The Christian Life- Christ In Life. Life In Christ? Roger M. Traxel 16 May 2021

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Preface Grandchildren are incredible. This story is from my daughter Erica regarding my grandson Beckett. Have you folks played the game “Beat That”? It’s kind of like the TV game show Minute to Win It. You get a set amount of time to accomplish a silly task. The task at hand: use chopsticks to transfer 4 dice out of a Solo cup and then back in again, all within 30 seconds. Beckett: “I’m not even French, so I don’t know how to use chopsticks!” My Uncle Clarence, a dairy farmer in Northern Wisconsin, used to say, “We grow too soon old and too late smart.” A fact which I have come to appreciate. What is the Christian life, and further, what is the abundant Christian life? This sermon is entitled “The Christian Life-Christ in Life. Life in Christ?”

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Prayer God we pray that you would be glorified, and your saints honored this day. Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. Oh God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations through Christ our Lord. Amen

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Place yourself in this man’s shoes. He is let go by his company due to downsizing. Life has just kicked him in the teeth. How is he to provide for his family? His mother develops health issues and dies suddenly. His mourning is cut short as his wife is diagnosed with cancer. In the midst of this his daughter is arrested for stealing to support a drug habit he was unaware of. He can barely hold his head up having been smashed about by life’s tragedies. What consolation can he find, and how does he proceed having been sucker punched by life? Jesus said “… I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. What is the Christian life, and further, what is Christ talking about regarding an abundant Christian life? The Christian life typically is striving your best to walk with God at times drawing close and other times being far from Him, looking forward to life in heaven. The abundant Christian life is a walk with the Holy Spirit directing our path and conforming us to the image of Christ. In the abundant Christian life, the fruit and gifts of the

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Spirit are lived out and our hope is apprehended in this life, ultimately being completed in heaven. If you are seeking the much more in Christianity, this message is for you. Let’s consider God’s provision from a personal perspective, the children of Israel’s response, and the lives of men and women of faith. He had grown up in a Christian home attending Sunday School and church each Sunday. He went through confirmation class memorizing Luther’s Small Catechism and trusting Christ as his Savior. He sought the Lord in the Bible and prayer. One Sunday while reciting the church liturgy, a thought occurred to him. This is very important, so why am I just reciting words? The words of Isaiah 29:13 were most appropriate: ”These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” I did not have a good answer, but knew in my heart that something was missing. The exigencies of life transcended further exploration as to what was missing between God and I.

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God was sought through the Bible, prayer, and church during years of education and ultimately practice in Midland. There were trials and tribulations along the way, but overall, life was good. God had blessed me with a great wife, children, practice, home, cars, and trips. God was doing His part, and I was doing my part. Slowly but surely life changed. The medical-surgical group I joined went bankrupt, and I lost my wealth. With the stress of practice, my arthritis flared causing additional problems with heart, lungs, and kidneys. However, the greatest wound was from my wife who developed other interests which did not include me. I felt like a deer being attacked by wolves. God was sought more earnestly. God revealed Himself through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church. Still something seemed missing between God and I. So if something is missing in dealing with God, what is it? Maslow has established a hierarchy of mans needs and desires. Basic Needs: Water, Food, Sleep, Security, Health, Finances

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Psychological and Self Fulfillment Needs: Love, Belonging, Esteem, Self Actualization Biologically God has created us with a thirst for water and a hunger for food. Psychologically God has created us with a thirst for a love that cannot be lost or even diminished by our performance and a hunger for a purpose in living that transcends time. What is God’s desire in dealing with mankind? God created man in His image to glorify God 1 Corinthians 10:31. Sin says: “ God’s person and provision are not sufficient for me, and God is not glorified.” But God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins (justification) through His shed blood, but also for our life with Him. Christ’s death is God’s provision for sin’s power. Christ’s burial is God’s provision for past identity. Christ’s resurrection is God’s provision for present identity. Christ’s life is God’s provision for present life. With this the New Covenant is ushered in. Under the Old Covenant God said thou shalt and thou shall not. Man was

