Spiritual Health

Okay. Well, great. Well, let's begin this morning. How many of you have had your checkup lately? How many of you have been to your doctor?

How many in the last year have had a physical exam? Okay, good. Did you look forward to it?

Physical exams sort of, particularly at certain ages and certain procedures that these doctors suggest send a little fear through our hearts as we look forward to them but they're necessary aren't they they're necessary for good health they're necessary to diagnose if something is not going the way it should be going so thank you doctors for sometimes maybe making us look at ourselves in ways we don't want to look or do things we don't necessarily choose to do or desire to do

the same is true when we want to assess our spiritual health. Sometimes we really don't want to do it. To diagnose where we stand spiritually is not an easy thing to do. It can put us through some pain. It can require us to examine ourselves in a way that we don't look forward to.

But it's necessary if we're going to be all that God wants us to be. Starting today, a new series that will go for seven weeks, entitled Assessing Our Spiritual Health, Seven Essential Questions If We Really Want to Know. You know, sometimes we just don't want to know what the doctor has to say. We would rather not hear, because we don't like to hear the diagnosis or the assessment. But it's important to know.

so I'm hopeful that we're interested in knowing where we stand from a spiritual perspective. We are in a special season in our church. We're in a season of fair fasting and prayer. For the first time in the history of Greer First Baptist Church, to my knowledge, and we've asked several people who've been around a long time, to our knowledge, the first time this church has ever been through a season of 40 days of prayer and fasting. And I think it's important as we go through this season that we assess our spiritual health.

Where do we stand spiritually?

Louise and I have been in Boston the last few days. Our luggage is still somewhere between Boston and Greenville-Spartanburg. Hopefully it will be here today. Louise goes through a lot being my spouse. Many things I could talk about, but one thing she goes through is she gets to hear my discussions the Sunday school lesson before they occur and then she gets to hear the discussions after they occur about what I should have said and didn't or did say and should have said better and so forth. And she's very helpful in so many ways in helping me think through what to say and what to do.

We had a lot of discussion about what should you talk about today in Sunday school. And I was really wrestling with which way to go. And Louise and I talked about it a lot. And Louise, we're not going to talk about what we discussed.

Last night on the way home from Boston on the plane, it became apparent to me where we should begin in this assessment. And this morning when I woke up at 5.30, I knew it was what we were supposed to talk about. So here we go. Let's pray first.

Lord, I just pray that as we step back and look at our spiritual lives, that you will help us in this assessment. Help us to be honest with ourselves, honest with you, both individually and as a church. Help us to grasp the depth and breadth of what you want us to be. But I pray today you'll help us to recognize where we are. For it's in Christ's name we pray, and for his sake, amen.

Question one, in assessing our spiritual health. Are we broken and mournful over our sin?

That's the first question if we're going to assess our spiritual health. Two key verses that I've given us are in your handout. Matthew 5, 4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. And then Psalm 51, 17, where David says, As the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Donald Whitney has written a book about diagnosing spiritual health. He has ten questions. And one question we must always ask, he acknowledges, is where do we stand on the issue of sin? and particularly are we mourning and broken over our sinfulness. What does it mean to be broken and mournful?

Those are terms used in those two key verses. Let me give you something of an indication of what these words mean. To be broken means to be crushed, to be wrecked, to be contrite, humble, and have a deep sense of unworthiness. When's the last time you felt broken? It's not a common feeling even among God's people.

We have such a high view of ourselves, tend to only see logs in other people's eyes.

And not to see the logs in our own eyes. And we often don't have this feeling of brokenness. What does it mean to mourn? It means to be sad, to be sorrowful, and to be grieving. Do you remember how you felt?

If you've been to a funeral where you lost a loved one, do you remember how you felt? Do you remember how ripped apart you felt inside? how hurting you were, how you could not almost control the grief that you felt because it was so deep. And you really felt broken in that grief.

When we look at our sin, God asks us, are you broken about it? Are you mourning about it?

and if we're going to be spiritually healthy we've got to start here with brokenness and with mourning secondly what is sin if we're going to be broken and mournful we need to know why we're broken and mournful we're broken and mournful because of sin sin is any lack of conformity active or passive to the moral law of God

God has given us his law he tells us what to do to sin is to fail to do any part of it either by commission we actively break it or by being passive omission we don't do what he's told us to do sin is described in a variety of ways in scripture there are a number of terms that are used to describe sin and as you hear these different terms begin to sense the depth of sin in God's eyes. Sin is called just sin in some passages of Scripture, but the word there means it's missing the mark. And let me explain what that means. To miss the mark doesn't mean we were trying to hit the bullseye. In other words, we knew what God wanted us to do, and we were trying to shoot and hit the bullseye, and we just missed the mark a little bit.

