WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC #33
January 6, 2000
Brian Kocourek
Last Sunday we examined paragraph 52 of Who is this
Melchisedec where brother Branham was quoting from Revelations chapter 13
pertaining to the great deception that will take place in this last our, where
everyone whose names were not on the Lamb's book of Life will be deceived. For
this is the hour of deception. We spoke of the deception and how it is made
possible because the people Love to have it so.
In the Book of Jeremiah
5:30 we read, A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 The
prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my
people love [to have it] so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
If you are not sure what this means, the NIV says it
a little plainer, NIV Jeremiah 5:30 The Prophets prophecy lies, and the priests rule by their own
authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?
And that is my question to you, for we are at the
end time and this is the time of the great deception. Therefore what will be
your love, The Truth or The Lie!
We are fore-warned by the Apostle Paul that the
difference between those who are deceived by the great delusion and those who
are not deceived comes down to one thing. Let's read it for ourselves.
II THESSALONIANS 2:10 And with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie: 12 That they
all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness.
Notice, they have pleasure in un-right-wise-ness. In
other words, they have pleasure in the lie, for if it is un-rightly-wise, then
it is wrong or error, and these take pleasure in the error. But notice the other group, the Elect ones.
II THESSALONIANS 2:13¶ But we are bound to give thanks alway to God
for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth:
The difference as Paul lays it out is that God Chose
one group to Love the Truth and the other He did not place in them a love for
the truth. That is what Jesus also said of those who could not come to the
Truth.
JOHN 8:37 I know that ye are
Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
38 ¶ I speak that which I have seen
with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39 They
answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye
were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now ye seek
to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this
did not Abraham. 41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We
be not born of fornication; we have one Father, [even] God. 42 Jesus said unto
them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came
from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. 43Why do ye not understand
my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. 44 Ye are of [your] father
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of
it. 45 And because I tell [you] the truth, ye believe me not. 46 ¶ Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I
say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God's
words: ye therefore hear [them] not, because ye are not of God.
Now, Wednesday night we examined this difference a
little further in that only the Elect are given new birth while all others
remain in their natural birth and therefore cannot understand the Word, and
therefore could never love the Word.
We know the great deception comes upon all who live
on the face of the earth because that is what they love. The people deceive
themselves because they want to be deceived, because that is what they love the
most.
Now, if you remember our study of the Twins we placed in view for you a matrix which showed the attributes of the Elect of God in contradistinction to those who are the seed of the serpent. And the main element or characteristic which ran throughout the study was the Love for the Word of God among the Elect whereas there was no such love for the revealed Word among the serpent seed.
Now, this morning I want to show you another difference between these two groups, and that is in the New Birth.
Let's turn to John 3:6 for our text. "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; And that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit."
Now, Jesus said this right after saying these other words in JOHN 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Now, here is the problem. In Galatians 5:17, we read, "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
Again we will read this verse from other translations, NIV "For the sinful nature desires that which is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.
Therefore, the Christian who has not been truly born again can imitate every experience that the True Born again Christian has except for this experience that we see in Galatians chapter five. In everything but this the mere professor can imitate the true child of God: and it is this that distinguishes those who are merely religious from those who are truly Born Again by God's Spirit Word. No matter who you are, if you have truly been born again you will experience this conflict within as Paul describes to us in Galatians chapter five and again in Romans chapter seven.
ROMANS 7:18 For I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is
present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the
good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man: 23 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. 24 O wretched man that
I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
The problem is that although every true born again child of God must experience this turmoil within himself, yet not every child of God understands the doctrine concerning it, and therefore do not properly know how to deal with it, nor how to overcome. To have this experience within, without knowing the doctrine brings only confusion, anxiety, and discouragement. To know the doctrine and not to have the experience is fatal, and eternal disaster. Our only recourse to this is to know why the flesh pulls as it does, and how to fight these pulls by the Word of God. This nature of the flesh was inherited in these bodies by the hybidization of our flesh through the serpent with eve.
