hope

The Word of God and Temptation

/ Neal Embry / Leave a comment

Today I’m continuing the blog series on temptation and the tools God has given us to fight it.  Last week, we examined the cross and how what Jesus has done for us on Calvary impacts our fight against sin.

This week, we’re looking at the Word of God and how the Scriptures help us fight our sin and grow in obedience to Jesus Christ.

Back in the 1990s, there was a popular bracelet/saying/shirt that read, “WWJD?”  The abbreviation stood for, “What Would Jesus Do?”  The idea behind the movement/apparel was to make Christians think about, in every situation, what Jesus would do?

I’m usually not a big fan of trendy Christian things, seeing as how all that’s produced over the years is some really cheesy music, really cheesy (and not necessarily biblical) sayings, and a slightly blasphemous “Jesus is my homeboy” t-shirt, but that saying isn’t too far off.  While the Bible, and the Christian life, finds its emphasis and foundation on what Christ has done for us, we certainly, in working out our salvation, want to do what Jesus would do so that we look more like Him and bring Him glory.

In fighting temptation, if we are to do what Jesus would do, we absolutely MUST know the Word of God.  If you are not consistently in God’s Word, you will never grow as a Christian.  I preach to myself, as much as anyone else, because this year has not been the most shining example of Bible study for me.  We have to understand just how crucial it is to be in God’s Word, and specifically in fighting temptation.  Jesus sets the example for us in this area in Matthew 4, as He battles the temptation of the devil.

Satan’s first temptation was to try and make Jesus use His authority and power as the Son of God for selfish needs.  Whenever we see Jesus using His authority and power as God (healing, miracles, etc.), it is always within the context of His ministry  to reveal Himself as the promised Messiah and Lord, and it is always done according to the Father’s will.  Jesus never uses His divine power to meet needs like food, drink or housing.  He never just plays around with His power, a la Jim Carrey in “Bruce Almighty.”  He knows that the Father will provide for Him, which is why He is able to tell us to not be anxious but trust the Father in the Sermon on the Mount.  And He knows that the Word of God says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” in Deuteronomy 8:3.  Jesus is able to use the truth of God’s Word to fight back against the temptation to meet His own needs in a sinful way when the Father has told Him to trust Him.

Satan then tempts Jesus to test God’s love and care for Him by telling Jesus to throw Himself off the temple.  Satan himself uses Scripture to try and trick Jesus, saying that the Bible says “He will command his angels concerning you,”  and that “On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”  Here is another reason we must know God’s Word for ourselves–If we don’t, we can be sure that our enemy will use our lack of knowledge of God’s Word to our destruction by twisting His Word and making us believe it says something it doesn’t, doesn’t say something it does, making us believe that we are doing God’s will when we are not.  Jesus sniffs out Satan’s plan and uses another Scripture to rebuke the devil: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”  Jesus again knows what God’s Word says and combats lies with the truth.

Lastly, Satan tempts Jesus with the kingdom He is promised if He falls down and worships him.  We need to understand what’s happening here:  The devil knows that Jesus will reign as King for eternity.  He (and Jesus) also knows that in order for that to happen, though, Jesus must go to the cross.  And the devil knows that at the cross, his accusations against God’s elect will fall short, for our sins were paid for, and he knows that because Jesus reigns, he does not.  He knows that if he can get Jesus to skip the cross and all the suffering Christ endures for our salvation and His kingdom, he has defeated God.  In this moment of temptation, all of eternity is at stake.  This is a battle for the future of the entire universe.

And our King wins.  How does He win?  By knowing the Word of God.  Jesus Christ overcame the devil’s temptations, continued His life of perfect obedience to God, securing our righteousness, suffered the cross in obedience to God, securing our forgiveness, and rose again from the grave, securing His reign in our lives and in this world and the world to come, all due, in large part, because He knew and trusted God’s Word.  In the moment of temptation, Jesus yells, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”  Jesus knew that God was God, that Satan was not, and that no matter what happens, He refuses to worship another God.

Hopefully in looking at Christ’s example, we now understand how vital, how crucial, it is that we know God’s Word if we are to work out our salvation in obedience to God and fighting back against Satan and our old sinful flesh.

