Christian Growth V Sin After You Are Saved CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

Sin is a real problem after you get saved.  Knowing how to recognize temptation and deal with it will help you grow in your Christian maturity.  God is not going to deliver you from sin so that you are never tempted again.  In fact, he will allow temptation as a means of helping you grow stronger in the Lord.  “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life,” Jas 1:12.

The first thing to recognize is that sin begins in your thoughts long before it shows up in your actions.  Prov 23:7 says, “as he thinketh in his heart so is he.”  Therefore, sin originates in your heart [Mk 7:21-23].  For instance, a man commits sin when he simply looks at a woman to lust after her [Matt 5:28].  He doesn’t even have to touch her to commit adultery with her.

So, the warfare begins in your mind and in your heart, with your thoughts and with your imaginations.  Therefore, the Lord gives us mighty spiritual weapons with which to fight against wicked thoughts and imaginations [2 Cor 10:3-5].

Our three worst enemies that tempt us to sin are the world, the flesh and the devil – Eph 2:2-3.  We must be very aware of these enemies to be able to defend against their temptations.  Your enemies are:

The World, the Flesh and the Devil

The World – Rom 8:29 tells us that when we get saved, we are predestined to “be conformed to the image of his Son” – the world, therefore, seeks to conform the Christian to its system, beliefs, thoughts and ways so that he will NOT be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ – the trouble comes when you yield to the pressure to be conformed to the world – that’s why Paul says, “be not conformed to this world,” Rom 12:2 – read 1 Jn 2:15-17 very carefully and notice that you cannot be worldly and godly at the same time – you will be one or the other – see Jas 4:4.