David Wilkerson says:This may well be one of the most important books you will ever read. It could turn your life around within the next few hours, the time it takes to read it.
This book is written for a select group. It is for those who are seeking true peace of mind and freedom from a life-controlling evil. Even swingers have to face their lonely selves after the music stops. Macho men cry alone. When the bars and discos close, the blues come rolling in. And, for millions now, Sundays are real downers. Somewhere along the line, the truth about ourselves has to be faced.
At times we are all pitiful actors, wearing false masks and playing phony roles. Yet, somewhere in our innermost being, there is a lingering desire to know and please God.
This book has nothing at all to say to proud, arrogant sinners who refuse to face the truth about their weaknesses. It is written to those who desperately seek victory over self and who honestly admit they need help.
I started this book in an effort to lead people with life-controlling problems into a life of freedom from sin's power. But I soon discovered it is more than that. It is a personal search for complete victory in my own life. Even though a minister, I hurt just like everybody else. I need power over sin as much as any other sinner on earth.My search for power over sin took me on a ten-year journey through libraries, commentaries, conferences with Bible scholars, and a thorough study of the Bible--especially Romans. I learned much about the human condition of weakness and the ever-present struggle with evil, but little about the cure.
What I have learned about freedom from sin's power has come out of my own desperation to shake off all bondage to evil.
You will not experience the compelling power of this little book until you read it through entirely. What you read may at first anger you, but don't put it aside until the entire message has been digested. You will discover truth that can set you free.
All I ask is that you read it through, with an open mind.
[signed] David Wilkerson
There are things about myself that scare me. Things like a
great inner need that can't be explained. Like the constant need
for love and fulfillment. Also, those subtle desires that
surface on occasion, making me lust for experiences that are
contrary to my better nature.
I can't explain why I am such a dual person when it comes to
right and wrong. The evil that I hate is always present in me.
The good and moral desires are there too, keeping my mind in
constant turmoil. It is not an every day, all day long battle,
but the evil, at times, tries to overpower me.
Just when I think I've got my act together, things fall apart,
and once again I am doing things I really don't want to do.
This war between good and evil is raging in all mankind. A
minister, exposed for adultery, confessed: "My evil nature held
a strange charm over me. It made me chase false dreams that I
knew would fade away. It kept me chained to a lust that finally
destroyed me. It forced me into compromises that weakened me.
Its promises of true love ended up only as a mirage. And, even
though I knew I would keep on getting hurt, I followed the
dictates of my evil mind like an obedient slave."
A former Jesus person, who once played with a religious
singing group, tried to explain why he is back with the crowd,
doing drugs and booze.
"All I know is, there was a terrifying struggle going on in my
body for control. There was an evil presence always in my mind,
trying to overthrow every good and decent thing I tried to do.
This evil part of me kept dragging me down, making me do things
I really didn't want to do. It was such an overpowering
presence, I obeyed its every command, and I ended up with
feelings of guilt, loneliness, and emptiness.
"Yet, when I escaped all the noises of the crowd and withdrew
from my pleasures, a poor, lonely self deep within me cried out
for satisfaction, like the pitiful call of a starving child. The
voice cried out, 'Please don't leave me alone; feed me; help me;
give me love.'
"At times a part of me felt angry with God for not taking the
sin out of my heart. I got tired of the battle in me. The enemy
of my soul seemed so strong, and I felt so weak. The righteous
nature in me wanted God to stomp out all the wickedness, pluck
out my overpowering, sinful desires, and set me free from my sin.
"I know there is a part of me that wants to obey God. It has
nothing to do with churches or preachers or moralizing
do-gooders. It is even more than just a desire for forgiveness.
It is more than just getting my soul saved. It has nothing to
do with the fear of Hell or damnation. It is even more than a
need for peace and fulfillment. It is a need, in the very deep
of my soul, to know God in a very personal way and to feel His
love. Some day I hope to get back to God and be free."
Hundreds of alcoholics and addicts pour out their pitiful stories
to me in my office. Almost without exception, I hear the same
confession: "I hate it! It's turned me into an animal. It was fun
at first, but now it's destroying me. I'm like two people. I'm
hooked by a mind habit; now I can't stop myself. Still deep in my
heart, I want to be free. Show me how to get out."
One of my drug addicted teenage friends, in desperation, laid back
on his bed, drew out of his veins a full syringe of blood, and
splattered on the ceiling the words: HELP, GOD!
The homosexual dilemma is one of the most complex of all inner
struggles between the dual natures, even though most gays do not
think of their sexual preference as a life-controlling problem. To
them, homosexuality is normal and they resent any suggestion that
they are agonizing over their lifestyle. Most claim they are not.
From Castro Street in San Francisco to Greenwich Village, New York,
I have heard numerous gays tell me how very well adjusted they are.
They boast there is no more guilt in them, and that they are proud to
be gay. They tell me over and over again that only mixed up,
paranoiac gays want out.
A gay activist leader in San Francisco warned me, "There is not one
gay in this city who wants to change. You preachers are simply
wasting time. We are not sick--we are not in need of a so-called
cure. We are proud, better adjusted than straights--and we have
every right to resent religious fanatics coming into our areas to try
and change us. Go back to your wife swapping, fornicating straights,
and get them to change. Leave us alone."
Nevertheless, the homosexual community cannot explain why a growing
number of gays are now admitting to mind blowing struggles with their
gayness. The heavy drinking, the high rate of suicide, the constant
psychoanalysis are clues that suggest the struggle between the two
natures is still raging in the hearts and minds of gays.
I have a homosexual friend who told me about his inner battle with
lust and his struggle to be free. He said, "When I started out in
homosexuality, a part of me enjoyed it and another part of me hated
it. And I hated myself. A strange feeling began to overtake me, and
I started to feel as if there were two of me--two opposite parts of
me, making me frustrated and depressed. I developed an insatiable
appetite for sex, and desire pushed out the guilt at first. I became
obsessed with my own body. The sad thing is that lust consumed all
my thoughts and energy, and I felt powerless to do anything about it.
I felt my mind tearing in two different directions. One part of me
enjoyed wild sex, because it gave me temporary relief. The other
part was sickened by the horrible acts that I hated. I was trapped.
In spite of all my success, I felt lonely. When the sex drive
overpowered me, I turned to alcohol for relief. Somehow I knew that
what I was doing upset my whole body system.
"I began to wonder what kind of God would create me with a lust for
this kind of sex and make me a prisoner of my own body. I gave up on
any possibility of escape. I would just make the best of things as
they were. I would find a way to live a dual life and accept the way
I was. I'd quit the struggle to change.
"I began to curse God for letting me be born with a monkey on my
back. I felt God had abandoned me. Now, another person was
controlling me. It spoke to me from far away, from down a deep,
dark tunnel. The other me, the good and spiritual me, became just a
whimper. Homosexuality completely dominated my personality. It took
charge of my life, and I was helpless to resist."
I was listening to a cruising homosexual in the Tenderloin section
of San Francisco describe the terror in his soul. "Friend," he said,
"the trading of bodies in a gay bar is the most insensitive thing on
earth. It is degrading and repulsive, because most gay bars are now
just information whorehouses, dispensing gossip, pamphlets, and
raising money for political causes.
"It is terrifying to have to get your sexual needs met out in the
streets. I pick someone up on the street and hope something good
will come of it. I keep hoping love will happen. Every Friday and
Saturday night, the hope is raised that maybe this time it will
happen. My one great love will appear and liberate me from my prison
of despair.
"But it never happens. I carry in me a deep sense of fraud, a
feeling of being cheated. All the promises I give or receive of
lifetime commitments are broken, and what is supposed to be the one
great love of my life withers and dies. I'm soon back in the chase,
trying to scratch an itch I can't locate. I'm back to loathing myself
and feeling abandoned."
Another gay, dressed in full drag and calling himself Renee, told
me how he actually gave permission for a part of himself to emerge
and integrate with the other part of himself.
"Reverend," he said, "I can parade around like this because I'm in
a gay safety zone. Your terror is caused by trying to control your
sex drive properly; mine is caused by trying to score properly. Most
gays in my circle are as insecure as me, fearing failure. The coded
sexual bargaining keeps you looking. You score, then soon you're
back, hoping for a better score. Your hunger is never satisfied; you
never get enough! But, brother, it sure leaves the scars. Even my
gay friends tend to look at me like 'a twinkie in butch drag.' Their
laughter is more cruel than straights.
