Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Margaret Davis
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000215
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00:30 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and welcome to
00:32 another Issues and Answers. 00:34 We have another great program today with 00:37 Margaret Davis who is with us here from 00:42 Armstrong, British Columbia, but before I 00:45 introduce Margaret to you I want to read 00:47 a beautiful scripture to you. This is the words 00:50 of Jesus from John chapter 15 and I'm gonna 00:54 begin with verse 4. Jesus said: 00:57 "Abide in me, and I'll abide in you". 01:00 He is saying, live in me and I'll live in you. 01:03 Justice no branch can bear fruits of itself 01:06 without abiding in me or in the vine. 01:09 Neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in 01:12 me. And He goes on in the next verse to say 01:15 apart from me you can do nothing. 01:17 Well, we are here today to speak with Margaret 01:21 Davis. Margaret, thank you for coming again to 01:25 be with us and you know as I've got to know 01:28 you and to see you've been in ministry now for 01:30 30 years and the Lord has given you a beautiful 01:33 message about learning how to be totally 01:36 dependant upon God. And here is the scripture 01:40 that reminds me of Margaret. He's talking in 01:44 Psalms 93, talking about those the righteous 01:48 being planted in the house of the Lord, 01:50 Growing in grace they shall still bring forth 01:53 fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap, 01:56 and we've learned that sap is the power of 01:58 the Holy Spirit. The Spirit in us and in the 02:03 Amplified it says: They are living memorials to 02:05 show that the Lord is upright and faithful to 02:08 His promises. He is my Rock, and there is no 02:11 unrighteousness in Him. Margaret has written 02:14 a precious book called, "What Shall I Do To 02:17 Inherit Eternal Life?" And actually she says, 02:20 I'm not an author. She says this is a 02:21 compilation of Bible verses and inspired Christian 02:26 writing to teach us what we shall do to inherit 02:30 eternal life? And today we're gonna be talking 02:32 about abiding in Christ. Margaret, what does 02:36 it mean to abiding Christ? I didn't understand 02:40 it at first either. I had to learn, but we read 02:46 here in John 1:12: As many as received Him, 02:51 to them gave He power to become the sons of 02:55 God even to them in His name. 02:58 And as I learned how to abide in Him, 03:02 he could work in me the fruit of the Spirit. 03:09 Jesus says in John 15:7 and 8: If you abide 03:16 in me and my words abide in you, 03:20 ask whatever you will, and it shall be done 03:24 to you. By this my Father is gloried, 03:28 that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be 03:33 my disciples. Amen. And so, Jesus says prove, 03:37 prove whether you are a disciple. 03:40 So part of the abiding in Christ then is to abide 03:45 in His word and let that word abide in you, 03:48 it's putting it into practice. That's part of it, 03:51 but there is something that I learned that really 03:56 helped me. It's says, if you abide in me and 03:59 my words abide in you ask whatever you will 04:04 and it shall be done to you. Think of the 04:06 vine and the branch. Right! The branch needs 04:11 power to grow fruit. It needs the Holy Spirit, 04:16 the sap coming into it's little branch and so I 04:21 envision myself as a little branch and I said 04:25 Lord I need you. So anytime I'm attempted to 04:29 be impatient or to get up set with someone 04:33 or whatever, I say Lord I'm here I need you. 04:39 And He says ask whatever you will and I will 04:42 give it to you. And so then He works in me 04:45 patience, understating, love, caring so that 04:50 my heart doesn't have to get angry, 04:54 my heart doesn't have to sin. He is the source 04:59 of the fruit. He is the source. He is the root. 05:01 And we are the branch. Yes. And it's when His 05:03 life is flowing in us. That's how Jesus lived on 05:07 this earth. Absolutely! He was continually 05:09 dependent on the Father and the Holy Spirit. 05:12 Okay, once He has promised to abide in us 05:16 what's our part then? And He says abide in 05:21 me, stay in me. Stay! No matter what comes 05:25 stay in me, and then He is able to work in us. 05:31 The Bible says in Second Corinthians 13:5: 05:34 Examine yourselves to see whether you are 05:37 holding to your faith; test yourselves. 05:41 Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you, 05:46 unless indeed you fail to meet the test? 05:50 So how do we test ourselves? 