Death to Self – The Importance of Self-Denial in the Christian Walk – Part 3

In the last couple of weeks we have discussed:

1.       How our hearts have been transformed to live a life of self-denial.

2.       How God energizes us through the Holy Spirit to live a life of self-denial.

3.       And our role of “Right Thinking” in living a life of self-denial.

Today we will see how to apply “right thinking”.

·  Specifically, we will see how “right thinking” can help us overcome the “tyranny of circumstances”.

Important reminder:

“Right Thinking” refers to our work at displacing our personal motives, will and desires with God’s motives, will and desires as found in His Word.

“Right Thinking” cannot be separated from:

1.       The work of God energizing our actions and desires.

2.       The call of God on our lives to live a life of self-denial.

3.       The application of all of this in a life that can properly love God and neighbor due to a life lived in self-denial.

So when we refer to “right thinking” we are referring to all of the above.

1) RIGHT THINKING APPLIED – THE TYRANNY OF CIRCUMSTANCES

The factor that tends to thwart our work in sanctification more than any other “may well be described as the tyranny of circumstances” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

What is the Tyranny of Circumstances?

·  When our desires are jeopardized or railroaded by the daily circumstances of life.

·  Not only that, they impose upon us hardship instead of satisfaction.

So what is the problem?

·  All too often, when our efforts at loving God properly through a life of self-denial run head on into the tyranny of circumstances, we fail.

The failure can take the form of:

·  Robbing us of our Peace

·  Robbing us of our Joy

·  Robbing us of our Contentment

·  Robbing us of our Rest and Sleep

And the failure can be even more sinister:

·  With our peace, joy and contentment gone, we simply choose to sin.

·  We will address this more next week.

·  But, suffice it to say that failure breeds failure.

Jones says the tyranny of circumstances is one of the Christian’s biggest challenges:

·  It is easy to say you’re a Christian.

·  It is easy to say you’re a Christian who knows the Bible, believes it and lives by faith.

·  But it is not quite as easy to say your “faith [is] triumphant and victorious and maintaining you in a state of joy, when everything seems to have gone against you and well nigh driven you to despair” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

We are not alone – Examples from Scripture:

·  There are a number of examples from Scripture of the tyranny of circumstances.

·  I want to look at just a couple of them.

Example 1:

Mark 14:66–71 (ESV) — 66 And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, “You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” And he went out into the gateway and the rooster crowed. 69 And the servant girl saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” 71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”

What was the tyranny of circumstance Peter faced?

·  His Messiah had just been betrayed by Judas, arrested and hauled off to an illicit trial.

·  Many of the other disciples had already scattered.

·  What I am I to do?

·  This was not how it was supposed to be.

What was his (initial) response?

·  Clearly, Peter was responding to the circumstance with a great deal of anxiety.

·  His first answer to the servant girl was to play dumb and lie – “I don’t understand you”.

·  And when pressed again, and no doubt feeding off of the anxiety of the moment, he took it a step further.

·  “I do not know this man of whom you speak”

·  I wonder if Peter slept peacefully that night?

Example 2:

2 Samuel 11:1–4 (ESV) — 1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.

What is the tyranny of circumstance David faced?

·  The circumstance was not being where he should have been.

·  As a result, while most men were off fighting, he was at home.

o   The woman’s husband included.

·  Apparently bored out of his mind, he spent his time lounging on his couch and walking on the roof.

·  And this led to seeing a beautiful, presumably naked, woman taking a purification bath.

What was his response?

·  He saw this woman PLUS the circumstances as an opportunity to gratify his sexual desires.

·  So he used His servants to arrange a tryst.

Let’s compare Peter’s and David’s tyranny of circumstances.

·  How are they different?

o   David’s circumstance was self-inflicted.

o   Peter’s was happenstance.

·  How are they the same?

o   But in each circumstance they were both faced with a moment of choice.

o   And in each case the wrong choice was made.

Why was the wrong choice made?

·  At the moment of choice there was no self-denial.

·  They loved themselves more than God.

·  They choose to look out for their desires instead of God’s.

·  In other words, there was NO RIGHT THINKING.

·  2 Samuel 12:9 (ESV) — 9a Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?

So in each of our examples we catch a glimpse of right thinking gone awry.

