Battle of the Two Natures Part #6
Feeding the Flesh
How We Feed the Flesh
In II Peter 2:6-8 God says:
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.)”
Here in II Peter we begin to see how we feed the flesh. This subject will help you in your battle against sin. If you apply the things you read in this section, you will have victory over sin.
In general there are eleven steps of sin in much the same way there are seven steps leading to and resulting from alcoholism. Just as social drinking is the first step in alcoholism toward the seventh step, which is death; so the first step of sin, which is simply seeing or looking, while seemingly benign, is still a sin; because it leads inexorably to the tenth step of sin which is death. The final step of sin is judgment.
God points out the first two steps of sin in the verses of the above text.
“For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.”
We are talking about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. What happened in Sodom and Gomorrah? That was where Lot reached his social pinnacle as a judge or leader in the city before he finally reaped the consequence of his sin and lost everything. Let us consider Lot’s failure.
Lot was a very selfish man at the outset. This was demonstrated early on when Abraham gave him the opportunity of going to the left or right hand to live, but, instead, he wanted it all[1]. He did not go to the left which would have been northward. He did not go to the right which would have been southward. Instead He went east. He took all of that plain of Jordan which ran from north to south and left Abraham with whatever was left over behind them. God blessed Abraham, but Lot went to the east and ended up in Sodom[2]. There is nothing in scripture in the Old Testament that tells of any virtue of Lot whatever. His final failure was that he fathered two nations by his own daughters[3]. There is only one thing that would be more degrading than incest, and that was what was happening in Sodom. The word “sodomy” came from the name of the city “Sodom.”
So what did God do? He condemned them with an overthrow making them an example. This shows how God works. He demonstrates his attitude toward certain sins once, then after that He shows patience. What did Lot do? He was selfish. He got drunk, and, while he was drunk, he committed incest. His downward slide started out by his making some very poor decisions concerning with whom to associate and where he determined to live. If you want to know what not to do, follow Lot’s example, and you will do the opposite of what you should be doing. Lot is an example of what not to do, but he is an example nevertheless.
What God did to Sodom and Gomorrah demonstrates God’s attitude toward the sin of homosexuality, but, while His attitude has not changed, His actions have. What does He do now? Look at II Peter 3:9:
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise.”
What is the promise?
The Wretchedness of Our Flesh
In Romans 7:24 Paul wrote:
“O, wretched man that I am.”
He did not say, “O, wretched man that I used to be before I was saved.
“Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
God said in I Timothy 1:14: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I was chief?” No, he did not say “was.” He said, “Of whom I am chief.” So we think, “Well, wasn’t Paul humble.” No, he was inspired of God. So, he was still the chief of sinners until the day he died. Even though he wrote more books of the Bible than anybody else, he was still the chief of sinners. He wrote thirteen or possibly fourteen books of the New Testament, so how could he be considered the chief of sinners? He was still the chief of sinners, because his flesh never got any better after he was saved. It got weaker, because he starved the flesh and fed the spirit, but it never got one iota better.
So, what is God’s promise? “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Verse 25 goes on “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” He is going to deliver us from this body of death. That is His promise.
How does He deliver us from the body of this death? He delivers us from this body of death by destroying it. That is what God said in I John 3:8:
“The Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,” which is the flesh.
The Wonderful Promise of God
That is scary stuff, right? No, this is, actually, a wonderful promise that we will not have to spend eternity in this sinful flesh which is affected by sin, is vexed by the old nature, and will be destroyed at death. Praise God for that wonderful promise.
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise.” Sodom was very wicked, and Lot went down and lived there. While he lived there, his spirit was vexed by those sinful people around him. So God destroyed those sinful people around him, and He took Lot and his family out.
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness,”
The Judgment of God
What is God doing? He is going to destroy those who are sinful around us and destroy our own sinful flesh, but right now we are still in our sinful flesh and we are surrounded by the sinful world. What is more, we do not seem to see any judgment of God. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward.” What does that mean? It means He does not judge sin immediately ant longer. He is patient now, not willing that any should perish; but that all should come to repentance. He is giving everybody an opportunity to trust Christ as their Savior rather than just killing them as soon as they sin. That is the way He is dealing, now. He already illustrated His attitude by the example of Sodom.
