The Parent and Offspring of Temptation | Sermon 02/27/2022

Apologia Utah

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A lot of wonderful things today have happened, beloved, wonderful things.

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Let's praise God. Let's hear the proclamation of the word. If you would turn to James chapter 1, no surprise there,

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James chapter 1. The title of the sermon today is

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The Parent and Offspring of Temptation. The Parent and Offspring of Temptation are going to be in James chapter 1, verses 13 through 15 today.

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So if you would turn there with me in your Bibles. Church, these are the infallible, inerrant words of the living

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God, starting in verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.

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For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone.

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But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

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Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray. Father, please bless the proclamation.

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Speak through me today, dear Lord. God, please even help your people today, dear

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Lord. Help us to be attentive. Help us to have ears to hear when it comes to your word. Let nothing,

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Lord, whether it be our flesh or outside attack, block what you want us to know and hear and receive.

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So Lord, please dwell with us now. Be pleased in the proclamation, and Lord, please as always help me to speak in a way that is helpful and clear, and let it always be true.

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In Christ's name, amen. So human beings from the very beginning of creation have cast blame on God for their sinful desires.

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From the beginning. The Scottish poet Robert Burns writes, Thou knowest thou hast formed me with passions wild and strong, and listening to their witching voice has often led me wrong.

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He said that to God. You have formed me with passions wild and strong.

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How frequently do we hear these things even today? God made me this way, okay?

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God made me this way. Who are you to tell me otherwise? Right? Some older mother in denial will speak sorrowfully about her adult son and say things like,

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Ever since he was a young boy, his every inclination has been to live rebelliously.

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That's my rebellious child. I just can't do anything about it. That's how God made them.

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That's my rebellious one. Lord just put it in him. They'll say stuff like that. Even just a few weeks ago when we had a church -wide abortion mill outreach downtown,

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I got into a conversation with a young guy who said he was agnostic. He was riding by on his bike to check and see what we were doing.

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Everyone had kind of departed. And I got into almost an hour -long conversation with this guy. What he said was he really liked the moral things about Christianity that included justice and fairness and equity, prohibition against rape and murder and things like that.

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He loved those things, among others. But his contention was with other moral parts of the

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Bible. He said he didn't agree with abstaining from fornication.

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Or he didn't agree with rejecting a life of sexual immorality. Because he said, look buddy, we're just wired that way.

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Those were his words. We're wired that way. So people say, why would

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God make me like this then? This is how I feel. I just want to do these things.

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So he must have made me like this. You see, every human being from the moment of the fall until now has dealt with temptation and sin.

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The enticement of sin and the allure of evil, although bad, often disguises itself always as something good.

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Something good. But the question is, what does the Bible have to say about temptation in regards to God and fallen mankind?

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Let's take a look at that now in our text. Starting in verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted,

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I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted, and he himself does not tempt anyone.

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James has essentially made a shift here, guys, after verse 12. Verses 2 through 4, let me give a quick recap.

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Verses 2 through 4 spoke of enduring various trials. That's the counting all joy that God would use such trials to cause us to endure and through that bring us to maturity in Christ.

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Then in verses 5 through 8, we are told if we ask God by faith for wisdom while believing, he will give it.

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He will give it. And that wisdom will aid us also in enduring the trials.

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Verses 9 through 11 showed us if you experience the trial of being poor or being rich, which leads to a humbling from God as you may lose those riches, and you'll definitely lose them one day as you enter into eternity, then we are to glory in our high status with that Christ has purchased for us.

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And all of those things, all of that talk of trials culminated up to that verse 12 so well with what was like a beatitude.

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It said, blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life.

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And that was the end of our sermon from last week. But now,

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James makes a shift in verse 13. In fact, when it says, let no one say he is tempted, when it says that, the word tempted there shares what's called the same lemma, the same lemma or what is the lexical dictionary form as the word trial from verse 12.

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Okay, trial and tempted there are the same lemma, the same lexical dictionary form in that word.

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So, I say that because I think the better way possibly to translate verse 13 would be this, which again shows the transition

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I'm talking about. It would be this, let no one say when he is tested, let no one say when he is tested,

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I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone.

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There's a transition there. Because the fact is, every single trial we have ever or will ever face has also come with certain temptation, right?

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Moo comments to this and says, for every trial brings temptation. Listen, financial difficulty can tempt us to question

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God's provision in our lives. The death of a loved one can tempt us to question

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God's love for us. The suffering of righteous poor and the ease and comfort of the wicked rich can tempt us to question

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God's justice or fairness or maybe even His existence. Thus, testing almost always will include a temptation to sin.

