I have a question for many of you today. Or better yet, maybe God has a question for all of us who claim and teach and admit that, as a professing believer, we will “continue to sin and will always be a sinner and will never overcome sin until you get to heaven...”
“Who told you that?”
I’m waiting...?
...
Do you know what a ‘stronghold’ is? I made reference to it the other day in my post talking about the spiritual weapons that God provides for us. Paul wrote about it in 2 Cor 10:4 and talked about these ‘mighty weapons used for pulling down strongholds’.
It might help to understand just what a ‘stronghold’ is so we might better understand how...and why...they are to be torn or ‘pulled’ down. You can look the word up yourself at your leisure but think today in military terms.
You are familiar with the D-Day invasion where we sent joint forces to Normandy to establish a ‘foothold’ on the beaches there. The reason so many lives were lost that day was the Nazi’s had a ‘stronghold’ on the section of real estate with bunkers and machine guns and plenty of ammo. But once we took out their stronghold, we in turn established not only a ‘foothold’ but also our own ‘stronghold’ from where we were able to get established...direct other forces in...and eventually drive the Nazis back as it was the beginning of the end for them.
How many of you had some more ‘dots connected’ just then while reading that last paragraph? When Paul admonishes us in Eph 4:27 to give ‘no place to the devil’, some translations use the word ‘foothold’. Oftentimes, that is all he needs to find a way in to our minds, hearts, homes, and churches. Once he can establish a stronghold, it is from there he can operate and do more extensive damage. You have read what the thief comes to do, yes? - To ‘steal, kill, and destroy’. (John 10:10)
When the bible teaches we are to ‘guard our hearts’, there’s a reason we are told to ‘guard our hearts’. Jesus told us in Matt. 24:43 that “if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into”.
Do you remember in the passage I have cited multiple times of late in Matt. 12:43-45 where Jesus taught what happens when an ‘unclean spirit goes out of a man...’? He tells us it goes wandering through dry places seeking rest and when he finds none, he says: “I will return to my....house...from which I came.” If you have failed to look that passage up yourself, may I encourage you to stop now and do that so you can see what happens there in vs. 44-45?
A foothold, by one spirit, can set up and lead to a ‘stronghold’ where many more unclean and unwanted spirits will be able to enter and operate from. (Folks...this is not fantasy or fiction we are talking about. This is truth straight from God’s word and there’s a reason His people have been ‘destroyed for a lack of knowledge’. (Hosea 4:6)
So back to our story in the Garden when God asked them “who told you that you were naked?” This should be review for us now, but God had declared by His word that there was this one tree they were not to eat off of and if they did, “they would surely die!” (Gen2:17). Chapter 3 opens up with the serpent looking to gain a ‘foothold’ into this place of paradise that Adam and Eve were enjoying. He did it by casting doubt on the word...twisting it around and then when Eve...instead of shutting the door then, and resisting, gave a place or a foothold by engaging with the serpent. The longer listened instead of ‘bringing into captivity every thought to obedience’...she eventually blinked, she lusted, and she ate. As did Adam. Satan had established a stronghold...with a lie. Death...then entered and was passed down to all of us. (Rom 5:12)
So now you are asking what does that have to do with you and my original question?
Who told you that you would never completely overcome sin in this life to the point you could go and ‘sin no more’ and walk like Jesus walked as you abode in Him which means you no longer sin because you had been born of God? (John 5:14; 1 John 2:6; John 15:4; 1 John 3:6, 9) I know our tendency is to skip over looking these verses up, and if you do, you are truly missing out on something important here. HIS word is much more effective than mine.
Let me share it this way: a false doctrine can become and actually is...a spiritual stronghold that is established in our minds/hearts. From there, Satan can then establish ground to unleash all kinds of activity and deception and pain and suffering and yes...even sickness given he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. How many ‘believers’ have already bought in to the lie that demons can’t even really affect them or ‘enter them’ since they now attend church regularly and quote ‘Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world’ once a week? How many of those same church folks scoff at the idea of the very existence of ‘demon spirits’ working amongst us today?
One of the most effective advantages an enemy has at its disposal is to operate undetected. Why do you think we spend so much on radar technology?
So let me now try and tie some of yesterdays and today’s post together.
Do you know why the enemy tempts us with things that appeal to the ‘lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life’? It is how he gains ground back into our lives. Both Peter and Paul allude to our ‘old way of living’ and how ‘we no longer conduct ourselves in that manner’ as we walk in the newness of life. When we are abiding with Jesus, we are under the protective shelter of his wings. (Ps. 91 & Matt 23:37). We are...surrounded by God’s ‘hedge of protection’. Satan can’t come in. That verse we like to toss out a lot about how ‘no man can snatch you from the Father’s hand’....guess what? You can jump out; or step out from behind that hedge and when you do, you are ‘fair game’. Sin opens the door for the enemy...the powers of darkness to come in and devour. Period.
I know this may come as a shock to many who have been lulled to sleep by a false sense of security and a false peace which God warned the prophets of old and writers of the NT as well that would befall many. But God is attempting to awaken us from our slumber. If you have bought in to the lie that you will always have this flesh-carnal nature (old man) to contend with in this life and learn to just live with him, James says you are an adulterer (James 4:4).
Paul says this in Rom 13:11-14: “...it is high time to awake out of sleep...our salvation is nearer than when we first believed...let us cast off the works of darkness...put on the armor of light...let us walk properly...not in lewdness and lust or in strife and envy...but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and MAKE NO PROVISION FOR THE FLESH, TO FULFILL ITS LUST!”
Living according to or fulfilling the flesh of the old nature is sin. It’s eating off that tree of death. If you live according to the flesh and balk at putting that thing to death, you will die. (Rom 8:13). Same thing God told Adam and Eve. We have plenty of written documentation showing God was not messing around.
Paul lists many of the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21. He then makes a point to drive home a fact he has taught them before saying “Just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (vs.21). He would also tell the Ephesians: “Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
If you are following Jesus, abiding in Him, then you are not ‘sons of disobedience. On the contrary you are, as Peter describes: “obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in ALL YOUR CONDUCT.” (1 Pet. 1:14-15)
There is no shortage of ‘alternative gospels’ available today. (2 Cor 11:2-4). You would think the way ‘grace’ is taught...or understood by many ....that it acts like some magical can of ‘snake repellent’. Jude warned in his short letter of folks coming in and distorting the message of grace: For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (4)
Why would a sly serpent like Satan be motivated to deceive us in to thinking that we can continue to claim to be a Christian yet allow this old nature to tag along and be a part of our lives, even if on a ‘reduced level? Because our sin nature and fleshly works are feeding ground for him. (Gen 3:14,19)
I’ve seen people literally recoil at the mere reference to 1 John 3:6-9 that clearly reads whoever abides in Him will not continue to sin. Countless numbers of sincere believers have ‘bought in to the lie’ that they can never overcome this sin nature and ‘sin no more’. You can cite all kinds of flimsy arguments and experiences along with man’s opinions and commentaries suggesting otherwise; but I cannot help but share what God’s word says and suggest otherwise...or as Romans 3:4 declares: “Let God be true and every man a liar!”
He came...to set...us free. (John 8:31-36) I’ll continue with more tomorrow.
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