The Promise of God
Now that we know God’s attitude toward homosexuality we do not need to keep seeing the results of sin by the death of those around us. When someone steps into that degradation, they are not going to be judged immediately. They will probably live longer than we will, and that is probably a good thing as far as I am concerned. I do not want to spend a great deal of time on this earth, but they may need that time to come to repentance. So God is demonstrating His patience, but here is the problem. Since He deals with patience, Ecclesiastes 8:11, which was written by the wisest man ever to live on the face of the earth, Solomon, wrote the words:
“Since sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Sowing and Reaping
Since man does not see the results of his sins immediately, since they do not realize that there is a time of growing between the sowing to the flesh and then reaping of the flesh, they think that they get away with their sin.
If you plant a garden of pumpkin seeds, and you see vines come up and start growing across the ground, you can tell your friends, “Those are pumpkin plants.” That is because you know what you planted three months earlier, but for some reason we think God will be mocked[4], and we can sow to the flesh and reap good grain.
“I’m going to sow my wild oats and I’m going to reap good grain.” No, you are going to sow your wild oats, and you are going to reap wild oats. The problem is there is a period of time between the sowing and the reaping, but God is long-suffering during that time. However, “Since sentence against that evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” We think we get away with it in the flesh for some reason. However, that would be against the laws of nature. We seem to think that we can get by with going against the laws of nature when it comes to sin.
God said in II Peter 2:6-7:
“Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with theirunlawful deeds;)”
The Deliverance of Lot
What does “Just Lot” mean? Only Lot? No, his two daughters and wife came out of the city, but then Lot’s wife turned, looked back, and turned into a pillar of salt.
My wife turned looked back when she was driving our van once and turned into a fire hydrant.
How to Become Just
But Lot was not the only one that was delivered. So what does “delivered just Lot” mean? It means that he is just. Wait a minute! No redeeming qualities of Lot are found in the Old Testament at all, yet God says that he is just. How can that be?
Galatians 2:16 says:
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”
The Requirement to Become Just
Lot had faith, but he did not sow to the spirit. He had faith, but when that old sinful flesh died thousands of years before this writing, that his old sinful flesh died, and all that was left was the just righteous spiritual birth of Lot.
Look at the next verse. God says, “That righteous man.” He is considered a sinless man. How could he have righteousness? He was wicked.
Romans 4:5 tells us:
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
The Requirement to Be Righteous
He had the righteousness it takes to get to heaven. He was just before God because of his faith, but he was not righteous before man. He had a very poor testimony before man.
What happened?
“For that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul.” What are we talking about? “His righteous soul was vexed from day to day with their unlawful deeds.”
The New Man
God is talking about the new nature or the new man. The new man was vexed by the conversation or the lifestyle of the flesh and the world. Do you want to know how we feed the flesh? It is not by what we do. It is by seeing and hearing. If you want to stop feeding the flesh, quit watching or looking at the wrong things and quit listening to the wrong things. Do not listen to the wrong people, the wrong subject matter, the wrong jokes, the wrong things on TV, the wrong things at the movie, the wrong things you read, the wrong magazines, or the wrong things on the computer. Whatever you watch, be careful, because that is also how you feed the flesh. You feed the flesh by what people tell you, what kind of music you listen to on the radio, or whatever you listen to. That is the way you feed the flesh. As you feed the flesh and the flesh becomes stronger, then you begin a downward slide. We begin to see that here. Then there are 11 steps in this downward slide of sin.
The Downward Slide
The first step is seeing. I John 2:16 says:
“All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
Three Sources of Food for the Flesh
That is what was vexing Lot’s righteous soul. It was the lifestyle of the world. What was the first temptation of Eve? She saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes. That was the first thing that led Eve into sin. The first feeding of her desire to do wrong was she saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes.
What did Satan use to try to tempt Jesus? Satan took Him up on a high mountain and showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world at that time to try to appeal to the lust of His eyes. Well, Jesus did not succumb to that, because He has no sinful nature that can .be tempted. Praise God!
