Part 3 – Recognizing the Enemy of Our Souls

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called The Reorientation of God’s Ambassadors.

There will be many spies, traitors, bribes, blackmail and various attempts to “get an advantage over you” (2Cor 2:11). Your only defense against the various tactics, “devices” and “wiles” (Eph 6:11) of the enemy-the master deceiver-is to constantly keep before your mind the knowledge and “assurance” that has been given to you by your “Head” as a member of “His Body.”

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to SEDUCING spirits and DOCTRINES OF devils…TAKE HEED unto thyself, and unto THE DOCTRINE; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (1Timothy 4:1,16).

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me…” (2Timothy 1:13).

Do not “depart” from them. It will be very tempting to take “their word” for it as it will “eat as doth a canker” (2Tim 2:17) but it is merely “a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away” (2Tim 3:5). The “power” is the TRUTH which has been communicated through the “sound doctrine” contained in the “form of sound words” which make up the “word of truth” composed of the “words of truth” which you HAVE and POSSESS and can hold in your HAND and can READ to “study” and “rightly divide” in accordance with the “pattern” that has been given to you in the ministry of Paul as the “apostle of the Gentiles.” You have “the scripture of TRUTH” (Dan 10:21), made up of the “words of truth” (Ecclesiastes 12:10) and you are to “handle it honestly” (2Cor4:2) according to your instructions and “blueprint” as God’s “one new man” in light of the “revelation of the mystery.” There is no reason for you not to know the “mind of the Lord” (Romans 16:25,26; 1Cor 2:6-16; 3:10; 4:16,17; 2Cor 4:2; Ephesians 1:9; 3:4; 2Tim 2:15; 3:16). There is no reason for “ignorance.” God wants you to be fully “equipped” and “established” through the edification process (Romans 1:11; 16:25).

“Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren…” (Romans 1:13).

“Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)” (Ephesians 3:4).

So let us begin to “renew our minds.”

When it comes to the world, the Bible is a NEGATIVE book. It is unabashedly PESSIMISTIC through and through. Only a fool would feel optimistic about the world and its system after reading through the Bible.

“For there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20).

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf…” (Isaiah 64:6).

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“If ye then, being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children…” (Matthew 7:11).

“…For if, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, BEING RECONCILED, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10).

“And you, that were sometime ALIENATED and ENEMIES in your mind by WICKED works, yet now hath he RECONCILED In the body of his flesh THROUGH DEATH, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Colossians 1:21,22).

“Because the carnal mind is ENMITY against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

“…that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

Make no mistake about it. If you are not “in Christ” then you are God’s “enemy” and He is your “enemy.” You are as “unclean” as a leper in your inner man, “darkened” in your thinking and wholly given over to a certain mentality and worldview that patterns your Edenic forefathers. You are infected: S.I.N. positive. “Positive”, just like your father (John 8:44), not “negative.” “YEA” to sin, “Yea” to rebellion against God’s Law, “Yea” to the world, “Yea” to Man, “Yea” to calling God a liar and “Yea” to being your own god. The serpent will not accept God’s “negativity” to sin and relativism. It is too “intolerant” and not “pluralistic” enough. He is not “broad-minded” enough.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and BROAD is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and NARROW is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. BEWARE of FALSE prophets, which come to you in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:13-15).

“A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit. Fools make a mock at sin…There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death…The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident…The simple inherit folly: but the prudent are crowned with knowledge” (Proverbs 14:6-9,12,14-18).

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25).

In fact, the only thing (the natural) Man is “negative” toward is God, His word and the “judgment” it pronounces over him. He doesn’t think calling God a liar is “narrow-minded.”

“Now the serpent was more subtil…YEA, hath God said…And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall NOT surely die…ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was GOOD for food, and that it was PLEASANT to the eyes, and a tree to be DESIRED to make one WISE…” (Genesis 3:1-7).

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by GOOD words and FAIR speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you WISE UNTO THAT WHICH IS GOOD, and SIMPLE CONCERNING EVIL…now to him that is of power to stablish you ACCORDING TO my gospel…” (Romans 16:17-19,25).

This sin principle dwelling in you will manifest itself more and more over time as you begin to fall apart as it were, and will be fully manifested when you end up six feet under. You think you are a “god.” In your darkened, deluded, “corrupted” will, you continue to deceive yourself and make reality fit with your preferences. You refuse to submit to the truth and its “instruction” and “correction” and pretend that the “truth” is whatever you want it to be. You will gladly worship an “idol” or “god” so long as it is a “god” made in your “image” after your “likeness.” You desire to be “wise” concerning that which is evil.

“Even as they did NOT LIKE to retain God in their knowledge…” (Romans 1:28).

Simply put, whether you recognize it or not, as long as you are “in Adam” you are “alienated” from God and His life. That is not all the bad news, however. Yes, it gets worse. Not only are you in this miserable, wretched state and separated from God by your sin, but there is absolutely nothing you can do on your own to remedy the situation. You know you are “naked” and all you can do is vainly attempt to “cover up” your condition with your own “religion” and the “works” of your own hands (Genesis 3:7). The problem is that “all our righteousness are as filthy rags” and eventually your fig leaves will dry up and you will be exposed as the disobedient sinner you are. The “fruit stand” religion of Cain just won’t cut it (Genesis 4:3). The shedding of blood was required to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve and “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4).

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).

“But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3,4).