Prayer for the Colossians

Colossians 1:3-8

COL-065

Today, we begin a new segment of our study of the book of Colossians. We are studying Colossians 1:9-14, and our subject is "Prayer for the Colossians," segment number one.

The apostle Paul has completed, with verse 8, his expression of thanksgiving to God for the grace orientation of the Colossian believers. This sentence began in verse 3. It is a single sentence in the Greek Bible, and it has gone all the way through verse 8. And we have been looking for some time at Paul's reason for thanksgiving to God for these Colossian Christians, and the fact that they knew how to metabolize the Word of God, and to go on to great spiritual maturity. Their positive attitude toward doctrine has enabled them to have the divine viewpoint orientation to resist the false teachers that have crept in among them in Colossae, and the legalists who wanted them to still act like they were under the Mosaic Law.

Epaphras

The Colossians are spiritually stable in God's grace because their pastor-teacher Epaphras has joined Paul as God's slave and as God's servant. He is an example to the flock. His eyes are on the Lord and what he does is all for the Lord's glory. That's the key to the whole Christian life. That's the key for living a dignified personal life. Your eyes are on the Lord and you do all for the Lord's glory. First thing that will do for you, it'll keep you from whining. It'll keep you from self-pity. It will keep you from trivializing your life by occupying yourself with the crazy things that never should be given a second thought. It will make you a person of great dignity. Epaphras is a fellow slave appalled and therefore under the authority of God. So he does what he is told to do by God.

Mental Attitude Love

God is his master. God's mission for Epaphras was to serve as a teacher of the congregation of church age doctrine, which he faithfully performed in Colossae. Paul was therefore proud of Epaphras. He had the highest esteem for him, and he was hereby commending him to the Colossian believers. He was saying, this man knows what he's talking about. This man knows what his duty is. He knows what his mission is. Pay attention to him and be respectful of his authority. Don't brush him off. Don't turn your attention to the hot shots that are coming in among you with their false doctrine, with their diluted Christian lifestyle. And certainly the legalists who think that being under the Mosaic Law was where at. The point was Paul said, Epaphras represents the mind of God and these people do not. Now, Epaphras had come to Rome where Paul was in prisons to inform the apostle about the Holy Spirit mental attitude love which characterized the Colossian Christians.

Now this was very important for Paul to know that that characterized those people. There was a congregation where the individuals, a maximum number of individuals did not have any kind of mental attitude bitterness. They did not have mental attitude Ill will. That's a tough thing to get to and it's even tougher to keep it. And there's this fluctuation in all of our lies where mental attitude goodwill possesses us and then we slip out of it. And all we have to do is listen to the way we talk and listen to the way we think and watch our decisions and how we treat others in one way or another. How we respond to kindnesses. And you kind of know whether the mental attitude love is there or whether you're just whistling in the dark. This agape love indicated that the Colossians were filled with the Spirit. They were in temporal fellowship that was very important to the apostle Paul. These people understood what to do with their sins and their human good. They knew how to confess that evil and they did it.

Now, this love revealed that the Colossians had progressed greatly toward the Super grace level of spiritual maturity there where you are living in the word. And that's what the call is of the Christian life to live in the word. People who have not been well taught in the Word of God will come into the Berean congregation, they're overwhelmed. Things go flying over their heads. We use terms that we all understand that they don't understand. But I want to assure you that if you persistently stay with the instruction of the word, you'll soon find that you're living in the Word of God as you never dream possible. And it won't be because you're running to the Bible to look up things. It'll be because your human spirit is so oriented to God's mind that it'll function automatically. It'll kick up into your mind. It'll kick up to take hold of your mind to guide your emotions at certain point, to guide your will at a certain point, you'll have no problem walking in great personal dignity and you will recoil with revulsion. You'll not be like our Proverbs passage said this morning, the dog returning to his vomit. You'll recoil with revulsion to the regurgitation of our society.