The Second Step
The second step is hearing or listening to the wrong things. Proverbs 1:10 says, “If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say…”
Then God warns of several things they say that will entice you.
God says in Proverbs 7:21:
“With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.”
Second Step-Listening to Sinful Things
This woman enticed a man into sin with her fair speech. She caused him to yield by her words. Notice the strength of words. God says she FORCED him with her words. If words can force you to sin, then the only thing you can do to avoid sin is to not listen to the words. Before Eve ever saw the pleasantness to the eyes of the tree of knowledge, Satan had already prepared her to sin by his words in Genesis 3:1-5.
In these days you have to be careful of the radio, TV, and computer. Back then it was just people. So people were the primary source of seeing and hearing the wrong things. Be careful that you are not listening to the wrong people and the wrong subject matter.
“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”
The Third Step Is Thinking Evil Thoughts
So you begin thinking about the things which you saw. You begin thinking about the things that you heard. How can you counteract the wrong thinking?
The feeding of the flesh has now become a sinful activity that is rooted in the thoughts, but it is not yet displayed as open sin to other people, because it is in the quietness of your mind. How are you going to stop sin there? You can stop the other steps if you simply stop listening to and watching the things that God does not want you to watch or listen to, but now you begin to think about it, you have got to do something to get that thought out of your head. How do you do that?
Romans 12:2 tells us:
“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
How to Transform Your Life
Be transformed! Your whole life can be changed! We are transformed by renewing our mind or having a new mind. How can you have a new mind? You can have a new mind by thinking new thoughts.
What Should We Think About?
In Philippians 4:8 God says:
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Think New Thoughts
In other words think new thoughts. Think good things about each other and about God. Notice there is nothing negative here. You can always find something wrong about people to think about. You can always find something wrong about the world or the church to think about. Consequently, you can go through your life complaining. God says, “Do not even think about those things!” So let us stop thinking about those things. Thinking wrongly is the third step in sin.
Psycho-Cybernetics
In Maxwell Maltz’s book on psycho-cybernetics he says, “The human brain and nervous system operate purposefully in accordance with the known principles of cybernetics to
accomplish goals of the individual.”[5] The teaching of psycho-cybernetics is that your brain (psycho) is a fantastic programmable computer (cybernetics), and the basic principle of programming (GIGO-garbage in-garbage out) is applicable to our brain. “The science of cybernetics does not tell us that ‘man’ is a machine but that man has and uses a machine.” The way we program this fantastic computer is through our five senses. The two primary means of programming is by what you see and hear. Moreover, your brain does not distinguish between reality and fantasy. Maltz wrote, “Clinical psychologists have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail.”[6] Therefore, when we imagine certain actions in certain situations, when that situation arises, we will “react” in the way in which we imagined. We have programmed our brain to react in that manner. If, for example, we imagine ourselves walking away when someone starts gossiping or telling an unclean joke, then we are likely to do that when confronted with that sinful situation.
The Fourth Step Is Talking About Evil
The next step is speaking. We begin talking about that which we have been thinking. We started by simply listening and seeing, then we started thinking about it. Eventually, we start talking about it.
What does the Bible say about speaking? In Ephesians 5:11-12 God says:
“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.”
Stop Talking to or About the Wrong People or Things
If you are going to hang around those people who are talking sinfully by running down the church or running down other Christians, then you had better be reproving them. The best thing to do is to not even hang around them. The Bible is very clear about that. God says:
“Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.”
What Darkness?
That would be those things which do not bear spiritual fruit. That would be things which do not build up the church, other Christians, or the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are going to violate God’s principle and have fellowship with those that are gossiping, then what do you need to do? Make sure that every time they gossip you reprove them. Reproving someone for unseemly speech is not easy for most of us to do, so God commands us not to have fellowship with them at all.
The Next Step of Sin Is Lust.
In II Timothy 2:22. God says:
“Flee also youthful lusts.”
Run from It!
What are we supposed to do about lust? Run from it!
