Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to Go Teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through Australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Pastor Wayne Humphries.
Heavenly Father, it's such a great pleasure for us to come together today and to spend time in your company and to open your word. And I pray that you will pour your Holy spirit out upon this place as we look at opening the Bible to understand more of your love for us. And as always, Lord, I pray that the words that I speak will be your words and not my own.
In Jesus name I ask it. Amen. We're going to be looking at a topic today that I've had on my mind for some time and we're going to be covering some familiar ground, but we're going to be covering some ground that is also a little bit unfamiliar.
Now we had a really dynamic discussion in the Seekers class this morning and they asked me a particular question and I said, well look, I have the answer for that for you, but you have to come to the sermon to listen to it. So it's one way of gathering yourselves a congregation. A mother and a father accompanied their son and his fiance when they met with her pastor to sign some pre wedding papers.
While filling out the form, our son read aloud a few questions and when he got to the last one which read, are you entering into this marriage at your own will? He looked over at his fiance, she looked back at him and she said, put down yes. So I think it's a good illustration of the idea of this concept of the will, you know, the power of the will. In this particular case, I think it's not a very good illustration but it does illustrate the concept of willpower, being able to make a decision, as Sal was so ably pointing out to us today, today we're going to be looking at this concept of this idea of being able to make choices in the individual and there's going to be some important questions that we're going to ask and we're going to answer those questions question along the lines of are our wills our own wills? Is our own decision making process really all that important and is there a biblical precedent for this? Do we see this in the Bible? What does the spirit of prophecy say? And most importantly, does the will of any individual, does your will, does your choice making process have any role in our salvation? Now as always, the best place to Start is at the beginning.
And the best location to start is always the Bible. So I want to start at the beginning and I'm going to look at a familiar verse and I know some people are going to slap their foreheads and say, oh, no, not this again. But this is one of those verses that I just can't seem to get past because every time I look at it, there's something new in it.
So let me read this to you. This is Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. Can everybody hear me? By the way, I often have people say they can't hear.
Everyone can hear. Okay. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 says these words, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.
He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Now, the first observation that we need to make about this particular verse is that it is universally recognised as being the very first gospel promise. Because we need to remember the context that this verse was spoken was at the tree.
Eve had just plucked the flute, the fruit, she'd given it to Adam. They were hiding in the bushes when God came looking for them. And these were the words that God spoke to them at the moment that he recognised that sin had actually revealed itself and entered into this world.
These were the words that he spoke, the very first words. And I love the fact that they were spoken in the context of when God recognised sin, he first promised a redeemer because he said, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So there was never really a time that the earth was without a Saviour.
As soon as sin was recognised, it was dealt with, or the process of beginning to dealt with was put in place. But In Genesis chapter 17, we see something interesting leading up to this verse. It says, man.
Let me read the verse Genesis 2:17. And this is God talking to Adam and Eve before they had sinned. And he was laying out the guidelines.
He said, but of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So man was told that if he sinned, if he transgressed God's law, if he transgressed his commandment, he would die that very day.
That's what this passage is telling us. But strangely enough, or perhaps not strangely enough, when sin did enter the world, when Adam and Eve did pluck the fruit from that tree in contravention to God's explicit command, man didn't die that day. Rather at that moment when sin was recognised.
A gospel plan was implemented at that very point that provided a substitute that would stand in man's place. Now, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but I just want to put it all into context for you. I like to always see it that God had on his wall one of those red boxes with the plan of salvation inside it, and it had a sign on the glass that said, break in emergency.
You know the one I'm talking about? So God had warned Adam that he would die on that day, but instead of dying, he was given a second chance, if you want to put it that way, because he didn't die. But God gave him a promise that said there was going to be a substitute that stands in your place. Now, this is all very well and good, this is like a history lesson for you, because I've spoken about this stuff from the pulpit many times in the past, but we can ask ourselves the question now.
