Sermon: Impediments to Sanctification

Overcoming Obstacles Through a Christ-like Mindset
#1714
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 17-Jun-23; 77 minutes 2023-06-17

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Back when I was a lad—my original notes had wee lad—during my preteen and early teen years, I was a baseball fanatic. It meant everything to me. Of course, I was a Pittsburgh Pirate fan (which all of you should be, by the way), in the land of Dodgers and Angels.

When we moved to Columbia, South Carolina, which was a baseball wilderness; for some reason, people around here like the Atlanta Braves and I could never understand that, but that is the way it was. But I had a radio and I enjoyed listening to scratchy, far away stations that allowed me to hear Pirate games. Like I was able to, in the evening and early night times, hear Pirate games on KDKA in Pittsburgh. And if I wanted, the local announcers when they got to Cincinnati or New York or Philadelphia or Saint Louis or Chicago, I could usually tune into those stations and as well and hear the Pittsburgh Pirates play wherever they happened to be, at least on this side of the Mississippi. That was when the Pirates were good, by the way. They won the World Series in 1979 and have done nothing since.

But that move to Columbia, South Carolina opened the prospect of playing Little League and after overcoming my first year, I do not know if you have ever heard this story, but I will tell now. You can tell I am not very pleased with it because in that year our team, which was sponsored by Love Chevrolet there in Colombia, decided to lovingly let the other teams win all their games against us. We went 0 and 22 that year.

But I had caught the bug. I love playing ball. I wanted to play ball, maybe even professionally. You know how when you play ball and, and you do well—well, the team did not do well, I did. But you know, you catch that bug and you think, man, I can do this. I naively thought that I had what it takes to go that far, all the way to the major leagues, because I was better than most of my peers. I am not bragging. One of my teammates' father sat in the bleachers and said, "Let him hit you, Mark." because he could not hit at all. And he was a rotund fellow, let us just say, and an easy target.

But you know, I loved it. It was great, but the road to the majors contained a few bumps. My dad's salary was limiting, the pay of a preacher employed by the Worldwide Church of God in the mid-seventies who also had seven children and a mortgage (well, some of the children were gone by then but he at least had a new mortgage), did not go all that far. Playing ball or doing any kind of organized sport can get expensive, and the expenses rise as the player also rises in the various leagues. So that was strike one.

By 15, I am skipping forward about five years, I had five years of organized baseball. I went through the Pee Wee leagues, the Little League, the Pony League, but I found out—I knew—that my reaction times were declining. Here I was, 15 years old, and I was already declining. That was hard on the psyche. My batting average plummeted and the coaches shifted me from shortstop, that is where all the good defensive players ended up, and I went to centerfield. You still have to be a good defensive player to play centerfield, but I was kicked out of the infield. I was having trouble seeing the ball. I could not see the ball come off the bat fast enough or soon enough to react properly at shortstop. And when I was in the batter's box, I could not see the ball coming off the pitcher's hand to have any idea of what it was and where it might be going.

So we found out the answer to these problems. I got glasses. I could not see the thing. It was just this little fuzzy white pill out there and I tried my best to catch the thing as it was whizzing past me. But once I got glasses that solved that problem. But when I pitched, I found out that I was no great stuff. My fastball was average. I was easily hit. I could not survive on the mound with just a good curveball. And I had actually a pretty good curveball and a sporadic knuckleball. That was my change up. So that was strike two.

Then there was the Sabbath. I left that one till last. I always missed at least one game each week. There was usually, on the schedule, one game for either Friday or Saturday. And sometimes there were ones both Friday and Saturday and so I would miss the late game on Friday and the early game on Saturday. And if it was toward the end of the season when the sun went down later, I sometimes could not make that Saturday night game. I always then missed at least that one game a week and not every coach that I had liked accommodating me. They chafed under the constraints of my "crazy" religious beliefs. It not only limited my availability but also my opportunities to improve in real game situations. Ball players need to play, they need to be in the game, but we would not bend on it. That was a hard and fast "no." We will not play from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. And even when the coaches tried to cajole me, reason with me, or even bully me to decide to play a game, I always said no. So strike three, I was out, my major league dreams dashed.

