“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. (Gen. 4:7a)
In the area that you live in there are hundreds, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, some may be friends, others just occasional acquaintances, but most you know absolutely nothing about. All of them have desires, hopes, dreams, and every one of them have lusts.
With very little searching and a few well-chosen words, you can locate individuals that are relatively like minded such as you are.
I hope that would be for you, as one that has been born again, those that serve the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of the Living God, but that is not what most people are looking for, is it?
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1st Cor. 10:13)
And those temptations are right outside that door, the one that sin lieth at.
“For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1st John 2:16)
The temptations that we have been blessed to recognize by the Holy Spirit, that are against the Word and will of God, are those temptations, those lusts that those of the world seek after continuously. They are not looking for a way out of them, but a way to attain them, and as we search for those of this world that do not yet serve the Almighty, they are searching for those that will assist them in attaining their desires of the flesh, and sadly many times with more vigor and resolve than some do who are hid in Christ.
That sin that lies at the door, those temptations, are not brought upon us intentionally by our adversary, most of us he has not even noticed, but instead they are as the verse states, common to all mankind. The lusts that the unrepentant see no real shame in we see as a great sin against our Father in heaven, yet we are drawn to those temptations thousands of times in our lives, the opportunity to sin my friends is always available to us.
Whenever I step outside the door of our house, whenever the television or computer is on, I ask the Almighty to keep those temptations from me, and so I ask this question of you. Those temptations that are common to all mankind, lost, saved or wicked, how many times has the Lord intervened in your life to alter the path of those that would attempt to cause you to sin?
Think here of Balaam, contemplate why the Most High did not put into the mind of Bethsheba that perhaps later would be a better time to take a bath.
“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” (Prov. 16:9)
Would you agree with the following words? Sometimes the Almighty allows temptations to be placed before us, at other times He hinders those that would attempt to cause us to sin?
Know this as a truth, every time the door of temptation is opened by you, sin lieth on the other side. And know this as well, at times in our lives, we will open, intentionally and of our own free will, that door.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1st John 1:8)
Those who live by the desires of their flesh, their lusts, are searching for a way to fulfill those lusts, and there are times in our lives, even on the narrow path that leads us to that strait gate that we will do the same. Recognizing the truths written here will help you to understand those temptations, and hopefully be better prepared in the future to avoid them.
It is called being sanctified, and it is how we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.