THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ABORTION
By Basil Rehill | June 7, 2010
hat’s the toll abortion has already reached at the current rate of 1,250,000 abortions a year. It’s equal to or greater than the human loss we would have experienced from an all-out nuclear war. Yet we are told to sit passively by and endure it by the pro-abortion ideologues of the left who dominate our culture, our media, our politics and our courts.
It adds up to a 31.5% loss in the younger generation under age 40. The toll includes some 17 million African-American babies and nearly 36 million others. That’s about 11,000 times as many African-Americans as were lynched since 1900. It amounts to a holocaust against blacks and against the young. It is the greatest loss ever inflicted on any generation in history. How can anyone with a conscience stand silent in the face of it?
Nothing else has ever had a more depressing effect on the U.S. and the world economy. Meanwhile, it is being compounded by a dramatic decline in births in France, Germany, Italy, England, Spain, Japan and even China. Only the Muslim world continues to grow at a rapid clip. As a result, much of Europe will become predominantly Muslim within a generation. If we want a better world for ourselves and our children, we must raise a great hue and cry right now. No kids, no future. It’s as simple as that.
Abortion is also driving the greatest health care and education crisis in history. As baby boom nurses and teachers retire, we face a looming shortage of 1 million nurses and 2 million teachers. We also face critical shortages in key professions such as science, medicine, and higher education. Abortion and more efficient birth control together have wiped out about half of our future human resources. With a growing number of elderly baby boomers in need of critical care, the only way to ease this crisis is to end abortion or drastically reduce health care for the elderly. Liberal politicians would rather do the latter.
Politicians promise to remedy these shortages with their usual shell games. They promise aggressive new training programs for nurses and teachers, but never bother to explain where they are going to get the people to fill them. Such programs can’t restore the vast human resources that have been poured down the population control rat hole over the last 35 to 40 years. Besides, such programs have a long history of being nothing but a sham.
When former President Carter was Governor of Georgia, he signed a deal promising to train 2,000 workers for a new smoke detector factory as long as the manufacturer promised to hire just half of them. In less than three years, the company was wiped out by cheap imports and never hired more than 800 people even at its peak. Not much later, it sold the factory. All the promised jobs disappeared.
“Training programs” like that are a dime a dozen, but they rarely work. Besides, you can’t bring back the millions of lives that have already been sacrificed to the idol of abortion. The next time we see them will be at the Last Judgment when they show up to accuse those who stood by silently while they were slaughtered. Some folks are in for a big surprise.
Another consequence of abortion is a disastrous shift in the supply-demand equation that underlies our economy. Kids contribute to demand even before they are born, but they don’t compete in the work force for 20 years. That’s why 52.3 million abortions represent a huge loss in consumer demand. If those babies had been born, our fast-paced economy would still be going strong. Those we aborted were the future consumers, producers, parents and taxpayers we needed keep to keep our economy growing.
The 4-2-1-0 family model is a dead end. Four grandparents who have two children, who then marry and have one child represent a huge loss in future growth. That’s why China is already starting relent on its 1 child per family policy. Pursued, it means the end of China within 100 years. Russia already faces the same debacle, They no longer have enough younger women to raise a new generation — and their population is forecast to decline by 33% by 2050.
If the U.S. doesn’t change direction, we could face the same fate. Unless we end abortion soon, the U.S. faces a long term economic decline that could prove far worse than the Great Depression.
As early as 1994,Dennis M. Howard began predicting the collapse of the stock market that finally came in 2000. In 1997, they published a special report and a video titled, “The Abortion Bomb.” In 1998,he repeated the warning in an exchange with Gene Epstein, economics editor of Barron’s. He predicted that the rally going on then would continue for another decade. Dennis M. Howard warned that a whole long list of stocks would soon take a tumble. It was a collapse that was inevitable based on the demographics. The collapse began soon after the market top in March, 2000, and was followed by the one of the biggest market setbacks in history.
A major factor in the 2000-2009 crisis was the inability of the Baby Bust generation to absorb the inflated real estate and other investments of the high-flying Baby Boomers as they approached retirement. The decline in the rate of growth of personal incomes going on since the ‘70’s, combined with outsourcing and the shipment of manufacturing jobs overseas, and a 50% reduction in birth rates since 1970 all combined to bring about the crisis. Compounding things, of course, was everything going on in Washington and Wall Street to keep the bubble going. In the end, they failed.
Still another factor is the downstream loss in future tax revenues caused by high abortion rates and more efficient birth control. That loss already amounts to an estimated $19 or $20 trillion. With growth in government revenues, the ability of government to bail things out is itself compromised. The problem with socialist solutions is that the government itself won’t be able to afford them.