GENESIS 6:1¶ And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 ¶ And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4 ¶ There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare [children] to them, the same [became] mighty men which [were] of old, men of renown. 5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually. 6 ¶ And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 ¶ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man [and] perfect in his generations, (this word generations is the Hebrew word towldah, and it means lineage, birth line or pedigree) and the scripture tells us that Noah alone was perfect (sound and unimpaired) in his pedigree. [and] Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 ¶ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh (men and animals) had corrupted his way upon the earth, with the exception of Noah for we already read where he was uncorrupted in his pedigree.
Now, the Scriptures tells us here that the Sons of God intermarried with the daughters of man until Noah was the last man that was genetically perfect, or complete. Therefore, the serpent's interjection of life into the race of God seed, had began the pollution of the entire race because the seed of man, (The hybridized look) was more beautiful than the plain God seed carried in Adam and his descendants.
Just look at the
women today. The most beautiful models are all hybrids. They are part black, part
white, or part Asian and part Black, or part Asian and part White, or all three
races mixed. The most beautiful ears of corn certainly aren't the pure seed
corn, but the big hybridized one. And it is the same with all flesh.
When we understand this doctrine of the two natures, and the warfare that befalls us within, then, that which caused us much doubt before, becomes our grounds for assurance; that God has actually begun that good work in us which He will perfect and complete
PHILIPPIANS 1:6 Being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ:
Now, to better understand this warfare that takes place within the Truly Born again Son or Daughter of God, let's turn to John 3:6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Here, we see the Lord Jesus teaching a fundamental doctrine. But the natural man will not receive it.
I CORINTHIANS 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.
This doctrine tells us that the natural man or the man that has never been born again, is still controlled solely by his flesh nature which we know has the serpent mix in it. In John 6:63 Jesus" tells us, that this flesh, "profiteth nothing"
JOHN 6:63 It is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak
unto you,
[they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
Paul further expounds in Romans 7:18 that in this flesh "dwelleth no good thing".
ROMANS 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Now, to understand the difference between the Born again Son of God and the non-born natural man, let's look at some of the descriptive names that we are given of this nature by the Word of God.
1) In John 3:6 it is called the flesh. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." Concerning this Flesh, we are told by Paul in Romans 8:8 it "cannot please God," and in John 6:63 Jesus said, it "profiteth nothing :" and again in Romans 7:18 Paul said, there is in it "no good thing:"
Now this is a very important doctrinal teaching and essential truth, if we are to understanding salvation and how to overcome the body of this death. But as with anything, it will do you no good unless you believe it. Do we believe what God has taught us in His Word, or do we believe what man tells you about how great man is? If we believe God, then we our eyes will become opened to see that the majority of "the world's worship" is in vain. True worship can not come from the flesh nor has it anything to do with our flesh, but only from the spirit can we truly enter into True worship. Mary said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior." Notice it is the Spirit that rejoices in God our Savior.
Only the True
Elect Born Again ones can worship in truth, because it is only they who receive
the Truth. There is a difference between worshipping truly and truly
worshipping. Because Jesus said that worship apart from the spirit and truth
will not be received as True Worship by God.
JOHN 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.
If the flesh of itself "profiteth nothing", then it is clear that we cannot worship God with any of our five senses (which all pertain to the flesh). To worship with our eyes profiteth nothing, and yet the majority of the world religions do just that. They use the eyes to attract people to worship. They build big monuments of beauty, big cathedrals, big churches, big altars just for the purpose of worship and yet it profits nothing. We cannot worship with our eyes, nor our nose, like the Catholic and the hindu that would burn incense before the altars to create a form of worship through aroma. The only aroma that is pleasing to God is the prayers of His saints.
REVELATION 5:8 And when
he had taken the book, the four beasts and four [and] twenty elders fell down
before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of
odours, which are the prayers of saints.
We cannot
worship with eyes, nor with our noses by smelling incense, nor can we worship
with our ears by listening to music; for the flesh profiteth nothing. And yet we have churches
today of all denominations, even among the Message professors, there are some
that have choirs and orchestra's with more members than there arer sitting in
the pews of many a church today. And the churches with the most music seem to
be the largest of all. If you do not have a music program in your church you
will never attract the people, they say. And yet what are they being
attracted to? The new "Gospel of Song". We are living in a time when
the "flesh" seems to lead the worship and yet is it not in vain?
