S1: Anything you have to ask? Is it sin? Is sin
S1: to you? That's what the Bible says. It says whatsoever
S1: is not of faith is sin. So if I can't
S1: do it in faith, I shouldn't do it because it
S1: becomes sin.
S2: Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford,
S2: junior senior pastor of Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm
S2: Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us as we continue a
S2: message taming temptation and pastor, it sounds like you're saying,
S2: and I love how simply you put this. If we
S2: are wondering whether or not a certain thing that maybe
S2: we're tempted to do is sin or not, we don't know,
S2: it's best to err on the side of caution and
S2: not go ahead and do that thing.
S1: Well, right. And and we need to realize, you know,
S1: I used to think that there were gray areas in
S1: the Bible, things that God hadn't addressed that have, you know,
S1: contemporary application. In other words, they didn't have these things
S1: back in the day, in the Bible Day. Yeah. But
S1: we we deal with things. And so I don't know,
S1: because the Bible, it doesn't specifically state whether I should
S1: or whether I shouldn't. Well, here, this verse is so
S1: powerful because it takes away the gray areas. Can you
S1: do this in faith? It's a simple question. Yes or no?
S2: No. Explain what you mean by that. Can you do
S2: this in faith?
S1: That is, you have no doubt whatsoever, because faith and
S1: doubt are like oil and water.
S2: Okay. Yep.
S1: They will not mix. And so we're supposed to walk
S1: by faith and not by sight. So Hebrews one faith
S1: is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
S1: things not seen. Hebrews 11 six without faith it is
S1: impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God
S1: must believe that he is, and that he is a
S1: rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So then we
S1: are people of faith. Second Corinthians five seven we walk
S1: by faith and not by sight. So God wants us
S1: to live in the realm of faith. Now I've defined
S1: it over and over again, but I'll do it one
S1: more time, because there may be someone listening who didn't
S1: hear the last time I did the definition. Faith is believing.
S1: It is so, even when it's not so until it
S1: becomes so. Because God said so and so. Faith gives
S1: me insight into foresight like it's hindsight. In other words,
S1: I know I can do this in confidence if I can't.
S1: My motto is when in doubt, don't.
S2: And I think for a lot of people, that is
S2: the best possible advice that you could give them as
S2: they're facing a situation. Does that ever lead to what
S2: we would maybe call someone acting like a Pharisee then?
S1: Uh, it could, it really could. But I like what
S1: I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
S2: I won't hold that against you.
S1: I know, I know. If God can forgive me, so
S1: can you bears fans. But Chuck Noll, a former coach
S1: of the Steelers, said this. He said stubbornness is a virtue.
S1: If you're right.
S2: Mm.
S1: And so the question on the floor, then, is it right?
S1: Then you need to be stubborn about it as opposed
S1: to being pharisaical.
S2: Well, with that, let's open up our Bibles to first
S2: Corinthians ten and dive into what God's Word says on
S2: this whole topic of temptation as we continue a message
S2: simply entitled Taming Temptation. Here is Pastor Ford.
S1: Our efficiency is a deficiency without Christ. All sufficiency. Let
S1: me say that again. I like the way that play.
S1: As Rommel would say, our efficiency is a deficiency without Christ.
S1: All sufficiency. There's a there's a Chinese proverb. Here's what
S1: it says. An unguarded strength is a double weakness. So
S1: just in the area, you think you're strong, that's going
S1: to be the area that he's going to try to
S1: catch you off guard because you think you're so strong.
S1: I ain't going to never do this. I ain't never
S1: do that. Mm. Okay. Watch I hate to get the
S1: Bible on this, but but check this out. The great
S1: men and women of the Bible, did they fall in
S1: the area of their strength or in the area of
S1: their weakness? Okay, I did a little survey. Abraham. What
S1: was his strength? Obedience. He's called the father of the faithful.
S1: Where did he fail? Obedience. Noah. What was his? His, uh, main.