So what specifically do we look for and utilize in God’s Word in “fighting the good fight of faith?” (1 Tim. 6:12)

First, we look for and trust in God’s promises.  Sin tries to make us believe false promises like: “Looking at that picture won’t kill you.”  “Go on and be angry–you have the right to be angry.”  “No one will know that you do (fill in the blank).”  “God doesn’t: care about you, love you, satisfy you.”  The list goes on and on.  We must know that these are false promises, and we must fight them with the promises in God’s Word.

One of my favorites is Psalm 37:4–“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”  The idea behind this verse is that if you delight in God, He will give you Himself, because He gives you the desires (Him) of your heart! 

Another one that has been of great use lately is Romans 8:6–“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”  Couple this with verse 13: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.”  So, according to this promise, if we set our minds and walk (behave) according to our (sinful) flesh, we die.  But if we set our minds and walk (behave) according to the Spirit, we will have life and peace, we will live.  That is, we will have the joy of knowing we are living life the way God intended, we are honoring Him, and it is a sign that we possess eternal life.  We have peace with God through Christ, as Romans 5:1 makes clear, but we have more and more peace as we walk by the Spirit.

Secondly, we allow God’s Word to shape our view of truth.  Just as we fight sin’s false promises, we fight lies and deceit with knowing God’s truth.  In the Garden of Eden, Adam believed a lie instead of believing God (“In the day that you eat of it (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you shall surely die.”)  If we are to be renewed in God’s image, we need to encounter God in His Word and grow in our knowledge, faith and obedience to His truth. 

We have our minds, our beliefs, our worldviews, what we believe is true (and not true) changed as we know God’s Word.  So as our sinful flesh or Satan tries to deceive us and make us believe and act according to falsehood, we are now able, in knowing God’s Word, to fight back with the truth, because we know the truth.  But if we don’t know the truth, we cannot live by it.  So we must know the truth. 

Satan may lie to us to make us think that we can now use our freedom in Christ to do whatever we want.  But the New Testament is clear that we belong to Jesus:
“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body”  (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God” (1 Pet. 2:16). 
“For you were called to freedom, brothers.  Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).

The truth of God’s Word is that those who are free from guilt and shame, from the wrath of God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, now belong to God.  We know this truth, we love this truth, and we live out this truth.

Brothers and sisters, join me in knowing God’s promises, knowing His truth, and using this great weapon God has given us to fight against sin and be obedient to the Lord who has saved us by His obedience for His glory.  And let us remember when we do fail, which we will, more than we care to admit, to trust the promise found in 1 John 1:9–“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  When we fail to obey God as we should, we remember our salvation, humbly repent, acknowledging our sin before God and agreeing with Him about it, and trusting Him to forgive us of our sins and to change us by His grace, by His Spirit, and we get up and pursue Jesus, confident that we are forgiven by grace and that Jesus will finish what He started (Phil. 1:6).

May we trust your promises, Father.  May we know your truth and live in it.  May we never forget that we are righteous before you through faith, and may we continue to learn to live out the salvation we have in your Son.  May you give us strength, faith and grace for the battles that lie ahead.  May you be glorified in our gospel-believing, grace-driven and faith-driven efforts to be more like Jesus and honor your great name.  Amen.

God bless,
Neal E.

Next week, we examine the role of the Holy Spirit in fighting temptation.  As always, if you have any comments, questions, concerns, etc., feel free to leave them here or email me at nembry@charter.net.  You can also find me on Twitter at @NealEmbry. 

The Significance of the Resurrection

/ Neal Embry / Leave a comment

He is risen!  I hope you all are having a marvelous Resurrection Day, as we remember our risen Savior.  This day, we remember the single greatest, most important event in the history of the world: the resurrection of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.  Death could not hold our Lord and Savior.

Today we wrap up the “Jesus Died” series with the resurrection.  You see, Jesus did die, and that’s what this series has been about.  But the good news is that He did not stay in the grave.  He rose again.  So today, I’ll be looking at three truths and conclusions from the resurrection.  This is by no means exhaustive, as the implications of the resurrection and the bearing it has on our lives are infinite, but hopefully you take truth from this and we can more clearly see what happened when that tomb was rolled away and our Savior rose.

