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For the Holdouts
Larry Kirkpatrick ++ Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church ++ May 22, 2004
Here we are all gathered: the happy and the hurting, the bent and the wounded, the downtrodden and the whispering hopers. One comes today content, at the top of his life; another drags himself crawling to the nearest pew. Warriors and wounded, knights in shining armor, and the broken people—we gather here together in this hallowed place to kneel before our Maker. Even if we don't understand why things turn out just this way, here we are. Before Heaven, before Jesus, before our Father, we look up.
We are the holdouts of planet earth.
And we're not going away to anywhere except to heaven.
We won't be beaten down, we won't be torn to shreds, we won't be blind-sided or upended, we won't be ripped or maimed. And if we are—somehow—with Jesus and with our brothers and sisters of the Lamb, we'll make it. We will break down and cry and bleed. We will suffer illusory defeat, but really win. Because He who is for us is greater than He who is against us. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is our champion. We are people of hope.
No one can rob us of this but ourselves.
I want to talk to you today about the battle. Can we do that? I want to talk to you today about holding out for heaven. If, on your way to God's house this week you were flattened by a steam-roller, I believe there is news from heaven for you in this hour.
We are not here merely hoping God has something for us. We are here because He has spoken to us and will speak to us again through lips of clay.
We're not here because we are great. We are great failures. Jesus is the great winner. And He is going to get us through. We have no champions but Jesus. At the end of the day all human heroes are overrated. Look at a picture, a photograph, an image—any image. See that face? Son or daughter, mom or dad, husband or wife, music star, movie star, pastor or preacher or teacher or friend—all of them are criminals. You don't need to guess. All of us are, at our best, broken reeds. All have come short of God's glory; very short.
But through Jesus we're on the way.
Through Jesus.
Let me ask this family now (and we're all children, all of us, while God is our Father), would you open your Bible to Romans 8:28-32?
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Let's focus on some facts from this passage.
- The “All things work together for good” has conditions.
- We are “Predestinated to be conformed to His image.”
- The conforming into Jesus' image is so that He (Jesus) will be “the firstborn among many brethren.”
- If the Father delivered up the Son, why wouldn't He deliver up to us all that we need to live a life of victory?
First, “All things work together for good” has conditions
You have actually to love God and you have to be called according to His purpose. Those are automatic conditions. How is it known whether we love God or not? John 14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Love is expressed by concrete action. When you stepped out to become a Seventh-day Adventist, you may have had employment problems with regard to the Sabbath. You may have had other lifestyle problems with your spouse at home. Maybe she didn't want to make the health-reform steps you did. Maybe he didn't want to start tithing that supports God's workers, or returning the offerings for local church budget that keep the lights on. Maybe it was something about music, television, movies, clams, or giving up that habit of staying up late with non-Christian friends on Friday night, or sleeping in on Sabbath morning. Maybe it was liquor, drugs, or smoking.
Whatever the issue, you fought your way through to the right place. You're in the covenant now. God and you have a pact. Your old nature may prompt you to indulge in things that would be destructive to you, but your heavenly Father stands ready to give the power to overcome. But the challenges didn't stop there. When that was resolved, another item was discovered. Heaven set you to another character development task. The battles have been tough. Sometimes you seemed to drop way back to those old days. But those old days have lost their appeal. Going there is no return to joyful memory lanes, but a return to prison.
The Father would like to keep you out of those old prisons. Call upon Him for help in your time of need.
One thing I have found: when you are in a time of need, you can pretty much tell. Just when you don't feel like praying, that is the very hour you need to pray! Come to the feet of Jesus and plead for forgiveness. He will lift you up, and fit you for eternity.
God's purpose is to redeem man, to buy him back from final destruction, to which we may rest assured we all are headed unless we grant Him opportunity decidedly to intervene in our lives. Buying us back results in more than Heavenly paperwork being filled out. We are bought back to live, here and now, as free people. Belonging to Jesus is belonging to the law of liberty, the God with the character of liberty. His character is to be ours. His purpose is to recreate us, to restore otherwise doomed people. Our nature will undo us unless we let Him help us.
In any case, if we are lacking in love for God, what then do we do. Simple! We ask Him to help us love Him more. But our heart must be willing for Him to answer. Keep going. Don't stop. We are the holdouts of planet earth.
