A Believer's Life

Q: What does the Bible say about a believer's life?

A believer's life is characterized by eternal life in Christ, involving action, perseverance, and self-denial. A believer's life, as discussed in Hebrews 12:1-2, is rooted in the life given by Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith. This life is not merely about religious activity; it is an active life filled with purpose and direction, aiming for the prize of Christ Himself. The believer is called to run the race laid out before him, shedding weights and sins that hinder their progress. It involves ongoing action, striving against the flesh, the world, and discouragements, and is defined by characteristics like perseverance, orderliness, and believing trust in Jesus.

Q: How do we know that eternal life is given, not offered?

Eternal life is given to believers, not merely offered or invited, as Christ states He will give life to whom the Father has given Him. In the sermon, it is emphasized that Christ does not simply invite people to receive life; He explicitly states that He gives eternal life to those the Father has given Him (John 10:27-30). This reflects God's sovereign grace in salvation, illustrating that regeneration and eternal life are divine gifts rather than invitations dependent on human decision. Scripture teaches that one must be born of the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God, indicating the sovereign act of God in granting life to the spiritually dead, thus highlighting the transformational aspect of a believer's new nature.

Q: Why is perseverance important for Christians?

Perseverance is essential as it reflects true faith, enabling Christians to endure challenges and remain steadfast in Christ. Perseverance in the Christian life is emphasized through the scripture in Hebrews 12:1-3, where believers are urged to run their race with patience, considering Jesus who endured suffering. This perseverance is not merely about enduring hardships but is indicative of genuine faith that remains steadfast through trials. Believers are reminded that in their trials, they can find strength and hope through looking to Christ, who is the originator and perfecter of faith. God empowers believers to persevere, indicating that true believers will ultimately endure to the end, validated by their ongoing faith.

Q: What does it mean to live a self-denying life as a Christian?

Living a self-denying life means renouncing personal righteousness and relying solely on Christ's righteousness for salvation. A self-denying life for Christians involves laying aside every weight and sin that easily entangles them and embracing the reality of their dependence on Christ for righteousness. As the sermon outlines, self-denial requires one to reject their own merits, thoughts, and wills, acknowledging that salvation is entirely through Christ. This principle is grounded in scripture, which states that without denying oneself, one cannot be a disciple of Christ (Luke 9:23). True self-denial leads the believer to cast off reliance on their performances and to embrace God's grace and righteousness through faith in Christ alone.

