Believing I Have No Sin – Self-Deception Series 18 – Purity 1107

 Believing I Have No Sin – Self-Deception Series 18 – Purity
1107

Purity 1107 07/29/2023 Purity 1107 Podcast

Purity 1107 on YouTube: 

Good morning,

Today’s photo of the setting sun over the Allen
Waite Farm, with a “less than clean windshield filter” comes to us from yours
truly as I drove “down” the last leg of my trip up to my countryside home in
Easton NY last evening to officially begin my two week vacation.   

Yesterday was a hot one in upstate New York, and
even though I was blessed with a relatively easy last day of work at my “9 to 5”,
my spirit, or the Spirit, convicted me of the need to be a good steward to what
the Lord had provided me with at “River House” causing me to decide to mow the
lawn “down by the River” and take care of a few other household responsibilities
after my day job before I could have peace about going on vacation.   The temperature was around 90 degrees, the
lawn was thick, and the work was truly a work of patience, endurance, and
prayer!  While I have been known to experience
the heights of ecstasy over joyfully “stewarding” my property in the past,
yesterday’s mowing session was a struggle that required a steady stream of the
reliance on the Lord’s strength and blessing. 
While I listened to worship music as I worked, the heat was draining and
even though I had moments of joy, most of my “yard work session was spent
calling on the Lord to help me to complete it!

At the halfway point, I stopped the mower to top off
the gas and was severely tested when it initially refused to start.  After three failed attempts to bring the
engine back to life, and with thoughts in my mind that I “flooded it”, I was
overcome with a moment of hopelessness, and perhaps a demonic taunt, that the mower
wouldn’t start.  But because I was
convinced and determined that I must “get ‘er done”, I took a deep breath and paused
and restated my intention, to myself or the enemy, that I was going to finish
this last task before vacation no matter how long it took and then I did what
we should always do when we are being tested – I called on my heavenly Father for
help!  So took a long deliberate pause
and then, I prayed “God, please make it start” or something along those lines
and pulled the pull string again.  The
engine showed the faintest hint that it was thinking about starting and I said “Thank
You Lord, for starting the mower” and what was a whisper of a hint of the
engine starting puttered until the engine was “resurrected” and roaring to life
to which I proclaimed: “You are a GOOD, GOOD FATHER LORD! Thank You!”  While that wasn’t the end of the struggles
with the lawn, the front end of my property was particularly dense and required
more prayer for strength and patience, I had the certainty that I would be able
to accomplish what I set out to do, eventually, and I did, with much toil, sweat
and the Lord’s help.

This is just another example of what “walking in the
Spirit” can look like. A seemingly mundane or common place task properly
becomes a place where we can commune with and rely on the Lord. When we put our
faith in Jesus, God is with us always so we should spend our lives abiding in
His presence and drawing from his love, peace, strength, and wisdom.   The
Lord’s continual presence is a Truth of our new lives in Christ and an integral
part of our victory over the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.    

And that brings us to our current series on Self-
Deception, where we have decided to investigate some of the ways we deceive
ourselves by walking through Step 2, Deception Vs. Truth, of the Steps to
Freedom in Christ to see what ways we may have been deceived by “the world” and
ourselves and in what ways we have wrongly defended ourselves. 

So we present the first of the  “Ways to Deceive Yourself”:

2. Saying I have no sin. 

The scripture reference for this point is:

1 John 1:8
(NKJV)
⁸  If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

While I referred to yesterday’s first item on the
self-deception list, “Hearing God’s word but not what it says”, as the “free
space of the Bingo card” of the Steps to Freedom in Christ because every person
I have led through the steps has admitted to it, today’s item is one of the few
check boxes from Step 2, that is rarely checked off and I don’t recall anyone
every admitting to saying they have no sin.  

However, as infallible human beings, we have no limits
on our ignorance or pride and this item makes the list because as hard as it
may be for us to imagine, there are people out there who will say they have no
sin.  

Like the rich young ruler who pridefully and
ignorantly proclaimed having kept the law from youth, there are apparently some
people who believe they have arrived at a Christ like status of “sinlessness”.  This phenomenon is shown in the history of the
Holiness movement in the 19^th century where certain protestant
denominations preached that “Christian perfection” – a sanctified state that
enabled one to be free of outward sin swell as “evil thoughts and tempers” was possivle (https://www.britannica.com/event/Holiness-movement).

Although I can testify that freedom and victory over many
areas of outward sin is both possible and something we should pursue with
diligence, the mistake that is made here is that one would contradict the word
of God by saying they have “no sin”. The Apostle John tells us clearly if we do
that we deceive ourselves.  