The abortion boom is also behind the coming crisis in Social Security and Medicare. In 1940, we had 145 people in the workforce for every person on Social Security. That’s when it looked like a great idea! By 1952, the ratio had dropped to 16 to 1. It is now 3.1 to 1. In less than 20 years, it will be only 2 to 1. That’s when the government Ponzi scheme will be all over.
To save these programs from bankruptcy, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that tax rates will have to rise as high as 82%. And guess who will pay the bill? You and your children and grandchildren, that’s who!
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Hooked
By Basil Rehill | May 30, 2010
Have you ever gone fishing? If you are a fly fisherman than you know that you need to think like a fish. You need to pres4ent the fly as though it were actually some form of food for the fish. You have to make it act and look like the real thing so that the fish does not notice the hook that is hidden within. Then at the right moment you have to pull the lie to set the hook. Then it’s all over.
James must have been a fisherman when he said we are “dragged away and enticed” (James 1:14); the word for enticed means to be caught by bait. James is saying that the flesh is a fisher of men. It deceives and seduces us with temptation. It dangles the pleasure of sin in front of us (Hebrews 11:25), decorating those supposed delights until they look like something to sell your soul for – until you can hardly see the hook inside. Proverbs 7.
Imagination - the will working on the materials of memory; not satisfied with following the order prescribed by nature, or suggested by accident, it selects the parts of different conceptions, or objects of memory, to form a whole more pleasing, more terrible, or more awful, than has ever been presented in the ordinary course of nature.
Imagination is the mind’s eye.
The flesh wants to fix your imagination on something that will lead you into the clutches of sin. It wants you to dwell on and savor those tantalizing possibilities, until you can’t stop thinking about them, until you start plotting and scheming ways to make the fantasy a reality. Once the affections are enticed the will soon happily follows in consent.
The flesh makes you careless of the hidden hook by promising you’ll be pardoned later.
If we look at almost any business or ministry we will usually find something about them called their vision. The power of vision comes from the imagination – the leader imaging paradise, then helping others to imagine it with him.
The flesh has a vision of its own. It sees a world free from the tyranny of God’s rule. It imagines the liberty to carry out all its plans without interference from law, precept or command. It proposes that vision to your imagination, helping you to see all the juicy possibilities. When you imagination can’t turn off the flesh’s images of evil, you’re hooked.
In Joshua 7:21, Achan saw a beautiful robe in the plunder so he took it. This is lust of the eyes (1 John 2:16), not just the physical eyes, but the mind’s eye that fixes itself on something forbidden until the affections are consumed with desire for it. When you harbor wicked thoughts the imagination becomes a pyromaniac dumping buckets of gasoline on the fire of your affections. They burn hotter and hotter, till the will melts like butter before them.
What is it that you most protect? Your family? Your reputation? Your pastor? Your wife? Your job? Solomon says guard nothing with the care and strength that you guard your affections. Once your heart latches onto something, you will not be able to stop your will from consenting to it.
To protect your affections, you need to be careful of two things: the object of your affections, and the strength of your affections. Colossians 3:2. Fix your eyes on God himself, in his beauty and glory. Fix your heart on the Lord Jesus. Galatians 6:14. Let the sorrows of your savior on the cross move you. There is a moral gravity that will drag down and weaken your affections for Christ unless you constantly stir them up. Fill your affections with the cross of Christ and there will be no room left for sin
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God’s super tools
By Basil Rehill | May 7, 2010
John Henry was a li’l baby, uh huh,
Sittin on his momma’s knee, oh yeah,
Said “De Big Bend Tunnel on de C. & O. road
Gonna cause the death of me,
Lawd, Lawd, gonna cause de death of me
An he lied down his hammer an he died
Lawd, Lawd, he lied down his hammer an he died
The legend of John Henry tells the story of a man who out dug a steam drill fifteen feet to nine as they competed to dig a tunnel through a mountain. We exalt his hard work, his dedication, his skill and his heart. He held nothing back; he gave his life to the work.
Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live”
but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body,We stand before the flesh like John Henry before the virgin mountain. We have a huge job before us and our lives are on the line. The job is to kill the flesh. The strength we have is the spirit within us. And God has given us the tools to finish the job. When you swing the tools that God has given you the law of sin is flattened before you, but the flesh opposes them with all its wily strength.
These great tools of the mind are meditation and private prayer. This is not the kind of prayer that you are used to. It is not prayer of intercession. It is not just reading the Bible. In this meditation and prayer we compare our hearts to scriptures, comparing our lives to what we find there. We ponder the truth as it is in Jesus, to see his life formed in us.
