Driving Sin Out of Us
Driving Sin Out of Us
The Spirit of God is directing the true Christian people to prepare themselves to enter their land of promise---their own personalities.
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. (Daniel 9:24)
To make an end of sins!
What sins?
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:5-10)
I have been a disciple of the Lord Jesus for about seventy years. Like most other Christians, I have assumed that sin always will be a problem for us Christians.
Following are the assumptions I have made as I have participated in Christian assemblies and activities:
Divine grace prevents God from seeing our behavior.
We are saved by belief in Christ without any change in our behavior.
As long as we are in the world the we have to sin; but when Christ comes we will not sin any longer.
When we go to Heaven we won't sin, even though sin began in Heaven. There is no scriptural basis for this belief.
People always will sin. That is their nature and the way things are supposed to be. God intends to forgive our sin but not remove the impulse to sin.
The world never has seen a man who does God's will perfectly. It is too difficult.
If we try to do something about our sin we are practicing the filthy works of self-righteousness.
We will be sinners throughout eternity, and God will have fellowship with us by means of His grace and mercy.
This last item is interesting in view of the following passage:
Therefore, "Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." (II Corinthians 6:17)
I began to think about the creation of man. Was he created with a sinful personality? What did God say about his new creation?
Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1:26)
God said nothing about man dying and going to Heaven to live in a mansion. God said nothing about man having a sinful personality.
"Let us make mankind in our image."
The image of God is not a sinful personality!
And consider the following, spoken to Cain.
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7)
The Lord (probably the Lord Jesus) said this to Cain and is saying the same thing to you and me today.
We must rule over Satan and all his works. Sin (the demons) desires to find its satisfaction in us. We must use the authority of Christ and govern what the demons do.
I have thought long and hard about the demons, especially as they are multiplying in America in our day. I do not believe they are spirits that Satan has created. I notice there were a multitude of unclean spirits in the region of the Gerasenes, and their representative spoke intelligently to the Lord Jesus.
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. (Luke 8:30,31)
As I have thought about this I have wondered if demons are former people who died with unconfessed sin and whom Jesus has sentenced to walk the earth looking for some person or some animal whom they can enter and find some relief for their burning desires.
In Dr. Ritchie's book (Return From Tomorrow) he tells of deceased sailors standing at a bar attempting to get a drink of alcohol. They were unable to do so since they were bodiless spirits.
One physically alive sailor fell to the floor in a drunken stupor. Immediately the spirit of a deceased sailor entered him.
Dr. Ritchie's account supports what I have felt for a number of years. It does not violate any passage of Scripture. However, there is no clear basis for my belief in the Bible.
We might think there would not be room in an individual for several other individuals. I do not know about that. The spirit dwelling in the man from the region of the Gerasenes claimed there were a legion of spirits dwelling in the home he had chosen.
How many people does Christ have dwelling in Him?
"But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it."
Perhaps God is using some of those who have died in sin to enable us to gain experience in ruling. They seek continually to lead us astray. We have been commanded to rule over them; otherwise they will take possession of us.
Satan somehow has convinced God's people that we are to learn to live with sin, to accommodate it rather than conquer it. We can never rule over it, Satan declares., Satan has convinced us he has permission to govern our behavior as long as we are alive on the earth. Some day, we hope, God will do something about this unscriptural state of affairs.
However, it is not true that we are obligated to sin because we are living on the earth.
Think about what Paul said.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. (Romans 8:12)
Just because we live in a flesh and blood body does not mean we are obligated to obey the appetites, passions, and lusts of our body. Today it is commonly taught that as long as we are alive we can be compelled to sin. But this is not what the Bible teaches.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
If we choose to satisfy the appetites of our flesh we will die. What does this mean?
It is referring back to verse 11.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)
If we do not through Christ gain the upper hand over the appetites of our flesh, our mortal body will not be made alive when Jesus returns to earth.
If we choose to live in the Spirit of God rather than in the appetites of the flesh, our body will be transformed when the Lord returns.
in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (I Corinthians 15:52,53)
To not be changed into bodily immortality when Jesus returns is a terrible consequence. The change of the body is the final, climactic victory of the Divine salvation!
We may think of being saved as going to live in a mansion in the spirit Paradise. It is not. Being saved is to be delivered from each and every work of Satan. The last enemy to be destroyed is physical death.
This is what is meant by "you shall live," in verse 13 of Romans, Eight.
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:14)
The Spirit of God always is leading us to drive out the works of darkness. This is how we work out our salvation.
Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (II Corinthians 7:1)
The time for the purification of God's people is now. God will do His part if we will confess our sins and choose, with Christ's help, to turn away from them.
As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 13:40-43)
God has purposed to make and end of sins, and He is in the process of doing just that!
But as I said, we have to do our part.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (I John 3:2,3)
Today is the day to call on Jesus to help us cleanse ourselves from all unclean works of the flesh and spirit; and to be patient as God sends His holy fire to burn our self will out of us so we can always do His perfect will.
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (I John 3:5,6)
What a statement the above is! It is contrary to much if not most of the Evangelical preaching of our day, isn't it?
He appeared so that he might take away our sins.
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.
No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Compare this declaration with the preaching of our day.
Divine grace prevents God from seeing our behavior.
We are saved by belief in Christ without any change in our behavior.
As long as we are in world the we have to sin; but when Christ comes we will not sin any longer.
When we go to Heaven we won't sin, even though sin began in Heaven.
People always will sin. That is their nature and the way things are supposed to be. God intends to forgive our sin but not remove the impulse to sin.
The world never has seen a man who does God's will perfectly. It is too difficult.
If we try to do something about our sin we are practicing the filthy works of self-righteousness.
We will be sinners throughout eternity, and God will have fellowship with us by means of His grace and mercy.
The Lord said to Cain that he must rule over sin or it would control him.
Is that true of you and me?
I previously have alluded to the fact that the present day is to be devoted especially to the work of removing sin and self-will from God's people. Let me point out why this is so.
There were seven feasts of Israel:
Next Part Passover—the cross of Christ