ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On the Ethics of Survival

If survival is your goal pragmatism is your ethic.

(I am thankful the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't a pragmatist.)

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Consumerism

Confusing quality with quantity is the beginning and end of consumerism.

2009 TOPC YOUTH RETREAT: "A Tale of Two Trees"

Thanks to Dennis Scanio for the brilliant photography and artwork! From this year's youth retreat . . .

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Bad Advice

The worst advice sometimes yields the quickest resolutions.

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Setting Limits

The art of setting limits has its limits (or so I've been told).

The thought that this axiom might be true makes me want to convert to a latitudinarian tradition, but then by grace I retrieve my sanity.

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Maturity

The quickest way to determine a person's maturity level is to tell him "no."

ARE YOU EASILY EDIFIED?

I confess I'm not always. See here.

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Voices

The unheard voices are often the loudest.

JUSTIFICATION IN JAMES

An excellent treatment here.

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Time

Time is a commodity that is usually squandered in youth and hoarded in old age.

THE CHURCH(ES) IN REVELATION

I am reading Dr. Greg Beale's commentary (NIGTC) in preparation to teach on the book of Revelation in Sunday School. Beale writes this about the way John presents the churches:

A chiastic structure can be seen in the presentation of the seven churches: the first and last are on the verge of losing their christian identity (2:5; 3:16), though Christ still commends the first (Ephesus) for a few things. The second and sixth churches have no weaknesses, and are encouraged to continue on in their faithful witness. The third, fourth, and fifth churches, in the middle of the chiasm, are in a mixed condition. They are commended for some good things but corrected for serious problems, which if allowed to continue will rip the churches apart. In one way or another, all the problems of the churches have to do with the challenge of witnessing in the midst of temptations to compromise with idolatry.

Then Dr. Beale makes this shocking statement about what John is communicating in his messages to the churches:

The main point in a chiastic structure lies usually on the outside parallels, though sometimes the middle point receives the emphasis. The significance of the chiasm here is to emphasize that the churches in Asia Minor are in serious trouble. The chiasm is bounded by churches that could be about to lose their identity, and the churches in the middle of the pattern are in poor health. If the seven churches represent the church universal of the first century and throughout the church age (see on 1:4, 11), then the significance of the chiasm is to underscore that the church in any generation is typically not a healthy, witnessing church. Nevertheless, there is always a small part of the church which faithfully maintains its witness like Smyrna and Philadelphia. This sober assessment of the church's overall condition matches what is said in 2 Tim. 1:15, though the evaluation there is even more negative. Ministers of the gospel must be aware of such realistic evaluations of the church, so that their calling is not destroyed when the triumphalistic expectations of modern Christendom are not fulfilled.

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Theology

Theology is the doctrine of living with immense tensions.

A TALE OF TWO TREES (6): The Trees of the New Creation

Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.

Text: Rev. 22:1-5

Yesterday I told you about how I sometimes hate life in this world, but, you know, sometimes I love life in this world. God has given us the privilege of living in a world where we can experience many wonderful joys. For me those joys typically involve three basic areas (1) times, (2) places, (3) and people.

(1) Times-
a. Autumn
b. Christmas
c. Sundays

(2) Places-
a. Home
b. The Mountains
c. Church

(3) People-
a. God
b. My wife
c. My children
d. My pastors/teachers
e. You (the TOPC youth)

The Joys of Life

Blessing comes through obedience. Cursing comes through disobedience. And what is obedience? It is recognizing that God is great, that his will is supreme, that he should be trusted and followed. In other words, God’s greatness is our good.

God created us with the capacity to experience great joys. What was the first thing God did after creating man? He blessed him. And he gave him the charge to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. He gave him meaningful work to do and meaningful relationships with himself and one another. God created us to be blessed, happy, and joyful in the world. The garden was the place of our joy, and we were to expand it over the face of the whole earth.

