The Two Natures of the Christian - Elder Ron Gannon brings this very important message.

[0:00] Records of the Generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham became the father of Isaac.

[0:12] And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Armenian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban, the Armenian, to be his wife.

[0:33] Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord answered him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

[0:50] But the children struggled together within her. And she said, If it is so, why then am I this way?

[1:06] So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb.

[1:20] And two peoples will be separated from your body. And one people shall be stronger than the other.

[1:34] And the older shall serve the younger. When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

[1:51] Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment. And they named him Esau.

[2:08] Afterward, his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob.

[2:23] And Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them. When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field.

[2:40] But Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for gain.

[2:57] But Rebekah loved Jacob. Thank you, Gary.

[3:13] Now you might be wondering, what does these scriptures out of Genesis have to do with the two natures of the believer, of the Christian? Well, hopefully before we're done, we'll see how that correlates.

[3:25] As Marv asked me to do the study this morning, I was thinking about what I was going to teach on. And this came back to my memory. I know I did a study like this titled, Your True Natures, when I went to London one day at the prison farm.

[3:42] And as we were starting to study out, everything was going well until one man came in late. And he started hearing what I was saying. He just got very upset and he was very belligerent.

[3:55] And he disrupted the whole study. Thinking, we do not have two natures. The Christian cannot sin. And we went on and on. He went on.

[4:08] And I finally came down to the point where I asked him, I said, Are you here today to tell me that you have never done anything wrong since you've become a Christian? That's what I'm telling you.

[4:19] I do not sin. Now, folks, there's a man that's in prison who's talking about this. And I've been in prisons. I haven't been in prison, but I've been at prisons long enough to know that these men have a lot of problems in there.

[4:36] Even if they don't want to, they have to defend themselves. Even if they don't want to do something, sometimes they have to because of the population that's in these places. It's a sad place to be. And it's a hard place to be a Christian when you're inside a penitentiary.

[4:51] So it really shocked me that this man could come up and say that he has no problems. And that he can live a perfect and righteous life. You know, in the scriptures he quoted, I cannot refute these scriptures for what it's saying.

[5:06] You know, we've been born again. We've been born anew. Sin has been taken care of. It's been crucified with Christ. And I know that. And I know that's my position in Christ.

[5:19] In Christ, I have no sin. But like I was talking to these men there and there, and these men are fighting and having problems. They're thinking, why am I doing the things that I'm doing?

[5:32] I know I accepted Jesus Christ into my life, but there's something driving me going back to the old way. What is that? And I'm going to have problems today because my mouth is very dry.

[5:53] But hang in there. I'll be with you. So, I decided I'd talk about those two natures today. Do you ever find yourself asking these questions? If I'm saved, why do I still sin?

[6:06] Why do I have such a problem with sin while I'm still here on earth? Why am I still troubled with impure thoughts? Why do I sometimes do what I know is wrong?

[6:22] Why do I sometimes fail to do what I know is right? Why do I continue to battle with temptations? Why do I sometimes live and act like an unsaved person, even though it grieves me and saddens me when I live this way?

[6:42] These are all legitimate questions. I know I've asked myself this many times in my Christian experience. You know, the unsaved man has but one nature.

[6:54] A sinful, selfish, and corrupt, and wicked nature. Remember, we see this from Adam. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah said, The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.

[7:08] Jeremiah 17, 9. That's from the Old Testament. When you get to the New Testament, in the Gospels, Jesus said in Mark 7, verses 20 to 23, That which proceeds out of the mouth of man, that is what defiles the man.

[7:24] For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed to evil thought, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

[7:40] All these evil things proceed from within, and they defile the man. And even the Apostle Paul, in Romans 3, said, There is none righteous, none who understand, and none who seek God.

[7:56] There are many Christians today who do not realize that they have within them two diverse natures. And consequently, they are greatly confused by their own inward struggle.

[8:11] I've faced this struggle before in my life, and I know many of you here have too. Even Paul, as a great man as he was, also struggled with these two natures.

