Quote from Forum Archives on April 19, 2002, 5:26 pm

Posted by: jmichaelwalls <jmichaelwalls@...>

THE DEFEAT OF A CHRISTIAN
Or
THE UNHOLY TRINITY AGAINST THE CHRISTIAN
Part 1
1 John 2:15-17
2 Corinthians 2:11
Galatians 5:17
Introduction: These three passages of Scriptures give us the unholy
trinity that is against the Christian. In fact, if these are not defeated
in the life of Christian, then they will defeat you. It is my desire in
these next three weeks to try to help you recognize your enemies. Not
only recognize them, but also help give you tools to be victorious over
them. This is not much different than my job as a nurse. I watch for
certain signs and symptoms to report to the doctor for treatment. Let me
try to illustrate. With heart patients, if they get a dry non- productive
cough, have an unusual weight gain in a few days, their ankles swell up
and get real sluggish, it is possible that they have gone into congestive
heart failure. I report these signs and symptoms to the doctor and he
orders tests and medicines. In a few days, they are back to their old
self most of the time.
Each of these passages describes your enemy. In World War II, General
Patten was able to defeat Rommell in Africa and Europe because he read
Rommell's book on tank warfare. There is part of the key in defeating
your enemies, that unholy trinity: the world, the flesh and the devil.
Today I want to deal with the one that I believe will give you the best
problems. I want to deal with the enemy of your flesh. I have heard
people tell folks that once they get saved, their problems will be over.
What a lie that is! Some problems have just begun. But you are under
different management. What does 2 Corinthians 5:17 have to say?
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new."
There are great many verses that should be a joy to you in this fight.
Let's look at a few of them.
1 John 4:4
"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater
is he that is in you, than he that is in the world."
1 John 5:4-5
"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of
God?"
1 Corinthians 15:57-58
"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your
labour is not in vain in the Lord."
Romans 8:37-39
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Let me define what is meant by flesh. It is not the skin that stretches
over our bones. It is "flesh" is very often used to designate the bodily
appetites, propensities, and passions, which draw men away from yielding
themselves to the Lord and to the things of the Spirit. The flesh, or
carnal principle, is opposed to the spirit, or spiritual principle.
The reasons why I believe that our flesh is the worst enemy are as
follows.
You had your fleshly nature since birth. You develop your habits both bad
and good since birth.
It is the nature of most people to travel the path of least resistance.
We must remember it is not just us that do wrong; it is our sin nature
that causes us to do those things we ought not.
Romans 7:18-24
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:
for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I
find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would
not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do
good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the
inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law
of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body
of this death?"
There are three important facts about sin that we must remember about
sinful flesh. It is not so much flesh, as it is sin. What are these facts
that we must remember about sin?
Before giving them to you, it is important to understand this. It is the
nature of man, even the nature of a believer, to be easily entangled in
sin. It happens so easily, and frankly there are certain sins, which more
easily entangle each of us than other ones. Each of us, in our own lives,
has certain propensities for specific kinds of sins. It is many times
that because we have in the past life cultivated habits of sin, which now
plague us, even after our salvation. It could be because in our spiritual
weakness even after becoming Christians we continued to develop habits of
certain types of sin; certain specific sins that now we find more easily
than others do entangle us. You and I could name specific sins that
entangle our flesh. It is different for different people.
It is true of every Christian that we have certain sins that easily
capture us, but it is also true in general that sin easily entangles us.
Not all sins are what we could call our personal entangling sins or our
personal besetting sins: our personal habitual sins; the sins which we
commit and then confess, and then commit again, and then confess, and
then commit again, and then confess, and go on that way in our lives.
Some sins fall under this category, but in general all sin seems to have
sway with us. And maybe it will help you to understand why that is true
if I just give you three very simple points about sin.
1. Sin has great power over our flesh. It can lead along like you lead a
bull around with a ring in his nose. It seldom asks; it demands. It
rarely leads; it pushes us from the rear and drives us the point of no
return. It exerts strong influence on our will, it exerts strong
influence on our emotions and it exerts strong influence on our
affections. Sinful flesh is at constant war with the new nature and the
Spirit of God.
Galatians 5:17
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do
the things that ye would."
Our flesh is a very willing ally to sin. Many times the mere suggestion
of sin is jumped upon.
2. Sin easily entangles us because it is so close. More than just forcing
its way from the outside powerfully on our flesh, it forces its way on
our flesh, as it were, from within us--from within the very flesh. It is
very close; in fact, it is in our being. It is the real you.
Since it is the real you, it has certain characteristics that can be seen
by most around us.
Flesh is selfish. Some are more selfish than other but nevertheless
selfish.
Flesh is very self-centered. This is very closely related to being
selfish.
Flesh can be very covetous. It wants every thing. Adam and Eve picture
this covetousness. They were not satisfied with what they had; they
wanted so much more.
