Lord, we do come to Thee this morning. Lord, I come before You concerning this word this morning. We want to hear from You, Lord. We hear a lot from man, but we do want to hear from Your throne this morning.
And Lord, at the same time, we humble ourselves. We are just dust of the earth trying to share Your word with one another. We ask that the Holy Spirit would really quicken us this morning. Make us alive to Your word, Lord. Give us that something inside that responds, Lord, when You speak.
Lord, we do want You to speak, and You alone. Lord, we ask, both for our speaking and hearing this morning, that You would bless.
And Lord, this thing about being a pioneer—I just pray that You can really get through me this morning, that You can get the burden that is on Your heart clear, Lord, and get it laid out. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, I have been sharing on the life of Abraham so long, apparently having a struggle leaving Abraham behind. Last time, I actually did a eulogy for Abraham because we had come to that chapter where he had passed away, and I thought that I could move on to Isaac.
But in the prayer meeting Wednesday night, my brother prayed a prayer about being a pioneer, and that has been on my heart ever since. So, we are going to have one more thought on the life of Abraham.
We need to turn to Hebrews 11. Beginning with verse 8, we will read verses 8, 9, and 10; then verse 13; and then Hebrews 12:1-2.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out unto a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;
and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,
and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Another word for pilgrim is pioneer. They were strangers, like pioneers, on this earth.
Therefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
Then I want to read Philippians 2:5-9.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him,
and given Him a name which is above every name.
Well, as we have been studying this life of Abraham, we see God the Father in the life of Abraham. He is the originator of everything. He is the originator of Abraham’s spiritual life, just as He is the originator of your life.
As you go on in your Christian life, you find out that really, things originate with God. It is the things that originate with God that cause you to go on and pursue Him.
When Abraham was a young man, it says that the God of glory appeared to him. The God of glory appeared to him, and his life was changed forever.
Prior to that, he was living the everyday, normal life of making it through, just like you and I. History, or tradition, says that his father was an idol maker, so he was probably in the business of making idols, which was prospering.
Isn’t that where the Lord found us? Just going about our everyday life, not considering Him? In this case, Abraham was in a religious occupation—the wrong one, of course. But he was occupied, and the God of glory spoke to him. The point is that he was never the same after that. He was a changed man.
Most of us in here, probably maybe even all of us, have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether you realize it or not, you are a changed person. You are a new creation in Christ.
You were born one person in Adam, through your parents, through the bloodline of Adam. But now, through the bloodline of Christ, you have been born again in a new creation. You are a new person.
Abraham’s life was changed. He could no longer be satisfied with what he was doing. It was not what God had for him, and he needed to press on. He could no longer be satisfied just living life, trying to meet the needs of life, trying to just make it through, because when God met him, He called him to a higher calling.
He said, “Abraham, you have to leave everything. You have to forsake all and follow Me, and I want you to go to the promised land.”
Abraham did not know what the promised land was. When you first accept the Lord Jesus Christ, you do not know the road that lies ahead. We only get a glimpse of the glory of the future.
But Abraham saw the God of glory, and it changed him. When the Lord said, “Abraham, I want you to forsake all. I want you to go to the promised land,” Abraham said, “Okay.” Abraham went out not knowing where he was going.
He had met God, and he had become a pioneer. The King James says, “a stranger and a pilgrim.” He was a pioneer. In other words, he was not one who could settle down into earthly things now. He had become a pioneer of heavenly things, and he had to press on.
He went out on his quest to know God, to see what God was talking about in this matter of the promised land, to pursue God’s pursuits in his life. His earthly pursuits had now been put behind him.
Though he would have to provide for his family and do all the normal things that we all do, he had a higher pursuit in his life. He had become a pilgrim, a pioneer.
You know, I got to thinking about pioneers. I thought about the Mayflower. In the early—what, 1609? We have history students here—the 1600s, they got on the Mayflower. That boat took sixty-some days.
They were pioneers, and they traveled to a new land. They lived a difficult life. In fact, most of them perished that first winter here.
Not long after that, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. They too had such a difficult life. They were pioneers pressing out into this new horizon, this new vision, this new place where they could worship God in freedom and not be controlled by a state church.
