January 3, 2009
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Pressing on in the New Year
The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. Luke 16:16.
When the old year ends and the new year begins we often take time to reflect about the past year and look ahead to the new. It gives us the opportunity to reevaluate and ask questions such as:
How have I spent my time over the last year?Have I really been pressing into the Kingdom of God?
What hinders me from pressing into the Kingdom of God without reservation?
(Of course we really should be asking such questions like this all the time, shouldn't we?)
Last Sunday we heard a sermon on Philippians 3. The apostle Paul writes about our need to press on.
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.And Paul writes in a similar vein in I Corinthians 9:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.The Christian life is a race, a race we must with intention, with purpose and with discipline so we might not be disqualified. Once we are saved, we can't just sit back and coast. We press on that we might take hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of us. We press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward goal. We run to attain the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We need to cast off any and all things that keep us from pressing on.What do I need to count as loss for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord?
What do I need to count as loss so I might press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus?
What do I need to count as loss so I might press into the Kingdom of God?
What hinders me from running as I ought?
What do I keep holding onto that keeps me from taking hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of me?
Selfpride
self-seeking
a desire for attention
a desire to be liked
a desire for recognition
a desire for position
self-consciousness
a desire for safety
a desire for security
a desire for comfortSelf
Karen, do you love Me more than these?
Karen, do you love Me?Karen, do you love Me?
Karen, have you forgotten Me, your first love?
Little child, are you keeping yourself from idols?
Karen, do you love Me more than yourself?
If I'm to press on...and press into the Kingdom,
Self, I must count you as loss.If I'm to press on...and press into the Kingdom,
Self, I must die to you.If I'm to press on...and press into the Kingdom,
Self, I must no longer remain yoked to you.If I'm to press on...and press into the Kingdom,
Self, I must crucify you.In the last several days, God has been showing me (once again) how I continue to struggle with pride. Henry Scougal ("The Life of God in the Soul of Man") wrote this about humility:
Humility imports a deep sense of our own meanness, with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we are to the Divine bounty; which is always accompanied with a profound submission to the will of God, and a great deadness toward the glory of the world, and the applause of men.[1]A great deadness toward the glory of the world.
A great deadness toward the applause of men.Jesus withdrew from the crowd when they were about to make Him a king.
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world! 15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. John 6:14-15.Would I have withdrawn from the crowd? Or would I have sought great things for myself?
Do I possess a great deadness toward the glory of the world?
Do I possess a great deadness toward the applause of men?
Karen, do you love Me more than these?
Karen, do you love Me?Karen, do you love Me?
Karen, have you forgotten Me, your first love?
Little child, are you keeping yourself from idols?
Karen, do you love Me more than self?
Do you love me more than the glory of the world?
Do you love me more than the applause of men?
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
(Isaac Watts, 1707)When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.When I am self-seeking, I am not seeking His Kingdom.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.When I am self-seeking, I am not loving Him.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.When I am self-seeking, I am not serving Him.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my allWhen I am self-seeking, I am not giving my soul, my life, my all to Him.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
–Luke 10:25-28Karen, do you love Me more than these?
Karen, do you love Me?Karen, do you love Me?
Karen, have you forgotten Me, your first love?Do you love me with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind?
Little child, are you keeping yourself from idols?Karen, do you love Me more than self?
Do you love Me more than the glory of the world?
Do you love Me more than the applause of men?As I've been reading through Stephen's address to the Sanhedrin in Acts 7 (along with Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermons on it [2]), I've come to see when I make an idol of self, I'm no different than the Israelites who made the golden calf.
This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. Acts 7:37-41.Stephen was telling the religious leaders of his day that they were rejecting Jesus in the same way Israel rejected Moses (and God).
When I make an idol of self (or anything), I'm no different than the Sanhedrin, I'm no different than Israel who thrust Moses aside and in their hearts turned to Egypt.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones asked these rhetorical questions about the idol-making Israelites:
Can you imagine this among an intelligent people, especially a people who had just been delivered from the bondage and captivity of Egypt and had seen the marvel and the miracle of the dividing of the Red Sea? Can you believe it of them, that they had made a god for themselves...?[3]Can I imagine? Can I believe it of them?
Yes, sadly I must say I can...
Because I see it in my own life.
I am not single-eyed and whole-hearted toward my Redeemer.
I make a god for myself.
I make a god of myself.
I'm trying to serve two masters.
But Jesus reminds us:
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
–Matthew 6:19-24, KJV
Karen, do you love Me more than these?
Karen, do you love Me?Karen, do you love Me?
Karen, do you love Me or do you love mammon?
Karen, do you love Me or do you love self?
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
–Luke 10:25-28Scougal wrote this about love to God:
Love is the greatest and most excellent thing we are masters of; and therefore it is folly and baseness to bestow it unworthily. . . .. . . love is the worthiest present we can offer unto God, and it is extremely debased, when we bestow it another way.
When this affection is misplaced, it doth often vent itself in such expressions as point at its genuine and proper object, and insinuate where it ought to be placed...that passion which accounteth its object a Deity, ought to be bestowed on him who really is so; those unlimited submissions, which would debase the soul if directed to any other, will exalt and ennoble it when placed here: those chains and cords of love are infinitely more glorious than liberty itself: this slavery is more noble than all the empires in the world.[4]Do I love Him as I ought?
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
Jesus Himself exhibited a perfect love for his Father as He willingly and perfectly submitted to all of His Father's will for Him, and this is the same love we are to have for our Father in heaven:
“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.27 “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name.”
