The Natural Man
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 643 aired on December 31, 2017
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next few
minutes, please stay with me. As always, it’s a time of motivation, some inspiration, a whole lot
of education, but no manipulation. This show was simply designed to remind you of age-old
Biblical truths that are there and introduce you to an in-depth way of studying and learning God’s
Word. As I said, no manipulation, no solicitation, my job is simply to verify and identify the plan
of God for you. Hopefully you will orient and adjust to the plan. This plan starts with the good
news that Christ, the anointed Son of God has redeemed us out of the slave market of sin and our
debt to God has been paid. We are now free of the penalty of death and free of the power of sin.
If you receive Christ as your Savior you are in effect accepting the offering that He made on your
behalf. It’s a free gift from God. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly says,
“For by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God and not of works lest any man should
boast.”
Today on The FLOT Line we want to look at a study called the natural man, the
disadvantage that the natural man has in the devil’s world. Remember The FLOT Line is about
building a main line of resistance inside your soul so that you use the Word of God as a defensive
perimeter to stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever overrun the command post of
your soul, this means to infiltrate your thinking, and lead you into stress-related sins of any type.
It is possible to live in the devil’s world free of stress. It is possible not to worry. It is possible not
to be afraid. It is possible not to have guilt. It is possible to live free of animosity. It is possible to
live this life called the Christian life. This is my objective, to explain these things to you,
hopefully so that you will learn them, understand them, and you’ll be able to have this wonderful
life in Jesus Christ. Let’s take a look at what 1 Corinthians 2:14 says in regard to the natural man.
“The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him,
nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.”
Here the Apostle Paul writing to
the church at Corinth talks about the unbeliever as being a natural man, not a spiritual man. I
don’t know if you remember me talking to you about the three lives. A few weeks ago I talked
about the physical life, the spiritual life, and eternal life.
The natural man, the unbeliever, has
no spiritual life and he has no eternal relationship with God.
He will spend eternity in the
Lake of Fire not because God is angry at him, not because God wants to punish him, that’s not
the reason. It’s because he rejected the obvious claim that Jesus Christ is the anointed Son of
God. Let’s get some principles down. Who is the natural man? Who is he? 1. He is the man or
the woman who is not born again, that’s who this is. Remember Jesus telling Nicodemus,
“You
must be born again”
(John 3:7). Nicodemus was amazed at that in John chapter 3, “That’s
impossible. I can’t go back into my mother and be born again.” The Lord explained to him that
it’s a spiritual birth, not a physical birth. 2. We are all born spiritually dead and we are all minus a
working human spirit. This is the key to the spiritual life, you have to have a working human
spirit. 3. The human spirit is the immaterial part of man and it’s designed by God to convert
642-The-Natural-Man-transcript.pdf
information, to store information, and to utilize information regarding spiritual phenomena.
That’s the information found in the Bible.
“The Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than
a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and the joints
and the marrow, and is a critic of thoughts and intents of the heart”
(Hebrews 4:12).
In order to
utilize what’s in the Bible, then we must have an alive human spirit – be indwelt by the Holy
Spirit.
This is what is designed by God to convert this information, to store this information, and
utilize it in our spiritual life. This is called wisdom, the wisdom of God. 4. Adam was originally
created trichotomous. This means he had a body, he had a soul, and he had a spirit. This is the
way that he was created, Genesis 2:7,
“The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.”
He had
a body, he had a soul, and he had a spirit. 5. As a result of the fall and sin both Adam and his wife
Eve became dichotomous. This meant they had only a body and a soul. The reason is because at
the time of sin they suffered spiritual death. What is spiritual death? They no longer had the
ability to have fellowship with God. They lost their human spirit and they acquired a sin nature.
Romans 5:12 says,
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death by
sin and so death then spread to all men because all have sinned.”
Adam and Eve were created
trichotomous and when they sinned their human spirits died, they died spiritually, which
meant they were unable to have a relationship with God spiritually.
