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Romans 6, beginning in verse 11, the Bible reads, Likewise, reckon ye yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye shall obey the lust thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have the dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid! Know ye not, to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey? His servants ye are, to whom ye obey? Whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God, we think, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as ye have yielded your servants to uncleanness and iniquity and iniquity, even so now yield your servants to righteousness unto holiness. So we see in this passage here, this chapter, that Paul is talking about this conflict that is within our flesh. That we have this decision to make of who we are going to yield ourselves to. Are we going to yield to righteousness or are we going to yield to iniquity? Are we going to yield our members as servants to God? Are we going to yield the members of our body to work sin and iniquity? Now we understand that we're saved, right? And that we are not going to be affected by the wages of sin. The Bible says there at that last verse that the wages of sin is death. And of course we know that that wage is not only the physical death of our body, but also taking part in that second death, as it's described in Revelation, of being cast in the lake of fire, of going to hell. That is the wage of sin. Now we know as saved believers, we're not going to have to ever take part in that. That once we're saved, we're always saved. That we're saved by grace, through faith. That we don't have to work out any kind of... do any works. We don't have to live a good life or do anything like that in order to earn our salvation. That's something that's given to us as a free gift. And that once we have it, it's ours forever. And really that's a whole other sermon in and of itself. But what Paul is showing us here, that even though just because you're saved today, that doesn't mean that you automatically are going to just live for God. That you're automatically just never going to have to deal with the sins of your flesh. That there's never going to be a temptation in your life to yield yourself unto iniquity. That you have to make a decision. That you have to decide in your life that you're not going to yield yourself to sin, but you're going to yield yourself to God. And we know that... he's telling us that we should not let sin therefore reign in our mortal bodies. That's a decision that we have to make. That we have to reckon ourselves to be dead. But we understand that even if we didn't do that, if we didn't, we are still under grace, not under the law. That even if we decide, you know what, I'm not going to yield unto God. I am going to let sin reign in my mortal body. I'm going to go ahead and let these sins take over and I'm going to go ahead and just live this life however I want, pleasing my flesh, living in sin, having no regard for the things of God. Even if we did that, and we believed on Christ, that we know that we're still saved. That that would never change. Look there at verse 17, it says that God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which is delivered unto you. He's saying, look, it's not the fact that you're doing works that's getting you to heaven, it's the fact that you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. And that in verse 18 then goes on and says, being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. He's talking in the past tense, he's like, look, when you believe from the heart that form of doctrine, when you believe the gospel from the heart, then that's when you became free from sin, and you became the servants of righteousness, and that will never change. We know that we will always be saved once we are saved. The Bible says that if we confess with the mouth, if we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, we shall be saved. So we believe from the heart, it's not about what we do. It's not about the actions of our flesh. It's not about how we live our life that's going to make us the servants of righteousness. He goes on in verse 19, proving this point further, saying, why is Paul saying this? Why is he bringing all this up? He says in verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. He's saying, look, I have to remind you of this because of the fact that we all have the flesh to deal with. We're still going to have to live this life on earth and this world dealing with this flesh, this old man. As it said there in the beginning of the chapter, he said, you know, we still have the old man to deal with. It's the old man that's been crucified. But we can still walk around in the old man. We can still live our life as we did according to the flesh before we were saved. And that's what Paul is showing us here, that we need to yield our members to righteousness, the righteousness that we possess in Christ through faith. He goes on, if you turn over to Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7, he kind of drives this point in a little further. Romans chapter 7, beginning in verse 14. He says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, soul, and are sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For that I would, that I do not. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent in the law, that is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. So he's saying here, look, the things that I want to do, those things I don't do. The things I don't want to do, those things I do. He's saying, I want to do the right thing, but so often he's finding himself doing the wrong thing. Why? Because he still has the flesh, he still has the sin. Verse 21, I find that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, in his flesh, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity the law of sin which is in my members. Look at verse 24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death. There's people out there that want to teach today, that if you have sin in your life, that if you're struggling with some sin, or you're allowing some sin in your life, then you obviously must not be saved. They'll say things like, well you know, if you were really saved, you would never struggle with these sins. And they'll have a list of specific sins. They don't want to know any sins that they might be guilty of. But they'll talk about other people's sins. They'll say, well if you're dealing with that, they'll say things like, well there's no such thing as a carnal Christian. But what does Paul say? He's saying, you know, I am carnal. I'm sold under sin. And he's saying, O wretched man that I am. Paul was very well aware of the struggle that he himself, and we all go through as Christians, because of the fact that, as he said there, there is a war in our members. There's something in our spirit, in our flesh, that is at entity with one another. They're warring against one another. The inward man wants to do that which is right. The inward man wants to live righteously and wholly and godly under Christ Jesus. But the flesh that we still have to deal with every day still has its desires, still has its lusts, still has its appetites that it wants to fulfill. So he's saying here, look, what a wretched state to be in. What a difficult situation we're in. He says, who shall deliver me from this body of death? He just wants to get out of this body. And you