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TAPE 1 - SIDE 1.

This new series has been entitled "Commandoes for Christ?" and there is a question mark at the end of it. The question mark is very much a part of the title.

Are you a Commando for Christ? Am I a Commando for Christ?

Just looking firstly at an introduction, just paving the way. I believe that in every field of life, it doesn't matter what it is, we have to do a stock-taking from time to time - in our business, it is essential. At work we have to see whether we are going forward, or are we going back, or are we standing still? We have to do that in our personal lives. There is no such thing as `standing still', you either go forward, or you go back. And in our personal lives, we need to assess our relationships with our wives and our husbands, our children and our parents.

I think that if we don't do this, we can get into the `ho-hum' area where we just take things for granted. I wonder how many men take their wives for granted? And I wonder how many wives take their husbands for granted? We are all guilty of it at times, and it is something that we shouldn't do.

Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. In this series I am not just going to parade a lot of little cliche' verses that are in the Bible, or rules, because anybody can do that. My approach is going to be quite different.

Turn with me to Ephesians 4 verse 1:

"I therefore, (this is Paul) the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."

Now Paul says "the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord", so this is a commandment of the Lord,

just as much as the ten commandments were. "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called," - `walk worthy'.

Incidentally, you will note Paul is in prison. In fact, in Ephesians 3 verse 1 "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles," this is one of Paul's prison epistles, he is in prison when he writes this.

He doesn't say "a prisoner of the Roman authorities" no, no. Paul remembers Romans 8:28 where he says "All things work together for good." So Paul looks upon this as being a prisoner of the Lord. What a wonderful man he is!

But he says "we are to walk worthy of the vocation" but how ought we to walk? You see true Christianity is not just a religion or a philosophy of life. There are plenty of religious people around. Hare Krishnas, I mean they are very religious and these `transcendental meditation' people, they are religious as anything and they are searching for something, and they have still yet to find it!

What I am hoping we are going to do is to discover what the Bible has to say about - and this is a cliche' term - The Victorious Christian Life. How to be a dynamic, excited, spirit- filled, victorious Christian. I hope you are already!

I believe that if we can grasp the concept of these messages, we will get a new perspective on what it means for a person to be a victorious, spirit-filled, Christian. A Christian who is liberated from the kind of bondage which is imposed on us by life down here on little planet Earth.

Now turn with me to 1Thessalonians. This is going to be one of our `key verses' in this series. Chapter 5 verse 24:

"Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it."

This is an inspiring verse, "faithful is he that calleth you", have you been called? Are you a Christian? Has the Lord given you some task to do? Well it says "faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." I mean, has God called you, are you called to some particular ministry? Ah, well this verse says - "he will do it."

Let me tell you what this verse doesn't say. Look at the verse again "faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." I tell you what it doesn't say, it doesn't say that God has saved you and that now you are to live the Christian life. I doesn't say that, does it? Look at it again. "faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it."

We cannot, ourselves, live the Christian life! It is like trying to put the cart before the horse. Our motives may be sincere and well-meaning and we want to be a red-hot Christian. Folks, it won't work. You know something, nowhere in the Bible - now you listen to this - this is a bombshell - nowhere in the Bible are you told to live the Christian life, doesn't say it, anythere in the Bible.

Well, what are we told? We are told to let Christ live through us. That is a totally different thing! We are not to try and live the Christian life, we are to allow Christ to live through us. Look again at 1Thessalonians 5:24.

"Faithful is he that calleth you - it is his faithfulness - faithful is HE that calleth you, who also will do it." Now do you see what this verse is? It is that the "one who calls you", that's Christ, is the one who does THAT to which he calls you.

He is going to do it. Turn back to Philippians 2. So many verses when you start to look at this, it sort of hits you in the face that you wonder possibly why it hasn't hit you in the face before. Verse 13:

"For it is God which worketh IN - should put a ring around that word "in" - you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

Who is to do the work? Is it me, or is it God? No, it is God. We are saved by Christ's death on the cross. Now here is something that really I had not thought a lot about and I am sure a lot of you here have done much the same.

We realise that Christ died on the cross and if we accept His death on the cross we are saved. But it doesn't end there! That is the point that I am trying to make in this message. This is where most Christians grind to a halt, they say "Oh thank you

Lord, you have saved me, I am going to go to heaven, my sins are forgiven, I won't be going to the Lake of Fire, I am waiting for the trumpet, I will wait until the Rapture comes", and so on and so they say "Thank you Lord", and then they switch off!

