No Crisis Experience Commanded #5

Review of Crisis Theology's First Common Denominator

0:08 This adult Sunday school class was held on October 10, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Those of you who were with us last week will remember that we ran out of time in completing the particular subheading of our present sphere of study

0:47 on the fourth of a major principle of a number of major principles relative to living the Christian life. And the present focus of our study together in the adult class has us wrestling with this basic principle that there is no crisis experience commanded or promised as an essential element of the Christian life. Now, having examined the many teachings which do assert that a particular crisis experience is both commanded and promised and that such crisis experience or crisis experience is not commanded or promised,

1:26 and that such crisis experiences are essential if one is truly to live the Christian life as he ought, we are now trying to isolate the common denominators of all forms of crisis teaching on the Christian life and to examine those common denominators in the light of the Word of God. And we have noted that the first common denominator of all forms of crisis teaching is that they allow and assert that mere conversion leaves one inadequately furnished for living a biblically normal Christian life. As I stated it last week, the teaching is

2:10 conversion may be enough to fit us to go to heaven, but it does not furnish us with sufficient spiritual power to live the life of heaven here on earth. If we are truly to live as we ought, we must have this additional experience, whether conceived of as a baptism in the Holy Spirit with the speaking in tongues, whether considered as a crisis of surrender and faith in the language of deeper life teaching, or in the Wesleyan concept and experience of the cleansing from indwelling sin, or a sealing of the Spirit in conjunction with assurance, all of these things have,

2:54 as their common denominator, if not the explicit assertion, it is certainly implicit in the whole structure of the teaching, that mere conversion leaves us inadequately furnished to live the Christian life, and that if we truly are to live on the plane that the Bible expects us to live, the key is entering into this crisis. And what we have attempted to do is to look, first of all, at an overarching biblical perspective, of the Christian life, on that common denominator, and we went through Ephesians, the book of Ephesians, and saw that in the very structure of that book, and in the essential content,

Biblical Perspective on Crisis Theology and Sin

3:36 there is absolutely no evidence for this kind of thinking. We saw basically the same structure in the book of Colossians, and then what we did last week was to go back on some of the particular, critical issues to which crisis theology usually addresses itself, and see how, the Bible addresses itself to those problems. And so we looked at the general problem of sin in a believer in the light of Romans 6, and we saw that the Apostle's way of treating the problem of sin in the believer was not to tell believers that they needed an additional experience if they were to live as those who were not under the dominion of sin, which they are not,

4:20 but rather they are to know, to understand, and to live out the implications, of that which God established on the threshold of their coming out of darkness and into light, they are to understand what happened here, and in the light of that, they will be able as men and women of faith and obedience to live the life to which they are called. Then we took up the whole matter of assurance. There are those who say that without assurance, we can only live a relatively crippled Christian life, and that's true. A man whose conscience is weighed down with this unresolved question, am I truly in the state of grace?

5:01 It is unlikely that there will be much real vigor in his Christian life, much real authority in his testimony to Christ, and assurance in many ways is a key to a wholesome Christian life. Well, some tell us that's right, and the way to get assurance is to have a baptism in the Spirit understood as a divine sealing in which God gives us assurance in this crisis experience. Well, we examined the book of 1 John and saw that that is not John's way of accomplishing his goal of giving believers an increased and deepened assurance. Deepened assurance.

5:37 These things have I written unto you, 1 John 5, 13, that you may know that you have eternal life, even to you that believe on the name of the Son of God. And what he wrote bears no suggestion of an exhortation to seek a crisis, a sealing of the Spirit which will give them assurance. And then we were going to address ourselves in time ran out to what we might call a chronic, specific, ethical and moral problem. So often in this kind of teaching people are told something like this, do you have a sin which you just cannot seek to conquer?

Paul's Address to Fornication in 1 Corinthians 6:9-14

6:12 Do you have an area of ethical abnormality, an area of chronic spiritual deficiency? Well, if you will seek this experience, that will break the back of the power of that particular sin, that will break the back of that particular power of bondage, and you will then begin to live as you ought. So I want us to turn now to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, where we see the Apostle Paul dealing with what we could call a very gross, chronic, ethical abnormality in the lives of some of the people of God at Corinth. 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

6:57 Now here is a situation in which there is serious, critical, moral and ethical abnormality by those who are the people of God. Now the primary problem upon which the Apostle concentrates in the latter part of this chapter is the problem of fornication breaking out amongst the people of God. Now let me say at the very outset, this is not the Apostle's teaching regarding fornication as a basic lifestyle. He has already settled that question in verse 9 of the chapter, and let's look at it.