know, we think about that sometimes, at least I know I do, the day that, you know, we look forward to the day that we die, and maybe not look forward to that, that's probably the wrong way to put it, but when we ponder or consider the day that we're going to pass away, if we're saved, then we know that we're going to go to glory, that we're going to be with God, that we're going to have that new body. I get excited about that. I mean, I don't have a death wish. I'm not trying to take chances or anything out there. But I think about the fact that, man, it would be so great when we put off this old flesh, when we put off this corrupt body, that we'll no longer have to deal with this struggle, we'll no longer have to deal with the temptations the failures, the shortcomings, the sin that we allow in our lives. But the fact is, that I'm trying to drive in here, as Paul is, is that we need to be aware of the fact that there is this struggle, that we do have this body of death to deal with, there is this inward struggle. And he describes this same conflict elsewhere. I'll read to you from Galatians 5 where it says, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. He's saying, look, you need to learn to walk in the Spirit, otherwise you're going to walk in the flesh, and they have two different wills. Your flesh doesn't want to do the things of God, the Spirit doesn't want to do the things of the flesh, and they're at war with one another. Now, sin should never take us by surprise. It should never surprise us. We've looked at these passages, and if we just have any common sense about us, and just understand that our spiritual condition, what we're dealing with on a day-to-day in regards to the flesh, there should be no sin in our life that takes us by surprise. Like, oh, all of a sudden we're caught in some sin. Often people are caught by sin not by surprise, but they can often see it coming a long way off. The Bible talks about sin being conceived in your mind, and when it's conceived it brings forth death. It's something when we're drawn away of our own lusts. Sin doesn't just sneak up on us and pounce on us like a lion or some kind of predator, it's something often that creeps up from within and comes out and then it's manifested in our flesh. It should not take us by surprise that we have to deal with sin in our life. We've been warned of this conflict. We just read these passages, and we could probably look to every book in the Bible where this conflict is highlighted, or mentioned, or we could see it being played out in Scripture that there's the war against the flesh and against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and we've been warned of that conflict. And you know, we're probably familiar with our own habits. We know the things that are displeasing to God, we know the things that we do and think and say that are contrary to Scripture, and we know what they are, we're familiar with those, we know what our own weaknesses are, our habits, our lusts, etc., those types of things. Sin should not take us by surprise. Now people will often, it'll seem that they are taken by surprise. You'll hear about these people that fall into these grave sins, the people that commit these horrible acts, and they'll say things like, well he fell into sin, like it was some kind of trap that was laid for him. But often it's something that these people have been plotting to do, and something that we've been thinking about doing ourselves, and then finally we just give in and go ahead and do it. But being taken by sin is often a lack of foresight, and that's what I want to preach about this morning. It's a lack of foresight. The title of the sermon this morning is Foreseeing Sin. Foreseeing sin. If we're going to live a victorious Christian life, if we're going to live for God, if we're going to get the sin out of our life, if we're going to live a life that's pleasing to God, and worthy of his blessing, and we're going to deal with this conflict that we have between the spirit and the flesh, we have to learn to foresee sin, if you would turn over to 1 Corinthians 9. Foreseeing sin. And that's the problem often that when we find ourselves in sin, we fail to foresee the sin. We know that we're capable of it. We know we might even have a proclivity to it. We might have a natural inclination to certain sins, but we don't see the circumstances brewing. We don't see the storm coming off the horizon. We don't see it coming into our life. We don't see that situation coming up, and all of a sudden we're just giving into it. We fail to foresee sin, one, when we are comfortable. That's one situation where a lot of people, they get a little, maybe the finances are going well, life's going real smooth, everybody's in good health, everything's going really good. It's real easy to get comfortable, get a little relaxed, maybe put your feet up and start to think, things are going so well, maybe I could let this slip over here. Maybe I could bring this standard down a little bit. Maybe I could go ahead and let this sin in my life. Maybe I could try this just a little bit. Maybe not go all out, maybe just this once, go ahead and just dabble in this a little bit. That's when we fail to foresee the sin, when we're comfortable. Often, a lot of times, we get comfortable with sin that we've already beaten. We have a sin in our life that we've overcome. We have a sin in our life that we've licked it, as they say, and we've overcome it. We can be comfortable and say, oh yeah, I'm never going to have to deal with that again. A big one is drugs and alcohol. People who come out of a life of drugs and alcohol, they say, I've been X amount of years clean. I've been sober for years now. I'm never going to have to deal with that again. You've got to be careful with that, because that's you getting comfortable, and that's you not foreseeing sin, not saying, hey, there's a potential here. There's a possibility that, yeah, things are going great today, but what about down the road, when life gets a little harder, when there's some trial, when there's some temptation, when there's some conflict in my life, when there's something I'm having to deal with, will that temptation come and say, you know what, I need to take the edge off a little bit. I just need to get a six-pack on the way home. I just need to get a bottle on the way home. I've just got to stop by the dispensary down there with my medical marijuana card and go home and just chill out, man, and let my cares go up in smoke, as they say. That's the danger there, when we get comfortable with this sin that we've already been. Whatever that sin might be, we can take it for granted. We can begin to lack foresight. We can begin to not foresee the sin. The Bible says there, 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, Knowing not they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that ye might may obtain, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. So fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away. So Paul's showing us here that, you know, if you're going to be successful, if you're going to run the Christian life, if you're going to run this race that is the Christian life, if you're going to strive for those masteries, you're going to have to be temperate in all things. You're going to have to exercise some self-discipline, and you're going to have to keep under your body. What is that? That's going to require some foresight. Now if you think about an athlete