Resting in God, Not Counterfeits

Read

Galatians 5:15–26 (ESV)

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Opening Prayer

I want us to pick up where we left off last Sunday.

Our battle to walk by the Spirit involves striking sin at the root.

Part of the War Against Sin is Your Thoughts

This is two-fold:

What you think about the opportunity in the moments of temptation is what will motivate your behavior.

What do I mean by that statement?

In the moment of temptation, you will either believe God does know what is best about the opportunity...

And, His commands are best for you...

And, will bring you sustained joy.

Or you will believe that God does not know what is best for you...

And, for true joy to be experienced...

You need to take things into your own hands...

And that disobedience to God, in the moment, is actually what will bring you joy.

You have a choice to make:

Worship God through faith and obedience.

Worship self/world through disbelief and disobedience to God.

What you think about sin after you lose or win the battle against the temptation will motivate your reaction.

If we are under a Law mindset...

We will conceal the sin from God by convincing our self it’s not really sin...

Or that God doesn’t really care about my sin.

This thinking is motivated by pride.

It’s the very mindset that motivated Adam & Eve to hide in the Garden after they fell.

It’s the very mindest that keeps people from running to Christ...

And, finding forgiveness and reconciliation in His arms.

This is a tragic response and leads to misery.

If we are under a gospel mindset...

For Christians, we may spend some time under a Law Mindset...

But Spirit leads us to godly sorrow and repentance.

Which is back to a gospel mindset.

Running to God...

Understanding our full & forever standing in Christ...

Understanding God has granted us full access to His grace and mercy in Christ...

Longing to feel/experience what we have positionally...

Is being under a Gospel mindset.

Another truth that aids us in our walking by the Spirit is...

We Need to Learn How to Properly Repent of Sin

Repentance is not just confessing, asking forgiveness, and then NEXT.

And, we don’t dwell on the guilt of it, either.

Like groaning our self into asceticism.

We confess our sin to the Lord.

We ask that we might know and feel the forgiveness that we already have in Christ.

We praise the Lord for the gospel.

We praise the Lord for the New Covenant, which we cannot fall out of.

We praise the Lord for the HS that seals us and leads us in our confession and repentance.

We pray that God would grant us repentance.

But, I think we forget about something too often.

Were good at bringing our outward behavior to the table...

But, a missing element in our repentance of sin is the examination of our inward motives.

What I mean by that is examining what the underlying idol is that we were chasing...

The idol that caused the expression of sinful behavior.

Sin is behavior, but there is always a false belief that drives sinful behavior.

When we are short-sighted in our repentance...

We think the answer is isolation.

And, so many Christians through the ages have fallen into monastic living.

And, I’m not talking about a monastery...

I’m talking about withdrawal from the world in everything that isn’t completely necessary to live.

Work, Shopping, and a few other things...

Other than that…ISOLATION from the world.

But, there’s no true isolation from temptation.

Because your greatest enemy is your remaining flesh.

The goal of sanctification

The goal of sanctification is not to remove yourself from all temptations...

That would be to take yourself out of the world.

Jesus said that is wrong thinking.

John 17:15 (ESV)

15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Paul states the same in...

1 Corinthians 5:9–10 (ESV)

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

The goal of sanctification is to love Jesus more than the temptation to sin.

To delight in God more than counterfeit gods.

And, hence, to get through the temptation without giving into it.

And, we do that by resting/delighting in God more than the temptation...

Or the idol behind the temptation.

Practical Principles

I want to lay out some practical principles regarding how to get to the root of our sin.

To start killing sin in our life.

Now, here is where I want to caution us.

We, naturally, either lean towards...

No tolerance for examination.

Or obsession with examination.

No tolerance for examination leads us to indifference to sin.

You’ll take sin too lightly.

You’ll pride yourself in your ability to not be bothered by it.

Obsession with examination, causes introspection to be your daily meditation.

Your hope will be in your ability to examine.

So, we need to understand that Scripture commands us to examine our self.

But, it also calls us to delight in Christ...

To meditate upon Him.

Examination is to be done, with the aim of it...

Always to drive us back to the ultimate satisfaction we have in Jesus.

IOW, sanctification is a battle to rest in God.

So, the purpose of examination is to lead us away from resting in self...

And, back to resting in God.

