Godless and Godly Desires and Pleasures Final
Desires, Pleasures, and the Christian Life • Sermon • Submitted
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Theme of the Psalms is proper worship and the beauty of proper worship
But these next two weeks I want to look in more detail at something that is needed to enjoy worship
Whether here on the Lord’s day or every other day in your lives
Desire and pleasure
Desire and pleasure can have negative connotations to a reformed baptist
“A puritan is someone with the ability to know that someone somewhere is having fun”
It can appear that to desire strongly and seek to have pleasure is something the world has a corner on, but not us Christians
This is a tactical move by Satan to keep his subjects in line and to entice the Christian not to enjoy the life of worship they have before them
The novel 1984, published in 1949, became popular again over the past few years because of the different issues going on in our current culture
In the book, the authoritarian government is doing away with standard English called Oldspeak and is making a new language called Newspeak.
And this new language takes words and changes their meaning to make it fit their political agenda
We have seen the leftists do that in our own day, words we know and celebrate are being turn to mean something else like
Justice, inclusiveness, love, gender, Mother, Father, and the list goes on
Such a tactic is not new, but is something that Satan has done from the very beginning
(now you might be thinking, are you calling the leftist ideology satanic and the answer is of course I am)
But Satan has been doing this from the very beginning, he rules by lies and he uses desires and pleasures to lure and keep his victims
But we must understand that desires and pleasures were created by God and to be enjoyed by us
In the beginning of the Bible we see that God has created desire and pleasure for our good and that Satan hijacked those things to mean something different
God is all powerful
And in regards to your desire and pleasure....he is also good
He created all things in power, but has done it in a way to be enjoyed (good)
For example, in power he has made it possible for you to get strength and life from eating lunch today
BUT not only this, it is going to taste good! It will be pleasurable. Especially if you eat here…which you should
Let’s run through the creation account real quick and see this goodness on display
1:3 Light was good
1:10 The dry land and the Sea were good
1:12 The vegetation and fruit produced were good
1:18 The sun to give light to the earth during the day and the moon at night were good
1:21 The creation of fish in the sea was good
1:25 It was good when God created the living creatures on the land to creep around the earth
1:31 God creates man and puts him in this good creation and calls it very good
It reminds me of when I was making a coop for chickens and ducks, and each part of it I created to sustain the life of the flock and it was good for that end
And when I finally got finished and saw the little chickens running around the coop enjoying life, I saw that it was now very good
Thus, God made all things good, and when he places us in his creation to enjoy his good creation this is called very good
Look at what the Scriptures say when God placed Adam in the garden:
9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
What was around Adam was a manifestation of the goodness of God to man
A whole creation for us to have life in AND enjoy (pleasant to the sight and good for food)!
For our desires to be had in the goodness of what God has given and for our desires to be met which produces pleasure
This godly desire and pleasure is simple
So, not only has God created in power, but in goodness.
That means he created you with a capacity to desire the goodness and find pleasure in that goodness
In fact doing so is for your good and his glory
And so, Do not be satisfied with a worship that is not pleasurable
Do not be satisfied with no desire for walking with God
In prayer and Scripture meditation
Do not be satisfied with a boring Christian life
Because God created all things good, and for you to find pleasure in his creation
Do you want to know the saddest thing about someone who is addicted to alcohol or drugs, or pornography, video games
That the pleasure they are seeking in those things is found in abundance in the simplicity of living life in God’s world to the glory of his name
Why do you have such a hard time having desire and pleasure in God?
Or, if God has made us to desire and have pleasure:
Does that mean what God wants you to do is to follow all the desires that are in your heart today?
It’s at this point that we must see what Satan did in capturing desire and pleasure which fuels his kingdom and makes it dangerous for us to pursue without reservation
How did desire and pleasure go from Oldspeak to Newspeak…changed by deceit by Satan?
