Sin Nature — Scott Stanley

Sin Nature — Scott Stanley

I want to shift gears for the conclusion of this study. And I want to bring in the meaning of the sin nature. And I want to help you understand something that, for me, it was a tremendous revelation and I think, that it’s something that we desperately need to grasp. And I would pray as you go through this section of the study with me that your heart is open to hear God. That He will confirm what I’m saying to you; that you’ll know in your heart this is accurate, this is true.

There is a prophecy about John the Baptist in Luke chapter 1, reading verse 15.

Luke 1:15
15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost [Spirit], even from his mother’s womb.
This prophecy that John the Baptist would be filled with the Spirit while still being in the womb helps us understand a tremendous truth. If you’ll take this prophecy, if you can see the fulfillment of it, still reading in the same chapter, let’s start reading at verse 39,

Luke 1:39 – 44

39 And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda;

40 And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth.

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost [Spirit]:

42 And she spake [spoke] out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou [you] among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

43 And [from] whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy [your] salutation sounded in mine [my] ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

Now consider what we’ve just read. The prophecy was that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit while still being in the womb. When Mary gives her salutation, this is the first time John, the baby in the womb, has heard the voice of Mary. But the babe leaps in the womb and it says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. When we talk about this word “joy,” and you apply that to a baby in the womb, a baby who hears the salutation yet, the baby has no vocabulary, it doesn’t know the meaning of words. And we see the baby experiencing joy. How could it have joy, having never heard this voice before, having no understanding of the meaning of words, except that the mother being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the emotion of the mother that John the Baptist felt. Consider what I’m saying. The prophecy is that John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb. And yet it says, “and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” That baby was experiencing the emotions of it’s mother. Every baby does that. Every child in the womb experiences the emotion of the mother.

Take that back to Cain and Abel and let’s look at Adam and Eve. I’ve often wondered about this sin nature and exactly how this was passed on to humanity. And I think in giving us this in Luke, the Lord is answering that question. The difference between Cain and Abel being born after sin entered the world as compared to before sin entered the world, is the emotions the parents passed to those children in the womb. That’s the only difference. What emotion did they have and why am I including the father now? Because the father has a major effect on the mother and the way she feels on the inside. And remember now, if sin begins in the thought, and God is going to eradicate sin, then when you read the book, it has inward application. It is a book to help you understand inwardly.

So let’s look at Eve, and let me ask you, how do you think she felt after having sinned, being cast out of the garden, cherubim put at the gate with a flaming sword? Death enters into the world. How did she feel inwardly during that time? Do you think it’s possible that she felt rejection of God? I’m not saying God rejected her, but He did drive her from the garden, and not allow her to come back in. There’s a reason for that which we’re going to cover in future studies.

But right now, understand how she must have felt to have this take place. And also realize how it is stated Eve is the mother of all living. What she passed to Cain and Abel, she has passed to all humanity. Why? Because if you are a babe in the womb without a vocabulary, and you are receiving the emotions of your mother, there is now way for you to understand the feelings that you have. You don’t develop a vocabulary until after you have been birthed a year. So those feelings and emotions are in there wrapped up – have never been dealt with.

And you are carrying that your entire life and how you deal with that is a major player in the type of person you become.

When you look at Cain and Abel, each man dealt with it differently. Let me tell you that every human being possesses in their heart a feeling of being “less than” in God’s eyes. It is a rejection of God. If I were to ask you, and I challenge you, go into any room of people, and ask, “does anyone in this room feel as valuable to God as Jesus Christ is? Does anyone feel as important to God? Does anyone feel that God loves them as much as He loves Jesus?” And I doubt if you’ll see anyone raise their hand, that really feels it. They might intellectually assent to it, but they don’t feel it in their heart. It isn’t something that they posses naturally. Yet if Jesus Christ is the price paid from the Father, then we must be as valuable to Him as Jesus. That is the price paid for us.

It’s important that we understand this. Because it gives us a handle on the foundation of the sin nature. It helps us understand what that is. And if we can understand what it is, it can be eradicated. It can be dealt with so that we are set totally and completely free, to walk in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man – the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Now let’s take this thought and understand that the entire world, the foundation of who they are starts right there. It is a rejection of God. That’s why it’s so easy to believe some of the doctrines that we have been told in our denominational experience. It’s so easy to see this angry God and Jesus has to step between us and the Father or we’re going to be wiped out – He has to die at Calvary to spare us. Someone has to die. The law says if you sin, you die. So the Son of God has to go through this because God – He is standing between us and this wrathful, vengeful God. And we can see ourselves, head hung low, and Jesus protecting us from the Father. And I pray as we go through the studies that a different picture begins to emerge for you.