·  The tyranny of circumstances had exerted its power.

·  2 Samuel 12:13a (ESV) — 13a David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

·  Mark 14:72 (ESV) — 72 And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

But is this how it is supposed to be for the Christian?

·  Are circumstances supposed to have such power over us?

·  The answer is a resounding, “NO”.

Look at Paul and Silas beaten and in prison:

·  Acts 16:19, 22–23, 25 (ESV) — 19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them,

Look at Peter after Pentecost on trial at the Sanhedrin:

·  Acts 4:19–20 (ESV) — 19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Look at Jesus hours before His crucifixion:

·  Luke 22:42 (ESV) — 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

In fact, Paul explicitly teaches that we can be victorious over the tyranny of circumstances.

·  Philippians 4:11–13 (ESV) — 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

·  2 Corinthians 9:8 (ESV) — 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

“Content” here literally means a freedom “independent from external circumstances” – ESL.

·  And “sufficiency” is from the same root word.

·  So the contentment of which Paul speaks provides sufficient freedom or enough freedom that we are “not mastered or controlled” by circumstances – Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

So if victory over the tyranny of circumstances is to be found in contentment, how are we to find contentment?

·  The answer lies in, you guessed it, the “right thinking” we just defined.

·  Paul even says in our text above that he has “learned in whatever situation” (Phil. 4:11) to be content.

“Man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild” – James Allen, As a Man Thinketh (not a Christian).

·  To reject “right thinking” is to allow the tyranny of circumstances to run wild.

·  “Right Thinking” on the knowledge of the Lord is to “intelligently cultivate” – to learn.

·  Contentment is a fruit that God cultivates from our “right thinking”.

Why can God’s energizing and our “right thinking” bring contentment?

·  Because “right thinking” on the knowledge of the Lord teaches us something profound.

What is this profound thing we learn?

·  What we learn is that the right motivation for action comes from “right thinking”.

·  It does not come from our desires or feelings.

·  Prior to “right thinking” we simply assumed that because it seemed so natural to act on our desires that sanctification would work the same way.

·  In other words, if God wanted us to do it we would also desire it.

But “right thinking” turns this on its head.

·  This is why acting on “right thinking” seems so unnatural to us.

·  And why Timothy calls the sanctification process something for which we “toil and strive” (1 Tim. 4:10).

·  We no longer act because we desire it.

o   In fact, we often desire the complete opposite.

·  We act because God desires it.

As we mature and progress in our sanctification, our desires will gradually begin to come in line with “right thinking”.

·  Yet, it most certainly doesn’t start out this way.

·  This is simply the way God intended it to be.

Dallas Willard puts it like this:

·  “The new vision becomes an attachment and takes on an ever greater reality as we progress; and that, in turn, pushes the old attachments toward the exits of our lives – which we then are not sad to see go” – Dallas Willard.

o   Doing what we “feel like” doing is an “old attachment”.

So where does the contentment come from?

·  Living as just described brings complete satisfaction in God.

·  And this satisfaction is immune to the tyranny of circumstances.

·  This is contentment.

A Choice to Make – Live Passively or Actively:

·  So now that we know about the tyranny of circumstances we have a choice to make.

·  Michael Horton puts the choice like this – are you going to be “transformed by words” or be “consumers of experiences”?

·  I see it like this: we can choose to live passively or choose to live actively.

Choice 1 – Live Passively – Tyranny of Circumstances Reign:

·  Living passively is to respond to circumstances as they dictate.

·  It is to be “consumers of experience”.

·  It is to live under the illusion that our desires, not “right thinking”, are to be our impetus for action.

·  It is to simply acquiesce to the tyranny of circumstances and do what they tell us to do.

·  It is to allow thinking to “run wild” instead of “intelligently cultivate”.

·  It is to have no contentment.

·  It is to see a beautiful woman from your balcony and sleep with her.

·  It is to deny your relationship with Jesus to save your own hide.

Choice 2 – Live Actively – Right Thinking Reigns:

·  Living actively is to respond to circumstances as dictated by right thinking energized by God.

·  It is to be “transformed by words”; God’s words.

·  It is to live knowing that “right thinking”, not our desires, is to be our impetus for action.

·  It is to “intelligently cultivate” thinking and not let it “run wild”.

