Managing your lusts or desires

The word translated "lust" or "lusts" in Scripture (King James Version) usually is the same word that is translated desires.  Paul has a desire to depart and be with Christ, and he warns and exhorts Christian saints to put off the old man and his lusts.  The same Greek word is used.

Desires are not evil on their own.  What marks them as evil is what they are set upon.  John makes this clear in 1John 2:15 where he writes, "love not the world, neither the things that are in the world".

Our love and our desires are tied together, brought out by what John writes next: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Therefore we have a basis for evaluating and managing our lusts.

We are going to desire what we love.  This is why John puts love before the desires of lusts.  However, it would be wrong to begin with love.  To evaluate our love we must first look at our desires.  Why?  Because you can say "I love the Lord" but your desires may be those of the dead nature.  You can say I love the truth, but your desires may lead you to continue to lie or hold on to a lie in your beliefs so that you can continue in a certain sin.

Your desires reveal what you love.  This is why we must first inspect our desires.

Next, we have to evaluate our desires and classify them as either those that are "of the Father" or those that are "of the world".

Here we may want to seek to identify "of the world" by some objective standard.  It is easy to look out at the world and subjectively deny something as being "of the world" because it is something we crave.  This must be avoided if we are to properly and objectively identify "of the world" so that we can root it out of our heart.

1John 3:4 is that objective standard.  "of the world" is that which is against God, and sin is that which is against God.  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Sin is against God, and it is the transgression of the law of God.

Now we have objective standards to evaluate our desires.  Sin and the law.

Some here may make a point of saying that the law has changed.  However, the clear teaching of Scripture is that the moral law given to Israel at Sinai (Exodus 20) is also the same law given to God's spiritual Israel, the Church.

I hope that I've not lost anyone by this point.  I am not presenting the law and sin as a means of obtaining God's righteousness.  They are a measure to identify the desires of our hearts.  Are we continuing to walk in the ways of the old man, the old sinful nature, or are we walking in the ways of the new man, the ways of the new spiritual nature.  Paul says the law is spiritual, and it is for sinners of which he says he is chief.  It is not to crush us down under condemnation, but to help us to evaluate whether we are walking in the flesh or walking in the Spirit.

It in turn will help us to cry out to God in humility as we come to see once again that we cannot save ourself from the wretchedness of sin, but that we are completely saved by grace by faith.

Because of the length of this post, I will end here and continue at some point in the future.

Look at your desires against God's standard and identify in your own heart whether they are of the world or of the Father, and where you see they are of the world, cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness.  Remember, John says in this same book that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

We need not despair when we sin.  We need to confess and cry out to God for mercy as we did in the beginning of our walk in faith.

Lord bless you in Christ Jesus.

Trust in God during your trials

All that goes on in this life is to test our trust in God, and cause us to trust in God if we are a believer.

What especially will do that? Trials, afflictions, sorrows, persecutions. It is in the midst of these that our faith is challenged.

Our normal human response would be something like this:
"Why am I going through this? Has God forsaken me? Am I in the midst of terrible sin?"

The apostle Paul reveals that we ought to understand our sufferings in a very different way when he writes:
2 Corinthians 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

The point of Paul's suffering was not that God had forsaken him or that he was being punished for sin, but so that he would trust in God and not in himself.

This is also what he means by these verses later in the same epistle:
2 Corinthians 12:7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

In his weakness, not trusting in himself, he found strength in grace, the power of Christ, that comes by trusting in God through Jesus Christ. So, once again, Paul's suffering was not due to God's forsaking of him or a punishment of sin, but a demonstration of the benefits of trusting in God through Jesus Christ.

The next time you are called to suffer, do not take it as a sign of God's departure from you, or that God is punishing you for your sins. If you believe, your sins were punished on the cross. God's purpose in this suffering is that you would learn to trust in Him even more than you do now or did before the suffering came.

By grace through faith

The way God saves never changes: Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Salvation has a past component: 'the Lord saved me on such a such a date'
Salvation has a present component: you are being saved by the Lord
Salvation has a future component: those that confess Jesus and believe in their heart shall be saved
He that believes and is baptized shall be saved....

