Matthew 21:18-22

In the morning, as he (Jesus) was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, "May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?" And Jesus answered them, "Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."

The more I study this passage of Scripture, the more convicted I become. It is a reflection of the heart's condition under the scrutiny of God's Word, one that emulates the apostle Paul's admonition: "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). Jesus performed a bone-chilling miracle that should immediately invoke a reality check in the heart and soul of every individual who publicly professes him/herself as a Christian, "for our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29) and rightly to be feared.

Charles Spurgeon once wrote, "I do not know that I ever felt more solemnly the need of true fruitfulness before God than when I was looking over this miracle-parable...The curse, you at once perceive, falls in its metaphorical and spiritual meaning upon those high professors who are destitute of true holiness; upon those who manifest great show of leaves, but who bring forth no fruit unto God. Only one thunderbolt, and that for boasting pretenders; only one curse, and that for hypocrites. O blessed Spirit, write this heart-searching truth upon our hearts!" With the additional exception of permission granted to the devils to enter two thousand pigs causing them to drown (Matthew 8:28-34), no where else in Scripture do we encounter Jesus exacting judgment on His creation, specifically sparing human beings His wrath. For "He who came to save His people from their sin and its consequences resorted to prophetic actions not directed against His people, in order to warn them of the binding power of the devil and of God's enmity against all hypocritical piety" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary). The clear takeaway is a new found understanding of Christ's compassion on humans that He would offer a glimpse of eternal judgment through pronounced wrath upon an innocent created thing (a fig tree) rather than a sinful, unrighteous human being such as me.

The context of this situation is quite compelling as we learn from Mark's Gospel account that "it was not the season for figs" (Mark 11:13). Now the fig tree was highly regarded within Palestine due to its thick foliage and ample shade it provided during the heat of summer. Therefore seeing a fig tree in full foliage bloom from a distance made it stand out on the horizon because the spring season was upon them and fig trees were far from their time of harvest. Most notably though, "In the spring it produced small immature figs called 'taksh,' which were edible but not highly esteemed. The real harvest of the fig tree came in August. When the fig tree, which had shed its leaves during winter, began to have leaves, one could expect some small green figs. They were the guarantee of a later harvest. The tree that Jesus approached was without taksh" (New International Commentary). Like a mirage in the distance, Jesus demonstrated to His disciples a simplistic lesson that fruit is evidence of a blossom, both practically and spiritually. The fig tree bore the appearance of abundance but in actuality did not even have the most simple and miniscule evidence of fruit on it. How prophetic when compared to our own spiritual health!

Jesus taught a piercing lesson on hypocrisy and authenticity that echoes that of the prophet Ezekiel: "And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the LORD; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it" (Ezekiel 17:24). Or stated more plainly, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Those who present themselves publicly as Christians must bear the fruit of God's Word in their lives, otherwise they are a greater detriment to the cause of Christ due to their unrighteous behavior. Perhaps that is why Simon Peter declared, "For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:21). In fairness to context, Simon Peter was addressing false teachers in this passage, but in essence, aren't we all false teachers when we admonish righteous living to those around us while failing to measure up ourselves? Indeed we have an obligation to practice what we preach, but in not doing so we stifle the message of salvation as simply lost in translation by our lack of Biblical application.

Sadly, I believe Christians are their greatest adversary in fulfilling the Great Commission. Not in that we all are sinners and will continue to sin throughout our lives despite our best efforts to live to the contrary, but rather that we (the publicly declared Christians) typically either justify or blame shift our sinful behavior as not within our control, therefore minimizing the consequences of our sin and indirectly communicating to those around us that while we claim Christ as Savior, He is (in actuality) not supremely Lord of our lives. That crown is reserved for our true master, self, meaning we determine absolute truth for righteous living, not God. If we bear the name of Jesus in our lives it must be evident that we are "doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves" (James 1:22).

When I consider this truth, I am reminded of Christ's warning: "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13-14). Why does it surprise us then when we are confronted by our own hypocrisy? Is the fruit of God's Word not present in us because we fail to feed ourselves, opting to be spoon fed once a week our morsel of Scripture during Sunday church services? God forbid! We must take ownership of our sin by feasting upon God's Word, but we must be careful to avoid the pitfalls Satan places before us in doing so. For if I feed upon the Word and do not apply it, I am a hypocrite. And if I do not feed upon the Word and give the impression that I do, I am also a hypocrite. But if I feed upon the Word daily and allow it to take root and blossom through an attitude of brokenness and repentance, then and only then will I bear much fruit. "So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 7:17-19).

J.C. Ryle beautifully summarizes the importance of this message in his exposition of Matthew's Gospel: "So long as a man is content with the leaves of religion--with a name to live while he is dead, and a form of godliness without the power--so long his soul is in great peril. So long as he is satisfied with going to church or chapel, and receiving the Lord's supper, and being called a Christian, while his heart is not changed, and his sins not forsaken--so long he is daily provoking God to cut him off without remedy. Fruit, fruit--the fruit of the Spirit, is the only sure proof that we are savingly united to Christ, and in the way to heaven. May this sink down into our hearts, and never be forgotten!" Simply stated, our call to action requires transparency before an omniscient, omnipresent and sovereign God through obedient submission and Biblical application. We must measure our lives against God's Law, His Holy Word, because without it Christ's sacrifice is meaningless. Accepting Christ as Lord and Savior automatically comes with an acceptance of His Word, for "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). That requires an honest evaluation of the condition of our hearts when confronted with the truth of God's Word, manifested in various areas such as:

FAITH: (Ex: Hebrews 4:12; John 14:6)
- Do I believe the Bible is 100% true, cover to cover, without exception?
- Do I believe the Bible is living and active today as it was when it was written?
- Do I believe Jesus is the (only) way, the truth and the life for salvation?
- Do I live my life with the Bible as my ultimate authority?
- Do I trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of my life?
- Do I believe my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?
- Do I reject Satan and the passions of my sinful flesh?
- Do I actively resist sin and temptation or do I let my guard down on occassion?
- Do I practice religion or do I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES: (Ex: Titus 1:8; Philippians 4:8)
- Am I reading/studying Scripture daily with a teachable heart and mind?
- Am I praying daily, including adoration, confession and thanksgiving before offering my list of requests?
- (Men) Am I spiritually leading my family by reading the Bible and praying with my spouse/children daily?
- Am I prioritizing extracurricular activities above quality time with God in Bible study and prayer?
- Am I actively applying the truth of Scripture in my life or procrastinating change?

