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Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
(Please note that portions of this sermon are from a sermon that was preached over Television by Bishop T. D. Jakes)
Pastor James May
DOING WHAT COMES NATURALLY
There are two natures found in man, one is the sin nature that we are born with and the other is the heavenly nature that we can only receive by being born again by the Holy Spirit.
One nature loves the things of the world and the other loves the things of God. What kind of nature do you have, worldly or Godly? That’s what we will determine this morning.
Let us examine the description that Peter gives of a man who has the nature of a natural brute beast. It is the nature and behavior of a man or woman who is controlled by sin and have not the nature of Christ.
2 Peter 2:9-14, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed; they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
NOTE: The Holy Angels are represented as bringing accusation against the fallen angels but even they do not over exaggerate the evil of the fallen angels and treat them with dignity and respect before the Father in the courts of Heaven.
…But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And 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 while they feast with you...
These un-regenerated people live among us, act as we do, put on a good front and often appear as a chosen vessel of God and yet they are not. They are a spot or a blemish upon the Kingdom of God and upon the church and bring a reproach upon the House of God. They are deceptive both to themselves and to those around them while they live and feast upon the Word of God among us but their nature does not allow the Word of God to take root and the seed soon dies.
…Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:”
The sad thing is that people who still have the sin nature and have not truly repented and given their life to Jesus completely cannot help but sin for it is their nature but they can put on a good front and fool many who are around them into believing that they are right with God and soon they can drag others down with them. Truly they are “cursed children” of the devil and they only desire to do the things that Satan desires.
2 Peter 17-22, “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.
While they may appear on the outside to be real, what is inside is emptiness and dead. A well may be a welcome sight in the desert until you look in and there is no water there. A man or woman may appear to be a Christian but when you examine their life closely you will find that there is no God there and their heart is still black with sin.
People who don’t surrender everything to God are like a cloud that holds the rain and is driven by a storm. The rain can be helpful or it can be destructive depending upon how it is delivered. The rain falls away and the cloud is gone forever for it has emptied its existence upon the ground but what did its rain accomplish? Was it to water the crops or was it to drown people and cause destructive flooding?
…For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
Now comes the warning for those who claim to know Christ or even have come to know Him in the power of salvation and who turn from God to go back to the life of sin!
…For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."
How does the natural brute beast behave? What kind of nature does a wild animal have? They have no respect for law or authority but only want what they want, when they want it and they will do whatever comes by instinct to get what they want and the only thing that they really understand is brute force.
The destructive beasts of nature such as lions, tigers, bears, poisonous snakes, wild dogs, etc., are rarely tamed to the point that they can be completely trusted to do what is right. Their nature is not changed no matter how much training is given and when they exhibit their true nature only the use of nets, tranquilizer guns or bullets can stop them from being deadly and destructive.
Notice a tiger or lion that has been trained for circus exhibitions. The trainer may have taught them to move at the crack of a whip or the sound of a voice command but that trainer can never forget that these animals are killers and he can’t turn his back on them. Their nature as a carnivorous hunter is still the same and in an instant that nature will manifest itself.
Look at even our “domesticated” animals such as dogs, cats, cattle, horses and others. Yes they may be used to being around humans, they may have been tamed and even become pets for the family and some are even used for the betterment of mankind. How often do you hear of the dog that turns on its master, or the cat that attacks a child, or a horse that kicks and tramples its rider? They are still natural brute beasts no matter how they may appear at the moment and in a flash they can revert to their natural instincts.
THERE’S THE DIFFERENCE – their nature has not changed, only their behavior has been altered but not their heart nor their natural instincts that are controlled by sin that entered every part of creation as the result of the Fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden.
People who have not had their nature changes through being born again and renewed by the Power of the Holy Ghost or who have turned their back on God are just like those natural brute beasts. Their instincts drive them and not their power of reason!
When the nature of a worldly man or woman is not changed they can often appear to be “tamed and domesticated” for a period of time but the true nature will surface sooner or later for we cannot hide what it really in our heart. The scripture says in Matthew 12:34, "...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. " Whatever is in our true nature will come out eventually.
The problem is that we often cannot tell the difference between those who are worldly sinners and those who fall into sin even though they love the Lord! We had better not be too quick to point fingers at those around us who sin against God, but we need to examine ourselves first to see if we are right with God or not!
So how do you know whether the sinner’s nature has been changed or not? How can we tell if there is devil among us?
While listening to a message by Bishop T. D. Jakes, I heard him give an example that has really driven the point home to me.
When we look into the choices that Jesus made for His own disciples we find that even when Jesus chose men to follow Him that they were not all right with God. When they sat down for the Last Supper, Jesus made the announcement that one of them was a devil.
(That is, one of them had the nature of the devil and was living in sin even as they claimed to be a disciple of Christ).
When you consider that 1 in 12 of the choices that Jesus made personally was a devil, I wonder what percentage of those around us are also devils by nature? Would it be safe to confess that 10% or more of those who claim to be Christian really are still devils by nature?
