When we become a believer, we actually become a new creation in Christ.
So Paul says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new.
So how do we dethrone idols in our heart?
All of us struggle with our flesh.
All of us have idols in our life that we battle with.
Culture deals with idols.
When Paul came to Athens, Greece, he went into the Europagus area,
and he began to preach.
And one of the first things he says is,
I see that you're a very religious people.
I see all your idols.
But to this one idol, the idol to the unknown God, I bring to you today.
And so he began to preach.
But I'm talking about something different,
not idols that are in the public square,
not idols on street corners in Tokyo, where I've lived,
or in Bangkok, Thailand, where I've been.
You see these little idols.
It's in a big idols to Shintoism, Buddhism, and different religions.
But I'm talking about idols in our heart that hinder us
and get in the way of all that God has for us,
and intimacy with Him, and having a vital, dynamic relationship with Him,
because we're focusing.
We're constantly focused on these needs
that we think are our needs in our life that are these gods.
They're like small g gods in our life.
And so what I want to do here is talk about
how do we dethrone these idols?
How do we tear those images down?
How do we tear out those idols in our heart?
And in 1819, the Scottish pastor Thomas Chalmers preached
one of his most famous sermons called
The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.
And he shows in this sermon
that the only way to dislodge an old affection
is not to think about focusing on dislodging the old affection,
but rather pushing it out by a new, stronger affection,
an affection that's greater and more majestic,
and more beautiful, and more captivating than the old affection.
Here's what he says. He writes,
In a word, if the way to disengage the heart
from the positive love of one great and dominant object
is to bind it in positive love to another,
then it is not by exposing the worthlessness of the former,
but by addressing the mental eye, the worth,
and the excellence of the latter,
that all old things are to be done away,
and all things are to become new.
So this is a very simple yet profound reality
that we have desires, and we have affections,
and that the greatest way to destroy those old affections,
the things that we know are not what God wants us to have,
those idols in our heart,
is for us to develop an affection greater
than the old affection.
In other words, that we would begin to seek God
with a new affection that's greater than the old affection
that has captured our heart for so long.
R.C. Sproul once said,
We will always choose what we desire the most,
the moment we have to choose.
So we as human beings are a complex system
of many, many different desires.
And when we're put into a position or situation
where we're not sure exactly which to choose,
we're gonna usually go with the desire
that's the greatest desire, and that's what we're gonna do.
When we become a believer,
we actually become a new creation in Christ.
So Paul says,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
The old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new.
So the reality is, is that when we are born again,
we give our hearts to Christ,
we actually get a whole new system,
a whole new operating system in our heart and in our mind.
Now we don't know it,
and we still have this struggle with the old nature.
It's called the old nature in Romans.
It's called the flesh in other parts of Scripture.
But we still have this battle going on.
We haven't learned in our minds and in our hearts
how to put on
or how to think on and dwell on the new creation that we are because of the habits of the old
creation. So when we, for example, get struck with some disappointing news, some depressive
news comes our way, and it's just really, really hard, the old nature, the old man that we've been
accustomed to for, let's say, 25 years reacts with self-pity, maybe jealousy, maybe depression,
or anxiety. We actually have a new operating system. We actually have the new creation,
the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, the body of Christ living in us, but we haven't learned
this new affection. We haven't learned this new way of dealing with the confrontation
that comes to us through the world. We acquiesce to what we've always known, and so there has to
be an activity that begins to happen within us where we sort of, I'm going to say kind of detach.
We sort of detach from our circumstances and our relationships that are creating pain
or sinful attitudes or bad actions. We begin to say, that's not me anymore. That's not who I am
because my new identity, my new purpose is found in Christ, and so we begin to think differently.
We already have the mind of Christ, but we have to plug it in. We have to plug that in through the
power of the Holy Spirit, so that Holy Spirit power enables us to now kind of wage battle
with the old way of thinking, with the idols of our heart. Paul said, I've been crucified with
Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and that's kind of crazy. In other
words, that he's saying that I've learned to crucify, to nail to the cross that old way of
thinking, those old affections of my life. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,
so the reality of putting on Christ, the reality of saying that, look, the only way
I'm going to live in Christ, the only way I'm going to live this victorious life over these
old affections is I've got to crucify the old affections, but I've also got to begin to live
in the new affections, which are found in Christ, who's within me. I've been crucified
with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I live
in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who was delivered up for me. So then it becomes a
faith work of walking out this new affection that we have in Christ. So it's detaching
ourself from circumstances and saying, Lord, I've got to have you do this new work in my life. I
need you to do it because you live in me, and I'm going to live this out. Yes, I'm living it in the
flesh, but I'm going to trust you. That's the faith part that you can begin to reaffirm, re-examine,
and resurrect these new affections in my life. Paul says in Galatians 5.24, those who belong
to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. So in this verse,
it's clear that the crucifying of the flesh is not something, listen, not something done
to the believers. It's something that's done by the believer. We have to crucify our flesh. We
have to be the one that makes that change in our life. The principle here is that the flesh,
those old affections must be crucified with the new principle of a new affection in our life.
And in my next message, I'm going to explain more how that new affection grows within us. Our bodies,
our physical, emotional, spiritual bodies are sinful in and of themselves. When we receive
Christ, we receive his spirit, we receive into our lives this potential of a new creation. But
then we have to put that on. And so John Piper writes, God is most glorified in us when we are
most satisfied in him. Let me say it again. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied
in us, we are most satisfied in Him.
So, where I'm going, where Paul's going, where John Piper's speaking here, is that it is
as we are becoming more and more in love with Christ, as we are being more satisfied in
Him, God gets the greater glory.
And I think the happiest people on the face of the earth should be Christians, should
be Jesus' disciples, because they're living fully in the creation way of a new affection.
Chalmers, in his sermon says, when told to shut out the world from his heart, this may
be impossible for the man who has nothing to replace it, but not impossible for the
man who has found in God a sure and satisfying portion.
So I challenge you today that you would find satisfaction in Christ, open his word, spend
time in his word, pray throughout the day, and when you come to those affections, those
feelings that come your way, you know it's sinful, you know it's wrong, you've got to
pull back, detach yourself and say, God, give me a greater affection for holiness, give
me a greater affection for prayer, God, give me a greater affection to live in purity in
every area of my life.
So when we begin to live that way, God begins to come in greater and greater measure.
And so he begins to fill the room with his spirit.
So you remember the story of a man who had a demon, and the demon came into the house,
and Jesus tells the story and says that the man's house gets cleansed, and yet when he
doesn't replace that with anything, that demon comes back with even seven times more
power from the demonic world, because the house was never replaced with God's power
and God's holiness and God's presence and God's love.
So that's what we need.
We need God to come in and replace that.
This is the beginning of the replacement of the idols of our heart.
In the next message, I want to go through some steps of how we replace the old affections
with the new affections that we can have through the power of the Holy Spirit and the presence
of God in our life.