We must keep 3 things in mind to be able to do this:
1. Meditate on God with God – Fill your mind with thoughts of God’s character, glory, majesty, love, beauty and goodness in a personal way. Speak to God as you contemplate him, humbling your soul before him, adoring and admiring him, delighting in him and giving Him glory. Psalm 8:1 “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”
2. Meditate on the word in the word - Study the written Word to know the living Word. Never let it be your goal to search the scriptures to find new insights to tickle your hunger for learning or to have something neat to share with your small group. Never study and pray without God’s help. Ask Him to open His mind and will to you, so that you may know Him and love Him more. He delights to do it.
3. Meditate on your self in the Word and with God – The power of this meditation and prayer lies in its ability to expose the secret workings of sin – what advantages the flesh has over you. This prayer and meditation calls on the Spirit to use His Word to shine light into the cracks and crevices of your soul, to show you every real need and danger there.
Without these three things prayer is not prayer. Without these purposes and longings your prayers and meditations won’t bring Glory to God and they won’t make you holy or fill you with joy. With these, prayer and meditation sound the depths of your mind, dredge up the schemes and plots of the law of sin and drag them into the light of God’s presence. In this light every imagination of the flesh is judged, condemned, abhorred, and mourned. Isaiah 30:22
The flesh resists with its last breath anything that smacks of communion with God, because it suffocates in His presence. If you draw close to God in meditation and prayer, adoring God, getting to know him, and calling on Him to search your heart, prepare to see the flesh scratch and claw like a wounded badger.
Four ways the flesh will fight
1. Aim at your weakness – Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” The spiritual flesh takes advantage of the natural flesh (the body) You can’t pray now you need the sleep. If you don’t imbed in your mind that prayer and meditation are indispensable, and seek God’s grace every day to resists the sluggishness of your body, you will hit the snooze button all morning rather than kneel before the throne. If you snooze, you lose.
2. The tyranny of the urgent – If you take this praying and meditation business too seriously, you won’t be respected on the job as a hard worker, and you won’t have enough time to spend with other people. It sounds reasonable. God has called you to work hard and to give yourself to others. Whatever the problem is, the flesh takes advantage of the opportunity. When there isn’t enough time, something has to go. Why not cut down on time with the Lord?
3. Duty swap – The desperation of the flesh will argue that if you pray with your family or if you go to public worship, that’s enough to hold anyone; you can get by without private, soul searching prayer and meditation.
4. The big promise – You can pray and mediate next week, after you …. You’ll be more diligent and faithful then, once you get over this hurdle.
When the mind surrenders its watch over the soul by neglecting its duties, the affections and the will are sure to follow. Does this sound too difficult to do every day?
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
2 Peter 3:17 “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.”
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The mind, your first line of defense
By Basil Rehill | April 27, 2010
Imaigine with me for a minute. For the past seven years you’ve been the top salesman for Southwest International Napkins Supply (SINS). Your boss has offered you a partnership in SINS and asked you to dinner at his home to go over the details. As you enter the driveway of his estate you mind is filled with the great new house you will be able to afford and the new sports car that you have been dreaming about for the past 5 years. You will be living you dreams soon.
The servant greets you at the door and shows you to the dining room. The boss’s wife, apparently dressed for a private evening at home with her husband, greets you with a kiss on the cheek and dismisses the servant for the night. You notice the dinner table is set for only two and there are two long candles on the table.
“Where’s Dan?” you ask, not catching on.
“Oh didn’t you get the message? Dan had to go out of town. His suppliers had threatened to raise the prices, so he went to set things straight. It will be just the two of us tonight.”
Your mind races to size up the situation. You’ve always thought your boss’s wife was attractive, her husband is out of town, the servant has left for the night, your wife is at her mother’s all night… If you give into her advances you will move up the corporate ladder faster than you have ever dreamed. If you offend her you can kiss that promotion goodbye. What do you do?
One man in history passed this test with flying colors. Joseph son of Israel. The answer he gave to his boss’s wife teaches us the double duty of the mind that is our first line of defense against the flesh. Genesis 39:6-10.
Joseph’s mind was protected by 2 thoughts: the vileness of sin and God’s grace and goodness. Because his mind was prepared for action he could see though the deceit of the flesh and resist temptation. If the mind fails to indentify sin as evil, wicked, vile and bitter, the affections will not be safe from clinging to it, nor the will from giving consent.
The mind is the first line of defense: to keep in mind that every sin is forsaking God (Jeremiah 2:19), to never forget the polluting, corrupting, defiling power of sin – to be shaken to the core by how much God loathes sin. The mind’s first duty is to know and hold on to the evil of sin and the love of God.
By now you have guessed that the flesh with its hatred for God and as deceitful as it is does not throw its hands up at the first line of defense that we put up. The flesh has explosives to undermine and destroy this first line of defense. It’s first and most wretched attack is to abuse God’s grace in order to make sin seem less dangerous and deadly.