BIBLICAL APPLICATION: (Ex: James 1:22)
- Am I wearing a mask around others to hide who I really am?
- Am I honest and trustworthy in all aspects of my life?
- Am I unwilling to forgive someone who has hurt me?
- Am I unwilling to repent and seek forgiveness from those I have sinned against?
- Am I discontent with what I have rather than who I am?
- Am I harboring bitterness toward God in my heart during trials and tribulations?
- Am I taking credit for the blessings in my life or giving glory to God for them?

INTERPERSONAL: (Ex: Ephesians 5:22-6:4)
- Am I placing my wants/desires above others?
- (Men) Am I loving my wife?
- (Women) Am I respecting my husband?
- (Children) Am I obeying my parents?
- Am I valuing my spouse/children as a gift from God or a burden sometimes?

BEHAVIORAL: (Ex: James 3:5-6)
- Am I using foul language by myself, at home, at work or leisurely?
- Am I listening to understand when I communicate and/or conflict with others?
- Am I prone to raise my voice in anger when upset, discouraged or frustrated?
- Am I harboring bitterness toward anyone, therefore resenting or disassociating with them?
- Am I gossiping about others?
- Am I lazy in any area of my life (i.e. work, home, faith)?

SEXUAL PURITY: (Ex: 1 Corinthians 6:18; Ephesians 5:5)
- Am I sexually desiring (lusting after) someone other than my spouse?
- Am I viewing pornography or actively participating in sexual immorality?
- Am I masturbating or self-gratifying?
- Am I having sex before marriage?
- Am I craving the attention of someone other than my spouse?

BODILY ABUSE: (Ex: 1 Corinthians 6:19)
- Am I drinking alcohol in excess (more than 2 drinks max)?
- Am I obese or have an eating disorder (that is not medically justified)?
- Am I smoking cigarettes, chewing tobacco or consuming illegal drugs?
- Am I addicted to any legal or prescription drugs?
- Am I exercising in order to maintain optimal health?

This is merely a starting point in assessing the state of our hearts on how well we are applying God's Word. Scripture promises that "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Romans 10:9-10). Moreover, when you are saved you receive "the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26). Therefore, you are fully equipped from the inside out to live righteously "because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

I know that I have personified the fig tree Jesus cast judgment upon in my life. I deeply regret the years I spent ministering to others in church leadership positions only to live a double-life behind closed doors with grave deficiencies in all areas previously questioned. I have personified hypocrisy and suffered severely for it. I have not been careful how I've stood and fallen from a great height on numerous occassions. However, in the midst of all my poor decisions and consequences of sin, I now have wisdom and perspective that are "more precious than jewels" (Proverbs 3:15). But I can attest with all my being that the only reason I am where I am today is because of Jesus Christ and the manifestation of who He is as found in the pages of Holy Scripture. Without God's Word and the transforming power it has to pierce joint and marrow, I would be completely lost. Simply put, God saved me through His Word! The apostle Paul states plainly, "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men" (1 Corinthians 7:23), and that begins with daily doses of absolute truth found only in God's Word because I do not want to be "conformed to the passions of my former ignorance" (1 Peter 1:14) but "transformed by the renewal of my mind" (Romans 12:2).

Summarizing the depth and breadth of meaning behind Matthew 21:18-22 is virtually impossible for a novice student of the Bible such as myself. Therefore, I will defer to arguably the greatest pastor of the past two centuries, Charles Spurgeon, who preached this Gospel message to his congregation many years ago as a piercing conviction of the responsibility we have to take heed the warning Jesus taught through the withering of the fig tree:

"Fruit is what the Lord earnestly desires. The Saviour, when he came under the fig tree, did not desire leaves; for we read that he hungered, and human hunger cannot be removed by leaves of a fig tree. He desired to eat a fig or two and he longs to have fruit from us also. He hungers for our holiness; he longs that his joy may be in us, that our joy may be full. He comes up to each of you who are members of his church, and especially to each of you who are leaders of his people, and he looks to see in you the things in which his soul is well pleased. He would see in us love to himself, love to our fellow-men, strong faith in revelation, earnest contention for the once delivered faith, importunate pleading in prayer, and careful living in every part of our course. He expects from us actions such as are according to the law of God and the mind of the Spirit of God; and if he does not see these, he does not receive his due. What did he die for but to make his people holy? What did he give himself for but that he might sanctify unto himself a people zealous for good works? What is the reward of the bloody sweat and the five wounds and the death agony, but that by all these we should be bought with a price? We rob him of his reward if we do not glorify him, and therefore the spirit of God is grieved at our conduct if we do not show forth his praises by our godly and zealous lives. And mark here, that when Christ comes to a soul he surveys it with keen discernment. He is not mocked. It is not possible to deceive him. I have thought that to be a fig which turned out to be only a leaf; but our Lord makes no such mistake. Neither will he overlook the little figs, just breaking forth. He knows the fruit of the Spirit in whatever stage it may be. He never mistakes fluent expression for hearty possession, nor real grace for mere emotion. Beloved, you are in good hands as to the trial of your condition when the Lord Jesus comes to deal with you. Your fellow-men are quick in their judgments, and they may be either censorious, or partial; but the King gives forth a righteous sentence. He knows just where we are, and what we are; and he judges not after the appearance, but according to truth. Oh, that our prayer might this morning rise to heaven: 'Jesus, Master, come and cast thy searching eyes upon me, and judge whether I am living unto thee or not! Give me to see myself as thou seest me, that I may have my errors corrected, and my graces nourished. Lord, make me to be indeed what I profess to be; and if I am not so already, convince me of my false state, and begin a true work in my soul. If I am thine, and am right in thy sight, grant me a kind, assuring word to sink my fears again, and I will gladly rejoice in thee as the God of my salvation!'"

