“The Life Long Battle Against Sin”
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Well Good Morning. As our year comes to a close I believe that it is so vital for us as God’s children to set some spiritual goals for ourselves. While the world around sets physical goals for themselves we should have some godly goals for the new year.
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 Christ gives us some great words to live by.
4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
We are to live this life by feasting on the very Word of God. So, I want to challenge you this year to start by making a plan to read through the Word of God. We have some great resources out in our lobby to help you with this. Be faithful to the Lord by making it a priority to be in church. Get involved with a Wednesday Night Life Group or a Men’s and Women’s Bible Study. Then begin to step out and trust the Lord by serving and giving. These are all wonderful ways that we grow in our relationship with God and become more disciplined in our walk with Christ.
If you have your Bibles turn with me to Romans chapter 8. The title of our message this morning is, “The Life Long Battle Against Sin.” Down through the centuries both men and women have often found that this struggle with sin and sinful ways has had a tremendous impact in their lives, and is often a negative one at that. Fighting sin is one of the most difficult things as we journey through this life. So exactly how do we do this, and what is the key? The reality is that temptations are all around us and many people struggle by giving into the flesh. However, the answer too getting victory over sin is not found inside of us. In fact, fighting sin with our own human strength will only bring about self-righteousness and more anxiety. But, with faith in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit victory will come. Today our text is just one verse, but there is a lot to unpack in just this simple verse. Let’s look at Romans 8 verse 13.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
I want to share with you 5 things that stand out to us about our text. There are 5 important things every believer needs to understand about their battle with sin.
1. The Instruction is directed to believers.
1. The Instruction is directed to believers.
The intent of Paul here was that he had in mind believers. How do we know this? Look back with me at verse 1 of this same chapter.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Are you in Christ today? Has He changed your life? Paul then goes on in verse 9 to explain that believers are not going to make a practice of living in the flesh if the Spirit of God dwells in them. Also in verses 10 and 11 Paul speaks to those who are made alive by the Spirit of Christ.
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Clearly, Paul is directing this exhortation to believers. If by the Spirit you…… that is, you believers who Paul says in verse 1 that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you are here today and Christ has changed your life, then we are instructed to battle against sin, and put sinful things to death. In fact it is the duty of every Christian who has heard and responded to the good news of Jesus to put to death sin. Someone who does not know Christ and has never been changed by the Lord will not understand why this should happen. They will continue in their sin and many times not even see anything wrong with it. Until someone has truly been changed by Christ and their soul is converted than putting sin to death or waging war against the flesh will not make sense and they will not do it. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus tells us,
33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.
Jesus is speaking here and He helps us to see that if the tree is made good, than it’s fruit will be good. In other words, the root has to be dealt with. If the nature of someone is not changed by Christ, they can not expect to bear good fruit, and put to death sinful things. Unless someone is truly saved, all their attempts to get rid of sin or put sinful habits to death are to no purpose. John Owen the famous Puritan said, “There is no death without the death of Christ.” Any attempt to try and kill sin without Christ having changed our lives deludes, hardens, and destroys the sinner. If you know Christ today and understand that because He died for your sin, you have been set free from the condemning power of sin and the guilt that goes with it. As believers we should make it our duty to put to death the indwelling power of sin. There is something else we need to understand before Paul gets to the key on how this is done.
2. The circumstances express the relationship.
2. The circumstances express the relationship.
Here, Paul tells us the condition, “If YOU” It is vital that we understand the condition.
-You are either living according to the flesh.
OR
-You are living according to the Spirit.
What Paul does here is that he expresses the relationship between the cure and the result. The connection here is not all about cause and effect because we do understand as Romans 6:23 tells us that salvation is a gift from God, so this is rather a means and end. If we live in the flesh and continue in sinful behavior we will die without Christ and spend and eternity in hell. You must turn from your sinful ways and trust in the finished and saving work of Christ. If we as believers put to death sinful things and live by the Spirit we will live with Christ in heaven for all eternity. For those believers who truly understand how terrible sin is and what our sin deserves then we should have a desire to turn from it and put to death our sin, and live for Christ.
