How Do I Respond to Blasphemous Thoughts?
00:00:00.000 | Will all of us experience it?
00:00:07.200 | Blasphemous thoughts about God emerge in our minds.
00:00:10.240 | So where do these thoughts come from and how do we respond?
00:00:14.040 | The question comes in from a listener named Hayden.
00:00:16.080 | Dear Pastor John, for seven long years, I've had hard thoughts of Christ.
00:00:21.960 | There have been good seasons in which I have been overwhelmed with the beauty and grace
00:00:25.540 | of Christ and there have been indescribably painful seasons where He seems so disappointed
00:00:30.400 | with me that I have been driven well nigh to despair.
00:00:35.540 | Often I fear that I am the wicked servant who said of the Master, "I was afraid because
00:00:39.700 | I knew you were a hard man."
00:00:42.100 | Luke 19, 21.
00:00:44.740 | Then I fear that I am not saved at all because I don't perceive Jesus correctly.
00:00:48.500 | I want to treasure Christ above all, but I often fear that I don't because these thoughts
00:00:53.740 | harass me.
00:00:54.900 | I have confessed all known sin in my life and I've cried out to God repeatedly, "What
00:00:59.940 | is wrong with me?
00:01:01.420 | How should I approach this situation biblically?
00:01:04.140 | What are some specific scripture passages that you would direct me to when these hard
00:01:07.580 | thoughts about Christ arise in my mind?"
00:01:11.340 | Hayden says, "There are thoughts that harass me," and specifically thoughts that Christ
00:01:19.900 | is a hard master.
00:01:21.860 | Hard thoughts about Christ.
00:01:23.620 | So there are two issues it seems to me.
00:01:25.100 | I want to address both of them.
00:01:27.100 | One is, what do you do when thoughts harass you?
00:01:31.660 | And secondly, what do you do when you believe or think that Christ is a hard master?
00:01:39.900 | So first, what about harassing thoughts?
00:01:42.460 | Be careful not to make too much of thoughts that enter your mind.
00:01:48.020 | Seems to me that Satan's main strategy for ruining people is by deceiving them either
00:01:54.020 | by sowing destructive thoughts in their minds or by influencing us to deal with our thoughts
00:01:59.260 | in a destructive way.
00:02:01.300 | And besides Satan, our own fleshly nature can do the same thing, can send thoughts into
00:02:07.420 | our mind, which means that the presence of a thought in your mind is not necessarily
00:02:15.340 | a mark of your own identity in Christ.
00:02:19.820 | So important to realize.
00:02:21.900 | It's not necessarily a mark of your new nature in Jesus.
00:02:27.580 | It's an alien thought.
00:02:29.580 | An enemy has done this, you might say.
00:02:31.860 | Either yourself or Satan.
00:02:34.140 | The old self, I mean.
00:02:35.660 | So there are four things I want to say to Hayden about this harassment.
00:02:42.180 | First, view it as that, harassment.
00:02:45.740 | It's not an atom bomb.
00:02:48.460 | Treat it more like an annoying fly.
00:02:50.820 | You got to swat, get it out of your face, swat it, rather than the end of the world.
00:02:56.500 | Second, say to the thought, "No, no, that's not what I think, Mr. Thought.
00:03:02.980 | You can get out of here.
00:03:04.020 | I renounce you."
00:03:05.580 | Third, turn your mind then to an alternative truth that is you, that's based in Scripture.
00:03:11.740 | And fourth, ask God to liberate you from this harassment.
00:03:16.580 | Take your confidence from Philippians 4, 6.
00:03:19.100 | Don't be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication.
00:03:23.660 | Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding
00:03:29.100 | will—and this is the key—guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
00:03:33.540 | Don't you think that means protect you from the destructive effects of harassing thoughts
00:03:40.140 | which take root in hearts and minds, and we're praying that there be a guard from God not
00:03:46.140 | to let that happen.
00:03:47.840 | But it may be for Hayden that the bigger issue then the fact of harassment is the content
00:03:56.060 | of the harassing thought, namely, Christ is a hard master.
00:04:01.300 | And I thought maybe the most helpful thing I could do here, rather than jumping all over
00:04:06.100 | the Bible for a bunch of texts, would be to stay pretty much with the parable where Hayden
00:04:13.620 | got the trouble.
