In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not selling one's birthright for worldly honors. He quotes a man who believed that the dream of achieving these honors was better than the reality of actually attaining them. The preacher encourages young people to wholeheartedly devote themselves to God and not compromise their faith for worldly pursuits. He also shares a story about a man who was passionate about preaching the gospel and prioritized souls over personal relationships. The sermon concludes with a reminder that the true heavy load is living a life without God, and encourages listeners to chart their own course and follow God's will.

Glory on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who glory in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it's for God. If we're a sound mind, it's for you. The love of Christ constrains us because he judged us, that if one died for all, then all died. And he died for all that those who lived should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them, those who can. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh. Yet now we know him thus no longer. I'm just going to stop there. Our golden text for tonight, I don't know if I ever told this story about some young junior high kids that were away at camp one. And one of them told an interesting story. Just a story. A story about how some men came from outer space, some creatures or whatever they are in outer space, how they came. And they started to have an argument with human beings, you know. I don't like that. And they started boasting about their relative Brian. And well, they would boast about the fact how they occupied outer space, you know, and how they traveled in outer space. And the human beings said, we're doing that now too, you know, ourselves. We're getting into outer space with NASA and all the rest. And they just went on and on and on and on. And finally, the humans said, well, we can tell you something you can't boast about. God visited this planet now. God visited our planet now. And the people from outer space said, he did? Take us to him and show him. He said, we can't. So, it's just a story, but it packs a punch, doesn't it? It really packs a punch. It's exactly what happened. He came and visited this planet. He turned around. Then, this morning, we were thinking about some of the marvelous blessings that have flowed to us as a result of the work of the Lord Jesus and Calvin. And I hope he did it with some enthusiasm. I hope they'll never be able to talk about those things without being enthusiastic about them, as we think of them. And as we closed the meeting this morning, we said, look, this requires a response from us. What is the response? That it requires from us. Let me give it to you in two words. Total commitment. Anything less than that would be blasphemy. When you think of what the Lord Jesus did for us in the cross of Calvary, anything less than total commitment would be sacrilege, wouldn't it? But somebody said to me, God never gives us standards that we can achieve. Isn't that surprising? God never gives us standards that we can achieve. My little children, these things write I unto that there was sin not. He said he makes provision for failure. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ is righteous. Let me put it this way. Supposing, in the light of this, a proud response, God should say to us, now this requires response for you, and I want you to be 80% committed to faith. Doesn't sound right, does it? I couldn't say that. And he wouldn't. He could say, I just want you to sin as little as possible. He wouldn't say that. It wouldn't be God if he said that. It wouldn't be God if he said, just 80 or 90% be committed to faith. He died for all that they would live for, not henceforth live unto themselves, but that he died for them and raised them from the dead. And I want that word to be the subject word of the rest of our messages here at the Conference. For us to examine our hearts and say, really, how committed am I to the Lord Jesus Christ? And as I said before, this whole subject leads us down a one-way street that ends in commitment to him. What does that mean? Well, it means that I should attend church regularly, I should put money in the collection, I should pray, and I should read my Bible. I mean, those things are all good and all very helpful, but that isn't what it means. Commitment to Christ is a definite, well-considered act in which a person turns over his life to the Son of God for him to do whatever he needs to do. And I want us to examine our hearts. Has there ever been a time when I did that, when I got down on my knees and I said, Lord Jesus, I'm yours. I just want to exchange my will for your will. I want to give you my will and take whatever your will for my life is. It's, you know what it is, it's giving up your rag rights and exchanging them for his own rights. Because in every part of the throne, neither Christ is on the throne, but self is on the throne. And commitment is when I take self off the throne, Christ on the throne. Commitment is abandoning all for the sake of him who abandons all. It's when we say