And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I.
And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
And He said, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son.
And Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.
And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven,
And said, By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son,
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.
These are the parting words of the Apostle Paul to the elders in the church at Ephesus.
And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
Save that the Holy Spirit testifieth unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me.
But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
Let us look to the Lord.
Our heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee for revealing Thy Son in us and to us. Our Father, we do acknowledge that He is worthy. He is worthy of all. He is worthy of a total and absolute commitment.
We do praise and thank Thee for the privilege of committing ourselves to Him. And we do ask that this morning Thou wilt continue to speak to us on this matter of commitment, that by Thy Holy Spirit we may be led into this truth, for the glory of Thy beloved Son. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
We have been considering together before the Lord these days this matter of commitment.
We stated from the very outset that commitment is giving ourselves to the Lord and to His will.
Our Lord requires that we who are redeemed be committed to Him. And He requires an absolute and total commitment. Anything less than that is not worthy of Him.
The reason why He can, and He does, require of us such an absolute and total commitment is because He is the only One who is worthy to be committed to.
Now, it is true that in our lives we find that we are committed to a number of things. We are committed to our families. We are committed to our work. Sometimes we are committed to promises that we make, and sometimes we are committed to some particular work that we are doing.
So in our lives, we find that we are committed to a number of things. And the things or people that we are committed to actually change all the time.
When we are young and studying in school, we are committed to our studies. Of course, we do play, but we are not committed to play; we are committed to study. As we grow up and get married, husbands are committed to their wives and wives are committed to their husbands.
As we begin to work, we are committed to the work in which we are engaged. If we should change our job, then our commitment changes. So, throughout our lives, we are committed to a number of things or to a number of people, and our commitments seem to change and shift from time to time according to the needs and the environment.
All our commitment to anything or any person other than God, other than Christ, is relative. Only our commitment to God is absolute.
All our other commitments, not only our relationships, ought to be related to and subjected to our commitment to the Lord and to His will.
If we are committed to anything, or to any person, or even to a cause or a group, which is not related to our commitment to God, nor subjected to our commitment to Christ, then you will find it is a wrong commitment.
Something will happen if we are so committed. Sooner or later, you will find there will be conflict. Your commitment other than your commitment to the Lord will conflict with your basic, fundamental commitment to the Lord. And you know what you must do.
We must be committed to the Lord and to His will—absolutely, totally.
Of course, commitment involves cost.
Except we are willing to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him, we are not worthy to be His disciples. That is to say, unless we are fully committed to Him, we are not worthy to follow Him.
Our commitment costs us everything. Unless we are willing to let go of everything and give up everything to Him, our commitment is not total and is not absolute. It costs that much.
Thank God, when His love constrains us, when we count the cost under the constraining love of God, we find that we are given a willingness to pay that cost. And grace will enable us to pay it.
Now this morning, we would like to conclude our consideration of commitment with this matter of the testing and blessing of commitment.
By the grace of God, we have committed ourselves to Him. By the grace of God, we have counted the cost. But, dear brothers and sisters, when we commit ourselves to the Lord, actually we do not know what is involved.
Even though we have counted the cost, we actually do not know how much it will cost us. The way of commitment actually is the way of faith.
By faith, we commit ourselves to God. The only thing we know is the Lord. We know Him. But so far as the way of commitment is concerned, it is still unknown to us.
You know, like Abraham: when the Lord of glory appeared to him and called him to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go to the place where God was calling him, he went out not knowing where.
The only thing he knew was God. He knew God. But other than that, he did not know where he was going, nor did he know what would be involved. It was a step of faith.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we know Whom we believe. And because we know Him in Whom we believe, we commit ourselves to Him. We allow Him to lead us wherever He wants to lead us, whenever He wants to lead us, and whatever He wants us to do.
But as a matter of fact, it is an act of faith. A life of commitment is a life of faith. We put ourselves in the hands of God and let Him lead us and do whatever He thinks fit for us.
We do not know where or what, but we know Who is leading us. So commitment actually is a matter of faith.
By faith, we commit ourselves to Him. And do you know, dear brothers and sisters, the most amazing thing is that He will accept our commitment, knowing what we are?
