Making My Christian Commitment Stick — Ralph Sutera

The following recording by Ralph Saterra, entitled, On Making My Christian Commitments Stick, is available from the Canadian Revival Fellowship, Box 584, Regina, Saskatchewan, in Canada. This tape deals with the topic of how to walk in the Spirit.

May God bless you as you listen to this message.

Making Christian Commitment Stick Through the Spirit-Filled Life

Tonight I would like to deal with the subject of how to make my Christian commitment stick. I am convinced that many people are not interested in walking with God, simply because they're not really sure that once they begin to walk a Christian life that they're able to make that commitment stick.

And tonight I'd like to address myself specifically to that area. The Apostle Paul, in the book of Galatians, says these words, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

He's saying there's a kind of standing that if you'll find it, you'll be able to stand in a kind of a liberty, and you need not be entangled again in a yoke of bondage. In the same chapter, chapter 5 of Galatians, in verse 7, he says these words, Ye did run well, who did hinder you that ye should obey not the truth?

And that's interesting to note that that verse comes in this very chapter that goes on, and it talks about so many things that we love to relate to in this ministry. In verse 13 it says, Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

And it continues on in this tremendous chapter of the difference of the walk in the spirit in contrast to the walk in the flesh. Isn't it interesting that those verses come in the same chapter that started, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage or with the yoke of bondage.

And then the apostle reminds us, you started out well, and who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? And that introduces us into this whole area of the walk in the spirit as contrasted to the walk in the flesh.

From Deliverance to Spiritual Development

Now I believe this, that the gospel of deliverance must become a gospel of development. And if there is no development, then there is a sign that the deliverance has not been total, complete, and final in a way that we could find a life, a life pattern of victory.

In James chapter one, it says these words, I read verse 24, for he beholdeth himself, well really it's talking about verses 22 and 23, be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if a man any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Now that's a little bit hard for me to do as a twin, because even though when I turn away from a mirror, I have to look at my brother to remind me what I look like. But here the apostle is reminding us how easy it is to go before a mirror and see yourself, but then turn away and not really be remembered as, or remember yourself as you really are.

Then he says these words, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Now that's a tremendous verse.

I love that. I like those words that there is a perfect law of liberty. Now it seems like a mistake for the apostle to put those words together, law of liberty, and yet those are the words he used. And he says there's a perfect law of liberty, and that word perfect means a mature, a developed, a balanced, a sane law of liberty.

What is the apostle saying? Is he really saying that when you know liberty in Jesus Christ, that's a divine law? That is a divine law. You know what it is? It's a law of bondage. You see, it's bondage to Jesus Christ that produces a liberty that otherwise we'll never know anything about.

Now that's what God wants us to know something about, how there can be a maturing law of liberty in our Christian life so that this can be a beginning point and you can go on from grace to grace in the things of God.

It's always thrilling when you see people who start out in the way of God and just continue and develop in a beautiful pattern. It's always tragic to find others who do not learn that to be true in their own personal lives.

If we can keep building on higher plateaus each day we live, we'll find growth as a normal way of living. But some of us who have been up on a mountaintop experience say to ourselves, when the crusade is over, and when all the emotional excitement is over of my commitment, then I've got to go back down into the valley and begin to work way down there.

And that's what happens. Some people go right back down into the valley. I don't believe that for one moment is what God wants us to do. God never intends the Christian to live down in the valley primarily.

But what keeps us from living on a high plateau? I know you can't live on a high peak. Why have you tried to build a house right on the peak of a mountain? No, you're there, you're subject to everything that comes along.

But I've noticed that people who like to live on high areas, they come down off the mountain peak and look for the first place where there's enough flat land on a high plateau, and they build a house there.

And what a view that is. That's a lot different from being in the valley and trying to look up. I say to you tonight that your experience can be a growing, developing, mature, beautiful thing that you can thank God until the day you die, or until the day He comes for all of His children, and you can say, thank God for my commitment.

