 May the Lord bless you this week and help you to know that because you are in Christ, you are free to make a choice to strongly will the will of God.
This week I am going to address a couple of things on a theological level. That is because it is important for us to understand what is true of us because we are saved. Something glorious happened to us – on the level of our will – when we came to know Jesus Christ. Something marvelous happened when we came to life spiritually. When we did, by the grace of God, there was a freedom given to us on the level of our wills. Let’s talk about this today. Before God saved us we were bound in our sin. Ephesians 2 tell us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins – we were being driven and controlled by the spirit that is active in the sons of disobedience. The fact is that we did not have a will free to make whatever choices we wanted. We were bound in sin and our choices would be consistent with the world system, our own flesh, and the devil. Until God’s grace came to us by God’s wonderful mercies, we could not choose God’s way. Then came the wonderful day when God drew us to Himself – and we were saved. On that wonderful day we were not only forgiven of sin – given the righteousness of Christ as a gift – born from above with God’s very life now within us - but one other glorious thing happened as well. We were set free from sin’s bondage and could begin to make choices to do God’s will. What a glorious day it was when we were set free to choose the things of God! We can now choose to do the will of God. That was not true of us before – because of our bondage to sin. But now we are free to follow the Lord. Read this wonderful statement in Romans 6:12-14 about this truth. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Look at what Paul says here in Romans 6. First, we need to see what he says lastly in these verses. He says that sin is no longer your master because you are now under grace. Two things to remember here. The first is that at one time sin was your master. You couldn’t do these things Paul was commanding you because you were not free. You had a master – and your master was sin. BUT . . . now you have been set free to make choices to tell sin to get lost. You can tell sin that it will not be reigning in your body – and using the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness. This is astounding news! The second thing to note in this Roman’s passage is the number of times Paul is giving “strong commands” for the believer to make “strong choices.” He is saying for them to make some strong stands as they make strong choices. “Stop letting sin reign in your body!” “Stop obeying the strong desires of sin!” “Stop presenting your members to sin!” “Stop being an instrument of unrighteousness!” “Start giving yourself to God as one alive from the dead!” “Start giving your members to God!” “Start being an instrument of righteousness!” Seven strong commands are given – and Paul (and God who is inspiring Him to write this) is expecting believers to obey them. This means that we CAN obey them now. That is implicit in the commands themselves. But what I truly want you to get here is how powerful Paul’s statements are! He is not saying things like, “If you feel like it today – you might want to give it your best shot – you know to maybe give yourself to God.” He is almost like a spiritual drill sergeant snapping out these commands. Stop doing this! Start doing this! Give yourself to God – give your members to God – be in instrument of righteousness! If anything, this passage alone should show us that God desires for us to STRONGLY CHOOSE these things. This is not an exercise for the weak willed or the weak minded. We are to make very bold choices – not based on our own strength – but based on the facts of what has happened to us because of God’s grace in the gospel. Next week I’ll say more on these commands in Romans 6, but for now I want to admonish you based on what we’ve seen today. Where are you today? If you are not willing to make strong choices for God’s will – you are going to be in trouble. The trouble you will face is from you not being willing to “put your foot down” when it comes to sin – self – Satan – and this present world system. If you are unwilling to say, “NO – NOT TODAY! I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE MY BODY TO SIN! I AM NOT GOING TO CHOOSE TO DISOBEY GOD! I GIVE MYSELF TO HIM! I AM GOING TO PLEASE HIM AND BE AN INSTRUMENT OF WHAT IS RIGHT – NOT OF WHAT IS WRONG! GOD, BY YOUR GRACE I WILL STAND UP – I WILL TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW YOU! If you are unwilling to use your will to will the will of God – you will flounder, falter, and unfortunately fall. You truly have a choice! But, God will not make it for you! He has freed you to be able to make it! He has empowered you to be able to make it! He has and will give you spiritual wisdom and knowledge to know what to do! But, in the end, He calls you to obey – to choose – and if there is going to be victory and the experience of overcoming sin – YOU MUST CHOOSE! Choose precious saints of God! Choose His will – choose His way – and choose to rely on Him totally to empower you as you make it. Truly, there is no other way.