Later on, it is interesting: this Appalachian mountain range, which runs from Maine to Georgia, was an obstacle to their going west. But later on, we had pioneers such as Daniel Boone, and they opened up the way through the Cumberland Gap.
Tennessee, I think, is where Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia meet—the Cumberland Gap. They opened up the way. They were pioneers, and people began to move west. They did not stop until they got to the Pacific Ocean. But that was not good enough for the pioneers.
In our day, in our age, we have had men who actually walked on the moon. Now we have the Hubble telescope—pioneers of the universe, looking out, peering. We have seen things that seemed impossible, worlds that we never knew existed.
We found this out because there were pioneers. Now, that is in the natural. That is the natural man.
We have been called to be pioneers. As our brother T. Austin-Sparks says, pioneers of the heavenly way: to search out the vistas of Christ, to search out the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Yes, we know Christ is our Savior. But have we gone beyond that? That is just the beginning. There must be a pressing on, as that song says, the upward way.
Abraham was a pioneer seeking the Lord and all that the Lord had. He had that pioneer spirit, and it stayed with him all of his life, from the time the God of glory met him until he lay in the grave.
Along the way, think of what Abraham saw. Not only did the God of glory meet him, but a number of times God spoke to him and gave him promises of a seed that would be born through him. This seed would be the blessing of the whole earth.
God made covenants with Abraham—covenants that God said, “I will keep.” Abraham, I have discovered you cannot keep them, but I am going to keep them.
He has made a covenant with you and me, brothers and sisters, and He is going to bring us to glory. He is going to keep that covenant.
But we should always, in our hearts, have this pioneer spirit: always seeking something of the Lord, always searching, always allowing the Lord to work in our lives that we might experience something new of Him.
We have learned much of the doctrines of the word of God, and that is good. But, brothers and sisters, what really counts is our experience of Him. That is only done by pioneers. They are the ones who experience the newness—the first time, the first way.
Christ Himself said, “Abraham saw My day, and he rejoiced.” I do not know if it was when he beheld Isaac for the first time, but He said Abraham saw Christ’s day and rejoiced. There was a rejoicing in his heart.
Is there rejoicing in your heart today? You have seen Christ. Is He still fresh in your heart? Is He still alive in your heart? Are you rejoicing in Christ? He saw Christ’s day, and he rejoiced.
Not only did he see Christ, but he saw Christ in God’s great purpose. In eternity, whatever we may be called to do, we know that God has purposed for His Son to have a bride, to have that helpmate, to serve with Him, to complement Him, and to be able to express and show forth the fullness of Christ. That is what we are called to.
And Abraham got a glimpse of that. He was a true pioneer. No wonder it says Abraham is the father of faith. Our lineage goes back to Abraham, not Adam anymore. God said that Abraham believed Him, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
You look at the lineage of Christ in Matthew; it starts with Abraham. Father of faith.
You know, Abraham made it through as a pioneer. He did make it. Praise the Lord. He survived as a pioneer. And you know why? Because he believed God. When God spoke to him, he believed.
He did not just believe in God; he believed God. What a big difference. So many today, you could ask them, “Do you believe in God?” and many will say, “Yeah.” But do you believe God?
God has spoken to you. If you are a child of His, I know He has spoken to you. But have you responded? Have you believed? Do you believe Him?
When He says there is going to be a thousand-year kingdom—that we are living in the age of grace, but, praise the Lord, we are going to turn a corner one day, maybe not too long from now, and it is going to be the kingdom, where Christ will be reigning and ruling on this earth—I do not know. Do you believe that?
I think we believe in heaven because we all want to be in that nice, peaceful place of rest. But I have a feeling, brothers and sisters, that eternity is not just going to be lying around.
I do not know what God has in mind, but if He created this multitude of worlds that we see out there, and this new creation that it says He is going to make, it is no telling what He might come up with and have us involved in.
But I guarantee you, everything that we will be involved in will be concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, and the glory of His Son.
Well, let me ask you: do you know this God of Abraham? The same God who spoke to Abraham is the God who spoke to your heart.
Abraham became a pilgrim. Are you a pilgrim? Abraham became a pioneer. Are you a pioneer, or have you just settled down? Do you know you are a pioneer? Do you know where this pioneer spirit came from?
