[Music] So just a little more plumbing of the depths of Romans chapter 3, psychologically, so that we can understand how the message of the gospel speaks to our addictive struggles. I’m telling you, this is, this can never be underrated. I have been moaned the fact for all my life, most of my professional life anyway, that Christian counseling just does not know how to take Scripture and make an application of it to the dynamics of our mind during a state of addiction. If only we knew how to do that. And if there are any psychologists or counselors listening, then please take a little bit of a tip or two from what I’m saying here because it will help your clients and your, your, your, um, counsellees. So Romans chapter 3 speaks about it introduces to us the gospel. And as you’ve heard me say, I quoted from chapter 3 verses 20 to 25. I’ll do it again now and show you some of the incredible application of it to the psychology of our struggles. Even the righteousness of God, that is the, um, let’s start from verse 21. But now the righteousness of God is revealed apart from all human effort apart from the law. And even the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, God’s righteousness is not simply and only His holiness far removed from us, high and lifted up, His train filling the temple. More than that, His righteousness is His protection of the oppressed, the deliverance of those who are under tyrannical rule, the caring for the poor. That is His righteousness also, even the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, on all to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference. Everybody’s in the same boat for all have sinned, they all sinned, we all went down with Adam and continually fall short of the glory of God, being declared innocent freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And so over the last few days I’ve been emphasizing to you that you need not switch God off when you’re in a struggle with your addiction or your lust or your disinclination to want God. You don’t have to shut Him out because everyone has fallen short. But while they are falling short, they are also being justified, that is declared innocent freely, not by any work of their own, by His grace, that is by His loving kindness. Now just try to think about what that implies psychologically. I already spent a day on it with you yesterday and perhaps a bit the day before. But now I want to go into the issue of actually opening your heart to God during the very throes of an addiction. You can do this. Now let me tell you, the inclination that Christians have is when they feel tempted to sin or to go into their favorite addiction. Their tendency is to switch God off because they seem to believe, well they do believe instinctively anyway, that their sin or their addiction is incompatible with the glory of God. Yes it is, but since it is incompatible, you either have to have your addiction or you have God but you can’t have both. So switch God off while you do your thing and when you’ve done your thing, open your heart up to God again. That is the usual Christian dynamic and it’s a disaster. It means it produces addictive Christians. I would imagine there are as many addicted Christians in one way or another, there are non-Christians. The drug of choice may be different, but the dynamic is very, very much the same. How can we break that? Well let me tell you this. You know, when you go to a therapist, a psychologist or a psychiatrist, well not so much a psychiatrist, they’ll just throw a few drugs at you and get you out of the office in ten minutes. But if you go to a psychologist, he might start getting you to open up. And the benefit supposedly, and I think it’s correct, of a therapist, is that you start opening your heart to someone else about all these secret things that you’ve kept hidden and have therefore become very frightening to you because the more, the less you speak about them, the more frightening they become. So when you open your heart up in your mind to a counselor, you are actually going through a process of healing by communicating those details to a counselor when you have never communicated those details to anyone else. That is therapeutic. Now, if that is so, how would that work with opening up to God in the same way? Have you ever opened up to God in detail about your particular struggle with sin or your particular drug of choice? Probably not, but why not do so based on these verses? Look again. We’re falling short of the glory of God, but God doesn’t say, “Well, you fall on short of my glory, so get out of here.” No. As we fall short of God’s glory, God treats us as if we were innocent, being justified the next verse, you see, falling short of the glory of God, verse 23, verse 24, being justified declared innocent freely by His grace. If God is declaring us innocent freely, he’s not pretending we’re innocent, he’s declaring us innocent knowing that we’re falling short, he’s treating us as if we were innocent people. And so, if that’s so, then why not open up to Him about everything that you’re ashamed of? I mean, having a