Sermon Title: Decision Time
Text: Romans 8:1-9
Date: July 6, 2003 - EVENING
Context of Scripture:
As we prepare for what the Lord has for us in this section of the 8th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Roman church, the first nine verses, let me share the words of Charles Wesley in the Hymn “And Can it Be”. This was the song that came to my mind as I was studying this text.
And Can It Be
And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior’s blood? Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God shouldst die for me?
’Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies! Who can explore His strange design? In vain the First-born Seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine!
’Tis mercy all! Let Earth adore, let angel minds inquire no more.
He left His Father’s throne above, so free, so infinite His grace; emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immence and free; for, O my God, it found out me,
Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and natures night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, my chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose went forth, and followed thee.
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ My own.
Is this a hymn that we can sing with gladness or is it perhaps something that we have yet to attain or are we resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit as He drives us closer to the ever loving arms of Jesus?
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:1-9
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Sermon Introduction:
One of the greatest problems that follow conversion, as well as the process of coming to a relationship with Jesus, and even throughout our walk with the Lord is the problem of self-forgiveness. WE have all had those thoughts: Jesus can’t possibly forgive me – I have led to evil of a life. I have turned my back on the Lord for too long, He will never accept me back. This is nonsense and is nothing less then a tool of the devil to derail us in our attempt to walk closer with God. The forgiveness of Jesus is complete! Who are we to put limitations on the scope of His forgiveness? Sadly there are some in the body of Christ that even add to that. Don’t make a new convert read the Old King James if he cannot fathom the language. I don’t think many of us were forced to read the Greek or Hebrew in our studies. Don’t stifle or extinguish the newly burning flame in a new believer by criticizing his attire, his hair, his jewelry. Let the Holy Spirit in the process of His deep internal cleaning of the new believer deal with issue in time.
We seem to get stuck in a rut that is caused by we can only move forward through the things that we can do for ourselves. We make a living. We provide food for our family. We are leaders in the community. We sometimes think that we can save ourselves. We can go to church each and every time the doors are open. We can pray the right prayers. We can give generously when it comes to offerings. We can support the different missionaries that pass our way. But what we don’t do is give Jesus our heart completely. We don’t give Jesus each and every corner of our lives. The forgiveness of Jesus is beyond what we can do, when are we going to surrender?
So many have made the decision not to develop a relationship with Jesus, and that decision runs the rest of their lives unless they surrender their heart to the Lord, unless they surrender each and every aspect of their lives to Jesus. If we decide for the flesh, then the flesh we will serve. There is nothing that we can do to hide it. There is nothing that we can do to perfume it. There is no camouflage in the world around us to disguise it. The fleshly decision will shine through. We might go to church when the doors are open, but somehow and somewhere we will slip up and the rotten corpse that we are will become evident. We might give all that we can, but at some point our offering will be tainted and rotten. We may serve the church faithfully in many aspects but the dead man that we are carrying on our backs will begin to exude its decomposing odor, and our true selves will be exposed, naked for the entire world to see.
Prayer for Spiritual Enlightenment:
I. The forgiveness of Jesus is complete
It is amazing all of the different excuses that we hear for not following the way that Jesus has called us to follow. I need to work. It is my only time to rest. I have to work so much the rest of the week that this is the only time that I can catch up with my housework. I need more time to change so that I can be accepted at church. I can see some validity in some of these claims. However, for those that absolutely have to work on Sundays, I would like to see how dedicated they are in prayer and Bible study the remainder of their time, because there needs to be a dedicated and devoted time of study and communication through the gift that we have been given through prayer. The rest of the excuses hold little water because if most people look closely at their lives and time spent on TV, shopping, video games, movies and internet, they would be ashamed at their statement about being to busy for church, or at least I would hope they would be ashamed.
How about those that feel that they are not worthy enough to set foot into a church, first of all, Jesus is complete in His ability to restore, and the only ones who could make someone feel unworthy of the church are a new breed of Pharisees in the church of today, those that feel that they are more righteous, more holy than the rest and they have themselves fooled because they are headed for hell in the first train out.
Let us read the first two verses:
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Here is a statement that we all need to listen to carefully, IF YOU ARE IN JESUS THEN YOU ARE NOT CONDEMNED. It doesn’t read that you need to be a board member to get to heaven. It doesn’t read that you need to put a hefty sum in the collection plate to see Jesus. It doesn’t mean that you need to sit in a pew looking like a shriveled prune because you don’t smile cause having fun is something that holy people don’t do. It doesn’t mean that only those that quote the King James translation are going to spend an eternity in heaven. It means that if you have surrendered heart, soul, spirit and mind to Jesus, then you will not face the condemnation, but I dare say that there will be some surprised faces when they find themselves separated with the goats. An uncle of Laura summed it up quite well, he said, “You will probably be surprised at who you will see in heaven but even more surprised at the ones that you won’t see.”
