Did I do That?

Has anyone here ever had a time in their life when they felt like they should have shared the gospel to someone and didn’t? Like God opened the door for you to witness to someone and you shut it. Or perhaps you were a terrible example to someone around you and maybe you think that the reason this person is not a Christian now is because of you. Has anyone here ever prayed and witnessed to someone year after year and they just never seemed to get it? Maybe your kids or a sibling, maybe even a spouse. I, at one time or another in my life, have done all these things. I have literally cried for letting down, not just God again, but that person that I should have been witnessing to. Wondering if that was their last chance to hear the gospel and if they died right now they will go to hell and it will be my fault.
My goal today is to show you, in the scriptures, the truth behind all that. Can my actions really dictate what happens in the kingdom of God? Should I feel guilty if someone I know never seems to accept Christ? Is it my fault? I am not going to go too far into doctrine today because there is not enough time nor is that my main objective here today.
Let’s read today’s text…
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
(Joh 3:1-8)
First of all let’s start with who this Nicodemus is. He is a ruler of the Jews, a part of the Sanhedrin. He was a wise wealthy person, not someone easily converted. He was raised much like Paul would have been and it took a supernatural experience for Paul to be converted. He came by night probably to investigate Jesus not as a ruler or a Pharisee but for a personal interest. He doesn’t see Jesus as Christ at this point, I don’t believe, but he knows that Jesus is from God because of the things that he witnessed Jesus doing. Jesus’ actions caused him to look further. If we put this to application we can see that actions are used by God to draw in believers. If we walk around with peace in the face of turmoil and courage in the face of fear, if we life a life of integrity even when others know that we could have so much more if we would just stretch the truth a little bit, then others will look at us and say you could not be doing this if God was not with you. Notice that Nicodemus did not come to Jesus and say how do I “get saved” or go to heaven. He would have already known what the law says about this. By his belief if he followed the laws and sacrifices, his place in heaven would have already been secured. Jesus knew who He was talking to and got right to the point of correcting Nicodemus that He was the only way to heaven.
My point in going over all that was to point out that even the most difficult, stubborn, intellectual people can be converted to Christ. And it may begin with your obedience in one little thing.

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart." Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
(1Co 1:19-20)
Let’s go to the end of today’s text and read the last part again.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
It is important for us to witness, to proclaim the glory of God and to show by example God’s love. You wouldn’t hide your light under a bushel would you? 1Co 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. God does use us for His glory. That, after all, is the purpose of our existence…To glorify God. But, we do not control God or his plans. God will complete His plans in every soul whether you are a part of it or not. He will use others if you are not willing or He can use nobody like He did with Paul and his vision.
For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
(Rom 9:15-16)
That does not mean that I should feel guilty the rest of my life for not witnessing to someone in my past. It means that I need to be ready the next time that God wants to use me. I need to study and show myself approved that He would choose me to be His mouthpiece. But God will have His way no matter what. You cannot do anything to stop or change that. But you may have the opportunity to be a part in it!

“The wind blows on those who know they have no breath, and that they must have the breath of God Himself in order to truly live.” JD Hatfield

To Judge Or Not To Judge

"Judge not, that you be not judged.
(Mat 7:1-6)

This text is widely used by people who want to defend a habit or lifestyle that does not glorify God. I am sure most everyone has at one time heard “You can’t judge me.” Or “The Bible says that you are not supposed to judge me.” In a way they are right. The words “judge not” are in the Bible. What they don’t realize is that it does not mean judge in the way that we think of judge today. The word judge comes from the Greek word “Krino”. This word has many definitions. Strong’s defines it with several different words such as… Distinguish, decide, to try, to punish, to avenge, conclude, to condemn, decree, determine, esteem, go to law, ordain, call in question, to sentence.
With this many definitions it could be difficult to determine what scripture was teaching us. Or you could pick out one of these definitions and make the argument that nobody has any business telling you that you are wrong or being deceived. One such example would be the definition “to call in question”. If this were the case than evangelism and apologetics, which is defending the faith, and even the Bible would be wrong. Of course we know that this is not true. So how do we know which definition applies? We look at the whole text and determine what the entire text is saying. Does the application that we believe to be accurate line up with the Bible as a whole?
If I walked up to you and a friend of yours and said “You are great, you are a strong faithful Christian that is an encouragement to all that observe you. I don’t believe that either one of you would jump up to argue with me or tell me to quit judging us. I would be doing what Paul tells the Thessalonians in chapter 5 of his first letter.
Yet I would be judging them. But I would be judging them in a good way. So let’s read the rest of the text and try to determine in what way, am I not to judge.

