“THE SOUL’S WARS OR LIFE’S VICTORY?”
BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 20-22, 2017
In “The Thompson CHAIN-REFERENCE BIBLE”, published by Frank Charles Thompson and B.B. Kirkbridge Bible Co., Inc, Indianapolis, Indiana, there is found an awesome, inspiring, convicting Word of God about “The Soul’s Wars Or Life’s Victory”!! Come with me to Romans 7:4-11, and Verses 14-25! Read carefully!! It says, (The old King James Version!!), “Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. (That’s ‘spiritual death’!). But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet.
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. (Random House College Dictionary, defines it as “ardent, usually sensuous longing; sexual desire, lust, greatly desiring,” – or ‘gripped by desire, fleshly desires, rather than “led by the Holy Spirit”!). For without the law, sin was dead.
For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. (SIN ALWAYS BIRTHS SPIRITUAL DEATH!!). And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
(Oh, then come to Verses 14-25!!). The Holy Word says: For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh or old sin nature) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin dwells in me. I fins then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; 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.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Natural mind bondage, gripped by the law of sin or death, even both, OR the spiritual life’s victory through Christ’s shed blood, death through the Cross, but three days later raised from death by the Word, Voice, and Authority of the One True Living God seated on His Throne of glory IN continuous Victory over that law of sin and death!
How many have you known who chose ‘spiritual blindness’ to the Highway of Holiness, continuing on, on the pathways of godlessness, content or deceived or enslaved to their “old nature”, ignoring Christ Jesus’ beckoning call, “I AM God’s Highway of Holiness – no one comes to Him except through Me!” The “spiritually blind” consider themselves, living under the cloud of good intentions, but blind to God’s grace, mercy, and love, unveiled in and through the life, death, and Resurrection of Christ, as ‘OK’- religious but not reconciled, good efforts but not graced by the Father, pretenders but not “New-Born” sons and daughters of Father-God through Christ alone!
In the old “American Hymnal”, published by The Broadman Press” in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933, there is a very old hymn copyrighted in 1933 by Charles H. Gabriel, (Robert Coleman, the owner), entitled “Draw Near, Immanuel”. It says:
“Draw near to us, O God of hosts, And fill us to the uttermost With zeal to work for You today, In Your all-wise appointed way; Reveal Your will in us, and show Your hand divine, That we may know We are Your children, You our Guide And Hiding place, what’e’er betide.
Draw nigh to us, O Mighty One! Our shelter be from sun to sun; Our Alpha and Omega You Before whom every knee shall bow; Increase our faith, our strength renew, Fit us a mighty work to do.
Draw near to us, Immanuel, You Mighty God of Israel! Once more from Sinai’s flaming height Speak, that we may be led aright; Almighty, everlasting King of kings, with contrite hearts we sing, The righteous majesty and love Of Him who built the heaven’s above.
Draw near, Draw near, Immanuel, In grandeur and in majesty ,reveal Yourself today, Rejoice, rejoice, O Israel of God, Your God Omnipotent shall reign with universal sway; In grandeur and in majesty reveal Yourself today; Your God omnipotent shall reign with universal sway.” But YOU claim the “kingdoms of men”, “the kingdom of ‘best effort’ rather than the Kingdom of Sovereign, Merciful, Loving God?
Recently on TV I saw that ‘on-going commercial’ entitled “Growing Up Hip Hop in Atlanta”, and I thought, “Once again captured by the powers of darkness, totally blinded to the love, grace, and mercy of God “In Christ Jesus Only”, the way, the truth, the life that leads us into “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”?” And in the ‘known’ war of the soul, many captured by ‘the world, the flesh, and Satan’ parade daily in the “walk of death, the walk of rejection of Christ, and the walk in the dark clouds of rejection or, yes, the dark clouds of religious ‘pretense’”!
“The soul’s wars”? Do you remember in Exodus 5 as Moses and Aaron confronted the Pharaoh of Egypt with divine, eternal, life-changing truth, that Pharaoh said, in Verse 2, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” And in the “soul’s wars”, whether ‘religious distractions, flesh allegiance, or Satan-inspired unbelief’, unbelievers, though religious, choose,( hear me!), “Hell” over “heart-change” by the love, mercy, and grace of God, “self-determined ways of improvement, even religions”, over the Sovereign, sacred, sure way of everlasting life through Christ Jesus only!!
In 2 Kings 5, follow as we read about “Naaman’s leprosy”, so unveiling the “sin natures” of ALL mankind! It says: Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid, and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Syria! For he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.
And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto you, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may recover him of his leprosy.
And it Came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent (or tore) his clothes, and said, Am I god, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sent unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.