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The Worthlessness of Spiritual Self Beat-downs, part 4
Why Does the Holy Spirit Convict Us of Sin? For several weeks we’ve looked at our natural tendency (at least for some of us) to practice spiritual self beat-downs. For some reason we do this thinking that God approves or somehow enjoys this process. The facts as they are related in Scripture, though, do not support this thinking. In order to make this point I want to ask a very simple question – and then seek to answer it from how God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures. Here is my question, “Why does God the Spirit convict us of sin?” And in a follow up question to that one we should ask ourselves what is God wanting to accomplish by doing this. What exactly is He after or even what is the end-game in conviction? We all know that we do things wrong. We sin. There are times when we sin that we either don’t realize it at the time – or worse – we deceive ourselves that what we did is not that bad. Whatever the case may be with sin – the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of our sin. We’ve seen that very clearly in previous studies. But what is the Spirit’s goal in bringing conviction. If we looked at the way that some of us practice a subsequent spiritual self beat-down, we might think that God’s purpose is to bury us under a mountain of guilt. That guilt is then meant to stimulate a period of condemnation, devastating accusations of every kind, followed by a period of somehow “earning” back our place with God as we seek to do a lot of good things. Those kind of choices do not deliver us from sin – in fact they usually lock us into more guilt, condemnation, and often a feeling like no matter how many times we confess or do more godly things – we just won’t measure up to what God wants from us. What does God want from us! For those who have gone on one of these extended guilt trips – not enjoying the ride or the sights – we wonder why we have to go. We also wonder, like the proverbial kid in the back seat, “Are we there yet?” What might be shocking to learn is that the one driving on these ventures into the darker regions – is not God. God does NOT want this from us. He has a purpose in conviction – and extended guilt is not one of them. You might want to note that I said “extended guilt,” because guilt is part of His purpose in conviction. Let me explain. When David confessed his sin with Bathsheba (along with his pitiful attempt at a cover up – which only led to more sin) he used the following phrase in his Psalm 32 confession to God. “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.” Psalm 32:5-7 (NASB) Let’s take a look at what we can learn from David. First, we do see that David admits to his sin. He said he acknowledged his sin – he didn’t try to hide his iniquity – and he confessed his transgressions to God. That is pretty thorough on David’s part. He agreed with God (what acknowledged means) that he missed God’s mark. When David said this he was stating plainly that God has standards, absolute ones, and that David clearly did not live up to them. Second of all David admitted that he wasn’t going to hide his iniquity. This is an interesting phrase. David had tried to cover up his sin for so long – but now he was saying that he was willing to bring his sin out into the light and deal with it entirely. The word for sin here is telling too. David speaks of his “iniquity.” This word speaks of sin as particularly evil because it means to twist or deliberately pervert something. Here it refers to perverting and twisting God’s purpose for sex and marriage. Finally, David said that he confessed his transgressions to God. The word “confess” means to cast toward and it represents the picture of David casting his sin before God – admitting it and bringing it fully into the light of God’s presence. He does this with his “transgressions,” which refers to rebellion. David states that his actions were done in rebellion to God and His ways and Word. Once David has confessed his sin, note what he says is God’s response. “And You forgave the guilt of my sin.” God desires us to feel guilt over our sin. The fact is we are guilty! But once we deal with sin as David did – God forgives the guilt of our sin. It is comforting to know that the word used for guilt is the same as the word iniquity earlier. The evilness of our sin is what God forgives and carries away from us. So, we see that one of the major purposes in God bringing conviction is so that, as we confess it completely, He can take away the feelings of guilt and condemnation. David then turns others who will read this and offers godly counsel to them. He speaks of calling out to God in times of trouble – in times when we feel like we are in a flood of waters – drowning in our guilt and overwhelmed by our sinfulness. Even in a flood of great waters (read here – our deepest and most devastating moments of sin) God will prevail and will be heard. If you don’t believe that part you might want to remember the depth of David’s sin – or maybe even Jonah’s (which did involve drowning in literal water as well as great rebellion against God). His counsel is for us to pray to God – to call out to Him – to come to Him humbly confessing our sin. Spiritual self beat-downs are useless in these situations. They will actually keep us from God – as well as keep us drowning in our guilt and self-condemnation. Go to God is David’s counsel! David says one more thing here in Psalm 32. He says that as we come to God in this way, God will surround us with songs of deliverance. God’s purpose in all this is not a beat-down – but a deliverance. The conviction of the Holy Spirit will yield songs of deliverance. There will be an encircling of our lives and hearts with songs that speak of how God delivers and rescues us from sin and from sin’s unkind rule of our lives. What does God want from us when He convicts us? He wants us to acknowledge and see our sinful choices as He does. But then He wants confession of that sin. Once that is accomplished and we confess our sin, rebellion, and evil – He desires us to KNOW forgiveness and deliverance from that sin. He wants us surrounded with marvelous songs that tout His grace and His gospel which has won for us such amazing things. May we learn to receive these things as precious gifts of His grace – not resisting them – but embracing them and rejoicing in our most gracious God and His wonderful love for us.  The Uselessness of Spiritual Self Beat Downs, part 2
