-I have a text tonight which is a
question and it’s a question that we
cannot answer collectively it’s a
question you have to answer individually
it’s found in the very practical epistle
as it’s usually called the Epistle of
James and the fourth chapter for what is
your life it is even a vapor that
appeareth for a little time and then it
vanishes away you will never face a more
challenging question than this text
what is your life now notice one it
doesn’t say it doesn’t say what is life
because if it did nobody has an Anderson
it doesn’t say what is our life or the
library could fool all our thinking it
says what is your life and it replies
give the reply here in the text it is
even a vapor that appeareth for a little
time and you hear people say well life
isn’t just life isn’t fair one man said
life is a feast than other wise man said
life isn’t fast one man said life is a
paradise another man says life is a
prison they see the question here is
very pointed and maybe it’s very
personal then in person or maybe it’s
very painful then you could answer the
question what is your life you say it’s
a failure
what is your life or success what is
your life is a disappointment
but actually is strong to us by the very
context that life is like a bay but it’s
like the steam that comes off the kettle
and you try and get a handful of it it’s
gone and in every case in the world of
God where life is referred to that is in
this physical life
it’s like into something most very Swift
it’s like it like and for instance to a
Weaver’s shuttle it’s like a likened to
a tent that men wrap up and move on in
the night Isaiah likens our live to the
grass of the field which today is and
tomorrow is cast into the oven but the
whole thing is about life every kind of
life and supremely about eternal life
and there’s one thing that life does
wherever it goes alive baguettes life
yes friends at all when he said I’m
crucified with Christ nevertheless I
live and yet not i but Christ liveth in
me and the life which I now live here in
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God if I ask you tonight you’re
saying do you say yes I’m say when also
on the sore briefs I got baptized now
you say what do you say from hell are
you say from bitterness are you saved
from less are you say from cheating I
say from lying I you say from bad
manners are you say for rebelling
against parents come up when you save
from 90% of the people in the nation and
not say they claim to be
when I went to an alt and I confess my
sin fine fine
that’s what the preacher said you
confess your sins and you confess them
do you know they did that in every Roman
Catholic Church in that comes in last
Sunday a man needs more than that than
to be forgiven he needs frenzy needs
Robin fencing he needs indwelling he
needs more than indwelling he needs and
doing I’m not asking you tonight in your
one night kneel down and make confession
after that your life is no change your
lifestyle was no different your appetite
your pair life was no different come on
supposedly change the language Paul says
Christ in you if I were to start here
tonight and go around the front row and
everyone and say to everyone that you
stand up brother and when you stood up I
say that’s Christ within you what would
you say would you say oh yes he lives
with me
he rules my life he controls me he pulls
me back when I would go too quickly he
he he urges me on when I would hesitate
if I say most people are half safe
really you know what I mean I mean this
you go to the cross but you never get on
the cross you don’t get your sins
forgiven and see him happy and you don’t
do the same lousy thing again the next
day come on what kind of a salvation is
that isn’t it offensive to say for
people listen you may be a genius you’ve
a colossal in delight you if you fall
out of bed you invent something like you
know right in the center of New York
town because of no living relationship
with God
now there are two candle evil in the
world only two kinds not black and white
not Richard or there are those who are
dead in sin and that those were dead to
sin you see the north with a new birth
is this that when the man is really born
when he gets this life he doesn’t want
our life well I don’t think anybody
gives it better than Paul the one they
stop writing to the Colossians he says
if he then be risen with Christ or as
the literal translation is if you’ve
been raised with Christ you seek those
things you say to people how you say
they say I don’t really know ah
supposing you’re carrying a hundred
pound sack on your back and you’re
struggling up a hill and your knees are
going down and somebody whips the sack
off your back and you get to the top of
the hill without the sack and the man
says hey have you asked your sake you
say I don’t really know I kind of
figured he’d know and somebody took a
hundred pounds off his back
and by the same token a man knows
because the miracle birth the birth
isn’t some intellectual semi-soft jesus
said it is this that we’re dead in first
position in sin and he brings us to life
so how we love the things we didn’t like
and we hate the things we used to love
okay you say and yet I guess you’ll talk
