Heavenly Mindedness (72)

 

“And the faith is the faith of the Psalmist, who spoke: “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Here it is impossible for us to tell how truly and to what extent our relation to God is a relation of pure, disinterested love in which we seek Him for his own sake. There, when all want and sin-frailty shall have slipped away from us, we shall be able to tell.

 

“It was because God discerned in the souls of the patriarchs, underneath all else, this personal love, this homesickness for Himself, that He caused to be recorded about them the greatest thing that can be spoken of any man: that God is not ashamed to be called their God, and that He has prepared for them the city of their desire.” G. Vos

Vos tells us, concerning heavenly – minded faith; “And the faith is the faith of the Psalmist, who spoke: “Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.”

 

Is there anyone in heaven who we desire other than the True and Living God? Is there anyone on earth who we desire other than the True and Living God? That is, does our desire to know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, does our desire to love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength – surpass, eclipse, and envelope all other desires in our lives? Is the Trinity our orientation on earth? Is the Trinity our source of Light and Life and the ultimate purpose of our lives?

 

To be heavenly – minded is to be consumed by God and to be consumed with God. It is to say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20).

 

To be heavenly – minded is to continually present our “bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world [or age], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1 – 2).

 

To be heavenly – minded is to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus. “For whoever wishes to save his soul will lose it, but whoever loses his soul for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulteress and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34 – 38).

 

My dear, dear friends – any message that purports to be the Gospel but does not require all that you have and all that you are in worship and service to Jesus Christ is not the Gospel; it may appeal to your sense of well – being, it may be religiously or socially acceptable, but it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gave His all for us, and He calls us to give our all to Him and for Him…and to love one another. (See 1 John 3:16).

 

When you meet someone who has Psalm 73:25 as her testimony you know it. There are many who have pseudo – Christian politics as their testimony. There are others who have one of many Christian “traditions” as their testimony. There are others who have some form of therapeutic “Christian” message as their testimony. But where, O where, are those who have Jesus Christ as their testimony? Where are those who are “all – in” for Jesus Christ? Not Jesus Christ as He is obscured and apologized for by many churches, but the raw and unfiltered Jesus Christ as we see Him in the Bible – the One Who commands that we surrender ALL to Him and devote our lives to Him?

 

Can we say, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth”? If we cannot say it, can we ask our Lord Jesus to give us a desire to say it, live it, and mean it? Can we desire to aspire to a life lived wholly in Christ and for Christ?

 

There was once a church which did good works, it toiled hard and persevered. It did not tolerate evil people or false teachers and was known for its steadfastness to the Name of Jesus Christ and had not grown weary. This people looked pretty good, they were commendable, and yet, Christ warned them that if they did not repent that He would remove them; He warned them that they were to “do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.”

 

Why? Why would the Lord Jesus Christ do this? Because He says, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent…” (Revelation 2:1 – 7). The Ephesian church could no longer say, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You I desire nothing on earth.”

 

Friends, as the Ephesians, we can have the right doctrine, we can discern between true and false teaching; we can have good works, even great works in which we persevere in the face of opposition, but if we do not love Jesus Christ, if our lives are not devoted to Him in love, obedience, worship, and affection; if we are not laying down our lives for one another, if we are not “all – in” for Jesus Christ, then dear friends, whatever we may think we have, it is not the Gospel of the Bible, it is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for Biblical Christianity is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is Biblical Christianity. The Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ must ever be our North Star.

 

Throughout his message on Heavenly – Mindedness, Vos has been leading us to Psalm 73:25, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You I desire nothing on earth.”

 

Is this my testimony today? Is this our testimony?

 

Is this your testimony?