What is the Main Ploy of the Flesh?

Besides belittling sin, the flesh uses its wiles to drive every thought of God from our minds by filling the mind with thoughts of the world.  The flesh knows a mind cannot be fixed on both God and earthly things (Colossians 3:2; I John 2:15).  The main ploy of the flesh is to slip worldliness into the mind under the guise of necessity.

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 65

The Flesh Weakens Conviction Against Sin

You must understand this: the flesh weakens conviction against sin by separating the remedy of grace from the design of grace.  The Scriptures teach nothing more clearly than that God’s design in showing mercy is to make us holy people (Titus 2:11-12).  But God also provides a remedy for our lapses: his loving pardon gives us peace, so that we know that if we do sin, “we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense.” (I John 2:1)

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 64

Shaken to the Core by How Much God Loathes Sin

Remember that the mind is the watchman of the soul, commanded to judge and determine whether something is good and pleasing to God, so the affections can long for it and the will can choose it.  If the mind fails to identify a sin as evil, wicked, vile, and bitter, the affections  will not be safe from clinging to it, not the will from giving consent.  This is one side of the castle wall, the first line of defense: to keep in mind that every sin is a forsaking of God (Jeremiah 2:19), to never forget the polluting, corrupting, defiling power of sin – to be shaken to the core by how much God loathes sin.

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 63

The Five Degrees of Temptation

First, the goal the flesh aims at is death (James 1:15).  Whatever sin pretends, it will end in death.  The flesh wants us to believe that the consequences for dallying with sin will only be slight (not as much blessing from God, a cheaper seat in heaven).  Knowing this is our first means of arming ourselves against deceit (as knowing that the used-car salesman will do anything to sell you a car helps to protect you from driving home the lemon while he laughs behind your back.)

Second, the way the flesh works for your death is by temptation (James 1:14).  The essence of temptation is deceit – to be tempted and to be deceived are the same thing.  And James lists what we can call the five degrees of temptation:

1. Dragging away (the mind)
2. Enticing (the affections)
3. Conceiving Sin (in the will)
4. The birth of sin (in actions, words, thoughts and so on)
5. Death by sin (Enslavement to sin is spiritual death.)

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 57-58

The Art of Deception and Sin

This is the art of deception: to make someone believe that things are other than they are, so that he will do something he would never otherwise do. This is the way your flesh makes you into the willing servant of sin.

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 54-55

The Flesh Is Driven Like Captain Ahab

Captain Ahab was driven by his rage to chase the whale to the end.  The flesh is just as driven, and will with its last breath spit at God.  But there is in us a Warrior just as committed to the flesh’s destruction.  The Spirit wars against the flesh (Galatians 5:7).  Filled with the Spirit, empowered by God’s love of us and our love for him, we turn on the flesh with our Captain’s own curse.

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 48

The Flesh Gets Hostile When the Believer Approaches God

You can feel the hostility of the flesh whenever you approach God – it makes real love for him into work: Digging around the Bible to find juicy new insight to impress your small group is like sailing the Caribbean, but pouring over the Scriptures to find the Lover of your soul is like skiing up Mount Everest.  Conjuring up a happy mood with 2+2 with a calculator.  But savoring the glory of Christ and using mental math to calculate pi to the thousandth place.  And giving a birthday present to your best friend is like forcing down some double-fudge brownies.  But giving up your extra bedroom to a homeless person in the name of Jesus is like eating the Rockies for breakfast.

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 47

Paul Says We are Captain Ahabs

In Romans 5:10 Paul says we were God’s enemies – we were all of us Captain Ahabs.  Christ is the peacemaker in the gospel, using his death to put to death the hostility between us and God.  Our “old man” (the flesh) was crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6), rendering it powerless to rule over us and enslave us and bear the fruit of eternal death in us.  When he appears, he will annihilate the flesh forever.  This is the only way to deal with enmity: destroy it.

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 44

How Can We Win Ground Against Sin?

If you violently war against your flesh, you’ll win ground.  It will grow weak, and you’ll grow in grace into the image of Christ.  Still, the work has to be endless as long as we’re in this world.  If you cut the flesh and slack, you’ll watch it regroup and revive.  You may even end up worse off than you were before (compare Luke 11:24-26)

Heed the warnings that fill the Scriptures (Hebrews 12:1-4; Matthew 16:6; Matthew 26:41; Luke 12:15; I Corinthians 16:13; II Peter 3:17)

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 40-41

Though the Believer Has a New Heart…

But the believer has a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), a new mind – even the mind of Christ (Romans 7:25; 8:26; I Corinthians 2:16), and new desires for things of God (Romans 7:18; II Corinthians 5:2; Hebrews 13:18).  Yet, God’s work in this renewed heart is unfinished (I John 3:2).  The mind can’t see as clearly as it will (I Corinthians 13:9, 12), the desires can be entangled (Galatians 2:11-13), and the will can’t fully do God’s will (Galatians 5:17).  The flesh in the believer remains unsearchable and deceitful.

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin, copyright 1998, page 38-39