God's Peace
RO99-01

We have already seen in Romans 8:5 that Paul has identified two governing forces which operate in all human beings. Some people are governed by the lust patterns of the sin nature. Such people have the mental orientation to fulfill the desires of the sin nature. They have a mindset which devotes itself to violating God's moral standard. This mental attitude expresses itself in corrupt living, and in acts of human good works. This kind of a mentality (the sin nature mentality) is widespread in American society today. This particular mental frame of reference characterizes the unbeliever (the lost person) – the one who is on his way to the lake of fire. So, in the first part of Romans 8:5, we read about this mind, the mind of the flesh, and they who pay attention and are governed by that mind.

However, there are other people in the human race who are governed by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Such people have a mental orientation to fulfill the desires of God the Holy Spirit within them. They have a mindset which expresses itself in godly living, and in acts of divine good production. This mental frame of reference characterizes the believer (the saved person) – the person who is on his way to heaven. This is the person who is receptive to the moral laws of God as revealed in the Bible, and seeks to obey them.

People Are What They Think

The Unbeliever

The Believer

So, here you have, within the human race, two governing forces that operate on every human being: the sin nature mentality on the one hand – that sin nature frame of reference, mental attitude mindset; and, the Holy Spirit-governed mentality, on the other hand. And the results in the life of each type of individual is totally different.

Death

Life and Peace

Now the unbeliever has an earthly lifestyle which he considers living it up. But God says that he is very, very much mistaken. The unbeliever, controlled by the sin-nature mentality, is not living it up. What he is, is dying it down. 1 Timothy 5:6 expresses this principle that the way is the way of death. In 1 Timothy 5:6, Paul says, "But she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives," speaking here particularly about a woman who is living a sinful life. She's living in pleasure. She says, "I'm living it up," but God says, "You're dying it down is what you're doing. You're in the grip of death.

In Revelation 3:1, we have a whole congregation of believers who are described as thinking that they were living it up. And because they were possessed by a sin nature mentality, God said, "You're dead:" "And unto the angel (or unto the pastor-teacher) of the church in Sardis, write these things: 'He that has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your works, that you have the name that you live, and are dead.'" As people look at you (this church is Sardis), everybody said, "Oh, what a wonderful, powerful, alive, on-the-ball congregation." And God said, "You stink with the putrefaction of death because you are governed by a sin nature mentality.

Proverbs 12:15 puts it this way: "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkens unto counsel is wise." And there are many fools in the world who are controlled by the sin nature, who think that they are producing a way of life.

Proverbs 14:12 adds to this: "There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

So, don't be staggered, and don't be overpowered by people who are very confident and very arrogant, and who are very definitive about what life is all about, and where it's at. The sin nature mentality is always characterized by arrogance, and it thinks it is in the know. But God says, "It is a producer of death."

Genuine Peace

Isaiah 57:20-21 put it very effectively in these words: "But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest; whose waters cast up mires and dirt. 'There is no peace,' says my God, 'to the wicked.'" There is no peace to the wicked, and the sin nature mentality produces nothing but turmoil.

Now that's all the unbeliever has. The sad part is that sometimes the Christian devolves to nothing more than that, when he chooses to be controlled by the carnal mentality.

If you've ever stood by the seashore, and watched the ocean waves rolling in, and throwing up on the shore all of the refuse, and all of the death, and all of the destruction that's out there in the waters, you can understand why the seashore is often such a smelly place, because it has the stench of death.

Peace With God

Peace of God

Peace in the Millennium

You might be interested in pursuing this on your own. Isaiah 2:4 tells us about this time of peace that will be enforced upon the world. Isaiah 9:6-7 and Isaiah 11:1-10 describe a time, yet future in world history, when there will be peace upon the nations. And those verses tell you how the instruments of war will be converted into the instruments of peace and agriculture. And they will not be learning war anymore; they will not be practicing war anymore; and, there will not be armament production anymore. There will be genuine peace upon the face of the earth. And that is the only time in the history of the human race when disarmament will work – when Jesus Christ is here, enforcing the divine viewpoint mentality of the Holy Spirit-oriented thinking that will control the world at that time.

