Commit to Excel in Your Life of Service

Transcript

GR 1329
08-13-06
Commit to Excel in your Life of Service
I Corinthians 9:24-27
Gil Rugh

We've been studying the book of I Corinthians on Sunday morning and we've had a break because I've been gone and then we've talked about some prophetic matters. But I want to take you back to I Corinthians 9 in your Bibles today. The most important thing in scripture is to be prepared for what God has planned for the future. We believe in an imminent return of Jesus Christ, meaning it can happen at any time. That doesn't mean it will necessarily be soon. My personal conviction is that it seems that it's going to be soon. But the Bible teaches it is imminent, and that is that it may happen at any time. If it doesn't happen for another 50 years you will know my conviction was wrong. Drop a note on my gravestone. But it will still be imminent. But whenever Jesus comes, the most important thing is for us to be ready.

So basically that's what Paul is going to be talking about as we conclude chapter 9. In this section of the letter to the Corinthians which began in chapter 7, Paul is addressing issues that the Corinthians wrote to him about and so he is addressing their concerns. In chapter 7 he talked about marriage and the single life. In chapters 8-10 he is talking about the liberty we have in Christ. When you come to believe in Jesus Christ you are set free, you have what we call Christian liberty. The Corinthians were concerned about the use of that liberty, particularly in the context of matters related to the worship of idols. So that's behind everything that Paul says in chapters 8-10. He began in chapter 8 by saying, now concerning things sacrificed to idols. He talks a little bit about that. When we get into chapter 10 he will talk again about idol worship. He's addressing the subject a little more broadly, how do we use our liberty as believers, and then how do we apply that liberty when it comes to matters related to the worship of idols.

In chapter 9 he has been using himself as an example of how he used his liberty as an apostle of Jesus Christ. And that continues to be the focus of what he talks about as we come to the closing verses of chapter 9. When we talk about salvation in Jesus Christ there are two things that we have to be clear on, and I want to note these up front, because what we're going to talk about today, I don't want it to cause you confusion. I want you to know I'm clear on what is involved in biblical salvation. The first thing you must be clear on, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. By grace through faith in Christ we add the word alone because some say it is by grace through faith in Christ, but it's not by grace alone and it's not by faith alone. And they add things. Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 3:24 and said, we are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. So there is no question, salvation is by grace, God's grace, something unmerited, undeserved. And it is brought to us through faith, not through faith plus our works, through faith plus our baptism, through faith plus anything, but through faith alone in Christ alone.

But there is a second thing we must be clear on regarding salvation. Salvation involves and requires a life committed to the service of Jesus Christ. We sometimes fall into the trap, and this is a matter of having a biblical perspective in keeping things in a biblical balance, we fall into the trap of thinking of salvation as a one-time decision. So I make a decision to trust Christ, that's great, I have that taken care of, I'm sure that I'm not going to hell but I'm going to heaven. Now I can get on with my life. That is not the salvation that the Bible talks about, that is not biblical salvation. Biblical salvation begins at a point in time when you place your faith in Jesus Christ, but that is simply the beginning of a life of faith. That is when you begin, you are born again. You die with Christ and are raised with Christ to newness of life as Romans 6 pictures it. So true biblical salvation has its beginning when you understand and believe the gospel, that Christ Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin and He was raised from the dead. And you trust in Him and Him alone as your Savior. But that is not a point in time that stands alone; that is the beginning of a life, a new life.