real conversation, getting into a room on your own? Sitting in a chair, imagining that Jesus is sitting in the chair opposite, and telling Him everything, audibly, it doesn’t have to be audible, but it can help. It may astonish you, because what happens when you do that is that you not only talk to God, but you also communicate with your own soul, you’re talking to yourself as well, you’re not shutting down. If you shut your soul down by shutting out God, then you become a non-person, you just become a blob of instincts, you lose meaning, and that is terrifying, but as you open up to God, you realize that you’re becoming more of a person again. But there’s a bit of fear in it, I know, because you see, you start telling words to God, using words that you might use in pornography or in alcoholism or drug addiction, that you would never use in prayer normally, but you use them. And at first you think you’re blaspheming, or you’re terribly sinning, but you talk calmly, and you tell God what it’s all about, and gradually you become aware of a calmness coming over your soul. Because God is not zapping you with a bolt of lightning, God is not killing you on the spot, God is allowing you to talk to Him, and that is an astonishing idea. It’s like you talk to your parent, supposing you were a teenager and you had these addictions, but you would never tell your parent, but then one day you decide to, and they listen and are calm, they’re a bit afraid for you, but still they love you and support you. That kind of dynamic can go on in our faith life with God. And let me tell you something else that you become aware of. Addiction is a mixed bag, it is never black or white. In other words, part of what you go for in an addiction is quite legitimate, and the other part is absolutely destructive. In other words, an addiction is trying to get real needs, satisfied in an unreal way. The real needs are the legitimate part of addiction. The unreal are the destructive part. For instance, a person may feel lonely and isolated, unable to communicate was never much of a socialite or at least a social person. And so he goes to a bar. And oddly enough, there’s a lot of communication in some bars, and people can talk to one another, not judging one another while they drink. Well, that’s a legitimate need, isn’t it? Some people get more social needs satisfied in a bar than they get at church. I know that sounds a nuttle shocker, but it’s true. I actually heard a preacher say that one day. And I’m not encouraging going to a bar, but I’m saying that the need for social contact, which is a legitimate need, is being met in an unhealthy way. That is by people getting drunk together and so on. So do you see that there is a real need and a false need? Now that is true of pornography, for example. One might say, “Well, pornography is an absolute degraded sin.” Yes, it is degrading. It is a sin. But there’s also a real need there. Because many men who indulge in pornography do not know how to get a social, healthy, interaction with the opposite sex. They don’t know how to get friends with the opposite sex. It’s either loneliness or sex, but there’s no social involvement. Now, why am I saying this? Because this is what you can talk to God about. You can talk to God about everything. But you need to be able to say, “Lord, I need to tell you what I’m trying to get from my alcohol. I’m trying to get some social contact. I’m trying to feel comfort around me for a while. And I confess that I do it in the wrong way. But what is, but I want to acknowledge my need to you that I need social contact.” Or, with pornography, “Lord God, I don’t know how to relate to the opposite sex. I don’t know how to reach out to them. I don’t know how to become friends. I don’t know what romance is about. I don’t know what love is.” But I want to tell you that this woman on the screen that I see right now, she’s beautiful. And I need to tell you why she’s beautiful to me. What attracts me about her. And as you do this, you become astonished that there’s something innocent as well as evil about what you’re doing. And so I’m trying to tell you that there is no black and white in all of these areas. Legitimate needs are being met in an illegitimate way. Or legitimate needs are, one is attempting to fulfill legitimate needs in an illegitimate way. And so then you pray to God, Father, would you please help me to recognize what my legitimate needs are. And not coat everything with the sin brush so that I can learn how to fulfill my needs in an appropriate way. This is opening up to God. And all because there’s no more condemnation that though we fall short of the glory of God, God is still declaring us innocent freely by His grace. Well, thank you for listening today, Colin Cook and how it happens here. If you would like to listen to this program any of the any time of the day or night, simply go to your smartphone and download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook. And if you’d like to make a donation, you can do so online at faithquestradio.com. Thanks. I’ll see you next time. Cheerio and God bless. [Music]
