NEW CREATION PART 10. WALKING AS MERE MEN...

WALKING AS MERE MEN
ONE of the saddest facts that we have to face today is that the Sons of God, men with
God in them, men with the very Nature of God, are walking "as mere men of the world."
Hear Weymouth's Translation of I Cor. 3:1-4: "And as for myself, brethren, I found it
impossible to speak to you as spiritual men. It had to be as to worldlings-mere babes in
Christ.
"I fed you with milk and not with solid food, since for this you were not yet strong enough.
And even now you are not strong enough : you are still unspiritual. "For so long as
jealousy and strife continue among you, can it be denied that you are unspiritual and are
living and acting like mere men of the world? For when some one says, `I belong to Paul,'
and another says, `I belong to Apollos,' is not this the way men of the world speak?"
Paul found it impossible to write about the deeply spiritual aspect of Christ's Substitution.
He found it impossible to write to them about the New Creation because they lived in the
realm of the senses. They had never developed their Recreated Spirit. You see, the
believer, when born into the Family, has a measure of Faith, has a measure of Love; the
Love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit.
But unless he grows in Grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, unless he
studies to show himself approved unto the Father, he remains unspiritual. His spirit is
never cultivated, never developed. You can develop your spirit as you can develop your
mind, as you can develop your physical muscles. The average believer has never
developed his spirit. Consequently his Faith is weak, his Love is weak; and his Knowledge
is often mixed with error.
You must remember that Love does not come from the reasoning faculties; neither does
Faith. Faith and Love are both born in the Recreated human spirit. The reason Jesus said
in Matt. 4:4 "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God," was not to cultivate man's intellectual and reasoning faculties, but to
cultivate his spirit.
In Eph. 1 :17, 18 Paul had prayed that the "Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart
enlightened." The heart is called in Rom. 7:22, "The inward man." In I Pet. 3:4 it is "The
hidden man of the heart."
You see, man is a spirit being and the part of him that is spiritually dead is his spirit.
After he is Recreated, then his spirit must be educated, trained and developed.
As the spirit grows strong and vigorous in the Word, Faith becomes strong and Love
becomes like the Master's Love.
As long as we walk in the senses and follow the inclinations of the senses, the spirit is not
developed and we are walking as mere men. We walk as though we had never received
Eternal Life. The believer has limitless possibilities in this Divine Life. Eph. 1 :3 gives us a
picture of the developed Recreated spirit. It says, "Who hath blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenlies."
If we have those blessings, then the unsearchable riches of Christ really belong to us.
In Eph. 3:8 Paul says he preached unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
In Eph. 3:12 he says, "In whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our
faith in him."
There is no limit to this New Life. He says in Eph. 4:7, "Unto each one of us was the grace
given according to the measure of the gift of Christ." And in Eph. 4:1 he said, "I therefore,
the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye were
called." We are to walk in Love; to walk in the fullness of His fellowship. We are to grow in
Grace and in the knowledge of it "till we all attain to the unity of faith, and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ" (Eph. 4:13).
He doesn't want us to be "any longer children tossed to and fro and tossed about by every
wind of doctrine." He wants us to grow up into the full stature of the Jesus Life. It belongs
to us. You can understand that you have become a partaker of the very Nature of the
Father, and that everything Jesus purchased for you in His Redemptive work is available
to you. There is no ground for a man to be weak. There is no ground for a man to be
always talking about his lack of faith and lack of this or that, "for of His fullness have we all
received, and grace upon grace."
In the mind of the Father you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and
power. You are complete in-His completeness. I shall never forget the thrill that Eph. 1 :22,
23 gave to my heart: "And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in
all."
We are the Body; we are the feet of Christ.
We are the part of the Body that is running errands for the Master, and He has put all the
forces of darkness under our feet. One of us could chase a thousand, and two could put
ten thousand to flight. The ability of God that is within us is utterly limitless. What are we
going to do with a Scripture like this: 2 Cor. 3 : 4, 5, "And such confidence have we
through Christ to Godward; not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as
from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God."
"Who made us sufficient as ministers of a New Covenant." That doesn't mean preachers
only; that means everyone of us. We have His sufficiency ; we have His ability.
