No Escape from Tension/Conflict #1

Introduction: The New Testament's Emphasis on Christian Living

0:04 This was delivered on Sunday morning, October 11, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 Now before we seek the face of God again in prayer, I want to read three texts from the Word of God, each of them from a different section of the Scriptures. The first from the Book of Acts, in which we have a record of what it was that Paul and his companions made as one of their major strands of emphasis in seeking to guide the thinking and shape the theology of the Christian life of the early disciples. The text is found in Acts chapter 14, Acts chapter 14, and verse 22.

1:04 Speaking of their ministry in the various cities, Luke says, This is because, Confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations, the kingdom of God. And then in the epistle to the Galatians, in which Paul has been defending with white-hearted fury and zeal the doctrine of justification by faith alone, through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. He also underscores the implications of such a view of how we are accepted with God as it will bring its light to bear upon living the Christian life. And we read in chapter 5 and verses 16 and 17 of Galatians, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh lusteth against the Spirit. And the Spirit against the flesh.

2:22 For these are contrary the one to the other, that ye may not do the things that ye would. And then in the epistle to the Hebrews, here in this masterful epistle setting forth the better things of the new and better covenant administered by a better. We read in the practical section of exhortation to suffering saints. Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 3 and 4.

2:55 Hebrews 12, verses 3 and 4. For consider him that endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, thriving against sin. Now let us pray.

3:23 Let us ask God's blessing upon our study. The word of God this morning. Let us unite our hearts before him. Father, we thank you for the privilege we have had of confessing that by your grace, our Lord Jesus Christ has indeed become to us our chief.

3:47 And that fulfilled in many of our hearts is his own parable, that the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man seeking goodly pearls, who when he found one of great price, all that he had, that he might obtain it. And we do count our Lord Jesus a great treasure. And with the apostle we say that for him we have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but refuse that we might gain him and be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own, which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by faith in the Lord Jesus. And we pray this morning that your spirit would so instruct us that our appreciation of the Lord Jesus and of his ways with us, his people, may be further enlightened in the depths of our understanding and that you would grant us grace to embrace his ways as our ways and that we would have no desire to invent our own ways of pleasing him. Instruct us, O Lord, out of your word we plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

5:10 I'd like to begin our study in the word of God this morning by asking you a very simple question.

5:26 And the question is this. In terms of the sheer volume or the total number, does the New Testament have more to say about how to be saved, how to live, once one is saved? Now, I think the question is rather simple and straightforward. In terms of your present understanding of the New Testament, beginning with Matthew and ending with the book of the Revelation, in terms of the total number of verses, does the New Testament have more to say about how to be saved, how to live, once one, is saved? If you are thinking upon that question, and I trust you are, and perhaps even answering it in your own mind, as I trust you are also doing, I want to state the indisputable answer to that question is that the New Testament has far more to say concerning how to live once one is saved

6:52 than it does concerning the question, how is one to be saved? And the reason for this disproportionate amount of material deposited by the Spirit of God in the New Testament should be quite clear to all of us. The answer to the question, how may I be saved, is a relatively simple and uncomplicated answer. The Bible says that we must, repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

7:32 The same Bible, and in particular the New Testament, gives us sufficient materials so that we know why we need to repent, what it is to repent, and who it is that is the object of that faith. Even the Lord Jesus Christ, in the perfection of His work, and in the glory of His exalted glory, is the exalted person. Furthermore, it gives us sufficient verses and data by which we may evaluate whether our repentance is true repentance, and whether our faith is indeed saving faith. So the Bible is not spartan with its materials to answer the question, how may I be saved, and how may I know that I am truly saved? Because the answer to those questions is a relatively simple and uncomplicated answer, the data in the New Testament is relatively limited. But when we ask the question, now that I am saved, how am I so to live as to glorify the God who has saved me? The answer to that question is not simple and uncomplicated.

8:58 The answer to that question is complex. It is multi-faceted. It is multi-dimensional. And therefore, when we open up the New Testament, we find there is far more given to us from God to teach us how to live, now that we are saved, than there is raw data to tell us how we may be.

