Steps to Christ                        THE END THAT IS THE BEGINNING
 
        For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.  Rom. 10:4.
 
    Today we are talking about surrender, the final step in the sequence of how we come to Christ.  Notice Romans 9, the last few verses, and chapter 10, the first few verses.  "What shall we say then?  That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.  Wherefore?"  Or why?  "Because they sought it not be faith, but as it were by the works of the law."  They were behaviorists.  "For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed....For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
 
    Remember this premise: An apple tree bears apples because it is an apple tree, never in order to be one.  If you would like to have some apples, the best thing for you to do is get an apple tree.  And an apple tree doesn't have to try hard to produce apples; it's natural for an apple tree to produce apples.  Let's go over the scripture again and paraphrase it:  "What shall we say then?  That the Gentiles who were not trying to produce apples have produced apples, even the apples that come from the apple tree.  But Israel, which was trying to produce apples, have not produced apples.  Why?  Because they didn't try to become apple trees but instead tried to produce apples by their own efforts.  For they, being ignorant of God's way of producing fruit, and going about to produce their own apples, have not submitted themselves unto becoming apple trees.  For Christ is the end of trying to produce apples apart from the apple tree to everyone who will become an apple tree."  That's Venden's Revised Standard Version!
 
    A Christian does right because he is a Christian, never in order to be a Christian.  Giving up on our own ability to produce the fruits of righteousness is the beginning of the Christian life.

Steps to Christ                        GOD HELPS THOSE WHO CANNOT HELP THEMSELVES
 
        Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you.  2 Chron. 20:17.
 
    A man came to see a new country with his wife, his cattle, his herds and his relatives.  The people of the land came out to meet them, and they said to him. "What's your name, anyway?"  And he said, "My name is Father of a Great Multitude."  "Oh, is that right?  How many children do you have?"  "Well, er...ah...I don't have any."  "You don't?"  And they smiled.  Then they said to his wife, "What's your name?"  "My name is Mother of Nations."  "Oh, must be the second marriage.  How many children do you have?"  "Er, it's a nice day in the land of Canaan, isn't it?"  "How many children do you have?"  "I don't have any children, either."  "How old are you?"  "Ninety."
 
    This man and wife put their heads together, and they said, "God has promised something bigger than He can do.  We'd better help Him.  God helps those who help themselves!"  So they worked out a clever plan.  And in the Middle East today we still have the problem that resulted from their plan.
 
    We see another man in the palace with its marble statues and ivory throne.  His name is Moses.  God comes to him and says, "Moses, you're the one to lead Israel out of Egypt."  And Moses says, "You've got the right man.  I've just graduated from military school.  I'll start tomorrow morning."  He did, and he got one Egyptian.  Then he took off on a flight through the wilderness to the borders of Mount Sinai, and there at its base he herded sheep for forty years.  Then God came to him again, and He said, "Moses, now it's time for you to lead Israel out of Egypt."  "Oh, no, not me!  I'm a born sheepherder."  God smiled and said, "Now you're ready."  It didn't take Moses long, when he realized his helplessness, to lead the people out to a great victory.  Yet the people had to learn the same lesson for themselves.  God said, "You won't have to fight.  The Lord will fight for you."  And the first thing they did was begin scrapping with their enemies.  They too had to learn that God has the power to do what He's promised, and He doesn't need our help to do what He has promised to do for us.  Admitting our helplessness to do it ourselves is the final step before coming to Him.

Steps to Christ                        EVERYBODY'S HELPLESS
 
        I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.  John 15:5.
 
    Once we have been convicted that we are sinners, whether or not we have ever done anything "wrong," the next step in coming to Christ is to admit that we are helpless to do anything at all about it.  We do not change our lives in order to come to Christ.  We come to Christ, and He changes our lives.  There are many who are saying, "Well, when I can fix up my life so that it is good enough, then I will come to Him."  Stop wasting your time and energy.  It is a hopeless task.  We are helpless.
 
    If you would like to have the whole message of salvation through faith in Christ alone, you can sum it up with two verses: John 15:5, which says, "Without me ye can do"--how much?--"nothing."  Now, how much is nothing?  Nothing is nothing!  That's how much it is!  The other text is Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ."  How many things?  All.  It's just that simple.  The smallest boy or girl can understand it.  So the only possible thing I can do is get with Christ.  That's all I can do to be saved.
 
    If getting with Christ is still nebulous in your mind, I'd like to remind you that every intangible thing in the area of spiritual life I made tangible by the three tangibles for relationship. How do I get with Christ?  Through Bible study--listening to God; prayer--talking with God; and sharing--working with God.  Through these avenues the Holy Spirit will work on us and bring us to the right relationship.
 