from our hearts, take me as I am, Lord, and make me all thine own. Make my heart your palace and your royal throne. Take me as I am, Lord, make me all your own. Make my heart your palace and your royal throne. I said this morning, it's possible to commit your life to the Lord for salvation, and yet hold back on the subject of commitment. It should happen at the time of conversion. Both of those things should happen at the time of conversion. Both of those things happen in the life of the Apostle Paul. When he was saved, he first of all said, who art thou, Lord? He got his doctrine straight. He turned his life over to the Lord for salvation. Then he said, what will thou have me to do? Right there on the day, on the road to Damascus. Who art thou, Lord? He got his doctrine straight. What will thou have me to do? He got his Jesus straight. That's God's ideal, that it should happen on the day of our conversion. But things aren't always ideal in this life, are they? And they're not ideal in our lives as well. Um, commitment is denying self and taking up the cross and following him. It's losing one's life for Christ's sake in the gospel. Throwing your soul and body down for God to plow them under. When you desire Christ's will supremely, and you're giving him the devotion of your heart, the love of your life, you're a committed Christian. And incidentally, this commitment is unconditional. It's unconditional surrender. There are certain phrases and clauses that are not in the vocabulary of commitment, such as, not so Not now, but later. I will follow you, but let me first. Commitment means submission to the Lord Jesus in sickness and health, in youth and in age, in poverty or plenty, at home or overseas, single or married, unknown or well-known, a short life or long. In other words, you don't care about any of those things. You say, all I want is your will. Does this seem like a heavy load to lay on people? The way people talk, they think it's a heavy load. I'm going to tell you what a heavy load is trying to find your way. Trying to live the way you want to live. That's really a heavy load. Trying to chart your own course and to do your own thing. When I was in the Navy, I've told this story so often. I'm sure some of you have heard it before. When I was in the Navy, we were losing an awful lot of planes in what you might call operational accidents. Not combat at all, but operational accidents. Planes would take off in Alaska, and they'd be airborne, and then the fog would come and suck in the field, and it would stay there. The fog would stay there, and the planes wouldn't land. Those dear fellows would just have to fly around with their gasoline, their petrol, their fuel was gone, and they'd radio in so long. Then the Navy started to develop a system known as ground control approach, which they use today. They use it on the aircraft carriers. For the control tower, because they have the radar, and the control tower, they start issuing instructions to that pilot. They tell him to do a figure eight. They line him up with a flight deck of the carrier, and the carrier is moving, you know, it's moving this way or it might be moving this way, and the movement of the plane is synchronized with the movement of the carrier. So no matter whether it's a rough sea or not, the plane will just come in on the flight deck at the right angle. And when the control tower gets that pilot just lined up for the flight deck, he says, take their hands off of them, sir. And he brings it to me. That's what the Lord is saying to us. Take their hands off of them, sir. Let me bring you in. I'll bring you in safely. And I just, I want to be very honest with you. I came here teaching people, teaching the young men and the young women to do exactly that and turn the world around. You know, that's what happened with the twelve, with the eleven disciples, wasn't it? The Lord took them, and that time of discipleship, he trained them, he poured his life into them, and then he set them loose for the world. And the enemies of Christ had to acknowledge the tears of rage in their eyes. He didn't want to set the world upside down. Today, they say, the world has turned the church upside down. We want to reverse that, don't we? We want men and women, young men and young women, and we'll turn the world upside down. That's just it. We know what he told us, and it happened. Let him live our lives with rage. Which leads me to the subject of the commitment of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. We want to think about that. Just as the Lord Jesus is the author and finisher of faith, so he is the author and finisher of commitment. And if you really want to know what is meant by the word commitment, all you have to do is study the life of the Savior. He was never with anyone so committed as he. When the father looked down and saw a world of lost mankind here on planet earth, he as it were said, whom shall I send and who will go for me? And the Lord Jesus said, hear him out. And he knew exactly what lay before him. Being God, being omniscient, he knew every detail, but he wanted to do the very thing. That was the most important thing