Audio at
http://www.adrian.warnock.info/2005/11/good-news-for-powerless-how-spirit.htm
We have been talking about legalism and grace. The Galatians had sunk back into legalism- something which we must beware of. There is more grace available for us, at all times, grace which covers over our sin.
GRACE REALLY DOES CHANGE PEOPLE, I want to tell a simple story that shows us what grace is and how it can change us
STORY OF CHILD WITH CHOCOLATE
GRACE CHANGES US, and FOR SOME HERE TODAY COULD BE THE FIRST TIME YOU REALISE THAT AND BECOME A CHRISTIAN
Gal 2: 15-.......so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
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Do you ever feel like giving up?
Do you ever feel you cannot change?
Said last time-law helps us know what sin is. God is good and we are not. Give up trying because God did it all for you
PRINT ON A PAGE CAN NEVER MAKE US HOLY ON ITS OWN.
So come to God as a sinner for forgiveness and his unconditional acceptance- theres nothing you can do to make him love you more or less than he does!
BUT this is not the end of the story.......
ALTERNATIVE TITLE- HOW TO DESTROY SIN! I have THREE ANSWERS FOR YOU:
1. realise that GRACE CHANGES PEOPLE: Understand the gospel means that we are no longer the same people we once were HOW CAN WE EXPERIENCE GRACE AND SLAP GOD IN THE FACE BY STAYING UNCHANGED?
Can we just keep on sinning? NO Christ came to save us from our sins not to save us in our sins. Every true Christian is on a journey to become more like Christ. Take One step towards Christ
Why do we forgive? For the same reason we are told in Galatians to remember the poor- we are indebted to God so how can we not bless the poor. God forgave us so how can we not forgive.
Parable of the servant who is unforgiving: he showed by his actions he hadnt grasped his status as forgiven.
Justification is NOT a legal fiction, for it occurs when we are united with Christ- in a real sense we are crucified with him, and thus in a real sense we actually become righteous by newbirth. When God declares someone not guilty he makes them not guilty. What he has done inside cannot but begin to work out on the outside.
’a new creation’ must live in the good of that fact
There is a power in every believer working for Good,
’It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is never alone’
THINGS HAVE CHANGED- I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED-
Dead people have no rights to assert. Dead people don’t get jealous. Dead people don’t feel ’its not fair’. Dead people realise that whatever happens to them is better than they deserve. Dead people don’t think of themselves all the time!
The Christian life is one that is focussed on others not the self.
We should speak more of responsibility than rights. If everyone is caring for the needs of others then all our needs will be met.
This is about repentance- a change of mind that causes a change in action
Repentance is the natural response to the gospel and it continues throughout our lives- it is not a one moment activity.
We need help to repent. It is Gods Spirit who helps us- all this is tied up in grace. We never move on from the cross or our need of grace. It is grace that saves us and grace that goes on saving us throughout our lives!
We don’t do good to earn our way into heaven, we do it because we know we are going there so we might as well start living like we are!
When Christians play it fast and loose with sin non-christians mock and our Lord is held in disrepute. They might even say those Christians think they can get away with anything coz God will just forgive them.
There should be a response to grace in us that says ’How can I live that way any more after What God has done for me?’
BUT this is only one of three keys we are addressing today to the victorious Christian life:
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3:1 .......Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain’if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith
HOW CAN WE DESTROY SIN?
1.Understand that grace changes people
2.Continue in the simple faith we began with! Fight the fight against sin by hearing with faith & acting in the power of the Spirit
Faith and the Spirit are entangled. Faith is actually the Spirits work in us. We simply co-operate and take Gods written word in the bible at face value.
If faith means trust, then how can we claim to have trust in God but not believe him when he tells us that living a certain way is actually best for us??
We are perfected by the work of the Spirit that helps us to take EVERY word of this book at face value and trust it as Gods word- how can we do anything else but?
In case you missed it Paul goes on to stress the importance of the Holy Spirit.....
3: 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us’for it is written, ’Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’’ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
the goal of the gospel is ’that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith’ ’ why do we so often stop short of that goal?
