Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

July 11, 2018

7/11/2018

The Will                        SPONTANEOUS VICTORY

        Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory. 1 Chron. 29:11.

    So long as we are in the relationship of abiding dependence on God's power, sin has no dominion over us. The experience that we know of sometimes being defeated and sometimes having victory come about because we don't depend on God's power all the time. We are painfully aware of these times when we fall and fail and are overcome by the enemy. We tend to become preoccupied with the one time that we lost our temper during the day, and conclude that we have had no victories.

    The Desire of Ages, page 668, tells us that when we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Sin will be hateful to us. Is it possible that when we are in the close relationship of knowing God, and depending on and trusting in Him, that we may not even notice some of our victories, because they come naturally? If there is victory and obedience in the Christian life that is natural and spontaneous, then much of it could happen without our especially noticing it. Why is this? Because when those kinds of victories come, where is our attention? It is on Jesus. It is when our attention is on ourselves that we are so aware of how we are doing--and it is when our attention is on ourselves that we experience defeat!

    Because of this, it is Satan's constant effort to get us to take our eyes off Christ, so that He won't be able to work His will in our lives. He knows that if he can get us to look away from Jesus and to ourselves, he has us. And he can succeed in diverting our attention from Christ by drawing our attention either to our defeats orto our victories! Have you ever been defeated because Satan came to you and said, "Look at how well you've been doing lately"?

    But we have been told, "Not even by a thought did He [Jesus] yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ's humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine nature.  So long as we are united to Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us."--The Desire of Ages, p. 123. As we continue to look to Jesus day by day, we will learn to depend more constantly on Him.

July 10, 2018

7/10/2018

The Will                        SO LONG AS

        Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. 1 John 3:6.

    As we are growing in our Christian lives, at any time that we are depending totally of God's power, instead of our own, we experience victory. At any time we depend on our own power, we fall and fail. There is no middle ground. Either we are 100 percent surrendered, or we are 0 percent surrendered. The part-of-the-time victory, and the part-of-the-time defeat, is not a result of being partly surrendered, but rather of being 100 percent surrendered only part of the time.

    This is what 1 John 3:6 is saying: "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." So long as we are abiding in Him, we are new creatures. So long as we are in the stance of abiding dependence upon His power, we do not commit sin. In order for the enemy to cause us to fall or fail, he first has to get us to break from the abiding dependence upon God.

    Steps to Christ, page 62, describes the experience of justification. "If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned." That's justification. Then it continues, "More than this..." (You mean there's something more than justification? Yes!) "More than this, Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure." (Italics supplied.) So long as! Three key words. Don't miss that phrase! Have you been so-long-as-ing it lately? "So long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure....With Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works--works of righteousness, obedience."

    This obedience and victory for the Christian is not reserved for just before he dies or is translated. It is available the first week of the baby Christian. As we look away from our performance, to Christ, we are given the victory; and we continue to have victory so long as we continue to abide in dependence upon His power.

July 9, 2018

7/9/2018

The Will                        WHEN ALL THINGS ARE NEW

        Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. 2 Cor. 5:17.

    This text doesn't say that some things are to become new, but that all thingsare become new. Have you ever wondered when this was going to happen in your life? Many young people have expected that as soon as they were first converted, everything was supposed to be different, and they would have no more problems or failures from that point on; and that if they did, they probably weren't converted in the first place. This has discouraged many people.

    We must understand that the new heart that is promised to us leads to a new life (see Steps to Christ, p. 18). We have a Bible full of case histories of people who have demonstrated the fact that when a person is born again, there still is the race to run, the battle to fight. Godly people didn't go from being sinners to saints, in terms of performance, overnight. Some people get nervous here and say that if we talk that way, we will open the door for license. But let's face reality. It is because we haven't faced reality that we have a lot of discouraged people. The disciples bickered and argued for three years about who was going to be the greatest. They knew that what they were doing was wrong. On their last rip to Jerusalem, when the Samaritans refused them hospitality, they wanted to call down fire from heaven. But Jesus didn't ask to start over with a brand-new twelve. He made allowance for struggling, growing Christians.