Disarmament

So, the Word of God is very clear. The sin nature is a beast, and it does not produce peace. It produces death. That's all – whether in you and me, as Christians, or in the unbeliever. It is only the Spirit of God mentality that produces life and produces peace. The sin nature, however, is a fact of life. And as all of us know, it is in every human being. And if left unrestrained, it will produce moral corruption and violence in a society. The sin nature of man went on an unrestrained rampage before the Noahic flood, so that evil of every kind permeated human society. And in Genesis 6, we have the details of the consequence of the sin nature of mankind on a rampage where nobody was restraining the sin nature. Nobody in society held the in nature back. Nobody in society made any rules against the expressions of the sin nature.

Genesis 6:5 said, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Continually, the sin nature produced nothing but evil. And as we have learned, the word "mind" that Paul uses here in Romans 8 is a frame of reference (a mindset) – a content. And what Genesis 6 tells us is that the content of the mind of mankind was evil continually, every moment of the day.

In Genesis 6:12 says, "And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted His way upon the earth." That mind of evil led to corruption in actions. The ways of people were totally corrupt. Furthermore, this rampant, unrestrained, moral corruption then resulted in what inevitably follows moral corruption. And I hope you have learned that principle. Something inevitably follows when a society does not restrain moral corruption. The next thing that comes is violence, and fear along with it.

In Genesis 6:11, therefore, we read that: "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence."

Genesis 6:13 says, "And God said until Noah, 'The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'"

So, God decided to terminate the moral corruption and the violence that it produced in human society by executing the whole human race with the flood, except for the eight godly members of Noah's family. God, therefore, removed the evil that had developed. But after the flood, God observed that the sin nature in man was still there. The thing that had caused the problem was still in existence. Therefore, God took another step. He made a very dramatic, significant step.

In Genesis 8:21, He established a way to control the sin nature in society from thenceforth. In Genesis 8:21, we read, "And the Lord smelled a sweet Savior, and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for men's sake, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." God said, "I'm not going to destroy all of mankind again with a worldwide flood. But here's something that still does exist. From the very moment a person is born, he is drenched with the human viewpoint and corruption of the sin nature. From his youth, that still is there." Therefore, that problem still existed.

Therefore, in Genesis 9:5-6, God provided a new element for the human race in order to control the corruption of the sin nature, and thus to hold down the violence. In Genesis 9:5, we read, "And surely your blood of your lives I will require. At the hand of every beast I will require it, and at the hand of man. At the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man?"

Human Government

Then, as the Old Testament Mosaic Law was given, that was expanded under the theocracy to other things that if a person did, they were considered capital crimes. If you spoke with evil spirits, and if you dealt in the occult, that was a capital crime, and you were executed for that. But it all was based upon the concept that now human government was to be instituted. For what purpose? For the explicit purpose of controlling (restraining) the sin nature of man.

So, the basic responsibility of human government is to enforce God's moral code upon the sin nature of man in order to restrain the expression of violence in human society and to preserve human life, during this era when Satan rules the world. That's why it was necessary to have human government. And here is what it's all about. Human government was explicitly given by God to maintain restraint upon the sin nature.

Now when a human government deviates far afield that basic responsibility, then it is an evil thing. It has removed itself from God's limited intent for it. And when human government, on the other hand, abandons the rule of restraining moral evil in a society, it has violated the principle of the divine institution of government.