But salvation is surely just the start of the Christian life. That is just the start, but a lot of people have never gotten started. Let me ask you a question. Now this is a theoretical question "Would you prefer to be living now or would you have been - we are talking about life with Christ - would you prefer to be living now or would you prefer to be able to turn the clock back and have been one of the many disciples who actually lived and walked and listened to the Lord Jesus Christ while he was on earth here, possibly saw him raise Lazarus from the dead, saw him cast out the money changers from the temple and so on.

Would you prefer to do that, or would you prefer to be a Christian right here today? Many people say that if they could have been with Jesus when he raised Lazarus or heard the words from Jesus' own lips and see him multiply the loaves and the fishes, then they would be much more effective and a much more dynamic sort of Christian than they are today.

But you know something? They wouldn't! Do you know something else? Every single one of the disciples deserted Jesus when he was arrested. They had been with him for three years. We would be no better! We would probably be worse!

You know after the crucifixion these same disciples who had been with the Lord, and saw him raise the dead, they were timid, they were frightened, they were perplexed men. And what is more, they continued to be so for the next fifty days, even when Jesus was with them. We will find that these disciples were timid, even though the Lord was with them in his glorious resurrection body. He just walks through the wall!

They realise he is raised from the dead but they are stll frightened and timid. Something happened at Pentecost, fifty days later. "Pente" means fifty. On the fiftieth day - it happens to be the first day of the week again - on the Sunday something happened for the very first time. God came back to those disciples, not this time as the Messiah to walk with them - to be along side them, no - he came back this time as the Holy Spirit to be INSIDE them, to indwell them.

What I am saying is this, that the victorious Christian life which the Lord expects us to live, is an "exchanged life", not just a changed life, an "ex-changed life". Turn with me to Galatians chapter 2. We are laying some foundations here.

I wonder can you really read this and say "Amen" to it? A lot of us probably cannot. Verse 20:

"I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but - here it is - Christ liveth in me: (does he?)- 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."

You see this is another one of these verses that are a bit like the 1Thessalonians 5:24 which said "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it". Christ will do it. Here it says in Galatians 2:20, "Christ liveth IN me".

If we can just grasp this concept, I believe that it will save many Christians from so much futility, so much trying to do things on your own. You see it relieves the Christian of the burden of always trying to pull themselves up by the shoe-strings.

Let me zero in on the person reading this, I then include myself. If I point one finger at you, three are pointing back at me. Do you have a problem over which you cannot gain a victory? Something that you cannot get on top of? Of course you do, every single one of us without exception, if you think you haven't got a problem, you are kidding yourself! You have a problem.

Maybe it is a bad habit, maybe it is a weakness, maybe you are just a worry-wort, a worry-bag, and you know a Christian shouldn't worry! Maybe it is discontent, maybe it is an unwillingness to accept a burden or a situation in which you find yourself.

Remember Paul when he said "I am a prisoner for Chist"? Romans 8:28, "All things work together for good..." Are you a prisoner of some sort? Now, do you have something like this, a problem, a concern, something that is really getting you down? If you do dear friend, then there is no doubt about it your Christian life could be a frustration and a burden for you - no doubt about it!

Because, on the one hand you are wanting to be a red-hot, victorious Christian, and on the other you are a prisoner of some sort! But you are wanting, deep down, to be a red-hot victorious Christian, with a real radiant Christian witness, and to be free.

But somehow, you are a bit frustrated and you are thwarted if you like, constantly by your own inadequacy - human inadequacy. Does the hat fit? Sure does!

Now here is a question, "Do you know why this is happening?" It is happening folks, because a person's trust in Christ has stopped short of what Christ is offering. You have accepted His death on the cross - finish - and you sort of closed the door, that's it, finish! You see, if a person will trust Christ, not only for the death that Christ died in order to save you, but, and this is it, also for the life that He lives and waits to live THROUGH you, right now, then the very next step that you take, that will be a step taken, if you like, into the energy and the very power of God himself, you won't be doing it on your own.

