All right, let's open our Bibles
again now to Genesis chapter 25. Continuing this morning, looking
at some questions that are asked in scripture. And the title of
this morning's message is, Why Am I Thus? I believe I have a
message that will be very helpful to every child of God here this
morning. Because this message is going to deal with us right
where we live. We're going to deal truthfully and honestly
with who and what we are. This is also a very important
message because this doctrine we're going to look at, the new
birth, the two natures in our believer, is a doctrine that
is under attack in our day. We would do well to learn what
scripture has to say about it. Now you who truly believe on
Christ, you know this. You know you love the Lord. You
know you love the gospel. Love the gospel. You love God's
people. You trust Christ, and you find such assurance and peace
for your heart trusting Christ to be your all, don't you? You
don't have to do anything to please God, but you can trust
Christ. He's pleased God for you. You're trusting, don't you?
You love Him. You love that. You love trusting
Christ to be everything it takes to save your soul. You do, don't
you? That's a true, honest statement. But this is equally true. We
often find a hardness of heart in ourselves, don't we? At times
we find ourselves with a heart that's cold, and it's unaffected
by hearing the gospel preached. At times we find ourselves feeling
very indifferent towards spiritual things, spiritual matters. We
feel a very strong love and strong desire for the things of this
world, but we find ourselves indifferent to spiritual things.
We think, now, I truly love the Savior. That's not just something
I say. I mean, I do. I love the Savior.
And I need Him. I need Him. Well, that being
so, why do I find myself so indifferent about Him and about salvation
in Him? My soul feeds on the gospel.
The only thing that can feed my soul and edify my soul and
strengthen my soul is hearing the gospel of Christ preached,
I love it. Well then why do I find myself
being unaffected by the gospel when I hear it? The gospel declares
the savior that I truly love and depend upon. Then how can
my heart be unaffected when I hear of him? I really do trust Christ. Well then why do I always want
to find myself trusting the works of the flesh? and trusting in
the self-righteousness that I'm trying to establish by my own
words. Why do I do that? I really do trust the Lord. I
do, I trust Him. But boy, let the slightest storm
cloud appear over my head, and I find it so easy to doubt His
providence for me. Why do I do that? I love the
Word of God. I love the Word of just reading
it, hearing it read, having it preached to me. Boy, the surest
cure for insomnia is me to read the word of God. I just fall
right asleep. Why do I do that? It's shameful to say, but that's
our experience, isn't it? That's the experience of every
one of us that believe on Christ. John Newton, who wrote the song
Amazing Grace, how sweet to sound, that saved a wretch like me.
Boy, he wrote that song. There's no doubt in that song,
is there? Amazing grace. Newton also wrote this. Disappoint,
I long to know. Often it gives me anxious thought.
Do I love the Lord or no? Am I his or am I not? If I love,
why am I thus? He's asking the same question
Rebecca's asking here. Why am I thus? Why this dull
and lifeless frame? Hardly sure could they be worse
who never heard his name. Could my heart so hard remain,
prayer, a task and burden prove? Every trifle give me pain, if
I knew the Savior's love. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I
deem myself a child? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
Tell me, is it thus with you? If we're being honest, it is.
I know some people don't like that song, but this is why I
say about that. Brother Newton was being brutally
honest about the experience of a believer in this life. We shouldn't
be cold. Sometimes we are. We shouldn't
doubt, but sometimes we do. We should never be indifferent. But sometimes we are. And if
your experience in this life is like our brother Newton's,
you may wonder from time to time, what is wrong with me? Why am
I the way that I am? Well, our Lord answers that question
for us in his word. And here's the answer to the
question. Then I'm going to spend about 30 minutes expounding on
that. Here's the reason I am the way
that I am. It's the nature of sin that's still That's why I
am. That's why you are the way that
we are. You see, a believer, and I'm talking about a believer
here now, has two totally separate, distinct natures that live in
one person. That's not schizophrenic, that's
so. That's what the word of God says. There's a nature of the
spirit. The scripture calls it the spirit.
That nature is holy and it's righteous. It can never sin,
because it's of the seed from which it was conceived and born.
