Committed

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you?You doin’ all right? I trust so, bless your heart. I pray that God may use these few words that we have from His Word, to bless and encourage and strengthen and inspire you meet whatever special need you have; and most of all to spread His precious love across the fabric of your soul. May that be so.

Well we’re in 1 Peter 2, and we’re talking about the example, “For hereunto were ye called.” Now what does the hereunto refer to? When you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently. “Hereunto were ye called.” Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps. And the last time we got together we talked about getting under the burden of somebody else’s need. Even though you are suffering wrongfully, you take it for the glory of God because you love God and you love souls, all right?

Now, what is the delineation of this word ‘example’. You’ll find it then in verse 22 and the verses that follow. “He did no sin.” Now that’s the first thing that Peter says is the, the example that Christ left us. “He did no sin.” “Well,” you say, “brother Cook, I can’t be perfect.” Well that’s true; neither can I. Join the group. All of sin and come short of the glory of God. And yet it is true that the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit enables you and me to walk in the will of God, and the precious blood of Christ keeps us cleansed, if we walk in the light as He is in the light.

What does it mean ‘to walk in the light’? It means ‘keep prayed and confessed up to the, the minute’. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ His son keeps on cleansing us from all sin. And so you can be clean, you can be kept clean… Peter said, “You who are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation…” You can be kept clean through faith in the Lord Jesus, and the application by faith, in His precious cleansing blood shed on Calvary.

So that you can be clean. At any given time you can be clean. And so the example is there. Our Lord Jesus was a holy man of God. I’m talking of His humanity now. Of course He’s God, always has been, always will be; second person of the Godhead. But in His humanity, was a holy human being. Did no sin — that’s the number one aspect of the example our Lord Jesus left for you and for me.

What is the next thing? Neither was guile found in His, in His mouth. Now, what is guile? Guile is the attempt to, to motivate other people to do what you want. Guile is the attempt to get your own way without the other person’s knowing it. Guile is selfishness with a tuxedo on. Guile is the attempt to motivate another human being to do what you want, without his or her knowing it. Guile.

Subtlety, and with it a cloak of dishonesty so far as your motivation is concerned. All these things are part of fallen human nature. You meet them everyday, and you find them sometimes in the fabric of your own heart, woven into the pattern of your own behavioral patterns. Is this matter of guile, of wanting things your own way, and of trying to manipulate things and people to get what you want.

That’s fallen human nature, and we’ve all got it. Now what are we going to do about it? He left us an example — no guile in His mouth. That’s the ideal toward which we look. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And every time you look in faith to Christ, He does take care of this matter of guile. Second Corinthians 10:5 says, “Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” And, and being willing to go after any unworthy thing that is contrary to the will of God, Paul says.

Guile. What do I do about it? I commit it to Jesus Christ. Remember this beloved, there are things in your human nature that you cannot handle. I do not think anywhere in the Bible is God telling us that we have to do it ourselves. We have to repent ourselves. “Repent and be converted,” Peter said. And that’s something that you and I have to do for ourselves. Repentance is composed of three concepts, as you Bible students know: to change your thinking, to change your feelings, and to change your direction. Three concepts that are wrapped up in the English word ‘repentance’.

And that’s something that you and I have to do ourselves. Now “the goodness of God leadeth ye to repent,” Paul says. So that the, the blessed Spirit of God convicts us, and leads us, and sometimes shoves us, in the direction of repenting. But we have to do the repenting. And then we commit ourselves by faith, to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Paul says, “that the life which I now live, by the flesh I live, by the faith of the Son of God. Christ liveth in me,” Paul said to the people in Galatia.

So that the secret of this matter of, of dealing with guile — my tendency to want my own way and to, and to manipulate things and people to get it, my fallen human nature — how do I deal with it? Bring it to the Lord Jesus Christ, and I let Him handle it. There are some things in your human nature that you never will handle unless you bring them to Jesus and give them to Him. Turn them over to Him. “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.

Casting all your care upon Him. We sometimes think of that in terms of the, of the burdens and heartaches that we bear because of life around us. I like to apply it to the things inside of me as well. I’m concerned about me, inside. “What am I going to do with my sinful heart, and my prodigal ways, and my thoughts that, that go wool-gathering here and there? What am I going to do with things that I can’t control?” you ask. You give them to Jesus and let Him control them.