Not only is this exciting, but I believe it is a sort of rejuvenating thing for a Christian who wants to experience God's presence and direction in his or her life. People often say to me "How do you know God's will?" I have people come up to me and others have probably had the same thing happen and people say "I think I can do such and such a thing, but I don't know whether it is God's will or not." Now that is a very common question.

You want to experience God's presence in your life? Then turn with me to a very interesting Bible verse. If it is good enough for the Lord, it is good enough for us. John chapter 5, this really is a surprise, this surprised me when I started to look at it. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ when He was in the flesh on earth, He was really a man, born of the virgin Mary, but conceived by the Holy Ghost. He allowed Himself to accept the limitations of being in the flesh, yet He reImagesed utterly GOD. John Chapter 5 verse 19:

"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, - now look at it - The Son can do nothing of himself, - you just pause on that - now here is God himself, here is the sinless man, he says - the Son can do nothing of himself - but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

Do you get it? Jesus was saying here, He couldn't do a thing of Himself. He was totally dependent upon the Father. Just turn three pages to the right, John Chapter 8 verse 28, maybe the Lord made a mistake then he said that, well? just in case you think that:

"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that - here it is again - I do nothing of myself; - got it? - but as my Father hath taught me, I speak of these things."

Do you see what the Lord Jesus Christ himself is saying here? Here we see Jesus as a man, living in total unquestioning dependence upon the Father. Now do you see what Jesus did? What he is showing us here is the relationship of Himself as a sinless man to God the Father.

If you like, he allowed himself to be a vehicle or an avenue through which the Father could express himself. See although Jesus Christ Himself was God who created the universe, and we must never forget that, He is the Second Person of the Trinity, He said "Let there be light" and there was light. Yet here He is, He has humbled Himself as a man and as a man He walked this earth, as an example of what God intended man to be, the whole personality yielded to and - if you like - occupied by God.

Look at John 8:28 again. "That I do nothing of myself"; I wonder how much you do of yourself and how much God has a say in the things that you (and I) do? I mean how often do we just go off half-cocked on our own little plans, doing the things that we want to do and not even considering God?

Look at the very same thought again, if we can grasp this concept and start to think about it and chew on it, meditate on it, I believe the Word of God will really start to do a work in our hearts.

John 15 verse 5. You know, this is addressed primarily to that little flock of believers in Israel, but it is also an application for us. The Lord is speaking, He says:

"I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; - and here it is again - for without me ye can do nothing."

You get it again, "without me ye can do nothing." Sure you might build up a big business, you might have a lovely palatial home and you might earn a lot of money and do a lot of things like that, but they are worldly things.

We are talking here about a vine and branches, we are talking about the Christian life. I wonder how much can Jesus Christ do through you and through me? The answer is "everything". He is limited only by the measure of our availability, it is how

AVAILABLE - not our ability - our availability, how available we are to him?

Let me give you an analogy. You see we believe that we need a new church, we believe that the Lord would have us move. At the moment we are coping here but it is hard to find, people in the street cannot find us, people in the district don't even know we are here. We believe, many of us, earnestly, that the Lord would want us to have a church building that would have a bit more public profile so that people can see us, and that we can get out the Word.

Is that possible? Sure it is! God created the universe and to provide a church for us is a small matter. But the problem is that we have to be available for Him. We don't have to do it on our own, sure, He expects us to use our talents, of course he does but we have to be available to him.

Let me give you a little analogy. How stupid it would be if you or I were to go and buy a brand new car with a really powerful engine under the bonnet and then we spent the rest of our days pushing it around? That would be stupid, wouldn't it? We would be frustrated, we would be exhausted and sooner or later we would think that this car was a nuisance, we really would!

Well, I wonder, is the Christian life any different? You see some people have become Christians, and they thank the Lord for His death on the Cross, but they have not done anything about His living through them. It is a bit like having this brand new car with the engine under the bonnet, but now they think they have got to push it around! You get the message?

You see when God saves a person through the Precious Blood of His dear Son, and praise the Lord that He does this, I believe without any shadow of doubt that He placed a powerful engine under the bonnet of your life. Just sitting there, we know He did. The "engine", if you like, is the resurrection life of God the Son which was made over to you, how was it made over? By the person of God the Holy Spirit, something happened when you became born-again, not only were you saved, but the Holy Spirit came into you. So you have an engine in you just waiting to be revved up and off.