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
If we will put to death sinful things then we will live with Christ for all of eternity. This should be our main motive and desire and we journey through this life. So how do we do this? Here is the How.
3. Our Strength To Put to Death Sin Comes Through the Holy Spirit.
3. Our Strength To Put to Death Sin Comes Through the Holy Spirit.
Here in our text we see that it is only by the Spirit that we can put to death the sinful deeds of the body. Any other attempt or way always comes up short in killing sin. So many times we in our own strength and power fall short in killing sin. I here many people tell me Pastor I will do good for a while but then I go right back to this particular sin. They will tell me all the things that they have tried on their own to defeat sin and the devil. However when we run to the Holy Spirit and earnestly seek Him through prayer He hears our prayers and will answer those prayers and we will see the victory come through His strength. Prayer is the key here. Earnestly and Desperately beg the Lord through His Spirit to help you have the strength to resist the Devil and submit to Christ, so that he will flee from you.
Putting Sin to death is accomplished by the Holy Spirit in several ways.
-First of all God promised that His Spirit be given to us for this very work. The Holy Spirit will take away the stony hard heart, the heart and mind that are stubborn and proud and rebellious, the unbelieving heart and will give us a heart of flesh or a softened heart.
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,
-A Second way putting sin to death is accomplished through the Holy Spirit is that this is part of the wonderful blessings that we receive in Christ. John 15:5 tells us this.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Without Christ we can do nothing. All the blessings and grace we experience in this life come through our relationship with Christ and He helps us to grow in Him. Through the Spirit and His strength, we can put sin to death. Through Jesus our Mighty God, our Prince of Peace, our Wonderful Counselor, and Savior we have repentance.
31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
4. The Duty itself is killing sin.
4. The Duty itself is killing sin.
Paul gets to the point now by helping us to see that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can die to sin. So, there is a part that we as Christians must act upon. There are several questions to consider here as we look at our text.
-What does Paul mean here by this word body? The word body at the end of verse 13 is the same as our flesh as we see at the beginning of this verse. Even more specifically Paul has in mind here that this is talking about indwelling sin. As Christians we still have a sinful nature or flesh nature after we are saved that is corrupted and lustful, so this is what Paul is writing about.
-The second question that comes up here is what does Paul have in mind when he uses the word deeds? Even though our deeds are expressed outwardly, Paul has in mind here what is inside of us. Paul calls them deeds because they are an outward expression of yielding or stopping the inward lust on our hearts and minds. There are many sinful things that we lust after. People can lust over money, fame, sex and possessions. So, the indwelling lust and sin is the main principle of all sinful actions.
-And finally, we does Paul mean by putting to death? The actual word behind this is mortification. To mortify means to put any living thing to death. To kill someone or any living thing, is to take away the principle of all it’s strength or power so that it cannot act or put forth any action of it’s own. When Jesus died on the cross for our sin He put to death our sin so that we may live in Him and through Him. The work of the Holy Spirit, who was given to us at the time of our salvation convicts us of sin and even opposes the lust of the flesh. The Holy Spirit helps us in our fight against sin.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
The duty of every Christian is to see how much God loves us. God gave us His Son Jesus who died for our sins and because of this we should see how important it is to put to death the deeds of the flesh. We do this so that they will not have life and strength to bring destruction to our lives. As a pastor I often see the destructive consequences of sinful choices whether it be alcohol, drugs, sexual addictions or any other sinful behavior. Sin has consequences and it is always destructive. It ruins lives, marriages, friendships, jobs and many other things. Now I want to get to some good news today. Here is the last thing.
5. The Promise or Result is Life.
5. The Promise or Result is Life.
Paul finally tells us that if you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The life promised here is eternal life. This is the very opposite of what we see at the beginning of this verse. If you continue to live according to the flesh and never turn from your sin, you will die. This death, which is the second death is not talking about a physical death but an eternal death in hell.
As believers we see the importance every day of dying to our selfish desires and fleshly ways and picking up our cross to follow and live for Him. We see that the spiritual life in Christ which we have been given brings joy and comfort by following the Lord.
(Pray and turn it over to Matt for Communion)
Final Benediction: Read The Fount of Heaven Prayers of the Early Church.