[8:22] And if he struggled, then why do you think that we wouldn't struggle? Every born-again Christian has these same experiences.

[8:34] Here's Paul's testimony. Now, if I do that, I would not.

[8:59] It is no more I to do that, but it is sin that indwells me. And we get that from Romans 7, verses 18 through 20. And a lot of times when you give the Scripture verses for Romans 7, you get a lot of people that say, Now, wait a minute.

[9:18] We Christians, we don't need to deal in Romans 7. You've got to forget chapter 7. Go to chapter 8. That's where it talks about being dead to sin.

[9:30] And that's why we as Christians, we don't have sin in our life. Well, I don't think we can go to chapter 8. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote the book of Romans, he didn't sit down.

[9:41] And today he wrote this part, and then he wrote that part. And this is one part of your life. This is another part of your life. He sat down to write to the Romans, and he wrote it all in one letter.

[9:52] There was no chapters. He didn't have a chapter and verse when he wrote this letter. He just sat down and he penned the letter to the Romans.

[10:06] Because he knew the things that they were going through. He knew the same thing to all the churches that he wrote to. The Corinthians, prime example.

[10:18] Paul had to really chastise these people for the things that he saw going on. And hearing the things that was going on from this beloved church that he established there in Corinthians.

[10:28] And why? These were born-again Christians. But they were doing things that was not pleasing. And Paul had to write. And he had to instruct.

[10:41] And I think that's what he's doing here in Romans 7. He's given, before he gets into chapter 8, he's telling them about chapter 7. He's telling them, you know, I was here myself. I suffered through these things.

[10:55] They're questions we all ask. We all ask. The failure to recognize and distinguish between these two natures is the basis of many of the modern-day misconceptions that we have today.

[11:10] Just to name a few. The idea of falling from grace originates from here. For when the carnal nature of the Christian falls into sin, the world assumes that sin is of the whole man.

[11:24] And that consequently, he must be lost again. Well, if you're out there sinning, then you don't have Christ in your life. You've lost your salvation.

[11:35] And there's many people today out there that believe that you can lose your salvation. So, if that's what they think, why wouldn't they say, well, I don't have sin in my life?

[11:48] The world, in not distinguishing between the two natures of man, does not understand that the part of man which has been born anew cannot sin. And so, its future is never in danger.

[12:00] And that is only the old carnal nature, the unrenewed bodily nature of the Christian, that sins. And we need to keep that in mind. Second, the idea of works for salvation finds rich soil in this mistaken notion.

[12:15] For many, not seeing the truth of the higher spiritual nature of the Christian, spend all of their time trying to reform the old carnal nature and the flesh, and to make it seem like we're a reasonable Christian.

[12:30] Masterly, they have a full-time job in trying to reform the flesh. And although they make considerable changes in their life, in some areas that they reform, yet they never really get to the real problem.

[12:44] Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 3, For you are all fleshly. Since there is jealousy and strife among you, you walk like all other men.

[12:56] Number three, ignorance of these two natures also tends to promote a fatalistic view of sanctification, the truly saved person. For if he does not realize that he is under unredeemed carnal nature, or old man that has given him all the trouble, he is apt to cry out, What's the use of struggling with this sin?

[13:21] I'm always being tempted, and I'm always falling back into sin. He does not realize that though the old nature is constantly straining at the least to sin, yet his new spiritual nature is constantly growing stronger and stronger, learning more and more how to overcome the temptations that beset him.

[13:42] And that's what sanctification is all about. When we accept Jesus Christ into our life, a lot of people think, Wow, we just change automatically, don't we?

[13:52] We accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, and the next day we're out on the street preaching the gospel. Well, friends, I'm here to tell you that's not the way it works. I know it didn't work that way in my life.

[14:06] When I accepted Jesus Christ into my life, I still had a lot of problems. Those problems didn't go away overnight. I still had a lot of problems. I still did a lot of things that I said, Why in the world?

[14:20] If I've got a new life in Christ, why did I do that? Why did I just say that to that person? These are real things that happen to us every day.

