Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Satanic Wiles Pt.5

Let's turn to Ephesians. We want to continue taking our look at the armor of God, the preparation of our hearts in this war that we're involved in. There are so many different aspects as we realize that the armor in this study is needing to be seen as character, as a lifestyle, and not as something that you can jump up and slap on in the morning as you're running out the door. We talked about the need every morning to rise up and deal with our tendencies-what we would call "the sin in our members" with Biblical accuracy, or "besetting sins" that so many of us are aware of in our own lives-to wake up every morning and recognize that this is going to have to be confronted again today. It's not gone. It didn't go away when you were sleeping. We're going to have to confront it another day. Because of that, to encourage ourselves in the Lord and in the power of His might. The whole word of the apostle to us here is to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. The strength is in the Lord. We wake up and we realize the same problems, the same sin in our members is there. We just wake up and say, "Jesus, I just thank You that Your grace is sufficient and that Your blood is effectually working in my life. If I, according to 1 John, will walk in the light, acknowledge what it is and my dependency upon You, if I'll walk in the light as You're in the light, I'll have communion and Your blood will continually cleanse me from all of my sin." That's how we start the day, just recognizing our dependence upon the Lord. That, beloved-the recognizing of our dependence, the need to be strong in the Lord and not in our own abilities is what the armor is all about. That's what begins to equip us for the day at hand, recognizing how important it is continually to let the character of Christ be found in us.

‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, [verse 10] and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore [since you're not warring flesh and blood] take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

We have been talking about that warfare and the need every day to recognize again the sin that's in our members, who we are. Have you come to grips, as we asked the other night, with who you really are? Are you conscious of all of these things that are natural to you? Since they are natural to you, they can only be overcome by the supernatural. Since the tendencies are natural to you, they can only be overcome by the supernatural. The things that are natural are those things that we do without thinking. It's just second-we call it-nature to us-the things that are learned. They say once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget. Some of us haven't ridden bikes for years and years, and we find out that's true. You can jump on there and zoom! There you go. You may not have the endurance you used to have. That's why they made fifteen speed bikes.

You remember back when we were kids, you had one speed bikes. Those were pretty interesting. We were some of the first kids in our neighborhood to have what was called back in those days the English racing bikes, the first ones with the skinny tires. It was a little three-speed thing and we had some of those. We were dominant. We were top ending everybody. You just begin to realize that here you are all these years later. It had been years and years and years and years since I'd ridden a bike. A few years back we bought one of those mountain bikes. No sweat. You just jump on that baby and take off-second nature to you. You don't ever forget. What about typing? You just don't forget how to type. You sit down and all of a sudden tap tap-you start typing. You may not be quite as proficient as you used to be. I can still type, but I make a lot more mistakes than I used to make before I had secretaries when I had to do all of my own typing. I used to type over seventy words a minute and was a pretty good typist. I can still type, but I've noticed that my mind wanders a lot and I make a lot more mistakes than I used to. But I can still type. Second nature. You do these things without thinking.

Those of us that have trained our bodies in athletics and different things, it's there. You can still do it. Not as proficiently as you used to, but it's second nature. That's what sin is in our members. The thing I want you to understand is that it's second nature, because first nature is now we've become partakers of what? The divine nature. As a believer, my desire and what's precious to me, the thing that's the treasure, my first nature, is the pursuit of God, Christlikeness. Why is it then that so often the second nature seems to manifest itself? We're going to find out that it's because of a lack of preparation and attention to that new nature. When we're born again, what happens? When you and I are born again the sin doesn't leave, does it? We talked about that this morning. It's a thing that many of us need to come to grips with. Just because you're born again and spirit filled doesn't mean that all of those sin tendencies have left you. They're all there waiting, just waiting, to be freed. But what happens? We become a new creation. Old powers pass away. Old things pass away. All things become new, under new authority and leadership of Jesus in our lives. We now have a new treasure. The things we used to hate we now love. The things we used to love we now hate. There's a new direction and a new appetite that comes within us. Just because of that new empowering doesn't mean that the old tendencies aren't there. They're there. We all know it, and they have to be recognized. That's what we've been doing these last couple of sessions is to try to get every one of you to identify, as we've gone through some of these key points in people's lives, some of the great men of God's lives, to identify and say, That's something that I really recognize in my own life.

