Address—William Hayhoe Jr.
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Tonight I would like to speak about God's refining work in our lives.
If you don't know what refining is, that's the process by which, uh, metal mixture that's impure is placed through the fire and the impurities are burned off and you're left with the pure metal.
And to start with, I'd like to turn to 1St Kings chapter 17.
Over the last few weeks, I.
We're certain that this is what I should speak about, but I wasn't sure exactly the right way to go about it.
I've been thinking about the story in this chapter, but it's an Old Testament type and as far as Old Testament types go, I wouldn't put it in the top ten easiest to understand or even more explain. So I was questioning that a little bit and we could go express that to my wife and.
She panicked on my behalf.
But on Thursday morning I got in my truck to drive to work and I randomly started listening to a meeting. I didn't know what it was about, and the person started the meeting by saying that I've been thinking about what I'd like to talk to and I'm not. I wasn't sure if you should use an Old Testament type, but I've been convinced that I should. And I said OK, I guess that's what I should do.
And that person then turned to 1St Kings 19. We're going to 1St Kings 17.
This is the story of Elijah visiting the widow woman in Zarephath, and I'm going to start by reading only the first half of the story and then talk about it a bit, and then we'll get on to the second-half of the story, where the real substance of what I have on my heart tonight is.
So before we even read the first part, I'll just tell you a little bit about the types and, uh, the name of the place where this happened. So first of all, the name of the place is there a fast that name means a workshop for the refining of metals.
And every single one of you here, if you know the Lord Jesus is your Savior, you are in his workshop for the refining of medals, and he is doing a refining work.
In your life. And the question that we have to take up with tonight is are we yielding to that work or are we resisting it? And as we read this story.
I'll just briefly point out what the key figures in it speak of, and perhaps as we read it, some parts of the picture will already start to come into your mind. If not, that's OK, we're going to talk about it after.
First of all.
This story, Elijah, is a picture of the Lord Jesus, the one who is doing that refining work in our lives, and the widow woman is a picture of the person with whom the work is being done. So think of that as you tonight.
But then there's the sun. The widow woman had a son, and at this point in the meeting this might be a bit difficult to understand, but I hope by the end it will make sense. But the sun in this story is a picture of what the Bible calls our old man.
That person that we were born with, that has all its hopes and dreams in this earth.
And God has to deal with that old man. And we're going to learn a little bit about that tonight, Lord willing, as we go through this story. So that brief introduction or perhaps I'll offer two more things that really.
Really, as we go through it, there's two things that I hope we can really see from this story. One is the real end of God's refining work in our lives, and the 2nd is the thing.
That often gets in the way of that work taking effect.
So with that introduction, let's read the first half of the story first Kings chapter 17 and verse 8.
In the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zaratha, which belongeth to Zaiden, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain me. So he arose as much as therefore. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks. And he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
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And as she was going to fetch it, he called her and said.
Bring me, I pray, the immoral bread in my hand. And she said, Has the Lord thy God liveth? I have not a cake, but a handful of me on a barrel, and a little oil on a cruise. And behold, I'm gathering 2 sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.
And Elijah said under here, if you're not, go and do as those said, but make me to have a little cake 1St and bring it into me.
And after make for thee and for thy son. So thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the bearer of me. O shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, And she, and he and her house did eat many days.
And the Bay of meal wasted not. Neither did the cruise of oil fail.
According to the word of the Lord, which you speak by Elijah. I'll stop there for now.
So Elijah has a picture of the Lord Jesus comes upon this woman.
And what is she doing and what is her condition when Elijah comes to her? She's there in verse 12.
Gathering 2 sticks to go in and eat and die.
Perhaps, if I put it this way, to help on the picture in our minds, what prominent thing in Christianity is made-up of two sticks or two pieces of wood?
The cross and I believe here we have a picture of someone who does come to faith in the Lord Jesus. They find the cross and they are saved forevermore.
But that's as far as they get. They're so saved. But as far as there being any life and fruit for Christ, it says to this remind her hopes where she's gonna. She got that. But after that it was just there's gonna be death. There's death and that is a picture of what does happen to some Christians. You are saved.
You are going you're you're future in heaven is secure, but as far as life for Christ and fruit in this earth, there's nothing.
But uh.
I hope. I suspect there's something like that right now in this room. You may be saved, but as far as actually making a decision to follow Christ, your life has been nothing but.