all about baseball and you’re talking
about Jesus not right set your affection
on thing with your abode nothing’s
underneath for you you’re dead
and your life is hid with Christ in God
anything of anything more wonderful than
that here is your life it said in Christ
and it’s hid in God what are you gonna
do sneak out think a bit of the world’s
junk do you know how you need
entertainment
you only need entertainment when you’ve
lost the joy of the Lord you’re dead and
your life is hid with cried now he says
if you’re risen with him that deals with
the past you’re dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God not when I died
but even now on this own I’d pit the
world goodbye not tearfully but
cheerfully all of its pleasures its pomp
and it’s pride and Paul says listen I
got branded there at the base of my head
because all my thinking is going to be
about Jesus this mind be in you which
was in Christ Jesus you think he went to
the Olympic Games because they had them
in his day you think you fooled around
with the material things of the day his
head was branded his hands his feet saw
him rider says let my hands perform his
bidding let my feet run in his rage like
my eyes see Jesus only let my lips speak
for this brace all for Jesus all the
Jesus all that beings ransom powers all
my thoughts and words and doings all my
days about for my hours this now you’re
just a Sunday morning Christian you live
in
in Jesus Christ every waking moment of
your life has he got your thinking and
Paul says that what the world is to me
it’s a system of corruption and
roughness and Varmus it’s Antichrist
from the world Oh is the world crucified
to you tonight how does it fascinate you
but as dear dr. Tozer used to say when
you knew one thing about a man that was
carrying a crowd out of the city and
knew he wasn’t coming back has come to
an altar we go back the next week and
we’re as fascinated we haven’t spent
half an hour with Jesus but we’ll stick
to us thinking I was in a movie house
the past he says we’re risen with Christ
the present we are dead but lost of the
future when Christ who is our life they
have got it there you’ve got it what
does John st. his epistle he that hath
the son hath life and he that does not
have the son has no life you can reform
your life you can give up your run sex
life you can give up your drugs without
the help of God good night
I’ve seen some men come out of the
gutter and transform their own lives
that’s on the social level but they
never made it upward to God and have a
living relationship with God if Christ
has been born in me he wants to live in
me he wants to talk in me wants to walk
in me wants to work through me it’s not
a struggle that I’m trying to be a
Christian life life life look if you
haven’t got hold of this getting all of
it now you can’t impress God I found
them to live I’m going to eat if I’m
going to live I’m going to eat this word
because Jesus says what I am the
read of life man cannot live by bread
alone the army earthly bread but he can
live by the bread which is Christ he
says I am the water life that’s
essential to life you can’t live without
water he says I am the light of life and
he says I’m not merely come isn’t it
John 10 and 10 in which he says I’m come
that they might have life and that they
might have it more abundantly you know
here people go to conferences meetings
and they say boy it was good boy what we
challenged every meeting we were
challenged and the question isn’t where
you’re challenged the question is where
you’re changed Paul runs his flag to the
top of the mast oh I like his statement
there in what 1 Corinthians 5:7 in which
he says if any man be in Christ any man
anywhere at any time if he be in Christ
he is a new creation isn’t patched up
he’s made a new creation he gets a new
heart a new spirit new desires New
Hope’s new longings that cannot be
satisfied at the broken systems of the
world I said I want God to make Romans
chapter 6 verse 7 real in my life you
said you mean Romans 6:6
I said I mean Romans six seven he said
no it’s six eight maybe for you six
seven for me what’s roman six seven he
that is dead is freed from sin I’m tired
of bondage I’m tired of fear I’m try the
weakness I’m tired of vacillating I’m
tired of being hot and then cold strong
and then weak I want to get rid of the
old self life I want to die right here
let me tell you this an experience of
God that costs nothing does nothing and
it’s worth nothing for I stand over
preachers often with hundreds of girafft
of priesthood and I see them shrink and
I feel fall on the ground and cry
because they have no prayer life because
we’re so busy
what the churches have in the last 25
years has not moved this nation or this
world to garbage time for something new
and God wants some men were really drunk
intoxicated with a spirit of God
who ever loved life for the Lord Jesus
that he can ask anything of you know do
it oh I’m coming down the line I mean
Jesus isn’t looking for some sissies to
serve Him he’s looking for some men with
guts and men with Grace and men with
determination that world outside there
is not waiting for a new definition of
Christianity he’s ready for a new
demonstration of Christianity
you