95-57 – Wisdom Breakers – More Hindrances to Wisdom

This sermon is Part 3 of the series "Wisdom Breakers" by Dr. Chuck Betters.

Wisdom Breakers is a study of the book of James. James tells us that as long as our faith is weak and if our faith is wavering, then we can never possess wisdom. When God calls us to fulfill his purpose, HE does not rescind that calling. Often times we can distracted or sidetracked with living out our mission. My identity in Christ is directly related to whether I understand what it means to be a bond servant of Jesus Christ. This is how James identifies himself in the opening of this book. Dr. Betters is about to explain that if we understand that our identity in Christ is that of bond servants to him, that is when we become a threat to the powers of Satan. Because then our identity is clear and we can serve the Lord to our fullest.

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Welcome to In His Grip with Dr. Chuck F. Betters, produced by Mark Inc. Ministries. Each In His Grip message is designed to help turn your hearts toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Betters as he preaches today's message.

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Let's take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of James, chapter 1. Hate to interrupt this time, but if you do have a gray Honda from Maryland, your lights are on. So let's all look around, see who gets up. Snuck out. I saw you. I saw you. All right. James chapter 1. Let's look together at verses 1 through 8. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations, greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault or without discrimination. And it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. In the first four verses, James, who is the head of the Jerusalem church, James, who is the presiding bishop in the Jerusalem church, James, who is the half-brother of Jesus, the one who formerly was not a believer, but became a believer after the resurrection, James writing to Jewish Christians who had been scattered because of the persecutions, Jewish Christians who were in different parts of the world in the diaspora. That's what that word in verse 1 means when it speaks of the Jews or the 12 tribes scattered, diasporod, that is the persecutions had caused the church to migrate. They literally became refugees in different parts of the world. And so he writes this encyclical to the Jewish Christians, the Jewish converts, who were undergoing enormous persecutions, enormous testings, enormous trials. And he begins his teachings to them by calling himself the bondservant of Jesus Christ, the slave of Jesus Christ. And that's the beginning point. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago. That's where we need to begin. That's the focal point in gaining a mature view of suffering. And that's what the first four verses are about. The mature view of suffering begins by seeing yourself as a bondservant. Now, bondservants have no rights. Bondservants have no privileges. Bondservants are not entitled to anything. Bondservants are slaves. They are the lowest of the low, form of slave. And so James begins by saying, that's how I view myself. My identity is first to say that I am a bondservant, but secondly, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Now all of a sudden, the bondservant is one who is enslaved to a person. I am enslaved to Jesus Christ. Now, this morning, you can be enslaved to one of two things. You can either be enslaved to sin, and those who are without Jesus Christ this morning, you are in essence the captive of sin. You have been enslaved by, you are the bondservant of sin. Or you can be the bondservant or enslaved to Jesus Christ. There is no middle ground. You are either enslaved to the one or you are enslaved to the other. You are either a bondservant of Christ or you are a bondservant of Satan. You have either been set free from your sins, liberated by Jesus Christ, or you are yet in your sins, lost and without any hope, captivated by Satan himself. You are either a child of God or you are a child of the devil. Now I know there are many who take offense to that. There are, quote, good people, and I put good in quotes because the Bible tells us there is none good except God. But there are good people, moral people, who, comparatively speaking, are more moral than other people, who are enslaved to sin and therefore are bondservants of Satan, are children of the devil. Now we tend to think of those who are children of the devil as being in some cult somewhere. Maybe being in witchcraft or Satanism or some other extreme form of demonic activity. We tend to think of people who are slaves of Satan, who are children of the devil, as going around with black sheets and black hoods and lighting candles all night. We tend to think of the bondservants or the bond slaves or the children of Satan as belonging to some other cult or some other non-Christian organization or church. But what is so sad, what is so vital for us to understand, what grieves my heart, is to know that sitting here in this sanctuary this morning are people who think they are children of God, but are indeed children of Satan. That is a sobering thought. To think that if God were to suddenly give calamity to this church and strike this building, and all of us would stand before God, some of you would be cast into eternal hell, thinking that you're saved. The mature view of life, the long-term view of life, the perspective of life that is mature, begins by addressing that question of whether or not you are in Christ or outside of Christ. He calls himself the bond servant. And then he makes this intriguing statement in verse 2. My translation, pain is your best friend. Pain and suffering is your best friend. Because it leads, in verse 3, to endurance. Endurance, hopomone, endurance