He was born from the holy, sinless seed of the Word of God. So that
nature that's born of the Word of God is righteous and holy. That nature believes Christ,
that nature loves Christ, and it can't do anything else and
never will do anything else because it was born of the Spirit. But
the believer also still has an old nature of the flesh, that
nature that we were born with the first time. And that nature
is spiritually dead. It's sinful, and all it can do
is sin. It's the sinful nature of our
father Adam that we received from our fathers when we were
conceived. Frank Tate Sr. passed on a sinful nature to
Frank Tate Jr., because that's the only thing he had to pass
on. And bless his heart, then he spent a number of years trying
to teach me not to act on that nature. And he has work cut out
for him. but it's the only nature he had
to pass on to me. See, that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. You can try to chain it by the
law. You can try to restrict it by threats of the many spankings
that my father gave me. But that flesh, all it can ever
be is dead flesh. That's all it can ever be. The
flesh can never believe Christ. It can never see Christ. They
can never see myself as I am, so I'll never see my need of
Christ. That dead flesh can't trust Christ. The only thing
my dead flesh will ever trust is my dead words. It's the only
thing it'll ever trust. And even after a person's born
again, we're given a nature that believes Christ, that loves Christ,
that trusts Christ, even after we're born again, that flesh
does not improve. The new birth does not improve
The flesh, I think. This week I put an article. I don't know which ones I put.
Yeah, this week there's an article by Pastor John Chapman about
that. Even after we're born again,
regeneration does not affect the flesh. It's still dead. It's
dead, sinful flesh. And that's all it ever can be. So in every believer there's
a sinful nature. All it can do is sin. And there is a holy nature
that can never sin. All it can do is trust Christ
because that's its nature. And both of those natures, both
of those two men are really me. It's really me that sins. And
it's really me that believes Christ. Both of those natures
are me. And those two distinct opposite
natures will always fight against one another. Because they're
opposites in every way. They have opposite natures, so
they have opposite desires. They have opposite opposing directions
that they want to go. So the flesh and the spirit,
the old man and the new man, whatever terms you want to call
them, they have opposite opposing religions. And boy how many wars have been
started in the history of man over that issue. Opposite opposing
religions. So those two natures will always
fight against one another. Tell you what makes a believer
miserable, that makes us ask this question, why am I thus?
It's the civil war that's going on inside each of us. That's
why we are the way that we are. Now, let's look into God's word
and see if what I just told you is not the truth. Is that what
the scriptures teach? God, I want you to take my word
for it. Let's see what the word of God says about this thing.
We have a text this morning that gives us a picture of this truth,
and then we have an explanation of it in the New Testament. And
I want to give you three points on this subject that I believe
will be very helpful to the believer when we ask, why am I the way
that I am? Why did I do this? Well, number
one, inside every believer lives two completely different natures. Verse 19 of Genesis chapter 25. These are the generations of
Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac
was 40 years old when he took Rebecca to wife, the daughter
of Bethuel, the Syrian of paid an arm, the sister to Laban,
the Syrian and Isaac and treated the Lord for his wife because
she was barren and the Lord was in treated of him and Rebecca,
his wife conceived. Now Rebecca was barren. Rebecca
could not produce life in her womb for 20 years. She tried.
and couldn't do it until the Lord put life in her. That's
when she conceived, when the Lord put life in her. And isn't
that a picture of our flesh? Our flesh is dead and it cannot
produce spiritual life. You can make the flesh religious.
That's easy to do. It's easy to make the flesh religious,
but you can't make it righteous. You can't make it live. The flesh
can't produce any righteousness, any holiness, or any good works.