The flesh weakens our defense by trying to separate the remedy of God’s grace form its purpose. The purpose of God’s grace is to make holy people of us. Titus 2:11-12. But God also provides a remedy for when we have lapses and do sin, his loving pardon gives us peace. 1 John 2:1. The flesh works to help you forget about the purpose of God’s grace. It preaches half the gospel. Go ahead indulge yourself, its already paid for. It seems that there are many that fall prey to this ploy. Scripture goes to great lengths to condemn it. Romans 3:5-8, 6:1-4, Jude 4.
You know that the flesh has made a breach in your defense when your heart is hardened by its deceitfulness so that you are careless about sin. You’ll know when you heart is hardened when you will extend your boundaries of Christian freedom to indulge in things that in the past would have shocked you. Your flesh will whisper to you that strictly obeying all these rules is legalism – the gospel came to deliver you from such things.
Besides belittling sin, the flesh uses everything it has to drive every thought of God from your mind and replacing it with thoughts of the world. The flesh knows the mind cannot be fixed on both God and earthly things (Colossians 3:2, 1 John 2:15). The flesh tries to slip worldliness into the mind disguised as necessity.
Matthew 22 the wedding feast.
Working can be pleasing to God. He wants us to work hard. I can run a business with my heart set on honoring God and then be led astray. I can work hard and give 10% of what I earn to god and God blesse that. I work harder and earn more and give more to God. But this extra work starts to keep me form reading God’s word and spending time in prayer. I start to let these slide and the flesh continues its distraction.
The only way we can protect against the deceit of the flesh is to be cross eyed. That is, I can only keep the rottenness of sin and the kindness of God in mind if I fix my eyes on the cross. What show’s god’s hatred for sin more than the cross? What shows God’s love for you more than the cross? If you want to see how far God iis willing to go to rescue you from sin, you have to see His precious Son hanging on the cross for you.
Then even if it costs you your job, you can tell you bosses wife to take her candle lit dinner for two and jump in a lake, or better yet, save it for her husband.
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The Power of Sin in how it works
By Basil Rehill | April 16, 2010
Deceit
Deceive – 1. Trap or overcome by trickery, take unawares by craft or guile; lead astray. 2. Cause to believe what is false, delude, to take in.
The shell game.
This is the art of deception: to make someone believe things are other than they really are, so that he will do something he would never otherwise do. This is the way your flesh makes you into the willing servant of sin.
In The beginning was the con. Eve was fine as long as she could see things clearly. But when the serpent deceived her she ate Genesis 3:13. Adam followed her and sin entered the world. Satan’s modus operandi is trickery. No one would follow him if he weren’t taken in Revelation 12:9, 20:10.
Titus 3:3 Paul says before Christ freed us we were foolish, deceived and enslaved by passions and pleasures. Ephesians 4:22 tells us to put off our old selves because it is being corrupted by deceitful desires. When the flesh deceives you, you will sin.
If you want to overthrow a fortress you take out the watchman. If he can’t’ warn the others your job is easy. The flesh uses this ploy to take out the watchman, you mind. The mind is the sentinel, commanded to watch carefully over the soul by questioning, assessing and making judgments: “will this please god?” If the mind determines something is right the affections should then fall in line and desire what the mind has said is good. Lastly the will puts into action, carrying out what the mind has said is good and the affections hungered for. When each does its job you obey God from your heart.
Can you see what kind of mess deception makes of obedience? Deception is a fact of life. We3 see it every day in the news, But its not just at work outside of us. Its inside us working on us by concealing, hiding and disguising the truth.
As an example think about catching a fish with a fly.
Anatomy of sins seduction. James 1:14-15
First the goal sin aims at is death (vs. 15). Whatever sin pretends it ends in death. The way our flesh works for your death is by temptation (vs. 14). The essence of temptation is deceit. James lists 5 degress of temptation:
1. Dragging away ( the mind)
2. Enticing ( the affections)
3. Conceiving sin (in the will)
4. The birth of sin (in actions, words or thoughts
5. Death by sin (Enslavement to sin is spiritual death)
The fifth degree is never reached by true believers.
Our hope is to see the con man within us exposed, tarred and feathered and run out of town.
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Hatred of SIn
By Basil Rehill | April 6, 2010
“Towards thee I roll, thou all destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” – Herman Melville
Flawless Hatred
Literature is full of hatred, but none can sustain the pure hatred to match Captain Ahab’s eternal malice in Moby Dick. Moby Dick is a picture of our savage battle: let the White whale stand for God, but don’t be so quick to make Captain Ahab the flesh. Ahab is the whale’s enemy, but Paul says the flesh is more than God’s enemy: it is the enmity, the hostility, the pure hatred itself. (Romans 8:7). If the whale is God and Ahab’s hatred is the flesh, then who is Captain Ahab?
You were.
