We've been talking together on this matter regarding the Christian life.
It is apparent, I think, to many of us, perhaps even from personal experience, that there
is a good deal of discouragement, misunderstanding, perhaps even frustration in this matter of
what we call the Christian life.
We have seen together that the Christian life is not living for God, but rather it is God
living through us in His resurrection power.
It is not trying to live up to a certain standard, but rather it is developing an intimate communion
with the living God Himself.
The Christian life, in its essence, is simply the outliving of the reality of eternal life.
Jesus says regarding His sheep, I give unto them eternal life.
And later in the Gospel of John, He defines eternal life by saying, and this is eternal
life, that they might know Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.
There is nothing more crucial in all of life than what Jesus describes there as eternal
life.
How well do you know God?
How well do you know Jesus Christ?
Well you say, I know Him as my Savior, my Lord.
I invited Him into my heart, into my life.
I am glad for that, for that is of course the very beginning of it.
There may be someone here today who has never made that life-changing decision to trust
Jesus Christ as Savior.
It is the difference between heaven and hell.
But when we trust Jesus Christ as Savior, we come to know Him in only an initial sense.
We are to go on in our knowledge of Him and to grow in it.
It is to become more intimate and more personal, indeed more consuming in our lives.
In Jeremiah chapter 9, we have a good word from God regarding this matter.
Our world today boasts in basically three things.
There are those who boast in their intellect.
Higher education is becoming almost a god in our society.
A person's worth is determined by the number of degrees that come after his name, the value
of his opinion based upon whether or not he has attained a certain intellectual level.
That's how our world evaluates it.
It boasts in intellect.
Our world boasts furthermore in power, whether it be corporate power, religious power, or
political power.
To our world, power is often the name of the game, how much you can control and influence
people and events.
The world boasts of power, and then our world boasts in money.
Not always in how much money, as much as in what money can provide in terms of satisfaction
of things and pleasures, etc.
But in one verse, God absolutely destroys the world's bases for boasting.
In Jeremiah 9 verse 23,
Thus says the Lord,
Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom.
It's not in intellect, says God.
Let not the mighty man boast of his might.
It's not in power, says the Lord.
Let not a rich man boast of his riches.
Boasting is not to be found in things or money.
But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me.
That I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth.
For I delight in these things, declares the Lord.
God says if there is anything that we are to seek after, if there is any cause of boasting,
let it be that we know and understand the Lord.
All we know him, but do we know him?
Do we understand him?
You say, how can we do that?
We come to know a person by drawing near, by getting close, spending time.
Last week we saw that if we expect to draw near to God and for him to draw near to us,
there is a miserable experience we must pass through.
It is the experience of seeing ourselves in the light of God's holiness.
It is the experience of a self-examination in the light of who he is.
When we do that, in honesty, it brings us to repentance and brokenness before God.
Our frivolity is turned to mourning.
We weep and we are in misery.
Like Isaiah of old, we cry out, Woe is me!
I am a man who is ruined, and I dwell in the midst of a people who are ruined and unclean.
For my eyes have seen the Lord.
This breaking process that we talked about last week is both a crisis and a process as
I see it.
It is not something that we do and then it is all over forever.
We need to continually bring ourselves before God in humility.
That should be the practice of our lives, to break ourselves before him of our arrogance
and pride and independence.
What follows that initial breaking?
Does it take only brokenness to come to know God?
The answer to that is no.
That is where it starts.
But there is development beyond that if we would draw near to God and know him and understand
him.
I believe that we find an example in the Old Testament of a man who had that experience.
Not much is said about him, but what is said is significant.
I invite you to turn to Genesis chapter 5.
Someone has called this chapter the Bible's obituary.
For over and over it says, and he died, and he died, and he died, as it traces the ancestors
of Adam, or the children of Adam.
From one generation to another death entered in just as God warned that it would if man
sinned.
But we come in this fifth chapter of Genesis to verse 21 where it mentions this man Enoch
who had been born to Jared.
