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“TEMPTATION” Remarks of Norman P. Grubb August 6, 1954
Our God was mightily present with us last night. He spoke to all our hearts and searched us. Thank God He’s always here to speak with power and light and we’re waiting for Him to speak His own word again through this day and the remaining days of the conference.
You know that the special line which God has laid upon my heart has been to examine together the foundations and ways of a continuously God-glorifying life: continuous holy living; continuous secret of power and abiding and purity. Because, through my early missionary career I felt so tremendously a burden for the Spirit to do such a work in hearts that they might be a continuous glory to God from the day of their new birth to the day of their glorification. Continuity meant more than anything else—the steady growth and manifestation of the image of God in those into whom He has come by grace, both ourselves and our children in the Spirit. And that’s been the line of our examination these days so far as this series of messages is concerned, and I’m still pursuing that.
We've sought to spend the time so far in a careful examination of the basis of a full salvation in grace. Sometimes we use such words as entire sanctification. Now, the words don’t matter so much so long as the experience in Christ is ours. And we’ve had re-emphasized to us from God’s Word those glorious inner mysteries and inner facts of union with Him, by identification with Him in that which cut Him off from sin, the world, and the flesh—His death—He died unto sin once; identification with Him in that real death, our real death with Him, real burial with Him, and real resurrection with Him. Only the resurrection is by the power of Another; and thus in the resurrection Another has come into us, He Himself—Christ living in us. So we’ve seen our title in grace to a full salvation. That is purity of heart because a crucified self that is the independent self that has died to sin and risen to God through our Lord Jesus Christ is a pure heart.
Now that means the intent of our heart becomes solely to love with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and our neighbor as ourself. That is a pure heart—a single heart. So the blessing into which we are introduced by grace through faith is a pure Person living in a pure center—a pure Spirit in a pure heart. Ours is the pure heart, purified by the Blood, purified by faith, purified by the Holy Ghost, making our identification real to us, and then that pure Person living in us. That is the rest of faith because the rest is Jesus. The rest is seeing that Perfect, Almighty, Unconquerable Person living in us, fulfilling exactly His own purposes through us. All that comes to us is a sharing of what comes to Him but it comes to Him first of all. We’re the very minor junior partner—He’s the partner. He takes care of us. That’s entering into His rest. That is the rest of faith. That’s the secret of power. He is the Power. He’s the Mighty Power, the One that spoils principalities and powers and makes a show of them openly. And the One who made a show of them openly on Calvary will make a show of them by us, as we walk on in faith and fight on in faith. Let us be satisfied with nothing less than an open show of Satan in redeemed and sanctified lives. So He is the Power and as we read in that phrase in Galatians, “He is mighty in us towards others.” So we go forward in happy, humble, believing co-operation with the One Who is the Power, and He is moving out in power by us. However, the devil tells us that we are weak and fools and all the rest of it, for of course we are! The devil tells us the truth but he doesn’t tell us the other truth, which is that we have a mighty Person inside us—he forgets that one! And He is Love, perfect Love. He’s perfect Love and He is loving some portion of His perfect Love in this common thing. Loving in me, loving by me, making me see with the eyes of love, feel with the feeling of love, and speak with the words of love. It’s He coming through, He Who is perfect Love, perfect Holiness. So we see this is a wonderful, living relationship. It isn’t a thing, it isn’t a doctrine, it isn’t an experience—although it comes by an experience for it is an experienced relationship by the Holy Spirit; it’s a Person. It is two people living together. Eternal life is People Living together, those wondrous Three—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—and we in infinite grace are pulled up into the Trinity, very bodily as it were. We, “the fulness of Him that fills us all in all.”
So life is being introduced into a permanent living relationship with all that is involved thus in individuality, in originality. You can’t tape down the Holy Spirit. You can’t legalize Him down, thank God. He will be original—that’s why He has burst out in about fifty new missions in Japan! He will be original. He won’t be tied up. He’ll go His own way and we missions inside missions must allow the same. We must be very careful we don’t tape down people or the Holy Ghost will burst the tape and start something else. Oh no, He’s original; He’s Himself; He’s a Person. I’m a person. We’re funny people but even we are original to a point. If we’re original a little bit, what about Him? He’s original also and so it’s an unpredictable relationship. “The wind bloweth where it listeth; you cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit”—not the Spirit but the person who is born of the Spirit; it is not the Spirit. The Spirit in us is like that. We who are born of the Spirit are unpredictable. Certainly the W.E.C.-ers aren’t predictable—that’s my headache all the time. I don’t know about the T.E.A.M.-ites and the others, I don’t know what they are like. Praise the Lord we want unpredictability; we want that because that’s the Holy Spirit.
So we enter into a blessedly simple and living relationship; not a thing called Holiness, not a thing called Sanctification, not a thing called perfect love, or anything else, but just a Lover within us and we loving by His love within us and so on. Just that.
I trust that these days many of us have been refreshed in our inner realization. We have entered in previously and we’ve been refreshed in our inner realization that this is so. It is indeed a fact that I am crucified with Christ. It is indeed a fact that I live, but I’m a mere detail. Inside the detail is Christ! I know indeed by God’s grace that there have been here and there those who have entered in; those who have trembled on the brink previously, but have entered in by faith because they have seen their title—purely God’s Word. They have entered into their position by faith, and “by faith” means “by witness” because faith has witness joined to it. I know one or two whose faith has already produced a witness and trust there are others also. And, “he that believed has already had the witness that this is indeed so.”