(Verses 2-7) For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

The text is speaking of arrogant people who think that they are better than everyone else and are unjustly criticizing those around them. Remember, this is towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus is speaking to a very diverse crowd. Not even necessarily Christians. Scripture tells us that the people were there to primarily seek healing from Jesus. Not to follow him because He was Christ. These are the people He is speaking to. Not to mature Christians. Mature Christians should be able to help or counsel the immature, deceived or young Christians without criticizing or condemning. As mature Christians we should attempt to direct or lead with love and compassion. We should judge rightly and never with a spirit of revenge or jealousy. We should judge rightly by observing the fruit generated by ones life. Not on a single occurrence that happened in ones life.
“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment."
(Joh 7:24) Does the fruit line up with the Word?
In Matthew the Bible tells us not to judge and in John and various other places it tells us to judge. Is the Bible contradictory? No, there is judging rightly and judging wrongly. There are things or ways that we are to judge and things and ways that we are not to judge.
We should not judge the heart or the intentions of another. God will judge that.
Rightly judging is reproving others and it is our duty to do that.

1Th 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
1Th 5:12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,
1Th 5:13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
1Th 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

What the Bible is saying here in Thessalonians and in Matthew is that when we do judge then we need to do it in a loving, encouraging, and patient way, the way that we would like to be judged. The way that we should judge ourselves.
1Co 11:31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
We should be judging rightly ourselves and everything around us. We should judge our actions, our words and the actions and words of others. You should be judging what you are reading right now.
Teachers should be held to a higher level of judging than others. In Titus chapter one, we see that Paul has left Titus to appoint elders and overseers over the churches. We see some of the ways that he was to judge the people to determine their worthiness for the position.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you-- if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.
(Tit 1:5-11)
I submit to you that this does not just apply to elders. It applies to all that are followers of Christ and we must be constantly judging, reproving, and rebuking one another within the church and outside the church. Satan comes as a sheep, not as a wolf, to deceive us. We need others around us to judge us and our actions because they will see things that we cannot because we are deceived. Yes we must go to church when we are saved. Those that will not submit to being judged rightly are those that are not rightly judging themselves. They judge on their own self worth rather than Christ’s worth.
Judge not that you be not judged. Nobody wants to be criticized unjustly nor have their motives assumed upon. However, I do want to be judged rightly. It is good for me. It teaches me. I do not want to be deceived by the Devil and everyone around me saying that they knew I was and did nothing to help me.
This is not to change what the word is saying in Matthew but this may help you to see the difference between “judge not that you be not judged” and judge rightly that you be judged rightly. It is discerning with discretion.