Jesus didnt come ’so that we could join the church’ not even ’so we could become a christian’ or ’so we could get to heaven’ or..... BUT so we could experience something of heaven on earth and then enjoy HIM in eternity- the SPIRIT IS OUR FORETASTE OF JOYS TO COME!.
The gospel train starts at feeling powerless, continues through faith and repentance, to baptism (3:27), to receiving the Spirit and joining a body of other believers. Those who have received the Spirit can recognise others who have received him and will not be satisfied living without such companionship.
The Spirit is active in us-
4: 6 .....because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ’Abba! Father!’ 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Spirit is given NOT because of anything we have done to earn it- not because has prayed more or read bible more.....
You find yourself keeping the law almost by accident as you delight yourself in God and his Spirit
Spirit in our hearts cries ’Abba Father’ and takes away both the self-righteousness and self-condemnation legalism will bring us.
The Spirit’s baptism is primarily about dealing with the issue of our salvation. We by faith receive the ’seal’ that guarantees that we are indeed ’no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir through God’
The goal of our faith is that we have ’come to know God, or rather to be known by God’ That knowledge of God will itself change us.
Walking by the Spirit is the key to transformation.
IT is vital that you do not think that God will not give you the Spirit until you are somehow ’worthy’ of him. The Spirit is not given to mature Christians, he is given to help us become mature! He is not given to ’spiritual’ Christians, he is given to help us become spiritual! He is not given to those who have got rid of sin in their lives, he is given to help us in our lifelong battle to put sin to death!
The only requirements to receive the Spirit are repentance and faith and baptism in water. IF you haven’t been baptised in water, often God will graciously send the Spirit to you if you determine that at the next opportunity you will be baptised.
To change we need to have a clear understanding that we are saved, and a clear appreciation of the implications of that, as well as actually feeling that we are saved, and having a conscious experience of God that confirms our salvation.
WE believe in a God who still ACTS today
>>>>IF THIS ALL SEEMS ALIEN TO YOU AND YOU ARE NEW HERE- WHY NOT GO TO THE HOLY SPIRIT DAY NEXT SAT SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND MORE
THEREs A THIRD KEY......
HOW CAN WE DESTROY SIN?
1.Understand grace changes us
2.Continue in simple grace
3. Ask God for more grace in the form of the Holy Spirit: Become truly FREE by learning to LOVE others ’ letting the Spirit produce his fruit in us
5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
5: 13. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, [25] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
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Law says "thou shalt not". The Sirit says "thou shalt". The Law tells us what not to do. The Spirit tells us what to do. The Law is detailed and specific. The Spirit shows us great values like "love" and "patience" and tells us this is the way we should live.
The bible tells us there is no law against these values. We can never be too loving. We can never be too patient. You cannot have too much of a good thing when that good thing is the fruit of the Spirit.
I am more and more convinced that we need to rely more on the spirits work and less on the work of the law to change our lives and help us defeat sin.
NOTE it is FRUIT not fruits- essentially it is all about LOVE- see my previous talk on the subject from a few months back and Topes on friendship.....
The Spirit can do what the law cant ’ he can LEAD us into all truth- although he will primarily do this through our reading of the BIBLE.
5:18 ’If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law’
A few simple CONCLUSIONS to this talk and the whole series on Galatians:
Good news when you want to give up and feel powerless:
It really is true that the gospel changes lives
If you are caught in sin, there is a way back
BEWARE - Christianity knows nothing of ’easy believism’ ie there are certain things, the works of the flesh that those who continue do them will not inherit God’s kingdom
What we do matters both for now and for eternity
We can keep going.
We can help each other.
Emphasise 6:7-10
’let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith’ (Gal 6:9-10)
Sometimes God’s way is really tough in the short term but in the longer term, the results are always seen.
FOR SOME HERE WE NEED TO RESOLVE AGAIN TO NOT BE WEARY, BUT FOR SOME WE NEED TO START ON A LIFETIME JOURNEY AND TAKE THE FIRST STEP. IS THERE ANYONE HERE WHO WANTS TO STOP AND CHANGE DIRECTION FOLLOWING JESUS FOR THE FIRST TIME?