How it staggers one when we get the right translation of Luke 24:49, "But tarry in the city,
until ye be clothed with power from on high." This was Jesus' message to the disciples
before He ascended. He wanted them clothed with power. The correct word for power
means "ability."
Now He says, "I want you clothed with ability from on high," the Father's ability.
You can hear Him say, "Now you will be able to understand the messages that I have
given to you.
"You will have ability to know what the New Creation means.
"You will have ability to enter into the fullness of this Divine Life.
"You will have ability to be my witness, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and to use my
Name against all the forces of darkness." You will know what Mark 16:17 means where He
says, "In my name ye shall cast out demons." Also, John 16:23 "Whatsoever ye shall ask
the Father in my name, he will give it you." You see, until our hearts take in these truths,
we are going to walk "as mere men." You remember Sampson, that mighty Covenant man.
There never was a man like him, and yet when he ignored his Covenant rights, the
Philistines captured him and put out his eyes and made a slave of him. The eyes of the
heart of most believers are like Sampson's eyes. They have lost their ability to enjoy the
fullness of their rights in Christ. John 10:29 has never meant anything to many of them. Let
me read it to you : "My Father, who bath given them unto me, is greater than all ; and no
one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
They have never learned to say, My Father is greater than all; My Father is greater than
all. 'Mid life's bitter tears, Temptations and fears, My Father is greater than all. They have
never realized they had a Father. He has only been God to them. They have never
whispered, "My Father, I love you." The Father has never been able to make Himself real
to their hearts because sense knowledge has so completely governed them. He is a
Father God and He Loves you.
Heb. 7:25 has never been in the background of their consciousness as a great living force
: "Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God
through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." The harder
circumstances may press upon you, the more fully does He uphold you. His intercession
for you means there isn't power enough in the world to take you captive if you are in
fellowship with the Father. He ever lives for your benefit. He loves you. He gave Himself up
for you. He is longing for you to respond to that Love.
He is longing for you to look up and whisper, "Jesus, I love you." Redemption Minded
The Father would like you to become Redemption-minded. I do not see how you can act
as "a mere man" any longer. Don't cause His heart to ache over you because you have
become circumstance-minded, sickness-minded, failure-minded. He never created a
failure; He made us for victory.
You have the use of Jesus' Name. Use it. It gives you access into the Father's very
presence. It gives you victory over disease, over circumstances, over the forces of
darkness. You have the same great Mighty Holy Spirit that Jesus and the Apostles had in
their walk. Jesus is your Wisdom. He is today the very strength of your life. You are now
blessed with every spiritual blessing. You don't need to cry for faith, nor pray for strength.
You have it all ; it belongs to you. <, You have been blessed with everything that
Redemption could give.
I would that you might become so conscious of the presence of the Master, that "Lo, I am
with you alway" will become just an unconscious fact, so that no matter what happens, you
know He is there. "Forgetteth What Manner of Man He Was" James is describing the "doer
of the Word." He is more than a teacher of the Word. He is more than an admirer of the
Word.
He is more than a student of the Word. The Word is living in him. He is living so that Word
is a part of his very being. He walks in Love. His whole conduct is governed by the New
Law of the New Creation. He doesn't permit his lips to sin against his spirit. He has learned
to weigh carefully the value of words. So James 1 :22-25 has become a very serious
section of the Word to him. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding
your own selves."
How many good people have deluded themselves. They believe in the teachings of their
Church. They don't study the Word much. They are very careful about what man says and
often deny them selves much and put themselves under bondage because of mans
word. James is bringing us face to face with the Father himself. He says, "Be ye doers of
the word," and so I study the Word to find out what it says and then I do it.
The Love Law was given to govern our conduct toward each other, and so I study it
diligently. "For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man
beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he be holdeth himself, and goeth away, and
straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." (Jas. 1 :23, 24). Let us see what
manner of men we are, what the Father says about us. We should take account of stock
and find what we are in the mind of the Father.
Rom. 8:14-16, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God," or
they become sons of God. If a man is willing to be led by the Spirit, he will be led into
Sonship. "For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with
our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ." That is what the Father says we are.
We are in His family; a part of the Body of Christ. We are what the Spirit calls the New
Creation man. We have passed out of the realm of satanic relationship into the
Family of the Father God. Col. 1 :13 tells us that "we have been translated out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of his love." If that is true (and it is true),
then we are a new type, a new class of men.
