Introduction to the Deeper Christian Life Part 2 (July 1988)

Here is the infinite God who is the All. I want you to see the Christian life going on here. Now, you’re not involved in this; part of you hasn’t been created yet. Now my question is, this is where the Christian life is, this is the spirit. This is the spiritual realm. This is the spirituals. This is God the Spirit. This is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. They are the All. What’s happening in there? What’s happening in here? I know some of you have heard me say this. You’ll have to forgive me this weekend. This is for Canada, and this has got to be introductory. I’m trying not to repeat myself, but some things I have to repeat to make a point. Besides, you didn’t get it last time anyway.

I’m going to get born in here in a finite realm someday, and then I’m going to get born from above, from out here. I’ve never been born again, and neither have you. And neither has Billy Graham, Martin Luther, or anybody else. Neither was Paul of Tarsus nor Peter. The King James version gave us something, and nobody has the courage to translate it as it ought to be. Look in your margin. We’re born from above. We’re born out here. Come back to that in a moment. We’re not born again. Got nothing whatsoever to do with this. The rest of the chapter talks about above, above, above, above, above; only that verse keeps you from being able to see that the Lord was talking about above to Nicodemus. Now, I’m going to be born here one day. Then one day, I’m going to be born above, and somebody’s going to tell me to live the Christian life. And when they do, they’re going to put me under the pile. And they are going to leave me with the impression that I have got to do this and this and this and this to be a Christian.

Virtually every sermon you’ve ever heard preached or ever will hear preached is based on the proposition that you can live the Christian life. When he opens that book and reads to you and then starts that introduction, he is assuming you can live the Christian life, and that is a false premise. You can’t, and if you’ll be honest with yourself, you ought to know that by now. How are you doing? How about all those things they told you to do? Be patient. We’re really doing great. The only one I can think of that I’ve really mastered well is the one about being humble. Be loving, caring, and kind. Next Sunday, it’s something else and then something else. Then, after being humble, be bold; you have a nervous breakdown trying to be humble and bold and praying. Always praying, praying high. He prayed, and the world needs to pray, and more and more and more guilt.

Let the Lord Jesus Christ liberate you right now. Let Him tell you that he cannot live the Christian life. Let Him stand in front of you and say, “Without the Father, I can do nothing.” Without the Father, I can do nothing. Of His own strength, He could not live the Christian life. Now, we evangelicals have a cute little term. We shoot it right past. ‘The Holy Spirit enables us to live the Christian life’, and away we take off. We say it, nail it to the wall, everybody hears it, and then take off. So, we’re going to witness prayer. We’re going to read our Bibles. We’re going to evangelize the world because the Holy Spirit enables us to. Well, when I got saved, I didn’t feel all that enabled, and I don’t remember any particular time I got enabled. Now, let me put it this way. The greatest day I ever lived in my life was the day I realized I could not live the Christian life. And I resigned, and I have stopped trying to live the Christian life. Now, I am not a pope, but I’m going to give you my blessing here. Are you ready? I was once a Cub Scout. How’s this? I’ll do it with three fingers.

Stop trying to live the Christian life. Be free from trying to live the Christian life. Be free. Be free. Would it be better if I did that? Now, thou art free from having to live the Christian life. Look, someone’s giving it back to me back there. Wonderful. I am free. Can you take that further and realize that even the eternal Son before creation could not live the Christian life? His relationship in eternity was no different than His relationship here in the space-time continuum. He was utterly dependent upon the Father’s life to live the Christian life. Now here it comes. There is only one Christian, God the Father. And He alone can live the Christian life. He is the source of the Christian life. He is a Christian; the only One there ever was or ever will be. Your Father is a Christian.

Now I have to ask, “How did He live the Christian life?” But I want to ask you how did God the Father live the Christian life? It is very simple. I will tell you that at 7:00 a.m. in the morning, He gets up, gets out of bed, and reads His Bible. He goes to Sunday school and church. He fasts one day a week. He tithes. He witnesses. Now you hear me, saints; if that’s not valid for Him, it’s not valid for me. Praise the Lord. If that’s not valid for Him, it’s not valid for His Son, Jesus Christ. But didn’t Jesus Christ read the Bible? No. He wrote it. Did He not pray? I doubt that He did the way you and I think of prayer. He just kept on fellowshipping with His Father, and He called that prayer. Did He witness? Only out of the abundance of His Father’s life. Did He not have the strength to do this and this? No. He had no strength of His own. He drew from the Father’s life.

Now, if there are two Christian lives, then I have to read my Bible, pray, go to church, tithe, and do all these things, and that’s the Christian life. And God and His Son live on a different level, the Christian life. But if there is only one Christian life, then I’m driven back to here. I’m driven back to this place where God is the All and where there is the fellowship going on. Now, this is how the Christian life is lived, and you might want to write this down. This is how Jesus Christ lived the Christian life in eternity past. First of all, and perhaps most of all, He lived by His Father’s life. I believe it is John 10 in which the Lord said, “I live by my Father.” Perhaps you can help me. “I live by my Father.”

Audience: I do whatever I see of my Father.

No, this one is actually where my Father lives. And it is in John 10, I believe. If not, it is in John 9 or 11 or somewhere right in there.

Audience: Do you not believe Me unless I do what my Father does?

No, but all of that is saying the same thing. In eternity past, Jesus Christ lived by means of the flow of the Father’s life into Him. The Father has the only life. Oh, the Lord Jesus said the Father has life, and I have life. I wish I had some of those verses that I wrote down for you. Has anybody looked them up yet? Were you impressed with those? Alright. Good.  My Father has life in Him, and I have life in Me. Now, where did He get the life in Him? He got it from His Father. There is a Christian life; it’s being lived by your Lord. Look at it as a river. That life flowed into the eternal Son, and the eternal Son within the Godhead lived by His Father. And by that life, He was able to fellowship with His Father. But it was by means of a life passed to Him from His Father. It was a spiritual life; it is the divine life. The only life I can live the Christian life by is by the same life God lives the Christian life by. I’ve got to lay hold of that life. No other life can live the Christian life. A pig can’t live a human life; a human can’t live the Christian life; it is a divine activity. And this eternal Son laid hold of this divine life, and then the Father, out of the love that is Himself, not has but is, He poured into His Son, and His Son loved His Father back, how? By means of the love poured upon Him, transferred back to His Father on the engine of His Father’s life.