What does it mean that God draws us to salvation?

 

Answer from Got Questions . . . . . 

The clearest verse on God’s drawing to salvation is John 6:44 where Jesus declares that “no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Greek word translated “draw” is helkuo, which means “to drag” (literally or figuratively). Clearly, this drawing is a one-sided affair. God does the drawing to salvation; we who are drawn have a passive role in the process. There is no doubt that we respond to His drawing us, but the drawing itself is all on His part.

Helkuo is used in John 21:6 to refer to a heavy net full of fish being dragged to the shore. In John 18:10 we see Peter drawing his sword, and in Acts 16:19 helkuo is used to describe Paul and Silas being dragged into the marketplace before the rulers. Clearly, the net had no part in its being drawn to the shore, Peter’s sword had no part in being drawn, and Paul and Silas did not drag themselves to the marketplace. The same can be said of God’s drawing of some to salvation. Some come willingly, and some are dragged unwillingly, but all eventually come, although we have no part in the drawing.

Why does God need to draw us to salvation? Simply put, if He didn’t, we would never come. Jesus explains that no man can come unless the Father draws him (John 6:65). The natural man has no ability to come to God, nor does he even have the desire to come. Because his heart is hard and his mind is darkened, the unregenerate person doesn’t desire God and is actually an enemy of God (Romans 5:10). When Jesus says that no man can come without God’s drawing him, He is making a statement about the total depravity of the sinner and the universality of that condition. So darkened is the unsaved person’s heart that he doesn’t even realize it: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, it is only by the merciful and gracious drawing of God that we are saved. In the conversion of the sinner, God enlightens the mind (Ephesians 1:18), inclines the will toward Himself, and influences the soul, without which influence the soul remains darkened and rebellious against God. All of this is involved in the drawing process.

There is a sense in which God draws all men. This is known as the “general call” and is distinguished from the “effectual call” of God’s elect. Passages such as Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 attest to the fact that God’s eternal power and divine nature are “clearly seen” and “understood” from what has been made, “so that people are without excuse.” But men still do deny God, and those who acknowledge His existence still do not come to a saving knowledge of Him outside of His drawing them. Only those who have been drawn through special revelation—by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God—will come to Christ.

There are tangible ways in which those who are being drawn to salvation experience that drawing. First, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinful state and our need for a Savior (John 16:8). Second, He awakens in us a previously unknown interest in spiritual things and creates a desire for them that was never there before. Suddenly our ears are open, our hearts are inclined toward Him, and His Word begins to hold a new and exciting fascination for us. Our spirits begin to discern spiritual truth that never made sense to us before: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Finally, we begin to have new desires. He places within us a new heart that inclines toward Him, a heart that desires to know Him, obey Him, and walk in the “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) that He has promised.

On The Chosen: Jesus Is Not the Law of Moses. He is Far Better.

 by Grayson Gilbert  

Recently, The Chosen posted an image of the actor who plays Christ with a line from season 3 that is supposedly a “mic drop” moment for the show’s producers. It shows the character responding to one of the Pharisees by saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” While many flocked to the post in support of the “mic drop,” many others expressed how flatly unbiblical this is. They rightly said that Jesus is not the Law, but that the Law instead reveals the righteous standard of our thrice holy Lord. Likewise, they were right to say that Jesus came to fulfill the Law in His perfect, active obedience to it all His earthly life.

Contrary to the expression of infamous pastors like Steven Furtick, the active obedience of Christ means that He in no way “violated the Law” out of love. More importantly, the active obedience of Christ is a vicarious obedience. We think of the vicarious substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, meaning that He died in our place as our Substitute, and paid the wrath that we deserved. In the vicarious obedience of Christ, Jesus lived in perfect obedience, likewise, on our behalf. He fulfilled what we could not do: Jesus obeyed the Law, and due to His active obedience, and His passive obedience on the cross, we actually gain the benefit of being counted righteous before God. This is the doctrine of imputed righteousness, which is an alien righteousness—a righteousness not of our own, but Christ’s. This is important, so hang with me.

As we come back to the “mic drop” moment of season 3 in The Chosen, this becomes all the more nefarious. In fact, nowhere in Scripture does Jesus say to anyone, “I am the Law of Moses.” In the book of Mormon, however, you will find such a statement in 3 Nephi 15:9, “Behold, I am the Law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.” That alone should give people enough pause on the show, owing to the fact that Mormonism is a false religion that teaches a contrary gospel to the gospel of our Lord. In short, Mormon doctrine holds that it is your active obedience that will please God in the end, and earn your salvation.

2 Nephi 25:23 states, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (emphasis mine). Often this verse from 2 Nephi is used in conjunction with Moroni 10:32 to give clearer meaning, which says, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God” (emphasis mine). It is quite important to notice the all-important temporal modifiers to these Mormon scriptures, because they explicitly teach that grace is a commodity earned only after one has exhausted their own spiritual muster.

The LDS Bible Dictionary puts it like this:

“This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, ‘It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Ne. 25:23)” (p. 697).

But what does the Bible say of all of this? It is bupkis. Rubbish. Ultimately, it is damnable doctrine. Romans 3:10-20 lays out the plight of mankind so incredibly clearly that it leaves anyone without a source of comfort in their own ability to earn grace. Likewise, Ephesians 2:1-10 displays not only the hopelessness of those born under the dominating power of sin—but it lifts up the reality that we are saved “by grace through faith…and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). The good works which we walk in were prepared beforehand for us by the Father (Eph. 2:10), meaning that even our good works are a production of this grace in us. In other words: even our active obedience to Christ is a display of the riches of God’s grace. They are not what produces salvation, but a production of salvation.

The lynchpin of my argument today though is not the tie The Chosen has to Mormonism, which is without dispute at this point. That should be enough—but for many, it is not. What I want to do then is simply take this “mic drop” moment from The Chosen and show just how flatly unbiblical, and truly sad it actually is. The reason for this is quite simple: Not only does Scripture simply never say in any one of the great “I AM” passages that Jesus Christ is the Law of Moses, Jesus is far better than the Law. Here’s why.

The apostle Paul begins in Romans 7 by describing the plight of mankind before the Law of God because of the dominating power of sin. The problem is not the Law. The Law, as Paul says, is “holy, righteous, and good” (Rom. 7:12). The problem is us. The Law is spiritual, but we are not; we are sold as slaves to sin, bound under obedience to the Law, but unable to keep the Law in perfection as it demands—and the result is that the Law produces death in us. Ultimately, we are caught up between the power of sin and death—we are bound by the flesh, and it is so bad that Paul tells us four results of being bound by the flesh, according to Romans 8:5-8:

The mind set on the flesh is death.


The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.


The mind set on the flesh does not subject itself to the Law of God because it is not even able to do so.


Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is the fundamental problem of the Law. As holy, righteous, and good as it is, it cannot free man from this body of death we bear under the weight and power of sin. The Law was never designed to do this. Even if one takes into account the threefold use of the Law—all should recognize that the Law was never designed to be a means by which sinners are freed from the power of sin and death—but Jesus is powerful enough to deliver us from sin and death. This is why is it so heinous that The Chosen depicts Jesus Christ saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” It equates Christ with the Law, rather than with Him being the second person of the Trinity, who is far greater than the Law.