What has this got to do with the power of will? What has it got to do with the power of will? Now, I want to show you something that came to my attention as I was looking at this passage. We're going to observe it a little bit closely and we're going to look at a particular word that's in there. And God said, I will put enmity between you and the woman.
Now remember, he's talking to the serpent in the tree while Adam and Eve are standing there listening. So he's addressing Satan. He's saying, I'm going to put enmity between you and between the woman.
He will bruise your head and between your seed and her seed, which is talking about the descendants, if you want to put it that way, or the people who wanted to follow the serpent and the people who wanted to follow the woman. So it's the classic ideology of good versus evil. And between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.
What is this enmity? Again, we know the answer to this. It is a state of hostility. It's a state of conflict.
It's a state of, you stay back there. I don't like you. You stay away from me.
That's what this enmity is all about. It's hostility or conflict. God was making enemies of the woman and the serpent, if you want to put it that way.
He was creating this enmity. So God was saying that he was going to make the woman and her descendants enemies with the serpent and his descendant. So he was going to put that enmity there, to do that.
Now, this might seem like hair splitting, but it's actually a really important detail of the gospel plan. This was crucial to the gospel plan. And why is that? We might ask ourselves, and here's the answer, as a part of the implementation of the gospel, if God was going to put enmity between the woman and the serpent, then it stands to reason that it did not exist there before.
Let me rephrase that. If God was going to say, I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman and her seed, and you and your seed, then it's something that he's putting in place. The.
That did not exist there before a conflict. He was making enemies out of two people that were not previously enemies. Therefore, if the enemy between the woman and the serpent, sorry, the enmity between the woman and the serpent did not exist before then, after the first sin at the tree, Adam and Eve and their posterity, which includes us, would have been perpetually continued to exist in a state of perfect harmony with Satan, separated from God.
Does that make sense? If God did not put that conflict there, if God did not put that hostility there, then Adam and Eve and their posterity would have been. It remained in harmony with Satan and his posterity. So God's putting a wedge between them, so to speak, because there was no enmity.
Immediately after sin, Adam and Eve became slaves to Satan with no chance of escape. It was complete depravity, if you want to put it that way. They were in bondage to Satan and there was no way to get out of it.
So God was saying, well, hang on, I'm going to put some enmity between you two, some hostility, if you want to put it that way. So by creating, by God creating this enmity or this hostility between the serpent and humanity, God was giving Adam and Eve and all their posterity a second chance. He was putting them on level ground, so to speak.
He was effectively giving them the gift of their own free will. He was allowing them to make a choice, an unimpeded choice. He gave them the gift of their own free will that they may have the ability to choose between good and evil without being compelled on any shape or form by either God or Satan, which we see as the beginning of the seeds of the great controversy.
So one of the gifts that God gave Adam and Eve at the tree, when he made this promise, was he saying, I'm going to give you the gift of your own free will. I'm going to put a hostility between you and Satan, I'm going to level the playing field and you're going to have the ability to make a choice. You're going to have the ability to affect your own free will and I'm not going to influence you in any particular way.
I can't coerce your free will and I'm not going to allow Satan to do it. Can we see what's going on here? God is putting Adam and Eve back in the position that they were before, where they had the ability to make a choice. They were not going to be in bondage to God and they were not going to be in bondage to Satan either.
The good news of the Gospel is that God intervened to place hostility between the woman and the serpent so mankind, through Adam and Eve, could have a second chance. They could make an unimpeded decision. They were given by God the second greatest gift.
Now this is me speaking. Now this is my opinion. They were given by God, the second greatest gift given to man, an unfettered will, so that a choice can be made based on evidence given for or against God.
So in the text in Genesis 3, we can see the following progression. In Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17, which we won't read because, because of time constraints, God warns Adam and Eve that if he ate of the tree, or if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on that day, they would surely die. That's the first point.
