Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/alan-davidson/a-christ-centered-life/
Reading, please, in the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 9. The Acts of the Apostles. Firstly, in chapter 9. Acts chapter 9, verse 1,. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughtered against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the bricks. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
We might look further down the chapter at verse 15. And the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before Gentiles and kings of the children of Israel. Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians chapter 2 at verse 20. Galatians 2 verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Philippians chapter 1. Philippians 2. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am as threat betwixt two, having a desire to depart, to be with Christ, which is far better.
Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And finally over in 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy 4 verse 5. But watch thou on all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
For I am now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Well that's our reading on with the Lord's blessing. I would like to pick up a little upon the former ministry, and for a few moments I would ask you to consider for me, with me, a Christ-centered life.
A Christ-centered life. In Acts chapter 9, the beginning of the chapter there's a young man and he's on the way in. At the end of that chapter there's Dorcas, a lady on the way out. Soul of Tarsus, the young man, for him the sun is rising, off to a good start as to the grace of God on the road to Damascus.
Toward the end of the chapter Dorcas, dear lady that has served God, for her the sun has set, a good finish. And you know it is something sweet as we bury an aged saint, and those that have served God well, to know that there they are without a blemish, that have served God in their day.
Yet we're glad there are those today with us, young in the faith, and we appreciate that. I noticed in the chapter, Soul of Tarsus and Dorcas, there was two things that was said about them both. It says of them both that he was, they were with them, with them, with them.
Had we read further down, it says of Saul as to the church he was with them, with them coming in and going out. Those that reflect back upon the life of Dorcas, they reflect upon the time when she was with them, with them, with the people of God.
Our brother Bill has been talking about that glue. It says of Saul that he desired to, he desired to be with them. He desired to be amongst them. He desired, the word is, to glue himself to them. So whatever generation it is, how good it is today to be associated with Christ and with the people of God.
And we trust indeed each and every one saved by the grace of God, associated with the little assembly. As we've been hearing already, all are to tack upon assembly testimony in the dark day and age in which we're found.
But you know, there's something about the saint that is sound, that is solid, that is scriptural, that is associated with the assembly in days when things are going well and the sun is shining, in days of adversity and trial, just with them.
As the old brother said, with them, through thick and thin, up to the chin. I want to notice about Saul in Acts 9, the language he used, the letters he brought, the light he saw, the Lord he acknowledged.
The language he used, threatenings and slaughter. Further down the chapter, it's nice to see how he is introduced to assembly and to his service. The holy breath. The holy breath. Big change. Big change for Saul of Tarsus.
You know, in the early days in the work in Russia, the KGB would intermingle amongst the little companies of the Lord's people. And they would spy them out to see what was going on. I remember on one occasion, a man was hanging around before the morning meeting and hung around to all the meetings and told me one story and through the interpreter and told somebody else another story.
He was there all day and one of the elders said, I don't trust him. You know, sometimes they learn the language of the Bible and tried even to take part. But you know, the believers could find them out if they asked them to pray.
They couldn't pray. You know, listen to a man preaching. Well, he'll get through some way. But I like to hear the man praying. Just that touch with God. The language he used, the letters he brought, he brought letters to bind them.
This is the man that God is going to raise up and he's going to write letters to deliver the saints from the bondage of Judaism. Big change for Saul of Tarsus. The night he saw chapter nine, he says it was a light.
Chapter 22, he says it was a great light. In chapter 26, he says it was a light above the brightness of the noonday sun. I wonder, my dear brother, dear sister, whether it's just starting out or whether it's at the end of life.
At our latest moment in the conference at Utter Cross, is our comprehension of the glory of Christ increasing? But I want to get to this, a Christ-centered life. The Lord, he acknowledged. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
I don't know that any mortal tongue, after all these years, could confer the amazement to Saul of Tarsus. That hateful, bitter Jewish zealot that hated the very name of the Mazarin and was there with venom in his heart and with bitterness in his soul to persecute all that owned that name.
And now, from the glory there is a voice. I am Jesus of Nazareth. It's a bit like the Brethren of Joseph so long ago. The last they saw him was down in a pit. They sold him, sold him into Egypt on the Midianites.
For a time now, they've heard, they've heard that man, the Lord, in Egypt. They've heard him with an Egyptian tongue. They've looked upon him there now and often. They've been searched out. We are verily guilty of our brother.