And that's what we are being spewed with all the time on TV, in entertainment, in the news media and not the least regurgitation is all that human good do-good or compassion. It's right out of the sin nature, and it is not of God. And it is to the great injury of the individual human being and especially to a Christian. So when Paul saw this real agape love among them, he knew that here was a congregation that was basically controlled by the Holy Spirit. And the reason that was important was that then Paul knew that when Epaphras stood up and said, here's what I've learned from Paul. Here's church age doctrine. In fact, here's one of the letters to us that is going to be part of the new Covenant Testament. And here's pure doctrine, absolute perfection. And it applies to the church age, not to the Jews, not to the Gentiles, but to us who are in the body of Christ.

Children

Paul knew that if these people were filled with the Spirit and demonstrating that with his mental attitude love, then when Epaphras taught them these things that he'd received from Paul, they were going to learn it. They had the capacity to go into the deep things of God. People who cannot go into the deep things of the Spirit of God. The deep things of the Word of God do not come to a church like Berean. Their eyes glaze over. They soon become restless, they soon become tired and they're off and gone. But those who want to really amount to something in all eternity. And remember that's what we're talking about, parents who want their children to amount to something for all eternity.

Don't ask the kid, "Do you want to go to Vacation Bible School?" They say, "Hey Buster, you it's time for Vacation Bible School. They don't ask them whether they want to go to a Christian school. I had a kid on my school bus, he's a little kid, one of the lower grades. He was fussing with the other kids. They're picking on me. So I put him up in the front seat where he had a ride next to me. That is a kiss of death practically. And there he is, kids behind talking, they're having fun. Who does he have to talk to? He can't to talk to the bus driver, it's against the rules. So he sits there looking out the window. So he went and told his mother that he's been isolated. What did she do? Took him off the run. And of course we were all crushed. This little guy found that he couldn't push the other kids around and he couldn't even push the bus driver around.

Now bus drivers are about as low a thing as you can find. You ever hear of a guy named Ralph Cramden? They're very philosophical bus drivers, but he couldn't push his bus driver around. So he went to his mommy, and she consulted with him and took him off. I can guarantee you this is not a woman who is deeply involved with divine viewpoint orientation and who has a love for her child. She thinks she has a love, but she doesn't. She did. She'd have told him, fine, if you can't behave yourself in the back of the bus, they'll put you up front. And when you learn to behave yourself, maybe they'll let you go back and be associated with the other kids. So you see the parents who want their kids to amount to something for early eternity, parents whose eyes are on the Lord and whose ears are attuned to Scripture know that their children are exactly what the Bible says. And your kids are no different than anybody else's. The Bible says there is one human primary characteristic of every child, and that is foolishness. So from his earliest days, the foolishness is there in that child. Early on you see it. And what do you do?

The Bible says you drive foolishness out of it by breaking his will. How do you break his will and bring him under your authority? And please don't, don't cringe. I didn't say break his spirit. I said to break his will, break his sin nature determination. And how do you do that? You apply heat to the gluttonous maximus that God has provided for that purpose. That's the only reason for that thing to be there in early childhood training. And what does the Bible say? You will drive foolishness far from him. And what does the Bible say? You might even leave a couple of black and blue marks on him and what does the Bible say? But you won't kill him. He won't die.

He'll just gradually descend from being a little rat to being a mouse, to being a really nice boy or girl. But only people who are well versed in God's point of view understand that. Now as a child gets older the spanking routine is phased out for other techniques that have to be more effective. And because you are an adult, you know what's right. You don't go asking your teenage kids what they want to do. You tell them what they want to do. You say, this is right. This is where they're to be. This is what they're to participate in. After they hit 20 years of age they can make their own decisions as to what they may want to do. But by that time you have perhaps helpfully guided them to wisely choose. So they don't want to be part of the world.