Secondly, as we progress through this process, Genesis chapter 3, verses 6 and 7, Adam and Eve both eat of the fruit and because of their disobedience, their natures became completely depraved and. And they became permanent enemies of God. Or they became, if you want to put it this way, permanently bondage to Satan.
And thirdly, in Genesis 3, verse 14 and 15, we see this. God steps in at this point and he does three things. A, he stays the order of execution so Adam and Eve don't die that day.
B, He. He gives humanity a second chance by giving them the power of their own free will, creating enmity between the woman and Satan and thus the full capacity to make an informed choice. And C, he promises a substitute to keep the integrity of the law, providing an avenue of escape for all mankind.
Can we see those three points? They're very, very important points. Now I want to read a passage from the Spirit of Prophecy that summarises this quite well. This is from the book, the devotional book that I may know him, page 16.
God declares, I will put enmity. This enmity is supernaturally put and not naturally entertained. When a man sinned or when man sinned, his nature became evil and he was in harmony and not at variance with Satan.
He was in harmony and not at variance with Satan, the lofty usurper, which is another word for Satan, having succeeded in seducing our first parents as he had seduced angels, counted on securing their allegiance and cooperation with in all his enterprise against the government of God. So Satan had Adam and Eve on his side and he wanted their support in all his enterprises against the government of heaven. But when Satan heard that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, he knew that though he had succeeded in depraving human nature, yet by some mysterious process God would restore to man his lost power and enable him to resist and overcome his conqueror.
It is the grace that Christ implants in the soul that creates the enmity against Satan. Without this grace, man would continue the captive of Satan, a servant ever ready to do his bidding. The new principle in the soul creates conflict where hitherto there had been peace, peace between man and Satan, God is creating this conflict.
The power which Christ imparts enables man to resist the tyrant and usurper. Whenever a man is seen to abhor sin instead of loving it, when he resists and conquers those passions that have held sway within, there is seen the operation of a principle holy from above. The Holy Spirit must be constantly imparted to man or he has no disposition to contend against the powers of darkness.
So can we see what's going on here? God through his wisdom and his grace imparted to man his grace which creates an enmity between mankind and Satan and empowers the human person, the man, the woman, each one of us here with the second greatest gift ever given to mankind, that of the power of being able to make a free choice without being coerced is the word we can be tempted, we can be swayed by, but we can't be coerced to go one way or the other. At the end of the day, it is our own free choice. Now the first question that we need to ask ourselves in light of all this is is there evidence in the Bible that mankind does have a choice to make? Do we see evidence of this in scripture? We're going to be good bereans today.
We're going to go back to the Bible to see what the Bible says. I have often said, and I've kind of half fulfilled it here that I'd like to write a sermon entitled if the biggest little word in the Bible If. Because the word if implies a choice.
The word if implies a decision. Now, coming out of an IT background, when I used to write programming code, I used to say, if this condition, then do this, otherwise do that. So the if was implied.
It was a strong indicator of a decision that needed to be made based on the context. If this, else that. That's what we used to say.
As we go through these following Bible verses, I want you to notice how many times the word if appears in these Bible passages, implying that there is a choice that needs to be made. Let's have a look at Ezekiel, chapter 23. Sorry, chapter 33, verses 12 through to 15.
This is straight from Scripture. This is the book of Ezekiel 33, verses 12 through to 15. Therefore you, O son of man, say to the children of your people, so this is God talking to a prophet.
He's saying, this is what I want you to do. Tell the people the righteousness. Remember the words that we read now come straight from the mouth of God.
The righteousness of the righteous man shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall because of it in the day that he turns from his wickedness. Nor shall the righteous be able to live because of his righteousness in the day that he sins.
When I say to the righteous that he shall surely live and but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous works shall be remembered. But because of the iniquity that he has committed, he shall die again. When I say to the wicked, you shall surely die.
And here we go. If he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and wipes, walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live. He shall not die.
