they are preoccupied with their sins and they are very loathe to testify to the
distinction that John the Baptist pointed out between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. You
remember what that was if you have the page open where you looked at Mark 1:4. Just look down to
Mark 1:8 and John the Baptist points out the difference between the Old Covenant and the New. He
says, “I’m preaching repentance for the forgiveness of the sins”, but then in verse 8, “I have
baptized you in water,” — because all I can do is wash you clean from the guilt of your sin — “but
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

And these, loved ones, aren’t very aware of that baptism of the Holy Spirit. Indeed they live
primarily on the basis of First John 1:9: “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive

our sins” and the basis of the truth of First John 1:7, “If we walk in the light as He is in the
light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin”. They walk primarily preoccupied with sins
actually. It’s interesting. They testify that their sins are forgiven, but yet they walk primarily
preoccupied with sin; either with getting free from the guilt of it by continual confession and
repentance or fighting it with all their hearts to try to overcome it, but somehow or other, all
they know is the forgiveness of their sins — little of the power over sin and little of that whole
beautiful life that is above sin completely. So they actually live in the world of the Old Testament
Jew, where they cry, “I don’t understand my own actions! I do not do the good that I want, but I do
the evil that I hate!”

Now what is the problem with the Christian who is in that position — with the Carnal Christian?
Because that’s what such a person is. They’re no longer Nominal Christians, they’re no longer
Natural Men. They have got His Spirit acting upon their spirit and their spirit is alive and knows
God, and the Holy Spirit at times works within them, but yet they live in this life of defeat as far
as sin in their lives is concerned. What is the problem? Their heart. Their heart, that’s the
problem. It’s their heart is the problem. Jesus explained that. He said, “It’s not what you eat.
It’s not the food that comes through your mouth that defiles you. It’s what comes out of your mouth,
because what comes out of your mouth is what comes out from your heart. Because from your heart
comes fornication. From your heart comes slander and false witness. From your heart comes murder and
adultery. It’s your heart that sends those things up.”

And loved ones, that’s the situation. So many of us who are Carnal Christians have a very lively
conscience, and reinforced by the Bible and reinforced by fellowship in the body of Jesus, it
becomes intensely powerful and it’s constantly constraining our wills to obey God. So we find our
wills are trying with all their heart to obey God, but the heart is sending up such a stream of evil
to the will that the will cannot handle it and it cannot overcome it and it cannot repress it and it
cannot hold it down and at times it has to let it through and break out into the outward life.
Because even though your spirit has been renewed and made alive, your heart is still the old
miserable heart that you had before you repented of your sins originally.

In other words your nature actually hasn’t changed, because the heart is what we mean by saying “the
heart of the matter.” Your heart is the real you. It’s the heart of you, it’s the very essence of
you, it’s your very own deep self, it’s you as you really are. You may want to say “No, no it isn’t!
I can’t be as bad as that!” That’s it. That stuff is coming from what you really are deep down
inside and it’s your heart that is the problem. That’s, you remember, what Jesus said. He said it’s
out of a person’s heart that come all those things that they can’t control. That’s why you’re in the
same position as the Jews in the Old Testament. They felt “everything’s clean. Why can’t I obey?”
And you tend to feel the same way. You say, “But look, I’ve been made clean. Everything is clean.
Why can’t I obey?” And, loved ones, the reason is in that statement you remember in Ezekiel if you
look at it just again, because some of you may not have read it last Sunday.

Ezekiel 36 and it’s one of those great Old Testament pieces that foresee what the New Covenant is
going to be like and outlines the New Covenant, and, of course, because it’s God’s Word says it in
some ways better than even pieces in the New Testament say it. It’s Ezekiel 36:26. God is describing
what He’s going to do in the New Covenant. “A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put
within you.” Now a Carnal Christian has a new spirit. Their spirit is made alive by the operation of
the Holy Spirit upon it. But the new heart they do not have. Do you see the way that goes on? “And I
will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” And that’s what
hasn’t happened with the Carnal Christian. They still have a heart of stone. “And I will put my

spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.”

Three things will happen in the New Covenant. God will renew your spirit. He’ll make you alive,
He’ll regenerate you and He’ll enable you to be born of Him, He’ll enable you to become aware of
Him. Secondly, He will give you a new heart and a clean heart and then, thirdly, He will put into
that new heart His own Holy Spirit. Loved ones, the problem with a person who lives in defeat in
their own lives regarding sin is that their heart is still under the control of their own will. The
will still retains control of the heart and still maintains the right to have in that heart whatever
it wants. It keeps that little part of itself private from God.