I read again this morning James' very succinct little statement. James 4:4: Anybody who wants to be "a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God." If there's any other principle or doctrine you ought to remember that one. Any camaraderie with the world, any drawing of the world to your bosom and you've given God the back of your hand. You are his enemy. It's not worth it. And when you do not guide and make decisions for your children for these tremendous things that we do at Berean church and your kids are at home. We had two kids who had the gall to sign up to be on work crew this year. They never come to church. They never come to club. And the thing that made me mad was not that they signed up, but that they treated me like such an income poop. They actually thought I was going to say, oh, thank God you have signed up to help us wash the dishes. It is so wonderful. It's so great to have you. Please come on board.

They had been giving us the back of their hand all year. Their parents have snubbed us. They didn't tell their sons when Berean Youth Club meeting night comes along that's where you belong, Buster. Any place else is downhill, but when you're there, you're in the right place. And both of those guys are very arrogant little twits. So we called them and said, sorry, we have boys who attend the Berean Youth clubs and we have their help. We don't really need extra help. I didn't call Bob Short called because I want everybody to like me. I don't care what they feel about him, but I don't do anything to make anybody not like me. But anyhow, just the audacity of that.

Well my heart goes out to those boys because they're stuck with idiot parents. Parents who are not oriented to the Word of God, who don't know how to tell their sons and daughters what to do for the years that they had them. Please at least parents understand that God gave you these children to rear them for their divine mission. And you only have them in temporary custody. So all the time you keep guiding them toward what they should be. The way they ought to be, and sooner or later the Bible says that's the way they're going to act. And you teach them that personal dignity that is commensurate with a child of God. So the apostle Paul had good reason for telling these people in Colossae. Boy, this is great. I'm glad to hear these people are oriented to the Word of God. Here's a congregation that's being led by the Holy Spirit of God. They're going to learn doctrine. They're going to go on and what's the result going to be? They're going to have daily godly lives. They're going to be able to function under the Holy Spirit power structure. They're going to be able to produce divine good service. They are going to be able to be led into the deep things of the Spirit of God.

Prayer for the Colossians

Now at this point, having completed Colossians 1:8, Paul turns to another subject: from Thanksgiving for the Colossians, he now turns to prayer for the Colossians. As we get into that, we have to remind ourselves once more. At the key to all spiritual progress for the believer is the teaching ministry of the pastor-teacher. Christians who are fed on doctrine and who are positive to its truth will be capable of being filled with the Spirit. If you are taught the Word of God and you are receptive to it, then you'll be capable of living in temporal fellowship and you'll be controlled by the Spirit of God.

The believer who is controlled by the Spirit of God will have a mental attitude love that's part of the fruit of the Spirit that he will receive in his life. If the does not study and does not explain the word to the congregation, the people will fall victim to the sin nature in them. They will fall victim to the guy in a pulpit who is a pulpit personality type to the guy in a pulpit who is an artist. To the guy in a pulpit who is taking an opportunity to make profit out of the people of God. He is one who gives the people what they want to satisfy their itching ears. That is why when you have a church like Berean, it deserves your support, and it doesn't deserve your mouth support. It deserves your presence support. To be here and say, I want to reinforce this. The city is filled with people this morning who are being robbed of their spiritual heritage. And they don't know any better because no one has laid this out for them from Scripture. So they go along with "Rah rah," and they think they have something. The key to all spiritual progress is what the PT does. Believer who's filled with the Spirit is going to go on to great heights.

The Pastor-Teacher

Now there is great opposition of course to the biblical pattern of a pastor-teacher-elder who follows the divine order of feeding the flock on the Word of God via what we call the HICEE (High C) technique, where the church services are instruction and not entertainment. You come to Berean church is a very serious experience. There not many laughs. They're not many jokes. There are not any cutesy-pooh stories. It's just hardcore reality. The kind that Satan is going to confront you with. And if you're not prepared, you're going to go down.