And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean. But Naaman was wroth (angry), and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
And his servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather then, when he says to you, Wash, and be clean? [Dare I tell you that ‘washing’ in the river was a forerunner of “washed in the blood of the Lamb of God”?].
Then he went down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray you, take the blessing of your servant.”
What a dramatic, life-changing event, when a man obeys the Word of God! In Luke 6:46 Jesus said: “And why can you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not the things which I say?” In Titus 1:16 Paul, after exposing ‘unruly and vain talkers and deceivers’, ‘professing’ but not “possessing the Indwelling Christ”, wrote: “They profess that they know God; but in works (a daily life of yielding to all He tells us, yes, to do!!!) they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.”
Oh, and then how do you respond as a ‘professing believer’, ‘hanging on’, but not sure, if persecution comes, that YOU as a regular ‘church attender’ will remain faithful?
Examine Romans 1:18-25! “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold (or suppress) the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead: so that they are without excuse; because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations (or speculations), and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up TO UNCLEANNES THROUGH THE LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; Who changed the truth of God for “the lie” (one can sin, continue in sin, though a believer, and he/she will be saved in spite of their sin! How atrocious do you find that as you faithfully study, receive, and walk in the Word of God?).”
“God gave sinners up”? Verse 24! “God gave sinners up”? Verse 26! “God gave them up to a reprobate mind?” Verse28! OH! BUT… HEAR ME! ARE THERE THOSE WHO RECEIVE HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION, GRANTED THE GIFTS OF REPENTANCE AND FAITH, AND WILLFULLY TURN FROM THE KNOWN WORLD PHILOSOPHY OF “DOING IT MY WAY”, REPENTING, REPENTING, REPENTING, THEN RESTING IN CHRIST’S CALVARY VICTORY AND RESURRECTION FROM THE TOMB, RECEIVING THE SPIRIT OF HIS INDWELLING, VICTORIOUS LIFE OVER SIN AND DEATH?
Do YOU believe that it is “the goodness and graciousness of God” that leads us to repentance and faith and an eternal heart and life change”? In Romans 2:4 Paul wrote: “Or do you despise the riches of God’s goodness and forbearance and longsuffering Spirit; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” In Acts 5 many “faithful disciples” were brought before the Council accused as ‘traitors’ to the Jewish faith, even suffering from the hands of the supposed ‘spiritual elite’. Acts 5:41 says, “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.” They weren’t afraid to suffer for “doing the works of Jesus”, while at the same time many ‘professors of faith’ then and now will succeed and be financially rewarded by some, but lose sight of ministry and service to the glory of God in their daily walks, self-betraying their ‘faith’ because the religious world around them pumps their flesh!
Understand? Biblically, yes, there are ‘soul-worshippers’ in church attendance every Sunday but are blinded to “Life’s Continual Victory” through the abiding Presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords!!
- The Lord Jesus is not a ‘spiritual father’ who abandons or forsakes his own! In Hebrews 12:1-8 the author of Hebrews, inspired by the Spirit, illumines, yes, the warfare every disciple of Christ will face in their spiritual pilgrimage! “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience (steadfastness) the race that is set before us.
Looking unto Jesus, THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied and faint (or tired) in your minds. (Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”)
You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin!
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as unto children, ‘My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by Him.
For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with (obedient) sons; for what son is he whom the father doesn’t chasten? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.”
- The Lord Jesus, as the spiritual father, will, does, and forever GUIDES HIS OWN!! In Luke 1:68-79 Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied in Verses 68-79, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He has visited and redeemed His people, And has raised up the horn of salvation in the house of His servant David; speaking by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began;
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him, all the day of our lives. And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest; for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring from on high has visited us, To give Light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (born in it!!), to guide our feet into “the way of peace”.”
In the old “American Hymnal” published in 1933 by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, are the words to “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. It says:
“Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim thro’ this barren land; I am weak, But You are mighty, Hold me with Your powerful hand; Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more; Bread of Heaven, Feed me till I want no More.
Open now the crystal fountain Whence the healing waters flow; Let the fiery, cloudy pillar Lead me all my journey through; Strong Deliverer, Be Thou still my Strength and Shield; Strong Deliverer, Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.
When I tread the verge of Jordan, Bid my anxious fears subside; Bear me through the swelling current, Land me safe on Canaan’s side; Songs of praises I will ever give to Thee; Songs of praises I will ever give to Thee.”
Can YOU say, “I thank God for saving me, keeping me, and upholding me in His heavenly cloud of unending glory”?
I close with Romans 8:1-2! There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (old sin nature!), but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Is “Hallelujah” your daily celebration of the love, grace, and mercy of Loving God?