And it says here, verse 1 and 2, "...wherefore,
seeing we also accomplished the baptism, with so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which
so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race
set before us, looking looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right
hand of the throne of God." I want to talk today for a little while
about a believer's life, a believer's life. The greatest characteristic of
a believer, of a Christian, is that he has life. He has life. He has eternal life. The very
life of God is in his soul. He's made a partaker of the divine
nature. He's made a new creature. Our
Lord said, except a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom
of God. Except to be born of water and
the Spirit, he can't enter into the kingdom of God. And that
water is, of course, the Word, and the Holy Spirit using the
Word. And you know, it's Christ in you that's the hope of glory.
Now let me say something about this life. Life is not offered.
You're not invited. Christ doesn't invite you. Would
you come and let me give you life? Did your parents ask you? I invite you to... I want to know whether you want
to have life or not. Did your parents offer you life? That's the way it is with Christ.
He gives, I give unto them. All power in heaven and earth
is given unto me. Power over all flesh, all flesh,
that's everybody sitting here, everybody in this world, that
I should give, not offer, not invite, that I should give, give
eternal life. To who? To as many as Thou hast
given me. So you see, being born again,
born again, it's a new life. Being born again, not a corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and
abideth forever. You know, the Lord Jesus said
it this way. He says, the hour is coming,
and now is. Now is, when the dead, dead,
dead in trespasses and sins, alienated from God. not interested
in God, not interested in the Scriptures, not interested in
eternity, that to hours coming and now years when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear, what
happens to them? They live. They live. And so
the Scriptures tells us, you know, that Christ is our life.
We live because He lives. A believer has a life. He don't
have just religion. He has life. He's not a Pharisee. He has life. He's not joined
a church. He's been joined to Christ. He has life. Something that natural
men don't know anything about. Now, we have been quickened together
with Christ. You can find that in Ephesians
chapter 2. Having been quickened together
with Him. When He was raised from the dead,
we were quickened with Him. And we have a life with Him,
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are several, several
identifying traits or characteristics of a believer's life that I find
here in a couple of verses. And let's look at these things
together. First of all, the believer's life is an active life. It's
an active life. Lord, ain't that what it says
in the last part of verse 1? Let us run the race. Let us run
the race. You know a believer who has life,
his life is active. It's active. You know when a
baby's born, he's active. When he's awake, he's active.
He's flipping and he's moving and he's crying. He's active.
And that's the way it is with a believer. When he has life,
he becomes active. And a person, and we're running
a race here, and a person running a race is not asleep. He's not
asleep, he's active, he's moving. He has a goal. He has an aim.
And now you keep Hebrews 12 and look with me over here in Philippians.
Look in Philippians chapter 3 just a moment. You know, we have a
person who's running. He has a goal. He has an aim.
He's running someplace. He's running a race and he's
got a goal. He has an aim. It's not like old Forrest Gump
who just starts out one day racing and running and just runs until
he gets tired of running and stops. That's not like Forrest
Gump. Oh, we're running a race, not
sleep. We have a goal, we have an aim.
Here in Philippians 3.13, look what it says. Paul talking breadthily,
I count not myself as apprehended. Apprehended why Christ laid hold
on me. But this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind. and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I'm going someplace. I've got a finish line and I'm
pressing towards it, I'm running towards it, and the prize of
the high calling that I have is Christ Jesus himself. And
that's what I want. That's what I want. Now, when
it talks about racing, and we're running a race, what are you
running a race against? Well, first of all, you're racing
against this old rotten flesh. Oh, in my flesh I know that in
me dwells no good thing. And that's one thing I'd love
to outrun it. Oh, I'd love to one of these
days, I long for the day when I walk off and leave it behind.
Running against this flesh. Running against, racing against
the world. This world has got so many entanglements, so many
things, social, economic, Educational, science, political, all these
things that we get entangled in in the world that wraps our
minds and gets our souls and gets us so entangled. And then
