A Life Lived for God — E.A. Johnston

The Call to Live for Christ Rather Than Ourselves

There is a verse in my Bible which gnaws at me. When I have read it through the years, I have felt convicted by the Spirit of God. If you will, friends, turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians and chapter five, for a verse is found in that chapter.

The verse of which I speak is verse 15 of chapter five. Let me read that to us at this time. And that he died for all that they which live should now henceforth live unto themselves and unto the world in which they live.

Is that what it says? That's what we think it says. Let me read it to us again as the apostle Paul's words as they really are. And that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

This speaks of a life lived for God and not for ourselves. And that's the tale of my message today, friends, a life lived for God. I wanna share with you something startling, which I recently discovered in my Bible.

Moses and the Significance of a Life Surrendered to God

I conducted an exercise in my Bible, which resulted in the following discovery regarding the life of Moses. The first 40 years of Moses's life in Egypt is covered by only 15 verses of scripture. The next 40 years of Moses's life on the backside of the Midian Desert is covered by only 10 verses of scripture.

And now Moses lived to be 120 years old. But the record of Moses's life after he encountered God and lived for him, the last 40 years of Moses's life is covered by approximately 4 ,252 verses of scripture.

Surely this clearly demonstrates that the significance of a life begins after that person has given themselves entirely to God for his use and his glory. When I look back on the years of my own life, I sadly reflect on all the wasted years, the years of living for myself and the world, the years in which I spent my life in accumulating the things of this world, only to eventually realize that in light of eternity, they were nothing more than wood, hay, and ashes.

But since, through the grace of God, I have lived my life unto God, all my priorities have been altered to pursue not the things of this world, but the gold and silver and precious stones of a life lived for God and his glory.

Christian Lives That Model Wholehearted Consecration

And when I study the lives of men and women whom God has used in former times to shake their generation for God and the gospel, I see individuals whose lives were lived on the full stretch for God. They turned from the world and its baubles and turned to God and his treasures of the value of a soul in regard to eternity.

I look at men like C .T. Studd, who turned from fame and fortune and privilege to pour his life out like a drink offering unto the Lord as a lonely missionary, only to spend and be spent for God and the gospel.

I see men like D .O. Moody, who shook two continents for God. And I stand in awe of a uneducated man who could hold the attention of 10 ,000 hearers at a time for weeks on end in major cities like Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London.

Moody would have been a great success in business had he stayed a shoe salesman. He could have easily risen among the ranks of business tycoons and made a vast fortune. But instead, he lived his life for God.

He heard a man say casually once, the world has yet to see what God can do with the man who is entirely consecrated to him. And Moody walked away, muttering under his breath of prayer, saying, by God's grace, I will be that man.

And he was, friends. I want you right now, friend, to conduct a little exercise if you don't mind. Please take out a piece of paper and pen. If you prefer, you can write the following in the top page of your Bible.

For what you will write will be well worth remembering. Write out, if you will, the following. Draw a dotted line across the page. Imagine that line as it represents your own lifespan up to this day, and in your mind, back on the time which you were converted and write on that dotted line the date of your conversion.

Measuring the Years Before and After Conversion

Now look at that line and see the portions of your life prior to your conversion. And if you can, look out forward to the rest of your days. By God's grace, you still have remaining to serve him. And now think of what I said earlier about Moses and how few verses of scripture were dedicated to his life prior to his encounter with God and how after he turned his life over to God, how a vast portion of God's word is dedicated to covering his imminent life.

Look at Abraham and do the same exercise. See how little is covered in his life in Ur of Chaldea before he gives himself over to God and following God and how much of Genesis after that covers the vast life of Abraham as he experiences the God of glory time and time again in his eminent life.

Now come back and review your own life and contemplate on our verse from 2 Corinthians, which I will now read to us once more. And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

Believers Belong Entirely to Christ

If you are a born again believer, then this verse applies to you. Christ died for you. He purchased you with his blood. Your life is no longer your own. You may think you have some rights and claims on your life, but in reality, friend, you really do not.

God owns you lock, stock and barrel. If we only understood more clearly about all the rights and claims that the gospel has on our lives, we would readjust our lives to live entirely for God and the sake of the gospel.

A life lived for God is of immense eternal worth. A life lived for self in this world is a foolish life indeed. There was a time in my life where I tried to live my life with one foot in the world and the other with God.