who's training for some great event, they often, they plan out their training schedule. They'll have a, you know, you think about these guys, you know, the MMA fighters, these guys that fight in the MMA, they get in the ring and they mix it up with these other guys. They'll have what's called a camp. You know, they do the same thing in football and basketball. They'll have a training season, won't they? They'll have a set amount of weeks set aside where they're going to get ready. They know what they're going to eat. They've got other people involved. They've got a crew of people around them. One guy's going to handle his cardio. One guy's going to watch his weight and his diet. One guy's going to be his sparring partner. One guy's going to be his wrestling coach. You've got all these people around him that are preparing him to go into this fight, this race, whatever the event might be, that game. They're temperate. They're planning out. They have foresight. They're planning things out. And that's what it's going to take for us if we're going to live the Christian life. If we're going to keep sin at bay, if we're going to let these sins that we've licked, if we're not going to get comfortable and let them come back into our lives, if we're going to let new sins that we've never had to deal with. A lot of people, they say, I grew up in a Christian home. I never had to deal with the drugs and alcohol. I never did deal with these things that a lot of people have to deal with. That will never affect me. That's you getting comfortable. That's you not having foresight and saying, look, you could fall into it just the same as anybody else. They've already been involved in those things. The element of fear of the unknown isn't there. They're already a little bit more comfortable with it. It might be easier for them to go back to it. But we should never think that just because we've never dealt with something that it might not come into our lives. To do that, we're going to have foresight. That involves being diligent. That takes a daily effort of knowing what are your habits? What are you prone to? What are your circumstances right now? What is your flesh trying to get you to do? What is it that is coming into your life? People get comfortable. They fail to foresee sin when they get comfortable. They fail to foresee sin when they get careless. That's another one. That's probably maybe just another form of being comfortable. But they just start playing real fast and loose with sin. They just start thinking, you know what, I know going to the casino or whatever probably isn't right, but man, it's just a couple hundred bucks. I had a bonus this month, whatever it might be. We got some savings. That's how people end up with gambling addictions. That's how people end up in a parking lot with scratch-off tickets spending the last money that they have, trying to win one more time, trying to make that extra few bucks so they can get another one. It all started out with them just feeling a little comfortable, them feeling a little careless, them not foreseeing the potential of sin creeping into their life. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, just one chapter over. 1 Corinthians 10. The Bible says in verse 12, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12, the Bible says, Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man. He says, you know, the guy that thinks, the guy that's comfortable, the guy that's careless, the guy that thinks he's not going to fall, that thinks he stands, says, you know what? I've overcome these sins in the past. They'll never affect me again. I'll never have to deal with this sin again. I've got it beat. It's been years since I've ever had to deal with that. Better be careful because that's when you fall. That's when you stop to foresee sin. That's when you stop to see the circumstances that could come into your life that might push you to that edge, push you to that brink, bring you to that point where you might be willing to go ahead and fall back into that sin, to embrace that sin again once in your life. Now it says there, there's no temptation taking you, but such is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. God's showing us here, He's saying, look, I don't care what the sin is. I don't care what the temptation is that comes into your life. There's nothing that you can't have victory over in your life through Christ, that God will make a way to escape. The problem is often we don't want it. We don't want the way to escape. We want the sin. We're comfortable. We're careless. We're not worried about the results. We want the pleasures of sin for a season, and we're not concerned about the consequences. I mean, you think about a burning building. Think about being trapped in like an apartment, a high-rise complex, like something where, you know, there's usually just a couple ways to get out of a building, and the place is on fire. It's burning down. You can't get out through the hallway. There's only one way out. It's down the fire escape. Well, what good is the fire escape if you're not willing to use it? You say, you know what, I would really like to get out of this building, but I just refuse to use the fire escape. I'm better than that. I have always used the elevator. That's the way I intend to get out of here. Well, the elevator's full of smoke, the hall's on fire, and you're not getting out. So, the point I'm trying to make here is that God will make a way to escape, but we're the ones that have to take it. We're the ones that are going to have to figure out where is that fire escape that God's providing. It's not just God's going to wave a magic wand, and just all of a sudden it's going to be lifted from here. That sin, that temptation is just going to disappear. Often I think God allows things to stay in our life in order to bring us closer to Him. He allows these sins and these struggles, not that He tempts us with sin, but that He allows us to have to deal with these things, let these circumstances perhaps come into our life, that we might find ourselves going to Him, that we might find ourselves on that spiritual fire escape, looking to Him for guidance, looking for Him to help us. We can think, well, where would that be? What is the way to escape? Well, prayer is a big one. Memorizing scripture, if there's some sin that we're struggling with, go to the Bible, get the scriptures, and figure out what things we need to memorize. What does the Bible say about that sin? What can we do to bring that back? If we're having troubles in our thoughts, maybe we should memorize Philippians 4. Whatsoever things are true, what things are honest, what things are just, what things are pure, what things are lovely, what they're being of virtue, what they're being of praise, think on these things. Oh, they left out a good report. I was kind of winging that one. We've got to find these scriptures that will help us with our thought life, find these scriptures that we're struggling with certain sins. That's the fire escape, and God wants us to use it. God wants to give us that way out. So we see that foreseeing sin is going to require some diligence. It's going to require some discipline. Foreseeing sin is going to require vigilance and honesty. You're going to have to be vigilant. You're going to have to foresee it. You're going to have to be looking for that potential of sin creeping back into your life, that temptation coming into your life. Then you're going to have to be honest with yourself. You're going to have to say to yourself, you know what? I know what my weakness is. I know that this is something I've struggled with in the past, or this is something I'm struggling with right now. Boy, this is something, this is an area of my life. This is a sin that just, you know, keeps coming up. It's something that just keeps drawing me and trying to draw me back into it. You're going to have to say and be honest with yourself, and not just have this attitude, well, I stand. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed. I've got this beat. This will never be a problem. Other people might struggle with that because that's because they're a bunch of weaklings. That's because they're not as spiritual as I am. That's a dangerous attitude to have. We need to be honest. We have to know and admit our weaknesses. We have to ask ourselves this question, do we have a past of habitual sin? Those of us that have a past of sin, a past of habitual sin, we need to really look out for that and be honest about the fact that this is an area that could be a source of pain, it could be a source of temptation, and if we allow it, if we don't foresee it, if we're not honest and say, you know what, this is an area that I've had trouble with in the past, and if I'm not careful, it could be in the future, things are going great today, but there could be some circumstance down the road that this might actually become a temptation to me again. And if I don't foresee that, if I don't see that sin down the road, I might fall into that ditch. Proverbs chapter 22, turn over to Proverbs chapter 22. The Bible talks about foreseeing the evil. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 22, talking about foreseeing sin, about being honest, being diligent, being observant, about looking out for the potential of sin creeping back into our life. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 22, verse 3, a prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself, but the sinful pass on and are punished. He says a prudent man foreseeeth the evil. Now the evil there might not necessarily be some sin. It could be, I think that would apply, but it might even be the evil of the world. I mean, we think about Matthew 24 where Jesus said, I've told you these things that you might not be offended, that he has overcome the world, that we've got to be a good cheer, because he's overcome the world, and the world ye shall have tribulation. He's saying, look, evil's going to come. There's going to be a day of great tribulation. There's going to be things that might not necessarily be sin on your part, but evil that's coming towards you. There might be some persecution. There might be some trial. There might be some tribulation that we have to go through, and if we're wise, we'll foresee it. We'll say, you know what? A lot of preachers would do well. I think a lot of preachers, they don't want to preach everything in the Word of God because they do foresee it. They foresee the evil, and they say, you know what? I want to completely bypass that, so they don't preach it. They skirt around it. But we should be willing to foresee that evil and just be ready to deal with it and know that when it comes, when that fiery trial comes into our life, it's not going to take us by surprise. It's not going to creep up on us. The Bible says, Does that mean he's cowering somewhere? No, it means he's taking shelter. It means that he's preparing himself. He's hunkering down. He's holding up the line of defense. It's not that he's running off out in the hills somewhere just trying to avoid everybody. It means he's getting in the foxhole. He's piling up the sandbags. He's making sure he's got the munitions he needs. He's got the supplies he needs, and he's ready to hole up and see this thing through. A wise man foresees the evil, and he hides it himself. What's that notice there? It says, but the simple pass on. They keep just walking headlong into it. They just go straight for it. The wise man, he sees it. He says, oh, here comes evil. Let me get ready. Here it comes. We're going to take it on. There's that illustration I've seen where people will say, go ahead and push me. If you're just kind of standing here, and you were to come up to me and push me, it'd be pretty easy to kind of get me back, especially if you've got a good run at me. But if I did the center in a football game where I got down in a three-point stance like this, and I said, all right, try and push me, it'd be a lot harder to do, wouldn't it? My center of mass is lower. I've got leverage leaning forward. In fact, it'd be a lot easier for me to knock you over at that point. But that's what the prudent man is doing when he foresees the evil. He's getting down in that three-point stance. He's hunkering down. He's planting himself. He's rooting himself. Notice, he's not going forward. It's the simple that pass on. They don't foresee the evil. They just walk blindly like some zombie right into it, and they're punished. They suffer the consequences. We need to learn to foresee the evil in our life. Look at Proverbs 27, verse 12. It says the same thing again about the prudent man. Proverbs 27, just a few pages over. We need to learn to foresee the evil. Proverbs 27, verse 12. A prudent man foresees the evil and hinders himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. I don't know if I... That's not simple. I know that. Proverbs 27. I think I hit the paste button twice there. Let me get over there with you. Proverbs 27. Proverbs 27, verse 12. Seeest thou a man... Hold on. I'm at 26. 27. Sorry about this. Verse 12. There it is. A prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hindeth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. It is the same person, pretty much. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make here is that a prudent man foresees the evil, and it's the simple that failed to foresee it. Now, what is it to be prudent? You think about it. What says the guy that's going to foresee evil, the guy that's going to hunker down, the guy that's not just going to pass on and stumble into sin, that's going to see what's coming down the road, he's called prudent. What does it mean to be prudent? It means to act or show care and thought for the future. That's what it means to be prudent. That's why the verse kind of defines itself where he foresees the evil. He has thought for the future. He's foreseeing things. He's not just being taken off guard. He's seeing what's coming down the road. Let's go ahead and turn over to Proverbs 23. So a prudent man is someone who sees the future. He has thought for the future. He says he's wise, he's well judged, he's sensible, he's advisable, he's cautious, he's careful. The prudent man who foresees the evil, he avoids potential triggers to relapse. The guy who's overcome sin in the past, if he's going to foresee the evil, if he's going to go ahead and be a prudent individual, if he's going to be wise, if he's going to be prudent and foresee the evil, he's going to recognize that there are potential triggers. He's going to say, you know what, I should go around this area. I shouldn't be in this neighborhood. This is my old stomping ground. This is where I used to get into that sin. This is that place I used to go into. You should avoid those areas. You know, the guy who's recovered from being a drunk and is no longer a drunk, he's gotten clean, he's sobered up, should probably avoid the