Sermon: Responding to God's Pruning Is Not Passive (Part Two)
The Mortal Danger of an Uncultivated Field
#1698
David F. Maas
Given 18-Mar-23; 70 minutes
description: After Adam and Eve sinned, the natural consequences of sin consisted of a horrendous crop of briars, thorns and thistles, a perpetual curse which we, as the offspring of Adam and Eve, must endure and contend with until we take our last mortal breath. Briars, thistles, thorns, and weeds are visible emblems of sin (or we might say the visible consequences of sin) which we are commanded to extirpate, pull up by the roots, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and annually for the balance of our physical life. To fail to be diligent in the command to annually thoroughly examine ourselves (I Corinthians 11:28-30) and continually pulling spiritual weeds from the depths of our deceitful heart will over a time disqualify us, cutting us from Almighty God. But, if we move toward Our Creator, diligently keeping His holy and spiritual laws, He will, with the power of His Holy Spirit, open our scrutiny as to what should be eliminated from our lives to establish a wholesome, intimate relationship with him, ensuring the successful completion of our sanctification process.
transcript:
Please turn over to Hebrews 6:7-8, a metaphorical passage which soberly depicts the tragic consequences of a lifetime of refusing to examine oneself, neglecting the methodical daily cultivation of godly fruit of the Spirit, while at the same time allowing the works of the flesh (spiritual thorns, thistles, and weeds) to take over, hijacking and reshaping one’s hopeless, bleak, grim destiny or character.
Hebrews 6:7-8 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to be being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
The Amplified version adds some additional vivid, graphic details:
Hebrews 6:7-8 For the soil which has drunk the rain that repeatedly falls upon it and produces vegetation for whose benefit it is cultivated partakes of a blessing from God. But if [that same soil] persistently bears thorns and thistles, it is considered worthless and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
Agricultural images, symbols, and metaphors abound profusely throughout the Scriptures, replete in both the Old and New Testaments. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ called us branches connected to a vine (John 15:5), a passage we will be reading in two weeks and three days. Our Lord Jesus Christ and his half-brother James, as well as the apostles Peter and Paul, used abundant agricultural metaphors describing our special calling, including a wheat harvest, firstfruits, laborers in the vineyard, and the earth of God’s field.
We, as God’s called-out ones, are simultaneously identified as the dirt in which the godly seed of the Word is implanted, the seed which grows into the fruit which springs from the seed (both the genotype and the phenotype), and the co-laborers or spiritual sharecroppers, assisting with the massive great harvest (referring to Luke 10:2). In this respect, we are in a similar position that our original mom and dad (Adam and Eve) were in the Garden of Eden back in Genesis 2:15, when God gave them the instruction to dress and keep the Garden—cultivating the abundant fruit within.
We are also in a similar state as Adam and Eve being offered a stark contrast between the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil producing the toxic works of the flesh (described in Galatians 5:19-21) or the Tree of Life producing the nine categories of succulent fruits of the Holy Spirit (listed in Galatians 5:22-23). After Adam and Eve sinned, the natural consequences of sin consisted of a horrendous crop of briars, thorns, and thistles, a perpetual curse which we, as the offspring of Adam and Eve, must endure and contend with until we take our last mortal breath.
Briars, thistles, thorns, and weeds are visible emblems of sin (or we might say the visible consequences of sin) which we are commanded to extirpate, pull up by the roots, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and annually for the balance of our physical life. To fail to be diligent in the command to examine ourselves annually (I Corinthians 11:28-30), pulling spiritual weeds from the depths of our deceitful heart, will over time disqualify us, cutting us from Almighty God. To return to a life of sin, succumbing to satanic pride, the leavening of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:6, Mark 8:15, and Luke 12:1), which Bill Onisick pointed out last Sabbath, produces hypocrisy, hard-heartedness, and unbelief, constituting the absolute worst possible outcome a negligent, derelict one-time believer could ever experience, as the apostle Peter warns us in II Peter 2: 21-22, which I will read to you from the Berean Study Bible:
II Peter 2:21-22 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it (as all of us do now) than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true, “A dog returns to its vomit,” and “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”
The apostle Paul, presumably the author of the book of Hebrews, greatly amplifies the warnings of Peter in Hebrews 10:26-29.
