Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20010923.htm

GOD'S GRACE AND THE BELIEVER
Part II: God's Grace And The Believer's Experiential Sanctification
A. God's Grace And Truly Godly Living
(1 John 1:8-10; Romans 7:15-8:4; Galatians 5:16-23)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Many Christians throughout America right now are doing their dead level best to overcome sins in their lives, but they are often finding they lack any real success in the process:

(1) Before my vacation, a man opened up to me in a hospital. He was suffering from a long bout with habitual sin, and told me he knew about his need to overcome in this challenge, and he was doing his "best" but wasn't sure if he could tackle it! I remember sensing his fear that he was losing his battle to his habitual sin!

(2) When I came off of this past summer's vacation, an e-mail was awaiting me from a Christian friend. She expressed her concern about her own background that was influenced by the teachings of an Evangelical leader who is leading many Christians to think that by simply practicing certain "principles," they can gain victory over sin.

(3) Besides our immediate area, Christians face this need all over. Last summer while on vacation in Indiana, my wife and I attended a Church where we heard one of its associate pastors give a message on getting rid of past negative, sinful baggage in their lives. His message quoted some Bible passages, but spent a lot of time on quoting Christian writers. I remember how he had carried a big bag of rocks on his back, perspiring freely in the message only finally to lay the bag down at the foot of a cross erected on the platform near the end of his sermon. A number of people were moved by his delivery and illustration, and came forward rededicating their lives to Christ.

However, this year, while visiting the same Church on this summer's vacation, we learned that associate minister is no longer preaching, but is receiving counsel. He was apparently practicing immorality on the side, and had to admit it to the congregation! Here was a man who was preaching about handling sinful baggage all the while himself being swallowed up by sinful baggage in his own life!



With so many Christians NATIONWIDE suffering from failure to handle practical sins in their lives, is there any HOPE for PRACTICAL spiritual holiness in a REAL sense? IF so, WHAT is it and WHERE can one find it?!



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "When one who HAS trusted in Christ still struggles with outbursts of anger, substance abuse or immorality, etc., WHAT is going on, WHY, and CAN he ever get a grip on it? IF so, HOW?!"
  1. When one believes in Christ as His Savior, though he FOREVER UNCONDITIONALLY becomes a child of God, his sinful nature from PRE-salvation days STILL resides within him, 1 John 1:8.
  2. As a result, the BEST efforts of the Christian to live a GODLY life MISERABLY FAILS to where he needs HELP, Romans 7:15-24:
    1. Paul admitted that he, as an Apostle, found his own sinful nature kept him from living a godly life no matter what he tried, Rom. 7:15-23:
      1. Paul, like John, admitted he had a sin nature, Romans 7:20.
      2. He noted this sinful nature ruled his thoughts and acts opposite what he really wanted to think and do, Romans 7:20, 15-19, 21-23.
    2. Incredibly, Paul was speaking as a very humanly respectable person!
      1. We know from Philippians 3:4-5 Paul came from a great religious heritage, being of the tribe of Benjamin which, along with Judah had held out the longest against apostasy before Israel's Captivity.
      2. He was also a Pharisee, a group so theologically sound even Jesus told His disciples to believe their doctrines, cf. Matthew 23:2-3.
      3. Regarding the legalistic dictates of the Law, Paul was "blameless" in a relative sense as far as man's view was concerned, Phil. 3:6b.
    3. However, Paul noted he himself could not control his sin nature, and so called himself a "wretched man" who needed some other party to rescue himself from his own sinful nature's dominion, Romans 7:24.
    4. Well, if this was true in PAUL'S case, then EVERY Christian REGARDLESS of his BACKGROUND or EFFORTS, at BEST is "wretched" when it comes to living above his OWN sinful nature!
  3. However, GOD has supplied a GRACIOUS way for our victory:
    1. Paul noted God supplied help out of his sinful living failure, noting his salvation security was not at risk in the process, Rom. 7:25; 8:1:
      1. The best Greek manuscripts omit the words, " . . . who walk not after the flesh . . ." in Romans 8:1b, cf. Metzger, A Textual Com. on the Greek. N.T., p. 515. That means the believer's salvation from hell is settled apart from the STATUS of his practical walk!
    2. Paul then noted GOD supplies godly LIVING victory by His Spirit's living out God's righteousness through the believer, Romans 8:3-4.
    3. The Apostle related how this victory can be ours in Galatians 5:16-23:
      1. [When one trusts in Christ and is justified, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell him unconditionally and permanently, Ephesians 1:13-14.]
      2. That Holy Spirit prods the believer to live out the characteristics of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Galatians 5:22-23 with 5:17a NIV.
      3. However, opposite this urging, the believer's sinful nature urges him to live out things like immorality, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, discord, evil political coalitions, envy, drunkenness (or substance abuse by way of application), orgies and the like, Gal. 5:19-21s with 5:17a NIV.
      4. Now, the believer operates at any given time completely EITHER by means of his sinful nature OR by means of the Holy Spirit, Gal. 5:17. There is NO MIDDLE ground between these two entities!
      5. All the believer must do for GOD to live His perfect righteousness through him is to yield to the indwelling Holy Spirit's promptings of love, joy, peace, etc. as opposed to those sin nature promptings of immorality, idolatry, etc., Galatians 5:16; Romans 12:1-2.
    4. However, a believer who harbors post-salvation sin in his life is not controlled by God, and so is not able to live righteously, Gal. 5:17. Hence, he must confess his sin for cleansing for restored fellowship with God (1 John 1:9; Ps. 32:1-11) and yield to God's promptings in his heart to see God live His own righteousness through him.
Application: (1) AFTER trusting Christ, (2) address our rapport with God (a) by confessing any post-salvation sin blocking that rapport, 1 Jn. 1:9. (b) If we WONDER about the STATUS of our harmony with God (not knowing if we harbor sin in our lives), we can check the characteristics of the sin nature and the Holy Spirit in Gal. 5:19-21 and 22-23 respectively: the attitude we express ALWAYS fits ONE of those groups acc. to Gal. 5:17, exposing our rapport status with God! (3) Then, daring NOT to TRY to be godly by our OWN efforts, we YIELD to GOD'S inner prompting to express HIS love, joy, peace, etc. to enjoy HIS living HIS righteousness through us by GRACE, Romans 8:3-4!

