The Root Issue of the Problems of Life

Transcript

GRM 807
9/15/2002
The Root Issue of the Problems of Life
James 1:13-18
Gil Rugh

You can turn in your Bibles to the book of James, Chapter 1 if you would. We talked recently about the battle we are in with the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies, Satan and his demonic hosts, fallen angelic beings, at war with God and the people of God. God’s provision for us in that war is the completeness of His armor that we might stand firm in that conflict. But that’s not really the basic battle we have, we would not minimize its importance and intensity. But the real issue that we as believers battle today is not a battle with the devil, but it is a battle with our own internal, sinful desires. I think there is a danger as we move away from serious scriptural doctrine that we lose sight of the root issue in all of mankind’s problems is the issue of sin. It’s not the devil, it’s not the world around us, it is our own innate sin. With the people of God, God has provided deliverance and victory, but it is still necessary for us to avail ourselves of His strength and power and deal with sin as a hated enemy, and the foe to be avoided.

I’ve recommended to you J. C. Ryle’s book, Holiness, upon different occasions, a work that was written and I think first published in 1879. I tell you that as I read to you, you see some of his concerns sound like they’re very current and present. He’s dealing with this issue of the origin of our sin, where the problems come from. “Concerning the origin and source of this vast moral disease called sin, I must say something. I fear the views of many professing Christians on this point are sadly defective and unsound. I dare not pass it by. Let us then have it fixed down in our minds that the sinfulness of man does not begin from without, but from within. It is not the result of bad training in early years, it is not picked up from bad companions and bad examples as some weak Christians are too fond of saying. No. It is a family disease which we all inherit from our first parents, Adam and Eve, and with which we are born.” I’m not reading consecutively here. “The fairest baby that has entered this life this year and become the sunbeam of a family is not, as its mother perhaps fondly calls it, a little angel or a little innocent, but a little sinner. Alas, as it lies smiling and crowing in its cradle, that little creature carries in its heart the seeds of every kind of wickedness. Only watch it carefully as it grows in stature and its mind develops, and you will soon detect in it an incessant tendency to that which is bad and a backwardness to that which is good. You will see in it the buds and germs of deceit, evil temper, selfishness, self-willed, obstinacy, greediness, envy, jealousy, passion, which if indulged and let alone will shoot up with painful rapidity. Who taught the child these things? Where did he learn them? The Bible alone can answer these questions. Of all the foolish things that parents say about their children there is none worse than the common saying, my son has a good heart at the bottom. He is not what he ought to be, but he has fallen into bad hands. Public schools are bad places, the tutors neglect the boy, yet he has a good heart at the bottom. The truth unhappily is diametrically the other way. The first cause of all sin lies in the natural corruption of the boy’s own heart and not in the school.”

Sounds a little bit current, doesn’t it? Even believers fly into the thinking, the real problem with my kids is what others have done or are doing to them. The real problem with your kids is what you’ve done to them. You passed on your fallen nature to them, and you got it from your parents, and it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve.

In James, Chapter 1, James deals with the problem of sin, and there is no passage any clearer anywhere in all of scripture that anchors and displays clearly what the problem is in our lives. It’s not other people, it’s not our friends, it’s not the school or the environment, it’s not the way we were raised, it’s not that you were poor or that you were rich, it’s not that you weren’t loved enough, or you were loved too much, and on it goes. We always want to look at something outside ourselves, and that’s the reason we’re not good, we’re not what we ought to be. We see people whose children tragically as it is had committed a horrible crime. What’s the first thing the parents say? He’s a good boy, he wouldn’t do something like that. Even we as believers have some thoughts that our kids are exceptionally good, and if they hadn’t been corrupted by the schools or something else. The reality of the scripture is, it’s sin. The problem is internal not external.

