The Privilege of Being You

[0:00] So tonight we look at the privilege of being you.

[0:18] ! Ever thought about that? I am? Yeah, Popeye the Sailor Man. I am what I am and that's all that I am. Amen. Yeah. Now, never break your heart by trying to be someone else.

[0:31] First place is, you never will be. You might try to be. You might act like someone else. But you'll never be anyone else. You'll always be you and nobody else.

[0:44] The person that gets up in the morning will be the person that went to bed the previous night. That's the way it should be. So we need to reconcile ourselves to the fact that that's how it is and that's who we're going to be.

[0:58] All right. In the second place, it's the way that God wants it. He never intended that you should be anyone else but you. But what he would like is that you should learn how to be the person he intended you to be.

[1:16] Now, always remember, when we're born, we're born through the process that God had begun and had a hand in that. But sin always taints what God has created or made.

[1:31] And so that's the way we are. I've had people tell me before talking about some of the perversion that people are living now. And, you know, the old adage is God don't make no junk.

[1:45] Amen. That's the way they put it. And I say, yeah, you're right. He doesn't. But sin has tainted what God has made. And so God wants to reverse that by making us what in the beginning he intended us to be.

[2:00] King Ahasuerus was a different person at the beginning of the book of Esther. He's different from the King Ahasuerus at the end of the story. We have seen that. We recognize the difference in the two.

[2:11] It's important to bear in mind, however, that it was the same king with the same mind, the same will, and having the same emotions.

[2:22] Now, think about it just a moment. Had King Ahasuerus gone ahead with those things that had been decreed through the involvement of Haman in his heart and mind, it would have turned out that he would have been the king most noted for the worst disaster and slaughter in history at that time.

[2:49] I would say it would have been akin to what the Holocaust was. But thankfully, God changed that and he became the king that would be noted for the influence of Mordecai, be the one that brought great joy and prosperity to the people of the kingdom.

[3:12] Now, Ahasuerus had learned the difference between the man that Haman had made of him, which we can consider the old man that the scripture speaks of, and the man that Mordecai could make of him.

[3:24] Which is the new man. This may help us understand what the Lord Jesus meant when on the occasion he said to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

[3:41] That's in Matthew 16, 24. He had to learn that difference. All right? So, it becomes quite evident from this statement, and what we see, there is a self to be denied or a self to be reputed, if you will.

[4:04] So let's look at that just a moment. On another occasion, when a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Jesus, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

[4:16] Jesus replied by causing the man to quote the law from the sixth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, which says, See this in Luke 10, verses 25 through 27.

[4:41] Now, notice that. If you want to love your neighbor as yourself, then you've naturally first got to love yourself. I always thought that seemed kind of conceited, didn't you?

[4:54] Yeah, but we'll see what he means here. So, otherwise, on the basis of this, love for your neighbor would become meaningless if we did not have a love for ourselves. So, it appears, therefore, from the answer given by Jesus to those who questioned him, that there was a legitimate place for self-love.

[5:13] In addition to a self to be repudiated, there must be a self to be respected. Now, how is self-respect, how can we reconcile that self-respect with self-repudiation?

[5:28] Well, the answer to the problem is clearly seen when we see the life of Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus had to repudiate the kind of man that Haman made of him.

[5:39] But he had the right to respect the kind of man that Mordecai made of him. So, he began to see the picture there. In the same way, the self we have to repudiate is the self that the flesh makes of us when the flesh is dominant within our soul, which abuses and misuses then our personality.

[5:58] In other words, what people see of us, coming from that work of the flesh within us, that's what needs to be repudiated by us.

[6:09] But the self that you have the right to respect, of course, is the self that Christ makes of us when he fills us with his spirit, enhancing and using your personality.

[6:22] Again, it's the idea here. When we're submitted to the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God then can do his work within us, it will be quite evident. Now, people might not know what it is, but it's evident that Christ is living his life through our personality.

[6:40] Amen? Yeah. Galatians 2.20 again, And this is simply I, that is the self that sin makes of me. I am crucified with Christ.

[6:51] Nevertheless, I live. That life is the self that Christ makes of us. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. So this is the you which God wants you to become.

