Him or It? — Denny Kenaston

Greetings in the precious name of Jesus Christ this morning blessing to be here. Sing with the Saints of God communion tonight. That's a blessing too, isn't it? So many privileges God gives us. Oh May he help us to never take them for granted.

Humanity Created to Glorify God

So many privileges we have. So man is the glory of God. It's quite an awesome statement. You know when you think about it. What that means is that God made man? Specifically to glorify him in every way.

Here's God in the Garden of Eden and He's making things some of them. He just speaks. But when it comes to man gets this dirt out of the ground and He's making something. God is making something there.

He's making a man and when I say that I mean mankind. He's making a man and he has a design in mind. God doesn't just do anything for nothing. He has something in mind. I'm going to make a man. He's going to be in our image.

He's going to glorify me. He's going to bring all the attention my way. He is the glory of God. When you see they're going to think about me, oh those are awesome thoughts, aren't they? As we live in these frail human bodies of ours.

They're awesome thoughts. But yet it's we know it's true. We we see it in the word. So appreciated the meditation this morning. How can this be? How can this man? Who was born with a fallen nature. Glorify God.

There must be a way there must be. There has to be there is a way for this man. To bring glory to God. There is a way. There's only one way by the way. There are not a lot of ways. There's only one. God graciously left us only one one way.

We like to devise a lot of different ways, but there's only one Lord is laid on my heart to speak this morning a Sermon that I've been working on for a year. A very simple title. Him or it. Him or it.

Him or It: The Person of Christ Versus Religious Experience

It comes from a little track that was written. Oh, I don't know maybe 80 years ago. I Want to read you the track so you will understand where we're going. Him or it. Him or it is the essential question.

Is it him or is it it? It is a thing. Him is a person. If we receive it We almost invariably lose it. 90 out of every hundred that receive it lose it and it keeps them continually receiving and losing and This makes the life very unsatisfactory to the gainers and the losers and almost everyone else.

The thing is not able to do the work of the person. Our sanctification is such a valuable thing and this person is writing in light of a sanctification experience. Our sanctification is such a valuable thing that we must watch and guard and keep it as we have no time or room for any other work and We become religiously selfish in our endeavors to keep it.

To keep it. We must talk preach and write it. We must correctly pronounce it. We must associate only with those who profess it and Denounce those who place anything in the place of it. I Speak in love.

This is an unknown author by the way, he didn't put his name on it. I Have no controversy. I bear no ill feeling. I tried the it life for many many hard and weary and Unsatisfactory years. I Received it plainly clearly satisfactorily.

It was what I sought and according to my faith. It was done as I received. So I walked as I taught so I did. I prayed. No Romanist could ever have been more punctilious in doing my duty there. I Fasted.

I was faithful for this was necessary to keep it and Years of Friday fastings were mine prayer and profession and Fasting we're not enough to keep it. For it was slippery and would slide and I thought I would die works good works were brought into play and I preached for nothing and built churches and fed the poor and established and maintained missions.

I Never read a novel Never caught a fish Never snared a bird Never shot an animal Never saw play or a dance never went to a race or a game I gave my money and time and talents freely to secure it. I did not laugh.

I Separated myself and ostracized and condemned others. I wore plain clothes and Lived a plain life. I Went to camp meetings and took hundreds Paying their way so that they might receive it. I Held continuous meetings for years on this line day and night in the churches of which I was a pastor.

I Verily believed I was doing God's will and that in securing the blessing of sanctification I Had all there was for me and to think of anything more better was a delusion and a snare. And I had better just keep what I had or I would lose it all I.

And they became clannish and it would only go to holiness meetings and hear holiness preachers. We became narrower and narrower until We crowded each other out and said mean things one of another. It was requisite.

So I thought to keep it. I wore out my voice I Broke down my health my strength in my endeavor to keep and spread it and My life was a failure and my efforts fruitless. In this time of dilemma when my heart and flesh failed me and I was on the point of abandoning it as uncertain and unsatisfactory a person Came to my rescue.

I was alone. None were near None were interested. He quieted me. He hushed my murmurings my complainings and Whispered to me in love that it could not but he could. He communed with me and gently suggested that I take him as all in all.