Now the pressure in contrast to this on the pastor-teacher you can see is to organize programs instead of giving instruction in the church. Programs of activities. Oh, people love churches that have programs of all kinds of activities. They go for that. This is why people love to go to seminars. See their preachers have not taught them the Word of God. They haven't put the thing together for them. So they got these gaps, these blind spots in their lives and along comes some guy who knows something about the Bible and says, we'll run a seminar. Those preachers have given us an opening here. We'll teach the people this thing that should have learned at their churches.

We'll run a seminar for them. Boy, we can charge them a 100 bucks, 150 bucks. They'll come running out. It's very simple. Seminars are just like that. You get a few diagrams; you get a few pictures and people are awed. Isn't that wonderful? He's got a picture up there for us and they'll pay big money. And that's a travesty to comment on where the Christian ministry has come today. So the pressure on the pastor-teachers today, Ha, I need people in those seats. I need to organize programs that people will come out to. I need to organize social fellowships. They'll love that. And then of course he has to run a counseling service in order to make up for his failure to orient people doctrinally. They're going to come apart. So he has to run a counseling service.

The HICEE Technique

So let's take a look at this business of opposition to the HICEE technique of the pastor-teacher. This is one of the fundamental reasons the people you invite to this church will not keep coming. Here's the problem believers have. Each of us has within us a propensity for sin. We inherited that from Adam. It comes down to us in the form of what we call the sin nature. Our mother doesn't give it to us. Our father gives it to us genetically. It's in the genetic structure of the human being that he has a sin nature. Jesus was preserved from this because he didn't have a human father. He only had a mother and his and the conception was the work of God the Holy Spirit that took the father's part. And therefore He had no sin nature. We get one and is a fact of the spiritual life.

The Sin Nature

Now the sin nature is not removed at salvation. The sin nature is not removed until you get to heaven. It is very important that we're clear on that. We know that from 1 John 3:2, "Beloved now we are the children of God." We're born-again. We're saved. We're going to heaven: "But it has not appeared as yet what we shall be." Why not? Because we're far from the image of Christ into which we're going to be transformed. We're at various stages of maturity. We're at various stages of going toward that, "but we know that when he appears," the rapture of the church, "we shall be like him because we shall see him just as he is." And when we see Christ in the rapture of the church, we will in instantly be transformed internally, and the sin nature will be jerked out of us. Now you'll be exactly like the son of God. You'll be totally incapable forever of sinning. Not a sinful thought, not a sin of omission as well as commission. No overt sins, no metal attitude sins. It will be something that will drift away from your memory very soon and you won't even remember what it was like to be a person who could do what is wrong. You'll be a person who cannot do wrong.

Now the beauty of this is that God has given us a system with a twofold combination of the Spirit of God and the Word of God to be able to move in this life closer and closer to that ultimate reality. There are some Christians that get way on up there in spiritual maturity. The Super grace type. Sin has no attraction, little attraction for them. It's hard to trip them up, hard to make them stumble. Their minds work like the mind of God so regularly that they're on top of things and they do not play the fool. And they're not liked for that. They usually become the object of great dislike by other members of the human race. But this is the great thing that happens now. It is possible through the grace system of perceiving spiritual things and the spiritual maturity structure that you can build in your soul to move toward that ideal. But is never perfect.

What does Satan do knowing that this is here? Everything about the sin nature is what causes all of our unhappiness and all of our failures as believers. Therefore, Satan reinforces your attraction to the sin nature. He carries out his plans on earth through everybody's sin nature. That's how he works. And he works through the Christian's sin nature as well as through the unbelievers. The control of the sin nature within the Christian is crucial in view of Satan's power and the attraction of the world that he governs. That control of the sin nature in the view of Satan's power and of the attractive world system that he has developed is crucial. This is what happened to poor Demas. 2 Timothy 4:10, "For Demas, having loved this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica." This is the terrible thing of deserting Christ. Deserting the people of God. Deserting the instruction of the Word of God. The genuine deep great fruit of the Word of God and going off to some triviality. And one of the things that Satan uses is the fact that the crowd is there. He always proves what he's doing by the fact that the majority is out there. That's where God is doing things. Usually it's a jumping operation, but let's go back to the Word of God and let's see what we really are.

