What is the solution to the natural inclinations that are a part of my sin nature? What do I do with the proclivities? Let me put it this way. How in the world do I fight what I like?
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford, junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us. As today we continue a message called the Inner Me Enemy and pastor. I think that is the $100,000 question right there. I've been looking forward to getting to this message, because I think there are many people who say there is a sin in my life that I just can't seem to beat.
Some may call it a besetting sin, whatever proclivities, but there's the sin that you just don't want to let go of. Um, because as you point out, you like that sin, right? But we know we need to fight that sin. Yes. So help us with that today.
Uh, well, let me give our listening audience a passage. Now, if you study this passage, it's replete with principles that help us with that question. How do I fight what I like? It's in Second Corinthians chapter ten, verses three through eight. And it talks about, uh, in this case it's called a stronghold. It talks about entrenched, uh, sin. Uh, that's entrenched roots grow deep. And, uh, so it tells us how we're supposed to respond. Here's the first one.
Understand that it's a spiritual battle, not a natural one.
Hmm.
You see, so an awareness of the nature of the conflict that this is, you know, a spiritual fight. And then he says, we need to avail ourselves of the weapons of our warfare. So God has given us weapons. The armor of God, the word of God. Uh, prayer. You know, and so all these, we have to utilize them. Uh, then we have to ally ourselves with proper thinking. Because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. I say it all the time. You know, we don't
think with our mind. We think with our heart. Because the Bible says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. We don't speak with our lips. We speak with our heart for our the abundance of the heart. The mouth speaks, and on and on it goes. And so then we need to do that. And then you can't fix what you won't face, and you can't correct what you won't confront. So then we have to repent of that and we have to confess it. Homologeo first John one nine say the same thing about it that
God says so. Confession is really when I agree with God against myself, okay? And so on and on it goes. And then, uh, you know, the passage goes on and gives us some other principles, but, uh, you know, go through it, read it, study it, get those principles. And then here's the hard part implementation or application of the passage into my life. Begin to do it. It'll be difficult. It's going to be a struggle. But we've been energized by the Holy Spirit. Uh, be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit. His power can help us overcome as well.
Well, I cannot wait to get into the rest of today's message. Our series, The Enemy Enemy is from James chapter one. So you may want to open your Bible. Put a finger there. But we're going to start out today's message looking at Luke. Here is Pastor Ford.
Now expectation is the motivation that gives determination to reach your destination. Now I just said something. But but you don't. You don't know what I'm talking about. We've talked about it before. Remember what Jesus did in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told the disciples. He said, you will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Then in the next verse he said, you're going to fail me now. Now all the teachers in the house said, oh yeah,
we caught that right away. Verse 30, he says, you're going to sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. Next verse, you're going to fail me. He told them about their future before he told them about their failure, so that when they hit their failure, they'll understand it's not final. Because I already told you what your future's going to be. So I want you to have an expectation in the midst of your failure. That will be the motivation Evasion and determination to take you
to this destination. Are you feeling me? In other words, what he's doing is he's saying, listen, listen, uh, let me tell you where you're going so that you'll know that what you're going through right now is not designed to destroy you. It's designed to develop you so that as you have that mindset, it'll be like when my mama used to whoop me. My mama know how to whoop some tail. Come on. Anybody, like, had a mama
like me go get some switches. So you had to go get the weapon of mass destruction that she was going to put on your behind. And so and so if you came back with, you know, you had to have three because they had to be plotted together. And if they were too wispy, she would whoop you with those and say, go get me some more, because, you know, you brought me them little wispy things. So I just I cut to the chase. I didn't go back so many times. I just said, I'm going to have me
three tree trunks. And here's what I would say as she was whooping me. It can't last forever. She can't beat me forever. She can't beat me forever. And you know what? Sometimes that woman made me thinking. Maybe she can beat me forever. And so you're going through this and you're going through trauma, and you're going through trial, and. And you understand failure isn't final because of what I've already told you. Talk about Peter. Peter in in acts
