[music] So let’s stay with the nitty gritty of this passage in Romans chapter 3, because let me tell you, if you’re struggling with an addiction of any kind, whether it’s drugs or alcohol or food issues or pornography or gambling, you will find if you explore the details of this passage, you may well find your freedom in these very verses that seemed at first so obscure and abstract. Let’s go through the verses again and let me read them rather and then we’ll work on some of the details. Paul is stating that because mankind is utterly morally and spiritually bankrupt and has no righteousness, God has sent his own son and has brought righteousness through him to the world. And he says, but now the righteousness of God, apart from the laws revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, and the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there’s no difference for all sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God, while being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith. Now that’s loaded, I know, with abstract words or very religious or theological words, and it may say nothing to your mind until I maybe help to explore it with you and break it down. I mean there are other words, righteousness there and justified there and redemption and propitiation, all heavy stuff. But I want you to dwell on this fact. These verses state that everybody is in a sin problem, that everybody is under the power of sin and death in this world. There’s no difference. And we’ve all fallen short of God’s glory. And yet at the same time, in God’s gracious love, we are being justified freely, that is declared innocent freely by his loving kindness, his grace. Now, if you take this to heart and really work with it by faith, you may find your freedom. That is your freedom from addiction. Now, whether you find your freedom from addiction or not, does not determine whether you are saved or not. Being saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ, it comes by salvation in Christ, in whom we trust, whether we get free from our addiction or not. But if you want a more smooth life, a more productive life, if you want to get out of the sort of pit that you are in and find yourself on a straighter highway, and more blue skies ahead of you, above you and green grass around you, then you might want to look carefully at these verses. So let’s do that psychologically right now. When a person is struggling with an addiction, that is in the very moment that he might be struggling with that addiction, perhaps he’s in the throes of desiring to drink right now and actually drinking, or in the throes of pornography and actually looking at pornography on the screen, the tendency for a Christian who is in that condition or situation is to block God, that is to cut him off. Why? Because we feel ashamed and we feel guilty and we feel that God is our judge and he is going to be very angry and poke us with his celestial finger, as it were, and judge us. And that is such an intolerable emotion to keep carrying around with us, that the best thing we can do or so we think is to shut God out while we get on with our addictive cycle, and then once we’ve completed the cycle, then perhaps we can get back to God and apologize and confess our sins and have a period of freedom for a while. Well, that’s not a bad situation totally. I mean, at least you’re planning to get into a cycle of freedom for a bit, but you’d like to break that cycle. You would like to feel that you can say no to this thing and be more productive in the world and feel less ashamed. So let’s look at that blocking of God, that situation where we cut our shut God out. Again, why do we do it? Because we feel ashamed, because we feel guilt, because we fear God’s judgment, and that is such an intolerable feeling that we block it, a block God, try to forget him for a period of time. But notice what the verses say. Everybody has sinned and continually falls short and is being declared innocent freely by God’s loving kindness. That’s verses 23 and 24 of chapter 3 of Romans. So suppose you take that seriously and you say, “Oh Lord God, I’m in the midst of my addiction here, I’m looking at my pornography or I’m drinking, or I’m high on a drug or something, and I know I’m sinning against you, but I’m not going to block you off God. I’m not going to shut you out as I have done in the past.” Now that itself is an enormous step of victory, because what happens when you block God off? What happens when you shut him out? Well, the soul goes into silence. There is that terrible void of emptiness and loneliness and isolation and feeling that nobody knows you, nobody cares, you have no connections with the outside world. You feel totally, totally isolated. And the effect of that is to go into morsel to comfort you. Because when you feel alone and isolated and disconnected from yourself and from God by blocking him, the pain is so great that you want to relieve that pain by further addictive behavior. So you see then that blocking God in the midst of a temptation increases the temptation. In fact, it would be true to say, I