is the fruit. We're going to talk a little bit more about that word in just a moment. Endurance becomes the fruit of seeing suffering as a friend. And that is important because, as he tells us in verse 4, there's a goal. There's a goal in this life, and there's a goal in the next life. Look very carefully at verse 4. He says, perseverance must finish its work, and here's the end. Here's the fruit. Here's the objective. This is where I told you the word telos comes in. The word telos speaks of purpose. There is no suffering that comes to any believer. There is no pain, no testing, no trial, no temptation that comes to you as a believer this morning, that isn't first filtered through the hands of a sovereign God with a specific purpose, either in this world or in the world to come. God always has a purpose for our suffering. Now we may not know what that purpose is in this life. But telos, that Greek word telos, speaks of the teleological aspects of suffering. That is, something that happens to me now has its fruit or its purpose somewhere out in the future. It is reaching towards something. Now he says, here it is, perseverance must reach for something, that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. The words mature and the word complete speaks of something that retains all of which it was allotted for, all of which it was designed for. So that in the end, all that you were designed for, nothing's lacking. Nothing's missing. In essence, what James is telling us is that suffering and grief and pain and heartache is your friend because ultimately God is going to use all of that to bring you back to what he created you for in the first place. We are going to realize all that God designed for man to be prior to the fall. We are going to become everything that God intended Adam and Eve to be prior to their fall. Now, you're not going to have that in this life. The reason you won't have that in this life is because this world is scarred with the remnants of sin. But in the life to come, all that happens in this life is designed to bring us to completion and maturity and perfection. In fact, I believe some translations actually use the word that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. All of that is going to transpire when we face Jesus Christ one day as his children, and he restores to us the condition prior to what Adam and Eve had when they fell. That state of perfection. We talked about as we're going through these trials, as we're experiencing testing, and by the way, all of you go through different kinds, different forms, different heartaches, different pains. But the Bible speaks of the hoopomone of love, the endurance of love, the endurance of hope. You know, when you lose hope, you lose. When there's no hope, you lose. That's why endurance is so critical. I know I have come very close at times to losing hope, and when this happens, we no longer care about holiness. We no longer care about our relationship to God because everything's been clouded, everything's been darkened. Faith is tried by many different kinds of fire: the fires of grief, the fires of physical pain, the fires of emotional pain, the fires of temptation. The enemies of our soul are many fold. There are so many different ways in which Satan attacks the soul of the elect. But all of them are designed for a purpose. All of them are filtered through God's hand first to bring us to maturity and completeness where we lack nothing. But typical of James, he begins verse 5 by picking up on what he said in verse 4. He says in verse 4, the design is that we lack nothing. But in verse 5 he says, But if you lack wisdom, if you lack wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. Now, wisdom is a very intriguing word. The word sofhros. It's a very intriguing word to the Jewish people, to the Roman people. All of them had their concepts of wisdom. There's a whole series of books in the Old Testament that are called the wisdom books. The Song of Solomon, the book of Proverbs, filled with anecdotes of wisdom. In fact, wisdom is even personified in the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is spoken of as a person. I believe the book of Proverbs ultimately points to the person of Jesus Christ. That when it speaks of wisdom, personified, it is talking about Jesus Christ. Wisdom reveals to us the character and the nature of God and how I must regulate my responses to God's dealings in my life. Wisdom is the knowledge of how I am supposed to regulate my responses to God's interventions in my life. Because remember what we said in the first four verses? Nothing comes to us unless it is first filtered through God's hands. So wisdom says, how can I now regulate my response to God's dealings in my life? How must I now act in light of what has just transpired? In light of what I am experiencing, how do I do that? Now James tells us, if you lack wisdom, and I asked you last week, how many of you lack wisdom, and all of you put your hands up, and the rest of you who didn't put your hands up were lying. But all of us lack wisdom. We all question at times how we are to respond to situations that come up in our lives that we know as Christians are filtered through God's hands first. You know, that's an outstanding thought. I'm not sure I really comprehend all that what I just said. Think about it for a moment. Everything, everything, everything, everything that comes into my life is filtered through God's providential hand first. Everything. He knew back in 1977, May the 11th, when we were sitting there in the hospital and Sharon was giving birth to a little boy, he knew that 16 years later, on July the 6th, 1993, he would take that child. He knew that. He not only knew it, he caused it. He not only caused it, he superintends it. He is sovereign over every aspect of it. And now wisdom says, how are