chapter 12. What happened to Peter? Peter gets out of prison and you look in the principles in the passage, how could this man sleep? Everybody was up. The church was up praying for him. Uh, Rhoda was up. Uh, the guards were up. Everybody was up. But Peter was asleep. How can you take a chill pill? Well, maybe he remembered the promise. Remember the promise? Jesus told him that he was going to be old when he died. Peter is about 3637. He's not old. And so Peter's thinking, hey,
wait a minute, wait a minute. This expectation is the motivation for my determination to reach that destination. I'm not even scared. And so we need to understand. We will overcome because of what God has done now. James does the same thing. Now, remember last week what we talked about was verses 13 through 16. And remember what he said was, don't blame God and don't blame the devil either,
because the enemy is the enemy. And so we looked at the inception of sin and then the reception of sin, and then the deception of sin and then the conception of sin. We said that in verses one through 12 you have temptation as a noun, and it talks about problems. But now in 13 through 18, temptation as a verb. And it's talking about our passions because it's our passions that drive us. It's our passions. In other words, what happens is those two external enemies, they team up with
that internal enemy, the flesh. And so they can't make the flesh do anything. They just allure the flesh. That's what they do. Draw the flesh out. So we said, you can't help what you see, but you can help what you look at. You can't help what you hear, but you control what you listen to. And so here James is going to say the same things. James is going to say when your outlook looks bleak, try to up look. He's going to give us the solution to sinful,
selfish tendencies. It's in verses 17 and 18. He says every good and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will beget. He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Now here's what he's doing. Remember, Jesus told Peter and his disciples, what's going to save you is my theology. Yeah, that
Jesus prayed for us. So he's saying, then, uh, when your outlook looks bleak, try to up look, because Jesus is at the right hand of the father. Hebrews 725 making intercession for us. His theology is what preserving us. But now James says, uh, you have to also focus on theology, that is, focus on the father. So he focuses us to God as the solution. Now get this. Don't miss this. What is the solution to the natural inclinations that are a part of my sin nature? What
do I do with the proclivities? Let me put it this way. How in the world do I fight what I like? Because you know there's some sin. Just don't attract me. And there's some sin that don't attract you. And we get up giving them testimonies about something we ain't never struggled with. Yeah, well. I'm celibate. Well, you know, you you've been celibate all your life. But anyway. So, so so what's he saying? Let me tell you what it does when you realize that you already have a
solution before you know you even have the problem. Here's what it does. Four things. Number one, it guides our footsteps. It guides our footsteps. It leads us to Christ. So knowing that he has this for me ought to drive me to him. So I ought to want fellowship with him, because he's the one who made the promise. Second thing, it grows our faith. Yeah, it grows our faith. We learn of Christ. We learn of Christ. Number three, it governs our focus. We look to Christ. Number four, it
guards our future. We love Christ.
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So the first thing it does is it guides our footsteps. It leads us to Christ. It grows our faith. We learn of Christ. It governs our focus. We look to Christ. It guides our future. We love Christ. Now the traditional black church has gotten a bad rap because remember, they say he's so high you can't get over him. He's so low you can't go under him. He's so wide, you can't get around. He's a doctor in the sick room. He's a lawyer in a courtroom. He's my downsitting and
my uprising. He's the will in the middle of a will. He's the bright and morning star. Now, now, whenever I began to realize. That is profound theology. Put simply, I mean, it's profound. And I didn't realize it until they asked me at Moody. This has been a little while ago. They said, we want you to do a class on black preaching. And I said, I was the last person that you. I said, now, you know, I don't hoop. Yeah, but, you know, and I did the research. Oh, man. Oh
I stopped. As a matter of fact, I have a friend, uh, that I criticize. And I went back to him and apologized that that's why it didn't bother me, because I know the origin of it and where it came from and all of that stuff. And it was like, wow. But when I did this, It overwhelmed me. Now get this. Look at this theology in here. He's so high in theological circles. That's called the transcendence of God. He's so high you can't get over. That's the transcendence of God.
He's so low you can't get under him. That's called the eminency of God. The eminency of God. But then he's so wide. That's called the immensity of God. The immensity of God. Uh, he's a doctor in a sick room, a lawyer in a courtroom. That's called the advocacy of God. Man, isn't that powerful stuff. He's my downsitting and my uprising. We call that the sovereignty of God. And then he say he's a will in the middle of the will. That's the mystery of God. He's my bright and morning star.