Tonight we're going to talk a little bit about how to deal with these things. But you can't deal with them until you recognize them. We were talking about all of those different aspects. We talked some about the women's tendencies today. We were talking about that aspect of manipulation and flatteries and all of those different things that become part of the womanly wiles. Because, of course, men are so visually stimulated we realize that one of the things-I wasn't going to talk about this, I was put up to this by my wife and my daughter, so I'll talk about it a little bit. I listen to their feminine input. My feminine side is short. I try to get in touch with it, and I usually have to call Janet. We were talking about that aspect of manipulation and the womanly wiles and the tendencies of men, that they're visual. They said, You need to talk a little bit about modesty. With what's going on in our society today and as the trends, the fashions we've begun to see in our day we're dealing with materials like lycra. As the fad becomes shorter skirts and these particular materials, we need to realize that as Christians, we need to recognize the need of modesty in our lives, especially among the body of Christ.

One of the things that's not lycra and it's not miniskirts, but that I'd like to speak toward one of these things also. They said that I needed to speak toward this, so I'll give you some of the things that have been spoken of in our pastor's meetings more so than in the deacon's meetings, but among the pastors. One of the things even more so than the real short skirts and stuff is that the women here, you need to put a watch over the jeans that you wear because jeans can be even more revealing and stimulating to those men that are visual than a dress is. When you've been poured into-when you're pants look like they've been sprayed on you then you're causing people trouble. You're causing your brothers in Christ potentially stumbling because of your desire to be cute. To you it may just be cutesy but you have to understand the effect that it has from the visual perception of the male. I want to talk about the responsibility, a little bit, of the husbands and the fathers to speak toward these things. Men, you know. The problem is, most of you look at your daughters as still little two-year old toddlers. I want to tell you something; other men are not looking at your daughters that way. As soon as you get that vision, you're not going to let them run out of the house like some of you do. I'm not just talking about daughters, I'm talking about wives. Some of you, your wives don't do anything for you anymore so you don't pay attention. Something should be done about that. Your wife ought to be the desire of your heart and you ought to pay attention. When your wife leaves the home and they-I know it's dangerous, men, to answer "How do I look? Do you like this?" You go, "Not that one again. I can't lie." It's hard, but at the same time realizing the need to speak into your wife's situation again, because so often the pressures, the fashions don't always understand how the male operates. It's important to take that into consideration. Men, I want to encourage you in that.

Let's just look at a couple of Scriptures real fast. We're not going to spend a lot of time on this tonight, but since I was given some input on this I am going to listen and follow the counsel that I was given and speak toward it. The classic passages that we want to deal with are 1 Timothy 2 and the 1 Peter 3 passage. As you begin to look at these, I think it's important to realize again, men, that though much of this is spoken to our sisters in the body of Christ, you are responsible. Men, you are responsible in these areas.

First Timothy chapter 2, verse 9, "In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works." We talked about all the tendencies to manipulate and to be able to entice and use this power for control or to draw attention to yourself when in fact, what ought to be drawing attention to you is the meek and quiet spirit. There should be the definite exhibiting of a woman showing forth, verse 10 says, good works or a life of holiness. Look what it emphasizes here. I want you to see what the emphasis is. It says to be careful that you are adorned in modest apparel with soberness and don't give the credibility to hair, gold, pearls, or attire to be that which attracts attention. Let it be the working of the Holy Spirit, or as Peter says in 1 Peter 3:1 that there is to be that perceiving of your chaste living. 1 Peter 3:1, the perception of that chaste lifestyle, that which makes you attractive and that which is seductive to your husbands, the fact that you're walking in obedience. It's so important to understand those aspects of walking in the spirit where there wouldn't be any of the tendencies to let the world's methods begin to be expressed in your life.

One thing that I think is interesting, as I've tried to learn from a lot of the natural tendencies in the world today- I usually try to catch all of the programs that are done on the Learning Channel that have to deal with the-there's a series that was called "The Human Animal"-trying to see how the natural mind is working today. What it is that's being perceived by the world's wisdom and what it is that's motivating, in their perception, man. Some very interesting things that science has found that the Scriptures have always taught us. One of the things that I've noticed is this; there's the natural tendencies that are within men. For years we've heard it spoken of concerning the visual motivation, that men are moved and stimulated visually and that women by touch and the caressing and the tenderness and the security and all of these different things. We've been told that for years, but the fact of the matter is that within each of us there are all of these same tendencies. The one that's more natural to man, though, in our generation is being fed into women. Because of our sociological pressures, women are becoming more visual. Women are becoming more aggressive. Women are becoming less meek and quiet and many of these different things. That's something that's being lauded and lifted up. These are made out to be successful, strong types of individuals. The tendencies are there in your lives. You are being tempted and told, this is what you're supposed to be like. The Scripture says it's just the opposite. You're to be meek. You're to be of a quiet spirit, the Scripture says. It's very important for us to find the balance in these things that can become a snare to you.

