Friday, February 6, 2015

You should be Waging War not Expecting Peace.


“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,

Saying ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
“Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done?
They were not even ashamed at all;
They did not even know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
At the time that I punish them,
They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah 6:13-1

Many pastors are preaching peace and rest through justification to men who are actively disobeying the Lord. A son of God who goes home and looks at pornography should never expect peace and rest in his soul until he gets serious about obedience. We should be repenting in sackcloth and ashes and burning our phones and computers. Woe to the teachers who preach peace to those who should be at war with the flesh, and freedom to those who are willingly enslaving themselves to sin.

But "there is therefore now no condemnation" you object. God no longer sees our sins, we have the righteousness of Christ,  we are justified forever by the blood of Jesus. 

Let's look at the context of Romans 8:1-13:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.  For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
 
Notice what those who are justified do: 
1) They set their minds on the things of the Spirit
2) They have life and peace.
3) They put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit.
When sons of God willingly go on sinning they separate themselves from God, I am not saying that the indwelling Holy Spirit leaves them, but rather the consequences of living in sin can be seen in their lives even as believers.  There is no peace or life, their minds are set on things of the flesh, they are hostile to God, they are not submitting to God's law.  What a dreadful state. 
Remember Paul's warning in Hebrews 10:
 
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God -Hebrews 10:26-31
 
 
 

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