apathy. We're racing against apathy.
Surely none of you all get apathetic. None of you ever get lethargic.
None of you ever get discouraged. You're running against discouragement.
Racing, trying to stay ahead of discouragement. Oh my! And I know some of you feel like
you aren't going fast enough. Some of you feel like maybe you
aren't getting any ground at all. But we're encompassed about with
a greater cloud of witnesses, and they run their race. Huh? Oh, a lot of folks brought me
in the other day and said, I've just almost finished my course.
I'm almost done, he said. I'm finishing my course. I'm done. I've run this race
and I'm fixing to cross the finish line. And oh my, he's going to cross
the finish line and beat the flesh, beat the world, beat the
devil, beat apathy, beat leprosy, beat discouragement. He's going
to beat it all. God help us to be like our Master.
Set our face like a flint. And not only is it an active
life, let us run, but it's an orderly life. It's a life that's
ordered. It's not chaotic. It's not scattered about. It's
got some order to it. Look what it says here. Let us
run the race with patience, the race that's set before us. A race that's set up before us.
And what this tells us is it's not a race at random. We're not
just running for the sake of running. We aren't running uncertainly. We have a course to stay on.
We have a race to run. A course that we must stay on.
Look over here. You keep this again. Let's look
over at 1 Corinthians 9. I want to show you this. This
explains what I'm trying to say here at 1 Corinthians 9. You know, there's a method of
preaching that just will not fail. You make your point, an
orderly life, the race is set before us. We're not running
at random. And then you enforce your point
with a verse of Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture.
And here's what I'm saying. Look in verse 24, 1 Corinthians
9. Know you not that they which
run in a race run all. They run the whole race. They don't just run halfway through.
They don't run part of the way. You've got to run the whole thing.
They run the whole race. But one receives the prize. So
run that you may obtain. Obtain what? The prize. That
prize of prize. And every man that striveth for
the mastery that wants to run in this race and be good in this
race and obtain the prize is Kinfrad in all things. He has
moderation. Now they do it, these people
in these races, in these master races, in these elite runners,
in these elite athletes, now they do it to obtain
a correctable prize. All of them prize money, and
everybody lauded them and carried on about them. But we're running
in a race to obtain an interruptible crown. Now watch this, I therefore
so run, not as uncertainly, and I'm fighting. And I'm not
beating air, I'm not shadow boxing. I'm in a war, I'm in a race,
and this is a real one. I'm not doing it uncertainly.
And let me tell you something, our course is laid out for us.
When you run a race, they go ahead and lay a course out in
front of you. Here's our course laid out for
us, right here. My brother, Elzie Morgan, he's in his 60s now,
pardon me. But he used to sing and play
in church. And play church. Go back to when
we saw him play in church. Not only did he play in church,
but he played church. But he sung a song called, The
Bible's My Roadmap. And beloved, sure enough, God
laid the course out for us. How do you know what course you're
supposed to stay on? This one right here, the one
God laid out for us, His Word. Not our opinions, His Word. Not
what we feel, His Word. Not what we think, His Word.
Our course is well defined for us, the Word of God. Our Lord
Jesus made it plain. And you know what He said when
He got down in Gethsemane? He says, Father, not my will,
but thine be done, even if it kills me. And ain't that what
these people did when we read about them in Hebrews? All night. David, the king, dwelt in a cave. The king of Israel, the man after
God's own heart, lived in a cave. Isaiah was sorely sundered, sorely
too. We've got the words laid out
for us. The grace is laid out for us.
And we, beloved, have not left our own idea of how we're to
run this race. Not left our own idea as to what
the will of God is. One thing I know about the will
of God is that there's one Savior. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
One thing I know, the Word of God tells us that we've all sinned. I mean, we've sinned from the
top of our head to the sole of our feet. We've sinned from the
inside of our soul to the outside of the breath that comes out
of us. We've got snakes in our hearts that hiss against God,
that hiss against Christ. And whenever God comes to break
into our hearts and to break into our minds, we rise up with
that hiss. I think, I feel, I believe. But
I tell you, whenever that life is brought into a man's heart,
into a man's soul, you know what he does? He says, God, whatever
you say, that's what I'm going after. If it means that no matter
if I lose my mother, if I lose my father, if I lose my husband,