The Law could not set you and I free from sin and death—but Jesus did. The Law was powerless to free one from the condemnation they deserve—but Jesus is not. This is why so many find comfort in Paul’s argument in Romans 8:1-4:

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

What rendered death in us before and bound us all under the power of sin—is no longer binding us. We’ve been freed, not only from the power of sin and death, but from the judgment to come, and this is particularly why the gospel is such good news. The hopelessness of being bound by the flesh in death, hostility toward God, our inability to subject ourselves to God’s Law, and our utter inability to please God, has been replaced by a renewed hope under the law of the Spirit. The Spirit dwells within us (Rom. 8:9), gives us life (Rom. 8:10-11), enables us to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:12-13), allows us to be called “Sons of God” (Rom. 8:14-15), and testifies that we are His children (Rom. 8:16) and heirs to the promises of God (Rom. 8:17). The Law does none of these things.

Perhaps greatest of all though is that the Law was powerless to cleanse us from the stain of sin, but Christ’s sacrifice was not. Hebrews 10 speaks of this wonderful reality, showing that the Law was merely a shadow of the glorious things to come through Christ. It could never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to God in worship (Heb. 10:2). But Jesus can. Instead of a continual reminder of the power of sin and death, we have a perfect sacrifice found in Jesus Christ, who satisfied the wrath of God and rendered us pure and blameless before the Father. In other words, we are truly counted righteous.

And this is where the vicarious obedience of Christ comes full circle—because it is only through the active obedience of Jesus Christ that we have come to be counted righteous (Rom. 5:19). It is only because the Son lived in perfect obedience to the Law that He could offer up His life in our place, and truly satisfy the wrath of God. To tie that all together: Christ proved that He was not only greater than the Law by this, but showed He was greater than the power of sin and death. Sin might take advantage of the commandment and produce death in us (Rom. 7:8), but it could not in Christ.

Did the producers of The Chosen intend to knock against all of this? Perhaps not. It is difficult to say, simply owing to how steeped in Mormon doctrine the show is—but I am inclined to not give them the benefit of the doubt as so many wish to do. This is their “gotcha” moment. This is their proverbial “mic drop.” But this isn’t quite the mic drop they believe it to be. Rather than showing people a genuinely biblical portrayal of Christ and His power over sin and death, they display an impotent Jesus, who is powerless to actually save people from their sins. Instead, they show a Jesus who is mastered by the dominating power of sin. That’s what truly gets communicated in one little line, because that’s what the Scriptures say about the Law. When you equate Jesus with the Law of Moses, that’s what you get.

Unfortunately, many don’t see this, but have fawned over the mic drop and been reduced to tears. They have, in other words, been profoundly impacted by the show—but in all the wrong ways and for all the wrong reasons. The sad reality is that until professing Christians start to pick up their Bibles and critically examine shows like these, those of us who do so will continue to be labeled curmudgeons, and “fun-ripper-outers.” In part, I’ll take that because I am sardonically asking along with Maximus Decimus Meridus to the blood-thirsty crowd who watched him dispatch of another in the gladiatorial arena, “Are you not entertained?” Things should not be this way, but they are.

What the show relies on is an ignorance of what the Scriptures actually teach, which is to say precisely why it is so popular. It offers much of the same style of Christianity pervading the Evangelical world currently, where the inch-deep, mile-wide preaching of the Word, the “At the Movies” canned sermon series, and the vapid emotionalism brought on by manipulative “worship” music laden with sentimental musical prompts, are commonplace. Indeed, it brings people to see Jesus—just not the biblical Jesus; but it is highly entertaining, is it not? The problem is that we keep asking the wrong question. The question isn’t if it is entertaining, but why so many are entertained at the expense of biblical truth.

Obedience versus Relationship

 

Obedience to God is all about relationship
By James Washington For The St. Louis American



I’m sure I’ve written on this before, but I thought the significance of obedience was important enough to repeat here. It occurs to me that obedience to God is, or certainly should be, an exercise in ‘want to’ as opposed to ‘have to.’

The analogy given in church is simple enough. When parents enforce rules and discipline with regard to their children, if the child is to respond out of respect and love, a relationship must exist between parent and child.


If a wholesome relationship does indeed exist, then the child’s love for the parent will result in that child wanting to comply.

If all one does is obey the rules because of the consequences and punishment associated with disobeying the rules, then the rules generally get thrown out the window when the rule-maker is no longer around.

I guess what I’m saying is that when grounded in love, people want to respond favorably according to the wishes and will of the person who is the object of that love. By our very nature we want to look good in the eyes of someone we’re trying to impress.

Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.’’ John 14:23.

Examine this use of the term “obey.” What Christ is saying is the same thing that many a mother and a father believe about their kids.

First and foremost, we all know the things that would upset mom and dad. We know this because they spent a lifetime (yours) instilling values and integrity into your character.

You might still do things they wouldn’t condone, but you certainly know the difference between the right and wrong of it because of your upbringing. That upbringing, if nurtured in the spirit of love, reveals to all of us the source and nature of the consequences and the resulting discipline.

It’s all about love. Y’all know that ‘this is going to hurt me more than it’s gonna hurt you’ thing.



Christ is merely reminding us that if you love him, then obeying his rules, his teachings, which were given to us out of the love of the Father, should come from the heart. Our desire to please should override our mere compliance to the rules.

The point is obedience to God has so much more to do with wanting to do the right thing for the right reason, than doing the right thing because it is law, punishment notwithstanding.

One is the result of relationship and the other is the result of fear of consequence.

Throughout scripture, Jesus constantly refers to the love of the Father. How many of you do what your mother would expect of you and your mother has been dead for many a year? How many of you pass those same expectations along to your kids? Why?

I submit that you do this because of the relationship you had/have with your mother. That’s why I’m convinced that the key to understanding obedience to God is establishing, or for many of us re-establishing, a relationship with the Almighty. This is achieved by studying his word, getting inside of his commandments and examining the life of Jesus Christ, who because of a love thing with his Father, carried out Hhs Father’s wishes to the letter.

“I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.’’ John 14:30-31.

To obey should be an act of love. Our goal should be to understand God’s love for us and to simply do our best to return it; acting accordingly, so to speak.

May God bless and keep you always.

Young Minds

Train up a child in the way he should go;

 even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led

astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  2 Cor 11:3

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and 

have it abundantly.  John 10:10

And give no opportunity to the devil.  Eph 4:27

Study Less, Obey More

All God's revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy and thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God's truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know it is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and immediately the next thing is opened up. One reads tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit, when one five minutes of drastic obedience would make things as clear as a sunbeam. "I suppose I shall understand these things some day!" You can understand them now. It is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience and heaven opens up and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you know already.

Oswald Chambers

Live Before You Die - day 9

If you are still breathing, it is never too late for God to intervene and restore what the locust and canker worm have eaten.  Disobedience to God's will is not a trivial matter.  God's grace does not guarantee that we will never have to live with negative consequences of our actions.  Many times, even though God forgives and restores, there are still scars that remain from disobedience, and often the process of correcting our errant route is long and painful.

If you are going in the wrong direction, before you do anything else, you need to stop!  Even if your mistake was not caused by deliberate disobedience against the known will of God, you need to acknowledge your mistake and ask for forgiveness.

For the child of God repentance should be a lifestyle.  To repent means to "turn," to change one's mind and direction.  We tend to think of repentance as primarily turning away from something, as in turning away from sin and making a one-hundred-eighty-degree change to the opposite direction. It is what you turn to that makes the difference. If we think of repentance only as a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn, then we fail to understand that sometimes a minor but crucial fine-tuning is necessary to keep us calibrated with the heart of God.

