(*See part 1 for the first four points)
5- The Man Without God is Powerless to Live Above Sins Grip On His Life.
Ecc 7:20 There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.
John 8:34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
2 Pet 2:19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
Rom 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1. Sin is strong in its deceptive power.
2. It is also powerful in its ability to hold on to any ground it has occupied.
3. No one has any hope of living above sin without the inner workings of the Spirit of God.
6- The Natural Man Is Incapable of a Spiritually Meaningful Life.
John 15:4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
1. Jesus said, “You can do nothing without me”.
2. After much thought I realize that Jesus didn’t mean that I couldn’t “do anything”.
3. He meant that I could not do anything of value.
4. Experience should have taught us all that what we do without Him isn’t worth the doing.
5. Certainly, no one can have the “abundant life” Jesus came to offer man through self-effort.\
6. The “Fruit of the Spirit” in Gal. 5 are produced when the Spirit of God is present.
7. It is not the “Fruit of good deed” it is His fruit borne by the believer who is a “Temple of the Holy Spirit.”
7- The Natural Man Is Not Able to Understand the Things of God.
Isa 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. & (Gal 5:19-25)
1. We might rightly say that man is like God, at least in some ways.
2. But is is absolutely wrong to say that God is like man.
3. God said that He made man in His image – I submit that He was successful in this endeavor.
4. Ever since the entrance of sin man has been blinded to the things of God.
5. God intellects fail to understand the simplest truths when not lead by God.
6. Nicodemus (Jn. 3) was such a man.
8- The Man Without God Is Unable to Please God.
Rom 3:9 … We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no-one righteous, not even one; 11 there no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one.”
Heb 10:38 But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
1. Just as we are pleased when things match our nature, so God is pleased where He is at home.
2. As smoke to the nostrils of the non-smoker is offensive, God finds the atmosphere of sin repulsive.
3. Sin is so horrible that nothing short of the sacrifice of God Himself can make the sinner acceptable.
4. Every person who would please God must…
a. Believe that He exists.
b. And that He will reward anyone who earnestly seeks Him.
9- The Man Without God Is Under the Wrath of God.
Jn 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (CONTRAST Context Jn 3:16)
1. What a potent passage.
2. Many of us have been taught that God is so loving that He never becomes angry.
3. In order to buy that you must have not been reading your Bible!
4. The blood of Jesus is effective to secure forgiveness and appease God’s anger at sin.
5. Jesus is “THE” way to the Father, not “A” way to the Father.
Conclusion: You can take the first step of faith - right now!
Unsaved - Acknowledge, Believe & Confess
Saved - Witness, Work & Give