00:04:15.780 | The parable of the talents where five are given to one, two are given to another, one
00:04:20.780 | is given to one, and the one with one buries it, and he gives the reason for why he buried
00:04:27.540 | it.
00:04:28.540 | "I knew you were a hard master, so I didn't risk losing the talent that you gave me.
00:04:34.740 | Here is your talent.
00:04:36.540 | I just buried it."
00:04:38.580 | So let me say a quick three things about this situation in the parable.
00:04:44.060 | The parable is Matthew 25, 14 to 30.
00:04:48.900 | We don't have time to read the whole thing.
00:04:51.100 | And these observations, I hope, will change Hayden's or anybody's perception of Christ
00:04:58.860 | as a hard master.
00:05:01.760 | Number one, I don't think Jesus accepts the assessment of himself by that man whom he
00:05:09.460 | gave the one talent to, who said he was a hard master.
00:05:12.620 | I think the translators are right to make verse 26 a question.
00:05:18.180 | It goes like this, "You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I scattered
00:05:27.480 | no seed?"
00:05:28.480 | That's a question.
00:05:30.500 | If you really believe that, Jesus is saying you would have acted differently.
00:05:34.860 | You were a fool.
00:05:36.640 | If you think I'm a hard man, that was a foolish thing to do.
00:05:41.320 | But in fact, you didn't know that I was a hard man.
00:05:46.360 | I'm not a hard master.
00:05:49.580 | I do not demand obedience from people to whom I have given no grace.
00:05:55.040 | I think that's the interpretation of "you reap where you did not sow."
00:05:59.280 | But the last judgment, "It will be plain to all the world that all disobedience is
00:06:06.520 | in spite of much truth and much grace."
00:06:11.600 | Paul gives the principle in 2 Corinthians 8, 12, he says, "If the readiness to give,
00:06:18.240 | to be generous, if the readiness is there, it is acceptable, acceptable by God and by
00:06:25.600 | me.
00:06:26.600 | It is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have."
00:06:37.360 | That's a flat-out contradiction of what the man said who buried the one talent.
00:06:44.360 | Jesus does not demand fruit where he has not sown seed.
00:06:52.040 | So the first thing Hayden should do with the harassing thought that Christ is hard, the
00:07:00.000 | way this man in his face says he's hard, is to say to that thought, "No, he's not.
00:07:08.680 | You're wrong.
00:07:09.920 | You should not have said that about Jesus."
00:07:12.800 | Second, the real picture of the master in this parable is found in 25, 21 and 25, 23,
00:07:22.560 | where he is thrilled with the first two servants.
00:07:27.600 | One man with five talents that became five, and another man with two talents that became
00:07:34.520 | two.
00:07:35.520 | And he says to both of them exuberantly, "Well done, good and faithful servants."
00:07:44.160 | And then he adds, and this is why I said it's exuberant, then he adds, "Not enter into
00:07:49.120 | the loyal workforce of your master."
00:07:51.480 | Like I'm recruiting really effective slaves.
00:07:54.260 | What does he say?
00:07:56.000 | He says at the last day, "Enter into the joy of your master."
00:08:03.000 | That's not a hard master.
00:08:04.880 | This is a happy master, eager to include the workers in the joy of his house, his house,
00:08:13.200 | where he's happy, not his field where he's making demands.
00:08:16.640 | So Hayden, preach to yourself that Christ is a happy master.
00:08:21.680 | C.S. Lewis said, "Christ is hard to satisfy and easy to please," which simply means—I
00:08:29.720 | think that's right—which simply means this, "His standards are infinitely high.
00:08:35.160 | He's God, but oh, how ready he is to say well done to a faithful, imperfect servant."
00:08:44.480 | He's gracious.
00:08:45.480 | He's God, so his standards are infinite.
00:08:47.760 | He's gracious, so he loves to say well done.
00:08:51.040 | And finally, number three, what if the thought goes through your head, but Jesus does say,
00:08:59.680 | "That the way is hard that leads to life."
00:09:04.200 | Matthew 7, 13, "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that
00:09:10.760 | leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, but the gate is narrow and
00:09:14.320 | the way is hard, hard, hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."