The only thing the flesh can do is produce more sin and more
deadness. So the only way we can have spiritual
life is if God puts it in us. Now that doesn't mean that you're
to do nothing and sit on your porch and say, oh well, nothing
I can do. If God's going to put life in
me, he'll put life in me. You know, the Lord uses means. And
if you're dead and you want life, you'd be wise to avail yourself
to the means. The means that God the Holy Spirit uses to cause
this new birth, to cause this new man to be born in the hearts
of God's people, is the preaching of God's Word. It's the Word. Boy, I'm telling you, as soon
as you're born again, as soon as God the Holy Spirit causes
that new life to be born in you, brother, your struggles have
just started. There's not going to be a bed
of roses from here on out. Your struggles have begun. God
causes you to be born again. There's a picture of that in
verse 22. And the children struggled together
within her. And she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And
she went to inquire of the Lord. Now, if you just think of Rebecca
as a woman who wanted to be a mother. 20 years she tried to have children,
couldn't have them. And suddenly she realizes she's
a child. And she's miserable. I mean, this pregnancy's making
her miserable. And she thinks this must be a happy time. What
is wrong? And she goes to inquire of the
Lord. You see, there was peace in Rebecca's
womb until life was formed in her. When life was formed in
her, the war began. The war began. The children began
to struggle within her. And that struggle wasn't just
pushing and shoving The word struggle there means to crush. These children were trying to
crush one another in her womb. I mean, there was a war going
on in there. And they're trying to struggle, crush one another,
because those two babies in her womb were opposites in every
way. And they began fighting the very
moment that they were conceived. There's peace before that, wasn't
there? Same way the child of God. You can be peaceful. until
you're born again, then the war begins. And these two boys are
a picture of the two opposite natures that live in every believer,
the flesh and the spirit. We see that picture in the natures
of Jacob and Esau, through verse 23. And the Lord said unto her, here's
why you're thus, here's the problem. Two natures are in thy womb and
two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And
the one people shall be stronger than the other people. And the
elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered
were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the
first came out red, all over like an hairy garment. And they
called his name Esau. And after that came his brother
out. And his hand took hold on Esau's heel. And his name was
called Jacob. And Isaac was three score years
old when she bared them. And the boys grew, and Esau was
a cunning hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain
man, dwelling in tents. Now, Rebekah said, what's wrong? Why am I thus? And the Lord says,
because there's two different men, two opposing natures that
are living inside of you that you're going to give birth to.
And the first one was Esau. Now, Esau was a man's man. I
mean, this man was an outdoorsman. He was a hunter. I'm just betting
you Esau could fix things. Something goes wrong at your
house. I call Eric. You call Esau. Esau knew how
to fix things. Esau knew how to build things. He knew how
to construct things and do these kinds of things. Esau was just
the kind of man that everybody liked to be their friends. You
and I would probably really like Esau. Bet we would. Well, men
may have loved Esau. But God didn't. Before Esau was
ever born, you know what God said about Esau? I hate Esau. And Esau hated God. You know,
this is a two-way street. Esau was a reprobate from the
beginning. The writer to the Hebrews says
Esau was a fornicator and a profane person. That's why he sold his
birthright for a bowl of stew. He wasn't starving to death.
I mean, you ever, I tell Janet that, I'm starving to death. I've just got to have something
to eat. He wasn't starving to death. He despised the birthright. And the birthright's not just,
well, you get the inheritance. The birthright's a relationship
with God. He despised it because he hated God. That's Esau. Well, then there's Jacob. Jacob,
from what it sounds like here, he didn't really like to do a
lot of things that men normally do. He's not an outdoorsman at
all. He liked to stay in the tent, you know, and cook and
those kinds of things. Honestly, it appears, nothing
wrong with a man wanting to cook, but it appears Jacob was a mama's
boy. Now, especially you little ones,
listen to me here. I got a story about this. I know a man who,
he grew up at Grace Church, and he heard his pastor talk about
like Jacob, and he talked to men who were husbands, and he'd
tell them, don't be a mama's boy. Don't be a mama's boy. He's
just a little fella. He heard his pastor say that. And he thought,
I wonder what that is. He had a really, really, really
good friend. And he told his friend, you're
a mama's boy. He didn't know what it meant. And that boy's
never, I mean, to this day, is not his friend anymore. So just don't be calling people
that. But that's what Jacob was. I mean, he was. He's a mama's