    "But," you say, "some people are helpless and some aren't."  What about the strong person who's doing pretty good?  Is he helpless?  Yes, he is.   The strong person can control the externals.  The weak can't.  But the problem is deeper than the externals.  "Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless."--Steps to Christ, p. 18. (Italics supplied.)  Both the strong and the weak are incapable of changing their inward life.  Both must admit their helplessness and come to Christ just as they are.

Steps to Christ                        MORALITY IS NOT ENOUGH
 
        But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.  2 Cor. 3:18.
 
    The enemy of God knows that if a person seeks Jesus, the first byproduct of that experience will be genuine faith.  He knows that the second byproduct of that experience will be righteousness--a natural, spontaneous righteousness that comes from Christ instead of from our own backbone.  So one of his favorite gimmicks is to get us to focus on anything but the relationship with Jesus.
 
    He has succeeded by getting people to focus on righteousness.  He says, "Now. listen.  In order to be a Christian you've got to do what's right.  Now work at it."  So a person begins trying all the gimmicks.  He tries to develop more backbone.  Have you ever tried that?  I've tried it.  Tried to force myself to do things I didn't want to do.  I listed out my "seven sins," and I began working on sin No. 1.  But before I got to sin No. 7, sin No. 1 was back again!  And when I was working the hardest on it, someone from southern California sent me a pamphlet, "One Hundred Sins Laodicea Must Repent Of!"
 
    Then someone came along and said, "No, that's not it.  What you need to do is to control your thoughts, because as a man 'thinketh in his heart, so is he.' "  So I began to try to control my thoughts.  "Now, let's see.  Today I'm not going to think about...Whoops!  I just thought about it."  Have you ever been over that road?  It is possible to look at yourself in the mirror so long that you become more like yourself.
 
    Someone said, "Suppose you hate Jones, and slap him every time you see him.  Your part in overcoming is to try hard to keep from slapping Jones.  If you will keep from slapping Jones, then God will do the rest, by taking the hate and temper out of your heart."  But when I tried it, I discovered that I couldn't keep from slapping Jones.
 
    We are not against morality.  Morality is worthwhile.  It will keep you out of jail.  It will keep you from getting traffic tickets.  It will keep you from lying in the gutter.  But morality is not Christianity, and it will not get you to heaven.  The only way for a person to have any kind of righteousness whatever is to have Jesus, through a relationship with Him.

Steps to Christ                        CONVICTION OF NEED
 
        God be merciful to me a sinner.  Luke 18:13.
 
    One time I went to see a man who was drunk.  His wife was a member of the church.  He looked at me through his bloodshot eyes and said with his thick tongue, "I really admire the Adventists.  It takes a strong person, it takes a good man, to be an Adventist."  Does it take a strong person to be an Adventist?  Is it possible for a weak person to be a good Adventist?  Yes or no?  If your Christian belief is based upon behaviorism only, then it takes a strong person to be a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, or any other kind of Christian.  But where religion is based upon relationship with Jesus Christ, the strong and the weak are equal.
 
    Have you ever considered who hated Jesus more when He was here--the strong or the weak?  It was the strong.  Why?  Because for the first time in their spotless lives they saw Someone who went deeper than the externals, and they got nervous.  In His presence, suddenly all of their morality and good living added up to nothing, and they knew it.
 
    There is a type pf person in this world who says, "Smoking causes lung cancer?  I quit!"  He quits and he never touches cigarettes again.  Another person says, "Smoking causes lung cancer?  I quit, too."  And that afternoon he goes out and buys another carton.  The strong succeed and the weak fail.
 
    It is possible to keep the Sabbath (and we should change that to keep Saturday), to become Saturday keepers, and in the very process of keeping Saturday to be sinning.  It is possible to stay out of jail because of a good moral life, and in the very process of staying out of jail, still be living in sin, because you are doing it on your own, apart from Christ.  It is possible to abide by all the rules and regulations and to be a good person, and be considered so by everyone else, and still be living in sin.  There is going to be a great revival one of these days in the church, but it is not going to be based upon the confession of heinous sins.  It's going to be based upon the sudden realization on the part of people who have been living good moral lives that they have been living apart from Jesus, and are just as much sinners as the harlots and thieves.  This conviction is the step that will lead all, strong and weak, to realize their need of a Saviour.

Steps to Christ                        COUNTERFEIT CONVICTION
 
        But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.  Phil. 3:7, 8.
 
