A Fresh Surrender of All — E.A. Johnston

The Danger of Drifting from Christ

A boat, loosed from its moorings, if left alone, will soon drift out to sea. And the Christian life is like that vessel, friends, for we will drift away from our Savior if we are not anchored in a red-hot relationship with Him.

If our zeal and passion cools, and we cease to have a vital daily quiet time where we are encountering our God in deeper ways, then we will drift in our relationship to Him and our love for Him. There must be a steady, proactive seeking of God in an intimate relationship with Him, or we will lose our fire in our fervency in serving Him and our devotion to Him.

Romans 12 and the Living Sacrifice

There is a verse in Romans which speaks of our duty to be set apart for God's use and for His glory. Please turn in your Bibles, friends, to Romans chapter 12. We will be in verses 1 and verse 2. Let me read that striking passage to us at this time.

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

And the Apostle Paul is warning us here that if we are not continually in a red-hot pursuit of God, in a full surrender of ourselves unto Him, then we will risk the danger of growing more like the world and less like Christ.

If our Christian walk becomes mere routine and duty, and our love for Christ grows cold, then we shall surely be like that unmoored vessel drifting away from shore. And if we do not turn back to God through repentance and a fresh surrender of our bodies as a living sacrifice, then we run the risk of being broken up on the rocks in a life of less usefulness to Him.

Losing the First Love

My message today, friends, is entitled, A Fresh Surrender of All, and I believe it's a timely message for some, within the sound of my voice, who have, perhaps, drifted away from God in regard to their passion and devotion to Him, and are in danger of being like the believers in the church at Ephesus, as seen in the book of Revelation, where Christ, after He commends them for their faithful service to Him, reprimands them with the following words,.

Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love, meaning they have not left and forsaken God, but they have lost their fervent degree in their love for Him. In other words, they have drifted away from Him in regard to their passion and love for Him.

They serve because, perhaps, they have a position in the church, but their service is more out of duty than pure love for Christ. There's been a cooling off. They have drifted somewhat away from Him, and I believe, friends, there is a great danger here, if we allow this to occur, for we allow ourselves to be attached more to the world, and our focus is less on eternity and things of eternal worth.

Examining the Heart for Holy Zeal

I said this is a timely message for some, because I believe it's time to search our hearts to see if we have allowed the holy zeal to burn low in our life for God, rather than to stoke the coals burning on the altar of our heart.

Are we a living sacrifice today? Perhaps we need a fresh surrender of ourselves wholly unto our God, as seen in our verse from Romans. I have profited greatly recently from reading the life of Matthew Henry, the Bible commentator.

Matthew Henry's Example of Consecration

He was a man who never let the fire go out, but he continually pursued a deeper walk with his God and a more consecrated life of holiness unto him for his glory. I want to take time, friends, to read you a page from his diary entry of January 1, 1705, as he faced the new year, for it speaks of his rededication of his life unto God for service to him and devotion for him.

I want each of us to listen carefully to how Matthew Henry gave himself to God in a fresh surrender when he felt it was necessary. Here now are his words, and I hope you profit from them as I have, friends.

A Fresh Surrender to God's Will

Listen to his wise words, his passion and zeal for his God and his holy life unto Christ. Not renouncing, but repeating and ratifying all my former covenants with God, and lamenting that I have not lived up more closely to them, I do, in the beginning of this new year, solemnly make a fresh surrender of myself, my whole self, body, soul, and spirit to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, my Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, covenanting and promising, not in any strength of my own, for I am very weak, but in the strength of the grace of Jesus Christ that I will endeavor this year to stand complete in all the will of God.

I know this is the will of God, even my sanctification. Lord, grant that this year I may be more holy and walk more closely than ever in all holy conversation. I earnestly desire to be filled with holy thoughts, to be carried out in holy affections, determined by holy aims and intentions, and governed in all my words and actions by holy principles.

Oh, that a golden thread of holiness may run through the whole web of this year. I know it is the will of God that I should be useful, and by His grace I will be so. Oh, Lord, Thou knowest it is the top of my ambition in this world to do good and to be serviceable to the honor of Christ and the welfare of precious souls.

I would feign do good in the pulpit and good with my pen, in which I earnestly desire to abound more in, or do good by my hand. Common Converse. Oh, that the door of my opportunities may be still open, and that my heart may be enlarged with holy zeal and activity for God this year, and that I may be thoroughly furnished with knowledge, wisdom, and grace for every good word and work.

Submitting to Affliction and Finishing the Course

If it be the will of God that this year should be a year of affliction to me, a year of sickness, or reproach, or loss. If my family should be visited, if my liberties should be cut short, if public trouble should arise, if any calamity should befall me, which I am least apprehensive of now, I earnestly desire to submit to the divine disposal.

Welcome the holy will of God, and let me have God's favor, and the assurance of that, and by His grace nothing shall come amiss to me. If it be the will of God that I should finish my course this year, let me be found of Christ in peace, and by the grace of God death shall be welcomed to me, my wife and children, and relations, my congregation, which is very dear to me, my ministry, myself and my all, I commit to God, whose I am, and whom I desire to serve.

Let me be the Lord's only, holy, and forever, amen. The Lord say amen to it. Well I will stop there friends, and as we reflect on Matthew Henry's fresh surrender of himself to his God, perhaps there is someone here who needs to do likewise, and give themselves in a fresh surrender to God right now.

Silent Prayer and Renewed Surrender

I want us to take this time to go to the Lord in silent prayer, and to ask the Holy Spirit to shine His holy spotlight upon our hearts, to see if there is any spiritual decay, and then to ask for grace, to ask God to give us the grace of repentance, to ask God to relight the fire so to speak, to anchor ourselves more fully in our God as we give ourselves to Him wholly for His use and His glory, to make us more useful in our generation, to bring the lost in, and to depopulate hell.

Let us go now to the Lord in prayer, in a fresh surrender to Him.