No Escape from Tension/Conflict #3

Introduction: The Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church and the Series Context

0:04 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, October 18, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. I urge you to follow with me as I read in your hearing a portion of God's Word, which, though it will not be the focal point of our exposition, nonetheless sets a very clear biblical framework for the present study in which we are engaged, and that portion is found in Deuteronomy chapter 4, Deuteronomy chapter 4, and I shall read the first 14 verses. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 1.

0:58 And now, O Israel, hearken unto the statutes and unto the ordinances which I teach you to do them, that ye may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord... The Lord, the God of your fathers, giveth you.

1:17 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal Peor. For all the men that followed Baal Peor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from the midst of thee. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive, every one of you this day.

1:51 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the midst of the land whether you go in to possess it. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples that shall hear all things. And ye shall know these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people, for what great nation is there that hath a God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is, whensoever we call upon him? And what great nation is there that hath statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. But make them known unto thy children and thy children's children. The day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words,

3:18 that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children. And ye came near and stood under the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire unto the heart of heaven with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness. And the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire. Ye heard the voice of words, but ye saw no form, only ye heard a voice.

3:49 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments, and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it. Now let us again, seek the face of God for the blessing of the Holy Spirit, that the one who speaks and each one who hears may know the present and efficacious ministry of the Spirit as the Spirit of illumination and of grace. Let us pray together.

4:33 Our Father, we do thank you for this access that is ours into your very special presence by the new and living way that our Lord Jesus has made, made for us in his own person and work, that way that he secures for us now by his present intercession. And we would therefore come boldly in his name by that new and living way and pray that you would grant mercy and help to this gathered people and to this preacher in our time of need. You know it. Actly, O Lord, what we need. And we pray that out of your perfect knowledge of our hearts and our acknowledged inability to understand your truth apart from the illumination of the Spirit, send your Spirit upon us in copious measures that we may both know and be given grace to do that which you have revealed. Hear our cry and answer us, we plead, Amen. that your Son has died for us, and having spared him not, you have promised with him freely to give us all things.

5:59 Amen. Many of you gathered in this place this morning who are aware of the fact that this year, 1992, marks the 25th anniversary of our life as a duly constituted church of the Lord Jesus, And while we as a congregation are both humbled and filled with gratitude for all that God in grace has done for us and through us, we are also mindful of the wretched tendency of the human heart so quickly to forget. To forget, as Deuteronomy 4 reminds us, the things we have known experientially of God's ways and the things we have known of God's words.

7:01 And therefore, the only special way in which we have marked out and celebrated our 25th anniversary is to spend the past year and a half engaged in a study of those biblical precepts, principles, and perspectives which have been our very life and breath as a congregation of God's people. However imperfectly we have understood them, however more imperfectly we have embodied them and lived them out, they have nonetheless been our guiding lights. They have been to change the universe. They have been the imagery, the structural backbone of our life. They have been the blood coursing through the veins of our spiritual existence as a living body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have been highlighting these precepts, principles, and perspectives, as Pastor Barker has already intimated in a series of sermons entitled, A Manifesto of God's Life. A Manifesto of God's Life.

8:14 A Manifesto of God's Life. A Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. And I have used the term manifesto not to give a grandiose sound to what we are doing, but because that is precisely what we have been doing. A manifesto is a public declaration of the principles or intentions of a government or any group of people.

8:38 A proclamation of principles regarded as fundamental and central. The goal of the manifesto is to allow to that gave in government or organization, and the goals envisioned in this manifesto have been basically three. First of all to announce and to clarify to any who desire to know what we are all about. 密接着實施在这公cktor Congatenne.

9:00 must have been basically three first of all to announce and to clarify to and he who desire to know what we are all about. We have no secret agenda we have no set of perspectives in gold or goals that are contained in brown paper bags, only in a set of goal Corinthianshat постоянно course the goalpolitical information is to increase the villainy cause thełązeg客 classroom afterwards. It is important that the human privilege be protected fromquel disagreement إ tämä بarbauen It's only given to those who say the proper password to an elder or to a deacon. What we are, we are without shame openly and publicly in the presence of God.

9:29 And the purpose of this manifesto has been, first of all, to announce and to clarify to any who desire to know what we are all about. But then there's been a second goal, and that is to articulate to our long-standing members their spiritual birthright and heritage and to call us all to a renewed commitment to and implementation of these biblical norms. As God said to his people who were there when his law was given, take heed, forget, comes through again. And the history of Israel shows that they did not take the exhortation to heart, but they so quickly forgot the ways and the words of God. And this is not a unique problem to the old covenant community, for Peter, as he anticipates his soonness from this earthly tabernacle, says,

10:46 I write these things unto you, even though you... Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance.