Holy Spirit Conviction or Spiritual Insults? What is the difference between a spiritual self beat-down and the work of the Holy Spirit as He brings genuine conviction of our sin? That is what I want to address this week in my article. Knowing the difference between these two things is knowing the difference between the constructive work of the Holy Spirit making us like Christ, and the destructive work of our own self-oriented religious actions. As we begin discerning these two things, we begin by looking at a passage of Scripture that speaks of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in us. "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. John 16:7-11 (NASB) This is a passage about the convicting work that God does in our lives. So how do we know when the Holy Spirit is doing this work? First, we should note that He comes to convict us. The word for convict here is “elegcho,” which means to prove or show someone to be wrong; to convince of error; to refute, rebuke, reprove, or admonish. The word has the idea of doing this on more than just a factual basis – but to actually bring someone to an emotional response as well. That response is shame over what they have done. There are three areas where the Holy Spirit desires to bring us to this kind of conviction. But what might be instructive before we look at these three areas is what is NOT among them. Not among these things is the area of personal attacks. When the Holy Spirit convicts us, He NEVER attacks us personally. Never will He call us stupid – or use demeaning names as He speaks within our spirit. When we say that God convicted us and called us a name like “idiot” or “moron” or something like that, we are stepping outside of Scripture. About as rough as God gets is to call someone a fool – or to refer to their actions as foolish. But let me reiterate that God does not trash talk when dealing with our sin. The problem here is that in our society we have a difficult time accepting correction without thinking it is a personal attack. Let me explain. When we choose to lie, the Holy Spirit is going to convict us that we have lied. There are even a few passages in Proverbs where if we commit certain sins involving departing from the truth, we are called a liar. That causes many in this society to bristle – and accuse God of calling names. He is not calling any names – except those we have proven to be true by our actions. Note that nowhere does God refer to someone as a stupid liar, or a lying idiot. God simply addresses the sin with truth. He does so with authority, honesty, and with tact. He is not out to trash talk us or to engage in some kind of spiritual beat-down. But, with that being said, He is going to rebuke us and tell us that our actions were wrong. We want to say we are dealing with someone who is being mean, and therefore justify rejecting what they say. But God does not work in this way. When we experience genuine conviction of sin we are dealing with Someone who speaks the truth. We face a “truth encounter.” Our problem is that it is difficult to handle the truth – face up to it – and repent accordingly. Let me illustrate with one more example. God says that homosexual activity is sin. When He says this God does not resort to insults or any kind of “street-talk” slurs. He addresses the sin. But society wants to say that God is a “homophobe” for saying this. This is like saying that God is a “lie-a-phobe” for saying that lying is a sin. We want to make conviction seem like a beat-down, when it fact it is nothing more than a truth encounter. When we make it a beat-down, we can then reject Holy Spirit on the grounds He is being mean. The fact is that He is not mean – He is lovingly truthful. We just don’t want to face the truth – whatever the issue may be. Making the encounter seem like a beat-down provides us a sort of perverse comfort that actually God is out of line in saying what He says. But turning His conviction into a reason to insult Him will guarantee us only bondage in the end. Bondage to the very sin He desired to deliver us from by bringing conviction in the first place. We need to learn to receive genuine Holy Spirit conviction in our lives. We need to discern how God defines sin without defiling his work by adding insults. We need truth, not trash talk. May God give us grace to hear Him as He has revealed Himself in His Word. And may we learn in the process that His conviction of sin is not a beat-down or an insult. It is the first step on a pathway to God’s forgiveness – and honestly – to freedom as well.  Greetings in the name of our gracious Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that this article finds you growing in grace – even in the midst of times when you struggle with sin and lose. Actually, that is when I hope you grow the most in grace – because the other option is truly one that is empty and meaningless.