Turn to Luke 14. We want to look at some matters that are introductory and they will set a foundation for us as we move through our verses in Corinthians. Jesus is addressing the crowds that are following Him in Luke 14:25. Now large crowds were going along with Him. We think that's a great thing today. I get information in the mail for pastor's conferences and pastor's material to show me how to get a crowd. Jesus could do conferences on how to thin a crowd, and that's what He does here. Large crowds were going along with Him and He turned and said to them, if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. You cannot be a follower of Mine; you cannot sit as a student of Mine to be taught by Me, to learn under My authority unless you are willing to give up all important human relationships, unless you are willing to give up your own life. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. To be a disciple is to basically be a believer. At the end of Matthew Jesus will command His followers to go and make disciples of all the nations. And in Acts 14 the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. So a disciple in our terminology in the church age is a Christian. You have to carry your own cross and follow Me. Now note, He doesn't say you must make a decision to trust Me, period. He puts it in the context of committing yourself to Me so that all other relationships are left behind; your own life becomes Mine. You must be willing to take up your cross. You know what that meant in Roman times, as Jesus is addressing that? That meant utter scorn, rejection, humiliation, to be viewed as worthless scum in the world. You're not willing to take up your cross and follow Me, you cannot be My disciple.

Then He gives an example beginning in verse 28. Which of you when he wants to build a tower doesn't sit down and calculate the cost first, otherwise you won't be able to complete it. When Marilyn and I were on the West coast we would travel up and down one particular area and we were up and down a number of times. And there is a frame of a house sitting there, and the weeks we went up and down there we never saw anybody working on that place. And furthermore, you know how the wood looks when it's been sitting outside exposed for a long time? It looked like there had been nothing done on this house for a long, long time. We commented, it looks like someone began to build that place and they ran out of money and there it sits. They didn't calculate the cost. Jesus said; consider the cost before you become my follower. Or if you're going to go to war, you better consider how strong your enemy is before you enter into war.

So then, verse 33, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all His own possessions. Let's start out right now to see what it means to be a follower of Mine, what it means to commit yourself to Me, count the cost. He's not just talking about you making a decision at a point in time and that will settle it and that's all there is. You'll note He puts it in the context of a life that now becomes His. It will no longer matter what you like, it will no longer matter what you want to do, it will no longer matter what makes you comfortable, what makes you important. You become Mine, you give up everything, and your life becomes Mine. We're talking about a life.

Turn over to Hebrews 10. The writer to the Hebrews is writing to Jews who have professed faith in Christ, but there is a lot of pressure in being a believing Jew, and some of them are thinking about turning back to Judaism. And the writer to the Hebrews in effect tells them, when you become a follower of Christ, you are in it for the long haul. And anybody who bails out never belonged to Christ and is going to destruction. In Hebrews 10 he's talked about the danger of turning against Christ in verses 26 and following. We need to pick up in verse 36, for you have need of endurance. Remember that word, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised. When you've done the will of God means when you come to the completion of life you'll receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while He who is coming will come and will not delay. We talked about that. But my righteous one shall live by faith, quoting from Habakkuk 2:4. It's quoted in the first chapter of Romans, a verse that made a great impact on Martin Luther. My righteous one will live by faith, the just shall live by faith. Now note this, if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. There is no going back. If you go back, God takes no pleasure in you, you go back to destruction. Verse 39, we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but who have faith to the preserving of the soul. The just shall live by faith. You enter into that life when you place your faith in Jesus Christ, the gospel concerning Him. But that is just the beginning of a life of faith, and thus that life is characterized by your faith in Him until the end. And then you'll receive what was promised, and that coming is imminent. It may happen at any time.

Then he goes on in chapter 11 to give examples of those who lived the life of faith. In verse 6 he reminded them, without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. But you'll note, all the examples in chapter 11 do not relate to people who came to a point in time and made a decision to believe and then went on and lived their lives the way they had been. They are examples of those who lived their lives by faith in God. Look at verse 8, by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed God, going out to a place. He traveled to Canaan. Verse 9, by faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise. Verse 11, by faith Sarah received the ability to conceive, and on down we go to show how they lived their lives by faith.

Then you come down to chapter 12 verse 1, therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, all those individuals brought to our attention in chapter 11 that testify to the necessity of endurance in living a life of faith, let us lay aside every encumbrance, the sin which so easily entangles us, now note the last part of the verse, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. That's the same analogy that Paul is going to use in I Corinthians 9—running the race, run it with endurance. He said in Hebrews 10:36, you have need of endurance. The just shall live by faith. Run with endurance the race that is set before us and so on.

