Ep 55: Peace Maker, Not a Trouble Maker – Pt. 3

So we’re gonna be having a discussion with Vicki and me on the three enemies, the flesh, the world and the devil and there’s an enemy right here, right within. There’s an enemy right outside and then there’s an enemy in the spirit world. The invisible World that you cannot see who will, who will touch the flesh, who will come from the world. And that is the devil and Vicki and I’m going to talk about that. Jump into this discussion. Thank you for coming again with It’s all greek to me. Well Vicki my love here we have the three enemies that we have in life in James chapter four identifies them the flesh, the world and the devil. These three enemies. And how do we deal with them? Now we already talked about the the 10 greek heiress imperatives get it done, submit to God, resist the devil. Draw near to God. He’ll draw near to you and so forth. But right here I want us to get our handles around these enemies, identify these three enemies and then give some practical helps to the people that are following the study of James, especially on how to become mature christians. We gotta know how to deal with the flesh, the world and the devil. So the first one is the world. The cosmos literally something ordered properly an ordered system like the universe. Creation, the world. The english term cosmetic is derived from this word, you know about that. Yes. Yeah. Cosmetics for God. So loved the cosmos. There is another word that is also used as world, but it’s really should be translated age. Fiona’s aon is mis translated world. See also Kronos which is time. These are three Very close synonyms that are. There. one is a on the other is cosmos which is in our text. And uh the third one being Kronos which is time and age is a period of time characterized defined by a particular quality. Echo many refers to the inhabited civilized world echoes his house and uh many echoes is a house and many is where people live. And so that also refers to the inhabited world uh the earth as opposed to the physical earth. The ye which is we get geology from it. So these are various greek words that are at times translated world. Cosmos. The world refers to people living in a world of fashion for the benefits of earth embodying carnal values. Okay, take up the next one. Honey. The word cosmos occurs 187 times in the new testament and usually refers to the world system. Unaided humanity operating in the flesh, rejecting the lordship of christ. Thus the world is in perpetual spiritual chaos which is like alienation from God. It’s like a disordered order. It’s kind of a play on Wednesday. It’s a disordered order. The order is the world but it’s disordered. It’s not under the authority of God. That’s what I wanted to say. There continue with with mr Vincent. Cosmos can refer to the physical earth but most commonly cosmos stands for the sum total of human life and the ordered world considered apart from considered a part and alienated from and hostile to God and of earthly things which which seduced from God. Yeah, so first john 2 15 through 17, if you you read so well, so just continue reading sweetheart For Shawn to 15 through 17 do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world and the world is passing away and also it’s lust, but the one who does the will of God dilemma of God lives forever. This is such a phenomenal passage ever since I read this early on as a new believer, I thought to myself, man, this, this is just kind of takes uh rolls back the the curtain and you really see what really is going on and God is saying that we should not give our love, I got to the world nor the things of the world because if we love the world, then we make ourselves an enemy of God and then it identifies the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life and uh I just think that this kind of clarity for the believer is so important that what so many people are living for is temporal will burn up and it’ll be gone. But if you really make God your objective, if you really are living for eternity, I remember that in Gladiator, what he, what he said is what we do in time trickles through eternity and that’s really what we need to be living for, not just what I can have, what you can have and do in this life, you know, go after something in this life, but really live for for God who is eternal for his will, what is his will and that’s something that now we need to study the fa lima as as as opposed to the fully, there are two different words for will of God as well. Uh and then uh Guy King says it is not the world of matter nor the world of nature nor the world of humanity, but it is all within the world that is alienated from God, whether it be people or things or influences, this is very important. So the world, it’s a itself, the globe that is that he the judge, you know, geography comes from he or the planet uh is not evil is not bad, but it’s the world system, the people living in the world and the and the fact that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, their their modus operandi, so to speak, the way they operate and live in the value system of the globe of the world. The love for money being a root of all kinds of evil. And so that’s the thing that God says is evil and not to live for very important to make that distinction. And then the flesh is the enemy of God. The Spirit obviously, you know, if the world is the enemy of God, the father here, the flesh is the enemy of God, the spirit go ahead honey. And read that the word saarc’s properly flesh or carnal merely of human origin or empowerment in short