Paul said, it "profiteth nothing". And isn't it interesting that this thirst for music has increased with the same velocity as the cry for the Charismatic, Pentecostal cry to "Be filled with the Spirit." But they do not want the Word of Truth, and what Word they do have has been wrongly divided. They do not take all of the Word, for Jesus said, in JOHN 4:23 the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. He never said in spirit only, but in Spirit and Truth.
Oh, but say they, we worship Him in spirit through our music programs. And they quote Paul telling us, in EPHESIANS 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
But I want you to notice, he said, Speaking to yourselves and then he said, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Notice, to yourselves, in your heart TO the Lord. This doesn't even have to be
out loud? It can be in the recesses of your heart, as long as it is to the Lord.
"Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts. He did not say to any audience or congregation, but he said, to the Lord." It is not the "ear for music" that God wants, but a heart for music.
The flesh "profiteth nothing", is a truth found only in pure Christianity’: whereas the opposite is found in religion. Religion has to do with the flesh: Christianity has to do with our relationship with the Father and His Son.
Another characteristic of the old nature is that it is called…
2) "The Natural Man." And in 1 Cor.2:14 Paul
said, "the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he get to
know them because they are spiritually discerned"
We know in our studies that God has hidden His Word from the natural man, and has revealed it to babes, such as would learn, which the word babes suggests to us those who have received new birth.
3) Again in Ephesians 4:22 Paul tells us the "The Old Man is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" These desires are deceitful, because they are contrary to God, contrary to His Spirit, contrary to His Word; contrary to the new nature, contrary to our new spirit, when it is implanted within us.
4) In 2 Corinthians 4:16 Paul calls it "The Outward Man" which actually perishes day by day.
5) In Jeremiah 17:9 it is called the natural heart, which is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked", so deceitful that it constantly betrays us and deceives us, and so deceitful that only God can really know it. Jesus said, in Matthew 15:19. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."
And all this talk in the churches about "a change of heart" means nothing. We do not need a changed heart, what good would it do to take away a stony heart and replace it with another stony heart. What good would it do to take away a wrong understanding only to replace it with another wrong understanding. And since the spirit of man could never understand the things of God, except the spirit of God be in Him, then what good would it do to receive new understanding that is also wrong. Itr would only bring more desires that are wrong as well.
God promised to
give us a new heart and a new spirit, and then His Own Spirit. EZEKIEL 36:26 A new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of
flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my
statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do [them].
WHAT
DOES TAKE MAKE CHRISTIAN LIFE 57-0113 E-33 Now, He taken, and what did He do? Give
you a new heart, give you a new spirit, and then He puts His Spirit, His Spirit
in you. It's just like... You don't have to go around and pretend that you're a
Christian man. That new spirit brings new life. The Holy Spirit in your new
spirit, in your new heart... Your new heart, your new spirit and the Holy
Spirit goes right in the center of your new spirit, and your new spirit goes
right in the center of your new heart.
WHY
SOME PEOPLE CAN'T KEEP VICTORY 57-0324 E-50 "And I'll give you a new spirit." Now, many times, and
there's been a terrible mistake, the people has thought sometimes that that new
spirit was the Holy Spirit. But it isn't; it's a new spirit. God gives you a
new... Why, you couldn't even get along with yourself with your old spirit;
how you going to get along with the Holy Ghost? God had to give you a new
spirit so you could get along with His Spirit…. E-51 Now, many times
we try to make that thing just say... Well, as soon as you get the new spirit,
you quit your stealing, you quit your lying, things like that. You say,
"Oh, hallelujah, I got it." And you find out the first time anyone
crosses your path a little bit, oh mercy, what a difference. Sure. You blow up
like a frog eating buckshot. But let me tell you, brother. That's the reason
you never got God's Spirit. That's true. "Oh," you say, "he
stepped on my toe; I'll just not put up with that." All right. That shows
what you got in you. That's true. "I'll put a new spirit in you, and then
I'll put My Spirit in you." Now, the heart is in the center of the
emotions of the human being. Your heart is the middle of you. That's exactly
right. So God puts a new heart in the middle of the old man, then He puts a new
spirit in the middle of the heart, and puts His Spirit in the middle of the new
spirit.
