BORN DELIVERED

Series: DiscipleshipLesson #1

We begin with the disciple as being “BORN DELIVERED.” Reading from Colossians 1:13; in this great Book we have the greatest description of Christ in all the Bible:

Col. 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

I. To Be Born Again Is To Be Delivered From The Powers Of Darkness.

1. When a person is born again, the Holy Spirit puts that person “in Christ.”

2. “…God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (1Jn. 1:5).

3. To be in Christ is to be delivered from darkness. The new creature’s abode is in Christ. “In Him we move, we breathe, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

4. “In Christ” there is no darkness, no sin, no demons.

5. Paul writes to the saints (that is, the new creatures) in Rome. He says, “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18).

II. The Holy Spirit Put You In Christ. You Had Nothing To Do With That, Except To Repent And Believe The Gospel. “…For By One Spirit Are We All Baptized Into One Body” (1Cor. 12:13).

1. We have everything to do with staying in Christ.

a. The Holy Spirit put me there, but now in John 15:4, He commands us to abide in Christ.

Jn. 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

b. John 15:6 tells the awful end of those who do not abide in Christ. “If a man abide not…” then he is taken away. The Father takes him away.

Jn. 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

c. John 15:7 gives the wonderful reward of our abiding.

Jn. 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

2. Psalm 91 tells the whole story. This is one of the great writings of the Bible.

Ps. 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Ps. 91:2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Ps. 91:3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

Ps. 91:4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Ps. 91:5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Ps. 91:6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

Ps. 91:7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Ps. 91:8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Ps. 91:9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

Ps. 91:10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

Ps. 91:11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Ps. 91:12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Ps. 91:13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Ps. 91:14 Because he hast set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

Ps. 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

Ps. 91:16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

3. Every promise that follows in this Psalm depends entirely upon your abiding in the secret place of the Most High. That secret place is Jesus.

4. As we abide in Christ, God reckons the experience of Christ to be ours.

5. In Christ all the questions pertaining to life and godliness are answered.

6. You don’t have to counsel the new creation - there is no depression in Christ.

7. Our problems begin when we revert back to type, when we allow the carnal nature to be resurrected.

Prov. 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Many people have come to me, as a pastor, and said, “Pray for my boy or girl, they have turned their back on God. I don’t understand, I raised them in church, I taught them right.” The devil has pointed to this and accused the word of God of contradiction.

8. I submit to you that God is talking about training and teaching the new creation, not that old Adamic nature.

9. If we teach the new creation to abide in Christ, and how to abide, when he is old and mature, he will not turn back to the world, the flesh, or the devil.

III. Just As All Is Light In Christ, All Is Dark Outside Of Christ.

1. Satan is the god of this world-system. He is in control of everything outside of Christ.

2. The government made a survey some time ago about Teen Challenge. They wanted to see if the claims of this program were really true. Their government drug program had only 2% success. That means, out of every one hundred, drug addicts going through the program, only 2 were successful, so they spent five million dollars examining the program of Teen Challenge. They found it was true. Teen Challenge had an 86% success rate. The thing that made it successful was Jesus Christ. The government turned it down and threw it out.

3. Everything in this universe is going to wind up either in Christ or in hell.

4. There is nothing, not family, not business, not finances, nothing protected that is outside of Christ.

IV. Let Us Get This Clear: Satan Can Only Steal, Kill And Destroy That Part Of You That Is Outside Of Christ. Nothing Else.

1. When the Bible admonishes us to, “Give no place to the devil” (Eph. 4:27), it is saying, “Don’t give him any ground.” “Self” is his ground. “Give no place to the devil.”

2. When you allow that unforgiving spirit, that jealous spirit, that envy, malice, hatred to stay there, you have given ground to the devil and nobody is going to cast him out of that flesh.

3. You have given him ground and until you cut off that ground, he will remain and that will be his stronghold for taking over all that you are.

4. When the Bible says, “Resist the devil...” (Jas. 4:7), it is saying more than “Get thee behind me Satan” (Mat. 16:23). It is saying, “Be angry and sin not” (Eph. 4:26). It is saying, “Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness” (Rom. 6:13).

5. In other words, God is saying, “Get off of the devil’s territory. If you live on the devil’s ground, in his world, he will dominate your life.” There is nothing anybody can do about it.

6. Seeing then, that Satan cannot touch that which is in Christ and that he controls the world outside of Christ, it naturally follows, our worst enemy is not the devil, but rather that carnal nature which is an enemy of God.

7. Jesus said of that nature, and all whom walk in it, “Ye are of your father the devil…” (Jn. 8:44).

8. The Bible is very clear on this fact, that for God to be your Father, He must also be your God and Lord.

9. The same is true on the other side. What Satan is father of, he is also god and lord of. He, the Bible says, “is the god of this world” (2Cor. 4:4).

V. Just As The True Church Is The “Body Of Christ,” The “Carnal Nature” Is The Body Of Satan.

1. The church is the body of Christ and is for all practical purposes the vehicle of expression.

2. Satan also must have a body to express himself.

3. To the degree we keep this flesh, our self, crucified, Satan cannot find expression through us. Satan came to Jesus and found nothing in Him.

4. One of the works of the flesh is murder. God says of Satan, “He is a murderer.” For him to murder he must work through that nature whose works is murder.

5. It does not matter that it is religious flesh or worldly flesh, it is all the same. Some may be a little more refined, but all of it is the devil.

6. That flesh that sits on the church pew on a Sunday and goes through the routine of worship and then lives for itself on Monday, is only an extension of that Sodomite community. There is no difference.

7. Sin is not a problem with sinners, he could quit it all and still go to hell. Sin is a problem to saints.

VI. Created In Righteousness And True Holiness.

1. The new creature never needs deliverance, he was created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4:24). He has the nature of God.

2. John wrote, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1Jn. 3:9).

3. He also wrote in verse 8, “He that committeth sin is of the devil.” God is just saying, when there is sin in a Christian’s life, then that Christian is walking in the nature of Satan, the old creation.

4. You don’t deliver a man from the flesh, he must crucify it and keep it dead.

VII. God Said In I John 3:6, “Whosoever Abideth In Him Sinneth Not…”

1. To call the flesh the devil and hold deliverance services to cast it out, only gives man an excuse for his sins. So they blame God.

I’ve watched preachers pray over people with tobacco habits. They shout, cream, and command that nicotine demon to come out. That’s no demon, that’s the flesh. When the Surgeon General, Dr. Koop, said that cancer was caused by smoking, 30 million people walked away from that demon. No, you don’t walk away from demons. It’s the flesh. You don’t cast it out you leave it and you quit it.

2. To abide in Christ is to walk in the Spirit. Paul wrote to the Galatian church, “Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

3. To abide in Christ is to always live in victory. If we don’t have it, we must know it is our iniquity, our self-will that has separated us from God, who is victory (Is. 59:2).

Is. 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

4. You understand, Isaiah is not taking to sinners per se, he is talking to Israel, the Old Testament people of God. He is telling them, your sin has separated between you and your God, that He cannot hear.

5. God says to you, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you…” (Jas. 4:8).

I had a lot of trouble with that scripture. I almost got into visualization. I tried to imagine that God is over there on the couch and I’d get down and imagine myself drawing nigh unto Him. God said unto me, you are not separated from Me by feet and inches, it is your iniquity that separates you. If you would draw nigh unto Me, then walk away from what is not Me and I will draw nigh unto you.

6. To walk in the Spirit is to walk in obedience. “…Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it” (Jn. 2:5). This is not legalism, this is life - a walk in the Spirit.

7. In Jeremiah 11:1-11, (you must take time to read this,) God is dealing with His people Israel.

8. Canaan is a type of our victory. God suffered Israel’s manners 40 years in the wilderness, testing their attitudes, and removing the iniquity from their heart.

9. He never removed the iniquity from the land, but He commanded His people not to mix with it.

10. The same with the church, “In the world, but not of the world” (Jn. 8:23). All problems stem from the mixture.

VIII.Rebellion Is The Issue.

1. If we do not obey, then He is not our Lord.

2. Power is in the choice.

3. Christians alone have a free will. Sinners cannot come to God except the Father draws them.

4. The cross deals with the flesh. God commanded us to, (1) deny self, (2) take up cross, (3) follow Jesus.

5. The grace of God teaches us to (1) deny ungodliness, (2) worldly lusts, (3) to look for Jesus’ return.

6. We look by living. As we live we are looking for Him to come. As we deny ungodliness, as we deny worldly lusts, then we are looking for Jesus to come. This is what the grace of God is in our life.

7. In the beginning of this series on Discipleship I want to show you that the born again believer is that disciple. He is born perfect, “created in righteousness and true holiness.” It is his choices in life that determine the end of things with him.

8. Every time I am faced with temptation, every time you are faced with a temptation, it is always the same. I don’t mean the temptation is the same, whether it is lust, whether it is pride, or whatever it is, the choice is always the same. Am I going to stay in myself or am I going to stay in God? That is the choice.

9. To abide in him means that as God sees me in Christ, He reckons the experience of Christ as mine. As far as God is concerned, it is a finished work although He works it out in practical holiness in everyday life.

10. If I abide in Christ and His word abides in me, I can ask what I will and it shall be done (Jn. 15:7). To abide is always in the choices that I make.