So, human government's basic responsibility is to restrain the sin nature. It is significant that this human government was instituted immediately after the flood. For what reason? To prevent a recurrence upon the earth of that total condition of violence. God says, "Now, man's sin nature is still going to be there. And I'm going to give you authority to establish magistrates, and to establish legal systems by which the sin nature will be restrained. I will reveal to you My moral code in the Word of God, and then you will build laws on that moral code. You will build laws against stealing; laws against murder; laws against bearing false witness; and, laws against all of these things that are contrary to the moral code that I will give you. And then government is responsible for enforcing those laws. In that way, violence will be restrained upon the earth. And when societies have done that, people have been able to live in peace. When societies (when governments) have abandoned their role of restraining moral evil, and when, worse than that, they have taken the role of expanding and promoting and justifying moral evil, then fear and violence has entered a society. And that's where we are coming, indeed, today. The reason that human governance was brought immediately after the flood was to keep from having another recurrence of that widespread violence on the earth.

Human government today has the divine right, therefore, to punish moral corruption in order to preserve society. In Romans 13:3-4, we have the New Testament statement of this principle. Paul says, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Will you then not be afraid of the power of civil police authority? Do that which is good, and you shall have the praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he bears not the sword in vain (the authority to execute, and lesser punishments beneath that), for he is the minister of God, and avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil."

There you have got a very clear statement of what human government is supposed to do. And when human government gets into things beyond maintaining law and order, it has prostituted its divine purpose. The sin nature has to be controlled in human society. It cannot be given free vent to express itself. If we do that, then the result will be violence and fear and death. All man-made laws for restraining the moral corruption of society by the sin nature must be based on the Bible, therefore. And that is what the Bible very clearly portrays.

Here's another interesting line of scriptural revelation. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5, we have a description of terrible conditions which will exist in human society immediately preceding the end of the church age. Human beings will sink to the absolute lowest level of moral degradation. The apostle Paul reveals this in 2 Timothy 3:1: "This I know also: that in the last days, perilous times shall come – perilous violence and fear. Why our times of fear are going to come upon the human race? Why are people going to be afraid to go out at night? Why are people going to be afraid to walk by themselves in isolated places? "For men shall be lovers of their own selves: Covetous; boasters; proud; blasphemers; disobedient to parents; unthankful; unholy; without natural affection." We have lots of examples of that: "Without natural affection." Mothers are taking their babies, and plunging their hands into boiling water so they'll stop crying and behave themselves. They are doing the most absolute bestial, subhuman things to infants, without natural affection, that an animal would not do to its child: "Truce breakers; false accusers; incontinent; fierce; despisers of those that are good; traitors; heady; high minded; arrogant; lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it. From such turn away."

He says, "These terrible conditions are going to exist." And they do exist today. The last verse, verse 5, caps it off by saying that the worst thing about it is that these people are going to walk around parading themselves as religious people; as moral people; as the church crowd; and, as the people who are in contact with God. They have a form of godliness. They go through their religious rituals, but they deny the power that comes from a Holy Spirit mentality.

The leaders in this moral degeneration, then (Paul goes on here in 2 Timothy to point out), are ignorant intellectuals who are enslaved by their sin nature mentalities. 2 Timothy 3:7 describes them in this way: "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." They're always learning. They're always setting up committees and commissions to study something. They're always examining. They're always researching. And they never come to a knowledge of the truth. Why not? Oh, they're smart. They've got good IQs. But they're ignorant of the Word of God. And that makes them ignorant intellectuals.

In 2 Timothy 3:8, we're told of two such moral corruptors who rejected the Word of God, which was brought to them by Moses. Their minds were disoriented from reality by the sin nature. Verse 8 says, "Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth (these who will be practicing these things in the end times): men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." These men have corrupt minds. Why are they corrupt? They have sin-nature-controlled mentalities. Therefore, they are corrupt in their thinking. What they call upon people to do is corrupt, and they are reprobate, which means they are rejected by God concerning the faith. They are rejected in terms of salvation because they have rejected God.