IMPERSONATION OF CHRISTIANITY 57-0120M E-41 So
God had to give you a new heart, not a patched up one, a new heart. That's
your intellects that you think with, a new way of thinking. Then He give you a new
way of thinking, "Yes, that's right. The Bible looks to be reasonable.
I use to didn't believe that. I believe it now." Now, there's your great
revival. See? E-43 They say, "Yes, sure I don't want to
go to hell. I want to accept Christ." That's all right. That's good.
That's just your first...?... Then He
said after that, "Then I'll give you a new spirit." What's that? A new desire, "I want
to do right." "Now, I know
I'm a Christian, I got to... I'll smoke one more and then I'll throw it away.
See? And I'll--I'll--I'll just see... I--I--I'll just stay home tonight, and
you know, I'll just..." all these little just, just, that's exactly... Eve
stopped just for a moment. That's all she had to do. But now, that's the new spirit. Then notice the order of the
Scripture. After you get a new heart and a new spirit, He said, "Then I'll
put My Spirit..." See? Oh, what? That's the what the Scripture says here.
That's the order, the neumatics and numerical order of the Scripture: a new
heart, a new spirit, and then My Spirit.
E-44 Then God's Holy Spirit...
God's new heart that He put in you, sets right in the center of you. That's
your impulse, where your emotions goes out. And the new Spirit sets right in
the center of the new heart. And God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, sets right in
the center of your new Spirit, and there It controls your emotions. It's just
like the--the mainspring in a famous watch, and it's self-winding. You don't
have to wind it everyday. God's wound it once for all. And it sets right in the
middle of the--of your life--your new life. And as the mainspring, as it
relieves and ticks away the watch, it controls every little organism of that
watch to perfect time.
E-47 But when you got His Spirit, it makes
every emotion tick just right to the Word of God. It'll tick right with the
Word. You'll say, "Well, now, Susie, just a moment. The Bible said,
'It's an abomination before Him to do that. And the love of Christ has come
into my heart, and I love Him too much to do it. I love Him.'" "John,
do you mean to tell me, that you been associated with that bunch of fanatics,
and you won't take a cigar because they was a new boy born in my house?"
"But you see," John, "it says that we must... The Holy Spirit in
my heart tells me that we should abstain from all filth of the world."
See, see? Not, John, "Hallelujah, John. Glory to God, John. Pray for us,
get oil on my hands. Glory to God, now I can speak in tongues, Hallelujah,
I'll..." Now, the heart is in the center of the emotions of the human
being. Your heart is the middle of you. That's exactly right. So God puts a new
heart in the middle of the old man, then He puts a new spirit in the middle of
the new spirit, or heart, and puts His Spirit in the middle of the new spirit.
6 ) In Romans 8:7 we read, For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10 ¶ And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness.
"The Carnal Mind." Is an aspect of the old nature that relates to thoughts; to our reasoning and imaginations of the natural man. These are the opposite of God’s thoughts for in Isaiah 55:8 we read "My thoughts are, not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways. "The carnal mind" we are told is "Enmity against God." It is "Not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And "cannot please God."
The "mind" is the source of our thoughts and our actions. Therefore, it is that part of the flesh which thinks—and its thoughts are always contrary to God, and have "the nature of sin".
The old nature cannot be changed. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh", in other words, it remains flesh. You can not change the nature of the natural man, therefore it must die. Men talk about a change of nature; but that's all they can do is talk. Brother Branham said, "Just because you say it's so doesn't make it so." You can not alter the law or reproduction. Every seed must bring forth after it's kind or nature. What you sow you shall also reap. But still, men continue in their efforts to improve it; and are constantly disappointed in the outcome. Neither education, nor religion can alter the old nature, or impart a new one. You can cultivate the flesh but that won't do it. There are refined sinners and as well as the coarse ones. Your flesh can be made very religious. In fact religion and the flesh are made for each other. Religion consists of ordinances, rules, and ceremonies. It thrives on vows, and pledges, and merit. All these are outward, and are for the flesh. All these are within the powers of the flesh. It can observe days, and feasts, and fasts It rejoices in "Rules for daily living". It delights in "ordinances". But all these only feed the flesh: and, religious flesh "takes to" these, just as irreligious flesh "takes to" vice. Therefore so-called religious service ministers to the flesh. Music, heart-breaking stories, emotional appeals, can make what may they call "converts", but cannot truly convert them. They may stand for weeks, or months, or years; but they will never stand for eternity.
