The Battle of the Mind- 1

Subtitle: Our Need for Renewal

Romans 12:1-2.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 1, 2025.

The most important battlefield of all time is in the minds of people.  By the time we become aware of it, we can be highly compromised by our enemy, the devil. 

A number of weeks ago, we talked about our three enemies: the devil, the world, and our flesh.  We might think of the flesh as the place where the battle is internal, but we should recognize that the attacks of the other two (the devil and the world) are generally upon how we think.

The real cultural battle is not so much at Cal Anderson Park, the site of a recent attack of antifa agents upon Christians worshipping God.  The real battle front is in the minds of people, whether at Cal Anderson Park or not, and whether on the antifa side or as a Christian.

The devil loves to use the tools of seduction, manipulation, fear, mental harassment, and many others.  The incessant attack upon the minds of humanity wears the best of men down until they become: collaborators with him, useful idiots to him, or simply despairing and hopeless before him.

If we only looked at this problem, we could easily give up.  Yet, God tells us in His Word that He does love us.  He did not make us to be enslaved by the devil and his world system.  Through Jesus (and in Jesus), He offers us a better way

Of course, there are some Christians that believe you will never have a bad day if you are right with Jesus.  They may moderate this by emphasizing that you will never have a bad mental and spiritual day.  However, this is not the testimony of the Scriptures and the godly through history.  Elijah is shown struggling with the desire to quit.  Jesus experiences the full brunt of the mental battle on the night of his betrayal.

We are going to have times when we do not feel like God is with us.  However, what does our Lord Jesus say?  “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”  He doesn’t guarantee that we will feel it, but rather, he guarantees the fact and reality of it.

Let’s look at our passage.

This world will conform us to itself (v. 1-2)

I want to focus on verse 2 first.  Paul is challenging the Christians in Rome to live in a way that is not like the world that surrounded them.  It is a negative imperative: Don’t be conformed to this world!

The Roman system was very powerful and had conquered the Mediterranean Region and beyond.  It was the worst of the beastly empires that Daniel foresaw and the Apostle John was shown in the book of The Revelation.

This beastly power dominated that area for a hundred years and would go on to dominate for many more centuries.  Such power is seductive to those who have the possibility to harness it.  This was precious few in the Roman system.  The vast majority of people who lived under the Roman system found it cruel and heartless.  Yes, Israel had to deal with the heavy Roman boot in their face, but so did the Gentiles and most Romans themselves.

The flip-side of not being conformed is the reality that the world is trying to conform you.  If we let it happen, we will be conformed into a proper cog in its system.  It is designed to conform you to be a good Roman, or a good American, Chinese person, a good Russian, etc.

However, there is a level of this pressure to conform that is deeper than self-serving governments, religions and social leaders.

The word behind “world” in verse 2 is literally the word “age.”  It is not so much about the globe and the natural things on it (political borders, powers, and such), as it is about the system of how things are set up and relate to each other.

From the standpoint of God’s redemptive work, this is an age of grace, an age of salvation, even the age of the Church (God’s calling out of a people).  However, Paul is looking at the world from the standpoint of the devil’s work.  He has deep-captured the world and built up systems of governance, religion, and operations that are all about continuing a rebellion against God and His Anointed, Jesus Christ.  This age, this world system, is really a continuation of what the devil began in the garden with Adam and Eve.  Particularly today, he works at odds to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, when we talk about the world and its systems, we are talking about more than what we see.  We are especially talking about the spiritual impetus that lies behind those natural things and weaves them into a coherent system that conforms people to the desires of the devil.  It is a spiritual battlefield.

On one hand, all nations have their own systems that work at odds to one another, or together for the sake of mutual benefit.  Yet, on the other hand, they are all spiritually united and joined at the hip.  They are all generally living and thinking in rebellion to God. 

This can even be while they are looking religious, or Christian.  The devil doesn’t care what your rebellion looks like, so long as you are antichrist.  You can be Caesar worshipping yourself, Herod doing the same, or a Greek worshipping Zeus, Caiaphas saying that he is worshipping Yahweh, or Judas following Jesus.  The devil doesn’t care.  He loves diversity as long as it is a diversity of rebellion against God and His Christ.  But, more on this later.

Second Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  Even before Christ came, the devil was working to keep the world blind to the promise of God to send Messiah, a deliverer of humanity and its redeemer.

Now, the devil is not a true god.  But, he has deep-captured the world through temptation and sin.  The political, religious, and political systems that developed were ways of blinding humanity to the good plan of God that was revealed to Adam and Eve and to later generations.

Thus, a child who is born into the world doesn’t understand this.  There mind is not fully formed and is trying to make sense of everything.  Yet, the culture conforms them to a particular way of seeing things.  This blinding effect catches us all while we are young and unaware of it.  Being raised in a Christian home that teaches the Word can help mitigate this pressure to conform.

In the midst of all of this, God has not left us at the mercy of this system.  He has worked through Jesus to give truth to the world.  Christians are supposed to be an antidote to this blinding work of the devil.  We are to shine the light of the truth of Jesus to the world around us.

This helps us to understand why we need our minds renewed.  The world around us blinds our mind’s ability to perceive the truth.  Alongside of this, there is another reason in Romans 1:28.  “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting.”

This blind culture did not happen over night.  In the beginning, the first family had a clear understanding of the truth of God and the lies of the devil.  Yet, this verse points to the tendency of people not to retain the knowledge of God.  Little by little, one compromise after another, one generation after another, humans began to be deceived and drawn away from truth to more and more lies.  It is not by accident that the ancient false religions focus on things that satisfy the flesh, like sexual immorality.  As a judgment, God eventually lets us have our way, the fruit of our choices.  This is called a debased mind.

The word for debased comes from the area of coinage.  When a government is short on gold and silver, and have troops to pay, it was tempting and common to debase the silver coins by mixing in cheap, base metals.  The troops would think they were getting paid a full silver coin, but it had been debased, corrupted.  It was not really what it purported to be.  Eventually people would figure it out and the value of the currency would drop in relation to what it pretended to be.