Hebrews 10:26-29 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much more punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace?
The working terms of this New Covenant were spelled out ten verses earlier in Hebrews 10, which we will now scroll back to:
Hebrews 10:16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them. . .
That means us, as we, after our calling and baptism, receive the earnest payment of God’s Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:14 and II Corinthians 1:22, placing within us the DNA (the genotype) of our new emergent spirit body (the phenotype) which we receive at the end of our sanctification process.
Hebrews 10:16 . . . after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them.”
Hebrews 10:16 is reprise of Jeremiah 31:31-33.
The Amplified adds these additional details: “I will imprint My laws upon their hearts, and I will inscribe them on their minds (on their inmost thought and understanding).” When we eventually become totally composed of the DNA and RNA of God’s law (which constitutes unbounded agape love to God the Father, Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, and our spiritual siblings, Matthew 22:36-40) we are decidedly not under the law—which means the penalty of death, because then we will embody and personify law just as our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ currently do.
In his CGG Weekly article, March 27, 2020, “Let Us Examine Ourselves,” Ronny Graham declares that “under law” does not apply to people who govern themselves. “God is looking for humble people who govern themselves by His Word with outgoing concern and respect for others. Such people, who judge themselves, do not have to be governed. This is what Paul means when he says we are not under the law (Galatians 5:18). There is no judgment when we keep the law. A state trooper will never feel inclined to write us a ticket for driving the speed limit.”
In other words, we are not under law if the law is permanently inscribed into our hearts and minds (Hebrews 8:10; 10:16, and Jeremiah 31:31-33). But if we, during our mortal tenure, as the apostles Paul and Peter warn us, willfully and deliberately “sin after we have learned the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:27), but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries,” or as the Amplified version renders it, “there is no longer any sacrifice left to atone for [our] sins [no further offering to which to look forward].
Again, in Hebrews 10:29, we read “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, a common thing, and insulted the spirit of grace?”
Speaking about the spirit of grace, let us go over to Hebrews 10:38, the verse Martin Luther felt compelled to add the Latin word “sola,” meaning alone, trying to bifurcate the symbiotic interdependent relationship between faith, works and law, grace and law, and most recently in our disgustingly pervasive woke culture, emphasizing compassion or tolerance for sin (actually normalizing sin) as opposed to upholding God’s law—as was tragically demonstrated by the current enigmatic occupant of the Oval Office who, on Monday, March 14, slammed Florida’s anti-LGBTQ legislation as ‘close to sinful’ to which the governor of Florida correctly and rightly responded the following day, “it is not ‘sinful’ to prohibit the mutilation of minors,” and not surprisingly, prompting a prominent correspondent from the United Kingdom’s London Daily Telegraph, Ruth Dudley Edwards, to declare that the current morally-challenged United States President “must be the world’s worst Catholic” [perhaps even worse than Pope Francis].
Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
The Amplified version adds additional insight. “But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, my soul has no delight or pleasure in him.” We can infer from this warning against spiritual indolence, timidity, or cowardice that faith without works is a contradiction—a satanic contradiction—as Jesus’ half-brother James taught us (referencing James 2:26).
Living faith does not constitute, as most antinomian Christians believe, living on the laurels of our previous justification, trusting that the blood of Christ will automatically take care of all our future sins, no matter how blatant and willful they may be. Instead, we must ardently follow the behavior pattern set by our Trailblazer and Pathfinder, using the power of God’s Holy Spirit, namely the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16) or the Spirit of truth (John 16:13) metaphorically using cultivating tools—a hoe, a pruning shears, perhaps a scalpel, and sometimes a machete to forcibly cut the deadly spiritual weeds, thorns, and thistles (Galatians 5:19-21) from the inner recesses of our minds, using the laser beam of God’s Holy Spirit to mortify, crucify, and exterminate the evil deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13), putting off the corrupt and deceitful lusts of the old man, putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (referring to Ephesians 4:22-24).
