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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Surrender of Self

Our Constitution guarantees certain inalienable rights to every citizen.

With liberty to choose, Americans enjoy the fullest freedom of any people in the world.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about free will and danger.

Hello this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts Broadcast, Facts Which Affect You.

You know, some people are amazed by the unqualified promises contained in the Bible.

They can't seem to believe that God really means what he says in the scripture.

Is there some hidden reservation perhaps, or some secret meaning in the assurances of God?

Some people are really frightened by the book of Romans.

Because it describes the perfect work that God wants to do in sanctifying His people from their sins.

And many people are afraid of that word perfect.

They are afraid God will ask them to do something that they really don't want to do, or more than they are willing to do.

But let's get this straight right now, friends.

God will do nothing for us that we are not willing for Him to do for us.

Now here is where the great problem arises, of course.

Many people have never been reconciled to having themselves removed from the enjoyment of their sins, and that is a fact.

They are not willing to give up the pleasures of the flesh and the world.

Are you prepared to take all the results of a complete surrender of your will to God?

Are you resigned to the stripping away of all your darling indulgences and the mortifying of every fleshly evil in your experience?

The only reason we are not perfectly loosed from all our besetting sins is because we don't want to give them up, or else we don't think that it can be done in our case.

Now if you are not willing, of course, that is your problem, but seeing it done is God's part alone.

You must be willing, but you can never be able to do it for yourself, of course.

I want us to consider in today's broadcast these 2 great mental blocks that have stolen away the victory from so many of God's people.

We must be willing before God can forgive us or before He can sanctify us either.

You see, self is the greatest enemy we face.

Our own will is the only natural weapon we have to fight against the devil with.

In fact, it is the only weapon God has placed in us by creation by which we can overcome Satan.

Listen, once we settle it with the old man of self who is always trying to rule over us, our victory is assured.

The only ultimate sin in the eyes of God and the only final factor that will cause God to cast away a soul is to deliberately say no to God and to his will.

In other words, everything depends on the decision of your will.

You are not what you may do or be in a single act of your life.

You can't always control your emotions, but you can control the will.

Feelings have nothing to do with the truth of God.

It is not your feelings or your emotions that make you a child of God, but the doing of God's will.

Now perhaps you didn't feel well this morning when you woke up.

If you should be very honest, perhaps many would say, Well, you're right, I wasn't feeling very well at all.

But does this change the fact that God loves you and that He died for you?

Some can feel good during certain revival meetings.

The songs and the sermons seem to fill them with joyful emotions and a lot of peace.

But listen, those who are saved will live every day not by emotion or feeling, but by the revealed will of God.

Now it is inevitable that your will and God's will should come into collision.

You must either let Him have His way, or else take your own course and follow your own will.

This is the only reason for a person losing out or holding back.

He just wants to do his own way instead of God's.

Oh, yes, people may give you many excuses for their reluctance to follow Christ.

They may tell you they have doubts about the Bible or they don't want to give up certain things in their life.

But really, friends, the fact is that God wants something that self is not willing to surrender.

Multitudes are outside the will of God and out of the church today because they are not willing to give up something that they love more than they love God.

Thousands inside the church are unhappy because something in the life has been fighting against the will of God for years.

I think of Paul as an example of submission and resignation to the perfect will of God.

You remember when he was going to Jerusalem, sailing by ship and stopping at certain ports along the way to meet his friends.

Of course there was grave danger waiting for him as he attended that feast in Jerusalem, and Paul knew it.

And so did his friends, and they tried to persuade him, or dissuade him, at every port.

In fact, at Miletus the elders met him on the sands of the shore, and wept and prayed with him about that journey to Jerusalem.

And then he came to Cus, and Rhodes, and Tyre, and once more men and women pleaded with him to turn back.

And Paul had to face that question, should he be persuaded by man, or should he follow the will of God in his life?

He persevered and continued to set his face toward Jerusalem.

And when people saw his courage and his determination, according to Acts 24, verse 14, they ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done.

They bowed their heads to the plan of God, and in that defeat they found victory.

Now concerning God, friends, surrender is always the moment of greatest victory.

Do you remember the time when your desire and God's will met in fearful conflict?

Do you recall the struggle of your soul when the self-life was trying to overcome your will?

You prayed over that terrible struggle of will.

But finally you surrendered, and great peace came in.

The victory was yours, simply because you had surrendered your will and become willing for God to give the victory.

You see, friends, you didn't get the victory by struggle, you didn't drive back the devil because you were stronger than he was.

Your battle was with self, and when you became willing, God gave you the victory.

Do you remember the text in 1 Corinthians 15, 57?

But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And then that other text, the words of Jesus when He said, How often would I have gathered you as a mother hen gathers her chicks, and ye would not.

Now notice those words, ye would not, your will did not yield.

Now listen, it may sound foolish, but it's very true nevertheless.

Before you can be full, you must be empty.

It will seem like defeat, but actually it is glorious victory instead.

I am sure no 1 ever felt so defeated, so depressed, so beaten and cheated as 11 men did on that Friday night long ago.

You see, Jesus had promised them the world.

Some were going to sit on the right, and some on the left.

They were important now, and they were going to serve in God's glorious kingdom over this earth.

And then suddenly Christ is arrested, tortured, and crucified.

Oh, we will never feel as they felt then, no, not even crippling disease, or financial failure, or the desertion of friends, or the death of loved ones, or injustice of life, these things could never bring us as low as the cross brought those disciples of Jesus.

The world had simply come to an end for them.

No, indeed, it was the most glorious victory that could ever be known.

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Surrender of Self

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