"Awakened to Our Sinfulness"

(Part 3 of 3)

“Did that which is good then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.”

                                                                                                            Romans 7:13

Do you recognize sin as sin? Do you see sin as utterly sinful? The law came to awaken us to the deceitfulness and destructive nature of sin. Yet, many people still do not recognize sin as sin! Although God’s commandment tells us that lying is a sin. There will be those who will want to qualify sin and give it degrees of severity. A half-truth is sinful, but not as sinful as an outright lie. A white-lie is sinful, but not as sinful as withholding information. By doing this we attempt to soften the severity of sin. Sin separates us from God! Period! It isn’t the quantity or the quality of the sin that separates us, it is simply sin:

“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

                                                                                                            Isaiah 59:2

Sin has become troublesome to us, but not “utterly sinful”. When we cannot seem to get a handle on our sin we simply label it as a disease or disorder. Gluttony isn’t a sin anymore, it’s an eating disorder. Alcoholism isn’t a sin in our culture, it’s a disease now. This is done in an effort to take the sting out of our disobedience. However, God is not fooled!  You might convince yourself, your neighbors or even society that your sinful pursuits are the cause of some disease or disorder, but God is unwavering in His position that sin (all sin) is utterly sinful. And that sin will keep you eternally separated from Him.

At some point we are going to have to address the sin issues in our lives. As God pulls back the curtain we are going to have to make some life choices that will not be easy to make. The consequence of ignoring this truth is eternal separation from God.  

Confess your sins to God! Repent (that means turn away and stop doing it)! Invite Jesus into your heart and life. He will forgive you and empower you to live a life of righteousness.

1 John 3:9 states:

 “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

 You cannot continue in sin and call yourself born of God! It is time to awaken to your sinfulness, recognize sin as utterly sinful and repent!

 

Pastor Scott Burr

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/

Awakened to Our Sinfulness

(Part 2 of 3)

“What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

                                                                                                Romans 7:7

The law of God awakened us to the reality of sin! From the time of Adam, men had been guided by their own sense of right and wrong. When the law came it “set in stone” some things God explicitly saw as sin. For the first time sin had been defined and recorded! Because of this men could no longer do what seemed right in their own eyes. They now had a governing agent called the law that defined for them proper God-ordained behavior.

One commentator wrote that “the law brought unconscious sin into consciousness.” Sin was exposed! However, when sin was revealed for what it is, it did not cower or try to conceal itself:

“But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment produced in me “every kind of covetous desire.” For apart from the law sin is dead.”

                                                                                                Romans 7:8

Paul was familiar with coveting, but when the law exposed its sinfulness, sin exploited the situation producing in him every kind of covetous desire. Paul quickly discovered what coveting really was! The law pulled back the curtain on sin…exposing it!

The Law of God clarified that there is clearly right and wrong. The commandment points us towards the path of life, but by highlighting the path of life the choice to disobey was revealed:

“Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.”

                                                                                                            Romans 7:9-12

It wasn’t that the law of God or the commandment wasn’t holy. It did not lead Paul into sin! However, when the law highlighted the differences between sinfulness and righteousness, sin seized the opportunity to deceive.

Now when Paul chose to sin, he would be doing so in direct disobedience to God’s prescribed law. Paul then asks the question:

“Did that which is good then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.”

                                                                                                            Romans 7:13

The law of God, written on our hearts, came in order that sin might be recognized as sin!

 

Pastor Scott Burr

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/

“Awakened to Our Sinfulness”

(Part 1 of 2)

“Do you not know, brothers- for I am speaking to men who know the law- that the law has authority over a man as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released form the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.”

                                                                                                Romans 7:1-3

 Before we came to Christ we were very much bound to the sinful nature, married to it, so to speak! However, when we came to Christ, we had to make a decision. We had to die to the old sinful nature, bury it, so we could live a new life in Christ. Meaning we are now married to Christ!

“So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.”

                                                                                                Romans 7:4

In many marital relationships, a product of that relationship is children. Likewise, when we were married to sin we bore fruit for death:

“For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.”

                                                                                                Romans 7:5

Now that we are married to Christ we are to bear fruit to God!

“But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not the old way of the written code.”

                                                                                                Romans 7:6

If we, being married to Christ then return to the sinful nature and participate in acts of immorality (bearing fruit for death) we commit “spiritual adultery!” Because of this danger, we must be conscious of sin! Paul maintains in Romans 7 that this is why the Law was given. The Law was not given to save us or condemn us! The Law came to awaken us to our sinfulness!

Pastor Scott Burr

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/

 

“Buried with Christ”

(Part 2 of 2)

““Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the  parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master because you are not under law, but under grace.”

                                                                                                            Romans 6:12-14

The Apostle Paul contends that although Christ died to set you free from the power of sin, if you do not “bury” the old life and give yourself fully to the “new” life He secured for you…How can we say we’ve been born again? John, the Apostle, says it even stronger in 1 John 3:6-9:

“No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.”

The new life that we have in Christ is characterized by righteousness, not sin. Sin has no place in the life of a believer. Sin belongs to the old life! 2 Corinthians  5:17 states:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.!”

The old is gone! That means that when we come to Christ, we are done with sin. We are no longer slaves to it. We are not to offer ourselves to impurity and ever-increasing wickedness. Rather we are to offer ourselves whole heartedly to God for His purposes:

“Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

                                                                                                            Romans 6:16-18

 

It is time that those who call themselves believers stop making excuses for their sinfulness. Instead we need to bury, once and for all, those things that are keeping us from wholeheartedly following the word and will of God. God set us free so that we can live for Him, not so we could continue to gratify our old sin nature.

 

Pastor Scott Burr

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/

 

"Buried with Christ"

(Part 1 of 2)

“What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

                                                                                                            Romans 6:1-2

This week I want to address the misguided idea that believers (those who have committed their lives to Christ) can continue to sin and yet still remain secure in Christ because of God’s grace. It is bad enough that many churches today do not address the topic of sin at all, but this approach to sin makes a mockery of grace.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God secured for us through Christ’s sacrificial death. If we continue to sin, once we are saved by grace, we in essence deny the work of His death and burial.

“Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

                                                                                                            Romans 6:3-4

 

In order for us to live a new life (resurrected life) the old life has to get buried! Too often, we want to live the new life without burying our old way of living. Water baptism for the believer proclaims our identification with Jesus’ death, His burial and His resurrection. Our church chooses to baptize by immersion. By doing this we get the full visual effect of watching the individual submit their life to Christ (crucifying the old man), then we bury them in the water (burying the old man), and then bring them up into the new life they have in Christ.

“If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

                                                                                                Romans 6:5-7

They key to living this new life in which we have been freed from sin, is not found in simply acknowledging and putting our faith in Christ’s sacrificial death. Neither is it found in merely trusting and rejoicing over His resurrection. It is found in our obedience to bury the old man.

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the  parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.”

                                                                                                            Romans 6:12-13

You cannot live your “old life” and a “new life” at the same time! You cannot give yourselves fully to God and still sin!

 

Pastor Scott Burr

http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/