Disciples, Tourists, or Just Passing Through - Self Deception Series 8 – Purity 1097

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of what I'm guessing to be a sunrise— or is it a sunset?— over the Pacific Ocean comes to us from Mark Germain, who captured this scene on Saturday while vacationing in the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. Um, or at least I think Mark is vacationing there. Uh, according to a social media post, he first arrived in the Galápagos on July 2nd, and the more photos he shares, the more I wonder if he is on some assignment for work or if he has decided to stop being a tourist and has decided to live there. Mark has previously shared other views from trips to tropical locations before where he has been on corporate retreats, so it is not always easy to discern whether he is a tourist or not. Well, it's Tuesday, and one thing I have learned since being born again through a gospel radio message in 2010 is that it's not always easy to discern who is an islander or who is a tourist in the body of Christ. Just like some, uh, how someone's clothing and attire may lead you to believe they are native to an island, sometimes the clothes do not make the man. and we discover that someone who is, uh, someone is not who they appeared to be in terms of their faith and maturity as a disciple of Christ. And it is only through spending time together in fellowship that we discover which people live here, which people are on vacation, and which ones are just passing through. Our faith lives are a combination of our theological understanding and education, our spiritual experiences, and our commitment to follow the Lord. What do we know, and to what level do we know it? What do we believe, and how is that belief expressed in your life? What have we experienced, and how have, have those experiences impacted your walk? What has God called you to do, and what have you done with it? How far are you going in seeking the Lord and His purpose in your life? We often make the assumption that because we are quote-unquote the church, uh, that we are quote-unquote all in this together. And I suppose we are, if we are, but even if we are, it doesn't mean that we are the same in terms of knowledge, experience, call, and commitment. Knowing what we believe and why we believe it is one thing, um, that we can't assume everyone gathered in church building knows, and how that belief impacts one's life is another. For many, there is a distinct distinction between their lives of faith and their quote-unquote normal lives, when in fact there is actually no division, as we are always living in God's creation and under his reign. Yesterday I was speaking to a brother in Christ about the application of his faith to his life, and it quickly became apparent that although he had put his faith in Christ as his Savior, there were many areas in his life where he had failed to make Jesus his Lord, as his testimony revealed some deceptive and Machiavellian ways of operating in the world and some recent failings that didn't seem to bring a high level of conviction. Further discussion revealed that a contributing factor or root cause, uh, to these issues was a deep-seated personal belief that they were deficient mentally, morally, or spiritually in some fundamental way that prevented them from being responsible. According to them, their condition basically prevented them from living a responsible life. In essence, they were saying that they had not only done messed up things in their life, they were messed up. Of course, this is textbook condemnation. I just, I I don't just have problems, I am a problem. But God didn't make us this way and doesn't encourage us to think about ourselves in this way. While these attitudes of low self-esteem and a view of oneself as broken can be demonically inspired, stem from other voices in our lives, or be a conclusion we make, uh, about ourselves due to our poor choices, the Lord encourages us to repent and to know the truth about who we are in Christ and to live according to His truth. God doesn't just call us to be saved or forgiven. He calls us to life, and He calls us to believe Him and to follow Him in all areas of our lives. He calls us to surrender all to Him. He calls us to apply His truth to our lives and live in spirit and in truth. But even though that is the call God puts on our lives, we still have to believe him and stop believing the lies that are contrary to his word. And that brings us to our current series on self-deception, where we have decided to investigate some of the ways we deceive ourselves by walking through step 2, deception versus truth, of the Steps to Freedom in Christ, to see what ways we may have been deceived by the world and ourselves, and in what ways we have wrongly defended ourselves. So we present the 8th way we can— way you can be deceived by the world. Number 8: Believing that I can do whatever I want regardless of others and still be free. The scripture references for this point are Proverbs 16:18 that says, Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall. And Obadiah 1:3, which says, "You have been deceived by your own pride because you live in a rock fortress and make your home high in the mountains. Who can ever reach us way up here?" you ask boastfully. And finally, 1 Peter 5:5, which says, "In the same way, you younger men must accept the authority of the elders, and all of you serve each other in humility." God opposes the proud but favors the humble. Today's lie that we can do whatever we want regardless of others and still be free is rooted in pride, and depending on what you want to do, may run along antinomian lines, the ultra-grace belief that because you have been forgiven of all your sins, you can sin with impunity, freedom from punishment, harm, or loss. Jesus's two commandments, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves, however, makes us accountable to God's standard for living and to be kind and considerate towards the other people out in the world. Pride is basically doing things my way rather than doing things God's way. Pride is taking care of number one rather than considering others better than yourself. Philippians 2:3. Paradoxically, when we advocate only for ourselves, we become a slave to our flesh or our selfish egos. We, in essence, reject the, uh, reject Jesus as our Lord and make ourselves the king. But the problem with our majesty is that we don't have the wisdom or power to rule ourselves, and we are subject to the ultimate authority of God. When we pridefully declare our freedom, we deceive ourselves because we are not only not free of the consequences of our actions, we are not free from God's judgment and wrath unless we surrender to the Lordship of Christ. So don't believe the lie that you can do whatever you want regardless of others and still be free. No matter what we do, we are never free from God, and as Christians, God calls us to obey Him, to love our neighbors and enemies. So develop a humble heart of submission that says, "Not my will be, uh, be done, but let God's will be done on earth and in my life as it is in heaven." Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on adultery. And today's verses are Matthew 5:31-32 from the English Standard Version. The Word of God says, it was also said, whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the grounds of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Today's verse, uh, verses fall under the 17th point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on adultery, number 17: Anyone who marries a wrongfully divorced person commits adultery. Today's verses establish a pretty solid guideline for a legitimate divorce. This verse, these verses establish that perhaps the only ground for divorce is sexual immorality. If your spouse commits adultery, you are permitted to divorce them. The implication is that if you divorce for other grounds, you could unwittingly commit adultery in your next marriage. Scripture also indicates, of course, that separation from an unbelieving spouse is also permitted, which we can hope would free, uh, would also free the believing spouse of charges of adultery should they remarry. Today's verses allude to the spiritual soul ties that exist when we become one flesh with our spouses and sexual partners. Those ties are not necessarily just— are broke— not necessarily broken just because we get a legal divorce from some earthly governmental agency. Soul ties can only be broken through submission to the Lord in repentance and prayer. So marriage and divorce are not to be taken lightly. However, we would, we would never command a person to remain in an abusive situation because of Scripture. Husband and wife are to love and respect one another, and when one party fails to do that, we have the right to make them accountable to the local authorities or to separate from them for our personal safety and to encourage them to repent. But realize that God's authority sets the standard for love and marriage. As Christians, we should obey His word and seek to repent, to be forgiven and free in Christ. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit. We continue in chapter 14, The Spirit Comforting, and today's section is called Weaned from the World. So if you want to see what A.W. Pink has to say about that in these couple of paragraphs, go to mtforchrist.org and you'll see that resource at the end of today's blog post. Yeah, we encourage a lifestyle of Christian discipleship here on the podcast. It's That's why we do it. Not just to encourage discipleship, but to encourage them, you know, to assure you that freedom and walking in the Spirit is possible. You know, that as you follow the Lord in Spirit and truth, you develop the fruit of the Spirit in your life: peace, joy, goodness, kindness, love, patience, and self-control. And it's, it's not necessarily an easy road, and we are personally responsible to seek the Lord's truth and to apply it to our lives. And we can't really point to others in our lives as an excuse of why we didn't follow the Lord, and we can't point to ourselves and say we're deficient in some way. Because God made us to be more than conquerors. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us, but we do have to repent and, you know, crucify the flesh and renew our minds to be more and more like Christ in our thoughts and actions. And, you know, it's not because we're under the authority of the law law that we do this. So we do this because this is what the Lord has for us to do. He wants us to not suffer, and so we choose to follow him. And today's verses are some tough guidelines, you know, about pride and humility and about, you know, some of the spiritual aspects of our lives that are hard to discern and hard to understand. That we are joined to one another spiritually. When we, when we come into a marriage covenant or have sex with people, there's a soul tie that's developed, and that's why we become obsessive over people that we've been involved with in the past. Although time and distance separate us, those soul ties still exist, and unless we repent of them and ask the Lord to break them, you know, and renounce those associations and ties through prayer. So it's some heady stuff, and when we come to Christ, it's not all, it's not all, you know, paradise. Because we've lived separated from God and living according to our own way, You know, transforming our lives to follow Christ can be a difficult process, but it's a process that is worth doing, and it leads to peace as we leave behind our world of darkness and pursue his world of light for us. So we encourage you to continue to follow, or to start to follow, and to examine your life and see what other areas that you've been holding out on God. You know, in terms of what haven't you surrendered to the Lord. I'm not talking about personal finances, the gifts on the church. I'm talking about your obedience to follow the Lord and the Lord only, not some pastor or church, but to do what's right according to the Word of God and to have His Holy Spirit live through you as you live in this world. So we encourage that. If you don't know what I'm talking about in terms of all this stuff, we recommend our, our discipleship classes: Freedom in Christ, The Bondage Breaker, and Victory Over the Darkness. They're all available on the podcast and our YouTube channel. They're based on the Word of God and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson. We recommend them highly because they can transform your life from one of bondage to freedom., and so we recommend those. We also obviously recommend the study of God's Word, and that's why we do a Bible study once a week with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti, where we really just talk about how do we apply this Word to our lives, how do we live this life as Christians. And so we encourage you. It was something I never did until later in life, and it was a struggle to get where I am in terms of freedom. There was a lot of rebellion on my side of the table here, and when I learned that God was good and loving and wanted the best for me, and that He's already done it, you know, the moment I put my faith in Him, things got a lot easier. So we recommend following the Lord in spirit and truth very highly. Well, we're gonna have to follow the Lord into work today, so let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for what you've done for us, what you've shown us, the secrets and mysteries in your word that you've revealed to us, that how, how we could actually live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we thank you for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you would come alongside them and bless them, uh, in their prayer request and in their walks of faith. Because Lord, we all need your help, um, to know the truth and to live by faith, uh, and, uh, we need you to guide us and help us. So we ask you to go before us today and open our eyes to the things you want us to see and lead our steps in the things you would have us do. Because, Lord, all we want to do is represent you and your kingdom here on the earth and to show other people that you are good and you are holy and that you would lead us into all into all truth, um, and to a, a good place, um, where the fruit of the Spirit grows, Lord. So we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.