LIVING ON GOD ALONE Part 2

There is a false view of Christianity that has all the appearances of Christianity but is not Biblical Christianity. The apostle Paul warns that this kind of religion will characterize the Last Days. “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.” 2 Timothy 3:1-4

Notice the key component of End Times religion: “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power”. It is a kind of religion that is manageable, duty-defined, decision oriented, willpower based, and only limited to what I can do on my own strength without God’s help. I call it “can-do” religion. Where the apostle Paul cried “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). The attitude of the natural man is “I can do all things”.

How does it show itself in daily living? You do well as long as you never have to jump higher than six feet! As soon as the bar goes over six feet you either quit jumping, rest content to jump no more than six feet, and play it safe. How many of you are living your life like that?

I find that many people are satisfied living a religious life within the confines of their own weaknesses, inabilities, limitations and who deny that God would want them to jump ten feet. They reason like this: Even though the Bible says, “love your enemies”, “I cannot love my enemies, therefore I am not required by God to love my enemies. So I don’t and that is okay or it’s not okay but there is nothing that I can do about it so it’s still okay. The irony of this belief is that in part it is true. In the end, loving your enemy is a gift from God, not something you can do yourself. But it is not Biblical to say that the only things that God can require of you are things that you are good enough and able to perform. That kind of Christianity is easy and doable.

But true Christianity doesn’t lower the bar, it raises it. Every single thing God requires is beyond my reach. Biblical Christianity is impossible! Do you know why? Because the Christian life is supernatural! The mystery of the Christian life is that God commands us to jump ten feet we and we cannot. Then He offers us the promise of that we can and will jump ten feet and that He will give us a new desire to jump ten feet and will grace us with an enablement to do it!

When God promised the New Covenant He made these wonderful promises: “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live… But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people…. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:27)

John Piper says about these promises: “All of these covenant promises have been secured for us by Christ who said at the last supper, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20) The blood of Jesus Christ obtained for us all of the promises of the New Covenant. What distinguishes them from the Old Covenant is that they are promises for enablement. They are promises that God will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves”.

We need a new heart to desire God and to delight in God. We need the Spirit who’s fruit is love and joy in God and who gives us a new power to obey God, so that when we are called to fulfill the two commandments “love God and love others” (Luke 10:27), the Spirit and the Word of God produce these wonderful realities within us.

Christianity means that change is possible; amazing, lasting, and powerful change. It is possible to be tender hearted where once you were calloused and insensitive. It is possible to stop being dominated by bitterness or anger. It is possible to become a loving and caring person. It is possible to be a forgiving instead of a vengeful person. Why? Because the Bible tells us that God is the decisive factor in making us who we should be and doing what we should do!

Oh beloved of God, this is so wonderfully freeing. It frees us from unbelief, pessimism, and fatalism that keep us living as six foot high jumpers. I want to flood you with hope, the sovereign grace of God. The New Covenant promise of God is that He will transform your heart to do what it cannot do, namely, to want what it ought to s always come with want. Then He will change your life to do what you ought to do but cannot do!

Only God can make you ten foot high jumpers! Jesus told His disciples “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God"” (Mark 10:27). Paul said, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). That is why the commands of God “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). His commands always come with freeing, life-changing truth to believe and power to perform. You have a situation come where God wants you to love somebody that to you is a very difficult person to love. In modern language, a jerk. You might hear a voice inside say, “I can’t stand that person” or “I’m not a loving person”, but then you say, “Christ loves me right now and His love for me makes me a new kind of person. I can obey the command to love that person with the love that God has for me and the He is pouring in me. Therefore, I can and will love this person”.

God commands us to love Him and we cannot love God. But God can change our hearts want to love Him when we don’t and then by His grace God will change our hearts in order to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Obedience is a gift. Augustine understood it in a profound way when he prayed, “Give me the grace oh Lord to do as You command, and command me to do what you will...Oh holy God…when your commands are obeyed, it is from you that we receive the power to obey them.” That is a Biblical prayer. That is the cry of one who lives on God.

So to live on God is God’s doing in our doing. Christianity is a supernatural life that we are called to actively live and participate each and every moment of our lives total dependence upon God. We live, serve, love, work, speak, obey in a supernatural way. In short, we begin to do things that we cannot do.

Fruit like love grows in our lives by His doing in our doing. Somehow he makes it happen. It won't happen without him. Here is how it works. God has called me to preach. I come here Sunday tired, and I am anxious that I will not do a good job. I worry that nobody will listen and that nothing will happen. But I pray, Lord, I trust you, not me and not my preaching. I trust your enabling grace. In fact, I trust you even to help me trust you because you said that faith is your gift. And I go to my ministry today in the strength that you supply so that in everything you might get the glory." Then I do it. But it’s not me, it’s Christ in me (Gal. 2:20). I know what is really happening and I am exceedingly grateful to God the great giver and to Him be all of the glory! That's the point of 1 Peter 4:11, "Whoever renders service, [let him do so] as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies; in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ." (Read Hebrews 13:20-21; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Colossians 1:28-29)

Oh reader, this is the life that God has for you, which He has told you to live. This is the greatest life, the abundant life. We exist to do things that we cannot do without the special, supernatural grace of God. We exist mainly to do the humanly impossible. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing...nothing is impossible with God” This is good news, not bad news. It is good news because God himself, known to us in Jesus Christ, is more valuable and more satisfying than anything we could ever be or do in our own power.

The most loving thing that God can do for us is to make Himself indispensable to us. Do you agree with Jesus? Are you willing to begin your day with a declaration of dependence? Are you ready to begin living on God alone? Do you hear His command to raise the bar to ten feet and run and jump? Do you hear His promise that you can? Will you trust Him and with faith and courage begin jumping? William Carey said it best, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God”.

A Prayer

Oh God of life, in You is life. I long to live and to experience the peculiar life that is offered to me through Your precious Son Jesus Christ. I want to stop living within the confines of my weaknesses and limitations. I hear you telling me that I can do extraordinary and supernatural and inexplicable things. I receive your enabling power at this moment to and in obedience to your commands I will do them. I am resolved to do them. I want to jump ten feet! So in faith in your promises and trust in your power I will get up from this book and I will run and jump and behold your glory. IN JESUS NAME, AMEN!