Repentance is the practice of the righteous.  We must constantly turn our hearts to God - from darkness to light, from the flesh to the Spirit, from the temporal to the eternal, from death unto life.  Sometimes repentance may have nothing to do with sin at all.  It may simply be a slight correction in mind-set or attitude that brings our spirits back into alignment with the Spirit of God.  Turn to Jesus and you will automatically turn from sin.

There is a big difference between learning from the past and living in it.  We need to learn from our mistakes lest we repeat them. But we cannot go back and change the past. We must move on with the remaining time we have and live from this moment forward in obedience to the will of God.  To live in the past is to insult the spirit of grace and the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.  He paid the price so you could be forgiven from the mistakes of the past.  If you have been washed in the blood of Jesus, God does not condemn you, and neither should you condemn yourself.

Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die

Live Before You Die - day 6

God's kingdom is intended not to be confined behind the stained-glass windows of beautiful churches but to permeate the planet. The kingdom of heaven is designed to grow, multiply, and infiltrate all that it comes in contact with........

That can never happen if the only ones doing the work of the ministry are the apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists.  Instead God's plan is for the real work of the ministry to be done by the plumbers, the high school teachers, the landscapers, the lawyers, and the doctors.  We need men and women who carry the glory of God and the gospel witness into the White House, Hollywood, Wall Street, Main Street, and every other area of culture and society.

The New Testament pattern is for those in fivefold ministry offices to serve the body of Christ by equipping the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12).  The real ministers and ambassadors of God's kingdom to the world, the real players on the field, are the hundreds of millions of blood-washed saints who make up the body of Christ.  What a tragic loss we have incurred by perpetuating the mentality that the few of us in fivefold ministry are the "real" ministers and the rest are just spectators.

In reality, most Christians are called to serve God in "secular" spheres of influence.  But one thing is certain: no matter what God calls you to do, it is for His glory and for the expansion of His kingdom.  This is not about personal satisfaction.

Whether God calls you to full-time, vocational ministry or calls you to be His ambassador in the world of business, science, government, entertainment, or wherever, the principles are the same, the keys to discovering God's will are the same, the challenges and pitfalls are the same and, in the end, the reward will be the same.  Contrary to what many people believe, God does not reward us based on how many people we lead to Jesus.  He rewards us based on our obedience and faithfulness to His call and will.  May you be faithful and obedient in whatever field He calls you to so that in the end you will hear those words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" (Matt 25:21).

Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die

 

Live Before You Die - day 5

Preconceptions produce misconceptions that can blind us to what is obvious, and this happens to many people as they seek God's will for their lives.

Those things that bring confusion and over analysis need to be dropped.  Start with simple, childlike faith.  Trust that God has a plan He is trying to reveal to you. Believe that He wants you to discover it more than you want to discover it!

God's call to Abraham did not include specific coordinates, just a call to go.  As Abraham obeyed, God revealed His plan one step at a time.  ........more often than not God reveals His will in a much less extravagant fashion, and it often unfolds slowly, layer by layer over time rather than in a single, earth-shattering epiphany.

If God revealed His ultimate plan for our lives from the beginning, we would often find ourselves chasing a dream rather than following Him.  God didn't want to just send Abraham to his inheritance; God wanted to lead him there.

God's will is never revealed in such a way that it negates our need for dependence upon Him.  The real reward for following God is God Himself.  He calls to us to see if we will follow even without knowing all the details.  When He sees that we take a step of obedience, then He gives us the next step.

Jesus laid out a principle in Luke 16:10 that is absolutely essential in the quest to discover God's will for our lives.  Jesus said, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much:  and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."  God calls us to small things before He calls us to great things. Many people want God to speak audibly from heaven and give them direction, yet they aren't following the small directions they already have.  If you aren't doing what you already know to do, why should God give you more instructions?  If you aren't being faithful in the small things, why should God entrust you with more important things?

As you follow Him in obedience, step by step and day by day, the picture will become clearer and He will entrust you with more and more. Eventually the day will come when you will look back on the many steps you took in faith and obedience, and you will see how the Lord carefully and strategically orchestrated each one in a way you never could have engineered in your own strength or wisdom.

Daniel Kolenda, Live before you die

Prayer from Iran

Max Lucado's

Jesus Washes the Disciples Feet

It has been a long day. Jerusalem is packed with Passover guests, most of whom clamor for a glimpse of the Teacher. The spring sun is warm. The streets are dry. And the disciples are a long way from home. A splash of cool water would be refreshing.

The disciples enter [the room], one by one, and take their places around the table. On the wall hangs a towel, and on the floor sits a pitcher and a basin. Any one of the disciples could volunteer for the job, but not one does.

After a few moments, Jesus stands and removes his outer garment. He wraps a servant’s girdle around his waist, takes up the basin, and kneels before one of the disciples. He unlaces a sandal and gently lifts the foot and places it in the basin, covers it with water, and begins to bathe it. One by one, one grimy foot after another, Jesus works his way down the row.

In Jesus’ day the washing of feet was a task reserved not just for servants but for the lowest of servants…The servant at the bottom of the totem pole was expected to be the one on his knees with the towel and basin.

In this case the one with the towel and basin is the king of the universe. Hands that shaped the stars now wash away filth. Fingers that formed mountains now massage toes. And the one before whom all nations will one day kneel now kneels before his disciples. Hours before his own death, Jesus’ concern is singular. He wants his disciples to know how much he loves them...

You can be sure Jesus knows the future of these feet he is washing. These twenty-four feet will not spend the next day following their master, defending his cause. These feet will dash for cover at the flash of a Roman sword. Only one pair of feet won’t abandon him in the garden. One disciple won’t desert him at Gethsemane—Judas won’t even make it that far! He will abandon Jesus that very night at the table…

What a passionate moment when Jesus silently lifts the feet of his betrayer and washes them in the basin!

Jesus knows what these men are about to do. He knows they are about to perform the vilest act of their lives. By morning they will bury their heads in shame and look down at their feet in disgust. And when they do, he wants them to remember how his knees knelt before them and he washed their feet…

He forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.

Prayer for March 5

O God, Because I acknowledge that I can only live with discipline, you give me that discipline; such knowledge is a great mercy.  Thus I ask you most humbly: Cleanse my heart and make it holy through repentance and faith, through the Holy Spirit and through rebirth.  Strengthen me, so I do not let any impure spirit control or possess me.  Amen.

Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.  James 4:8

The Center of Your World

Narcissistic Personality Disorder may soon be dropped from the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  Why?  Essentially because it's now considered just a manifestation of normal personality.   But here is the problem - dropping it from the manual is essentially throwing in the towel and waving a white flag where self-centeredness exists.  It will basically be telling our culture it's OKAY to be a narcissist, just not an extreme one - well, not for now anyway. 

We have become such a society of me, me, me.  The minute our feet hit the floor in the morning it's  - "how do I feel?"  "I need a cup of coffee."  "What do I feel like doing today?"  "Which outfit should I wear?"  And it only gets worse as the day wears on. "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm lonely, I'm rich, I'm poor, I'm fat, I'm thin, I'm just right, I'm smart, I'm dumb," etc.  It's not necessarily what we are, it's that we're constantly thinking of ourselves in every thought throughout the day.