Flesh is many times jealous. It does not others to get the recognition
that it thinks belongs to it.
This list could almost be endless. But Paul sums it well.
Galatians 5:19-21
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
3. Sin does not remain separate but it mingles in all our motives and all
our actions. Sin is powerful. Sin is near, in that it is in us. And it
isn't definitely separated. You can't draw a line and say "Well, this is
where my righteousness ends and this is where my sinfulness begins or
vice versa." It has a way of weaving itself into the fabric of all our
duties, and all our motives, and all our thoughts, and all our actions.
It entangles itself with our purposes, and our plans; in fact, even your
best deed. Even your best deed is not unmixed with sin. It is tangled up
in our lives. All is entangles with sinful flesh. That is one reason why
our works will be judged by fire. The fire of God will do away with the
flesh part of our deed that we have done for Christ.
Are we given some instructions in regards to flesh or the sin nature?
Yes, let look at some of these.
2 Corinthians 7:1
"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God."
Romans 7:25
"I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
Ephesians 4:22-25
"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is
corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 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. Wherefore putting away lying, speak
every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another."
Romans 6:12-14
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under
the law, but under grace"
1 Peter 2:1, 11
"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and
envies, and all evil speakings" "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as
strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul"
These are just a few passages to help. A careful study of Romans 6 &7,
Galatians 5 and 1 John 3 will give you one up on most people in your
daily life with the frustrations of trying to overcome this enemy, your
flesh. You can win. In the next few moments I will give seven tools in
your fight against your flesh and how to be victories. This is the
practical part of this message.
I. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE SERIOUSNESS OF YOUR SIN.
I think the major reason we don't deal with sin strongly and firmly is
because we underestimate its seriousness--to God, to God, to us, to those
with whom we fellowship, to the church, to the unbelievers. Our sin
steals joy; our sin ruins fellowship with God; our sin diminishes
fruitfulness; our sin robs us of peace; our sin renders our service
useless; our sin lessen against our effectiveness in evangelism; our sin
hinders our prayers; our sin brings the discipline of God. We need to
understand the seriousness of our sin. It violates first and foremost our
relationship with the Lord.
We forget that Christ came to die for our sin. All of them that include
the ones we commit at present. It takes the same blood of Calvary to
cleanse our present sins as it did the ones in the past.
A non-conformist preacher (they also known as Puritans) in 1662 said this
about sin. "You have experienced a calamity. This is a calamitous thing;
this is a calamitous event," but then he said this, "There is more evil
in the least sin than in the greatest calamity." "There is more evil in
the least sin than in the greatest calamity." Then he later said, "There
is more evil in the least sin then in the greatest misery."
Many of us have experienced disease. Think of the pain arthritis has.
There is more evil in the least sin as then in the greatest pain of
disease.
You look at your life and generally speaking you are distressed about
your calamities and you are distressed about your miseries, but you are
tolerant about your sins. You do not understand what that man understood:
"There is more evil in the least sin than the greatest calamity." A
calamity, a certain misery is not necessarily sin. Sin is sin. Treat your
sin seriously. Remember it dishonors God; it abuses mercy; it despises
grace; it presumes on forgiveness; it defiles worship, service, and
fellowship. It stains, and taints, and poisons, and destroys everything
good and holy. How much more needs to be said about flesh
II. YOU MUST STRONGLY PURPOSE AND PROMISE GOD NOT TO SIN.
Take a solemn vow and say, "God, I do not want to sin. I don't want to
break Your law, I don't want to grieve Your Spirit, I don't want to
dishonor the Name of Your Son which I bear." The Psalmist did that in
Psalm 119:106. "I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy
righteous judgments."
Daniel knew this was important.
Daniel 1:8
"But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with
the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank:
therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not
defile himself."
There is a great difference between sin dwelling in us and allowing sin
to be entertained by us. There is a great difference between sin
remaining, and sin harbored, or sins preserved. To lay aside sin means to
purpose and promise God to obey--a firm promise. I promise You, I will
obey You! Why? It is simply your love appreciation to the Lord for saving
you.
BE SUSPICIOUS OF YOUR OWN SPIRITUALITY.
1 Corinthians 10:12
"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."
Proverbs 4:23
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of
life."
There must be a certain watchfulness. You have to be watching for sin's
subtle movements within your own supposed spirituality. Your heart is
desperately wicked, very deceitful, and Satan is desperately wicked and
very deceitful. The seducing motions of your own heart can sometimes rise
out of the moments of your most supposed spirituality. Be suspicious of
your own spirituality--don't trust it. Understand that except for the
grace of God you would fall into any and every sin--and you can be
deceived so easily.
1 Corinthians 15:10a
"But by the grace of God I am what I am"
IV. RESIST THE FIRST RISINGS OF THE FLESH AND ITS PLEASURES.
Don't try to stop the process near the end; stop it near the beginning.