It is impossible to make peace with hostility itself. A treaty between God and the flesh is impossible.
In Romans 5:10 Paul says we were God’s enemies – we were all of us Captain Ahabs. Christ is the peacemaker in the gospel, using his death to put to death the hostility between us and god. Our old man (the flesh) was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6) rendering it powerless to rule over us and enslave us and bear fruit of eternal death in us. When he appears, he will annihilate the flesh forever. This is the only way to deal with enmity: destroy it.
Every drop of poison is poison; the last bit of flesh that remains in a believer is still enmity. When God’s grace changes our nature, it doesn’t change the nature of flesh. It conquers it, weakens it, mortally wounds it, so that we are no longer Captain Ahabs by nature; yet his defiant malice smolders in our flesh. By the time Paul wrote Romans he must have been as Christlike as anyone can expect to be this side of heaven. Still he cried out for deliverance from this irreconcilable enemy (Romans 7:24)
Groaning for Heaven
God is love. He is eternally excellent, and infinitely to be desired above any creature. But the remains of the flesh leaves us in an anxious position. Against God we carry in us an enmity that cannot be appeased.
An invading army can sometimes be persuaded to put down its guns by being given what it wants: a piece of land, or a promise of tribute. Some people think they can quiet the flesh’s rage the same way. So they look for ways to gratify the desires of the flesh (Romans 13:14). This is like putting out a fire with gasoline.
Enemy enough
The flesh has chosen quite an enemy, God. What the flesh hates is God, so it resists anything that smacks of God – especially communion with Him. The flesh’s hatred for God explains a lot. Think about worship. Worship is high communion with God, and so the flesh should cringe at the door of the sanctuary. But what if person wants to perform the outward forms of worship without approaching God in his heart? He may want to do his duty in worship, like a Pharisee looking to please God. He may like the music at church because It Rocks! But where is his heart? Conjuring up a happy mood with some music you don’t know the words to, is like solving 2 + 2 on a calculator. But savoring the glory of Christ and his tender love until your heart is softened toward him is like using mental math to calculate pi to the ten thousands place.
I hate everything about you
If there were the least thing about God that the flesh could appreciate, the believer could have a constant shelter and retreat from sin and its hatred. But the flesh hates everything about God. Since it resists everything about God, it resists every way we try to taste Him and know him and love him.
It takes a battle in every quarter of the soul: When the mind wants to know God, the flesh imposes ignorance, darkness, error and trivial thoughts. The will can’t move toward God without feeling the weight of stubbornness holding it back. The affections, longing to long for God, are constantly fighting the infection of sensuality or the disease of indifference.
Captain Ahab was driven by his rage to chase the whale to the end. The flesh is just as driven, and will with its last breath spit at God. But within us is a warrior that is just as committed to the flesh’s destruction. The Holy Spirit wars against the flesh (Galatians 5:17). Filled with the Spirit, empowered by God’s love of us and our love for Him, we turn on the flesh with our Captains own curse:
Towards the I roll, thou all destroying but unconquering flesh; to the last I grapple with thee; from heaven’s heart I stab at thee; for love’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.
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The Heart
By Basil Rehill | March 30, 2010
There is this corn maze near where I live. I took a tour of it in the fall. I was amazed at how intricate it was. I had some times of real panic as I did not know where I was or where I was going. What I thought should take a few minutes took over n hour. I was happy to be out and safe
The heart is a maze that only God can solve (Jeremiah 17:9-10). We admit we don’t know someone else’s heart, but the truth is we can’t even know our own. Do you always know why you choose chocolate or vanilla? Can you imagine all the events and images that impress your heart and make it lean this way or that?
The heart is more complicated and unsearchable: it is deceitful above all things. People find loopholes in the law to keep as much of their hard earned money to build their pleasure domes. But the sleaziest back room mafia deal can’t equal the deceitfulness of your heart.
Do you doubt it? Think about how fickle you are. You be can open and cheery or reserved and gloomy, easy to get along with or very crabby. One day Jesus is all the world to you, the next you love the world more than King Midas.
The unsearchable, deceitful heart is where sin hides. Matthew 15:19. Jesus called the heart the fountain of sin. And in Luke 6:45 a treasure chest where we sock away evil.
What is this heart?
The best way to think of your heart is that it comprises:
· Your thoughts, plans, judgments, discernments (the mind)
· Your choices and actions (the will)
· Your longings, desire, revulsion, imagination, feelings (the affections)
· Your sense of right and wrong, which approves or condemns your mind, will and affections( the conscience)
All this is deceitful and unsearchable above all things.
