©2000 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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3/29/00
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Helps For Believing The Truth
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3/26/00 Helps For Believing The Truth
If you weren't with us last week
then you'll need a little background
in order to understand
what we're going to be doing
during the next few minutes.
We have been studying the 6th chapter
of the New Testament book of Romans.
This 6th chapter,
along with the 7th chapter
and part of the 8th
were written by Paul
to equip the Christian
with the knowledge we need
in order to effectively fight
our personal battles with sin.
In past weeks
we have walked our way through
a number of the verses in this chapter.
But then last week
we stepped back from the passage
and began looking at it
from a little different direction.
You see, one of the chronic deceptions we fight
in our battle for victory over sin in our lives
is the belief that what we need
is some new knowledge
or some new revelation,
or some dramatic new encounter with God
in order to catapult us into victory,
and stability,
and freedom.
It is common stuff for God's people
to look at themselves
and see their lives lacking
in the quality of Christian living they
long for,
in Paul's words, to see themselves
not walking in a manner worthy of their
calling,
and for them to then assume
that that lack is caused by the absence
of some crucial, as yet undiscovered
ingredient in their Christian life.
But we saw last week
that one of the truly remarkable things
about this section of the book of Romans
is that when Paul sets out to equip us
for our battles against sin,
he does not point our lives forward
to some new,
secret,
previously hidden truth or experience
with God,
but rather, he turns our eyes back
to the changes that have already taken place in
our relationship with God through Christ,
changes that took place
at the time we entered the family of God
through faith in Christ,
but changes that we either
were never aware of,
or have forgotten along the way.
Now, last week
as we took our new approach to studying this
passage,
we began with a statement:
when we come to God through Christ
God Himself steps into our lives
and, by His sovereign power,
brings about a number of radical,
permanent changes within us.
These are not changes that should take place within
us,
they are not things we should do for God
in response to what He has done for us,
these are all changes
that have already taken place within us,
changes already accomplished within us
by the sovereign act of God Himself,
but changes we often do not accept as true,
because they seem to contradict
what we believe to be
the practical realities of our lives.
And in this section of the book of Romans,
when Paul goes about educating the Christian
in a proper perspective on sin,
he takes four of those changes
that have already taken place in our
lives,
and reminds us of what they are.
Or, to state it a different way,
Paul is telling us
that the power of sin will be broken in our
lives
to the degree we understand
and accept the truth and the reality
of the changes God has already
made in four areas of our lives.
And last week we listed those four changes.
1. The change in our true identity.
2. The change in our relationship to the Moral law of
God.
3. The change in our relationship to sin.
4. The change in our relationship to righteousness.
Then we spent the rest of our time
looking more closely
at the first of those four changes,
the change in our true identity.
We saw that, with most of us,
when we come to Christ,
the best we can muster within ourselves
is the belief that we are repentant sinners who
have been pardoned
by a compassionate God.
We believe the forgiveness is real,
but we still view ourselves
not as the eternal holy ones of God,
but rather as saved sinners.
From that foundation
we then enter into what we believe
is an agreement with God
based upon our ability to perform at a
certain level.
If we improve our performance
then we expect and anticipate
the acceptance and approval of God.
If something good happens to us,
we will even tend to believe
it is in some way associated
with the progress we're making.
If something bad happens to us,
we will tend to believe
it is because God is displeased with the
progress we're making
and wants us to try harder.
Because we bring with us into the family of God
the belief that our standing with God
is in some way tied to our behavior,
we will see
what we believe to be "proofs" of
that belief
everywhere we look.
And when Paul begins his attack
against the power of sin in our lives,
he does so by reminding us
of the central truth of our lives in Christ.
In Christ we are not called
to try to become holy for Him,
but rather we have already been made holy by Him.
When we look in the mirror in the morning,
what God wants us to see
is not a sinner being called by God
to try to act a little better
throughout the next 24 hours,
but rather a Saint, a pure, perfect, holy,
righteous one of God,
who's calling is to live the next 24 hours
in a way that is consistent
with our true identity.
This is where the entire changing process begins in
our lives.