S1: What was his main strength? Discipline. For 120 years, he
S1: had a three word sermon, and he built a boat
S1: thousands of miles from. From water. And what did he do?
S1: Come off the boat and got drunk. He fell in
S1: the area of his discipline. What about Isaac A truth teller.
S1: And where did he fail? Telling the truth. What was.
S1: What was Moses? Strength. Meekness. What happened to him? I
S1: give you water. I'm sick and tired of you. Yeah.
S1: What was David's strength? Integrity. Where did he fall? Integrity.
S1: What was Elijah's strength? Faith. Where did he fall? Faith.
S1: What was Uzziah's strength? Adherence to God's word. Where did
S1: he fall? Failing to adhere to God's word. What was
S1: Peter's strength? Courage. What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage?
S1: Where did he fail? Courage. In unguarded strength is a
S1: double weakness. You write these down. If you're. If you're
S1: if you're keeping notes. Proverbs 1618. Proverbs 1618. Proverbs 11 two.
S1: Proverbs 11 two. Proverbs 1533. No escape, no exemptions. And
S1: if we understand and apply it, we'll see then. No excuses,
S1: no excuses. It says, But God is faithful. Now you
S1: know what our first excuse is for most of us?
S1: The devil made me do it. The devil made me
S1: do it. Now, granted, he does play a role in temptation.
S1: You know what he'll do? He'll whisper to us. It's
S1: okay to look at. It's alright to listen to. Ain't
S1: no problem with being there. So do this, do that.
S1: One's not going to hurt you. How about this one?
S1: This will be the last It's time.
S3: To go home.
S1: Look, just a little is not going to hurt you. See,
S1: the devil is a camouflage expert. He makes sin look good.
S1: What does he do, pastor? Glad you asked. He calls
S1: our attention to sin. That's our eyes. First we see it.
S1: Then he causes our attraction to sin. That's the mind.
S1: Then we sense it. Then he captures our affection for sin.
S1: That's the emotions. We settle for it. Then he corrupts
S1: our ambition in sin. That's the volition we serve it.
S1: It's a process. All you got to do is look
S1: and see. When he tempted Eve with the Word of God,
S1: what he did to the Word of God. I mean,
S1: he distorted it. He said, come on, hath God said
S1: he knew if he came up and just said, The
S1: Bible doesn't teach this. No, no. Is this the right interpretation?
S1: Well guess what? Some things don't need an interpretation, do they?
S1: Like Romans chapter one, when he says homosexuality is an abomination.
S1: Anybody remember what an abomination is? Sin means to miss
S1: the mark. You got a bull's eye, hermesia. And it
S1: means an archer shooting his arrow. And he completely misses
S1: the bull's eye. You know what an abomination is? You
S1: ain't even aiming in the right direction. Ain't no way
S1: you can hit it because you ain't even aiming in
S1: the right direction. Look, I tell you all the time,
S1: you can't defeat the devil you've been dating all week.
S1: Can't cast them out if you're going to bed with him. Satan,
S1: I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. Oh, shut
S1: up and get in his bed. Adrian Rogers, the late,
S1: great preacher of the gospel, used to say this. We
S1: used to have strapless gowns. Now we have gown straps.
S1: Now people come downtown and what they shouldn't come downstairs in.
S1: And some of us get spiritual and blame God. Remember
S1: what Adam did. Who did he blame? Holler it out. Okay. Wow.
S1: I am so relieved that you all said that. Finally. Yeah,
S1: he blamed God because God is emphatic in the Hebrew text.
S1: The woman you gave me. This is your fault. And
S1: a whole lot of people do that, don't they?
S4: Well, he gave me all these desires.
S1: You know why he won't hook a brother up like that?
S3: Mhm.
S1: And so James reminds us. James 113 we're tempted when
S1: we're drawn away from our own lusts. Anybody who was
S1: here when we when we when we talked about that,
S1: we said, James talks about the inception of sin, then
S1: the deception of sin, then the reception of sin, then
S1: the conception of sin. And he says it's a process.
