Don't "wait for God" when you are living with the pigs

Ok, the title of this post seems controversial. But first let me explain.  

A number of years ago a well known radio host with a deep voice came to our church. He recounted a story about a young man trapped in sin  who was despairing and didn't know what to do.  He had reached out to this teacher for advice.  

His response... Do Nothing! "God has you right where he wants you and you just have to wait on His timing and trust in His purposes".  Hmmm, sounds wise, I mean we should always trust in God and waiting on the Lord is scriptural (Psalm 27:14), but is this really what scripture teaches?

Here's the heart of the issue - Does God tell His children who are sinning to keep sinning and wait for Him to take care of the problem? Let's look at some verses:

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 

-Romans 6:1-2

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 

- Romans 6:15-17

Over and over again scripture puts the responsibility of battling sin and deciding to pursue righteousness in our court.  

Think about the parable of the prodigal son. The prodigal son was a true son who walked away and squandered his inheritance on riotous living (wasted his life in sin). Then when he had nothing and was feeding pigs to survive he decided to humble himself and return to his father and ask to be a servant in his father's household.  But when he was still a long ways off his father (who had been waiting and watching for him) ran to meet him and threw a celebration at his return.  

Now imagine for a second that the prodigal son was sitting in the pig sty and a modern day teacher walked by. The young man in despair calls out to the teacher and asks for advice. The teacher asks the young man who he is and learning that he is the son of the wealthy landlord proclaims "I know your father! He is a loving man, full of grace and compassion. Here is my advice: Stay where you are and just wait for your father to come get you and pull you out of the pig sty. He has a purpose for you to live with the pigs and you just have to trust that it will be worth it in the end."

Does this still sound like good advice? Is there any value in living with the pigs? 
Don't be fooled by those who masquerade as teachers yet draw their followers with them into destruction.

We have a new heart... and an old one (sort of).

Becoming a Christian, a born-again, Spirit indwelt, redeemed son of God immediately changes us. We are a new creation, freed from sin, with a new heart. Our desires, thinking, and spirit have all been made alive.  

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. -Ezekiel 36:26, Ezekiel 11:19

Don't these verses mean that we our old hearts are gone?  Well yes and no.  Salvation brings a new birth, new heart, new mind, new desires but we are still confined in these mortal bodies that are still subject to the desires of the flesh.  As Paul states in Romans 7:

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

      I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. -Romans 7:14-25

So while our hearts are new we still feel the desires of the flesh. Those desires no longer define us, but they still dwell in us. Before salvation our default was to sin and we desired to sin, but now our default is to hate sin and we desire to do good.  So why do we keep sinning?  

"Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." - Mark 14:28

We see that God's plan is to build us up in His power combined with our own will. He has given us His Spirit, living within us, and with the Spirit comes His power. If we have the Spirit and power of God within us that should be enough right?  Yes it is. But God has also seen fit to require something of us: our will. Just as salvation requires us to make a decision of the will to believe in Jesus, likewise our sanctification requires our will to daily deny the flesh.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. - Luke 9:23 

Our new hearts are the spiritual completion of creation.  The flesh needs daily food to sustain life, likewise our spirits need the daily food of the Word.  The flesh needs care and a community to thrive, likewise the new creation within us needs spiritual communion with God to thrive.  

Returning to your vomit

The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.” Numbers 11:4-6

I realized something while reading Numbers 11. The people had been freed from slavery and fed bread from heaven. They were traveling to the promise land. The journey was hard but they were on the cusp of reaching the end. This is where Satan seeks to bring down the people of God using his wolves among the flock. The rabble, who also had a hand in enticing the people to worship the golden calf, are not appealing to the base desires of the people.  They are painting a false image of what life was like in Egypt. They make slavery sound like a 5-star resort! 

The interesting thing is not the lies they are telling about what Egypt was like, but rather they ignore the truth about what Egypt has become - a wasteland, no crops, no fish, no cattle, nothing.  Egypt is now a barren wasteland due to God's judgment!

So it is with sin. Satan seeks to tempt us back into the former lifestyle of lust and sin. Remember how exhilarating it was? Remember the good times you had? Don't think about the wasteland your life had become, forget that you were a slave on the path to destruction. 

The things that happened in the Old Testament are truly written for us to learn from:

For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”  2 Peter 2:18-22

Imputed Righteousness isn't just a covering.

How many times have you heard something like this:  "When God looks at us He only sees Christ's righteousness, not our sins" 

Statements such as the one above illustrate how subtly Satan can twist scripture.  The statement can be both true and false depending on the point the person is trying to make.  Let's break it down.

