Abide Above
Mike Doyle · Apr 3, 2005
Abide Above, No. 01
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262323344006

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

The one thing Miles was, is he was careful about the principles and the sequence of things. He was very careful about that. And so, if we learn nothing else, we learn the principles and the sequences in which spiritual growth takes place. Now, the last one we're going to go through is the last section of the Complete Green Letter.

It's called Abide Above. Interesting title, Abide Above. What's the word abide mean? Make your home. That's good. The Lord Jesus said, abide in me, and I in you. So, make your home above. Why there? What's that? Where we are already. I mean, not to cast any aspersions on what we've been watching on TV the last few days, but a whole group of humanity that doesn't understand what Abide Above is, is the Pope and watching him die. They're all praying that he doesn't die. He stays here. Why would you want to do that? If you belong to the Lord. If you don't belong to the Lord, yeah, you do. If you do belong to him, Why would you want to stay here?

So, Miles says in the very beginning of this, which I thought was kind of interesting, the preface, he says, In order for a guide to safely lead others to the highest goal, the low-lying and secondary areas must be pointed out and avoided. This guide to growth seeks to do this by setting forth the highest so as to cast light upon that which is too low." Do you like that statement? Because we will settle for less than the best if we don't know the best. The secret of healthy spiritual growth is to concentrate upon God's very best, thereby leaving no need or hunger for anyone less than that best, essentials only. See that?

The journey through the complete green letters, though, is difficult because it does take you to this highest level pretty quickly, doesn't it? And it challenges your faith because it seats you in the heavenlies in Christ. So, having said that, Abide Above is perfectly positioned complete green letters. Now, when we get towards the end of this book, you're going to see chapters that we may or may not cover. I'm not sure that we would benefit greatly by talking about the tongues trauma, or psychic healing, that kind of stuff.

But I'm thinking that we would probably benefit from a review of Calvinism and Armenianism and what the points are there. So I'll modify things as we go. I got 15 chapters in 13 weeks. Now, what I'm thinking about for the before we do a major changeover in classes in October, we'll we'll go April, May, June with this and then July, August, September, I'm thinking that we'll do three months on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. What do you think about that? The reason I'm leaning that way is because all that we've studied If we don't know who the implementer is and how he does it, we have a tendency to think, well, all this stuff I've learned, I've got to get busy and get going here. So, if you think that some other topic would be better, I'm open. At this point, I'm thinking the person and work of the Holy Spirit might be a good place to go for the last three months.

Any questions, input? Questions are there. First one. In spiritual growth, we must start at the bottom and work our way up. Gee, I'm surprised nobody jumped all over me. True or false? Come on. Yeah, it is false. Why is it false? What's that? Yeah, you start at the top. You start at the top.

Now, I must say, that's not what the normal Christian viewpoint is. The normal Christian viewpoint is that you start at the bottom and work your way up. However, having said that, I think what the Lord does is that he will show us in the word, our position.

Some of it. The mountaintop, so to speak. But then there is this process of going back down into the valley and walking every step to the top. Abide Above will talk about some of that in the next week or two. There's lots of discussions about failure and that kind of thing, primarily design. So, it's not unusual for the Holy Spirit to show a young believer his position, or at least some of it. But then there's this process of learning it, conditionally, so that you own it, every step from the bottom. But it's good to know as Hebrews says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The focus is on Him, even though we're walking up the mountain. Actually, I have a different answer. Go!

Just because spiritual growth, I mean, yeah, we start at the top position, it grows. So if you're at the top, it grows. How do you grow from the top? I think the idea is position, condition. Yeah. I mean that position, we know our position, but our growth is growing from babes to...

You know, I'm a horrible artist, but I draw this little picture in Bible study with like the clouds up at the top, you know, and then the ground underneath. And we tend to think of growth this way, but for us, our tree is inverted. Our roots are planted in heaven and as those grow deeply, our tree is growing upside down and flourishing down here, but our roots are in heaven. So our tree is really upside down. And then the winds come and all that stuff and as those roots are just deeply planted in heaven, the stuff blows but it doesn't shake.

