The Natural Man

The Natural Man The writings of Sumner Wemp Apr 15, 2009 The Natural Man "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them; because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14)   Look at the natural man in the diagram above. He has not heard that Christ died for his sins and rose again. He has not received Jesus as his personal Savior; the Holy Spirit does not reside in his heart. He has never been "born again" and is still in his natural state. The Flesh ("F") The flesh (or self) sits in the driver's seat of the natural man's life. The natural man is trying every which way to get to heaven on his own. His life is filled with the "works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, witchcraft, hatred, wrath, strife, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like, of which I tell you that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19–21). Sounds pretty modern, doesn't it? The Devil ("D") You can see in the diagram that the devil is sitting right behind the natural man, prodding him on. The natural man is "taken captive of him (the devil) at his will" (2 Tim. 2:26). When you see a man making poor choices in his life, don't get mad at him; get mad at the devil, for he is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:3–4; Eph. 2:1–3). People need to hear and heed the Gospel and to be "born again." Let's tell them, shall we? Doesn't that make sense? Prayer: Father, we are thankful that someone told us the Good News that Christ died for our sins and rose again. We are thankful that we believed and received the Lord Jesus so we could be born again. Help us this year to tell the Good News to those we spend time with day by day so they will have a chance to go to heaven. In Jesus' name, Amen. Quote for the Day: "The greatest crisis in the world today is a crisis of leadership, and the greatest crisis in leadership is a crisis of character." —Howard G. Hendricks   We asked Sumner to stop by the East-West offices (http://www.eastwest.org/) last week and it was such a blessing to be around him and glean from his knowledge, experience, and passion for evangelism.  He also let us know that Celeste was doing better and was even able to go out for dinner and walk on her own.