Christ Magnified - Part 3

As I said the other day when we sang it, sing it with a sneer. Death cannot keep its prey. Sin shall not have dominion over us.

The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. Now that's a very wonderful text, isn't it? Look at verse 8. Romans 8, verse 8, okay. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Well there you are, there's your answer. No, the answer's in the next verse. But ye are not in the flesh.

You're talking about this flesh in one place, and you're talking about a fleshy nature in the other. Galatians 5, where all the works of the flesh are there, which are manifest, but also corrupt. But then you come down into the same next verse, verse 9. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Look at verse 10. If Christ be in you.

Verse 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up from the dead dwell in you. Good mercy.

What do you want? You have the Spirit of God in you? You have the Spirit of life in you? You have the Spirit of the Son in you? You have the Spirit of the Spirit in you? Well how can there be room for carnality? Knowing this, Paul says, that our old life, our old man was crucified with him. Nevertheless I live, yet he says yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

In verse, in Romans 6 again. In verse 11 he says, Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. In the same verse he says, Reckon the body to be dead indeed unto sin, but ye are alive in God, in Christ Jesus.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and of death. That Christ may be magnified through my body. I never heard anybody preach on this text, never preached on it myself.

You remember the psalmist says, Upon an instrument of ten strings will I praise thee. What kind of a thing is that? A guitar or something? Harp? You say, I don't have an instrument of ten strings. Well supposing you put it this way, you've got two feet, you've got two hands, you've got two eyes, you've got two ears, you've got one tongue, thank God no more, and one heart, ten strings.

That's why the girl says in that hymn, Let my hands perform his bidding, let my feet run in his way, let my eyes see Jesus only, let my lips speak forth his praise. Or an American hymn if you like, Take my life and let it be. What do you sing there? Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love, take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee, take my love, my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store, take my will.

That's the last area that we yield. Take my will and make it that. Paul doesn't even say that Christ made me magnified by my epistles.

Though he wrote, at least I think he wrote the greatest things that any human being was ever allowed to write. His magnificent epistle to the Romans, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, again this is one of his jail writings. If you read it carefully, we don't have time to do that.

If you read carefully through this, read through the first chapter, you'll see the position and life of the Christian. If you read the second chapter, you'll get the pattern of Christ. The third chapter, you'll get the energy that carries the Christian through this world.

Chapter four, the Christian superiority to all circumstances. In other words, this epistle is the whole character of the Christian life. Paul shows how to walk and work in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he, of course, is the fire leader. He is the best example of it. I've said before, I may be saying many times again, I think that Paul was the greatest genius the world ever saw.

Colossal intellect, a will that never tired, a faith that never flinched, a love that never broke down, a courage that nobody could dominate. He stands cheerfully before kings. He's as happy in jail, writing the epistle of love, as he is in any circumstance of life.

So he shows us that the man can be complete, however, well, whatever rate of genius he has, that he can be complete in God without even being involved in this world outside, in its material concept or business concept. He's totally God's man. I think it was Spinoza that talks about a God-intoxicated man.

That God-intoxicated man is the apostle Paul, in my judgment. In perils of the deep, he doesn't shake. Everybody else on the ship is terrified.

He stands by, and the captain sends for him, and the captain says, what's wrong with you? Wasn't that a night last night? I can imagine the captain said, I've been at sea for 50 years, never gone through a night like that. I guess you were like the rest of us, cringing and holding on to your bed, terrified. No, he said, I had a great night.

I had a great time of fellowship. Fellowship? Is there another Christian on board? He said, the one from last night. What's he called? He said, an angel from heaven.

Of what? He said, last night I had an angel visitor in my cabin. Boy, did we have a time. Talking about the glory and majesty of God.

Everybody else is terrified. You know, I think that that experience that he had, I forget the chapter where it is in Acts, I think it's typical of the end of the age. Paul got on board that ship as a prisoner.

And he ended as a pilot. Everybody got the jitters. Everybody was terrified.

Everybody was vomiting and yelling and screaming and yelling and doing everything. And there he is glorifying God. See what strange people Christians are? You know, he was so amazing that when they skimmed his back until it was raw, he said, none of these things hurt me.

No, he didn't. Old people say, if you really get saved and filled with the Spirit, you know, you'll never be hurt. You'll never have any troubles.

Well, I must be backslidden because I get a lot of them. He did not say, none of these things hurt me. He said, none of these things move me.

You could have a blast from hell and not be moved if you're in the will of God. They'll hurt. Yes.

How can you get victory if there's no battle? He said, we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. What are you conquering? Ingrowing toenail? Charles Wesley has a hymn in which he says, Should all the hosts of hell and powers of... Should all the hosts of death and powers of hell unknown put their most dreadful forms of rage and malice on, I shall be safe, for Christ displays superior power and boundless grace. You see, Paul touched the powers of the world to come.

To us, that's theology. Just that's something we're grasping after, almost in blindness. We're so happy to get rid of a lot of rotten sins and thank God for where we are, but look at the territory there is yet for us to reach for.

You know, God's problem with Israel is getting them out of Egypt. They could have got out of Egypt into Canaan in 11 days. They didn't even make it in 40 years, most of them.

We've got people now who have been saved 20, 30 years and another day older into spiritual life. They're no more mature. They've no more spiritual strength.

They've no more spiritual understanding. They've no more spiritual revelation. Why? Because so often they've lived on meetings instead of...