1) If the speaker is attempting to communicate that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us by the work on the cross and through faith then the statement is true. If we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again to free us from our sins, that our sins are crucified on the cross with Christ, and we become new creatures that no longer bear the guilt and punishment or our sins, then the statement is true.  Additionally, the righteousness of Christ is "imputed" to us so that we may stand in the presence of God (one day) without spot or blemish. 

2) If the speaker is attempting to communicate that in God's eyes our sins no longer matter, that there is "nothing we can do to displease God" or that believers will never be convicted of sin then the statement is false and a damnable heresy. Imputed righteousness isn't just a covering of sin. We are not just the same old sinners clothed in Christ's righteousness.  The old testament sacrifices covered sin but did not cleanse, this is why the Law was insufficient to save. Christ's blood cleanses us from sin, completely.  We are no longer the same creatures we were before salvation, pursuing the lusts of the flesh.  

This does not mean that we are perfect, or flawless, or sinless... yet.  We still have the sinful nature warring within us.  We still sin, and anyone who says they don't sin is a liar and the truth is not in them (1 John 1:8).  However, claiming that God doesn't see our current unrepentant sin or that He doesn't care about it is a lie.  

There are many still teaching antinomianism in churches these days and we must be wary.  When we are saved we become new creatures with new hearts, minds and desires.  We are sealed by the Holy Spirit who will keep us until the final day of salvation.  (2 Corinthians 1:22; 2 Corinthians 5:5, Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 4:30)

Deficient Christian Discipleship

Excerpt from the sermon at Grace Community Church on April 8, 2018

"We are always hiding and shaping and deceiving. These things and other things in the Bible are called sin.  And they’re not in keeping with Christ. They’re not in keeping with new life. They don’t express newness, they don’t express love, they are not in keeping with the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And they’re very real in us and they lurk within us they are to be killed!

Any version of Christian discipleship that does not include putting to death has edited out the mandate of Christ for His people.   Any version of Christian discipleship that does not include DEATH has edited out a mandate of Christ for His people.  Death is a part of our discipleship, and any version of discipleship that removes death is deficient, is dangerous, it is deviant. Because Jesus Christ said if anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me!
The events in the past couple of weeks in the world and my conversation with people have led to a series of questions … and they go like this: How can people who profess to be Christians sin so profoundly? How can people who profess to be Christians live in patterns of sin so long? How can people who profess to be Christians commit acts of immorality, adultery, pornography, and sexual abuse? How can people who profess to be Christians harbor and tolerate racism in the heart in the past and the present? How can people who profess to be Christians become so bitter and so angry that marriages end, friendships end, and churches split? These are the questions that have been coming to me over the past few weeks.

And the answers may be multi-layered.  And it would certainly include something like well there’s been bad teaching. But at the core, the answer is Christians have taken on a version of Christian discipleship that is void of the clear call of Jesus Christ to die to certain things.  To kill certain sins that reside in the heart of even those who have been redeemed by His blood. 

If we are not currently putting to death something earthly within us, then we are not following Jesus faithfully and we are not living out the new life.  Because every one of us has indwelling sin, earthly things lurking inside of us, and we must for the sake of the glory of Jesus and the expression of His love from our lives, WE MUST see it, admit it, let it be exposed, repent of it, rejoice in our forgiveness and move on into new life! "

- Scott Patty

Grace Community Church: A New Way to Die

Adrian Rogers - How to Turn Temptations into Triumphs

Adrian Rogers does a great job breaking down the intricacies of how to react when temptation strikes.

Fleshly temptation:  FLEE
Worldly temptation: FAITH
Satanic temptation: FIGHT

https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/love-worth-finding/listen/how-to-turn-temptations-into-triumphs-637320.html

Overcoming the Enemy's Resistance

If you want to overcome your enemy you must match your effort against his power of resistance, which can be expressed as the product of two inseparable factors, viz. the total means at his disposal and the strength of his will. The extent of the means at his disposal is a matter––though not exclusively––of figures, and should be measurable. But the strength of his will is much less easy to determine and can only be gauged approximately by the strength of the motive animating it. Assuming you arrive in this way at a reasonably accurate estimate of the enemy’s power of resistance, you can adjust your own efforts accordingly; that is, you can either increase them until they surpass the enemy’s or, if this is beyond your means, you can make your efforts as great as possible. But the enemy will do the same; competition will again result and, in pure theory, it must again force you both to extremes. - General Clausewitz, On War