The perfect law of liberty was allowed to mature in my own personal life. Now, how is that a reality? Well, there are some things we must really settle, if that's going to be true. First of all, we must be sure about our salvation.

Assurance of Salvation by Faith Rather Than Feeling

We must make sure that this thing of our salvation is totally settled between us and God. Now, our salvation is not based on our feeling. You see, the word feeling, whenever it's mentioned in the Bible, though few times, never has anything to do with salvation or even the forgiveness of sin.

And there are many people who say they're saved only when they feel saved. I heard a great man of God say, he said, you know, I never feel saved until I have a cup of coffee for breakfast. Because before that time, I feel kind of miserable and ornery, but it seems like that cup of coffee makes me feel better.

But he said, thank God, I didn't have to go by my feeling, because my salvation was not dependent on my feeling. My salvation was dependent on something far greater than that. Now, I never discourage anybody who tells me about a wonderful experience with God and the feeling and the joy and the release that he's had when he has met God.

Don't ever discourage anyone who talks like that. That's wonderful, that's normal, that's sane, that's sound, that's wholesome. But don't allow anyone to base his salvation on that feeling, or to make that the criteria as to whether or not he has salvation or assurance of his salvation.

Salvation is a walk of faith. For the Apostle Paul reminds us in Colossians 2 .6, as we have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Now, how did we receive him? We received him by faith.

The Word of God says, by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Therefore, that same faith that is exercised as we receive Christ is the same kind of faith that God wants us to exercise for our assurance of salvation.

The same way we are saved, that's the same way we are to claim the assurance of our salvation. You know, Hebrews chapter 11 is a hall of fame, it's a hall of faith. And what a tremendous thing, as you see those great heroes of the cross, and I see those heroes of the faith who we revel in the stories of their lives, and we see by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, and then we say, by sight, by sight, by feeling, by circumstances, by everything else but faith.

Then when we see what they accomplish by faith, and we see how little we get done by sight, then we see really what God puts as a criteria for victory, and power, and release, and assurance of salvation.

I like that little poem. Three men were walking on a wall, feeling, faith, and fact. When feeling got an awful fall, then faith was taken back. So close was faith to feeling that he stumbled and fell too, but fact remained and pulled faith back, and faith brought feeling too.

Did you get that? You see, when we base our salvation on the fact of God's holy word, that does something to our faith, and when our faith is right based on the word of God, then there's the joy to know, there's an inner peace to know that we're agreeing with God about what he says in relation to our salvation.

Now, there are many people who have a problem with assurance of salvation. I have noticed that most people who have a problem of assurance of salvation, their bigger problem is a problem of assurance of a full commitment, that when their commitment is right, watch how the assurance begins to take care of itself.

Have you ever really seen many people who know what it means to deal honestly with sin, to deal honestly with their self-centeredness, to by faith claim the fullness of God's holy spirit day by day as a daily walk of life?

Have you noticed many people like that who have a problem with assurance of salvation? Those that have learned how to keep short accounts with God, and learned how to walk in God day by day, I've noticed those are not the people that have a problem with assurance of salvation, but it's usually those people who know that there are some areas of their life that they're not willing to deal with, and their heart is already condemning them.

And if their heart condemns them, how much more will the God of the universe be the one looking from above, and no wonder there's a condemnation. It's the one who is not certain about his commitment, who is the one who so often lacks the assurance of his salvation.

Now you see, the word of God reminds us, in Hebrews it says, we are to draw near in full assurance of faith. And full assurance of faith is the direct result of full commitment to Jesus Christ. And if you're here and you have a problem with assurance of your salvation, I ask you to search your own heart as to whether or not your commitment is full, it's complete, it's total.

I didn't say perfect, I said complete, I said total. That as you are here tonight, you're saying, God, to the best that I know my heart the way I really am, I've surrendered every right of my life at the foot of the cross.

Watch what kind of assurance God gives in that kind of a situation. Now we talk about feeling. I've heard people say, well I'm not sure I'm saved because I don't feel saved. I say, well do you have peace in your heart?