05:52 Well, if anger is coming out whose Spirit is 05:57 working in me? Absolutely! You see, 05:59 it's the wrong Spirit and the Bible says to whom 06:02 you yield yourselves servants to obey, 06:05 His servants you are to whom you obey. 06:09 And so if I yield to the wrong Spirit, 06:16 I am not abiding in Christ. And then I had 06:22 to learn what to do when temptation comes? 06:27 How to stay in Christ? And the Bible says for 06:31 the Christian, it says: There has no temptation 06:36 taken you, but such as is common to man, 06:41 He will not let you be tempted beyond that you 06:45 are able to bear. Yes. That's a wonderful 06:50 promise. Well, and you know the Bible also 06:53 promise. Well, and you know the Bible also tells 06:54 us in Hebrews 4:15 that Jesus was tempted 06:57 and always as we are and yet was without sin. 07:02 We cannot do, we cannot face so same 07:05 temptations without Him. That's right. 07:07 I mean it has to be He was reliant upon the 07:10 power of the Holy Spirit, He was relying on the 07:12 power, and His Father's life in Him and that's 07:15 what we've got to do. Yeah, when He was 07:17 on this earth, He was a branch. Yes. 07:20 You see He was totally dependent. 07:22 Absolutely! And that's what we need to learn. 07:27 You will not be tempted beyond your strength, 07:30 God has promised. He provides the way out. 07:33 And He will provide a way of escape that we 07:37 can bear it. What is the way of escape? 07:42 It's very important to learn that. 07:44 I didn't know that at the beginning and so this 07:47 evening I had fully surrendered to God, 07:49 I knew He had accepted me, I knew He had 07:52 change my attitude towards my husband. 07:55 I knew He had given me a new heart. 08:01 And I believed that I would have victory because 08:05 He has promised in the Bible He is able to keep 08:08 you from falling, right? Amen. And so the next 08:11 day I went about my work and things and I 08:14 don't remember any temptation coming to me 08:17 until evening. In the evening we were having 08:21 family worship and I was reading from a book 08:24 on prayer. Now my husband is an editor, 08:30 and if we were reading something and he sensed 08:34 a sentence problem he would correct it. 08:36 Yeah. And this evening he sensed a sentence 08:41 problem in the book. Now, I didn't like him 08:44 to do it at worship time. Yes. Other times fine, 08:49 but at worship and when he did it at worship 08:54 I reacted and worship would be spoiled. 08:58 You know, it's so easy to spoil worship by a 09:01 wrong Spirit. Yes it is. But I always blamed 09:04 him before. This evening as we were having 09:11 worship and I was just learning how to walk with 09:16 the Lord, and I was reading and my husband 09:21 corrected a sentence problem. 09:23 Instantly I felt the prompting to react and I 09:28 reacted. So, that was flesh coming up in you. 09:31 Yeah, it was natural, that's what I had done. 09:35 The moment I reacted the Holy Spirit convicted 09:40 me, I had sinned. And instead of blaming him 09:45 I bloated out to the family, I've sinned. 09:50 My son told me years later he said, 09:54 mom how well I remember that night. 09:59 That was the first time I heard you take the 10:03 blame. You see, I had always blamed my 10:09 husband if I got upset with him. 10:11 I had blamed the children if I got upset with 10:13 them. It is so easy to blame others for our 10:17 heart sins. But you know, isn't that what your 10:20 father did? That's what my father did, 10:22 that's what I learned? So, we become who 10:24 we behold? And I even learned a text that he 10:27 quoted very often, offenses will come, 10:30 but woe to him through whom they come. 10:33 You see, so he was blaming others, 10:36 that's why he could not acknowledge his own 10:38 sins until he realized what was involved. 10:42 And until I realized what was involved. 10:45 And it's important for us to realize that when 10:51 we have that anger or offense that comes up, 10:55 we're short-tempered it that Spirit is not of God. 10:59 It's not of God. So, let me share with you 11:02 something I think you're gonna like this. 11:04 Once I was praying and I was asking the Lord, 11:08 Please Lord give me a definition for temptation, 11:11 so that I can explain to people because so many 11:13 times people don't really understand what 11:15 temptation is. Here's the definition that I felt 11:18 like the Lord gave me, that temptation is simply 11:21 an opportunity to do something in a way other 11:25 than God's way. That's right. And that's why 11:28 He says, He will always provide us the way out. 11:32 He will show us, but the way to do it in His 11:36 right way, so part of the overcoming temptation 11:42 is to know the word of God because that helps 11:45 to show us the way out, to rely on the power 11:48 of the Holy Spirit because that gives us the power 11:51 to chose the way out, and that's what God 11:54 was teaching you. But at this moment I didn't 11:56 know the way out, I didn't know the way of 11:58 escape. Oh! Okay. Okay! I hadn't leaned that 12:01 yet. And so I fell, I sinned, but immediately I 12:06 acknowledged because the Holy Spirit convicted 12:09 me, immediately I acknowledged. 