9:30 If that is true, and I believe any careful study of the New Testament or even a cursory reading of its contents will affirm that it is, then it should not surprise us that where there is tremendous confusion as to the question, how am I saved, there is even greater confusion with respect to the question, how am I to live now that I am saved?

10:04 There are many evangelical Christians who will basically agree as to the Bible's answer to that first question, and they will agree from the heart that to be saved one must turn from his sin and trust only in the Lord Jesus Christ as He has offered in the Gospel. But when you ask that same group of people, having repented and believed on the Lord Jesus, how are you now to live so as to please Him? Then it is astounding as well as appalling to see both the diversity and the confusion of the answers that are forthcoming. The devil in a sense has far more material to confuse in that second area than he does in the first, and he is not at all reluctant to spawn such confusion. Now it is because of this sad reality that we are committed in this congregation and have been in our 25 years of life together to setting forth by the grace of God a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning not only conversion but the Christian life

11:31 as well as the mission of the church. And that statement is the ninth affirmation of our present series of studies entitled A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church in which we are seeking to highlight those aspects of biblical truth that have formed the very bloodstream of our life together through this quarter of a century. Having spent a number of months on the doctrine of conversion, we have entered now for the past few weeks upon a study of what constitutes a balanced New Testament perspective with reference to our teaching and expectations concerning the Christian life. And last Lord's Day we took up the first of several principles that will follow the basic outline that is found in the little booklet that I have been privileged to author, The Living the Christian Life. I mention it only as a pastoral help to those of you who want to have a more permanent embodiment of these things. And we considered the first of those principles under this script that there is no single master key to living the Christian life with success.

Principle Explained: No Escape from Tension and Conflict

12:57 Now this morning we take up the second of these major principles which I trust when we are through with the six or seven of them will constitute the heart and the soul of a balanced New Testament perspective on the doctrine of the Christian life. And the second principle is this. There is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. There is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life.

13:40 The outline we will follow in opening up this matter is first of all to give you the principle explained, secondly, the principle established from the word of God, and then God willing tonight, the principle applied with practical warnings and helpful encouragements. First of all then, the principle explained as to its meaning. When I assert that there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life, what am I attempting to say? Let's look at the key words.

14:22 Let's take the word tension. If we think of tension with reference to physical realities, it is the result of forces pulling the same object in opposite directions. Before me, and now on my left finger, the elastic band from the office of Trinity Baptist Church complements of the tape ministry. It is presently hanging on my finger in a state of relaxation.

14:55 It doesn't need any buffering. It doesn't need any Tylenol. There is no tension headache in the elastic. It is perfectly relaxed on my finger.

15:07 If I slip the same finger in the right hand to the other end and I pull it, it won't snap. It is perfectly experimented. It is now under tension. And that which brought it from its state of relaxation to the state of tension was when I began to exert pressure from both directions upon the same object.

15:33 Opposite directions pulling upon the same object. And when I say there is no escape from tension in the Christian life, I have in mind that physical imagery and reality of tension, but also the sense in which we use tension in human relationships. It is a state of strained relationships. A state in which there are present in the relationship between two or more people levels of hostility.

16:13 When you speak of tension in a marriage, you have one marriage partner pulling this way on a given issue and another marriage partner pulling this way. One feeling strongly about an issue in this direction and the other equally strong in the opposite direction. And what I am asserting is that any doctrine of the Christian life that is biblical will be one in which we are convinced there is no escape from this reality of tension. Now what about the word conflict?

16:48 Well, conflict is to be in a state of antagonism. It is the clashing of opposing and hostile forces. And the most vivid illustration of course is the conflict that occurs in a war. When parties from different countries or assigned roles in different causes are out to kill to capture, to totally immobilize one another.

17:18 Or we can think of conflict on the athletic field. And for those of you who have any interest in football, you know something of what the conflict is in what they call in the trenches of the interior line play. When those big fellows that are in the center of the line, when your nose guard and the guards and the tackles, the offensive and defensive linemen kick their 280 to 300 pounds of bone and muscle and sometimes a good bit of blubber against one another in the trenches there is tremendous conflict. One seeking to push one backward.

