Monkeying Around While Hell Fills — E.A. Johnston

The Monkey Trap and the Grip of Worldly Attachments

If you want to catch a monkey, all you have to do is drop a nut into a narrow neck jar and leave it in the jungle. The monkey will sniff it out and contract his paw to squeeze it into that jug and once he grabs that nut with his fist he won't let go and it's impossible for him to get his paw out of that jug unless he lets go of the nut.

So he just screams and hollers until the trappers come and catch him because he won't let go of that nut. I believe there are a few of us here who can stand by that monkey. You can't tell them apart because they refuse to let go of what they have come hell or high water.

The Gospel's Demand for First Place

I don't believe we fully understand the gospel as it is found in God's book. I don't believe we have a true inkling of the depth of the gospel as it pertains to our personal lives. That God's kingdom must be put first and that Christ must be Lord and have first place, first priority and first call and first preeminence all the time because he is Lord.

Self-Denial and Taking Up the Cross

That Christ preached we should renounce the world and deny ourselves and pick up his cross and follow him. Then said Jesus to his disciples, if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? That the gospel calls all followers of Christ to renounce the world and embrace the cross.

That the gospel has certain rights and claims on individuals who claim to be Christians. That the Lord requires us to renounce ourselves and all we have and to give ourselves and all we possess to Christ fully and immediately.

That we are not our own and we are bought with a price and that price is his blood. That we are expected to forsake all we have and deliver everything to Christ as belonging to him. Our bank accounts and houses and investment portfolios and lands must be fully given to him for his use and for his glory.

Historical Examples of Renouncing Wealth for the Gospel

When Edward Studd, the father of C .T. Studd, came to Christ under the preaching of D .L. Moody he sold all his choice racehorses and turned his lavish country estate in England into a preaching chapel for visiting ministers to preach the gospel.

That's how his sons were saved because of his renouncement to the world and when Steamboat Ryman got saved in Nashville under the preaching of Sam Jones he had his fleet of steamboats pour all their booze into the Cumberland River and he closed the gambling halls on them and fired the dancing girls in them and turned those boats into floating chapels where the gospel could be brought to the down-and-out at the Nashville Wharf and if that wasn't enough he built a large auditorium sparing no expense so that thousands could come and hear Sam Jones preach in it which was later named the Ryman Auditorium which still stands to this day.

The Rich Young Ruler and the Cost of Possessions

That the gospel when it is fully embraced and Christ has made Lord. That we must understand that what we have in regard to our possessions is no longer ours. That it cost the rich young ruler his soul.

Because he would not comply with the demands of Christ in his life. So he turned his back on God and walked away and a day came when he finally was parted from his possessions by death. But it was too late from then as a soul went out to a Christless eternity.

Treating Possessions as God's Property

That we must understand what it means to renounce the ownership of our possessions because they are God's and not ours. That we are never to treat these things as ours ever again. That the Lord does not require us to relinquish all our possessions and houses and lands and Investments and bank accounts or to quit our businesses.

But that we are never to treat those things as belonging to ourselves as it is Respected to God. That in respect to man These things are ours not belonging to others but as respected to God. That he requires us not to regard ourselves or anything we possess as Belonging to us.

That God requires us in his place demands on us in the gospel. To renounce all claims to these or anything else as it respects their relation to him. That his claim on these things is absolute and his property entirely.

Using Time, Strength, and Influence for God's Glory

Is what we have We've received entirely from him. That God requires us to use ourselves and Everything we have for him and his glory as Belonging to him and to never think that we had a right to use our time our strength our substance or Influence or anything else which we possess as it were our own and not the Lord's.

The Urgency of Funding Gospel Ministry

We give God our Ten percent and keep ninety percent for our own use and the ruin of our family while the gospel still needs to be translated into 1 ,200 different languages while God called ministries are closing their doors for lack of support.

I had the privilege one time to read the will of a famous Christian preacher Who in his life preached at some of the biggest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention? And he left in a state of over a million dollars to be divided between Ten ministries at his death.

Well the old boy lived so long that by the time he died half the missions and Ministries in his will had gone out of existence. For lack of support had he given them that money while he was alive. Maybe they could have had more impact in the world.

A Wholehearted Life Under Christ's Mastery

We must understand what it means to renounce self in light of the cross. When we get saved our time is no longer our own. Our possessions are no longer our own. Our money is no longer our own. Our body is no longer our own.

Christ must be a complete master. He will not accept a divided heart Or a self-willed life. Even if you are the chairman of the deacons that God didn't give us what we have to enjoy retirement of only leisure and golf and cruises and new boats and Automobiles but to hand all of these over Into the nail-pierced hands of a risen Lord and that what we have Should be used as a means to further the gospel in our generation and to save the hell-bound.

The New Testament Pattern of Shared Possessions

That we should be closer to the New Testament believers Who had all things common and sold their possessions and goods? Imparted them to all men as every man had need.