Why do we use the term growth? Why would we use that term? Because growth really means, you know, like my son's growing. What's happening with him? Is he becoming something he wasn't before? Well, we could say, well, he was a boy. Now he's a teenager. He's growing into a young man. He'll be an adult man at some point. But essentially he's still the same person. Is he accumulating? He's maturing. But he's really growing into what he already is. He's just growing up as a human.

With spiritual growth, we grow into what we already are positionally. So I think so. I think, you know, there's there's there's room. I think that the idea is is not to have the viewpoint that. I'm accumulating or attaining or arriving at something I didn't have.

I mean growth is just what you are and growing into who you are. But that's why going through the trial is the tribute and it brings you to where we identify our needs. That's why kind of starting at the bottom is where he erases everything to the point to get self out. And then starts on our spiritual growth part.

Our position is always the same. So that's the way. And that's all right. There's room for that, I think. As we've studied in the last months, though, knowing your position is critical. You agree with that? You've got to know. I've talked to a lot of people in the last few months about this issue. I've had people say to me, well, you know, I know Christians that don't know the stuff that you know and teach, and they're really godly people. I said to this one guy, well, you don't know Christ very well. You know, we were talking long distance on cell phones.

I was glad of that. Do you understand? But do you see my point? Because the self can imitate what looks like Christian maturity. And it can be done through people, especially who have really cool temperaments, which I don't happen to have one of those. They seem to deal with circumstances in their life much better than people like me. You scratch me twice and I'm off the bridge.

Spiritual growth must be based on knowing what your position is and believing it. Believing that it's true. And then you grow into what you know to be true of you now. If either one of those elements are missing, can you grow? What do you think? You really think that's true? You have to know to grow? You have to believe to grow?

I think that's right. I think that's absolutely right. And as we learned the very first chapter of the Green Letters, faith is not feeling or supposition or guessing, or I hope so, it's based squarely on fact. With most believers, a growth process begins shortly after spiritual birth. What do you think?

False. False? False. Yeah, it is false. Why do you think so? Why do you think that really isn't the case with most believers? I think there's a proving out who God is not, so that God can tell the truth. Yeah. I think one of the reasons is that It's difficult to distinguish a solid spiritual birth today, primarily because just the very information of the birth process has been so convoluted, you know, the commitment to Christ, the receiving Jesus into your heart. Where is that? I don't know, what is that, Second California someplace? I don't know where that is.

So, it puts importance on the fact that if we're dealing with non-believers that the gospel message be very clear and precise. Because if a believer starts right, then the chances of them growing sooner are there. Because if he or she starts on the basis of grace through faith, then the other issues that come before him from the Word of God are more readily accepted because they're on that basis. If they start based on they adding something and God adding a little bit, or now that you're saved you need to get busy, and act like here's what Christians do and that's what you need to do, there's that whole unlearning process that believers have to go through to find out what isn't of the Lord.

We have a name for it, it's called religion. So usually spiritual growth comes, I would say, after about two years is when a young believer begins to recognize, wait a minute, this isn't working the way I thought it was supposed to work. Or to put it another way, that scream you hear is that young believer going off the cliff. Oh my goodness. I prayed and God didn't immediately answer my prayer. He didn't immediately fix whatever. What am I doing wrong? Which I think is tied to number three that you're about to mention.

The new believer doesn't necessarily perceive the need because everything is roses at that point. God is so gracious to us when you think about it. He treats young believers just like we treat babies. He gives them everything they need and then some. I mean a young believer I remember the first year as a believer, I would just think about something and it was done. I didn't even have to pray for it. And then there comes this need, spiritual need is the prerequisite for spiritual growth.

I'm sorry, what were you going to say? I was just going to say, I went to Poland a while back and I was with this evangelical group. I mean I'm talking about the Catholic Church here because they're 95, 98% Catholic. How there's all these problems with it. It's religion, it's not, it's not, you know. Christianity, yeah.

But then I compared the mainstream church there to the Catholic church. I was like, are we doing the same thing? It's really similar. It sure is. I know I wasn't very popular for some reason. It looks really similar to me. It does. It does. I have a man who's about my age that I have lunch with in California every year. I go out there a third time.