11:05 And then he says that after my decease, you will still have these things fixed before your spiritual eyeballs, lest you forget. And so the second goal has been to articulate to our long-standing members their spiritual birthright. And that is to articulate to our long-standing members their spiritual birthright and heritage and to call us all to a renewed commitment to and implementation of these biblical norms. But then I've had a third and very vital goal in mind, and that is to instruct the new spiritual generation in a focused, concentrated way concerning those things which they have already received, but which they must... intelligently understand and passionately love, and to pass them on to another generation.

12:11 And this again was one of the great concerns of the Lord of his people, that not only should they retain mighty works, the marvelous ways, and the infallible and changeless words of Jehovah, their God. And with that threefold...

12:45 Here we're going to have the firstnder here, and the last thing we're going to be doing for the Lord of His People, the holy ministry of Jesus Christ, but we'll be beginning with some very important things of the special nations here in Latter- onus. Our lesser beautiful friend, Moses, the Last Father, is coming in Aut White for our church, and let me tell you just a brief story about him. And in盛故, how had this met the very firstson of the Apostles of the John, and this is a very useful point, In this very first sermon, we have just considered 58 days before Advent, that by checking our history, real information, and dates of the marriage. And but in the age of 50, we will start giving these by the year itself.

13:15 We have been bringing these coins. of our life and doctrine shall be continually molded by the scriptures. Third, we are determined that we shall maintain a centered climate in the totality of our life and ministry. Fourth, we are determined that our life and ministry will unquestionably confirm the unique place assigned to the church in the purpose of God.

13:50 Sixth, we are determined to strive for a membership composed only of truly regenerate and genuinely converted men and women. Sixth, we are determined to pursue a biblically established standard and function for church officers. Seventh, we are determined to pursue a biblically established standard and function for church officers. Eighth, we are determined to validate in our corporate experience the life-out-of-death principle essential to real Christianity.

14:30 And eighth, we are determined to maintain the presence of an ungrieved Holy Spirit in every facet of our life and ministry. And now for several months, we have been focusing our attention upon the ninth, tenet in the manifesto, which I have expressed as follows. We are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church. And after spending several months of Lord's Days on the first focal point of the New Testament, that concern, maintaining a balanced teaching on conversion, for several Lord's Days, the focus has now shifted to the second area of concern in that tenet, namely, our determination to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning the Christian life. In opening up this theme, we are considering some crucial principles which embody the New

Review of Sources of Tension and Conflict

15:55 Testament teaching on the Christian life. The first, which we examined two weeks ago, was this. There is no one master key to living the Christian life with success and vigor. God has given us not one master key that unlocks all of the problems and problems of the Christian life, but a master key that unlocks all of the problems and problems of the Christian life, and a master key that unlocks all of the problems and problems of the Christian life.

16:18 God opens the door to every avenue of new covenant blessing. Rather, the master key has provided us with a major key, upon which the master has hung every word of scripture. Thus the часть which softens on the supernatural, for man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, is a su�ere riche. And it is all scripture, inspired by God, which is profitable to make the man of God thoroughly furnished unto every good work it takes the whole of scripture to make a whole and useful child of God then last week we began to take up the second of these principles with reference to our determination to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective on the Christian life and that second principle is this there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life after explaining the meaning of the terms tension and conflict we began to take up the biblical basis for this assertion how dare I assert that there is no escape from tension and conflict in living the Christian life and we had time to consider three very clear strands

17:46 of biblical evidence in answer to that first the reality and activity of indwelling sin make tension and conflict inevitable as long as Galatians 5.17 is true that the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that we may not do the things that we would there will be tension there will be conflict until there is no longer any remaining sin secondly the presence and aggressive activity of a hostile world system make tension and conflict inevitable having been delivered from this present evil age through the redemptive work of Christ Galatians 1.4 the world is not content to leave its escaped subject alone rather according to Romans 12 it is aggressively seeking to conform us to its ways to squeeze us into its mold and in so far as we are determined in obedience to the word of God not to allow ourselves to be conformed to this age

19:13 but rather be transformed by the renewing of our minds there will indeed be both tension and conflict in the Christian life and then the third reason why there is no release from tension and conflict is the presence and activity of the devil and the host of darkness which make conflict and tension inevitable 1 Peter 5.8 and 9 be sober be watchful your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom you love he may devour as we saw last Lord's day evening he is not going about jump with fright to make the hair stand up on the back of our necks or merely to impress people with the depths of his fang marks upon an arm or to get you into his gut seeking whom he may devour it seems to me that if you come into handings with a lion determined