Come back to I Corinthians 9. I'm very concerned and the Apostle Paul is concerned that we understand that when we are set free in Christ we are not free now to do as we please. We have been set free now to devote ourselves to a life of passionately serving Jesus Christ. We accept the lot under the guise of Christianity which does not measure up to biblical Christianity. Someone left this church a number of years ago, they shared with someone that every time Gil preaches he tries to make me feel like I'm lost. Well that's not my goal, I'm not the judge. But I am called to shine the light of the Word of God on all of us, and we all live under the authority of God's Word. And I am very concerned, even as we've talked about the coming of Jesus Christ for His own, that there are multitudes of people in the church who do not belong to Jesus Christ. The kind of insipid, passionless Christianity that is acceptable in so many places today is foreign to the New Testament, it is not genuine. True, saving faith in Christ transforms us and now we live different lives, and we live our lives committed to Christ.

Paul is going to use himself as an example as he has been doing. In I Corinthians 9:23, I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. I'm going to use some athletic metaphors, analogies, and then draw to the point there is no choice. If we don't live our lives in passionate commitment pursuing the goal that God has set before us, we are lost. Look at verse 24, do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize. You know we sometimes think, we are an athletic crazed society, I mean, sports, sports, sports. But you know what? There is nothing new under the sun. Two thousand years ago Greece was an athletic-crazed society. Where do we get the Olympics? Greece. There were four what they called Pan Hellenic sports events in Greece. The Olympics are the most well known. This doesn't mean all Greece would be involved in these, and these have become broader than just Greece, but they were focused in Greece. We know of the Olympics. The second most important athletic event was held every other year, it was called the Isthmian Games. They were held just outside of Corinth every other year, but they were under the authority and sponsorship of the city of Corinth. These were second only to the Olympics in importance, so it attracted all the major athletes and so on. Sports, the world is always caught up in its entertainment. Francis Schaeffer said many years ago that the driving thing for Americans is personal peace and affluence. As long as I have my money and my personal comfort, I don't care about anything else. And we've some of that manifested in our day, even more openly.

So Paul uses these analogies of athletic events to drive home a spiritual point. That's what he's doing about running a race. Those who run in a race. You might be interested to know that to run in a race, and we get the word from race, the word translated a race is really the word stadio, we get the word stadium from, because the races were usually held in the stadiums. So it becomes somewhat interchangeable, although you did other things in their stadiums as well. But here are those running in a race. Paul used this in Galatians 5; he used it in Philippians 2 as an analogy of the Christian life. The writer to the Hebrews used it, remember, run with endurance the race set before you. The Christian life is pictured as a race. Now we have to apply all our energy into arriving successfully at the goal or the finish line.

Now all run in the race, but all don't receive the prize. There is only one winner, and everybody in that race, you watch the Olympics since we're familiar with that. They have the races and everyone that is in that particular race or meet has one goal—I want to win. Now Paul says in applying it, run in such a way that you may win; the race that we're in. Now he's not saying we're competing against one another as Christians, and I want to be sure that I beat you in this race, or you're trying to beat me. The point is that just being in the race is not enough. There must be that driving commitment to arrive successfully as a goal. My commitment is to win. We sometimes say, finish well. I've been privileged to be in the ministry now for 40 years. It saddens me to see some people don't finish well. Let's finish well. The race is not over until it's over. How do I know when it's over? God will call me to glory through death or through the coming of Christ in the air. We must run the race that is set before us and run in such a way that you may win. We don't just wander around on the track. We must be focused on the goal that God has set before us.

One writer put it this way; they cannot amble nonchalantly around the track and expect some kind of trophy simply for participation. Now note where Paul is going with this. Verse 25, everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. That word self-control becomes key to this whole section, because he's talking about the discipline we must exercise over our bodies in the exercising of our liberty to successfully complete the race that God has set before us. Many secular writers in Paul's time before and after drew on athletic metaphors and they would talk about all that was involved in the training of athletes and what they must be willing to give up, and the kind of diet they have to follow, the kind of exercise.

