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Post Falls SDA Church

Life At Its Best

Willard Santee

Extremes in Faith and Works

Today, as you've noticed in your bulletin, I am going to be sharing a little addendum, which is kind of a supplement to our series we just completed called Life at its Best.

And today we want to talk about a little understanding of the mind and body relationship.

I'd like for you to take your Bibles before we get into our study and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew just for a moment if you would please.

Verse 28, the very end of the chapter, Jesus makes a rather interesting invitation.

In verse 28 he says, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what?

Take my yoke, in verse 29 he goes on to say take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls he says it again For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Those are things that God is inviting us to experience.

Rest in Him, rest for our souls and burdens that are light.

Interestingly enough God says take my yoke upon you which would imply something.

Are you and I from birth yoked up with something other than Jesus?

And as we carry the heavy burdens of life, Longing to be free, we reach a point in our maturity where we finally say, God, I'm tired of being yoked up with the old man, with the old flesh, with the old self that's guided by Satan himself continually whipping us into shape.

God, I want to be yoked up with someone who can give me rest and make my burden light.

Now if you haven't reached that point yet in your life, I want you to know that Jesus is inviting you to experience that even today.

God wants you to change yokes From the partner you were born with, which is Satan himself, to a brand new partner, that of Jesus Christ, who will bear your burdens for you.

Jesus said, cast all your care upon me because I care for you.

But our minds unfortunately are in charge of our bodies and our bodies seem to direct the flow of our thinking if you please they're sort of tied together from birth before I really get into today's study Let me just say at the very outset here that this study actually represents a work in me that's still in progress.

In other words I am not professing to hold all the answers to the issues that I want to address today.

But I do know in my heart of hearts that there is a God who is willing to teach us if we're willing to study His word, and He's willing to share with us if we're willing to listen to what He has to say.

Now in our last study of Life at its Best, that five-part series that you can now access on the web if you want on our web page.

We talked about the justifying and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

We looked at both our title and our fitness to heaven.

Our title being justification and our fitness being sanctification.

We also shared that Satan doesn't want us to understand the plan of salvation or the work that God wants to do for us through justification and in us through sanctification.

The reason that Satan wants us to be ignorant of these things is because if we were to ever understand them, He knows that we would choose Jesus to be yoked up with.

He also knows that Jesus would give us a new heart, a new mind, a new desire, and Satan's power would be forever broken, and Satan is bent on keeping us in the dark.

This is why Satan works so hard to keep us in ignorance.

However, if we begin to study the plan of salvation or listen to it being preached, Satan will move in, I'm suggesting, beloved, as I've told you before, he'll move in and play the role, if you please, of the Holy Spirit Himself.

Or He'll play as though He's Jesus Christ.

Or He'll come as an angel of light to control, if you please, our new religious experience.

In a little magazine called Signs of the Times written September 24, 1896, I found this little statement.

Listen to this, Satan Does not always appear as a lion This has reference you already called a Peter when he said Satan as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he might destroy and devour Listen to this Satan doesn't always appear as a lion He has the power to come as a lamb and then his voice is soft and low.

Paul said to the Corinthian Church in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verse 14 and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

As He masquerades as the Spirit of God or as an angel, He instructs us, beloved, on how to live the Christian life.

And the reason he has such incredible success in this is because he knows how to take advantage of our minds which are selfish and bent on evil from birth.

Your carnal nature and mine has a natural bent towards sinning, which unaided we cannot resist.

Satan, knowing this, takes advantage of us when we want to be born again, whatever that is, and we want to become a Christian, whatever that means.

And he immediately says, let me show you how.

And because our carnal nature, hear me now, because our carnal nature has this natural bent toward doing things that bring it satisfaction it will then move toward Christianity no matter what the cost in order to be blessed or benefited.

An important point we don't understand it but I'm going to say it again.

Our carnal nature which is in opposition to God will even come to God that it might receive a greater blessing than had it remained away from God.

