THE CHECKLIST

THE CHECKLIST

                Many people sort of use the Ten Commandments as a checklist to see if they are doing well.

No other gods (X) Idols (X) Swearing, (X) Sabbath, (X) Honor parents, (X), commit adultery, (X) steal, (X) lie (X) Covet, (X)

                The only problem with this check list is that the Law was not written for the righteous man, but for the sinner. The Ten Commandments forms the basic rules for a peaceful society. They stand between us and chaos. But they can never make us what God wants us to become.

                So, if keeping the Commandments is not God’s ultimate objective for us then what is?

                John the Baptist came into Israel preaching repentance, in fact he said to the people: “As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Mt. 3:11.

                So let’s bring this down to practical terms in today’s world. For instance: What keeps me from watching porn? It is available at the push of a button on my computer. No one is around. What can it hurt?

                Now, I could get all religious and tell you that the sight of beautiful naked bodies offends me, but I would be lying. So what keeps me from going there?

                It is the Holy Spirit and fire. Ephesians 4:30 says: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

                So, rather than looking at my Ten Commandment check list, I have something much more pressing to deal with. I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and with fire. That fire has a job of continuously refining me and purifying me, so that if I do things that grieve the Holy Spirit I have done something much worse than breaking the Law… I have broken His heart. I have broken covenant… I have broken the seal.

                Those who know anything about canning know that the fruit is heated in the canner to a certain point and then the jars are taken out to cool. As the jars cool, that small amount of heated air in the top of the jar, contracts sucking the lid down tight so that it seals. Thus the jar of fruit will be preserved for several years without spoiling. But we also know that once you break the seal, the oxygen rushes in and the process of oxidation begins… the fruit begins to spoil and in a few days, or a week it will have to be thrown out.

                In this Christian walk, we become sensitive to the Holy Spirit after a while. Our relationship grows to the point where we can no longer bear to grieve the Holy Spirit. We don’t want to break the seal. We don’t want Satan to rush in and to begin rotting our lives. Yes, we can be forgiven, but if we keep grieving the Holy Spirit and breaking the seal, our hearts will slowly harden to the place where we no longer sense that we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

                Hebrews 10:26 says: “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.” And then he goes on to say just what I am saying today.

                “Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you thing he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified (sealed) and has insulted (grieved) the Spirit of grace?

                So you see; I have something much more powerful than the Law that prevents me from watching porn. It is the Holy Spirit of grace. It is the thought of grieving Him, of breaking the seal of our covenant and trampling on the blood and heart of My Savior Jesus Christ. That is what keeps me. And it is His power working within me and not my own.

                The reason why so many so called “Spirit filled” people today are indulging in the things of the flesh is because they have been grieving the Holy Spirit for so long that a different spirit, posing as the Spirit of Christ, has entered into their lives and that spirit is not grieved by porn at all.

                Left to the carnal desires of my flesh I could like porn too. I could probably even be addicted to it. It pulls on our carnal nature. It draws us into the lusts of the flesh. Men are especially drawn to porn because they are visually stimulated. That’s why Satan has made it so readily available. He is wreaking havoc on our society and like Romans 1:24 says: “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them… for this reason God gave them over to degrading passions…” It is a downhill spiral into destruction and we can see that society is well on its way. Uncontrolled lust turns to perversion and perversion to violence and from violence to the lives of innocent children and beasts… thus receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

                This is why I refer to Romans 8 so often. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Rom. 8:14

                “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6.

                So I have chosen, as we all must, to live by the Holy Spirit and fire and in this I have nothing to boast. It is He who delivered me. It is He who kicked Satan out of my life and came in to dwell in my heart. It is He who sustains me and because of Him, I have come to a place in my life where I just don’t want to grieve Him anymore and I don’t want to break the seal that would let Satan back in.

                “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-10

                “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for He who has died is freed from sin.” Romans 6:3-7

                Being born again is serious business. It is not an agreement with God to keep the Ten Commandments. Israel did that at Sinai and it never worked. It is an agreement rather to die to the Law and to be born again so that we can live by His Spirit and be guided by His Word…. for the words He has spoken to us are Spirit and they are life.

                “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” John 6:63.

                Some people say that it doesn’t work for them. No matter what they do, they seem buried in a sea of flesh and temptation, worry and doubt and lust. Listen. Salvation is designed by God to work for every sincere soul. He even saved the thief on the cross.

                Come to the foot of the cross then. Give your life to Him. Ask Him to put to death the deeds of the flesh in you. Confess your sins and repent of them. Then ask Him to come in and to fill you with His Holy Spirit and to be your new life. As you walk in Him by faith, you will become more and more sensitive to what pleases Him and what grieves Him. His Word is your guidebook and as you walk in both Spirit and in Truth you will be transformed into His image from glory to glory. It will work for you. It will work for the lowest sinner that ever lived. God created you. He also knows how to save you. Put your faith in Him and He will walk you out of your darkest night.

                To every one of the 7 churches Jesus said, “If you overcome, I will grant you…” We were placed in this world to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. We were created to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. We were created to live by divine appointment even as Jesus did. He never asked us to do anything alone…. In fact, God’s original purpose in creation was that we would be temples of His Holy Spirit. We were designed to function with Him on board.

                Let’s press on to learn this thing so we can go home.