“God is a Spirit. Those
who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth”
(John 4:24). They were not able to do
this until Genesis 3:15 when God provided a Redeemer. He sacrificed an animal as a redemptive
act of forgiveness of their sin. However, they did have to leave the garden. They could not
remain in an eternal state. Thus we are all born in the line of Adam with a genetically formed sin
nature. It is passed down through the man in the act of procreation. This is why nobody has to set
a child down and teach them how to lie. No one has to set a child down and teach them how to
throw a temper tantrum if they don’t get their way. It’s their sin nature and it’s always the job of
the parent to break the will of this sin nature, to introduce that child to genuine humility. Genuine
humility means they have respect for authority and they obey. If they don’t, then you use
enforced humility and this is where God said,
“Those that I love, I discipline and sometimes I
scourge”
(Hebrews 12:6). Sometimes we have to discipline our children to enforce the humility
that they don’t have genuinely. Genuine humility is what gives you the capacity to operate in life.
In our passage in 1 Corinthians 2:14, the one I read to you, it describes the human race as being
the Greek word
psuchikos.
This means soulish only. You have mentality. You have the ability to
think, logic, reason, comprehend, determine. You have volition, you have the ability to choose.
You have a conscience and that’s a wonderful thing because your parents should program your
conscience to protect you and of course you have self-consciousness, which is awareness of self.
All of this is part of your invisible soul and that’s actually the real you. Your thoughts, your
intentions, your desires, your motives, they all make up the real you. This is why Proverbs 23:7
say,
“As a man thinks within himself, so he is.”
The real you is the sum total of your thoughts,
not what you look like on the outside but what you think on the inside. Jude 1:19 says
“These
642-The-Natural-Man-transcript.pdf
[unbelievers]
are the ones who cause divisions. They are soulish, not having a human spirit.”
An
unbeliever has a body, he has a soul, but he’s dead spiritually. He has no human spirit.
Thus, at the point of salvation or regeneration we receive the indwelling of God the Holy
Spirit which indwells our dead human spirit and we are literally made alive spiritually.
This
is how we are born again. When God the Holy Spirit indwells the human spirit, we are born
again, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul is talking to the
Thessalonians,
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit,
soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul mentions
all three, the spirit, the soul, and the body. The fact that the human spirit exists is taught in many
verses in Scripture such as Job 32:8,
“But it is the spirit in man
[that’s the believer, the Christian]
and the Spirit of the Almighty that gives perception.”
The Holy Spirit gives the human spirit
the ability to perceive spiritual phenomena.
Philemon 1:25,
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ be with your spirit.”
2 Corinthians 7:13,
“For this reason, we have been comforted and
besides our comfort, we rejoice even much more for the joy of Titus because his spirit has been
refreshed by you all.”
Titus had a human spirit born again by means of God the Holy Spirit.
In
Hebrews 4:12,
“For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both the joints and the marrow and able to
judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.”
That’s the mentality of the soul. It’s the
ministry of the Holy Spirit to teach our human spirit. Romans 8:16,
“The Spirit Himself testifies
with our spirit that we are the children of God.”
Thus, the natural man, the unbeliever, the
disadvantaged person has no advantage in the devil’s world. Listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ
said in John 14:16-17,
“I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper
[that’s because
Christ was going away]
that He may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive
[the natural man cannot receive Him]
because it does not see Him and it
does not know Him but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
Abiding
with them was the ministry of the Holy Spirit in enduement, the same ministry that was
throughout the Old Testament. And
“will be in you”
is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost with a resultant filling of the Holy Spirit. In this passage, the Lord Jesus Christ
disclosed to the disciples that He was going to request the Father provide a, this is the Greek
word,
paraklete.