The Fourth Source of Tension: Saved in Hope

20:37 to get you into his gut and you're determined to keep out of his gut there's going to be tension and conflict steel strands of biblical evidence weaving them into a cable of biblical truth I add this morning this fourth and final line of evidence that there is no escape from tension and conflict in the Christian life and it is this the reality and implications that we are in creates tension and conflict We are safe in hope makes tension and conflict inevitable The reality that we are safe makes tension and conflict inevitable in opening up this line of biblical evidence consider with me two very simple questions first what do I mean by asserting we are in hope create tension and conflict. First of all then, what do I mean by asserting that we are saved in hope? And I answer, I mean nothing more or less than that which is asserted in several

22:03 pivotal passages of the New Testament, the most fundamental of which is Romans chapter 8, the secondary passage 1st John chapter 3, but Romans chapter 8. I begin the reading in verse 23, Romans 8 and verse 23. And not only do we also have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for our adoption, that is, the redemption of our faith. For what is seen is not hope, for who hopes for that which he sees? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience or endurance wait for it? Many of you, I'm sure, are familiar with the general flow of thought. For those who may not be, let me take just a moment to try to

23:20 pick up those threads. The Apostle has been speaking of the marvelous privileges of the sons of God, as they have been brought into the family of God an indwelt spirit of adoption. But with those privileges come the liability, namely, of suffering. And he stated at the end of verse 17, if children then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him in order that we may be all of them. And he stated at the end of verse 17, if children then go and shear with Christ, he will also glory with God for him. And as with our Lord of the sufferings, so with all of the people, suffering will go before the glory. And it is so certain that he goes on to say, in verse 18, for, I reckon, I make a solemn judgment that the die sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us. And then he goes on in the following verses.

24:31 state that even the creation about us yearns for the coming glory of the people of God, that which is described in verse 21, the glory of the children of God. And that glory is nothing less than their being given glorified at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So pulling the basic strands of thought together, this is what we find. It is suffering now, but glory to be revealed for the sons of God in the future.

25:12 Verses 17 and 18. Verses 19 to 21, all creation waits for its share in the glory of the sons of God. For when they come into the full possession of their glory, the earth itself shall be delivered from that curse under which it was placed for man's sake. For God said, Cursed is the ground for your sake.

25:37 Those were the words spoken to Adam. And now creation in this interim period groans, waiting for that glory. Verse 22, For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Uses the very standard language for a woman's birth pangs.

26:04 And he says, He says this whole creation is like a woman who has entered her birth pangs. It groans, it travails, yearning to come into the birth of its pristine glory when the sons of God are glorified and this earth shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. It is a groaning, a creaking. It is indeed an earth that manifests.

26:34 It manifests in so many ways that it is under the curse of God. And so it is described as a groaning and a travailing. But now notice in verse 23, And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, that is, the redemption of our body for saved in hope. And here he identifies being saved in hope with that ultimate consummate blessing of our redemption when the bodies of these corruption in the language of Philippians 3.21 shall be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. When Romans 8, in verse 30, shall be realized in our experience whom He justified, them He also glorified. So to be saved in hope means that the moment I am brought into the orbit of God's salvation in Jesus Christ and I begin to be aware of what I presently possess in virtue of that salvation

28:01 and what I shall possess in the future, I see myself as saved, but not saved in a context of full realization of all of the salvation purposed and purchased for me, but I am saved in a very context of hope. And what is that hope? It is the confident expectation and deep yearning for the fullness of the salvation purchased by Christ, which has begun to be applied to me by the Spirit. But I have now the firstfruits, and because the best and the most is yet to come, it is true to say of a man he is saved in the realm of hope, that no matter what he knows now, it is but firstfruits. It is only an ounce full of the thoughts that have been given to him, it is only an ounce full of the thoughts that have been given to him, it is only an ounce full of the thoughts that have been given to him, and the that have been cut with the sickle, and the full field of the harvest,

Further Elaboration on 'Saved in Hope' from 1 John 3

29:26 which is the great majority of the harvest, That is our salvation yet to come. It is called in a similar passage hope. It does not mean I denigrate my present possessions in Christ, that I despise the gift of the Spirit enabling me to call God my Father with filial joy and liberty, but it's realizing that the best is yet to come, and the fullness is yet to be realized even at the return of the Lord Jesus. And now a second passage which also points in this direction, that we are saved in hope. 1 John chapter 3, verses 1 through 3a, only answering this simple question, what do I mean by asserting that we are saved in hope? 1 John chapter 3, verse 1. Behold, stand back, don't just slouch over, and say, yeah, sons of God.