S1: And so what do we do? We need to understand
S1: that it coerces our emotion, it captures our mind, then
S1: it controls our will. Chinese proverb says his way. First
S1: the man takes a drink, then the drink takes a drink.
S1: Then the drink takes the man. Then that's what happens
S1: to us. The little boy was told not to eat
S1: the cookies. He got caught. Here's his explanation. I got
S1: on the chair to smell them and my teeth got stuck.
S1: Can I ask you a question? What's your teeth stuck two.
S3: Mm.
S1: So you got to be careful. Why? Because the Bible
S1: says that God will allow us to have what we
S1: want that he doesn't want us to have, so that
S1: we won't want it. Remember, they were crying in the wilderness.
S1: We tired of this manna. Man in the morning, man
S1: of corn flakes. Man of sandwiches. Man of casserole. I'm
S1: tired of manna, man A fried man, a baked manna,
S1: a steam manna. Grill manna.
S4: I'm tired of manna.
S1: And God said okay, I'm tired of you complaining about
S1: what I. Okay, so here's what you got me. Go on,
S1: take the meat. And it says he sent leanness. He
S1: gave them their request but sent leanness into their soul.
S1: You know what that means? That God said, since this
S1: is the decision that you want to make, then you will.
S1: That will become the grid from which you make all
S1: your decisions. Oh, no. Don't. The worst thing God can
S1: do is let you have your own way. Have you
S1: learned that yet? Have you learned that yet? I have
S1: learned that painfully. The worst thing he can do is
S1: let me have what I want. And there are many
S1: of us who. Who. Hey. We okay? And I was
S1: going to say I was going to talk about that, but,
S1: I mean, there's people that are hooked up with people
S1: that they want it so bad that they wish they
S1: could get rid of them suckers now. Ooh, what did
S1: I what what was wrong with me? What was I on?
S1: What was I on? Be careful what you want. God
S1: may let you have it. So don't be like Adam
S1: and Eve. They tried to hide it. They tried to
S1: cover it. They tried to blame somebody else. It's not
S1: my fault. I can't help it. Everybody's doing it. Nobody's perfect.
S1: I was pressured into it. I didn't know it was wrong.
S1: My question would be if we didn't know it was wrong.
S1: Why do we make sure nobody was around when we
S1: did it? If we didn't know it was wrong, why
S1: did we always wait to do it at night? If
S1: we didn't. Okay. All right. I know. Hey. Can I.
S1: Can I tell you something? Anything you have to ask.
S1: Is it sin? Is sin to you? That's what the
S1: Bible says. It says whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
S1: So if I can't do it in faith, I shouldn't
S1: do it because it becomes sick. Yeah.
S2: It's convicting for some of us, isn't it? You're listening
S2: to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford Jr.
S2: A message entitled Taming Temptation, and we're going to get
S2: back to this message in just one moment. I want
S2: to let you know if you're ever in the Chicago area,
S2: you can visit Christ Bible Church of Chicago and hear
S2: Pastor Ford speak live. He'll get all the info you
S2: need when you come to our website and click the
S2: about link, and we'd love for you to connect with
S2: us on social media like Facebook and Twitter. You can
S2: access our Facebook page. Leave your comments there. Even listen
S2: to today's program directly from the Facebook page. So go
S2: ahead and like us. So we show up in your newsfeed.
S2: But right now let's continue the teaching. Here again is
S2: Pastor Ford.
S1: So he wants us to understand that's Romans 1423. For
S1: those of you who need the reference, we contain temptation.
S1: If we understand and apply these principles about temptation, here's
S1: the last one. There's no exploitation, no exploitation. God guarantees
S1: the victory. Look at the word. But, but, but you know.