flesh generally relates to unaided human effort. That’s that’s a that’s a good one, right there unaided human effort. I mean, how often do you try to do something in the flesh or in your in your own ability? That is? And we’re like, you know, it’s like the New Year’s resolutions. People are constantly trying to do this in the flesh in their human effort and never able to get to that. You know, uh I interrupted you keep going, that’s fine. These originate from self or empowered by ourselves. These are carnal of the flesh because they proceed out of the untouched, unchanged part of us. What is not transformed by God? Here’s uh some verses that we could look at that clarify what we’re talking about romans 7 18 for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for the willingness present in me. But the doing of good is not now. This is very important distinction. That it’s not the body that is no good. It is the flesh as the old man that is inside this body. It’s that person that is self centered, sin prompted and generated rather than uh the actual body that we have. That’s wrong. It’s not it’s the flesh that is The enemy of God Philippians 3 3 for we are the true circumcision worship in the spirit of God and glory in christ jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. That’s what we’re talking about socks, pick up the next one. Vicki Galatians 5 17 for the flesh sets itself against the judge’s ire of 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 by the flesh is meant. The old nature that we inherited from Adam, that is prone to sin in the flesh is not the body, the body is not central. That body is neutral. The spirit may use the body to glorify God or the flesh may use the body to serve sin when a sinner yields to christ, he receives a new nature within. But the old nature is neither removed. The old nature is not removed because it ultimately will be removed in the glorification. That’s why on a daily basis, Vicki, it’s quote this verse here that I am crucified. I’ve been crucified with christ, glad you read it, go ahead. And it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the Flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. It is for that reason that Jesus Christ told his disciples in Luke 9, 23 if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself daily pick up his cross and follow me. So yeah, we can say no to ourselves, but there’s no ability for us to kill that old man, that flesh unless we pick up the cross and by faith vicariously uh jesus becomes our vicarious sacrifice, our substitute uh eli’s most are propitiate a shin and there’s no other way to do it to on a daily basis to conquer the sin within. He saved me from the punishment of sin back when I trusted him at a place called Word of Life Island and you two uh in 1968. But daily he saves me from the power of sin, by his word, by his holy spirit, by the blood that he shed on the cross and by his resurrection. And one day he’s going to save us from the very presence of sin when we’re glorified, let’s move on to the next thought here. And we can just uh pray for this daily surrender. Like we’ve been talking about submitting to God, resisting the devil and knowing that he will flee from us any closing thoughts. It’s a choice. We have a choice who will we serve in this lifetime? Well, We serve ourselves and our fleshly desires. Or will we grow in grace and in the knowledge of God and submit to the spirit of God. It’s such a freedom because you’re not fighting a personal battle. We’re just surrendering ourselves to the Lord and he just loves us so much. I mean, we we couldn’t have anybody greater to submit to and love us. You know these three thoughts that we had these three enemies that is that we had that we that we identify today as the enemies for our uh you know, for our life that they come to us, we need to know that it is only when we identify what’s going on in our life who the enemy is that we can overcome him. We’re not able to overcome something unless we can actually know what it is. It’s the flesh, it’s the world, it’s the devil and God has given us his power through the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Sun and the power of the father through his word through his spirit were able through the body of christ were able to overcome what we can’t do in the flesh. God did in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh romans chapter eight tells us so I’m very excited that we identified the problems here in James chapter four and now we’re going on to the end of the book, the end of the chapter that is the flesh, the world, The devil, these are our three enemies. And we have to identify the disease, the sickness in the body. Doctors tell us until so that they can diagnose and really treat it correctly and we have to diagnose in the spiritual world. There is an enemy, you cannot see him satan we’re gonna look at that in just a moment some of his names and the flesh is still an enemy and we’re not talking about just our body or Soma, we’re talking about sorry folks, the old man that jesus said we have to every single day take up our cross and follow jesus paul said in Galatians 2 20 I am crucified with christ. Nevertheless I live but it is an eye who live, it’s christ who lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. So the flesh every single day has got to be crucified, positional e we have to by faith go back to the cross and then experientially present the members of our body as we’ve talked in the past in romans. Chapter six and obey God, credit the death, the burial and the resurrection to G. That