So, what do you do when you sin? I am not asking what sin you committ, I am asking what you do when it is clear that you have sinned. Do you run to the Lord to make it right – or better said – to receive forgiveness and grace to change? The reason I ask this is that unfortunately there are those of us who think that a little time in self-punishment is in order first. You know what I am talking about. It is when we take time to truly “beat ourselves up” for what we’ve done by sinning against God. Let me illustrate. The reason that I can is that I have a tendency to practice this meaningless religious rite. I’ve sinned against God in something I’ve done. My next step SHOULD be to run to God – confessing my sin. But a little more often than I am comfortable admitting (but I guess I just did), I take a trip to spiritual self-deprecation mountain for a ride on the “beat-down master,” a ride known for its ability to pummel its riders mercilessly. The weird thing about this ride is that the beat down does not come from a source outside of the one riding it. The beat down is self inflicted. The rider takes it upon himself or herself to inflict as much guilt and shame upon themselves as possible. Here are some of the things I’ve heard while on this less than enjoyable ride. “I can’t believe I did that again!” “You are so stupid to sin against God!” “I’m awful – just awful for doing that!” “What was I thinking?!” “I don’t deserve to be a Christian!” “Maybe I am not a Christian – if I do this?” “God is so mad at me – bet He doesn’t even like me anymore. I know right now I sure don’t like myself!” These are a few of the choice statements I’ve heard others (and honestly have said myself) while on the “beat-down master ride. Oh, by the way, I may have kind of enjoyed the ride – but it has NEVER furnished me one bit of good having ridden it. I get off pretty much like I got on the ride. If anything, it increases my sense of guilt and shame – and more often than not – actually delays me from going to Jesus for what I truly need – forgiveness and grace. What I truly do need when I sin is a visit to my Savior. I need to follow the counsel of Scripture in 1 John 1:9 where it reads, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Note, there is no mention of giving yourself a spiritual beat-down before you go to Jesus. That is something religion has added to this process. Now, please understand that I am not saying that we do not need conviction of our sin. That is very much needed! But there is a clear distinction between how the Holy Spirit convicts and how we go to extremes in beating ourselves up over our sin. In fact, in a coming week I will share with you several distinctions between the Spirit’s conviction and our contrived beat-downs. The real problem with spiritual beat-downs is that we are not changing our focus at all. We sin because we get our eyes off the Lord and onto ourselves and the world around us. When we decide to engage in spiritual self-insults and other ways to make ourselves “feel worse” about our sin – guess where our focus still remains? Yep – it remains on us! When we decide to deride the world and bash it for how it crept into our lives – again – we still have our focus off of Christ Jesus and on the world. The best thing we can do for our renewed spiritual health is to get our focus completely off ourselves and the world around us. Confessing our sins to God involves coming to Him. He is asking (actually commanding) that we come to Him and make a full confession of our sin. We do that by stating what the sin was – as we come to Him and turn from it. Note the sequence in 1 John 1:9. We first come to God confessing our sin. That confession involves saying the same thing about our sin that God says about it. If there is a problem with not being “hard” enough on sin, this is usually where it shows up in this process. What did God’s Word say about your sin? That is what you are to say to God that it is as you make your confession. Don’t come to Him saying that you slipped up – admit that you were angry – filled with rage – that you lusted – you were greedy – you were unkind – you were unforgiving – or any number of things God says is sin. BUT . . . when you’ve done this – take the next step. What is that step? Believe that God keeps His promise and forgives you! That is the next step in the verse. “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin.” There is a promise of forgiveness – and cleansing from all unrighteousness. Do you take it? That is where it is hard – very hard to humble yourself and receive God’s forgiveness. We think we need to be miserable longer. We want to go through some sort of religious penance that seems worthy of our misdeed. It cannot be as easy as confessing our sin – and receiving God’s forgiveness? But that is exactly what it is. Grace is God’s forgiveness of our sin – at the expense of Christ Jesus. Jesus paid the price on the cross. Therefore there is NOTHING – ABSOLUTELY NOTHING you can do to merit it. Here is the dirty little secret. We put ourselves through a spiritual “beat-down” because we FEEL like that makes us more “forgive-able.” Let me redefine that last sentence according to truth. We are too proud to actually humble ourselves and admit that we never have been able to – nor will we ever be able to do anything that will merit God’s forgiveness. It is offered to us and given solely and completely by grace! Isn’t that pretty astounding?! No matter whether we are coming to Him for the first time for salvation itself – or we are coming as a Christian for the 10,418th time to confess a sin we’ve committed – the entire matter is accomplished by grace and grace alone. Kinda blows your mind doesn’t it? So, if you have sinned. If you’ve blown it – again! Don’t think for a moment that beating yourself for a while is going to offer you any spiritual help whatsoever. You have one hope and one hope only – that as you come to God – He will receive you, forgive you, cleanse you, and change you by an act of His wonderful grace. That is it. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)