S1: You know what it means. The front side of me
S1: is kicked to the curb by what's on the back
S1: side of me. But. So I have a I in
S1: Ephesians two four. I'm dead. Depraved, but God. So my purpose.
S1: Genesis 512 But God meant it for good. You meant
S1: it for evil. First Corinthians two nine and ten. My perception. Uh,
S1: then Philippians 419 my prosperity. These are buts that cover
S1: my pardon, my purpose, my perception, my prosperity. Now. But
S1: God will now allow you to be tempted above. You're
S1: able to stand, but will, with the temptation make a
S1: way of escape. Here's all I want you to see.
S1: I can't go into the whole thing because I gotta
S1: be done now. But here's what he talks about. He
S1: talks about the person that says there's no expectation. God
S1: said it, that we can overcome it. That settles it.
S1: There is a way of escape. Now we gotta learn
S1: how to deal with it. So. So you holler it
S1: out real quick. Come on. I need to shut it down.
S1: But he gave us a way to deal with everything.
S1: And if we deal with it the way God says,
S1: deal with it, we've got a better chance of defeating it.
S1: So then God said that this person who said it
S1: said that we can defeat the devil. How? I said
S1: we can defeat the devil. How? Okay, we fight. The
S1: devil wears it. Found. Every Christian ought to know this.
S1: If this is the weapons, how come we don't know this?
S1: How come I say this over and over again. Write
S1: this down. Listen. The Word of God is your only hope.
S1: And so you need to know that what's what's the
S1: Bible say that James chapter four six through eight, it says,
S1: submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will
S1: flee from you. We are to do like Jesus did
S1: in Matthew four. He fought the devil. He hit him
S1: with the Word of God. It is written, it is written,
S1: it is. That's the only thing the devil is going
S1: to run from is the word. Now how are you
S1: going to feed him?
S4: And you don't know it?
S1: So he come and say, God, don't abandon you. He'll
S1: never leave me nor forsake me. I don't care how
S1: it looks. He's there. I can't see him, but he's working.
S1: I don't believe it. You're not going to get what
S1: you need. But my God shall supply all my needs.
S1: It may not come in the amount I want, the
S1: way I want, but God's going to provide. He said it.
S1: I'm just looking for it. I believe him, I trust him.
S1: I don't care what my circumstances tell me. So you
S1: fight the devil. What do you do with the flesh?
S1: You flee the flesh. Second Timothy 222. You got to get.
S1: You can't fight the flesh. And I don't know why
S1: we keep trying. You alone with somebody and maybe you even,
S1: you know, engage or whatever. Now, y'all, you done had
S1: a nice night. It's a godly night. You ain't ate
S1: dinner and everything. Come on up for a cup of coffee.
S1: You know doggone well it going to be more than
S1: a cup of coffee. Don't go up there. Don't. Then
S1: she going to come up? Well, let me light the aromatherapy. Why?
S1: You want to light them candles? We're here. Put Luther on,
S1: I like that. Are you crazy? It's not.
S4: Going to.
S1: Happen. You're not going to keep yourself pure. I don't
S1: care how godly you are. The smells hitting your nostril.
S1: You looking at that woman or that man? Your eyes
S1: all filled with desire. Your heart filled with love. You say. Well,
S1: it's time to go now. God bless you. Praise the Lord.
S1: Come on, let's pray. That ain't going to happen. Alright.
S1: That ain't going to happen. You don't believe me? There's
S1: some folk who know what I'm talking about. They're just
S1: looking real holy right now. They ain't know what I'm
S1: talking about. And so it's the person. But then the
S1: promise you see in this little segment here, this little paragraph,
S1: there's a person, there's a promise. Then he talks about
S1: the parameters, then he talks about the power. And then
S1: what do we do with the world? We faith the world,
S1: love not the world, the things in the world, but
S1: all the world. Lust of the eyes, the lust of
S1: the flesh and pride of life. And these things are
S1: not of God. And he says, first John five four,
S1: this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.