17:59 The other seeking to push him backward in order that they might control what is called the line of scrimmage. Now I'm using these words deliberately and I'm bringing the connotation of warfare and of these illustrations of tension deliberately for when I say there is no escape, escape is to get out of or to break loose from an enforced or unwanted place, state or condition. If you happen to go out after a good meal today to take a walk, to clear your mind and to burn up a few calories and to meditate, on this morning's message, you would not say to your neighbor whom you met on the street, oh do you know I just escaped from my home. No, you'd say I just left my home for a walk. But if you had been incarcerated as that man was a couple of days ago there in the Middle East and you were released from your captors even against their will, you would say bless God I have escaped. So that the concept of escape means a breaking loose from an enforced or unwanted place, state or condition.

19:23 A man escapes from a prison but a free man leaves his home to take a walk. Now what I'm asserting then in these words trust is clear. It is that no Christian this side of death or the second coming of Jesus can escape from the tension and conflict which will be his constant companions while walking the narrow road that leads unto eternal life. Now in saying that I am not saying that the Christian life is nothing but tension and conflict. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying whatever else it is even when it applies to be in the language of Romans 14 20 the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Even in those times when it appears to be nothing but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost we have not escaped from the theatre of tension.

20:32 We may not be very conscious of the tension at any given point but we have not escaped from the theatre of tension. We may not be very conscious at any given point. There may be seasons when the reality of the tension and the conflict and the longing to escape may be relatively limited but there is no escape from the framework of tension and conflict while we are yet in this present life. Now then having stated the principle we come to the heart of our study the principle established or proven from the word of God.

First Strand: Indwelling Sin Makes Tension Inevitable

21:16 What Biblical materials are there to establish with such dogmatism as I have done this principle? Well I rest the case this morning on four lines of dominant Biblical of the presence of these four realities determine actual tension and conflict in this present life. And I could rest the case on any one of them but all four woven into a cable of divine revelation can only when one is prepared to twist the scriptures to his own destruction. And what are those four strands which constitute this one cable of divine revelation leading to this dogmatic assertion that any view biblical will be one which asserts no escape from tension? Well the first strand is this the reality and activity of indwelling sin make tension and conflict inevitable. And activity of

22:46 indwelling sin make tension and conflict now as we saw in our studies on conversion when God's saving grace comes to us it finds us under the dominion of sin. According to passages such as Romans 6 by nature we are the very bond slaves of sin. In the language of Jesus in John 8 34 whosoever commits sin is the bond servant of sin. But when saving grace is imparted the dominion of sin is not in the power of sin but in the power of his death and his resurrection to newness of life becomes experimentally mine in my death to the dominion of sin. So we are no longer under the power of reigning sin. It teaches with equal clarity that we are left

24:14 with the reality of remaining sin and remaining sin is not a theological concept alone. It is a wretched wrenching reality of spiritual experience that we cannot overcome. It is not a matter of the power of sin. It is not a matter of the power of sin. It is not a matter of the power of sin. It is not a matter of the power of sin. It is not a matter of the power of sin or the power of love or the power of sin.

25:36 This is the very most important key such like of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Anyone who practices any one or combination of those sins is under sin's dominion and is no child of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is described in the next two verses, and in verse 24 he says, Those who are truly united to the Lord Jesus in saving faith crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof. There has been a fundamental radical break with the dominion of sin. But isn't it interesting that the apostle finds no contradiction in his own understanding in such a context of stating the radical difference between the pattern of a life under sin's dominion, the pattern of a life of one indwelt by the Spirit. Nonetheless, he says there is an equal reality,

26:57 and that reality is described in verse 17. The flesh, present tense, is lusting against the Spirit, which can only be true of one indwelt by the Spirit, in whom the dominion of sin has been established. And broken by the Spirit, in whom the fruit of sin is being manifest as the dominant qualities as opposed to the works of the flesh. But nonetheless, in such a person, the flesh is lusting against the Spirit, and it cannot do that unless it remains as a living, active principle within the heart and life. The flesh is lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit is lusting against the flesh, for these are contrary. Tension. Pulling this way, the other way, contrary, one against the other, that you may not do the things that ye would.