[7:04] This is the you which God intended you to be. So there is most certainly a legitimate place for healthy self-respect in our lives as Christians.

[7:15] But it is the self-respect that derives from your personal relationship to Jesus Christ. On this basis, we can learn to love the most unlovely of our neighbors because we know that if there is anything that you can love or respect about yourself, it is only what Christ has made of you.

[7:37] Now, let me ask you this question just a minute. Have you ever come to the point in your life having been saved, knowing you're saved without any difficulty there, that you get disgusted about yourself, about who you are, about what you are, when you find and discover that your life is outside of the will of God, that somehow you've allowed sin to some degree to enter into your life?

[8:11] That's the picture he's painting for us here. Doesn't change the fact that we're saved, that we want to repudiate what we are in the flesh in those moments that sin become a part of our lives.

[8:25] Now, so, in that case, we can love our neighbors as much as God allows us to do that because we see that Christ has made us something different.

[8:43] So, even though our neighbor may be lying drunk in the gutter, we can still love him because we recognize that what he is is what's to be repudiated.

[8:56] But we recognize that if Christ can make that change in us and give us a life that we can respect, then he can do the same thing for that neighbor. And I think that's what he's speaking of here when he says love your neighbor as yourself.

[9:11] You don't lose your own personality. Now, recognize that. You don't lose your own personality when you take your place by faith with Christ in death.

[9:24] On the contrary, a transformation takes place within your personality. You simply come under new management. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 17 through 18 in the Amplified.

[9:39] If any person is engrafted in Christ, he is a new creation. That's a new creature altogether. The old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away, but the fresh and new has come.

[9:53] But all things are from God who through Christ Jesus reconciles us to himself. That is, received us into favor, brought us into harmony with himself.

[10:04] I'll never forget. And this, you know, I've told you before, I've always been a good guy. Yeah. Never smoked, drank, spit, whittled, and never went with the girls that did.

[10:19] But I was flabbergasted. And I don't remember when it was or where it was. But years later, I had to have moved back to Oklahoma.

[10:30] One of my old school friends, we used to run around together. And he asked me what I was doing. And I told him, I'm in the ministry. I'm a pastor.

[10:41] He said, You? I went, What does that mean? You know, I wasn't that bad. I didn't see myself as bad.

[10:52] Amen. It's like the lady I told you about in the church in North Carolina. When we left there, she looked at me. She said, I want you to know, first time I saw you, I didn't like you. So. And I come away from there thinking, How can nobody, how can anybody not like me?

[11:09] Amen. Is anybody here that doesn't like me? Be honest. Is anybody here that likes me? I got a few hands. All right. Thank you.

[11:19] All right. Now, the new life which has begun is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. And your personality becomes his means of expression.

[11:30] Now, notice that. It's a good way to put that. His work within us means that the personality that we have.

[11:41] All right. Whatever that is. If it's a jovial personality, if it's a more serious personality, which I've got. That's a joke, folks.

[11:52] Come on. Come on. Whatever that may be. That's the way Christ expresses himself through us. Okay. So always keep that in mind.

[12:05] It is he who, as God, works through you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure, according to Philippians 2.13. So when we're prepared for the Lord Jesus Christ, really to get into business like that in our lives, we'll not want to be anybody else.

[12:24] You will be far too excited discovering what he intends for that to be. Now, notice and recognize it's no good for Jacob to try to inherit the promises in the Old Testament.

[12:38] No good for him to try to do that because that was the man the flesh had made of him. So God had prepared an inheritance for Israel, the name which God gave to Jacob later on.

[12:53] It was no good for Simon to try to be an apostle for that was the man that the flesh made of him. God called Peter, the man only God could make of Simon.

[13:05] It was no good for Saul of Tarsus to try to defend the faith for that was the man that the flesh made of him. God wanted Paul, the apostle, and that was the man that only God could make of Saul of Tarsus.

[13:21] Now, here's a good question for you. Has God changed your name yet? Now, think about that. Of course, in the scriptures, for the most part, people would name their babies after seeing their baby, after what they considered he would be or she would be.

[13:43] What kind of character? What kind of personality? And so, God changed that. And later on, a lot of times, that was pictured in the conduct and the personality of the individual.