Now Ryle is not saying, nor am I, that external influences don’t play a part in fanning the flames of our inherent sinfulness. Evil companions do corrupt good conduct, not because evil companions make you sin, but evil companions play upon and draw out those evil desires. So, it is with outside influences. But the root problem is not outside influences. You understand that there is coming an earthly kingdom called the Millennium that will be 1000 years in duration. That’s the first phase in the eternal kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule and reign. One of the things that will be demonstrated before all creation in that 1000 years is that the problem of mankind is not external, but internal. During that 1000-year period the devil and all of his host will be bound and not free to go about the world deceiving people. We’re right now in a spiritual battle with the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies, but during that 1000-year kingdom the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies will be bound. During that time there will be no problem with the environment, there will be a perfect King ruling over the earth in perfect righteousness. But you know after 1000 years of that kind of situation, the Book of Revelation, Chapter 20 tells us there will be a number like the sand of the sea, when given an opportunity to express themselves will attempt to overthrow Jesus Christ, the King of Righteousness, and enthrone the devil himself. Displaying what? The problem was not the devil, the problem was not the world and the environment. The problem is internal. You could have a baby born into the world today, you put him in a perfect environment with perfect parents, he would grow up to be a corrupted sinner because the problem is internal, not external.

The Book of James begins by talking about trials and difficulties, really. Verses 2-12 talk about the external kind of trials and difficulties that come into our lives, trials of all kinds. Verse 2 says, "count it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials," trials of whatever their nature, first being persecuted for your testimony, physical afflictions and difficulties, whatever the problems that come into your life. You can count it a joy because they are part of the plan of God in refining you and maturing you and preparing you for glory. We are to let endurance work its work of perfecting and completing us, we are told in verse 4. All leading us down to verse 12, "blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life." That’s what we anticipate, the glory of God’s presence. This is a crown God has promised to those who love Him. The trials that come into our life, that afflict us in a variety of ways, are part of God’s plan to put us through the fire of refining, to purify us and mature us, to prepare us for the glories of eternity that He has promised to those who love Him.

His emphasis in those verses has been primarily on trials that come against us from the outside. With verse 13 he says, "let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God." That word translated tempted, and that’s a good translation to give you the change that takes place, but it’s the same basic word as was translated trial in the first 12 verses. The first 12 verses he used the noun form of the word, in verse 13 he picks up with the verb form of that word, but they’re the same word. He’s talking on one side about the trials that afflict us from the outside, now he’s going to talk about the trial, really, that comes from within, that inner temptation. They connect together because often it is under pressure and under the trials and difficulties of life that we are pressured, if you will, to turn away from the Lord or to blame the Lord. We’ve seen this in some of the tragedies that have afflicted our country and you see people interviewed and they say I don’t want anything to do with God. In effect they’re blaming Him for something that has taken place.

What James wants to do beginning with verse 13 is draw our attention back to what is the root issue of the problems of life, and what about sin, and what part does God play in relationship to sin, even in the life of a child of God? Look at verse 13, "let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God." You know the first reaction that we have when we sin is to blame someone else. Someone else caused me to do it, it was the pressure they brought to me that made me do it. We talk about living in the day of victims, and everybody is a victim. But that’s just part and parcel of sin.

Turn back to the Book of Genesis, Chapter 3. Genesis, Chapter 3 records the first sin in the human race, not the first sin in creation because Satan has already rebelled against the Lord. But here’s the first sin among human beings. Adam and Eve have sinned, they have rebelled against God. God comes to the Garden of Eden and they’re hiding. Sin makes you uncomfortable with God, and God calls to them and then begins to talk to them. Down in verse 11, at the end of verse 11 He asks them," have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat?" You know how many times has this been played out? The guilt, your children, you tell them not to do something and you know they did it, so you call them to account. Did you eat the cookies I told you not to eat? Oh, my brother made me do it. Well, the man said to God, he didn’t say I didn’t do it. What did he say? "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." Nothing’s changed, has it? He didn’t have a brother, but he had a wife. There's only two people on the face of the earth. I sinned, I can’t be guilty, she did it. She made me do it, she gave it to me. What do you expect me to do? All right, God turns to the woman. The Lord says to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said I am guilty. No. The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." You know what we want to do? I’m a victim, it’s not my fault. You know God doesn’t deny that the serpent, the woman, everybody has their role, but nobody is excused.

God picks up with addressing the serpent and the judgment, punishment, that comes for his part. Then he backs up to the woman. The fact that the serpent was guilty, did that excuse you? No, here’s the punishment for your sin. The fact that the woman gave to the man, did that excuse the man? No, then God moved to tell the man what his punishment is for his sin. You see here the foundation is laid. When someone sins the first thing, they want to do is find someone else to be responsible. Its principle is clearly set out, we are accountable for our sin and will be judged accordingly. There’s also an intimation in Adam’s response. Look at verse 12, the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me." We’re going to pick up in James, Chapter 1, Verse 13, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I have been tempted by God." What does Adam say? God, it’s not my fault. You gave me the woman, and the woman gave me the fruit. I’m just a helpless victim in here. To you, giving me a woman who led me into sin.