The Timothy passage, turn back there for just a second to 1 Timothy 2. As you read through this particular passage, I think it's interesting to see that we're called here to make sure that there is the women's role of learning, verse 11, in silence and with subjection, and that the head of the woman is the man. That has to do, beloved, not just in the aspects of the domestic realm. It has to do also in helping to set standards here for this behavior. Men, you know what it is that affects you visually. How can you then allow your wife to dress that way? How is it that you can allow her to leave in a way that would cause other men to lust after her? We're not talking about people that are necessarily-could lust after anything. They could lust after a light pole. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the fact that these things are put before individuals.

Janet commented to me the other day. She said that she came into service and just sat in the back. She was coughing and didn't want to disturb. She said, "So I just sat in the back. During worship, I noticed I was standing there and I was among a number of people. I happened to look and there was a young lady in front of me with some Levi's on that were maybe a size and a half too small." She wasn't really involved that much in the worship but was kind of fidgeting and moving around [hips wiggling]. She began to think; I wonder what this is doing to these men that are standing beside her trying to worship God. The words of the songs that they are singing, visually one song that might come to mind would be cheek to cheek if any of you can remember that old song. I just want to let you know that is not right, to bring that into the house of God and to cause a brother to possibly be stumbled or offended by this. Men, you have no business letting your daughters leave your home that way. It's very important for us to understand. We're talking about disciplining ourselves and bringing the flesh under and that responsibility that is ours. I want you to understand something, there's enough of that to deal with out in the secular. It shouldn't have to be dealt with in the house of God. Everybody said, "Amen."

You think, "These are Christians. They shouldn't do that." Get a life. Don't you understand that we've just given you the Biblical examples of some of the greatest men of God? It's within men. "What's wrong with these men anyway?" Ladies, what is it that's wrong with these guys? How many of you ladies have ever thought that, "What is wrong with these guys? Dear Lord, I can't even walk out of the house and some guy is eyeballing me? What is that all about? What caused that?" It's the mechanism of God gone awry. God, having made man to replenish the earth-that which we would call the sex drive-that's within man and that which would give man that motivation instead of just laying on the couch so that there could be procreation. The whole thing is called "testosterone."

When ladies get into menopause and different things begin to happen, many times in menopause or after some type of a hysterectomy, they can balance out the insanity with estrogen. Many times the libido is not functioning. My sister-in-law was sharing with us when we were on the cruise. She said, "After my hysterectomy, I had absolutely no libido, zero. It's just the opposite how I was prior." So what do they do? To help these ladies out, they give them estrogen to keep them from killing everybody and then they give them one little drop of testosterone. Boop. They go, "Ahhhh. I'm back." Men are carrying gallons of this stuff around, and you wonder what the problem is. I hope that explains it for some of you. I'm not going to become any more involved in it than that. It's no excuse for men's yielding to the power to fulfilling the lust or even entertaining the lust, but what I'm here to tell you is that it is an ever present power that has to be contended with. I would just like to tell some of you ladies to maybe have a little more compassion for those that are dealing with this than you might have before, and pray and believe God, not making excuses. There's no reason to subordinate to that power any more than there is to hatred and covetousness, but it is a very powerful force. It is ever present, and it cannot for any moment be given place or it will bring us into the cycle called by James-that cycle, that power, that flaming wheel of lust and temptation to where every man is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. It's a very important thing to deal with these principles we're going to share here next to keep yourself safe from the physical. We talked about the worldly ambitions and the success syndrome of Lot and all of those different things and every one of these is overcome with the same methodology. The whole Biblical principle is this: walk in the spirit and you will not what? Fulfill the lust of the flesh. Okay, we can go home. That's the answer. There's the bottom line.