This is a guy that grew up in Indiana and went to Wheaton College, graduated from Wheaton College. His mother is 92 and she still teaches Sunday school, this kind of stuff. You should hear him talk about Christianity in California. And this is a guy who was a real fan of John MacArthur's for years, was in his church, and knows him pretty well.

And one day he got one of Miles Stanford's polemic papers on an issue that he took with MacArthur. And he said until he read it, he never saw it. He never saw the problem. Of course, being the kind of guy he was, the first person he went after was John MacArthur. Hey, John, have you ever seen this? You know, this guy Stanford says, what do you think about that?

Well, you know, over time he ended up leaving church. But he has that same problem in California as you had in Poland. Because for some reason we won't endure sound doctrine. We just won't do it. Religion and the what-to-dos are really important. Tradition. We have tradition here. We do, you know. Anything, as a growing believer, you learn after a while that all of that stuff just gets in the way. It just does.

Because what is God up to? What is He really up to? Why do all this? To glorify Himself. And how does He intend to do that? He's going to do it. He's going to do it in you and me. How's He going to do it? Conforming us to his very image. Okay, you got step two. Now three. How does he do that? What's that? No, that's not it. Think about it.

How does he conform you to the image of his Son? It's beholding the Son's glory. Does that sound a lot like intimacy to me and you? So think about the plan he's got. It isn't religion. It's fellowship. It's intimacy. It's one-on-one. with me, the person, and the God of the universe, person, right now.

And all religion and tradition does is get in the way of that. Do you see that? All of those little things that don't seem so harmful, they get in the way of this intimacy that God desires to have with every one of His sons. He wants us to abide above. Why?

Because that's where Christ is. How long does it take a growing believer to figure out that his business is not to bring Christ into his circumstances? That the job of the Holy Spirit is to take the believer from his circumstances to where he is already positioned so he can abide and behold the glory of the Lord. Then the transfiguration process takes place.

Well, you go to Poland, anybody know that? That's such an important principle for spiritual growth. If you don't know that principle, can you grow? Because God comes along and implements his principles in your life and you think, well, those can't be right. Doing this traditional thing has got to be the right way to go.

I'm having a discussion last week with a guy about Well, nine of the ten commandments are in the New Testament. So why don't we need to be concerned about those? I said, well, how about the 600 and some other ones? He said, well, what do you mean? I said, well, you can't say that I get to throw out one commandment and have to keep the other nine, and that's my whole obligation, because the law is a unit, and you can't peel pieces of it off. Paul said if you break one piece, you broke the whole thing.

So if you're going to be involved in any type of law keeping, you have to commit to do the whole thing. Which means you've got to find a temple, and you've got to have a herd of goats. You've got to be a farmer. You just do. It's part of the system. You can't pick and choose. You're forced to live under grace.

Now let's talk a bit about need. How do you view needs in your life? Give me an example of a need. That's a great answer. That's absolutely a great answer. Give me an example of a spiritual need. I didn't hear that. Anybody, give me an example of a spiritual need.

He delineates quite a few in the book. You find yourself in whatever circumstance God has you in and you're working and doing your thing and you wake up one day and it dawns on you you haven't moved one inch or the people you've ministered to haven't moved one inch and all of a sudden you begin to think, what am I doing? I talked to a pastor a couple years ago in a small town in Canada who had just awakened to the growth truth. And he said to me, he said, I have taught these people for three years the stuff that's not the truth. I need to resign and leave. I said, well, now that you're waking up, why would you leave? Why don't you stay there?

You know, now that you are figuring it out, you know, if you're the shepherd, you know, They'll go with you. That's one of the ways. In a family, in children, you don't need a ministry because if you have children, you have a ministry. You are a shepherd. You are a teacher. You are a nurturer. And if you look at your children, like I do, I look at my son and think, Boy, there's a lot of need there, not only for me, but for him. He's 13. He's got a lot more needs now than he had just a year ago. Or just plain, I'm just empty. Or there's got to be more to this. than what I know or what I'm doing.

That's what led me to the Lord. I woke up one morning and I had what I thought was the answers to everything and how come I had this big hole in my chest? There had to be more to life than what I had accumulated and I thought I had the American dream. I had a company, I had a house, I had a dog, a station wagon and a wife. What else is there? Well, I thought I could get a bigger house, some more cars, another dog, more kids, several wives. I could become a Muslim. But I knew instinctively that that wouldn't change anything. The hole was still there.