Luke 11:24-26

"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first." One of my favorite Bible teachers, James MacDonald, often proclaims, "Choose to sin, choose to suffer." This piercing truth coincides precisely with the warning Jesus gives in Luke 11:24-26 and personally raises convicting application questions that I need to continually remind myself as a way of preaching the Gospel message to my fleshly heart and mind. Questions such as: 1. How often do I take time to consider the impact sin has in my life? 2. Do I minimize my sins as within my control to handle/overcome? 3. Do I hate my specific sins so as never to return to them? 4. Does the temptation to sin drive me to the cross before I fall or after? 5. Do I understand and fear God's wrath and judgment of sin? Examining all aspects of sin is crucial to overcoming it. Sin is serious. It separates us from fellowship with God and drives the nails Jesus bore for our unrighteousness deeper still into his innocent body. The real question that must be answered though is what am I going to do about it and how committed will I be to see it through. If there is predominant lesson I have learned through the devastation of sins I have committed, it is that true repentance and life change can only occur within a knowledge and understanding of God's Word. This requires a level of consistency and commitment to not only read the Word but apply it through my heart. It begins with an act of the will that manifests itself as self-discipline which is an intentional process that must be established with a goal in mind. Or as the apostle Paul explains, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). I believe in order to gain control over sin in our lives we must see sin for what it really is and that sin manifests itself in various forms. Scripture warns, "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). We most certainly have an enemy that knows our weaknesses better than we do and exploits them in an effort to isolate us where we are less protected. Therefore we must remember "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). The minute we break fellowship with God we are drawn into darkness where hungry lions prowl and are easy prey for self-imposed destruction. When I reflect upon the five application questions listed above I am convicted first that I do not spend enough time reflecting upon the role sin plays in my life, for I have fallen victim to letting down my guard on countless occasions and almost lost all I held dear to me because of it. Selfish desire does that--and if left unattended it gives birth to Jesus' warning in Luke 11:26 that spirits more evil than the first will assuredly take residence in my life. James, the half-brother of Jesus, perhaps summarized it best when he said, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:14-15). Sin requires focused attention and a Scriptural set of eyes to discern with, and we are fools if we do not recognize sin's impact on our relationship with God and make necessary adjustments immediately. The second convicting question drives a knife into my prideful heart. Minimizing sin is simply an act of laziness because the effort it takes to protect against sin far outweighs the effort of declaring, "I have everything under control." I was convicted recently of this point in the book of Proverbs: "The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly" (Proverbs 26:16). It takes an incredible amount of humility to counter a self-righteous attitude that believes it is all-knowing. And whether I care to admit it, more often than not I minimize sin and consequently experience the chaos of life without God as my source of strength. Perhaps if I accepted reality that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Corinthians 1:25), I might be willing to abandon my prideful attitudes and submit to a Sovereign God who supremely knows better and desires that I take my sins seriously, regardless of the depth and breadth of their severity and impact. Questions #3 begs the question of whether I hate my sins enough never to return to them. In some instances, I can answer favorably because I have experienced the devastation of specific sins I have committed and am permanently scarred. Fear of consequences can be a powerful motivator! But again, is the practice of minimizing sin creating a hardened heart within me that lacks the righteous hatred of sin that for instance provoked Jesus to cleanse the temple in Matthew 21:13-14? Do I elevate fellowship with God over self-gratification? Am I not saying to God, "I choose ____ over you" when I prioritize sinful desires or actions over Him, thus committing idolatry? Seeing my sins for what they are must first be born from the pages of Scripture as a basis for absolute truth and a standard for righteousness which consequently manifests itself through an application of that truth in opposition to the flesh. This breeds an understanding that the Lord hates sin and should compel me to share His passionate hatred for sin as well. I need not look any further than His Word for an example on whether I recognize various sins in my own life and therefore detest them so much that I have abandoned them and never returned: "There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers" (Proverbs 6:16-19). More than I care to admit, I am greatly convicted by this simple list of sins to avoid that are merely a minuscule example of what the Bible teaches on the topic of sin. While hating my sin never to return is essentially the abstinence method of dealing with sin, temptation is still ever present and must be addressed. Therefore, the reality of the cross of Calvary must take center-stage when I come to spiritual forks in the road where I must choose Christ or my flesh. The apostle Paul goes to great lengths to communicate the eternal impact Christ's sacrifice made: "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:13-14). Without the cross, I have no fellowship with God and am subject to His eternal judgment. With it, I not only have hope but assurance of grace and mercy. Therefore, why would I not drive my selfish will to the foot of the cross when confronted by temptation? If I believe the almighty truth of Scripture within my heart, why do I tend to be reactive rather than proactive when confronting sin and temptation? More often than not, it is because the priority of Bible study, meditation and prayer have been replaced by worldly attitudes, such as "I'm too tired," "I don't have time," "What difference does it make," or "I'll get to it tomorrow." Bottom-line, it is laziness on my part, pure and simple, of which I need to repent of and turn away from. Finally, the concept of Holy fear encompasses all other questions: Is God's wrath and judgment real to me? Based upon the evidence of sin in my life, I would unfortunately declare, "No," and that is heartbreaking for me to admit and more so for my Lord and Savior who died for my rebellious heart. The warning Jesus sternly gives in Luke 11:24-26 is simply that if I only clean house on sin in my life but fail to replace those sinful thoughts, actions and motives with the truth of Scripture and healthy spiritual disciplines, I am setting myself up for an even greater fall. God forbid, I do not want to be that man! I have experienced firsthand the ramifications of not applying that truth and have severely suffered the consequences of my actions in my relationship with God and those I love. Anyone who has assumed he/she had control over sin in their life and held to that belief understands this all too well, which impresses the point even harder that a Holy fear of God must be living and active in order to quench the flaming arrows of the enemy. I must universally (not just specifically) lay down my pride and arrogance and apply the truth of King Solomon's final decree after he considered and scrutinized all the pleasures of life. For when I sin, I am essentially choosing the pleasures of this world over my Lord and Savior. May this truth convict me to action to better protect myself from the effects of sin and gain victory once and for all over interwoven sins of pride and selfishness still present in my life: "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