We should study the Word that we might know what the Father expects of us and what the
world has a right to expect from us. We are a supernatural people. We have the ability of
God, the wisdom of God. We have the mind of God in His Word. We should never forget
"what manner of men we are." No matter what the crisis may be; no matter what testings
may come to us, we do not forget what manner of men we are. You see, we belong to a
new order.
We belong to the class of people that have a legal right to enter the Father's presence
anytime, anywhere. Not only have we a right, but we have a standing invitation to come
boldly to the Throne of Grace. We are the Righteous men. We have been made Righteous
by the Nature of the Father that was imparted to us when we became New Creations.
That Righteousness of God makes us masters of every force outside of God.
We are in league with Heaven and have the backing of Heaven. We can hear Paul saying,
"If God is for us, who can be against us". He is for us: He is on our side. In Rom. 8:31-39
He goes over all of the forces that may antagonize us, that may come against us, and He
shows us that we can be masters of everything that Satan can possibly bring against us.
There isn't a weapon that Satan has, but what we are proof against it. You see, our
combat is not with flesh and blood; it is not with sense knowledge things : it is with spiritual
forces, and in all these things we are more than masters.
They cannot separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus. If they could
separate us from His Love, they could defeat us: but He loves us and it causes Him to
succor us, care for us, watch over us, shield us. We must not forget for one moment that
the great Mighty Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, the Person who gave to the world
its vegetation, that Mighty One, is living in us, for it is God who is at work within us willing
and working His own good pleasure.
If one accustomed themselves to trust in Him as we trust in the money that is in our
pocket-book, as we trust in our car when it is filled with oil and gas, what mighty men and
women would walk the earth. The Father would be so real to them ; the Name would be so
real ; there would be a consciousness of the fact that Jesus said, "All authority has been
given unto me in heaven and on earth."
"Go ye, therefore, as my representatives. I will give you a legal right to the use of my
Name. In my Name you are the master of demons, of diseases, of the laws of nature that
would in anywise hinder you from doing my will." You see, we are empowered
representatives of the Heavenly Kingdom. We should never forget what manner of men we
are. We send our Ambassador to England. He must never forget that he is not a mere man
now. He is a representative of our Government. Our Government is behind him.
He is saying the words that our Government has instructed him to say. He is not acting on
his own initiative. He is not a mere man. He is an Ambassador on the behalf of our
Government. I must not forget what manner of man I am. I am an Ambassador on behalf
of Christ. As an Ambassador, I have the backing of the Supreme Court of the Universe.
I have the backing of my Father God, of Jesus, of the great mighty Holy Spirit, and all the
angels of God. You see, I can't be a failure unless I forget what manner of man I am.
I don't know whether you ever noticed I Cor. 3:1-3: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto
you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ."
It is just as though he said, "I wish I could speak to you as to men who realized who they
were, what they were, and what they could do, but I cannot because you are living in the
sense realm. You have no confidence in the great spiritual realities to which you are
united. You are living just like babes. You don't seem to grasp the reality of your unity with
Deity. Paul cries, "I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet able to bear it: nay,
not even now are ye able."
What a pathetic confession. What a humiliating confession, when by reason of time they
ought to take advantage of what they were in Christ but they haven't done it. They have
been content to listen to the voices of men, to read the literature of men, but have ignored
the literature of Heaven, the voice of Him who raised Jesus from the dead. The next verse
throws light on it. He said, "For ye are yet sense ruled: for whereas there is among you all
the conduct of mere babes in Christ, and you are walking after the manner of men."
Or, as another puts it, "Your conduct is the conduct of mere men when you might walk as
the Sons of God." You might be masters instead of slaves. Everyone of you could be a
leader. Instead of that, you are being led, but not led by God. You are led by sense
knowledge, consequently your whole life is disfigured. You have lost the consciousness of
being what you are, and when sickness comes you are in a quandary; you don't know
what to do; your heart is filled with fear.
You have never taken your place in Christ. You have never taken advantage of your rights
and privileges in Christ. You have never asserted your rights as a son in the family. You
have unconsciously relegated yourself to the place of a servant. You are depending upon
other people, and when the problem of faith comes, you talk about your unbelief and your
lack. You are a spiritual hitch-hiker. You have the ability of God, but you do not use it.