The problem is that many of us try to deal with the flesh. You can try to practice different forms of physical asceticism like the monks did. Of course, they would beat themselves and try to bring the flesh into subjection and they would lock themselves away in monasteries to deal with some of these natural tendencies. Here they are lusting after women and so they lock themselves away in a monastery so they don't have to see any women, and they end up in homosexuality. Bad move. I started to say something...yeah I'll say it anyway. If you're going to go down, at least do it naturally. The Scripture makes it very clear, that's not natural. Get out of here. Tragically, what is that? Many of us are aware of the tragic occurrences within the monasteries and convents. We know the stories that come out of that. It's tragic. What makes it so sad is that it's the consequence of natural effort to control the flesh. You try to control it, and you end up worse because you cannot control it. You have to reckon it dead through the lordship of Jesus Christ. It's obvious. We all know the answer, but we have to understand the workings of this thing. What is the answer to this really? We're talking about our victory over the flesh is in direct correlation to our pursuit of God. We saw that Samson got in trouble. David got in trouble. All of these guys got in trouble when they weren't in hot pursuit of God. You can't be in hot pursuit of God and end up in these circumstances. It's always when we're giving the flesh ease. It's always when-Samson wasn't lusting after people when the spirit was upon him and he was ripping the gates off the city and taking them away. It's when he was just out casually strolling around and scoping out everything that he got in trouble. Pray without ceasing, the Scripture tells us. We realize that we're to give no place to the devil. Shun the very appearance of evil. Flee youthful lusts. That doesn't mean that will be the force that conquers it. It means that you're going to, then, in doing those things, it's indicating that you're pursuing God. You're seeking first the kingdom of God, His righteousness, and all of those other things that pertain to life and godliness in Christ Jesus are being added unto us. Don't worry about trying to overcome the problem, just answer the question "How hot is my pursuit of God?" Just turn up the pursuit of God. Just spend more time in prayer and fasting and study of the Scriptures than you would spend catering to yourself. We all know that we can't all spend full time doing that as we're out about our vocations and stuff, but we also know that we have time for what we really desire. Your desires are taking you in the direction, your heart's desires are taking you in the direction of your treasure, of your god-whatever it might be. All the while there are these natural tendencies that are going to have to be dealt with.

There's going to be the rising up, just plain old physiological. I wasn't going to get into the physiological any more, but I'll just make this statement: Just the plain old physiological, it doesn't have to be stimuli or whatever. We all know that there are certain times of the month when women feel sexier. They've done tests on this. They've absolutely proven that at certain times women either begin to dress a little more provocatively, they have more of a tendency to flirt, or whatever. It has to do with this cycle. Men are like that all the time. You want to know the funny thing about men? Let me tell you something about men. Men think about and talk about a whole lot more than they do. "I'm tired, too tired. I'm just tired. Be right with you, honey. It's the fourth quarter." Whatever. One of the things that will get them moving is forbidden fruit. All of those nasty things that are within us that everybody knows is there that people don't like to talk about, but it's where we live.

What are you going to do about some of these things? We'd like to really let it be seen that all that we do in the midst of the body is just because we're such a servant's heart. We're trying to either earn favor with God; we're trying to-"I've got to deal with the guilt complex if I say no." I really don't want to do it, but I have to do it because if I don't then what will they think and what will I think about myself? I won't feel good." All of this stuff, and we're nasty. We're ugly people. We're selfish. It expresses itself in many different ways, but you're only going to be able to put the armor on when you recognize that and you can say, "Okay, but I'm tired of it dominating my life. I recognize who I am without Him, but I have Him."

Now where does that lead us? The Scripture says that there are many different ways. Some of it has to do with whom you begin to hang out with. Proverbs 1:10 says that when sinners entice you consent thou not. In other words, don't hang out with people that are going to be trying to get you to do stuff you shouldn't be doing, even things that-we won't get into the detail of disputable matters-but things that may be alright for them to do that can be harmful to you. You might not be needing to spend more than twelve or thirteen hours a day at the mall. You might not be able to go see more than a "Double G" rated movie. You can't handle it. Come to grips with that. Deal with it. Tragically-I want to share something with you-the majority of us, no probably all of us can't handle as much as we think we can. It's very important for us to recognize the enemy's tactics. It's very, very important whom we hang out with. Be followers of those who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises of God.