COPY CAT

Several years ago there seemed to be this big new craze with the initials WWJD. What Would Jesus Do? While this sounds like a wonderful Christian concept, to say to your self when you’re faced with a decision, what would Jesus do if it were Him in my situation? Perhaps thinking of that phrase stopped someone from doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. I think the more appropriate question would be… what did Jesus do? Perhaps you’re thinking that Jesus could not have experienced everything while he was here. There were no televisions that tempted him to be lustful or gluttonous. There were no cars to tick him off when they pass you on the highway doing about 80 miles an hour. There were no cell phones to get angry with when they don’t work. And there were no all you can eat buffets on every other corner! But if we look at the roots of these situations we will see that he was tempted with all fleshly desires. There are no new temptations that Jesus did not confront that you have to and you can’t say… Jesus just wouldn’t understand what I am going through. I think it was JD Hatfield that once explained to me that Jesus’ temptations were actually much greater than ours because he never gave in. Not ever. We have moments of weakness where we give in to our fleshly desires but then when we give in it is no longer a temptation. It is a sin. Jesus never gave in; He never sinned, so the temptation would have just gotten stronger and stronger. He experienced more temptation as man than we could ever bear. The important thing is to know enough of Jesus’ character to know what he would do or read enough biblical history to know what Christ did do.
I do think that we should do our best to imitate Christ while He was on earth, as much as is humanly possible. But as far as I can see there appears to be a lot of confusion about what part of His life do we want to imitate. Some only want to imitate the loving part of Christ, some the judgment part, some the healing part, some the miracle part. Very few seem interested in imitating all of Christ’s attributes. By the way I am not just speaking of others, I am speaking of myself. We seem to forget that a large part of his time on earth was suffering and being a servant to others.
Lets look at Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8;
Php 2:5-8 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, (6) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (8) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Do we want to imitate Christ’s humbleness and become a servant of others? Are we willing to imitate His obedience to the point of death? Most of us can’t be obedient to the point of missing lunch or missing our favorite TV show let alone to death. It all starts with a desire to please our Lord and Savior which can only be there because it has been placed in you. Your flesh does not seek after the things of God.
Php 3:9-10 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-- (10) that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Because of Him and His righteousness we should count it joy to suffer for Christ. Because of his righteousness we can become righteous and become like Him as in we become resurrected from the dead. So if you are seeking and do have a desire then praise God, He has placed that desire in you. So we should be a good steward of this, the greatest gift one could ever receive.
I’m afraid that most of us would have to be honest and say that I want to imitate Christ as long as it doesn’t hurt. We cannot pick and choose what parts of Christ we want to imitate. It is all or nothing.
Let me explain.
1Pe 2:19-21 for this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. (20) For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. (21) For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
Jesus would not have given us an example of how to act when suffering if, in Christ, we should never suffer. Jesus suffered, who do we think we are if we think that we should not suffer? We make ourselves like gods and somehow think that if we imitate the actions of Jesus than we shouldn’t have to endure the same suffering. We must maintain the proper perspective. Imitating the character of Jesus is good if your goal is to learn, obey and glorify Him. But when your goal is to become as good as Jesus, of course everybody gasps and says “I would never do that”, but if we think that we can attain salvation by our works (which would be imitating Christ) then we think of ourselves as a god and savior. We are not!
When you woke up this morning were you God? No? Then we need to stop acting like it. It is not that we want to suffer, but we should be willing to suffer.
Charles Spurgeon writes…
If so, you are in a fair way to imitate Christ. But do not seek to copy him until you are bathed in the fountain filled with blood drawn from his veins. It is not possible for you to do so; your passions will be too strong and corrupt, and you will be building without a foundation, a structure, which will be about as stable as a dream. You cannot mould your life to his pattern until you have had his spirit, till you have been clothed in his righteousness
1Th 1:6 and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,
Why then is it so important to imitate Christ if it is not really about works? Good question. I am really glad you asked. There are several reasons.
To be an example to others -
Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1 tells the Corinthians to be an imitator or him, as he is of Christ. So Paul imitated Christ so that others would see Christ in him and be able to imitate Christ through his example.
Because we are instructed to in the Word –
Paul in Eph. Chapter 5 tells the Ephesians to be imitators of God, as beloved children. As a young child wants to imitate his dad, we should want to imitate our father in heaven. Not that we will ever attain to His glory, but that we should desire to be more like Him. Remember the devil wanted to imitate God as well. But he wanted His glory not to glorify Him.
To be a witness to the unsaved –
2Ti 2:10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
John Piper writes…Our imitation of Christ points others to Him. Our suffering is crucial, but Christ’s alone saves. Therefore, let us imitate his love, but not take His place.
Now we have some reasons why we should, lets look at how. In real life how does this look. I quoted Eph. Chapter 5 verse 1 earlier; now let’s look a little further in verse 2. Verse 1 says to be an imitator of God, verse 2 tells us to walk in love, as Christ loved us.
Eph 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
If you’re still wondering what that means the rest of the chapter lays it all out for you. Stay away from sexual immorality, all impurity, all covetousness. Don’t be filthy, don’t be foolish, and don’t tell crude jokes. The list goes on and on about what to stay away from.
1Jn 4:16 so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
1Jn 4:17 by this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

He is what? He is perfect in love. Therefore we should attain to be perfect in love.

