We want to turn to John 1 again and look at what we considered last time. John and Andrew are the first two disciples of Jesus. They had been followers of John the Baptist, but on that fateful day Jesus came by and John cried out again, for the second time, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.”
Something touched John and Andrew, and they began to follow. In John 1:37, the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned, saw them following, and said, “What seek ye?” They said unto Him, “Rabbi”—which means Teacher—“where dwellest Thou?” He said unto them, “Come and see.” So they came and saw where He was staying, and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
“What seek ye?”
“Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”
“Come and see.”
—John 1:38-39
We see before us three verses regarding this matter of discipleship. The first is John 1:39: “Come and see.” The second is found in Matthew 11:
“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
—Matthew 11:28-29
Then Matthew 16:24:
“If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
—Matthew 16:24
These three phrases have to do with discipleship, and all begin with the word come: “Come and see,” “Come unto Me,” and “Come after Me.”
The first one, which we looked at last time, is “Come and see.” Such a simple beginning—just come and see. There were no strings attached to John and Andrew as they went to Jesus’ house that day, where He was dwelling. They just came to see. They came to taste and see that the Lord was good.
John’s estimate later, when he wrote his Gospel, was something like this: “I started looking at Jesus, and as I kept looking, I beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The depth and fullness of that revelation of Jesus started because John responded to something inwardly. He was hungry for what he saw. He did not understand it, but he went after it, and Jesus invited him to come and see.
It was such a simple beginning. As I call John and Andrew, Johnny and Andy, it all began for Johnny and Andy when Jesus said, “Come and see.”
But there is a great mystery behind this simple word come, is there not? John 6:44 says:
“No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him.”
—John 6:44
As Jesus spoke before the crowd, certain people were being drawn to Him. They could not see the rope being tied around their hearts. They could not see the Father behind the scenes drawing them to the Lord Jesus. This is a great and deep mystery for our lives as well.
How were we drawn in? How were we first attracted? What caused us, who were so superficial and unconcerned, to begin following? It is a wonderful mystery, is it not? Just taste and see.
The Bible says:
“Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.”
—Jeremiah 29:13
The Lord puts out enough hors d’oeuvres, as it were, hoping that you will bite—hoping that your hunger will be stirred. It is not enough merely to seek the Lord casually. He keeps Himself hidden from such people. But those who seek Him with all their hearts are going to find Him. He is there. He is findable, believe me. You just need your whole heart engaged in that thing.
The Father has left us many clues for the heart-seeker. Paul preached in Acts 14:17:
“And yet He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.”
—Acts 14:17
The Lord has given witness all over the place of His reality. Come and see Him in His creation. We spoke about this last night. That telescopic picture of a part of the galaxy is amazing. Come and see Him in His creation.
I think that is how David got caught, to tell you the truth. People get caught by Him in different ways. David was awed by creation, and his response was:
“What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?”
—Psalm 8:4
Come and see Him in your conscience. Do a global search—search your heart. Research your heart. You will find that your conscience is speaking of God and of His holy ways.
Come and see Him by connecting the dots—the dots of destiny. There are circumstances in your life that suddenly make you aware of the fact that God is leading this. Those two men said, “Did not our hearts burn within us, while He talked with us by the way?” As you connect the circumstances and the providences of your life, you begin to see the hand of God.
Come and see Him as you read the Word. If you begin reading the Word while seeking with your heart, you will find Him. All roads lead to Jesus.
If you look at the galaxies and the creation around you, you understand that we have come far short of the glorious purpose that man has in creation. We have a key part in the whole creative process, but we have fallen short of the glory of God. What does Hebrews say? “But we see Jesus.” He is the first glorious Man who made it through, and He tells us He is going to bring us through. That is our salvation right there.
If you seek with your conscience, you will inevitably think of Psalm 139:23:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts:
and see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
—Psalm 139:23-24
If your heart is truly convicted of sin, you come to the Lord and say, “Oh, Lord, examine my heart. Lead me in the everlasting way.” This is eternal life through the door of conscience brought before God, because Jesus, by His precious blood, cleanses our conscience and enables us to serve the living God.
Or perhaps you have been awakened to the reality of God by the connected dots of circumstances and destiny in your life. Then you become aware, as Psalm 139 says:
“Thou hast beset me behind and before,
and laid Thine hand upon me.”
—Psalm 139:5
You turn and try to go forward, and there is His hand. You try to go back and escape, but there is His hand. Then He lays His hand upon you. This is a done deal. God is all over you. The circumstances are leading you; they are narrowing your way down.
Then we come to the Lord and say, “Lord, You are the Lord of my life, whether I want You to be or not. You are Lord over me, and Lord, I surrender. What else can I do?”
Praise God, if you go to His Word, this Word is a tutor that leads you to Christ—not just the Law in the Old Testament, but for us as well. If we read the Word, it leads us to Christ. How wonderful.
