The Next Awakening - Attacking Sin and Lust

Awakening. Dictionary.com definitions:

the act of awaking from sleep

a revival of interest or attention

a recognition, realization or coming into awareness of something

Our world, our culture is asleep. They are interested in the wrong things. They are unaware of the need for Jesus and His saving grace.

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You ever see pictures of what people do to their friends as they sleep? I’ve seen people stack crackers on sleeping kids, draw pictures on a sleeping person’s face…we’ve seen them all. Right know the world is sleeping and the Devil is having his way.

In order for their to be awakening in our culture, there needs to be revival in our churches.

Revival. Dictionary.com definitions:

restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.

restoration to use, acceptance or currency.

an awakening, in a church or community, of interest in and care for matters relating to personal religion.

Revival starts with individuals taking seriously their commitment to Christ and His teachings.

Jonathan Edwards wrote down 5 signs of true revival based on the text in 1 John 4. We covered #1 (When esteem for the true Jesus is raised) two weeks ago and will spend the next few weeks discussing each one.

When esteem for the true Jesus is raised

When Satan’s kingdom is attacked (sin and worldly lusts)

When people come to love Scripture more

When men are led away from falsehood to truth (sound doctrine)

When there is an increase of love to God and man

So today, we talk about sin and lust. Everyone’s favorite sermon topic…Just to be clear, I will not be talking about the sin that is present in the world. Many would prefer that, but the sin within the church and within believers is the sin we should be more concerned about. If the church looks no different than the world, how can we point to Jesus and say He’ll change your life, if He hasn’t first changed our own?

The apostle John encourages us to follow the Spirit of true as we fight against sin and lust in our own lives. Let’s start with one of those instances in 1 John 4 starting in verse 4:

1 John 4:4 NIV

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Before we keep reading, I want to jump back a few verses so we get a better idea of what this verse is saying...

1 John 4:1–3 NIV

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

John gives us this idea that there is a spirit that acknowledges Jesus and there is a spirit that doesn’t. This spirit that doesn’t is roaming the world right now confusing everyone who refuses to listen to the spirit of God. This spirit John refers to as the spirit of the antichrist.

1 John 4:4 NIV

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Them here is the spirit of the antichrist, or the antichrists…and the one (Holy Spirit) in us is greater than the spirit of the antichrists.

1 John 4:5 NIV

5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.

We cannot expect someone to resist sin if the only voice in their life is the spirit of the antichrist. Unfortunately, we cannot convict people of having this spirit by wagging our finger and pointing out their sin. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, but since we (as believers) have the Holy Spirit, we can do that for ourselves and for each other.

John finishes this line of things with this statement:

1 John 4:6 NIV

6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

The us here are the apostles, those placed over the church to teach and guide. Those entrusted by Jesus to pass along what they learned. Fortunately for us these teachings have been compiled into our Bible for us to listen to and follow. These teachings tells us how to differentiate between truth and falsehood. The enemy business has been falsehood from the very beginning.

He tricked Adam and Eve into thinking that wisdom gained by eating from the tree was good.

He tricked Judas into thinking that betraying Jesus was worth the money.

He is tricking our society even now…all that trickery, deceit and lies result in confusion, sadness and death.

John is telling us to fight against those lies with truth. Truth given by the Holy Spirit in our lives and by His word to us.

A few weeks back, we talked a bit about this subject when we read 1 John 2:15-16.

1 John 2:15–16 NIV

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

This is message of the world. This message is same today as it was when John wrote this:

What does your body feel? Validate what your body feels and wants - the lust of the flesh

Do you see something you want? Take it. You deserve it. Surely it won’t really hurt anyone else - the lust of the eyes.

You just need a little more stuff. You just need one more promotion. You just need influence/power/control of just a little more - the pride of life.

The enemy has convinced us, starting with Adam and Eve that there is a substitute for God that is just as good. Unfortunately, the world only listens to that voice and makes decisions and choices based on that voice, but we know better since we have the Spirit of Truth within us.

Often when we talk about sin, we go to the easy ones to identify - sexual immorality, greed, anger…and so on…I think the church has been guilty of making following Christ about following a set of rules a list of right and wrongs. We need these lists, but following a list is not following Christ. At some point in our Christian walk, we overcome many of those things from our prior life. We might even falsely believe that we’re ok because we just don’t sin like we used to...

That is a dangerous place to be. Not because you’ll lose your salvation, but that you’ve fallen into a sense of self righteousness that will minimize the power of the cross in your daily life. Athletes don’t stop working out once they’ve lifted a certain weight, run a certain speed or accomplished a certain goal. The minute they stop working out, the begin to lose ground, exchange muscle for fat and before they know it everything they’ve accomplished is only in the past, never to be done again.

Remember from our Definition of revival -

restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength

When I finally came to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, I was convinced I needed Him. Apart from Him I recognized how lost I was. How purpose in my life was missing and He is that purpose. I knew how desperate I was to be forgiven and that forgiveness could only come through Him.

I also know that since then, there are periods of time where I have lost sight of that desperate feeling. It’s almost like I’ve taken Him for granted at times. Revival is us getting back to that vigor and strength in our convictions about who Jesus is and the place He deserves in our life.

Let me ask a difficult question...

What do you go to for meaning, purpose, fulfillment, enjoyment, happiness…? These areas we go to might even be right things. Things that are not “sinful”. Are any of these put in priority before God? I know we want to say no, but the truthful answer is likely that we have put other things in front of our desire to follow Him.

I want to read what Jonathan Edwards wrote about this point in his essay before we spend some time in prayer:

We may safely conclude that if a people:

have their love of ordinary, worldly pleasure, profits, and honors lowered;

are weaned from eagerly chasing such things;

have a deep concern about eternity and the eternal happiness that comes through the gospel;

earnestly begin to seek God's kingdom and righteousness; and

are convicted of the ugliness and guilt of sin, as well as the misery to which it leads, then the Spirit of God must be at work.

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Pray for believers all over to convinced once again for their need for Jesus. That sin would be exposed and dealt with.

Closing:

One last paragraph from Jonathan Edwards:

A man with an awakened conscience is the hardest man in the world to fool! The more awake a sinner's conscience is, the harder it is to quiet it down until it is really delivered from sin. The more a conscience is aware of the greatness of man's guilt, the less likely he is to be satisfied with his own righteousness. Once a man is thoroughly frightened by a sight of his own danger, he will not believe himself truly safe without good grounds. Awakening a conscience in this way is not likely to confirm a man in his sin. On the contrary, it is likely to lead to sin and Satan being driven out.

So, whenever we see people made aware of:

the ugliness of sin;

God's anger against sin;

their own natural lostness because of sin;

their own need of eternal salvation;

their need of God's mercy and help; and

their need to do what God has commanded in seeking salvation,

we may certainly conclude that it is the Spirit of God at work!

-Jonathan Edwards ‘Signs of True Revival’

Yes, even if their bodies are affected and they cry out or scream or faint. Yes, even if they go into fits or are affected in other dramatic ways. Those things do not count at all.