That's not what this word means. means is we missed the mark because we were shooting at the wrong target. We weren't even trying to hit what God intended us to do. We were shooting in a completely different direction, doing exactly what we wanted to do, going in the way we wanted to go, and we missed the mark because we weren't even shooting at the target that God had said we should shoot at. Do you understand the difference? So this missing the mark is not saying, oh yeah, you were pretty good, you tried and instead of hitting a 10 you got a 9 you hit a 0 because you were shooting at the completely wrong target to begin with that's sin sin is also described in the Bible sometimes as transgression it's crossing a known boundary you know what trespassing is you know where the boundary line is that you're not supposed to go across and you step across it anyway that's transgressing You know where the boundary is and you step across it anyway.

It wasn't unintentional. It wasn't accidental. You knew exactly where the line was and you stepped across it anyway because you were going to do what you wanted to do. Right? It's eating the apple off the tree when you knew God said don't eat of the apple.

That's transgression. It's stepping across the line. It's not some accident. It's something we did intentionally. Lawlessness is acting as if no law exists.

It's called evil or iniquity, meaning it's unrighteousness or deviation from the right course. We know the right course, but we veer off of it. That's sin. It's rebellion against God. C.S. Lewis says we are rebels who must lay down our arms.

We've taken up active rebellion against God when we sin. It is disobedience. It is called disloyalty or betrayal. You know, and this is a different way to think about sin. And I think it may help us overcome sin.

If you are a soldier serving in the military,

loyal to your country, serving your country, doing everything you could for your country, an enemy came to you and said, let me give you $10,000 and you betray your country, you don't fight for your country, or you give me some secret to help me overcome your country, we would think it horrible if that soldier would accept the bribe, would we not? We would say, what betrayal, what disloyalty to one's country? But you know, folks, every time we take Satan's bribe and do what he prefers us to do, rather than what the master calls us to do, we have betrayed the master. Sin is betrayal. Every time we flip the channel, if we decide to pick that channel where it rests on that one show that's going to incite those lustful thoughts or whatever, we just betrayed our master.

and you can apply that to many situations if you take Satan's bribe and betray the master that's sin the battle is not to take the bribe be loyal to the master serve him first it's immorality, perversion that's another term we see for sin it's abomination some sins really All sin is a sin against God. All sin separates us from God. But there's some sins that get that label of abomination in the scripture. Homosexual behavior, witchcraft, sacrificing of human sacrifices, abomination in the scripture. So there's some sins that get that, what seemed to be a term that really shows the horror of the sin in the eyes of the Lord.

Sin is idolatry. sin is serving some other god often ourselves rather than lord anytime we sin at the moment we sin we had an eye we were worshiping an idol instead of worshiping the true god and doing what he wants when we sin there was idolatry at that moment maybe it was idolatry because we were greedy for money and we're doing something for money and money became our god for a moment maybe we were self-centered doing what we wanted to do but it became idolatry whenever we sinned Sin is betrayal. Sin is idolatry. We need to see the horror of sin in God's eyes, and these terms, I think, help us begin to see how God looks at sin. Are we broken and mournful for our sins, our transgressions, our lawlessness, our betrayal of God?

And one other word I want to focus on in my question.

mournful over our sin. Louise and I, while we were in Boston, we went to see Lily and Ben Piper. Lily is Atu Bekela's daughter. Atu is the lady from Ethiopia. Ben is studying at Harvard University, which is in Cambridge, just right outside of Boston, and we had lunch with them while we were there. And they were talking about the difficulties

Harvard, you can just feel the intelligence there. I mean, it is an intelligent bunch. But you can also sense the darkness so far from God in so many ways. Some of the students, Lily and Ben, were telling us wear T-shirts that say, So many Christians, so few lions.

Do you understand what they're saying? Remember the lions killed the Christians in the arena. And the hostility is so great toward biblical Christianity among some students that they wear t-shirts that say so many Christians, so few lions. They actually, Ben and Lily, they work in a, they are kind of like house parents for one house at Harvard. And they have to work with a lot of students.

And there's a lot of sensitivity training at Harvard because it's such a diverse group of students. They have racial sensitivity training. They also have sensitivity training for bisexuals, gays, and lesbians. So if you happen to have a bisexual, gay, or lesbian roommate, you can learn to be more sensitive to that person.

It's easy, isn't it, to talk about their sin. See, none of us are uncomfortable at this moment, I don't think, about those Harvard students who may be far from God and that we can see their sin so clearly and so easily. But folks, my question is not about their sin. Are we broken about their sin? Maybe there should be a sense of brokenness about the sins of people outside the church who are unbelievers in our society.

