Earlier this
month, at the lighting of the Christmas tree in Washington, Obama formally
declared the values of Jesus Christ “are also the bedrock values of all
faiths--values to be cherished and embraced not only during the holidays, but
to be practiced in our daily lives.”
*****
Throughout
Christ’s earthly life, His top “value” was to relinquish anything and everything
calculated to stand in the way of accomplishing the will of His Father.
Christ valued
and cherished His Father’s plan so much He couldn’t fathom ever being separate
from it. He says in John 6:38, “For I
came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me.”
In John 5:30, Christ states, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
Paul
makes it clear that God’s will is for “all men to be
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
The reality is Christ
came for the express purpose of NOT doing His own will. When He prayed in the
garden, “Not my will but thine be done,” that “sound bite” represented the whole
tenor of His administration—THAT’S what He trusted!
Christ says in John 8:26, “I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that
sent me is true; and I speak to the
world those things which I have heard of him.”
He goes on in chapter 15:15, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant
knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things
that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”
Christ
confirms in John 8:29, “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not
left me alone; for I do always those
things that please him.”
From John
17, we know that the disciples were sent out with the same commission Christ
received from the Father: To go live exactly the way He lived.
*****
In a sermon about the current “winter period” our country is enduring (expected to last until 2020 or so) Jordan lamented, “We who are Americans are extremely fortunate to have a heritage. But it’s all over with, folks, I’m sorry. When the toothpaste is out of the tube, it’s gone. The foundations that built that are not in our country anymore.”
“Saved or
lost, religion is the most dangerous battle you’ll ever face. This is where the
real big game is. People like to argue about politics and all the rest of the stuff,
but this is the BIG stuff.
“You can
worry about the politics and what they’re doing in Washington and the economy
and all these other things, but the real battle today in the Dispensation of
Grace is in the area of spiritual issues.
“Religion
is simply a way for man to put confidence in himself, in his own flesh.
“Paul
says in Philippians 3 he counted his religious self-righteousness as dung. He’s
saying, ‘I thoroughly understand what it is to have confidence in your flesh—I
had religious flesh.’ And he said, ‘What I found is it’s worthless!’
*****
“Notice
Paul calls Satan the ‘god of the world.’ He didn’t say the king of the world,
the political leader of the world, the economic force of the world.
“Satan has
a religion and he seeks to propagate it. And the great battle today is not
fighting the social battles and the cultural wars; it’s fighting the religious
front. Until you understand that, you’re not going to be in the real battle.
“I’m not saying the other battles aren’t important;
I’m saying the real battle, when you want to get down to what the core source
of the real issues are, it’s the issue about a person’s relationship with his
Creator or lack thereof. Religion is designed to substitute confidence in your
flesh for trust in Christ.
“When Paul says ‘have no confidence in the flesh,’ your flesh is a way the Bible, especially with the Apostle Paul, describes you, yourself and your self-life independent of God.
“Romans
7:18 says, ‘For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good
thing.’
“Our
resources are not God’s resources; our identity is not the identity and purpose
He gives us. Paul’s talking about trusting and valuing and treasuring who he is
in himself and his ability to perform; he’s talking about pride and
self-satisfaction in yourself.
“Proverbs
says, ‘Every man does that which is right in his own eyes.’ Can you relate to
that? We do what WE think is right. It says, ‘There’s a way that seemeth right
to a man; the end thereof is death.’
“Man says, ‘Makes no difference, I’m doin’
what’s right in my mind…’ and there’s a pride in that! There’s a
self-satisfaction in that and that’s what religion is all about!
*****
“Paul says in Philippians 3:7, ‘But what things were gain to me, those I
counted loss for Christ.’ All these things in verses 4-6 he says were valuable
to him.
“Gain is the
idea of wealth, treasure. Notice he says, ‘I wasted it and profited in the
Jews’ religion above many mine equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly
zealous of traditions of my fathers.’
“You see
he profited? Paul’s saying, ‘Those things that brought profit to me in my
thinking. Those things I treasured and adored and thought were the most
wonderful, solid, enriching things in my life.’
“What
were they? There are a number of things but they divide into two categories.
He’s going to list some ethnic and racial things—some pride of race and pride
of place kinds of things. And then he’s going to list some religious things.
Distinctions. Some performance things.
*****
*****
“Can I tell you those are the two things most
people . . . those are the two things your flesh wants to glory in. It wants to
glory in your race, which is another way of saying the place that you have, and
then it wants to glory in religion—the performance; the achievements that it
can make.
“And
flesh has a tendency toward good and evil. By the way, with the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, both were bad. Your flesh has a tendency toward the
lascivious, the earthy; the lust and the pull to be run by the desires that drag
you downward into the earth.
“But you
also have a bent toward aestheticism, toward the human good; toward the ability
to pride yourself and satisfy yourself in doing what’s right.
“It’s to
do good and feel good about doing it. Your flesh is such a deceiver. ‘The heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.’
"And the moment you think
you’ve done something good, and the moment you sit in relaxation and your
satisfaction about what you’ve performed, ‘Let him who thinketh he stand take
heed lest he fall.’ ”
(new
article tomorrow on new year’s day advice)
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