He knows us. He knows that when we commit ourselves to Him, we will waver, we will falter, we will draw back, and we will fall down. He knows everything about us, and yet He is willing to accept our commitment.
I think that is the most amazing thing. If I know that your commitment is not what you say, I refuse to accept your commitment. Why? Because I know it is useless.
But God, Who knows our hearts and knows us so well, knows the end from the beginning. Yet, amazingly, when by faith, constrained by His love, we commit ourselves to Him—“Lord, I commit my life to You totally and absolutely, as much as I know, the best that I know”—God says, “I accept it.”
That is wonderful. You know, that is mercy. That is grace.
But because He will accept your commitment, do not make your commitment too hurriedly, because He will take you at your word.
You know, there is a passage in Ecclesiastes, chapter 5. I hope you will find it. That is in the Bible.
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for He hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou vowest.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
So, brothers and sisters, on the one hand, when we really commit ourselves to the Lord, do not do it hurriedly. Do not do it if you do not mean it. Do not do it merely as lip service.
Why? Because when you utter these words to God, God will take them, and God will accept them. In a sense, God will so work in your life as to make your commitment real.
Thank God, it is God Who accepts our commitment; it is God Who tests our commitment; and it is God Who makes our commitment real.
So this brings us to the matter of testing. Do not think that because you have committed yourself to the Lord, that is the end of commitment. Remember, that is the beginning of a life of commitment.
God will test your commitment.
God tests; Satan tempts. You know, God never tempts anybody. He cannot be tempted, and He does not tempt anyone. We are told in the book of James that temptation comes from the enemy.
What is the difference between testing and tempting? Temptation comes from the enemy. He tempts us by trying to stir up the lust that is in all flesh. When the lust of our flesh is stirred up, it produces sin. That is temptation.
Now, what is testing? Testing comes from God. When He tests a person, He tries to draw out from that person the deposit which He has deposited in him.
By drawing out the grace, the deposit that God has already placed in you, it becomes stronger, firmer, and better for the glory of God. So that is the difference between testing and temptation.
God never tempts us. God only tests us. He tests us because He has already put something of Himself in us. He wants that something to come forth, be refined, and be strengthened. It is just like iron must be tested to become steel.
So God does test our commitment. If you have committed yourself to the Lord, brothers and sisters, remember: God will test your commitment to see whether it is real. And if it is not real, He will make it real.
This morning, I would like to use two instances from the Old Testament and two cases from the New Testament to show this matter of the testing of commitment.
The first one in the Old Testament is Abraham. God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, and by faith Abraham obeyed God. He went out not knowing whither.
In other words, here you find a man apprehended by the Lord of glory. He was willing to leave everything behind him. He was willing to follow the Lord by faith. Here was a man who was totally committed to God.
He was not afraid to be ridiculed. Probably people asked Abraham, “Where are you going?” He said, “I do not know.” Now, would that not be funny? You are going and you do not know where you are going? How can you do that?
Well, all that Abraham could say was, “I do not know where I am going, but I know the One Who is leading me.” In other words, he had committed himself to God, to the God of glory.
God led him into the promised land, and God said, “I will give this land to you and to your seed.” But he was severely tested throughout his life while he was sojourning in the land that God had promised to give him.
He was tested by a famine, and he failed the test. He left the promised land and went down to Egypt. But God, by His mercy, got him out. Even though he failed the test, he became stronger after his failure.
Then, in the promised land, he was tested because he had no son. God promised to give the land to his seed, but he had no son. God promised to give the land to him, but there was not a piece of land that he could call his own.
His faith, his commitment to God, was tested. In Genesis 15, because he believed, it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
He was severely tested by Lot. Lot came out with him and travelled with him, yet his nephew Lot chose the best part of the promised land. He was tested, but he overcame, and you see him become stronger.
He was tested by Ishmael. He waited and waited, and God’s promise of a son did not come. Finally, he succumbed to the suggestion of his wife and took the way of the flesh, trying to fulfil God’s promise. He got an Ishmael, and he loved Ishmael. But Ishmael must go.
Finally, in his old age, when he was one hundred years old, God fulfilled His promise by giving him Isaac. Oh, how much he must have loved Isaac. All the promises of God centred upon Isaac.
