Stay Awake

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. 
(Romans 13:11-14, ESV)

 You Know the Time

There is a blaring and blatant truth before your eyes that can no longer be ignored or suppressed. You have slept the whole night, and even through half of the morning. The alarm clock is screaming at you from across the room, and your eyes are struggling to adjust to the bright sun glaring through your bedroom window. You hesitantly climb out from underneath your warm sheets, groggily walk over to your alarm clock, vindictively yank the cord from its power source, and triumphantly hop back into your bed. You have won! You are the victor! If you want to sleep even longer, nothing can stop you.

You snuggle back in bed, crawling under the sheets that are no longer as warm as they were before you left the bed. You close your eyes, planning to return once more to the dreamworld utopia you were so rudely awoken from. Your eyes close, but rather than seeing darkness you see a strange, red hue as the bright sunlight passes through your eyelids. The sun pours into your bedroom so strongly, so clearly, and with such radiance that you cannot fall asleep again as hard as you may try. You know the time, but you don't want to get up. You would rather continue sleeping. However, the night is far gone; and the day is at hand.

The Hour Has Come For You to Wake From Sleep

If you get the feeling that I'm not really talking about waking up in the morning, then you're right. I'm not. Neither is Paul at the end of Romans 13. Therein, he provides a simple analogy for those who have been called out of the darkness of sin and into the light of Christ Jesus. Sin is darkness, and life in Christ is a life spent in the daytime (Rev. 21:25). Elsewhere, Paul calls believers children of light and children of the day (1 Thes. 5:5), and he implores us not to sleep but to stay awake and to remain sober (1 Thes. 5:6). Christ's command to His disciples was simple: stay awake! In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus continued to rebuke His disciples for sleeping, asking them, "Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Lk. 22:46). Jesus rebukes them for sleeping because earlier He had commanded them to, "stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man" (Lk. 21:36). 

There is, in fact, a connection between Romans 13:11-14 and Christ's interactions with His disciples before His betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Mark 14:32-42, ESV)

Believer, are you still sleeping and taking your rest? How many times must the Lord wake you up from your slumber? Must He prod you out of your bed every hour, imploring you to watch and pray so that you may not enter into temptation? Christ's Word should be sufficient for you: "It is enough, the hour has come." Should you wonder what hour it is, Paul fills in the blanks for you: "the hour has come for you to wake from sleep."

Like the disciples, your eyes are heavy laden. All you want to do is sleep for a minute, but Christ's command stands in opposition to your weak flesh, commanding you to stay awake and keep watch. The hour is at hand, and you cannot afford to fall asleep as the enemy draws near. You have had a long day, a stressful day on the job, an exhausting evening with the family, and you want to rest your tired eyes for a mere moment. And yet, Christ calls you to:

"[Stay] awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” (Mark 13:35-37, ESV)  

The Night is Far Gone; The Day is at Hand

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. 
(1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, ESV)

In Romans 13, Paul calls us to remain awake, "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed" (v. 11). This reason for us to stay awake is further fleshed out in Paul's epistle to the Thessalonians. Paul explains that, "Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." Paul speaks elsewhere about the helmet of salvation:

[And] take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6:17-20, ESV) 

You should note that Paul does not only implore believers to stay awake, but he also calls us to equip ourselves for battle. Jesus told His disciples to stay awake, but He also commanded them to watch and pray that they may not enter into temptation. Jesus' command was not merely to keep their physical eyes open, but to keep spiritual watch, keeping their eyes on Him, because the hour of spiritual warfare had come, and His betrayer was at hand. Likewise, Paul extends this command of our Lord and Savior to each and every disciple of Christ. There was a time when we slept soundly in the darkness of the night, but the night is far gone; the day is at hand. We must equip ourselves, therefore, and be diligent to "keep alert with all perseverance." "Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." Therefore, "take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

 Let Us Walk Properly as in The Daytime

 Sinful things happen in the darkness. Men and women go to the bars and parties at night to get drunk. Men and women that work hard during the daytime, go out at night to get wasted on alcohol. Men and women commit murder at night. Men and women who present themselves as normal, upstanding, law abiding citizens during the daytime to their friends and families, commit the most heinous and violent crimes under the cover of darkness. Men and women participate in the most flippant and debaucherous sexual activities at night. Men and women who look and act professional in the workplace, courteous to their peers and those of the opposite sex in the daytime, participate in the most destructive, degrading, and twisted sexual acts in the darkness of night. People act differently under the cover of darkness. When the light does not shine on their actions, when they can hide in the shadows and sin freely, they will let their true colors show and take part in the wickedness they dare not commit during the daytime.

Believers, however, are children of light and children of the day. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, as Paul implores us to. Whether the sun is shining brightly or the darkness covers the face of the earth unimpeded by any celestial light, let us walk properly as in the daytime. The light that shines in our lives is no longer the bright celestial sun that can only curb the darkness that surrounds us for a handful of hours each day. No, we have another light to direct our paths in the way we should go. We have another light to protect us from the power and destruction lurking in the darkness. We have another light to illuminate the ground we walk on lest we hit a rock with our foot and stumble.

The sun shall be no more your light by day, 
nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; 
but the Lord will be your everlasting light, 
and your God will be your glory. 
Your sun shall no more go down,
nor your moon withdraw itself; 
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
 and your days of mourning shall be ended. 
Your people shall all be righteous; 
they shall possess the land forever, 
the branch of my planting, 
the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.  

(Isaiah 60:19-21, ESV)

Put On the Lord Jesus Christ

Pornography is a temptation of the night. Under the cover of darkness, temptation creeps upon you when you let your guard down. When you close your spiritual eyes for a moment to get some shut eye, when you take your gaze off of Christ Jesus for a second, sin is crouching at the door like a lion, ready to pounce and devour you. 

Pornography is a friend of darkness. Pornography is a daytime production of the streetwalker's evening. Pornography idolizes and emulates the abuses and degradation of prostitutes who are forced either by slavery or an ignorant society to allow men to fulfill their sexual fantasies on their bodies created in the image of God. Prostitution is a sin of the night, and pornography is its ugly twin rearing it's head, desiring to bring the sin of debauchery to the light of day to make it appear more palatable and socially acceptable. 