While Jesus was in the flesh, He had to fight the same carnal pulls (that is, pull the same metaphorical thorns, thistles, and weeds) as we do, but having a full measure of Holy Spirit (actually, without measure John 3:34), He was tempted in every way we are, but without sin, (Hebrews 4:15). The Berean Study Bible enlarges upon this point as well His ample qualifications to become our High Priest. I will read this passage to you:
Hebrews 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus’ earthly life, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, [namely God the Father], and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what He suffered [just as we must also learn obedience, trust, and faith from what we suffer] and having been made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him [that means diligently keeping His holy law magnified far beyond the letter but in the Spirit, as Richard explained in his “But I Say To You” series exploring the Beatitudes of Matthew 5], which require applying the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit [referencing John 15:10].
When the apostle John in his first epistle (I John 4:3) declares that “every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is the [anti-Christ],” he was referring to the doctrine of Gnostic dualism, which is the basis of the belief promulgated by mainstream Christianity as well as the evangelicals and the so-called fundamentalists as the “immortal soul,” “eternal security,” and “once saved, always saved,” and “grace alone—no works,” resembling the indolent behavior of many workers during the 1935 New Deal “Works Progress Administration” instituted by FDR. WPA was often referred to as “We Poke Along,” depicting eleven guys resting on their shovels while one dedicated individual eagerly digs a ditch. Similarly, mainstream Christianity also resembles a massive WPA program with countless millions allowing Jesus Christ to do all the major lifting while they comfortably rest on the laurels of their prior justification, not expending any kind of work or energy, lest someone might think they are trying to earn salvation.
In stark contrast to the “no works” philosophy of promulgated by antinomian, neo-gnostic theologians, our Lord and Savior, accented and amplified works assuring His disciples, then and now, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father” (referencing John 14:12).
David Grabbe, in his January 2007 Forerunner article “Whatever Happened to Gnosticism? Part 3—Satan’s Three Heresies,” explained,
The Gnostic belief in the dualism of flesh and spirit—with the flesh being evil and something to be freed from, while the eternal spirit was good—also originated in the lie Satan told Eve. [‘You will not surely die’” (Genesis 3:4)] Gnostics, in general, believed that the purpose of human existence was to return to the spiritual realm from whence all originated. Death, then, was seen as the liberation of the spirit.
David continues. The expression
“You shall not surely die,” when expanded. . . claims that we are already immortal, so death has no real hold over us. This idea, proposed at the very beginning, has thrived throughout history. Mainstream Christianity calls it the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, while various Eastern religions contain it in beliefs such as reincarnation.
These popular Gnostic and Neo-Platonic doctrines clash with veracity of God’s Word, which declares, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift [something we do not have yet] is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23) and “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 8:20). In Ezekiel 8:21, we learn about the conditions accompanying this gift. “If a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statues, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” We can clearly see that to believe on His name means to do what He says. Faith without works is a satanic, antinomian contradiction, just as grace without law and love without law are also satanic, antinomian contradictions which promulgate mainstream Christianity. Notice that the admonition to crucify the flesh or to put off the old man or to faithfully keep His holy laws and statutes is not directed at God the Father or Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; They are the authors of the law and it encompasses and permeates Their entire character as it will eventually totally encompass ours after our sanctification and glorification when we will see God as He is (I John 3:2). These admonitions are directed or targeted at God’s called-out ones.
Sanctification is not a cushy ride on the Grace Train to Glory Land, but it involves arduous work, effort, and sweat, perpetually moving forward, just like balancing a bicycle requires that we peddle so we can steer without wobbling. In my years of riding the motorcycle, paradoxically the only time I ever toppled it was when it was idle and not moving. In his Bible study “Matthew, Part 29,” delivered on September 8, 1982, John Ritenbaugh stated that avoiding sin does not necessarily equate to doing good, focusing on the loss of proportion among the Pharisees who spent their entire lives in a negative attitude, avoiding sin, but not lightening the burdens of the flock by applying justice, mercy, and faith (the weightier matters of the law Matthew 23:23).
