Forsaking All for Our Jealous God

We’ve been talking about the last verse of John’s first epistle: 1st John 5:21, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” We’ve been making the case that anything we put before God is an idol and a violation of the greatest commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Yet, people break this commandment with impunity. They put almost everything before God, and I’m talking about even most professed Christians. God is an add-on to our lives if we sometime get time in the midst of our kids little league games, vacationing, pursuing our careers, or even time in front of the television.

“Oh, God won’t mind. God is love and all that.” People use that as an excuse, as though God really doesn’t mind getting the leftovers. He wants us to enjoy life, doesn’t He?

Who said God would be satisfied with the leftovers? It wasn’t the Bible. The Bible tells us that God is a jealous God. God even admits that Himself. As a matter of fact, He makes that claim in bold statements.

In giving those first and second commandments of the Big Ten, God flat out states in Exodus 20:1-6:

And God spoke all these words, saying:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Notice that phrase in verse 5, “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God?” Yes! God minds!

In this era of seeker friendly churches, where ease and comfort have become the norm, we’ve forgotten that it’s all about a King, a kingdom, and His glory. It’s not about us, or what we want, or our comfort. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. When He makes a commandment He expects to be obeyed.

“Do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together?” God says.

Yet we say, “But God, I work six days a week, and Sunday is the only day for me. I really need some me time, time to follow my own dreams.”

We think His commands are merely suggestions that we can pick and choose from as we see fit like we would food in a cafeteria line. And we don’t think he could really expect us to eat the spinach or the broccoli.

Oh, can’t He? Look at what He said in Luke 6:46, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” If He really is Lord of your life, you’d do what He says, wouldn’t you? But, if he isn’t your Lord, you are in sin - PERIOD! Don’t be a hypocrite and call Him Lord if you are unwilling to submit your life to Him.

John MacArthur said this:

“Too many people believe a Christian is a person who has simply ‘prayed a prayer’ and ‘decided’ for Jesus. But many such ‘Christians’ do not live as if they are under new management. They may claim that they once made a decision, but everything else in their life is unchanged.”

MacArthur is right! Conversion is not simply taking out a fire insurance policy against hell. It’s entering into a love relationship that changes everything. It changes our values, our lifestyles, and our priorities, just as getting married changed everything. You now have a new status with new responsibilities. You can’t simply do anything your little heart desires anymore. You have a higher obligation.

MacArthur again said,

“Too many people have stopped at the door that leads to conversion. The door (be it prayer, a decision, or whatever) is simply that – a door.”

We enter through the door into a new life. The old man is crucified and the new man is raised to walk in newness of life. That, according to John, is the proof of salvation - not in an experience, but in the day to day living of a new life.

There are lots of people who are convinced that Christianity is true, and even claim to be a Christian, but it doesn’t seem to have had any consequence in their life. Perhaps they’ve gotten to the door, but they haven’t gone through the door. They have never gotten up off the throne that rules their life and let Jesus sit down on that throne.

Anything less is sin. It’s a violation of the first great commandment. If we truly love God with all our heart, soul, and might, we would be willing to give Jesus total control over our lives. We would obey Jesus to the best of our abilities. We would let Him sit on the throne of our lives.

It may be an imperfect abdication on our part, but it must happen. Nothing less than abdication will do. That is what God demands. He is the rightful king.

Jesus said something really radical in Luke 14:35, “ So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

To “forsake all” - that’s what it takes to be His disciple? Will God really take away everything? NO! But He expects us to lay it all on the altar. We must sacrifice everything to His control. Then, like God did with Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, God will give us back what He wants.

But God has a habit of taking away those things we put before Him. He has a habit of smashing our idols. But not to submit is just plain crazy. Why cling to our wills, our possessions, our entertainments, in place of God? Nothing of those will last.

What will last is our heavenly rewards. 2nd Corinthians 4:18 says, “While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Don’t settle for some inferior, cheap substitute just because it demands nothing of you. Settle only for the eternal. In heaven, all the universe will be ours.

Romans 8:16-17 says:

16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

Who would sacrifice that for the deceptive, disappointing, short lived imitations Satan offers? Let Jesus have first place -He deserves it. He is our creator and redeemer. He redeemed us with His own blood

Plus, no one will ever love you as much, know you as well, or care for you so fully. He is the only one who can control you and leave you better off because of it. Yielding to Him will leave you stronger in spirit, more mature.

Surrender your life to Him today. When Jesus says deny yourself, you deny yourself. When He says pick up your cross you pick it up. When He says follow Me, you follow – no matter the cost. The result will be glorious in your life.

Eric Ludy wrote:

“Christianity is the most explosive, most vibrant, most beautiful, most extraordinary news the universe has ever encountered, and yet all of us Christians are trying to make it more palatable. We are downplaying God’s right to rule, overtake, and posses the lives of each and every person on this terrestrial ball. What might happen if we were to just let the gospel be what it is – a gritty, bloody, revolutionary call to die?”

Paul wrote this in Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Have you laid down your life for your King?