28:10 Our renewed humanity, we would obey the law of God,

28:18 we would, as the Spirit produces His own fruit of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, we would have the night, blindfold, fruit of the Spirit, fully manifested in its ripest form in our hearts and lives and in all of our relationships. But alas, we cannot do the things we would as new men and women in Christ. Why? Because of the tension and the conflict arising out of the reality of remaining sin.

28:51 The flesh is lusting against the Spirit. Amen. And we turn to Romans, chapter 7, and we find a similar statement. Romans, chapter 7,

29:06 having stated in such black and white terms in Romans 6 that the dominion of sin is broken, sin shall not exercise lordship over us.

29:22 We have died to sin. We have risen to newness of life in Christ. The apostle finds no contradiction in describing his own present experience as one dead to sin's dominion. Dead to sin, I'm sorry.

29:40 One in whom sin's dominion has been broken. Yet this same apostle writes, and I pick up the reading in verse 21, I find then the law that to me who would do good, to me who would do good, in my renewed will, I would do, to the good of perfect obedience to the law of God, perpetually, incessantly, in the full or demands of the law, touching the first motives of the heart, touching the deepest springs of thought, the deepest resources of affection and desire and inclination, to me who would do the good of perfect obedience to the law of God in all of its length, length and breadth, I find then the law that to me who would do good, evil is present. And where is it present?

30:49 External enticements and inducements to sin? No. Read on.

30:57 He goes on to say, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man, and none but a true child of God can say those words. For the carnal mind is enmity against me, and it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. O man in whom sin's dominion has been broken can say, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. My whole inner renewed being delights in God's law, in all of its length and breadth and height and depth, touching everything from the most deep hidden inner springs of the heart to the outer reaches, of every facet of my life. My delight is in that law, to do it, to keep it, to the glory of God.

31:55 For this man who delights in the law of God, I see a different law.

32:03 It inheres to every part of my humanity, warring,

32:20 conflict,

32:24 the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin, which is in, my members, and in the context, what is that law of sin in his members, not reigning sin. He already indicated in chapter 6, reigning sin has been dethroned. This is remaining sin. My members, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

32:55 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. You see, to Paul, the doctrine of indwelling, sin was not a theological abstraction. It wasn't an issue to be debated. It was the outcry of a man, who when he prayed, he wanted to pray without one disentering his mind.

33:19 He expressed his love, wanted to be able to honestly say that he loved his God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. But alas, he knew as we all knew, though he outstripped us in his devotion, many times over, that he, who fell short of the standard of the law of God, delighted in the law. But there was another law in his members, simply warring, fighting,

33:55 to escape it until of the Lord Jesus Christ.

34:02 In the Romans chapter,

34:05 these are texts that every one of you ought to be as familiar with as you are with the back of your own hand. It is stated in the opening paragraph that there are two realms of moral existence, the spirit and the flesh, and these are antithetical. And one is, is in one or the other as to his fundamental realm of spiritual experience. He then says in verse 9, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

34:38 If so be that the spirit of God dwells in you, and if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. In this verse he states, if you are a child of God, you have been radically, fundamentally translated into the realm of the spirit. Carnality and flesh, do not reign. The carnal mind, the mark of which is enmity against God, is no longer true of you.

35:03 You delight in the law of God. You are in the realm of the spirit. But to these very same people, he says, though they are in the realm of the spirit and no longer in the realm of the flesh, because the spirit of God dwells in them. He says in verses 12 and 13, don't think because you are in the realm of the spirit and no longer in the realm of the spirit, you have no more serious dealings with sin before you.

35:33 So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh, you must die. But if by the spirits of the body ye shall live, what is he saying? He's saying, though you are no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit, you are not so in the realm of the spirit that there is no conflict, no conflict, no conflict, no tension, there is no over of any of the remnants of flesh. No, he says, the very fact that you've been put into the realm of the spirit places you under solemn obligation to carry on an incessant warfare to the death with your remaining sin. If ye by the spirit keep putting to death the deeds of the flesh, the body ye shall live. He does not envision any state in which there will be a separation, a cessation of tension and conflict, no escape. They are yet in this present.

