Fulfilling Your Fleshly Pleasures

“The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, "Come and assert yourself for Christ." To the egotist it says, "Come and do your boasting in the Lord." To the thrill- seeker it says, "Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship." The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.”
-AW Tozer

So let me ask you, have you forsaken every known sin for the sake of Christ? Have you truly denied yourself and placed your sinful desires aside so that you might have forgiveness? Or have you fallen into the popular trap of using Christ to get what you want out of life, or to ease your conscience so you can sleep at night? What about your evangelism? How do you call people to Christ? What about your church? What about your pastor? Where is their focus, how closely do they follow scripture in their teachings? These are a few issues I wish to contemplate in this article, and I pray that you would be honest before God about your own heart.

The Popular Church Appeals to Man’s Sin
There are many preachers who stand up in the pulpit who scream and shout about how lost the lost world is. They will rant and rave about the outward sins of society while neglecting the weightier issues of the heart. They will go on long tirades about the evil sins of abortion, divorce, homosexuality, drinking and any other outward sin his church members don’t struggle with, without dealing with the more serious issues of pride, greed, materialism, covetousness, worldliness, holiness etc. The popular cry is for people to find their satisfaction or ‘purpose’ in Christianity, instead of calling them to sacrifice everything they have gained up to that point for the sake of obtaining Christ. Instead of emphasizing the true essence of putting everything aside for the state of your dying soul, the trend is to appeal to the very sin that is so deeply imbedded within. In turn, mega-churches are built, a million are baptized, Sunday school is packed, worship becomes a pep-rally, and everybody in the church loves everybody…(as long as you don’t challenge their sin). But not only does this easy believism, this constant appealing for one to fulfill sinful desires in Christ bring the lost into the church in staggering numbers, it also leads the true Christians to an attitude completely contrary to the humility, gratefulness, and self-denial that is absolutely necessary for true saving faith and a life of holiness “without which nobody will see the Lord.”

A Few Examples
Sometimes this erroneous appealing is so subtle and commonplace that many fail to give it a second thought. An example of this would be an over-emphasis on the blessings that true Christians receive in this life. Preaching that Christ will make one completely satisfied, completely peaceful, and completely happy etc is not the example of evangelism we see from Jesus, Paul, or anywhere else in scripture. Instead we repeatedly see calls to self-denial, humility, sacrifice, repentance, and warnings that following Christ may cost one his family, his welfare, and even his life! Because of this misguided teaching, the object that a listener focuses on is now himself and his desires, not Christ and his unworthiness before God. Oh how many people will curse their pastors on judgement day when the Lord says "depart from Me"!

The popularity of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson, and Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen are also examples of modern evangelicalism appealing to the sinful desires in the heart of man. Some are more subtle like PDL, some are deceiving like the Jabez book, and some are more blatant like Osteen is. But foundationally they are all rooted in the same sin: Pride and love of self. The object that one is told to seek is a purpose in life, rightly taking the focus off of Christ and onto our own desires. The object of worship and prayer now becomes more material blessings like Jabez, rightly appealing to the love of prominence and wealth that the sinful heart desires. And the focus of our daily life becomes health and prosperity like Osteen says, instead of holiness and Christ-likeness like the scriptures testify. But the most troubling fact isn’t that these movements are out there, but that they are being accepted whole-heartedly by professing evangelicals without a second thought. PDL and the Jabez book are probably the two best-selling ‘Christian’ books of all time, with hundreds of millions sold. But as Phil Johnson so brilliantly pointed out, these ‘purpose-driven fads’ will not be around long. For it wont be long until people are bored with these approaches, and the endless pursuit of happiness through their sin (while still deceiving themselves into believing they are truly following after holiness before God) will move to something more culturally relevant and popular with the ‘in’ crowd. John MacArthur said it best: “The Purpose-Driven Life…The Prayer of Jabez…is a test of your discernment.”

So what is a healthy desire to pursuing holiness? What kind of attitude should we have? Jesus said: Poor in spirit, mourning over sin, gentleness, hungering after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers(Matthew 5:3-10). However, Jesus wasn't describing attitudes we should have when coming to Christ, but what every true Christian will have if truly repenting. You can't come to Christ any other way than this.