Let me ask a question: who is the greatest pioneer? What would your response be if I asked you who you thought the greatest pioneer was?
It is Jesus Christ, the greatest pioneer of all. It says that He was equal with God, in heaven, at the throne, on the throne—and He left the throne. He left His place of power and authority.
And you know what? It says He took on flesh. He became a man. Think of that. Is that not the pioneering spirit?
God, the all-knowing God, had never experienced what it was to actually live in the flesh and be a man. But He did that, brothers and sisters, for your and my sake.
It says that He did not come and take a high place. He did not replace the kings of this earth, but He humbled Himself and took on the form of a servant of all things.
He had to do this in order to redeem man, to save you and me. Pioneer of the heavenly way—our Lord Jesus Christ. And the heavenly way is the way of the cross. He had to go to the cross.
God had never experienced being crucified, but He was crucified on Calvary’s cross. Men despised Him. They hated Him, and eventually crucified Him.
But because of the work of Calvary, today, as we have said, we can have a relationship with Him. We can become His sons, the sons of God, and we have an inheritance in Him, in Christ. All because of Calvary.
Jesus Christ, the great pioneer. Brothers and sisters, that is why you have a pioneering spirit in your own heart: because you have Jesus Christ in your heart.
It is the heavenly way that He has pioneered for us, and we too are called to walk that heavenly path as pioneers. For us, it is new. But we can make it through because the real Pioneer has made it through.
You know, I guess what is on my heart this morning is that we not settle down in our spiritual life.
Abraham was a pioneer, but he had his struggles. We have this pioneering spirit in our hearts. It is there because you have Christ. That pioneering spirit is wanting you to get up and pursue the ways of God, to pursue God Himself, to pursue what God has and His purpose for your life—that heavenly purpose.
But alas, there is still another life there within us. It loves the things of this world. It loves the pleasures of this world. It desires to just settle down.
For us older ones, we always look forward to retirement. I retired and decided that was not for me.
But there is that other spirit. The word of God says the flesh fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit fights against the flesh—that other spirit that wants you to settle down, even in your spiritual walk, in your life with the Lord.
It wants you just to settle down and say, “It is okay, Lord. I am satisfied where I am. Thank You, Lord, for Your blessing. Lord, I just want to live in Your blessings.”
The Lord says, “Yes, but I have got far more than just blessings.” In fact, the blessings in your life are to encourage you, to strengthen you, to bring you along, that you might walk the heavenly way; that you might become the pioneer that I have called you to be; that you might search out the vistas of the fullness of Jesus Christ in your life personally.
You know, the most dangerous part of Abraham’s life—and we have talked about it a number of times—was when Abraham came out, got halfway to the promised land, and settled down in Haran with his family and his father.
You cannot determine from the word of God how long he was there, but it does appear it was many, many years, because he began to prosper there. He prospered materially, greatly, while he was in Haran.
He was settling down. Was he where God wanted him to be? Abraham was becoming more and more satisfied as to where he was. He was being blessed, prosperous; things were going well.
And the God of glory met him again. Thank God for His mercy and grace, because God had to originate the stirring up of his heart. He was just satisfied. He had settled down. He had become a settler, not a pioneer.
God would not stop. Thank the Lord for His faithfulness, brothers and sisters. He said, “Abraham, you cannot settle down here. I called you to the promised land. Now respond. Get up and go on.”
In Haran, brothers and sisters, he was prospering materially, but that pioneer spirit was withering and was weak—until the God of glory once again met him, stirred up his heart, and said, “Let us go on.”
Thank God, Abraham responded. I think that is one of the great characteristics of Abraham: when God would speak to him, he would respond. He would make mistakes, but when God spoke to him, he would respond. Thank the Lord for that.
While Abraham was in Haran, that vision had dulled in his heart and his mind. His appreciation for what lay ahead of him had dwindled. He had lost an appreciation for his inheritance, the promise.
That is why I mentioned this thousand-year kingdom. That is your inheritance as a child of God. We will see—that is for another day.
Because of a lack of appreciation for his inheritance, he was settling down, becoming a settler. But God quickened that pioneering spirit in Abraham, and he rose up.