·  It is to be content no matter the circumstances.

·  It is, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done”.

·  It is, “we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard”.

Living actively is to talk to yourself from the wisdom of God's Word found in "right thinking".
·  It is then to act on this wisdom.
·  Once we fully grasp that "right thinking" is to lead us into action, and not our desires, we can find contentment.
·  We can find freedom from the tyranny of circumstances.
·  We can then look forward to and long for one of the greatest blessings we could ever hope to have - when our desires are replaced by God's and thus begin to come into agreement with our "right thinking".
·  This is truly putting on the new self.

It is my prayer that we all choose to Live Actively.

·  We must not forget that we have to decide to live this way at every moment of every day.

·  It is a toiling and a striving.

·  Sometimes we will succeed.

·  Sometimes we will fail.

And this leads me to our next section.

·  Failing itself can be devastating to our progress in self-denial.

·  We must learn how to fail correctly!

·  We will contend with this next week.

Death to Self – The Importance of Self-Denial in the Christian Walk – Part 2

Last week we discussed two things:

1.       Our hearts have been transformed to live a life of self-denial.

2.       God works in and through us via the Holy Spirit to live a life of self-denial.

We ended the lesson with the following question:

·  What role do we play in the sanctification process?

·  Today we will begin to answer this question.

1) OUR ROLE IN LIVING A LIFE OF SELF-DENIAL

“…we dare not see ourselves as passive in sanctification” – Michael Horton

Scripture makes clear that action and not passivity is required on our behalf.

·  Colossians 3:1–3 (ESV) — 1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

·  Romans 6:11–13 (ESV) — 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

·  Romans 12:2 (ESV) — 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

·  Ephesians 4:23–24 (ESV) — 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

·  Colossians 3:10 (ESV) — 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

·  Philippians 4:8 (ESV) — 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

·  2 Peter 3:17–18 (ESV) — 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

These verses reveal a number of actions required of us.

·  They speak of seeking; setting; considering; letting not; putting on; presenting; not conforming; etc.

·  But all of these require the use of the mind in our Christian walk.

·  What I call right thinking.

Look again.

·  “be transformed by the renewal of your mind”

·  “be renewed in the spirit of your minds”

·  “put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge”

·  “set your minds”

·  “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord”

Our Action – Put on the New Self via Right Thinking:

·  Clearly, God is calling us in His word to renew our minds (right thinking).

·  So the action required of us to live a life of self-denial is to renew our minds.

·  Renew means to “acknowledge the importance of” and to be “be intent on” – BDAG.

·  God will not do that for us.

So, what is it we are to “acknowledge” and “be intent on”?

·  The knowledge of God.

o   His will; His desires; His character; His mind; His Son; His Spirit, etc.

·  We are to think on, know and be submersed in the knowledge of God.

·  Put another way, we are to displace our worldly thinking with right thinking.

·  And right thinking is grounded in our knowledge of God.

·  How can we ever hope to replace our desires with God’s, if we still think like a sinner?

J.P. Moreland warns, “The simple truth is that those who are not thoughtful about the real content of what they actually believe about God will not actually believe very much” – J.P. Moreland.

·  In other words, what you believe about God directly impacts your growth as a Christian.

·  If you don’t know much, you can’t believe much.

·  Therefore, the impact of the knowledge of God is blunted by ignorance.

Importance of Right Thinking:

·  The necessity of right thinking is not lost on the likes of Calvin, Dallas Willard, and R.C. Sproul.

Calvin observes that when our effort at self denial, “takes hold of the mind, it leaves no place” for the things that attend a worldly preoccupation of self (2.7.2).

·  Therefore, “Let this, then be the first step, to abandon ourselves, and devote the whole energy of our minds to the service of God” – Calvin.

·  A pursuit of God’s desires crowds out our desires.

Dallas Willard tells us that:

·  “The transformation of our thought life by taking on the mind of Christ - his ideas, images, information, and patterns of thinking - opens the way to deliverance of every dimension of the human self from the oppressive powers of darkness” – Dallas Willard.

Sproul says we are in a crisis in our Christian culture.

·  He says of our Christian walk that we no longer “get to the heart through the mind”, but we try and “go straight to the heart, which is mindless, and this is fatal to the Christian faith” – R.C. Sproul (White Horse Inn Blog).