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incapable of obedience under the Old Covenant. Under the New Covenant God says “I will”. Ezekiel 36:25-27 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” God has done three things: taken away our sins (justification), but also given us a new heart and His Spirit for a new life with Him. When the Bible looks at the interior of man to describe what’s going on it refers to man’s heart. The heart is used to describe our intellect, emotions, will, conscience, and spiritual longings. Man’s new heart is bound up in desiring God. God places His Spirit within us to empower individuals to live out God’s will to God’s glory. We have a choice: live according to the flesh or present ourselves to the Holy Spirit to live through us. The

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result of living with God’s new heart and His Spirit through us is a love that cannot be lost or

diminished by our performance and a significant life in glorifying God. Men in selfishness seek this in sin, but in God find fulfillment. We have a model of man’s desire and God’s desire being played out in the Old Testament. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:11 notes that what happened to the children of Israel living in Egypt, journeying in the desert, and entering the Promised Land were written for our admonition. The children of Israel were enslaved by the Egyptians, suffering bitterly under burdens imposed on them, and helpless to save themselves. This is a picture of the unforgiven sinner. At the fall of man, when Adam sinned, God withdrew His Holy Spirit from the human spirit. Man while alive physically was dead spiritually. When the Bible speaks of the flesh, it refers to an evil bias from which all of mankind’s inbred wickedness comes. The land of Egypt represents our natural spiritual death; just as the

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Egyptian taskmasters represent the flesh in its control over human behavior. God raised up Moses to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt performing many miracles. In the final miracle, God asks His people to apply the blood of a spotless lamb to the door posts and lintel. They are by faith to rest in God’s promise to deliver them. The Angel of Death passes over the children of Israel and kills all the first born of Egypt. In coming out of Egypt, the children of Israel were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. God brought Israel miraculously through the sea on dry ground. This proved to be a place of death for the Egyptians. We may understand from this model the significance of Christ on the cross. We are forgiven saved from sin’s penalty by the shed blood of Christ. Christ’s death is God’s provision over sin’s power. Christ’s burial is God’s provision for past identity. The children of Israel were saved by grace through faith and asked to walk by faith. At Kadesh-Barnea the witness of the ten scouts was

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the Promised Land is indeed good, but there are

giants in the land. We were as grass hoppers in our own sight and so were we in their sight. They looked to themselves as being incapable of taking the land. Caleb and Joshua looked to God in faith, and said God is able to deliver the land to us. God in anger with the Israelite’s lack of faith in Him condemned them to the wilderness for forty years. It is a period of looking to self and being frustrated. God intervened with mercy and chastening on their journey. It took forty years for God to teach His people through Joshua that it takes the same faith to get into the Promised Land that it took to get out of Egypt. This is a picture of the finished work of the cross. They had a new identity in God. They had a new power with God acting through them. When once they stood by faith in the Jordan River, God divided it and brought them into the Promised Land. The children of Israel then walked in faith. God conquering the land through them. Israel served the Lord in faith all the days of Joshua and all the

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elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which He had done for Israel. Abraham’s, circumcised seed, subsequently walked close to God or far from God as their hearts dictated. They felt that by being the chosen race they were guaranteed a pass to heaven. God’s view was they worshiped Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. Given this information, what is the secular heart regarding love and significance. Frank Sinatra sang his famous song regarding life “I Did It My Way.” Peggy Lee in her song “Is That All There Is?” “If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball. If that’s all there is.” William Ernest Henley in his poem “Invictus” concludes, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” The secular heart is set on self-regarding love and significance.