But by that time, it did not crush me to give up on my major league baseball dream. The JRR Tolkien bug had already bitten me. I had started writing and I enjoyed editing too and I could begin to see a path for myself. I was a pretty good student. I made mostly A's, got on the honor roll, so that kind of studious, intellectual, writing, artistic, creative side started to be developed. And what do you know, girls had arrived on Planet Earth! It happened right around that time. And so there were distractions all over the place.

We also, just after that, moved to the Chicago area when I was 16, almost 17. And that changed my whole perspective on life because no longer in, compared to Chicago, sleepy Columbia, this was the big big city. And I was growing up and that was a whole different milieu for the way things go. So my priorities changed drastically and so did my life from that point on. I never again thought that I would ever be a professional ball player. I did not even try out for my high school team. I had other ideas about what I wanted to do.

But my experience is an example of impediments that try to trip up a person who has dreams and goals and aspirations. As I said in my 2016 sermons on resistance, internal obstacles, mostly internal but also external opposition, always pops up to plague any endeavor that a creative person wants to have or wants to pursue. So we have to learn to overcome obstacles to achieve what we want to accomplish.

Have you ever thought, have you ever looked at the lives of people who accomplish great things and noticed that none of them accomplish those things easily? You can say that no one who has ever achieved something noteworthy has ever done it without a struggle. If it comes easy, it was not hard, and therefore it was not noteworthy. That aspiration was not big enough.

This principle holds true in the Christian walk toward the kingdom. And does it ever! None of you have made it to the Kingdom of God. You are still fighting the obstacles, tests, trials, stubborn habits, antagonistic relatives, infuriating neighbors, offensive brethren, intransigent bosses, persistent personality clashes, doctrinal challenges, church splits, misunderstandings, and on and on it goes. There is constant stumbling blocks that try to trip us up, try to get us off the path, try to smash us and make us quit. It seems the universe is against our attaining to the image of Jesus Christ. But we are told, we are commanded, we are given the aspiration by Jesus Christ to overcome those many impediments.

Now, our Savior is very much aware of our predicament, this reality of impediments that keep us from achieving the Kingdom of God, if you will, of coming to perfection. But He does not take it away. He certainly does not ignore it. He does not think it too small to worry about, but He uses it. He uses it to hone us and mold us into the new man, which is in His image. Of course, He has left us with a great many detailed instructions about how to overcome those impediments to our complete sanctification. Remember just a few weeks or a few months ago, He tells us in Matthew 5, that our goal is to become perfect just as the Father in heaven is perfect. And so He is going to use any tool at His disposal to bring us to that, or at least to the point where we are acceptable in His sight.

We have moved through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Now, we are in chapter 6 and we are going to look at Matthew 6, verses 19 through 34, the last half of that chapter where Jesus teaches four principles that, if followed, will significantly reduce those obstacles and ease our path to the Kingdom. It will not completely vault us into the Kingdom, but it will help us tremendously to overcome the obstacles that keep us from achieving more, attaining more, becoming more righteous, becoming more like Christ.

Now, many of you, especially those who are out there who have suffered some of my church visits, have heard my Bible study on how to be a bad disciple. And that covers Luke 9, verses 46 through 62. This well known section in Matthew 6, what I have told you here, versus 19 through 34, is like that section in Luke 9. In Luke 9, a series of vignettes show Christ's disciples (or potential disciples) doing or saying the wrong thing. That is the section where James and John want to call down lightning from heaven because they were not welcomed properly in that town. It is the section of Scripture where the man said, "Let me go bury my father and then I will be Your disciple." That is the tenor of those vignettes there in Luke 9.

So they each start off with something that is wrong, that is bad, that is something that a disciple should not do. And then Jesus corrects them with very pointed instruction, especially that John and James problem with calling lightning down from heaven.

