What's behind door #3----it may set you free!

A man wakes up in the morning and he feeds his dog and his cat. He fills their water bowls with fresh water and gives each one lots of loving attention.

The dog looks at the man and says, Wow! This is awesome. This guy brings me food, washes me, pets me, scratches me, cleans up after me, and smiles the entire time. This man is worthy of my adoration.

The cat looks at the same man and says, Wow! This is awesome. This guy brings me food, washes me, pets me, scratches me, cleans up after me, and smiles the entire time. I am certainly worthy of his adoration.

Brothers and sisters, do you see the difference?

In this post we will explore the 3rd and final door through which the devil brings temptation and sin; the pride of life. Our scriptural base is this:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1 John 2:16
In the illustration above, we see two world views---the objective world view (dog) and the self-centered world view (cat).

The dog looks at the man who provides for him and adores that man because he provides all of the dogs needs. The cat looks at that same man and thinks that it must be entitled to such grand treatment because of its own greatness.

I have come to believe that we are all predisposed to be cats. It is in our very nature to believe the lie that we deserve some sort of reward because of our beauty, or goodness, or talent. Nothing, brothers and sisters could be further from the truth.

We all deserve death and hell. We have all sinned and fallen short of the expectations God has set for us. The just consequence for our sin is death--for the wages of sin is death. This applies universally to all sin. Thus the liar cannot say that his sentence should be lesser than the murders sentence. To God, all sin must be punished, and He does not level sin the way we do. It is all the same. It is all sin. Thus we are all alive on this wonderful creation by the grace of a merciful God.

The pride of life is Satan's biggest, baddest, weapon of mass destruction. It permeates every area of our thinking and lies just beneath our consciousness. Pride is the wide doorway that leads to countless other sins. Our pride is what ultimately connect us to this world because it is our pride that wants to please other people. It wants us to look good in the eyes of other fallen people.

Satan's sin was pride.
"For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.'" (Isaiah 14:13-14)
Satan's plan was to become like God. He deceived himself into believing that he operated under his own power and his own authority. He forgot that he is a created being, thus any good thing that he does is attributable to the creator. He became puffed up, and prideful.

God did the only thing a merciful, loving God would do. He gave Satan what he wanted--he threw Satan out of heaven because Satan no longer wanted to submit to God's authority. Satan's pride separated him from God.

This is what pride does to us. It separates us from God and our true purpose. We were created to glorify our creator. When we begin to say to ourselves, look at he wonderful things 'I' have done, then we take credit for something we did not do. We begin to operate under our own perceived power, and we fail to fulfill our purpose. God will do with the prideful what he did with Satan. He will give them what they want----an eternity with themselves.

We live in a dangerous world system. Our culture puts so much emphasis on self-awareness, self-esteem, self-image, individual choices, and personal decisions; that it is a wonder we all don't worship ourselves and do away with God altogether. What is horrifying is that we talk about those things like they are good. We tweet, and post on facebook, and the endless chatter is all about 'us'. I'm sure Satan loves it.

Remember dear friends, you are not great! You are not even good! Every good thing comes from God. He should get the credit, and He should get the glory. Once we start praising ourselves for being good dancers, good speakers, good writers, having above average beauty, being strong, having exceptional musical talent, we begin to cross the threshold of the 3rd and deadliest door; the pride of life. If you have been given a gift, please remember where it came from. Praise, and glorify, Him! Not you.

Door 2

1 John 2:15-17
15* Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16* For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17* The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

The scripture above is our base. In the last post we examined the 1st door, the lust of the flesh. In this post we will examine the lust of the eyes.

John says do not love the things of this world. Our first contact with the things of this world is through our eyes. However, St. Augustine, to paraphrase, has added that, in a broader sense our eyes represent all of our senses. We may say something like, let me see how good that cake is. Or, I want to see for myself how soft that pillow is. Or, let's see if that song is as good as everyone says it is. What Augustine was saying is that John used the term lust of the eyes, but that statement can and should be applied to all of our senses, i.e. lust of the nose, lust of the taste buds, lust of the ears, etc. Trust me, I know it sounds funny---but give it some thought.

Our senses allow us to experience the world God created for us. And He has created great things for us to enjoy. John does not say do not enjoy or appreciate beauty. He says, do not love those things which are pleasing to our senses. Brothers and sisters think about this, our senses connect us to this fallen world. Our thoughts and faith connect us to our true home in heaven. John is saying here that we should not allow ourselves to love the things of the world because our flesh enjoys those things so much. We should never be so wrapped up in the creation that we forget to worship the creator.

Satan loves this door! Your enemy is the most fantastic marketer of all time. The Devil knows how to advertise and get our attention off the things of God and on the things of this world. He is a master at it. Contemplate the number of things that are out there to stimulate your fleshly desire. It is no accident. There is a snare or a trap around every corner.

Relying on our senses to give us direction, or loving the things of this world because they please our senses will cause us to have a stronger connection with the world than we have with God. It will lead us down the sinful path of loving the creation instead of the creator. This will lead us to disobey God's word and will for our lives in favor of pleasures we derive from our senses. Look at what happened in the garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?