They say, yes, but I don't have a feeling. Well I say, well what is peace? Isn't it amazing how misery likes company? When God can even give us peace and we don't think that that's feeling. But you see, I know I'm saved two ways, and I want to tell you about them.

I know I'm saved by God's word and then secondly by God's witness. You see, God's word is, he said it, he said it. God's witness is, he said it to me. And when I can put those together, what assurance comes in my being.

When I say God said it, that's the objective truth. That's the outward written evidence. That's the tangible word of God that I have in my hands. God said it. And the one who said it makes all the difference in how I believe it.

When the President of the United States says something, I have to respect what he says on the authority of his office. When an ordinary citizen says the same thing, it doesn't carry the weight as the President when he says it, because of his office.

Now the same thing is true about salvation. When I realize that it's the God of the universe, the God who holds the breath of every living being in the palm of his hand, the God who was and who is and who shall be forevermore, the God who spoke the word in the dawn of creation and planets were flung out into space, the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the God who placed all the gold in the mine that's there, the God who is able to take your breath from you just as quickly as he's given it to you, the God of the universe who literally by his own word has framed the world in which we live by the power of his own word.

That's the God I'm talking about. He's the one who says it. And your salvation is not based on what I say, what your church says, what dogma or creeds or anything else may have to say about it. It's based on the fact that you're agreeing with God about what he says.

Now the moment you say God said it and you agree with God about what he says, that's the moment the objective truth becomes personal and it becomes a subjective reality within you being. So you then say he not only said it but he said it to me and God's Holy Spirit witnesses with my spirit that I am the child of God.

So God's word says it and when I agree with God's word and say amen to God's word, the Holy Spirit says amen inside of me. Now the Holy Spirit will never say amen inside of you until you say amen to the word of God.

The Holy Spirit will never say amen to your feelings. He will never say amen to emotion. He'll never say amen to anybody else's experience. But when you agree with God about what he says and you say amen God it's so I believe it on the basis of what you say I accept it, at that moment his spirit bears witness with your spirit that you're truly the son of God.

So assurance of salvation is where we begin. You'll never be able to walk in victory until you agree with God and God's Holy Spirit says amen in your innermost being that you know that you've passed from spiritual death into spiritual life.

Church Fellowship and Daily Commitment

Now then we cannot minimize the importance of participation in public worship and church life if we are going to succeed spiritually. There are some people who get the idea that they can commit themselves to Christ and they never need to show up in worship anymore.

They never need to worship with other believers. They don't need the fellowship of other believers. They have the idea that this is now settled once and for all so I've got my ticket to heaven. I don't need any more help.

I'll just make it on my own. And you know that's a tragedy to see that. Why it's just like the tragedy of seeing a baby who was born to parents that one who was a child of love and tenderness and that one that brought so much joy to the parents.

That one becomes a tragedy and a calamity in the life of the parents if that child never developed. And God has something to say about our development and one of those things is the importance of the local church, the importance of fellowship in the body of Christ, the importance of being actively alive and participating in the spiritual worship of the local church.

Some come to meetings like this and they get the idea that where so many people have opportunity to share that we think lightly of the local church, that we think lightly of the pastoral ministry, that we think lightly of the preaching of the word of God.

That's as far from the truth as anything I can say. When does a boy become a man primarily? When that boy learns how to take responsibility and you will become mature spiritually when you no longer live as a religious tramp.

Tramping from one church to the next to the next, seeing how much good you can get from each one, never being responsible to any, never feeling a vital part and a vital link of the local church. I challenge you that if you've met God, you need to ask God to direct you into the life of an evangelical church and into an atmosphere that is conducive to your growth and to your development and where these truths will continue to feed your soul day by day, week by week, and year by year of your life.

And as long as you stay tramping around on the outer fringe of the life of the local church, you'll always be an immature Christian because you're in direct disobedience to what God commands believers to do in fellowshipping one with another and forsaking not the assembling of ourselves together.

