We stand at the beginning of a new year. Many wonder what this new year will bring.
The Bible tells us the battle between good and evil will become more intense as near the end of the great controversy between Christ and satan. Could this be the year our Lord will come as King of kings to take His people home?
The signs given in the Bible tell us His coming is near, but there is another indicator which more accurately reveals how soon Jesus will come. He tells us what it is in Mark 4:26-29:
“And He said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
When will our Savior come to harvest the earth?
“When the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Commenting on this parable, Ellen White says: "Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own” (Christ Object Lessons, p. 69)
Our Lord is not waiting for certain signs to be fulfilled, He’s waiting for His character to be perfectly reproduced in His people. Ellen White continues in the next paragraph:
“It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Peter 3:12). Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.” (ibid, p. 69)
While reflecting on the times in which we are living and the second coming of Jesus I read a statement in Testimonies Vol. 9, p. 23-24, that seemed to jump off the page at me:
“Those who love Jesus will bring all in their lives into harmony with His will. They have chosen to be on the Lord’s side, and their lives are to stand out in vivid contrast with the lives of worldlings.”
A vivid contrast between those who stand with Jesus and those who stand with the world cannot be achieved by making a few cosmetic changes in our life. This goes to the very core of our being – the inward man - our thoughts, desires, and motives.
To see just how vivid this contrast will be consider Galatians 5:19-21:
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissentions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The contrast is found in verses 22-24:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Can there be any more vivid contrast than that? Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In other words, they are dead to all the things listed in verses 19-21.
As we compare our lives with these two lists, do we see the vivid contrast God calls for? Do our families, friends, work associates, neighbors, and fellow church members see it? We try to keep the works of the flesh under control, but they seem to pop up more naturally and frequently than we care to admit. Why is it so much easier to manifest the works of the flesh than the fruit of the Spirit?
Jesus points out our problem in a conversation with the Pharisees recorded in Matthew 23:25-28:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”
Do you see their problem? They subscribed to an external list of doctrines to believe, and actions to achieve, but it was all external. The outside of their cup and dish looked clean, they appeared to be very religious; but their heart was “full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” In other words, they had a “form of godliness”, but they did not know the life changing power of godliness. (2 Timothy 3:5) How many of us can relate to the Pharisees?
The important question we need to answer is not “Can I relate?”, but “Why is this my experience?” There could be several reasons, but we will focus on the two main ones:
1) There are some works of the flesh we find enjoyable and don’t want to give them up entirely. Look again at the 17 specific “works of the flesh” listed in Galatians 5:19-21. They can be grouped into 3 major categories:
Immorality: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
Worship: idolatry, sorcery, heresies,
Social relations: hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, envy, drunkenness, murders, revelries.
How much time do we engage with these things through our personal actions; through the things we read, listen to, and watch; or through the people we hang out with or follow on social media?
To often we justify our indulgence in these things as long as we are careful and don’t take them too far. But tell me, where is the line drawn between how much is safe and how much isn’t when it comes to sin? How can we experience the power of godliness if we choose to fill our minds with the corrupt works of the flesh? The Bible clearly states: “those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21).
I am challenged by this statement from Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, p. 155:
“Appetite and passion are overcoming thousands of Christ’s professed followers. Through familiarity with sin, their senses become so blunted that evil seems attractive to them, rather than abhorrent.”
Notice the cause-and-effect relationship here: through familiarity with sin (watching it, reading it, listening to it, partaking in it) our spiritual senses become blunted and evil becomes attractive to us.
I suggest we don’t really know ourselves. Most of us think we are better and stronger than we really are, but God tells us: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
If we do not know the depths of our own corruption, how can we know what areas need to be transformed? Verse 10 provides the answer: “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind.”
In an effort to show us our true condition God allows things to happen in our life so the contents of our heart can be revealed. He allows trials, puts us in unexpected circumstances, or brings people in our life whom we find very difficult to appreciate. In these things we are brought to see our true condition so we will cry out to Him for cleansing, and cling to Him for strength.
So how can we really know ourselves? By Biblically evaluating the words, actions, attitudes, desires and motives that come out of us when responding to the things that happen in our daily life. The trials, circumstances, and people around us don’t make us the people we are, they simply reveal who we are. I’ll be honest, I don’t like this thought. I much prefer to place the blame on others or circumstances for making me respond in un-Christ like ways. But we can’t do that.
Here's a reality we need to come to terms with: the spiritual battles we fight do not come from the trials, circumstances, or people in our lives; they come from our own evil desires. James 4 asks the question: “What causes fights and quarrels among you?” How would you answer that question?
Here’s God’s answer:
“Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?” (James 4:1-4).
Adulterous people? That’s strong language! What is an adulterous person? It is someone who has entered the sacred covenant of marriage “to love, honor and cherish till death do us part” - but who wants more than one sexual partner. (Fornication is sexual activity outside the bond of marriage. Both are condemned in the Bible.)
God calls us adulterous people because we have made a covenant, through baptism, to be His “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (1 Peter 2:9), yet we still want to flirt with the devil and snuggle up with the world. Friends, this is spiritual adultery which God cannot accept.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to this world to “give (us) a new heart and put a new spirit within (us)” (Ezekiel 36:26). If the inside of our cup is washed in the blood of the Lamb, then the outside will also be clean. We will then “abhor what is evil and cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9).
2) The second main reason we have a form of godliness while not experiencing its power is because we have not fortified our minds with the Word of God so we can meet the temptations of the enemy with a clear “It is written…”.
God has given us a spiritual gold mine in the Bible and the counsels of the Spirit of Prophecy. King David asks the question: “How can a young man cleanse his way?” He gives the answer, “By taking heed according to Your word…Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:9,11).
There is power in the Word of God that will cleanse us, fortify us, make us wise unto salvation, and instruct us in righteousness “that (we) may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
As we begin this New Year let us make the Word of God the man of our counsel. There are a lot of good sermons out there to be heard, and a lot of good books to be read, but nothing can fortify the soul for godliness like the Word of God brought home to the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Another statement from Vol. 9 of the Testimonies that challenged me is this: “God expects those who profess to be Christians to reveal in their lives the highest development of Christianity. They are recognized representatives of Christ, and they are to show that Christianity is a reality. They are to be men of faith, men of courage, whole-souled men, who, without questioning, trust in God and His promises” (p. 22-23).
Will you join me in committing this New Year, 2021, to God, asking Him to make us men and women who, without questioning, will trust in Him and His promises so we can reveal in our lives the highest development of Christianity?
Here’s a good suggestion to get us started on this journey:
“It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross.
“As we associate together, we may be a blessing to one another. If we are Christ's, our sweetest thoughts will be of Him. We shall love to talk of Him; and as we speak to one another of His love, our hearts will be softened by divine influences. Beholding the beauty of His character, we shall be "changed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18; Desire of Ages, p. 83).
Some of you may be thinking, “Pastor, that will take a lot of work, and I don’t know where I’ll find the time needed to accomplish it.” Let me tell you, friends, it is never a question of time, only a question of priorities.
“The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” as you walk with Him through this New Year. (Numbers 6:24-26).
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Dick Bullock is the pastor of 3 churches in “the Thumb” of Michigan.