You, believer, have been called out of this darkness. God has awoken you from your slumber. And yet, you still want to sleep. The light shines brightly into your bedroom at high noon, and you still try to crawl into your bed to get a few more hours of lazy rest. You know that if you wake up, then you will have to walk properly as in the daytime.

The next time you wake up in the morning, turn on the news. You should not be surprised to hear about robbery, drug busts, murder, arson, and prostitution scandals that occurred overnight. When you get home from work that same evening, watch the news again. More likely than not, they will cover the same crimes that happened the night before. The reason for this is because criminals sleep during the day, and commit their crimes during the night.

What kind of criminal commits crime in broad daylight? Not the kind of criminal that plans to get away with the crimes he has committed. Either the criminal thinks he has nothing to lose or he truly believes that his crime is not a crime at all.

The reason why you must stay awake, believer, is because the night is gone and the day has come. The night was a time of drunkenness and orgies. The night was a time of sexual immorality and sensuality. The night was a time of quarreling and jealousy. Those nights, however, are far gone for you, believer. When there was night, you would sleep. When there was night, you would sin freely without fear of getting caught. However, the Lord is your everlasting light now. You cannot turn back to the days of darkness, no matter how hard you might try. You can no longer sleep, closing your eyes to the darkness that surrounded you and swallowed you up in the actions of the night. The light of Christ's salvation shines too brightly on you. You would no longer sleep naturally in the darkness, but you would have to force yourself to slumber in the light.

If we continue to sin, then we no longer sin under the cover of darkness, but rather, we sin in broad daylight. Our every action is illuminated by the revelation of God's Word, and the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If we will continue to live as we did in the darkness in the light, then we either think we have nothing to lose or we think that our crimes are not crimes at all. However, the light of the Lord does not allow for the latter. For the everlasting light of Lord exposes every sin for what it is, and there is no sin that remains hidden or obscured under the illumination of the Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to continue to sin in the light as you once did in the darkness reveals an attitude of disregard and blatant rebellion. Those in the light walk properly as in the daytime. As John warns, "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth" (1 John 1:6). Therefore, if you claim to be in the light but walk in darkness, then how great is the darkness (Mat. 6:23)!

Put on, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ. Equip yourselves, brothers and sisters, with the Lord Jesus Christ like a garment. Even more, like an armor. When your eyes get heavy, when you are tempted to catch some shut eye, and when you desire a brief lapse back into the darkness you once came from, turn your gaze back upon Christ your Savior, and remember your salvation from the darkness once more. Remember how great the light is and how sinful the darkness is. Remember the price that was paid so that you would no longer slumber and sleep, so that you could, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." As Paul tells us:

God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

Therefore, stay awake! Keep your guard up at all times. Keep watch, and do not sleep. The enemy waits for the watchmen to catch some shuteye so that he can sack the fortress without any opposition. The enemy awaits the moment when the believer longs for a return to darkness, a rest for their weak flesh, and an opportunity to close their eyes to the bright light of the Lord. Believer, when you look upon pornography, you are falling asleep to the glory of Christ. When you gaze upon sexual immorality, you are sound asleep to your salvation. You are sleeping in the midst of the brightest light. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. They sleep because of the darkness, and they get drunk in the darkness. You, believer, are sleeping during the day. An everlasting light shines upon you now. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself. Stay awake, therefore, because an everlasting night has ended an everlasting day has begun!

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 

(1 Peter 2:9, ESV)

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7, ESV)

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:12, ESV)

If you are struggling with pornography or know somebody that is and you found this blog helpful, uplifting, and encouraging, then please visit my Facebook page for further resources and discussion. If you would like to contact  me, feel free to message me through my Facebook page as well. I am literally a click away. I would love to know who you are and keep you in my prayers. Thanks. 

More Coming Soon!

Hello Readers,

I am sorry that I have not contributed to the blog for over a month. I have been very busy starting a new job and working odd jobs here and there, but I want to get back to writing more as soon as I can. I have not abandoned the blog, and there is more coming soon.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,
Matt

Thoughts on Prayer

"[P]rayer is a means of grace because it is a direct appeal to God for grace. It is in its very innermost core a petition for help and that is--proportionately to its sphere--for grace. The means--the most direct and appropriate, the most prevailing and sure means of obtaining aid from a superior, is to ask for it. If a community desires a boon from the government, it petitions for it. The means above all others by which we are to obtain God's blessing is naturally and properly to petition for it."
 -B.B. Warfield, Faith & Life

"It is objected  that the doctrine of prayer is absurd, because God has already from eternity determined whatsoever comes to pass...If God has eternally decreed that you should live, what is the use of your breathing? If God has eternally decreed that you should talk, what is the use of your opening your mouth? If God has eternally that you should reap a crop, what is the use of your sowing the seed? If God has eternally decreed that your stomach should contain food, what is the use of your eating? Prayer is only one means appointed by God for attaining our ends. In order to educate us, he demands that we should use the means, or go without the ends which depend upon them. There are plenty of fools who make the transcendental nature of eternity and of the relation of the eternal life of God to the time-life of man as an excuse for neglecting prayer. But of all the many fools in the United States, there is not one absurd enough to make the same eternal decree an excuse for not chewing his food or for not voluntarily inflating his lungs."
 -A.A. Hodge, Evangelical Theology: Lectures on Doctrine

"Human activity appears in Scripture, not as the complement or antithesis of divine activity, but as the means by which God's purposes are carried out. In his discussion of providence, Calvin links praying with man's planning for the future and taking precautions against accident and disease, which the profane say are useless since God's plan is already fixed. Calvin repudiates such a view:
               These fools do not consider what is under their very eyes, that the Lord has inspired in men the arts of taking counsel and caution, by which to comply with His providence in the preservation of life itself. (Institutes, III:XX:3-4)
So God moves His people to pray in order that He may respond to their prayers, and thus carry out His will. God ordains means as well as ends, and it is this that gives prayer its meaning."
-Wayne R. Spear, Talking to God: The Theology of Prayer