Second, We are “Predestinated to be conformed to His image”
God wants to reshape us—to the image of Christ. He wants to change us and make us like Jesus. But what is this “predestinated” stuff? Literally, God knew us beforehand, then the statement is that He marked our boundaries beforehand. So “Whom He foreknew, He did predestinate.” He looked ahead to the day when He would bring us into His creation. And He set the boundaries of our life. He looks at everyone who is coming, and He sets the boundaries. He takes care to preserve to us opportunities for moral advancement.
Would Satan do that? Would he take pains to preserve to us opportunities to choose good over evil if we choose to bail-out on him? Never. But God takes great care to limit the forces of evil, to keep them from destroying us. Not only this, but no matter where you bud in life God takes care to develop you so that you can become like Jesus. He marked out the opportunities. Man can easily become like Satan. But God takes care to watch over all the providences that intersect our lives so that we may copy Christ.
It is no accident that you became a Christian. It is no accident that you live where you live. It is no accident that you came into contact with someone who led you forward into present truth. God knew you beforehand. He prepared the way before you beforehand.
This does not mean that God made Adolph Hitler or Osama Bin Laden or Jeffrey Dhammer be what they became. He set the boundaries. And it was His plan that each one of these persons would become like Christ. All these were, after all, as every human being, known beforehand by God and the boundaries of their circumstances and opportunities marked out beforehand by God. His ideal purpose was that each of these would become like Jesus. But God permits each person to choose. He does not override. His heart will cry but He will not override. Jesus will die on the cross to make the opportunities for you, but He does not override.
God's plan for you, make no mistake, is to become Christ-like. If He never lets pain and trouble touch you, you are unlikely to grow. Your fallen nature will—inevitably—suck you down into the quicksand of selfishness. Left to our own devices, we self-destruct.
God sets the limits, but you make the choices. This is the biblical understanding of predestination. Keep going. Don't stop. Don't give up. We are the holdouts of planet earth.
Third, The conforming into Jesus' image is so that He (Jesus) will be “the firstborn among many brethren”
Jesus is the firstborn, the unique beginning, but notice here that all that God is doing on your behalf is to help you become like Jesus, and more specifically, to come into brotherhood with Him. This is a family relation, but it is not so hierarchical. It is lateral. He positions Himself as our elder brother. Our elder, yes, but, amazement of amazements, our Brother.
Hebrews 2:11 brings this into the open: “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
Jesus came to be our great high Priest. He wants to change us. For this cause, He came all the way down from heaven, and we mean all the way. He became as human as we are. He wants to make you His brother, His sister. In our experience, we really don't get to choose our parents, or brothers and sisters; not in our birth family. But not so in spiritual things. Here, we can choose. Jesus wants to be your brother. But the choice is your own.
He calls us up, higher and higher and higher, but we flee. We retreat from freedom. The call seems too high. Predestined to be conformed to Christ's Image? No! And Satan suggests an escape, he marks out the pathway back to prison; safe, comforting prison. Its cold bars, its dank walls, its dim light, its awful stillness; Satan calls out to you, “Return to the pit with me. Shrink back down, you are becoming too moral. Stay with me. Why should you become all so golden?” We can be joined to Jesus' love or retreat backwards to the place of hatred.
All the hammers that pound upon your life are opportunities to advance, or to retreat. You can become like Jesus, or curl into a fetal position and lie there and die. You can join your self to that which destroys, or you can go forward. There's just gold being tried in the fire.
You're the gold.
Maybe you always thought you were going to meet somebody here. You look over your life, and the days that have passed under sleep's dark and silent gate. You can't see through. You know few of the why's and wherefores. But God has given you life, granted you precious opportunities, shaped and helped and worked, and put out His hand when you were weary. He carried you when you were on life support, set your feet upon a rock and gave you a part of the view. He encouraged you. He wasn't trying to break you. He was trying to heal you. He did not design the hard things you've faced. But He did permit them. Because He looked at those things and He looked at you, and He said “I can bring good out of that evil.”
In a way, we are all part of the brotherhood. Like Christian in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, we are on a journey; all of us. The most difficult part of the journey is avoiding the trap doors we ourselves have created. But Jesus will get us through. Our brothers and sisters will help us get through. Keep going. Don't stop. We are the holdouts of planet earth.