Excuse me, and he went on to the promised land. The word of God is so great. It says, “And into the land he came.” It was as if the Spirit was saying, “Finally, Abraham, hallelujah, you have come into this promised land.”
Read it. I always get tickled when I read it because it emphasizes, “And into the land of Canaan … he came.” He came into the promised land. Into the land he came.
Two spirits: one calling you to be a pioneer, never stopping, never settling down; the other spirit saying, “Take the blessings. Be satisfied with those. Take your prosperity. Enjoy it. Live with it. Settle down. Enjoy your life. Be at ease.”
And it steals your heart. It steals your heart.
Well, what about you? Which spirit is in control of your life? Is it the pioneering spirit, or that spirit that wants you to settle down?
If you are just going through motions—coming to meetings, going home, going about your business, just kind of going through the motions—you are not living the pioneer life. You have become religious.
You become religious, not spiritual, but religious.
You may, in your walk with the Lord, become offended with Him. Maybe there is something you asked of Him that He did not provide to you. Maybe there was a tragedy which you have difficulty with and cannot understand why God allowed such a thing. You are offended.
You may be offended with a brother or sister and say, “I will never go there again.” Offenses can destroy the pioneer life.
But if you will just listen, take time and listen to that pioneer spirit within you, it will say, “Lay this thing down. Put it behind you. Let the Lord take care of it.”
The Lord has borne our griefs. He has healed our wounds. Those are not just physical wounds; those are wounds in your soul. You may have been deeply wounded, and the pioneering spirit has been repressed.
Brothers and sisters, I can only say that if you will take Jesus Christ as your healing—the healing of your soul—He will bring you through into glory. What you saw as so tragic will become the foundation of a much more glorious spiritual life.
I can remember personally one time being in such a state that I had become convinced I was losing my mind. Those around me thought I was losing it.
One night, I remember lying in the bed. The Lord spoke to me. He said, “Jerry, I restore your soul.”
And you know, He did. Now, that was a process. It did not just happen like that. But that was the foundation—the Lord speaking to me—of that restoration, of getting back in the race, of once again having that pioneer spirit rise up in me and wanting to know the Lord and seek the Lord.
I found the Lord in a new way in that experience, is what I am trying to say. Sometimes the deepest experiences are the ones where we see the Lord the most.
Well, you may just be dismayed. You look around and you say, “Boy, all these Christians—and what? They are not any better off than I am.” Dismay.
What was the Lord’s word to Joshua? “Be not dismayed. Be of good courage.”
Now, brothers and sisters, you cannot look inside and find that courage. You cannot overcome your dismay by looking inside. How do you overcome it? You know, tell me. Looking where?
Looking off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith.
There may be mountains in your life that seem insurmountable, mountains that are destroying your view of Christ, mountains that are obstructing the way, it seems like.
The Lord says, if you just have the faith of a grain of mustard seed, you can speak to the mountain and cast it into the sea. Just a little faith.
When you see those mountains, brothers and sisters, in your life, can there be just a little exercise of that little faith? Just exercise it and say, “Lord, I see the mountain, but I see You, and I believe You, Lord, more than I believe the mountain.” And you will find yourself on the other side.
You may have failed the Lord, like Peter. Remember, Peter denied the Lord. I can imagine how devastating that was to Peter’s life.
The Lord had spoken to His disciples and said, “Whoever denies Me before men, I will deny them before My Father in heaven.” I can just think of Peter remembering the Lord’s words and saying, “I have denied Him three times.”
Peter could have lived in despair the rest of his life. But the Lord met Peter. The word does not tell us anything about that conversation. It was just between Him and Peter. All we know is that it occurred. The Lord had spoken to Peter and restored Peter.
What I am trying to say is, there are times in our lives when we greatly fail the Lord. We look at ourselves and we say, “Well, that is it.” But it is not over.
The Lord will not let it be over. He is going to speak to you and restore you. All that is required of you is to be willing to listen and respond. That pioneering spirit in you will respond. It is still there.
You may have left the Lord for various reasons, and your departure may not have been over some spectacular incident in your life. It may have been very gradual—just drifting along.
