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Back to Basics
As we enter the period of Lent it is appropriate that we remind
ourselves, of why the momentous events which are going to unfold
before us, were necessary.
So we go back to the basics, God created the world and God created
man in His likeness. And the Bible says "Then God looked over all he
had made, and he saw that it was very good! And evening passed and
morning came, marking the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31 NLT)
It was very good, can you imagine that? We sometimes sing, 'I can
only imagine, what it will be like when I walk by your side' and of
course that's true, we can only imagine what it will be like. But
can you imagine what it must have been like to walk in the garden
with God. Can you imagine being in a place and time where there was
no pollution, no hate, no violence, no greed, no selfishness, no
offence, no suffering, no pain, no misery, no worry, no bills to
pay, no needs, no hunger, no thirst, no need to worry about what to
wear, and more important possibly than any of theses things, and
because of their absence, no condemnation.
But, of course, we know the story man sinned, and lost it all, and
pain and suffering came into the world, and hunger and thirst came
into the world, and greed and misery and hate and offence and worry
and condemnation.
Paul writes 'When Adam sinned, sin entered the world' (Romans 5:12),
and Paul goes on to tell us the result of that, 'Adam's sin brought
death' (Romans 5:12). I'm sure there will have been many people down
the years who have attempted to minimise Adam's sin. After all in
the context of life, in the context of art, it's such a small
things, a piece of fruit from a particular tree, wow. But anyone who
does that, anyone who attempts to minimise the sin, does not
understand, or want to understand what sin is. Adam's sin had
nothing to do with a piece of fruit; it had everything to do with
trust and obedience.
God trusted Adam with His creation, God trusted Adam, in a sense,
with everything He had made, He let man into His house, gave man the
key and said look after it, and O by the way, there's only one thing
I am asking you not to do, don't touch that tree. Just think of the
context and the proportion. Within a boundless universe, in a
beautiful world, freshly made, sparkling in the sunlight, one tree
was out of bounds. And man and whether it was Adam or Eve who first
sinned the result is the same, man, generic, created, loved and
entrusted, proved he could not be trusted, he repaid trust with
betrayal and love with disdain.
And because all sin has consequences, that sin, that first, almost
insignificant sin, had the consequences which Paul tells us about,
'so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people
sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin
because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone
died--from the time of Adam to the time of Moses--even those who did
not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.'(Romans
5:12-14)
And I can almost sense the feeling of 'it's not fair Lord' why
should we all suffer for the sin of Adam? And the only answer is the
fact that a righteous God can not abide sin, that God and sin can
not inhabit the same place, so that it was necessary for God to
distance Himself from man, until such time as the price for that sin
could be fully paid.
God didn't build up the wall of separation between Himself and man,
God didn't dig a gulf between Himself and man, man did. And I think
it is important that we realise and recognise what constituted sin.
Man's sin was nothing more or less than a betrayal of the trust
which God had placed in him.
And that betrayal carries on today, in all of our lives. I am going
to ask you this morning to examine yourselves, examine your thought
this past week, examine your actions this past week, how many of
those thoughts and actions have been a betrayal of God's trust in
us.
Sin has nothing to do with the law, and everything to do with trust.
Let's look again at what Paul wrote, 'Yes, people sinned even before
the law was given.'(Romans 5:13) Sin is an attitude, a state of mind
that says, I am more important than anyone else, and that includes
God. An attitude which has become embedded in the very fabric of our
nature to the point that we do not even recognise it is there.
Sin is ignoring not just the needs, but the legitimate aspirations
of others, in preference to our wants. Sin is betraying the thoughts
and expectations of others in deference to our wants. And if we
really examine ourselves if we really allow God to come in and look
in our hearts this morning, I am sure we will see things in us that
need to change drastically, dramatically, before we are able to
claim to be followers of Jesus
This morning we've read the passage in Matthews's gospel about the
temptation of Jesus. Something which strikes me every time I read
this passage is the apparent insignificance of the temptations. If
you think about it, none of the temptations would actually
contravene the letter of any of the commandment. And this apparent
insignificance, and insidiousness, goes to show that the serpent,
Satan, has not lost any of his cunning.