I get Sports Illustrated, this is not an advertisement for Sports Illustrated, I get it because I get a great discount and I pass it on to one of my kids. I sometimes read it and they have an article in it, a depressing article of a man who is a wonderful specimen, I tore those pages out so Marilyn wouldn't see them. But it's all about this athlete and his training. Have him pictured in all these poses of the different kinds of exercises he used and how disciplined he is in doing these every day, he has a fixed schedule. Then they tell you his diet, what he eats for breakfast, what he eats for lunch, what he eats for dinner. And I mean he's consumed all of his life so that when he enters the contest he can excel and be the best. Couldn't help but think of what Paul wrote here, everyone who competes in the game exercises self-control in all things. Every area of life has to come into this. That's not bad, you can sit and watch television, watching television is not good or bad. You can sit and read a book, that's not good or bad. But if you're an athlete you have to be training. He exercises self-control in all things.

You know self-control, the word used here, is listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:23. In fact it's the last in the list Paul gives of the fruits the Spirit produced in the life. So this is not self-control, something that comes just from me, but it is my responsibility to draw upon the power and enablement that the Spirit gives to discipline myself, to be able to accomplish successfully what God requires of me and His children. We don't want to hear much about the sacrifice and commitment in the Christian life today. We're so caught up in our society; we spend more time thinking about the good life. We allow the world to set the pattern for how we live our lives. Paul is talking about the discipline that is required, that the Spirit produces in the life of a genuine believer that he might run the race that is set before him.

Now note, they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. And in the Isthmian Games your crown, at one time they were pine leaves that had been pasted together. During Paul's day they used celery. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And it would be older celery that got limp and it could be woven around as a crown. So here you're standing on the victor's stand with old celery hanging down your head. You say, that's really something to devote your life to, to give up good food, to give up relaxation for, I just can't wait for them to slap the celery on my head. But I'm the victor, I won, it was significant. But it's a perishable wreath. Name me the four top athletes in Greece in the first century. Let's spread it out, the first three centuries. I don't know. Well, have you looked at their trophies? You know how long celery lasts? Get real. Paul's point well taken. They do it for an imperishable wreath, crown. The word translated wreath is stephanos, crown. They do it for something that really doesn't last, but we discipline ourselves for something that is imperishable, that endures, for a crown that is imperishable. We are running with discipline and endurance the Christian life, we are sacrificing the things that other people might do, and we are giving up comforts and enjoyments. Why? God has called us to a task. We look at Paul and say, how did he live the life that he lived? We read when he wrote about himself at the end of II Corinthians and we say what a sacrifice. Paul saw that as the norm and the standard. You cannot be in the Christian race without endurance. We need to take this seriously. We're doing it for an imperishable crown, Stephan’s.

I want to look at some of the passages that promise the Stephan’s to believers. Go back to I Peter 5. Peter is writing to the elders to encourage them to be faithful and to function as they should with the task that God has given them with the promise. I Peter 5:4, and when the chief shepherd appears you will receive the unfading Stephan’s of glory. Paul said it was imperishable, Peter says it is unfading. A crown of glory, a glory that will never diminish for having endurance and serving faithfully in what God has called you to do and appointed you to do as His servant. You receive glory from Him, the crown of glory.

