Are You Tired of Sin?

My wife is. In our customary morning talks, Phyllis has occasionally confessed that she has grown weary of this "world of iniquity," the insidious way in which sin works its nefarious ends, the pervasiveness of it in so many--Christians included--and US included! I join with her angst which prompts me to write something about it.

Tired IN the Work, But Not Tired OF the Work

The servant of God certainly identifies with this. And we often find solace in 1 Corinthians 15:58, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. And so, despite the sometimes depressing things that occur in ministry or just the resultant weariness from long-endured affliction and incessant labor, we persist knowing that our work counts precisely because it is done for Christ! Someone has said, "We do not suffer burnout due to hard work, but because of hard work that doesn't seem to go anywhere."

There is another weariness that plagues the believing heart, and that is the pain of living in a sinful world and feeling the weight of sin's attacks both from without and within. The sin within our own hearts causes us to cry out with Paul, "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom. 7:24). And despite those who reject this as "worm" theology, it really is a healthy perspective.

But what of the flood of evils in our society, the dullness of the Church in matters holy, of her preoccupation with a trinket culture, societal distractions, and of persistent hubris among leaders both national and local? These likewise combine to weigh us down. I think Paul said it best: Apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? (2 Cor. 11:28, 29). We don't "own" the problems of all the world, but that doesn't preclude our feeling it. And it were a worse thing if we were so insensitive that we couldn't feel it.

But God's grace is sufficient, enough. Power to overcome is actually increased in the face of our weakness; God is NOT tempted to run off when he finds in us anything less than perfection! So, we live with a two-edged sword: On the one hand we wince at the seemingly incessant nature of unbelief, and on the other hand we are forced to resort for comfort to the only one who can really offer it--the Lord Jesus Christ himself!

A. W. Tozer wrote:

Brother Lawrence expressed the highest moral wisdom when he testified that if he stumbled and fell he turned at once to God and said, "O Lord, this is what You may expect of me if You leave me to myself." He then accepted forgiveness, thanked God and gave himself no further concern about the matter.

A world left to itself will sin. We know this, and it raises some alarm in us--as it should. But we learn that we too are weak, so we turn to our God for help and then, burdened, pass along that same hope to others in word and prayer.

Let us be alarmed and saddened at sin. We who are children of the only "Change-Agent" in the universe must not relinquish our positions to others who have no concern for the greater glory of God. So, while there is a weariness that occasionally overtakes us, it's a blessed weariness in light of the glory that is coming!

Be Alert, Not Presumptuous!

42 Therefore, STAY AWAKE, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. . . . 44 Therefore you also must BE READY, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24)

I've highlighted two phrases, "Stay Awake," and "Be Ready," because they summarize the prevailing attitude that should characterize the spiritually-minded believer . . . and ALL Christians should be spiritually minded! Stay awake, don't be presumptuous. I wonder if we confuse this word with a similar word, assumption? The thesaurus gives these synonyms for "presumptuous": arrogant, bigheaded, conceited, and audacious. That's much stronger than assumption, "supposing something to be true." Only those who've lost sight of the immanence of Jesus' return will fall into such a soul-dulling frame of mind. We must be on guard that our faith does not fail, and presumption take over!

How To Guard Ourselves?

In his 70 "Resolutions," Jonathan Edwards, at the age of 21, settled it in his life that he would prepare to live carefully (faithfully), considering the times:

1. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

2. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live.

3. Resolved, Never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

AWAKE & BE READY!

A. W. Tozer writes in Born After Midnight:

The fall of man has created a perpetual crisis. It will last until sin has been put down and Christ reigns over a redeemed and restored world.

Until that time the earth remains a disaster area and its inhabitants live in a state of extraordinary emergency. . . .

In times of extraordinary crisis ordinary measures will not suffice. The world lives in such a time of crisis. Christians alone are in a position to rescue the perishing. We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were “normal.” Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another till the whole population has been destroyed.

To me it has always been difficult to understand those evangelical Christians who insist upon living in the crisis as if no crisis existed. They say they serve the Lord, but they divide their days so as to leave plenty of time to play and loaf and enjoy the pleasures of the world as well. They are at ease while the world burns; and they can furnish many convincing reasons for their conduct, even quoting Scripture if you press them a bit

God helps us all!

The USA is Beyond Apathy

From BreakPoint by Chuck Colson. I think the following article is optimistic in assessing our culture at the apathy level. (See quotation below from 18th C. Scottish writer) Apathy toward God must progress before apathy for country finds ascendency. And apathy for God is undoubtedly more tragic than apathy related to one's country.