think, that addiction, the core of addiction, is not the drug of choice, whether it’s alcohol or sex or food or drugs. The drug of choice is isolation, not simply social isolation from people, but soul isolation, disconnect in us, separating oneself from one’s own being and one’s own person by separating oneself from God. You see, we were made in God’s image. It’s a beautiful thing to be made in God’s image. Of course, we lost that image at the creation, but by faith in Jesus, we get a degree of that image of God back. When we talk to God in a way in which there is no condemnation and we’re open to Him and we believe in His kindness towards us, we have reconnection with God. And that means reconnection with ourself. So you don’t want to go silent on God. Even in the midst of a temptation, then, you can say, “Father, in heaven, I know,” or in the midst of an indulgence, I will say, “I will go as far as that and say in the midst of an indulgence.” You’ve not heard this before, except from what I teach here, because people preachers simply will not go seriously into these verses as they should, most of them anyway. So you’re hearing it now. And I’m saying to you that the verses here that say that though we fall short of the glory of God, we are being declared innocent, justified, freely at the same time by His grace. Those verses, verse 23 and 24, Romans 3, give you permission to talk to God in the midst of being high. And to say, “Father, in heaven, I’m sinning against you, I know, and please forgive me, but I will not shut you off, because if I do, I will die. That is emotionally or spiritually, or my soul will shrivel. And if I go into that death-state dear God and isolation by shutting you off, then I will do more sinning in order to comfort my soul, because that will be the only comfort left. And so I refuse to let you go, dear God. I will not let you go.” Now this, until you have faith, this sounds like sacrilege. It sounds as though you are putting your fist up against God and rebelling against Him. But it is the very opposite. It is Jacob’s wrestle. If you haven’t read about Jacob’s wrestle, I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten where it is exactly. Genesis is at 32, I think so. But anyway, go there and you’ll find it. Jacob, God says to Jacob, “Let me go.” And Jacob says, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Now did God really want him to let him go? No. What God wanted to do was to draw out the faith that God had put in His heart. God puts faith in your heart and then He creates a crisis so that you will use that faith. Your crisis is your addiction. Don’t let it be against you. Don’t let yourself feel, “Well, I’m not a Christian because of this.” No, no, no, don’t talk such nonsense. But rather say, “Lord God, I thank You for this addictive struggle because this enables me, this chal…this pushes me to throw myself upon You for help and grace and mercy.” Yes, but what if I fall? Yes, yes, you may well fall and you probably will. But you still refuse to let God go. For God has propitiated that. You remember that word we came up to? The very obscure abstract word in verse 25. What does it mean? It means a peace wrath. God has taken His judgment upon Himself, whom look what it says, “Hum, God, referring to Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood.” In other words, God set Jesus forth to appease His own judgment against sin. Remember Jesus is one with God. And so this really is saying God appeased His own judgment against sin by putting that judgment upon Himself instead of us. That’s what we’re talking about here. We’re having the courage of faith to believe, Lord God, even though I have sinned even though I’m in a state of rebellion right now, I will not block you, I will not let you go, because I believe that you have put the judgment on yourself. And so I do not carry that judgment, and that’s what enables me to keep talking to you, Lord, and keeping the sunshine coming in from your grace, from your throne, so that I am not alone and isolated. Now, when you learn not to be alone, not to be isolated by faith in Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice for you, then you will find that your addictive throws are not so powerful. They slowly begin to reduce in their force. And that is what I’m talking about when you will discover the first inklings of freedom. Thank you for joining me today, everyone. Colin Cook here. You can hear this program on your smartphone, simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or putbine.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. You’ll see lots of archives of previous programs, and you can hear this program any time of the day or night by that means. Would you consider a donation to help out because this is listener supported radio. I do not get paid by KLTT to broadcast. I pay them for air space. And you help me. And I thank you for that. So you can make your donation by going online at faithquestradio.com or send your donation to Faithquest, PO Box 366, littleton Colorado 80160. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless. [Music]