And it says Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah.
Then Enoch walked with God.
It would seem that something happened with the birth of Methuselah that caused Enoch
to be broken before the Lord.
The question is, of course, what happened?
What was it that in his 65th year he began to walk with God?
I think the best answer to that question is found in the implication of the name Methuselah.
For that name literally means, when this one is gone, then it shall come.
And if you figure out the years of time from this point on, you will find that in the year
that Methuselah died, the flood of Noah came.
I believe that what happened to Enoch was that God showed to him what was going to take
place in terms of judgment.
And God said, your son, Methuselah, is a sign.
And when he is gone, then it shall come.
And it was that insight, it was that understanding of God and his purposes that from that point
on revolutionized the life of Enoch, the son of Adam.
Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah and had other sons
and daughters.
So all the days of Enoch were 365 years, verse 24.
And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him.
Those of you in the doctrinal class this morning will remember that we talked about the rapture
of the church, which is to come and may come at any moment.
Here we have an example of an Old Testament rapture.
For you see, Enoch did not die.
He walked with God and one day God simply took him from the scenes of earth into heaven,
one of two men in the Old Testament to whom that happened, the other being whom?
Elijah.
Enoch walked with God.
He knew God.
The fellowship was so sweet and so precious to God as well as Enoch that on a particular
day by his power and according to his own gracious purpose, God said, Enoch, come up
here.
Turn with me now to Hebrews 11 where we have a word regarding Enoch.
The only other reference to him in the Bible is found in the book of Jude.
There are three references, but here in Hebrews 11 and in verse 5 it says,
By faith Enoch was taken up, so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because
God took him up.
For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God.
Isn't that a tremendous verse?
What a commentary of the Holy Spirit on this man Enoch.
But he goes on to say,
And without faith it is impossible to please God.
For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of those who seek
him.
Verse 6 is a commentary on verse 5.
How was it that Enoch was pleasing to God?
How was it that he was taken up?
It was by faith.
I believe that what it was about Enoch that pleased God so much was his walk of faith.
There are two men of whom it is said, before the flood they walked with God.
One of them was Noah, the other Enoch.
What was it that pleased God in Enoch's growing knowledge of him?
What was it that enabled Enoch to understand the Lord?
It was that he walked by faith.
He walked by faith.
And I believe that after we come to God in brokenness, repenting of our sins, that the
next step in the knowledge of God is the walk of faith.
And that is what the Christian life really is all about.
We come to know God, we come to understand God as we learn what it is to walk by faith.
This idea of walking by faith seems to encompass two ideas.
They are abandonment and abiding.
We don't often use the word abandon in a religious or biblical context.
And yet the word is biblical in its concept.
Often the word forsake is used in the New Testament.
Here in Hebrews 11 we have it illustrated for us in Moses where it says in verse 27,
By faith he left, he forsook, he abandoned permanently, is the verb.
By faith he abandoned Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing
him who is unseen.
By faith you see.
I believe abandonment is an essential idea in this whole matter of walking by faith.
When was it that Moses did this, by the way?
There are two possibilities, either when he left after killing the Egyptian soldier and
after Pharaoh had sought to kill him or later when he led the people out.
And I believe that looking at the context of both of those possibilities that the best
one is the first one.
When he left Egypt after killing that soldier, it does say that Moses was afraid back in
the book of Exodus after he had killed that soldier because Pharaoh tried to kill him.
And from that we assume, and I think incorrectly, that it was fear that caused him to leave
Egypt.
But I believe this verse here gives us a deeper insight not found in Exodus, and that is that
while his initial response was fear, that then Moses realized the possibility of several
things.
Perhaps he could lead a slave rebellion, for example, against Pharaoh.
But no, that wasn't the way and this wasn't God's time.
And so by faith, believing that somehow, someday, God would bring him back to Egypt to do the
job, he left.
He abandoned Egypt with its possibilities for him at that point.
He forsook it.
I think we see another example of this abandoning in the disciples.