Ever since the Fall, ever since our expulsion from the garden, we have all longed to return. Every decision you and I ever make is an attempt to do two things: (1) to escape the wilderness and (2) to return to the garden. This is the great quest of humanity: We all want to go home. And God is in the process of taking his people back home, back to the garden.

As we learned in our first meeting last Monday evening, we see this pattern of restoration throughout Scripture. In the OT God delivers his people from a foreign land and takes them through the wilderness to rest in the Promised Land. In that land there is a special place for his dwelling. At first it is a movable tent called the tabernacle. Eventually it becomes an immovable temple in Jerusalem (which means the place of peace). God’s people are blessed because he is with them in their midst. The tabernacle and temple are what the original garden was to be. The most holy part of the temple was the place of the mercy seat, which was considered the footstool of God. Here is the image: God is reigning from heaven, sitting on his throne, and his feet reach down and rest on the mercy seat. In other words, mercy, blessing, life come from the foot of God’s throne. God’s greatness is our good.

In the NT Jesus himself is revealed to be the temple, and the Apostle tells us that we also (i.e. the church, his body) are the temple. But the most holy place is still distant from us. It is in heaven. We read in Hebrews 9:11-14, 23-28: “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. . . . Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

The Joys of the Afterlife

God is setting things right through the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is restoring his place with man in the world by re-establishing the original principle upon which all creation was based: God’s greatness is our good. And so we read about the final return to the garden in Rev. 22:1-5, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” What do we see through the Apostle John’s final vision? We see that the holy place in heaven has been united with the earth. They have become the same place. We see the trees of the old garden in the new garden. We see the principle behind the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in that the throne of God and of the Lamb, his greatness, is established. And from it, from God’s greatness, flows the river of the water of life which nourishes the tree of life for God’s people to enjoy. Here is the one principle of creation from old to new, from beginning to end: God’s greatness is our good.

Discussion

This morning I’d like you to explore these questions with your discussion groups. What do I place my hope in? Do I hope in the things of the world or the things of God? How should having my hope set on the end of all things change my life? How can I live in a way that demonstrates the principle of creation: God’s greatness is my good?

A TALE OF TWO TREES (5): The Tree of Cursing

Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.

Text: Gal. 3:13

Sometimes I hate life in this world. It can be so frustrating! Oftentimes the good I want to do I don’t do and what I don’t want to do I do. Does that sound familiar? The Apostle Paul wrote about the struggle of the Christian life in Romans 7 saying, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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.” The law of sin that dwelled within Paul was the result of the curse of God. And we all struggle with it. No one is exempt from the curse.

Blessing and Cursing

In the Scriptures we find two principles at work: blessing and cursing. God created us to live in his blessing. We read in Genesis 1:28 that following the creation of man and woman, “God blessed them.” But God gave man the responsibility to continue in obedience in order to continue in and be confirmed in his blessing. Disobedience would lead to cursing. Genesis 2:16 reads: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” And later in Deuteronomy when the law of God is republished we read: ““See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (Deut. 30:15-20).

Blessing comes through obedience. Cursing comes through disobedience. And what is obedience? Fundamentally, it is recognizing that God is great, that his will is supreme, that he is to be trusted and followed. In other words, God’s greatness is our good.

The Curse Established

Remember the temptation in the garden? What was it that fundamentally happened? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden, it was held back, as a reminder of God’s greatness, of his authority, over his image bearers. Only by maintaining that basic relationship could mankind live in happiness, in fullness, in God’s blessing. So when Adam took from the tree and ate he basically said, “I will make my own way! I will establish my own happiness! I will be my own blessing!” But ironically, the opposite occurred. Rather than reaping blessing, Adam reaped the curse of God. He was expelled from the Garden, the dwelling place of God own earth, the source of life and blessing for man. He was expelled to die, returning to the ground from which he was formed, as God said to him, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The Curse Reversed

What hope could mankind possibly have? Only what God established by his own sovereign initiative. Mankind’s hope was that a Second Adam would come to be tempted in the same way as the first, but instead of falling he would overcome the temptation unto obedience and blessing.

