Acknowledging What We Are

Acknowledging What We Are

Text: I Cor.15: 9, 10

Intro: We live at a point in time that could be labeled as both exciting and exasperating. It is exciting because we are literally witnessing the coming together of events that point to the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is also somewhat exasperating because of the uncertainties and unrest we are now seeing all around us.

However, in the midst of the exasperating elements of our present existence, we as God’s blood-washed children have cause to be encouraged when we remember that God is still in control. No matter how things turn out in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or any other part of the world, our hope and help is in the Lord.

In the hubbub and difficulty of daily existence, it’s rather easy to lose our perspective as to who and what we are in a world that has seemingly gone mad. We all must be on guard against becoming either cocky or complacent. We must not lose our perspective in these tumultuous days. Our perspective will affect our performance for God in these last days.

Consider with me the type of perspective that we need to maintain as we fight the good fight of faith.

Theme: We need to acknowledge that:

I. WE ARE SINNERS (Our Human Plight)

A. We Need To Remember That Our Flesh Is Hopelessly Defiled.

NOTE: All of us were born with a wicked sin nature at the core of our being:

Effects of Sin

How does a worm get inside an apple? Perhaps you think the worm burrows in from the outside. No, scientists have discovered that the worm comes from inside. But how does he get in there? Simple! An insect lays an egg in the apple blossom. Sometime later, the worm hatches in the heart of the apple, then eats his way out. Sin, like the worm, begins in the heart and works out through a person’s thoughts, words, and actions.

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Rom.7: 18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

Rom.8: 5 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

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8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

NOTE: [1] The word “flesh” refers to the “sinful nature” (W.H. Griffith Thomas, D.D., St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; pg. 208-209). Our sin nature never ceases to be what it essentially is—corrupt and displeasing to God (Rom.7: 18). This is why the Christian is told to “…Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal.5: 16).

[2] The word “after” is used twice in Romans 8: 5, where it carries the idea of “dominated by” (Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies, Vol. I, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Romans In The Greek New Testament, pg. 131). Paul is making a comparison between the saint and the sinner. The sinner is habitually dominated by his sin nature. The saint on the other hand, has a choice. The saint has been set free from the dominion of the sin nature (Rom.6: 14).

B. We Need To Remember Our Great Deliverance.

Isa.51: 1 “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.”

1. Jesus rescued us from our sin and spiritual darkness.

Col.1: 13 “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:”

2. Jesus rescued us from the wrath of God against sinners.

I Thess.1: 9 “For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;

10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

3. Jesus rescued us from the domination of our sin nature.

Rom.6: 12 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

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14a For sin shall not have dominion over you…”

C. We Need To Remember Our Total Dependence On Our Deliverer.

John 15: 5 “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”