[14:31] A very interesting picture presented to us of these two natures in Genesis chapter 25 that we just read.

[14:44] In Isaac, Abraham's son was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children, what did they do?

[14:57] They struggled. The children struggled together within her. And she asked of the Lord, If it be so, why am I this way? The Lord said unto her, Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from your body.

[15:14] And the one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. This passage, of course, has hysterical reference to two children, Esau and Jacob.

[15:27] Which were conceived within Rebekah. And without detracting from the historical aspect of these scripture verses, no other passage seems in the Old Testament to picture the two natures that the Christian has.

[15:44] So this, I found, was a great scripture verse to go to, to look at these two natures and how they operate. Number one, how often do we, when we face a struggle between our two natures, cry out as Rebekah did, and say, If it be so, if I'm really saved, why am I thus?

[16:06] Rebekah could not understand why, if the birth of the children was a fulfillment of God's promises, why this struggle between them, and she went to inquire of the Lord.

[16:17] We also have to go to inquire of the Lord when we struggle, when we have sin coming into our life, when we ask the questions that we've been asking here this morning. You have to go to the Lord and say, Why, Lord?

[16:29] Show me the right way. When we struggle with our own nature, we must also call on the Lord. Neither science, nor philosophy, or psychiatry, or even religion, apart from the Word of God, can adequately explain this war between the two natures in the Christian's life.

[16:51] The Christian needs to realize the importance of the two distinct natures, inasmuch as it relates to practical Christian living. Without understanding the two natures, we can become discouraged over the sin in our life.

[17:05] Galatians 5.17 says, For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

[17:20] Thus, there are two principles that work in the Christian life. The old nature, or the old man, or the flesh, these are the terms that we call for the old nature, of which is to be subdued and gradually destroyed by the new nature.

[17:34] Now, did you get that? We have the old nature, and these are the things in it, the old man, the flesh. But we do have a new nature, and that new nature is to subdue, or gradually destroy, destroy that old nature.

[17:49] How do we do that? Well, we're going to find out later on how we do that. But with that in mind, however, while we are growing in our Christian walk, it would be an error to excuse ourselves.

[18:02] We don't want to do that. From responsibility for sin asserting, oh, it was not I that did that, but sin which indwells me. We are not two people like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who act independently of each other.

[18:18] We find ourselves, although justified and regenerated, still weighed down with the remnants of the old man. These remnants must be put off or repeated acts of the will by repeated acts of the will until they pass away entirely.

[18:35] In other words, we have to let the new nature take control and be in control of the old nature. This is called sanctification. Sanctification is something we start the minute that we accept Jesus Christ into our life.

[18:53] The minute we say yes, Lord, He gives us the ability to start a new life. He gives us that new spirit. He gives us the capability to know the difference between the things that we used to do and the things that we know that we should do.

[19:07] And how do we gain more information? Well, we do it on a daily basis. We do it on a yearly basis. We just continue to take in God's Word.

[19:19] We go to church. We hear the message preached. These are the way that we get information. Marv is always talking about information, information, information. And as we take in information, that way, our whole being changes.

[19:35] And we are able to deal with the old nature. From the text in Genesis 25, we find five statements which, while being historically true of the children of Isaac and Rebekah, are also typically true of the two natures in the child of God.

[19:55] Number one in Genesis 25, 20, there are two manner of people. As different as were Jacob and Esau, so also the Christians' two natures are every bit as diverse.

[20:09] The Scriptures declare that there is a great difference in the flesh and the spiritual nature. They each result from birth. Jesus said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

[20:22] He says that in John 3, 6. The flesh originates from the first birth, the original birth, or human generation. While the spiritual nature originates through spiritual regeneration, or what we call the second birth.

[20:39] The man of the flesh, the natural man is not fitted for heaven until he undergoes a radical change, or that rebirth, by which he is filled with the Holy Spirit. At this point, the spiritual nature becomes alive, for previously it was dead.

