Chico Alliance Church
“Presumed Dead”
Review
Christ reigns supreme over all creation.
Christ remains sufficient for all creation.
We have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness.
We have been transferred into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.
The ransom price has been paid.
Our debt has been paid and forgiven.
The King of this kingdom is Christ Himself.
Image of the invisible God
Creator of all creation
Preexistent before all creation
Sustainer of all creation
Head of the Church
Firstborn from the dead
Filled with the fullness of Deity
Agent of reconciliation to the Father through His sacrifice for us
We must clearly understand the principle of life in this new kingdom.
“As you received Christ Jesus so walk in Him”
This made possible through the work of Christ who
Firmly rooted us In Him
Continually builds us in Him
Continually establishes us in our faith
We must clearly understand the basis of our relationship with Christ.
He is fully God.
We are filled because of Him
He is head over all rule and power.
We have been circumcised by reason of our identification with Christ.
We were raised up with Christ.
We have been made alive with Christ.
He took the certificate of debt, the laws and decrees out of the way
He disarmed the rulers and powers.
Having died to the law of sin and death.
We are not to focus on keeping the law but holding fast to Christ who kept the law for us.
ILLUS
When we landed in Conakry Guinea there were soldiers and people all around the airport customs area.
The missionaries were right there to escort us through the unfamiliar territory and rescue us from certain delay and expense.
We did not know the “rules” or the laws and customs of the country.
Our entire focus was to hold fast to the missionary who knew what to do and had established a relationship with the government.
It is Jesus that hast the relationship with God.
We will never know or do enough to keep His laws.
We must focus then on holding fast to the one who kept the law for us and lives in us.
Not only do we shift our focus away from law keeping but also we are to focus on experiencing to the fullest what it means to live according to the law of the spirit of life in Christ.
On the basis of our co-resurrection with Christ we are to focus our priorities and focus our thinking on eternal things.
WHY?
Past Motivation
We died with Christ and were raised with Christ.
Present Motivation
Our life is presently hidden with Christ in God
Future Motivation
We will be revealed with Christ in glory when He returns.
So here we are.
? Rescued from the kingdom of darkness.
? Transferred into a brand new kingdom ruled by His beloved Son.
? Freed from the law of sin and death by our identification with His death.
We are then to continually hold fast to Christ
? Raised again into newness of life according to the law of the spirit of life by our identification with His resurrection
? Protected and secluded in God
? Awaiting a glorious revelation
We are then to continually pursue the eternal
We are then to continually contemplate the eternal
This morning we continue our study of the specific application of new life in Christ.
Prayer
“THEREFORE”
In light of the realities mentioned above Paul calls for further action.
Paul shifts from the teaching that there is an aspect of our new life that is not earthly but hidden and still hidden with Christ in God urging us to deal with an aspect of our life that is yet earthly.
He calls them the “on the earth members”
There is considerable difference of opinion as to what he actually refers by this term.
“members” is used of the parts of the physical body, or the differing members of the body of Christ to the capacities of our earthly body.
We are spirit, soul and body.
There is an aspect of us that affects us but is not us.
I understand “members” to refer to capacity to gather and process data and express the various dimensions of the soul in ways that conveys to others.
Before being made alive to God, these capacities could only bring forth fruit for death.
Having been raised to a whole dimension we have the new capacity to bear fruit for God.
The struggle comes as sin continues to seek manifestation through those same members.
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Romans 7:4-6
So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Romans 7:17-25
But 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 indwells you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:11-13
Paul urges us in light of our new life and freedom to deny our members expression in the areas once dominating our whole being.
“put to death” point time command (do it now)
to make dead, to put to death, slay
to deprive of power, destroy the strength of
It is very similar to Paul’s instruction in Romans 6.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:11-14
We operate according to a new system.
We are to deny the members of our body access and expression to the things it once drew its strength.
ILLUS:
Jewish family will instruct the rest of the family to consider themselves dead to another family member who “defects”.
The erring family member is considered dead.
Paul instructs us to actively put the former deeds of our member to death.
We are to count our members dead, unresponsive, refuse interaction with the old ways.
Then Paul lists some specific areas deserving this execution.
The items in this list appear many other places because they are representative of a life bound to the things on the earth.
“sexual immorality” (pornos)
The word used by God here was a word for prostitution.
Sex for money and lust.
It is where we get our word pornography.
God designed sex for specific reasons and with clear fences.
Inside the fence it is wonderful and righteous and can energize.
Outside the fence it is destructive and evil and puts in bondage.
We live in a society obsessed and out of control.
We are bombarded by appeals to our members everyday.
Our spirit set free by Christ is not attracted to such things.
Our flesh is enflamed by these things.
Paul said in Romans 13 “make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
Sow to the flesh you will from the flesh reap corruption.
Sow to the spirit and you will reap eternal life.
Paul implies the same thing here.
Put to death your members in regard to sexual immorality.
We live in a society that has no clue as to the true design for sex.
Sex is viewed as a tool to get something not express oneness.
Sex for money
Sex to sell something else for money
Sex for power
Sex to fill emotional voids
Sex for soothing pain
All motivated out of selfishness.
Everything but to express and celebrate oneness of spirit and soul.
Pornography is a great name for what we see today.
It is as evil as prostitution.
People pay money for sexual stimulation.
It has been said that 75% of men in any given congregation struggle with pornography.
We now live in a culture of voyeurs.
It has become so used to watching others commit sexual immorality and enflaming their own passions that perversion multiplies daily.
ILLUS: Pastor and wife, couple from previous church
Those who are relationally disengaged but sexually enflamed.
Passion without relationship.
It binds the soul.
It sparks a fire that destroys the soul and everyone associated with it.
The opportunities for enslavement have increased with every so-called technological advancement.
ILLUS
Worldwide Web
Kinsey Fraud
Even if we have not fallen to any of these soul deadeners and flesh enflamers there is continual exposure through television and movies.
ILLUS
Article about invitation to come watch a couple have sex.
Even the commercials continue to provide fuel for the flesh to continue as an instrument of unrighteousness.
Paul provides two reasons for this drastic depriving of the members further exposure.
1. These are the things that stir up God’s anger.
2. These things once controlled their way of life.
Close today with a powerful warning by Paul to the believers in Thessalonica.
I THESS 4
Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
CONCLUSION
So what should I do?
When we are caught in such a trap there are not easy answers.
I will give a few suggestions here.
Preventative
1. Keep your focus on things above.
2. Remember who you are and where your life really is.
3. Couples focus on your relationship with each other.
But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 1 Cor. 7:2-5
4. Guard your heart for from it flow the springs of life.
5. Deny the requests (screams) of the flesh for expression.
6. Continually renew the mind through memorization and meditation.
Restorative (James 4)
1. Submit to God
2. Resist the devil
3. Draw near to God
4. Realize the gravity seeking life apart from Christ (the husband)
5. Humble yourself before God by confession to God and a trusted spiritually mature person.
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit. My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins. James 5:14-20
Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1-2