And then we must cultivate the habit of a daily commitment to God. Some get the idea that once I've come to the altar of the prayer room, that's all I need to do. But I hope it's come clear and loud in this crusade and in this ministry that to walk with God means to keep short accounts with God, to constantly remind God that you recognize he's to be in control of your life, deal honestly with sin, bring your old self-centeredness to the foot of the cross day by day, and claim the fullness of God's Holy Spirit day by day and moment by moment in your life.

And when that becomes a way of living that you consciously are aware of the fact that you again are reminding God that you're agreeing with him, that your life is not your own, and that you're his, and that you're his to control, and you gladly and willingly accept his lordship, control, and ownership over your life, then a pattern of living will develop such as cannot develop without it.

Cultivate the habit of a daily commitment to Almighty God. Then there are many people who never mature because they are not willing to vote with God on all issues in their life. They are still asking the question why instead of what.

No Christian will ever be able to understand Romans 8 .28 and 8 .29 as long as he's asking the question why. Somebody said why is a crooked letter and can never be straightened, and that seems to be true spiritually.

As long as you question why God did you allow this, you're questioning the authority of the God of the universe. You're almost saying to God, God didn't you have any more, and I say it reverently, intelligence than that, than to permit that to happen in my life?

You're questioning the authority of God. When you're not willing to vote with God on every issue in your life, but rather when God deals with you and you get to the place where you're willing to say, what is it Lord?

What is it in the situation you're trying to teach me? What is it about the circumstance that needs to make me more like the each day? You see now you're not questioning his authority, but in perfect submission you're agreeing with the Almighty God, the intelligent God of the universe, that he knows why he did it, and you're not going to worry about that, but you're concerned to find what is the thing that God is trying to teach you about your walk with him.

That will help you in the hour of trial. It will help you in the hour of sickness. It will help you in the hour of misunderstanding. It will cause you to recognize that God in his beautiful way is performing the job of conforming you to the image of his Son more and more each day you live.

Therefore, vote with God. Give God the benefit of your doubts, and if you will, he'll give you the benefit of taking away all of your doubts. Many never mature spiritually because they're not willing to clean house thoroughly.

Confessing and Removing Patterns of Sin

You know what spring cleaning is like? It's when the whole house gets turned right side up. It's been upside down for six months. Now it gets turned right side up, inside out, everything's cleaned out, underneath, in and out, every place you go, you've cleaned house thoroughly.

And I believe that at this point, many young Christians and those who commit themselves to God never mature because they're not willing to agree with God about what God shows them that needs to be cleaned out of their lives.

There are many kinds of sins. What about the sins of omission? Those are the sins that you know, the sins, those things that you do not do when God tells you you ought to do them, such as failure to read the Word of God, such as failure to spend time with God in prayer, such as obeying God about sharing the reality of Christ with your neighbors.

Those things that you fail to do, that God clearly commands, are for believers to do. Sins of omission, we need to clean house thoroughly in that area. Sins of co-omission, those are those willful acts that we know are displeasing to God, those desires and acts that we allow to continue in our lives, that we know are displeasing to God.

Then there are the sins of disposition. You know what that is? That irritable, grouchy, gripey, touchy, picky, puny, sensitive spirit that you've told yourself is your personality, when all the time God's trying to show you that that's the thing that destroys your personality.

And then you told yourself that you inherited it from your great-grandmother and great-grandma's not here to defend herself. And God has a lot to say about the sins of disposition. No Christian needs to live to his dying day with an irritable, touchy, gripey, grouchy, sensitive spirit.

God has deliverance for you. Then the sins of supposition. That's a big one. Have you ever seen all the things that come into our lives that we supposed people thought about us? I've seen people, we've dealt with them, and they've told me all about how people think about them in the church.

And I say, now how do you know that? Did so-and-so tell you that? Did so-and-so tell you? No, no, no, nobody told me. But I just supposed it was that way. And our minds run rampant and loose. And God needs to teach us how to bring our thought life and our thought patterns in subjection to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

And the Apostle Paul talks about that. How we're to literally capture every thought and make it a slave to Christ and not allow our imagination to run loose and to run wild and to cause us to think those things that are impure and some things that never even existed.