I just hope somebody isn't absent this morning who should be here to hear this. What we are? Who thinks we are something more than we really are? Here's the diagram of the sin nature that's helpful to review this structure. Two things about the sin nature. It has an area of great weakness. An area of terrible weakness out of that pour sins. 1 Peter 2:24 refers to that, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross that we might die to sin," the sin nature, "for by his wounds you were healed." Here, the apostle speaking about this very thing. Sins pouring out of the area of weakness within us, that propensity to do evil and Christ died so that we wouldn't have to be slaves to the sin nature anymore. And Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin, which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."

Now the reference there is that in Hebrews chapter 11. He's gone through all these great heroes of faith – these tremendous people. He's gone down the line of them as examples of people who operated on doctrine. There's Abel and there's Enoch and there's Abraham, there's Noah, and there's Sarah, and there's Isaac, and there's Joseph, and they're the parents of Moses and there's Moses and there's Joshua and there's Rahab and there are many other heroes of faith. Now he says in view those people who are out there with the Lord, they're watching us too. He says, we should in view of that, lay aside the things that are going to drag us down the sin, what's going to do that? This sin nature within you, within you as a Christian, which will not be removed to you're in the Lord's presence. So it's important that you are aware that that is there.

Liberal theology opposes this tooth and nail. Liberal theology says that people are basically good. It's completely opposite. You see that's human viewpoint, that children are born basically good. They'll do basically the right thing. All you have to do is attend a banquet and let a little kid get away from his parents. What we'll do? He'll run around this room. He thinks this is a gym. Here's a cultural dignified event this night and this guy thinks he knows what the right is thing to do. But what he does is the wrong thing. That's what he knows by nature to do. And if his parents don't say, whoops, wait a minute, I'm going to show you what is dignified and culturally proper here in this setting, then they'll reinforce his nonsense. The problem we have is that here are all these people watching us. Let's unload the burden of sin so that we can run the race of what God has called us to do. What's the race? Your mission. You have an individual mission. We have a mission as a church. And I laid that out for you, and I thank many of you who came up and said that was a splendid presentation. Those three points made it. And now the covenant is in place. And you're faithful to it, God is going to work.

The area of weakness pouring out these sins, Well what specifically? Okay, let's go to the gospel of Mark chapter seven. Let's look the beast in the eye. Mark 7:21-23, you have a list of the characteristic qualities of the sin nature. This is what's in each of us and this is what must be controlled, or it is going to kick into high gear and overwhelm us. A piece at a time, "For from within out of the heart of man." Now when the Bible talks about the heart, it is speaking about the mind. The heart – man believes with the heart. That means he believes with his mind. "For from out of the mind of men," because sin always begins in the mind. Where does adultery begin? In the mind? Where does murder begin? With hatred in the mind. Mental attitude sins are always first in mind. Then you trigger the overt outward sin. So know that principle. What you're thinking is what you're going to do. And what you allow yourself to be immersed in mentally is what you will be. And you won't be able to resist it. Or from out of the head of man proceeds: Number one, evil thoughts, mental attitude sins of every kind. Hatreds, contentions, bitterness, vindictiveness, all of the things that dehumanizes us. Mental attitude sins, fornication, sexual immorality, sex outside of marriage of all kinds. Thefts taking things and not paying for them. You know what stealing is. Taking things and not paying for them.

