I Don’t Have to Control What I Say - Self Deception Series 21 – Purity 1110

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 the sun setting between two lampposts comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene yesterday while I was walking along the lower deck of the Bicentennial Tower overlooking Presque Isle Island— or Presque Isle Bay in Erie, Pennsylvania. Uh, well, it's Wednesday, and even though this photo highlights, highlights more evidence for naming this season 2023's White Sky Summer, I had a good time down by the bay and figured that while this photo may be lacking in aesthetic beauty, the fact that I caught the sun more or less in the middle of the scene makes it useful as a visual represent— representation of our arrival at the mid point of another week in the life. So happy hump day from Erie, Pennsylvania. While yesterday's sunset may have been a little lackluster, the sky was actually blue and the day was pleasantly warm as my family and I spent most of the day exploring up and down the Presque Isle Peninsula, enjoying this impressive marvel of God's creation. While we made several stops in Presque Isle, Presque Isle Presque Isle State Park, my favorite was Beach 11 because even though some of the other beaches on the coast of Lake Erie may have had their merits, I was able to immerse myself into the experience of Beach 11 as I went for an extended swim and rest in Thompson Bay's clear warm waters. I didn't just see Beach 11, I got to feel it and know it. As I literally dove into all it had to offer. Similarly, when I was saved by a chance encounter with a David Jeremiah Gospel Radio message, I felt and knew the love of God. And from that moment forward, I made the commitment to be a quote-unquote real Christian and decided to seek and follow the Lord with the way I lived my life. While I knew that God loved me, forgave my sins and gave me eternal life in His Kingdom when I put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I also was aware that there is an inherent expectation when one comes to faith that they become holy as God is holy. 1 Peter 1:15-16 tells us, "But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy." for the Scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy." But although I agreed to try to be a real Christian in those early days, I reminded the Lord that I was a sinner saved by grace and He would just have to take what He got in terms of my holiness. So in those early days, even though I started to read the Bible in earnest, went back to the Episcopal Church for a time, and listened to Christian podcasts, there wasn't much fruit in the personal sanctification department. I was still a drunk who lived by the flesh more than I walked in the Spirit. However, even though I started on shaky ground, the more I read the Bible, the more convicted I became about my need for repentance. The Word was pretty clear about drunkenness and the other sins of the flesh that I dabbled in, and instead of continuing membership in the Thief on the Cross Club with the rest of the sinners saved by grace in the church, I answered the call to be real with God and really repent. The Holy Spirit and the whole— and the Word convicted me that I couldn't call myself a Christian and continue to live in darkness. I couldn't live a lie anymore, and I had to follow the Lord and chose to live by his truth as much as I could. 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 fifth way to deceive yourself. Number 5: thinking I can be truly religious and not control what I say. The scripture reference for this point is James 1:26, and the word of God says, if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. The things we what we say mean a lot, and when we want to represent the Kingdom of God, the Word is pretty clear about bridling our tongue. This verse and the principles on speech that we can glean from Scripture indicate that our harsh, coarse, negative, ungrateful, grumbling, complaining, or dishonest speech renders our proclamation of faith to be of no value. I am sharing a link to Bible.info's 100 Bible verses about our speech for those who would like some scriptures or conviction on this matter. While we Christians could balk about the Steps to Freedom's wording here, knowing that we have a relationship with God and aren't concerned about being "truly religious," the spirit behind this point in Step 2 is that we are deceiving ourselves if we if we claim to be real or authentic Christians and not control what we say. While we could claim our freedom of speech as a right as an American or as someone who has been saved from the law, we should respect God's word enough to admit that when we claim our membership in God's family, we are being a hypocrite and not representing God's kingdom when we swear like a sailor, tell white lies, gossip, or scoff and mock like an atheist. As someone who is trying to keep it real, I will, when I admit that this is not an area that I have complete victory in yet. I am still shocked at my lack of self-control sometimes with the explicatives in traffic sometimes, and am disappointed when I'm pulled into the profanity gutter by those who speak French, or how I sometimes amuse myself by making fun of others with unkind words or thoughts. I am a recovering sarcastic, angry, obnoxious jerk of sorts, and although I have made great strides with the way I express myself, I still have instances of failure with the things I say. But personal sanctification is In the area of speech is not a hopeless endeavor. I have made progress, and I know that our Heavenly Father applauds our efforts when we heed what He says and try to be more like Him. So be aware of what comes out of your mouth and think about how you say— what you say impacts others and reflects on yourself as a Christian. Is the foul, coarse, bawdy, negative, unkind, or sarcastic message we are putting out there the message we want to send? Will that type of speech draw people closer to be— to wanting to be a Christian or give God glory? If the answer is no, we have to realize that when we don't follow God's word in regard to our speech, our mouths are working for the enemy and tell others that our religion is worthless. 