Sanctification, pt. 5

Romans 7:14-25

 

 

You are God's building project.  He began the day you got saved, and He never abandons a building project.  He will be faithful to complete it, wanting us to be conformed to His image.

 

It's not about a list of dos and don'ts, it's about what we allow God to do in us and through us.

 

The marriage, the monster, the misery.

 

We were wed to the law, and had to obey it as long as we both lived, and the law wouldn't die, so we died to it and married another.

 

The monster is sin.

 

The misery begins in v. 14.

Here's a guy who wants to do right and wants to stop doing wrong.  His intentions are good...and so are yours!  To will and to do are two different things.

 

Paul is truly grieving and lamenting his sin.

v. 24       

 

Why do Christians grieve over sin?

 

Why do Christians resent the presence of sin in their lives?

Why do Christians want more than anything to be sanctified?

 

Because we realize that sin...

1.  Grieves the Holy Spirit

Eph. 4:30  “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

Hebrews 3:10

Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

Hebrews 3:17

But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

 

The Spirit took up residence in you when you got saved.  What you see, He sees.  You drag Him wherever you go, He hears what you hear, and experiences what you experience!

 

Ever felt uncomfortable going somewhere you shouldn't be?  That's the Spirit inside you making you feel that way.

 

Imagine how He feels when you look at porn.

 

2.  Dishonors God

I Cor. 6:19-20 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

 

Once you get saved, you have one purpose for your life, to glorify God.  Let your light so shine before men that...!

 

3.  Keeps our prayers from being answered

I Peter 3:12  “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”

 

Psalms 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

When your kids are obedient, you want to bless them.  You are more inclined to bless them then.

 

God doesn't want you to think He is condoning your sin, so He may shut off the faucet of blessings until we get it right.

 

The Bible says of a wrong relationship, "that your prayers be not hindered."

 

4.  Makes our lives spiritually powerless

I Cor. 9:27 “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

 

Paul didn't want to be set on a shelf or be a castaway.  He wants God to continue to use Him in the way of the truth, not pushed aside to settle for less.  "Has beens" sit on the bench...I wanna stay in the game!

 

God wants a clean vessel to use.  He puts His hand into us like a glove.

 

5.  Robs us of our joy

After adultery, David prayed...

Psalms 51:12 “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.”

 

At first sin fascinates...then it assassinates!

 

6.  Inhibits our spiritual growth

I Cor. 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.”

 

The whole book was a rebuke, and they weren't growing because of sin that he was rebuking.  And God said, you are not going to grow past your last act of disobedience...the train stops in this station until you either get on board or off in a definite way.

 

God doesn't give us more light until we respond to the light He has given us.

 

7.  Brings chastisement from the Lord

Heb. 12:5-8  “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” 

 

Some Christians think that if they want to step out of God's hand they can...but no, that's when He squeezes.  He loves us too much to let us walk away scot free. 

 

We can be obedient and have His blessings or be disobedient and be spanked.

 

8.  Pollutes Christian fellowship [our church]

A man was living in immorality w/ his step mother.  And the church was priding themselves on their tolerance...not judging him.  And Paul said,

I Cor. 5:6-7  “Your glorifying is not good.  Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.  For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”

 

The yeast causes the dough to rise.  And just a little sin in the church affects the whole lump of us in the church!  No man is an island.

 

9.  Places us in danger of taking the Lord’s Supper unworthily

I Cor. 11:28-29  “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

 

Don't partake w/ known sin in your life...very dangerous!  God takes His types and symbols very seriously, and we aren't allowed to ruin them.  This is why Moses wasn't allowed into the Promised Land, because he smote the rock twice.  Big deal?  Yes!  That Rock represented Christ, and we only need to be saved once, and Christ only crucified once...our once smitten Savior!

 

10.  Can endanger our physical life and health

I Cor. 11:30  “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”

 

Much sickness is just natural aging.  But some is supernatural.  Sin can endanger us physically.

 

Ps 38:18 -

For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.

 

No wonder most Christians grieve over sin…why don’t some other Christians?…perhaps because they need to be reminded from Scripture why they should!

 

Why don’t lost people grieve over sin?

Some here, not yet saved, may be saying, I do grieve over sin…I’m aware of it, I feel bad about it, I try to do better!

No, you don’t grieve the way the Bible says to…

 

2 Corinthians 7:10-11

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves…

 

Why don’t many lost people grieve over sin in the right way?

        Because they think their sin is the issue!  It is not the real issue, else we’re all in trouble!  We’re all sinners…sin is not the real issue!

Salvation is the real issue!

 

Question is:  are you a forgiven sinner, or unforgiven?  Have you been saved from sin, or do you still need to be saved from sin?

 

Once saved, we need sanctification.  We need to learn how to get a handle on sin in our life.  There's a lot at stake!

 

Next time Paul makes 4 miserable lamentations over his sin, and we will learn a lot about sanctification thru what he shares.