7:37 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, clear reference to homosexual patterns of life and behavior, nor thieves, and don't overlook the next one, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,

8:20 shall inherit the kingdom of God. Now the teaching of the Bible is clear. A Christian may commit an act of fornication, an act of adultery. He may even commit some acts of fornication, some acts of adultery.

8:38 A Christian may be covetous in a given area, or he may be guilty of several acts of covetousness. But when fornication, adultery, covetousness, any of these things become a way of life, a pattern, then it is no longer a believer committing an act of fornication. We now have someone who is a fornicator. It is a description of his basic ethical character.

9:05 And Paul says, don't be deceived. Anyone whose basic moral and ethical character is such to describe him as fornicator, adulterer, covetous man, he is not a Christian. But now someone says, well, where is the line between an act or two acts and a pattern of life? I don't know and I don't want to find out.

9:28 And if you love your soul, you don't want to know and you don't want to find out either. So we don't get ourselves involved in harebrained, useless discussions. We should be scared enough of any individual act, knowing that any act could lead to a pattern and the pattern leads to judgment and to destruction. And even the act itself brings such reproach upon Christ.

9:52 So whatever Paul is saying about the problem of fornication amongst believers, he is not saying that here's a group of believers who are living in a pattern of fornication, yet we must regard them as believers. They're simply carnal Christians. Now he's already established that. Don't be deceived.

The Believer's Identity in Christ: Washed, Sanctified, Justified

10:09 So whatever he says in the latter part of the chapter, let's give him credit that he's not going to be self-contradictory with what he's already established in the earlier part. All right? With that as a background, notice what he says about these people in verse 11. Such were some of you, but ye were washed, in all likelihood this has reference to their baptism and to the inward washing that it symbolizes ye were sanctified, ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God.

10:44 Now when they passed over the threshold, Paul says, certain things happened to them. They were washed, and we know certainly they were washed inwardly, but it may have reference, and some commentators suggest, and I think rightly so, that Paul is reasoning from the external and the symbolical back to the internal and the spiritual. You had an external washing in your baptism. That external washing was bearing witness to an internal sanctification because you were set apart from the realm of sin and the dominion of sin's power through union with Christ by faith.

11:23 You were washed as a declaration of the fact that you were sanctified, and you were sanctified, set apart from sin unto God because you had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and acceptance of your person. You were justified. And these realities, washing, sanctification, justification, occurred in conjunction in conjunction with, notice, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this happened to you in the light of the revelation of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ and in the realm of the operation of the Spirit of our God.

12:06 So there is no separation of the saving response to the message of God in Christ and the operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart and life of the believer. Now, this is what happened. These people were washed, sanctified, justified in the realm of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ in the gospel and in the realm of the operation of the Spirit of God. And by a little aside, you notice how you have Trinitarianism just breathing through the passage.

12:38 It's there without even stating it explicitly. You have the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit, but who is the Spirit of our God, which would have reference to the Father. All right? But now these people who've experienced this have a problem.

Refuting the Libertine Analogy: Body for the Lord, Not Fornication

12:58 And Paul is going to address himself to the problem of fornication. All right? All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I'll not be brought under the power of any.

13:10 Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall bring to nought both it and them. That is, meats and the stomach that is fit to receive meats. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. Now, why does he introduce that kind of language?

13:32 Well, I think the answer is properly given to us by a commentator of another day and commenting on this very passage. He says this, Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other. The libertines at Corinth were evidently using this as a slogan to show that sensual indulgence was as natural and necessary to the body as food was to the stomach. If I may gratify one bodily appetite, why may I not gratify another?

14:10 You see the reasoning? Did God give me a stomach with an appetite for food, yes or no? Is it sinful for me to use the stomach in terms of the thing for which it was created? No.