3:2
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:



3:3
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.



3:4
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:



3:5
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.



3:6
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.


When Eve saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, the sensual attraction of that fruit was so strong that she disobeyed the almighty God, creator of heaven and earth. And all that dirty devil had to do was direct her attention to the beautiful fruit that God made, and make the suggestion that she misuse it. That's all it took, and here we are, thousands of years later, struggling with our sins, because of the lust of the eyes.

Satan knew the fruit was appealing. He knew that it looked delicious. He also knew that all he had to do was make a little suggestion, and the lust would take over from there. He tried the same trick with Jesus when he tempted our savior in the wilderness.

Satan had already attempted to get Jesus to rely on his own strength and not wait on the Father. Here we see Satan playing upon the lust of the eyes.

Matthew 4:8-9
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

You see, Satan wanted to Jesus to so desire the things that he saw for himself than he would have forsaken the command of God. That is the great danger of Door #2. Our lust, whether through our eyes, nose, mouth, ears, or hands (or a combination of all), has the ability to separate us from God permanently. We can get so enthralled in what we see, that we get satisfied with the picture and never seek after the artist.

Hollywood, big radio, internet, television, fast food, are all things Satan can use to stimulate that lust. It is crucial that you begin to recognize when your enemy is at work and take corrective actions. We all have those things that physically move us, and our enemy knows them as well. As Christians, we need to become adept at identifying the handiwork of our enemy so we stand aganinst it. Too often we look at things through the eyes of the world and not through the eyes of God. The lust of the eyes requires us to view things in the flesh. The antidote is looking at the world's filth through a biblical lens.

When I was in school the nurse would do a lesson every year on how to brush your teeth. Then they would give us a tooth brush, and tell us to go brush our teeth. When we looked in the mirror our teeth looked clean. Then they gave us a tablet that when chewed left a red stain on any food particles left over. When we looked again after chewing the pill we could see that what we thought was clean was not so clean. Brothers and sisters when we look at things through the eyes of the world, it may look fine. But when we look at the same thing through the eyes of a holy God, we can then see the filth that lies just beneath the surface. Satan can only make evil look good on the outside. He can never make it good on the inside where it counts.

Satan wants us to feed our flesh so that it grows stronger. What we need to do is starve it.

Death's 3 Doors

Brothers and Sisters, your enemy roams around like a lion, seeking whom he may devour.  He is persistent, and he does not sleep.  Let's take a closer look at Satan's not so big bag of tricks. 

In 1 John 2:16, John writes:
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

John is warning us of the 3 main doorways to sin.  We already have a sin nature, and these 3 doorways are in all of us because we are Adam's seed.  However, these doors exist only in the flesh, and we can resist the tempter if we walk according to the spirit. 

It would be too much to look at all 3 doors in one post, so let's examine one at a time. 

Door #1- The Lust of the Flesh
Satan successfully planted his seed in us when he caused Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.  That one act of defiance produced in every human being a sin nature and predisposition to sin.  When we say flesh we mean ones bodily desires- food, drink, sex, intoxicants, lewd music, lewd dancing, etc.  While food in itself is not sinful, when we eat too much, or eat without thanking God, we can enter into sin.  While the bible does not prohibit Christians from drinking alcohol, the abuse of alcohol is sinful.  While the bible condones sex within the boundaries of marriage (husband and wife marriage), our flesh wants us to be adulterers and fornicators.  Folks, our flesh wants us to go to hell, and when we walk according to the flesh, we are its accomplices. 

This is a wide door.  Think about the things the flesh wants-- drugs, alcohol, unmarried sex, pornography, fights, ungodly music, movies, and books.  It is but one door, but a host of temptations can enter through this door.  Our major health concerns in this nation are a result of the lust of the flesh.  Obesity and smoking related illnesses top the list of our national health concerns.  Both are results of the lust of the flesh. 

Satan knows the power of this door, and it is his first attack.  Let's take a look at him in action:

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”


2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”



4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”



6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

You see!  The first thing Eve thought was that the fruit was good for food--the lust of the flesh!  It was Satan's first attack. 
 
When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, we this same patten. 
 
1 THEN was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.








2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.







3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.







4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.



Again, Satan's first attack was with the lust of the flesh.  Jesus was hungry, and Satan attempted to use that hunger to get Jesus to act of his own accord, rather than trust the Father.  We see here that our desires themselves may not be the evil thing, but attempting to fulfill our desires outside of the will of God can lead to sin.  Satan will often come to us and simply try to get us to give in to some natural urging.  The argument he uses is that it is natural to want to satisfy those urges---so do it.  Why would God give you that urge if he didn't want you to satisfy it?  The devil is a liar.  God didn't give us a sin nature--Satan did.  Any urge to sin does not come from God, but from the father of all lies. 
 
Brothers and Sisters, I hope this was edifying for you.  I found it to be revealing and useful as I continue to resist the devil.  After we have looked at all three doors, we will talk about how to 'bolt' the doors.