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One man stood
center stage. Around that man was a circle of men, at arm's length from one
another, gripping hands. From off to the side came another man. As he
approached the others, he began to snarl and roar, then tried to break
through the circle of men by brute force. The men forming the circle closed
in about the man in their center; the outsider could not get past them. After
several futile attempts, he went away. The circle of men began to sing and
praise the Lord.
After just a few moments, the outsider came back.
This time, however, there were no attempts to break through the circle by
force. All he did was smile and walk slowly around the circle, just quietly
looking. Before long, he stuck out his hand and the man inside the circle
reached between two of the men and shook his hand. Then he engaged the man
inside the circle in friendly conversation. Shortly after, he began to play Hand
Games with the man on the inside.
As the game progressed, the outsider slowly began to
back up. The man inside the circle eased forward to keep pace as the game
intensified--by then it had his full attention. When the game stopped abruptly,
the man who had been inside the circle looked around in surprise: he was
isolated, and a very long way outside of his circle of protection.
Let no man say when
he is tempted, I am tempted of God:
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
But every man is tempted, WHEN he is drawn away of his OWN lust, and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is
finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.
James 1:13-16.
I want you to notice the middle line of our scripture text: But every man is tempted, when he is
drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Did you notice it did NOT
say, "But every man is tempted AND he is drawn away..."?? It
plainly said, "But every man is tempted WHEN he is drawn
away..." When a person allows lust (desire) to linger within themselves,
there is the inevitable consequence: it becomes action. "Lust" is epithumia
which means "longing (especially for that which is forbidden), or
desire". A person can let his (or her) thoughts follow along certain
lines, his steps take him into certain places and his eyes linger on certain
things. Desire can be nourished or stifled. A person can control and even, by
the grace of God, eliminate it if they deal with it at once, instead
of letting it grow.
What does I Corinthians 10: 12,13 teach us? Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be TEMPTED above that
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it. The "way to
escape" is NOT the way of surrender to the temptation--it is the way of
conquest in the power of the grace of God.
When Joseph was alone with Potiphar's wife, he was presented with temptation:
And it came to pass
after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she
said, Lie with me. Genesis
39:7. Day after day, Joseph reported to work, only to be met with this
temptation. Did he give in? And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he
left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. Genesis 39:12. There was
his "way to escape"--he fled! In Speaking Hypothetically, we saw how many different
times David could have turned from sinning with Bathsheba, but did he? He
didn't take any of those ways to escape, did he? And that sin just led to
more sin and more sin and more sin, didn't it?
Now look at the second key word (capitalized) in our scripure text: OWN.
"Own" is idios, meaning self. Verse 13 of our scripture text
just told us, Let no
man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. So a person is
tempted when he (or she) is drawn away by his (or her) OWN lust.
From the beginning of time man's first instinct has been to blame others for
his OWN sin. Adam said, "Don't blame me; blame Eve." Eve said,
"Don't blame me; blame the serpent." (Gen.3:12-13) We've all heard
someone excuse their wrongdoing by saying, "Don't blame ME--I can't help
the way God made me." Wrong! Sin would be helpless if there was nothing
in man to which it could appeal.
The last word of the middle line of our scripture text is
"enticed": deleazo, meaning "deluded, allured, beguiled,
seduced". I ask you, Have We Been Seduced? Many,
many are going down the broad way that leads to destruction because they have
been seduced into believing a diluted gospel--"Oh, God loves you just
the way you are." It's a dangerous doctrine, because it STRONGLY implies
to that person that he (or she) can continue to be that same old person. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he
is a NEW creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new. II
Corinthians 5:17.
God does have a love towards mankind, but when we come to Christ, we make a
FULL commitment to Him, not pick and choose those things of the world that we
wish to hang onto. We commit ourselves, the WHOLE person, to Him. It is the
WHOLE person who is made a "new creature". Things change! We SPEAK
with a new tongue. We don't say the same old garbage we used to say. We SEE
with new eyes--we are looking unto God, the author and finisher of our faith.
We FEEL differently--we have a new heart which seeks after our Lord and
Master, Jesus Christ. We WALK in new pathways--we don't go the places we used
to go that would be a detriment to our witness of the Lord Jesus Christ!
In the skit above, the man in the center of the circle represents a child of
God, a "Christian". The outsider represents our adversary, the
devil. The men forming the circle symbolize the hedge of protection God
places around His beloved children. The skit very clearly illustrates the
truth: nothing, as in no thing can break through or tear down the
hedge of protection that God places around one of His own.