The Scripture makes it very clear. Look over at Ephesians for just a moment, chapter 4, verse 26. It says that we're not to give place to the devil. Don't give any place to him. What's that talking about? Ephesians 4:26. If you look at the context here, it starts at verse 23 that we want to begin to put it all together. Actually, it's hard to jump into this one. Even at verse 20 you see that it says you're learning Christ, you're learning a new behavior: the lordship of Jesus. "That ye put off concerning the former conversation [lifestyle] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." There's the Biblical description of your motivation without the Holy Spirit, the lordship of Jesus. The old man is corrupt according to the what? Deceitful lusts. Lust that works that we're not even aware of. We're deceived by thinking I'm not that bad of a person, or whatever. Most people don't even realize how vile they are as it pertains to the holiness of God. In our society, we know that there are people among us that are much more moral outwardly than others. Sometimes some of the most moral outward people are some of the most vile, God-haters internally. They're so proud of their own behavior and their own philosophy on life that they mock God. They're a stench in His nostrils. "I thank God that I'm not like this publican," that self-righteousness that just nauseates the heart of God. The fact of the matter is scripturally, guilty of one, guilty of all. When you understand that principle, it helps you really be able to deal with self.

The Scripture speaks of how vile this old man is, so full of self. He says, verse 23, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." That's how you don't give place to the devil. You put on the new man. Put on. There's involvement here on your part. There's something that you have to do. You have to actively realize that this is something that we can embrace and can become the dominant force in our lives. "...the new man created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil." This giving place, of course, that we speak of here is thinking that you're an entity unto yourself. The context is talking about how you relate to the body of Christ. Speak truth to your neighbor. Don't be angry with one another. How do you relate many of these different things? It's going to be other people's perception and input into your life that will cause you to see yourself more objectively to where these deceitful lusts, the deceitfulness of sin isn't able to keep you in bondage. We see this admonition to give no place to the devil by becoming isolated and keeping ourselves from the input of those that are around us. We'll give no place to the devil when we see the requirement of putting on Christ, that new man created in righteousness and true holiness.

What does the Scripture say over in James chapter 4? Look over there. James chapter 4, verse 7, a passage that we're familiar with-we're talking practically. How do you do this thing? What do I do to allow my pursuit of righteousness and true holiness to begin to manifest fruit of walking in the spirit so that I don't fulfill the lust of the flesh? James 4:7, how many times do we hear, "Resist the devil! Resist the devil! Resist him and he'll flee from you."? Look what surrounds that phrase in the Scriptures. Look at it. "God resisteth, [verse 6] the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." What is true Biblical humility? "Submit yourselves therefore to God." Humble submission to God is the prerequisite of resisting the devil. There is no resisting the devil without humility and without submission to God. You can't resist the devil to affect your own will. You can't replace the devil's will with yours. It can only be replaced with what? The will of God. As long as what you're trying to do is of yourself and it's not of God, then who is it of? The devil. There are only two kingdoms. You're not a kingdom. You're not a recognized power on the planet. You're either for God or against Him. You have God for your father or you have the devil for your father. You're part of the kingdom of light or you're part of the kingdom of darkness. Which kingdom are we representing? Which kingdom are we feeding into? "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God," [and what does the Scripture say?] "and he will draw nigh to you." So if God is not drawing nigh unto us, if we're being defeated consistently, then look what the Scripture says down in verse 10. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall [what?] lift you up." Here we find that if we're not being lifted up into places of victory, and we're talking about habitual victory, then what is it that's lacking in our lives? Humility. What is trying to control the flesh in our own power? What is that? Pride. What's walking in the spirit? Humility.

It doesn't have to do with how hard we're trying, it has to do with how effectually we're submitting. It doesn't matter if what's controlling you is sexual lust, material covetousness, the recognizable pride of accomplishments, whatever they might be. It all sends you to hell. It doesn't matter which category. There has to be the humility, the denial of self. Don't focus on the specifics, focus on the general question, Is my heart yielded to God? Am I really hungry for the lordship of Jesus? Is there an appetite to know more about Him? Are we pressing toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? What turns you on? Where is your treasure? What's motivating you right now? The money? The material things that are consequences of it? The position? The recognition? Some people just like the titles. You go into McDonald's and everybody is assistant manager. You say, Can I see the manager? That's a mistake. The guy that's bagging the fries is just the Fry Bagger. He gets $.89 an hour, and the assistant manager gets $.89 an hour, and the manager gets $.90 an hour. I don't know what these people make. I don't eat there. The point I'm making is that you don't even have to give people a raise, just give them a title-"Assistant Manager." Then it's, "You Fry Packer." This pride of this title now, I've achieved preeminence.