"The neglect of prayer is a major cause of stagnation in the Christian life. Consider the example of Peter in Luke 22:39-62. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray, as was His custom, and told His disciples, 'Pray that you may not enter into temptation.' The disciples fell asleep instead. The next thing Peter did was try to take on the Roman army with a sword; then he denied Christ. Peter did not pray, and as a result he fell into temptation. What is true of Peter is true of all of us: we fall in private before we ever fall in public."
-R.C. Sproul, Does Prayer Change Things?, Crucial Questions No. 3

"Prayer is more than a therapeutic catharsis--venting our fears and frustrations or expressing our hopes and dreams to one who cares but is incapable of overruling in the affairs of free creatures. Prayer presupposes that God is sovereign over every contingency of nature and history."
-Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims On the Way

"For when will the many sins of which we are conscious allow us to sit secure without suppliantly entreating freedom from guilt and punishment? When will temptation give us a truce, making it unnecessary to hasten for help? Moreover, zeal for the kingdom and glory of God ought not to seize us by starts, but urge us without intermission, so that every time should appear seasonable. It is not without cause, therefore, that assiduity in prayer is so often enjoined. I am not speaking of perseverance...; but Scripture, by reminding us of the necessity of constant prayer, charges us with sloth, because we feel not how much we stand in need of this care and assiduity. By this rule hypocrisy and the device of lying to God are restrained, nay, altogether banished from prayer. God promises that he will be near to those who call upon him in truth, and declares that those who seek him with their whole heart will find him: those, therefore, who delight in their own pollution cannot surely aspire to him."
-John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

"He that expects anything from a man, applies himself to the ways and means whereby it may be obtained. The beggar that expects an alms lies at his door or in his way from whom he does expect it. The way whereby and the means wherein Christ communicates himself is, and are, his ordinances ordinarily; he that expects anything from him must attend upon him therein. It is the expectation of faith that sets the heart on work. It is not an idle, groundless hope that I speak of. If now there be any vigor, efficacy, and power in prayer or sacrament to this end of mortifying sin, a man will assuredly be interested in it all by this expectation of relief from Christ."
-John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers


And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
(Luke 18:1-8)

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”

And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

(Luke 11:1-13)

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
(James 1:5-8)

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
 
My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
(James 5:13-20)

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in the spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
(Romans 12:11-12)  

[Take] the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
(Ephesians 6:17-18)
 
If you are struggling with pornography or know somebody that is and you found this blog helpful, uplifting, and encouraging, then please visit my Facebook page for further resources and discussion. If you would like to contact  me, feel free to message me through my Facebook page as well. I am literally a click away. I would love to know who you are and keep you in my prayers. Thanks.

No Vacancy in My Father's House for the Likes of You

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
(Luke 15:25-32)

"He devoured your property with prostitutes, and yet, you are going to kill the fattened calf for him?! I have never once disobeyed you, I never once complained, and I have remained a loyal son all of these years, but you never gave me a young goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. And yet, you kill the fattened calf for him?"

There's a lot here that I've overlooked before. When it comes to the parable of the prodigal son, we often focus on the younger brother and neglect to look at the importance of the older brother's reaction. I don't know about you, but I often look down at the older brother in astonishment. He is so fixated on himself that he cannot find any room in his heart to celebrate with his father, his brother, and the rest of the household. Undoubtedly, he was enjoying the absence of his younger brother before his return home. "Good riddance," was probably his response to the news that his younger brother had squandered his entire inheritance on prostitutes and was wrestling swine for scraps of food. However, the older brother's response to his father's reconciliation with his brother is worth noting when considering sexual immorality.

First of all, the older brother is in the field when his brother returns. He had been working all day long. It was not until he worked a full day that he returned home to find a grand celebration underway. He could smell the fattened calf roasting, he could hear the laughter in the home, the servants were running about as if it were a holiday, and the older brother was perplexed as to what would cause such a lofty celebration. People were laughing and carrying on. There was music and dancing. Although he didn't know the cause for the celebration, he never expected what he was about to find out. 

Tired from a full-day's work, the older brother grabs one of his father's servants and asks, "What is up with all the festivities?" 

"Oh, haven't you heard?! Your brother came home!"

"What do you mean my brother came home?"

"You know, the one that asked for his entire inheritance, squandered it on prostitutes, and was eating slop with pigs, he's home!"

"Yes, I understand that, but why the party? Has my father gone mad?"

"I don't think so. He seems overwhelmed with joy at the return of your brother. He even killed the fattened calf in celebration!"

"WHAT?!"

"I said..."

"I heard what you said! Be gone!"

"But don't you want to join the rest of the family?"

"I will have nothing to do with this party. It is total and utter foolishness to embrace my disobedient, foolhardy, selfish, ungrateful younger brother with such a display of affection, grandeur, and excess. What has he done to deserve this reception? How could my father be so foolish? No, tell my father that I refuse to set a foot in that house while my brother is under its roof."

The older brother is obviously furious. He has been laboring all day in his father's fields, and he comes home to find his father embracing his younger brother who demanded his inheritance prematurely, spent it on prostitutes and partying, and never worked a day in his life. He has always obeyed his father, honored him, and he did so without complaining once. But this was too much. It was bad enough that his father allowed his younger brother to come back, but to celebrate his return was too much. He felt betrayed. He felt neglected. He was angry and refused to go in.

His father hears that he has returned home from the fields, and that he refuses to enter his home because of the celebration of his brother's homecoming. He excuses himself from the dinner table, leaves the house, searches for his older son, finds him, and entreats him to join him and his younger brother at the table. 

"My son, please, I beg of you, come in and greet your brother! He longs to see you again and embrace you as a brother once more. Why won't you come in?"

"Why? You dare ask me why, father? Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me so much as a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him! I have given my life for you, father! I have obeyed you and honored you with my every breath, father. I have not once strayed from your side, I have not once asked for anything in return for my service, and yet you show more love towards my younger brother, who has done nothing but shown you contempt and dishonor, than you have ever shown me."

