BLJ: The Bible provides us examples of people who took the death-route and were dead to sin, the world and the flesh. It also provides us examples of people who were not dead. The latter chose to take the easy way out. Too often today, what passes for a holiness revival is a sham and leads no one into a deeper relationship with Christ. If you want to be serious with God, take the death-route the way Jesus did and you will experience a difference in your life.
SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLE OF THE DEATH-ROUTE
Dead men are worth their weight in gold! The Scriptures abound with examples of great souls of the past who took the "death-route" to their complete subjugation, and the total enthronement of God in their lives.
BLJ: I have never seen a dead body at a funeral respond to criticism or gossip.
Job, of old, had a death-to-self experience with God. He declared: "Though he [God] slay me, yet will I trust him" (Job 13:15). Job had just lost his health and all of his enormous wealth. He also lost his ten children. He had just dug ten new graves and held a multiple funeral. If he had not been dead to his family, his possessions, his health and even to life itself, as well as the hard-to-understand providence of God, he would never have so triumphantly manifested such a courageous spirit in the midst of such soul-rending grief. Weaker souls by the multitudes followed their wives' or their husbands' advice and cursed God and died (Job 2:9).
When God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, he was talking to a dead man. If the old carnal Abram of the past had been yet alive, he would have balked. He might have asked Sarah about it, and she might have talked him out of it. Abraham was three days and three nights on that journey to Mt. Moriah to offer Isaac. He had ample time to think it over and back out, but he was resolute. Abraham had not always been so completely dead to self. He had fumbled and "blew it" enough times, but by this time he had gotten settled and God could trust him.
BLJ: Abraham was dead to everything but God. Even his son had been consecrated to the will of God. If you are a parent, have you given your child over completely to God? We had a wonderful dedication service for our daughter Danielle. We took pictures, she was dressed in a beautiful dress, and lots of family and friends celebrated with us. However, it was a year later when the doctor told us that he believed Danielle had meningitis and we had to rush her to the hospital, that I really put her into the Lord's hands and said, not my will, but thine be done for my daughter.
Hardly will one find more profound words outside of the Scriptures than these from the pen of an anonymous poet:
"Thus in Thine Arms of Love, O God, I lie, Lost, and for ever lost to all but Thee.
My happy soul, since it hath learned to die, Hath found new life in Thine Infinity."
St. Paul was a dead man -- dead, dead, dead! He was dead when his dearest friends wept and clung to him, begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. They knew that he would be imprisoned and possibly murdered, and they would never see his face again in this world. He responded with words that have echoed and re-echoed across the intervening centuries: "What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 21:13).
Stephen was a dead man when he preached that memorable sermon recorded in Acts, chapter seven, and paid for it with his life. He was dead long before they killed him. He had experienced his own personal crucifixion, and he was filled with the Holy Ghost and faith (Acts 6:5).
SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLE OF THE DEATH-ROUTE
Dead men are worth their weight in gold! The Scriptures abound with examples of great souls of the past who took the "death-route" to their complete subjugation, and the total enthronement of God in their lives.
BLJ: I have never seen a dead body at a funeral respond to criticism or gossip.
Job, of old, had a death-to-self experience with God. He declared: "Though he [God] slay me, yet will I trust him" (Job 13:15). Job had just lost his health and all of his enormous wealth. He also lost his ten children. He had just dug ten new graves and held a multiple funeral. If he had not been dead to his family, his possessions, his health and even to life itself, as well as the hard-to-understand providence of God, he would never have so triumphantly manifested such a courageous spirit in the midst of such soul-rending grief. Weaker souls by the multitudes followed their wives' or their husbands' advice and cursed God and died (Job 2:9).
When God told Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, he was talking to a dead man. If the old carnal Abram of the past had been yet alive, he would have balked. He might have asked Sarah about it, and she might have talked him out of it. Abraham was three days and three nights on that journey to Mt. Moriah to offer Isaac. He had ample time to think it over and back out, but he was resolute. Abraham had not always been so completely dead to self. He had fumbled and "blew it" enough times, but by this time he had gotten settled and God could trust him.
BLJ: Abraham was dead to everything but God. Even his son had been consecrated to the will of God. If you are a parent, have you given your child over completely to God? We had a wonderful dedication service for our daughter Danielle. We took pictures, she was dressed in a beautiful dress, and lots of family and friends celebrated with us. However, it was a year later when the doctor told us that he believed Danielle had meningitis and we had to rush her to the hospital, that I really put her into the Lord's hands and said, not my will, but thine be done for my daughter.
Hardly will one find more profound words outside of the Scriptures than these from the pen of an anonymous poet:
"Thus in Thine Arms of Love, O God, I lie, Lost, and for ever lost to all but Thee.
My happy soul, since it hath learned to die, Hath found new life in Thine Infinity."
St. Paul was a dead man -- dead, dead, dead! He was dead when his dearest friends wept and clung to him, begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. They knew that he would be imprisoned and possibly murdered, and they would never see his face again in this world. He responded with words that have echoed and re-echoed across the intervening centuries: "What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 21:13).
Stephen was a dead man when he preached that memorable sermon recorded in Acts, chapter seven, and paid for it with his life. He was dead long before they killed him. He had experienced his own personal crucifixion, and he was filled with the Holy Ghost and faith (Acts 6:5).
Back in the Old Testament era again: Daniel was a dead man. So were the three Hebrew children who would not worship the king's image (Daniel 3:16-18).
BLJ: You can tell when someone is really dead. Their words and actions match. They are completely surrendered to the will of God, even if it means the lions den, the firey furnace, the stake or the cross.
