◄ ►

The Natural Man

Theatural manoes not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him(1 Corinthians 2:14)

Here truly will be found such as are sinners manifest to all; here heathens who are often referred to by the "civilized" (?) as "sitting in darkness" (what a false comparison!), but here also are included the most enlightened by the light of civilization as such. Here are some of the greatest brains the world has known. Here are multitudes of the most scholarly and learned. Here are even many whose researches have led them far into the realms of theology and theosophy. Yes, they include many who have held place in ministry and office in what is called "The Church." Many of these live lives which from man's point of view are morally almost flawless. And yet, and yet, with all they do not know in that realm and in that vital way which is "life," eternal life, because Divine and not human life. Look again! What is their description? "The natural man receiveth not... neither can he know the things of the Spirit of God."

It should be well known by now that that word "natural" in the Greek is psychical. Perhaps the faulty translation is not altogether unfortunate for the natural man is the psychical man, and the psychical man is the natural man. He is a different species so to speak from the spiritual man. As the word implies the psychical man is entirely governed and bound by reason, feeling, volition, within a world of sense. But the things of the Spirit of God are not in that realm in the first instance. True, spiritual forces can and do register themselves upon psychical apparatus, but the psychical apparatus does not know them (hence the delusion and deception of spiritism), and this is true to the absolute in the matter of the things of God. Not only the delusion of spiritism has its ground in the psychical as a registering apparatus, but the entire counterfeit of the truly spiritual or divinely spiritual is in this realm. Evangelism, "Apostolic" teaching and practice (?), "Pentecostal" experience (?), prayer force, and even exorcism can all be merely psychical. Signs, sensations, impacts, can be psychically produced by the use of the most orthodox New Testament language and doctrine, even the Name and the Blood of Jesus may be employed in terms and language. There is only one sure safeguard against the colossal delusion by which multitudes will be carried away in the latter days, and that is a clear apprehension of the teaching of the Holy Spirit concerning soul and spirit and the continual operation of the Cross in the realm of the "natural" man. No, the natural man CANNOT! He may be full of religious knowledge, emotions or feelings, and activities, but if the Bible thunders more than speaks on any matter, it is this: that such can be the most mistaken and deceived. The highest reach of genius comes far short of the lowest degree of Divine inspiration and revelation.

A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest.

Inasmuch … as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same. § “The Man who is My Companion,” says the Lord of hosts. § I and My Father are one.

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. § There will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm, and rain. § The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

When my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. § You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble. § You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

Isa. 32:2;  Heb. 2:14;  Zech. 13:7;  John 10:30;  Ps. 91:1;  Isa. 4:6;  Ps. 121:5,6;  Ps. 61:2;  Ps. 32:7;  Isa. 25:4

Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.

The new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me … So shall your descendants and your name remain.

We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Isa. 65:17;  Isa. 66:22;  2 Peter 3:13;  Rev. 21:1;  Rev. 21:2;  Rev. 21:3;  Rev. 21:4;  Rev. 21:5

From First To Last Adam

For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace" (Heb. 13:9).

Thorough and intelligent establishment in the principle of grace concerning one's justification (re-birth) is the necessary footing for reliance upon the same principle for one's sanctification (growth). Unless the former is well settled, the latter will be badly unsettled.

"When the Lord Jesus has once died and risen, He is through with sin forever. He is now living in the eternal light of His Father's face. He is our Adam, our life. We died in Him. We were raised in Him. Through our death with Him at Calvary we have escaped forever from the old Adam life. Our feelings have nothing to do with it. It was all accomplished at the Cross.

"We dare not deny God's Word. He says we died with Christ. We can cry triumphantly, when we know: I died unto sin with the Lord Jesus on the Cross, two thousand years ago! I reckon myself what the Father says I am in His Son - dead unto sin and alive unto God. Sin has no claim on me in the Lord Jesus, and cannot have dominion over me, as I yield myself to my Father in this wonderful new revelation of yielding myself to God, as one who is alive from the dead' (Rom. 6:13). Thus will we begin to find how true and how tremendous is the deliverance that is in the Lord Jesus for us. And thus alone will we really honor the grace of God." -W.R.N.

"There is no way to a full abiding fellowship with our Father, but through the rent veil of the flesh; through a life with the old man crucified in the Lord Jesus. God be praised that the Holy Spirit ever dwells in us to keep the old man in the place of crucifixion and condemnation, and to give us progressive liberty from all the old." -A.M.

"As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor. 15:49).

Nehemiah, Man of God - (2)

Foreknown of God