But one day, after these things, God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham, take your son, your only son, the son that you love.” God was making it very difficult, reminding him of who Isaac was.
“Take him. Go to the land of Moriah, and offer him up as a burnt-offering.” We know a burnt-offering is a whole offering. In other words, not just a part of Isaac, but the whole of Isaac: “Offer Isaac to Me.”
What a test.
Without hesitation, the next morning—the Bible says early in the morning—he got up. He prepared, took his son, prepared the wood, and travelled three days’ journey to Mount Moriah.
Never for a moment did he wonder, did he doubt, did he ask questions, or did he draw back.
So, when he bound Isaac on the altar and was going to offer him as a burnt-offering, God said, “Stop. I know you have not withheld anything from Me.” And God prepared a ram.
Why? Because Abraham believed that even if Isaac should die, God would raise him from the dead. In Romans 4, you remember the faith of Abraham. He believed that God was not only the One Who called everything out of nothing, but God was also the One Who raised people from the dead.
For this reason, God blessed him, saying, “In thy seed, all the nations shall be blessed.”
Dear brothers and sisters, here you find Abraham. He committed himself to God. It was an act of faith, a walk of faith, and God tested him all along the way until finally you find he was tested and proved true.
This is the way that God will deal with every one of us. But the wonderful thing is, whether you are tested and fail, or whether you are tested and succeed, actually it makes not much difference.
Why? Because the result is that your faith is strengthened and your commitment is made more real than ever before. And that is the grace of God.
The second person in the Old Testament we would like to use is Gideon. In Judges 6 through 8, you find that the children of Israel were under the oppression of the Midianites for seven years. They cried unto the Lord.
So the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and called Gideon to the work of delivering the children of Israel out of the hands of the Midianites.
In the beginning, when the angel of the Lord called him, he said, “Who am I? My tribe, Manasseh, is the smallest of the twelve tribes of Israel, and I am the least in my family. Who am I, that I could do such a work?”
But God said, “I am with you.” And he responded.
Immediately after he responded by committing himself to God, God required him to do a thing. What was it? God said, “Take the second bullock of your father. Break down the altar your father made to Baal and the Asherah that he erected for the goddess. Break it down. Make an altar according to My order, and take the second bullock of your father and offer it unto Me.”
Now, why did God want Gideon to do such a thing? He had just called Gideon, and Gideon had just responded and committed to the call of God. Then God tested him, saying, “Do this first in your family.”
Unless you are willing to make your commitment public and open, it would not work.
You know, it was very difficult. So Gideon, with fear and trembling, did not dare to do it in the daytime, because the whole city worshipped Baal, and his father had erected the altar and Asherah.
But he did it at night. Even with fear and trembling, in the night he broke down the Asherah, destroyed the altar to Baal, built an altar for God, and took the second bullock of his father and offered it as an offering unto God.
The next morning, it was discovered. The whole city rose up and said, “Now who did it? We will kill him.” They found that it was Gideon.
But the wonderful thing was that before Gideon was able to defend himself, his father defended him. Now, is that not wonderful?
His father said, “Who is trying to defend Baal? If he is god, let him defend himself.” That is the reason why they called Gideon Jerubbaal: “Let Baal contend.” He earned a nickname.
Committed and tested.
Then the Midianites came, so Gideon blew the horns and gathered the people together. There were thirty-two thousand gathered to him. Even though thirty-two thousand was not in any sense comparable with the enemies that came as locusts, thirty-two thousand was still quite a crowd.
Even though Gideon was committed to God, secretly he actually took his comfort and security in the number: thirty-two thousand. Not too bad.
But God tested him. God said, “I cannot deliver the enemy into your hand with so many people, lest you say, ‘We did it.’” So God said to Gideon, “Make an announcement: whoever is afraid and trembling, go home.”
And twenty-two thousand left. Why did they come in the first place? Only ten thousand were left.
Gideon said, “Ten thousand is better than nothing.” But God said, “No, too many. Take them to the water and see how they drink the water, and I will tell you what to do.”
They went to the water because they were very thirsty. The enemy was just around them, and they were soon to go into battle.
Most people just fell down upon their faces and drank from the water, and only three hundred scooped the water in their hands and lapped it. God said, “I will deliver with the three hundred.”