The first temptation is such a human one, such a natural one, it
goes to one of our basic needs, food. I am sure many of you who have
at one time or other fasted can identify with the need. It is fair
to say that the practice of fasting goes beyond the physical to the
psychological. It isn't just the body which craves food; it is the
mind which craves for food. I remember that for many years I never
felt hunger, I could go a whole day without food, and if Sheila
didn't put some in front of me, I would not notice. I almost never
had lunch, and would quite happily skip breakfast and any other
meal. But, the day I chose to fast, I was hungry from the moment I
woke up to the moment I went to bed. The mind always wants what it
can not have.
And here is Jesus, the Bible says 'For forty days and forty nights
he fasted and became very hungry.'(Matthew 4:2) Let's not forget
that Jesus was fully human, so yes I can see how, after forty days
he would be hungry, and what Satan is really saying is, go on, treat
yourself, no one's going to know, you've got the power why not use
it. I don't want a show of hands, but I am sure that everyone here
who has ever fasted, has had that thought come into their mind at
some time or other, go on, have a nibble of something, no one's
going to know, and of course no one will, except you and God. And at
the root of the thought, at the root of the temptation, is a
betrayal, a going back on a proposed course of action, because
anyone who is fasting is doing so as a sacrifice to God, and any
cheating is nothing less than a betrayal of that sacrifice. And
Jesus turns to scripture and puts Satan in his place, and notice
that even as He answers, He highlights His humanity. 'People do not
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of
God' (Matthew 4:4), people, or as other translations put it man.
And as we look at our lives this temptation takes on so many forms,
except in the fasting context food is rarely the temptation. But
there are so many temptations to feed our eyes, with the wrong kind
of images. There are so many temptations to feed our ears by
listening to gossip and slander. There are so many temptations to
feed our minds with impure thoughts and the wrong kind of thinking.
And because Satan, the serpent, is so shrewd, we often don't notice,
until we are hooked, and if anyone has seen a fish trying to wriggle
out of a hook, you'll know how difficult that is, and Satan's hooks
have more barbs than any hook which man can invent. And our only
defence is testing everything by the word of God.
And so Satan tried another tack, well ok, if you really want to be
hungry, be hungry, but here, let me give you a chance to prove
yourself, I mean what do you have to lose, if you really are who you
say you are, well the angels will protect you, and then you'll
really know and have the confidence to go through with it, and if
you're not well, at least you won't make a fool of yourself, you'll
be dead. It's a temptation which strikes at the heart of the
insecurity which is inside each one of us.
At different times of our lives we all go through what John of the
Cross called, the dark night of the soul. Those moments of anguish
and doubt, when things don't make sense, when life itself seems
pointless, when we begin to doubt that there even is a God, let
alone that He loves us, and Satan will creep up to us and say, come
on throw yourself off the parapet, if there is a God, He'll send His
angels, and if there isn't well at least you won't carry on deluding
yourself. And the temptation comes in so many different kinds of
wrappings; we can see so many people throwing themselves off the
parapet. Some will throw themselves into drugs, into tobacco, into
alcohol, into the occult. And again our only defence is testing
everything against the word of God, but we will only even want to do
this if we have an assurance of salvation to begin with.
Which is why John Wesley thought this was so important. And for
those of you who may not know, or may have forgotten, let me remind
you of John Wesley's basic points. The first one is the one which
Paul highlighted; all men have sinned and need salvation. No
argument there. Paul wrote 'all "For everyone has sinned; we all
fall short of God's glorious standard." (Romans 3:23 NLT)
The second one is all men can be saved, again the Bible speaks to
this, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have
eternal life." (John 3:16 NLT).
The third of Wesley's points was that 'all men can know they are
saved,' because Wesley knew that, as we try and live a life for God,
there will be many times when that assurance will be the only thing
that sustains us, and keeps us coming back to the source of our
salvation. Again we turn to Paul who wrote, "For his Spirit joins
with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children." (Ro 8:16 NLT),
we can know we are saved, because His Spirit tells us, and once we
know that we don't need to prove anything, to ourselves or to Satan.
