For the past few weeks, we’ve been considering, in a broad sense, the topic of seeking God. What it means to pursue God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Why we should desire to do so, why it’s beneficial and even essential that we continue striving for God throughout our lives – searching, and struggling, and sacrificing, in order to experience Him to the fullest extent possible. And that’s my goal in this series; that you would not only understand these things, but be stirred up to act on them. That as a result of hearing and considering these sermons, you would be inspired to passionately, and energetically, and joyfully go hard after God, with tireless perseverance and unyielding determination, as if knowing Him were the most valuable, and priceless, and desirable thing in all the universe. As if nothing in this life could compare to the incredible riches of knowing God through his Son, Jesus Christ. My goal is that you and I would live our lives from this day forward as if we really believed that; as if he truly were our greatest treasure and hope.
Because, of course, all those things are true. My desire isn’t to persuade you of something false, or to build a fantasy world. On the contrary, my desire is to expose the falsehood that the things of this world are what matter most; to awaken you from the fantasy that those things can make you happy, or satisfied, or fulfilled. My goal is that we might all live according to the glorious reality, this marvelous truth – that knowing God is far superior to anything else life can offer. Listen to what the Scriptures say on this important subject:
". . . wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her."
– Proverbs 8:11, NIV
Now, you might look at this verse and conclude that it’s not really talking about knowing God per se, but rather that about the benefits of knowing God – such as acquiring wisdom and understanding. But if you read all of Proverbs chapter eight, you see that "wisdom" here is not just an abstract idea, but a Person. It’s talking about Jesus Christ, who is the wisdom of God personified. Proverbs eight speaks of this Wisdom as being eternal, as being the "craftsman" at God’s side when he formed the earth. It promises that "whoever finds me finds life" (Proverbs 8:35, NIV). Paul confirms this in First Corinthians when he writes that,
". . . Christ is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24, NLT).
In other words, what we’re being told in Proverbs eight is that Christ is more precious than rubies, that nothing we desire can compare with knowing Him.
David expresses this same idea in many of the Psalms; for instance, in Psalm 73:
"Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." – Psalm 73:25-26, NIV
Here, David is saying, "Lord, whether in heaven or on earth, there is nothing I possess whose value compares to you, and there is nothing I desire except you. Everything else will pass away; my body will grow old and feeble, and eventually my life will come to an end; but you will be my portion forever." This word, "portion" is significant. In the Hebrew, it refers to the division of property, or to the division of land, such as was done when the people of Israel first came into Canaan. At that time, each of the twelve tribes was given an allocation of property, which was then further divided by clans and families. The sole exception to this division of property was the tribe of Levi. Since they were the ones responsible for serving at the temple, they received their living from the offerings and sacrifices brought to the temple. And so, while they were assigned cities to live in and build their homes, and were allowed to graze their livestock, they did not receive ownership of any other land. For every other tribe, the foundation for prosperity and financial security was property, which could be used to grow crops or plant vineyards. In fact, the land was so precious that according to God’s command, it couldn’t be sold; it could only be leased, and it reverted back to the original owner in the year of Jubilee. However, the "portion" given to the Levites was not a plot of ground, but God Himself.
"But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance; the LORD God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them." – Joshua 13:33, ESV
And so what David is saying when he refers to God as his "portion," is that he regards himself as if having no ownership or interest in any possession, not even the most fundamental possession of land. Like the Levites, the only thing of value to him is knowing God. Let me ask you, is that your attitude as well? Or do the things of this world have too strong a hold on your heart? Listen to this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." – Matthew 13:43-36, ESV
That’s what our attitude should be toward God. Rejoicing in the great treasure we have found in Christ! Willing to give everything we have to follow Him! Holding back nothing that might help us to seek Him more earnestly. Viewing nothing that we possess, not even our lives, as having any value compared to the incredible riches of knowing God. As Paul says in Acts twenty:
"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus . . . " – Acts 20:24, ESV
And again, in Philippians chapter three:
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." – Philippians 3:7-8, NIV
In comparison to knowing Christ, the value of anything else in this world, and even our own lives, is negligible. It’s as if nothing else had any value at all; in fact, it’s as if everything else was a net loss, when compared to the infinite worth of Jesus Christ. And the question for us this morning is: Do we believe that? Do we live as if that were true? Do our choices, and our habits, and our relationships, and our use of time and money – do those indicate that we share this view of the "surpassing greatness" of knowing Christ? Because if we do have this attitude, it will express itself in seeking after God; doing everything we can think of, everything we’re capable of, to draw closer to Him.