36:44 Same is true of a passage such as Colossians 3, 5 to 7, joined to verses 9 and 10, but in the interest of time I leave that. But do you see how the language associated with the reality and activity of indwelling sin may tension and conflict in the Christian life and in every way, and in every way, and in every way, and in every way,

37:13 reality.

37:16 Warring to a constant activity and we are never pointed to a passageway, ultimate escape.

37:34 Never. Never!

37:38 The apostle knew of escape. That was the escape that would come when he would leave this body to go be with Christ and then at the resurrection when he would be given a resurrected body, but he knew no passageway, passageway in terms of any deep secret of living the Christian life, any combination of disciplines or provisions from God for the Christian life. And he didn't know it, and Paul's experience take every book and every tape and every conference minister who says there is passageway of escape and practice is not in the best interest of your soul no matter how much it purports to magnify, to magnify, to magnify, to magnify, the grace and the power of Christ, how to magnify the grace and the power of his son and he's chosen to magnify it for far more in the midst of and the tension than by providing a way in this life the conflict and the tension. The second strand of the cable,

Second Strand: A Hostile World System Makes Tension Inevitable

39:00 how do we know there is no escape from tension and conflict? Only because as we have seen the reality and activity of indwelling sin make tension and conflict inevitable, but secondly the presence and activity of a hostile world system make tension and conflict inevitable. Presence and activity of a hostile system make tension and conflict inevitable. Now again according to the scriptures in our unconverted state we were not only under Dominion of sin is also part of a world system which is under Satan's sway. Listen to Ephesians chapter 2 for one of the clearest statements of this fact. Ephesians chapter 2.

40:04 Describing God's grace coming to the Ephesians, he writes, verse 1, And you did he make alive when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked as walking dead men, spiritually dead, dead to God, dead to communion with God, dead to fellowship with God,

40:33 living a lifestyle that had a pattern, a discernible pattern. And what was it? Wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air,

40:56 now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom, now notice he includes himself, we also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. So Paul says whether the external lifestyle was meticulously religious, and moral, as was his, or openly irreligious, and profligate, or idolatrous, as was the lifestyle of many of the Ephesians, he says they had this in common, their unregenerate, unconverted days, for living a lifestyle that was dictated by, controlled himself. In Paul's, it was the present in age perspective, on what it meant, to be a good, orthodox, pharisaic Jew. For many of the Ephesians, it meant what it was to live as a loyal pagan,

42:25 and what the gods allowed and did not allow, and what they frowned and smiled upon. But behind decadent Judaism, behind the horror of wretched paganism, was the influence of the devil in the host of darkness. What a frightening picture of the condition, of every unconverted man, woman, boy, or girl in this very building this morning. That's what God says you are.

43:01 That's what we were. The presence and activity of a hostile world system is that in which we were once held by nature. Now, I've used in our little booklet this description of the world. The world system is life in the totality of its organized existence, devoid of God.

43:27 It is hostile to God's word and law, in its standards, its goals, its opinions, its mindset, its people, and its philosophy. The world is the totality of unregenerate humanity in opposition to God. That's what the world is. That's what the world is.

43:49 In that sense, 2 Corinthians 4, 4, the devil is called the God of this world. He is the one behind its system of thought, its philosophy, its standards, its goals, and it is all in opposition to God. But blessed be God, when we were converted, we were delivered from bondage to this system. Galatians 1 in verse 4, speaking of the work of Jesus Christ for His own, here is an explicit reference to the world.

44:22 He gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present, evil world, according to the will of our God the Father. So that when the dynamics of His grace would come to us in the gospel, we would be delivered, not when we die, and not if the Lord returns in our lifetime, but when we are converted, that we might be delivered from bondage to this world system. Hence, in Colossians 1 in verse, it is described the conversion of the Colossians this way, who delivered us out of the power of darkness, a system that is under the control of the prince of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. But now, though we have been delivered out of the bondage to this world system, what is the world content to say, since that deliverance, in the case of a true Christian, is irreversible, we've lost Him? Is that the disposition of the world,

