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Independence Day
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, CA, USA
Delivery: 2008-07-05 21:46Z
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2008-07-05 21:46Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kirl-independence.php
[NOTE: We recommend that you download the [[handout]] that goes with this message. Note also that the description of the formation of self addressing the top half of the chart is found only in the audio version of this message, which will soon be posted on mentone.netadventist.org (check the tab that says "Media Library").]
It is March 23, 1775 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond Virginia. Listen:
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! (Reconstructed speech of Patrick Henry). (Read the whole here: http://www.law.ou.edu/ushistory/henry.shtml.)
Those present are said to have responded to Patrick Henry’s speech by a call to arms, and Virginia soon sent its troops to serve in the Revolutionary War. (As I read the speech, I said, “Henry was a Scot!” and sure enough, the genealogical records say so.)
Yesterday was the fourth of July—Independence Day here in America. We think of it as a national birthday, marking the beginning of an important new state. And as Christians, we have opportunity today to renew our own independence day.
Our position, in a way, is much like that of the early Americans. They declared their independence but then they had to fight for it; mere words, even at the pen of Jefferson, were not enough; to gain freedom they must resist their oppressor. We may declare our commitment to Christ, and we may rejoice in that. But declaring independence is not enough for us either. The battle is come to us.
We must meet it.
Our process today will be as follows. First, we consider defective weapons in our arsenal, then we weigh a common mistake, then we study what self is, and at last conclude with God’s solution.
Defective Weapons of Our Warfare
To fight a successful battle you need weapons. The purpose of weaponry is to increase your capacity to inflict violence upon the enemy. Someone may worry here that we are passing the bounds of Christianity, but no. Violence inflicted upon you by another who aggresses, who seeks to coerce you, who violates your rights to your own safety and property, is wrong. But to use violence to defend those rights is appropriate (Proverbs 24:10-12; Isaiah 1:16, 17; Jeremiah 21:12; Jeremiah 22:2, 3). When we fight against Satan and his imps, we are only meeting them in the defense of our own rights.
Scripture holds a warning we have too little considered: “though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:3). The Christian often fails because he seeks to be spiritual by means of the flesh; he uses weapons of warfare that are carnal and then wonders why he cannot pull down strongholds, why he seems frozen into sin.
But when we engage aright in the spiritual battle, we will be “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). See that the central problem involved in overcoming is the eradication of ungodly imaginations, the exaltation of wrong ideas, and of the thoughts thus resulting.
Knowledge is not the problem, but its misuse. Fighting battles is not the problem, but trying to fight them carnally. When self is subdued, then the power of the Holy Spirit can come into the work. Because self is carnal, self will always enter the fight seeking to use carnal weapons. What then are some of the carnal weapons Christians seek to use?
Presumption is a carnal weapon. Where we should be actively exercising faith in surrender, we presume on God’s promises. We want Him to fulfil them to us but we reject the conditions for fulfillment built into those promises.
Passivity in place of activity is another false nostrum. Paul warned that those who did not work would not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). In the desert, those who did not gather manna did not eat either. It is not a sign of spirituality when men refuse to engage in labor. When we have a fellowship meal, we sit and eat and talk, but how many help put away the chairs?
Activity in place of surrender is another great mistake. Many there are who would rather keep their sins and try to offset them or draw the divine attention away from them by urgently working out a list of good things to supplement the sin. God is not fooled.
Others are feeling or talking in place of active faith. We may not urge God into our hearts by earnest feeling. We do not become pious by feeling how much we need God or even saying how much. We must actually receive Him.
These are some of the carnal weapons we employ as we talk, as we pray, as we feel, as we bow. And, as we fail.
Consent to Retain the Lion and Watch Him
Yes, my brothers and sisters, there is a problem and Ellen White describes it well. Listen closely:
Dear Brother P, at Adams Center your case was again shown me. I saw that you had ever failed to exercise true self-government. You have made efforts; but these efforts have only reached the external, they have not touched the spring of action. Your hasty temper often causes you sincere and painful regret and self-condemnation. This passionate spirit, unless subdued, will increase to a peevish, faultfinding spirit; indeed, this is already upon you in a degree. You will be ready to resent everything. If jostled upon the sidewalk, you will be offended, and a word of complaint will spring to your lips. When driving in the street, if full half the road is not given you, you will feel stirred in a moment. If asked to put yourself out of your course to accommodate others, you will chafe and fret, and feel that your dignity is imposed upon. You will show to all your besetting sin. Your very countenance will indicate an impatient spirit, and your mouth will seem always ready to utter an angry word. In this habit, as in tobacco using, total abstinence is the only sure remedy. An entire change must take place in you. You frequently feel that you must be more guarded. You resolutely say, ‘I will be more calm and patient;’ but in doing this you only touch the evil on the outside; you consent to retain the lion and watch him. You must go further than this. Strength of principle alone can dislodge this destroying foe and bring peace and happiness.