1 Corinthians 10:12-13

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” It is undoubtedly true that God displays His Sovereignty through fallen man, of which I am no exception. Just as God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" (Jeremiah 1:5), I have always felt His presence. For God knew I would be exposed to pornography at a young age and struggle resisting lustful temptations all my life. And while He protected me from countless dangers I could have easily fallen into as a result of my sin, He also loved me enough to not always withhold the sinful desires of my flesh just as He did for the nation of Israel (Numbers 11:19-20). For out of the depths of my sin, I have come to praise Him for loving me enough to let me suffer the consequences of my actions (Ezekiel 23:35) that I might see the damage I caused and repent. In retrospect, I grew up with a works-based theology with topical knowledge of the most popular stories of Scripture. I knew who Jesus was, just not personally. I was a "surface" Christian with little depth of Biblical truth and my life reflected that for decades. I wish I could say I knew better, but truth be told I was simply lazy. I didn't have the desire to do what it takes to be a man of Biblical substance, but I could talk a good game and on the outside appeared to be further along spiritually than I was. In some ways I knew better, in other ways I deceived myself, but my pride and arrogance were strong enough to make me believe I could be an effective ministry leader for Christ without a solid foundation of spiritual disciplines. As time has passed that truth has been magnified exponentially within my sanctification. The greatest self-realization I have experienced has come through the stern rebuke of Jesus in Matthew 23 where He casts woes of judgment upon the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees. For at the same time God answered my prayer for a genuine hunger of His Word eight months ago, He directed me specifically to absolute truth that would address the core of my sin: my love of self manifested in hypocrisy, pride, arrogance and lust. In His Sovereignty He knew that what I needed to rid my heart of all fleshly desires was His Word that “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). And I give Him all the glory, honor and praise because He has been faithful and just to forgive my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) through a genuine knowledge and understanding of His Word. Make no mistake, God’s promise to blot out my transgressions for my own sake by not remembering them (Isaiah 43:25) does not in any way excuse or eliminate the consequences of actions. Scripture declares, “The Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6), and I have not been pardoned from the pain I have caused by forsaking all others to gratify the desires of my flesh. Confessing sin and taking full responsibility for the pain my lustful desires have caused my wife especially is immeasurable. For years I failed to fully realize that my sin not only destroyed her self confidence by creating cancerous insecurity, doubt and anxiety, but more importantly it magnified my lack of Biblical character and integrity supremely needed to provide protection and security for our marriage. My sin left my wife vulnerable to a myriad of temptations and attacks of spiritual warfare because I was too foolish and self-absorbed to see the widespread destruction my sin had made against her. Praise God for His deliverance though because I now proclaim, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). It has taken not only professional Biblical counseling with my gracious, merciful and forgiving wife who continually dies to herself by supporting me through rehibilitation and accountability with Christian brothers and Covenant Eyes, but a sincere desire and steadfast commitment to humble myself daily by dying to self. For when I love my wife as I love my own body (Ephesians 5:28), I begin to receive God’s promise to restore the years the swarming locusts has eaten (Joel 2:25) and fulfill my responsibility appointed by God to love my wife as Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25). Scripture states two absolute truths that address my hypocrisy perfectly: “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6). “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:26-27). This is the ultimate litmus test of my life now because it convicts me to not only have head knowledge of Scripture, but heart application to avoid sinning deliberately and backsliding into old patterns. My heart’s desire now is to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only deceiving myself (James 1:22). I simply want to humbly proclaim at the end of my days here on earth, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). That blessing only comes to a man who is willing to die to self, embracing the cross of Christ in repentance. And by God’s grace, the legacy I will leave one day will be unconditional brokenness and humility before a Holy God that will infinitely bless my wife and children through my commitment to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of my mind, that by testing I may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2). “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11).

1 John 1:5-10

"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

Transparency is perhaps the greatest opposing force to selfishness. For when we are transparent with our selfishness, we place a magnifying glass upon pride in our lives. This process can only take place within an honest environment where truth is supremely regarded and refuses to be compromised for the sake of self-protection. One cannot avoid the consequences of sin when a heart is hardened and unrepentant (nor even when it is repentant). That is the essence of darkness living and precisely the target that John is aiming at in shedding "light" on our sin nature.

John consistently identifies Jesus as "light" throughout his letters. He writes, "In him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:4-5). From John's firsthand perspective, as the ESV Study Bible notes, "Jesus as the 'light' brings to this dark world true knowledge, moral purity, and the light that shows the very presence of God." Jesus does not apologize for the truth He not only represents but is the very existence of. Rather, He simply offers salvation to those who might believe in Him as recorded in Scripture:

"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life'" (John 8:12).

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God" (John 3:19-21).

"So Jesus said to them, 'The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light'" (John 12:35-36).

"I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness" (John 12:46).

The message is painstakingly clear: If our identity is not found in Jesus Christ, all hope is lost for righteous living for He is the manifestation of righteousness, the light we desperately long for. Therefore we must take heed the warning Jesus proclaims: "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few" (Matthew 7:13-14). The book of James supports this point emphatically with the proclamation: "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). In order to enter the narrow gate that leads to Christ, we must be intentional not to deceive ourselves that we can live in darkness (hypocritically) while maintaining the illusion that we are spiritually mature apart from Him.

It has taken 32 years of my life to realize this foundational truth that no word I speak, no act I commit nor thought I ponder is worth any positive value apart from Christ. Like the apostle Paul, I have been awakened to the bitter truth "that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out" (Romans 7:18). I am simply a fallen man who has been saved by grace through faith not because I deserved it, earned it, or even chose it, but because God gave it to me as a free gift, to which I praise and give him all the glory and honor.

For me personally, the convicting truth of 1 John 5-10 centers on the issue of hypocrisy because by definition, a hypocritical man personifies what John is teaching. Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary defines hypocrisy as "simulation; a feigning to be what one is not; or dissimulation, a concealment of one's real character or motives. More generally, hypocrisy is simulation, or the assuming of a false appearance of virtue or religion; a deceitful show of a good character, in morals or religion; a counterfeiting of religion." When I read this list I am pierced by the reality that I perfected this identity in my life for years. More specifically, I am appalled that I was so arrogant as to assume I was spiritually mature when my actions did not give evidence to the truth I was quick to proclaim to others.

It is no wonder why I struggled for the essence of hypocritical living is found within a double-minded man who is torn between God and the world. Scripture describes such a man as "unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8). James goes on to specify double-mindedness as a heart issue that requires purification, admonishing that the answer is to "draw near to God, and He will draw near to you" (James 4:8). Again, this is impossible without recognition of sin found in God's Word and a genuine repentance unto the Lord for the forgiveness of sins. We must choose to live out God's Word through the application of humble hearts, allowing God to extract the cancer within us with surgical precision so that our spirits begin to heal from the life-extracting effects of darkness living.

The true awakening I have experienced has come in owning up to the pride in my heart that I can superficially walk in light while standing firm in darkness. The Bible declares such a man a fool, and rightfully so for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7). Moreover, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice" (Proverbs 12:15). If only I had paid attention to the warning signs God continually placed in my life and embraced the accountability God provided through those in Christ who loved me, perhaps I could have avoided the pain of self-afflicted sin. But like many, I often chose the hard road to recovery and had to endure the consequences of my sin because of my hypocrisy.