II. The forgiveness of Jesus is beyond what we can do
God has given us laws and commands so that we can live in peace and prosperity with dignity in a righteous manner. The problem is, there are people who take things to extremes and then there are those who truly realize that they need something beyond what the law could ever provide. Reading verses 3 and 4:
3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Can we live in strict adherence to the laws? In some sense we can, but there are some difficulties that accompany that adherence. The ox in the ditch on the Sabbath is one, and the priest and the Levite that passed the man who was beaten and robbed and left for dead in the account of the good Samaritan. If someone is starving on a Sunday, you feed him – even if that means going to the store if you have nothing to offer. The Pharisees and other religious authorities made so many additional requirements that it was impossible to follow. Instead Jesus dies at the cross and pays the penalty for the breaking of the covenant, and allows us to abide in the Spirit of the law.
What is the intent of the heart? Do we follow some sort of legalistic ritual to please God? I hardly think so, it is more than likely akin to the long prayers and pasty faces of the Pharisees in their time of pray and fasting so that they might seem to be so much more special to those who are within eyeshot.
III. If you decide for the flesh, then the flesh you will serve
The cartoon character Popeye had a saying that went something like this, “I ams what I ams”. Read what Paul writes in verses 5 through 7:
5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
We have a choice, we either serve our fleshly desires or we answer to the will of God. If we serve the wiles of the world, then everything about us focuses on the wiles of the world. Politics are viewed with worldly eyes. Money and possessions are viewed with worldly eyes. Sexual morals and business and relational ethics are all worldly focused. The other side of that is if we are committed to Christ then we will have a Christian outlook on the political system, we will have a Christian response to our money and possessions, and we will have morals that are shaped from Biblical guidelines and our relationships and business dealings will be of a righteous and holy nature.
THERE IS NO MIXING THE TWO. THERE IS NO HAPPY MEDIUM. THERE IS NO AREA OF ACCEPTABLE COMPROMISE.
You cannot be one and still claim the other, in fact if you are one – you hate the other. Hate is a strong word, but in the Christian community, we need to stop being namby pamby about things. Our niceness and correctness isn’t going to mean anything to a living for the world politician. To a businessman who has made his fortune through graft, cheating and corporate theft, our ethical standards are not going to mean much. To someone who sleeps with whoever they please regardless of marital status or gender, our morality in marriage isn’t going to amount to a hill of beans.
The only thing that we can do is live what we say and follow our own teachings. Lift them up in our times of prayer and when an opportunity arises to tell them lovingly that they are wrong. WE MUST TELL THEM! WE MUST TELL THEM STRAIGHT UP! WE MUST SHOW THEM SCRIPTURALLY WHERE THEY ARE WRONG! And when they get their feelings hurt, we must never retract, never apologize, and we must never, never, never compromise. If we love or condone, or coddle the things of this world then the only thing that can be said is that we hate God.
IV. The fleshly decision will shine through
Our decision in regards to Jesus will always shine through. Reading this mornings final verse:
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
If God’s Holy Spirit resides in us, then we do not live for the flesh. This doesn’t mean that if we become tempted we are lost, it only means when temptations arise, we deal with them and not dwell on them. If we do something that we find conviction for, we are quick to repent, it doesn’t mean that we are lost, it only means we are still experiencing spiritual growth. Without the Spirit, there is no ownership by the Lord, and without that ownership by God, the world by default has possession. And that worldly possession will shine through in spite of even the best put on fronts.
Conclusion:
Many of us have gone to long condemning ourselves without just cause. There is nothing wrong with grieving over a lost and mis-spent past. There is nothing wrong with sorrow over a past lifestyle. And the feeling of unworthiness for being the reason for Jesus’ sacrifice is not unwarranted. However if we allow those feeling to keep us from moving forward in our relationship with the Lord, then we set ourselves up for failure. If we allow others to tell us things that reinforce our feelings of spiritual inferiority then we are being shortchanged and the detractors of our salvation are tying the millstone ever tighter around their necks.
The forgiveness of Jesus is complete! He not only forgave 10%, He forgave more than 50%, He forgave us 100%. That forgiveness is not temporary or fading but it is a forgiveness that is forever and permanent.
The forgiveness of Jesus is beyond what we can do! We can’t buy it, we can’t trade for it, we can’t be good enough to earn it, we can’t give enough or work enough to win it. All we can do is give our heart and each and every portion of our life to His control. Even the deepest of hidden recesses that might have even the slightest inclination to worldly affairs need to be given over.
We must decide one way or the other. If we decide for the flesh, then the flesh we will serve. WE cannot serve the world and God. WE cannot play by the rules of this society and expect the salvation through the Spirit. There is no right mixture, it is either all God or no God.
The fleshly decision will shine through. If we think we can hide behind the walls of the church and yet live for the world we are wrong. God certainly sees us, the world around us watching for us to fail is aware of us, and even the least discerning of the saints will eventually suspect us. With such a glorious victory in sight why choose differently?
Call to Commitment:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and natures night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, my chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose went forth, and followed thee.
No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ My own.
Is that something that we can visualize in our future? Can we see ourselves approaching the throne to claim the crown? If that is the case, then praise God for all that He has done. If not, then why not release the burdens that have cast your souls in chains for to long.
Let this be the day that your chains fell off!