You have repeatedly said: ‘I can’t keep my temper.’ ‘I have to speak.’ You lack a meek, humble spirit. Self is all alive, and you stand guard continually to preserve it from mortification or insult.
Says the apostle: ‘For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.’ Those who are dead to self will not feel so readily and will not be prepared to resist everything which may irritate. Dead men cannot feel. You are not dead. If you were, and your life were hid in Christ, a thousand things which you now notice, and which afflict you, would be passed by as unworthy of notice; you would then be grasping the eternal and would be above the petty trials of this life (Testimonies, vol. 2, pp. 424, 425).
This person’s problem is a failure to exercise true self-government. He is trying to govern himself by carnal means. His work is superficial.
You can tell she is talking about self. See the parallel:
You only touch the evil on the outside; you consent to retain the lion and watch him.
Self is all alive, and you stand guard continually to preserve it…
Here is the problem. Self is all alive. In such a state, there is no possibility of victory. There can be no Independence Day. How important then to better understand death to self.
There may be a point of confusion here if we are not careful; we should clearly understand the difference between “self” and “self-government.” “Self” refers to the part of our character that has been constructed out of choices to indulge our DHO, our Disordered Human Organism, or the human nature we inherited as fallen human beings. Those choices have built up a set of habitually selfish responses. Each repetition joins our character more deeply to our DHO. Each repetition further corrupts us, rots us, spoils us, impresses us with the satanic.
“Self-government” is an altogether different idea. The term simply means the exercise of control over our own choices. Without the exercise of true self-government, we must be under the oppression of “self.”
A Study of “Self”
Let us make a study of what inspiration says about the self. Our best information in this topic in particular, is found not in the Tanakh (Old Testament), or even in the sayings of Jesus in the gospels, but in certain of the writings of Paul and of Ellen G. White. What then are some of these insights?
You need not be thinking that there is a special time coming when you are to be crucified. The time to be crucified is just now. Every day, every hour, self is to die; self is to be crucified; and then, when the time comes that the test shall come to God’s people in earnest, the everlasting arms are around you. The angels of God make a wall of fire around about and deliver you.
All your self-crucifixion will not do any good then. It must be [done] before the destiny of souls is decided. It is now that self is to be crucified—when there is work to do; when there is some use to be made of every entrusted capability. It is now that we are to empty and thoroughly cleanse the vessel of its impurity. It is now that we are to be made holy unto God. This is our work, this very moment (The Upward Look, p. 283).
If self is to die “every day, every hour,” then it must be a continuous process. We are to empty and thoroughly cleanse the vessel of its impurity. That is what the process of death to self is.
When self is submerged in Christ, true love springs forth spontaneously. It is not an emotion or an impulse but a decision of a sanctified will. It consists not in feeling but in the transformation of the whole heart, soul, and character, which is dead to self and alive unto God. Our Lord and Saviour asks us to give ourselves to Him. Surrendering self to God is all He requires, giving ourselves to Him to be employed as He sees fit. Until we come to this point of surrender, we shall not work happily, usefully, or successfully anywhere (Mind, Character, and Personality, p. 206).
Self is not eliminated, but submerged. Not only this, but being dead to self means also being alive to God. The converse would be being alive to self and dead to God. There does not seem to be any way one could be both, or alive to self and alive to God, or dead to self and dead to God. We are to choose our spiritual influences.
Ellen White here alludes to Romans 6:11, which says “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Paul is here saying that we are to consider ourselves as we truly are—dead indeed to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The longer passage discusses how we are buried with Christ in baptism and raised to new life as He rose from the dead. Verse 12 tells us that we are not to be controlled by sin or the impulse to sin. Dead to sin is parallel with dead to self; the meaning of the two terms is the same.
The preciousness and importance of truth must appear, and will appear, when self is hid with Christ in God; then Jesus will be revealed in our lives. Our characters will be molded after the divine similitude. Then the Holy Spirit will control the human agent. Men will possess the attributes of Christ (Manuscript Releases, p. 50).
When self is hid, that is, submerged, dead, crucified, then we are alive to God, and this paragraph says that in this situation the Holy Spirit is in control. Not that the Holy Spirit takes away our free choice, but that He respects it, and that when we choose God’s way, “then Jesus will be revealed in the life.” When we permit the Holy Spirit’s control, we will possess the attributes of Christ. This is a very strong statement of what is possible through the gospel.
When mind and heart are controlled by the Holy Spirit, when self is dead, the truth is capable of constant expansion and development (Reflecting Christ, p. 111).
