If you will recall from last week’s sermon, we ended with discussing how the devil was making his best effort to tempt Jesus. Nice try, but as we continue you will see that our Lord was about to take this rascal to school. Observe what happened:
“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days He did eat nothing: and when they were ended, He afterward hungered. And the devil said unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” (Luke 4: 1-4) “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan…” (Luke 4: 8) “And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season.” (Luke 4: 13)
Did you notice the first thing that the devil did? He tried to get to Jesus by appealing to the desire of His flesh. Jesus had just fasted for 40 days, so do you think He was hungry? He was obviously very hungry! So the devil tried to capitalize on that fact by tempting Him with food. Pretty tricky, but our Savior wasn't buying it. What did He do? He submitted Himself to God and resisted the devil who eventually had to flee. The devil tried to craftily lure Jesus into sin by appealing to His mind through His flesh. He was unsuccessful because, despite His hunger, Jesus did not accept the attempted mind manipulation by Satan. Consequently, it had no access to His heart, therefore it was not manifested in His flesh. The most important point here is the heart. It is extremely important that we keep our hearts undefiled. Why? Because the devil knows that if he has your heart, he has you. Proverbs 4: 23 says, "Keep thy heart with diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." In other words, you are what your heart says you are and it's the heart we must protect. Here's proof:
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15: 19)
“As a man thinks in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23: 7)
“Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5: 28)
“The Word of God…is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4: 12)
Now really get this. What these scriptures are telling us is that by the time sin has manifested itself in our flesh, that same sin has already occurred in our heart. We may deceive ourselves or each other for awhile but God is not fooled for one second. As the Word says, "...but God knoweth your hearts..." (Luke 15: 16) We may hesitate in acknowledging the truth but our heart immediately screams out confessions of sin to an all-knowing God, desperately pleading for rescue. "The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly." (Proverbs 20: 27)
So now we know that the real battleground is in the mind, that is where we begin our combat. Have you ever wondered why we as a nation try to never fight wars on our own soil? It's because when you do that things get destroyed and people get killed. Just recall Pearl Harbor or the World Trade Center. The same thing applies to our spiritual warfare. We cannot allow Satan into our heart and attempt to fight him there because it is too late then. His whole objective is to pollute the heart. So don't let him in and then try fight him in your own home. We must take the fight to the enemy where he operates which is at the enticement level in our minds. That is why we are told that we must adjust our thinking as follows: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4: 8)
Therefore, guard your heart by protecting your mind. Ask God to help you erect good eye, ear, mouth, nose, emotion and sensation gates to regulate the tendency for the carnal mind to wander into places it shouldn’t be. If we keep our mind in the right place, we do well. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength." (Isaiah 26: 3-4)
You may be saying that we are not responsible for every thought that enters into our minds, but I beg to differ. We are responsible to take every thought prisoner. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10: 3-5) And how is this done? “By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,” (2 Corinthians 6: 7)
And so, dear ones, arm yourselves. Put on that whole armor of God which includes our loins girt with the truth, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. But never forget that we are to always submit ourselves to God first, then we can effectively use those weapons of warfare. If we don't, then we will be just like a builder who doesn't plug in his power equipment. He has the right tools, but they are useless without a power source. Without being infused with the power of God, our armor will lack the glorious virtue necessary to be successful in every defensive and offensive operation against the devil.
At the end of the day the enemy knows he can’t win but he is hoping that he’ll catch you slippin’. And one of his most effective methods is to attack you in the thought realm. Since Proverbs 24: 9 says “the thought of foolishness is sin,” we know this is an extremely big deal. We must be prepared to follow the example of our Savior, Who when that old liar tempted Him with thoughts, did not accept them. It’s not so much the “initial” thought that Satan plants or flashes across your mind, but what you do with it. It's when you let it into your heart, when you accept that thought, when you take that thought and embrace it instead of rejecting it immediately. It's all about a closer walk with Jesus. The nearer we are to the cross, the more effective our fight of faith.
James 1: 14-15 are two amazing verses. “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.” In those few words, God presents an awesome analogy that compares a human life with a spiritual life, both from conception to death. It is astounding! So, dust off your physiology books, try to recall the chapter on the reproductive process and check out the comparison:
HUMAN LIFE SPIRITUAL LIFE
Millions of male reproductive cells Satan bombards your mind with
attempt to fertilize the female egg. temptation after temptation after
They are trying their best to gain temptation. He is trying his best to
entry to the ovum. gain entry into your heart.