When we think about a debased mind, we need to recognize that the value of a mind is its ability to recognize the truth.  God gave us a mind for a reason.  Yet, the conforming influence of this world can weaken the ability of our minds to see through its lies.  This is the natural condition of humanity without God.

In fact if you think about it, not to retain God is the same as not retaining the very basis, foundation, of all reality.  God is the absolute fundamental reality that all other things are dependent upon.  To reject the most basic aspect of reality makes it impossible to reason properly.  If we push aside reality and persist in living by fantastic perceptions, we will find ourselves causing great pain and trouble.  It would be like going to the bathroom in the middle of the night when you have kids.  You can refuse to recognize the reality that your kids probably left some things on the floor, and the reality that there are things in the way on which you do not want to stub your toe.  If you just push those things from your mind and traipse through the house, imagining that the way is clear, reality will rear its ugly head and you will feel pain.

We need God’s help, and He gives it through Jesus, the Word of God, through Christians sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The light of the world came and did a spiritual work that can change everything for us.  In Romans 12, Paul is writing to people who used to be trapped in the blindness of this world.  However, they have believed in Jesus and heard the truth.  They are no longer blind. 

To believe in Jesus is to follow the teachings of Jesus.  This is the unpardonable sin of this world.  The devil doesn’t care what particular form your life takes as long as it isn’t following God’s Anointed, Jesus.

Ephesians 2:2 says, “You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”  The devil loves diversity so long as it is contrary to the truth of God.  The one diverse thing the world will never tolerate is that of truly following Jesus.  If you wonder why people attack Christians so viciously, take some time to ponder this.

This past week, there was a group of Christians who met at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle to worship God and stand for protecting kids from the sexually immoral agendas threatening them today.  They were attacked by a bunch of antifa people.  When someone attacks you, it is easy to see them as the enemy.  However, the enemy is the devil and his world system.  Those doing the attacking are simply those who have been taken captive by the devil.  The battle in their mind has been lost, and they are doing the bidding of their master.  Yet, in verse one of Romans 12, Paul is calling the Corinthians to be a living sacrifice.  A living sacrifice is a person who dies to what their flesh and the world desire and choose to live for Christ come what may.  This brings us to the second point.

God transforms you into the image of Christ

Conforming to the world is what we are not supposed to do.  Whereas, what we are to do is to be transformed.  Though he doesn’t say “to the image of Christ” here, the sacrifice of Jesus is the backdrop to what he is talking about.  Instead of being conformed to the world and the devil, we are to be transformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a difference between conforming to something and being transformed.  Conforming has to do with superficial changes.  Paul doesn’t say we are to conform to Jesus.  Judas conformed to being a disciple of Jesus, but something real was missing in his heart and mind.  He did not have faith in Jesus in the end.  He never allowed himself to be transformed by the Spirit of God that was working through Jesus.  The other disciples were not perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus, but they cooperated with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

We can change superficially, but the real change that we need is one that is in the heart and mind.  It is no wonder that there is a craze today to try and “change” one’s gender through surgery.  This is typically based upon feeling that they are trapped in the body of the wrong gender.  This, of course, is not reality.  Feelings are real enough, but they are not reality.  They are simply how we feel about reality in the moment.  They change based upon stimuli, life experience and the pressure of a society that is willing to conform you into anything but Jesus.

Conforming is like a chameleon taking on the markings of the environment around them, but transformation involves deep challenges of trust in Christ.  Transformation involves dying to the desires of the flesh and being helped to obey Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  Transformation involves repentance of going our own way instead of God and forgiving those who have harmed us.  Transformation is a deep spiritual change that changes how we live our life.  Conforming (Judas) will not persevere to the end, but transformation (Saul of Tarsus to the Apostle Paul) deeply affects a person to the core of their being, which leads to visible changes in their life.

Paul sees a critical part of this transformational process as a renewal of our mind.  When we hear or read the Word of God, and when the Holy Spirit touches our heart and mind, we can change from corrupt thinking to renewed thinking.  Just as repentance involves a change of mind about God and Jesus in particular, that change of mind draws us back from being debased and blind.

This spiritual change is in response to the Holy Spirit, versus a superficial change of style that is driven by self desire.  When we read the word of God, pray, and listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, our mind will begin to see the many ways that this world is antichrist, anti-God, and not good.  It portrays a superficial good that is defined by the mind of man, rather than the mind of God.

It is good for us to have our minds renewed, but this does not immunize us to the battle for our mind.

The devil still bombards the minds of Christians through the culture in order to draw them back under his power.  He uses temptation, seduction, fear, anger, and any other leverage that he can use.  Of course, our victory is not that our flesh never responds to his tactics.  Our victory is in taking control of our flesh and saying “no” to it, and “yes” to Jesus.  Even when we fail, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and draws us back to repentance.  Thus, the renewed mind is not yet perfected, but it has been transformed by the Perfect One who is perfecting us.

Being a “living sacrifice” will prove the will of God to be good, pleasing and perfect.  Yes, you may fail from time to time, but your persistence in following Jesus and continual transformation will itself testify to the perfect love of God in Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who is doing his perfect work in us imperfect creatures.  Yet, one day, we shall stand perfected before our Lord and before the rest of creation!

Battle of the Mind 1 audio

The Sermon on the Mount XIII

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites IV

Matthew 6:16-21.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 3, 2024.

Today, we will finish this central section where Jesus corrects the righteousness of the hypocrites for his followers.  We will particularly be looking at fasting.

Let’s look at our passage regarding the way we should fast.

The way of righteousness in fasting (v. 16-18)

As Jesus has said in the other issues of charitable giving and prayer, so he says here.  The hypocrites are only fasting in order to be seen by others.  They want the glory and praise that comes from people.  It is an interesting thing that, in all the ways we shouldn’t be focused on others, we generally are, and in all of the ways we should be focused on others, we generally are not.  Of course, this is the tendency of our sinful nature.