Now one would think that a culture filled with people looking for self-gratification would be brimming with lots of self-fulfilled, satisfied people. But they couldn't be more wrong. Our culture is actually brimming with divorce, drug use, spousal abuse, child abuse, alchoholism, crime, suicide, etc.  There is just one problem with the theory that self-gratification leads to self-fulfillment.  Self.  We cannot look to ourselves for any kind of gratification or fulfilment.  It's impossible.  Our fulfillment comes from the One who created us and gave us our purpose to begin with - God.  And He created us to bring Him glory.  So how could we be fulfillers of our own desires?  Wouldn't we then be giving ourselves the glory?   But we weren't created for that purpose.  And when we don't fulfill our purpose we end up with a society full of miserable, misguided people looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

Then there are those who believe that helping others will bring them happiness. After all, they've taken the focus off of themselves and placed it on others.  Or have they?  We look to their motivation and often find they are patting themselves on the back for a job well done - whether publicly or privately. And the happiness is fleeting.

Our goal is not to do good on this Earth. Our goal is to do God's will and then give Him the glory. And by doing that we no longer puff ourselves up thinking we are "good" when in fact, we are fallen.   When we are in the center of God's will, we have a sense of peace and joy.  We can know that we are fulfilling our purpose on this Earth by bringing Him glory. It means we have truly taken the focus off of ourselves and placed it on God, who will then guide us to those He wants us to serve. 

We don't need to "know ourselves" - at least not the way all the self-help books and programs tell us we should.  By listening to them we only continue to put ourselves in the center of our world.  Jesus is the one we truly need to know and place in the center of our lives.  He will then help us to know his Father.  And it is He who knows us better than we could ever know ourselves.  God created us to bring Him glory and with a purpose in mind.  He will guide us to accomplish that purpose if we allow Him.

Prayer for February 20

O Lord, Heavenly Father, from whom all good and perfect gifts come. O Father of light, who causes us both to desire and to do your good pleasure; O Lord Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of faith; O Holy Spirit, who works in all things according to your plan: We ask you to continue the good work that you began in us, until the coming of Jesus Christ.  May we become richer in all kinds of knowledge and experience so we may learn what is best.  May we remain pure and blameless.  May we be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which were produced in us by Jesus Christ, for the glory of God.  Amen.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

Prayer for January 25

When You, O God, emerge in splendor from your ivory palace, your garments are noble myrrh, aloe, and cassia.  You are the King of Glory, strong and powerful, mighty in battle.  Fling wide the door and unbar the gate so that the King of Glory may enter!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the Lord God who enlightens us.  O Lord, aid us so that we will succeed!  You have removed sin, curses, and death, and you have blessed us eternally in heavenly places.  Give your people power, strength, and victory over all spiritual and physical enemies.  Amen.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.  Lamentations 3:25-26

Prayer for January 23

You are our Creator and Provider, O Lord and heavenly Father, under whose gracious protection we have mercifully passed this night in peaceful rest.  For this we praise and thank you!  But, dear Father, where we have in some way abused your kindness against your divine will, we freely confess and ask that you would forgive us for the sake of your dear Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

But now thus saith the Lord that created thee . . . Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by they name; thou art mine.  Isaiah 43:1

Prayer for January 12

O Gracious, kind, loving Lord Jesus Christ!  Gentle, humble, patient Lord! You left us a beautiful, virtuous example of a holy life so that we might follow in your footsteps.  You are an immaculate mirror of all virtues, a perfect example of holiness, an irreproachable measure of piety, and a sure standard of righteousness.  How different my sinful life is compared to your just life!  Amen

He restoreth my soul:  He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.   Psalm 23:3

Prayer for January 10

Remember, Lord, Your mercy and your kindness, which you have shown since the dawn of time.  Do not remember the sins of our youth, nor our wrongdoing, but remember us according to your mercy, for the sake of your goodness.

Give us true repentance, heartfelt remorse, and grief over our sins, O Lord Jesus - a godly sorrow, one that prepares our hearts to receive your comfort and forgiveness.  Give us the spirit of love, gentleness, humility, devotion, reverence, mercy, and prayer so that we and all the saints may possess your kingdom with love and eternal life.  Amen.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.  Galatians 5:22

Prayer for January 6

Holy Spirit, we take comfort in the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has had mercy on us.  We give Him thanks and praise for this, with the sincere hope that He will never abandon us.  Without ceasing, He represents us to His heavenly Father; indeed, He does so for all who have surrendered themselves to Him.

Inasmuch as you, Holy Spirit, are the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us also enjoy such devotion, love, and kindness.  Pour your mighty strength into us, and give those who are weak in faith, yet who submit themselves to you in word and truth, a new, reborn heart.  Amen.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17

Confronting Sin in the Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

by John MacArthur

The Lord's Table is certainly a time for remembering; a time for remembering the death of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ. A time for considering the great realities of the cross, substitution, atonement, satisfaction, propitiation, expiation; all of those terms that define some aspect of the great work of Christ on the cross.