if I lose my wife, if I lose my friends, it makes no difference. Whatever happens, I'm submitting
to what you say. You take me and you teach me
and you guide me. You know, God magnified His Word
above His name. He magnified His word above His
name. What in the world does that mean? That means that He
said, this word right here, it's above my name. I set it higher
than my own name. And what's His name? Holy. What's
His name? Righteous. What's His name? Jehovah's
Akenu. What's His name? The Lord will
provide. He said He magnified it. Why did He do that? He can make
another world. He can make another world, or
he can make many worlds, but there'll never be another word,
there'll never be another revelation. And what he's saying is, is that
my name will have to fail. My name will have to be counted
as nothing before I change my word. Ain't that right? So this is, what else we gonna
go by? Folks say, well, I don't see
it that way. Well, you know, you hear that all the time. People
say, I don't see it that way. I'm going to tell you something about
people who don't see things a certain way. A blind man can't see. You know, I've carried a Bible
for years. I could quote chapters at a time. Preached, run up and down the
aisles. Until Christ was made real to
me. Until I became a lost man. Until
I became a sinner in the sight of God. I became a sinner to
my own self. I got lost. I got lost. I was a preacher. I got lost. Lived a good life. Got lost. Read lots of Bible. Got lost. How do you get lost? God gets
you lost. God makes you a sinner. And when
God makes you a sinner, you start crying out to Christ. And you
start crying out for mercy. You start crying out for forgiveness.
And it's not the crying out for mercy. It's not the crying out
for forgiveness that saves you. The crying out for mercy and
the crying out for forgiveness means you already got life there.
That's right. You see, I read the Bible and
all I could see was works, works, works, works. Do, do, do. Now, you know what I see? I see
done, Christ did it all. I see sins put away. I'm not
striving to put away sins anymore. Christ put them away. I'm not working to get a blessing
from God. Christ has got all my blessings
for me. I've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Huh? There ain't going to be no new word.
There ain't going to be no new revelation. And then look with
me back over here in Hebrews 12. Not only is it an orderly
life, the race is set before us. It's set before us. We're
not running uncertainly. And then it's a persevering life.
He says, let us run with patience the race is set before us. Run
with patience. And how are you going to run
with patience? First of all, it says down there in verse 3,
for consider him. Consider Him. If you want to
run with patience, consider Him, who endures such a contradiction
of sinners against Himself. What in the world does that mean?
He came here to save sinners, and He was hated and despised
and rejected by everybody who was anybody. All forsook Him and fled. Even
His own disciples did that. They didn't stay awake to pray
for Him and pray with Him. He said the sheep were scattered.
And here He is hanging on a cross for sinners. Bearing sins in
His own body there on the tree. Being smitten and afflicted of
God. Bruised of God. And what did they say to Him?
He saved others, but He can't save Himself. If you be the Savior, come down
off that tree. Sinners, what did he say? Father forgive them, they know
not what they do. Fifty days later, Simon Peter
standing on the day of Pentecost, and three thousand souls were
saved. That Peter says, you, with your wicked hands, crucified
him a slave. And there were people that day
that Christ prayed for, when he died on that cross, who were
converted in Peter's message on the day of Pentecost. That's
a contradiction of sinners against himself. Everybody was against
him. I was against him, and yet he saved me. I was against him,
yet he died for my sins. I was against him, yet he redeemed
me. So you consider him. You consider him. And oh, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. And oh, beloved, chapter
11, that's about all those who persevered. Who persevered. Joseph spent seven years in prison. And you never find... Daniel
went in with a bunch of lions and laid down and slept on them. Used them for pillows. When the
king said, they're going to eat you alive. And he went in there
and just laid down on them and slept. Oh, my soul, listen. These folks,
they were looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
Huh? Our Lord said, in your patience
possess ye your souls. Huh? Oh, run with patience. Patience. Be not weary in well-doing. You shall reap in due season. Think not. Oh, I know sometimes
you feel like you're going to faint. I know sometimes you feel
like you're talking. I just, I don't see any reason
to go on. If folks ever found out what
I was like, they'd never have anything else to do with me.
If they ever know me like God knows me, they wouldn't even
let me in the church. And you sometimes think, boy,
