"But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."
James 1:14-15 NIV
"The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings."
Joshua 7:10-11 ESV
Imagine a general leading his troops to battle in a war. He makes his battle plans with his leading officers and then, to the general's dismay, they are defeated. This happens time and time again.
One night he can't sleep and he leaves his tent to take a walk in the dim moonlight. As he is returning he notices a light on in the tent of one of his captains and sees the shape of a man crossing the clearing and entering the captain's tent. Out of curiosity he goes to the tent to see what is happening and to his shocked horror sees the captain, plans spread out, showing them to a man in a uniform of the enemy.
His captain is a traitor. Now the general knows why they've been losing the war.
This is what a stronghold looks like. It is a traitor within us that causes us to keep losing the battles and unless we deal with it we will never have victory over whatever it is.
The traitor is our flesh. Our flesh desires to sin and will try to undermine us in our efforts to overcome sinful habits. Often our battle with sin looks like the general futily fighting the opposing enemy, while his traitorous captain is fighting for the enemy.
When we were saved we were given a new heart, (Ezekiel 36:26) and our minds are being renewed. (Ephesians 4:23: Romans 12:2) But our flesh is still the same flesh with all its sinful desires. Paul described it as a 'body of death' (Romans 7:24)
Often we are fighting sin issues and strongholds just like a general going out to battle with a traitorous captain within our ranks. Until that general deals with this captain he is going to continue to suffer defeat. In the same way, if we don't deal with our sinful flesh we will continue to suffer defeat as well.
Where We Go Wrong
In Matthew 5 Jesus described the problem in the examples he gave about murder and adultery. Even if one can keep themselves from committing the actual acts themselves, the sin nature hasn't been cured. James explains it well in the above cited passage:
"But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."
James 1:14-15 ESV
The real problem is our sinful flesh. But all too often we fight sin on the external levels -- 'If we can simply eliminate the thing that tempts us we would be fine.' But as James said, it's not the 'thing' that is the real issue. It is our sinful desires WITHIN US. And until we deal with that we will continue to be defeated.
Our flesh doesn't want us to have victory over sin.
Here's an illustration from a conversation I had over coffee years ago.
The gentleman told me about the struggle he had trying to quit smoking. He said he tried everything; the patch. nicorette gum, even hypnosis -- nothing worked. Then one day he went outside for a cigarette break, he put a cigarette in his mouth and was about to light it, but instead he tossed the cigarette, his lighter, and the rest of the pack into a nearby trash can and never smoked again. He then asked me if I knew what the difference was. I had no idea but he had my attention.
He continued, "Before that, I hated the effects of smoking. I hated the fact my breath and clothes stank. I hated the fact it was ruining my health. I hated the fact I couldn't break the habit. BUT I DIDN'T HATE SMOKING. But on that day, the idea that I was going to light that cancer stick and suck the smoke into my lungs absolutely repulsed me -- I NOW HATED SMOKING!"
He went on; "That's the reason we have such a hard time in our struggle with sin. We hate the effects of sin but we don't actually, truly hate the sin. We hate feeling guilty. We hate the fact we failed. We hate the fact we hurt our loved ones. We hate the fact we disappointed God (grieved the Holy Spirit). And we hate the fact that we don't have victory over the sin issues. BUT WE DON'T HATE THE SIN!"
The fact is, in our humaness, we won't do what we hate unless we are forced to.
Let's take the issue of pornography, something many men struggle with. Would men look at pornography if they hated it? No, of course not. Our flesh is drawn towarrd it. We hate the guilt we feel when we look at it. We hate what we are doing to our loved ones and the fact that we grieve the Holy Spirit when we parteke. But if we truly hated pornography we would not look at it unless we were forced to.
So what is the solution?
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:9 ESV
All too often, in our confession, we confess that we have sinned. But we don't confess our inherent sinfulness. The truth is we don't, in our humanity, truly 'have the mind of Christ.'
Psalm 51 is the confession David wrote when he was confronted with the sin of his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah to cover it up.
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
Psalm 51:5 ESV
David did not merely confess that he had sinned when he committed adultery and murder. He confessed that he was inherently, completely sinful. That is the true confession, and that is what we must do. We must confess that we are completely sinful and that our human nature loves sin. Then we must claim the promise in 1 John that God says he will forgive us AND CLEANSE US FROM ALL SIN.
Back to Psalm 51:
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!"
Psalm 51:1-2 ESV
David did just that. In verse 1 he asked for forgiveness and in verse 2 he asked God to remove the sinful desire.
David was a mess. He was a polygamist and an adulterer before this. We have no record that David ever did anything like this again. It is significant that 1 Kings 1:4 mentions that when they brought the young virgin, Abishag, to minister to David that it says he had no intimate relations with her.
David was a different man. His repentance was complete.
Final thoughts
A major problem with the modern church is we have embraced a lot of worldly psychology and thereby polluted the gospel. We do not want to admit that we are inherently sinful and evil. Often we focus on external stimuli to explain why we do bad things. That is pandering to our human nature and shirking responsibility. I can only imagine the way modern psychology would have explained David's sin; Perhaps blame the rejection David experienced demonstrated when Jesse didn't even think it was important to have him come when Samuel visited. Then they would have made it Bathsheba's fault because she was bathing in plain sight of the palace.
David accepts full responsibilty for his sin and his sinfulness. And because of his complete confession God completely forgives and cleanes him:
"David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord .” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.' "
2 Samuel 12:13 ESV
God called David a man after his own heart. He calls us to be men and women after His own heart.
We are not meant to walk in defeat. We are meant to walk in victory. But we can only walk in victory if we are truly submitted to God and His way.
God bless you all.
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