And in fact the theological glories of the cross have been the inexhaustible theme of millions of sermons for 2,000 years. The cross and the remembrance of our Lord's work there. It certainly draws us to a very careful consideration of the nature of God as he reveals in one great event both his wrath and his mercy.
A consideration of the cross causes us to look at the person of Christ to consider his humanity as he dies as a man. And consider at the same time his deity as he forgives the sin of the one dying beside him and promises himself to rise from the dead.
Looking at the cross also points out the horrible plight of lost sinners who are so deep in sin that one must pay such a penalty to free them from it. It is also a time to consider the hope of saints who in the death of Christ find their great release and hope of eternal glory.
There's much to remember and when you look back at the cross, and we do time and time again, you must consider all of those wonderful realities that are part of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's also a time to look at our own lives to consider the sin in us. The apostle Paul laid down a very straightforward command for those who come to the Lord's Table. This is what he wrote: "Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick and a number sleep or literally are dead but if we judged ourselves rightly we should not be judged. But when we are judged we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world."
Paul says, "When you come to the Lord's Table it is a time for self judgment. It is a time for self examination so that you can avoid the discipline of God. It is a time to come in a worthy way and that means having confronted and dealt with sin in your own life."
Here is a call to self examination. And every time we come to the Lord's Table we not only look back but we look in. It's a time for us to examine our own hearts. It's really reminiscent of the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 verses 23 and 24 who said, "When you come to bring an offering or when you come to worship if there's something that isn't right between you and someone else, leave, make it right then come back."
It is to that theme of self examination, that theme of dealing with sin in our lives, that theme of worthiness and the avoidance of judgment and chastening, that I want to call your attention this morning.
We are called not only to remember but we are called to be holy. We are called not only to proclaim the cross but we are called to live a godly virtuous holy life. We are called to bring heaven down. We pray thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and there's only one place where that can happen and that's the church. The church is the only heaven the world can see and heaven is a place of holiness and the church must be as well.
If we are to bring down heaven we have to bring down what's going on in heaven. And what is going on there is the worship of God, the exaltation of Jesus Christ and holiness. The church of the redeemed should be a holy place and coming to the Lord's Table forces us to deal with those issues because we cannot participate unless we have.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 7 some of you will remember a few weeks ago when we were studying that great chapter. And we were reminded of the words of Paul who said "Let us cleanse our selves from our defilement of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
Each of us personally must attend to the matter of holiness by bringing our sin before God, confessing it, repenting of it and seeking a path of obedience. We are called to deal with sin. Sin is a reality in every Christian's life. We don't deny that because we're Christians doesn't mean we deny sin. Quite the contrary, we of all people confess it.
To deny sin is foolish particularly in the light of the Scripture 1 John 1:8, the apostle John writes, "If we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us". Verse 10, "if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us".
Two things happen when you deny sin, you deceive yourself and you make God a liar because God affirms that indeed we are sinful. James 3:2 says, "We all stumble in many ways." Paul said, "Oh, retched man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death." We have not been freed.
James 1:21, "From all that remains of wickedness, we still have remaining wickedness to deal with. And in order for us to let our light shine so that men can see our good works and glorify our father in heaven, in order for us to be useful to him in serving him, in order for our worship to have any meaning at all we have to deal with sin.
We all know what the Bible says. Sin devastates us in our worship, in our service. It takes our joy, our peace, our love, our assurance, our youthfulness. It poisons the church with its permeating influence like leaven as Paul discusses it in 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 and says, "You've got to put out that sinning person because a little leaven leaven's the whole lump."
Sin weakens our confidence in God. It weakens our trust. Sin steals our anticipation of the return of Christ and robs us of the hope of heaven. Sin destroys our ministry because we become vessels unfit for the master's use.
And we must add that sin cannot easily be dealt with. Paul said, "I have to die daily. I have to constantly beat my body into submission." And he said, "I can't do it in the flesh having begun in the spirit I can't be made perfect in the flesh", Galatians 3:3. "It is a supernatural, spiritual divine matter to battle this remaining wickedness. It does not rest easy. It fights all the way but it must be dealt with." This is true individually as we well know and we are all before God called to deal with the sins in our lives.
But I want to go beyond that if I may this morning and remind us that it is also a corporate issue. It is also a corporate issue. We all know that a chain is not stronger than its weakest link. And the testimony of a church is no greater than its weakest member.
We all collectively have to demonstrate to the watching world the power of the saving gospel; the power of the transforming God who has changed us and put his spirit within us. We must do that collectively if we are going to let his glories shine. And so then I must be concerned not only about my sin but I must be concerned about yours as well because your sin may debilitate my testimony as much as my own.
We must be concerned about our own holiness. We must be concerned about the holiness of the church. Back in 1 Corinthians a little earlier than where we read in chapter 11 in the 5 chapter which I referred to a moment ago. Paul says in verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 5, "Clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. Wherever there is sinful influence in the church, clean it out," he says. "So you are unleaven. So there's no sin in the church. Clean it out."
What do you mean Paul? Verse 9, "I wrote to you in my letter." The first letter which we don't have it wasn't inspired and included in the cannon of Scripture but it was written nonetheless. "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people." You have to make a break with immoral people and I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetes and swindlers or with idolaters. And for then you would have to go out of the world.
I'm not talking about not associating with unbelievers in the world but verse 11 actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so called brother if he should be an immoral person or covetes or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler. Not even to eat with such a one. In other words, you've got to make sure that you deal with sin that you put out the evil influence of a sinning person and that you have nothing to do with an immoral person.
Verse 12, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders." Do you not judge those who are within the church? We're not sitting in judgment on the world. We've got to deal with the church. In all honesty, I grieve in my heart that Christians can get so upset, and so anxious, and so distressed, and so disturbed, and so militant, and so aggressive, and so involved in dealing with the sins of non-Christians, but they do.
They create major enterprises to deal with the sins of non-Christians. Getting involved in matters with regard to pornography, matters with regard to homosexuality, matters with regard to a social injustice; problems in the court system, inequities, matters in regard to the pollution of the minds of children in the education system.
They get involved with all those kinds of things; trying to stop abortion in our society. And people become militantly involved in those things who wouldn't turn a finger to deal with the sin of a believer in their own congregation. And yet that is the priority. That is the priority.
We are to be so much heaven on earth that people look at us and see holiness. Something that is utterly other worldly and completely uncommon and unfamiliar to them. The Lord is not asking us to deal with the sins of the unconverted first but rather to deal with the sins of the Christians, who thus through their holy living can become a shining light and the testimony of the power of God of forgiveness, and thus have impact on the Christian -- on the non-Christians who've sinned.
Jesus even gave us a pattern for this in Matthew 18, he said, "You go to your brother if he sins and confront him. If he repents you've gained your brother. If he doesn't you take two or three witnesses. If it still doesn't work tell the church which means you send the whole church after them. If they still don't repent you put them out of the church."
That is a pattern for dealing with sin in the church. It is absolutely crucial we do that. It is a rare communion service when we don't have to do that publicly, isn't it? And this morning, thank God, is one of those rare occasions. That's a good indication that we're doing our best to deal with sin. We do it communion, after communion, after communion.
And that's only the end of the process. If it ever gets here it's a step three or step four. Steps one and steps two are going on all the time as believers confront each other with the issues of sin. When you come to the Lord's Table, beloved, you must come here having dealt with sin in your life and done everything you can to deal with sin in the lives of others so that we help them. So that they don't come in an unworthy manner. So that they don't desecrate the Lord's table and harm the testimony of his beloved church.
Now there are a lot of passages of Scripture that we could look at to address this issue of dealing with sin in each other's lives but I want you to turn to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6, a very familiar text and briefly in the time of meditation before we share in the Lord's Table I want to make a few comments about this passage.