·  In other words, we try put on the new self via “experience” and not knowledge.

·  This goes so far that we even have contempt for the knowledge of God.

o   We just want experience.

And even worse, we blame God when we don’t “feel” or have a “desire” to grow in right thinking, and in a life of self-denial.

·  We say, “I would do it if He gave me the desire to do it”.

·  Or, “God why don’t you give me the desire”.

o   We think that the right thing to do should “feel” like the right thing to do.

·  God’s Word never advocates this approach.

·  In the Kingdom of God on earth, “Right Thinking” not “Right Feeling” is the foundation of our action in sanctification!

o   The right feelings might follow, but they can never lead.

In fact, God’s Word is clear:

·  Hosea 4:6 (ESV) — 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
·  Hosea 4:14b (ESV) — 14b ...and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

·  Proverbs 19:2 (ESV) — 2 Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

·  Isaiah 5:13 (ESV) — 13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.

Why, exactly, is right thinking on the knowledge of God so important to a life of self-denial?

·  Because, “The Gospel of Jesus directly repudiates all false information about God and, therewith, about the meaning of human life; and it works to undermine the power of those ideas and images that structure life away from God. But for it to have this effect we must use our ability to think” – Dallas Willard.

·  Willard even goes so far as to say, “The prospering of God’s cause on earth depends upon his people thinking well”.

We simply cannot live a life of self-denial without seeking the knowledge of God; without right thinking.

·  The old self is full of wrong and worldly thinking – and feeling.

·  It must be displaced and eradicated with right thinking on the knowledge of God.

·  The question is do you agree?

·  How does your walk show an effort at right thinking?

What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life:

·  The importance of a renewed mind to a life lived in self-denial is so important, I want to press the issue even further.

·  I want to briefly refer to an article in a recent post on the Harvard Business Review website by Kare Anderson.

The title of the article is “What Captures Your Attention Controls Your Life”.

·  The author was hired by DisneyWorld to study what most captures the attention of kids in the theme park.

·  In the course of her study, she came to some very interesting conclusions.

“Giving undivided attention is the first and most basic ingredient in any relationship. It is impossible to communicate, much less bond, with someone who can’t or won’t focus on you”.

·  Jesus put it like this, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21).

·  Who do you give undivided attention to?

·  What do you most focus your mind on?

·  The answer to both of these questions is probably you.

·  How can we live as God desires, if we and our desires are the main focus of our attention and thoughts?

·  We must treasure right thinking on the knowledge of God.

o   And to “acknowledge the importance” of the knowledge of God is certainly to treasure it.

·  You simply can’t have a right relationship of self-denial with God without right thinking.

But it gets worse.

·  She says, “what we focus on comes to control our thoughts, our actions, and indeed, our very lives” – Kare Anderson.

·  In other words, whatever is the “treasure” or focus of your life will be what you organize your life, your will, and your desires around.

·  In such a scenario, there is no room for self-denial.

·  All of your actions will be designed to gratify yourself, not God.

·  Jesus put it like this, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matt 6:24a).

·  We have to decide – God or Ourselves.

I hope and pray that you have come to see how crucial a renewed mind is to a life lived in self-denial.

·  I hope you have come to realize that Jesus’ words to Peter may very well be applicable to us.

·  “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matt 16:23).

·  Peter found out that setting one’s mind on anything other than the knowledge of God and His will and desires is to oppose God.

·  Are you opposing God in your life by your lack of right thinking?

Paul puts it like this:

·  Romans 8:5–8 (ESV) — 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Section 1 Wrap-Up:

·  And so it is here where I want to go over 3 specific things we can do to renew our minds with right thinking and thereby replace our desires with God’s and find complete satisfaction in Him.

1.       Right Thinking Obtained – The importance of being text-centered.

2.       Right Thinking Applied – The importance of failing correctly.

3.       Right Thinking Applied – The importance of living actively and not passively.

2) RIGHT THINKING OBTAINED - WE MUST BE TEXT CENTERED

Where is the knowledge of God that we are to use to renew our minds to be found?

·  There is only one place – God’s Word.

·  It is only in the Bible where we are privileged to glimpse the thinking and mind of God.