    If the knowledge about the love of God as revealed in Jesus has been inadequate, it may send a person off the track and hinder his coming to the conviction of sin in the right sense.  If the knowledge I have received has to do only with the Ten Commandments, I'll be convinced merely that I have done sinful deeds, and right there is where the sidetrack begins.
 
    People may be divided into two classes, the strong and the weak.  By virtue of heredity and environment, we are either among the strong or the weak, or somewhere between.  The strong person who is convinced that he has done sinful deeds, and that's as far as his knowledge of the plan of salvation and the problem of sin goes, will change his ways, stop doing the sinful deeds, and become a "good" moral person.  This may be his downfall, because morality is not Christianity.  Morality has never been Christianity and never will be Christianity.  You don't do what is right by not doing what is wrong.  Trying to be good by trying not to be bad is not being good.  Badness held in check is not goodness and never has been goodness.  So the peculiar pit for the strong-willed and the backboned and the self-disciplined person is morality without Christ.  Thus he deceives himself into thinking that he is a good person, and therefore a Christian--and he may be further from being a Christian than the drunk in the gutter, because he may become blind to his need of Christ.  The Pharisees were good moral people.  They were such good Sabbathkeepers that they hurried back from the cross to be in time for sundown worship.  But that did not make them righteous before God.
 
    If you see from a distance someone who is ten feet tall, he may not look tall to you.  In fact, he may look about your size, maybe a little shorter.  But when you get close to him and look up at him, suddenly you fell like a dwarf at his feet.  And if you are walking along, no matter how good or bad you are, at some distance from Jesus, He may not look tall--maybe about your size.  It's when you come into His immediate presence that you suddenly see yourself as you really are and are convinced of your need.

Steps to Christ                        CONVICTION OF SIN
 
        When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me.  John 16:8, 9.
 
    The knowledge of the love of God as revealed in the plan of salvation will lead to the third step in coming to Christ, conviction of sin.  The behaviorist defines sin in terms of transgression of the law, and it's true--that is the only legal, forensic definition for sin in the Bible.  But there are some experiential definitions for sin in the Bible that go deeper than that.  One of the best is in Roman 14:23: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."  Whatever I do, if it isn't done through faith in Christ, it is sin.
 
    There are two definitions for sin.  One of them we will call the definition of sin, singular, and the other the definition for sins, plural.  Sin is living a life without Christ.  Sins are transgressions of the law.  Living a life apart from Christ (sin) is the cause of doing wrong things (sins).  It is interesting the way the King James Version reads on 1 John 3:4, "Whosoever committeth sin [who, as we say, lives a life apart from Christ] transgresses also the law."
 
    When did Eve sin?  When she ate the fruit?  She sinned when she distrusted what God had told her and wandered away.  Eating the fruit was simply the natural result of that.  If I am having a problem with doing wrong things, my real problem is that I am living a life apart from Christ.  Either that, or I haven't known Him long enough yet to grow to victory, and Jesus Himself allowed for growth.
 
    So when we talk about conviction, we are talking about the realization that we are sinners, regardless of what we have done.  Regardless of how good or bad we have been.  We were born sinners, born sinful by nature.  1 John 5:17: "All unrighteousness is sin."  Romans 3:10: "There is none righteous."  So there is nobody righteous, we are all unrighteous, and all unrighteousness is sin.  But don't ever feel that we are held responsible for being born in a world of sin.  Jesus knows the way we were born, and the only thing we are responsible for is what we do with His plan of salvation.
 
    When we face ourselves in the presence of Jesus, suddenly we are convicted that we are sinners.  Not because of what we have done, but because of what we are.  Through this conviction we realize our need of Him.

Steps to Christ                        THE LONG ROUTE TO GOD
 
        As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.  Eze. 33:11.
 
    There are many who refuse the short route of coming to God, the deliberate search and study into the life and character of Christ where God's love is revealed.  Probably most of us take the long route.  It's too bad, because it's not God's plan.  But it's there.  It's the route of trouble, ulcers, teetering on the edge of the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's a long life of heartache and trouble, of pain and frustration.
 
    It took the thief on the cross the marathon run all the way to the gallows before he was willing to listen.  Then he heard the friendly words, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."  And there it was, in the presence of the love of God, at the moment of his extremity, that he finally came to the moment of truth.
 
    Saul had resisted.  He had tried to escape the memory of a dying man at whom they were throwing rocks, who had said, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."  Yet finally on the road to Damascus his heart was broken, and he faced the love he had been running away from.
 
    Nicodemus waited for three years.  It wasn't until the Friend he must have intended to get better acquainted with--someday--was crucified that he finally understood the love that had been offered to him, and he accepted the offer as he and Joseph removed the bruised body of Jesus from the cross.
 