James notes for us a certain process: people are tempted when they are
carried away and enticed by their own lusts. James 1:15
"Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it
is finished, bringeth forth death."
You resist and oppose the first risings of the flesh and it's pleasures.
Sin comes to you promising pleasure. You remember at the very outset: my
goal is not to please myself, but to please the Lord.
The place to kill the urge of the flesh is the very first moment it is
conceived. If David would have left the palace and went to war even after
his first glimpse of Bathsheba, he would been spare a whole world of
misery.
V. YOU MUST MEDITATE ON THE WORD.
Psalm 37:31
"The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide."
Psalm 119:9-12
"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto
according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me
not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that
I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy
statutes."
Ephesians 6:17
"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God"
Joshua 1:8
"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according
to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."
When the Word controls a heart, the steps don't slip. What a principle we
tend to forget! We call ourselves people of the Book, yet neglect to use
the Book in this battle of the flesh and sin.
It is the constant input of the Word of God that begins to fill up the
mind and control the thinking, and that alone becomes the strength and
resource in us that can resist the initial impulses of the flesh.
Let me tell you some of the happiest times of my life are. It is at the
end of the month when I am in a room doing paperwork with the radio on. I
have heard some of the greatest messages at this time of the month. Why
am I happy? It is because I have that constant input of the Word of God
in my mind. This month I heard a special Easter time broadcast on "Back
to the Bible". They had voices from Easter. They portrayed many of the
characters in the Easter story in narrative format. Chris looked over at
me once and asked why the tears were going down my face. I told it was
for two reasons: The realness of the broadcast and the love for Christ
who was will to go to Calvary for me.
Meditate on the Word of God. You are always studying the Word, studying
the Word, learning the Word, learning the Word, meditating on the Word as
you get the Word--so filling you up so that it, "Dwells in you richly,"
(Colossians 3:16). You will find that it controls you. And as you start
into some kind of attitude of sin or some kind of act of sin, the Word of
God will act as a restraint. When you feel the impulse of the truth you
know, meditate on that, not on the enticings of the flesh and its
pleasures. What a better life this is when the Spirit of God through the
Word of God controls the child of God and he or she does not have to go
to God for confession of sin. Instead, he or she goes to God with a heart
of gratitude and love for the strength to resist sin and the natural
inclination of the flesh.
BE INSTANTLY REPENTIVE OF YOUR LAPSES.
Matthew 26:75
"And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the
cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept
bitterly."
Be immediately repentant over your lapses and go back to the place of
confession. Repentance isn't only saying, "I'm sorry Lord, forgive me."
It is saying, "I'm sorry Lord, forgive me, and I don't want to ever do
that again." That's the stuff of real repentance. If that third element
isn't there then you're not fooling God about the genuineness or lack of
genuineness.
When you confess your sins and when you say, "I'm sorry I did that,
please forgive me--I don't ever want to do it again," name it--name it
specifically. Let your own heart and even your own ears hear the naming
of that sin, so that you develop in your heart a high degree of
accountability with God for having named the very sin for which He is
holding you accountable not to commit again. That's how you develop
accountability; that's how you develop the fear of God. If you hold back
from naming your sin, it's because you want to do that again; and it is
bad enough to sin without having to be responsible for telling God you
didn't want to do it and defying what you told Him. So you would rather
sin only once, rather than twice; that's why you don't want to name your
sin. Then you're guilty not only of sinning again but also of being
hypocritical before God.
True repentance will name the sin. So specifically name the sin.
VII. WE MUST CONTINUALLY PRAY FOR DIVINE HELP. Ephesians 6:18
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and
watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints"
After the entire armor is put on and the battle against Satan and demons
after all of the warfare has been set and the battle is engaged against
Satan and all of his forces, he says, "Praying always, with all prayer
and supplication." Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 26:41, "Watch
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak."
Don't fight the enemy on your own. When you engage the enemy--pray, plead
with help.
Colossian 4:2
"Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving"
Preventable prayer is the most effective. You need to start your day,
"Lord, this is the way you taught us to pray, 'Lead us not into. . . .'"
What? "'temptation and deliver us from evil.' Lord, please, today lead me
away from temptation--please, today Lord, deliver me from evil." You need
to set the course of your prayers before the tempter arrives, before the
flesh begins to rise and entice.
Conclusion: As you face this enemy, you must either defeat the flesh or
it will definitely defeat you. There is not middle ground. You are either
going forward or going backwards. The choice is yours. Your attitude
toward your flesh must be one of war or you will be defeated.
I have given you seven keys to overcoming or dealing with habitual sin or
defeating your enemy: your flesh. May the Lord help you is my desire!

FBC
4/7/02 PM
Pastor Mike Walls
Freedom Baptist Church Smithfield, NC
All scriptures are King James Bible
Isa. 41:10