If Christ Be In You

Another blessed time of fellowship with the brothers and sister at Ripley Elim church, pastor Philip spoke from Romans 8, and we were greatly challenged by his message.

When God created Adam He made Him from the dust of the earth and then He breathed into him, and Adam became a living soul who was now God conscious, and he communed with God. Adam was spirit, soul and body. Adam's bodily appetites were controlled by his spirit but when Adam fell into sin the order was reversed and so it has been with man from that time, the flesh took control of the mind and along with it came the loss of God consciousness, from then on everything that man would do would be tainted.

Everyone is dominated by their fleshly mind, it is dead to God and the things of the Spirit. Jesus said to Nicodemus, John 3 :5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'

When we are born again then the order is reversed and is as God intended, we are now spirit, soul, and body. The spirit comes first because our desires have changed, we no longer strive to satisfy the flesh but the spirit seeks to follow after God, and to have fellowship with Him. Now whatever we do, and wherever we go the presence of the Lord Jesus is with us, we have peace with God, we have fellowship with God, we have joy in His presence, everything changes when we have a new nature.

We all still have an old nature which would love to take over again and be as we were before we repented of our sins and were born again, but now we are God conscious, now we learn more and more about Him, we absorb ourselves in the things of God and not of the flesh and the world. Do you think a lot about God? You never used to because the mind of the sinful man is fighting God, the flesh ruled the mind and was at war with Him, it was in rebellion against God.

But then it all changed and Christ came, do you remember the day He came? Do you remember when He drew you to Him and forgave your sins and dwelt in you? Do you remember that He made His home with you and settled in your heart by the person of the Holy Spirit? Do you remember the joy, the freedom, the release and the wonderful fellowship you had with God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit? If you have never experienced this then I pray that as you have read what Jesus said to Nicodemus you too will seek forgiveness from your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and all He has done for us, (study the Holy Bible asking God to reveal the truth to you). Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We are all sinners, but by the grace of God through the sacrifice of His Son we can be free and born again we then have fellowship with God and the Lord Jesus by His Holy Spirit indwelling us.

Philip reminded us of where we had come from, what we were before we knew the Lord, and He challenged us to think of how we are now, are we still in that sweet fellowship we had when we first met Him? Or are we busy doing His work that we haven’t the time anymore? Do you still have time to study and heed His word? Do you still have time to commune with Him in prayer? Or do you say “Such a rush today Lord, but I’ll be back tomorrow” until we give less and less thought to the Lord Jesus, to His word and we become spiritually barren but still very busy for the kingdom. The Lord is waiting, He wants to have that time of fellowship with you again, He wants you to remember that all through the day He is there. Philip gave a figurative story for us to consider:

The Lord said to a Christian, “There is a bad odour in this house, it is coming from upstairs and the door is locked” Christian "Well, you see Lord, it's just something that I've hung on to can't you ignore it Lord, I've given you everything else." "I've tried to give it up but I just keep failing" The Lord's answer,"Give me the keys, I will deal with it"

We cannot deal with sin on our own, we cannot deal with trying to get rid of legalism on our own. We cannot work for our salvation, we cannot earn our salvation, we cannot work for our peace, or our joy, or our liberty, no, it is all in Christ. If Christ be in you let Him have His way for He knows what is best for each one of us and there is never ever any nasty odours.

2 Corinthians 2:14

All in Christ

We had a wonderful time of fellowship this morning at Ripley Elim Church. The songs and the testimonies all told of God’s faithfulness and that we should proclaim what He has done for us. Pastor Philip is doing a series on Romans and last week and this week the message was from Romans 7. This week he spoke about there being nothing good in us, how then can we be good? Philip has emphasised from Romans over the past few weeks that we cannot in any way receive salvation by any means of our own. We do not deserve it and we cannot earn it. 

Man loves their rules and regulations but Paul makes it clear that the law cannot save, it shows us how sinful we are and points to our need. Even Christians fall into the trap of making up rules for themselves, like thinking they must read the Bible for an hour everyday, and they must pray for two hours everyday, etc. etc. but how condemned we feel when something happens and we haven’t read for an hour or prayed for two hours, God doesn’t want us to make these rituals and duties, He wants us to respond to His love, to desire to speak with Him, to desire to read His word. The law is spiritual, the law is faithful because God is faithful, it is we who are unfaithful. Surely there must be some good in us, no, the scripture makes it perfectly clear that God passes the death sentence on our flesh. God is not in the business of patching up our old nature because it is beyond repair, we have been crucified with Christ.

All who repent of their sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are made new creatures in Him. Whilst ever we are in this mortal body we will have a problem with our flesh, there is a war on and the battle is between the new nature and the old nature. We cannot live the Christian life under our own steam we must let Christ live and work through us. It is a love relationship, we love God because he first loved us, He showed how much He loved us by sacrificing His Son, Jesus Christ who took the punishment for our sin on the cross.

Reading through Romans 7 Paul sounds in despair when he is talking about how there is no good in him, and how he does the things he doesn’t want to but he gives the answer in Romans 8:1-3  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

We are an overcomer only through the person of Jesus Christ and not by any rule keeping. Philip said so much more but the crux of the message was that salvation comes from God alone through Christ alone. So proclaim the wonderful work that God has done in your life and give Him the glory. We ended our meeting with the song

How deep the Father's love for us

If you have never experienced this deep love of God the Bible says that all who seek Him He will not turn away, repent of your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that you may receive new life in Christ and eternal life.

Psalm 86:5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive,

And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.