Jonah was not a dead man. He did finally obey God, but it took three days in the stomach of the fish, with the certainty that he had better come to terms with God or he would never get out of that prison. Even after he so reluctantly obeyed, things didn't turn out as he desired, so he had a carnal spell, and pouted, and said he didn't want to live any longer (4:1-3). The carnal nature is so hateful! No wonder Martin Luther said, "I fear the pope of self more than the Pope of Rome."
Neither was Balaam a dead man; nor was Demas, nor King Saul, nor millions of others like them. "Remember," said G. D. Watson, "Conversion is a birth and sanctification is a death." [10] The old carnal self must die! Death to self is the only way one can come fully alive unto God. Preach it, brethren, preach it, preach it, preach it! None of us is worth a wooden nickel for God until we are dead -- dead -- dead! Dead men and dead women are the only people God can count on.
"Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!"
CHRIST OUR PEERLESS PATTERN
BLJ: The best example of taking the death-route is Jesus Christ. Christ did not have a sinful nature to be cleansed, but His example teaches us how to approach the death-route.
In a "death-route" commitment, Christ is our Chosen Champion. St. Luke says of Him: "And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51).
St. John overheard Christ praying. and relayed His words of death-route resignation, thus: "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour" (John 12:27).
Again, Christ said to Peter: "...the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11). Then, years later, Peter confessed Christ as our Peerless Pattern, urging us to faithfully follow Him, Who "...suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in His steps" (I Peter 2:21).
The Heavenly Father, in the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry, assured us that He was well pleased with His Son (Mark 1:11). [11] And yet, after watching Christ's human development, and assisting with His miracles, and listening to His power-packed preaching, and feeling His heart breaking with grief over the sins of the world, the Father could not be entirely satisfied until He saw the "...travail of his soul..." and He, (Christ) had "...poured out his soul unto death..." (Isa. 53:11-12).
BLJ: You can tell when someone is really dead. Their words and actions match. They are completely surrendered to the will of God, even if it means the lions den, the firey furnace, the stake or the cross.
Jonah was not a dead man. He did finally obey God, but it took three days in the stomach of the fish, with the certainty that he had better come to terms with God or he would never get out of that prison. Even after he so reluctantly obeyed, things didn't turn out as he desired, so he had a carnal spell, and pouted, and said he didn't want to live any longer (4:1-3). The carnal nature is so hateful! No wonder Martin Luther said, "I fear the pope of self more than the Pope of Rome."
Neither was Balaam a dead man; nor was Demas, nor King Saul, nor millions of others like them. "Remember," said G. D. Watson, "Conversion is a birth and sanctification is a death." [10] The old carnal self must die! Death to self is the only way one can come fully alive unto God. Preach it, brethren, preach it, preach it, preach it! None of us is worth a wooden nickel for God until we are dead -- dead -- dead! Dead men and dead women are the only people God can count on.
"Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!"
CHRIST OUR PEERLESS PATTERN
BLJ: The best example of taking the death-route is Jesus Christ. Christ did not have a sinful nature to be cleansed, but His example teaches us how to approach the death-route.
In a "death-route" commitment, Christ is our Chosen Champion. St. Luke says of Him: "And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51).
St. John overheard Christ praying. and relayed His words of death-route resignation, thus: "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour" (John 12:27).
Again, Christ said to Peter: "...the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:11). Then, years later, Peter confessed Christ as our Peerless Pattern, urging us to faithfully follow Him, Who "...suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in His steps" (I Peter 2:21).
The Heavenly Father, in the beginning of Christ's earthly ministry, assured us that He was well pleased with His Son (Mark 1:11). [11] And yet, after watching Christ's human development, and assisting with His miracles, and listening to His power-packed preaching, and feeling His heart breaking with grief over the sins of the world, the Father could not be entirely satisfied until He saw the "...travail of his soul..." and He, (Christ) had "...poured out his soul unto death..." (Isa. 53:11-12).
The Father feels the same way about us. He saw the "works" of all seven churches of Asia, and yet found fault with them all, except the Philadelphia church, thus showing that He was not satisfied with works alone.
In the day in which we live there is a great emphasis in the churches on "works," and great stress on "faith," but neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Ghost will be fully satisfied with us until we have poured out ourselves unto death. Not as martyrs, that will not do it. Not as a sacrifice for sins! There is no efficacy in our blood. But, instead DEATH TO CARNAL SELF, SIMPLY MEANS THAT ALL RESISTANCE TO THE TOTAL CLAIMS OF JESUS CHRIST OVER OUR LIVES BE REMOVED FROM OUR HEARTS. Ours is not an atoning death, or a meritorious sacrifice, but a voluntary submitting to the total crucifixion of carnal, willful self, and the enthronement of Jesus Christ over every facet of our earthly existence.
"Show me as my soul can bear, The depth of inbred sin;
All the unbelief declare,
The pride that works within."
In the day in which we live there is a great emphasis in the churches on "works," and great stress on "faith," but neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Ghost will be fully satisfied with us until we have poured out ourselves unto death. Not as martyrs, that will not do it. Not as a sacrifice for sins! There is no efficacy in our blood. But, instead DEATH TO CARNAL SELF, SIMPLY MEANS THAT ALL RESISTANCE TO THE TOTAL CLAIMS OF JESUS CHRIST OVER OUR LIVES BE REMOVED FROM OUR HEARTS. Ours is not an atoning death, or a meritorious sacrifice, but a voluntary submitting to the total crucifixion of carnal, willful self, and the enthronement of Jesus Christ over every facet of our earthly existence.
"Show me as my soul can bear, The depth of inbred sin;
All the unbelief declare,
The pride that works within."
BLJ: You can tell when someone is really dead. Their words and actions match. They are completely surrendered to the will of God, even if it means the lions den, the firey furnace, the stake or the cross.
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