10/30/2019

The temptation to think a wrong thought is not Wrong Trading.

• The dwelling / brooding on a wrong thought is wrong trading.
• It is part of the progression that leads to wrong action.

Don’t allow yourself to feel badly about having a wrong thought.

• This is because the original wrong thought is not your thought.
• It is a seed attempting to be planted within us from the outside.

This is a standard tactic of the accuser of the brethren.

• He attempts to give you one of his bad thoughts.
• He seeks for you to think that the bad thought was your bad thought.
• Then he accuses you for having it.

Wrong Trading does not begin with a bad thought.

• Receiving the wrong thought into the soil of our heart is where Wrong Trading begins.
• This is because it is now able to grow.
• See, Receive, Enter Into…

This is where Eve initially failed.

• She “saw” the lie.
• Then she received it.
• Seeing the lie is not Wrong Trading.
• Receiving it is.

“So when the woman SAW that the tree (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Genesis 3:6

• She saw a lie as being truth.
• She exchanged the truth for a lie.
• She desired it.
• She ate.
• Eating was RECEIVING the lie.

The next verse in the narrative of the Fall shows us that eating initiated Wrong Trading.

• We can see the immediate results of the Wrong Trade.

“Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” Genesis 3:7

Think of receiving in this way.

• The doorbell rings.
• You open the door.
• Someone says, “Hi! I’m so and so.”
• You say, “Hi, so and so. Come on in.”

You receive them for who they say that they are.

• This is receiving truth if the person is who they say that they are.
• It is receiving a lie if they are lying about who they are.
• Wrong Trading begins when we RECEIVE a lie.

Seeing a lie is not Wrong Trading.

• The right thing to do is to look at the lie with spiritual discernment.
• See that it is a lie.
• Refuse to receive it.
• Turn the lie away at the front door of your house.

This is why John tells us not to bring false teachers into our house by providing them with hospitality.

• Same principle.

“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” 1 John 2:10

• If the teacher is not bringing true doctrine then he is bringing a lie.
• See the phrase “receive him into your house”?
• This is where we see the explanation of what it means to receive either a truth or a lie.
• Same principle.
• Either with respect to the truth or with respect to a lie.

Knowing this truth sets you free from 2 Stumbling Blocks.

• Receiving a lie.
• Feeling badly about a wrong thought that comes to you from outside you.

“You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.”

• You can now see both Stumbling Blocks.
• And stay free from both.
• You are set free from both!