Severely tested.
You know, brothers and sisters, we believe in God, yes, but we also believe in numbers. If we have a large number, we feel God can do something. But if there are only three hundred, how can you use three hundred?
Our commitment will be tested just like this. Why? Because it is not in us; it is not in numbers; it is in Him.
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
All right, we go to the New Testament. I think the first example I will use will be Peter.
In Matthew 4, at the beginning of His public ministry, the Lord Jesus went by the Sea of Galilee and saw Peter fishing. The Lord called him, saying, “Come after Me, and I will make you a fisher of men.” The Bible says Peter left his nets and followed the Lord.
Whenever the Lord calls, it is to be understood that you have to leave everything and follow Him. If you are not willing to leave everything, you will not be able to follow Him.
Because His call of commitment is total and absolute. So here you find Simon Peter: when the Lord called him, he left his nets, left everything, and followed the Lord. Thank God for that.
But within a short period, he discovered—not because he doubted the Lord, but because he doubted himself—that it was very difficult to follow the Lord.
Why? Because the Lord was so different. For him to be like his Master, he found it was impossible.
So, when the Lord came to his own city, you remember in Luke 5, he went back fishing. He was thinking of quitting.
He had committed himself to the Lord, but he found that it involved too much. He could not make it. He could not change himself to be like the Lord. It was too difficult. So there he was, ready to quit.
But thank God, even though he was a good fisherman, he could not catch anything that night. The Lord saw to it that he got nothing. What if he had been successful?
The next morning, the Lord came and used his boat to preach to the crowd. The Lord never defrauds anybody, so after He used the boat, He wanted to pay him for it. He told Peter, “Launch out.”
Peter said, “Well, I am a fisherman. I have been fishing all night, and there were no fish there. But because You are the Master, all right, out of respect to You, I will follow You. I know it is futile. There is no use.”
But when he launched out and cast the net, he found the fish. He had to call his companions, and they filled two boats with fish, and the nets were not broken.
You remember the story of how he knelt before the Lord and said, “Lord, I am a sinner. Depart from me. I am not worthy of You. You are too great.”
The Lord said, “Do not be afraid. I will make you a fisher of men.” So the Bible says he left everything again and followed the Lord.
He was tested and failed. But by grace, he was lifted and became stronger and firmer in his commitment.
After that, you find in John 6, when the Lord began to say some hard words—“I am the bread of life. He that eats of Me and drinks of Me shall have life”—many of the disciples left.
The Lord turned to the twelve and said, “Would ye also go away?” You know what Peter said: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God.”
What a commitment.
He thought his commitment to the Lord was total and absolute, and it seemed to be that way. But you remember, towards the end, when the Lord said, “I will go to Jerusalem, I will be betrayed, and I will die. You will all be scattered.”
Simon Peter said, “No, Lord. I am willing to die with You. If the others flee, I will not. My commitment to You is total, absolute, even unto death.”
The Lord said, “Simon, Simon, Satan asked to sift you; but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. And when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.”
Why? Because we must remember one thing: commitment is by faith, and commitment can only be made real through grace.
You cannot keep your commitment by the energy of your flesh.
Brothers and sisters, have you committed yourselves to the Lord? Thank God you have. It is an act of faith. But if you try to keep your commitment by your will, iron will, by the strength of your own flesh, you will find you cannot last very long.
You are not able to keep your commitment. Your commitment can only be kept by His grace.
This is a lesson that we have to learn. There is sufficient grace for every one of us to keep our commitment to God.
If ever we fail in our commitment, it is because we depend on ourselves and do not look to His grace. If we look upon His grace, brothers and sisters, you will find there is sufficient grace to carry us through our commitment. But you have to learn it.
Peter learned the hard way. He fell. He denied the Lord three times. But thank God, because Christ had prayed for him, his faith did not fail.
On the contrary, his faith, through failure, became strengthened, and his commitment became fuller than ever before. And that is grace.
You know, sometimes we wonder whether we can keep our commitment. You cannot. You do not need to wonder. You cannot. But you can by the grace of God.
If only you know that His grace is sufficient for you and depend on that grace, you will find you can be more than conquerors.
Grace is available.