I. WHY ARE WE TEMPTED?
Now we’re asking the question today: Why then are we not as consistent as we ought to be? Why then are we tempted? And why also do we often fall into temptation? How does that fit in with this glorious position, “by grace through faith” into which we’ve been introduced into this living relationship with Him? So although it is going to cover a great deal of ground which we know already, we are going to examine this with some detail so that it may be profitable to us, possibly in helping our younger brethren around us who are growing up in Christ.
So we’ll examine that question.
(a) Man Is Compounded of Desires
If we ask, “Why temptation?” of course, we’ll have to go back to our origins again. Man is compounded of desire. The first form of life is desire—in every way. The first form of love is desire. A man is compounded of love because God is Love. So man is a whole conglomerated mass of desires. Now the original purpose of God was that there should be only one form of desire in His creation, that is, desire to love Him, delight in Him, and desire to serve Him and serve one another—only good, no evil ever known. So all those desires were channeled up permanently into Him in loving worship, service, everything. There wasn’t a “down”; only an “up.” Now, as we know, in one period of history, way back in the unknown ages, an awful thing happened when a new kingdom was broken open by Lucifer and his followers. It never should have been there, never should have been known—the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of self-centeredness instead of God-centeredness. And Lucifer brought this awful thing into the world, which is hell, of which the center is self-centeredness.
(b) Desires Darkened by Sin
Our desires are now being directed downward into selfish ends. So the desires of which we are compounded are now in between the two. In the devil’s case, there is nothing between the two—they’re all going downwards. They have become channels for self ends. So you get covetousness, pride, envy, lust, in place of love, joy, and peace, gentleness, meekness, faith.
That same evil person infected our forefather, Adam. He was warned, “if you eat of that false tree you will know good and evil.” He was never meant to know evil. Evil was supposed to have been an unknown, undiscoverable thing. He was only meant to know good which meant that everything he had was to God. All powers and desires and delights of his being were in the service and worship of God and his brother beings. But he took of that false tree and so he entered into that false knowledge of which Satan is the progenitor, the evil use of desires, and all humanity entered right into that realm. So all our desires have been occupied in our lusts. We’ve been following selfishness, covetousness, vanity, pride, lust. We’ve become familiarized with that kingdom of darkness. (c) Regenerated but Temptable
Now through our great second Adam, the last Adam, the Pioneer of our Salvation, the Captain of our Salvation, there is cut open a new way for us, the way out of that kingdom, translating us into the Kingdom of His dear Son. By His Cross, by His resurrection, by His ascension, by Pentecost, He has cut that broad road for us. And we have followed along that road and have been taken out in heart—taken clean out in heart and spirit from that old realm and we’ve been identified with Him in heart and spirit. So once again our desires in heart and spirit are redirected and we’re here as wholehearted lovers of the Lord Jesus, lovers of God, lovers of our brethren by the Spirit Who lives in us. But, as I’ve stressed these days, in another sense that deliverance, that re-fixing of us in that for which we were originally created, is only partial because we’re still left in a corrupt body—in the Bible our body is called mortal and corrupt. “Then shall the corruptible become incorruptible.” I Cor. 15:53.
We’re dwelling in a totally corrupt world—“The whole world lies in wickedness.” We’re dwelling in a personal clothing which has an element of corruption even though it is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Even though its members are instruments of righteousness unto God, it has the elements of corruption in it and it dwells in an environment which is totally corrupt. One reason is that in the total darkness we may shine as lights in the world, that in total corruption we are the salt of the earth. That’s our great privilege—that we may be the lights of the world. We are the preachers of the Gospel to every creature.
(d) Strengthens Our Trust
Another partial reason may be that the impact of temptation fixes us ever more strongly in God. It drives us to God. The wrestling with and conquest of temptation forces us further and further into Him. That, taken in balance with the fact that inwardly we are holy, we are purified, we are Christ-indwelt, accounts for temptation. And yet, although we are that inwardly in heart and spirit, we are constantly, unceasingly assaulted by temptation which is channeled both through a corruptible body and a personality which is open all the time to the corrupt environment in which we live. So, of course, we come to this conclusion, as we well know: that never, until the day either of our death or that glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall we be out of the temptation environment. We’re going to be tempted and tempted and tempted until the day of our death. So get that quite clear.
II. HOW DOES TEMPTATION AFFECT US?
Now let’s go further and examine a little from God’s Word how temptation affects us, and what to do with it. There’s one wonderful analysis of temptation given us in God’s Word and I don’t know its equal anywhere else. If there are any other passages that equal it, I’d like to know them. It goes down to the bottom of the meaning of temptation even as Galatians 2:20 goes down to the bottom of the meaning of sanctification. And that’s in James 1:14-15. “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
(a) Temptation Is Enticement
So we learn, first of all, that temptation is enticement. “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” You note, of course, that sin hasn’t arrived yet. “Then when lust has conceived it bringeth forth sin.” That’s a later stage—we haven’t reached there yet. Then, first of all, we see that temptation isn’t sin. What is temptation; what is enticement? It’s the attracting of the attention of one or other of my desires in an illicit direction because I am not yet one who is out of the reach of the illicit calls to me. I’m not yet untemptable. And in this corrupt world, therefore, it’s a case of my being continuously enticed by one of my appetites or faculties, one of my capacities of desire. I am enticed to desire something along an illicit line for personal gain instead of for the glory of God. It makes me like something that I shouldn’t like. Enticement! That can be either on the physical level or the spiritual level. I can be enticed by pride, by my faculty for appreciation—enticed to be pleased with myself instead of enticed to be pleased with my Lord. I can be enticed, of course, on the physical level. It’s attracting a thing which is inherent within me—a rightful desire; it’s attracting a rightful desire in a wrong direction. Therefore the attraction is not wrong because I have a natural desire. It’s following the attraction that’s wrong. Often people come into condemnation there.