1) The Gospel, and Jesus, is true!

If the resurrection had not happened, Jesus would have been a liar, and our faith would be in vain, and there would be absolutely no reason to live.  Thank goodness the resurrection is true, and that grave is empty.

Jesus prophesied in John 2:19, after cleansing the temple, that He would rise again: “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘it has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’  But he was speaking about the temple of his body.  When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

If this had not come true, if Jesus was not raised, then it would stand to call Jesus a liar.  If He was a liar, He was not perfect.  If He was not perfect, He cannot take away our sin, and death would have won, and we would have no hope.  However, we know that Jesus was raised.  In fact, we see that Jesus had a role in His resurrection.  He said “I will raise it up.”

John 11:25: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?'”

Do you believe this?  That’s the question we must all ask ourselves.  If we have only head knowledge, we have nothing.  We must place all of our faith, hope, and our very lives on the risen Savior.  Jesus asked this to Martha, and her response was to call Jesus the “Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”  Are we willing to lay down our lives to the one who gave it all up for us?

Since the gospel is true, we also know our sins are forgiven.  Look back on the most famous verse in Scripture: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”–John 3:16-17

Romans 8:1–“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

2 Corinthians 5:21–“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.”

We are free, Christians.

2) Jesus lives as our High Priest

Reflecting on what God has done should not stop at salvation, for God’s love did not stop at the cross.  It did not end at conversion.  The truth of the gospel, and the blessings of grace, continue throughout our lives.  God has saved us and justified us in Christ, but there is still work to be done in this life, not for salvation, but as a result of it.  Those whom come to know Christ, God has ordained that they will become like Him.  That’s exciting to me.  We are being transformed.  This does not come easy though.  Christians, can we be honest and say we’re quick to mess up the new life we have in Christ?  Can we be honest with ourselves and say we still make mistakes?  And then, would you look with me in Scripture and see the Savior who was perfect for us, and whose love never leaves us?

Hebrews 7:23-28: “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.  Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.  For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.  He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.  For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”

Eat this up.  Savor it.  Jesus is our high priest.  We need no earthly priest to take away our sin, and we have no need for a mediator.  The Bible is clear that Jesus is our mediator.  All of our efforts to absolve ourselves of sin fall short.  Jesus alone can take our sins away and forgive us.  And He does so perfectly and permanently.

Look at 1 John 1:8: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”  Jesus said the same when He said He’s come to save “not the righteous, but the sick.”  Those who are self-righteous, and see themselves as having no sin, will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  The gospel must first be the bad news that we are all sinners and unworthy of God before it can be the good news of salvation for those sinners.  In order to be saved, to trust in Christ, we must recognize our sin, and repent.  But repentance brings a firm promise: Jesus will forgive if we confess and repent of our sin.  Look at verse 9, one of my favorite verses in the Bible: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

All unrighteousness.  All of it.  Jesus paid it all.  And He is making all things new.  When we come to know Jesus, we have all of our sins washed away: past, present, and future.  Jesus’ grace is strong enough to cover all of our sin.  Do we seriously believe that Jesus is unable to cover sin we commit after coming to know Him?  Because if He’s not….not many people are Christians.  God’s love doesn’t just save us…it sustains us.  It convicts us.  It leads us back to repentance, so we may receive grace to walk in Christ again.

However, the Bible is also clear (1 John 3:4-6) that those who continue in unrepentant, persistent, habitual sin with no regard for Christ and holiness are not true believers.  We all will struggle and stray off the path.  God knows this, and is perfectly prepared to bring us back by His grace.  But for those who think that going to church, doing religious things, and being moral make them perfect and right before God, the bad news is is that those things do not take away sin.  They smell to God.  And the smell isn’t pretty.  Put your faith in Jesus, throw all of your hope, and your soul itself, on Jesus and His work, and be saved.

1 John 2:1-3: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.  But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.  And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.”

If we sin, does God stop loving us?  It’s a question on the back of Christian’s minds everywhere: If I sin, and struggle with sin, even severely, after coming to know Jesus…does God still love me?