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God brings and allows trials to test us, increases our faith, helps us endure to the end, but we can be tempted to sin in those trials.

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However, our text makes it clear that God does not produce the temptation.

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God does not produce the temptation. Now, I need to touch on the Greek a little bit more here, okay?

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Here's the issue, alright? As I said, the Greek word for trial and temptation are related, and sometimes they're interchanged.

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They're sometimes interchanged in different translations. And with that said, some have proposed that this is a supposed contradiction.

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They're saying that these passages of verses will produce contradictory parts compared to other sections of Scripture.

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That in other parts of the Bible, it shows God tests His people and sovereignly ordains trials for them to walk through, but then someone with poor exegesis can look at this passage and say, but according to James 1 .13,

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God doesn't, they'll say, test anyone for anything. He can never be tested, He can never be put through trials.

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Or they'll look at passages where it says that God has tested His believers, and they'll say, look,

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God tempted Abraham. It says here, God tempted Abraham, He tempts

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His children. God tempts His children. These are wrong. These are false, my friends.

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The word here is pira. Pira shows up in the New Testament 68 times.

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Now, I gave you the problem, but here's the solution. Any good

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Bible student understands context is everything. Remember that, okay?

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When your relative or someone comes up to you and gives you a proof text and pulls it out and says, but tell me what this means.

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Your first reflex should be to grab your Bible and to look what's before and look what's after, okay?

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That should be your first reflex. That's what any good Bible student does. I've mentioned the word hermeneutics.

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Proper hermeneutics says when we approach the biblical text, we look at things like the author, the audience, or the recipients.

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We look at the historical context, geographical context. We look at original languages, grammar, syntax, literary form, and more.

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That is how we properly study the Bible. And so with this word pira,

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I made a huge spreadsheet of all 68 times it's used on Excel, just because I'm an

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Excel guy and that's what I do to observe everything. And so based on the context

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I see with pira, out of the 68 times, there's five different ways pira is used.

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Number one, pira can mean to test someone or to put them to the test.

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The Bible shows God does that to man. God tests man. Man has done that to God sinfully.

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We are not to put God to the test. And especially throughout the Synoptic Gospels, especially it says that the

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Pharisees and Sadducees and the Scribes tested Jesus often. In fact, if you just did a concordance search for that in the

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Gospels, you would see all the time the Pharisees were testing Jesus Christ. Number two, pira can mean that I'm trying to do something.

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Paul was trying to associate with the disciples, but they were afraid of him after his conversion.

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Or Jews tried to put him to death. Tried. Number three, pira can mean a trial someone faces.

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Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, which is closely related to test, of course.

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Number four, pira can mean to experience something or being accustomed to something.

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Hebrews says everyone who drinks of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness.

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And lastly, number five, pira can mean tempted or temptation.

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Enticed to do something sinfully. Matthew 4 says Jesus was tempted by the devil.

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Or in our passage, God doesn't tempt men and women to sin. So the word has multiple meanings, you see, depending on usage and context.

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That's important. Just like if you did a study on the word cosmos, which means world.

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Cosmos can mean the world as we know it. It can mean the universe. Cosmos can mean just the

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Roman Empire or the Mediterranean or the ten provinces of Rome. Cosmos was used to express people groups.

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Cosmos, when the Bible says in the whole world, they could have literally meant

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Jews and Gentiles. That's it. So depending on the context, cosmos even has different meanings.

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We have words in the English language like that. For instance, if I were to say, that man was a charismatic preacher.

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That man was a charismatic preacher. You'd maybe need a little more context if you didn't know the denomination.

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You say, okay, was he just fascinating? Was he just captivating the audience?

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Was he a good orator, a good speaker? Was he charismatic in that way? Or does he belong to a certain denomination that believes in certain spiritual gifts that continue on to this day?

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And so you would need to know more. And pira is simply the root word.

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It takes on different forms, even in the Greek. Again, depending on sentence and context.

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Think about the root word in English, spire. This will help you. Think about this.

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This is an example. Spire. You can conspire against someone.

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Conspire. You can inspire someone to greatness.

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You can perspire when you exercise. You can aspire to some goal.

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We've heard the news story, and things are still slow to transpire. And of course, your food can expire.

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These are all different ways that spire is used. And the word forms change in Greek similarly.

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I don't want to belabor the point. I know I'm going on and on about pira, but this is something that atheists, or so -called deconstructionalists, will use against the church.

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They'll say, look, God does tempt people to sin. No, He doesn't. And we're going to go more into that.

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But they're not understanding the proper use of the Greek language here. So all in all, tempt and temptation are the proper translations for verses 13 -15.