I Bowed and said yes to him. That is all no new blessing. A Thousand would not meet the blesser came he him a Person and my life was altered. He abides. He satisfies. My doing is now done. I rest and rejoice.

The hardness of my life is all gone. His sweetness has come in. His gentleness has made me great. He and his are mine. I am his. He never leaves me. He loves me. The him life is a thousand times better than the it life.

I know I tried both beloved receive ye him. That's the track that inspired this message if we had opened our Bibles to Ephesians. Just want to read a few verses here. It seems only fitting to me to have a sermon like this on the day of Communion.

Union With Christ in Ephesians

It seems only fitting that we get our focus in the right place a Day when we have chosen to remember him Who redeemed us to God by his blood? This morning, I want to center on a person and bring our attention to the theology of centering on a person in our Christian life.

In Ephesians, I just want to read a few verses for you and emphasize a few words in Ephesians 1 verse 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who hath blessed us? With all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ in him.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love chapter 2 verse 14. For he is our peace. He is our peace. Who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall a partition?

Between us. Chapter 2 verse 18. For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the father. Now that we both there are the Jews and the Gentiles we both Have access the same access unto the father Through him.

Chapter 2 verse 20 through 22 and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ himself Being the chief cornerstone. I Want you to just notice these little words in each one of these.

It's not speaking about a theology. God is speaking about a person. Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone of the building. Not his example. Not what he did. He is the most lively stone of all the lively stones in the building.

It is he himself Who is the chief cornerstone of this lively building. Verse 21. In whom in him all the building fitly framed together. Groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord in whom in him He also are built together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit.

Now God is saying some deep things in these verses. But he's telling us this morning that we are a building and that this building is alive and That the reason why it's alive is because this building is in him.

We are alive when we are in him. We as a congregation are a lively building when we are in him To the degree that we are in him personally Vibrantly to that degree This building is alive. This building is a holy temple.

This building is a habitation of God through the Spirit. It's him chapter 3 verse 17 that Christ May dwell in your heart by faith. Christ him dwelling in our hearts by faith verse 20. Chapter 3. Now unto him now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly Above all that we ask or think According to the power that work is in us unto him be glory.

Chapter 4 verse 15. But speaking the truth in love May grow up into him in all things. Which is the head even Christ? Chapter 4 again in verse 20 to 21. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be that ye have heard him and Have been taught by him as the truth is in him Jesus the truth is in him in Jesus Christ and Lastly and we could just go on and on and on here, but I want to read yet in Colossians in Colossians chapter 2 in verse 6 as Ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord.

So walk ye in him Rooted and built up in him and Established in the faith as you have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men After the rudiments of the world and not after Christ after him his person for in him Dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and Ye are complete in him.

Which is the head of all principality and power? All right, that's enough verses for us to read. Him is a person. It is a thing. The person needs no definition. We know now Who that person is? But the question still comes to us this morning.

Turning Good Things Into “It”

Is it him or? Is it it? Now the it Needs some definition. You can put a lot of different things after that little word it the little tract that I read was speaking the man was speaking about an experience of sanctification and he made an it out of that not realizing that Jesus is our sanctification.

That's what the Bible says but he made an it out of an experience that Somebody had and got up and told him about it. And he pursued it and he pursued that it as we could see with everything that was in him.

It Can be repentance. We can make an it out of repentance and feel like when we've come to that place Where we're all broken to pieces at an altar somewhere that we've gotten it. We've gotten what so-and-so had.

But if we make an it out of repentance We're going to find out that it does not last. We can make an it out of experience. Maybe that you had at a confession meeting somewhere. We can make an it out of a doctrine or a set of doctrines.

That means something very special to us. People do it all the time. And all of a sudden their focus is on an it instead of him. Oh So many doctrines have been carried to the place of heresies because an Individual saw something in the Word of God that transformed their life and from there It became an itch that everybody else needed to see and hear.

So I've done it with prophecies. Premillennialism and all millennialism all the other isms there. We can take a doctrine or a set of doctrines or a certain way of looking at things and Make an it out of it.