12:11 Then I went to my room and I asked forgiveness 12:14 and the Lord cleansed me and then He gave 12:17 me another opportunity. And so I prayed Lord 12:22 show me the way of escape. I know you can 12:25 keep me from following, but how do you do it. 12:30 Well, He didn't answer me at that point. 12:32 I didn't find a text. But the next day as I went 12:35 about my work, I don't remember any temptation 12:40 until the evening. We were having worship. 12:46 You would get a test now, right? Yeah! And as 12:51 I was reading from the same book on prayer, 12:55 all of a sudden my husband corrected a 12:57 sentence problem. Instantly I felt the 13:02 temptation, instantly, because I had so prayed 13:06 to God show me the way out. Instantly, 13:09 He reminded me, you gave up your right to resent 13:12 your husband no matter what he does, 13:14 remember? And instantly in my mind I said, 13:17 yes Lord and I really meant it. Glory to God! 13:22 Immediately, the Holy Spirit so controlled my 13:25 Spirit, I didn't have to react, I didn't have to 13:29 say a word, nobody even knew I was tempted. 13:33 I said thank you Lord you've shown me the way 13:35 of escape, instantly submit to God. 13:40 And He has the right to control your Spirit. 13:45 Amen! He never forces us. Amen. He says ask 13:48 and it will be given, you see. So before, 13:52 now we have to explain. Your husband was an 13:54 editor for Review & Herald for many years, 13:56 so he has this propensity towards this type of 14:02 correction, and it's not wrong, but before when 14:05 worship was ruined because of this, 14:08 it was actually because of your reaction to it. 14:10 That's right. You were blaming him for ruining 14:11 the worship. That's right, that's right. 14:12 So this time when you did not exercise what 14:16 you felt was your right to get upset with him 14:19 for doing this, worship didn't get ruined, did it? 14:21 Right, no problem. So it wasn't your husband's 14:24 fault that worship was being ruined. 14:25 Right, it was my fault. Aha! Yeah, and I 14:29 realized that. And so, yes but at the moment 14:35 that I submitted to God and the Bible says: 14:38 If you want to have victory, submit yourselves 14:41 therefore to God then. Resist the devil, 14:45 and he will flee from you. Drawn nigh to God 14:48 and He will drawn nigh to you. 14:50 And when God draws nigh to you all the power 14:53 of heaven is available to keep your Spirit right. 14:56 Amen. It's amazing what God can do. 14:59 Now when you were doing all of this studying, 15:01 did you find that there was any, 15:04 I hate use to a word science, 15:05 but is there a science to temptation, 15:08 is there something how are we tempted? 15:10 We are tempted when we are drawn away by 15:13 our own desire, okay. And when you sense 15:20 the desire you have not yet sinned, 15:24 it's when you yield that you have sinned. 15:28 Yeah, the Bible says in James, in James, 15:31 yes, 1:13 to 15. So, there is a science there 15:37 to it, the last part. Each person is tempted 15:39 when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15:43 The Christian will feel the prompting to sin, 15:47 at that moment we need to remember, 15:50 I'm here Lord I need you, at that moment. 15:54 And that's not sin then as long as we're, 15:56 that's right, if we as is it goes on it says the 15:59 evil desire if it's conceived we will let it 16:04 stay, take hold of us, and take hold 16:06 it gives birth to sin and sin when fully material 16:09 brings forth death because the wages of sin 16:11 is death. You see temptation shows you what 16:13 your lower nature would do, what your flesh 16:16 would do? But as you sense the temptation, 16:22 if you remember to submit to God, 16:26 He has the right to control you. He never 16:29 forces us, He gives us freedom of choice, 16:33 and at the point of temptation you can choose 16:35 to submit to Him or submit to the enemy, 16:38 one or the other. And it's really that easy. 16:41 Yes! And it's whoever you're submitting to. 16:44 In faith if you are submitting to God, 16:47 if you've given your whole heart to God and 16:50 you want Him to control your Spirit, 16:52 He can do it. Amen! First Corinthians 15:57, 16:56 thanks be to God who give us the victory. 