The Three S's Part 2
by Ron Noble
The SECOND S is SELF LIFE. We run around looking for bombs that could blow up at any point and time in our life. Why don't we go looking for the factory that makes those things. Drop one good big one on the factory and blow it up. This is a rough paraphrase I got from Bill McLeod.
You get the idea. I've learned the biggest manufacturer of sin is self. I am the master of my own destiny. We look for the devil working in this place and that place and under every bush. We just need to look right at ourselves. Some of us have talked about how things have gotten in the way of the work that God is wanting to do in revival in our community. He is a sneaky guy because he uses flesh and blood. We know that our enemy is not flesh and blood, but boy, he uses it. If you get somebody who is so-motivated with some self and their self-life and they protect that at all costs. If I put a paper bag over my head and tie it up, guess what, I'm going to be fighting to get out because we have everything within us that has this survivor instinct to live. Ando so does our self life.
The teaching of CRF is one that has radically changed thousands of people's lives to realize that in Galatians 2:20 we're told that that can go to the Cross as well. The first time is for salvation, save me from hell. There was a second time that I had to come back to save me from the power of sin in my life as a believer. Whatever is in me that's manufacturing these sins continually I have to keep coming back and confessing. I want to take it to the Cross and hang it up there too it might as well die when you did. Romans 6:6 says "knowing this that our old self was crucified that we might no longer be slaves to sin. Galatians 2:20 says "I am crucified" Notice it is all "Past" – self was, I am, nevertheless I live, this is the life I live by faith. Galatians 6:14 says that it's the Cross I will boast in, and crucified me – past tense – to the world, and the world to me. Galatians 5:24 "those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. II Corinthians 5:14, 15 says "the love of Christ controls us; if one died for all therefore all died – past tense – that they might no longer live for themselves. That self life might not rule."
Do you know what that passage is saying? It says the work is done. All past tense. It was done when Christ went to the cross. I've come to understand how that worked in my own life. The truth comes in the Book of Romans "Reckon yourselves as dead". The old nature didn't die when I came to Christ obviously. It is put to death voluntarily. When Jesus went to the cross He said "Nobody's taking this from Me". It's not that the soldiers overpowered Him. He said, "I give my life, I voluntarily give it up. I lay it down of my own accord." That old nature of ours, that sin nature, the self life is something that we finally get sick of. This Christian life isn't an instant thing – it takes us years until we finally get sick of being in this sin cycle. We say "I don't want it any more, Lord." You say "I am going to reckon it as dead". Jesus said "You take that cross up daily, deny your self life, and follow Me." How many times I have had to say, "I don't want to go back there. I'm sick of that". I reckon all that stuff through and say it died with Christ, if I reckon it dead. Nobody can crucify themselves. You can get your two feet nailed down and also one hand, but what are you going to do with the other hand? You're still holding the hammer. It always takes a third party to finish nailing us down. II Chronicles 7:13 God says "I'm introducing a third party -circumstances in your life that are beyond your control". You finally get to the place where you say, "Lord, finish me."
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