- The Paradox of History
- The Essence of God
- Raw Material
- Available People
- Humility
- Spiritual Gifts
- Meekness
- Baptisms
- Three Functions of the Believer
- Ambassadorship
- Seven Figures of Christ and the Church
- The Mature Believer and Personal Accountability
- Tongues as a Spiritual Gift
- Prophecies of Jesus Christ in the Psalms
- The Perspective of Grace
- Discipleship
- Blessing and Reward
- How to Redeem Time
- Dispensations Timeline
- The Rapture
- The Day of the Lord and The Day of Christ
- The Good Fight of Faith
- Suffering
- Decisions
- No Truce
- Peace
- 10 Principles of Warfare
- God is Able, God Is Faithful
- Present Session of Christ
- Religion: The Enemy’s Ace
- Power In Us
- Faith
- Small Things
- Five Techniques (to spirituality)
- Eight Sabbaths
- Faith-rest
- Strange Tests
- Daily Disciplines
- The Faith-rest Technique
- Three Sources of Temptation
- Divine Wisdom
- The Value of Wisdom
- Evil
- The Royal Code
- The Character of Grace
- The Cross to the Crown
- Water and the Spirit
- Spirituality
- Synonomous Terms
- Reversionism and Recovery
- Soul Strengths and Soul Kinks
- Discipline
- Seven Steps of Spiritual Advance
- The Race of Life
- The Will of God
- The Old Sin Nature
- Energized Prayer
- Abiding: Absolute Thinking
- God’s Faithfulness
- Salvation in The Book of James
- “All things work together …”
- Biblical Spirituality
- Dispensations
- Death
- Endurance
- Essence of God Acronym
- Eternal Security
- Fellowship with God
- Five Commands for Christian Soldiers
- Five Factors of Effective Faith
- Five Techniques of the Christian Way of Life
- Five works of the Holy Spirit
- Five Works of the Spirit in Regard to the Word
- Free Will
- Freedom
- God is Able
- God Revealed
- Greek
- Hebrew Words for Faith
- Hermeneutics
- Imitation of Christ
- Man’s Barrier with God
- Parakaleo
- Seven Steps of Spiritual Recovery
- Seven Steps of Spiritual Retreat
- Spiritual Flexibility
- Spiritual Rest
- Stages of Spiritual Growth
- Take up Your Cross and Follow Him
- The Blood of Christ
- The Call of God
- The Daily Care of the Soul
- The Doctrine of Sin
- The Good Soldier of Jesus Christ
- Christ’s Work on the Cross
- The Church
- The Holy Spirit and Christ
- The I AM Sayings of Christ
- The Importance of the Word of God
- The Overcomer
- The Plan of God
- The Spirit in the Old Testament
- The Way of Salvation
- The Way to be Salt and Light
- The Words of Jesus
- The Work of Christ on the Cross
- Using the Physical to Learn the Spiritual
- Ways of Learning
- The Christian Way of Life
- The Christian Walk
- Scriptural Proof of the Pre-tribulation Rapture
- The Five Crowns
- Jesus Christ in the Tabernacle
- 5 Circles of Faith around Jesus
- The 4 Points of the Cross
- Should I Confess My Sins?
The Old Sin Nature
Our sin natures, like our fingerprints, are absolutely unique, though they share basically the same structure. Every sin nature is composed of areas of weakness, areas of strength, areas of lust, and basic trends.
In the areas of our weakness, each of us is drawn to particular kinds of sins—some to mental attitude sins, some to sins of the tongue, some to overt sins.
In the areas of our strengths, each is drawn toward particular kinds of human good. We are tempted to rely on the positive human character traits that dominate our personalities. These are strengths of character that are not bad in themselves, but that can become entanglements if we rely on them rather than on the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Apart from the control of the Holy Spirit our strengths can produce nothing acceptable to God because “good” without God—”good” which does not recognize its need for God—is evil. Our lusts are as individual as our weaknesses and our strengths. Some people lust for money, some for power, some for fame, some for sex.
There are only two basic trends in the sin nature, one of which will be dominant and one subordinate. One is toward asceticism, which leads to legalism; the other is toward lasciviousness, which leads to lawlessness.
An infinite variety of mixes and manifestations can come from these four. For example, an ascetic with a weakness for mental sins is likely to judge the lawless person who falls into overt sins. The lawless man may see the asectic’s self-righteousness and may himself fall into mental sins by despising what he sees as a hypocrite. A person who lusts for power and has a weakness for sins of the tongue may try to lift himself up by tearing others down through criticism and maligning. Another person with the same lust but with a weakness for mental attitude sins may never say a bitter word and so may seem to be a better person. But to God—who alone sees the hearts of men—both are equally guilty.