But right now, turn to Psalms 24. Reading from verse 1,

Psalm 24:1

1 The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof [of it]; the world, and they that dwell therein [in it].

2 For [or because] he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

What is the sea?

Isaiah 51:10

10 Art thou [Are you] not it which hath [has] dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath [has] made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
This word, “the waters of the great deep,” this word “deep” is [8415] in the Strong’s Concordance in the Hebrew. The Greek equivalent to this is the word “abyss.” And that is the word used in Revelation that they have translated the bottomless pit. Let’s make the connection. Bottomless pit, the abyss, the waters of the abyss. Waters are a symbol of thought. Waters of the abyss. Our minds are infinite. What do I mean by that? Your mind can never be full. It is infinite. Our minds will never stop growing. Twenty million years from now, you’ll still be able to continue learning. You’ll never receive your last thought because your mind is full. That will never happen to you.

Your mind is infinite. And when Adam and Eve fell into sin, they lost control of infinity, of what was between their ears. And it is a downward plunge that is bottomless. There is no bottom to it. In other words, the wickedness of mankind will only continue to grow. The wickedness of humanity will only get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. You know, when I was a child, it was safe for me to walk the streets, to play outside, to ride my bike all over town. And yet it isn’t so today. Man continues to degenerate in his thinking, in his wickedness. He is learning to perfect it. But notice, by the same token, if I can plunge down, I can go up. I can ascend out of this thing, as God gives me understanding. And if I go to heaven and spend millions of years with Him, and my mind never being full, but continuing to grow, I can be more like God every day. And fifty million years from now, be more like Him than I was at twenty million years – because I’m infinite.

The wickedness of man will only worsen. The only thing that is going to stop it is God. God will put an end to this thing. But He has made you infinite. And when He allowed Eve to feel the way she did, He was creating in her what was to be passed to us. He was allowing her to feel a certain thing. I’m calling it rejection of God. And she passed that to every human being on this planet and it has only increased over the thousands of years. The sea in Isaiah 51:10 is the water or the thoughts of the abyss, that bottomless pit. Now remember in Revelation where he says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and there was no more sea.”

This is something Christ will dry up. He will change that for us. And as we read in Isaiah 51, the sea, the waters of the abyss, this is the way He makes a way for the ransomed to pass back over. It is coming back through that thing, getting a handle on it, understanding, coming back to God. Remember in Revelation 20:1, there is a angel with the key of the abyss and a chain in his hand. And he binds the adversary with that. That is something we’re going to cover in the Revelation studies.

Right now understand, when I read Psalms 24,

Psalm 24:1

1 The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof [of it]; the world, and they that dwell therein [in it].

2 For he hath [Because he] founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

The next verse.

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? [Who shall ascend out of it and go into the hill of the Lord and stand in his holy place?]
You see this word “stand?” That is the Hebrew equivalent “to abide” in the New Testament. Who is going to abide? Who is going to stay in the temple of God? Who is going to ascend out of this worldly foundation of feeling that rejection of God and stand, enter into the hill of the Lord? The hill. In the Old Testament, in the Hebrew, hill and mountain are the same word. The mountain of the Lord. What is the mountain of the Lord? Look at Joel 3:17.

Joel 3:17

17 So shall ye [you] know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: …

So the question is, who’s going to ascend out of the foundation the whole world stands on? Ascend, go to a higher place, into the mountain of God, into Zion. Turn to Revelation 14. Look at verse 1.

Revelation 14:1

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion [Zion. Here is Christ], and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
It doesn’t say, in their foreheads is Father, Son, Holy Ghost. They have ascended into Zion with the Lamb out of the earthly foundation, you could say, the sea is dry. They are standing from the mountain of God, the kingdom of God. In prophecy, a mountain is a symbol of a kingdom. And here we have their most forethought is the Father of the Lamb. They are in the kingdom of God.

Two verses before we close. Luke 17. Look at verse 21. Let’s read verse 20 with this.

Luke 17:20
20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not [doesn’t come] with observation: [or outward observation]

21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

That word actually is “within.” In your margin it may say “among.” You look the word up in the Strong’s Concordance. It actually is “within” you. The kingdom of God is within you. It is between your ears. And compare that to Colossians, chapter 1. Let’s start reading at verse 12.

Colossians 1:12

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath [has] made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13 Who hath [has] delivered us from the power [authority] of darkness, and hath [has] translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

You’re not waiting to be translated. You are translated – spiritually – into the kingdom, the mind of the Son of God. He is your doorway into the Father because as the Father speaks, the Son speaks only what He hears the Father say. And as you enter into the mind of the Son, you’re receiving the thoughts of God. As you seek the Son for His understanding, He is giving you the understanding of our heavenly Father. He is the messenger at the gate. He is the Savior. I pray that you would let Him save you.

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