You know the story. And then when he brings them in, and no longer can he be restrained. And now in the Hebrew tongue, after all those years, they hear this voice again. I am Joseph. My dear brother, my dear sister, I don't know how far back you're looking in a little, a little experience of life.
But isn't it sweet to look back to that day? Maybe some bust over a few weeks, maybe some over months, maybe some over many years. I ask when there was that appreciation of Christ as Savior. But I want to think about him as Lord.
Lord, what will thou have me to do? The acknowledgement of his control. And then we read verse 15, a chosen vessel unto me. I want to think of the apprehension of his choice. And then Galatians, the association with his cross.
Well, you see this, this Christ-centered life is a costly business. I am crucified with Christ. And then in Philippians, abandonment to his claims. For me, says Paul, what's the secret of this man? For me to live, Christ.
And then that anticipation of his commendation. And his closing words in 2nd Timothy. Now ready to be offered. And he's looking forward to the commendation of the Lord, the righteous judge. Quickly. Acknowledgement of his control.
What will thou have me to do? Arisen glorified Christ. That expression in the epistles is Pauline Christ Jesus. It says, Paul, that I might know him. And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his death.
What then, my dear brother, dear sister, do we know about this Christ-centered life? We've been hearing this morning difficulties as to assembly testimony. The stress and discouragement as to family life.
And you're here today. Well, what can we do? Oh yes, if it's not so, then we trust that the sentiments that we expressed just now draw me closer, closer, closer drawn to him. That ownership, that control.
You know, most of us, we do fairly well for a little time after conversion. Make a little progress. If there's life at all, there's appetite and a desire for the word of God and to pray. But you know, after we give it two or three years, maybe four or five to be generous, we start to level off.
And then life becomes a little aimless. Maybe that touch of selfishness. There's many a saint, you know, and they just live a kind of a jumble of a life. They'll turn out on the Lord's day and at the meetings.
And if it suits us, maybe the midweek meeting. But you know, that's maybe about the height of it. That life that really, oh yes, not focused, not that aim, not that focus in life on the person of Christ.
Oh, from the very start, young believer, I trust it'll be so today. Oh yes, that's to you, and to whatever stage we're at, acknowledgement of his control. But then his choice, apprehension of his choice.
The word Ananias, a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles. Saul of Tarsus, as a child born a Hebrew, at five taught to read, at six sent to school, at ten knew the oral law, at 13 made the son of the law, in teenage years sat under the feet of Gamaliel, a trained rabbi of the Hebrew of the Hebrews, a tribe of Benjamin, a strict Pharisee.
What does he say about it? Counted at all loss. Counted at all loss that I might win Christ. I'm not disobedient to that heavenly vision. And so there begins that story, Damascus, Jerusalem, Antioch, onward to Athens, to Rome, to Corinth, to Rome, to the hatred of the Jews, to the hailstorm of stones that rained down upon his little body, beaten as dead and carried out, out into the storms of the sea, out into the amphitheater of raging fanatics.
Down in prison, what does he say? Oh, pray that Paul get out of prison, not at all. Pray that I might be given boldness before Caesar. What's the secret of this man? Let us ponder it today, my dear brother, dear sister, with the apprehension of his choice.
I know at the beginning he had a burden about his fellow countrymen. He started in Jerusalem. We've been hearing about that already. But then that word in Jerusalem was, get thee out quickly. I will send thee far off unto the Gentiles.
Paul knew closed doors. Paul knew open doors. Might seem strange to some, but the great apostle Paul had no plan. He had no program. No, he had an exercise. He had an exercise. But he's called Paul the servant of God.
Just that exercise before God to discover the task of the Lord's choice, to discover the counsel of the Lord for his life. I know, for I've been there in recent days, some of the small assemblies, and I know they get in discouragement and they find difficulties.
But I trust, dear brother, I trust, dear sister, that you're happy that you're in the place, in the condition, in the fellowship of his choice. Those of us who move publicly, well, that exercise, that burden, yet ever leaving it before God that there might be open doors, that there might be closed doors.
You know, it's likely so that many a preacher, he's already filled up for 2015. Well, I'm thankful I can speak with a fair amount of liberty this afternoon. I know where I'm going next week. It was only last night that I discovered where I was going the following week in the will of the Lord.