[20:56] But from the moment of that rebirth, the Christian will be pulled in two different directions because of the two different origins of the two natures. This may be illustrated by the story of a converted Hindu who was given too much change when he went to the outpost.

[21:13] He went to the outpost, he bought his goods, and the owner gave him change. The next day, he went back to return the overage.

[21:24] The owner of the trading post asked him, why didn't he just keep the extra money? To which the Indian replied, in me is two Indians. One good, one bad.

[21:37] Bad Indians say, keep running. Good Indians say, take it back. They fight all night long.

[21:49] I get no sleep. Good Indians finally win. I can relate to that story. I know there's been times in my life where that's happened to me.

[22:02] And you know, I just took the money. You know, my thought was, and my whole concept was, well, they're that stupid. Why am I going to say, hey, you give me the wrong change?

[22:13] Just take the change and pocket it and go on your way. Well, that's not the way it should be, is it? What many people call conscious is really the voice of the renewed man in the Christian calling him to do more or to do what he should do?

[22:28] And I know we all have consciousness, even unsaved people have consciousness. But I think on an aspect like we were just talking about there, you know, there's a change in my life.

[22:38] There was a change in my life that, and after I read scripture and after I came to church and heard sermons, I knew that there was no question to it. If I was given overage of money, you'd just give it back.

[22:52] You know, you don't even think about it. But there's always that tendency, isn't there? There's always that tendency to say, wow, here's an opportunity. Or maybe you say, well, I can't do it at this point.

[23:04] I don't have time. Well, look at that line. I can't go back to that line now and say, hey, you gave me too much money back. You know, I got an appointment I got to make. So, there's always those things going on.

[23:19] Many people call conscience, what we call conscience is really the voice of renewed man and the Christian calling for him to do what he should do. And his desire to do otherwise is simply the old nature of the flesh trying to have its way.

[23:32] Paul had this same struggle and he gives voice to it when he says, I find a new law that when I would do good, now this is in chapter 7, evil is in present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

[23:56] We see that in Romans chapter 7 verses 21 to 23. Here uses the word law and in this sense it's a principle or a rule of action.

[24:08] and he declares that the inward man is ruled by the law of God while the bodily members are ruled by the law of sin and that this principle that rules the flesh wars against the law of God in his mind and tries to bring to him bring his mind into captivity to it.

[24:26] So there's that war going on. We know what's right from the word of God but Satan always brings back that old nature and says, well, that don't necessarily mean this time.

[24:37] You can do this. You can do this this time. So it's that war always fighting each other trying to find a way out. The fleshly nature derides its existence from Adam and consequently is of the earthly.

[24:55] The spiritual nature derides its experience through the new birth from the second Adam the Lord Jesus Christ and so it is from heaven. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 47 to 48 Paul says that the first man is of the earth earthly the second man is from heaven as the earthly so also they are earthly and as the heavenly so also are those who are heavenly.

[25:22] Again, there's that contrast going back and forth back and forth. There's two natures just like two men. Throughout the scripture heaven and earth are represented as being opposites and naturally therefore these two natures which have their origins respectively from earth and from heaven are going to be completely opposed to one another.

[25:42] With two natures so diverse from one another and so mutually opposed there is little wonder that there is constant warfare going on in the believer. In the person of the child of God there co-exist the old man and the new the flesh and the spirit the old man the flesh although crucified and expiring is not actually dead but remains in lingering strength and enough strength to induce acting out of sin.

[26:11] So that's the presence of so that the presence of freedom from actual sin would be a lie. Oh we can say yeah our position is we don't we don't have sin. Christ died for that sin it's been taken care of and that's my position that I know Christ when he sees my name he's going to say yes he's a believer his sins have been died for but from the practical day to day experience it's a lie if I say I have no sin in my life because I know I do and I just lost my spot.

