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Two of Me

The Struggle with Sin


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Presented in 7 Chapters
by David Wilkerson
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But now God has shown us a different way to heaven—not by being good enough—but by a new way (Romans 3:21, 22 Living Bible).

What a predicament! All God wanted to do was share His love and make His creation happy and fulfilled, but now sin was driving him even further away from His love. If mankind kept on that course, God would eventually have no one wanting His love, and all mankind would be hiding from His presence. He couldn't permit that.

Man ended up in a hopeless dilemma. The natural man, created with a hunger for divine love, could not understand or perceive that love. So man goes off seeking methods of satisfying that hunger in fleshly ways.

Some believe their hunger originates in their belly. Food becomes their god. "Whose god is their belly," the Scripture says. They mistake their appetite for God as an appetite for food and become gluttons. When lonely, they eat. When depressed, they eat. When that unknown, deep, inner hunger begins to gnaw, they try to drown it in an avalanche of food. It doesn't work. They are never satisfied.

This hunger drives mankind to alcohol! Recent surveys reveal that an overwhelming majority of the population is now drinking on a regular basis. The further a man strays from God's love, the more he drinks. He can stone away the hunger for a few hours, but it always returns with a greater intensity.

Others feel their appetite is in their loins. They develop an insatiable appetite for sex. They are overcome with an instinct to be held, touched, embraced, deeply loved. They shuttle from one person to another, trying to satisfy that deep, inner longing. Some lust after men; others, after women. Unfortunately for them, the spirit is not attached to the loins. That is why sex cannot produce love. Your loins have about as much chance of producing love as your belly. Even legally married people can't produce love with sex. They can indulge in sex frequently and still not satisfy their real need for love. Love is a spiritual, divine gift of God that is not produced by sex. Two people having sex is equal to two people having lunch. Both are satisfying a human hunger but in no way producing true love. Sex can temporarily satisfy human hunger, but it can't satisfy the hunger of the inner man.

It can be said of this generation: "...whose loin is their god." Rather than worship God and accept His love, they seek to satisfy their hunger by worshiping their own bodies and by making sex their god. But it doesn't take long to discover that sex can't produce happiness, lasting joy, or peace.

Perversion is not an illegal sex act; it is refusing God's love and substituting self love. It is worship of the human body. It is making an idol of the loins. And all man's problems result from refusing to recognize that his real needs are spiritual and not physical.



A Final Solution



Since man was guilty and afraid of God and in hiding from Him, God decided to enter the human race Himself through His Son Jesus. The work of Jesus was very simple: He was sent to bring mankind back to God.

For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men's sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others (2 Corinthians 5:19 Living Bible).

Think of it! God was in that Man Jesus, going about desperately trying to restore mankind back to His glorious love. The evidence is overwhelming:

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:9 Living Bible).

God got tired of allowing obstacles to come between Himself and His object of love. He determined that never again would anything ever separate man from His love. Yet, sin was still the one great force separating man from Himself. Every time man sinner, he ran and hid from God. Adam did it; Cain did it; David did it; and we are still doing it. God said: "ENOUGH!"

God decided to put all the sins of mankind on His own Son, let Him die like a guilty convict, thereby letting all men go scot-free. It would be somewhat like a federal judge choosing an innocent person to pay for all the crimes of every prisoner in every jail, sentencing him to death, opening the jails, and letting all the prisoners go free. Does it sound ridiculous that one person could pay for the crimes of every lawbreaker? Sure it does! But by an act of love we call GRACE, God did just that.

God decided to free, release, and discharge all the sins of the whole world. Christ was crucified and was resurrected; and God said, "My plan is finished. Man can now come back to My love, because I freely forgive him. I release him of all his guilt; I have nothing at all against him. No longer can sin stand in the way."

Forgiven? Of adultery? Homosexuality? Murder? Rape? Incest? Drug addiction? Alcoholism? Stealing? Gambling? Lust? And all other sins known to mankind? Absolutely yes! Total forgiveness without having to work for it or earn it! It is a gift of God, made possibly by the death of Christ, received by faith.

Someone asked Jesus, "What must I do to be saved?" In other words, "What is my part in this plan to help me? Is there a catch? How can I enjoy this freedom from sin and guilt?"

Jesus answered with a single word: "Believe!"

You've heard that all your life: Believe and be saved. But what does that mean?

To believe is to consent to something you have heard.

Faith is something you do about what you know.

For example, a prison warden calls in a condemned prisoner and holds up to his view an official-looking letter and says, "I have in my hand your pardon! Do you believe that?"

The prisoner nods his head and says, "Yes, I believe."

The warden opens the letter and reads the pardon aloud, then turns to the prisoner and says, "You're a free man. You may leave any time you please."

The poor deluded prisoner shakes the warden's hand, says, "Thank you," and HEADS RIGHT BACK TO HIS CELL AND HIS OLD BUDDIES!

He heard the good word; he believed every word of it; he even was polite and said thanks. But if he had faith in what he heard, he would have walked out of that warden's office without looking back.

Even devils "believe" in God and tremble in His presence. You can't be changed by simply agreeing with the Word. You can't say, "Sure, I hear you; I understand," then go back to your sins without doing something about what you know to be truth. What you do about what you know is what God holds you accountable for.

Faith without action is as dead as a body without a soul (James 2:26 Phillips).


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