14:22 So you have the stomach for food and food answering to the needs of the stomach. So these libertines were saying, Did God give you sexual faculties and capacities and appetites? Yes. All right.

14:33 If he did, then he expects you to exercise them freely and without any restraint. Food for the stomach, stomach for food, so you have sexual capacities, sexual organs, sexual appetites. Fornication is, quote, the food of God by which to gratify the stomach of sexual appetite. Paul says, No, it is not so.

14:57 Paul agrees that food is in itself, not as it's offered to idols, a matter which is morally indifferent. According to its present constitution, the body needs food to nourish it. But God has no permanent plans for the stomach. There's a time coming when the body will neither need food nor the organs to digest it in the glorified state.

15:18 All right. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. This explains why the supposed analogy between food and fornication does not hold good. Since the Greeks tended to think of the body as the temporary prison or tomb of the soul, they could regard the acts of the body as having no necessary connection with the soul's immortal destiny.

15:43 But according to the biblical teaching, man is a living unity of body and soul, a view which has been emphatically endorsed even by modern medicine. And there is therefore no basis for maintaining that physical acts are morally indifferent. Paul teaches here that the body as a whole, in contrast to its temporal apparatus, is fashioned for the Lord's use. Hence, to yield it to harlotry is to deny God's rights in it and disqualify oneself for a part in his resurrection.

Paul's Method: Indicatives Leading to Imperatives (1 Corinthians 6:15-20)

16:15 The Lord Jesus and fornication contested for the bodies of Christian men. Loyal to Christ, they must renounce that, that is, fornication, yielding to that, that is, the Lord Jesus, I'm sorry, yielding to that, yielding to fornication, they renounce Christ. So he begins to take up then this specific subject of fornication using various lines of biblical reasoning. Now the heart of what I want you to see in the passage as it pertains to our study of this first common denominator of Christ's teaching that would say if you have a believer that has a problem, a chronic, a critical, ethical, moral problem,

16:59 it's an indication he's just a carnal Christian, he needs some kind of crisis to become a spiritual Christian, he's never been baptized with the Spirit, he needs to be cleansed from those inbred tendons, his inbred tendencies, he needs a baptism of power in order to break the clutches of this sin. What does Paul say is God's answer to this problem? Well, you will notice that he sets before them that the answer is to know certain things that already exist. Verse 15, Know ye not

17:39 that your bodies are members of Christ? As he attacks this problem with Christians, what does he do? Does he point them forward and set in their spiritual eyes an experience yet to be attained that will be God's answer to the problem of fornication? He does no such thing.

18:03 He starts with asking them a question. Don't you know? He addresses the question with respect to what they ought to understand. He says, Don't you know?

18:15 And what he questions is a fact, whether they know a fact already in existence. Don't you know that your bodies are, right now, even when you fornicate, they are the members of Christ? Now he asks the question based on the question, on the question concerning the fact. Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?

18:50 God forbid. The thought is unthinkable. It's abhorrent. And I'm sure the Apostle felt pain even penning this.

18:58 Or he says, Do you not know? He directs them back again to a spiritual reality that they ought to be aware of. Do you not know that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? For the two, said he, shall become one flesh.

19:16 But he that is joined to the Lord, that is he who is a Christian, who has repented and believed the Gospel, indwelt by the Spirit, and is thereby united to Jesus Christ in the living bond of that union with Christ that occurs on the threshold, he that is united to the Lord is one spirit. Now he gives a command. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body.

19:51 He that commits fornication sins against his own body. Or, and now he directs a question again to something they ought to know. Don't you know that your body a fact established, is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God, and, another fact, you are not your own, for ye were a fact bought with a price. And now the imperative, glorify God in your body.

20:28 Now do you see what Paul does? In addressing himself to this problem of fornication, a serious ethical, moral deviation in the lives of some of the Christians, there is not the slightest suggestion that they are falling prey to fornication because they lack something fundamental in the way of an additional spiritual experience. What they lack is either the clear knowledge of what God has already done, or if they have that knowledge, they are not acting consistent with that knowledge. Do you see it?

21:09 So he calls them either to the initial or to the renewed remembrance of certain facts, and then to activities based upon that fact. So we are back to our old formula. The imperatives, what they are to do, rests down upon the what already is. You see?