But it doesn't last. It can be a standard or a set of standards. It's right to have standards in our lives godly standards. But we can take godly standards and make an it out of it and pursue it and preach it and write about it and Give it to everybody and make that our meat and that our drink and many have done that.

But the question is this morning. Is it him or is it it? The question is what is our heart pursued? Even in the good things even in the right things. What is our heart pursued? Is it him? Or is it it.

It can be good and godly goals it can be Pursuing a life's ministry, but if that becomes the focus of our heart in our life It's not him it's it. It can have all kinds of definitions this morning. It can be an organization.

However Important it is to have organization it Can be an organization where our heart goes that way and we begin to support the organization and what the organization thinks and Say what the organization would want us to say.

It can be a Pentecostal experience That many have sought. Because someone made an it out of some experience that they had and Got up and started preaching it to the people and said to them you can receive it also.

Just come down here to the front it Can be a church it can be a church and Take our focus off of him who is the head of the church. How foolish to focus and pour our lives and energies into the body. But forget about the head who makes the body function.

It can even be the Bible. It can even be the Bible. There have been movements among the people of God Where there was a liberal trend and some of the concerned people begin to realize things aren't going right here.

We are going the wrong direction and they rose up and said we're going back to the Bible. It's the Bible we're gonna do what the Bible says and Everyone rallied to their challenge and everyone got on the bandwagon and they made an it out of the Bible and we're getting back to The Bible but they didn't go far enough.

Because if you're going to get back to the Bible you're gonna have to go further than the Bible if you're going to get back Into the God's will and find him beyond the sacred page. It's him. Even the Bible can be in it.

It's not the Bible. It's him. It can be a lifestyle. Many fall into that snare out of an overreaction to a weak spineless Protestant world Who doesn't seem to have much substance to their Christianity?

Some swing in an opposite direction have an overreaction and Begin to set their heart on Lifestyle, but lifestyle is not him. Now I want to quickly say oh None of these things are wrong in themselves.

They're all good and right. We believe in doctrines. We believe in having holy standards. We believe in the Bible. We believe the Bible is the Word of God. We believe you oughta be sanctified clean pure made clean by the blood through repentance.

All of these things are good and right. But if our focus gets on them instead of him It won't come out, right. Paul said it this way to the church at Galatia. Awesome words in light of the truth of this message this morning.

The Gospel Over Legalism and Religious Experience

Listen to what Paul said to the Galatians as he was correcting them there it became the Jewish law because Judaizers came and Began to promote Jewish law after Paul Had preached Christ to them the Judaizers came and promoted Jewish laws and said it's Christ plus Jewish loss.

But look what Paul said when he wrote a letter to correct them About the wrong focus that they were on. He said in chapter 1 verse 6. I Marvel that ye are so soon removed from him That called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel so soon removed From him in the book of 1st John which was written to correct and Give direction because there were those in John's day in the churches claiming Supernatural experiences Over and above what everybody else had.

We've got something that you don't have they said. We've had an experience with God that you haven't had they said. Very interesting to see how John corrected the error there. 30 times in 1st John he speaks about him 30 times.

He speaks about him and gives definition to that Him or it is the question this morning Him or it and there may be many applications to this message. You may be here today and You're just beginning to focus on It or it may just be that God wants to confirm and affirm our theology our theology being That our lives should be centered on a person the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not on all the other things Which come out of Christ, but that our lives should be focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's theology. As I look down through history It is very clear that those who had an impact on their generation.

Were those who were Christ-centered? Men and women. Were those who saw him? And their lives were changed and they saw him and they got up and said what they saw and Thus bringing the focus of those Who followed them? back on him.

Christ-Centered Renewal in Church History

In a sense it it's exciting. But in another sense, it's not very exciting to see What happened time after time? It's as if you can look down through church history and you can see these little mountaintops.

Where a people got a glimpse of the Christ the Son of the Living God. It changed their life. It changed their focus. It changed their priorities. It changed their motivations and all of that. Then as time goes on They begin to lose sight of him and It's like he goes down like this then someone again sees and a people begin to see and their lives come up and We read about them and they're written in the annals of history.

