The same generation that saw the plagues, that saw the Red Sea part, that drank water from a rock and ate food from the sky, died in the desert without entering into the Promised land. “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17) Food, and enough for all, yet millions of metric tons of it are destroyed each year, the wonders of modern medicine, yet profits hinder the healing of many, the Word of God, able to lead all to salvation through Christ, yet embarrassment and shame hinder the spreading of the truth.
Since the fall of Adam, we have had only one thing on our minds, us, our own personal desires, and nearly everyone from that day of the fall of Adam until today looks only to the world for the fulfillment of these desires.
Satan is the father of lies, (John 8:44) and, for the moment, this world is his, so it only stands to reason that the world would be built on lies. Because the majority of our desires arise from the flesh, we seek the fulfillment of them through the world, for the Spiritual man can find no substance for his soul here. This is the continuous battle for those who would live for the glory of God. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Romans 7:18-19)
We are in good company.
Those who have been crucified with Christ desire to please Him above all else, by praising His name, by obeying His word, we do what we can to keep ourselves unspotted from the world, (James 1:27) but when there are no breaks from it, when there is no place that we can go on vacation to escape from it, it can be difficult to say the least to remain in that desirous state. We have to live here, there’s no other place to go.
If you could live on another planet, alone, never to see another human being ever again, would you still be living in the world, until you arrived home to glory? How much of the world, whether we like to admit it or not, do we carry with us no matter where we go, no matter who we are around. If you had no needs of the flesh, not just if everything was provided for you, but if the flesh needed nothing, would you still be in the world? The same could be said for our wants, if we had none, would we still be subject to the world?
Sin is what binds us to this place, we are as men being torn apart, wanting what is inside of us gone. We will always have some form of sin within us. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8), until we are glorified, that is what the Lord is going to do for us, He is going to free us from the world by removing from us the last vestiges of our old nature, we will finally be free indeed.
We can’t hide from the world, in fact, we are commanded to go out into it, (Mark 16:15) while remaining apart from it, and this requires a strength that we do not possess. You can’t pretend at this, showing up to church and then heading back out into the world without the guidance of the Holy Spirit being asked for by you will drag you back into that world of lies before Monday morning rolls around. You must carry your cross, you must deny yourself for His glory, you must be able to wake up every morning for forty years to nothing but manna and be joyous about it. Only the Spirit filled life can live this life fully.