Come back to James. You know we read accounts of other people’s sin and their reaction like that and from a distance it’s serious, but it almost has a humorous twinge because we’ve seen it repeated out like we said so many times in our families and our own situations and it continues on. Our children blame their siblings, or they blame their friends or somebody else in the neighborhood. Why? It’s not me. Even God is held responsible. Even we as believers sometimes try to mellow the seriousness of our sin by implying that some way God was involved in it. I mean after all, does not God cause all things to work together for good to those that love Him, the ones He has called? Even this sin will be used of God for good, and I can see good coming out of it already. You know I sinned and embezzled money from my employer, but you know what? When I got arrested, I had an opportunity to witness to the jailer and he got saved. So obviously it was God’s will that I steal the money so that I could witness to the jailer. Isn’t it amazing how God works? Now what are we really doing? Excusing ourselves for our sin and more than excusing ourselves, saying God was part of it. Really, I’m not guilty for my sin, I’m just carrying out the plan of God. That kind of thinking is not new. We think, oh things have gotten so bad, everybody wants to be a victim, nobody takes responsibility. It’s always been that way. There’s nothing new with sin.

Look at James, Chapter 1, Verse 13, "Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God." First thing you have to establish is the very character of God. God is not involved in sin in any way. Don’t say I am being tempted by God. There are two prepositions James could have used in the Greek language that we translate by, could have been translated by here. The one is hupo in English. It would have meant God has directly tempted me; He has been the one who is directly involved in this. James doesn’t use that. He uses another preposition, apo, and that means indirect involvement. Let no one say when he is being tempted, I am being tempted in any shape or form by God. In other words, it’s a denial that God is involved in any way in luring you to sin, not directly, not indirectly. He’s not even remotely involved in working to cause you to sin. So that wipes out that whole line of thinking. God is never going to be involved in sin.

Two reasons God cannot be tempted by evil. His very character: there is nothing in God that responds to evil. God finds no pleasure in sin; He is not drawn, there is nothing in His holy being that responds positively in any way to sin. He cannot sin. He sees sin as it is and there is nothing in God that responds to sin. He cannot be tempted by sin, lured to sin. The whole moral foundation of all creation is based on this premise of the goodness of God, contrary to the capricious gods that have been created by so many, you have a good side and an evil side and so on. The whole foundation for there being morality and so on, is rooted in the fact that there is a God who Himself is completely good. He is not temptable. This has implications, incidentally I think, in the issue of the peccability and impeccability of Christ, and could Christ have sinned, or no? I do not believe He could have sinned; it would be contrary to what He is in His very nature and being; that’s a different theological study.

God cannot be tempted, and He does not tempt anyone. He always acts consistent with His character. There is nothing in Him that responds to sin, and He does not lure anybody to sin. There is nothing that He would do to draw someone to sin. Tempting someone to sin would imply a pleasure or a delight or a satisfaction in sin, even a vicarious satisfaction. Remember Romans, Chapter 1, the last verse of Romans, Chapter 1 condemns those who find vicarious satisfaction in the sins of others. Condemns them not only for their sin but for finding pleasure in those who do such things. God doesn’t tempt anyone to sin, He’s never involved. So, stop thinking about it. Some of you are in situations now and your mind has already opened a door to that idea. It’s probably God’s will for you to do this wrong thing. I know normally the Bible says this would not be right, but I think I can see God’s purpose in my doing something that is contrary to His revealed will on this occasion. It’s a lie from the devil; it’s a lie from your own sinful heart. It never happens. If it does, God is a liar, and that means everything has collapsed. He tempts no one to sin. Now that cleans up the issues for you. If you’re involved in something now, can be in your family, can be in your job, can be in your personal private life, and you have soothed your conscience somewhat by telling yourself that this is part of God’s plan, and He is involved in this. Wrong. He is never involved in any way, directly or indirectly, in moving people to sin. Just doesn’t happen.