All of the reproductive cells will die if Those temptations will pass if you
they are not somehow prevented from submit to God and resist the devil.
fertilizing the egg. Otherwise, fertilization Otherwise, you will be infected.
will take place.
All that is necessary for fertilization to All that is necessary for lust to conceive
take place is the acceptance of just one is to accept just one evil thought. Once
reproductive cell. Once entry is gained, that thought is accepted, the gate to your
conception has just taken place and life heart just opened and sin came alive.
has begun.
The embryo begins and will continue to Sin begins and will continue to grow in
grow in the womb unless it is aborted by your heart unless aborted by repentance.
some means.
Sometimes we see evidence of the child Sometimes we see evidence of the sin
within such as a large abdomen, wacky within such as lack of spiritual fruit,
cravings, etc. isolation, etc.
Baby is delivered. (It is a baby before Sin physically manifests itself or is
delivery) "brought forth". (It is sin before it shows
outwardly)
Child grows. Sin increases.
Will eventually culminate in physical Will eventually culminate in everlasting
death. It is inevitable. death. Unless you repent.
I don't know about you, but that analogy just blows me away every time I think about it. God is so incredible and wise! He knows just how to break it down so that we can understand what He is talking about. No wonder Isaiah, when writing about the holy highway said, "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." (Isaiah 5: 8)
So, does anyone still think that they can't be tempted? If you think you can't, you've forgotten what we've read in James 1: 2 which states "when", not "if", we are tempted.
The question is, what are you tempted with? Could it be impatience or anger or depression? Are you tempted to be argumentative, judgmental or deceitful? How about talking too much, jumping to conclusions or harboring resentment? Perhaps dodging responsibility, blaming others to take focus off of self or holding others to standards we fail to achieve. Maybe it's alcohol or drugs. Maybe it's tobacco. Maybe it’s pornography or profanity or pride or vanity. It could be the lust of the eyes, the pride of life or the love of money. You can even be tempted to be slothful (lazy). Wherever your weak area is, the enemy will find it. That's his job.
But thank God for Jesus through whom we've learned some strategy and tactics to help us in this battle. James 1: 16 says "Do not err, my beloved brethren." Our tender, loving, merciful, compassionate and gracious God knows that we need to dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of perfection that we would not allow ourselves to appease elements of the flesh such as those listed above, or more importantly, those listed in His Word: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Galatians 5: 19-21)
And thank God also that we are truly new creatures and our new nature produces a completely different output: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Galatians 5: 22-25) In simple terms, it comes down to this: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5: 16)
And here is the bottom line, brothers and sisters. We don't serve a half-way God. He's the best at everything He does. When He saved you, He didn't do it half-way. He fully saved you with the understanding that there is a spiritual growth process that is involved in our salvation. Remember, where there's no growth, there's no life. He cleaned you up but sometimes we begin to pick things back up as the flesh wants to reestablish itself as a dominant force in your life. Unfortunately these "things" can be very problematic as we see in John's Revelation vision statement to the church in Ephesus, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." (Revelation 2: 4-5)
Such a sobering warning but also such great advice on protecting our eternal inheritance. So be encouraged dear ones, even though this life is trying to beat you up, crush you to dust, aggravate you to no end and tempt you down the road to destruction. Again, James 1: 16 says, "Do not err, my beloved brethren." And though we sincerely seek not to err and are passionately in pursuit of perfection, we know there is only one perfect One. 1 John 2: 1 puts it like this … "My little children, these things I write to you, that you sin not. And if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous!” And so I say with the greatest of confidence and joy unspeakable, if God is for us, who can be against us? Case closed.
God made no mistake when He made you. You were created to glorify Him and that's just what we intend to do. Both individually and collectively. "I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." (Psalm 139: 14) "O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together." (Psalm 34: 3)
May God bless you abundantly in all areas of your life and may your desire to worship the Creator of the universe and His beloved Son in spirit and in truth be continually increased.
Now, if you can, get to a quiet place in God's presence, put on some headphones, close your eyes and be blessed by this week's song of worship as it returns you to where it all began.