45:47 which has beneath it and surrounding it, the influence of the arch enemy of God and of all believers, the devil himself? No. Though the world loses one of its subjects, though the world loses those that were held in its grip, and held in bondage, to its perspectives and goals and standards, the world haves its ranks. The system is one and therefore hates such a one, and does all to take the edge off the contrasting lifestyle, and to get that one who's been delivered from its compromise, and to be as much like itself, so that the power of the gospel in its transforming essence is denigrated, or even brought into question. And how do we know that is so? Well, we know it is so from a passage, such as Romans 12, in verse 2, as Paul writes to the Roman Christians, urging them to give a response of gratitude to the mercy of God, of utter yieldedness to Him and to His will. He then commands in Romans 12, 2,

47:16 and be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Now my question is this, if the world is not actively seeking to fashion the people of God according to its standard, why do they need to be exhorted to be fashioned? Paul would be giving an exhortation which was meaningless and useless, but it is because the world in the paraphrase of Phillips, to squeeze up its mold, that we must actively resist that pressure. Hence the exhortation of John the Apostle in 1 John 2, 15 and 16, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof, but he that does the will of God abides forever. Jesus said, If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

48:41 And why does it hate Christ? John 3 tells us, This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Neither will they come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. Christ is no longer here bodily to hate him, because his light exposes its darkness.

49:03 So what does the world do? It directs its hatred to the people of God. And in a sense, never are the people of God more safe than when the world's hatred breaks out into open, violent persecution, because then the lines are drawn. But you see, the world's hatred is far more subtle in a society that gives us the liberty to gather this way, in a society that gives at least lip service to some of the standards of the Christian faith and the privilege to meet and to worship the living God.

49:38 And that more subtle approach is to seek to be on friendly terms, not to present itself as the arch enemy of Christ and of God and of all that is noble and good. But to present itself as that which we can court and with which we can flirt and consort without betrayal of our Lord. And it seeks to squeeze us into its mold, accept its standards for what a man is, what a woman is, what is marriage, what is the family, what is home, what is life. Is life sacred?

50:15 Is it not? What is the Christian's perspective on things and money and possessions? The world is actively seeking to squeeze us into its mold and it will do it as long as we're here. It's relentless.

50:32 Relentless. Relentless. Through its philosophers in a very sophisticated way if it does it far more subtly through the advertising that flashes by our minds on the billboard, in the papers, on the television, by the laid back, seemingly nice guys and nice women of this world who speak out of the matrix of a mind that is against and his son and his word. It does throw through an educational system that says man evolved out of the beasts and eventually back to the pool of slime.

51:14 Man is not fundamentally different from the animals. It does it through the so-called concern for endangered species. My friends, are you deluded? I'm 99.99% of the environmentalist passion in our day is a pure view of reality. The sand on the sea and the sandpiper and the whale are not fundamentally different. We're all part of this one great system and if there's anything to be called God the whole system is all God and the grain of sand is as much a part of God as you and I and the whale are. I'm deceived by an Al Goetz

52:11 in his book. It's in black and white and I therefore the religion of our Puritan forefathers looked at God as the world's creator and man as God's vice-regent to subdue the earth and go back to the religion. The native dwellers of America viewed the world as God and were and there will be tension and warfare as long as we are in having lost us

Application: Are You Conscious of the Conflict?

53:14 exposure easing us into and if you're not conscious fighting the world it's because you've rolled over and played as if you sit here this morning wondering what in the world is that preacher talking about warring with indwelling sin and thoughts and motives why doesn't he just get on with life and enjoy it whose words did it's because you're still lost and you're under the dominion of your sin and you don't even know that you're a slave. For no sooner are you loosed loosed from the slavery of sin than you will be acutely aware of remaining sin and the horrible conflict and tension which it creates and if you're not conscious of having to pull yourself back from the clutching grabbing clawing instantly seeking to pull your mind into the abyss of its anti-God perspectives on life and the world and things

54:43 and the home and family and sex and clothes if you're not conscious of seeking to pull back to be insulated by the word and prayer to have yourself transformed by the renewing of your mind through the scriptures that you may prove the good acceptable and perfect will of God if you're not conscious of tension and conflict it's because you sleep in the lap of this world's system and under presence and activity of the devil the fact that we're saved in hope that my time is gone and I'm not going to touch on these other things in a surface way rather God willing I'll open them up tonight with just those two strands before you ask you a very simple and straightforward question have I simply been talking about things in your presence or have I been speaking about things that find a deep resonance and echo in the deepest chambers of your heart the reality of the conflict with indwelling sin