Everything else God seeks to do
both within us,
and through us
is based upon our understanding that
"...we have become the righteousness
of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21)...
and that, "... as many as received Him, to
them He gave the right to become children
of God, even to those who believe in His
name, who were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)...
and that, "... if any man is in Christ, he is a
new creature; the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come." (2 Cor.
5:17)
Following the service last week
I had a courageous person come up
and ask me an excellent question.
The person asked how we go about doing this.
In practical terms,
how do we begin to see ourselves
as the new creations God says we are?
And that, of course, really is where we live, isn't it?
For the past three or four months
most of what I've been teaching
has centered on this single theme:
we are now new creations in Christ.
Some of you have no doubt marveled
at my ability to say exactly the same thing
week after week
in so many different ways.
But when it comes right down to it,
how do we take this truth
and get it past simply an intellectual
recognition,
and into our lives
in a way that brings about changes
within us?
So, before we move on to the second of those truths
we don't believe,
I want to take the rest of our time this morning
to offer a few suggestions
on how we co-operate with that changing
process in our lives.
These suggestions
are not in any particular order,
but I'll just list them as they came to mind to
me.
#1. And the first one I want to offer is this:
allow yourself to accept this learning process
as the heart of the spiritual warfare God has
called you to fight.
I'm talking about an attitude here,
but one that must be in place
before we can make any progress at all.
And let me show you this attitude in Scripture,
and then I'll tell you what to be on guard
against.
What I'm about to read to you
is a truly remarkable passage of Scripture.
It is found in II Cor. 10:3-5.
Paul writes,
For though we walk in the flesh, we do
not war according to the flesh, for the
weapons of our warfare are not of the
flesh, but divinely powerful for the
destruction of fortresses...
Now, up to that point, we are right with Paul.
I mean, we know about spiritual warfare.
We know about the forces of evil,
under the command of Satan,
seeking to destroy the work of God
among men.
We've read the passages
describing Christ's battles with evil spirits,
and His awesome authority over them.
And now here we discover Paul
talking about the weapons of his warfare,
and the way in which they are divinely
powerful
for the destruction of fortresses.
But it is not until the next verse
that we discover the nature of those fortresses,
and see the primary focus
of this intense spirit-world battle
in which Paul is involved.
In the next verse
Paul goes on to say,
We are destroying speculations and every
lofty thing raised up against the knowledge
of God, and we are taking every thought
captive to the obedience of Christ,...
The enemies Paul is battling against
are speculations
and ideas that war against the knowledge
give to us by God,
and the captives he is taking
are thoughts.
And Paul measures his victories
by the number of destructive
and distorted thought patterns within himself
and others
that he is able to bring into conformity with the
truth.
This is spiritual warfare!
And when we look at God's Word
and see in His Word
statements telling us that we have already
been transformed into His Holy Ones,
recreated by Him at the deepest level,
and then we look at ourselves
and find we don't believe that at all,
Paul wants us to know that this is the warfare
assigned to us by God -
bring our thinking
in line with God's truth.
Satan will want to keep us forever focused on the
externals -
telling us that "spiritual warfare"
means trying harder to change this behavior,
or that behavior,
or being more diligent
to do this for God,
or that for God.
But our God wants us to know
that the warfare we have been called to
is the warfare of co-operating with the Spirit
of God
in transforming our flesh-based thinking
patterns
into conformity with the mind of the
Spirit.
Changing our thinking about ourselves
IS spiritual warfare.
And all I'm saying here
is that we need to actively give ourselves
permission to enter that battle.
But, how about all of those behavior issues in our
lives?
Shouldn't that be the focus of our warfare?
I want to offer you one more statement from Paul,
and then we'll set Satan's lie
and God's truth side by side.
Rom. 12:2 And do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may
prove what the will of God is, that which
is good and acceptable and perfect.
In that one statement
Paul takes our thinking
and our acting
and links them together.
And let me show you
the lie and the truth set side-by-side.
Satan's lie is this:
"Child of God, if you will change your
performance,
then you'll be able to change your thinking and
your attitude toward yourself."
You see, he comes along side of us,
and he points out to us
all those areas where we see ourselves
falling short of the mark.
And he strikes up a conversation with us in our
minds.