But my question as we are assessing spiritual health is, are we broken and mournful about our sin? Do you hear me? In a time of prayer and fasting, we begin with our sin. And when I say our, I mean our individual sin. David Rogers, where is your sin?

and I mean our sin as we're First Baptist Church. Are we broken and mournful, grieving, crushed about our sin, our sin against God? There will be no revival until we are crushed and broken about our sin. there will be no revival and if we want at the end of 40 days of prayer and fasting to be a different people we must begin where it hurts talking about mourning and being crushed for our sin do you hear me as i came home last night from boston uh i didn't louise and i talked a lot for several days and i just didn't talk much because i knew this is where i was going with the Sunday school lesson. And I began by asking the question of myself.

David, are you broken and mournful about your sin, about my sin?

And you know, as you begin to think about where you've strayed from the Lord, where you're not what you should be, where you begin to think about our church, it's not an easy thing to think about. But I'm asking us to think about it. We're going to the doctor, folks. experience sometimes, but we're going to the doctor, spiritually speaking. Let me mention this before I move from this.

If we're going to talk about our sin, we must begin by recognizing, not avoiding this issue. We must be willing to admit rather than live in denial. we must be honest with ourselves not make excuses as we so often do we must be willing to confess we must be willing to look at those things that are dissatisfying in our lives in God's eyes but we go through this process we go through the valley so to speak because we're headed to the mountaintop it is my prayer

so I'm not wanting to be morbid just thinking about our sin just to think about sin. I'm thinking about it for a purpose. We've got to go through this valley so that we can go to the mountaintop. How do we know that we're broken and mournful over our sin? What evidence would we see if we were broken and mournful?

And I want to take a look at a couple of passages this morning. If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Psalm 51 with me.

By the way, Boston is a great city. If you've never been there, it is great. There are more Starbucks per capita in Boston than anywhere in the country, I think. It is a great city.

And I love being at Harvard, too.

For a Citadel guy, it was a real step up.

you remember the story of David and Bathsheba? Let me tell you the story, just to remind you if you don't. It was the season, the text of Scripture says, when kings normally went out to battle.

But David didn't. David was at the wrong place at the wrong time. at battle, but he stayed back. He wasn't with his troops. This is a good thing to think about when it comes to sin.

We need to be where we're supposed to be, not where we shouldn't be. Sin often begins by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. David was at the wrong place at the wrong time. And as he was there, he saw Bathsheba baby. Finds out who she is, and he has sex with her. She ultimately gets pregnant by that. When he finds out she's pregnant, he says, man, I've got to figure out something here. So he calls her husband back, Uriah the Hittite, who's a soldier out fighting.

David brings him home, and he says, man, you've been in the field a long time, hadn't seen your wife in a while, I've got things all arranged, go see your wife tonight, sleep with her. You see, he's wanting Uriah to sleep with her, so then they'll think she's pregnant, hopefully by Uriah. That's the hope. That the sin can be covered up and people will think it was Uriah's baby rather than David's baby. You see what's happening here.

But Uriah the Hittite went to the citadel.

He said, while the soldiers are in the field, I will not go and sleep in the comforts of my home. And he sleeps on the ground outside the king's palace. This is true in the text of scripture. This is a loyal guy. So the next day, David's seeing that that's not going to work.

He gets Uriah drunk. See, he went to the citadel.

A lot of drinking at the citadel. But he's trying to get Uriah to go sleep with Bathsheba again. Still doesn't happen. So then David sends Uriah back to the army, but he sends an order to the commander. when the battle is raging, put Uriah in the front lines where it's raging.

And Uriah is killed.

David did what kings do. Kings in David's day often had many women in terms of sexual relationships. David had the right as king to order Uriah to be put anywhere he want. And David committed his sin and sort of just forgot about it apparently until one day he was holding court. And a guy named Nathan shows up and says, hey, King David, there's a problem in the land.

There's a rich man who has many, many, many, many, many sheep who has stolen the single female lamb of a poor man. and something needs to be done about this injustice in your land. And David is incensed when he hears the story of a rich man with many, many, many, many, many sheep who goes and steals the one female lamb of a poor man. And David vows that justice will be done. This wrong will be righted.

And what does Nathan the prophet say to King David? He looks at him and he says,

the man.

And David suddenly realizes when he's confronted by Nathan the prophet the depth of his sinfulness. Not only has he committed adultery, he has participated actively in the killing of Uriah the Hittite. Ultimately, as punishment that baby dies with which Bathsheba is pregnant. That was God's punishment. in Samuel 11 and 12.

But David repented. And when he repented, he wrote a psalm. And the psalm he wrote is Psalm 51. It is a psalm written by David, repenting from his sin. And I'm going to give you four evidences

of a broken and a contrite spirit. Here's evidence number one. If we have a broken and contrite spirit, we recognize and admit our sin against God and our sinfulness. several verses here. Isaiah 51, starting at verse 3. David says, for I know my transgressions.

My sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. You see, David admits sins and he's very specific he says my transgressions my sin over and over you see my he is not trying to escape he's not trying to excuse he just admits it i recognize my sin my transgressions and he recognizes that ultimately sin while he sinned both against Bathsheba he sinned against Uriah. Ultimately when we sin we offend God. Our sin ultimately is against God because it is his law that we have violated. He is the one we have betrayed. He is the one who we have not worshiped when we commit sin. David not only admits the specific sins but he admits his sinfulness.

You see in verse 5 he says, Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. And here David is admitting what I think Scripture teaches, that from the moment of conception we are sinners. Even before we have sinned, we have a nature that inclines us toward disobeying God. So David is admitting not only his specific sin, but his sinful nature, which only in Christ and through the power of the Spirit can we overcome that old nature and have a new nature. But you see what he's doing? A very specific direct recognition.

If we're going to be broken and contrite, if we truly are, it's no more excuses. It's straight admission. No more denying. We're honest with God. Secondly, we beg God for mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing, knowing that we are undeserving of it.

Let's read just a few verses again here. Verses 1 and 2. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Now go to verse 7.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. When we are truly broken and mournful over our sin, we go to God begging, imploring Him to be merciful.

We know we don't deserve His mercy. We know He would be just to judge us and not forgive us. but when we're really broken we go to him begging and imploring for that forgiveness we realize the greatness of our offense against him and we know the only way we can be made right with him is through his mercy and his grace and we go to him begging for that the third evidence is we seek to be pure and live pure in godly lives before god by the power of his spirit verses 11 and 12 Say, do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. The one who is broken and mournful over sin desires never to go back.

And David is asking God to create in him by the power of his spirit a pure heart. That means a heart that is solely committed to the Lord. will not let sin overcome it.

This is true repentance. It is not only being sorry for the sin, but it's a determined desire never to go back and by the power of God's Spirit to overcome sin. This is where a lot of people are sorry for sin, usually because they got caught or because of the consequences of the sin, but genuine repentance is with all that is in me and everything that I can do by my power, But knowing ultimately it's your power that's going to help me to do this, Lord, I'm not going back there. I want a pure heart. I want a steadfast spirit willing to do what you want me to do.

And the last point is, when God does forgive us, we praise him for his mercy and grace. We praise him for his mercy and grace. You see that in verses 14 to 17 where David says, Save me from blood guilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it.

You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. when we've sinned God wants us to mourn over it to seek forgiveness from him and then with all that we have in us seek never to do it again and then to praise him for his forgiveness

confession of sin must be both individual and corporate

so yes folks we need individually during this time of prayer and fasting before God and seek forgiveness for personal sin. But I'm going to argue, I'm going to argue that in this corporate time of prayer and fasting, it's time for corporate confession of sin. The kind of sin that is in the body that no one individual did, but as a body we have committed.

sin can be individual but it is often corporate I want to read just one brief passage and then I'm going to ask one more question before we stop today but turn to Nehemiah which is back before Psalms Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms so it's back about three books before Psalms and look at Nehemiah 9

and here we see the children of Israel in corporate confession

I'm just going to read this and we're going to come back to this next week but let me just read the first three verses the children of Israel have come back from Babylonian captivity and on the 24th day That month, the Israelites gathered together. Now here's the whole community together. Fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers.

they stood where they were and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day and spent another quarter of the day in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God

do you see this scene they all came together and for a quarter of the day they hear God's word being spoken which is setting out the moral law that they know they violated while they've been in captivity. And then they spend a quarter of the day corporately confessing their sins as a community and the sins of the members of the community that have gone before them, the sins of their ancestors, the sins of their fathers. You see, the sin that is corporate usually has its root in our history.

Our ancestors were on a wrong track, and that wrong track has been passed on to this generation. And it's necessary when we corporately confess to do what the Israelites did. It's not only to confess our corporate sins, but the sins of the ancestors.

In other words, we're having to examine our history and see, where did we go wrong? How is it that we have drifted from where the Lord wants us?

And then we have to ask, how do we get back to where we should be? So, my question is, what must we confess?

And when I say we, I mean we as the body of Christ at Greer First Baptist Church.

You're going to get the answer next week.

or this teacher's attempt to answer that question. If you would, for next week, read Nehemiah chapters 8, 9, and 10. We're going to ask the second question in diagnosing our spiritual health and then we're going to hopefully deal with this issue of what do we need to confess as the body of Christ.

5.30 this morning I woke up. And as soon as I woke up, I knew the answer to that question in part. Let's pray.

Lord, I just pray that

we will not take lightly this issue of where we stand in relationship to you. that we will not take lightly the question of whether or not we have been obedient to you. I pray that we will be a people who will be honest with you and honest with ourselves and who will truly mourn and grieve where we have fallen short of what you have called us to be.

For in Christ's name we pray. Amen.