In fact, I'm going to Nebraska. You know, just leave it before the Lord. Leave it before the Lord, the apprehension of his choice. It'll not be easy. It mightn't be your choice. It mightn't just that little assembly you might want something bigger.
That assembly where there's difficulties, cut and run somewhere else. No, no, no, no. Oh, yes. Lord, what will thou have me to do? A chosen vessel unto me. It's not easy. Galatians chapter 2 and 20. I am crucified with Christ.
Association with his cross. He says here, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I. Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live after the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Says Paul, Christ. That I might win Christ. That I might, Paul ever strove to live as close as possible to the resurrected man. No, we'll never attain to sinless perfection. And none of us would claim the ultimate.
But insofar as possible, he ever strove after, as the runner in the race, to run as race winners run. Not a competition, but to strive after every sinew, every sinew of his spiritual energy, the moral of his spiritual desires, ever striving that he might rise closer, closer, higher, higher to that blessed one, ever aiming at the focus of Christ.
Crucified with Christ. Says Paul now, there was a man, a blessed man. He took upon his furrowed back a heavy wooden cross, and he carried it outside the city of Jerusalem. And as yet, he never came back.
What's the claim on me? Says Paul, I am crucified. Crucified unto the world. The world has become a dead thing. The world has suffered a death of violence to me. Says Paul, God forbid that I should glory, save on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which or by whom it can translate it either.
I am crucified unto the world, and the world unto me. Young brother, young sister, prepared for the cost. Those of us well down the path of life, what about the cost? Brother, if it doesn't cost you anything, it's not worth anything.
I'm talking about the passage of life. You see, somehow or other, the day and age in which we're found, we talk about an older generation. They knew a cost. They left the Saxon churches and denominations.
They left the clerisy. They left the prayer books. They left the music. They left the sacerdotal class. They left it all at great cost. We have privileges. Maybe down into the second, third generation.
Maybe it hasn't cost as much. What about the commitment? There's a lack of commitment. I notice it no matter where we go. Through the gospel in this land or other lands. There's an older generation that supported the gospel.
And as we've heard from our brother Al, they were with you, and they stuck with it. Now they're either aged and infirm, no longer able to go, or else they're already in heaven. What about those of us who follow on?
Maybe it's the meetings of the Lord's day, but well, is that not enough? What about the Bible reading? Giving up a few hours the previous night to study the passage? What about the prayer meeting? What about the support of the gospel?
Ministry, sort of half-hearted in the theme. Bible, but no depth of appreciation of the truth of God. My dear brother, dear sister, what's wrong with us? What is wrong with us? You see, the reasoning of our day is, well, we'll keep our toe in the door, but the demands of these things and the cost until it hurts.
Have I to give up my time? Have I to give up my Saturday? Have I to give up my vacation? You know, the older generation, they might have had some luxuries. The luxuries of a former generation now seem to be the necessities of the present generation.
Have I to give up my social life and family life and my down times and all that? Well, my dear brother, dear sister, maybe you're saying this Irish man, that's the way they preach. There's one little expression here that settles it all.
He gave himself for me. He gave himself for me. If you get nothing else from this message, take out home with you today. We're talking about a Christ-centered life. Now, it'll cost you. I'm not talking about gross things.
I'm talking about things that, well, we can well prune off. Gilgal was the place of the sharp knives. I take it as their spiritual circumcision, the priorities of life. The Lord's coming's almost upon us.
If you're going to do anything, brother, my sister, if you're going to do anything for the Lord, the time is short. And where's the focus? That's his point. Acknowledgement of his control. What will thou help me to do?
Appreciation of that choice that is his chosen vessel unto me. Association with that cross. Now there's a reproach. Well, there's a reproach with the cross. There's a reproach with the gospel, and we shouldn't be shunning it.
Identified with the blessed man that gave himself for you. What about this abandonment to his claims? What is the secret of this man's life? Philippians chapter 1. For me to live Christ. That's it. For me to live Christ.
The position that he gained through grace was in Christ. The purpose that governed his life was to live Christ. The privilege that gave him most joy was to preach Christ. The praise that he ever grasped after was to win Christ.