He says, "Look at all those failures in your life.
You're not a very good Christian, are you?"
And we respond, "No, I'm really not."
Then he says, "You know, if you would just
change those areas,
then you would be a better Christian,
and you would like yourself better.
Go ahead, work harder to change your
performance,
so that you can then like yourself a little better."
But God's message to us is exactly the opposite.
Satan says, "Change your performance so that you
can then change your thinking."
God says, "Change your thinking,
and your performance will follow."
You see, this is the kind of conversations our God
will have with us:
"My child, I know you're troubled
about some major behavior issues in your life
right now.
The reason you're troubled
is because I have placed a new heart within
you,
a heart that gives you a longing to please
me.
But the first step in our bringing about those changes
in your life
is for you to listen carefully
to what I say,
and to keep listening
and until you begin to accept the truth
of who you really are.
You are my holy one, my treasured child.
Your spirit is absolutely pure and clean.
You are my ambassador,
you are my friend, in whose friendship I
delight."
And, as the rotten lies imbedded in our minds
are replaced with the truth
of what God has already done in our lives,
we will see our behavior
conforming more and more to the image of
Christ,
because it will flow more and more
out of our changing inner identity.
#2. And, then how about a few practical "how-to's"
in designing a plan of attack
for winning this warfare of the mind...
I know we only have a few minutes left,
so I will do little more than mention these,
but I want to offer you six suggestions
that I have found to be essential
for this kind of warfare in my own
life.
1. Consciously choose your truth Authority.
By that I mean simply, decide you will accept God
as your ultimate truth Authority.
When all those other voices come in,
attacking you,
confusing you,
offering their credentials
on the basis of your past failures,
or your past flesh-based successes,
meet them at the doorway of your mind
with the voice of your God.
And when your God says to you,
"You are My holy one!",
let Him have the final word.
And just one word of caution here -
you don't have to understand WHY God says
what He says,
but you do need to choose
to believe He knows what He's talking
about.
I have spent much of my life
pointing out to the Lord
that I frankly have no idea why He has said
some of the things He has said,
but having said that,
I then affirm that I will accept His
perspective as being the true one,
even when, at the time, I don't see how
it could be.
2. Establish anchors on the basis of that Authority.
And by anchors I mean find clear statements your
God has made to you
about who you are
and how your God views you,
and tape them to the mirror,
or write them on your computer's desktop,
or stick them on the dashboard of the car.
There are literally thousands of anchors to choose
from.
I'll give you just two examples:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, ...
Who pardons all (my) iniquities; Who
heals all (my) diseases;
Who redeems (my) life from the pit; Who
crowns (me) with lovingkindness and
compassion;
Who satisfies (my) years with good
things, So that (my) youth is renewed like
the eagle. Ps. 103:2-5
Or how about this:
Matt. 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are
weary and heavy-laden, and I will give
you rest.
Matt. 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you, and
learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble
in heart; and you shall find rest for your
souls.
Matt. 11:30 "For My yoke is easy, and My
load is light."
Or this:
Rom. 8:1 There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus.
Or this:
Jer. 31:3 The Lord appeared to him from
afar, saying, "I have loved you with an
everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn
you with lovingkindness.
OK, so that's four rather than two,
but find those anchors and hang on to them.
3. Feed the truth.
Find sources of input that reinforce the truth,
and feed your spirit on them.
The Word of God, of course,
so long as you can read it
without it being used by Satan
as a tool of condemnation.
Some speakers,
some books,
some friendships,
so long as they reinforce the truth.
4. Listen to yourself.
And when you hear yourself
telling yourself lies,
tell yourself to shut up.
5. Talk to yourself.
Risk telling yourself the truth.
Tell yourself that by the grace of your good
God,
you are His holy one,
loved and valued by Him.
6. And then finally, eliminate the liars.
When you encounter voices
that reinforce the lies,
get away,
or stop reading,
or turn the tape or the radio or the
TV off.
Don't feed yourself mental garbage
that you will only have to recover from.
That's just a beginning,
but it may help us to better understand
how we fight this war
in ways that make it truly winnable
under the leadership of our great
King.