01/23/24 THE DEVIL, THE FLESH AND THE WORLD

01/23/24 THE DEVIL, THE FLESH AND THE WORLD

Jesus came to save His people.
Jesus came to save his people from their sins. 

But my observation has been that men love their sins (their thoughts, words and actions), which is why they continue in sin, even when God confronts, convicts and calls them to repentance and eternal life. 

When a person answers God's call to believe on Christ and to turn from Sin, after that person is converted and has received a New Nature and is walking in newness of life, that person still has the Sin Nature (aka Sin [an inherited and indwelling principle of rebellion against God and righteousness], the Old Man, the Carnal Mind, the Double Mind, the Flesh, the Evil Heart of Unbelief, the Adamic Nature). Because of God's salvation, the believer has a New Nature (which loves God and desires to obey God), but he has an internal battle with his Old Nature, his Sin Nature (which hates God and wants to disobey God and is irredeemable), not to be confused with his Human Nature (which has been corrupted by sin, but can be redeemed). This internal battle is because the believer clings to his Old Nature. The believer does not want to die to Self, the Old Man. 

This internal battle should be understood as a battle between the Old Nature (attitude, propensity, inclination) to resist God, and the New Nature (attitude, propensity, inclination) to submit to God. The Old Nature cannot be converted or controlled and the New Nature will not be corrupted or conquered. Either the Human Nature (man's reason, desire, emotion, conscience and will) accepts the rule of sin or the rule of God. There is no coexistence. The believer needs to put off (crucify) the Old Man, with its corruption and rebellion. 

This putting off of the Old Man is necessary for the purification of the heart. Remember, God wants us to have clean hands and a pure heart. The clean hands comes when God forgives and cleanses us from our sins which we have committed and the pure heart comes when God fills us with His Holy Spirit. 

The Sinful Nature is not conquered and destroyed by our good works, nor by our discipline. We cannot bring the Old Man under control. As long as a believer has the Double Mind, Satan will use it to overthrow the New Man, the Spiritual Mind, the Divine Nature, which God imparted to us at the time of our conversion. Sinning religion would leave us in that condition for the rest of our lives. But God provided salvation and purity from all sin. 

However, our battle is not only with Satanic temptations from the outside or with Double Mindedness from within, but it is also with a World System, seeking to lure us away from God. 

Let me mention quickly, God delivers the faithful believer from all temptation. We are confronted with The World, The Flesh and The Devil, but God provides deliverance and victory over all three manifestations of evil. 

The unsaved love their sinful thoughts, words and deeds.
Christians initially have a love/hate relationship with their Carnal Mind, erroneously thinking that being Double Minded is an inescapable part of their human nature.
People, whether, unsaved or Carnal Christians, have an affinity, a connection with the worldly system. Part of that affinity is based in their cultural influences. 

The ones who hunger and thirst after righteousness, will hear God calling them to trust Christ for deliverance from the internal battle between the New Man and the Old Man. Deliverance comes through faith in Christ, in the same way that we are forgiven. The fullness of the Holy Spirit flushes out the inner corruption of the believer. The Old Man is crucified with Christ. Crucifixion is death, not continual suffering, it is death, not a lifetime of dying. There comes a time when the Old Man is dead and removed. 

Yes, we still have a human nature (body, soul, spirit) and we can be tempted through the human nature, just like with Adam was tempted. Even when we are delivered from the inner pollution of the Old Man, our human nature will be tempted and attacked by Satan. 

But from the moment of our salvation, even until we are entirely sanctified, we have the power, as regenerated (born again) believers, to resist all temptation. "He that is born of God does not commit sin." 

Men love their sins (words, thoughts and deeds).
Christian's initially love there sinful nature, the Old Man.
The Carnal, Double Minded man must die to self orientation. 

But even after we experience deliverance from sins, through forgiveness, we must experience deliverance from our sin nature through purification. 

The Spirit filled Christian still has to contend with the "world." The world presents itself to us through human culture. Even though sinners (unsaved people) come to the point they turn from their Sins, and even when believers turn from their Double Mindedness, the devil still has a stronghold through culture, racial culture, political culture, economic culture, academic culture, and especially religious culture. People love the culture in which they were raised. Some people are brought up with a Christian background, and many brought up with a Calvinistic or Reformed position. 

Let me give you an example of culture replacing Biblical truth in the minds of the people. For instance, they still hold to the unBiblical idea that Christians have the right to take the lives of other men, when they're lives are threatened or when they're family is threatened or when their well-being is threatened or when their country is threatened. 

You won't find the concept of Christians taking up arms against others commanded, commended or condoned in the New Testament. In fact, the idea of Christian physical violence is condemned in the New Testament. 

It was a concept introduced to the Church at the time of Constantine and developed by Roman Catholic leaders, such as Augustin and Thomas Aquinas and retained as a relic of Rome by Reformed leaders, who went to war and executed people with whom they disagreed. 

But as I said, people love their culture. And sometimes they are blinded by their culture, to the extent that they do not really see or understand the clear revelation of God, even when the revelation of God clearly contradicts their cultural background or cultural norms. They have unfailing loyalties to a filed culture. 

Love not the world nor the things that are in the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you.
God tells us through Paul, "Come out from among them and be a separate."
If the God wants us to be delivered from sins committed, and delivered from sin inherent, He also wants us to be delivered from unholy alliances, which corrupt us.
Bad company corrupts good morals.