Turn back to the Gospel of Luke chapter 4, verse 11.
I'm referring to the calling of the disciples, and rather than taking time to look for it
now since I'm in a little bit of a rush, let me simply remind you that when he called
them, he said, leave your nets here, and what?
Follow me.
And what does this say they did?
It says that they left it all there, and they followed him.
Regarding Levi, who was called Matthew, it says the same thing.
When Jesus saw him there collecting his taxes, a despised and hated man, he said to Levi,
follow me.
And Levi left everything and followed him.
Do you see there illustrated the abandonment I'm talking about?
It is leaving behind that which has absorbed us previously in order to give ourselves totally
to Jesus Christ.
Jesus' teaching also included this important thrust.
I know where we are now in Luke chapter 9, if you'll turn over there.
Look at verse 23.
And he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross daily and follow me.
You see the abandonment here in his teaching?
He says, if any of you in this crowd wish to follow me, then do so, but first you must
deny yourself.
First you have to abandon your self-interest, your self-goals, your self-will.
Come across a little poem in my reading yesterday that kind of describes how most of us live.
It's called Tea Party.
I had a little tea party one afternoon at three.
It was very small, three guests in all, just I, myself, and me.
Myself ate up the sandwiches while I drank up the tea.
It was also I who ate the pie and passed the cake to me.
Isn't that how we live?
Jesus says, if any man wishes to come after me, he must first of all abandon his own selfish
desires in life.
He must deny them and forsake them.
Turn over to Luke chapter 14, verse 26.
If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children
and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
How strange words these seem to be that come from the Savior's lips.
The Lord Jesus is speaking in hyperbole here.
He is exaggerating the point to get another point across, and that is that if we are going
to follow him and walk with him by faith, then we must be willing to abandon our earthly
relationships in the sense that all of them come in a secondary perspective to the primary
relationship to him.
Our devotion and our love to him must be so strong that the normal ties that we have to
our family seem like hatred in comparison.
That's the point.
And so if you and I are going to have a walk of faith, it means that we must put our earthly
relationships in their right perspective.
How many people there are who say, Lord, I don't want to go to the mission field because
I'll have to leave home and leave my parents and leave my family.
Jesus said that we cannot follow him and walk the life of faith unless we are willing to
put those earthly relationships second to himself first.
We must abandon them in that sense.
Then in verse 33, he says, So therefore no one of you can be my disciple who does not
give up all his own possessions.
That's a strong word, isn't it?
Jesus seems to say here, if we are going to walk the life of faith, then we must abandon
all of our possessions.
Does that mean that we are to literally sell everything we possess?
There have been some who have been called by God to do that very thing.
And yet I believe that the application here is that to whatever extent our possessions
bind us and hinder us in our walk of faith, we are to get rid of them.
That's the real point.
If I am bound by my possessions, if I am hindered in my walk of faith because of what I own,
I am to abandon those things to give priority to the life of faith, trusting God.
So abandonment is part of Jesus' teaching, but it's not just abandonment from some things.
It's also abandonment to something else.
And in our reading we notice that that something else is the cross.
We not only must deny or abandon ourselves, but we must also take up our cross daily and
follow Him.
What is that cross that we take up?
Is that my rheumatism, my arthritis, my bunions?
Is that the cold I have?
God bless you for sneezing there.
Is that what my cross is?
No.
When Jesus used the illustration of the cross, there was not any question in the minds of
those in His society about that.
He knew that, or they knew rather, that He was calling them to death.
For a cross was used but for one thing, and that was execution.
Jesus was actually calling them to death, to sacrifice, to the giving of themselves
totally to Him.
I read a statement by Andrew Murray.
Christians need to understand, he says, that bearing the cross does not in the first place
refer to the trials which we call crosses, but to the daily giving up of life, of dying
to self, which must mark us as much as it did the Lord Jesus.
Which, he goes on to say, we need in times of prosperity almost more than adversity.