You have this Living Word of God. You are eligible to take advantage of all the privileges
that belong to the Sons of God, and yet you are living as a mere man.
You have forgotten what manner of man you are. Heb. 5:12-14 describes this type of
believer. "And when by reason of time you ought to be teachers, ye have need again that
some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are
become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food." This is plain speaking. It is the
heart of the Father reaching out to his careless, thoughtless children, and He says, "You
had plenty of time. "You could have taken courses in the study of the Word.
"It wouldn't be necessary for you to go away to a Bible School ; you could have
correspondence courses. "You could attend Bible classes very likely in your own church or
in your own community. "You have even forgotten the teachings, the first principles of the
New Creation. 'You have forgotten that you have passed out of death unto Life. "You have
forgotten that you are a New Creation created in Christ Jesus. "You have forgotten that
you are tied up with God, that you are a partaker of the Divine Nature. "You have forgotten
that you have within you the very Life of God Himself, and you have at your side the great
Paraclete, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit."
He is ready to come in and take possession of you and to be your Teacher and your Guide
and your Comforter. It has been easier for you to read about the Bible than it has to
become a student of the Bible and to study to show yourself approved unto God in this
Living Word. You have reached a place where you have need of milk. You need baby
treatment and baby care. That is an unhappy thing.
And then He says, "For everyone that partaketh of milk, is inexperienced in the Word that
teaches about your righteousness." You have never exercised yourself to discern between
good and evil. That doesn't mean between sin and Righteousness, but between the forces
of God and the evil forces that may come disguised to you. You have lived on the
borderland between right and wrong. You have been asking yourself, is it wrong to do this?
Should I do that? These are questions of the babe in Christ.
There has been no growth, no development, and if anyone should say, "Are you a
believer?" it is likely you would answer, "Well, I am trying to be." You see, there isn't any
such thing as a believer trying to be a believer, any more than for a boy to try to be a boy.
He is a boy. He may decide to be a better boy. If you say you are trying to be a believer,
then you are not a believer. You are outside. You have never received Eternal Life.
Your spirit has never been Recreated. So it is vitally important that you study the Word to
find what manner of man you are, how the Father looks upon you, and what
He expects from you.
BELIEVING IN HIS SUBSTITUTION
WHEN we use the fact of His Substitution as we use a bridge, or an elevator, then the
Word becomes a Reality. We never think of faith when we take an elevator or
train. We simply use them. If we were New Creation-conscious, as conscious of the fact
that we are a New Creation and have the Nature and Life of the Father in us, as we are of
the things of the senses, then we would walk in the realm of victory. You cannot be Godinside-conscious without being a victor. Then I John 4:4 becomes a reality. Notice it now:
"Ye are of God, my little children." Let that soak into your spirit consciousness.
Say over and over again, "I am of God; I am born from above ; I am born of God; I am a
New Creation created in Christ Jesus. I am a master of everything connected with the old
creation. "Satan has no dominion over the New Creation. He has no dominion over me.
"That hidden man of the heart, my spirit, the real me, is a New Creation. The old things
have passed away." The old man with its weaknesses, its failings, its doubts, its fears, its
sense of servitude to circumstances, is all gone, and the new spirit, the New Man in Christ,
is now a Master where the other was a slave.
This New Creation is redeemed out of the hands of its enemies. I can hear Paul whisper,
"In whom I have my redemption." You see, that truth is becoming a Reality. Now I can
understand the next sentence in I John 4:4, "For greater is he that is in you than he that is
in the world." I have the Life and Nature of God in me. That makes me a New Creation. I
have invited the One who raised Jesus from the dead, to make His home in me, and He is
there. When I start to study the Word, I always call His attention to it. When I am to dictate
or to preach, I say, "Holy Spirit, here is your opportunity. Now speak through me; think
through me; live big in me. Unveil Jesus through these lips."
You see, that great Substitution is ours. He is ours. His Ability is ours. All that He did is
ours, just as our hands and feet are ours. We look at ourselves now as a New Creation.
We have been taken out of the realm of death as really as Jesus was when He was raised
from the dead. His body was taken out of the realm of physical death; our spirits
have been taken out of the realm of spiritual death. In the mind of justice, we were raised
together with Him. In reality, when we became New Creations, we passed out of
death into Life. We left the realm of spiritual death. We left the dominion of death, the
family of Satan.