How many Christians don’t really commit their whole heart to God? How many who claim to love Jesus never give Him a thought? How many who claim to know our Holy God still live their lives in an ungodly and unholy manner? Those so-called “Christians” still have the nature of the devil and they are not changed into the image and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One other thing that I noticed was this: When Jesus made the announcement that one of them was a devil, you didn’t see all of the other disciples start pointing fingers and accusing Judas. The interesting thing is that they all questioned whether they could be devil. None of us are guiltless! All of us have sinned! None of us has lived a perfect life of holiness and righteousness! We all have bad attitudes from time to time!
Look at your neighbor and ask them, “When was the last time you acted like the devil?” Now look back and tell them that you did it yesterday or even this morning!
So how can you know who is living for the devil and who is not when we are all guilty of acting like one from time to time?
Let me give you the same illustration that Bishop Jakes used:
We all walk around in a sinful world and when sin gets into your heart, it’s hard to tell you apart from the worldly crowd because sin is sin regardless of which type of nature it invades. The look of sin, the wages of sin and the power of sin is the same in either one.
A pig and a Lamb walking along side by side and both fall into the miry pit of mud. Now both are dirty, both are covered in mud, both look similar in the mud pit but now there is a difference that begins to make itself known.
The pig will love the mud. It will wallow in it; revel in it; brag about it; root around in it; and just have a high old time. You can just see and hear it in your mind’s eye as the old pig just squeals in delight at the mud that he has found. His nature is to stay in mud. He loves being dirty, smelly and nasty. He loves that pit of sin!
But what about the lamb who has also fallen into the same pit? That lamb has a different nature. His nature is not one to wallow in the mud and be delighted with the ugliness of the pit of sin. The Lamb’s nature is to want to get out so it starts trying to climb out by itself.
(While sometimes a lamb can escape from the miry pit in the natural, you cannot pull yourself out and wash away the stain of the mud-sins that cover you! The power of the mud is too much for you and try as you might you are never going to climb out of sin under your own power.)
So what does the lamb do? He begins to cry for help from the shepherd! And that, my friend, is the difference in nature between the worldly sinner and the Christian who falls into sin.
The sinner of the world doesn’t care and thinks that his sin is normal and that’s the way it should be. The Christian knows that sin is not normal and that it will ultimately lead to death as the quicksand effect slowly drowns them in sin and they sink deeper and deeper. Sins power over the heart is powerful and only grows stronger day by day.
The Child of God who does wrong will begin to call out to the Shepherd to set him free and wash him clean again in the Blood of the Lamb.
When we go to the Father in repentant cry it sounds like one of His lost sheep covered in sin that needs His hand to lift them out!
Baa! – God I did not mean to use those words in anger!
Baa! – Shepherd my family is in trouble!
Baa! – Father lift me out of these financial difficulties!
Baa! – Jesus heal me of this disease!
Baa! – God I need your love, mercy and deliverance cause I can’t get out by myself!
Baa! – God forgive me for walking away too far from you!
Sometimes the Shepherd is close by the lamb is delivered quickly while at other times the lamb has wandered far from the Shepherd and the shepherd must travel to where the lamb is.
God is never far away but sometimes we must cry long and hard, and cry with absolute repentance and cry with earnest desire, and cry with all our heart before the Shepherd will come to our rescue.
God knows your heart. He knows your mind and your attitude! God knows when you really mean business. When you really mean business and your cry is really sincere, that’s when the Great Shepherd will come to lift you up.
What changes are made in the heart of man or woman when they come to Jesus with a sincere heart of repentance?
2 Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
Your nature is not of the devil anymore, now it is a divine nature that is breathed into you by the power of the Holy Ghost and the breath of Almighty God. Your heart is changed and now you are a Child of God instead of a Child of the Devil. The worldly pleasures are no longer pleasures to you for you have a higher calling now.
Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"
1 Peter 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."
Ephesians 4:24, "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
Colossians 3:10, "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:"
Do you love the world and the things of the world? Do you actually enjoy the pits of sin? Do you love the pleasures of sin more than the things of God? If so, then your nature is not like Jesus and you still have the old sin nature inside your heart.
Do you sin but hate the sin you commit? That’s the new man crying out to God for deliverance. If you really mean business with God, He will deliver you. But until you really mean business, God may just let you wallow in the mud pit for a while until you get your fill of sin.
The question is not whether we will ever sin, but when, for all of us will sin. The question is; what will we do about that sin? Revel in it or repent of it!
Are you wallowing in the mire this morning, enjoying the life of rebellion against God? Are you more proud of your sin or does it create shame and fear in your heart?
Why not look up from your miry pit and cry out to God with a sincere heart? God will hear the cry of his lost sheep and He will come swiftly to lift you out and set your feet on the Rock, Jesus Christ!
Jesus will wash you clean again with His own blood. He will breathe a new nature into your life. You can be a true child of God if you want to! That’s the only way you will ever be free from the power of sin!