One of the key ingredients of life in Christ is reading His Word and praying every day.
15 years ago when I was down in that year.
The number of young men that got up and read the Bible and prayed in the morning morning was in the minority.
I don't want to be too harsh. I understand that perhaps, maybe at home, some of those, it would have been a pattern at camp. You're tired and I don't wanna be too harsh and critical. That's not the point. The point is, if you are not reading and preparing and having that relationship with the Lord, your spiritual life, you're the destiny of your soul may be secure, but your life down here is dead. You don't eat and drink, you die.
It's that simple.
And.
One thing my wife sometimes tells me is that when people get up at something like this, they tend to always direct things at the men or the boys because we're men and so that's what we're maybe more comfortable doing. So recognizing that I just did that, I'll quote a verse that more directs the point of issue to the girls. I think it's First Timothy 5/8 and it says she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.
I've spoken of a specific group of women, but it illustrates the point that you can be have eternal life, the dusty of your soul for heaven secured, but as far as the life down here, you can be dead.
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And the Lord Jesus would not have you live your life in that way. And so here in this story, this woman wasn't looking for anything else. She had no hopes beyond that Elijah came to her unlocked for an unexpected.
And if there's anyone like that here, the Lord Jesus would not have you live your life like that. And he is going to come to you and speak to you. He's speaking to you right now at this camp that he would not have you live the rest of your life like that. And so Elijah comes to this woman and he just, there's one little thing.
Just make this this morsel for me first before you and your son.
And that's a picture of the Lord Jesus coming to someone in that condition and and speaking to you in a personal way and saying, will you put me first? Will you just put me first? I died for you.
And perhaps you're experiencing that voice of the Lord Jesus coming to you in that way right now. And I hope you respond. This woman responded. She went, perhaps not realizing what she was doing, and she went and did it. She made for Elijah 1St. And perhaps that's the point you're at. You've gone and you have responded to the work of the Spirit of God in your life.
And you have started to put them first in some areas. Perhaps you have started reading the word of God every day.
You have started building a relationship with him. Perhaps the Spirit of God is.
Convicted you of some things in your life that are not right.
And recognizing you need to put the Lord first, you're seeking to get rid of those. And the Spirit of God has spoken to you about some things that you need to put in place and in practice, and you're doing that. I hope that's the case. And that's the picture here at the start of the story of this woman who as far as life down here, it was death, but she came. And it's a picture of starting to put the Lord first in our lives. And that's the start of his refining work.
In our lives. And what happens when we do that? What happens to this woman?
She experiences far more than she expected. Verse 14 says the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. You start to put the Lord first in your life. You're going to experience what this is a picture of.
The oil is a picture of the Spirit of God. You honor the Lord and put Him first. You'll start to experience the power of the Spirit of God in your life. You'll start to experience the leading of the Spirit of God, Him speaking to you, guiding you in some direction. You'll start to experience that. You'll get a taste of it, and it'll be a wonderful thing.
Bear with me. Oh, it does not waste. That's a picture of the supply of grace that we have in the Lord Jesus. It's put in John, one like Bob read on Sunday night of his fullness of all we received and grace for grace.
It's a river of grace, the supply of grace for every day. And you'll start to get a little taste of that and you'll want more praise to meet your circumstances. And so at this point in the story, we have a picture of someone who has started to respond to the call of the Spirit of God in their lives. They started to put the Lord first in certain areas. They started to experience a little bit.
About supply of grace and the power of the Spirit of God. That's a good thing.
The Lord is bringing you along in this process.
But there's still a problem.
If I could put it this way, when we are at that point in our life, the problem is this. We want to follow the Lord.
We have that license that wants to please him.
But we want to bring someone else along for the ride. We want to bring some of that old man with us.
And how is the Lord going to work with us on that? And that is where we come to the second part of the story. I'm going to read it now and perhaps again you'll see a little bit of the picture here being formed where the Lord would bring us to and His refining work in our lives. Let's read the second-half of the story.
Chapter First King 17, verse 17.
And I changed the path after these things. At the son of the woman, the mistress of the house fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee? O thou man of God, art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
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And he said unto her.
Good me thy son.
And he took him out of a building, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord, my God.
Hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came unto him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother. And I just said, See thy son liveth. And the woman said unto Elijah, Now by this I know.
That thou art a man of God, not the word of the Lord in thy mouth, is truth.