Let’s go right to the Fall and the temptation given to Eve and see how Satan hijacks proper desire and pleasure
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
The tree used by Satan to tempt Eve was good, echoing back to how God made everything good and desirable
It was delightful to the eyes
Notice how even though God commanded that they eat not of this tree, it still has the marks of a good creator God on it
This shows that our pursuit of pleasure must come under the authority of God and not his creation
But what it says next is important
Desirable to make one wise
Where did that desire come from? This is the first desire that is not from God…but Satan
Satan temps Eve by saying God just doesn’t want you to eat it because then your eyes will be opened and you’ll be like God KNOWING good and Evil (worldly wisdom)
So now that desire to be wise is anchored not in a desire from God, but from disobedience to God
And this counterfeit desire by Satan is typical of the desires and pleasures he offers you today…what you have is never enough, you should be unsatisfied with that, and desire more
The desires and pleasures found in God are always simple…the Newspeak of Satan is always more complex and demands more until you are dead
And sadly, once you are going down the road of satanic desires
It is harder and harder to find delight in the simplicity of God and his creation
Satan tells Even not to be satisfied with the wisdom God has given them but desire more
She and Adam act on this disobedient desire
And their eyes are opened alright…but not quite to the fulfillment of the desire Satan had placed with a lie
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
They now know more about evil, but it was not in a way that God knows evil while he is separated from it
They know it as being in it, and now they are overwhelmed with sin to the point of being ashamed
Godly Desire: Desire rooted in obedience to God. And it always delivers what it promises: pleasure and joy
This was the original state of humankind: oldspeak
Godless Desire: Desires rooted in disobedience, promises the same thing but never delivers, but only brings death
humankind has been stuck in this lie as Satan runs this new world order
Godless desires always has immediate pleasures as you consume it, but eventually it turns into bitter poison in your stomach
Godly desires sometimes tastes bitter at first but yields a great harvest in the future
Think about that the next time you are tempted by Satan with immediate pleasures
The true pleasurable thing is to go without now, and receive pleasure later
Pornography is a good example
The immediately desirable and pleasurable thing is to give into the temptation
But on the other end of the pornography tunnel is death and decay to yourself and your relationships since it is nothing but cancer
But to see that temptation for what it is and turn away from immediate pleasure you will receive true pleasure later on since you are not engaging in a cancerous activity
To deny the temptation is to forfeit your fleshly desires right away, but it yields to true pleasure later
Godly desire and pleasure rooted in obedience
Godless desire and pleasure rooted in disobedience: offers immediate pleasure but is always followed by death
We see in the next chapter of Genesis that such godless desires is baked into the makeup of humanity now
16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
This is a specific example, we’ll see a more general one in a second
Whereas godless desire came by temptation by the devil, now it is just naturally in our makeup
But not only in this fallen state do we lust after sin
But sin lusts after us
The story of Cain and Abel—Cain is angry that God has regard for Abel’s sacrifice and not his
6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Sin is crouching—it is sneaky and works by deceit
And sin’s desire is contrary to you: i.e. no matter how good it feels it is set out against your good
And what needs to happen for you not to be conquered by it is to rule over it
Therefore, fallen man is captive to godless desire, and godless desire has a constant desire against fallen man—i.e. not for his good
And so God says in this new fallen state man must rule over this natural desire for something that wants to kill you
And a major theme of the rest of the Old Testament is that MAN CANNOT DO IT ON HIS OWN!
What did Cain do? Murder his brother…he was not strong enough to stop sin from overcoming him
And neither are you—do not think you can get more moral by working harder
Why is it impossible?
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
God has created you to have desire and seek pleasure
But in our spiritual dead state, we will find that in following Satan and his kingdom of sin
Our hearts (desires) are corrupted in finding pleasure in disobedience
And so left in this natural state, you will find pleasure in this life following Satan and not following God
Satan was successful in changing the meaning of desire and pleasures to fit his kingdom
There are people listening to me right now who are living in sin because they are following their fleshly desires
You know it is disobedience to what God has commanded in his word but it is too precious to you to give up
You need to wake up now and see that such a mindset is deception and is an indicator that you are no child of God but a child of wrath
You need to repent of such fleshly desires and passions and turn to the God who offers us true pleasures
Your desires need to submit, not to your flesh but to the Spirit
As Satan brought a major revolution in the Garden, so Jesus brought a major revolution of restoration at the cross and tomb
This is what we will address next
The Spirit is the agent that brings new desires in your heart…and by new I mean as it was before
The Spirit is the ONLY agent that brings restored desires to your heart
What Cain did after God told him to rule over the sin that wants control of him shows just how much man fails at this by his own fleshly power
And the rest of the Scriptures show that to rule over sin that is constantly encroaching takes nothing short of a divine miracle…a divine power within....it takes the Spirit
7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
As God breathed into man to give him physical life
So God must breathe into your souls to give you spiritual life
5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
With a new heart and new desire we obey God and find pleasure
And the psalms assume that when talking about true worship to our God that is full of pleasure
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
24 Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.
47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.
92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.
These are all new covenant promises
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
They are not burdensome because of the Spirit that has been given to us to renew our desires
They are burdensome without the Spirit changing us, because we lust so much after sin in our natural state
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Now, I am talking to a room of people who have responded to Jesus’ call here
You have repented of sin and have looked to Jesus Christ and have received the Spirit of promise
What we will look at next week is what happens when the Spirit takes up residence in someone who still has this flesh of sin left over?
Christian, what should be going on in your soul right now?
Anything less than total war is absolutely unacceptable to Christ
Our God, is a god of War
Our Christ is a King and demands full submission
He comes with a sword coming forth from his mouth to conquer
…and when the desires of our flesh come up against the desires of the Spirit—war within your soul is the only option
In conclusion: there is no good reason not to deny your flesh and follow Jesus
For you who are unwilling, know you are believing the lie of newspeak and its whole aim is to kill you
You need to stop following the lies of your fallen desires and pleasures
And cry out to Jesus who will send you his Spirit to change your wayward desires and pleasure
And for those who have done that
Your life now is found in warfare
You have been given the Spirit whose whole purpose is to do war against the left over desires of the flesh
Your pleasures are found in seeing the Spirit winning that spiritual battle
Christian can you say that your life now is something like what Paul says:
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.
There is no such thing as a lazy Christian: our pleasures are now found in seeing Christ conquer our left over flesh
That is what we will talk about next week, Lord willing