21:36 There is the old pattern again. So this is not just some clever theological distinction or concoction. It is there as the underlying motif of how the Spirit of God directs the apostolic writers to deal with problems of the Christian life. So you see the cycle twice in this passage.

21:58 He first of all states that the purpose of the body and its functions needs to be understood. This body was never made for fornication. Therefore to use it for fornication is to use it contrary to the purpose for which it was given. He speaks of the destiny of the body and its functions, the present spiritual relationship of the body to Jesus Christ.

22:20 I am joined to Christ in the integrity of my entire humanity. Now you say, how can you explain that? I can't. But it is asserted so that even when we die, the Bible says we sleep in Jesus.

22:33 Even in the grave, our bodies are not disunited from Christ. That's why they are going to be raised at the last day. Because that union with Christ exists even through the abnormality of death. Now that's a fact.

22:49 And that fact was established on the threshold. And it's a fact that obtains in the case of every single believer. So Paul doesn't have to wonder are there just some who are in this position of being united to Christ because they've gone on and had...

23:04 No. Every single one who in the language of 1 Corinthians 1-9 by the faithfulness of God has been called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ is one concerning whom these facts are true. Now on the basis of that first set of facts, he says, here's the imperative, flee fornication. Now he just doesn't come and say, flee fornication.

23:28 He says, don't you know? You've got to know these things. And knowing them, now you've got to do something. Here are the indicatives.

23:35 The body was never made. The body was never made for fornication. The body was made for the Lord. In redemption, the body has been joined to the Lord.

23:44 Now in the light of that, run from fornication. Why? Because it is a denial in that specific act of everything that is. And you're living a lie.

23:58 And he says as a Christian, you're not to live lies. What you do with your body down to the use of your sexual organs is to express reality. And reality is the body was not made for fornication so you don't use it for that. The body is joined to Christ.

24:12 Would Christ join himself to a harlot? Then you don't because you're joined to Christ. That's reality. He says live in the light of it.

24:20 And if you are, you'll run from fornication and anything that puts you in the way of fornication. So you see how he deals with the problem? Then he comes back with a second cycle of realities. Your body is the temple of God.

24:34 Your body is the purchased property of Jesus Christ. And now he comes back with an imperative, glorify God therefore in your body. So you see you have the two cycles of the indicatives followed by an imperative. And that's the biblical way of addressing a serious ethical, moral problem in the life experience of the people of God.

The Defective View of Conversion and the Allure of Crisis Theology

25:00 All right? Do you see it in the passage? All right, any questions now? This is not a preaching session but once in a while it degenerates into that.

25:08 Yes, Pastor? Yes, Pastor Nichols. Perhaps it would be helpful to make a point for the benefit of the visitors. Yes.

25:16 That the pastoral concern that's being expressed is one in which the people of God who are exposed to a true and biblical view of conversion in facing struggles with sin may be tempted to go aside of some crisis experience, a once for all thing which will bring them above the struggle with sin. It's not at all to say that the people of God who are exposed to a true and biblical view of conversion may be tempted to go aside of some crisis experience, a once for all thing which will bring them to a true and biblical view of conversion. But that's the answer by and large for evangelicalism with a defective, radically defective view of conversion. Yes.

25:50 What needs to be said by and large is that you need to have a right idea of what it means to be saved. Yes. Just to make that point again if that's all I can say. Yes, yes.

26:00 We closed on that note and I didn't include it in the review and it's well to include that again. To understand where you're coming from. Yes. The point that Pastor Nichols is making by and large in evangelical circles today, the great problem is that people have a defective view of what God really does here on the threshold.

26:24 When he actually brings the sinner out of darkness into light, God does some very powerful, amazing, radical things when he does the work. But by and large in evangelical circles with all of the emphasis upon free will and manhood and man's innate ability and man's decision, there has been an erosion of the vigor of the biblical doctrine of the magnitude and the radical nature of true conversion. The inevitable attendance and accompaniments of the new birth. And in those cases we need to go back and reestablish the nature of what that initial work is.