Now, these four short passages in Matthew 6 are similar, where Jesus exposes improper approaches and gives a godly corrective for each one. This is a common teaching method. Many people use it, many teachers use this. They show something bad or negative and they then they turn around and show the good or the positive, or they point out a problem and then as they point out the solution to that problem—well, I have four here corresponding to each one of these little paragraphs and I am going to give you them upfront. These are the problems, the four problems and then I'll take each one of them individually. So at least you could write down perhaps if you take notes that way you can write down the problems and then fill in with the solutions. But the four paragraphs make four points and that and I'll just give you the name of or the title of the paragraph that I put on them rather, or the heading of the paragraph that I put on them rather than the one the new King James has. So the first one is having materialistic priorities, materialistic priorities. The second one is having spiritual double mindedness, spiritual double mindedness. The third is having divided loyalties and the fourth is being faithless So that's materialistic priority. Spiritual double mindedness, divided loyalties and being face, faithless, not faceless. That would be bad. Let's go to Matthew six and look at this first one. Materialistic priorities. Matthew six will read just verses 19 through 21 and these are all well known. I, I'm sure that you've read the Sermon on the Mount a time or two. It's probably stuck in your head verse 19. Do not lay up for yourselves. Treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is there, your heart will be. Also. Now, perhaps you noticed that I called these brief passages or the subject of these brief passages. Approaches in the main, they are typical human mindsets or we could call them attitudes or methods, tactics, ways of thinking even we could use the word mentalities. It's our approach to solving problems or our approach to how we do everything in life. Because this mentality or the approach is a habit. It's something that we always use. It's a way we, we just tend to live. Now, these things um can include actions, but as we know, our behaviors begin deep within us in our hearts and minds as attitudes and desires and motivations and impulses drives, that's where they, these kind of behaviors actually begin. So our conduct, those things that we actually do or say is a result of far deeper internal co causes where our motivations and our approaches to life reside as well. Let's go to mark seven because Jesus made a point of teaching this of highlighting this internal, the de the deep internal causes of things rather than just the outward actions. Mark seven, we read a good chunk here verses 14 through 23 because this is very important, Jesus was making sure that his disciples understood that there was a very stark difference between God's way, the way that Jesus came to teach and the the way of the Jews, the the that they were teaching, he wanted them to know that God's way was far deeper than the way of the PhariseesIf we would go up to the beginning of this chapter, um you know, they were talking about washing cups and pitchers and copper vessels and couches and you know, their own hands and all of these washings were external and Jesus took the opportunity then to teach his disciples a very important lesson. So starting in verse 14 mark seven and when he, when he called the multitude, all the multitude to, to him, he said to them, hear me everyone and understand. So this is obviously very important. There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him. But the things which come out of him. Those are the things that defile a man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he had entered a house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. So he said to them, are you thus without understanding? Also, do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him because it does not enter his heart, but his stomach and is eliminated, thus, purifying all foods or purging all foods. And he said, what comes out of a man that defiles a man? And this is where we are really heading here for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. He's talking about spiritual defilement, things that make us sinful things that make us not like Jesus Christ, things that erase the purity that God wants to see. So what are you saying here in juxtaposition to what the Pharisees had wanted Jesus and his disciples to do is that He demands that we cleanse the inside, not the outside or not just the outside. It is not enough to appear pious, it is not enough to do things that are supposedly righteous, but we must actually be holy on the inside and on the out. We're not leaving. We're not saying that it doesn't matter what you do, that would be gnostic and you could rightly fire me and kick me down the road. But God wants both. God wants purity on the inside in our desires and motivations, drives and all those things as well as all the things that those um inside things, those internal drives make us do or cause both words and deeds. So it works the same for both evil and good here. The evil that men do starts from within, from all of their drives and desires that are on the inside. But the good that men can do also come from inside. Remember that even in humanity, uncalled humanity, there is a mixture of good and evil and the good things that people can do come from that good that is within them. They picked up some good from their parents or from society, from their reading of the Bible or what have you and they demonstrate that in words and deeds. But upon the call of God, his elect, we are called to purge out all the evil that's there and just have good on the inside, all our motivations and drives and attitudes so that we always produce good things. We always say good things. We always