John 5:24 has become a reality. "He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent
me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life."
You see, we were born out of spiritual death into the realm of Spiritual Life. We passed out
from Satan's authority and dominion, and have been translated into the kingdom of the
Son of His Love, in whom we have our Redemption, the remission of our trespasses.
It is a Redemption that is according to the riches of His Grace.
His Love, His Ability. We have actually passed into the very Family of God, God is now our
Father. We are His very children. When that thing happened, we were looked upon as the
Sons of God in liberty. For Christ had made us free. Jesus had become our
Righteousness. By the New Birth, we became partakers of the Divine Nature;
we became the Righteousness of God in Christ. That means that we can stand in the
Father's presence with the same liberty and freedom that Jesus had.
Before that time, we had a sin-consciousness developed in us by spiritual death. Now we
have Eternal Life-consciousness. We are the Sons and Daughters of God. We have been
growing in righteousness-consciousness and we are beginning to take our place and act
the part of Sons and Daughters. As we act on the Word, we have experience in
Righteousness. How vitally necessary it is that we become experienced in the Word which
has taught us about Righteousness and taking our place in Righteousness.
I wonder if you understand what I mean? You see, when Jesus began His public ministry,
He was really the Righteousness of God unveiled. Jesus had no sense of sin, no sense of
inferiority. He was a super-man. He was a Master of demons. He was a Master of disease
and sickness. He was a Master of want and of hunger. Well, when you and I came into
Christ, He became our Righteousness, and then by the New Creation we became the
Righteous ness of God in Him. We were not taught about our Righteousness.
We were not taught about our freedom in Christ. We didn't know we were the masters of
demons in the Name of Jesus.
We didn't know we had authority over all the authority of the enemy. We didn't know that
we could stand in the Father's presence just as freely as Jesus did, with no sense of
inferiority, no sense of unworthiness, that we were the very Sons and Daughters of God.
Jesus wasn't afraid of the adversary. That is one of the things that startled me in those
early days of my study.
Jesus could walk into the presence of the devil without any fear. He wasn't afraid when He
stood beside the tomb of dead Lazarus, but you know, I was frightened for Him. In my
imagination I stood there. It was such a vivid scene, and I watched the Master as the
crowd gathered, and I heard Him say with a loud voice, "Roll the stone away!" Then my
heart whispered softly, "Master, you had better go slow now; he has been in the tomb four
days ; he has been dead nearly a week. Martha has told you that his body decayeth."-but
He interrupted my thinking and cried again, "Lazarus ! Come forth."
Martha tried to intercept but it was too late. Jesus said, "Loose him and let him go," and
out of the sepulchre came the man whose body was decaying. Why was Jesus so
fearless? Because He was the Righteousness of God. That is all. He had no sense of sin.
He had no sense of condemnation. If the believer knew that he was the Righteousness of
God as Jesus knew He was, he would use the Name of Jesus with a fearlessness that
would startle hell and bless humanity. Jesus said after He arose from the dead, "All
authority has been given unto me in heaven and in earth ; I am the head of the Church.
"Now I give you the legal right to use my Name, and all this authority is in that Name. In my
name ye shall cast out demons. "You see, I have given you authority over Satan. "I have
given you dominion over all the work that he has done. "I came," said the Master, "to
destroy the works of the devil. "I am leaving it in your hands now." If a believer becomes
Righteousness-conscious, Son-conscious, Satan will be afraid of him. Satan knows that as
soon as the Church becomes conscious of the Reality of Redemption, that moment his
reign over the earth is interrupted.
Jesus would never have given us the invitation in Heb. 4:16, to come boldly to the throne
of grace, unless He had expected us to take our place and to act the part that belonged to
us. You see, we are what He says we are. We should learn to use that Name as we use
our own. To use prayer as we use an automobile. As soon as we think through on these
great problems they will become ours. The trouble is, they have been taught us as
doctrines. They have been a part of a creed that we have believed, and most of us have
joined a creedal church. That creed has locked Jesus up so that He is helpless, and has
locked us into a world conformity that makes us useless.
The thing He is trying to do these days is to make us free, to loose us from the bondage
that has held us these years. The Pauline Revelation is not a set of doctrines. It is just the
Father speaking to us through Paul, unveiling what belongs to us in Christ.