I want to tell you something. That Jesus is the light of the world. John 812. That you and I, we can deal with our sin appropriately with one broad stroke. You know what that is? Fellowship with the light.
This is treasure. Truth with pastor and author James Ford, junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today as we continue a message. The enemy, enemy and pastor, when you say that the way that we deal with sin effectively is to have fellowship with the light, what does that mean?
Uh, well, Christ is the light. And, uh, have you ever gone into a dark room?
Yes.
And then turn on the light.
Yes.
Well? What happened?
Darkness appears to flee.
Yes, it dissipates in the light. And so it is when we fellowship with Christ. His light shines on us. Uh, he reveals things and we become more transparent in his presence. Uh, we want, uh, to deal with everything that he doesn't like. So, I mean, it's first John one seven. First John one seven states, uh, that if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of his son, Jesus Christ, cleanses us from all sins. Here it is. First John
one nine. Those are the sins I know about. First John one seven. Those are the sins I don't know about. And so you're covered. You know, it's.
Either way.
It's whole life, not term. I'm covered. And so, you know, as I walk with him, he's dealing with things. Things I don't even know about. Things of which I am not aware. I'm grateful for the privilege of being with him.
Yeah. And as we walk with him, we learn to do battle with sin. And as we've talked about in previous programs, uh, as God shines that light a little bit brighter and a little bit brighter and a little bit brighter, he's gradually allowing us to become more like his son, Jesus.
Oh, most definitely. And so what happens is we're walking with the light. He's given us a light. And so it's Matthew chapter five. Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. And so we don't manufacture the light, we manifest the light. Uh, that has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, if you can grab a Bible, join us in James chapter one as we continue the message. The enemy. Enemy. Here is Pastor Ford.
It's closed now, but on 71st Street there used to be a bakery. You and my mama. My mama makes some cold blooded bread pudding. It was one of my favorites. Now, some people don't even know how to make bread pudding. They say, I know how to. I say, what do you start with? They say bread. I said, what kind of bread? Bread. Bread? No. The best bread pudding starts with moldy bread. If you don't make it with moldy bread, you don't know what you're doing. I don't care what
you say. Mama made it with moldy bread. Boy, knock your socks off. And so there was a bakery on 71st, and I used to go up there and buffet my body, and he said, hey, why don't you try some of my bread pudding? I said, no, because nobody makes bread pudding like my mama. He said, I tell you what, I'm going to give you two pieces free. He gave me two pieces free, along with my dozen doughnuts that I was taking back to all my family. I said, let me taste this. I knew as soon as I
tasted it. I went back in. You know, I got out of my car, I went back in because, you know, you know, you never get them home before you start eating them. I said, you made this with moldy bread. He said there's no other way to make bread.
And I said, man, man.
I told him, I said, you know what? I used to push drugs, and you just did to me what I would do to everybody else if I had somebody who never got high before they first hired was free, because I knew that once they had what I had, they be coming back. I told them, I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to get me up here at 3:00 in the morning. Say, where? The bread pudding dog? Where the bread pudding man, you know. But
that's it. That's it. Remember the old Chinese proverb? First the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink. Then the drink takes the man. That's us. So whatever it is, your proclivity. Because everybody La dee da dee. And everybody in here has some proclivity to some sin. Look at her. Looking all innocent, like not me. Mhm. Your halo going to become your new sun and told you that plenty of times. But it's our own lust. Man one of the things I hate to hear is
he made me hit him. Oh, yeah. She made me hit her. He made me hit her. What? Nobody makes you do anything. You do it yourself. You did it. You did it. So the inception of sin comes from our flesh. In my flesh, there's no good thing. And remember, when it comes to salvation, Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. Who died, was buried, and rose again the third day. As a matter of fact, uh, when we look at the resurrection, it is the capstone of Christianity,
and we know that. And so you say, what's going on here? He says the inception of it, uh, has to do with our own lust here. Now he goes from inception to reception. So God does not tempt with evil. Uh, neither tempt thee any man. But every man is drawn away of his own lust. Here's what he wants us to understand. Desire is neutral. It can be good or bad, depending on what we do with it. And so, you know,
it is. It's like one sister told me, pastor, please pray for me that God would take away these desires that I have so that I won't even want a man. I said, I'm not doing that. Why not? Because what happens when you when you get a man and then you don't have the desire anymore? So what he's supposed to do. Oh, pastor. No, no. Because then you come back talking about, uh, pray for me that God give
me the desire back because he took it away. No, no, we have to learn to deal with it so you can say no. First Corinthians 1013 there is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted above that you're able to stand, but will, with the temptation, make a way of escape that you may be able to bear. Come on, you know this very well. I tell it to you all the time. Who are our enemies? How many do we have? Who are they?
The world, the flesh and the devil. Does the Bible give us a specific prescription to fight each one of them? What are they? What do we do with the world? We face the world. Tell me where it's found. First John 44B. This is the victory that overcomes the world. Even your faith. That's a weapon. And you have to know how to use a weapon. There's a difference between a knife and a gun. And so God distinguishes what we can do to say no to each of these enemies.