Fourthly, If the Father delivered up the Son, why wouldn't He deliver up to us all that we need to live a life of victory?
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
God has gone to a lot of trouble to get us to where we are. He foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies. The justified here is best understood with the sense of “vindicate.” God is vindicating you.
But you look at your life and say, “I have fallen short. My life is condemning me. How can God be vindicating me?” He sees the end from the beginning. You see the end from some cul de sac, some midpoint in your journey.
The Lord can bring victory out of that which may seem to us discomfiture and defeat. We are in danger of forgetting God, of looking at the things which are seen, instead of beholding by the eye of faith the things which are unseen. When misfortune or calamity comes, we are ready to charge God with neglect or cruelty. If He sees fit to cut off our usefulness in some line, we mourn, not stopping to think that thus God may be working for our good. We need to learn that chastisement is a part of His great plan and that under the rod of affliction the Christian may sometimes do more for the Master than when engaged in active service" (Ellen G. White, Acts of the Apostles, p. 481).
We are pilgrims and strangers in this world; but we are traveling to a heavenly country. We shall meet with disappointments; but it is our privilege to turn every apparent defeat into a victory. Satan will contend for our souls every step of the way; but if we look over to Jesus, our present help in every time of need, He will lift up for us a standard against the enemy. Instead of complaining at every difficulty, we are to fight the good fight of faith, enduring hardness as good soldiers of the cross of Christ. The wounds and scars of our warfare will be to us, as to Paul, the trophies of victory" (Ellen G. White, Historical Sketches, p. 130).
Never let your courage fail. Never talk unbelief because appearances are against you. As you work for the Master you will feel pressure for want of means, but the Lord will hear and answer your petitions for help. Let your language be: 'The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.' Isaiah 50:7.
If you make a mistake, turn your defeat into victory. The lessons that God sends will always, if well learned, bring help in due time. Put your trust in God. Pray much, and believe. Trusting, hoping, believing, holding fast the hand of Infinite Power, you will be more than conquerors (Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 7, pp. 244, 245).
In giving Christ, God gave all the facilities of heaven. His pledges of help are made to every troubled soul. None need fear defeat if they walk obediently and gratefully before Him with all humility. Christ has gained the victory over the enemy; and in every conflict with the powers of darkness we have his assurance, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.’ The Lord God of heaven ‘hath put all things under’ Christ's ‘feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.’ (Atlantic Union Gleaner, August 26, 1903).
We must not think of defeat, but of victory. However forbidding may be the circumstances, lay hold on the promises of God. They are for us... Faith is the medium of connection between human weakness and divine power" (Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 3, p. 279).
If the Father gave Jesus for us, why would He not also give to us all things that we need to live for Jesus? His plan is that we will become like Jesus. We mustn't fear. Satan likes that. I don't like anything that makes Satan happy.
Do we become discouraged? Do we run and hide from God? He longs for us. He wants to save us. He is searching for us. “Adam, where are you?”
God is following. He will make you His own if you will but turn. His love is the hound of heaven.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. (From “The Hound of Heaven,” Frances Thompson, 1859-1907).
The strong feet of our loving Father follow, follow after. His hand is reached out. He wants us. He loves us. He paid the enormous sum for us of His only begotten Son.
Therefore, take no counsel with your fears. Do not wallow in the pit of melancholy. Keep going. Don't stop. We are the holdouts of planet earth.
What has happened to you is dealt with as though it was done to Jesus; and God will require an accounting. Our Father is on our side. He keeps His covenant and His mercy. The wheels, bearing down seem about to crush. The turtle withdraws into his shell, knowing that it will not protect him from the wheel, that his life is about to go “crunch.” But the Father intervenes. He loves His child. He is looking for soldiers to fight on His battlefield another day.
Let us sing today the anthem of hope through Jesus Christ. In the wash of tears there is self-knowledge. This message might not have been for you today, but if not, then don't forget it, but file it away. There are bold and stark times ahead. Don't forget the God who loves and comes searching after you, who longs to bring you safely through the heavenly portals to dwell with Him for eternity. You are valuable. The person you always longed to meet throughout all your life was Jesus. And you have met Him. He came for you. He died for a reason. He is coming soon to receive the holdouts of planet earth.
Keep going. Don't stop.