bar. I mean, that would make sense, right? I'm going to go to the bar and just have a glass of water. I just like the people in there. I just want to play a game of pool. I just want to watch the game, whatever it might be. I just want to go in there and get the wings. I just want to try the burger. They got a good soup. Yeah, and they got a whole rack of liquor in there. And you could just ask for it. No one in there is going to think twice about the fact that you're tipping back a bottle. You're going to blend right in. You've got to foresee that and understand that there are triggers. There are places. There's people. There's circumstances. There's things that could trigger you to relapse, to go back into that sin. You're not being wise. You're not foreseeing. You're not being prudent. Now, some things are unavoidable. Some things that might come into our life that would cause us to want to relapse, that would cause us to want to go back to some sin in our life, some of those things are unavoidable. It's not a matter of us. We shouldn't go to a certain place. We shouldn't go to hang out with certain people. We shouldn't go run with the old crowd and try to just hang out with them but not do what they do. We'll end up in sin. Those things we can avoid, but certain things we can't. What about the stress? What about the stress of life? Of having to pay the bills, to take care of the family, to work the job, to be successful, to do these things? Just the stress of living life. Or it might even be that there's some persecution, some stand we have to take for the Word of God that brings even additional stress upon that. Some of those things are unavoidable. We can foresee them. We can see them coming, but guess what? They're coming. And that's why we have to foresee them. Stress is one example. And a lot of people, they have a crutch to deal with these things. A lot of times they go to the drugs. They go to the alcohol. They go to the pills. They get the prescriptions out. They get the bottle out. Whatever it might be, whatever it is. But we need to understand that there are certain things we need to avoid. We ought to not go to certain places, but even more so. We ought to understand that there are some things that are unavoidable and we need to foresee those things and understand that we need to deal with that before it comes. You see, the prudent man foresees. He says, you know what? I know there's some things I can avoid, so I'll go this way. I'm going to get away from these old friends. I'm going to get away from these old places. But he also foresees and says, even though I'm going this direction, I know that I can see this down the road. There's something coming. And what is the prudent man? He foresees and the prudent purposes in his heart. He says, you know what? This is unavoidable. This stress is going to come into my life. This conflict, this persecution, this trouble is going to come into my life. It's going to come. I foresee it. But he purposes in his heart. There's something that he purposes in his heart. I'm going to turn over to Daniel in chapter 1. We'll look at the example of Daniel. Daniel was a prudent man. Daniel was somebody who foresaw the evil. I was talking to someone the other night and they brought up the point that we never really look for evidence or proof that the Bible is the Word of God. That's something we just believe by faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We come to the Bible by faith. But often, when we start to consider the Bible and the nature of it and the way it's written and that type of thing, we start to see, not necessarily a proof that it's the Word of God, but we can definitely be shored up on it. We can say, you know what? It's playing out. Now I can see. Yeah, definitely. No doubt about it. The Bible is the Word of God, and here's not necessarily a proof, but here's just some evidence that just points to it. And one of them is this, I think. The claim is, well, it's just written by man. Man just wrote that. It was just written by the Jews back in the day. But did you ever stop and consider the fact that the Bible really doesn't cast them in the best light? I mean, it's just a long litany of failures on the part of Israel in the Old Testament. And the Bible really doesn't cast man in the best light. I mean, it talks about the reprobate, it talks about people being given over, it talks about people committing these horrible sins. I mean, there's some stuff in there that if it was your name associated with those things, it would be embarrassing. So it's hard to imagine that men would sit down and cast themselves in that light. And we start to think about the fact, you know, almost every major Bible character in the Scripture has some major flaw. I mean, think about David. Saul. Even Samuel. Even these men that we wouldn't think about. You know, if you think about it, they do. But Daniel is one where I haven't seen it. It's real hard to put your finger on it. Say, well, you know, Daniel's a pretty good guy, but he came up short here. You know, I know it isn't recorded every aspect of life. I'm not saying he's perfect. But I'm saying the Bible doesn't bother to take the time to tell us about any shortcomings that Daniel had. God goes out and makes sure that when he casts it, when he talks about Daniel, Daniel's put out there as a very positive example. I can't think of anything that you could point to Daniel's life and say, hey, you know what? He messed up here. Now, the point might be, well, he didn't have to deal with some of the temptations that we do in the fact that he was a eunuch. But, you know, it is what it is as far as that goes. But Daniel is somebody that we can look to as an example and see a man that's foreseeing the evil, a man that's prudent. And what did Daniel do? He purposed in his heart. Now we're going to look at verse 5, but of course this is the beginning of the chapter or the book when we start talking about Daniel. And of course it's where Israel is going into their Babylonian captivity. Daniel's just a boy. He's a young man, perhaps. He's just a boy going in, being taken captive by that foreign nation after his nation's been destroyed and being taken into captivity. Now, I don't think it took Daniel by surprise. I mean, they had the preaching of Jeremiah, they had the preaching of Isaiah and all the prophets telling them this is going to happen, this is going to come. It was preached publicly, it was preached boldly, people were talking about it. There had been other instances of it happening. God was warning his people and warning his people and trying to get them to repent. And they were stiff-necked and hard-hearted, they wouldn't do it. And I have a hard time believing that Daniel didn't know about it. And that Daniel didn't see it coming. Daniel didn't say, you know what? We are going to go into captivity. You know, we are going to be taken away. And even when he was taken captive, it wasn't like they put him on a plane and flew him the four-hour flight to Babylon. It was probably a long trek by foot that he had to go on. And he realized what was happening to him. Saying, look, I'm being taken out of my native land, I'm being taken away from the place I grew up in, I'm being taken to a foreign land with a strange people that I know not and they're going to try to get me to live their way, they're going to try to get me to do things that are not pleasing to God. These are not godly people, they're heathen. They have heathen practices. Daniel had to believe at some point along that journey purposed some things in his heart. He foresaw the evil of Babylon and he purposed some things in his heart. So you know when I get there, I don't care what they do or what they say, this is the way it's going to be for me. He foresaw the evil, he was prudent. Look at verse 5. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hanani, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names, for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael of Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat. Now was that meat sacrificed to idols? Was it something that was forbidden for them to eat? Was it some kind of pork or shellfish or some kind of unclean animal that the dietary restrictions that God had in place at that time? I'm not sure. But it was something that would have defiled Daniel. But look, it says there that he purposed in his heart. He said, you know what? And I don't think he did that on the spot. I didn't think he was like, man, I'm really hungry, what do you got? Well, we got this meat that would defile you. Oh, you know what? I can't. You know, that would have been a moment of weakness. You know, he might have understood what was going to take place. He said, look, when we get there, they're going to try and fatten us up for three years, they're going to give us this defiled meat, whether it's defiled spiritually or it's just something unclean that we can't eat, whatever it is. He said, look, I'm not going to eat it. I'm not going to have anything to do with it. He foresaw it though. It wasn't something that came snugged up on him. He understand the land he was going into. He understand the people that he was going to dwell among. He was a prudent man. He was able to foresee the sin coming and he was able to deal with it. Knock it off. And that's why he was able to purpose it in his heart. He purposed. He foresaw the evil before it came. Now we know that evil is going to come. Same for us. If we live long enough, the tribulation is going to come one day. And if it doesn't, we still have this life to live. And if we're honest with ourselves, we talked about earlier, we know what our weaknesses are. We know what our weak points are. We know where we're tempted. It's not a mystery to us. We know the things that we've struggled with in the past. We need to be like Daniel and foresee that But then we have the purpose in our hearts. We say, you know what? I know I have this weakness. I know I have this area where I struggle with. I have this sin that's been a temptation to me. But I'm going to purpose in my heart right now. When that temptation comes, when that trial comes, I'm not going to give in. I'm not going to defile myself. Notice that when he did it, it says that Daniel purposed in his heart. He did it for his own good. He did it in his heart. He didn't go out and just proclaim to everybody how righteous he was. He says, guess what guys? I know this is going to happen. I just want you to know that I'm never going to give in to it. I'm not going to eat that meat. Be wary of the guy that wants to brag to you about how sinless he is. The preacher that wants to get up and tell you about how, you know, I used to deal with this years ago, but brother, when I got saved, I got all the way saved, and I've never craved it again. Liar. I'm one who drank. I'm one who partook in alcohol. I'll be perfectly honest, man. You know, there's some days where you see the advertisement up on the billboard. You know, that cool can of beer with the drops of sweat coming down. And people who've never drank it go, you know, that stuff tastes like piss, whichever one, and they're right. But when you develop a taste for it, you know, sometimes it sounds, you know, that would really, you know, cut the thirst. You know, a few of those would take the edge off. That would be a good way to relax, wouldn't it? That's dangerous. That's being careless. And we have to make sure that we're not going to just know that about ourselves and be willing to say, look, I know that's a weakness for me. That's a potential area that I could, you know, if I'm careless, if I'm comfortable, if I fail to foresee the evil, I could fall back into that. And Daniel was one who did it in his own heart. He was one of those, you know, that's where you have to do these things. You don't have to let everybody know about it. The preacher doesn't need to get up and tell you how he's just, you know, there's no, you know, he's got everything beat. He doesn't have any major sin in his life. Anything that, you know, he struggles with ever. You know, I appreciate a pastor who's honest. I appreciate a pastor who says, look, I have sin that I deal with. I appreciate somebody who's willing to say, look, there are things that I know that are struggle for me, that are weakness for me, that are potential areas where I could fall, where I could suffer the consequences of sin. That's somebody who's prudent. That's somebody who's foreseeing evil. That's somebody who's going to purpose in his own heart. But notice when it says that he purposed it in his heart, another thing to think about is this, is that, yeah, he did it for his own good, but it came from his heart. He wanted to do it. It wasn't just, you know, I shouldn't eat this king's meat because it would upset my parents. Or, boy, if it got back to the people, the remnant back in Jerusalem, that, you know what, Daniel ate that meat, you know, it would make me look bad. That's not a reason to not, I mean, that's part of it. I mean, that should, we should definitely allow that to affect our thinking, you know, if you want to deal with the shame of being caught or being found out or having to deal with that. But it's got to be something we've got to do from the heart. You know, if we want to get victory over some sin, then something's got to have to come from our own heart. If we're going to be prudent and foresee the evil, ask it because it's something that we want to do. So many people struggle with sin and they think, and they want to say, oh, it's so hard, it's just, I can never deal, I just can't get the victory over this, it's so difficult. No, no, there is no temptation which is taking you but such is as common to man. But God is faithful and that will make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. God makes a way to escape. Here's the thing, you'll get victory over sin when you want it. You'll lick that sin when you want to do it, when it's in your heart. I'm not saying it's going to be easy. I'm not going to say you're just going to get up one day and flip a switch and you'll never deal with it again. But I'm saying this, that people, they want to make excuses for themselves and say they're never going to, they can never get the victory over this sin, it's because you don't want it. Because it's not in your heart. And the only reason you think you should do it is because the preacher preached about it. Or you know that's just not what a Christian should do, but in your heart, you want to do it. When you want to do it from the heart, when you purpose in your heart that you're going to get the victory, that you're going to foresee the evil, that's when you'll do it. And you'll take advantage of the resources that God has given us, His Word, prayer, His Spirit, the preaching, the fellowship, being busy in the work of God, those things that will keep us and help us, that we can take advantage of to get the victory, and we'll