I will give a caveat up front in this passage.  It is clear that Jesus is talking about a private fast that you may do on your own and not a group fast for a specific purpose.  Israel did have a fast on the Day of Atonement, in which everyone would fast.  We see some similar things among the early Church.  Acts 13 shows us that Barnabas and Paul were called into their missionary work during a time of group prayer and fasting.  Later, in Acts 14, they had been able to build many groups of converts.  We see Barnabas and Saul fasting and praying as they commended elders in each new church.  So, there is a time and a place for fasts within a community for specific purposes.  In such things, others will know that you are fasting, but generally so are they.

Jesus is not making a new law in which no one can ever see you fast, or you are in trouble.  The true point is that the hypocrites “love” others seeing them, rather than God.  There is no fundamental relationship of love to their times of fasting.  Thus, such group times of fasting should be the tip of the iceberg.  Ice bergs always have much more mass under the water (that you can’t see), then what is above the surface.  In fact, icebergs that have large chunks drop off under the water can even flip over. 

Again, Jesus is showing us how to please God in our personal times of fasting.

Last week, I mentioned The Didache, a document for new disciples whose title means “The Teaching.”  In this manuscript, new converts are told not to fast on Monday and Thursday like the hypocrites.  This may seem odd, if you don’t know the cultural dynamics in Israel at the time. 

The religious leaders had developed the tradition of fasting on Mondays and Thursdays.  It wasn’t required, but if you wanted to be seen as a righteous leader, then you pretty much needed to do so.  The idea is that new Christians who continue to fast on Monday and Thursday are doing so in order to avoid persecution.  You would look like you are following the traditions of the elders, and no one would suspect you are a Christian.  The point is not the day, Monday and Thursday.  The point is the reasoning of your heart.  What are you after?  They wanted people to see them fasting, and this is hypocritical.

Jesus is able to judge this because he knows what is in their hearts.  Yet, he doesn’t point to this.  Instead, he points to some external acts that they do, which reveal their hearts.  It wouldn’t take divine omniscience to recognize something was wrong with these guys who were always looking for attention.

Jesus points to their sad countenance.  They would walk around with a sad countenance when they were fasting, and most likely acted a little more weak than they needed to do.  Of course, it is not about sadness.  We may sometimes fast following a sad event, like the death of a loved one.  The point here is about drawing attention to the fact that they are fasting.  Jesus further describes them “disfiguring” their faces (NKJV).  Here is the idea of the Greek word behind this.  Whatever you are talking about will have something that is considered to be nice-looking, presentable condition of it.  When that is spoiled or ruined, this word would be used of it.  Thus, a person goes to bed at night not looking so bad,  but then wake up in the morning not looking so good.  We usually fix ourselves up to go out in public.  These guys would purposefully not fix themselves up, of course, because they were fasting.  This also drew attention to them.

I remember one time in grade school where a friend and I walked off of campus to his house in order to play video games.  The school called the house and my friend answered the phone.  We were busted of course and told to come back to school (where his mom worked no less).  As we headed to school, we figured our best excuse would be to say that we were feeling sick.  And, guess what, I had no problem looking pale and sick when I arrived at the principal’s office because I knew I was in trouble when my parents found out.  We should never underestimate the power of a hypocrite to put on an act that is worthy of an Oscar Award when they desperately want to do so.  I was powerfully motivated by my flesh.

However, God was not impressed with what these hypocrites were doing- I’m back to talking about the religious leaders of the days of Jesus.  Many people were impressed with their sheer volume of fasting.  However, I wonder if there were some people who were turned off by this? 

Jesus then tells us that “Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.”  God doesn’t owe them a red cent.  They want the praise of people and that is all they are going to get.  However, they probably vainly imagine that God is impressed with their works, like the praying Pharisee in Luke 18:12.  “I fast twice a week…”

Yet, in Isaiah 58, we are told that God is more interested in the heart that is behind the fasting.  If your heart is oriented towards God, then your fasting will become focused on the things that are important to God.  You will be focused on honoring His Name, living out His Kingdom rule and doing His will.  Yes, Isaiah speaks about helping the poor, but think about what that means in light of honoring God, His rule and His will.  We can help the poor out of a wicked heart as well.  We can do it as a moral cloak for selfish reasons.  However, when we love people as God loves them, it then becomes a clean thing.  They had gone without food, but the fought with one another and ripped off their employees.  They weren’t fasting for God, but for their own glory.  Am I working for the glory of God and His purposes?

All of this begs the question, why should we fast at all?  Fasting is a way to bring  your fleshly desires under control.  They are a battle for everyone who wishes to become like God, like Jesus.  We do not want to be ruled by our flesh and its desires.  We don’t want to be a person of the flesh, but a person who is led by the Spirit of God.  James used the analogy of a wild horse.  Breaking in a horse so that it is useful is essentially a battle of will, and it requires wisdom.  Our flesh is naturally hostile to the things of the Spirit of God (His purposes).  Fasting is a mechanism by which we put a bridle in our flesh, so that it can be useful for the work of God’s Kingdom.

This brings us to a second purpose.  It not only brings our flesh under control, but it also orients and focuses us towards the things of Christ, of His Spirit.  Fasting is always accompanied by increased prayer.  We are telling ourselves that we would rather have God than a full belly.  God means more to me than food.  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  This is essentially at the base of all true fasting.  It is a worship of God.

Of course, we must avoid thinking that God is impressed, i.e., answers our prayers, for the sake of a quantity of days we fast.  In fact, we should be careful that our fasts are not driven by a single-focused prayer for a particular item or act that we desire from Him.  Ultimately, we come as beggars to God asking for wisdom to live out His purposes in this life.  “Lord, please lead me by Your Spirit!”

Jesus tells his disciples to fast in order to be seen by the Father, and not men.  In fact, he just assumes his people will give charity, pray and fast in this section.

The Father who is in the secret place will see your fasting and reward you.  This is different than prayer.  We don’t have to go into our closet to fast.  However, we should keep our private fasts hidden as we go about our day.  In this way, the “secret place,” or “hidden place,” is a spiritual place before God, no matter where we are.  No one can tell your belly is empty as you walk around.  We are to squelch the desire of our flesh to obtain credit and praise from the people around us.  This is what makes it a hidden place before God.