[26:49] On the contrary the new man the inward man the I that's the I that we see in Romans chapter 7 myself delights in God's law does not allow and cannot commit sin now then there is no more I that do it but the sin that dwells within me bringing back that old nature for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing thus in the renewed man while sin and sin only remains in the members of the flesh in the new man it's his heart his heart is in the temple of God and the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit while he sees a law in his members warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin that law in his members is and is felt to be a hostile power from which the soul revolts and what did the apostle cry out the apostle Paul cried out oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me we see that in Genesis or Romans chapter 7 the second thing that we see that's like the two sons would be

[27:58] Genesis 25 22 these two shall have be at enmity to one another from the very moment of birth indeed even before the birth Jacob and Esau could not get along for it is written and the children struggled together within her and after that his brother came out and his hand took a hold of Esau's heel Jacob and Esau had radically different personalities and so their outlook on life was different because of these differences they were bitter enemies through most of their lives it was because each of them desired to possess and dominate the same things that they were in constant competition against just so there is incompatible struggle between the spiritual and the fleshy natures of the believer they too desired to possess and dominate the whole of the Christian each one wants to take control and because only one of them can be the ruling power and the believer there will be a consistent opposition between them as long as they occupy the same temple of clay in 1 Corinthians 2 verses 14 and 15 it explains in part about this hostility now the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him and he cannot know them because they are spiritually judged but he that is spiritually judges all things but he himself is a judge of no man there is a rebellion on the heart of the carnal nature against all spiritual things so that we will not receive them for he cannot understand and know because they only know through the spiritual nature and is enlightened by the

[29:42] Holy Spirit so the natural man cannot know the spiritual man is enlightened by the Holy Spirit Paul said there is an actual hostility of the nature natural mind against God and therefore anything that is aligned with God as the spiritual nature of the believer is comes under the same hostility that is directed God the carnal mind is at enmity against God or does not subject to the law of God neither can it be the old spiritual nature just cannot be subject to the law of God the carnal mind here has reference to the old man the fallen nature and the Christian which is still in bondage to sin and loves that stage of bondage and therefore it hates all attempts to free it from the self imposed and self chosen bondage the new nature having been born from above naturally has its affections on these things from above and its love is in that direction these two natures and the

[30:43] Christian will therefore pull him in opposite directions and he will be made to ask if I truly am saved what is the meaning of this internal warfare and we all have this same struggle the enemy between the two natures is described in Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 through 18 this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to the one another so that you cannot do the things that you would but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law certainly it is true that if we are walking by the led by him we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh but we have to be filled with that spirit we have to take in God's word we have to be instructed we have to become more sanctified on a daily basis in our life if the

[31:49] Christian is led and dominated by the renewed spiritual nature he will be victorious over the old carnal nature of the flesh if on the other hand he is given free reign to his carnal nature and feeds on it the lust of the world he is going to be dominated by the old nature so it's what we feed that makes the difference in either case there will be a continuing hostility between the two natures until either one of them or the other is put to death but the spiritual nature if we're talking about the spiritual nature having been born of God is possessed of eternal life and so can no more die than God can die when God has given us this new nature we cannot lose it it will not die thus Christian until the death of the body the old nature or it is redeemed at the return of Lord Jesus from heaven so the old nature is going to be there it's going to be with us until the body perishes or that the

[32:57] Lord comes back first either way this text in Galatians 5 16 and 18 is the only way for success and happiness and the welfare between the two natures the old nature must be completely subject to the new nature verse 16 says but I say walk by the spirit and we will not carry out the desires of the flesh number three in Genesis 25 23 these two shall be separated these twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca were together only so long here we're only talking about the nine months that they were together in Rebecca's womb the two natures are together in the Christian until only his fleshly nature is united to his spiritual nature or in other words until death until then he will have continual strife within himself thankfully we are assured of the separation of these two natures after a time but during the interim between then and now we make known our actions for which of these we favor most how many times have you seen a

[34:09] Christian and you watch their actions that's when we tell if they're walking the Christian life isn't it and many times we see action coming out of the Christian it just does not seem satisfactory and we ask ourselves why is this person doing this or is this person really saved so it's our actions that make the difference none of us knows how long we will be given to struggle with these two natures before God calls us for the separation at death we only know that we have the responsibility to overpower the lower nature to the higher nature through the power of Christ so long as we are together oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with in mind I myself serve the law of God with which the flesh the law of sin and that's from Romans 7 25 again here's apostle