practice the Godly things that, that we are told to do. But it all has its source, all the, the Genesis of all that we say and do is inside hearts and minds. OK. So what Jesus does here back in March 6 is he focuses on treasures. The treasures are objects of desire, they are valuable or valued possessions, things that we think have great worth or value, things that we put a high price on. And we desire to possess such things for ourselves. Usually there are material things like lots of cash to flash around, find houses and cars, um beautiful clothing or jewelry. We want to have successful businesses that millions of people useWe want luxury vacations and all that kind of stuff, the things you see in, in the nice travel magazines and, and that sort of thing, they tend to be material things like I said, things we and others. No, we do want others to see, touch and admire and display those things that we have and give us lots of compliments about how successful we are and how good we look in our suit and what a nice home we have. And is not that car sporty? And you know, you get the drift. But Jesus points out here in 19 through 20well, 19 through 20 specifically that these things that we tend to value highly are subject to decay to deterioration. Um such commodities that we like so much and place so much value on will eventually be used up or they get torn down or we need to spend lots of that money that we've been flashing around on refurbishment and replacement our nice clothes go out of style. Perhaps we lose our status. These things tend to decline in value over time. Certain things become passe other things have a limited lifetime. We can waste things, we can destroy things, thieves, of course, could take some of those things or what happens most often these days is that thieves at the bank, take those things. So these things that we tend to put a lot of value on as human beings are not permanent but transitory, they fade away. Now, the obvious corrective to this lustful greedy search for material and temporal possessions is to modify one's search parameters. We know all about that with Google. Now, do not we, we do searches on the internet and we want this and this and we can use certain keywords and what have you to get what we want. Well, if we've been searching Google Life, if you will, for all these jewelry and fine clothing and houses and cars, we need to change the search parameters so that we get a better result, we need to switch directions. The solution is not to quit searching. That's stupid. We have to keep seeking just because we've been seeking the wrong things doesn't mean the pursuit of something is not, is bad. That's, that's not at all true. But we have to change our perspective. We have to change our priorities and invest the same amount of time. You have the same diligence, the same doggedness and energy so that we can search for something better, the spiritual possessions that are eternal. So it requires us to reorient our basis of value. You understand what I mean? The basis of human value tends to be easily put into the shorthand of a dollar sign or some sort of prestige or honor. So we've got to get rid of that idea that we want nice quality, expensive things as our chief priority in life and turn it back on itself 100 and 80 degrees because we need to turn it away from the those material pursuits and start pursuing spiritual ones. And as Jesus indicates in Mark seven, that means transforming our hearts to desire. What God values see, the basis of our value is what we value. We've got to change that so that our basis of value is what God values. Mm Let's go to Second Corinthians four and we will read verses 16 through 18. Paul writes. Therefore, we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing. We are material creatures. We're perishing just like, you know, Jesus showed there things on earth in Matthew six, even though our outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day. You see if we are doing it right. Yes, we are getting older. Yes, we are becoming decrepit. Yes. Our minds tend to wander every once in a while. You know, that's just physical, the way God made us as, as human beings. So that is in a process of regression. Paul is saying all those outward things, yet the inward man, the heart, the mind is being renewed day by day through the power of God's spirit. For our light affliction, which is what he's talking about here. All these terrible things that are happening outside of us, which is, but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. This is what I said earlier. Jesus is using these light afflictions to renew us day by day to move us toward the Kingdom of God, to give us the, the education. We need the knowledge, we need the understanding and all those things so that we will be in his kingdom, kingdom. So he is working with us even as we are slowing down and regressing throughout our lives. That's just the way things work. But he's working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we do not look at the things which are seen. But at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. That's tough for a lot of people not to grasp mentally, but to come to terms with because they have been taught all their lives that the things that they can see or hear or touch or smell or taste, those things that they can, they can have an experience with through their senses is what is, is what is important. They're real to them. Hey, I can touch it. It's there. I can see it. But Paul says a Christian has to not be fooled by that, which is what Jesus is actually saying back there in Matt, in Matthew six, do not be fooled because all those things that you see and hear and touch and smell, they are going to pass away. But the things like love and joy and peace and long suffering and goodness and mercy and faith and all those other things, those are real. Those are the things that pass through the grave. Those are things that never deteriorate, never lose