Then notice verse 9. In due time, verse 9 tells us, that those who tolerate moral evil in society, instead of seeking to restrain it, will be brought down by God. 2 Timothy 3:9 says, "But they shall proceed no further." There's going to be an end to this sin nature domination: "For their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was; that is, as Jannes' and Jambres' folly was revealed. Human viewpoint liberals, folks, are losers. They are building with their sin nature a house of cards. And Paul says, in 2 Timothy 3:9, "These people will go just so far, and then God is going to stop them. Right now, it looks like they're riding high.

You and I'd better take a lesson from this ourselves. What a little bit of evil; what a little bit of sin; what little bit of compromise; and, what little bit of human viewpoint thinking are you engaged in right now? Do you notice how you can get away with it for a while – quite a while, sometimes. But I can assure you that God says, sooner or later, He's going to bring it down, and you are going to find that the whole thing is going to come crashing down on your head. And the longer you go, the greater the disaster; the greater the humiliation; and, the greater the shame. The Word of God says, "Stop it. Confess it. Turn around, and get back on track with divine viewpoint thinking.

It is significant that God shows us that those who have human viewpoint mentalities do not seek to restrain the moral evil of the sin nature. On the other hand, those with Holy Spirit mentalities who seek to restrain the sin nature in society are not going to be welcome, and you must be prepared for that. The people who seek to restrain the sin nature mentality, and its expression, are going to be hated; resisted; belittled; ridiculed; ignored; and, persecuted.

2 Timothy 3:10-12: "But you have fully known my doctrine; my manner of life; purpose; faith; longsuffering; love; patience; persecutions; and, afflictions which came upon me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."

This is what we have in our society today. We have Christians who are saying, "These moral corruptions that are tolerated, dignified, and accepted in our society are wrong. They're bringing the judgment of God down upon us, and we want it to stop. So, we're not going to tolerate the murder of abortion. We're not going to tolerate the degradation of homosexuality. We're not going to stand still for the evil of a government that steals the fruits of God's people, and violates its role as government to be a distributor of wealth, which the Bible never authorized it to be. To all of these things that are contrary to the Word of God, the voices of Christians are rising in objection. What's the reaction?

The unsaved world, with its human viewpoint mentality, is like a raging beast. He is snarling; he is biting; he is stomping; he is scratching; and, he is trying to destroy those who want to live a godly life. And those who believe the Bible, that you cannot live with that kind of godliness and get away with it, that, in time, the whole society will suffer. And when a nation is plunged into war under the judgment of God, I can assure you that the Christians do not escape the consequences. They suffer along with everybody else. Therefore, it is to the wellbeing of the Christian family to take a stand against the corruption that human viewpoint has instilled in our society.

Now let's take a look at verse 7. Here he picks up the sin nature mentality. In Romans 8:7, he says, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God." The word "because" looks like this: "dioti." This is a word which is introducing the reason for the statement that he made in verse 6. He had said that those who have a flesh (a sin nature) mentality produce death, and those who have a Holy Spirit mentality produce life and peace. It's the reason for the output of each. He says here specifically the reference to the sin nature: "The carnal mind." The word "carnal" is "sarx," which is our old word for "flesh," which is referring here to the sin nature. And he speaks about the sin nature mind (the "phronema") – that mindset. We've had that word before.

The Sin Nature is Hateful toward God

The Sin Nature is the Opposite of "Agape" Love

That's what's so amazing – that the sin nature tries to say, "It's not clear. God hasn't explained that in the Bible. We don't know what's right and what's wrong. We don't know what is to be imposed on society, and what should be required of everybody. That's a threat to our freedom." Why do they say that? Well, because they're hateful toward the One who has explained it very clearly indeed; toward the One who has communicated that standard; and, toward the One whose holiness compels Him to punish evil-doers who reject the sin payment of Jesus Christ – evil-doers who must be punished by this holy God.

