This past week I was really sick, I mean really sick. Fever, headache, chills, you name it. For days I took pain relievers and the turmoil in my body would ease for a while.. but inevitably, the gut wrenching symptoms returned. Although treating the symptoms of my sickness provided a temporary solution to what I was experiencing, it did not cure it. And that goes for all types of sicknesses. We can treat our symptoms all we want, day in and day out, but until our immune system (the real weapon) kills the virus/bacteria, we are waging a battle that won’t end.
How similar is this to our struggle with sin in our lives, as believers in Christ? Off the top of my head, the major external sins that I wage war against are pornography and smoking. (FYI I’m not trying to label smoking as a sin universally, but for me, it is). For months and months I have been doing everything that I can think of to cease these behaviors… but nothing seems to work. I’ll try not to be on my computer when I don’t need to be, or I’ll make myself not go buy cigarettes, or I’ll try to occupy myself with some other activity to distract my mind from the things I really want to do… the sins I really want to commit. I’ve been trying (and admittedly not as hard I could) to modify my behavior, but is that even the solution? If I impart enough restrictions into my life, to the degree that I’m not externally sinning…am I really any better off? Your first inclination may be to say, “Well yes, Matt, of course you’re better off. You’re not sinning.”… and to a degree, I’d agree. But is begrudging, joy-less, obedience really what the Lord wants from His children? Does living our lives in constant paranoia, fearfully attempting to dictate our surroundings at all times to avoid possible temptation, invoke in us any sort of praise to our Father? If you say yes, you’re lying. That kind of life is miserable. I don’t want that kind of life, and I don’t want anyone else to live that kind of life.
So should we neglect this whole battle with sin? Should we just stop trying? Should we not set filters on our computers? Should we just live in complete license and presume upon the grace of God, doing whatever we want to do, whenever we want to?
God Forbid.
Paul Washer has put this thought into words very clearly, and the Spirit has engrained it into my mind: “Your Christian life should not consist of doing all the righteous things you hate, while refraining from all the wicked things you love.”
Do you see what Washer is getting at here? He’s attempting to plunge past the external behaviors, whether good or bad, and reach into the heart of a person. The heart, the broken, destitute and sin-ravaged heart of the person, is the root of the problem. This heart is the dark spring from which all our sinful thoughts, desires, and eventually behaviors arise. The external sins we see in our lives, the behaviors we hopefully detest, are not the root of the problem…they are merely symptoms of the unseen disease waging war inside of us. Indwelling sin, or our sin nature, is the universal disease that plagues every fiber of every human being, physically and spiritually. This nature causes us to turn from God, bow down in reverence to ourselves…desiring things that we ought naught and committing shameful acts, day in and day out. But when we are made new in Christ and given the gift of the Spirit, we are aware of this innate sickness and embark on a life long journey to battle the ever-present evil inside of us. But how are we to wage this battle? We’ve been told “Don’t lie, God hates liars!” and “Don’t have sex, or God’ll getcha!”, but those of us who have tried to just not do these things using our own will power know we fail every time we try.
So what’s the solution? I mean, this sounds pretty hopeless right? Right. The truth is, you are utterly hopeless to defeat the sin in your life… in and of yourself, as am I. There’s not any amount of self control or discipline that you can muster up from within yourself to crush this thing. The only thing, and I mean the only thing, that can change you is the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit…. specifically, the love of God being poured into your heart to such a degree that your desires actually start to change. And by change, I do not mean completely disappear… my same-sex feelings have not totally disappeared. But what I’m saying is that the love of Christ that’s poured into our hearts by the Spirit swallows up all of our other carnal desires, drowning them out and putting them at bay. They may still be present, but the love of Christ is the overwhelming presence inside of our hearts…. the love of Christ controls us, not our sinful natures.
You may be thinking, “Well that’s already happened to me, I was saved so and so years ago”. We live in a reality of tension at this present time… the “already taken care of” but “not fully here yet” age. Does that make sense? Christ has purchased our salvation, the Spirit has been given as a seal to those who believe… but we see clearly that things are not yet all put into subjection to the Kingdom of God on earth. Darkness is still present, evil still waging, and sin still active. We’re at an in-between. We were saved when we first believed… but you must realize we are still being saved. This process, Sanctification, will continue until we are glorified in Christ… which means your need for the presence of God and the work of the Holy Spirit is continual.