So, the constant temptation, no matter the sin...

Is the temptation to...

Romans 1:25 (ESV)

25 ...exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator…(paraphrased)

As Christians our desire & pursuit is to hold on to the truth about God...

And worship Him rather than self.

We are tempted to think we cannot be happy without __________...

And, so it becomes more important to us than God.

The pathway of sanctification is delighting in God...

And resisting the lies that seek to exalt themselves above God. (2 Cor. 10:5)

The way to get there is to know what the tempting, sinful idol is.

What is the idol that is enticing us to turn from God?

Is the idol control, pleasure, comfort, prestige, how we’re perceived by others.

David Powlison gives us a helpful list of statements that lead to our idols...

I sin because:

I want ____.

I fear____.

I need ____.

I expect____.

Fill in the blanks and you’ve named the nasty God-substitute that fires up a bad attitude.

I become mastered by MY kingdom come and MY will be done.

For example...

We would not lie unless the perceived end result of dishonesty had not become more important to us than God...

The perceived end result could be, I need:

human approval

reputation

power over others

financial advantage

Those types of end results become more important and valuable to our hearts than the grace and favor of God.

The secret to change is to identify and dismantle the idols of your heart.

Another example:

Why did I lose my temper?

OR, more biblically stated...

Why did I express the anger of man which does not produce the righteousness of man?

Because I had expectations on the situation...

And the situation didn’t go according to my expectations...

And, I was let down by my expectations...

And, I lashed out at those who influenced the situation to not go according to my expectations.

Now, the outward behavior that we’re good at bringing to the table of forgiveness...

The anger or temper, actually goes deeper.

And, in this case is being motivated by a desire to control the outcome of the situation.

So, the idol is control.

I need _____ and in order to get it I must control.

The Biblical truth is that God is the only one in control...

And that His plan for my life is being revealed before my very eyes...

And, situations that are not according to my will...

Are opportunities for me to worship Him by submitting to His revealed will...

And worship Him in that situation through obedience.

And, so the real object of repentance, in this specific scenario...

Should be my sinful desire to be God and control life.

My sinfully perceived need to be God.

A somewhat different way to go than anger is despair.

Both anger and despair are responses to the disappointment of the circumstances.

Both are disappointed, in the moment, that God is in control and not you.

Despair just doesn’t explode outwardly like anger...

It retreats inwardly.

But, it is no less disappointed in God’s providence than anger is.

And, I would day, in our culture despair is a more acceptable behavior than anger...

But, it is no less sinful. No less idolatry.

When confronted to burst out in anger, ask yourself...

Is there something here that I’m allowing too much importance?

What am I believing I must have at all costs?

When in despair or fearful, ask yourself...

Am I doubting God’s goodness because something in my life is being threatened that I think is a necessity when it’s not?

In both scenarios, preach the gospel to yourself...

God has provided all that you need in Jesus.

God is in control and is the perfect Shepherd.

If you knew what God knows you would trust His good hand of providence.

God will take these circumstances and use them for your good and His glory.

And, then pursue the circumstances according to what God delights in.

We give into sin when we exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator

And, we fall prey to counterfeits and do not lay hold of the goodness that God intends us to enjoy.

So, let’s not give into counterfeits offered by the World & desired by the flesh.

The most basic question of examination is...

Has something or someone besides Jesus Christ taken title to your heart’s trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight?

Let us pursue walking by the Spirit.

Let us pursue repentance from idols of the heart.

Let us rest in Christ for what we truly need.

How to Walk by the Spirit?

Walking by the Spirit is to keep your mind...

Your trust.

Your hope.

Your value.

Your definition & pursuit of pleasure.

All of it fixed on God.

Who, by the way, is the only true object and fulfillment of those pursuits.

What is our response to works of the flesh?

Is it an “I Think I Can” mentality?

Or is your response to works of the flesh...

A deep desire to throw yourself at the Spirit of God to guide you in living to God’s glory?

And, finding all you need in Him?

We need to remember, everyday...

Galatians 5:24 (ESV)

24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

We have been delivered from the domination of sin in our lives.

We’ve been freed, by Christ, to pursue...

True happiness.

True pleasure.

True joy.

And, we experience those in God alone...

Through a daily pursuit of resting in the finished work of Jesus.

Closing Prayer