Because they're examples of him and what he can do and you just look down through church history and you see that happening over and over again. It's beautiful, but it's also awesome because we stand here today.

Being responsible for our generation. We do Just like they did. So we don't look back on them with hard criticism. But rather we want to learn from what they did. That we will not also do the same thing.

My mind was brought to the testimony of George Fox. Who was the founder of the Quakers? Now, I don't know how much you know about the Quakers. There they were not what they are today. George Fox Was a desperate man.

He didn't know which way to go. He had a need in his life and he couldn't seem to find answers. He went to every preacher that he knew and they gave him all kinds of different counsel. The Catholics told him to do penance and pray the Rosary in some of the Nonconformist preachers told him to chew tobacco that would calm his nerves and they gave him all kinds of things that he could do but finally when he came to the bottom of all of that and he came to the end of himself and he had nowhere to.

Look, he heard the voice of God saying to him. That still small voice, you know that speaks in the heart. Look to me George. I'm Christ Jesus. I Can meet your every need. I? Will answer your every problem.

Look to me. Give me your life. Yield everything and I will answer your every problem. George Fox did that day. Yield his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and it just totally changed him just like it did the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus and for years.

There were those who were called Quakers who followed George Fox who followed the Lord Jesus. They were a vibrant people they were a simple people they were a plain people. But they were a vibrant people who loved Jesus and they were a persecuted people some few years after George died the persecutions begin to settle as they do from time to time and When the persecutions began to settle the people began to make compromises.

And when the people began to make compromises. Having gotten their eyes off of him, which is how compromises come mark it down. That's the way it happens. First the relationship is lost. Then the compromises are made well the leaders Looked at the compromise compromises that were being made and decided.

We're going to stop this compromise. We're going to make rules. We're going to make laws. You can't do this. You can't do that. You can't wear this. You can't wear that. And so the laws came and as the laws came the focus changed and the focus turned to the laws and The people were thinking we are doing right.

Because we're doing what the leaders say and so they followed the laws of the leaders and Saw less and less of him and you know the rest of the story. I Think of the Scottish Covenanters this morning who lived in the 1600s in Scotland.

Who were challenged? Because England said The King of England is the head of the church and the Scottish Covenants said Christ is the head of the church. The King of England is not the head of the church and England said the King of England is the head of the church.

And if you don't submit to that you'll lose your head. And they said then we'll lose our head because Christ is the head of the church. And out of a vibrant love for the Lord Jesus hundreds and hundreds of them died.

Beautiful testimonies of Godly people. We've spoken already in times past about the Moravian people, but I want us to note today. That they had a glimpse of Christ. That gave him a central place in their lives and because he was that Central figure in their lives the modern missionary movement was born.

I thought about a few different men ones that we're more familiar with. Those of you that read you consider with me Andrew Murray, who is Andrew Murray? Well, if you've read him at all, you know he has only one theme and It's the theme is Jesus Christ over and over again.

That's what he says. Now we wouldn't agree with the theology of his denomination. But he didn't write the theology of his denomination. He wrote about Christ book after book after book he wrote and today and for the last 100 years plus The people of God keep reading Andrew Murray.

Oswald Chambers. Many of us know that name wrote that devotional my utmost for his highest and The motivation of the whole devotional is that I will give my utmost for his highest. How many ever read that devotional book?

Let me see your hands good. Most of you. Well, if you've read it, you know what I'm talking about. It seems he found 365 different ways to speak about Christ. All kinds of different subjects, but every one of them steer you right back to the same place.

How is your relationship with Jesus Christ? Though he talks about separation though. He talks about motivation for ministry though. He talks about fasting though. He talks about prayer though. He talks about all kinds of subjects and this book is full of them.

Yet it seems that every time he steers you right back to the central theme of the Christian life, which is Jesus Christ and a Personal relationship with him. It was not by human promotion that millions of people read those books still today.

It's because he speaks of him and it feeds the soul and Though and so just like the bee. Keeps going back to the flower to gather more pollen to make honey. The people of God. Just keep going back to drink again and to drink again.