you going to regulate your responses to what God has allowed to happen? Now the Arminian argument goes something like this. The Arminian argument says, God allowed it to happen because he's wound up the universe and given everybody free will. So death just kind of arbitrarily happens. That's not what the Christian who understands the reformed doctrines of grace believes. That's not what the Bible teaches either. The Bible is very clear that God knows how many hairs we have on our head, life doesn't happen, and death doesn't happen unless it's first filtered through his hands. And if those, which are the two critical questions of existence, life and death, are sovereignly controlled by God, what about everything else in between? If he controls life and if he controls death, then what about the little details of life? Are we theist? The theist stands up and says, God just wound up the clock and lets it run. Okay, sirah, sirah. And he stands back detached. He just allows it to happen. He just allows things to go, and he stands like on top of the Empire State Building, and he sees that two cars are going to crash. And he says, Well, I see they're going to happen, so I have foreknowledge that that's going to happen, but he does not predestine it or cause it to happen because he's a detached God. That's the typical Arminian argument. It's a weak argument indeed. Because you see, God doesn't sit on top of the Empire State Building, He sits inside of the car. He is not detached from us, He is a personal God. And James is telling us God is going to become intimately involved in the details of your life. Why else pray? Why would you bother praying if God is not concerned about the details of your life? Why would you make specific requests if God is not concerned about the details of your life? And if he's not sovereign, then why bother praying to a God who is powerless to change any of our circumstances? They're first filtered through his hands. And we have to have wisdom. Well, now James tells us what the problem is. The problem is that we don't ask for wisdom in faith. We don't say in faith, God, I want to see your perspective on this problem. I want to know how I am supposed to respond, because when we either fail to ask or when we do ask, we ask in a wavering or doubting sort of way. Verse 6. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt. Because he who doubts is like the wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. Why? Because he's a double-minded man. This speaks of an emotional instability. Up one day, down the next. Anybody know anybody like that? Kind of rolling with the tide. In one day, out the next. Up one day, down the next, like a yo-yo. Dunkin' Christians. Up one day, down the next. Around the world we go. Up and down, in and out, back and forth. But never ever zeroing in on God's wisdom. So we introduced to you the last time that wisdom demands a stability of prayer life. The problem is, if you're anything like I am, there are times when the faith is weak. When the temptation to be that Dunkin' Yo-Yo Christian is very strong. And I told you then, and I'm going to tell you again, I'm going to lay out for you some key, key principles that either you're going to need or you need right now. One day you're either going to need these, and they are going to become all-consuming, and you're going to want to remember what that preacher tell me way back when. You're going to need these principles at one time or another because I call these hindrances to wisdom. Last week we talked about some hindrances to wisdom. We're talking today about more hindrances to wisdom. What short circuits my faith? What causes me to be unstable? What causes me to be double-minded? And you need to have these firmly entrenched up in your spiritual mind. And they need to become part and parcel to who you are as a Christian because inevitably one of these, if not all of these, are going to become sources of great temptation and trial and testing to you at one time or another. Let me give you very quickly the first four that we talked about last week. And we call these hindrances or obstacles to wisdom. Number one, the pain is too great. The pain is too great. We used 1 Corinthians 10, 13 as our text there, where we say that God lied to us when he told us there is no temptation or testing that has taken you, but such as is common to man, that God is faithful in that he will not allow you to suffer or to bear more than you are capable of bearing. But then we highlighted the very important issue that God does not remove the obstacle, he makes us walk through it. God's pathway to deliverance is to walk us through the trial, not to remove the trial. But sometimes we stand up and we say, Lord, this one's too much. This is too big. You've gone too far this time. I can't handle this. And as long as we're saying, I can't handle this, the focus is on I, the focus is not on the grace of God. It is on my strength and power, not on God's strength and power. It is on what I can do and not the mighty grace of God, because our focus is pain-centered rather than grace-centered. And the pain, we say, is too great. That will cut off wisdom quicker than anything else when we believe that God has given us more than we can bear. Because you see, with the temptation comes the way of escape, and the way of escape is that we may endure it, and the way in which we endure it is through the grace of God. God does not send us ahead through temptation. He does not desert us back here and allow us to walk forward up there and take us through or send us through trial. He walks us through trial. Follow him, he's already carved the pathway. The pain is too great. Secondly, the disciplines are too inconsistent. Colossians 3:16 talks about the word of Christ dwelling in you richly, where we are to be allowing this book to invade our