You’ll note the devil will not be blamed. We had a comic years ago who, part of his joke line where the devil made me do it. But you know that’s repeated again and again and again and again and again, isn’t it? If we don’t do it verbally, we think what? The devil, oh that devil, he made me do it again. It’s not true. The devil never made you sin. Now the devil can work to make it easier for you to sin, the devil can encourage you to sin. The devil can’t make you sin. You know it’s like you have the two brothers, they’ve been told not to eat the cookies. You catch them eating, and what’s the one say? He made me do it. But you didn’t see him down, his brother didn’t have him down on the floor cramming that cookie down his throat. He’s standing there chomping away. How did he make him do it? Well, he gave it to me. Adam and Eve, right? She gave it to me. Oh, she gave it to you? Well, how did it get into your stomach? How did she get it down there? You know what was involved? My will. Of course, she may have made it easier. There are a lot of people who will make it easier for me to sin, but there are no people who can make me sin. I want to make the step, if they make it easier for me to sin, therefore they made me sin. No. I’m still accountable. So, the devil didn’t make me do it, even though he is called the tempter. In I Thessalonians, Chapter 3, Verse 5 Paul says he was concerned that the tempter, the devil, would have led them astray from the truth. But that wouldn’t have removed their responsibility.

Look at verse 14. All right, if it’s not the devil, it's not God, what happens? "But each one," you ought to underline that, "each one." Sin is a personal, individual matter, and that was clearly seen in Genesis, Chapter 3. Each individual involved is personally dealt with by God and meted out punishment by God. "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." If you don’t have that verse marked or highlighted in your Bible, you really should. That tells you the root of all your problems. "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lusts." You know it’s a picture taken from fishing or hunting where you use a lure or a bait to attract someone and then entice them into taking the bait. Well, what happens here? "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." Yeah, but you don’t know what was there. Doesn’t matter. What turned me there? Some of you are fishermen, you know I am not, so any errors in the illustration, rack it up to what you know about my knowledge of fishing. But I think you use a lure. I went fishing once and they wanted me to put these squiggly worms on a hook, and it’s just not something for me. You know what? I’ve seen different lures; I never have been tempted to take a bite of any. But it’s a lure. Put it there for a fish and what happens? Hmmmm, looks good, entice, take hold; and what draws it out? It’s our lust. We say it was the lure. Well really, it’s my lust in me. You talk to people who have sinned, you say I’ve never even been tempted, I’ve never even been drawn, had an interest, I’ve never thought of doing that. But they did. You know you find, just like if you’re fishing for a certain kind of fish, I understand you use certain kind of lures, or if you’re going for another kind of animal you use another kind of lure to trap them and draw them in.

The devil knows where our flesh responds, and that’s where outside things come. You know for some people immorality is just something you’re drawn to. Other people it’s drugs and alcohol, other people it’s lying, other people it’s stealing, other people……and on you go. There are a variety of kinds of sins and we’re not all attracted to the same one. But the Puritans, as I’ve referred to on other occasions, had what they called bosom sins. Bosom sins are the sins you keep close to your heart, you really like those. You know there are certain sins I discard, and it won’t be a problem, I don’t care. But you know there are certain sins that have an appeal, they draw and attract. So, what happens? Each of us has our own lusts. The root is the same, we have a sin nature. At root we have a sinful desire, a sinful being in us, our sin nature, that capacity for sin. Given this circumstance, that, our lust moves us toward that particular thing. One person wouldn’t have any interest in being involved in sexual immorality, but they’ll cook the books at work and do all they can to steal and embezzle or whatever. You say why did they do that? Sex would be more fun. Someone says, sex? I could have money and do this, and someone else just likes to tell the lie, and on it goes. Where does it come from? Within. That’s why we all don’t do the same sins. The picture where each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust, his own lust. Each one by his own lust. Remember those two prepositions, direct and indirect involvement? God is not even indirectly involved in our sin, but here is the preposition hupa, by his own lust. You know what directly causes my sin? My own lust. Rooted down. Well, you don’t know the family situation I was raised in. That didn’t cause you to sin. You don’t know what happened here. Didn’t cause you to sin. You don’t know what my wife is like, you don’t know what my husband is like. Didn’t cause you to sin. Each one by his own lust.

