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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Soul in Conflict

Adopted children gradually take on the traits of their foster parents and drop many of the traits of their actual parents.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about adoption miracles.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

The aged priest in the temple and his youthful assistant had retired for the night.

As they lay sleeping, a voice called Samuel, the young man who was helping the old priest.

Samuel, being an obedient servant, rose from his place of slumber and went immediately to the side of the priest, Eli.

But the priest was surprised, for he hadn't called the lad at all.

Now when this thing happened the third time, Eli realized that the call must surely be the voice of God talking to Samuel.

And he instructed him to go back and lie down again, but he added these words, "...if the voice shall call again, you answer, and say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." So again Samuel went back to his bed, and for the fourth time that same voice spoke to him.

And this time Samuel responded as he had been instructed, and he said, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.

Now, friends, this is the story of God's call to Samuel to be a prophet and a spiritual leader in a time when Israel desperately needed divine leadership.

It was a time of spiritual decline and apostasy in Israel.

The political and social conditions of the time demanded some real leadership, and God would call his people through this humble lad, and his voice would be heard guiding the affairs of his people.

Today in a world of turmoil and strife, the spiritual conditions of mankind must be at their very lowest ebb, and God's voice is still calling men everywhere to respond to his will.

There are at work this very moment strange, almost mysterious powers working on the minds of men.

Voices, unheard with the natural ear, are constantly calling for the attention of men and women and young people.

The souls of men are in constant conflict, and the Bible tells us there are just 2 great powers in the world today.

Paul speaks of these 2 powers clearly in Romans 6.16.

We are told that whichever voice we listen to, whichever power we serve, will be the voice that directs us and the power that controls our lives.

Perhaps today you find your own soul in conflict.

Perhaps you have a problem that seems too difficult to solve.

And maybe in your heart right now there is a deep longing for a better way of life, you deeply desire to serve God, but somehow you find it well-nigh impossible to do it.

Possibly some habit of life has held you in bondage and you need to break with that sin.

Your intentions are the very best, but somehow you fail on every hand in this constant struggle to be free.

Is there no help for you at all, friends?

We want to get the answer to that question today.

I want you to read with me in Romans 7, 15-25, if you want to know the story of another man who was struggling just like we are.

Now Paul speaks and in essence he says this, he says, I find that my soul is in conflict.

The very things I know to be good and right and that I want to do and follow are the very things I fail to do.

And I also find the things that I hate to be the very things that I find myself doing so often.

And then finally in his despair, Paul cries out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this damp?' And so we can see that the Apostle Paul also found his soul in conflict, and he faced the very same problem that we face every day.

Now Paul is speaking here of that same struggle and conflict that you and I need to learn how to deal with and to cope with.

There's the voice of God speaking, and then there's the voice of Satan calling us to.

And since all of us are sinners by nature, we find it much easier to listen to and follow that voice of Satan than we do the voice of God.

Little by little we find that by following the way of Satan we become a slave to the devil and to his way.

But now with the voice of God revealing to us a better way of life, we are constantly trying to free ourselves from the dominion of that evil power.

The struggle for the supremacy and the heart and life of every man has started.

In Romans 7.25 we read that Paul finally found peace and freedom for his soul through faith in Christ who set him free.

Paul realized that while there was nothing good in him, yet Jesus had set him free from sin and from the power of that evil influence over his life.

Now, in this story, friends, and in this experience, we find the answer to our own soul's struggle.

We come to Christ by faith, we confess our sins to Him, we determine to walk fully in His way, but almost before we have taken the first step in this new way of life, we find ourselves falling back into that old, former way.

The voice of God has called us, we've responded to it, but the voice of Satan is there also calling us and wooing us, and by our very natures we seem to find it easier to incline back towards him.

It seems that victory through Christ is just about impossible as far as we're concerned.

What are we going to do about this situation?

Are we bound and tied by these bonds of our fleshly nature so that we can't be free?

Listen, we get up in the morning and start out with every good desire and intention, don't we?

I'm going to practice very hard at being a Christian.

But almost before we realize it, we sin again.

Some old habit of life from the old human nature rises up and we fall back again into defeat.

Day after day goes by just like this 1, and soon we get the feeling that there really isn't much use in trying.

We've tried so hard and failed so miserably that there's just really not much hope for us.

You know, I'm reminded of the legend told about, and it illustrates this condition of life so beautifully that I'm talking about.

The legend says that there was once a wolf who lived on the side of a mountain, and every morning he observed a shepherd in the valley below as he brought his flock out there to graze, his flock of sheep.

Now the wolf would watch all this with fascination as the shepherd took care of those sheep and all of their needs.

The shepherd would lead them to the very best grass and guide them to the best water, and when the sun was high and hot he would take them into a shady spot, And at night he made very sure that the sheep had a warm, safe place to sleep.

So finally the wolf decided that he'd like to become a sheep.

He'd like to have the shepherd take care of his needs too.

But the question came up, how could he become a sheep?

How could he ever get to the place where he could be enough like the sheep to have the shepherd take care of him?

Now the only way he could think of was to just work hard at it.

He'd just have to practice doing the things that the sheep did so that he could qualify to be 1 of them.

So the legend tells how he worked diligently at the task.

Day after day he worked faithfully, earnestly, carefully.

He tried so fully to do everything just like he saw those sheep doing it.

Now I'm sure that If somebody happened along and would have asked the wolf how he was coming along with his task of becoming a sheep, we might have heard him answer this way.

He'd say, well, I'm just doing the very best I can.

But listen, friends, that wolf could never become a sheep even if he practiced day and night for the rest of his life.

If by some means he could have been granted a hundred years, even a thousand years of life, he would have been no closer to becoming a sheep by practicing at the end of his life than he was the day he started.

It would take a miracle from God to make a wolf into a sheep.

Well now, that brings to mind the words of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 13.23.

He asked this question, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots, then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.

And then I also remember the words of Jesus there in Matthew 7.18, he said, A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Now Paul has this to say in Romans 8, 5-9, and this has a lot to do with the subject under discussion.

Verse 8, And for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Because a carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.

Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Now notice how beautifully this explains the difference between our 2 natures and the reason for this terrible internal struggle that is taking place in every human heart.

We are taught in the Bible that through the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, we have inherited their sinful natures.

We are also taught that not only do we inherit their sinful natures, but the penalty of sin is well, which is death.

In Exodus 20, verse 5, we learn that the weakness and sinfulness of man are passed down through each succeeding generation.

Thus we are really sinners by choice, but we are also weak in yielding to sin by being born with a carnal nature.

Now having been born in the flesh, we naturally and easily fall prey to the things of the flesh, things that are quite contrary to the Word of God and the things of God.

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Soul in Conflict

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