It surrenders all the other kinds of things to God, but it will not surrender the very heart of its
own being and the will retains control over that heart. And it’s that heart that spews up the evil
and the uncleanness that you find coming into your mind repeatedly in the day-to-day life that you
live. And do you see it’s because you surrendered as much as doesn’t matter, that’s it. You said you
gave your life to Jesus. Well, actually you give as much as doesn’t matter. You’ve retained a little
piece inside you where you retain the right to think what you want when you want. You retain the
right to disobey when you please. Indeed you’re treating Jesus the way the Jews treated Him when He
was on earth. They did what they pleased with Him and they ignored Him and they lived the way they
wanted and pretended that He had never come upon the scene. You have a little piece in your heart
where you live that way.

There’s a little piece inside you over which Jesus is not Lord, the very heart, the very inner part
of you. Now while such a Carnal Christian confesses and repents of their sin day after day and while
they fight sin with all their heart or all their strength and while they try to obey as best they
can, God will continue to give them His Spirit. But the Spirit will not be able to stay with them.
God will not be able to put his Spirit in as a permanent resident in the heart because it’s not
clean, but every time they confess God will regenerate them, will keep them alive. But they know the
effect of that because their life goes up and then it goes down, then it goes up and then it goes
down, so it’s life and death, life and death, life and death year after year, life and death,
confess and repent. God gives us the Spirit, we sin again, we resist the Spirit, the Holy Spirit
witnesses that He’s grieved, you go down in the guilt, up, up down… there is no constant life. But
yet while a Carnal Christian will walk that way, they can remain alive in God, however defeated and
inconsistent and sporadic their life is.

If they ever begin to rationalize their sins and say, “No, that is not sin for me. Fornication is
not sin for me. Adultery is not sin for me” they begin to rationalize God’s word. They begin to say
“Well, who knows? Who knows whether that’s right or not right?” They begin to rationalize what is
obedience and disobedience. If they once start to do that and then they begin to justify this
unequal battle against the power of sin in their life as the normal Christian life and they begin to
try to treat that disease with a mixture of positive thinking and Christian technique literature and
kind of reinforcement from fellowship, then they will lose everything and their last state will be
worse than the first.

Now how do you get into the normal Christian life? How do you get a clean heart? By entering fully
into what God has done for us in Jesus in the New Covenant. That’s it. It’s not something extra you
need. In a sense you’re right, if you’re born of God you have everything, but you have to enter it
into it all, enter fully into what God has done for you in the New Covenant in Jesus.

What has He done? Well, Mark 1:8: John the Baptist says “I baptized you with water, but He will

baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” You need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now you may say now
“Wait a minute. I’m talking about my anger and my bad temper. I’m talking about my moral impotence.
I’m talking about the fact that I can’t overcome sin in my life. What has the baptism with the Holy
Spirit got to do with that?” Loved ones, look at this verse Acts 15:8. You remember Peter is
telling them of an event that took place when Cornelius and his household were baptized with the
Holy Spirit. “And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as
He did to us and He made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith.”

That’s it. The gift of the Holy Spirit is connected with the clean heart and the clean heart is
cleansed by faith. So God gives the Holy Spirit and He cleanses your heart by faith. Just to remind
you, some of you may still say “Oh, but didn’t I receive the Holy Spirit when I was born of God?”
Loved ones, you receive what we’ve shared. Yes, you received as much of Him as you were willing to
allow to control your life. But the fact is that He has not been able to DWELL in your life and you
will testify to that, you will testify to the in out, up and down existence. The fact is that He has
to operate upon you from outside as He did with the Old Testament people. He has not been able to
ABIDE in you as a continuing presence in your life, as a resident within you. And the only way to
have him abide in you is to allow Jesus to baptize you with Him.

Now you may say “Does that mean that my heart then will begin to send up Jesus’ loving attitudes and
sentiments?” Yeah, it does. That’s right. Your heart, instead of spewing up all the dirt that you
have to put up with, will begin miraculously to send up the life and the love of Jesus Himself.
That’s what that passage in Galatians means, you remember, in Galatians 5, it says “The works of the
flesh are anger, adultery, fornication, murder, selfishness, strife, but the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness”. The works of the flesh over there, the
desires of the flesh strive against the desires of the Spirit. And loved ones, your heart doesn’t
have both. You see, that’s the mistake you make. You and I think, “Well, it’s just a matter of my
heart edging over a little. I mean, instead of edging over this way it has to edge over that way. I
mean my heart has good things in it, hasn’t it? It’s just that there are some bad things as well.”
No. Face it. Your heart is dirty. Your heart is unclean all the way. The only reason that you have
anything good in your life is because the Holy Spirit manages at times to get His life through to
you. But your heart basically, if you just sat for 5 or 10 years, your heart is just filled with
evil. It’s not filled with good. And loved ones, that’s part of Satan’s trick with you saying, “Now,
look, it’s not as bad as he says. Your heart has some good things. Look at what you did yesterday.”
Loved ones, the fact is that even that is tainted with evil and dirt and selfishness, if you see it
as it really is. And of course, that’s the issue really, isn’t it? With a clean heart? And with a
heart of any kind, you can actually go under the uncleaness of the heart and there’s a problem
beyond the uncleanness of the heart. I will explain to you what I mean.