"One day I decided to act like the outcast I felt I was. I was
tired of broken dreams, endless hurts, and constant loneliness. I
made my choice--I would free myself. I knew I had a dual identity,
that I was really two people, and only one would finally win. I quit
the counselors, put aside my pill popping, and decided to make friends
with my body and show it off as I pleased. Renee is the name I've
given my dominant self. Through the day, I am a professor in the
classroom; at night, I allow Renee to surface, and I compete in the
pursuit of male trophies.
"In my honest moments, I know it's all superficial. I see my
friends battered and abandoned, hurt and wounded by all this
destructive competition. Some of my best friends have committed
suicide. I feel terribly sad when all alone, even when I have no
reason to feel that way. Sundays are downers. What a day of shadows
and regrets. Sure I'm gay, but say what they will, I still can't
rejoice in it. Renee bores me now. My friends really don't care
about me. The cigarettes are getting stale. Being popular and on
top has no meaning. The drinks just depress me. I get restless
quickly. What I'm doing is sure dead end. I'm a forty-two-year-old
gay in drag, strutting around trying to deny a tragedy."
I know of one homosexual who thought a sex change could end his
inner turmoil. He writes: "I couldn't stand to act as a man. I
tried to; even got married, but was soon divorced. I decided there
was no help for me, so I entered the gay world and gave in to all my
desires.
"My desires took over my reasoning. I was like two people at one
time. I wanted to be a woman; I thought like a woman; so why
couldn't I be a woman? I found a doctor and had an operation that
changed my sex. I believed I had gone too far for God to forgive
me, so I appeared in a nightclub as an exotic dancer. But my sex
change didn't bring peace to my heart. I settled for lust, for the
thrill of the moment, the evening out, the expensive clothes, fine
foods, jewelry, drinking, and attractive escorts.
"But when I was alone, I still had to face myself. Looking in the
mirror, a woman peered back at me, but I was the same person I'd
always been on the inside. I still felt lonely, rejected, and my
battle continued.
"I found it wasn't easy coming out. There is always guilt and
fear of being discovered. But slowly you harden yourself until it
stops bothering you so much. You have days when it still bothers
you, but you make excuses or get drunk and high to forget. At first
your body rebels against unnatural acts, but you force yourself to
conform, until it is no longer painful. Then you end up telling
yourself these acts are natural and beautiful to you. Days, weeks,
and years go by, and excuses keep you from ever facing the truth."
The Struggle to Be Holy
I have read the pitiful confessions of monks who have shut
themselves up in monasteries for years, trying to conquer their evil
passions. Still, their evil imaginations almost drove them insane.
They did not achieve power over lusts through isolation from society.
Just when they thought they were freed from lust and that all fleshly
desires were under control, they would fall under a spell of runaway
passions and unbridled evil thoughts.
One certain monk lived for fifty years in a subterranean cave,
trying to bring his body under subjection to the Spirit. Others
buried themselves up to their necks in burning sand, hoping to "burn
out" their iniquities.
I have read of monks who slept on bundles of thorns and piles of
broken glass. Others bound one foot, hopping around on one foot
until they lost use of the other. One monk forced his body into a
loop of a cart wheel and stayed in that fetal position for ten years,
having to be fed by others.
Simon Stylites stayed for thirty years on top of a column, and when
too weak to stay there, he had a post erected and chained himself to
it. All of these self-torturing methods were inflicted by monks
trying to do away with the evil presence in them. They were trying
to annihilate that part of them that lusted after sin.
In the Middle Ages, long processions of flagellants traveled from
country to country, moaning, weeping, singing sad songs of
repentance, and whipping their bare backs as they marched. Thousands
joined these processions in an effort to "whip out the evil."
St. Etheldra believed her flesh was so evil and dirty, she refused
to wash it. She walked about, unwashed and covered with filth,
revered as a saint because she had supposedly conquered her flesh.
I read the Bible and discover I am not the only person caught in a
struggle between good and evil. David was a man loved by God. Yet
he committed adultery with Bathsheba, then murdered her husband to
keep him from discovering she was pregnant. He was driven to
despair. He admitted, "My sins are over my head....They are too high
for me. I can't understand myself....There is no soundness in my
flesh....There is no rest in my bones because of my sin. My loins
are filled with a loathsome disease."
Paul the apostle said, "My own behavior baffles me. For I find
myself doing what I really LOATHE, but not doing what I really want
to do....I often find that I have the will to do good, but not the
power. When I want to do good, only evil is within my reach....It
makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is inherent in my mortal
body. For, left to myself, I serve the law of God with my mind, but
in my unspiritual nature I serve the law of sin. IT IS AN AGONIZING
SITUATION....WHO CAN SET ME FREE FROM THE PRISON OF
THIS MORTAL BODY?....ONLY CHRIST!" (Romans 7:14-25
Phillips Translation).
Two of Paul, also? Yes! It was an agonizing battle in him
between a spiritual and an unspiritual nature locked in constant
struggle. This agonizing wretchedness Paul describes is the most
frightening experience a person can possibly endure. It is a
dreadful fear of losing control--a dreadful fear of angering God by
giving in to secret sin once too often, or worse, being given over
to its control.
The victim who gives in to the law of sin begins to think, "What
do I have to do to get victory over this evil in me? I've cried a
river of tears--I've tried willpower--I've condemned myself--I've
made a thousand promises to change--I've read everything I can get my
hands on about how to become holy. But I'm at the point of
exhaustion. Will God give up on me until I learn how to struggle
free? How can I stand up against such a powerful force pulling me
down? What's the use?"
Those who don't have this tremendous inner struggle have either
come through it by faith or they are dishonest people. They are not
grieved by their sins, because they choose to overlook them. Some
have become hardened by their sins, and they no longer feel any pangs
of conscience. Others have designed for themselves a framework of
elaborate excuses and justification for everything they do, absolving
themselves of all weaknesses and faults. It is a common practice of
those who discover they have a life-controlling problem to study
history, psychology, sociology, and religion--to find justification
for their behavior.
But the honest seeker can't beg off so easily and live with
himself. He must see his ugly carnal side and admit, "I am sold under
sin as a slave. There is nothing good in me without God. I am weak,
frail, sin-prone, in need of the Lord's help daily." Actually, the
holier a man becomes, the more aware he is of his own sinfulness.
Over one hundred years ago, the great Scottish preacher, Alexander
Whyte, called for honesty in admitting to the battle between the two
natures in us. He wrote:
Writers have been afraid to speak out the whole
truth about their tribulations. The truthful person
must admit there has not been another with so weak and
evil a heart as mine, no evil life quite like mine; no
sinner beset with as many temptations and trials as
me. He must admit to his own experience of inner
sinfulness; that his sin is malignant; that sin, at
times, still has dominion over him; that indescribable
evil lurks in his heart; that all this goes on in his
own heart. This is the everyday agony of every man
among us whose eyes are open to his own heart.
There is nothing else of which you can be so sure
and certain as the sin and misery of your own evil
heart; your own self-seeking, envy, malice, pride,
hatred, revenge, and lust.
Prepared as you are to instruct others, do you
ever teach yourself anything? You preach
against stealing, but are you sure of your own
honesty? You denounce the practice of adultery,
but are you sure of your own purity?
(Romans 2:21 Phillips Translation)
I am at the place that I believe it is the uncharitable Christian,
so harsh and unforgiving, who drives the sinner away from the
redeeming power of Christ. The church often drives people with life-
controlling problems to wreckless abandon and despair by their
phoney, pious ferocity against their sin. Christians, who are
themselves victims of all manner of temptations, often shut out the
habituated by telling them they are hopeless cases. This judgmental
attitude says to the sinner, "Keep going deeper into your sin! You
are hopeless! The Bible condemns you, so give yourself over to your
iniquity. You are already lost, so we won't waste our time trying to
help you."
A young lesbian who attended one of my meetings told me of her
difficulty with church people accepting her--even after her
conversion to Christ.
"I wish Christians would quit 'totem poling' sins and treat
everybody alike. They tend to put homosexuals on the bottom when it
comes to being concerned about them, and on top of the pole when it
comes to judging them as hopeless.
"I get tired of Christians accepting converted adulterers,
prostitutes, alcoholics, masturbators, and then recoiling like vipers
when homosexuals seek help. They seem on the verge of throwing up
when they talk to me; they watch my every move; they eyeball and
analyze me, looking for errors. They can't forget my past, as if
Jesus came into this world to save everybody but homosexuals."
No wonder sin is driven underground. No wonder people with
life-controlling habits tend to react violently. These troubled
souls are degraded; scorn is heaped upon them by a church that wants
nothing to do with "queers," "faggots," and "nellies." We have all
become very adept at heaping scorn on those we consider hopeless
sinners. The scorn and smirk of Christians is one of the greatest
causes of injury to those who indulge in sensuality.