See, your carnal nature isn't exactly opposed to God, even though he hates God.

But if he can get a greater blessing out of being a Christian, he'll go for being a Christian.

And we have a lot of people today that are still living in the flesh, playing like Christians, because they're getting more benefit out of playing the role as a Christian.

I've discovered that you're gonna be lost in that program.

Take your Bible if you wouldn't turn with me to a text that verifies what I just said.

It's in the book of Romans and let's go back if you would please Romans 8 verse 5.

It says, For those who live according to the flesh, And I've asked you this question in other way another time, but what kind of a nature were you born with?

A sinful fallen nature, a fleshly nature, Right?

For those who live according to the flesh, that's you and me from birth, that's the only way we know how to live.

They set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, they set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

So from birth you and I set our minds on the things that our natural nature loves and that's perverted things.

But evidently Paul is speaking about another group of people who have reached a point in their life where they actually are walking in the Spirit.

Verse 6 goes on to say, For to be carnally minded, that's the way you and I are born, is death.

But to be spiritually minded, whatever that is, is life and peace.

Verse 7 goes on to say, because the carnal mind, that mind you and I were born with, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.

Therefore Satan wants to simply let that old carnal mind still be in charge of your body and he also wants you to profess religion at the same time.

And that's why I've told you before, some of you, a number of you before, that going to church is a pain to the old man.

But he'll do it if he can get gain for the old man.

Some people come to church because it's politically correct, because there are certain strokes from certain folks if you go to church and have sort of a religious creed.

It plays out good in the political arena.

But beloved, going to church and taking the old man with you, you'll never be at peace with God.

In Jeremiah 17, verse 9, the Bible says that the heart or the mind is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and then it asks the question who can even know it who understands the human heart we do strange things and don't even know why we're doing it.

We as parents correct our children, disciplining them.

That's a no-no word today, But we used to even, at least Willie got a few spankings along the way, to put him in the narrow way.

And Willie learned through the old nature what to do to avoid spankings.

He knew there were certain perimeters that mom and dad had at the home.

As long as Willie stayed within those boundaries, his backside was safe.

He said to the old nature, I want you to behave yourself because we're getting into a lot of pain here.

And so the old nature got into line, got into step.

And the spanking stopped And Willie became an ideal child.

He simply brought his old nature into control that he might be benefited.

See, Willie was looking after number 1 himself.

He wasn't interested in obeying unless he could get strokes from mom and dad as a result.

And that sort of carried over into his Christian walk.

The way I got strokes from God was to do what God asked me to do.

Because I understand when God punishes it's forever.

And so Willie brought his old nature along with him to church and Willie said you've got to get that old man under control and you've got to do certain things if you want God to bless you You know what?

Worked for about 40 years of ministry And then I discovered that it's really not working at all.

I never really received victories in the area that I was I was trying to look good and be good but I never was good just look good.

Oh no I was accepted people accepted me why not they were faking it just like I was.

We were all in the same program, all went to the same church, every Saturday we were there sitting in the same pews singing the same songs of victory but none of us having it.

Oh I shouldn't say none because every generation has had a few innings tucked away.

Men and women in whom God has full control.

According to Romans 8 verse 7 in the Amplified Bible, it says that the mind of the flesh with its carnal thoughts and purposes is hostile toward God, For it doesn't submit itself to God's law, indeed it cannot, but it will if it can benefit.

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Series

Life At Its Best

Extremes in Faith and Works

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Talking Points, 3rd Quarter 2021: Rest in Christ

05 Come to Me

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All

39m

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Spirit-led Discipleship

The Love Factor, Part 1

1h

Noah, The Real Story

Noah, The Real Story- God’s Grace

29m

Philosophy's Achilles Heel

The Daniel Cycle

29m

Five Keys to Inner Peace

58m

InVerse 1st Quarter 2025: Renewing the Mind

10 Managing Stress

29m

The Stress Relief Prayer

45m

Sound Doctrine