Rejecting Apathy
The Church and American Civilization--August 7, 2009

Many Christians, once motivated by protecting the sanctity of life, religious freedom, and traditional marriage, seem inconsolable—as if the fight is over and there’s nothing we can do about it.

But embracing this attitude is a certain prescription for disaster.

I received last month a newsletter by Don Reeverts of the Denver Leadership Foundation. In it he gives the following quote, often attributed to an 18th-century Scottish writer:

The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence...from bondage to spiritual faith...from spiritual faith to courage...from courage to liberty...from liberty to abundance...from abundance to selfishness...from selfishness to complacency…from complacency to apathy...from apathy to dependency...from dependency back to bondage.

These are sobering words. This question of where America is in the cycle should be extremely important for Christians. That’s because I firmly believe that culture is nothing but religion incarnate—that when we see a culture losing its moral footing, it’s because believers have failed to bring Christian truth to bear in society. We haven’t been, as Calvin put it, making the invisible kingdom visible.

So what stage are we in? Reeverts thinks we are entering the stage of apathy. And I hate to say it, but I agree. I am finding growing apathy among believers.

Apathy manifests itself in how people dress, how they talk, how they care for each other—and how concerned they are about the great issues of the day. It resembles what the Greeks called acedia, a languidness, a torpor, in which we stop caring about anything.

Apathy inevitably leads to dependency. And once we become dependent on Big Brother, we are back in bondage. Can anybody really watch the dramatic growth of governmental power and not be alarmed? For the fact of the matter is that the more government acts as God, the less people depend on the one true God. [emphasis mine]

Your congressmen and senators are home now for summer recess. Have you contacted them?Are you angry about what’s happening in this country today? Things like the elimination of the conscience clause for medical professionals, or embryonic stem cell research, or the advance of gay “marriage,” or threats to religious liberties, or government making life-and-death decisions in health care? If you’re not upset about those things, you’ve succumbed to apathy already.

I can’t imagine anybody sitting at home, comfortably watching us slip into a state of dependency without getting outraged, and then without expressing that outrage.

If we value our liberties, if we believe in the most fundamental principles upon which our civilization is based, then we owe it to our God and to future generations to speak out.

Institutions aren’t going to change the course of America; but great movements have changed the course of the nation and will again. And what better network to fuel a movement than the Church? Rejecting apathy and trusting in God, firm in our belief in human dignity and our God-given liberties, the Church can ignite a fire in this country.

Do we get it? I pray that we do

PRIDE--A Steel Dagger to Servanthood

"Pride is the steel dagger in the heart of humility." So writes Calvin Miller in his very helpful and well written book, Into the Depths of God (Bethany House Publishers). I highly recommend this book to any person seeking to know God better.

Who hasn't heard or sung songs about being a servant of God? This is a common call within the Church, as well it should be. But pride not only dampens our ability but is diametrically opposed to such service. Richard Baxter wrote:

Beware of a proud and haughty spirit. This sin puts a great barrier between an individual and God. You will have a hard time being aware of God as long as you are filled with pride. If it gets angels cast out of heaven, it will certainly keep your heart out of heaven. It was the downfall of Adam and Eve. It increases our separation from God and expels us from paradise.

Miller continues,

Pride sucks the vitality out of our character. Bernard of Clairvaux wisely taught that there are four Christian virtues. The first is humility. The second is humility. The third is humility. And the fourth is humility. Bernard also taught that most of us would like to gain humility without humiliation. Alas, it is not possible. Ego is the barrier that stands between God and his dreams for our lives.

"Pride is there when we feel our religion is making us better than the next person—and it is the work of the devil, not of God" (C.S. Lewis). Indeed, pride is the work of making comparisons. Humility is done with all that. Once one comes up against the true God of heaven, he knows infinite, matchless greatness. He can no longer glance sideways in comparison because he is too caught up with the superior though fearful vertical gaze to the Father! It is the want of this gaze that leads to pride. It is the fullness of it that renders a man capable of nothing but humility. As the erudite puritan, John Flavel remarked, "They that know God will be humble; they that know themselves cannot be proud."

The Church: Doctrinal & Intolerant?

Originally published in 1937. This piece is contained in the Selected Shorter Writings, edited by D.G. Hart.

In the first place, a true Christian church, now as always, will be radically doctrinal. . . . It will never say that doctrine is the expression of experience; it will never confuse the useful with the true, but will place truth at the basis of all its striving and all its life. Into the welter of changing human opinion, into the modern despair with regard to any knowledge of the meaning of life, it will come with a clear and imperious message. That message it will find in the Bible, which it will hold to contain not a record of man’s religious experience but a record of a revelation from God.