Avoiding sin does not necessarily equate with “doing good”; but, on the other hand, “if we do good continuously, we do not have time to sin.” In his March 31, 2017, CGG Weekly, “Why Do We Observe Unleavened Bread ?” David Grabbe declares that “In all of God’s instructions for this Feast, there are far more references to eating unleavened bread than to putting out or avoiding leavening. The instructions, then, are weighted toward the positive aspect of eating rather than the negative aspect of avoiding. Even the name of the feast gives us an obvious clue to what God intends the major focus to be— eating unleavened bread, rather than avoiding leavening.”
Likewise, as we examine ourselves before Passover, extracting spiritual thorns and thistles, we need to replace the bad, unproductive or destructive habits quickly, systematically and methodically with positive behaviors, remembering that a fallow field, garden, or lawn, without good seed and faithful cultivation, is a perilous hazard to productivity (whether talking about a field or garden, or the metaphorical fertile field of our heart or mind, which we are mandated to guard with all diligence (Proverbs 4:23). For the past two weeks, we have been experiencing an extremely high volume of precipitation here in southern California, including torrents of rain, sleet, hail, and even abundant snow in the higher elevations. Consequently, our gardener could not mow the back lawn for two weeks until yesterday, as I was putting the final touches on this message. Now the clover, normally a beautiful plant in the right venue, had overpowered the grass until the lawnmower saved it from being crowded out or suffocated.
Notice that the urgent admonition to thoroughly examine ourselves before Passover is addressed to Jesus Christ’s disciples, then and now, requiring an active, fine-tooth comb, analytical process.
I Corinthians 11:28-32 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
The Amplified version provides additional insight:
Let a man [thoroughly] examine himself, and [only when he has done] so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discriminating [as Martin Collins elaborated upon last Sabbath] and recognizing with due appreciation that [it is Christ’s body, eats and drinks a sentence (a verdict of judgment) upon himself. That careless and unworthy participation] is the reason many of you are weak and sickly, and quite enough of you have fallen into the sleep of death. For if we searchingly examined ourselves [detecting our shortcomings and recognizing our own condition], we should not be judged, and penalty decreed [by the divine judgment] but when we [fall short and] are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we may not [finally] be condemned [to eternal punishment along] with the world.
Paul re-issues this mandate for self-examination in his second epistle to the Corinthians, in which he admonishes:
II Corinthians 13:5 (AMP) Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [not Christ, furthermore not your spiritual siblings]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever -increasing experience]?
We remember from Martin Collins’ sermon on hope, delivered February 11, 2023, that by continually reflecting on the cumulative past dealings with God’s promises and deliverance, we can endure multiple obstacles and trials with godly hope realizing that Jesus Christ is in us—unless we are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected.
Please turn over to Luke 8:14, a passage in which our Lord and Savior warns us about thorns, briars, and brambles which perpetually threaten the lives of God’s called-out saints.
Luke 8:14 “Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
The Amplified version adds the following salient details: “The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, but as they go on their way, they are suffocated with the anxieties and riches and pleasures of this life, and they bring no fruit to maturity.” Matthew 13, verse 22 adds additional details:
Matthew 13:22 (AMP) And the one on whom seed was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the worries and distractions of the world and the deceitfulness [the superficial pleasures and delight] of riches choke the word, and it yields no fruit.
As we examine ourselves before Passover, we must consciously weed out the things in our lives that hinder our relationship with God from growing and maturing. As God’s chosen saints, we must not be distracted by the lusts of our own flesh, Satan’s dispiriting lies continually and thoroughly saturating the mainstream media, as well as the from the multitude of the world’s woke churches, or from worldly or materialistic pursuits. Please scroll down to verses 24-30 for more insights about spiritual weeds or thorns.
Matthew 13:24-30 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field ? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to go gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’
Please scroll down to verses 37-39, where Jesus explains the meaning of this parable to His disciples, then and now:
Matthew 13:37 He [Jesus] answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world [remember in the previous parable God’s people were identified as the dirt receiving the seed of God’s Word, but in this parable,] the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.”
In the mainstream churches of this world, as well as among some splinters in the greater church of God, many presumptuous self-appointed hall monitors have placed themselves as sentries monitoring the tares or heresies in other groups, including gotquestions.org and simpledevotions.org with their so-called Apologetics Library, branding all non-trinitarian fellowships (including the Church of the Great God) as heretical cults to be shunned and avoided. Even in the greater church of God, certain groups (ignoring the apostle Paul’s warning in II Corinthians 10:12 that comparing themselves with others is not wise) persist in branding other fellowships as Laodiceans or outright heretics, again ignoring Paul’s warning in I Corinthians 4:5.
I Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God. [The New Living translation renders this passage: “So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns.”]
Sadly, over the past 57 years since my baptism in April of 1966, I have many times suspected many individuals in God’s church of being tares or demonstrating no conversion (only to be mistaken); but, conversely, many individuals over that same time span, have considered Dave Maas a tare, spiritual weed, or heretic, deserving to be disfellowshipped and shaven bald.
Matthew 13:39 “The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.”
You will remember that in Matthew 9:37, when Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few,” Jesus referred to His chosen saints as the reapers. Consequently, the metaphorical grounds of comparison are always specific to the context of the parable or allegory under scrutiny. John Ritenbaugh made this point last night in his Bible study in “Matthew, Part 14.”
We know from the dawn of human history that Satan has been perpetually sowing seeds of doubt about God’s faithfulness as he successfully accomplished with our original mom and dad, continuing right down to the present, planting doubts, fears, and anxieties (deadly thorns, thistles, and weeds) in the minds of God’s chosen saints, eroding their faith and destroying their hope.
Consequently, we must carefully cultivate the contents of our minds, tending and keeping it with the same care and diligence that a farmer tends and keeps the row crops of his field, protecting them from cockleburs, Canadian thistle, and burning nettles, vegetation with which my late brother Ed and I became well acquainted as teenagers, as we strived to protect our vulnerable row crops from suffocating from their relentless and persistent invasions before every harvest season.
Before our calling and baptism, we could envision our carnal selves as an uncultivated, fallow field covered with cockleburs, burdock, Canadian thistle, poison oak, poison hemlock, water hemlock, loco weed, or tares which we are mandated to pull out. The practice of putting out leaven every spring parallels the difficulty of accomplishing this task. Most of us over the years have found leavening on our premises well into the Days of Unleavened Bread. Even if we have meticulously searched and cleaned, leavening will never completely disappear.
Richard Ritenbaugh, in his sermon, “Unleavened Bread and Hope,” delivered on April 19, 2006, warned of wild, natural yeast spores in the air which are everywhere just as sin is everywhere. Consequently, a lump of unleavened dough quickly becomes leavened if left on the counter. Wild yeast spores multiply quickly, just like thorns, thistles, and weeds multiply on an untended, uncultivated fallow field. Because the wild yeast spores multiply relentlessly, unleavened dough will eventually rise as if we had put the leavening in the dough to begin with.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a weed as “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth, especially one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants.” Back on the farm, when we would alternate row crops from season to season (such as corn followed by soybeans), we would find volunteer corn (from the season before) fiercely competing with the current soybean crop. The Scriptures teach us that some behaviors which are normally good and wholesome may resemble weeds when they pop up in the wrong locations or at the wrong time, such as the caution in Proverbs 25: 20, “Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather, and like vinegar on soda is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.” Likewise, in Proverbs 27:14, we read, “He who blesses his friend with a loud voice rising in the morning, it will be counted a curse to him.”