That's not to say we can just live life as we want, it is to say we
have no need, or right to be insecure in our relationship with God.
The forth of Wesley's points was that all men can be saved to the
uttermost, his doctrine of Christian perfection, which we are not
going to go into here.
And so we come to the third temptation, ok so you want to be hungry,
suit yourself and you're sure of yourself, fantastic. But if that is
the case, why are you wasting your time following this God who only
wants you to serve Him, I mean how close minded can you get. There
are so many better ways of doing things. Just think how much more
good you could do with your gifts and talents if you used them to
help people. How much better you could do if you just went with the
flow, got accepted by the world and was able to work in it. There's
no limit to what you can accomplish, all for the good of course, but
on your terms.
Such a reasonable thought, after all everything goes so slowly, I
want to see people save today, I want to see the church full today,
and maybe all it will take is a bit of tweaking here and there.
Maybe if we just stopped saying that Jesus is The way and The truth
and The life, and went with Him being a way, we wouldn't put some
people off. Maybe if we didn't stand on our moral principals and
didn't frown on smoking and alcohol abuse and taking drugs. After
all if we agreed that people could separate and divorce and live as
they wanted to, we would get more people in church. Let's face it,
if we trusted in man and money, we would probably be more
successful, if we run a church club, we'd get more members. If we
concentrated on the physical, more group activities, forget prayer
and house groups and meeting on Sunday. Let's just have club meeting
during the week when we watch films, play games, O and eat of
course, and then Sundays we can stay in bed and relax, after all
it's meant to be a day of rest isn't it? And Jesus said "For the
Scriptures say, 'You must worship the LORD your God and serve only
him."(Matthew 4:10)
Sin is a constant in our lives, it has crept into our nature and is
now part of our makeup, and it is insidious in the way it will creep
into our very thoughts and our very being. And we need to be
constantly on the lookout, because temptations will come in all
shapes and sizes, and in all manner of disguises. And these
temptations creep into our minds, every day of our lives, because we
have needs and desires and those needs and desires supersede the
rights and needs and desires of others. If we need something, and we
can take it, and no one will know, and it won't even hurt the person
we are taking it from, because they will never know, and let's face
it, it won't affect them, they've got so much already. It's a
temptation which goes to the root of piracy, in any of its forms or
manifestation, and I can almost hear people think, what is he on
about? Why is he talking about pirates? Because pirates, take what
does not belong to them, because piracy today is found in software,
in videos, in music, in anything that we take and use, which does
not belong to us because we have not paid for. And because sin is
sin, every time any of us do this, and I include myself in this, we
are stealing and have a place on that cross. We are in a sense,
turning stones into bread, because we want the bread, and have the
power to do so.
And every time we fall the enemy can and does use it to remind us
that we don't deserve God's love, that maybe we should test it
somehow. And of course we don't, we can never deserve it, but we
always need to keep ourselves aware that we have it, it is a gift of
God's grace, and one we need to keep constantly reminding ourselves
of. But a gift that does not in any sense give us the liberty, or
the freedom to do what we want, to assume power and authority over
our lives which are not ours to assume. Jesus has paid the ransom
for our lives and they belong to Him.
Jesus could see through the tricks of Satan, often we don't, and we
fall into every trap he sets. The only way we can see through
Satan's tricks and lies is by allowing the Spirit of God to guide
our lives
and our actions, as Jesus did. By making a deliberate and concerted
effort to refute Satan and all his works. By making a deliberate and
concerted effort to life lives worthy of our calling. By reminding
ourselves constantly that it is this sin that is in us, this sin
that constantly trips us up, this sin which so insidiously works its
way into our lives, which took Jesus took that cross and drove those
nails into his hands.
I hope and pray that today, that knowledge and that reminder drive
us to new efforts to avoid sin and to live for Him.
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