    "Oh," you may say, "if we have all these ways of escape, and the human heart is running from God, what are we going to do?"  Just remember that God is running after us.  His appeal to you today is to let Him find you, by faith, as the Bible says, not of yourselves.  Even faith is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8).  "His ear is open to the cry of the contrite soul.  The very first reaching out of the heart after God is known to Him.  Never a prayer is offered, however faltering, never a tear is shed, however secret, never a sincere desire after God is cherished, however feeble, but the Spirit of God goes forth to meet it.  Even before the prayer is uttered or the yearning of the heart is made known, grace from Christ goes forth to meet the grace that is working upon the human soul."--Christ's Object Lessons, p. 206.

Steps to Christ                        A SENSE OF NEED
 
        They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.  But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  Matt. 9:12, 13.
 
    One morning one of the fellows who worked at a college farm returned to the dormitory with a gunnysack full of dry cereal.  It had been stored at the farm to feed the cows.  "The cows can eat grass," he said.  "We'll eat the cereal."  And he put it in his closet.  Everyone at his end of the hall came every morning with a bowl and dipped in for a bowlful of dry cereal.  Who needs a cafeteria anyway?  They didn't know that the reason the cows had been given the cereal was because it had been swept up off the floor at the cereal factory--until the morning they discovered some "pets" in the bag.  Then the fellows made a beeline for the cafeteria.  Suddenly they decided they needed the cafeteria after all.
 
    You never feel the need for fire insurance as mush as when your house is on fire.  You never feel your need for a service station as you do when your car sputters and stops on the side of the road and you are out of gas.  It's when you feel sick that you realize your need for a doctor.  "It is absurd, therefore, to offer a physician to them that are whole, or that at least imagine themselves so to be.  You are first to convince them that they are sick; otherwise they will not thank you for your labor.  It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose heart is whole, having never yet been broken."--The Great Controversy, p. 264.
 
    It is the sense of need that makes the difference.  This sense of need comes from the contemplation of the love of God.  You don't have to wait for some other person to introduce you into His presence.  You can sit down and, even though you find it hart at first, deliberately study and contemplate the revelation in God's Word of the love of God through the life of Jesus Christ.  This is the short route that can bring you to a sense of need that perhaps a lifetime would not accomplish otherwise.  Come to Him where He is revealed, realizing at the same time that He has been out looking for each one of us.  "If you take even one step toward Him in repentance, He will hasten to enfold you in His arms of infinite love."--Christ's Object Lessons, p. 206.

Steps to Christ                        A WRONG KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
 
        "You study the Scriptures, because you think that in them you will find eternal life.  And these very Scriptures speak about me!  Yet you are not willing to come to me in order to have life."  John 5:39, 40,  T.E.V.
 
    When the devil sees us trying to gain a correct knowledge of God through the study of His word, he gets nervous.  As with every step toward Christ, he has sidetracks designed to hinder us from our goal.
 
    Sometimes the devil is able to sidetrack a person by getting him to start at the wrong place in the Bible.  Is there a right and a wrong place to start?  For a beginner?  Is there?  Have you ever made a vow to read your Bible through every year, and become an authority on the book of Genesis?  Or have you ever gotten as far as Chronicles and been finished off there?  One time I saw a Reader's Digest title, "We're Up to Chronicles."  That was worth putting in the Reader's Digest!  The devil will do anything he can do to keep us from a knowledge of the love of God.  It is possible to have a knowledge of everything but the love of God.  It is possible to understand about history and prophecy and beasts and symbols and all that, and still to have missed the love of God.
 
    Then there are the pseudointellectuals, who like to talk about religion but spend very little time with the Word, for communication with God.  They spend a great deal of time discussing and dissecting and analyzing God and religion.  They want a way of forgetting God that will pass as a way of remembering Him.  They spend time considering what happens to a flower in heaven when you pick it, whether angel's wings have feathers, or more sophisticated side trips.  The name of Jesus is never mentioned, and the devil sits back and laughs.
 
    Some substitute behavioral changes for a personal relationship with God.  If they succeed in changing their behavior, they think they have found Him.  Some depend on other people, and their spiritual life is high or low according to what kind of people they are around.  Some become preoccupied with the psychological approach, without God as the center, analyzing themselves and forgetting Christ.  Some people escape by being just too busy to take time for God.  But all the time, God is following, staying close, helping when we don't know it, guiding when we don't intend it, ever trying to bring us to a true knowledge of Himself, whom to know is life eternal.