their value. And even though our bodies should die, there is such a thing as a resurrection from the dead and all that love and joy and peace and all that that we employed in our lives and passed around and helped others with still exists. Those are the things that are important. Peter puts it pretty bluntly. He was a blunt man. Let's go to second Peter three versus 10 through 14. Second Peter three, 10 through 14. This puts us in very stark terms, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens notice this, the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in. It will be burned up. That's even more stark than what Jesus said back in Matthew 6 19 and 20. Therefore, he says, ok, now that we know that all material things are going to be burned up, pass away in a fervent heat. Since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and Godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved. Looking forward to these things, be diligent, to be found by Him in peace without spot and blameless. Let's drop down to verse 17. You therefore beloved since you know these things beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to him, be the glory now and forever. Amen. So Peter puts us on the right track here like Paul does back in second Corinthians four, the heavenly things he mentions here that we need to keep our eyes on are the things that we need to seek out things like righteousness and peace and holiness and grace and Godly knowledge and so on and so forth. Those things that Jesus Christ and His apostles have taught us. So this pursuit that Jesus wants us to have, replacing the pursuit of valuable material things is a matter of priorities. What do we believe is most important? What will we be spending our time on if there is ever a question or an option about what we should spend our time and efforts on? The emphasis always, always falls on the spiritual pursuit of godliness and putting on the image of Jesus Christ. Now, this weightiness toward spiritual things toward Godliness must be balanced with such things as supporting one's family and other natural concerns. He's not saying that you go up on top of a mountain and you just pursue spiritual things all the time. You still need to work, you still need to make money, you still need to mow your grass, you know those things they can be done in their own time. But we need to make sure that we are always focused that our approach is always to give God first consideration in everything that we do. So that and we need to make sure that we do not deceive ourselves by maintaining our old focus. But giving them a spiritual twist. People do this all the time. Those guys that preach from the Bible on TV are an excellent example of this. Oh They wanna speak to you about God. They want to heal you. They want this and that. But their real motivation once you pull back the layer, of their very nice new suit that they got for $4000 is that they want to make money. They want the fine houses, they want the cars, they want whatever. So that's how you turn a, a physical pursuit of the wrong things into a spiritual pursuit, deceiving yourself and trying to deceive others. I've seen people do this with being um, charitable, going out to the soup kitchens and doing all these charitable, wonderful things by themselves. They are wonderful. But if their motivation for doing those things is to get all eyes on them and people telling them how pious and wonderful and charitable they are, they are doing it for the wrong reasons and they actually do not do what Jesus says. They're actually going against what Jesus said. They've turned a supposed love for neighbor into a pursuit of prestige if you will. So I'm just saying, make sure that God always comes first. Let's go on to the next section. Matthew six. Get back there quickly. Matthew six versus 22 and 23. This is the one that I've called spiritual double mindedness. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness. How great is that darkness? Now, while Christ's point here initially seems simple, I'd like you to know that these verses give commentators fits because once you combine the English translation with the Greek text and the Hebrew background of the thought, well, multiple interpretations abound. Which one is true? Is it the way the English translators interpret it? Is it a the way that it seems to appear in Greek or is it the way that the Hebrew SAGES taught these, these various concepts? And so a lot of commentators mix and match and, and you know, they do an OK job of, of explaining things, but sometimes they come up with something that's really off the wall when they try to, to mix these things together. For instance, is the eye that Jesus mentions here a lamp or a window that is, does it emit light or does it receive light or both? Does a good eye imply health or does it imply generosity? Which is the way the Hebrews looked at it is a bad eye diseased or is it covetous? Which is the way the Hebrews looked at it? And how can light be darkness? Isn't that a paradox? Now, in the end, these two verses are like the first passage we just went through in the sense of having the proper priorities and having a proper orientation. Like that first passage in verses 19 through 21 Jesus is getting to our approach to life and specifically our approach to truth or reality that's different here that approach to truth is what really makes it different from 19 through 21. Because the first passage, 19 through 21 has to do to has deals with our approach to things. Generally, this one gets specific on the idea of our approach to truth. So he's talking about our spiritual vision, which is pretty obvious when you start talking about the the eye that is, he's talking about our receipt in processing and use of information and specifically moral, ethical and spiritual information, not just information in general, but specifically that information that has to do with our character, our building character. So Jesus