Last week, our brother Stephen Kong shared on a verse out of Matthew. I would like for us to turn back to that Scripture: Matthew 7.
Our brother shared on these Scriptures last week—Matthew 7:13-14—concerning entering the narrow gate and taking the narrow path. I was impressed in my own heart by how much the Lord’s Word means, and how often a word touches me for the moment, and then I go on with my life.
As our brother shared this, I really felt, “Well, Lord, here is something that should take place at the very beginning of our spiritual walk in life—something so critical that we need to, as our brother would encourage us to do, meditate upon a little longer.”
So I will be sharing again this week concerning this subject. Our brother did share with some of us brothers on a Sunday night after that Sunday morning, and I have talked with him since a couple of times and felt that there was something else that we needed to share along these lines.
May the Lord, by His grace and mercy, really touch our hearts this morning.
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. We are dependent absolutely upon the Holy Spirit, Lord, to open our eyes and open our ears. As we shared last night on the book of Acts, Lord, I was so impressed that it ended with those Scriptures: they heard, but hearing they did not hear; and they saw, but seeing they did not see.
Lord Jesus, oh, have mercy upon us, Your people, this day, that we might truly see and truly hear. Lord, show and reveal Your Word to us, and may it work in our hearts. We ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
So let me read a few Scriptures. You might have to keep your finger in a few places. First of all, Matthew 7:13-14.
Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.
For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Now, what our brother emphasized last week was that this narrow gate and this narrow way that our Lord Jesus is speaking of is not just the gospel to bring people to Jesus Christ. This narrow gate is not simply Jesus as the door to life, but the doorway—the gateway—to discipleship in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to understand that. He was very strong in his emphasis that we cannot say, “Okay, well, Lord, I believed in You many, many years ago, and now I have You with me and everything is okay.” Often we find that we are on the broad way and not the narrow way, and maybe find out that we have never really entered this gateway to discipleship in our Lord Jesus Christ.
I was particularly struck as I read further down in Matthew 7, verse 24:
Every one therefore that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;
and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock.
And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house;
and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.
That is what is on my heart: that we be wise; that we not only hear the words of our Lord, but that we do them. It is so easy just to hear a message and go our way, and not really allow it to take root in our lives and actually do something in our lives.
So this week I want to share again on this matter of the narrow gate, entering into it in the way of a consecrated life before the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us also look at Matthew 5:13.
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.
Ye are the salt of the earth. But if it has lost its savor, what value is it?
Then Romans 12:1-2:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual service.
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
I beseech you by God’s mercy that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.
And then Genesis 22:1:
And it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham.
God tested Abraham. In the King James Version, it says “tempt,” but when this was translated in King James’s time, that word tempt also meant testing. The actual meaning of that word is to test, so that it will not be confused. James tells us that God never tempts us; only the devil does that. So we are tested by God. God tested Abraham.
Well, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, this narrow gate is not the doorway to what we normally call salvation. We, of course, enter that door when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. But this gateway has to do with discipleship—becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Now, the gateway is also Christ, but, brothers and sisters, these two should actually be one and occur at the same time. I remember in the early days, when Stephen mentioned this last week, that when the Lord went and called Andrew and his brother Simon Peter, He said, “Follow Me.” Peter and Andrew immediately left their boats and followed the Lord.
I thought that was quite interesting, because He did not say, “Look, believe on Me and you will be saved. Believe on Me, and you will have eternal life.” He just looked at these men and said, “Follow Me.”
Brothers and sisters, there was such authority and power in our Lord Jesus Christ. They immediately saw something in this Man that they had never seen before. Of course, it was the life of God manifested in Jesus Christ. There was something about this Man that they could not resist, so much so that they immediately left their boats to follow Him.
The same was true of James and John. He came upon them while they were mending their nets, and He said, “Follow Me.” Immediately, they left their nets to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
What Jesus Christ is looking for, brothers and sisters, is not merely saved people. He is looking for those who will be His disciples. Now, it is impossible to be a disciple if you are not saved. You have to have that new life in Jesus Christ. But that is not God’s heart for you. His heart in saving us is that we would truly become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him wherever He would go.
Today, I guess our gospel is so weak that these two events are often years apart. In other words, we accept the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told that we need to believe in Him, to accept Him, to receive eternal life, and not to go to hell.
Of course, we are all interested in having our fire insurance, so we say, “Yes, yes. No, we do not want to go to hell.” I have shared my own testimony. That is the way I came to the Lord.
I had done some things that were wrong. I lied to my mother, and she caught me. She said, “Jerry, you have not just offended me, but you have offended God. You need to get straight with God and then get straight with me.” She said, “You are going to hell.”
Now, I was twelve years old. I did not know what hell was, but I could see in her face that I did not want to go there—that it was not a place anybody needed to be. And with such encouragement—actually, the Holy Spirit touched me that night. After my mother had left, I got down on my knees and asked God to forgive me, and He met me there.
Now, that was the day in which I received salvation. I did not even know what had happened to me that day. It was a number of years later until God really opened my eyes to see what He had done that night in my life.
Yes, sometimes we are scared into heaven, so to speak. Well, the Lord’s heart is for us to be His disciples.
Today, we will accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, but it may be many years—and for some saints, frankly, they never really become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never becomes Lord of their life. They go on to live their life basically the way they want to. They have the Lord with them, they know that they are saved, and to some extent they love the Lord, but that is as far as it goes.
In so doing, they have never entered the gate of discipleship. They are still on the broad path—the broad way.
They just kind of fit Jesus Christ into their life. They can kind of fit our fellowshipping together in Christ into their life. It is one of the things they have to decide whether they need to do or not.
“Well, do I need to go fishing, or do I need to go fellowship? Do I need to go to the Lord’s Table this morning, or should I go up to the mountains and look at the pretty leaves?”
Now, I am being a little bit sarcastic. I am not too good at it. But, brothers and sisters, we have to consider: are we just fitting the Lord Jesus into our life, or is He our life? Is He Lord as well as Savior?
Brothers and sisters, it should not be our satisfaction that we are looking for in this life, but that He is satisfied.
It says that in those days we will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. We see that happening today all around us, and maybe even in us. There are some pleasures that we may love more than God.
Our possessions—we love our possessions instead of being His possession. We try to gather possessions, and yet the Lord Jesus has told us that we have been bought with a price. We are His possession, to live for Him.
It is our house—we are building our house—but what about the Lord’s house? In the book of Haggai, the remnant had returned from Babylon to Jerusalem to build the temple. They had gotten there and laid the foundation, and then for thirteen years, the foundation was all that got laid.
They laid it within the first two years, and after that it sat dormant. Haggai spoke to the people and said, “Consider your ways.” That was the Word of God to them: “Consider your ways.”
“You work hard. You bring things home, and I blow on it, and you wonder what is going on.” He says, “You are building your own house, but My house lies waste.”
It is His house that the Lord is concerned about. Yes, He is concerned about us too, and our houses, but we cannot forget His.
It is our family. We think of our own immediate family. But, brothers and sisters, the Lord has brought us into a living spiritual family—blood brothers and sisters, with the blood of Christ in our veins. Sometimes we put our family ahead of the Lord’s family.
Our job—we think of our job. A lot of times it is our job that consumes us instead of the calling that the Lord has on our life. It has been said before that our job should not be our vocation, but our avocation. Our vocation should really be following the Lord—what He has called us to.
Brothers and sisters, is it our time that we utilize, or is it His time that we are concerned about? Is it our will, or is it His will? Is it our purpose, or His purpose, that we are concerned about?
These words that I have shared may be a little hard to hear. But our Lord was much more severe, I think, if you want to look at it. In Luke 14:26, He says:
If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
He cannot be My disciple.
And Luke 14:27:
Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.
And Luke 14:33:
So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.