We stigmatize people with life-controlling problems. We take away
their character by thinking of them as hopelessly hooked. We are so
offended by their practices, we have made their sins so scandalous,
we turn them into outcasts with no hope of return. We help to
destroy their hunger for God by bringing down on them an avalanche
of reproach and unforgiving wrath.
If you rob a sinner of his character, if you take away his dignity,
if you focus only on his failures, if you treat him as a non-person,
if you shut off all his roads of retreat--he is driven to hardness.
He becomes calloused and begins to fight back because that is all
that is left for him. It is an easy step from hardness to violence.
Humiliate the sinner, take away his sense of worth, and soon you will
have driven him to total remorse. If there is no God in him to
support him, he will lose all hope and finally give himself over to
those who will accept him. Then he often uses that hostility as an
excuse to remain in his sin.
My compassion for hardened sinners has been sorely tried. I've
seen gangs of leather-clad sadomasochists parading down Folsom Street
in San Francisco, flaunting their perversion. They carry nail-studded
belts, heavy chains, whips, and other such sadomasochist
paraphernalia.
Drag queens strut around, proud, thumbing their noses at straight
society. I have had countless numbers of gays call me a fanatic and
a fraud. They have cursed my honest efforts to help them--they have
thrown my books into the gutter, jumping on them, reviling the author
with torrents of cursing.
It is then that horrible thoughts begin to surface in me. I think
to myself, "God, they are hopeless. They don't want You; they don't
want help. I'm wasting time. Maybe an earthquake is the only
language they can understand. Why preach cure to proud people who
won't even admit they need help?"
But when I go down to the Tenderloin in San Francisco and talk to
those who have hit rock bottom--stoned, bombed out, at the end of
their hope--something beautiful happens. Sinners tend to get honest
when desperate. The truth surfaces when the games are all over.
The phoney fronts, the make-believe facades, all come tumbling down.
And suddenly you find just another poor, lost sinner needing the love
and compassion of Christ. They weep out pitiful confessions of being
kicked around, abused, used, rejected, and misunderstood.
I cannot explain the joy of seeing broken bodies and minds restored
by the power of God. That is what draws some of us back time and
again to the streets, willing to suffer abuse from the hardened
Christ-rejectors. It may be only one out of a thousand who admits to
a need or who hurts enough to want to change. But God will lead us
to that one--and no power on earth or in Hell can hinder the Holy
Spirit from zeroing in on that hungry heart to bring healing.
Paul the apostle said, "God has shown me that I should call no man
unfit or unclean" (Acts 10:28).
Searching for a Solution
For years I have been trying to find the key to power over sin. I
see in me so many hurtful things, and I yearn to be free from the
bondage of my flesh.
My search for power over sin took me on a ten-year journey through
libraries, commentaries, conferences with Bible scholars, and a
thorough study of the Bible--especially Romans. Everything I read
and heard clearly described the human condition of weakness and the
ever present struggle with evil. From Paul the apostle to church
leaders such as Origen, Cyprian, Chrysostom--from Augustine to
Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Wesley, and even modern theologians and
scholars--all of them described the battle, and all of them admitted
they, too, were in the same struggle. In one way, it was reassuring
to me that I was not some kind of freak Christian and that the shame
for the sin in my own heart was shared by the godliest men who ever
lived on this earth. But, in another way, it was discouraging to
learn so much about the struggle and so little about the cure. Like
Paul, they all asked the one great question: "Who will deliver me
from this wretchedness in me? How can I be set free from my sinful
nature?" And, like Paul, they all answered, "Through Jesus Christ
the Lord."
Fine! Christ is the cure. Paul knew that; the church fathers
knew it; and I know it. But just what does that mean? That's like
saying: Light is caused by the sun,. How is Christ the cure? How
do I get His great power into my puny body? How do I plug into that
supernatural source of righteousness? It is not enough to tell me
Jesus can save me and keep me from all sin. It is not enough to
say--Freedom comes by faith.
Paul tried to explain the steps to power over sin in his letter to
the Romans. He talks about the struggle between an old man and a new
man. He warns Christians against being carnally minded and that
victory over sin is contingent upon being spiritually minded.
Two men in me? Two laws at work in me? Two minds seeking control
of me? Two spirits in combat? Frankly, it is all confusing. I read
many scholarly interpretations of what Paul is supposedly saying, and
I was left even more confused. Scholars disagree on the true meaning
of Paul's message in Romans. Even Peter had difficulty understanding
certain of Paul's arguments. "As also in all his epistles, speaking
in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be
understood" (2 Peter 3:16).
I can't believe the path to power over sin is a dark, deep secret
that would take years to comprehend. You see, I need help right now.
The clues can't wait. If I don't understand how God works and what
He expects me to do, I will be down and out. Sin could overpower and
destroy me, unless God throws me a lifeline of truth.
What is really needed is for God to come down to my earthbound,
confused, sin-prone soul and show me how to break sin's spell.
The origin of sin also has to do with man's being born with a free
will, including an alternative to commit evil. It has to do with Satan
bringing that alternative to the attention of Eve, the first lady of
creation. It has to do with both Adam and Eve having their eyes opened
to the inner struggle they had introduced into their bodies and minds.
How sin was communicated from Adam to the rest of the human race is
another one of those theological problems still being argued.
I decided against trying to locate the origin of Adam's sin. I am
more concerned about my own struggle. A person afflicted with cancer
isn't concerned about entering into a study on how cancer originated.
He simply wants a cure for his own disease. It's true the physician
should understand the cause of disease in order to find a cure. But
the afflicted body is more concerned about immediate help.
I simply asked the Holy Spirit to show me how to honestly deal with
the evil that is right now present in me. To me it doesn't matter
where it came from, how it originated, or how it got into my mind--all
I know is that it I there, that I don't want it to dominate me, and
that I need help to overcome it. I asked God to show me the answer in
simple terms I could understand. With childlike faith, I have
stumbled upon three absolutes that have opened my mind to a new life
of freedom from sin's dominion. They are the keys to my victory over
the deception of sin. If you, too, are seeking true freedom, study
these absolutes carefully.
Absolute 1:
The Bible says, "All men alike are sinners, whether Jew or Gentile"
(Romans 3:9).
Are some people better than others? Are straights better than
homosexuals? Are teetotalers better than drinkers? Are faithful
husbands and wives better than their adulterous neighbors?
The Bible sets the record straight, once and for all. NO ONE IS
INNOCENT. We have all sinned.
No one is good--no one in all the world is innocent.
No one has ever really followed God's paths, or even
truly wanted to. Everyone has turned away; all have
gone wrong. No one anywhere has kept on doing what is
right, not one (Romans 3:10-12 Living Bible)
The Bible doesn't waste words in describing what is in the heart of
sinful man. It's an ugly picture we are all too familiar with. What
is in man's heart comes out his mouth.
Their talk is foul and filthy like the stench from
an open grave. Their tongues are loaded with lies.
Everything they say has in it the sting and poison
of deadly snakes. Their mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness. They are quick to shed blood, hating
anyone who disagrees with them. Wherever they go
they leave misery and trouble behind them, and THEY
HAVE NEVER KNOWN WHAT IT IS TO FEEL SECURE OR ENJOY
GOD'S BLESSING. THEY CARE NOTHING ABOUT GOD OR WHAT
HE THINKS OF THEM (Romans 3:13-18 Living Bible).
It is very important how I view my sin. The Bible says I am a liar
if I boast there is no sin in me. The only way I can reach God is to
first reach deep into my own heart and drag out all the filthy, evil
things hidden there, and let His light expose it all.
The Bible says, "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there
is no soundness [about us]" (Isaiah 1:6). Sin is a disease that
pollutes every part of our bodies and minds.
The Bible says my heart is "deceitful above all things, and
desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). Why is it, then, that we don't
regard our sin as evil and dangerous, and why do we make excuses for
it?
We go about cheating ourselves into the belief that sin is not quite
as sinful as God says it is and that we are not as bad as we really
are. We invent a long stream of smooth words and fuzzy phrases,
coined to explain away the corruption of sin.
Sin rarely presents itself to us in its true colors; it doesn't come
right out and say, "I'm your deadly enemy; I'm about to deceive you,
destroy you, and send you to Hell." Instead, sin comes to us as an
angelic apparition, with a kiss, an outstretched arm, and flattering
words. Sin rarely seems sin in its beginnings. But even if you cloak
sin with smooth names, you can't change it's character.