So, as I said, as the Lord begins to work in our lives.
And we wanna put them first and we wanna follow him. But we have a problem.
We want to bring some of our old man alive along for the ride.
It's perhaps a little bit difficult to understand what I mean by the old man. Think of it as just.
So part of you that you were born that finds all its hopes and dreams, attempts to find all its hopes and dreams and satisfaction in this earth apart from God.
And as God works with us, we find that we have a tendency to want to believe, bring some of that along with us. We want to do it halfway. Yes, I want to follow the Lord. Yes, I want to put him first here and there, but.
There's some things in this world that I hold dear and I want to keep them.
And the Lord, in his work with us, would not leave us there.
And so Elijah came to this woman once and brought her to that point of taking those first steps in, in a, in a figure form of putting the Lord first. But now it's a figure of the Lord coming again and he wants to do a further work, a deeper work.
What happens in verse 17?
The sun falls sick. Maybe a bit hard right now to see how a widow woman's son could be a picture of old man. I'm going to speak about that a little bit later as to why I believe that is. For now, I just asked that you accept that that is he what it is in the picture here.
So the sun falls sick, and this, I believe, is a picture that God, in his work with us, often has to let us experience.
The dissatisfaction and the fruitlessness of that old man, it's not the way that he will. It's not his first desire of his way to work with us. He would rather have us learn that at the cross that our old man is crucified with him. That's how he would have us learn it. But often times.
Due to our own hearts, we won't learn it that way and so we have to learn it. What I'll say the harder way. And God and His work with us has to let us feel.
A little bit of the dissatisfaction.
And the soil that comes with living, even a little bit, trying to find satisfaction with the life that is attached to this earth.
And that may involve some sorrow, and that may involve some hard things that God allows you to experience. But we have to see the end of this work that He's doing in our lives. And God, in his infinite wisdom and His perfect grace, is working to bring us to the point where we will come to the end of ourselves.
And then can you see in this picture?
Elijah coming to this woman and holding out his hands and saying, give me your son. That son is a picture of all our hopes and dreams in this world.
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That's a picture of the Lord Jesus as he works with you and me, bringing us to the point where He comes to you personally, holding out his hands, hands with nail marks in them of what he paid for you, and you put your name in there. I'll just use mine because not for the sake of you, put your name in there, the Lord Jesus.
Is working to bring you to the point where he's holding out his hands and he's saying William.
Well, you give it all.
Will you fully yell to me? This is a little bit different than the matter of putting the Lord first here and now in our lives. It's a lot different. This is surrender.
This is fully yielding to the one who loved you and died for you.
Perhaps some of you, no doubt the Lord has done that work in your life and you can look back with fondness after work that He did to bring you to that point where you would say, Oh Jesus, I surrender, I yield, I will give you everything and you can look back with fondness at the way that He brought you there.
Perhaps some of you are at this point right now. Perhaps you've been there for years, feeling it, feeling the Spirit of God speaking to you in this way that you have not yet yielded. Do you see the picture here of your Savior holding out his hands? Dang, will you give me all? And perhaps some of you.
Have not quite got here, and that's OK. God doesn't work to bring us to this point. And perhaps you had an earlier step in this work and you'll get here at some point in the future and perhaps the Spirit of God can bring this back to you.
And as he brings you to that place, you'll remember this. And as you sense him holding out those hands and asking him to yield.
I trust we will all say yes.
This woman.
That's Elijah. Take her son out of her hands and what happens?
Elijah takes the sun.
Is that?
And stretches himself upon the child three times.
The child comes back to life.
This is a picture of the end goal of the refining work that the Lord is doing in our lives, that we would learn the truth that we are dead and our life is hid with Christ and God. Death and resurrection is the theme of Christianity.
Yes, the Lord Jesus died and rose for us, but it takes the work of God in our souls for us to learn.
So we died there as well. I am crucified with Christ, but nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. It's not a matter of knowing the head, knowledge of those verses, it's not even a matter.
Of believing that it's true, but it's yielding to God for him to work out the good of that truth in our lives, in our lived reality and this.
Is where God is leading us and His refining work to us, and to get there and experience the good and to really learn this lesson, we must yield fully to Him.
Why does that not happen as it should?
Why are there many questions?
Who never experienced that live reality in their lives I'm not talking about.
People in this room right here.
Why is it that we so rarely?
Have this reality and learn it and have it lived out in our lives, and experience the power and the love and the joy and the peace that comes with life in Christ.