Now, brothers and sisters, I find it interesting that the Lord did not try to explain these verses. When He says, “Except you hate your mother and father, you cannot be My disciple,” He did not go into great lengths to explain it to anyone.
If you are one who looks at this as the letter, that must come as a strange revelation—that you must hate your mother and father. It certainly did to many who heard Him that day.
But they were looking at the letter of what our Lord said, and they were not able to grasp the spirit of what was in that letter. Does our Lord really want us to hate our mother and father? No. He tells us we must honor them. In order to have long life, we must honor them. We should love our parents and our families.
So what is the Spirit saying? He is saying that no love can come above your love for the Lord Jesus Christ. There can be no other love in your life greater than your love for Jesus. He has to be first, or you cannot be His disciple.
Brothers and sisters, if we are unwilling to bear the cross—what is the cross? It is when our will crosses the Lord’s will. When we are unwilling to yield—if we are unwilling to yield in life and make Him Lord of our lives—then we are not bearing the cross, and we cannot be His disciple.
Likewise, if we are not willing to forsake all to follow the Lord, we cannot be His disciples.
These things touch our hearts deeply. At least, when I meditated on it, I said, “Lord, I am not sure I am Your disciple.” But these were not my words or my interpretation. These words are very clear from our Lord—what discipleship means, what it costs, and what it takes.
The Lord did not pull any punches, brothers and sisters. He wanted everyone to know exactly what the cost of discipleship would be. He wanted you to count that cost up front and make your decision to follow Him.
If we are to follow the Lord, nothing in our lives can compete with Him—our relationships, our families, ourselves, our self-life, our self-love, our self-desire, our self-interest. No longer can we be self-centered; we need to be Christ-centered.
It says we need to forsake all. Yes, we can have cars and houses, and we can have televisions and these things. But do they have a grip on your life, or can you let them go? If you are unable to let them go, then there is something there that is greater than Jesus Christ in your life.
We have to be willing before God to let go. Our hearts have to be that free to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, brothers and sisters, we must be consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ—consecrated to live before Him, to live a consecrated life.
Consecration is simply giving your entire self to the Lord Jesus—not the old man, but the new man, as they talked about this morning. In Romans 12:1-2, I have already read it:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice.
It is only by His mercy that we can do this. Your entire being is to be a living sacrifice. Now, brothers and sisters, the Lord has called some to martyrdom for His name’s sake. But today, we may not be martyred; we are called to be living martyrs for our Lord Jesus Christ—alive, but fully given to the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way that we can be considered living sacrifices.
It goes on to say that we are to offer ourselves a living sacrifice, not being conformed to this world. That seems to be one of the key things. It is not just loving the world that gets us in trouble; it is that we are conformed to the world. We take on the world’s image, the world’s form, the worldly ways.
The Lord says, “If you have that image, you do not have My image.”
Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Brothers and sisters, our minds have not been crucified with Christ. They need to be renewed. The old man has been crucified, but our mind now needs to be renewed. How is that going to happen?
It will not happen unless we are consecrated to the Lord. Without a consecrated life to the Lord, we will still hang on to this world. We will still love it. But in this act of consecration, the Lord is able to touch not only our heart, but our mind. He will show us what the world really is—the lethal poison that it really is.
At the same time, He will show us what His mind is and what His will is.
It is really interesting where this Scripture in Romans 12:1-2 falls—the Scripture of presenting yourself a living sacrifice. You know, the book of Romans is the gospel. It is about the gospel of God. What is the gospel of God? It is Jesus Christ. That is God’s good news. That is the gospel.
In the gospel, we find that something tremendous has been provided to us. Jesus Christ has been provided for us. In His work on the cross, we have been justified.
In the first eight chapters of Romans, we find that we have been justified—just as if we had never sinned. We are now just, able to come before God because of the sacrifice of Christ and because we have accepted Him.
We have been sanctified—set apart to live fully for Jesus Christ and for God. So we have been sanctified in Christ. We also find that we have been glorified in Him.