[13:57] But the question for us is, in the scenario here, has God changed our name? And what I mean by that is this. God always changes the name after he has changed the man.

[14:10] Do we ever give him a chance to do that? Has God made us something different? Can we recognize that?

[14:22] All right. If we're, if we're really yielded to the spirit of God and allow him to do that work in us, then other people that have known us for a long time can see a change in us.

[14:34] That's one of the privileges of being a pastor. To watch God work in the lives of his people and seeing the growth and the change that has come. I even see it now in people in some of the churches I pastored years ago.

[14:50] All right. And rejoice in that because God has done, God in essence has changed their name. And that's the thing we need to, we need to recognize here.

[15:02] Now, don't go around asking people, do you, have you seen the change in me? Especially, don't ask your spouse. Okay.

[15:14] But recognize that, that, that no doubt is, no doubt the, the, the, the situation in our lives if we've been yielding to the spirit of God, if we've been in the word of God, if we've been yielded to him, that our lives have changed for the good in a spiritual sense.

[15:33] All right. And so God in essence then has changed our name. Now, consider this, the ten sons of Haman. All right.

[15:45] Now, as we've been going through this study, probably been saying to ourselves, I understand the picture clearly now. just as Haman was hanged upon the gallows, so in the purpose of God, my old sinful nature was nailed to the cross with the Lord Jesus, executed and buried.

[16:06] We've made that statement a number of times. Everything we were in the old Adam was nailed to the cross with Christ Jesus. We're a new creation in Christ. Now that Haman is hanged, however, is that the last that will ever be heard of him?

[16:23] Does this mean that my old sinful nature is wholly eradicated the moment I claim by faith my identity with Christ in death? Is Peter never again to be confronted by Simon?

[16:38] The answer is found in the ninth chapter of the book of Esther. All right. Verses 13 and 14. Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do tomorrow also according unto this day's decree and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.

[17:04] And the king commanded it to be done and the decree was given at Shushan and they hanged Haman's ten sons. So there's the answer.

[17:18] Haman had ten sons. You may die today to your own ability to put Haman into the place of death thus allowing the spirit of God to celebrate in your victory of the Lord Jesus putting Haman on the cross but this will not do for tomorrow.

[17:37] Now got to recognize something here. If you go to the book of Romans chapter 6 you recognize there that that Paul is expressing the reality that our sins were nailed to the cross with Christ Jesus.

[17:54] That's what he's been telling us there in Romans chapter 6. We were buried with him and we rose again with him to newness of life. Alright? But that gives us a problem here if we're not careful.

[18:07] We'll want to be thinking that we're done with the sin nature because that's a reality. that is a reality but the sin nature in this humanity of ours is still a reality.

[18:21] Scripture says that in reality the Spirit of God if you will has kicked the sin nature off the throne and established his own throne in our lives.

[18:33] That doesn't mean that the sin nature wants to try to kick him off the throne. Alright? So, that's the picture we're getting at here. You'll discover that Haman had ten sons and that's not all for the Haman of your own heart not only has ten sons but every one of these ten sons has ten more.

[18:55] There's no climactic experience by which the evil influence of the flesh may be eradicated once and for all though the flesh itself in its subtlety would like you to believe it and there are some people that believe that that is the case but in reality it's not.

[19:14] To be persuaded that the flesh no longer exists one is not likely to cause him any resistance as it continues its wicked activities in your soul. Nothing can please the devil more than that.

[19:29] So appropriation of the victory of Christ demands more than just one act of faith. It requires an attitude of faith. Now notice that difference with an act of faith and an attitude of faith.

[19:42] All right? Act of faith I trust that I believe that I place my faith in that. An attitude of faith is an attitude within us that say I have done that I have yielded to that I've accepted that and so I'm going to live that.

[20:00] All right? Attitude about that. It's a moment by moment reckoning and your reckoning for this moment is never adequate for the next.

[20:11] Again, Romans chapter 6 reckon, reckon, place to your account the reality that you are dead with Christ, dead to sin with Christ Jesus but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

[20:27] All right? So, you got to reckon that day by day. Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 through 17 Paul expresses it this way.

[20:38] This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. These are the contrary one to another so that you cannot do the things that you would.