with him. It meant for the creator to be born in a stable. For the creator of the world to be born in a stable. Not for him an antiseptic maternity ward, a beautiful little bassinet town, a feed box for animals would have to do for his bassinet, and the straw the only mattress he would have. Wonderful, wonderful Jesus, a smelling cattle shed for the Lord's life. And you know, even in later years, the Lord Jesus never knew any of the comforts that you and I are enjoying today. Do you ever think about it? We never had money in our lives. We never had a hot and cold wife. We never had a beauty dress, a mattress, a sleeping room. We never had any of those things that we take so much for granted today. We never had bathroom facilities that we have today. We didn't even have what foxes and birds of the air have. And when the disciples scattered to their own home, that's why the hymn writer said, The Lord Jesus knew that coming into the world meant coming into a jungle of sin. And you and I can't understand that. We're so different. I mean, we're sinful creatures. He's sinless. It hurts us to resist temptation. The more perfect the person is, the more elegant, the more refined the person is, the more he or she is revolted by sin. Just think of what it meant for the Lord Jesus. He was revolted by sin. In accepting the will of God, he knew that he would be despised and rejected. Isn't that what it means? Man of sorrow. What does David despise and reject of men? He would pour out his life, showering blessing on people, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, causing the lame to walk, casting out demons. And what would he get in return? Hatred, abuse, persecution. That was his thanks for it. He would receive him gratitude all along the way. I like the verse of a hymn in our hymn book that says, Why, what hath my Lord done? What makes this vain and spite? He made the lame to run, gave the blind their sight, sweet injury, sweet injury, yet they at these themselves disdained and dint do well. Some years ago, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem was being interviewed on British television, I read, and somebody asked him, Why is it that the Jewish people have been so hated and persecuted thousands of years? You know what he said? He said, It's the dislike of the unliked, the dislike of the unliked. The Lord Jesus knew what loneliness was. He was well-acquainted with Jesus. He earned that as a man of God. He'd be insulted. He was accused of being born of fornication. God the fool, being accused of being born of fornication, he was accused of being demon-possessed, he was accused of performing miracles in the power of the elves above the rod of silk, and all by his own people. Did he did he think of turning back? Never, never. It was a lonely path he trod, from every human soul, known only to himself and God, with all the grief that filled his heart, yet from the track he turned not back, but where I lay, in sin and shame, he found me. When the son said, Here I am, send me, the future was open to him, but he was so committed to the Father's will that he faced it with determination. I'd like to go over some of the verses in the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, that speak of the commitment of the Lord Jesus. Time after time, he spoke that he was fully committed to do the Father's will. He appealed to the consistent testimony of the Scriptures. He says, In the volume of the book of Ezekiel, I mean, close to me, I'm just a simple believer. It means in Genesis, the revelation, especially when you say, Jesus, the light of the new revelation. No matter what it was, that's what he wanted above everything else. When he cleansed, this is beautiful, when he cleansed the temple, the bells went on in the minds of the disciples. They remembered that it was written against the wheel of that house. In other words, they saw a living demonstration of what that verse meant. The Lord Jesus was consumed with an interest in the wheel of that house. One day he said to the multitude, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And when, as a boy, his parents rebuked him for absenting himself from the caravan when they were going back to Nazareth, to be reminded of them, he had to be above his father. What an interesting thing, Mary, dear Mary, wonderful woman, wonderful woman of God, no question about it, virgin Mary. But when you think of the way that Mary has been exalted practically to the Godhead in certain quarters today, when she's called the Redemptress, when people are told to commit their souls to Mary, people forget that Mary lost her boy one time before, and she didn't know where he went. Is that when you commit your soul to him? It's a good thing that you remember. When the disciples rebuked him because he hadn't eaten recently, he said, my need is to do the will of God, and he said yes, and he finished his will. There's something more important than earthly things, isn't there, than material things, that's to do the will of God. And I know that some of you have that experience when you're so engrossed in doing the will of God that that's really important. When he said the