I can only imagine the amount of tears streaming down his face as his anger swelled and burst in this angry tirade. Which one of us would not be overcome with jealousy and resentment if we were in his shoes? 

The feast was prepared, both were welcomed to the table, but only the younger brother sat at the table. Despite a lifetime of devotion and obedience to his father, the older brother drew the line here. He refused to go into the house and eat next to his undeserving brother. He loved his father, but not enough to love and forgive his brother. 

"Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found."

The story ends there. It's as if the choice is set before you. Will you remain outside despite your father's entreating, or will you go in, embrace your younger brother with open arms, and love him as much as your father does? If your father can forgive your younger brother, then surely you can too. After all, your brother never sinned against you. He didn't take your inheritance and squander it. He took his own inheritance from your father and squandered it. He didn't abandon you for a life of partying, prostitutes, and reckless living. He didn't betray your love and loyalty. He betrayed your father, he squandered your father's money, he abandoned your father to enjoy a reckless lifestyle, and he spit upon the face of your father and his love for his youngest son. If your father can forgive your younger brother, then why can't you?

Those guilty of sexual immorality don't always receive the warmest welcome into the Church of Christ. Believers, many of us have been the younger brother, but all of us resting in Christ are standing in the older brother's shoes now. How do we react when someone guilty of fornication, prostitution, adultery, and homosexuality walks through our church's door and says, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants?” There's not typically a grand reception. Not even a warm reception. 

They bear the scarlet letter, and we cannot let their presence in our congregation ruin our good name and reputation. It's a good thing the younger brother returned home and was seen by his father at a great distance and not by his older brother. His older brother probably would have run to him too, but then he would have pushed him away, derided him, spit on him, and cast him off to die. 

"You don't belong here! Father could never forgive you. Leave now, and never come back here. You do not deserve father's forgiveness, and how dare you come crawling back here expecting to receive it! Be gone, you fool. Leave."

Perhaps your intolerance of the sexually immoral in the church is less obvious than this. Perhaps you treat them nicely, you welcome them into the building, but you would never dare invite them over to have dinner with your family. Despite the young lady's public profession of faith, you will not let your daughter go to church camp and share a cabin with a girl that used to be a lesbian before she was forgiven by your Father. Even though the man has repented and is bearing good fruit, you can't stand it when the former adulterer is talking with your wife after he has been forgiven by your Father. That young lady used to be a prostitute, and you don't want her around your children in nursery. Your Father forgave that man guilty of a long list of sins, but no matter how much your Father entreats you, you will not accept him as your lost brother (perhaps not even a hired servant).

The message we send is loud and clear: You are unwelcome in my Father's house! We are not necessarily jealous. We do not necessarily bear a grudge. It's not that we resent them. It's just that, well, they can't be trusted like every other sinner in our midst. Yes, it's wonderful that our younger brother has returned home and that our Father has embraced him with open arms. If God is able to forgive him, then I should probably too. I get that. But, to kill the fattened calf? That's going too far. To embrace him as a brother? Unthinkable. Our Father might not want us to, but we feel obligated to treat our younger brother as a hired servant rather than as our brother. They can live in the same house that we do, but they cannot enjoy the same status as the rest of us. Look what they did, after all? They are guilty of sexual immorality! There can be no reward for such behavior! Forgiveness can only go so far. I love them, but I will never trust them. I'll pretend to be their friend while I'm at church, but I'll have nothing to do with them elsewhere. 

"I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God."
(Rev. 2:2-7) 

Strongs explains that the Nicolaitans were guilty of, "Mingling themselves in the orgies of idolatrous feasts, [bringing] the impurities of those feasts into the meetings of the Christian Church." The Pulpit Commentary explains that the Nicolaitans taught that, "Neither idolatry nor sensuality could harm those who had been made free by Christ. The moral enactments of the Law had been abrogated by the gospel, no less than the ceremonial." Overall, they were antinomians who spread dangerous and destructive heresies throughout the church.

There is a great difference between a homosexual man or woman who has repented of their sin and one who uses the gospel of Jesus Christ to justify their lifestyle. There is a profound difference between a man or woman that struggles with pornography and one that continues in sin that grace may abound. There is a stark contrast between a young man or lady that seeks marriage after living a life of fornication and one who continues to unite Christ's body with that of a prostitute. There is a difference between the sexually immoral that find forgiveness of sin in Christ and the sexually immoral that seek to abuse the grace of God.

We must hate the works of the Nicolaitans in our midst. We should not bear those who do evil in our midst. We should cast out those why claim to be resting in Christ by faith for their salvation but are found to be false by the way they live. But we should never abandon the love we first received. This is a heinous sin, and Jesus warns the church in Ephesus that should they not repent, He will remove their lampstand. Jesus warns His church that if she will not receive those who call themselves apostles and are, then He will remove His light from her, she will grow dark, and He will place His lampstand somewhere else. Yes, we must guard against the Nicolaitans, but we should not cast out or be hard-hearted towards those who lived a life of sexual immorality and are now seeking reconciliation with Christ and His church.

Our sexually immoral younger brother has received forgiveness for his many sins by Him whom he sinned against. Our Father has welcomed him into His house, has slain his only begotten Son for him, and invites him to sit at His table and dine with Him, not as a hired servant but as a beloved Son. Are you going to be the older brother who sees your sexually immoral younger brother at the Lord's Table and be appalled by the sight, refusing to eat with the likes of him, or are you going to listen to your Father's exhortation and lovingly embrace your new-found brother? Unlike the parable, each and every Christian believer was once the younger brother before they played the role of the older brother. There is not a single one of us who has earned his place in our Father's house and at our Lord's table. God has had compassion on us all, run to us while we were still far from Him, embraced us in His open arms, kissed us, placed perfect robes of righteousness on us, placed upon us the seal of His promises, and equipped us all with a readiness given by the gospel of peace. If we have received such a reception back to our Father's house, how could we possibly deny our brothers and sisters who have also squandered their inheritance on licentious and reckless living?