All right, the last one is Paul. Here you find a man on the road to Damascus. The Lord of glory appeared to him, and he capitulated himself to the Lord.
He committed himself completely to the Lord. He said, “Lord, what shall I do?” He committed his life to the Lord and let the Lord lead the way. A fully committed person.
He was with the disciples in Damascus for a short period. Then he went to Arabia for about three years, there alone with God.
We would say he restudied the sacred Scriptures in the light he received from above, with Christ. He began to see Christ in every page of the Old Testament.
He came back to Damascus, and he was such a testimony, such a witness, witnessing that indeed Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.
But then, you remember, King Aretas of Arabia wanted to kill him. He had to be let down from the city wall in a basket.
Paul could not forget that incident. Even when he wrote 2 Corinthians, he mentioned that incident: “I was let down in a basket from the wall.” Very humiliating. Tested.
He went to Jerusalem. He thought the church in Jerusalem, all the believers in Jerusalem, would embrace him. Here was Saul, who had left the city as the greatest persecutor of Christianity, and now he came back as one of the greatest witnesses of Christ.
Surely the church in Jerusalem would be wide open to him and embrace him. But nobody believed him. He wanted fellowship with the believers, but everybody kept him away because they still doubted him. What a testing.
He was fully committed to God, but nobody believed him, until the good man Barnabas, son of consolation, believed him and took him to see Peter.
The Bible says he began to go in and out with the believers, and he began to testify. He became so fervent that the church in Jerusalem had to send him away. Think of that. They sent him away: “Go back to Tarsus.”
But he was not disappointed. He was in Tarsus, in Cilicia, in that area, for a number of years—hidden, unknown. Nobody knew where he was.
Until that good man Barnabas, you remember, came to Antioch and saw what the Lord was doing there. He knew that he himself could not help them alone; he needed somebody to be with him, and he remembered Paul—Saul.
So he went to Tarsus and found him. The word found means he had to search for him, and found him, and brought him to Antioch.
After a whole year or so, the Lord began to set him and Barnabas apart for the apostolic work. They went out to do that work, and of course they suffered a great deal.
Praise, persecutions, all kinds of things came into his life, and his commitment to God never changed.
He passed the test of praise as well as the test of persecution. You know, it is more difficult to pass the test of praise than to pass the test of persecution.
Towards the very end, you find he was on his way to Jerusalem. He said, compelled in his spirit, he had to go to Jerusalem before Pentecost. He was bound in his spirit.
The Holy Spirit was testifying in every place through which he passed, saying that bonds and tribulations were waiting for him in Jerusalem. The saints everywhere begged him not to go to Jerusalem.
“You know there will be danger there. Why do you go? The Holy Spirit has testified already. Why do you go? Do not go there.” It nearly broke his heart, but he went.
He said, “I do not count my life dear to myself, as long as I can fulfil my course and the ministry that God has called me to.” In other words, his commitment to God was absolute and total.
Towards the very last, when he was a prisoner in Rome, in 2 Timothy he said, “At my defence nobody stood with me, but the Lord stood with me.”
All Asia left him. Asia was the centre of Paul’s work—very successful. But at the end of his life, all Asia left him.
Why? He was too hot. Anybody associated with Paul would probably be seized and killed. All Asia left him. Even one of his fellow workers, Demas, at that point left him for Thessalonica because he loved the world.
Think of that. He was tested to the very end. But, thank God, he said, “I am now ready to be poured out. I have finished the course, I have fought the fight, I have kept the faith, and now the crown of righteousness is waiting for me—not only for me, but for all who love the appearing of the Lord.”
Dear brothers and sisters, these are just a few instances. You can find many instances in the Scriptures, and you can find many instances in the lives of God’s people. You can even find instances in your own life.
You find that whenever we commit ourselves to the Lord, our commitment will be tested. Or, to put it another way, you will find that our commitment to God will be contested by the enemy.
But thank God, whether we fail or succeed, we become stronger by the grace of God. Because, after all, it is grace that makes our commitment possible.
We commit to Him by faith, and His grace makes our commitment real.
Now, finally, I have to conclude with just a few brief words, because actually there are two messages. But I have to leave this country for a few months, and when I come back, probably you will forget what we have talked about. It is very difficult to conclude the series.