Jesus tells us to do the opposite of the hypocrites.  Instead of looking sad and a “disfigured” face, we should do all the things that we would normally do when we go out in public.  Jesus tells them to anoint their head and wash their face.  You might even want to slap your face a couple times to combat that pale look you might get when you are not used to fasting.  The whole point is to make sure that you do not stick out, so that people won’t ask if you are fasting, or guess that you are.

By the way, don’t be a person who is always asking people if they are fasting, or other such things.  Don’t be a guesser.  We are to be brothers and sisters walking together with the LORD.  We will have different expressions of love for God at different times, and that is good.  Let it be what it is.

Let me just say a few more things on our reward for fasting.  You may not receive everything that you want, or even prayed for.  Fasting is not the secret to receiving everything you want.  It was never about that.  In fact, we don’t always know what is good for us.  Sometimes, God is saying no to the thing we asked for, but giving us something greater (like intimacy with Him).

In Psalm 106:15, the psalmist says of the LORD, “He gave them their request, but He sent leanness into their soul.”  When Israel was in the desert, they began to complain to the LORD that there was no bread and meat.  God gave them what they wanted, but then sent leanness into their souls.  Why?  When things become more important to us than the presence and love of God, then they essentially become our God, even when we pray.  The life that we think we are deriving from them, however, always fails to satisfy the heart.  Our soul was not designed to be satisfied with anything less than the presence of God, relationship with Him.  Until God means more to us than bread, meat, water, gold, wealth, fame, glory, etc., our soul will always be spiritually starving and lacking the good thing it needs, God Himself.

If we will listen to the wisdom of Jesus in this sermon, then we will not be men and women driven by our flesh.  We will be a people who would rather have leanness of flesh, than leanness of soul.  It is not that there is always a choice.  I do believe God would have provided bread and meat for them, just as He did for Jesus when he fasted in the wilderness.  However, it would have happened in a way that was good.  Yet, sometimes you have to make a choice.  Fasting helps us to have a better grip on the lusts of our flesh so that we do not displease God, and miss what He has for us.

We are very blessed in these United States of America.  Perhaps, you have nothing that you need and would ever fast for.  How about just to know Jesus more?  Maybe, we should fast to ask God whether we have grown complacent and blind to all the things we should be fasting and praying for?  The Laodicean believers thought they were rich and in need of nothing.  If they had spent more time in fasting and prayer, they may have been enabled to see how spiritually poor they had become, how naked they were, and how spiritually blind they were.  Do not trust the eyes and the mind of flesh when it comes to spiritual matters.

Lastly, let me add that some people have medical conditions that make fasting hard, or even dangerous.  They may get the shakes, or have a glucose imbalance.  We must understand that this is not a contest and a necessity in order to please God.

I have a brother whose adult life has been one physical battle after another.  Essentially, he has battled lupus and the variety of ways that it attacks his body.  He has been physically challenged his whole adult life.  He has other brothers who haven’t ever had a thing wrong all of that time.  On the one hand, a person can beat themselves up emotionally because they are so weak and think that God doesn’t care, and on the other hand, a person could think that God is quite pleased with them.  God knows your heart and He knows your physical frame.

I say this to challenge us in the area of fasting, and yet not to place a burden on those to whom this cannot happen, at least not in the traditional way of going without food.  It can be tough to accept our lot in life without blaming God.  It is even tougher to catch the vision and to rise up to the calling that is in those things we call weakness.  Sometimes it is our weakness that enables us to do the greatest spiritual good in the lives of others.  However, we have to learn that by the help of the Holy Spirit as we fight against the mind of flesh and bring it to heel.

This brings us to the third section.  Jesus begins to reveal areas that are pitfalls for becoming a hypocrite.  If you do not want to be an actor, a spiritual poser, then listen up as Jesus teaches us how to avoid it.

Revealing Areas that are Pitfalls for Hypocrisy

Our relationship with things (v.19-21)

Jesus first speaks to our relationship with things (verses 19 to the end of the chapter).  Chapter 7 will open with a look at our relationship with difficult people.  It will then move to our relationship with God.  Hypocrisy grows out of improperly relating with things, people and God.  He spends most of his time on this topic looking at things.

Before He gives us direct teaching on what to do and what not to do, Jesus deals with three images that ask a question.  This first one has to do with what our treasure is, and what our heart loves.  What’s your treasure?  We can pray for our heavenly Father to bring His heavenly things down to earth, but is that where our heart truly is?  This tension between loving earthly things versus heavenly things is important to face in your spiritual walk.  Yet, it is not just a metaphor, but more on that later.

Jesus commands us not to be laying up treasure on the earth.  The focus here is in storing up treasure, literally treasuring up treasure.  It does beg the question of what qualifies as “storing up,” but let’s hold on to that for a bit too.

Jesus gives us one immediate reason for not laying up earthly treasures that has leverage on a natural minded person.  It has to do with the threats that exist on the earth to the treasure that we store here.

He gives three different kinds of threats: moths (sentient but animal), rust (the laws of nature) and thieves (sentient beings).  If you want to retain wealth, then you will have to plan against these categories. 

Moths could just as easily be mice or rats, etc.  How many clothes, bins of grain, etc. have been ruined by such critters.  They have the ability to break past many of the best attempts at stopping them.

Rust is not even sentient.  It represents things that have no mind, but we might be angry with God about them.  Why would God create a universe where my hard earned stuff rusts, rots, essentially falls apart and is ruined?  This is why certain things have risen over time to be a better store of wealth than others.  Gold resists tarnish more than many other metals, and it also has a rarity that is enough to be desirable, but not so rare as to not be obtainable to use as money. 

As if animals and the laws of nature aren’t bad enough, then we have to deal with thieves.  In general, these are other humans who work extremely hard at stealing the accumulated hard work of others.  For some reason, they get excited at stealing from others rather than putting their hard work to honest ends.

For every thing a man does to make his wealth safe, another man can figure out how the safe works and see a way around it.  It is not hard to see that if one man can create something, another man can figure out how to dismantle it.