Alas, it is not our job to welcome them but rather to make them feel welcome. The Father welcomed the younger son home, and the older son made the younger son feel unwelcome. The older son had far more reason than any of us will ever have to reject his brother's reconciliation with his father's household. By the biblical account, he was working in the field all day and never once disobeyed his Father. That is unlike any man or woman who finds shelter in the Kingdom of God. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore, if an obedient son was wrong not to welcome his brother after his father forgave him, how much further are we from righteousness by denying sinners welcomed into our Father's house? Be careful not to reject the brother that your Father found and restored to life. Such behavior does not go unpunished by God.


Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.
(Mat. 18:32-35) 


If you are struggling with pornography or know somebody that is and you found this blog helpful, uplifting, and encouraging, then please visit my Facebook page for further resources and discussion. If you would like to contact  me, feel free to message me through my Facebook page as well. I am literally a click away. I would love to know who you are and keep you in my prayers. Thanks.

A New Heart: A Gift from God and an Act of Creation

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 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. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.
- Ezekiel 36:25-32

Perhaps after reading the last two posts, you are left wondering, How do I go about changing my heart? You recognize that sin in your life, especially your proclivity towards lust, is deeply rooted in your hardened heart. You are starting to see that pornography is not the arch-enemy you made it out to be. It is only one avenue in which your lustful heart enjoys venturing down. Even when you seem to have the upper hand over the temptation to look at pornography, you are still tempted and falling to sin in the form of lust in your heart. You think that pornography is imprinted on your heart, but that is not the case. Rather, lust is deeply rooted in your heart, and removing pornography from your life is like pulling up a weed and only getting a handful of leaves; the root of the evil still rests deeply in the solid ground.

In Ezekiel 36, we see that it is God who cleanses us with the sprinkling of water. It is God who cleanses us from all idolatry. It is God who gives us a new heart. It is God who places His Spirit within us. It is God who softens our hardened hearts. It is God who causes us to walk according to His statutes and Law. It is God who chooses us to be His people and to dwell with Him in the Promised Land. It is God who delivers us from all uncleannesses. It is God who provides for our nourishment and who causes fruit to grow abundantly. It is God who acts according to His will and for His own name's sake, and not our own. "Let that be known to you."

So, what does that all mean? Does that mean that we should just sit tight and let God do all of the work for us? 

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- 2 Cor. 5:17-21

In 2 Corinthians 5, we see that we are new creations in Christ. Because we are new creations, Paul implores Christians to be reconciled to God. Paul continues to entreat his readers, "not to receive the grace of God in vain" (2 Cor. 6:1). So, what does all of this mean for you?

Look back at the creation of the world in Genesis 1. God spoke and whatsoever He commanded came to existence out of nothing. He commanded there to be light, and because He commanded light there was light. God spoke the world into existence. In The Christian Faith (2011), Michael Horton explains that:

The same Lord who "sent out his word and healed [the Israelites], and delivered them from their destruction" (Ps. 107:20), is the one who sent out his Word to create the world and everything in it. Israel's redeemer is the world's creator. The "living and active" Word that brings salvation (Heb. 4:12) is the same Word spoken in the beginning. In Christ the whole creation was created and holds together (Jn. 1:1-3; cf. Col. 1:15-17), and in him a new creation comes into being out of nothing but sin and death (Jn. 1:9-14; cf. Col. 1:18-20). (p. 332)

No less than God pronounced "Let there be..." when there was nothing, Abram "the father of many" while he was childless, Sarah fruitful while she was barren, and a young woman pregnant while she was a virgin, God pronounces believers righteous while they are unrighteous. In fact, Paul compares justification to God's ex nihilo fiat in creation in Romans 4:17. Elsewhere Paul adds concerning the gospel, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2Co. 4:6). Thus, the entire reality of the new creation--not only justification, but renewal, and not only the renewal of the individual but of the cosmos--is constituted by the covenantal speech of the Trinity. (pp. 610-611)

In his sermon on Genesis 1:3-5, John Calvin explains:

Now Paul leads us higher by applying the similes of light and darkness to the gospel. He says that God, who brought light our of darkness, has also made his glory shine in our hearts through preaching, and that we contemplate him in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is like saying that what Moses wrote concerning the order of nature as it pertains to this terrestrial life is fulfilled in the supernatural grace by which God calls us into the kingdom of heaven (cf. 2 Cor. 4:6), in order to give us everything we need. God produced light from darkness, Paul says. Now the darkness covered the deep, and from it he draws the light. Now that is a miracle which cannot be prized highly enough. That is true every day when it is applied to the supernatural light. For what is visible to our physical eyes concerning the creation of the world is shown to us by the eyes, but by faith we contemplate what we are taught in the preaching of the gospel. However, our Lord ordains that the gospel be preached by men, in whom there is only falsehood and vanity.

Yet if God was able to draw light from darkness, he can in our day cause faith to shine within us and by its power communicate those things which are incomprehensible. That, then, is how we must bring together these two blessings of God: one concerns this transitory and frail life; the other leads us higher, to the kingdom of God, so that we may learn to glorify our God on the one hand, and on the other, to know that it has to be a miracle when he calls us to the knowledge of his truth. Now, even though there may be darkness in those who proclaim the gospel to us, as Scripture says, they cause us to think of Jesus Christ as a mirror for being transformed into his glory. Those men are mortal. That is, in them are only vanity and falsehood, and yet God uses them to enlighten us and communicate to us the holiness and righteousness which are in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is how we are to bless the name of God in all and through all. (Sermons on Genesis: Chapters 1:1-11:4, John Calvin, The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 2009, pp. 27-28)

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. "God's declaration, as McCormack concludes, 'creates the reality it declares.' 'God's declaration, in other words, is itself constitutive of that which is declared'" (Horton, 2011). The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. Notice that in 2 Cor. 5, Paul does not say that the old will pass away and the new will come. The old has passed away and the new has come. In his book Pilgrim Theology, Michael Horton (2011) explains that, "We do not work for a secure future, but from a secure present." He continues to explain:

As counterintuitive this may seem to our natural way of thinking, Paul says that the gospel is the answer not only to our guilt and condemnation but to our corruption and slavery to sin. As strange as it sounds to say that God pronounces the wicked just, it is even stranger to imagine that what we need most for sanctification is more proclamation of God's free grace in Christ. Perhaps guilt can be assuaged by the preaching of grace, but now that we are justified, don't we need directions for practical living? Indeed, we do. It is always the case that we need God's law to direct us. However, it is dangerous to assume that the law can empower us in sanctification any more than in justification.

"Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"  (Gal. 3:2-3)

When God spoke light into existence out of darkness, what did light contribute to it's existence? When God spoke everlasting life into existence out of everlasting death in you, what did you contribute to your salvation? Michael Horton (2011) explains:

Instead of a double source (synergism), redemption is concerned with a double grace: justification and inner renewal. It is all the work of God in Christ. In Lesslie Newbigin's words,

"The idea of a righteousness of one's own is the quintessence of sin. Against this, therefore, against every trace of a holiness or righteousness which does not depend simply upon God's mercy to the sinner, we have to set our faces as relentlessly as Paul did. But equally with Paul we have to recognize that if any man be in Christ there is a new creation, not a fiction but a real supernatural new birth, the life of the risen Christ in the soul."

Perhaps you recognize that I have tipped the balance. I seem to be emphasizing God's grace and our union with Christ more than anything else. You see, this is quintessential to the mortification of sin, especially that of lust. To build a solid structure, you must first build a solid foundation on which to build on. Before you can focus on the imperatives (those things that you are expected to do) you must focus on the indicatives (those things that are already true of you). First, the Father spoke the world into existence through the Word and the Spirit, He pronounced it good, and then He commanded it to be fruitful and to multiply. First God created His creation to be fruitful and multiply before He commanded it to do so. Creation was capable of being fruitful and multiplying (imperative) only because God had created it good and able to do so (indicative).

Likewise, as new creations in Christ, we must focus primarily on the indicatives that draw us to perform the imperatives expected of us. The Gospel is the indicative. The Law is the imperative. Believers, we are not expected to keep the Law apart from the grace of God that has been poured upon us in the person and work of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. If you are not relying wholly upon the grace of God to overcome sin in your life, then your work will be to no avail. If you have abandoned the Spirit and are seeking to perfect the work of redemption that God has begun in you by the flesh, then I am not surprised that your best efforts to overcome sin have been overcome with failure after failure. 

Your problem with pornography, believer, is a spiritual one, not a physical one. Your physical, beating heart is not what causes you to stumble. Your physical, beady eyes are not what cause you to fall. Your physical flesh does not draw you to profane a physical Temple of God. No, yours is a spiritual problem that must be addressed spiritually and through the Spirit of God and in union with Jesus Christ.

God has graciously filled you with the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, slowly and surely conforming you into the image of Jesus Christ, uniting you spiritually to Him in whom there is perfect righteousness and holiness. Having this great gift in your possession, you seek to fight a spiritual battle with will-power, averting your eyes, turning to other frail men and women, and mere ritualistic approaches to the means of grace. I know what you are doing, because we have all tried it. It's as if we are justified by God's gracious pronouncement of life where only death resided, and then we turn to God and say, "Thanks, but I've got this from here." We shake our heads in derision towards the Israelites for their blatant and destructive stubbornness, arrogance, pride, and deceitfulness but few men ever realize that they follow the same path after their justification before God. No sooner do we cross the Red Sea before we begin to complain, rebel, and trust in ourselves to pick up where we think God left off. The truth is, however, that God never left off. Rather, what was started by God's sheer act of grace is continue by God's sheer acts of amazing grace.

You don't need a new heart in order to overcome the sin of lust rearing its ugly head in the sin of pornography. You have a new heart. You do not need to reconcile yourself to God. You have been reconciled to God in Christ. You do not have to overcome the old man and establish the new man, but rather, "The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." These are indicatives, and the modern church grossly underestimates their usefulness in the Christian walk. Give me a passage of Scripture that tells me what God has accomplished in me by the work of Jesus Christ rather than a passage outlining my Christian duty any day of the week! However, most Christians prefer 10 Steps to Overcome Pornography over 10 Truths of the Grace of God That Render Pornography Defeated in the Life of a Christian. 

The beauty of sanctification is that it is accomplished in the life of a Christian primarily by the grace of God and not by the works of men. That is to say, mortification and vivification are gracious acts of the Spirit, not Lawful acts of the flesh. Perhaps no truth has been more understated and under-appreciated by the church today than the ministry of the Spirit in the life of a child of God. 


If you tell me to be more Christlike, I will quickly be discouraged by my inability to overcome numerous temptations and I will start to question my salvation. If you tell me that I am a new creation in Christ, I will quickly lift my eyes to my gracious God, thank Him for His Son, my union to Him, His Spirit, His indwelling in me, and His grace for the complete forgiveness of sins. And yet, we Christians prefer exhortation to perform imperatives rather than hear exclamation of gospel indicatives. Nothing will discourage a man faster than telling him to accomplish the impossible without telling him why he can accomplish the impossible. 

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. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Rom. 8:8-14)

This whole passage is indicative of our new life in Christ filled with the Spirit of God. Paul could have just written Please God, but he doesn't. Rather he shows us why it is impossible to please God in the flesh. And yet, how many of us try to please God by putting to death the deeds of the body by the flesh? We know we must please God, but how will we ever do so? By the Spirit! For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Because Christ is in you, although your body is dead because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because of Christ's righteousness. The same Spirit that 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! Isn't that so much better than just telling you to "Put to death the deeds of the body?" The imperative is grounded in the indicative. You will put to death the deeds of the body because you are in Christ and the Spirit of God is in you! Mortification of sin is not as much an action of man to accomplish the righteousness that God requires but rather, it is a reaction of man having been united to Christ, the righteousness of God, and being quickened by the Spirit to perform every good work.