It does not matter how you start out on this “come and see.” As you begin to taste and see that the Lord is good, you are drawn to Jesus. This is the Father’s desire: He has left all the clues around the earth, and we come and see.
“Come and see” leads us to “Come unto Me.” All of these different avenues lead us to Jesus. They lead us to that second place: “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.”
“Come unto Me”—such a personal invitation. Our brothers Jim and Sonny shared such wonderful things regarding the personal nature of God, Who knows your name and longs to bring you to Himself. He is just waiting for you to come unto Him.
Johnny and Andy, and the others, paid visits to Jesus and tasted His goodness. They visited where Jesus stayed and spent time with Him, but they were still only paying visits. When we are tasting and seeing, we are often in and out. We taste and see, then we are out again. We take another bite, say, “That is good,” and run away.
We are like some kind of bird that is afraid. Most people are like a little chicken bird: they run in, get a little food, and run away. Then they come back. You taste and see that the Lord is good, but you run away. “Oh, what is going to happen?” You keep coming around. You keep visiting His house, then going away.
But there comes a time to go home. It is time to come home. “Come unto Me.” This is your residence. He does not say, “Come unto My stuff,” or, “Come into My universe,” or, “Come unto My salvation.” He says, “Come unto Me.” “I am the Master of the home. I want you to come.”
The transition from stage one to stage two comes when we recognize our need. We come and see; we taste and see how wonderful the Lord is. But when the disciples really realized their need and their bankruptcy without Jesus, they came home to stay.
It was when they realized they could not even fish successfully unless Jesus led the way that they said, “Where else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” We have to stay right here. This is our home. Jesus is our home. We have no other choice. We cannot go out there into that world.
In the “learn of Me” stage, it is like living at home. It is the silent years. Is it not interesting how many of the great saints in the Bible had silent years? Even Jesus had years of learning faithfulness at home in the carpenter’s shop. Paul had years in Tarsus after his salvation. These are silent years, when you spend time with the Lord Himself. It is time when you are at home with Him.
These are the apprentice years. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.” You come into an apprenticeship with the Lord Jesus. Now you are working in His shop, as it were.
I remember when Brother Stephen Kong came out to speak on Long Island, outside New York City. One brother had been saved only a year, but he had been filled with the Holy Spirit and had received a gift of teaching—or so he thought. He picked up Brother Stephen at the airport and drove him to the conference.
He said, “Brother Stephen, God has given me a gift of teaching. How long do you think it takes for me to become a teacher?” Brother Stephen said, “Twenty years.” The brother almost ran off the road.
What Sonny said is true. You start working things out at home. By home, I do not mean only your own house, although that is part of it. Where you fellowship—that is home. Why do you not stay home for a while?
Some people have ants in their pants. There are many Christians who keep dancing around, tasting and seeing, and you feel they are never home. The Lord cannot get hold of them. It is hard to get hold of an apprentice if he only shows up one day a month. He is not going to learn too fast.
The home disciplines are primarily twofold. Personally, daily, you present yourself as a living sacrifice to God. This is a very important part of home life. Every day you go to your Father and say, “Dad, okay, check me. Make sure I am washed properly and dressed in a way pleasing to You.” In this case, you go to Jesus every day and present yourself to Him.
Then there is the corporate aspect—the family aspect—because you are at home now. You yoke yourself with the Master as an apprentice, and you learn His way of service in the kingdom.
The Lord takes His time in this kind of thing. We are raring to go, but the Lord would have us learn lessons before we get too far out.
On the personal basis, Romans 12:1 says:
“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.”
—Romans 12:1
You come to Him every day and present yourself to Him. This is not a big hullabaloo. It is not a big emotional thing. You just present yourself to the Lord. Present your body to Him. Present your mind to Him. Pray every day.
As a priest unto God, devote yourself in prayer and worship each day. You want to learn how to pray? I will tell you how you learn: pray to God every day. You want to be a worshiper? Worship God every day.
Brother Ben, June, and I were able recently to compile an English songbook with about 850 songs. I use it in my own devotional life every day, because there are many of those songs I do not know very well. I use a hymnbook as part of my devotional time, singing a hymn I have never heard before. Even if you can only read the words, it will bless you.
Brother Christian Chen worked with Brother Ben, June, and me as we put together this hymnbook. Brother Christian loved the Lord as a young person. One thing he did out of devotion to the Lord was memorize all the hymns in the Little Flock hymnbook.
We were going through songs in English, and he would say, “Wait a minute, there is something wrong in verse four.” He remembered verses from hymns he had memorized when he was fourteen years old. Why do you not start memorizing some hymns?
I am so happy that you young people sing hymns. You are like dinosaurs. Where do you find young people who sing hymns? I heard my friend Sherwin from Flushing call out, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” and I said, “Hooray!” He loves hymns.