I've not took a step. That's why it's called patience. Huh? We rejoice in the hope of
the glory of God. We rejoice in the hope of the
glory of God. That means that we're looking. We hope in His
glory to be revealed in us. We hope in His glory that we'll
bring it to Him. And we hope for the day that
we'll be with Him in glory. And so, what do we do? We even glory in our tribulations.
We say all things work together for good to them that love God. We know that. It's given us on
the behalf of Christ to suffer for His name. It's through much
tribulation that we inherit the kingdom of God, that we enter
the kingdom of God. And so here we are, we rejoice
in glory in our tribulation because we know that tribulation works
what? Patience. Every trial you go
through, as comes a time when you say, well, it's the Lord,
and you don't say anything about it to anybody under any circumstances,
you go right on, and you say, well, because patience works
experience. And after you've had enough experiences,
you say, well, I've been here before, I've went through this
before, and God's been faithful before, and He ain't gonna let
me down now. And you just keep on keeping
on. Does that make any sense to you? Is that pretty much the
way it runs with you? Not only is it a persevering
life, but also it's a believing life. Look here with me now in
verse 2 of Hebrews 12. It's a believing life, persevering,
believing, looking, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Looking, a believing life. That
word, look. You know, as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, he said, everybody that looks
shall live. Now, everybody was bitten with
fiery serpents. Why? For their murmuring, for
their complaining, for their resistance and lack of submission
to God. So he said, fire serpents among
me all got bitten. Everybody wouldn't look to that
serpent on that pole. They died. And what our Lord
said, as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, and
God said, Look! He didn't say you had to have
clear eyes, but He said, Look! He didn't have to say how far
off you had to be, He just said, Look! He didn't say how sick
he had to be. He said, look, and there were
some folks who said, I'm not going to look. I just can't believe
I'm going to die. I just can't believe that's the
only place that I can get healed of this disease. I'm going to
go over here and see the doctor. I'm going to go see the apothecary.
I'm going to go over here and join this church, because they
don't believe that thing. And so he said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the river, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever looketh, believeth, cometh to christen. has everlasting life. And oh, you see, He's the author,
and we're looking unto Him. Now listen to me. If you don't
get nothing else I say today, listen to what I'm going to tell
you right now. Christ our Lord is the object, object of our
faith. How can you tell that you've
got faith, real faith, genuine faith, God-given faith? Faith
always goes outside of itself. Faith is always objective. See, Christ accomplished redemption
2,000 years ago. He accomplished salvation 2,000
years ago. I have no part in that whatsoever.
So that means that my faith has to be objective, has to be outside
myself. Has to be in what He did back then. Ain't that right? Alright, see, and so we were
saved. by looking. God said, look unto me and be
you saved. I'm a just God and I'm a Savior. And we were saved by looking
to our Lord Jesus Christ. Look and live, look and live,
my brother, look. And then we continue to look
and we will someday look our final time and we'll be saved
by look. We're looking for the glorious
appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. And when He comes, He'll
change your small body and fashion it like unto His glorious body. Ain't that right? Oh, now let
me tell you something. We aren't looking to our faith.
I believe I've got faith, but I don't look to my faith. I don't look to my repentance.
Do you look to your repentance? I don't look to my knowledge. I know some things about God.
I know some things about His Word. I know some things about
His picture. I know whom I have believed. But I'm not trusting,
I'm not looking to my knowledge for my salvation. I look to His
knowledge of me. I'm not looking in my ignorance
either. I'm not going in my ignorance. I'm not looking in my ignorance.
I'm not trusting in when I'm up. Feeling real good, real strong,
real faithful. And I'm not trusting that I'm
being down. Just being so low. I must be saved. I'm just so
down. I always suffer so much. I'm not looking to my humility,
prayer, or any experience that I've ever had. I look to one
person. Looking unto Jesus. The author
of our faith. He gave us this faith. He'll
finish us this faith. All these things, faith and repentance
and knowledge, up and down and humility and prayer, all these
things in our experience, they all have their claims. But now
let me tell you, our faith didn't put sin away, Christ did. Our