We should fight our sin, even on the external level… but that can not be the extent of the battle. We must ask God to shine His light into our hearts to expose what’s really wrong with us, so we can ask Him to fix it.
- Has our heart slowly drifted away from the Lord because of the distractions of this life?
- Has a recent season of sin in our lives partially hardened our hearts to God?
- Has our indifference to the things of God set forth a chasm of separation between us and Him?
These things deep down inside of us need to be recognized, confessed and repented in a state of humility before the Lord. We know we can approach the throne of Grace, no matter how dark our spiritual state, because our good behavior never got us into God’s good graces to begin with… it was the blood of Christ. He earned our entry in to the Holy of Holies, and He eternally sustains our path of entry, through Himself.
I urge you all, as I urge myself, not to be spiritually lax and only fight the war of moralistic behavior modification. Really get alone with the Lord, search your soul, and ask God to incinerate whatever kind of blackened wall there may be around your heart. Don’t let it continue to build up like plaque. Don’t continue another day in defeat, defiance or indifference. See Christ as worthy of your submission, your love and your joyful obedience…. go to Him. The saturation of our hearts in His love, presence and grace is what we need. That is where life is…. in Him.
Real love for Jesus Christ will produce joyful obedience to Him. Pursue that love.
Matt, sorry to hear you were ill happy you are better. All of Christians struggle with sin. Our Lord’s passion and death paid full remission and reperation for our sins. But our fallen human nature remains. We all got our trials and crosses. When we feel shame for our sins, is it not joyful suffering? God is stiring us to move closer to perfection. When our sins fail to embarrass us then we are in big trouble.
John Piper recounts another humorous situation that the Prince of Preachers found himself in.
Charles Spurgeon said to a Methodist critic, “If I ever find myself smoking to excess, I promise I shall quit entirely.”
“What would you call smoking to excess?” the man asked.
“Why, smoking two cigars at the same time!” was the answer.
Christ Himself turned water into a lovely Merlot … perhaps it was a Chardonnay, I do not know.
@james, cute but I can here the arguments a mile away: ‘it wasn’t wine, it was Welches grape juice’.
*hear
I’m so sorry that you were sick last week Matt, you came to my heart several times and I stopped what I was doing and said a prayer for you. I smoked for over 30 years, and after having sinus surgery, I kept getting sinus infections so bad that I knew I didn’t have too much longer to live. My children were still pretty young and I knew that I was going to leave them motherless. I went to my bedroom and fell on my knees begging God to take the desire for cigarettes out of me for good. I had just bought my month’s worth (4 cartons), but I decided right then that I was going to quit. I went to the store and bought tootsie roll pops and started keeping one in my mouth all day. Everytime I thought about a smoke, I would say “resist the Devil and he shall flee” over and over. About two weeks later I found that I no longer wanted a cigarette. Now I can’t be near smoke because it makes me sicker than a dog. That was over 18 years ago. I know what it’s like to suffer and I just wanted to assure you that God knows your struggles and He has awesome plans for you. You WILL win the battle Matt with God’s help, and you are going to lead MANY to our Savior’s side. I have you on my prayer list, hang in there tough guy! Gob bless you!
Thank you for posting this Matt! The heart really is where the issue is at! Amen!
God bless you.
My favorite post yet. All I can say is Amen, and I am praying for you.
Matt this article is so very true and it’s a universal burden amongst true Christians, and so should it be. I’ve learned, as we all who are truly His, do and will learn….it’s not how much we love Him, but How much He loves us. It’s not about our promises to Him, but His promises to us.
The Lord back in the 90′s, taught me through this scripture when I was so very much discouraged about all the things that was within…. my many, many battles of sin and the fleshly nature of my person:
Ecc 3:11 :He hath made every thing beautiful in his time” (1st half of scripture)
This was of a great comfort to me to know that when He predestined us unto salvation, He knew who and what we are. And that He has provided all things that pertains unto salvation, righteousness, and Holiness, for ALL these things are found and dwells within Him. Some people have more issues for the Lord to deal with then others, but the end shall be the same
The outcome will be that we all will come to see Him for who He is, and what He has done, which will cause us to see Him in all His loveliness, and the beauty of His Holiness. We will have those glorious moments, as He wills, where we are surrounded by such a most Holy and pure love that it will melt our very hearts. And this shall strengthen us to trust in Him and His capabilities to accomplish that which He has started.
