-
Before I get to my text,
-
let me share something of my testimony.
-
When I was converted at
the University of Texas,
-
I was immediately introduced to men
-
like E.M. Bounds,
-
Praying Hyde,
-
Leonard Ravenhill,
-
C.T. Studd,
-
Hudson Taylor,
-
and my dearest and longest friend,
-
George Mueller.
-
And from them I learned
things about prayer.
-
I learned to seek God.
-
I learned about the inside of a closet,
-
and to pray and to tarry
-
and to wait upon my God.
-
And to believe that I should never believe
-
that what has been given
me in the New Covenant
-
is less than what has
been given in the Old.
-
That if there were
workings of God in the Old,
-
surely there are workings of God
-
and miraculous things that happen
-
among us to whom the
end of the ages has come.
-
That we should expect great things
-
in answer to our praying.
-
And that if we would tarry with Him,
-
we would see His power,
-
His presence in our life.
-
But as I would go out
on the street and preach -
-
I started out as a street preacher.
-
That's why I always tell young preachers
-
who are looking for a place to preach
-
that there's a pulpit on
absolutely every corner.
-
But with all my praying
-
and all my misguided zeal,
-
there was very little power.
-
To some degree, there
were great things God did,
-
but in my own heart,
there was something missing,
-
missing, missing.
-
And so as I was directed,
-
I went to seminary -
-
a by no means small seminary.
-
At the time, I believe,
the largest in the world.
-
And I studied with all my might.
-
I took the most difficult professors.
-
Greek, Hebrew, history, systematic.
-
But I found nothing there.
-
There were a few good men.
-
A few men who walked
with God and loved God,
-
but basically, I found nothing there.
-
Because they taught me all the theology
-
that closed every church in Germany.
-
I was taught Karl Barth,
-
(unintelligible).
-
Higher criticism.
-
On and on and on.
-
And I think the only thing that kept me
-
from becoming a liberal
-
was the grace of God,
the providence of God,
-
and the fact that it's
very difficult to be a liberal
-
and a street preacher at the same time.
-
I can remember going to
class one day in systematic
-
and we were studying eschatology.
-
I began to weep - not make a show,
-
but I guess tears were
running down my face
-
as I thought about the street
people that lived with me.
-
I lived down on the street at
that time with street people.
-
I thought about how if Christ
came back at that moment,
-
they would surely go to
hell without a doubt.
-
The professor noticed the
tears coming down my cheek
-
and after class he walked up to me
-
with some encouraging words.
-
He put his arm around me and he said this:
-
"Paul, don't take this so hard.
-
Don't be surprised if
on the day of judgment
-
Jesus lets all the goats
jump in the sheep line."
-
But I went to Peru as a missionary
-
in no way qualified.
-
We come to think today
-
that everyone who wants to be a missionary
-
can be a missionary.
-
That's as absurd as saying
-
everyone who wants to be
an elder can be an elder.
-
There are requirements -
-
requirements of theology,
-
requirements of character.
-
You simply cannot get around
-
the demands of Scripture.
-
But in God's providence,
-
I was allowed to go.
-
Other than a prayer life and zeal
-
there wasn't much to say.
-
I learned the ways to do evangelism -
-
get people to jump through
-
certain evangelical hoops
-
and if they say yes after each question,
-
you Popishly pronounce
them to be born again.
-
But then I came into contact
-
with an ex-Catholic priest
-
by the name of Jesus Hertado
-
who had been converted.
-
Brilliant man.
-
Latin, Greek, just
absolutely brilliant man.
-
And after he was converted,
-
he decided he would go to Germany
-
where the Reformation occurred
-
in order to learn the truths of Scripture.
-
But when he got there, he discovered
-
they were doing the same thing
-
the Catholic church was doing.
-
So he came back to Peru
-
and he started a Bible institute.
-
He asked me if I would teach.
-
I thought, well, I've been to seminary.
-
I know Greek. I'll help you out.
-
And this is where God truly began
-
to change my life as a young man.
-
Because this man, Jesus Hertado,
-
was so sick and tired
-
of getting everything but Scripture
-
that the first semester that I taught
-
was this: the students read through
-
the entire Bible - 10 chapters a day.
-
They write out a chapter summary.
-
They write out a
commentary of each chapter.
-
I mean, it was phenomenal.
-
It was hours and hours of work a day
-
just in the Scriptures.