16:59 Yeah it's from him, in Christ Jesus, 17:01 it's from him. You are not now just working 17:04 out your own salvation; you're expecting Him 17:07 to control your Spirit. Right! And allowing Him 17:11 to work in you. And that's righteousness by 17:13 faith. Amen. That's the obedience of faith. 17:18 Exactly, what you call obedience by faith I 17:20 teach as obedience by grace and it is Second 17:23 Corinthians 12:9 personified it is His grace 17:28 of sufficient for us, for it is His power that 17:31 is may perfect in our weakness. Right. 17:33 That's why we're striving to get. That's right, 17:36 that's right. And there is a text here in 17:38 Galatians 5:16: But I say walk by the Spirit, 17:44 do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17:49 And so as we sense the desire of the flesh, 17:52 if we remember to walk by the Spirit he is 17:55 able to keep us from following. Jesus was 18:01 tempted like we are tempted. It says He was 18:03 tempted in all points like we are. 18:06 He was also tempted to walk by the fleshly 18:09 nature, but constantly He submitted to God. 18:14 And He was without sin so that gives us hope 18:17 if we learned the submission part, 18:19 it's total surrender to God, we can count on 18:22 Him to do a working us that like He did in 18:26 Jesus. Like God did in Jesus. Yes. Yes, 18:29 the Holy Spirit can be with us? It says we can 18:33 have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 18:38 And another text helps us to understand how 18:41 Jesus did it? In Romans 8:12 and 17: So then, 18:47 brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, 18:51 to live according to the flesh, for if you live 18:54 according to the flesh you will die. 18:57 But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds 19:02 of the body, you will live. You know something, 19:06 by the Spirit, yeah Margaret and that's where 19:08 most of us, I tried so hard to modify or put 19:11 to death for misdeeds of my flesh, 19:14 but I tried to do it by myself. 19:15 Yeah, I did too. And you cannot, 19:18 it has to be you cooperating with God and 19:20 His, only by the power of His Holy Spirit. 19:23 Oh yeah, by His power; that we can put to 19:25 death the misdeeds of our flesh. Yeah, 19:28 and we must learn to do that. Amen. 19:32 It takes a little practice to learn how to submit 19:36 up instead of to submit down. That's good. 19:40 Because when we are tempted we naturally 19:43 would submit to the temptation, 19:46 to get upset. I'm talking about heart sins. 19:50 You know, we don't have that much trouble 19:53 with the sins of the world. Most Christians don't 19:56 but there are some do, there is some, yeah. 19:59 But it's the flesh, it's the lower nature that 20:03 tempts us. And as we are tempted by the lower 20:06 nature submit up and by the Spirit you can have 20:12 victory. Amen. He is able to keep you from 20:15 falling. For all who are led by the Spirit of God 20:19 are sons of God. And that's what it means 20:22 to be led by the Spirit, to allow the Holy Spirit 20:26 to control your Spirit. What if I fall? 20:33 What is by condition? The Bible says in First 20:38 John 2:1: My little children, these things 20:42 write onto you, that you sin not. Amen. 20:46 God doesn't want us to sin. He doesn't want 20:48 us to misrepresent His love to others. 20:51 Well, and He also knows the consequences of 20:54 sin and that's very painful. Yes, yes. 20:56 They are very painful. But He says: 20:59 And if any man sinned, we have an advocate 21:04 with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 21:07 Hallelujah. The moment Adam and Eve sinned 21:11 what did Jesus do? He made a covering for 21:15 them. He stood between the living and the dead 21:18 and He took their place. He died in theirs dead, 21:23 and he has done it for us, He has already done 21:26 it and He will give us another chance. 21:30 He says child let me lift you up again, 21:33 I love you still, I care about you. 21:36 I cannot safe you in sin, but let me pick you up 21:40 and cleanse you and safe you from sin. 21:43 Amen. And He is always there He sends the 21:47 angles to protect us from death, 21:49 if we fall, so we can have a chance to turn 21:53 back to Him. Amen. The Bible says: 22:01 The Longsuffering to us-ward, 22:05 not willing that any should perish, 22:08 but that all should come to repentance. 22:13 Like as a father pities His children, 22:16 you know, many fathers don't pity their children 22:18 that way, many fathers when the children 22:21 fail the father gets angry and pushes them 22:24 further down. I know my father did that 22:28 many times, but God isn't like that. 22:32 God is a loving Father, a caring Father. 