26:58 But now I assume as Pastor Nichols has asserted that I'm speaking by and large to a people who have to some degree been well aware of what that initial work is. But now I assume as Pastor Nichols has to some degree been well instructed as to the biblical doctrine of what conversion is. The nature and magnitude of the work of God in regeneration. Now as they struggle then with remaining sin and sometimes remaining sin can find expression in what we would call according to our study this morning serious ethical, moral deviations from the norms of scripture.

27:36 What are the people of God to do in such cases? Well, when someone holds out the fact that there is a glorious experience which will end the struggle at that point my, that's very attractive. It would be wonderful. But that is not what the Apostle Paul held out to the people of God at Corinth.

27:58 Nothing of the sort. What he tells them is go back and reflect upon what happened when you passed over the threshold and in the light of it do certain things. In the light of the Biblical doctrine of the purpose for which God gave the body the relationship of the body to Jesus Christ run from fornication. And don't ask God to move your feet.

28:22 You move them. Flee fornication. Be like a Joseph. When Potiphar's wife is putting forth her overtures he doesn't try to witness to her.

28:33 He certainly doesn't say well let's get on our knees and pray about this. He ran. Left his coat in her hands. Now no doubt he was praying as he ran.

28:46 But there comes a time when it's sinful to pray while you're standing still. You better be praying while you're running. And that's what Joseph did. How can I do this great thing and sin against God?

28:57 And then he fled fornication. He fled it. Just the opposite of what David did. And he came up on that rooftop the moment his eyes caught the naked body of Bathsheba.

29:08 Had he been fleeing fornication in his case adultery had he been fleeing it he would have turned his head and not just turned his head and prayed oh God help me not to look back again. He would have got off the rooftop. But he didn't. Who knows he may have turned his head once.

29:31 But what he saw had so implanted itself he couldn't resist the temptation. Who knows? The Bible doesn't say. It may have been that at the beginning there were four or five attempts to resist.

29:42 His neck may have been sore from turning back and forth. That's right. Just like some of you allow magazines to come into your house. The first time you look at certain things and you think impure thoughts Lord forgive me we shut the magazine but you don't throw it out or you don't tear the page out.

30:01 And in a moment of weakness you go back again. You go back that's not fleeing that's playing games. Certain television programs they're a stumbling block to you. And in the middle of it your conscience gets so hot that you turn it off.

30:13 Just see burning with conviction turn it off. The next week you say well maybe it won't be so bad. You go down and go whimpering to God. Flee!

30:26 Flee! And if you have no power to avoid that television program pull the plug on the dumb thing and throw it up in the attic hard enough and give it a good bounce or two that in a moment of weakness if you take it out you know it won't work. Oh really we play games with ourselves. Do you really think God's impressed with all that moaning and groaning and all of that whimpering?

30:51 God's not impressed with it because what he says is know ye not if you understand the indicatives then do the imperatives. Alright? Amen. Alright.

Practical Implications: Knowing and Remembering the Indicatives

31:03 Amen. Thank you Pastor Clark. Alright. Now any questions in this passage?

31:09 You see you see that pattern that's the thing I'm so anxious that you capture and that means then let me throw out the question if there are no questions on how we've handled the passage are there? Alright now let me throw out the question if this is the pattern by which we are to be biblically with ethical and moral problems as believers what practical implications does that have for us where the rubber meets the road? If this is God's way to deal with these things what practical implications does that have? What demands does that make upon us besides the ones I've just very obviously mentioned by way of application?

31:49 Can you see some of the demands that this makes upon us? When he says know ye not know ye not know ye not Wayne ah good right on target Wayne say it again louder alright it behooves us to expose ourselves to those things that we may know

32:33 what they are and what is that but another way of describing what? The blessed man of Psalm 1 who is he? Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly does not stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers his delight is in the law of Jehovah and in his law doth he meditate what? day and night day and night now does that mean that the guy who's in the office walks around with his New Testament under his nose excuse me boss I'm meditating day and night meditating day and night no doesn't mean that at all doesn't mean that at all but it does mean

33:18 that he's carrying a New Testament in his whole Bible as much as he can in his brain in his mind in his heart and when he's walking from one task to another and it's legitimate for his mind not to be presently and totally occupied with a dimension of his business responsibility he self consciously calls to remembrance the indicatives as I walk from office A to office C I'm in union with Christ my eyes are his my hands are his my heart is his Lord Jesus O Céspio conscious I'm yours and that thought may flash through in a matter of 3.48 seconds but that's meditating

34:02 in the law of God day and night you see that's bringing to remembrance the indicatives so that in all of those relationships the man then is prepared to act in the light of the imperative so that's the first great implication that we must use every possible means to keep Keep fresh in our minds the reality of the indicatives. What else does it say to us by way of practical directive and counsel?