If you look throughout society there is a pecking order, isn't there? It's natural to man. When we were on the ship I was watching and I was trying to see the pecking order. It was interesting to watch the different deck hands as opposed to those who were working as cabin stewards. You had Assistant to the Assistant Waiter, then the Assistant Waiter, then the Head Waiter, then the Sectional Maitre d', and then the Bi-sectional Maitre d', and the different things. You watch all of this stuff work and it was a microcosm of society, and you could see the pecking order. It's just cool to watch how man, what's in man and his desire to just be over somebody else and so many times oblivious to how big the world is. They're just above those guys, and they are taking it for all it's worth. It's what's in man. Sad. When you study humanity and you can begin to identify these things it all begins to be dealt with, beloved, by our love of God. The Galatians 5 passage of walking in the spirit-walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If the flesh in any area, whatever it might be-all of these things that we've talked about, even the acceptable things in society. We talked about some of the more unacceptable, the taboos, the nasty, ugly, dirty things. You look at all of that. The Bible doesn't distinguish. Guilty of one, guilty of all. Whatever area it might be-the moral self-righteous individual or the amoral, those that people in society just realize need to be destroyed as God’s word declares-it all has to be dealt with by the same procedure of submitting ourselves to the lordship of Jesus. If it's the smallest thing or the largest thing, but it is habitually dominating your life, then the conclusion that has to be drawn is this: I'm not walking in the spirit, I don't have on the armor of God. This thing has gotten control of my life. If I walk in the spirit I will not be under the power of the flesh. This pride-whatever it is that I take pride in. That's a whole other ballgame.

It cracks me up what people can take pride in. We were in Africa and we saw this guy. This guy, they travel on some of these bicycles, and to see the different-this dude was sportin'. He had something that looked like one of those old Schwinn bikes. You remember the ones that had the thing in the middle that some of them had batteries and the horn. This guy had one of those things, but the cool thing was it had graphics painted on it. This guy somewhere had to have seen a hot rod magazine or something. This bicycle had mirrors on it, and it had-do you all remember when you were kids and you'd put cards on your spokes? Rat, tat, tat, tat, tat-and you had your little motor. This was an adult riding this thing. This dude, I can't remember everything, but this guy was sportin'. He was just looking at everybody like, "I am the baddest dude in town," but just down the road is a guy's Mercedes-one of the shop owners, an Indian. The Indians-I don't mean Tonto, I'm talking about from India-they control a lot of the economy in that particular area. This dude is oblivious to that Mercedes. He's got his bike, his Red Ryder wagon and Schwinn bike and whatever it is, and he is just sportin' and looking down at everybody that doesn't have a bicycle and those that do that don't have it decked out. He is a bad dude. What does that tell you about human nature? Oblivious that there's more out there. Bound in his heart, so proud of what he has, and you and I would look at it and kind of chuckle. I wouldn't haul the thing off for junk. It's what's in man, it's in every one of us. I want to share with you that some of you and the pride that you take in all that you have and in the scope of the big picture you're just like that guy with his little bike. Those that take pride in your intellect, and in the scope of things you've got a little pea brain. How proud we are of our great accomplishments in the physical and our golf game and then there's Jack Nicklaus. Pride is so powerful and so deceptive that we don't even many times recognize in our hearts what has us bound. Whatever it is, it is an indicator that you're not walking in the spirit.