You may say somebody has a generous heart. Somebody who maybe just seems to be generous with his
possessions and giving them to other people. Now you know, if you talk to that guy or that girl and
you say that, they’ll almost be unconscious of it. They’ll say, “No, I’m not.” And you’ll know why
that is, you’ll know that their heart has an attitude of confidence about their security, either
confidence in God or confidence in what they own themselves, but their heart will be filled with
generosity because the heart’s attitude itself has a whole big attitude to life or to the world or
to their security that is different from yours. That’s why they’re even unconscious of it. Or
somebody has a magnanimous heart. If you find a woman who has magnanimity toward her critics and you
say “How do you manage to keep away from spite or resentment?” and the person will say, “I never
thought of it.”

And you’ll know why that is. Because their heart no longer trusts in peer approval for its self
worth and so she doesn’t have a dependence on people’s opinions and that’s why her heart can be so
magnanimous. Now it’s the same with our unclean hearts. Our hearts are unclean because basically our
heart has a wrong attitude to all of life. Our heart has a wrong attitude to life as a whole. It has
a wrong attitude about what it depends on. It has a wrong attitude to what its resources in this
world are. Jesus, you remember said, “Where your heart is, there will your treasure be also.” And
that’s the problem with an unclean heart. Its treasure is in the wrong place.

And in Jesus, on the cross, all of us were placed with our unclean hearts and the whole attitude of
our heart which was wrong was changed and made right. In other words, our hearts, for years and
years, have been trained to depend on the world and not on God. That’s actually the basic problem
with the whole thing. Our heart is unclean because it actually depends on the world and not on God.
Even though you’re born of the Spirit, even though you like God (Pastor said here: Even though you
like God (change needed underlined)), even though you try to obey him, your own inner heart still
depends on the world. It depends on the world of things for your food, for your clothing and for
your shelter. It depends on the world of circumstances turning out right for your own happiness. It
depends on the world of people for your self esteem and your self worth. Now in Jesus on the cross
your heart was changed and you were crucified to the world. And Jesus on the cross turns His own
heart away from the world of things and away from the world of people and away from the world of
circumstances and turned your heart as well and changed it. And in that moment, you remember, when
there was darkness upon the whole earth until the ninth hour, Jesus looked to God alone for all that
He needed and your heart also was changed to look to God alone.

That has happened loved ones. Your heart has been changed and it can be changed in you if you are
willing to be baptized with the Holy Spirit because He alone can take that new clean heart that
exists in Jesus and make it real in you. Baptism with the Holy Spirit means being immersed in the
Holy Spirit, means being immersed utterly in Him, looking to Him alone for all that you need. Just
as a fish is immersed in the ocean and looks even to the ocean for the oxygen that it needs, so in
Jesus, you and I were immersed in the Holy Spirit and were separated from the world as the source of
our resources. And we died to that world and we came alive to all the resources that God alone can
give us.

Now to enter into that, you enter into it by faith. Not by masochism, not by asceticism, not by
trying to make it real in yourself, not by brainwashing, not by reading more books. That’s what the
Bible says: “Your heart is cleansed by faith.” Faith is belief plus obedience. In the case of this
full experience of the New Covenant, belief plus the obedience expresses itself in full
consecration. Belief. Do you believe that that happened to your heart in Jesus on Calvary? Do you?
Do you believe Romans 6:6 “our old self was crucified with Christ”? That’s the first part of faith.
Do you believe that? Secondly, do you want that? Do you want a clean heart? That’s right. Do you
want a clean heart? You know, not want in the sense of desire, emotional desire, but want in the
sense of willing. Are you willing to have a clean heart?

Are you willing to go before God and cry to Him, “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit along with my
dear Savior. What You give me is all I want and what You do not give me I will not take. I depend on
you utterly and I give myself to you only. And whatever You want me to have that I will receive,
whatever You do not want me to have I gladly do without. I consecrate myself wholly into your
hands.” That’s it, loved ones.

Now the truth is that your heart is filled with resistances to God’s will that had been built up

over the years through many unsurrendered attitudes and many disobedient acts. Now all those
resistances are inside you, but as you open yourself to the Holy Spirit, He will reveal those to
you. Then as He reveals them bow your head and your will to Him. And then the Holy Spirit will
witness when you come to the place of full consecration where He knows there are no more of those
down deep, that you cannot see that He wants you to see. He’ll witness that you are in a place of
full consecration and then you’ll exercise faith that your heart has been cleansed by the Holy
Spirit and your faith will rise up on wings of obedience. And God’s Spirit will come in and dwell in
your heart permanently and take up His residence. And that’s it — God will do that with you.

As I see, my brothers –I know life more from our angle because such am I, but as I see you sisters
too — loved ones, stop living that hellish life where where you’re between stools! You’re neither a
Jew nor are you a Christian. Stop that! Stop torturing yourselves and stop crucifying Jesus afresh.
Will you not give to the Savior all that He died to bring you? Will you not? If I said to you, “This
is fresh air. In here there’s fresh air — you can breathe it” and you wouldn’t believe me. Wouldn’t
that be a disaster? Wouldn’t it? “No, I’m not going to breathe it! I’m not! I don’t believe you! I’m
not going to breathe it! I’d rather die than breathe it!” Wouldn’t that be a disaster? Isn’t it a
disaster to live with an unclean heart when all the time Jesus has a clean one that He can give you
the moment you have faith? Now that can be this moment or it can be after some prayer when you go
home today, or a prayer in the prayer room, if you want to pray there, or anywhere around this
building. It’s all open, all this day. If you want to get down to business and get your heart
cleansed by faith then you can take action, loved ones. Or we’ll sing a closing hymn, and if you
want to come here, you can seek God here, but you can do it whatever way you want.

Let us pray. Dear Father, we thank you for your dear Word that makes all things so clear and, Lord,
we do not want to live under the Old Covenant, we want to live under the New Covenant. Father, what
we have needed for years, has been a clean heart. Lord, we thank you that it can be received by
faith. Father we thank you for showing us that faith is belief, that our old heart has been
crucified with you and that a clean heart is ours and then being willing to have that clean heart,
being willing to have no part of our lives that is outside your control. Lord we thank you, thank
you that that can be ours this very day for your glory. Amen.

A Heart Cleansed By Faith

Acts 15:9

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Two of the most tragic words in many of the lives of those who are sitting beside you this morning
and probably of your own life, two of the most tragic words are these, “I can’t. I can’t. I can’t
stop being angry. I can’t stop taking tranquilizers. I can’t stop losing my temper. I can’t stop
these lustful, unclean thoughts. I can’t stop being critical. I can’t, I want to but I can’t”, and
then many of us who have been in that position begin to understand a little about God and what has
been up to then just a personal problem of “I can’t do what I know I should do”, assumes utterly
different proportions because we begin to realize that if you know what to do and you don’t do it,
that’s sin.

That’s what James 4:27 says, “Whosoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is
sin”, and then the Holy Spirit begins to bear in upon us and convict us and show us, “Look, this
isn’t just a little personal difficulty you’re having, this is sin against your maker. This is
rebellion against your God. This is the reason why you will spend eternity in lonely dark hell of
selfishness.”

And we begin to realize that the wages of sin is death and it’s then that we start to try other
remedies and we start trying to go to church or we start reading our Bible or we start trying to be
better people and we try to substitute all kinds of other cures besides the one that God said is the
only cure, “The wages of sin is death”, and we try to substitute other wages. “No, we’ll do our
best”, or, “We’ll try harder”, or, “We’ll try the power of positive thinking”, or, “We’ll try to be
better people”, or, “We’ll attend church”, or, “We’ll give money to missions”, and somehow none of
those cures take away the guilt that is lying on our hearts.

And then God’s Spirit lights up different words of scripture to us and we see why we’re getting no
relief. We see that, “By the works of the law shall no man be justified.” Doesn’t matter how hard
you try, doesn’t matter how much you work at it, “By the works of the law shall no man be
justified”, — or that verse you remember in the Old Testament, “All your righteousness,” all the
things you think as so good about you, you try to tot up the good things and weigh them against the
bad things, “all your righteousness is as filthy rags”, and its then that most of us sink into
despair and helplessness and we see this thing is too big for me. There is no way in which I can
make things right with God. There’s no way in which I can make Him accept me. He has every right to
destroy me eternally. There is no way in which I can help myself. And it’s in that position of
helpless despair that the Holy Spirit then brings home the truths of the Gospel to us.

“God commended His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” and, “To
Him that worketh not but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, His faith is counted as
righteousness”, and we sink in relaxation and peace at last into the arms of Jesus and we see that
God has made it right, that Jesus has died for us, and that God accepts us as His own children and
we sink in faith into Jesus.

Most of us at that point in the evangelical atmosphere in which we now live, most of us at that
point enter into the Gospel that was preached by a Jewish preacher called John the Baptist and you

remember how it’s described. “John the Baptist came preaching a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins” and that’s the Old Covenant. That’s before Jesus ever died. That’s the Old
Covenant, but most of us in that situation and in this evangelical atmosphere enter into — believe
it or not — the Old Covenant. That’s right love ones.

You know that is true. You know that the primary truth that you grabbed hold of when you became a
Christian was “repentance for the forgiveness of my sins” and that’s the Old Covenant. If you say to
me, “Now Pastor, that’s what’s preached throughout the churches in America. Now that isn’t the Old
Covenant. Why do you say it’s the Old Covenant”, I’ll tell you why, because you still, six months or
two years after you’re born again, you still cry the original cry of frustration that was expressed
not by a Christian but by a Jew trying to live under the law and up to the law, Paul himself. You
still cry out his cry in Romans 7:15, “I don’t understand my own actions because I do not do what I
want but I do the very thing I hate”, and for many of us who are born of God, that’s still the cry
of frustration, the cry of frustration that every Jew cried under the Old Covenant.

And maybe you say, “That’s insane”. It’s insane. That’s right what you say but it’s insane. That’s
where I started. That’s where I started, that’s why I first felt guilt because I couldn’t do what I
knew I should do. That’s when I first sought Jesus as my Savior because I was unable to deal with
this power of evil within me. Do you mean I am back where I started?”

Well, actually you know you’re not. You know you’re not back where you started. You know that you
have experienced God’s gracious acceptance of you because of Jesus. You know that you have sensed a
relief from guilt and you know that you’ve experienced forgiveness of sins. Moreover, even though
you often resist God’s Spirit in your life yet you know too that at times you’re able to obey His
Spirit and you know that there is at times within you a sense of Jesus’ Spirit urging you to obey
God and to love Him and to want to serve Him.

So you know you’re not in the position you used to be in. You know you’re aware of God in a way that
you weren’t before you first gave your life to Jesus or received His Spirit and yet loved ones you
know fine well that there is also coming up from deep deep down inside you, a fountain of filth and
dirt and sarcasm and anger and bad temper that you are not able to control.

It’s as if your spirit is alive to God and you’re regenerate and your spirit is born again. It’s as
if even your conscience is alive to God and knows what it ought to do. It’s as if even your will
wants to do it and your conscience tries to constrain your will to do what you know you should but
there’s this stream of evil that comes up from deep deep down inside you, a stream that opposes both
your conscience and your will and feeds your will such a powerful stream of filth that the will
finds itself unable at times to hold it in and even when it does hold it in, it holds it in by dint
of powerful repression and great strain in your own life but often it’s not able to hold it in and
against your conscience, the will has to let that stream forth and you lose your temper or you’re
sarcastic with somebody or you tell a lie to somebody or you’re absolutely dishonest to somebody or
you give a wrong impression to somebody else or you get proud of something you’ve done and you know
that there’s something inside you that is not Jesus.

Loved ones the truth is that stuff comes from your heart and your heart is still as unclean as it
was when you were first born of God, that’s what’s wrong. Your spirit is alive to God, even your
mind and your will and your conscience, but your heart, the deepest part of you, the place where you
really live, your own deepest self, is still as unclean as it was when you first heard of Jesus, and
that’s the problem. The heart needs to be cleansed.

Now how do you get your heart cleansed? Same way, you got your sins forgiven, same way. Same way,
you got your sins forgiven, by faith. That’s it. And that’s the way it happened in the New
Testament. Cornelius, you remember, asked one of the apostles to come and preach at his house. The
people in that house had never heard the Gospel before and the apostle came and preached it and as
they were listening, the Holy Spirit came upon them and the apostle, looking back to that day said,
“God gave the Holy Spirit to them as He did to us and made no distinction between them and us but
cleansed their hearts by faith”, that’s the way it happened in the New Testament.

People would hear of Jesus and they would believe and they would give themselves all or nothing to
Him and the Holy Spirit would cleanse their hearts by faith and they’d walk in an ever increasing
victory in their own life until they met Jesus face-to-face. Now if you say, “Well, why did it not
happen that way with me when I became a Christian? That didn’t happen with me. I am in a situation
that you’re talking about. I do the very thing I hate and I can’t do the things that I want. I don’t
understand my own actions anymore. Why did that not happen with me?”

Well, first because on the whole, the Gospel that you and I listen to, here in our society, is an
Old Testament Gospel. It’s not a New Testament Gospel. On the whole, that’s the situation loved
ones. People preach at us the same things the Jews listened to, the forgiveness of sins and that’s
on the whole, the Gospel that we hear so you can’t enter into anything more than you believe and so
that’s one reason. We were told that Jesus died for us so that God could forgive us our sins and
could take away our guilt but the power of sin we had to deal with ourselves by works of law. And
that’s one reason why many of us are in the situation we’re in today.

Another reason is that many of us do not see how exceedingly sinful and powerful sin is until the
Spirit of Jesus begins to influence part of our lives, that’s true. Many of us don’t really see how
absolutely intractable the power of sin is until we can set it against something pure and beautiful
like the Spirit of Jesus. But the third reason is the most important, the reason you did not enter
into a clean heart by faith and the reason you haven’t entered into a clean heart by faith since, is
because you don’t want a clean heart, that’s right.

I mean you may say, “Don’t want a clean heart? That’s what I want! That’s what I want! I want to be
rid of this stream of filth that comes from inside me. I want to be able to look a friend in the
eyes and think all the way through loving thoughts about them, not have those kind of critical
thoughts inside me that I don’t let them see. I want to be able to look my wife or my husband or my
children in the eyes and them to see outwardly all that is inside me. I want to be real. I want to
be rid of this. I want to be rid of this unclean heart, all this sarcasm that spews up from inside
me, this envy and jealousy that makes me feel a creep, I want to be rid of it. I want the stream of
Jesus’ pure and gentle sentiments coming up from inside my heart. That’s what I want more than
anything in the world.”

Well loved ones, you want it, that’s true. You want it in the sense that you desire it. For all
kinds of motives you desire it but you’re not willing to face the consequences and implications of
having a clean heart, that’s it. That’s true. That’s what it was with me and that’s what it is with
all of us who haven’t a clean heart. God gives us readily, is more anxious to give it to us than we
are to receive it, but we cannot receive it because we’re not willing to face the implications and
consequences of having a clean heart like Jesus.

Look at it like this: you remember last Sunday, I said to you, we at times notice somebody of whom

we say, “He has a very generous heart”, you remember that and if you ever say to that person, he has
a very generous heart, you know you see that he hasn’t the attitude of possessiveness that you have
about your possessions and your property. He just seems to be free and gives it away whenever
anybody needs it and you see he is different and you maybe say to him sometime, “Boy, you have a
generous heart”, and you know that the person will look and say, “No, no I haven’t”, and you know
why he says that. He is virtually unconscious of his generosity and he is unconscious of it because
he either has an endless supply of possessions and property and so he doesn’t miss what he gives
away or he has an absolute confidence that he’ll always have what he needs.

In other words, his heart has a different attitude to his resources for life than your heart has.
Your heart kind of gets them and feels that it has to hold on to them to ensure that you have them
tomorrow or the next year. He has just a different attitude to the resources for his life than you
have. That’s why your heart is unclean. It has a different attitude about the resources for life
that you need.

You still look to money and to a good house and to nice clothes for feeling safe and secure. Your
heart really looks to those things. Your heart still looks to people’s opinions of you for your
sense of self-worth or your sense of self-esteem or value. You still look to favorable
circumstances, nice looking friends, fast boats, fast cars for happiness. Now Jesus’ heart doesn’t
look to any of those things, He looks to God. That’s why your heart’s unclean.

That’s why you’re kind of only half converted. You want to obey God but you want to depend on the
world and not on God. You want to depend on the world of people and things and circumstances for all
that you need, not God — and so your heart sends up pride when somebody cuts you down, you see it.
Somebody cuts you down in front of other people, your heart sense up pride. Why? Because your heart
looks to those people’s opinions for your self-image. That’s why your heart sense up anxiety and
worry when you lose your job because your heart, your own inner being, your own inner self, the real
you doesn’t look to God for its security, it actually looks to its job and to the company and to the
economy of the nation.

So you’re kind of half converted. Your nature is still that of a child of Satan actually, because
your heart looks to those things and those things draw your whole being out so your mind is running
that way. I mean you hit the checkbook, the bank balance is wrong, the mind connects right up with a
heart that depends utterly on the bankbook and depends utterly on your ability to have money and
sends up anxiety.

So your heart now has rearranged your whole nature, really not rearranged it, it always had control
of it and your nature, your mind and emotions in the way they work in your body and your will, it
still the nature of a child of wrath. It’s still actually an unchanged nature, that’s the incredible
thing, part of why God says He does not deal with us according to our sins or reward us according to
our iniquities because if He did, none of us would ever find Him.

You may sit there and say, “Oh brother look, that isn’t true. I mean I do have the nature of Christ
don’t I?” Stop that silliness loved ones. You can’t have two natures. Nature is the deepest part of
what you are, it’s what you really are, that’s what we mean by your nature. It’s what you really
are. You can’t really be deep down two things. You can really only be one thing and at times another
and the truth is, you’re basically a child of wrath that depends on the world of people and things
and circumstances and from time to time, because of the gracious influence of Jesus’ Spirit upon
you, you want what He wants.