Back up to James 1:12, blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. This is in the context; we're talking about something over time. We've got locked in that salvation, well that's that point in time when you placed your faith in Christ and that settles your eternal destiny. Now we're talking about the man who perseveres under trial. We talk about eternal security; those who believe in Christ are eternally secure. And there is a truth in that, but there is a distortion in that. The old writers talked about the perseverance of the saints. Eternally security gives you that idea of passively now I can sit back and wait for Christ to come. No one who has truly entered into the salvation that Christ provides can now just sit back and wait for the Lord to come. He must persevere. You say, that sounds like I'm saved by faith and kept by my works. No, because he who began a good work in you will continue to bring it to perfection until the day of Christ Jesus, Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6. It is the work of God in the child of God, but nonetheless you understand I am responsible to exercise my will in drawing upon His power and applying myself. So blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved he will receive the crown of life. The approval doesn't come until you complete the race. You'll note they don't give out the crowns at the quarter mile mark or a quarter of the way through the race, or at the halfway point. It's at the finish line. When he has been approved he will receive the crown of life, the Stephan’s of life. What is that life? It's the life, now, that I enter into that was provided for me in Christ, an eternal glory of life in His presence, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

I want to take a little sidetrack here. The crown of life is promised to those who love Him. We sometimes begin to think of our relationship with Christ like our sentimental love songs. I am so in love with Jesus, I just can't love Him enough. There is an element of truth to that; I don't want to play down the fact that love can contain an emotional element. But that's not the love that the Bible is talking about when it talks about a relationship with Christ. So come over to John 14. It's important that we get the crown of life, if you don't get life, you're lost. That will be entering into the life, the enjoyment of that life when Christ comes. It's for those who love Christ. John 14, on Jesus' last night with His disciples He talks about love. And it's not, I hope you just keep on loving Me like I love you, and we'll be in love together all the time. He puts it right down on our life. Look at verse 15; if you love Me you will keep My commandments. He's not talking about the Ten Commandments, not talking about the Mosaic law, He's talking about the commandments that He has given and will give in the unfolding revelation that will come. If you love Me, you'll keep My commandments. That has to do with our life, the way we live. Look down in verse 21, he who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love Him. There is no real love relationship between God and those who do not obey His Word.

Verse 23, if anyone love Me he will keep My word. My Father will love him; we will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My word. We're talking about our lives here. It's not a matter of I made a decision at that point, I'm not obeying His Word, I'm not doing what He would have me to do. I'm not doing anything necessarily overtly wrong. Paul wasn't involved in immorality, he wasn't involved in stealing, but he's going to say, I'm talking about the general discipline of my life. I have people living in immorality tell me, I know I trusted Christ. Had someone recently tell me they trusted Christ at this church so they knew they were saved, even though they were living in immorality. I'm concerned with people who are deluded. That can't be. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. It's a mutual love relationship evidenced by a life of obedience to the Word of God. Now note, you are not saved by keeping His commandments. You must be born again. The beginning of this new life happens when you place your faith in Christ. Then you are born again. You die with Christ, you are buried with Christ, and you’re raised with Christ to newness of life. We're talking about now how you live out the new life you have in Christ. It's in obedience to His Word. Passionate commitment to serving Him, not wandering around as though you don't know what's going on. I try to get in an hour in the morning on Sundays; I have so much going in my life. We're talking about being totally committed to serving Him.

Come back to II Timothy 4. Paul is at the end of his life. He says the process that will result in my martyrdom has already begun. And he says in verse 7, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course. There's that analogy. I have run the race; I'm at the finish line. I have finished the course, I have kept the faith, and I made it to the end. In the future there is laid up for me the crown, the stephanos of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. Not to me only, but also to all those who have loved His appearing. Doesn't say I know there is a crown of righteousness because back on the Damascus Road I trusted Christ. Now I haven't lived for Him and I haven't devoted my life to him, but I know on the Damascus Road I trusted Him so there is a crown........... Wait a minute, that was the beginning of a life. If that didn't result in a life then that experience didn't bring about your salvation. This disjunction that we make that you can make a decision and then live your life for yourself has no biblical support. The crown of righteousness.