boy. He's a weak man. He just let his mama boss him
around, even when he was a grown man. And these two twins, Jacob
is just not the fella that we choose to be our friend. I mean,
you're around Jacob, you always feel uneasy. Because he's scheming
all the time. You just feel like, I got to
protect my wallet. He's scheming all the time. You
just got to be on your guard around him. We wouldn't like
Jacob. We wouldn't like being around
him. But God loved Jacob. God chose
Jacob to be his. He chose to save Jacob and pass
Esau by. Because God saves sinners. God
doesn't save people to deserve it. God saves sinners. These two boys are pictures of
the two natures that live inside every believer. Every believer
has the nature of Esau. Once you're born again, now you
know it, don't you? Because it's the old man that
can see, or the new man can see the old man. We have the nature
of Esau that it's sinful. It's a nature that would reject
God. By natures, we'll say, yeah, I'm like Esau. I'm a fornicator. I'm a profane person. My nature
of Esau can't do anything but sin. And even after God saves
us, that nature's alive and well. Strong, strong nature. Jacob, on the other hand, is
a picture of the new man who's born of God. He's holy, he's
righteous, and he can never sin. He trusts Christ. He trusts Christ. He rests in Christ. He looks
to Christ. Oh, he loves the Savior. Now
you take a snapshot of us at any given time. I'm talking about
believers now. Sometimes you can't just really tell that from
looking at us in the flesh, can you? But that's exactly what
God's people are. He's made them to be holy and
righteous. That's what Jacob is a picture
of. Verse 27 says Jacob was a plain man. And that doesn't mean that
Jacob was plain, unattractive. That word plain means perfect,
and complete. And I have no idea why the translators
translated this Hebrew word here plain. It's the only time ever
they translated it plain. Every other time this Hebrew
word is used in scripture is translated as perfect, undefiled,
or upright. That's what God has made his
people to be. He causes a new man in us to
be born again He's perfect, he's undefiled, and he's upright.
And here's the problem that has caused this truth to come under
attack in our day. It's by nature, when you look
at somebody on the outside, you can't see it. All you see is
sin. We can't even see in our own
self, can we? Everything I do is filled with sin. By nature,
nobody would look at Jacob and call him perfect or complete.
Far from it. But that's exactly what Jacob
is. Not in himself, in Christ. And that's the new man that's
born in every one of you who believe. He's perfect and complete. And I'll show you that. Look
at 1 John 3. I wouldn't make it up. I promise
you, I wouldn't make it up. This is what the word of God
says. 1 John 3. 1 John 3, verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. And here's why. For sin remaineth
in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Now, a lot
of people say, well, John didn't mean that there. I always want
to ask, if he didn't mean that, why'd he say it? They say John
meant the believer doesn't practice sin. Well, if that's what that
means, we may as well shut our Bibles and go home, because nobody
here is saying that we never will be. Never will be. Do you
practice sin? Of course we do. Everything we
do is filled with sin. So this verse doesn't mean you
don't practice sin. Just because you're born again
doesn't mean you quit sinning. The verse means exactly what
it says. The new man born of God does not sin. He can't sin and he never will
sin. Because his seed remains within him. He's born from sinless,
pure seed. Now that old man, all he can
do is sin. Because he's born from sinful
seed. But the new man cannot sin, because he's born from sinless
seed. Look over 1 John 5. See, we know, verse 18, John
5, 1 John 5. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. See, that new man cannot
sin, Because God keeps him and he's perfect. He cannot see him. Almighty God does not accept
that new man because he counts him to be righteous even though
he's not righteous. That bothers me a lot. God doesn't
play. God does not pretend. He calls
things what they are. You know why God counts that
new man to be righteous? Because he is. He is, because
that's what God made him to be. God made him to be what he'll
accept, holy and perfect. Now here's the importance of
what the scripture is teaching us here. If we would deny there
are two natures in every believer, we are denying the entire gospel. We are denying the entire word
of God, from let there be light, to the end of Revelation. We're
denying the entire gospel and the entire word of God. If we
are denying that there are two natures in every believer, then
we're saying the flesh can believe. We're saying the flesh can get
some light, the flesh can get some light and some ability to
believe on Christ. Now that denies the entire gospel. It denies everything that happened
in the garden. I remember Brother Henry saying
so often, if you're wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it
all. Well, if our flesh can get some life, get some light, get
some spiritual understanding, then we didn't die in Adam. Oh,
when we fell in Adam, we got banged up a little bit, you know,
but we can recover. That denies the whole gospel.