30:36 Big deal. Behold, stop, consider, reflect, concentrate your powers before this amazing, marvelous reality. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. Such we are. It's not a mere name. Behold, what manner, quality of love has been bestowed upon us. 1 John chapter 3, verses 1 through 3a, only answering this simple question, what do I mean by We who natively were like that baby in its birth blood on the wayside, nothing about us attractive, dead in our sins. Under the righteous wrath of God, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God, that he would be unashamed to include us in his family, that we are not simply called that as though it were an empty loss, but that we are called children of God. 1 John chapter 3, verses 1 through 3a, only answering

31:45 name, such we are. We have been constituted the sons and daughters of the Almighty, disinherited in Adam. We have been brought into his family through the grace revealed in Christ. It's a wonderful privilege. For this cause, the world knows us not, because it knew him not.

32:09 Though we are here and now the very sons of God, the world does not recognize our true identity, because it didn't recognize his true identity. Incarnate deity was in this world, and what did men see? All they saw was a humble, poor carpenter's son coming out of Nazareth, who didn't go to the proper schools, who didn't have the proper degrees, who did not go about with a halo over his head. And a glow shining out from his garments, who did not speak, and all the flies that were trying to sit on his bowl when he was eating dropped dead at his word.

32:54 Now the flies crawled over his food like they crawled over the food of his fishermen's friends. Nothing big deal about him. Flies crawl over his food as they crawl over Peter's food, and John's food, and James' food, and nothing special. What's so great about him? When he's been walking in the hot, burning Palestinian sun, he's weary by midday and must rest on a well. What's so great about him? He gets tired like the rest of us, so tired one time he falls asleep in the stern of a ship, and a horrible, tempestuous storm doesn't even awaken him. He's so bone-weary, and the world says, who is he? Nobody special. Oh, we hear that he does some amazing things. He raises the

33:41 dead. Straightens out crooked limbs from birth, opens the eyes of the blind, unstops the ears of the deaf. We've heard that he makes some very wild and fanatical claims that he and the Father are one, that before Abraham was, he was. But really, all we see is someone worthy of being spat upon, mocked, eyes made up about him, putting him on a cross, taunting him, further mocking him, and rejoicing.

34:22 When he's dead, and he's buried in a borrowed tomb, the world knew him not. And he says in the same way, the world knows us not. Now, did the world's non-recognition change his identity? No, not at all. He says in the same way, though the world does not recognize us,

34:58 the flies sit on our plate as well. And we get weary, and we get tired. The world does not recognize our true identity. The sons of God, marked to share in the very glory of the exalted, risen, glorified Christ, to have a body like unto the body of his glory, to have every last atom of sin so utterly purged from our spirits, that they will be able to be at home and comfortable in the presence of the one before whom cherubim veil face and feet and cry, holy, holy, holy, as a child.

35:37 That's who I am. That's who you are, Christian. The world doesn't know you. Why? Because your full identity has not yet been manifested. Even as the full identity of our Lord has not been manifested to this world, but it shall be manifested when there is the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and the heavens are rolled back like a scroll, and he comes upon clouds. See him.

36:13 And when this world in its unbelief and cynicism beholds the returning Lord in clouds, then they shall see him for what he is, and they will cry for rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it is not yet manifested what we shall be. We know. We know that if he shall be manifest, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now notice, and everyone that hath this hope on him, all this anticipatory glory is called this hope. This hope. The amazement of the love that would constitute you, a child of God, that recognizes you.

37:19 He will see you be gosh and joy as if you were nothing. We see you well in your life. The world did not recognize as with him, so with you. The world did not recognize him for who and what he was. The world does not recognize you for who and what you are.

Why Hope Creates Tension and Conflict

37:37 The day is coming when as the world recognizes him, so it will see in that reflected glory of that work that he does in all of the members of his family. They will see us for what we privilege is called our hope. Everyone that hath this hope on him. So when I use the words, we are saved in hope, these are the passages that are framing my language. Now then, that brings us to the question, why should this hope create tension and conflict? You say, sitting here as a Christian, Pastor Martin, it's created no tension and conflict in me, except the tension of having to keep back my hallelujahs and my amens, lest people think me a bit boorish. Contemplate what it will be to be glorified with my Lord. That makes me exult in joy. That makes me rise up in praise

38:39 and adoration. And you're saying that the four seal strands woven together makes this mighty cable of biblical truth. That says no escape from tension and conflict in this life, that the fourth strand is made up of this reality that we're saved in hope. I don't see the connection. Especially, someone says, according to Romans 5, this hope causes rejoicing. Being therefore justified by faith, Romans 5.1, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace. Wherein we stand, of the glory it produces, the glory we shall not only see, but reflect. This is the

39:44 occasion of rejoicing. And, well, it should be. But you see, that very hope not only is the mother of some of our deepest and most intense joy, it is the occasion of some of our most grievous tension and conflict. And it struck me as never before in just fastening my mind on these words. Verse 23, and not only so, not only does this whole creation groan and travail in pain, but ourselves also who have even we ourselves. Now put these two things together. We have! And who is the author then of what follows?

