Our sinful self…

Posted on by kevinjandt

sin

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. – Ephesians 2:8-9

Sin is an ugly thing…  There are no doubts we can see the ugliness of sin in the lives that have been ravaged by its illusion.  The examples abound don’t they; aren’t they everywhere you look?

If you could see the outcome would you make the same decision?

What is sin?  Hamartia (ham-ar-tee’-ah): to miss the mark; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness.

Sin is deceitful and we can quite easily convince ourselves of our own goodness.  It’s easy for me to see how well I’m doing, how “holy” I’m becoming…  Pride goes before destruction… (Proverbs 16:18)

God has provided a way out of sin for His people and we need only embrace them, but there must be effort, there must be a war waged against sin.  The adversary will not give up easily.  Below I’ve highlighted six essentials that are God given defenses in the battle against sin.

The Word

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that they man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God’s Word is absolutely essential for knowing and understanding God, and what He says about dealing with sin and all things concerning life.  To neglect God’s Word means you will easily succumb to sin.  The Sword is meant to fight off the attacks of the enemy and give us a victory over sin.

The Church

Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.

The preaching and teaching of God’s Word as we assemble with other Believers is one of the most important avenues to holiness.  Anybody left isolated is easily subject to sin.  Preaching should consistently bring conviction leading to life change.  Do you walk out of your church feeling good about yourself more often than you feel the weight of your sin?  There should be a heavy dose of life saving medicine delivered from the pulpit in a healthy church.

Believers

Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

All Believers are called to be concerned about brothers and sisters in Christ.  We are to have influence and impact in the lives of those near us.   Husband and wives, parents and children, those that we are close to and know their lives.  This is not always popular so the Apostle Paul calls us to do it in gentleness; lest we also be tempted, but yet we are to do it.  Do not neglect this if you truly love them.

Those in Spiritual authority

Hebrews 13:17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account.  Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.

This is very challenging for most that profess Christianity.  We naturally rebel against authority and there are so few churches that practice this well.  However, it doesn’t release you from this command.  Did you notice it was a command and not a suggestion?  If the leaders of your church live this out you can be grateful for God’s grace.

The Spirit of God

John 14:15-17 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

The Holy Spirit is consistent in the lives of Believers and will convict of our sins.  The biggest question today is will and do you receive Him when He shows you your sin?  Believers are responsible for sin and God hates sin, so there must be accountability.

Prayer

Romans 12:12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer,

Prayer is our conduit to God.  Without a consistent and willful prayer life we will flounder in this ongoing battle.  Have you ever stopped communicating with your wife?  How does that go for you?  When Jen and I are not communicating I’m proactively creating distance between us.  I may not always do this intentionally but it happens none the less.  It’s unhealthy for our marriage.  Why would we think this is any different with God?  When I’m most vulnerable is when I’m on my knees the least.

I’ve read that the great evangelist Leonard Ravenhill spent hours and hours praying each day.  He spent more time in prayer than he spent preparing for his sermons, and the result of this was an effective ministry for Christ.

“Oh Lord may we be a people broken in our sinfulness and a people that seek You diligently.”

Kevin

A moth to a flame

Posted on by kevinjandt

campfire

What is it that draws a moth to a flame?  We know they are going to die but the moth doesn’t have that knowledge.  They are ignorant of the saving truth of their demise.  If you could tell them “don’t do it” would they pay attention to you?  Would they know you cared enough to save them from destruction?

Psalm 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”  They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.

Sunday night I was able to spend some time doing something I really enjoy; that is sitting around a campfire.  It’s something I’ve loved since I was a kid.  There is something fascinating about adding big chunks of hickory or split oak to a fire and seeing it come to life.  I also love seeing the deep dark colors of the coals and how they give off that warming heat on a cool evening such as we had that night.

As I was sitting and enjoying a discussion with my brother Roy, I saw a moth dive bomb right into the fire.  This poor guy had no idea what hit him.  In a couple seconds he burst into flames and poof he was gone.  It was quite incredible to see it happen and really caused me to think about the fool.

What is a fool?

The Hebrew word used here is – nâbâl pronounced – naw-bawl’

From H5034; stupid; wicked (especially impious): – fool (-ish, -ish man, -ish woman), vile person.

Joseph A. Alexander provides us some great insight into the fool.

Sin is constantly held up to view in Scripture as the height of folly, and the sinner as the fool by way of eminence,  See Gen xxxiv, 7, Josh. vii, 15, Ps. xxxxix, 9 (8).   The term is here collective and applied to the whole race, as appears from the plurals which follow, and the negative statement in the last clause.  The preterits include the present, but suggest the additional idea, that the truth here asserted is the result of all previous experience and observations.—In his heart, to himself, if not to others, as above in Ps. x. 11. 