But the believer has a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), a new mind – even the mind of Christ (Romans 7:25, 8:26, 1 Corinthians 2:16), and new desires for the things of God (Romans 7:18, 2 Corinthians 5:2, Hebrews 13:18). Yet God’s work in this renewed heart is unfinished (1 John 3:2). The mind can’t see as clearly as it will (1 Corinthians 13:9), the desires can be entangled (Galatians 2:11-13) and the will can’t fully do God’s will (Galatians 5:17)
The flesh has an advantage. Have you ever battled some lust – prayed and fasted and sought counsel against it – then watched it slink away into the night? You thought you had it licked. You thought you could move on in your spiritual life. But one day you were watching TV and this ad came on and all that lust came bubbling up again. Sin can be like trick candles.
Never think for a minute that the war against sin is over in this life. Here are some warnings from scripture
Hebrews 12:1-4
Matthew 16:6
Matthew 26:41
Luke 12:15
1 Corinthians 16:13
2 Peter 3:17
As endless and complicated as this war is, believers rush in with confidence; the Holy Spirit takes the horror out of the horror show. We don’t know our hearts, but He does (Psalm 139). No sin escapes his searching eye
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The law within
By Basil Rehill | March 20, 2010
“If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever.” G.K. Chesterton
The law of sin in believers is like Chesterton’s Rhino. The only moral authoritative rule over believers is the kingdom and reign of God. Indwelling sin is a usurper to the throne who, like the rhino, can force himself on us. Even though we may rise and tell him he has no authority he can push us around the restaurant.
The law of sin pushes us around the same way as other laws motivate our obedience: with promises and threats. When there is power behind such threats and promises that can make them good, people are motivated to obey.
Hebrews 11:24-26
What are the rewards of sin? Pleasure, money, respect, power, admiration…
These are the promises of what we will receive if we give into sins call on our heart.
What are the threats of punishment if we don’t sin? Mistreatment, disgrace, trouble, danger,…
Besides the suffering for following Christ, there are the hardships of the cross and self denial that believers are called to, and the hard work of putting sin to death. Hebrews 12:4. The life of the disciple is not for the timid.
The law of sin doesn’t work on us from the outside. We carry it in us. In Romans 7:17 Paul calls it “sin living in me” and in verse 23 “the law of sin at work within my members.” This is why God promises to circumcise his people’s hearts in the old covenant (Deuteronomy 30:6) and to write his law on their hearts in the new (Jeremiah 31:31-33).
To slap a copy of the ten commandments in front of someone under the rule of sin and tell him to submit is as effective as trying to make a rhino jump by whacking him with a piece of grass. The whino is oblivious
The glory of the covenant of grace is that in it God’s law meets the law of sin on a level playing field, where God’s holy law will carry the day.
But… since the law of sin is inside us it has some irritating advantages:
1. Indwelling sin wears out its welcome. It has settled down in us and is at home (Romans 7:17, 20). If sin was like an army that struck and then pulled back for a time we could refresh ourselves and fortify our defenses during the calm. But the flesh is a relentless homebody and assailant. Wherever you go, whatever you do, the law of sin is with you step for step – in the best you do, in the worst you do. How often do you think about the fact that you carry around in you a deadly companion?
2. Indwelling sin doesn’t observe a Sabbath. Just when Paul was ready to do something holy and loving, sin was at his elbow (7:21). Do you want to pray? Listen to a sermon? Mediate on the word? Encourage a brother? This hateful, wicked pest is in your face with a thousand distractions and surprises, making sure you can’t perfectly accomplish the good you intend (Galatians 5:17)
3. Sin does its dirty work with the greatest of ease. Since it works from within it easily entangles us (Hebrews 12:1). It needs no help from the outside (though the world and the devil are always ready to lend a hand). There is no spiritual duty, nothing godly you can set your mind on in which you don’t feel the wind of sin’s resistance in your face. Does god command you to help a neighbor in need? There is sin with apathy and stinginess in hand
Are you wrestling with the Rhino?
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What is sin?
By Basil Rehill | March 11, 2010
If God has redeemed me from sin, and given me His Holy Spirit to sanctify me and given me strength against sin, why do I go on sinning?
This question has been asked by more people than I can count. Have you asked it? I think the answer is somewhere in our minds, attitudes and the way we look at sin. We don’t see sin as an enemy. We often make excuses or justifications for why we can commit out little sin. It’s not that bad! Everybody does it. At least I don’t steal, murder, commit adultery, or you can insert whatever sin you think it most heinous. We have made friends with sin. All sin puts us at enmity with God. Are you struggling with sin? Or have you given into its trap?
EN’MITY, n.
1. The quality of being an enemy; the opposite of friendship; ill will; hatred; unfriendly dispositions; malevolence. It expresses more than aversion and less than malice, and differs from displeasure in denoting a fixed or rooted hatred, whereas displeasure is more transient.
The carnal mind is enmity against God. Romans 8.