Here is further confirmation of the relationship between control by the Holy Spirit and death to self. It is when self is dead that the truth is able to transform us in a fresh way.
The struggle for conquest over self, for holiness and heaven, is a lifelong struggle (Ministry of Healing, p. 452).
Here is confirmation that conquest of self is a continuing process, and that an unsubdued self cannot go together with holiness.
It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. All our good works are dependent on a power outside of ourselves; therefore there needs to be a continual reaching out of the heart after God, a constant, earnest confession of sin and humbling of the soul before Him. Perils surround us; and we are safe only as we feel our weakness and cling with the grasp of faith to our mighty Deliverer (Notebook Leaflets, p. 63).
Again, we see that renunciation of self must be continued; it is not a one-time thing. Also that the systematic, continuing renunciation of self is a series of steps as we advance toward heaven. No advance steps can be made without a power that is outside of ourselves. Our hearts must continually reach out after God, and we should constantly humble our souls and confess any unconfessed sin. Remember, we are involved in a process of emptying the vessel and then cleansing it from impurity.
There is another phrase that Paul uses, the “old man.” Consider the similarities between the crucifixion of self and the crucifixion of the old man:
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed [actually, its power broken], that henceforth we should not serve sin (Romans 6:6).
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts (Ephesians 4:22).
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds (Colossians 3:9).
In all three cases, the unconverted behavior is ended when the old man is “crucified” or “put off.” The old man, exactly as self, is seen to be the built-up habit patterns of self-indulgence that have harmonized with the DHO. The old man is the result of choosing to join oneself with the rebellious inclinations in the DHO. In place of the old man is the new man (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:15; 4:24; Colossians 3:10), or the man in whom self is hid with Christ in God.
We may summarize our brief study of “self” with the recognition that in order to become spiritual persons, persons who are not controlled by the flesh, the reinforced habit patterns of self-indulgence that are built atop our DHO, it is necessary for us to die to self each day, that is, to crucify, renounce, put under, and hide self. Then we can be controlled by the Holy Spirit; then we can advance every day. Every day can be Independence Day.
Self-Government
God made man upright (Ecclesiastes 7:29); he was made for self-government. But when he rebelled against his Maker, he became like Satan. Satan goes about, roaring like a lion, seeing whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). This is what unconverted man does too. When he joins himself to the degenerate inclinations in his DHO, he becomes predatory, lion-like, dangerous to himself and others. He builds his character upon a warped foundation, and then he guards that corrupted character. Ellen White nailed it; she told brother P that “You only touch the evil on the outside; you consent to retain the lion and watch him.” The lion is self.
Our difficult problem is our attempt to retain self. We try to be spiritual and carnal at the same time. We consent, that is, we choose, to retain self. We watch him and guard him.
What is the solution? No longer may we consent to watch the lion; self must not be protected. Self must be kept under and we must live in the new man. Then we can have Independence Day.
Hear this description of what it means to have more of the grace of God!
Brother and Sister G, you both need to have less of self and more of the grace of God. You both need to acquire a habit of self-government, that your thoughts may be brought into subjection to the Spirit of Christ. It is the grace of God that you need in order that your thoughts may be disciplined to flow in the right channel, that the words you utter may be right words, and that your passions and appetites may be subject to the control of reason, and the tongue be bridled against levity and unhallowed censure and faultfinding. ‘If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.’ The greatest triumph given us by the religion of Christ is control over ourselves. Our natural propensities must be controlled, or we can never overcome as Christ overcame (Testimonies, vol. 4 235).
The habit of self-government is necessary in bringing oneself into subjection to the Spirit of God. Self-control is the greatest triumph given us by the religion of Christ. Grace means self-control, true self-government, true crucifixion, renunciation, subduing, and death to self. Likewise, this means that we voluntary place ourselves under the control of the Holy Spirit. The result is that people see Jesus in the life.
Conclusion
Patrick Henry pled “Give me liberty or Give me death!” What he was urging, of course, was that we engage in battle and be victorious, or engage in battle and die while in pursuit of freedom. From the Revolutionary War so heroically fought by the early Americans, we may today draw lessons. We are Christians because Independence Day has been declared through Jesus Christ. But independence from self takes more than a declaration.
God desires to heal us, to set us free. But since this requires an entire transformation, a renewing of our whole nature, we must yield ourselves wholly to Him. The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle; but the soul must submit to God before it can be renewed in holiness (Steps to Christ, p. 43).
May the Lord help us to keep self under, to yield to the gentle impress of His Spirit, and to fight. The war is actually begun! Our brethren are already in the field! Fight then, and onward to Independence Day! GCO
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