We won't turn to these others for time, but Jesus Christ addressed the church at Smyrna in Revelation 2:10, and He said, be faithful unto death and I will give you the stephanos of life. The crown of life comes to those who are faithful to the end. At Smyrna that's going to mean some of them are going to have to give their lives for Christ. But remember He told those who would become His disciples in Luke 14, you can't be My disciple if you don't give up your own life. So you be faithful unto death and I'll give you the crown of life. What about if I'm faithful halfway of the race? You get nothing. What about if I'm faithful three-quarters of the race? You get nothing. You be faithful to the end of your race, and then you get the crown. Revelation 3:11, the church at Philadelphia. I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have so that no one will take your crown. Hold fast what you have or you'll lose your crown. So can you lose your salvation? No. But not everyone who thinks he is saved is saved. Serious matter, here. The crown, glory, life, righteousness that we've looked at are awarded at the end of the race when we are brought before the Lord. They are imperishable; they have to do with our eternal life, eternal glory, and eternal righteousness.

Come back to I Corinthians 9. I want to be able to tie this all together for you. Look at verse 26, therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air. In other words Paul says, you can't go into the contest and have no purpose, no goal. Some people who have professed to be believers seem at a loss. I mean, what are they doing? Paul says I don't run without any aim. I never was good at track. My Dad told me when I was a young person, you better learn to stand and fight because you'll never be fast enough to get away. If I go out on a track it's just to wander around. I mean, the slowest guy in gym class could run faster than I. I mean, just wander around. What are you doing out here? I'm in the race. Sometimes my gym teacher would say, Gil, what are you doing? Get going. There's no sense in running, they're going to lap me anyway. I might just as well wait here for them. Paul says, I don't run without aim, I know where I'm going. If you don't know where you're going, you don't belong to Him. You see boxing matches. My grandfather lived with us for a while and liked boxing. I'd go into his little room and watch a boxing match. They were beating on each other. You don't get somebody in the ring............. He's not a boxer; he's not even in the contest. We get some kind of idea, yes, I'm a Christian and you're wandering out here in a fog, and everybody ought to believe you're a Christian because I remember when I made a decision. So I may not be living a Christian life, but I know I’m a Christian. Well you make think you're a Christian but all this has to stand under the authority of God's Word. This is a serious matter. We don't want to be mistaken.

Paul says in verse 27, I discipline my body and make it my slave. We talked about that self-control in verse 25. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control. Paul says, I discipline my body. The word means to hit somebody, punch somebody under the eye. In other words it means to hit him under the eye or to give them a black eye. It comes to mean to beat somebody black and blue. That's what happens when you hit them under the eye, the face turns black and blue. Paul says, and he's talking about severe discipline, I do whatever it takes to discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others I myself will not be disqualified. Some people take this to mean that I'll get to the end of the race but I won't get my reward. I think there is something more serious here. We'll look at the word disqualified in a moment. Paul says I can preach to others and be rejected at the end if I haven't been disciplining my body to accomplish what God has appointed for me as His child.

Could you preach to someone else and be lost yourself? Listen to what someone wrote, just so you know I'm not just saying this. A quote from one writer. One may proclaim the truth and many may respond, but that same truth may not penetrate the heart and soul of the proclaimer. In my previous hour some of us were talking, you know we could list people we knew who at one time proclaimed the truth but now denied it, have turned away from it. We can talk about people we knew who were saved through the preaching of men who today deny the very truth they proclaim. They didn't endure. God uses His Word. We saw God use Balaam to give some of the great prophecies concerning Israel, the book of Numbers. But he's the example of a godless false prophet in the New Testament. He proclaimed the Word of God and he was a reprobate. Paul says I discipline my body and make it my slave because I don't want to get to the end of the course and be rejected.

Turn to Romans 2. Paul gives an example of these very kinds of teachers. Some of the Jews were like this. Verse 17, you bear the name Jew, you rely upon the law, you boast in God, you know His will, you approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the law. You know these Jews, they wouldn't be immoral, they wouldn't commit adultery, homosexuality, they believed lying was sin, on we go. You're instructed out of the law. Verse 19, you are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind. You are the light to those who are in darkness, you correct the foolish, and you teach the immature. Then he goes on to say, you're lost, unsaved.