If we love God, it is because He has first loved us (1 John 4:19).  Perfect love does not let go.  Romans 8:31-35 says “What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?  It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”

For those whom God has called, those whom He has loved through Jesus Christ, His love is permanent, unchanging, and faithful.  This does not mean we can’t displease Him, for we can.  But if we hold fast to Christ, and we have given our lives to Him in salvation, then throughout our lives what I’m convinced will happen is this: The same love which saved us and gave us new life will sanctify us in our failures by leading us to repent, and to receive grace and forgiveness, and to lead us back to Christ.  That same love will teach us, lead us, and guide us, and eventually, one day, that grace, that love, so marvelously shown at Calvary, will bring us home.

For the Christian, the desire to sin, in an enslaving, dominant way, has been killed.  Sin seemed to have a grip on me, for years, but because I knew Christ, it could not hold me down, and by God’s good and perfect grace, He has led me to repentance, and is teaching me what it means to follow Jesus as Lord.  God’s love never leaves us.  If you’re a Christian, and you’re struggling with sin…welcome to the club.  You’re not alone.  Paul’s letters to churches show that every Christian from every generation has struggled with sin in one way or another.  But our nature, our desires, have changed, and this leads to repentance, which leads us back to grace.  God’s discipline is love.  He disciplines us and convicts us, so that we will repent and find our joy in Jesus.

Jesus is the high priest that intercedes for His people constantly.  While we are still here on Earth, Jesus promises to guide us, to sanctify us, and to lead us back to Him.  His grace is good, and is always stronger than our sin.  Repent, be restored, and abide in Christ.  In doing this, you will die to yourself and begin to obey Christ more and more.  In this death, you shall truly live.  We die to sin every day, as we rise with Christ to walk by the Spirit which is ours.  Christian, do not desire sin.  Pray constantly.  Rest in what Jesus has done, repent, be filled, and obey the Lord by trusting in Him.

3) Jesus is coming back.

This is great news.  Not only did Jesus die to take away our sins, not only does He now live to be our great high priest who forgives His sheep, but our risen and reigning Savior is coming back to rule for all eternity.

1 Peter 1:3-5: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

We have hope, a great inheritance, that is awaiting us when we obtain our eternal salvation, kept for us by Jesus through our faith.  That’s pretty cool…our faith is being guarded by the God of all creation who gave it to us to begin with.  I think that’s awesome.  You won’t find this security in anything or anyone else.  Man, Jesus is good!

How can one be saved?  I hope that pastors and ministers around the country hear this every day, especially today.  Put your faith in Jesus, acknowledge your sin and repent, turn away from it, and lay it on Jesus.  Trust in Him for salvation, and give your life to Him as Lord.  The Bible does not promise health and wealth.  The prosperity gospel is a lie from hell.  What the Bible does promise is that Jesus will never leave you and He will never forsake you, no matter what you do, no matter what happens.  He leads us to Himself, to be saved, to be renewed, to repent, to receive grace, and the great hope for believers…to lead us home.

The Christian life is hard.  It’s not easy, it’s messy.  We’re not perfect, we trust in the Lamb who was and is and is to come.  I don’t have it all together, and I’m a work in progress.  But my boss, my potter, and my Lord is the God of the universe, and He is alive, and working, not just in my life, but in the world around me.  That’s reason to rejoice.

Yet, as we rejoice today, remember that we have brothers and sisters around the world who risk their lives to celebrate the risen King.  Pray for the persecuted, that they would continue to shine the light of Christ in the darkest night.  And may we go and give our lives to spread the gospel.  Fulfill the Great Commission.  We are saved from God’s wrath to God’s purpose, to go and declare His glory to the ends of the earth.  Do it.

And one day, peoples from every tribe, tongue, and nation, will fill the heavens, and shout “Worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”  With one voice, we will shout “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”  For all eternity, we will worship the King: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

May you be encouraged by the truth of the resurrection this Easter Sunday.  May this be a time to reflect on the faithfulness of our God, who is quick to save those who call on Him, and quick to restore those in hurt, those in sin, those who long for Him.  May we rest and rejoice in the amazing fact that God loved us before we even thought of Him.  May you know Jesus, love Jesus, and obey Jesus.

He is risen indeed.

God bless,

Neal E.