Where the rubber meets the road is simply whether we heed the perspective God has given us through the consequences of our sin. Personally, I now profess, "As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same" (Job 4:8) because I have reaped what I have sinfully sowed in my life. Without that perspective though, I would not appreciate the beauty of repentance that "those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy" (Psalm 126:5). In order to live in the light we must step out from the shadows, and that begins with confession of sin through a genuine brokenness over our hypocritical living. As King David so eloquently penned, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). Therefore, we are wise to apply the same wisdom in our own lives and approach the throne of grace with humble hearts as 1 John 1:9 states, that Jesus might say, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more" (John 8:11).

1 John 2:15-17

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." Love is a word that immediately invokes the connotation of emotion manifested by strong feelings of passion and desire. Culturally, love is predominately viewed in a positive sense; to love someone or something is to have affectionate feelings thereof. Biblically though, the topic of love is quite complex because it can either be a positive or negative emotion, or object of affection based upon the original Hebrew and Greek language studied. For instance, two Greek words for love are described in verse 15: agapeo and agape. The former is an affectionate action and the latter an object of affection. In the context of John's writing, Strong's Concordance defines agapeo as "to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing." Conversely, Strong's defines agape as "affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love." The importance of studying these differences lies in the man versus God context. If we are called by John to not love the world (i.e. be well pleased or contented at or with a thing), we will not inherit the love (i.e. the affection, good will, and benevolence) of God. The two simply cannot coexist in the sense that we cannot love the things of this world and God simultaneously, and Scripture clearly defines this distinction. For even Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Matthew 6:24). For instance, from the very beginning God made it clear that he does not compete with anyone or anything. "And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before [or besides] me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands [or to the thousandth generation] of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Exodus 20:1-6). This is absolutely crucial to understanding 1 John 2:15-17 because God proclaims that He is a jealous God and He will not accept a half-hearted devotion and commitment from mankind whom He sent His only Son to earth to die for their salvation. Scripture emphatically proclaims this point: "You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14), "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God" (Deuteronomy 4:24). Without a correct understanding of who God is, it is virtually impossible to grasp the magnitude of John's admonition. God's identity and purpose for mankind is foundational as Exodus details how God passed before Moses proclaiming His name: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands [or to the thousandth generation,] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:6-7). This is a perfect description straight from the mouth of God Himself of what His love looks like: merciful, gracious, patient, steadfast, faithful and forgiving. How could we ever willingly trade these gifts of love for a love of created things? God forbid! But take heed that in the same breath God warns that He will by no means clear the guilty, but rather visit the iniquity of the fathers on future generations. For while God is indeed love, He is equally just; and His judgment upon the sins of mankind must be served. The book of Nahum similarly notes, "The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty" (Nahum 1:2-3a). The context of this passage is that God is proclaiming judgment on the city of Nineveh for their idolatry, which Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary defines as "the worship of idols, images, or any thing made by hands, or which is not God." Clearly, as accurately as Exodus 34:6-7 declares God's love, Nahum 1:2-3a details His wrath. The ESV Study Bible provides outstanding understanding of Nahum 1:2-3a: "The Lord is jealous with regard to his own honor and those in covenant fellowship with him. God's holy anger is righteous and just, in defense of his word and his people. God holds back the venting of his anger until an appropriate time. God's patience explains why the wicked often do not immediately receive the judgment they deserve. The delay in deserved judgment is not due to a lack of power or control on God's part. That the wicked seemingly prosper does not mean God regards them as innocent or has forgotten their iniquity." The important takeaway is that God is both omniscient and omnipresent. He will judge the sins of mankind according to His sovereign will and timing, but He does provide forgiveness through the shed blood of His Son to those who accept God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul describes it this way: "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross" (Colossians 2:13-14). With a correct understanding of why loving the things of this world is detestable to God, in verse 16 John focuses specifically on what those things are that become idols within our hearts and separate us from the love of God: the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride in possessions. In focusing on the issue of desires, the ESV Study Bible again gives good explanation that "human desires are part of God's creation and therefore not inherently evil, but they become twisted when not directed by and toward God." The apostle Paul clarifies this point further in his instruction to the church in Rome, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Romans 13:14), and to the church in Galatia, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do...And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Galatians 5:16-17, 24). Paul clearly distinguishes that the desires of the flesh are in opposition to God as revealed in the Trinity. Therefore, to crucify the desires of the flesh one must accept salvation by faith through the atoning sacrifice Christ made on the cross of Calvary for our redemption of sins. Similar to the flesh, the eyes desire, crave and lust for what is forbidden. Whether focused on sexual lust or cravings of treasures, riches and possessions, the eyes are not to be trusted if they cause us to sin. Jesus specifically addressed this issue when he said, "And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell" (Mark 9:47). It is interesting to note that King Solomon provides firsthand experience in the book of Ecclesiastes that the desires of the eyes are meaningless, deeming self-indulgence as vanity. "And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11). Lastly, John addresses pride in possessions (or life) because as the New International Commentary states, "This is the essence of the 'wordly' person; it is a way of feeling, looking, and expressing oneself." The Greek word for "pride" according to Strong's Concordance is alazoneia, referred to otherwise in only James 4:16 which states, "As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil." Matthew Henry comments that within alazoneia "a vain mind craves all the grandeur, equipage, and pomp of a vain-glorious life; this is ambition, and thirst after honour and applause. This is, in part, the disease of the ear; it must be flattered with admiration and praise." The most difficult part of studying 1 John 2:15-17 is that it places a mirror in front of us, reflecting the condition of our hearts before a holy God. For how can we, as self-proclaiming Christians especially, choose to love what the world loves over submitting to the will of God? More specifically for example, how can we as men justify looking lustfully at women other than our wives and ignore Christ's warning "that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28)? How can we ignore what the Bible repeatedly teaches on the issues of greed, disobedience, malice, drunkenness, anger, sexual immorality, idolatry, arrogance, pride, false witness, theft, slander, unforgiveness, jealousy, covetousness, quarreling, criticizing, complaining, rebellion, betrayal, laziness, and bitterness (just to name a few), and expect that we can enter the throne room of grace when our hearts are hard and bent on loving the pride and desires of the fallen world? I know that in my own life I have failed miserably, more times than I ever care to remember, passionately desiring the lusts of the flesh and eyes, and living in prideful boasting. I have too often chosen sinful desires over submitting to the will of God where true contentment can only be found and have suffered the consequences of my sinful choices against God and those I love. I have learned the hard way that I must humble myself daily to admit as King David did, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment...Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:3-4, 10). Only then will I be able to understand God's divine plan where His love and His wrath intersect at the cross of Calvary. For "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:17). As I studied this passage, I was completely convicted by two references in the Expositor's Bible Commentary concerning pride in possessions, for they expounded upon the depth of sin in my own heart and stripped away any shred of self protection and justification I had built up in my life. It states that the corporate adjective for alazoneia (alazon) "describes a pretentious hypocrite who glories in himself or in his possessions. He is a person of ostentatious pride in his own non-existent importance...If my reputation, my public image, matters more to me than the glory of God or the well-being of my followers, the 'pretentiousness of life' has become the object of my idol-worship." Shamefully that description fits me perfectly for I spent practically my whole life glorifying myself as a pretentious hypocrite rather than God. But I praise God that I am continually finding life-changing freedom in the convicting, absolute truth of God's Word that challenges my selfish heart, and I am steadfast on pulling myself out of the habitual patterns of hypocritical living I have learned to carefully master and embracing humility. For as Jesus declared, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31b-32). I believe Matthew Henry provides the greatest synopsis of what John is communicating in 1 John 2:15-17 when he wrote, "Be crucified to the world, be mortified to the things, to the affairs and enticements, of it...love should be reserved for God; throw it not away upon the world." In other words, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2). It is an exhausting process putting to death our lustful desires and passions of this world, but we must also remind ourselves of the victory we have in Christ. For while John warns us in 1 John 2:15-17 to put off loving the world and embrace the love of the Father, he also reminds us in the book of Revelation of the prize that awaits us when God destroys evil once and for all and establishes the new heaven and the new earth. For on that day, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 20:4).