I love choruses too. I write them myself. But are you a worshiper? A. B. Simpson was a famous preacher and a man of God who ministered for a long time in New York City. His life was changed when he read a little pamphlet by Fénelon.
In that pamphlet, Fénelon said something like this: “Every morning when you get up, God is waiting in your heart for you. Just read the Bible to Him and have fellowship.” That changed that busy preacher’s life.
God waits every day in your closet for you to love Him with your life. How important is that on your scale from one to ten? You get up in the morning, and you have to look good—there is no doubt about it. Some of you spend a lot of time trimming and accessorizing before you head out.
But what priority do you give to closet time with the Lord Who loves your soul? Oh, it is very important. This is where He is most likely to begin speaking to you inwardly. You want to hear His voice? This is where it usually begins: while you are reading the Scriptures and praying.
For myself, this is probably the main place where I receive impressions from the Lord about what to speak, what to do, and where to go. It is while I am praying in the morning.
Basically, you are surrendering your body, soul, and spirit to God for His life to abide and rule your life. This living sacrifice is like the whole burnt offering on the altar. You surrender your whole life, offered up to God for the day.
He will keep whatever is given to Him for that day. You have the privilege of drawing upon the great keeping power of God. If you say, “Oh God, my body is pretty in and out. Lord, I give it to You. Please keep me for today,” He will keep you for today.
That prayer does not last all week. He gives you grace to handle today’s problems. Tomorrow, you have to pray the same thing. But He will keep you if you ask Him: “Oh, keep me, Lord. Keep me. Keep my heart. Keep my emotions.” He will keep them for today.
If you forget, your default mode is self-governing self. If you do not give yourself unto the Lord, you start taking things into your own hands and putting yourself on the throne. Trouble is right around the corner.
During this time, the Lord wants to get from the outside to the inside of your life. That is why you are home right now. At first, you have the idea that He is over there and you are here. But by the Holy Spirit working this out, you realize, “He is in here.”
Positively put, He begins to teach us that we need to abide in the Vine. Daily, you come to Him and abide. The important thing is that you learn how to abide. Do you abide in Him?
If you want His life to move from outside to inside, this is a very important lesson: abide in Christ and let Him abide in you.
Negatively put, He reveals to us that the old man is dead. He cannot really live His life through you until Galatians 2:20 becomes real in your experience. Before you get too far down the road serving God and doing all kinds of things, it is good to get settled whose life is being lived through you.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.”
—Galatians 2:20
Your old man, in fact, has been crucified with Christ. Of course, the old man thinks he can live the Christian life. That is the little engine saying, “I think I can. I think I can.” Oh, no, you cannot. You cannot live the Christian life. Only Christ can live the Christian life.
That is why you are in for discouragements, inevitably—failures, falling, defeats. “Oh, my whole life is over. I failed. I tried.” That is because you had that old engine saying, “I think I can.”
We must learn that only Christ—that is, Christ in you—can live the Christian life. He has to throw up roadblocks to teach us this lesson. We start going out to serve in our own energy, and He puts up the cones. He never expected us to follow Him even in our own well-intentioned energy.
Sometimes He has to stop us in our tracks. That is like Balaam’s donkey. Balaam was riding that donkey, and it smashed him against the wall because the angel was ready to kill him. Balaam was too blind to know it. That is us—the old man trying to do things, while God is trying to stop us.
The mystery of the cross is at work throughout our lives. As soon as we become Christians, the mystery of the cross begins working. As the Lord exchanges His life for ours, this mystery of the cross works in us.
For us, it feels like frustration. It feels like failure. It feels like a civil war going on inside. But all God is trying to do is let Christ’s life live in you. He already lives in you. If you will let Him live through you, you have found the way to victory.
This mystery of the cross must be learned before we can follow in stage three.
“If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself.”
—Matthew 16:24
If we do not know that we have been crucified with Christ and that now His life lives in us, we cannot go to stage three. These are important lessons that the Lord wants us to learn.
Until the victory of His cross becomes fixed in our understanding, we cannot carry our cross. Knowing that the old man is crucified with Christ frees us to take up our cross. That is the whole point, because we take up the cross by the strength of His resurrection life.
Romans 6 teaches us that our old man was crucified with Christ. This is a finished fact. Literally, in the Greek, we have been co-crucified with Christ. When Christ was crucified on the cross, you were crucified at the same time.
You need to see that as an established fact—not, “My old man is going to be crucified,” but, “It was crucified two thousand years ago, and it has been stinking ever since.” It is a dead body.
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin.”
—Romans 6:6-7
Thank God, we are free to follow the Lord wherever He leads, since the new man is Christ in you. That is who you really are. Your new identity is not the old you trying to do something. It is Christ in you.
“Come unto Me,” and then “learn of Me.” This is what the home life is all about. In this stage, we learn abiding in Christ. That is our home.