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 Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, and Trials. And today we are going over Hebrews 12:5-11. While people race up and down in Erie, Pennsylvania— anyway, um, the word of God says in Hebrews 12:5-11, and have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, my child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline and don't give up when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes each one he accepts as his child. As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by his father? If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn't we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits and live forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how, But God's discipline is always good for us, and so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it's painful—but afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. Today's verses fall under the 7th point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, and Trials. And that point is number 7: God disciplines His children to promote sanctification. Today's verses continue our theme on sonship and holiness, as this passage from Hebrews shows us all about what our relationship with God really means, and that love will sometimes be expressed with chastising, and when we are not representing our heavenly family. For anyone who would claim, uh, easy-believism like I did when I first got saved, believing if not saying, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I can do whatever I want. I've been forgiven," I encourage you to read through the New Testament epistles and let the Word of God convict your heart to repent. While I haven't done an exhaustive word study to give you specifics, I would say that for every passage you could you could use for, for your personal freedom, there are 3 times as many that would tell you specifically how you should obey God's word and change the way you live. But God knows his children, and even though the word is clear on his call to personal sanctification, he understands that we may need to suffer to see the error of our ways. And because he is sovereign, he can direct our paths to find affliction. That will make us see the light and eventually walk in the ways He has for us. So if you experience trials, look for the things you are doing that deny or disobey God's counsel. Make a decision to be an obedient son and daughter and start walking the walk as well as talking the talk of being a Christian. The Word tells us that God's discipline is for a purpose. For our sanctification. And as born-again believers, sinners saved by grace, or by— or as disciples of Jesus Christ, we should all embrace the Lord's purposes for our lives and seek to represent his kingdom only. 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, and today's section is from chapter 17, The Spirit Uniting in Christ. And today's topic is internal drawing. So if you want to hear what A.W. Pink has to say about internal drawing of the Holy Spirit, go to mt4christ.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of Christian discipleship, trying to be a real Christian in all our ways by obeying the word of God and by sharing the gospel and teaching others what Jesus taught us. So we encourage that by— on the podcast and our YouTube channel— by sharing our discipleship teachings that we, that we did back in 2021. For Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Those are all based on the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson and the Word of God, and we share it and encourage you to check them out if you don't know who you are in Christ, or if you don't know what your freedom in Christ feels like. It's a liberating experience when you realize you're free and you've been forgiven. And that doesn't drive you to sin like you used to, but drives you to, you know, follow God's good purposes for your life, to be at peace with Him and to share the good news of the gospel, to live by faith and to see the fruit of righteous living when the Holy Spirit guides you to do what you should do. The wisdom, of course, we glean from the Word of God, and we encourage Bible study. Our basic encouragement is to tell the truth and to live by faith by developing a spiritual daily— a daily spiritual practice where you connect to the Lord with prayer and thanksgiving and Bible study and good works, doing doing what's right, making things right, being a force in this world for good and for God's kingdom. And so we encourage that. And if you want to check out our Bible study, you can find it on our YouTube channel or podcast under Bible Study with the Sankatis. This past week we did the 5 baptisms in the Bible, so if you want to see what that's about, you can check it out by, by searching our latest Bible Well, I am on vacation and I'm enjoying my time. I've gotten a lot of rest. Naps are a thing and I feel great. So, you know, I'm still sticking with the daily spiritual practice. I slept in this morning till 3. I must have forgot to set my alarm, but my internal clock said it's time to get up. And so we exercised and we got up and we read the word and we prayed and we meditated a bit. And now we get this message out to everybody to encourage them that, you know, I do this to encourage people that, you know, your life as a Christian should include a daily spiritual practice. Not to boast to other people that you're, you know, holier-than-thou or anything like that, but so you can connect to the presence and strength and power and wisdom of God. Foster that relationship and let Him help you clean up your mouth and your life. So that's what we try to encourage because we never knew we could live like this. We never knew what it meant to be a real Christian or to try to live like a real Christian. Because we always thought because we were in the world and we were, you know, fallen men, that not much could be expected of us. But when we follow the Lord, we can do things that we would have thought otherwise impossible. So we encourage, encourage you to seek that out for yourselves and seek out what's good and what God has for you. So that's that. Let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for this time away from work, um, to enjoy, uh, some rest and, um, uh, some new landscape and, um, some good times with the family. Um, Lord, we just pray for you to be with us today, to show us the things you want us to see, and to guide our path and protect us and keep us safe as we go about our day. And Lord, we pray for the people who might be listening or reading this message, um, that you would come alongside them and their prayer request and their walk of faith. Because Lord, we, we all need your help. Um, we need you to guide us and teach us and show us the right way to go. And, uh, we need you to help us in that. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.