Welcome To The War Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We face temptations every day. They draw us away from God and toward destructive choices that can ruin our lives, families, and futures. We must shake off complacency, realizing we're in a state of battle with our mortal enemy, the devil. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, help us understand why the temptations we all face are part of a cosmic struggle between good and evil. Well, Dave, I need to say that behind our temptations oftentimes there is an evil spirit. Behind the lie is the liar. Behind the trap is the trapper. You know, my friends, as you listen to this series of messages, may I give you a suggestion?

Why don't you get on the phone and call your friends and invite them to listen? I say that because in this series we're going to be dealing with various addictions, various kinds of temptations that we face. And I believe that these messages will be of tremendous help, insight from the scriptures as to how we can overcome the kind of things that ensnare us, but also as a warning that if we begin down a path, it may end very badly.

So listen carefully now as we speak about seven snares of the enemy, critically important in a world that seems to have lost its way. I know that we prayed just a moment ago, but would you bow your head one more time? Father, whenever your word is preached, barriers are put up to its truth because by nature we do not want to be touched either by its power or its conviction. And so we ask in these moments that you might graciously take those barriers down and reach to us in love and let us just be honest. And we pray that in our honesty, you might meet us. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. And I think that if we were honest, we'd admit that there is a war that takes place within us. Sometimes the war rages, sometimes it subsides, but it's always there.

There are different ways that the war can be described. It can be described as the struggle of the flesh and spirit. It can be described as the struggle between what we know what is right and that which is right and that which we really desire to do. And oftentimes we follow those desires because quite frankly, those desires, they promise us happiness. They tell us, you follow me and I will finally give you the pleasure that you so richly deserve.

But the pleasures that we're talking about today cannot keep those promises. We're talking about the war within and how it might be won. Take your Bibles today and turn to James, James chapter 4. James 4, he begins by asking a question which all of us, I think, have asked and he gives the answer to it. He says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?

Isn't that the source? James here may be talking about a number of different quarrels and fights. He might be talking about quarrels within the church. You remember the church in Corinth, they had their quarrels. One person said I'm of Paul, another of apostles, and so they had their various cliques, their various groups and Paul says you're acting like children, you're acting like immature people.

Grow up and understand the centrality of it all is Christ. Maybe it's those kinds of quarrels. Maybe it's the kind of quarrels that sometimes go on in your vocation at work in the bank or the factory or the hospital. Oftentimes a lot of unsaid quarrels are going on and tension begins to build and you have animosity and at any moment it could very easily be fanned into a flame. Maybe James has in mind the quarrels that sometimes happen in our homes.

There's some homes where there's so much hostility, so much tension that it doesn't take much until two people, usually the parents, are shouting at one another and over every small matter that becomes a huge issue because of the level of frustration, the level of anger. James asks the question. He said what is really the source of all of these quarrels and all of these fights? He says it is the desires that battle within you, the desires. What I'd like to do today is to help you to notice that James actually talks about two conflicts, maybe three but we'll boil it down to two. First of all, he says there is a conflict within us, a conflict within us. You'll notice he says that these desires, the Greek word is hedonai, from which we get hedonism. These pleasures within us, he says they battle within us and we all experience the tension. Paul says that the spirit and the flesh, they war against my mind.

We know that battle. Now these desires may be revenge and I'm sure that the two young men who shot as many students as they could as they went into that school room, they were desirous of revenge and as they were blowing people away, for a moment it apparently felt good because at last they were to even the score they thought. Foolishness, traverseness and stupidity. But isn't that why people do what they do is desires that have run amok?

It could be revenge. It could be covetousness. You know that this is actually an introductory message in a series titled Seven Snares and we're going to talk about greed and gambling and alcoholism and pornography and immorality and the pleasures of life and occultism.

Snares into which we can fall which eventually will strangle us. But isn't that why some people fall into gambling and into all kinds of sins? It is because of the love of money and it is the sin of covetousness which lies at the heart of greed and debt. Or it could be another desire. It could be lust. It could be self-seeking and these desires if we simply pursue them and say well that's the way I am, they will lead us to despair and lead us to emptiness and guilt. James says that these do battle within us.

Now let's take one of the ones we'll be discussing in detail. Let's take for example alcoholism. Here's an alcoholic who has cursed that bottle a thousand times and sworn it off. But he's back the next day because the bottle mocks him. Here's a gambler who says never again but after all he's so far in debt because of his gambling he has to win it all back so he throws it all away in one more rush to happiness and suddenly it's gone.