jesus christ went through uh 2000 years ago in Jerusalem to ourselves and then be able to present our members and obey God with what he tells us to do. Now we want to look at the scripture concerning some of the names and then I’ll go into first john and chapter two, but we want to look at some of the names that we know that satan is known by right here, Satan in the new testament is referred to as the devil, the slanderer, the avalanche. The devil literally means via is between and follow, is to throw or to put things between people. He will divide, he’s the divider, he will slander, he will say things and we’ll divide people because of it. That’s one of his name’s James. Chapter four. This one submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you. That’s what we are talking about. The angel of light. He’s referred to in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 versus 14 and 15. He’s referred to as the Angel of Light. He was Lucifer, the luminary, the light and became darkness because he rebelled against the Almighty because he rebelled against jesus christ because he rebelled against the father, the son and the Holy spirit, jesus is the light. He’s the light of the universe. He’s the light of the world, The one deceiving. That’s another one of his name’s revelation 20 and verse 10, continually seeking to lie and deceive people. The God of this age. Second Corinthians 4 4th Jonah. He is the God of this age, The Spirit of the Age. He is the one that is influencing the minds of people through television, through radio, through the media, through the internet. He’s also referred to as the father of lies Romans 8 44. In other words, he he’s the one that is the source and the originator of the lie. He is referred to as the Prince of the Power of the Air. Ephesians 22, Our Home, The Prince of the Power of the Air. The prince of this world, John 1231, a roaring lion. First Peter 58, Coming to destroy, coming to devour Ruler of the Darkness Ephesians 6 12 Is the adversary 52 times. 1st Peter 5 8 is referred to as the adversary, the one who stands against the Tempter First Thessalonians three verse five, Who comes Peter Kostis who comes to touch you and to tempt us Erasmus First Thessalonians 35, satan the devil is referred to in the new testament as the prosecuting attorney. First Peter 58. What is that? It is the word on DVD Cause this is the one that I’m really most interested in that of all of these Because he is referred to here as the condemning one. Have you ever had people call you names? Well, satan Right here, the devil is the condemning one. He will come like a prosecuting attorney that will take everything you’ve ever done wrong and put it up and condemn you not only to yourself and not only to the people around you, but more importantly to God, will condemn you and say, wait a minute. You can’t possibly love this guy, this woman, this teenager, He’s the prosecuting attorney and I’ll come back to this. He’s referred to as the a Polian, the destroyer from the abyss. He’s referred to as Billy O in the one who is utterly worthless because he is vile. Yes, the avalos, the accuser of the slanderer Draco, the dragon who deceives the nations from behind the scenes or feast the serpent delivering his venomous, deadly bite upon a rose. The evil one bringing pain. You know the greek word for pain is pomo knows he is the one that comes to bring pain, the liar, the murderer. The one who’s accusing think of all of these names for the devil. He’s not your friend, He’s not my friend. I want us to go to our friend, the friend of sinners. I want us to go to jesus christ Our savior. The one not the prosecuting attorney, but the defense attorney. I want to go to that beautiful chapter in first, john in chapter uh, to want us to go there and go to the beginning here with these enemies the world, the flesh and the devil. But look what it says my little Children. I am writing these things 1st, John 2: verse one to you that you may not send and if anyone sins, you see the biggest problem you and I have is a marta sin And there are 20 different Greek words for sin. This particular one means to miss the mark. And who hasn’t missed the mark. We all have missed the mark. So all of us have sinned and for short of God’s glory, huh? All have sin romans 3 23 romans 6 23 the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through jesus christ our Lord. And if we confess our sins, it says in first john in chapter one in verse nine, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all on righteousness. Not only is he the lamb of God, the redemptive lamp. Uh but he’s also the release lamb, he’s not, he’s the animal to go that is that took the sins into the desert and here he referred to as the Advocate in verse one. And if anyone sins we have not not you have noticed the apostle, john includes himself in this, we have an Advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous who is the propitiate a shin ellas mas El Asmus is an offering to appease to satisfy an offended party in this case, it is jesus christ atoning death on the cross, his burial, his resurrection to appease God, the father God the Son and God, the Holy Spirit’s wrath upon this world for their sins. For those who confess and repent because you you can’t just I mean I do not believe in universal salvation. I believe that he paid for everyone sends first timothy chapter two and verse six he is the Andy lee thrown for all men. But I believe that you have to repent of your sins or you shall all likewise perish the bible teaches us we have to come to God. Yes, he’s provided