says that our I must be good. Literally, it is the Greek word for single, that is, it is unified, it's working properly and it's focused on the light. So spiritually, the eye represents our heart. That's where our understanding is supposed to reside. That's where our um our faculties of, of reason and intellect, knowledge, understanding, making decisions. That's where our motivations lie. It has to be as Jesus says here, it needs all those things need to be focused on the truth based on the truth. That's the way it will be working properly, it'll be good, it will be healthy. But if our eye or our heart, if you want to use that is bad or evil or divided, the result is going to be blurred or blurriness, confusion and eventually we will be left in darkness and that results in a myriad bad things happening in our lives, from disease and destruction and ultimately death and even spiritual death. So, what he's telling us here is that we have to be careful what kind of information we allow in our eyes, in our minds, in our hearts. And Jesus giving the corrective wants us to have a wholehearted laser like focus on the truth, his truth. What he brings if we are getting so called truth from here or there, it doesn't matter where we, we get it. If we get it from any human source, it's going to be a mixture of good and evil. So we need to become very good at spotting the truth and somehow winnowing out the evil, the bad truth, the, the bad information, I shouldn't call it bad truth. But the darkness that he mentions here, if we do not, if we do not develop that skill, then ultimately, our understanding will be darkened at least tainted. We can even go so far as to say that when we get error, things that may look good, but comes from an unreliable source that we later figure out to be, er, if we live with that for a while and begin basing decisions on that error, then we find that what we have been doing is poisoning our minds. Error always poisons. You can't get good things out of darkness. Only light produces good things, truly good things. So if we take in error it will stain our perception of the truth sometimes maybe in very small, almost infinite ways, but it will be there and it will eventually lead us into sin and its wages, which is death. We need to be very, very careful about what kind of information comes into our heads. Peter tells us in, in I Peter two verse two that it is critical that we drink the pure milk of the word. We can't let defilement stain our milk black if you will. Psalm 12 verse six says that the word of God however is purified seven times. It's ultimately pure. And we need to make sure that we are basing all the light that we allow into our hearts on the truth of God. Everything must check against the Bible. Don't believe me, believe your Bible fundamental truth that Mr Armstrong taught us. We need to be careful that we are always judging information on the basis of what God says, not what the preacher said, but what God says, preachers are here to make you or to teach you knowledge, to lead you to understanding, to help you make wise decisions, but we are not perfect. You need to be looking in your, your Bible that purified word and making sure that the preacher is right when he says whatever it is that He's saying that we should do, but do not trust your own understanding. Make sure you go to God and ask him for help in discerning the truth. Let's go to James. I think James was kind of enamored with this point. We'll just call it double mindedness, this idea that we have the truth and error in our minds and it, and um truth and error lead us in different directions. And so we tend to be double minded about things. And let's see what he says here in the first chapter verses five through eight. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man unstable in all his ways. He's talking about a person. He says here, he, he can, he contrasts faith with doubting. He should have full faith in what God teaches what God tells him. But he doubts because he has information in his head that leaves him questioning that information, that darkness that is in Him along with the light is confusing him and making him of two minds. And James here says that person is unstable in everything because he's always mixing error with truth and coming up with confusion because the error is telling him one thing and the truth is telling him something else and he's caught in the middle and it just creates this split mind that can't come up with a proper way forward. And the problem is faith. He doesn't have the faith to trust God and reject the error. And so he remains in doubt. Let's go to another one. James three verse 10 through 12. Out of the same mouth. Proceed. Blessing and cursing my brethren. These things ought not to be. So does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening. Can a fig tree, my brethren bear olives or a grapevine bear figs. Thus, no spring can yield both saltwater and fresh. This is the result of a double minded person because he has two separate truths warring in him. One is the real truth and one is masquerading his truth and he can't make up his mind between them. And so sometimes he blesses and sometimes he curses. This ought not to be so brethren, we should have the faith to kick the bad water out in the illustration here, the bad light in Jesus' illustration and function fully on the good. On the true chapter four verse four. Do you adulterers and adulterous? Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. There are these two poles again, two pools, two poles. Yes, both and we are betwixt and between why do not we have the faith to be fully on God's side? Because we are believing the darkness. Let's go down to verse seven. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts. You double minded. I do not need any more than that. The Apostle gives you your marching orders here, purify your hearts. You double minded, get rid of the darkness, get rid of the doubts. Follow the truth, follow the light. Mhm You know what James is talking about? We have a modern psychological term for it's called cognitive dissonance that is holding two contrary thoughts in your head at the same time. And when this happens, most people suffer mental or emotional stress or discomfort. And there are certain things that one can do. Once you reach this state of cognitive dissonance first, you can do nothing. You can just let this terrible cognitive dissonance remain rattling around in your head. That is you fail to resolve the problem and you'll suffer insanity. A kind of insanity is at least mental instability that affects all his ways. Isn't that what James says? In the first chapter? A double minded man is unstable in all all his ways. OK. What else could you do? You could try to synthesize the two opposite ideas in your head. What happens when we do that is that we come up with a hash of these ideas that is itself untrue and therefore damaging. It's going to probably drive you insane as well when you try to synthesize these things that do not go together. The third thing you could do is you can choose one and reject the other. But this has an A and A B if you choose the wrong idea and reject the truth, that is, you accept the false, it will taint your entire life, you will be building on sand. You're going to have trouble and definitely you're going to have trouble with God. Your whole life is going to be based on, on falsehood, an untruth and it's going to be miserable. That is guaranteed as Jesus says, your light that you have chosen and I'll put that in quotes, your light. Your truth is actually darkness. It's wrong, it's evil and it will destroy. You. Just look at the trans situation. They have a cognitive dissonance, the truth that they are a biological person based upon their natural plumbing. Ok? That's the truth. That's scientifically provable. You could prove this in your own bathroom if you like the evil, the falsehood that they have in their head is that they believe that they are something else. And what many of them have done is choose the darkness, they have chosen the falsehood. And you can read time and time again, example, after example of people's lives being ruined by the darkness that is in them it's not easy to watch people ruin their lives, especially these young kids that do it when they are just, you know, prepubescent. And they, they, you know, they, they get the surgeries and they get all the, the drugs and everything mess, mess up their hormones and they come out the other side and they are 16 or 18 years old and they just regret everything that has happened and they feel like their lives are just ruined. It's pretty awful example, but that's what happens in any situation where we choose the darkness over the light, where we choose something that is evil and sinful over what is good and, and Godly. However, if a person who has this cognitive dissonance, choose, chooses the right idea. If they choose the truth, then it enlightens their whole lives and produce, produce, produces positive and fulfilling truth. Often oftentimes because of the way this world is, we do not see this until late that the life was pretty good. The life turned out well, because at some point, this person chose the truth and decided to believe it. So Jesus is telling us, we must drink in the light only rejecting the darkness immediately or as soon as we become aware that it is darkness, the Kingdom of God will contain no double minded saints. That's a paradox. That's an absolute impossibility. Not in terms of the Kingdom of God, they will all be 100% unified by the truth. OK. Let's go on to the next one. This is the third one, divided loyalties back to Matthew six verse 24 6 24. No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. So no one can be a slave or a bond servant to two masters and claim equal allegiance. Mammon is an Aramaic word for riches. So he's talking about, you know, he's using the illustration again of money, of wealth, of material success. Since Jesus is speaking about a master slave relationship. Mammon stands for anything other than then God, anything other than God that demands our loyalty and service and these things that demand our loyalty and service can be good, things like a job, a family, a hobby, even a charity or a good works project or a mission. As some people do Jesus though says it strongly and clearly here, no one, no one can serve two masters. You cannot notice how positive that is in the negative sense. You cannot serve God and Mammon, it will not work. It is total self deception. To suppose that God will accept our keeping 1 ft in his church and the other in the world. That's ludicrous. It's stupid. It's insane. Spiritually would a nation be ok with one of its soldiers sharing time fighting with the enemy's army do pro sports teams allow players to play for a couple of teams in the league during the season. Well, only if they are traded or, you know, that sort of thing. But you know what I mean? Can scientists and engineers work simultaneously on rival projects? Do employers let their employees work for their competitors too? Jesus says here that no matter what we say or how we justify it, we will never show equal love or loyalty to two different entities. You can't frankly, neither side wants equal devotion with the enemy, neither side wants equal allegiance with themselves and with the enemy. Both want the love and allegiance or devotion and allegiance exclusively. Right? Let's go back to Matthew four one page for me. Here we just pick up verses eight through 10. This is during the final temptation of Christ as Matthew records it again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And Satan said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him away with you, Satan for it is written, you shall worship the Lord, your God and Him only shall you serve pretty strong words. Do you know that this supposed quotation is not found in the Old Testament. It