A W tozer is another of the same kind of men Who spoke of Christ in? A multitude of different ways. Yet if you read his writings He's always focusing on Christ Jesus. So God's people come to drink Again, and again and again at the fountains of those Who met Christ and walked with him all of their days?

Anabaptist Discipleship and Costly Obedience

Recently, I read a book about the Anabaptists. Written by Peter Hoover. We know Peter Hoover. He preached here. How many of you are aware that he wrote a book? Let me see your hands. Good. Did you read it?

Let me see your hands. Not too many. He wrote a book about the Anabaptists. Beautiful book. I Can't agree with everything that I found in that book. But there's one thing that was so clear that came out in that book this young man wrote after charting the historical direction of the Anabaptist people and Many of us hold the Anabaptist people in high esteem.

I do and many of us here do. But he charted the direction of these Anabaptist people through this book. I feel with a very open forthright honest approach to the facts of history about the Anabaptist people.

Has some good things and some bad things in it. But I think we can learn from the good things and we can learn from the bad things. But the thing that stood out to me so clearly as he was writing chapter after chapter.

About these dear people called the Anabaptists. In their beginnings they were in love with Jesus Christ. It was so clear as we began to look into some of their writings in the book. He brought it out there.

They were in love with the Lord Jesus Christ to them. Discipleship meant to follow Christ personally in their life each and every day. It wasn't simply to agree with his teachings. It wasn't simply to agree with what he did 2 ,000 years ago but to them discipleship was to follow personally the Lord Jesus Christ each and every day and That cost them their life.

That cost them their houses. That cost them the spoiling of their goods. It cost them much persecution. It cost them Divisions in their homes. It cost some of those men the loss of their wife and some of those wives the loss of their husbands.

But oh what a beautiful people they were as I looked through the pages of this book. And I've read about the Anabaptist many times. But what a beautiful people they were. They were in love with Jesus.

Nothing else mattered to them, but Christ and being a follower of Christ. Nothing else mattered he was the focus of their hearts and because of that There were some things that they couldn't do. That the Protestants were doing.

They went further than the Protestants did back in the 1500s. They wouldn't baptize a baby, but the Protestants were baptizing babies. They would not join the state church, but the Protestants were making state churches and the church and the state Was married together in Switzerland in France in Germany and other places but because the Anabaptists Had an understanding of Christ that being a Christian means you follow Christ intimately sweetly.

Personally each and every day they couldn't do those things. They couldn't pick up arms and go to war and join with everyone else in the in the net in the land that they lived in. And fight they couldn't do that.

Because they were disciples of the Lord Jesus and because of those things Persecution came upon them. Oh My such persecution came upon them, but that persecution that came upon them. Fell on them like dew drops from heaven making a beautiful people making a vibrant people.

Making a Christ like people and all listen we want to see the secret of their strength and The secret of their strength was this vibrant relationship. That they had with Jesus Christ. It wasn't the doctrines.

They stood for all. However, good and right they are it wasn't the doctrines they stood for it was the Christ. They walked with that caused them not to compromise. What a beautiful people they were. He was the secret of their strength.

He was what they drank that made them Different. Remember when brother Moe's read that little thing about drinking this little vial here a few weeks ago. Well, you got that in that book Christ was What they drank that made them so different that they wouldn't compromise.

That they would rather die than compromise. It was Christ. He was the vial they drank all but alas in 50 or 60 years Persecutions begin to slow and Prosperity begin to set in and the people's focus their vibrant focus on Christ begin to wane and Compromises were made started buying a little nicer things clothes started changing.

Some of them started working with the government and just little compromises were made one after another. And the leaders oh. They were concerned about this because they remembered what it was like. And so they decided We're going to make some laws here.

We're going to drop some laws that we're gonna stand for and we're not gonna budge on these and so they did. They started writing them. The people's focus started little by little focusing on those laws.

What we're gonna do what we're gonna stand for and what we're not gonna do. Little by little. Their hearts were turned away again from the Christ the Son of the Living God. And Today. You know as well as I.

The fact of the whole matter is that the Anabaptist people are very different than those of 450 years ago. Though they stand and say they stand for the faith of their fathers. They are very different than those dear brothers and sisters who gave their lives.