Now we use the word lust today more commonly for sexual kind of immorality, but the word basically is used in the New Testament, it can have sexual connotations, it’s just that passionate desire for something. So don’t limit that here, well it’s talking about sexual lust here. We’re each one, by his own lust, those passions, those given the situation. It gives some examples down later in verses 19 and following -- anger, filthiness, wickedness, lack of humility. I mean there are a variety of kinds of sins that entangle us and snare us. Why did we go for it? My own lust. Part of that may sound discouraging. We think I don’t have anybody to blame but me, but it is liberating to know. It’s not what somebody else has done to me or is doing to me, it is my decision, as a child of God my decision before the Lord.

Look at verse 15. "Then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." There is a process set in motion. When I exercise my will, pursue my passion, indulge in sin, disobey God, rebel against God, refuse to do what God says, I start a process in motion. Now you can see how this is. Sometimes under pressure there are a variety of kind of trials that come into our life. Sometimes under those pressures and trials I decide I can’t take it anymore, I can’t do this anymore, and on we go. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Job had a variety of kind of trials that come into his life, very painful, very difficult, family kind of problems, losses, physical health, slanderous friends. None of that was an occasion for sin. Why? Because circumstances, situations and other people cannot make me sin. They can help facilitate my sin, my rebellion against God. Job demonstrates that. He refused to do what we might say would have come “naturally.” We look at people and say, I don’t blame them. I couldn’t live in that situation either, I couldn’t put up with that either. As though that excuses sin. In that situation I would have sinned too. Well, it’s just like Adam and Eve, they both sinned. At any kind of excuse, we’re going to stand before God and say, you know Lord I just want to say I’m with them, I would have done the same thing. I realize that it’s my decision, but once I make that decision, I start a process that I quickly have lost control of.

By God’s grace and His provision, I do not have to sin. But even as a believer, once I decide to sin things spiral quickly out of control. We usually think of the best outcome when we do the wrong thing. Well, this will be the result, and I think it will be better for this reason. Look what he says? Verse 15, "Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin." When you decide to pursue what your own lust has decided in this area of sin, what happens with lust that is pursued? It gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is accomplished, brings forth death. Now in this context, James doesn’t go into what about the difference between a believer and an unbeliever. In the context he’s talked about the life God has promised to those who love Him in verse 12, and the general principle of scripture is the wages of sin is death and all sinners are destined, not only to physical death, but to the second death which is torment in the lake of fire forever and ever. What about believers? How can you say sin when it is conceived gives birth to death? Well, there may well be that dimension. God disciplines His children. I Corinthians 11 says that some in the church at Corinth had died because they had not submitted to God in an area of their lives. So physical death may well be. There is a sin unto death, I do not say you should pray for that. People can persist in their sin, even as a believer, God may bring physical destruction to them.

There is always destruction, ruin brought by sin, and the deceitfulness of sin is that this sin will be the solution. Sometimes it’s what someone else is doing, and I think this sin will be the solution. Sin is never a solution; it always causes a greater problem; it quickly mushrooms out. Sin always causes conflict; it causes immediate conflict between the person and God because all sin is against God. Then it causes conflict to those who are around, who see that they’re doing the wrong thing. Pretty soon I’m upset and angry with God, with other Christians, then one thing leads to another, leads to another. Soon I turn my life into a turmoil. Why? They made me do it. No, they didn’t make you do it. I decided. Once I decided…………David decided he would sin with Bathsheba. He could have closed the shutters, jumped on his camel and rode out 50 miles in the desert. What did Joseph do when Potiphar’s wife tempted him? He just took off out the door, even if he had to leave his cloak. I can get another robe, I gotta get out of here. What did David do? Nobody will know, I’m the king, her husband’s gone. Before all is said and done what happens? There’s a dead husband, there’s a dead baby, David’s family is in turmoil, he’s going to have a dead son, Absalom. You say, who would have thought? It’s what sin does. It’s only a moment of pleasure, it’s only a decision, and you see what happens. It all comes back to who made him do it? Nobody.

I can be hard on other people’s sin, it’s mine I can’t. I always have reasons why my situation is unique, why this is different. I can even become a little bit testy if someone says it’s not that way. They don’t know what I’m going through, they don’t know what I’m in, they don’t know the first 12 verses of James. Perhaps God’s put you in that situation so that you can be the exceptional testimony, be refined in a way you could not otherwise be refined. Not saying the other person isn’t sinning. What others might do to you is not sin; that doesn’t mean you have to sin; I have to sin.