take advantage when we want it. I'm going to read to you from a few passages here, but if you would, on this point, go ahead and turn over to James, the book of James. You see, we'll like sin when we want to, when we purpose it in our heart that we want to foresee the evil and be prudent and overcome it. The Bible says, For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. Of course, Hebrews chapter 12, talking about Jesus Christ when He went to the cross and was crucified, when He endured the cross, despising the shame, for the joy that was set before Him. The Bible says, For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself. That's G.B. Wade in your mind. He says this, And ye have not resisted on the blood striving against Him. I know there's some real struggles that people really do deal with some difficult sins and addictions in their life. But I have to ask you something. Have you resisted on the blood? Is the temptation in the trial that you're going through anything compared to what Christ went through when He went and resisted on the blood, when He endured the mocking, when He endured the beating, when He took, when He literally bled and died striving against sin, the sin of giving up, of not going through, that humiliation that He went through for our sakes? I mean, what did Christ benefit from it? What did it do for Him when He went to the cross? It was for our good. It was for our benefit that He did that. And He was willing to strive unto blood. He was willing to do that. So, whatever the sin is in our life, whatever the struggle is that we're dealing with, and you think it's such a trial and tribulation, have you resisted on the blood? Have you been willing to get to the point that you're, you know, I'd rather believe than give in to this? 1 Corinthians 10 says this, There hath no temptation, and we read this, such as is common to man, but God is faithful, will not suffer you but tempted, if above that you are able, but with the temptation, also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. We need to know that verse and understand that verse and take God up on that promise in that verse, that when we have a temptation in our life, that God is faithful and will make a way for us to escape. It's there. You know, we don't even have to strive unto blood more than likely. We just need to go to God in prayer. We need to get in the Word. We need to get around fellow Christians that will encourage us. Look at James chapter 5. James chapter 5 verse 14. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let him pray over him. Anointing him with oil and name the Lord. The prayer of faith shall save him. I'm going to have to turn there to James chapter 5. James chapter 5 verse 14. And the prayer of the faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise them up. And if ye have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. And it goes on and says this. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed. Now I don't think this is like what he's talking about like with a Catholic priest where you need to go and like, you know, Father forgive me for us. You need to come to your brother in Christ and say, look, you know, this last week, you know, this last weekend I went out and I did this and asked, can you just, you know, can you grant me forgiveness? You know, because he can, right? You can't grant me forgiveness. Only God can forgive sins. But he is saying confess your faults. You can go to somebody if you're having a struggle with something or you could force, you know, I think it's probably talking more about, you know, being honest about things that, you know, you have a tendency to. When you're foreseeing the evil, you could say, you know what, this could be a real struggle for me. I'm going to go to somebody and say, look, make me accountable. Say, hey, I have this fault. I have this flaw in my character. I have this sin that I used to struggle with in the past. And you could talk to somebody about it. You could confess that fault one to another. And you could pray for one another. And, you know, it's not going to somebody to just, you know, embarrass yourself. It's so that somebody might pray for you. You know, and I've talked to people about my past. You know, some people that, you know, and it's difficult. It can be embarrassing to sit there very pointed and bluntly about sin that you've been involved in the past with somebody. But sometimes it needs to be discussed because, you know, it's a fault. And it's not just so that we can get down on somebody. It's so that we can help them. It's so that we can pray. And I know that the people that I've talked to about it, it's out of a genuine concern. It's out of something because they, they want to pray for me. They want to help me to be healed. They want to make sure that that never comes a problem. Again, we're foreseeing the evil, is what we're doing. The Bible says, If we're, you know, I mean, look at the example of Daniel. That was the guy who had his prayer answered. He said, look, I'm going to trust in God. I'm not going to eat the king's meat. And you just feed me the pulse in the water and you watch what happens. And sure enough, he was more fair and fat-fleshed than all the others that ate that king's meat. But you know what? He wasn't defiled either. So he was that righteous man who had his prayers answered. And that's what we need to do. We need to be willing to confess our faults and then pray about it. And that's how we're going to get, foresee the evil, and that's how we're going to get to victory over these sins. You see, foreseeing sin requires humility. I'm going to wrap it up here, but foreseeing sin requires humility. It's a humbling thing to sit down and say, you know what? I struggle with these sins. It's a humbling thing to go to somebody else and say, hey, you know what? This is an area that I've struggled with. This is an area where I'm not having trouble with. Can you pray for me? That takes humility. That takes somebody who's willing to just openly talk about that with individuals. And I'm not saying you have to go out and broadcast to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that you know. There's certain people in our lives, your pastor perhaps, a spouse, a close friend, somebody in your life that you can say, look, I want to foresee the evil here. Can you help me? Can you keep me in prayer? Can you ask me how I'm doing here? That requires humility. If we're going to foresee the evil, we're going to have to be humbled enough to admit our sinfulness. We're going to have to be humbled enough to admit our weaknesses. And this can be particularly hard to do for men, to admit that they have a weakness in some area. Because men, you know, we always run around like, we're tough. Nothing bothers us. We're made of stone. We're rocks. We're bulwarks. Nothing can affect us. That's not the case. And it takes some humility to say, you know what? No, this is an area that I've struggled with. This is a potential place where I could fall. This is a place that I could really struggle with sin. Look at James chapter four, verse five. James four, verse five. The Bible says at the beginning of James four, verse five, Do you think that the scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us, lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore, he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves there to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. He's saying here, you