Now, what God is saying here is if you have a righteous man, and you have a wicked man, and you have the righteous man, and he decides to do iniquity, all right? Did you hear the words I said? He decides, he chooses to do iniquity, that man is going to die because the righteousness that he had before is not going to stand in good stead. He has made a choice. And the same thing goes for the wicked.
The same process works for the wicked. If they choose, even though they've been as wicked as anything, they choose to do righteousness, then they will live again. The word.
If the word choose. It's a decision that's being made by these People very, very important to, to understand that. And we see the operation of this so many times in our lives and in our understanding of everything we see going on.
But then we have this in Isaiah, chapter 1 and verse 16 and 17 and 19 and 20. We see the same type of process in operation here where God says, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doings. So God is not saying, I'm going to empower you, I'm going to control you, I'm going to force you to do this.
What God is saying is, these are the choices that I want you to make. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
These are the choices that I want you to make if you are willing and obedient. Again we see that word, if. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.
But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. Does it need to be any clearer than that? So God is putting on the people the onus of making a decision because of the enmity that he has put within them.
And the second greatest gift ever given to man, the greatest being Jesus Christ, of course, that they can exercise their will to make a choice as to which way they want to go. It's very, very clear in Scripture. God is telling his people, stop doing evil and learn to do good.
Use the power of your will to choose God's way. And God alone can and will will fill you with the power of his grace that you need to enable to do the righteous works. Now's a perfect Old Testament example.
I've been looking at the theory of it. Now we're going to have a look at something practical. Joseph, when he used his will through the abiding power of God's grace, to resist the immoral overtures of Potiphar's wife, whom.
And we see this in Genesis chapter 39 and verse 9. This is when Joseph was being enticed to have immoral relations with his master's wife. And this is what he said.
There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. So this is Joseph talking to the man's wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Can you see the choice that he is making? Can you see his willpower that is being exercised.
And friends, his willpower is not being exercised under his own power. It is because the grace of God exists in his heart and he has made a choice as to which way he wants to go. Now, I can tell you that this is just.
These Bible passages and this story are very minimal in terms of. You look through the Bible and almost every story, you'll see the same principle at work. There are people making choices, using the power of their own will to decide whether they want to go this way or to decide whether they want to go that way.
God will not coerce. And God does not allow Satan to coerce because he has put the enmity between the woman and himself. He's put the enmity between woman and God.
Joseph was using the power of his will through the abiding power of God's grace to overcome sin, to say no to sin. Now again, I want to turn to the spirit of prophecy. This is from the devotional Sons and Daughters that underlines this principle in a really powerful way.
Listen to these words because it applies to the Bible characters and it applies to us today as well. You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire, but you can control the will and you can make an entire change in your life. You know what I love about the spirit of prophecy? The way it talks to the heart of the individual.
She says, you, you, you. So she's talking to me and she's talking to you. You can control the will and you can make an entire change in your life by yielding up your will to Christ.
Your life will be hid with Christ in God and allied to the powers, which is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that will hold you fast to his strength. And a new light, even the light of living faith, will be possible to you.
There will be in you a power and earnestness and a simplicity that will make you a polished instrument in the hands of God. You can control the will, the second greatest gift ever given by God to mankind. Friends, let's not leave it there.
What do we see in the New Testament? We see multitudes of truths that I'm going to share with you. And again, keep your eye open for the Word. If there are multitudes of promises in the New Testament whereby the inspired writers tell us, God is saying, if you do, then I will.
So God is saying, if you make this choice, I will do that. Not I might or I could or I'll think about it. But God says, if you make this choice, I will do this.
And that's what we're going to be having a look at. Just a few verses, friends. I think it's about six or eight verses or something.
If you. That I will. Requiring the necessity of the choice of will to be made in order to receive a promise.
So let's have a look at the first one. This is found in John 14:23. If anyone loves me, he will follow my word.
Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. What an amazing promise, friends. I love that.
