Discovering True Life: Christ's Abundant Offer

come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly now here is a complete confest he claims to do the very thing that the average person disputes and denies he claims to give the very thing they say they want and yet they won't listen to him and they won't have it now then why this contradiction what is the cause of this misunderstanding people say they want life Christ says I've come to give life and to give it more abundantly they won't listen they won't come to hear him they will have nothing to do with him why is this I asked now that's a question surely that is worthy of our most careful attention and here I feel in this verse our Lord himself gives us the full and the complete answer and I want to put it before you now as I do so let me preface my remarks by saying this I want to be scrupulously fair in these matters I am not here to defend victorianism as such indeed I'm very free to admit and to confess that far too often Victorian religion was a complete travesty and misrepresentation of the New Testament faith and Doctrine and teaching I'm not here to defend religion I am here to preach and to propagate the Christian faith the message and the teaching of our blessed Lord himself [00:06:31]

now the church even herself sometimes is guilty of misrepresentation of this message and there is no question at all but that far too often people given the impression that Christianity was something purely negative there were far too many were ready to accept Matthew Arnold's definition of it which was as you remember he said it was morality tinged or touched with emotion and far too often this great and glorious Christian faith and life were preached and propagated even by people like Dr Thomas Arnold the father of of Matthew Arnold and the father of so-called Public School religion far too often it was presented purely as a moral code and as a means of ethics and of behavior and therefore it's not surprising that people should have reacted against it there was indeed a perverted kind of puritanism which gave the same impression and depicted the Christian as one in the words of Milton who lived who scorned Delights and lived laborious days it was something sad and drab and miserable now it's not surprising that people reacted against that but what I'm here to say is this that they thought they were reacting against Christianity but they were not they were reacting against a misrepresentation of Christianity so let me make this perfectly plain and clear I'm not here to defend anything like that I'm here to hold before you what our Lord himself said as to what constitutes the essence of his message and of what he has come into the world to give [00:08:20]

well now then I ask why is there this refusal why is there m this misunderstanding why is it with open Bibles before them people can still think of Christianity in the terms I've been depicting and say no I don't want it it's narrow it's miserable it's just a negative and restrictive and prohibitive I want life why are they in this false position well look at his answer the first reason which I find in this verse for this error for this misunderstanding is this that such people who speak like that of the Christian message and the Christian faith do so because they've never really understood and realized the true nature of their own lives in this world in other words they've got a false view of Christianity because they've got a false view of life I mean by that they're wrong about this fundamental question of to what is life what is it for here we are in this world tonight we find ourselves in it what is it all about now that's the first question I think we've got of face leave Christianity if you like outside out of consideration for a second or two let's just face this question what is life what is this thing which we call life and in which we find ourselves what are we here for what are we to do while we are here what's it all lead to now then here is a great question what is life now I want to try to show you that it's because they're entirely wrong about that preliminary question that they go wrong about every other question [00:10:10]

