Now I want to take you to a fourth principle in this matter of self-control, spiritual self-discipline that is very, very important and a lot could be said about it and should be and I’m not going to…I’m not going to string this out, I’m just going to give it to you as one of the points in this series of points tonight, but it could stand alone and perhaps should in your own thinking, and maybe it’s a good subject for you to pursue on your own. But suffice it tonight to sum it up and say this, if you’re going to be self-disciplined, you have to learn to control your imagination…you have to learn to control your imagination.
Now Peter alludes to this issue in verse 14 of 1 Peter 1 when he says, “Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.” Before you were a believer you really were subject to the whimsy of your own lusts. You had no real ability to control your heart, your mind, and your desires, no ability to control your imagination.
Now imagination is a good word because I think we understand basically in our society what that English word means. Unfortunately most of the modern translations of the Bible replaced the word “imagination” with some other words and so we lose the value of a biblical understanding of this matter of imagination. Very little is said about it today but it is absolutely crucial. Let’s begin to understand our imagination by going all the way back to Genesis chapter 6…Genesis chapter 6. And here in verse 5 we read this, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth.” This, of course, after the fall of man, wickedness escalates to massive proportions and the stench of that wickedness rises, as it were, to the very throne of God. And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. And then this statement, “And that every…and the Hebrew is…imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” As I say, more modern translations have opted out for different ways to express that word, but I like the translation of the King James, the word imagination.
When God looked down at man He saw that his imagination was evil continually. Over in the eighth chapter of Genesis we find a second reference to this, in verse 21, this having to do with Noah building an altar and making a sacrifice. And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man for thee…and here’s the same word again…the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Again God diagnosis man as having an evil imagination.
Now the Bible talks about the heart and when the Bible talks about the heart it means the mind, particularly the Old Testament. The heart is the idea of the mind. The heart of man is desperately wicked, it’s deceitful…that’s the mind. You can equate generally with the mind.
Now in the mind is a place, I suppose we might call it that although it’s not an actual location, but in the mind is a capacity for imagination…for imagination. And imagination is the place where sin is conceived, where is fantasized and where sin is energized. And if we are going to control sin, it has to be controlled in the imagination. It’s very difficult for us to eliminate from our lives every thought about sin because sin is ubiquitous, I mean it is everywhere. You can hear sinful words, you can sinful things, they’re all around you all the time. And people thrust them in your face. It would be very difficult to remove the thought of sin, the fleeting thought, the passing thought, the awareness, the sensitivity to sin that is initial. Now where you really have to go to work is in your imagination where that initial exposure to sin develops and elicits your involvement and ultimately results in your iniquity. The imagination is where lust is activated.
Let’s turn to James chapter 1 as we think about this important point. In James chapter 1, very, very insightful portion down in verses 14 and 15, very definitive and helps us as Christians in the battle with sin. First of all, in verse 13, “When you’re tempted you can’t say I’m being tempted by God.” Somebody might say, “Well, look, I mean, I live in a fallen world and sin is all around me, what do you expect? All this stuff is there and I see it and it moves in and it captures my interest and away it goes and I didn’t ask to be here, and God put me here and God let the world fall, and God let sin show up, and what am I supposed to do about it?”
“No one can say when he is tempted I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone.” Listen, the fact that you live in a fallen world and that you’re exposed to sin around you all the time through personal contacts and through the media and through what you read and all of these things is not an excuse for you iniquity. It’s not that initial exposure in a fallen world that is a problem.
Go back to verse 14, “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by…what?…his own…what?…lust.” The problem is not environment, the problem is not exposure to something. The problem is not that it’s there in the world. The problem is you and me. We are the problem. And here’s how it works, verse 15, “When lust has conceived it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished it brings forth death.”
You see, what produces sin is not something outside of us but something inside of us. Something that takes that sinful image, that sinful circumstance, that sinful situation, that sinful thought, word, concept, whatever it might be, or action that’s in the world around us, and begins to internalize it. That’s when the real problem develops. We are tempted when we are internally carried away by our lust and lust begins to conceive and it brings forth the child and the child is sin.
Now what is the imagination? It’s the place where lust conceives. It’s the place where the sin is entertained, where the temptation is entertained and the fantasies begin to develop. This is the imagination. Sin works in your imagination.
Imagination is a wonderful thing. It’s a creative source inside of us. It’s where artists conceive their great art. It’s where…it’s where musicians cultivate the music that eventually shows up on a sheet and is played by an orchestra. It’s where those people who have a dream for some achievement in human life begin to cultivate that dream that ultimately comes to fruition in their life. It’s a wonderful thing. We talk with children all the time about the importance of stimulating their imagination in the right way because God has given you a tremendous faculty to dream and to plan and to invent and to conceive things that you can bring to pass with great benefit and great blessing. But it is sadly in that same imagination, that same mind, that capability in the human mind where one conceives and fantasizes and develops that which ultimately issues in iniquity.