-
And then they would come to class
-
and the only thing that class was
-
was simply ask the
teacher all your questions.
-
So I began to study Scripture
-
about 10 hours a day.
-
Because even though I graduated
-
near the top of my class in seminary,
-
I didn't know the Scriptures.
-
And just hours and hours and hours.
-
After making my way
-
through the first five
books of the Pentateuch,
-
I discovered I was no longer a Baptist.
-
Because I had gone to a Baptist seminary.
-
And the things that I was learning there
-
was nothing of what they taught me.
-
And so I decided that I would go back
-
to the States for a month or two -
-
try to figure out what am I?
-
This was after I finished
the entire course.
-
We'd gone through the entire Bible.
-
I went back to the States to discover
-
who do I belong to?
-
And someone handed me a book by Boyce:
-
"The Abstract of Principles."
-
I began to read it.
-
And I realized that I had not stopped
-
becoming a Baptist.
-
I realized that I had become one.
-
But then, the door began to open
-
with throughout history
-
jewels that God had given us.
-
There was Spurgeon.
-
I read him.
-
There was Edwards and Whitefield,
-
Owen,
-
and my lovely John Flavel.
-
Rutherford, and on and on and on.
-
Now what did this do to me?
-
I am glad that what I heard from them
-
was a confirmation of what
I had learned in Scripture,
-
only I couldn't think it nor
say it as good as they could.
-
But this is the greatest
thing I learned from them:
-
as Paul tells the church in Corinth,
-
when you compare yourself by yourself,
-
you are not wise.
-
When we compare ourselves to others
-
in the circle of
contemporary Christianity,
-
we are not wise.
-
When we compare ourselves to Scripture,
-
there is great wisdom there,
-
but there is also the danger
-
if we separate ourselves from history
-
that we will interpret Scripture
-
through the eyes of our own culture.
-
But when we take a look
-
throughout Christian history
-
and discover the men and women of God
-
that He has most used,
-
that show greatest evidences of piety
-
and the power of God,
-
and we begin to compare our theology
-
and our way of life to them,
-
it raises the bar.
-
It raises the standard.
-
And I want to encourage
you young men and women
-
who desire to be missionaries,
-
it is not your right.
-
It is a privilege.
-
As I said last night,
-
people do not need your life,
-
and they do not need your zeal,
-
and they do not need all your
well-meaning endeavor.
-
Don't go to the mission field
-
unless when you go there,
-
you can open your mouth
-
and instruct them in the things of God.
-
Well, let's go to our sermon.
-
Romans 12:1.
-
"Therefore, I urge you, brethren,
-
by the mercies of God,
-
to present your bodies a
living and holy sacrifice,
-
acceptable to God,
-
which is your spiritual
service of worship.
-
And do not be conformed to this world,
-
but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind
-
so that you may prove
what the will of God is -
-
that which is good and
acceptable and perfect."
-
Paul was an apostle
-
and he had an apostolic ministry,
-
but at the same time,
-
don't think of him as not having
-
the heart of Christ,
-
or having the heart of a pastor.
-
He cared deeply for people.
-
I am very, very afraid -
-
although I greatly appreciate
this newfound desire
-
to do everything for the glory of God,
-
and to do missions for the glory of God
-
and to preach for the glory of God,
-
but that in itself can
also become twisted.
-
Because sometimes it's used as an excuse
-
to not have a passion for people,
-
to not have a love for people.
-
We must always do all things
-
first and foremost for the glory of God,
-
but truly if we are doing that,
-
if we are loving the Lord our God
-
with all our heart,
soul, mind, and strength,
-
we will love our neighbor as ourselves.
-
We will care for people.
-
Especially when we know
-
that we can pick the
worst of all out of the lot,
-
the worst person on the face of the earth,
-
and we know that we would make them
-
look like a choir boy if it were not
-
for the grace of God in our life.
-
And therefore, we should urge people
-
on to truth for the glory of God,
-
but for their benefit also.
-
And I can see this in Paul.
-
He says, "Therefore,
I urge you, brethren..."
-
One of the greatest needs
in the church today -
-
My wife, when she first came to America,
-
she said the first thing that she noticed
-
is that it seemed that
Christians in America
-
were so thin-skinned.
-
She said we considered
it the job of our pastor
-
to rebuke us both publicly and privately;
-
to watch over our souls,
-
to urge us, encourage us,
-
to tell us when we're wrong.