One of the key ways we do this, and what I’d like to focus on this morning, is by actively striving after personal holiness; seeking to purge moral impurity from our lives; laboring to cleanse our hearts, and our minds, and our conduct. Because God is holy and righteous, and so any movement toward Him requires a movement away from sin. It’s not instantaneous; rather, it’s a process of growth that lasts a lifetime. But it is necessary. You cannot grow closer to God without at the same time growing farther from the practice of sin. In the Beatitudes, Jesus says,
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." – Matthew 5:8, NIV
And the author of Hebrews exhorts us to:
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." – Hebrews 12:14, NIV
What does this tell us? First of all, that personal holiness; a life of warring against sin in thought, and attitude, and action, is absolutely essential. No, it’s not what saves us – we are declared righteous in Christ on the basis of faith alone. His moral perfection, and his perfect obedience to the will of God, are credited to our account through faith. But although it’s faith alone that saves, the faith that saves is not alone. Although a changed life is not a requirement for obtaining salvation, it is an inevitable consequence of salvation. Genuine faith, saving faith, produces a zeal for holiness and a hatred for sin. As Jesus said, again in the Beatitudes,
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." – Matthew 5:6, NASB
Seeking after God, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness, are two sides of the same coin.
Hebrews 12:14 also tells us that holiness requires intentional effort. "Make every effort," it says "to be holy." It doesn’t happen automatically; it doesn’t become infused into us by some process of spiritual osmosis. We have to work at it. In fact, the Bible portrays it as more than just working; more than just laboring. It’s warfare. And that means it’s not always a calm, peaceful, genteel activity. From an emotional and spiritual point of view, it can be dirty, and unpleasant, and painful, and even violent. When God begins to reveal the depths of sin in your heart; when he begins to open your eyes to the corruption, and the evil, and the vile, putrid, stinking reservoirs of sin in your soul, it is anything but pretty. Seeking God is not for cowards. It is not for the faint of heart. It is not for those who prefer a pleasant fiction to the unpleasant truth about themselves. It is only for those who are willing to let God expose the ugliness inside of them, so that he can do the necessary work of healing and cleansing and purification, by the power of his Holy Spirit. And he will do that, if we let Him; if we acknowledge our sin, and confess it, and repent of it. As John assures us,
"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:8-9, NIV
That’s a promise. Not only will God "forgive us our sins," but he will also "purify us from all unrighteousness". Because that’s what Jesus came to do. Not only to save us from the penalty of sin, that we might be spared judgment and condemnation, but also to save us from the power and presence of sin in our lives. It’s all one piece. They can’t be separated. As Paul writes in his letter to Titus,
"He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right." - Titus 2:14, NLT
Going back to the point I was making, when we undertake to seek God by striving for personal holiness, we should be prepared for a battle. A war. An armed conflict. This is not a walk in the park. Holiness is serious business. As Paul writes in Galatians:
". . . walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." – Galatians 5:16-17, NASB
When we come to faith in Christ, sin’s power over us is broken; however, it still remains a part of us. It is in constant conflict with the Holy Spirit, who has now come to indwell us. But not only do we have this internal struggle with sin; we also have a mortal enemy, Satan, who hates the people of God, and who will do everything in his power to keep us under sin’s influence. He will employ every kind of temptation, deception, attack, diversion, falsehood, or threat that God permits him to use, in order to hinder your progress in holiness, and if possible, undermine or weaken your faith. He knows your vulnerabilities and will attempt to exploit them. He is cunning and malicious, a wicked deceiver, and liar, and murderer. As Peter warns us,
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith . . . And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." – 1 Peter 5:8-10, NIV
Peter knew what he was talking about. Years before, Jesus gave him this warning, and this promise:
"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail." – Luke 22:31, 32a NIV
Satan is our enemy. But he cannot tempt us, or test us, without asking God for permission. And we have Christ’s assurance that he will not allow our faith to fail. He will strengthen us. But the battle may be fierce. This is not a game; there is genuine peril here. We may not be in danger of losing our salvation, but we can bring harm to ourselves and to others, we can grieve the Holy Spirit, and we can dishonor the name of Christ, if we fail to remain "alert". And so we need to be prepared. We need to be ready – to defend ourselves, to repel Satan’s attacks, to avoid his traps, to expose his lies, and to resist his enticements. I don’t say these things to discourage you, or dissuade you from seeking God. Just the opposite. I want you to know in advance what you’re getting into, so that when you encounter difficulty, you won’t be taken by surprise. I want you to understand that the struggle against sin is not something to be taken lightly, but rather something which requires our utmost watchfulness and diligence.
