Why do people go back to the world? Why do people who once were passionate about Jesus and His kingdom settle for a lukewarm or even dead church? Why do people who once hated sin and the world all of a sudden become fascinated with it? Why is that people who once would pray for hours now spend hours watching television or wasting time playing video games instead?
The answers vary but I believe that one answer is that people get tired of battling their flesh. Let’s face it, it is much easier to give in to our flesh than to fight it. Satan will tempt us and he will bring the pleasures of the flesh into our path and we might fight it for a while but often times we eventually give in. Why is this so? Is this because we are sinful by nature and born sinners? Or is it something else or even a mixture of both our sinful nature and our own laziness?
I know from 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God has promised that whatever sin we face He will provide a way of escape. There is no excuse for sinning. We can blame it on Adam and Eve all we want but in the end, we sinned. We alone sinned against God (Romans 3:19-20). 1 John 3:4 says that sin is lawlessness and that is what we do when we sin, we violate the Law of God and our conscience bears witness that we are guilty as charged (Romans 7:7). This is why preaching the Law of God is so important in evangelism. Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:8-11 that the Law was not made for the righteous but the unrighteous to show us that we are sinners and guilty before a holy God. Grace is beautiful when we see it in light of our sins. Jesus said in John 16:8-11 that the primary work of the Holy Spirit would be to convict of sin and He does a great job at it.
I have found that when people stop taking up their cross (Luke 9:23-25) and dying to self (Romans 6:11), they soon will give in to the flesh. Make no doubt about it, we can’t overcome sin apart from the Holy Spirit. We must depend upon Him and Him alone to help us overcome sin. Left alone, we would sin. But thankfully God has sent His Spirit to help us be conquerers through His grace (Titus 2:12 NIV). God’s grace is not given to us so that we can abuse it (Jude 4) but so that we can be victorious over sin, the devil, and the flesh.
Yet people love the flesh. It’s in us to want what is best for us. We are self seeking, self focused, and self pleasing. This is why preaching today from the Bible is at an all time low. The “series” sermons are all focused on getting your best life now and living to your full potential but all the while holiness, dying to self and sin, and living a life of sacrifice for Jesus is ignored or not preached. And let’s face it, that kind of preaching doesn’t get you a book deal or a TV special but it gets you a cross! If Jesus preached what the modern church preaches today, He would never have been crucified. But Jesus confronted sin and He confronted the flesh and this is why people hated Him so (Mark 7:1-13). Even when Jesus did miracles, His miracles went against the flesh of men and they wanted to kill him for this (Mark 3:1-6).
Because people quit fighting the flesh, they give in to the flesh. They might say the right things to people and they will claim to be radical disciples of Jesus but inside they know that they are not following Jesus. They are burying their flesh in “American Idol” or whatever movie is popular at the time. They live, breath, and dine according to the flesh. They once knew the prayer closet and they once cherished the Word but now they indulge their flesh. They once despised “seeker churches” for all the gimmicks and failure to preach holiness and repentance but now they like it because they never feel guilty. They once listened to convicting sermons but now they ignore such sermons out of fear. They once talked about evangelism being their passion and the anguish at the thoughts of souls dying and going to hell but now all they want to talk about is love.
Where are those who are dying to self? Where are those who will seek God while He may be found (Isaiah 55:6) and cry out to Him (Luke 18:1)? Where are those who live with an eye on eternity and not on the flesh (2 Corinthians 4:14-16)? Oh where are the true people of God?
© 2011, Matt. All rights reserved.