56:10 have you even in this hour of worship had to lift up your heart and say oh Lord Jesus forgive me I came praying that I might meet you and commune with you and pour out my heart but oh Lord I'm thinking about what I'm going to have to do at work tomorrow and your indwelling sin has humbled you and crushed you even in the midst of this worship service maybe you've had to say oh Lord I came to worship you and oh God the very dark the vicious wicked foist in a given direction and the the thoughts of lust and sexual desire was it to have this horrid wretched equity yet within me do you know anything of that am I talking in an unknown tongue do you know what it is to have wandering thoughts trying to be plain and simple and illustrative and animated and your mind does it cause you to groan inwardly and cry out

57:38 my wandering thoughts do you know anything about that my friends don't call yourself a Christian because as surely as there is no escape conflict intention in the Christian life because of the reality of indwelling sin there is no true Christian who is not conscious of that conflict intention and if you're not conscious of it you don't know what it is to be conscious of it in the midst of worship in the midst of prayer in the midst of your other God given duties it is in the holiest most sacred exercises the indwelling sin is most subtly empowered when a too good evil is present and the higher the good the more the stirring of the evil and you know that if you're a true Christian what you're talking about friend you're in the land of the blind and I pray God to have mercy on you to begin to cry to God God Lord show me what a wretched slave of sin I am so much a slave I don't even feel my chains

58:57 blessed day when a man begins to feel his chains biting into his flesh Jesus hear my clinking anything of what it is to have been delivered from this world say what in the world am I doing you found that you had gone so far down a driven track of thought being so plausible and reasonable and then you were reading the scriptures and like a bolt of lightning a phrase of scripture fashioned itself in your conscience and you said oh God the world oh God mercy on me Lord left to myself thank you for arresting me thank you Lord for bringing me up short Lord Jesus have mercy on me

60:19 that this world will not squeeze me into its mold help me to be transformed that struggle is distance if you're making any progress in grace you do for you'll make every progress in the way of true godliness having to that's why there's no escape from conflict and tension if you want some other way to go to heaven friend you'll have to make it and if you've made it it won't take you there because this is God's way to take his people to heaven through conflict and through tension you see if he would have ripped it all out and insulate us what glory would he get when we land safe on heaven's shore but when we get there having come there with all of the dry tincture of remaining sin having been within us in our whole journey then we'll have to say someone other than a hand of flesh preserved us in such a fall get there with the

Conclusion: God's Way Through Conflict

61:47 curse of a wicked world get there safely it'll be because the hand of another preserved us it didn't insulate us from the world's influence but graciously kept us in the midst of it and we will then say with shoutings grace grace for any escape in this life God willing tonight we'll take up the other two strands and if we have time consolations and exhortations that they can wait if they need to these things are too critical to take lightly let us pray in the presence of your grace think of the multitude who have come before us safely into your presence accepted in the beloved one a righteous record credited to their account all of their sins pardoned because of the person and work of Christ and yet Lord preserved in spite of their indwelling sin preserved and kept in spite of a bewitching

63:15 seducing clawing insistent world system and oh Lord we ask that you would enable us by your grace to join them as we follow in that same path deliver your people in this place from ever hankering after even for a moment wishfully thinking there must be some side exit out of the battle our attention Lord may none ever ever be seduced to follow a lie that can only lead to cynicism and delusion and in some cases to apostasy and damnation oh Lord have mercy upon those among us who know nothing of that tension and conflict for they are yet under sin's dominion they are yet held in the grip of this present world system oh Lord may your arrows stick fast in their hearts and give them no rest until they feel the chains that bind them may they see and feel the horrible reality of their enslavement to this present world and may they have no rest till they cry out Son of David have mercy and deliver me and oh God do that work of deliverance

64:41 through your beloved Son seal your word to our hearts and dismiss us with your blessing we plead in Jesus worthy name