son can do, that's an interesting verse, he says in John chapter 5, the son can do nothing of himself. It shows that he was so morally perfect that he couldn't do anything of himself. I can't say those, I can't say Bill McDonnell can do nothing of himself. He was so morally perfect. That too excludes sin, doesn't it? He mentioned that earlier. That excludes the possibility of his sin. Everything he did was in obedience to the Father. To those who sought to kill him because he healed on the Sabbath day, he said, I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father. He said nobody ever was so focused. Nobody was ever so focused as he was. Under similar circumstances, he said to his would-be assassins, I always do those things that please him. Obedience was not an occasional act with him as it is with some of us. The shadow of the cross was always before him. He faced it calmly, and even with eagerness he said, I have a baptism to be baptized in. How am I to wait until it heals? There was no shrinking back. On that final, hateful trip to Jerusalem, Jesus is going up to Jerusalem with the disciples, and you know, it gives a very vivid picture of him in Luke. It says, he went on and said, I think the disciples, he said, were led in, they were led, by the Lord Jesus himself. He said, the will of God would include Gethsemane, and he prayed, O my Father, it would be possible, let this cup pass to me, I think that was a rhetorical question, don't you? He was saying, Father, look, if there's any other way in which mankind can be redeemed, show it now. Why was there no other way? Because there was no other way. Climate was never more eloquent than it was that day in Gethsemane. He was betrayed by a friend, denied by a weak disciple, kissed by a Satan-possessed man, and forsaken by those closest to him. You know who he is? He incarnated as God. He was arrested on hooked-up charges, and he was judged in his trial as the ultimate farce in the legal system. The verdict was not guilty. The verdict was not guilty, and yet he was sentenced to death. He could have fallen down but he chose to die for you and for me. He preferred the will of God rather than Satan. The Lord Jesus had power to come down from the cross. He had power not to come down from the cross. That's the greatest of all powers, isn't it? It was at this hour that he came into the world. I want to tell you, dear friends, that it's not the nails that held him back, but his commitment. The greatest horror, of course, was in those three hours of darkness when he was forsaken. Those three hours when he bore the undiluted wrath of God against the human race. No finite mind will ever know what this meant for him. I was inflected the other day in reading Isaiah 53. They made his grave with a ticket that he was with a vict in his death, in the original spirit of death. Essentially, they thorough made his grave with a ticket that he was with a vict singular in his death. I don't know if that might be justice to you, but every person who's ever lived. But he went all the way to Calvary because he lived that day. He knew he would rise from the dead, ascend back to heaven, and be honored with a name that's above every name. He knew that eventually every knee that bowed to him would be found to test him as he was. But before the crown of the cross, before the glory that was set in him, the Lord Jesus was completely committed to the will of God, whatever it might be. And he left us an example. Isn't that wonderful? You know, he never, in describing his erotic career, he never sees himself as doing anything original or initiated by himself. He never sees himself as doing anything original or initiated by himself. It's like that was the story of his life. Every morning he woke up and his ear was open to hear the will of God for that day. I hear it. My ear has felt it. What a wonderful, wonderful Lord. Whenever we're tempted to complain or retreat, we should call on him to nerve our faith. The poet has said, Lord, when I'm weary with toiling and burdensome, see my commands. If my load should lead to complaining, Lord, show me your hand. Lord, show me your hand. Your nail-pierced hand, your cross-torn hand, my Savior. Lord, show me your hand. Christ, if ever my footstep should falter, and I be prepared for retreat, with desert or thorn-clogged lamenting, Lord, show me your hand. By bleeding feet, by nail-scarred feet, my Jesus, Lord, show me your hand. The commitment of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what it has to be, to be committed. Back in the book of Deuteronomy, there's an early call to commitment. I should mention this, you know, about the Bible. It's a great book, written by different men over periods of time. They never got together to consult, and yet they were afraid to go all the way through. You could begin at Genesis and worship all the way through. You could begin there and with prayer, go all the way through the Bible. And we want to do that in the meetings that follow. See that thread of commitment in the Bible, how important it is to God. Well, back in the book of Deuteronomy, there's an early call to commitment, Deuteronomy 