HoHum:
What a tragedy if Clark Kent never knew that he was Superman? Can we imagine Clark Kent on his deathbed, looking down and muttering, “What’s that big ‘S’ on my T-shirt? Superman? What’s that?” How sad! All his life he could have been catching speeding bullets and leaping tall buildings at a single bound, but he just did not know he had this power.
Even sadder is the fact that many Christians on their deathbed will figuratively look down and say, “What’s that big ‘HS’ on my T-shirt? The Holy Spirit? What’s that?”
WBTU:
Last week we talked about the struggle that Paul and all of us have against sin even after we are justified in Jesus Christ, even after we die to sin. This struggle continues because we are only partially redeemed; our souls have been renewed, but our unredeemed bodies are still a stronghold for sins’s lusts and power. As Christians we continue to battle against sin, and even the Apostle Paul felt the burden of this conflict in Romans 7:14-25.
How can we win this battle? The regeneration of our spirits is a start, but it seems that more is needed for a victorious life. Good news! God has given us more! The “more” is the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as Paul explains in Romans 8.
When God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit in Christian baptism, the first result is an instantaneous regeneration of our sin dead souls. But when this happens the Spirit does not simply touch us as if with a magic wand and then depart. He actually moves into our hearts and bodies. The Spirit literally “dwells in you,” as Paul says 3 times in vs. 9-11.
For what purpose do we receive this gift of the indwelling Spirit? For power. What kind of power? For moral power: the power to resist temptation, the power to defeat the devil, the power to obey God’s will and to be faithful even under difficult circumstances. In a way that cannot be explained, the Spirit encourages us and reinforces our own weak wills so that we can put to death the misdeeds of the body- vs. 13. The Spirit gives courage, conviction and determination to our wills.
One reason many Christians struggle with sin and find themselves constantly slipping is that they do not know about this God given power that can help them win this battle. May know that the Spirit dwells within them; but they do not know why, or how to access this power.
The Holy Spirit is our God given power for sanctification, if we will but call upon Him and depend upon Him instead of our own puny willpower.
We mentioned prayer last time in our battle with the flesh. But what specifically should we be praying that the Holy Spirit will help us with?
The sanctified life through the Holy Spirit stars on the inside and then shows Himself on the outside through a Christian lifestyle.
Thesis: Let’s talk about the inward and outward changes brought about by the Holy Spirit.
For instances:
Inward changes
By conversion to Christ, we have experienced changes in our hearts. 2 more inward changes:
The actual desire to be holy as God is holy.
Before Christ, we sometimes did things that were outwardly good, but not necessarily because we wanted to. We did them because of pressures from others, but we actually wanted do the opposite. Even after coming to Christ, we may still find ourselves wanting to do something we know is wrong, but we “do the right thing” because others expect this of us. Even though we know that certain things we do are sinful, and even though we may in a general sense want to be good, these sins are so attractive to us that we find it difficult to rid ourselves of them. The very meaning of the word for “lust” is “a strong desire.”
What we need to do is to call upon God through the power of His HOly Spirit to strengthen our wills so that we will actually come to hate specific sins and want to be rid of them.
Philippians 2:12: “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. This seems to be impossible and even a contrary command to grace. Look at the next verse. “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose”. The power for accomplishing this is “God who is at work in you,” which I take to be the indwelling Holy Spirit. The “fear and trembling” are not the fear of terror at the prospect that we might fail, but the fear of awe and reverence that God the Spirit Himself is working within us! The Spirit is within us not only to help us do the things that please God (to work) but also to help us to want to do them (to will).
Change our motives for doing good works.
Doing good works from wrong motives is not pleasing in God sight as seen in Jesus’ strong condemnation of hypocrisy in the Jewish religious leaders.
Concentrating upon improving our motives for keeping the law is important, because the Bible teaches that the Christian life is hard work.
1 Thessalonians 1:3: “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love” The Christian life is work and labor.
In the Bible the Christian life is compared to taking a yoke, tending a vineyard, putting a hand to the plow, raising fruit, fighting a battle, building a tower, tilling a field, and bearing a cross. This sounds like hard work- but we do it anyway! Why?
Not because we are earning our way to heaven. Many people believe this. Here is where grace comes in again. Grace changes our motivation for serving God or it should.
How can we obey out of fear of punishment in hell, when there is no punishment for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)? Christ has already borne the penalty for hell for us; because of Him we have no fear of punishment. How can we obey in order to gain entrance into heaven, when entrance into heaven and eternal life is a gift (Romans 6:23)?
Grace does not change our obligation to obey, but it does change our motivation for obedience. Why, then, do we obey? Because of love. 1 Thessalonians 1:3- labor of love.
Getting close to Christmas- only 13 more shopping days left. Illustration: When we were kids, the whole point of Christmas was to receive presents. Our philosophy was: “It is more blessed to receive a lot than to receive a little.” As we mature, this changes. Now our greatest joys at Christmas come from giving presents to our children and family members. Our philosophy now is, “It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).” This should also apply to obedience to God’s commandments. We should serve Him not to gain something for ourselves but to add to His honor and glory and good pleasure. Nothing makes God happier than when we obey His will. Here is our motivation for obedience.
Outward changes or lifestyle changes
Need to eliminate sinful acts and attitudes but let’s focus on things that relate more to grace.
There is an old wordless comic strip, where the first panel shows an employee being chewed out by his boss. The employee goes home and yells at his wife, who then is shown hollering at Junior, who then screams at the dog, who in the ends growls at the goldfish. We tend to treat one another the way others have treated us. This can be good but here it is bad.
God has treated us well through his grace by Jesus Christ, far better than we deserve to be treated. What does He now expect of us in return? He expects us to act toward other people according to this same spirit of grace. We see this displayed in two virtues:
The virtue of giving.
Matthew 10:8: Freely you have received, freely give.
One time a skeptic said to a preacher, “I can’t stand this Christianity business. All I ever hear from you Christians is give, give, give.” The preacher thought a minute and said, “That’s about the best description of Christianity I have ever heard!”
We need to give of our time, talents and treasures. We can choose to be takers, or we can choose to be givers. As Christians saved by grace, we must choose to be givers.
The virtue of forgiving
The ultimate test of the gracious heart is how we respond to people who have harmed us.
Grace is getting the opposite of what we deserve. The very heart of grace is forgiveness.
Luke 23:34: Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus’ entire ministry was summed up in words taken from Isaiah in Matthew 12:20: A bruised reed he will not break. Sinners are like bruised reeds, deserving to be broken off and cast away. We are such bruised reeds, but God has forgiven us!
Now what? We who have been forgiven are expected to forgive. Ephesians 4:32: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
A wonderful example of how to practice the lifestyle of grace comes from an incident in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 2006, when a man entered an Amish schoolhouse and murdered 5 girls while wounding 5 others before killing himself. As horrific as this was, the greater story was the response of the Amish people in expressing their love and forgiveness to the shooter’s family. Ann Curry of NBC news, wrote: “I realize I did not know what forgiveness was until now.” Perhaps the most telling comments came from the pen of Marie Roberts, the shooter’s widow, in a note to the Amish. “Our family wants each of you to know that we are overwhelmed by the forgiveness, grace and mercy that you’ve extended to us. Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need. Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community and is changing our world. Isn’t that the goal of the gospel of grace?