S1: We got different weapons for different things, and we've got
S1: to use them. So we we flee the flesh, we
S1: fight the devil, we face the world. And God says, listen, you,
S1: you've got to do this. You've got to do this.
S1: Will I close? It came out in 1985. It was
S1: called Fright Night. Roddy McDowell, Chris Sarandon and William Ragsdale.
S1: Charlie was played by Peter Vincent. And you know what
S1: took place there? Fright night was about Dracula, and he
S1: was coming after Roddy McDowell was the professor who knew
S1: how to defeat him. And he told the young man,
S1: this is how you defeat him. He, he, you know,
S1: blessed holy water, garlic and a cross. And if you've
S1: never seen it, it's a it's a it's a fascinating part. Uh,
S1: Charlie is being accosted by Dracula, And so he takes
S1: the cross and he puts it up.
S4: Low.
S1: And Dracula goes.
S4: Ah ha ha ha ha!
S1: Goes up, grabs the cross, crushes it in his face.
S1: And Roddy Mcdowall's got this look on his face like,
S1: wait a minute. Why isn't this working? And Dracula looks
S1: at him and says, you're wondering why it's not working.
S1: Because if you don't.
S4: Believe.
S1: It, it doesn't work. I came to tell somebody today.
S1: If you don't believe it, the cross doesn't work. But
S1: our victory was obtained at Calvary. So I say it
S1: all the time. We don't fight for victory. We fight
S1: from the victory that Christ won at Calvary. So then
S1: I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I,
S1: but Christ lives in me, and the life I now
S1: live in the flesh I live by the faith of
S1: the Son of God who loved me. And so what
S1: needs to happen? I've got to get more of Christ,
S1: to feel me, to control me. Because all I want
S1: to do is act like Jesus acted when he was tempted. Well,
S1: I can't do that in my flesh. I've got to
S1: do that in my faith. So then I've got to
S1: release Jesus Christ, who is in me in all of
S1: his fullness, because he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
S1: And in him I am complete. That means my completeness
S1: has to do with my victory. My victory is in Christ.
S1: My joy is in Christ. My peace is in Christ.
S1: It's all in Christ. And so what I need to
S1: do is I don't need to try to tame temptation myself.
S1: It's already been tamed. It's already been defeated. What did
S1: Paul say? But thanks be to God, who gives us
S1: the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.
S2: What a great reminder that is as we wrap up
S2: this teaching on taming temptation. The victory is ours in Christ.
S2: So important to keep those last two words in mind,
S2: isn't it? Well, this short series of messages from First
S2: Corinthians chapter ten are called taming Temptation. And if you
S2: missed any of them, you can go back and listen
S2: again by coming to Treasure Truth radio.org. You know, pastor,
S2: there are all sorts of voices in culture that are
S2: bombarding us with messages that are so contrary to God's
S2: Word and to what Scripture says. And I think one
S2: of the reasons that listeners may want to consider giving
S2: a gift to support is that Moody Radio and Treasure
S2: Truth can help us stand firm.
S1: Amen. Because Moody Network will give us the gospel straight,
S1: no chaser. And we don't want to mix anything with
S1: the Word of God, because if you dilute it, you
S1: pollute it. And you know, Steve, I went on an
S1: all fruit diet and I gained weight and I couldn't
S1: understand what happened. I mean, you know, all I had
S1: was apple pie. Peach cobbler. Huh? You know, you see.
S2: Where you're going?
S1: Here you get. Yeah, yeah. That everything I added to
S1: it polluted it and took away its nutritional value. That's
S1: what's happening with the word of God today. Hey, Moody
S1: encourages all of us not to be politically correct, but
S1: to be biblically correct.
S2: Well, you can help us do that to to share
S2: the truth of God's Word with those who will come
S2: across this program and across Moody Radio by giving a
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S2: Thanks to our producers, Amy Rios and Ryan McConaughey. For
S2: Pastor Ford, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth is a production
S2: of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.