-
It seems that American Christians
-
will have no part of this.
-
They consider it an attack
-
when it's one of the greatest expressions
-
of pastoral love that a man will risk
-
his relationship in order to honor God
-
and to save souls.
-
And we see this in Paul.
-
He is urging.
-
I will not lose sleep tonight
-
because people in the world
-
lack self-esteem.
-
I will not lose sleep tonight
-
because they're not
having their best life now
-
or they're not being
all that they can be
-
or their checkbook is not balanced.
-
I will lose sleep tonight
-
if I lose sleep tonight
-
because men will stand naked before God
-
and be cast into hell.
-
When I preach and when you preach
-
whether here or in the mission field,
-
you cannot simply think
-
that you're just a communicator of truth
-
and you leave it there.
-
You must preach as
a dying man to dying men.
-
And I see that in Paul.
-
There was a passion. There was an urging.
-
He wasn't simply satisfied
-
if he preached well
-
or communicated truth.
-
He longed for God to be honored among men
-
and he longed for men to be holy,
-
to be Christlike,
-
and to be able to rejoice in the benefit
-
of their great salvation.
-
We ought to be a people given
to urging our brethren
-
to greater and greater godliness,
-
to greater and greater piety,
-
to abound further and further in love.
-
He says, "I urge you, brethren..."
-
What is he going to urge them to do?
-
To do the most difficult, scandalous,
-
in some cases some would say
-
preposterous thing a person could ever
-
urge another person to do -
-
to give their life away.
-
Do you know even the devil had it right
-
in this sense - you can take away
-
a man's goods, his houses, his lands,
-
you can do absolutely anything to him,
-
but the moment you touch his flesh
-
is when you're truly
going to test this man.
-
To give away a car, a home, a tithe
-
is a small thing,
-
but to ask a man to give away his life...
-
I know there's so much
romantic notion about missions,
-
but Amy Carmichael,
-
Elisabeth Elliot's book - it's right.
-
Missions is only this:
an opportunity to die.
-
An opportunity to give your life away
-
for something much larger than yourself,
-
much greater than yourself.
-
So he is going to ask these people
-
to do what some
would consider almost cultic,
-
absurd, ridiculous, immoral -
-
to give their life away;
-
to offer their life.
-
Now, you're going to need strong medicine
-
to motivate a person to
something such as this.
-
What on earth or in heaven
-
could ever motivate a man
to give his life away?
-
Notice the first word in our text:
-
Therefore.
-
And then go on, when he says,
-
"Therefore, I urge you, brethren..."
-
By means - by the mercies of God.
-
When Paul puts "therefore" in the text,
-
what he's doing is he's linking this text
-
to something else.
-
He says basically this:
-
I'm going to urge you to
give your life away to God;
-
to offer it up as a living and
holy sacrifice to God.
-
Now I'm going to do so
-
on the basis of the following:
-
The first 11 chapters of this book
-
that outline for you the mercies of God.
-
Paul does the same thing
in the book of Ephesians -
-
the deepest theology
I believe you'll ever find
-
are the first three chapters
of the book of Ephesians.
-
Mystery upon mystery of God.
-
But he comes to chapter 4
-
after speaking of all the great things
-
God has done in Christ.
-
He comes to chapter 4
and says, "Therefore..."
-
Now... we're going to go
on to practical religion.
-
We've gone into the theology.
-
Now we're going to into the praxis.
-
Based upon what God
has done for you in Christ,
-
lay down your life.
-
And this is absolutely spectacular!
-
This is what makes Christianity something
-
other than slavery or a drudgery.
-
We give our lives away as people
-
who are mesmerized by something.
-
By people who have seen something so great
-
they consider it a small thing
-
to give their life away.
-
I would submit to you this morning
-
that the reason why some people
-
are so grudging and sparing
-
with the way they give
their life away to God,
-
it is because they do not know
-
the mercies of God revealed
-
in the Person of Jesus Christ.
-
Many people in our churches
-
are absolutely unconverted
to start off with.
-
But even those who are truly converted,
-
they languish in poverty.
-
Even in the middle, sometimes,
-
of sound expository preaching.
-
And why is that?
I've come to a conclusion.
-
You can obey all the laws
-
of expository preaching
-
and still the preaching be Christless.