Mike Ford wrote a fascinating Forerunner article back in August of 1994 titled “Weeds” in which he made the comparison of kudzu, a plant initially thought to be harmless and potentially useful, brought in from Japan to prevent erosion, but has shockingly taken over almost the entire southeast, covering ravines, whole stands of trees, entire barns, power poles, abandoned vehicles, and anything else in its path. Those familiar with wisteria (an ornamental flowering tree, which incidentally is toxic) know that it shares similar characteristics. Similarly, bamboo, when it is carefully cultivated and controlled provides a wonderful privacy fence, but when it gets out of control, it emerges into a formidable jungle. Mike informs us that the common characteristic or ecological niche of all weeds (poisonous or not poisonous) is to choke, strangle, and steal. They hinder fruit from maturing, not necessarily stopping growth, but slowing it down to the point that fruit never ripens.
In his April 4, 2005 sermon, “God’s Pruning Process,” Andy McClain (United Church of God) declares that “Pruning is done to improve appearance and produce growth. This involves enhancing the natural form and character of the tree by removing limbs that turn inward, cross or extend. It means removing anything that competes with the growth of the main trunk—water sprouts, root suckers and excess lateral branches. Thinning lateral shoots will let the remaining branches get better air circulation, water and sunlight.” Andy McClain points out that any Y-shape weak zone with two competing branches is undesirable, suggesting that the lesson for us is to carefully choose whom we will serve. As Christ says, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
We must remember that we are the work of God’s hand (Ephesians 2:10) and that we “are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Isaiah 64: 8, Ephesians 2:19-22). Consequently, “as our inward man changes, our thoughts, words, and deeds will also.”
As we do our annual pre-Passover examination, we must diligently ask Almighty God to reveal to us those behaviors in ourselves which compete or rub against His divine purpose for our lives. In my March 25, 2017 message, “Caveats about Self-Examination,” I cautioned that we are foolishly presumptuous if we think we can accomplish this self-examination alone with our own resources. The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 8:7 that “the mind of the flesh [with its sinful pursuits] is actively hostile to God. It does not submit itself to God’s law, since it cannot.” Likewise, Jeremiah has shown us that, “The heart is deceitful above all things. And is extremely sick; who can understand it fully and know its secret motives” (Jeremiah 17:9, AMP)?
Consequently, if we try this rigorous self-examination with our own meager resources, we act with foolish presumption. None of us can see our spiritual blind-spots. If we could, they would no longer be blind spots. As the reflector mirrors on our cars tell us, “The objects in mirror are closer than they appear.”
If our pre-Passover self-examination is not a prayerful dialogue with our Creator, as James Beaubelle admonished us in his message today, it becomes a disappointing exercise in futility, and will lead to either a state of hopeless despair or a smug assumption that we are doing relatively well when we attempt to compare ourselves with other spiritual siblings in our own fellowship or in the greater church of God. The Psalmist David came to understand that he could not by his own resources understand his own deceitful consciousness (harboring adultery, murder, and a host of other sins), but came to understand that God alone had the searchlight (namely the Spirit of truth John 14:17;16:13) whose function is to convict the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8) replacing the vile satanic lies of this world’s decadent culture with truth through the precious Word of God (John 17:17).
In David’s Psalm 19:12-13 (AMP), he asks, “Who can understand his errors or omissions? Acquit me of hidden [unconscious, untended] faults [like those wild yeast spores Richard described earlier]. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous [deliberate, willful sins]; let them not rule and have control over me. Then I will be blameless [complete], and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.” In our pre-Passover examination, these should be our petitions as well.
In Psalm 139:23 -24 (AMP), David pleads, “Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” Obviously, David did not know his own heart—and neither do we. The guilt we suffer from breaking God’s law manifests itself in fear, anxiety, or chronic unease as guilt (the spiritual equivalent of physical pain) causes intense, anguishing spiritual pain. God alone can turn His searchlight on the causes for anxiety and unease which our carnal minds cannot possibly see.