40:50 Romans 8. It is the Holy Spirit, given as firstfruits, who is the author of our groaning.

41:02 Romans 5, he says, this hope, inferred, not explicit, but explicit in Romans 14, 20, the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. But it's the same Holy Ghost who enables us to joy in our hope, who makes us waiting for our adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. In verse 22, the creation is said to groan together, same Greek word, just with a little prefix, soon. Together, groans, and the same standard word for birth pangs, with that little prefix, travails. Together, groaning and birth pangs, united with reference. Reference to this created order.

42:00 And now, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan. Why is that so? Why is that so? Well, for this simple reason, that the same Holy Spirit who has come to us as God's great gift in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit in whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption, Ephesians 4, 30, among his many ministries to us and within us, are these.

42:32 He implants within the breast of everyone in whom he indwells, yearning long for all that the believer will become when he's glorified. The Holy Spirit never came to indwell any penitent, believing sinner, but that he created in that sinner, a longing to be done with every last vestige of sin. The same Spirit that regenerated us, and the first motions of his regenerating grace were found in our loathing our sins, in repenting of them, vomiting them out, and turning to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ. And that Spirit who is given to the penitent, believing sinner, is the Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry, Galatians 4, 6, Abba, Father, implants within us a yearning to be utterly and totally, irreversibly conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it isn't long in the Christian life that we find that though we have that longing,

43:55 that we would never grieve nor displease the Christ who has saved us, and the Father who has adopted us, and the Spirit who has indwelled us, come to indwell us, we find as we grow in accurate self-knowledge before our Bibles, that in our most earnest moments of prayer, there is an element of reserve and distraction and dullness due to the downward pull of our remaining sin. At other times when we would give ourselves to the worship of this great, great God and feel that every atom of the soul and every cell of our bodies was engaged without distraction in the singing of but one hymn of praise, and we would long on any given Lord's day for just one hymn to be able to sing with every fiber of soul and being, My God, how wonderful Thou art, Thy majesty, how bright, how glorious, how glorious is Thy mercy-seed in depths of burning light. No earthly father loves like Thee, no mother hath so mild bears and forbears as Thou hast done with me,

45:16 Thine erring child. And yet we find halfway through the first or the third stanza, even as some of you now find, into the heart of the preaching, the mind shoots off here and the spirit shoots off here, and we find that the Word of God, the words mock us as they come back in our own ears because we know they are not met with anything in heart, devotion and intense physical engagement of all of our faculties worthy of God. And what happens? In the midst of our rejoicing, we groan being burdened and we say, Oh God, how long to sing without distraction, of mind, dullness of spirit, lassitude and laziness and lethargy of body, and for what? Praise as seraphim and cherubim and angels do. I tell you that's tension. It's real.

46:31 That's God. It's real. Because the Spirit who's come to indwell you, James says, lusts to envy. He has implanted a desire within us that God's glory and God's praise and God's honor should be jealously and undistractedly pursued.

46:56 We have what the scriptures call the first fruits of the Spirit. We've been given enough of what the full harvest will be, but it's just enough to serve like three shrimp on a big plate to a starving man. Just enough to make his juices flow. And make his stomach growl for the other courses of the banquet.

47:28 And God says not now, but later. Now what is that to a hungry man? That's painful conflict between his juices and his growling stomach and what's on his plate. There's tension.

The Groaning of the Apostle Paul: An Illustration of Hope's Tension

47:45 He wants to be satisfied with what has been set before him, but he longs to have all that he knows is purposed for him. for him to try to put it in the concrete let me illustrate it this way turn to second corinthians chapter five where we have a parallel passage with reference to this matter of the groaning born of the conflict intention of being saved in hope this time the apostle describes it in this way second corinthians five verse two for verily in this we grow longing to be close the palm with our habitation which is from heaven longing for our glorified bodies if so be that being closed we shall not be found naked for indeed we that are in this tabernacle in this present earthly fleshly dwelling tend to grow home being burdened not that we be on the clothes but that we would be closed upon that that which is more committee swallowed up comme light in copenhagen spawned full highlights الر holica überall three of the interconnected state for the child the dot very since i'm in a straight between to