You saw it. You listened to it. You thought about it. You talked about it. Now you begin to lust after it. You begin to desire to participate in those evil things. What are you supposed to do? Flee from lust! Flee from those desires. If you have a desire to participate in that which God considers sinful, run from it. Move your body to some other location. God does not say to strengthen yourself by reading five chapters of the Bible and praying for two hours. That does not work. THAT DOES NOT WORK! The only thing that will work is to run from it.
After Lust Comes Temptation.
In James 1:14-15 God says:
“Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”
When Lust Is Combined with Opportunity You Get Tempation
When lust bears fruit, then what happens? Then temptation takes place. What is temptation? Temptation takes place when lust and opportunity come together. When you have a desire and there comes an opportunity; that is temptation. So what are we supposed to do?
In I Corinthians 10:12 God says:
“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
God Never Promises the Strength to Overcome Temptation
We may think if we are strong enough. If we read enough Bible. If we witnessed to enough people, and we have prayed long enough. Then when we put ourselves in a place of temptation, we think we will be able to stand up to that person who is speaking wrongly.
“I’ve got the strength now. I can reprove them!” we think, but when are we going to fall according to what God tells us? We will fall when we think we are able to stand.
Verse 13 says:
“There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.”
We are all going through the same thing.
“But God is faithful.” Notice the remedy to temptation is still depending upon the faithfulness of God; not our own faithfulness.
The remedy to this is:
“God is faithful who will not tempt you above that that ye are able.”
We are not talking about going through trials and tribulations here. Many people like to apply this verse to trials and tribulations. This verse is talking about enticement to sin. He is saying we are not going to be overcome by sin, because of God’s faithfulness.
“Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye able, but will with the temptation give you…” the strength to overcome it. Wait a minute! That is not what it says in the verse! He makes a what? What does He make there? He makes a way to escape! He is faithful every single time you are tempted to give you a way to escape! All you have to do is do what He tells us to do in the next verse:
“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee.”
The Only Way to Overcome Tamptation
Run from it! When temptation presents itself, run from it. Be paranoid of temptation. God never promises the strength to overcome temptation. In fact God warns us that, when we are strong, that is when we will fall. What He promises is a way of escape. He never promises strength to overcome temptation.
God says in James 1:14-15:
“Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin:”
From Where Does Temptation Come?
We are drawn away of our own lusts. We are not drawn away by the world. We are not drawn away by other people. We are drawn away, because that is what our own flesh wants to do. We have kindled that desire, because we watched the wrong things. We listened to the wrong people. We have thought the wrong thoughts. We have talked about it. So we have allowed lust to be kindled. Then we put ourselves in a place where we could be tempted. We did not run from temptation. “But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth you forth sin.”
The Seventh Step Is Participating in the Act of Sin
The next step of sin is the outward action we call sin. This is the seventh step of sin. The seventh step is when you act upon your lust and commit the action of sin. The other steps are sin as well, but no one knows about them or recognizes them as sin until the seventh step. That means we have got six steps to maintain a Christian testimony. We have six steps before the outward manifestation of sin takes place. There are six ways to defeat sin. All we have to do is stop it before it becomes manifest, outwardly. However, once you get to the outward sin, there is going to be the physical consequences of sin as well as the spiritual, emotional, and mental consequences of sin. What is the inevitable consequence of sin?
Slavery to Sin Is the Eighth Step of Sin
The eighth step after the outward manifestation of sin is we become a slave to sin. In Romans 6:16 God says:
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”
How do we become a slave to sin?
“To Whom Ye Yield Yourselves.”
When we yielded to sin, we became its slave. Sin is addictive, because our flesh never gets any better after we are saved. It will always desire whatever sin in which we participated at the most wicked degree we participated in it, and it will desire it to the greatest degree to which we participated in it. The alcoholic can never go back to social drinking. He must abstain altogether. The person who views hard pornography will never be satisfied with soft porn. He must abstain altogether. Be careful what you watch, listen to, think about, talk about, and then desire. Eight steps down the way you will become a slave to it.
The Nineth Step of Sin Is Physical Deterioration
The next step of sin is brought out in I Corinthians 11:30:
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you.”