Now, what does it mean to be glorified in Him? It means that He intends to conform us to the image of God. Brothers and sisters, that is glory: to be conformed to the image of God is glory.
Not only that, those who are conformed to His image and become the sons of God will also reign and rule in the glorious kingdom age with our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the provision. The first eight chapters give us the provision that has been given to us in this gospel of God.
Chapters 9 through 11 tell us what God’s purpose is. In that, we find that both Jew and Gentile have sinned. God has locked us up into sin. In other words, God has shown us what sin is, and that not only the Jews need salvation, but the Gentiles need salvation.
The Jews refused Jesus Christ, but the Lord has not given up on them. He will one day come again, and they will be shut up and realize what they really are, and they will accept Jesus Christ.
So it says we have been shut up into sin, that we might be driven, basically, into the arms of Christ—that we will realize we need a Savior, that we need this burden of sin lifted, and that the only way is through Jesus Christ.
Then, in Romans 11, it shows us God’s purpose:
For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him, are all things. To Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
In other words, it is all about Christ. Christ is to be glorified, and that is the purpose of God. That is why God has brought us all into salvation: that one day we might be glorified.
How is He going to do that? In Romans 12 and onward, we find that there is the body of Christ, and we are part of the body of Christ. When He was on earth during those three years, He had a physical body. He moved and acted and revealed Himself and revealed who God was in that physical body, but it was very limited.
Today He has a spiritual body, and that body is to be used to glorify Him—to show forth who He is, and what His character and nature are. It is through the body that He will be glorified.
Brothers and sisters, all of Romans hangs on this verse. What I mean is that Christ has provided everything. But for there to be reality in your life of the fact that you have been justified, sanctified, and glorified—for it to be reality in your life that you are a living member of the body of Jesus Christ—something has to take place on your part.
That hinges on Romans 12:1: to present your bodies a living sacrifice. Consecrate yourself fully, totally, and without reserve to the Lord. All hangs on that.
Brothers and sisters, God has fulfilled His responsibility. This is our responsibility: to offer ourselves to Him fully as a living sacrifice.
Now, Brother Stephen was very clear last week that with man this is impossible. If you really count the cost, if you really know what the cost of discipleship is, you will say no to it. But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
God makes it possible in your heart to say, “God, I see the cost. I do not know if I can handle the cost, but Lord, I am willing. I am willing to be willing.”
Brothers and sisters, with just that little effort on our part, the Lord Jesus will take over and make it real, so that we will be fully and truly consecrated to Him. Consecration is a key action to the realization of God’s purpose, not only in your life, but in the glorification of Jesus Christ.
Consecration is not only the gateway to the narrow path, but it is the way to stay on the narrow path.
We remember in the Old Testament there was a whole burnt offering offered up. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that whole burnt offering. He offered Himself wholly and fully for God’s will and became a sacrifice before God on our behalf. He is the real burnt offering with which God is pleased.
But, brothers and sisters, we are in Jesus Christ. Being in Jesus Christ, we are now to become whole burnt offerings. It is just what it says: it is not a partial offering. You cannot just offer Him your arm or one leg. You have to offer the whole thing—your whole mind, will, emotion, and body.
It is a whole burnt offering, and all of it is to be consumed in the fires of God.
That burnt offering was offered morning and evening, every day. A burnt offering was offered up once in the morning and once in the evening—a morning sacrifice and an evening sacrifice.
What does that mean to us? It means that consecration is a way of life, and consecration needs to be maintained as we go along the way. Daily, we need to be looking to the Lord and say, “Lord, today I offer myself to Thee fully.”
Interestingly enough, also once a month, and at all the feasts and festivals that they were required to have, they offered up a whole burnt offering. What does this mean? It means that our consecration should not only be maintained, but become deeper, fuller, richer, and more mature as we go along the way.