34:37 Anything else it says to us? Yes, dear. All right. So the whole matter of are my voluntarily chosen companions helping me constantly to remember the indicatives, or do they tend to blur in my mind and consciousness the reality of the indicatives?

35:08 Godly companions. So vital. All right. Any other implications?

35:13 Yes, Dean.

35:25 Very good point. It's amazing how we can almost, and if you're honest, you're ashamed even to admit it sitting there quietly, as I'm ashamed to even say it with my lips. But if we're honest in the presence of God, and we must be, don't you find that? In moments of temptation, if conscience has been dulled in a given area, there's a conscious effort to press down and almost to have temporary amnesia with respect to the indicatives.

35:56 Isn't that true? Because if the indicatives are uppermost in the mind, you can't sin easily. You've got to sin climbing and crawling over high walls of resistance, if the mind is presently aware of the indicatives. Isn't that right?

36:19 And that's why it's so vital to keep a sensitive conscience, because it's only in conjunction with a sensitive conscience that those indicatives are there as the walls that God has intended they should be. And once we begin to dull our consciences, and as we'll see this morning, deal with an accusing conscience in an ungodly way, and I don't want to anticipate too much of that, but I do want to anticipate too much of that, and I don't want to anticipate too much of that, and I don't want to anticipate too much of that, and I don't want to anticipate too much of that, this morning's message, then we're vulnerable to sin. Because it would be almost a, what could you call it, if a man could self-consciously, contemplating an act of fornication, bring to remembrance, my body is united to Christ, I will here and now, knowingly, deliberately, and willfully,

37:04 make the members of Christ the members of a harlot.

37:09 Shocking! That's right. And that's why the reality that we are members of Christ must be pushed way into the background, almost to oblivion, before a true Christian could ever commit an act of fornication. So that's why Paul says, know you're not, know you're not, know you're not, know it, and continue to know it, and continue to keep those thoughts before you.

Critique of Crisis Theology's Simplicity and Track Record

37:30 Now you see, one of the cursed things about the crisis theology is it offers a more simple way than God's way. As though this experience will once and for all lift you above the necessities of the constant discipline of that which Wayne called, bringing to our consciousness and an ever-widening awareness of the biblical teaching on the indicatives, so that we might live in the light of the imperatives. And it's very interesting, isn't it, how reality has a stubborn way of raising its head. And in the very circles that claim to have these great experiences,

38:10 there is really no fundamental difference in their track record with regard to these issues. In fact, in fact, in some of those circles, the track record is even worse.

38:26 Because they've taken another method other than God's, it's as though the judgment of God is upon their so-called wisdom. And immorality and sensuality are most rife in some of these very circles that speak most loudly about crisis experiences. Now there are a number of reasons for that, and I don't want to go into them. Several of them.

38:50 I believe I could substantiate both biblically, psychologically, and from the very confession of people who are in those circles. But suffice it to say, it's right for God to judge all so-called wisdom that contravenes his own. All right? Any other question now on that passage?

Avoiding Rationalization: The 'Yes, But' Trap

39:06 Yes, Louise?

39:21 Yeah. Well, thank you, Louise. And I've been encouraged that a number have said they've found this helpful in sorting things out. Yes, Pastor Clark.

39:29 May I add just one thing?

39:33 Avoid the rationalization. It follows two little words, little three-letter words. Yes, but. Yeah.

39:46 All right. Amplify, sir, please.

39:52 Because of all kinds of... Yes, the indicatives are there.

39:55 But. Uh-huh. Yes, I know that's true, but.

40:02 Yeah, I agree with what the scripture says here. But. Yeah. I'm subjected to this peculiar temptation.

40:12 I'm in this unusual circumstance. Yes, all that Pastor Martin has said is true, but. Yeah. And all sorts of things can follow those two words.

