Become An Active Learner

LESSON 8: FOLLOWING

THE PURSUITS IN SPIRITUAL GROWTH 

As we study what it means to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we will learn how to pursue that which is excellent. The pursuits in spiritual growth pertains to spiritual goals and involve living for Christ, continually closely following Christ, and paying close attention to our walk.

Spiritual Growth Requires Following.

NKJV: Luke 9:23-25, “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.²⁴ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.²⁵ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

NKJV: John 21:22, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”

FOLLOWING

The Pursuits

How To Live And How To Walk

Many times over, the Lord Jesus called His listeners, “Follow Me.” Following requires motion in the physical sense and progress in the spiritual sense. The method of travel Jesus used was walking:

NKJV: John 1:36-37, “And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”⁷ The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.”

Therefore, in order to follow Christ, we must walk in the spiritual sense. In order to walk you must be alive. You cannot walk with Christ unless you are alive spiritually. It is impossible to follow in His steps without first coming to Him for eternal life.

A. How to Live: It is impossible to discern spiritual truth with the natural mind.

NKJV: 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

You cannot comprehend God’s ways through logic. Everything in the spiritual life is opposite to what one might think naturally.

• In order to GAIN you must LOSE
• In order to SAVE you must SACRIFICE
• In order to KEEP you must SURRENDER
• In order to RECEIVE you must GIVE
• In order to WIN you must YIELD
• And in order to LIVE you must DIE

This is why it is so difficult for so many people to understand and apply spiritual truths. The course of spiritual progress is opposite to what one might think naturally. In order to Live you must Die!

1. You Must Die: Jesus taught that in order to save one’s life eternally one must lose his life temporarily, materially, and selfishly. In order to live for eternity, you must die to self and the self-life now.

NKJV: Luke 9:23-26, “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.²⁴ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.²⁵ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”

WE MUST DIE TO SIN.

Therefore, in order to live, we must reckon ourselves to be dead indeed – dead to self, to sin, and the world.

NKJV: Romans 6:11, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now, if you have repented of your sins and your sinful way, confessed your guilt as a sinner to God and cried for mercy, and by faith received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, asking Him to live his life through you, you are alive in Christ. You have begun to live.

a. Die to Self: In order to die to self, you must first deny self.

NKJV: Luke 9:23, “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

1) Deny Self: The love that Christ demonstrated on the cross of  Calvary was a self-denying love. Jesus had to practice self-denial in order to provide salvation for you.
Now He calls upon you to exercise self-denial in order to follow Him.

NKJV: Luke 9:24, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”

NKJV: Matthew 10:33, “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

NKJV: 2 Timothy 2:12,“If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.”

So, our first step in following Christ is to deny self!

2) Dead to Self: Jesus took up the cross and carried it to Calvary where He willingly died in agony for each one of us. Taking up the cross was an act of showing He was willing to die for us. When you take up your cross, you show that you are willing to die to self for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul declared that it was no longer he that lived, but rather Christ who lived in him.

NKJV: 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.”

b. Die to Sin: We are not only called to die to self but we must also die to sin. The word “sin” refers to the act of disobedience, as well as the master over the sinful nature which dwells within us.

The question is, “How do we die to Sin?”. There are 4 steps.

1) Recognize What God Sees: Paul describes the believer as dead to Sin. God sees the old sinful nature, (that is in verse 6) “our old man was crucified with Him”. He sees you and me in all our sins as crucified and dead in God’s sight.

NKJV: Romans 6:1-10, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?² Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?³ Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin.⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.¹⁰ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

2) Reckon What God Says:

NKJV: Romans 6:11, “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We are to count (reckon) ourselves to be dead indeed to sin. God says you are dead if indeed you are in Christ.

NKJV: 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Now here is where you begin to give evidence that you are born again. You must reckon what God says to be a reality in your life. You do this by faith, the same kind of faith you exercised to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and eternal life.

If you will learn this lesson now, you will save yourself much heartache and anguish as well as a defeated life. God says you are dead to sin and alive in Christ. Now bring your life to agree to that. Let God take control of your life.

3) Refuse What Sin Seeks: Sin seeks to reign in your mortal body. It wants to retain the control over you that it always had, before you came to Christ. Refuse to permit Sin to have its way with you.

NKJV: Romans 6:12, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”

4) Yield to Christ: The secret of victory over the lusts of the flesh is the “yield”. You cannot follow Christ unless you deny yourself, die to self and sin, and yield to Christ.

NKJV: Romans 6:13-16, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!¹⁶ Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”

If you really want to live physically and enjoy live, both physically and spiritually, you must yield in obedience to God. Constant failure to do this will end in physical death.

NKJV: Romans 8:13, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

c. Die To the World: The reason we must be dead to the world is found in 1 John 2:16.

NKJV: 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”

When you have died to self, to sin, and to the world you can begin to follow Christ. However, it is not enough to die to self, sin, and the world. There must be LIFE. LIFE comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. He needs to grow in you and you in Him.

2. Christ Must Live: A dead Savior cannot save! A savior must be alive to save. Without His resurrection, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ would be nothing more than a martyr’s death. But His resurrection makes Him a mighty Savior. He lives in power.

a. Christ in Power: The resurrection of Christ is evidence of His power. He has power over sin, over Satan, over death, over the grave, and over life.

NKJV: John 10:17-18, “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.¹⁸ No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

NKJV: Romans 1:4, “and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

Because of this unique and mighty power, He is able to raise us up from spiritual death and physical death.

NKJV: 1 Corinthians 6:14, “And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.”

In describing the resurrection from the dead, Paul says this about the body:

NKJV: 1 Corinthians 15:43, “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.”

NKJV: Philippians 3:8-10,”Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;¹⁰ that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”

b. Christ in You: Paul put both truths together in his Epistle to the Galatians.

NKJV: 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.”

He recognized that he is crucified with Christ and that Christ lives in Him. Just recognizing that Christ lives in power is not enough. You must have Christ living in power with you.

1) But How? By faith!

NKJV: Ephesians 3:1, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love”

Did you ever come to the place where you recognized your helpless condition of sin and guilt before God? Have you asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come into your heart and save you…and live His life through you? Have you made an unreserved commitment to Him with all your heart?

If you have, then you exercised biblical heart-faith to believe He would come in and He would save you. Now by that same faith He continues to dwell or live in your heart.

2) How Can You Know? The same way that John knew.

NKJV: 1 John 4: 10-13, “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”

Paul referred to the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you.

NKJV: Romans 8:9-11, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Not only must Christ live in power in you, but He must also live His life through you.

c. Christ Through You: Christ must be on the throne of your life reigning.

NKJV: 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”

It was not just Christ living in Paul, with Paul in control, but rather Christ in control living His life out through Paul. This could only be a result of faith.

NKJV: Hebrews 13:20-21, “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,²¹ make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

God is working in you through Jesus Christ to do His will. So, then it is not you but Christ working in and through you.

NKJV: John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

NKJV: Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

NKJV: Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

God will not help or assist you, so that you can say, “Look what I did!” or even, “look what I did through God’s help.”

God will not share His glory with you or anyone else.  Therefore, He will not Help anyone to do anything.

HE WILL DO IT FOR US AND INFUSE HIS POWER IN US,
Working Through Us, But Not Help Us To Accomplish Anything.

CONCLUSION

The most important pursuit in your life is to pursue the life of Christ as a disciple of His. One who is following Him moment by moment day by day the rest of your life.

In order to live for Christ and have Christ dwelling in you in all His power, you must deny self and die to self, sin, and the world.

By doing this you will experience the abundant life in Christ and experience His glorious power working in you and through you.