1 John 3:4-10

"Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother." Sin...such a small word with enormous implications. From cover to cover beginning with Genesis 3, the Bible speaks on the issue of sin and its ramifications for fallen man till Christ returns to establish the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21. Sin is the reason why God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die a criminal's death for our salvation and it remains the greatest obstacle that man faces because sin is at war against the holiness of God and aims to hold us captive, separated from our Creator. The apostle Paul sums up this point beautifully when he states, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-7). We simply cannot understand what sin is though apart from a comprehension of the law that defines sin according to God's standard. That is the power of God's Word and the reason why a true follower of Christ embraces the Scriptures with every facet of his or her being. "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). Without the Bible, we are simply lost and captive to spiritual anarchy and post modernism thinking whereby our standard of right and wrong is defined by our thoughts, feelings and logic rather than the concrete absolute truth found in God's Holy Word. Make no mistake, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:18-20). Whether someone does or does not have access to God's Word, he/she is still accountable to the wrath of God. "For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified" (Romans 2:12-13). So to clarify, one must not only observe God's law but more importantly apply its truth in his/her life in order to gain "the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day" (2 Timothy 4:8). Yet "whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it" (James 2:10). The ramifications of this truth pave the way for 1 John 3:4-10 because if we have access to God's written law or His eternal power and divine nature, we cannot ignore our obligation to observe God's standard accordingly. This does presuppose the point that whoever seeks to apply 1 John 3:4-10 has been "saved by grace through faith...and not a result of works" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Assuming this is so, we can begin to unpack the truth John is sharing. Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary defines sin as "The voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by God; any voluntary transgression of the divine law, or violation of a divine command; a wicked act; iniquity. Sin is either a positive act in which a known divine law is violated, or it is the voluntary neglect to obey a positive divine command, or a rule of duty clearly implied in such command. Sin comprehends not action only, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts, purposes, words and desires, whatever is contrary to God's commands or law." It amazes me to read this definition by Webster in correlation to 1 John 3:4-10. He conveys that sin is voluntary neglect/departure from divine law manifested in thoughts, actions, purposes, words and desires. In other words, sin is a purposeful and conscious decision to violate God's law. No wonder Paul emphatically warns, "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:26-31). Indeed, it should shake us to our core that to deliberately sin after receiving the truth of God's Word imposes judgment and wrath from an angry God that abhors sin. Even Peter, the disciple who denied knowing Jesus, declared, "For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:21). Peter is conveying a most piercing truth that he learned firsthand through his failures and turning his back on the author of absolute truth, teaching us that even a man who Jesus personally addressed as a rock to build His church upon (Matthew 16:18) is as prone to sin as we are. I believe it is imperative to point out that John is addressing in verse 9 those who make a practice of sinning, for the process of sanctification is a purifying journey where we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ. Bluntly said, sanctification is everything to the Christian walk as the apostle Paul declares to the church in Thessalonica, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3) and to the church in Rome, "For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification" (Romans 6:19). But more specifically, John places great emphasis on the word "practice," using it six times between verses 4 and 10 which conveys pretty clearly what Webster defines as "to do or perform frequently, customarily or habitually." We cannot ignore the fact that our habitual nature and tendencies that take effect within our lives draw us closer to the foot of the cross or boldly away from it. The million dollar question though is what do we do about this spiritual dilemma? In basic terms we choose to sin or to live righteously, but actions do speak louder than words and in this case we must know how to choose our path. Fortunately, Jesus instructed his disciples on exactly how they would choose when he said, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:26). Moreover, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come" (John 16:13). God provides His children with a part of Himself that guides and directs our paths if only we allow the Spirit to lead rather than suppress the truth that He speaks to us in our moments of decision. Knowing that God's Spirit dwells within us (1 Corinthians 3:16) and accessing that divine power is absolutely crucial to choosing righteousness over sin. Over the years I have found it difficult to abide in Christ as John declares in verse 6. For to abide, as Webster defines, is "to dwell, rest, continue, stand firm, or be stationary for anytime indefinitely." Dare I proclaim that to abide in Christ requires contentment and patience! I humbly admit that my restless soul with a natural bent toward the sins/lusts of the flesh contradicts the Spirit's desire to sanctify me from the inside out. Perhaps though, that is the true beauty of submitting to a Savior that took upon human form in order to empathize with our trials and struggles, pains and iniquities, yet remained in God the Father "perfectly one, so that the world may know that you (Father) sent me (Jesus) and loved them even as you loved me" (John 17:23). My human nature pridefully yields to self rather than Christ more often than not, manifested in a sinful (and unsuccessful) attempt to handle my own business and independently fix my problems instead of seeking help and guidance from my Lord and Savior who is supremely sovereign. I would be greatly served to heed Jesus' loving call when he proclaimed, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-29). The truth I must personally come to grips with is whether I believe that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The call to righteousness appears at times to be a daunting task and unconquerable mountain to climb, yet I know in obedience I am called to make the effort regardless of how I feel. I believe that is the key to whether we truly practice lawlessness or righteousness and proves as John writes whether we belong to Christ or the Devil. The battle no doubt is ongoing and the stakes eternal in measure for those who aim to follow Jesus Christ. Like John, the apostle Paul understood this spiritual battle when he addressed the Roman church concerning his struggle with sin and righteousness. "So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin" (Romans 7:21-25). Paul immediately goes on to remind us all though that the ultimate victory we seek is found in Christ, and that is an absolute truth that I need to remind myself of each day in order to live my life in a posture of humility and understanding before a sovereign God. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit" (Romans 8:1-5).