All these outward religious signs and symbols do nothing to bring forth new birth. That alone is a gift from God ordained to those God has selected out beforehand. Therefore all these religious things will perish with those who are perishing. These are creations of the flesh. But Jesus also said "that which is born (or, begotten) of the Spirit is spirit". Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:14 "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever"; and: Jesus said in Matthew 15:13 "Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up" He said these words to those whose religion was of the flesh, and consisted in washings and long prayers; who honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him.
When we have come to know the doctrine of the two natures, we will never again pray for God to change our heart, but we will ask as David did, "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God". In other words, a new heart that only God can give to us, one which is not of the flesh, but rather comes down from the father above. A newly created heart is the very opposite of making the old heart clean.
Paul said, Galatians 3:3, "Are ye so unintelligent? having begun in the spirit are you now perfecting yourselves in the flesh? The Galatians like so many today, instead of seeing the conflict as a reason for assurance, they are seeking to get rid of it altogether by attempting to accomplish that which is absolutely impossible, by cleansing and improving the old nature which can never be changed for he said, "NEITHER INDEED CAN BE."
Therefore there is but one end to the old nature and that is death. The flesh, and all that pertains to it, its religion and its ungodliness, its virtue and its vice, all end in death. All is for time, and not for eternity.
In 1 Cor. 15:22 Paul tells us, "In Adam all die". And in Romans 8:6 he reaffirms "The mind of the flesh is death" He calls it the body of this death in Romans 7:24.
Finally we see the a promise from God concerning the flesh which in itself ought to make us flee it.
Galatians 6:8 "He That Soweth To His Flesh Shall Of The Flesh Reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. " All efforts to improve the flesh, all provision made for the flesh, all ordinances connected with the flesh, all end in corruption and death: all "perish with the using".
ROMANS 8:13 For if ye
live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
GALATIANS 5:25 If we
live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
JOHN 6:63 It is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak
unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
ROMANS 8:1 ¶ [There is] therefore now no condemnation to
them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
ROMANS 8:10 ¶ And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is]
dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness.
OUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS TO THE OLD NATURE
We have seen that, though the two natures dwell side by side in the same personality, it is clear that we have certain responsibilities with regard to each of them, quite apart from precepts, rules, regulations, and "commandments of men".
Our first responsibility is to accept God's estimate of it. The Word of God does not reveal the doctrine to us without giving us the needed instruction. (2 Tim.3:16); The Word of God is "profitable for "instruction" so that we may know how to use the "doctrine"; and how we are to know our responsibilities, and fulfill them for our profit and our peace. If then we recognize this as our first responsibility, then we shall reckon that our old nature "died with Christ" (Rom. 5:11). We are not left in doubt as to what this means. The verse begins "So likewise ye:" Like what?
Romans 6:8-11 "He that died has been [and is] justified from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall live [again] also with Him: knowing that Christ having been raised up from among [the] dead dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over Him. For He who died, died unto sin once for all; but He who liveth, liveth unto God. Even so ye also reckon yourselves indeed [to be] dead ones as to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus" .
Romans
5:6 "This knowing, that our old man
was crucified with [Christ]."
Galations 2:20, "Christ I was crucified with; yet I live, [and yet] no longer I, but He liveth in me, Christ."
This is not a matter of feeling, but of faith. If we are guided by our feelings we shall never enjoy it. It is for us to "believe God". "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). God has declared this great fact in His Word (or we could have never known it); we hear that Word; faith believes it and rejoices in what it hears; and believes God, quite apart from the question of feeling. So that our first responsibility as to the old nature is to accept God's estimate of it, and to reckon it (as He does) as having died with Christ when He was crucified.