The world, our external enemy, the flesh, Our internal enemy and the devil are infernal enemy. And so then what do we do with the wicked one? So we face the world. First John five four. B we fight the wicked one. James four six through eight, and we flee the flesh. Second Timothy 222 flee also youthful lust. And that's what Joseph did. Remember Genesis 39 seven and eight. He refused. He said, I cannot do this sin against God. And so he did not have her. You can put
in your Bible. He refused, and so can I. Same power. Same power. And so he refused. And then, by the way, just let me point out. What did he say? It's a sin against God, wasn't it? Sin against Potiphar? Wasn't it sin against his own Christianity? Wasn't the sin against his people when he went to the top of the line? He said, when we all sin is sin against God. All sin is sin against God. And you know, in my devotions this morning, I ran across something that really
was significant to me. And it was, uh, when God said, uh, that, uh, he called it sin when a person was falsely incarcerated, you know, you know, I put in my journal. Justice is a spiritual issue, not a secular one, anyway. So what happens? He says, every man who is drawn away and enticed. See, the devil wants us to let our desire be evil. What does he do? He always wants us to go beyond what God has said. God gives us food to enjoy. Satan says, be a glutton. He
gives us wine. Satan says, be drunk. He gives us sex. He says have premarital or extramarital. He gives us sleep and we get lazy. Now he uses two metaphors. Every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Two metaphors fishing and hunting. See, here's here's the fishing analogy. The devil goes fishing and he knows what bait to put on the hook. When? When my son was growing up, my baby boy, he loved fishing. And so, uh, Mr. Lambkin took him, and he just
got he got hooked on fishing. So he would say, dad, take me fishing. And so I said, okay. So, uh, we would go up around there, especially when the salmon run and, uh, we throw it in. We never caught anything. So, uh, I asked Mr. Lambkin, I said, would you come with us one time? And and he said, what kind of bait you're using? I said, well, we didn't have any real bait, so we just used Snickers. He said, you're not going to catch fish with Snickers. I thought it
was sweet. They would like it or something like that. He said, you're never going to catch anything with the kind of bait you're using. Well, the devil knows what you like. And he wiggles his bait and he hides the hook. He conceals the hook. Why? Because the hook is the consequence of taking the bait. Y'all ain't praying with me in here. That's what it is. And so he never shows you the consequences. Doesn't show you the end of it. The devastation, the abuse, the poverty, the drunkenness.
Don't show you all that. Adam and Eve saw the fruit. It was good for food. And they lost the garden because of what they were looking at. They had separation from God. And so they saw the fruit. But they didn't see the separation from God, the death of their children, the destruction, Hitler, Hurricane Katrina. You take the bait, you get caught on the hook.
Or that really is a word of warning from Pastor Ford today. Sometimes the enemy makes sin look so tempting, doesn't he? We've got to know that we have this enemy. Enemy that we're doing battle with constantly. And I hope that today's message is reminding you of that and helping you prepare to do battle against that. That's one of the reasons that we produce this program, to be able to encourage people in their walk with Christ. And if you're benefiting from Pastor Ford's teaching, I want to ask
you to support this ministry. We truly are dependent upon your financial generosity to cover the production costs and airtime. We are listener supported, and so if you're a listener who's benefiting, would you give a gift? You can do that by coming to our website. It's Treasure truth. Org and click on the link that says make a donation. Again our website address is Treasure Truth radio.org. Again, here's Pastor Ford.
Here it is. He. Thirdly, talks about the deception of sin. He says, entice the metaphor of a hunter setting a trap. Every sin has lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. I don't have time to do it because my time is gone. But I want you to go back. Look at Adam and Eve. What do you have? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. And they saw that the tree was good for food. That's lust of the flesh. It was pleasant to the eyes, lust of the eyes, and was to be desired to
make one wise. Pride of life. What about Achan? He went and saw Babylonian gardens, lust of the eyes. And he took them. Uh, anyway, you know Samson. Same thing. Lust of the eyes. Get her for me. You know all the rest. Jesus. Temptation in Matthew four. In other words, he don't change it. First John 215, he says that we need to To realize that we need to stop loving the world, because all that's in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life. That's what he's going to get us from ambition, appetite and avarice, ambition, appetite and avarice. Ambition, appetite. Avarice. That's what he uses. That's why he comes. And so when you look at it, notice something that every sin has that. So notice it starts with the emotions. Then it moves to the intellect, desire, emotions, deception, the mind, because the battlefield is in the mind. So even though he gets your passion, he has to control your perception.
He got to control your mind. How do you know that? Second Corinthians chapter four three and four. If our gospel is hid, it is hid to those who are lost, whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. The battlefield is the mind. Second Corinthians ten three through eight. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. And he goes through and he says, listen, you gotta let go of those thoughts that are excessive thoughts, entrenched thoughts, exalted thoughts, and bring them under captivity to Jesus Christ. What's he talking about there that we have been given the mind of Christ. And so we have two minds. We have our own mind, and we have Christ's mind. What mind are you in? Have you lost your mind yet? Because you'll never utilize the mind of
Christ until you lose your own mind. So instead of programming ourselves with the world, we have to program ourself with the word. Now, you know, I tease about it all the time. And I know why you do that, pastor, because you don't watch it, you know? Well, there's a reason I don't watch it, because I don't want to get captured. No, I can't watch Empire. No, I can't watch scandal. No, I can't watch any of them other that that's captivated a whole world. Can't watch it. Why?