At the same time, we find ourselves yoked together with the Master, as apprentices in His way of service in the kingdom. There is the personal side, and now there is the corporate side.
After you come unto Him and find rest, He says, “Now, take My yoke upon you. Learn from Me. I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
This is the double yoke. We put our head in one side, and Jesus puts His head in the other side. Guess Who is stronger? Of course, He pulls most of the load, but your head is in the yoke.
This is no yoking around. When Jesus moves, you move. When Jesus goes, you learn. He is a thousand horsepower, and you are maybe one-whip power. But you are learning together, and He gently teaches you how to serve.
He would never snap your neck. He says, “Put your neck in the yoke. Come on. I am going to show you how I witness.” How many of you have tried to witness in your own way? Good. Now you have seen that it was a failure. “Watch the way I witness,” He says.
Everyone imagines that they get yoked with sweet, gentle Jesus. The trouble is, you do get yoked with Jesus, but you also get yoked with another brother or another sister. Usually, it is somebody in whom you do not see Jesus at all. You think they are the ape man.
That is where we really learn the Lord. He says, “Okay, you two brothers, go plow that field.” One leans left, and the other leans right. One wants to stop for grass, and the other wants to move ahead. Your neck is getting chafed, and you wonder what is going on.
You are yoked together. You are going to learn together how to love one another and how to serve. It is not all that glamorous. “Oh, I am yoked with beautiful Jesus.” No, you may find yourself yoked with Jim. Yikes.
People who serve and work together have two sides to the story. “Oh, I love my brother. He has been faithful over the years. On the other hand, let me tell you some stories.” When you work closely with somebody, you know the whole deal. You know them in their good times and bad times.
Most great leaders and pioneer missionaries are strong-willed. They always know they are right, and everybody else has to get in line. They can be very tough to live with. But these are the lessons of the yoke.
We are yoked to the Lord with each other. Because we are yoked with each other and the Lord, we have to die. There is a lot of dying that goes on. We decrease, but the Lord increases in the family.
The Lord yokes us together with people, and through the process His life is expressed more in the assembly. It is worth staying home to learn how to wear the yoke. If you learn how to wear the yoke with the brother or sister whom the Lord puts beside you, then you can learn how to serve the Lord in any condition.
People who have never been broken can become servants of God who are very tough to deal with, because they are always loners. They have never been yoked with somebody. They do not know how to yield, be patient, or forgive.
Did you ever consider this? The Lord knows how to witness. Why do you not ask Him? The Lord knows how to lead a young people’s group. The Lord knows how to teach a Sunday school class. The Lord knows how to counsel somebody.
It is amazing that we do not ask Him these things. “Lord, what do You want me to say? What should I do?” Instead, we get the idea that we have to come up with something. And that is exactly what we do—we come up with something.
At stage two, we learn to live and serve by His life. Under the yoke, we learn to serve by His life, because there is agreement together. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Individually, we learn to live by His life as the Lord comes into us and begins to live His life through us.
Then we come to this place:
“Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
—Galatians 2:20
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
—Philippians 4:13
These are the recorded words of a man who had learned the life of Christ within him. That is why stage two is so important.
Now I want to share a little about stage three, even though I think most people are not quite there yet, just so we can get the full picture. In one sense, I have made these three stages—“Come and see,” “Come unto Me,” and “Come after Me”—simply to help you understand something.
The fact is that everyone probably lives a little in all three realms. There is something new you are learning and tasting about the Lord, and you are in stage one. There is something being internalized in you, and you are in stage two. There is also something for you to do and serve in stage three.
But predominantly, there is one stage in which you find yourself at a given time. “Come after Me” is a very deliberate choice.
“If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
—Matthew 16:24
This is not sentimental. It is something you determine to do out of your love for the Lord. The Lord is moving with a determined purpose. He is on the way. Are you willing to follow after Him?
He is on the move. He is not static. Even in your young people’s fellowship, wherever you may be, you may think things are static. They are not. The Lord is on the move. The question is: Who will follow after Him?
Because of His cross, and because you understand the exchanged life, you are now able to take up your cross and follow Him. But then you may ask, “Wait a minute. I thought we were crucified with Christ. Is there more dying to do?”
Now the disciple is dying as a new man, as a new creation. This is self-denial. As a new creation in Christ, we still have to die to self on a daily basis.
There are spiritual disciplines of body, soul, and spirit. You wake up in the morning, even as a new creation, and your body wants to stay in bed another hour. Somehow, you have to tell your body what to do.
There are also sacrifices of love and service rendered to the Master. These are sacrifices because you have denied something—your right, your privilege, or what you thought you should have—in order to do something the Lord wanted you to do.
As you serve, the cross works in you and produces life in others. When you serve the Lord, there is sacrifice and there is a dealing of the Lord in your life. As you go through that process, the Lord’s life is given to others.