-
You have to understand that
when you come to a text
-
and you preach the text,
-
it must still all be about Christ
-
or it will be nothing more
-
than a quaint moral teaching.
-
That is why we see Spurgeon sermons
-
enduring and enduring.
-
It is because every time he took a text
-
he made his way to Christ immediately.
-
It was all about Christ.
-
I would submit to you that every word
-
in this book is about Christ.
-
I would submit to you
that nothing in this book
-
can be understood apart from Christ.
-
I would submit to you that everything
-
God the Father has ever done,
-
He has done for Christ, by Christ,
-
through Christ, and in Christ.
-
Outside of Christ there is nothing.
-
Nothing exists.
-
Everything is absolutely absurd.
-
And Paul comes to these people
-
asking them to do the unthinkable
-
until he brings forth the motivation.
-
From where does self-sacrifice come?
-
Is it just that the kingdom
of God advances violently
-
and the violent take it by force?
-
There's just some men who are full
-
of determination and
will to do the right thing
-
and they give their life away?
-
If that's true, it's idolatry.
-
And it's self-worship.
-
As Brother Charles Leiter who is here
-
has said to me several times,
-
"Those men who violently
take the kingdom by force,
-
they are not violent
-
in their strength and self will.
-
They are violent in that
they are desperate."
-
They know their weakness.
-
They know their need.
-
And that knowing of their weakness
-
makes them so desperate
-
they grab a hold of the
kingdom with all their might.
-
But what makes a person
-
give his life away?
-
I would submit to you,
-
there's only one biblical reason:
-
That they have glimpsed something
-
of the glories of God
in the face of Christ.
-
Christianity, although it has law
-
and an ethic and a morality,
-
it is not about rule keeping
-
or ethics or morality.
-
To make the United States of America
-
a moral people would just make them
-
two-fold sons of hell.
-
Christianity is about Christ.
-
It is about grace.
-
It is about redemption.
-
And as I said last night,
-
if you notice that your
love for God is waning
-
or it's not what it should be -
-
as all of us should say that -
-
or that you do not glorify
God as you ought,
-
or that you need to grow,
-
or that you need to find
power over pornography -
-
you do so by running to discover
-
more of the glories of God
-
in the face of Christ.
-
Him.
-
It all has to come back to Him
-
or it's idolatry.
-
Everything.
-
It is one of the reasons why
-
I literally hate it
-
when someone mentions something
-
about systematic theology,
-
and then they themselves or someone else
-
preface that: of course,
you've got to be careful
-
because systematic theology by itself
-
or doctrine by itself can make you cold
-
and without fruit and full of pride.
-
I don't agree with that statement at all.
-
Truth can never have a
bad effect on a person.
-
Good theology is always
going to create fire.
-
That's one of the ways that
you know it's good theology.
-
And if it doesn't create fire,
-
it's not the fault of truth.
-
It's either being taught incorrectly
-
or being listened to by unconverted ears.
-
You want to be filled with fire.
-
You want to be able to go out there
-
and lose your life for the sake of Christ.
-
It's a rather easy endeavor.
-
Just know Him.
-
His glory, His beauty.
-
His power, His life.
-
Know what God has done for you
-
in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
-
Look at what we've done.
-
Instead of following Jonathan Edwards,
-
we followed Benjamin Franklin.
-
We have followed pragmatism
-
instead of correct thinking.
-
The church is in trouble -
-
that's what they say anyway.
-
The problem is most of what they
call the church is not the church,
-
and the church is not quite
as in trouble as everybody thinks.
-
As a matter of fact, the church today
-
is absolutely beautiful. She's glorious.
-
She's humble. She's broken.
-
And she's confessing her sin.
-
The problem is what everybody's calling
the church today isn't a church.
-
Basically, by and large,
what's called church today
-
is nothing more than a bunch
of unconverted church people
-
with unconverted pastors.
-
What you have to see is this:
-
We try to help people
by giving them principles -
-
and there are principles in the Bible -
-
we try to help them by giving them
-
ten ways to do this and that
-
and discipleship courses
-
and all sorts of things
-
in order to make people grow.
-
Teach them who God is.
-
Show them the works of God.
-
Teach them about Jesus Christ.
-
The problem is many pastors can't do that
-
because it's hard work to
search out that Treasure.
-
Missionary, if you're going to be
-
of any account at all in the field,
-
then know this:
-
You're going to be talked about poorly
-
by all the other missionaries.