Our next responsibility is that we are to reckon it as being dead. For wehat good is it to us? For in it there is "no good thing". So that when we say we are not to cultivate the good in it, we do not mean what man would call "good", but what God reckons as "good". We are to reckon the old nature as dead in all its goodness as well as in all its badness: and to have done with all expectation of producing anything for God from it, as we are of one who is actually dead and God says it is dead, He expects us to believe it is dead, because He says it is. He looks for us to consider it as buried. In the natural man there may be found natural religious and likeable characteristics: and he may cultivate these. But the child of God need not, and is not, to cultivate these. For, by walking according to the new nature, and led by that, what need will there be for cultivating the flesh? Led by that, we have Christ in the place of "religion"; and, we have "the mind of Christ". This infinitely exceeds anything that we could ever produce by any attempted cultivation of the old nature. This leads to ....
Romans 13:14 A third responsibility, which is to Make No Provision For The Flesh. Always remember "the flesh profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). If we believe His estimate of it we shall never seek to make it, or force it, to do anything for God, either in the way of worship or service; we shall never try to get it to do anything by way of meeting God's demand for righteousness. We shall remember that all such righteousness is "as filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). The flesh can be made very religious. In fact it is this which distinguishes "religion" from Christianity. Religion has to do solely with the flesh. All its ordinances are connected with, the flesh. They are things that the flesh can perform. Remember, it was the religious people that crucified the Lord Jesus. That is what religion will do, when perverted and misused by the old nature. That is why God said, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold; to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22). "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows, in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (Jas. 1:27). That is to say, if it is a question of religion, i.e., of outward acts and observances, then, acts of mercy and kindness are purer and better than all outward religious acts of service and services; bowing and kneeling; crossing and counting beads; drawing near with the lips, and observing days.
Collossians 2: 20-23 "If ye died with Christ from the religious ordinances of the world, why, as living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances ('Touch not, taste not, handle not'; which all are to perish with the using); after the commandments and doctrines of men?"
Col. 3:1-3 "If ye then were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things which are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God".
Thus we are taught as possessors of the new nature, not to make provision for the old nature; not to feed it nourishment which it loves ; not to seek to please or gratify it, not even in what in man's sight appears "good". The old nature is full of pride. This is why those gatherings and congregations are crowded where the teaching is what is called "practical"; and the hearers are told to "do" this or that (not that they necessarily think much afterwards about doing it); but still it gratifies the old nature of the religious man: and, the old nature, even in the child of God, loves to hear "precept upon precept, precept upon precept", rule upon rule, rule upon rule." But to let God be honored, and Christ glorified, His Word magnified and man abased, is not what the old nature wants to hear. The churches are deserted where this is the doctrine and where the worship is really spiritual. All this is hateful to him; and he will plainly tell you how thoroughly he dislikes it. But where provision is made for the flesh; where there is plenty of music in the choir, and "things to do for God" in the pulpit, there he will be found multitudes. There is more danger for the child of God in the things that pertain to "religion" and in the refined desires of the carnal mind, than there is in the coarse and vulgar "lusts of the flesh". The child of God will not readily, or so easily, make such provision for the flesh. His real snare is when the provision is made by others for what is not openly associated with vice and irreligion, worldliness or immorality.
Colossians 3:5 "Mortify, Therefore Your Members Which Are Upon the Earth This sounds very strange at first, after being told repeatedly that we "died with Christ". It sounds practical also. But for a thing to be practical, it must be practicable. It must be something which we are able to do. The word "mortify" means to make dead; therefore we are to treat it as having become dead. It is because of the fact that we died with Christ, and hence, have put off the old man, and have put on the new, that we are therefore on that account to "reckon" the "members" of our body "as good as dead", and to account them as being impotent, and unable to produce any "living", or "good works".
All so-called "good" works done by the old nature are "dead works". They are wrought by our members which are, in God's estimation, "as good as dead". Only those are "good works" which God Himself has "prepared for us to walk in" (Eph. 2:10); and which are done in the spiritual strength of the new nature. Oh! that God's estimate may be ours: that, like Abraham, we may be not "weak in faith" in this important matter; but strong, believe God; and thus, set free to center our affections on the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; and to wait for our manifestation with Him in glory.