That's need. That is need. You wake up some morning and in your circumstances you think, boy, my life just isn't fulfilling. What is going on here? I've done everything that I thought was appropriate and I'm not fulfilled. That's need. And that's big time need. Not being able to pay the rent is need, but that's nothing compared to waking up and seeing for the first time this huge holding.

Or you become aware of the fact that your sins are not the issue. It's the sin nature that you have that's the issue. Oh boy, now what? My confessing and my going to church, that old sucker keeps sinning. What am I going to do about that? I cannot control him. Because he's like a raving lunatic that's busted out of jail. He's doing his thing, and I can't stop him. I can cover him up and make myself look okay, but I know better.

That's need. Does God do that on purpose? Nah, he wouldn't do that, would he? He creates the need, or let me put it this way. He doesn't have to do any creating. He just has to make you aware of what's going on, right? And when you become aware of it, it's like, oh my goodness, now what? So we, as Miles would say, we need our needs. So the next time you recognize a need in your life, thank God that it's there, because without those you wouldn't move. Trust me, you would not move an inch without those needs. What are we always looking for as human beings?

A place where we can sit down and rest. We don't want to be pushed out the door and into the foray. We were in a place in California that was three blocks from the I-5 freeway. Ever been on the I-5 freeway? This is in a gated community and when you're in there, it's a place of rest, right? But if you had to go to the store, it was out to the I-5. Six lanes at 80 miles an hour.

All believers are always in the midst of the Father's purpose for them. You buy that? Everybody here buy that? Is there anything that's happened to you since you've been a believer? that was not somehow the Father's purpose for you? Can you name one thing?

Because if you can, Romans 8.28 is a lie. The problem is that we need to be brought to the point where we trust God to the point that we know that He is faithful and that He's working. Another one of those sayings is that when we come to realize how intensely interested Christ is in us, it frees us to be interested in Him. Because if we still think we've got to worry about ourselves, then we can't think about Him.

So weakness and those kinds of things are good things, right? For the believer? What do you think? How would you describe A Christian's weakness. He made the point that if a Christian thinks that they're weak, they're off already because their thinking is incorrect already because it assumes some amount of strength.

That's right. Isn't that something? In me, that is in my flesh, dwells 80% bad, 20% good. No good thing. How about this? To be focused on your spiritual growth means you still haven't got it. Because where's your focus? As you abide above. It's not on you. It doesn't need to be on you if that's where you are.

In order to grow, one must never drop out of church or the ministry that they're in, no matter how difficult it may be to continue. Do you find, or have you found in your Christian life and growth that there have come times when what you were doing, you needed to just leave? The agonizing downward process brings us from simply believing on him at Calvary to living in him in heaven.

True? Do you see that the very first time I met Miles Stanford, we walked into Betty's bookstore out there, and myself and two other guys. Remember the guy that sat over here two or three weeks ago? It was he and I and another guy. And the first thing he said to us, he said, boys, if you know anything about spiritual growth, you know it's like this, not like this. I went, really? Nice introduction. I think that's right.

The downward process. The problem with the downward process is that it's agonizing and difficult and you think all sorts of things about losing your faith, that this can't be of God, that He just abandoned me because I did something terrible, or I didn't measure up to what He would have me do, so now He's left me alone. In that process though, He does support you, and you know it's Him that's doing it. Now, should you, if you're counseling with someone else, make them aware of this process?

I think so. I think so too. First of all, they wouldn't be there if this process wasn't somehow being implemented in their life. So, the world says, you know, be successful. Spiritual growth says, well, it looks like you're going to fail in order to be successful. So failure is part of the deal.

That doesn't give you license to be apathetic or licentious. Do you understand what I'm saying? There is this attitude, there can become this attitude, I'm in the soup. There's nothing to do. I can continue sinning until God shows up and fixes it. What do you think about that? Yeah, you'll pay the consequences, won't you?