repentance never put away one sin, Christ did. No repentance, no faith did not
cleanse our conscience. Christ in His blood cleansed
our conscience. You see, if you're going to have
to look at any faith you have and repentance you have, it must
be perfect in order to be accepted. So that's why it says we're saved
by the faith of the Son of God. His faith was perfect. His obedience is perfect. His
sacrifice is perfect. He rendered satisfaction to God.
He obeyed the law. So what am I going to do? I'm
going to say, Donnie Bell, I'm done with me. I'm looking to
Him. I'm going to Christ. Huh? Ain't that what you're going
to do? That's what I'm going to do. I did that yesterday. I'm doing it today. I'll do it
this afternoon. I'll do it tonight, I'll do it
when I go to bed, and I'll do it when I get up tomorrow. And one of these days, I'll get
up one of these days, and I'll take my last look to Christ.
And then I'll say, face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to
face, what a day that'll be. Oh, let me show you this quickly.
Oh my, we've got plenty of time. Look over here to Philippians
chapter 1, just a moment. You know he's the author of our
faith. He's the author of it. That means
he's the one who gave it to us. He's the one who begins it. Then
he says he's the finisher of it. That means he'll carry it
on. When he starts, he'll finish it. Here's a verse of scripture
that tells us that very thing. Philippians 1 verse 6. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you." There's
faith now. There's the author of good faith. He began this
work. He started it. You know why some
folks don't, you know, they don't last very long in services, and
they join a church and quit for a while and backslide and stay
out in the world for years and then come back and all that?
You know why? God never started the work. If God begins to work,
you know it's important who does the work. Now, I built a table
one time. Set a pan of water on it, and
the table fell over. That's the kind of builder I
am. Now, there's some fellas in here,
if they build a table, you can set a 500 pound block down on
it, and it'll stay there. I'll just set a little pan of
water on it. And that's the way God upholds
salvation is, or religion is, or conversion is. It's their
building, and it falls down, and it will not stand in the
judgment. Jack Shanks in one of his articles in his book out
there said, you're a sand man or a rock man. You know, he that build his house
on the sand, storms blew and it fell, and great was the fall
of it. But he that build his house on a rock, Same storms
came, same storm, same exact thing. But that house on the
rock, it stood. So he that hath begun a good
work in you, that's the key. Did God start the work in you,
or did you start it? Or some preacher started it? Huh? Watch this. And he will
perform it. Look in the margin, it says,
finish it. He'll finish it until the day
of Jesus Christ. That means until Christ comes
to get us here, or He comes to get us all, He's going to see
that we persevere. He's going to see, He's going
to finish this thing He started. Alright, let's go back over in
our text again. And not only is it a believing life, a persevering
life, an orderly life, an active life, but it's a self-denying
life. One, we're foreseeing we also
are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let
us lay aside every weight and the sin which doeth so easily
beset us." Self-denying life. Lay aside every weight and the
sin. What's some of the weights and sin that we have? Well, our
will. Our will. Walking our way in
our will. That's some of the weight. And
our thoughts, our thoughts are not God's thoughts. That's some
of those weights we have to, our ways and our opinions and
our attitudes, they're the greatest weights that we have to lay aside.
Oh, the way I, my attitudes, oh my soul. The way I think about
some things, the opinions that I have, if I could just learn
to just lay them aside and leave them off at certain times. And
I'll tell you something else, the weight that we have. We have
this great weight of what we think and this sin of what we
think a Christian is. How many times have we heard,
well, if that fellow there is a Christian, boy, if that's Christianity,
I don't want no part of it. What do you think a Christian
is? Would you believe that Simon Peter was a Christian when he
denied the Lord three times? Would you think Noah was a believing
man when he got drunk? Would you think Lot's a believing
man when he stayed down in Sodom and Gomorrah? Was David a believing
man? Was he a saved man when he took
Bathsheba the beast? Why? Took a beast, a mistress
to him, and had a child by him? Huh? Let me tell you something. When
April and Noah lay there drunk, naked, Only his children saw
his nakedness. God didn't see it, because why?
He was clothed with the righteousness of Christ. And that's exactly
what you are. Whether you've ever been drunk,
ever had a drop of wine, or if you've ever laid naked, as far
as God's concerned, you're as naked as a jaybird without Christ. And it's a heapsight worse, your