Today, we are being sold on digital currency because of the great trouble with scammers and thieves.  Yet, digital currency is just another mechanism created by a man.  It is a lie that it will be impossible to hack.  In fact, the greatest threat to stored wealth throughout all of history has been governments of some sorts.  Either your own government taxes it away, or another government conquers yours and takes it from you.  How much stored wealth was capture for the glory of Rome, or Genghis Kahn and his “Mongol hordes?” 

The main point Jesus is making here is not that you should be fearful of all of these things.  His main point is that you can spend your whole life amassing wealth on the earth, and then it is gone.  What have you obtained?  He doesn’t mention the ultimate robber of all wealth, death.

Thus, Jesus points us to a wiser plan.  Lay up treasure in heaven.  This continues this tension between heaven and earth.  We tend to think that a lot of stored wealth on this earth will make my existence heavenly.  However, this is not God’s way, and it is a way that causes pain, fighting and sorrow on the earth.  Before He gets into what it looks like to put treasure in heaven, Jesus balances out his argument.

You don’t need risk management plans for treasure that is stored in heaven.  The risks of earth cannot touch wealth stored in heaven.  You don’t need to purchase insurance for things in heaven.  Jesus is not only our insurance, but even more, he is our assurance that our spiritual treasure is safe.  God doesn’t lie, and there is no being in the universe strong enough to take it from Him.  There is no safer place in the universe for treasure.  He is the great Safe of safes.

Yes, there is a thief who dwells in the heavens, the devil.  John 10:10 tells us that he is a thief, a murderer, and a marauder.  Yet, even the devil cannot touch heavenly treasure.

1 Peter 1:4 tells us that God has called us to “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  In fact, this suggests that you “kept by the power of God” are His treasure.  This obviously comports with Malachi 3:17.  There, speaking to those who fear the LORD, God says, “‘They shall be Mine,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘On the day that I make them My jewels.  And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’”  Jewels sparkle when they are in the presence of great light.  Thus, the resurrected righteous are described by Daniel in chapter 12 as shining like the stars.  The reason the battle is down here on the earth is because the devil knows that you are His treasure.

Jesus is teaching us that to make an earthly difference, i.e., cause His kingdom to come, we need to put our treasure in heaven.  So, how do we store treasure in heaven?  We do it by making the Kingdom of heaven our primary purpose: His Name, His Kingdom and His Will.  When we do earthly things for heavenly reasons, God credits it as true righteousness born of the fruit of faith in Jesus.  We can use our wealth of time, knowledge, money, relationships, etc. for reaching the lost and strengthening God’s people.

In fact, two people can do the exact same thing and for one of them it will be earthly treasure and for the other heavenly.  Let’s take as an example the raising of a family.  Two people can raise up the same number of kids into society.  One can do it for the glory of their family name, or their national fame.  The other can do it for the glory of the Lord.  Of course, they won’t do everything in raising those kids “exactly the same,” but you should be able to see the point made earlier.  Raising a family has a natural aspect that anyone can do, but it also has spiritual aspects. 

This brings up another point.  Don’t read this to mean that you will have nothing on this earth.  A family raised for Christ is great heavenly treasure, but it has earthly rewards to it as well.  Often those who try their hardest to obtain earthly rewards, at the expense of heavenly purposes, find that it never turns out as great as they had hoped.  The point is where your heart is.

This is why Jesus says what he says at the end.  “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Who or what has my heart?  What is my heart longing for, and what is it fixated upon?  The Lord’s prayer is a prayer that is focused upon the purposes of Heaven, and yet it still affects this world because God’s purposes are uniquely focused upon this world, particularly His image-bearers that He placed upon it.

He knows that we are flesh and blood, mortal.  As mortals, we will need literal, daily bread.  However, we can live out eternal purposes in these temporary lives.

The point is not about never having a bank account, or saving up to buy a house, etc.  It is asking the deeper question.  Messiah is asking us.  Do I have  your heart?  Or, does this world and the things thereof have your heart?  If you had to choose between Jesus and the desires of this world, which would you choose?

The apostle John reminded us of these questions in 1 John 2:15-17.  There he commands us (in the name of the LORD) not to love the world and the things of the world.  This world is passing away, and the things of it, especially the lusts that we have for things.  However, he who does the will of God abides forever!

This brings us back to the Garden of Eden.  Yes, there is a choice between innocence and knowledge of good and evil.  However, deeper than this is a question of love.  The serpent is tempting their heart away from what they already knew, God loved them greatly.  He tempts them away from the love of God towards the love of things (in fact, they are His things).  How can we be in right relationship with God’s things in our life?  It starts by not making them our treasure.  Instead, God Himself must be our greatest treasure.

God is the greatest good.  He is the source of all things that we might deem as good (and countless others that we are too ignorant to realize their goodness).  He gives us all kinds of things.  Yet, I guess He held back one thing, the knowledge of good and evil.  Have you been seduced by things that become nothing if they are divorced from God?  A love of things that cannot satisfy a soul that was made for the love of God is essentially what Romans 1 pictures.  We worship the creation rather than the Creator who made it all.  In the end, we will be left with things and a very, very lean soul.

God forbid!

Fasting/Treasure audio

The Acts of the Apostles 17

Subtitle: Lying to the Holy Spirit I

Acts 5:1-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 11, 2022.

What a horrible thought it is to lie to the Spirit of God.  What a horrible thought it is that a sin might be judged by God on the spot by striking a person dead.  It sounds like it must be something in the Old Testament, but today’s story is here in the New Testament at the beginning of the Church. 

These are the things that God would have us contemplate today.  Furthermore, they are the things that should convince us that God is not playing games, and that this day of grace that we are in is still deadly serious.

I think that we might be surprised at who did not survive if God were to strike dead every single person who was lying to the Holy Spirit in the American Church.  Through the prophet Moses, God warns “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 NKJV). 