It is in the time of prosperity, he reminds us, that the cross is so much more needed
in our lives.
We need the cross.
We need to take it up daily and follow Him.
Abandon ourselves, abandon our earthly relationships, put them in the right perspective, abandon
our possessions to the extent that they limit us in the life of faith, abandon ourselves
from those things to death, to self at the cross.
Jesus used a brief little parable in John chapter 12 to describe this.
He was describing what He was going to do, but the application is for us.
Maybe you'll want to look at that.
John chapter 12, verse 24, truly, truly, I say to you, says Jesus, unless a grain of
wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone, but if it dies, it bears
much fruit.
He is that grain of wheat, but it applies as well to you and to me.
For Jesus goes on to say, he who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in
this world shall keep it to life eternal.
If anyone serves me, let him follow me.
And where I am, there shall my servant also be.
If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
If we are going to follow him, if we are going to serve him, then we must be willing to lose
our lives for his sake.
That could mean martyrdom, but there's something more painful and lasting than that, and that
is the continual denial of self, making him Lord of the life day by day throughout the
40 years, the 50 years, the 80 years that God gives us.
Do you know why we don't know God like Enoch did?
Why we don't understand the Lord as we can and should?
It's because we don't want to do this.
We resist losing our lives for his sake.
We would rather hang on to them.
But will you notice what Jesus says to us?
He says if we hang on, ultimately we lose.
But if we give them up, ultimately we gain them.
Is that not a paradox?
We must be like that grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies, and in so doing it
abandons itself as an entity.
Its outer shell has decayed.
It is gone.
But through that process of abandonment, it sprouts and brings forth a plant so that out
of that life that is lost, much more is gained.
It takes faith to believe that.
It does.
Do you have that kind of faith?
Do you have that kind of commitment, that kind of abandonment?
Abandonment is choosing to lay aside the present safety and security that we know.
Abandonment is laying aside our goals and ambitions to be a single purpose Christian,
to know God, and then to be available to Him.
Are you willing to abandon yourself to do the will of God, whatever that may entail?
Are you willing to abandon yourself from the plans and the desires you have, even for a
big income, or for marriage, or whatever your plans are, are you willing to say, Lord, I
put them on the altar.
I give it up.
I deny it.
I abandon that that I might know you.
Are you willing to abandon your habitually seeking after your own best interests?
Aren't we clever at that?
And so often we work out what's best for us in the disguise of helping other people.
Are you willing to abandon some relationship that may be unhealthy for you spiritually?
Jesus Christ calls us to abandonment.
He calls us to forsake.
He calls us to the life of faith.
I want to go on next week and talk about abiding.
That in one sense is the positive side of the life of faith.
I hope that you will join us then.
Let's bow together in prayer.
Our heads are bowed.
Our eyes are closed.
I don't know what the Spirit of God has been saying to you this week, what he has impressed
on your heart this morning.
But I do know that there are some of us who are clinging tenaciously to life, self-life,
self-will, self-goals, self-plans.
Jesus Christ is calling you today, my friend, to open that clutched hand of yours and to
give yourself to abandon yourself fully to him.
Will you today take that step of faith?
Maybe you need to come to the place of brokenness first.
Perhaps you're in the process of being broken.
Things are hard right now.
They're tough.
You're resisting and rebelling and complaining against God.
Do you see in all of those trials, just like in Job's case, God's only trying
to show you himself?
Will you today give that up, that rebellion?
Will you with Job say, I've heard of you, but now I see you.
I see you working in my circumstances, Lord, and I repent of my rebellion and my pride.
I retract myself and give myself to you.
If you're discouraged in the Christian life, if you're frustrated by it, just maybe,
just maybe, that's the reason.
Father help us to see today that if we would walk the life of faith, we must abandon ourselves
totally to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
May there be some here today who will, in a great crisis decision in their life, say,
Lord, take all of me.
I come to you.
Believe me, open my heart to know you.
I pray this, Father, in Jesus' name, amen.