Psalm 32:3-5

"For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.'" When a man or woman accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8), he or she is embarking on an incredible journey, one that will test the core of what an individual thinks about him or herself. There is a shift in the heart of the individual who accepts Christ's atoning sacrifice, for the reality of sin rises to the surface as the Holy Spirit convicts and becomes the gauge by which genuineness and depth of faith is measured. "He (the Holy Spirit) will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:8). Now Psalm 32:1-2 accurately describes the blessing of that process which results in forgiveness, but the following three verses of Psalm 32 give the reader understanding on what brought King David to the point of recognition his sin and repentance. In other words, verses 3-5 entail the sanctification process David endured that resulted in the blessing of forgiveness. Interestingly, in comparison to Psalm 51 written by David as a result of his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah, the emphasis on Psalm 32:3-5 is "traced not so much to the speaker's (David's) sin as to his 'silence' about his sin and to his 'covering it up'" (New International Biblical Commentary). The apostle Paul supports this point by plainly addressing the issues of accountability (i.e. we are accountable for our sin) and sin recognition (i.e. through God's Word we have knowledge of sin) that guard us against covering up our sins. He writes, "Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:19-20). Let us be clear though that ALL men are held accountable before God, not just those who profess Jesus as Lord, and Paul essentially spends the entire first three chapters of the book of Romans addressing that singular point. Recognition of sin (as learned through the life of David) is impossible without a Biblical construct of absolute truth. For the professing follower of Jesus Christ, knowledge of the Bible is foundational because in summation it leads to the cross of Calvary. That truth is paramount, for without the cross we would have no bridge between God's wrath (His law) and God's love (His sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the penalty of our sins). Ephesians 2:13-16 states plainly that "by the blood of Christ...he himself made us one...by abolishing the law of commandments...to reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross." Therefore we are foolish to believe that we can exist as men and women of righteousness for the sake of the Gospel if we do not feed upon our only source of absolute truth that proclaims for us God's eternal grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. However there must be a connection between knowledge of the mind and application of the heart to avoid that which David demonstrated through his silence of sin. For if God's Word does not impact our heart, we invite temptation into our lives with rapidly increasing frequency and intensity, and consequently fall prey to sinful desires. Personally I have experienced firsthand the absolute truth David describes and have lived in the silence of private sin that undoubtedly gives Satan a foothold. I have experienced extreme conviction regarding the truth of 1 Corinthians 4:5, "Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God," and have felt the heavy hand of God that David so accurately points out. God's contempt for sin is absolute, but because He loves us He allows us to choose sin or righteousness through every thought and action we make. Make no mistake though that if you are genuinely seeking to "know him," He will expose the darkness in your life as He did mine and give you the opportunity to confess your sin before Him and those you have sinned against. When I reflect upon my recent Psalm 32:3-5 testimony, I am haunted that I fell completely victim by my own volition to Hebrews 10:26-31. It is one of the most bone chilling and convicting passages of Scripture I have ever read and it is a model of where I recently found myself in my faith walk with Christ. It reads: "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:26-31). To reflect upon that passage of Scripture brings an excruciatingly intense feeling of guilt and shame to my heart and enormous regret for the sins I have committed and their destruction on my life and the lives of those I have directly and indirectly sinned against. I am humbled beyond words by the honest truth that due to a lack of genuine faith (Matthew 17:20), my selfish pride and stubbornness has magnified the disconnect between my heart and mind. That is the reality of David's experience in Psalm 32:3-5 and I concur completely for I have made the same grievous mistake in my own life. I cannot begin to describe how humbling it has been for me to accept that I have lived the majority of my life under the illusion of a logical understanding of God's Word and what a true relationship with Him looks like rather than washing myself daily through prayer and repentance, feeding my heart and mind upon God's Word. I have had to come to terms that for years I hypocritically preached to others on the constructs of righteous living while living without spiritual disciplines firmly planted in my own life. Oh, how I now emphatically confess, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). Only recently through the process of Biblical counseling, accountability, immeasurable amounts of love, grace and mercy by others, and embracing/practicing daily spiritual disciplines has God completely taken my heart captive through the absolute truth of His Word, shattering my self-protecting pride and rebuilding me through humility and self-sacrifice. My perspective has changed now, and like Paul I proclaim from my transformed mind and heart, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost" (1 Timothy 1:15). For truly, if God had not heavily pressed His hand upon me I would be wasting away, covering my sins and living the life of a self-righteous hypocrite till my prideful and self-protecting walls came crashing down upon me with substantially greater destruction. Praise God that "the works of his hands are faithful and just" (Psalm 111:7), for if He did not love me He would not have allowed me to endure this sanctifying process that ultimately saved my life "and let steadfastness have its full effect, that (I) may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:4).