lives, to feed ourselves with the scriptures, with hymns, with spiritual songs, allowing the words of Christ and the praise of our hearts, the study of the word and the worship of God to become paramount to what we do. I have found, and I readily admit to you, I readily admit, this is a real back and forth struggle for me. The more disciplined I am in the study of scriptures, the more disciplined I am in my personal prayer life, the more accountable I am in journaling and putting things down that God is trying to say to me and keeping a record and a log of what God is doing in my life, the more disciplined I am, the greater wisdom I possess. When I leave off those disciplines, because I'm focused upon the first thing, which is the pain, the pain being too great, when I leave those things off, I lack wisdom. Prayer and scripture reading is the lifeline to wisdom. Intimate meditation in God's word and dialogue and communion with God in prayer is paramount to understanding how God speaks to us today. If wisdom is regulating my response to God's interventions in my life, how am I going to know God is speaking to me? How does God speak to people today? Does he speak to us through holy laughter? Does he speak to us through tongues? Does he speak to us through ecstatic babblings? Does he speak to us through some dream or some vision that we have? Does he speak to us through some extraterrestrial being? Does he send us spaceships? Do we have messages from outer space? We've got these massive telescopes, these massive communicating machines aimed at outer space, waiting for somebody from the other world to speak to us. Let's hear a signal from somewhere. Somebody talk to us. And God wrote us a whole book. In fact, he wrote 66 of them. How does God speak to us today? Through the word, through the scriptures. We tend to leave these off and say they belong to somebody else, to the scholars, to the theologians, this book belongs to you. You want wisdom, you're going to have to become disciplined, and it's you. Thirdly, what hinders wisdom, what blocks our faith, is a ruptured relationship with God due to unconfessed sin. 1 John 1 9 speaks of agreeing with God concerning our sins. Nothing, nothing, nothing blocks a marriage and communication in a marriage faster or quicker than one of the two spouses injuring the other through some act of negligence or through some attack or through some personal assault or through adultery or something like that. Where a husband hurts his wife or a wife hurts her husband, the rupture in the relationship sometimes is irreparable. Sometimes it is so painful and so horrendous that they can't get beyond the hurt until there is agreement that something has transpired. The hardest thing sometimes to get a husband and a wife to do is to admit they're wrong. You know, it's sad if you're sitting here this morning and you have a ruptured relationship with your spouse and you're a Christian and there is marital difficulty. In other words, you come here to church and you study the word and you want to study the scriptures and you want to know all there is to know about the Bible, you want to know all there is to know about prayer, and you go home and you treat your wife like dirt, or you're estranged from her, or you're estranged from him, and communion has been broken, and there is a devastation within the context of your marriage, may I suggest to you that the best word, the very best word to describe you is hypocrite. That's the best word, that's being kind. The best word to describe you at that point is hypocrite. Because if you're treating the person in your life that God says you are to love as he loved the church like dirt, then how is it that you can expect God is going to speak to you? You say, but wait a minute, you don't know what it's like to live with them. You don't understand. Well, maybe I don't, but I know one who does. I know one who does. And he never puts restrictions or limitations on his command to love your wife as Christ loved the church. And to reverence your husband as the church reverences Christ. You know, you need to take inventory. Sometimes we need to take inventory. Confession involves confession of known sin, but it also involves confession of unknown sin. You say, how can I confess something I don't know about? Ask God to tell it to you. Ask God to reveal your unknown sins. You say, if I commit a sin and I don't know it's a sin, is it a sin? The answer to that is categorically yes. If you're sinning and you don't even know it's a sin, it's a sin. Sin is sin whether you know it or not. That's what confession is all about. Confession means I agree with God concerning my sins. You say, but I don't know what my sins are. Ask him and he'll tell you. Same thing's true in your home. You think you're a pretty good husband, don't you? Pretty good wife. Ask her. Ask him. Ask them whether or not they are offended by your behavior, whether or not there is intimacy in your marriage that has been ruptured as the result of unconfessed sin. And may I suggest to you, husbands, especially, the Bible tells us very clearly, very clearly, that you are to have an intimacy and a communion with your wife so that your prayers are not hindered. You think about that. Don't bother praying if you have that rupture in your relationship to your wife because God's only message back to you is going to be go to her. Go to her. Go to her. There's a ruptured relationship due to unconfessed sin. Number four, pride. Who's in control? We talked about being controlling people and what it means to be controlling people. Pride is the root of control. Who's in control here, Lord? You or me? Who's in control of this destiny? You or me? Friends, these four things, these four things will short circuit wisdom and faith, and you'll never have perspective on God if you believe that the pain's too great, if the disciplines are inconsistent, if there's unconfessed sin, whether known or unknown, or if pride, that is the sense of control and power, is paramount in your life. Number five, number five. A hardened heart that has refused to respond to God's callings in the past will always hinder wisdom and the flow of faith. Listen to me. Don't ever make a deal with God that you're not willing to keep. If God has laid his hand on you years ago and said, I want you to go in this direction, and years ago you sensed God is calling me in this direction to go this way, but because of other circumstances that have come up in your life, you have now detoured and gone another way. You have roadblocked wisdom, you have short-circuited faith. Because God's callings, the Bible tells us, are without repentance. If God called you into the ministry years ago and you haven't gone yet, you are short-circuiting wisdom. You know, we tend to wait for a missions conference to have some missionary come home and put us on a guilt trip about why we're not going out into the mission field. And we'll get to those missions conferences and we'll have this great big emotional scene, and people will stream forward and say, Yes, Lord, I'm answering the call. I'm going into the mission field. Or I'm going to go into the pastorate, or I'm going to go into the ministry, or I'm going to change my job so that I can have more time to devote to the work of the ministry. Or I'm going to restructure my life so that I have more energy to give to the ministry. Or I'm going to reprioritize the way I spend my time so that I can redirect my energies toward building the kingdom of God. I don't know, the Lord may have spoken to you in a thousand different ways. He may have come at it from angle A, B, C, and D. He may have tried in every which way possible to show you that the way your life is organized now is not his calling for you. How many of you, years ago, have allowed some experience that happened to you, something that happened in your life, something maybe that embittered you, to derail you. And now, rather than the train heading down the tracks, you're sitting there by the roadside praising the Lord the whole time. The Lord says, wait a minute, I called you to something, and I haven't rescinded that call. And over the years your heart has become hardened and hardened and hardened and hardened. And then when other circumstances invade your life, when other things happen in your life, you haven't a clue as to how to respond. You almost act as though you don't even know God. Why? Because you know, it's like when raising children, when you're raising a large family, like we did, things get pretty confusing at times. I mean, there are times where it's pretty confusing in the home. And you get angry at times with your children. You get upset because, you know, you don't know which part of the word no they don't understand. You know, which part of no don't you comprehend here? Or you say, I want you to do this, or I want you to do that, and they say, okay, I'll get to it, and six months later they still haven't gotten to it. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic. But nonetheless, there are problems that happen within the context of the home. So you're the father or you're the mother, and you've said something to your child, and you're really disturbed by the fact that your child hasn't responded. And your child senses that you're disturbed that they haven't responded. Now, from the time they're little babies, what do they learn to do? When they sense that you're upset because you have given them instructions and they have not responded, from the time they're little babies, what do they do? Detour your thinking. How many times have you watched a little baby that knows he or she is about to get disciplined? They go running up to the mommy or to the daddy with their hands up in the air. Hold me, hold me, hold me. What are they doing? They're playing you for an idiot, that's what they're doing. And you just look down into those big blue eyes, and you know, you just see the tears ready to stream, and it's hold me, hold me, hold me, and you know what you've got to do. Yeah, you have to hold them over your knee. And you have to spank or discipline whatever is necessary at that point, that child, because they refuse to listen to the instructions that you gave them. May I suggest to you on a much more sacred scale, that's exactly how God responds to us when we do not respond to his callings. You see, God's all the way back here, years ago, when he called you to something. And you went on your own track out here. You went in a different direction. And now you hardly even know that God. You have some faint memories of what it used to be like to walk in the Spirit. You have some faint recollections of the power you used to have in prayer. You have some vivid memories of people who, through your ministry, came to Christ years ago when you were obedient to the calling. But something happened. You got detoured. Now you're down here in Timbuktu somewhere, and God's calling is still back here, and like a little child, you're there raising your hands to God and saying, Hold me, hold me. And he picks you up and he walks you back and he says, Isn't this what I called you to do? And you're kicking and scratching and clawing the whole time, saying, No, no, no, I don't want to go in that direction, no, Lord. And like the Roman official standing before Paul, you almost persuade me, Paul, to be a Christian. You almost persuade me. That almost word sent that man directly to hell. You almost persuaded me. Well, what's detoured you? As you review your spiritual life, what's happened? Why aren't you what you used to be? You say, Well, I've grown up, have you? You know, some of us grow out. We become very obese. And we think we've grown up, but we've really grown out. In fact, we can't do the things we used to do. We don't have the power, strength, and energy because we have become obese physically. The same thing applies spiritually. When we take it in, take it in, take it in, and God is continuing to persuade us that my calling is not rescinded, He takes us back. How many decisions have you made at an altar somewhere or sitting there in a pew? How many times have you prayed with a friend over a dinner table? How many times has God interrupted your life and said, No, this is not the direction I want you to go, and you have bowed your knee and said, Yes, Lord, I understand it now, but today as you sit here, you've still not obeyed. You're here when some of you should be out in the mission field. You're here when some of you should be pastors. You're here when your job should not be the job you currently have, it should be something totally different because you bought into the money angle rather than the service angle. You took the advancement, you took the promotion rather than to harness the energies and reorganize the time so that you can devote more to the kingdom of God. It'll block you. Every time it'll block you. You'll lose perspective, you'll lose faith. Go over to 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4. I want to give you a sixth principle. 1 Peter chapter 4, and look with me beginning at verse 12. Man, this gets a little hairy now because this really gets to the heart or the motives of every one of us. 1 Peter 4, beginning with verse 12, we're going to read through verse 17 or so. Dear friends, now catch the spirit. Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering. Sounds like James. As though something strange were happening to you, but like James, rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ. Now, underline the words of Christ. The sufferings of Christ, because there is a difference. So that you may be overjoyed. Now that's a pregnant word, by the way, in the Greek. Overjoyed doesn't cut it. It's the picture of somebody ecstatically out of control. And notice when it happens. So that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. That's when he comes again. Or when you die and meet him. That's when you see the glory of God. That's when all of it comes together. That's when all the suffering makes sense. And the expression that Peter uses there is we are going to be so overjoyed, over-bubbling, over-exuberant that words cannot even describe it. If you are insulted, now underline this next word, because of the name of Christ, you are blessed. Now, some get insulted because they deserve it. That's what he's going to tell you later. Don't think that every time you're insulted, it's because you're being insulted for the name of Christ. Some of us are insulted because we're acting in accordance with those who insult us. He says, but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ. Verse 14, if you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. He's always present when suffering in his name is being undergone. Whenever there is suffering that's in the name of Christ, he's always present. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or a thief or any other kind of criminal or even as a meddler. Parenthetically, it's interesting, this has nothing to do with this sermon. Notice where he puts meddling in the context of murdering and thievery, mentions it in the same breath. However, if you suffer as a Christian, one of the few places in the Bible that the word Christian is used, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of Christ? And if it is hard for the righteous to save, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? What's Peter telling us? That sometimes we suffer because we've done stupid things, or we've committed some evil, and we have to suffer the consequences of that evil. But there are other times that we suffer because God has allowed something to be filtered into our lives because He has that purpose to fulfill. That's ultimately going to bring us great joy. Now, here's the hindrance. Here's the hindrance to faith. We have the wrong reason for our suffering, and that reason is self-advancement, so that others may see my pain and think more highly of me. Think about that a second. In essence, I feel sorry for myself, and the way in which I advance myself is to discuss my pain with all of you. This way, you're going to think more highly of me, and that's going to make me think more highly of myself. It's a roundabout way of expressing discontent with God's dealings in my life and pride to make myself feel better. So my heart becomes hardened, and I look to advance myself so that you can see my pain. There's two different ways to have pain. One is in the will of God, and one is out of the will of God. I can experience pain that is filtered through his hands, and I can experience pain that is my own fault. The question becomes when I experience pain, that is my own fault. I need not praise God because I'm suffering in the name of Jesus, because I'm not. I'm not suffering for the sake of Jesus at that point. I'm suffering because of my own stupidity. But if I am indeed suffering because God has allowed certain things to come into my life, and because I am trying to be faithful, and I suffer as a Christian, then the spirit of glory and of God rests upon me, and I can have great wisdom. So my motivation in dealing with my pain can either be to advance myself or to advance the kingdom of God. I may want you to see my pain so that I feel better about myself because you say, Oh my might, isn't that awful what he's going through? Or I may want you to see my pain so that I can bring glory to God and show you how God is working me through the maze of questions that I have. There's a difference. And it all comes down to motivation. Hardened heart, wrong motivation. Let me give you a seventh one. Same book, 1 Peter chapter 5. This is the one we usually put first. But friends, let's be very careful because sometimes wisdom is blocked, sometimes faith is hindered because we are experiencing significant satanic oppression. Now notice I did not say satanic possession. I do not believe the scriptures teach that Satan can possess a Christian. But Satan can oppress a Christian, and he can oppress him greatly, and he can cause significant harm in his life. Now keep in mind something else. Satan does not have free access to you. If you are a believer, he does not have free access to do whatever he wants to do. He has been bound. He had to gain permission to persecute Job, and even there, God put limits on him. He roams around like a hungry, roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But keep in mind, as we revert back to a sovereign God, even satanic oppression is filtered through God's hands. Now God himself does not tempt with evil, but God himself is controlling and sovereign even over satanic oppression. But once he permits that satanic oppression, keep in mind one thing: absolute dependence upon God is vital. If you dare to take the devil on yourself, he'll chew you up and spit you out. You're no match for him. He can destroy you in a moment. It doesn't take much for a snake to bite. You don't even have to be close. I've told you this before, I say it again. Don't think about sin as that line out there somewhere that you must step over. Sin occurs when you start making the turn toward that line. You've already made the decision. And the moment you make that turn, the moment you decide I'm going to start walking toward that line, and that line may be a mile away. The moment you make that turn, the old snake jumps over that line and starts coming at you. The line has nothing to do with it anymore. It's a fantasy line. Satanic oppression is a deep topic. Problem I have is I think we spend too much time talking about the devil and not enough time talking about the deliverance that we have. I think Satan rejoices sometimes when we talk so much about him. Now I'm not saying hide your head in the sand and act like he doesn't exist. But friends, if you're a Christian, you've been delivered. He has no power over you. You're no longer his child. You've been set free. The bondage is broken. You are free, you are delivered, you are liberated because you are in Christ. But he can still oppress. He can still go back to old forms of behavior in our lives and resurrect them and oppress us with them. Satanic oppression. 1 Peter 5, 8 and 9 speaks of a roaring lion. A hungry roaring lion. You know, but sometimes I think really what Satan is, is the wizard of oz. As far as the Christian is concerned, as far as the believer is concerned, as long as, please listen to me, as long as I am submitted to the absolute lordship of Jesus in my life, as long as I am in intimate communion with him, Satan is nothing but a little pussycat. He's the wizard of oz. All bark, no bite. But the moment I step out from underneath that sovereign control and begin to take pride in my own strength, in my own power, Satan becomes that hungry, roaring lion. And it'll block your wisdom every time. The Bible tells us, give no place to the devil. Give no place to the devil. Now let me be very frank with you. That means there are certain things that lead up to certain sins. If you don't want to commit adultery, if you say that would be offensive to me to commit adultery and to hurt my wife or my husband that way, then why is it that you allow these other things in your life that are short of adultery? Why is it, men, that you allow flirtatious women to have an audience with you? Why is it that you allow certain people that you know have a mindset that is bent on one thing and one thing only? Why do you allow them into your life? To feed your ego? To stop you from communicating with your wife about some of the things that may be lacking in your marriage. What some of you guys and girls have to face when you go to work is incredible. It's absolutely incredible what you have to deal with when you go to work. People are out there throwing themselves on one another, looking for the next person to jump into bed with. The problem is Christian men and Christian women are doing it rather than fighting it, are susceptible to it rather than building fences around themselves, are non-accountable rather than accountable, and they wonder why they fall into adultery. Why are you allowing the stuff to come into your TV that you allow to come in? Why do you have information being filtered into your home? If you have sexual temptation, why are you allowing that stuff in your home? Why are you reading what you're reading? Why do you talk the way you talk? You say, but I haven't committed any adultery. I'm faithful to my wife, faithful to my husband, haven't you? Remember what I said earlier? The moment you turn, you've already committed adultery. The moment you make the move, you've already done it. You know, it's very ego-flattering to have a man or a woman compliment you on what a wonderful person you are. It's very ego-flattering. But you know, one of the best hedges against that kind of flattery or falling to that kind of flattery, just read the book of Proverbs. And underline every time in the book of Proverbs, it speaks about flattering people. And you know the book of Proverbs is not very flattering about flattering people. Read it. And you will see what the Bible has to say about people who flatter you. It took me a long time as a pastor to learn that. My wife was very instrumental in teaching me that. Flattery means nothing, it does build the ego. There's a difference, by the way, between flattery and encouragement. The ministry of encouragement is extremely valuable, but there is no ministry of flattery. Flattery is evil. You see, our motivation in flattering is to build a bridge that's an unfruitful or an ungodly bridge. That's the motivation in flattery. The motivation and encouragement is like Aaron and her to hold the arms up if somebody's in service or in ministry, either to you or to someone else. Satanic oppression. Let me give you an eighth one, and then we're going to close on this part. We still have some more, but I'm going to give you the eighth one right now. What's going to block your wisdom, what's going to hinder your faith, is a lack of personal discipline in other non-related areas to whatever problem you're dealing with, spilling over into the area that you are dealing with. Go over to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4. Let me say that one more time. I lack wisdom in an area that is not related to whatever I'm experiencing right now. For example, I am going through intense grief. In my own personal life, we are experiencing and mourning and grieving the loss of our child. But there are other areas in my life that have nothing to do with that grief process. If I don't have discipline in those areas, if I am not strong in those areas, if I am not experiencing victory in those areas, it spills over into the grief area. It comes over into the grief area, and so the grief becomes more unmanageable because I am weak in these other areas over here. First Timothy, look with me at chapter 4, beginning with verse 6. If you point these things out to your brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths. Old wives tells, rather, train yourselves to be godly. For physical training is of some value. But godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, and for this we labor and strive that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men and especially of those who believe, command and teach these things. What things? He says, now there are physical aspects of your life, they have some value. There are some things that are important for you because they hold some value. Now he used the example of physical exercise. Personally, I like the King James Version better because it speaks to my heart better. Because the King James Version says bodily exercise profits nothing. You like that, huh? Wrong translation. NIV has it better. It says physical training is of some value. He's putting it in perspective. There are certain things that you need to put into perspective. And you need to gain control and mastery in those areas because you have a design on the larger things in your life that are causing you the greatest concern. So you can find a marriage, for example, go down the tubes because other disciplines are lacking over here. May have nothing to do with the communication between the husband and the wife. There may be other things that Satan is doing over here or that you're doing over here that really have little or no value. And your focus is distracted from the major issues because you're so undisciplined in these areas. You know what happened with David? David didn't just simply commit adultery with Bathsheba, did he? Study the case very carefully. You'll realize what happened with David. The Bible tells us that the reason David committed adultery with Bathsheba is he came out on his balcony one night and he looked down and he saw this woman taking a bath and he lusted after her. Now, although the scripture doesn't really tell us, I believe that Bathsheba knew that David was watching. And I believe that David knew that Bathsheba knew that David was watching. But that wasn't why David committed adultery. The Bible tells us that when David came out onto that balcony, he, David, should have been out on the battlefield where the kings were supposed to be. But he was too busy sleeping and practicing voyeurism. When he should have been out there in the battlefield where the king belonged. In other words, there were other areas of his life that were undisciplined so that he became prime pickens for this particular sin. And we all know what happened as the result of that. He not only committed adultery, but he lost a child that was conceived from that relationship. He committed murder against Uriah the Hittite. He had children from that marriage that grew up to hate the other children from his other wives, that caused great disaster in David's life, so that he comes to the end of his life and tells us in Psalm 51, My sin is ever before me. The problem was other areas of David's life were not disciplined. So that when he fell, he fell as an undisciplined man. Well, now you have to fill in the blanks. What areas of your life are undisciplined? You're never going to have wisdom if you don't have discipline. And not just the disciplines of the study of the word in prayer, but the disciplines in these other areas of your life, the whole of your life. We can start with your job. We can talk about what kind of a worker you are at the job. You know, if you don't give your boss the full eight hours, if you don't give your employer the best employee, you know, Christians ought to be the best employees. There ought to be no doubt about it. When the boss stands up and says, Who are the best employees in this joint? You ought to be one of them. And if you're not, it's because you're undisciplined in some areas over there. And on and on the list could go of areas of your life that perhaps are undisciplined. You might be set up. You might become prime pickens for a major, major, major fall. And when that happens, you won't have any wisdom. You won't know what's going on. You'll be totally clueless, and it all would have begun back here in these other areas where you remain undisciplined. Well, I have more to share with you, but you're going to have to wait until next week.

SPEAKER_02 59:33

Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people say.