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Amazing Facts

Gaining the Victory

Joe Crews

Gaining the Victory Part 1

Judges are sworn to uphold the law and to deal with criminals who violate it.

Can a judge keep his charge and yet acquit a guilty lawbreaker without sharing in the guilt?

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz from the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, in general, I believe we're more aware of our spiritual needs than we're able to satisfy them.

Most people know where their individual weakness lies, but the problem is knowing how to reach out and obtain help when we recognize our tremendous spiritual weakness and need.

Now, there are many people who simply ignore those needs.

They're even ashamed to admit to themselves that they're not right with God and that something is lacking.

These people somehow hope that maybe it'll go away if they just ignore it.

But it just doesn't happen that way, friends.

You don't lose spiritual weakness by ignoring it.

We have to take some positive action in gaining a deep spiritual Christian life.

I hope this study today will be extremely practical for you as we study the problem of the discouraged, defeated Christian.

In searching where we might begin today, the experience of Paul came to my mind.

I think there are thousands of Christians who are very much like Saul of Tarsus.

The young man, you know, was brought up in church.

In fact, I suppose he had been a church member as long as he could remember.

Some of the greatest men, some of the wisest men of the Roman Empire had been the teachers of Saul, and from those very earliest years he had been instructed in all the details of his legalistic religion.

Nobody could explain better about Judaism than this man, Saul.

In fact, in Acts 22 and verse 3 he said, I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day." And then going on to Philippians 3, verses 5 and 6, we read this, Circumcised the eighth day, the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the Church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

I have known these things from the cradle.

I understand all the details of religious requirement and exactions of my religion.

And yet, my friends, I tell you today that Paul was not a happy, satisfied man.

There was something missing, and he knew it, although he didn't understand what it was.

He was groping, searching for something that he didn't have.

I'm sure the lack was clearly felt as he stood by there holding the coats of the men who stoned Stephen to death.

As Paul looked on that shining face of that Christian martyr, he realizes Stephen had something he didn't have.

There was something vitally missing in his own life, and he could see it shining out of the face of this dedicated Christian.

It must have bothered Saul a great deal as he left that place of execution.

But later, the unrest of this man was completely settled as he traveled the road to Damascus and made that tremendous dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ.

Heaven seemed to open up and shine down on him.

This legalistic Pharisee was transformed into a triumphant Christian that day as a piece of God came into his life.

Now friends, I want us to study the counsel of Paul in our broadcast today, and I want us to find out the secret of this happy life that became his through Jesus Christ.

We want to learn what counsel Paul might have for us and how our own life can be transformed into this same kind of experience.

It's not a short story, it's the account, in fact, of a long struggle.

The book of Romans gives us a story very well.

That's really the biography of Paul's religious experience.

I imagine the first step was when he started seeing sin as it really was, when he began to see the transgression with all of its ugliness and terrible consequences.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no not 1.

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They're all gone out of the way, they're all there together become unprofitable.

And then verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Now Paul, I'm sure, had never admitted this before.

As a self-righteous Pharisee, he would never see himself at all as a transgressor or sinner.

But now he's so ashamed of himself and he says everybody's gone astray.

There's not 1 righteous, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Now friends, when he saw himself in that light, Saul began to abhor his own goodness and his own righteousness.

He realized that he was a lost, a condemned man, and he saw sin as lawlessness which had condemned him to death.

He also began to see sin as a defilement.

As Isaiah spoke further and said, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Paul realized that he needed to be cleansed, that he needed to be washed.

He was dirty, filthy, defiled by his own sins.

And then apparently Paul could see that sin was a ruling power that had made a slave out of him, because in Romans 6, 14 he says, Sin shall not have dominion over you.

He knew it, and he wanted to be free of that bondage.

And so the great struggle began in the life of Paul.

He began to see what he should be, what he ought to be, but he had no power to do it.

In the face of good desires and good intentions, he said, The things I want to do I can't possibly make myself do.

In fact, let's read that now in Romans 7, and verse 18 and onward.

For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.

For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." All right, friends, listen.

I hate these things that defile me and bind me, but I can't break.

He said there's a law of sin operating in my life, in my body, in my mind, and it binds me like steel.

And then suddenly as Paul mourned over his captivity to sin, As he talked about the cruel nature of sin, there burst into his mind the 1 means of deliverance.

And so in triumph he utters that last sentence, I thank God through Jesus Christ there is escape.

And yes, there is, friend, Only 1 hope for Paul and only 1 hope for you.

And that's to get out of this mess through the grace of our Lord.

How does Jesus break those bonds and cut us free from the awful thraldom of sin?

Please notice that the law demands payment of debt, doesn't it?

Let's imagine a poor man being dragged in before the judge because he owes money and he can't pay his debts.

There's the law smiting him in the face and condemning him.

The poor man might have all kinds of good explanations.

He might give reasons for his condition and why he's not able to pay.

But the law says, no, you must pay, and so judgment is rendered against that man, no matter what his excuses or his reasons might be.

But listen, suppose some friend comes along and pays the man's debts, takes care of his obligation.

Well, friends, that takes care of everything, doesn't it?

The debt is paid, the man is free, he's acquitted, the law is upheld, and The judge has done his duty.