Of course, it is rare for God to strike people dead on the spot for even gross sin in this life, but the question is not when will it happen.  The question is will He strike me with eternal death.  Whether during this life, or when you stand before Jesus the judge after death, if you have not been living for Christ, then it won’t matter much that He gave you more time.

Let’s get into our passage.

Ananias becomes a cautionary example (vs 1-6)

Last week, we looked at Barnabas and how he was an encouraging example, or an exemplar, for believers.  It is not by accident that the very next story is a cautionary example about a person doing something similar to what Barnabas did, but lying to the Holy Spirit about it.

We all can think of examples in our lives of people to emulate and others to avoid.  However, you may not have someone that is at the level of an apostle like Barnabas, or on the other side, at the level of Ananias and Sapphira for bad.  Ultimately, this lesson teaches us that following Jesus is not a game that we can play.  Of course, Jesus is the perfect encouraging example.  However, people like Peter, John, Barnabas, and Paul show us that we can rise above our sin and weakness through Christ. 

Of course, to do so, we must take our sin seriously, and we must take Christ’s salvation seriously.  There is a tendency for us to think of the Church Age as a time of grace in which sin is no longer a big deal.  It is all covered by the death of Jesus, hurrah!  Yet, the writer of Hebrews warns us in chapter ten that if a person was put to death without mercy under the Law of Moses if two or three witnesses testified, then an even worse punishment awaits those who trample the Son of God underfoot, treating his blood of the new covenant as a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of Grace (28-29). 

Luke leaves out many details that we would like to know.  However, it is apparent that Ananias sells a plot of land of some sort and then donates the money to the church.  From Peter’s reaction, we can know that in some way Ananias has made it known that he is donating all the proceeds of the sale.  This could have been a legal stipulation in the sale document itself, or it could have simply been a public declaration before the church and, or, its leaders.

In verse 2, the phrase ‘kept back’ has a connotation of embezzlement, which lets us know in advance that he is doing something wrong.  The point of the story is not for us to judge for ourselves the scenario.  We don’t have all of the facts to do so.  The point of the story is to caution us against a severe sin.  Notice the difference.  Luke is not trying to put us in the judgment seat.  He is trying to keep us out of the defendant seat.

When Ananias brings the money to the Apostle Peter, he is rebuked on the spot for his sin.  How did Peter know?  He knew by the help of the Holy Spirit.  In terms of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we would say that Peter was given a word of knowledge by the Spirit.

Of course, any leader in any group could covet such near omniscience.  Thus, tyrants will do openly to get information on everyone what cults do openly, but with more seduction in getting the information.  Such leaders will build networks and systems of gathering information on all of your secrets so that they can use it against you in order to further their power.  Woe to those who would pervert the Church of Jesus for their own empowerment and glory.

Yet, this is not what Peter is doing.  This is something that is pure and clean and comes from the pure and clean Spirit of God.  Peter rebukes Ananias, and it is a fearful day for those who are sinning.  Yet, rebuke also opens the door for repentance.  Thus, it is a strange day in which things can go in vastly different directions.  I will either repent and be cleansed, or refuse and be hardened even more.

When we look at the specifics of the rebuke, Peter twice refers to his sin as, vs 3, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit,” and vs 4, “You have not lied to men, but to God.”  Of course, he did lie to men, but his sin is far worse than that.  He is lying to God Himself.

How has he lied to God?  First, he has lied to leaders whom he knows to be full of the Holy Spirit.  He has lied to a body of believers who are Spirit-filled.  Interesting question here, had Ananias been filled with the Holy Spirit?  Is it possible that a person could be filled with the Holy Spirit, but then lie to the Holy Spirit?  We don’t know specifically with this case.  However, King Saul had the Holy Spirit come upon him and he prophesied.  Yet, he later turned to the witch of Endor for occultic help because his rebellions against God’s Spirit had caused God to leave him.

Peter mentions Satan.  Satan is at work here, and Peter knows about Satan stirring your baser notions in order to get you to resist what God is doing.  Listen friend, don’t play fast and lose with the things of God.  It won’t be worth it in the end.  Even if you get away with it for all of your life, you will regret it when you stand before Jesus.  Just as Israel drew near God with their lips while their hearts were far from Him, so can we.  In fact, all of life is a challenge asking us if our worship and strong talk was all lies.  From time to time, Jesus challenges us, “Will you too go away?

In verse 4, Peter describes just how needless this sin was.  It was his property.  No one forced him to sell it.  After the sale, it was his money to do with as he would.  No one forced him to declare that he would give all of the money to the church.  Why didn’t he just make it clear that he would only give part of the proceeds?

Let’s say it was a plot of land that was worth $10,000 USD.  If he simply gave 10%, it would have been a $1,000, which is a significant donation.  Even $100 would be helpful to people.  In fact, any gift you give for the work of Jesus is significant, whether $1 or $10,000, because it is given to God.  It is holy.  The widow only gave a mite, and yet our Lord said it was greater than those who gave bags of Gold.  God does not judge value as we do.

Jesus does not force people to give to his mission.  You are free to give what you want.  But, the case of Ananias shows that, though we are free from constraints by the Lord, we are not nearly as free from sin in our hearts.  Ananias was free to give in relation to God, but his sin held him in bondage and led him to the slaughter.  Sin had taken root in his heart somewhere along the line, much like Judas before him.

And that is where the problem lies, in his heart.  In verse 3, Peter says, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie,” and in verse 4, “Why have you conceived this thing in your heart.” 

Peter is not saying that Satan made Ananias sin.  Satan can’t make anybody sin.  In fact, you are quite capable of being tempted by your own flesh without his help.  However, he is a real influence, a real interloper, nonetheless.

It is one thing for a temptation to “fill” our heart or mind.  This is being a fallen human being in a fallen world.  However, you can keep from playing with that temptation.  Notice the use of the word “conceived” by Peter.  This should bring to mind the picture that James gives us in James 1:14-15.  “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.”