Pleasure-Addicted Society
Americans today are addicted to pleasure, just look around. Most likely you can look at yourself or to the pew next to you, no matter how holy you live or how sound your church is. I confess myself, I spend too much time fulfilling otherwise harmless pleasures of mine. I have been convicted as of late and with the Spirit’s help I am striving to live differently. But what about you? Do you spend more time watching TV than you do in prayer and reading of the Word? Do you spend all your free time with friends and family while devoting a small portion of your day to the matters of your soul? Are you always seeking to be entertained 24/7 with no regard for the ramifications of such an attitude? What about your fellow brethren? Intertwined with the popular fads is this incessant desire for pleasure that is being fueled by the popular church. The mega-churches have programs for every walk of life. From Christian softball teams to Christian karate, from Christian yoga to the Christian singles outings, these programs consistently and defiantly take the focus off of holy living and put it back on pleasure and ultimately on self. Am I opposed to ‘good clean fun’? Certainly not, in fact see my On Vacation blog entry for more info on that. But it has certainly gone way overboard. The church has now become a social gathering in which people attend to fulfill their pleasurable desires. And nobody seems to care that the foundation built on personal pleasure will not survive the testing of fire. This country and the popular church is in big trouble, nobody who focuses so much on ‘playing’ has ever survived for very long.

Guard Yourself
But don’t be fooled into thinking these are the only erroneous movements out there, and that you’re somehow righteous because you recognize them. Guard your own heart against the pride of belittling others who fall into these traps in order to make yourself look good. Just because you don't struggle with the specific things I listed doesn't mean you're not just the same as they are. The solution isn't to isolate yourself, or of filling all your time in ritualistic reading and praying. You must take a look at your own heart and what it longs for. You must not just stop longing for your selfish desires, you must start longing for Christ and holy desires. Do you desire the Lord like the weary deer desires water? Do you long for the pure unadulterated Word of God like a baby longs for the mother’s milk? Can you testify that your life mimics that of David in the Psalms?

“O God, You are my God; early I will seek You; my soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You” – Psalm 63:1

David didn’t seek God because he was lacking a purpose in life. David didn’t seek God because he wanted more land. He didn’t seek God because he wanted a change in circumstances. David didn’t seek God because it was his only form of entertainment out in the wilderness. David did not love himself; he was not seeking to fulfill any of his inward desires. He longed for God because He is God! While in the wilderness running for his life he didn’t long for water as much as he longed for God’s “glory” and “power”, because God’s “loving-kindness is better than life”.

Where Do You Stand?
Although you might not participate in the popular fads, do you long for God from pure motives? Do you humbly seek God and His righteousness on His terms instead of seeking your own pleasures, desires and fulfillments? Did you come to Christ just seeking to add Him onto your list of ‘self-help’ programs? Are you using Christ as an excuse to fulfill your desires of self-respect, intellectual, or egotistical desires? You might want to take heed to Matthew 7: 21 and remember that many think they are getting into the kingdom but are in reality on the wide road to destruction.

A Common Thing

“Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.” 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
-Heb 10:28-31

Be warned! Israel in the Old Testament “died without mercy” when the Law was broken. How much worse will it be for those who count the blood of Christ a common thing? “Oh yeah I’m a Christian”, “Oh yes I’ve walked the aisle and accepted Christ, I just don’t think we should worry too much about what the Bible says to obey, there’s so many different interpretations of such and such a verse”. Do you think this is a joke? Do you think that disobedience will just be overlooked by a holy God? Repent and do the first works! Lay aside every known sin and submit to the ordinance of God; don’t spend your efforts adding Christ on to your list of desires. Please don’t act like the popular church and count salvation as a ‘common thing’!

I close with John Bunyan, who was satisfied in nothing else but assurance that his soul was alive:

I saw old people hunting after the things of this life as if they should live here always . . . [and] I found [professing Christians] much distressed and cast down when they met with outward losses, as of husband, wife, child, etc. Lord, thought I, what ado is there about such little things as these. What seeking after carnal things by some, and what grief in others for the loss of them. If they so much labor after and shed so many tears for the things of this present life, how am I to be bemoaned, pitied, and prayed for. My soul is dying, my soul is damned. Were my soul but in a good condition, and were I but sure of it, ah, how rich should I esteem myself, though blessed but with bread and water. I should count those but small afflictions and should bear them as little burdens.

-John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners