Correcting Spiritual Coldness - Dr. Peter Masters Sermon

[Music] [Applause] and our subject is correcting spiritual coldness now we have completed our series of studies in 1 Epistle of Paul and we come to just an individual study today it's an opportunity for us to consider this topic of the spiritual warfare and Christian coldness it's spiritual coldness in particular since the 10th verse of chapter 6 of Ephesians finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and I'll just make some comments first of all on spiritual coldness when the soul of the believer is languid and well we're alive we are converted people we know the Lord we have proved him but there is a phase going on in life maybe for days or weeks or sadly much longer some sentiments register with us some things move us and affect us but there's no great spiritual energy or assurance or joy or love for God no great desire for the Word of God that taste for worship and adoration is diminished and jaded fervor certainly has run down to some degree or other it may be serious it may be slight and we're coasting as it were on the things that we know but there's definitely something wrong there's a week hold on the things of God now perhaps intellectual interests are still strong and that masks the fact that couldn't happen person compassionately interested in the doctrines and obviously that's good a person can be actively reading independently and individually apart from the scripture the great doctrines of the faith appreciating them deeply even reveling in them and yet the heart may not follow suit the heart may be cold worship may be lacking feelings may below assurance may be in a poor state and it all masked because we can enjoy and we can discuss even reading perhaps church history doctoring all kinds of things and then sometimes were naturally christian fellowship and friendship mosques a reality among the people of God there are your best friends there are people who you know well and understand you and you understand them and you have a great deal in common and so the house of God is still attractive and you engage with people and it can mask the fact that your own relationship with God is not in a good shape that's all and love has grown cold or you may be that your current program is very intensive all kinds of things going on in life in your professional life or business life or family life that deeply interest you and so it's all well that's that's good that's fine but it's masking the fact that all is not well on the spiritual front and it may be getting worse your prayers becoming more mechanical and unfeeling attendance may be suffering considerably attendance of the means of grace and so on distractions that you once rejected and had a lot of discipline over might have been permitted by you to come in so you're being distracted by foolish things entertainments and so on that not useful or edifying to you occupied by them and things that you would have dismissed easily a while ago now take up much too much time so it all happens with spiritual coldness and it can be much more dangerous than we think so that's just to introduce the subject firstly a second heading which I'd give is that we have lost sight of the spiritual warfare and that brings us to our passage verse 10 finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might the need for divine intervention and help and strengthening constantly which is broken down into details in the following verses but look at verse 11 put on the whole armour of God that she may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil the wiles of the devil we've lost sight of the enemy of souls and the ferocity of his opposition to us wiles of the devil - marvelous translation it translates the Greek word which we have in the English language in only of slightly shorter form methods of the devil literally its methods in the Greek it's a Greek word for we wrestle not against so I put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the methods accepted in the greek the word means more than it does in the english it particularly refers in the new testament greek two methods that carry your way by trickery trickery is in the words so our King James translators rightly translated Wiles the tricks the strategies of trickery and craft of the devil that she may be able to stand against the Wars of the devil we forgotten it we've forgotten that all kinds of strategies met devices Paul calls from elsewhere are going to be employed against us he speaks to the Corinthians in Chapter two lest Satan should get an advantage over us for we are not ignorant of his devices a parallel thought so the devil has a great arsenal of techniques for bringing us down and pulling us away and look at verse 12 we've forgotten the ferocity of the devil's opposition to us for we wrestle not against flesh and blood human opposition but against and all these titles for the devil and his left tenants and his hosts principalities powers rulers of the darkness of this world spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day but this introduces a slightly different thought this battle is a continuous battle I'll come back to its ferocity in a moment that's the picture there in verse 13 take unto you the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day you never know when the worst time the worst attack is coming it's a military picture there in the background in verse 13 you're defending a fortress or a section of frontier and all is quiet today but the enemy is there and you don't know when the thrust is going to come you don't know when the attack is going to be launched the fact that it didn't come yesterday or the day before or today doesn't mean you can all relax because this battle is continuous in the sense that the ferocious attack may come at any time the enemy is almost waiting for you to think that all is well and then he'll strike and that's their really enshrined in that 13th verse wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God be ready that she may be able to withstand in the evil day he saw it coming in the verse it's building up suddenly the assault comes so you have to regard it as a continuous battle as a constant undercurrent of temptation and then the great assaults and you're ready and having done all you can stand this is reflected in the Lord's Prayer the pattern prayer for daily prayer every day lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil it's there it's a battle for all parts of the Christian life all the accoutrements and utensils of warfare defensive armor offensive weapons are here in this passage under the illustration of the Roman soldier and if I go back to verse 11 but old the whole armour of God that she may be able to stand it's every part of you is going to be under attack the heart the mind the will the conscience every part of your personality the devil will try to invade your heart your tastes your affections your delights and draw you aside and make you cold to spiritual things your mind your plans your thinking your daydreams what occupies you your rational mind you will your determining faculty your conscience says it doesn't operate and you ignore it and it becomes disabled he's going to try to attack every single part your stand crops up repeatedly it's in verse 11 that you may be able to stand and then in verse 13 you may be able to withstand and having done all to stand it's a great word as a Christian man a woman you have a stand you've taken a position you've been given a new life it's live for Christ you have a worldview you have a moral view you have a stand now that stand Satan wants to undermined so that you don't stand you collapse if you don't take a stand in front of temptation in front of anything you don't take a stand for him you'll no longer firm but you can be swayed to and fro and it's your stand your holding your position in the military analogy which is more all-important here your stand and then your sincerity look at verse 14 it's just a glance of the wiles of the devil stand therefore having your loins Girt about with truth I haven't time for detail but in this context the term truth there will apply to sincerity truthfulness and sincerity your whole mid rift is defended by the Roman armor I'm not going into the different parts this morning but your central core is your sincerity you need God's sincerity you need help and you need it to be augmented and strengthened because your own is under fire and it's weakened it's what happens when we grow cold spiritually cold when we're sliding sincerity goes we're putting on a show we're not telling people we're in trouble we're making excuses for non-attendance perhaps sincerity is slipping apart from righteousness and having on the breastplate of righteousness God will provide strength and righteousness but our own is being undermined it's under attack I'll explain that in a moment various sins are coming in verse 15 this is not only the armor but the need and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace were no longer a witness to Christ we no longer feel sympathy for lost souls within the family or outside and help them and speak to them and challenge we're no longer a testimony no longer participating in the making known of Christ and that's got to be put right and the putting right your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace is all part of the Christian armor but we're looking at the defects verse 16 faith is failing so you need the shield of faith and you're subject to doubts and temptations and verse 17 your great aim in life has slipped so you need the helmet of salvation you need to reflect much more on the things of God and of salvation because you know your mind has been taken over by worldly considerations maybe business maybe things that used to interest you before you were converted all kinds of things you're giving time to and the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God in verse 17 you're not really taking in the scripture as you did perhaps you're missing out them the Bible study meetings and such things who have come to that and verse 18 prayer has certainly slipped and you need God's help and strength praying always with all prayer all branches all kinds of prayer even intercession has slipped the great privilege of intercession for others and as for watching thereunto because prayers have become feeble you're not expecting to note great responses and replies and you've certainly lost the art of unselfish prayer supplication for All Saints and the need for others and for the Apostle Paul in his day he calls verse 19 for prayers for himself the prayers of all the workers for the kingdom so the all these departments were used to reading the Christian armor in terms of God's provisions but each piece also points to some part of us which is out of order because of demonic attacked this is of cunning and ferocious battle I call you back to verse 12 we wrestle we fight not against flesh and blood that would be easy by comparison but against these demonic powers and forces the word in the Greek to wrestle there is a very interesting word it really refers to a violent shaking the form or the manner of wrestling in the great arenas in those days we know a little bit about it from history but the word that is used to describe it is a word that needs violent shaking referring either to part of the wrestling itself or the intensity with which strength was exerted so that bodies trembled and shook in their great effort it's what we're seeing here is a vish and extreme form of battle so don't underestimate the wiles of the devil and a determination of Satan to bring you down nothing is more foolish than a casual Christian if that's our personality but there are strengths to having a personality which is unflappable cool calm collected even keeled but there are weaknesses too because we can underestimate dangers the casual Christian is in particular danger against the wiles of the devil he's not fearful enough anxious enough guarded enough the unwary Christian I heard a preacher once referring to somebody as a cliff edge Christian someone who takes great risks cutting down prayer in leaving it out in thinking that the day can close without proper devotions walking on a cliff edge when you've got a ferocious enemy ready to take advantage of your every foolish move self-confident Christian even worse I can cope with whatever whatever comes at me we'll look at Satan's methods a little more closely and his strategies what's he doing or clearly I'll deal with the sin aspect first he's trying to bring us into sin sins of the thought life somebody's done something offensive let it rankle think hostile thoughts think critical thoughts as just what the devil wants you'll get every encouragement to that let them go around in your head constantly think of the morning noon and night antagonistic thoughts crowd thoughts where you think perhaps you've accomplished something good glow with the thoughts covetous thoughts he wants you thinking covetous thoughts desiring more than you need spending much much much too much time on planning two things you need covetous thoughts well he wants forms of self gratification to come back he knows he remembers what you used to indulge in before conversion what your vulnerabilities are he'll try to bring these back if he can unkind thoughts of course unclean thoughts images and so on if he can corrupt you and bring you in all these things he will assail you with sometimes and a small level constantly sometimes leaving you alone and using the evil day policy suddenly bringing in an assault or he may just lure your mind into the world more and more back into worldliness into the world's mood music and so on then maybe a failure of reflection on the things of God so how can you praise and love and appreciate because you've stopped reflecting then he'll try and take from you your strong sense of obligation to strive in holiness to listen to your conscience to respond to it to examine yourself and to seek his help in holiness the constant obligation to you tear it away if you can so that if he can so that it runs down and as I mentioned before haphazard attendance but services studies and things that we need now if we can't attend services if there are complications in life things come up the very demand attention life is turbulent great pressures we're having to work all hours go through a particularly difficult patch well we all have grace from God and help but a lot of the time the devil will try to disrupt attendance when there is no need and down we go there wasn't special grace there not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together is the great rule of the Lord for his people what is ministry we can read the Bible for ourselves every day yes but the great thing about the public ministry that God has appointed for us to come together and to listen is always deals with things many things which we won't deal with ourselves that's the point on which we need to know a preacher or a teacher of God's Word he's not the elevated person some time some people think he's rather like a cook and I'm sure you've heard this analogy before but if someone's cooking for a family well you it's a considered task you've got to produce balanced meals they've got to be nutritious particularly for a growing family for adults too and they've got to have the right and conventional proportions of energy food building food and so on as you know and you've got to make them as attractive as possible so that people will eat them and if whoever is doing the cooking in the home men or women usually the women but I don't want to well anyway whoever is doing the cooking fails seriously if there isn't attention to nutrition and so on that's sad that's awful and it's rather like that with the preacher you know I often say we've got evangelism to consider we've got doctrinal teaching to consider we've got exhortation to consider and we've got the glory of God to consider there are four departments in preaching but there are more those four basic departments after win souls you have to teach the doctrines of the faith all of them you have to exhort an exhortation runs from challenge and reproof all the way through to comfort and consolation and the promises of God but you've got to exhort apply the word and then you've got to do your utmost by the help of God to reproduce something of the grace and glory of the faith people have to feel the greatness and the wonder of Christ and his work and to be lifted up and to encouraged so you've got those four departments but within those departments is a great deal of matter other people stunted every Wednesday night's Bible study there's gotta be material for the soul everything at some point has got to be done justice to everything has got to be covered people one moment people need encouragement and other people need challenging and other people need views of Christ and other they need systemic uplifting stirring intellectually views of the doctrines that's why you need the public ministry behind the scenes all these things have to be considered and the preacher has to be constantly examining himself I like to cook are all the ingredients being paid attention to is it nourishing and is it edible or is it boring or people deflected was it too difficult to take in or is it too easy so that the depths of these things are not properly grasped and considered if you stay away you miss what God has provided you know you need sometimes the same challenges many times a month to thrive spiritually and to be close to the Lord and we opt out of public ministry come once a week you're not getting most of the nourishment God intended you're surviving on a meal a week so I'm sorry to put it like this but that's all the preachers he's a the word is here he's got to do his best to reproduce it and to apply it and so honor all its departments I spend much too much time on that but dear friends don't neglect the means of grace it's God's appointed way of helping people so I don't need that I'm alright III don't need to come on a Wednesday I don't need to join in prayer on a Monday I don't need these different services and meetings in the Lord's house well then unless you're getting special grace because your circumstances God knows your circumstances are peculiarly difficult and he's upholding you by a direct special dispensation of his power you'll be diminished backsliding is an awful thing you know backsliding isn't a New Testament term it is in the New Testament but not in the sense of the back sliding Sol it's an Old Testament term sliding backwards it's very graphic here's everybody else going forward and you're going backwards you're reverting to what you were as a young Christian before you were a Christian you're sliding back if most people are going forward and you're going backwards the gap between you is opening up at a great rate we'd be horrified if we could see the damage that's done even by a few weeks spiritual coldness sliding back the gap opening up between where we should be and where we've slipped to it's tragic it's very sad dear friends don't let it happen that's the essence of this passage finally my brethren be strong in the Lord the Apostle appeals and in the power of his might put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil some people offend in marriage I must touch on this there are some husbands and some wives who are very cold towards each other or unforgiving or hard this is more true of the men than of the women but it can be the women also who are an affectionate unloving and don't try but it's usually the men and they good men and they get into their habit of being unkind bullies insensitive making no efforts with love and affection they don't understand that headship in the marriage is to be conducted with regard to spiritual equality and sensitivity had a great deal of sharing well this will affect your own spiritual walk because if you're bad to your wife not necessarily that you do anything cruel or terrible but you're just cold uncommunicative uncooperative unkind unhelpful how do you expect God to be kind to you how do you expect your heavenly father to treat you well and to communicate to you an abundance of assurance how do you expect when you go to him in prayer to have your heart filled with love and a realization that he is your God and here's an assurance that you're his he won't get it friends it's a principle of God God will treat you as you treat your wife we've got it here in Ephesians chapter 5 and we could read it in verse 25 husbands love your wives you don't so you will not feel the effects of God's love why the principle again is uttered by Christ in a statement accompanying the Lord's Prayer which you know well but if he forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses now that's a principle of God's working if you don't love your wife or if you don't love your husband God will not love you he won't leave ish upon you things that you mainly withhold from the one you're responsible so think of that so I bring that into the matter of spiritual coldness are you cold to children wife others so I have to announce that and mention that some people have a quite different problem the reason why they grow spiritually cold is that they just can't say no to things I know a number of people like this have done over the years all kinds of people will say come and do this especially among the young come and do that yes I'll come they can't say no there's no discipline there's no Stanford I can't do this I'd like to this is an innocent pursuit which is somebody I know but if I do this I won't have a quiet time today if I do this I won't be able to do other things that I promised I won't have sufficient time and energy to cover the work I've got to do and to live my spiritual life some people never think of that they say yes to everything you say yes to everything everything that's Pleasant everything that's congenial everything that's attractive whether it's fitting whether it's appropriate whether you can accommodate it really you've got to have a stand I pointed out this word stand keeps recurring in the passage which is open before us well I must move to conclusion to be spiritually cold no more proving the Lord no more heartwarming insights no spiritual surprises you're just a little bit away from God so first end dear friends renounce self-reliance begin to pray to God to help you finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might you need him tell him you need his help in his strength that you're failing that you're slipping back pick up your duties verse 11 put on the whole armour of God that she may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil tell the Lord you want to protect your mind and your thought life you want to protect your heart and your affections tell him you want to protect your will you're determining volitional faculty so that you with discipline do the right things are not drawn away to distractions television and all the rest of it put on the whole armour of God take up your duties seek after sincerity verse 14 stand therefore having your loins Girt about with truth Lord return me to sincerity and having on the breastplate of righteousness the following of conscience and verse 15 Lord returned me to witness to live as one who has a testimony to others and Lord returned me to faith verse 16 taking the shield of faith and trust day by day and I shall examine all the things that have put before my mind every temptation and her 17:00 Lord returned me to the great objective that I live for the return of Christ and the great and coming day not for what's happening in the world and returned me to the study of the scripture both the public ministry and my own reading and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God and returned me Lord to prayer verse 18 praying always with all kinds of Prayer praise and worship supplication and asking watching thereunto and return me Lord to unselfish prayer supplication for All Saints praying for others do these things Lord return me to full spiritual warmth and life and vigor make me regret every time I slip give me humility give me determination give me that fresh awareness of the ferocity of the warfare and the danger I'm in give me a sense of guilt Lord to others that I hurt how I endanger my whole family my wife and my children if I slipped from grace and begin to behave badly and ruin the testimony and ruin their souls help me to see what harm I do to the church - and some people need special grace I don't know really with oil to add this comment but friends some people are quite lonely and for some it's a self-imposed loneliness I had a man some years ago say to me why is it I find so many aspects of the Christian life so difficult and I found myself replying to him it's because dear friend you don't have a wife what's a wife got to do with it well every time you went were about to go wrong with a wife she points it out to you we shouldn't be doing this there don't you normally do this there why aren't you going to prayer meeting there why aren't you going to Bible study there it's an enormous help but you're alone so you've got to notice yourself that you're slipping you've got to have double the discipline because you haven't got a wife because it works the other way around - I realized that well anyway I've said it now the longer you're without a wife or without a husband the harder it'll be for you but you're on your own it is hard to be alone you've got to watch yourself like a hawk and be so careful you haven't got a living reminder in your life to help you we help each other dear friends don't slide fear is fear coldness pray to God I was going to turn I won't now I was going to turn to Psalm 25 Psalm 25 is the great prayer if you're slipping make it your own amplify it enlarge it if you don't feel up to prayer take that some read each verse and then pray it for yourself in your own words it's the great balm and medicine for the backsliding moment the coldness of heart moment so important for us all dear friends be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might

Channel: Christian Sermons and Audio Books

Views: 6,460

Rating: 4.9266057 out of 5

Keywords: Backsliding, Backsliding Dangers, sermons on backsliding, Sermons, Dr. Peter Masters, sin, sermons on sin, preacher, pastor, Reformed Baptist, Spiritual Coldness

Id: CSWsRNbwHPk

Length: 41min 50sec (2510 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 13 2020