This means a mentor or a coach. He would pray that the Father would provide
this Mentor for the disciples once He departed the scene. The fact that He said,
“You know Him
because He abides with you,”
is a reference to the enduement ministry of the Holy Spirit which
was used throughout the Old Testament. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is promising a different
ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now He’s saying,
“He will be in you,”
and this is a reference to the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the opportunity to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians
1:13 says,
“In Him
[in Christ]
you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
This is
the first thing the Holy Spirit does for the believer.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior,
the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit takes place. This means that you are marked as a
642-The-Natural-Man-transcript.pdf
redeemed individual.
It’s just like the old time way of canning jelly or something. You put wax
or paraffin over it and seal it to keep the oxygen out so it doesn’t spoil or get moldy. Some today
use a vacuum sealing so when we are canning things we don’t use the wax anymore, but this is
what that is. It’s the Holy Spirit sealing you, protecting you, marking you. You are sealed by the
name of God. Then we have the second mandate in Ephesians 5:18 that says,
“Do not get drunk
with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
This is a different ministry
from the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit. Anyone saved is indwelled by God the Holy Spirit,
but the filling of the Holy Spirit is a different process. When we are saved, we are filled and
sealed but when we sin, we lose the filling. We do not lose the sealing, we lose the filling. The
Holy Spirit is quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19) or grieved (Ephesians 4:30) when we sin and
thus we use problem-solving device #1, the rebound technique,
“If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all of our wrongdoing”
(1 John 1:9).
It’s
essential that you understand how to maintain fellowship with God by means of the filling
of the Holy Spirit.
You are sealed with the Holy Spirit when you’re saved but you may be out of
fellowship with God. You may be doing all the right things but you may be doing them in the
wrong way. This is called human good and it is possible for the believer in Jesus Christ to do a
lot of human good. This will all be discovered at the Judgment Seat of Christ where 1
Corinthians 3:10-15 says the fire will disclose it and every man’s work will be manifest. Some of
it will be wood, hay, and stubble and be burned up and some of it will be gold, silver, and
precious stones and this is rewardable. The part that is burned up are all the good deeds you did
in the name of God but not filled with the Holy Spirit. You did it in the energy of the flesh the
same way an unbeliever would do good deeds in the energy of the flesh.
Anything done outside
the filling of the Holy Spirit is human good. It’s the energy of the flesh and God will not
and cannot reward you for this.
Remember this in your study. If you want to have eternal
rewards, you must maintain the filling of the Holy Spirit as per Ephesians 5:18.
“Do not get
drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 3:16 tells you,
“Do you not know
that you are the temple of God and that the Holy Spirit lives in you?”
He dwells in you and He
desires to fill you so you have a choice. The unbeliever doesn’t have this choice. You can allow
the Holy Spirit to fill you and thus lead you and thus give you great wisdom through the Word of
God or you can operate like an unbeliever, indwelt by the Holy Spirit but not filled with the Holy
Spirit. This means you have unconfessed sin in your life. The unbeliever is at a distinct
disadvantage in the cosmic system. That’s the world, the
cosmos diabolicus
since he doesn’t have
the insight or the foresight of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. You on the other hand have a
wonderful opportunity to have a personal Tutor, a personal Coach, a personal Guide to navigate
in the devil’s world if you stay filled with the Holy Spirit and if you use the problem-solving
devices. Problem-solving device #1 is how to handle sin, use rebound, 1 John 1:9. It’s the means
of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Problem-solving device #2 is the filling of the Holy Spirit and
this is how I produce divine good as opposed to human good production. If you use problem-
solving device #1, if you confess your sin consistently when you’re aware that you sin, either a
642-The-Natural-Man-transcript.pdf
mental attitude sin, a sin of the tongue, or even an overt sin, God promises that He will be
faithful and just to forgive you and this is the secret to the filling of the Holy Spirit. The devil is a
master deceiver and the way he deceives people is using organized religion to convince many
people that they are going to heaven since they are morally good people. They think, “Since I’m
morally good then that’s going to get me some brownie points with God and I’ll be going to
heaven.” This is not what Ephesians 2:8-9 says.