6.5. It says, I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all your soul, and with all your spirit. And that's what it was, isn't it? I mean, we were so used to that verse. We just lost any affect on it. If you don't mind my saying that, when you say, Brother MacDonald, don't you know that belongs to the legal dispensation? It was found three times in the Gospels, and the word mind is added here. That's the love of the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and spirit. Do you know what that means? That means that there's a quality of pure. Jesus said that loving God is the first and great commandment. And two commandments, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. He said on those two commandments, hang all the law and the process. What does that mean? It means there's a condensation of all that the Old Testament teaches. Hang all the law and the process. And he said it's more than all the sacrifices of the Old Testament period. They're more than all the Hebraic system of sacrifices. It's more than a passing in prison. And the commandment shows us how far and strong it is. All the commitment. Even although we plan to obey it perfectly, we should be moving in that direction. For us on earth, it'll never be an achievement. It's a process. It should be a process. Notice what it says. You shall love the Lord your God. He's our Lord. He's our master. He's our God. He's our creator. He's our sustainer. He's our savior. He's our preserver. He deserves our love. When he has it, he'll also have our obedience. He'll love you. Let's go over it. Love the Lord thy God with all your heart. He must have first place in our hearts. I like that story of Spurgeon. He was a young man. He fell in love with this girl. He was preaching at the age of 18 or 19. He was selling auditoriums in London at the age of 18 or 19. One night he drove up with this girl in this vehicle. All he was thinking about was souls. He was thinking about those who were going to be there tonight and who would hear the gospel and hopefully be saved. When they got to the auditorium, he jumped out of the carriage and rushed into the place. And then when he got up to preach the dear name, he looked out over the audience and couldn't see her. So as soon as he had dealt with souls a long time, he went out for her house. They rang the bell and the parents came. They said he'd like to see her. They said she's upstairs. She was. She was upstairs helping. He said, I want to see her. Eventually she came home. And Luke said, look, I'm very sorry for what happened tonight. He said, but you have to have an understanding. You and I are going to be married. But someone else is going to take first place in your heart. And she said that she learned a very valuable lesson that there was someone in Charles's life who had first place and he was second place. I want to tell you ladies here tonight, if you have a husband, and he's like Christ at first place, then if you have a wife, and he's like Christ at first place, that's what you want to do. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. What will it be like when we love him like that? Well, I like to think back to the son of Solomon. He's just a loved one, isn't he? The son of Solomon. We get a clue there to the affectionate relationship between the Shulamites and her mother. What was it like? She was never more happy than when she was in his presence. Right? Never more happy than when she was in his presence. His absence pained her. Get that all the way through. She longed for him to come. She talked about him with great delight. Her tongue was the pen of a ready writer. The daughters of the Shulamites come to me and say, what's your love? He wasn't a lover. Thank you very much. He said that's just what I wanted to talk about. And I mean the description of her love is just flowed out. Just flowed out. Her tongue is the pen of a ready writer. She loved to talk about him. She loved to talk to him. Sometimes she talked to him even when he wasn't there. You can read that in the Son of Solomon. She was in love with him. And love is like that. She was always pleased to hear his story. She dreamed about him and she just relished every memory of him when he wasn't there with her. And I want to tell you, dear friends, there was no competitors for her love. No competitors. He was the object of her affection. And the script tells me that I'm to love the Lord with all my affectionate powers. That's the way it should be. Then it says, with all thy soul, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul. It means with all your emotional powers too. With all your emotional powers. And since the soul is the seat of the emotion, we're justified in taking that meaning to it. We should be enthusiastic about him. I get a kick out of the mob down there at the Coliseum cheering in these athletic events. You know, going wild, these athletic events. Then I think of myself and how easy it is to become enthusiastic about the Lord. Frankly, we're not. We're not enthusiastic, even in our dreams. We're so afraid of showing emotion, even saying amen, although I hear a few of those here. We should be