I heard of a man who received a professional service and never paid for it. Then when he was approached for it, he gave some excuse. He came back for the same service again. While the bill will have to be paid next time, we can't continue this. When he approached again, we'll have to turn this over a collection. Well that's okay. Go ahead and do it. Now suppose you are like that. Here's something you legitimately received. You should pay for it. You've taken advantage of somebody's skill. You going to come in here and sit in church? Are you going to have the gall to do that? Yes. Does it happen? Yes. That's the sin nature. It is brash; it is brazen; and, it is so disgusting in its lack of dignity and propriety. Stealing is not just walking up and picking up something. I was visiting in New York City one time, and I was standing down in Manhattan and where there was a bunch of fruit markets. And this old guy come shuffling along down and I just happened to watch him, and his right hand was cupped. And he walked behind this big pile of beautiful red apples and as he went by, his hand grabbed one of them into his pocket and he kept shuffling right along. Everybody said, oh, that's stealing. But when you don't pay your bills, that's even worse stealing. Or when you rob somebody of the use of what they have. When you take away from somebody that they can't even use what belongs to them because you have done something to remove their capacity to use it. You are a thief.

Now you can walk around and you can be very, very bold looking, but those of us who understand the Word of God and know what you've been up to, know that you're a pathetic victim of this sin nature. It says it right here. And this is what Jesus says, Christians don't let this happen to you. But all these things are potential unless the Word of God is dominant, you're living in the word and the Spirit of God is in control. That's what makes you different from the rest of the crowd. So, I'm not being a fanatic when I say you shouldn't give the back of your hand to anything at Berean Church. You should thank God that the place is here, and you should do everything in your power to see that it'll be here right up to the millennium and on through. And in greater strength than ever before because we're the kind of a place that this American society mean needs today. Most of these churches could go out of business and nobody would be the poorer except for their social life.

Abortion

We have evil thoughts; mental attitude sin; fornication; sexual immorality; thefts (taking without paying); murders; and, hatred in the mind, to the gross thing of abortion. Who would've ever thought that the bully pulpit of the White House, the moral standard setting of the nation should say, "We will not allow the American Congress to pass a law against letting a woman who wants to kill her baby. We will not allow restrain doctors from letting that child be born except for his little head, not leaving the mother's womb and then stabbing a sucking device into his brain, piercing the back of his little skull, sucking out his brain and then letting him be born, because then it's not infanticide."

It's not killing babies like they do in China. In China where they have now huge imbalance, something like 50 men for every woman because they all want men to take care of them in their old age, so they kill their baby daughters. And we expect it there because China is a pagan, satanic society like the Muslim societies are. But the whole concept here in America, a nation built on Reformation Christianity, and we have the highest authority in the nation vetoing a bill to stop such brutal practices and then pretending that it's all right. And being done because the feminist movement would take scalps. Would take that authority scalp if he dared stand up against them. Murders. That's the sin nature of man that does not recoil against something like that. I heard Dr. Nathanson, who is a prime authority in the Supreme Court's examination whether they should legalize abortion and his testimony was what carried them. And after he performed 75,000 abortions, he got the thinking, this is like the Holocaust and he's Jewish. So he could relate to that. And then they got the ultrasound and he said, "I sat there, and I viewed that baby. I saw its movements. I saw this little human being. That's all it was. It wasn't a frog. It wasn't a dog. And then I saw its little mouth open, and that scream when I'd reached in to kill him, and the pain that he must suffer, and," he says, "My God, this is a human being. What am I doing?"

Well, since he's been converted (I hope), he's gone into Roman Catholicism, but at least he's moved away from Judaism. And here the man who is instrumental, like the lady who brought the abortion suit, who ironically now is a Christian and has on her conscience millions of American boys and girls who will only have life in heaven. And what could bring about such a thing? The hatred that for a child. The hatred for the responsibility of caring for a child that you conceived so that they would kill it. What kind of a nation would allow that to happen? Now Dr. Nathanson is going around opposite side of the fence, trying to stop it. What happened? Nathanson followed his sin nature. Roe (Roe v Wade), I forget rest of her name, the lady who brought about the suit. She followed her sin nature. Suddenly God has moved in and given divine viewpoint orientation. And now the whole thing is coming to perspective, and they wish they hadn't done it and they want to change it. The sin nature when it's permitted to operate is a terrible thing. The next thing, fornication, thefts, murders, adulteries. This word specifically refers to mental infidelity. Mental infidelity and covetousness. Deeds of coveting wanting to have what other people have.

