General - Tuesday, December 7, 2004 19:48 - 0 Comments

PROBLEMS WHEN WE ARE NOT SATISFIED IN GOD
exerpt from this Sunday’s message

When satisfaction in God is marginalized, one of two errors occur and act as a replacement to that void. One of them is right thinking; you could call that doctrine, and right living, which you could call holiness or purity. When either of these displace affections, passion, satisfaction, zeal and joy, you are left with, and will usually choose one of two common errors. One is the error of intellectualism, a view that getting right doctrine becomes the barometer of your relationship with God. Or you have legalism, which focuses on right living and thus becomes the measure by which you determine the depth of your relationship with God. One focuses on the head- what you think, the other on the hands- what you do, but neither deal with the heart- how you emotionally respond to God.

As an aside, neither of these two errors need the intrusion of God’s grace to accomplish. Right thinking can be acquired by reading good books, and I’m sure there are quite a few that consider themselves Calvinists and have never tasted of the grace of God, and I’m sure there are many that can muster the outward morality which gives the appearance of piety, much like the Pharisees, yet has no true connection to the living God.

With these two errors, two additional counter errors are created to avoid falling prey into intellectualism and legalism. On the one hand, some have decided that doctrine and theology is foolish to pursue and so they abandon their studies and develop an anti-intellectual attitude that keeps its distance from the problem of intellectualism. And on the other hand, many have seen the carnage that legalism leaves in its wake, so we create a counter problem called antinomianism or we label ourselves as living free in the grace of God. This view attempts to do away with any restrictions, imperatives, or clear commands from scripture so that we don’t return to Puritanic witch hunts.

All four of these views; intellectualism, legalism, anti-intellectualism and anti-legalism, are caused by a vacuum which is left when the affections, passions, emotions and pursuit of satisfaction in God are marginalized, denigrated, ignored, or outright removed from the life of a Christian.

Doctrine serves as the root of the tree, the trunk of it and all its branches are our affections, emotions, desires, delights, in God. As doctrine feeds us, or emotions should grow not diminish, and that growth supplies all that is necessary for the fruit of living which is purity and holiness.

Doctrine feeds our affections and our affections produce fruit. This fruit is sweet because it comes from a healthy tree. Whenever doctrine produces intellectualism, it’s because the doctrine is perverted or misapplied. Whenever we pursue right living without a heart which savors Christ, we end up with bitter fruit that only produces more bitter fruit.

Satisfaction in God, emotions for God, desires fixed on God, delighting in the glory of God, creates an atmosphere of pleasure fueled by God for His glory and our joy.