Come back to I Corinthians 9 and I want you to note a word, then we have to look at this word. That will draw us to a conclusion. I discipline my body and make it my slave so after I have preached to others I myself will not be disqualified. You can write the word down, adokimos; that literally means you flunked the test. The a on the front of dokimos, the test, and the a means you flunked, you failed, you didn't pass. It's a word that means worthless, rejected, that which has not stood the test, that which is shown to be false and so rejected. And this word in the New Testament is always used of unregenerate people who are condemned. Paul says I don't want to have preached to others and find out that I am adokimos, I am rejected, I am found to be worthless.

Go to Romans 1:28 and I'll tell you the word so you can mark it, talking about they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. Here are people who will have nothing to do with God, they've rejected Him. They don't even want to acknowledge God any longer. God gave them over to a depraved mind. That word depraved is our word adokimos, a worthless mind, a mind that has been rejected, what God views as of no use to Him. People who have rejected God have an adokimos mind, a rejected mind, and their thoughts now are worthless, useless.

Come over to II Corinthians 13. Paul writes to the Corinthians and expresses a concern that we're talking about in his first letter. II Corinthians 13:5, test yourselves to see if you are in the faith, if you are genuine believers, if you are in the faith, it's where you live. Examine yourselves. Do you not recognize this about yourselves; that Christ Jesus is in you. Remember in John 14 Jesus said that those who love Him will keep His commandments; He will come and make His abode with them. Christ Jesus in you, unless indeed you failed the test, unless you indeed are adokimos. Fail the test is a translation of the word adokimos. Unless you reject it. Then Christ isn't in you, you're not in the faith, you're adokimos. You need to examine yourselves; something is going on here, Corinthians. You need to do a test. You claim to have trusted Christ, you claim to have trusted Christ through my preaching, but you're not living a life of that passionate service for him that would be the evidence, manifestation of one who is pursuing the goal. Are you in the faith? Is Christ Jesus even in you? Or are you adokimos? One who flunks the test.

Look at II Timothy 3:8. He's talking in the context about those who are always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, verse 7. Verse 8, just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. So these men, these present false teachers, also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind rejected. And there that word rejected is our word adokimos, rejected in regard to the faith. They flunked the test regarding true saving faith. People who may have professed to have trusted Christ, but they flunked the test. They are adokimos in regard to the faith.

Just after II Timothy, Titus 1:16, talking about again unregenerate people. Verse 16, they profess to know God. These are people who profess to know God. They have professed to make a decision, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable, disobedient, worthless, adokimos, the word translated worthless, adokimos for any good deed. They are of no worth at all in God's sight; they are useless, adokimos, rejected for any good deed.

One other passage, Hebrews 6, and the context here is striking. We're talking about, in verse 4, the case of those who have been enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift, have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted the good word of God, the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away. These are people who have had all the benefits of being exposed to God's truth, of seeing and experiencing in a variety of ways the ministry of the Holy Spirit. They turn away, they're lost. It's impossible to renew them again to repentance. The example, verse 7, for the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. So here you have all God's blessing and His Word and His work has rained down on them, and as a result that is to be the fruit in the life. But if this ground yields thorns and thistles it is worthless, adokimos, and close to being cursed, it ends up being burned. So we are persuaded of better things concerning you, brethren, verse 9, things that accompany salvation. So the contrast between believer and unbeliever, the unbeliever is worthless, he does not produce what God says must be there in the life of one who belongs to Him.

