The Battle Is The Lord’s!
Part 3

     One of the busiest places of our spiritual battle is in our minds! We are constantly processing thoughts. We are constantly having some kind of mental attitudes, either positive or negative. Our mental attitudes are so important because that’s where we choose for God and His thinking, or for the cosmic system and human viewpoint. We’re going to look at the importance of our mental attitudes toward ourselves and the thoughts that are in our souls. We’ll be seeing that it is what God thinks that is important! The battle is the Lord’s!
 

Deuteronomy 11:18 You shall therefore impress these word of Mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

      One of the most dangerous areas of our lives concerning our attitudes is the attitude that we have toward self. Sometimes we think too highly of ourselves; sometimes we think too lowly of ourselves. When we do either of these, we are not thinking according to the word of God. What God wants is for us to think, really focus, on Him. He wants each of us to have a day to day relationship with Him! God wants us to think about ourselves the way He thinks about us. He sees each believer as a new man in Christ! How cool is that? Focusing on God is the only way of having a relaxed mental attitude toward self and then toward others. Let’s not focus on ourselves but spend our time thinking according to the word of God. Let’s take in Bible doctrine daily! The battle is the Lord’s!

Romans 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
 

     Our attitudes control our lives! For example, God’s word tells us that all things work together for good to those who love God. That means that if we love God, ALL THINGS work together for our good! We can only love God by getting to know Him. We get to know Him through learning His word, Bible doctrine. When we know and love God, then we can accept every experience in life as ultimately, or in the end, leading to our own good. We can see that God is turning us into the people that He wants us to be. It will make it easier for us to go through the difficult times. It will make it easier to handle and enjoy success. Failure or success depends on our mental attitudes. We need to check our attitudes!  The battle is the Lord’s!

Matthew 23:42 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?”

      When we became believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, each of us received a new nature. What a beautiful gift! However, each of us still have our old sin nature in our body, in our flesh! While the soul is not occupied by the old sin nature, the soul becomes the “battlefield” which the old sin nature attacks. Without God’s power, we are slaves to our old sin natures. We do the things that make us miserable even though we desire to live in our new natures. We need divine help! We can’t rely on ourselves! We need to use God’s power, the power of the Holy Spirit. We must use the plan book, the Bible, and consistently learn, believe, and use Bible doctrine. Then we can live in our new natures!  The battle is the Lord’s!

Psalm 121:1-3 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He Who keeps you will not slumber.

     As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that we are forgiven and justified. We also know that an evil nature still lies ready to attack inside each of us! This evil nature loves to sin! It doesn’t just want to sin, it loves to sin! Salvation is the opportunity to become free from the old sin nature; however, only truth can set us free. Our sin natures are anti-God. We each have been given the indwelling Holy Spirit to make war upon and defeat the power of the old sin nature. We don’t have to be slaves to it! Freedom is available, but only through Bible doctrine and the power of the Holy Spirit. The battle is the Lord’s!

 

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Therefore, keep standing fast [residence, function, and momentum in the plan of God] and do not again become entangled in the yoke of slavery [cosmic system].

Galatians 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

      Doctrine is important because it helps us to recognize our flaws and the control that the old sin nature has over us. We will always have these flaws, or weak areas, but with Bible doctrine in our souls and the power of the Holy Spirit, our old sin nature can be defeated! The battle is the Lord’s! We walked out of the slave market of sin through faith in Jesus Christ. We walked into the free zone of the plan of God. The old sin nature will try to confuse us and get us out of the free zone. We each have a desire to please the Lord, and the more our intake of doctrine increases, the more this desire increases. These good intentions are blocked by the overtime work of the OSN. However, if we get out of the free zone, we just need to rebound! Free again! The battle is the Lord’s!
 

Romans 7:14-15 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I an of [or belonging to the realm of ] the flesh [sin nature], sold in bondage to sin [sin nature]. For that which I am doing, I do not understand. For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very things that I hate.