00:09:20.360 | So is he a hard master?
00:09:22.120 | But wait, listen to this, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll
00:09:28.200 | give you rest.
00:09:30.000 | Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll
00:09:35.840 | find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
00:09:42.640 | Easy?
00:09:43.640 | I thought you said it was hard.
00:09:47.280 | So how do those fit together?
00:09:48.600 | Jesus doesn't contradict himself.
00:09:50.480 | He's not schizophrenic.
00:09:51.480 | He doesn't speak with forked tongue.
00:09:54.540 | The word for hard in Matthew 7, 14 is afflicted, beset with all kinds of pressing, hard experiences
00:10:04.760 | in life.
00:10:05.760 | Yes, yes.
00:10:07.000 | And Paul said in Acts 14, 22, I think, Paul said, "Through many tribulations, through
00:10:13.640 | many afflictions," and it's built on the same word as the word hard there in Matthew 7,
00:10:19.320 | 14, "through many afflictions, hard experiences, buffetings and pressings and squeezings till
00:10:26.600 | we feel like we can't stand it anymore, through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom
00:10:32.000 | of God."
00:10:33.000 | There's no illusion in the Bible, in Jesus' mind, that the Christian life is easy in the
00:10:38.680 | sense of escaping suffering.
00:10:41.920 | And God's role in that includes meeting every need, every need that we have.
00:10:51.360 | He says, "No test," sometimes translated temptation, but same word, "No test befalls us but what
00:11:00.480 | there is grace to endure and escape."
00:11:04.040 | First Corinthians 10, 13.
00:11:05.400 | He says, "My God," Paul says, "My God will supply every need of yours according to its
00:11:13.960 | riches in glory."
00:11:15.920 | Every need that you have to deal with the pressures and squeezings and hardness of life.
00:11:22.000 | In 2 Corinthians 9, 8, "God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all
00:11:26.920 | sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work."
00:11:32.960 | God does not load His children with burdens and watch to see how they do.
00:11:41.640 | Every burden that He gives, He provides grace to lighten our load.
00:11:48.320 | That's good.
00:11:49.440 | The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself mighty on
00:11:56.140 | behalf of those whose hearts are whole toward Him.
00:11:59.880 | 2 Chronicles 16, 9, I love the thought that God is looking everywhere.
00:12:04.280 | Where is somebody who will let me lift the load?
00:12:06.560 | Where is somebody who will let me carry their load?
00:12:09.840 | Or Isaiah 64, 4, "Who is a God like you who works for those who wait for Him, who let
00:12:16.080 | me carry their burden?"
00:12:17.560 | So, Hayden, whenever you have thoughts that Christ is a hard master and that His demands
00:12:25.300 | are hard, remember He never leaves you to yourself.
00:12:30.720 | Say with John Bunyan, oh, how I love this little poem.
00:12:33.840 | John Bunyan, bless his heart.
00:12:36.120 | Run John, run, the law demands, but gives him neither feet nor hands.
00:12:42.880 | Far better news the gospel brings.
00:12:46.000 | It bids him fly and gives him wings.
00:12:49.560 | Amen.
00:12:50.560 | So good.
00:12:51.920 | Thank you, John Bunyan, and thank you, Pastor John.
00:12:54.520 | Thanks for listening to the podcast again over at our online home.
00:12:57.640 | You can explore all of our episodes in our archive of about 1,300 episodes.
00:13:02.520 | And there you can see a list of our most popular ones, read full transcripts, and even submit
00:13:06.180 | a question to us that you might be wrestling with yourself.
00:13:08.720 | For all that, go to DesiringGod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:13:10.240 | Well, I'm really happy to finally get to this next question.
00:13:17.360 | Do we need to hear from God before we make a decision?
00:13:21.640 | And what if we have a friend who claims to have heard God's voice on something, but we
00:13:25.720 | think they're mistaken in their decision?
00:13:28.080 | How do we question that decision without undermining their faith?
00:13:32.360 | Wow.
00:13:33.640 | That's a really sharp question.
00:13:35.020 | It's on Wednesday when we return.
00:13:36.440 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:13:37.440 | We'll see you then.
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