Notice the progression.  It begins with the temptation within our heart and mind.  If we do not nip it in the bud in that moment (bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ), we will then be dragged away and enticed by our own desires.  It is not Satan dragging us off.  It is our own desires.  At some point your desires conceive.  You have given yourself over to do the sin.  You first want to do it, and then you plan to do it.  Eventually conception leads to birth.  This sin will come out into the world through words and deeds.  They may be hidden and done in secret, but into the world the little sin babies will be hatched.  And, when sin has grown to full maturity, it brings forth death.

We must guard our hearts!  O, how our hearts are laden down with impure desires that only serious warriors will rise up against and slay by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, you actually have to take possession of your heart before you can then guard it.  This picture can be seen through Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land.  Picture the Promised Land as your own soul.  When you get saved, your life is full of many gigantic strongholds of sin.  You look like a Lilliputian compared to them, and you are!  However, God has promised to give you victory if you will attack the strongholds relying on His help.  Too many Christians have settled for a small plot of victory, and have allowed the enemy quarter in their own hearts and mind.  Such activity will not last us because the Holy Spirit is always calling us to rise up and fight!

After Peter’s rebuke, we are told that Ananias falls down and breathes his last.  He dies on the spot.  There is no sense that Peter knew that this was going to happen.  Though God revealed the sin of Ananias, that is not reason to automatically believe he knew death was coming.

So, why was God so harsh?  Perhaps, He determined that it was important at the onset of this group to make it clear that, even when God is being gracious, He is not to be mocked.  Every man is a liar and the judgments of Jesus are righteous and true.  We can be assured that sin has take deep root in the heart of Ananias, and he is boldly lying in the face of the powerful working of God through the Apostles.  It is hard to understand how he could be so bold, but such is sin.  It blinds us to our true condition and danger.

Our theology can so promote grace that we no longer have people who are afraid to sin.  In general, you do not have to fear that God will strike you dead for sinning today, but in the words of Johnny Cash, “Sooner or later, God‘ll cut you down.”  Sin that is not fought by the help of God’s Spirit will breathe death into your life and the life of people around you.  It is not just a matter of your eternal destiny.  It is also a matter of whether you are a source of sin and death in this life, or a source of life that comes from the Spirit of God.

God’s desire is for you to fight the sin that He reveals in your life.  His word shows us what sin is, and His Spirit helps us to see it in our life.  In short, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, and points us to the righteousness of Jesus.  Yes, we are to believe in Jesus for salvation, but we are also to continue believing in Jesus for taking possession of our soul, sanctification.  The Holy Spirit really can strengthen you and help you to get victory over strongholds of sin in your life, but He won’t repent for you.  He won’t get you out of your bed in the morning and force you to pray for strength.

The problem is not that God is mean and scary.  The problem is that we don’t take God serious enough to take sin serious enough.  Imagine that your sin is so horrible that God Himself had to become a man in order to pay the price for it.  Yes, it is easy to imagine that Hitler’s sin is so bad that it would take that, but not mine (of course, we would never say those words).  To the degree that you think sin is not a big deal is to the degree that you diminish the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  However, the more you see the glory and majesty of the righteousness of Christ, then the more you see the depths of shame and dishonor our sinful ways are towards God and one another.

Christian, we must become convinced that sin is breathing death into our life and the lives of the people we love.  We must desire to destroy its hold on our hearts, and we must learn to lean on Jesus for victory in the way that David did when standing against Goliath.

We have to stop here today.  We will pick up with the story next week.   Until then, I pray that the love of God will convince us to cast off any dalliance we may have with sin, and to turn our eyes unto Him.  Only He can give us victory against sin, the world, and the devil!

Lying to the Holy Spirit audio

The Things that God Hates 5: A Heart that Plots Wicked Plans

Proverbs 6:16-18; 1 Samuel 18:8-27; Esther 8:3; Psalm 51:10-11.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 12, 2021.

We have made it to the fourth thing that God hates.  I would take a second to remind those who balk at the concept of God hating something to read the first sermon on this topic dated August 13, 2021 on this blog.

God hates a heart that plots wicked plans

Proverbs 6:18 moves to the heart and the wicked plans that are often plotted in it.  We have many examples of such in the Old Testament.  Let’s start with Saul plotting against David in 1 Samuel 18:8-27.

By this time, Saul has already been told by Samuel that God has rejected him as king because of his rebellions against God.  It is in 1 Samuel 15 that Saul is confronted by the prophet and two things are pointed out.  First, Saul’s problem began when he ceased to be “little in his own eyes” (1 Sam. 15:17), aka pride.  Second, Saul’s rebellion was like the sin of witchcraft, and his stubbornness was like idolatry.  Of course, Saul is king.  Such things are not always evident to the common people in a nation or republic.  God rejected Saul because Saul had continually rejected His words and instructions.

This is the context of David’s great deliverance over Goliath, and his subsequent rise to public glory.  The women had been singing a song that said “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”  Saul becomes jealous of David’s popularity that has risen above his own.  In his jealousy, he flat out tries to kill David with his spear.  When this doesn’t work, he talks David into marrying his daughter with a steep dowry.  He hopes that David will be caught in a Philistine trap with his own daughter as the bait.  Despite Saul’s hopes, David is doubly successful and Saul became David’s enemy “continually,” or literally “all the days.” (verse 28).  Saul begins to publicly slander David as a rebel and an outlaw to the people of Israel, when this is exactly what Saul was.  He had become a rebel against God plotting plans that were against the Law of God (shedding innocent blood).

Another example is found in the book of Esther, and is mentioned specifically in 8:3.  Haman plotted against Mordecai and the Jews.  Notice that this story begins when Haman’s pride (ceased to be little in his own eyes) was wounded by the fact that Mordecai the Jew did not bow in his presence.  Haman plots against Mordecai in order to hang him on gallows that he had specially made for the occasion.  Yet, this was not enough for Haman.  Haman wants to exterminate the people that Mordecai belongs to, the Jews. 

It is worth noting that Haman is called an Agagite.  This means he is descended from Agag the Amalekite king who Saul did not kill when he was instructed to do so by God.  That is an interesting twist in the story.  However, through Esther, God moves the heart of the King of Persia to be against Haman and with the Jews.

