Living The Crucified Life

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

(Galatians 2:20) "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

(Romans 7:15-17) (15) "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" (16) "If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good." (17) "Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

(Romans 7:18-20) (18) "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (19) "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (20) "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

(Romans 7:21-23) (21) "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me." (22) "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:" (23) "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."

(Romans 7:24-25) (24) "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (25) "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

(Romans 6:6 "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."

PREFACE SUMMARY

Dear reader, this is a timely message that is much needed today that deals with how we view life and how we observe how some people are able to overcome things that have caused others to end up in a mental institution hooked on psychotic drugs.

Beloved, I will never forget the time when I was visiting a good sized Baptist church in Kentucky and the man which I barely knew teaching the men's Sunday school class decided to pick on me.

Dear reader, I will never forget when the man looked at me and asked if he could ask me a very personal question which put every nerve in my body on alert.

Beloved reader, without warning the man teaching Sunday school asked me point blank, "Brother Jerry, would you be willing to tell our class what the sin is that you have had the most trouble overcoming?"

Beloved, I did not know what to say or even how to answer this direct question for really beloved, I was both embarrassed and humiliated for a person that I barely know to ask me such a question in front of a church body that I barely know.

Dear reader, did you know that out of nowhere the Holy Spirit shattered my thoughts speaking deep within my being, "Tell him yourself?"

Beloved reader, I spoke up and said to that teacher and church body that the answer to your question would be what every Christian struggles with in life and that would be our human nature which would be myself, and then beloved, I began to quote Galatians chapter two and verse twenty which says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Beloved Saints, I said to that church body that no matter how many days, months or years may have passed in our Christian pilgrimage and no matter how convinced we have become that our old Adam nature is dead, when we least expect it and especially if someone or something has rubbed us the wrong way, we will discover that that old hateful Adam nature will rise from the dead or in other words church, we will discover that when we attempt to get a drink, that old man tied to us will try to get one too.

Dear reader, I will speak more on this subject and overcoming the temptations and allurements the world offers which tend to wake up our fleshly emotions as we move further in this message concerning the inward and outward struggle we encounter everyday as we stive to live a consecrated crucified life in a world that has rejected God and everything he stands for.