salvation for all, but every single person must come and repent and accept his offer of mercy and of salvation. He himself notice the emphasis here in verse two is the propitiate a shin the Elia’s most for our sins, not only for our sins, but for those what of the whole world. So yes, Jesus christ provided that sacrifice, that satisfactory sacrifice. That sinless satisfactory sacrifice. As first peter chapter one in verse 18 says not with gold, not with civil with his own blood. He provided that literature on which was the price to be paid for our sins what a wonderful savior jesus is. I can’t wait to see him, The one who provided for us in our salvation and then it goes on in Chapter 2 to talk about. I am writing to you little Children because your sins have been forgiven you for his name’s sake because of what he did on the cross. Now our sins are forgiven. So the little Children, the Children of God know their sins are forgiven. That’s one of the things that you know if you’re a child of God, that your sins are forgiven. If you’re still battling with the idea, I wonder has he forgiven me? Isn’t that I ask people, do you know for sure that your sins are forgiven? I don’t know. They tell me if you don’t know, you’re not even aware that you are a child of God. You’re not even sure you’re a child of God, but the Children of God that have repented and accepted christ as personal savior. They know And they believe God’s word that tells them this verse 13, I’m writing to you fathers because you know him who has been from the beginning. I’m writing to you young men because you’ve overcome the evil one. That’s that’s a teenage Christian. A young Christian growing now getting into the word of God because you have overcome the evil one I’ve written on to your Children because you know the father, I have written to you fathers because you know him who has been from the beginning. I have written out to you young men verse 14 because you are strong and the word Of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one. You see, the only way you can overcome your sin is through the blood of christ. The overcome. The only way you can overcome the devil is through the blood of christ. And the word of christ It says that right here in verse 14 now this is important. Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. Very, very simply these three enemies, the devil who we just talked about, who you overcome through the word of God, the the world who is the enemy of God, who you overcome by loving God and loving his word and loving his spirit and loving his son. This is what it says you don’t love the father for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father but is from the world now. It also identifies the world is passing away. And also it’s lust well epitome to but the one who does the will of God fell in battle. The one who does the will of God abides forever. So you have here very clearly the enemies we’ve been talking about in James chapter four, the flesh the world and the devil and hear what God hears, what God says about it we can overcome. We overcome in James Chapter four with those 10 imperatives, the rarest imperatives submit to God, resist the devil draw near to God. He will join either you cleanse your hands, you sinners purify your hearts, you double minded, be miserable, mourn weep. Let your laughter be turned in the morning. You’re joined the gloom, humble yourselves in the presence of God and he will exalt you at the proper time. Listen, these are all a wrist imperatives, get them done right away. If you know something in your life, that’s wrong. If you know that you are looking at your life, your thought life, you’re the way you talk to the the habits that you have, what you do with your money, how you behave in your job, what you do out in the world and you and you have something that you know is wrong, then you’ve got to repent. You’ve got to ask God to forgive you and he will. That’s what jesus christ died on the cross for. And then you have to claim these powerful promises that your your sins have been forgiven. Verse 12 of first, john two first john chapter one in verse nine, it says if you confess, if you agree with God about you said he’ll forgive you. If you have to ask him to forgive you, just humbly do that. You don’t have to go uh to some special monastery or some special church. Right where you’re at right there in your living room. You can lift your heart up to God and say Father God, I know I’m a sinner, jesus christ, thank you for coming and dying on the cross for my sins. Spirit of God come into my body, come into my spirit, come into my soul in my mind and forgive me of all the garbage in my life, please come into my life and save me and the moment you do that, you know you’re a child of God and then you begin to study God’s word and put God’s promises in you and he says I have written out to you young men because you’re strong and the word of God abides in you and you overcome the wicked one. That’s how you overcome the the devil who is one of those big enemies in your life and of course the world, if you do not get into God’s word and make yourself familiar with what God says and what his truth is, how are you gonna be able to recognize the false things and the lives all around you? That’s how you overcome the world by understanding and knowing what God the father God the son God the holy Spirit have to say and letting that abiding you so you can use it at the appropriate time. God bless you again Tom and Vicki with. It’s all greek to me and we’ll see you next time as we continue studying James in chapter four