-
Just like Praying Hyde.
-
It was said that Praying Hyde was lazy
-
and all sorts of things
-
because all he would do is
stay in his room and pray.
-
Well, I think if you're going to
be a missionary of any account
-
this is what you must do:
-
stay in your room, not
only pray, but study
-
so that when you walk out of that room
-
you have something to say about God.
-
And so that you will be able
to walk out of that room.
-
Listen to me.
-
I've been there, done
that, got the t-shirt.
-
You walk out there in all your zeal
-
in the middle of the plaza
-
and you begin to preach.
-
And you think as a young missionary
-
that angels are going
to drop out of heaven
-
and the Hallelujah Chorus
is going to be sung,
-
millions of people are
going to be converted.
-
They're going to toss
you on their shoulders
-
and build a statue of you.
-
That's not going to happen.
-
What's going to happen is this:
-
You're going to go there
-
and you're going to preach
-
and you're going to preach
-
and when a crowd starts listening to you,
-
somebody somewhere is going to rise up
-
and call you a demon.
-
The entire crowd's going to turn on you.
-
They're going to grab your little pulpit
-
and your makeshift microphone
-
and all your little tracts
-
and they're going to throw
you out on the street.
-
It's going to take a lot more
-
than a romantic zeal for missions
-
to make you get up, pick
up your pulpit, your tracts,
-
and walk right back in
there and preach again.
-
It's going to take a passion for God
-
that is created out of knowing Him.
-
And that's the same for
everything in the Christian life.
-
I must know God to be holy
-
so that the knowledge I have of Him
-
eclipses everything else in the world.
-
I'm not strong enough to battle
-
between two opposing arguments.
-
But I have discovered this:
-
God is who He says He is
-
and He is more glorious than anything
-
this world could put forth.
-
So if I truly know Him,
-
and I truly see Him and His glories
-
eclipse the glories of
this temporal world,
-
then it is not very difficult to
make a decision anymore
-
because you become a man,
-
a prisoner.
-
Paul is going to urge them.
-
But Paul in a way is going
to seek to imprison them.
-
Paul called himself a
prisoner of Christ Jesus.
-
I believe that he meant more
-
than just chains on
his hands, don't you see?
-
He really was a prisoner.
-
The love of God had captured him.
-
See, he no longer belonged to himself.
-
It's such a revelation of the glory of God
-
in the Person of Christ
-
that he had become captivated.
-
That's what you need.
-
Just being holy so that you can be used
-
is not strong enough.
-
Just being holy so that the church
-
doesn't have a bad reputation
is not strong enough.
-
Just going to the mission field
-
because people need Jesus
-
is not strong enough.
-
The only thing that can hold you on course
-
is if you become a prisoner
-
of the grace of God,
-
the revelation of God.
-
It is amazing how greater and greater
-
understanding - intimate understanding
-
of the Person of God in the Gospel -
-
it in itself separates you.
-
It so mesmerizes you.
-
It's no longer a man
who looks at the world
-
and looks at Christianity
-
and then tries to make a decision
-
which one he should follow.
-
But it is a man almost in a trance
-
who has caught a glimpse
-
of something of Christ
-
and can no longer even look to the world.
-
This is what Paul is urging.
-
He says, "I urge you,
brethren, by this..."
-
By the knowledge of who God is
-
and the glory of God
-
in the Person of Christ and His cross.
-
I'm not going to be able to
get through these two verses.
-
I can see that, but let me say this:
-
The greatest malady for
the true church in America
-
is that she does not know her God.
-
Along with that is this:
-
We have - I call it - Gospel reductionism.
-
We have taken, as Paul told Timothy,
-
the glorious Gospel of the blessed God
-
and we've reduced it
down to four spiritual laws
-
or five things God wants you to know,
-
and where's the power in that?
-
Not only is there no power
in that for evangelism,
-
let me say this and it's
far more important,
-
there's no power in
that for the Christian life.
-
You see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ
-
is not Christianity 101.
-
It's not the first little
truths that you learn
-
so that you can be saved
-
and then a little thing or steps
-
that you take to other
people and share with them
-
so they can also make their decision.
-
The Gospel is everything!
-
Let me put it in this way.
-
There is much talk today
-
about the second coming of Jesus Christ,
-
how it will occur, when it will occur,
-
what will be the events preceding
-
and what will follow
-
and all these different things.