In Luke we have also a reference to the imagination, chapter 1 verse 51, in the Magnificat of Mary where she is praising the Lord having been told she would be the mother of the Messiah. She says about the Lord in verse 51, “He has done mighty deeds with His arm and He has scattered those who were proud in the imaginations of their heart.” Here again imagination is mentioned.
Now imagination is somehow more profound than thinking. It is what energizes the thought into fantasy, what activates the emotion and the will to produce the action. The thought comes, it’s energized in the imagination, that moves the emotion, the emotion moves the will, the will creates the action and in the case of sin the action creates death…as James says. It is in the imagination that your flesh comes to consciousness. It is in the imagination that the pictures outside become the pictures inside. It is in your imagination that you play out your sin before you ever commit it. It is in the imagination that you feel the heart and the anger that could issue in murder if you were not restrained and it’s why Jesus said you’re not obeying the law just because you don’t kill someone, I’m telling you if you hate your brother you’ve violated the law. It’s where you commit adultery in your heart, it’s in your imagination. It’s in that imagination in the words of James where lust conceives.
And as your imagination as a Christian functions, it has to battle…it has to battle because you know what is right and you’re tempted with what is wrong. And so there are usually two thoughts engaging themselves in your imagination. One thought is this sin will bring satisfaction. This sin will bring me something I want. The other thought is, this sin will dishonor God. Both thoughts are in the mind and both thoughts have an element of truth, sin will bring you some momentary pleasure, if it didn’t you wouldn’t be interested in it at all. So both thoughts in a sense are true. Sin does bring satisfaction to fallen flesh, that is true, it is momentary and the price is high, and it is not an equal satisfaction to obedience, but there are, as the book of Hebrews says, the pleasures of sin for a season. It is also true that that sin dishonors God, displeases God, violates the relationship with God and brings chastening on the one who commits it. And so therein lies the battle. Which is going to triumph? Which principle? Which is going to move your emotion? Which is going to move your will to do what is right? Which is going to control your imagination? That’s the battle.
That’s why it is so critical to hear the words of Joshua 1:8, for example, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall meditate on it day and night.” Why? “So that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.” You lay the weight in the battle on the side of righteousness because the Word keeps you from sin. That’s why Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”
It’s very, very important how you feed your imagination…very, very important. Very important what you put in there.
Back in 1 Chronicles, and this will be the last passage we’ll look at on this particular thought, chapter 29. David blessed the Lord in sight of all the assembly, and this, of course, was at the time when Solomon was being made king and David was making collections for the temple which was to be built by Solomon. And David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly and David said, verse 10, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever, Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. Indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth, Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all, both riches and honor come from Thee and Thou dost rule over all, and in Thy hand is power and might and it lies in Thy hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious name.” It’s just exultant joyous praise. He thanks the Lord.
And then in verse 17, “Since I know, O my God, that Thou tryest the heart and delightest in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things. So now with joy I have seen Thy people who are present here make their offerings willingly to Thee. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers preserve this forever in the imaginations of the heart of Thy people and direct their heart to Thee and give to my son, Solomon, a perfect heart to keep Thy commandments.”
This was a…this was a monumental moment in the history of Israel. This was a glorious high point. And David says, “Preserve this forever in the imaginations of the heart.”
Lord, if this is to go on, if this marvelous love toward you and expression of worship and this level of devotion is to continue in the future, You’re going to have to preserve the imagination, the place where sin is conceived and where it brings forth its deadly child.
Beloved, that’s where the battle is fought. And as I taught you some many months ago now when we were talking about the conscience in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 12, we discussed the fact that Paul said his conscience was clear. When you are fighting sin on the inside in your imagination, your conscience is battling alone. No one outside knows it. No one outside. The most important battles that you will fight alone in your imagination and your conscience will be in there ringing its bell and beating its drum and calling out to you in response to the choices you are making as Romans 2 says, either accusing you or excusing you. That’s what conscience does.
And you need to be aware that the battle has to be won there. You win the battle there and you’ll win the battle on the outside. You lose the battle there and you’ll lose the battle on the outside. When somebody falls into iniquity, falls into sin, that’s the product of a fantasizing imagination that has conceived of sin and consequently brought it forth. Win the battle inside. The issue is you. The issue is not the world you live in, it’s you.