Psa 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
The Lord bless you Matt, and I hope you are feeling better.
In His Eternal Love…….
@cal God does not crave our love? How we live our lives matters very little to Him? So free will does not exist? Just asking…
probably my fave post yet, Matt. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks brother <3
I always think about this when I see today’s ultra-orthodox Jews and their obsession with the Torah and it’s 1000′s of new laws (on top of the Old Testament’s laws) or the Muslim extremists too. They completely hide women from sight for fear of the remote possibility of being exposed to a half an inch of her ankle- or her face, lest they be tempted. But women are not evil, nor are they sexual objects. (Nor, to us, are men). The problem is in their hearts. God gets no glory from us hiding from what He hates, so we don’t have to choose. He gets glory when we are what you said: joyfully obedient. When His law is “written on our Hearts” (Jeremiah 31).
Sorry to hear about you being sick. Being sick is not my favorite thing and the last three weeks have been also filled with weakness and sleepiness nights due to a bug going around our campus. It make me realize how helpless we can become in such a short time. The issue of sin is one that is on my mind a lot since I have a passion to disciple new believers on the essentials and the issue of walking in victory is one of the main lessons. I came to Christ as an eighteen year old heavily addicted and defeated and within a week, I was able to walk from it all as I sought Christ in much prayer in a cow field reading my bible for hours in my bathroom since it was the only room that I had privacy in my family. I am a firm believer that the totality of the gospels and the epistles are so critical for us read and mediate much because they give us the resources necessarily to walk in the faith and victory. I am amazed how many times that a verse comes from the scriptures about a biblical principle or from Christ or the apostles comes to my mind at the right second to deal with an issue facing me. Our biggest is that our flesh nature is not completely mortified. Which is easier to tempt a living person or a dead body? Dead people do not have sin problems because they are dead. Christ and Paul both spoke much of dying to ourselves before experiencing life. Paul in so many verses remind us to put to death the deeds of the flesh. The problem for me is not the lack of knowledge about right and wrong but the emotional attachment to sin. Going back to my salvation experience, I walk in freedom for 7 years amazing not having issues with pornography with very little effort until I became prideful and show little mercy towards others who were struggling in sin like that. I fell for pornography and other sins because I cater to my flesh instead in walking in the Spirit. Chris told his apostles that satan had on nothing on him but he definitely still has strings on us thru our old nature. We must identify with the cross of Christ recognizing in faith we have been crucified with Christ and now that he live in us for us by the Holy Spirit.
Peter writes in 2 Peter chapter 1 that we have amazing promises in Christ “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
There is so much more that we have been given in the gospel to walk in victory but we need to mediates on these scriptures given to us by the apostles and Christ day and night being vigilant and knowing that our enemy is looking to seduce us back. Lastly we are warned as men to flee sin even a remote possibility of it. I walked in freedom for seven years because I was consider radical by some of my friends because I rarely watch TV but instead mediate on scripture. Now we have the internet, hundreds of channels all easily available to us without one knowing about it. I am learning to be only on the internet when family is around me and in situations where it is rather public. It is area that I have to be very careful. I am also mediating on scriptures, being an attitude of prayer and meeting with brothers in Christ to encourage, pray and exhort each other by what God has put on our hearts. These admonitions are in the scriptures so we can trust them.
Hebrews 12:14 “Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,” so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ.
Albert sorry that you’ve been sick, it’s not something greatly desired by anyone really.
What campus are you talking about?
I just wanted to add that we are “kept” by the power of God, via the Holy Spirit, and not by the flesh; 1Pe 1:4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
1Pe 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1Pe 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
1Pe 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
1Pe 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin, when we have sinned willfully or unwittingly, being ignorant or unbelieving of some truth.
1Pe 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
We should realize that we can not have any confidence in the flesh, that we without the Holy Spirit are unable to overcome sin. But we can have confidence in the Power of the Living Word through the Holy Spirit to conquer sin and death, by and through Faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work. For we are born of God’s Spirit, and therefore can only overcome by His Spirit as we seek Him.
If you would be so kind in clearing up something in your usage of Hebrews 12:14, the words following are not in Hebrews 12:14, so it’s confusing. I know we can type rather quickly and skip entering the correct words, sometimes our thoughts move quicker that our fingers. Would you clarify please? Thank you!