There is always the threat I suppose and the real threat that if you get engaged in the confrontation of sin it can become ugly. It can become pharisaical. It can become humanly judgmental. People can abuse the privilege of doing that and can be conducted in the wrong manner and with the wrong attitude. In Galatians 6, is a corrective to all of that in such that frame of mind in place for how we are to deal with sin in the lives of other. "Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit gentleness each one looking to yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the Law of Christ." We'll stop at that point.
Paul says, "If a man is caught in a trespass." A paruptema is the Greek word, a fall. The Bible talks about sin as a fall. The Bible talks about sin as a stumbling, tripping up, that's simply a term for sin. Someone is in sin. You know it. It says, "You who are spiritual restore such a one."
The responsibility for dealing with sin in the church belongs to those that are spiritual that's very important. The responsibility for confrontation belongs to those who are spiritual. The spiritual have to go to the fleshly or carnal. You who are spiritual, who are they? Who are the spiritual?
Well, let me help you to understand that because it's very important. Being spiritual has nothing to do with how long you've been a Christian. It has nothing to do with whether you've been a Christian for ten minutes or fifty years. Being spiritual is not something relative to time or knowledge or experience or exposure. Being spiritual is something absolute.
From the moment of your conversion, at any point in time till now, you were either spiritual or carnal. Being spiritual simply means you are walking in the spirit. And he picks it right up from the passage just prior in chapter 5 verse 16 where he says, "Walk in the spirit." Verse 25, "If we live by the spirit let us also walk by the spirit." That means to walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit; to walk in obedience to the word which the spirit has given us in Scripture. To be filled with the spirit. If you desire you could even add to bear the fruit of the spirit.
Verses 22 and 22, "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control." A spiritual person is simply an obedient believer. A spirit controlled, spirit filled, selfless believer walking in obedience to the word of God and the will of God in the power of the spirit of God.
And that can be true of you at any time. It's not the same as being mature. Maturity is relative to time, and knowledge, and experience, and exposure. Spirituality is an absolute. You either are spiritual or carnal depending on whether you are obedient or disobedient whether you are God centered, Christ centered, spirit centered or self centered.
But only a spiritual believer can be of any help to a carnal one. So when a believer falls into fleshly conduct, fleshly behavior, which is described for us earlier, the flesh manifests itself in things like "immorality", verse 19, "impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these."
When people fall into that, those are evidences that they are walking in the flesh. Spiritual believers must come to their rescue that's basic in the church in the family of God.
Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 for a moment and just another look at this concept of spiritual. In the words of Paul as he writes to them in chapter 3 verse 1 he says, "I couldn't speak to you as spiritual. I had to speak to you as fleshly. I couldn't give you solid food. I had to give you simple things; milk. I had to treat you like an infant." Why? Verse 3, "You're still fleshly." And how does that manifest itself? "Jealousy, strife." And he says, "You are walking like mere men." That's what it is to be fleshly. It's to just conduct yourself like an unconverted person.
Paul says, "You are fleshly rather than spiritual." But only a spiritual believer can help a fleshly one. That's why we want to take care of our own lives and deal with the sin in our own lives so that we can be of benefit, encouragement, strength to other believers.
Romans 15:1 says, "The spiritually strong have to bear the weaknesses of those without strength." 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 14 says, "That we are to admonish the ruly -- unruly, encourage the fainthearted and help the weak."
James at the end of his Epistle speaks to those who are weak and says, "Is any among you weak," that term meaning weak rather than having some illness, "call for the elders of the church let them pray over him, massaging him with oil in the name of the Lord." In other words, when you're in a spiritually weak condition you go to the spiritually strong for strength and intercession on your behalf.
The spiritual pick-up, the fleshly, that's how it is in the church. We have to be all about that. Church isn't something you attend. Church is a way of life. It's living in a community of people who are concerned about holiness enough to confront sin. But you do it with the right attitude.
Let's go back to Galatians and begin to look at the attitude that is required in this confrontation. "Restore", an interesting verb," that our over means to mend or to fix or to repair. You go to this person you help them see their sin. You bring them to confess that sin and to repent of that sin. That's the three step process.
You help them to see the sin, confess indeed that they have committed it, and repent of it which is a determination to turn from it and walk in obedience. But you must do that with a right attitude and that attitude is indicated there. "Restore such a one in a spirit or an attitude of gentleness -- in an attitude of gentleness each one looking to yourself lest you too be tempted."
There's no place for abuse, cruelty, harshness, unkindness, maliciousness. And I suppose there's no better illustration of how this works then John gave us in the eighth chapter of his gospel; a graphic scene that shows us the spirit of Jesus in restoring the sinner.
Jesus went to the temple verse 2 after a night at the Mount of Olives. And all the people were coming to him and he sat down and began to teach them. And typically the scribes in Pharisees wanted to capture him and catch him in his words.
So they brought a woman caught in adultery. They literally went somewhere and the question has always been asked how did they know where to go find a woman in adultery. They may have known well. They brought a woman caught in adultery and they just threw her into the middle of the group Jesus was teaching.
And they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery in the very act." This was a sorted scene. This is a pretty potent, powerful moment. This is a captivating, traumatizing event. They've yanked this woman right out of an adulterous act thrown her right into the Temple ground in the front of Jesus in the midst of the crowd. And they said in verse 5, "Now in the Law of Moses commanded us to stone such women but what do you say."
And again they probably have been staying up nights trying to conceive of this plot because if Jesus says don't do it. Moses said let her go. Then Jesus is in violation of the Mosaic Law and is self condemned with the Jews. If on the other hand, Jesus says grab some stones and kill her he will be condemned by the Romans because the Romans have taken away the right to take a life from the Jews.
So he is between those two alternatives and they were saying this testing him in order that they might have grounds for accusing him. They were either going to accuse him before the Jews for denying the Mosaic Law or accuse him before the Romans for calling for an execution but Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground. It doesn't say what he wrote. He might have written a few sins there one after the other perhaps. Or he might have just patiently doodled. We don't know. That's hard to imagine, frankly. But some have suggested that. It's hard to be sure.
When they persisted in asking him he straightened up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you let him be the first to throw a stone at her." This is again divine brilliance. And he stooped down and he wrote on the ground some more. It may have been that he was writing sins.
When they heard what he said they began to go out one by one beginning with the older ones because they had more sins to remember. And they knew they were not without sin. And he was left alone. And there was the woman right in the middle.
And straightening up Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way." "From now on", what? "Sin no more." That's how you pick somebody up. That's how you do it.
Considering yourself those Pharisees and scribes knew they had no right to throw a stone. They just turned and walked away. They knew their own lives. Before you get abusive, judgmental, condemning, malicious, unkind towards someone else consider yourself.
Jesus did not destroy this woman. He just picked her up and restored her. And then told her don't sin any more.
Sometimes the church can be pretty malicious. Someone wrote, "I have often thought that if I ever fall into such a trespass like that woman I pray that I don't land in the hands of censorious, critical, self righteous judges who are in my church. Let me fall into the hand of the bartender, street walkers or dope peddlers rather than church people who tear me apart with their long wagging, gossiping tongues cutting me to shreds."
It shouldn't be that way. I suppose it is. It's not that way here. Thank the Lord. But we come, we mend, repair, fix, lift up in a spirit of gentleness. That very gentleness mentioned back in chapter 5 verse 23 is a fruit of the spirit. We treat people with tenderness, with gentleness as the Scripture continually commands us to do. Looking to ourselves, considering our own lives, and realizing that we really could fall just like they did to the same temptation. Jesus obviously couldn't do that but he does demonstrate to us how to restore.
And it reminds me of Matthew 12:20 where Isaiah the prophet is quoted and Isaiah says of the Messiah this magnificent statement, "A battered read he will not break off. A smoldering wick he will not put out." Both the battered reed and the smoldering wick are metaphors. They are pictures. They're illustrations of broken people. And the messiah when he comes isn't going to destroy broken people.
Shepherds in ancient Israel used to take reeds that they would find growing in the land and they would cut them and make them into flutes. Reed flutes were the common musical instrument used often by shepherds and they would play them and play them.
And eventually because of the fact that they were exposed to the weather and they weren't particularly valuable and maybe not cared for as you might care for something precious. And because of the saliva from the mouth of the shepherd blown into them they would eventually become soft in the middle and they would lose the ability to make any music.
Perhaps a time would come when they even became brittle and cracked or a portion of them broke and the shepherd might just take such a useless flute and snap it in half or break it in half and toss it away because it couldn't make any music any more. But when the messiah comes he won't take the flute that can't make music and break it. He'll restore its song.