[35:11] Paul Romans 7 24 refers to the separation from the body which is presently in a dying condition and Paul elsewhere communicates the same thing when he speaks of death being preferable to living we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord we see that apostle Paul in Philippians he says for I am a straight between twixt having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better death is a separation of these two natures for death is a severing of the body from the soul and the spirit the body is but the house of man's spiritual nature it is the height of folly then to spend all of our time and the occupant of the house that this is what most of us are doing they give much sight to the body and to its lust but none to the soul but the body at best will only live a few short years before it must return to the dust of the earth there to sleep until the resurrection or the spiritual nature the man lives on forever there is another and a better home for the body even while we struggle with its sinful propensities the believer has a new house body which is someday to be given to him for he is not complete in a dissembled state

[36:41] Paul voiced this hope when he said for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven we see that in second corinthians chapter five the fulfillment of this hope will be at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven according to the promise of Philippians chapter three for our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we wait for the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who shall fashion anew working hereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself thus the separation of the two natures comes to pass only at death or the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven and until one of the other events transpire each believer will have this internal welfare going over in their lives and number four

[37:46] Genesis 25 23 we see that the one shall be stronger than the other one of the two natures will be stronger than the other the promise of prevailing was given to Jacob which implied that Esau was to be the weaker of the two yet Jacob failed to claim the promise that was his for many years and when he did exercise the power he resorted to unscrupulous means to accomplish it and in doing so he showed himself a dishonorable man his reason for resorting to such manners was that he did not think God's power was adequately to accomplish what his purpose was his purpose and fulfillment of his promises unless there are molitudes of born again believers today who likewise resort to unscrupulous means of achieving spiritual growth and development unfortunately there is a lot of Galatian theology in a lot of believers today for they seem to think that the work begun by

[38:48] God must be completed by man are you so foolish having begun the spirit are you now made perfect by the flesh we see that in Galatians chapter 3 verse 3 we sometimes seem to have an over dependence upon the strength of the flesh and we need to have more strength upon the spirit that resides within us the Christian spiritual nature is potentially more powerful but only if you realize is to strength his evil nature and cast upon the Lord for strength to overcome the flesh God's sovereign power is at his disposal but we must claim it by faith for it to be operative in our life there must be the walking after the leadership of the spirit for there to be victory over the flesh and a steadily lust we can overcome the sinful nature and all we have to do is follow the spirit and to get the more information about the spirit we need to take in more information as the apostle

[39:54] Paul wrote to all the believers all the churches that he wrote to when people say that we don't have these two natures there's not a fighting going on between us how did he write most of his letters usually the first part of his letters was doctrine he told them about the sin that was in their life he told them that they were worthless that the sin in their life was eating them up he said but I have a new way and that way is Jesus Christ and he gives the example of Christ and what he did at the cross and he gives the doctrines of these things there in Ephesians we have all the things that go along with the believer when they accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior when you accept the other apostles also in their letters that they wrote but before they closed any of these letters they also gave us instructions why would the apostle

[41:01] Paul be giving us all these instructions if he knew that when we accepted Jesus Christ into our life that all the old nature would be gone away with that we no longer have bad thoughts we would no longer be tempted to sin he wouldn't need to give us all these instructions on how to live our life would he but we see in every one of the apostle Paul's letter here's the doctrine this is what Jesus Christ did for you now so what this is the so what he instructs us on how to live our life as a Christian and that's why every one of the apostles when they wrote their letters they instructed the prisoners that I've talked to there's nothing in this world that's going to come into your life that's not covered in these scriptures there's no problem that's going to come into your life that's not already covered all you have to do is get into the scriptures and dig it out and if you have trouble with getting into the scriptures and digging them out you go to a church where there's good teaching and you listen to the sermons and you listen to it and it comes in and it resonates in your mind