It's kind of like, you know, it makes me think of the little Dutch boy that had his finger in the dike and there's a whole dam of water, and once he pulled his finger out of that dyke, that water was going to come gushing down. Well, that's what God is saying here. If anyone loves me, well, that's, you know, that's the part of the willpower being expressed by the individual.
If you love Christ, then he's saying, he will keep my word, My Father will love him, we will come to him, and we will make our home with him. First, John 1:9, one of the most common verses in Scripture. And I'm sure that we all know this one off by heart, but did you know that there's the word if at the very beginning, if we confess our sins? So there is a decision there that means to be made.
There's the power of the will that needs to be applied. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, God says, I just want you to do this.
And then this entire thing that I've got for you, I'm going to pour it out upon you. But I need you to make a decision of the will because I will not force it on you. I will not coerce you, and I will not empower Satan to coerce you either.
You need to make a choice of your will, a decision of your will. Let's have a look at another one. Second Corinthians, chapter 5 and verse 17 and John 6:51.
I bet now in the future, as you read the Bible, you're going to say, oh, there's that word if, if, if, if. If. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, because the Word anyone is also often associated with the word.
Word give. If. You'll see that too.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, Old Things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. This is the new birth.
I mean, I can see that Jesus would have said words like this to Nicodemus. If anyone is in Christ, that's the decision that needs to be made. And all these promises will become true.
Verse 51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, if you make the choice of the will to eat the bread of Christ, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.
One of the things I love about these passages is it really highlights to me the enormity of the gifts that Christ is giving. When we make a symbol decision, a single decision. John chapter 8 and verse 31, and John chapter 8 and verse 51, we see the same thing again.
And friends, this is just a very short overview. There's literally hundreds and hundreds of verses in the Bible that speak this same way. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, if you abide in my word, if you follow my word, if you follow my Scripture, if you follow what I say, if you choose to do that, it's your choice.
You are my disciples indeed. And then in verse 51, most assuredly I say to this, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death. I mean, that promise there on its own is worth keeping, don't you think? If anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death.
Let's have a look at a couple more. As I was writing this, I was getting so excited as I was going through the Bible and I was thinking, I can't believe how many there are of these. Let's have a look at John 7:17.
If anyone wills to do his will. Now that kind of nails it home really, doesn't it? For the point of this sermon, if anyone is willing to do God's will. It doesn't say there is anyone doing God's will.
It doesn't say for anyone who does God's will. It says for anyone who wills to do God's will. Right, so we're not doing.
We're willing to do. That's what this verse is saying. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak my own authority.
So God is saying, if you're willing to do his will, I will ensure that the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart and shows you what truth is, you will know concerning the doctrine. That's a wonderful promise too, isn't it? And this last one is one of my personal favourite favourites. We find this in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, what sort of choice is being made here? We are saying, I can hear Christ knocking at the door. I can hear him.
I'm going to go and I'm going to open that door. Jesus is not forcing entry through the door here. He doesn't have a battering ram that he's bashing against the door, he's not trying to kick it down, he's not making a noise, he's just knocking at the door and we know who it is.
So he says, if anyone hears my voice and opens that door, that makes a choice to allow me into their lives and into their hearts, I will come in. It's not like you open the door. And Jesus says, oh, sorry, wrong house, and walks away.
He says, I will come in, I will. It's a promise. I will come in and dine with him and he with me.
And friends, we know that one of the greatest things that we can do in our culture when we like someone and we want to get to know them and understand them, is when we invite them home for a meal. Jesus wants to get to know you, but he stands it. He doesn't force entry into your home.
He stands at the door and knocks. And we need to use the power of our will to go to that door and open it and let him in. So now we come to probably the most important question in the entire sermon.