does say things like you shall worship the Lord, your God. But the backside of that and Him only shall you serve is not there. But you know what Jesus said out loud, what the implication was, you and you shall worship the Lord, your God. When God says that we must worship Him, he means that we must worship Him and Him only. He wants to be exclusive. He has an exclusive claim to the worship of his creatures as our creator and the worship or service to any other so called God is a grave sin. I is what the first two commandments are about. Let's go look at that Levi, I mean Exodus 20. Exodus 20 verse two, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. Verse four, you shall not make for yourself any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the Lord, your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers and the children to the 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. Both of these commandments tell us no other gods. That's why He says He's a jealous God. He will not allow worship of any other so called God He wants that worship for himself because all those other gods are not worthy only He is worthy of our worship. So he will not share our devotion or praise or service or worship of any kind with anyone else. So in Matthew 6 20 yeah, Matthew 6 24 Jesus, not only condemns idolatry, but he also denounces any kind of divided loyalty. God wants our full exclusive attention. He wants all our efforts. He wants total allegiance. He will brook no rivals. He owns us wholly through the blood of his son and does not want us to ever sneak off to our old sinful masters ever in any way. He bought you with his precious son's blood. He is not going to share your worship with anyone like OK, let's go on to the next one. Matthew 6 25 through 32. Therefore, I say to you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body. What you'll put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying could add one cubit to his stature. So why do you consider, why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field? How they grow they neither toil nor spin. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all His glory was not a raid like one of these. So if God so close, the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe? You owe you of little faith. Therefore, do not worry saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for? After all these things, the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Now, the two major ideas here are in the words, worry and faith. They're set up as opposing impulses. And Jesus' illustration highlights our natural human needs, security, food, water, health clothing, those sorts of things. Our savior is not denying that we need these things. In fact, he specifically says, the Father knows that you need these things. So he's not discounting them as needs. The creator of all of us knows his creations. He knows what we need to survive and thrive Jesus says in his illustrations, we need only look into the air and see the birds are out on the field. See the lilies there to realize that God provides for dumb birds and for plants. Why wouldn't he not provide for us at the height of His creation? The problem is in our hearts again, we somehow believe we get it into our little feeble minds that he will fail to give us what we need to thrive like. He sees everybody in the whole world but poor little me. He will provide for plants and birds and bees but not us. We're out of sight to him. For some reason, his providence is bounteous and universal, except for us. He has his eyes running all over creation, but they somehow miss us. What this ends up being is nothing more than a pathetic pity party, exposing our selfish concern and our dreadful lack of faith, faith that God will provide for us. But look, look what the apostles, the apostle Paul tells us, let's go to Philippians four, Philippians four versus 10 through 13. But I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last year, care for me has flourished again though, you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. They had given him something to help him while he was in prison. Not that I speak in regard to need for. I have learned in whatever state I am to be content and I know how to be a beast and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me down to verse 18. Indeed, I have all and abound. I am full. Having received from a aphroditus, the things which were sent from you a sweet smelling aroma and acceptable sacrifice. Well, pleasing to God and notice his conclusion here and my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's look at Ephesians three starting in verse 14. For this reason, I bow my niece to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you. He would give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit, in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints. What is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Isn't this enough now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout eight, all ages world without end, amen. This is the proper perspective of a Christian, whatever conditions we happen to be in, we are content because we know God supplies all our needs. He enables us to do whatever He wants us to do. In fact, especially spiritually, God supplies us far beyond our needs. Exceedingly abundantly above all our little requests and dreams. He has the power to fulfill them all. So we need to stop thinking or imagining that God has somehow short changed us or that we have to scrounge in the dirt every waking hour to make our ends meet. He knows what we need, quit worrying. He is the great provider. If we have these kinds of anxieties, I'm sorry to say it, but it is a major clue that our priorities are skewed, that we are more concerned with physical things than spiritual ones. We need to get our focus off ourselves and back onto Christ and the Kingdom of God.

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