Sunday Morning March 5, 2000 Bel Aire Baptist Church Hobbs, NM
THE SIGNPOST OF SINFULNESS [#1]
The Mystery Of Sin In The Believer’s Life
JAMES 4:13-17; GALATIANS 5:16-23
Introduction:
Isaiah 35:8: "And a highway shall be there, and a way, And it shall be called The way of holiness..."
1. There is a way that God has called each of His children to follow.
a. It is the way of holiness.
b. And God is so committed to our walk on this path that He has given us easily identifiable signposts to guide us.
c. The question is whether we will choose to follow them.
2. When you come to the crossroads of spiritual decision, you have a choice: to either heed God’s signs and continue day by day on this important way, or to ignore them and muddle through.
a. You may be struggling with sin, wrestling with forgiving someone who has hurt you deeply, or battling with the idea of submitting yourself
wholly to God.
b. No matter where you find yourself, denying or ignoring God’s directions will leave you immature and ineffective; following them will allow you to handle these situations wisely, obediently, graciously- and victoriously.
3. The way of holiness clearly illustrates that each crisis of decision in the Christian life is a turning point.
a. An opportunity to choose God, to express your devotion to Him, and to experience His direction.
b. There are inevitable decisions you will face in your Christian walk.
c. Making biblical choices will free you to enjoy all that God has for you on the way of holiness.
4. One of the misleading half-truths that preachers can convey to babes in Christ is the notion that after conversion there are no more temptations, testing, or
failings.
a. It therefore comes as a great shock when a young believer discovers that it is still possible for him or her to sin.
b. It is the crisis of failure in the Christian’s walk.
c. Of course, "there’s victory in Jesus"; but there can also be defeat when we cease to abide in Him.
d. John the apostle reminds us "if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [God] a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:10).
5. The signpost of sin is highlighted in the passages in our
texts and I want to deal with the subject from a threefold aspect: the mystery of sin, the misery of sin, and the mastery of sin in the believer’s life.
a. This morning we will look at the first, the mystery of
sin in the believer’s life.
"To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (James 4:17).
6. Although this verse can be applied to the unsaved, its primary message is to believers.
a. James has referred already to believers as "doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22)- those who have received "the implanted word"
(James 1:21).
b. At the same time, there is a mysterious "moral dualism" in our text.
c. Here we have "good" and "sin" in the same person.
d. When we search for the explanation, we find it in the Word of God.
In the fifth chapter of Galatians, verses 16-18, Paul writes,
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one
another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But
if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."
Here is the mystery of moral dualism.
I. A Moral Dualism That Polarizes The Believer’s Life
"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh; and these are contrary to one another"
(Galatians 5:17).
Have you ever experienced that tug-of-war in your life- a
desire to please God and yet a desire to please self?
Here Paul contrasts the self-centered life with the Spirit-
centered life and shows that these are contrary to one another.
"To will is present with me, but how to perform what is good
I do not find" (Romans 7:18).
Therefore, "To him who knows to do good and does not do it,
to him it is sin" (James 4:17).
Look first at:
A. The Self-Centered Life
"The works of the flesh are evident" (Galatians 5:19).
Although those who commit such sins are not worthy to
inherit the kingdom of God, we all know that each of us
has the potential to commit these sins.
1. There are the sexual sins.
"Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness"
(Galatians 5:19).
a. Statistics show that the divorce rate among the clergy is increasing faster than in any other profession.
b. Numbers show that 1 in 10 have had an affair with a member of their congregation, and 25 percent have had illicit sexual contact.
c. Our country is in the grip of sexual sins, and if the historian Arnold Toynbee is right, this is one of the evidences of a degenerate society and a decadent church.
2. There are the spiritual sins.
"Idolatry, sorcery" (Galatians 5:20).
a. Idolatry means anything or anyone who comes between God and yourself, thereby becoming the center of your affection and attention.
b. God has condemned it!
c. Sorcery or witchcraft literally means "drug- taking"- the very situation we’re in today- and this "drug-taking" is invading the church of Jesus Christ.
d. What many have predicted has come to pass.
e. People are seeking religious experiences
through "kicks" of all kinds, and this is wrapped up in the occultism we see around us.
f. Through the New Age movement and other devices, Satan is on his last rampage before Jesus Christ comes back again.
g. And we could go on.
h. We see "hatred, contentions, jealousies,
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,
dissensions, heresies" (or parties into
which divisions crystallize)
(Galatians 5:20; 1 Corinthians 11:19), and all this within the realm of our religious life.
3. There are the social sins.
"Envy...drunkenness, revelries" (Galatians 5:21).
a. All these sins can be found in my heart and in your heart, unless we know what it is to be protected by the blood of Christ and by the power of the Spirit.
b. Paul is not talking about an act of sin, but
the habit of sin.
c. The fact that the believer is not under law
but under grace is no excuse for sin.
d. If anything, it is an encouragement to live
in victory.
e. Our text still applies: "To him who knows
to do good and does not do it, to him it is
sin" (James 4:17).
But then there is:
B. The Spirit-Centered Life
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).
1. Here is a nine-dimensional configuration of the
life of Christ.
2. It interprets the greatest commandment to be
found anywhere in Scripture, namely, "You
shall love the LORD your God with all your
heart, with all your soul, with all your strength,
and with all your mind [that’s our relationship
Godward], and your neighbor as yourself
[that’s our relationship manward]" (Luke 10:27).
3. The self-centered life is diametrically opposed
to the Sprit-centered life.
4. But I want to go further and point out that the
mystery of sin is not only moral dualism that
polarizes the believer’s life, but also:
II. A Moral Dualism That Paralyzes The Believer’s Life.
"The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do
not do the things that you wish" (Galatians 5:17).
A. Christians know very well that their responsibility is to witness to Jesus every day.
1. Countless opportunities present themselves to say a word for Christ, but they don’t do it.
2. Most of us know that the only life that counts for God is a life that starts each day in a quiet place with a definite time, a specific plan, and an expectant spirit to wait on God to speak; yet we don’t have our quiet times.
3. Our commitment is to be at the prayer meeting every week, knowing that the church only moves forward on its knees; yet we don’t go to the prayer meetings.
B. Do we know why that is?
1. I’ll tell you.
2. Not only have we a polarized life, but a paralyzed life- that inner contradiction, that mystery of sin in the believer’s life.
3. And we are never going to be triumphant in our
Christian experience until we learn to gain
victory over the mystery of sin.
Conclusion:
1. If we want to see revival in our land, we must stop
allowing the sin in our life to polarize and paralyze our
Christian walk.
2. We are told to walk in the Spirit, yet we have no idea what
that is really telling us to do, because that sin is paralyzing
us from allowing the Spirit to work and direct and lead us.
3. Are you paralyzed from sin? I know the One that can heal that and get you up walking in the Spirit once again and that is Jesus Christ.
4. The choice is yours. Who is going to win out this time,
you or the Holy Spirit?