In all of this, salvation is by grace through faith. It is never due to our works at any time. As Christians, we shall have works, yet those works are never saving us, nor should they ever be purposed to obtain God's favour, but instead, in true faith, are and only should be because God is saving us as a gift, and because we already have and will forever have the favour of God.

A gift is never earned, and when a gift is received, you do not turn around to pay the person who gave it to you. Then it would no longer be a gift.

God gave the gift by grace because you and I could never do enough works to earn the gift, and because all we could do would only and ever earn eternal death and damnation.

Praise God for His wonderful gift of grace.

Bible giveaway

Logos/Libronix, a great Bible software company, is giving away Bibles. For more information, go to http://bible.logos.com/content/giveaway#content=giveaway

Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.

Identifying with Christ in a world full of idolatry

Is there something you could be threatened with that would cause you to recant (turn away from) your faith in Jesus Christ? Loss of job, home, ability to work and earn a living, health, friends, social standing, or your life? Where would you draw the line? Would you be willing to give up all these things rather than give up your faith in Jesus Christ?

This is the ultimate test isn't it. Yet, this is what Jesus Christ expects of His people should that test be presented to them. It was something the church at Smyrna would have to endure. Rev. 2:8-11 Yet, it was not only expected of them, but is expected of all God's people. Those of us in North America do not fully comprehend this. We may mouth the words, but I do not believe we can truly relate to what our brothers and sisters are enduring in other lands.

Sermon audio news reported that a woman was executed for distributing the Bible in North Korea. Would you be willing to die for passing the Bible out? Those who endure persecution to death for Christ's sake receive the crown of life rather than being faced with the second death.

Sometimes, to spur us on, God speaks about the worse punishment to help His people measure the punishment that this world threatens with. The punishment this world threatens with is the first death. The punishment God promises to those who do not confess Christ is the second death. Jesus Himself says He will deny those before His Father who denied Him before men.

Do not deny Him, but confess Him to the world regardless of the cost in this life. The prize of eternal life is worth more than anything that this world has to offer, including your own life.

Following Christ

Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

The cross centered life is necessary to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. This means regularly putting our own will, our own desires to death.

Jesus says that to come after Him is to deny self: to follow Jesus is to put self to death.

Let the reader heed this thought and put it into practice and not be deceived by the many ways of "Christianity" in our day. There are always wolves in sheeps' clothing which want to have the world and claim Christ also. The daily pursuits are self centered rather than Christ centered. Christ is like the icing to their cake rather than the cake and the icing.

The cross is an instrument of death. Jesus says that if you are not putting yourself to death daily, you are not coming after Him and not following Him. Think about that for a while. Disciples put themselves to death daily to follow Jesus.

Taking up your own cross is the result of you coming to Jesus Christ's cross. Faith in Jesus Christ exhibits itself in this way of selfless love toward God and others. Genuine, sincere faith is busy thinking about the needs of others in relation to God.

Jesus lived a cross centered life demonstrated in love toward others because of His love for His Father. Those being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ shall also demonstrate loving faith in this way.

No Kingdom without THE Tribulation

We are currently studying the book of Revelation in our evening study time. The messages are online at www.northwoodsbaptist.com

In Revelation 1:9 John writes:
I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The phrase "tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience" is very important in understanding what John is writing about in this book. Unfortunately many things are not evident in the English.

In the Greek, the article is before tribulation, and all of the nouns, tribulation, kingdom, and patience are in the same case as the article, indicating that this whole phrase functions as a unit. This means that the tribulation, kingdom and patience cannot be separated in John's (inspired by God) thought. Therefore, it is foreign to John and God Himself that the tribulation and the kingdom could be separated, along with the patience.

Those who separate the tribulation from the kingdom, therefore, twist the Scriptures.

It is also quite important to understand this if you are a professing Christian. If your aim is the kingdom, you should know that you are in the tribulation of which John writes.

John himself identifies himself as a partaker in the tribulation, kingdom and patience, and all those who are in Jesus Christ, are his brothers and companions in all three, tribulation, kingdom and patience.

Do not be deceived by those who separate the tribulation and kingdom. Do not be deceived by those who say the tribulation is yet future. It is now.