The prospect that lay before him, ever growing brighter, was to be with Christ. They put time limits on us. If they put speed limits on us, we're finished. I don't want to rush you over this, but you know, position he gained in grace.
The purpose he governed to live Christ. The privilege that gave him that joy. The preaching of Christ. You know, brethren, tell them about their sin. Warn them about the wrath of God. But before you're finished, leave them face to face with Christ.
Don't leave that out. A lot of that he meant. And what's this man? Well, it's a wrestler. Well, it's the husband man, the builder. Whatever it is, those metaphors that he takes up, Paul says, Paul, the praise ever grasping after is to win Christ.
And what about the prospect? Oh, he says, for me to live is Christ. To die is gain. Well, we're all anxious about the dying. And right now, there's something about death. There's something about death that's cold, it's fine.
I don't know. We don't like the idea, but you know, the Lord will look after it. Only cast that upon his burden. But you know, in the meantime, our responsibility, let us ponder it. A Christ-centered life.
Personal for me. Present tense is Christ. The prospect that I gain. Personal for me. As we've heard already, what do we do? Grumble about the assembly? Complain about the Christians? Do you want to change the oversight?
I'll tell you what you do. Make a differ in that assembly. Yours. Make a differ by one man or one woman. For me, present is Christ. You see, we look back in the past. We look back in the past, but we can't live in the past.
God's not going to bless us for old time's sake. David served his own generation. I was thinking when our brother Al was speaking of the old Irish preacher, he used to tell us back there that all the good men were dead or had gone to America.
Well, you can assess that yourself, but you know, is Christ. Present tense. The prospect to die is gain. Now, Paul wasn't in any fog. He wasn't in some quandary about the thing. He knew what his choice would be, but he says here, to remain is more needful for you.
You see, the more heavenly minded, the more earthly use, the more we're heavenly minded, sat on our factions upon things above, live for the Lord and for the assembly and the work of God, the more we'll be useful down here amongst the saints and amongst mankind.
Quickly, 2 Timothy chapter 4. I'm not ready to be offered. That's the fragrance. Verse 7, I fought the fight. That's the fight. I finished my course. That's the finish. Verse 8, henceforth, crown of righteousness.
That's the future. Good start. Saul of Tarsus, the road to Damascus, the language he used, the letters he brought, the light he saw, the Lord he acknowledged. And from that moment, complete abandonment, acknowledgement, association with that one that he saw on the Damascus road.
And now, the anticipation of his commendation. Now ready to be offered, like the drink offering, poured out, poured out, fragrant. I fought a good fight. That's the fight. I finished my course. Now the soldier, he's taking down the tent and moving out.
Now the sailor, he's lifting the anchor and sailing away. Now the servant of God, I have finished my course. I speak to an older saint here today. Maybe you're wondering, how's it going to be? Ill health, home of care, hospital, infirmity.
I don't know. But you know, there's something about it when they come to the end of the little sojourn. They go down with a flag flying, and not a tarnish, and not a blemish. Good finish. A good finish.
I have kept the faith. That's that trust, that deposit of truth. It has been defended against all attack. Oh yes, I've put it, says Paul, into the bank of glory. I have set up that truth and that deposit where there's no inflation.
There's no devaluation. There's no tarnishing. The robbers will not break through. The rodent will not eat. The rust will not corrupt. Oh yes. What about the future? What's the future? Paul wasn't wondering what's going to happen in the judgment seat, you know.
He ever kept Christ before him. That Christ-centered life, the future. Paul says to the Corinthians, small thing. Small thing to be judged of you. Paul says to the Thessalonians, not as man pleasers.
Not as man pleasers. I don't know. But in view of that day, he says, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous, judge. Mind you, dear brother, dear sister, he'll assess it in that day.
And he'll come to the right assessment when the conference is over, and the lights are out, and the preaching done, and the fellowship as far as this little meeting together is concerned is finished. What counts?
I'll tell you what counts. It's Christ. Likeness to Christ. Closeness to him. Closer. Closer. Yes, to prune off the trifles and the things of time and sense. And the world as the world crushed in upon us.
Evidence of worldliness amongst us is the same. I ask to set those things aside in light of that day when the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me. Can we know something as we leave the conference, as our brethren minister, and as we leave the conference today of a Christ-centered life in light of that day.
May God bless this work.