That's what I said, and scripture bears it out: nobody or nothing can take
our salvation from us. Nobody or nothing can "pluck" us out of the
hand of God: My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them
eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no
man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. John 10:27-29.
Oh, but let me give you sober warning my friends: we CAN abandon our
salvation--we CAN turn away from God! For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the
beginning. II
Peter 2:20.
As the skit was presented, it was easy for one and all to recognize the
snarling, brutish "outsider" as the enemy: Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour. I
Peter 5:8. But then the "outsider" returned in the guise of a
"friendly person" and easily struck up an "innocent" game
of patty-cake, didn't he? But while that harmless game was
going on, the "Christian" was being drawn away, further and
further, from the protecting hedge. It was when the "Christian"
stepped OUT of the safe haven of God's hedge of protection that his enemy had
him isolated, vulnerable to attack.
You know, we do need to "be careful and watch out for attacks from
Satan, our enemy. He does indeed prowl around like a hungry, roaring lion,
looking for some victim to tear apart." But let me point this out to
you: the big cat will roar until he (or she) gets right down to focusing on
their next intended victim. Lions have a three-fold modus operandi for
hunting: (1) cunning, (2) stealth, and (3) isolation. They do not go into the
midst of the herd to claim their victim. Their attack is focused on a
singular target. Sometimes, they simply wait for an animal to stray away, to isolate
itself from the herd. At other times, they get the entire herd to run and then
single out--isolate their prey. Away from the herd, it is vulnerable
to attack.
We are told in Romans 13:12-24, The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast
off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us
walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof.
Let me tell you, sin begets sin. The first time we commit a sin, our
"conscience" really bothers us. However, each time thereafter that
we indulge our own lust (give in to our carnal desires), our conscience
bothers us less and less. If we continue to do it, sin becomes effortless.
Where once we would have recoiled from the very thought of it, we now
"see very little harm in it". Sin loses its terror. Sin
leads on to sin. To start on the path of sin is to go on to more and more.
In one of the strongest letters of all that Paul wrote, he told the
Corinthian "Christians", Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. I Corinthians 6:9,10.
In this day and age, "modern theology" would have us believe that
when we become a "Christian", it need not make so very much
difference in one's life. Yet, I would stress to you, to become a TRUE
"Christian", as in "follower of Jesus Christ" makes not
only all the difference in this world, but in eternity to come! We've got
folks in our churches today in positions of leadership, who are living lives
of filth and immorality. They refuse to preach and teach the Word of God in a
straight-forward manner. They can't afford to--they aren't living it
themselves!
They preach and teach one of two "new gospels":
1.
All it takes to be a
"Christian" is to shake someone's hand and sign a card of
membership in this group or that one. They preach and teach that a contrite
heart, a broken, repentant heart before the Lord is "emotionalism".
Let me tell you, when I apologize to those I cause hurt, I get emotional. I
am sincerely sorry for what I have done. And that much the moreso that day
when I, too, "came to my senses" and realized what a mess I had
made of my life--how desperately I needed a "blood
transfusion"--the blood of Jesus Christ to wash away my sins and make me
a new creature in Him!
2.
The Grace Kick: "Don't worry about
it--we are all under Grace. It's OK!" That's not what the Word of God
says about it!
Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the
lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto
God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law,
but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law,
but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto
death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6:12-16.
"To whom ye yield
yourselves..." That means to whomever (whatever) we give in
to--including our own lusts. Oh yes, the world says, "Don't sweat the small
stuff." Let me tell you, friends, very few temptations come at us
tornado-strength. Most of them start very small, very "innocently",
and we allow them to stay and grow within us, using the excuse, "There's
no harm in it." Sadly, so many folks want to coast along on a bed
of ease in their Christian experience. It's not that way! We are told to be vigilant
(I Peter 5:8). We are told to abstain from all appearance of evil (I
Thessalonians 5:22). Not
just evil, but even the appearance of evil. The Literal Bible says,
"From every form of evil, keep back." Song of Solomon 2:15 tells us that it is the
LITTLE foxes, that spoil the vines.
You want to know what causes so many to fall by the wayside? Pride. "Oh,
I wouldn't fall for such and such." Be careful! Wherefore let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall. It's when we get our eyes
off of Jesus and on the things of this world about us, that we can be drawn
away from Him.
Don't flirt with sin. If it does not glorify God, if it does not lift Jesus
to the world, if it does not further the Gospel of Jesus Christ, don't play
with it! Do not allow yourself to be drawn away from your walk with
Christ by anyone or anything.
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