So it's coming up on the time when he'll be cursed and sentenced to hell. He is adokimos, he's flunked the test. Serious matter. Paul says I wouldn't want to have preached to others and be adokimos then, myself be rejected. So he said I discipline my body. Is he then saying that you can only be saved by keeping yourself saved? No, I'm saying anyone who is truly, truly saved has had their life changed. We ought to get rid of this insipid, unbiblical “Christianity” as though somebody did God a favor because he made a decision for Christ. And now he's about living his own life. Recently I shared with you I had someone come in to see me, was living in immorality, but I know I trusted Christ. But Paul's not even talking about that. He says I have to discipline my body in every area of life to the goal. I mean, does it matter? We in our comfortable society get so caught up in the good life that I sometimes wonder if Christians are running toward the goal of the coming of Christ, does it matter. We say with Paul we have disciplined our bodies and made them our slave because our bodies must do what we know the living God would have us do in serving Him. And that may cost me much in my comforts, my ease. Be sure the church and the fellowship of God's people and serving Him doesn't interfere with what I want to do with my life. Well wait a minute, stop. Whose life are we talking about here? You are not your own, you are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body. Paul is saying, if that's not the kind of life being lived, then you are in danger of being classified as one who is adokimos. You may have made a decision, but you never had life-changing salvation.

Turn with me to a passage in closing, Matthew 7. Jesus gave the same teaching, characteristic of His teaching throughout His earthly ministry. He warns people to enter, in Matthew 7:13-14, the narrow gate. The gate is wide, the way is broad that leads to destruction. Many are traveling that road. The gate to life is narrow, the road is narrow, there aren't many on it. Beware of false prophets, verse 16; you know them by their fruits. Again, we're talking about life. Verse 20, you'll know them by their fruits. And I think perhaps one of the most shocking verses in all of the Bible - not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, cast out demons and do miracles? And He'll say, I never knew you. You're adokimos, you're rejected. Depart from me, which means you're going to hell. People are going to come right up to the end, stand before Christ, and He's going to say, I don't know you. They'll say, Lord, we did all these things. I don't know you. I think that's the worst thing. People who would have so deceived themselves that right to the very end, Lord, I never knew you, you never belonged to Me.

Are you saved by our works? No, you're saved by grace through faith, by grace alone, through faith alone, the finished work of Jesus Christ. But that is the beginning of a life and no one is saved who has not had that life produced in them. It's a life with discipline required. The Spirit of God is indwelling us to produce the self-control that we might draw upon that to bring our bodies, everything in our lives, to be enslaved to the service of Jesus Christ. Can I give up preaching? I can't. Why? I don't want to be adokimos. Aren't you saved? I am, that's why I can't give it up, I can't quit serving Him, I can't not do.......... Wouldn't you like just ........... Wouldn't Paul like to just have gone to the Mediterranean and propped up after all his beatings and let his .............. Can't quit, that would be the sign of an adokimos. Well, you're not saved by your works, if you're saved, you're saved. And that's it, when you are genuinely saved you can't quit. And when you can quit, you are not genuinely saved. I John 2 says they went out from us because they were not really of us, because if they were of us they would have stayed with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate they were really not part of us. We wonder what happens to people that seem to do well for so long and then all of a sudden they are............ They've just been revealed for what they are. Praise God when He saves us, He saves us completely. He's not done with us, but it is a life-changing salvation. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold new things have come. Now we live a life of disciplined service for Jesus Christ.

Do you know Jesus Christ? You know your life; examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Do you know that Jesus Christ dwells in you unless you are adokimos. If He dwells in you, your life will be different, your life will be a manifestation of His life and your life will be a disciplined life committed to the slavery of Jesus Christ, the only life that really matters for time and eternity.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the clarity of your Word. These are solemn matters. Lord, we easily brush them aside, we take matters for granted, we think lightly of what you take seriously. Lord, the worst of all possibilities is that we would delude ourselves and come to that day and find out we never knew the Lord. He never knew us. Lord, I pray that we might look at ourselves in light of your Word to see if indeed we discipline ourselves. Are we a people who have professed a faith in Christ and are now living that life of faith and our personal likes, our personal comforts, even our family relationships are all subjugated to a consuming passion and fiery commitment to use our lives and these bodies for the service of the Savior who loved us and died for us. We look forward to the crowning day when we will receive what you have promised for those that love Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.