Then, let me touch for a moment on that subject that Brother Thompson touched on last night—sex. I’ll touch on it definitely because, brothers and sisters, it’s by far the greatest problem in nearly all our lives and in the lives of our converts. It’s by far the biggest curse as well as blessing of the world. Unless and until we’ve handled the sex problem to the bottom in our lives and found a way through, we are neither ourselves on safe ground nor can we lead others on to safe ground. It’s our strongest instinct; our strongest appetite. It’s love in its physical level— God is love, so that’s strong! We’re enticed by every appetite. An appetite is a desire. Now it’s rightful to desire food. It’s natural to enjoy food. When we see a nice thing on the table, it’s natural to say in appreciation, “My, that’s nice”—that fried chicken or something. That’s natural; we’ve an appetite and that’s all right as long as it does not become illicit. Then it becomes greed. As long as the enjoyment is a minor matter and the major matter is that we’re just eating to keep our bodies fit, that’s all right. To enjoy is the minor matter; the major matter is the big objective, but if we live for the enjoyment, then we are getting illicit; it’s becoming greed.
The same with rest. We all like to lie down, stretch out, and rest. We like to; we have an appetite that likes to rest. That’s not wrong; we should enjoy our rest. But as long as that is the minor motive and the major motive is that I must rest to keep fit, it is legitimate. But when we just go on resting and resting, we become slothful.
Now sex is the same. Now the proof that sex is the dominant factor in life is that the whole world shouts sex at us. Nothing is comparable in this world. For everything which possibly can draws attention to illicit sex. The advertisements, the pictures, the way people dress, all center around the exposure of the female form because that is the chief temptation to man. Women have their own sex temptations. They have to be faced to the bottom too. Men have theirs starting through the eye. “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” And the whole world is set on diverting my eye to look, and desire to look, on something that stimulates me sexually.
Now the first point I am making is that it isn’t wrong to desire. Because I have a natural sex appetite; so have you. My immediate problem is that I want to look because I have a sex appetite. Now that I want is not wrong. That is simply a rightful desire. I have a rightful sex desire, and so have you. My immediate problem is that I want to look because I have a sex appetite. Now that want is not wrong. That is simply a rightful desire. Now temptations come to divert that desire in an illicit direction. The consequence is that I have to watch my eyes, for if something is brought before me in a newspaper or magazine or by the way somebody dresses, there is an attraction on the sexual side of things. I want to look. Now whatever I do I must immediately recognize that I have no business to look in that direction. That sex desire is not to go in that direction. The fact of wanting isn’t wrong; the fact of following out the want is wrong.
Now, I’ve found this: you can hardly take up a worldly magazine that hasn’t some part of it put to half-naked females. You take your American “Life.” I have challenged myself before now. Why have I picked up that “Life”? Is it to see a picture of Eisenhower or is it to see a half-naked bathing person? And I have said, “I also want to see a half-naked person there.” If that is why I am looking at that paper, I had better put it down. I know instinctively that there’s something in that paper which will appeal to my natural sex desire. For, although I hide it, deep down there is partly a desire, “when I get to page so and so I’ll probably see a bathing person or something.” “Ah now,” I say, “watch, watch! Underneath all that I am being tempted to change my natural sex desire into an illicit direction.”
Now the point I am trying to get at is that many get under condemnation because they feel sex desire. We have to face this as so often many people are stimulated on the mission field, possibly because of the climate or the loneliness, or because the devil is so rampant on a foreign mission field, in a non-Christian country, or maybe because of the habits and ways of the people. You have desires stimulated that you thought you never had perhaps, or which you thought had disappeared. And some people get under terrible condemnation. I spoke to a middle-aged sister in distress, a godly missionary. When I was home recently she spoke to me. She opened herself up. She spoke of unbearable condemnation that she had because she couldn’t bear herself. She is a nurse working with a doctor, a single nurse and I suppose the doctor is a married man. I don’t know how, but in the course of their working, their hands sometimes touched and she got a thrill out of it. And she thought that she was a filthy creature. Oh, no, sister; you are under false condemnation. You can’t help responding sexually but you must take every means to see that you don’t deliberately do it. Probably in a case like that you must take some means to see that you don’t touch his hand, but in a professional situation like that you can’t always help yourself. You work for a doctor and these things are bound to happen. Just jump on it, that’s all. Don’t take condemnation. You can’t help a sex desire going out in that direction because it is a natural desire. All you need to see is that the moment you see that it is being attracted in the wrong direction, cut!