Because I don't trust me, that's why. Because it always starts small. You remember that story? That story about the guy was driving the stagecoach. And the guy was the. He was. He was his, uh, rifle man. And he was on the back and he said, hey, hey, hey, there's an Indian coming after us. He said, well, well, how far away is he? I don't know, but he's about this big. And then he said, well, he's gaining on us. He said, how far back is he? He said,
I don't know, but he's about this big. He said, well, well, well don't worry about it. Not yet, not yet. He said, oh he ain't catching up with us. How far away is he? I don't know, but he's about this big. And he said, no, no, no, don't don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. He can't hurt us. And then he said, hey, man, he is right behind us. How big is he? He's this big. He said, well, shoot him. He said, I can't. He said, why? Because I know him since he's that big. Now you get it, sister
Jackson said. But you get it. It's like. It's like I have a proclivity. I have a sin that I coddle and I because it's just a little sin. I mean, you know, but a little leaven leavens the whole lump, and yeast begins to permeate the whole thing. So finally, I'm captivated by it, captured by it. Now I no longer control it. It controls me. And I find myself, you know, just seeking it out, drawn to it. Lust. And so what do you have? Here's what Achan did.
And remember, write down Proverbs 23 seven. Proverbs 23 seven. Don't have time, but but, uh, tell you all the time about how they used to catch monkeys. They would put, uh, a cage, and they would they would, uh, have a chain on it, put an aluminum foil, shiny, like, shiny stuff, and it would put his hand in and grab it, and then they would come and capture it. Uh, well, couldn't let it go. It won't. It can't get that aluminum foil through the bars and it'll pull on aluminum foil.
It won't let the aluminum foil go because it's shiny. It's attracting. And so so what happens first there is the first glance of deception, then the firm grip of desire, then the foolish game of defiance, then the foul guilt of disobedience. Anything we have to hide is wrong. Let me say that again. Anything we have to hide Is wrong.
Here's the final thing. The conception of it. So he talks about the inception, the reception, the reception now the conception that when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin. And when sin is finished brings forth death. He says, when there is this interaction of me with anything that God says is wrong, then I have a sin, baby. Now notice he doesn't name the sin. Why? Let me tell you three reasons. I gotta let you out of here. Number one, to reinforce our own responsibility for our sin.
All sin, even the little sin. Because having a little sin is like being a little pregnant. It's all going to come out after a while. Number two. So we can put our sin there so we don't have to worry about. Well, my sins not there. Uh, I did, uh, in the morning, we did the book of Galatians. We're almost done. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. And, uh, we did, uh, the 17 works of the flesh. And I said, I'm going through every one of them. And I went through
every one. And they had four categories. There was the sexual sin, there was the spiritual sin, there was the social sins, and there were the self-indulgent sins, broke it down into four different sin categories and said, now, now, some of you may say, uh, all these 17, none of mine are there. He said, and such were some. And he began to add the fact that he didn't try to make it exhaustive. There are more sins than just 17. Then thirdly. So you can acknowledge that you
can't deal with it until you confess it. First John one nine. Now I want to leave you like that. Well, what's what's the solution to this thing? The songwriter said it best. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full into his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. I want to tell you something that Jesus is the light of the world. John 812. That you and I, we can deal with our sin appropriately with one broad stroke.
You know what that is? Fellowship with the light. Man, you know I've done it so many times. I'll go to my closet and my wife is asleep, and I'm trying not to wake her up. And so I'll grab a pair of shoes, and I wear Stacy Adams. And so I have, like, a brown pair of Stacy Adams, a black pair of Stacy Adams, a Burgundy pair of Stacy Adams, and, you know, several shades of brown. But sometimes you can't tell what color is what in the dark. And so there have been plenty of times when I thought,
I'm good to go. I look down one brown shoe, one black shoe you see in the dark I was deceived. In the light it was uncovered. And I could see and do what I was supposed to do. Change them. And first John one nine says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Father, bless the truth to our hearts. We pray for Christ's sake.
Amen. Well, you're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford. A message called The Inner Me enemy a look at James chapter one, verses 13 to 18. Now, this is just the second day in our broadcast series. If you've missed the previous broadcast, I want to encourage you to go to our website and catch up on what you've missed. Our website address is Treasure Truth radio.org. Now from there you can stream the program through your computer or mobile device.
You can download MP3's or you can order copies of this broadcast on CD. Number of different ways that you can listen right through the website. You can also listen if you podcast this program or you have the Moody Radio app. Now both the podcast and the app are free and you can find those when you come to our website. Treasure Truth radio.com. I would love to know how this Bible teaching program is making a difference in your life. Maybe there's a specific way that Pastor Ford's
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I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.