    Let's make allowance for growth, but let's not leave all the victories God has in mind for us until just before we die or are translated. 2 Corinthians 5:17 is not just for the end of the line somewhere.

    The truth is that at any time when we are depending on God's strength instead of our own strength, we can know complete victory, or all things new, now. And at any time we depend on our own strength, we fail. As growing Christians we fluctuate between depending on His strength and on our own. That's the painful swing that we all experience. However, the growing Christian, even the baby Christian, can understand victory in the ultimate sense, so long as he depends upon God's power that for obedience. It is when he depends upon his own power that he is defeated.

July 8, 2018

7/8/2018

The Will                        GOOD CHOICE, BAD PERFORMANCE

        For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Rom. 7:19.

    Suppose I decide that I want to be a great singer. I rent a concert hall, and advertise in all the papers: "Come and hear the concert." I've made a good choice. I want to sing like one of the greats. Nothing wrong with that choice. So the crowd turns out. The time comes for the concert to begin. I go out onto the platform, and the piano gives the introduction. I open my mouth. To will is present with me, but now I've got to perform. And how to perform I find not! My voice squeaks and cracks and fades away, and above the shouts of laughter and derision, I make my way offstage. I have chosen to be a great singer, but I can't perform.

    Suppose I choose to live the Christian life. Nothing wrong with that choice. I watch to see how it's done, and then I try. But although I've made the right choice, when it comes to performing, I'm finished. Paul discovered the same thing. Even Paul, with his tremendous intellect, who apparently was such a strong person, had discovered his weakness within. He knew the right choices, and he chose correctly--but then he couldn't perform. He talks about it in Romans 7. Right in the middle of his frustration, expressed by all those would nots and do nots, we find this verse, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not" (verse 28).

    When I decide that I want to do right, that I would like to keep God's commandments and be obedient to Him, I've made the right choice. But if I'm trying to fight sin and the devil myself, I can never succeed, because the problem of sin is on the inside, and even strong people can control only the externals.

    In order to have the proper understanding of how to use your will (your power of choice), and your willpower (your power to follow through with your choice), you must understand the role of human effort in living the Christian life. God has never promised to seek Himself for us. He has never promised to do our Bible study and our prayers and our witnessing for us. But He has promised to fight Satan for us (see Rom. 8:37). As we put forth our effort toward knowing Him, He will give us victory.

July 7, 2018

7/7/2018

The Will                        FIGHTING THE RIGHT FIGHT

        Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Matt. 23:26.

    When the devil comes to tempt us, he doesn't knock on the door and say, "Good morning. I am the devil. I have come to tempt you today." He knows it wouldn't work that way. If he did that, we would say, "We've heard of you; forget it!" and slam the door in his face.

    So he comes at us instead through our weaknesses, through our problems. The devil is stronger than we are. He is smarter than we are. He knows that the best way to tempt us is to get us to concentrate on our faults and weaknesses, trying to overcome them, instead of looking to Jesus and depending on on His strength. There is a big difference between the fight of faith, which the Bible invites us to fight, and the fight of sin. If we try to fight sin and the devil in our own strength, we will lose the battle every time.

    Jesus gave the Pharisees instruction as to where to put their effort. He told them that if they would clean the inside, the outside would be clean as well. This is one of the most important truths in understanding how to live the Christian life. It is essential to realize where our human effort must be directed, and where our human effort is totally useless. We are told that if we will fight the fight of faith with all our willpower, we will conquer (see Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 513). What is the fight of faith? It is the life of relationship with God, the striving to set aside time day by day for the purpose of getting acquainted with the Lord Jesus. This fight of faith is the only fight for the Christian spoken of in the Bible. As we direct our energies and efforts toward that, Jesus will fight sin and the devil for us as He has promised to do. "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it" (1 Thess. 5:23, 24, R.S.V.).

    "Man is not able to save himself, but the Son of God fights his battles for him, and places him on vantage-ground by giving him His divine attributes. And as man accepts the righteousness of Christ, he is a partaker of the divine nature. He may keep the commandments of God, and live."--Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Feb. 8, 1898.