As disciples, we have to keep the big picture:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
—John 3:30
Now that I am a new man in Christ does not mean I start increasing. Still, He must increase and I must decrease. In practical terms, the way to fullness involves an emptying of self so that Christ can be the fullness of our life.
We find many areas where we must be emptied so that Christ can be the fullness of our life. These are practical things. He says, “No, deny that today,” and He becomes your fullness as you do so.
The disciplinary life of the Holy Spirit, learned at home in stage two—“Come unto Me and learn of Me”—prepares us to live and serve in His kingdom. There must be something settled in our hearts: we are not holding on to anything.
We may have things, and we are thankful for them, but we are willing to give them up at a moment’s notice. As one preacher said, “We always have a bag packed, ready to go.”
The disciple keeps the long-range view:
“For our light affliction, which is for the moment, worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.”
—2 Corinthians 4:17
There is a great reward for those who serve the Lord. He is so merciful. He rewards us far more than anybody deserves. He says, “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.”
He will reward us with glory, but we go through momentary light afflictions. You have to keep that bigger picture. The way to glory and conformity to our Lord involves going along a similar path of affliction as He did.
I started out as a Baptist minister many moons ago. I had been a Christian only a couple of years, and I was already a pastor. Do not ask me why. I spoke to a very famous Baptist preacher as I was preparing to go to seminary, and I asked him about ministry.
He said, “Let me tell you the truth. When you minister, you are going to go through a season of popularity, followed by a season of criticism, followed by a season of opposition, and probably followed by crucifixion. Does that sound familiar?”
That is the pattern of our Lord’s ministry. He began popular; then there was criticism, opposition, and the cross. The preacher said, “That is exactly what happens to a servant of God. You begin popular, people criticize, people oppose, and then they give you the shoe.”
Of course, then in resurrection life you come up again with more life than you had before. That is your future.
I thought a preacher was supposed to get bigger and better and better until he had to rent a basketball stadium. Well, I cannot speak for other people, but all I know is that the Lord takes us through affliction similar to His own life. That is how we bear testimony.
Why do you think John had the testimony of Jesus in his life? It was because he bore similar afflictions. None of us can bear the redemptive sufferings that Jesus bore. We are not talking about that. We are talking about living in a world opposed to the things of God and remaining faithful in the midst of it.
For the joy set before us, we are willing to defer present worldly comfort and present worldly convenience. Everybody else may have them, but we say, “I am going to put that off. I think the Lord wants me to do this.”
Many people are so overinvested in the world that when opportunities come to serve, they cannot serve. Every time you make a decision—for promotion, more schooling, more money—you close certain doors that may never be opened again.
The Lord does not say that we should all rent apartments and become part-time painters for the rest of our lives. But many choices we make, when we are grabbing the brass ring of the world, come back to haunt us later.
I know many brothers who had a call of God upon their lives and never fulfilled their calling because they became too caught up with all the rings of the world they had to grab. It is a deadly game, and Christians end up losers.
Does anyone really want to come after Him? Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him.
“For ye were called for freedom, brethren; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another.”
—Galatians 5:13
By the grace of God, we have been set free from sins and from sin as the operational principle in our lives. We have been set free to live for Him. You and I have been set free. Think about it. His work on the cross has set us free. It is wonderful—absolutely wonderful.
But now we must choose what to do with our freedom. Consider how you will live, and how you will spend the days in the freedom He won for you. How are you going to spend those days?
“If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself.” This is a free choice—a choice of the will. You do not have to do it. Your education in Who the Lord is may stop. Your spiritual reward may be forfeited. But you do not have to go.
You may say, “That is not fair. You make it sound as though I have to go.” No, you have a free will.
“Whosoever would save his life shall lose it:
and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake, he shall save it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self?”
—Luke 9:24-25
Our crucified and resurrected self in Christ has three options: self-preservation, self-gratification, or sacrifice. What do you want?
Let us summarize what we mean by denying self. Our self has been redeemed, cleansed, sanctified, and set free. It is not perfect, but Christ dwells in us, and He sanctifies us by His Spirit. We have a self, and it is not a bad self.
Jesus is not talking about denying our old self in the sense of saying, “I love to smoke, but I cannot smoke,” or, “I love to drink beer, but I cannot drink beer,” or, “I love movies, but I cannot go to movies.” He is not talking about that kind of denial of old sinful temptations.
As a person, we must choose to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Our self must continue its training in the unnatural art of living by the life of Another—the life of Christ in us.
Jesus had a self. Jesus was a person like you, but He always submitted Himself to God’s will. He always came under the priority of Another.
Jesus denied Himself whenever His spirit told His soul and body to get up without a full night’s sleep in order to pray. You may say that is a small thing. Oh no, it is not. He needed rest, especially in the midst of the ministry He was doing. Yet the Spirit woke Him early to go into the mountains and pray, and He obeyed the Spirit’s leading rather than the body’s leading.
