And then biblical terminology without biblical definitions is basically traditional church in America. And that always leads to the fourth stage, and what is that? Abandoning all biblical terminology and going to church-growth methodologies to build something that is not a church. And so young men, I’m going to be speaking to you. I’m going to be speaking to the young men primarily, but to the old, because we all need to hear this, and it is this. We need truth. But the truth has to be more than just factual evidence in a book. It is more than propositional. It is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It must become a reality in your life, a reality of the cross, a reality of the resurrection, a reality of the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of God, because, until it becomes a reality, you’re nothing more than a little boy parrot who says all the right things and doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.
And so, in this text, the one thing that I want to point out that has so much to do with it….just look at this for a moment. Verse 44: The kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid again and from joy over it, goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. That absolutely destroys our Catholic idea of piety and self-denial, and it also destroys many fundamentalist ideas of self-denial and piety.
You see, we have this sort of idea because most people in churches today are unconverted and grudgingly do righteousness and grudgingly let go of wickedness. We have this idea that selfdenial is a sinful creature letting go of the wicked things he loves and embracing the righteous things he hates in order to save his own skin.
But self-denial, what it truly is, is this….and I’ve written it down. It’s the reality of a new creature, simply living out what he has become through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, living according to his new nature, doing the righteous deeds that he now loves, and putting off the sinful deeds of the fallen unregenerate flesh which he now hates. It is the willing and joyful response of the regenerate man whose mind has grasped something of God’s glory, something of the worth of Christ’s sacrifice and something of the greatness of the salvation that has been so freely given to him.
So we are not talking in self-denial about this grudging, horrid, popish type of thing, but this thing of a new creature who has been transformed by the power of God, has been given a new heart that loves and desires righteousness, has been given spiritual eyes so that when, first of all after being regenerate, opens those eyes and sees the beauty and the wonder of Christ, desires Him, and is irresistibly drawn to Him. I’m talking about a Gospel with power, a Gospel of power, and when you believe in a Gospel of power and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, you no longer have to depend upon the arm of the flesh and all the silly little travesties and Ferris wheels that are built in the name of Jesus in order to attract people. It is not just a Gospel of truth, but a Gospel of power.
Now, I want to …. really not sure where I want to go. There are so many passages that deal with this, but I want us to go to the book of Ezekiel for a moment. And in this book, we’re going to find something that has a great deal to do with self-denial. Ezekiel chapter 36. Born again-ism. I have a friend who has written a tract called “Born Again-ism.” Everybody in America is born again, and the reason why they’re born again is because of most of the preachers and pastors who do not understand the Gospel nor the power of the Gospel and that we’ve reduced the Gospel down to four spiritual laws and five things God wants you to know. We have done the very same thing that Catholicism has done since its beginning—turned salvation into nothing more than a few little steps and a superstitious prayer at the end, turned salvation into nothing more than a mere human decision whereby a man decides for himself simply to jump out of the line going into Hell in order to jump into the line going to Heaven.
But when you grasp the power of regeneration, everything else begins to fall in place and until you grasp the power of regeneration, you cannot understand the doctrine and the calling to selfdenial. Let me just give you an example of this before we read Ezekiel….another little definition I’ve written about man. Man is a fallen, radically depraved, spiritually dead, morally corrupt, sin-loving, God-hating creature. In the very core of his being, he is as opposed to God as the devil himself. He cannot change and has no desire to do so. He loves a lie and will do everything in his power to restrain and suppress any and every truth about God and the more he knows about God, the more he hates Him, because God is righteous and man is evil. Now, how do you take something like that, how do you expect a creature like that to all of a sudden hear a Gospel message of self-denial and turn his back on absolutely everything he is and
at all cost follow the Christ? How can you expect a man to take a journey of a thousand miles if he’s neither willing nor able to take the first step? And this idea of, well, as the brother put it, “Well, let’s get them saved and then gradually introduce them to salvation and to discipleship and to the call to self-denial.” But I want to tell you something. It is not any easier to coax a dead man to take one step than it is to coax him to take a million. If he’s dead, he’s dead. And within that is found the power of regeneration.
