Alone With the Almighty, Part 7

We've talked about up to this time the essence of my time with Him. I'm not going to review that if we have done that over and over again. But now we're going to move to point number two, which is the relevance of my time with the Almighty.

And ask the question, what difference does it make? Why should I spend time with God? And I want to give you seven of them this morning, and I want to begin right away because we have a lot of things to cover. But point number one is this, society standards.

That's point number one. We're getting right into it today. I got no stories. I got no jokes. You know, we're just going to get right into the text today. Society standards. That's the reason, number one, why we need to be alone with the Almighty.

Believe it or not, society has influenced you, has seduced you more than you would want to believe. But society standards are not our standards. Society has standards about marriage, but not the same as ours. Societies has standards about sex. It's not the same as ours. Society has standards about lifestyle. It's not the same as ours. Society has a certain standard for ethics and morality. It's not the same as ours. Why is that? because ours is in accordance with the Word of God. We are children of God, children of the living God.

We are aliens and strangers in a foreign land. As Karl Barth said that Christian ethics are called the great disturbance. Why is that? It's because we disturb the status quo. We disturb everything the world wants to say is okay. We say no it's not okay. Society's standards are different than our standards. Therefore we need to know exactly what God's standards are, what God says in His Word.

Turn with me to that very familiar passage Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. We talked about this last week but I want to use this as a springboard for this this point. Paul says, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your logical form of worship. And be not conformed but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may be able to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

God has a will. It's a perfect will. It's a perfect standard. It's a good standard. In order for you to understand it, to prove it, to know it, then you must have your mind renewed. You can't be conformed to society's standards. You can't adopt the world's way of life. You gotta be different. Kenneth Wiest has said this in his commentary on Romans about being not conformed. He says, stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after this world, an expression which does not come from nor is it representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.17 that we are a new creation. Everything old has passed away. All things now have become new. Paul says, be not conformed but be transformed, be metamorphosized. In other words, when Christ was on the Mount of Transfiguration and he unveiled his flesh and Peter, James, and John were able to behold the glory of the Lord, we need to be metamorphosized. That is, we need to let the reality of what's on the inside be seen on the outside. That's what it means to be transformed.

And you do that by the renewing of your mind. We talked a little bit about that last week about the whole aspect of memorization and meditation upon the Word of God. But remember, way back when we talked about 2 Corinthians 3.18, how we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed from one level of glory to the next level of glory even as by the Spirit of God. How is the mind renewed? The mind is renewed when we look into the revelation of God. We behold the glory of God.

When we look into the revelation of God, according to 2 Corinthians 3.18, the Spirit of God then is going to reproduce something in us. So revelation will lead to a reproduction. As we look into the Word of God, see the glory of God, the Spirit of God is going to use the Word of God to illuminate our lives and reproduce in us the image of Jesus Christ. And that reproduction then leads to a reflection of God's glory to the world. If I find mine is going to be renewed, it's got to be in the revelation of God.

In order for the Spirit of God to make sure there becomes a reproduction of God, in order that there might be a reflection of God in my life. That's what it means to renew your mind in order that you're metamorphosized from the inside out. Romans 8.29 talks about how one day we are ultimately going to be glorified. All of our life is going to be like Christ. Our whole body is going to be like Christ's body, a glorified body. Until that time, we can't be conformed to this world, but we must be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Society's standards are so different than ours, and yet we have adopted society's way of life more so than we want to admit. We tend to live more like the world. Remember, it was Paul who said in 2 Corinthians 6.17, come out from among them and be ye separate. Come out from among the world and be separate. I love what J.C. Ryle, Bishop J.C. Ryle, Charles Spurgeon said he was the greatest preacher England ever had. He lived in the late 1800s, and he wrote a book entitled Practical Religion. It's mandates for living the Christian life, and listen to what he says about that verse in 2 Corinthians 6.17, come out from among them and be separate.

He says this, The subject is one which demands the best attention of all who profess and call themselves Christians. In every age of the church, separation from the world has always been one of the grand evidences of a work of grace in the heart. He that has been really born of the Spirit and made a new creature in Christ Jesus has always endeavored to come out from the world and live a separate life. They who have only had the name of Christian without the reality have always refused to come out and be separate from the world.

The subject perhaps was never more important than it is at the present day. There is a widely spread desire to make things pleasant in religion, to saw off the corners and edges of the cross, and to avoid as far as possible self-denial. On every side we hear professing Christians declaring loudly that we must not be narrow and exclusive and that there is no harm in many things which the holiest saints of old thought bad for their souls. That we may go anywhere and do anything and spend our time in anything and read anything and keep any company and plunge into anything and all the while may be very good Christians.