      Sometimes it is difficult for us to understand that we believers each have an old man and a new man in us. We can’t see them. However, we usually know when we are acting in one or the other. If we don’t get it, the Holy Spirit will help us to get on the right playing field. The old man, the old sin nature, was crucified with Christ. He is gradually dying but won’t die completely until the day we die and go to heaven. The new man, the new nature, has been with us since salvation. We have a new life in Christ. Who we really are is our new nature. We will have that forever! When we sin, it is our old man, not our new man, sinning! Since the sin problem was taken care of by Jesus Christ at the cross, when we sin, we just need to privately tell God the Father our sins. Then we are filled with the Holy Spirit and living in the new man again.  The battle is the Lord’s.

Galatians 2:20 I [the old sin nature] have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I [ the OSN] who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loves me, and delivered Himself up for me.
 

      So, what are our attitudes toward ourselves??? Who are we listening to, God or people? Do we think too highly, too lowly, or just right about ourselves? When we are thinking just right, we are thinking according to Bible doctrine and the mind of Christ. We’re putting aside our old sin natures! We realize that we can’t rely on ourselves and that we are hopeless without Christ! We have to rely on Him! Jesus Christ delivered us from the slave market of sin! How fantastic is that?! We can have complete confidence in God and our own relationship with Him. The battle is the Lord’s!
 

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Therefore, keep standing fast [residence, function, and momentum in the plan of God] and do not again become entangled in the yoke of slavery [the cosmic system].
 

     The effects of sin are guilt and condemnation. Since we have believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are no longer guilty or condemned! As I said, our old man died with Christ on the cross. However, we still feel the effects or power of the old sin nature. We will never stop sinning until the day we die. We have weaknesses, but it is the problem of the Holy Spirit to change us. It is not our problem! In fact, we can’t change ourselves by our power! When operating in our old sin natures, we think that we can! We each must have the humility to say, “I don’t know what I am doing! I don’t have the power to change!” The Holy Spirit will help us! We can have spiritual self esteem because of what Jesus Christ has done for us at the cross! Gaining this spiritual confidence happens a little bit at a time. It takes a lot of learning, believing, and applying the word of God! The battle is the Lord’s!

Psalm 103:10-12 He has not dealt with us according to out sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear [respect] Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions [sins] from us.
 

      When we really see that we can’t change ourselves, we will relax and see spiritual deliverance in Christ. We will be putting our faith in Christ. We’ll be believing that we died, our old sin natures, with Christ, and now we, in our new natures, live in Him. We don’t have to let the old sin nature control our lives! The old man, the flesh, or the old sin nature hates it when we walk in faith! He doesn’t want to die! We can say, “Tough, old man. I’m grateful that you, my self life, have been crucified with Christ. By the grace of God, I am learning this more and more!” The battle is the Lord’s!

Romans 8:5-8 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the Mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
 

      Hopefully, you are now beginning to see how important your mental attitude about yourself is in your spiritual battle. Our mental attitudes are even more important than facts. What happens to us in life is not what determines our failures or successes; each one’s mental attitude is what determines failure or success. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way, and we can’t change the inevitable. However, we can change our mental attitudes toward these things. We can become more alert by taking in Bible doctrine. We can have fantastic adventures in life if our minds are thinking the right thoughts, the thoughts of Christ, divine viewpoint! God cares about where we are right now! The cross gives us the power to handle where we are right now! Jesus Christ has rescued us! He has separated us from the power of the old sin nature. God will always come through for us! The battle is the Lord’s!

Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….

1 Corinthians 16:13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he [a man] thinks within himself, so he is..
 

Remember!

Sin is in us.

Self-will is powerless against it.

Sinful self is not the believer’s real self.

There is spiritual deliverance through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Battle Is The Lord’s

             Part 3

References used:

                    Robert R.McLaughlin Bible Ministries   www.gbible.org                   
                   
                    Lessons:   12-12-07, 12-19-07, 12-20-07, 12-21-07