How can we surrender ourselves to God and make his will? Our will? How do we go about doing this? And this is sometimes seen as a trap, friends. And this is the answer to the question for those who are in the youth room this morning, how can we do this? How can we surrender ourselves to God? How can we make his will? Our will? The first thing we need to do is to realise that when we are battling with Satan and with sin, when we're battling with temptation with difficulty, we must never fight the battle ourselves. Let me share something with you, friends.
When Satan sees human beings, Adventists, Christians, trying to fight the battle of sin on their own, he rejoices not because you're battling sin, but because you're doing it on your own. And he knows you cannot succeed, you will not succeed, you cannot succeed on your own. It's exactly what Satan wants you to do.
He wants you to win that battle on your own. What does the Bible tell us? It says we must turn our eyes to God to be able to win the battle by hiding ourselves within his power, within his grace. It is the choices of the will that affect, through the power of God in our lives, victory over sin.
We spoke about that in our last sermon, didn't we? It is the turning our eyes towards Jesus. We cannot do ourselves, but we can will to do. Let me repeat that.
We cannot do ourselves, but we can will to do. And when we make that decision, we remember the Bible verses that we just read before. If anyone loves me, if anyone loves me, I will do this.
If we confess to God, I will do this. If anyone is in Christ, I will do this. If anyone eats this bread, if anyone abides in My word, if anyone keeps my word, if anyone wills to do his will, if anyone hears his voice and opens that door of the heart he is knocking on.
God is not calling us to fight sin on our own. He is calling us to reach out to him, to receive the power from him into our lives that we might win the battle. That's what he's calling on us to do.
All these verses that I just read point to Jesus and Jesus alone as our salvation. And our wills must be completely willing to accept his power. Let me repeat that.
Our wills must be completely willing to accept his power without reservation. And then he will work in us to convert our wills to be in perfect, perfect harmony with his will. Let me say that again.
Then he will work in us to convert our wills or to purify our wills to be in perfect harmony with his will. So we give him our will, he purifies our will, he returns it to us. So we are in perfect harmony with God and not Satan.
This is the choice that we can make. We can say to God, I am willing. And after our wills are in perfect harmony with his will, then through his power in us, we can experience that which he wants us to experience, that he yearns for us to experience, that he wills for us to experience.
What's that, friends? It's victory over sin. When you want to find something in a dark room, you got to turn on the light. When you want to have victory over sin, you want to live a victorious Christian life, we must turn our wills over to God by making that decision and verbalising it to God, saying, lord, this is what I want to do.
We can pray and we can say, lord, I don't have in me the need to do this. I don't have the will, but what I do have is a willingness to allow you to work through me to give me that will we must be willing to be willing. God will do the rest.
And we rely on his power working through us. And friends, I tell you nothing Satan fears more than when a person turns their willingness and their heart over to Christ. There's nothing that Satan fears more because it is a power that he cannot argue with.
Can I refer you back to the question? This is the question we need to be asking. How do we do it? How do we surrender ourselves to God to allow him to make our will perfectly harmonious, Perfectly harmonious with his will. And I want to refer you to the book Steps to Christ.
And this is written in page 47. I love this passage. Many are inquiring, how am I to make the surrender of myself to God? That's a good question, isn't it? You desire to give yourself to him, but you are weak in moral power.
And this stands for me as well, friends, you desire to give yourself to him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections.
The knowledge of your broken prayer promises and forfeit pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you. But here's the good news, that's all the bad news. Here's the good news.
But you need not despair. That's good news, isn't it? What you need to understand is the true force of the will. This is the governing power in the nature of man.
These are powerful words, friends. This is the governing power in the nature of man. The power of decision or of choice.
Everything depends on the right action of the will. I cannot highlight that sentence enough. Everything depends on the right action of the will.
The power of choice God has given to men. It is the theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart.
You cannot of yourself give to God its affections. But you can choose to serve Him. You can't give him your heart, you can't give him your affections.