what do we here for well now is it I ask are we in this world are we in this life simply to have what is called a good time are we here simply to have round after round of pleasure is that the meaning and the object and the purpose of life Life Is Life something light and trivial which we can take with a smile on our faces and go laughing through it is it is it just that do we still feel that even at a time such as this is that life is life really and I must say it once more the kind of thing that you would imagine it to be as you look at the front pages of most of the papers today is that life is that really worthy of the name of life well it is obviously because so many think that that is life and that the ideal life is a life in which you never do any work at all you have an abundance of money and can have all the pleasures that you desire and never anything else without any sensation it's because they view life like that that they're not interested in this gospel ah but you see at once our Lord points out what a tragically false view of life that is what is life well the first thing that he tells us about life is this that it is something which is desperately serious that it is a place of tremendous decisions indeed he goes so far as to say that life is something which is EXT extremely dangerous do you notice how he puts it the thief he says the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy he's talking about human beings he's using the image and the illustration of sheep he's doing it just to bring out his great teaching and he says that is our position that's the position of all in this world we are like sheep and there are thieves who are threatening us there are enemies that are set against us we are here and there are two great forces battling for us and battling for possession the thief and I now that's his view of life and you see how at once this view of life is all together and entirely different from the modern prevailing popular view isn't life marvelous isn't it wonderful let's have a good time on what a Pity we've got to work and all these trouet and so oh oh what a light thing what a bubble an iridescent bubble life is and you just keep it bubbling and playing is that it no no says our Lord life is the greatest and the most momentous thing why well because you've got a soul within you and there are these Mighty forces contending for your soul he says the weight of you life is in terms of the greatness of the Soul it isn't his animal part only it isn't what people say it is think of man as he rarely is and realize that man is in this world and here he is with these tremendous Powers coming to Bear upon him you go through life and the question is will the thieves get you and Rob you in the way that he describes now you notice how our Lord keeps on saying that in this great chapter he is referring of course ultimately to the devil and his forces and his powers and this is the tragedy of the modern world that men and women don't realize these things they've never really seen Life as a great and a big and a momentous thing they don't know that we are surrounded In This World by evil powers and thought is you remember how the Apostle Paul puts it we wrestle not against flesh and blood the problem isn't merely men and women it isn't merely our own flesh and blood or the Flesh and Blood of others well what is it principalities and Powers the rulers of the darkness of this world spiritual wickedness in the Heavenly places and you know what almost baffles my understanding is this how anybody with any grain of intelligence in the modern world doesn't see how true that is how can they possibly take this superficial this light view of life even looking at what their self-same newspapers put in front of them can't you see that there's some evil power at work and it's here at work on men and women this tremendous conflict and indeed we mustn't stop merely at describing the conflict in general for what our Lord is plainly teaching is this that as the result of this tremendous conflict our Eternal Destiny is being settled our whole Eternal and everlasting future is being determined while we are in this life and in this world that's what the modern view of Christianity doesn't realize have a good time let's have a look at life let's enjoy life and they've never awakened to the fact that they're only here for a very short time and that while they're here for these few years in this present passing World their Eternal and everlasting Destiny is being determined they either are going to be captured by the thieves and destroyed to all eternity or else they're going to belong to this Good Shepherd and have an eternity of bliss and of Glory with him and the father and the Holy Ghost and all the holy and the Blessed Angels oh my dear friend before we go any further let me ask you this question have you realized that your life in this world is a veil of decision have you realized the tremendous consequences of living in this world and passing through it have you ever thought about anything about the passing pleasure of the moment have you ever considered the fact that you've got a soul within you which goes on Beyond Death In The Grave that is eternal and everlasting have you considered that it is because men and women have this fatally rung and utterly superficial view of themselves and of life in this world that they go so tragically wrong about the Lord Jesus Christ and the gracious offer of his gospel that's the first thing but let me hurry on to the second thing our Lord points out that they're equally wrong about the life that they think they have [00:13:38]

