15) Another very ugly thing that springs forth from the carnal mind is a love of supremacy, wanting to rule, be the boss. You must do as I dictate. If you want to do something, you must not fail to secure my permission. If you do not get my permission, I will cause your undoing if I can. Jesus condemns such a spirit in the most condemnatory terms. In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew He speaks of those who love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogue, and tells His disciples not to do after their work. Mark tells us in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel that Jesus told His disciples to beware of those who love the chief seats in the synagogue. Luke records in the eleventh chapter of his Gospel that Jesus pronounced a woe upon those who love the uppermost seats in the synagogue, and greetings in the markets. If it were not for the deadly disease within, these external eruptions would not appear.
16) Along with love for supremacy, and akin to it, is that desire to draw attention to yourself. I have arrived. Now everybody notice ME. This is a very nauseating eruption of the carnal mind. It is repulsive. It makes the spectator sick.
17) Man-fear is another. Afraid of what someone might say or do if you are true to your convictions, and true to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Afraid to preach "straight." We were once conversing with another preacher who lamented the fact that he no longer had the results from his ministry that he once had. He said he was getting the crowd to preach to, but was not having so many professions of salvation as he formerly had. He also admitted that he did not now preach the rugged gospel as he did formerly. Upon asking him why he did not go back to the old way of preaching, knowing that when he did he had more converts, the only reply he submitted was, "I have a wife and four children to support." Thus he admitted that he was afraid to preach the truth as he saw it, afraid that his salary would not be paid.
There are those who preach an easy religion in order that they may have many followers, that they might be able to send a glowing report to the church paper. They desire to "count noses," and do not want only a few noses. In order to swell the number they lower the standard of salvation.
Not only preachers are affected with the man-fearing spirit, but sometimes laymen as well-afraid to stand for the right, and in defense of God's kingdom, in opposition to the encroachments of compromise and sin.
18) Self-will and stubbornness are akin, and both are manifestations of an evil principle within. Peter tells us in his epistle that the "selfwilled ... shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings."
19) Jealousy. Jealous of another's success, or of another's achievement. Jealousy has often been referred to as being "green-eyed." If such be the case, it must most assuredly be due to the gangrenous poison that it generates.
"Jealousy may be compared to Indian arrows, so envenomed that if they prick the skin it is very dangerous; but if they draw blood, it is irrevocably deadly. The first motions that arise from this root of bitterness have their evil effects; but where the disease progresses, it poisons all our comforts, and throws us headlong into the most tragical resolutions" (Wanley).
"Let there be no room in all your house for jealousy -- either to sit or stand. It is a leprous abomination" (Talmage).
20) Close kin to jealousy is envy, which is "an evil affection of the heart, which makes men grieve and fret at the good and prosperity of others." Rachel envied Leah because of her fruitfulness. Joseph was envied by his brothers because he was loved by his father. Envy leads to malice, causing one to wish another evil, and this is certainly a very deep pollution of the spirit. The converted man who allows such a disposition to harbor in his life will soon find that it has alienated himself from God. "Envy is not only contrary to supernatural grace, but to natural conscience, and turns a man into a devil." Envy not only leads to eternal loss, but torments one in this life. Job says that "envy slayeth the silly one," and Solomon declares that "envy [is] the rottenness of the bones." One may have been born again and have felt the refreshings of divine grace, "but when envy stirs itself it stops the descent of all divine blessings, and turns the petitions of the envious into imprecations against themselves."
21) Another manifestation of the carnal mind is deceitfulness, pretending to be something other than what you are. Any kind of lie, whether spoken or acted. is deceit. When a person testifies to an experience of grace that he does not possess, he is a deceiver. The carnal mind is ever prone to want to appear to be better than it really is, or to appear wiser than the facts in the case admit.
They who would mingle the Word of God with their own philosophical inventions are deceitful. Such are the doings of the carnal minds. The apostle Paul places deceit in the same catalogue with murder. He also tells us that deceitful workers are false. And again he tells us that the "old man" is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. Peter asked Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to deceive?" Deceiving and being deceived is given as one of the abominations of the last days when sin shall wax worse. Peter speaks of those who sport themselves with their own deceivings.
There is not only danger of being a deceiver, but there is the greatest danger of being deceived, or else there would not be found so many warnings against it throughout the Bible. This warning stands from Genesis to Revelation like a red light on a rock-bound coast. "Be not deceived" flashes out constantly from the mighty towers of inspiration like the glaring flash of a lighthouse across a storm-tossed sea. Deceit is lurking on every hand, and the carnal mind has deceived its hundreds of thousands. As evidence of this we need look no farther than the realm of the church. The devoted Catholic claims to belong to the only true church, claims to worship the only true God in the only true way; yet he can go out, still wet with holy water, and commit any sin in hell's catalogue. Why? He is deceived. His carnal nature has so befogged him that there is great probability of his never finding his way back to God.
The Christian Scientist can fly in the face of all Christian consciousness, reject every cardinal doctrine of the Bible, and boldly declare that things which are, are not. Why? He is deceived. The carnal mind has led him so far from truth that, if he were to drop dead, an angel in a billion years of constant flight with the swiftness of lightning could not find the wreck of his thought chariots.
The modern church is loaded down with card-playing, dancing, giggling, show-trotting, half-dressed, hand-painted, unholy people who have lost all regard for church vows. Why? They are deceived.
Even among us, a holiness people, there are those who can shout loudly, preach eloquently, prove our doctrine, and at the same time stoop to the meanest trickery and intrigue that man ever stooped to. Why? They are deceived. Light has become darkness, and how awful is the gloom that has fallen upon them! We read, "Speak evil of no man." Yet with what complacency do some go about from person to person, from town to town, from city to city, bearing all sorts of scandal, like a vulture with its claws full of putrid flesh! If it cannot be done by word of mouth, the government mail service is resorted to. The deceiver and deceived are both in a bad way, and will come to a sorrowful end.
22) Unbelief. Here we do not mean that unbelief that is bold in declaring its arrogance against God, but that secret unbelief. Secretly do not believe all of the Bible. Of course we will say that we believe it in order to maintain our standing in the church; but down underneath there is a reserve, and a failure to accept all that the Sacred Book declares. Only the carnal mind can be so tricky and deceitful as to do such a thing.
And now what shall we say more? There are many other symptoms, such as unteachableness, unconcern for the souls of others, malice, striving, the "get-even" spirit, etc. But these are more or less akin to one or another of the above-named; and, lest we dwell too long here, we shall mention no more.
When hunting squirrels in the Southland, as a boy, we learned that when we saw a squirrel's tail sticking out of a hole in a tree there was sure to be a squirrel in the hole. So, when you find the manifestations of the carnal mind, do not try to deceive yourself into thinking that there is no danger. Be alarmed. Flee to the fountain that was "opened for sin and for uncleanness."
Do not forget that anything that is in any way adverse to, or out of harmony with, the Spirit of Christ is an unquestionable evidence of the carnal mind within.
No comments:
Post a Comment