Keeping Christ at the Center Today

How does all of this apply to us? Well, we have the same challenge at our hands. We have the same challenge. Each one of us. I Think that it should foster in our home our own hearts a lowly attitude. Because we are also far from where?

Those dear Anabaptists were we are far from there. We're a long ways off. So we shouldn't be high-minded. Consider the dangers of the ditches this morning. Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount, it's a straight and narrow way.

It is a straight and a narrow way and Lots of people have a lot of ideas about what the straight and narrow way is. But I want to tell you this morning what the straight and narrow way is. It's him. It's him.

You can fall off a ditch on either side and people do. If we say We are slipping. Things are changing. Let us make rules. To stop this drift we begin to focus in that direction. We will fall in the ditch on that side if we say as many have Don't make room you will fall in the ditch on the other side.

And you can fall in either one of them. They're both ditches and You're in the same place. Whether you're on this one or this one. You're off the straight and narrow road. The straight and narrow road is Jesus Christ.

The straight and narrow road is a life of absolute surrender to him. The straight and narrow road is a life of discipleship of following Christ. Personally daily as we walk down life's road. That's the straight and narrow road.

Yes, there are things that Christ will ask us to do. Yes, there are times when we will not compromise. But listen the straight and narrow road is Christ. Stay there. What can you do? What part can you play?

How can you help. Some of you would say and I agree it seems it seems like we're drifting. It seems like we're drifting. And things are changing little by little. That's true. That's true. Now what are we going to do about it?

We need to fix our eyes on Jesus Christ. We need to take our place on the straight and narrow road. We need to raise up disciples of Jesus Christ in our home not just somebody who does what they're supposed to do and looks the way they're supposed to look and Doesn't go where they're not supposed to go that won't reach.

We must raise up disciples of Jesus Christ. Who follow him? Personally vibrantly. You know we think about our dear young people and it's something that a church has to continually face. Because there's always more young people coming up and you see needs among the young people.

Sure. There are needs they're there. They're young people. They're coming up. They're growing. What are we going to do? It's a little drift here. It's a little drift there. What's the answer? Oh? The answer is a hot atmosphere in this place.

The answer is a hot atmosphere in your home. Yes, there are other answers. I don't want to disannul that. But I just want to keep the horse and the cart in the right place this morning. That Christ is the horse in the analogy.

There are many other things behind that that we need to do but hey. It's not gonna work. If all we do is get a cart when we're done with our children if that's all they are is a cart. And they're not hooked up to the horse.

It'll look right, but he won't go anywhere. It won't go anywhere. The challenge of every generation is The challenge of every one of us in this room. Whether we're going to stay Fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the challenge of every generation. Many people attempt in many ways To affect that but the challenge is a personal one to every one of us. That's the bottom-line challenge whether we are in the faith or not and Whether we pass that on then to our children.

That's the challenge of every generation. What do we need? We need continuous revival. We need continuous revival. That's what the Anabaptists had they were and More so because we don't have any persecution.

We don't have any oh we get a little here and there, you know over now and then somebody scorns us. Somebody looks down on us somebody maybe they laugh at us. Someone criticizes us. So, you know, we get we get a few little drops here and there of persecution, but we don't have any persecution.

There's no Sunday that we come here and somebody's missing and we wonder where he is. And someone stands and says he's in jail today and we come the next Sunday and someone else is gone. We don't have that.

And we don't have the effect of that. We need continuous revival. I Know it seems too simplistic To say we can solve such great problems so simply. But I do believe That history would tell us over and over again That the greatest problems are solved when Christ is an ever-present reality in the midst of his people.

History would tell us that over and over again. I want to read another testimony to you. To affirm what I've been saying here the testimony of a B Simpson. I Just to see show you again a man who saw Christ.

A .b. Simpson was the founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance. It was not a denomination when he founded it. It was simply an alliance of people who were burdened about world missions. It wasn't a denomination it is now.

But it wasn't then. This is what he wrote about his own testimony. I wish to speak to you about Jesus and Jesus only. I often hear people say I Wish I could get a hold of divine healing. But I cannot.