self-righteousness is a heapsight worse, than Noah laying naked
and drunk. God didn't see me as making this
wife because of the righteousness of Christ. Huh? Ain't that right? And you know
what? He says, Simon Peter, I prayed
for you that your faith fell down. I know what you're going
to do. I know what you're made out of.
You don't know what you're made out of. I'm going to let you
fall. I'm going to let you stumble. I'm going to let you, the whole
world know just how weak you are. I'm going to let everybody
know that there's nothing to you apart from me. That without
me you can do nothing. Go ahead! Tell him he ain't gonna
follow. By the time that rooster crowed,
he had denied the Lord three times. Oh, my. So, you know, we have
this idea of what a Christian is. You know what a Christian
is? It's somebody who trusts Christ,
has the righteousness of Christ, and wants to be done with it.
You know, our Lord said, except you deny, you know, let him that
cometh to me, let him deny himself. With that, unless you deny yourself,
you cannot be my disciple. And what does that word deny?
That don't mean, like they used to say in fundamentalism, do
without a six-pack of Pepsi's this week so you can give it
to the missionary. Quit buying yourself a suit,
go buy, deny yourself a suit of clothes, and let's get back
to the missionaries. That's not what it talks about,
self-denial doctrine. When it talks about denying self, that
means you deny you. You deny you. I have no part
in this salvation. I've got no righteousness in
this salvation. I've got no works in this salvation.
I've got nothing to contribute. Christ did it all. I have no
righteousness of all, so I deny my own righteousness. I deny
my strength. I deny my self-reliance. I deny
my self-confidence, and I go at myself, and I go to Christ. That's what it means to deny
yourself. He said, you can give your body
to be burned at the stake, and give all your goods to feed the
poor, and without the love of God in your heart, without Christ
in your heart, you're a sounding brass and a tickling cymbal.
Ain't that what he says? And oh, we think about how somebody
ought to live. You hear this all the time. Boy,
he sure does live right, don't he? If I ever become a Christian,
I'm going to show them I'm going to really live good. I'm going
to live right. Oh, and our opinions about what
a preacher is, and how he's to preach, and how things ought
to be dealt with. We've got to lay aside all that
stuff and leave these things up to God. The weights of self-righteousness. Sin of self-righteousness is
indifference. Indifferent about the church.
Not committed to it. That sin and weight of self-absorption. Just so absorbed with self. Taken
up with self. You know, everybody gets around
you. All they know about is what's
going on with you. Somebody tries to tell you something
about themselves. I ain't got time to listen to that. I got
to care about me. So self-absorbed. And then you
have the weight of your past life. It's just too heavy to
carry. Oh my Christ. I don't have a past life as far
as he's concerned. Ain't that right? Your sins and
iniquities I will remember no more. No wonder the Apostle said, look
with me in Psalm 39. No wonder the Apostle said, I
keep my body under subjection. lest I should be a castaway,
lest I should be disqualified from this race. Oh my. Look here at Psalm 39. This is what I'm trying to say.
Here's another verse. You deny yourself. David here,
here's what David said. He said, I said, I said, I'll
take heed to my ways. How many times have we said that? That I said, not with my tongue,
I'm going to keep my mouth shut. I'll learn one of these days
to keep my mouth shut. I wish I hadn't have said that. I'll
keep my mouth full of bridle while the wicked is before me.
Well, all right. I was dumb. I didn't open my
mouth to silence. I held my peace, even from good.
When I could have said something good, and my soul was stirred.
My heart got hot within me while I was musing. The fire burned.
Then I had to say something. And oh, his voice said, Lord,
make me to know my end. I know how everybody else is
going. I know the end of everybody else. I know there ain't nothing
to them, but Lord, make me to know my end. And the measure
of my day is what it is, that I may know how frail I am. Behold,
I have made my days as a headband, and my age is as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity." That's where we're at, ain't
there? Now, let's look back over in our text. I've got just a
couple of things to say, and I'll be done. Oh, self-denying life. Lay aside.
Oh, I want to be done with me. If I'm done with me, I'll be
done with sin and weight. Then it's a hopeful life. Look
what it says in verse 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy, joy that was set
before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. What was the joy
that was set before our Lord? It was to render satisfaction
to the Father, satisfy His holiness, His righteousness, obey His laws,