But you can still make a choice of the will to serve Him. You can give him your will. He will then work in you, you to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Thus your whole nature will be bought under the control of the Spirit of Christ. Your affections will be centred upon him. Your thoughts will be in harmony with him.
So it's not such a hard question really, is it? How do we surrender ourselves to God? Because here's the answer. Our willpower, our power of the will. Willpower is something different.
Our power of the will. We can simply say to God, lord, I don't know how to do this. In fact, I'll be perfectly honest with you.
Within my nature, I don't want to do it. But I want you to take my thoughts, my feelings, my affections. I want you to take everything I am and everything I have.
I want. I want you to take my willpower and I want you to make it your own. I want you to purify it.
I want you to make it the same as the power of the will that Jesus had. And then I want you to return it to me. That's all we can do, friends.
And when we do that, this is what the things will happen. He will then work in you to work will and to do according to his good pleasure, he will work through you. He will change your will.
He will give you the power of his grace. He will fill you with his spirit. Thus your whole nature will be bought under the spirit of Christ.
You ever met anyone that's met Christ and they're just a completely different person? I've seen that. But that's the application of what we see going on here. Thus your whole nature will be born under the control of the spirit of Christ.
Your affections will be centred upon him and your thoughts will be in harmony with his. It's the first step to overcoming. We don't overcome.
We allow the power of God to work through us that he might overcome on our behalf. Then, as Ellen White said before, we can become polished instruments in the hands of God. You want to be a polished instrument in the hands of God? You want to have a relationship with him? Friends, have you expressed your will to be in harmony with Christ's will? Have you said to him in your prayers, lord, I can't, but I know that you can.
So I'm willing, I'm willing for you to work through me. I'm going to give you an opportunity today to make that first choice of your will, because I'm going to invite you to stand. You want to play some organ music for us? Just some nice light stuff.
I'm going to give you an opportunity to stand and say, as your first step towards Christ, yes, I want to give you my will. Yes, I want to give you my heart. Yes, I want to give you my affections.
And the only thing I'm going to do is I'm just going to stand up. I'm just going to stand up and say, yes, God, I give you my heart. I'M making that first step, that first choice of my will.
I can sense your Holy Spirit is talking to me in my heart and I want to answer for the first moment, stand up. Make that choice today. Because tomorrow it might be too late.
We don't know how much time we have. We don't know how long it's going to be for us. Friends, I call upon you.
If you sense the Holy Spirit talking to your heart, just make that first step. Because when you stand, you'll be saying to the Lord, yes, I want to give you my will. I want to hand my will over to you.
I want you to fill me with your spirit. I want you to take my will and purify it and make it as your own. That I might be a polished instrument in your hands.
What a wonderful thing. Thank you so much, everybody, for standing. Heavenly Father, we stand before you today recognising this wonderful gift that you have given to mankind.
That we might have a second chance. That we have the opportunity in our hearts and minds to make an unfettered choice for you. That we might call upon you to fill our hearts and lives with your spirit.
That we might use our wills, Lord, to say yes, I choose you to be sovereign in my life. Each person that is stood here today, Lord, I pray that you will bless their hearts. I.
I pray that you will give them the strength to remember that this decision of the will to serve you needs to be made morning, noon and night, just like Daniel did. And I pray that your spirit will continue to grow and strengthen in our lives. That we will become someone that we don't even recognise, but that God will fill us with his spirit for the purposes of saving us ourselves.
But also that we might tell a dying world about the soon coming of Jesus Christ before it is forever too late. Bless us, each one, as we go our way now, Lord. I pray that each one with their bowed heads bowed here.
And those who are watching online particularly will make that decision each and every day to say yes, I turn my eyes towards Jesus and allow him to work his power in my life. Heavenly Father, this is my prayer. Prayer in Jesus name I ask.
Amen. This message was made available by Pastor Wayne Humphries for more resources like this visit. Hiswordrevealed.Life
it's been our pleasure bringing you this programme today here on 3ABN Australia radio.