As we’ve seen these last few days, at the beginning of his ministry Jesus was led out into the desert by the Holy Spirit. There he was tempted just as the first Adam was tempted, but rather than falling into sin, he overcame the temptation through faith in God’s word. Jesus stood before the forbidden tree in full appreciation for the beauty of the principle it represented. Therefore he refused to eat from it.

Satan showed Jesus the physical pleasures he could have by eating its fruit, but Jesus was more attracted to the supremacy of pleasure in God.

Satan showed Jesus the visible beauty of the forbidden fruit, but Jesus kept his eyes focused on the supremacy of the beauty of God.

Satan showed Jesus the supposed "freedom" of autonomy, but Jesus kept his heart set on the revealed will of God.

Jesus overcame the temptation and lived a sinless life, but still there was more to be done. Not only did humanity owe God its obedience, but it also owed God a debt for disobedience. That debt had to be paid if we were to be freed. Jesus had to go to the tree of cursing, to suffer the penalty of disobedience on our behalf. And he did just that. As the Apostle writes, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). There on the cursed tree Christ demonstrated the greatest act of faith ever witnessed by man. Under the extreme duress of his willful curse-bearing he said, “Father into your hands I commit my Spirit.” Through his cursing on the tree, the foundational principle of creation was reestablished for all God’s chosen people: God’s greatness is our good.

So I encourage you today, search your heart. Ask yourself whether you are trusting in Christ’s finished work on your behalf or is this church stuff just fun and games for you? Perhaps you’re asking yourself, how you can know if you're trusting in Christ? There are two ways: (1) Do you often find yourself resting in the assurance of God’s love to you in Christ? Or do you rarely, if ever consider it? (2) When you look at your life over time, do you see any marks of growth in maturity? Do you see areas in which God’s Spirit has worked to transform you? If you can answer yes to those questions you have no reason to doubt that you are trusting in Christ. Another way to put those questions is to simply, but honestly, ask yourself: Do I really believe that God’s greatness is my good?

Discussion

This evening I’d like you to explore these questions with your discussion groups.

A TALE OF TWO TREES (4): The Pride of Life

Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.

Text: 1 John 2:15-17; Genesis 3:1-7

I am a proud and stubborn man. I often find myself succumbing to delusions of grandeur. I take myself too seriously most of the time. For some reason, deep down I believe that God was pretty fortunate to save someone like me. I believe that he must have known he couldn’t get his work done in the world without my skills. I know it’s a serious fault and I am working on it. These thoughts are the source of all my most exquisite sins. The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes “ain’t got nothin” on the pride of life when it comes to subtlety and maliciousness. The pride of life is subtle because it is so easy to rationalize away. And it is malicious, because no sinner loves anyone more than himself. Take my beautiful surroundings or my food and that’s one thing. But try to take my pride, and it’s on. I’ll declare war!

The Pride of Life

God created us with the ability to evaluate and improve ourselves. We were created to grow in wisdom. Yesterday we read from Genesis 2. Verses 15 reads: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” This verse teaches us that God created us with the ability to work and keep the garden. We also read in Genesis 1:28 that God commanded man to subdue the earth. That means man was created to learn and improve, both himself and his world. He would have to learn how to harness (i.e. subdue) the earth’s potential in working and keeping the garden. In other words, man was created to grow in wisdom.

It is good to grow in wisdom, but only in the context of a due recognition and appreciation for the greatness of God. Why? Because all wisdom is ultimately derived from him. This was the part of the original temptation which Adam and Eve succumbed to in the Garden. Gen. 3:6 read, “So when the woman saw that the tree was . . . to be desired to make one wise . . . she took of its fruit and ate.” And so as we read from the Apostle John, “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 the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” Satan tempted our first parents by prompting them to believe that they could attain wisdom independent from God. When Adam reached out to eat from the tree he said in effect, “I will worship my own wisdom, over my Creator’s wisdom.” And man has struggled with this particular temptation ever since. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:28-32, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” This is our tendency: to seek wisdom for living apart from the Creator, to worship ourselves rather than him, which is really just foolishness. And we do this when we forget that God’s greatness is our good.