That is why I believe in this picture, that old man attached to this earth is pictured by a little woman and her only son. Because.
Because it presses home to us that there are things of that old man that we hold very dear that we do not want to let go of, just as a widow woman would not want to lose her only son. And so we have hopes.
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And dreams tied to this earth that we do not want to let go of. We have thoughts of how we would like our lives to go or how we wish our lives had gone in the past.
Perhaps thoughts of our brethren, thoughts of God.
That we do not want to let go of and it gets in the way.
Of us learning this lesson and experiencing the full power of the work that God would be doing in our lives. And so as God does this work in your life, will you yield to him? Will you give up everything tied to this earth, to your Savior that is required to experience the good of this lesson?
What happens at the very end of the story?
This woman in picture form learned that lesson. She yielded all. It's a picture of someone who has yielded all, is experiencing the power of death to that old man and life in Christ.
Philosopher says, And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.
She experienced peace.
She experienced a satisfaction and a security that no one else in the whole land of Israel had at that time that is available.
In the life in Christ that we can have if we'll yield fully to Him and learn what it is to be dead to ourselves and alive in Christ.
That's what I would call the first part of what I have to speak about tonight.
The picture that I hope is clear, the work that God is doing in our lives to bring us to the point that we would yield and learn the truth of death to that old man and life in Christ.
Now I would like to briefly go over to six specific ways.
That God uses in his refining work in our life. The first the two groups of three.
The first three are connected. You might say they're in our experience.
In the last three have to do with Christ.
The first one.
Is in our failures. Let's go to first Samuel.
Chapter 30.
I briefly considered making this story the entire theme of the Chalk. Tonight, we're only going to look at a little bit of it instead.
This is the story of David.
When he reaches rock bottom in his life.
First Samuel, chapter 30. I'll give a little bit of the background because we can't read it all.
David, after a long time of running to solve, lost sight of the Lord, gave up trusting in him, and went down and joined himself to the mortal enemy of his own people, the Philistines.
And he went wrong to the point. But there he was, marching in the Philistines army, leading his own men with the enemy of the people of God, into battle against his own people.
And God in his goodness, arranged that he was sent home, the Philistine said. You can't fight with us. Go home.
And David returns to his home home, a city that the Philistine king of God had given him, Ziklag.
And the First Samuel 30.
Verse three. What does David find there? So David and his men came to the city and behold it was born with fire and wise. No sons and their daughters were taken captives. When David and the people that were left and lifted up their voice and rapped until they had no more power to weep and damage, two eyes were taken captive, and Abigail the wife of Nabel the Carmelite.
David was greatly distressed.
The people speak of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters.
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And so David fails, not just a little bit, not just for a short time, he he fails. Could I put it this way, hard. And he fails long and he comes to rock bottom.
He's going with the enemy of Israel.
His wife and his children are gone, perhaps never to be seen again, and his own men that had stuck by him for years are contemplating killing him. He's at the bottom.
And I should have mentioned that I'm going to go through these six in the order of what I will say the order God would least prefer to use up to the highest. And so we're starting with the when he would least prefer to use, but often because of our own hearts, it's one he has to use our failures.
So David comes to this point. God had to let him come to this point.
Before the last half of verse six, but David encouraged himself and the Lord his God. He's reached the point God had to let him fail and come to the end of himself. Now put it this way, he's saying to God, I yield.
I.e. LTO And what does that do? Well, you feel pretty bad. So there's going to be a time of, you know.
Gotta prove yourself. Is that how it goes?
David calls the priest, verse 8 And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?
And the Lord answered, Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
So under verse 19, let's leave the last three words. David recovered all.
He got to the point where he yielded to God. It took great failure to get him there, but he yielded and as soon as that point was reached, where he surrendered to God immediately.
Recovered all.
Was it just recover all, got back his wife, children, belongings, lots of extra spoil. What else happened? He spent years running from Saul. He gets to this point where he yields to God. God not only recovers all, but in a matter of days God puts him on the throne of Judah.
That's what God does for one who yields. Now he can be useful for the Lord.
Don't get me wrong if you fail as I have, sometimes failures have consequences and scars that we carry for the rest of our lives. But.
If we yield to God, yes, we still carry those consequences and scars, but it will not be in a burden of guilt or an anguish.