[20:53] I think the one thing that would enable us and help us to see the force of that expression is remembering what the definition of the word lust is. here. Whatever the topic of lust is, lust simply means a passionate craving or desire for something.

[21:10] All right? So, notice, the flesh has a passionate desire and fights against the spirit because of that passionate desire.

[21:21] Same thing, the spirit has a passion for the believer's life and so he's battling with the flesh, the natural man.

[21:31] So, keep that in mind. So, walking in the spirit is a continual process one step at a time. It means, and here's the key, it means that for every new situation into which every new step brings you, you must reckon positive with the Holy Spirit to keep the flesh in the place of death.

[21:54] Now, ask yourselves, how do I, when I find myself being engaged in some kind of a situation that would entice me to sin, whatever that may be, how do I respond?

[22:10] What am I thinking? How do I see it? What do I do? Okay? It's the proverbial coming to the intersection, determining whether you're going to turn right or turn left, the moral will.

[22:22] how do we respond to that? What is our thought process in that? Okay? Thought process needs to be that God said, reckon yourself dead indeed to sin.

[22:43] Okay? There's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man, but God will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear that.

[22:57] How does he do that? What's the way he does that? It's to help us consider that for us to reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin but alive also to Christ. We'll see that in a second.

[23:07] Alright? So always face that when you come to that place. Whatever that step may be that takes you there and you find yourself faced with temptation to sin small or large, reckon reckon yourself dead to sin.

[23:30] Now, we need to emphasize the need to reckon positively for we are not only to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed to sin but we're also to reckon ourselves alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

[23:45] That's verse 11 of Romans 6. It's our enjoyment of the resurrection and life of the Lord Jesus Christ through reckoning positively with his presence which sets us free from the law of sin and death.

[23:59] There's something else to bury in our hearts and minds if it's not there already. It's not just the idea that he by his spirit has done what needs to be done to enable us to reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin but we have Christ living within us present with us 24 7 alright and that ought to give us joy amen especially when we reckon what he has done for us in the matter of our sin in our sinful condition alright he's present he's there with us how many when I was a kid dad was in the Navy we moved every two and a half three years moved to California where I was born moved there a couple of times later and California did hardly ever have any thunderstorms when dad was going to get out of the Navy guess where he moved to Bartlesville Oklahoma and I was what 13 years old something like that the first thunderstorm that came through at night scared me to death it was one of those it was one of those that had cloud to cloud lightning you know not cloud to ground or ground to cloud it was cloud to cloud like a neon sign convention one radio commentator said that that was what it was like a neon sign convention thunder galore scared me to death here's this 13 year old kid grabbing his sleeping bag running in bombing dad's bedroom and throwing that sleeping bag beside their bed laying down and trying to go to sleep there amen yeah never been in something like that in my life much less through a tornado but recognize that what we go through in our lives the presence of Jesus is with us and within us alright and he's there to protect us to guide us to love us and give us what we need so the surest way of reckoning yourself to be dead to sin that is dead to that old

[26:15] Adamic nature is to reckon yourself alive in Christ Jesus and be utterly dependent in him let me repeat that the surest way of reckoning yourself to be dead to sin is to reckon yourself alive in Jesus Christ and be utterly dependent upon him then he's going to take care of all of the consequences so Paul recognized that in the believers at Galatia when he wrote that passage of scripture that that sin nature is still active in the believer and so to walk in the spirit is not is to not fulfill the lust of the flesh but when you converse that alright if to walk in the spirit is to not fulfill the lust of the flesh then to not yield and walk in the spirit is to allow the nature of sin to bring sin into our lives so we've got to recognize that alright so we need to walk in that moment by moment dependence upon

[27:33] Christ Jesus if we don't we'll fall prey to the lust of the flesh and then we will encounter one of Haman's ten sons now Israel will encounter Jacob Peter will behave like Simon and Paul will have a brush with Saul of Tarsus turn in your Bibles just a moment to John chapter 21 this came to mind when I was looking at this idea of Peter once again behaving like Simon you know in all of the things that that the apostle Peter experienced walking with the Lord Jesus especially especially the amount of transfiguration experience!