Everything is satisfied when the debt's been paid, even though it might be paid by some friend instead of the accused man himself.

Now listen, when sin enters the life, the sentence of death by the divine law is immediately applied.

Gaining the Victory Part 2

No man can lift himself by pulling on his bootstraps, but can a mean man change his nature by self-effort and determination?

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about doing the impossible.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz on the Amazing Facts broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

Today I'd like to make religion so real and practical that even little children will be able to reach out and lay hold of it.

I'm sure that I speak to those who are not Christians as well as those who've been in the way maybe for a long time.

I am convinced that there is not a soul listening to this broadcast but feels some lack of spiritual life and power in his life.

I couldn't find a better place to begin than Mark 11, verse 24.

Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." What a powerful promise that is, 1 of the most beautiful Jesus ever gave.

He said if you want anything, you must come believing, and ask for it, and then accept it by faith, and know that it's yours because it's been promised.

Now, friends, I find here absolutely no reservation on the part of God.

What a promise it is that Jesus invites us to pray, believe, and accept it from him.

All of us have had some experience in doing this, I'm sure.

We know what pardon is, we know what forgiveness is.

We know how to receive the forgiving grace of God, don't we?

We claim the promise by faith, And the promise is over in 1 John 1, 9.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now that's the only way any of us were ever cleansed.

We came to Him by faith, we prayed the prayer of faith, and we said, Lord, now I am confessing, and you said you would forgive.

Then we got off our knees with a wondrous sense of relief and forgiveness, knowing that it happened because he said so.

But how did we really know that we were forgiven, friends?

Did we ask God to prove that He had done what He said?

Did we demand some physical sign, some emotional ecstatic feeling maybe to show us that we had been forgiven according to the promise of God?

When God says He will do something, we must not doubt it.

And when we meet our condition of asking and believing, then He'll certainly do His part.

So we rise from our knees, knowing that without a shadow of doubt our sins have been forgiven.

That's the word we use, the theological word.

It's simply the cleansing away and the blotting out of all our past transgressions.

But listen, that's only the first beginning part of salvation.

Why, that's just the first kindergarten step, you might say, in order to really follow the Lord Jesus from earth to heaven.

There are much deeper things for us to understand.

We can't live on that level of justification alone for the rest of our lives.

We can't live by constantly falling into sin and then praying for forgiveness and falling into sin and praying for forgiveness.

You see, salvation is both a cure and a preventive.

The gospel forgives, but the gospel also empowers.

And here's where multitudes of people have failed to understand.

We must have faith and claim the promise of forgiveness, but we must also claim the promise of God's keeping power so that we will not continue to fall into those sins.

What a beautiful text we find in Luke 24, now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

And don't you ever doubt that, friends, that God is able to give you the victory over every sin.

Don't ever conceive the necessity of falling into transgression.

There's power with God to save you from sinning and to keep you from falling into that same old pit day after day, week after week.

It's that constant revelation of sin to us by the Holy Spirit.

It's a day-by-day experience, and it will require a lifetime for God to point out all of our sins, perhaps.

If God should show you every mistake, every weakness, every sin, in 1 moment of time, you would be crushed by discouragement.

You wouldn't feel like going on any further.

You'd probably give up right there and say, well, there's no hope for me anyway.

He will reveal your sins and mistakes to you just 1 at a time.

The Holy Spirit will show you something that's wrong.

Next week you may get another revelation.

But now listen friends, let me ask you this.

Does God expect us to take a lifetime to overcome the sin once it's been revealed to us?

The revelation of sin may come all during our lives, but when we know something's wrong, we can get the victory over it immediately.

God has instantaneous power to deliver you from that sin.

I think some people have done it the evolutionary way.

I think some people have probably outgrown sin or worn it out or something.

But I'm telling you this is not God's perfect plan.

And that way is for Him to give you the victory the very moment you know you've sinned.

What about that promise in 1 Corinthians 15?

Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The victory you have over temptation and over any kind of sin is a free gift from Jesus, and you must receive it by faith.

Now let me give you a text to support this wonderful truth.

I know it's a little bit startling to some people to think they don't have to keep on falling into sin.

Sometimes we've come to the place of just sort of taking it for granted that this is a necessary part of growing up into Christ, that we have to keep on falling into our transgressions until gradually, maybe over a period of many, many years, we'll taper off and finally quit.

I remember a woman who was brought to Jesus once who had been taken in adultery.

The men brought her there and presented her to the Lord and said, Here she is, Lord, we caught her in the very act.

He said to the woman after He had dismissed her accusers, Woman, go and sin no more.

He didn't say, Go and taper off on this sin, did He?

He didn't give the slightest indication that she could gradually wean herself away from that terrible wickedness that had fastened itself on her life.

And with the command, he gave power also to overcome.

Now, if Jesus could do that for 1 woman, what could he do for us?

Do we think for 1 moment that we must keep on sinning in order to give God an opportunity to exercise His grace?

I think some people feel that it's almost necessary to just sin once in a while in order to give God something to do.

But Paul denies that this is necessary at all.

In fact, in Romans 6, verse 1, he says exactly the opposite.

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Paul says, shall we sin once in a while so that grace will have a chance to operate in our forgiveness?

How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

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Gaining the Victory

Gaining the Victory Part 1

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