The Manifestation of the Pride of Life

The pride of life manifests itself in many different ways in our world.

It manifests itself when we refuse to accept direction from others, especially from God and those whom God has put in our lives as authority figures. As the author of Proverbs writes, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” (1:7).

It manifests itself in the company we keep. Birds of a feather flock together. If we run with mockers and approve of their works, then we are one of them.

It manifests itself in our drive to exalt ourselves over others, which is really just self-reliance and faithlessness. We are all prone to compete with others for supremacy in whatever we view as important (usually those things we have a chance of winning in). But Scripture calls us to be humble. As the Apostle says, “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Php. 2:1-11).

The pride of life is a beast of a temptation to work against. But there is hope for us. Ultimately there is hope because Christ has passed the test. Just as Adam was tempted according to the pride of life in the garden, so also Christ was tempted. In Luke 4 we read that after his baptism Christ was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. The last temptation, like Adam’s was through the pride of life. We read: “And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” What was the temptation? To presume upon God. To believe that just because Jesus is who he was, he could act with special privilege apart from God’s will for him, which is the opposite of faith. We do this anytime we tell ourselves that the rules don’t apply to us because we are special. But Christ passed the test. Therefore all who are united to him by faith are counted as having passed the test as well.

Because of Christ’s finished work God is at work to subdue us to himself by his Word and Spirit. Notice that Jesus went into the desert guided by the Spirit and he answered the devil with the Word. Word and Spirit are the means of our fight against temptation.

Conclusion

We will be tempted according to the pride of life until the day we die. There is no way around it. The question is this: will we fight actively to overcome the temptation more and more, or will we just give up and stagnate and suffer the consequences of a life walked in self-reliance rather than God-reliance?

But don’t misunderstand. Overcoming the pride of life does not mean that we should have low self-images. On the contrary it means that the highest self-image possible comes by understanding our position before almighty God and others. It means seeing ourselves in light of this truth: God’s greatness is our good.

Discussion

This morning I’d like you to explore these questions with your discussion groups: In what ways do I see others in our society tempted by the pride of life? Can I think of any biblical examples of such? How does the pride of life affect our worship of God? In what ways am I tempted by the pride of life? What steps can I take to begin to recognize and overcome this temptation?

A TALE OF TWO TREES (3): The Desires of the Eyes

Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.

Text: 1 John 2:15-17; Genesis 3:1-7

I worked at a Christian Bookstore for four years while in college and seminary. I was assigned the Bible section. I know just about everything there is to know about Bible brands, translations, and bindings. I enjoyed many aspects of working in the bookstore, but as a card carrying bibliophile I sometimes spent my paycheck before I could get out the door.

I remember coming into work one day and being handed a new top of the line calfskin preaching Bible. It came in its very own velvet case. It was very nice and expensive! Retail: $150.00. As I worked that day I found myself going back to the shelf where I’d displayed this gem just to gaze upon it. Sometimes I would even put it up to my nose and breathe in deeply just to smell the leather. Soon I realized something ironic: I was actually lusting after the Bible! I didn’t need it. I had plenty of fine Bibles. But I wanted it. It was beautiful to me. And I was allowing it, in a small way, to consume me in those moments when I gazed upon it. That is the desires of the eyes.

The Desires of the Eyes

God created us with the ability to appreciate beautiful things. Yesterday we read from Genesis 2. Verses 8 and 9a read: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” That phrase “pleasant to the sight” indicates that God created things to be visually stimulating. He created a beautiful world.