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The verse says, For God cannot be tempted by evil. God, my friends, is infinitely holy.

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Isaiah 6 says, He is holy, holy, holy. Holy in the highest degree is our

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God, my friends. He is far above all evil. John says,

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God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. He cannot be influenced by evil.

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He cannot have contact with evil. It can't stand before Him. Evil can try all it wants, but evil cannot tempt our

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God. His eyes, it says, are too pure to approve evil. And He cannot look on wickedness with favor, the word says.

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Nahum says, the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Deuteronomy 32, verse 4 says,

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God's word is perfect, and all God's ways are just. A God, it says, of faithfulness and without injustice.

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It says a God is perfectly righteous and upright. You could go on and on.

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There's so many verses that I could pull out. This is God's, what's called His omnibenevolence.

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He is all good. He's an all -good God. What in all creation or the spirit realm could

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God even be tempted with, my friends? What could tempt our God? Nothing.

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He's the creator of all things. He needs nothing. I mentioned in my sermon last year something called

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God's aseity. That is, that God is self -sufficient. He needs nothing outside of Himself.

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He is self -existent. And for this reason, He needs nothing by evil.

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He is not tempted by evil. God is the opposite of evil. He could not be tempted by something

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He repudiates and rejects, right? So God is good. Evil is bad.

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God is lawful. And evil is lawless. God does not tempt with evil.

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As I said, He tests for good. He tests for good. God does not tempt with evil.

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God tests for good. Insert the counting all joy sermon right here that we did a few weeks ago.

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That's God tests for righteous outcomes. It says in Genesis 22 that God tested

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Abraham to see his faithfulness. In Judges 2, God tested Israel's faithfulness by no longer driving out the nations for them that they left after Joshua's conquest.

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God, it says, tested Hezekiah by leaving him alone when the Babylonian envoys arrived.

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He wasn't going to leave him without help, but He was testing the faithfulness of Hezekiah. God's Word, God works righteousness out of all these trials.

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Now, again, some may protest and bring up, what about 2 Samuel 24?

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I've got you now, Pastor Wade. 2 Samuel 24, it says, the anger of the

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Lord was kindled against Israel, and it says that God incited David against Him to go number

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Israel and Judah. What? God incited David? God incited

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David? David had sinned against God in this, though.

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He was not to number the people, but trust God. Remember in the

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Old Testament, in numbering the people, there would be a temptation to trust in your numbers rather than in the living

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God. That's why they were not to count how many people they had. But it says

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God incited him to do that as if God tempted David to sin. Thankfully, there's of course more understanding to the

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Hebrew here, but we don't even need to discuss that right now. We can just go to 1 Chronicles 21.

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1 Chronicles 21 gives us the fuller picture of what happened in 2 Samuel 24.

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It records the same incident. In verse 1 it says, Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved

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David to sin. Moved David to number Israel.

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God allowed Satan to do this, much like He allowed him to touch Job's life.

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David had the opportunity to respond one way or the other with Satan's enticement, but David chose to sin.

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God will allow such things to carry out judgment, but is not the one tempting with sin or evil.

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This, my friends, those type of verses is a look at God's sovereignty in the midst of fallen humanity, where His decree goes and works through the affairs of humans.

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Satan is actually the one with the title, Tempter. Satan is called the

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Tempter in the Word of God. He is called the Tempter in Matthew 4. Satan is called the

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Tempter in 1 Thessalonians 3. But is it just Satan who's responsible for temptation?

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Who's responsible for temptation? Let's go to verse 14. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

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Many think with today's intersectionality and Marxist agenda that there is a huge wave of victim mentality.

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And no doubt there is. Everyone's a victim in our day and age, right? Every single person's a victim.

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I see that. But here's the thing. Victim mentality started all the way back in the garden.

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Adam not only puts the blame on the woman, but at the center of his deflection, he blames

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God. He says, it was the woman you gave me. He says that.

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You think it's subtle. You think he's blaming his wife. He says, it was the woman that you gave me,

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God. He blames God in the garden. Adam is saying, I'm the victim here,

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God. This is the one you gave me. We've talked about how Aaron and Saul did the same thing in their deflection.

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It was the people who caused me to do X, right? I'm the innocent party here.

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But you know what? The only true victim in this world is God Almighty.

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And I'm not talking about in the realm of crimes and stuff like that. I'm talking about ontologically.

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I'm talking about big picture. In the big picture of sin and righteousness,

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God is the only true victim in this case. He is always the innocent party, not us.

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But we continue to do it. No one can take ownership. I remember one time

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I was at Planned Parenthood, sharing the gospel in Tempe, Arizona, and a self -professing black

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Hebrew Israelite pulled up in a car. Okay? And if you're going, what are you talking about,

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Pastor Wade? Black Hebrew Israelite. Look it up on YouTube. Not now.

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Look it up later. Maybe also when your kids aren't around, because there's usually a bit of cursing and craziness.

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And just be kind of in awe of what you see, and astonished that it is a false religion, my friends.

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In fact, Andrew does a podcast called Cultish, and they did a show all about black

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Hebrew Israelites. Check it out. But it is a false religion. And this man got out of the car to escort his girlfriend or his wife to the

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Planned Parenthood. I don't know who she was, but he was escorting her. And I started to give them the gospel, and tell them

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God commands them, let your baby live. Hey, we can help you. We have resources. You don't need to do this.

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And this guy, this big old guy, turns right around, and he rushes towards me.

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And I said, okay, God, I guess this is the day it's going to happen. So I'm just kind of, I guess this is the day

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I'll get beat down or whatever. And just kind of, you know, accepting that reality.

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But he stops right in front of me, and he goes, you, you're the problem.

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You and your white people make me kill my baby. I'm here today because of you.

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I have to go do this and abort my child because of you. And I was just,

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I was incredulous. I was astonished for a moment. I didn't even really know how to respond.

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He says, my baby's blood is on your hands. And so I kind of was astonished, and he kept walking.

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And then I came to, and I said, I reject that. That is a lie from the pit of hell. You are responsible, sir, to take care of your child.

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You are a father today, and if you go in there and kill your child, you will walk out a father, but only of a dead child.

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Don't do this. Turn to Christ and live. And I mean, it was just, it blew my mind.

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It blew my mind. You're the problem. He turned himself into the victim in this.

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A man taking his child to the slaughter, and I'm the perpetrator. But once again, we do it to God.

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We run up and come to God, and we say, you did it. You made me do it to God often. In Isaiah 63, 17, you hear a bizarre verse.

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Listen to this. Isaiah 63, 17 says, Israel says, Why, O Lord, do

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You cause us to stray from Your ways? And why do You harden our hearts from fearing

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You? My friends, the blame is not on God. But that's what fallen humanity does all the time, time and time again.

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And so James warns us, don't say the Lord is tempting you. Don't even say it.

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Don't even think it. The Lord is not tempting you. Every person is tempted when they are carried away and enticed by their own lust.

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James, we talked about, was brought up with the example of the sea near him.

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He was by the Sea of Galilee. He was close to the Mediterranean. And he brings up something like a fishing illustration.

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Now, it's hard to see unless you know the Greek. But they would use these words in fishing, you know, fishing instruction or whatever all the time.

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Deleaza menos is lured, enticed, aroused by interest in something, to sin.

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This word is never used in a good way. While excel comenos is dragged away, pulled away, taken in tow by one's own desires.

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And essentially, a fish sees the bait at the top of the water. It sees the worm.

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It sees whatever. And the fish sees the temptation.

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It's lured by the bait. But it's also lured by something intrinsic to it. It's not just the bait.

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There's something in the fish that makes it want to come up. And it grabs the hook. It takes a bite.

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And before it knows it, the fish, hooked, is reeled and pulled and dragged away.

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That's the illustration that we're seeing here. It's reeled in.

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We do the very same thing. Something has caught our eye. And before thinking it through, we take the bait and are dragged away into sin, all because of the inclinations of our own flesh.

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Because the Bible says it's by His own lust. You see that? Enticed by His own lust.

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Every man and woman are tempted. We're responsible for our sins.

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Nothing and no one else can be blamed for this except the man himself who acts on his temptation.

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And the word here is idios. Idios is one's own.

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It's His possession. It comes from Him. His own lust. It's His own.

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My own. My precious. That's what you imagine. This is His own. That's His lust.

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It doesn't say at all it's from God. You can't say the devil made me do it.

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You ever heard that before? The devil made me do it. You know, if you were to google the devil made me do it, there are literally multiple, multiple news stories throughout the last 50 years of people who have legitimately claimed insanity or claimed possession and said the devil made me do it.

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Now, I don't know what demonic activity is happening there, but it's been said many times.

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The devil made me do it. Look, I'm not saying the source of temptation can't be from the tempter.

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We see that in Scripture. The tempter can tempt. The source of the temptation may be demonic.

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It may just be of the world and the flashiness of the world. The New Testament talks a lot about the world and what it has to offer, right?

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It can be from our own flesh, from our own lust. But James makes it clear the temptation is the bait.

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The enticement to act on it is by our own lust. Okay? The bait is the temptation.

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The inclination to act on it is within our own lust. Epithumios is desire, longing, craving, lust.

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Typically, sinful desires. James uses the word more broadly here, but lust is typically with a sexual connotation, especially in the

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Word. The Bible says a lot about lust. Let me give you some here.

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It says, "...do not let sin reign in your body and obey its lusts. Put on Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh and its lusts.

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Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the lusts of the flesh. We used to live in the lusts of our flesh, but now lay aside the old self which is corrupted with lusts.

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Consider the members of your earthly body dead to lusts."

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Paul warns Timothy, "...flee youthful lusts." Peter says, "...as

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obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts. Abstain from fleshly lusts."

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We are called, my friends, to fight these feelings that are left over from the flesh.

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We are to go to war against these feelings that are left over in the flesh. Many have said, and many have longed and said, "...if

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only my flesh was drowned in the waters of my baptism."

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Amen. I wish the same thing. If only my flesh had drowned in the rivers and water of my baptism.

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But we wage war against our members until Christ comes, or we're taken home.

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John says, "...the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, these are not from the

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Father. These lusts are passing away, he says, but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

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You hear that? That's good news. He says, "...these lusts are passing away.

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They won't be here forever, but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

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Moving on to verse 15. "...then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death."

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Now, temptation is something external to us, while the lust is something from within.

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The bait is the bait. The bait is the bait. The drive to get it is in the fish.

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So the question becomes then, people have said, is temptation sin? Is temptation sin?

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Now, there are a few takes on this. I won't be able to go into all of it. I think based off of these verses and other verses where it says that Jesus is tempted and following proper hermeneutics,

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I would say the use of tempted in the temptation in Matthew 4 of Jesus is the correct word.

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Tempted. And so based off of those things, I think this is about...

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Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. I think sometimes we have to go over our definitions of temptation.

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What is temptation? Is someone being tempted to sin?

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Or are they considering the sin? Okay? Now, there's some nuance there.

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Let me explain what I'm talking about. Let me give you an illustration. Considering it and being tempted by it.

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Okay? Listen, Potiphar's wife in Genesis 39 threw herself onto Joseph.

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It said that she looked with desire at Joseph. Joseph turned so fast around and fled that she was still clutching his garment and it ripped off of him.

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Joseph ran from that woman. So who was the one who sinned?

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Was it Potiphar's wife who desired Joseph and accosted him? Or Joseph who after a millisecond ran away?

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Okay. I don't think you could say both.

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I think Potiphar's wife was the one who sinned. Now, some would say that Joseph sinned.

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There would be a camp of people who say all temptation is sin. When temptation meets us, the temptation is sin.

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And I'm trying to make that distinction here of consideration and temptation. Did Joseph look

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Potiphar's wife up and down? Did he look around to see if anyone was around?

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Maybe he thought, hey, this would be a pleasurable thing. Potiphar's out of town.

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Did he consider it? Did he look at her and think that this might be something he'd endeavor upon?

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But then he said no. No. And then he ran. Is that what Joseph did? No, that's not what

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Joseph did. It doesn't say that. He didn't do that. The fact is overcoming a temptation leaves no room for considering the sin dangling in front of you.

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Don't pat yourself on the back because you didn't do something bad. You thought about it. You considered doing it.

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That's sin, my friends. That's sin. So we can get confused on consideration and temptation.

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The temptation itself is not sin. Because the consideration of it is. Immediately rejecting the temptation is indeed resisting it.

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That's resisting it. Immediate rejection of the temptation. Samson, though, did not run when the

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Philistines hired Delilah to entice him into telling her the secret of his power.

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Samson was fooled and he lost his power because of acting on temptation and his lust and not rejecting it.

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James says temptation and one's own lust mate. You get that?

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Temptation and one's own lust, they come together and they mate. They mate together. They conceive together and become pregnant.

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Together they give birth to sin. Lust and temptation give birth to sin. External stimuli meets internal lust and they produce sin.

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Kistamaker comments on this. Desire is able to conceive when man's will no longer objects but yields.

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Just yields to it. And now let me answer a question for you.

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What is sin? What is sin? We haven't touched on this very much yet at Apology of Church, but I'll give a brief overview from the

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Hebrew text. So you know the study of God to be theology. You know the study of man to be anthropology.

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The study of salvation is soteriology. And the study of the last days is eschatology.

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But the study of sin is harmartiology. It comes actually from the

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Greek word harmatia. Which is actually our word here in verse 15 when it says gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished.

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That's harmatia right there. That word comes up 300 times in the

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New Testament. And it is the most common word used for sin. In the translation of the

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Hebrew, it is the word chata. I can't do Hebrew really well, but there's supposed to be kind of a chata in that.

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Chata is to miss the mark. To go wrong. Chata appears 600 times in the

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Old Testament. It's not accidental. It's willful, voluntary act of immorality.

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So sin is any failure to conform to God's law and standard in act, attitude, or nature.

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That's sin. In the Hebrew, avah is to twist or bend. It's the opposite of straight or righteous.

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Like a twisted mind. Twisted, perverted mind. Avah. Abar. Abar in the

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Hebrew is to cross over. To transgress. Going over the boundary. Transgressing the law.

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It's like when a parent says to their child, you've crossed the line this time. And lastly, pasha is full on rebellion to God.

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Full on rebellion against Him. There are more in the Greek, but I think you get the picture. There are many ways we sin against God.

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And the text shows that. The sin is always against God because like chata demonstrates, we fail to hit the mark that the

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Lord has set. The Lord has set the mark, and we are to hit that mark, and we miss it all the time.

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So, this is the evil child of temptation and inner lust.

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That is sin. When sin is accomplished, or comes to completion, it gives birth to something as well.

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Sin is the child of lust and temptation, but now, sin has become full grown.

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And the offspring of sin is death. When sin is full grown, it conceives.

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In the Greek here, bring forth is more reproductive language along with conceive.

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When sin has reached maturity and spread far and wide, it gives birth to death.

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Very graphic language in a way when you consider this reproductive language for sin.

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Of course, Paul uses work language if you remember from Romans. It says, for the wages of sin is death.

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So, the offspring death causes us to look back at the ancestors, to look at the parents.

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And when you take death and you look at its parent, you see sin. And when you look at the parents of sin, you see inner lust and temptation.

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Those are the root. It all starts with lust and temptation. The parent of sin and death are never

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God. You get that? That's important here in verse 15. The parent of sin and death, never

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God. Never God. The language here is honestly a little reminiscent of the seductress in Proverbs 5 -9.

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Let me read a little bit for you. In Proverbs 5, it says, for the lips of the adulteress drip honey and are smoother than oil, but in the end, she is bitter as wormwood.

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She is as sharp as a sword. The seductress's feet go down to death.

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Her steps take hold of sheol. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways are unstable.

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She does not know it. Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

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Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of her house. Proverbs 6, to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress, do not desire her beauty in your heart, nor let her capture you with her eyelids.

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For on account of a harlot, one is reduced to a loaf of bread and an adulteress hunts for the precious life.

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And it really wraps up in actually chapter 9. Chapter 8 of Proverbs personifies wisdom.

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And then chapter 9 talks about wisdom. Calls all people to come in. And then actually, the end of chapter 9 shows the adulteress calls out also from her tower.

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You have the tower of the wise, wisdom personified as a female. Then you have now the woman of folly.

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Chapter 9 of Proverbs says the woman of folly calls out as well. She calls to every man, turn in here.

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It says, but they don't know that the dead are there and that her guests are in the very depths of hell.

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When sin is full grown, it brings forth death. It is a warning that even as a Christian, we don't let sin grow for a second.

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Have assurance in the work of Christ, my friends, but be so careful with sin that it not grow and death come.

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Right? Because so many of us don't start out this Christian life thinking that we will become an apostate one.

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Now, you're talking to a Calvinist. I believe in the sovereignty of God, in election and salvation, and yet there's these warnings about apostasy.

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That's a very real thing. And John then clarifies for us, and he says, now those who went out from us were never really of us.

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So we see that. That's what apostates are. But, the warning is there.

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The risk is real. We must guard against it. And I think these verses help do that job for us.

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It's a good warning. Don't let sin become full grown. So what do we do?

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I'm wrapping up now. What do we do? This is some encouragements and admonishments to you, church.

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This is how we handle temptation. Four things.

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First, absorb the solemn warnings presented in Scripture to gain a healthy fear of God and against sin.

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But most of all, we are to run to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He Himself knows in His humanity what it was to confront temptation.

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In fact, Hebrews 2 .18 says, For since Jesus Himself was tempted in that which

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He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Brothers and sisters, if you call upon Jesus Christ for aid when you are tempted,

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He will be there in a hurry. He will. If you ask for aid, it will come.

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The Savior will strengthen you. He will remind you of what He's given you. If you call upon Christ, He will aid you to not sin.

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That is a promise. And He's given us two things in regards to this. Not only has

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Christ given you the forgiveness of sins, but in Christ's atoning work,

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He broke the power of sin. He broke the power of it. You do not have to follow the lustful inclinations of the flesh now as children of God.

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You can follow the Spirit. In fact, 1 Corinthians 10 .13 highlights this well.

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It says, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

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So 1 Corinthians 10 .13. This is often the verse that Christian radio stations use to say,

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Hey, y 'all, God will never give you more than you can bear. God will never give you more than you can bear.

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That is actually a wrong interpretation of this passage. The fact is, in God's testing of us,

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He will indeed give you more than you can bear. I don't know about you, but I've had more than I can bear sometimes in my life.

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And I'm betting that you have too. And God does that so that you will run to Him. He will give you more than you can bear so you will run to Him in your trial and in what you're enduring.

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He wants that. You come to Him. This is taken out of context when they say that.

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This verse is saying, you will never, ever be in a position now as a

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Christian where you will be forced to sin. You will never be in a position where you will be forced to act on temptation.

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Oh, my hands are tied. I have to sin here. No. No. The power of sin has been broken in you as a believer.

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God has provided a way out so that are you always angry with your family?

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There's a way out. You don't have to have outbursts anymore. Do you feel compelled to look again at more pornography?

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Good news. You don't have to look at one more piece of pornography. You have the power to not do it.

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There's a way out. You don't have to. Are you thinking of lying to your colleagues again at work to make you look better than you are?

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You don't have to anymore. There's a way out. You don't need to take the bait. God has given you escape.

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You can endure the temptation, overcome it, and flee like Joseph.

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Okay, that's number one. That's a long number one. Second thing to help you with temptation. Jesus promised the apostles that after he leaves, the helper will come.

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The helper will abide with them. The helper will abide with us. He will guide us into truth and convict us of sin.

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So I want you to make a habit of something, church. Make a habit of what I'm about to say. When you pray, ask the

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Holy Spirit, the helper, to make you more sensitive to temptation and sin. Lord, help me to see sin and temptation coming a mile off.

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Pray that. Okay? Help me to see the bait for what it is, Lord. Help me to see it so that I may course correct and move away from the sin.

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It's not good for me, God. It's not shiny even though it looks like it.

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It's not good to receive even though it looks valuable. You see, because the reality is, it says the devil can appear as an angel of light.

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Sometimes bad things can appear like the best thing right then and there. They will just be shining and dangling in front of you and look valuable, and I've got to take that.

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Don't be deceived, brethren. Don't be deceived. Pray that the

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Lord help you to not deceive yourself. So the goal is to be fast in your reaction against temptation.

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But look, if you are right now struggling, if you are fast to indulge on temptation, then

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I want you to slow down. You are moving too quickly. Slow down.

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When something is dangling before you, stop. Don't move anymore. Or consider if it's truly good or just trying to appear like it is.

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Will this honor God if I do this? Slow down. Slow down, brethren.

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And once you build the correct reflex, get faster. Flee from things at that point.

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Don't even think like Joseph did. Run away. That's what we need to get to. So if you're quick to indulge in the temptation, you need to start slowing down your life and thinking about things before you act on your emotions and on the flesh.

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But eventually, the goal is to get so fast that when you see something coming, a temptation to be angry, a temptation to yell at your kids, a temptation to look at pornography, to lust after a woman, whatever it may be, that you are quick to run away.

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That's what we're trying to get to. But slow down if you are struggling. Here's the third thing.

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Stay in the garden of the Word. Be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water meditating on God's Word day and night.

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Avoid the desert of temptation. You won't, my friends, survive in the wilderness of sin.

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Stay in God's garden of the Word. The more you are in the Scriptures, the more you can spot temptation for what it is.

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Because think about it. How did Christ fight temptation from the devil in Matthew 4?

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You already know it. He armed Himself with the sword which is called the Word of God. He used the

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Word of God. He literally quoted Scripture to defeat and disarm the tempter.

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You know, sometimes us husbands are trying to help our wives through different things, and we quote

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Scripture, or we say, you need to memorize that. That's often in our counsel. You need to memorize more

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Scripture. And oftentimes we think that's just kind of like a platitude. Okay, you think quoting

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Scripture is going to help? Oh yeah, I do. Have you read Matthew 4? If you quote

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Scripture, the devil will run away from you. You quote Scripture. Quote it.

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It's powerful. It's powerful. Don't scoff at that. Remember Scripture. I would expect someone who doesn't sharpen their sword, nor ever carry their sword, to succumb to fiery darts of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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So be on guard by being in the Word. Right? Alright, and here's the fourth recommendation for you with temptation, and it is limit your exposure to the temptation.

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That should honestly be a given, right? This should be obvious, but we often let our guard down so quickly.

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We build it up on Monday, and then our guard is down by Friday. Right? Don't do that.

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We let the tiniest crevice on our personal citadel form, which gives way for a foothold, then before we know it, temptation is climbing the ramparts.

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It's like orcs are coming over Helm's Deep and we're just like, no! Stop. Stop. Don't give a foothold.

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Don't change your conviction. You can't stop lusting after women and not finding your wife desirable because of what you watch on television, guys.

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You can't stop lusting after women at work and women that you see, and you don't find your wife desirable because you keep looking at the television.

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You keep watching that show that you know you shouldn't watch, and you're indulging, and you enjoy it, and you watch it.

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Stop watching the show. It's tempting you. It's tempting you. Don't tell me you're strong enough.

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No man is strong enough, my friends. Cut out the temptation. Ladies, do you spend money sometimes frivolously?

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Get the groceries and come home. Don't go out to all these different stores just because you want to kill time or have something to do.

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It's tempting you to spend more than what your budget allows, and you're dishonoring your husband, and he's saying, why did you get all this stuff?

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So cut the temptation. You're tempted to be a poor steward of what God has given you, and you're acting on it.

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Take the cash, only the cash that you can spend. Maybe children or teenagers are starting to curse around the family.

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They're learning to rebel around mom and dad. They're cursing around friends. Kids, stop hanging out with the neighbor folks.

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Stop hanging out with the neighbor kids. Okay? The Bible says bad company corrupts good morals, and that is a fact.

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Parents, your kid isn't strong enough to be around people who sin constantly around them.

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We need to guard them from that. We can't guard them from everything, but we can stop the influence. Cut the temptation.

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So Jesus says in figurative hyperbole, cut off your hand if it causes you to sin.

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Pluck out your eyeball if you have to. That is kind of what

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I'm coming at here. Limit your exposure to the things that tempt you to sin.

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I can't stop sinning. I can't stop doing this. Okay, tell me what you're doing. What's in front of your eyes?

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David says, let me put no wicked thing before my eyes. Well, this is what we do every night. Well, brother, cut it off.

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Take it out. Don't do it. Stop doing that. Limit the exposure to what's causing you to sin.

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Church, again, above all, I want you to remember

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God's Word. And in fact, here's something I want you to do. I had

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Andrew read Psalm 141. Read Psalm 141 again tonight in your

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Bibles. Read Psalm 141. It is literally a plea that God would help in the temptation and against sin.

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Psalm 141. Have that in your bank account. Have that to remember, okay? But you need to remember the

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Savior. There's a lot of warnings in all this. There's a lot of admonishment. And we have to remember the

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Gospel in these moments, right? Hebrews 4 .15 says, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

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So we are to look to the high priest who has satisfied divine wrath and made atonement for sins.

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When you fail, preach the Gospel to yourself. We don't do that.

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We listen to the inner monologue. You know what? You're going to fail. You're going to sin, my friends.

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You will succumb to temptation. Just remember there's a way out and the power of that sin is broken.

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But also remember, don't forget this, don't leave here today forgetting that you need to always preach the

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Gospel to yourself. Right? The inner monologue will tell you that it's works -based.

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You just failed and you no longer get to earn salvation. That's not true.

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Christ paid it in full. Remove the inner monologue and preach to yourself the

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Gospel. Remember what Christ has done. You can't remove the blood that He shook on the mercy seat.

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You can't remove the fact that Jesus Christ was on the cross and said, it is finished.

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You can't change that. It's over. Let the truth of these things drive you to the cross and remember what your

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Savior suffered. May our motivation not to have one more thing that has to be nailed to the cross, so to speak.

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So, let God's grace then allow us to walk in the new man and not the old.

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I thought it was just amazing, the very next verse in Hebrews 4 where it says that He was tempted in all ways and without sin, it says this,

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Let us, therefore, draw near to God with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.

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So, Christ's promise to you is a dual fulfillment. He will first aid us in the temptation.

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He will sympathize with you in your weakness. And then whenever we need it, my friends, in limitless fashion, is the infinite grace of Jesus Christ.

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And that is where we go in these moments. Praise God.

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Let's pray. Lord, please bless the message that went out today,

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Lord. Impact Your people. God, I know in the past I've been one to receive hard words from the

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Scripture. I've been one to feel conviction and then not do much about it,

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God. Help us in our false repentance. Help us in our false piety.

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God, mold us into the image of Christ. Make us more like You. Help us,

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Lord, to remember that we, by Your power, are able to withstand the temptation.

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Help us to flee like Joseph did in that moment. Lord, help us to do that.

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Help us to build a life that repels sin and temptation,

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Lord. And God, help us to most of all rest in the fact that You defeated it all.

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And although the ultimate child of lust and temptation and sin is death,

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You defeated death in the grave. And we have faith and trust in You with that.