[28:22] what a thing that was when you saw Jesus encased in the glory of God but now after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus in which earlier he denied his relationship to Jesus three times now that Jesus is now resurrected all right having appeared to all of his disciples plus a number of other people before he ascended back to the father recognize what happens here Peter makes this statement in verse number three of chapter 21 of John's gospel he's there with other disciples other apostles he simply says I go efficient lines translation of that is fellas I'm tired of this discipleship business I'm going to go back to my occupation of fishing all right now so the others say well we'll go to so they get in the boat fish all night caught nothing lo and behold

[29:35] Jesus is on the seashore and they don't know it's him he asked the question have you caught any meat all right no we fished all night haven't caught anything cast your net on the right side of the boat just opposite of what normal fishing in that area would be and of course their nets broke and they finally figured out determined that it was Jesus now look at verse 7 of John 21 scripture says therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said unto Peter it is the Lord now look at this now when Simon Peter heard that that it was the Lord he gird about his coat coat unto him and cast himself into the sea and they come to soar and they recognize as Jesus he bids them come and eat now I want you to notice verse 15 notice something here you realize earlier on

[30:38] Jesus changed the name of Simon to Peter okay the little fragment of a rock all right now verse 15 when they had dying Jesus said to Simon Peter notice what he says Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these when Jesus started speaking to Peter he didn't say hey Peter the rock that I'll make you he called him Simon son of Jonas the word Simon his original earthly name human name whatever has the definition of being fiery impetuous and brash that's what the term Simon means that was his character son of

[31:43] Jonas Jonas means has the idea of timidity but inconsistency instability in purpose and in devotion so Jesus sees in Peter the man that the flesh had made of him and Jesus wanted Peter to recognize that alright so for so long he was Peter alright that fragment of rock of part of that large rock Christ Jesus himself in whom in which he will build his own church but now he sees the fleshly man of Peter so recognize that that happens that comes it came even to the one that preached the most eloquent message of of the

[32:46] Lord Jesus after the day of Pentecost that ever was preached but it happens so Peter will behave like Simon Paul will have a brush with Saul of Tarsus and you and I will have and do have occasional brushes with our old man alright that's a reality we've got to face that now the Bible presents an overwhelming case for Christian victory as long as we are prepared to fulfill the conditions and appropriate by faith the victorious life of Christ himself on the other hand nowhere in the Bible is there any support for the promise of sinless perfection except on that wonderful day when we shall see the Lord Jesus Christ face to face again first John three verses one through three this is amplified see what an incredible quality of love the father has given is for us to glorified as well all right we'll be just like him is what he said that's hard to realize

[34:54] I mean that's hard for us to conceive what that's going to be and what that's going to be like so don't allow anybody to deceive you for this will only lead into dishonesty no matter how sincere you may be as you seek to reconcile a bad conscience with your for sin and pretend that it does not exist the Holy Spirit is your comforter he's your friend he is within you to keep you from falling but be very sensitive to what he has to say to you Hebrews chapter 12 verses 6 through 8 say for the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom he loves and he punishes even scourges every son whom he accepts and welcomes to his heart and cherishes you must submit to and endure correction for discipline God is dealing with you as with sons for what son is there whom his father does not thus train and correct and discipline now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all of

[36:07] God's children share then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons all now in other words when the Holy Spirit names it call it by its name admit and confess it for the sin that it is claim instantly that cleansing that God has promised through the blood of Christ and be thankful that the greater Mordecai which is the Holy Spirit is in residence constantly alert and ready instantly to expose the wickedness of Haman's breed and to save you from the evil let's pray Father again thank you for your loving kindness and your goodness and grace to us today and for the things that you've enabled us to see this evening and so Father we thank you for the reality of what you've made us in Christ Jesus and so I ask now Father that you enable us to grasp that more and more and make the application of it to our lives we're so glad that you know us and you know us so thoroughly you know how we think what we think you know the propensity of our heart and life to sin through the flesh but Lord you've given us the victory in

[37:30] Christ and enable us to yield to your spirit more and more day by day moment by moment thank you again for these precious folks that come out each week and hear your word and I pray God your richest blessings upon them enable all of us then to draw closer to you through what we hear and we apply to our lives and we'll give you the praise and honor and glory for it all we ask it in Jesus name amen