49:12 i want to stay administered to the real fuera caught you know arus which is far better so the interest he could say that that should not have object of the desire of a holy man, especially if he has finished his God-given course of duty. But Paul's ultimate focus and yearning was not on the disembodied intermediate state, but for the final state of glorification. And he makes it plain in all of this imagery. He's saying my great yearning is not to be untented and to be a disembodied spirit in all the glory of what that will mean to be with Christ, but I want to be tented upon with that which God has made and is marked by immortality. And the reality of that, he says, causes what? Verse 2, for verily in this we groan. Now imagine the Apostle Paul has come to your home for the next pastor's conference, and you've always, wondered what would it be like to listen to Paul while he's having his devotions. So you do something

50:32 that's a little bit naughty, borderline naughty. You get up in the morning and tiptoe out into the kitchen, and you pass by the room where Paul is staying, and you hear some muffled noises, and you know he's up praying, having his devotions, and you can't resist the temptation. Oh, you say, it really isn't right to listen in on a man's prayers without him knowing it. I can't resist it.

50:56 So on Monday morning, you put your ear to the door, and you hear him singing, not so loud as to wake up the rest of the house, but songs of joy. Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of light, thou light of men. From the best bliss that earth imparts, we turn unfilled to thee again. We taste thee, O thou living bread, and you hear a break in his voice, and he sobs, and then he picks up his song again.

51:28 But our souls thirst to feed upon thee still. We drink of thee the fountainhead, and thirst our souls from thee to fill. And you hear him pouring out expressions of his love to Christ, and then you get so convicted, you say, this really isn't right. And you tear yourself away, and you go out into the kitchen, and you prepare breakfast, and the apostle comes out, and he has the glow of those sacred moments of focused communion with Christ upon his face.

51:58 And you don't say anything. You say, should I confess it, or shouldn't I? And you're sort of torn. Well, he goes off, and he's gone for the day, comes home, goes to bed. The next morning, same thing happens. You walk by the door, and you say, I really shouldn't, but I've got to. So you stop, and this morning, you listen. This time, you hear him in his songs and in his devotions, not so much focusing upon the person of Christ and yearning for communion with Christ, but you hear him enumerating all the blessings of his life. And you say, I really shouldn't, but I've got to. And you hear him saying, oh, God, thank you for a free and full justification, all of my sins pardoned, credited with the perfect righteousness of your Son, that in the last day, even your eye will not find a thing in my record by which to condemn me. You are bound by your own law to welcome me into heaven. And we listen to him rehearse the whole Ordo Salutis, and the full scope of redemptive blessing until we feel by contagion, we're about to shout, and then our secret will be out. So we say, no, I must get out into the kitchen. So out into the kitchen you go, and you go through the same

53:11 struggle. Should I tell him? Should I not tell him? Well, then, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning comes, and this is going to be your last indulgence. You say, after this morning, I'm going to stop this, because this really isn't right. And this time, you come by the door, and you hear a strange voice. You say, that can't be Paul. I hear a man groaning. I hear a man sobbing. I hear a man saying, oh God, oh God, wretched man that I am. You say, what happened? Did he sneak out during the night and go to the red light district? Did he sneak out in the night and go bust into a Mac money machine? He's groaning over his indwelling sin. We listen.

54:04 We hear him groaning, oh God, oh God, so easily. My vision of the glory of your Son is dimmed by the things of this world. And you find him groaning over the subtle influences of the world upon his spiritual sight. And then you hear him groaning over the reality of his struggles with the devil. But then you hear sounds that frighten you. His groans get the most guttural and the most heart-wrenching. When he's saying, oh God, oh God, when, when, when shall I put off the impediments of this body slated to the grave? You've marked me for service in which every cell of my being will respond with undiminished alacrity to every glance and word of my Savior. And oh God, I long to serve you with a body suffused with immortality. Oh God, I carry a burden of sin. I carry a burden of sin. I carry a

55:05 burden of sin. I carry this horrible, this wretched, this grave mark.

55:18 My question is this. Which Paul is the true Paul? The Paul of Monday morning's devotions? The Paul of Tuesday morning's devotions? Or the Paul of Wednesday morning's devotions?

55:35 My friend, the true Paul was the Paul of each morning. And listen, everyone who claims grace to Paul.

56:06 and a sight of your sin and a sight of your damnableness and of your words to be cast into hell and a sight of His glory in the face of Christ. There's going to be a devotional attachment to the person of Jesus Christ that will come out in your closet and when it is framed in the language of the hymns in this place it won't be mouthing words and though you won't rise to the depths and to the heights of the poetic expression you long to rise to those heights. My friend, do you know anything of Paul's Monday morning devotions?