This, this is the maxim of thousands. In a day like this I think it good to raise a warning voice and invite attention to the teaching of God's Word. It is written in that word come out and be ye separate, end quote. That was written in 1890. Come out from the world. James said in James 127 true religion, undefiled before the Father is this, that you keep oneself unspotted from the world. If you were with us on Wednesday night you know that in Revelation 18 verse number 4 it's the angel who says come out of Babylon my people, come out of her, come out of her in the last days unless you participate in her sins and participate in her punishment.

The angel calls for the people of God to come out of Babylon. And what was Babylon? We talked about it. Babylon is where prostitution is. Babylon is where idolatry is. Babylon is where pride is and arrogance is. Babylon is where complacency is. Babylon is where greed and self-reliance is. Babylon is anything that opposes God. Babylon is the world and Christ says come out of her my people.

Don't be influenced by her. Is it any wonder Isaac Watts recorded these words are there no foes for me to face? Must I not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God? Answer, no. Is this world going to help you get to know God? No. Is this world a friend of grace? No. So come out of her my people. Come out and be ye separate. Those are words we don't like to hear too often because we like to be in the in crowd. We like to be with the world. We like to look like the world.

J.C. Ryle would continue with these words in that same book. He says, first and foremost, he that desires to come out from the world to be separate must steadily and habitually refuse to be guided by the world's standard of rights and wrong.

The rule of the bulk of mankind is to go with the stream to do as others, to follow the fashion, to keep in with the common opinion and to set your watch by the town clock. The true Christian will never be content with such a rule as that. He will simply ask, what sayeth the scripture? What is written in the Word of God? He will maintain firmly that nothing can be right which God says is wrong and that the customs and opinions of his neighbors can never make that to be a trifle which God calls serious or that to be no sin which God calls sin.

He will never think lightly of such sins as drinking, swearing, lying, cheating, swindling, or breach of the seventh commandment because they are common and many say, where is the mighty harm? That miserable argument, everybody thinks so, everybody says so, everybody does it, everybody will be there goes for nothing with him. Is it condemned or approved by the Bible? That is the only question. If he stands alone in the parish or town or congregation he will not go against the Bible. If he has to come out from the crowd and take a position by himself he will not flinch from it rather than disobey the Bible.

This is genuine scriptural separation. Those are good words by a man who lived many, many years ago. Society's standards. Why do we need to be alone with the Almighty? So we know God's will, God's standards, God's life. That's number one.

Number two, self's sinfulness. Self's sinfulness. We are a people who sin and because sin enraptures us, because sin encompasses us, because sin is all around us and we will sin until the day we are ultimately glorified with God, we need to be alone with the Almighty. John 15 3 speaks about how we are clean through the Word of God. Psalm 119 speaks about how the young man can keep his way pure and clean and holy by taking ye to the Word of God. We need to be alone with the Almighty, spending time with Him, communicating with Him, learning His Word so that we don't sin.

But self's sinfulness is so great. So great. And when we spend time with God, looking into His Word, we see the holiness of God. And as Isaiah said in Isaiah 6, verse number five, woe is me, I am ruined. Why? Because I'm an unclean man and I dwell among the people with unclean lips. When he saw God, he saw his sinfulness. When you're alone with the Almighty, you will see your sinfulness because you will have seen His holiness. And therefore, you realize what needs to be changed in your life. That's why you need to be alone with the Almighty.

And is it not true? That's why we don't spend time with God. I mean, if we do, then we're going to see our sin and we don't want to see those things. We don't want to change what seems to already be working for us to some degree. And so we go through life kind of redefining sin. We go through life looking at adultery as just an affair. It's not an affair. It's adultery. It's fornication. It's sin. We look at sodomy as the equal rights or an alternate lifestyle.

It's sodomy. It's homosexuality. It's a sin. It's condemned by God. We look at things in society as not that bad because we don't see them through the eyes of God.

We see them through our eyes, society's standards. Turn with me to Ezra chapter 9 for a moment. Ezra learned something about man's sinfulness. Ezra chapter 9. It's in the Old Testament. For those of you who do not know where that is, if you can't find it, that's okay. You can listen as I read. Ezra came across something appalling, something very sinful. Because the holy people of God accepted society's standards. Whenever you accept society's standards, you'll be seduced to sin society's way. So you gotta be careful about that.

That's why you always gotta take it through the grid of the scriptures. What does God say about this situation? What does God say? And then you gotta say, okay, if that's what God says, now I gotta make a decision.

Will I do what God says or do what society says? And truth be known, most of us do what society says, not what scripture says.

So we must understand what the word of the Lord says and then live in obedience to it. It was Ezra chapter 9, verse number one, where it says, now when these things have been completed, the princes approached me saying, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands according to their abominations.

The people of God, the nation of Israel, the priests, the Levites, the holy men, the leaders of the people of Israel have done something tragic. They did not come out from among them. They did not separate themselves from the peoples of the lands. And then you go down to verse number two and it says, for they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons so that the holy race, the holy seed has intermingled with the peoples of the lands.

Indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness. The leaders have led the way in this unfaithfulness. They have intermingled with the pagan people. They have intermarried with the pagan people. And God says, don't do that because if you do, you will adopt their lifestyle.

That's why Christ says, be not unequally yoked together with an unbeliever, why? Because that unbeliever will take you his way. He will sway you away from God and sway you to believe in his God. And God had told his people way back in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, do not go the way of the Canaanites. Do not go the way of the Amorites. Do not go the way of the world because if you do, they will sway you to follow their gods. You will turn your back on me. You will commit idolatry. And that is an abomination to me.

And when you come to Ezra chapter nine, you realize that the priests, the Levites, the leaders of the people were in faithfulness and led the people to commit immorality and idolatry. And Ezra says, and when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe and pulled some of the hair of my head and my beard and sat down appalled. When was the last time you pulled your hair out because of the sin of God's people? When was the last time you tugged on your beard or your mustache and plucked out the hair that's there because of the sin in your family?

Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me and I sat appalled until the evening offering but at the evening offering, I rose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God and I said, oh my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to thee, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.

Notice he uses the word plural, our, we. Ezra knew that the sins of God's people affected everybody involved to some degree. Your sin affects everybody to some degree. We need to be alone with the Almighty that we might know his will, be clean, that we might honor and glorify his precious holy name. It was Jeremiah Burroughs who said these words, it is a very evil choice of any soul under heaven to choose the least sin rather than the greatest affliction. Better be under the greatest affliction than be under the guilt or power of any sin.

There is more evil in sin than in outward trouble in the world, more evil in sin than in all the miseries and torments of hell itself, end quote. Wow, better choose the greatest affliction than the littlest sin. We don't think that way, do we? We don't want great affliction. We don't want cancer. We don't want heart attacks. We don't want death of a loved one. We don't want suffering and pain. We would choose a little lie than to have that. And yet that little sin will wreak devastating consequences upon a soul with guilt and torment, even beyond the hell itself, Burroughs says.

Sin is abominable to God. He hates it. And yet we don't hate it nearly enough. Sin stains the soul. It degrades a person's nobility. It darkens the mind. It makes us worse than animals for animals cannot sin. Think about that one. Sin pollutes, defiles, stains. All sin is gross, disgusting, loathsome, revolting in God's sight. Scripture calls it filthiness, Proverbs 30, verse number 12. Sin is compared to vomit, and sinners are the dogs who lick it up, Proverbs 26, 11. Sin is called mire, and sinners are the swine who love to wallow in it, Psalm 69, two.

Sin is likened to a putrefying corpse, and sinners are the tombs that contain the stench and foulness, Matthew 23, 27. Sin has turned humanity into a polluted, befouled race. God wants us to understand the exceeding sinfulness of sin. We dare not take it lightly or dismiss our own guilt frivolously. When we really see sin for what it is, we must hate it. Scripture says, you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done, Ezekiel 20, verse number 43.

In other words, when we look into the word of God, we will see our sin, and when we see our sin, we will loathe and despise ourselves. Now, that message is not a very popular message, because who wants to loathe themselves? Who wants to despise themselves? We want to love ourselves, not loathe ourselves. We want to look at ourself as something great and esteem ourselves.

When the Scripture says no, there is sin that's there, self's sinfulness. That's why we need to be alone with the Almighty, because God will point those things out to us and show us the way of cleansing, the way of cleansing. Are you harboring little sins, little known sins, things that you said, well, it's just not that big a deal? Really? No, it's a big deal to God. That's why we are alone with Him. That's the relevance of our time with Him. Society's standards, they have so seduced us. Self's sinfulness, it has so enraptured us, that we need to be alone with God, that He might point those things out to us, in order that we might be likened unto Him.

Saints only survive when they adhere to the words of Almighty God. That is the relevance. Next week, the consequence, what happens in my life after spending time alone with God? Let's pray. Father, we are grateful once again for the opportunity we have to understand the truth of Almighty God. Lord, there are some of us today that have been captured, captured by Satan and his devices. We are ignorant. If we are ignorant of his devices, we have already been captured to some degree by him. We need to be set free from that.

The only way we can be set free is to know the truth of God's holy word. There are many people today whose souls are not satisfied and are weak and not strengthened. That only happens, Lord, by being alone with you. The soul that's tattered and weak, discouraged, needs to be lifted up, strengthened through the word of God. And Lord, if truth be known, most of us are not surviving in this society. We're failing miserably in our testimony. We're failing miserably in our testimony. We don't fear our God.

We see no success in our lives, let alone any survival from day to day. And so this is for us today, Lord, to be reminded once again of our time with you, so important. In Jesus' name we pray all these things, amen.