·  Only the Bible contains a knowledge pure and refined enough to properly displace our own.

Scripture’s High Opinion of Itself:

·  Psalm 12:6 (ESV) — 6 The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

·  Proverbs 30:5 (ESV) — 5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

·  2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV) — 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

·  Romans 15:4 (ESV) — 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

·  John 17:17 (ESV) — 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Scripture is clear of its necessity in:

·  Identifying for us what is true and pure

·  Completing us

·  Equipping us

·  Encouraging us

·  Sanctifying us

·  (These are but a few examples)

Why would we ever want to hold on to our own thinking when we have the ability to think on the pure, true, God-breathed, encouraging, sanctifying Word of God?

·  It absolutely makes no sense.

·  And yet, every day we fail to read and study God’s Word or read and study books about God’s word, we betray our foolishness.

·  Daily we have to choose between thinking on right knowledge (God’s Word) or wrong knowledge (the flesh).

·  Our work in living a life of self-denial involves replacing our thinking and ideas of reality with God’s thinking and ideas.

·  If we want to love God properly in self-denial, what choice do we have?

·  We must be consumed by the knowledge of God.

Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”.

·  This cannot be done without a right thinking in the knowledge of God.

·  Our carnal mind will seek after the things of the flesh, not the Kingdom of God.

·  And how do we even know what the Kingdom of God consists of?

o   We have to apprehend it with our minds from Scripture.

Dallas Willard expresses the importance of being text-centered to right thinking in this way:

·  “To BRING THE MIND to dwell intelligently upon God as he is presented in his Word will have the effect of causing us to love God passionately, and this love will in turn bring us to think of God steadily. Thus he will always be before our minds” – Dallas Willard.

·  “Failure to know what God is really like and what his law requires destroys the soul, ruins society, and leaves people to eternal ruin: ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’ (Hosea 4:6, NRSV), and ‘A people without understanding comes to ruin’ (4:14, NRSV)” – Dallas Willard.

There are simply no shortcuts.

·  Pursuing the knowledge of God – His will; His desires; His character; His mind; His Son; His Spirit, etc. – is how we renew our minds.

·  And renewing our minds (right thinking) is what converges with our transformed heart, and God’s work, so that we can love God with a life lived in self-denial.

A caution is required at this point in the discussion.

·  Right thinking in the knowledge of God is not an ends to itself.

·  Remember, we are seeking to love God properly with a life of self-denial.

·  Simply having knowledge of God will not bring about such a life.

o   Remember, 2 Peter says “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord”.

·  Only when the knowledge of God is in service of loving God properly with a life of self-denial will we find complete satisfaction in God.

o   This is what right thinking/a renewed mind is.

·  We are not teaching that, “…knowledge of Christian doctrine guarantees a closer walk with the Lord. We must remember that knowledge of the truth, crucially important though it is, may never be a substitute for the humble surrender of one’s heart [self-denial] to the Lord Jesus Christ” – Derke Bergsma (Modern Reformation Magazine).

This caution provides us with an excellent segue into how we can apply our right thinking to living a life of self denial.

·  There are at least two ways we employ right thinking in the service of loving God in self-denial.

·  Learning to fail correctly

·  Living actively versus passively.

·  We will look at those next week.

Death to Self – The Importance of Self-Denial in the Christian Walk – Part 1

We learned last week of the importance of self-denial in properly loving God.

·  Self-denial necessitates that we cast off all of our desires, will and motives.

·  And in their place, fill ourselves with God’s desires, will and motives.

o   These are to be found in His commandments…the imperatives of Jesus’ words.

It was clear last week that a life lived in self-denial is fundamental to the Christian walk.

·  If we are saved and yet insist on living for “self”, we will not find the satisfaction in God that He desires for us.

·  We cannot usurp the headship of Christ and expect any different.

·  If what John Piper says is true – God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

·  Then we must establish our satisfaction in Him.

·  This cannot be done without death to self – a life lived in self-denial.

What others say of self-denial (death to self):

·  "In this and in this alone lies the key to the soul's restoration. Christian spiritual formation rests on this indispensable foundation of death to self and cannot proceed except insofar as that foundation is being firmly laid and sustained” – Willard.