If our flesh can get some light, Then, if they're not two natures
in a believer, you have to say the flesh can get some life.
And I'm not making this up. A man told me this one time.
In salvation, the flesh gets some light, and gets some life,
and the spirit influences him externally. Now if the spirit
can influence your flesh externally, and your flesh can get some light,
and get some life to believe Christ, then your flesh is not
dead. and that denies the gospel, that denies the scripture. That
makes the whole Bible a lie. You see how important this thing
is? There are two natures in every believer. When God saves
a sinner, the Holy Ghost births in that person a brand new nature,
a brand new man that never existed before. That nature is holy and
righteous. And he can only ever believe
Christ. He can only ever find rest in
Christ. Now the nature of the flesh,
he's going to continue to be dead and sinful. And he's going
to constantly try to pull that old man away and make him look
to the arm of the flesh, make him look to his works, make him
look to what he can do to make God happy with him. And the new
man is going to say, no, no, I can only look to Christ. I
can only find hope and rest and peace and comfort in Christ. And they're just going to constantly
war like that. Constantly they're going to war
like that. Until the flesh finally dies and it goes where it belongs.
In the ground. Out of sight. And the new man
goes where he belongs. Straight into the presence of
Almighty God. And he can immediately That new
man, when the flesh closes his eyes in death, that new man immediately
goes into the presence of God because God made him fit to do
it. Made him righteous and holy. But until that happens and we
separate these two men, there's going to be this war going on.
That's why we are the way that we are. Now, let me give you
two words of comfort. Every believer knows The Civil
War is going on inside me. And we worry from time to time.
Who will win? The stakes here are mighty important. I mean, it's the eternal well-being
of my soul. The stakes are high. Who's going
to win? I need to know. Well, here's
my second point. The new man will prove to be
stronger than the old man. See, this warfare is so awful.
Sometimes we just feel so cold and so dead. We think, like Newton
thought, I can't be a believer. I can't be a child and feel this
way. It feels like I've already lost
the battle with my flesh and I'm going to fall away from Christ.
Now let me give you some help here. If God the Holy Spirit
is the one that's giving you life, that will never happen. Never. Because the new man born
of God is stronger than the old man. Look back at Genesis again. Genesis 25 verse 23 the Lord said under
her two nations are in my womb. Two manner of people shall be
separated from thy bowels and the one people shall be stronger
than the other people. Now Esau was the older, the birthright
legally belonged Esau, didn't he? And he was physically strong. Not only was he older, he was
physically stronger. Jacob could not take that birthright
from him by force. But God loved Jacob. God determined,
God promised that Jacob would have the birthright. So he did. See, the birthright means not
just you got a bigger inheritance or whatever. It means you're
the spiritual leader of the family. You're the spiritual ruler of
the family. You're the priest before God for your family. It's
a relationship with God. Jacob had to have that birthright
because God promised it to him. Jacob's weak. I mean, physically,
maybe he's weak, but I mean, you read through the life of
Jacob. Jacob is weak. Was there ever a test that came
up to Jacob that he passed? Not one. Jacob did the wrong
thing first every single time. Oh, my goodness. But yet he had
to have that birthright because God said he would. And he did. And you know what? He ended up
being stronger than Esau. Well, in the same way, that new
man born of God, he must rule. He must rule. That new man is
stronger than the old man. Now you think, some of you might
think, I don't think that's so with me. Because I try not to
sin and I do anyway. I try not to think sinful thoughts
and I do anyway. I try to read the word and my
mind wanders off to things. If I read a novel, my mind never
wanders. If I read the word of God, my
mind wanders. You think, my new man's not stronger than the old
man. I can't focus on the Lord for any amount of time. Oh yeah,
oh yes, the new man's stronger. See, the new birth doesn't mean
you're gonna quit sinning less, or start sinning less. No, as
a matter of fact, you're gonna think you start sinning more.