satisfy His justice, receive the full reward of the sinner
when he died for sin, punished in the place of his people, and
the second thing that Joy set before him, that he'll see the
travail of his soul and be satisfied because he's going to receive
his reward, which is his people. You'll receive the heathen for
thine inheritance. And thirdly, he'll be set out
at the right hand of God, exalted at the right hand of God. Now,
he had that joy set before him. Now, what's our joy? And he's the joy that's set before
me now. He's the joy that's set before
us now. He sets the right hand of God. There's my joy. The joy
of the Lord is my strength. And oh, what a good hope we have.
Christ our good hope. And oh, he's the joy that's set
before us. And that's why we're going to
keep preaching. Oh, what a day that will be when our Lord we
shall see, face to face. And then look here, last of all,
we have a public life. public life. It says there in
verse 1, we're foreseeing we're also accomplished with a so great
a cloud of witnesses. We're surrounded with witnesses. Surrounded with witnesses. You
know, just like Abraham, he had witnesses to his faith. They
said, that man believes God. That man believes God. And all
those, as all those in chapter 11 were faithful to their Master,
Moses said, I'd rather have the reproach of Christ than everything that Pharaoh's
got. He was the most mighty, wealthiest, mightiest power on
the face of the earth at that time. I'd rather have Christ
than be reproached with him. Be with those bunch of slaves
down there. That's to have everything he's got. I would. That's what he said. David said, I'm the king, but
here I am, I'm living in a cave. And he lived there by faith. And oh, they were looking for
a city. I mean, boy, they went everywhere they went. They kept
saying, boy, we'll find that city. Where's that city at? Where's
that city at? Well, they found it now. Looking for a city whose builder and maker is God.
And when they done that, they said, well, I'm a stranger here.
This world's not my home. And I'm a pilgrim. I'm just passing
through. Ruby asked me before the service,
she called me over, you don't mind me saying this, she asked
me, she said, if I got sick and they put me on machines, she
said, would you be willing to unplug me, take me off the machines?
I said, well, of course I would. She said, well, I'm going to
get a wheel fixed up. And Gary, she said, if I wasn't
able to do it, she's going to have me do it. So she and her
family wouldn't do it. Well, I'd say, yeah, I'd pull
that plug and say goodbye, Ruby. I'll see you later. Oh, my. Why do you want to stay
here forever and ever and ever and ever? You know, there's a
time to go home. Huh? It's time to go home. That's what we're going to do
after we're all going to go eat and then we're going to go home.
Get where it's comfortable. Get in some comfortable clothes.
That's what we're going to do. We're going to go home. We're
strangers in pilgrimage. We're going to go home. And we're
going to have those blessed, comfortable glories closed on
for all eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ. And we got all
these people watching us out here. So let's be faithful to
Him as they were. Let's be faithful to Him in public
while we're out here among others. Let's be faithful to Him in private.
People are watching us. People are watching us at home.
They're watching us at work. They're watching us at play.
They're watching us at church. And we're not alone. We're not
alone. We're not alone. God help us to honor and glorify
our blessed Redeemer all the days we live. And God give us
a greater knowledge of His love for us, because our love for
Him is not near good enough. Oh, if we know more about His
love for us, the more I think we'll trust Him and love Him. Our Father, our blessed, gracious,
eternal God, thank You for Your mercy and grace given us in Christ.
Thank You for the privilege of being able to speak of Him again,
talk about Him, and the blessed hope we have in Him. be made
effectual by the Holy Spirit today. Oh, Father, teach us of
your love for us, your work for us, so that the life we live
in this flesh now, we may live it by the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. We bless
you. Save you people in this place,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Sing that little
chorus while you stand. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

A Believer's Life

What does the Bible say about a believer's life?

How do we know that eternal life is given, not offered?

Why is perseverance important for Christians?

What does it mean to live a self-denying life as a Christian?

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A Believer's Life

What does the Bible say about a believer's life?

How do we know that eternal life is given, not offered?

Why is perseverance important for Christians?

What does it mean to live a self-denying life as a Christian?

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About Donnie Bell

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