In those times, they had little oil lamps with oil in them and the wick would float on the surface of the oil. The wick occasionally would get down to the place where all it did was smolder with smoke and someone would reach over and extinguish that irritating, smoking, flickering wick. But when the messiah comes he doesn't do that. He doesn't extinguish the bear light. He fans it back into full flame.
That's the tenderness and the compassion and the grace and the kindness that the messiah will exhibit in restoring. And that's exactly what he did with the women there when he picked her up, forgave her sin, and restored her.
That's what we're called to do beloved. That's how we do it in the church. And verse 2 defines that for us in some very simple terms, that's called bearing one another's burdens. That's what it's called.
I think sometimes we assume that bearing one another's burdens is sort of sharing prayer requests about things that aren't quite intimate. I think sometimes we think bearing one another's burdens is helping each other financially to be able to get through a difficult time. And certainly there is truth in that but bear one another's burdens here has to do with something very specific.
The word burdens here is heavy loads. Hard to carry. It's not even the same, for example, as down in verse 5 where it says "Each one shall bear his own load." There you have a word load that simply means duty. It doesn't particularly mean something really heavy just the normal routine generic deals of life.
But here we're talking about a different issue; heavy, heavy loads. And when you bear one's heavy, heavy load you really fulfill the law of Christ. And what is the law of Christ? The law of Christ is John 13:34, "Jesus says a new commandment I give unto you that you," what? "Love one another." That's the law of Christ. That's the new law.
That's what James called the royal law or the law of liberty; the new law. It's the law of loving one another as I have loved you. And that loving one another means that after you have lifted up and restored this person you continue to be there to help them shoulder this heavy, heavy, heavy load. And that's how you share your love. You, like those elders in James 5, you massage that person. You rub that person as it were infusing strength into them and you continue to do that.
Now, what is that heavy load? Well, very simply two things -- two things. One, it is inordinately familiar temptation. It is that same old temptation that always comes and comes and comes. And we all know that we have patterns of temptation; those temptations to which we have fallen many, many times. Those temptations that we just can't seem to conquer.
There are some temptations that are weak in our lives. We have strong resistance to them for whatever reasons. But there are other temptations to which we have great susceptibility. They become our heavy burdens. They become heavy loads hard to carry on our own.
And they lead to the second part of the heavy load and that is habits of sin. There are familiar temptations that have led to habits of sin. We feel the same temptations coming and we feel weak before them and they push us into the same habits of sin; very familiar temptations habitualations to sin. Those oppressive temptations that regularly pull us down to familiarly sinful habits.
We're going to help each other. We have to stick around long enough to bear those burdens. We have to be there not only to pick that person up, not only to restore that person and to bring them back to spirituality, but we have to stay there in some kind of accountability in some kind of love and some kind of commitment to sustain the strength they need.
That's what the church is. It's not something you attend. It's a life you live. Church doesn't fulfill its responsibility when it sits and looks up here. It fulfills its responsibility when it turns and faces itself; the royal law of love. We have to be there. And we have to stay there to hold them when the heavy burden comes. Establish a pattern of prayer. Establish a pattern of accountability.
I remember a young man came into my office and he had come to Christ. And he said, "I'm so tempted. I was a homosexual" and he said, "I'm so tempted." He said, "I don't know if I can bear it. Those habits are so ingrained into my life and the power of that homosexual temptation is so strong I don't know if I can deal with it."
So I spent a prolong period of time in prayer with him in the office after which I said here's what I want you to do. I gave him a little pad of paper and I said every time you fall to the sin of homosexuality whatever expression of homosexual sin might occur I want you to write it down. And I want for you to write a detailed account of it. I want you to write a detailed account of the battle of temptation in your mind and when you fell I want you to write it all down. And then I want you to come back here in a week and we're going to read it together.
He came back in a week later, I'll never forget it, and he walked in and he sat down and was absolutely ecstatic and overjoyed. And he said, "I didn't have to write anything." And I said, "That's amazing, why?" He said, "Because I knew anything I did I'd have to write. Anything I wrote you'd read. And I didn't want you to have to read that."
That's how you begin to wean somebody away by creating a relationship of trust and accountability. Sometimes people don't want to do that. They think they're superior. They're not willing to stoop down to that level. Verse 3, "If anyone thinks his something when he's nothing he deceives himself."
Get a grip on it folks. You're not too good to do that that's what Paul's saying. You're not too good to do that. You're not superior. Your sins are only different ones. There are some that may be socially despicable and generally speaking we like our sins better than we liked other peoples.
We're certainly much more appalled at their inequities than we are our own. And consider their temptations more heinous than ours. And if you think you're something when you're nothing you're in a situation of being self deceived. You're not any better. You need to be willing to stoop down and lift up that person who's fallen.
And verse 4 takes us right back to where we need to be. Let each one examine his own work. Don't you be looking at somebody else that's not where you start. And you'll have reason for boasting in regard to yourself alone not compared to somebody else.
If you have any reason to boast, if you have any reason to rejoice it's because you alone have met God's standard. It's not because you're better than them. You don't compare yourself with them. You compare yourself with God's standard. Right? That's what verse 4 is saying.
So examine your own work. Examine your own life. Examine your own heart. And if you have reason to boast or rejoice, probably a better translation, if you have reason to rejoice it's because you alone stood by the divine standard. It's not because somehow you're superior to someone else. You don't measure yourself that way. You are -- you're no better than anybody else. The only cause for joy is that you've met God's standard. Get the log of pride out of your own eye and then you'll be useful with somebody else.
God doesn't grade on a curve. This is an absolute standard and if there's reason for you to rejoice it's because God has worked in you and done something through you not because of how you compare to somebody else. So you bear your own load. "You carry the weight of your own responsibility", verse 5 says. You deal with yourself deal with the reality of what you are. And don't consider yourself better than anybody else no matter what they've done. You get over there and you pick them up and you restore them and you bear their burdens.
Jesus wasn't too good to do that. He bore yours and mine on the cross. The shame of it was unspeakable but he was willing and he was perfect. And you're not and neither am I. And who are we to be unwilling?
As we come to the Lord's Table this morning; yes, it's a time to remember. Yes, it's a time to think of our own sin. But it's a time as well to remember our responsibilities to one another.
Father, thank you for your word to us; how we are refreshed in our spirits. How we are confronted in our sin and how we are instructed to our responsibility. And we desire to fulfill it. As we come now Lord to this time of communion, time of coming to your table, what we ask oh, Lord that you would cause us to be honest in our own hearts. Make sure our lives are right before you. That you would remind us as well that we have a responsibility to those precious members of the church around us to come along side them and lift them up and get under the load. We're not too good for that.
Lord just give us a passion for the purity of the church. May we be reminded that you want the church to be heaven on earth and heaven is a holy place. And this is the only place where holiness can come down because we're the only holy people. And we want to be holy as our father in heaven is holy. So that the world in seeing us will not see anything they've ever seen before. And that means we have to care for one another.
Lord we pray that you might reveal sin in this fellowship that we might see it and know it so that we can confront it. And gently considering ourselves who are so susceptible to temptation lift those people up and get under their load and carry it. Keep your church pure. That's what you died for. That's our desire.
Take this time now in prayer with me prayer of confession. Forgive us Lord for sacrificing your interests for our own, for selfish affections, being interested in our own good rather than the good of others. Forgive us for seeking the joy and the feelings that come from material things rather than enjoying the unchanging privileges we have in you.
Forgive us for lacking confidence and trust in your wisdom and sovereign purpose. Forgive us for fear and worry and distrust. And on the other hand, forgive us for self confidence in our ability to control our own lives. Forgive us for resentment in our suffering, for retaliation in our pain, for impatience, irritability and anger with your time table.
Forgive us, on the other hand, in our suffering for laziness, and apathy, and indifference, and doubt. Forgive us for not being generous with money, time. Forgive us for hypocrisy, for being untruthful. Forgive us for not being dependable or faithful or following through on our promises to you and others. Forgive us for irresponsibility, half heartedness.
Forgive us for pride and feelings of superiority, self consciousness, self preoccupation. Forgive us for an uncontrolled spirit, lack of discipline, the absence of willpower to do what is right.
Give us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self control. We confess all our sins Lord known and unknown, felt and unfelt. We ask you to wash us as we come now to your table.