Romans 2:5-10 make that clear to us, where Paul says, speaking to this sin-nature rebel: "But after your hardness and impenitent heart, treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, Who will render to every man according to His deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But unto those who are contentious, and who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

So, here's the contrast. He is saying that God is going to punish. You hate God, and you hate Him because you know He's going to punish you, and you rage against Him, but you may count on it that you are against Him, but He is going to punish. That's the one whom you're opposing. The essence of sin is actually hostility toward God instead of peace – to be at war with God. The sin-nature-governed mind is totally antagonistic to God. The basic motivation is hatred for God – all that He is, and all that He does.

The Unbeliever Hates God

Do not Cast your Pearls before Swine

The Pearls

How many of you are letting your children listen to honky-tonk, rock music, so that when they turn the radio on, that's what they look for. Boy, can we tell about the kids at school anytime they have a choice like that to like something on the radio or sing something? We know what the home is teaching them in the matter of music, and how corrupting that influence has been with some of them. Here are the pearls of showing you something better.

Now the sin nature mentality expresses its hostility to God, this verse says, by attacking the servants of God, and the divine viewpoint truth, and the ministries which are being offered. "The swine type," the Lord says, "are going to trample with contempt the pearls of Bible doctrine, and the pearls of instruction in living." They are going to be hostile to God's point of view. Now what he's saying is that the swine will take those precious pearls (and pearls are a precious gem), and they will look at them; they will sniff them; they'll snort at them with their snout; and, then they will stomp on them and crush them. They'll just smash them. They will treat them with total contempt.

Furthermore, the dogs and the swine types are those who will turn on the communicator of God's viewpoint, and on those who are serving in God's work. That's what's interesting about the sin nature. It is so hostile toward God that it must be hostile to those who speak for God: to those who speak God's truth; and, to those who speak God's ways. And the rage of sin nature mentality, then, Jesus says, "Seeks to tear to pieces those who deliver God's Word, and who train people in holy thinking and godly living. That's what the last part of verse 6 means.

After they've trampled the Word, and after they trampled your guidance under foot, then they'll turn again and. . . The King James has "lacerate" or "rend." The Greek word that is used here means "tear you to pieces." They're going to jump on the people who are speaking the mind of Christ, and they're going to tear them to pieces.

This pattern of hatred against God's messengers by those who are hostile to God is, of course, to be expected. We don't have time today to read Matthew 10:16-40, but I would urge you to read it on your own. There the Lord describes to His disciples, as He's sending them out, what people are going to do to them. He said, "The religious gang is going to take you, and they're going to beat you. They're going to literally beat your body in order to serve God, because they're going to hate you so for what you tell them that I have taught you. The sin nature in those people will seek to tear you physically."

Furthermore, Jesus said, "The servants of God must not pursue that negative volition type. What this passage is saying is that you, as a Christian, who have God's divine viewpoint; who know how to guide people to doctrinal truths; and, who know how to advise people on life and what they should do with their minds and with their bodies, have a responsibility to take care to whom you take that information. Generally, that's not what Christians are told. They're told just go out there and talk to everybody, and spew it all over. If somebody punches you in the mouth, go right back and say, "How about giving me another one?" That is the old "hit the other cheek" routine, which doesn't apply to this age in the first place. It applies in the millennium, where if you do that, there's an angel that cuts you down.

The Word of God says, "You are responsible with what you do with your ministry." Once you've shot it, remember, you'll never get it back. You've got just a little box of so much mental capacity; emotional capacity; spiritual capacity; and, physical capacity. And when you've invested it, that's it. It's gone for that day. You'll never get it back again. And God says, "You must not invest that in the dogs and the swine. When they turn on you, then you step aside, and you go to the next person and say, "Are you interested?" And you go to the next one, and you keep dealing with positive people.

Matthew 10:12-15 is a passage that Christians generally have not properly learned when it comes to their service. Jesus says here, to His traveling ministers: "And when you come into a house, greet it. And if the house be worthy (that is, it responds with a positive volition to your greeting in the name of the Lord), let your peace come upon it. But if it be not worthy (if it's a negative resistance), let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you (not hear your words), when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet." Make a demonstration against them that you are turning them over to God. . .

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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