Yes we may stop sinning in many areas of our lives but
if we understand the full measure of what sin is, we should never come to the
conclusion that we have “no sin”.  Sin
not only includes thoughts and actions that are disobedient to God’s word, it is
also a sin to not to do all the things that we know are good that we know we
should do, perfectly, all the time.   If we understand it, the one thing that should
never allow us to ever proclaim that we are without sin is our limited
knowledge. We don’t know everything, and we don’t know the Lord’s will for our
lives perfectly, so if we are honest we should agree with the word of God and
never say that we have no sin.   Our
attitudes, actions, thoughts, or the things we fail to do would testify against
us.  

So strive for sanctification humbly and celebrate your
victories over sin that you experience 
but make the mistake of saying you have no sin.  Because of our ignorance, shortcomings,
actions, failures, thoughts, pride, or inaction, when we say we have no sin, we
are lying to ourselves or others and that qualifies as sin – got ya – so think
deeply and see that while we can be “getting better all the time”, we have to
admit that we won’t be free of sin until we are glorified and the Lord’s
kingdom comes into full fruition.  

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Affliction, Discipline,
Chastisement, & Trials.

Psalm 119:71-72 (NASB)
⁷¹  It is good for me that I
was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.
⁷²  The law of Your mouth is
better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

Today’s
verses fall under the fifth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Affliction,
Discipline, Chastisement, & Trials

 5. “The psalmist was thankful for
affliction for it taught him to keep God’s precepts. 

Today’s verses are the
second of a trio of verse couplets from psalm 119 that our reference guide uses
to illustrate this point. 

Continuing the theme, today’s
verses are the atypical admission that comes from proper reflection that is
most often associated with the higher abilities of perception by one who is
educated by the wisdom of the Lord and a few lessons from the school of hard
knocks,

For the most part, it is
hard to appreciate suffering.  Some would
deny anything of value coming out of the bad things they experience. And while Other
may agree that they have learned things from the afflictions they have faced, not
everyone in this group would tell you that their sufferings gave them a heartfelt
desire to learn and obey the Lord’s “statutes”.

However, the psalmist
proclaims that knowing the Lord’s law – His instruction – is of inestimable value
and that his afflictions helped him to realize it. His suffering sent him to
seek the Lord’s help and within His Word he discovered the wisdom of how things
really are in life, and he considered it to be priceless information.  

He undoubtedly learned
that when he chose to “sin” he chose to suffer, and his affliction gave him the
desire to avoid future sufferings, some of which he realized he could avoid by
knowing and applying God’s wisdom to his life.  

So let’s seek the Lord’s
wisdom and apply it to our lives to avoid affliction where possible and to be
comforted and strengthened when it inevitably comes to us.  

——————————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3) 

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

16 – The Spirit Working Faith

Saving
Faith Is the Work of the Spirit

“Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and
bath anointed us, is God” (2 Cor. 1:21). None but God (by His Spirit) can
“stablish” the soul in all its parts—the understanding, the conscience, the
affections, the will. The ground and reason why the Christian believes the Holy
Scriptures to be the Word of God is neither the testimony nor the authority of
the church (as Rome erroneously teaches), but rather the testimony and power of
the Holy Spirit. Men may present arguments which will so convince the intellect
as to cause a consent—but establish the soul and conscience so as to assure the
heart of the Divine authorship of the Bible, they cannot. A spiritual faith
must be imparted before the Word is made, in a spiritual way, its foundation and warrant.

1. Faith In the Word: The same blessed
Spirit who moved holy men of old to write the Word of God, works in the
regenerate a faith which nothing can shatter. That Word is the Word of God. The
stablishing argument is by the power of God’s Spirit, who causes the quickened
soul to see such a Divine Majesty shining forth in the Scriptures that the
heart is established in this first principle. The renewed soul is made to feel
that there is such a pungency in that Word that it must be Divine. No
born-again soul needs any labored argument to convince him of the Divine
inspiration of the Scriptures: he has proof
within himself of their Heavenly origin. Faith wrought in the heart by the
power of the Spirit is that which satisfies its possessor that the Scriptures
are none other than the Word of the living God.

2. Faith in Christ: Not only does the
blessed Spirit work faith in the written Word—establishing the renewed heart in
its Divine veracity and authority—but He also produces faith in the personal Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The imperative necessity for this distinct operation of His was briefly shown
in a previous chapter upon “The Spirit Comforting,” but a further word thereon
will not here be out of place. When the soul has been Divinely awakened and
convicted of sin, it is brought to realize and feel its depravity and vileness,
its awful guilt and criminality, its utter unfitness to approach a holy God. It
is emptied of self-righteousness and self-esteem, and is brought into the dust
of self-abasement and self-condemnation. Dark indeed is the cloud which now
hangs over it; hope is completely abandoned, and despair fills the heart. The
painful consciousness that Divine goodness has been abused, Divine Law trodden
under foot, and Divine patience trifled with, excludes the expectation of any
mercy.^[1]

—————————more
tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

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These teachings are also available on the
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Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge     

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship