Temptation and sin

Q. Jesus seemed to infer that to think the sin is to do it, and elsewhere said it is not a sin to be tempted. Where is the line between the one and the other? What exactly is the mechanism of a devil's tempting us? Is he putting thoughts into our heads using telepathic communication (without revealing his own presence) and therefore making us think it is our own thought and proof of our own corruption? How do we distinguish between a devil-made thought and our own thought? Remember Jesus telling Peter that Satan was speaking through him? I'm sure that was news to Peter.

A. Because his heart is entombed in the lusts of the flesh, fallen man is attracted to the sounds and sights of the carnival attractions with or without the carnival barker.

Q. But how can you blame the depressed from reaching for comfort from alcohol or drugs? He did not necessarily cause the depression that makes him vulnerable to addiction.

A. They're reaching out in the darkness...and finding it

Q. They may be in the dark, true. But what sets the dark minded people away from the light minded people?

A. There's different ways to put it and many different supporting verses, but a favorite is:

Trust and Obey

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21.

I assume we're talking about a believer?

Q. But I try to put away such filthiness and yet filthy thoughts keep invading my mind. What do I do about those thoughts?

A. I'll take that as a 'yes' to my question...

When we are baptized into Christ, we are baptized into his death as well as his life.. Both have a mark on the transformed mind of a believer---one eliminates the negative and the other accentuates the positive.. As for being one with His death, we are to be dead to the lusts of the flesh just as a corpse in a casket is dead to the outside stimuli of the world---also known as the crucified flesh, or circumcised heart. However, since a believer's heart and mind still exist in the flesh while on earth, we need to be wearing God's truth like a helmet. Only then will we live in the place of the crucified flesh where the Spirit flourishes in love.--which is the point of Col 3:1-6, 1Peter 4:1-10, most of Romans 6, most of Galatians 5---among others. So, what is it like to view the world's enticements through the eyes and ears of the circumcised heart? Read Phil 3:8.

Q. Ok, but we have wandered away from the original question, which is: What is the difference between thinking bad thoughts and actually sinning? Think of those boys who killed their fellow students at Columbine Colorado, for example. What if they had merely thought the evil thing but did not do it and later actually repented of even having thought it? I'll bet there are thousands who are of this type.

A. In the eyes of God, as revealed at the Sermon on the Mount; one man has evil thoughts and acts on them...another man has the same evil thoughts and does not act on them, both are guilty of sin. If they are unconverted, they need to repent and receive the word of God unto salvation..If they are believers, they need to repent and continue receiving the word (trusting and obeying) unto sanctification---that is, spiritual growth.

Q. I repent of being an alcoholic. But I can't quit. What am I to do?

A. You need to join a local body of Godly believers that are confessing their faults to one another and carrying one another as they are praying and ministering their gifts to one another. The Lord wants to build you up, and his tool box is at the local assemblies.

Steve

God is the Gospel

Friends,

Below is just a quick gospel rant born out of gospel-intentional conversations for the last several months with lost people, especially with Jehovah Witnesses I've been meeting with since last October. They talk so much about "paradise earth" but speak seldom of our Creator and Redeemer who is the source of all our blessings (Eph 1:3). I understand that their blindness is a result of "the god of this age [who] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel"...(2 Cor 4:4)

However, while dwelling upon these things, I've just been struck by God's awesome plan of salvation...and how it's good for my heart to be reminded that my salvation in Christ is not merely a means to a different end (ie: new heaven/earth) -- but rather God has made Christ the means and the end! Heaven is heaven, because God is there --without God, it might as well be hell. As i've heard it said before, God is the gospel...we are saved from Him, by Him, to Him and for Him! I pray that if I preach this enough to myself I will treasure Christ all the more...and if I keep sharing this with the lost, by God's grace he will show them "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6)


We are saved from God (Eph 2:1-3)
We are saved by God (Eph 2:4-5)
We are saved to God (Eph 2:7)
We are saved for God (Eph 1:6,12,14)

With His love,

Jay

No one has ascended to heaven - John 3:13

"And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man" John 3:13

Q. Okay, here's the thing I'm wondering about...
Jesus said "no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man". But then there's Enoch and Elijah who, I guess, were taken to heaven, even 2 Kings 2:11 says Elijah was taken in a whirlwind to Heaven.

A. Jesus is essentially saying to Nicodemus that He has the words of eternal life, and is connecting himself to God's way ---stated in Deut. 30---- of freely distributing His words of life to man.

"For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it? Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it? But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it" Deut 30:11-14

Those who now have received the words of life that have come down from heaven are on the "distribution team"---like Paul---and all of us.

But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down [from above] Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, [even] in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; Rom 10:6-8

In other words, we don't have to be like Indiana Jones, "In Search of the Words of Life"...God sends them down from heaven and they are distributed freely by his people.

To have doubts about John 3:13 because Enoch and Elijah were received up to heaven misses the point of the imagery----i.e. Enoch and Elijah weren't climbing up to heaven in order to seek and obtain God's words of life.

Tempted in every way, yet was without sin - Heb. 4:15

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Heb 4:15

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Eph. 2:3

But each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,"Rom. 8:3

Q. What does "we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are" --- mean to those who believe Jesus is God ?

A. Two basic ways a believer's heart is tempted:

• A) To be pulled through the lusts of the flesh toward things that pass away
  
• B) To feint in well doing because of the pressure of the crucible.

Q. What nature did Jesus have ?

A. Jesus was not by nature a child of wrath...try as the tempter did in the wilderness, the allures of all that which is passing away (1Jn 2:15-17) held no attraction to him.. In other words, he was born with a heart that had no need of flesh circumcision.

Q. How can Jesus be tempted "in every way" and not have "evil desires" which is temptation ?

A. The ingredients of temptation are 1) The tempter (Satan), 2) the temptation 3) the tempted (heart of man)

Type A temptations - The heart of fallen man is entombed in the flesh with its lusts. Jesus was born with no such "entombment" therefore those things of the world held no attraction..In terms of Romans 6, He was born "dead to sin."

Type B temptations- The continuation through the "well doing" of Calvary was Jesus' great temptation---having nothing to do with the type A temptations--- and although Jesus prayed in Gethsemane to not be led to drinking that cup, at no time was his ultimate desire anything but to go where the Father led. (i.e "lead me not into temptation...nevertheless not my will but Thine be done")

Steve