All right. Having said all that, how do we go about it? I will give a few suggestions now, and then address application more fully next week. First, study to know the will of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and especially the New Testament. What it is that God commands, or prohibits. What things we are urged to do, or warned against. What God loves and approves of, or hates and despises. What pleases, or displeases him. Examine the gospels for a living example of the kind of life we are to emulate, in Jesus Christ. Meditate on his teachings to gain wisdom and understanding. In short, read the Bible. That is absolutely basic. You can’t avoid sin if you don’t know what sin is. You can’t strive after holiness if you don’t know what it looks like. And if there is anything we can be sure of, it is that our judgement in these matters will invariably lead us astray, unless it is continually being informed and corrected by the Word of God. As David prayed,
"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long" – Psalm 25:4-5, NIV
We need to be shown; we need to be taught; we need to be guided. We do not know intuitively what God requires of us. We do not have an infallible, inherent sense of right and wrong. We need the word of God, and the Spirit of God, to instruct us. We have to read. And our understanding must be guided by the Holy Spirit. We need to pray for his assistance, as David does here.
"I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees. . . Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law."
– Psalm 119:10-12, 18
Unless we are immersing ourselves in the Scriptures, our ideas of right and wrong will be shaped by the culture we live in, by our own biases and personal experiences, by our pet sins and personal prejudices, and by dozens of factors other than God. Our thinking will become conformed to the world, rather than to the truth of God. As Paul writes in Romans:
". . . do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." – Romans 12:2, NKJV
Our mind is transformed by exposure to the Scriptures. And so we must read the Bible regularly, thoughtfully, and carefully. The alternative is to remain in a state of willful ignorance. And that is very dangerous, because it makes us vulnerable to Satan’s lies and deceptions. It makes it easy for him to confuse us, and mislead us, and conceal the truth from us. That’s why the Word is called the "sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17). It’s a very effective defensive weapon. Satan found that out when he tried to tempt Christ to sin during his forty days in the wilderness. It protected Christ then, and it can protect us now.
And so the first thing we need to know when striving against sin is the Scriptures. The second thing we need to know is ourselves. But that also involves the Bible. As James instructs us,
". . . get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does." – James 1:21-25, NIV
In order to root out sin in our lives, we need to examine ourselves. We need to examine our thoughts, our heart attitudes, our speech and our conduct, and compare them with the standard set forth in the New Testament. Then, we can repent, that is, turn away from the evil we see in ourselves, and move toward the good that is commanded. By doing that, as James says, we will "get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent."
I’d like to note just a couple of things from this passage. First, we are to look "intently" into the Scriptures. That implies a dedicated course of reading and study, not just an occasional five-minute perusal sandwiched between David Letterman and bedtime. Second, we are to "continue" to do this. In other words, reading and studying the Bible is something we are to be doing all our lives. We never reach a point when we have learned enough to just coast. I need to be in the word just as much as any of you; not just for sermon preparation, but for my own spiritual health and growth.
But here again, study in itself is not sufficient. In order to know ourselves; in order to see our own sin, we need the Holy Spirit. We need to pray that God will open our eyes to what needs to change. As David prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." – Psalm 139:23-24, NLT
We all need to pray that prayer. Because the nature of sin is that it deceives us. We are blind to our own faults. We overlook and excuse our own sins. We make allowances for them, and minimize them, and call them by other names. As Jeremiah wrote, "The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" – Jeremiah 17:9, NLT
Likewise, the author of Hebrews warns us against being "deceived by sin" (Hebrews 3:13, NLT), and Paul, in Ephesians, warns us against "deceitful desires" (Ephesians 4:22, NIV). When it comes to our own sin, we are easily deceived, easily convinced that all is well, when in fact we are harboring some ungodly attitude, or continuing in some ungodly conduct. It is all too easy to assure ourselves that we are walking in perfect fellowship with God, when in fact, we are walking in pride, or self-righteousness, or anger, or bitterness, or selfishness, or deceit, or fear, or some other kind of impurity. And if nothing changes, we will eventually become so hardened and confirmed in our sin that repentance is almost impossible. So we need to look into the Scriptures, intently and often, using them as a mirror to reflect who we really are. And we need to pray earnestly that the Holy Spirit would give us eyes to see ourselves, and reveal to us our sin, so that we might confess it and turn away from it, by his grace and power.
In closing, let me urge you not to shrink back from the hard work of rooting out sin and striving for holiness. But let us heed this appeal from the prophet Hosea:
"Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in the early spring." – Hosea 6:3, NLT
Will you "press on" to know the Lord? Will you seek him? The Scriptures promise that if you seek him with all your heart, you will find him (Deuteronomy 4:29, NIV). Won’t you decide to do that today? Won’t you decide to put away your sin, and to seek God and seek holiness with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