July 6, 2018

7/6/2018

The Will                        ALL THAT WE CAN DO

        For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Phil. 2:13.

    One of the probing questions that has frustrated Christian for years is the question of how the will operates after conversion. There have been debates and questions concerning the will, but most of the discussions have dealt with the use of the will before conversion--whether man is free to be saved or not. Very little has been done on the use of the will after conversion. But there are several classic statements on the subject, from inspiration.

    What can we do in this whole business of salvation from our sinning?  Selected Messages, book 1, page 381, says: "Let no man present the idea that man has little or nothing to do in the great work of overcoming; for God does nothing for man without his cooperation. Neither say that after you have done all you can on your part, Jesus will help you. Christ has said, 'Without me ye can do nothing.' " "All that man can possibly do toward his own salvation is to accept the invitation, 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' "--Ibid., p. 343. So let's nail it down--there is something for us to do, and that is to take the water of life freely.

    But that's an intangible. Where is the water of life? The same author defines what it is in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, page 113: "In...communion with Christ, through prayer and the study of the great and precious truths of His word, we shall as hungry souls be fed; as those that thirst, we shall be refreshed at the fountain of life." So, how do we partake of the water of life? By communion with Christ, through prayer and the study of His Word.

    One of our problems in trying to live the Christian life is that we often are found trying hard to do that which God has told us we cannot do--fight sin and the devil. And we do not put forth effort to do that which He has invited us to do, that is, seek communion with Him. This does not mean that works are unimportant, but we are talking about method. And the method of knowing God's gifts is by faith alone. As we put forth our effort to come to Jesus, and to keep coming to Jesus, He will fulfill His promise to work in us, to will and to do of His good pleasure.

July 5, 2018

7/5/2018

The Will                        NO CONDEMNATION

        For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:17.

    Justification, which includes freedom from the guilt of our past sins, prepares us for sanctification, which includes ultimate freedom from our present sinning. If you don't have justification straight, you will be confused on sanctification as well. In order to be able to accept the power of God for our present sins, we must understand that He does not condemn us for our sins of the past. When we come to Him for justification, not only does He forgive us but we stand before Him as though we had never even sinned. It is this freedom from guilt and condemnation that allows us to experience the growth and victory in our lives that come from knowing that we are at peace with God.

    In Steps to Christ, page 49, the first paragraph talks about a failing and discouraged life. It then says, "It is peace that you need." Have you thought that in order to have peace you had to get your life fixed up first, and have victory over your sins? No, it is the peace with God that gives you the power for your life to be changed. Peace doesn't come from victory--victory comes from peace. It is feeling that you are rejected that keeps you in your sins and failures. Loving acceptance paves the way for growth.

    Satan has triumphed time and time again by getting religious people to believe that when they fall or fail, they are condemned. But Romans 8 says it is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? You know who condemns. It is Satan! John 3:16 is a well-known text--but have you learned verse 17? "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him through him might be saved."

    Have you ever heard discussions about which is more important, justification or sanctification? I'd like to remind you that the question is a foolish one. Sanctification must be based solidly on justification. They are both important! It's like asking which is more important, getting married or staying married. They are both important! They are important for different reasons, but they are both important. What God has done for us and what He wants to do in us are both good news. They are both included in salvation.

July 4, 2018

7/4/2018

The Will                        JESUS IS OUR WISDOM

        If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and unbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5.

    If you want to know the difference between Christianity and other religions, you don't need to go buy a book on world religions or take a course on the subject. You need to take a look at just one factor. Religions other than the Christian religion are based upon the premise that man can in some way save himself. The Christian religion alone says that mankind needs a Saviour, that he's not big enough to save himself. But we need wisdom from above us to be able to grasp that fact, and accept it.