2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The Spotless Bride being made Spotless

Jesus Christ gave His life to bring to Himself a Spotless Bride, the Church. She is not spotless now, practically speaking, but she is spotless positionally, by justifying faith.

The Cross has a power in the life of those for whom it was planned and accomplished. The faith of God's elect in Jesus Christ, obtains God's righteousness imputed, and the same faith, continued until death or until He comes, obtains God's righteousness practically.

The faith that looks upon Jesus Christ on the Cross and receives salvation, is the same faith which beholds the face of Jesus Christ and is transformed from glory to glory. By beholding the Lord of glory in His Word, the saints of God are being conformed to His image, the image of the Son of God, and are being transformed by the renewing of their mind to approve of God's will, because they behold it in the life of Jesus Christ.

What a thrill to contemplate our position; perfect righteousness of God.
What a thrill to contemplate our transition; to a life filled with the perfect righteousness of God.

All to the praise & glory & honour of Him who gave His life, that we might be made spotless, without blemish, holy, to be presented to Him, the Great Bridegroom.

From hearers & doers to judges over God's Word

I recently went away to a Bible Conference & heard great preaching. What made it great preaching? The Bible was preached. It made me think though, about all who talked during the conference, and those who talk in our own Churches.

Are we to judge the preachers, whether they were good, or are we to determine whether the word was preached, and then apply it to our own lives? Ezekiel 33:30-33 gives us an idea of which is our responsibility. If God's messenger brings God's Word, God's people are not to talk about the preacher but about how to live God's Word.

Talking about the preacher, people will quickly find fault and excuse themselves from living and practicing what they heard.

Changes the way preaching ought to be viewed.

The Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ

Paul writes on the difficulty of the understanding the application of the Old Covenant in 2Corinthians 3 and explains how a right understanding of its application is found in the New Covenant through Jesus Christ.

We had a guest preacher bring a message on this text this past Lord's Day, and as he went through the text, some important things crystallized.

The problem was not with the covenant, but with the people. Jeremiah 31:31-34 highlights this. They were hardened & blinded, having a veil over their spiritual eyes, their heart, thus they could not rightly obey God in the Old Covenant. Thus, our God and Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, brought in the New Covenant in His blood, by which, all who are in the New Covenant, such as Abel, Enoch and Noah, have been able to see the same glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, as saints since the cross.

God's mercy & goodness shine forth through the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas, with a veil over the heart, man turns that which is by faith into a system of works. Those who have had the veil removed turn to the Lord and through His Spirit changing them from glory to glory are made into the same image of their Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, as you behold Christ in the New Covenant, beholding His glory, you are being made glorious, because you are being made like Him. What an amazing thought and not just a thought, but an actual reality for all those who behold the glory of Jesus Christ.

Holiness of Jesus Christ

This week, considering the firstfruit and root which results in the lump and branches being made holy, I considered who this pictured, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what the Bible had to say about holiness.

Holiness is not just sinless righteousness. Two examples in Scripture demonstrate this clearly.

The first example is creation. God made all His creation and gave Adam & Eve sinless righteous tasks of dominion over the creation, filling it, caring for it, and caring for one another. This is before sin is introduced remember. Then the LORD God commands the sanctifying of the 7th day. It is to be set apart; but how? The 4th commandment in Exodus 20 says to keep the day holy, set apart from the other 6, which were to also be kept sinless & righteously. Holiness is higher, because holiness points to God, thus it is called the Lord's Day.

The second example makes this clear. In Isaiah 6, seraphim, majestic creatures, are before the throne of God crying Holy, holy, holy. These creatures are in the LORD's presence praising Him. From this, we deduce they are sinless and righteous, for they praise the LORD. Yet, they praise the LORD Jehovah as Holy, holy, holy, thereby identifying holiness as transcending the sinless righteousness of His creatures.

Can we comprehend His holiness? No. It is beyond what we can think and imagine. I cannot think of keeping 6 sinless days, let alone a day holy to the Lord. I cannot know nor understand what these majestic seraphim are like or look like, much less the LORD's holiness. Yet, that does not mean we should not ask for understanding nor keep His day holy. We must instead cry out to God for help.