I speak of that strongly because it is deep in us; deep in us. We have to do something about handling our natural desires. We men are, of course, far better off (I’m always on the side of the women) because we can search about and find a wife. Of course, women have ways of searching too! But you know, as I said before and say again, I think the noblest missionaries on earth are the single people who walk alone with God and become married to the Lord Jesus Christ, and find their children in the Spirit. It may not always be because they want to, because they are human—we are all human. The natural human instinct in every one of us is marriage. Of course it is. So there is a real battle when you don’t have marriage. You are human. You have the natural sex set up which we all have. I wonder if Heaven won’t reveal that the greatest victories in history are the victories of noble, godly women who could have married just like that at home but they went to places where there was no husband for them. And they went through with God through the lonely years until He took the place of their loneliness and they were married to the Lord and produced their spiritual children.
That is why I say that the single woman who has gone through is the finest missionary on earth. Because she has suffered as we haven’t. You married men and women be careful of selfishness. I never like to see, in the company of two or three, husbands always sitting by wives. “Oh darling this and darling that.” I leave mine behind. It’s far the best thing to do. My wife and I have an understanding. I’m not first in her life—I’m about a bad number three. Jesus Christ is first, the children are second, and I’m forgotten. She is not first in my life, Jesus Christ is, and then the children have to fit in somewhere. And she has to fit in nowhere. Get out of this business of “lovey, dovey” stuff! Be soldiers. Every missionary ought to be a soldier, the husband as much as the wife and the wife as much as the husband. A lot of the illnesses of husbands come about by the dear wife saying, “Oh, you poor dear, you are so tired.” Of course that makes him tired. And, “Oh dear wife you must be looked after.” We can get noble single women to go anywhere for Jesus alone, but if it’s a wife! “Oh no I couldn’t leave my wife alone there. Oh dear no, no!” Somebody might come in and attack her or something. Well, let her be attacked for Jesus’ sake. It won’t hurt. Can’t we do a little soldiering for Jesus? Our soldiers fight and die; can’t we fight and die for a higher army? So you husbands and wives watch this lovey dovey business. At least keep it in secret. And not more than one minute a day! And when we are in a community, be in a community. Don’t make the single one feel that there is something special about you two, and that the other one has to fit in as best she can. That is why I always have a deep sympathy for single women. They have a battle that only eternity will reveal. I’ll never forget a fine missionary whom I met the last time I was in Africa. She was about 50. She stirred my heart when she said, “Brother, I never got through until God showed me that the sin (she called it a sin; I think she wrongly used the word there) I had deep down and unconquered was my desire for marriage.” But it wasn’t a sin. What she meant was that deep down in her heart there was resentment, a certain resentment that she hadn’t a partner in life. But she said, “When I realized that, I looked it in the face and saw that this was God’s purpose for me. I took it to the cleansing Blood and had real deliverance.” And that’s some deliverance! After all, I’ve had a wife for 4 and 30 years, so I can’t talk. That is why I say single missionaries are first line and all the rest of us are second line missionaries. Look up I Cor. 7 if you don’t know what I mean.
Well, that is just one of the inner problems of sex. I tell you that many of the breakdowns of the mission field are due to sex frustration or sex defeat. Many, many young people are still under private habits of self abuse. I know that when they come as students to our headquarters they still are. And some of these things come back on the mission field. There is homosexuality that goes on on the mission field—woman with woman and man with man among missionaries —not to mention fornication and adultery. I tell you we need to face these things. Brother Thompson hit the nail last night. We need to face them. First of all, we will get the thing in its perspective if we realize that the sex instinct is a dominant instinct and it will always be an instinct. And there are mighty few of us who will not be immediately attracted by sex. I can’t speak that from the women’s point of view, but I can from the men’s. Most men are immediately attracted by sex. And we tend immediately to look at something sexual. If there is something showing about a woman’s figure, we tend to look. We tend to look at an advertisement that exposes a woman. All that kind of thing. It’s our nature. Because a man has a strong sex instinct. Women have their own ways as I say. Now we have to face it. That is not wrong, but to follow it is wrong. So I have to learn to differentiate between the first attraction and retaining the attraction. That’s the point.
(b) Sin Is illicit Love
It has been helpful to me to understand this. The root of sin, the power of sin is not the sin, but the love of it is. We always live where we love. Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” We might turn that around and say, “where your heart is there will be your treasure too.” We live where we love. Now sin is an illicit love match. Because Jesus says this, “You are enticed to love something you shouldn’t.” Now, all my sex powers and all my being is for Jesus. Yet they also may have their human expression in their rightful proportion. Thank God that that is the liberty of the gospel. We have a rightful human expression of a minor kind. But the major idea of my whole sex powers is that they are unto Him.
Even though the philosopher Freud was an atheist he had some truth in tracing down a great deal about the sex problem. He is quite right, but not wholly right because he missed the main point. But he has a good deal there. But all my powers are unto Him. Now that’s my marriage. My marriage is unto Him. My true marriage is in the Spirit to Him. Now sin is an illicit love match. It’s the temptation coming, “Here, you love this.” “You look at that. You follow sex along that line. You think those dirty thoughts there. You follow up with dirty acts.” The same with greed, or anger, or pride. I’m only using sex because it is the simplest and clearest to use. Now it says, “When lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin.” Conception is a marriage. “When lust hath been conceived it brings forth sin.” In other words, my heart has embraced that lust and I produce a child, and the child is sin.
So the temptation to look in that direction isn’t sin, but to keep looking becomes sin, to keep thinking becomes sin, to keep acting, etc., becomes a love match. Now you have the words later on in James. You have that striking expression in James 4:4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses” who are following false lusts, “know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.” Verse 3 tells about spending time on our own lusts, “Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it on your lusts.”