Sin is not only an action, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts, purposes, words and desires, whatever is contrary to God’s commands or law.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
What is sin?
Sin
SIN, n.
1. The voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by God; any voluntary transgression of the divine law, or violation of a divine command; a wicked act; iniquity. Sin is either a positive act in which a known divine law is violated, or it is the voluntary neglect to obey a positive divine command, or a rule of duty clearly implied in such command. Sin comprehends not action only, but neglect of known duty, all evil thoughts purposes, words and desires, whatever is contrary to God’s commands or law. 1 John 3. Mat 15. James 4. Sinner neither enjoy the pleasures of nor the peace of piety. Among divines, sin is original or actual. Actual sin, above defined, is the act of a moral agent in violating a known rule of duty. Original sin, as generally understood, is native depravity of heart to the divine will, that corruption of nature of deterioration of the moral character of man, which is supposed to be the effect of Adam’s apostasy; and which manifests itself in moral agents by positive act of disobedience to the divine will, or by the voluntary neglect to comply with the express commands of God, which require that we should love God with all the heart and soul and strength and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves. This native depravity or alienation of affections from God and his law, is supposed to be what the apostle calls the carnal mind or mindedness, which is enmity against God, and is therefore denominated sin or sinfulness. Unpardonable sin, or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is supposed to be a malicious and obstinate rejection of Christ and the gospel plan of salvation, or a contemptuous resistance made to the influences and convictions of the Holy Spirit. Mat 12.
When an army goes into battle the commanders learn all they can about their adversaries. They learn their tactics, their strengths and their weaknesses. They do this so they can anticipate the enemy’s next move and be ready. This is what we need to do as Christians in a world full of temptations and urgings to conform.
We are told to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, not to be conformed into the likeness of the world. (Romans 12:2)
This is what we will be covering in the weeks to come, our enemy within, sin.
· We need to look at the power of sin in what it is,
· in how it works,
· in what it does and
· most of all how can we overcome it.
The Power of Sin in What It Is
What is sin?
Last winter I had been working on a house that we had just bought. I really wanted to be working on some of my biblical counseling studies, but I knew that these repairs needed to be done. I hadn’t slept well the night before. I had just finished scraping ceiling texture off of the bathroom ceiling. There were places that the texture had already fallen off so I was just trying to make it look all the same. I had scraped and scraped and sanded and sanded. It looked smooth to me. So I got out my roller and paint and brush and began rolling the ceiling. As I got about half way done I started to see some of the texture still on the ceiling and it was pealing. I thought I could fix it and it just got worse and worse. Did I stop? NO! I continued and got more and more frustrated. Then it happened. I had an all out temper tantrum complete with yelling and kicking. When all was said and done I had paint all over me and the bathroom. It was a mess and I was so ashamed. How was I going to explain this to Kathy? I spent the day thinking was I really that wicked? Would God forgive me?
Has anything like that ever happen to you?
Let’s read Romans 7:1-8:4
When I read Romans 7 I am consoled that Paul felt that way too. He understands that madness and gives it a name, “The law of sin” Romans 7:23, “my sinful nature” 7:18, “sin living in me” 7:17 and “the law of sin and death” 8:2. Whatever you call it, it’s an enemy of God’s and our soul. The first step to fighting this enemy is to know it and to know it well.
There are four key truths that humble Paul in his battle that we must learn.
1. Sin living in us is a law – Paul uses law as a metaphor. He needs to express the power, authority, constraint and control that sin wields in our lives and he picks law with a touch of irony. He spent quite a bit of time talking about God’s law, which is supposed to rule our lives, yet the law of sin seems to win a lot of head to head battles with God’s law. Is there any other way he could have expressed the power sin has in our lives than this? Hunger, thirst, and fear are examples of laws within us. Each impels us to fulfill its demands and each brings a force to bear upon us to bow us into submission. Paul calls sin a law to help us understand that even though we are believers, sin constantly works to press us into its evil mold.
2. We find this law inside us – In Romans 7:21 Paul moves from head knowledge to a real personal experience with this law of sin. Its one thing to sit in a room full of brothers and sisters and talk about sin it’s another to find yourself subdued by its strength and madness. Believers are the only ones to find this law at work in themselves. Unbelievers can’t feel it. The law of sin is a raging river carrying them along. They cannot measure the speed of the current because they have surrendered themselves to it and borne along by it. A believer on the other hand swims up stream. He meets sin head on and strains under its strength.
3. We find this law when we are at our best. - Paul didn’t find this law at work in him when he was backsliding or lazy. He found it in him when he wanted to do good. Though the law of sin works from the inside ambushing the believer when they are at their best, it is not their dictator. Paul says I want to please God, give Him Glory, serve His people, and honor His name. By God’s grace the desire to obey him ordinarily prevails in us, even against this insidious enemy within.