You’re really like the disciples. You remember Jesus said to them, “The Holy Spirit is with you”,
that’s the situation with us. The Holy Spirit is with you and then Jesus said you remember, “He will
be in you”, and we’re not at that place. We’re not at the place where the Holy Spirit is a
permanent, abiding residence within us. He is just a visitor.

He is the one who said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open
the door, I will come in to Him”, and we’ve reached that stage. He has come in. He is our guest. We
sit Him down. We say, “Oh, we’ll obey You now. Now we don’t obey You. Now leave the room please. We
want to do this. Oh come in again now, we want to obey You. Oh no, leave the room. I want to do
this.”

He is our guest but we haven’t reached the second stage. “I will sup with Him and He with me.” I
will become the host and He will sup with me. The Holy Spirit is not the host. The abiding ruler and
master of our hearts and lives, He is a guest. Now if you say, “How do I change? How do I get
changed? What do I do?” Enter into the New Covenant. Enter fully into the New Covenant, that’s it.

What’s the New Covenant? Well, you remember, John the Baptist pointed that out, he said, “I am
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of your sins but the one who comes after me
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”, that’s it. That’s the New Covenant. The New Covenant is not
the forgiveness of sins. The New Covenant is the baptism with the Holy Spirit that changes your
nature, that does what the law was not able to do for the Jews over thousands of years. The Holy
Spirit changes your nature.

If you say to me, “Oh, what do you mean baptized in the Holy Spirit?” The Greek word has the meaning
of ‘immersed’ in it and don’t sit you know, and say, “Oh well, you mean water immersion”, it doesn’t
matter about water immersion or not but it’s immersion. It means being immersed in the Holy Spirit,
being washed inside and outside by the Holy Spirit. Being saturated by the Holy Spirit, being
permanently surrounded by the Holy Spirit and supported by the Holy Spirit like water as if you were
swimming in the Holy Spirit, utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit, that’s what it means to be
baptized with the Holy Spirit. Looking to Him alone for all your real needs. Your heart, utterly
dependent on Him and you know in your heart it’s dependent on Him, that’s what entering into the New
Covenant is about.

If you say, “Well, what is it? How do you get baptized with the Holy Spirit?” Well, Paul explained
it to those who would come for baptism at the side of the river in the first century. He would
gather them around and he would say, “Now, do you not know that all of us who were baptized into
Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death
so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
of life”.

In other words, being baptized into Jesus is seeing that what happened to Jesus on Calvary, happened
to us. That Jesus did not die just for the forgiveness of our sins, He did not just died to bear the
punishment for our sins. In fact, you have all died with Christ and our old self was crucified with
Christ and you all died to the elemental spirits of the universe that have enslaved you for so long,
those chains and fetters of greed and anger and desire for position and desire for approval, those
all were broken and shattered on Calvary in your life in Jesus because you were in Christ when He
died. Your nature was changed in Jesus on Calvary, that’s what the Gospel is.

It’s in that sense that Jesus died for us — not that God took it out on His Son like some madman
who couldn’t discern who was the real evil person, not that God took it out on His Son — but He put
us in His Son and His Son bore the pain that would otherwise have destroyed us utterly and yet at
the same time God with His wrath burned out that old nature of yours and when He raised Jesus from
the dead, He raised you up a new creation.

Now how do you enter into that? Believe it, believe it! That’s it. Believe that, believe that;
reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin — that is to getting anything from the world of people
and things and circumstances, to getting anything good or bad from them. Die to that, reckon
yourself dead indeed unto sin, that’s what sin is. It’s not just crime, it’s not just immorality,
it’s the whole power of life that operates independent of God.

It’s the world of things and people and events, die to that, reject that and look to God as you did
when you were in Jesus and say “into thy hands I commit my spirit. I receive what You wish to give
me in this life and what You don’t wish to give me, I don’t want. I depend on You utterly, Father,
and now I turn away from this world of people and things and circumstances for anything that I need
and I look to You.”

Then loved ones, God will fill you with His Holy Spirit and cleanse your heart by faith and you
simply put off the old nature because it has already been crucified. So you’re actually doing
something that has already been done in the spiritual realm, you simply stop doing and stop thinking
and stop feeling the things that have burdened you for years.

If you say to me, “Brother, if I have difficulty putting off the old nature what do I do?” Loved
ones, the problem is always impartial or a partial surrender, a controlled surrender, an incomplete
consecration, an incomplete commitment –that’s always the problem. Just go to the Holy Spirit and
ask Him to reveal to you what you’re still depending on the world of people and things and
circumstances for instead of God, He will show you that.