They have it. You can't afford it. And you want it. I'll go to the government. It's not fair for these people to have something that I don't have. I should have it too. Even though I haven't earned it. I don't deserve it. I don't merit it. But you should take people's money and give it to me. Covetousness is what drives the politicians to satisfy the people they represent because you know what their votes do? Their votes give you a pension. One of the greatest pensions on the face of the earth is to be in Congress for several sessions, for several terms. You'll leave with over the years with millions of dollars that will be given to you by the government every year after you are out of government. You'll have a free ride at everybody else's expense.

That's why they do the things that are so destructive. The sin nature's covetousness in the politician says, I'll do anything to get elected because then I'll get the big money when I'm retired. Wickedness that has to do with moral values, breaking all of the basics of the moral code of God. That now is left up to man. If man is God, he tells what is wrong and what is right. Not God's moral code such as in the 10 commandments. And deceit lying. What a terrible thing. How often the Bible says Christians don't lie. You must not lie as a Christian; you have to avoid this whatever else you do. You don't lie. This is a terrible thing.

And you don't go around saying things about people that are not true, especially somebody else has told you. And even if they are true, you don't go saying them. Why on earth anybody would want to repeat stories about other people is beyond me. It is so tiresome. I guess I got something to do in life. But trivial people who have nothing to do with their lives. They will repeat things and they will carry the lie from one person to another. This a terrible thing. Christians should not lie, but the sin nature, it will lie all the time. Whatever else you have to teach your children. You never have to teach them to lie.

They're not born like George Washington. Father, I cannot tell a lie. That story is probably a lie in itself, but children don't have to be taught to lie. Sometime ago there was a big noise from one of the windows of our house. It was really loud, and I went out there and the window was broken. Kids who were there with their parents at the business next door, obviously untrained and unrestricted we're just throwing rocks off the parking lot toward the house. A man sitting in the station wagon saw me looking around and said it was that kid and the he's gone inside. So I went inside, found his mother, and I brought the mother out and before I said anything the kid said, "I wasn't throwing rocks." He was so dumb. He didn't even wait for me to ask the question so he could deny it. Fortunately, he had a mother who was smart, and she jerked him up and braced him against the wall and said, "Did you throw that rock?" And she paid for it. But here's this deceitfulness – this easy capacity to lie.

Sensuality

Then there's sensuality. Sensuality is the indulgence of your senses. It's the indulgence of your eyes, the things they shouldn't look at. It's the indulgence of your ears, the things you shouldn't listen to. It's the indulgence of your nose, your smell, things that you shouldn't smell like cigarette, smoke under your nose. See indulgence of your taste. Things you shouldn't eat. It's the indulgence of your hands, which shouldn't be where they shouldn't be. Sensuality, the indulgence of the senses. It's always there just below the surface waiting for it to kick into operation. It's only doctrine and temporal fellowship with the Holy Spirit that'll keep you from doing it. If it isn't, you'll be so jaded. You'll invite others as the Scripture says, to join you in some evil sensuality. And I've known people who come to me, Christians who say, I can't believe this Christian invited me to engage in an evil sensuality act. Who's going to know about it?

Slander

And then there is slander. Slander is saying things about people, whether it's true or not, just so you can say it, and usually it's competition. I want to show that I'm better than that person is. And let me back up here. I skipped envy. Envy actually in the Greek, this is the evil eye is what this says. The evil eye has to do with destruction. I'm going to put an evil eye on you. The occult like to put an evil spell. See, that's it. The evil eye because I want to destroy you in some way. Here's the difference between being jealous. I'm jealous of you for some reason. I had a terrible time with jealousy myself for the last several weeks preparing for the banquet people who could sing like you wouldn't believe, and I'm there among them trying to sing too.