1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends.

We need to imitate Him because it is the right thing to do, because it glorifies God, because we love Him, and because we want to, or at least we want to want to...but even when we fail, we look to Him and realize the reason we can or want to do any of this anyway is because He has already done it for us, and it is His righteousness, His glory, His love, His "want to", and His perfect life that counts for us. JD Hatfield

WICKED GOOD

As some of you already know, I grew up in the back woods of Maine. If any of you are familiar at all with Maine than you know that we have some speech challenges to say the least. We use a lot of slang phrases and we use them with a lot of accent. I brought my family on vacation to Maine several years ago and they had the hardest time understanding what the locals were saying. I had to be a translator of sorts. Even though I have lost most of my accent I can still understand the accent and slang quite well. As a matter of fact, after about an hour of being around my family from Maine I revert back to talking like them. One of the odd phrases that we used was “wicked good”. Sounds like an oxymoron doesn’t it? Is it wicked or is it good? It actually means “really good”.
I started thinking about that phrase, a phrase I haven’t said before now in years, and I think that there can be a “wicked good”. Not in the sense of “really good” but in the sense of a bad good. I know, it sounds crazy doesn’t it? Hear me out and I think that you will, not hear something new that you have never heard, but hear something that will put a brighter light on a principle that is consistent throughout the Word of God. I am going to use two primary verses for our text; they are Hebrews 6:1 and Hebrews 9:14. I am going to throw in verse 13 in chapter 9 just for application.
Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Heb 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
(Heb 9:14)
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. These are the only two verses in the New Testament that have the phrase “dead works”. In the first verse it is more of a change from a life of nothing but dead works, to a life with no dead works. Like a sinner at the point of salvation. To put away the old dead works and start with new works in faith. The second verse in chapter 9 seems to refer to sanctification of dead works as more of a process of removal.
What are dead works, and what is the difference between dead works, works that lead to death, and live works, works that lead to life?
DEAD WORKS ARE …
Works that have no eternal value,
1Pe 2:12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Does the work show others the love of Christ and lead others to salvation?

Works that have no faith.
(Jas 2:14)
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?(Jas 2:15)If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,(Jas 2:16)and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?(Jas 2:17)So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
If faith without works is dead than works without faith is a dead work. Faith and good works go hand in hand.

Works that do not bring glory to God,
(1Pe 4:11)
whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies--in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Mat 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Does the work give glory to God or to something else? Anything other that God is a dead work.

Now that we have learned about what dead works are you are probably wondering how does the wicked good illustration apply to all this. Dead works are not necessarily evil works. As a matter of fact they may downright appear to be a good work but provide no useful function for the kingdom of God. Although having some humanitarian value it lacks life if it is not done with proper motive.
We all know that there are people in this world that believe that if you do more good deeds than bad than they have earned the right into Heaven. But good deeds done with the expectation of payment are not good deeds at all. It is simply a job. Rom 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. Heaven is a gift, not payment for services rendered.

“Without Christ exalting faith, our deeds will signify nothing but rebellion.” John Piper
Good deeds do not get you any closer to Heaven than bad deeds get you closer to Hell. Neither one is true. This is not a tug of war event that hinges on what you do. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No man cometh to the Father except through His Son, by grace through faith, not by works lest any man should boast.
This is not to say that all good deeds are bad. What is the motive behind them? Even our good deeds, if not done with the sole purpose of glorifying God, are dead works.
Isa 64:6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away
(Col 3:17)
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.We have to be careful of our motives…
Has anyone ever heard of the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes? Well, Calvin is a hyper-active little boy with a wild & vivid imagination, & his companion, Hobbes, is a tiger. Well, in one cartoon Calvin & Hobbes were lying in the shade of a tree on a summer afternoon discussing the important things of life. Calvin says, "What if there is no heaven? What if this is all we get?" Hobbes answers, "Well, if this is all we get I guess we’ll just have to accept it." Calvin replies, "Yeah, but if I’m not going to be rewarded for my good deeds, I want to know it now."
If we are only in it for the reward than we will get our reward in this life and this life leads to death, making it a dead work even though it was a good deed.