Psalm 32:1-2

"Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." There are infinite aspects of God's character that defy human logic or understanding, of which grace and mercy are among the top concepts that we cannot fully comprehend this side of heaven. Perhaps the greatest by-product of God's grace and mercy is His willingness to forgive sins. For as the apostle Paul declares, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7). Each concept though has a distinct purpose in God's will and Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary provides incredible differentiation among these three characteristics of God's character that are worth considering: GRACE - 1. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him. 2. The application of Christ's righteousness to the sinner. 3. A state of reconciliation to God. MERCY - That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; the disposition that tempers justice, and induces an injured person to forgive trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment, or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. In this sense, there is perhaps no word in our language precisely synonymous with mercy. That which comes nearest to it is grace. It implies benevolence, tenderness, mildness, pity or compassion, and clemency, but exercised only towards offenders. Mercy is a distinguishing attribute of the Supreme Being. FORGIVENESS - 1. The act of forgiving; the pardon of an offender, by which he is considered and treated as not guilty. 2. The pardon or remission of an offense or crime; as the forgiveness of sin or of injuries. I am continually amazed by the wisdom Noah Webster defines the English language according to a Biblical perspective. Notice the explicit distinctions among these concepts. Grace is unmerited love and favor of God while mercy treats an offender better than he deserves, but forgiveness takes upon its shoulders the weight of the entire sin. As Webster states, forgiveness is the pardon of an offender by which he is considered and treated as NOT GUILTY. In other words, because God is gracious and merciful toward His children, He forgives them of their sins. Let us not be all-encompassing in this fact though, lest we assume that every human being in the history of time has been unconditionally forgiven of all their sins and is now sitting in heaven with Jesus Christ. Forgiveness is a promise given to every BELIEVER that accepts the forgiveness of their sins through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. For Jesus set forth a new covenant during His final Passover meal: "And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins'" (Matthew 26:27-28). Scripture is rich with the promises of forgiveness God proclaims to His people based on their recognition of sin and genuine repentance through the act of humility. "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). Jesus does elaborate on the concept of forgiveness further as an act of obedience that we must display toward others in order to receive God's gracious and merciful forgiveness for ourselves, lest we be judged according to the hardness of our hearts. "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14-15). The true blessing of forgiveness that David declares in Psalm 32 is based upon the promise of God's grace and mercy that flow from His character, or as The Expositor's Bible Commentary plainly states, "The psalmist declares that the forgiveness of sin, of whatever kind—whether against God or man, whether great or small, whether conscientious or inadvertent, or whether by omission or commission—is to be found in God." God is the ultimate forgiver of sin and every knee will bow to Him on the day of judgment. Therefore, we must apply the truth of Scripture into our lives that declares we are His children, and held to a higher standard than the world. For no matter the offenses we commit against others or offenses we endure, we must seek unconditionally seek forgiveness and forgive others simply for one reason: Christ forgave us and died for our sins. "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive" (Colossians 3:12-13). I praise God that He not only treats me better than I deserve (mercy) by offering me unmerited favor (grace), but that He goes far beyond any human comprehension of love by sacrificing His one and only Son on my behalf (forgiveness through imputed righteousness) so that I may have the privilege of spending eternity with Him. Forgiveness is simply divine and it should make us proclaim as David did in Psalm 27:4, "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." Without forgiveness, that picture of heaven will never become a reality. It must begin with grace and repentance and accepting God's Word as true. For if we do not believe His Word, we cannot begin to comprehend His grace and mercy which produces a willingness within Him to forgive our sins based on the sacrifice He made through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus and the absolute truth of Scripture are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other and more importantly, Scripture declares that He is the manifestation of the Word of God. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Therefore, let us give thanks for the by-product of God's grace and mercy, the eternal blessing of forgiveness found only in Jesus Christ that covers sins and restores us whole to our Creator and Father in heaven, praising God for all eternity because His Word declares it as ABSOLUTE TRUTH!

Matthew 23:29-32

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers." The seventh and final woe Jesus proclaims to the scribes and Pharisees is perhaps the most interesting of them all. It summarizes the behavior of the previous six woes He declares and paints the big picture of their sinfulness against God and the consequential result of those sins in His imminent crucifixion. He points out their consistency of behavior over time and their lack of recognition based on the history of which they are descendants, creating the perfect storm for eternal separation between them and God. What a mighty warning we must heed in response! The apostle Paul makes a similar argument in his letter to the Hebrews: "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?" (Hebrews 10:29). How proud must a man be to proclaim in the presence of his own hypocrisy that he would choose righteousness over sin. Truly, he would be better to say nothing at all! Perhaps that is why Scripture admonishes, "For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them" (2 Peter 2:21). The scribes and Pharisees deceived themselves into believing that they were not one in the same with their forefathers, without recognizing their pattern of sinfulness that mirrored the sins of their forefathers. In other words, "They think, if they had lived in the days of the prophets, they would have heard them gladly and obeyed; and yet they rebelled against the light that Christ brought into the world" (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible). For example, they failed to heed and apply Jesus' teaching which they had firsthand opportunity to hear in the physical presence of the Son of Man: "And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’" (Mark 9:43-48). Hindsight is 20/20 though and while it is easy to sit back and judge the scribes and Pharisees for their actions, I realize that in my own life I have fallen prey to the same attitudes and actions. Indeed, Jesus pointed specifically at their lineage and heritage descended from their murderous forefathers whom they lifted up in honor and glory, but are we not all descendants of sin? True, our individual bents are different and unique, but mankind identifies with itself on the foundation of sin and rejection of God's sufficiency. The scribes and Pharisees may have sat in the presence of Jesus Christ and chose not to believe He was the Messiah, but I can identify with how they fell into that trap. Over the past 5-6 weeks, I have come to understand the impact a hardened heart can have on the ability to recognize not only my own sinfulness and selfishness, but who Jesus truly is and what He expects out of my life. It is difficult to hear the Word of God when your ears are covered, to see the hand of Christ at work around you when your eyes are closed, and to taste the mystery of God's abundant grace and mercy when your heart is closed off and self-protecting. God seeks humility of the heart but He does not force his will on anyone. God does not close off our hearts, we choose to. Is it no wonder that God proclaims: "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). God wants nothing more than our hearts fully devoted to Him and seeking righteousness over sin. In my life, that equates to resisting sinful patterns that have eroded the bridge between my mind and heart of understanding God's Word. It is indeed true that "Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly" (Proverbs 26:11). Therefore, I must take action to cut off that sinful behavior and choose to trust in Christ, not pridefully declaring that I have arrived at any state of understanding that deems me worthy of righteousness, but humbly submitting to Christ and His Word. "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22). This summary passage of Scripture in Matthew 23:29-32 brings to light for me a promise that the apostle Paul makes in his first letter to the church of Corinth. "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:12-13). My counselor in Christ reminded me of the power of God's promise in that passage to provide a way of escape in the midst of temptation. It is now a constant reminder for me to avoid pride and embrace humility, to die to self and cling to the cross of Jesus Christ in service to Him and my family. Because living like a scribe or Pharisee, knowing the prophesies declared and not recognizing their fulfillment right before my eyes in the person of Jesus Christ is simply inexcusable, and I can escape the tempestuous trap of hypocrisy if I choose to embrace the escape method God provides through the absolute truth of His Word. It is a mockery for me to say I trust in Jesus Christ but not fully believe His Word into my heart, trusting Him in complete faith. That is the weight my sin has laid upon my heart though, and the selfish rock my Lord and Savior is breaking in order to restore my soul to righteousness. "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12:6), and I praise God immensely for that loving promise.