Hard Hat, Hammer, Boots, Sunglasses, An Old Pair Of Jeans – I’m ready to build. Last week we saw that w are building a Spiritual House. But before we can even build we need to have the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, you cannot build a spiritual house. Jesus tells us we need to be spiritually reborn then, and only then, can we start work on our spiritual house.
If you take out your sermon outlines you will see that we are starting to look at how to build a spiritual house. This morning, by examining our given Scriptures, we will look at, starting to remove the power that sin has over me, spiritual rebirth is more than saying the right words, in the right order, being sure that I have the Holy Spirit.
Having a Spiritual rebirth – or as Jesus put it – being born again, is not an end in itself – it is the beginning.
Story – Cross Country.
I ran was on the Cross Country team for a year – but being a sprinter, I found it boring. When we would have a meet. we would Line up and wait for the Gun. Everyone would take off as fast as they could. Being a sprinter in 10 yards I would have a comfortable lead, but it was the beginning of the race, being in the lead wasn’t the goal – winning was. I always lost.
The same with Spiritual rebirth, it is not the goal – but the start. It is like punching in at the time clock for work.
Punching The Time Clock.
Story – Perfect Employee.
HR: Only employee out of 300 who got to work on time….and left on time all year. She secret: Stand at the time clock and wait for the exact moment. HR was thrilled with her – truth is she didn’t get much done during the day. She looked great on paper.
We don’t just want to look good on paper – do we? We want to be great at spiritual construction. So we need to grow spiritually, growing spiritually builds our spiritual house.
Let us turn to our Scripture from Romans Chapter 6, page 1116 in red bibles.
When we look at this Scripture we need to know the following. It is not about baptism. It is not saying that we have to be baptized to be saved. We will continue to sin. It is not talking about not sinning again. God will accomplish it in my life.
Remember our verse from a couple of weeks ago?
Zech. 4:6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
God will accomplish it in my life.
This Scripture from Romans – above all else – deals with sinful conduct.
Interpret The Blueprints.
Verse 1 – Paul says a curious thing here
Rom. 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
See God’s Grace covers us. In fact the more we have sinned, the more we are covered with God’s Grace. Some of us have done a large number of rotten things. Yet, when we give our life over to Christ – we are forgiven and he continues to forgives us. So one could reason: The more sin I have in my life, the more God’s grace will cover me. So the more I sin – the more of God’s grace I have. I want the most grace I can get – so I better start sinning. This is Logical. Natural. Pious.
Logical. See, most religions tell us that if we stop sinning and do good works and do them long enough, we might be saved. When Martin Luther objected to the corruption in the church this was the argument given: Then God’s grace increases…..
Natural. Sin is just natural for us. Paul, in Romans Chapter 7, uses the term sinful nature meaning – our natural, unspiritual state of being.
Some people will say people are naturally inclined to be good, buthe Bible teaches the opposite…..
Pious. Pious, meaning, it only occurs in a religious setting. Those Jesus dealt with who were religious leaders they ere concerned with righteous conduct. If I live well, therefore I will be acceptable to God. But Jesus taught: we are righteous when we follow Him.
We also see in verse 2 that w are dead to sin.
Verse 6 w are to count ourselves dead to sin.
It is not we are dying to sin. It is past tense – it already happened. It is not that we do not respond to sin. We are tempted – and will not fall into temptation. It is not that we should die to sin. Remember it is not us – but God. It is not dying day by day, rather we are dead to sin, not dying. Dying is not something we do, but God has done this. It is not we have renounced sin and there for will not continue to sin.
It is like an older Christian person who is having a biography written about them. Bob’s life is divided into two: The old self – before his conversion; The new self – after his conversion. The two halves of his life are separated by his spiritual birth. Volume one is the story of the old person – before Christ. Volume two is the story of the new person - after Christ a new creation. Volume one ended with the death of the old self. Volume two opens with my resurrection. My rebirth, my new life having begun. I can only go forward – I cannot return to the old life.
Verse 11.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
In other words it is Paul’s way of saying: The old way you lived was by living to yourself following your natural tendencies which are inclined to follow sin (not necessarily all bad), but now you are to live by the Spirit, lead a life of the Spirit rather than lead a life of sin. Hold on to that thought, because Paul is going to bring it all around for us
In verse 4.
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
We look at that and say, oh we have to be baptized for all this to happen. Wrong. Two words in Greek, Bapto and Baptizo. Bapto – to dip, immerse. Baptizo – also means to immerse, but it means more - A permanent difference. Cloth dipped in dye – baptized. Army wrecks a city – baptized. Actually – used to describe how a pickle is made. The veggie is changed permanently.
Bottom line is this: The word used for baptism here is really about identity, rather than the act of baptism. It is about identity. I used to identify with living a life of sin. Now I identify living a life of the Spirit.
Like a soldier identify’s with his country when he puts on his uniform.
So we have a story of two lives: An old and a new, A new spiritual life,. The old life, the life of sin is dead and gone, I now identify with the Spirit. I am changed permanently. Pickled.
One more thing. When theologians speak of us being baptized into Christ. It is the equivalent of being united to him….by the Holy Spirit. We are identified with Christ in all respects. We cannot go back.
In verse 4 when Paul talks about being buried through baptism. He doesn’t mean simply to illustrate the death of our old life, but the burial. When we bury a person – that is the end of it. It is over. That is it – no more life of sin.
Will we sin – yes. Are we ruled by sin? No!
Now I said I would speak to Spiritual rebirth is more than saying the right words, in the right order. Let me show you what I have been saying: People can think, "If I say the right words, I’m in and then I can go on as I want." Well no. Either you die to you old life…or you don’t. If you invite Jesus Christ into your life, but your life remains the same, pretty good chance, you didn’t have a real conversion. It is like trying to become a child again. You cannot – an adult cannot be a child. Life must change.
In the days of the early church, a public profession for Christ meant:
I put Christ first, before all – even ahead of Caesar.
How can I be sure that I have the Holy Spirit?
Signs Of A Good Construction Worker.
Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness and self-control.
If you have the Holy Spirit in your life the fruits will come forth. Not constantly, but consistently. If you are not following Christ – they will not.
You may say you know people with these attributes who are in no way Christians. That is true. But know that these fruits are of supernatural nature and are not produced by a persons effort, but by the Spirit. We will address this in detail an a couple of weeks.
Keep this in mind, a Christian will see these in their life consistently – this is direct evidence of the Holy Spirit.
Construction: Not Extreme Makeover.
Do you ever watch that show extreme makeover, home edition? A team totally transforms a house in about three days from shabby mess to the ultimate home. Three days. Building a spiritual house is not like extreme makeover, home edition. It will take a lifetime. It will not be complete in us, until we see the Lord in heaven. And we won’t have hugh property taxes looming over us.
18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory,
are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Don’t get discouraged building a house takes time.
17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit,
and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
Let me close with these thoughts: Sin is not dead in Christians. We are dead to sin. We are not called to be perfectionists. Sin can dominate us…but it doesn’t have to.
It takes time to understand and follow the Holy Spirit. My prayer is that the Lord is patient and kind with you as you strive to build your spiritual house
In Two Weeks: Building With Power Tools
“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’
Luke 14:28-30 The Message
