Renewed In Steadfastness
Renewed Christian • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Good evening and what a delight it has been to be here with each of you, worshiping our Creator, fellowshipping, and simply enjoying each other’s company.
Being around brethren that are likeminded is always refreshing.
We have been blessed to have so many visitors thus far in this Gospel Meeting and I urge you to continue to invite others to hear God’s saving word.
Yesterday to start off this meeting we discussed being…
Renewed By The Spirit (Titus 3:5).
How God, from before we were even conceived, has been caring for us, blessing us, and watching over us.
And how God’s heart is broken when we choose Satan and sin over his love and mercy and how from God’s perspective we look in that state, “corrupted, darkened and filthy.
Yet, when we obey his plan of salvation we are renewed by the Holy Spirit we once again look like we did before we sinned.
We are holy, pure, righteous, and justified before him.
Renewed Day By Day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
How there will certainly be “spiritual mountaintop experiences” but the majority of the time, because we live in this old sinful world we will be fighting that good fight of faith down in the “spiritual valley bottom.”
It’s down in the valley that we “grow in our maturity of faithfulness.”
We then ended the day by studying…
Renewed In Mind (Ephesians 4:22-23).
How people can “start out with or grow into” a mindset that as Christians they are simply “a better version of their old selves.”
That they are the same person but now saved, but this is not the case as we discussed because we are a “new creation” when we obey the gospel.
And as a new creation we are to have a mind that is not like the old because the old has been “put to death.”
In other words, we are to have a selfless mind completely focused on God instead of a selfish mind that is focused on oneself.
Today, we are going to be looking at what it means to be “Renewed In Steadfastness.”
When a person has been “renewed by the Spirit,” is fighting the good fight “being renewed day by day,” and is striving to keep their “mind renewed” in the Lord things are good.
But, what happens if we take our “mind off the prize” and focus on the “here and now?”
This is exactly the situation King David found himself in and a great place to start our lessons tonight.
By examining …
David’s Fall & Plea
David’s Fall & Plea
The Fall.
The Fall.
We all know the biblical account here I’m sure as it is by far one of the most renown of all the biblical accounts.
But to quickly recap David, who should have been in battle with his army, was on his roof top and saw a woman bathing.
Instead of turning away it sent someone to fetch her to him and had an affair with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.
She sent word later that she was with child so David sent to have Uriah come home from battle and sleep with his wife but he refused.
David then had him murdered in battle by having him put on the front lines.
Now thankfully a prophet of God, Nathan, was sent to David to explain to him his sin.
This of course gives us the infamous line, ‘thou art the man” (2 Samuel 12:7) and David responded with “I have sinned against the LORD.”
Now in 2 Samuel 11-12 we aren’t really given much insight into the mind of David after hearing of his sin and darkened heart but we are given this insight in the book of Psalms.
In Psalm 51 we have David telling us what he thought and how he felt during his wayward time and his plea to get back into God’s good grace.
The Plea.
The Plea.
In Psalm 51:1-4 you can read David admit the gravity of his sins.
No longer caught up in the passion of his sin he realizes how malicious his sin was and the hurt of knowing what he had done.
In Psalm 51:5-9 you can read David recognizing he lives in a sin plagued world and that he is ill-equipped to solve the problem of sin.
He isn’t excusing his sin just admitting that he lives in a world full of it and has been influenced by it.
In Psalm 51:10-13 you can read David seeking God’s help with his endurance in remaining faithful.
He wants a fresh start, God by his side, and a steadfastness keep that.
In Psalm 51:14-17 you can read David pledging to do better.
He understands God forgave him and that with that comes a responsibility, “a change of heart” on his part.
In Psalm 51:18-19 you can read David excited that God can now delight in his worship once more.
He understands that God is not just going to blindly accept his worship if his heart isn’t right.
Summary
Summary
In Psalm 51:10 we find our text…
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
As we just noticed, David understood that having godly sorrow wasn’t enough to fight the good fight of faith.
David understood that to properly repent and seek to do better he needed to be “Renewed In Steadfastness.”
In other words, he needed…
Help To Remain Faithful
Help To Remain Faithful
Help With Steadfastness.
Help With Steadfastness.
The first thing we must understand is that if we are going to be renewed to steadfastness we must understand that faithfulness is not for the faint of heart because it take a great deal of endurance.
It takes endurance to stay in the race.
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
It takes endurance to face Satan’s attacks.
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
It takes endurance to grow from the discipline of God.
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
(Expound)
The second thing we must understand is that If we are going to be renewed to steadfastness we must understand that we can fall like anyone else and must guard against such.
One of the greatest dangers to any child of God could think is “that cannot happen to me spiritually” because some of the most faithful and spiritually strong children of God have found themselves on the wrong side of righteousness.
Noah, who was the only faithful human alive at one point, become drunk and naked where others could see him (Genesis 9:18-23).
Abraham, the father of the Israelites, not only was willing to lie but recruited Sarah to lie and offered his wife as someone else wife (Genesis 12:10-17).
Peter, the one who was given the keys to the kingdom, ignored the Gentiles for fear of the Jews (Galatians 2:11-16).
Demas, a fellow laborer with the great apostle Paul, later forsook Paul because he would come loved this world more (2 Timothy 4:10).
It’s no wonder God has declared time and time again, “take heed lest you fall.”
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren,
8 Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
(Expound)
Summary
Summary
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Conclusion
Conclusion
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Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.