[42:22] I think it's something like if you're an evangelist and you want to go out and you want to lead somebody to Christ have you ever tried to do that and you became very discouraged because you say I went out there and I told them about Jesus Christ and they walked away like it didn't even faze them well you say I failed well you didn't fail because the next time somebody talks to them about Jesus Christ they're going to say oh that guy told me about that this is added information that goes upon that I think somebody said to lead somebody to Christ somebody has to hear it seven times before it finally digs in and says oh now I know what they're talking about well it's the same thing in our daily life I mean when I accepted Jesus Christ I had all these things this baggage that I brought along all this baggage just didn't disappear overnight it still hung along with me and over the years as

[43:24] I've heard sermons I've heard martyr priests I've read the scriptures I've done Bible studies these things rejuvenate my mind rejuvenate my heart the new man the spirit so that when things come into my life now I can say ah now I know the new nature is taken over that doesn't happen overnight although some people like to think it does so that's the way we take in this new information in Romans 8 verses 1 through 6 it says there is no condemnation to them which are in Jesus Christ who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do in that that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of law might be filled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit for they that are the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace the one shall certainly be stronger than the other but which of the two will it be it cannot be a tie it cannot be a tie either the new nature is going to take control or the old nature is going to take control this is like a story told by this man who had two dogs one was a white dog and one was a black dog he observed to a friend that they constantly fought constantly fought so the friend said well if they fought all the time who's the one that always won was it the white dog or was it the black dog and the man said it depends on which one

[45:18] I fed the best the one I fed is the one that won that's the same thing in the Christian life what are we feeding ourselves are we feeding ourselves of the world are we feeding ourselves of the spirit the flesh or the spirit and the more that we feed of the world the more we're going to see ourselves fall back into sin and the more we feed ourselves of the spirit the more we'll be walking with God it lies in the power of the Christian to give victory to this sinful nature if he uses his appointed means and thereby feeds his new nature if it neglects these then this old man of the flesh will feed on the things of this world and become stronger and stronger Romans 10 14 for the death that he died he died to sin once for all but the life he lives he lives to God even though consider yourself to be dead to sin but alive in

[46:19] God in Christ Jesus therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sins of instruments of unrighteousness but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God for sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace under grace I can conquer the old sinful nature all I have to do is to take in God's word and take in the information and put it to use in my life the walk is the important thing the Christian has within him the power to decide which way the struggle will go toward him to which nature he feeds how then may we feed our spiritual nature as to ensure that we have victor over the sinful nature number one by reading God's word for this is the food for sanctification if sanctification is a growing process how do we grow we grow by food what kind of food are you feeding yourself are you feeding yourself from the worldly view or from the scriptural view and today talk about being fed by the world it's a lot easier today to be fed by the world than it was even 10 years ago let's say 30 years ago we had to be outside the home to be fed by the world pretty much that's where you saw the world in activity but you know today you don't have to step outside of your house to be fed by the world we have radio we have television we have internet we have cell phones we have texting hey the world is at your fingertips today all you have to do is just walk outside

[48:19] I was at a ball game the other night and they had a tailgate party Emmanuel Christian played their first ever Friday night football game so they wanted to go out and they had a tailgate party all the fans came and they lined up behind the school bus and they got there and they had a tailgate party and as the thing as the people sat in the world by reading God's word for this is the food of the sanctification how are we sanctifying how are getting the information in by hearing the preaching and teaching of the word coming to church every Sunday hearing the word being preached that's one way to take it in by doing God's will for this is a very important means of spiritual growth knowing what

[49:20] God's will is number one you have to know what God's will is and then you got to do it practice practice practice practice by walking in the spirit by being led by the holy spirit for he never leads us into worldly paths if we are walking by the spirit if we ask God to come into our life and if we ask him on a daily basis to lead our life he's not going to lead us down the wrong path he's going to lead us in the spiritual path and last by prayer for this is a means of fellowship with God and the more we fellowship with God the more we love him and the less attraction we have for sin these are many others there are many others but most of them are comprehended under one of these type descriptions that we just talked about number five Genesis 25 23 the elder shall serve the younger Esau was the firstborn long before the birth of these two boys