Note verse 16, ought to mark it. "Do not be deceived my beloved brethren." This is the way it is, don’t be deceived. "Every good thing bestowed, every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." He’s unchanging. There are no shadows in God, He doesn’t change, He doesn’t turn. "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be as it were the first fruits among His creation." He’s brought good things to us, He’s promised good things for us, including the crown of life of verse 12. Don’t be deceived. I say this because some of you were in the process of that deception now. I know, look at the sides, look around you. I’m a sinful being, too. You can’t pull anything over on me because I’m just like you. You know what, we like to deceive ourselves. Sometimes we want to be deceived and all we need is someone to tell us, ah, I think what you’re doing is okay. Sometimes it can be a good friend, sometimes a family member, sometimes it could be somebody we think knows the scripture and they’re going to say it’s okay. God’s not taking votes on this, folks. Sin is sin. It’s not okay. It’s okay, it’ll work out. It’s not okay, it won’t work out. By God’s grace you don’t have to do it. I say I’m going to stop it here. We get down the road and we get into turmoil and a mess, and we say, oh, God get me out of this. Lord, if you get me out of this, I’ll never do it again. You know like our kids, what are they doing? Weeping, say give me one more chance. So simple. If you just wouldn’t have made the decision to do the wrong thing you wouldn’t have to be in this turmoil. Don’t do it. Oh, there’s an allure out there, there’s some bait out there and I know I’d enjoy it. Know what the deceitfulness of sin is? It is pleasurable at first. Do you think David didn’t enjoy Bathsheba? I’ll bet he did. Don’t hear anybody disagree. Do you think, put in the broader context David would say it was worth it? Not on your life! Have to be careful, have to be careful. Sometimes we sin and nothing happens, and we think, well, you know I don’t think it’s so serious because I sinned and, you know, I enjoyed it, and I don’t think anything bad happened.

Just like you tell your child, don’t go into the street with your bike. They go out into the street with the bike, and you bring them back and say I told you don’t do it again. They say well, that wasn’t too bad and the ride down the hill was worth it. The next ride down the hill they get hit with a truck. Now that’s different. I wouldn’t have ridden down the hill if I had known I was going to get hit by the truck. See, we lose control. We don’t know. Do you think Adam would have eaten of the fruit of the Garden if he had known he was going to get kicked out of the Garden and life was going to become drudgery and turmoil? Do you think David would have indulged with Bathsheba if he knew the baby was going to die, he was going to have to murder her husband, his own son would go to war against him and have to be killed, and on it goes? No. We always look and see how this will be okay, if we think about it at all. James says think about the end, you’re making a decision to get on a road and that road has an end, and the end is death, destruction, ruin, misery.

I get grieved. I listened to Christian radio this week for a little while and I hear these programs and their saying, oh, and they ooze compassion. Somebody’s on a call-in program telling a problem and what? You must have had a difficult home life. Did you have a father who really showed you love? What’s this got to do with anything? Each by his own lust. If you’ve done the wrong thing, it’s you, it’s not your dad, it’s not your mom, it’s not your job, it’s not your school, it’s not your friends, it’s you. Back up and say, God, I’ve looked for every excuse and every reason, I don’t have to do the wrong thing. Your grace is sufficient for me, and I act accordingly. I must say, if you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ, you can’t do it. Sin controls you, dominates you, you live under its authority, you are a child of the devil, and you are on the road to eternal death. That’s why Jesus Christ said if the Son shall make you free you will be free indeed. The only deliverance comes when you believe in Jesus Christ and the power of sin is broken in your life. Then you are set free to obey God and honor Him and know the joy of His blessing in your life.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your grace. Thank you, Lord, that we’re not under the helpless control of circumstances and situations, but in Christ we are truly set free, free to obey you and live for you. Lord, you know we are, but dust and the allurements of sin are so attractive. You know the pressures and trials that come into our lives, difficult personal situations, difficult family situations, financial pressures, physical problems. Lord, in all these things we rejoice to know that in Christ your strength and your grace is sufficient for us to be obedient to you. Lord, I pray for those who are here who may be struggling. Lord, it seems that sin is so enticing, so desirable, such a sure solution. Lord, in all these things I pray that your Word might be an encouragement to their heart, that they might rejoice to know that you are sufficient; they should say no to the lust of passion of their heart, to know that you give good things and obedience to you is the way of blessing. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen