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A RELAXED DUEL WITH THE DEVIL

I have a confession to make — and here during a week when we're talking about how to resist temptation, confession is always part of the Bible's recipe for victory. But yesterday we said something on the air that needs to get pushed in an entirely different direction.

After quoting some very down-sounding verses from a sad sinner named Paul, we pointed out that Romans seven ends in triumph. With God, victory IS possible. With God we can overcome our wrong desires, our twisted passions. And then we said this: "With God, giving up is NOT the right approach."

And yet, right here as we talk about temptation, I need to turn it around and say what appears to be exactly the opposite. "Giving up IS the right approach. It's the only approach. You and I need to throw down our weapons, lay aside our wills, pack away our exercise equipment, turn in our soldier ID cards, and say these three words to heaven: ‘I give up. I can't do it any more; I give up.'"

Maybe you remember the old hymn by J. W. VanDeVenter: "I Surrender All." And perhaps when you went through those four verses, and sang "I surrender ALL," you were thinking of a list. "Lord, I surrender my temper, and my appetite, and my pride, and all the bad words that I often think and once in a while say. And oh yes, Lord, there's my lust and my overeating and my jealousy and my pride — that one's so bad I have to surrender it twice." And we keep on with the list until we've listed everything we can think of and we surrender those THINGS. Friend, I'd like to suggest to you on this Tuesday that what we really need to do is to surrender the idea that we can do anything. We need to surrender the concept of fighting temptation. We need to surrender, or give up on, SELF.
Our title for the week is RESISTING CHERRY CHEESECAKE AND OTHER SINS. And let's suppose that just one time, you manage to say no to that cheesecake. You're out to lunch with your friends, and you're offered a piece, and somehow you find inside yourself the willpower to say no. Immediately, you feel a little tingle inside, like maybe you've just scored a spiritual point. "I did it!" Or, like in basketball, "That's TWO points!"

In writing about this business of fighting sin and resisting, C. S. Lewis has something to say in his book, Mere Christianity. Notice:

"The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues is that we fail. If there was any idea that God had set us a sort of exam, and that we might get good marks by deserving them, that has to be wiped out. If there was any idea of a sort of bargain — any idea that we could perform our side of the contract and thus put God in our debt so that it was up to Him, in mere justice, to perform His side — that has to be wiped out."

In fact, he goes on to use even more violent language. Any concept, he says, where we think we can fight sin and earn points . . . that concept has to be, as he puts it, blown to bits. That simply is not the framework of the Christian faith. It is a wonderful thing when victories come; it's tremendous when God helps us to control our tempers and surrender our pride. But those victories are not points in a contest where we are earning part of our way or putting God in our debt. And whenever we think that we are, we have to blow that feeling to bits, wipe it out.

You see, friend, no matter what our sin struggles might be, and no matter how deep our spiritual studies take us, we have to keep two unassailable truths in front of us at all times. First of all, we cannot fight sin in our own power. If you have a list of a hundred sins, you can't get rid of them on your own. Jesus Himself says in John 15:5:

"Apart from Me [or "without Me"] you can do nothing."

Just that one plain statement right there tells us that when it comes to cherry cheesecake and all sins, our only hope is to give up. Completely give up — not our sins — but our trust in our abilities. Friend, we need to say to God every single morning of our lives, "Lord, I can't do a thing on my own. I'm helpless and I realize I'm helpless." Any Christian who gets out of bed with any other philosophy in his head is doomed before his feet hit the floor.

But the second unassailable pillar is right there with it. Here it is: Our obedience, our goodness — no matter how we get it — is not the BASIS of our being saved. You and I aren't going to be saved in God's kingdom because we're good people, but because Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.

I'm glad we don't have to pay any company royalties for each time we quote Ephesians 2:8, 9, because it would bankrupt this Voice of Prophecy ministry. But these two verses from Paul pour the concrete of this foundational Bible truth. Listen to these clear words of teaching:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this NOT from yourselves, it is the gift of God — NOT by works, so that no one can boast."

In a companion text also written by Paul, found in Romans 6:23, we find this:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

You know, it would be a wonderful thing if — every time we face a temptation — we could quickly face up to these two pillars of truth. First of all, to know our own helplessness. Here's a sinful temptation — and I'm helpless. Without Jesus, I can't fight it. And then Truth #2: Here's a temptation, and I'm helpless, but fortunately, the basis of my salvation isn't here! It's over at Calvary!
Let's try to squeeze in two big, big points right here. First of all, the Bible teaches us that obedience and overcoming sin are very important things. Jesus said so many times.

"If you love Me, keep My commandments."

That's what He told His own disciples in John chapter 14. And of course, you and I want to be Jesus' disciples, don't we? Over in Revelation God's friends and followers of the last days are described as being those who "(quote) follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Don't you want to be in that number? And exactly one verse after our theme text about no one being saved by their works, Paul clears his throat and adds:

"[Oh, by the way,] we are Christ's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus TO DO GOOD WORKS, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

So resisting sin is an important thing. The Bible teaches it:

"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

So we have these Bible verses. God's people are invited to obey, encouraged to obey, even commanded to obey. But friend, when we understand the two pillars we've shared today — that we ourselves, in our own power, can't do it, and that the basis of our salvation is over at Calvary instead of focused on our report card — something very wonderful happens.

And I don't think I've ever read a better description of it than in this classic book, Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis. We've shared this many times, and here it is again:

"Handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying," he writes. "To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you."

Isn't that a wonderful challenge — and let me take you again to these nine all-important words: "Trying in a new way, a LESS WORRIED way." So many of us, in our Christian struggles, have been so worried! We've been terrified! For exactly these two reasons: first, we were trying to do it ourselves, knowing we were doomed to fail. And secondly, because we were convinced that our salvation was sitting right there, teetering on the scales of our performance. If we failed, if we sinned, we were sure to be lost.

But Jesus says to us, "I've already paid the price. You're Mine now. And beginning right now, I'm going to help you obey. You can do it if I strengthen you; that's My promise."

Still, that tempting, oversized piece of cheesecake looks pretty inviting, even with Jesus as our Savior and Friend. Exactly what do we do when the moment of temptation hits? Be sure you stay with us as the good news unfolds.