In the second place, a true Christian church will be radically intolerant. At that point, however, a word of explanation is in place. The intolerance of the church, in the sense in which I am speaking of it, does not involve any interference with liberty; on the contrary, it means the preservation of liberty. One of the most important elements in civil and religious liberty is the right of voluntary association – the right of citizens to band themselves together for any lawful purpose whatever, whether that purpose does or does not commend itself to the generality of their fellow men. Now, a church is a voluntary association. No one is compelled to be a member of it; no one is compelled to be one of its accredited representatives. It is, therefore, no interference with liberty of a church to insist that those who do choose to be its accredited representatives shall not use the vantage ground of such a position to attack that for which the church exists…

But when I say that a true Christian church is radically intolerant, I mean simply that the church must maintain the high exclusiveness and universality of its message. It presents the gospel of Jesus Christ not merely as one way of salvation, but as the only way. It cannot make common cause with other faiths. It cannot agree not to proselytize. Its appeal is universal, and admits of no exceptions. All are lost in sin; none may be saved except by the way set forth in the gospel. Therein lies the offense of the Christian religion, but therein lies also it glory and its power. A Christianity tolerant of other religions is just no Christianity at all.

Does Being More Like Jesus = Success?

Mark 1:22, 27-28, 45--

22 "And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.

27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

45 " . . . people were coming to him from every quarter."

The crowds were astonished, amazed, and traveled from all over to see him. What made Jesus famous then, would make anyone popular today. And what made Jesus' offensive then, would also make us offensive today. That's the short of it.

1. Jesus spoke with an unusual authority. Now, on this side of the Gospel, we know why, for we believe in his divinity. But they did not know that then, or they were only beginning to understand it. They could only go by what they saw and heard, with all religious bias mounted against him. Still, the common people recognized the obvious, this man spoke with authority, the kind that invites you, yea, demands that we listen. Why? Well, NOT because "it works," which is the message so many today feel they must proclaim if they are to win souls to Christ. Listen to D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones from his little book, Authority:

What many are tending to do today is this. They say, 'Take up Christianity. It will pay you. I am a witness to it.' So a short address is given, and people are then called upon to testify. Why are people expected to want to accept Christianity? Because it works. It does this or that. It promises you happiness. It gives you peace and joy. I suggest that this a false evangelism. Our one business is to preach the Lord Jesus Christ, the final Authority. We are told to declare Him, and that men and women are to come face to face with Him. The cults can give you 'results'. Christian Science can tell you that if you do this and that you will sleep well at night, and you will lose your aches and pains. All the cults can do that sort of thing. We are not to do that [emphasis mine]. We are to declare Him, and to bring people face to face with Him. That was His own method.

2. Jesus spoke graciously. And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth (Luke 4:22a). So, add to his authority that Jesus spoke in a winsome manner. This is good, right? Well, yes, . . . sort of. For within a few verses we read that his own hometown crowd, offended by what he said, try to throw him off a cliff! So, gracious behavior still resulted in a near-death experience! People will not necessarily respond well to a graciously delivered message if they don't like WHAT you teach. But there is no reason to be obnoxious either. The "Good News" of the Gospel should be promulgated as such, not as an attack against the unbelieving mindset. Grace. We all need it. Every true believers has received it. Let us freely offer it as well.

Sin Humbles the Child of God

Romans 7:19, "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." This is the cry of Paul, the apostle as well as of every true child of God. Frustrating it is, but not despairing. Though we cry out, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (v. 24).

It is this very persistent and unavoidable battle that throws us outside of ourselves and onto the mercy of God . . . HOPEFULLY! I say "hopefully" because it can also have the adverse effect of driving us farther away from God IF we listen to Satan's deception. He suggests, "Oh what's the use? Just give in and go with it! Too much guilt, too much of the time!" But we resist and prefer rather to suffer the conundrum--saved but sinful. And it has a humbling effect upon us when we are properly trained by it. The Puritan, Thomas Brooks, comments on Psalm 51:3, 'My sin is ever before me.'

A humble soul sees that he can stay no more from sin, than the heart can from panting, and the pulse from beating. He sees his heart and life to be fuller of sin, than the firmament is of stars; and this keeps him low. He sees that sin is so bred in the bone, that till his bones, as Joseph's, be carried out of the Egypt of this world, it will not out. Though sin and grace were never born together, and though they shall not die together, yet while the believer lives, these two must live together; and this keeps him humble.

Humility forces total dependence on Jesus Christ to save us. After asking, "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Paul blurted out the answer, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:25). We freely admit that we need outside help. Madeline L’Engle intones, "If we are forced to accept our evident lack of qualification, then there’s no danger that we will confuse God’s work with our own."

Amen to that!