Sins of supposition. Then there are the sins of lack of restitution. And those are those things that God has pinpointed in your life. And you know exactly what you need to do to make them right, but you're not willing to do it.

And right at that point when God says yes about something and you say no about something, right at that point you lose out in your power and dynamic with Him. And I've seen many cases where people have been used of God for a spiritual breakthrough in the unsaved world, simply because they obeyed God about restitution.

I've seen people said, I've never seen Christians act like that before. I've never seen people so right with God that they had to make things right around town. I'll never forget a man who came to one of the daytime meetings where we're speaking to a local civic club.

He said, you know, I've got to speak to you. He said, I've never had this happen to me in all my years in business. An 18-year-old young fellow came into my department store the other day and he said he had to come and tell me that he had stolen some things off of the counters several years ago, but he had been down to the revival meeting and he got right with God and now he came to make restitution.

And he told me the story of how Christ had transformed his life. Here's an unconverted businessman with his eyes as big as marbles, just listening to everything I had to say. Why? Because a Christian obeyed God in the area of restitution and it opened a heart that otherwise would have been closed to listen to the message, simply because of making things right.

And many believers cut God short because of the sins of lack of restitution. They are not willing to make those things right that God puts his finger on and shows need to be made right. And then, if you're going to succeed spiritually, prepare to guard your weak spots.

Guarding Weak Spots Through Accountability

Prepare to guard your weak spots. Satan always attacks us at our weakest point, and in everybody's life that's different. But Satan will always seek to attack the weakest point. Now in many of us, that weakest point is in the area of self-discipline, especially when it comes to putting God first, as far as taking time with God, with his Word, in prayer.

That's usually an area many of us have a problem. Now how can you guard that weak point? Well, here's a simple suggestion. If you want to have prayer and Bible reading between 11 to 12 every morning, why don't you have Sally call you up at 5 minutes to 11 and say, Jane, what are you going to be doing for the next hour?

And hang up. And then at 5 minutes after 12, have Mary call you and say, Jane, what have you been doing for the last hour? One was calling you to remind you of your commitment to meet God at that hour, and the other was checking up to see whether or not you kept your commitment to God.

Now, that's a simple thing, isn't it? It's a very simple thing. I've seen Christians who have asked other people to help them guard their weak spot so that they could build a defense around their lives, and after a short period of time, they found themselves totally in, without any need for that thing to continue, and found themselves growing in the area that they thought was their point of biggest weakness.

So, God wants to teach you that. You sit down and talk to yourself. Now, I know there are places where people who do that, but once in a while, it's good to do. Talk to ourselves and say, all right, now, I know the way I am.

I know my life, and I know where I need victory, and I know where I need help, and as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, we need to bear each other's burdens. Therefore, I want to see one way I'm.

Going to find help to guard my weak spot. You have just listened to Side 1 of this.

Recording. Please turn over for Side 2. It leads me right into the next step, and that is, consider the buddy system for regular worship. A buddy system for regular worship. Now, the Bible talks all about it.

Mutual Support and the Buddy System

Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 20 and 21 talk all about this, how we need each other. We need to bear each other's burdens. I suggest that every Christian find another Christian, one that you admire, look up to, and respect because of his life, and plan to meet with him once a week, and for one hour only.

For what reason? So that together, you can share each other's joys, you can bear each other's burdens, you can correct each other, you can admonish each other, you can lift each other up, and you can really spank each other when you need it.

And get it to be someone outside of your immediate family. I know some great Christians who are personal friends of ours, and one of the secrets to their personal greatness is the fact that once a week, they meet alone with another Christian.

I know one who meets with another businessman every Thursday at noon, and guess where he goes? Out to the cemetery. Well, I think that's a good place to be. After all, if you want to understand death to self, why not be at the cemetery?

Really not. But it's a place to be alone where those two men are alone. And I've called that man, I've said, Stan, how about going out for lunch? He said, no, that's the wrong day. That's the day I meet with Art, out there in the cemetery where we pray, and we bear each other's burdens, and we talk over our problems.