Lesson: (1) NO Christian with even the BEST of backgrounds with the least sinful baggage can HIMSELF live righteously; YET, (2) ANY Christian with the WORST background with its great past sinful baggage WILL live a GODLY life IF he looks to GOD live it THROUGH him! >

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 The bulk of what you know about the Bible's truth here at Nepaug Bible Church you owe in part to two alcoholics!

Both of these alcoholics to the day they died believed in Jesus Christ as their Savior and depended upon the Holy Spirit to live godly lives. In living their lives, they came to found or deeply influence the founding of institutions where Nepaug's last three pastors were trained.

One such alcoholic was B. B. Sutcliffe. He was deceased before I attended the school, but he founded the Multnomah School of the Bible, which is now Multnomah Bible College. At the time I attended there, every student was required to gain a double major in Bible, or to have 52 semester hours of formal training in Bible content.

The second alcoholic is someone whose name most of us have heard before -- C. I. Schofield. He pastored what is now known as the Schofield Memorial Church in Dallas, Texas. He was instrumental in formulating the Dallas Theological Seminary as he influenced Lewis Sperry Chafer, its first President, to found a school to train pastors on how to expound God's Word! Your last three pastors attended Dallas Seminary long after Dr. Schofield was deceased! However, the school Schofield had influenced to be founded deeply affected these Nepaug Church pastors' capacities to know and teach you the Scriptures!



If there is a believer here today who feels he or she is hopelessly chained to an habitual sin, will you please remember these two alcoholics -- B. B. Sutcliffe and C. I. Schofield?

And then will you do what THEY did and "walk by means of the Spirit" to live a spiritually productive life free of sin's bondage?

As a pastor and a congregation that has a spiritual debt we can never repay to these two ALCOHOLICS who decided to handle their problem of sin's bondage by depending on the Holy Spirit, will you PLEASE live by the Spirit's power?

We're not asking this JUST for YOUR sake, but for the influence you WILL have on so many OTHER people AROUND you?!