Sick from Sin
After you become a slave to sin, the flesh begins to experience physical deterioration as a consequence of that sin. Your lungs begin to break down. Your immune system breaks down. Your liver breaks down. Your kidneys break down, and you begin to deteriorate because of sin. Make no mistake about it. You can look at the alcoholic and know that he will inevitably have a diseased liver. You can look at the smoker and say, “He’s got terrible lungs,” but all of our sickness is caused by sin, ultimately. It may be because of Adam’s sin, but every bit of it is caused by sin. You will break down and die, eventually, because of sin. It may be because of the sin of those who came before you, but we do not have to blame them. We have got plenty of our own sin, even though we may not practice sin. The fact is we do not need much practice. We are pretty good at it already.
Death-The Tenth Step Of Sin
The 10th step of sin is death. Romans 8:13 says:
“If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.”
If you live after the old man you will die. Do you want to prolong your life on earth? Do you want a little more time to reach a few more people for Christ, so that you can gain eternal rewards? Do you want to live? What do you need to do?
How to Save Your Life
“But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”
Mortify the Flesh
You need to mortify (crucify or put to death) the deeds of the flesh.
The 11th Step Of Sin Is Judgment.
Is it a judgment that you die because of your sin? Is it a judgment that you become addicted to that which you yield? Are those judgments? No! Those are the natural inevitable results of sin, and when the natural man dies, the diseases, addictions, cravings, debilitation, and consequences that come from yielding to sin die, too. However, if you yield to the flesh, after you die there will be judgment.
God says in Hebrews 9:27:
“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
Purpose of Judgment
After we die we will be judged. Now, that judgment is not to see where we will go after we die. That is determined the moment we trust Christ as our Savior. Judgment is to determine the amount of rewards we will receive after we get to heaven, the kind of body we will receive when we get to heaven, the type of kingdom we will rule or not rule, how many cities we will rule or not rule, and the crowns we will receive or not receive.
If we have trusted Christ as our Savior, we will go to heaven, but there is much more at stake at the judgment. So we need to make sure that we yield to the spirit and starve the flesh.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is easiest to defeat sin at its beginning of watching and listening. All you have to do is choose not to watch those things. All you have to do is choose not to listen to those people. Do not listen to that program. Do not listen to that station. Do not listen to that song. Do not read that magazine. Do not have it in your house. Do not pick it up. You know the things you read in those books are wrong. There is some truth in some of those articles, but much of what you read in those articles is just plain untrue. The philosophy of some of those magazines is wrong. Much of their agenda is evolution, and, of course, the religion of evolution is fighting against the knowledge of the God of creation. The philosophy of some news magazines may be more accepted than Playboy and Penthouse. Everyone knows that those magazines should be avoided, but magazines like National Geographic, Time, and Newsweek are devious. They are accepted. You will even find National Geographic which promotes godless, anti-god philosophies of evolution and the religion of Humanism in the libraries of some Christian schools.
Under no condition should a Christian view obscene videos. We need to be careful of what we see and hear.
These are very practical instructions of how we can defeat sin. We do not expect to live a life without sin, but we do not want sin to reign over us. We need to yield to the spirit. We know that many times a temptation will come up without warning without going through all these steps, but this is a progression that will take place in many cases. If we could stop watching and listening to the wrong things, then we could be able to live a godly life in spite of the mistakes we will make. So choose to quit watching and listening to those things that are sinful.
LIST THE ELEVEN STEPS OF SIN
1- ________________________________ II Peter 2:6-8
2- ________________________________ Proverbs 7:21
3- ________________________________ II Corinthians 10:5
4- ________________________________ Ephesians 5:11-12
5- ________________________________ James 1:14
6- ________________________________ I Corinthians 10:12-13
7- ________________________________ James 1:15
8- ________________________________ Romans 6:16
9- ________________________________ I Corinthians 11:30
10- _______________________________ Romans 8:13
11- _______________________________ Hebrews 9:27
[1] Genesis 13:5-11 “Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle: And Abram said unto Lot, …we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.”
[2] Genesis 13:12-13 “Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.”
[3] Genesis 19:33-38 “They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our Father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.”
[4] Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
[5] Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics, 27th printing (New York: Pocket Books, 1960), p. x.