And I kept tripping over myself time and time again. I was continually hindering my own usefulness to God by my refusal to live entirely for him. Then the day came along when I realized my mistake. It was a dark night of soul wrestling with God.

But the day I gave myself to God and gave up all my rights and claims on my life was the best day of my life, friends. Why try to hang on to a world that's nothing more than a sinking ship that is broken up on the rocks.

Stephen Offer taught me to live the following little poem by C .T. Studd. Only one life, it will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. And as I lay dying, how good it shall be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee.

Biographies of Christians Who Spent Their Lives for God

As a Christian biographer, I've had the privilege to study the lives of individuals whom God has been pleased to use in remarkable ways. My biography on J. Sidwell Baxter showed me a man who lived his life on the doorsteps of heaven.

And his life was a sweet fragrance to all who encountered Dr. Baxter. My biography on the life of George Whitefield showed me a man so eaten up with the gospel and so thirsty for Christ and so hungry for the salvation of souls that Whitefield was willing to deny himself everything.

He slept only four hours a night so he could employ himself in being spent for his God, dying at the age of 55. My biography on the life of Azahel Nettleton showed me a man who realized the worth of a soul and how it transformed his entire life as a evangelist for God and as a man who became the primary figure of the second great awakening, he saw more revivals than Whitefield and Wesley put together.

Nettleton lived on the full stretch for his master and God used him unlike few other men. And my biography on the life of Rolf Barnard completely floored me for I found a man whom I'd never heard of before.

And as I learned about him, I saw a life that was so powerfully used to God that all I could do was to stand in awe of the mighty power of God and revival through the life of Rolf Barnard. Barnard could have been a successful attorney and made a fortune, but instead he chose to be a hitchhike evangelist living on cornbread and water.

Rolf Barnard’s Account of God’s Call in Revival Ministry

I wanna take this time, friends, to read you an incident in the life and ministry of Rolf Barnard as I relate the story to you. I want us to think of the loss to the church had Barnard become a lawyer instead of a God-called evangelist.

Here now is a page from his life from a sermon extract of his entitled, God's Call. In Texas, many years ago, oh, while I was a student in Southwestern Seminary, there was a little mining town nearby and I went one summer while I was in school and held what is called revival services.

I began the meeting there on Sunday night. I got up that night and preached. I remember I preached on hell that night and dismissed the congregation, praying that the Holy Spirit would speak to hearts and disturb people.

As we stood there, something touched my shoulder. I looked around and the old white-haired pastor stood there. His face drenched in tears. He said, brother preacher, might I say a few words? Of course he might.

And he said, folks, let's don't go home for a few minutes. I just can't let you go right now. Somebody happened to look at his watch and exactly 33 minutes later, a lot had happened. That pastor stood there with his face in tears and he pointed men out and called them by their given name.

I'd never seen anything like it. He'd been pastor there over 30 years. He knew them by their given name. He said, Bill, I just can't let you go tonight. And he preached to Bill and here came Bill. Jim, and he did that to 33 men, one by one, nobody left.

He just called those men by name and talked to them and here they came. 33 minutes later, 33 men were lined up. I don't know whether they got saved or not. I'll find out at the judgment. I simply know this.

They claimed to, there was power there that night. There was somebody there beside us. God used that preacher to talk to those men through him. He couldn't use me, but he used him. We had an old fashioned handshaking.

We had 33 professing their faith in Christ. Well, everybody made their living in the coal mine. But Monday night, I didn't preach. I was gonna preach, but they didn't have service Monday night. At 4 .26 p .m. Monday, one of the mines had an explosion and caved in and some men were buried in that mine and the whistle blew and sirens and alarms went off in that little mining town.

And all they did was to gather all that mine with all their equipment. And while they worked feverishly, some prayed, some cried and some cursed, but they worked to get down to where those men were trapped.

The timekeeper, whoever was in charge of time, consulted his books and knew there were 33 men trapped down in that mine. They worked feverishly and finally they got to them and one by one, they hauled up the bodies of those 33 men who were crushed in that mine.

Every one of them was dead. They were the 33 men that lined up there and said they had received Christ. I love that story about evangelist Barnard, friends, for it sums up my theme today on a life lived for God.

Prayer for Complete Dedication to Christ

Let us take this time now to go to the Lord in prayer. And if there is someone here today who is ready to give it all to him and to live on to him like our 1st and 2nd Corinthians, I wanna open this time for you now as we go to the Lord in prayer.

Let us pray.