Life in Christ is fully available and is fully there and fully true for even one who has failed. And those consequences and scars, when we feel them and experience them in our lives, will not be in a in a pain way if we yield it to God, but instead we'll look back with a fondness.
You'll remember, yes, I failed, but God used that to bring me to the end of myself. Well, I would yield to Him.
No, we know it's something to bear and start the rest of our lives, but if we really yield to God, it'll be something we can look back to and say he did a working me and he gets the credit and I can be thankful that he did that work.
So that's the first one. God works with us in our failures. If we come to the end of ourselves, yield to Him. The second one is in our service.
Let's go to Hebrews chapter 12.
That might sound strange.
God's working or refining work in our lives in the service.
Let's read Hebrews 12, the 1St 3 verses.
Wherefore, seeing we also accomplished about we're so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking into Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame that sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.
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But consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest he be worried and faint in your minds.
Here we have some verses to encourage us to follow after.
Lord Jesus, and it's a little bit like that first call when we're first responding to our Jesus. We're going to follow after him and we want to serve him.
And we want to do things that please Him. And so we start off on this journey. And that's a wonderful thing. But now let's read verse 4.
You have not yet resisted unto blood. Striving against sin. What's this striving against sin? Here we are starting out wanting to follow the Lord.
Who won to follow him and serve him?
And there's sin that comes up in our life that we strive against. And where is this coming from? It comes to the surface.
Anyone here who has kids or had kids? Even if you're in the very first part of having kids?
I think you'll be able to relate with one of the most common ways what I'm speaking about here happens. You have kids, you have all the desires to love and care and cherish and nurture them. You love them, and you have these ideas in your mind how you're going to be a wonderful parent to them.
What happens?
Probably happens late at night.
When you're really tired, things haven't been going well.
And some things like frustration and anger.
And bitterness and come to the surface. Where is this coming from? It's not what I thought would how I thought it would go. Becomes the surface.
Often times in our desire to follow after the Lord, we don't realize it, but there's still that flash mixed in in our desire to serve the Lord and in our service and our following after Him. God allows it to come to the surface and He allows that so that we can judge it for what it is and get it out into the light and deal with it and confess it.
It needs to come out so we can acknowledge it for what it is and have it be dealt with. Another very common way that this happens is when you go out and you want to serve and follow the Lord and you start to experience that first bit of the leading and the power of the Spirit of God. And God uses you to do something, uses you to do something for someone or speak in some way. That's a wonderful thing.
But you have not quite learned that lesson about that old man that's still in you yet.
And he's paying attention.
And other people notice that you've done something for the Lord and encourage you in that. Well meaning perhaps it's good that they do so. And your old man notices and says, I like getting credit for that. I'll step right in here and I'll take the credit for that.
And the pride of our flesh comes to the surface often in our service for the Lord, and God is allowing that to happen so it can get out into the open and be judged for what it is.
Soon attached to that flesh can be dealt with.
When those things come up, the next verse warns us about two wrong responses that we can have when these things come to the surface.
Verse five says You have forgotten the expectation, which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
Yes, the Lord is doing a chastening work in our lives, even in our service for Him. And here we're warned about two long responses we can have when that happens. We can despise it, or we can faint under it.
One of the common ways we despise it is we make excuses percent. And so if I'm genuinely trying to do something and service the Lord and some things come out in me that are not right, I push it aside and I justify it because while I was trying to do something for the Lord, don't do that.
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Lord is allowing those things to come to the surface so they can be judged and dealt with.
Don't make excuses for it. I was tired, I had a hard week at work or whatever it is.
It's never a justification for anything of the flesh coming out. Don't make excuses for it. The 2nd way that we can have an improper response is we can think under it because it can be discouraging. You're genuinely trying to do something for the Lord and you find some things in you that you perhaps were not even aware that come out, and that can be discouraging.
Don't get this good when that happens, but recognize that God is allowing it to come to the surface so that it can be judged in His sight for what it is and be dealt with. Recognize that this is a far better way for those things to come to the light than to have them come to the light by really failing in those things. This is a better way for how those things to come to the surface. So as you step out and your desire to serve and follow the Lord and those things come out.
Judge them for what they are, get them out into the light, and ask the Lord for help to overcome them.
The next the 3rd way in our experience that the Lord does our finding work in our lives. Let's go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. This is circumstances.
You can find this thing all through the Bible of God using circumstances to do a work in people's lives. And no doubt, perhaps many or all of you have already know that in your life. You just have the sense of things that God allow you to go through because He was doing a work in your life. But here's a verse that just spells it out. Second Corinthians 4, verse 11.
So we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest.
In our Moto flash, the God in his wisdom is going to pass us through circumstances that are going to have the effect of delivering us unto death. It's not literal death. It's that old man dying.
And often times you have to pass us through things to teach us that lesson. And I'm just gonna be brief on this one. Just to have that confidence to see that picture that we looked at in First King 17, to see the end of that story, that work that God was doing with that woman and that work that he's doing in every one of your lives. See the end of it. Sometimes those circumstances seem hard.
Trust to the end that God is doing your work in the circumstances He chooses to put you in. OK?
That's the first three. The next three I'll have to do with Christ.
So the first one is the cross backup one verse.
2nd Corinthians 4, verse 10.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
Learn to value and consider.
And never let go cold, let go cold.
What your Savior did for you at the cross, that has a refining effect in your life. The more you get a hold of that, don't allow yourself to forget it. Consider it. It has an effect. Here you see it in the verse, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. I already quoted it, but I'm gonna read one more verse in Galatians 2.
Patients 220. I am crucified with Christ, so there's the cross. Nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me.
And gave himself for me at the cross. Yes, we see that Jesus died for me, but we also see that that old man that we were born with, that finds all his hopes and dreams and attempts for satisfaction here in this earth, it died there as well. And if I go back to that and try and cater to it, I'm playing with something that is dead. And I'm only gonna get from it the products of something that it's dead and it's not gonna be satisfying.
So first is the cross.
Next is learning to walk with Christ.
Each day. Let's go to Colossians chapter 2.
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Again, there are many verses.
That could be referred to on this one. I picked this one because it ties it in.
To the theme of death and resurrection. Colossians 2 and verse six. You may not see it right away, but we'll get to it.
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
How did any of us receive the Lord Jesus?
I think we all understand. I hope we had to come to the end of ourselves. There's nothing I could do to save myself and it's only Lord Jesus that could save. You had to come to that point to be saved. I think we all understand that when it comes to the saving of our soul. The secret in this verse is walking with Christ works the same way as ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so rocky in him.
To be saved you would be the end of yourself, nothing you could do and only Christ. To walk with the Lord, there can't be anything of self, it's only Christ. The things that we hold dear that we don't want to surrender and let go, they have to go and it has to be only Christ. Another verse perhaps one that some thought it might turn to for walking with Christ.
Matthew, 1129.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
So I am Nickelodeon heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
As we learn to walk through life with the Lord Jesus and yoke with him, He doesn't work in our souls we find that rest, that joy and satisfaction that we could never find in that old man. You find that as you walk through life with the Lord Jesus.
The last one we've had looking back to the cross we have walking daily with the Lord Jesus, and the last one is looking on to Christ in glory. Colossians chapter 3.
First one, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, and not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. This is the secret, that picture in first kings, ye are dead.
In your life is hid with Christ, and God cannot find any satisfaction on this earth for that old man.
Dead. Try it, you'll never get it.
Our life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. We need to be looking on to Christ in glory. That's the end of our life where it will find its true satisfaction. And the more we're looking on to the true end, the more we will find that satisfaction and and the more we will find the truth that we are dead and alive under Christ worked out practically in our lives.
Let's look at one other verse that brings that out in, umm, Second Corinthians 3.
2nd Corinthians 3, verse 18.
So we are with open face, beholding us in a glass. The glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here you see that refining work, that changing work being done. As we are looking on to the Lord and looking on Him, we are changed into the same image.
Now I'm going to make a comment that for maybe two younger ones here.
This might not make sense now, but maybe you can tuck it away, and as the Lord passes you through this process, you'll learn what it means.
As we yield to this work that the Lord Jesus is doing in our lives, we more and more find the character of that walk being changed from trying and striving, and it changes more and more to just an effortless change you see in this verse.
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I'll try and do something to maybe hit that home.
All of you imagine something in your life that if this situation happens.
The flash just comes out. You just you just know it's going to there. We all have these things. If this happens, I respond in the flesh and I know it's the flesh and I don't want to justify and excuses. I want to fix it. I don't want that to go away. And I try and I try and I try.
And I might see some improvements, but never a full victory. That's the striving against sin. But the more and more we yield to the Lord and have him work out this process in our lives, and the more we move on to looking to the cross and walking with the Lord and looking on to Christ and glory, the more you'll find the character of that service changing from that striving into just an effortless change.