And here you have these desires within us that conflict because every time we do these things they backfire. You know it's something like a person awash in an ocean and he's in a boat and he's going somewhere but he's lost and he can't get back and he is out of water, fresh water. And here he is surrounded by all of this water and the water seems to say as it laps against the boat drink me, drink me, drink me, I'm wet, I'm accessible and if you do it you will quench your thirst. But he takes it and what does he discover?

Well simply this, that the more he takes the thirstier he becomes because of the salt and soon that which looked so good to him ruins him. What an interesting statement that James is making here regarding the battles of the desires he says that are within us. And so you can just imagine now all of these things oftentimes done in secret, the snares that we've talked about, they are done in secret but in being done in secret they only cause the erosion of the soul and the tension of trying to keep the whole thing hidden is so powerful along with the sense of guilt and shame. How would you like to live with a person like that?

I know it's quiet in here right now but some of you are saying pastor I do, I do. I'll tell you it's difficult I can't help but think of those fellows who came out of a tavern drunk walking along and someone had smeared some strong smelling cheese under their noses and as they walked into the clear night air they said the whole world stinks. Now there are people like that who see the whole world as the problem and they don't see themselves as being a part of the problem. James says it's the desires that we fight within the battle within but it gets worse. What James says is it is not only the desires that are within and by the way he says you want something and you don't get it, you kill and covet but you cannot have what you want. I don't think that he's saying they physically killed one another.

I think it's a figure of speech something like Billy who said regarding his brother I wish he wouldn't kill me so often. The simple fact is that you have people here who are quarrelling and coveting and damaging one another's reputations and having so much hatred that in their hearts they are murderers but James is saying all that is happening and you covet and you can't have what you want and you're not getting what all of these things promised you. That's the battle that takes place within. Now I want you to look at the text and see the battle that takes place with God.

Notice this, we are actually in the middle of verse two, we have to pick it up there in the middle. You do not have because you do not ask God. I need to stop there and simply say that oftentimes Christians don't have God's will because they don't even stop to ask him. Have you ever had the experience of doing something that hasn't worked out well and then later on you begin to think you know I never even prayed about this.

You think to yourself when it's too late. You know because of the fact that Christians sometimes are mismatched in marriage. You do know that don't you that there are some very very unhappy Christian marriages. I wish I could tell you that when you have Jesus in your heart you know you're just going to have a happy marriage and everything is going to be sweetness and light but that's not the way it is. But sometimes I say to these couples and it has to be done tenderly because you don't want to rub the salt in their deep wounds but when you were in that courting stage and when you were planning to be married did you actually consult God?

That's a good question to ask. Sometimes in all due honesty I've heard things like this, no I was afraid to consult him because in the depths of my soul I thought he might say no. Now this is a parenthesis in the message but if God said no does he not have your best interests at heart? Doesn't he know more about that person than you do?

A ton more. If you knew it all you'd have gone with God. How much better to trust somebody who knows all things like that old line that goes you know don't tell your girlfriend that you're unworthy of her, just let it come as a surprise. So people get married and reality comes as a surprise and sometimes it's because quite frankly they didn't even ask God. They didn't say God this whole relationship is yours, do as you will. But now James goes on and he says this, when you ask, verse 3, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend it on your pleasures. And even when you do pray, number one you don't, and when you do what you want to do is to say God my will be done instead of God thy will be done. And so what you're doing is really asking in vain and then of course God doesn't answer you because the text says he's not going to answer those kinds of prayers where you just want to spend things on your own hidden eye and the same Greek word appears, the same pleasures, your own hedonism, and so God doesn't come through and then people say why should I bother God?

I prayed for certain things and he didn't do them anyway, there's no use and I'm just not going to even get into it. And so you begin to shove God off of your life, the very one who can finally help you, who can finally put it together, who can give you some sense of peace in the midst of all of your struggles, the very one who stands ready to help is spurned. In fact, James now uses some very strong language. We've talked about the battle within us and now we're talking about the battle with God. Verse 4, you adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? You say I don't believe it, I love the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and that's the world that James is speaking about.

It's not the world of people, it's the world of the world system with all of its values. I love the world but I don't really hate God, in fact I love him. I go to church and I sing all the right hymns, and I sing the right hymns, and I stand and I tell God that I love him. But the text says you hate him. Now this is strong language because remember where this is going, all of us innately, without God's intervention, we love the world. And God is saying you can't do that and you can't love me too, in fact you hate me.

Now the text even becomes stronger. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world, ouch, oh James, not only does he hate God but he is actually an enemy of God. Now you think about the power of the world in our lives and you think of so-called worldly Christians who love the world, who are absolutely determined that they are going to take in all of the pleasures of the world, we're talking about the wrong kind of pleasures now, and they're going to pursue these pleasures and entertain them in their lives and then they're going to learn how to manage their sin so that they can get through a worship service and manage somehow and go back and do the same thing again. James says, you hate God and you're his enemy.

Oh this is so strong, this is so strong but so needed, it's strong for me and it's strong for all of us. He says then, you adulteresses, you adulteresses, my oh my. Now in the Old Testament, you know, Israel was spoken of as having gone after other gods, having committed adultery. As a woman treacherously departs from her lover, so you have done to me, oh Israel says the Lord, says in the book of Jeremiah.

2 Corinthians chapter 11, the Apostle Paul says, I have betrothed you to one husband, namely Christ, that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. Now all that you need to do is to talk to a woman whose husband has committed adultery. Do you understand something of the pain? And some of you who are listening can say, yeah, I understand the pain because you've been through it. The sense of betrayal, the sense of lack of trust, the sense of hurt, that all of the relationship that has been so carefully built shattered in those moments.

And the rebuilding might take months, if not years. But that's what we do to Christ who married us when we were redeemed. Well, this is Pastor Lutzer. And you know, as I think about these things, God convicts all of our hearts, doesn't he? About the fact that he wants a pure bride and we are filled today with a world of temptation.

Seven snares of the enemy. That's the series of messages you are listening to. Let me ask you a different question. Have you been as concerned as I am about the fact that during the COVID crisis, we all submitted to our mayors and to our governors and to our governments? Oftentimes our personal rights were violated in the sense that there were rules that were oftentimes excessive.

Overreach, I think, is the word. How do we as Christians relate to this? What does it say about our future? Well, I've given a lecture entitled COVID-19, The Economy and Our Future. The subtitle is Five Continuing Economic Effects of What Has Happened to Us. Love for you to have it either as a DVD or a CD.

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COVID-19, the economy and our future. Let me give you that contact info again and thanks in advance for helping us financially. You go to rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337.

1-888-218-9337. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Sin exacts a high price, torn relationships, ongoing mental stress, and consequences that never seem to go away.

Manfred tells us this story in an email we recently received. About six years ago, my wife committed adultery. She admitted it to me, but I refused to forgive her and so we were divorced. I have since remarried, but I must say I cannot get my first wife out of my mind. I know I have to move on, but I don't know how to do it. I regret that we were ever divorced, but of course I cannot relive the past.

I think she's also remarried, but I'm not sure. How do I mentally and emotionally close this past chapter in my life? Manfred, your question makes me realize once again that divorce is sin. You know, the Bible says, I hate divorce, and I think we all should. Sometimes I think that it is something that can be done legitimately, but divorce always causes problems. And my dear friend, you have to close that chapter in your life.

You can't unscramble eggs. You can't go back to your first wife, obviously, and possibly even she has remarried and you have remarried. So just three things very, very quickly. First of all, you need to confess your mental preoccupation with your first wife. You have to, in your mind, regard her as being dead so that you no longer have an emotional or a mental attachment, because in doing that, you're not being fair to your present wife.

So that's number one. Number two, you have to really submit to God on all levels. You have to ask God to renew your mind, to cleanse you from anger, from bitterness, and also that spirit of unforgiveness that caused your divorce in the first place.

You've got some deep issues to deal with here. And then finally, in the two moments or so that we have together, this is the last point I'm going to make. It's very important for you to learn to love your wife, your present wife.

And of course, that is a process as well. You need to be able to perfect that love through scripture, through yieldedness, through your worship together, and you need to move on something else. Why don't you get some friends, some trusted friends to pray for you, to help you to close that chapter, to nail it shut, and then move on. God will help you in the process. He will be there for you so that now, in the end, you can still give him praise despite the mistakes of the past. My heart is with you there, Manfred. God bless you. We'd like to thank Manfred for being so open and transparent to share his story. We hope it's helped many. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer. Or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Satan tries to derail our walk with God. He appeals to natural desires and gets us to fulfill them in destructive ways. Next time, more tough love from James chapter 4. We'll learn about a war we've no choice but to fight and the many Christians who've already surrendered to the enemy. Dr. Lutzer will set the stage on facing up to the war of temptation as he begins our journey through the seven snares of the enemy. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.