It is good to recognize and appreciate beauty, but only in the context of a due recognition and appreciation for the greatness of God. Why? Because all beauty is ultimately derived from him. He is the first and ultimate beauty of which every created beauty is meant to testify. This was the part of the original temptation which Adam and Eve succumbed to in the Garden. Gen. 3:6 read, “So when the woman saw that the tree was . . . a delight to the eyes . . . she took of its fruit and ate.” And so as we read from the Apostle John, “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 the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” Satan originally tempted our first parents by prompting them to believe that the beauty of a created thing could be adequately appreciated independently of God. When Adam reached out to eat from the tree he said in effect, “I will worship created beauty over the Creator’s beauty.” And man has struggled with this particular temptation ever since. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:22-23, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” This is our tendency, to see the creation as beautiful apart from the Creator, to worship it rather than him. And we do this when we forget that God’s greatness is our good.

The Manifestation of the Desires

The desires of the eyes manifest themselves in many different ways in our world.

They manifest themselves when we get wrapped up in the beauty of the opposite sex. Appreciation for such beauty is not bad in and of itself. It is good. God created us to appreciate it. That’s why Adam burst forth in song when he saw his wife the first time. But it becomes sin when we lose perspective and actually begin to worship one another. It becomes sin when we fail to appreciate one another’s beauty with deep gratitude, recognizing that it ultimately comes from God and points to his supreme beauty.

They manifest themselves when we get wrapped up in the beauty of material things like cars, boats, houses, clothes, etc. If we find ourselves dwelling on all that sparkles and shines in this world more often than the One who is the Light of the world, then we should step back and examine our lives very closely. [Story of woman who shopped online and opened nothing]

They manifest themselves when we get wrapped up in the beauty of the creation. The beaches here in PCB are beautiful. I marvel at them every time I come. I must be careful not to appreciate the beauty of the creation apart from recognizing that it ultimately comes from God and points to his supreme beauty.

They manifest themselves when we get wrapped up in our own beauty. Ironically, vanity may be the least becoming of all vices. And we all do it. We all look at ourselves and compare ourselves to others, whether physically, intellectually, relationally, spiritually. It is not bad to have a good self-image, but it is sin when we forget that we are all equally image bearers of God. He is our beauty.

The desires of the eyes are a beast of a temptation to work against. We are bombarded daily with images of beauty. But the Christian faith is not a faith of images. We worship the invisible God. That is one reason it so hard for us to see past what we see to the truth that God’s greatness is our good.

But there is hope for us. Ultimately there is hope because Christ has passed the test. Just as Adam was tempted according to the desires of the eyes in the garden, so also Christ was tempted. In Luke 4 we read that after his baptism Christ was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. The second temptation, like Adam’s, was through the desires of the eyes. We read: “And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” Christ has passed the test. Therefore all who are united to him by faith are counted as having passed the test as well.

Because of Christ’s finished work, God is at work to subdue us to himself by his Word and Spirit. Notice that Jesus went into the desert guided by the Spirit and he answered the devil with the Word. Word and Spirit are the means of our fight against temptation.

Conclusion

We will be tempted according to the desires of the eyes until the day we die. There is no way around it. The question is this: will we fight actively to overcome the temptation more and more, or will we just give up and stagnate and suffer the consequences of a life walked by sight rather than faith?

But don’t misunderstand. Overcoming the desires of the eyes does not mean that we cannot appreciate the beauty around us. On the contrary, it means appreciating the beauty around us truly and fully as God originally intended, which begins by recognizing this truth: God’s greatness is our good.

Discussion

This evening I’d like you to explore these questions with your discussion groups: In what ways do I see others in our society tempted by the desires of the eyes? In what ways am I tempted by the desires of the eyes? What steps can I take to begin to recognize and overcome this temptation?

A TALE OF TWO TREES (2): The Desires of the Flesh

Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.

Text: 1 John 2:15-17; Genesis 3:1-7

I love to be comfortable, sometimes at the expense of people I love dearly. When I come home after a long day in the office, my goal is to get a glass of sweet tea, get to the easy chair as quickly as possible, put on some classical music, and dive into a good book. It’s all about me and my comfort. And no matter if my wife is pulling her hair out after a rough day with the kids, or if my son is in the middle of the latest episode of Sponge Bob, or my daughter comes to me with her cup in hand saying, “Tea, tea!” (She loves her sweet tea!) I have the ability to tune it all out and ignore it in the name of my comfort. You didn’t know I could be so mean did you? Well I can. But I’m working to overcome this sin. I’m working to fight the temptation to love my comfort above all else.