“Christ in you, the hope of Glory. As ye have yielded the members of your body, servants to unrighteousness…” And the result was more inequity. Even so, now. Yield the members of your body to unto righteousness, and result will be holiness of life. You give up to Jesus, is what you do. “He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He reviled not again, and when He suffered, He threatened not.” Reviling is talking back, and threatening of course is trying to put in action your feelings.

What do you do about, about temper, and about the, the, the surge of resentment that comes when people treat you wrongly? Do anything about it? Or you just sorta, just sorta incubate it and let it be there? Oh it’s possible to carry resentment for half a century, and have it burning and churning and, and, and growing in your heart until it affects your body and your mind and your whole outlook. It’s possible, it’s done everyday by people who should know better but they don’t.

“He reviled not again, and He threatened not.” What do I do about people who snub me, people who lie about me, people who betray me, people who hurt me? What do I do about them? Number one, I commit them to God. It says, “Committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. You turn the people and the situation over to God. You know, there’s a blessed sense of release when you do that. Have you experienced that?

I’ve, I’ve been angered by situations — of course, I’m a human being, I’m more human than most of you I guess. I’ve been angered by situations, and hurt by them. But I have to tell you that there’s a glad sense of release when you say, “Lord, you handle this. You, you take hold of me and handle me, and you handle the situation. You control me.” And you commit yourself by faith, to the Lord. There’s a beautiful sense of release, and you can feel the steam going out of the pressure cooker — yes you can.

I wonder if you, you want to try that in your own life. Why hang on to some old hurt that you can’t handle? Why don’t by faith, you give it to Jesus, huh? Bill Bright, my dear friend of many years told me that on one occasion when he was praying about someone whom he felt was undermining him — you know, Christians do that sometimes with the best of intentions. And he was praying about this and, and God’s spirit spoke to him quietly and said, “Why don’t you let him be My problem?”

And our brother Bright said he stopped right there, and he said, “All right Lord, in Jesus name, he’s your problem. I’ll turn him over to you.” That’s what we’re talking about. Let go of the hurt. It’s there, of course it is. But let go of it. Let Jesus, with His pierced hands take it over. Let Him put the balm, the healing balm of Gilead on that hurting place in your life. Let go of that resentment that you’ve had, that feeling of outrage and almost hatred that you have, because of the faithlessness of some other human being.

Oh it hurts, and no amount of my talking is going to change how you feel. Right now you’re saying to yourself, “Aw, Cook doesn’t know, he doesn’t know. He’s never gone through what I went through. He doesn’t know how I feel.” You know, you’re right. Of course I can’t. I’ve not been there. But you are.

And something else is true: Jesus knows. We have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows how you feel this very minute, in a way that Bob Cook never could know, because I don’t live inside your skin. But the Lord Jesus Christ knows exactly how you feel, and He’s able to help, casting all your care upon Him. “For He careth for you.”

We have a high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. So let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Your first job is to come to Jesus and ask for His mercy, not for His help. That anger that you feel is second cousin to murder, John says so in his epistle. If you’re angry, you’re just like as if you had murdered the person. Ask for God’s mercy and, and then ask for His grace. Ask Him to handle that whole thing so that your heart is sweet and tender once again.

Was that too hard for you to take in? Oh I know that I cannot possibly begin to approximate how you may feel, beloved, because of what you have been through. That isn’t my point, I’m not lecturing you. I’m only pleading with you by faith. Just like you trusted Jesus to save you, Colossians 2:6 says, “As you receive

Christ Jesus as Lord, so live every day in Him.”Same process by faith. “Absolutely nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.” Just as I am without one plea… You know, that’s the way you came to Christ to be saved, wasn’t it? So, you come with this hurt, you come with this feeling of outrage, you come with this feeling of resentment, you come with this feeling of having been put upon, suffering wrongfully, all the rest of it.

You say, “Jesus, you died for me. And you live for me. And you’re interceding for me. And I give this, by faith, to you. From here on out it’s your problem.” Oh beloved I can tell you, it’d be a glad sense of release, yes there will. Hallelujah, it’s so true! You try it for yourself.

Dear heavenly Father, today help us to have the grace to turn our needs, and our burdens and our hurts over to Thee so Jesus can handle them. I pray in His precious name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!