40:22 Yes, and everything that follows the but effectively negates everything that we say with the yes. Yes, not so, but. And by the time you're putting all the qualifications after the buts, you've effectively said this really doesn't obtain. Or if it obtains, the imperative that grows out of it really doesn't apply to me.

40:43 My case is exceptional. Yeah. And I've been in this business long enough to know when people say, my case is exceptional. I smell that.

40:52 And I was out running yesterday, 100 yards before I saw the carcass of the skunk. I knew he was there somewhere. I could smell him. Right up on Fairview Avenue.

41:05 I said, skunk somewhere. Can't see him, but I sure can smell him. And 100 yards later, as I was padding my patsies up Fairview Avenue there, I saw his carcass. Well, whenever I hear this, well, my condition.

41:17 I don't see the skunk. Maybe, yeah, but I smell him. He's there somewhere. Yes, but.

41:22 Very good point. Maybe I'll preach a sermon sometime on yes, but.

41:29 Good. All right. Any other question then on this passage?

The Holy Spirit's Work: No Command for Crisis Experience

41:33 All right. I want us to. Oh, my. It's 20 after 10 already.

41:37 I wanted us to look at one other group of passages. What did you say?

41:44 I said yes, but.

41:55 Can't win for losing around here. Now, the final what I would call family of verses, and what I'll do is just give you this family of verses, and then hopefully you'll do what Wayne said. You'll take time to read them and reflect upon them. These family or this family of verses are those in which the person and work of the Holy Spirit are explicitly mentioned in connection with living the Christian life.

42:23 Now, this is what makes them so vital. See, we're talking about the work of the Spirit in conjunction. Living the Christian life. Now, not all teaching on the Christian life explicitly mentions the work of the Spirit.

42:35 Though he is present as the quickening, empowering agent in every facet of the Christian life, he is not mentioned explicitly in every passage dealing with the Christian life. You see what I mean by my words? But now, in the family of passages where the Holy Spirit is very prominent and explicitly mentioned in conjunction with living the Christian life, you will look in vain for the slightest suggestion that believers are to seek some kind of a special crisis experience in the Holy Spirit. Now, let me give you four or three families of passages, or three passages that are in this family.

43:16 Romans 8, verses 1 to 14, a very key section. Romans 8, verses 1 to 14. Now, in the opening section of that passage, particularly, beginning with verse 3, verses 3 and following, the Apostle indicates that all men are in one of two moral, ethical, and spiritual realms of existence. There is no middle realm.

43:47 You just glance down through the passage quickly, particularly maybe starting with verse 5 or 6, and tell me, what are the two basic realms of moral, spiritual, and ethical, existence, and all men are in one realm or the other? What's the first, or the negative realm? The what? The realm of the flesh.

44:11 Okay? And what does God say concerning all who are in the flesh? What is their basic attitude and disposition to God and to His law, according to verse 7? Alright, they are enmity with God, and that enmity to God shows itself by their non-subjection to the law of God, and that is, what is their status before God?

44:36 So then they that are in the flesh, what? Cannot please God. Okay? And then the other realm of spiritual, moral, and ethical existence is the realm of the spirit.

44:49 Alright? No middle ground, either in the flesh or in the spirit. Now he says, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. And if any man hath not the spirit of God dwell in him, he is the spirit of Christ.

45:06 He may be saved, but he will never make much progress in the Christian life. Is that what he says in verse 9? No, what does he say? If any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is what?

45:16 None of his. None of his. If he does not have the spirit, he does not belong to Christ. He is not a Christian.

45:25 But if he belongs to Christ, he has the spirit. Now listen carefully. He has the spirit who has come powerfully to change, the fundamental realm of his ethical, moral, and spiritual experience from flesh to spirit. There is no such thing as a non-radical, non-transforming experience of the Holy Spirit.

45:52 And you see, that's the heart of the terrible nature of this Christ's teaching. It's saying, yes, you have enough of the spirit to get you to heaven when you die, but not enough to live here and now. There is something other than a life-transforming experience in the Holy Spirit. Not according to Paul.

46:12 If you are in the spirit, you are no longer in the flesh. But if you are in the spirit now when he gives directives, what are those directives? Not to seek some additional crisis experience in the spirit, but to begin to live. Galatians 5, 16 to 26.