56:51 Love to Christ for who He is, what He's done. Tuesday morning's devotions, amazement at all that has been showered upon you because of the person and the work of Christ rejoicing in free justifying grace rejoicing in adopted grace reconciling grace rejoicing in the gift of the Spirit rejoicing in the sanctifying grace of the Spirit. Do you know anything of that?

57:24 Do you know anything of what it is to groan? He says that are in this tabernacle to groan being burdened. Who are the we? All who have the earnest of the Spirit.

Summary of the Four Strands of Tension and Conflict

57:43 Now do you see why I say the fourth hand in that table of divine truth which says no escape from tension and conflict in the Christian life is rooted in the reality that we are saved that very reason in the conflict between what God has put in our hearts as yearning for what we shall be and what He is presently pleased to put on the plate in this life. I wish God put the full course. Hear it now. He is not going to order the courses according to your wishes and you're going to go like the rest have gone groaning. Now not just groaning rejoicing but not just rejoicing but groaning as well.

58:51 No escape no escape from tension and conflict in the Christian life. The reality and activity of indwelling sin precluded. Presence and activity of sin precluded. Presence and activity of a hostile world system.

59:09 No escape. Presence and activity of the devil in the host of darkness. No escape. The reality and implications of being saved in hope.

Warnings Against False Teachings

59:19 No escape. Now as I close I want to bring several very pointed simple words of warning and encouragement. We've looked at the principle state. No escape from conflict and tension in the Christian life.

59:34 We've looked at four lines of biblical evidence. Which I would not want to cut through with the teeth of sophistry. They are made of biblical steel and woven together form a cable of divine revelation that hook us to God and to reality. No escape from tension.

59:54 Therefore beware and resolutely reject any teaching which holds out the promise of escape from tension and conflict in your Christian life. Beware and resolutely reject any teaching of any kind from any source that holds out escape from tension and conflict in your Christian life. It cannot be biblical even though it may quote bible verses. It cannot be according to the analogy of scripture.

60:31 The overarching teaching of scripture. You must extricate from that cable the strand of everything taught about the gospel. The whole gospel. The whole gospel.

60:40 The whole Bible. The whole world. The whole human soul who has taught about the activity and reality of indwelling sin. The reality and activity of a hostile world.

60:46 The reality and activity of the devil in the host of darkness. The reality and the activity commensurate with being saved in hope. My friend to do that is to dismantle half of your Bible. If you embrace any such teaching that promises escape from tension it'll lead you to one of three things.

61:07 Self-deception, despair or cynicism. Fear. having claimed the experience you're no longer down here with the rest of us mortals with Paul's devotions on Wednesday morning groaning you'll be led into self-deception all forms of perfectionism if maintained by anyone who lives in the real world will lead to self-deception that's why John says if any man says he has no sin he is deceived and the truth is not in him he's a liar self-deception, willful self-deception some of you say, my friend listen I'm trying to immunize you sooner or later you'll meet somebody who'll make your spiritual fangs drip and your mouth water are you tired of tension? tired of conflict? of course I am you think I'm crazy?

61:57 you think I like to groan? you think I like tension? I like conflict people who are psychologically sick are out of their tree like tension and conflict or perversely wicked no but beware of any teaching that promises it before God says he puts it on the plate and he puts it on the plate when the Savior and our Lord comes again it'll lead to despair you'll say, oh I tried it and it doesn't work and you throw up your hands or worse yet it'll lead to cynicism say, ah it's just more of this religious stuff I tried it doesn't work throw it all over beware of any teaching that promises escape beware and reject any teaching which says there's nothing but tension and conflict in the Christian life beware of any teaching and reject any teaching which says there's nothing but conflict and tension in the Christian life there are some who would sit under a message like today and say, oh Brother Martin give it to them, give it to them that's it, that's it, that's it and they're happy if the whole world went around in mourning clothes with turned down corners of the mouth and never so much as a smile on their face once twitched with holy joy or never once felt an urge to say hallelujah

63:25 their whole religion smells of the mourning cloth their whole religion reeks of heaviness my Bible says the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace we are the true circumcision who worship God in the Spirit who glory in Christ Jesus Nehemiah 8, 10 the joy of the Lord is your strength you see the devil is a master of overkill he may have some of you sitting here who up to now said that's it, give it to him, give it to him but your joyless, dull, funereal kind of religion is a reproach to God and to his Son my dear people beware of any teaching which says there's nothing but tension and conflict thirdly, beware of any teaching that would point you to any source or means of strength for the conflict and the tension other than those means appointed by God beware of any teaching that would point you to any source or means to deal with the tension and conflict not appointed by God