That is denying yourself. While His Father worked, He served the multitudes with compassion, even when others told Him to rest. Sometimes He served for days without rest, but He found rest in the Father. He simply said, “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.”
Of course, He also rested sometimes when people did not work, and that too can be denying yourself.
He had personal preferences but denied partiality in dealing with others. Judas Iscariot was among the twelve. If I were Jesus, I would have beaten Judas up by the third day. But Jesus showed no partiality in His love. He loved even the lepers and the most unlovely.
Furthermore, He had thoughts and judgments of His own, but He kept these things to Himself. What self-denial that must have been—to see so much that was being judged by God, to see so much going on, and still to keep His mouth shut and offer grace, grace, grace.
If anybody had to deny Himself, it was Jesus. Just walking through this earth, so many things must have risen to the surface—anger, injustice, and all kinds of things. Yet He had to let them go.
We are asked to do the same thing. Spiritual disciplines of body and soul are necessary to serve the Lord. Opportunities to minister often come when we are tired, preoccupied, upset, busy, or generally not feeling too spiritual.
Have you noticed that when you are feeling spiritual, there is not much to do except feel spiritual? But when you are tired, everything has gone wrong at work or school, and you feel terrible—that is when Mabel calls and asks, “Could you talk to me for six hours on the phone?”
Then somebody has to deny himself. The flesh continually needs to be held back, because the flesh always wants to take over and rule by our own thoughts and actions.
Even when you are serving God, self wants to take over. “Let me take hold of this thing. What is the matter with these people? Can they organize their way out of a paper bag? I will take over.” Then everybody backs up, and the body of Christ is dying because you are taking over.
This sacrifice of self can only be out of devotion to the Master. This third stage is a freewill offering you make to the Lord because you love Him so much. You say, “Lord, I could go my own way and have all the things everybody else has. But, Lord, I love You so much. If You tell me what to do, I will do it.”
The Lord asks us, “Do you love Me?” He asked Peter that, did He not? Then He asks us to sacrifice something of ourselves for Him. This is the highest kind of sacrifice. It is the most costly and the most precious because it is given from the heart.
Remember two things about our cross. First, we must deny ourselves before we can carry a specific cross. The cross is not a general thing about our lives; it is specific. It is a particular way we are supposed to go, a particular attitude, or a particular thing we are asked to do.
Second, in some way we must choose to carry this cross. Sometimes a cross is laid upon us, not by our own choice. Yet the object is to embrace that cross. There is still a choice involved—a self-denial by our free will.
When somebody comes down with a sickness, that is not necessarily a cross unless he takes that sickness and says, “Lord, I give You this thing. I am willing to serve You despite this thing, by Your grace.” Then it becomes a cross that can bring glory to the Lord.
This sacrifice may ask us to deny ourselves good things—things given to us by God. At the end of Luke 9, people came to Jesus and said, “Lord, I will follow Thee.” Jesus said that foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.
What was He really saying? “Do you want Me, or do you want a house?” Sometimes the Lord seems to give you blessing after blessing. Perhaps He is waiting to see whether you will say, “No, Lord. What do You want me to do?”
Think of Elijah and Elisha. When Elijah was going up to heaven, Elisha followed him. Elijah kept saying, “Stay here. I have to go on.” But Elisha said, “No, I am following you.” It seemed as though Elijah was trying to get rid of him, but he was testing him to see whether he would settle down somewhere and take the easy road instead of staying with his master to the end.
I will be bold enough to say that our blessings can be a direct test of whether we will follow the Lord or sit down.
We all want comfort. We all love comfort. We live in Canada and the United States because they are among the most comfortable places in the world. What if the Lord says, “Will you give up your comfort for Me?” What is your answer?
You may want comfort, a nice house, prosperity, a promotion, or leisure. None of these things is automatically wrong. You can serve the Lord and prosper. You can serve the Lord and own a house. You can serve the Lord and receive a promotion.
The point is this: Are you willing to give up your rights to serve the Lord? You have certain inalienable rights—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We say, “I have my rights. I can do whatever I want.” But the Lord says, “I have taken over your rights, if you want to follow Me.”
It may be a sacrifice for a short period of time. It may be a sacrifice for the rest of your life. It may be a Saturday each month given entirely to seeking His face. Have you ever done that? Just pray and read the Bible. No music, no MP3s, no phone calls, no computer, no emails—the Bible and you.
Many self-centered Christians today do not even believe God would ask such sacrifices: giving up safety, money, a big house, recreation, entertainment, creature comforts, or avoidance of pain.
But in the Bible, all such things were given up by servants of the King because they saw the larger picture and knew a larger Lord.
Abraham gave it all up to follow the Lord. Hannah gave up Samuel, her only son at the time. John the Baptist gave up marriage and a normal life in society. He remained apart, sanctified, and holy in order to be the forerunner of the Lord.