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What is the Christian heart regarding life? Christians recognize we have been created by God in His image. We have been separated from a Holy God by sin. Relationship is restored with God by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We are to love God and to love our neighbor. Our significance comes in glorifying God. My son-in-law, a very moral man but not a Christian, asked an honest question. What is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian in our culture? He pointed out the significant shortcomings of people who stated they were Christians. On reflection, the divorce rate is the same among Christians and non-Christians. I am guilty of that. While participating in a Sunday School class at another church people were justifying abortion. I don’t have statistics to back it up, but from the knowledge I do have it seems abortions are about the same among Christians and non-Christians. The pornography rate among Christian men is 70% and Christian

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women is 25%. Looking at various churches there is an emphasis on saving people i.e. trusting Christ so you have a ticket to heaven. We are then asked to live the Christian life. Dr. Larry Crabb notes Christians are exhorted to (1) Do what is right- live morally. (2) Fix what is wrong-heal the past. (3) Get what is missing-seeking God for signs and wonders. (4) Release what is good model-allow the Holy Spirit to live out through us. The last is rarely taught. The modern church is good at teaching people how to be justified, but it is not good at teaching people how to walk with God.

There are men and women of faith who have reached a crisis in their Christian walk. They see a failure in their person to glorify God and serve Him. Hudson Taylor, who formed the China Inland Mission was frustrated. Such was the case for Andrew Murray, Amy Carmichael, Eugenia Price. More recently Francis Schaeffer experienced a similar crisis. He and his wife were missionaries

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to Europe when he called a stop and took a sabbatical. He said, “I must go back to being an agnostic and redetermine how to live the Christian life.” He took a number of months to reexamine the Christian life. The following were his conclusions. There are two contents and two realities: The First Content: Sound Doctrine

The Second Content: Honest Answers to Honest Questions

The First Reality: True Spirituality

The Second Reality: The Beauty of Human Relationships in Christ By True Spirituality Frances Schaeffer meant a moment by moment allowing God’s Spirit to live through us. By the Beauty of Human Relationships he noted again it is only by the Holy Spirit manifesting His fruit through us that relationships in Christ are possible. What each of these folks had come to realize was that on their own they could not live the

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Christian life. In the New Covenant the Holy Spirit lives through each individual. This is rarely taught these days in churches. The concern seems to be that in pursuing the Holy Spirit people will fall into one of two bar ditches. Those who seek the Holy Spirit seem to go overboard and be charismatic claiming healings that aren’t real (some are), speaking in tongues, claiming if you just have enough faith you will be healed or have a crisis resolved. In the other bar ditch are people who claim the Holy Spirit was active in the early church with tongues and miracles to demonstrate Christ’s power to people. They say the Holy Spirit is no longer active in such a way. What men and women of faith would say is God has not changed. We need the Holy Spirit to live through us. Frances Schaeffer notes: Our cry in sanctification is the same as in justification by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone allowing the Holy Spirit to live through us to bear His fruits and gifts.

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My own crisis came in considering Romans 12:1-2. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” It seemed God was asking two impossible tasks of me:

1. “Be holy as I am holy.” 2. Love God-Love your neighbor as yourself.

God further presented two challenges: 1. How to manage God’s gifts. 2. How to deal with suffering.

God said be holy, but I viewed sin in my life like somebody had driven a spike into my forehead and hung a dead stinking rat in front of my eyes. My head knew that Christ’s shed blood had covered my sins, but my heart saw the evil in me. God had to align my heart with His heart as to how He viewed my sin. God saw my sin white as snow

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through Christ’s shed blood. With the last snow looking out on the golf course where I live, all was covered in white snow. There were no divots (individual sins). There were no paths (persistent

sin). There was just brilliant white snow that covered all sin past, present, and future. The Holy Spirit allowed my head and heart to apprehend how God viewed my sin and made me holy. The second task was to love your neighbor as yourself and even further as Christ loved them. Most people desire to be loved (valued) by another, no matter how miserable they are. They will seek to manipulate and control others saying please love (value) me. For my part, I did not love myself seeing nothing of value. There are many folks out there of the same mind set. They seek to hide their pain in various addictions alcohol, drugs, and pornography to name a few. Paul gives us the principle of learning to love in Galatians 5:16-26, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” The Greek word here

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is peripateo which means walk up and down in principle. After Paul had listed the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control; he again states walk in the Spirit, but with a different Greek word. Here walk is stoichomen which means learn to walk like a baby learning it’s first steps. So what does that look like? It is a walk of faith illustrated by Romans 12:1 “… present yourself a living sacrifice to God” i.e. the Holy Spirit. I have learned to present myself saying: “Holy Spirit I need you to live your fruit of love to this person and me.” God then graciously offers Himself through me. Romans 12:2 asks us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Transformed in the Greek is metamorphosis which is illustrated by a caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly. By realizing the significance of the Holy Spirit living through our lives we can have a transformed or new way of