And the reason you think you start sinning more is that old
man can't see sin. It doesn't bother him. The new
man sees it. The father's the new man. You'll
think you started sinning more. So the new man's not stronger
in the sense that he makes you start sinning less. The new man
is stronger in this way. He won't let you quit believing
on Christ. He won't let you. See, there
was a day, that old man, he kept you from seeing Christ, didn't
he? He kept you from believing on Him. You saw all these people
excited about hearing the gospel, On a Sunday morning they come
in, they're so excited when they leave. Or they come dragging
in here on a Wednesday night, the work week's just beating
them up, and they come in and they leave just skipping on air,
and you think, I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't feel
that way. I don't get it. I don't see what
the big deal is about. What was going on? The old man
was keeping you from seeing Christ. But now, God's called you to
be born again. Now you believe Christ. God's
given you faith in Christ. And that old man, he keeps trying
to get you to not believe on Christ, doesn't he? He keeps
trying to get you to say, well, it's Christ plus what I do. I'll
be better off if I add to what Christ has done for me. That
old man keeps trying to get you to look away from Christ, doesn't
he? And the new man won't do it. You end up keeping looking
to Christ, don't you? You end up keep believing on
Christ and trusting on Christ You will not quit trusting Christ
and Christ alone. You know why? Because the new
man's stronger. The new man is stronger. And
if that new man is in you right now, I'm telling you this, you're
going to die believing Christ. You surely will. If you believe
him now, you're going to believe him on your deathbed. You won't
quit because the new man's stronger. Then here's the third point.
I love this. I love to think about this. The
old man, you know why he was born? To serve the new man. The flesh, our flesh was born
to serve the new man. Just like Esau was born to serve
Jacob. See that at the end of verse
23? The elder shall serve the younger. Esau was born to serve
Jacob. Now he never meant to do it.
He never did it on purpose. But all Esau's life, he helped
Jacob. He served Jacob. That's what
he did. And the same thing is true of our old man. Our old
man serves the new man. And you might think, Frank, maybe
your internal struggle is not the same as mine. I don't see
my old man serving the new man. I see the old man harming the
new man. No. The old man, your old man, absolutely
serves the new man. And I'll tell you how. It's the
sin of the old man that drives you to Christ for forgiveness. It's the unbelief of the old
man that makes you so ashamed and makes you feel so bad. It's
the unbelief of the old man that drives you to the Lord, crying,
Lord, help thou mine unbelief. It's the coldness of the old
man, that coldness that bothers us. It's the coldness and hardness
of heart of that old man that drives the new man to Christ
and say, Lord, warm me, hold me in your arms, pull me up close
to your bosom and warm me. It's the coldness, the old man
drives you to that. It's the desire of that old man to want
to wander away from Christ that drives the new man to run to
the Lord and cry, Lord, draw me. Don't let me wander away,
draw me to you. Don't let me wander away, keep
me. Now there's no good in that old
man. There's no excuse for him. No excuse for sin, no excuse
for our unbelief, no excuse for our rebellion, no excuse for
it whatsoever. You know I'm not excusing that.
But the old man serves the new man this way, by driving us to
Christ. There's nothing in me that'll
help me. The new man sees that. So the
old man is what drives us to Christ. And that's how the old
man serves the new man. And one day, we're not gonna
need that old man anymore. We're not gonna need him to drive
us to Christ anymore. Because the Lord will finally
have separated that flesh and that spirit, and we'll be seeing
Christ face to face. Be with Him forever, and we won't
need that old man anymore, will we? But until then, until the
Lord's pleased to do that, call us home, that helps me understand
why I am the way that I am. I hope so. I hope that'll help
you and keep us looking to Christ alone. Let's bow together. Father,
we thank you for this time that you've given to us to look into
your word, to see our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray you
bless the word, that you bless the preaching of your word, that
you cause it to take root in our hearts, that you give life. Oh, Father, would you be pleased
this morning to reach down in your life-giving power and give
life to one of your lost sheep? And Father, keep us all looking
to thee, trusting in thee, hoping in thee, and resting in thee. Christ truly is our all. Help us to really understand
what that means so we look to him to be everything that we
need. It's in his precious name. For his glory and his sake, we
pray. All right, Sean.