Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 58 - The World. 2Co 11:1-4.

Title: Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 58 - The World. 2CO 11:1-4.

 

Announcements/opening prayer: 

 

 

Christ says, "Take up your cross and follow Me," and that sounds so hard and He also says, "My yoke is easy and My burden light," and that sounds so easy. It is both.

 

Pick up your cross is to hand over your whole self - all of your wishes, desires, and interests to Christ. All Christians find this hard at the outset. But when they finally determine to yield or relinquish themselves to Him they find that the burden is light.

 

It is the same as a lazy student and a diligent student at final exam time. The diligent student has learned his subjects and understands them and can go to bed early the night before and be refreshed and energized for exams. The lazy student is found cramming the night before and trying to memorize. He is tired and discouraged for exams. No illustrations are perfect, they are only meant to help. The diligent student of the word of God gets his learning through the Spirit of God. His commitment is time. Because of his commitment of his soul unto the Lord he has been a student of the word of God and a constant applier of it, though not perfect, and he has in this time fully realized his foundation on the rock that is Christ and has whole heartedly based his life upon that foundation, in other words he has built his house upon the rock of Christ. The apathetic or lazy Christian who is still torn between Christianity and the world has built his house upon the sand. When the storm comes it is easy for one and very hard for the other.

 

Trying to walk of the world while a believer who is a new creature is like sowing grass seed and expecting wheat. Christ said in the parable of the sower:

 

MAT 13:20

And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

 

The simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ is not that Christianity is overly simplified so as to accommodate simpletons.

 

When Christ said "Be perfect," He meant it. The whole of Christianity is to be conformed to Christ's image.

 

He is not saying that unless you are perfect He will have nothing to do with you. Since we cannot be continually perfect in our lives then why bother?

 

The context in Mat 5 is to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. None of us can love with God's love without God's wisdom and power through which He pours His love into us.

 

I believe that what He is saying is that He will only help, empower, guide, and teach towards that which is perfect. "I will only give you that which is perfect. You may want something else; but I will give you nothing less."

 

Believers may wish for Christ to relieve them of certain areas of weakness, things they are embarrassed about or have hindered them from getting along very well. In other words, they are content to go so far and are content to remain there. Christ will have none of this. Once you submit to Him a little He is going to give you the full treatment. It is faith as a mustard seed. When we start the journey with Him in time, as saved new creatures, He is going to take us all the way. It is important to note that only we can prevent Him from doing so in time. Once we die it will be done to us in spite of us.

 

So our Lord talks about discipleship as a commitment - a full commitment. Consider the cost He said, we are not going to do this halfway, I cannot do things that way. If we're going to set out on the journey then we are going to finish. If we're going to build a house it is going to be a palace and not a cottage. I do things one way and that is perfectly.

 

A disciple - one who learns from a master for the purpose of doing expertly the skills and ways of the master.

 

LUK 14:25 Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them,

 

LUK 14:26 "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.

 

The strong word hate is used, not in the form of detest, but when it comes to choice between family and Christ. Sometimes the family wants something other than what your Lord wants and the word hate is used to reveal that there should not be a moment's hesitation as to your response.

 

LUK 14:27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

 

"carry his own cross" - complete submission to the Father's plan, Php 2:5-11 [7 steps down and 7 steps up]

 

LUK 14:28 "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

 

LUK 14:29 "Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,

 

LUK 14:30 saying,' This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

 

LUK 14:31 "Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

 

LUK 14:32 "Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace.

 

LUK 14:33 "So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

 

He didn't say to give them all away, but to give up their value to the result that if Christ tells you go give them away or give them up, you are ready, willing, and able.

 

Php 3:8

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

 

This is obviously not the way of the world system and when the believer finds himself not thinking in terms of a disciple he can be sure that he is walking in the manner of the world and not the dimension of the spiritual. Christ does not do things half way.

 

Christ is saying that the moment you put yourself in His hands this is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that.

 

You have free will, and if you choose you can push Him away. But if you do not push Him away, rest assured that He is going to see this job through. At the outset it may seem hard - pick up your cross, but with time the believer will see just how easy and delightful it is - My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

 

Whatever suffering it may cost you and whatever circumstances are allowed to happen to you, Christ will not hold back on all that is needed.

 

Think of how much it cost Him. He did not shrink back from completing it perfectly, in fact when He said, "It is finished," He used the perfect tense of the verb. In other words, "I left nothing undone."

 

Christ and His Spirit are in you to work and will for their good pleasure, that which is perfect. Christ can do it and He will do it and He will do nothing less. Don't look at the time it takes, for God is not in time, just know that if you do not resist Him, He is going to complete the tower.

 

Christ is delighted with the first feeble steps the believer takes in submission to His will and is not concerned with the certain fall that is soon to come - like a father watching his child's first steps. However, Christ will be satisfied with nothing less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown up son.

 

Therefore, God's demand for perfection should not discourage us in the least. It is not by your efforts other than submission and commitment.

 

When we fall He will pick us back up again and comfort and encourage us with His finished work. He is never going to quit on us. He never quits on anything, how much less His sons and daughters?

 

You must realize from the outset that the goal towards which He is beginning to guide you is absolute perfection in His will, not sinlessness, but maturity to the nature of the stature that belongs to Christ; and no power in the whole universe, except you yourself, can prevent Him from taking you to that goal. That is what you are in for.

 

Some believers have the idea that they only want to go so far, to just overcome a few burdensome things and then just get along as a nice person and they think that this is being humble. This is not humble at all, but a self-will and so an arrogant and selfish mindset. It is cowardly and lazy.

 

God never asked you what sort of creature you'd like to be made in to. When you believed in Christ as your Savior, efficacious grace, regeneration, baptism of the Spirit, indwelling of the Spirit, and sealing of the Spirit made you a brand new creature and you had absolutely no say in the matter.

 

God never asked you what sort of creature you'd like to be made in to. So the question is obviously not what we intend to be, but what does He intend us to be in time and eternity?