That the error is one of affections, and not merely of the understanding, is supposed by some to be implied in the use of the word heart, which is often used, however, to denote the mind or soul in general.  “No” is properly a noun, and means nonentity or non-existence: “nothing of God,” or “no such thing as God.”  It cannot be explained as a wish “No God!” i.e. Oh that there were no God. 

Alexander goes on to say: that the addition of the word act or deed shows that the atheism described is not merely theoretical but practical.

As a moth is drawn to a flame so is the sinful human heart drawn to the denial of God.  Even though we know He has plainly revealed Himself to all of mankind.  Romans 1:19-23

The only difference between the moth and the human that dies is eternity.  Indeed the moth I saw last night is gone and is now dust.  Man has a soul that will continue on forever in one of two places.  For the believer it will be eternal glory serving the God they love.  For the fool it will be the torment of hell.  Where the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44).

Believer can you feel the urgency to preach the gospel to those that need to hear the message of the cross?  Most will reject it but some will be saved through this foolish message.  Today go out and be an ambassador for Christ and call those to repent, turn from their sin and live!

 

Kevin

Another kind of Christ – Part 3 – “THE” Tabernacle

Posted on by kevinjandt

tabernacle

In 2 Samuel we see that David has finally found rest from all his enemies (2 Samuel 7:1), and he has a desire to build a permanent place for the ark of the covenant to reside.  It seems like the logical next step.  David desires to honor God but the LORD is not ready for this.

2 Samuel 7:5-7 “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Would you build a house for Me to dwell in?  For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle.  Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’ “ ‘

In other words “David, I’ve not told you to do this, why would you do this?”  This was not a stern rebuke from the LORD, but appears to be a simple statement of fact.

John Gill in his commentary writes – they never were bid to do it, or expostulated with why they did not, or ever reproved for not doing it; therefore why should David think of doing it?  John Gill Commentaries

What an interesting thought.  How often do we presuppose that we should do something for the LORD He has not called us to do?  What is our service to God to consist of?  It should include nothing more than obedience to His Word.  Paul says this is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1).

2 Samuel 7:11b Also the LORD tells you that He will make you a house.

The LORD reveals His plan to David.  Can we begin to even grasp the reality of this statement?  From before time began God had a plan to redeem mankind through Christ and David is a recipient of that information and not only that, but it is through his seed that this tabernacle will be built. 

2 Samuel 7:12-13 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 

John Gill again offers great clarity: that is, for a long time. Solomon’s reign was forty years, and the kingdom of Judah continued in his posterity until the Babylonish captivity, and a prince that descended from him was the ruler of the people when they returned: this has its fulfilment more eminently in Christ, who was of his seed, to whom God has given “the throne of his father David”, and who “shall reign over the house of Jacob forever” (Luke 1:32). John Gill Commentaries

We know the temple was built by Solomon; did this end the story?  Was this the only tabernacle being spoken of here?  Was it established forever?   We know Solomon’s temple was destroyed so how is this temple to really be established forever?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: He (Solomon) built a temple and his action was approved by God.  But this temple was not enough to fulfill the promise.  It was built by the hands of men, and so was doomed for destruction.  The prophecy still awaited fulfillment.  Still the People of God look for a temple built by the Son of David whose kingdom shall endure forever.  The temple at Jerusalem was destroyed more than once, a sign that it was not the temple of God’s promise.  Where then was the true temple?  Christ Himself answers that question by applying the prophecy to His Body.  “The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?  But He spake of the temple of His body.  When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He spake this: and they believed the word which Jesus had said” (John 2:20). – The Cost of Discipleship

Christ is the true tabernacle, the dwelling place in which sinners must enter to receive redemption and forgiveness.  The whole history and prophecies of the Old Testament point to the glory of this truth.  This is a remarkable narrative of Christ and the whole purpose of His coming to earth, “To seek and save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10).

Hebrews 8:1-2 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

But why?

Hebrews 8:12-13 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  In that He say, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.  Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 9:24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another.

These are remarkable statements of truth from the writer of Hebrews; the truth of the gospel in full view with incredible clarity.  Can we see the completeness of Scripture and how it all points to Christ?

Is there a reason for this all?  I ask this question today for those in unbelief? 

Hebrews 9:27-28 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of man.  To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

If you don’t understand the depths that Christ has gone to rescue sinful man you can never appreciate what it means to be saved.  If this is foolishness you are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18) and my attempt is to appeal to your heart that it has sinned and has fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  If you are a Believer you should be in awe of God and have a better understanding of how the Bible shows itself to be the source of truth. 

Worship Him today, for He is worthy.

Kevin

1 year ago today…

Posted on by kevinjandt

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I began blogging at Uncommon Faith.  What an incredible joy it has been to interact with many of you over the course of this time.  I’m consistently encouraged by what the Lord is doing in your lives and look forward to the future with much hope and anticipation.

In the past year I’ve had many visitors.  I attempt to share with all the hope that resides within me.  Sometimes those are challenging conversations, sometimes there is like-mindedness, and sometimes I have those that have serious disagreements.

All in all I desire it only to be to the glory of Christ and that the gospel is proclaimed.

1 Corinthians 15:3-6 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.   After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once…

Since many of you are new I thought I’d recycle my very first article.  I called it Pulling Weeds.

In Christ- Kevin

 

Pulling Weeds – from August 22, 2012

Ephesians 6:4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Its official; July 2012 is the hottest month on record in the 118 years that these records have been kept.  I believe it.  All you need to do is look at my yard and there is no doubt we have had little rain and plenty of hot weather.

I was contemplating after a recent storm how much easier it is to pull weeds when the soil has been softened by a good rain and it occurred to me this is similar to my children’s hearts.  For the record I’m a diehard believer in the doctrines of grace but I know God uses means to reach people and the primary way God desires to reach children is through fathers.

To be obedient to God’s word I’m commanded to bring my children up in the training and admonition of the Lord.  I must, in a sense, pull the weeds of sin out of the hearts of my children. Young children’s hearts represent soft soil.  They have not yet been exposed to as much sin and are much more malleable.  They receive the gospel with all eagerness, whether their soil is good is completely dependent upon God but I’m called to spread the seed and in my analogy to pull the weeds.

But I struggle with this often.  It’s easier to watch the TV than tell them it’s time for us to have our family devotions.  It’s easier to let the weeds grow saying “I’ll get that done tomorrow”.  It’s easier to allow them the subtle sins such as a lack of obedience than correct it immediately.  In effect; I also struggle with pulling my own weeds.

Father’s today pull the weeds of sin from your heart so you can pull the weeds from your children’s hearts, to the glory of God and for love and obedience to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5 casting down stronghold, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

 

Kevin

He who does the will of of My Father…

Posted on by kevinjandt

narrow-gate

How can we have confidence in our claims to Christianity?  Have you ever been challenged in your own mind about your claims to know Christ.  Not just know of Him or intellectually “believe” in Him.  I mean know that you are His and your sins are forgiven.  Most Christians know what the Lord said in Matthew chapter 7 how many will claim to know Him yet many will be cast into hell.

Can we truly know?

Before I came to knowledge of my sin I would have claimed Christianity yet it didn’t exhibit change in my life to the glory of God.  I could shine myself up a bit but there was still the hidden and secret sin residing inside of me that very few knew was there.  My life was content in my self-righteousness; even though I claimed the promise.

How can we be certain?

God’s Word is the standard by which we must examine our life so today I’ll look at a couple passages that are an excellent way to see if we hit the mark.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.  For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.  Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

Sexual sin is a big problem in the “church” world today.  The ease at which anyone has access to that which is displeasing to God has never been more readily available.  And it also comes right into your living room via the television.  As this society slips further into decline sexual sin is before our eyes daily if not hourly.

We must also consider the commonality of fornication; living in sexuality outside of marriage.  This is not even looked on as a sin anymore by the populace.  If you call yourself a “Believer” do not be deceived.  If you practice this you will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

If you are a Pastor and you are reading this today, I will ask if you are preaching this in your church.  Does your congregation know this is sin?  Do they wrap themselves in their own “goodness” and righteous acts?  Or does the Sword of God thunder from your pulpit forcing people to look into the sinfulness of their hearts?

Have we compared our lives to the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18?

Luke 18:13 “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Are the Lord’s words not crystal clear?

Have mercy Oh Lord!  This man knew where to turn.

I’m a sinner!  This man knew his wretched condition.

Was justified!  This man was saved because he understood his sin and his need for a Savior.

1 Thessalonians 4:8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has given us His Holy Spirit.

If you bristle at these words you reject God and you need to turn from your sin because you are a slave to sin (Romans 6).  If you struggle and you can’t overcome your sin you are correct.  You need to confess your sin to God and you need to seek help from a faithful person in your church.  If you believe you are saved you need to examine yourself and you need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).

So how can we be assured of our salvation?

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Those that “do” the will of God will enter heaven.  Not just those that go to church, wrap themselves in religiosity, try to be a good person, etc…, etc…, etc…

I’m not talking about righteousness through works, but a life that has been radically transformed and only desires to please God by following His commands.  Do your old friends cringe at who you are now?  Do they see a disturbing difference in you?  Most likely they enjoyed you when you were religious.  Your religion did them no harm, but when you sought holiness and sanctification it really shakes the gates of hell and most won’t like it.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.

This is how we know!

See you next week with my final installment of “Another kind of Christ”

 

Kevin