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living out God’s gifts to us and deal with suffering. God gifts us with thought, time, talent, and treasure in addition to Spiritual gifts. As we look to God’s involvement in our thought life, God will focus us on the desires of His heart. He grants us a period of time as He carries out His deeds through us. God imbues each of us with unique talents which God works through us to glorify His name. Finally, God grants us treasure, blessing us to be a blessing. What has been most helpful is the idea of becoming a bond servant to God as outlined in Exodus 21. A master could purchase a Hebrew man by paying off his debt. The man was to work for his master for six years and then be freed in the seventh year. He could say, I love my master and desire to serve him my whole life. He would testify to this before judges, and the master will take him to the door post of the house and pierce his ear with an awl. By realizing Jesus paid my sin debt with His shed blood, it became appropriate to become a bond servant of Christ. Now I no longer own thoughts, time, talent, or

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treasure. It is all God’s which He manages through me as I present myself to Him. Honoring God with tithes and offerings has always been important to my family. God always saw to it that we had enough, but never so much that we forgot that He was our provider. The following is a story from a friend and his wife who were convicted about tithing, but did not know how they could possibly do so. His wife said, I believe I have this figured out. They gave a tithe to the Lord and wrote checks to pay their bills. When all was said and done there was one problem. There was no money to buy stamps for the envelopes. They were frustrated. The next day they received an envelope in the mail with the postage stamps they needed. The utility company

stated they had overpaid a bill the previous month. They were returning the overage in the form of stamps. These folks have continued to honor the Lord with their tithes, and God has seen to their care.

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The last challenge in renewing my mind is dealing with suffering. How are we to respond to suffering in the Christian life? John 16:33 Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” What does all that mean when your guts are hanging out from the sucker punches of life? Your spouse wants to leave, you lose your job after working your heart out for a company, your child dies suddenly, or a loved one is diagnosed with cancer. When I lost my health, wealth, and most significantly my wife, people said read the book of Job for answers. I read Job and found no consolation. It was only years later with the help of the Holy Spirit that I was able to appreciate the

wisdom of Job. First of all Job was not privy to the conversation between God and Satan. Likewise, we are not knowledgeable of what is going on in the spiritual world. Job was declared righteous by God and look what happened to Job and his family.

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Job lost his children and wealth. Job’s response was to worship God Job 1:20-21, “ Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job was then attacked physically by Satan with painful boils from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head. His wife said, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” Job’s response, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

2. Job trusted God, Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, yet will, I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.” Job desired to understand why he was going through this time of suffering. He sought an answer from God but none was forthcoming. 3. Job believed God, Job 19:25-26

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“For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed; this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God,” Job is expressing belief that even if he is not vindicated in this life, he will be vindicated after his death. Job is looking forward to Jesus Christ. 4. Job walked with God, Job 23:11-12 “My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment

of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” Job continues to walk after God’s ways despite circumstances. 5. Job repented, Job: 42:5-6 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,

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But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” God asked Job seventy questions out of the whirlwind. Job having experienced God can only repent in desiring to lay his case before God. 6. Job is restored, Job 42:7-17 Job loved his friends by praying for them and being obedient to God. God then restored Job’s family, health, and wealth. So we have seen Job’s response to suffering in trials. The Bible gives a further example in regard to suffering regarding Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew 26:39, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Our attitude should be the same as Christ’s. Suffering is a part of life. God provides a Helper in the Holy Spirit in our journey through it. God does not help

