Number One Enemy Of Mankind
By Sandra Moats
The number one enemy of mankind is sin. Ro 3:23. Sin began in the
Garden of Eden and has continued to plague mankind throughout history.
God through His great compassion and love for mankind has provided the
Way for us to repent and take into our hearts the Truth (Jesus Christ)
who sets us free by removing our sins and gives us life. Jo 14:6. God
has provided for us to have life and have it more abundantly as we
walk by grace in holiness through Jesus Christ.
Many folks now days don''t even know what sin is. They think it is
the old teaching, “You don''t drink, smoke or chew or run with girls
who do.” Involvement in playing cards, dancing and movies, in years
gone by, was considered a sin. These things are many times still a
symptom of sin in a person''s life, but sin is actually something much
deeper. Sin is any deed, thought or desire that is opposed to God''s
will for our lives according to the Bible. I Pet 4:1,2. The core of
sin is found in our attitudes, heart and mind and through these come
our deeds.
Our attitude of worship reveals our mind set. Do we worship God
centered around what He has done for us or do we worship Him because
His glory has captured us? Pure worship flows into our attitudes as
God is more fully revealed to us through His Word.
Our hearts can be wickedly deceitful. Jer 17:9 . One well-known
Christian leader stated after his sexual affair and divorce, “God
wants me to be happy” in defense of his actions and to condone what he
did. There was some truth in that statement, yes, God does want us to
be happy. Yet the whole truth is that God expects His children to be
covenant keepers, faithful to their mates and obedient to the
teachings of His Word, the Bible.
If you only love God for what He has done for you and not for who
He is, you will have a door in your heart left ajar for those
temptations to become sin. The true test comes with temptations that
we face. His outstretched hand has gone before us in the power of His
Word, the Bible. Do we lay hold of that power or do we give in to the
temptations?
We as Christians are commanded to love God above all other beings or
things and to do this with all the faculties of our minds. “And thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first
commandment.” Mr 12:30. Our minds must be devoted to God and not to
other things or people above God in every aspect of our lives.
We knew a young man that worshiped his wife. He had asked Jesus
into his heart, but his wife clearly held first place over God for
him. Later his wife entered into sin with another man and left him.
The young man was devastated and walked away from God, blaming Him for
not keeping his wife (idol) safe. A good marriage producing godliness
always has three persons; Jesus Christ as the head of the husband, the
husband as the head of the woman and the wife.
A Christian woman I knew for years was happily married to a man
who served in the church. Her husband became involved with another
woman and left her alone with three children to raise. Jesus was first
in her life, He became her husband and He cared for her. There was
provision and fellowship with other believers through the years and
then He brought her a fine Christian husband to finish out her older
years with. She became ill and died with that husband faithfully by
her side.
Sin or ungodliness begins within and shows up in our deeds. It
brings blindness to the sinner and separates the person from God. Sin
is never satisfied with the current level of addiction or involvement,
but continually drags it''s slave deeper until there is spiritual death
and many times physical death. “The wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life.” Ro 6:23.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
Joh 10:10. He came to release us from sin and give us eternal life.
Though we are blind we can have sight through Jesus Christ. Joh 3:3.
In order to come into life we must repent of our sins and ask Jesus
Christ into our heart to be number one in our life. Repent means to
turn away from the sin and walk in the opposite direction in deeds and
thoughts. Repentance causes you to review your actions and feel
remorse and regret for your past wrong doing.
When we are saved we are forgiven all of our sins, but as we walk
past the new birth stage there are still sins that try to carry on
into our new life in Christ. Some folks are delivered instantly while
others are delivered slowly, through a process of removal of each sin
until they are able to walk in holiness. Holiness is not a holier than
thou attitude, but rather a holy pure life that includes repentance
daily for anything that would be an offense that would take you out of
the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
Removing sin from your life is not an easy process. I liken the
process to the story of my pet turkey Henry. Henry came to me as a
poult, a baby turkey. He was such a sweet little guy, falling asleep
as he laid in the palm of my hand on his back. Henry outgrew the box
in our living room fast and took well to the outdoors in spring. He
grew to around fifteen pounds by summer when he injured his tail.
While feeding one day I noticed a spot of blood and examined him for
an injury. There was a small one so I treated it. Then I was unable to
take care of Henry for a few days so the kids did that for me.
When I was able to get to Henry again I noticed something was
wrong with him, he just wasn''t acting right. I examined him and under
his feathers I found a hoard of maggots all over his back and tail
area. After cutting all the feathers off I scooped out all the maggots
I could get with a spoon. Many of the maggots had burrowed well into
his back area and eaten part of his tail area. Every few hours new
ones were hatching. We had to make a choice to either put Henry down
or go to work on him for the maggots would soon kill him if he wasn''t
treated properly.
I decided he was my pet so the war against the maggots was on. I
prayed about what to do to help Henry heal and to kill those maggots.
I had the distinct thought to put strong salt water on the infringed
area.
We put Henry in a large cage in our hallway near the kitchen
area. My son Joshua was into helping me with this project. He held
Henry still while shinning the flash light on the area and I picked
off every maggot I could find with my trusty tweezers, and then
syringed salt water on the affected area. Every two hours I changed
the cage, picked maggots and applied the salt water until we came to
the point of finding no new hatchings and no maggots, some two days
later. Henry finally healed and was put back out in his yard, one
happy turkey.
Sin in our lives is like those maggots. If sin isn''t removed it
will bring death. Just as Henry had to be cleansed of the maggots,
Jesus scoops out all those sins when we surrender our lives to Him.
But then comes the new hatchings of those sins that try to cling and
revive. We must be willing to let the Holy Spirit remove each of those
sins permanently and to read the Bible daily so that we have the
washing of the Word over the infected areas of our lives until there
are no more hatchings of sin.
Temptations and hatchings are two separate things. We will always
be tempted to sin, but we can be free of sin residing within us. Some
use the grace of God to fall into temptations, but God has called us
to be holy as He is holy. 1Pe 1:16 . Walking in the Spirit only is
possible as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, reading the Bible and
talking to Him daily. Gal 5:16. May God grant you victory!
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