One day, you find out you are not really communing with the Lord anymore. Your fellowship has dried up, and you are just out there. The things of the world have become more precious to you, and so you have basically traded the world for the Lord.
The only thing I know, brothers and sisters, that can restore you is an encounter with the Lord. He may be encountering you today. He may be speaking to you today.
The word of God says—and the Lord said this, God said it Himself, to the people of Israel—“If you will return to Me, I will return to you.” If you will return to Me, I will return to you.
You may be battle weary. We have been together for over thirty years now, and it is a spiritual warfare. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.
The enemy, I guarantee you, is out to take every one of us out, and he works very diligently. Over the years, you can just get battle weary.
I remember David’s men. It says they were weary, but pressing on—wearied, thirsty, worn out from battles already, but pressing on. That is the spirit of a pioneer, of a warrior.
One thing touched my heart one day: that scripture—I wish I could tell you exactly where it was—but it says that David was really weary and discouraged. But David strengthened himself in the Lord.
He strengthened himself in the Lord. He realized his condition, and he said, “Lord, let’s go.”
The word of God is so wonderful. It says:
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint.
That is what the Lord can do in our life.
The cares of life may have suppressed this pioneering spirit in us. What I mean by that is, even the Lord warned us about the cares of life.
Just living this everyday life, paying the bills, making it through, taking care of the children, raising them up, putting food on the table, shortly trying to deal with the IRS forms for taxes—I mean, all those kinds of things we have to deal with.
Then there are family problems: brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, parents—all kinds of issues and problems. These things keep adding weights to your life.
All of these are legitimate things that you have to deal with. They are not sinful. But more and more, we kind of find ourselves trying to carry these things on our shoulders.
The Lord says, “No, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Come unto Me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden.” That is His response to us.
Well, we need to look off unto Jesus.
I think three things really stabilized Abraham’s life, and it all had to do with his revelation of God:
He gave himself to the God of glory. He gave himself to Christ, and he gave himself to God’s purpose. He became the pioneer.
It was not good enough for Abraham just to think about this heavenly city. He pursued it, brothers and sisters. He wanted to be a part of it. Thank the Lord, when we look into the New Jerusalem, we see him there.
You know, we try to gather together here. We want to be the house of God. We want to be that representation of that city that is to come, that bride of Christ.
No, we are not there, and we will not be. But one day He will have it.
But I guess what I am asking is: are you actively involved in God’s purpose, pressing on as a pioneer? I think that is one of the hardest things a pioneer has to do: to be a part of this building process.
You know why it is important? Because it says all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus Christ. Do you want to pioneer the fullness of Jesus Christ?
The word goes on to say that He is the Head of the body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. In other words, everything comes from the Head, Jesus Christ. We need to know the Head, Jesus Christ. That is our primary source.
But the experiencing of what the Head wants to do is carried out in His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all. So, to get that practical pioneering experience requires a life of fellowship in the house of God.
Well, let me just end by saying this: I do not know where any of you are today, but I know the great tendency in my own spiritual life is to settle down. It is like gravity; it is always there.
But I want to encourage us all. We are sons of Abraham, the pioneer. You have the spirit of the great Pioneer, Jesus Christ, in your heart. He pioneered the heavenly way for us, and He has asked us now to also walk that way.
It is a difficult path. It does lead through Calvary. It does take us to the cross. But the cross is the stepping stone to the throne.
Pioneers of the heavenly way. I do not know if your heart gets excited about what lies ahead and what the Lord has in store, but may He refresh our spirits. May He quicken us and make us alive to His great calling on our life: to be a pioneer.
Those early pioneers had it tough. It says they were despised, they were sawn asunder, they had to live in caves. But they pressed on.
Tough life on this earth, but they walked the heavenly way. Pioneers. Pioneers. How much do we owe to these pioneers who have gone ahead? Luther. Wesley. Jesus Christ.
Lord, we come to Thee today. Lord, we have to depend on You. You had to stir up Abraham’s spirit, and Lord, we would ask that today You would stir up our spirit.
Lord, may we press on in that heavenly way. Lord, we just look to Your Holy Spirit. Lord, whatever state we may be in, draw us out. Bring us back to that path. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.