The Desires of the Flesh

God created us with the ability to derive physical pleasure. Yesterday we read from Genesis 2. Verses 8 and 9a read: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” That last phrase “good for food” teaches us that God created us with the ability to enjoy physical pleasure. Eating is one of many ways in which we can derive physical pleasure.

It is good to enjoy physical pleasure, but only in the context of a due recognition and appreciation for the greatness of God. Why? Because all pleasure is ultimately derived from him. He is the first and ultimate pleasure of which every created pleasure is meant to testify. This was the part of the original temptation which Adam and Eve succumbed to in the Garden. Gen. 3:6 read, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food . . . she took of its fruit and ate.” And so as we read from the Apostle John, “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 the pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” Satan originally tempted our first parents by prompting them to believe that the pleasures derived from a created thing could be adequately appreciated independently of God. When Adam reached out to eat from the tree he said in effect, “I will worship created pleasure over the Creator’s pleasure.” And man has struggled with these particular temptations ever since. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:24-27, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” This is our tendency, to see the creation as pleasurable apart from the Creator, to worship it rather than him. And we do this when we forget that God’s greatness is our good.

The Manifestation of the Desires

The desires of the flesh manifest themselves in many different ways in our world.

They manifest themselves when we get wrapped up in the physical pleasure we might derive from the opposite sex. Appreciation for such pleasure is not bad in and of itself. It is good. God created us to appreciate it in the way he has prescribed. But it becomes sin when we lose perspective and try to appreciate it apart from his instruction. It becomes sin when we fail to appreciate God’s gift with deep gratitude, recognizing that it ultimately points to the supremacy of our pleasure in him.

They manifest themselves when we get wrapped up in the physical pleasure we might derive from material things like easy chairs, food, drink, drugs, etc. We live in a consumer culture. We are constantly bombarded with the message that our lives are incomplete and lacking in pleasure, but if we’d only buy the latest ________, then we’d truly be comfortable. We have been trained from infancy to live immoderately. If we find ourselves dwelling on these material things more often than the One who is our ultimate Comforter, then we should step back and examine our lives very closely.

The desires of the flesh are a beast of a temptation to work against. We are bombarded daily with the message to consume. But the Christian faith is not a faith of material consumption. We worship the God who is Spirit. We feed upon Christ through Word and sacrament spiritually.

But there is hope for us. Ultimately there is hope because Christ has passed the test. Just as Adam was tempted according to the desire of the flesh in the garden, so also Christ was tempted. In Luke 4 we read that after his baptism Christ was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. The first temptation, like Adam’s, was through the desires of the flesh. We read: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” Christ has passed the test. Therefore all who are united to him by faith are counted as having passed the test as well.

Because of Christ’s finished work, God is at work to subdue us to himself by his Word and Spirit. Notice that Jesus went into the desert guided by the Spirit and he answered the devil with the Word. Word and Spirit are the means of our fight against temptation.

Conclusion

We will be tempted according to the desires of the flesh until the day we die. There is no way around it. The question is this: will we fight actively to overcome the temptation more and more, or will we just give up and stagnate and suffer the consequences of a life walked by fleshly rather than godly desires?

But don’t misunderstand. Overcoming the desires of the flesh does not mean that we cannot appreciate the pleasures God has given us to enjoy. On the contrary it means appreciating those pleasures truly and fully as God originally intended, which begins by recognizing this truth: God’s greatness is our good.

Discussion

This morning I’d like you to explore these questions with your discussion groups: In what ways do I see others in our society tempted by the desires of the flesh? In what ways am I tempted by the desires of the flesh? What steps can I take to begin to recognize and overcome this temptation?