Once the Lord came, John the Baptist was taken out of the way, thrown into prison, and eventually beheaded. His whole life was a sacrifice.
Esther said, “If I perish, I perish.” It was for a larger purpose—for the sake of her people. Moses was asked to lay down his old life at eighty years old and go down to Egypt to bring the people out.
The apostle Paul’s whole life was a sacrifice, a sweet-smelling aroma offered to God. He gave everything. He did not have much money or many possessions. All he had was the Lord, and look what he gave us.
The believer finds himself like Jesus in this willing sacrifice. Jesus said:
“Lo, I am come to do Thy will.”
—Hebrews 10:9
The lover of God is willing to deny himself and say the same thing.
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.”
—Philippians 2:5-7
Paul saw this as the inspiration of his own self-emptying. In Philippians, Paul was emptying himself, emptying himself, and emptying himself, because he saw that this is Jesus’ way to glory.
Sacrifice out of devotion to the Master often takes one of two forms. God accomplishes His work through sacrificial giving, and God accomplishes His work through the sacrificial lives of devoted servants.
There were precious brothers and sisters in China during the days of Watchman Nee who were able to help the work greatly because they gave sacrificially. Joseph, also called Barnabas, gave what he had in Jerusalem to help the saints.
But God also accomplishes His work through sacrificial lives. C. T. Studd was a famous cricket player who became an English missionary. He served in China, then India, and later Africa. In Africa, he spent another twenty years and helped establish a mission that brought revival to the Congo.
C. T. Studd said:
“Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”
The motto of the mission he started, Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, was this:
“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”
There is a lover of God—somebody willing to give his life. He was plowed into China for a while, India for a while, and Africa for a while. We know his name because books have been written about him, but he gave his life—wasted his life, as it were—for the Lord Jesus.
What does Paul mean when he says, “I die daily,” in 1 Corinthians 15? Paul had already died to the world. His old man had already been crucified, and he lived by Christ’s life. But “I die daily” means that Paul daily put his life at risk to serve the Lord.
“Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
I protest by that glorying in you, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.”
—1 Corinthians 15:30-31
Every day Paul got up, and he had a choice. He could remain comfortable and preserve his life, knowing that there were people in the marketplace and hostile cities who wanted to kill him. He could retreat or go. He died daily and went. He put his life at risk again for the sake of the gospel.
Does the Lord really need our sacrifice? Is He asking it for Himself, or for us? What secret is discovered through sacrifice?
One thing I notice when I talk to people who have sacrificed their lives is that they never feel as though it was a sacrifice. I wonder why that is.
The sacrifice of self always begins in the heart. You do not simply volunteer and say, “You know what? I am going to India. I want to suffer for the Lord.” You can go to India without suffering; it is a pretty nice place.
The point is that this is a heart attitude. It is a willingness to take any of your rights and things, at any moment, and put them to the side. We do not volunteer where we will sacrifice, how we will sacrifice, how much we will sacrifice, or how long we will sacrifice.
We willingly accept the cross from Him when asked. That, in itself, is an aromatic sacrifice. In your heart, are you truly willing? Will you simply live for Him today in free surrender?
Many of us are still in this “Come unto Me and learn of Me” stage. You may not be at the stage where the Lord puts these things into operation in your vocation, your decisions, your marriage, your family, where you will live, or what you will do. That may come later.
But in your heart, you can be settled today: “Lord, I am willing. I surrender my life to You today, and I am willing to go and do whatever You want me to do, because I am a lover of Jesus.”
What do we gain? Jesus tells us:
“Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for My sake, and for the gospel’s sake, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
—Mark 10:29-30
A hundred times more, with persecutions. He throws that in as an extra bonus. But there are also the liberating joys of intimacy, revelation, and power entrusted to His bondservants.
What a place to come to—a place where you are a trusted bondservant, and He starts revealing things to you and sharing intimacies with you. You see this in the life of Paul and in the life of John. The Lord begins revealing Himself to His bondservants in wonderful ways.
What does He gain? He gains a friend. The Lord gains a vessel of honor that does not complain about the sacrifice.
If somebody is complaining about the sacrifice, either it was not a freewill decision, or they are going back on it. But how wonderful is somebody who serves the Lord and does not complain. That is a testimony.
Such saints are few and far between: a broken vessel that exudes a sweet aroma through a sacrifice lovingly given. The person is happy to give his life to the Lord. It is not a sorrowful cry—“I have to do this for the Lord.” It is joyful sacrifice.
It is a testimony on earth that God is loved for Who He is, and not simply for what He gives. How precious is that?
He gains a vessel He can use to serve the larger matters of His eternal purpose. He brings somebody up higher.
Life begins with “Come and see.” Many of you may still be in that stage, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. I am so glad that you have found some hunger. I cannot believe that you are here without some hunger ticking in your hearts.