Yours may be the situation like the dear souls in Los Angeles 50 years ago. You may have to seek God
in this prayer room, you may have to seek Him for hours, you may have to weep before Him — but the
Holy Spirit will show you because that’s the only reason He’s here on earth, to reveal to you the
things that you have in Jesus and the most precious thing that you have in Jesus is a clean heart
that the Holy Spirit is able to give you. And so when you come to the very bottom of your heart at
last, there’ll be a witness of the Holy Spirit that you’re looking only to Him for all that you need
and you’ll have that witness in yourself and your faith will rise up and your heart will be cleansed
by faith and you’ll be a different person inside, out as well, but inside — and so that you
understand fully, there will no longer be evil rising up from inside, that’s right.

This may seem miraculous to you and it is, it may seem incredible to you but loved ones, there will
be no evil rising up from inside. You remember I said once before that’s why I say, after you’ve got
a clean heart, it’s just your own fault if you sin. It means you’re choosing to; you’re not sinning
because you have to, you’re just choosing to. The clean heart produces the very sentiments of Jesus,
the very fragrance of His own heart within you and it’s easy to be a Christian because you are one
inside and you feel like one.

I would say to you that you should get down to dealing with God and I would do it whatever way you
think it is best for you. The prayer room is open right through the week, during the business hours,
there are always some of us here. As revival comes, I believe that it will be open all the time,

night and day, but it is open through the business hours, Monday thru Friday and it’s open all day
today, then loved ones, this building, you can take yourself anywhere in any of the rooms and just
get alone with God and get down to business with Him and find out why He is not able to baptize you
with the Holy Spirit this very minute and He will deal with you and He will show you.

Now take time, take time to be holy, you know it takes time because you have been listening to
everybody else for years and so it takes a while to get on to the same wavelength as God’s Spirit.
But if I were you I’d do that. Or go home and do it, but sooner or later, loved ones, sooner or
later you’ll have to settle this. Sooner or later you have to settle it.

I mean there’ll never be a convenient time. There’ll never be a time that’s better than now, there
won’t often be time that it’s as clearly presented to you as now. So you’ll have to do it sooner or
later or live a life of constant defeat that can easily end up, if you get tired of the confessing
and repenting over the years, can easily end up in hell despite what God has already done in your
life.

So loved ones, it’ll never be easy, you know. It’ll never be easy to take time from going out this
afternoon or going out tomorrow. It’ll never be easy. It’ll take you to give yourself to God and to
at least give Him time. Yes, there will be a day you know, very real, there will be a day when each
one of us will have to face it. We’ll have to face the unclean heart but on that day, the judgment
day, everybody in the world will see it and we will see that then we cannot change it.

So I would encourage you and encourage your dear hearts to get down to business with God, loved
ones, and to come through to the New Covenant and into real Christianity you know, and let’s leave
this Jewish Covenant, this Old Covenant behind and let’s go on to what God has given us in Jesus.

Are We Born Again?

1 John 3:9

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

What is it to be born of God? That’s really what I’d like to try and talk about, what it means to
be born of God? And I won’t ask you to look up references for this first part because we’ve already
talked about it before. You remember, how we’ve said that the very first step that we can see in
scripture is that verse in Colossians 1:15 where Jesus was the first born of all creation and he is
the very image of God, and he was born first of all, the only begotten Son and that that was the
first step. And then that the second step was this one in Ephesians 2:10, that God created us in
Christ Jesus for good works, which He had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And then
that God himself, gave us free will in Jesus and explained to the Savior that, “I have to give these
men and women free will. If they are going to be part of you and therefore part of me, I have to
give them free will, we ourselves have free will.” And there is a verse that later on you can look
up afterwards its 30:19-20, “Behold I have set before you life and death, chose life that you may
live.” And God at that point set before us life and death and said, “Now, I have put you in my Son
and you can chose that or you can chose death.” And then you remember he foresaw what some men and
women would do, if not all in deed. And the lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world.

God said to his Son, “Now you and I have to bear the consequences of what we have done. If they
chose not to receive us, if they chose not to be in you, if they chose not to be part of us, my Son
we have to bear that. Now I ask you if you will bear that.” And that’s you remember, where the
verse in Isaiah it is, it pleased the Lord – it was God’s will to bruise Jesus. That is, it was his
will to ask the Savior to bear that pain for us and that that is, I think, at 53:12. And all that
happened there. The lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world right there and
everything was prepared and then God created Genesis 1:1.

God created the earth and gave us free will. And from that point on of course, we chose one way we
rebelled against the whole idea of being in Christ. We rebelled against the whole idea of depending
on God. We rebelled against the whole idea of being part of another person and we resolved simply
to go our own way and that is the way that the world has been going since it was created. And
during all that time you remember, we talked about Romans 8:28, all that time all things have been
working together to conform us to the image of Jesus. Everything that happens to us works to say to
us, “Look, this is what happened. This is what happened. Turn, turn, turn.”