The broad and liberal theology being pushed today is a modern plague
that can't even comfort those who preach it. We have too many false
prophets in the pulpit who are clever deceivers. They try to absolve
sin by painting it all over with a gray brush. To them, nobody is
right and nobody is wrong. Everybody is going to be saved; God loves
everybody; sin is just inhospitality or hatred toward your fellow man.
But these same "sin silencers" share with all sinners the same inner
gnawing, the same sense of guilt and corruption. They leave the
loneliness, emptiness, and despair out of their calculations. They
can try to make a sinner comfortable with his sin, but they can't
provide him with lasting rest and peace. They can't quiet the deep
inner voice that cries, "In spite of it all, you are still guilty."
Sin manifests itself in two ways: first, by appearing insignificant
and harmless; and second, by seeming intoxicating, pleasurable, and
cozy.
Sin almost always creates a false sense of peace and "righteousness."
Two lovers, caught up in an illegitimate secret affair, say to
themselves, "This can't be sin; it has given me such peace and joy. I
feel so complete, beyond anything I've known."
This counterfeit peace causes the sinner to imagine he is not
sinning. They presume that what they are doing is all right because
they feel so satisfied, and they assume they are not hurting anymore.
But the satisfaction that sin creates is based on an illusion. It is
a false freedom founded on error. And when the illusion fades, there
is nothing left but sorrow and despair. That is why sin always leads
to depression.
Sin causes pride. And pride aborts all desire for truth and
righteousness. The end result is an arrogance that puffs at God and
all enemies. The Bible clearly depicts the lifestyle of a proud
sinner.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
will not seek after God: God is not in any of his
thoughts...as for his enemies, he puffeth at them...
his mouth is full of cursing and deceit: under his
tongue is mischief and vanity....He sitteth in lurking
places in town....He hath said in his heart, God
hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see
it...(Psalm 10:4-11).
Sinners often think themselves freest from those sins that they are
most enslaved to. They can't reform or convert because they can't be
convinced of any wrongdoing or guilt.
Some would rather die than give up their sensuality. As one gay put
it to me, "I'd rather die and go to Hell than give up my gayness.
There could be no Heaven for me without gays. I'd sell my soul rather
than change."
Sin reigns so completely, it causes total self-delusion. It causes
victims to become unacquainted with themselves so they don't know what
they really think, or what they love or hate, or that they are
habituated and hooked. Sinners eventually become slighters of Christ
who hardly ever again think of salvation or righteousness. They hear
so much about Christ and know so little about Him, because sin
destroys the understanding of spiritual things. It narrows their
freedom of choice down to objects of self-gratification and robs them
of their power to serve God.
The mind becomes so distorted by sin, it causes men to fear cancer,
yet laugh at Hell. They will seek help for a toothache--yet allow
their souls to decay and be lost through neglect. What a pity! What
folly!
Only as time goes by does sin reveal its true cancerous nature. A
man sins and, because he doesn't drop dead, thinks it is not
dangerous. His seared conscience gives him no burn pains, and the
burden of sin grows so slowly, the suspect has no idea how high it is
heaped.
Sin keeps its control over the sinner by promising more and better
freedom down the road.
Sin has its own law of hidden gravitation that causes an automatic
downward pull. As it gets lower, it widens in scope. It is always
contagious and drags down everyone connected with it.
Sin is most desperate in a sinner when he is hearing the call of God.
Sin will resort to any kind of deception to keep from losing control of
its victim. Sin becomes subtle when the Gospel is near. It doesn't
suggest: Run or Mock; it rather chooses to suggest: Wait! Don't get in
a hurry! SOME OTHER TIME. If that doesn't work, sin will pretend the
VOICE OF THE SPIRIT, telling the inner man to "Yield to God; be
changed--in a little while."
Sin can lock its victim in a prison of unbelief and turn him into a
violent hater of God. People who are totally possessed by their sins
become bitter and hostile enemies to Jesus Christ because He threatens
their lifestyle.
Sin offers service to mankind as a substitute for service to God.
The path to dignity and satisfaction is then through helping others in
need--fund raising, social involvement in many and various causes. It
becomes a substitute religion of good works and charitable deeds. The
Bible exposes this religion of good works.
Salvation is not reward for the good we have done,
so none of us can take credit for it....We are saved
only by Christ's kindness and by trusting Him...
(Ephesians 2:8,9 Living Bible)
Whether open or secret, all sins must be renounced and confessed--or
God cannot help you part with them. THE CAUSE OF MOST DISTRESS
IS THE MAINTAINING OF SOME SECRET SIN. It blinds the eye of the
soul and deadens it so that it can't see its sad condition.
No person can be a true believer, until sin becomes his greatest
sorrow and burden. Every soul that comes to God must admit to "the
exceeding sinfulness" of his evil doings.
Absolute 2:
Jesus made it very plain that any man who commits sin becomes its
slave. He said, "Believe me when I tell you that every man who
commits sin is a slave" (John 8:34 Living Bible).
We have the dread power to choose our own master. Paul said, "Don't
you realize that you choose your own master? You can choose sin [with
death] or else obedience [with acquittal]. The one to whom you offer
yourself--he will take you and be your master and you will be his
slave" (Romans 6:16 Living Bible).
Degree by degree, secret sin brings its victim to a state of
hopeless bondage. Every yielding is the taking on of a new chain. It
causes a "fixation" on corruptness. When the mind discovers the body
is hooked by a cruel habit, it pretends helplessness. "I was destined
to this slavery," the mind argues. "God made me this way. How can He
judge me when I am not responsible for this evil magnetic pull in me?
I've been this way since childhood."
Not so, according to the truth of God. We enslave ourselves by
following our lusts to the point of no return. We are drawn away and
enticed by the lusts that are at war in our bodies.
It does not come naturally, because we are all born with a free will
to choose either right or wrong.
Paul said, "In the past you voluntarily gave your bodies to the
service of vice and wickedness--for the purpose of evil" (Romans 6:19
Living Bible).
You may reject this concept of slavery being a learned process of
behavior. You may blame your problem on some kind of personality
defect, neurosis, or some other stress factor. You can keep telling
yourself you are not responsible for your actions--BUT YOU CAN NEVER
FIND DELIVERANCE FROM YOUR SIN UNTIL YOU ACCEPT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
TO DEAL WITH IT. YOU MUST WANT FREEDOM.
If you keep on believing your sin is inherited and you are like a
tiny cork carried away by a mighty torrent, you will finally give
yourself over to your slavery. Why fight it if you can't beat it?
Why seek a cure if there is none? Why talk about a cure when you
don't admit you are sick?
This fatalistic approach is a clever lie of Satan to keep slaves in
line. There is not one iota of truth to it. There is no sin too
difficult for Christ to cure, no bondage too powerful for him to
break. You may believe you are hopelessly chained to a habit or to
the physical charm of some man or woman, but Christ can melt those
chains away like wax.
Twenty-two years ago I went to the slums of New York City to work
with drug addicts. The greatest scientific and religious minds of
that time were saying that drug addicts could not be cured. The then
governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller, had just completed a
two-year, multi-million dollar research program with not a single
positive result. In one medical gathering after another, I heard
"experts" say, "There is no known cure for a drug addict. He is
psychologically and physiologically hooked. The best we can do is
offer methadone as a substitute drug."
I set up business for God in an old, run-down mansion in Brooklyn.
Yet, I had that nagging thought deep in me, "Maybe they can't be
cured. Maybe there are drug-prone personalities destined to live as
slaves to drugs."
Every drug addict who walked through our doors parroted the line of
the experts. Over and again they argued, "I'm hopeless. I can't
help myself. Once a junkie, always a junkie. I was born to end up
with this monkey on my back."
What a lie of the devil that was. God helped us to expose it with
a documented 85 percent cure rate, and today thousands of drug
addicts and alcoholics have been completely delivered from their
slavery. Most do not even have the faintest desire for the very
thing that once enslaved them.
I believe the same is true of homosexuality. I hear experts, even
in religion, tell me this problem is different. I am told homosexuals
are born that way. That it is such a deep psychological behavior
pattern, nothing can change its course. Churches and ministers are
capitulating, and some now reject the possibility or need of a cure.
Yet, hundreds of homosexuals and lesbians are right now finding
life-changing power through Jesus Christ. A spiritual hunger is being
aroused in the hearts of homosexuals all over the world. I believe it
is a result of a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit to once again prove
Christ demands cure, not capitulation. As sure as the Holy Spirit has
broken the back of drug and alcohol addiction, He will break the myth
that homosexuality is incurable.
You can justify any kind of slavery if you buy the deception that
God played a trick on you and singled you out as a victim for
harassment. How relieving it is to lay the blame on parents, on God,
on destiny. And how devastatingly final that deception can become!
Converts are constantly being tempted to fall back into that
deception. The battle is lost once the mind is convinced that nothing
can be done about the sin problem. When old desires return, the evil
presence suggests, "Your deliverance will never be final. Give in to
the inevitable. You cannot change. Like a leopard, your spots cannot
be removed. Go back; you are wasting time; destiny is against you.
It was born in you; it's your nature; quit fighting it. Get out of
your closet and live with it."
Victory is possible only when the truth dawns, clear and final: I
WAS NOT BORN TO BE A SLAVE. I CAN UNLEARN ANYTHING I LEARNED!
SLAVES
CAN BE EMANCIPATED! SATAN CANNOT MAKE ME BLAME GOD FOR FREAKING
ME
OUT! I AM NOT A DEFECTIVE CREATURE! I AM NOT HOPELESSLY HOOKED. I
WILL LEARN TO BE FREE!
There is no such thing with God as "too far down" or "too deeply
involved" or "too late" or "too hard."
Humanly speaking it is impossible, but not with God.
Everything is possible with God (Mark 10:27 Phillips).
Absolute 3:
The law of the Old Testament brought mankind under guilt and
condemnation, because even though it clearly exposed sin, it lacked
the power to produce obedience. It was impossible for any human being
to fully obey all the laws and commandments of God.
Paul said, "Now do you see it? No one can ever be made right in
God's sight by doing what the law commands. For the more we know of
God's laws, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying them; His
laws serve only to make us see that we are sinners [or doing things
all wrong] (Romans 3:20 Living Bible).
Suppose you stumble upon a man deep in some isolated jungle, far
from all sources of knowledge. He is sitting on the ground,
surrounded by a variety of things which he has no idea how to use. He
has a piece of raw meat, a container of water, a small crock of dust,
some iron chains, clothes made of skin, and a roaring fire.
He gets thirsty, so he picks up the crock of dust and throws it into
his face, making his eyes smart. He gets hungry, so he chews on his
clothes. He gets cold, so he sits in the container of water. He
feels pain in his chest, so he beats it with the iron chains. When he
is tired, he lies down in the fire. He tries forcing the meat into
his ears to stop an earache.
What torment that poor man would go through because he had no idea
how to use the things at his disposal. He doesn't understand the law
of fire, of pain, of hunger, or of thirst. Suppose you approach that
man and show him how to cook and eat the meat, how to use the iron
chains to pull the logs for his fire, how to put the clothes on his
back when he is cold, how to drink the water to quench his thirst.
From then on, he will know it is wrong to do it the old way.
Did you show him how wrong it is to lie in the fire just so you
could bring him under bondage? Did you do it to rob him of his
freedom of choice? No! You did it to save him from destroying
himself.
In that way, God's laws and His commandments are meant for our own
good. They are not meant to cramp our free style or hinder our
freedom. They are meant to teach us the proper way to use the things
created for us by God. The laws of God are designed to show us that
if we misuse the world and the things in it, it can never bring
happiness or satisfaction--that we will only add to our pain and
continue mishandling those things meant to help us.
Let me show you the weakness of this whole thing and why a new
plan had to be devised. You can show that misled man how harmful
his way of doing things may be. You can show him how to do it the
right way. But you can't force him to do it the right way. He may
go right back to chain-whipping his chest, throwing dust into his
eyes, and sitting in cold water in an effort to get warm, simply
because he is used to doing it that way.
God had to send Christ to die on a Cross. Stubborn creatures as
we are, we keep on doing things our own way and destroying ourselves.
God gave us the Law to show us how stupidly we were conducting our
lives and to warn us of the consequences, but we preferred to go on
doing things the way we were accustomed to. So the Law failed to
make us do what is right. The Law was an illustrated lecture that
nobody paid much attention to.
That is why a new plan to save mankind from sin was devised. A
new way so simple that even a child could understand it. The new
plan consisted of believing, rather than doing.
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).
There is no other right belonging to mankind more important than
THE RIGHT TO BE FREE FROM SIN'S POWER. License to sin at will is
not freedom, rather it leads to a demanding bondage.
The freedom Christ offers is the breaking of every sin chain and
the opening of every prison of evil habit. To suggest that any
life-controlling sin is acceptable to God is to charge Him with
cruel negligence and unconcern. What kind of a loving Father could
accept His child being held in chains and used as a slave?
Can a Christian keep on indulging secret passions and stay in
favor with God? My answer to that is: Why would he want to? That
is like asking, "Can a man be at his best chained in a prison?"
Why would any prisoner prefer to stay locked up when a judge stands
at an open gate, pointing him to freedom? It serves no purpose to
condemn sex sin only as an abomination, as unnatural, or as a
perversion or depravity. Those are only the side effects of the
real problem--IMPRISONMENT.
The Bible says TRUTH SETS MEN FREE. Christ died to provide that
freedom, and He is not about to permit men to make a mockery of it.
I am not at all interested in the age-old arguments of what the sin
of Sodom was or in splitting theological hairs about what the Bible
does or does not say about homosexuality, alcoholism, drug
addiction, or other such life-controlling habits. All I know is
that when men accept the truth of Christ, it sets them free--period!
And just so men can't explain that Christian freedom as the right to
sin at will, God clearly defines what that freedom is.
The old sinful nature within us is against God.
It never did obey God's laws and it never will.
That's why those who are still under the control of
their old sinful selves, bent on following their
old evil desires, CAN NEVER PLEASE GOD
(Romans 8:7,8 Living Bible).
A New Love
It is impossible to bring any life-controlling problem to a dead
stop and remove it without putting something else in its place. Sin
won't yield to exposure; fear can't drive it out; it won't
self-destruct. There is no such thing as a simple separation from
an old habit.
It takes more than a simple act of resignation. It takes more
than just a Sabbath or nighttime emotion of sorrow. It takes more
than a theatrical surface repentance. The heart will not consent to
be robbed of one affection without another to fill the void. It
will not consent to be left desolated of love, unless a greater love
dispossesses the old.
The heart of man revolts against being left empty; it cannot bear
to be left in a state of waste or cheerless emptiness. Nature does
abhor a vacuum, so to tear away any affection from the heart and
leave it bare is a hopeless undertaking. The human heart must grasp
and fasten itself to some great affection. It has to have something
to lay hold on, to cling to.
Any person who tries to tear out of his heart some kind of
pleasurable sin or affection without putting something in its place
is flirting with a disastrous situation.
The last state of that man could be worse than the first, with a
legion of demons flocking in to fill the void.
Christ is not some kind of "sin plucker" who goes about taking
habits and pleasures away from sinners, leaving them clean, but
empty. God doesn't take anything from anybody; He simply offers
something far better. God doesn't make voids; He fills them. We
have God all wrong. We come begging Him to take things away from us,
rather than asking Him to flood our souls with the mighty Niagara of
His love and give us something far greater.
The love of God and the love of this world are two affections; not
just rivals, but enemies. They cannot dwell together in the same
heart. But the love of God is so powerful, so all-consuming, it
subordinates all other loves. If other affections won't yield, He
chases them away.
When we accept our adoption into God's family by faith in Christ,
He brings the heart under the mastery of one great and glorious
affection, thereby delivering us from the tyranny of old affections.
You will not be free until you set your mind to possess this
affection for things above. Don't allow your unbelief to screen
out the vision of God's wonderful love. The best way to cast out
your impure affection is to invite in a pure one.
Will believing on Jesus Christ as Lord cause all my evil desire
to go away? Will I no longer be tempted? If I repent and
surrender my life to Christ by faith, will He change me? Will the
passions that have an iron grip on me be broken? How can I have
power to resist temptation? Can I really become a new person?
First, let me show you what the Bible says on the subject.
1. Faith in Christ Dispossesses the Sinful Nature.
Now if Christ does live within you, his presence
means that your sinful nature is dead, but your spirit
becomes alive because of the righteousness he brings
with him (Romans 8:10 Phillips).
2. He Helps Cut the Nerve of Evil Instincts.
Then my brothers, we owe no duty to our sensual
nature, or to obey our instincts. If on the other
hand you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by
obeying the Spirit, you will live (Romans 8:13
Phillips).
3. He Breaks the Tyranny of Sin Once and for All.
Your old evil desires were nailed to the cross with
Him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed
and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is
no longer under sin's control, no longer needs to be a
slave to sin; For when you are deadened to sin you are
freed from all its allure and its power over you
(Romans 6:6,7 Living Bible).
Now we come to the big question--the question that has baffled
the minds of God-loving believers from Paul the apostle to today.
It is the question that haunts those who gave up on the Christian
way, because it didn't seem to break their chains of sin. IF
Christ makes believers dead to sin, if the nerve of their evil
instinct is severed, if their evil nature is crushed--why do they
still discover old evil desires popping up? Why is there still an
evil presence in their bodies? Why are they still capable of
doing sinful things like all other sinners? Why be a Christian,
if it doesn't break the power of sin?
Believers do discover that old desires return, and they are
forced to say with Paul:
I don't understand myself at all, for I really want
to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I really
don't want to--what I hate. I know perfectly well
that what I am doing is wrong (Romans 7:15, 16 Living
Bible).
Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain
where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil
grasp (Romans 7:20 Living Bible).
I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is
concerned; but there is something else deep within me,
in my lower nature, that is at war in my mind and wins
the fight and enslaves me again to the sin still in me.
...In my mind I want to be God's willing servant but
instead I FIND MYSELF STILL ENSLAVED WITH SIN
(Romans 7:22-25 Living Bible).
Paul wasn't talking about an experience before accepting
Christ--because He states, "I love to do God's will." He also
speaks of his "new life" that tells him to do right. That is not
the testimony of a sinner. Paul, at one time, fought this battle
after his conversion, and he opened to us his inner struggle. It
has been the personal battle of all honest Christians.
It sounds almost like double talk. It sounds like Christians are
no better off than sinners. It seems like the battle never ends.
Not so! There is an explanation proving the power of sin is
broken. Paul said,
Who will solve this predicament? Who will free me
from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank
God! It has been done by Jesus Christ! He has set
me free (Romans 7:25 Living Bible).
What discovery did Paul make that could cause him to rejoice and
say, "There is now no condemnation hanging over my head" (Romans
8:1 Phillips)? What great discovery stopped him from saying, "I
want to do right, but I can't"? How did Paul work his way through
this dilemma?
He talks about A NEW PRINCIPLE OF FREEDOM. This new principle of
freedom through Jesus Christ actually stopped the sin
merry-go-round, plucked him off the endless ride, and freed him
once and for all from its power.
Simply stated, here is how this FREEDOM PRINCIPLE works. Three
great truths are involved.
Believers Are No Longer Slaves to Sin
We have no obligation to our sensual nature
(Romans 8:12 Phillips).
Abraham Lincoln is said to have "freed the slaves" with the
Emancipation Proclamation. This legal document declared slavery
dead. All slaves were set free.
When this news first spread throughout southern plantations, many
of the slaves would not believe it. They continued slaving for
their masters, convinced their promise of freedom was a hoax.
Numbers of unscrupulous landowners told their slaves it was a false
rumor and kept them under bondage. But, little by little, the truth
dawned on them as they saw former slaves walking about, taking
advantage of their new-found freedom. One by one, they threw down
their loads, turned their backs on slavery, and walked away to begin
a new life.
Maybe you haven't heard yet, or maybe it sounds too good to be
true, but Christ emancipated all the slaves to sin at Calvary. You
can now "walk out" on the devil! You can throw down your load of
sin, walk away from Satan's dominion, and enter into a new life of
freedom.
Let me show you what the Bible means when it talks about dying to
sin. When Lincoln emancipated the slaves, the "issue" of slavery
died. Not the slave master--not the slave. The slave could walk
away free, saying to himself: SLAVERY IS A DEAD ISSUE. THE OLD
SLAVE IN ME IS DEAD. I AM A FREE MAN.
When someone receives Christ as Lord, what is it in him that dies?
Sin doesn't die. Satan doesn't die. Nor does the evil tendency die.
The "issue" or the "controversy" dies. Sin created a controversy in
the heart of man about who was in control, and the battle between
good and evil was the result. God simply emancipated the mind from
sin's control, killing the controversy of slavery to evil.
When the Bible says, "We die to sin," it simply means that to us
THE ISSUE IS DEAD! There is no more argument--THE MATTER IS NOT
NEGOTIABLE--MANKIND WAS EMANCIPATED AT CALVARY! The issue as to who
is in charge is dead!
Paul used legal terms to describe the Christian's freedom from
sin's bondage. The same legal terms are used daily in Congress:
THE BILL IS DEAD. THE AMENDMENT WAS KILLED. THE RESOLUTION DIED.
The Bible says, "...he that is dead is free from sin...Now if we
be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him"
(Romans 6:7,8).
What that means is simply this: Since the matter of your slavery
to sin is a dead issue, seeing that Christ has already declared you
emancipated, you are now free to live as a new person in Christ. In
other words, you have died to slavery, so why go back and pick
cotton for the devil?
Now the slave could slip back into the field and pick a few more
rows of cotton--perhaps through fear or instinct--but that, in no
way, made him a slave again. He was free, but he had to exercise
his freedom. The proclamation couldn't force compliance, and
neither could the slave master force him to return. It was a matter
of the will of the slave.
Christ can't make you do right, and Satan can't make you do wrong.
Christ declares we are free by faith, but we must act as a free
person.
Eons ago, in Hell's court, Satan decreed a law that, as prince of
the world, all living souls were his subjects. God's supreme court
KILLED THAT LAW OF SIN. It died because Satan could not enforce it
anymore. God declared it unconstitutional and substituted His own
law--THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT, giving Him all rights to the believer's
body.
After years of trying to understand what Paul meant by DYING TO
SIN or DEATH OF THE OLD NATURE, I now see how simple it all is. Sin
doesn't die, only the SLAVERY to it dies! Its power over me dies.
So now I don't have to go around trying to die or struggle to feel
dead. Nothing in me dies except the law that held me in sin's
control. Sin is still present in me, but I am no longer under its
control.
Think of freedom from sin as an annulment. Christ takes the
believer to His Father, the Judge, and gets an annulment from sin so
that He can take that same believer as a bride to Himself. Christ
loved us while we were still living with sin; He died to prove that
love; and that gave Him the right to annul sin's claim on us.
This annulment makes us dead to the claims of the old affair, but
it doesn't stop the old illicit lover from coming around to harass,
seduce, or try to press a new claim. Satan never accepts such an
annulment without a fight. He will come calling with threats, with
compromises, with alluring offers. But legally, Satan no longer has
a claim on any believer. Paul wrote, "...having died to that which
once held us, we now serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in the
oldness of the Law" (Romans 7:6).
No Christian can now say, "I can't help myself. I can't break
from my sin." Paul was finally delivered from this kind of talk,
and so must we be! Satan can't make you sin now; but your old slave
nature can attempt to reassert itself. If Christ did not break the
power of sin, the crucifixion was a hoax.
You will always be a slave until you quit excusing your weakness
by claiming to be helpless. You are not helpless as a child of God.
You are not the devil's patsy anymore, so get busy and discipline
your wild, stubborn will. A Christian who says, "I can't" is
actually saying "I won't." Pretending to still be a slave is an
alibi Christians use to put off facing the responsibility of their
freedom.
And so we should not be like cringing, fearful
slaves, but we should behave like God's very
own children, adopted into the bosom of his
family (Romans 8:15 Living Bible).
Now Christ has made us free. Now make sure
that you stay free and don't get all tied up
again in the chains of slavery (Galatians 5:1
Living Bible).
II. Freedom From Sin's Slavery Must Be Accepted by Faith.
The whole thing then is a matter of faith on man's
part, and generosity on God's (Romans 3:16 Phillips).
I have already stated in this book that faith is something you do
about what you know. Knowledge means nothing unless it is acted
upon.
The children of Israel received the good word that God had given
them Canaan for a homeland. That information would have meant
nothing at all to them if they had remained in Egypt as slaves. But
the Bible says, "By faith...they forsook Egypt...by faith they
passed over the Red Sea" (Hebrews 11:27-31).
The Israelites did not march to the border of Canaan, fire one
volley of arrows, and expect all the enemy armies to drop dead. The
land was theirs, but they had to possess it "one dead soldier at a
time."
What does that have to do with my getting victory over the grip of
sin? Everything! Christ settled the issue of slavery to sin by
declaring me emancipated from its dominion, but I have to believe it
to the point that I do something about it.
It is not enough to say, "Yes, I believe Christ forgives sin. I
believe He is Lord. I know He can break the power of sin in my
life." You are mentally consenting to what you heard. But faith is
stepping out on that promise of freedom and acting upon it.
How? By breaking off with old friends who drag you down. By
convincing yourself that freedom is, in reality, yours. Claim it!
God said it, so act on it. Shake off your passiveness and move into
your new life of peace and freedom with determination and assurance.
Face the facts. All your other methods to find peace and freedom
have failed. You cried a river of tears; you made a thousand
promises that you broke; you tried self-control, self-denial, and
various self-help programs. After all you tried, you still ended up
with unfulfilled longings you could not understand. You found
yourself unable to stop sinning. You were, at times, driven into
sin through sheer boredom and mental depression.
The problem is, you have not yet gotten to the root of your
problem. You may have heard that Christ has emancipated you by
dying on a cross, but you will never enjoy that freedom until you
give God what he asks of you--and that is A TRUSTING MIND. He wants
you to believe your prayers are heard and will be answered.
For without faith it is impossible to please him;
for he that cometh to God must believe that he
exists, and that he rewards those who sincerely seek
him..." (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith is simply taking God at His Word and acting upon it. The
true believer is the person who can say, "God said, therefore I
believe it. I'll stake my life, my future, my eternity on it. If
God has decreed that I am a free person--if He tells me sin no
longer has power over me--if He says my faith in Him makes it all
possible--THEN I ACCEPT--I GIVE UP MY USELESS STRUGGLE--AND I YIELD
ALL TO HIM. I DO BELIEVE!"
III. Believers Are Supernaturally Helped in Their Hour of Temptation.
There hath no temptation taken you but such
as is common to man: but God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye
are able; but will with the temptation also make
a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear
it (I Corinthians 10:13).
This is the most powerful and encouraging promise in all of the
Bible for believers who face temptations. God makes it very clear
that no child of His is left alone to battle against lust, passion,
or any habituating evil. Supernatural help is needed and provided.
Believers all over the world are becoming weak against temptation,
and they are yielding to the flesh in increasing numbers. It seems
as though some Christians now think of temptation as a kind of
incurable disease that won't let go until it destroys its victim.
They cringe in fear when temptation strikes, thinking, "Oh, no--here
I go again. It's got me in its grip, and I just know I'm going to
give in. I have no will power; I'm too weak to resist."
That is the defeatist thinking of believers who do not know how to
claim their RIGHT to assistance. What is this RIGHT promised to all
believers? IT IS THE RIGHT TO SUPERNATURAL HELP IN TEMPTATION.
Do I mean by this that Christ not only delivers a believer from
the power of sin, but also helps keep him from going back to it?
That is exactly what the Bible says.
When temptation rolls in like a flood, Christ exercises His
lordship and does something supernatural to combat it. He "makes a
way to escape," so that believers can survive the ordeal or, in
other words, "bear up under it."
Temptation is a test of man's free will; therefore, God can't
take away his alternative to sin without destroying that same free
will. So God does something just as effective for all who trust
Him. He does something about the OBJECT OF LUST. He works outside
of us at the very source of temptation.
That is best illustrated by a mother doing something about her
child's temptation to steal cookies from a cookie jar. She can't
whip the temptation out of him--so she simply puts the cookie jar
"out of reach."
It is further illustrated by a father who moves his family away
from a drug-infested neighborhood to keep his children from being
seduced by narcotic users and pushers.
Parents have moved to a new continent to keep a son or daughter
away from corrupting influences and friends.
These parents all acted in love, hoping their temporary
intervention would allow time for their children to learn obedience
from the heart. Although the time must come when children decide
issues for themselves, a loving parent cannot stand idly by and
allow an immature child to be overtaken by some evil influence. A
concerned parent will either move the child away from the
temptation or somehow put it out of his reach.
The Bible illustrates how God can put objects of temptation out of
the reach of His children. For example, the children of Israel
began to murmur against Moses for leading them out of Egypt. They
wanted to go back to their old lifestyle. Freedom seemed too costly.
So God arranged to open the Red Sea and allowed the Egyptian army to
chase them across on dry land. Then He closed up the Sea--blocking
any chance of return. God did that only in answer to the fervent
prayers of Moses and other Israelites who wanted freedom.
Just as Jesus did, believers are to resist temptation with the
Word of God. Most temptations can be defused by focusing the laser
of truth on them. But there are other temptations that are so
engrained, so furious and tenacious--they cannot be endured without
supernatural intervention. The severest of temptations are often
the result of a direct and person attack by demonic powers.
Paul speaks of "fightings without, and fears within"
(2 Corinthians 7:15). Satan actually declares war on certain
converts who desert his army because they once best exemplified his
power to possess. In his anger at losing such a "prize," he fights
them from without by pounding on them with one severe temptation
after another, to sift them as wheat. Jesus said to Peter, "Behold
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat"
(Luke 22:31). In other words, so shaken, you will hopefully break
down.
Are you a believer who is being pounded by a recurring temptation
that seems beyond your strength to resist? Is it a habit you can't
control? Those involved with illicit secret lovers are especially
overwhelmed by crushing temptations. So often, they yield and are
soon swallowed up in remorse, guilt, and feelings of helplessness.
If they are believers, they don't doubt that Christ has freed them
from all obligations to obey the lust of their flesh. And, in many
areas of their lives, they have seen progress and victory. Yet,
there remains one besetting sin--one overpowering temptation to give
in to a certain lust.
Thank God, there is a way of escape! God is a "miraculous
intervener." It took a storm and a whale and a lot of supernatural
intervention to get Jonah out of trouble. God has been known to turn
water "bitter" and to cause manna to "stink," in an effort to make
obedience less difficult.
God, in answer to fervent prayer, can make your object of lust
become an abominable stench to you, and He can make yielding to sin
become so bitter, you will hesitate ever giving in again. He may
detour you; He may remove people from your life; He may cause the
object of your lust to turn against you; He may throw up all kinds
of road blocks; He may throw up a "Job wall" of protection; He may
simply draw you irresistibly into the secret closet of prayer; He
may send someone to warn or correct you--but in one supernatural way
or another, God will answer prayer and intervene, making it possible
for believers to overcome their most violent temptations.
Those who, deep inside, don't want to give up their lust and who
secretly hope to keep on indulging it can never receive this
miraculous intervention when being tempted. God moves in to make a
way of escape only when the heart is fully committed to a life of
separation and purity.
If there is not such a commitment, it won't work. God is not
obligated to intervene when someone really doesn't want deliverance.
Flirters with secret sin are left to fight temptation with their
own strength. Then when they yield to sin, they blame God for not
"pulling them out." They say, "I waited for God, but He just let me
go ahead and do it."
But the believer who honestly wants to be free from sin's bondage
can be assured his loving Father sees his struggle and will use all
the power of Heaven to assist him.
When severely tempted, ask God for His supernatural intervention,
and ask in faith, believing He will do it.
God has promised to "DELIVER US FROM ALL EVIL." Here is proof of
God's help in time of temptation:
Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he
preserveth the souls of his saints; he
delivereth them out of the hand of the
wicked (Psalm 97:10).
We have escaped with our lives as a
bird from a hunter's snare. The snare
is broken and we are free! (Psalm 124:7
Living Bible).
My eyes are ever looking to the Lord
for help, for he alone can rescue me
(Psalm 25:15 Living Bible).
So shall they fear the name of the
Lord from the west, and his glory from
the rising sun. When the enemy shall
come in like a flood, the Spirit of the
Lord shall lift up a standard against
him (Isaiah 59:19).
I need no longer fear slipping or falling. He will keep me, love
me, and bring me to glory by His power.
And he is able to keep you from
slipping and falling away, and to
bring you, sinless and perfect, unto
his glorious presence with mighty
shouts of everlasting joy (Jude 24
Living Bible).
I have nothing but pity for the sinner who no longer admits to an
inner struggle with evil. They no longer struggle because they have
surrendered to their evil passions. The Bible refers to such people
as being "dead in trespasses and sins." Paul said of them,
They live in a word of shadows, and are cut off from
the life of God through their DELIBERATE IGNORANCE of
mind and sheer hardness of heart. THEY HAVE LOST ALL
DECENT FEELINGS AND ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO SENSUALITY,
PRACTICING ANY FORM OF IMPURITY WHICH THEIR LUST CAN
SUGGEST (Ephesians 4:17-19 Phillips).
The person God is interested in is the one who battles heroically
against his evil shadow self and who feels sorrow and guilt after
giving in to temptation. The struggle itself is proof enough that
the heart is still crying out to God for help. There is hope for
one who is experiencing an inner battle. The struggle against sin in
the life of an honest person is evidence that he or she refuses to
give in to its power. The difference between a sinner and a Christian
is how one views sin. The Christian hates sin; the sinner excuses and
justifies it.