I got to hate those people more and more as we went on. This brilliant capacity they had to sing even operatic like things and jealousy is just that. But envy – envy as you go up and you grab them by the throat, and you choke them so they can't sing good again. See, envy is I'm going to keep you from doing what you do. I'm going to keep you from heavy. I'm going to put the evil eyes spell on you. Big difference between jealousy and envy. Very clear. You got it. It's like a child has a toy. This toy belongs to Jimmy. Give him his toy back. Okay, here it is, Jimmy. If I can't have it, I'm going to bust it up so you can't have it. That is envy. That's the evil eye. You can't believe that that's in you. Oh yeah.

Then there's slander; competing; and, saying terrible things about people, which is about as boring a thing as you could do to go around talking about people or somebody just said something about you. Somebody the other day who was in a group said, those people were not very nice to you, Dr. Danish, and yet you just went on about the business. That's right. If they're not nice to me, that's their problem, not mine. I told you the story of the man who used to stand at the balcony. He'd look down where people had to come in under the corridor in the walkway, and there was a man who would come every day. He'd had to walk there and when that man come, this man up there would spit down on him and he'd look up and walk. He would dodge it sometimes not too quick. But finally one of his friends who saw that said, every day you walk through there, that guy's up there. When he sees you, he gets ready, and he spits on you. And you don't ever do anything about it. And he says, well, that's his problem, not mine.

Now when you get to learning that that's that guy's problem, not yours, you won't engage in the slander. And when your eyes on are on the Lord, you won't engage in whining about somebody's slander either. That's the problem. It's only when your eyes are on yourself and you're not acting to the Lord's glory. That you become so blasted important that you have to take issue in what somebody has said about you. Then pride. This is arrogance, the great expression of arrogance. And then finally foolishness, mindless acts of injury. Acting like an ingratitude when somebody has done something nice for you and you ought to respond with appreciation, but instead you don't even support it in gratitude. That's an act, that's a mindless act. That's an act of foolishness. Foolishness is mindlessness. And these things create what is known as the lust pattern of the sin nature.

This potential force is there for evil and that is there all the time unless you kick in with God's control system being in temporal fellowship. It's the Spirit of God is controlling what you do, what you think, what you say. And the Word of God is so stored in your human spirit that the Spirit of God is capable of shining the enlightenment of guidance to you. You won't even have to think about it. You won't have to look down. It'll pop right into your mind. What does God think about this? Bingo, if you've learned it, you'll have it brought right up to your capacity. But this potential force of the lust patterns are always there. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13. "Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take head, less he fall. 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 that you may be able to endure it.",

So, don't excuse yourself that you couldn't help it. That's it's not true. You could help it. None of us is hit with something that God doesn't say, you can say no to. You can just say no. And you are not hit with anything, but what is common to man and God is faithful. The question is, are you faithful? Now, if you're not faithful to the word, you're not faithful to learning the word. If you're not faithful to confessing known sins. If you're not faithful to let the power system the Spirit of God work, then the devil will get to you. He will get your sin nature working and you will respond. So respect the sin nature's constant potential even as you have a healthy respect for Satan's cleverness and his enormous power. For this reason that we all have a sin nature, none of us is good. Therefore, there are no celebrities in the Christian life.

There are only people who have been the recipients of great grace. Luke 18:19, only God is good. We are nothing but trophies of God's grace. The apostle Paul, because the sin nature says that there's no good thing in us by divine standards. Romans 7:18, he says, there's not a good thing in us. What's in us is not good. What's in us is bad. If you as assume that you are above these sins, you'll be shocked sooner or later to discover how easy it was for you to fall into them. Romans 12:3, "For through the grace given to me, I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."

Now, this isn't bad enough – the sin nature, we can all relate very easily that is a no-good scene. The tricky part comes at the other end of this diagram where it kicks into the strong part of the sin nature. To what you might say, oh, this is good. This is what I should be. This, yeah, this is the way I should be. And yet it also falls in the category of enormous revolting evil with God. We shall pick that up there next time.

Our Heavenly Father, we want to thank You so much for the fact that the Word of God speaks to us.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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