"People Don't Change"

"People Don't Change"

We have all heard the saying, “People don’t change”. Is that true? Haven’t we all seen too many Christian people who never seem to come out of the swamp? They are perpetually overcome and given to besetting sins that should be loosening its power grip as time passes; but it doesn’t. They are the same as they’ve always been since we first met or observed them. There are those who refuse to change course no matter what opposition they may face. 

It goes too often that when Christians are under the Lord’s discipline, they confuse the headwinds of difficult circumstances as personal vindication of their stubborn hearts. 

 

The discipline of the Lord that they experience is poorly discerned. They may be fired from their job, criticized, or alienated by their peers, offered corrective advice, lose intimacy in family relationships, fellowship at church, yet see it all as a challenge to even go deeper into their ideology and attitudes. Their neck stiffens and a sense of exoneration compels them to remain in their defiant attitude. They become even more hardened. Sin is deceitful.

 

Heb 3.13

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

 

Those in sin for which God may be chastising, may not even know they are in sin. Sin is deceitful and its deceitfulness extends to the discerning faculties of the mind. Since they may not even know they are in sin, then certainly they may not recognize the hand of the Lord against them.

 

They may even find strength, encouragement, and community from those who are also of the same embedded ideology and attitudes. We have seen this very lately in multiple key figures in the SBC and in our Seminaries who have left the convention and institutions and found community in another circle or denomination. 

 

I once had a friend who said he joined the Episcopalian Church so that he could believe whatever he wanted. There is a landing zone suitable for anyone who wants to jump from the universal absolute truths of the Bible.

 

To others, it may become evident that they may not even be Christians at all. In that case the “discipline” they experience is simply consequences of sinful living. It is not really "discipline", rather, a form of the wrath of God against all sin. The wrath of God against all ungodliness in the world is one of the small ways that God forewarns of final judgment to come…His current wrath is an act of Mercy! 

 

Yes, it is. Everything that goes wrong for mankind when they make sinful choices is not just for an immediate temporal consequence, but in a way, it functions as a particular act of God’s mercy…in that He is teaching and warning mankind of a future ultimate judgment.

 

The best way for the Christian to overcome the deceitfulness of sin is to bathe the mind in the continual washing of the Word as though it were water. Once we are immersing ourselves in God’s Word, we then Trust and Obey.

The Word of God in our daily living is like dwelling within safe boundaries. A river without a riverbank becomes a destructive flood. The Word of God, like Riverbanks, keep us in the flow of safe streams for maximum value and abundant living.

 

Continual trusting and obeying our Savior is like breathing for the Christian. And repentance is just another synonym for the entire Gospel process of the Believer. But that's not all.

A heart of Repentance is also a continual breathing process for the Christian. Repentance is the foundation for trusting and obeying God. We must have a heart of repentance ready to hear and to discern even the smallest hint of correction from the Holy Spirit, then turn from where our intentions would have led us to where the Holy Spirit is leading by trusting and obeying Him. 

 

Any adversity in the Christian life should be filtered through a heart of repentance in order to discern the illumination of the Holy Spirit in His Word. Then with confidence and assurance that this suffering is not because of sinful patterns in my thinking, but rather a circumstance of sanctification and holiness, then I proceed with trusting and obeying God’s holy Word. I will change. I will have victory over these besetting sins more and more as I grow in grace and ultimately, total victory over the presence of sin when I am glorified.

Galatians 5.1

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”