By the way, the Lord & LORD in Isaiah 6 is the Lord Jesus Christ as revealed in John 12:41

The Holiness of Jesus Christ is beyond human comprehension - it will take an eternity to comprehend what we believe and confess by faith

Praying in detail

Sometimes in our praying we pray in generalities. "Please help us & guide us in our decisions". When we pray, we need to be specific about what those generalities mean.

The reason is as we get specific, our God will answer specifics and display His glory and give you opportunity to glorify Him before others as you spell out how God answers the details.

My family and I have a family prayer time after our devotional time, and many of our prayer requests seem to be in generalities. I recently determined to take one of those line items and broaden it into the specifics so that as we prayed it, God knew and we knew what we meant, so that when the answers came, we would know that it was of God.

The answers came, and came in specific ways to address our specific requests, and beyond, because God goes beyond what we can think and ask.

Pray in detail

Grace beyond description

As I grow in the faith, the grace of God, through His Son, sparkles more brightly, and dazzles my gaze more fully.

The reason for this is I come to know God's holiness, righteousness and justice more through prayer, the study of His Word and revelation of the Holy Spirit illuminating these things to my soul.

At the same time, my depravity, the inherent sin, living in my old nature still clinging to me in this life, also becomes clearer. My inability to please God remains the same, but sight into this inability becomes clearer, and therefore, the glory of God's grace shines brighter.

It is no wonder that after Paul has written "who shall deliver me from the body this of death" that He is able also to say: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Praise our Father for His grace through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ

Worldliness: resisting the seduction of a fallen world

This is a book review of Worldliness: resisting the seduction of a fallen world edited by C.J. Mahaney.

Do want to know how to keep yourself from worldliness? It is a must if you are a Christian, for the love of the world and the love of the Father (God) are polar opposites. You either love God or the world, therefore, your eternity is at stake.

This book helps you identify areas where you may be involved in worldliness which could ultimately lead to you falling away and turning to love this world and depart from the faith. Don't let that happen to you, read this book, and examine your life in prayer.

It excellently examines all areas of life, without getting into legalism, but points to love & devotion to God and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only true reason to do anything, including avoiding worldliness.

Book review

I recently finished "Do Hard Things" by the Harris twins (Alex & Brett?). It is written for teens (no such category in the Bible) with a focus on prompting them not to waste their lives by dropping down to the standard of the North American society. Bible expectations are much higher than those of society, and this is brought out by only looking back at recent history.

15 year old girls were considered ready for marriage. 15 year old boys were considered ready for the army. An 11 year old girl started nursing and went on to form the Red Cross....

The book is excellent for young people, parents, pastors and Sunday school teachers, to ensure that we as a Church do not lower the standard/expectations we have on young people, but raise the bar to where they are in God's Word!

Book review

I finished Unity of the Bible by Daniel Fuller a while ago. It is an excellent book that somehow all Christians should read to give them the proper perspective of the whole Bible and how God has always worked by faith (Hebrews 11). This seems to get missed when the reader gets to Exodus 20 to think that a system of works is introduced.

The last few verses of Romans 9 and first few of Romans 10 say that a system of works was NEVER introduced, but those in the flesh turn a system of faith into a system of works.

I would recommend this book to anyone who can get their hands on it.

Focus of this new year

The focus of this year is to seek God diligently because He is and those who come to Him believe (faith) that He is and the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

May this be the focus and cry of all God's people through this year.

Bible Study Magazine

I was recently sent a copy of the new Bible Study Magazine with the idea that I would review it and put this review online where it could be read.

Overall, the magazine is a high quality publication. I enjoyed all the articles, especially those which would help the average Christian to be strengthened, encouraged and helped in their walk with the Lord and equip them to better study and understand God's Word.

A negative was the presentation of a controversial topic, "Choosing a Bible Translation." The reason I believe it was a negative was that rather than have presentations from both sides to leave the reader to decide for themselves, there was only one side presented, indicating that the editor of the magazine made the decision for the reader. I would suggest that future articles that deal with controversial issues have articles from both sides of the issue to leave the reader to make the decision for themselves.

Other than this, I would highly recommend the magazine for those who seriously seek after God, to know Him and Jesus Christ whom He sent.

You can subscribe at http://www.biblestudymagazine.com

Pastor, Northwoods Baptist Church