When was the last time you prayed and asked forgiveness for your “good” deeds? I never had.
Rom 2:6-8 He will render to each one according to his works: (7) to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; (8) but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.


Mat 7:22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'

2Co 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jer 23:6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'

The only works that are acceptable to God are works of righteousness glorifying Him and we do not have the ability to be righteous. Christ in us is our righteousness and He acts through us to fulfill His works.

DON"T FEED THE CAT

My wife is a bit of a city girl. She was raised in St. Pete for the most part but spent a little time on a small farm but never really experience the woods or wildlife. That is until she met me and I began to share some of my backwoods upbringing with her. She truly loves to see nature and wildlife. She is like a little kid with a new toy as she squeals and insists that everyone see the bunny rabbit or deer bound across the field. By the way, I have her express permission to share this! Let me get back to my story! Our family was taking our first north Georgia Mountains vacation several years ago. We arrived in the wee hours of the morning after driving through an hour or so of fog as thick as pea soup along the unfamiliar mountain roads. After we checked in at the office we were on our way to our cabin up the winding dirt road, which to us flatlanders seemed like, we were driving straight up the Rocky Mountains. I say all this to defend my wife for what I am about to share with you. We were tired, we were exhausted from a 10 hour, in the middle of the night drive and our eyes were blurry and overworked from straining to see the scary roads through the fog and last but not least very excited to be out in the middle of the woods where we expected to see and did see lots of wildlife. As we pulled into our cabin my wife starts to frantically point and squeals look it’s a bear by that tree! As the kids half awake jump up out of their seats to see, I am even looking in eager anticipation at this point. Sure enough we pointed the headlights of the car to reveal the sleekest most amazing pure black cat in a hunched position using the bathroom beside the tree! After a good long laugh, at her expense, we all went to bed with visions of bears on our minds! We later found out that it was just a stray cat that hangs around the cabins with no name. So we named the cat “Bear” and fed him some milk and sandwich meat. We have been going to the cabins for about four years now and that cat is waiting for us every time we get there for his food. Even if all the other cabins are full he always finds ours and stays around ours most all the time we are there.
Now that you have heard the story let me share with you what God has taught me through it. Like J.D. says... the gospel applied to lunch.
I am going to try to relate this story to sin and how it can affect us. Before you get all excited I don’t think cats are of the devil. But I have seen some that I am convinced are possessed! But I think the story will help you relate to this.
First of all sin and the temptation to sin will come when you are the most tired and weak. The Devil tempted Jesus after the 40 days of fasting out in the wilderness because He figured that Jesus is weak now, if I ever had a chance it is now. So just like Cindy and I, we were tired from our journey and easily deceived. If the security guard who drives around at night saw the cat he would have immediately known that it was the cat and never gave it a second thought. He was familiar with the area and knew what kind of wildlife he could expect to see. If we are familiar with the Word and Jesus our Savior than we can quickly identify sin and temptation in our lives.
Heb 5:13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
It would be nice if we could figure out how to never be weak and tired then the devil wouldn’t have the open opportunity to attack us or send us temptations. Not Really, Our failure and weakness helps us to realize the true glory of God. So our goal is not, to never be tired or weak but to learn not to be deceived when we are. That includes having people to which you are accountable. There have been many time s that I didn’t do something wrong that I thought was right because I had Godly counsel that helped me see the issue more clearly.
Secondly, sin is deceitful. It will appear to be one thing on the outside and when you get a closer look at it you realize that it is not what you thought at all. Like I stated earlier the more familiar you are with something the less you can be deceived. Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 27 tells us to give no opportunity to the devil. If we are not studying to show ourselves approve and if we don’t recognize who are savior is or what he expects from us than how could we possibly know what not to do or what to resist. James chapter 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The submission part is reading the word, praying, worshipping, fellowshipping. That is how you get to know God. You don’t need to get to know the devil. We know him too much as it is. He is everything that is against God and His word.
So, sin will deceive you when your tired and weak, and it will appear to be something that it is not. So the very thing that deceived Cindy and I, we named it and called it our own. How often we do that with sin. It sneaks its way into our lives through some kind of deception and then we cling to it and protect it like it is our first born. I believed that lie for a long time with smoking. I had actually convinced myself that I deserved to smoke. It was my only vice and other people do a lot worse things than that. I welcomed that “cat” or that sin into my life. That sin in my life was my way of keeping God at a distance. I didn’t want to be too close to God at the time. He might take away my fleshly desires and I wasn’t willing to take that chance. Of course that is totally contrary to the Word of God, which tells us in Romans to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. But of course naming and claiming the cat wasn’t enough we had to feed the cat. Once we fed that cat once he would always come back for more. If you make provision for sin in your life, if you don’t remove the temptations and hold fast to that which is true in Christ Jesus then you are bound to sin again. 1 Thess. 5:21 and 22 says “but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
After writing this piece I thought of an acronym that seemed fitting.
SIN IS...
Deceptive (It will deceive you into it)
Entangling (It will not easily let you go)
Abomination (Not accepted by God no matter what)
Tempting (It will seem good at the time)
Hostile (It is unrelenting and is out to destroy you)



