Emancipation From The Old Dad - 1. Indulgence Vs Abstinence

First Principle of this way of life is this -

1. The old dad represents indulgence instead of abstinence!

Indulgence, what a word speaks volumes to me and I hope it does for you too, for it is to indulge that means “to allow oneself to enjoy pleasure of” generally indulge is in relation to something you shouldn’t be partaking in.

The old dad, has no concern about restraining us from our desires, his attitude is one that says “do as you please”, In fact in Satanism the “golden rule” is this – “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”.

How confident they are in the fallen nature of man, that by our own will we will continue to do the will of the old dad. This isn’t to shock you but to reveal to you the very deprived state that we were and are in. The devil is confident that you left to your own devices are no threat to his kingdom and wouldn’t have a desire to leave it.

Let’s see how this is true of our lives and even how we as Christians convince ourselves that it is better for us to “indulge” rather than “abstain”.

I go to a church with a young adults ministry, I hear frequently in relation to lust, that because we are young and those desires are aroused it is inevitable for us to get entangled in various activity that is contrary to what God would have us do. Have you heard this before “we can’t fulfill the law so thank God for grace” This used in as a justification for some sin. I say this from experience I have said it many times in the past but after seeking God’s word about it I was shocked to see what God had to say about it.

(1 Cor 10:13) - No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

The truth is we would often rather indulge in temptation than abstain from it, this is the nature of the old dads influence in us that must be killed.

We try to spiritualize and justify it but there is no justification for it. Just as God is Faithful so is there a way out of temptation. Temptation is the step that goes just before indulgence. We do not “indulge” or “give ourselves to” something before we are enticed to. So when we say that temptation is to much, or that we can not walk away from a certain temptation we almost go to say “God is not as faithful as He says” though no-one would say this but we deny the Truth of God’s Word.

We must be so careful of our confessions and be more ready to recognize how we have fallen, how we are fallen and are redeemed and being redeemed. Romans 12:1-2 speaks of the “renewing of the mind” fighting the “uniformity” of this world.

Let’s look at abstinence, It means “The act or practice of refraining from indulging an appetite or desire", So what are those desires we have from the old dad?

The Fleshly Ways! Galatians 5:19-21 –

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I remember a conversation with my friend I had about sex before marriage, I showed him where in the Bible it speaks about it, then I spoke from my own personal experience and struggles with temptation but ultimately told him it is better to abstain and do as God would have us do.

His reply was in essence this “but it feels so good, I don’t see how that could be a bad thing”…. How many people have made similar confessions like this, we bypass the word of God and turn to our feelings and base what is true on our feelings. God says do not commit adultery but we say “but I love her!” then try to justify that based on the fact God is a God of Love. Though we all too often indulge in our desires.

Another example, a man had killed 17 people over the course of two years, He was a serial killer, when asked why he committed this hideous crimes, for each person was killed in a horrific way. He replied, “Because it felt good!”

How quickly we would turn and say “this man is surely sick!” yet for ourselves we think our actions need the same justification, if we can’t see our need for God’s saving power in every area of our life we will continue to indulge just as we did before but even worse because we will try use God to justify our continued sinning.

Why is abstinence good and of God?

In short because to abstain requires self-control and faithfulness, these are categorized as being fruit of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (Gal 5:22-23). God will eventually change our desires so we don’t struggle so much in those areas but until He does we must cooperate with Him and His Spirit by trusting in His ways.

The old dads desires are still raging against the new self Christ has made us to be.

Galatians 5:17 says -

17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

There is this relationship throughout the New Testament between the flesh and the Spirit. We if truly we have given our lives to Jesus Christ, want to walk as Children of God, doing those things are pleasing to Him and being pleased in Him. This takes time and takes trust, we need to trust God that we will experience the blessed rest and peace that He has promised us though now we may faced heated temptation to commit adultery, to gossip, to speak ill of something or be angry but we must trust God that He will and is able to keep us.

God has so blessed us and so redeemed us from our wicked selves through Jesus Christ. He has such great plans ahead for all of His children. We have been adopted not just by a King but the King of Kings. We have a blessed place and God takes care of His children by gently and sometimes sharply instructing us in the way we should walk. God is more aware than we are of our fallen nature, therefore He has given us a wealth of His Word to help us partake in the things are helpful for us to grow as His Children and to abstain from those things that are hinderances to ourselves.

It was by the Cross that we can leave the "old dad" behind but his nature is still in our being needing to be continually crucified in us by God's Word and God's Spirit, So as we continue this study, let us be bold in making our requests to God about the life we want in Him and have a courageous trust in God's Faithfulness.

So next time you feel the urge to “indulge” in some form of former practice (the old dads ways) think, “Which Father am I following?”

I Pray and hope this has been encouraging to you to continue to Love God, please feel free to comment or message. May God Continue to Bless You!

We will look into the other 8 principles one by one.

Emancipation From The Old Dad - Introduction

Introduction

Definition of Emancipation: freeing someone from the control of another; especially a parent's relinquishing authority and control over a minor child

I want to talk through 9 principles, which I will keep you in a level of secrecy until the very end about. They are 9 principles, which are used to define a particular way of living, but if I were to reveal it to you directly I feel some may not take the relevance of what is being taught.

So we shall go on a journey together!

John 8:44 says, “The devil is your father. You are from him. You want to do the sinful things your father, the devil, wants you to do. He has been a killer from the beginning. The devil has nothing to do with the truth. There is no truth in him. It is expected of the devil to lie, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Jesus is speaking to the Pharisee’s here, We as a “modern” society often like to airbrush this truth, now we know that these Pharisee’s did not “sell their souls to the devil” but yet Jesus tells them straight that they do as their father the devil does. What incredibly hard words to bear for a person who believes their service is to God, though it was indeed mixed with much selfishness, These are hard words.

Though it is Truth, we are adopted to be Children of God by Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13, Eph 1:5), If we are then adopted then naturally we have another father, and that is what Jesus’ speaks of and that father is the Devil, Naturally we are born children of wrath.

Ephesians 2:2-3 -

2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

It is an extremely blessed gift this salvation we have in Jesus Christ!

So the reason this is called “emancipation from the old dad”, well firstly emancipation because I remember hear about children getting emancipations from their parents because their parents were in affect doing “bad or irresponsible jobs”, so this was legal ground for a “divorce” between a child and father. This isn’t why we can emancipated from our old dad (the devil) our legal ground for divorcing him is that Jesus Christ purchased for us a better home, a better father and a whole new freedom.

Naturally we’d be happy with the old dad because we are naturally “children of wrath” and this is more or less what I want to speak about, in the hope that it will encourage you toward your true Father God.

So we’ll be touring through these principles!