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Selected Verses: John 1:12. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. I Corinthians 1:30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: Colossians 1:27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Opening: […] get through marveling at the hardness of our hearts. Beloved, we have no idea what happens to our hearts when we don’t “hearken diligently” unto Him. I was recently reminded of a word Jesus spoke to His disciples when He said, “Have I not chosen you twelve?” It appears that He spoke those words just before He was going to be crucified, and He had these twelve around Him. And the great multitude had forsaken Him. They didn’t like His preaching. It was too strong: “Oh, that, you don’t have to take such strong teaching. My goodness, Dr. Levinsky Finklestein, he preaches eloquent sermons! Go listen to him. He’ll tell you all about the Millennium! He’ll tell you all about the tail of the bear in Daniel’s prophecy!” And here, He tells you to come down. He tells you to “become as a little child.” And they all melted away and they left Him alone, and then He looked upon the twelve, and He said, “Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil.” I wonder if there’s a devil in this meeting. Beloved, we meet hearts that are as hard as a rock—Christian hearts! Judas—don’t me that Judas didn’t do miracles. Sure! Sure, he went out with the other disciples, laid hands on the sick, anointed them, sure enough. And yet he was a devil. Beloved, it means something to come down and to be filled with the Holy Ghost. It means something to be converted and to become as a little child, and only God can do it. And that’s why I say I marvel constantly at the persistence of the Lord Jesus Christ. In many different ways He brings the truth to us. Selected Quotes: He said, “I came down and I was born to testify to the truth.” He says, “The whole world is full of lies. The father of lies has deceived the whole world, and they’re all on the way to hell. They’re all walking on that broad way. And I’ve come to show them the truth, and show them the way of life. And except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man, ye have no life in you, but you will perish, with all your religion, with all your civilization, with all your knowledge, with all your self-inflicted wisdom… That’s what the preaching of the Gospel is for: it’s to awaken in your soul a cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death, from this bondage of sin?” And when God has been able to create in you a real desire for holiness, then He says, “Now get behind the wheel. Come on, this thing is real… I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” And He says, “And this Christ is made unto us of God true science.” Oh, this marvelous science! Do you study science? Oh, you have to study sciences, but all these sciences are misleading unless they’re based on the fear of God. That’s the very fountain of true science. My Lord and my God knew that the thing that I need, and the thing you need is not biology, and not psychology, and not phrenology, and not theology, but you need something far better than that. You need Himself. People call themselves Christians, and they entertain vile thoughts, unclean thoughts; and they read unclean stories, and they feed on the husks that the swine eat. I found out that wherever God really enters in, people stop reading that stuff. They stop reading novels and pornography and even good things; they stop it. Oh, you “guard your heart with all diligence” because you have a Friend there. You’ve got a King, and He dwells there, and He is a jealous lover. Oh, how jealous He is! No one can get past the cross of Christ. Either you accept the crucifixion for yourself—you “crucify your flesh with the affections and lusts.” Either one or the other: you accept His death to be the death of yourself, and you “reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin”—that’s what the blood of Jesus Christ does for me—or, you “crucify Him afresh”—you say, “We don’t want this Man to reign over us.” How many of us have faced Jesus in honest-to-goodness repentance? Why, beloved, Jesus is here tonight. He is ready to forgive, ready to “cleanse from all unrighteousness,” ready to possess every heart. The reason we don’t know Jesus is because we have not allowed Him to do for us what He wants so much to do. Oh, just one surrender to Him… “He is made unto us sanctification.” That’s the second step: “Holiness unto the Lord,” “without which no man shall see the Lord.” And what is that? Why, it’s that wonderful Life. We sing, “Live out thy life within me, O Jesus, King of kings.” Has He promised to do that? Yes. He said, “The world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.” And I said, “Jesus, I don’t know how to live, but you know how to live… Come on, take over, Jesus! You live out your own life.” God says, “I’ll be your God, and you shall be My sons and My daughters.” Hallelujah! And everything that Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount is based on that fundamental promise: “Our Father which art in heaven.” “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him?” And that has not reference only to the baptism, but it has reference to that breathing of that indwelling life of Christ: now He dwells within. Now this New Man is alive within you. He breathes. Oh, how restful is that kind of a life of holiness. There’s no strain there. There’s no effort on your part. There’s an abandonment by faith: “Christ in me, the hope of glory.” speaker icon He is also “made unto us redemption.” Beloved, don’t think of redemption as something future, but He works it now.

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