Then he says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses.” Why? Because I have a true marriage. My true marriage is the blessed Lord. Therefore, as soon as I sin in my heart by following up a lust, following out an anger, following out a hate, following out pride, following out a vanity or something, I am an adulterer. I am temporarily, if you like, married to something which is false. I am embracing an illicit love. So what I am getting at is that the power of sin is love. If the temptation can lead me on from enticement to love then it has me. For I will always follow my love.
That is why you cannot help people on the act level. Now many young people have come to me and unburdened their hearts. They have secret impurity in their lives. They can’t conquer secret abuse in their lives. And I have said to them, “Brother, you won’t conquer that on the act level. You’ll conquer it on the love level.” The trouble at bottom is, you love to do it but you won’t face it. Now you have to have that love transferred into hate. You have to have God’s holy hatred. “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.” God has a hatred. And you have to learn that, the moment the desires first come to you and you want to begin to practice evil practices, to say, “I’ve no business to have that love.” And then God gives you the grace to turn it to hate. It is as quick as lightning.
That’s what resisting the devil is. You see that word; it comes in verse 7 of chapter 4, “resist the devil.” That is how you resist the devil. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” To illustrate that a little further, let me tell you something I learned in Africa. Tomorrow morning I shall probably tell you a few more things I learned in Africa recently. But one lesson I learned was how the people learn to walk closely with God. Now I lived and worked in Africa in a time when the people hadn’t learned to live so closely with God. And in those days, those early days, our tragedy was sin in the open which had to be judged. You would have a fine young evangelist and his wife but you didn’t know what was going on inside. But one day there would be an adultery committed and your heart would be broken by the fact that some fine fellow had gone into adultery. Of course the church had to judge him, excommunicate him, and maybe even lose him. But that wasn’t the beginning of the sin. The beginning was way down inside where you didn’t see it.
In the same way in those early days we used to lose fine folks through covetousness. For instance, you might get some fine evangelist serving the Lord for just a pittance for the Lord’s sake. And suddenly he would go off selling liquor or something else, or working on the Sabbath, or taking a job in the world because he is attracted by the world. And covetousness has taken him. But covetousness didn’t start with the act of leaving God’s work. It started way back there in his heart. We didn’t know that. All we saw was the fruits.
Now I saw a difference from the past in Africa. That is, that God has taught them to live closely and to fellowship together in their walk. A number of times over I heard this and it struck me very much; I noticed how an African would stand up and say something like this: “Brothers, I want you all to thank God that this week the Blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed the sin out of my heart.” Then in his own way he would give his own description. Several times over I heard this same thing: “I was going down this week to those stores. (Because the Western goods are just coming into Africa, Africa is getting out of its primitive condition now.) And my, when I saw what those foreigners had brought in—those flashlights, those bicycles, those clothes, ‘Ooh,’ I said, ‘I must get some of these things, I must get some more money, I must get some more of these things.’” Then he said, “Brothers, when I went back to my hut and read God’s Word and prayed that night, the Spirit of God spoke to me. He said, ‘You’ve sin in your heart because you are beginning to love some of the things of this world more than Jesus.’ And Brothers, to love anything in this world more than Jesus is sin. So I repented of this sin and it is cleansed by the Blood of Jesus and I want you all to thank God that sin is taken out of my heart.” “Now,” I said, “I see this is sin in its earliest form there.” It was too early to produce a ruined life. I heard the same thing about impurity and it didn’t grieve me to hear it. I heard Africans and missionaries too get up and say, “Brothers and sisters, I want you to bless God. This week the devil has been assaulting me with impurity of mind and impurity of thought, and, praise God, He has enabled me really to repent of this thing and have it cleansed by the Blood and by God’s grace I’ve been freed.” You see what was going on in the mind was coming out before it had produced the deeds.
(c) Seed, Root, Fruit of Sin
And that’s where I learned this: That sin has three forms—seed, root, and fruit. “The enemies sowed tares among the wheat.” “The root of bitterness springing up defiles many.” “The motions of sin which bring forth fruit in the flesh.” Seed, root, and fruit.
Now notice this difference: seed and root are invisible; fruit is visible. So there are forms of sin which go on inside us, if we let them, which are invisible. If they are left there they inevitably produce their public fruit. Seed and root produce fruit. Now the point of it is this. When Satan drops a seed into my heart, a seed of temptation to which maybe I begin to respond, I can pick the seed out quickly. That’s resisting the devil. A seed is easy to pick out, but if it becomes a root, you have a bit more of a job. You have harder pulling to get a root out than to get a seed out.
Of course, if it has become fruit, it has become public and the glory of God has been publicly smeared then.
So I’ve learned that difference—that where people were learning to walk sensitively and closely with Jesus, they jumped on sin in its seed form. I received a blessing out of that. They didn’t let it root down. Whether it was impurity, or resentment, or covetousness, they recognized, “Here, this thing which is illicit has come into my heart. My natural desire to have things, or my sex desire—or whatever you like—my natural desire is being deflected in the wrong direction. Here, I’m going to hate that thing! I’ve no business to like that. I cut it off by the grace of God. In the name of Jesus I cut it off.” Satan flees then. I’ve pulled it out in seed form before it roots down and produces fruit. That’s the way.