enthusiastic about the Lord Jesus. Those of you brothers who minister the Word of God, don't ever get up and minister the Word of God without being enthusiastic about it. Better to sit down. Better to sit down. You listen to the men that are having an impact on the radio today, like John McArthur. He's enthusiastic about what he's saying. If you don't get him back, you're lost. He's a good Bible teacher. He's enthusiastic. You catch that when you hear him talking. We should be enthusiastic about the Lord Jesus. Then we should be joyful when we hear him engulfed, and we should be really angry at anything that dishonors him. Angry at anything that dishonors the Lord Jesus. These are emotions. When we remember him, as we do, day after day, we have joy and sorrow mingled. Joy that is suffering over sorrows that are sinning. I shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy affectionate heart, thy soul, thy emotional heart, thy mind. Do you know what it means? It means that we should take our minds and that we're adoring the Lord. I want to tell you very honestly, I really get put out when I see our young people giving the best of their minds to turbulence in the upper atmosphere, or the sediments in Chesapeake Bay, or the mating habits of the Wyoming antelope, or the vitamin and mineral deficiencies in the tomato and the poppy. I do. I get upset. Is that all I'm here for? I said this morning, we're here for bigger businesses and to make money, aren't we? Yeah, we are. And I appeal to you, young people, as you look ahead in life, give the best of your intellectual powers to the Lord Jesus. They were made for him. They should be used for him. And we have to say sexually, we're giving our best to the world, but to the Christ. I'm going to tell you, it better be known as a person of the world, than a person of the world. And then it says with all your, not only all your intellectual powers, but with all your physical powers, with all your strength, we should love the Lord with all our physical powers. I think it's good for us, and young people especially, to remember that God doesn't take the light in the strength of a horse, or in the legs of a man. That's an interesting statement. He doesn't take the light in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, those who hope in his name. Prowess in spiritual things is far better than prowess on the athletic field. I don't despise sports. A former athlete said, the biggest thrill of my life was when I first scored the decisive goal in a big match, and heard the roar of the cheering crowd. But in the quiet of my room that night, a sense of the futility of it all swept over me. After all, what was it worth? Was there nothing better in life than to live for a score? And I think of people today who can tell you scores of games ten years ago. And I think, hmm, for what? A hundred years from now, what will it matter? Because it won't matter a thing, a hundred years from now. And I want to tell you, those who barter their birthright for the world's honor of selling it for a bowl of chili. Imagine giving the best of one's life for a ribbon, a plaque, a gold cup. One man who lived for these things said, the dream of the reality was better than the reality of the dream. You've got more kick out of the dream than out of the thing itself. The dream of the reality is better than the reality of the dream. Young people who want to obey the first and great command, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, cannot express their resolve better than the words of Thomas Lord. I would not give the world my heart and then profess thy love. I would not feel my strength depart and then thy service prove. I would not whip swift-winged zeal on the world's errands go, and labor up the heavenly hill with you. O not for thee, my weak desires, my poorer, baser heart. O not for thee, my fading fires, the ashes of my heart. O choose me in my golden time, and my dear joy depart, to be the glory of my time, of my heart. You know, it's interesting to me that that call, that early call to commitment back in the book of Deuteronomy, echoed in the book of Revelation. It says, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. He's worthy to receive my riches, my intellectual power, wisdom, strength, and my worship, honor, and glory, and blessing. Yes, he already has all power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. The thought here is worthy to receive him from you and from me. There's no question in the world that the Lord Jesus is worthy of our finest powers. The only question is, Lord, we realize that tonight we're dealing with some of the most fundamental and tremendous issues of life. In some cases, it could be the difference between having a saved soul and a lost life. Help us to be real, Lord. Help us to be real with you. Help us not to be taken up with trivia, but think on that which is eternal, to judge everything in the light of eternity. Father, we do pray. We pray that each one here will do business with you in great ways, and if we've never before committed ourselves to your service, for anything you want us to do, we pray that you will do it.