·  “For as the surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves, so the only haven of safety is to have no other will, no other wisdom, than to follow the Lord wherever he leads” – John Calvin.

What Scripture says of self-denial:

·  Luke 9:23–24 (ESV) — 23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

·  Luke 14:26 (ESV) — 26 “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.

·  John 12:25 (ESV) — 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

·  Colossians 3:3 (ESV) — 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

·  Acts 21:13 (ESV) — 13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

We must excel in self-denial.

·  I hope we are all in agreement and under conviction on this point.

·  But how do we do so?

To get at this question, we will look at three things.

1.       Are we equipped to live this way?

2.       What role does God play?

3.       What role do we play?

1) TRANSFORMED FOR A LIFE OF SELF-DENIAL

We first need to understand that we are capable of living a life of self-denial.

First act of self-denial:

·  The act of belief in response to the Gospel is itself an act of self-denial.

·  When we believe in Jesus we are trusting in what?

o   That Jesus has covered our sin; justified us; redeemed us; satisfied God’s wrath; etc.

·  And in this act we are rejecting any hope in what?

o   That we can save ourselves through our works.

·  And the fact that we could trust in Christ – have ears to hear and eyes to see –  and deny self is to be found in what?

o   Did we reason our way to belief?

·  Absolutely not!

o   We were the beneficiaries of a work of God.

o   Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV) — 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

o   Our hearts were transformed; born again.

What this means is that God has changed us.

·  He has supernaturally transformed our hearts.

·  This transformation has equipped us to live a life of self-denial.

·  Our salvation is evidence of this fact.

·  This is great news and should serve to encourage us.

Scriptural confirmation of this Good News:

·  Romans 6:1–4 (ESV) — 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

·  Galatians 2:20 (ESV) — 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Ok, so we have seen that self-denial is fundamental to the Christian walk.

·  We have even seen that our hearts have been equipped to live this way by a work of God.

·  Let’s move on to how God helps us live a life of self-denial

2) GOD’S HELP IN A LIFE LIVED IN SELF DENIAL

Why would we ever seek to live a life in self-denial?

·  Why would we ever seek God’s will and desire over ours?

Scripture tells us:

·  John 14:16–17 (ESV) — 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

·  Ezekiel 36:27 (ESV) — 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

·  Philippians 2:12–13 (ESV) — 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

We seek God’s will, and desire to keep His commandments because the Holy Spirit is prodding us to do so.

·  Through the Spirit “God energizes both the believer’s desires and his actions” – John MacArthur.

·  The impact of this “energizing” is a daily reality in the life of the believer.

·  We are faced daily with a choice to live for God or live for self.

·  And His grace through the Holy Spirit has equipped us to actually choose today to live for God.

·  The unbelieving world simply cannot do this!

We also seek to live a live a self-denial because God’s word, His commandments, tell us to do so.

·  However, importantly, the law is no longer our condemnation because we are in Christ.

·  His works justify us and His righteousness is imputed to us.

·  But, the law “…does not stop teaching and exhorting and urging [us] to good, even though before God’s judgment seat it has no place in [our] consciences” – John Calvin (3.19.2).

·  It is our “guardian” or “schoolmaster” to guidance in the will and desires of God.

Yet we do struggle with our new identity in Christ.

·  And this tension between our new identity and it’s transformed and “energized” heart, and our old identity is itself evidence that God’s energizing grace is at work within us.

Again, all of this should be a huge encouragement.

·  God has removed the penalty of the law.

o   Our trust in Christ as moved the law from the court room, where it would condemn us, to the “family room” where it guides us – Michael Horton.

·  All of this has freed us to glorify God and fully apprehend the freedom we have in Christ.

·  2 Corinthians 4:16 (ESV) — 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day

But, unlike salvation, sanctification – pursuing a life lived in self-denial – is not just a work of God.

·  It requires our active participation.

·  Action is required on our behalf in unison with God’s.

·  “We are justified by grace through a faith that simply rests in Christ [but] we are sanctified by grace through a faith that, resting in Christ, is working through love” – Michael Horton.

So we have seen the following thus far:

·  We are supernaturally equipped via a transformed heart to live a life of self-denial.

·  God, in His grace, has “energized” us and prompts us through the Holy Spirit and His law to choose to live this life.

·  But what role do we play in the sanctification process?