God's supernatural help is promised to those who thrash about in
the deep, dark womb of evil, struggling to be free. And the surest
sign that new life is springing up in the sinner is the URGENCY TO
CRY OUT. All newborn children cry as soon as they come to life.
Those who cry are really on the verge of a new life.
The first step toward ending your inner struggle is to learn how to
cry. Are you tired of all the emptiness, loneliness, the despair and
restlessness? Then let the tears flow unashamedly. Cry out all the
pent up desperation. Humble yourself and let the hurts and grief
caused by your sin pour out of your innermost being. The Bible urges
you to cry out to God in your hour of distress. The cry of
desperation is the key to all freedom from sin.
Here is Bible proof:
In my distress I called upon the Lord, and CRIED unto
my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my
cry came before Him, even into His ears (Psalm 18:6).
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and
delivered him out of all his troubles (Psalm 34:6).
He heard my CRY....He brought me up also out of a
horrible pit, out of the mirey clay, and set my feet upon
a rock, and established my goings (Psalm 40:1,2).
Your CRY came to me at a favorable time, when the
doors of welcome are wide open. ...Right now God is
ready to welcome you. ...Today He is ready to save
you (2 Corinthians 6:2 Living Bible).
The second step is to cultivate a sorrow for your sins and confess
them to Christ. When you cry out to God, He draws near to you with
His awesome holiness and love. You will know, without a doubt, when
God and you are closing the gap between you. His holy presence
growing stronger in your life will produce a grief and sorrow for
all the sins, selfishness, and pride you have been guilty of. The
closer you get to God, the more you feel the pain and guilt for past
sins. But that guilt and sorrow is a wonderful thing; don't try to
run from it. Let it become even more intense, because that is the
only path to true repentance and forgiveness. The Bible says,
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to
salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow
brings death. See what this godly sorrow
produced in you...an eagerness to clear yourself...
alarm (2 Corinthians 7:10,11 New Int. Version).
A heart that is truly sorry wants to be forgiven. Paul said, "You
sorrowed to repentance" (2 Corinthians 7:9). In other words, "You
were sorry enough to confess and forsake your sins." You will
discover a peace you never thought possible the moment you lay down
your sins and accept forgiveness and mercy.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but
whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall
have mercy (Proverbs 28:13).
Repent and be converted that your sins may be
blotted out (Acts 3:19).
Repentance is more than just saying, "God, I'm sorry! I feel
pretty badly about all the evil things I've done."
That is sorrow, but not repentance. When God says repent of your
sins, He really means: Turn your back on them. Learn to hate the
things you once loved, and learn to love the things you once hated.
That is a complete turnaround, a willingness to forsake old friends
and habits for a new life in Christ. He is not trying to change
you just so you can conform to the social values of others, but
rather that you may experience the total joy and indescribable
freedom known only to those who surrender to Christ. Self-conquest
is possible only through surrender and devotion to Christ. We are
to "yield ourselves" to Him.
None of you can be my disciple unless he
forsakes everything he has and follows me
(Luke 14:33).
Next, accept your forgiveness by faith and shut your hears to all
the roaring lies of Satan. Study the following Scriptures; believe
they are meant for you; and do what God asks. Here is the truth that
can set you free and help you to forever end your struggle.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness (I John 1:9).
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
God dwelleth in him, and he in God (I John 4:15).
If you declare with your lips, 'Jesus is Lord' and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved. For we believe in our hearts and are
put right with God; we confess with our lips and are
saved. The Scripture says, 'Whoever believes in Him will
not be disappointed.' This includes everybody....Everyone
who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
(Romans 10:9-13 Today's English Version).
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved (Acts 16:31).
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creation: the old is gone, the new has come
(2 Corinthians 5:17 New Int. Version).
Now, pray the following simple prayer and expect God to hear it
and forgive and cleanse you from all your sins.
"I here and now confess with my mouth that Jesus
One final word: Don't ever again be afraid of any evil presence
in your life. Enter into the rest God has promised you--and from
this day forward, KEEP YOUR MOMENTUM.
The most important thing I can say to a believer who is sincerely
battling a secret sin is: Keep your momentum! No one has ever
drowned when swimming upstream toward Christ. No one is left
bleeding by the wayside if he is wounded in his struggle to be free.
When you fall or when you are face to face with an addiction that
won't let go, God draws a line right where you are. He says, "Get
up; confess; and keep moving on. Don't cross back over the line.
Don't go back to slavery. Keep coming to Me. You have been
emancipated, so keep your momentum toward your freedom, by faith."
The most important move you ever make, as a believer, is the move
you make right after you fall. Satan whispers, "You are rotten to
the core, sensuous, childish, immature. You will never be holy; you
will never be anything in God. So quit! Give up. It's useless to
try. Go back! God is too high and holy; it's too complicated and
difficult; you'll never figure it out. It's all over!"
Lies--all lies! So you sinned after you confessed and believed?
So you thought you had freedom and lost it? So you think people will
call you a phoney? So you sinned with your eyes wide open--knowing
better--with the Holy Spirit screaming in your ears? So you never
thought you could do such a vile thing again? So what? Is there
godly sorrow in you now? Are you determined to get up and move on?
Are you humbled, shamed, and repentant? Your fall is not fatal.
Once again, confess and accept God's forgiveness and regain your
momentum! You are still His child. You are not a slave to sin.
His loving kindness is greater than all your sins. Look up, rejoice,
and take heart!
Stop your everlasting introspection. You won't find victory,
probing around the garbage dump of your evil nature. That would be
like a losing general, crossing the enemy lines to consult with his
foe, asking, "Can you please tell me what I'm doing wrong? I want to
defeat you, but I can't seem to make headway. What am I doing wrong?"
Right direction doesn't come by understanding the wrong. It comes
only by understanding and claiming the bountiful promises of God in
Christ Jesus. So quit looking inward; look up to Him who loves you
at all times. Stop trying to figure yourself out, and rejoice in His
restoring, healing love.
For God is at work within you, helping you want to
obey him, and then helping you do what he wants
(Philippians 2:13 Living Bible).
There still exists a full and complete rest for the
children of God...and he who experiences this rest
has [quit the struggle] and is resting from his own
works....Let us be eager to know this rest for
ourselves...and beware that we do not miss it
through falling into unbelief (Hebrews 4:9-11 Phillips).
David Wilkerson, author
---
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I am a strange creature with two opposing minds in one body.
Two distinct life forces in me keep trying to control my actions.
One day I took a long, honest look into my own heart, and I didn't
like what I saw. I saw a minister who preached holiness to others,
only to wage a private battle with the same evil presence that is in
all sinners. I have discovered since that, some of these famous
ministers, who cry so loudly about the corruption of society and the
evil in the land, are fighting their own personal battles against
lust. It's possible to be a world-famous evangelist, moralizing about
the corruptness of sinners, and be as phoney as the world's worst
hypocrite.
I thought that the way to get power over sin would be to study the
origin of sin. In other words, where did sin come from and how did I
get infected with it? But what a long, involved study that is. It's
a rather complicated story of a star war that took place before I was
born, when the chief angel, Lucifer, led an army of one-third of God's
angels in an insurrection.
We Are All Sinners
Our Sins Make Us Slaves
A Plan Was Devised for Our Freedom
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).
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall
set you free (John 8:32).
Now we get down to the nitty-gritty, the very heart of this book.
A leader of the Gay Coalition in San Francisco wrote the following
about this author: "Mr. Wilkerson is a fanatic who strangely
concerns himself with the private and personal sexual preferences of
others. He is a reactionary who is narrow-minded, and the most
laughable thing is that he has the ludicrous notion that homosexuals
want to become straight because they have another 'evil' self inside
them, making them perform unholy acts. I am a very happy homosexual
with no guilt feelings or 'evil' influences consuming me from inside.
People with guilt are just not stable people to start with--they
would have problems whether they were gay or straight. Only total
weaklings talk of so-called 'healing.' "
Christ is Lord--that He is the very Son of God. I
repent and admit I am a sinner. I confess to Him
all my sins. I am sorry. I believe in Him with all
my heart. By faith, I accept forgiveness for all my
sins, and do now acknowledge that I am a new
person, born into the family of God. By faith I am
reborn, and this is the first day of my new life
serving Christ as a free person."
Used with permission granted by World Challenge, P. O. Box 260, Lindale,
TX 75771, USA.
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This page was last updated February 26, 1999.