4. This law never rests – Since grace rules the believers heart, he wants to do good. There is a constant desire to please God and there is a desire to do specific things, such as pray. Both of these are opposed by this law. Sin is constantly at work opposing our desire to even do the simplest things to obey God. Sin fights us at every point making us tired or distracted when we pray. Galatians 5:17 says “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
The Grace of God in Christ and the law of sin are the two fountains of all your holiness and sin, joy and trouble, refreshment and sorrow. If you are to walk with God and glorify him in this world, you need to master both. If we are not spiritually wise in managing our souls, how can we help making a wreck of ourselves?
Getting to know this indwelling sin may be humiliating and discouraging, but it is our wisdom. We need to follow this path if we are going to bring glory to God.
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Book review for “Irresistible to God”
By Basil Rehill | March 4, 2010
Irresistible to God is about pride and humility. If pride and humility were easy to understand we would not need a book about it. As I read this book I became keenly aware that I never knew how much pride I truly had and how little humilitity. As Steve Gallagher so aptly puts it “…pride is one of the most prominent subjects addressed in scripture.” What is pride? Pride is “having an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance and a selfish preoccupation with one’s own rights.” Mr. Gallagher goes into explicit detail on how the Bible looks at pride. He looks at the formation and development of pride, the different forms of pride and the destructive nature of pride. The escape from pride is humility. “It is only when a person comes to an end of himself that his pride is most effectively dealt with and Christ becomes most glorified in his life.” The first step to true humility is genuine repentance – “coming to an end of oneself, godly sorrow over sin, brokenness, and surrender.” Mr. Gallagher writes about being meek, walking in humility, serving others and going under others as ways to experience humility.
When I first began reading I was looking forward to an in-depth study of pride and humility. I was hoping to discover ways in which I could see pride as the root of almost every sin. I had always had the hunch that it was. What I found as I was reading was that my very soul was being laid bare. As I read each new chapter I began to see my own pride in new ways. I came face to face with my own religious pride. I was staring at my “know it all” pride. Each description pealed a new layer of my own pride for me to see how hideous it truly is. I have always known that I had some pride in me; I just never knew how widespread it really was. I was now seeing myself in a way that I had never seen before. I was almost arrogantly prideful in all that I am. It was a real eye opener. Now that I knew this about myself I was hoping there was a path to take to find victory. There is.
True humility is the answer. What I thought was humility is just not being full of myself. What I came to understand was much more. As Mr. Gallagher puts it “anything that undermines the self life promotes humility.” The detail that he went into regarding submission was wonderful. Being submitted to another is being committed to his cause. He gives the analogy of a soldier submitting himself to his superior officer. The military could not function if every person in an army thought and did what he wanted to do. The hard part is that it is necessary for our will to be broken in order to be truly humble. This is contrary to everything that I learned in school and life. I had always been taught that self reliance is the most important thing to a successful life. I need to be able to do things for myself if I am to be successful.
Mr. Gallagher is talking about a new lifestyle that is centered on worshipping the one true God. He states “true worship only occurs when the person acknowledges who he is in relation to God and who God is in relation to him.” By doing this we can truly come to the Lord, humbly and enter into an intimate relationship with God. God is light and as we draw closer to Him, His light reveals in us our true state. We are full of ourselves and see only what we think will build our selfish view of ourselves up. Humility is not about beating ourselves up to prove how lowly we are. We need to see ourselves as we truly are before God in order to truly be humble. When we see ourselves this way we will be quick to forgive others, we will serve others, we will acknowledge our sin before God and we will worship and revere God in an honest and true sense.
It is obvious that Steve Gallagher has a firm biblical foundation for understanding pride and humility. He admits he has a long way to go, as do I. From the foundation He is able to build a strong structure that supports his points. The book is written in a way that is easy to understand and yet challenges the reader to dig deeper into the truths of the Bible regarding pride and humility. He gives real world examples of how the various types of pride show up. He helps us to see ourselves with a magnifying glass. From time to time I was tempted to bring some of what I was reading to the attention of some people who I thought could really benefit. I could see all the various types of pride in everyone around me. I was tempted to point it out. Then I looked at myself and realized what I saw in others was just a reflection of the pride in me.
Many of the examples that Mr. Gallagher uses are from his experience at Pure Life Ministries, counseling men struggling with habitual sexual sin. This does not limit the application of this book to only those struggling with sexual sin. Anyone who is anyone will struggle with one type or another of pride. Pride was the first sin and has been the motivating factor for all of mankind’s sin since then. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a deeper understanding of the root of sin, pride. I would also recommend this to anyone who wants to understand what true humility is. The path to victory over sin is paved by humility. Without a clear understanding of what humility really is we are left wandering trying to discover the path on our own.
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