know, God's going to resist the proud, but if you're going to foresee the evil, you're going to have to be humble, because you're going to need God's help. You can foresee the evil all day. You can say, you know what? I'm a prudent man. I can foresee the evil. I see it coming, and I'm not going to let it get me, but you're going to have to understand something. You know, the Bible says that the devil walked about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't want to go take on a roaring lion. You know, not without body armor, a fully automatic weapon, and a tank, and maybe some air support. You know, I mean, these guys over there, these natives in Africa that go looking for these lions, have you ever seen that? Where they walk through that telegraph with the spears hunting lions? That's really something. But the point I'm trying to make here is that you can foresee the evil coming, but you can't always stand in your own strength. You're going to need God's help. You're going to need God to not resist you. But the Bible says that God resists the proud. If you're too proud to admit that you have a weakness, that you have an area that you struggle in, that there's some sin that might cause you harm, that might cause you to fall, you're too proud for God to help you, and God's actually going to resist you. God's going to say, you know what? You think you can stand on your own? You think you've got this beat? You don't need the way of escape that I provided. You don't need to take the fire escape. Good luck, buddy. You know, let's see you get out of that blazing building with just a fire extinguisher. It's not going to happen. You're going to have to go the way God has provided you. You can't go out on your own strength and your own means. You're going to have to be humble. And I think a lot of times that's why people struggle with sins for so long that they do, because they don't want to take the help that God has provided them, because that would require them to be humble and they're too proud. It says you're going to have to be humble, that God resists the proud. He goes on and says, but God giveth grace unto the humble. He says in verse 7, submit yourselves. Submit, that's a choice. That's the same thing that God tells wives to do to their husbands, to submit. That's not automatic. Wives don't just automatically submit to husbands. That's a choice that they make. Some of them choose not to. We have to make that choice. We have to be humble enough to say, you know what, I'm going to submit myself unto God. I'm going to go ahead and say, you know what, God's way is right. I know this sin that I have in my life is wrong. It needs to be done away with and I need to get the victory over it. I can see it coming. It's going to cause me trouble. I'm going to submit to God. I'm going to ask him for help. That's humility. It's your choice to receive God's help. You have to decide whether or not you're going to submit. And then it says this in verse 7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. That's only half the equation. Then it says resist the devil and he will free from you. You have to submit, right? That's a choice that you make to get God's help. But again, it's not that just God is just going to wave his magic wand and everything's just going to be a bed of roses from there on out. He's just going to give you the strength and the power and the ability to overcome that sin. And we're going to have to go at him on a daily basis often. And then it says resist. There's still something you have to do. It's going to take effort on your part. It's not like the temptation disappears. The temptation might still be there. But now because you've been humble enough to admit that it's there and you've submitted to God, you've gone to the way of escape, you've gone into prayer, you've gotten the Bible, you've memorized the scriptures, you've submitted to it, said, I need to do this. Now you're resisting. Now you're resisting the devil. Now you're putting up the fight and God's strength and his power. And then what does it say? The devil will flee from you. There is a point where the devil says, look, the guy figured it out. This guy's figured it out. I used to be able to get him with this sin anytime I wanted. But this guy got humble. This guy went to God and took the way of escape. This guy got in prayer. This guy went to his brother in Christ. This guy went to his pastor, confessed his fault, asked for prayer. This guy got prudent, foresaw the evil. I can't get him anymore. You think he's going to waste his time with you? There comes a point where the devil says, he figured it out. The victory's his. I got to go. Because there's some other guy down the road that he can get. You know, it's like a fisherman who's just walking. The devil's just that fisherman and he's trying all his different lures. And with nothing's biting, he's going to go find another fishing hole. He's going to say, you know what? That fish in there, he recognizes that lure. He's seen that lure before. He saw it snag his buddy last week. And he's gone. You know when it's the devil that's trying to lure you into sin. And when you resist, and you don't bite, when you're strong in the Lord, you've submitted to him and you're humble, he's going to move on. Now, if you would turn over to, I'll just read it to you. There is a refuge from sin in our lives. That's the point, you know. If we're going to be prudent and foresee the evil, and we say, you know what? I can foresee the evil, but what do I do? You know, what do we see the devil do? We have to be humble. We have to submit. We have to resist. And understand that the Bible says in Proverbs that the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. The prudent man foreseeeth the evil and hideth himself. Where does he hide? The strong tower. The strong tower in the name of the Lord. You know, when we're doing it in Christ's name, we're doing it in the power of his word and his spirit, we can have the victory. But we have to be willing enough and humble enough to foresee the evil and then be prudent enough to understand that we need to go to God and take that way of escape. We need to run to the high tower of his name and his word, that strong tower, if we're going to get that victory over the devil. So that's the message this morning, foreseeing the sin. Let's foresee it. Let's see it coming. Let's be honest and humble about the fact that there may be some things that we still struggle with or will struggle with one day. Let's not get comfortable and careless. And when we do feel the heat getting turned up, when we feel the temptation gathering, when we foresee the evil coming, we know where to go. Run to the Lord. Run to that strong tower of his word by faith. Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for the Bible. Thank you for the promises that are in it. We thank you that you love us and that you care for us, Lord, that you are willing to endure the cross, that you are willing to resist unto blood, striving against sin for our own sakes. Help us, Father, to strive against sin, that we might be more pleasing to you, that you might be able to use us, that we would be able to clean up our lives and be vessels, meet for the Master's use, Father, that we would walk in the newness of life, that we would walk in the power of your Spirit, and that we would not walk in the flesh, that you might use us for your honor and for your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.