I guess when we use the word failure, though, maybe that tells us which side of the fence we're on. Because the Lord never fails. He never fails. So if He's working what appears to be a failure, and you're looking at it as a failure, you're looking at it from your side. Because from His side, it's all in His hands. That's a really good point. Who fails? Who does the failing in this three-act tragedy? Good old man. Self. And that lesson that the Lord teaches you is all success. That's not failure. That's all success. Yeah, it is. That's good. Yeah, that's exactly right.

I remember Hal one time, several years ago, gave a talk upstairs about there's no such thing as tragedy in a Christian's life. There cannot be any circumstance in a Christian's life that's a tragedy. Agree with that? What could be a tragedy? What could happen in your life that would be a tragedy based on this information? Nothing. Because if your father is ever faithful, and he uses everything for your spiritual growth. It's only a tragedy to the old man, because he keeps losing ground. The other area where God will create need in a believer's life, especially believers, I think, is in the area of their goodness.

All of us are willing to take the bad and shovel it out the door, but we want to hold on to our goodness. I mean, we're educated, we're whatever we are, we're nice people, right? And God comes along and he says, well, there's a difference between the holiness of my son and your goodness. And your goodness has to go. Oh, no. Your talents have to go. That's a tough one, because so much of Christianity preaches, well, God gave me these talents, I need to use them. Right? Fill in the blank.

When the Father has us prepared by means of Romans 7, then what does He do? He opened the library and creeds of Romans 8, but not until... So what's Romans 7? What happens in Romans 7? What goes on there? What is the Romans 7 experience all about? How do you get to that point? Is it not by your trying to live the Christian life? through any sort of strength in law, whether it be mosaic or just your own code of ethics, you try to live the Christian life and you're serious about it. I mean, you read Romans 7 and you look at the man in Romans 7, he's committed. He's emotionally engaged. He really wants to do this. There's no lack of desire on his part. None. But the more he desires, the more he tries, the worse it gets. Eight. Ever faithful, our Father uses what? Our negatives. To do what? his positives.

Do you see that there is an infinite difference between Christ and self? What are the two basic truths to be learned in spiritual progress? The bankruptcy of self and the riches in Christ. He means it He means to make us intimately aware of the bankruptcy of self. He wants us to know that intimately. But you know what's cool about this? The bankruptcy of self coincides with learning the riches of Christ. Because you and I couldn't handle the peeling of the onion of self without the riches of Christ. You couldn't do it. Or they'd lock you away in the funny farm in a hurry.

Because if you got to see good old self for what he really is, you look at some of these things that people do in the news, well they're pikers compared to what you're capable of. Adolf Hitler was a rookie compared to what my heart can do. I've murdered thousands of people in my mind. Anybody who ever crossed me in my own heart, they were strung up to dry.

So you learn about bankruptcy of self as you're learning about the riches that you have in Christ. And so, like Newell says in his commentary on Romans 2, expect to be blessed even though learning more and more of your unworthiness is the great secret. Bankruptcy of self, going back to one of the answers rattling around in my brain again.

Okay. You know, you said spiritual growth typically starts after two years. You know, you brought up the example of the pastor at 70 years old or whatever. Yeah. You know, in my own life, same, getting busy for years, you know, when you get down to categorize the failures, categorize it. You know, I did it perfectly. Yeah. Oh, you did. Good.

And, you know, and I think, you know, the growth doesn't, you know, You don't find the end of the rope sometimes for 20 years. Yeah, that's true. That's really true. And when you hit the end of the rope, I think it's when the rope really... I mean, it's a process. You're zooming down until the rope snaps. and then you can start to grow. So you know two years and maybe a hundred years over it's not that euphoric. Right. You know. Right. New birth baby and everything provided is wonderful but there's still I think a lot of time where there's no growth until you start heading down.

It may take 20-30 years at least you know the last You know, actually, that's good. Why don't we because that's probably more important to talk about. Let's let's go over to question 18. And, you know, I put I pasted all of the issues or all of the categories. And I dare say everybody in this room fits at least one of these, maybe more than one. You know, we don't need to sit around here and fess up. But you know, without a doubt, as you go down through these things, that it did take a lot of time.

Remember way back when we studied the principles of spiritual growth? Remember what chapter two was? First chapter is faith, second chapter is time. So it takes a long time and one of the reasons it takes a long time is because of these kinds of things that believers get themselves involved in and off they go.