At this time, I plan to declassify an embarrassing point event which happened September 1, 2022, probably the hottest day of the year in Simi Valley with temperatures soaring into the upper 90’s and the100’s. A week before, I had boasted to Julie, my son Eric, and his family that I had gone nearly ten years since moving to California without one traffic ticket. Because of the intense heat, and the relative lightness of the traffic, I decided to go to my favorite hiking trail at Corriganville Movie Ranch. As I turned off Kuehner Avenue onto Smith Road, I performed a maneuver which I had done countless times since moving to Simi Valley, that is to ignore the red left turn signal as I entered Corriganville. Within seconds, I was enveloped in a cloud of red and blue lights as the Ventura County Sheriff pulled me to a stop.
I thought “Oh no! Here I go again!” with a ticket and a probable annoying session in traffic school, like I did many times in Texas (but without my favorite teacher Lee Stolley). When the officer took my license and proof of insurance to his car, I had a profound feeling of embarrassment and remorse, pleading with my heavenly Father that I believe this time I had learned my lesson. I did not make any kind a vow, but I determined in my mind that impatience at red lights I would attempt to permanently excise out of my behavior repertoire if He would have mercy.
Eons of time, it seemed, passed before the deputy returned, asking what I was doing out on such a torrid day, to which I replied that I was taking my daily walk in Corriganville, and was looking forward to having the park all to myself. He expressed concern and asked me if I had sufficient water and protective clothing. When I replied in the affirmative, he said, “I have decided to issue you only a warning but remember those warning lights are placed there for a reason. You have a safe day and be careful” to which I replied, “Thank you, thank you, thank you officer,” and then presently thanked my heavenly Father, determined to make some permanent behavior changes. From September 1, 2022 to the present, I have stopped getting anxious at red lights and turn signals, developing the habit of patiently counting the seconds the light is red, discovering that I have seldom had to wait longer than 32 seconds.
Julie can testify that one of my most oft-expressed phrases, when I am having difficulty with the computer, is to say, “I wish things worked lawfully” angrily lambasting the Silicon Valley engineers, when the real law breaker all along has been Dave Maas, with his fat finger carelessly touching a wrong key on the keyboard. Two days ago, to combat my belligerent carnal attitude to ads interrupting my YouTube symphony concert videos, Julie installed You Tube Premium, which removed all ads and has returned peace and tranquility to our work chamber.
Two years ago, after recovering from Covid, I stopped viewing mainstream network news, which was poisoning my nervous system with worry, fear, and anxiety. Forty-three years ago, my late colleague, Gene Hogberg, said about corporate news carrying the water for the leftist deep state, “They may not tell you what to think, but they tell you what to think about, determining the narrative.” Consequently, after the death of Rush Limbaugh, America’s secular watchman on the wall, I have cut my news intake down from three hours a day (time competing with getting close to our heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior) to ten minutes a day while I take a hydromassage in the gym.
As we are pruned in our spiritual lives, we must replace earthly desires, namely fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, all of which constitute idolatry (Colossians 3:5), attitudes and actions that “rub” against God’s ways, much like unpruned branches in trees. After God reveals our sins and weakness, it is our responsibility to put off or prune the toxic weeds, as the apostle Paul admonishes us:
Colossians 3:8-10 You [you, yes you—not God the Father or Jesus Christ], yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.
Hopefully, during our self-examination, as we look for fruit on the vine, we can identify specific areas, times, and places which were formerly addictive or destructive to us that God has taken the temptation away. We (with the help of God’s Holy Spirit) should be able to identify horrible weaknesses of spiritual timidity for which now have developed some backbone.
As we examine ourselves before Passover, we need to soberly reflect whether (or to what extent) we have used the precious spiritual gifts God has given us to edify and nourish the Body of Christ, giving comfort and strength to our brethren. I find it incredible while the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant world feel that temporarily giving up something that is fun, delicious, or pleasant for Lent somehow pleases God, they sorely miss the point understood only by God’s chosen saints, that God wants us to permanently give up something that is harmful or destructive to us.
As we take the bread and wine in two weeks and four days, renewing the covenant we made at baptism, we need to drink in Paul’s encouraging words in Philippians 1. Let us finish there.
Philippians 1:6 (AMP) I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].
DFM/jjm/drm