-
Let me assure you of one thing:
-
You will understand everything
-
about the second coming of Jesus Christ
-
on the day it occurs.
-
I can promise you that.
-
But I can also tell you this,
-
you will pass an eternity of eternities
-
and you will never even
begin to understand
-
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
-
The Gospel is not four spiritual laws!
-
It's not: Do you know you're a sinner?
-
Do you want to go to heaven?
-
Would you like to pray this prayer?
-
The Gospel is what the
entire Bible is about.
-
It is the greatest manifestation of God
-
that we will ever have,
-
and I will submit to
you that we will spend
-
all of eternity tracking out
what God has done for us
-
in Christ and in the cross of Christ.
-
And if you can ever see that -
-
I have spent literally the
last 12 years of my life,
-
hours and hours -
-
almost hours and hours a day
-
doing one thing -
-
reading and writing about:
-
Christ died for me.
-
I haven't even begun.
-
I can't sleep at night because of it.
-
And what I want you to see
-
is you don't need so much trappings.
-
You only need to realize
-
where the Treasure is found.
-
It's found in the cross of Christ.
-
And that truth will carry you anywhere
-
the providence of God
decrees for you to go.
-
That is the power of missions.
-
God becoming flesh,
-
dying under the wrath of God,
-
that God might be just
and the justifier of men.
-
What more do you need?
-
There's an eternity.
-
There's an eternity of worship
-
in this one thing:
-
Christ died for sinners.
-
You see, here's the problem.
-
You come to me and you say, Brother Paul,
-
I need zeal. I need
something to compel me.
-
You need the cross.
-
Well, yeah, I know about that.
-
No, you don't know about it.
-
No, you haven't even begun.
-
It's just like when you finish
your Bible Institute here.
-
Don't think, well, I've learned systematic
-
so now I'm going to go out and minister.
-
You haven't even
begun to learn systematic.
-
You have learned a few tools
-
to begin to study systematic.
-
You have learned a few tools to begin
-
to endeavor to know more
-
about the cross of Christ,
-
and that knowing and seeking
-
will last for eternities.
-
And it will be these things that
empower you in your Christian life.
-
And that's why he says,
"Therefore, I urge you, brethren,
-
by the mercies of God
-
to present your bodies a living
-
and a holy sacrifice."
-
Now, I know the time is short,
-
but let me just put emphasis here
-
on this word "bodies."
-
I think sometimes I read the Scriptures
-
and things stand out to me
-
and I think the Holy Spirit is so wise.
-
God is so brilliant!
-
This Bible must be inspired.
-
Notice he doesn't say present your hearts,
-
or present your minds.
-
Present your bodies.
-
I think this word helps us to avoid
-
a super-spirituality.
-
It helps us to avoid a superficiality.
-
We live in a world today
-
that has somehow managed theologically
-
to cut off the heart
-
from the rest of our person
-
and make it a separate entity
-
that does not affect the rest of us.
-
We could talk to people all day;
-
we could dismiss right now
-
and go to every tavern in Owensboro
-
and find people all over -
drunks and the like -
-
who have given their heart to Jesus.
-
But nothing else has followed.
-
But what you must understand is the heart
-
is the very essence of what a man is.
-
It's the very core of his being.
-
It's the center of
absolutely his entire being.
-
When you talk about ontology
-
and you begin to go in depth and in depth,
-
you finally find yourself
at the center of the heart.
-
The heart is everything you are.
-
And it is an absolute
ontological impossibility
-
to give someone your heart
-
without everything else going with it.
-
And that's why Paul is not speaking
-
in terms of giving Jesus your heart
-
or giving God your heart.
-
Or even giving your mind,
-
but the entirety of your person.
-
One of the things I most appreciate
-
about the Puritans is this:
-
They sought, it seems to me,
-
with everything they had,
-
they endeavored to submit every aspect
-
of their life to Christ,
-
to bring every thought
-
under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
-
Paul is not asking for a partial
giving away of self here.
-
He is commanding, demanding,
-
urging, pleading.
-
A giving over of all that you are to Him.
-
A great momentous decision.
-
It is this context, this idea
-
of how long will you live
between two opinions?
-
Once and for all make a decision.
-
Once and for all by the grace of God
-
turn yourself over
-
and begin to work that out in your life.
-
I submit to you a few questions.