So you see what we’re to have, to understand the balanced life, is this: We’re never going to be free from deflection. We’re never going to be free from having our natural faculties and appetites deflected in this wicked world. And we’re going to be free from the sudden deflection to resent a person, or a sudden enticement to doubt God, or to fear, or sudden enticement to pride. I know that all right, don’t you? A sudden enticement to sex or a sudden enticement to whatever you like—laziness—whatever you like. You’re never going to be free. An enticement isn’t wrong because I’ve these natural appetites, and they’ve just been suddenly deflected by something or other in another direction. The wrong comes if I continue in them. If I immediately counter that and immediately say, “Hello, I have an illicit desire there. Out with you! I’ll not have any illicit desire remaining in my heart.” Then, God gives the victory.
(d) Love of Sin
So far I’ve sought to take you just to the facts of temptation: how it operates in us, and that the heart of the matter is the danger of loving the thing. While I’m on that, let me remind you again that that’s what Jesus said. He said that the people who are damned are the people who love darkness. You are not damned because you are in darkness because He’s put you in light by the atonement. The whole world has been put into light by the atonement. The only thing that damns you is that you won’t come to the light. People aren’t damned because they’re sinners. The whole sin of the world has been atoned for by that Precious Blood. You are damned because you love your sin and continue in it and the damnation is because people love their darkness.
And brothers, we can love our darkness too. We can play with things—my! Brother Thompson again touched it last night. He touched it in those little connections. Don’t you know that? I do. That little feeling towards the other sex. It’s rather nice to be in that girl’s presence. Now—a little sexy feeling. Oh, we can have it. We missionaries can have it. There’s a healthy, sisterly-and-brotherly place, praise God, when we can live together as sisters and brothers, but a sexy feeling can come of it. A little playing at it—and it starts with a feeling, a touch—“It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” Interesting point there isn’t it? I Cor. 7:1, “good for a man not to touch a woman.” I think I would say that a woman reacts to touch, where a man reacts to sight. That’s why women—and you women are responsible—can damage men by what you attract our attention to. You are responsible for the way you cover your bodies. You are responsible to see that your body is properly covered. You have no business to follow the fashions of the world if they expose your bosom and expose your legs and so on. Cut it out! You have no business to be walking about in shorts and these things. No business. Keep strangers and pilgrims, no matter what the world says. You’ll be held responsible to God because you attracted the eyes of men and stirred lust in them. You’ll be responsible. And we men will be responsible if we touch women, because a woman usually reacts more to touch, whereas a man reacts to sight. And if we go around handling women, we’re responsible for stirring up something which makes it more difficult for them to live holy.
And we’ve to keep watch, exactly as Brother Thompson said, against those little feelings which come in for they’re the beginning of the thing. We might “rather like being with a girl . . . .” Of course, it’s always spiritual! Of course it’s spiritual, isn’t it? We know better down inside, don’t we? Ah, we have to watch those things. I have to watch them; oh my, I have to watch them. I like to be in the presence of girls. It’s natural instinct. But I have to watch it. I have to watch my eyes. My eyes—I often have to get cleaned up with my eyes. I often find I’ve looked, and looked again at a thing that I shouldn’t look at, and say, “Now Lord, I sinned then. I take that to the Precious Blood.” I have to watch my reactions towards the other sex lest something comes in which isn’t just healthy fellowship in the Spirit. God’s had to deal with me to the bottom over these things. I want to be dealt with to the bottom; my, I do. And kept at the bottom. Cleansed to the bottom. Praise God, there is a cleansing to the bottom in the Precious Blood.
That’s only one form of sin, of course, but I take it because, in at least many of our lives, it’s certainly the most prevalent. I can’t talk for Japan, but it is in most countries. Now you take India. India looks very respectable. When I spent my last five months in India and spoke on sex, I kind of half apologized and said, “Well, of course, I don’t know the Indians. They certainly look very modest.” (The women dress very modestly there in those very beautiful saris. And I sort of felt, well, perhaps this country isn’t so sexy as some countries like Africa or like America or like England. America is terribly sexy. England is too; but somehow it shows over in America. We stimulate our young people. You won’t like me saying this, I know, but you have no right to encourage young people to make dates at eight and ten and twelve years of age. You have no right to stimulate the sex instinct in young people like that. We need to be cleaned up.) I said that to the Indians. “Oh,” they said, “don’t you mistake it, Brother Grubb. This place is a sea of corruption underneath.” Actually, India is about the worst of the lot. Probably it’s the same in Japan. I think it is in every country because it is the strongest instinct in everybody. Underground sex. And I’m saying this, brothers and sisters, because we’re spiritual doctors. Well, a doctor has to talk about things and see things which normal people don’t. You have to discuss; a doctor has to discuss the body and look at the body in a way an ordinary person doesn’t. We’re spiritual doctors and so we must look at the inner workings of things and not have a false prudery. And we must face out these things to the bottom in our own lives. It would be much more healthy if we said so sometimes, much more healthy if we came out because you know a lot of our trouble is our secret condemnation. It’s a lot of our trouble. I’ve known that for years.
I don’t know if any of you have but the dirty old devil comes along and says, “Oh, you know you had a dirty thought today. If you’re fellow missionaries knew you had an impure thought, oooooh, they’d be shocked.” You wouldn’t for the world tell it. But they are having the same thing themselves. We’re all the same, made of like passions. That’s why we have to have the same close walk with Jesus and the same constant check up and the same precious cleansing in the Precious Blood. When we begin to break down we get a community. That’s what I learned in Africa.