    1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Jesus is our wisdom. Some say that this text is referring to Christ's imputed work, not imparted. Do you have it clear in your mind the difference between these two terms? Perhaps a memory device might help. In the middle of one word is the word put--imputed. It refers to that which is put to our account in heaven. In the middle of the other is the word part--imparted. It refers to that which becomes part of our lives. Is God's promised wisdom referring to something imputed, wisdom put to our account? That wouldn't be worth much, would it? Our texttoday says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men...and it shall be given him."

    This is an important point because of the next three gifts mentioned in Corinthians. Christ Jesus is "made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, andredemption." They aren't simply put to our account either. They include the work of God in us as well. Just as wisdom comes to us in Christ, so does righteousness, and all the rest.

    Jesus is our wisdom for the purpose of understanding the great aspects of salvation, righteousness (or justification), sanctification, and redemption, which includes the whole spectrum of salvation, including glorification when Jesus comes again. Justification is experienced when we get with Jesus in the first place, sanctification is experienced as we stay with Jesus, and glorification will take place as we go with Jesus when He comes again. All three are included in salvation, and all come as gifts from Jesus, as we continue the faith relationship with Him.

July 3, 2018

7/3/2018

The Will                        THE SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL

        For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 1 Cor. 1:19.

    "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of he world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him [of God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Cor. 1:27-31).

    I'm glad today that we have been promised wisdom, because the simplicity of the gospel is a hard subject to understand. One of the reasons it is so hard to understand is because it is so simple. For a long time we have been looking for something deep and theological, when the truth is, it is simple. And God sometimes has to help us realize how simple it really is.

    We had a teacher in college who used to tell us that "great art conceals art." He had to explain that to us. He said that many things that are so profound are profound in their simplicity. At first glance, that which is really great may be so unobtrusive that it doesn't appear great.

    I'm thankful that Jesus is our wisdom. Please notice that there is no such thing as wisdom apart from Jesus. We are not given wisdom as an entity in itself--wisdom is in Jesus. He is made unto us wisdom.

    Jesus came into this world and depended upon His Father for wisdom. God was His wisdom. The wisdom we see demonstrated in His life came from His Father. That same wisdom is available to us today, through connection with Jesus. It is wisdom that enables us to understand in its completeness the theme of salvation by faith in Jesus. It's hard, because there is something about the human mind that resists the idea that there is no way in which we can save ourselves. But the truth is that all we can do is to come to Jesus just as we are, and continue to come to Him day by day, in order to continue the experience of salvation. There is wisdom from above to help us understand and accept this simple gospel.

July 2, 2018

7/2/2018

The Will                        THE USE OF YOUR WILL

        For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. Rom. 7:18.

    The question of the will, how our will and our willpower operate in living the Christian life, is a vital one. The two major texts, from Paul, on the subject of the will are Romans 7:14-21 and Philippians 2:12, 13. Romans 7 talks about the frustration of the converted Christian who has not yet learned to depend upon the God's strength, and is trying to depend on his own strength. The predominant word in this passage is do. That which he wants to do, he doesn't do. And that which he doesn't want to do, he does. And right in the middle, verse 18, he says, "For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I fond not." The person whose emphasis is on doing what is right is not going to find how to perform.

    In Philippians 2:12, 13, we are told to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." It is God that does both the willing and the doing when it comes to performance in the life of the Christian. God does not do both the willing and the doing in the life of the Christian when it comes to seeking the faith relationship. Is there a difference? It is not God that does the willing and the doing in the fight of faith. It is God that does the willing and the doing in the fight of sin.  God has promised to fight sin and the devil for us, if we will allow Him to do so (2 Cor. 10:4, 5). And the way we allow Him is by doing the willing and the doing in the area of relationship and fellowship with Him, which He can never do for us.

    There is a part in the Christian life, at the beginning and in the continuing process, where there is something we have to do. Admittedly, faith is from God's initiative all the way along. But there is still a point at which we must choose to respond to His initiative. And the proper use of the will is in choosing to respond to God's knocking at the door for relationship with Him. If we choose that, and continue to choose that, God will demonstrate in our lives, more and more unto the perfect day, that He can do the willing and the doing through us concerning the fight of sin.