Do I see this life as a building or as a tent? Paul begins by comparing our life here on earth to living in a tent. Our earthly bodies are mere tents - temporary dwellings. They will be torn down - i.e. we are going to die. But there is another dwelling - a building from God, a house made without hands. This is our eternal dwelling place with God for Paul lets us know that it is "eternal in the heavens." Too often I see this world as substance and the things of the Spirit as shadow - when the fact is that it is just the opposite. We live in a shadow-world and the reality is the spiritual. Paul's assertions here - and God's truth is that we should KNOW that this world is the tent - and heaven is our house, our building, our home. The problem we have is that all that is around us seems so real. It is real - but it is so amazingly temporary. All this around us will be torn down - and it will vanish. So why live for it? Why focus upon it? In this house (our current tent) we groan. That is because since salvation we have been changed - born again - made alive in the realm of the Spirit. Since that time - the reality of this world is fading - even as the Holy Spirit teaches us more and more about what is real. Therefore we begin to groan. This world is filled with death, destruction, deception, and devilish ways. We want - even long to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. We want reality and truth - therefore we want God. We know, just as Adam and Eve were filled with the horrific knowledge of their own nakedness after sinning agaisnt God, that we are naked and need to be clothed. (They tried to sew fig leaves to cover their nakedness - and hide it from God. Mankind has been either sewing their own religious covering or hiding from Him ever since.) We know that as we put on Christ, His righteousness and His works, that we will not be found naked. But as long as we live in this world - shadowland - we will continue to groan over our humanity, over our flesh, over our inability to completely shake off all the effects of the Fall. We are burdened with this as long as we inhabit our unglorified bodies. We groan in a way because we don't want to be unclotherd, but clothed. Here Paul shifts gears and speaks of how our flesh and our human existance fights death. We also are well known throughout all history for fighting God as He unclothes us from our religious outfits. We don our works-mentality and our religious observances thinking that in these we are clothed. We put on the world and its garish outfits of selfishness, self-centeredness, self-achievement, and self-glorifying. We embrace the fashion trends of the here and now - embracing the flesh-lusts, eye-lusts, and the pride of this life and our tent-ways. God wants to unclothe us from all these things - even allowing us, giving us over to them - so that in their self-destrutive ways we would groan. Suffering and pain make us groan - resisting His hand and His sanctifying purpose makes us groan - rebelling against His purposes and plans makes us groan. He will win these battles, even allowing periods of devastation in our lives - because we MUST be unclothed from such things so that what is mortal can be swallowed up by life itself. That life is His Life - abundant and eternal. To these things God has been committed since the day of our salvation. At that moment He did something miraculous. He gave us His Spirit, putting Him deep within us - at the very core of our being. We were changed and altered (althought not so much to the seeng eye). The Spirit was His earnest money - His downpayment that guaranteed that He Who had done this work of salvation in us, would complete it until the day of our ultimate redemption. This is not earnest money that will be left on the table - after the transaction is abandoned. This is God's way of saying that He is committed to this process - and He will have us - all of us. It is also His way of saying that we will be unclothed from the rags and tatters of this world and its ways - and clothed with . . . well, with Him. This is more of a certainty than the next tick of the clock, your next breath, or the rising of the sun in the morning. These actually will all stop one day - but His pursuit of us clothed in Him alone will never end - nor will it ever be abandoned. So today continues - tick after tick of the clock will go on - just like it did yesterday. You will continue to groan in this world - groan in your interesting ensemble of this world and the world to come. You will groan as more of your life and ways are unclothed with truth - conviction - repentance. Some times it will be painful - so painful and so difficult you wonder if you can take your next step. Other times will be delightful as you watch your humanity swallowed up by life - astounded as you see Christ, His character and ways more clearly in your attitudes and actions. Groan, dear ones, groan under the burden of this world. Groan as you learn of a wardrobe so simple yet majestic. Groan as you embrace life itself. Such groans are a symphony of sanctificatioin in His ears. It is music both painful and pleasant to hear. It has played ever since the first couple were unclothed from such silliness as fig leaves - and were given physical garments paid for by a blood sacrifice. But in another realm preparations had been made since all eternity for a like re-clothing of all the redeemed. Preparations for man to be unclothed from all his sin - and dressed in the glorious, blood-bought righteousness of Christ. So groan my dear brothers and sisters - groan as you are changed out of your fallen humanity and redressed in Life that swallows you so that your nakendness is covered by His glory. And may even our groans rise in a cresendo of praise and glory and honor to our kind and gracious Clothier. |
Biblical ArticlesMost of these articles are taken from the Calvary Courier, a weekly newsletter that is sent to the folks who attend Calvary Chapel Jonesboro. Due to the response to these articles, we've decided to print some of them which proved to be very helpful to God's people at the fellowship. 
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