“For by grace you have been saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not as a result of any type of work, so that no
one could boast about it.”
The only way anyone will ever have an eternal relationship with
God is by means of faith alone in Christ alone, faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
When He cried out on the cross to tell us
tetelestai or “It is finished”
(John 19:30) this meant
that the redemptive work had been accomplished. He laid His life down as a sacrifice for us. This
is why 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,
“He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we could be
made the righteousness of God through Him,”
or by means of Him.
This is how we have a
relationship with God, through Jesus Christ.
When we receive Him as our Savior, His perfect
righteousness is accredited to our account just like our sin was accredited to His account on the
cross. If you want to have a relationship with God, if you want to have an advantage in the
cosmos diabolicus, living in the devil’s world, my suggestion is you believe in Jesus Christ, and
receive Him as your Savior, allow the Holy Spirit to indwell you, and then stay filled with the
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit needs ammunition. He needs ammunition to steer you and
guide you and the ammunition is the Bible.
It’s the Word of God where it says,
“It’s alive and
powerful.”
We are told to,
“Study to show ourselves approved unto God a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed”
(2 Timothy 2:15). We are told to,
“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
(2 Peter 3:18). Without this studying and without this growing,
the Holy Spirit doesn’t have the ammunition He needs to direct us, guide us, and lead us in the
plan that God has for our lives. The next principle I want to give you regarding the ministry of
the Holy Spirit is that you now have the opportunity to be refreshed by others who are like-
minded, other individuals. This is a wonderful thing. When you are fellowshipping with people
that think like you think, that believe like you believe, it’s a wonderful fellowship because the
fellowship is not based on who we are or what we are or what we can do for one another.
Like-
minded fellowship is based on the truth of the Word of God and we rejoice together in this
truth.
It’s not a physical fellowship. It’s a spiritual fellowship based on the Word of God. Listen
to what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:13,
“For this reason we have been comforted and besides
our comfort, we rejoice even much more for the joy of Titus because his spirit was refreshed by
all of you.”
When you’re around like-minded believers you have a refreshed attitude, a refreshed
spirit. Thus, you have a distinct advantage over the unbeliever who has no clue about what’s
going on in the cosmos diabolicus, the cosmic system, or the devil’s world. He doesn’t have a
clue. His only option is human viewpoint thinking. This means he has to depend on people or
circumstances to provide his happiness and what a shame. Unhappy people take their
unhappiness with them wherever they go. Some people think that if they have certain things
642-The-Natural-Man-transcript.pdf
they’ll be happy. If they win the lottery, they’ll be happy. If they get a new automobile, they’ll be
happy. If they have the right relationship, they’ll be happy. There is something called temporal
happiness. It doesn’t last. It’s not the joy that Jesus Christ our Lord talked about. The joy that He
talked about is an incredible happiness even in the midst of adversity. Remember what it says in
Hebrews 12:2,
“Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the
shame.”
There is no greater joy than being in the center of the plan of God for your life.
May I suggest to you that you accept the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him as your
Savior? If you will do this, then you will have a rebirth of your human spirit. The Holy Spirit
will indwell you and He will be your personal Guide, your personal Mentor, your personal
Coach, and Protector in the arena of contention called planet Earth. The wonderful thing about it,
it’s a free gift from God. You can’t earn it, you can’t buy it, you don’t deserve it, it’s a free gift all
complements of the finished work of Christ on the cross for you. Have you ever accepted this
gift? Have you ever made the most critical decision anyone could ever make, to believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, to put your faith alone in Christ alone? Tell the Father, “I’m not depending on
my good works Father. I’m not depending on anything but the finished work of Christ on the
cross and I want to believe in Him and receive Him as my Savior.” You can word it anyway you
want but express this faith to God in prayer and He will answer. You will have eternal life.
Romans 10:13 says,
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Until
next week this is your host Rick Hughes saying thank you for being with me today