Christianity certainly not I want life I want to see life I want to have life I want to enjoy life and and they think of course that they have it and that what they have is wonderful but you notice what our Lord says about it this he says is the second tragic eror what they think is life and what they glory in is nothing but a process which is robbing them killing them destroying them the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy and they're not aware of this they have never thought of it it has never dawned upon their minds nor their imaginations and yet says our Lord this is exactly and precisely what it what what does what is happening and you know this is the great message of the Bible from beginning to end I could give it you in Endless statements in the Old Testament and in the new test Testament why you've got it once and forever and most perfectly perhaps in the famous parable of the prodigal son that's what life does empties a man's pocket turns him into a beggar and a lends him in the far country with the swine and the husks that's it steal and kill and destroy but is there anybody who disputes this well if so let me establish the contention to you let me show you that what our Lord says about the non-Christian life is nothing but the simple and the most startling truth life I say without Christ life which is non-Christian is a life which steals from you and robs you what does it Rob us of well the first thing I've got to say is this the first thing it does you know is to Rob us as it were of God and Rob us from God wasn't that the whole object of the serpent the devil had been the original Temptation in the garden there ad and Eve of God's creation God's people belonging to God and the one thing the devil desired was to obtain them to take them from God to steal to Rob God of his own people and that's precisely what he did so I start by saying that this process in life these thieves the devil and his powers he uses many he was using the Pharisees and scribes our Lord probably had them mainly in his mind these are but instruments and emissaries it's the devil at the back and the power of evil the first thing we're robbed of is of our very selves as it were but it doesn't stop at that let me just remind you of some of the other things of which we are robbed if we are not aware of the seriousness of life and of the world and the Flesh and the devil let me show you my friend what this which you call life is really doing to you what is it doing to men and women oh I say again go back to your newspapers read about them in the journals listen to it on the wireless and everywhere do you know what it robs people of what it robbed us all of our innocence our Chastity our Purity our honesty our truthfulness these are the things that are so evident in the modern world aren't they people are shouting about a marvelous and a one they're seeing life they're enjoying life they come to London for life and what are they getting well that's what's happening that's why the moral problem is such a great one at the present time that is why there is such confusion that is why there is not only moral delinquency and juvenile delinquency but that is why the whole of life is becoming involved and complicated and the authorities even are having to consider in conference after conference what can be done about it what else does it Rob us of well you know it robs us of our very energy the Bible says that the way of the transgressor is hard and it is a hard life the life of sin is a very demanding life it robs you of your energy and for this reason you see it never gives you anything it only takes have you ever considered that look at the sinful life which seems to be giving so much at the time what does it rarely give look at the men under the stimulus and the effect of alcohol who last night felt he was full of energy and that he was having life and he was really enjoying life and having his fill of life look at him this morning and you'll find a man who's been drained of energy weary and tired aching in his Limbs and in his head what's it been doing to him not putting energy into him but draining them of energy and the whole of the sinful life does that that's only one illustration give way to any lust or passion or desire it leave you exhausted it's a drain Upon Our very physical energy and it robs us even of our health I could establish this to you you take the things people are going in for today in which they call Life what are they well here's one of them eating and they seem to think that real life and real enjoyment and living means eating more and more and more and you know what they're doing as they are eating in this way they're robbing themselves of their health they're eating too much all along the line and all the fats that they glory in and rejoice in are simply thickening their arteries raising their blood pressure sending them to early Graves have you notice the increase in these stress diseases these attacks of coronary thrum I'm using terms that you're familiar with and these attacks of angina what's the cause it isn't only overwork it's oving and over drinking and overindulgence in every single respect eating and drinking and sex and abandon and the whole time they're dissipating their energy they're being robbed of it and their very health is being undermined and men are old before their time but not only that it robs us of peace and of rest people are in for life they want enjoyment they say this is the way to have it and what what's happening to them well they're not getting it are they isn't the world very unhappy isn't it Restless isn't it troubled isn't it at the edge as it were and always at the extreme end of the tether and its nerves are Frid I could keep you endlessly on this this is a moral problem it's a social problem and people are trying to discover what can be done about it and it's all due to the fact that men and women don't realize you see that what they regard as life is just robbery they think they receiving it's being taken from them the thief cometh not but to steal and to Rob and perhaps most tragic of all the life of sin is a life which r us of Happiness isn't this tragic isn't this after all the Masterpiece of the devil but what he comes to us and offers us his happiness if you want to be happy he says you stop going to a place of worship when you're adolesson stop going to Sunday school and everything else that talks about this assert yourself say you're a man or a woman now go up to London have a good time see life then you'll be happy and you see what's really happening is that they're being robbed of of Happiness the way of the transgressor is hard I don't think life has been as unhappy as it is today for a very very long time oh of course they have to keep up the show on with the mly the paint and the powder let's keep up appearances with your heart bleeding and breaking that's life today men and women are profoundly unhappy hence their Resort and their turning to the various means and methods of Escape what a terrible thing this life is it thus I say while appearing to give us so much robs us and leaves us as penniless helpless victims by the roadside of life but not only that it kills I mustn't keep you my friends but this is some these are some of the ways in which I can show you this it kills everything that is best in us there's life that appears to be so wonderful what does it do it kills the moral sense it destroys a man's sense of values it tends to kill the conscience the extreme point is of of course as Paul puts it in writing to Timothy when the conscience is seared as with a hot iron but long before you come to that there is a slow and a steady decay of conscience now that wasn't my phrase that was a phrase of Mr John G wiant who was the American ambassador in this country in the early part of the war he said that very thing there is a slow and a steady Decay and death of conscience going on he said he saw it not only amongst Nations but amongst the individuals the moral sense the sense of conscience what else well another terrible thing about Sin is that it always destroys and kills any sense of refinement and of judgment that may be in US haven't you noticed our life is becoming more and more [00:20:23]