Has America Found a King?

By James Robison

This past week when I read the following statement in the gospel of John, I was stunned – even though I had read it before. How could God’s chosen people of faith make such a statement concerning any false god?

“So they cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests [the top religious leaders] answered, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’”

What a tragic confession coming from the leaders of the very people through whom God said He wanted to “bless the nations of the earth.”
With God’s gift of free choice given to each person, people too often choose wrong. God created human beings in His own image, and in the Garden of Eden instructed them to be the caretakers of the bountiful land. Adam and Eve quickly confirmed that all of us wander from the shadow, the shelter of our heavenly Father and the watch care of the Shepherd. Deceived by the serpent, Adam and Eve believed they would actually be wiser and have more knowledge if they disobeyed God and followed the deceiver’s advice. Rebellion set in! Cain killed Abel, and evil prevailed to the point that only the ark of God’s safety built by Noah could preserve life as we know it. Jesus today is that trustworthy ark of safety and security.
The Old Testament journey reveals the results of jealous brothers casting their younger brother Joseph into the pit. He ends up a servant to Pharaoh, demonstrating how God can use what others intended for evil for good. This Old Testament type of Christ counseled Pharaoh and told him how to survive the coming famine. Even the brothers that betrayed him became the recipients of Pharaoh following the counsel that comes only from above. God used Joseph to advise the ruler, avoiding total devastation. But ultimately God’s own chosen people, Israel, sold themselves into Egyptian bondage by foolishly trusting a source other than God (Pharaoh) and they were trapped as slaves.
Even in our day when government is presented or perceived as provident – the provider, the hope – the people will become its slaves. Paul reminds the New Testament believers in 1 Corinthians 10 the things that happened to Israel serve “as an example to us” and that we must “flee from idolatry.” Our trust must be in God. His wisdom is necessary for sound leadership and decisions.
When the plight and pain of Israel became so intense from Egyptian bondage, they cried out for a deliverer. God raised up Moses who led them out, parted the Red Sea, and headed for the Promised Land that God said flowed with abundant blessings and prosperity. After leaving Egypt, witnessing miracles, following the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, they rebelled against God. Out of fear, many wanted to return to Egypt and in unbelief they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Ultimately the only ones who entered into the blessings of the Promised Land were those who believed God and trusted Him for every victory.
Sadly, once they entered the land and received from God all He promised, they again turned away and began to worship idols and desired to become like godless nations. The people asked Gideon or his sons to become their king. Gideon declared, “No, the Lord is your King!” Later they complained to Samuel saying, “We want a king!” When God relented and allowed a human king, He told them how he was to lead. The people rejected God’s ideas and said, “We want a king like the nations of the world.” They got them, and suffered greatly for it. The major and minor prophets continually called them to return to God, trust Him and stop seeking the shadow of Pharaoh or Egypt, along with anything mere men could offer. The story of oppression continued throughout the Old Testament and Jews were subjects of the Roman Empire when the high priests made the awful confession found in John 19:15. Many in present day America desire to be like other nations – God, forbid it, please!
Consider briefly America’s birth. Under the weight of God’s Kingdom influence, our nation was founded by people who wanted to be free. They didn’t want the horrible monarchy and tyrant kings that had crushed free men and families for centuries. Thomas Payne, rumored to be an atheist, helped inspire the revolution that led to the birth of our nation, signing the Declaration of Independence and ultimately the Constitution. Any sound thinker who seriously considers unshakable truth can recognize it! Payne described the powers that prevailed in Europe as “interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men who cannot see; prejudiced men who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men who think better of the European world than it deserves; and this last class by an ill-judged deliberation will be the cause of more calamities to this continent than all the other three.”
Payne knew that governments established by mere men without truth and a sound foundation are doomed to fail. He said to those who asked, “Who is king of America? I will tell you friend, He reigns above and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of Britain! Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter. Let it be brought forth and placed on the divine law, the Word of God; let a crown be placed thereon by which the world may know that so far as we approve of the monarchy that in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries, the law ought to be king and there ought to be no other.”
Our founders established this nation as a constitutional republic. The founders understood the danger of a mere majority foolishly changing direction on a whim or a sudden urge. We were to be a people bound by the Constitution. They established a sound foundation upon which free people could build and live. Our founders believed this nation and the freedoms we have can only be maintained by people who are responsible and live under control. This nation will only be secure if we live as a nation under the influence of truth, for it is truth that makes us free. Jesus did say, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” and Paul said that we are to submit to authority. But neither Jesus nor Paul for one moment endorsed or embraced what the coins forged by Rome stated, claiming Caesar to be divine. No one understood the Divine better than Jesus. He was “God with us.” He is “the Son of God” and ever lives at this moment to “make intercession for us at the right hand of the Father.” He still longs to be our Shepherd. God continually invites us into the shelter and shadow of His presence.
Far too many Americans have made Caesar or some other source their god. They depend on it and look to it as their hope. What a tragic mistake. Perhaps more tragic is the fact that many professing Christians are also looking to the wrong source and too many pulpits are silent in pointing us to God as our source – our certain help and our hope. The Manhattan Declaration which I signed closes affirming that we must “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but never render unto Caesar what is God’s.”
Consider again what the High Priests (the big religious leaders) had to say concerning Jesus when Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your king?” Their answer, “We have no king but Caesar.” They chose to trust a godless empirical government rather than God.
He was asking the very people God had referred to as the family of faith through whom He wanted to bless the nations of the world. These were people He said would be so blessed as a nation they would not have to borrow, but would lend to others. (Not to imply that borrowing was wrong or He never would have told His people they would be blessed to lend.) God teaches those who trust Him that they are not live in bondage to debt or any idolatrous power on this planet.
Many national leaders have led America to borrow even from those who have pledged to overthrow freedom as we know it while denying the existence of God and mocking biblical truth. As Christians, we should be witnesses to all people, while refusing to be owned or controlled by them. We must not trust Caesar or any earthy power as our source. There is but one who is Provident and that’s who our founders referred to as “Divine Providence” and declared our rights as given by “nature’s law” and “nature’s God.”
In our present day, just as when Pilate asked the people and religious leaders if they wanted him to crucify and do away with their King, many seem to be answering as the High Priests did: “We have no king but Caesar,” who represents the god of this world. I must ask, have we allowed our leaders, much of the media, the entertainment community, and greed driven manipulators to determine our king? Will we begin to stamp on our currency “In Gov We Trust” and declare we are looking to “the hill” rather than the “hills whence cometh our help.” Or will believers encourage people to focus on God and His will holding to a foundation and principles that even an atheist and deists recognize as solid ground? May God forgive any priest, preacher, pastor or American who would imply that Caesar is king.
In the face of foolishness and out of control government, I see hope arising! There is the dawning of a new day and the light of God’s glory is coming! I have been in ministry for nearly 50 years and I am witnessing more truly Christ-honoring churches, the greatest expressions of Christian faith and confidence in God with genuine love for their neighbors and those who suffer. I am seeing the strongest desire for true believers to come together in spiritual unity as a mighty army that literally overpowers the influences of deception, division and destruction. I am confident and convinced we are about to see people stand up and become that light that refuses to be covered, will not compromise and will not be conformed to this world.
My heart leaps with joy at the hope God has placed before us if those who know the truth will refuse any message that points to Caesar or any other source as our hope. We must have government of the people resting “on His shoulders”. This suggests that sound thinking, unshakable truth and principles will be carried on the shoulders of godly people, not those who pretend to be righteous, but those who truly “love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and love their neighbor as themselves.” The local churches and pastors are the best way to share the necessary transforming truth and encourage sound thinking within our local communities inspiring citizens to accept personal responsibility.
The federal government although necessary for law and order must never be America’s king. Out of control government masquerading as God consumes the productivity and opportunity created by the people. Paul declared truth to the Philippian Christians when he said, “My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” This is a God grant, not a Gov grant. May each of us respond to the challenge of Joshua in the Old Testament by answering as he did: “Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. Transformed people who trust God and take a stand as “salt and light” can correct our course.