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us get over it, around it, or fix it. God is faithful with us through the storms of life. My seeking for something missing in Christianity was delayed far too long by attending to the exigencies of life. God in His mercy has allowed me to participate in a discipleship class with Dwight Edwards. Dwight has brought forth the fullness of God’s word in a whole new light correcting my stinkin-thinkin. We have as individuals the option of walking in the flesh; pursuing the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Alternatively, we can choose

to walk in faith with Christ. Present ourselves a living sacrifice to the Holy Spirit within us to live out His fruit and gifts to the glory of God. Christ in life leads to life in Christ. “Christ in us the hope of glory.” What I had been seeking my whole life, God had provided. When man comes to the end of days and looks back, he will have taken one of three options. The secular view would be illustrated by Mohamed Ali,

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arguably the greatest heavy weight boxing champion the world has seen. He made an incredible four comebacks to retake the heavy weight title. Sports Illustrated interviewed him in retirement. At the end of the interview, they were standing in a barn on the back of his property on a rainy day. All of his trophies were lined up on boards in the barn with pigeon droppings on them. He is standing in the door and looks out at the rain reminiscing on his life. He says, “It all weren’t worth nothing!” He is all alone-no love. Despite the money and adulation of fans-no significance.

The second option is trying to live the Christian life in the flesh. This individual has trusted Christ and desires to give Him his all. This is perhaps best illustrated by a Swedish husband and wife missionary team to Africa. They loved God and desired to share Him with others. On the mission field life was significantly stressful. They had a daughter, and the wife died in childbirth trying to deliver a son. The husband was totally distraught. He asked a missionary couple from the United

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States to care for his daughter. He was disillusioned as a missionary having seen only one young man come to Christ. He returned to Sweden and became an alcoholic. His daughter grew up with the missionary couple having returned to the United States. As she grew older, she desired to know more about her birth parents. She sought answers in Africa. The young man her father led to Christ, became an evangelist leading thousands to Christ. She was able to locate her father in Sweden. He was living in a rundown apartment with empty liquor bottles scattered about. The daughter introduced herself to her father seeking fellowship. The man was overwrought with anger and bitterness over a wasted life for God. The daughter shared the significance of the young man who became an evangelist, and God’s love for her father. The man was not able to receive it in his bitterness. He was saved but not conformed to Christ’s image. Christian life in the flesh is like eating spam from a can while sitting alone in a hot tent in the desert.

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God invites us to an abundant life in a faith walk with Him. He is offering a fantastic banquet in an air conditioned five star hotel in heart to heart joyous fellowship with Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, along with fellow saints. Oswald Chambers notes in our faith walk, the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with God, Himself. My experimental knowledge of salvation will be along the line of deliverance from sin and of personal holiness, but salvation means the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God’s personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself, I am caught up into the abandonment to God. John 3:16 means that God gave Himself absolutely. In our abandonment we give ourselves over to God just as God gave Himself for us, without any calculation. Men and women of faith who have abandoned themselves to God have no regrets along the way or at the end of days. They have experienced the much more of life. The abundant life in the Holy Spirit truly apprehends

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God’s love and glorifies God. Dwight Moody after walking in step with the Holy Spirit witnessed God’s blessings in his ministry and enjoyed the abundant life. People are looking forward to the end of the Covid Crisis and a return to normal. There will not be a return to the old normal. There is a shaking coming to our country just as God shook Israel of old. Ezekiel 36:18, “Therefore I poured out my fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for the idols with which they have defiled it.”

The innocent blood of over 60 million children has been shed in our land. Any thing that we trust over the Lord becomes our god, and therefore is an idol. It may be our training, experience, job, money, friends, position, or our country. We should repent and return to the Lord. We have an opportunity here at Midland Bible Church to learn to abandon ourselves to God through discipleship. God always has a faithful remnant. Habakkuk 2:4 “… for the just shall live by faith.” The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character. It is

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not just a question of sanctification, but of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test. Abraham’s sanctification is a faith walk in fellowship with God. I encourage you to take time from the exigencies of life and learn to present yourself a living sacrifice to God and experience God’s abundant life in fellowship. I would like to close with a statement found in the papers of a pastor in Africa after he was martyred for our Lord. I AM A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, or back away. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

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I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer and labor by power. My face set, my gait fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I AM A DISCIPLE OF JESUS. I must go until He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me-my banner will be clear.

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May your banner in Christ be clear. Grace and Peace be with you.