A TALE OF TWO TREES (1): The Trees of Creation

Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.

Text: Genesis 2:4-17

I love trees. Some of my earliest memories are of me and my younger brother roaming the woods that surrounded our house for miles in every direction. There were certain trees in those woods that were good for climbing. One was a tall hickory tree. It must have been 30 feet tall and it stood on the edge of a large 100 acre field. My brother and I would climb to the top on windy days and enjoy the ride, swaying back and forth in the wind. You could see for miles up there. Another tree I often visited was a large sweet gum. It was so large my brother and I could link arms and still not reach half-way around it. It’s lower limbs were themselves as big as full grown trees. We built a ladder to get up to the first big limb. I would often go there after school to just to sit and think. There I daydreamed, mostly about the future. What would life be like 10, 20, or 30 years down the road? It was there that I first imagined having a son and what he would be like. Those were magical times.

I still marvel at trees. They are beautiful to me. Fully grown they tower over everything, reminding me of the grandeur of God and his creation. On mild, windy days they provoke within me a spirit of calmness and grace. Why is that? I think it is because that is how God intended it to be. God intended all the creation to reflect his glory, and though it is now broken through our sin, the creation still reflects his glory in some measure. As the Psalmist writes: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” (Ps. 19:1-2).

The author of Proverbs says, “The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens” (3:19). We can think of God as being like a wise architect when he created this world. Just as every architect begins with a basic plan that guides the designing process, so also God began with a plan. That plan included one foundational principle which was visibly represented in the two trees of creation: (1) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and (2) The tree of life. These two trees tell the tale of God’s purpose in creating us and the world in which we live.

Tree of Life

Let’s begin with the tree of life. What does the tree of life teach us about God’s plan for us in the world? It teaches us that God wants to bless us with life. His goal for us is life—abundant, full, blessed, life. To have eaten from the tree of life would have meant to be confirmed in a state of blessedness with God and one another forever. That is what God wants for us. But life only comes to us in the way he has prescribed, which brings us to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

What does the tree of the knowledge of good and evil teach us about God’s plan for us in the world? It teaches us that God wants us to understand that recognizing and delighting in his greatness is the way to have life. It teaches us that God’s greatness is our good. This is the fundamental principle of the creation.

God created man to rule over the rest of creation, working it and subduing it. The garden was the original tabernacle, the original temple. It was the place where God dwelled with his people. Man’s mission was to expand the borders of the garden until it covered the whole earth. But while man was given the charge to rule over the creation, there was one part of the creation held back from him: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God commanded the man: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16b-17).

This one restriction, the forbidden tree, was meant to serve as a visible reminder of God’s ultimate authority, his supremacy, his greatness over his created image bearers.

God’s Plan

God’s plan was to submit man to a test. God entered into a covenant with Adam and all his future children, promising life upon the condition of obedience. What obedience? Not eating from the forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As long as man heeded that commandment, he would pass the test and enter into eternal life. But if man rejected the commandment and sought to understand good and evil independently of God—which is why the tree is called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—then he would fail the test and enter into death rather than life. For the wages of sin is death.

Death after Life

Man sinned against God by eating from the forbidden tree. He sought wisdom, blessedness, and life in a way not prescribed by God. He sought to be his own God; therefore his access to the tree of life was cut off. Ever since then the world has been turned upside down. The original order, the order established by God through the forbidden tree, has been disrupted. Death rather than life became the end of man.

But God has begun a massive restoration process. He has revealed himself to his people, subduing them to himself, so that they have recognized and delighted in his greatness. And in submitting to our great God by faith, his people have been born again to new life. He is, as it were, re-creating his world in order to redeem it from sin.