–John 12:23-38
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
–Philippians 2:6-8We have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb so we might no longer live as slaves to sin and self but live as slaves to God. We have been bought with a price so we might love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind––to love our heavenly Father just as the Lord Jesus did. Jesus always sought to do His Father's will. He always sought his Father's glory. He delighted to do His Father's will. He finished all the work the Father had given Him. Jesus was all about His Father––and not about Himself.
He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. 36 And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”– Matthew 14:35-36But Jesus has not just left us an example, He has given us His very life by the gift of His Holy Spirit, the very power we need to live such a life of perfect love and obedience to our Father in heaven.
By Christ's work on our behalf, through His sinless life and His death on the cross, through His resurrection and through His gift of the promised Holy Spirit, we can begin to live such a life of love to our God, or rather Christ in us can:
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20.God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, His life. Jesus was the firstfruits. God sent His only begotten Son into this world so we might become Jesus' joint heirs, adopted children of God who overflow with love to God because His lifeblood flowed at Calvary to give us life, His life. Christ gave His life for us so we might not love our own lives unto death. In light of God's great mercies for us in and through Christ, we are able to willingly place ourselves at God's disposal, without reservation, without murmuring and without condition, just like our Savior. The Lamb of God loved us and gave Himself for us all so we might love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind.
Scougal described that "divine love exemplified in our saviour" as
That sincere and devout affection wherewith his blessed soul did constantly burn toward his heavenly Father, did express itself in an entire resignation to his will; it was this was his very meat, to do the will, and finish the work of Him that sent Him.[5]I've been rereading Romans 6 through 8 again recently. I would encourage you to read those chapters. I would encourage you to read through your whole Bible with an eye to the life God promised and prophesied in the Old Testament (e.g.-Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Deuteronomy 30:6) and the life which has been made available to us through Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
I think one of the most impacting Scriptures I read over the past year was Acts 5:20:
“Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.”All the words of this life. Christianity is a life. I freely confess that too often I lose sight of the very power, the very life that has been made available to us so we might love God with that same sincere, devout and constant burning affection Jesus did. The message of Christianity is a message of life because Christianity is a life. Before all else, this must be the message we speak first to ourselves, to the languishing Church and to a dead world. Christianity is not a set of rules, not a moral code, not a philosophy, not outward religious observances, not the vain efforts of men to follow in the steps of a nice man who lived almost 2000 years ago. Apart from Christ's life, we have no hope because apart from Christ's life we have no life. Christ is our life.
Brothers and sisters, if we are in Christ we can reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God! Reckon means to count it as already done. As children of God, we have the Spirit of God dwelling in us, the Spirit of the resurrected Christ who brings life to the dead. If we are Christ's we have the very power dwelling in us to say no to sin and self and say yes to righteousness and Christ because we have that very same divine life and love dwelling in our souls.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
In Christ, those demands are not burdensome because Christ's life now dwells in us. That very divine and amazing love dwells in us so we might render our souls, our lives and our all to Him. The very thing that God requires of us He provides to us.
Yet how often do we avail ourselves of His divine power and love and life? How often do we settle for Christianity without Christ, Christianity without life, so we make Christianity just another religion, a religion of willpower, a religion of good works? How often do we revert back to a form of godliness but denying its power? How often do we keep placing ourselves under the old covenant, under the letter of the law which kills, rather than living by the Spirit, the One who has come to give us life?
The love of God is a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections, which makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto him, desiring above all things to please him, and delighting in nothing such as in fellowship and communion with him, and being ready to do or suffer any thing for his sake, or at his pleasure. Though this affection may have its first rise from the favors and mercies of God toward ourselves, yet doth it, in its growth and progress, transcend such particular considerations, and ground itself on his infinite goodness, manifested in all the works of creation and providence. A soul thus possessed with divine love must need be enlarged toward all mankind, in a sincere and unbounded affection, because of the relation they have to God, being his creatures, and having something of his image stamped upon them...[6]
I now present to you some of the same questions I've been asking myself:How have you spent your time over the last year?
Have you really been pressing into the Kingdom of God?
What hinders you from pressing into the Kingdom of God without reservation?What do you need to count as loss for the sake of Christ,
for the sake of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord?What do you need to count as loss so you might press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus?What do you need to count as loss so you might press into the Kingdom of God?
What hinders you from running as you ought?
What do you keep holding onto that keeps you from taking hold of that
for which Christ has taken hold of you?Do you love Him more than these?
Do you love Him?
Do you love Him?
Do you love Him with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind?
Have you forgotten your first love?Little children, are you keeping yourselves from idols?
The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. Luke 16:16.By the grace of God and by the divine life of God in our souls may we continue to press on and into His Kingdom in 2009.
You may also be interested in reading:
- So THIS is Christmas!...But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son...
- Second Sunday of Advent: FAQ about Santa Claus and the Gospel of Christ
- Fourth Sunday of Advent: Are you preparing Him room?
- Things To Look for in a Church, 9: "Pearl Freaks" (a.k.a. a Kingdom-Obsessed People)
You can also find links to a whole slew of posts about Kingdom-Obsessed people here.
Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
[1] Henry Scougal, "The Life of God in the Soul of Man" (New York: Cosimo, 2007-originally published in 1741), 48.
[2] See Martyn Lloyd-Jones' "Glorious Christianity" and "Triumphant Christianity."
[3] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "Triumphant Christianity (Studies in the Book of Acts, Volume 5)" (Wheaton: Crossway: 2006), 195.
[4] Scougal, 64-65.
[5] Scougal, 50.
[6] Scougal, 46-47.
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