So this matter of consecration is not just a one-time event. Yes, we have to have that initial consecration of offering ourselves wholly to the Lord. But, brothers and sisters, it is something that we have to not only maintain, but as we go on with the Lord, we will find that His demands on us will actually become deeper and deeper. He will ask for this, and then He will ask for that.
Let us look at Genesis 22 for a second. Abraham is a great example of this deepening of consecration.
I am going to read Genesis 22:1-2, 12, 16, and 18.
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 Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering.
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.
Isaac was Abraham’s most precious thing in his life. The most precious thing to Abraham was his son Isaac. The Lord told him to put Isaac on the altar.
What a challenge, brothers and sisters. Here is a great deepening of Abraham’s consecration to the Lord: willing to give up the most precious thing in his life to the Lord, taking his own son and sacrificing him.
We know the angel stopped him. Then it says in Genesis 22:15-18:
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 thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
We know that is the foretelling of Jesus Christ being the Seed who would save the nations.
“I know that thou fearest God, for thou hast not withheld thy only son.” Finally, Abraham’s consecration had reached the point where God was satisfied.
Now, Abraham had been consecrated before that, but here was that deep, deep place where there was nothing left in Abraham to offer up. God had gotten his all, and God was satisfied.
The word testing in Genesis 22:1 means to put to the test, to prove someone, or to test the quality or character of someone through a demonstration of stress. This was certainly a demonstration of stress in Abraham’s life.
The point is, brothers and sisters, how do we know that we are consecrated? How do we know that we have gone through that gate? How do we know that our consecration with the Lord is absolute? How do we know that the Lord is first in our life, in our relationships, and in the things that we have—in our possessions?
How do we know that our consecration is not just a general statement of, “Yeah, Lord, I am Yours. I give myself to Thee fully”? You will know when it is tested. That is how you will know. God will test it.
Brothers and sisters, even if our consecration is kind of general in nature, God will take you seriously and He will put it to the test. But if it is only general in nature, it will probably fail the test.
The Lord Jesus makes this test very specific. He knows our hearts, and He knows where we are spiritually at that point in our life. He will touch something very specific—something that you struggle with, something you may not want to let go of.
Fortunately for the early disciples, they were able to let go. God’s grace was so great upon them. But, brothers and sisters, that is not always the case.
Last week our brother shared about the rich young ruler who came to the Lord. It says the Lord loved him. He said, “Look, I have done all these things. I have followed the commandments. I have been a moral person. What do I need to do to have eternal life?”
The Lord said, “Sell all that you have.” The Lord touched the thing in his heart that meant the most to him. He said, “Sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and then follow Me.”
In other words, something had to transact in this man’s heart for him to follow the Lord. This man went away sadly. That was unfortunate, brothers and sisters, because he did not look into the Lord’s eyes long enough to see that the Lord would say to him, “What is impossible with you, I will make possible in your life.”
But he left sadly. The Lord did not try to call him back. The Lord did not explain Himself. He just put him to the test.
Now that story is followed by the story of Zacchaeus. Remember Zacchaeus? He was a little short guy. He was one of the chief tax collectors. He had plenty of money.
He heard about this Jesus and was anxious to see Him. He heard that He was coming his way, so he climbed up in a sycamore tree. I know the children would remember that, because there is a song written about Zacchaeus. He climbed up the sycamore tree so he could see the Lord.
The Lord saw him up in the tree. He said, “Zacchaeus, come down. I am coming to your house today.”
What happened when He got to Zacchaeus’s house? The first thing out of Zacchaeus’s mouth was, “Lord, I am going to give half of what I own. Anything that I have taken unrighteously from anybody, I will give it back doublefold.”
He just saw the Lord. The Lord did it.
Brothers and sisters, more often than not, we do struggle with it. But the Lord can do what we cannot do.
Often it is just a small issue, and if we are not willing to deal with it immediately, the Lord just kind of keeps pricking it, coming after us, until finally we have to face it.
If we yield to the Lord, if we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, if we take that test and say, “Yes, Lord,” then our consecration will be sealed. It will be real, and the Lord will recognize it.
But if we do not, we may still love the Lord, but we will no longer be on the narrow path. We will be back on the broad way. Brothers and sisters, if we do not repent, our life will become weaker and weaker. Our life in the Lord will be diluted more and more.
That is why, in Matthew 5:13, where I read about being the salt of the earth, the Lord brings this up. Matthew 5:13 comes immediately after the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount.
The Lord said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and He goes on through all those blessings. They reveal the character and nature of the Lord Jesus Himself, the character and nature of the kingdom, and the character and nature His followers should have.
He immediately follows the Beatitudes with this Scripture. He says, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost its savor, how can it be salted again? How can that savor be gained again?”
Once salt has lost its savor, it is gone. He says it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men.
The salt is the character of Christ in your life. But, brothers and sisters, when we are tested in this matter of consecration, if we are not willing, then that savor is lost. Consecration brings about that savor in our life—that savor of Christ.
An unconsecrated life begins to lose the savor, and it becomes more and more diluted. Frankly, it can become so diluted that it becomes savorless. The Lord says, “I have no choice but to cast it out.”
Now, He is not talking about losing your salvation or losing eternal life. What He is really talking about is the kingdom. He says, “If you are a savorless Christian, when I choose those to enter into the kingdom age with Me, you will not be one of them. I need salt. I need salt that has savor.”
Ye are the salt, and you must be salt that has savor.
Brothers and sisters, the importance of testing is that our consecration really be sealed. The Lord will get very specific. Have we gone through that gate? Have we said to the Lord, “I am forsaking all for Thee, Lord”? He will test us on that.
You know, I could not help but think of cheese. Now, that might sound a little funny. But every morning, I go to 7-Eleven with my dog, who is my companion. I have to take him to 7-Eleven or he is greatly disappointed.
I always get a little stick of sharp cheddar cheese, which he loves. I love it too, by the way. So we eat that cheese together—me and my buddy.
But you know, cheese can be very bland. It can be mild, or it can be sharp. It depends on the processing that it has gone through.
If it has just been made, then it is still very bland. But the more it ages, the more salty it becomes. Some of the acids in it develop, and it becomes what we would call mild. Then, after another year, I think—about a year of aging—it actually becomes sharp cheddar cheese.
Now, John is from that territory, and he might be able to tell me more about cheddar cheese later. But the point is, brothers and sisters, if somebody is to taste you, what are they going to taste? Are you bland cheddar, mild cheddar, or sharp cheddar?
Well, it depends on how much that consecration has been maintained in your life, and not only maintained, but deepened through the testing of the Lord Jesus.
Abraham’s life is a great illustration. Just to help us get some clarification on this, you know, in Genesis 12 the Lord told Abraham to leave his kindred, to leave his father’s house, and to go into a land that He would show him.
It says Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going. We all think, “Man, that must have been a consecrated man. He had seen the glory of the Lord.”
Well, if you read the end of Genesis 11, you find out that Abraham did not just go out. It says that his father, Terah, took him, his nephew Lot, and Sarah, of course Abraham’s wife. Terah led them out. He took them out, and they got to Haran.
Many scholars think Haran was still in Ur of the Chaldeans, where he had left from. Halfway there, he settled down.
Obviously, Abraham knew the Lord. He had seen the Lord of glory, and the Lord had spoken to him to go out, and he went out. But instead of leaving his father’s house and kindred, his father took him out. He said, “Hey, I think this is a good thing. I will take you there.”
But you see what happened? They settled down in Haran—still settled down in the land of idols, the way of the world. He did not make it. He had not yet gone through the gate.
Yes, he knew the Lord, and he was following the Lord to some extent. But he did not make the test.
But, brothers and sisters, take heart. It says, “By the mercies of God, present yourselves.”
It says that when Abraham was seventy-five years old and his father Terah died, he remembered God’s promise and went to the land of Canaan.
There he went to Bethel. What did he do? You all remember the first thing he did when he went to Bethel? Come on, we have some scholars in here. He built an altar. He consecrated himself. That was the test. The Lord finally got through. He had entered the gate of consecration to the Lord.
But Abraham is like us. What was the next thing in Abraham’s life? It says there was a famine in the land. Abraham did not consult with the Lord. He said, “Okay, well, probably the best thing to do is go to Egypt, and there I can find some provision.”
The Lord had already told him he should not be going to Egypt. He knew that from the past history of their going to Egypt and having to be delivered by the hand of God. But that was where the world offered provision.
In other words, he had gotten off that narrow path and back onto the broad way—the way of the world. Remember, he almost lost his wife down there in Egypt because the king was so enamored with her good looks. He said, “Hey, I want her in my harem,” and was ready to do that.
Then God intervened. Abraham was rebuked by that king, and he left. But you know what Abraham did? He went back to Bethel. What did he do? He set up another altar, and God spoke to him again.
Brothers and sisters, Abraham was a man who led a consecrated life, but it was not that he was always on that narrow path. He did falter. But thank God, he repented and returned and set that altar up, and once again gave himself to the Lord.
That consecration was tested more. Then finally, I have already read it and spoken on it, but it is so important:
For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.
What deep consecration. God had gotten everything in Abraham’s life at that point.
So you see, consecration has its initial step—the entering in through the gate—and that is sealed through a test from God. That test will be very specific.
Then we begin to walk the way, that narrow path. To stay on that narrow path, we have to live a consecrated life. It has to be maintained daily before the Lord. The Lord will give more tests in our consecration before Him, to deepen that consecration before Him until He is fully satisfied.
So, brothers and sisters, the key in this matter of consecration comes when the Lord tests us. And He will. He is faithful.
When we consider what that may mean, we might say, “You know, Lord, I have started to count the cost, and I just do not know.” Please do not stop there.
Remember, the Lord is able to work in our willing heart, so we need to at least give Him a willing heart. What He cannot work with is an unwilling heart. That is why He could not work with the rich young ruler, and He was able to work in Zacchaeus’s heart.
But, brothers and sisters, I want to end with this: God never asks anything of us that, frankly, He has not already done.
God the Father had to let go of His only begotten Son. He had to let Him go. He had to take His hands off and let Him become a man, go to Calvary, and there even become sin, that the judgment of God would come upon Him instead of upon us.
God let go of all when He let go of His Son that day in heaven. The Son had to experience separation from the Father for our sakes.
In other words, when He hung on the cross and He became sin, our sins came upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and it says He became sin. The judgment of God fell on Him. In that hour, the sky darkened, and the Lord cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Brothers and sisters, our Lord had to be separated from the most precious thing in His life—that was His Father—in order that we might be saved and have salvation.
Today, brothers and sisters, I do not know what the Holy Spirit may be doing, but you know what He is doing: He is working daily in our lives, in each one of us. He has dedicated Himself to conform us to the image of Christ, working diligently to do that.
He has submitted Himself under God’s hand to glorify Jesus Christ. In other words, the Holy Spirit could not hang on to what He had in glory. He had to come down to earth to transform us into the image of Christ.
By the mercies of God, present yourselves a living sacrifice.
Lord, we just come to Thee this morning. Lord, You have been speaking to us on this matter of forsaking all, of following Thee, of having a life fully consecrated to Thee.
Lord, for some, I know that You have tested, and You have required the counting of the cost. You have asked for a decision.
Lord, by Your mercy, we want to say yes. By Your mercy, Lord, we want to say, “Lord, even if we are struggling with this thing, give us a willing heart, that we might be willing to give all to Thee, Lord Jesus.”
Nothing held back, Lord—not for our sake, but for Thy sake. Lord, work these things in our hearts.
Lord, You said in Matthew 7:24 that we must not only hear Your words; we must do them in order to be wise. Lord, we want to build our house on the rock. Lord, do it. We pray in Jesus’ name.