We see this in the Old Testament when God establishes his covenant with Abraham, promising his continued presence with him and his children forever in the Land of Promise. Then God delivers his people from Egypt and moves into the tabernacle to re-establish the place of his special presence among them, the place where they can go to acknowledge his greatness as their good. Eventually in the time of Solomon the movable tent-dwelling becomes an immovable temple in Jerusalem, the city of God. And finally with the incarnation, God’s dwelling with man becomes even more intimate. The Son of God actually becomes a man, so Jesus speaks of his body with the Jewish leaders saying: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Now all who have been united to Christ by faith are made members of his body so that we are “grow[ing] into a holy temple in the Lord” even as our hope is set on the eternal state in which we will be glorified to live in God’s special presence forever. All of this is happening as a result of God setting things right again, beginning with his subduing of humanity to himself.

Our temptations for now center around this one thing: Deep down we all want to be our own God. We all want to call our own shots. We want to judge what is good and evil out of the resources of our own character. We want autonomy (i.e. self-law). This gets manifested primarily through broken relationships—between one another, between parents and children, between workers and bosses, between church members and pastors.

But if we have believed in Christ God has written his law on our hearts. He has taught us the most important lesson we could ever learn: His greatness is our good.

This is why faith is the beginning of new life. What is faith all about? It is recognizing that God is God and we are not. It is being humbled to love him and one another in truth. This is also what worship is all about. It is about exalting God as supreme, seeing him as high and lifted up. That is why we worship. That is what we were created to do.

Conclusion

This is the tale of two trees. Our first parents gave up on the belief that God’s greatness was their good when they chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore they lost access to the tree of life. But God is putting things right again. He is at work to restore and re-create his fallen world. And he is doing that by teaching his people this fundamental truth, the truth on which the creation is founded: God’s greatness is our good.

Discussion

Tonight I’d like you to explore these questions with your discussion groups: In what ways do I see God demonstrating his greatness in my life? In what ways do I see God’s greatness demonstrated in the ordering of relationships (i.e. superiors and inferiors) in my life? In what ways am I falling short of the mark when it comes to acknowledging God’s greatness?

A TALE OF TWO TREES: Schedule of Talks

Here is the schedule of talks I've prepared for the Twin Oaks youth group this week in Panama City Beach. I've loaded them all on the blog. They are scheduled to post daily.

Overall Thesis: God’s greatness is our good.

1. Monday Evening, “The Trees of Creation” (Gen. 2:4-17; Ps. 19)
2. Tuesday Morning, “The Desires of the Flesh” (1 Jn. 2:15-17; Ps. 34)
3. Tuesday Evening, “The Desires of the Eyes” (1 Jn. 2:15-17; Ps. 24)
4. Wednesday Morning, “The Pride of Life” (1 Jn. 2:15-17; Ps. 111)
5. Wednesday Evening, “The Tree of Cursing” (Gal. 3:13; Psalm 22)
6. Thursday Morning, “The Trees of the New Creation” (Ps. 21; Rev. 22:1-4)

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On the Greatness of God

God's greatness is our good.

This is the theme for my six talks with the Twin Oaks youth group (25 are going!!!) during our week-long Panama City Beach, FL retreat. We leave tomorrow evening. Should be fun!

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Christ the Exemplar

The exemplary status of the person of Christ depends on the effectiveness of his work.

WHAT IF . . .

Kim Riddlebarger asks "What if Calvinists Became the Majority . . . Not Gonna Happen . . . But What If . . ."

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Pretense

A little pretense goes a long way in most social situations. (see also here)

CAMDEN BUCEY: The Art and Duty of Preaching Well

At Historia Salutis. I recently purchased Dabney's work on preaching. I can hardly wait to read it.

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: On Faith and Pride

Pride is the biggest mountain faith ever moved.

ATTEMPTED AXIOM: The Ideal of Idealism

Everyone wants to be a maximalist, but in the end we are all just minimalists.

I stole this one from Dr. John Hannah. When he said it to me the first time we met back in the summer of 2005, I had no idea what he was talking about. I think I am beginning to understand.

DR. HART: The Gospel Coalition

Here are some interesting thoughts from Dr. Hart on the Gospel Coalition. What do you think?