One hour. When one hour's finished, it's finished. I said, one hour, only one hour. You know why? Because if you begin to take advantage of a buddy spiritually, then that one will not be a help to you, but rather, that one will become a crutch to you, and you'll never get on your own two feet.

Because God wants to teach you how to stand alone, as well as stand with someone to help you. Don't make yourself a nuisance, nor weaken your Christian life by always running to people for help. Now, I know there are specific needs and times where you need help, and young Christians just starting out have a lot of questions.

I'm not talking about that. But I'm talking about the people who are always leaning on others all of their life, and they get the idea that their spiritual help comes from this direction instead of from this direction, and they never learn how to commune with God in a personal way for their spiritual development.

Specific Commitments to Service and Stewardship

Now, your commitment needs to be specific, as well as general. We talk about committing our whole life to God. Now God wants to teach you how to commit specific things to God in your personal life. Set up for yourself goals, specific goals, that by the grace of God and by God's taking control of your life, you believe he's going to reach through you.

Now, don't be under bondage to them, nor be legalistic about them, feeling as if I do not attain, I fail. That's not at all. But I believe every Christian who succeeds spiritually must get before God and say, God, what specific goals will thou have for me to set up in my life?

Let God write them for you. And then remind him that if he's doing the writing, then he's going to have to do the fulfilling, and by God's grace, you're going to claim his fullness to see that that thing, those things come to pass.

And then to go about them. What are some of them? Well, what about the amount of time that you want to spend with God daily in prayer and with your Bible? Maybe you ought to commit yourself specifically to a certain amount of time.

The number of people God impresses on your heart with whom you want to share Christ during the week. And if God opens the way, wonderful. And if he doesn't open the way, wonderful too. But you just, you just have your heart and mind open because you believe that God has set that goal before you.

What about the talents of your life that ought to be committed to certain specific areas of church life? Service for God. There are some people who never stand behind the pulpit and do what I'm doing now.

But there are many people who will do many things in the church that I'll never do. And it's just as sacred for you to keep good Sunday school records as it is for me to stand in this pulpit and speak this message tonight.

And it's just as sacred for you to do some tasks to keep the house of God clean and to keep it respectable so that people coming in can admire it as a place of worship and say truly it looks like a house of God as it is for me to stand behind this pulpit.

And there are certain people who have been given certain gifts by God and talents that if they were committed specifically to God and the church could fulfill such a great service. There are shut-ins that need help.

There are people that need letters. They need encouragement in the mail. There are people that need phone calls. There are elderly people who can commit themselves to babysitting for young couples as they are out sharing Christ with others elsewhere so that others can be involved.

There are hospitality talents that God has given people so that every Sunday they've already put an extra roast on. Or in our case at home, mother would always make sure that there'd be always enough spaghetti sauce so that if we ever saw anybody in church on Sunday morning that looked like a stranger, dad would always invite them to our home for dinner.

We hardly ever knew it was Sunday eating a meal alone as a family. Well you say you must have had a small family so there was a lot of room. Yes we did have a small family. Mother, father, six children, grandmother, granddad, and great-granddad.

Eleven of us under one roof. But the dad would always say we can always put an extra pound of spaghetti on. And granddad as God touched his life, he was in the shoe repair business, just a meager business.

Why whenever an evangelist would come to the church, the first thing he'd do is just let me see your shoes. And he'd fix the evangelist's shoes whenever they needed to be fixed. And I believe that granddad has rewards in heaven such as I'll never know anything about in that same area.

Because there were specific areas of his life that were committed to God. And God needs to teach us tonight that there is excitement about the ordinary things when ordinary things are committed to God.

You know why? Because in God's sight there is no difference between the secular and sacred. Everything is sacred to the believer. And then what about my giving to God's work? Well you say I'm used to tithing.

The church tells me I'm to give ten percent. I didn't say that. I said have you committed the other ninety percent to God? You say well what do I own then? I gave him ten percent. Now you're asking me to commit the other ninety percent.