-
Have you submitted your mind to Christ?
-
You say, well, what does
that mean, Brother Paul?
-
Well, go to Scripture.
-
I like this better than
using a concordance.
-
Start in Genesis
-
and read through the entire Bible
-
and every passage in Scripture
-
that deals with the mind, pull it out
-
and create a systematic theology
-
with regard to how your mind
-
can be submitted to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ.
-
Your eyes.
-
What does the Bible say about your eyes?
-
Your ears.
-
And your tongue.
-
And your hands and your feet.
-
And your body.
-
And the way you clothe it.
-
What does the Bible say about
relationships that you are in?
-
What are you commanded to do by Scripture?
-
You see, my dear friend,
-
without a vision the people perish.
-
And that should not be used by pastors
-
who want to go into a building program.
-
That's not what that
text is talking about.
-
Where this is no vision of God's law,
-
the people run unrestrained.
-
I want to talk to you, young person.
-
You've learned doctrines
of sovereign grace.
-
You read the Puritans.
-
Congratulations.
-
Have you gone through
Scripture to discover
-
what God says about relationships?
-
And sought to understand
it and submit your life to it
-
in obedience?
-
I know I sound like a 1960's
fundamentalist preacher,
-
but let me ask you a question.
-
Have you gone into the Scriptures
-
to find the principles laid out
-
for clothing and etiquette?
-
And have you decided that you would
-
submit your life to those directives?
-
You see, we talk about being biblical.
-
In our worship, have you
gone through Scripture
-
to discover what God
desires out of worship?
-
Well, you know, we love worship this way.
-
I don't care how you like worship
-
because that's not the point.
-
What has God said?
-
You see, in this idea, we can romance
-
this thing to death.
-
We can spiritualize it to death.
-
Someone says I've given my
life to the mission field.
-
That does not mean at the same time
-
that you have given your heart to God.
-
Because you can go to the
mission field and be godless.
-
And carnal and trite.
-
You'd be better off joining
National Geographic
-
than you would a mission agency.
-
Are you seeking in simplicity
-
to examine your life?
-
I'm not talking about finding
-
legalistic inferences and
forcing them upon yourself.
-
I'm talking about the great
principles of Scripture,
-
dealing in every aspect
of your personal life,
-
applying them to you
and seeking to obey them.
-
Let me ask you a question.
-
If you go to the mission field
-
without taking what I have said
-
as a serious endeavor,
-
isn't there the possibility
that the only thing
-
you're going to do there
-
after you have crossed land and sea
-
is make a convert like yourself
-
that's nothing more than
a two-fold son of hell?
-
I mean, after all, my greatest fear -
-
one of my greatest fears
-
is that Fidel Castro is going to die
-
or has already died
-
and that the wall around
Cuba's going to fall.
-
That's one of my greatest fears.
-
You want to know why?
-
Because every form of American
"churchianity" that exists
-
is going to make its way over there.
-
I remember speaking with Conrad
-
the first time that I went over there
-
to Mr. Mbewe's.
-
He said the first thing we always
-
like to tell people who come over to teach
-
is you're not bringing God with you.
-
He was here long before
you bought your ticket.
-
There isn't a whole lot of
American Christianity, folks,
-
that needs to be exported.
-
Unless like Ravenhill says we put it on
-
some kind of a raft and send it off
-
to a lone island, and after it's
gone away from the dock,
-
we all sing the Doxology.
-
If we're going to endeavor
to work in missions,
-
then we must be motivated
-
by a God that we know;
-
a Gospel that we know.
-
And we must be a people
-
who have endeavored with great force
-
to examine their lives
-
in the light of Scripture
-
and conform their lives
-
to what Scripture says.
-
How much of what you have -
-
even the way you sit in a chair -
-
is formed by those around you
-
and not by Scripture?
-
It's something to think about.
-
Let's pray.
-
Father, I pray...
-
Lord, You know,
-
that You would use this
-
to begin some on a journey
-
of knowing You,
-
seeking to know that which brings delight,
-
seeking to conform their lives to it.
-
Father, help us who have
begun the journey long ago
-
to not grow weary,
-
but to seek to know You more,
-
to seek to understand Your will,
-
to love what You love
and hate what You hate,
-
to be a simple people,
-
an obedient people,
-
a people motivated by the Gospel
-
and drawn to the Gospel.
-
In Jesus' name, Amen.