We underestimate the gospel's power in the new creation. Many Christians recognize its necessity for justification, but so many Christians underestimate its usefulness for sanctification. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. Who is the Word that was in the beginning, was with God, and was God? Who is the Word that, "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made?" Who is the Word of which it is said, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men?" In the first words of John's gospel account, John demonstrates that Genesis 1 is not meant to be a polemic against athiests and evolutionary naturalists. John ties the Old Testament creation to the New Testament creation. Rather than God creating a world filled with creatures through the Word of life and the Spirit, God is creating His church filled with new creatures through the Word of Christ and by the Spirit. I close with two more quotations that hopefully tie everything together from Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology:

Just as creation began with a command, "Let there be...And there was...," so too does the new creation originate in the womb of the word. The church is "a chosen race" and a "holy nation," "that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). Although "the gospel is veiled it is veiled only to those who are perishing... For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:3, 6). It is not surprising that Paul also thinks of new creation as analogous to ex nihilo creation (Ro. 4:17-18). By speaking righteousness (imputed in justification and merited in sanctification) into a condition of unrighteousness, God brings into existence not only a collection of justified and renewed individuals but a living community: his church...

...God's words are performative: powerful, event-generating discourse. They are not only enlightening or informative; they are fulfilled (Eze. 12:28; cf. Isa. 55:10-11). The scene of the prophet preaching to the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 vividly portrays this living and active word that creates the reality of which it speaks. And in the same way, the preaching of the gospel draws us out of our self-enclosed prison of sin and death, effectually calling, justifying, and renewing us from the inside out. By the word of the gospel the Spirit builds a temple-house for the Father in the Son.

Here is a list of resources used in this post along with other useful texts on this subject:

Michael Horton's The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way
Michael Horton's Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples
John Calvin's Sermons on Genesis: Chapters 1:1-11:4
Walter Marshall's The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification
Kevin DeYounge's The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness
Edward Fisher's The Marrow of Modern Divinity
John Owen's Overcoming Sin and Temptation: Three Classic Works of John Owen 



If you are struggling with pornography or know somebody that is and you found this blog helpful, uplifting, and encouraging, then please visit my Facebook page for further resources and discussion. If you would like to contact  me, feel free to message me through my Facebook page as well. I am literally a click away. I would love to know who you are and keep you in my prayers. Thanks.

 

Inside Out

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

   

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.” Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

- Matthew 15:1-20

I'm a bit of a germaphobe. I come from a long line of germaphobes. Being a nurse, my mother instilled in me an innate sense of an unseen world that surrounds me; a world that is constantly trying to infect me and the best way to hold the germs at bay is to wash, wash, wash my hands. My wife and I joke a lot about my incessant proclivity to wash my hands all the time and try to stay clean. I typically have a bottle of hand sanitizer stashed away in our cars, my jackets, and my lunch box so that I can disinfect my hands before I put anything in my mouth. I'm a little OCD when it comes to cleanliness. I actually believe that there is such a thing as dirty soap. Maybe you have seen those towels that have "Head" and "Butt" embroidered on them. Those were made for people like me, who cannot dry our heads off on the same side of the towel that we dry the rest of our bodies off. I would have a panic attack if I used the wrong side of my towel to dry my face. I don't know what I would do without soap (and lotion to help mend my over-washed hands). 

About five years ago, my wife and I attended our Presbytery's annual church camp, Horn Creek. We were not married at the time, and I was bunking with a lodge full of older, single men. The college men's cabin must have been full. I was in college, but I felt like a little pup in the cabin. I was relieved that I had managed to pack a pair of ear plugs, because many of my bunk mates were cutting down a massive forest the first night. Even though the snoring didn't prevent me from sleeping, I didn't sleep well because I was dreading having to share a shower with seven other men. How would I keep track of my towel and which side is which? I would have to keep it under lock and key. When I awoke from what little sleep I could manage, I awoke to my worst nightmare. The cabin was outfitted with two sinks in the bunk-room, and I was appalled to see one of my cabin mates taking a sponge bath at the sink and cleaning his armpits with the community soap that we all used to wash our hands. The soap was defiled, I had reached my breaking point, and thankfully my parents were arriving that afternoon and had room for me to stay with them. 

Needless to say, along with many others today, I can tend to focus on the dirt outside that can get in rather than the dirt inside that gets out. That is to say, I'm more focused on staying clean from the outside in rather than from the inside out.

In Matthew 15, Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat?" Jesus answers their question with a question: "Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" Well, in order for all of this to make some sense, we need to understand more about the Pharisees' cleanliness traditions and the intent hidden behind their question.

Alfred Edersheim provides some helpful comments concerning this passage of Scripture in his book Jesus the Messiah. First, you have to understand the Pharisees' intent behind asking Jesus why his disciples didn't wash their hands before eating. It will help in order to further understand why Jesus reacted the way He did. Edersheim explains that the Pharisees were on a mission to discredit Jesus as the Messiah, and one way they went about doing so was by accusing Jesus of sinning. He explains that if the Pharisees could establish that Jesus was a sinner, then, "it would, of course, prove that He was not the Messiah, but a deceiver who misled the people, and whom it was the duty of the Sanhedrin to unmask and arrest." Overall, they were constantly trying to catch Jesus in a sin in order to save face so that they would be seen as the good-guys yet again and discredit everything Jesus ever said about them as a blasphemous liar. Edersheim continues to explain that, "The way in which they attempted to establish this, perhaps persuaded themselves that it was so, was by proving that He sanctioned in others, and Himself committed, breaches of the traditional law." They wanted to prove that Jesus was sinning by accusing Him of breaking the traditions of men, and Jesus wouldn't stand for it.

Now, it is also important to understand the sin that the Pharisees were accusing Jesus of commiting in order to make more sense of His heated response to them. Edersheim explains that: 

"[The] Scribes now blamed the Master for allowing His disciples to eat without having previously washed, or, as St. Mark...expresses it: 'with common hands.' This practice is expressly admitted to have been, not a Law of Moses, but 'a tradition of the elders.' Still, it was so strictly enjoined that to neglect it was like being guilty of gross carnal defilement. Its omission would lead to temporal destruction, or, at least, to poverty. Bread eaten with unwashed hands was as if it had been filth. In fact, although at one time it had only been one of the marks of a Pharisee, yet at a later period to wash before eating was regarded as affording the ready means of recognizing a Jew."