So finally, let me say: thank God, even though commitment is costly, the blessing more than compensates for the cost.
You know, the loss to an uncommitted Christian is much greater than the cost to a committed Christian.
I repeat it: an uncommitted person, an uncommitted Christian, loses much more than it would cost him if he committed himself to the Lord.
A doubleminded man, unstable in all his ways.
A double-minded person, in Greek, is a double-souled person. In other words, it is a person who is never committed. He is double-souled. He loves this and he loves that. He is double-souled.
An uncommitted person is unstable in all his ways. In other words, he will not succeed in anything.
In Matthew 6, the Lord said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.”
No man can serve two masters.
In other words, brothers and sisters, God wants us to be single-eyed. God wants us to be committed. We cannot be double-eyed. We cannot be double-souled and uncommitted.
If we are uncommitted, outwardly we are unstable in all our ways, and nothing is accomplished. But inwardly, there is darkness. You do not see light, and because you do not see light, you tend to fall.
It is only when we walk in the light as He is in the light that we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.
So, brothers and sisters, remember this: it costs more not to commit to Christ than to commit to Him.
Look at Lot: a righteous man, but uncommitted. He lost everything.
Look at Judas. He was one of the twelve apostles. But strangely, you cannot find in the record of the Bible that he personally confessed Jesus as his Lord. Never.
He never called Jesus his Lord. Never.
He was an uncommitted person. He followed the Lord, perhaps for political purposes. He was a clever man.
He thought the Lord was going to be the King, and he was going to be, well, what would you say, Secretary of the Treasury?
When he found that his hope was dashed, he betrayed and sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver. Then he became remorseful about it, because he said, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood.” So he went out and hanged himself. He never repented.
A double-minded person, an uncommitted person—what a loss it is.
So, brothers and sisters, thank God. If by His grace, by His mercy, we have committed ourselves to the Lord, you will find such blessing in commitment.
I do not have time to say much. Just take Paul as an instance. I see in the life of Paul, because he was so committed to the Lord, number one, you find his life was a satisfied life.
He lived a satisfied life. In what sense? In the sense that he counted all things but loss in order to gain the knowledge of the Son of God. He wanted to gain Christ. He was willing to pay every cost to gain Christ.
And did he gain Him? He did.
Not only had God revealed to him such mysteries of Christ, such knowledge as you find in Ephesians 3—he said, “By reading this, you may perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ”—but in his own personal life, Christ was known to him in such a personal, experiential way that he could even say, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.”
His life was a satisfied life. Do you want a life that is satisfied—satisfied with Christ?
His life was also a fulfilled life. We want our lives to be fulfilling: to fulfil our goal, fulfil the meaning of our life, fulfil the work and mission to which we are called. Look at Paul.
His life was a fulfilled life. By the grace of God, he was able to fulfil the ministry which God had committed to him.
He could say, “I have run the race. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. I have fought the good fight, and now the crown of righteousness is waiting for me.” What a life of fulfilment.
Again, you find his life was a fruitful life. Oh, the fruit that he bore.
It is true, he said, “I bear in my body the dying of Jesus.” That is the cost. But he said, “That the life of Jesus may be manifested not only in my body, but also in you.”
His life was also a rewarded life—not only rewarded while he was living, but after he was gone. He said, “The crown of righteousness is waiting for me.”
Now, brothers and sisters, it is true that we should not seek reward for reward’s sake. But we have to remember that faith is believing that God is and that He is the rewarder of all who seek after Him.
If we seek after Him, He will reward us—first of all, with Himself, and then with the kingdom, with a crown.
Brothers and sisters, all who know what commitment means know it is costly, and yet it is worth it.
Not only because the One to Whom we are committed is worth it, but also because such a life of commitment is a worthy life. May the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast called us to commit ourselves to Thee totally and absolutely.
Our Father, we do acknowledge that Thou art worthy of such commitment. None else is worthy. So we do by faith commit ourselves to Thee, and we pray that Thy grace will make our commitment real.
Even though, Father, it may cost us, yet we know Thou makest our cost as if it is nothing.
Lord, do lead us in the way of commitment, and we pray that Thou wilt be glorified and Thy work may be done through a people who are fully committed to Thee and to Thy will. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.