Fellowship doesn’t start in sainthood. It starts in sinnerhood. It does not start in sainthood, but in sinnerhood. Because most of our sainthood is put on. It’s only half real. Where we start is down in our sinnerhood, poor broken people needing the Precious Blood. We find fellowship there. Then we climb up into our sainthood a little later on. I spoke in an African audience among our own people the last time I visited there. The Lord told me that I was not to speak about sin without involving myself. If I spoke of purity or temper or pride, I was to put myself in up to date and not make out I was a high-up holiness preacher and they were poor things needing something I had. So down I went each time from the pulpit. And in talking about anger and irritation, I spoke about my home relationship with my wife. And this is typical; a simple African man who’d been a convert, say 20 years, came up to me afterwards. He’d heard the gospel thousands of times. “Oh,” he said, “Brother, I never knew a white man quarreled with his wife. I thought it was only black men that did that.” That shows we preach down from the pulpit without meaning it, as if we’re saints and you are the poor sinners. When the preacher gets down with the sinners, things happen. We find ourselves fellow sinners. That’s what fellowship is. Fellow sinnerhood gets transferred into fellow sainthood by the Blood.
So I just touch on that last point there. I was saying that when I have to deal with people along that line I say, “No, brother, it isn’t at the act level; it’s at the love level. You’ve to recognize that and strike it there.
III. THE TEMPTER IS THE DEVIL.
Now there’s one other important point that I want to stress out of this whole review of temptation. I think it is very important—the devil’s condemnation. I think that many of us have stumbled and moved away from our holiness experience, from our position of sanctification by faith and identification with Christ, through the devil’s lies via temptation and sin.
(a) Devil’s Desire To Divert
What I mean is this: the devil isn’t so interested in getting me tripped up into a temporary sin. He can do that quickly enough. He isn’t interested in just getting me suddenly proud or making me say a sudden angry word or respond to a sudden attraction to lust or something. He’s not interested in that. What he is interested in is cutting my life line with God. He wants to cut at the tap root of faith. If he can just sever my tap root of faith, then he has me in a tail spin. That’s why I think the writer to the Hebrews said that the heart sin is unbelief. “The evil heart of unbelief.” If he can cut our faith then we’re in for trouble.
Now what I suggest that you often have to do is this. The devil uses a temporary trip-up into sin as a means of heart condemnation to us. What I mean is this: it’s via temptation that we are deflected into impure thinking, or anger, or pride, or selfishness, and we may be deflected many times. And then the dirty old devil comes to us and says, “Sanctified? Look at you! Pure heart? Don’t talk such nonsense. Talk about a pure heart—You are full of self and pride and filth. Come off that pedestal. Don’t be foolish. Crucified with Christ? How can you say you are crucified with Christ when you go and speak an angry word like that or show pride like that? Nonsense!” He’s out to steal our inner faith relationship.
No, I’ve learned not to allow him to tell me that the diversion is the main road. That’s where he lies to me. He tries to make out to me that my diversions are my main road. What I mean is this: in infinite grace, my main road now is a sanctified road. My main road is He dwelling in my heart, Crucified with Christ, purified by faith, walking with Him, loving Him, and serving Him. That’s the main glorious road in which He keeps me by grace. Now as I walk that road the old devil comes along in his filthy way, diverts my attention, and says, “Look at this! Get angry, get proud, get lustful.” And I look. Perhaps he catches me out many times. Praise God I look back quickly before he can catch me. And other times he catches me. “Oh,” he says, “Sanctified! Look at you! You live hero.”
I don’t live here. I live there. I don’t live on my diversions; I live on my main road. A railway system doesn’t live in its accidents; it lives in its trains that get there. I don’t live squinting. I don’t walk along looking sideways like this. I walk along looking forward. But occasionally I look there and look back again.
Don’t let the devil lie to you that the temporary drawing off of your attention is where you live. You don’t! In other words, don’t let him steal your central citadel. I never let him do that. I’ve learned that. I never let him steal my central citadel. In my central citadel I’m unified with Christ by infinite grace. I’ve shared in His Cross and resurrection. That Blood has made me one, has given me the purified heart in which He dwells. Now that’s where I live. The devil diverts me occasionally, but back I come quickly, am cleansed and walk on again! I say, “Clear out, you dirty fellow! I’m not going to let you touch me.” No! Then walk on with Jesus. Many people lose their sanctification there. They’re lied out of it.
(b) Devil’s Attack Through Condemnation
Learn the blessed difference between condemnation and conviction. “Condemnation” is the devil seeking to destroy my faith through a sin. “Conviction” is God telling me the sin to have it cleansed, not to destroy me.
Do you see what I mean? I slip into a sin. The devil immediately condemns me, “You’re not sanctified. You’re no good. You’re full of self. You’re full of that.” Now he’s crushing me. He’s destroying my faith. He’s getting me right down. That’s condemnation. “There’s no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Conviction is the Spirit saying, “Yes, you did sin. You did look where you shouldn’t have looked. You did think what you shouldn’t have thought. Confess it, repent, be cleansed.” That’s all. Here’s the Blood! If you confess it, immediately you’re free. Immediately the Blood cleanses. Immediately you are as sanctified as you ever could be sanctified, because He’s cast our sins to the bottom of the sea, cast them behind His back forever. And you walk on as you were before.