46:29 And here you have again two basic realms. The works of the flesh. The works of the flesh. The fruit of the spirit.

46:36 And then the apostle says that if you're Christians, then you have entered out of this realm of practicing the deeds of the flesh. The fruit of the spirit is being born in your life. And after making those assertions, then the only imperative is, if we live by the spirit, that is, if we've received life by the spirit, by the spirit let us also walk. He doesn't say, if we live by the spirit, let us now go on and get a baptism in the spirit, and then we'll be able to begin to walk by the spirit.

47:07 No, he says, if we have life by the spirit, if we have truly been converted, if we've truly been regenerated, we have life by the spirit, now, by the spirit, let us also walk. So the exhortation is to walking in the light of the donation already given. There's no suggestion we can't really walk, until we receive an additional donation. See the difference of emphasis?

47:35 And this is in a very critical passage in which the Holy Spirit in his ministry is prominent. And then we might mention some of the exhortations in the book of Ephesians, and I was thinking particularly of Ephesians 4.30, grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you have been sealed unto the day of redemption. And then Ephesians 5.18,

47:57 be being filled with the spirit. Not pointing to an experience, a crisis experience, but to a condition of continually being filled with the spirit. Well, that's the family of passages. I hope maybe we'll get more time to open up, but let me give them to you, and we don't want to just keep beating this thing thin, but this is so vital that I trust we've covered enough of what I call the macrocosmic view.

Conclusion: The Danger of Slogans and Disillusionment

48:29 We've backed off, and we've looked at the broad sweeping structure of a book such as Ephesians and Colossians, and then we've come in a little bit more microscopically at some of the specific areas of problems and seen how the word of God is directed to them. Now, if this shows you nothing else, I hope it does this. It shows that so often this kind of teaching is floated on texts out of context upon clever little slogans, I was talking with a friend of mine recently, in fact it was a relative, and they were so thrilled, they had just sat under the ministry of someone who all week long was teaching the exchanged life. That's a lovely, catching little phrase,

49:12 the exchanged life. We give up our life so that Christ may live his life in us and through us. The exchanged life. Isn't that lovely?

49:20 Show me anything in the Bible that talks about the exchanged life. Where solid exposition, where sensitivity to the overall, overarching teaching of the Bible talks about the exchanged life. But you see people get caught up with a slogan, and with a little verse here and a little verse there, and then they build a whole, and it looks so marvelous. The problem is it's not biblical.

49:47 And if it's not biblical and you're real, sooner or later it will lead to absolute disillusionment. Now thank God some people just don't take it to its logical conclusion. But I hope you've seen this. All right, we've got two minutes.

50:00 Any further questions before we close this morning? Or any further comments? All right, so if anyone else ever says in your hearing, well, he's just converted, but you just stop a minute and say, wait a minute, what does it mean to be, quote, just converted? Know ye not that?

Prayer of Thanksgiving and Commitment

50:20 And then you start opening up all of the indicatives that are true of every single person who has come into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's pray together and thank God for our time. Our Father, we are so thankful that we have the word of God as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. And we confess in your presence that so often we have allowed our minds to relinquish the present remembrance and the vivid consciousness of what you have made us in Christ.

51:05 And when we have done so, we have been vulnerable to sins of one kind or another. And we pray that, as a result of this morning's study, each of us who is united to your Son may with renewed determination constantly bring to remembrance what is because of what you have done in your grace and kindness to us in Christ. And then, O Lord, give us grace to embrace the imperatives and regardless of what we may feel at any given moment, that we may live in the light of the indicatives and may, in dependence upon your Holy Spirit, carry out the imperatives

51:48 to the end that we may, as we were commanded this morning, glorify you in our bodies. We gladly confess in your presence, our Lord Jesus Christ, that we are your purchased property, body, soul, and spirit. Lord Jesus, we are yours. O take, we pray, the fresh offering up of ourselves as living sacrifices, and help us so to live in the light of your word that we may indeed glorify you in these bodies which are yours.

52:26 Hear us, and again receive our thanks for your presence with us, we plead through our Lord Jesus Christ and to his praise. Amen.