So what do we do? Practically-this will be the last for tonight. We'll pick up some more on Wednesday as we look at the practical aspects. One of the things that we do in 1 Peter 2:11 is we abstain from fleshly lusts. We need to learn how to say "no" to the things that we know can harm us, that we are most susceptible to. There's no weakness in recognizing your weakness, it's strength. To be able to recognize it and say, "Well, I'm going to go down to that ice cream shop and live. I'm moving in down there. I'm just going to show that spirit of Hagen Daaz that it has no power over me." That has to be a demonic name: Hagen Daaz. "I'm going to show that thing that it doesn't have any power over me. I'm not going to show any weakness by trying to abstain from that thing. I'm just going to go take it head on." Is that a spirit of humility? The Scripture says to abstain. There can be a time when we have to confront and deal and express deliverance in our areas, but what I want you to see is that it's not the initial method of bringing defeat. The defeat comes when you humble yourself before the Lord, you submit to God in the pursuit of walking in the spirit. Then you can resist the devil and he will flee from you. There's a time in knowing when you're free and knowing in spiritual humility when you can deal with those things. Not like those twelve step things: "Hi. My name's Bob. I'm a chocoholic." We're not talking about that, but they're on the right path when they understand that in our members there is still sin and we can't ever deny that. We can come and say, "I used to be a chocoholic, and I would be again except I'm just too busy pursuing God. I just receive so much gratification out of pleasing God and seeing fruit that's eternal being manifested that I just can't be satisfied by pleasing self anymore. I can now have a Hagen Daaz chocolate milkshake." Richard is gone. I was going to help him out-extra thick with extra chocolate syrup with chocolate sprinkles with "Do you have any hot fudge?" We have a meeting Tuesday and Richard isn't going to miss it, I know, because the guy that's coming to meet with us is named Mr. Hershey. We told Richard not to tell him, "I own stock in your business." It's not that guy. When you can begin to recognize, then you can cope with it. There will be a time when you can again eat that ice cream cone, but if it is what is robbing you from the glory of God right now, if it's the thing that's causing you to lack that fruit of the spirit, if it's the thing right now that grieves your heart, then how can you look to it for satisfaction rather than the presence of God? The thing that you know, in the inner man, alone can satisfy. It's time to step back, be quiet and identify your treasure, the course of your life, where your real values lie.

Father, we thank You for the word of God. We just ask that You would help us practically to understand this walk in the spirit and that it's not some kind of mystical power that just happens to rise up in us. It's a decision. It's doing something about it. It's making provision now for yielding our members unto righteousness. We begin to commit ourselves to those that are around us to serve. We commit ourselves to prayer and study. Not just in a commitment to You, but one that involves the body of Christ, one that involves those overseeing me to speak into those areas to where I can begin to build a new life of habitual pursuit. We know in our natural beings that habits can be formed in as little a month. It can change the course of our lives, and we can be reprogrammed. In the spirit, Father, we understand that those are the same principles that as we habitually partake of Your presence and the word of God, it becomes the habitual thoughts of our heart and our minds. Your words become our words. If that's lacking, Father, if these other tendencies that we've spoken of seem to be preeminent, then we're not walking in the spirit. Help us to make a decision today for a course leading to the righteousness of God and true holiness. For it, we'll give You the glory, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary begins to play for us and we look at all of the things that make up our daily activities in our lives, do you have the armor on? The armor is walking in the spirit. Don't see it as something you can do separately and say, "Today I'm getting up and I'm going to put on the armor." If you're not walking in the spirit, there is no armor. Put on the new man. That's the armor, the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. What are we putting on? What occupies time and energy in our lives? We'll see as we go on in the study Wednesday that when has it gone way too far? God's grace carries us through a lot of the peripheral skirmishes and battles, and He causes us to live even though the shield may be down or the breastplate is missing. He causes us by His grace to survive, but when do we become vulnerable? As His Holy Spirit deals with our hearts and conviction becomes a reality, and then you willfully choose at the cost of the glory of God to gratify yourself, then we rise up and shake ourselves and the spirit has left us and we didn't even know it. The cost can be grave. We can weep bitterly and yet the birthright is gone. We can cry out to you, but our eyes have already been blinded and in the midst of a people that do only that which is right in their own eyes, we-as one of the great judges, Samson- now have to be replaced. Grave consequences. The fact that you're not dead doesn't mean you have your armor on it just shows that God's merciful. Being alive is not proof that the armor is on, it's proof that God loves you and is longsuffering. We want to glorify you, Father. We want to humble ourselves that You might be glorified in us. Let's sing this together and just worship Him tonight. Let Him speak to your heart.

"Change my heart, oh God". Just worship Him. Just take a moment and worship Him and thank Him for His mercy and His grace to us. Thank Him that He sees us in the finished product of the blood of Jesus Christ. He sees us already righteous in Jesus. He sees us mature. He sees the work complete. At the same time, we have to make momentary decisions to let it work in us. Cause the work to be effectual in us. Help us to glorify Your name, Jesus. We do glorify You, Lord.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print