And it's because there's a desire to be, I mean, after all God saved you, you want to be responsive to that, don't you? There's a guy in our Tuesday class that still is overwhelmed by the love of God for saving him and he functions most of the time based on that motive that God loved him enough to save him you know I've told him that there's more coming you know that the love motive isn't enough so in this man I was meeting with in California one of the things that he's in a smaller church now And he's meeting with the pastor of that church who's covenant based and spending time with him.

So far the guy, it's not that he's open, but he's giving him the time to talk to him about dispensational issues and positional truth and that kind of thing. My friend is frustrated because this guy isn't responsive. because he just gets so... and by the way this guy is Jewish he has an intensity for the Lord even though he went to Wheaton College he has an intensity for the Lord that I have seen in few guys but he is out to save the church or whoever he is around he is going to fix it he is not a real fan of this time element. He wants it all done right now. He's a fast food guy.

But you will find pastors and church leaders and people like that that go for years and then wake up. The Green Letters at one time somebody told me was the number one Christian seller in terms of a secondary read that people get it and buy it and put it on the shelf and then 10, 15, 20 years later down it comes and they read it and think, oh wow, what have I missed?

See, so we don't need to be in a hurry, personally, and we certainly don't need to be pushing others. It's spiritual growth, you know. I think we have a tendency at Holly Hills to get the electives done. When in fact there needs to be as much time as God needs for each individual's spiritual growth.

And you learn that. You learn that and then you become an effective servant because you recognize how patient God was with you and how careful he was so that it qualifies you to move in alongside somebody else and to be patient with them. I mean, God will bring a soul in your life and he or she is there forever, for the rest of your life, not for two weeks, two years, or two decades. They're there from now on. Because you don't push somebody, you walk alongside them. And those people can be your children, can be your parents, can be somebody you've loved your whole life.

Is it okay to fail in our Christian lives? Answer yes. So what benefit is there? Failure if any. Creates the need. Well, you think about it. As a young believer in a church that you're in, where's the focus in the church usually? Doesn't matter what the denomination is. Where's the focus? Bring more people in. Get busy. Always something to do. Programs. A minister. All of that kind of stuff. Every church, for the most part, fits that mold, don't they? They just do. And so, when you begin this downward process of failure, what happens to your stature in that church? Yeah, you're not considered... Yeah. Yeah. Or you've lost your faith or you're a backslider. Backslider. They print up tags and stick them on people. Backslider. What's that? When you give more prayer or somebody approaches you and says, well, you know, what's the deal here? You used to do all this really cool stuff and now you're not doing anything. You're failing. So if you know about failure, you're going, yeah. So failure is a good thing, right? Why is it a good thing? Because it weans you away from what is not of the Lord to what is of the Lord. See? I think we have to be taught personally what's not of Him. Because we have preconceived notions about what's pleasing to Him. The week after I got saved, a guy came up and gave me a book. The title of the book is, Now That You're Saved, Here's What You Do. And the whole book was chapters on, here's what Christians do. It's what they do.

I think most of those, and myself, it's almost a program de jure. We're programmed every two or three years.

And until you break that cycle, it wasn't. realizing the need, it wasn't quite the program. Yeah. So you go to the next program. Right. And to the next program. Right. And to the next program. Until, that's why I say the time fact, maybe 30 programs later. Yeah. Nothing. Yeah. And then you're at the end and then you pull out the book and maybe look for it. Yeah. But typically it's not a one, let me say a backslide or a down. Usually it's not. Everything else, it's not that. It's just, okay, now we'll try this program. We'll back up and now we'll try this program and this program.

And until you get off that cycle and realize, that's where I see most people is just on this merry-go-round. The great story about somebody like that was when Harry Ironside took over the pastorship of the Moody Bible Church in Chicago and there's a story about these two elderly women that sat in the front row and after every sermon they come up to them and say, you're coming along sonny. And we're praying for you, you're doing well. And they knew what this guy faced and they encouraged him every week.

Here's next week's stuff, so let's close. Father, how we're thankful for the needs that you bring in our life, that we do need them, and how faithful you are to bring them so that we might grow in the knowledge and grace of your dear son. We thank you, we pray in his name. Amen.