So conviction is Jesus’ blessed way of getting us cleaned up quickly. Condemnation is the devil’s dirty way of taking us out of the way of faith altogether. So I throw the condemnation to the dust heap, but accept conviction. And I need to accept conviction for conviction is always related to the Precious Blood. The moment I respond to conviction, the Precious Blood cleanses me and I’m free.
Well, now, I’ve said enough this morning. I want to go on a little further in a little more practical way going on to this daily walk; how to walk cleansed; things you’ve often heard before but I want to pass that on to you again. Perhaps I’ll do that tomorrow morning. Our time’s gone fairly well now. I think perhaps we’ll leave it at that this morning.
So our endeavor around the Word of God this morning has again been to find the balance. We’ve previously tried to find the balance between the ridding of the independent self and the remaining of the real self. Sanctification doesn’t rid you of yourself. It rids you of the wrong form of “I’ll do my own will” and so on. It leaves you with the redeemed self which is a little nobody, a little nothing—a nothingness in which He dwells. And so we enter into the balance of the sanctified relation in which we walk with Him. And I’ve also had to add to that the balance between the fact that we’ve entered into a sanctified relationship yet we are in a temptable world; and sometimes we give way to temptation. We’ve seen how to relate that to a sanctified relationship. We’ve sought to enter into that this morning.
Yes, we are sanctified by grace through faith. Our hearts are purified by faith. Christ does live in us. We are crucified with Him. And yet we’re encompassed in a world which is corrupt; we’re encompassed in a body which is still mortal and has the elements of corruption in it. We are a bundle of appetites, faculties, and desires, and we are not yet in a realm where they can only be for God. One day we shall be in a realm where it can’t be anything else, where everything else disappears and it’s only living for God and only delighting in Him. We’re not there yet. Therefore, our desires can be diverted. We’re accustomed to their being diverted because it’s the old life we used to live in. And so we walk . . . yes, we walk holy, walk in Christ, walk happily, walk naturally. We don’t walk afraid. We don’t walk afraid of sin . . . we walk freely with Jesus, praise His Name. Just as happy as sandboys with Him. But we know the old devil. We’re not ignorant of his devices. If he comes and when he comes in now, remember, he causes you to like a thing you shouldn’t like. Now handle it!
I woke up about two mornings ago after we had had a good time at one of the evenings here. And in the middle of the night, lying on my bed, I found myself thinking proudly, “What a fine fellow I am and how well I spoke.” I said, “You dirty devil! Putting that into my mind.” I said, “Why, if it wasn’t for the Holy Ghost, it would be nothing but talk.” But I had to have it cleansed. You know the devil comes in like this.
Well, you see, walk freely, walk with Jesus; walk in Him, walk happily but the diversions come. Well, when they come, learn to recognize them quickly . . . quick; sharp. Learn to recognize that it’s an illicit attraction. I’ve no business to let my love go in that direction—no business! Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
IV. TWO WAYS TO HANDLING THE TEMPTATION.
(a) Raise Shield of Faith
The two ways in which we do meet temptation are, firstly, if possible, be quick enough to lift the shield of faith. There are many times when we’re able to do that. Eph. 6—“The shield of faith which quenches the fiery darts.” Now, he shoots that fiery dart in and we feel it sizzling on the way. But, blessed be God, He has taught us to walk with Him and we know how to lift up the shield or faith when temptation comes. Lift up the shield of faith! We have felt it, certainly we have felt it because that’s what temptation is. We feel the attraction. “No, I’m not taking that. In Christ’s name I’m not taking that. I’m crucified with Christ. Christ! Christ is in me. I’m not taking that.” And off he runs. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Thank God you know that. Many, many times we are sharp enough to do that; many, many times. But sometimes we’re not.
(b) Honestly Confess Sin
Before we can get right with Him the temptation comes and we are attracted and we are too slow. Now, brothers and sisters, when we’re not sharp enough to resist the devil, be honest and confess. It won’t affect most of us here, but may I say that one of the dangers of the sanctified life is trying to defend the doctrine instead of walking with Jesus. We think, “Oh, I’m sanctified. Therefore, of course, I couldn’t lose my temper. That wasn’t really my temper, that was just temperament, that’s all. That’s just infirmity.” Infirmity is a wonderful word when you are sanctified. You get out of calling it sin, you know. No, no, no, no. Sin is sin! Don’t be fooled. We walk, praise God, we do walk the holy life. When sin comes in, don’t you call it anything else. Call it sin, and then the Blessed Cleansing Blood reaches you at once. Call it sin! The Lord says, “Yes, that’s what I gave Jesus for—that’s why Jesus died. You’re free!” And off we walk happily again praising the Lord, using our testimony for His glory.
So those are the two ways in which we meet temptation. We’re always going to face temptation. We can often be quick enough and pull that shield of faith up. Say in the name of the Lord, “No, I’m not having that. Christ lives in me. And I’m not having that.” Off he goes. The victory’s been won. Sometimes we don’t win. Sometimes he comes in and really comes in. When he does, face it like a man, or rather, like a broken sinner. Get down! Get down and say, “Lord, I’m caught out. The devil’s caught me out. Praise God, I confess it to you. Praise God, I take the Precious Blood.” Praise God for the Precious Blood. Free again! Those are the ways to meet temptation.
So we are going to be tempted and very often, by the grace of God, we shall not fall and increasingly we shall not fall. Yes, but we do fall. Then let’s be candid. We do fall. Well, when we fall put it right. That’s the simple life. So may God bless us and help us to learn something more of this continued life in the Spirit. Amen.
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