22:36 He knows how weak we are? 22:39 And so He pities us and He wants to lift us up 22:44 not push us further down. You know, to me 22:48 I think the scripture that helps me understand 22:52 the most is Romans 5:8 that says that God 22:56 manifested, demonstrated His love, yeah, 22:59 and this way for us that while we were still 23:01 sinners He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for 23:05 us. Yeah. That's why we were sinners. 23:08 Now, that we've received Him, yes, 23:10 as our Savior, how much more, 23:11 now that we've been adopted by Him as His 23:14 child, how much more He'll do all things for us? 23:17 And He doesn't want the evil Spirit to control 23:20 our Spirit. No. He wants, not whatsoever, 23:23 to be in control. Absolutely! And another 23:28 text Second Corinthians 39: For the Lord your 23:32 God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn 23:37 away his face from you, if you return to him. 23:40 Amen. You see, He cannot force us to return. 23:44 When we sinned we're on Satan's ground, 23:46 but the Lord is reaching out His hand, 23:48 He is saying come child comeback to me, 23:51 He gives us free choice. Drawing us with 23:53 that everlasting love. Drawing with everlasting 23:56 love. So, what shall we do? 23:59 We've been talking about what shall we do 24:01 to inherit eternal life? What shall we do? 24:05 Cooperate with God. It's that something? 24:07 Find what the Bible says and then cooperate 24:11 with God, moment by moment in all of these 24:14 areas. You know we have just a couple of 24:18 minutes left, how about if we put your diagram 24:22 backup? Okay. And let's just kind of 24:23 quickly recap. Okay. These steps 24:26 that we have shown here. 24:32 You see number one, He will draw you, 24:36 do not resist. He will convict you of sin of 24:41 righteousness; acknowledge your guilt 24:44 that you sinned against the Lord Your God. 24:48 He will give you repentance, confess and 24:52 forsake your sins. He will forgive and cleanse, 24:56 believe He will do it, and then His promise to 25:01 live in you in the cleansed heart, and you 25:05 will bear much fruit then He will help you when 25:08 you're tempted, take His way of escape. 25:12 The moment you sense His temptation submit 25:15 to Him? And if you fall, He will lift the fallen. 25:22 You see, we have come to the food of the cross, 25:24 we've given our whole hearts to Him and now 25:28 He can empower us to live the Christian life. 25:33 And it is Christ in us our hope of glory. 25:36 Christ in us the hope glory. The Holy Spirit 25:39 living in us. Yes. And the power of the 25:42 transforming power of the word of God that 25:45 makes, it that empowers us makes it able or 25:49 makes us able to walk in His footsteps. 25:53 And our cooperation makes Him able to do 25:58 what He needs to do? Amen. Yeah. 26:00 You know, it has been such a joy getting to 26:03 know you and I'm just excited to see that 26:08 you're still traveling all over and. 26:11 Yeah, I get calls from all over the world and 26:13 I just go wherever door opens. 26:16 Praise the Lord. And share. And I know that 26:20 God must have really raised up a lot of 26:23 wonderful testimonies from those who have 26:26 heard your seminars and who've read your 26:29 book, and have learned His better plan 26:32 coming out of the religious trappings of 26:34 trying to safe our self and into the understanding 26:37 that this gift of salvation is more than just 26:41 something He does for us once it's something 26:44 that He works in us everyday to empower us, 26:48 to obey by faith. Praise the Lord. 26:50 Well, thank you so much for being with us 26:53 again today. Now you're still traveling all over, 26:56 is your husband traveling with you? 26:58 Not so much. No? He is 86. He is 86, 27:01 and may I ask how old are you? Eighty. 27:03 Eighty years old. Eighty years young I should 27:05 say. Yeah right. This ought to inspire those of 27:07 you at home to know that you can still be 27:10 active for the Lord. And if you're interested 27:13 in getting Margaret's book which is 27:15 "What Shall I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?" 27:18 Or perhaps you would like her tapes 27:20 that these are her seminar tapes by the same 27:22 title "What Shall I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?" 27:25 You can go to her website at 27:27 www.whatshallido.org, that's 27:33 www.whatshallido.org. I hope that you have 27:40 enjoyed this program today. 27:41 I hope that the Lord has really increased your 27:45 light on this topic and now our prayer is that 27:48 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love 27:50 of the Father and the fellowship of the 27:52 Holy Spirit will be with you, thank you. |
Revised 2014-12-17