64:50 how are we to deal with the conflict of remaining sin if ye by the Spirit do it the Jesus Christ and by the Spirit we make up a question your stress make up a question a conflict once you've done your work over all that you've done over all that you've done over all that you've done and this year as the Bishop of the House before the Holy Sebastian I'll see you again you and your children they're changing all those traders in the local in which you lead are changing can you take me out on one or two days it means of course this moment the time that will change or will change I do know in I scores all of you but with a mind continually renewed by the Word of God and thereby transforming me so that though in this world there's light and salt, I'm not conformed to this world.

65:42 And with the devil, it's not by doing as so many nonsensical, fanatical, charismatic groups say. Name your demon. You've got a demon of inordinate appetite. You've got a demon of temper.

65:55 You've got a demon of lust. And they name it and they exorcise it. People puke out green bile and then they say they're delivered. That nonsense is from the pit.

66:05 Nowhere does God say that those things are demonic. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are anger and wrath and divisions and party spirits.

66:21 In dealing with the devil, we deal with him biblically. And in all of these things, we derive our strength not from ourselves, but in the language of John. John 15, 5, we abide in him apart from whom we can do nothing. In the language of Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Encouragement: Marks of Life and Future Resolution

66:43 And in that tension and conflict in the language of Hebrews 12, 2, we look off unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And then finally be encouraged that the conflict and tension are the marks of life and spiritual reality. Hear me, Christians. Some of you need to hear me this morning.

67:03 Be encouraged. You could relate to Paul's Wednesday morning devotions. And every time you have your Wednesday morning, you start doubting your salvation. You ready to doubt Paul's?

67:18 He had his groaning devotions as well as his exalting and shouting devotions. Dear people of God who know what it is to groan, being burdened, be encouraged that the conflict and the tension...

67:33 are the marks of life and spiritual reality. It's because you want to serve God with more zeal that you groan. When you've had a rough night and you wake up with a sinus headache and your chambers are all filled with guck and you can't pray, keep your mind on your prayers, you haven't backslidden in your sleep, you've just got a head full of gunk in your sinus cavities. And because we're so tied to our bodies, it affects our spirits, in our thinking, and you groan and long for a glory of hope.

68:10 And when you come and you seek to have your heart baptized afresh with holy joy in the contemplation of God in His goodness, in His ways, in His works, and your spirit seems to be made of lead.

68:28 So Mark, you know the difference between worship in mere form and ritual and worship in spirit and in truth. Be encouraged. You're in good company. You're in the groaning company that's going to be in the glorified company.

68:46 And my last word is be encouraged that the conflict and the tension will soon be over. It'll soon be over. It'll soon be over. Oh yes, it seems interminable.

69:00 And every time I feel a new creak and a new thump, and I describe sinus headaches, I'm not theorizing. I say, Lord, it'll all soon be over. And I'll be able to jump and dance and run. And sing and serve my master.

69:18 I won't have to sleep. Won't have to take a 20-minute afternoon nap in order to be awake for 11 o'clock elders meetings. I won't have to have my voice give out. I'll be able, with a glorified body, to praise God and the Lamb upon His throne with all of my routine faculties day and night and never once get out of breath.

69:42 It won't be long, friend. Groaning days will be over. Tension will be over. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know.

69:54 We know that when He shall be manifest, we shall be like Him. We shall be like Him. We!

Closing Prayer and Benediction

70:09 Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Let us pray.

70:24 Father, what can we say when we contemplate the glory that awaits us? We praise You that You've revealed in Your Word that such blessings are not the fruit, but the fruit of the idle dreams of mystics, but they are the purchased possession of every child of Yours, purchased by the blood of Your Son. Oh, how we pray for those who know nothing of these joys and these tensions and these conflicts. Lord, show them the emptiness of their mere formalism.

71:03 Show them the hollowness of a religion devoid of groans and devoid of shouts of joy. and have mercy upon them until seeing themselves for what they are. They run to the Lord Jesus to make them what they ought to be, both in the court of heaven and in the theater of their own hearts. Seal your word to your people, O God, for this new generation of your people, bombarded with so much nonsense being spawned in the name of Christianity.

71:36 Immunize them with these truths that we've studied this morning, that understanding them they may resist the intrusion of any such teaching into this place when some of us are in our graves. O God, preserve your truth concerning the Christian life in this place. Hear our cry and dismiss us with your blessing, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

72:06 Amen.