Matthew Henry:
We should therefore abstain from evil, and all appearances of evil, from sin, and that which looks like sin, leads to it, and borders upon it. He who is not shy of the appearances of sin, who shuns not the occasions of sin, and who avoids not the temptations and approaches to sin, will not long abstain from the actual commission of sin.

Proverbs Chapter 5

I have not posted in a while but I will attempt to do better. It is not that I have not been writing at all, I just haven’t been posting. So please continue to encourage me in this area. I know I should be posting but... well no excuses, I have been lazy and a bit discouraged lately. Anyway I am glad to be back and thankful that God has blessed me to be able to write yet another day. I pray that I would be a blessing to you and would honor God and His Word in all that I do and write.
The text for this will be from the book of Proverbs so I thought it would be fitting to make sure that we understood what a Proverb is so that we can read this and understand it in the way it was intended.

According to...
American Heritage dictionary
Proverb - A short pithy saying in frequent and widespread use that expresses a basic truth or practical precept.

The part of that definition I would like us to focus on is that it expresses a basic truth or practical precept. It, in itself, is not necessarily THE truth; it conveys the truth through a statement, which may not even be related to the truth itself. For example the worldly proverb that says... Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, really has nothing to do with chickens, although it may apply literally. The truth or precept that is being conveyed is to not count on something that hasn’t happened yet. So, with that in mind I am going to read chapter 5 of Proverbs and interject my thoughts as we go through them. All that is in blue italics is directly from the Word. My comments follow.

My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,
that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

Solomon was the author of this Proverb and it would appear as though he is speaking only to his son and giving him some advise about becoming a man and some things that he should watch out for. However in the first verse the term “my son” in the Hebrew translates to not just your direct offspring but it could be used for many generations or perhaps even an entire race of people. Just as they called Jesus the son of David, He was not the direct offspring of David. So we should see if this biblical precept or truth applies to us, and I believe it does, partly because we find the same principles elsewhere in the Bible and also because 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that...

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Then, we should be attentive to the Wisdom of Solomon and incline our ears to what he has to say. Why? Because if we are interested in preserving our sanctification and not being tossed to and fro by anything that comes our way then we should pay attention to this and hold on to it and not forget it and even bring it to our lips so that we can remember the Word of God when other things arise that may be contrary to it.

