The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
This scripture in Jeremiah is talking about our own hearts today. Do we think we are good? Decent? Worthy? No! We are desperately wicked in our flesh and that is a fact. We feed our flesh like there is no tomorrow, constantly seeking comfort and pleasure for it. It is so commonplace today that we can hardly see anything but our flesh. How often do we fast? How often do we turn away from even the little things that tempt us daily?
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Ga 5:19-21
These are the ways and the works of the flesh, the flesh is always lusting for these works. These are not the fruits of the spirit. The Bible tells us of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
1 John 1:6-7 tells us
“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
We should not deceive ourselves, just because we are followers of Christ we think we are not subject to sin?
In 1 John 1:8-10 we are told,
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
To the flesh is sown corruption but to the spirit is life everlasting. We cannot please God with our flesh. We sin continually, we are capable of nothing else within our flesh and on our best day we are no better than filthy rags before God as stated in Isaiah 64:6
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Our flesh, even our hearts, each and every one of us, is desperately wicked at all times. Nothing in the imaginations of our thoughts are but evil continually. This is why we have to be born again, not of the flesh but of the spirit, not of adultery, fornication, drunkenness and revellings but of love, joy, peace and temperance.
No attempt at righteousness by the flesh can succeed, it will die, in fact it is dead already and will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Only when we sow to the spirit through Christ can we hope to please God and inherit the Kingdom of God.
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Gal: 5:16-17
So we should be careful when we find ourselves sowing to our flesh and Paul tells us of the sin that does so easily beset us. Let’s be candid for a minute. Are our hearts at times so dark and filthy that we dare not reveal it? The Bible clearly tells us it is; the heart is “desperately wicked: who can know it?”
The price of sin is death and we must have a redeemer if we are to make it through. But thank God that he sent a sacrifice for you and me. He made a way that we could be pleasing unto God. Jesus became that sacrifice for us as foretold in Isaiah 53:5
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
But, we cannot continue to walk in the ways of the flesh we must leave the flesh behind at every opportunity it is continually displeasing to God.
The Apostle Paul gives us instructions in how to live in Romans 13:13-14
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Put your mind as often as is possible on things of the spirit, which are “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” This is how we know we are sowing to the spirit and pleasing our Heavenly Father.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
To the flesh is sown corruption but to the spirit is life everlasting. We cannot please God with our flesh. We sin continually, we are capable of nothing else within our flesh and on our best day we are no better than filthy rags before God as stated in Isaiah 64:6
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Our flesh, even our hearts, each and every one of us, is desperately wicked at all times. Nothing in the imaginations of our thoughts are but evil continually. This is why we have to be born again, not of the flesh but of the spirit, not of adultery, fornication, drunkenness and revellings but of love, joy, peace and temperance.
No attempt at righteousness by the flesh can succeed, it will die, in fact it is dead already and will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Only when we sow to the spirit through Christ can we hope to please God and inherit the Kingdom of God.
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Gal: 5:16-17
So we should be careful when we find ourselves sowing to our flesh and Paul tells us of the sin that does so easily beset us. Let’s be candid for a minute. Are our hearts at times so dark and filthy that we dare not reveal it? The Bible clearly tells us it is; the heart is “desperately wicked: who can know it?”
The price of sin is death and we must have a redeemer if we are to make it through. But thank God that he sent a sacrifice for you and me. He made a way that we could be pleasing unto God. Jesus became that sacrifice for us as foretold in Isaiah 53:5
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
But, we cannot continue to walk in the ways of the flesh we must leave the flesh behind at every opportunity it is continually displeasing to God.
The Apostle Paul gives us instructions in how to live in Romans 13:13-14
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Put your mind as often as is possible on things of the spirit, which are “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” This is how we know we are sowing to the spirit and pleasing our Heavenly Father.
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