The Pharisees lifted the traditions of men over the Commandments of God. Their traditional laws focused on keeping a righteous man undefiled from a corrupt world. The Pharisees believed that they were clean and that the dirty world would corrupt them unless they did everything they could to keep themselves clean. They misunderstood the moral Law, and therefore, they invented external laws to keep them from corruption. The moral Law, however, teaches that the corruption lies within man and not outside of him. The Law was meant to reveal the sinfulness of men, not to protect them from the corruption of the world. As Paul explains:

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

(1 Tim. 1:8-11)

The Law does not make men righteous, but rather, it reveals men to be unrighteous. The Law points us to Christ, the righteous one, for our salvation, and not to our sinful selves wherein no righteousness lies. Righteousness and purity do not come from obedience to the Law, but from our union with Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9).

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. (Rom. 8:3-4)

Jesus responds to the Pharisees by quoting Isaiah 29:13:

And the Lord said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men."

Edersheim explains that, "In thus setting forth for the first time the real character or traditionalism, and placing Himself in open opposition to its fundamental principles, the Christ enunciated also for the first time the fundamental principle of His own interpretation of the Law. That Law was not a system of externalism, in which outward things affected the inner man. It was moral, and addressed itself to man as a moral being. Not from without inwards, but from within outwards: such was the principle of the new Kingdom, as setting for the Law in its fulness and fulfilling it..It is in this essential contrariety of principle, rather than in any details, that the unspeakable difference between Christ and all contemporary teachers appears." Edersheim wrote these words in the late 19th century. They still hold true today.

Reeling this all in, I want to further elaborate on my last post about the way in which many Christians struggling with pornography are attempting to mortify and overcome this sin in their life by washing their hands and not their hearts. I have turned to a plethora of resources published online, in books, and in videos about combating the sin of pornography, and although much of what they have to say is helpful, they always seem to take an outside-in approach. That is to say, many teachings about how to overcome pornography focus primarily on helping those struggling with pornography flee outward stimulus. You need to put a filter on your devices with internet access. You need to stop watching movies with sex and nudity in them. You need to stop listening to sexual explicit or provocative music. You need to be careful what you read. You need to find friends that will support you and hold you accountable rather than hanging out with friends that love to tell sex jokes and talk about sex.

Yes, there is warrant for taking these precautions. I am not saying that these steps are not helpful, but they don't deal with the main issue: your heart. You see, you can wash your hands of pornography all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that your heart is still wired for lust. Pornography is a forbidden fruit. To our flesh, it looks attractive, it smells sweet, and it tastes like honey. We are not cured if we keep walking past the tree, wishing we could only sink our teeth in it. Instead, we need to address the real problem: the deceitfulness of our hearts. We need to see the tree for what it is: sinful, destructive, adultery, full of lust, deceit, and as something that separates us from the love of God. We can build a wall around the tree, dig a mote and fill it with water, put an electric fence around it, and train guard dogs to attack us if we get close to it, but it doesn't change the fact that we still smack our lips every time we think about it. Yes, the tree is bad, but what's worse is our desire to feast upon it despite its sinfulness.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

(Matthew 5:28) 

Look carefully at this passage, again. Where do we commit adultery? It's not the eyes that are sinful. It is our hearts wherein the sin rests.

We have to address the sin of pornography from the inside out. Perhaps I am guilty of this myself, but many times we can quote statistic after statistic about how pervasive the adult entertainment industry is and point to the industry as the culprit of our problems. We point the finger at porn-stars, prostitutes, pimps, immodest women, and so many others as the perpetrators of our problems. We think that if we could somehow eliminate pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking that the problem would be solved. If you destroyed every clock in the world, would that stop time? No, and if you destroyed every trace of the sex industry around the world that wouldn't stop the fact that men and women are lustful, sinful, hurtful, broken, fallen creatures.

In order to overcome pornography, you have to start with the demand. You can tear out your eyes, but the heart remains unscathed. Your problem is not the sinfulness of the world trying to corrupt you, but your problem is the sinfulness of your heart that is corrupting everything you say and do. Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. It is not the porn you watch, but the fact that you enjoy watching porn.

I've said it before, and I'll reiterate it again. You are not a victim of pornography. Until you admit that your problem with porn is completely your fault and no one else's, you will not be able to start taking the crucial step of mortifying it once and for all. Pornography is a gross, sinful, vile corruption of God's beautiful design of a sexual relationship between a husband and wife. The reason it is a problem in your life is not because people are making it but because you love to consume it. You consume it because your heart wants to, not because someone is forcing you to. Although you know that the actions portrayed in porn are sinful, your corrupt heart gobbles them up. The images do not defile you, but rather, your corrupt heart defiles you.

Yes, there is something to be said about the usefulness of internet filters and accountability software, but those are mere hand washings. More than anything, you need to address the problem from the inside out. Guarding your heart, removing yourself from tempting situations, surrounding yourself with people who will hold you accountable, and making a covenant with your eyes have their merit, but all of that is vanity unless you subdue the old man in your heart. Although your environment can tempt you to sin, it is not the reason why you sin. Your sin is deeply rooted in a sinful heart that can only be overcome by the grace of God. Therefore, more than anything else, you need the grace of God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and the Son of God to combat your problem with this and every other sin in your life.  

[The] word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

(Heb. 4:12-16)

You can turn your internet off, throw away all your movies, sell your TVs and computers, burn your iPods, trash your phones and cut ties with all of your friends, but you cannot fix your own heart. You could lock yourself in an empty room to try to overcome this sin in your life but to no avail. You would only lock yourself in a room along with the enemy within you. You take him everywhere you go, and no matter what you may do, he's there to stay. There is one thing and one thing only that can evict the enemy within: God. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. 

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. 

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.  

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
(1 Cor. 6:9-20)

If you are struggling with pornography or know somebody that is and you found this blog helpful, uplifting, and encouraging, then please visit my Facebook page for further resources and discussion. If you would like to contact  me, feel free to message me through my Facebook page as well. I am literally a click away. I would love to know who you are and keep you in my prayers. Thanks.