That's the majesty of God. Here it is in this simple prose. It was like ah, ah. The the man went to the theologian. He was an astronomer. So, so he said to the theologian, he said, you know, when it comes to the stars, I keep mine simple. He said, twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are. He said, what about you? He said, I keep my theology simple to Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. Yeah. That's it. It's just simple. It's
just plain. Hey, you know what the test is for a theologian? Can he write a track? And so the simplicity of it, it is wow that they understand what's going on here. That all the time I was criticizing, man, I should have been praising God for the theology that's in those words. And so here's what he's going to tell us. He's going to say, look, here's what I want you to do. There are three aspects of Yahweh God that you need to focus in on in order
to deal with your sinful tendencies. Here they are in their in their three incentives to overcoming our sinful tendencies. Here's what he's going to talk about in these two verses. He's going to talk about the gifts of Yahweh God, the glory of Yahweh God, and the grace of Yahweh God. Let me kind of bottom line what he's going to do. Notice what he's doing. He's giving us three looks. He's saying, look ahead and see the conclusion. That's what we already
talked about. God is going to judge. He then he tells us, look around and see the consistency. So he talks about God, see the conclusion that God said will come about. He. Then he says, look around, see the consistency because God is good. Then he says, look inside and see the conversion. So here's what he's going to do. He's going to say, listen, these three things will help us to overcome our sinful tendencies, our proclivity to certain sins.
Look what God has done. And and he's ultimately pointing to glorification. One day you won't have to struggle with it. Then he says, look around at the consistency of God, how good he's been to you. Don't you feel bad sometimes doing God like you do God? Okay, let me just speak for myself. You know, I, I mean, you know, you know, I'm the only one. I'm the only one. And so then he says, look inside. See the conversion? So, so so he says in verse 18 of his own
will be God. He us with the word of truth. You're converted. The word is in you. The word is power. So then these three aspects, let's walk through them. So the first thing he talks about as a solution to sinful tendencies is the gifts of God. Listen to what he says again. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Here's what he says God is a giver, and he's generous.
When he gives us, he gives us more than the world, the flesh and the devil can offer us. See, the devil doesn't give any gifts. None. How do you know that, pastor? For glad you asked. You ask intelligent question because you always pay. When the devil gives you something, always pay. Yeah. And now remember, verse 16 told us. No excuses. So you can't come up and say. It's not my fault. She made me do it. I couldn't help it. Everybody else is doing it. Nobody's perfect. Oh, the spirit is willing.
The flesh is weak. Get Scripture in it. Get, you know, get some scripture in there for your for your sin. I was pressured into it. The devil made me do it. I didn't know it was wrong. It was just a mistake. No. Tell me one thing that the devil gave and it didn't cost. Go back through scripture and you can see individuals who paid, uh, messing around with the devil. Uh, because it always cost them. It cost Adam and Eve. Paradise. Uh, it cost lot. His family. It cost Jacob 20 years.
Remember what he said? His mother said, let's trick your daddy. Uh, get your brother's blessing and birthright and go to my brother for a little while. A little while turned into 20 years. He never saw his mama alive again. Cause in his life, it cost Samson his eyes. It cost David his children. It cost Nebuchadnezzar his sanity. It caused John Mark fellowship with the Apostle Paul. Let's start here. What did it cost you? Yeah, it cost us. And
so what's going on? He talks about three things. About the gifts that God gives. Hey, write these in. He talks about the measure of the gifts, the motives of the gifts and the manner of the gifts. Let me say it again. He talks about the measure of the gifts, the motive of the gifts, and the manner of the gifts. Notice he talks about, first of all, the measure of the gifts. It's the kind of gifts that God gives. God gives only good gifts. And so these gifts that
he gives are good and perfect. Now let's talk about it. The word good is agathos and the word say agathos. Agathos Foss speaks about the quality of goodness. There's about eight words in the New Testament translated good. This one's at the top. This is the one where it says God is good. In other words, the essential essence of who God is is agathas. And so he is a good God. Now, why focus in on this so that you will know that he is the one? Let me
read Proverbs 1022. Here's what it says about God's gifts. In Proverbs 1022, he says, God gives gifts and adds no sorrow with it. Proverbs 1022 the blessings of the Lord. It maketh rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. Man that that God has used the word that's used to describe the character of God itself in Mark chapter ten verse 18. Ain't so. God gives only good gifts.
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