Praise God for that. Taste and see that the Lord is good. I hope you can take off all the religious veils and things that cause burnout, and get a firsthand taste of what the Lord is really like.
He will be found by you when you search for Him with all your heart. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Come and see. Just come and see.
But life really grows and takes root when we come unto Him. There are many Christians running around in the wilderness who show up every once in a while for a canteen of water. The Lord gives it to them and blesses them, and then they run back into the wilderness. But they do not have a home.
They are homeless Christians, wandering around and trying to find another taste. But when you come home, your life begins to grow.
Then life finds its fullness when we come to the place where we can run after Him, denying ourselves in order to follow Him and gain Him in His wonderful fullness.
Dear brothers and sisters, I want to make one appeal tonight. I want to pray for those here who need to come home.
You have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, but now you need to come to Him and find your home in Him. You need to take His yoke upon you and learn of Him. You need to lay your life before Him and hear His voice. It is time for home. It is time for apprenticeship. It is time for the silent years.
The Lord considers all of you precious. He loves your soul, and He died for you. But some of you need to come home. Some of you have come home and then run back out.
When you run back out, you try to taste and see that the Lord is good out there. Occasionally, you may get a good drink of water, but it is not the same. Once you have been home and had a full meal with the Lord, it is not the same as getting little snacks and hors d’oeuvres in the wilderness.
Some of you laid your lives on the altar, but then you sprang out because of college, business, or whatever. You need to come home, because it is home where you grow. It is not running around. You may have great excitement at a college Christian fellowship, but it is home where you grow up.
The Lord wants you to learn valuable lessons there so that you can be of greater value later on. Will you come home?
Perhaps somebody here has been present throughout the week, but you have never come home. You have never come to the Lord Himself. You have wanted to hear the Lord and know the Lord. You have tasted something here and there, but you need to come home to the Lord for the first time.
I would not want to close without praying for that. Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Behind my simple word, “Come,” we rely on You, Father, to draw those whom You would bring to the Lord Jesus. We know that Your Spirit has been faithful to us throughout the week. We thank You for the outstanding spirit among our brothers and sisters here.
Lord, just before we go—some ready to head off to college, some ready for business, a job, or moving to another place—it is so easy to get away from home. But Lord, You are the home that we need.
Help us do what I sang: “I am going home, back to where a friend is still a friend at the end.” Lord, work it in our hearts so that we would know our home even when we are away from home.
Lord, we dare not go out into this world unless we are based right there. Extend that invitation one more time for those who want to come unto You, come home, consecrate themselves, put on the yoke, and begin to learn the stable lessons—the real lessons, the disciplined lessons—that will make them vessels of honor in the days ahead.
Lord, reach into the hearts of those who are conflicted right now. Reach into the hearts of those who are stubborn, with melting love. In the end, You respect our free will, but You long for Your children. Bring them home, Lord. Bring them home.
Now, while we remain in prayer, if you are one of those people who needs to come home before leaving this conference—if you want to register, “Lord, I am coming home”—I want you to stand where you are.
You may be a Christian who has been home, gone away, and needs to come back. You may be somebody who has tasted and seen but has never come home for the first time. I invite you to stand right now.
Maybe you have been touched this week. We have had a wonderful time, and you have been blessed by being with other brothers and sisters. But unless home becomes real to you, as soon as you leave this place, you are back in the wilderness.
Oh Lord, Your precious children stand before You—at all different places in their lives and at different levels of understanding. Yet even this week, by Your mercy, You have allowed us to taste and see that You are good.
Lord, we have nothing against You. Even if we have been let down by parents, Christians, churches, fellowships, youth groups, or cliques of people, You have never let us down. We would not dare go off anywhere without coming home to You.
Thank You for my dear brothers and sisters who stand here. In the name of Jesus, I pray that You will consecrate their lives. Cleanse them, Lord. Remove from them sins, disobedience, and turning away. Bring them back fully to Yourself.
Lord, they know how much they love You in their hearts—more than they could ever really say without just blubbering and crying. Lord, we love You so much, and we thank You for the opportunity to come home and register again how good it is to be home.
Oh Lord, keep those who are coming home. Keep them from the enemy. Keep them from the world. Keep them from disastrous choices. Oh God, keep them, Lord—those who come home.
We thank You for everybody here. For those coming home, perhaps for the very first time in salvation, Lord, arrest their hearts right now by Your cleansing flood. Come into their lives, Lord Jesus, and let them taste and see what You are like on the inside as well as on the outside.
Oh Lord, we all say, “Taste and see. The Lord is good. The Lord is good.” Bless my dear brothers and sisters who stand here tonight. Help them, even tonight as they go to bed, to pray for one another in humility and mercy, for God’s keeping and God’s help on the road ahead.
We pray for Jesus’ sake and in His precious name. Amen.
Thank you, dear brothers and sisters. Be seated.