My suggestion would be to a lot of Christians is to "stop pushing", just step in and switch on and see how that engine will work. I believe that every one of these problems that we talked about earlier, in fact we all have them ,you could call it `every hill of circumstance that we have to drive over' or `opportunity, `temptation' you are faced with, `frustration', `perplexity, why should it happen to me Lord? No matter how threatening these are, if we were to expose each one of those to the full divine energy that is available to every Christian just waiting for us to realise fully, our lives would be changed. There is no doubt about that.

Now let me start to bring this message to a close, because I think there is something that we need to realise. See we use the term `to be in Christ', we all use this term,`are you in Christ?' To be IN Christ means salvation, it means that we are redeemed from the curse. But for Christ to be in YOU, that is totally different, that is sanctification if you like, it is being `set apart' for Him to use you. It is fair enough for you to be `in Christ', but do you realise that Christ is IN YOU? Do you see the difference? To be `in Christ' is what makes you fit for Heaven, and praise the Lord, those of us who are `in Christ' are going to be fit for Heaven. But Christ IN YOU, HE what makes you fit for earth. You think about it, as Christians. Are you a Christian who is fit for earth? For you to be `in Christ' and praise the Lord that you are, that changes your destination, instead of going to the Lake of Fire you are going to Heaven, a different destination altogether. That is you in Christ. But Christ is `IN YOU', it is not just a question of your destination being changed, it is your whole destiny being changed, He changes your destiny. You see, to be IN CHRIST makes heaven your home, but Christ in you really makes the whole world His workshop, where you work, your family, your neighbours - look on it as a mission field. Christ IN YOU can work out to these people, as He manifests Himself!

Turn with me to 1Thessalonians chapter 5 verse sixteen. I wonder can you honestly say `Amen' to this verse? Such a little verse, only two words: "Rejoice evermore".

Can you do that? Can you rejoice no matter what happens? "Hallelujah Anyway", a little motto that I have got sitting on my desk at home says. It just says "Hallelujah Anyway", no matter what happens. You see it means "rejoice everymore". I wonder, can you do that? Christ IN YOU can bring such a life of joy!

1 Thessalonians 5:18:

"In everything give thanks - no matter what the problem is, no matter what the situation is, no matter how much you are in debt, no matter how much sickness there is in the family - `In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

Look at verse 19:

"Quench not the Spirit." Quench not the Spirit. Now here is the question, how can we "quench not the Spirit"? This is what we are going to be looking at in the coming sections. How to quench not the Spirit. We are also going to be looking at the lives of some of the greatest people in the Bible. We are going to look and see how the Lord used them, we can learn such a lot if we see the example of these great saints of God. Their strengths, yes, but to also look at their failings, and hopefully we will learn how to have a successful Christian walk in view of what the Bible teaches us.

Here is one more analogy. I gave you the analogy of the car, the engine under the bonnet. Here is another: Down here on earth, everyone of us are bound by a law which we ourselves cannot break. It was demonstrated before the service started this morning, when Brian's organ fell apart and everything fell on the floor. This is the law of gravity. It is a law unto which every one of us comes under.

However, there is another law which is called `the law of areodynamics', it is a higher law and if I am willing to commit myself, in total trust to this new law, then this new law is going to set me free from the old law.

Now by faith I go out to the airport and I step on board a seven four seven airliner which is about to fly to Australia. What do I do? I sit back and relax, I hope, not shaking, in the relaxation of faith and as those mighty four engines roar into life, what do I discover? I discover that the new law of aero-dynamics, what does it do? It sets me free from the law of gravity. And as long as I Imagestain by faith in that position of total dependance on that plane and I just sit there relaxed, I don't even have to try to be free from the law of gravity, I am free from it - 30,000 feet up.

But, but, if I open the emergency door, if I could, I would soon discover that the old down-drag of gravity, the law of gravity is still there, still operating and once again I am caught by the law of gravity. Now what we are going to look at in the coming weeks is how the higher law of Christ living in ME, Galatians 2:20, can be applied to each and every one of us. Christ living in us, to overcome the lower law which is life in the flesh.

We are all humans, we all have life in the flesh. There are two laws, there is a lower law, life in the flesh, and there is a higher law, Christ living in me. Life in the flesh is so frustrating for all of us, I mean just when that Rapture comes, we are all going to be free from so many problems and it is going to be just so wonderful.

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