Pro 5:3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

Is Solomon only talking about women and how deceptive they are? Of course not, I believe he is conveying a truth here through a statement that is not necessarily related. Honey does not literally drip from a woman’s mouth. So what is he trying to say? Perhaps that carnal thing that you desire can look real sweet. It may even try to talk you into following through with your fleshly desire. It looks as sweet and smooth as honey. I am listening to a sales training series that teaches me ways of convincing or persuading people to buy what I am selling and there are some pretty smooth ways of convincing people, when they don’t even realize that they are in the process of being persuaded. We should be cautious of smooth talkers and man pleasers. As we read the next few verses we see why.

Pro 5:4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Pro 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;
Pro 5:6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
If we do not stay away from our fleshly desires and turn toward righteousness then we are destined to follow those desires straight to Hell. Lets take just a minute and talk about what is a fleshly desire. Anything that does not glorify God, Glorifies man or the flesh. If somebody accidentally runs over your foot and your desire is to curse them out for it or yell at them for an accident, then that would be a fleshly desire and would not glorify God. But if you are quick to forgive that person then that would glorify God and would be denying the fleshly desires that Solomon is speaking of. That may seem to simple and trivial to you but something that the Lord has been teaching me through His Word and through circumstance is that the difference in going to Heaven or going to Hell is one sin. The Bible says that only the righteous will inherit the kingdom of God. The only way we can be righteous is to repent (turn away from) our sins and believe that forgiveness of our sins can only come from Jesus Christ. Repentance and Faith is the life of a Christian.

Pro 5:7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Solomon seems to be beseeching us to listen. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody and they seemed to be off in another world? I am guilty of this myself and I am working on getting better. My wife will be talking to me and I just zone out and get caught up in my own thoughts and don’t even hear her speaking anymore. Of course when I realize that I have done that I apologize to her and ask her to repeat it. Solomon wants to make sure that the words that he is speaking are not falling on deaf ears. PAY ATTENTION this is important! That is what he is saying.
Pro 5:8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,
lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
Pro 5:12 and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

After making sure that we are listening he repeats the original message and gives us more instruction on completely staying away from those desires. I gave this illustration before about the lions in the back yard that my pastor J.D. Hatfield (even so) taught us about. That the lion we feed the most will become strongest and eventually beat out the other lion all together. Well my extended illustration of that was that when we feed that lion that we throw that meat so far toward the good lion that the bad lion never gets a bite or even a sniff. Not, to just throw the meat in the middle and see which one gets it. We must make an effort to stay as far away from the bad lion as we can. Don’t even give it a chance.

Pro 5:13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

How many of us here when we are doing something wrong and know it, do not want to listen to somebody else tell us that we are doing wrong? The last thing that we want to do is to be reminded of our guilt. My wife used to remind me every Sunday that I should be in church and I began to become hard of heart and wouldn’t listen to her or the men of the Church that would come to visit from time to time.

Pro 5:14 I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."

But, church itself was not enough. Even though I started going to church, I was only going so that it would not cause strife between my wife and I. I despised people for coming to me and saying they missed me and were glad to see me. Of course, they were showing me love but my soul was in utter ruin at the time and church just seemed to make that more obvious to me. Why was I in utter ruin? I was in ruin because I was living my life trying only to please my flesh. There is never any satisfaction to pleasing the flesh. You will ALWAYS want more than you have.
Pro 5:15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
Pro 5:16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
Pro 5:17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
Pro 5:18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
Pro 5:20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
I believe the point that is being made here is that we need to be satisfied with what we have, who we are, where we live etc. We should not be looking elsewhere for our wants. We need only look to God who is our provider. All good gifts come from the Father.

Pro 5:21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.
Pro 5:22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
Pro 5:23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

God sees all that you do. He sees in your hearts the things that you think and do not do. Our sin can tangle us and choke us to the point that we can no longer breathe. If we live a life of no discipline then we will die holding on to our sins misled to believe that that is what we actually want. I’ve heard people say that they want to go to hell because they won’t know anyone in heaven. I’ve heard people that think that hell is going to be a big party. They are deceived like I spoke about earlier. Your self can be your own worst enemy. We have to learn to be disciplined and taught by others no matter who you are because you, yes even you, can be deceived. A group of people is a lot less likely to be deceived than one lone person. There is strength and encouragement there.