[50:23] God has set his affection on Jacob why Jacob why not Esau and that's the question you hear nowadays too why why why God chose it that way and that's the only reason we can come up with God chose Jacob Esau was to be subservient to him and we see as that played out how that played out this was the order that God has followed for a long time Cain Cain was first but Abel was God's choice Saul came first for the king of Israel but David was the one that God chose to be the king of Israel to follow the perpetual line all the way up to Jesus Christ he chose David Adam was the first representative man but

[51:25] Jesus Christ was the second Adam in God's choice so the Hebrew trends represented the same truth in the Christians today for his carnal nature is the older of the two natures the spiritual nature being born several years later than the fleshly nature in some of our cases it's born quite a few years later than our fleshly nature but no matter what that fleshly nature is there first and then the spiritual nature comes along but in spite of this priority of birth God has decreed that the elder shall serve the younger the flesh cannot lead the spirit into any pleasing worship of the Lord for the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God on the other hand the flesh under the domination of the spirit can be used to glorify God the physical body God can use our physical body in many many ways in the

[52:49] Bible and at worst they can be absolutely devilish often lost people will object that I feel that I'm alright but this means nothing more than that he is ignorant of the lawful wrath that overhangs him but sometimes even saved people lie in sin will say just leave me alone I feel like I'm okay our feelings will always get us into trouble because the Christian can never order his life fleshly in the origin and the flesh is in outright rebellion against God so in conclusion I'd like to compare some of the old nature to the new nature some of the things of the old nature the old nature we receive at human birth the new nature we receive when we accept Jesus Christ into our life the old nature is nothing but corrupt as we've seen through all the scriptures the new nature is in the likeness of

[53:50] God the old nature is incapable of doing good as we've seen in Romans chapter seven the new nature is incapable of sinning at war with the spirit the old nature and a new nature is at war with the flesh the old nature is opposed to God and his will and the new nature delights in God's will and we'll try to find out what that will is the old nature is manifested by the works of the flesh the new nature is manifested by the fruit of the spirit and we see that in Galatians chapter five where it talks about the flesh in the flesh we do these things and it also says in the spirit we do have the works of the spirit or the fruits of the spirit as believers we all have an old nature until the day we die or until the day Christ could take us home when we were unsaved the old nature dominated everything we did including our thoughts our words and our deeds we could not help but sin or do anything but sin there was no battle with us for the old dominated and had no opposition the old nature had no opposition it takes two to start a fight without that new nature there won't be a fight the old nature will take over and just do what it wants to do when we accept

[55:16] Jesus Christ our life that's when the two became and we can have that fight and through Christ we can dominate through the spirit we control the old nature and we can have victory these facts about the two natures and the believer also show the folly of believing and falling from grace friends there's many people out there that when you sin you lose your salvation and I think there's enough scripture in Ephesians all Paul's writings that tells us that once you are saved you are saved we have that future hope that hope that he said will become ours but when we have this mistaking about the two natures it's easy to fall in and think that we can lose our salvation and we just cannot lose that something that God has given us so great is our life in Jesus Christ we as believers need to know and absolutely understand these things and to wholly wholeheartedly apply ourselves to the suppression of the flesh to the spirit may God help us to do this today let's close in prayer father lord we just thank you for the scriptures and what they reveal about the two natures we are grateful for the work of sanctification in our lives so that in over time as we take in more and more of your word you can instruct us on how to handle the works of the flesh over time we can become more like you lord guide us with the daily temptations that come into our lives and help us to starve that old nature father we just thank you today for your amazing love and grace that your son made available to us as he hung on that cross when he paid the debt for all sin and we thank you that our position now is that that we are holy that we are righteous and we have the holiness and righteousness of

[57:24] Jesus Christ himself and father we also know that we also have that old nature that's there to tempt us guide us in that as we take the new nature and control that old nature so father this morning we just thank you we praise you and we ask these things this morning in Christ's name amen um you