When you compare this plotting to Saul’s, you find that Saul’s plotting is focused on one man, David.  Yet, he is also plotting against the Lord, and the interests of the people of Israel.  He may not be trying to kill the Israelites, but he is injuring them by his actions.  Haman is actively plotting against the people of God out of wounded pride.  Perhaps, he knew the history of the death of his ancestor, and that fueled his hatred.  Ultimately, even though he wouldn’t think so, Haman is plotting against the plans of God.

Always remember when you are worried about the plans of the wicked that the High King of heaven has plans as well.  The plans of the wicked will eventually come to nothing, but the plans of the Lord are established forever!

Lastly, I would point to the plotting that the chief priests and elders of Israel did against Jesus.  It is the same story as before.  Their pride is injured because Jesus exposes their sins.  Instead of choosing repentance, which is the proper action, they plot to kill him.

Even today, the world is plotting against the Word of God, and King Jesus whom the Father has installed as the authority above all in heaven and on earth.  It is not just “wicked Jews,” or any other ethnic group, that we should be pointing the finger at.  Just as God has people from every tribe, nation, and tongue who are his, so Satan has workers from them all.  They are a proud people who bristle at having their sin exposed, who even hate that the things they love are called sins.  They imagine that their plans against God’s people will be successful, but they walk the path of Saul the Benjamite, and Haman the Agagite, men who are like the wicked one.

Many are the designs of the wicked, but those plans are all an abomination to God, and He will destroy them.  Choose this day whose side you are on, the Lord’s or Satan’s. 

Yet, many who are going along with these plans are unwitting.  They are unaware of the wicked plotting and slander.  They are duped in speaking for the cause by the one who disguises himself as an angel of light.  Our job is not to hate even those who plot.  Our job is to spread the Gospel.  God does not delight in the destruction of the wicked.  He would rather that they see their coming judgment, repent, and be saved from it, and so must we.  Now is not a day to get offended and hurt.  It is a day to take a kiss on the cheek and a knife in the back, all the while sharing the good news that they can be saved from their sin and guilt.

This is what God hates.  So, what is it that He loves?  Psalm 51 teaches us that God loves a clean heart.

God loves a clean heart

It is interesting that David had been hated and abused by King Saul.  God delivered David from the wicked plans of Saul, but He did not deliver Uriah from the wicked plans of David.  This mystery, of when God steps in and when He doesn’t, often angers people, but the true issues of life are not about getting justice.  The ultimate issue of life is my heart, what is in it, and what am I becoming.  David ends up becoming the very thing that he prayed God would save him from.

When David was faced with his sin by the prophet Nathan, David was forced to make a choice.  He could kill another man, and add to his guilt, or he could stop and repent.  This is the setting of Psalm 51, which begins with the cry, “Have mercy on me, O God!”  This is a cry that should rise up from every person around the globe and in every language on earth. (Hebrew) חָנֵּנִי אֱלֹהִים. (Greek)  ἐλέησόν με ὁ θεός. 

In verse 10 of Psalm 51, David recognizes that his heart needed cleaning.  It had become defiled.  That defilement began when he contemplated, plotted, to sin.  His plots grew until he was trapped by his sins.  Everyone would know when Bathsheba began to show her pregnancy.  He then plotted to neutralize the trap by adding to his sins the murder of Uriah the Hittite.  How ironic it is to see that Uriah the Hittite, that is not an Israelite, had more integrity at this juncture than David who had been the poster-child for integrity in his youth.

David had no one to blame, but his own heart.  Saul was no longer around to blame.  Jesus reminds us in the New Testament that a man is not defiled by what goes into his body, but by what comes up out of his heart.  Adultery, murder, and deception (lies), came up out of David’s heart and flowed into his life.  David is proof that even the most righteous among us are faced with a heart that gravitates to sin.  Unless we are daily vigilant at keeping it clean of those “gravitations,” we can do the basest of things.  My heart, your heart, needs cleaning.  All the hearts on this planet need a clean heart more than they need justice for the sins done against them.

David recognizes that he can’t do this cleaning by himself.  He needs God’s help.  This is not the cry of a man on the couch asking God to get him a drink from the fridge (I.e., do for me what I don’t want to do).  This is a man who is broken over his sin and realizing that he cannot remove it by himself.

Throughout this whole Psalm, there is wording that makes it clear that David recognizes that he has become what Saul had been.  In verse 11, David begs that God will not cast him away (as a rebel), and also remove His Holy Spirit from him.  When Saul was rejected by God, an evil spirit began to bother him.  David recognized what comes next.  He should be cast away and harassed by an evil spirit.  Such is the lot of those who rebel against God.  Yet, this is not God’s desire for Saul or David.  David begs for mercy where Saul only doubled down on his insolence.

Let us not fool ourselves.  If we fail in embracing God’s heart-cleansing program through pride and arrogance, then we will eventually come under the judgment of God.  It is not enough to be a church member, or to have been a Christian for decades.  Each time we are faced with defilement in our heart, we must humble ourselves and take our medicine.

Cleaning begins with a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  In verse 16, David points to the sacrifices that God is not looking for, those that could be done on a public altar, but are not from the heart.  Interesting, Saul had several times used public sacrifices as an excuse for his sin.  One time, he did the sacrifice himself instead of waiting for the prophet.  The second time, he tried to justify his disobedience to God by saying he wanted to make a big sacrifice out of it.  Saul tried to create a moral fig leaf for his sin, but God saw through it to the heart behind the actions. 

God has not called us to do what we want for Him.  There are a lot of Church leaders today who have great plans they are promoting for God, but they are not doing what He told them to do.  In short, they are rebelling.

May God stop us from only seeing their sin and their defilement.  May He help us to first deal with our own through a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  My heart must be broken, not because I am devastated to learn that I can sin, but because I realize that God’s love is only by His grace, that I never deserved, and even now only deserve His wrath.  It must be contrite.  Contrition requires two aspects: a sense of guilt over our sin, and a desire for God’s cleansing.  May we come to Him today with contrite hearts, and may we learn to do the actions of repentance in every aspect of our life.