ADVENTURES IN GOD

HE was tempted in all points as we are & yet did not sin

HE never pleased HIMSELF (Romans 15:3)

"Jesus said unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

God is impressed only by our character
by: Zac Poonen

In the New Testament, we read of One with Whom the
Father was well-pleased, and also of a group of
people with whom God was not well-pleased. A study
of this contrast is most interesting.

God Was Not Well-Pleased With Them

Of the 600,000 Israelites who perished in the wilderness in their unbelief, it is written that "God was
not well-pleased with them" (1Cor. 10:5).

Those Israelites had been redeemed out of Egypt by
the blood of the lamb (symbolic of our redemption
through Christ), they had been baptised in the Red Sea
and in the cloud (symbolic of baptism in water and
baptism in the Holy Spirit) (1 Cor.10:2). Yet God was
not happy with them.

God was nevertheless very good to them, in that He
provided all their physical and material needs
supernaturally. "Your clothing did not wear out on you,
nor did your foot swell these forty years", Moses told
them at the end of their forty years of wanderings (Deut.
8:4).

God healed all their sicknesses too. The Bible says,
that "there were no sick and feeble folk among them."
(Psa.105:37 - Living).

God did many miracles for them. In fact, no single
group of people in the world's history has ever seen as
many miracles as those unbelieving Israelites did, with
whom "God was angry for forty years" (Heb. 3:17).

This teaches us that God answers the prayers of
carnal believers too - and that He provides them with
their earthly needs, even supernaturally if necessary.
The fact that God does a miracle for us proves nothing
about our spirituality. It only proves that God is a good
God Who makes His sun shine on the righteous and
the unrighteous alike!

Jesus also warned us that in the final day of judgment,
many who had done miracles in His Name would be
rejected and disqualified because they had lived in sin.
He said, "Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord
did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name
cast out demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles?' And then I will declare to them, `I never
knew you; depart from Me, you who practise
lawlessness.'"(Mt. 7:22,23).

He was obviously referring to Christian preachers and
healers who did genuine miracles in His Name. From
the words of Jesus, it becomes clear that MANY of
these men (not just a few and not all, but many) who
have these miraculous ministries are not free from sin
in their private lives and in their thoughts and attitudes.
This will be exposed at the judgment- seat of Christ.

This teaches us very clearly that the working of
miracles, by itself, is no indication that a man is
approved by God. Have we understood this
thoroughly? If not, we will be deceived.

God Was Well-Pleased With Him

In contrast to the Israelites in the Old Testament with
whom God was not well-pleased, we read of Jesus in
the New Testament that the Father was well-pleased
with Him.
When Jesus was thirty, the Father spoke these words
about Him publicly from heaven, "This is my beloved
Son in Whom I am well-pleased." (Mt. 3:17). And that
was at a time when Jesus had not done a single
miracle or even preached a single sermon!

What then was the secret of His being approved by
God? It was obviously not because of His ministry, for
He had not even commenced His public ministry. It
was because of the type of life that He had lived for
thirty years.

We are approved by God not on the basis of the
success of our ministry but rather on the basis of our
faithfulness in the temptations thatwe face in daily life.

The only two things that we are told about the hidden
thirty years of Jesus' life (apart from the incident in the
temple) are - that "He was tempted in all points as we
are and yet did not sin"(Heb. 4:15), and that "He never
pleased Himself" (Rom. 15:3).

He had faithfully resisted temptation at every point and
He had never sought His own in any matter. This was
what delighted the Father.

Our external accomplishments may impress worldly
people and carnal believers. But God is impressed
only by our character. It is our character alone that can
bring us God's approval. And so if we want to know
what God's opinion of us is, we must deliberately
erase from our minds what we have accomplished in
our ministry, and evaluate ourselves purely by our
attitude towards sin and self-centredness in our
thought-life. That and that alone is the infallible gauge
of our spiritual condition.

Thus, the world-traveling healer/preacher and the busy
mother who is never able to leave the confines of her
home, have exactly the same opportunities to acquire
God's approval.

This is why we shall find at the judgment-seat of Christ
that many who are first here in the Christian world will
be last there and many who were considered last here
on earth (because they did not have a well-recognised
ministry) will be first there!

Christian Fellowship Centre,
40 Da Costa Square, Bangalore 560 084, India
http://www.poonen.org/zac
http://www.cfcindia.com

yeshuaessenor at 2:04:00 PM EDT (Link to this entry)

This entry has 2 comments: (Add your own)

Imagine: To Never Please Yourself...!

I had always wondered about the devil tempting JESUS as to:

WHY WOULD IT HAVE BEEN A SIN FOR JESUS TO TURN THE ROCK INTO BREAD?!

The answer I always got was it would have been using HIS Powers for HIMSELF. (so? That is wrong?!)

Yes, I do think it is wrong...to go after something for one's own needs.

Once GOD told me my job was looking out after everyone else (trying to help out in anyway I could anyone else), and HIS job was looking after me.

The only scripture verses I have to 'back all this up' is that one:

HE never pleased HIMSELF. Romans 15:3

Walk before me, and be ye HOLY, for I AM HOLY, says THE LORD.

Comment from yeshuaessenor - 6/30/05 6:48 AM

~~~~~~~~~

so true, wonderful entry. May we always stand in faith!!

God Bless,angelrose
Comment from angelrose2u - 6/29/05 2:14 PM