And that same experience where when it happens.
That circumstance where the flash just comes out.
You find that one day it happens and something else comes out and you can't even explain it.
That flash didn't come out. Something else came out, and that is Christ living in you. And when we learn that we're dead, we won't let pride of that old man take any credit for that.
The humbling thing realized whoever your name is, William could never have done that. That was Christ living in me. Thank you Lord Jesus for doing that work in my life to bring me to this point, not as his power working out in you struck me. For any of you that were here on Monday morning and you listen to Gideon tell his story, you all saw an example of what I'm talking about lived out in his life.
When he got saved and he wanted to forgive and he used the word several times, he was trying, trying, trying.
And he couldn't do it.
But then he got into the presence of the Lord, and he prayed for one year.
And if you caught it at the end, he said, it was by the love of Christ.
And I don't know what happened, but I I just forgave them. That is what I'm talking about. Lived out in reality. You all saw it. And I know that in that year of praying, he learned that lesson that we're seeing in first Kings 17 because he he those words by the love of Christ. That's from 2nd Corinthians 5. The love of Christ constrains us because we just that we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead, but he died for all that they which live should not.
I'm gonna just go read it because I'm messing it up.
2nd Corinthians 5 verse 15 And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. He learned that, and the power that he couldn't get in trying harder and trying harder. It was there he learned to die to himself.
And alive under Christ by yielding to God a few final.
Comments here at the end.
Do not fake it.
I'm not talking about faking salvation. If you're doing that, that's even worse. Don't do that either. Put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus.
But there's a tendency in our hearts to hear these truths and perhaps see them lived out in others.
And we fake it and try and play the part and say the words that we have not really got into the presence of the Lord and have these things worked out between US and Him.
Don't fake it, I'm not old.
But I'm old enough to see several people.
Who faked it?
There's a story in Second Kings you can read about a man named Hazi. He's a type of someone who did this. He was faking it. He looked the part, He looked the number one servant of Elijah. But he did not have faith. He did not have the power and God and his goodness allowed to his side have an experience to make it undisputably clear to him that he was faking it. Lysha sent him ahead with the rod to put it on the one, and nothing happened. It was clear to the haze in that moment that he was faking it.
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But did he own up to it and change? No, he didn't. He went on faking it. Do not do that. The end of his eye is bitter and sad. And I've seen the end those who fake it and it's bitter and sad.
One more comment in Umm Philippians 3.
This refining work that the Lord is doing in our lives goes on all the way to the end. We never reach the point where it's the I have arrived and I have nothing left to learn. Left to learn. And this is expressed very well in this passage. I am really running out of time here. Wow. Umm.
So I won't be able to read it all.
Philippians chapter 3, verse 10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection or fellowship, of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. This is Paul speaking here, the one who wrote many of these truths down, and he's expressing that he knew to the very end he was going to be being made conformable unto his death, that refining work was going to go on to the very end.
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I had already attained. He didn't say. I've got it. I figured it all out.
Although already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count myself not to have apprehended but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before. I pressed with the mark, with the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We never reached a point in this process. We've got it all figured out. We'd have this attitude that Paul expresses here.
They were pressing on, being made conformable unto his death till the end. I want to read one more place in Isaiah chapter 54.
Isaiah chapter 54.
And verse 16.
Behold, I have created this mess that blow up the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue shall rise against thee. In judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.
And their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
The Lord Jesus is the one directing that refining work in our lives. He's the one blowing the coals in the fire. And He is doing it to bring each one of us to be an instrument that is not for our own hopes and desires, but for His work. And in that process, they can express this here. There's going to be the waster to destroy. There's going to be things that He passes us through to bring the things to the surface that need to be.
And set aside, yield to him in it. And verse 17. Life in Christ is not really seen in the Old Testament, but you can see it in picture form here. The power and the peace and the freedom from guilt that comes to yielding to God in this work. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. They'll be victory over the flesh and over our enemies. Every time that shall rise against the judgment thou shalt condemn.
There will be freedom from the guilt and the sorrow of trying to do it halfway, trying to both follow the Lord and still catering to that old man. There will be freedom from that.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesses of me, saith the Lord. The question for all of us tonight is, are you yielding or are you and I resisting the work that He is doing in our lives? Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead.